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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: The Deadly Promise
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*Clang!*
Moyong Taese watched in dismay as his sword was knocked flying.
An unavoidable death.
He instinctively knew his end had come.
The leader of the Blood Killer Sect was far too ferocious.
Even after unleashing his most powerful technique, he couldn't stand against her bizarre, chilling, destructive strike—one he'd never seen before in his life.
The Soyeomgyo's blade pierced his abdomen.
"Tch."
The Soyeomgyo bit her lip.
At the last moment, the tip of her sword had veered slightly off course.
It was still a fatal wound, but not instantly lethal.
As the Soyeomgyo retrieved her sword, two more slashes embedded into Moyong Taese's thigh.
She kicked up his chin as he dropped to his knees.
A final strike shot toward the unconscious Moyong Taese's throat like a blue flash of light.
And then.
*Ching!*
A clear ring echoed across the ground.
"What?"
The Soyeomgyo widened her eyes.
Right before her stood Moyong Bi, gripping the rebounding Moyong Taese's sword with a reverse hold, trembling as he blocked her blade.
"You."
Moyong Bi's eyes burned like those of a wounded wildcat.
She vividly remembered that fierce gaze from their first encounter.
It had piqued her curiosity.
She'd even tossed him a sword and urged him to come at her.
*Touch my body even once—if your blade so much as grazes me, I'll let you live. I promise. Not enough? Fine, one more. No matter what death awaits you next time, I'll save you.*
She'd made an empty promise to provoke him.
It was just entertainment she'd started for fun.
A lighthearted game with no seriousness behind it.
She had no intention of sparing him anyway, so it was like a cat toying with a mouse.
No third-rate punk like him could even brush her sleeve, after all.
But that had been Soyeomgyo's mistake.
She'd never seen eyes filled with such rage.
Even seasoned assassins hesitated at mutual destruction, but he charged with that resolve in an instant.
Leg severed? Arm chopped? Not a moment's hesitation.
Screaming, writhing in pain, he clung on until the end.
*To risk death is to find life.*
That desperate momentum—to charge with death embraced for the sake of survival—even made her, a battle-hardened assassin, falter for a moment and forget it was all a game.
"What are you?"
And right now.
The eyes of Moyong Bi, trembling as he blocked her sword before her, were exactly the same.
"What are you?!"
*Clang!*
With a fierce clash of steel, the Soyeomgyo deflected the blade.
Her pupils, hidden behind the red mask, shook like an earthquake.
A flash of alien wrongness passed through her.
"You're dead! There's no way you're alive! Back then, you clearly...!"
"Ughhh!"
"?!"
Moyong Bi vomited a gush of dark red blood.
His form crumbled like a sandcastle collapsing in real time.
*Internal injuries?!*
That level of damage would require a direct hit from a sound wave attack that ruptures organs.
But no one had struck Moyong Bi.
The Soyeomgyo plunged into extreme confusion.
"Shut up, Moomyeong! I know not to give you an opening!"
"What?"
Moyong Bi assumed his stance.
His breathing was unsteady.
*Tremble, tremble.* The tip of his sword shook.
That alone made it clear.
Moyong Bi's martial prowess was utterly mediocre.
"Your courage is admirable, but you're courting death...!"
Her breath caught.
His initial stance had been so clumsy it hurt to watch.
*Impossible.*
But at some point, after crossing a certain threshold, the change began.
It was as if someone had perfectly cut and pasted it—his stride, breathing, posture, and grip flowed with the refined grace of decades of training.
And that stance—she knew it all too well.
The Soyeomgyo's eyes trembled.
Murmurs arose.
The elite Blood Killer Sect members, who never spoke during missions, were buzzing.
Normally, she would have scolded them harshly, but now even she was stunned.
"How... how do you...?"
A beat later, crimson rage engulfed her entire body.
"How dare you scum imitate the main sect's secret technique!"
*Rumble!*
A red serpent coiled around Moyong Bi's body amid rising heat haze.
