The Reincarnated Assassin is a Genius Swordsman - Chapter 362
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 362
Upon the highest peak of the Zamari Mountain Range, where a crimson moon hung suspended in the sky, more than thirty people lay sprawled across the ground, their bodies wracked with anguish and groans.
“Ugh….”
“P-please… save us….”
“Gahhh….”
“I beg you!”
Dark holes pierced through the bodies of these wretched souls, yet strangely, not a drop of blood flowed from the wounds.
Instead, the holes expanded gradually, revealing blackened veins, while the surrounding flesh began to decay like rotting fruit.
“….”
The Black Tower Master gazed down upon them with the cold, indifferent stare one might reserve for insects, then descended from the peak.
“Izzel.”
“Yes.”
At the Black Tower Master’s call, a petite blonde woman stepped forward and prostrated herself before him.
“Is everything prepared?”
“It is complete. The Drake will return to its nest before dawn.”
A black orb materialized above Izzel’s palm. She gazed into it, her eyes growing distant and cold.
“What of the Black Spirits?”
“I have positioned them around the perimeter so as not to burden the Master. They will move once the Drake returns.”
“Well done.”
The Black Tower Master nodded curtly. He moved to the Stone Mountain on the right, concealing himself from the Drake’s view, and suppressed his presence entirely.
“Black Tower Master.”
Izzel concealed herself behind a nearby boulder and called out to him in a hushed voice.
“What?”
“This matter would have been manageable with just us. Why did you take the trouble to come here personally?”
“….”
The Black Tower Master regarded Izzel without answering.
“Hmm….”
Izzel bit her lip, sensing fear in his pitch-black eyes.
“It was the Vice Tower Master’s orders.”
“The, the Vice Tower Master….”
“The Drake that has made its nest here is a special entity possessing cold power. If it consumes the dark magic accumulated in the sacrifices, it could even reach the rank of a spiritual being.”
The Black Tower Master answered without emotion, his gaze lifting toward the peak.
“A spiritual being….”
Izzel followed his line of sight upward, her fists clenching.
‘This is my chance.’
The fact that the Black Tower Master had spoken at such length meant he trusted her. She wanted to make an impression on him, who received direct orders from the Vice Tower Master.
“Please, please leave capturing the Drake to me. I won’t disappoint you.”
“Izzel.”
“Yes.”
Izzel lifted her head at the Black Tower Master’s call. Yet the answer she had hoped for never came.
“Your only task is to amplify the dark magic contained in the sacrifices and summon the Drake.”
“Ah….”
“Know your place and keep your mouth shut.”
“I, I’m sorry!”
Izzel’s jaw trembled as she bowed her head. The cold gaze felt like it was piercing through her skull, leaving her unable to move.
“….”
However, the Black Tower Master had already lost interest in Izzel. He gazed quietly at the peak before him, just as he had when he first arrived at this place.
*
*
*
Across from the Stone Mountain where the Strange Beings of the Black Tower lurked, five mountain peaks rose into the sky.
Roktan lay prone between those peaks, his brow furrowed.
‘What is this?’
Why had those Black Tower bastards come here?
By mimicking ‘that person’s’ teleportation magic, I had managed to reach the mountain range swiftly, but the first thing I witnessed was the Black Tower’s Strange Beings dragging ordinary people to the summit of the range.
Had I arrived even slightly earlier or later, I might have been discovered, but the Black Tower bastards were too preoccupied infusing the people’s bodies with dark mana and amplifying it to detect my presence.
‘Are they after the Drake as well?’
Judging from the current situation, it seemed the Black Tower had no idea that Raon was coming here—they were simply planning to feed the people infused with dark energy to the Drake.
Roktan gazed at the Stone Mountain where the Black Tower’s Strange Beings were hiding, a cold smile crossing his lips.
‘This works out perfectly.’
Given the temperament of Raon Zigheart, who bore the epithet Legend Sword Association, there was no way he would stand idle upon witnessing this scene.
He would surely clash with the Black Tower—an opportunity to reap benefits without lifting a finger.
‘No, wait.’
It would be a waste to simply kill him.
Raon Zigheart had soured the Head of House’s mood more than once. Allowing that arrogant bastard to die easily would leave a bitter taste in my mouth.
A low growl rumbled forth.
Roktan chuckled softly and raised his fingers. A gray aura and a green aura bloomed above his index and middle fingers.
‘When it comes to agony, nothing compares to this.’
The gray was a condensed aura of mineral poison, while the green was a condensed aura of plant poison.
‘I’ll make them dance until death takes them.’
