Chapter 119 : Chapter 119
Chapter 119 - Because He Must Die by My Hand
The first of the Ghost Face Four Shadows, whom even the masters of the Mount Heng Sect, a prestigious orthodox sect based in Hunan, were reluctant to face.
Yi Cheon-yu of the Sword Shadow Soul Stealing asked.
“What about the Green Killer Squad?”
“I killed them all.”
“……!”
Yi Cheon-yu’s gloomy pupils wavered once.
Not just one or two, but over a hundred elite assassins.
Could it be that all those masters were taken down by just those three?
As his wavering pupils settled, this time, a light of suspicion filled them.
If they had seen that much blood, their opponents couldn’t have been unharmed.
But he couldn’t find any particular wounds on the three swordsmen.
There were some scratches on their martial uniforms here and there, but those were traces from brushing against tree branches, not from a sword.
Even if the Ghost Face Four Shadows were to take down the entire Green Killer Squad, they wouldn’t be this unharmed.
At his look of suspicion, Biyoung gave a sharp smile.
“Why. Does it sound like a lie?”
“………….”
Yi Cheon-yu’s sunken eyes scanned Biyoung’s entire body.
His posture was gallant to a fault, and on his handsome face, an expression that went beyond confidence to arrogance was seated.
And above all.
Those eyes.
‘He is not someone who has only killed once or twice.’
As an assassin who had killed countless people, he could tell.
The man before him had the eyes of a swordsman who had been through numerous scenes of carnage.
How on earth could he have had that much experience at such a young age?
It was difficult for Yi Cheon-yu to understand, but at least he did not disbelieve his words.
Seueuk.
Yi Cheon-yu looked left and right, assessing the state of the battle.
The situation between the Ghost Face Gang and the Diancang Sect had changed to the level of heaven and earth turning upside down.
Not a single one of the over one hundred assassins from the Green Killer Squad had returned, and the other three members of the Ghost Face Four Shadows, besides himself, lay on the floor as cold corpses.
As a result, there were now only two people who could be called the fighting force of the Ghost Face Gang.
Dancheong and himself.
On the other hand, in the Diancang Sect, five people, excluding Eung Gajin and Uma, remained unharmed.
Two versus five.
Mocking the situation when they first faced each other, the Diancang Sect now had more personnel remaining.
However, Yi Cheon-yu did not waver.
“Assassins can just be raised again.”
No matter how many opponents there were, numbers were meaningless in the face of overwhelming martial power.
Just as the entire Green Killer Squad had been taken down by just three people a moment ago.
There was a transcendent master in this place, and if he just put his mind to it, the situation would be sorted out quickly.
The leader of the Ghost Face Gang, Dancheong.
He was a man who had reached a distant realm that even the great Yi Cheon-yu could not touch.
“Hmm.”
For the first time in a long while, Dancheong took a step.
As always, no sound was heard from Dancheong’s slowly approaching steps.
From within the white ghost mask, a questioning voice of ‘Hmm?’ continuously leaked out.
It was not about the annihilated Green Killer Squad, nor was it about the completely defeated Ghost Face Four Shadows.
‘That one is…?’
The direction of the mask was fixed on one swordsman.
It was a much more blatant gaze than the one directed at Jeong-i.
It couldn’t be helped.
If anywhere else, it would be different, but a man who should absolutely not be here had appeared.
“You are…”
No matter how much time had passed, there was no way he wouldn’t recognize him.
Because those unique slitted eyes would be maintained no matter how old he got.
“Danseol.”
“!!!”
At the unexpected development, the eyes of the swordsmen widened.
That was no exception even for his own side, Yi Cheon-yu.
How could Dancheong remember the remnants of a sect that was destroyed ten years ago?
“……You still recognize me.”
The man with slitted eyes slowly walked forward.
The rising talents of the Diancang Sect just stood there with their mouths agape.
Seueuk.
Danseol raised his left arm and rolled up his sleeve.
It was the very hand that he had hastily shaken off when Solbo had grabbed it a while ago.
