Chapter 448 : The End of the Ones Behind (1)
Chapter 448: The End of the Ones Behind (1)
Once he confirmed that the person he had been waiting for had arrived, Yong Hwarin leisurely drank his tea while waiting for the roasted duck to be served.
After about half a shichen, the long-awaited roasted duck was finally brought out.
Although the duck was served, Yong Hwarin didn’t touch it, prompting the jeomsoi to speak.
“Guest, aren’t you going to eat?”
At that, Yong Hwarin smiled lightly and replied.
“What’s the point of eating duck filled with poison? Anyway, it seems everyone who needed to be here has arrived.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“All the guests here gathered to kill me, didn’t they?”
The jeomsoi responded with a flustered expression.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“In such a quiet village, at this hour, where did all these people even come from?”
Yong Hwarin looked up and spoke to the Gold Robe upstairs in the inn.
“Isn’t that right?”
“You know who I am?”
“You’re Eungjo’s father and a descendant of the White Tiger King, aren’t you? Though I don’t see Eungjo around.”
The middle-aged man in the Gold Robes didn’t answer the question but instead asked Yong Hwarin:
“How did you know?”
He sipped his tea calmly, showing no signs of surprise.
“He looks just like you. How could I not know?”
“Hahaha, is that so? But it seems you were expecting us.”
“Of course. Since he vanished, I used myself as bait to gather you all here.”
“You’re quite confident. Do you think you can take us all on alone?”
“Of course.”
“Hahaha, youth does bring boldness, but it also invites recklessness. Coming here alone was clearly a mistake.”
“Well, you won’t know until you fight, right?”
“At my age, you don’t always need to fight to see how things will turn out.”
The middle-aged man in the Gold Robes was none other than Eungjin, Eungjo’s father.
After seeing the carrier pigeon from Gunwi, he had evacuated his exposed base. But upon learning that Yong Hwarin was heading alone toward the Southern King’s Residence, he laid a trap to capture him.
“We’re not going to kill you. You’re worthless dead.”
Those words sparked a thought in Yong Hwarin’s mind.
“Is it because of the dragon’s energy within me?”
“Hm, so you found out after meeting with the people of Gunga, huh?”
“But what do you plan to do with it? Even if it’s called the dragon’s energy, isn’t it just energy? It’s strange how the entire Eungga moves because of it.”
Eungjin chuckled bitterly.
“You don’t seem to understand its true worth. It’s far more valuable than you think. Anyway, we won’t kill you. But if you lose an arm or a leg in the process, that’s just the price to pay. Swords don’t have eyes, you know.”
“Well, what choice do I have? More importantly, I’d like to hear exactly what you plan to do with the dragon’s energy.”
“You can hear that… in the Underworld Division.”
As those words fell, Yong Hwarin’s aura shifted dramatically.
“So you’re really forcing my hand.”
“Heh heh heh… What an arrogant brat. Show this naïve little fool who doesn’t know the ways of the world what’s outside. Open the window.”
When the inn’s window opened, nearly a hundred men were lined up outside. They had loaded crossbows pointed directly at Yong Hwarin’s location.
On top of that, another hundred experts, all armed with swords, surrounded the inn. It was clear there was no way to escape.
Yong Hwarin smirked.
“Do you think I ordered roasted duck and waited half a shichen because I had nothing better to do?”
“What do you mean?”
Eungjin peeked out the window with a sudden sense of foreboding.
“Now you’re just bluffing.”
As he said that, masters from the Heavenly Central Sect appeared behind Eungjin’s subordinates who had encircled the inn.
“Hmm! What’s going on? Didn’t they say Heavenly Central Sect had withdrawn from here?”
Turning his head, Eungjin shouted toward the back where a curtain had been drawn. His voice carried fury from being exposed due to inaccurate intel.
Then, two figures emerged from behind the curtain and bowed deeply.
It was Gunwi and Gunyeom.
They too looked bewildered, seemingly not understanding the situation.
“W-We were definitely told they withdrew!”
“You were deceived. Until now, all you’ve sent were worthless tidbits, and at a crucial moment, you put us in danger. Useless fools!”
With that, Eungjin struck the heads of the kneeling Gunwi and Gunyeom.
Puhak!
They both died on the spot, their heads crushed without even a scream. After dealing with them in a single move, Eungjin glared at Yong Hwarin.
“Even so, you won’t leave this place alive!”
Eungjin stood up abruptly and shouted.
“Capture him!”
At that command, the guests inside the inn all drew their weapons at once.
Yong Hwarin didn’t hold back in the slightest.
No—he couldn’t afford to.
Everyone here was his enemy. He had no choice but to cut them down.
He formed Sangmo’s Hard Qi over his entire body and used the Dual-Willed Sword to slash at the attackers rushing toward him.
Whoong!
When the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword circled once around Yong Hwarin, three heads fell to the floor.
Additionally, in his right hand he held an iron sword, and from it, the energy of the Heaven Sea Divine Art flowed endlessly.
Meanwhile, with his left hand, he continuously fired large needles using Dragon Scale Finger.
If one enemy dodged the needle, the person behind them was struck and collapsed.
The place where Yong Hwarin stood had become a literal mountain of corpses.
When Yong Hwarin was attacked inside the inn, the warriors of the Heavenly Central Sect clashed in an all-out battle with the martial artists of the Eungga who had surrounded the inn.
“Wipe them all out!”
shouted Namgung Bi, the Three Swords King.
“Don’t just shout—go fight yourself.”
Jo Wonmuk, the World’s Best Sword, retorted, prompting Namgung Bi to grumble,
“Do you really want to work an old man this hard?”
