The God of Death and the God of War - Chapter 7
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Evil Hegemon Martial God
Chapter 7
Gossipmongers say.
That Dosan Geomrim has three great assassination sects.
First among them is Salmun .
Second is Jagaekgyo .
And last is Salak .
Of course, some people ranked Jagaekgyo higher, but generally the above evaluation and ranking held true.
Among these three sects, Salak, ranked last, was a recently risen new force that was notorious for its cruel methods and swift work befitting its newcomer status.
However, their weakness was that aside from their leader, they had never eliminated targets above the Transformation realm.
The martial artists walking through Dosan Geomrim never carelessly spoke of this story aloud.
Not unless they wanted to see the King of Hell instead of the next day’s sun upon waking.
Hak-yeong, a first-class assassin of such Salak known as Talmyeonggeok , had received a secret mission a few days ago.
‘…A mission to target a blood relative of Jegal Sega. At first I thought it was a joke.’
No matter how much they were called one of the three great assassination sects, touching a member of the Seven Great Segas was no easy task.
If they failed in their assassination attempt, they could conversely have their tail caught and face complete annihilation.
For this reason, when Salak hesitated to accept the commission, the client revealed their identity.
The client was none other than Lady Oh, the family head’s second wife.
If an outsider used assassins as a blade to harm blood relatives, Jegal Sega would try to destroy both the client and Salak as the blade.
But if a member of the Sega commissioned the assassination, the story changed.
Even in the worst case where the assassination failed, Jegal Sega wouldn’t be able to openly reveal the matter out of shame.
In other words, tail-cutting was possible and the matter might not blow up significantly.
Thus Salak dispatched Hak-yeong, a master assassin who had reached the peak, to completely eliminate any source of unsavory incidents from the start.
‘The commission conditions were three, wasn’t it.’
One, sever one of the target’s limbs and destroy his dantian.
Two, steal the Baekuseon.
Three, deliver the stolen Baekuseon to Jegal Wiyeon at the promised location.
After confirming the three commission conditions, Hak-yeong clicked his tongue softly.
‘As expected of Jegal Sega’s inner lady. Her mind works exceptionally well.’
Killing the target would make it hard to avoid Jegal Sega’s pursuit.
The tail called Salak might be exposed.
But if the target Jegal Jeokun didn’t die and it ended there, the pursuit direction would shift to a crime targeting the Baekuseon.
Then naturally a pursuit team would be formed to recover the divine object.
Lady Oh was clearly planning a scenario where her own son Jegal Wiyeon would recover the Baekuseon at the end of battle.
‘Looks like I’ll be playing along with the heroic games of noble Jeongpa lords.’
The more dramatically Jegal Wiyeon recovered the Baekuseon, the more its value would rise.
Though he didn’t like having to play along with this, it couldn’t be helped.
‘It’s complicated, but since it was this level of commission, she must have paid accordingly.’
Indeed, the money Lady Oh paid Salak was truly a fortune.
The target Jegal Jeokun was merely a martial artist struggling at second-rate level, yet the money Lady Oh paid was an amount that would be used when the target was a master at the peak of excellence.
She must have paid extra for silencing costs and the portion for playing along with Jegal Wiyeon’s heroic act.
This was surely an amount impossible without support from Geumhwang Sangga, one of the Central Plains’ three great merchant groups and Lady Oh’s family home.
So in fact, Hak-yeong, a first-class assassin, had also planned to quickly deal with the merely second-rate target and return to hole up in a giru.
“…This changes the plan.”
Yes, that was until he saw this scene before his eyes.
Swoooosh…!!
It had been about half an hour since the target split the river with the Baekuseon.
Yet the river water was still split in half.
‘How is this possible through human strength?’
It was truly an overwhelming sight, and it wasn’t strange that greed began to rear its head before such a scene.
‘Good. I’ll take the Baekuseon and disappear.’
The plan was clear.
Forget Jegal Wiyeon’s heroic games and kill the target Jegal Jeokun.
