"Damn it!"
"Urk!"
The Black Forest Corps warriors, facing the blue lightning head-on, deployed their supreme techniques to shield themselves.
Azure Thunder Demon Hands was certainly a top-tier ultimate art with tremendous power. Had they been ordinary warriors, they would have fallen helplessly before it.
But its targets were poorly chosen.
The Black Forest Corps were all lay disciples of the Nine Great Sects.
And not ordinary lay disciples at that — each possessed talent and martial prowess rivaling the home-mountain disciples themselves.
Though they suffered no small amount of damage, they at least managed to avoid fatal wounds.
The problem was the ordinary people aboard the ship.
Unlike the Black Forest Corps warriors, these people possessed neither the means nor the ability to protect themselves.
They were utterly defenseless, staring death in the face.
That was when Ha Baek-jin stepped forward.
"Hyaaah!"
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
Ha Baek-jin launched fist qi to obliterate the lightning streaking toward the passengers. But it was impossible for him alone to extinguish every strand of blue lightning.
Several surviving bolts shot toward the passengers huddled in the corner of the deck.
"No!"
Ha Baek-jin looked toward the passengers with an anguished expression.
That was when it happened.
WHOOSH—!
Suddenly, like a phantom, someone materialized before the passengers.
The man who appeared with his white beard streaming down to his chest was none other than Baek Ho-yang.
"How unconscionable. To target people who have committed no wrong."
Baek Ho-yang shook his head and glared at the blue lightning. In that instant, as if by some miracle, the bolts aimed at the passengers simply vanished.
"Ah!"
Ha Baek-jin wore an expression of disbelief.
He could not fathom what technique the old man had used to snuff out the blue lightning.
Only then did Ha Baek-jin realize that Baek Ho-yang was an even more formidable master than he had vaguely imagined.
He had assumed the man was skilled, given his friendship with his grandmaster, the Great Monk Hye-gong — but he had never expected anything of this magnitude.
"Graaagh!"
Enraged that his attack had come to nothing, Gi Pyeong-wi unleashed Azure Thunder Demon Hands once more.
But this time, too, his attack was blocked by Ha Baek-jin and the Black Forest Corps warriors.
Whatever lightning they failed to stop, Baek Ho-yang extinguished.
"What are you?! Why are you interfering, old man?!"
Gi Pyeong-wi's fury finally boiled over. He spat curses at Baek Ho-yang and charged. But before he made it even halfway, Ha Baek-jin cut him off.
"Where do you think you're going?"
CRASH—!
His fist detonated against the palm Gi Pyeong-wi had extended to unleash Azure Thunder Demon Hands.
The massive impact sent Gi Pyeong-wi's body reeling.
Others could be overlooked, but Gi Pyeong-wi was one man Ha Baek-jin would never forgive.
Ha Baek-jin pressed the attack with ferocious intensity.
CRASH—! BOOM—! CRASH—!
Explosions rang out in rapid succession.
It was clear to anyone watching that Ha Baek-jin had seized the upper hand.
And it was not only Ha Baek-jin — Gwak Pung, too, held the advantage over the Blue Wolf Band Leader.
Even as he fought the Blue Wolf Band Leader, Gwak Pung had grasped the full picture of what was happening.
Once Gwak Pung understood the entire situation, his chest burned with rage.
Because once again — yet again — he had been used and betrayed by others.
He had lost count of how many times he had been stabbed in the back in this short span of time.
The fury he had been burying deep inside erupted like a volcano.
Demon fire surged in his eyes.
"Did I look that ridiculous to you? Like someone you could use and throw away without a second thought......"
Drip—!
He had been clenching his teeth so hard that fresh blood seeped from between his lips. Combined with his eyes — bloodshot from burst capillaries — he looked like a malevolent spirit incarnate.
The Blue Wolf Band Leader drew a sharp breath at the sight of Gwak Pung's alarming transformation.
Killing intent, amplified several times over in an instant, seemed to pierce straight through his chest.
'What killing intent.......'
Even for him — a man who had spent his entire life doing the murim's dirtiest and most dangerous work — this was the most intense killing intent he had ever felt.
Only then did he realize something had gone terribly wrong, but it was already too late.
SHING—!
Gwak Pung's sword traced a circle through the air.
In that instant, a wheel wrought from qi materialized and hurtled toward the Blue Wolf Band Leader.
It was the Heaven-Defying Wheel, the second form of the Soul-Slaying Six Forms.
The moment he saw the Heaven-Defying Wheel, the Blue Wolf Band Leader felt as though his entire body was being ripped to shreds.
