Book 1 Chapter 12: The Place my Sword Points to (3)

Translator: Hwarang

Editor: Jay

Please rescind that order, Bangju-Nim; if we attack the Byuk Clan, the repercussion from other Kang Ho-In might be severe.

The person who was pleading with Yang Gi Chul was Jung Yeo, who was the Vice-Clan Leader of the Yang Clan. He only found out what his Gaju was up to at the last minute.

Repercussion? Did you just say repercussion?

Bangju-Nim.

My son nearly died, yet you want me to rescind my order? Who will be angry at who?

Young master Yang

He couldnt say that Yang Gi Kang deserved it, nor could he say to overlook it.

Please rescind this order.

To be this soft and weak, how shameful!

Bangju-Nim.

Jung Yeo knew that he himself wasnt a righteous person. He was someone who lived between righteousness and dishonor. He overlooked many of the dishonorable things that his Bangju did. But... the thing that he was about to do was going overboard. He believed that unless you were crazy, how can you, for as simple a reason as your son getting beaten up, hire couple of dozen mercenaries to wipe out a clan?

Please think this through carefully, Vice-Leader.

This time the person who called out was Hyeol Gun.

What kind of person was Hyeol Gun? He could very easily be described with one sentence: for money, he will kill even his parents and children. Who knew if he had actually killed his first-born son for money a long time ago?

Whenever Yang Gi Chul needed something done immediately, he always called Hyeol Gun. As much as his service cost, thats how well he executed his mission.

Before this they had a secret conversation

-Pay me more. I just learned that they are a pretty famous clan.

-Since when did you consider these things when you killed?

-As I grew older, you could say I have grown wiser.

-Fine. How much more do you want?

-Twenty thousand Nyang.

-It seems wisdom wasnt the only thing you gained. It seems like your greed also grew.

-Dont say anything unnecessary. I am not the type you should joke around with.

In the end, Yang Gi Chul paid twenty thousand Nyang, which was twice the original price. But Hyeol Gun promised that he would take care of everything. Meaning, he would hire decent mercenaries to deal with the Byuk Clan.

They planned on using Byuk Lee Dan as an excuse to execute their revenge. They would make a story about how the husbands of women who Byuk Lee Dan raped hired mercenaries to wipe out the Byuk Clan.

Their plan was to first dirty the name of the Byuk Clan through spreading false rumors about the rape, and how Yang Gi Kang got hurt trying to prevent it. Then they would wipe out the clan with mercenaries, saying the husbands of the women hired them as revenge.

This showed how much power and influence money can buy.

Everything went smooth until the last moment, when Jang Yeo found out. They both knew that he would be against it, so they planned it in secret.

Why are you pretending to be so upright?

Jang Yeo replied with ugly expression, This is none of your business.

They were both staring at the other, not giving the other even an inch.

To break this atmosphere, Yang Gi Chul said, You seem really uptight about this.

You know for something such as this, we need to execute it as quickly as we can. Wipe them out and move out fast. But as you know, mercenaries dont have any type of urgency. They will keep pushing it off until someone finds out about our plan. So unless you can give us an answer right now, lets call this deal off. Of course, I know that we wont be able to get our payment returned.

Dont worry, we will execute this as planned.

The public sentiment will be against the Byuk clan, and if we could take over their area of influence then it will double our power.

If they could do that, then the investment of just twenty thousand Nyang would have been returned ten, if not a hundred-fold.

The reason why they have such a large influence in San Dong is not because they have the most practitioners, but because they have people who deeply trust and respects the Gaju of the Byuk Clan.

Yang Gi Chul showed his nasty colors.

Are you saying that I dont have those characteristics?

No, thats not what I meant.

Trust? There is no such things as trust in Kang Ho. There are only two things in Kang Ho: the Strong and the Weak. This is where the strong rule and live, while the weak die.

Jung Yeo didnt reply. He knew that his master was very ambitious, but he hadnt known that he was this ambitious.

