The past. When I entered a cave hoping for a fortuitous encounter, I met Gwiyeong Sin-tu, who was dying.
While dealing with the assassins who had chased him there, I confirmed that the Assassin Valley had completely fallen under the Demonic Cult's control.
Even before my regression, I never knew whether the Assassin Valley had become part of the Demonic Cult. After all, the Assassin Valley was such a secretive organization that such information was never widely known.
However, there was one thing I did know… the Slaughter King was the only assassin to have reached the Harmony Realm, both before my regression and now, and was the greatest assassin in the Central Plains.
And that he had vanished without a trace the moment the Demonic Cult invaded the Central Plains.
Regardless, in this life, the Assassin Valley had fallen under the Demonic Cult's sway, so I figured we would clash with them someday.
The problem was that I never expected that day to be today.
A sigh escaped me unbidden at the Slaughter King's figure, which vanished into thin air as if melting into the void.
"This is maddening."
If the Assassin Valley had truly become part of the Demonic Cult, then the only one who could dispatch a figure like the Slaughter King was the Heavenly Demon himself.
I had known, ever since our last encounter, that the Heavenly Demon wouldn't simply wait patiently.
But I hadn't expected him to send the Slaughter King to forge an alliance with the White Peak Mountain King, who had recently been growing bolder against me.
I've always been sensitive by nature, and my Qi Sense is even more attuned when it comes to killing intent… but now, no matter how I focus my mind and scatter my internal energy and Intent, I can't feel the Slaughter King's presence at all.
After all, the art of stealth is a technique that kills one's presence, slipping beyond the opponent's perception.
It's about making yourself seem like part of the natural background even while being watched, so that you're dismissed as nothing worth noticing—it's not some trick of vanishing into thin air while the other person stares right at you.
Well, I have a rough idea, at least.
A single sword stroke, guided by instinct and the experience I've accumulated. At the end of that strike, which cut through a Qi Barrier rather than flesh or cloth, the Slaughter King briefly revealed himself within a crack in the air.
No matter how much my sword carries an Intent that can cut what cannot be cut, dealing with space itself is impossible.
After all, I don't even understand what space is. Swinging my sword without knowing what to cut is meaningless.
What I cut was, at most, a Qi Barrier. A thin pouch of internal energy, usually used to keep sound from leaking out.
"…So that's how it is."
If what I cut was a Qi Barrier, then there's only one reason the Slaughter King revealed himself beyond it.
The Slaughter King uses a Qi Barrier to hide not only his sound and presence, but his very form.
The moment I realized that, what I had to do was all but decided.
Seomun Hwa-rin was holding off the White Peak Mountain King's assault alone, with a bit more difficulty than before. I shouted toward her.
"Senior Seomun Hwa-rin! It looks like you'll have to handle that one on your own!"
"What?! What do you intend to do?!"
"Naturally, I'm going to cut down the Slaughter King, who is even now lurking in the shadows, aiming for our necks."
With that said, I stood still and focused my mind.
The odds were low… but not impossible.
Perhaps it was because of the extreme battle conditions, or perhaps because the Slaughter King had let his guard down slightly—but I had already seen through his concealment once before.
If I could fully make that sensation my own… then there was definitely a chance of victory.
If I failed, I would have to offer my neck, but that had always been the case, hadn't it?
The White Peak Mountain King, who had been pouring his attacks onto me, realized the situation was turning toward Seomun Hwa-rin and let out a loud, mocking laugh.
"Hahaha! How absurd! A brat who got lucky just once thinks he can do something about the Slaughter King's dagger! How would you know whether that dagger will point at you or at someone else?"
"Whether I win or lose, you're the one who's guaranteed to die, so don't worry about that part."
"…You bastard!"
The White Peak Mountain King charged forward even more recklessly, his fury exploding.
No, perhaps it was merely a feint. That was how much his Aura had amplified.
Of course, Seomun Hwa-rin's fist remained firm.
KWAANG!
Seomun Hwa-rin blocked the White Peak Mountain King's charge head-on with a single punch.
Unlike before, neither side's Aura shattered clearly—instead, they seemed almost evenly matched.
At this, both Seomun Hwa-rin's and the White Peak Mountain King's eyebrows twitched simultaneously. As if the very fact that the opponent had received their full power was displeasing to them.
Seomun Hwa-rin sneered with a venomous tone, unlike her usual self.
"You bark savagely, but all you can actually do is run around meaninglessly? In my eyes, I cannot tell the difference between you and a dog."
"Do you know something? Dogs are creatures that naturally form packs. Listen up, Green Forest scum! Don't just stand there gawking—find opponents suited to your level!"
At the White Peak Mountain King's shout, the Green Forest bandits, who had been at a loss, snapped back to their senses and charged toward Seol Ri-hyang and the other Tang Clan martial artists.