‘Then I’ll need to absorb the energy contained in that artifact. If I’m lucky, I might not reach the Ten Supremes but could ascend to the Hundred Great Masters.’
If that happened, he wouldn’t need to worry about the aftermath of breaking the commission.
‘Well, if luck doesn’t follow, I can just sell the Baekuseon to the black market for hundreds of millions…’
All things considered, Hak-yeong judged that taking the Baekuseon would be more profitable than carrying out the commission as planned, and greed settled in his eyes.
Shing…!
Hak-yeong drew his familiar twin daggers and muttered pleasantly.
“Hehe, I never imagined a chance to change my life would come like this.”
Then Hak-yeong followed Jeok-un into the split river.
* * *
The virtues of an assassin are agility and stealth.
Fast and quiet.
Hak-yeong thoroughly maintained these two virtues while following as quickly as possible.
‘Tsk…’
Even while doing so, he constantly surveyed his surroundings, clicking his tongue each time he looked.
‘There’s nowhere to hide.’
The path he had entered wasn’t a dark cave, but the bottom of a river.
The best choice an assassin could make would undoubtedly be an ambush.
‘With the environment like this, an ambush will be difficult.’
The one fortunate thing in this misfortune was perhaps the torrential rain still pouring down noisily.
The heavy rain and storm blocked sound, so Hak-yeong’s movements couldn’t be heard at all.
‘But having absolutely nowhere to hide is a big problem.’
He needed a place to wait until the best moment to attack – the right timing – but there was no such place at all.
‘But how far in did he go?’
Even with about half an hour difference in entry time, something should be visible by now.
‘Well, should I approach enough to assess the situation, then jump into the water beside me?’
Thinking he should have trained some water techniques if he knew it would come to this, Hak-yeong unconsciously turned his head.
The moment he naturally checked the water wall beside him.
Hak-yeong’s eyes widened as if they would tear.
“…!!”
Beyond the dark water wall, a pair of ominously glinting will-o’-the-wisps.
Goosebumps rose along Hak-yeong’s spine.
Kwaaaaak!!
From the water wall he was staring at, river water shot out like a spear.
The energy emanating from the water spear contained fierce and violent strength.
Hak-yeong thought to dodge by bending his waist backward in an iron bridge stance.
‘Kugh!!’
But instinctively he realized that doing so would result in the water spear piercing his heart.
Roll roll!
So Hak-yeong threw his body backward and rolled on the bare ground.
The same ugly posture that Jegal Wiyeon had shown before – a lazy foal rolling on the ground.
It was Naryeotagong.
He had dodged the attack using the method that martial artists, who valued face like life itself, found most shameful.
“Huff, hufff!”
After barely avoiding it by abandoning his dignity and catching his breath.
“Well now, that’s a proper Naryeotagong. Don’t assassins these days know shame?”
“…!!”
From within the water wall where the spear had flown, someone was revealing themselves.
It was none other than Jeok-un who was emitting the same eerie gleam as the ghostly fire Hak-yeong had seen.
Unlike the flustered Hak-yeong, Jeok-un was utterly calm.
At that reaction, Hak-yeong hesitated.
“…Don’t tell me, you knew I was following you?”
“Yeah, of course. Who wouldn’t know that.”
“…Since when exactly?”
“Right after leaving the Sega?”
“!!”
Surprisingly, his opponent had accurately detected the timing of his pursuit.
But Hak-yeong forced himself to maintain composure and spoke in a calm voice.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Then why didn’t you return to the Sega?”
“Are you asking because you don’t know? Your client is there, you idiot.”
“!!”
Finally, bewilderment showed on Hak-yeong’s face.
He never imagined that Jeok-un would even know the identity of his client.
Jeok-un clicked his tongue at Hak-yeong’s dumbfounded expression.
“Tsk tsk, I can hear the sound of your brain working from here. You vermin.”
“How dare you-!!”
Swoosh!
Unable to endure the insult any longer, Hak-yeong gritted his teeth and charged forward.
‘A mere second-rate dares-!’