As he rolled up his sleeve, Danseol’s uniquely white and fine skin was starkly revealed.
“?”
For a swordsman, his wrist was excessively white and thin, but other than that, there was nothing special.
However, when Danseol peeled off a thin membrane attached to his wrist, everyone’s eyes were filled with astonishment.
“!!!”
“Th-that is…!”
There was a small tattoo where the membrane was peeled off.
It was the first time they knew he had a tattoo, but what was more shocking was the character tattooed on it.
A tattoo with the character ‘Ghost’.
That was the mark of a core member of the Ghost Face Gang.
“S-Senior Brother Danseol?”
“Junior Brother…?”
Solbo and Jeong-i called out to Danseol with dumbfounded faces.
There was no need to explain that their faces were frozen like ice.
To think that he, whom they had lived and breathed with in Simao, whom they thought had a bond thicker than blood, was a member of the Ghost Face Gang.
Did that mean that all the years they had spent together were a lie?
‘There were times when I didn’t know what he was thinking, but…’
Solbo recalled his memories with Danseol from the time they had spent together.
He was certainly a man of few words compared to the other rising talents of the Diancang Sect.
He also spent a lot of time alone, and there were often times when he didn’t answer when called, as if lost in thought.
But he had thought that was all just part of Danseol’s personality.
Danseol, a rising talent of the Diancang Sect, was actually a member of the Ghost Face Gang? Did that even make sense?
“Senior Brother. Haha. Don’t joke around. That’s not it, right?”
Solbo even burst into laughter as if denying reality and asked Danseol.
They were comrades who had pulled up and eaten poisonous herbs together when there was nothing to eat in Simao.
There were also times when no one would give them work, so they acted like clowns in the streets and begged for a few coins.
He was a person who would give up his own share even in that state of hunger.
For Solbo, who was exceptionally affectionate, he could not bear to deny those years.
However, Danseol answered Solbo with his unique slitted eyes and expressionless face.
“Sorry.”
Chwang!
Then he drew the flexible sword from his waist and aimed it at the rising talents.
“……No way.”
Solbo was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even think of drawing his sword in response.
The feeling of being betrayed by someone he trusted was more devastating than anything else.
Before he knew it, Solbo’s large eyes were filled with tears.
Jeong-i didn’t show it, but her small fists were trembling slightly.
It was so bad that a thought came to mind.
That it was a relief that Uma and Eung Gajin were unconscious.
“This is absurd.”
Dancheong let out a laugh, not hiding his complicated feelings.
“I was truly sad thinking I had lost you back then, but to think you would draw your sword for me at such an important moment.”
Danseol answered Dancheong with his back turned.
“I thought that if I lived with the Diancang Sect, we would surely meet again someday.”
“Yes. You were always very bright-headed since you were young. Your disposition was weak, which was a flaw, but it seems that’s no longer the case.”
Dancheong’s voice was filled with satisfaction.
Was it because he thought his allies had increased in a disadvantageous battle?
Not a chance.
Dancheong had no intention of losing today’s battle.
He was just glad.
Because he had found his ‘bloodline’, who had suddenly gone missing from the battlefield, in this very place.
“What on earth is all this about!”
Solbo couldn’t hold back and shouted.
To someone who didn’t know, didn’t it look like a friendly father and son having a chat?
“Do you still not understand?”
The answer actually came not from Danseol, but from Dancheong.
Seueuk.
His hand slowly moved towards his face.
With a tuduk sound, the white ghost mask came off his face.
The indifferently thrown mask began to descend towards the floor.
Tuk!
Solbo thought.
Was it not the mask that had fallen to the ground, but his own heart?
‘Those eyes are…’
The man behind the mask’s pupils were not clearly visible.
Because he had slitted eyes that made it difficult to tell whether they were open or closed.
“This can’t… be…”
There was no need to rack his brain to figure out whom those slitted eyes resembled.
As if one side had been cut off and attached, they were a perfect match for the eyes of the brother who was aiming his sword at them.
Come to think of it, it wasn’t just the slitted eyes that were similar.
