Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Not Impersonation

"What? What kind of..."

Even though I asked about his parents' well-being, the Black Path member couldn't easily get angry.

"Uuk, first let go of my fist..."

His fist's well-being took priority.

I was gripping his fist as if to crush it.

Actually crushing it wouldn't have been difficult either.

"Oh my, you have good strength. I don't usually get overpowered in strength anywhere."

I released his hand appropriately.

Since I still planned to continue playing the role of gambling house customer.

"Y-you, what are you!"

He came on strong, perhaps because of surrounding eyes.

But while doing so, he was somewhat intimidated.

He seemed quite confident in his strength, but I'd caught him too easily, so it made sense.

"What, you'll get hit instead?"

The tough act continued.

I showed the silver taels I'd brought from home.

"I'm going to spend all this today and go home. I came to enjoy myself, but seeing unpleasant things ruins the mood. Give me some face."

Relief spread across the Black Path member's face.

"If you say so. What would I gain from hitting an old man, haha."

He chose to back down rather than fight someone who'd caught his fist.

"Thank you. Elder, come this way."

"No, I can't leave! Until I see my son's face—"

I lowered my voice to speak.

"I want to hear that story."

Doubt spread in the old man's eyes.

"Let's go outside first."

The old man had already lost strength. Receiving my support, we went outside together.

The Black Path member at the door saw me and asked.

"Eh? Why come out so soon?"

"I'll enter soon. Just escorting this person out."

The Black Path member looked at the old man and gave a fishy smile.

I went to a place just across one street from the gambling house and asked the old man.

I could see the Black Path bastards giggling among themselves while watching us across.

"Elder. Did you say earlier your son was captured?"

The old man didn't answer the question but stared at me intently.

"You're not a gambler. Your eyes are different."

The old man thought something and spoke to me.

"My son wouldn't even look at gambling. But recently someone said they'd buy drinks, so he went out, then the next day they say he can't return because of gambling debt. Who would believe this?"

There was one more thing I wanted to confirm.

"Is your son perhaps a physician?"

"Mm? How did you know that?"

The picture roughly forms.

Send someone to the physician saying they'll buy drinks.

Feed them plenty of drinks and you can make them do things they normally wouldn't. Not to mention if something is mixed in the drinks.

Making them incur massive gambling debts is also easy.

"Elder, stay in this alley briefly. I'll retrieve your money first."

"What will you do? And money isn't the problem—"

"Of course I'll find your son too."

Is there physical evidence?

If it were the old me, I would have entered inside the gambling house to gather more evidence.

Based on that, I would have moved when the crimes became certain.

Explode, let go, become free.

Now, circumstantial evidence—furthermore, White Path senses—were sufficient.

The old man finally asked my identity.

The identity of one who steps forward in such matters is obvious, isn't it?

I walked toward the gambling house entrance while blowing a long whistle filled with inner power.

The Black Path bastards also heard the whistle sound and hardened their faces. They felt the inner power contained within was extraordinary.

"Ink Sword Hero, here."

Swift Wind appeared from somewhere.

"Wasn't it agreed to explore? Why Mukheun suddenly?"

"Because plans always change."

"The plan changed to 'smash everything.'"

The two Black Path members guarding the door hastily drew blades.

Using the Xun Trigram Technique, I approached before them in an instant.

Using the flat rather than the edge, I delivered strikes.

The two with bones instantly broken crashed toward underground.

"Swift Wind, I'm going in!"

Just smash everything and ask the Boss inside.

Going underground, I kicked open the door first.

"Gamblers lie down, Black Path stand up!"

I shouted for everyone inside to hear.

Instantly the gambling house interior quieted.

Deureureur—only the sound of rolling dice and kok-kko-kok fighting cocks crowing could be heard.

Everyone looked at me with bewildered expressions.

The Black Path member standing beside the broken door reached out to me.

I struck and broke that hand first.

With a second strike, I broke his arm.

With a third strike, I broke his leg.

Wa-deuk, wa-deuk, wa-deuk.

The sound of breaking bones rang repeatedly through the quieted gambling house interior.

"Wh-what! That bastard!"

Black Path members moved in confusion.

Gamblers bent their bodies in fear.

"Ink Sword Hero! Barging in ? This isn't your way, is it?"

