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Chapter 497.6
Chapter 497.6
Chapter 497.6 – Side Story 2 Part 1
Master of Flying Killing Sect (1)
The Flying Killing Sect, one of the four major assassination groups in the Central Plains.
The current leader of this Flying Killing Sect, the Flying Killing Assassin, was a person who had reached sixty years of age.
Although older compared to active members, his skills were truly unparalleled, allowing him to firmly hold the position of one of the four great assassins for over twenty years.
However, even he couldn’t maintain his former level of skill as he aged, and the time for retirement was approaching.
The most likely candidates mentioned were the Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One, and Special Grade Assassin Number Two, who had completed the most successful assassinations in the Flying Killing Sect.
Judging by their past assassinations and skills alone, both were more than qualified to inherit the position of Sect Leader and its prestige.
Everyone thought that one of these two would become the next Sect Leader.
However, contrary to these expectations, the Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One voluntarily gave up his claim to succession.
Because of this, it seemed Special Grade Assassin Number Two would smoothly inherit the position of Sect Leader, but the current Flying Killing Assassin also put forward his granddaughter, Ha Chaerin, as a candidate for his successor.
‘His granddaughter?’
‘Does he mean that hooligan of a girl?’
All the assassins of the Flying Killing Sect thought there was no way the Flying Killing Assassin would pass on his position as Sect Leader to his only granddaughter.
Her temperament was fundamentally far from that of an assassin.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that the basis of an assassin lies in cold rationality.
But she was the opposite.
Despite her young age, she had a foul mouth that never stopped cursing, an obsessive-compulsive disorder that made her extremely averse to anything dirty, and a hot temper that couldn’t hold back anger even a little.
Nothing about her matched an assassin.
Because of this, the executives of the Flying Killing Sect strongly opposed this, advising the Flying Killing Assassin against it.
‘Sigh.’
The current Sect Leader, Flying Killing Assassin Ha Gong-woo, also thought their opinions were reasonable.
His granddaughter truly did not fit the temperament of an assassin.
However, human hearts are not always rational.
No matter how much of a hooligan she was called or how unsuited she was for being an assassin, it was human nature to want to pass on one’s position to a blood relative, as the arm bends inward.
‘There’s no solution except to persuade them.’
After much deliberation, Sect Leader Ha Gong-woo accepted the protests of the Flying Killing Sect executives and all the assassins 6 years ago, and forcibly confined his granddaughter Ha Chaerin in the Assassin’s Pavilion.
As he confined her, Ha Gong-woo sternly warned his granddaughter:
[This is your last chance. If you want to inherit this old man’s position, get your act together. If not, you’ll lose everything you should rightfully have.]
[Grandfather. But…]
[Have you already forgotten your vow to inherit this old man’s position and avenge your parents?]
[…I understand.]
[Good. If you’ve understood, show me that you’ve changed. I’ll try to hold onto this position for a few years somehow.]
Ha Chaerin entered confinement like that.
As she entered, Sect Leader Ha Gong-woo secretly passed on all his secret techniques to her and even provided spirit medicines, without the knowledge of the sect members.
After 4 years, Ha Chaerin emerged from confinement and, living up to expectations, had reached the Peak Realm.
In fact, given that level of all-out support, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to achieve at least this much, but reaching the Peak Realm in assassin martial arts in just 4 years was impossible without talent.
Thanks to this, he was able to create a justification.
[If assassin Ha Chaerin had remained stagnant despite her confinement, it would be one thing, but as publicly stated, she has reached the Peak Realm. Shouldn’t we give that child a chance now?]
[Sect Leader. But there is still one rite of passage remaining.]
[Rite of passage…]
What they were referring to was the Hundred Kills.
The Hundred Kills is achieved by successfully completing a hundred designated assassination requests, and upon accomplishing this, one is called one of the Four Great Assassins.
Since one cannot fail even once, only a very small number of assassins have achieved this, and he too had passed this to inherit the title of Flying Killing Assassin, one of the Four Great Assassins.
