I watched the Mok father and son with satisfaction.
Both of their gazes were fixed on Taecheon’s sword.
“You seem curious. Taecheon, hand them the sword.”
“Understood.”
Taecheon wordlessly offered up his sword, and the two kept letting out sounds of admiration as they examined it.
“I can’t believe something can be this smooth.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen a blade spread this evenly.”
“This sword has a formula inscribed as well.”
“The inscription is incredibly delicate. Just how in the world did you do this?”
Their eyes turned toward me.
“Looks like you’re having trouble because of the sword. Want me to help? I’ll show you while I help you—how I did it.”
“R–really?”
When I nodded, the two of them wore deeply moved expressions.
“It’s already more than we deserve that you’d help us at all, but for you to even show us your secret method... We of the Mok family will remember your great grace for the rest of our lives, Young Master Jeok.”
“It’s nothing much.”
To the two of them, I probably looked like the greatest man in the world.
As they marveled at how big my heart must be and looked again at Taecheon’s sword—
“Where’s the old man?”
Someone’s voice cut in.
Mok Gwang and Mok Cheol both tensed up at once.
CREEEAK—.
The forge door opened, and a young man walked in, fanning himself.
“What the hell? You were in here and didn’t answer?”
“My apologies, Young Master Gu Yang. I didn’t hear you come in.”
Young Master Gu Yang chuckled and tapped Mok Gwang’s head with his fan.
“I liked the sword I took last time, so I’ll let it slide this once.”
“Thank you.”
“Think you’ve got another sword similar to that one? I’ve got someone to give a present to.”
“I’m sorry. A sword of that caliber doesn’t come out just any time....”
At that, the young man called Young Master Gu Yang looked at the sword in Mok Gwang’s hand.
“That sword looks nice.”
“This sword belongs to this customer, sir.”
“Yeah?”
Young Master Gu Yang slowly walked up to me, cupped his fist, and spoke.
“I am Gu Yanghu, third son of the Gu Yang Family here in Changsha.”
“I’m Jeok Wigang of True Martial Sect.”
“How about selling that sword to me? I’ll make sure you’re well compensated.”
“Sorry. It’s not mine, it belongs to my subordinate. I can’t sell it.”
“Isn’t that even better? Your subordinate’s property is basically your property, isn’t it?”
I snorted.
“I’m afraid I still can’t sell it.”
I said what I had to say and started to turn my head away, ignoring him.
“When a man is talking to you, you shouldn’t just turn your head away like that.”
Gu Yanghu’s tone was openly rude.
“Don’t you know that in this city, the words of the Gu Yang Family are no different from the law?”
“There’s state law in this country. If you say your family’s words are the law, doesn’t that make you traitors?”
“Heh. Did you lose your mind or something. You trying to die?”
At his gesture, the guards at his side moved.
Taecheon stepped in front of them.
“What’s this?”
“Young Master. Please give me my sword.”
“It’s dangerous to use that sword right away. You need to be fully used to it before you swing it. Use one of the swords over there to handle this.”
Just how absurdly powerful did he think it was, if he needed an adjustment period first?
With a flutter of nervous excitement, Taecheon nodded.
“Understood.”
Taecheon cupped his fist to Mok Gwang.
“I’ll borrow a sword for a moment.”
Mok Gwang hurriedly tried to stop him.
“D–don’t, please. In this city, you must never, ever go against the Gu Yang Family.”
“Hahaha! Old man Mok really does know how the world works. You hear that? As long as you hand over that sword, I’ll pretend nothing happened here today. How about it?”
Loud on purpose so Gu Yanghu would hear, I cut in.
“Man, you’re noisy.”
“I’ll quiet them down.”
“Just rough them up a bit and send them away.”
“Understood.”
Taecheon grabbed one of the swords lying nearby.
It was a practice sword whose edge hadn’t been sharpened yet.
Gu Yanghu burst out laughing when he saw it.
“Pff, look at that. He panicked so much he grabbed a dull practice sword.”
He seemed to know a thing or two about swords; he recognized it was a practice sword at a glance.
“If you can’t even inspect a sword properly, you’re nothing special. Forget him. Go grab the sword in that bastard’s hand.”
“Yes, sir!”
The guards drew their blades, surrounding Taecheon and ready to strike at any moment.
Taecheon knew it was a practice sword when he drew it.
If he’d meant to kill them, he would have drawn a real sword from next to it.
If he was just going to rough them up a bit, the practice sword was more than enough.
With no edge, he could swing as freely as he wanted.
One of the guards charged in and brought his sword down from above.
WHOOSH—.
The sound of the blade cleaving the air rang sharp in my ears.
CLANG—.
Taecheon’s sword smacked the flat of the guard’s blade, knocking it aside, then drove straight into the man’s abdomen.
THUD—.
“Gahk!”
Because it was a practice sword, it didn’t cut him, but the powerful impact drove through his guts and dropped him to the floor.
“He’s no pushover. All of you, get him!”
In that single exchange, they’d realized Taecheon wasn’t an easy opponent, and all the guards attacked at once.
As their swords thrust in from every direction, Taecheon slipped between them and counterattacked.
THUD— THWACK—.
One guard took a hit to the wrist, another to the knee, another to the armpit, all of them groaning in pain.
Even so, none of them dropped their swords.
Taecheon’s expression turned interested.
Usually, people let go of their blades from pain, but these men were holding on even as they hurt.
They’d been trained properly.
A waste, really.
That men like this had to play bodyguard for some spoiled little brat like that.
Still, as they say: birds of a feather flock together.
The guards didn’t look like they had good hearts either.
“You fucking bastard!”
“I’ll kill you for sure!”
