Reaper of the Drifting Moon

Piiit!

Something gleamed and came out of Dark Ghost’s body.

The light, which bloomed like a meteor, flew straight towards Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol used Snake Steps to move sideways.

Puk!

At that moment, a long object hit the spot where the Pyo-wol had been.

It was a Kusarigama1 or chain sickle. It’s a weapon with a sharp sickle attached to a metal chain. The chain was as thick as a child’s finger.

A chain sickle is a weapon mainly used by assassins who lived in Japan which was across the sea.

Dark Ghost was actually from Japan. He just came to Jianghu with his father when he was five years old. Only after mastering the Art of Kusarigama2 did he enter the Hundred Wraith Union.

Cwarreuk!

Dark Ghost flicked his wrist. The chain sickle immediately moved and cut through the darkness.

The sickle attached to the end of the chain was made of all sorts of metal so its strength and sharpness were indescribable.

Surgerguck!

All objects caught in the sickle were cut off.

Whether it be a large tree or a wall made of stone. Even the darkness was torn apart.

Dark Ghost is a master of chain sickle.

Not only that, by combining various martial arts he learned in Jianghu, he was able to be a pioneer of his own field.

Dark Ghost performed all of the chain sickle techniques he had learned so far.

There was a frightening killing intent in his eyes.

‘Now that everything came to this, I have no choice but to kill him.’

Pyo-wol found out the environment in which the secret language was used just by looking at it once. With his intelligence, deciphering the Hundred Wraith Union’s secret language wouldn’t be too difficult.

If Pyo-wol fully understands the Hundred Wraith Union’s information system, the aftermath will be endless.

So before that happens, he had to kill Pyo-wol.

Cwaaek!

The chain sickle frightenedly split through the grass. But it still did not touch Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol was like a ghost.

Even though he was pushed into a corner without any chance to escape, at some point, he would slip out until Dark Ghost couldn’t see him.

Even with Dark Ghost’s excellent eyesight, he could not follow Pyo-wol’s movements.

Before he knew it, his whole body was already drenched in sweat. But he still hasn’t landed a blow on Pyo-wol’s body even once.

“YAAH!”

In the end, Dark Ghost broke a taboo for assassins.

He had attacked Pyo-wol while shouting.

This only goes to show that he was feeling cornered.

He was the only one who had been continuously attacking until now. Pyo-wol did nothing but avoid his attacks.

At first, Dark Ghost thought it was just because Pyo-wol was on the defensive. But that wasn’t actually the case. Pyo-wol didn’t defend his attacks. He was just simply observing him.

The chain sickle Dark Ghost used is somewhat similar to his martial arts.

Pyo-wol attached a phantom dagger to the Soul-Reaping Thread and used it freely. Although the types of weapons and materials were different, the use cases were quite similar.

Charleuk!

Every time Dark Ghost waved his hand, the chain came loose. It was five meters long.

Dark Ghost maneuvered his sickle freely even with the long chains. Pyo-wol was quite inspired by Dark Ghost’s movements.

It was not a matter of martial arts.

It was the difference between accumulated experience, knowledge and tricks.

Pyo-wol’s martial arts was something he realized and built up on his own. Since his method of learning was unconventional, there might be times where there is a lack of depth in his martial arts.

On the other hand, Dark Ghost has been an active assassin in Japan for generations. Over the long years, he had perfected his chain sickle techniques.

Pyo-wol was absorbing Dark Ghost’s chain sickle technique into his own. Not knowing that fact, Dark Ghost continued to perform his chain sickle technique with all his might.

At some point, Pyo-wol’s eyes changed.

He had fully familiarized himself with Dark Ghost chain sickle techniques.

When he decided that there was nothing more to learn, he changed his movements.

Ciit!

He brought out a phantom dagger.

“You—!”

Dark Ghost’s eyes widened as if they were about to tear as he deflected the phantom dagger with his chain sickle.

That is because the phantom dagger that had bounced off was attacking him while circling in the air. It was only then that he discovered that a Soul-Reaping Thread was connected to the phantom dagger.

‘How is that possible?’

He was amazed and surprised to see qi as thin as a thread and being used as a chain. Yet at the same time, he felt scared.

He could tell how hard it is because he uses a chain sickle as a weapon.

But Pyo-wol was using such skills casually.

Ciiit!

The phantom dagger came flying with a horrifying sound.

