Martial Artist Lee Gwak

Chapter 61: The War of Those Who Do Not Exist (2)

Light Novel: Volume 3 Chapter 11

Manhwa: Chapter 55

Lee Gwak walked out of the Outer Hall, rubbing his stiff neck. For the past three days, he had been staying in the Jade Heaven Alliance, leading Squad 13.

During their time in the Jade Heaven Alliance, Lee Gwak and his squad had taken on all kinds of menial tasks. Although Lee Gwak didn’t feel physically tired thanks to his strong inner energy, he still felt somewhat drained mentally. That’s why he stepped outside to get some fresh air.

“Hoo!”

As he left the Outer Hall and walked through the night streets, his mind began to clear a little.

In the meantime, the situation in the Jade Heaven Alliance had become hectic. Countless martial artists moved like a storm to ensure the successful opening of the Jianghu Grand Conference.

A slightly doubtful expression appeared on Lee Gwak’s face.

Tomorrow was already the day when the Jianghu Grand Conference would be held. Since that was the case, it would only be right for at least one or two messengers or masters from the various sects who had entered the Jade Heaven Alliance to participate in the conference to appear. However, he hadn’t seen a single martial artist like that.

It was certain that the Gathering of the Young Supremes would be held. After all, he had personally inspected and checked the trap mechanisms in the annex where the event was set to take place. However, he had no idea where the Jianghu Grand Conference would be held.

As Lee Gwak walked aimlessly, he soon found himself in a secluded alley within the inner city. After realizing he had gone too far, he was about to turn around and head back to the Outer Hall when—

His senses picked up a strange sensation. It was so subtle that if his sixth sense, the sixth snake, hadn’t awakened, he might not have noticed at all.

Just as Lee Gwak frowned slightly, a black shadow appeared silently, blocking his path.

It was a martial artist dressed entirely in black. His face was tightly covered by a black mask.

The man spoke.

“Lee Gwak, squad leader of Squad 13 from the Outer Hall, correct?”

His voice sounded unpleasant, like the sound of metal scraping against a spoon.

Lee Gwak stared intently at the masked martial artist, his gaze calm and steady.

It was clear at a glance that the man hadn’t come with good intentions.

“And who might you be?”

“So it is you.”

The eyes visible through the mask gleamed with a sinister light. As he took a step toward Lee Gwak, he continued speaking.

“You’d better tell me about the mechanisms and secret passageways of the Jade Heaven Alliance, Lee Gwak!”

“……”

Lee Gwak’s eyes narrowed.

There were very few people who knew that he had discovered the secret passageways while inspecting the mechanisms of the Jade Heaven Alliance.

Swoosh!

The martial artist drew a sword from his waist, its blade gleaming menacingly.

“You’d do well to tell me willingly. Even if you don’t, there are others who will.”

At his words, Lee Gwak thought of Ma Duwon.

Because apart from him, the only other person who knew the most about the trap mechanisms and secret passages of the Jade Heaven Alliance was Ma Duwon.

“What have you done to Master Ma?”

“That’s none of your concern. You only need to tell me what I want to know.”

The martial artist raised his sword and pointed it at Lee Gwak’s throat.

He didn’t seem to consider the possibility of Lee Gwak resisting at all.

In his eyes, Lee Gwak was nothing more than an insignificant martial artist from the Outer Hall.

Even though the Jade Heaven Alliance was said to be the greatest in the world, the Outer Hall was merely the lowest-ranking organization within it, akin to a worker ant.

Lee Gwak was someone who could be crushed to death at any moment with just the flick of his hand, a worthless existence. Because of this, he was a bit careless.

At that moment, Lee Gwak said something unexpected.

“Are you an assassin from the Celestial Demon Union?”

“What?”

The martial artist’s eyes wavered for a moment.

Though he was usually very skilled at hiding his emotions, Lee Gwak’s unexpected question had caught him off guard.

He had never expected that a mere squad leader from the Outer Hall would be able to pinpoint his identity with such precision and strike like a dagger.

“Who the hell are you?”

