Chapter 125

‘What? What?’

Zhuge Yan was flustered.

She couldn’t even make a sound. Come to think of it, she had thought she was speaking all along, but it was just her thoughts. She couldn’t even make a sound.

‘Huh? Huh?’

Fear struck her.

‘Why, why is my body like this? Why is this happening!’

Zhuge Yan couldn’t look anywhere else either. She had been unable to turn her head since earlier and could only stare at Jin Ja-gang.

The whole world was pitch black, and all she could see was Jin Ja-gang’s bright red eyes. She had the illusion that blood was flowing from the house-sized bright red eyes, wetting her ankles.

Only then did Zhuge Yan realize that her hands were trembling.

‘Am I intimidated? Me? By mere visible killing intent?’

Zhuge Yan had killed several times too. She had participated in several subjugations of bandits and river pirates and achieved considerable merit. She had chased fleeing, frightened bandits and cut their necks and stabbed their hearts to death. It was only slightly more troublesome than killing insignificant insects.

When she released some killing intent, bandits would sometimes wet themselves on the spot.

In Zhuge Yan’s memories of killing, only the perception of it being dirty remained.

So anyway, she too would be in the realm of visual killing intent. Did it make sense that she was being intimidated and threatened by visual killing intent of the same level, no matter how generously one judged?

But there was something Zhuge Yan didn’t know.

How many people would dare to reveal killing intent to kill Zhuge Yan of the Zhuge family, who was called one of the Three Dragons and Four Phoenix and received the Zhuge family’s favor?

Whether in sparring or fighting, opponents couldn’t think of killing Zhuge Yan because of the Zhuge family’s name alone.

Even if they could kill Zhuge Yan, they would have to bear the Zhuge family’s wrath that would pour down afterward. It wouldn’t just be a matter of the nine clans – the entire bloodline of the sect, including blood relatives, would be erased from the world without even a trace remaining.

So while there might have been those who showed killing intent to threaten Zhuge Yan, no one had ever revealed true killing intent.

Now, even though what Jin Ja-gang was showing was merely visible killing intent, Jin Ja-gang was truly thinking of killing Zhuge Yan.

Zhuge Yan was unfamiliar with such killing intent. This was also the first time Zhuge Yan had encountered absolute murderous intent directed at herself.

‘I will definitely kill you!’

‘Even if I have to throw away everything – my flesh, life, and pain!’

It was the voice thrown by Jin Ja-gang, who had crawled up from hell that humans couldn’t endure and survived tenaciously, covered in the blood of countless others. This terrible murderous intent of someone who would stake everything they had and charge to kill was something that Zhuge Yan, who had grown up pampered, absolutely could not endure.

‘I, I am… I am!’

Zhuge Yan trembled, her teeth chattering.

The bright red eyes were gradually approaching her.

If time had continued like that, Zhuge Yan would have allowed Jin Ja-gang’s attack without even being able to resist.

However, at that moment, a gap suddenly appeared in the world that the bright red eyes had imprisoned.

Shin Yung had released Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang. He blocked the long-faced warrior who had been beating Mr. Jang’s wife and Rangrang, and even opened the gate to let them escape.

It was a gap that Jin Ja-gang had shown at that moment. Zhuge Yan used all her strength to twist her body and escape through the gap.

Shin Yung commanded.

“Block him!”

The Zhuge family warriors came to their senses at the command and drew their swords.

Four warriors, including the long-faced warrior, rushed at Jin Ja-gang.

* * *

Zhuge Yan was gasping for breath with an expression of disbelief.

“Huff! Huff!”

Her whole body was instantly soaked with sweat.

She hadn’t been this tense and frightened recently. She was both embarrassed and her pride was hurt.

Grind grind grind!

Zhuge Yan ground her teeth.

“Sorcery! He’s using sorcery!”

It was an empty cry to no one in particular. Zhuge Yan glared at Shin Yung with fire in her eyes.

“You! Who told you to release the hostages!”

Shin Yung already knew that his master had been in a very dangerous situation just moments ago. It was because he had released the two that Jin Ja-gang’s killing intent toward the young master had softened.

