Absolute Regression

< Chapter 25: You’ve Found the Right Place >

“What is it with that guy?”

Kwon asked, glaring at Liang Dang.

“He’s a wandering rogue we haven’t gotten rid of yet.”

“You should have gotten rid of him! The original deal was only to hand over the women and children, wasn’t it?”

“I’ll take care of it.”

“Take care of it now, then!”

Liang Dang drew his sword and approached me. He was confident he could defeat me. My youthful face would cause much arrogance and misconceptions to arise in the future, and summon many like Liang Dang.

Many idiots, that is.

“You can tell they’re bastards who betrayed their master but can you really get the money? They’ll probably kill you and pocket the money meant for you.”

At this, Kwon’s eyes blazed with anger.

“What? Bastards who betrayed their master?”

“I held back because of the kid.”

Kwon laughed incredulously.

“This one’s gone a bit strange in the head.”

“Did you get flustered because I hit the mark? You really were planning to kill him and pocket the money, weren’t you? Don’t do it, you’ll have wasted the effort with which he killed all his comrades and came all the way here.”

Kwon’s face reddened, unable to hide his true intentions.

“You lowly scum of a rogue!”

Kwon shouted at his subordinates.

“Kill the bastard first!”

Three masked men stepped forward.

“Look, he said to kill the bastard first. Wouldn’t you reckon that means that he is saying that you’re next?”

Liang Dang couldn’t hide his embarrassment at those words.

“Even if you run, you should at least take the money first.”

Liang Dang, who had taken a step back, flinched.

“What nonsense are you spouting? When did I ever run away?”

Just as he yelled out in anger.

Swish!

A hidden weapon thrown by Kwon cut through the air. Liang Dang, unable to dodge the sudden attack, fell flat.

“This idiot is handling things like this.”

I said, looking at the fallen Liang Dang.

“That’s what happens when you live like that. Your turn is next.”

This time I spoke to Kwon.

“You’re just like him. You should leave at least one alive to face me. How can you kill out of anger? How do you expect to survive long if you can’t control your temper?”

“How long are we going to listen to that bastard’s mouth?”

Kwon shouted, and the three masked men drew their swords and approached.

Indeed, they were skilled enough to not need to keep Liang Dang alive as a shield.

I signaled to the woman to cover the child’s eyes. She hugged the child, covering his eyes and ears.

The fight wouldn’t take long.

Before they could attack, I launched myself forward.

I used the Underworld King Step, one of the Wind God’s Four Steps.

Though I had only just started to master it, it turned my opponents into mere infants.

They were not given a chance to defend or react. In an instant, I was right in front of them, and by the time they realized my presence, their heads had already been severed.

I saw the eyes of the second masked man widen within his mask. If I could read his thoughts, it might have been something like this: “Huh! What is…?” His neck was also sliced.

The third masked man failed to respond appropriately, even after seeing his two comrades fall.

In reality, the time that had passed was still less than a blink of an eye.

With my martial arts now enhanced by the Underworld King Step, their skills were insufficient to block my attacks, even if they had a hundred years to prepare. As with the previous ones, I used the Underworld King Step to close in on the third masked man and cut him down with the Soaring Sword Art.

Kwon looked at me with a face of utter shock. In his eyes, three streaks of sword light appeared simultaneously, and it must have seemed as if his subordinates fell all at once.

“Flash Sword Technique?”

“I didn’t even use the Flash Sword Technique, but I suppose that’s how it looked to you.”

“Wh- who are you?”

Kwon’s voice trembled with fear.

Instead of answering, I asked the woman.

“Who is this man?”

“He is Kwon Won, one of the retainers protecting our family. I am Geum Sayeon, the daughter of the Golden Manor’s Lord.”

“Golden Manor!”

I feigned surprise, although I already knew her identity.

This woman’s father was Geum Asu, one of the top ten merchants in the Central Plains, the wealthiest man in Fujian Province, and the Lord of the Golden Manor.

He was the reason I had traveled so far.

The Golden Manor Rebellion.

This was the event Im Chu had told me about. The Golden Manor’s Lord was betrayed by his most trusted retainer and lost his life.

The daughter, who had narrowly escaped due to a change in schedule, had tried to flee by hiring wanderers but ultimately, they all lost their lives.

“I want to hire you, warrior. Please, help us.”

“The situation has changed, so my price has gone up.”

“That’s fortunate. We can afford any price, no matter how high. Please, kill that man and save my father.”

