Episode 53
Hyu Ja-seung, leader of the Eighth Squad of the Shadow Division under the Martial Alliance, clenched his teeth in unbearable rage.
“Calling us dogs and pigs? How dare they…”
Those who blindly obey orders without questioning right or wrong—was there any phrase that described the Shadow Division more accurately than that?
He even wondered if the insult was meant as a sarcastic jab, as if they knew something deeper.
How much time had he spent trying to ignore that self-loathing?
He had thought he could finally carry out his duties without emotion, but just one member of the Flying Dragon Squad had ripped open that wound all over again.
After stewing in anger for a long while, Hyu Ja-seung finally let out a hollow laugh.
Yes, he had to admit—the man was right.
Right now, he was no better than a dog or pig.
But what choice did he have?
If he couldn’t escape that fate, then all he could do was be a more loyal dog.
Hyu Ja-seung gave orders to his subordinates.
“Summon the Seventh and Eighth Squads immediately. We need to eliminate about thirty Flying Dragon members trying to desert the front lines.”
“Yes, Squad Leader!”
In the end, he decided to deal with them according to his own feelings.
If he was going to be treated like a dog anyway, then surely he could dispose of those who annoyed him without hesitation.
The Shadow Division had the authority to execute warriors attempting to leave the front lines without prior approval, so there was no need to hold back.
Thinking of it as payback for reopening his wounds, Hyu Ja-seung smiled bitterly, convinced that dying wouldn’t feel so unfair.
Jeon Sang-gu, leader of the Seventh Squad of the Shadow Division, sprinted through the forest like a shadow alongside his squad members, shouting orders.
“Hurry up! We need to reach the target point and set up an ambush first!”
“Yes, Squad Leader!”
For the first time in a while, Jeon’s heart pounded with excitement.
A rare chance to kill had come his way.
His territory had been quiet lately, with no targets to eliminate, making the days dull and uneventful.
Now, suddenly, an opportunity to kill over thirty enemies had appeared—there was no way he was going to miss it.
If possible, he wanted to take care of them all himself.
Jeon Sang-gu enjoyed killing.
He thought he wouldn’t have survived the dull life in the Shadow Division without the thrill that murder gave him.
Of course, at first, he had felt some hesitation about eliminating warriors from the righteous faction.
But people adapt, don’t they?
Now, he had discarded all guilt and purely enjoyed the act of killing.
And he wasn’t alone—many warriors in the Shadow Division had come to enjoy killing just like him.
As they raced through the forest like the wind, Jeon suddenly spotted a lone figure standing ahead.
Dressed in black martial attire with a deeply pulled-down bamboo hat—the uniform of a Shadow Division member.
Seeing this, Jeon shouted to his squad.
“Stop! Everyone, halt for a moment!”
He stepped forward alone toward the figure in black.
“Are you from the Eighth Squad?”
But the man, lifting his hat slightly to reveal his face, didn’t answer. Instead, he asked Jeon.
“Are you Jeon Sang-gu, leader of the Seventh Squad?”
Jeon recognized the face and blinked in surprise.
“You’re Sak Mu-heun, leader of the Fourth Squad?! What are you doing here?”
At that moment, screams erupted from behind.
“Ugh!”
“Argh!”
“Ugh!”
Startled, Jeon turned around to see three men and women suddenly ambushing and slaughtering his squad members.
They must have been hiding nearby.
“Who the hell are you?!”
Just as he drew his sword to charge at them—
Thrust!
A blade pierced through Jeon’s back, the tip emerging in front of his chest.
“Gah!”
He couldn’t understand what was happening.
Turning his head, he saw Sak Mu-heun’s face.
Why was he attacking him…?
“Why…?”
Those were Jeon’s last words before he died.
Sak Mu-heun had already drawn his sword and was moving on to attack another squad member.
“Leader Sak?!”
Alongside Jeon, Yi Ho—the Seventh Squad’s top warrior—hurriedly swung his sword to defend.
But even he couldn’t withstand Sak Mu-heun’s blade, recognized as the strongest among all Shadow Division members.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
After just a few clashes, Yi Ho’s sword was knocked aside against his will.
Sak Mu-heun’s blade then lightly sliced through the open chest, barely grazing the air.