But he didn’t say it directly.

“There’s nothing good about provoking the opponent, Young Lady.”

Slap!

Zhuge Yan struck Shin Yung’s cheek.

“Never act insolently toward me again in front of the enemy.”

“I apologize.”

Zhuge Yan drew up her internal energy and pulled out her soft sword. The soft sword gleamed and swayed flexibly.

“I won’t let this go.”

Zhuge Yan glared at Jin Ja-gang fighting the warriors.

* * *

Jin Ja-gang had been continuously maintaining the rotation of internal energy since earlier. He could see everything – the facial expressions of the four warriors, their stride lengths, and the directions their swords were coming from.

While maintaining the rotation of internal energy, his right-side movements also became much faster. Jin Ja-gang dodged the first sword strike rather leisurely.

Swish!

The warrior’s sword missed so ridiculously wide that it was embarrassing. The warrior also showed clear signs of confusion.

For a Zhuge family warrior to strike so poorly it looked almost like a complete miss!

This was because Jin Ja-gang, who wasn’t yet accustomed to his own speed, had moved excessively. Another warrior tried to help from the side to cover his colleague’s opening.

Jin Ja-gang ignored those two and targeted the long-faced warrior.

The long-faced warrior clearly remembered that Jin Ja-gang had said he would cut off his arm just moments ago.

“Don’t think you’ll just get away with it!”

The long-faced warrior thrust his sword first toward the approaching Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang rolled on the ground, secretly grabbed a handful of dirt, and threw it at the long-faced warrior.

Whoosh!

Dust clouds spread hazily.

Jin Ja-gang was well known for using poison techniques. The long-faced warrior thought Jin Ja-gang had used poison and was startled, dodging to the side.

Jin Ja-gang watched the long-faced warrior dodge, then immediately followed and raised his right hand to strike down like a sword. The internal energy that had been rotating fiercely in his body moved to his right hand.

It wasn’t the Parting Hand Arrow Shot technique. He had just poured out internal energy.

Crack!

The long-faced warrior’s shoulder collapsed under Jin Ja-gang’s hand blade infused with internal energy.

“Aaaaah!”

Jin Ja-gang grabbed the long-faced warrior’s leg, knocked him down, and climbed on top. Fear appeared in the long-faced warrior’s expression.

Thwack!

Jin Ja-gang headbutted the long-faced warrior’s face with his forehead.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

His nose collapsed and his face was crushed. Jin Ja-gang’s forehead was also torn and became bloody. But Jin Ja-gang didn’t stop.

The long-faced warrior’s struggling gradually decreased.

“Ugh… uuugh…”

Pitiful moans flowed from the mouth of the long-faced warrior whose face was almost caved in.

The other warriors slashed at Jin Ja-gang’s back with their swords.

Jin Ja-gang didn’t dodge. Two sword marks appeared on his back. They were clearly cut deep enough to see the flesh split open. Blood spurted from the split flesh.

But Jin Ja-gang neither dodged nor retreated.

He just turned his head to look back.

The warriors were intimidated by that indifferent, blood-tinged gaze. One tried to approach to save his colleague but suddenly spat blood.

“Kugh!”

“When did he use poison!”

When the warriors spat blood and retreated, Jin Ja-gang turned his gaze to the long-faced warrior. He stood up and stomped on the long-faced warrior’s fingers as if crushing them. The long-faced warrior’s fingers broke and he dropped the sword he was holding.

Jin Ja-gang picked up his sword. He drew up internal energy and put it into his arm.

A voice filled with killing intent and sharply split came from Jin Ja-gang’s mouth.

“Give me your arms.”

Fear appeared on the long-faced warrior’s face.

“Mer-mercy!”

But Jin Ja-gang stood over the long-faced warrior and struck down with the sword just like that.

One side, then the other side.

Until both arms of the long-faced warrior fell off.

The long-faced warrior convulsed a few times, having seizures, then gradually stopped breathing.

Zhuge Yan shuddered at the terribly obsessive and cruel scene.

“Mad-madman…”

She got goosebumps.

His martial arts weren’t proper, and his mind seemed strange somewhere too.

