Chapter 85. The Entire World is My Home (6)
Mu Heon grit his teeth and swung his leaf fan in an attempt to react to Woo-Moon’s merciless attack.
Clang!
However, he was only able to hold Woo-Moon off for a few moments before Woo-Moon’s sword cut into his neck.
‘It was already shocking enough seeing it from afar, but it’s even more mysterious and incredible in person! Sadly for you, that won’t be enough!’
With pure admiration for Woo-Moon’s swordsmanship, Mu Heon slightly twisted the steel fan and pointed the tip toward Woo-Moon.
Pfft, pfft, pfft, pfft!
Countless thin needles shot out of the tips of the fan’s ribs.
“Mere tricks!”
Woo-Moon spread the Impenetrable Golden Wall in a small range before him, knocking aside all of the needles. Although the needles were far stronger than normal throwing weapons due to Mu Heon’s qi infusion, none had enough strength to break through the shield.
Having bought himself some time with the needles, Mu Heon jumped backward.
“Come out!”
As he shouted, ten presences that Woo-Moon had noticed earlier revealed themselves simultaneously. They fired crossbows attached to their wrists. Like Mu Heon’s needles, the power behind each arrow was far beyond normal due to being imbued with qi.
Moreover, it seemed that each of the ten hidden warriors could shoot three arrows at once, as thirty arrows rained down on him from all directions. Woo-Moon was about to use the Impenetrable Golden Wall to defend himself once more, but then he quickly changed his mind.
As the arrows closed in on him, Woo-Moon suddenly spun around like a top and quickly swung his sword.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
The sound of the arrows hitting his sword echoed repeatedly, like the sound of beans roasting in a hot pan.
“Ugh!”
“Agh!!!”
Five of the hidden warriors that had attacked Woo-Moon with crossbows let out muffled groans at the same time. They dropped to the ground with arrows sticking out of various parts of their bodies.
One of them even fell backward, unlucky enough to have been hit in the forehead. However, the others didn’t waver in the slightest, despite the serious injuries.
“Attack him!”
Following Mu Heon’s command, the nine hidden warriors in black rushed to Woo-Moon at the same time. Each carried the same four weapons strapped to their waists and backs: an axe, a saber, a spear, and a whip. Simultaneously, they drew the axes from their belts and threw them at Woo-Moon.
As the heavy axes flew at him ferociously, Woo-Moon covered his entire body with the Impenetrable Golden Wall.
Bang!
Meanwhile, the warriors in black unlatched their spears from their backs. As they set their stance, they thrust their spears out at the same time.
Woo-Moon stood motionless, as if waiting to be impaled, but then he suddenly bent over backward the moment the spearheads came within range. The spearheads narrowly passed over Woo-Moon’s torso, crossing over him as he stood parallel to the ground.
At that very moment, his eyes suddenly lit up.
Shing!
Woo-Moon swung his sword and cut down all nine spears in a single motion before using the Divine Phantasm Step to narrow the distance between himself and his enemies instantly.
Squelch!
Hot blood spurted as Northern Blizzard flashed in the air. Woo-Moon decapitated three of them with a single swing before suddenly sensing danger.
Clang!
The tip of Woo-Moon’s sword knocked aside the steel fan that was covertly sweeping across the ground, aiming for his feet.
The chain connected to the steel fan sparkled in the sunlight as the fan flew high into the sky.
Holding the other end of the chain, Mu Heon manipulated the steel fan to attack Woo-Moon again.
‘Just what the hell are these bastards? Not only that bastard with the fan, but even these guys in black have incredible skills.’
The surviving six warriors in black attacked him again. This time, there was some discrepancy between them, as four of them attacked with sabers and two with whips. Even so, the six attacked with almost perfect synchronization, clearly having mastered formation-based combat. They didn’t leave a single opening for Woo-Moon to escape; the timing and placement of their attacks was perfectly matched.
The steel fan aimed for his feet while clear blue saber auras attacked him from four sides, and whips came down from above like snakes lashing out at their prey.
‘If I can’t avoid it, then I just have to block it all!’
Golden light exploded from Woo-Moon’s body as the Impenetrable Golden Wall appeared again, repelling all attacks.
‘Damn it! Just what sort of sword technique is this?’
