Absolute Regression

Chapter 479: I Tried to Handle It as Quietly as Possible

The intruders were assassins.

Having faced many assassins before the regression, I was familiar with their distinct energy.

A killing intent devoid of emotion.

Was it because they didn’t kill out of grudge or hatred toward their target? Or was it because assassins trained to suppress their emotions from the start?

Their killing intent was subtly different.

If I noticed it, Hui surely noticed it as well. No—since it was his job to detect intruders, he must have sensed it even faster than I did.

Since I had stepped forward, he would be watching the situation in hiding near Father’s quarters.

Of course, if I noticed and Hui noticed, then Father would surely be aware of the intruders as well. The Heavenly Demon Body Protection Technique that had reached perfection would have naturally alerted him to the danger.

Just trust me and go back to sleep. That pajama doesn’t suit being splattered with blood, does it?

I quietly opened the door and stepped into the courtyard.

Standing there, I stared into the darkness and whispered again while gesturing for silence.

“Since Father is asleep, let’s fight quietly.”

But as if no one was present, no one revealed a trace of their presence. All that could be heard were the sounds of insects in the grass.

If Father were awake, he’d undoubtedly have said:

You’re the noisiest one!

That thought brought a smile to my lips.

Just then, as if in response to my words, someone hiding in the darkness ahead revealed a faint presence.

It wasn’t a mistake.

Once I noticed their infiltration, they deliberately revealed their position, becoming the bait themselves.

The other assassins around were likely holding their breath, waiting for me to strike at him.

This was the terrifying thing about assassins.

They were taught that even if all of them died, it was enough if just one succeeded. Therefore, though they were many, they functioned as a single assassin. ȓäＮÖ𝐁Ё§

Since the bait had been thrown, I had to show my appreciation and bite at least once.

I launched myself at the assassin who had revealed himself.

Though I flew forward swiftly, no sound of wind followed. As if moving through a world where sound had vanished, my movement was smooth and silent.

The enemy didn’t evade and stepped out from the darkness. A black mask, black clothes, and even black shoes. He was camouflaged in black from head to toe.

The saying “an assassin whose concealment has been exposed is already a dead assassin” did not apply to him.

He was bait, but not truly bait.

His movements were incredibly fast and precise. Skilled enough to kill even a fairly high-level martial artist in a head-on clash. His mastery of martial arts was so great that it felt like a waste for someone like him to be working as an assassin.

That must have been why this one revealed his presence as the representative. In order for the other assassins to look for an opportunity during the fight, someone had to endure a head-on clash.

Of course, I didn’t give them that chance.

To avoid making the sound of blades clashing, I ended it with a single strike.

The moment his sword flew toward my face, my figure vanished from that spot.

Using Dark Shadow Step, I was already behind him.

Puk!

Even though the blade pierced through his back and jutted out the front, he held back his scream. He was someone trained to never make a sound under any circumstances. That alone made it clear—these assassins were thoroughly trained.

‘They must’ve spent a fortune hiring these people.’

Since the first assassin died too quickly, no one else stepped forward. They had lost their chance to ambush me.

They were likely waiting for the next opportunity.

For the moment I’d lower my guard, thinking there had only been one intruder.

Had I searched the corpse to identify him, a deadly attack would’ve come raining down.

Of course, I didn’t move the way they wanted.

I quietly caught the collapsing assassin and laid him down without a sound.

At the same time, I made a gesture for silence while staring into the darkness ahead.

It wasn’t done at random. By then, thread-like energy extending from my body had already seized control of the entire area.

That hush was directed toward the place where those threads trembled most intensely.

Realizing his location had been exposed, an assassin immediately leapt out and charged toward me. A sure-kill strike, ignoring defense, meant solely to kill the opponent.

Shiiik.

The flying blade grazed past my face. Reflected in its surface, my eyes held no emotion.

Shiik! Seogeok!

Black Demon Sword drew a straight line of sword energy and sliced through his chest. Though he instinctively twisted to dodge, two-thirds of his chest along with his heart had already been severed.

The cut had been so swift and sharp that he died before he even felt pain.

I was once again slicing silently through the air.

Puk!

My sword pierced a tree. Smoothly, as if stabbing into tofu. Yet faster than any swift blade.

The assassin hiding behind the tree was impaled, and once again, there was no scream.

On the contrary, even while dying, he gripped the blade with both hands.

How could a dying man possibly hold my Black Demon Sword?

I drew the sword out and leapt up along the tree. The assassin’s fingers that clutched the blade were severed and scattered in all directions.

