1274——————==

Soul of the Evil God

As soon as the Assassination Squad Leader entered, I called him over separately and said.

“Hey. What’s your real name?”

This was important. After all, I had been beheaded by that guy twice and only knew him as ‘Assassination Squad Leader,’ so I didn’t even know his real name. If I were to take revenge on him now, knowing just his title would be absurd; I had to learn his true name.

The Assassination Squad Leader replied, “I don’t have one.”

I immediately grimaced at his words and glared at him.

“Don’t joke around. Who doesn’t have a name? Especially a martial artist like you!”

The Assassination Squad Leader flinched at my killing intent, but he strained himself and answered, “I… really don’t. I was an orphan since birth and raised as an assassin, so I didn’t have a name. Later, I only received a fake identity and name when I undertook missions from Lord of Black Night Gate.”

“…Really?”

“That’s right. I could only be called by my title or aliases.”

“Didn’t the Lord of Black Night Gate have a separate name for you?”

“He just called me Captain.”

It didn’t seem like a lie. The Assassination Squad Leader must have come here risking the fate of his clan, so he wouldn’t fabricate a flimsy excuse. I scratched my head in disbelief.

‘Damn! To think my enemy who killed me twice is a nameless guy.’

Is this what a real assassin’s life is like?

After a moment of thought, I said, “Then I’ll call you Soeul from now on.”

“Soeul? Is that the name of this village?”

“Yeah. Simple and nice, right?”

Giving a name was bothersome. I shot a sideways glance at the Assassination Squad Leader.

‘You lucky guy…’

I intended to name him something else, but for some reason, I wanted to save that for a different guy. Truly, he was fortunate.

“Understood.”

After naming the Assassination Squad Leader Soeul, I said to him, “Soeul. First, show me all the assassination techniques you’ve learned so far.”

“Yes.”

Thud thud

Then Soeul began to quickly demonstrate the Black Night Divine Art, linking his striking techniques and swordplay. Watching the Black Moon Sword Technique flow smoothly from the end of the Black Moon Palm, I thought to myself.

‘As expected from someone who has reached peak expertise. He can wield sword qi at will and is quite skilled.’

In my first life, I couldn’t stand against him. Having seen so many peak experts and those in the absolute realm, a peak expert now seemed trivial, but in reality, Soeul appeared to be in his mid-twenties, and reaching peak mastery at that age indicated he had a high potential to dominate Jianghu in the future.

Considering that even the prestigious late Goryeo clan’s renowned members only attained peak expertise after relentless effort, Soeul’s skills were already impressive for his age. Yet, instead of being impressed, I felt unease remembering how I lost my head to his sword qi.

“Enough! I think I’ve seen enough.”

When Soeul stopped demonstrating, I spoke bluntly.

“You possess excellent martial arts for your age. Given your background as an assassin, it must have been challenging to cultivate skills like that. The Lord of Black Night Gate must have trained you a lot.”

“He helped me a great deal after I became a Captain.”

“Normally, the martial arts of assassins are rather lowly, yet attaining peak expertise, you must have killed quite a few who were stronger than you. So, how many people have you assassinated in total?”

“Forty-seven.”

Thud

“……!!”

The moment Soeul replied, I put a bit of force into kicking his gut. I restrained my emotions as much as possible; if I let my emotions go, I’d kill him for sure.

Soeul seemed to endure the pain without screaming, likely because he was trained as an assassin. I looked at him coldly and said, “Killing people for money isn’t something to brag about. You openly admit you can kill people you have no grudge against just for cash. Truly a despicable dude.”

“I’m… sorry.”

“So how many innocent and good people do you think you’ve killed among those? If you ask the Black Horse, you’ll get the full story, so don’t lie.”

Soeul paused for a moment and then opened his mouth.

“None.”

“This bastard… Don’t lie, I said. After the fall of the Black Night Gate, will you only come to your senses when you’re torn apart?”

I growled, but Soeul looked me straight in the eyes and said, “There were good people perceived as innocent in the eyes of the world, but there were no truly innocent ones. Therefore, I never killed anyone innocent and good.”

“……”

Huh? What the hell…

I thought a trashy hired killer would flinch if I intimidated him, but his gaze was different. For someone in a thoroughly hierarchical relationship, to make such a statement infused with conviction was surprising. His gaze didn’t portray any irritation toward me either, creating a sense of discomfort.

I became somewhat curious and asked Soeul, “That’s an interesting statement. What does it mean to be good yet not innocent?”

After a moment of silence, Soeul spoke.

“When the village was flooded, there was a kind wealthy man who opened his granary to provide relief and helped the disabled and the weak. I once assassinated him upon commission.”

