Chapter 160

Chapter 160

“Swindling…?”

At Jangil’s out-of-the-blue words, everyone gathered around looked at him with expressions asking what nonsense he was spouting. However, Jangil straightened his shoulders confidently and continued speaking.

“Think about it. What kind of profession is a salsu?”

“Bastards who kill people for money.”

“I heard it’s the number one profession chosen by people who can’t be upright. Generally, a lot of ugly people do it, they say.”

“These damn… Not that kind of thing.”

Jangil, who had staggered for a moment at the consecutive attacks from Baek Risan and Jinwoong, shook his head left and right vigorously and grimaced.

“Salsu is the profession that earns the most grudges in the martial world. They kill even without grudges, and they kill even with grudges.”

“Isn’t that just a roundabout way of saying bastard?”

“Would you shut up? Anyway, because of that, there’s something important for salsu. It’s bluffing.”

“Bluffing?”

“Yes. Bluffing.”

Having stayed in the same position for too long and feeling stiff, Jangil loosened his body by rotating his shoulders once and continued.

“Salsu are more closely connected to death than any other profession. When going out on a killing mission, even if the target is weaker than me, there are many cases where I face a life-threatening crisis, and if the target is stronger than me, I very easily face death head-on.”

“What’s more dangerous is when the target realizes I’m a salsu before I even attack. When concealment is discovered and my greatest weapon is bound. In such times, only one thing is important for survival.”

“What?”

“Presence. Planting the intuition that even if they don’t die from messing with me, they’ll still bleed.”

Heumchik!

At the killing intent that arose with Jangil’s words, everyone in the group flinched and unconsciously placed their hands on their weapons. And watching them, Jangil chuckled.

“Got you.”

“…What did you just do?”

The feeling of standing on a blade large enough to divide the world, even if just for a moment.

Baek Risan’s fingertips twitched as she tried to grip her sword, consciously suppressing them as her eyebrows twitched. And Jangil immediately answered that question.

“Didn’t I say? I’m bluffing.”

“…Bluffing?”

“I just swindled you all. The swindle that this man is dangerous. That you could die to this man.”

Is Jangil strong?

It’s hard to know precisely. He could be strong, or he could be weak. Jangil hasn’t fully revealed his true martial arts yet.

However, it’s a clearly known fact that salsu specialized in surprise attacks are weak in direct confrontations. Given that, in a situation where people are gathered like this, there’s no reason for the group to feel threatened by Jangil. There’s a fundamental difference in combat power.

“Logically thinking, you have absolutely no need to fear me. We’re on the same side, and I’m a salsu weak in direct combat.”

“But you’re feeling threatened right now. That’s because I artificially deceived your senses.”

“Artificially… senses?”

“Yes.”

Jangil waved his finger.

“Do you know what’s the first thing you learn when you become a salsu?”

“How to erase killing intent. Because if a salsu is detected by the target, they can’t launch a surprise attack. But is there really only a method to erase killing intent?”

“There’s also a method to amplify killing intent.”

“Right. If there’s a method to erase it, there’s also a method to amplify it. Even though killing intent is something that can’t be materialized like naeryeok, it means you can control it freely.”

What is the method to erase killing intent?

It’s simple. You just act naturally like a harmless object. No one feels murderous intent from a stone lying on the street and gets scared, and no one fears a child running around the marketplace.

“The method to amplify killing intent is also fundamentally simple. You just hold a blade. If you’re a menacing person, making a fierce expression is also important. In the end, the point is to show that I’m a dangerous person.”

“…But that’s just the basic method.”

“In the advanced stage, the outline is the same. Have you heard the expression ‘shooting out killing intent’? That’s not simply glaring—it’s a technique of subtly revealing your naeryeok and antagonizing the opponent to make them stiffen.”

The basics are making the opponent fearful through expressions and actions. The advanced stage is revealing naeryeok to make the opponent wary.

“In other words, it’s the difference between whether you can or can’t imprint your existence on the opponent. The more you make them recognize you as larger, the more threatening you become, and the more you make them recognize you as smaller, the less they’re on guard. Do you understand so far?”

