Hwasan Sect’s Genius Swordsman Chapter 38

Chapter 38

At first, Mu Hwi considered going ahead separately to deal with the assassins like before, but changed his mind.

Those guys wouldn’t just quietly target him alone.

If things went wrong, they would target the disciples to create an opening for Mu Hwi, which could become troublesome.

‘These ones are different.’

Mu Hwi’s senses told him these weren’t half-hearted ones like before, but the real deal. So Mu Hwi immediately sent a mental message to the disciples.

[The breathing and martial arts of martial artists and assassins are different. Assassins pour all their strength into a single strike. At most three exchanges. They don’t think about what comes after and pour out all their remaining strength. It will end in an instant.]

The disciples who received Mu Hwi’s mental message didn’t show any reaction and just corrected their postures.

Looking at the feather needles stuck densely in the ground like overgrown weeds, Mu Hwi said.

“Formation.”

The moment the disciples lowered their guard and moved at Mu Hwi’s words, as if they had been waiting, hidden weapons poured in from all directions.

Hidden weapons targeting only the disciples, excluding Mu Hwi.

Countless feather needles rained down like a downpour above the disciples’ heads, and below, daggers with silver threads tied to their ends rushed in one after another.

Pa-pa-pa-pak!

As the daggers stuck into the ground in a circle around them, the silver threads immediately tightened like a net, restricting the disciples’ movements.

Silver threads could gain cutting power comparable to weapons when infused with internal energy, and are able to cut just by touching.

Feather needles from above, silver thread nets closing in from below. Following that, flying needles, daggers, iron bullets, and iron darts came flying in from various directions.

A display of hidden weapons that could make an ordinary late-stage foundation level disciple blink their eyes and perish before they could even react.

But this didn’t apply to these disciples.

“Haah!”

Without exchanging any words, Mu-hwa, who had the best lightness skill and fastest sword, naturally jumped high.

Chang-chang-chang!

Mu-hwa’s sleeves fluttered roughly.

Though wielding the sword at top speed, there were still too many incoming feather needles.

Moreover, the feather needles were as thin as cow hair, making them difficult to deflect.

‘This is difficult.’

Though Mu-hwa’s sword drew countless lines, it wasn’t enough to block all the densely falling thin feather needles.

Mu-hwa knew the correct answer for how to block this.

-You mean extend the sword as a plane rather than a line?

-Straight lines, diagonal lines, curved lines. Combine these, twist and bend them to make the sword path more abundant.

As Mu Hwi demonstrated the technique, his wrist moved continuously with flexibility.

Then as the sword face and blade alternately showed, drawing complex lines, Mu Hwi’s sword became difficult to follow with the eyes.

-But Senior Disciple, that’s not swift swordsmanship then. As the sword path lengthens, the time to reach the opponent naturally increases.

-Only those who can demonstrate faster swordsmanship in curves than straight lines, and in planes than lines, can be called masters of swift swordsmanship. And even if it’s not swift swordsmanship, mixing lines and planes in developing techniques is a martial principle that must be mastered to learn Hwasan’s ever-changing swordsmanship.

-Huh? Is that possible?

-Why can’t you do something this simple? I’ll show you one more time.

Since receiving Mu Hwi’s teachings, Mu-hwa had continued training but hadn’t fully mastered this principle yet.

Though it was difficult, it was also because with Mu-hwa’s personality, it felt more satisfying to thrust straight ahead than to mix sword paths of lines and planes.

‘Eit!’

But now it had to be done somehow.

If not, the Senior Disciples who trusted in her and had focused their attention elsewhere would fall victim to the feather needles.

‘Lines and planes, like wrapping everything in cloth made with the sword.’

Blood vessels rose in Mu-hwa’s eyes as they glared at the incoming feather needles.

In extreme concentration, the speed of the feather needles appearing in Mu-hwa’s eyes gradually slowed.

But Mu-hwa didn’t even recognize this and thrust out the sword.

What appeared in her mind was the image of Mu Hwi extending his sword. Mu-hwa recalled how Mu Hwi had just deflected the feather needles by sending out sword wind.

‘Like Senior Disciple.’