“I’ll cut you to pieces and laugh in your face!”
Any shred of sympathy vanished.
Taecheon tightened his grip on the sword.
He had to make sure they couldn’t move.
“Die!”
A blade flew in right up close to his nose.
Taecheon slipped aside and hammered his blow down on the guard’s wrist.
CRACK—.
With a harsh sound, the guard collapsed, clutching his arm.
His arm bent at an unnatural angle.
It was broken.
Taecheon stomped on the guard’s agonized face and knocked him out cold.
“Y–you bastard!”
The remaining guards pointed swords wreathed in a blue aura at him, eyes full of murderous intent.
Taecheon shifted into his stance.
One of the fighters in front of him lowered his posture, gripping hilt and scabbard both, and charged in.
SHRING—.
He drew as he rushed, slashing at Taecheon.
It was an attack that hooked the scabbard to add extra force to the strike.
At the same time, other blades were already flashing toward Taecheon’s head from above, from both ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) sides, and from behind.
He knocked the incoming draw-cut up and away, ricocheting the vertical strike that came down from above.
At the same time, he spun his body, blocking the attacks coming in from all directions.
CLANG CLANG CLANG—.
In the brief instant when their balance broke as their attacks were stopped—
Taecheon’s counter began.
SWISH—.
He smashed the face of the guard whose body had lurched the most from the deflected draw-cut, slamming him with the flat of the blade.
BOOOONG—.
“Urgh!”
CRASH CRASH CRASH—.
The man went flying, crashing backward and collapsing in a heap, foaming at the mouth, unconscious.
The other three were no better; they crumpled to the floor under Taecheon’s rapid strikes, crawling in agony.
Now there was only one guard left.
His pupils trembled as he stared at his fallen comrades.
Gu Yanghu, too, was flustered by this turn of events he’d never imagined.
“W–what the hell is this! You useless pieces of shit! You can’t even take one guy, and this is what I get?!”
Even as he shouted, he was quickly backing toward the door.
“What are you doing, you idiot! Hurry up and block him! Buy me time to get away!”
At his scream, the last guard clenched his teeth and charged.
CRACK—.
But the result was another knockout.
THUD—.
Was it my imagination?
For a moment, it looked like there was a faint smile at the corner of the guard’s mouth as he passed out.
Now there was only Gu Yanghu left.
“D–don’t come any closer.... If you lay a finger on me, I–I’ll wipe out this whole forge and your entire family from the face of the earth.”
“If we just let you go, you’ll pretend none of this ever happened today?”
At my words, Gu Yanghu seemed to think I’d gotten scared, and some of his bluster came back.
“Hmph! So you’re finally afraid. If you kneel and beg me right now, I’ll end this by just taking that guy’s head and one of your arms.”
I laughed, more exasperated than anything.
“That’s not really something you should be saying in this situation, you know? You’re unbelievably bad at reading the room. Well, I guess you’ve never had to, huh. I get it.”
“You damned bastard! You dare spit on the merciful grace I’m offering you? Because of your pathetic pride, your family will disappear from this world.”
“Oh, is that so? Then to protect my family, I’ll just have to quietly kill you where no rat or bird will know, right?”
“What?”
“You said it yourself, didn’t you? If I let you go, you’ll wipe our family out. I can’t commit that kind of unfilial sin. I have to kill you and save my family. Don’t you agree?”
“Y–you think you’ll get away with laying a hand on me?”
“That’s not your problem. I’ll take care of that. The one headed to the afterlife first doesn’t need to worry about it.”
I smiled coldly and stepped toward him.
Gu Yanghu, terrified, staggered backward.
Then he turned to the Mok father and son for help.
“W–what are you just standing there for? H–hurry and stop that rude bastard! If you stop him, I’ll remember the favor and make the Mok family forge the biggest forge in Changsha!”
Mok Gwang spoke to me instead.
“Y–Young Master... p–please, that’s enough.”
I smiled.
“Could you step outside for a bit? What’s about to happen in here won’t be pleasant to see.”
“If you kill Young Master Gu Yang, it won’t just be you who die, it’ll be us as well. Please, I’m begging you, let it end here.”
“I’ll make sure nothing comes back on this place. So don’t worry and wait outside. Taecheon.”
“Yes.”
Taecheon soothed the Mok father and son and escorted them outside.
They’d seen how strong Taecheon was, so they couldn’t say anything more; they just left with faces full of worry.
“You two, if anyone even looks like they’re coming this way, stop them.”
“Understood.”
At my command, Blood-Dance Death God Chu Sowon and Milyeong vanished like smoke.
Gu Yanghu reacted like he’d just seen ghosts.
“T–they disappeared! Th–they disappeared! G–ghosts!”
He was loud.
SMACK—.
With a heavy impact, Gu Yanghu’s head snapped to the side.
He clutched his cheek and stared at me, dazed, as if he had no idea what had just happened to him.
It was the first time in his life.
The first time anyone had ever hit him.
He was so shocked he didn’t even seem to feel the pain at first.
Then his expression suddenly twisted.
Looked like the pain was finally catching up to him.
Another first.
The first time anything had hurt this much.
Tears welled up in Gu Yanghu’s eyes.
“H–how dare you hit me.... E–even my father’s never hit me....”
“No wonder you turned out like this when no one ever disciplined you. I’ll discipline you properly.”
Gu Yanghu’s malice actually wasn’t all that strong.
He’d just been raised without any manners and didn’t know how to judge right from wrong.
He did bad things, but since no one ever said anything to him about it, he’d grown up thinking that was normal.
“Who the hell are you to talk about disciplining me?!”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen!”
“Then I’m the older one.”
“What?”
“From now on, call me Big Brother.”