“Roughly…”

Looking at Baek Risan speaking indifferently, Jangil smiled faintly and nodded.

“Eunjamsul is a technique of manipulating and dominating perception. Therefore, masters of eunjamsul are conversely also skilled at bluffing. Because erasing threatening elements from myself is no different from knowing best what threatening elements are.”

“…So what’s the conclusion? You’ll scatter lots of killing intent to make them rush at us?”

“No.”

At Baek Risan’s question, Jangil shook his head and raised his index finger to point toward the formation axis.

“Five steps.”

“The time I can bind them. The time you need to reach the formation axis. It means a time so short that a master can take five steps.”

Even if the realm of killing intent Jangil can emit reaches the level of art, in the end, killing intent is just a kind of presence that can’t actually harm yokai.

When deployed against hundreds of yokai, its effectiveness is bound to be halved. Even more so if they see someone approaching the formation axis they must protect.

“Is it possible? If it’s possible, we can attempt it.”

The distance is about fifty jang. But the number of permitted steps is five bo. A gap even masters of qinggong can’t guarantee.

“…That’s a really idiotic idea, isn’t it?”

If they’re careless, they’ll be isolated among the yokai and die without accomplishing anything. A recklessly foolish plan.

After maintaining silence for a moment, Baek Risan sighed and adjusted her sword hilt. And then.

Baek Risan drew her sword and immediately drew up her naeryeok.

“Let’s do it right now.”

With a grin, as if it would be quite fun.

“Heung. Euheungheung.”

Center of the formation.

Sitting on a large rock high up on a tree branch and looking around with red eyes, Ilnachar hummed while observing the situation. The massacre unfolding before his eyes.

One martial artist overwhelms thousands of yokai. A martial artist holding a white-bladed sword, fluttering a black durumagi returned from his disciple, roaming the battlefield freely.

“Strong.”

Having gauged the level, Ilnachar wore a broad smile. It was truly an interesting matter.

‘He hasn’t revealed his full strength, but… if we fought, it would probably be mutual destruction. Or my victory by a narrow margin.’

It’s an absurd story. Who is he, the Blood Cult’s Ilnachar?

Among the Blood Cult’s hidden masters, he’s a master counted among the top three. Because of his noble innate constitution, he harbors an enormous number of daebop in his body, and he’s someone who has engraved both sorcery and martial arts in his mind.

Though not old in age, just by his innate constitution, he has the advantage of thirty years. He inscribed the insights of previous Blood Cult leaders into his body through daebop and embedded various sorceries in his innately opened upper dantian. His master, the Blood Cult Leader, said he’s a genius born once in a thousand years.

Then it should be normal for him to have no rivals among peers. In reality, that was the case. He could suppress even masters far above his level.

Yet if fighting with only martial arts means certain defeat, and he must mobilize all his sorcery just for mutual destruction?

‘That ultimately means I’ll lose if just a bit more time passes, doesn’t it?’

It’s natural that someone who focuses on one skill develops faster and deeper than someone who splits between two.

It’s an unreasonable talent and skill. Did he perhaps grow up drinking government petroleum at every meal?

Watching Baek Riyun freely control the unstable lightning energy as if it were his own body, Ilnachar, who had been swinging his leg, stopped and jumped down from the rock.

“I’m a bit jealous, but… well, whatever.”

Anyway, his objective isn’t to see the end of nothingness through martial arts. As long as he can accomplish his objective, he can laugh off differences in talent.

What’s important is achieving the great plan. Ilnachar, who used sorcery to see through the wall behind the village meeting hall, smiled faintly. The future situation clearly drawn before his eyes.

“Using sorcery to drive the villagers into fanaticism would be impossible, wouldn’t it?”

He knows several sorceries that stimulate human psychology, but among various sorceries, what’s considered the pinnacle of Destroy Evil and Reveal Truth is lightning energy and fire energy. That means Baek Riyun, who handles lightning energy, has keen senses for demonic power and sorcerous power.

“I can’t use sorcery that takes time.”

