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Wheeeeeeeing-

The intense wind pressure jolted the man to his senses, and then, his eyes widened to the size of saucers.

He wanted to scream, but his voice wouldn't come out. He couldn't even open his mouth.

He could do nothing but gape at the incredible sight.

'Am I flying?'

He was flying, but of course, he wasn't doing so by himself. This man was the rooftop assassin who had tried to harm Lee Byeong-gi and his family.

"Is he really a human?"

The man, carried by the scruff of his neck, thought to himself as he looked up at Lee Byeong-gi.

Their eyes met, and all he could see was indifference in his gaze.

The assassin shivered and felt his pants grow damp as he remembered the terrible torture he had already endured.

Since they were already wet, it didn't matter much.

“Looks like you’ve come to your senses. Is that it?”

The place Lee Byeong-gi pointed to was a fog-covered mountain road that led to the guild the man came from.

The man hurriedly tried to nod, but his stiff body wouldn't allow it.

“I guess it is.”

Lee Byeong-gi increased his flight speed.

Whooosh-

‘Gasp!’

The tremendous speed and wind pressure pushed back the skin of the man's face until he felt like it might tear apart.

Baang!-

Craash!-

But even that was only for a moment before they landed. The man was thrown roughly to the side as soon as Lee Byeong-gi reached the ground.

'Ughhh!'

He didn’t even know how many times he rolled before he hit a stop. He was in pain from the massive shock but couldn't even groan.

After a while, the dust from their landing cleared, and the man could see Lee Byeong-gi.

‘S-Superhero Landing?’

He was posing like a character from a superhero movie he’d seen as a kid.

Lee Byeong-gi looked at the man, who watched on in pain and amazement, and wagged his finger in the air.

Then the assassin felt an intangible energy strike him.

Spark-

“You should be able to move and talk now.”

He didn’t know what he did, but after Lee Byeong-gi's statement, he could move again. And, of course, he was also able to speak.

“You said there’s an illusion, right? Lead the way.”

“O-Okay.”

Even with his bewilderment, the man obeyed Lee Byeong-gi's command and moved down the path he knew.

If he didn't obey, he knew he would be subjected to that terrible torture again.

The man diligently moved his feet. But for some reason, he couldn't get rid of the feeling he wasn’t making any progress.

'S-Shit!'

The man suddenly knew then that he’d been abandoned by the guild. The way to enter had changed.

'Did the guild do something?'

The First Elder of the guild told him to lure Lee Byeong-gi here if their initial attack failed.

However, it wasn't part of their operation to lure Lee Byeong-gi in while he was captured; this strategy was to attract him to the guild after failure was confirmed.

Being the third in the guild rank, this man known as Samho was chosen to participate in the operation because of his quick feet and movement skills.

However, he had encountered this unlikely freak and hadn't even had time to launch his attack before he found himself already captured.

As a result, rather than luring his prey, he was shamefully dragged to this place.

Since there was no interim report, the guild sensed Samho was in trouble and took action.

When Samho looked back, shaking away those thoughts, Lee Byeong-gi was muttering to himself like a madman.

“Is it similar to an illusion trap? Then I can’t help it.”

'Is he a madman?'

However, Lee Byeong-gi looked back at him with an evil smile, and Samho felt a cold sweat break out.

“Your role seems to have ended here.”

It was clear he would die soon. Samho racked his brain, but he couldn't find a way to survive.

"No… T-There must be a way.”

“I already found a way.”

Samho's eyes filled with despair as Lee Byeong-gi pulled out a large, strangely-shaped knife.

Slash-

Samho felt a burning pain in his neck. A curse involuntarily left him.

“Motherf….”

However, Samho couldn’t continue because his head fell to the ground.

In the last moments of his life, he heard Lee Byeong-gi reply.

“Why are you looking for your mother here?”

‘S-Stupid… Why did you interpret it like that?'

Unfortunately, that became Samho's last thought before his consciousness sank into darkness.

***

[Everyone looks for their mother the moment they die.]

“I did, too, I suppose. Well, anyway, you're saying I can destroy the places where I can feel magic power, right?"

[You can blow this whole place away at once.]

'Before that, let me check one thing.'

I widened my senses and headed to where I felt magic power gathering.

The Mana Stone was cleverly hidden there; I didn't think anyone would find it if they couldn't sense this subtle magic power.

'It's an intermediate Mana Stone. So, it can also be used this way.'

It was being used to distort space. I'd have to look into this method.

[No, don't worry about that. Just destroy it.]

'This is all money.'

[You’re hopeless!]

I used the Heavenly Demon Stealth to collect all the Mana Stones quietly and quickly.

The moment I took the last one, the thick fog lifted, and I could feel the presence of the assassins hiding throughout the mountain forest.

‘It’s show time!’

I spun around and cut through the forest with my fake Demonic Dragon Blade using the Demonic Dragon Gale.

Booom-

Although it was less potent than the second stage, the destructive power of the Demonic Dragon Gale, when combined with Strong Energy, was excellent.

Along with a loud bang, the narrow forest path cleared into a two-lane road.

Once the roar of the explosion died down, I heard groaning everywhere. Even the assassins who had hidden inside the base suffered damage.

The survivors fell back after the sudden attack.

I started chasing after them, throwing Strong Energy wherever I felt a presence.