At that, Kwon Won pleaded with me.

“Spare me and join our side. I’ll speak to the elder and ensure you get paid more than this woman can offer!”

“More money than the daughter of the Golden Manor? How?”

Kwon Won was momentarily speechless.

I walked toward him and coldly admonished him.

“You were a retainer, weren’t you? Then your place should be in front of this woman and child.”

Kwon Won desperately tried to evade my sword, but the gap in our skills was not something he could bridge with a desperate struggle to survive.

My sword cut through his bones and flesh, piercing even his heart.

He collapsed with a single scream. Seeing him die, Geum Sayeon finally felt relieved. Of course, the child’s eyes and ears were still carefully covered.

I searched Kwon Won and the masked men’s bodies for daggers to use as throwing weapons. The place we needed to go now would be swarming with enemies.

“Let’s go.”

“We need to take Yang to a safe place first.”

I said as I climbed onto the driver’s seat.

“Get on. The safest place right now is beside me.”

Geum Sayeon’s hesitation did not last long. She had seen my skills firsthand, and she would have been dead if not for me. Keeping the child where I could see him was indeed the best plan.

As she climbed up with Yang, the carriage began to race back the way it came.

* * *

Yeo Sang.

The head of the Silver Sword, a prestigious guard family of Golden Manor, and today’s mastermind of betrayal.

He had spent ten long years preparing for this grand scheme. During those years, he had persuaded Golden Manor’s key martial artists, eliminated some under the guise of accidents, and sent those he could neither persuade nor eliminate far away.

He thought he had succeeded perfectly, until I reappeared with Geum Sayeon.

When Geum Sayeon and the child got off the carriage, he smiled brightly, mistakenly thinking his men had captured them.

“Hahaha!”

For him, failing to capture these two would have meant never sleeping peacefully again.

“Where is Kwon Won?”

He thought I was one of Kwon Won’s men.

“Dead. Everyone except me is dead.”

Although he might have felt some discomfort from my tone, his curiosity about the next question was stronger.

“Who killed them?”

“A young, handsome, mysterious master.”

“What?”

Yeo Sang exclaimed in disbelief.

“Pathetic fool! What are you thinking, praising the enemy like that?”

“Because it’s the truth.”

“Fine. Let’s say that’s true. Then how did you survive…?”

Yeo Sang flinched as he realized the situation.

“It’s you!”

I answered with a faint smile.

Yeo Sang shouted to gather his men. They swarmed around, surrounding me and the carriage.

“If you had rescued the woman and child, you should have fled far away. Why come back to the tiger’s den?”

I looked around.

“Where’s the tiger? I only see a pack of dogs biting the hand that feeds them.”

Yeo Sang, as well as those surrounding him, exuded a murderous intent. They were Yeo Sang’s henchmen and the warriors of Golden Manor who had betrayed him. Feeling guilty, they masked their conscience with cold fury.

Next to the carriage, Geum Sayeon held her son tightly. Although it was a terrifying situation, she didn’t show any sign of fear. She was well aware that only the strong could afford to be calm, and being the blood of a merchant, she was quick-witted. She took her son into the carriage so that I could fight comfortably.

Yeo Sang also sensed that I was no ordinary person and became very cautious.

“Who are you,sir? Let’s go inside and have a drink while we talk. I’ll treat you with some good liquor.”

“There’s no need for formalities. I won’t let you off the hook even if you pretend to be good. I won’t let you off even if you beg. So curse and make a fuss all you want.”

Sensing that his attempt at conciliation would not work, Yeo Sang gave a cold order.

“Attack together at once and kill him!”

He emphasized the word ‘together.’

As soon as the command was given, his men rushed at me from all directions.

“Fight and death.”

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!

With the sound of the cool wind, daggers flew from my hands. By the time they thought of dodging or deflecting them, the daggers had already cut off even that thought and embedded themselves in their vital points. The warriors who had charged at me fell to the ground, tumbling and rolling.

The dagger throwing technique I had mastered in my previous life was the Deadly Secret Art of Flying Daggers from the Flying Daggers Grandmaster, Seo Muncheol.

Before and after my regression, I had never found a throwing technique superior to this one; it was a martial art I could carry for a lifetime.

When I ran out of daggers, the survivors showed a brief moment of joy, thinking I was a master of the dagger technique. But it was a very short-lived joy.

I drew my sword and charged at them. Their skills ranged from high to medium levels, but none of them could withstand the Soaring Sword Art that I had perfected.