Mu-hwa’s sword, which had been extending straight ahead, shifted sideways showing its face instead of its edge.

That sword then showed its edge again, drew an arc, and soared toward the upper left.

Like a flying bird freely roaming the sky, Mu-hwa’s sword was free-spirited yet too swift to dare follow.

Mu-hwa had merely followed the martial principle Mu Hwi had taught through swift swordsmanship, but the variations were more abundant than displaying the Falling Plum Sword or Ten Thousand Fragrance Sword.

As the sword infused with red internal energy quickly drew, leaving afterimages in an instant, it looked as if weaving a translucent red cloth in the air with the sword.

Chwa-ja-jak!

Mu-hwa densely overlapped sword winds as if creating a wall, and the few feather needles that managed to penetrate through were all deflected at once with the broad sword face after changing grip.

“Puhah!”

Mu-hwa, who had poured out sword energy in one breath without even breathing, belatedly took in rough breaths.

As Mu-hwa, who had perfectly blocked the feather needles in the air, fell back to the ground.

Mu-cheol raised his heavy sword high to the upper right and completely swept away the surrounding ground.

Ku-kwa-kak!

As the heavy sword deeply embedded in the ground overturned it completely, the daggers stuck in it all sprung up at once.

The fixed daggers rose into the air, and a gap appeared in the silver thread that had been covering the net.

Mujin didn’t miss this opportunity and cut widely horizontally with his sword.

Mujin’s sword had an even clearer sword energy than when facing the Assassin Demons.

Ta-da-da-dak!

The silver threads fluttering in the air were all cut away at once, and Mujin scattered sword shadows again to deflect all the following hidden weapons.

By perfectly blocking such a continuous barrage of many hidden weapons, the disciples were proving in person that they hadn’t just earned the title of Hwasan Four Flowers as a bonus for being by Mu Hwi’s side.

‘Hmm?’

Just as the assassins who had been throwing hidden weapons were about to launch their next attack after seeing the late-stage foundation level disciples take not even a small scratch.

“An assassin who gets caught from behind should die.”

A low voice from behind.

The assassin controlling the silver threads immediately grabbed the dagger on their thigh, but the sight of their vision turning upside down was the assassin’s last memory.

Mu Hwi, who had cut off the assassin’s neck, turned his body without hesitation.

Mu Hwi’s feet, crossing tree branches while displaying the Hidden Ghost Step, didn’t make even the slightest sound.

The assassins had tried to kill the disciples first when they showed an opening to shake Mu Hwi’s composure.

However, Mu Hwi didn’t miss that instant when the assassins focused their attention on the disciples.

Assassins are those who strike at gaps that occur in the flow of thought, and Mu Hwi applied this exactly.

‘Next is the east.’

Sharp senses consistently honed since the moment Mu Hwi’s body awakened, added to this was the ki-sensing woven like a net with the internal energy of the Nine Skies Mind Method.

Dim darkness without even a moonbeam entering.

Mu Hwi, crossing through the forest like a ghost, wasn’t constrained by such things.

As if looking at Go stones on a board, he was confident he could find the assassins even with his eyes closed.

In that darkness, Mu Hwi was immediately extending toward where the assassins were positioned and thrusting his sword.

In the forest, only the eerie sounds of something quietly pouring or falling could be heard.

‘The first team has been taken out.’

The assassins who had surrounded Mu Hwi’s group, divided into four teams, couldn’t help but be bewildered.

The moment they recognized and tried to relay that the first team responsible for the north had been taken out, contact with the second team in the east was also cut off.

Only now did the assassins realize they were being hunted. The moment the assassins threw their hidden weapons, Mu Hwi had disappeared.

It probably started from then.

‘To think this would happen in the brief moment we lost track of his movements.’

Even at this moment, the assassins were maintaining their concealment, but they couldn’t understand how a late-stage foundation level disciple was finding and killing them like a ghost.

Rather, since the assassins couldn’t find Mu Hwi’s presence, they were the ones being assassinated.

‘Hmm.’

Fine sweat formed on the hand of an assassin gripping a dagger in reverse grip.

Though they had survived many assassination missions living as an assassin, this was their first time becoming the target of assassination.