Swift Wind asked in confusion.

"No need to go around when the fastest method exists!"

I'd abandoned that way.

Slow, complicated, troublesome, and above all, unhelpful to White Path.

New life needs new methods.

In all this, everyone heard the title Swift Wind called me.

"I-I-Ink Sword Hero?"

"Why would the Ink Sword Hero come to such a gambling house?"

"Is that important? This gambling house is finished now!"

Gamblers who'd heard my name screamed.

"Fuck, what's so special about the Ink Sword Hero!"

"Everyone attack first!"

"All of Black Cloud Gang step forward!"

They said Black Cloud Gang?

Certainly not a name I'd heard in Luoyang.

These outsiders didn't fear my name.

They fiercely wielded sabers and iron axes.

Toward such bastards, Mukheun also flew without mercy.

Excluding the sound of the cockfighting ring's chicken, bone-breaking sounds continued.

Black Path members' bodies lay on the floor one by one, screams echoing through the gambling house interior.

The inner door burst open and Black Path members kept pouring out.

"Be careful! He's incredibly strong!"

"They say Ink Sword Hero?"

"What hero, who cares!"

They surged forward chattering among themselves.

They tried to overwhelm me with numerical momentum.

"Right? I don't care what kind of Black Path you are either."

I also laughed lowly while raising Mukheun.

Then raised my inner power to the fullest.

"His eyes are strange?"

"Would a hero barge in out of nowhere?"

The Black Path members' flustered eyes weren't bad to see.

The new method somehow fit perfectly as if I'd used it from before.

I leaped into the Black Path from my side.

They were much stronger than neighborhood Black Path.

But they were only bastards much stronger than neighborhood Black Path.

"Before Mukheun, all are equal!"

I dodged the vigorously swung iron axe and penetrated the opening to break ribs.

I struck the flying saber with Mukheun to break it and smashed the face too while at it.

I caught a short blade someone threw and stuck it in someone else's thigh.

I swung Mukheun, swung it, swung it.

"When will the Boss come!"

I laid all Black Path members inside the gambling house on the floor.

The Boss they desperately sought still hadn't appeared.

"Swift Wind, was there a secret passage?"

"Then he's a rat in a trap?"

Then the Boss is still inside.

Not combining forces with subordinates and not coming out until now means.

"He must have some scheme."

"Probably so. What to do? Shall we put one of these bastards forward?"

"No. Too troublesome. I'll go in."

"Will you be alright?"

Simultaneously with answering, I kicked the door leading inside. The broken door flew straight inside.

It hit the wall almost immediately.

'The corridor is strangely narrow?'

The time until hearing the collision sound was short.

I exhaled once and operated Eight Sensations as sensitively as possible.

Not only detecting natural energy, but all five senses became very sharp.

No unnatural natural energy was felt from inside.

Only one well-ordered breathing flowed out.

"Black Cloud Boss, all your subordinates fell—will you come out?"

"No words. Still, you can't keep staying inside. If I set fire here, what will you do?"

"It's not just me here. If you'll burn them all to death, try it."

The physicians are probably inside there.

"Good that there's no need to go far. I'll enter."

As I moved my feet, Swift Wind again warned caution from behind.

I entered inside with Mukheun leading.

The gambling house's light shone into the dark, narrow corridor.

My eyes needed time to adapt to darkness.

A sword strike flew without giving a gap.

I deflected that sword strike with Mukheun.

Even if sight couldn't adapt, thanks to Eight Sensations there was no problem.

Snake-like flickering sword strikes continued several times, but I blocked them all.

Meanwhile, with eyes grown accustomed, I looked inside.

'So that's why the corridor was narrow.'

The Boss held a thin, long sword specialized for thrusting attacks. His posture also stood facing sideways.

From the start, this corridor was optimal for the Boss who'd learned thrust-focused swordsmanship to fight.

I was not only blocked from slashing in this corridor but also hindered in footwork.

"How is it? Never fought in such a place? Are you confident?"

The Boss's provocation continued.

But it had no effect on me.

Ah, it did raise one curiosity.

"If you were going to do this, why not make several secret passages? Wouldn't that be better?"

After no answer for a while, the Boss burst into shouting.

