Jin Muryang stared at me, his pupils blown wide.
“Who told you you could call my grandfather an old man, huh?”
“Th-that’s not what I meant...”
“Get down here.”
“Yes!”
Just a moment ago he’d been talking with his hands clasped behind his back and a calm face, but at my words Jin Muryang unfolded his Lightfoot Arts and darted forward like a puppy that suddenly needs to take a shit.
He came to a stop in front of me, brought his hands together politely, and bowed.
“I apologize.”
“I’ll let it slide once.”
“Thank you.”
Everyone just stood there, blank, doing nothing.
What did they think they’d just seen?
The Ghost Lord they’d always respected and followed was nowhere to be found. In his place, a coward flustered with fear was standing in front of them.
That was when Soul-Slicing Ghost’s shout rang out.
“It’s that bastard! The one who bewitched the Ghost Lord! I finally remember! It’s him!”
At Soul-Slicing Ghost’s shout, the assassins all at once exploded with killing intent and charged at me.
“Grab him! If we catch him and kill him, the Ghost Lord will come back to us!”
“Kill him!”
I spoke to Jin Muryang.
“Must’ve been hard persuading them, huh?”
“Yes.”
“Get back. I’ll help.”
“Thank you.”
What else could “help” possibly mean?
Grinning from ear to ear, Jin Muryang retreated to the rear.
From the way he backed off smiling, his face all but said, ‘Let’s see you bastards die now.’
The moment he stepped back, weapons flew in at me from all directions.
TING-TING-TING—
They had definitely hit my body, but because of the immense rebound force, every weapon that struck me ricocheted away.
“Wh-what the hell...?”
I stood there, leisurely taking their attacks, looking around, then asked Jin Muryang for his opinion.
“Which ones should I grab first?”
“Those ones wearing different colors over there are the Five Ghost Generals—elders of Ghost-Slaying Corps. You should take them down first.”
“Oh? I know that guy. He’s the one who was ringing his bells so damn loud last time.”
“You bastard! I don’t know how you subdued me back then, but today will be different!”
JINGLE— JINGLE—
Soul-Slicing Ghost started shaking his bells and circling around.
And just as he opened his mouth to chant—
SMACK—
THUD—
Soul-Slicing Ghost foamed at the mouth and passed out cold.
“I told you you were loud. Ring that shit again, why don’t you.”
Silence dropped over the plaza.
“S-Soul-Slicing Ghost went down in one hit?”
“He’s the weakest among us, sure... but still, he’s not someone who should go down in a single blow...”
One of the Five Ghost Generals stared at me, his pupils trembling, then spotted Jin Muryang behind me, smiling brightly.
That smile looked exactly like: ‘You’re all fucked now.’
“Hey! Get out of the way!”
An urgent shout rang out as they let their guard down for a moment.
They turned their heads—and a fist filled their vision.
SMACK—
“Ghk!”
CRASH-CRASH-CRASH—
THUD—
Foaming at the mouth, another of the Five Ghost Generals collapsed unconscious.
In an instant, two of the Five Ghost Generals were down.
The two who were left:
Heaven-Saber Ghost and White-Sword Ghost.
– Fuck, where did a monster like this come from...
– I’ll take the left, you take the right.
– Think sword-energy will work?
– You really think he’s going to just take sword-energy with his body too?
VMMMM—
Pale blue sword-energy sprang up, sharp and clear, along Heaven-Saber Ghost’s blade and White-Sword Ghost’s sword.
– Go!
At the signal, they attacked from both sides of me at once.
THUD—
“Grrk!”
Weapons wreathed in sword-energy that was supposed to slice boulders like tofu couldn’t even pierce human skin and bounced off.
Heaven-Saber Ghost and White-Sword Ghost stared at me in shock.
“He’s... not human.”
“How do you block sword-energy with a bare body...”
Those words were the last thing the two of them said before they passed out.
From that moment on, it was like a huge tiger running wild in the middle of a flock of sheep.
“Gyaaaah!”
“Guh!”
