I suddenly awoke in the middle of the night.
“……”
It was because I felt a strange sensation that words couldn’t describe.
Like an instinctive dread felt before something bad happens, perhaps?
As I cautiously raised my body from the pit, I noticed that Dokgorin and Hyecheong had already woken up as well.
“What’s going on?”
I asked in a small voice, and Dokgorin answered while grabbing the quiver she had placed by her pillow.
“It seems like we have a night visitor.”
…Could it be an assassin sent by the antagonist who found out we survived?
With no information at hand, that was the only possibility that came to mind, so we had no choice but to be cautious.
“This is quite perplexing. Who would have thought something like this would happen during outdoor training?”
Hyecheong said as he rolled the beads in his hand, but he didn’t seem overly tense.
I suppose he was confident in his abilities.
At least, it was somewhat fortunate that among our group present, there were three peak masters.
Both Dokgorin’s and Hyecheong’s skills were as good as guaranteed, and even I had become a peak master, so while I wasn’t at their level, I could still hold my own.
“They haven’t shown themselves yet, but once the real fight starts, it could get dangerous. Wake Tang Sosu and Moyong Bi.”
“Got it.”
Following Dokgorin’s instructions, I quickly woke the two who were blissfully asleep.
“Ugh…”
“…What’s happening?”
“Shh.”
I immediately placed a finger to my lips to signal them to be quiet.
The two of them looked puzzled but complied and closed their mouths.
Just then,
With a sound slicing through the air, an arrow came flying towards us.
Clang!
Dokgorin effortlessly waved her sword to deflect the arrow.
“!”
Seeing that, Moyong Bi’s eyes widened in shock, but the fight had already begun.
“Attack!”
At the same time someone shouted from the darkness, a rain of arrows poured down from the dark night sky.
“Ahhh!”
“What’s going on? What the heck?!”
Moyong Bi and Tang Sosu ducked instinctively while screaming.
I swung my energy-encased fist, blocking the shower of arrows raining down from above to protect the two.
Meanwhile, a group dressed in black charged toward the readied Dokgorin and Hyecheong.
“I don’t understand what grudge there is to do something like this, but….”
Hyecheong muttered as he clasped his hands in prayer.
“To dare lay a hand on my friends right in front of me is unforgivable.”
Boom!!
Just then, as he thrust out his right palm, a powerful gust of wind crashed into the attackers in black.
“Ughhh!”
“Is that…?”
Moyong Bi looked at Hyecheong in surprise.
“What’s wrong?”
Moyong Bi replied, exasperated as she looked at me.
“You idiot! That technique is the Rupai Dafa that only the direct disciples of the Shaolin Temple’s abbot can learn!”
“What?!”
That meant Hyecheong, who was fighting against the black-clad figures right in front of us, was an even more remarkable person than we thought.
A direct disciple of the Shaolin Temple’s abbot couldn’t just be an ordinary monk.
‘No wonder they’re incredibly strong at that age.’
Due to the Buddhist doctrine prohibiting killing, none appeared to have actually died, but seeing limbs completely shattered by the gusts made it seem like anyone who survived would live with a disability for life.
However, I didn’t particularly feel sympathy for that.
After all, they came to kill us.
And as for Dokgorin,
“Cough!”
“Create some distance! If you get too close, you’ll get poisoned and die!”
She was clearly fighting against many, yet the black-clad figures were unable to approach easily and kept retreating.
They must think Dokgorin released some invisible poison, but in reality, she had emitted uranium elements from her body.
Among the black-clad figures, someone had already shown signs of acute radiation sickness and was coughing up blood.
‘I have no reason to hold back uranium against the enemy.’
In the martial arts training halls, one couldn’t kill people, so I sealed away one of my main weapons, the uranium ball, using only the Vacuum Sword Technique and the Ghostly Kill Technique. However, they were presumed to be minions of the antagonist.
There would be no problem killing them, so Dokgorin was actively utilizing the uranium ball she hadn’t used until now.
“Why do they keep running away? Didn’t they come to kill me?”
As she began to draw on her internal energy, her hair and eyes started to glow in scintillating colors due to the Cherenkov effect.