Blocking them would be far too simple a task for me right now.
But I couldn't move recklessly. The moment I shifted in one direction, the Slaughter King would swing his sword—either at the opposite side or at me, now relatively unguarded.
It was only natural that Seol Ri-hyang couldn't match the Slaughter King's blade. Her martial level was far too lacking.
Seomun Hwa-rin was the same. Unlike me, she hadn't even sensed the Slaughter King's presence at all.
She might survive the Slaughter King's surprise attack, but she would suffer serious injuries. If that happened, taking down the White Peak Mountain King alone would become nearly impossible.
Perhaps she had guessed my predicament. Seol Ri-hyang called out in a calm voice.
"Cheon Hwi! Don't worry about this side—leave it to me! I think I can manage somehow!"
A clear singing voice rang out across the surrounding area. In an instant, a thick, chilling cold swept through, as if this place had become the North Sea.
A ferocious snowstorm that would turn anyone lacking sufficient internal energy into a block of ice with a single touch.
Most of the Green Forest bandits who had been charging forward with fierce momentum froze in place, unable to move an inch.
Even if the rest somehow managed to push through Seol Ri-hyang's cold, they collapsed under the hidden weapons and poison that poured down as if waiting for them.
Thanks to that, I could focus my mind solely on my Qi Sense.
My senses became clearer than ever before. Amidst the commotion felt from front and back… no, precisely because of that commotion, I could perceive a single point of discordance.
There was a place where the flow of sound, which I had unknowingly absorbed into my body while helping Seol Ri-hyang train, was distorted in an unnatural way.
If the Slaughter King was using his Qi Sense like a tent to conceal his presence and form, that was surely the place.
Kwa-rung!
Internal energy burst from the soles of my feet with a thunderous roar. With a full-power Thunder Step, I closed in on the center of that dissonant feeling in an instant.
I swung the snow-white sword in a wide arc toward it.
Seo-geok.
The sensation of my blade cutting through the Qi Barrier at my fingertips. Beyond the crack, the Slaughter King's eyes remained expressionless, but a hint of fluster showed as he hurled a hidden weapon in a surprise attack.
"Hheup!"
It was a Hidden Weapon Art worthy of an assassin, but hadn't I seen far greater techniques of the sort from the Tang Clan?
And how much power could a hidden weapon thrown in haste and panic truly carry?
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Several clashes rang out as Aura met Aura. Most of the hidden weapons were deflected by the sword swung in time with each impact, and the rest were blocked by my Protective Qi.
The Slaughter King, who had not spoken a single word until now, muttered quietly.
"…How?"
"Do you think I'd tell you?"
I curled the corners of my mouth into a grin and, not letting the moment slip away, continued swinging my sword.
With the White Sword fully unfolded, a heavy sword would only lose its efficiency. What I needed was nothing more than speed that surpassed my opponent and a variety of movements that could deceive the eyes.
I focused on the mysteries of Flow and Change, recombining my Techniques.
The acceleration through my waist, shoulders, and elbows begins to split into multiple streams through my wrists.
The white sword, condensed to an excessive degree and shining far brighter than ordinary Aura, leaves afterimages in the air.
A complex sword path etched into the eyes along its trajectory. Any ordinary opponent would have long since dropped their sword and offered their neck.
But the Slaughter King was no ordinary opponent.
Having cut through his Qi Barrier, I could now see him clearly with my naked eye—but that was all.
His presence remained as faint as ever, and it was still unclear from where and how he would swing his sword.
There were even frequent occasions where I would snap back to my senses only to find a dagger thrusting into my face, forcing me to hurriedly retract my sword.
In fact, my sleeve and forearm had already been grazed several times by the Slaughter King's blade—shallow cuts, but cuts nonetheless.
A strange sensation, as if I would lose track of the Slaughter King's presence the moment my concentration wavered even slightly.
He wielded martial arts far too advanced for me to dismiss him as a mere assassin—he was more of an assassin than any assassin I had ever faced.
If my sword had failed to cut through his Qi Barrier, I would have long since been a corpse rolling across the ground.
And so, as the Slaughter King and I pushed our concentration to the absolute limit, exchanging blows while trying to see several moves ahead to read each other's swords—
Seomun Hwa-rin and the White Peak Mountain King clashed head-on time and again, locked in a contest of raw power that left nothing around them intact.
Seol Ri-hyang and the other martial artists were embroiled in a chaotic melee against the Green Forest bandits, a fight so tangled it was hard to tell who was who.
I couldn't speak for my side or Seomun Hwa-rin's, but it was becoming nearly certain that Seol Ri-hyang's group would finish off the Green Forest bandits.
The Slaughter King, who had been pressing in close with his intricate sword art, constantly thrusting from blind spots, suddenly leaped far backward.