If it’s a small sorcery, he could mix it into the chaotic battle without it being noticed, but if it’s such a large-scale sorcery, Baek Riyun would detect it and block it beforehand. Then he needs to devise another method.

“What if I step forward and hold back Cheonra?”

Even though it’s not his true body but a puppet, holding back Baek Riyun for some time is possible. The Blood Cult has countless bizarre and strange sorceries unknown to the world, and if he can bind him properly even for a moment, the yokai can ravage the village again.

“…Then that scary uncle over there would intervene again, wouldn’t he?”

Thinking about the person who could definitely stop the plan if he stepped forward but isn’t stepping forward, Ilnachar tilted his head. If nothing else, it’s certain that person doesn’t want the village to be destroyed, isn’t it?

“It’s a dilemma. A dilemma.”

There’s not much time. He needs to devise a scheme before all the yokai are cleared out. But in a situation where nothing comes to mind readily.

Recalling the reports submitted by Yuknachar and the agwi, special circumstances and such, Ilnachar, who had been pondering for a moment with his index finger on his chin, smiled faintly.

“That would be good.”

Right now.

Something useful had caught his eye.

—Keueueuuk…

Kung!

“Hu.”

Taking the giant yokai’s collapse as a signal, I wiped the sweat from my forehead and calmed the lightning energy. The tingling pain from the lightning energy trying to burst out around my body.

It’s natural since I overused Cheonraesin, which has significant backlash.

Smiling bitterly at the self-inflicted pain, I turned around. Before I knew it, Seohwa was standing behind me holding the Uicheongeom in her arms with an anxious expression.

“Do you have something to say to me?”

“…I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For putting not just myself but everyone in danger…”

“Put in danger?”

“…Yes.”

Looking at Seohwa biting her lip and bowing her head, thinking deeply about many things, I chuckled. Isn’t that just like Seohwa?

“You should have been more cautious.”

“No matter how much I entrusted you with full authority, don’t you know you should have deliberated when coming to such a dangerous place? The lives of your martial siblings depend on each of your judgments.”

“I’m sor…”

“—You seem to think I would say something like this.”

“…What?”

“I mean your judgment was not wrong. No, rather, you did well. Well enough to deserve a reward.”

I reached out toward Seohwa, who was staring at me dumbfounded, and covered her head with my palm. Hair that would normally be glossy, now rough with ash blown in by the wind.

“Seohwa. I don’t know how I appear in your eyes, but there’s no perfect person in this world. Anyone can make mistakes.”

Wouldn’t I make mistakes? Didn’t Jegal Pyeong, who taught me strategy, make mistakes?

That can’t be. If Jegal Pyeong had never made a mistake, I would never have beaten him even once in our practice matches, and conversely, if I had never made a single mistake, I wouldn’t have lost comrades during my Changcheon Corps days.

But in the hundreds of practice matches that took place, Jegal Pyeong was defeated by me five times, and I also lost comrades during Changcheon Corps missions. That means even those with abundant experience are like that.

If that’s the case, what about Seohwa?

“You should have been more cautious. You should have waited until I joined you before coming. Is that what you think?”

“…Yes.”

“Then let’s look at it from another perspective. What would have happened if you hadn’t come here? If no one could enter, unable to dismantle the formation, and hundreds of villagers were trapped inside and slowly died?”

“…That’s.”

“It wasn’t intentional. A coincidence? That’s the same. You can’t anticipate getting caught up in the Blood Cult’s schemes. Even if there were warning signs, it would be the same.”

Anticipating and acting on things with such slim probability of occurring—people don’t call that being cautious. They call it indecisive.

“Since we can’t make prophecies, what humans can do is limited. In that respect, Seohwa, you did everything you could do. Reproaching you for that would be asking you to do things even I can’t do—how could I reproach you?”

“…Yes.”

“You did well.”

“Yees…”

Keung.

Looking at Seohwa making sniffling sounds with reddened eyes, I smiled bitterly and gently patted her head. Seohwa wordlessly buried her face in my chest. Sniffling sounds echoing in the stillness.

“Stop crying now. Didn’t it end without anyone suffering serious injuries?”

