Hwasan Sect’s Genius Swordsman Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Snap!

When the small branch thrown into the flames shook once, tiny sparks flew. At that sound, Mu Hwi, who was keeping night watch, took in the sight of the campfire.

Mu Hwi’s face, as he gazed at the campfire, was tinged crimson as if being caressed by the flames.

‘I wonder if more time needs to pass before I can receive the Plum Blossom Sword.’

The advantage of the Three Great Iron Workshops was that compared to other iron workshops, it could consistently produce high-quality weapons in a shorter production period.

Additionally, he had heard that during the production period of the Plum Blossom Sword, all other work stops and the entire capacity of the Three Great Iron Workshops focuses on that single sword.

The production of the Plum Blossom Sword had begun before Mu Hwi descended the mountain, and considerable time had passed while he traveled the martial arts world, so the sword’s production should have progressed significantly.

‘I wish I could receive it soon.’

Mu Hwi had already mastered not only the three sword techniques – Falling Plum, Wind-Playing, and Ten Thousand Fragrance – but also other sword techniques derived from these.

Having solidified the roots and trunk, it was time to reach for the branches.

That is, the Plum Blossom Sword Technique.

‘Only when you make the plum blossoms bloom are you truly a sword master of Hwasan.’

Mu Hwi’s eyes, which had been lost in thought, slowly lowered.

“Who are these bastards?”

When Mu Hwi opened his mouth, two streams of hidden weapons were rushing toward his back.

Mu Hwi turned around while simultaneously catching the hidden weapons.

‘Black-painted daggers, I wonder if they’re not poisoned.’

In an instant after checking the hidden weapons, Mu Hwi’s hands crossed diagonally as he swung, sending the hidden weapons back in the direction they came from.

Thud!

The sound of flesh being pierced came simultaneously from both sides.

The disciples who had been sleeping also jumped up and grabbed their swords.

“Senior Disciple?”

“Night visitors.”

At Mu Hwi’s words, the disciples took positions watching each direction while backing each other around the campfire.

No sound could be heard from the darkness of the forest except for the occasional sparks flying from the campfire behind them.

It was just quiet, as if what had just happened was a dream. Nevertheless, Mu Hwi’s group didn’t let go of their tension.

Assassins are those who wait.

They planned to wait for hours until Mu Hwi’s group became fatigued and their concentration and posture faltered.

However, Mu Hwi had no intention of quietly falling into the flow that the assassins were trying to create.

Swoosh!

He drew his sword horizontally to release a long sword energy, and immediately released sword wind diagonally to both sides.

He deliberately made the range wide.

Mixed subtly with the sound of trees being cut and falling was a different kind of sound. The sound of human cloth tearing and blood spilling.

‘What worthless guys.’

Mu Hwi hadn’t just recklessly swung his sword.

His qi sense extending into the forest had caught the presence of assassins hiding everywhere.

While this was partly due to the sharpness of Mu Hwi’s heightened senses, the assassins positioned around them were simply lacking in skill to begin with.

“Keep your positions.”

Mu Hwi rushed into the forest and began slaughtering the assassins.

Thrust!

He drove his sword deep into the ground and pulled it out again, revealing bloodstains.

Simultaneously, he scattered the force of Plum Blossom Mountain Hand with his left hand, causing the trajectory of incoming hidden weapons to twist. The hidden weapons collided with each other and fell to the ground.

“Keep hiding, I’ll find and cut down every last one of you.”

Mu Hwi cut down the shadow behind a tree entirely. A severed head dropped and rolled around.

Mu Hwi’s pupils gleamed and moved constantly as he advanced without hesitation.

With each step Mu Hwi took, blood sprayed from at least two different places.

Now the assassins realized that Mu Hwi had kicked over and reversed the situation they had set up.

Whoosh!

The sound of leaves rustling roughly began to surge from the surrounding forest.

Various hidden weapons shot out from everywhere – from tree shadows, dense foliage, underground, behind rocks.

Below them, assassins who had sprung out from all directions were rushing at Mu Hwi.

The disciples who had been watching other directions also saw black-clothed figures appearing with their entire bodies dyed black.

“Assassins!”

“Be especially careful of hidden weapons and poison.”

Mujin and Mu-hwa dealt with the assassins more cautiously than usual.

Mu-cheol, using the advantage of his large sword with its wide range, filled Mu Hwi’s empty position and was tearing apart the assassins.

After briefly checking on his disciples’ situation, Mu Hwi moved forward again.

Even without his nagging now, they were moving appropriately according to the situation.

Perhaps they had become somewhat more reliable.

“Assassins fight completely differently from regular martial artists. Be aware that they won’t hesitate to die together with their target.”

Mu Hwi released his inner force as he spoke while stepping on and breaking the waist of an assassin who was thrusting an iron claw toward his thigh from below.