While potent enough to use separately, harmonizing the two poisons would create the legendary Ghost-Possessed Dance—a toxin that drove victims to writhe and convulse as if possessed by spirits before death claimed them.
It was a poison difficult to deploy, but he was confident that if he dispersed it during the clash between Raon and the Black Tower, he could poison them all.
Gooooo.
As Roktan carefully combined the Ghost-Possessed Dance, the leader of the Poison Clan approached from the side.
“Roktan.”
“What is it?”
“Shouldn’t we report that the Black Tower has arrived?”
He gestured toward where the Black Tower was hiding and smacked his lips briefly.
“There’s no need.”
Roktan shook his head slowly.
“But….”
“I know you’re frustrated having the order to report drilled into your thick skulls, but today you don’t need to.”
He gestured toward the back with an amused smile.
“The Head of House sent informants separately.”
Roktan completed the Ghost-Possessed Dance, his expression turning cold and sinister.
“I-I apologize.”
The leader bowed his head and retreated.
“Don’t worry about that. Are the preparations complete?”
“Yes.”
The squad leader nodded.
“Once you give the order, we can immediately shift the wind’s direction and spread the poison.”
“Good. Tell them to stand by.”
Roktan tapped the back of his hand with the young fingers of the Ear Blood Witch, smirking.
“Until our dancer arrives.”
*
*
*
—Yes. That’s it. First, wrap yourself in wrath.
Wrath’s voice resonated thinly in my ears.
—The true way to use Seolhwa’s senses is not through aura, but through wielding wrath itself.
I nodded and opened my senses to their fullest. The wrath surging from the depths of my soul spread outward to the edges of my perception.
My skin expanded with immeasurable sensation. Just as Wrath said, the fuel for Seolhwa’s senses was not aura, but wrath.
—You cannot stop there.
Wrath’s wrath seeped into me. Unlike before, it was not an emotion meant to seize my body, but a helping hand that opened my senses even wider.
—Wrapped in wrath, disperse yourself into nature. It is the feeling of becoming one.
Engraving Wrath’s counsel into my mind, I scattered mana intertwined with wrath. The sensation of blooming flames across the world like a Fire Spirit. The small, intricate mana infused with wrath spread across all existence.
Whoooooosh!
As if removing the blindfold that had shrouded my soul, my vision—no, the range of all my senses—shattered through its limits and expanded endlessly.
Whoooosh!
A putrid stench rose from the stone mountain to the right—the hideout of the Strange Beings from the Black Tower.
Was it him?
Among them, one emanated a particularly vile aura, and he seemed to be the Black Tower Master, one of the Black Tower’s layer lords.
I sensed the Black Tower Master, a sorcerer of considerable power, and thirty Black Spirits, then shifted my perception to the left.
Screeeech.
About forty presences emanated from atop the sheer mountain peak. They were Shadow operatives sent by Derus Robert.
So he came after all.
The fact that he arrived faster than I did suggested he’d used teleportation magic. As I identified each Shadow operative’s presence one by one, I felt a massive yet familiar toxic aura.
Could it be Roktan?
Few perverts exuded such nauseating poison. It was definitely Roktan, the poison master who had taught the Shadow operatives his craft.
Another piece of garbage to deal with.
Roktan had once created a poison experiment and triggered a poison fog that turned an entire village into a toxic wasteland instead of just the target.
He’d also fed snake venom to me and the children under the guise of poison education, then left us on the brink of death.
The ones beside him were no different.
The Poison Clan members following Roktan used human poison—a toxin gained from killing people.
The amount of human poison they’d accumulated meant they’d slaughtered innocent people unrelated to their missions, just like Roktan. Judging by their vile nature, they were clearly serial killers who murdered for pleasure.
How fortunate.
I’d wanted to eliminate them anyway.
I knew why Derus Robert had sent Roktan. He’d likely intended to poison me to death, since ordinary assassins wouldn’t work.
However…
It won’t work on me.
I’m well aware of Roktan’s poison, but I possess poison resistance and the Ring of Fire. I can chew up and swallow such garbage poison without issue.
‘Thank you for underestimating me.’
Derus Robert would lose another loyal subordinate today.
I focused my senses on the highest point of the Zamari Mountain Range—the highest peak where the Drake had abandoned its nest.
‘Around thirty-five, perhaps….’
The number of people on the peak was fewer than what I’d heard from the intelligence officer.
‘It must have been to summon the Drake faster.’
The Strange Beings of the Black Tower seemed to have killed people atop the nest and spilled their blood to summon the Drake more quickly.
