Episode 210
The old man was taken aback.

For an entire week, they had hidden without being discovered by anyone. Yet this young man in white seemed to see right through them, looking at them as if he knew everything.

In that moment, the old man couldn’t help but consider fleeing.

‘Could I escape with Irang from this place?’

But his worries soon proved pointless.

The young man turned his gaze back toward the main gate of the Hapsan faction, as if the old man’s presence didn’t matter at all. Without hesitation, he strode straight toward the gate.

Slowly, he placed his palm against the gate.

Then, with a tremendous explosion—

KRAAAASH!

The gate shattered into pieces.

Everyone was utterly stunned.

There was no longer any doubt about the young man’s intentions.

He truly meant to attack the Hapsan faction.

A youth barely in his early twenties, single-handedly charging head-on into the Hapsan faction—the strongest force in Guangxi Province.

The girl, completely excited, shouted at her grandfather.

“Look, Grandpa! That person actually broke down the main gate of the Hapsan faction! How is that even possible?!”

But the old man only muttered in shock, staring blankly.

“The heir of Hainan… is still alive? But why would he attack the Hapsan faction?”

Then, hastily, he spoke to his granddaughter.

“Irang! Wait here! This old man has to follow that young man!”

“What? No, Grandpa! I have to go with you!”

“What? No, you can’t! It might be dangerous!”

“He’s the one fighting! What danger is there? I’m definitely going! Don’t stop me!”

Before the old man could respond, the girl darted toward the Hapsan faction’s wall.

Smack!

“Irang! You brat!”

The old man, Son Daesu, hurriedly called after her, forced to follow.

The girl clung to the wall, peering inside.

Inside, dozens of warriors were already on the verge of clashing.

Hanging beside her, the old man was asked by his granddaughter.

“Look, Grandpa. Those are the Black Wolf Squad, right?”

She was referring to about two hundred warriors dressed in black uniforms.

They were growling fiercely, ready to charge at the young man in white at any moment.

Nodding with a grim expression, Son Daesu groaned.

“Yes, the Black Wolf Squad. Black hyenas, they call themselves. The strongest two hundred warriors in Guangxi Province, all gathered here.”

As he said, the Black Wolf Squad had been unmatched in Guangxi for years.

Even the Jun family, once the strongest sect in Hapsan, had fallen in just one day under their assault.

Now, these two hundred warriors, led by Ho Jo-young—a master with eighty years of internal energy—were pressing the young man.

Ho Jo-young glared sharply and shouted.

“Who are you?! How dare you break the main gate of the Hapsan faction?!”

But even before the two hundred Black Wolf warriors, the young man only smiled coldly.

“You’re not worthy of knowing my name. Bring out the sect leader, Eo Jeong-gi.”

Ho Jo-young’s face twisted in anger.

“How dare you! You must want to die! Only after you taste punishment…!”

At that moment, the young man cut him off with a bored expression.

“You sure yap a lot. Is that why you’re called the Black Wolf Squad? Because you yap like hyenas?”

That was the last straw.

Furious, Ho Jo-young roared.

“Attack him! All of you, attack!”

The Black Wolf warriors were bloodthirsty beasts.

Like water held back by a dam, they were ready to burst forth and spill blood at any moment.

At Ho Jo-young’s command, they surged forward like a raging torrent toward the young man in white.

“Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“Yaaah!”

“Die!”

Their momentum was like a tidal wave.

A violent current that seemed capable of sweeping away anything in its path.

The young man in white standing before it looked as powerless and vulnerable as a pebble before a tsunami.

The girl watching from her hiding spot couldn’t help but sigh in despair.

“What should we do?”

But the young man’s reaction to the overwhelming force was not fear—it was a smirk.

With a slight curl of his lips, he charged headlong into the Black Wolf warriors’ torrent.

“Haah!”

It looked reckless, like throwing stones at an oncoming tidal wave.

But the next moment, both the old man Son Daesu and his granddaughter Irang were left speechless, mouths agape.

The young man’s sword had cleaved through the Black Wolf warriors’ wave.

Swish!

His horizontal slash split the space before him.

It was as if the very fabric of reality had been torn open, revealing an unfathomable abyss beyond.

Compared to that, the Black Wolf warriors’ bodies being sliced in two seemed like a mere side effect.

Son Daesu muttered in shock, unable to close his mouth.

“W-what is that…?”

In the next instant, the young man, having broken through the front line, began rampaging like a wild beast among a flock of rabbits.

“Haah!”

Shing!

“Ugh!”

“Ahhh!”

It was nothing short of a massacre.

It was impossible to tell who was the hyena and who was the prey.