Though still smiling outwardly, Mu Heon grit his teeth and complained on the inside. He was in awe at the perfect offense and defense of Woo-Moon’s Gentle Celestial Sword.
Realizing there was no way for him to win, Mu Heon’s gaze dropped from the weight of the realization. He sent out a qi transmission.
—I need to get out. Buy me some time.
“Understood!”
By that moment, Woo-Moon had attacked again and stabbed the four warriors wielding sabers in the chest and throat, taking them out in one fell swoop.
Mu Heon triggered the mechanism built into his fan, imbuing all the hidden weapons he had left with qi before shooting them at Woo-Moon. The remaining two warriors fired a crossbow bolt with one hand while swinging their whips with the other, trying to keep Woo-Moon tangled up.
“Let’s meet again next time!” Mu Heon shouted as he walked away from the battle.
Woo-Moon became anxious as he realized Mu Heon was sacrificing his subordinates in order to escape. He had to block the enemies' attack first, and that couldn’t be helped, but unlike before, this attack had clear openings he could exploit.
Woo-Moon instantly used the Divine Phantasm Step, his silhouette blurring as he cleverly positioned himself to avoid the hidden weapons and the bolts. At the same time, he bent down and slid his foot along the ground, taking down the two warriors in black with an expert foot sweep.
As soon as the warriors fell, Woo-Moon jumped low and landed between them, stabbing one of them in the heart with the sword in his right hand and crushing the head of the other using the Nine Yin White Bone Claw with his left.
Woo-Moon quickly looked around and swiftly located Mu Heon, who had already gone far into the distance.
“Do you really think I’ll let you go?”
Woo-Moon hurriedly picked up a few broken spears and whips on the ground, then used the Northern Wind Step as fast as he could, chasing after Mu Heon.
He threw four spears at the same time.
Woosh!
The spears flew in a long arc, emitting a tremendous whistling noise. However, because the target was so far away, by the time they reached Mu Heon, he was able to easily track their trajectory and dodge accordingly.
However, a fifth and final spear flew through the air, faster and more powerful than the previous four.
It was an exquisitely planned delayed attack!
However, Mu Heon grit his teeth again and drove his qi to the limit, twisting his body as hard as he could to avoid it. Although the spear cut a long scar on his side, it was a relatively minor injury.
But, to his unfortunate regret, there was still another attack in Woo-Moon’s arsenal.
Copying the technique Mu Heon had used when he had attacked him with the steel fan attached to a chain, Woo-Moon flicked his wrist and sent a whip quietly along the ground, wrapping it around both of Mu Heon’s ankles.
“Agk!”
Mu Heon disgracefully rolled on the ground. The next moment, Woo-Moon had caught up and was pouncing on him, clearly trying to capture him alive.
‘I can’t let him catch me!’
Mu Heon held his steel fan in both hands and stabbed himself directly in the heart.
“Damn it!”
It only took an instant, but once that instant had passed, all Woo-Moon found was a dead body. Now he had no one to interrogate, so his questions would remain unanswered.
Woo-Moon suddenly realized that he had experienced something similar in the past—the same premise down to the last bit—meeting a mysterious group with strong martial skills, seemingly from an evil organization, killing indiscriminately, committing suicide before being interrogated.
He had captured some of them after the battle with his grandfather, but just like now, all of those who had survived had consumed their poison pill and committed suicide. Although Mu Heon had committed suicide with a weapon rather than poison, for some reason, Woo-Moon got the feeling that they were from the same faction.
“Well, I can’t do anything about it now. I should go back and just interrogate Hye-Ryeong. She has to know something.”
Consoling himself, Woo-Moon searched Mu Heon’s body. He was looking for anything that could indicate Mu Heon’s status. However, he found nothing noteworthy. The man only had a fire starter and a small amount of Golden Spear Medicine.
When he returned to the scene of the battle, trying to see if he could find any clues from the warriors in black, he found Ma-Ra already investigating.
“Have you discovered anything?”
“No. You know?”
She was asking if he knew their identities. Seeing Woo-Moon shaking his head, Ma-Ra squatted down with her characteristically expressionless face and removed the crossbows wrapped around the wrists of two of the warriors in black, attaching them to her own wrists.
Since her wrists were much smaller than those of the warriors in black, she had to make a couple of adjustments, but with her dexterity, that was not much of a problem.
