Chapter 176

Chapter 176: Cheol So-ah (2)

The Iron God Gang.

A grand network of structures, positioned in the center of an expansive courtyard at the ultimate boundary of the Western Road, belonged entirely to their private domain.

The entry point was a massive portal constructed from dark iron.

It towered a full three jang into the air, and the three characters representing the Iron God Gang were engraved into the surface in crimson, as stark as if painted in fresh blood.

It was an organization born from countless clashes of blades and bloodshed, and at present, it reigned as the undisputed second-in-command of River Capital.

Several storytellers within the Jianghu even theorized that their internal foundation might be more resilient than that of the Seven Star Immortal Society, marking them as a genuinely formidable power.

Matching its grand status, the location was kept under perpetual, unyielding protection.

On either side of the entrance, combatants dressed in iron armor kept watch without pause.

The select guardians of the portal, designated as the Steel Guards, remained perpetually alert.

Past the entrance, an expansive martial square stretched out.

It was wide enough for several hundred individuals to practice simultaneously.

The ground was laid with solid granite, and arms racks were positioned across the area.

Dozens of pavilions encircled it completely, a structural setup intended so that during a crisis, hundreds of combatants, each capable of facing a hundred foes, would stream out from the entire network to protect it.

Dozens of jang beyond the martial square stood the primary pavilion.

It was a grand, five-story structure featuring striking black roofing tiles and crimson walls.

Within the primary pavilion on the ground floor rested an immense iron monument.

It was erected to venerate the progenitor of the Iron God Gang.

Incense continually drifted before the monument, and from the tips of the eaves on every level hung incredibly dense chimes forged from iron, so heavy that they remained motionless even during a violent gale.

Nonetheless, they were crafted so that if an intruder breached the perimeter, the arrays inscribed upon the chimes would trigger simultaneously, sending the chimes crashing down to the earth.

And.

Clang-clang.

Rrrrumble-.

At this exact moment, those dense iron chimes were crashing down all at once, pealing frantically.

Step, step.

Dong Bongsu was originally an individual who operated within the realm of shadows.

He was by no means someone who desired the realm of light.

This was due to the fact that the realm of shadows offered safety, whereas the realm of light was riddled with all manner of perils.

Even so, it was rather entertaining to publicly race across the realm of light for the sake of acting in the shadows.

It had to be said that this feeling grew even stronger as he came to understand this world in greater detail.

The core of the Iron God Gang.

Dong Bongsu halted in the center of the martial square.

“Who on earth are you?”

A middle-aged man, likely a Protector of the Iron God Gang, questioned him, keeping his hand resting on the grip of his saber.

“A Wandering Hero.”

“What? A Wandering Hero?”

A lunatic.

To simply force his way in without warning and utter such nonsense.

Dong Bongsu surveyed his surroundings.

Behind him, the dozens of portal sentries he had incapacitated while breaching the entry point were already collapsed upon the earth.

In every other direction—meaning the front, both flanks, and even descending from above—hundreds of Iron God Gang combatants were already charging forward.

Resembling a colony of ants.

“I am the Iron Dragon Flying Saber, Bi Cheok-un. One of the Three Hegemons of the Iron God Gang.”

The Three Hegemons of the Iron God Gang.

It was a designation denoting the three unmatched figures who guarded the Iron God Gang.

The Iron God Gang Chief, Cheol Hon; his sole daughter and the Young Mistress of the Iron God Gang, the Cold-Faced Iron Hand Cheol So-ah; and the premier Protector of the Iron God Gang, the Iron Dragon Flying Saber Bi Cheok-un.

“Did Bukgung Ri dispatch you?”

“No.”

“Then for what reason are you present?”

“A noble act.”

“What? A noble act?”

The friction against the Iron God Gang that had developed since the previous day replayed through Dong Bongsu’s mind like a sequence of memories.

Beginning with the mission that unlocked yesterday in the 7th District when he interfered with their shaking down of locals,

extending to the man-eating swine pen at the Assorted Antique Shop.

