Chapter 46

Chapter 46: The Sandstorm Calls for Blood (3)

With each footstep, the warriors slaughtering the laborers flinched in unison—as though their very hearts were responding to the sound of those approaching steps.

The corners of Jo Hyeol-san's eyes twitched.

A man emerged from the darkness.

Clad in a jet-black robe, he approached with a slight drag to his left leg.

All eyes fixed upon him. His overwhelming presence in the area made it impossible to look away.

*Shiver!*

Cold sweat trickled down the warriors' backs, though they were too tense to even notice.

Behind the man lay a mangled corpse. It had been one of the warriors about to kill the Geum father and daughter. His upper body had been crushed beyond recognition.

No one knew how the warrior had died. They had only heard a thunderous sound, and then seen his corpse.

All they could deduce was that this limping man who had just appeared had killed him. The method and technique were unknown, but the blood on the man's right hand proved it beyond doubt.

Everyone froze. The warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa, Shim Ok, and the Golden Horse Ranch folk—all of them.

At that moment, someone darted out from behind the limping man and rushed to the Geum father and daughter.

"Are you alright?"

It was Bang Jin-bo who cradled Geum So-hye in his arms, comforting her. For a moment, Geum So-hye stared blankly between the limping man and Bang Jin-bo, then relief washed over her face.

"Waaah! Hyung!"

Geum So-hye's cries echoed across the ranch.

The suffocating atmosphere that had gripped the area loosened slightly. Only then did the warriors let out ragged breaths. Jo Hyeol-san was no exception.

Jo Hyeol-san drew a deep breath and stepped forward. His face was taut with tension.

"I did not realize we had an honored guest. If it would not be impolite, might I ask your name and title?"

"…"

The man in the black robe—Dam Ho—turned his gaze upon Jo Hyeol-san.

Tightly sealed lips, eyes sunken so deep into darkness they were indistinguishable from it, and deep shadows cast across his entire face—all combined to make his presence all the more intense.

Jo Hyeol-san found himself overwhelmed by Dam Ho's aura. Under that savage gaze flickering in the darkness, he felt as though his entire body were being torn to shreds.

*What manner of gaze is this…*

Dam Ho stared at Jo Hyeol-san without uttering a word. Jo Hyeol-san's lips grew parched. He wanted desperately to escape this silence.

*Please, say something—anything.*

Whether his desperate plea was answered, Dam Ho finally spoke.

"Who are you?"

"We are warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa."

Jo Hyeol-san answered quickly.

He prayed desperately that Dam Ho had heard of Seocheon Mountain Villa. Only then might he buy a little time.

Dam Ho tilted his head. At that gesture, Jo Hyeol-san felt his heart plummet.

Jo Hyeol-san was a strong man.

He was not the sort to be cowed by an opponent's mere aura, to stand here breaking into a cold sweat. If he were, he would never have become Eun Ha-seong's trusted confidant or led Seocheon Mountain Villa.

But now, Jo Hyeol-san genuinely feared Dam Ho.

Dam Ho possessed an aura unlike any other warrior. The overwhelming presence of a savage beast, the raw killing intent that gnawed at the soul.

Of all the warriors Jo Hyeol-san had encountered, none had shaken a man's soul to its foundation like Dam Ho.

Jo Hyeol-san knew instinctively.

*This is not a man I should make an enemy of.*

If this man became an enemy, the consequences would be endless.

Jo Hyeol-san hastened to continue.

"We have come for that woman. If you allow us to take her, we will withdraw quietly."

Dam Ho's gaze turned to Shim Ok.

Shim Ok was drenched in blood. She gazed at Dam Ho with an exhausted expression.

Dam Ho recalled that he had seen her once before, though he could not remember when. But Shim Ok, in her harried state, did not recognize his face.

Then Jo Hyeol-san spoke again.

"She trespassed into our villa and committed a grave offense. If you allow us to take her, we will leave without further incident."

"As you please?"

"What do you mean?"

"You invade at will, slaughter all these people, and now you wish to leave as you please?"

His voice was like thunder rumbling from the depths of hell—rough and deeply resonant.

The killing intent contained in that voice constricted the hearts of all who heard it.

"Ugh!"

Several warriors groaned as though in pain. The laborers had long since lost their wits. Some had even soiled themselves.

They had known Dam Ho was no ordinary man, but the aura and presence he now displayed far exceeded anything they could have imagined.

Jo Hyeol-san bit his lip.

"Urgh! So you refuse the cup of wine and choose the cup of poison? You will regret this."

"Is that so?"

"We are warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa."

"Is Seocheon Mountain Villa that impressive?"

"Now I see you are clearly insane. To dare look down on Seocheon Mountain Villa…"

In the end, Jo Hyeol-san could contain himself no longer and erupted in a shout.

Though he was genuinely overwhelmed by Dam Ho's presence, he judged that if he continued to lose ground, things would end badly for him.

"If you interfere with us any further, we will not let it stand. There will be no more warnings."

In that instant, Dam Ho's eyes flared with terrifying intensity in the darkness.

"Warnings are typically issued by the strong to the weak. But you do not appear particularly strong."

"Urgh! Attack! Kill him!"

Jo Hyeol-san roared the order.

At his command, the warriors charged toward Dam Ho in unison.

What gripped their faces was desperation. If they could not deal with Dam Ho now, there would be no future to speak of. That desperation drove them to fight with abandon.

Dozens of warriors rushing toward Dam Ho.

