Chapter 326: Subjugation (1)

“…….”

“…….”

The moment I was caught by So Cheon, the three of them did something extremely simple.

Pop!

They immediately pulled back.

Normally, they would have erased all traces through murder without hesitation.

However, this was the Cheon Clan’s territory.

Not even the smallest trace could be left behind.

The three exchanged glances and, without hesitation, kicked off the ground and disappeared into the darkness.

Just like that, the distance between us stretched to well over several hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

“What was that guy just now?”

“He looked too flashy to be just a gatekeeper.”

“Most likely someone from the Jin Clan.”

“But why was someone like that loitering near the entrance?”

“Well….”

Their words stopped all at once.

No matter how much they racked their brains, they couldn’t come up with an answer.

It was Seolbaek, the most serious of the three, who finally opened his mouth.

“What do we do? Eight Heavenly Lord told us not to act rashly and to stay still until the time comes.”

It was Akho, the most aggressive of the three, who replied.

“Can’t we just go back and kill him? He didn’t seem like someone who had learned much martial arts.”

“…….”

“Gwanggeun, why are you silent?”

Gwanggeun was the cruelest among the three, but he had an exceptional sense for detecting danger.

Wasn’t that how he had survived even after mouthing off in front of ‘that person’?

Gwanggeun finally spoke, albeit with difficulty.

“I’m not sure.”

“Not sure?”

“That guy just now… for a brief moment, I felt the presence of one of ‘our kind’ from him.”

“……?”

“……!”

Akho and Seolbaek’s expressions stiffened.

“One of our kind… you say?”

“You’re not saying that pretty-boy, gigolo-looking bastard is another completed product like us….”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

Gwanggeun suddenly turned to face the opposite direction and spoke.

“I meant that guy… is a predator, like us.”

Swish!

At the same time.

Without making the slightest sound, my figure emerged from the darkness.

“Hey, who the hell are you guys? Don’t tell me you’re assassins?!”

I glared at the three of them.

Shh, shh, shh!

In an instant, they surrounded me in a triangular formation as if to trap me.

And then, all at once, they started scrutinizing me with hardened expressions.

“Amazing.”

“How did you manage to follow us?”

“Judging by how you run your mouth, it’s hard to believe you’re one of our kind.”

“What the hell are they babbling about?”

I grumbled as I looked at the three who were speaking only among themselves.

With a solemn expression, Seolbaek raised his hand like a blade.

“Whatever the reason, since you’ve chased us this far, you can no longer keep your life. It seems you have some skill, but that one move will cost you your life.”

Crack! Crackle!

In an instant, the air around his hand turned icy white, and sharp blades of ice grew along the edge of his hand.

A level of ice mastery that went beyond common sense.

Yet even faced with such a display, my expression remained unchanged.

“Ugh! Doesn’t it embarrass you to talk that seriously?”

“You bastard?!”

It wasn’t Seolbaek who reacted to my words, but Akho.

“Akho! Don’t act rashly!”

“Shut up! Don’t order me around!”

Before I knew it, a dagger shot out from Akho’s green sleeve, aiming straight for my throat.

If Gwanggeun was a master of crushing opponents with brute strength, then Akho was the textbook example of an assassin who struck from the shadows.

Especially the way Akho manipulated shadows was in no way inferior to Woo Hwayoung’s.

“Oh?”

Even as the dagger flew right up to my nose, my expression didn’t change.

Not even a trainee from Salga would be flustered by something like this.

Without dodging, I caught the dagger Akho had thrown with my mouth.

“……?!”

I grimaced slightly at the bitter sting on my tongue.

“A poisoned blade? Is this all you’ve got?”

“What the hell is this bastard saying?!”

Ptuh!

I spat the dagger out and flashed a sinister smile at the three who had pulled back to create distance.

“So it was assassins after all? Were you sent by the Cheon Clan?”

“…….”

“…….”

The three didn’t answer.

They merely exchanged glances and began communicating through soundless transmission.

-He’s tougher than we thought.