“Aren’t those good people? Why say they aren’t innocent?”

“The person who requested me to kill him was the son of his cast-off wife after he had taken a concubine and abandoned his first wife. After his first wife starved to death due to poverty, the son held a grudge and collected money to have his cruel father killed.”

“……”

“I never eliminated even a single innocent person while working for the Black Night Gate. Although I might appear to be hypocritical in the eyes of others, most of those I killed had hidden grudges that were kept away from the public eye.”

I scoffed.

“Hmph. That’s a pathetic excuse. You might say that, but the Black Night’s Lord, the Black Horse, isn’t a guy concerned about social justice. If it made money, he wouldn’t hesitate to slaughter good people either, while you claim to have avoided those requests!”

“Quite the opposite. After I became a Captain, the Lord only assigned me duties to eliminate hypocrites.”

“What?”

“Eliminating the weak and innocent isn’t a hard assassination, but it’s incredibly difficult to take out hypocrites among the wealthy and powerful. Thus, I unknowingly ended up facing off against only the wicked.”

“…Hmm. So that’s what you mean by your accomplishments.”

I realized what he was saying.

The Black Horse was eyeing Soeul to make him the next premier assassin in Jianghu and trusted him enough to teach him the Black Night Divine Art. It was only natural that to cultivate him into the ultimate assassin, he would prepare difficult challenges, and to create those hardships, he primarily assigned him to eliminate wealthy, powerful villains.

The ability to act hypocritically indicates the presence of many guardian warriors or obstacles protecting the hypocrite, and the assignments to eliminate such people could only be reasonably handled by an excellent assassin captain.

However, I soon noticed an inconsistency in Soeul’s words and burst out laughing.

“Funny. If you say you only eliminated villains since becoming a Captain, then you were likely unaware of what kind of people you killed before that. That’s simply how young assassins operate. So, can you be certain that none of those you killed back then were innocent and good?”

“……”

As Soeul hesitated, I pressed on.

“One more thing. Even if you claim you were eliminating only villains, it just happened to align with the circumstances; it’s not like you created those situations yourself. If the Black Horse ordered you to kill a good person, you wouldn’t have refused because the hierarchy among assassins is absolute.”

“Well… that’s true.”

“It’s truly disgusting to see someone who was forced to kill just to survive act as if they are in the right. You were never a part of an organization that voluntarily practiced righteousness.”

“……”

“Moreover, it’s easy for you to kill even a random thug as if you’re just going out for fun. So I can’t believe your statement! You have no threshold for murder!”

“Eh?”

When I shouted, Soeul looked bewildered, but I couldn’t hold back my anger.

‘You speak so well, you bastard! You did everything that was ordered of you, and now you want to argue that you only killed bad guys? I was just trying to find the Thousand-Year Snow Ginseng and ended up dead because of you!’

It seems you have some beliefs, but a hired killer’s beliefs mean nothing. Just like martial artists kill when a fight arises, those who kill for money are lower than trash. While a martial artist can justify focusing on honing their skills to protect their lives, assassins don’t have that luxury and are thus more subject to criticism.

I couldn’t contain my rage any longer and picked up a wooden club nearby, saying.

“Try to endure three basic strikes from me. If you can’t, you’ll spend the rest of the training cleaning the barn!”

“Understood….”

“Ready, start! Die!”

Thud thud

“Gah…”

As Soeul fell after not being able to withstand even a single strike, I beat him up without killing him. Remembering the pain I felt when my head was severed, my grip tightened almost reflexively.

Thud Thud Thud

After beating him for a while, I felt slightly relieved. I sensed a weight lifted off my chest and threw the wooden club to the side, saying.

“We’ll spar again in a month, and until then, you’ll clean the barn and deal with the droppings. If you miss a day, you’ll really die.”

“……”

“Looks like he’s fainted.”

I grabbed Soeul’s neck, covered in bruises, and dragged him out, giving him a makeshift treatment. While I would normally teach other people martial arts to utilize them as a reserve power, I didn’t particularly want to train this guy. Whether he learned martial arts or not was up to him; I would just keep beating him.

‘Gotta keep at it when I’m bored.’

Simply cutting off his head wouldn’t satisfy my vengeance. I wanted him to experience the absurdity of dying at the hands of someone he’d never met!

And so, from that day forward, I began to fully engage in training within the Thunder God Lineage. I announced that the unofficial honeymoon period given to Guk-ho and his wife, Mo Yong-yeon, was over. At the same time, I called out Lee Kwang, Jin So-cheong, and Guk-ho.

“I mentioned this at Guk-ho’s wedding, but I will pass on the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique to the one who successfully performs Ranna Chul 100,000 times in one go! Starting from today.”

