Chapter 284

Jin Ja-gang’s belief that it wasn’t the Martial Alliance or Tang family was based on the actions of those who had erased the evidence.

Boldly, they had departed in broad daylight, with multiple carts and dozens of laborers loading bodies and treasures while people watched openly.

If it had been the Martial Alliance, they would have revealed themselves by promoting it as an Alliance event. If it had been the Tang family, they would have disposed of everything secretly so others wouldn’t notice.

The villagers living nearby had no idea who they were or where they came from. Jin Ja-gang tried to track them, but their traces were cleanly erased with nothing remaining.

Such bold handling of affairs meant their backing was more formidable than Jin Ja-gang had thought.

Now the only place he hadn’t visited was Iron Umbrella Sect.

Jin Ja-gang had left Iron Umbrella Sect for last because of the words left by the sect leader Kang Gyu.

Regarding their attack on the Medicine Sect, Kang Gyu had said:

“We also… had no choice…”

He should have asked more at the time, but back then he didn’t have the leisure to think about various things while seeking revenge. It was questionable whether he could manage even if he focused solely on killing.

‘The Iron Umbrella sect leader knew the inside story. I hope something remains.’

However, considering how the third party handled things, the possibility of something remaining was slim.

Creak.

Jin Ja-gang opened the tilted door and entered.

Iron Umbrella Sect was left abandoned, half burned and half collapsed.

Blood stains scattered throughout had aged and discolored. Like at other Poison Sect locations, the bodies had been cleanly removed, making even bone fragments hard to find.

Jin Ja-gang continued searching the manor but found nothing useful.

But at some point, he felt strange.

‘Footprints.’

He saw footprints that seemed recently made on the ground.

Jin Ja-gang calmed his mind with breathing techniques. He spread his senses widely using meditation methods.

He felt it.

Someone was watching Jin Ja-gang.

Jin Ja-gang pretended not to notice and searched the garden. Though nothing helpful was found, he felt the number of presences gradually increasing.

Finally, when Jin Ja-gang entered a pavilion and came out, ten men surrounded the pavilion holding clubs and swords to greet him.

One of the men shouted angrily.

“I knew you’d come again if we waited!”

The men ground their teeth looking at Jin Ja-gang.

“How dare you kill our brothers and shamelessly appear without fear?”

There seemed to be a misunderstanding.

Jin Ja-gang didn’t respond. When they were this enraged, they wouldn’t answer properly even if Jin Ja-gang asked back.

Instead of answering, Jin Ja-gang put a short piece of bamboo tube in his mouth.

“Oh, so you won’t answer? Fine, let’s see how long you can keep that up.”

“If he won’t, we’ll make him able to!”

Jin Ja-gang still didn’t answer and lowered his stance as if to fight. The men immediately rushed at him.

“Attack!”

Jin Ja-gang dodged several times before getting hit by a club.

Whack!

He staggered after being hit on the back. The men struck with swords and kicked. Since they didn’t seem intent on killing, the sword strikes weren’t deep. Superficial cuts would heal in a day anyway. Jin Ja-gang took sword strikes as long as his muscles weren’t damaged and club blows as long as his bones weren’t injured.

To observers, Jin Ja-gang would appear to be struggling while being beaten. The men cursed and spoke while hitting Jin Ja-gang.

“What the hell are you guys doing! What are you that you dare rob an entire sect in broad daylight?”

“What’s your affiliation? Are you bandits?”

“Speak! Where are you from!”

But one man watching Jin Ja-gang closely while hitting him began to look strange.

Jin Ja-gang was staggering back while being beaten, and the sight seemed familiar somehow. The man muttered to himself with a puzzled expression.

“Limping?”

Jin Ja-gang’s appearance wasn’t ordinary. His pale, clear skin made him look like a wealthy young master, but his limp made him memorable.

The man who muttered “limping” looked at Jin Ja-gang closely, then stepped back in surprise and shouted.

“He’s limping! This isn’t the guy we’re looking for!”

Jin Ja-gang raised his head to look at the man. Sharp killing intent filled his eyes. Those were definitely not the eyes of someone being beaten.

The other men looked bewildered.

At that moment, Jin Ja-gang acted. He elbowed the man right next to him in the ribs, grabbed his neck and threw him forward. He kicked the man who swung a sword from behind in the groin with his back foot, then turned and broke his shoulder to make him drop the sword. Then he pressed the shoulder down and struck the jaw with his knee, knocking him unconscious.

A man in front swung a club. Jin Ja-gang blocked the club with his left wrist infused with turbid energy. The solid club broke with a cracking sound. When Jin Ja-gang glared at the man as if nothing happened, the club-wielding man’s eyes widened. Jin Ja-gang stabbed the man’s neck with his fingertips then kicked his abdomen, making him sit down on the spot.

He broke the arms of two men swinging swords from the side and back with grappling techniques, intertwined their arms, then lifted and threw both simultaneously. The two men rolled on the ground in a tangle.

When the remaining men hesitated, Jin Ja-gang rushed toward them. He dodged a sword, circled to the side and struck the back of the neck. The man’s eyes rolled back instantly. He kicked the ankle of a man trying to run away, dislocating it. One man threw his sword at Jin Ja-gang regardless of whether his comrades got hurt. Jin Ja-gang spun around, caught the flying blade with two fingers and threw it back as is. The sword embedded in the thigh of the man who threw it. Jin Ja-gang ran over, stepped on the sword handle and jumped. The man with the sword in his thigh screamed piercingly and rolled on the ground.