-Let’s finish this as fast as possible. Akho, don’t be stubborn this time.

-Damn it, I know!

Akho had a filthy temper, but if he had really charged ahead blindly, he wouldn’t have survived until now.

-I’ll hold him down. You two finish him in one blow.

As Gwanggeun began to exert himself in earnest, all the muscles in his body started to ripple.

“Eugh! Disgusting!”

“Die!”

Gwanggeun lunged at me, making his stance deliberately wide open.

Someone with decent skills would usually smirk at such an opening and try to exploit it.

But that was exactly what Gwanggeun was aiming for.

‘Go ahead, try and stab me!’

Among the completed products, Gwanggeun, whose physical abilities were the most overwhelming, possessed a defense so strong that he could deflect even sword qi with his bare body.

He had confidence that not even the famed Demonic Heaven’s Jin Clan could make him yield.

As expected.

The opponent pulled out a mere dagger and stabbed toward Gwanggeun’s shoulder.

‘Got you!’

A dagger like that?

Even if it was coated with Qi Projection, I could easily deflect it!

‘……Huh?’

But then.

My body, which had been rushing forward with the intent to crush the opponent’s bones to dust, suddenly stopped dead in its tracks.

“……Gwanggeun?”

“……What the hell?”

Akho and Seolbaek froze on the spot, unable to attack me any further.

At some point, Gwanggeun, with the dagger stuck in his shoulder, had started trembling uncontrollably, unable to move an inch!

‘What is this?’

Gwanggeun’s body was anything but ordinary.

Though he wasn’t entirely immune to all poisons, he could overcome most deadly toxins on his own, and his regeneration abilities surpassed human limits even without becoming an Awakened Body.

And yet.

Gwanggeun’s body had been pierced by a dagger that hadn’t even been coated with sword qi?

“This feels… familiar.”

I tilted my head slightly, as if something had just clicked.

“Ah! You guys… you’re the ones from back then, aren’t you? You were with those three who attacked Black Lotus Union, right?”

‘Black Lotus Union!’

The moment I mentioned Black Lotus Union, Seolbaek and Akho immediately widened the distance.

“What the hell are you?!”

“That’s what I should be asking. You’re obviously not Cult members… you seem more like them….”

A playful yet chilling smile spread across my lips.

“If I hand you over, I’m sure Uncle King of Asura will show me some favor, don’t you think?”

Flinch!

The moment they saw my smile, Seolbaek and Akho felt their entire bodies tense up.

I might have looked like nothing special on the surface.

But they both felt certain that if they charged in, they wouldn’t die easily—or cleanly.

‘No way… could that guy be an even more dangerous beast than us?’

Akho swallowed hard without realizing it.

His instincts were blaring alarms.

‘No! That’s impossible! Absolutely impossible!’

I had survived worse hell than anyone else.

I had endured the living hell of the mortal world, crushed countless competitors, and earned His recognition!

As a result, I had built up strength to the point where I could look down on any so-called “later-generation disciple” of the Murim.

I had even trampled all those arrogant blood relatives of my clan.

Someone like me… there was no way I would cower before someone my own age!

Akho let out a furious roar as if to shake off his fear.

“Raaaaah!”

His long sleeves suddenly ballooned as if they were inflating!

Full Blooming Rain of Flowers!

“Akho! Stop, you idiot!”

Seolbaek urgently tried to stop him.

Their target wasn’t Jin Yeomyung. If he used that here, their mission would definitely end in failure!

At that moment.

Rumble!

A blinding, white force struck Akho’s entire body head-on!

“Huh?”

I had been thinking I’d finally subdued them when suddenly, someone else’s interference made me widen my eyes.

Everyone turned their eyes toward the source of the light.

“What is the meaning of this?”

A beautiful woman draped in a fluttering winged robe descended before us.

“An… angel? No, wait. You’re…?!”

Recognizing her a moment too late, I instinctively tensed my shoulders.

I had met her only once before.

Back at that damned Elder Council meeting that had sentenced me to Black Lotus Union!