If you attack the Byuk Clan, then I will no longer serve you.

This was his last straw. He had served the Yang Clan faithfully for over twenty years. If it wasnt for him, the Yang Clan wouldnt be where it was right now. He believed that by doing this, his master would stop this madness, but it was of no use.

You dare say these kinds of things in front of me? Get out of here before I kill you!

Jung Yeo was flabbergasted. Get out of here before I kill you? This was the first time that he felt this bitter. Thinking to himself, Why what have I been doing with my life? I offered him everything, yet he just spit it back in my face.

Because he couldnt stand it anymore, he left.

I will be disciplining myself until you call me.

There cant be any witnesses from the Byuk Clan.

Dont worry, I will wipe out everyone with the name of Byuk. Not even a single rat will be spared.

Before Jung Yeo left, he overheard their conversation and made a fist. He really wanted to go back in the room and beat the two of them. But if he did that, he would most likely die.

This was it. As a human being, he couldnt take any more of this type of treatment. He couldnt stay too far away, since Yang Gi Chul would most likely call him back after this was over. So he decided to leave before he get humiliated even further.

Shit, I really wanted to make Yang Clan the greatest clan. He was very bitter about leaving the place that he worked his whole life to build.

As he was leaving the place he sensed great danger. He looked up and saw a youth above him near the ceiling. There was blood on the sword that the youth was carrying.

Who are you?

Who else could it be? It was me.

Jung Yeo instinctively grabbed the hilt of his sword.

Are you going to act as a fool until the end?

After hearing my words, he stopped.

I said, do you want to spend your last moments defending those fools?

Great silence divided us, so I overwhelmed him with my fighting intent.

He still didnt recognize me. Lets just say that he might have seen me at least once, but ever since I changed, he wouldnt be able to know who it was.

Did you get into Kang Ho to serve people such as him?

His eyes wavered for a second. Then I jumped down from the ceiling.

He was surprised by my footwork. This was something that I could show regardless of my condition. I showed him a tiny bit of my footwork, and he was skilled enough to see it. Meaning he was a pretty adept martial artist.

Then his sight went towards the gate. All the guards who had been guarding the gate were lying on the floor.

Did you kill them all?

I shook my head. No, I just put them to sleep, thats all.

Just wait here. Your life will change in the next few moments.

I didnt wait for his response as I entered the door. He might have different thoughts racing through his head, but in the end, I knew he would wait there patiently. If not he would have already raised his blade against me.

When I entered the room, Yang Gi Chul and Hyeol Gun were surprised.

You are?

Yang Gi Chul recognized me first. No matter how dark it may be, he couldnt forget the face of the one who nearly beat his son to death.

Yes, it is I.

It is I? What kind of attitude it that, punk? Yang Gi Chul stared at me coldly.

What kind of person are you? Where are your manners!? Ordering to eliminate the clan of the person that you once called brother.

It seems like I had hit a nerve. Yank Gi Chul couldnt respond. But in return, he spread his killing intent throughout the room. He was very careful, not acting rashly since he couldnt figure out how I made my way all the to this room.

Then he said to Hyeol Gun, Eliminate him.

This showed that he was someone who always placed himself first. Then he placed some distance between us.

Could I kill them with just five-years worth of energy and a body that had not been trained?

My answer was yes.

It would be hard, but possible. If I wasnt confident in killing them, I wouldnt have been here in the first place. So, I was confident in killing them.

If we fought with our ki, or if they prolonged the fight then I would have been in a disadvantageous situation, but I wasnt planning on letting them do as they please.

The only advantage that I had against them was that they didnt know much about me.

I could tell from the last time when Yang Gi Chul visited our house that he was very rusty in his martial arts.

If he truly was the greatest martial artist in the city, it would have been difficult, but he was just the head of the biggest clan. There was a big difference between the two.

I wonder when was the last time he truly experienced a life or death situation? One year ago? Two? Maybe ten? The bigger the clan, the less likely the head of the clan would actually get into a fight.