‘Their condition is poor.’
The people were intoxicated by dark mana, their entire bodies emanating a foul demonic aura.
-At this rate, they will all breathe their last before morning comes.
‘That seems likely.’
As Wrath said, they didn’t have much time left.
-For the True Demon King’s dessert time, they absolutely must not die!
I let out a faint laugh. Whether it was dessert time or anything else, I was grateful that he was making an effort to save lives.
‘Don’t worry. Dorian has arrived.’
Behind the peak where the people had climbed, I sensed the faintest presence—a presence I would have struggled to detect without Wrath’s help. It was Dorian, clinging flat against the peak.
‘Now it’s my turn.’
I exhaled lightly, dampened Seolhwa’s senses, and focused on her silver veil.
Whoooosh!
Fury seeping into my soul wrapped around my entire body, achieving perfect harmony with the world. I buried my presence in the flowing wind and earthy scents.
-Still insufficient.
Wrath shook his finger, indicating I lacked something.
-Feel nature more deeply. Not the sensation of breathing through your nose, but imagine breathing with your lungs instead.
He demonstrated by conjuring his own fury, and the rotund Wrath became so seamlessly woven into the world’s flow that he vanished from sight.
‘I understand.’
I grasped Wrath’s flow through the Ring of Fire, then wrapped it around my own body.
Unlike Seolhwa’s sensation of my body expanding outward in all directions, it felt as though the world was seeping into my body from within.
A low hum resonated.
My presence, which had been as small as a pebble, now sank to the level of a grain of sand.
-That’s acceptable now.
Wrath nodded, seeming satisfied with my progress.
-However, if you approach beyond a certain distance, you will be detected.
‘I know.’
Being undetected would actually be problematic. The Black Tower members needed to pursue my presence and move accordingly.
I calmed my mind and moved rightward. Using the Three Steps of Harmony, I glided as smoothly as flowing water, positioning myself behind the Black Specter standing guard at the far end.
A soft thud.
I pierced the Black Specter’s heart with the Soul Reaper Sword and covered his mouth. He expired without ever comprehending what had befallen him.
-What, what is this? Why so cleanly….
‘I told you. I’m good at assassination.’
I moved to the side and slit the throat of the second Black Shadow. Like the first, it couldn’t even muster a faint whimper before sinking into darkness.
I circled the perimeter, beyond the reach of the Black Tower Master’s senses, methodically eliminating the Black Shadows one by one.
After disposing of five of them, I moved inward.
‘If I assassinate anyone in here, I’ll be discovered.’
Unless I moved with absolute silence, any assassination within this perimeter would alert the Black Tower Master. But that was precisely the crux of my plan.
Thump.
I stepped inside and pierced the heart of the nearest Black-robed Man.
Kwaaaaa!
Though I had severed his life without a sound, a chilling, murderous aura erupted from within Stone Mountain—the dark mana unleashed by the Black Tower Master.
‘Perfect!’
He stepped on the fastest Taehwa technique and ran toward the opposite mountain peak. He raised the Manhwagong thinly and shot it forward. The heat that spread subtly like nostalgia became a single line connecting the Stone Mountain where the Black Tower stood and the peak where the Poison Clan members were hiding.
‘Now it’s your turn, Black Tower Master.’
Rather than climbing to the peak, I slipped into the hill I had scouted earlier, allowing myself a faint smile.
‘Go ahead, you trash. Rampage to your heart’s content.’
*
*
*
“Izzel.”
From within Stone Mountain, the Black Tower Master called out to the woman who appeared to be a mage.
“Yes.”
“Summon the Black Tower forces.”
“Right now….”
“Quickly.”
“Ah, understood!”
Izzel summoned the Black Tower forces, but only about twenty-four of them appeared.
“Wh-what is this….”
“Assassins.”
The Black Tower Master narrowed his eyes as he gazed toward the opposite mountain peak where a faint aura of mana emanated.
“Scan in that direction.”
“Ah, yes.”
As Izzel activated her scan, the flow of mana unfurled before them. The crimson aura traced a path toward several peaks to the west.
“It leads to that location. And….”
“I see.”
“Yes. There are approximately forty individuals concealing their presence!”
“Vermin daring to show their faces.”
The Black Tower Master gnashed his teeth and stomped the ground. Darkness erupted in response to his movement, unfurling wings of shadow.
“Follow the Tower Master!”
Izzel and the Black Tower forces rushed after the Black Tower Master toward the overlapping peaks.
…
“Wh-what!”