Swish!
The cut was so swift and natural that it barely caused pain.
As Sak Mu-heun moved on to attack another squad member, blood gushed from the deep wound in Yi Ho’s chest a moment later.
“Gah!”
Along with Jeon Sang-gu and Yi Ho, Il Ho—also a master of the highest caliber—couldn’t look away even as their leader was dying.
A man wielding steel gauntlets charged at him like a ghost passing through the battlefield.
It was Seol Poong.
Around him, three squad members were flung away like leaves in a storm, blood spraying everywhere.
“Gah!”
Despite his modest build, Il Ho felt as if a massive tiger was attacking him.
The force was overwhelming.
Feeling crushed by the momentum and unable to resist, Il Ho forced a shout and stabbed his sword toward Seol Poong.
“Ahhh!”
Shuak!
A yellow blade of energy pierced the air like a spear.
It was his all-out thrust.
Just as the swift strike was about to pierce Seol Poong’s head, Seol Poong roared and swung his tiger gauntlets.
“Haah!”
Kaaang!
“Ugh?!”
With tremendous force, Il Ho’s sword was knocked aside.
It was a power beyond his control.
At the same time, four steel claws slashed toward him from the opposite hand.
The brilliant red energy glowing on the claws was the last thing Il Ho saw.
Pwahak!
Sun Woo-jin, along with Hae Cheong-yeon and Seol Poong, had been hiding and struck first, killing two with a surprise attack.
Sun Woo-jin’s mastery of the Thousand Kill Hidden Technique had reached a level where even Shadow Division members couldn’t sense his presence until the last moment.
From the shadows, his sword slowly rose and drew a line through the air, and the victim’s consciousness faded naturally.
Shuak!
“!”
“!”
After that, Sun Woo-jin immediately charged with Hae Cheong-yeon and Seol Poong toward another Shadow Division member.
As the Sun Thirteen Sword’s Divine Response Wings spread brilliantly before the enemy’s eyes, the startled opponent wildly swung his sword, trying to deflect the attack.
“Ugh?!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!
At that moment, a beam of light shot from the center of the wings, piercing the man’s chest.
Poke!
“Gah?”
The strike was so fast and precise that the victim couldn’t even react.
It was the One Moment, One Kill technique of the Four Sword Method, now perfected with his internal energy control.
Satisfied with the seamless transition between the Sun Thirteen Sword and the Four Sword Method, Sun Woo-jin smiled.
After killing the third target and glancing around, he saw Hae Cheong-yeon finishing off another with the Holy Fire Sword Method.
Sun Woo-jin wiped blood from his blade and looked around leisurely.
They probably didn’t need to move anymore.
In the short time Sun Woo-jin and Hae Cheong-yeon each killed one, Seol Poong had taken down four, and Sak Mu-heun had eliminated three, including the Shadow Division leader.
Sun Woo-jin sheathed his sword and spoke to Hae Cheong-yeon.
“This is almost too easy—it feels empty.”
“It was a surprise attack. It was only possible because Brother Sak was here. Without him, it wouldn’t have been this simple.”
“True enough.”
Sun Woo-jin looked on with a pleased smile at Sak Mu-heun, who was just finishing off the last enemies.
He couldn’t express how much easier things had become with him around.
Before leaving the Alliance, the Sword Saint Hae Un-baek had asked Sak Mu-heun, his unnamed disciple, to secretly protect Hae Cheong-yeon.
Sak Mu-heun had readily agreed, and as a result, the Seventh Squad effectively had four top-tier masters, making it an overwhelmingly powerful unit.
“Moreover, these aren’t just any masters—they include two with over seventy years of internal energy cultivation. This isn’t just a squad anymore; it’s practically on par with the core forces of most Flying Dragon units.”
Since then, Hae Cheong-yeon had entrusted Sak Mu-heun with various covert tasks.
In fact, it was thanks to Sak Mu-heun that Sun Woo-jin had been able to find the familiar Hao Gate branch when he first arrived at the frontier.
This time, after provoking the Shadow Division members, Sun Woo-jin had asked Sak Mu-heun to tail them.
He expected some kind of reaction after the provocation.
Sure enough, Sak Mu-heun, the strongest among the Shadow Division, secretly followed them and uncovered their next moves.
