Chapter 10: Non-English
by fnovelpia
Cheongun stared at the unconscious woman for a long time.
She didn’t move at all, as if she had already died.
“She’s not dead, is she?”
“Of course not. She just fainted because her jangtaehyul (a pressure point) was struck.”
“Then when will she wake up?”
“Hard to say. Probably soon.”
Since he hadn’t used much internal energy to strike the point in the first place, the blockage would clear up shortly.
Sure enough, the woman known as Baek Seol soon began to twitch, drooling from her mouth.
As she barely regained consciousness, her eyes eventually met Cheongun’s.
“Shh. I’m about to ask you a few things, and just so you know—I have a really bad temper. If you say anything other than what I ask, things are going to get very messy for you. So don’t try anything stupid, got it?”
Baek Seol glared at Cheongun with dagger-like eyes.
Her lips moved, but no sound came out.
Hong Soyeon had sealed her ahyeol (mute pressure point).
When Cheongun gave Hong Soyeon a look, she immediately released the point.
“Haah… Huh…! You fucking—!”
The moment the mute point was released, Baek Seol spat out curses.
“Now, now, calm down. Ah, not calming down, huh? Well, I guess you didn’t expect to get hit from behind like this. Right?”
“Shut up.”
“First question. When I ask, just answer. That’s all you have to do.”
“And if I don’t?”
“Then you die.”
“Go ahead. I don’t care about living.”
Cheongun stroked his chin.
Unlike Hong Soyeon, who would sell out even her comrades to survive, this woman had no attachment to life.
Typical of demonic cultists.
Unreasonably stubborn and blindly devoted.
But did that mean their loyalty ran deep?
Surprisingly, no.
It wasn’t loyalty— it was fear.
They knew better than anyone what awaited traitors in the demonic cult.
But there was one magic phrase that could even make these cultists flinch.
And that was—
“Then should I destroy your dantian instead?”
“……”
For martial artists, the source of their power was undeniably their internal energy.
And that internal energy was stored within the dantian, a vital organ in the body.
What kind of people were demonic cultists?
They were the kind who would endure all sorts of insane side effects just to gain martial arts, crawling into the demonic cult for power.
And now, to lose all that hard-earned internal energy in an instant?
It was practically a death sentence.
Moreover, the moment the dantian was destroyed, they would have to pay back all the side effects of their demonic arts in one lump sum.
Their bodies would crumble, their minds would shatter, and they would become empty husks.
In a way, for them, the destruction of the dantian was even more terrifying than death.
“Did the Biyeongmun send you?”
I held up three fingers.
Like a countdown, I folded one.
Then another.
Just as I was about to fold the last remaining finger—
“…Yes.”
Cheongun smiled softly and spoke in a gentle voice.
“I see. So it’s the Biyeongmun… No wonder the divine arts felt unusual. What was the name of the Biyeongmun’s Dokmun Divine Arts again? Was it the Biyeong Divine Arts?”
Cheonwoo smirked, bending slightly to meet her gaze.
“Biyeongsin.”
“……”
“How can the name of a divine art be ‘Biyeong~shin~ arts’?”
“Enough.”
“Biyeongsin Arts. Biyeongsinbo. Biyeongsimgyeol. Biyeongsingeom.”
Twitch.
A thick vein pulsed at the woman’s temple.
“Next question. What’s your name?”
“…BBaek Seol.”
“Hmm.”
Cheonwoo nodded.
Honestly, he already knew everything up to this point.
He had long been aware that she was sent by the Biyeongmun, and her name had been relayed to him earlier by Hong Soyeon.
The real issue was the next question.
There was still much Cheonwoo himself didn’t know.
Just because he was a transmigrator didn’t mean he knew every detail of this world.
Besides, before possessing this body, hadn’t he installed a custom mod called ‘Demon Slayer’ ?
He needed to carefully assess how much the influence of the Heavenly Demon Cult had grown and how the world’s dynamics had shifted.
“Why did you send a spy here?”
“That’s…”
“One, two, three.”
“Namgung Hwi.”
“Namgung Hwi? Why him? Planning an assassination or something?”
“Exactly.”
Cheonwoo fell into thought.
Namgung Hwi was both the young master of the Namgung Family and the branch leader here.
And he wasn’t just some privileged figurehead.
His martial arts had reached the threshold of the peak realm, making him a true prodigy among the younger generation.