After I wreaked havoc on the hall, all the enemies were down, and Yeo Sang’s face tmwas deathly pale.

“Who are you, great hero?”

The dark red blood dripping from my black sword had turned ‘sir’ into ‘great hero.’

“Great hero, my foot! I’m just a swordsman passing by who smelled money.”

“How much would it take for you to just leave?”

“Do you have a lot of money?”

“I have enough to change a person’s life.”

“If you had so much money, why did you do this? If you wanted to change your life, you should have used your own money, not touched someone else’s. Especially the money of the master you served.”

Yeo Sang, unable to provide a satisfactory answer, bit his lips nervously.

Just as he was racking his brains, trying to figure out what to do to survive.

“Drop the sword!”

One of his underlings emerged from the building behind him, holding a sword to Geum Asu’s neck.

It seemed the underling intended to use Geum Asu as a hostage to make me surrender, causing Yeo Sang to sigh in frustration and make a distressed expression.

Yeo Sang had planned to hide Geum Asu and negotiate with me for his localization, but the foolish underling brought him out. Since the situation had already escalated, Yeo Sang shouted at me in desperation.

“Drop the sword now! Or Golden Manor Leader will die!”

In that moment, a streak of sword energy tore through the air.

Soaring Sword Art’s Fourth Form, Flaming Sky.

Originally a rough and domineering technique, combined with the Black Demon Sword and great stores of internal energy, its momentum was now enough to astonish the heavens and shake the earth.

Boom!

The sword energy, swirling like a living whirlwind, struck the warrior.

Using Geum Asu as a shield, two-thirds of his body was hidden, but the exposed third was obliterated. Only Geum Asu was left staggering as the lifeless body fell to the ground.

Perhaps thinking this was the opportunity, as I had exhausted my internal energy launching the sword energy, Yeo Sang struck with a lightning-fast attack.

However, I was prepared, and his desperate blow naturally missed. Continuous attacks revealed Yeo Sang’s flaws.

Even if he had trained his entire life, he wouldn’t be able to defeat me, as his place of training was filled with greed, not discipline. He was no match for me.

Although I could have subdued him immediately, I allowed him a few more moves. Easily overpowering Yeogajangju would only heighten curiosity and mystique about me.

Yeo Sang’s sword repeatedly aimed at vital points. As his life was on the line, his attacks were desperate.

Onlookers might have held their breath, thinking it was a close battle, but my mind was as calm as a still lake.

After about thirty exchanges.

Splurt.

With the sound of flesh tearing, the fight came to an end.

Yeo Sang’s thrusting sword halted in midair. Reflected in its blade was the image of Geum Asu, rejoicing.

My sword, which crossed Yeo Sang’s attack obliquely, ran him through the heart.

His eyes were filled with resentment towards me, but I calmly spoke to him.

“Aren’t you the head of the Silver Sword family? You should not have ended up like this. In your next life, if you want to make money, become a merchant. If you want to kill people, become an assassin.”

As he was drowning in his blood, Yeo Sang could not answer. I pulled out my sword and he crumpled to the ground, dead.

Geum Sayeon, who had been watching outside the carriage window with bated breath, let out a cheer and came down with her son.

“Father.”

“Grandfather!”

Geum Sayeon and the child ran to Geum Asu and hugged him.

“Sayeon! Yang-ah!”

Geum Sayeon hugged her father tightly and cried, and as her mother cried, the child followed suit.

Soon after, the still loyal martial artists of the Golden Manor who had been confined were released.

Once the place was settled, Geum Asu expressed his gratitude to me once again. Having heard the story from Geum Sayeon earlier, he was much more grateful for saving his daughter and grandson than being rescued himself.

“I will never forget this kindness. You are the benefactor who saved our family from annihilation. Please tell me your honorable name.”

Imagining the curiosity about me after handling Yeo Sang and his men alone, I responded.

“I am merely a wanderer passing by.”

“Even the King of Wanderers could not have handled them so easily.”

“You are too kind.”

Since I did not reveal my identity, Geum Asu did not try to inquire further.

Geum Sayeon conveyed the promise she had made earlier to Geum Asu.

“I promised our benefactor. The reward would be in money.”

Geum Asu praised his daughter with a satisfied expression.

“Well done. That was the most certain promise.”

Having regained his composure, he finally revealed the demeanor of the greatest wealthy man in Fujian Province.

“If money is what our benefactor needs, you have come to the right place today.”

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