Chapter 2561 – 2561. The Ascent To Brightness

I blocked the shit terror with my qi.

I was about to counterattack, but I paused upon seeing my opponent. I couldn’t help but pause. The guy covered head to toe in shit was someone I didn’t want to deal with.

But I couldn’t just let the guy who tried to assassinate me go.

Crack!

A blue lightning bolt gathered in my right hand and began to spin.

Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) – Ten Thousand Thunderbolts (卍雷).

I shot the lightning at the assassin. The assassin was strangely unresponsive.

The lightning pierced through the assassin’s body. The assassin’s body blurred and then disappeared.

‘A Shift in Form (移形換位)?!’

The real assassin was already running away, stepping on the air. As expected of an assassin, his lightness skill was quite impressive. I was about to chase after him, but seeing him scatter shit water everywhere as he ran made me lose my motivation.

‘I’ll mark his location and order Namgung Tak to kill him.’

Dirty work is for the underlings, after all.

The assassin disappeared from my sight. I spread my senses, but couldn’t feel him. It was natural that I couldn’t sense him even though I could see him. But I had something to rely on.

Thunder Sky Style (雷天流) – Electromagnetic Waves (電磁氣波).

Electromagnetic waves spread out. Right now, I could cover the entire city and more. Information about the city was being fed into my head in real-time.

‘…What is this? Why can’t I pinpoint the assassin’s location?’

The assassin, who should be running away, couldn’t be felt. He wasn’t being caught by the electromagnetic waves. If he had absorbed the electromagnetic waves, I would have known. A void would have been created, making it possible to pinpoint him.

‘Not only can I not sense his presence, but he also has a stealth technique that avoids electromagnetic waves? Is this the Assassin King, known as the greatest assassin in the world?’

He was on a different level compared to the assassins I had faced so far. The fact that he was hiding in the toilet in the first place was absurd. And inside the toilet bowl, no less.

[Opening the Heavenly Eye (天眼).]

Just in case, I used the Heavenly Eye to look in the direction he had escaped. The disadvantage of the Heavenly Eye is that it relies on direct vision, so while it’s good for observation, its search ability is lacking… as expected. I couldn’t see the assassin.

In the end, I gave up on finding the assassin.

“Damn it. From now on, I’m using a chamber pot, not the toilet.”

I didn’t want to have a scuffle with an assassin in the outhouse.

I gathered my inner energy, strengthened my vocal cords, and shouted.

“Azure Cloud Squad, assemble!!”

My voice echoed throughout the entire Hwaryong Clan.

In less than a minute, the Namgung Clan’s Azure Cloud Squad appeared before me. About 30 people. The leader of the Azure Cloud Squad, Namgung Tak, stood in front of them with a blank expression.

“Did you call for us?”

“Hah. Yes, I did. You incompetent fool.”

I beat up Namgung Tak, the squad leader, in front of the Azure Cloud members. I hit his joints and punched him in the face. Namgung Tak groaned but didn’t fall. Should I really cut off one of his arms?

Namgung Tak spat out the blood that had pooled in his mouth and asked me.

“…Are you done venting your anger? Now, please tell me why you are angry.”

“An assassin just popped out of the toilet. I almost got assassinated. Are you guys just staying in the Hwaryong Clan to eat? If you’re here to protect me, you should be protecting me. Don’t just be greedy for food like freeloaders.”

“…An assassin? We didn’t sense anything. Also, the Azure Cloud members are always patrolling.”

I pointed to the mess in the outhouse.

“Then, are you saying I had nothing better to do in the early morning than to make that mess myself?”

“……I apologize. We will strengthen our vigilance. If you can tell us the assassin’s characteristics, we will send people to track him down now.”

“He was wearing black clothes and a mask, so I don’t know. One thing is for sure, he’s a great assassin, to the point that even I missed him.”

I didn’t add that the assassin’s identity was likely the Assassin King. I was secretly hoping that this guy would get taken down by the Assassin King while trying to track him. So, he shouldn’t be intimidated by the name of the Assassin King.

“…I’m worried if we can catch an assassin that even the Elder missed.”

“He was so dirty that I couldn’t fight properly. Besides, he ran away as soon as I tried to fight him. His combat power is probably not that high, regardless of his assassination skills. Just do your best.”

I walked back to my room, swaggering.

I could feel their gazes on my back.

‘What are you going to do by glaring at me?’

He was someone who couldn’t beat me in terms of power or position.

• • •

Usually, when you know that an assassin is targeting your life, you experience mental stress. You become cautious about every single action, and you become reluctant to go outside. Everything becomes suspicious, and in severe cases, you can even develop mental illness.

‘That assassin probably ran away without fighting head-on because he was aiming for this.’

But that didn’t apply to me. I had extra lives. I didn’t mind being assassinated and dying once.

“I will prepare your meal.”

The courtesans brought the food and placed it on the table. More than 30 dishes. The dishes made by the best chef in the city smelled delicious.

I picked up my chopsticks without hesitation. As expected of the dishes made by the best chef in the city, they were tailored to my taste to some extent.

First, I put a piece of the braised carp, which was stealing my attention, into my mouth.

The tangy seasoning was stimulating.

[Absorbed poison. Restoring vitality and mana.]

It was so stimulating that if someone else had eaten it, they might have died.

I put down my chopsticks.

The poison wasn’t the problem. The thought that the assassin who had been hiding in the toilet had touched the food made me feel disgusted. What if there were shit particles in the food? Just thinking about it was horrible.