“You already said it, didn’t you? I am the squad leader of Squad 13, Lee Gwak.”

“Hmph! So you’re not just a useless nobody?”

The assassin attacked Lee Gwak with a swift blow.

Swish!

His sword sliced through the darkness, rushing toward Lee Gwak at a terrifying speed.

The assassin intended to sever the tendons in both of Lee Gwak’s shoulders in one swift strike, rendering him incapacitated before torturing him.

As this was his intention from the start, there was no hesitation in his actions.

The assassin had no doubt that he would subdue Lee Gwak in a single move.

“Ugh!”

But the next moment, his confidence turned to disbelief as a painful groan escaped his mouth.

His sword had come to a dead stop right in front of Lee Gwak’s collarbone. Just an inch more, and Lee Gwak’s collarbone would have been cleanly split in two. But the assassin couldn’t push it any further. His arm holding the sword no longer had any strength.

Crack!

“What the—?”

The arm holding the sword started twitching. There was a black object clamping down on his arm.

It was a metal whip with a weight at the end— Lee Gwak’s meteor hammer.

Like a massive serpent, the meteor hammer coiled around the assassin’s arm with immense pressure.

Crack!

“Argh!”

The assassin’s eyes widened in pain as his muscles were torn apart, and his bones shattered into dozens of pieces.

If it had been an ordinary martial artist, they would have been incapacitated by this point. But he was a seasoned assassin who had successfully carried out countless assassinations.

‘I’ll sacrifice my right arm.’

He extended his left hand toward Lee Gwak.

Fufufufufuf!

In an instant, hundreds of silver needles shot out from his sleeve.

These were none other than the Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles, one of the famed secret weapons of Jianghu.

The Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles were terrifying hidden weapons where if even one needle hit its target, the victim’s bones and flesh would melt away, leaving nothing but a puddle of blood.

The assassin had no doubt that the Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles would take Lee Gwak’s life. Though it was regrettable that he couldn’t extract the information about the mechanisms and secret passageways, he wasn’t too concerned, as another assassin had already been dispatched to deal with Ma Duwon.

Fsssh!

White smoke billowed up in front of his eyes, obscuring his vision.

A smile tugged at the corners of the masked assassin’s mouth. The pure white smoke was proof that the Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles had hit their mark.

“How dare a mere Outer Hall squad leader—”

Shuoo!

It was then.

The white smoke parted, and a pure white blade shot out like lightning, piercing the assassin’s forehead.

“Keuk!”

The white blade that penetrated his forehead protruded from the back of his head.

The assassin’s eyes rolled to the back of his head and his body trembled violently.

At that moment, as the white smoke cleared, Lee Gwak emerged, gripping the sword.

A complex array of emotions, too difficult to put into words, flickered across Lee Gwak’s face. His hand, which held the sword, was trembling slightly.

This was his first kill.

Though he had always known that, as someone living within Jianghu, he would eventually have to kill someone, he never expected that moment to come so soon.

The Deadly Soul-Stealing Needle that was launched without warning had been truly dangerous. Almost instinctively, Lee Gwak had drawn his sword to defend himself and immediately counterattacked.

The result was the blade that had pierced the assassin.

The trembling in the assassin’s body gradually subsided. He had died.

Swish!

Lee Gwak retrieved his sword and meteor hammer. In the meantime, the assassin’s corpse, which had barely been standing like a scarecrow, collapsed to the ground.

Lee Gwak looked down at the assassin’s body for a moment, then bit his lip tightly. This was not the time to be lost in thought.

Lee Gwak searched the sleeve of the assassin’s left arm and found a small cylindrical device. It was the mechanism used to launch the Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles.

After inspecting the cylinder for a moment, Lee Gwak discovered a small button.

Lee Gwak aimed the cylinder at the assassin’s corpse and pressed the button. A faint metallic sound was heard, followed by the release of silver needles.

Fufufuf!

In an instant, the assassin’s body, struck by the needles, melted away, turning into a pool of blood.

Lee Gwak’s face twisted slightly at the sight.

“Crazy!”

He had never imagined that the silver needles fired from such a small cylinder could possess such horrifying power.

