It was natural for Lee Tae-seong to apply poison as soon as he learned hidden weapon arts and bought daggers and fine needles.
Unless daggers or needles accurately pierced a vital spot, they couldn’t kill an opponent instantly.
Even then, one had to pour a significant amount of internal energy into them, but what if the opponent dodged such an attack?
The internal energy would just be wasted in the air.
Therefore, using them with poison applied was excellent in terms of cost-effectiveness.
Even a slight graze would have some effect!
‘But I can’t be complacent. There’s a limit to such cheap poison.’
Since Lee Tae-seong didn’t have much money, the poison he had applied to the daggers was an inferior product purchased from the Flying Dragon Hall.
While it might paralyze someone for a moment, a master like the Crimson Captain would soon shake it off.
“Oh Chung.”
“Yeah. Let’s combine our attacks right…”
“Let’s run.”
“What?”
“That won’t last long. We need to run while we have this chance.”
“!”
Lee Tae-seong immediately turned his back and started running.
With the combination of mana increased by elixirs and the Dragon Shadow Wind God Step, he could move faster than anyone.
***
-Ding!
[You have faced an overwhelming enemy]
[Proficiency in Biseongchuhon increases]
[Biseongchuhon’s skill level has increased]
[Biseongchuhon (Lv.1) -> Biseongchuhon (Lv.2)]
The skill proficiency of Biseongchuhon increased just by luckily landing one hit.
As expected, fighting a strong enemy is the most efficient way to raise a skill level.
The problem is that you might die.
Since they had encountered the Crimson Captain at the entrance of the mountain, Lee Tae-seong and Oh Chung descended quickly.
The two ran down the main road.
They didn’t just run blindly. There was work to be done.
“Let’s go to the main hall as quickly as possible and request support.”
The characteristic of a group.
If you can’t do it alone, you just call for backup!
“You do that, Oh Chung. I’m going somewhere else.”
“Somewhere else?”
“There’s no time to explain.”
“R-right. Since I can handle the reporting alone anyway, let’s split up for now.”
Oh Chung ran toward the Flying Dragon Hall, while Lee Tae-seong turned off the path midway.
Normally, they should have gone together, but the distance from here to the Flying Dragon Hall was quite far.
In that time, the Crimson Captain could flee far away.
Since he was wounded, he would leave a trail, but once they lost him, it would become tedious.
Therefore, Lee Tae-seong went to another house that was much closer.
“Elder Dam! Elder, are you there?”
“What is all this fuss?”
When he shouted loudly in front of Dam Ho-pung’s house, the door opened, and the elder walked out with a stiff appearance.
“Why? Did you get stuck while learning something again?”
“That’s not it, Elder! I ran into the Captain of the Crimson Brotherhood!”
“!”
Lee Tae-seong explained what had just happened on Byeokyeong Mountain.
How he coincidentally met the eldest of the Crimson Brotherhood.
He even mentioned that he had embedded a dagger in him and that it was poisoned, creating an opportunity to retreat.
“Let’s go!”
Dam Ho-pung immediately performed Light Body Art and began to run.
The Crimson Brotherhood was slowly falling into ruin as the second and third brothers died.
In time, they would naturally be cleared out by the Flying Dragon Hall, but if an opportunity to handle the eldest had come, they couldn’t miss it.
Lee Tae-seong ran hard while watching Dam Ho-pung’s back.
Even though he performed the Dragon Shadow Wind God Step at full power, the distance slowly widened.
Eventually, he looked like a mere dot.
It was fortunate that Dam Ho-pung stopped at the entrance of the mountain; if it had been midway up, he would have lost him completely.
Even though he had taken elixirs, he realized he shouldn’t neglect his movement technique training.
“Huff, huff. Elder. Is he here?”
“He’s not. He must have left this spot long ago.”
“Ah… but it’s too early to be disappointed. Since he’s in a state of being wounded and poisoned, he must have left a trail.”
“I think so too.”
Dam Ho-pung nodded and then lay flat.
He moved slowly, checking the surroundings with a posture where his nose almost touched the ground.
The appearance was funny, but the effect was certain.
“This way.”
Dam Ho-pung, rising from his spot, began to dash through the trees.
Following him, Lee Tae-seong felt a sense of greed.
‘It would be useful to learn something like tracking later.’
Whether in Dream World or in Hunter missions in reality, there seemed to be a place to use it someday.
When he had room in his public merit points, he decided to think about tracking.
Afterward, Dam Ho-pung moved as if flying.
Before long, he succeeded in discovering the eldest of the Crimson Brotherhood.
He drew his sword like lightning and then leapt up, plunging down like a single spear.
The sword struck down like a harpoon.
-Jjeong!
The Crimson eldest caught it by spreading his palm wide.
“Dam Ho-pung, you bastard!”
“Heh heh heh. How dare a stray dog who came from who-knows-where call this Elder’s name so casually.”
Dam Ho-pung’s sword shot out like a thunderbolt, and the Crimson eldest responded with a hand dyed bright red.
Sparks flew where the sword and hand collided, and a shockwave that tore through the air was generated.
Lee Tae-seong arrived at the scene shortly after.
There was nothing for him to do.
If he approached that battle, he would only be swept away.
‘It’s a good thing I learned Biseongchuhon.’
Since he couldn’t do nothing, he held a dagger and prepared to throw it at any time.
Since the enemy wasn’t easy enough to find a gap, he used it simply to distract the guy’s nerves.
If he kept this up, wouldn’t Elder Dam Ho-pung find an opportunity on his own?
-Swish!
-Sswaeek!
And Lee Tae-seong’s guess was exactly right.
“Kuk! You annoying bug!”
The daggers flying nearby irritated his nerves.
Sometimes he had to perform unnecessary footwork, and part of his mind was focused that way.