Swish!

Countless cross-shaped sword shadows flickered around the young man.

Each time, the Black Wolf warriors screamed and collapsed helplessly.

“Arrgh!”

“Ahhh!”

Ho Jo-young, who had been watching in stunned silence, suddenly snapped back to reality.

His men were being slaughtered.

Their formation was broken, and if he didn’t stop this momentum, the entire Black Wolf Squad might be wiped out by this one man.

Clenching his teeth, Ho Jo-young drew his sword and charged at the young man.

“Stop right there, you bastard!”

His sword, wielded by a master with over eighty years of internal energy, radiated a deep green aura.

He swung with all his might at the young man’s back.

Shing!

But even as Ho Jo-young’s blade grazed the young man’s back, the latter’s gaze never shifted toward him.

It was as if he was completely unaware of the attack.

Startled, Irang shouted without thinking.

“Watch out!”

At the same moment, Ho Jo-young’s sword cut the young man’s back.

Shing!

“Got you!”

Ho Jo-young smiled triumphantly.

To think someone with such skill wouldn’t sense his attack—he must be incredibly dull.

But the moment his sword grazed the young man’s back, Ho Jo-young’s expression froze.

The young man’s body moved as fluidly as air, slipping just beyond the sword’s reach by a hair’s breadth.

Even watching with his own eyes, it was an impossibly precise evasion.

“?!”

Without looking back, the young man swung his sword horizontally.

Shing!

Ho Jo-young was horrified.

It was a lightning-fast strike he hadn’t anticipated.

“Ugh!”

He hurriedly raised his sword to block.

Clang!

He barely managed to parry the blow.

Or so he thought.

His sword was pushed aside just as the young man’s blade came down vertically.

A cross-shaped slash.

The Southern Cross Sword of Injeong-ho, the former Sword King of the Southern Seas.

Shing!

The young man’s strike came down like a thunderbolt, and Ho Jo-young could only widen his eyes in shock.

And that was the end.

Kraaaash!

The Black Wolf warriors, forgetting even that they were in battle, could only mutter in disbelief.

“How… how is that possible…?”

“T-The sect leader… was cut in two with a single strike?”

They couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed.

Their leader, who always led the charge and overwhelmed enemies with unmatched skill, had been split in two by a single sword.

At that moment, the Black Wolf Squad—the fierce pack of black hyenas—completely lost their fighting spirit.

They stopped their attacks, staring in fear at their leader’s severed body and the young man who had done it.

But the young man didn’t stop his sword just because they lost heart.

The moment he took another step, it was as if he teleported among the Black Wolf warriors.

And he slashed again.

Shing!

“!”

Pfft!

From then on, it was nothing but slaughter.

Kraaaash!

“Ahhh!”

“P-please spare me!”

Watching the scene in stunned silence, Irang suddenly asked her grandfather Son Daesu.

“Grandpa, how strong does someone have to be to do that? Is that young man some kind of supreme master?”

“…”

Son Daesu couldn’t answer.

Even with over eighty years of internal energy himself, the young man’s skill was beyond his ability to measure.

At first glance, it didn’t seem to surpass the supreme level, but the occasional moves he showed were so devastating that even a supreme master might not be able to do the same.

And the fact that he looked barely in his early twenties made Son Daesu utterly speechless.

It was then—

The young man in white, having single-handedly annihilated the entire Black Claw Sect, raised his voice, resonant with inner strength.

“Where is Eojeonggi, the sect master of the Hapsan Sect, the lackey of the Hyungsan and Haenam factions?! I, In Parang, heir of Haenam, have come to avenge my father!”

His words rang out clearly—not only to the disciples of the Hapsan Sect but also to Son Dae-su and Son I-rang, who had been watching in secret, and to the martial artists cautiously peering from outside the gate.

The martial artists exchanged shocked glances, unable to hide their astonishment.

“What did he just say?”

“He’s the heir of Haenam?”

“Avenging his father?”

“Wait… so the sudden disappearance of the Haenam sect leader back then…?”

“And didn’t he say the Hyungsan and Haenam factions were their puppets? If that’s true, then the one who harmed the Haenam sect leader was…!”

As the murmurs grew louder among the onlookers, Son Dae-su’s mind raced even faster.

His deductions went beyond the speculation of the others.

“We already had intel that the Hapsan Sect was a subordinate branch of Hyungsan. But Haenam too? Then what about Jin Taedo, the Haenam Demon Sword?”

His thoughts snapped into place in an instant.