THUD-THUD-THUD—
With an excited look on my face, I tore through the main force of Ghost-Slaying Corps, and there wasn’t a single person there who could stop me.
They threw poison, sprang traps, fired hidden weapons and arrows—it didn’t matter.
Then their final trump card came flying at me.
A black sphere hurtled toward me; I reached out and caught it bare-handed.
I glanced at it, wondering what it was—
KABOOM—!
The black sphere exploded with a thunderous roar.
Thick smoke engulfed the spot where I had been standing.
“Got him!”
“Ha ha ha! That bastard! Bet he never imagined we’d use a thunder bomb!”
“Not even a corpse will be left!”
The elated assassins shouted in triumph.
Then a gust of wind blew through, sweeping the smoke away.
And there I was, standing in the exact same pose, thunder bomb still in the hand that had grabbed it—clothes shredded into rags.
I grinned.
“Not bad. So that’s how strong bombs are.”
Everyone in the plaza froze where they stood.
“N-no way...”
At someone’s horrified mutter, the place instantly exploded into noise.
“R-run! It’s a monster!”
The assassins bolted toward the entrance.
In that moment—
WHOOOOSH—
A gale howled through the assassins.
KABOOOOM—
With a deafening crash, the gorge’s only entrance collapsed.
In an instant, their route of escape was gone.
They slowly turned around.
Off in the distance, I was walking toward them, showing all my white teeth.
“D-don’t come any closer.”
Their attacks didn’t work, and I was strong on top of that.
They had just watched it with their own eyes.
One punch had caved in the gorge.
They kept flicking their eyes between the blocked exit and me drawing closer, completely at a loss.
Then one assassin let out ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) a scream and charged at me.
“Uaaaah! Die!”
Looked like his mind had snapped from fear.
SMACK—
The result was one hit.
He crumpled to the ground, twitching slightly.
The assassins knew it instinctively.
That was exactly what they were going to look like next.
*****
“Ugh...”
“Ahh...”
“Urgh...”
Groans rose from all directions.
Weapons and hidden tools lay shattered all over the ground, and assassins were strewn everywhere with them.
None of them could even sit up properly; they writhed in pain.
I asked the suffering crowd,
“All right. From now on, I’m going to take guarding as my trade. Hands.”
No one raised a hand.
Which made sense. There wasn’t a single assassin in decent shape.
Honestly, they were in so much pain they probably didn’t even register my voice.
Jin Muryang spoke up.
“Isn’t the question wrong?”
“No, it’s exactly right.”
“But no one raised their hand.”
“Yeah. That’s what I was hoping for.”
Just then, one person managed to raise his hand with difficulty.
“Looks like we’ve got one.”
“Set that guy aside.”
“Huh? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to treat all of them, then start over from the beginning.”
What did I just say I was going to do?
Treat them?
“You’ve learned medicine too?”
Given how smart my head is, Jin Muryang didn’t even doubt it when he asked whether I’d studied medicine.
“No. If I use a healing mantra on my fists and push energy through harder, I don’t need to treat them separately.”
“Then what are you planning to do?”
He didn’t understand.
“I’m going to treat them right now.”
“Sorry? All these people, right now?”
To tell the truth, if I use a healing mantra in my fists and send more energy through, I don’t have to treat them afterwards at all.
But there’s a downside.
If they take a hit and don’t end up with any wounds, it doesn’t shock the people watching as much.
Until they get hit themselves, they don’t understand how serious things are, so they keep throwing themselves at me like rabid dogs. Which makes it annoying like this, having to bother with them.
On top of that, the ones who take the hits end up with their bodies perfectly fine, so they start thinking they must have fallen for some illusion art or had a bad dream—that’s another irritating part.
Healing them is just a matter of reciting a mantra anyway; it’s not hard or troublesome.
Leaving a surprised Jin Muryang behind, I laid my palm flat on the ground.
At the same time, I started murmuring something.
“Where Heaven’s energy flows, where Earth’s energy gathers, let the spiritual roots return, let ten thousand wounds heal on their own.”
White lines appeared all across the plaza, and a huge formation bloomed into existence.