The Slaughter King had widened the distance between us without barely moving his legs. I couldn't even hear the sound of his feet striking the ground.
I thought he was pulling back to raise his Qi Barrier again, so I closed the gap quickly with the Thunder Step.
"Where do you think you're going!"
The moment I closed the distance back into sword range, I planted my foot with the momentum of my charge.
THUD!
The force I'd put in was immense, and the rebound that came back was just as immense. I used the subtle movements of my muscles and joints to redirect it all into a single direction.
Power concentrated in my arm. My internal energy spiraled like a vortex, pouring more force than necessary into a single thrust.
"HAH!"
The sword shot straight out following the Mount Tai Sword technique. Instead of swinging his sword to counter, the Slaughter King reached into his bosom. And then.
BOOM!
Gray smoke shot high into the sky. The sword that should have pierced his heart clean through veered wildly off course, cutting through empty air.
"This is…"
A feeling of my senses twisting, regardless of my will.
I knew what this meant. Which made it all the more incomprehensible.
"Poison? And poison potent enough to work on me?"
My body, which had completed its Bone-Exchange Rebirth centered on Tang So-wol's poison, possessed an ability close to Immunity to All Poisons.
To be precise, my body boasted absolute immunity to any poison Tang So-wol could handle, and even poisons weaker than hers were instead devoured by my body.
So while this poison wasn't enough to kill me, it was enough to poison me and throw my senses into chaos.
The poison must have entered through the shallow cut on my forearm and been activated when I inhaled the smoke from earlier.
I knew assassins favored hidden weapons and poison, but I had underestimated them, thinking they couldn't compare to the Tang Clan. That was a mistake.
A poison of this caliber was clearly no ordinary poison. I raised my wariness toward the Slaughter King's hidden weapons and poison to a new level as I glared at him.
"…This is why I hate those Tang Clan bastards."
The Slaughter King clicked his tongue as if he found it absurd. It seemed even he considered this poison quite impressive.
I suppressed the poison energy with my internal energy and readjusted the spacing of my sword to match my wavering senses. This wasn't too difficult.
My senses were still reeling, but at least my sword wouldn't veer wildly off course.
The problem, however, was that my opponent wasn't an ordinary martial artist—he was the pinnacle of assassins.
Realizing my condition, the bastard stopped swinging his sword and instead spread his Qi Barrier once more, focusing on concealing himself.
He must have figured that with my senses dulled as they were, I wouldn't be able to see through his stealth like before. And he wasn't wrong.
The only reason I'd managed to hold my own against the Slaughter King so far was precisely because I could see through his concealment.
If I had to fight him without even knowing where he was… I wouldn't last long.
So first, I needed to buy time.
My decision was quick, and I acted without hesitation.
I loosened the condensed white sword and swung it in a wide arc.
The slash, stretching long at my will, drew a great line across my vision, extending beyond the length of the blade itself.
KWAANG!
A deep sword mark carved between me, Seomun Hwa-rin, and Seol Ri-hyang, as if to separate us. But this was not the end. This time I leaped high into the air and swung my sword wildly at the ground around me.
The terrain shifted, cut this way and that. At first glance, it looked like a desperate flailing, hoping to catch the hidden Slaughter King by luck… but I was aiming at something else.
RUMBLE!
The ground was already broken here and there from the brutal battle between the White Peak Mountain King and Seomun Hwa-rin.
With that much sword force added on top, the earth began to collapse with a loud roar.
With this, even the Slaughter King, who must have been lurking nearby aiming for my neck, would surely have been caught up in it.
The sword strike I had carved out earlier served as a kind of boundary line, and I shouted toward Seol Ri-hyang, who had not been swept away by the landslide.
"Seol Ri-hyang! You all get down the mountain and run! And…"
I stepped over the debris in a panic, then gave an awkward smile toward Seomun Hwa-rin, who was already executing Air Stepping.
"Senior Seomun, come over here so you don't fall. And please, be a bit more thorough."
"You really…!"
Seomun Hwa-rin let out a sigh of disbelief, stopped what she was doing, and pushed herself to come toward me.
The White Peak Mountain King spat out curses and fired off his Aura, and the Slaughter King, having apparently judged that this was no time to stay hidden, revealed himself again and threw a hidden weapon.
The continuous slash that stretched on without regard for distance was easily deflected.
And then, the moment Seomun Hwa-rin's small hand grabbed my waist.
I slammed my other fist into the ground that was collapsing beneath us.
KWAANG!
The ground didn't just sink—it caved in completely. That should buy us enough time.
All that remained was surviving the landslide I had triggered.
"But my body isn't in its normal state right now, so I'll have to ask for your help, Senior Seomun Hwa-rin."
"I'll tell So-wol everything about this later, so you'd better be ready for that…!"
With that fierce warning, Seomun Hwa-rin grabbed my body and dragged me along.