He briefly imagined what would have happened if he had been hit by even one of the Deadly Soul-Stealing Needles, and a chill ran down his spine.

The assassin had vanished from the world, leaving behind nothing but a pool of blood. Lee Gwak wasted no more time and turned away.

Lee Gwak rushed toward the main gate of the inner city.

Since Ma Duwon had arranged for him to enter the inner city at any time, the martial artists guarding the inner city opened the gate for him immediately.

Lee Gwak ran straight toward Ma Duwon’s residence.

“Please—!”

Bang!

He kicked the door open and rushed inside. There, he saw Ma Duwon lying on the ground, covered in blood, with a maidservant standing over him, holding a blood-stained dagger.

Blood dripped from the dagger the maidservant was holding. The maidservant looked momentarily startled by Lee Gwak’s sudden entrance. But it was only for a brief moment, as she quickly charged toward him at a terrifying speed.

Shiiiing!

The dagger in her hand flew at Lee Gwak’s vital points like a bolt of lightning.

In that instant, Lee Gwak bent his body low and gripped the hilt of his sword.

Flash!

A dazzling light flashed.

It was the first time he had used the Mountain Splitting Slash, the first form of the Eight Sects Sword Art. Its power was truly fearsome.

“Gah!”

A fountain of blood gushed from the maidservant’s neck. Her throat was cut in half, and she died instantly.

Lee Gwak immediately ran past the maidservant’s corpse and over to Ma Duwon.

“Are you all right?”

“Hngh!”

Ma Duwon groaned, barely clinging to life.

It looked like he had been tortured, as his chest was slashed repeatedly with a dagger.

Fortunately enough, he was still breathing, but he had lost so much blood that he would surely die if left untreated.

Suddenly, Lee Gwak remembered that he had a miraculous medicine in his possession.

Vital Essence Pill.

It was the elixir Dan Li-yeon had given him to heal the injuries he had sustained from the Internal Destruction Technique.

Without a second thought, Lee Gwak took out the Vital Essence Pill and administered it to Ma Duwon. Then, he tore some nearby cloth and tightly wrapped it around Ma Duwon’s wounds to stop the bleeding. As the bleeding ceased, the pallor of Ma Duwon’s face slowly began to improve.

As Ma Duwon’s breathing, which had been as precarious as a dying candle flame, began to stabilize a little, Lee Gwak spoke urgently.

“It’s me, Lee Gwak. Do you recognize me?”

“Ugh… Lee… Gwak.”

Ma Duwon barely managed to speak after recognizing Lee Gwak.

Though his voice was faint and weak, it seemed his life wasn’t in immediate danger anymore.

Grasping Lee Gwak’s hand, he continued.

“Assassins… disguised themselves as my attendants and infiltrated.”

“Assassins? You mean there was more than one?”

“Yes. They took information about the annex from me.”

“……”

The annex was where the Gathering of the Young Supremes was to be held.

The assassins were targeting the prodigies participating in the Gathering of the Young Supremes. Lee Gwak felt a bit relieved. He believed that the prodigies attending the Gathering of the Young Supremes would be more than capable of protecting themselves, at least to the extent of safeguarding their own lives.

Suddenly, Ma Duwon chuckled.

“Heh heh! They think they’ve gotten everything out of me, but I didn’t tell them the most important thing.”

“What is that?”

“The Hidden Blood Battalion is lying in wait at the annex. As soon as they enter, they’ll be wiped out by the battalion.”

“The Hidden Blood Battalion…”

“You don’t know, do you? The Hidden Blood Battalion is an elite assassin organization within the Jade Heaven Alliance that operates on the front lines. No matter how strong the assassins from the Celestial Demon Union may be, they won’t stand a chance against the Hidden Blood Battalion.”

Ma Duwon explained, assuming that Lee Gwak knew nothing about the Hidden Blood Battalion. However, Lee Gwak was already familiar with the Hidden Blood Battalion.

‘Socheon!’

Han Socheon was part of the Hidden Blood Battalion.

Lee Gwak’s gaze instinctively turned toward the direction of the annex.

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