Dropped into Murim with an Instant-Kill Skill - Chapter 47

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Chapter 47: In April, All the Flowers of the World Have Faded (18)

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"Something's wrong."

Shin Jae-eon, the Leader of the Severing Sword Sect, summoned his disciples and spoke.

"It had felt strange ever since Seo Muryang's time. I was certain Seo Muryang had been colluding with Heavenly Road Mountain. Yet no matter how thoroughly we searched the Golden Powder Gang, we couldn't find any clear proof. What did stand out were its suspicious dealings with the White Dragon Gang."

Shin Jae-eon licked his lips.

"Yi Yubaek wanted to let it go, but I found it suspicious. Then I heard they were having a drinking party in some remote valley. So I looked into it, and the White Dragon Gang was completely empty. There wasn't anyone there. Even its important goods and wealth were gone."

"······You sent someone inside the White Dragon Gang?"

"Yes. I sent Inso to investigate. It was too suspicious."

"Junior brother······. Then the White Dragon Gang really is empty?"

"It doesn't look like it from the outside. But everything of substance has been stripped away. Like they were taking only the valuables and planning to flee in the night."

"What could that possibly······."

"And that's not all. The inner disciples of Windflow Martial Academy also secretly left the city. Hyeonseung confirmed it."

"······Are you saying the White Dragon Gang and Windflow Martial Academy are about to fight? That can't be possible."

"Maybe not. Still, there's definitely a large fire burning somewhere."

Shin Jae-eon tapped the table, then looked over his four disciples.

"Gather every sect member. Put on your swords and let's go to that valley where they're drinking."

"······Wouldn't we be recklessly intruding on another sect's affair?"

"Then we'll get cursed at and apologize. There may be a great fire raging, and we need to find out whether it will spread here."

Shin Jae-eon shoved back his chair and stood.

"We leave immediately. Get ready."

* * *

At the same time.

Before Hang Inwoo's betrayal became obvious.

Up until then, the inner disciples of Windflow Martial Academy had been dissatisfied.

"Isn't eldest martial brother worrying too much?"

"Exactly. Hang Inwoo isn't just anyone. Would he really stab the Academy Master in the back······?"

"Hah. We came because eldest martial brother begged us so earnestly, but this feels strange. Like we're wasting our time."

"If people find out we snuck out like this today, it'll be incredibly embarrassing."

They trusted Hang Inwoo completely.

How many years had they spent together?

How much had Yi Yubaek yielded and provided to Hang Inwoo and the White Dragon Gang?

That was why, when swords were actually drawn and the atmosphere turned grim, they became even more enraged.

Enough to make their vision go red.

"When the Academy Master had reason to rejoice, he shared his joy with us. When we had reason to grieve, he shared our sorrow."

Yi Yubaek was a generous man.

Whenever he gained something substantial, he never kept it to himself. He always shared it with the inner disciples.

"And Hang Inwoo, who has received even more than us, dares betray our Academy Master?"

"Are they not even afraid of Heaven?"

Windflow Martial Academy had barely more than twenty inner disciples in total. The White Dragon Gang had over sixty.

More than twice their number.

Even so, the inner disciples did not falter. Their blazing anger dulled their fear.

"Whoooosh!"

At last, Kang Muhyeok's signal rang out.

"Let's go!"

Clang!

Without a moment's hesitation, the inner disciples drew their swords as one.

"If you don't fear Heaven, then we'll make you fear us!"

* * *

Even in the heart of enemy territory, Yi Yubaek's disciples did not shrink back.

"If each of us takes down two or three, we win, right?"

The second disciple, Gale Young Lord Seon Jehun.

"Tch. You're a direct disciple. Take at least four or five."

The first disciple, Kang Muhyeok, scolded him.

"Uh. Then I'll just take three or four. I'm not too confident about five······."

Mo Cheong quietly trailed off.

Kang Muhyeok turned to his two junior brothers and cautioned them.

"We have to conserve our strength, so catch them off guard and take them down easily."

"Yes, yes."

"Yes, senior brother!"

And then,

Kang!

Clang!

Yi Yubaek was already trading blows with Hang Inwoo.

Clang!

His left hand shot back in Sword Fingers as his right-hand sword struck Hang Inwoo's broad saber.

"Urk······!"

Yi Yubaek held his sword in one hand, while Hang Inwoo gripped his broad saber with both. Yet Hang Inwoo was the one forced back.

Before he could even put his strength into the saber's edge, Yi Yubaek's sword swiftly exploited an opening and struck his weak point.

"You're slow, Inwoo."

"That······."

Clang!