Jin Ja-gang leaped over the man to attack someone behind.

“You’ve got some skill!”

The man behind was the most skilled fighter among them. He was Black Scale Blade, a master from Yunnan who once lived as a guest at Iron Umbrella Sect and called sect leader Kang Gyu brother.

Black Scale Blade swung his cleaver forcefully to cut Jin Ja-gang in mid-air. The sound of the cleaver cutting through air was sharp. It contained enough force to cut a thick pig in one stroke.

Jin Ja-gang blew the tube in his mouth, shooting out Sharp Sound.

Tweet!

Black Scale Blade’s left pupil contracted while swinging the cleaver. With Sharp Sound penetrating his left ear, his shoulder would have shrunk and his head shaken. The cleaver’s force weakened. Jin Ja-gang struck down the back of the cleaver with his left palm.

Clang!

Black Scale Blade didn’t let go of the cleaver, but his arm broke and the cleaver tip stuck in the ground. Jin Ja-gang concentrated right-side pure energy in his right hand and punched Black Scale Blade’s solar plexus. Black Scale Blade placed his left forearm in front of his chest to block Jin Ja-gang’s punch.

Jin Ja-gang’s sharp right-side pure energy from the Fifth Light penetrated, even breaking through Black Scale Blade’s counter-force.

Bang!

Black Scale Blade dropped even his cleaver and flew backward spitting blood. His eyes couldn’t believe he had been knocked down in one second by a youth not even twenty.

The man who first mentioned Jin Ja-gang was limping trembled.

Black Scale Blade was a master with similar skills to Kang Gyu. For such a Black Scale Blade to spit blood and drop his sword in one second, it was obvious how this would end. The man took out a small Iron Umbrella from behind his back and aimed it at Jin Ja-gang.

Pfft!

A poison needle shot from the Iron Umbrella flew toward Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang could have dodged the poison needle but blocked it with his forearm. The poison needle embedded in his forearm.

Jin Ja-gang pulled out the needle embedded in his forearm with an unpleasant expression.

“Bone Breaking Needle. Disgusting as always.”

When Jin Ja-gang seemed unaffected even after being hit by the Bone Breaking Needle, the man’s face changed and he trembled before turning and running.

Click.

Jin Ja-gang removed a Soul Seizing Thread loop and threw it. The Soul Seizing Thread wrapped around the man’s neck.

“Kugh!”

The man stopped, grabbing his neck. The thin Soul Seizing Thread had dug into his flesh and couldn’t be removed. With the skill that defeated Black Scale Blade, cutting off his neck would be instantaneous.

Jin Ja-gang looked at the man with the Soul Seizing Thread around him and said.

“I remember. When I first came to Iron Umbrella Sect, you were guarding the main entrance.”

The man was completely terrified. However, he lied.

“I, I don’t know. I don’t know.”

“There are many people.”

Jin Ja-gang applied force to the Soul Seizing Thread.

The man urinated from being choked. Jin Ja-gang had subdued all the men without letting a single one escape. If he didn’t need hostages, he would kill the man.

“Y-yes! I was at the main entrance!”

“Then what was that talk earlier? About robbing the sect and killing brothers.”

Since Jin Ja-gang pointed it out precisely, the man had to answer.

The man grabbed his neck with a red face and spoke with difficulty.

Originally, the man was a warrior who guarded Iron Umbrella Sect’s main entrance. Because he was resting at home after being defeated by Jin Ja-gang back then, he avoided disaster when Mang Ryo came to Iron Umbrella Sect.

When the man heard Iron Umbrella Sect had been destroyed, he was initially terrified, but he coveted the treasures inside Iron Umbrella Sect. So the man gathered local thugs to find and carry away anything valuable.

But afterward, strangers he’d never seen appeared and began searching for items taken from Iron Umbrella Sect. However, the thugs had already disposed of the stolen goods early on, and they couldn’t find the Iron Umbrella Sect items that had scattered everywhere.

Meanwhile, several thugs died after severe torture.

This led the man to persuade Black Scale Blade, who was sworn brother to Iron Umbrella Sect’s Kang Gyu, to seek revenge against them. Then one of their group saw Jin Ja-gang entering Iron Umbrella Sect and contacted the others to gather.

After hearing the man’s story, Jin Ja-gang asked.

“So you don’t know who they were?”

“We really don’t know. If we knew, would we have attacked you? We thought they were bandits.”

Their mistake at Iron Umbrella Sect, unlike elsewhere, was because Mang Ryo, not Jin Ja-gang, had attacked here. They likely learned too late that Iron Umbrella Sect had been destroyed.

“Any memorable appearance, clothing, martial arts?”

“They were ordinary. There was one master, but the rest were at the level of ordinary escort guards. That’s why we thought we could handle them, kugh…”

Jin Ja-gang became even more tense at this story.

They were meticulous. They had filled all positions except the master with ordinary people so they could cut ties anytime if tracked. Thinking worst case, they might have hired laborers who knew nothing of the situation and eliminated them later.

‘Was there such important evidence?’

Jin Ja-gang thought again. The evidence might have been mixed among the treasures these men stole from Iron Umbrella Sect.

But finding goods already disposed of through fences wouldn’t be easy. If they couldn’t find it, would it be easy for Jin Ja-gang?

The man trembled and asked.

“Are, are you… Poison Dragon?”

“That’s right.”

The man who suddenly realized what Jin Ja-gang had been doing pleaded.

“P-please spare me.”

Jin Ja-gang answered coldly.

“If you know who I am, you should know asking to be spared is useless.”