Chapter 59

Shh-shh-shhk!

The fight between Jin Wikyung, Wipeng, and the three Elders raged like a storm.

Sword strikes crashed together from every direction, too fast and fierce for an ordinary martial artist to follow.

Krshhk.

Blocked.

The instant he realized it, Wipeng twisted aside. The Second Elder’s thrusting sword grazed his hair as it passed.

The Second and Third Elders pressed him as though they were one.

“You bastards!”

Jin Wikyung charged with a roar, only for the First Elder to cut him off.

“Where are you rushing off to?”

Sword Energy shot upward, then dropped toward the crown of Jin Wikyung’s head.

One strike could split him in two. Jin Wikyung hastily raised his sword to block. Pale Sword Energy wreathed his blade as well.

Boom!

In the dust cloud that rose with the thunderous impact, a figure staggered back. Jin Wikyung’s face had gone pale. He spat a wad of bloody phlegm.

What the hell kind of internal energy…

He had trained in exceptional martial arts and taken elixirs since childhood, but his opponent was simply too formidable. The First Elder was a vile old monster who had lived more than sixty years while concealing his dark ambitions.

Alongside the Head Elder, he was a living witness to the Great Faction War, having fought his way through it with his own two hands.

“You damned old bastard.”

The First Elder chuckled.

“Lesser Family Head, mind your dignity.”

But the First Elder was not nearly as comfortable as he looked.

His trembling blade and throbbing wrist were proof enough.

To think they were this strong.

Numbers mattered even in a street brawl. How much more so when masters fought? Yet Jin Wikyung and Wipeng were even stronger than he had expected.

Or perhaps an old man’s pride had made him overrate himself.

How cruel. Truly cruel.

Sixty years. He had accumulated profound internal energy, but even that could not stop his body from aging.

If only I were ten years younger.

After a bitter jab at himself, the First Elder stepped toward Jin Wikyung.

The swords of his sworn younger brothers, the Second and Third Elders, grew even fiercer.

Shh-shh-shhk!

“Urgh!”

Jin Wikyung and Wipeng gradually began to give ground. Having just fought the Peak masters of the Mount Heng Sword Sect only made matters worse.

Their vision swam. Minor wounds multiplied across their bodies. Their limbs no longer moved as they wished.

We can’t keep this up.

Jin Wikyung’s face darkened.

Fwoooosh!

The First Elder’s Sword Energy, which had been bearing down on him without pause, abruptly changed course. The next instant, a lightning-fast strike split its target.

Shhk.

Fwaaah!

A man staggered in a spray of blood. The sword that had been aimed at the First Elder’s side had shattered beyond recognition, and blood poured from his chest like a waterfall.

The First Elder saw his face and clicked his tongue.

“Discipline Hall Master, you foolish friend. Did you want to die that badly?”

“F-First Elder…”

The Discipline Hall Master’s voice seemed ready to give out at any moment. Yet he neither fell nor stopped speaking.

“You have… violated the family’s laws.”

“Heh heh. And?”

“As the Discipline Hall Master of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, I command you. The guilty shall abolish their own martial arts and enter the Cave of Repentance…”

Shhk.

The First Elder answered with his sword. The Discipline Hall Master’s character was straight as bamboo, but his martial arts were not particularly advanced. He could neither see nor evade the stroke that pierced his throat.

Fire poured from Jin Wikyung’s eyes.

“You bastard!”

Jin Wikyung was not the only one enraged. The Discipline Hall Master’s death set the hearts of the Jin Family’s senior members ablaze.

“Discipline Hall Master!”

Before they were martial artists, they were human.

They had lived long enough to have much they had built, and much they had to protect. That was why they had feared it: a Peak master’s prowess, thrown away on a dog’s death.

But the Discipline Hall Master’s dignified end brought emotions they had briefly forgotten boiling back to the surface.

Shame, and anger.

“Strike down those traitors!”

“Show them the spirit of the Jin Family of Taiyuan!”

The ones who felt ashamed of themselves were the first to charge. They were senior members of the so-called Elders’ faction.

They could not forgive themselves for aiding the traitors. Nor could they forgive the Elders who had betrayed them and the family.

“Fools.”

Shhk. Shhk. Shhk.

Every time the three Elders’ swords flashed, another life went out.

The difference in strength was obvious. Even so, the Elders’ wrinkled faces stiffened.

These bastards…!

Dozens of First Rate masters, prepared to take their enemies with them, surged in from every direction without fear of death.

What rattled the Elders was not their opponents’ martial arts, but their momentum.

And amid that distraction, two men seized the opening.

Shhk.

“Gah!”

A scream tore from the Third Elder’s mouth. Before he knew it, Wipeng’s Sword Energy had surged up and cut across his side.

“Little brother!”

The Second Elder faltered at the cry of the sworn brother who had been by his side for decades. For the briefest instant, his attention shifted elsewhere.

It cost him dearly.

Three swords thrust out at once, grazing him from head to toe. As the Second Elder scrambled backward, a bolt of lightning shot toward him.

Fwoooosh!

The instant he felt something cold burrow into his back, the Second Elder knew it was over.

Thuk!

It split flesh and severed bone. The Sword Energy ran wild like a living thing, tearing through his blood vessels and burning them.

How long had it been since he had felt pain like this?

The Second Elder’s vision went white. Soon he could not feel any pain at all.

“I, Jin Wikyung, Lesser Family Head of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, have cut down the Second Elder!”

As Jin Wikyung ripped his sword from the Second Elder’s chest and roared, the Third Elder’s head was falling not far away. Wipeng, soaked in blood, lifted it high.

