Chapter 53: Not Dark Moon

The situation was similar to before.

Despite being a place for the lower class, large wooden houses lined the streets.

Guards were patrolling the perimeter in a rotating shift.

Every house held a presence, making it clear that the organization members were tucked away inside.

The center of the activity was at the very back.

I sensed two strong presences there.

Both were high-level Practitioners.

‘Practitioners don’t just grow on trees, yet there are quite a few here.’

Given the abundance of Mana in this world and the naturally sturdy physiques of its people, the potential to grow strong was indeed high.

Even so, Practitioners weren’t exactly a common sight.

‘I could understand it in the capital, where the underworld is massive, but here?’

Not much time had passed since Max had been killed, yet they already had Practitioners on the move.

Something was definitely going on.

“No wonder Reton was terrified. Shall we go?”

There was no need to make a scene.

My motto for this job was to keep it as quiet and clean as possible.

Reton would take care of the cleanup afterward.

Whoosh.

I activated the Heavenly Secret Movement, which had already reached Level 5.

In an instant, I reached the outskirts of the enemy base.

“Huh!?”

When movement is too fast, the human eye fails to register it properly.

The guards right in front of me were a perfect example.

“Let’s stay quiet.”

Thud. Thud.

In a split second, my hands seemed to divide into twelve, sweeping across the enemies’ bodies.

I struck their blood and speech pressure points, leaving the guards frozen like statues.

“Now, let’s head inside.”

Creeeeeak—

I pushed the door open and stepped in.

Those inside were in the middle of a gambling session, their eyes dark and sunken as if they had been up all night.

“What’s this? It’s not time for the shift change yet… Huh?”

“It’s time for bed.”

Flash!

I lunged forward and struck their sleep pressure points.

“Ugh!”

One by one, I neutralized everyone in the house without a sound.

Only one area remained — the place where the strongest auras were radiating.

“Oh? It seems they’ve noticed.”

I had tried to move as silently as an assassin, but the enemies seemed to have sensed something.

I felt their tense energy emanating from the direction of the door.

I could sense them preparing to react to an intruder from the second floor.

If I walked in normally, they would swarm me like a string of sausages.

I had no interest in playing along with the enemy’s strategy.

Boom!

I kicked off the ground.

The force vibrating from beneath my feet traveled up my body and amplified.

If I extended my hand toward an enemy at this moment…

‘It would take the form of an explosive strike.’

But if I used that same power on my own body…

K-boom!

It became a massive explosive force that could make a human fly like a bird.

Mugong, in the end, changed its principles based on how it was used, becoming an infinite source of power depending on one’s application.

And…

“Behind us!”

It became an excellent tool for dealing with idiots who stared at me with blank eyes, clearly not expecting me to target them from behind.

“Yo.”

It was a very effective conversation starter.

The two high-level Practitioners were twins.

They looked exactly alike, and their muscle development suggested they practiced the same swordsmanship.

They had the same well-groomed beards, and…

“Kill him!”

“Got it!”

Their movements as they lunged forward simultaneously were also identical, as if cast from the same mold.

Swish!

Two swords, perfectly symmetrical, aimed directly at my forehead.

“Oh?”

I tilted my head back to dodge.

The moment I looked up again, the swords that had been aiming for my forehead were now thrusting toward both sides of my chest.

A good opportunity.

A crisis.

Thump.

I had no choice but to use my footwork to take a step back.

It was the first time in combat I felt forced to retreat due to an enemy’s prowess.

‘It’s a Combined Attack Art.’

A Combined Attack Art.

It was a method where two or more people combined their strength to attack.

Clumsy individuals would only get in each other’s way.

‘But well-trained ones create a synergy.’

A well-executed Combined Attack Art could produce several to dozens of times the original power.

Shaolin’s Arhat Array was like that, and so was the Mount Hua Sect’s Plum Blossom Sword Array.

There were even instances where mere grunts mastered such arts to roam the Murim.

I didn’t expect to see it here.

“So this is why Reton was scared, even though they only sent two.”

They were strong.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Their attacks came at once.

Sometimes they coordinated, delivering a continuous barrage of sword strikes.

They were perfectly in sync; if I targeted one, the other would block.

They exchanged offense and defense in a unified cycle.

They were well-trained.

The fact that they were high-level Practitioners and were proficient in a Combined Attack Art was highly commendable.

Thump. Thump.

I moved between them as if dancing and asked, “I’ve heard that the knights of Marquis Owen in the south are quite good at this style of fighting.”

“Bullshit!”

Bang!

The enemy’s attacks grew more fierce.

“They say a strong denial is a strong affirmation, don’t they?”

Screeeech. Boom!

The two swords that shot out instantly as I twisted my body were top-tier!

“We’ll make sure to send you on your way!”

Vroooom—

It seemed they had no intention of hiding their strength anymore.

They unleashed their power as Practitioners.

Their bodies surged with speed as their energy began to circulate.

Both were high-level, perhaps even on the verge of becoming Experts.

‘They’re planning to end this.’

They had situational awareness and a Combined Attack Art.

They would make good hounds for someone.

Unfortunately…

“Your kind aren’t exactly the type to switch sides to me.”

“…Haaaah!”

K-boom!

A hound remains loyal to its master until the very end.

If a thing can’t be mine, and it’s an enemy…

“Then I have to muzzle it or boil it.”

Thud.

I shifted my movement.

From defensive to offensive.

As I kicked off, I drew my sword and coated it in Aura.

The enemies’ eyes widened at the sight of the thick Aura.

That surprise created…

‘An opening!’

That was enough.

K-boom!

I lunged forward, targeting the swordsman on the left first.