During her confinement, Special Grade Assassin Number Two had attempted the Hundred Kills and achieved 62 successful assassinations without failure.
[This time, you must accomplish it entirely on your own strength, without this old man’s help. Can you do it?]
[Of course.]
She showed strong confidence.
And she turned that confidence into reality.
In less than a year, she successfully completed 60 assassination requests.
This changed her standing within the sect.
But at this time, an incident occurred.
[Miss… the Sect Leader has passed away.]
The Sect Leader Ha Gong-woo had lost his life at a point when the successor had not yet been determined.
Apart from his tireless efforts to pass on his legacy to his granddaughter, he had spent many years trying to find the culprit who killed his son and daughter-in-law.
However, just as he had finally found a clue to the culprit, the price was nothing short of tragic.
The place he had come to, guided by the Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One.
That place was dyed in blood.
Ha Chaerin embraced Sect Leader Ha Gong-woo’s body and wailed.
[Grandpa? You can’t be dead, right? Grandpa, you’re one of the Four Great Assassins of the Central Plains, the Flying Killing Assassin. Get up. You can’t die. I said get up!]
She couldn’t stop crying for over half a day at that place.
The Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One said to her:
[Are you going to keep crying like that?]
[Hic… hic. Then what do you want me to do? My only family… My only family has died, and you’re telling me not to be sad?]
[An assassin is not one who answers with tears.]
[What?]
[If you truly want to do right by the Sect Leader, claim that position rightfully and avenge him.]
[You want me to complete the Hundred Kills when the Sect Leader position is vacant? What kind of bullshit is that?]
[Then will you not honor the Sect Leader’s wishes?]
At the Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One’s sharp rebuke, she was at a loss for words.
Then, as if she had come to her senses, she shouted:
[I’ll do it! I will! Grandpa… I’ll definitely inherit your position and avenge you. No matter who it is.]
As she tried to personally take care of her grandfather’s body, she accidentally discovered something.
It was a wound engraved near her grandfather’s thigh.
‘What’s this?’
It was a mark as if punctured by a needle, not an old wound but one that had been made recently.
It looked like a mark left with all his remaining strength, but it only appeared as:
[??] – Three Eyes
She couldn’t understand what this meant at all.
What was certain was that this was the only clue about the culprit that her grandfather had left before dying.
So she started the Hundred Kills again to fully inherit her grandfather’s position.
She smoothly completed 99 assassinations and was left with just the last one.
Special Grade Assassin Number Two, who was competing with her for the Sect Leader position, had also completed 98 requests.
The Vice Sect Leader, who was serving as acting Sect Leader, thought that unless there was a special variable, Ha Chaerin would succeed in the last request.
‘Not bad.’
Ha Chaerin’s final high-grade request was to kill Mok Gyeong-un, the third son of the Yeon Mok Sword Manor, a prestigious righteous martial arts family.
According to the information, Mok Gyeong-un, the third son of the Yeon Mok Sword Manor, did not have very high martial arts skills.
In fact, he was rather poor for a scion of a prestigious martial arts family.
Just considering the act of killing him, it wasn’t a very difficult task.
The only challenge was to handle it quietly.
However, the result was,
[Vice Sect Leader… It seems the young miss has failed the final request.]
[…The cause?]
[It seems to be related to the sudden seclusion of the Yeon Mok Sword Manor.]
Seclusion.
It literally meant sealing off martial arts activities.
Usually, seclusion occurs when a sect is defeated in a war between sects or when the sect collapses.
Does that mean a war had broken out at the Yeon Mok Sword Manor?
The Vice Sect Leader Number One, who found Ha Chaerin’s failure in the Hundred Kills less incomprehensible than her disappearance, mobilized all the sect’s connections and informants to find out the reason.
‘Heaven and Earth Society.’
For some unknown reason, the Heaven and Earth Society had attacked the Yeon Mok Sword Manor.
