The Heukcheon Amgui retrieved the hidden weapon embedded in the pillar with an indifferent expression.
"Neither you nor I have anything to gain from causing a commotion, so let us settle this quietly."
The Heukcheon Amgui pointed alternately at the Vice Unit Leader and at the first floor with the tip of his flying dagger.
"I will take only Namgung Jin and you. The others should surrender themselves to the Martial Alliance on their own. If you do that, I will no longer kill you."
"You have come all this way, so why hand the credit to the Martial Alliance?"
The Heukcheon Amgui answered obediently.
"Credit for what. There is nothing good in being tangled with the Blood Cult anymore, so I intend to let the Martial Alliance handle things from here."
The Vice Unit Leader spoke in a mocking tone.
"Ah, so that is why you were moving differently than usual."
The Vice Unit Leader had considered the Heukcheon Amgui’s performance uncharacteristic compared to the rumors. If the Heukcheon Amgui’s Mancheonhawoo was as ruthlessly evil as the rumors—said to stain the sky with blood—he would not have needed to face them one by one; he could have slaughtered everyone the moment he stepped into the building.
But he had moved cautiously. One might think this mess could not possibly be the result of a cautious approach, but the Heukcheon Amgui had used a different hidden-weapon technique every time he faced the cultists on the second and third floors. Some cultists had been killed with multiple weapons embedded in their bodies, and he had mixed long-range and short-range hidden-weapon techniques. He had crafted a scene that looked as though many people had fought a bloody battle and fled.
It was a battlefield that made it difficult to believe the Heukcheon Amgui alone had been here.
It seemed the Tang Clan was feeling burdened by being continuously entangled with the Blood Cult.
The Vice Unit Leader swallowed a hollow laugh inwardly. The Heukcheon Amgui was overestimating his own position. He was in no condition to be granting mercy to others.
The Vice Unit Leader spoke with a serious expression.
"In the Central Plains, there is a saying: ‘kill the witness and destroy the mouth.’ It means that the dead do not speak, so one must silence mouths through killing. A terrifying phrase."
A cultist wearing Namgung Jin’s face spoke in his original voice. A light, goat-like tone cut through the silence.
"‘Kill the witness and destroy the mouth’ is my second-favorite expression in the Central Plains."
Tang Min intended to listen to the Blood Cult bastard before him. He had been curious about their goal. In truth, there was someone else near him he could have questioned about the Blood Cult, but he did not wish to ask Sohwa.
The Vice Unit Leader saw the Heukcheon Amgui’s expression twist subtly and sensed that suspicion had taken root in his mind.
"‘Do not fix your sandals in a melon field.’ If you adjust your shoes in a melon patch, you cannot resent being mistaken for a thief, can you? Whatever the case, the one who bent down to fix his sandals is at fault."
The Heukcheon Amgui responded in a cold tone.
"You also know well that I did not steal anything."
"Can you guarantee that not stealing means you have nothing to do with the thieves? You were in the same place as the thieves."
The Heukcheon Amgui straightened his upper body.
It was not a reaction to the Vice Unit Leader’s words.
Tang Min’s gaze shifted sideways. A cultist who had been lying on the floor was rising and taking a stance. A similar movement was felt behind him as well.
Tang Min’s gaze returned to the Vice Unit Leader.
As if he had been waiting for the moment, the Vice Unit Leader narrowed his eyes and informed him of the situation.
"‘Kill the witness and destroy the mouth’ is a method used only when you are able to kill the opponent."
Just then, a dart flew from behind. When the Heukcheon Amgui twisted his shoulder to avoid it, the hidden weapon meant for him lodged itself in the wall.
Boom.
During the time the Vice Unit Leader stalled, the Blue Blood Hall elites who had recovered their bodies all stood up with darts in hand.
With a teasing tone, he spoke as if mocking the Heukcheon Amgui.
"On the day the Tang Clan Head’s eldest daughter returned to Hubei, if the Heukcheon Amgui’s corpse is left in the chaotic streets of Wuhan, that will be a sight worth seeing."
Tang Min clicked his tongue.
"I have been told often that I have softened with age, but perhaps they were not saying it to flatter me after all."
He shamelessly said something he had never heard in his life.
"This is why a man should not rest. Now I am being threatened by worthless brats."
Without even turning back, the Heukcheon Amgui moved his hand behind him.
Swish.
"Gah!"
A flying dagger pierced the forehead of the cultist who had been about to throw his hidden weapon.
The Heukcheon Amgui tucked his hand back inside his sleeve and muttered,
"Right. Your bodies do not die, is that it."
The Heukcheon Amgui’s hand, which had dropped toward the floor, rose again.
"About three years ago, in the mountains, I saw a bastard like you. I thought he had died, but he recovered quickly and stood up."
A flying dagger was fitted between his fingers as it emerged from his sleeve.
"Since hidden weapons make narrow wounds, your recovery must be even faster."
As if understanding, the Heukcheon Amgui flicked his fingers. The single flying dagger between them doubled into two.
Tang Min’s lips curved faintly to the side.
"Let us see whose speed is faster—you regenerating, or me cutting you to pieces."
Almost before the words were finished, the Heukcheon Amgui’s figure vanished.
Tap.
The Vice Unit Leader caught the hidden weapon that flew toward his face and leaped to the fourth floor.