Crack!

Despite the horrifying bone sound from the waist, the assassin didn’t let out a scream.

After cutting off the assassin’s neck, Mu Hwi blew away the large needles and flying daggers pouring down from above with his sword wind.

Currently, more than half of the assassins’ presences he detected within his qi sense were focused on him.

Since he was handling most of the assassins, his disciples could manage even though it was their first time facing assassins.

‘Guyu Sect has no time to pay attention here. Even if they sent someone, they would have sent a sword master, not assassins.’

Thud!

An assassin hit by the Plum Blossom Mountain Hand flew into a tree with a crushed chest and didn’t get up again.

‘Then could it be that bastard, the Daejeong Sect Leader?’

But something felt suspicious about this being the Daejeong Sect Leader’s doing, and there wasn’t enough information to make a judgment.

As Mu Hwi cut down the assassins, he gradually widened his qi sense. Something caught his eye after killing several assassins.

‘Their skills are mediocre, and their builds are generally small.’

It was as if children who were still training to be assassins had been sent out on a mission midway through.

Far from being able to kill Mu Hwi, they weren’t even enough to handle his disciples. The only advantage these assassins had was their numbers, which exceeded roughly sixty.

Whoever was behind this must have heard of the ‘Hwasan Four Flowers’ reputation and would know these amateur assassins couldn’t handle Mu Hwi’s group.

‘Are they for reconnaissance, or to wear us down?’

Mu Hwi continued cutting down the assassins while gradually shifting his position without showing it. This was to survey more areas.

Swoosh!

Light footsteps as if taking a stroll with casual sword movements. What remained at the end was nothing but crimson.

The color of the forest changes with Mu Hwi’s steps.

The eyes of the assassins watching this trembled.

‘We heard he was just a late-stage foundation level disciple who recently became somewhat famous!’

The assassins couldn’t see a late-stage foundation level disciple. They saw someone completely different.

He is merciless, chilling, and distant.

Something red seemed to shimmer around Mu Hwi.

So much that the red plum blossoms embroidered on his sleeves looked like they were just bloodstains.

Thrust!

With a short sound of flesh being pierced, a hole appeared in the chest of an assassin jumping up from the ground.

Mu Hwi’s eyes, looking at the assassins, were simply emitting an endlessly cold yet hot killing intent.

Seeing this, the assassins felt like they were blindly jumping into hellfire.

Someone gritting their teeth and swinging a dagger at Mu Hwi thought.

His appearance of relentlessly spraying blood and splitting flesh and bone couldn’t be called a famous sect’s disciple at all.

‘A ghost… Like a Sword Devil.’

Mu Hwi’s sword cut through the assassin’s thoughts.

* * *

A subordinate watching from afar asked the Dark Knight.

“Is it alright to waste the Killing Star Cave’s trainees like this?”

“Aren’t they all failures who got kicked out without completing their education after receiving a D-grade? It’s better to use them like this than have them guard warehouses later.”

“That’s true.”

“Hmm, but he fights damn well.”

The subordinate nodded at the Dark Knight’s muttering.

They had confirmed that Mu Hwi had caught the Assassin Demons and even defeated the Iron Mountain Fist King’s disciple.

This meant that ordinary martial artists wouldn’t stand a chance, and hastily mobilizing the Black Night Palace’s armed forces would more likely just waste their strength.

So the Dark Knight slightly changed direction.

What if the opponent was an assassin who aimed for openings from behind, rather than a martial artist who fought head-on?

The Dark Knight thought there was enough possibility since they were late-stage foundation level disciples with little experience. How would these freshly-arrived novices in the martial world know how to deal with assassins’ killing methods?

‘Tch. That’s why we spent considerable budget to create that village.’

That village that Mu Hwi had passed by on instinct was itself a hunting ground created by the Black Night Palace.

Formations and traps were set up throughout the village, and all the villagers were assassins.

The Black Night Palace, wary of Mu Hwi’s martial arts, had made thorough preparations but ended up wasting resources and time, hastily carrying out the assassination attempt in the mountains instead.

“But, Palace Master.”

“What?”

The subordinate looked at the Killing Star Cave trainees, more than half of whom had already died, then slightly turned his head back.

Though only darkness was visible, twenty assassins were hiding within it.

These were ones who could behead a first-class master with just three of them.

Unlike the decoys dying at Mu Hwi’s hands now, these were today’s main actors.

“Do you really plan to kill them all? Didn’t the Bright Death Lord just tell us to assess their skills?”

The Dark Knight sneered at the subordinate’s question.

“He said that, but he didn’t mention anything about whether they live or die. It would be ridiculous to deploy troops just to assess someone’s skills in the first place.”

The Bright Death Lord seemed generous but was extremely particular and detailed when giving orders.