Before Hang Inwoo could answer, a blade cut off his rhythm and sent a martial force wave at him.

Hang Inwoo's face twisted.

It reminded him of the days when he had trained with Yi Yubaek.

What had Yi Yubaek said then?

Why hadn't he held his sword? Why hadn't he blocked?

Hang Inwoo let out a roar.

"You still have that damned habit!"

Flap!

Though there was no wind, his long robe swelled.

Heat haze rose fiercely from his entire body, warping the surrounding scenery into a swirl.

Fierce Flame Pierces the Heavens

A realm where scorching True Flame created tangible pressure.

It was proof that he had not only entered the first-rate realm, but firmly established himself within it.

Whoosh!

His stage of maturity was rough, yet precise.

He drove his firepower up madly, while swiftly circulating it through the Twelve Regular Meridians, Twelve Divergent Meridians, and Fifteen Collaterals, spreading heat through his entire body.

Even through the netlike collateral vessels and fine collaterals branching from the Fifteen Collaterals, he spread flames into those tiny channels. Though crude, it brought about minute, localized tempering.

As a result,

Creak!

The thick muscles of his arms writhed, and joints as large as whale bones bent with a creaking cry.

Yi Yubaek's brow furrowed.

"You······. Martial arts of the unorthodox schools?"

Over-tempering parts of the body to the point of damaging the muscles and bones was a characteristic of martial arts from the unorthodox schools.

Yet Hang Inwoo had managed it with relative stability.

His muscles and bones were still under strain, but the brutishly developed muscles and naturally massive bones absorbed part of the shock. The precise stage of maturity he had learned from Yi Yubaek also softened some of the backlash from such crude tempering.

The tempered arms resonated more powerfully with the innate true qi within the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, explosively increasing their strength and harmony.

Screeeech!

A chilling sound like weeping ghosts rang from Hang Inwoo's broad saber.

Ghost-Weeping Saber

Tenth Form.

Sudden Rain Carves Heaven.

With the veins across his body bulging, Hang Inwoo swung his broad saber in a ghostly form. His arm joints bent slightly at impossible angles, adding speed to the blade's tip.

Slash, slash, slash!

The air split like a whip cracking at the blade's tip, and saber strikes that defied inertia through the harmony of qi relentlessly targeted the vital acupoints across Yi Yubaek's body.

Yi Yubaek evaded the chilling attacks by the width of a sheet of paper.

Willow Leaf Steps

Seventh Form.

Fallen Leaves Cannot Be Caught by the Wind

"What······!"

Hang Inwoo had poured out all his strength, but Yi Yubaek had evaded it with ease.

Now it was Yi Yubaek's turn.

‘A quick, decisive finish.’

The Windflow Sword was swift as the wind and supple as a willow.

It moved a step ahead, misled, and redirected.

If its feints landed properly, it could easily subdue an opponent.

And Yi Yubaek's realm now far surpassed Hang Inwoo's.

Cold sweat ran down Hang Inwoo's face.

"Weren't you suffering from an internal injury?"

"You were relying on that internal injury. What a shame."

Yi Yubaek's blade steadily drove Hang Inwoo back.

If Hang Inwoo fell for it once, if he responded incorrectly just once, his life could be taken on the spot.

Hang Inwoo's face was soaked in sweat.

The unexpected appearance of the inner disciples, and Yi Yubaek fighting as if he were fine after taking a Wound-Mending Pellet, everything had gone beyond Hang Inwoo's calculations.

Though he knew he shouldn't, his eyes rolled as he looked around.

'Damn it! Those vermin!'

What he saw was the White Dragon Gang being pushed back more and more.

They had over twice the numbers, yet most of the corpses on the ground belonged to the White Dragon Gang.

Windflow Martial Academy fought as one, bound by rage and camaraderie despite being outnumbered. The White Dragon Gang, on the other hand, was flustered by the academy's resistance, which was far stronger than expected.

Hang Inwoo's saber strikes grew rougher by the moment.

Yi Yubaek's sword remained as steady as it had been from the start.

As he calmly pressed Hang Inwoo back, Yi Yubaek asked, "Why did you do something this stupid? I don't understand. Even if Heavenly Road Mountain was your source of money, that wasn't a reason to kill me. Couldn't you have stayed at my side and continued rising with me?"

"Heh heh. What a stupid thing to say. If my name came up at Heavenly Road Mountain after it was wiped out, would you have let me live, Big Brother?"

"So you had no choice but to attack me? To save yourself?"

"It's your fault, Big Brother. If you'd left Heavenly Road Mountain alone, none of this would have happened."

"What a damned excuse."