Jo Wonmuk jerked his chin toward the front lines.
“Even though your granddaughter is isolated over there?”
At those words, Namgung Bi’s figure soared into the air.
“Those damn bastards!”
In a flash, Namgung Bi’s body shot out like an arrow and swept away the Eungga warriors attacking Namgung Yoo.
Jeong Minji turned to look at the inn.
She was worried about Yong Hwarin, who was surely fighting desperately inside.
Back when Yong Hwarin had told her he was heading to the Southern King’s Residence, he had secretly sent another message via telepathy.
Once he left, she was to tail anyone who exited the inn and assign an assassin from the Blood Green Unit to pursue them.
Then, pretending to return to their base, she was to secretly follow the trail left by the assassin.
At first, she didn’t understand what he meant, but when she saw Gunwi and Gunyeom entering this place, it all became clear.
That was when Jeong Minji realized—
Why he had told her to loudly declare her movements and say she was going to meet a woman.
The Gunwi Siblings had been assigned to monitor her.
She felt a strong sense of betrayal, but took comfort in knowing she had turned them into an opportunity to root out the Eungga forces in one swoop.
Jeong Minji raised her hand toward the enemy charging at her.
She smiled as she saw the Vermilion Wings and Tail Feathers shoot from her wrist.
“I think I’ll vent my betrayal on you bastards.”
A gloomy killing intent crept into her smile.
Five warriors charged toward Yong Hwarin, fully prepared to die.
Indeed, an attack launched with death in mind carried a different kind of momentum. They unleashed all their true qi, and even the air grew heavy.
“Die!”
In response to the five attackers, Yong Hwarin infused the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword with the energy of the Eastern Thunderbolt Formation, amplifying his true qi through the Tai Chi Dantian.
Whoooong!
The air expanded and exploded—then a blue flash burst forth.
The White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword unleashed thunder energy, and since it was Nascent Qi, it exploded on the spot.
The five who had rushed in disappeared without a trace.
The remaining Eungga masters inside the inn were all felled by Yong Hwarin, with only a handful left.
And those few survivors no longer had the will to charge him. Instead, they stared at him with reverence and awe.
When they had heard tales of the martial prowess of Heavenly Sword Hero Yong Hwarin, they had dismissed them as grossly exaggerated rumors, as is often the case in the murim.
To think that someone not even twenty had mastered the Dual-Willed Sword seemed laughable.
And when people claimed that the Three Swords of the Outer World had barely reached a level that this young prodigy had achieved, it sounded even more ridiculous than saying an earthworm became a dragon.
But now, facing him directly, they realized the rumors were only one-tenth of the truth.
No matter how loyal they were to the Eungga, fear and terror came first.
Such emotions suppressed both their loyalty and their bodies, so even when Eungjin shouted for them to attack, they couldn’t move.
“Attack, I said!”
Only those trained as assassins from childhood could throw themselves into certain death.
Their bodies had already stiffened from fear—swords in hand meant nothing now.
As his subordinates hesitated and retreated, Eungjin, filled with rage, leapt forward.
He directed all that fury toward Yong Hwarin.
“I’ll turn you into a cripple who can’t even die!”
Eungjin unleashed his entire cultivation to form a single Enhanced Qi.
He manifested White Shadow Severing the Moon (白影斬月), the ultimate lethal technique of the White Tiger Taebaek Art, using True Qi.
White Shadow Severing the Moon was a technique that created Enhanced Qi by drawing circles with the hand.
Eungjin drew ten such circles, and the qi slashed across Yong Hwarin’s body. Each arc was True Qi—their power needed no explanation.
“Oh! It’s the Alliance Leader’s True Qi!”
The Eungga masters gasped in admiration upon witnessing Eungjin’s True Qi.
Even Yong Hwarin, they believed, couldn’t possibly withstand the White Shadow Severing the Moon.
In the current murim, there was no one who could survive True Qi with their bare body.
Yong Hwarin didn’t even try to evade; instead, he stared at Eungjin blankly.
Seeing that, the Eungga warriors assumed Eungjin had secured victory.
‘I’ll turn you into a pile of bloody mush!’
Eungjin visualized Yong Hwarin rolling around as a mangled lump of flesh and activated his Protective Qi.
If the True Qi exploded, its aftermath would affect even his own side.
Kwaaaang!
Just as expected, the inn’s roof blew off, and the surrounding pillars and tables shattered into splinters.
Having released all his true qi, Eungjin coughed up a mouthful of blood.
It was because he had drawn even his Innate Qi.
And then he stood in a relaxed posture.
He believed there was no need for a follow-up strike.
‘If he survives this, I’ll admit defeat. If he can withstand White Shadow Severing the Moon, then no matter what I do, I won’t be able to win.’
As the dust in the inn settled, Yong Hwarin’s figure gradually came into view.
“I can’t believe it!”
One of the warriors exclaimed in shock, and then silence fell.
Yong Hwarin was completely unharmed—not even his sleeve had been cut.
He had already mastered the final level of the Tai Chi Dantian—the Realm of Life and Death. The Sangmo’s Hard Qi he unleashed was powerful enough to absorb and deflect even True Qi.
He received the force of the True Qi in a void-like state, and once it was full, released it back out. As a result, Yong Hwarin hadn’t suffered even the slightest impact.
That was the power of the Tai Chi Dantian’s Realm of Life and Death, and the effect of Sangmo’s Hard Qi.
What’s more, when combined with the energy of Immovable as a Mountain, there was no force he couldn’t withstand.
Despite not suffering internal injury, Eungjin staggered.