Though startled by the sudden ambush, Hak-yeong was confident.
The energy contained in the spear was about the level of a mature first-rate.
His martial prowess was slightly higher than the preliminary information, but it didn’t matter at all.
He himself had reached the pinnacle level.
Though it was only a single grade difference, the gap between first-rate and pinnacle was no different from a newborn fighting an adult.
Whooom…!
Hak-yeong’s twin daggers vibrated softly.
It was the resonant sound created when a weapon met inner energy, the sword cry that symbolized the pinnacle level.
“I’ll fix your manners!”
Hak-yeong shouted as he thrust straight with his dagger wrapped in dim sword energy.
He didn’t think for a moment that his opponent would dodge.
At the first-rate level, everything would be over before one could blink.
‘First, I’ll blow off one of his arms and then start…!’
Clang!
…Or so he intended.
“?!”
The situation unfolded completely differently from his expectations.
A metallic sound rang out as if scraping against an iron plate.
This meant his sword energy had met protective energy, proof that his opponent’s level was definitely not below his own.
“…!”
“Why are you so surprised?”
Jeok-un mocked the wide-eyed Hak-yeong and pressed deeply inward.
Hak-yeong stepped back to block Jeok-un, but the distance didn’t widen.
His level of body movement also didn’t fall short of his own.
Hak-yeong’s composure was being shaken by his opponent’s unexpected skill level.
‘No. This doesn’t make sense!’
The flustered Hak-yeong pressed even closer to Jeok-un and swung his twin daggers.
Hak-yeong was armed while Jeok-un was empty-handed.
Which of the two would be more advantageous was something even a child would know, but…
Swish-swish-swish-!
“?!”
In less than a second, dozens of attacks followed, but not a single effective hit landed.
Moreover, Jeok-un deflected all those attacks using the backs of his hands and palms.
Smack-!
“…Cough!”
He even managed to counterattack in between.
Rather than being equal, it seemed like Jeok-un was gaining the upper hand over his opponent.
If the people of the Sega saw this, they wouldn’t believe it even seeing it and would doubt their own eyes.
“Th-the Blood Coagulation Divine Hand?!”
Since Hak-yeong felt the same way, he sought the reason Jeok-un could deflect his attacks in his martial arts.
The Blood Coagulation Divine Hand was a secret technique of Jegal Sega and one of the Four Life-Severing Techniques, a hand technique as its name suggested.
With even slight achievement, it could protect the hands with inner energy, so he thought it could sufficiently block the twin daggers.
But Jeok-un answered with eyes that looked at him like vermin.
“What nonsense, it’s just basic technique.”
“D-don’t lie!”
Jeok-un’s answer was ‘no.’
And it was actually true.
He had overlaid the Small Heaven Star Technique on the basic fist and foot techniques learned from his family, and finished it off with Paecheon-gi.
That’s why he could block the twin daggers, but…
“If you don’t want to believe it, then don’t.”
Since there was no need to explain that, Jeok-un only responded indifferently.
“You bastard…!”
At this, Hak-yeong couldn’t shake the thought that Jeok-un was mocking him.
How could he, who had reached the pinnacle level, not be able to break through mere basic family techniques?
“I’ll kill you!!”
Snap, something seemed to break in Hak-yeong’s mind.
Swoosh!
Having lost his reason, Hak-yeong charged like lightning.
Swooosh!
Hak-yeong’s twin daggers were filled with sharp blue sword energy incomparable to before.
That Jeok-un’s martial arts were stronger than expected was outside his calculations, but it didn’t matter.
This degree of error was bound to happen, and he had sufficient ability to deal with it.
Hak-yeong was confident he would end Jeok-un’s life with this secret move, but…
“Well then, shall we…”
This was Hak-yeong’s complete miscalculation.
He had to face a tremendous power that far transcended his calculations.
“Finish this.”
Rooooar…!
From Jeok-un’s clenched fist.
The first of the seven stars, the star of desire.
“?!”
The Tamrang star began to emit light.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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