In a duel between masters, that is a fatal opening.
“Haha. You’re doing well!”
Dam Ho-pung excitedly thrust his sword repeatedly.
Originally, the Crimson eldest was about half a step above an Elder-level member of the Flying Dragon Hall.
If he hadn’t been injured, Dam Ho-pung wouldn’t have come alone.
In the meantime, since Lee Tae-seong was helping from behind, it was worth facing him.
‘This is dangerous.’
The Crimson eldest, Baek Woon-ho, was quite troubled internally.
The tracking caught up faster than expected.
If his feet were tied here, the main force of the Flying Dragon Hall would come as support over time.
He could naturally deduce that much.
And at that point, he wouldn’t even be able to run away.
‘It can’t be helped. Even if I take a bit of a loss… I have to get out.’
-Chiiiik!
Baek Woon-ho’s entire hand turned completely red, and he fired a powerful palm force at Dam Ho-pung.
He had unleashed the ‘Sky Net Flame Hand’ he had mastered to its extreme!
A few of Dam Ho-pung’s sword stabs grazed his shoulder and upper body, but he accepted that much.
In exchange, he created a brief opening and immediately turned his body to dash away.
‘…Why is he coming here!?’
Lee Tae-seong’s eyes widened.
Baek Woon-ho was glaring with terrifying eyes and running toward him!
“You brat. I have to at least kill you before I go!”
Baek Woon-ho was angry to the top of his head.
If he hadn’t been hit by that guy’s dagger, this situation wouldn’t have even happened.
Therefore, he intended to strike him dead in one move and leave.
Lee Tae-seong hurriedly drew his sword and performed the Flame Sword Art to face him.
Flames wrapped around the entire blade collided with Baek Woon-ho’s palm.
-Kwaang!
“!!!”
Lee Tae-seong swallowed the blood welling up and was pushed back a long way.
‘It feels like being hit by a truck.’
Even though it was the Flame Sword Art that had reached Lv.5, it was difficult to even face him for a moment.
But he didn’t give up.
If he gave up here, he would die.
Even putting death aside, when he thought about his skills being deleted, he felt like struggling to survive no matter what.
-Whirrr
-Jjeong!
Baek Woon-ho lunged at Lee Tae-seong again.
There were several collisions between sword and palm amidst the flames, and his grip throbbed from the impact.
Lee Tae-seong pulled up his internal energy with all his might.
With the harmony of the Solar Star Force Art and the Flame Sword Art, he could endure a few moves.
A faint orange light flowed from Lee Tae-seong’s eyes, and Baek Woon-ho, seeing that, was startled.
“Those eyes…?”
That orange eye-glow. He had definitely heard of it before.
It was also a clue he was looking for.
Just in case, the momentum of his palm technique dropped slightly, and Lee Tae-seong threw his sword, thinking this was the moment.
What he needed right now was unpredictability.
The moment Baek Woon-ho struck the sword away, Lee Tae-seong instead dug forward and threw a punch wrapped in Thunder Fist.
-Pajijik!
“Have you also learned my younger brother’s hybrid?”
Baek Woon-ho, who easily deflected the fist, muttered.
He didn’t care much about his younger brothers dying, but that technique had flowed to this guy?
“Huff. Huff….”
Lee Tae-seong breathed heavily with difficulty.
However, Baek Woon-ho could no longer press him.
Elder Dam Ho-pung, whom he had pushed back earlier, had caught up closely.
The opportunity to kill Lee Tae-seong was only for a moment, and since the guy endured that time, it was over here.
“I’ll see you next time.”
In the end, Baek Woon-ho left those words, turned his body, and began to flee rapidly.
***
That evening.
“Oh boy. I’m going to die.”
Arriving at the Flying Dragon Hall training ground, he lay down roughly on the floor.
“I almost really died.”
The Crimson Brotherhood had once been a force that even threatened the power of the Flying Dragon Hall.
Perhaps because he was the leader of such a place, he was terrifyingly strong.
If Dam Ho-pung hadn’t been there, how many seconds could Lee Tae-seong have endured against him?
No.
Even those few moments when he blocked him were lucky.
If something had gone slightly wrong, he would have died then.
‘I still have a long way to go.’
The Crimson Captain, Baek Woon-ho, was said to have succeeded in escaping just like that.
Dam Ho-pung chased after him, and the Flying Dragon Hall, which joined later, also pursued him, but he eventually gave them all the slip and disappeared.
So, the majority of the Flying Dragon Hall personnel were out on a search.
Since Lee Tae-seong was the initial discoverer and had faced the guy even for a moment, he was given a rest.
‘Still, it’s not like there was no result.’
Lee Tae-seong pulled up the notifications he hadn’t been able to check earlier.
-Ding!
[Proficiency in Flame Sword Art increases]
[Flame Sword Art’s skill level has increased]
[Flame Sword Art (Lv.5) -> Flame Sword Art (Lv.6)]
-Ding!
[Proficiency in Thunder Fist increases]
[Thunder Fist’s skill level has increased]
[Thunder Fist (Lv.1) -> Thunder Fist (Lv.2)]
The skill levels of Flame Sword Art and Thunder Fist had each increased by one!
The important point here was the fact that Flame Sword Art had reached Level 6.
Skills in Dream World generally exist from levels 1 to 10.
It’s a structure where you start from level 1 when you first learn it, and as you accumulate proficiency, you reach level 10 to master it.
And from level 6, which can be called the latter half, the application of the skill becomes possible.
The skill can be used in a slightly wider range!
Lee Tae-seong pulled out a dagger.
He had seen some fun with it this time, and as Flame Sword Art reached Level 6, he became able to utilize it a bit more.
-Whir
Flames bloomed from the surface of the dagger.