Chapter v11c13: Annihilation

**Annihilation**

It’s a universal and fundamental desire, if not a primal instinct, for most men to try and impress beautiful women. This urge is especially strong amongst rough and uncouth men. Those hooligans and rascals couldn’t have possibly ignored Eun Seol Ran’s captivating beauty. Anyone who thought otherwise was overestimating the bandits’ meager patience.

A group of well-dressed young men surrounded Eun Seol Ran, indicating they were the victors of this “competition”.

“Hey, brat! You blind? Don’t you see us standing here?”

They shouted, unable to tolerate being ignored after their initial greeting.

“Brat?”

Slowly, with a creaking sound reminiscent of a rusty door, Bi Ryu Yeon’s head turned.

“My, my, aren’t you an ill-mannered bunch. I suppose you need a lesson in courtesy.”

A dark smile spread across Bi Ryu Yeon’s lips.

“You punk! Do you know who we are?”

One of the young men, dressed in a white silk robe with elaborate embroidery, stepped forward, anger etched on his face. It was the same one who had insulted Eun Seol Ran’s driver. There were five of them in total. Judging by their arrogant looks, they were, as expected, the sons of prominent martial families. After scanning them up and down, Bi Ryu Yeon responded.

“Judging from your attire, you’re a bunch of spoiled brats who mistake their family’s power for their own.”

So what? That was all Bi Ryu Yeon had to say.

“Y-You little… How dare you insult us!”

Bi Ryu Yeon’s sharp words hit their mark, their faces turning red and blue with rage. However, their furious barking was like a spring breeze blowing past Bi Ryu Yeon’s ears.

“We can’t let this go!”

“Kneel and apologize until your forehead bleeds! Otherwise, things will get unpleasant.”

They all shouted their angry demands.

“My, my. Has the world become a place where stating the truth is considered an insult? How cruel.”

Bi Ryu Yeon remained unaffected by their fury, treating their rantings as nothing more than the barking of dogs. His nonchalance only fueled their blazing anger, but Bi Ryu Yeon didn’t care.

“Huh?”

Suddenly, Bi Ryu Yeon’s finger started counting their heads.

“Let’s see… One, two, three, four, five!”

There were no more heads to count. Bi Ryu Yeon tilted his head, looking perplexed, as if faced with an unsolvable problem.

“Huh? No matter how many times I count, there are only five of you. If you’re from the Eight Great Families, there should be three more. Where did the other three go?”

He treated them as less than humans, animals to be mocked. He loathed those who acted arrogantly without merit.

“This… this bastard…”

Their fury finally exploded.

“It’s more than enough for us to rip you apart!”

Clang!

“Duel!”

The young man in white drew his sword and shouted. A chilling aura emanated from Bi Ryu Yeon’s veiled eyes, making the young man flinch.

“Huh?”

Five confused voices echoed simultaneously.

“Hey, why are you messing around?”

A young man in green clothes nudged the shoulder of the young man in yellow next to him.

“Hahaha… and why are you doing the same?”

The young man in yellow laughed awkwardly and nudged his shoulder back.

“Hahaha, and what about you?”

The young man in white patted his back.

“People are so playful, hahaha!”

The young man in yellow patted both their shoulders. Though their lips were stretched in smiles, their faces were frozen. The sharp aura that had erupted from Bi Ryu Yeon had involuntarily pushed them back three steps. But they couldn’t understand why.

Bi Ryu Yeon began to laugh as if something was incredibly funny. Na Yerin realized he was not amused, but rather enraged. He always laughed like this when he was truly angry.

Angering him, as mentioned repeatedly, was a dreadful path to take.

“How dare you draw your sword so recklessly! Do you even understand the weight you carry at the edge of that blade? You, who hide behind your family’s shadow?”

A cruel sneer escaped Bi Ryu Yeon’s lips.

“Ugh…”

The young man in white couldn’t speak, as if he were suddenly mute.

“Ryu Yeon, stop it. They seem to be from the Namgung family, judging by their emblem. It’s best not to cause any trouble.”

Na Yerin recognized the emblem embroidered on the young man’s robe and tried to stop Bi Ryu Yeon. But her words had the opposite effect.

“Hahaha!”

Bi Ryu Yeon burst into laughter, unable to contain himself.

“I knew those Eight Great Families were full of dimwits, but from the Namgung family? Have you ever heard the name ‘Namgung Sang?’”

The young man’s hand trembled slightly. To have his sword shake from his emotional turmoil was a sign of his immaturity.

“How do you know this name? He is my cousin, and one of the people I admire the most.”