Landing on the railing, the Vice Unit Leader flinched at the sight of the corpse. More than a dozen holes riddled the body. He had climbed up at nearly the same moment the Heukcheon Amgui had, yet in that instant the monstrous old man had destroyed dozens of vital points.
The Vice Unit Leader twisted his body.
The Heukcheon Amgui had already circled half the building and stood in the corridor opposite the Vice Unit Leader.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
With a face untouched by even a splash of blood, Tang Min moved his hands rapidly. The flying dagger he threw pierced through the arm of the charging cultist, then pierced the chest of the cultist behind him.
"Urgh!"
When the flying dagger, having lost its momentum, fell toward the floor, Tang Min flipped his palm. The dagger followed the motion and veered left as it dropped.
A dart thrown by a distant cultist struck Tang Min’s flying dagger forcefully.
Boom.
Receiving momentum again, the flying dagger shot forward and pierced the side of the cultist standing ahead.
"Gahk!"
The blood-stained flying dagger returned to its owner’s hand.
With an expressionless face, the Heukcheon Amgui slaughtered the cultists positioned on the fourth floor in an instant.
He suddenly turned his gaze to the side. He had spotted the Vice Unit Leader staring at him.
Maintaining eye contact, the Heukcheon Amgui stepped backward.
Boom.
A dart infused with inner energy tore through the wooden floor and shot upward toward Tang Min. The dart surged with enough force to split the Heukcheon Amgui in half and embedded itself in the fourth-floor ceiling.
Cultists on the lower floor immediately threw their hidden weapons.
Crash. Boom. Crash.
But the Heukcheon Amgui neither descended nor counterattacked. He merely shifted slightly, allowing the cultists’ darts to bury themselves in the ceiling.
The four darts embedded in the ceiling were spaced widely apart.
Watching this, the Vice Unit Leader furrowed his brows.
He could not understand what the Heukcheon Amgui intended.
Believing they had finished off the Heukcheon Amgui, a Blood Cult bastard stepped on the railing and leaped up to the fourth floor.
Tap.
Facing the Heukcheon Amgui, the cultist was startled but did not flee; he stepped inside.
Tang Min’s reaction, however, was strange.
Given the Heukcheon Amgui’s speed, he could have thrown a hidden weapon the instant the man appeared. Yet he stood empty-handed, allowing the enemy to land before him.
Thud.
It happened the moment the cultist’s feet touched the ground.
Whish.
The four darts embedded in the ceiling flew toward a single target.
"Gah!"
The darts that shot in from all directions maintained perfect spacing as they lodged into the cultist’s neck.
The Heukcheon Amgui looked not at the cultist before him, but at the Vice Unit Leader. As if showing him something.
The Heukcheon Amgui moved his hand. As he rotated his hand blade, the darts embedded in the cultist’s neck began to spin.
Snap.
The cultist’s head fell to the floor.
The Vice Unit Leader froze in place.
The Heukcheon Amgui was showing him—
that he was searching for their weakness.
He was testing the limits of their recovery, looking for the point where they could not regenerate.
A cultist on the third floor threw hidden weapons.
Swish. Whish. Swish.
But he did not dare climb up to the fourth floor, attacking only from where he stood.
Tang Min scoffed at the cowardly attack and threw a dart.
A dart with four protrusions spun, disrupting the trajectory of the incoming flying daggers.
Crash. Boom. Crash.
Even so, the cultists did not come up.
Thud.
Tang Min leaped down from the railing to the third floor.
He immediately threw the dart he had retrieved toward the opposite railing.
Boom. Crash.
As the dart intercepted the incoming hidden weapons, he threw flying daggers at the enemy before him.
Six flying daggers shot forward at once and pierced the cultist’s waist.
Slash.
Having instantly taken care of the cultist, Tang Min retrieved the returning dart.
Holding the dart, he was about to throw it at the cultist before him when he abruptly twisted his wrist and threw the hidden weapon outside the railing.
Clang.
A finger-sized bottle shattered right beside him. The clear droplets inside splattered in all directions.
Retrieving the dart again, Tang Min prepared to throw another hidden weapon without concern.
But his hand did not move.
Thud.
A flying dagger he had failed to block embedded itself in his arm.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
In an instant, other hidden weapons flying toward him dug into his body.
Yet Tang Min still could not move.
Thump.
Collapsing to the floor, he clenched his fingers desperately. He poured all his strength into them, but his stiffened fingers no longer obeyed.
A shadow fell over Tang Min’s upper body.
Landing on the railing, the Vice Unit Leader spoke.
"It seems you wished for the Tang Clan’s name to no longer be entangled with the Blood Cult, so I understand why you bravely entered alone."
The Vice Unit Leader mimicked Tang Min as he pointed at him and at the floor with the hidden weapon in his hand.
"I, too, have no intention of letting the Heukcheon Amgui die here. There is someone who will be pleased to receive that body."
A faint laughter laced his voice.
"They say that in Tang Clan Tower there is a nine-storied building. The ninth floor has not yet been filled, so I hear that the Eight Ultimate Poisons of the eighth floor are the most dangerous."
He removed a leather glove he had put on at an unknown moment and ordered the cultists standing nearby:
"Do not be afraid. Come bind his hands and feet properly."