How many young masters who trained in orthodox martial arts could be considered true elites?
Orthodox martial arts were, by nature, a slow and steady path.
Though progress might seem sluggish at first, the deeper one trained, the more solid the foundation became, paving the way to becoming an unrivaled master.
With the best resources poured into them and rigorously tested training methods, their safety was guaranteed— but the trade-off was the sheer amount of time required to reach one’s goals.
That was why elders of sects went wild when they spotted young geniuses.
Old men who trained in orthodox martial arts would take ages to achieve the same results.
But Namgung Hwi?
Noble birth, peak martial arts, and still young?
He was a rising star in every sense.
And the Demon Cult bastards had the gall to send assassins to cut down such a promising talent.
Cheonwoo looked at Baek Seol and Hong Soyeon and spoke.
“This won’t do. I don’t know about other things, but trying to kill my sponsor? Hold on. Now that I think about it, something’s off. Namgung Hwi isn’t some nobody—why would they send such low-tier assassins for such an important mission?”
“You little—!”
“Just be honest. Are there more coming? Who’s backing you?”
“Ha! As if telling you would change anything!”
“So who is it? Why can’t you say? Should I crush your dantian? Crush it? I’ll really do it.”
“W-wait! I’ll talk, okay? I’ll talk!”
“You should’ve just said so from the start.”
Hong Soyeon, who had been silently watching, thought to herself:
Huh. I made the right choice by betraying them.
****
A damp night.
Whoosh.
The place where Cheongun, who had been performing light-footed martial arts, landed was a logging site.
Abandoned shrines are usually located in remote mountains.
There is a superstition that building a shrine in a place with chaotic energy disrupts the balance of yin and yang, bringing disaster, so they are often built deep in the mountains and left unattended, with no one visiting.
This abandoned shrine was particularly saturated with yin energy.
A place left neglected for decades, covered in moss and vines.
At the entrance to the shrine, five masked men were sitting around a bonfire, chatting.
Then, one of them suddenly burst into laughter.
“Kehahah! Did you see that earlier?”
“I sure did! That brat, watching his mother’s head get chopped right in front of him, was foaming at the mouth, screaming about revenge and thrashing around like crazy!”
“Did that really happen? So what did you do?”
“What do you think? Send him straight to his mother’s side!”
“Hwahahah! At least he won’t be lonely on the way! Hah, better to die by your hand than live as an orphan!”
The men laughed uproariously, boasting about their wicked deeds.
Then, a dark figure emerged from the shadows.
“The fuck, were you just talking shit about me?”
The figure was Cheongun.
He trudged forward, stepping into the light.
“Who the hell are you?”
“I asked first. Were you just talking shit about me?”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“You just said it’s better to die than live as an orphan?”
“What’s that got to do with you?”
“I’m an orphan, you fucking bastard.”
The man blinked in stunned silence.
Was this guy insane?
Of course, that thought lasted only a moment before he unsheathed the broadsword slung over his shoulder, baring his teeth.
“Ha, an orphan brat with no fear, walking in here?”
“The fuck did you say? Trash.”
“You better watch your mouth before you regret it.”
“You’re the one who should be prepared. You’re all gonna die by my hand.”
“You little—!”
Boom—!
The man, unable to contain his rage, slammed his blade into the ground.
“Kill him!”
With that, the man charged at a terrifying speed.
The others followed suit.
Five dangerous-looking martial artists, oozing murderous intent, rushed at him.
Even the most skilled master would break into a cold sweat.
But Cheongun stood still, plucked a handful of his own hair, and scattered it horizontally through the air.
Whoooosh—!
The strands of hair spread like a net, floating in the air.
Soon, a dark energy coated each strand.
A blue gleam flashed, and the swirling hairs suddenly changed direction.
“!!!”
The face of the charging man twisted in horror.
He tried to slow down, but it was too late.
Thud- thud- thud—!
Dozens of hair strands shot like arrows, piercing through the man’s skull.
Like seeds sown into dry earth, the hairs embedded themselves densely.
The man’s body stiffened.
Blood streamed from his wide, bulging eyes.
A moment later.
“Guhhk…”
Thud—!
The man collapsed face-first.
The others stumbled back in shock.
It had happened too fast for them to even process.
“…Who the hell are you?”
“What, you wanna end up like him too?”
“Bullshit!”
The four men, momentarily hesitant, scattered like startled pigeons, leaping in all directions.
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