The one who I was more worried about was the person named Hyeol Gun.

Hyeol Gun was showing his true nature

Add five thousand Nyang to my payment.

Are you crazy? He is one of the people that you have to kill.

But not here.

Isnt it too much to charge five thousand Nyang for one child?

Then why dont you take care of him? What, you cant take care of one punk?

Hyeol Gun just crossed his arms and stepped back.

Son of a

Yang Gi Chul stared back at me. Even he knew that he couldnt deal with me himself. He didnt know anything about me, so he didnt want to risk his life.

Fine. I will give you five thousand Nyang.

Hyeol Gun stepped forward with a big grin on his face.

Thanks, you little punk.

He wasnt very cautious of me, because his instinct that had been sharpened as a mercenary told him that I was no threat to him. But he wasnt the only one not being wary, I was also not very wary of him.

I grew more and more excited, since this was going to be my first real fight since my rebirth.

His weapon of choice was a cudgel.

Swing. Swing.

He swung the cudgel short and fast two times to vital areas.

Clang. Clang.

The cudgel is a short, but a very blunt weapon. Getting directly hit by it will at the very least break a couple of bones.

The cudgel barely missed my shoulder. Byuk Lee Dan was definitely slow. If I couldnt dodge his attacks, then I would be finished. The one that had been fighting was not Byuk Lee Dan, but my past self.

Feeling pressured under the threat of getting killed, my fighting spirit rushed forth and overwhelmed me.

Ping!

This time my head almost got busted open.

Even though my life was in danger, I got excited over this fight, since I couldnt remember when I last fought.

I was someone that really loved fighting. Because I was this type of person, I was able to ascend to become the Strongest Under Heaven. But in my final years, I was truly bored, since I never had any chance to engage in a true fight.

Bang! Ping!

Everything inside the room was getting destroyed one by one.

Yang Gi Chul was making an ugly face seeing that I was getting pressured into a corner. He regretting paying Hyeol Gun Five Thousand Nyang, because if he knew that it was this easy, then he would have dirtied his hand.

Hyeol Gun paused his attack.

You little rat! Is running all that you can do?

He was saying this with overconfidence, since he was certain that he would be able to kill me with ease. But his overconfidence was a trap that I had set up.

In that split second, my sword slashed at Hyeol Gun.

Shiiing! Slash!

These were two different sounds that my sword created after slashing the air.

Chop.

Part of Hyeol Guns clothes fell down, revealing a red mark.

Drop.

Now the other part of the clothing came off, revealing a cross mark across his chest.

I stood to the side.

Splash.

Blood started rushing out of his wounds.

This was the first sword technique of my Ashura Soul Chasing Sword Art, the Unwavering Sword Technique.

Normally his body should have been cut to pieces, but since I only used three years worth of my energy, this was the limit of my current power.

After spilling large amount of blood, Hyeol Gun finally collapsed.

Boom.

Before he hit the floor he was already dead.

Then I stared at the place where I spent the remainder of my energy.

Yang Gi Chul looked at Hyeol Gun with surprise. But, after feeling that his chest was getting hotter, he quickly looked down. The blood that was gushing out of him was dying his clothes red. Inside of his clothes was a swirling hole around his chest area. This was my second sword technique of my Ashura Soul Chasing Sword Art, the Life-Devouring Sword Technique.

I divided my five years of internal energy into these two attacks, three for Hyeol gun and two for Yang Gi Chul. So currently, I had no energy left in my dantian until I could fill it back up using my cultivation technique.

Rather than taking this chance to attack me, he was too busy trying to preserve himself.

Yang Gi Chul was coughing up bright red blood.

He never expected me to attack him, since I was getting pressured by Hyeol Gun. But even if he was prepared, it wasnt something that he could have dodged easily. If he hadnt tilted his body instinctively he would have already been dead.

He was coughing up more blood and said live, let me live.