The young man’s name was Namgung Ho, and Namgung Sang was the person he respected and aspired to be like. Bi Ryu Yeon, of course, couldn’t understand such feelings. He looked at Namgung Ho with a condescending gaze.

“Tsk tsk tsk, what a dropout. So, is this your pathetic attempt to rebel?”

Being like this at his age meant failing the Cheonmu Academy entrance exam.

“You bastard! I’ll kill you!”

Namgung Ho charged forward with a roar of anger, his sword flashing. Bi Ryu Yeon, however, remained completely unfazed. He found it absurd and laughable.

“Picking a fight with me… You have guts. Still, you dare attack when you’re just an unhatched egg? Come back after 3,000 years of training!”

Bi Ryu Yeon smiled pleasantly. He felt like crushing them under his foot.

“How dare you attack me when your sword, body, and mind are not even in sync? You must have a death wish.”

As Bi Ryu Yeon had stated, Namgung Ho’s skill was truly pathetic. However, that was only from Bi Ryu Yeon’s perspective.

Bi Ryu Yeon dodged Namgung Ho’s sword thrust effortlessly, casually closing the distance before lightly tripping him. Namgung Ho stumbled and crashed face-first into the ground, swallowing a mouthful of dirt.

“Tsk tsk tsk, you get floored just from a simple trip….”

Bi Ryu Yeon clicked his tongue, feeling embarrassed to even be playing with them.

“Since we’re here, I’ll teach you a valuable lesson. The bitter truth and iron law of the martial world!”

Bi Ryu Yeon declared dramatically.

“If you’re not strong, you’ll die! That’s the iron law of the martial world. Remember that sometimes even your family background can’t protect you. Unless you want to experience a sudden death.”

He looked down at Namgung Ho, sprawled on the ground like a frog. Namgung Ho’s face flushed with shame.

“Y-You… bastard!”

Enraged by his comrade’s defeat, another young man, seeing Bi Ryu Yeon’s momentary distraction, tried to stab him in the back. Despite being a descendant of the esteemed Zhuge family, one of the Eight Great Families, he didn’t care for honor.

However, one doesn’t always need eyes to see. Depending on the level of one’s training, a person could sense their surroundings without relying on sight.

The wind, vibrations in the air, the cold killing intent—all this information told Bi Ryu Yeon the exact trajectory of the incoming sword attack. He twisted his body slightly, and the attacks whiffed through empty air. It was clumsy swordsmanship.

Bi Ryu Yeon then lightly struck the young man’s wrist, forcing him to drop his sword.

“What is this? You haven’t even mastered the basics!”

He then punched Zhuge Mu in the stomach for good measure. This was just the beginning. The remaining three, seeing their companions defeated so quickly, abandoned any pretense of honor and charged at Bi Ryu Yeon. One with a sword, another with a saber, and the last with his fists.

“They are truly despicable.”

Eun Seol Ran remarked, and Na Yerin nodded in agreement.

“Is this it?”

Following Bi Ryu Yeon’s movements, Eon Gae Jeong, who had been aiming a punch at him, had his head twisted until his body formed a swastika shape. Despite being a descendant of the Eon family of Jinju, renowned for their martial arts, he was nothing more than a toy in Bi Ryu Yeon’s hands.

Thud!

Thump!

Pyeong Yeon Woo of the Pyeong family of Hebei, who had been swinging his saber at Bi Ryu Yeon’s legs, clutched his stomach and spun through the air after a powerful kick.

“Or maybe this?”

Thud!

Gongson Seung Woo, a descendant of the Gongson family, was slammed face-first into the ground.

“No, there’s more. No need to confine your imagination to conventional thinking.”

Bi Ryu Yeon’s hands moved busily.

Crack! Crack!

Snap!

“Aaaaagh!”

“S-Stop! Please…!”

Their screams echoed endlessly. Bi Ryu Yeon, however, remained indifferent, focusing solely on his work. Someone had once said that a person who is totally focused on something is beautiful.

It was quite a metaphysical scene. Even the most seasoned yoga masters would be awed by the complex positions he created with their writhing bodies. People felt a sense of wonder that humans could achieve such a feat without breaking any bones.

But Bi Ryu Yeon wasn’t satisfied.

‘What truly makes for a perfect sprawled-out pose? How can I clearly differentiate it from simply falling?’ Bi Ryu Yeon pondered.

“This is harder than I thought!”

Bi Ryu Yeon muttered like a meditating monk deep in thought. Meanwhile, Namgung Ho, sprawled on the ground, felt like crying. Misfortune had hit him all at once. As he was thrown aside, he had apparently hit his head on a fruit cart, judging by the sweet scent that filled his senses before he blacked out.