While revealing one’s position like that in a nighttime battle was akin to suicide, for Dokgorin, it posed no hindrance whatsoever.
After all, they couldn’t get any closer.
“If you won’t come to me, I’ll come to you.”
With a chilling glare, Dokgorin threw her weapon without hesitation while leaping into the heart of the enemy ranks.
Her hands glimmered in fluorescent colors, just like her hair.
Though I was seeing it for the first time in real combat, if my eyes weren’t deceiving me, she was using one of the martial arts techniques she acquired through a chance encounter in the original work—Frosty Demon Power.
However, perhaps influenced by the uranium generated within her, it was glowing in fluorescent colors rather than its characteristic pale white.
“This monster!”
One of the cornered black-clad soldiers swung his blade at Dokgorin, bearing a frightened expression, but she caught it with her bare hands.
“Well, if I’m a monster, then what are you? A butcher killing humans? Or perhaps a lackey feeding the bellies of gluttonous politicians?”
With a blank expression on her face, she spat out her words, and as she flicked her fingers, the thrown weapon flew back toward her.
The black-clad figure, who almost had his head split open, hurriedly tried to distance himself, but she tossed her weapon once again.
“Ugh!”
This time, one couldn’t dodge, and the blade pierced right into the chest of the black-clad soldier.
Yet, Dokgorin didn’t even glance in that direction, as she was already searching for her next target.
Given that he was already poisoned by uranium, it was only a matter of time before his condition worsened.
Radiation destroys cells within the body at a rapid pace.
Thinking that it would be better to fight against someone else than continue against Dokgorin, the black-clad soldiers seemed to swarm toward us, but I wasn’t merely watching from the sidelines.
“Come on over.”
Around me, Tang Sosu, Moyong Bi, and I had created a veritable fortress.
Utilizing the geographical advantage of the forest, we had laid countless Tanghwang webs between the trees so that if they rashly entered, they would be trapped like bugs caught in a spider’s web.
About thirty minutes into the fight, only four or so individuals who appeared to be at a high level of martial arts were still standing upright.
However, they all had poor complexions, as they seemed to be already affected by Dokgorin’s uranium attacks.
If left alone, they would surely suffer from acute radiation sickness and die after a few days.
Dokgorin held her weapon in both hands, pointing it at the seemingly healthy black-clad soldiers.
“Who ordered this? Just tell me that and I’ll give you the antidote.”
Just then, one of the black-clad soldiers shouted.
“Do you think we’ll just tell you willingly? Just kill us!”
“Is that so?”
Squeak!
As Dokgorin’s weapon buried itself in the forehead of one soldier, he toppled over.
The others next to him showed expressions of shock at their companion’s sudden death, but Dokgorin spoke without any care.
“Next.”
Then the soldier who appeared to be the leader broke out in a cold sweat and opened his mouth.
“We were trained for situations like this anyway! Even if we were to be tortured, we would never divulge the client’s name…!”
Thud!
“Next.”
With two of their comrades dropping dead in an instant, the remaining soldiers looked horrified.
“I don’t have much patience. From now on, I plan to kill you in a much more painful manner than the last two did, but if you speak now, I will let you die peacefully.”
Then the surviving assassins looked at each other, trembling.
Seeing them still unwilling to speak despite the situation, they seemed to be far more vicious than we anticipated.
“Okay, it seems you’re not ready to talk yet. Then take your time to think. I will consider ways to make your deaths as agonizing as possible.”
Dokgorin said that and used the Frosty Demon Power again.
It seemed she was considering torturing them directly.
Hyecheong, who was watching from the sidelines, seemed about to say something to Dokgorin, but I hurriedly stopped him.
“I’ll explain the circumstances later, so for now, please close your eyes.”
It wouldn’t matter what I said to her in her current state of mind.
After all, this was the first lead on the enemy since that incident in Sangam.
She must still be burning with the desire for revenge.
Hyecheong looked disappointedly between Dokgorin and me before nodding.
“I understand. Then I will leave their treatment to Dokgo Sojeo.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
I said that and sincerely bowed my head.
It must have been a tough decision for him as well.
