Rebirth of the Thunder God

-Swish!

Namgung Hui, feeling the killing intent from behind, quickly turned around and deflected the dagger.

Could it be that this assassin was working in a pair?

Well, if they were determined to send an assassin, it wasn't impossible.

Since both the family head and the young lord had to be guarded, Namgung Hui's residence was relatively less guarded.

They had aimed for the gap perfectly.

Namgung Hui looked at the figure visible through the faint moonlight.

He was standing by the window, as if he had just come over it, and he seemed quite flustered to see his comrade lying on the floor.

Did he not expect him to be subdued so easily?

Anyway, for an assassin, he was quite clumsy.

Perhaps he wasn't an assassin at all.

‘Well, I'll know once I catch him.’

When Namgung Hui took a starting stance, the assassin by the window suddenly turned around and started to run away.

He's running away after throwing just one dagger?

It seemed he had judged that he couldn't assassinate him, perhaps because his comrade had been caught so easily.

As the assassin quickly fled.

Namgung Hui, as if not to be outdone, immediately performed a body-flickering technique and got behind the assassin.

-Swish. Thwack!

He struck the back of his neck with the side of his hand.

The assassin had no way of withstanding the blow, which was loaded with internal energy.

The running figure collapsed on the spot.

Namgung Hui opened the unconscious assassin's mouth and checked his molars and under his tongue.

‘There's nothing. That's a relief.’

Assassins sometimes carried poison pills, so it was good to eliminate such variables in advance.

Namgung Hui carried the unconscious assassin on his back and returned to his residence.

On the floor, there was still the assassin who was writhing with his vital points pressed.

He placed the subdued assassin next to her and began the interrogation.

"Where are you from?"

"Um……. Can't you untie this?"

"Why should I trust an assassin?"

"I'm not an assassin."

"Criminals always say they're not criminals."

The female assassin was clumsy to a fault.

Her speech and many other aspects were not professional.

To the point of feeling a sense of unease.

"Then will you untie me if I tell you my affiliation?"

"I won't kill you."

"Phew……. I'm really going to get in trouble……."

"Get in trouble? You think it will end with just getting in trouble in an assassin group? They'll probably chase you to the end and silence you."

"I told you I'm not a real assassin. Then I'll tell you my affiliation first. I……. I'm actually from the Moon Maiden Palace."

* * *

Namgung Hui was still dumbfounded.

Even after sufficiently hearing the explanation of the female assassin, no, the Moon Maiden Palace disciple, Lee Sang-ah.

"So. You arrived at our family estate in the evening. And you heard that I was close to the young palace mistress and infiltrated my residence?"

"To be precise, I was trying to find out what kind of person you are, Young Master."

"But why did you invade in the middle of the night, and when I was sleeping at that?"

"Hmm……. As for that, first, it was to find out if you talk in your sleep, Young Master. And above all, I was going to put a strand of hair in here."

Namgung Hui still didn't understand.

Why was someone else's sleep-talking important, and what was with the hair?

He had heard that heretics used other people's hair when performing curses, but a Moon Maiden Palace disciple?

"Why the hair? To use it for a curse or something? Does the Moon Maiden Palace mistress know by any chance……."

"Ah, no! Please keep it a secret from the palace mistress! I just did it out of curiosity."

"Then what were you going to do with the hair? I'll let you go if you just tell me that."

"…I was just going to check our compatibility."

"Compatibility? With whom?"

Lee Sang-ah smiled awkwardly and said.

"Hehe. That's a secret. By the way, why are you still speaking informally when we've just met?"

"I don't have a hobby of speaking formally to someone who has invaded someone else's residence without permission. You were the one who broke the etiquette first, so I don't need to keep it either. But if you also speak informally, I'll personally engrave some manners into you."

"Tsk~ I wasn't going to speak informally either. Then have we cleared up all the misunderstandings?"

There were some things he didn't understand, but how many eccentrics were there in this Central Plains?

In his past life, he had met several people with the character 'eccentric' in their nicknames.