Ma-Ra stretched out an arm and tried shooting at one of the corpses.
Thwack, thwack!
The bolts flew with incredible force and lodged deep into the corpse.
The wrist crossbow was small enough to be hidden in a sleeve, but its power was superior to a regular crossbow. Moreover, it could even load three shots at once.
It really was an impressive device.
A very, very faint smile appeared on Ma-Ra’s lips as if she liked the weapon. However, that shift in expression was so slight that neither she nor Woo-Moon had noticed it.
Ma-Ra recovered all of the wrist bows and quivers of bolts that the warriors in black had before returning to the Baek Estate with Woo-Moon.
***
In the dead of night.
A woman ran forward, her movement technique making her seem like the wind itself.
When she reached Mu Heon’s cold corpse, she stopped for a minute to take a look at it.
Tap, tap, tap, tap!
She struck his entire body repeatedly, creating dozens of afterimages in an instant. A few moments later, Mu Heon’s upper body began to shake intensely.
“Bleeaugh!!”
A bowlful of dark red blood poured out from Mu Heon’s mouth.
The moment he did so, the woman quickly moved behind him, dodging the blood splattering on his clothes.
“Kekeke. To think that someone as full of himself as you, senior brother, would not only fail his plans at the Iron Sword Baek Family but even die! You must be so upset~”
Mu Heon massaged his chest as if his heart was in pain after being pierced by the steel fan.
“If you don’t shut your mouth right now, I’ll let you feel how it felt when I died,” he snapped.
“Pfft! With that body? Could you even take half a move from me?”
As he was basically at the woman’s mercy, Mu Heon lowered his gaze and turned away.
“What did Eldest Brother say?”
“We finally found the Heavenly Demon Orb. It happens to be near here. Ninety-Second Senior Brother Mu Heon wants us to help Seventh Senior Brother Mu Heon.”
“Did they say anything else?”
“He said that if you fail again and tarnish the reputation of Mu Heon, he’ll definitely kill you in a way that you can’t be revived again, even by the Immortal Heavenly Demon Art.”
“...Hmpf! Then, are you coming to aid Seventh Senior Brother Mu Heon, too?”
“Mhm. I was told to help out, too. The Heavenly Demon Cult most likely would be a little polarized, to say the least.”
“Either way, we have our orders, so we should move. Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”
Soon after, the two people disappeared.
***
Two days later,
Hye-Ryeong, Ju-Ryeong, and all of their followers were imprisoned in a prison under the Baek Estate.
All of the mysterious warriors in white had either been killed or committed suicide.
In the end, the letter that Woo-Moon had brought served as the most conclusive evidence, and by searching the manors of Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong along with interrogating the people around them, the investigators were able to secure many other pieces of corroborating evidence.
Naturally, Do-Gun’s succession to the patriarch position was immediately invalidated. In the first place, it had been revealed that Mu-Hoon’s defeat had resulted from a conspiracy by the two sisters, making it only natural for him to retake his position as head of the family.
However, one person still had an issue with it.
“I... I don’t think I am suited for the position of patriarch. I may not have been responsible for the defeat. Still, the fact that I had even allowed us all to fall into such a trap indicates my lack of ability,” Mu-Hoon said as he looked at the Emotionless Iron Sword during the emergency council of elders.
The leaders of the Baek Family forces and elders couldn’t say anything to refute his words. To be frank, it was difficult for them to deny his statement. In any case, the fact that Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong had been able to hold their reign of tyranny behind all of their backs had been mainly due to Mu-Hoon’s passiveness as Patriarch.
“But... who would take over the position, then?”
The previous patriarch had left behind three successors. In order of age, they were Hye-Ryeong, Ju-Ryeong, and Mu-Hoon.
It went without saying that the children of traitors couldn’t become the patriarch, even more so considering these children’s own contributions to the struggle for power.
Thus, the only remaining option was Mu-Hoon’s offspring. However, the only child he had was his daughter, Ye-Ye.
The elders and leaders of the Baek Family Martial Forces were deeply troubled and began to argue. They argued that one of the descendants of the previous patriarch’s siblings should be selected to succeed Mu-Hoon. However, because all of them were elders with their own vested interests, the meeting just grew longer and longer.
Woo-Moon, who had just been listening quietly, finally opened his mouth.
“Is this really something we need to consider this deeply?”