"My god, that's the leader's Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword!"
One of her subordinates screamed.
"Impossible!"
"The secret technique that only the chosen heirs of the Blood Killer Sect can perform!"
The Soyeomgyo shouted.
"It's impossible! Even imitating it requires at least a decade of internal energy, let alone replicating the form... Don't tell me?!"
The turbid serpent writhing around Moyong Bi's body was far from normal.
Unlike the Soyeomgyo's pristine red serpent fueled by pure internal energy, it spewed a desperate dark crimson hue and wailed like a ghost.
The Soyeomgyo muttered in shock.
"You're burning your essential life force instead of internal energy?"
Essential life force was the root of vitality, irrecoverable once expended—the very essence of life.
Even drawing on it, Moyong Bi's Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword barely reached half the power of the orthodox version fueled by internal energy.
But a sharpened sword was dangerous because of its edge, not its wielder.
That technique was undeniably the framework of the Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword—a killing move.
*Crackle, sizzle.*
Black flames sparked, and dark blood surged from Moyong Bi's seven apertures.
"You madman, burning away half your lifespan on a single technique! Even the Demonic Cult doesn't pull this insane stunt!"
There was no room for mercy.
Facing the seven incoming serpents, she too erupted her inner power.
*-Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword*
Serpent devoured serpent in a tangled frenzy.
Heaven and earth shook.
The shockwave crumbled the walls of nearby houses and upended the garden.
*Rumble.*
Moyong Bi's red serpent was overwhelmed.
Dark blood sprayed from his seven apertures.
*Gurgle, gurgle!*
He spewed dark red foam.
Yet he did not release his energy.
Moyong Bi's gleaming eyes refused to break, even amid agonized howls.
The Soyeomgyo cursed viciously.
"Are you truly insane?! Who operates martial arts like this, basing it on essential life force?!"
"I won't... die again like this! No matter what... no matter what!"
The caster's emotions intertwined, sending the serpents of both sides into a mad rampage.
With eerie wails, they swept in all directions.
*This guy has no intention of stopping!*
The Soyeomgyo's teeth ground together.
*Fine then!*
Her breathing halted.
For a brief pause, a single beat—then her pupils narrowed to slits like a serpent's.
*Boom.*
Thunder exploded from her body, red mist-like energy surging forth.
Her vastly denser inner power infused her red serpent.
*Thud.*
What followed was instantaneous.
Like a tiny stream swept into a massive torrent, the dark crimson serpents of madness were devoured by the storm.
Amid that storm of qi, Moyong Bi tumbled like a ragged cloth, spraying blood.
Thrusting her sword tip downward, the Soyeomgyo exhaled faintly.
"Leader."
She raised a hand to halt her astonished subordinates rushing over.
"Don't fuss. I'm fine."
Dust settled, revealing Moyong Bi collapsed in tatters.
Excessive depletion of essential life force had turned his skin a corpse-like gray.
"..."
The Soyeomgyo gazed at the twitching Moyong Bi.
"Rest, Leader. We'll finish him."
"No. I'll do it myself."
Her animalistic senses, honed to the extreme, picked up distant clamor.
Soon, the Moyong Family warriors—who had briefly left—would swarm here.
Gripping her sword in reverse, she approached Moyong Bi and knelt beside him.
"You surprised me at the end. I don't know what trick you pulled to mimic my technique, but you've ruined my clothes."
"Cough, cough."
Dark foam bubbling from his mouth, Moyong Bi was dying.
It had been a desperate struggle, but futile.
He could never have won.
Above all, the man before her knew that.
Moyong Bi's lips moved faintly.
"Last words?"
"...Can't die. Not like this again... powerless, achieving nothing."
His graying skin showed there was no hope left.
Tears streamed down as she followed the eyes of the man gasping desperately for one more breath.
"Huff. Huff..."
He was dying.
Moyong Bi's breaths grew shallower and quicker.
The wildcat eyes that seemed unbreakable slowly dimmed.