A flash of sword light burst from the darkness.

Puk! Puk!

There had been three assassins on that tree from the beginning. Who would think three people were clinging to a single tree? It was a deceptive tactic aimed at exploiting that blind spot, but they couldn’t escape the energy I had spread like a spiderweb.

As the two assassins, clinging to the tree like cicadas, dropped and landed atop the first corpse, I had already descended to the wall, more than ten steps away.

As expected, Black Demon Sword embedded itself smoothly into the wall.

Chwaaaaak!

While driving the sword in, I slid along the wall.

Like gliding on ice, my figure swiftly slid along the wall’s surface.

At the same time, Black Demon Sword tore across the wall horizontally.

The bodies of assassins who had been holding their breath behind the wall, leaning against it, were sliced in half and fell.

I could sense the assassins’ surprise and confusion.

Judging by their concealment skills, they must have been assassins whose abilities had long been acknowledged through countless kills. They must’ve completed every commission they took without failure.

But today, they were falling one after another without even having the chance to lift a finger.

‘There’s a traitor!’

Having had their positions so precisely discovered, wouldn’t they be thinking that?

I took them down quickly and decisively.

These were people who came to kill me, Father, and Hui. They were assassins who killed for money. I had no reason to hesitate.

As I leapt onto the roof, hidden weapons came flying.

Shik! Shik! Shik! Shik!

I dashed through the rain of flying weapons. There was no sound from my footsteps as I ran across the rooftop.

In the blink of an eye, I reached from one end of the roof to the other, and the assassins who had thrown the hidden weapons fell to the ground.

Even though they fell from a high place, there was no thud. Just before the corpses hit the ground, I used Void Telekinesis to suppress the sound.

As I continued to locate them in hiding, the assassins could no longer endure. They attacked first.

From atop a tree and the darkness to the left, two assassins struck at once.

This time, I used Underworld King Step. My target was the assassin charging from the left.

The assassin who had driven countless others to death—just like those he had once killed—could not stop the steps of death approaching him.

As he collapsed, blood gushing from his throat, the assassin falling from the tree above threw a hidden weapon.

Piiing! Puk!

The hidden weapon and my thrown dagger brushed past each other in the air. The hidden weapon vanished into the distant darkness, and my dagger disappeared into the black garment.

An assassin revealed himself from behind the stone lantern, holding a hidden weapon. It wasn’t a dagger-like throwing weapon. It was a hidden weapon that launched poisoned needles with great force from a round cylinder.

Flash!

I charged at him using Divine Lightning Step.

Seogeok! Seogeok!

Before he could fire the hidden weapon, his wrist and neck were severed in succession.

"Didn’t we agree to fight quietly?"

Had he released the hidden weapon, it would have made an explosive sound.

Normally, assassins of this caliber wouldn’t use such loud weapons. That meant the situation had become that desperate.

One of the assassins lunged at me, casting a net.

It was the iron-steel net used by assassins. This tightly woven metal mesh wasn’t easily cut by blades or even sword energy. You might be able to slice through it by fixing it in place and attacking it with sword energy, but when it was thrown over you mid-fight, it often caused a moment of panic and flailing.

At that moment, another assassin sliced through the darkness, soaring overhead.

Chwaaaaaak!

What he scattered was Bone-Melting Acid. A cruel technique meant to trap with the net and then melt the target. Their timing was so perfectly matched, it felt like the movements of a single person.

With just two sword slashes, I split the net into four pieces, and by the time the Bone-Melting Acid rained down, I was no longer there.

Saaak!

As I slit the throat of the assassin who had thrown the net, the one who had flown overhead crashed to the ground in the distance. A dagger I had thrown was already embedded in his throat. Naturally, he too fell silently thanks to my Void Telekinesis.

It was right then.

Swaaaak!

A blade shot up from the ground and grazed past my face.

It was the hidden assassin’s most decisive move.

He had tunneled in from underground and had been lying in wait precisely at this spot.

From the sheer force behind the strike, I knew it—of all the assassins I had faced so far tonight, this one was the strongest. This was the core of their ambush.

But that was their problem.

To me, he was just another assassin who had failed to kill me, and most likely, the one who had killed the most people out of them all.

My sword had already pierced deep from his shoulder downward.

In his final moment, he tried to scream. Whether it was an attempt to ruin the quiet end to this fight or he simply couldn’t endure the pain of being stabbed through his shoulder and deeper, I couldn’t tell.

