Light Novel: Volume 16 Episode 18
Manhwa: N/A
“What’s this?”
Gwan Musu, in his surprise, swung his axe once again at the dagger. However, the dagger changed its trajectory as if it was a living creature and attacked.
Gwan Musu’s anger rose to the top of his head. He felt like he was being toyed with by his opponent.
“How dare you! Haaah!”
He infused his axe with energy as he yelled. A large axe energy, about three feet long, surged from his small axe.
With the intention to split the dagger in half, Gwan Musu swung his axe with full force.
Clang!
The small dagger clashed with the powerful energy from his axe, producing a metallic sound.
Everyone expected the dagger to shatter, but reality proved otherwise.
The dagger only bounced off from Gwan Musu’s axe, but it still remained intact.
The dagger that was knocked away traced a curve in the air.
Frustrated, Gwan Musu shouted,
“How long are you going to play hide and seek like this? For an assassin, you’re so lame!”
Whoosh!
Another dagger flew at him in response.
Clang!
Gwan Musu knocked the dagger away with all his might.
The dagger flew off into the distance with a metallic sound.
The problem was that there wasn’t just one flying dagger.
Swoosh!
Another one came flying out of nowhere.
Gwan Musu struck it down again with all his might.
Boom!
With a loud crash, the dagger bounced off. But Gwan Musu couldn’t laugh.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
Daggers kept coming in at him one after another.
Feeling that his axe alone was insufficient, Gwan Musu also drew his straight sword and began to swing it around.
Whoosh!
Swinging both his axe and straight sword at terrifying speeds, he created a thin barrier in front of him.
The daggers constantly crashed against it.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
A series of explosive sounds caused by the dagger hitting the barrier echoed in the inn. Gwan Musu managed to deflect every single dagger.
“Huff! Huff”
Gwan Musu panted heavily.
He had used all his strength to the point that he felt momentarily drained.
Although he had only repelled the daggers, it felt like he had just gone through an intense battle.
Gwan Musu looked around while stabilizing his chaotic energy.
Only now did he realize that the scenery around him had changed.
When he first deflected the dagger, he was definitely inside the inn, but now, he was outside the inn’s entrance.
He had been pushed back while deflecting the daggers.
“What?”
Gwan Musu looked at the axe and straight sword in his hands, disbelief written all his face.
The edges of both the axe and the straight sword were chipped.
“I can’t believe it. That a mere assassin’s dagger can chip the edges of my blade.”
Swoosh!
At that moment, a man with a pale face appeared silently in front of Gwan Musu.
Seeing the man’s face glow even whiter under the blazing sunlight, Gwan Musu’s expression hardened.
“Are you Pyo-wol?”
“And who might you be?”
“My name is Gwan Musu.”
“Gwan Musu?”
“I’m a friend of Noh Kang-hyun, who was assassinated by an assassin at Poyang Lake.”
“So?”
“What were you doing yesterday afternoon? What were you doing when my friend was assassinated?”
“You seem to think I killed Noh Kang-hyun.”
“If not, then tell me honestly what you were doing at that time.”
“Will you believe me if I tell you?”
“Only if the evidence is solid.”
“And if there is no evidence?”
“Then you’ll die by my hand.”
Gwan Musu’s aura flared.
Kukuku!
The entire atmosphere seemed to tremble under his aura.
He wasn’t nicknamed the Fervent Flame Hunter for nothing.
He was called that by other martial artists precisely because his temperament is fiery and short.
Gwan Musu’s eyes were full of murderous intent as he looked at Pyo-wol.
He seemed already convinced that Pyo-wol was the culprit.
Pyo-wol said,
“I didn’t kill Noh Kang-hyun.”
“Then prove what you were doing at that time.”
“Why should I have to prove it?”
“If you’re innocent, naturally you can prove it. What’s the problem?”
“You’re the problem.”
“What?”
“No matter what I say, you won’t believe me. You’ve already made up your mind that I’m the culprit, haven’t you?”
At Pyo-wol’s words, Gwan Musu’s jaw tensed.
He didn’t deny it.
It was exactly as Pyo-wol suspected.
Gwan Musu was already convinced that Pyo-wol was the one who killed Noh Kang-hyun.
His palms, clutching an axe and a straight sword, tingled.
The residual impact from when he had deflected Pyo-wol’s phantom dagger still lingered. The dagger technique was so devastatingly powerful that it was hard to believe it came from a mere assassin. Only an assassin of this caliber and with this kind of martial arts skill could have easily killed Noh Kang-hyun.
It was unlikely that any other assassin would be able to kill him.
Gwan Musu shouted loudly,
“That’s why I’m telling you to prove it! If you prove it, there will be no problem!”
Roar!
Gwan Musu’s roar echoed through the streets.
Others echoed his sentiments.
They were the martial artists who had followed Gwan Musu.
“Yes! Prove it!”
“You can prove that you didn’t kill Noh Kang-hyun, can you?”
The martial artists were swept up in Gwan Musu’s intense emotions and shouted along.
Crowd psychology was that simple.
They easily sided with who they perceived as the weaker party, driven more by emotion than reason.
They saw Gwan Musu as the weaker one and believed that Pyo-wol, the stronger party, naturally had to prove his actions.
Some rational individuals realized the situation was very dangerous. But most of the crowd was radiating madness, and they couldn’t bring themselves to argue.
“Prove it!”
“How can a mere assassin walk around with his head held high?”
“Boo!”
The crowd’s criticism exploded.
Pyo-wol was an object of awe to many.
He had achieved incredible feats, unthinkable for someone from an assassin’s background.
His story of success from the bottom was enough to move many people. Add to that his gorgeous looks, and it’s no wonder he’s attracted so much attention. However, there were also those who were jealous and envious of Pyo-wol for the same reasons.