Upon hearing this, Lee Kwang ground his teeth as if waiting for this moment.

“Master. While you were slack, I have been honing my strength and internal energy! Do not renege on your promise!”

“Hahaha! Absolutely not. Once I make a promise, I always keep it!”

“Great!!”

Just then, Jin So-cheong raised her hand and said, “Grand Master! I have a question.”

“What is it, Jin So-cheong?”

“It seems that Elder Dokgo Seong is treating Bang-il and Kim Man-je a bit too harshly. I hope he can show them some mercy.”

“……”

I felt an ominous premonition and asked Jin So-cheong, “Where are Dokgo Seong and the kids?”

“They are at the training grounds on the back mountain.”

I rushed to the back mountain training grounds. There, I found Bang-il and Kim Man-je collapsed like cold corpses, while Dokgo Seong was screaming at them in fury.

“Get up, will you!!”

“……”

They looked to have been beaten to the point of exhaustion through a combination of violent training and hellish conditions. It seemed that during the time I was absent, they had suffered like this, and it was Jin So-cheong who couldn’t bear to watch it anymore that alerted me. I approached Dokgo Seong and said.

“Elder. You know these kids are still beginners in the martial arts; it would be good to treat them with a bit more compassion…”

“Hmph! How much more time must our Thunder God Lineage pour into such untalented brats? I find it truly infuriating that I’m losing my own training time, all because of them, disciple!”

“Hmm…?”

“Ahem. I didn’t come to teach these youngsters just to follow you to Soeul Village.”

For a moment, I felt perplexed, but then I realized what Dokgo Seong’s words meant.

‘This guy is trying to pressure me into teaching him the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique!’

Dokgo Seong must have deliberately been rough with Bang-il and Kim Man-je. The more he tortured them, the more they would complain about it to me, pushing me to come over. He was indirectly protesting that I was refusing to teach him the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique. I was astonished and said to Dokgo Seong.

“Elder. I intended to teach the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique after you perform Ranna Chul 100,000 times…”

“What did you say! As the elder brother of the previous generation, should I now be made to wield a spear, and do Ranna Chul 100,000 times?!”

“I mean, it’s only fair considering the other students…”

“Leave! I am a man who has dedicated my entire life to swordsmanship. I require a different standard, and… and! Will teaching me the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique really do any harm?”

It seemed Dokgo Seong’s tantrum was more serious than I initially thought. I quickly understood the reason behind it and sighed.

‘So you really don’t want to do Ranna Chul 100,000 times and doubt your ability to do it…’

Honestly, I hadn’t suggested it for their actual training benefit, but rather just to make things difficult for Lee Kwang. There was no way Dokgo Seong would want to endure such absurd and torturous training. So, he used his position within the clan to divert responsibility and hoped to learn the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique that way.

There’s no issue with teaching Dokgo Seong the Nine Chambers of Thunder Technique, but if I did that now, it would severely weaken my rationale for making Lee Kwang do Ranna Chul 100,000 times. After pondering for a moment, I said to Dokgo Seong.

“Well then… here’s what we’ll do, Elder.”

“Are you going to teach me?”

“Swinging your blade 200,000 times.”

“……”

“If Ranna Chul is in total 300,000, swinging just the blade should be much less than that.”

“Hah! Most people would die from vomiting blood after 10,000 times, and you want me to do 200,000 times!”

“Can you not do simple swings? You saw Lee Kwang doing it; there’s no way you can’t do it!”

“Ugh…”

Comparing him to Lee Kwang made Dokgo Seong look exceptionally uncomfortable, but he seemed unable to refute it. He had a remarkable pride; if Lee Kwang managed to complete Ranna Chul 100,000 times, it would mean he was now inferior even to a greenhorn, and also, maybe he was conscious of Jin So-cheong’s eyes following him.

“Fine! I’ll do it.”

“Well then, I assume there won’t be any further incidents.”

I somehow soothed Dokgo Seong and shook Bang-il and Kim Man-je awake. Once I used my internal energy to treat their stamina and qi, suddenly Kim Man-je grabbed my collar and wailed.

“St… Stop it…. How long do you plan to torment me?”

“Didn’t you say you would become a peak expert? Already whining now, huh?”

“I… I didn’t expect it to be this difficult… hic…”

As Kim Man-je burst into tears, I felt a bit taken aback. At that moment, Bang-il, with a swollen face, said.

“I can do… anything to become a peak expert…”

“Hmph.”

“Please give me even more rigorous training…”

The difference between Bang-il and Kim Man-je was immediately noticeable. Of course, it should also be considered that Kim Man-je had suffered at Lee Kwang’s hands before, but their attitudes towards accepting difficulty were different. Bang-il showed a desperate determination to become a peak expert even if it meant risking his life, while Kim Man-je seemed to think he could simply stumble into being a great expert, leaving him in a mental block when faced with unexpected hardships.

