Ak Mujin felt every hair on his body stand on end at that title.
He took a deep breath and turned his head very slowly, only to find ‘Seo Moon-gwang’ looking at him with pitiful eyes.
What the hell?
Is he crazy? Does this development even make sense?
Ak Mujin struggled to suppress his ragged breathing and looked around, only to find Paeng Ju-hyeok snoring in his sleep. He was so dumbfounded and absurd that he couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh.
Seo Moon-gwang, impatient with Ak Mujin’s lack of movement in this critical situation, grabbed his waist.
That’s when it happened.
Someone seemed to land lightly from the top of a tree, and an assassin, cloaked in black from head to toe, swung a dagger at Seo Moon-gwang.
“Who is it…!”
It was a voice close to a whisper, but Ak Mujin could see Jin Geum-ryeon’s body flinch. Then, his eyes seemed to tremble and then snap open, and he also knocked away the assassin who was landing on his body with his wrist and jumped to his feet.
“Intruders! Everyone, wake up!”
Although he had just woken up, he seemed clear-headed. He hurriedly found his sword and swung it at the assassin in crimson clothes. Jin Geum-ryeon, who was busy parrying, looked at his opponent properly and saw that the assassin was So-cheon, whom he had fought in Illusion Valley. Jin Geum-ryeon, who had naturally assumed that the intruder would be from the Demonic Cult, was somewhat puzzled by his misjudgment.
At Jin Geum-ryeon’s shout, Paeng Ju-hyeok rubbed his eyes and got up. After him, Namgung Eui, So Seung-ji, and the rest of the group began to open their eyes one by one.
“W-Who is it!”
Paeng Ju-hyeok picked up a sword nearby and began to fight the assassins who had infiltrated their camp. Looking at it this way, Ak Mujin realized that the assassins who had appeared here were not just from Illusion Valley.
“What are these guys? Are they from the Demonic Cult! Reveal yourselves!”
So Seung-ji barely managed to block the orange-clad assassin by wielding his golden sword.
Seol San-hae and Ryu Su-cheong also faced back-to-back, holding their respective weapons with sleepy faces.
“Master Gokju! It would be best to take Madam Ahn and get out of here!”
The assassin from Illusion Valley shouted at Seo Moon-gwang, but he was holding onto Ak Mujin and couldn’t leave his spot while dealing with the assassin.
“You’re not going anywhere!”
At that moment, a thunderous voice cut through the air. It was so loud that it hurt the ears, so it was immediately clear that it was infused with Inner Force. His voice was very familiar to Ak Mujin.
A person emerged from the darkness.
Elder Yeo.
He was the one who had acted with Ak Mujin whenever he took on a mission in the Demonic Cult, and he was also the one who had handed over several Houses of courtesans to him when he became the Vice-Leader.
Wait a minute.
That meant there were three groups targeting Ak Mujin right now.
Had he ever been this popular in his life? He was almost in tears.
“Hand over the Second Young Master!”
Elder Yeo relentlessly swung his spear and charged towards Seo Moon-gwang, who was holding onto Ak Mujin. The assassin who had been fighting Seo Moon-gwang until just now quickly moved out of the way so as not to obstruct Elder Yeo and began to pressure him together.
Ryu Su-cheong and Seol San-hae only realized that Ak Mujin was the real Vice Leader of the Demonic Cult when things had reached this point. But what could they do even if they regretted it? The Demonic Cult had already overtaken them, and the even worse fact was that they had to deal with more than one group.
“What’s going on…, Keuk…! So-cheon!”
Seo Moon-gwang managed to block Elder Yeo’s attack with his iron fan, but the impact on the fist holding the fan was so great that he narrowed his brow as much as possible and called out to So-cheon. Then, So-cheon, who had been pushing Jin Geum-ryeon, slipped out of his attack like a loach and immediately headed towards Seo Moon-gwang.
“Master Gokju! I’ll take care of this. Escape in the meantime!”
“Where do you think you’re going.”
So-cheon tried to create an opening, but the assassin in black clothes threw a Hidden Weapon at So-cheon. So-cheon had no choice but to step back after deflecting it.
Jin Geum-ryeon couldn’t stand still either. He cut down the orange-clad assassin who was approaching to stop him with a single stroke, then jumped high and extended his sword towards Seo Moon-gwang.