Roktan’s jaw dropped as he watched the Black Tower Master and the creatures of the Black Tower charging toward him.
“Why are they coming this way!”
A faint warmth radiated from the surroundings, and then suddenly those creatures began charging toward him in a frenzy. He had no idea what was happening.
“Ah, it seems we’ve been discovered.”
The squad leaders approached, swallowing hard.
“Discovered? Why!”
“We’re not entirely sure either….”
They shook their heads, equally bewildered.
“Damn it!”
Roktan cursed and rose to his feet. One look at the Black Tower Master confirmed our position had been compromised.
“Manipulate the wind. We eliminate them first.”
The Black Tower operatives wielded dark mana with relentless, obsessive precision. They would pursue us to the ends of the earth, so we had to slaughter them all while the terrain favored us.
Gooooooo!
Roktan raised his hand. The Ghost Blood Poison he’d just prepared transformed into a shimmering haze that surged upward.
‘There’s no choice.’
It’s poison I prepared to kill Raon, but there’s no time. I had to stop them with this, even if it meant using it.
Whoooooosh!
Following the wind the squad leaders summoned, the Ghost Blood Poison dispersed. The colorless, odorless toxin spread across the entire Black Tower contingent.
Just before the Ghost Blood Poison rained down on the tower members’ heads, the Black Tower Master charging at the front raised his hand. Colossal black claws erupted from his palm, reaching toward the sky.
“Perish.”
With that declaration, the dark claws he brought down cleaved an entire peak in two.
“Damn!”
Roktan bit his lip and retreated. The sheer force to split a fortified peak in a single strike was absolutely insane.
“Scatter! Spread out and kill them! I’ll handle that boar-like bastard myself!”
“Yes!”
The surviving members of the Poison Clan dispersed in all directions, drawing their blades against the Black Tower forces that followed in the Black Tower Master’s wake.
“So it’s you.”
The Black Tower Master’s dark eyes locked onto Roktan’s figure.
“Life for life. By the laws of the Black Tower.”
From both his hands, an aura spread forth like the drape of night itself. It was as if he had lifted a blade wrapped in darkness.
“You madman! What did we even do to deserve this?!”
Roktan scaled the peak and unleashed five daggers from both hands. Each blade, coated with different poisons, flew like hawks toward the Black Tower Master’s vital points.
Kyaaang!
The Black Tower Master deflected the daggers with his cloak of darkness, then surged forward toward Roktan.
“You started this.”
“We didn’t move at all! It was someone else, I’m telling you!”
“Yet you reek of assassin. Spare me your lies.”
“I’m serious!”
Roktan struck his chest in frustration.
“The moment you arrived, you unleashed wind and poison as if you’d been waiting for this.”
“That was prepared for someone else….”
“Your chance has ended.”
As the Black Tower Master’s dark eyes gleamed, dark mana erupted around him like flames. Claws that curved like whips descended with the force of lightning.
Kuwaaaaang!
The towering peak that Roktan had been scaling fractured, and he began plummeting down the cliff face.
“Damn it!”
Roktan descended from the peak, his lips pressed into a thin line. A sickly yellow poison aura seeped from around his body.
“Fine. If you wish to die, I’ll grant that wish.”
He unfurled a wall of poison energy, his eyes gleaming with a chilling intensity.
“I’ll dissolve you without leaving a single bone fragment!”
“Your flesh will serve as an offering as well.”
The darkness mana that the Black Tower Master wielded collided head-on with the poison energy Roktan unleashed.
BOOM!
It was not just the two of them. Throughout the Zamari Mountain Range, members of the Poison Clan and the Black Tower’s Strange Beings began clashing.
CRASH!
Assassination blades and dark energy collided endlessly, creating an orchestra of discordant sounds that echoed across the landscape.
Raon stood upon a hill that overlooked this hellish scene, conducting it all with a gentle sweep of his hand.
Poison and darkness mana.
Both were vile forces that inflicted excruciating suffering upon enemies before slowly killing them. The Black Tower and the Poison Clan were perfect counterparts to one another.
Raon lifted his gaze to examine Drake’s Nest on the opposite side.
‘He’s gone up.’
Dorian had taken advantage of this chaotic situation to climb toward Drake’s Nest. Seeing his hands and feet trembling, it was clear he was terrified, yet he moved forward to save the people—a sight that filled me with pride.
‘Now then….’
Raon watched Roktan extending his poison spear and the Black Tower Master raking down with claws of darkness, his eyes flashing with a sharp, piercing light.
‘Time to prepare the ending.’
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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