A warning screamed by instinct itself.
"Damn it!"
Without a moment's hesitation, the Blue Wolf Band Leader unleashed his most powerful technique at full force.
"Hraaah! Darkness Pierces Heaven."
Ink-black sword qi erupted from his blade and collided with the Heaven-Defying Wheel.
SHRRK—!
A chilling sound of metal being sheared tore through the air, and the Blue Wolf Band Leader's body lurched.
In the next instant, his complexion turned black as ash.
An expression of utter disbelief surfaced on his face.
Gwak Pung's Heaven-Defying Wheel had not only cleaved his sword in two — it had sliced cleanly through his waist and passed on through.
"Wh— what......"
The Blue Wolf Band Leader could not finish his words.
His upper body was slowly sliding along the severed line.
THUD—!
In the end, his torso crashed gracelessly to the ground.
That was the demise of the infamous Blue Wolf Band Leader.
"Hoo...... hoo......"
Gwak Pung drew ragged breaths.
It was not because killing the Blue Wolf Band Leader had drained his energy.
It was because, consumed by rage, he had drawn out a martial art that should never have been revealed — and he had done it of his own volition.
The Soul-Slaying Six Forms was not originally a Mount Hua Sect martial art.
It had belonged to a great demon of a previous generation whom Mount Hua had subdued long ago. The sect stored the demon's martial arts manual in their vault.
The purpose had been to find a way to counter the Soul-Slaying Six Forms. But the research stalled, and eventually the manual was buried deep in the vault, forgotten by all.
Gwak Pung's discovery of the Soul-Slaying Six Forms had been pure chance.
His exceptional ability had earned him access to the vault — a rare privilege for a lay disciple — and amid the mountains of texts stacked within, he had unearthed the Soul-Slaying Six Forms.
The moment he laid eyes on it, Gwak Pung felt a powerful sense of fate. So, knowing full well it was a forbidden art, he trained in it secretly.
Whether by natural affinity or something else, Gwak Pung mastered the Soul-Slaying Six Forms with extraordinary speed. Yet he had never once used it in the open. He had kept it hidden all this time — until today, when rage stripped away his restraint.
By the time he realized his mistake, it was too late. But he did not regret it.
Had Mount Hua still been intact, the instant he revealed the Soul-Slaying Six Forms, they would have crippled his martial arts and expelled him.
But the Mount Hua Sect was no longer a threat to him.
After all, Mount Hua had entered sect seclusion and would wield no influence in the murim for decades to come.
The real concern was the other Black Forest Corps warriors.
They were all lay disciples of the Nine Sects — how they would view him now was a critical question.
Fortunately, the Black Forest Corps warriors showed little aversion, even though the martial art he had displayed reeked of killing intent.
They, too, had reached the peak of their rage over this wretched situation.
During the war against the Heavenly Mandate Society, at least they had their pride.
The very fact that they, as lay members of the Nine Great Sects, had fought in a great war that decided the fate of the murim — that had been their highest honor.
But now that the war against the Heavenly Mandate Society was over, not a single soul acknowledged them. Their sects had bolted the doors shut, and the murim's powers saw them only as tools to exploit.
Under these circumstances, even if Gwak Pung had unleashed demonic arts — arts forbidden throughout the murim — it hardly mattered.
They were discarded people, after all.
That was when it happened.
"Guh!"
Gi Pyeong-wi, vice-leader of the Silver River Trading Company, coughed blood and crumpled under Ha Baek-jin's assault.
Azure Thunder Demon Hands was certainly a rare ultimate art in the murim, but it fell short of the Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
Moreover, Ha Baek-jin had delved deep into the Hundred-Step Divine Fist and established his own martial philosophy. On top of that, he had weathered countless real battles during the war against the Heavenly Mandate Society.
Gi Pyeong-wi, who had only ever trained in safety, was no match for him.
Having felled Gi Pyeong-wi, Ha Baek-jin approached Gwak Pung.
"What was that about? Since when does Mount Hua have a martial art dripping with that much killing intent?"
"That's not what matters right now."
"What?"
"What matters is that we were used as cards to be discarded — again. Every last one of them, this side and that, they all plan to use us and throw us away. If we'd been weaker — if I hadn't trained in the Soul-Slaying Six Forms — we'd have been cast aside like hunting dogs once the rabbit was caught."
"Now hold on, Pung—"
"I'm going to hold those who used us accountable."
"What kind of foolish—"
"Do you think I'm a fool? Look at them. They're the comrades who fought beside you in the war. Men who fought with more honor than anyone. Do you really think it's right for them to live this wretchedly? Tell me, Baek-jin!"