‘So it is… I’ll need to train Bang-il more seriously.’

I held Bang-il’s hand and helped him up, saying.

“Bang-il. Starting tomorrow, I’ll personally guide you.”

“Thank you.”

I planned to let others take care of basics, but I got a bit bored just watching them mess around in the village. So, I decided to personally guide Bang-il earnestly.

The next day – Lee Kwang began his challenge of completing Ranna Chul 100,000 times from dawn.

Boom Boom!!

I took Bang-il out with me to watch Lee Kwang’s training alongside other Thunder God Lineage experts. I had to keep an eye on him during his challenge; I couldn’t let him spout nonsense afterward.

‘Indeed, it looks like Lee Kwang has put in a lot of effort to hone his strength and internal energy.’

Completing 100,000 of anything is an inhumane number; it’s incredibly challenging to adapt and gradually increase that count daily. Lee Kwang seemed to focus on meditation and strength training throughout the period I was away, honing his potential rather than hastily dedicating himself to Ranna Chul. Because of that, the spear he wielded as the local lord, despite being somewhat rigid, appeared sharper and filled with energy.

Boom!

Lee Kwang reached an impressive count of over 8,000 without wavering in his posture. His breathing remained stable; normally, people would be exhausted by this point, but it was clear that Lee Kwang was indeed an exceptional expert.

‘Hmm… For sure…’

However, after some time, when Lee Kwang’s Ranna Chul count reached 35,000, I noticed his eyelids and fingertips starting to tremble. As soon as I realized this, I smirked.

“Hehe.”

Knowing how it would end up, I began to watch leisurely. Other folks around were simply gazing blankly, oblivious.

It was around 45,000 times when it happened.

Stumble!

Suddenly, Lee Kwang’s knee buckled, causing his stance to falter. Jin So-cheong was startled and shouted.

“Master!”

“……!!”

Lee Kwang was drenched in sweat, with some blood trickling from his nose. As he wiped his spear’s slippery surface on his clothes, he said, “Don’t… worry. I can… keep going…!”

Boom!

In that moment, an overflow of internal energy seemed to surge through his entire body. Seeing that, I understood where Lee Kwang’s confidence derived from.

‘So this was his strategy. He must have dispersed his internal energy throughout his entire body from the start. And just when his stamina was nearly depleted, he retrieved that dispersed energy for a quick recovery.’

It’s easy to say but an impossible feat without a substantial mastery of internal energy! Lee Kwang truly deserved to be regarded as one of the top peak experts in Jianghu.

But…

‘Lee Kwang… you still haven’t grasped the essence of this challenge.’

And about a day and a half later…

Boom!!

Right after Lee Kwang surpassed 60,000 attempts, he finally couldn’t hold on any longer and collapsed forward. His eyes lost their spark, and he was reduced to a sweaty mess, only breathing faintly. No matter how hard he tried, he found himself in an impossible situation.

I approached Lee Kwang, curled up on the puddle of sweat, and knelt before him.

“63,823 attempts. You really gave it your all, Lee Kwang.”

“……”

“But you can’t even lift your spear, let alone stand.”

Then, in a faint voice, Lee Kwang said, “I can… do it… I have to…”

“No, you can’t. Your stamina and internal energy aren’t enough, but that’s not all that’s lacking. What you lack is…”

I was about to say something when I noticed the light had left Lee Kwang’s eyes.

“……”

“Did he faint?”

“Grand Master. I…”

“No. It’s better for me to treat his internal injuries. Step aside, Jin So-cheong.”

“Yes.”

I pulled the unconscious Lee Kwang along, deep in thought.

‘With this, he’d be too drained of stamina and energy to attempt again for a while. The feelings of hellish experience and the frustration of failing will further discourage him from trying again.’

From the start, I never worried about whether Lee Kwang would pass this trial at all.

He seemed capable of reaching 80,000 if he became more accustomed to the ordeal, but I didn’t believe he could ever hit 100,000. Though the issue lay in internal energy, my plan was to give him even less assistance with the Black and White Lotus techniques as excuses later on.

Lee Kwang was different from me back then. Even if he had the internal energy to achieve 100,000 attempts, he would never reach that level.

An absolute will that surpasses pride.

To reach somewhere beyond ‘self,’ one must be willing to give up everything.

He needed to go beyond inner cravings to arrive at a single point.

“Right now, it’s impossible for you.”

I had watched Lee Kwang for years.

I already knew from the beginning that it was impossible for someone so full of contradictions to reach that state.