But my hand moved faster. With my left hand, I clamped his mouth shut and pulled out the sword.

As the blade came free, he spewed blood and died. Half of his body still lay within the hole in the ground.

I released energy to scan the area. There were no longer any assassins alive or hiding in this courtyard.

I slowly walked into the building.

An assassin was crawling across the ceiling.

Only a few rooms remained where the target could be. The situation outside had clearly gone awry.

Even now, beneath the ceiling he was crawling on, the sound of swords slicing and flesh tearing echoed. He couldn’t see it, but his instincts told him clearly—those who had come with him were dying.

He sensed that the success or failure of today’s commission now rested on him.

‘This might actually be better.’

He would claim all of that enormous payment for himself.

‘I’ll kill him.’

He moved inch by inch, ever so slightly.

A true assassin’s skill lay in slipping in without a trace, enduring without detection for hours, and deciding the exact moment to eliminate the target.

In that regard, he was the most patient assassin among those who had come tonight. If he could reach just above the target’s head, he would succeed.

There was no one who could stop a silent poison needle shot from the ceiling while asleep.

Moreover, it wasn’t just any poison needle. This needle, as thin as a strand of hair, was a special hidden weapon that killed without the victim even realizing they’d been struck.

Even in a post-mortem, it was so fine that one couldn’t tell where the poison had entered.

To check how far he had come, he pierced a small hole in the ceiling.

The moment he peered through that hole—

“!”

He flinched in shock.

Someone was staring up through the hole from below.

The next moment—

Puk!

A sharp sword shot upward, piercing the assassin’s throat clean through.

The one who killed him was Hui.

Blood trickled down from the ceiling, where the sword had pierced through. Then came a voice from behind.

“It’s really pouring down in here.”

Geom Mugeuk, who had stepped inside, gazed at the blood flowing from the ceiling.

Corpses lay collapsed in the hallway as well. Every assassin inside the house and those approaching from the rear had been eliminated.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. What about you, Uncle?”

“I’m alright too.”

Even if I hadn’t been here, I was sure Hui would’ve handled tonight’s intrusion all by himself.

Assassins and bodyguards.

In that predator-prey relationship, Hui stood at the very pinnacle of natural enemies to assassins.

A martial artist might be able to kill him, but an assassin never could.

That was the pride Hui carried.

At that moment, there was movement from inside the room.

“Father’s awake. Let’s go in.”

Geom Mugeuk and Hui entered the room.

Geom Woojin had risen from the bed and was pouring himself cold tea from the kettle on the table.

“I tried to handle it as quietly as I could. I’m sorry.”

At Geom Mugeuk’s words, Geom Woojin turned his head and looked at his son.

“All I heard was your voice.”

Geom Mugeuk smiled. That’s what he wanted to hear.

“That was me holding back my words as much as I could.”

A faint smile formed on Father’s lips.

Hui reported to Father.

“The intruders were assassins.”

The faint smile that had been on Father’s lips disappeared. He disliked the Poison King, and he disliked the Soul Reaper Demon Supreme—why would he like assassins?

Geom Mugeuk asked Hui,

“Were you able to identify where they came from?”

As the chief bodyguard of the Heavenly Demon, Hui knew more about the assassins of the martial world than anyone. The more infamous they were, the better he knew them.

And sure enough, Hui knew who the enemy was.

“Judging by their attack method, these were assassins from the Underworld.”

The Underworld.

One of the Three Great Assassin Organizations in the martial world, and a symbol of infamy and terror.

The moment Geom Mugeuk heard the word “Underworld,” one man came to mind.

There were many titles to describe him.

The supreme assassin born with a natural talent for murder.

The cold-blooded killer who took over the Underworld by slaying its former leader—his own father.

The man who later unified the assassin world and became the King of All Assassins.

The Death God said to be capable of severing even Yama’s head.

But to Geom Mugeuk, the title that held the most weight was this:

Among the Twelve Zodiac Kings, the Fourth King—King of Killing.

He didn’t yet know the full scope of the situation, but he instinctively felt that this man was behind the incident with the Golden Dragon Family. Where there was money, blades always followed.

King of Killing.

He must not let his guard down. None of the Twelve Zodiac Kings were easy opponents, but the King of Killing required special caution.

He was someone born with a supreme gift for killing, who used any means necessary to take lives.

A breeze blew in from outside the window, carrying the thick scent of warm blood from the dead assassins.

With deepened eyes, Geom Mugeuk spoke calmly.

“It seems we’ll be seeing a lot of blood this time.”