Today, when he re-examined the 7th District, he clashed with ten individuals wearing white masks, ten in black masks, ten in yellow masks, and a solitary elder who were investigating the previous day’s disturbance.

He remained ignorant of their identities, but they possessed significant capability, making them ideal targets for practicing his newly mastered skills.

He deliberately utilized a great deal of Bukgung Ri’s techniques… He was eager to see what consequences that would yield.

It was a highly straightforward deception, but in a lawless realm such as this, it would prove entirely potent.

Following that, he went to the 6th District branch.

There were youths confined in the cellar.

Their intended fate was uncertain.

Whether intended for trafficking, the synthesis of medicinal drafts, or some alternative savage requirement.

Twenty affiliates of the Iron God Gang were securing the location.

He merely obliterated all their heads utilizing [Faith Arrow].

He liberated the youths.

Since that is precisely what a ‘Hero’ ought to do.

The 5th District armory.

It contained far more implements of pain than actual weaponry.

Gore-stained scourges, pincers designed for extracting nails, blades meant for gouging out sight.

Thirty-five men occupied the space along with three figures who appeared to lead them.

He utilized Na Hang’s Red Umbrella Lord Saber Art to incinerate them into dust.

The 4th District dining hall.

He was uncertain if they were eating morning or midday rations, but the food consisted of unidentifiable flesh.

It might have been human remains or the demi-humans residing in this region.

Yet not a soul present found the matter peculiar.

They were grinning while wielding their eating utensils.

Roughly fifty individuals.

To ensure they could remain cheerful even in demise, he severed all their throats right where they sat.

The 3rd District, a covert dormitory.

Females were restrained in every chamber.

Several retained life, while others were corpses.

He caused the structure to collapse entirely.

He snapped the spines of those who scrambled out, one after another.

Afterward, he severed all the bindings holding the females captive.

Resembling a ‘genuine hero.’

The 2nd District dungeon.

They were actively conducting a session of torment.

They were stripping the skin from a living person.

The sufferers were still drawing breath.

Naturally, he dispatched the jailers on site.

He unshackled everyone held in confinement.

Half of their number appeared to have already lost their sanity.

They were tearing into the remains of the Iron God Gang affiliates.

Naturally, that was of no concern to Dong Bongsu.

The 1st District.

Roughly one hundred combatants, assumed to be the finest of those stationed on the perimeter.

Their gaze was soulless.

The gaze of individuals for whom taking life had turned into an everyday habit.

In a sense, their gaze mirrored his own, yet it was merely a primitive, ‘fabricated’ urge to kill.

Thus, he granted them the ultimate form of clemency.

He snuffed out all their lives with a singular strike.

This comprised the straightforward steps of the ‘stroll’ he had mentioned to Jeon Rahwa.

And currently.

The center of the Iron God Gang, the martial square.

Dong Bongsu surveyed his surroundings once more.

He could perceive that upon the earth, stains of gore had dried, been blanketed by new layers, dried once more, and accumulated… settling in dozens, hundreds of strata.

Matters built up over decades, perhaps centuries.

Even they themselves would remain ignorant of how many had perished here.

It was likely the outcome of a straightforward, ‘routine’ practice, maintained through generations.

What an extraordinary world.

That even under these conditions, in certain aspects, it functions with such structure and stability.

That renders it far better.

An intense grin, which he no longer required himself to conceal, appeared on Dong Bong-su’s face.

“Indeed, a noble act.”

“To force your way into an independent faction without any warning and claim to be executing a noble act.”

Sssreung.

Bi Cheok-un unsheathed his favored saber.

The weapon’s edge gleamed freezing under the illumination of the sun, which had already climbed high.

“Then again, if you were an individual capable of listening to reason, you would never have displayed the audacity of invading the Iron God Gang unaccompanied from the start.”

Audacity, he calls it.

Dong Bongsu’s quiet internal thought, which no bystander could catch.

Shudder.

Simultaneously, an inexplicable coldness surged down Bi Cheok-un’s back.