Gwak Pung's voice was laden with bitter indignation.
He raged against the current state of the murim — against the powers that sought only to exploit them.
Those powers had been cowards who stood by and watched while the Heavenly Mandate Society and the Nine Great Sects tore each other apart.
He could no longer endure being jerked around and used by such people.
Ha Baek-jin asked.
"So what exactly are you proposing?"
"Instead of being used by others, we become the ones who use. Instead of duckweed drifting across the murim, we build our own fortress in a corner of it. A fortress so large and powerful that no one would dare challenge us."
"What funds would you build a fortress with? ......Don't tell me?"
"That's right! The gold ingots on this ship, the weapons — all of it becomes ours. They betrayed us first, so the justification is on our side. We'll use that as the foundation to build our own fortress. Join us, Baek-jin!"
"Good heavens!"
Ha Baek-jin was stunned by Gwak Pung's declaration.
He had never in his wildest dreams expected Gwak Pung to make a move like this.
Around Gwak Pung, the Black Forest Corps warriors were gathering.
Not a single one opposed him.
Drip, drip.
Blood was trickling from their weapons.
The Blue Wolf Band and the escorts Gi Pyeong-wi had brought — all of them had perished at the warriors' hands.
The only ones left alive were the ordinary passengers, Ha Baek-jin, and Baek Ho-yang and Woo Geom-san.
Even the Red Tide Faction crewmen were so overwhelmed by Gwak Pung and the Black Forest Corps' presence that they dared not utter a word.
Gwak Pung extended a hand to Ha Baek-jin.
"Join us. We need your strength."
"I can't do that."
"Then don't get in our way. Interfere, and we'll consider you our enemy too."
Every warrior of the Black Forest Corps — not just Gwak Pung — fixed Ha Baek-jin with eyes brimming with killing intent.
Being stared down with hostility by comrades who had shared life and death on the battlefield was a form of torture for Ha Baek-jin.
But he did not wish to align himself with their cause.
Using betrayal as a pretext to seize the gold ingots and weapons was nothing but a coward's excuse.
Though Shaolin had entered sect seclusion, he still carried the pride of being a Shaolin disciple.
He refused to stain his sect's honor.
"Just don't lay a hand on the passengers claiming you need to destroy evidence. Do that, and I won't interfere."
"We are not butchers. We have no intention of killing passengers."
Gwak Pung's gaze suddenly shifted to the old man standing on the opposite side of the deck.
An elderly man of otherworldly bearing with a white beard grown to his chest — Baek Ho-yang.
A warrior whom Shaolin's Great Monk Hye-gong had personally invited.
There was no telling how powerful he truly was, but judging by the effortless display against Gi Pyeong-wi's Azure Thunder Demon Hands, it was clear he possessed staggering martial prowess.
At this moment, the only person on Gwak Pung's mind was Baek Ho-yang.
If Baek Ho-yang chose to intervene, his and the Black Forest Corps' path could end before it even began.
Gwak Pung walked over to Baek Ho-yang.
"Senior! I have a request."
"Speak."
"Please turn a blind eye to what happened today. I will never forget your grace."
"......"
Baek Ho-yang furrowed his brow.
Strictly speaking, this was not his affair.
The grudges and debts of the murim were tangled beyond measure; one did not wade into them lightly.
Even from his perspective, the rage of Gwak Pung and the Black Forest Corps was justified.
His only lingering concern was Gwak Pung's killing-intent-laden martial art and his temperament.
'Is it truly right to stand by while a ruthless hero gains the wings of wealth?'
If things went wrong, Gwak Pung could plunge the murim into even deeper chaos.
If Baek Ho-yang stepped in now and eliminated Gwak Pung, he could prevent such turmoil before it ever took root. But he could not easily judge whether it was right to take a life over something that might never come to pass.
That was when Baek Ho-yang's gaze drifted to Woo Geom-san beside him.
Woo Geom-san, too, seemed to sense something — he was staring intently at Gwak Pung.
In that moment, Baek Ho-yang understood.
He himself was merely a passing encounter in Gwak Pung's life. His own era had already ended. But his grandson was different.
Woo Geom-san would live in the same era as Gwak Pung.
He did not know how their fates would intertwine, but should Gwak Pung ever bring harm upon the world, his grandson would deliver heaven's mandate in his stead.
Heaven's net may seem wide-meshed, but it is never careless — no cause goes unanswered.
The tenacious threads of Heaven's Net were already weaving Gwak Pung and Woo Geom-san together.
Baek Ho-yang let out a sigh.
"Hoo."