I called for Namgung Tak.

“What is it?”

“There’s poison in the food. Catch all the chefs and kill them.”

“…Aren’t you going to interrogate them?”

“Do as you see fit. And catch the assassin as soon as possible. Don’t think that I will just keep watching your incompetence.”

“…Yes. I will keep that in mind.”

Namgung Tak interrogated and killed the chefs. He didn’t get any information about the assassin.

I decided not to eat the food in this city. I was more concerned about hygiene than poison. I took out food from my inventory and ate it.

• • •

Several days passed.

During that time, I was targeted for assassination three times. The Assassin King didn’t move directly. The Assassin King completely concealed his appearance and used traps for his assassinations.

Knowing that I was being targeted by an assassin, my senses were sharper than usual. Thanks to that, I didn’t fall for any traps. But it was very annoying. Especially when a bomb, called a thunderclap bomb in this world, flew into my room, I was terrified.

‘The courtesans almost died.’

But they survived.

The incompetent Azure Cloud Squad couldn’t even find the shadow of the Assassin King. Thanks to that, I was able to scold Namgung Tak every day.

‘Judging by his attitude, Namgung Tak is too incompetent, so using the Assassin King to kill him won’t work.’

I put on my clothes and left my room.

The Martial Alliance’s Heavenly Net was closing in every moment. I would most likely end up fighting the experts of the Martial Alliance. It would be quite troublesome if the Assassin King tried to take my life at that time.

‘I’ll deal with the Assassin King before the Martial Alliance makes a move.’

So, for the past few days, I had been walking around the city under the guise of a stroll. Same time every day, same route every day. I was throwing myself out as bait for the Assassin King. Of course, the Azure Cloud Squad followed as a form of escort. I had no faith in the Azure Cloud Squad. They were useless. The Assassin King wouldn’t pay attention to such guys either.

I walked down the street. Facing the pouring sunlight, I already wanted to go back. City streets? I lived in a city with advanced modern civilization. This street was worse than a modern rural area.

‘At least the people are worth looking at.’

A large population meant there was a higher chance of finding beautiful women among them.

I walked down the street with the feeling of finding a pearl in a pile of dirt.

I found a group of beauties. They were probably daughters of wealthy families, as they even had escorts. Their beauty was quite outstanding. I gestured to the group of beauties.

“Come here.”

In this city, my power was absolute. The daughters couldn’t refuse and hesitantly approached me.

A total of five.

As the women approached, I could smell their makeup. I looked at the beauties and tilted my head. One of the five, a simple beauty with her hair pulled back and fixed with a hairpin. She was definitely a beauty, but strangely, I wasn’t turned on.

‘My dick isn’t reacting. Why?’

After thinking for a moment, I remembered that this had happened before.

‘When a man pretends to be a woman. Even if the body is a woman, the soul, the brain, is male.’

There was no arousal.

What surged up was disgust.

Before the guy pretending to be a woman could realize it, I selected the Gay Slayer from my inventory. A black sword appeared in my hand.

‘Gay Slayer! It’s your turn. Gay Kill (Gay殺)!’

The dark light of the slash cut through the woman’s body. The slash cut through the woman’s clothes, but it didn’t cut the woman in half. The Gay Kill was a slash that only killed gays. It couldn’t kill creatures that weren’t gay. In other words, the opponent wasn’t gay.

“……!”

The woman’s eyes widened in surprise. Soon, her body changed. Her ebony hair turned into dry, white hair. Her firm skin sagged and wrinkled, and her body shrank and became shabby.

She wasn’t a beauty, but an old woman.

“…How did you know? And what is that sword?”

“So, an ugly old woman was pretending to be a beauty. I unknowingly saw through her true nature.”

“What nonsense are you spouting?”

To be precise, my dick was more accurate than my eyes. After all, the only thing you can trust is your dick. I was admiring myself when I focused on the old woman. This old woman, she was right in front of me, but I couldn’t gauge her level.

“The Assassin King is an old woman? I honestly didn’t expect that.”

“There’s a saying in the martial world to be careful of women, children, and the elderly.”

“Elder!!”

Namgung Tak intervened. He drew his sword and attacked the old woman. The old woman, as if she had already known, used a Shift in Form and began to run away.

“Chase her. Kill that old woman here.”

Of course, I also started running, stepping on the air to chase the Assassin King. The distance between me and the Assassin King was gradually closing. This time, I used the Heavenly Eye from the beginning to chase her.

‘I won’t miss her like last time.’

The Assassin King landed in an empty lot outside the city. It was a place without any traps or anything.

“Have you given up on running away?”

“Yes. You young brat. This will be your grave.”

The Assassin King threw her hairpin. I didn’t react. The hairpin passed by my leg.

“The Assassin King’s reputation was all a lie. Can’t you even throw a hairpin properly?”

“You fool. I threw it properly.”

It was only then that I realized my body wasn’t moving.

The hairpin.

The hairpin that the Assassin King had thrown had pierced my shadow and was binding my body.

‘Was it a magical artifact?’

I didn’t feel any particular sense of crisis. After all, this was only temporary. My inner energy itself wasn’t sealed.

“The table is set! Kill him!”

The Assassin King laughed and shouted. The sword of Namgung Tak, who was following behind me, was aimed at my back, not the Assassin King.

“Shame of the Namgung Clan! Die!!”

Namgung Tak’s sword was filled with murderous intent and hatred.