It was the first time Jin Muryang had ever seen someone deploy a formation like that; he couldn’t help but be impressed.
Fast and simple—and above all, it looked convenient.
But his admiration quickly turned to shock.
Light poured out from the formation drawn over the entire plaza and lit up the world, and all those assassins who had been writhing in pain just a moment ago were suddenly healed.
The assassins who’d been contorting in agony went slack as their pain vanished, their faces bewildered.
And they soon figured out why the pain had disappeared.
“Since no one raised their hand, we’ll start over from the beginning.”
I dove back into the flock of sheep.
Watching me, Jin Muryang shuddered all over and muttered,
“Holy shit... what did that man even go off and learn?”
I’d learned something incredible.
From now on, they really couldn’t even dream of rebelling.
Getting knocked out by a beating didn’t mean it was over.
I’d just heal them and beat them again.
Jin Muryang squeezed his eyes shut.
There was no way he could handle this alone.
He swore he’d find the other three, no matter what it took.
Meanwhile, my fists were moving nonstop as I hunted down the assassins I’d marked earlier.
They were worse bastards than Jin Muryang.
Right now, they’d bow to my fists, but who knew what they’d pull the moment I wasn’t here.
Found them.
THUD—
Two assassins’ heads went flying in an instant.
The entire place froze like the air itself had turned to ice.
Up until now, I’d only been hitting them. I hadn’t actually killed anyone.
Now people had died.
With a cold smile on my face, I spoke.
“Oops. I put strength into it without realizing. My mistake.”
Then I lifted my head and apologized to the others.
“Sorry. I’ll control my strength better now.”
The assassins were petrified with fear.
Unlike before, now they really could die.
That fear drove them right to the edge.
And all of this was exactly what I’d intended.
I had deliberately spared the ones I’d decided to kill, just so I could use them at a dramatic moment like this.
And look at the result.
The effect was so much stronger.
Jin Muryang, seeing a version of me that was far scarier, more cunning, and more “evolved” than before, went weak at the knees in terror.
He plopped down on the ground and regretted it all.
Why had he kept working as an assassin?
It was already too late.
He had only one path left now.
If I said to play dead, he’d have to go all-in on playing dead.
The reason assassins who’d lived with death hanging over their heads were feeling this level of fear was the formation I’d deployed.
Living-Origin Formation.
A formation that not only healed the body’s wounds, but even stirred up the desire to live.
Once that desire to live rose up, how attached to life did they think they’d become?
That was why their fear of death had been pushed to the absolute limit.
Who knows how much time passed.
I walked back to Jin Muryang’s side and asked in a quiet voice,
“All right. From now on, I’m taking guarding as my trade. Hands.”
FWIP-FWIP-FWIP-FWIP—
Hundreds of hands shot up.
Pain didn’t matter.
If they didn’t raise their hands, pain far worse than this—and the fear of death—would just come back again.
When every assassin in the plaza had their hand up, I smiled in satisfaction and spoke to Jin Muryang.
“See? Everyone agrees. No problem changing lines of work now, right?”
“O-of course, Senior Brother.”
“You’ve got a guest and you’re not even going to serve tea?”
“Please, follow me. I have some exceptionally fine top-grade Dragon Well tea.”
The former members of Ghost-Slaying Corps trembled with fear as they watched Jin Muryang happily leading the way and me following behind him.
*****
“You’re telling us to set up shop in Jin Family County, Hunan Province?”
“Yeah. More precisely, I’d like you to base yourselves near True Martial Sect.”
“True Martial Sect. Maybe because the name’s similar to mine, it feels kind of friendly.”
“From now on, if anything happens at True Martial Sect, you’re going to be the first one out front protecting it.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. That’s why I’m putting you in the guard business.”
“So the reason you converted us to guards was to have us protect True Martial Sect?”
“Why? You don’t like it?”
My expression stiffened, and Jin Muryang flailed his hands in panic.
“N-no! I like it!”
“Then get ready as best you can and move.”
“Understood.”
“Explain it properly to them too. And if you fail to guard True Martial Sect and anything happens to my family, you’d better be ready.”