The biggest difference between his chain sickle technique and Pyo-wol’s was that it is almost impossible to visually identify the Soul-Reaping Thread attached to the phantom daggers. This in turn made it difficult to predict the trajectory of the phantom daggers.

In the end, he had no choice but to rely on his intuition in parrying the phantom daggers.

Kakakang!

The chain sickle and phantom daggers clashed against each other in the air.

Dark Ghost swung his chain sickle with all his might.

He was breathing hard, and his face was flushed red. His stamina has already reached its limit.

But he couldn’t afford to stop.

The moment he stops swinging his chain sickle, that venomous snake-like phantom daggers will immediately finish him off.

He had to wield his chain sickle with all his might in order to survive.

It was then.

He saw two more phantom daggers rising through the darkness.

‘Oh my god!’

For a moment, a look of despair flashed across his face.

He already exhausted all his stamina just by dealing with two phantom daggers, but now two more daggers were added.

Dark Ghost did not know.

The fact that Pyo-wol can use more than four phantom daggers.

But even with just those four phantom daggers, Dark Ghost was already overwhelmed with fear. The fear he felt consequently dulled his movements.

His sluggish movements exposed openings everywhere, and Pyo-wol didn’t waste any time in digging through his weaknesses like a poisonous snake.

Puk!

Puuk!

A phantom dagger lodged on his shoulders.

Dark Ghost’s eyes widened at the excruciating pain that came to his senses.

At that moment, the two more phantom daggers deeply embedded into his stomach and thighs.

Jjalgrung!

The chain sickle he was holding in his hand fell helplessly to the floor.

“Keugh!”

In the end, Dark Ghost could not stand the pain. He vomited blood and groaned in pain at the same time.

The bright red blood soaked his chin and chest.

Pyo-wol retrieved the phantom daggers and approached him.

Dark Ghost glared at Pyo-wol with vicious eyes.

“Heugh! I won’t tell you anything–!”

Dark Ghost is accustomed to torture and physical pain. He doesn’t intend to give in no matter what means Pyo-wol uses. However, Pyo-wol’s answer was not what he expected.

“You don’t need to.”

“What?”

“You’ve already told me a lot. Through the code you wrote on the wall..”

“Huh?”

“Hong Ye-seol came in contact with a dangerous person. Take caution.”

“H, How–?”

At that moment, Dark Ghost’s pupils shook violently.

He thought it would take Pyo-wol one day to decipher the coded message. But to think that he would decode it as soon as he saw it.

“How the hell did you find out?”

“Most secret language systems are similar. It’s not that difficult to interpret it once you know the principles.”

“No way—”

It was an unbelievable story.

If the secret language was so easy to decipher, countless assassins would not have to learn and use it the hard way.

Pyo-wol’s existence is just ridiculous and absurd.

‘How could he hire us to deal with this kind of person?’

Dark Ghost blamed and cursed Lee Yul, who was responsible for commissioning them.

‘I should have recognized Hong Ye-seol when he said he was giving up the mission.

He regretted taking on the task, but it was too late.

Dark Ghost had to decide.

Will he die at the hands of Pyo-wol or at his own hands?

His decision was the latter.

“You can’t kill me. I would decide my own death.”

A dagger sprang out from Dark Ghost’s sleeve.

He then stabbed his stomach with the dagger.

Seppuku.

Japanese assassins or samurai are known to choose their own death by committing suicide.

The dagger cut his abdomen horizontally.

His intestines leaked from the open wound.

Even in his disfigured state, Dark Ghost laughed.

“Hehe! Can you see? This is my pride–”

“What an idiot.”

Pyo-wol easily dismissed him.

Dark Ghost might have thought that killing himself was something to be proud of, but Pyo-wol did not think much of it.

Life is much more important than pride.

In order to take revenge, one has to be alive. When a person dies, everything would be over.

There was no point in trying to preserve pride in the face of death.

Pyo-wol found no value in Dark Ghost’s death.

He died a dog’s death.

Pyo-wol left Dark Ghost’s body behind and turned around.

He didn’t expect that he would be able to find out anything more from Dark Ghost anyway.

Pyo-wol headed to the wall where Dark Ghost had left a coded message a while ago.

Pyo-wol examined the wall carefully.

As a result, he was able to discover other secret messages which he assumed must have been left behind by other assassins.

As Pyo-wol expected, this was a place where assassins communicated.

In particular, the assassins of the Hundred Wraith Union exchanged information here.

