Chapter 166

Chapter 166: A Good Deed Is Repaid Tenfold (1)

Krak-krash!

Would this be what a landslide sounded like? The roar of hundreds, thousands of massive boulders grinding across the ground reverberated throughout the battlefield.

Dozens of masters had self-destructed with the Blood Scatter Flower. Bones and flesh became projectiles, and blood sprayed in all directions became poison. To that was added the attacks of those who remained, heedless of their own bodies.

The members of the Sword King Unit were less human and more like fiends.

All humans cherish their own lives and fear death. But for the Sword King Unit, such things did not exist.

They cast aside their own lives as though they belonged to someone else, viewing their deaths as sacrifices for the Namgung Family.

A unit raised specifically to eliminate opponents that could not be handled by ordinary means.

That was the Sword King Unit.

Su-cheon gritted his teeth.

'You do not know. How desperate one can become when there is much to protect.'

The Namgung Family possessed a history spanning hundreds of years.

Before attaining its current stature, the Namgung Family had weathered more crises and dangers than could be counted on fingers. There were times when they had truly been on the brink of annihilation.

And that by the hands of a single supreme master.

At those times, the Namgung Family had realized it. That no matter how many hundreds or thousands of martial artists one possessed, some things simply could not be achieved.

That was why the previous Family Head, Namgung Seon-wol, had created the Sword King Unit.

He secretly selected prodigies and trained them through special methods. Countless rare elixirs and secret manuals of the Namgung Family were invested in them.

That much was what the Namgung Family's leadership knew. But the Sword King Unit harbored one additional secret.

That secret was the Blood Scatter Flower.

A final technique of mutual destruction—sacrificing one's own life to ensure the enemy perished as well.

And to this, the remaining Sword King Unit members added their attacks with every ounce of strength.

Kra-boom-boom!

Successive explosions erupted.

The ground shook and dust billowed thickly into the air.

Thud!

Having emptied everything in a single strike, Su-cheon barely managed to keep his trembling body upright. The same was true for the twenty-odd members who had survived.

'I felt it clearly.'

'He is dead.'

It was not one or two. Nearly a dozen martial artists had felt the impact through their swords. And so they were convinced that Dam Ho had died.

At last the dust settled, and the scene within was revealed.

The sight that met everyone's eyes was so ghastly it evoked hell itself.

Moments before, comrades who had been laughing and breathing were now scattered across the ground, so dismembered that their forms were unrecognizable.

Torn flesh, shattered bones, and streams of blood formed rivulets across the floor. And at the center of it all stood a man.

Embedded in his chest was a bone fragment. In his side and thigh, large holes had been punched through. Countless smaller wounds covered his body beyond reckoning, but what drew the eye most were the two swords plunged into his back.

One belonged to Su-cheon. The other had belonged to a now-dead Sword King Unit member. Both swords were embedded to the hilt, and from the wounds, copious amounts of blood flowed.

Dam Ho's body swayed precariously, as though it might collapse at any moment. His entire being was drenched in dark blood, rendering his original form unrecognizable.

Through his disheveled hair, his eyes were tightly shut. As though he had lost consciousness.

For an ordinary person, such injuries would have been fatal several times over. That he could still stand at all was nothing short of miraculous. But Su-cheon was not concerned.

In his eyes, Dam Ho was no different from a dead man. No human could survive such wounds. That was the simple, self-evident truth he knew.

The corner of Su-cheon's mouth curled upward.

"Now you understand? The terror of the Namgung Family. For the sake of the Namgung Family, we can cast aside our lives like grass at any moment."

"……"

"You should never have provoked the Namgung Family. Your recklessness and foolishness have cut your own life short. Even in death, do not forget this."

Su-cheon turned away.

The surviving Sword King Unit members numbered only twenty-odd. Adding the twenty sent to Jong Ri-yeon, only forty remained alive.

Of the one hundred strong Sword King Unit, sixty had lost their lives to a single man. The damage was beyond belief.

To rebuild the Sword King Unit now would require a vast amount of time and enormous capital. But Su-cheon was not greatly worried.

What the Namgung Family had in abundance was talent, and funds that could never be exhausted no matter how much was spent.

He shouted to the survivors.

"Take the Sage. After that, find everyone connected to the Fist Demon and kill them all. No matter how long it takes."

Pull up the grass and eradicate the roots.

No one living in the Murim wished to leave loose ends. The Namgung Family was no different.

At that moment—

Flash!

Dam Ho suddenly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were entirely red, as though they might spill blood at any moment.

"Th-that?"

A Sword King Unit member who saw it stammered.

The body that had been swaying as though it might collapse at any moment was now standing straight. And in that state, Dam Ho reached behind his back.

His hand seized the sword embedded there. Flesh was sliced and blood flowed. But Dam Ho gripped harder and pulled the blade free.

Shlick!

The sound of the sword cutting through flesh and muscle sent chills through the entire battlefield. In that instant, the Sword King Unit members felt as though their own throats were being slit.

Dam Ho pulled out the second sword.

Shlick!

From the wound where the sword was withdrawn, blood fountained upward.

At that moment, the wound, which had been split open like a fish's gills, suddenly contracted. The bleeding gradually stopped.

He was not pressing pressure points. He had clenched his muscles to staunch the flow of blood. Even seeing it with their own eyes, it was an unbelievable sight.

Dam Ho pulled out a bone fragment lodged in his chest.