The Sect Leader candidate Ha Chaerin had not only failed her final request after getting caught up in it but seemed to have disappeared.
Most of the sect members, including the executives, asserted that if she had definitely been involved with the Heaven and Earth Society, granddaughter Ha Chaerin must be dead.
However, he didn’t think so.
No one from the Yeon Mok Sword Manor knew about Ha Chaerin, and not even her body had been found.
Therefore, he argued that they shouldn’t give up on her return until the very end.
The executives expressed their dissatisfaction with this, but,
[The third young master of the Yeon Mok Sword Manor, Mok Gyeong-un, who was the target of the final request, has disappeared. By your logic, shouldn’t we consider him dead as well?]
[Acting Sect Leader… Isn’t that separate from the young miss’s matter? Haven’t you received information that the third and youngest young masters of the Yeon Mok Sword Manor might have been taken hostage by the Heaven and Earth Society?]
[If that information is correct, have you not considered that the young miss might have infiltrated the Heaven and Earth Society to complete her request to the end?]
[…Do you really think so?]
Everyone ignored his opinion.
This was because it was the Heaven and Earth Society.
The Heaven and Earth Society, one of the top forces dividing the martial arts world into three, was a place where even the Four Great Assassins refused requests.
To follow them in and carry out a request?
That was absolutely impossible.
Several months passed like that.
The Vice Sect Leader and Special Grade Assassin Number One, who had somehow maintained his position out of loyalty to the Sect Leader’s family, was confronted by a group of armed executives led by Special Grade Assassin Number Two.
[Will you really come out like this?]
[Acting Sect Leader. Stop being stubborn. Isn’t it time to accept it? The young miss lost her life back then.]
[…]
In the end, he had to step down from the position of Acting Sect Leader.
He had tried to maintain his position somehow out of loyalty to the previous Sect Leader and his family, but now even he had to accept the death of Ha Chaerin, the last bloodline of the Ha family.
Half a year and another year passed from then.
The Flying Killing Sect’s request system is divided into three.
Low-grade, mid-grade, and high-grade requests.
While they accepted requests up to mid-grade in the usual way, high-grade requests were only accepted in a special guest area of the pleasure house they operated.
A guest visited that place after a long time.
After the great war between the righteous and unorthodox sects, the balance of the three major forces was broken, and with the golden age of the demonic path arriving, they had been unable to avoid losses for several months due to unexpectedly few assassination requests.
Therefore, they were hoping for a breakthrough with this high-grade request after a long time.
But then,
“What?”
The Special Grade Assassin Number Three, who was serving as the madam of the pleasure house, doubted her ears for a moment at the words of the bamboo hat-wearing man in front of her.
“Customer, what are you saying…”
“I said, the master of the Flying Killing Sect has returned, so now return that position.”
“…Haa. I thought we were finally getting some relief, but troublesome guests have arrived.”
-Swish!
Special Grade Assassin Number Three slightly raised her hand.
At that, the high-grade assassins hiding in the room revealed themselves, drawing their weapons.
They surrounded the bamboo hat-wearing man and the veiled woman clinging to his arm.
-Shing!
The madam of the pleasure house also drew the soft sword at her waist and spoke.
“Who are you? If you don’t reveal your identity and state your purpose immediately, I’ll take your life right here…”
Before she could finish her words,
“Number Three. It’s been a while.”
Special Grade Assassin Number Three’s eyes trembled at the voice coming from behind the veil.
A year and a half had passed, and she had almost forgotten, but there was no way she could forget that voice.
“No way… Could you be?”
The veiled woman rolled up her sleeve and showed the bracelet on her wrist.
Seeing this, the madam’s face turned to shock as she denied reality.
“It can’t be. You should have died…”
“I’m alive. Like this.”
-Swoosh!
A needle hidden weapon shot out from the bracelet, grazing past her hair.
Seeing this, Special Grade Assassin Number Three could no longer deny it.
