Chapter 180

Chapter 180
## This Isn’t a Joke (2)

“What was that?”

The middle-aged man, who had been focused on a pile of paperwork, snapped his gaze upward in pure astonishment.

“The Divine Demon Division Leader and his associates are traveling in the company of the Sword Empress.”

The messenger’s voice shook as he realized the weight of the news he was delivering.

“D-did you really say the Divine Demon Division Leader?”

“I did, sir.”

“The man who vanished from the face of the earth a year ago?”

“That is the one.”

“How is his name resurfacing now? What have you people been doing if you couldn’t even keep tabs on his whereabouts?”

The middle-aged man’s temper flared instantly.

“Please forgive us. Even the informants we embedded within the Zhuge family only uncovered this information far too late.”

“Hmph! You incompetent fools!”

His fist slammed against the wooden desk with a thunderous crack.

After letting his anger simmer for several moments, he forced himself to regain his composure.

“Their trail up until the Tang family clearly showed only the Sword Empress and her personal guard. If they are traveling together now, the merger must have happened at the Tang estate or shortly thereafter. What are our operatives in Sichuan doing to overlook a development of this magnitude?”

The subordinate looked at him with trepidation before offering an explanation.

“When the Zhuge family blew our cover previously, a vast number of our internal agents were executed. The purge led by the Tang family in Sichuan was particularly devastating. It was inevitable that our surveillance network would suffer gaps.”

“Blast it! Draft a report and send it up immediately. Use the fastest means possible.”

“At once, sir.”

As the messenger scrambled out of the room, the middle-aged man leaned back, rubbing his temples with a dark scowl.

“Not that it will change much at this stage of the game.”

—

Sima Geon’s unit had accelerated, passing the Sword Empress’s entourage in a blur of speed. The scene they arrived upon was grisly: a man was thrashing in agony, his limb firmly locked between the powerful jaws of the Black Wolf.

With a violent wrench of its head, the Black Wolf tore the man’s arm completely from his torso.

Disturbingly, the victim didn’t let out so much as a whimper, and his expression remained eerily vacant of pain.

Despite the thick torrents of blood geysering from the stump of his shoulder, the man attempted to strike back. However, the Black Wolf sprang into the air, sinking its fangs deep into his throat with lethal precision.

“Disgusting animal.”

A frigid voice sliced through the air just as a bolt of concentrated energy was fired toward the beast.

“Look out!”

Sima Geon barked a warning, sensing the lethal intent behind the strike.

The Black Wolf reacted with predatory instinct, twisting its frame mid-air. Yet, the projectile was moving at a velocity far beyond its own, Broad-siding the massive creature with devastating force.

The Black Wolf’s heavy body was sent tumbling through the air, looking as helpless as a fish pinned by a harvester’s spear.

“Black Wolf!”

Thunderbolt sprinted toward the spot where the beast had landed, nearly five zhang away.

Before Thunderbolt could reach it, the Black Wolf was already struggling to stand.

It swayed unsteadily, blood pouring from a jagged, deep rent across its chest.

Thunderbolt ripped away his own clothing to apply pressure to the hemorrhaging wound, his face pale with concern.

“What’s the verdict?”

Cheol Woo asked, arriving a second later.

“It’s a nasty gash, but the vital organs seem intact. It’ll live.”

“Good.”

With a short nod, Cheol Woo pivoted to face their adversaries.

A group of roughly thirty warriors stood gathered before a humble, thatched-roof cabin. They appeared completely indifferent to the gruesome death of their comrade who had just been slaughtered.

Cheol Woo’s eyes locked onto a specific individual.

“You’re the one who struck the wolf, aren’t you?”

Though he hadn’t seen the movement clearly, his gut told him he was right.

Most of the men stood with hollow, paralyzed expressions, but one youth—the youngest among them—wore a mocking smirk.

“You have sharp eyes, I’ll give you that.”

The youth gave a soft whistle, casually spinning a wooden branch between his fingers as he studied the Black Wolf.

“That was a strike no ordinary animal should have survived.”

The youth didn’t look annoyed that his kill was incomplete; instead, a look of avarice crossed his face as he watched the beast cling to life despite the trauma.

“Are you the bastards responsible for this?”

Cheol Woo gestured toward an elderly man kneeling in the dirt before the hut, his chin resting on his chest.

Two blades were driven deep into the old man’s shoulders, pinning him.

His chest rose and fell in shallow, ragged intervals—he was alive, but his condition was clearly terminal.

Surrounding the elder were five corpses, likely attackers he had managed to take down before being overwhelmed.

“I didn’t intend for it to get this messy. But the old goat refused to listen to reason.”

“And you think you’re any more reasonable? Rolling up with a pack of freaks like this?”

“Freaks, you say?”

The youth chuckled, his eyes drifting over Cheol Woo.

That bone-chilling, predatory smile caused Cheol Woo’s body to react before his mind could.

“Hold your position!”

Sima Geon’s command was urgent, but Cheol Woo was already committed.

He had already launched a devastating punch toward the smirking youth.

*Woooong!*

A localized gale erupted around his fist as it tore through the atmosphere with a thunderous roar.

The members of the White Sword Unit watching from the rear were paralyzed with awe.

They were well aware of the reputations Sima Geon and Cheol Woo had built recently. Having fought beside them at the Tang estate, they knew they were powerful.

However, they hadn’t truly grasped the ceiling of that power until this moment.

The speed at which Cheol Woo closed the gap was blinding, and the raw kinetic force behind his strike was beyond description.

To the onlookers, the outcome was certain.

But while the rest expected the youth to be pulverized, Sima Geon and the Sword Empress looked on with mounting dread.