"...Pro...mise..."
"What?"
The Soyeomgyo unconsciously leaned in.
With dilated pupils, in an unconscious state, Moyong Bi spat blood with laborious gurgles.
"...Promise..."
The Soyeomgyo's breath stopped.
She recalled her own words to the man who had refused death even with legs and arms severed.
*Not enough? Fine, one more. If you touch me, next time, no matter what death faces you, I'll save you.*
The Soyeomgyo stared blankly at the ragged form of Moyong Bi.
"You... bastard."
She muttered in a hoarse voice.
Meanwhile, the man was dying in real time.
He could no longer focus on her response.
His whites were showing.
Without intervention, he'd be gone in moments.
"..."
Coincidentally, she'd already broken one promise.
Unintentionally, she'd lost her composure to his indomitable spirit and killed him.
And not even a day later, the very same man lay dying by her hand again.
"Ha."
The Soyeomgyo murmured blankly.
"Damn it. I thought I'd seen every twisted thing in this filthy martial world, but killing the same guy twice in one day? Who'd believe it."
Anyone would call her mad.
What assassin in the world pulls off something this nonsensical?
Absurdity washing over her, the Soyeomgyo swept back her hair and let out a wry chuckle.
"Ha, haha. Even I, the worst bitch in the world... Ah, I mean, so..."
Her laughter cut off abruptly.
"Shit."
This world drove sane people mad, sure—but this was the most utterly insane, selfish act she'd ever committed.
She gestured behind her.
"That assassination reward from the sub-branch the other day. Bring it."
"Pardon?"
"I'm rattled, so don't make me repeat myself. Bring it."
Her subordinates hesitated, not grasping at first.
Then they realized, erupting in shock.
"Leader! You don't mean..."
"Shut up. I know better than anyone I'm a lunatic—don't explain, just bring it now."
"Ah..."
One subordinate pulled a small box from his bosom.
The Soyeomgyo opened it without hesitation.
A pungent aroma wafted out with a single green pill.
*Swish.*
She pulled down her red mask.
Her lower face and red lips, always hidden, emerged.
She crushed the pill between her teeth.
*Ptui.*
She spat the fragments into her hand, then shoved them into the mouth of the dying man before her.
"Forgive me. Precious as they are, I can't do mouth-to-mouth with some random guy."
*Thud thud thud.*
Striking his acupoints, she forced the shattered pill down his throat in an instant.
As the spirit medicine absorbed, Moyong Bi's body convulsed.
Soon, the gray pallor that seemed eternal began to fade.
"Leader. I wouldn't question your judgment if I could help it."
A subordinate stepped forward beside her, speaking in a gruff tone.
"But using the hard-won Spirit-Saving Golden Pill on the target feels excessive."
"Baekho. Got any way to save this lunatic who burned his essential life force along with the pill?"
Baekho flinched at the Soyeomgyo's words.
"How do we explain this absurdity to the client? If word spreads, it'll damage the Blood Killer Sect's credibility. You know that better than anyone..."
"Enough. No witnesses to today's events, and as long as we keep quiet, it won't spread. Any lost trust or costs, I'll cover personally."
The Soyeomgyo wiped her mouth with a handkerchief and readjusted her mask.
"So, drop it for today."
The subordinate stared at her steadily before speaking.
"The Blood Killer Sect is yours, Leader. We'll follow any decision you make."
"Thanks for indulging my whining, Baekho."
"I'll assume it's not just simple pity. You're considering how our sect's martial art leaked out, right? If memory serves, this reeks of the Heavenly Demon Cult..."
"Stop there."
The Soyeomgyo cut Baekho off like frost.
"We'll discuss that later."
She readjusted her mask.
The sound of the Moyong Family's escorts approaching from afar reached her.
The Soyeomgyo paused as she turned to leave.
"Hoo."
She looked down at the fallen man, then up at the sky.
"...Annoying. Stirring up old memories and messing with my head."
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts