Chapter: 102
Nachal rubbed his neck.
His whole body was frozen from the sensation he had felt moments ago, as if it had been sliced apart.
‘Was all that just an illusion?’
As someone always close to death, he was more acutely aware of the presence of danger. This was definitely no mere mistake.
The sensation he felt was undoubtedly ‘death.’
In just a couple of steps, he had experienced countless deaths.
Is it merely his aura? Or am I mistaking this pressure for hallucination?
‘I, Nachal… am being pressured by such a mere child?’
Originally, Nachal belonged to the Seven Night Assassins Group, under the direct control of the Shadow King.
Now he had left the Shadow King’s embrace to pledge loyalty to the Lord of the Palace, but being part of the Shadow King’s assassins already granted him a certain level of recognition for his skills.
Assassins, unlike other martial artists, don’t typically fuss over ranks. Since assassination is specialized in stealth and ambush attacks, the direction in which they aim is distinctively different.
One might say it’s somewhat akin to the poisons’ arts.
Hence, Nachal believed that, given the right time and place, he could easily kill even those of higher realms than his own.
He was quite confident in his abilities, to say the least.
But what was happening right now?
Nachal forced himself to look at Gu Yangcheon and attempted to calm his ragged breath.
No matter how extraordinary his talent was, he was still just a first-rate martial artist.
The peak realm was truly where a martial artist’s journey would begin.
The peak realm was where one shatters their limitations, allowing for the discovery of new possibilities.
Even if you used the same amount of Qi, the strength would differ, and the sensitivity would develop further. This was the moment when you start figuring out how to use your Qi effectively.
Martial artists would say that surpassing the peak realm was the first step toward transcending boundaries. Nonetheless, in terms of assassination, the difficulties were suffocating, yet Nachal was still an adept who had reached the peak.
To think he was being pushed back by a mere child…
“What did you do…?”
Gu Yangcheon merely stood there holding his sword, ignoring Nachal’s question.
“I’M ASKING YOU A QUESTION!”
Still, the kid remained silent, eyes fixated on him.
Just earlier, Gu Yangcheon introduced himself as Shincheol.
‘What could that possibly mean?’
Nachal thought for a moment but couldn’t come up with any concrete answer. This was probably yet another tactic to disorient him.
According to the reports, Gu Yangcheon was indeed similar to those from the bare-knuckle fighting sect.
After all, just moments ago, he had used proficient bare-knuckle techniques.
So what was he doing now?
‘Is he pretending to wield a sword?’
Nachal sensed the urge to let his guard down creeping in, but he had seen too much of Gu Yangcheon’s fighting style already.
Of course, he knew that the Gu Clan trained in both fist and sword techniques, but he never assumed Gu Yangcheon would be proficient in swordsmanship.
No matter how heavenly the talent could be, no one could master two vastly different martial arts styles at once.
And the proof lay in Gu Yangcheon’s stance—full of openings.
Earlier, when engaging with his bare hands, he showed such finesse that no vulnerabilities were visible. Yet with the sword in hand now, countless gaps appeared—enough for Nachal to believe he could kill him with random stabs.
However… masters of martial arts who had transcended the realm of basic techniques would literally become their martial art. Their forms became irrelevant, even if ridiculous at times.
The current Lord of the Black Palace was like that, as was the Shadow King.
‘Could this kid be on that level too?’
How laughable. It’s absurd to even entertain the thought.
Even Nachal hadn’t reached that state, so how could a child aspire to that? Let alone dare to look at it?
But why couldn’t he move, despite understanding that?
“Greenhorn.”
Nachal flinched at the sound of Gu Yangcheon’s voice.
“Seems like you’ve broken posture from fear. You best fix that.”
“You…!”
Rage boiled within him, hearing this child speak as if he was an instructor.
“How dare you… a mere child is trying to teach me?”
“Tee-hee… even the smallest leaf holds meaning. Greenhorn, you’ve already lost every essential quality that a martial artist should possess.”
“Shut up! I watched your cute struggles for a while, but you truly don’t know your place!”
Such an insult.
Though it was a feeble provocation aimed at an ice-cold assassin, amusingly enough, Nachal found himself shaken.
Recognizing his unsteady breath, he quelled his feelings.
‘Don’t let his words shake you. He’s only trying to provoke you.’
After forcing his breath back into a steady rhythm, he concentrated his Qi around the dagger he held.