Just off the top of his head, there was the Eccentric Immortal.

‘Come to think of it, the Eccentric Immortal was also a Lee. Could she be a descendant?’

"By the way, Young Master, how did you become close with our young palace mistress?"

"You can ask Seolhwa that later. For now, I have to deal with that guy first."

And he had just found out that the assassin who had appeared later seemed to have been flustered to see Lee Sang-ah.

To think there was another intruder in Namgung Hui's residence besides himself. He must not have imagined it.

Thanks to that, he probably thought Namgung Hui was awake, so he must have run away right away.

Namgung Hui approached the assassin who was slowly coming to his senses.

His mask had already been removed, and his skin was so damaged that it was hard to recognize his face.

It wasn't a wound or a scar, but it seemed he had deliberately disfigured his face so that he couldn't be recognized.

"Hey."

"Kill me."

"These guys always tell me to kill them right away. If you want to die so much, just answer my questions. Then I'll kill you comfortably."

"……."

As expected, he remained silent. Well, since he was a real assassin, he wouldn't open his mouth easily.

Namgung Hui had no choice but to resort to Thunder Ki torture for the first time in a while.

-Zzzzt. Zzzzt!

As his achievement in the Divine Thunder Art had deepened, the output had become much higher.

The amount of Thunder Ki that was drawn out in an instant was clearly different.

It meant that the pain inflicted on the enemy had also increased that much.

"Keuk……!"

Even for a seasoned assassin, it seemed difficult to endure the scream.

His hideous appearance looked even more hideous.

It was a situation with an eccentric on the side and a monster in front.

How long had the torture been going on?

The eccentric Lee Sang-ah, who was next to him, quietly opened her mouth.

"Young Master. Seeing that he's not opening his mouth even after this, he seems to be quite a tough nut. Would you like to leave it to me?"

"You? How? Seeing that he's fine even after my torture, he's a really tough guy. It would be better to just kill him."

"Hey. You never know. Just trust me and leave it to me once."

Namgung Hui had nothing to lose, so he readily nodded.

Then Lee Sang-ah, with a wicked smile, took something out of her pocket.

Its identity seemed to be a bird's feather, and since the feather was so lush, it looked quite expensive.

"What are you going to do with that?"

"Seeing is believing. You'll know if you just watch."

Lee Sang-ah quickly approached the assassin.

He had felt it before, but her lightness skill was top-notch.

If Namgung Hui had used an assassination technique, would he have been able to kill her in one move?

He felt that if she had sensed the killing intent, she would have quickly retreated.

Lee Sang-ah began to rub the feather on the assassin's body, waving it gently.

It was as if she was tickling him, but would a guy who had endured the pain of Thunder Ki not be able to endure a little tickling?

"Uahahaha!! Please! Please! Stop! I'll talk."

But for some reason, the assassin immediately declared his surrender.

And it hadn't even been a shichen (two hours), he had been subdued so easily.

Namgung Hui was so dumbfounded that he couldn't speak.

In his past life, there was no one who could endure the Thunder Ki torture except for the pervert Seomun Changhyeon. It was a strange thing.

"Young Master. As expected, my thoughts were right. This guy was pretending to be in pain earlier. I think his sense of pain is actually paralyzed."

"What? His sense of pain? Ah. I've heard that assassin groups sometimes feed them medicine that eliminates the sense of pain."

Come to think of it, in his past life, there was no need to capture and interrogate assassins.

He just had to kill them as he encountered them.

As for interrogation and intelligence, his sworn brother and the Martial Alliance took care of everything, so the Thunder God never had a turn to interrogate an assassin.

Besides, there was also the Poison King, a master of torture.

"Then shall we ask some questions? Hey. Where are you from?"

"…The Killing Curtain."

"The Killing Curtain was still around? Even for an assassin group, it was a place with a lot of power. Then who was the one who instigated it?"

"I can't say that……. Uahaha! Stop! Alright. Namgung Sang instigated it."

It seemed Namgung Sang had put in a request to the Killing Curtain even before Namgung Hui had arrived.