The First Move of the Great Heavenly Star Sword Technique.

“Heavenly Star Ten Swords.”

A vicious Illusion Sword.

In the Murim, it was known as the Red Cloud.

This first move was named so because the countless red sword energies it unleashed resembled a blood-colored cloud.

Slaaaaash.

A single swing became ten swords.

Then 100 swords.

Countless lines filled the space.

The momentarily scattered Illusion Swords filled every corner with Aura.

Real swords and illusions mixed until they all became real.

It was such a brutal technique that the Jegal Clan rarely used it, and it was sometimes misunderstood as an evil sword art.

‘It’s almost funny that my Older Brother attained enlightenment through a technique like this.’

“Block it!”

“Gah…!”

“…”

K-boom! Bang! Swish!

They began to swing their swords frantically to block the Heavenly Star Ten Swords.

The Combined Attack Art they used to protect each other was useless now.

The red mist had already reached wherever they moved.

Even if they tried to block, the fake and the real were too entangled.

In the Murim, an Illusion Sword wasn’t something you could block just by looking.

You had to pierce through it at once with extreme insight or crush it with overwhelming power using a Heavy Sword.

If you couldn’t do either…

“Aaaaaagh!”

“Cough… M-Magic?”

You would be crushed like those two.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Cut after cut.

The red cloud brushed past the enemies, severing arms and legs, embroidering their bodies in the same crimson hue.

Fwoosh—

All that remained in the wake of the Illusion Sword were the ruins of the surroundings, looking like a disaster zone.

“Magic? No… it’s just one form of the sword.”

“…Bullshit.”

“How can such swordsmanship exist…?”

Thud.

The two collapsed simultaneously.

Now that the stage for a conversation had been set, it was time to hear their story through the “means of conversation.”

After neutralizing the others who had belatedly rushed toward the second floor, I approached the two who had used the Combined Attack Art.

‘The rest are small fry.’

Given the circumstances, these two were bound to have all the information.

“Aaaaagh!”

I applied the Bun Geun Chak Gol, a technique that caused the agonizing sensation of bone and flesh being separated.

“Try to hold it in. Go ahead and spit at me like you did before.”

I performed the Bun Geun Chak Gol on both survivors.

Enduring such a technique while their bodies were already covered in wounds had to be unimaginably painful.

“Let’s use the power of healing. Heal!”

If I hadn’t cast the 3rd Circle spell, Heal, to close their wounds, they might have died quickly.

“Guh…!”

They glared at me with bloodshot eyes, but as time passed, their strength gradually faded.

To them, a few seconds of this pain must have felt like hours.

Crunch. Crack.

Look at that.

Their bones were splintering on their own from the sheer agony.

‘In my past life, I felt this kind of pain all the time.’

Jeongmak, the condition where all the blood vessels in the body are blocked.

The pain felt whenever Qi tried to move through those blocked vessels was even worse than the Bun Geun Chak Gol.

Having endured that pain for a lifetime, their bloodshot glares were pathetic to me.

“Shall we start the conversation again?”

“You crazy bastard!”

“Or we can keep going. Let’s see how long you last this time.”

The moment I finished speaking, terror flashed in their eyes.

Fear.

Once the seed of fear, which grows on its own if left alone, takes root, it’s over.

“Well?”

“I-I’ll talk…”

“Jesian!”

“…I can’t hold out any longer.”

One.

Only one needed to break.

Tap.

“Mmmph!!”

I struck the speech pressure point of the other twin and looked at Jesian.

“Speak. If you don’t do it right, I’ll inflict pain on him instead of you.”

“…You’re a monster.”

“I’ve heard that often. Now, let’s begin.”

Jesian, the man who had tried to set up a new organization here, opened his mouth.

And what he had to say…

‘I didn’t expect this… I knew something was off.’

The story was completely different from what we had initially suspected.

“Listen carefully.”

I signaled Reton to come over, then explained the situation to him as he stood there, still trembling.

In order to move forward, he needed to understand the situation.

“It wasn’t Dark Moon that came here.”

Dark Moon, the organization that had raised Reton and instilled such fear in him, hadn’t returned to the Spiritual Land.

‘I thought it was too early for them anyway.’

The ones who had come here weren’t from Dark Moon; they were from a completely unexpected place.

The Owen Marquisate from the south.

‘We were rivals, but still.’

This was the work of the man known as the Red Fox, who was always looking for a chance to snatch the southern regions of our Count’s territory.

These people were from the Red Fox, an organization created after the Marquis’s nickname to handle the family’s dirty work.

There was only one reason why they would send people of knight-level quality to our territory.

“They were planning to start by causing chaos in the rear.”

It was a move to carry out operations within the Count’s Direct Dominion.

They would have formed a secret organization and used it like a hidden dagger when the time was right!

There were many things they could have done.

They could have used the underworld members to incite chaos or started massive fires.

Making the people resentful was one of the easiest tasks.

It was difficult to set up, but once planted in the enemy’s heart, it became a powerful force.

Whether it was intentional or not, Marquis Owen had immediately noticed the changes in the local underworld and sent in his members at the perfect time.

‘It seems there are quite a few holes in this Spiritual Land. There’s more than one or two things that need fixing.’

Many things were bothering me.

“How were they planning to move?”

“In times like this, the ‘how’ isn’t what’s important, Reton. Keep this in mind: the ‘why’ is more important than the ‘how.’ The ‘how’ is just a detail for later.”

“…Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

Fortunately, Reton regained some of his senses once he realized they weren’t from Dark Moon.

He looked at me, his eyes focusing.

“If the ‘why’ is what’s important… then, does this mean war?”