"Shut up. Am I some rat bastard! Making secret passages here and there!"

"What's different about someone spending day after day in an underground gambling house from a rat bastard? Looks the same to my eyes?"

He could just say his thinking was short.

The pride of those who learned martial arts.

If twisted slightly, goes in strange directions.

They unhesitatingly do things that look stupid to people who haven't learned martial arts.

Occasionally for such reasons, they fall into demonic arts.

'This one doesn't seem to have learned demonic arts though.'

No need to drag out more time.

"I'll go as the Boss wishes."

Wuung—this time I thrust Mukheun first.

Swish, the Boss's sword flew to strike away Mukheun.

However, both the sword's weight and swordsman's skill—I was superior.

The Boss failed to strike the proper point to push away Mukheun.

Having seized momentum from the first attack, I pushed inside as is.

Then the Boss also retreated greatly continuously.

I also entered following the retreat amount.

'Pretending confidence but a trap?'

Where the floor isn't well visible, moving feet as if sliding is basic.

Though very subtle, I felt something foreign from the floor.

Following that, spikes protruded from the floor.

Certainly poison would be applied.

"You saw through that?"

The Boss's voice cracked for the first time.

Confusion leaked out.

I couldn't help but laugh at that voice.

"Boss, it's certainly well-made, but difficult to deceive me."

What kind of fights had I done for ten years?

Such traps were trivial.

From the first retreat, the Boss's footwork was awkward.

This time too, awkward footwork.

Must have become awkward being mindful of traps.

The sound of a string snapping caught my hearing sensitized by Eight Sensations.

The Boss's sideways posture tilted subtly to my right.

Into the space he vacated.

As soon as hearing the arrow sound, I mobilized all inner power swinging Mukheun.

An attack the Boss never thought of.

Mukheun splendidly cut the wall and headed toward him.

The Boss hastily raised his sword blocking Mukheun.

But into the space he'd just vacated—the space where the arrow flew—his body was pushed back again.

The sound of the arrow embedding in his arm was heard.

He'd fallen to his own trap.

I struck down his sword with Mukheun, shattering it.

"H-how did you know these traps..."

He slumped down and put his hand in his chest. What he took out was a medicine bottle.

He hastily tried to take out medicine from the bottle.

"As expected, you painted poison on the arrow."

I extended my whip hand.

The Boss also tried to resist, but with his body condition, it was too much.

In the end, the one holding the medicine bottle was me.

"The poison painted on the arrow seems scarier than me with a sword before your eyes?"

"Then all the more I can't give it."

The Boss looked at me blankly and muttered. Thıs text ıs hosted at novel⚑fire.net

"Was the report wrong?"

"What are you saying?"

Since he muttered incomprehensible sounds, I pressed him.

"You don't seem to be the Ink Sword Hero?"

"Different from what I heard."

"How was what you heard?"

"Among Luoyang martial artists, the one Black Path must most avoid getting entangled with, Luoyang's number one swordsman—"

"Frustrating and rigid, greatly values procedures. As long as you don't provoke first or commit crimes openly, the Ink Sword Hero won't attack from his side."

"Therefore not difficult to handle."

"Who? Who made such an evaluation?"

Yes, my past life was like that.

"Are you really the Ink Sword Hero?"

"Correct. Definitely correct. Who else uses such a sword?"

It was my sect's treasure and became the basis of my alias due to its appearance different from other swords.

The Boss looked at the sword, then made an utterly wronged expression.

"But why such a thing..."

"Don't feel too wronged. From now on, Black Path entering Luoyang will roughly experience the same thing."

Furthermore, all Black Path on my spiritual medicine journey path too.

Since when was the foundation of heroic deeds procedure?

The Alliance standing upright and helping people was good, but any organization—when scale grows, procedures increase. Procedures to not carelessly use the enlarged organization's power.

Certainly necessary procedures, but occasionally they become shackles binding themselves.

Wasn't the foundation of heroic deeds simply the hand helping the person before your eyes?

If merely one hero, reaching out a bit freely should be acceptable.

On the busy path traveling for spiritual medicines, I must do so anyway.

I shook the medicine bottle before the Boss. His complexion had already turned pale.

Following the shaking bottle, his eyes also swayed.

"Let's start from the main point. Who's behind this?"