Seeing that the assassin had moved as soon as Namgung Hui had arrived, it seemed he had put it in as soon as O Mujin had failed.

So he must have lacked information and couldn't properly measure Namgung Hui's martial prowess.

"What information did you hear about me? Roughly my martial power level, something like that."

"I heard you were first-rate. But it doesn't seem like it. What you performed earlier was definitely a body-flickering……."

"That's enough. Did he only tell you to assassinate me? Did you hear anything about the other guests?"

"For now, I was only instructed to deal with you."

"I guess there's nothing more to ask. Your last words?"

"…Just kill me without pain."

"As expected of an assassin from the Killing Curtain, you never ask to be spared. Then."

-Smash!

Namgung Hui sent the assassin on his way comfortably by striking his celestial spirit gate.

He had struck so swiftly that the assassin's soul must have left before he could even realize it. It was like a flash of lightning.

"Wow~ Young Master. Your martial arts are much stronger than I knew. I think I know why the assassin was defeated so easily."

"How did you know?"

"My name is not 'you,' it's Lee Sang-ah. It's a name my parents left me, so could you please call me by my name?"

She was a bold child to a fault.

Not only did she invade someone else's residence in the middle of the night, but she was also so shameless.

"Alright. Sang-ah. Then how was my martial power level known?"

"Transcendent first-rate. That's what we had grasped. That's why I was also careless and almost got into trouble."

In fact, the realm of transcendent first-rate was a realm that did not exist in the Thunder God's days.

First-rate and transcendent.

The wall was quite thick, so they had inserted transcendent first-rate in between.

Namgung Hui also thought that such a distinction was not bad.

Because in the past, not all first-rates were the same, so the gap was quite severe.

Of course, the gap between transcendent and absolute transcendent was even more severe.

And such a distinction of realm was often meaningless on the battlefield.

‘The one who survives is the strong one. It's not something you can just crush with your realm. Especially demonic arts, they narrowed that gap in realm extremely.’

Namgung Hui shook his head and shook off the ghosts of the past.

The Demonic Cult had been destroyed anyway, so such things would not be seen anymore.

"Then, since we're done with our business, you can leave. I'm afraid someone might see and misunderstand."

Being with a young lady in the middle of the night like this was prone to misunderstanding.

Namgung Hui, who had not yet married, had nothing more to say.

"Ah~! That won't do. It won't do at all. Then I should go back quickly. And please keep it a secret from the young palace mistress that I was here."

"You seem to be scared of Seolhwa… I'll see how you do, Sang-ah."

"Yes~ I'll do well from now on, so good night~"

Lee Sang-ah disappeared with a bright smile. She was a truly strange child.

The kick that Namgung Hui had thrown earlier was not of an ordinary level, but she didn't show any signs of pain.

‘And above all, the people of the Moon Maiden Palace have a rather dark feeling, but that child is particularly bright.’

As all the uninvited guests disappeared, Namgung Hui roughly cleaned up the assassin's body and went to bed.

Fortunately, this time, he was able to fall asleep safely.

* * *

The next day. Morning.

Namgung Hui got up from his seat, enjoying the fresh air.

But as soon as he got up, someone came to his residence.

"Young Master~!"

It was none other than Chohwa, and for some reason, she was panting and spoke in an urgent tone.

"We're in big trouble! The Firmament Guard has come to arrest you, Young Master!"

"No. The Firmament Guard? Why?"

Chohwa, perhaps because she was out of breath, just shook her head violently.

Namgung Hui, thinking that Chohwa probably didn't know the reason either, came out.

He hadn't done anything particularly wrong, so he was upright.

‘The Firmament Guard wouldn't have come because of that finger. What could it be for?’

When Namgung Hui came out of his residence, as Chohwa had said, the Firmament Guard was surrounding him.

It was a truly official procession, as about thirty Firmament Guard members had flocked in.

"Listen, criminal Namgung Hui! You are under arrest for the murder of a Firmament Guard member as of this moment!"

(End of Chapter)