Meanwhile, Gu Yangcheon simply wore a relaxed expression as he observed Nachal.
The target was once again the heart; just like before.
As Nachal prepared to charge, Gu Yangcheon finally reacted but did so lazily.
‘So it truly was just a bluff.’
He could see Gu Yangcheon’s sword path, and the movements felt unbearably slow.
With that pace, his dagger would reach Gu Yangcheon’s heart before he could even swing his sword.
Yet just as Nachal lunged to stab…
—Splatter—!
Accompanied by an eerie sound, blood splattered everywhere as something flew back, crashing into the ground.
“Ughhh—!!”
Nachal cried out as he crumpled to his knees.
Gripping his shoulder with shaky eyes, he looked back in horror to find his own arm—the one that held the dagger—rolling on the floor.
“What the…!?”
He was certain that Gu Yangcheon’s movements were slow and that his own were exponentially faster.
Then how did my own arm get severed?
—Rustle—!
…!
The sound returned, tickling his ears once again.
He observed more plum blossom leaves falling in view. Where were they all coming from?
—Rustle…
As he watched the leaves descend one by one, a stark realization struck —something had gone terribly wrong.
What the hell?
When he regained his wits, Nachal found himself in a bizarre predicament.
He was holding a sword, and the assassin he had identified as Nachal was lying on the ground, now with only one arm.
Perhaps… I just blacked out like I did against Ya Hyeoljeok?
‘You’ve finally woken up.’
…Huh?
A voice whispered in his mind, causing him to ponder who it belonged to.
‘Elder Shin…?’
‘Right, it has been quite a while.’
‘What are you doing right now…?’
Nachal tried to shift his body after returning to consciousness but found he couldn’t even move a finger.
The reins of his body had already been commandeered.
‘Stop squirming; I’ll return it to you shortly.’
‘What in the world is happening right now?’
‘What do you mean by “what’s happening”? Can’t you see I’m trying to save you?’
‘What… I distinctly recall you saying you couldn’t possess my body before?’
At that point, Elder Shin had assured him that agonizing over it was unnecessary. But what exactly was happening right now?
As his thoughts raced, Elder Shin persisted.
‘…I didn’t expect it to work, yet here we are.’
What a crazy old codger…
‘You mad—’
‘Geez, I can’t do this for long, so just stay put for a moment!’
“Ugh…!”
Nachal rose unsteadily and widened the distance like a baby deer learning to walk.
“Whew… whew…!”
“You’re faster than you appear.”
“…You’ve been hiding your true strength all along…?”
“…I’m rather disappointed to hear that from you…”
He merely slashed at the air with the sword, yet Nachal could feel the energy moving beneath him.
‘This should be a good lesson for you, so learn from this sensation.’
He didn’t need to ask what Elder Shin meant; despite not having control over his body, he felt acutely aware of how the energy flowed through him.
‘Thanks to the Qi absorbed from that treasure, I don’t face issues wielding the sword.’
Elder Shin wasn’t applying the Gu Clan’s flame techniques he was used to; instead, he felt a strange tickling sensation as he worked solely with Taoist Qi gathered from all the various types he had accumulated.
He fixed his gaze on the heavily panting Nachal, noting how Elder Shin had overmatched him using only minimal Taoist Qi.
Bare-fisted styles, while undeniably powerful, didn’t show their true beauty until a martial artist reached a higher level.
Nachal, too, was merely masking his own flaws by using abundant Qi.
Never did he expect the sword art to shine so brilliantly compared to his bare-fisted skills…
Elder Shin issued a frustrated comment. ‘Tsk, you really have a bad habit of wasting too much Qi.’
‘You would do well to conserve it, considering the properties of your flame art—I mean, you’re still overshooting it way too much!’
To conjure a flame, so much Qi was necessary.
That had always been his method, and he found it to be confounding.
‘Let’s not dance around it; you can’t hide from the wall that will come crashing down upon you in the future.’
…Why the sudden lecture?
‘It’s because I’m exasperated! I thought you were merely a talented kid, but you’ve become a commendable figure in the future and look at you now, rotting away.’
…!
Had Elder Shin just said what Nachal thought he heard… was he imagining things?
‘What did you just say…’
‘I know that you’ve traveled back in time.’
The heartbeat thudding in his chest echoed louder following Elder Shin’s words.
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