That was the bracelet containing the Spirit Shadow Needle, which could be called the symbol of the Flying Killing Sect.
***
The backyard of the Flying Killing Sect headquarters.
Oh Yeosoo, who had become Special Grade Assassin Number Two and taken the name upon becoming Sect Leader, was dumbfounded to see Special Grade Assassin Number Three suddenly bringing outsiders to the headquarters.
“This place cannot be entered with outsiders. What are you doing, reporting nothing? Number Three.”
“I apologize. But these people have the qualification.”
“Qualification? Ha! That qualification is for you to judge…”
Before his words could finish,
“You’ve become quite arrogant since sitting in the Sect Leader’s seat. Number Two.”
‘!?’
Sect Leader Oh Yeosoo’s expression hardened for a moment.
At the all too familiar voice, he glared at the veiled woman, thinking ‘it can’t be’.
Then the woman removed her veil as if it was cumbersome. Oh Yeosoo couldn’t hide his surprise at the face revealed.
“Ha Chaerin?”
“Hey. You don’t even call me ‘young miss’ anymore?”
The veiled woman was none other than Ha Chaerin, the successor to the previous Sect Leader who was thought to be dead.
The assassins around stirred at her appearance.
There were some new assassins, but most of those present naturally knew her.
To think that she, who they thought was dead, had returned to the Flying Killing Sect.
Sect Leader Oh Yeosoo, who had been surprised, spoke in a voice full of wariness:
“…You were alive, so why didn’t you return?”
“Shouldn’t you be happy if I’ve returned alive? Why are you so wary? Number Two.”
“Don’t call me that. This Sect Leader is now the master of the Flying Killing Sect.”
“Master? Who made you the master?”
At Ha Chaerin’s displeased tone, Sect Leader Oh Yeosoo snorted.
He didn’t know how she was still alive, but was this the reason she came back?
To reclaim the position of Sect Leader?
But it’s too late.
He had already inherited the position of Sect Leader and the prestige of being one of the Four Great Assassins, the Flying Killing Assassin.
In the year and a half, he had also cleared out all those who were loyal to the Ha family, so now the Flying Killing Sect was entirely his.
“How dare you talk about being the master when you disappeared without even achieving the Hundred Kills? If you came back because you want to die…”
“How petty.”
A voice interrupted before he could finish speaking.
At this, Sect Leader Oh Yeosoo threw a flying dagger towards the owner of that voice to make an example.
-Swoosh!
Having become Sect Leader, he had reached the Transcendent Realm by cultivating assassination techniques.
He had reached the highest realm possible for an assassin.
But then,
The bamboo hat-wearing man next to Ha Chaerin caught it with his index and middle fingers.
“Hey. You try to kill someone just for cutting off your words? Things have become a mess since I’ve been away.”
“What?”
Since he’s been away?
Who is this guy to say such things?
As he wondered, Ha Chaerin clung to his arm and said with a triumphant face:
“Did you go crazy wanting to die, throwing a flying dagger at my husband?”
“Husband?”
Did that girl get married in the meantime?
No, that wasn’t the important thing.
Who is this guy?
He thought the man hadn’t trained in martial arts since he couldn’t feel any energy, but could he have been concealing it?
“Who are you?”
“Who am I? Hahahahaha. Right. I should answer that, it’s only proper.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the man took off his bamboo hat.
As the face hidden by the bamboo hat was revealed, Sect Leader Oh Yeosoo and the Flying Killing Sect assassins couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
It was a face they’d never seen before, and they had no idea who he was.
But then,
“I’m Go Chan.”
“Go… Chan?”
‘!’
At the name Go Chan, everyone froze for a moment before erupting in shock and chaos.
“Go Chan, the Great Commander of the Guards of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult!”
“The right-hand man of the Greatest Under Heaven!”
As if enjoying their reaction, Go Chan crossed his arms and put on airs.
It was the glorious return of an orphan and former low-grade assassin of the Flying Killing Sect.
‘This is it.’