“I, I wasn’t crying.”

After receiving Seohwa’s tears for a moment, I lightly patted her back. Coming to her senses with a start, Seohwa hastily pulled away. Her reddened eyes.

“But more than that, Sect Master. What about the people who went outside…”

“I met them. I cleared out all the yokai in the area on the way here, so there’s no need to worry. I told them to return once their internal energy fully recovers, so they’ll be back before long.”

“Then that’s fortunate, but… th-there’s something else I need to tell you.”

“Mm? Ah.”

Looking at Seohwa stammering while watching my reaction, I chuckled. I could roughly guess what she wanted to say.

“Let me guess. Is it about the yokai?”

“…How did you know?”

“It’s about how there’s one yokai in the village and you want to spare it, right?”

“Humans can’t make prophecies, but are you perhaps, Sect Master…?”

“No. You silly girl.”

“Hehe.”

When I made a motion of giving her a knuckle rap on the forehead with my fist, Seohwa shrank her neck and let out an awkward laugh while watching my reaction. Her words continued.

“While being guided around this village, I made a promise with a kid named Choil. That if he guided us, I’d help Choil and his younger sister leave the village.”

“Mm.”

“…Honestly, even aside from that, I wonder if there’s really a need to kill her. That child. I saw her several times, but she was different from other yokai… She never tried to kill people. She’s just a somewhat blunt young child. About Seowoo’s age.”

Is that so? Did she overlap with Seowoo?

Looking at Seohwa desperately trying to tell me reasons why the yokai should be spared, I grinned. I wanted to tease her a bit more, but I needed to tell Seohwa, who had suffered mentally, the truth.

“That child isn’t a yokai.”

“…What?”

“It means the thing you’re worried about won’t happen. Because she’s not a yokai in the first place.”

“But the red eyes…”

“She’s a divine beast, they say. An existence standing at the complete opposite end from yokai. I don’t know precisely either, but I heard it from a trustworthy person.”

“What? Huh? Um…?”

Looking at Seohwa making a strange expression, seemingly unable to understand the situation well, I continued the explanation.

“From what I’ve gathered, this formation was originally a formation to corrupt that divine beast into a yokai. It didn’t say exactly how they corrupt it, but if you had tried to cut down that child there, the corruption might have been completed at that moment.”

“That means…”

“She shouldn’t be killed and there’s no reason to kill her. If what you said about her not craving humans is correct, she hasn’t become a yokai yet, so it can be reversed.”

At me speaking calmly, Seohwa’s eyes widened and she stamped her feet restlessly. Her worry was clearly resolved.

“Should I go tell her…! Ah, but the aftermath…”

“I’ll handle the aftermath.”

“Is that okay?”

“It was originally my job. I just delegated it for a moment. Isn’t it time I took it back?”

“Ah.”

At my words, Seohwa, who finally realized she was still holding the Uicheongeom, returned the precious Uicheongeom to me and smiled broadly. A smile blooming across her entire face.

“Then I’ll go tell her right away!”

“Do that.”

Is she that happy?

Watching Seohwa rush away, I also followed behind her. More than the aftermath, it was a priority to first reassure the anxious villagers.

‘The village… will be hard to restore.’

The village that burned down completely. How many would harbor gratitude toward us for saving their lives? It would be fortunate if they just didn’t harbor resentment.

It was a village sustained by the presence of the divine beast in the first place. Wouldn’t it be natural for it to end up like this sooner or later?

Jeobeok!

Slowly.

Thinking about the slash-and-burn village’s future, I stepped on the scattered ash and entered the village meeting hall with its ceiling blown open. And the moment I was about to speak, I saw Seohwa’s back.

“What are you doing there?”

“They disappeared.”

“What did?”

“That child.”

As I approached behind Seohwa, who was maintaining silence, and asked, Seohwa stepped aside with a hardened expression. The chains visible behind her.

“…The village chief escaped with Choil and the divine beast.”

Hearing Seohwa’s words, I quietly returned to the village meeting hall and looked at the severed rope that had probably been binding the village chief.

There was yoryeok on the rope.

Very faint demonic power.