He had even persistently targeted and killed only the long-faced warrior. As if he had to keep his word to the end.

But Zhuge Yan was also a martial artist. She had not only undergone high-intensity training but also accumulated sufficient real combat experience.

Zhuge Yan took deep breaths and calmed her mind with the Zhuge family’s secret mental cultivation method.

Though she had been intimidated by the strange sorcery, she wasn’t at a level to be pushed back in martial arts.

“Everyone get out of the way!”

It was a shout at the warriors who weren’t helping and were uselessly hesitating after being poisoned.

The warriors retreated from Jin Ja-gang, bleeding from their mouths and noses.

Jin Ja-gang wiped the blood from his forehead with his sleeve. Then he stared directly at Zhuge Yan. His look said “Are you next?”

It was an incredibly arrogant gaze that treated Zhuge Yan as just one of the warriors.

When Zhuge Yan met Jin Ja-gang’s bright red eyes, she strangely felt her body shrinking again, but since she had experienced it once before, it was more bearable than earlier.

Shin Yung advised.

“Young Lady, don’t look into his eyes.”

“I know! He’s using sorcery!”

It wasn’t sorcery. That was pure murderous intent.

It was an illusion created by Zhuge Yan’s fear of death. Zhuge Yan just wouldn’t admit it herself.

Shin Yung knew this.

He too was confused by the unfathomable depth of madness he felt from Jin Ja-gang.

Human eyes show many things.

What thoughts they’re having, what kind of life they’ve lived, with what heart they view the world.

Present, past, and future are all contained within.

In that person’s eyes right now, only murderous intent exists.

Death in the present, only death in the past, and only death remaining in the future too – such terrible eyes.

You rarely see someone with such eyes in the human world.

They would be eyes you could only see in hell.

‘What kind of life has that person lived to be able to have such eyes?’

Even for Shin Yung, who had served Zhuge Yan as his master and handled all sorts of behind-the-scenes work that Zhuge Yan didn’t know about, these were eyes difficult to understand.

It would be best not to clash with such a person if possible. Especially eyes like Zhuge Yan’s, which had grown up seeing only good things, could never overcome such eyes.

But even so, Zhuge Yan’s martial prowess was by no means low. Though he hadn’t yet figured out how poison was being used or the methods of using poison, she still wasn’t Jin Ja-gang’s match.

Shin Yung believed in Zhuge Yan.

* * *

“Did you look down on me?”

Zhuge Yan ground her teeth and charged at Jin Ja-gang. Without any particular warning, she wielded her soft sword without restraint.

Clatter clatter clack!

One, two, four!

The soft sword that had been one split and instantly divided into four.

Jin Ja-gang was facing a soft sword for the first time. It swayed so dazzlingly that it was dizzying just to watch, confusing the eyes. It wasn’t easy to judge instantly where it was trying to attack.

A long sword mark appeared on Jin Ja-gang’s forearm. It seemed like a whip had struck, but he was wounded as if cut by a blade.

The wound stung.

Jin Ja-gang created internal energy and moved his body using footwork.

Clatter clack!

The soft sword bounced from bottom to top, from top diagonally, from diagonal to diagonal again. Each time the soft sword bent, bloody lines were drawn on Jin Ja-gang’s body.

It wasn’t simply cutting and slashing. When the tip of the soft sword curved and bounced in circles, it scooped out flesh like spooning.

Not long after the fight began, Jin Ja-gang’s entire body was already bloody.

Blood dripped down, with blood drops scattered in all directions.

If you use a soft sword well, it’s possible to subdue someone by just touching blood points, but she was deliberately inflicting pain.

“Where’s that poison you were so proud of? Hm?”

Zhuge Yan wiped her blood-stained lips and smiled. It wasn’t her blood but Jin Ja-gang’s blood drops.

Jin Ja-gang took a long deep breath and looked at Zhuge Yan with his bloody face.

“I already used it, but didn’t you see?”

Unlike earlier, Jin Ja-gang was much more stable. His tone had also returned to normal.

After being consumed by anger and becoming fanatical, he had finally returned to his right mind only after seeing blood.