Even his skin, which was whiter and finer than that of an ordinary woman, and his slender wrists.
The two men resembled each other so much that even someone with no eye for detail would recognize it at a glance.
He absolutely hated to admit it, but the two words ‘father and son’ naturally came to Solbo’s mind.
Teolseok.
Even though his opponent had drawn his sword, Solbo collapsed to the floor.
How on earth was he supposed to understand this situation?
His head could sort it out, but his heart was rejecting it with all its might.
Words like a death sentence reached Solbo’s ears.
“Son. It’s been a really long time.”
“…………!”
Was it because he heard the word son?
Danseol turned his body and stared at Dancheong.
“It’s been a long time, Father.”
At Danseol’s words, Jeong-i slowly lowered her eyelids.
There was now nothing that could deny the relationship between the two.
“I really wanted to meet you again.”
“Me too.”
“Because Father, you must die by my hand.”
“Yes… what did you say?”
“???”
Dancheong, who had looked satisfied, suddenly had a dumbfounded face.
And it was the same for the others.
Wasn’t this a reunion of a father and son who had met after a long time?
But Danseol’s following words were enough to overturn everything.
Seueuk.
“You will never know how long I have waited for this day… and how much I wanted to meet you.”
For Danseol, Dancheong was not the enemy of the Diancang Sect.
To be more precise, he was not only the enemy of the Diancang Sect.
“My mother in heaven must have been waiting for this day too.”
The trembling tip of Danseol’s sword was aimed at Dancheong’s heart.
***
‘What on earth is going on?’
Solbo was in great confusion.
Just a moment ago, he was revealing his identity as Dancheong’s son, and now he was aiming his sword at his father?
Solbo couldn’t get his head straight with the constantly changing situation.
“Could it be…”
Solbo’s gaze alternated between left and right.
On one side was Jeong-i.
And on the other was Gwangyo.
But their situation was no different.
Gwangyo was stroking his chin with the whites of his large eyes twitching, and Jeong-i was just blinking her lake-like eyes repeatedly.
‘In that case…’
Solbo’s gaze turned to the remaining person.
“J-Junior Brother. What is this…”
“It makes no difference.”
“?”
Biyoung answered with an indifferent voice, staring at the father and son.
“I’m saying it makes no difference to Senior Brother. He’s just adding one more thing to the one revenge he’s carrying out.”
Solbo’s eyes widened rapidly.
Not because of the content of the answer, but because of his all-too-calm reaction.
“Y-you knew?”
“Yes.”
“!”
Perhaps feeling sorry for his pupils, which were swinging like a pendulum, Biyoung gave a bitter smile.
“Don’t be too upset. I only found out a day ago myself. And even that was just a guess.”
Although he said it was a guess, that prediction was correct.
At the time when the rising talents of the Diancang Sect were burning their hearts on the eve of their revenge, Danseol and Biyoung were having a secret conversation.
“We made a promise then.”
“What… promise?”
Not only Solbo, but Jeong-i and Gwangyo also pricked up their ears at Biyoung’s words.
“He asked me to yield the turn to attack Dancheong.”
“Attack? Is Senior Brother Danseol really going to strike his own father… that guy?”
“Yes. He said something about being doubly indebted.”
“…………!”
While the conversation was going on, the father and son faced each other without moving a muscle.
As if they had no interest in the content of the conversation.
However, since Biyoung hadn’t bothered to lower his voice, the two of them must have heard it clearly.
How would he take it, his son, whom he thought was dead, returning alive and aiming a sword at him?
Jiiiik.
Suddenly, Dancheong’s mouth stretched wide to the sides as if it would tear.
“Hiek…”
Solbo, who was watching from afar, was startled and trembled.
It was truly a bizarre and horrifying smile that would appear in a nightmare.
It was the very expression that Biyoung had seen on Danseol the night before.
“So. You’re saying you came to cut off this father’s head?”
“Yes, Father.”
And before he knew it,
Danseol’s lips, as he answered, were also torn in the same direction.