Though they had gone through countless training sessions suppressing emotions, their breathing slightly quickened at the pressure of gradually sinking into the mud called death.

When a chill suddenly ran down their back, the assassin swung their dagger behind without hesitation.

“You’re the best one.”

In the assassin’s eyes flashed a clean red line that split their right hand holding the dagger and pierced straight through their chest.

Blinking and looking again, it wasn’t a line but a sword.

Mu Hwi, who had killed the last assassin, shook the flowing blood off his sword blade.

It’s not even up to 15 minutes since the twenty assassins had surrounded Mu Hwi’s group.

Thanks to them spreading out and positioning themselves all around, it was easier to defeat them one by one.

‘Still, it’s thanks to those guys doing their part.’

If the disciples hadn’t had the ability to properly respond to the assassins’ hidden weapons, Mu Hwi would have had to take care of that.

And the assassins would have started pressuring Mu Hwi’s group according to their preparations.

Then he wouldn’t have been able to kill the assassins this early, and the situation would have become troublesome.

Seeing how they had brought hooks, chains, poison and positioned themselves all around, it seemed the assassins had prepared something quite grand, but if they couldn’t show it, it meant nothing.

Mu Hwi glanced at the disciples then melted back into the darkness.

* * *

“Hmm, what is this?”

“It seems the attacks have stopped, are they looking for an opening?”

The Dark Knight furrowed his brows. After the initial barrage of hidden weapons, there had been no movement since then.

This was the same for the Hwasan Sect disciples.

“How frustrating.”

Being far away and concentrating his eye technique to watch, he couldn’t make out the detailed situation.

Stroking his chin, the Dark Knight let out a deep sigh while looking at the quiet forest.

It was natural that an assassin’s mission required patience, so why was he feeling so anxious?

Then, a subordinate beside him asked with furrowed brows.

“Wait, hasn’t that Mu Hwi guy been out of sight for a while now?”

“Come to think of it…”

The Dark Knight couldn’t continue his words. The neck of the subordinate beside him was falling with his mouth gaping.

At this, the Dark Knight quickly moved his hand to his waist, but feeling an unfamiliar touch on his head, he realized he was too late.

“Got you.”

Peo-eok!

Mu Hwi, while grabbing the Dark Knight’s head from behind, slammed it into the ground.

“Kuhak!”

Dirt entered his mouth but this wasn’t the time to worry about such things.

‘Damn, that eye contact earlier wasn’t an illusion after all!’

As the Dark Knight thought, the eye contact wasn’t coincidental.

While dealing with the assassins and gradually moving position, Mu Hwi had extended his ki-sensing as widely as possible and caught the presence of two unfamiliar people, then turned his gaze.

“How dare you! Let go at once!”

The Dark Knight struggled to escape Mu Hwi’s grip, but no matter how much internal energy he drew out, he couldn’t overcome that brutal grip strength and downward pressing force.

“Trying to kill me with guys like these? If you wanted to kill me, you should have brought the Dark Emperor.”

At Mu Hwi’s words boldly mentioning the Dark Emperor, strength drained from the struggling Dark Knight’s body.

It was because it was so absurd.

‘Dark Emperor? This crazy bastard.’

Dark Emperor (暗帝)

The one and only assassin in the martial arts world who stood shoulder to shoulder with other absolute masters who held the title of Emperor (帝王).

It was natural for the Dark Knight to find it absurd to suggest calling the world’s greatest assassin just to kill a late-stage foundation level disciple.

“You’ve made a name for yourself lately but seem to have lost your mind.”

Looking at the sneering Dark Knight’s back of the head, Mu Hwi grinned.

“Oh really?”

Mu Hwi applied more force to his hand and rubbed the Dark Knight’s face in the ground.

So even though the Dark Knight tried to keep his mouth shut, dirt was naturally entering.

“Mmph!”

“The one who’s lost their mind is you, still haven’t grasped the situation?”

Mu Hwi immediately pressed the Dark Knight’s acupoints to make his body rigid.

The Dark Knight’s eyes darkened as he realized he couldn’t move his body.

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

< Finally it’s Hwasan. >