This kind of exchange of information was something even the assassins of Blood Shadow Group did not have. This was something totally new for him.

Since this was Pyo-wol’s first time seeing such a thing, even when considering that he is a fellow assassin, it was not strange that ordinary warriors would not be aware of such a method of communication.

Maybe that is also the reason why assassins who wrote coded messages here left quite a lot of information.

They may have left it because they thought it was no big deal, but to Pyo-wol, each and every thing they wrote was valuable information.

One of the things Pyo-wol did best was putting these pieces together to get the overall big picture.

‘Heuk-ho, Ice Slayer, Dark Ghost, Four Red Lotus Ghosts… Hong Ye-seol is not here.’

As Hong Ye-seol said, it seemed that she was excluded from this mission. But he could figure out the rest of the characters.

A total of six assassins have entered Runan.

Heuk-ho, Ice Slayer, and the Four Red Lotus Ghosts.

Dark Ghost reported to Ice Slayer, while Ice Slayer reported to Heuk-ho.

This meant that the final decision maker was Heuk-ho.

The Four Red Lotus Ghosts seemed to be moving separately. He hasn’t seen any coded messages written by them.

That was the end of the information he could get here.

When Pyo-wol was about to take his eyes off the wall,

“Who are you?”

A sharp voice suddenly came from behind.

Pyo-wol turned his head and looked at the owner of the voice.He saw a woman adorned entirely in gold.

A beautiful woman wearing a gorgeous garment embroidered with gold thread. She also had various gold jewelry on her.

She was Geum Suryeon, the daughter of Geum Shin-chung, the sect leader of the Golden Mountain Manor.

Geum Suryeon’s eyes looking at Pyo-wol were full of wariness.

The place Pyo-wol was looking at was the wall of a manor near the Golden Mountain Manor.

To make matters worse, the dead body of Dark Ghost was lying nearby.

It was natural for Geum Suryeon and her subordinates to be wary.

She and her subordinates were on their way to the Snow Sword Manor to collect the borrowed money and interest paid by the Jin family.

The Snow Sword Manor used the IOU from the Golden Mountain Manor in hopes of putting pressure on the Jin family, but Namgung Wol unexpectedly helped and paid the bill in their stead.

Now, Geum Suryeon is on her way of collecting the money from the Snow Sword Manor. And since a large amount of money is involved, she had to be accompanied by the elites of the Golden Mountain Manor.

“How dare you commit murder near the Golden Mountain Manor. Reveal your identity.”

“Who are you?”

“Ha! You don’t know me, Geum Suryeon? You must not be from Runan.”

“Geum Suryeon of the Golden Mountain Manor?”

“That’s right. I am Geum Suryeon of the Golden Mountain Manor.”

Geum Suryeon shouted madly.

Her nickname in Runan is Golden Lady.

She was so madly obsessed with gold, and had enough ability to keep the gold she had collected.

Pyo-wol looked at Geum Suryeon without a word.

Geum Suryeon felt reluctant to return Pyo-wol’s gaze.

For some reason, she felt as if he was reading all of her own thoughts.

Except for her father, Geum Shin-chung, Pyo-wol was the first person to make her feel this way.

Geum Suryeon instinctively sensed that Pyo-wol was not an ordinary person.

“If you don’t tell me who you are, I will subdue you and take you back to our sect. No, since we’re on our way to the Snow Sword Manor, it would be better for us to take you there. Reveal yourself while I’m still asking nicely.”

“No thanks.”

Geum Suryeon snorted at Pyo-wol’s answer.

“Hmpf! Do you think you have any choice? What are you doing?! Hurry up and get him!”

“Yes!”

The Golden Mountain Manor warriors immediately rushed towards Pyo-wol

At that moment, a good idea suddenly came to Pyo-wol.

Unfortunately though, it wasn’t an idea that would bid well for Geum Suryeon.

SoundlessWind21’s Notes:

Start of Volume 11. Thank you for reading!

Kusarigama or chain sickle. Raws: Soegyeom, 쇄겸(鎖鎌). 鎖 suǒ – lock, padlock; shackles, chains 鎌 lián – sickle Art of Kusarigama or Kusarigamajutsu. Raws: Soyeomsul, 쇄겸술(鎖鎌術). This is the art of using the Japanese weapon, kusarigama. 鎖 suǒ – lock, padlock; shackles, chains 鎌 lián – sickle 術 shù – art, skill, special feat; method, technique