"Hah. Then if my name came up at Heavenly Road Mountain, you wouldn't have killed me?"

"I kill those who deserve to die. Whoever they are."

"See?"

"No, Inwoo. Killing someone who deserves to die and killing you because your name comes up are completely different things."

"What's different about them?"

"They are different. Completely different."

Hang Inwoo's brow creased deeply.

"You know something? Every time you act like you're the only one who understands everything, it pisses me off so damn much."

His saber strikes grew even rougher.

Misled by Yi Yubaek's sword attacks, he staggered more and more.

"Inwoo."

Yi Yubaek spoke as though trying to reason with him.

"Your heart is wavering."

"You fucking······!"

Hang Inwoo's breathing had turned ragged.

A flicker of pity passed through Yi Yubaek's eyes, but it quickly vanished.

His sword subdued Hang Inwoo with precision and countless variations, without the slightest tremor.

"You're the one who betrayed me, yet you're the one wavering. I haven't wavered at all."

"Shut up! Just shut up!"

A chilling attack stabbed for his neck.

Hang Inwoo tried to knock it aside with all his strength.

That was his mistake.

Whoosh!

"Ah······!"

What he had thought was a deadly attack had been a feint. Yi Yubaek's sword bent and swerved, faster than when it had first extended.

The saber force Hang Inwoo released struck empty air. He alone had to endure the backlash.

"Hup······!"

He hastily raised his true qi to offset the martial force that had shifted to one side, but martial force was not something so easily canceled.

Crack!

Pain shot through his waist, his body stiffened for an instant······. Yi Yubaek did not miss the opening.

"You were always this clumsy. I mistook it for innocence. I never realized it was cowardice."

Without an inch of hesitation, his sword aimed for Hang Inwoo's heart.

'I-I'm going to die······.'

Just as Hang Inwoo's face turned deathly pale,

Clang!

A straight-backed saber slipped in like a shadow and knocked Yi Yubaek's sword away.

The martial force wave that burst between the blades swept across the area, carrying away the sand on the ground and making their clothes flap.

"······."

Yi Yubaek fell silent for a moment.

He had instinctively recognized who had intervened.

"Heavenly Road Mountain?"

The man in a gray hood did not answer. Instead, he gave Hang Inwoo a slight bow.

"Third Chief. I was a little late."

"······."

Hang Inwoo did not respond.

"Didn't the First Chief and Second Chief tell you? Yi Yubaek isn't the kind of man whose resolve can be broken. He's not innocent enough to make no preparations, either. They knew this would happen, so they sent me here nice and openly."

After a silence, Hang Inwoo replied, "How did you know it would be here today?"

"Well, I hid around Shinheung County for a few days and kept watch. Ah. I thought you'd get angry if I came out right away, so I waited for a more dramatic moment."

"You really are an irritating bastard. The place where you stabbed me still aches."

"Ah, please forget about that already. I made a mistake back then. I never imagined the youngest among us, So Woo, would become our Third Chief······."

"Tch."

"Ah, please stop looking at me like that. We'll be living together at the stronghold now. You're scaring me."

Yi Yubaek gave a hollow laugh as he listened to their conversation.

"Third Chief?"

Hang Inwoo smiled bitterly.

"Well. That's what happened."

"Then Seo Muryang······."

"Seo Muryang approached me because he wanted connections with Heavenly Road Mountain. I think he secretly wanted to take my position too, but heh. Could he manage that?"

"······."

"······You were originally a bandit from Heavenly Road Mountain."

"More or less. I got stabbed and thrown out, then became family again only a few years ago. Well. It's all thanks to you, Big Brother. In many ways."

Whoosh.

The wind blew.

The scent of blood mixed with damp killing intent.

The martial artists of Windflow Martial Academy looked at one another, then around them.

There were fewer than thirty on their side.

The other side now had over a hundred, with the bandits added in.

And they had completely surrounded them.

The presence of the newly arrived bandits was no ordinary matter, either. At least three first-rate martial artists had heat haze rising from their shoulders.

A difference in strength that would be difficult to overturn.

Their soaring morale began to sink.

Yi Yubaek keenly sensed the mood.

'This is bad.'

The moment the feeling of Let's fight them! became Wait, aren't we all going to die?, Yi Yubaek knew what would happen.

Enemies who fell into that state always crumbled easily.

At this rate, they would be utterly defeated. They would not even be able to break through the encirclement and flee.

'Something. I need some way to turn this around······.'

Just as his insides burned with urgency,

Twang!

An arrow flew from somewhere and pierced the brow of a bandit forming the encirclement.

Thud!