If he truly had an interest in Mu Hwi, the order not to kill would have definitely been included.

To the Bright Death Lord, Mu Hwi was just a momentary interest and amusement, whether he lived or died.

That’s all he would have been.

‘But not to me.’

The failure of the Daejeong Sect incident was fatal to his achievements. Even more so if it was derailed because of a single late-stage foundation level disciple.

His standing among the Castle Masters had already narrowed due to rumors about failing because of a late-stage foundation level disciple.

Perhaps next year he might be pushed out of the Castle Master position and demoted.

‘I must make up for it this time. I’ve endured so desperately until now, I can’t just blankly give up the Palace Master position like this.’

Punishment for interfering with the Daejeong Sect’s event, and elimination of potential threats for the Emperor Faction’s future advance into Xianshu.

The Dark Knight planned to transform these two reasons for eliminating Mu Hwi’s group into a new achievement.

It was perfect timing since they were recently gaining fame under the title of Hwasan Four Flowers. It would add more weight to the report submitted upwards.

“Now less than twenty remain. Should we prepare?”

While the Dark Knight and his subordinate were talking, the ground and trees where Mu Hwi stood had all turned bright red.

“Even though they received assassin training before dropping out, they couldn’t even inflict a single wound.”

This was true not just for Mu Hwi but also the other Hwasan disciples. It seemed they would have to be satisfied with just consuming their stamina and inner force.

“Tch, no wonder they were kicked out after receiving D-grade. I told them they’d get another chance to train at Killing Star Cave if they just inflicted wounds.”

The Dark Knight’s eyes widened as he watched Mu Hwi lowering his sword without a single wound.

For a moment, he felt Mu Hwi had made eye contact with him.

But since Mu Hwi naturally turned his head to look at an assassin rushing from the left, the Dark Knight considered it a coincidental alignment of directions.

The Dark Knight forcefully suppressed his unease and raised his right hand.

His right hand quietly slashing toward Mu Hwi.

Now the assassins who had been waiting in the darkness quietly revealed themselves and began to move.

* * *

The assassins’ attack.

It was slightly bewildering since it was their first experience.

The assassins hid as a basic principle and suddenly sprang out from unexpected places to aim for openings, while all sorts of unfamiliar hidden weapons flew in.

But as they responded by calmly swinging their swords, they realized.

No matter how irregular and unfamiliar the attack methods were, there was no difference once you blocked and deflected them.

Rather, they were realizing that when facing assassins, they needed to watch the situation and move more calmly.

The assassins’ amateur skills were instead giving the disciples time to adapt and understand what assassins were.

As they gradually grew accustomed to the assassins’ attacks, things that weren’t visible at first began to enter Mu-hwa’s eyes.

“Senior Disciples…”

Mu-hwa spoke after cutting down the chest of the last assassin who had thrust a skewer.

“We know too.”

“……”

The corpses of assassins around them.

Their builds were all similar to or smaller than Mu-hwa’s. Mu-hwa’s brows furrowed, knowing what this meant.

“Bastards.”

As Mu-hwa’s weak muttering scattered futilely, Mu Hwi, who had slaughtered over forty assassins alone, returned.

Mu Hwi’s uniform was covered in blood. He looked around at his disciples who were in the same state as him.

The number of assassin corpses lying around was around twenty. They had all died at the disciples’ hands.

“Why do you all look like that?”

The air surrounding the disciples was heavy since it was their first time carrying out such extensive killing in one place.

Especially with the blood scent flowing from around them as if inducing nausea, the disciples’ faces weren’t looking too good.

“Don’t blame yourselves for cutting down peers and children younger than us. If not, you would have died instead.”

Despite their amateur skills, the assassins rushed in desperately without hesitation even as their companions died around them.

Like well-trained hunting dogs.

They must have either received consistent mental training from a young age or been promised some great reward.

They would certainly have paid the price in blood if they had shown misplaced mercy.

“This is something you’ll have to deal with for life once you enter the martial arts world with a sword.”

Not everything in the martial arts world could be met with sympathy and compassion.

That’s what the martial world was like.

“I suppose that’s what being a martial artist means.”

Mu Hwi quietly nodded at Mu-hwa’s words.

Though outwardly energetic and bright, Mu-hwa had somewhat tender aspects inside.

Unlike Mujin and Mu-cheol, Mu Hwi had worried Mu-hwa might waver, but unexpectedly gave a bold answer.

“And…”

Mu Hwi turned his back abruptly while swinging his sword widely.

A great sword wind rose and completely blew away the feather needles that had been pouring down almost silently.

“It’s not over yet. Stay alert.”

The twenty assassins that the Dark Knight had cherished and saved extended their killing hands toward Mu Hwi’s group.

<Just like the Sword Devil.> End

<If you want to kill me, you should have brought the Dark Emperor.>