“Right! When the Haenam sect leader, In Gye-un, disappeared, and Jin Taedo became the head of the Haenam faction, they suddenly abandoned their righteous path, allowing Hyungsan to easily rise to the Nine Great Sects. Could it be that all of this was a secret agreement? That Haenam was dealt with in exchange for something? And that they’ve been secretly communicating all along, creating a puppet sect to control Gwangseo City?”

Whether or not it was true, Son Dae-su felt a sudden clarity, as if all the pieces had finally clicked together.

He turned his gaze back to the young man in white, who was still cutting down Hapsan warriors with his pure white sword.

Son Dae-su recalled seeing the legendary White Tiger Sword from afar in his youth—a sacred heirloom passed down since the days of the Southern Sea Sword King, In Jeong-ho, but lost when Haenam’s leader vanished.

Yet now, looking at the young man’s gleaming white blade, he was certain.

“That sword… it’s definitely the White Tiger Sword.”

Though his memory was faint, the sword in the youth’s hand matched the image of the White Tiger Sword perfectly.

The White Tiger Sword had reappeared in the world.

“If that’s true…”

If this was indeed the lost White Tiger Sword, then it was undeniable that this young man was the rightful heir of Haenam.

And if he was the heir, then the secret surrounding the disappearance of the sect leader was likely true as well.

“So the Hyungsan Sect was behind the Hapsan Sect all along! And those Hyungsan bastards were collaborating with Jin Taedo of the Haenam Demon Sword!”

At that moment, Son Dae-su’s granddaughter, Son I-rang, stared at the youth in awe, her voice filled with admiration.

“Wow! Grandpa, did you know he hasn’t stopped moving even once? Look! It’s like he’s facing three supreme masters at the same time!”

Son Dae-su watched as three supreme masters charged simultaneously.

They were undoubtedly the famed Hapsan Three Swordsmen—renowned masters who, though none had surpassed eighty years of inner strength cultivation, were said to be able to challenge even transcendent experts through their miraculous sword techniques.

But Son Dae-su shook his head.

No matter how strong they were, their opponent was the young man who had single-handedly wiped out the Black Claw Sect.

Only a true transcendent master could halt his advance.

And his prediction proved correct.

The moment the youth’s sword traced several glowing cross-shaped slashes in the air, all three of the Hapsan swordsmen collapsed, spitting blood.

“Gyaaaah!”

“Nooo!”

“My brothers! Nooo!”

Son I-rang gasped, eyes wide with amazement.

“Wow! That sword technique is incredible! What did you say it was called?”

Son Dae-su gave a wry smile.

“That’s the Southern Cross Sword. It was the technique of the Southern Sea Sword King, In Jeong-ho—the greatest swordsman and man of his time.”

Indeed, the sword technique the youth wielded was unmistakably the Southern Cross Sword.

A style thought lost after the disappearance of Haenam’s leader, In Gye-un.

So there was no doubt—the young man wielding the White Tiger Sword and using the Southern Cross Sword technique was the true heir of Haenam.

“I’ve uncovered information I never expected.”

Son Dae-su realized this reconnaissance had yielded far greater results than he had hoped.

He needed to relay this news to his comrades immediately.

Growing anxious, he turned to his granddaughter.

“Let’s go back quickly, I-rang. We have to get this information to our allies as soon as possible.”

But Son I-rang looked at him with puzzled eyes.

“You want to deliver this news yourself? Hmm… but is that really necessary? Even if you don’t, word will spread on its own. So many people have seen and heard everything. Wouldn’t it be better if we stayed here and kept watching that young man?”

Son Dae-su recognized her excuse—she didn’t want to leave this place.

Still…

He glanced in the direction she pointed.

There, the martial artists who had come to protest against the Hapsan Sect were exchanging excited whispers.

Seeing this, Son Dae-su realized he had been too hasty.

His granddaughter was right.

This news would spread like wildfire—not only throughout Gwangseo City but also to Guangdong Province, where the Haenam faction was based, and Hunan Province, home to the Hyungsan Sect.

“And it’s going to cause a huge stir.”

They had openly accused two massive sects of being behind the Hapsan Sect and implicated them in the murder of Haenam’s leader, In Gye-un.

There was no way those factions would stand idly by.

They would do everything in their power to deal with this young man, In Parang.

Even if it meant killing him.

And the youth, who was single-handedly dismantling the Hapsan Sect, would never be able to face both those factions alone.

No one but the absolute ruler of the martial world could take on the Nine Great Sects and another equally powerful faction at the same time.

“Yes, there’s no way he can handle them alone. But… what if he’s not alone? What if he has allies?”

A smile of uncontainable hope spread across Son Dae-su’s face as he entertained that possibility.