The best-case scenario Sun Woo-jin had hoped for was that they would contact the Alliance and agree to leave them alone.
With nearly thirty men and no real reason to return to the front lines, they might decide to let things be.
Even if they came back after contacting the Alliance to try and persuade them, he could understand that.
They couldn’t disobey orders, but at least they were trying to avoid conflict.
The worst-case scenario was that they decided to kill them.
In that case, they would have no choice but to kill them first.
“But… I never imagined they’d choose an even worse option.”
The decision Sak Mu-heun uncovered was shocking.
They had decided to kill them on their own, without informing the Alliance.
So there was no need to hold back anymore.
In fact, their failure to report to the Alliance made things easier for them.
So first, Seolpung, Seon Woo-jin, and Hae Cheong-yeon decided to move together with Sak Mu-heun.
Since they already knew the plan was for three squads to launch a coordinated attack and had identified the directions from which the other squads would approach, there was no need to wait for them.
And that led to the current situation.
The Chil Squad of Eumyeongdae had been picked off one by one in a surprise attack.
When the leader of Chil Squad’s First Unit was finally split into five pieces by Seolpung’s Fierce Tiger Squad, Sak Mu-heun spoke up.
“Let’s just clean up the bodies quickly and move out. I wanted to take down all three squads individually if possible, but there’s no time left for the others.”
Despite the ease of the battle, Sak Mu-heun’s face looked unusually grim.
It seemed he was unsettled by having personally killed comrades from Eumyeongdae who were in the same predicament.
The group exchanged glances at his troubled expression. Seolpung spoke on their behalf.
“Sak hyung, if you don’t feel up to it, we can handle it ourselves.”
“That’s right, Sak oppa. You don’t have to push yourself too hard.”
“Yes, just scouting them out was more than enough.”
But Sak Mu-heun shook his head with a bitter smile.
“No, it’s not that. It’s just… I think I understand why they made these choices. There are quite a few who, after joining Eumyeongdae and killing martial artists, eventually start to enjoy it. Most of the members who carry out assassinations without reporting, even when it’s not urgent, fall into that category.”
He sighed deeply before continuing.
“Isn’t it ironic? Those who joined the Martial Alliance seeking justice and chivalry somehow end up taking pleasure in killing innocents. And some of those people even end up joining the official armed forces of the Martial Alliance later on.”
Muttering like a lament, Sak Mu-heun shook his head, then smiled wryly.
“No time to dwell on this nonsense. Let’s move.”
At that, Hae Cheong-yeon spoke to him.
“We can change it.”
“Hm?”
Sak Mu-heun looked at her with a puzzled expression, and she said firmly,
“Trust your father, oppa. We can’t undo what’s already been done, but at least he’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again. And you’ll play a part in that too.”
Her confident words made Sak Mu-heun look at her with complicated eyes, but in the end, he smiled and nodded.
“Yeah, I trust the elder, the master.”
Hyu Ja-seung, leader of Eumyeongdae’s Pal Squad, crouched in the bushes, frowning.
He could see the assassination targets approaching their ambush point.
But even now, the Chil Squad hadn’t arrived.
Jeon Sang-gu, leader of Chil Squad, wasn’t the type to be late.
Something was off.
At that moment, Yang Won-dang, leader of Gu Squad, sent a message.
Hyu Ja-seung looked again at the approaching targets.
There were twenty-five of them. Three had apparently dropped off since the initial count, but twenty-two was still a formidable number for just two squads.
Moreover, the leader of the Twelve Dragons, Man Jong-im, was a master with over eighty years of internal energy cultivation.
If things went wrong, they could suffer casualties.
Currently, their side had four peak masters: two in Pal Squad and two in Gu Squad.
If Chil Squad, with its three peak masters, had joined, they’d have seven in total and no worries.
Hyu Ja-seung mulled it over and decided to let this opportunity pass.
He thought it better to wait and regroup with Chil Squad for another chance, rather than risk a dangerous fight now.
Let’s just let them pass this time. Tell Gu Squad to maintain stealth and let them go.
Understood.
Hyu Ja-seung sent the message and instructed his men to stay hidden.
He waited silently for Man Jong-im and the others to pass.