“The Third Elder’s head is here!”

The survivors shouted one after another.

“Wipe out the traitors!”

“The Jin Family of Taiyuan is not the enemy of the Mount Heng Sword Sect! Lower your swords!”

The shouts ringing out across the battlefield invigorated the Jin Family’s martial artists.

With their leadership all but annihilated, Mount Heng’s forces still had no idea what to do. Before long, however, they turned their weapons on the black-clad men.

“What are you doing? Those Jin Family bastards are right in front of us—”

“Enough of that nonsense. The only ones attacking us are those black-clad bastards!”

He was right. The Jin Family’s martial artists followed their commanders’ orders to the letter, allowing Mount Heng’s people to realize that one of their enemies had fallen away.

The black-clad men who had appeared out of nowhere were now the common enemy.

“Show them the strength of the Mount Heng Sword Sect!”

“I don’t know where you crawled out from, but wipe them all out!”

Once the two forces joined up, it was the black-clad men who started to give ground.

They were elites hardened by brutal training, but the deaths of the two Elders inevitably shook their morale. Blades poured in from every direction, exploiting every opening, and the black-clad men began to fall one after another.

“Aaargh!”

“Don’t fall back! Anyone who falls back dies!”

Even amid the chaos, the First Elder silently swung his sword.

Everything his eyes fell on, everything his hands reached toward, was an enemy.

Shhk.

Twenty? Thirty? He had lost count. Like a man possessed, the First Elder cut down everything in his path. Among his victims were men who had once addressed him with respect, as well as youths who looked barely twenty.

What does age matter to living and dying? Anyone who stands at the point of a sword is a person of Murim.

What blocked the First Elder, drenched in the blood of dozens, was a man built like a bear. His eyes looked ready to burn everything to ash.

“Why did you do it?”

“Wealth and glory. To seize the Jin Family of Taiyuan and swallow Shanxi whole.”

The answer came without a hint of hesitation, and everyone trembled with rage.

Everyone except one. Jin Wikyung shook his head.

“That isn’t the answer I wanted.”

“Then you answer, Lesser Family Head. Why would I, my brothers, and our lord do a thing like this?”

“Revenge.”

Jin Wikyung continued in a low voice.

“The grand plan you talked about wasn’t for wealth and glory, or to become the ruler of a single province. Too many chances for that have already passed, and you’re all old. And…”

“Enough.”

“The Head Elder has no descendants. Neither do the Second Elder, the Third Elder, or you.”

In that instant, a livid spark leapt from the First Elder’s still eyes.

It was anger he had held down for a very long time—dregs that rose for the briefest moment, then sank again.

“Why did you do it?”

Instead of answering, the First Elder raised his sword and pointed it at Jin Wikyung.

No—the tip pointed past Jin Wikyung’s shoulder, toward someone somewhere beyond him.

“Hear it from him yourself.”

In the end, the last key was in the Head Elder’s hands.

Jin Wikyung took a long stride toward the First Elder.

“I will. After I cut you down.”

“Well? Can you really afford to take it this easy?”

“What do you—”

Jin Wikyung’s frown went rigid.

Taekyung!

His youngest brother, the apple of his eye, was standing in the Head Elder’s way.

The instant he remembered the fact that had briefly slipped his mind, his blood seemed to turn cold.

If I delay any longer, something irreversible will happen.

Once he grasped the whole situation, a voice like frost burst from Jin Wikyung’s mouth.

“Wipeng. Take care of the First Elder.”

“I obey.”

“The rest of you, lend him your strength.”

“We follow the Lesser Family Head’s command.”

Wipeng and some ten surviving senior members spread into a wide ring around the First Elder.

“Everyone else, follow me and open a path! We’re going after the Head Elder!”

Jin Wikyung was about to move with several dozen guards when he glanced at the First Elder. Even with his end closing in, the man showed no agitation. If anything, he looked unburdened.

“First Elder.”

“Do you have something left to say?”

Jin Wikyung tossed out a single line.

“By the authority vested in me as Lesser Family Head of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, I expel you from the family.”

“Heh heh. Heh heh heh!”

Leaving the First Elder’s laughter behind him, Jin Wikyung sprinted for the battlefield.

Dozens of black-clad men tried to stop him, but the battle had long since turned against them. Martial artists converged from every direction and hacked them to pieces.

“Open a path!”

“It’s the Lesser Family Head! Kill anyone who gets in his way!”

It was only a moment. For Jin Wikyung, an eternity passed.

Taekyung. Please, please…

He could not even bring himself to think the word death.

How long had he run, clutching his pounding heart? When he finally reached his destination, his eyes flew wide.

What is this…

The scene in front of him was shock itself.

Raid.

Until a few decades ago, it was a word that only meant anything in games.

But after the Demon King appeared and the Great Cataclysm began, raids became the symbol of Hunters.

Getting there had taken countless real battles and countless sacrifices. On that foundation, the raid methods used today had finally been set down.

Tank, damage dealer, healer.

The tank blocks. The damage dealer hits. The healer heals.

It sounded simple, but to become a proper Hunter you had to study a mountain of raid manuals and prove yourself in actual combat.

Hunter training camp… that was a living hell.

But enduring it was what made me a Hunter. Now, as a seven-year veteran, I could come up with the right positions and response for any situation.

And right now—

“Hey, throw dirt! Keep throwing!”

I realized that everything I’d learned wasn’t worth shit.

Tank? Healer?

Fuck…

I was a fucking moron for thinking ten melee damage dealers counted as a raid.