The murderous weapons in their hands. Their eyes, honed into daggers that stabbed toward Dam Ho.

Until that moment, Dam Ho had not moved.

"Be careful!"

Shim Ok's voice rang out.

In that instant, Dam Ho kicked off the earth.

*BOOM!*

A thunderous sound erupted, and a living person became a mangled corpse, hurtling backward.

There was not even a scream.

For the first time, people understood that a human being could die so utterly without meaning.

"What?"

Jo Hyeol-san's eyes went wide.

With his crippled left leg, Dam Ho kicked off the ground. In that instant, his body became a line that cleaved through the air.

Then came the roar that followed.

*CRASH!*

And the death that arrived on its heels.

The warrior who became a corpse and tumbled across the ground was someone Jo Hyeol-san knew well.

Gong Dal-cheon, whose smile had been exquisite, now lay dead upon the ground. On his face, the last expressions to surface were fear and confusion.

Charging Step followed by Fortress Breaking Fist.

The art of straight-line movement, focused solely on the path ahead.

The technique was crude, the footwork even simpler. Yet no one could evade Dam Ho's strike.

*BOOM!*

After the thunderous sound came, without fail, someone's silence.

Thus did death come to them without warning.

"Impossible. How is this possible?"

Jo Hyeol-san's teeth clattered together.

The warriors he had brought were among Seocheon Mountain Villa's finest. They were never weak enough to fall to such simple techniques.

From a distance like Jo Hyeol-san's, it seemed strange that the warriors could not evade Dam Ho's attacks.

But for the warriors directly facing Dam Ho, the pressure and terror they experienced were beyond imagination.

As though trapped in a massive swamp, their entire bodies felt powerless. Their feet were heavy as though bound by thousand-pound shackles, and their bodies would not obey their will.

Dam Ho, closing the distance in a single step while tracing a single line through the air.

There was no room to dodge, no possibility of blocking.

Dam Ho's charge transcended the bounds of their perceptual faculties. By the time they registered his attack, the Fortress Breaking Fist had already struck their bodies.

*CRASH!*

"Kuagh!"

As though crushed by a massive boulder, the warrior let out a terrible scream.

But he alone screamed. The others could not even manage that.

*Boom! Boom! Boom!*

Like fireworks, thunderous sounds erupted in rapid succession, and mangled corpses flew in all directions. The storm of death swept through the warriors of Seocheon Mountain Villa in the blink of an eye.

"Urgh!"

Jo Hyeol-san's pupils trembled.

In his eyes was a terror he could not hide.

At last, Dam Ho's frenzied charge came to a halt. No one had stopped him. He had stopped himself, for there was no one left to kill.

Dam Ho's entire body was drenched in blood. He had bathed in the blood of those he had slain.

Shim Ok could not bear to watch and turned her head away.

"Insane…"

That was her honest sentiment.

A sudden wave of nausea overcame her. Unable to hold back, Shim Ok doubled over toward the ground.

"Bleh!"

She had not eaten, yet she expelled everything within her. Without doing so, she could not endure.

What Dam Ho had just displayed was more shocking than any scene she had witnessed in her entire life.

"How can a human being kill another so easily?"

Dam Ho did not strike her as a martial artist.

In her eyes, he was a human butcher—and a consummate professional at that, one who knew how to maximize efficiency with minimal effort.

Dam Ho's gaze turned to Jo Hyeol-san.

Among those who had invaded the Golden Horse Ranch, only he and Shim Ok remained alive.

"Urgh!"

Overwhelmed by Dam Ho's gaze, Jo Hyeol-san involuntarily retreated step by step. But the distance between them did not increase at all, for Dam Ho was walking toward him.

When killing the warriors, Dam Ho had been like a tempest. But now he walked with a limp.

In ordinary times, one might have mocked a cripple. But Jo Hyeol-san could not. That image of Dam Ho was all the more terrifying for it.

"D-do not come closer."

Jo Hyeol-san's voice trembled of its own accord. But he could not halt Dam Ho's approach.

"I-I am the chief steward of Seocheon Mountain Villa. If you lay a hand on me, Seocheon Mountain Villa will never forgive you."

"Is Seocheon Mountain Villa that impressive?"

"It is! Seocheon Mountain Villa is the true overlord of Xinjiang. And that is not all—Seocheon Mountain Villa's reach extends to the Central Plains as well. To touch Seocheon Mountain Villa means you can never live in peace, even in the Central Plains."

"Is that so?"

"It is! Now that you know, let me go. I will not hold you accountable any further."

Seeing that his words seemed to be having an effect, a glimmer of hope appeared on Jo Hyeol-san's face.

At that moment, Shim Ok cried out:

"You absolutely must not let him go! Seocheon Mountain Villa has been kidnapping merchants crossing the plains and forcing them into labor!"

"That woman…"

Jo Hyeol-san glared at Shim Ok, who had thrown a wrench into his carefully laid plan. But Shim Ok paid no heed and continued.

"It is true! Even now, countless people are being held and forced to work. I saw it with my own eyes at the cliff atop the mountain."

She screamed until her throat was raw.

The first to react was Bang Jin-bo.

"How can this be…"

Bang Jin-bo's shoulders shook.

He had always harbored doubts about his father's death. Instinctively, he realized that Seocheon Mountain Villa was connected to it.

Dam Ho was no different.

Dam Ho's eyes began to flicker with an ominous light.

"So it was you."

His single sentence froze Jo Hyeol-san's heart.