No matter how great and remarkable Pyo-wol’s achievements were, people disliked acknowledging them simply because he was an assassin.
I don’t like the idea of an assassin who I don’t think about as much as I do when he’s between my toes showing his face, but his reputation is so great that he’s considered an eyesore.
Up until now, they had merely suppressed their resentment due to lack of opportunity, but now, with Gwan Musu conveniently opening the gates, they felt justified in charging ahead.
It was then.
“You filthy assassin! Get the hell away from here!”
Someone cursed and threw a rock at Pyo-wol.
Pyo-wol swiftly swung his arm to deflect the stone and looked in the direction from which it had come.
He saw a man quickly hiding among the crowd.
Normally, Pyo-wol would have immediately retaliated against the man who did such a thing. But now, he couldn’t.
Because others, emboldened by the man’s actions, began to throw whatever they could get their hands on at Pyo-wol.
The crowd, consumed by madness, condemned Pyo-wol. Their loud voices even affected Gwan Musu.
Gwan Musu roared out in rage,
“Give some sort of explanation, you filthy assassin brat!”
“……”
Yet, even in the face of Gwan Musu’s roar, Pyo-wol remained silent.
In that instant, the thread of reason in Gwan Musu’s mind snapped.
With fury blazing in his eyes, Gwan Musu drew the great bow slung across his back and aimed it at Pyo-wol.
Suddenly, an arrow as long as a child’s torso was now strapped to the bowstring.
Twang!
Gwan Musu released the arrow.
“No!”
“Holy shit!”
Several warriors cried out at the sight.
Throwing objects in the heat of the moment was one thing, but launching a lethal arrow was an entirely different matter.
The former could at least be excused as the crowd being swept away by frenzy, but the latter was inexcusable.
There wasn’t even solid proof that Pyo-wol had killed Noh Kang-hyun, yet here was Gwan Musu trying to kill him with an arrow.
Whoosh!
Pyo-wol narrowly avoided the flying arrow.
The arrow that missed him hit the Southern Heaven Pavilion, causing a massive explosion.
Boom!
With a deafening sound, one side of the wall exploded outward.
The arrow contained a terrifying destructive force.
“Argh!”
“Help!”
Screams echoed from inside the Southern Heaven Pavilion.
Innocent people had been caught in the crossfire.
But Gwan Musu remained unfazed, he just nocked three more arrows on his bow.
It was a one-shot, three-arrows technique.1
Swish! Swish! Swish!
All three arrows flew toward Pyo-wol at the same time.
It was an attack with the intent to kill.
Regardless of the reason, this was already way over the line.
What was worse was that if Pyo-wol endured or dodged the attack, he might be accused of running away in fear because of Gwan Musu’s questioning.
Pyo-wol dodged the arrows with a swift movement.
Crash! Crash! Boom!
The arrow went straight into a nearby inn.
The arrows, imbued with powerful internal energy, caused the walls of the inn to explode.
“Ah!”
“Save me!”
The inn owner and his guests screamed in alarm, but Gwan Musu didn’t even glance their way as he pursued Pyo-wol.
As a hunter, one of the first things he learned was tracking his target. He learned and trained not to lose sight of his prey under any circumstances.
Gwan Musu precisely spotted Pyo-wol amongst the crowd, and without hesitation, he let loose an arrow.
His steel crossbow was specially designed to maximize the destructive power of his arrows.
If a person was hit, they wouldn’t just sustain an injury, but their bodies would explode.
It was for this reason that Gwan Musu always refrained from shooting at people. But now, blinded by rage, he fired indiscriminately.
The problem was that he couldn’t hit his target, Pyo-wol.
Instead, innocent people were hit by his arrows.
Boom!
A person, who stood in the path of Pyo-wol got struck by one of Gwan Musu’s arrows. Their body instantly exploded.
Pyo-wol used Snake Steps to move through the crowd. More specifically, he weaved through the very warriors who had gone shouting against him a moment ago.
“Huh?”
“What’s happening?”
Those who had been indiscriminately hurling abuses at Pyo-wol were taken aback, stunned, as Pyo-wol darted among them.
Some of them even thought that Pyo-wol was attacking them so they swung their weapons.
Swoosh!
“Die!”
“Attack!”
Their attacks were fierce, but they couldn’t so much as touch a single hem of Pyo-wol’s clothes.
Pyo-wol slithered through the space between them like a snake.
He could see the despondent expressions on the faces of the martial artists who had attacked him.
Crash!
A massive shockwave hit them.
The arrow that Gwan Musu had shot towards Pyo-wol had struck them.
The martial artists couldn’t even scream as their bodies exploded.
Fragments of flesh and bone scattered in all directions.
“AHHH!”
“Get away!”
The warriors, covered in the blood and flesh of others, panicked and scattered in every direction.
As a result, the street was in utter chaos.
The very same people who had been so fierce in their criticisms of Pyo-wol and who were ready to attack just a moment ago were now running for their lives.
“Move! Out of the way!”
Gwan Musu, whose vision was obstructed, shouted in frustration.
Then, for a brief moment, Pyo-wol’s figure glimpsed through the crowd.
Using the scattering soldiers as a shield, Pyo-wol approached Gwan Musu.
Faced with the danger of his life, Gwan Musu unleashed an unrelenting barrage of arrows.
Crash!
With a deafening explosion, several more warriors were annihilated. However, Pyo-wol was nowhere to be seen in the aftermath.
He had already moved behind other warriors.
Pyo-wol was getting closer and closer.
Gwan Musu’s fear grew.
Losing his cool, Gwan Musu fired arrow after arrow, killing countless people.
Hell was literally breaking loose in the streets.
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