Chapter 123. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (19)

Chapter 123. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (19)

For a moment, Woo-Moon almost flipped the table over, not caring if he broke all pretenses. However, he bit his tongue and held back. Regardless of the method, they had to stop the hidden forces.

It would be a horrible catastrophe if they were to miss them, leading to the Baek Family being attacked. In the end, he had to go along with Lee Chung’s orders.

‘Fine, you narrow-minded, stupid-ass old man, I’ll let this go. This time.’

“Understood, I’ll follow your orders.”

Although he agreed, Woo-Moon’s eyes were glaring fiercely at Lee Chung.

Thus, it was decided that the operation would begin immediately. During the brief time they had to prepare, Woo-Moon made sure Lightflash and Inkblade were both in pristine condition, and also took a look at Ma-Ra’s weapons.

Since all of Ma-Ra's weapons were unique weapons used by assassins, Woo-Moon greatly benefited from doing some maintenance on them, as that allowed him to gain some insights into their principles and uses.

“Ma-Ra, isn’t this Tang Yuk’s? Just yesterday, he was looking for it everywhere.”

Woo-Moon was holding up a hidden weapon called a Blood Lotus, a weapon that Tang Yuk always carried around with him. As it was forged in the shape of a lotus, it looked extremely pretty.

Inspecting it, Woo-Moon realized that although the weapon was quite deadly even as it was, the moment that someone were to try to block it or deflect it with force, its poison-covered lotus petals would shoot out in all directions, striking the enemy and whoever else happened to be around. Its impressive killing power would thus be most apparent in a crowd, where it could likely kill dozens of people at once.

Still in her flower gown, Ma-Ra abruptly fell from the sky and landed right in front of Woo-Moon, staring at him directly.

“What?” he asked, startled.

Ma-Ra stretched out her long, pale index finger and slowly brought it to her lips.

“Sshhhh.”

Woo-Moon forgot language for a moment.

“...”

Ma-Ra immediately disappeared again, leaving Woo-Moon even more confused than before.

Suddenly, he was reminded of something he had learned from his grandfather: something about the Tang Family—something about that incredibly closed-off family...

The very reason they were so incredibly closed-off was their extreme reluctance to allow their hidden weapons and poisons to leak out. Moreover, if that were to happen, no matter who their opponent was, they would chase them to the ends of hell.

“Ma-Ra, you can’t do this. The Tang Family is really sensitive to these things!”

“I use better.”

Ma-Ra’s response was simple—the Blood Lotus would be much more effective in her hands than Tang Yuk’s. Moreover, she wasn’t wrong. Although Tang Yuk’s hidden weapon techniques were incredible, as expected of a son of the Tang Family, even he was inferior to Ma-Ra.

“Grr.”

Knowing that Ma-Ra was just trying to be as utilitarian as possible and didn’t have any bad intentions, Woo-Moon just patted her fidgety head and said nothing more.

“Anyway, you can’t do this again. You’ll get in trouble if you get caught.”

“Okay.”

Woo-Moon quickly finished his maintenance of Ma-Ra’s hidden weapons and handed them back to her before anyone else could see.

Then, as they prepared to leave, Sleepy Sword Ra-Mi suddenly came to visit.

With her long, straight, unkempt hair hanging down below her waist, she walked forward as if on clouds.

“Thank... you for... back there...”

“No, no, there’s no need for any thanks. I just did what I should have as the captain.”

“Xiahou Jinxian... wasn’t like that. He... all he did was look at me with a strange gaze whenever I fell asleep...”

Although she didn’t seem as innocent as Ma-Ra, Ra-Mi also looked pure in her own way. Moreover, Woo-Moon felt like she was as pure as she looked, too.

‘Well, it makes sense. She spends most of her day sleeping because of her narcolepsy, anyway.’

“Can your illness be cured?” he asked.

However, in the time that it took him to ask, Ra-Mi fell asleep once again. Woo-Moon called her name again to wake her up before repeating his question.

With a heavy-lidded gaze, Ra-Mi looked at Woo-Moon for a moment before responding.

“There is no cure. However, my father says...”

She fell asleep again before she could finish her sentence, forcing Woo-Moon to call out once more.

As expected, they had also noticed it.

‘Damn it, why hasn’t the rear force arrived yet? Something is going to go wrong if they don’t arrive soon!’

Even though the rear force should have arrived by now, they were nowhere in sight.

As Woo-Moon had expected, the members of the Wind Sword Squadron didn’t fight with much effort like the rumors had said. All they did was protect their surroundings while dealing with any approaching enemies.

However, Woo-Moon had no reason to blame them and just said, “You guys stay here! I’m going ahead and fighting!”

In truth, strategy played much less of a role in a war within the murim as compared to a war with ordinary soldiers. The difference in power between individuals was simply too severe.

This was the murim, where one could cut down a hundred with a single swing just to turn and cut down a thousand more.

Tap! Thud, thud, thud!

After kicking off the ground and stepping on the head of the gang member in front of him, Woo-Moon continued to step on the heads of the crowded group of gang members as he moved forward.

“Agh!”

“Stop him!”

All of those he stepped on died immediately with their necks bent at odd angles. A few moments later, Woo-Moon quickly landed in the midst of the enemy and twisted around, swinging his sword.

Squelch!

A circle of blood formed around him, spewing out in all directions.

A large hole in the enemy lines appeared around Woo-Moon in a split second. He stopped spinning and fired two Raging Wind Palms in front of him.

“Aghk!!!!!”

Dozens of gang members were struck by the palm winds at the same time, flying backward and getting crushed.

Swish!

Ma-Ra appeared like a ghost among those surrounding Woo-Moon.

‘A girl?’

When one of the gang members opened his eyes wide in surprise, a dart fired by Ma-Ra flew and directly pierced through his eye.

Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra flew around like wolves in a flock of sheep, blood spraying in all directions from the center of the Black Bull Gang’s force.

Meanwhile, the Black Bull Gang’s experts were fighting Lee Chung, and the Justice Coalition experts supported him. In the middle of their fray, they spotted Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra’s slaughter from a distance.

“Who the hell is that bastard?! Go and kill him quickly!”

Woo-Moon was still a critical variable in this battle, as the Black Bull Gang was still unaware of his existence and the extent of his abilities. They could not possibly expect someone of his caliber to be fighting among the troops in a measly squadron captain position. If the captain present during this battle had been Xiahou Jinxian instead of Woo-Moon, the situation would have been much worse.

“Understood!”

After receiving the order, two of the Ten Demon Generals leaped away from their battle and ran toward Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra. The warriors of the Justice Coalition between them dropped like flies, spewing blood in succession.

“How audacious!”

“How dare you go this deep into our lines with just the two of you!” shouted the two of the Ten Demon Generals, the Black and White Impermanence.[1]

They released a black and white palm force respectively as they attacked Ma-Ra and Woo-Moon.

‘Ma-Ra is disadvantaged when she’s forced to confront experts head-to-head out in the open like this!’

"Ma-Ra!" Woo-Moon shouted.

She immediately read the intention in his gaze.

Woo-Moon tightly grabbed her hand and yanked her back hard.

Woosh!

She flew over his head and handed behind him as his palm, and her hand moved simultaneously!

Thwip, thwip, thwip!

Dozens of hidden weapons fired from Ma-Ra’s pale white hands, turning those attacking Woo-Moon from behind into porcupines. Woo-Moon’s left hand blasted forward with a Raging Wind Palm while his left hand slashed forward with Lightflash.

1. The Black and White Impermanence, or Heibai Wuchang, are two Chinese death deities that serve under the Supreme Judge of Hell and guide the dead to the underworld. ☜