No, it failed to affect merely Bi Cheok-un.

Every person present displayed an alarmed expression.

Intent to kill.

A terrifying intent to kill, as though someone had launched an arrow of slaughter from an unseen point, was binding their entire frames.

Dong Bongsu leisurely opened his mouth.

“I shall share a confidence with you all.”

A phrase that a conventional ‘hero’ might utter emerged from his lips.

Was it precisely midday, arriving right on schedule?

With the sun positioned directly overhead, the shadow of Dong Bongsu, standing in the middle of the Iron God Gang, appeared nearly nonexistent, pooled solely beneath his feet.

“You see, I arrived from an alternate realm. There, I occasionally took lives.”

Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-.

The space surrounding Dong Bongsu’s frame, no, the entirety of the Iron God Gang, transitioned into the domain of the Super True Qi Field.

Ting, t-ding, thud.

The hundreds of armaments arrayed across the martial square began to elevate into the atmosphere.

Crackle! Pzzzzzt…

Swords, sabers, axes, poles, and the like.

All varieties of armaments began to rotate slowly.

Concurrently, they began to cycle above Dong Bongsu’s head.

Resembling the fiends and phantoms commanded by an Asura within the Asura Realm.

[Linked] The Wronged Merchant:

When assisting those who have been wronged, you may occasionally encounter unforeseen challenges.

I hope that you navigate those challenges successfully.

Kindly do so.

An adversarial bond with the Iron God Gang has developed.

Obliterate the Iron God Gang.

Completion: 33.6%

・Benefit: Heroic Record +5

Not a soul perceived it, but a third of the Iron God Gang had already been wiped out.

It was entirely the consequence of a ‘heroic stroll’.

“But you know what. It appears I will not need to make it an occasional occurrence here.”

With that whisper, Dong Bongsu commenced his advance.

Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!

A dozen or so Iron God Gang practitioners positioned nearest to him dropped, spitting blood like portions of meat impaled upon a brigand’s skewer.

Tiririk-.

Completion: 33.7%

The Iron God Gang was now 0.1% closer to complete destruction, and Dong Bongsu maintained his momentum.

Because it appeared he could indulge even further here.

Hundreds of edges gleamed.

A dense aroma of gore and piercing shrieks saturated the atmosphere.

Diverse martial disciplines painted the emptiness, and all manners of armaments shook like branches during a tempest.

“You, you absolutely deranged lunatic!”

“Perish! Perishhh!”

“Drop dead!!”

Before long, a dense crimson haze blanketed every path, and the gathered intent to kill shrouded the entirety of the Western Road.

It was sufficient to cause an ordinary human to lose consciousness merely from observing it.

Heads separated like harvested bundles of grain, and a torrent of blood sprayed down like a squall.

Amidst the bodies of the martial practitioners, a determination surged.

A determination aimed toward a solitary individual.

Intent to kill.

Intent to kill.

Intent to kill.

Nevertheless.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-chaeng! Whoosh, sp-at!

The instant the Iron God Gang practitioners encountered the host of edges that freely navigated the air, the instant they encountered the unyielding intent to kill infused within every single one, they instinctively comprehended that matters were going disastrously astray, yet…

It was already far too late.

Limbs separated from owners shifted within a torrent of blood, and shattered metal shards were buried like a graveyard.

This was, in truth, an organization forged of iron.

And towering in its middle, resembling a malevolent deity, was a solitary form.

He was, in reputation and reality, the ‘Wandering Hero’ Dong Bongsu.

Obliterate the Iron God Gang.

Completion: 72.6%

Benefit: Heroic Record +5

“72.6%.”

Precisely as I anticipated.

The mechanism recognized as the System disregards the path taken.

Solely the outcome, and once more, the outcome.

If the outcome is righteous, then the path taken is likewise righteous.

And.

There remained abundant opportunity for noble acts within this Iron God Gang.

Because the noble acts had to proceed.

His steps quickly shifted toward the primary pavilion.