Chapter 19
"If you ever do something like that again without discussing it with me..."
"I really will cut your head off."
"All right, all right."
"I said I understand."
"There wasn't time to talk earlier."
"Right?"
"Haa..."
"Was sparing your life really the correct choice...?"
Only after wildly swinging his sword for quite some time did Cheon Gangwol finally calm down.
If I hadn't dodged properly...
He might have moved straight from anger to murder.
For the first time...
I was genuinely thankful the Dark Demon Well had put Demon Prison Rings on us.
If Cheon Gangwol could use proper movement techniques and lightness skills...
I might've been in trouble.
"Now, now. Both Young Masters, calm down."
"Either way, doesn't it look like things have settled?"
Another reason the situation stopped...
Was because someone intervened.
Cheon Gangwol's furious swordplay had attracted attention.
Ma Hapji, who had been watching from a distance, finally came over to mediate between us.
He was carrying his vicious curved saber.
That made his mediation surprisingly effective.
"Brother Ma..."
"Could you put those down first?"
"Hm?"
"This?"
"Hahaha. I came in a hurry."
"A few fellows attacked me as well."
"But which one do you mean?"
"Both..."
In one hand...
He carried the large curved saber.
In the other...
A severed human arm.
Blood dripped from it.
Apparently, it belonged to one of the people who had invaded Ma Hapji's cave chamber.
Those bastards had courage.
Attacking someone with his build, face, and weapon.
The Divine Cult was truly difficult to understand.
"Black-Faced Wanderer, was it?"
Cheon Gangwol glared at Ma Hapji.
"You should avoid associating with that man."
"You should've seen what he just did."
"Someday he'll shove your back toward the enemy too."
"That bastard isn't human."
"...That's a difficult statement for me to respond to, Fifth Young Master."
"Please calm down."
Everyone became silent.
If I wasn't human...
What did that make him?
We had the same father.
Technically...
We weren't ordinary people's sons.
We were descendants of the Sacred Moon and sons of the Heavenly Demon.
Yes.
That worked.
"Anyway..."
Ma Hapji looked around.
"Thanks to what happened, it seems no one else dares approach you two."
"With Brother Ma here too, who would attack us?"
"They're busy fighting among themselves."
Cheon Gangwol looked at the bodies.
"So..."
"Was the final assassin among the people we killed?"
"How would I know?"
"You really should die right now..."
"Now, now."
Ma Hapji stepped between us.
"We can simply check now."
"I'll help."
"I'll stand guard while you two examine the bodies."
"Thank you, Brother Ma."
"Hmph. I'll accept your help, Black-Faced Wanderer."
"Help?"
"Later, Fifth Young Master, simply remember the three syllables of my name."
"Ma Hapji."
"Hahahaha!"
Even in moments like this...
He advertised himself.
Cheon Gangwol and I quickly checked the corpses.
We looked for similarities with the assassins we'd already seen.
The last one belonged to another sect...
But there might still be similar equipment or poison.
Unfortunately...
"Nothing."
"Same here."
"No unusual sign."
"So..."
"We don't know."
That was the only honest conclusion.
"Then all that trouble was useless."
"Hey."
"Don't say it like that."
"They probably would've attacked us eventually anyway."
"Consider it eliminating future competitors."
"That's what happened."
"You really do have a talent for talking."
Cheon Gangwol sighed.
"But yes."
"They probably would've shown their fangs sooner or later."
Maybe the final assassin had been among them.
Maybe not.
That was the clearest answer.
A kind of martial-world quantum mechanics.
Either way...
Those who were willing to attack us once would eventually attack us again.
So killing them all at once wasn't a bad result.
Cheon Gangwol didn't argue further.
"What do you think?"
Ma Hapji asked.
"Nothing useful came out."
"Hmm."
"Ambiguous."
"If the remaining assassin was among them, good."
"If not..."
"It becomes more troublesome."
"A person who stayed hidden even during an opportunity like this must be extremely cautious."
Cheon Gangwol snorted.
"Doesn't matter."
"Whoever blocks my path..."
"I'll cut them down."
"That includes you."
"Hey."
"Talking like that to your older brother again."
"Older brother, my ass."
At some point...
The three of us had ended up sitting together like a small group.
All three had shown strong performances during the first trial.
And we'd just caused a bloodbath.
Naturally...
Everyone fought somewhere else.
They avoided our area.
"Third Young Master is probably right."
Ma Hapji stroked his beard.
"Caution..."
"Then the assassin may be among those people."
All three of us looked in the same direction.
Slash!
Clang!
The first person to catch our attention was a man swinging a long Japanese blade.
His long hair was tied behind his head.
His clothing mixed Japanese style with Central Plains elements.
His swordsmanship was unmistakably Japanese.
"He's from Punghwa Island."
Cheon Gangwol recognized him.
"Punghwa Island?"
"One of the Four Forces Beyond the Pass, Ice, Fire, Wind, and Forest."
Ma Hapji answered this time.
"Punghwa Island, or Wind Flower Island."
"Many of its people are Japanese pirates."
"The sect formed by people from there is called the Punghwa Sect."
"I heard their swordsmanship is beautiful."
"Apparently that wasn't exaggerated."
The Divine Cult had now gone beyond merely being open-minded.
It even had Japanese pirate followers.
At this point...
I wasn't surprised anymore.
It would've been stranger if some group wasn't represented.
Slash!
Clang!
Regardless of origin...
The man's swordsmanship was excellent.
Fast downward cuts.
Precise chained movements.
Sometimes powerful.
Sometimes flowing.
The transformations were smooth.
If I had to compare him to Cheon Gangwol...
He didn't look inferior.
Hard to imagine him as an assassin.
With that level of skill...
He wouldn't have missed the earlier opportunity.
Maybe later I'd ask him about his breathing method.
Clang! Clang!
Shhk!
Whirl!
Next came a different sound.
A long weapon traced broad circles through the air.
A man wielded a long spear with red cloth tied beneath the blade.
"Trash from the Golden Horse Spear Sect!"
A large man with a broad saber shouted.
"Hmph! A northern spear from a northern branch!"
"You stink."
"Close your mouth."
Shhk! Shhk!
The spearman attacked repeatedly.
The two apparently knew each other.
Every word between them carried hostility.
The spearman constantly attacked the lower body.
He slowly forced the saber wielder backward.
"Only women obsess over the lower half!"
"I don't converse with beasts."
CLANG!