Crack!

The bone crumbled to dust in his hand.

"You…!"

Su-cheon watched Dam Ho and clenched his teeth.

Goosebumps erupted across his entire body.

Alarms blared ceaselessly in his mind. His body was sensing the danger before his mind could process it.

But Su-cheon tried hard to ignore his body's response.

The opponent was severely wounded, barely able to move. What could such a body possibly do?

"Do not be afraid. He is certainly bluffing in the face of death."

At that moment, Dam Ho's gaze turned to Su-cheon.

He had learned something valuable.

The Sword King Unit's technique of mutual destruction was an extreme method even he had not anticipated.

He had learned that humans could so easily cast aside their own lives, and he realized how foolish he had been to leave himself unguarded against such attacks.

Everything had been too easy until now.

Perhaps he had grown careless for lack of a worthy opponent. Carelessness had led to complacency, and complacency had left him with grievous wounds.

A broken bone fragment had pierced one of his lungs, making even breathing a labor. And yet Dam Ho smiled.

He was still alive.

That was the most important thing.

The living could do many things.

Snap!

Dam Ho struck the ground.

With his ravaged body, he unleashed Charging Step.

Su-cheon's eyes widened. He had never expected Dam Ho to target him in such a state.

But Su-cheon was no ordinary master. Though he operated in the shadows, his martial power surpassed even the Namgung Family's elders.

"You…!"

Crack!

Having lost his sword, Su-cheon gathered all his remaining internal energy and unleashed the Heavenly Thunder Palm. A barrier of lightning formed before him.

Boom!

In that instant, Dam Ho's entire body collided with the lightning barrier.

The violent impact sent massive ripples through the barrier, shaking even Su-cheon. Blood appeared at the corner of Su-cheon's mouth.

"You fiend! Will you not stay away from the leader?!"

"Die!"

The Sword King Unit members attacked Dam Ho, though belatedly.

In their eyes, fear and fury coexisted.

They feared Dam Ho as a human being. They were repulsed by his strength and tenacity.

To run wild with such wounds…

If they did not kill him today, the consequences would be endless.

Their faces were filled with desperation. And so they poured everything into this final attack.

Kra-krash!

A tremendous surge of killing energy roared toward Dam Ho like a storm.

In that instant, Dam Ho's eyes blazed with madness.

Whoosh!

His body produced micro-vibrations. He had deployed his shield.

Ting ting ting!

The enemy's offensive deflected off the shield.

Dam Ho's palm struck the air. A technique that delivered shock through the air's vibrations to shatter eardrums—Sundering Void Wall.

"Urgh!"

"Ugh!"

The martial artists whose eardrums were destroyed staggered involuntarily.

Boom!

Dam Ho's fist struck the empty air nine times in rapid succession.

Ninefold Cannon had been deployed.

Kra-krash-boom!

Successive explosions erupted and the bodies of the Sword King Unit members were hurled backward.

"No!"

Su-cheon screamed as he watched. If those men died, the Sword King Unit's lineage would be cut off entirely.

In an instant, twenty more bodies of flesh lay scattered. Steam rose from their blood-soaked corpses.

"You fiend!"

Su-cheon let out a furious roar. But he could say no more.

Thud!

Dam Ho's powerful hand had seized him by the nape.

"You—?"

Crack!

At that moment, a sound of rupture echoed from Su-cheon's side. Dam Ho's fist had landed.

"Kuhuk!"

Su-cheon vomited blood.

Craaack!

Dam Ho's fist struck his side once more.

Without looking, one could tell. The bones on that side had been utterly shattered.

Dam Ho lifted Su-cheon's body high.

His feet, lifted from the ground, dangled helplessly like a puppet with severed strings.

Dam Ho slammed Su-cheon's body into the ground.

Boom!

"Kwaaah!"

Su-cheon screamed in agony.

His spine shattered, the back of his skull cracked open, and a torrent of blood gushed forth.

His consciousness blurred.

But Dam Ho's violence was not yet finished.

Crack!

Dam Ho raised his foot and stamped down on Su-cheon's abdomen.

Overwhelmed by unbearable pain, Su-cheon's vision clouded. But he desperately tried to raise his eyes to look at Dam Ho.

Dam Ho, inflicting merciless violence.

Though clearly gravely wounded, not a trace of pain showed on his face.

As though inflicting violence was his sole purpose in life, he ground Su-ho into the dirt. As though his own wounds meant nothing at all.

'D-different!'

Only then did Su-cheon realize.

Dam Ho was not someone he could handle.

A being born solely for destruction.

'I should never have made an enemy of him in the first place.'

L regrets flooded his mind.

"Sp… spare me… The Namgung Family will never again…"

He tried to sue for peace with Dam Ho. But he could not.

Crack!

Dam Ho's fist had already smashed into his skull.

His head burst open.

That was the end of Su-cheon, who had guarded the Namgung Family from the shadows.

Only then did Dam Ho stop his pounding and rise to his feet.

"Ugh!"

A ragged breath escaped him.

The wounds he had forcibly sealed by clenching his muscles had reopened, and blood flowed once more.

His head was spinning and his vision dim.

Shlick!

Dam Ho wiped his eyes with his sleeve. His vision sharpened slightly.

"Huuh!"

Dam Ho let out a rough breath and took a step.

He wanted to collapse and rest, but he could not. His enemies still remained.