Vindicating their fears, the youth’s wooden branch moved a fraction of an inch. That tiny motion was enough to redirect the entirety of the punch’s momentum.

*Thwuck!*

One of the masked men standing nearby had his head vaporized instantly as the deflected force struck him instead.

As Cheol Woo prepared to follow up with a second blow, the youth—now standing mere inches away—caught his wrist in a vice grip.

“Is your skin truly as durable as they say?”

With a frozen grin, the youth drove his own fist deep into Cheol Woo’s solar plexus.

“Guh!”

A choked sound escaped Cheol Woo. His massive frame was lifted off the ground for a heartbeat before he was sent flying back, crashing down next to the injured Black Wolf.

“Deputy!”

“Brother!”

His companions, stunned that their strongest fighter had been swatted aside so easily, rushed to his side in a panic.

“Stay back!”

Cheol Woo spat out a mouthful of bloody phlegm as he forced himself upright.

“That was a decent hit.”

He tried to play it off with bravado, but the internal damage was severe.

That strike had bypassed his ultimate hardening technique—which usually made his flesh like adamant—and had sliced through his Ink Gang Asura Qi as if it weren’t there, rattling his internal organs to the core.

He was fighting to stay conscious, his internal energy spiraling toward chaos. The agony was turning his vision white.

‘I underestimated him.’

It wasn’t that he was being careless.

He had seen what happened to the man believed to be the Twin Swords Reaching Heaven, and he’d seen the Black Wolf—whose durability rivaled his own—get broken in one hit. He knew the stakes. Yet, even with that knowledge, his execution had been lacking.

A wave of shame washed over him, but he refused to let the enemy see him falter.

“Fine. Time to stop playing around.”

Cheol Woo widened his stance, but Sima Geon stepped in front of him, placing a firm hand on his chest.

“Don’t get in my way, boss.”

As Cheol Woo glared, Sima Geon’s voice dropped to a low, dangerous register.

“Keep your mouth shut and get to the back. Now.”

“You’re taking the joke too far. I’m fine.”

“You know damn well this isn’t a joke.”

Sima Geon turned his back to him, his posture radiating a resolve that ended the conversation.

‘Damn it all!’

Cheol Woo’s face contorted in frustration.

Subconsciously, his eyes flickered toward the Sword Empress’s party—specifically toward Jin Lim, who looked pale and terrified.

“So, you are Sima Geon.”

The youth smiled at the man who had replaced Cheol Woo in the vanguard.

“I am. And who might you be?”

“We can worry about introductions later.”

The youth, looking entirely bored, turned his head slightly.

“Goo Yang Kyung, why are they here? My brief said the Sword Empress was the only target. Nobody mentioned these others would be accompanying her.”

The middle-aged man, Goo Yang Kyung, stepped forward.

“My intelligence didn’t account for them. They must have slipped through our checkpoints during the transition.”

“Tsk tsk.”

The youth clicked his tongue, though he didn’t press the issue since Goo Yang Kyung had been occupied by his side.

“Had I known of this alliance, I would have brought more assets. I was only calibrated for the Sword Empress’s movements…”

His gaze wandered until it locked with the Sword Empress’s.

“So, you’re the famous Sword Empress.”

He began to look Neung So Hwa up and down with a clinical, detached interest.

Neung So Hwa felt a chill run down her spine.

Meeting his transparent, hollow eyes made the hair on her arms stand up. It wasn’t just that he was assessing her fighting strength; it felt like he was performing a mental autopsy on her very soul.

“Hoh! Remarkable. The Sword Empress actually found a worthy heir.”

After a long silence, a note of genuine praise escaped him.

“This trip was worth the effort after all.”

The youth strolled toward the pinned old man.

“I didn’t want to leave him in this state. I’m not usually one to harass those who have already left the martial world.”

He placed a hand on the hilt of one of the swords protruding from the elder’s shoulder.

“He should have just let go of his pride. All of this for a simple duel voucher.”

At the mention of the “duel voucher,” Neung So Hwa’s expression turned icy.

“Did you just say a duel voucher?”

“Indeed. A duel voucher.”

“Why on earth are you looking for that?”

The youth let out a dry, mirthless laugh.

“Is it not obvious? You are the Sword Empress. You only issue those to the masters you deem worthy. This man—who clearly doesn’t meet the criteria—had one in his possession. I asked him to hand it over, but he was incredibly stubborn.”

“Criteria? And who exactly decides who is worthy?”

An arrogant grin pulled at the youth’s mouth.

“I do.”

Before the final syllable died away, he ripped the sword from the old man’s shoulder.

A geyser of blood followed the blade.

The youth moved the sword in a fluid, hypnotic pattern, catching the spray on the flat of the metal.

It was a technique that mimicked the flow of a river.

The droplets of blood, now adhering to the blade, were flicked outward in a lethal arc toward the White Sword Unit.

Neung So Hwa lunged forward, her own blade flashing to intercept the crimson projectiles.

*Clang clang clang!*

The sounds of metal hitting metal were unnervingly heavy. A look of shock crossed Neung So Hwa’s face as she felt the impact—the vibration was so intense her sword hand went momentarily numb.

“Aaaagh!”

A cry of pain shattered the air. Neung So Hwa spun around.

Several members of the White Sword Unit, struck by the droplets she had failed to parry, had collapsed into the dirt.

Dal Ri Hwa moved quickly to assess her people and gave a short nod.

Relieved that no one had been killed, Neung So Hwa let out a ragged breath.

In that brief opening, the youth—who had been searching through the Twin Swords Reaching Heaven’s bloody robes—pulled out a stained duel voucher and broke into a wide, triumphant grin.