He wasn’t worried about being discovered.
Their stealth techniques, learned from the deadly assassin Jo Woo-son, were nearly perfect.
He was confident.
They weren’t attacking, just hiding, so the chance of being spotted was almost zero—unless someone went crazy and charged out at the enemy.
Well, as it turned out, someone did.
Just as Man Jong-im and his group passed their hiding spot, one of the Eumyeongdae members suddenly shouted loudly.
“Attack!”
And charged straight at the enemy.
Startled, Hyu Ja-seung shouted,
“You idiot?!”
Since it wasn’t one of his men, it was probably someone from Gu Squad who hadn’t received the message properly.
But he couldn’t just panic.
Clang!
“Who’s there?!”
He saw the sword of the attacking Eumyeongdae member blocked by a Bi-ryong member who drew his blade like lightning.
Hyu Ja-seung didn’t know it was Bi Sa-young.
“What the—?!”
“Ambush!”
The Bi-ryong members, caught off guard, drew their weapons and took defensive stances.
Meanwhile, a few Eumyeongdae members had already rushed out, following the first attacker.
Clang clang clang!
“Assassins!”
“Watch out!”
The Eumyeongdae attackers, now exposed outside, were flustered and unsure what to do.
It was chaos.
Gritting his teeth, Hyu Ja-seung shouted,
“Attack all at once! Strike hard, then retreat immediately!”
He charged out like a flying tiger, launching hidden needles at Man Jong-im.
Whirrr!
Even in this desperate moment, he knew someone had to hold Man Jong-im back.
But Man Jong-im, alert on all sides, easily blocked the needles.
Clang clang clang!
When Hyu Ja-seung clashed swords with Man Jong-im, more Eumyeongdae members rushed out to throw needles, but suddenly three figures appeared like ghosts behind them.
“Hah!”
Thud!
“Ugh?!”
It was Seolpung.
His Fierce Tiger Squad had pierced the back of Gu Squad leader Yang Won-dang’s neck.
A surprise attack from behind, leaving no time to react.
And it wasn’t just Seolpung.
On the other side, Seon Woo-jin’s Thirteen Swords spread like giant wings in a dazzling display, sweeping through two Eumyeongdae members.
Shuuaak!
“Ugh?!”
“What is this?!”
As the Eumyeongdae members were stunned by the radiant wings from behind, the blades scattered like rays of light, shredding them.
Puhwaak!
“Arrgh!”
“Ughhh!”
Bloodied Eumyeongdae members fell lifeless.
Seon Woo-jin’s attack was a rapid combo from Divine Response Flight to Divine Response Wings.
Beside Seon Woo-jin, Hae Cheong-yeon’s Sacred Fire Sword Technique was in full swing.
Choosing speed over finesse, her sword flew like a meteor, piercing two backs in an instant.
Shiiik!
“Hah!”
“Ahh!”
The Eumyeongdae members couldn’t even react to the lightning-fast strike—Sacred Fire Sword Technique’s fastest thrust, Comet Black.
Hyu Ja-seung, still locked in combat with Man Jong-im, was thrown into confusion.
The surprise attack from behind was breaking the other members’ defenses as well.
Two had already fallen to Je Won-young’s sword, leader of Jeomchang Sword Tiger, and another to Do Mu-gon, leader of the Twelve Dragons First Squad.
Hyu Ja-seung’s heart raced.
This was bad. At this rate, they’d be wiped out in an instant.
“Retreat! Everyone, fall back and disengage!”
Shouting this, Hyu Ja-seung unleashed all remaining needles at Man Jong-im, then dashed away.
Whirrr!
Clang clang clang!
“Where do you think you’re running?!”
Man Jong-im tried to follow, but someone shouted,
“Do not pursue, Great Master!”
“Huh?!”
Hyu Ja-seung caught a glimpse of Man Jong-im hesitating at the voice.
Taking advantage of the moment, Hyu Ja-seung sprinted deep into the forest with all his might.
He didn’t know why they were told not to pursue, but it was a relief.
Once the distance grew, Hyu Ja-seung finally relaxed and looked around.
He saw a few Eumyeongdae members following him—eight in total.
Only eight, including himself, had managed to escape.
It was unbelievable.