“Confucius Jin…! Azure Silk had other intentions!”
“You little brat, step back!”
Seo Moon-gwang and Elder Yeo shouted at the same time. Seo Moon-gwang also seemed to have not expected the situation to turn out this way, so the hand holding Ak Mujin’s waist became increasingly uncertain. Should he give up or not? His strength weakened as if he was reconsidering, so Ak Mujin took the opportunity to quickly pull his body back. He had to prevent the misfortune of being dragged away by Seo Moon-gwang, didn’t he?
“Azure Silk!”
Seo Moon-gwang shouted almost like a scream. But Ak Mujin had only managed to escape his grasp for a moment, and in his condition where he couldn’t even use Inner Force, there was nothing he could do in this chaos.
In the end, Ak Mujin chose to run away, but he was soon caught by someone and dragged away.
When he came to his senses, he was already being held by the scruff of his neck by Elder Yeo.
“Give him to me!”
“Jin Geum-ryeon!”
Jin Geum-ryeon and Ak Mujin shouted at the same time. Ak Mujin’s hand reached out to him desperately. The moment Jin Geum-ryeon nimbly followed Elder Yeo closely to grab that hand, someone grabbed Jin Geum-ryeon’s arm and stopped him.
“Leave him alone!”
It was Seol San-hae.
When Jin Geum-ryeon reflexively turned his head, he saw her urgent face. In the meantime, Elder Yeo took Ak Mujin and jumped away from the orange-clad assassin. Then, without hesitation, he stepped on a tree and climbed even higher.
“Let’s go!”
As soon as Elder Yeo’s command was given, three or four assassins in black clothes immediately sheathed their swords and followed him.
Ak Mujin felt unreal. To think he could fall into the clutches of the Demonic Cult so easily. Was he really going back to the Demonic Cult like this? Was he really going back to that nightmarish place? Anxiety and fear mixed chaotically in his head. Jin Geum-ryeon’s figure was only getting further and further away. For some reason, Ak Mujin’s eyes felt hot.
Jin Geum-ryeon, who lightly shook off Seol San-hae’s hand, was furious as he watched Elder Yeo move away.
“Are you crazy?!”
“Just give him up! Let’s just give him up and go!”
Jin Geum-ryeon had already jumped up to chase after Elder Yeo, but Ryu Su-cheong, who was terrified by the continuous attacks of the assassins, shouted urgently at him.
“Keuak!”
Paeng Ju-hyeok’s scream echoed through the area. His left arm had been cut off. Ryu Su-cheong’s face, as well as Seol San-hae’s, turned white. Hidden Weapons flew towards Ryu Su-cheong, who was in a daze, and Namgung Eui blocked them with his sword, blocking his path.
“Brother Ryu, be careful!”
Namgung Eui shouted and fought the orange-clad assassin in his place. Only then did Ryu Su-cheong blink twice and, almost screaming, began to abandon his luggage and run away.
“I, I have to go!”
“Let’s go together!”
Seol San-hae urgently called out to Ryu Su-cheong, but he didn’t even listen. But perhaps because he was in too much of a hurry, he soon stepped on a poisonous caltrop on the ground and became acutely poisoned, his body stiffening before collapsing. He fell so hard that it was almost laughable, his nose bone breaking and one of his arms twisting strangely and hanging limply. Seol San-hae’s face turned pale and froze at the unexpected situation.
“Rescue Madam Ahn!”
Seo Moon-gwang shouted through gritted teeth. Then, the orange-clad assassins who had been fighting So Seung-ji’s group all sheathed their weapons and used Light Body Skill to chase after Elder Yeo.
“Stop!”
Namgung Eui shouted in an indignant voice and tried to follow, but So Seung-ji, who was catching his breath, had somehow approached and grabbed his shoulder. Then, he lightly shook his head at him.
“There are two injured.”
“But, the Vice-Leader is…”
“He’s out of our hands.”
Namgung Eui narrowed his brow as he calmed his panting chest. Looking around, he saw that Paeng Ju-hyeok was panting with his arm cut off, and Ryu Su-cheong’s face had turned purple, indicating that the caltrop he had stepped on was no ordinary one. Even Seol San-hae, who had only suffered minor scratches, was sitting down in a daze.