“Ten… Tenth Elder?”

The Tenth Elder of the Heavenly Demon Cult, Gwang Rahi Yeojin.

She had appeared here.

Gracefully landing on the ground, she looked down at me with cold eyes.

“If I remember correctly, you’re the son of House of Slaughter, aren’t you? Why are you here, when you’re supposed to be in Black Lotus Union?”

“T-That’s…!”

I was completely flustered.

Why did it have to be a Elder of all people who caught me?!

I tried desperately to make up an excuse.

“Those three were lurking near the Jin Clan’s lodgings…!”

“Those three are the children I’ve personally taken in as guards. I allowed them to go out for a bit of air since there’s a big event tomorrow. And… if this were somewhere near Luoyang, perhaps your excuse would make sense, but this? It doesn’t hold.”

“…….”

I felt like I had just walked right into a trap.

If this incident reached the Elder Council, I was finished.

I’d be locked away in Iron Steed Prison Cave for decades!

But at that moment, the one who saved me wasn’t anyone else.

“Hahaha! What’s all this ruckus about?”

Flinch!

At the familiar, hearty laughter, Yeojin’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“King of Asura….”

Before I knew it, Jin Gun-ak had appeared and was now standing in front of me.

“Well, if it isn’t Elder Yeojin. What brings you to the Cheon Clan?”

“I came because the children I took in are participating in the upcoming event. I just stopped by for a moment. But….”

Before Yeojin could finish her sentence, Jin Gun-ak cut in.

“Ah, you mean So Cheon? I called him here on Cult business.”

“Even if you are the King of Asura, you can’t just overturn the Elder Council’s decision on your own….”

“Hahaha, ‘on my own,’ you say? You’re speaking as if people might misunderstand. As an Elder myself, I respect the Council’s decisions. However… even so.”

Jin Gun-ak stepped closer to Yeojin, glaring fiercely.

“Do you really think a mere two-digit, low-ranking Elder like you has the right to lecture the Clan Head of the Six Great Demonic Clans?”

“…….”

“Know your place, Tenth Elder.”

With that thinly veiled threat, Yeojin clenched her mouth shut.

Jin Gun-ak clapped his hands as he took a step back from Yeojin and spoke.

“Well, no matter what unpleasant business might have happened, I think it’s best to just leave it here. After all, letting a fight between kids escalate into one between adults isn’t exactly ideal, is it?”

“Indeed, that is true.”

Yeojin nodded readily.

In fact, it was Yeojin who would be in trouble if Jin Gun-ak dug deeper into this matter.

And despite his earlier threats to know her place, Jin Gun-ak also knew well that defending me like this could stir up a huge controversy.

Just like that, I pulled the dagger from Gwanggeun’s shoulder, and Yeojin gathered the three and disappeared somewhere.

After they were gone.

“Well, that’s unexpected.”

Jin Gun-ak’s eyes grew cold as he stared in the direction Yeojin had left.

“To think that it would be Elder Yeojin, of all people, who betrayed the Cult.”

I finally opened my mouth, having quietly observed everything from behind Jin Gun-ak.

“Isn’t Gwang Rahi Yeojin someone who has long devoted herself to the Cult?”

“That’s true. Though, to be fair, Yeojin has always been more driven by other emotions than loyalty… Still, I guess with the Cult Leader reaching his end, she must have set her sights elsewhere.”

“…….”

I felt a strange heaviness settle in my chest.

Confirming that Yeojin had turned her back on the Cult was certainly a huge gain, but….

‘Why, though?’

What exactly had the Grand Heavenly Lord offered her to make her betray the Cult?

Perhaps sensing my thoughts, Jin Gun-ak spoke again.

“Don’t overthink it.”

“…….”

“No matter what reason she had, the moment she reveals her ambition, all we have to do is crush her.”

That was true.

Even so.

I knew I had to uncover what the Grand Heavenly Lord had used to sway Yeojin.

‘It’s not power. And it’s not martial arts either.’

If I didn’t figure it out, there could be more traitors among the other Elders as well.

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