Booooom! Baang!-

The quiet forest became noisy with the sound of explosions.

While I moved, I activated several booby traps, but I was able to protect myself with my Enhancement and Mana Shield skills.

[Hmm, if your Strong Body Energy is added to this skill, they wouldn’t be able to damage you.]

Strong Body Energy. It worked similarly to a Mana Shield by wrapping Strong Energy around your body.

“Is it impossible for me right now?”

[You can use Strong Body Energy with your inner power, but that Mana Shield is still more effective.]

There might be a difference in the quality of defense, but he said the Mana Shield still consumed less energy.

“Still, I would like to know more about that Strong Body Energy technique. I think there's a need to study how to use both effectively.”

[As expected, your knowledge of martial arts is lacking. You don't know what you need to know as someone at the Harmony stage.]

“Because the environment I live in is different from yours. It's only been a little over five months since I started learning martial arts.”

[That's really strange. How you gained enlightenment and achieved rapid growth is strange, and many other things are unclear.]

“Anyway, it’s true that I have become stronger. The missing parts will gradually fill in. Keep up the good job in the future.”

Even while I talked to the Heavenly Demon, the traps continued to activate, and from time to time, the assassins attacked by throwing shurikens.

However, those attacks became less frequent.

Since I continued to move while throwing out Strong Energy, their damage to me was negligible.

It wasn't long before I felt them gathering in one place.

[They seem to be working on a combined attack.]

There were dozens of them waiting for me.

As the Heavenly Demon had predicted, as soon as I arrived, they had lined up in a unique formation in preparation.

“First Format!”

When their leader shouted, the assassins quickly surrounded me and started to advance.

Thump, thump, thump-

Every time they stepped down, the ground shook, and the air began to ripple toward me.

I could feel the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art reacting to that wave.

[Killing Group!]

"What?"

[This is the method used by the Killing Group. To think I would see this here!]

The Heavenly Demon seemed quite surprised. According to him, the Killing Group was an organization of assassins notorious in the past.

I was curious to want to know more, but that was something to think about after I dealt with them.

The wave of air grew fiercer and fiercer as they closed the distance.

[As soon as you enter the range of their magic power, the attack will begin.]

'I won't leave it like that.'

It looked like they would attack after subduing me with their magic power, but I had no intention of easily giving up.

I raised the Heavenly Demon’s Origin Art and took a decisive step forward with the Heavenly Demon Royal Stride.

At the response of my mighty energy, the assassins grew restless.

Several in their rank lost consciousness or fell while spouting blood.

“Keugh! Such magic power! He's not even human... Second Format!”

At the leader's command, they again gathered in one place and began to advance.

They seemed to be pretty well trained, all things considered.

Their condensed magic power began to oppose the energy of the Heavenly Demon Royal Stride.

“You made one mistake.”

If they gathered together, I could take them out with just one slash of Strong Energy.

As soon as I confirmed they had gathered, I raised my inner power around the fake Demonic Dragon Blade.

Even though it had been shortened to a few seconds, applying Strong Energy to the fake Demonic Dragon Blade still took time.

However, against these assassins, it didn’t matter.

“Demonic Dragon Wind!”

As I turned, the sharp-edged Strong Energy gathered the wind and flew toward the grouped assassins.

The faces of those in the front row turned blue when they saw the Strong Energy coming.

It felt like they couldn't stop it, then,

“Stop!”

Booooom!-

With a shout, a colossal wall rose to block it.

The Strong Energy started to push through, but the walls rose again in a second row.

Ultimately, it couldn't break through the third, and the Strong Energy dissipated.

'It's an evolved version of Ji-young's skill.'

The rising walls were an Iron Barrier like Kim Ji-young’s skill.

The dust from the explosion cleared, and an old man stepped toward me.

“Elders, put your troops behind you. I will deal with him.”

At the old man’s prompting, the three who seemed to be called Elders, led the assassins away in perfect order.

[Their master... it’s just as I thought. I felt a similar energy to Oh Young-seok.]

‘I can feel it too. The level is also similar.'

The level of the old man, as confirmed by my Insight skill, was 73.

I had to stop and think about that for a moment.

There were no top rankers in the assassination guild from before my return, at least as far as I knew.

That meant he was an unknown ranker.

Looking at him, I wondered if there might be many unknown rankers in the world.

"I heard you're a C-Rank Awakener, but you strangely use Sword Aura. Have you been hiding your strength?"

He seemed to have a similar thought as mine. However, unlike Oh Young-seok, he used the term 'Sword Aura,' known to the public, instead of 'Strong Energy.'

[Well... Even if it's different, that old man might have some martial arts training. Deal with him carefully.]

'I can't see any skills with a messed-up naming sense like Oh Young-seok, but I'll be careful when dealing with him.'

The Master's skills were as follows:

[Skill: Lv. Max Sliding Fury, Lv. Max Lightning Fury, Lv. 5 Iron Barrier]

-Sliding Fury: When their sword strikes a critical hit, the user slides forward and activates an additional attack.

-Lightning Fury: Attacks with a lightning-charged blade. It can be used in conjunction with Sliding Fury.

-Iron Barrier: Summons a powerful defensive wall (Currently 5). You can adjust the number of walls you can summon according to the level. The defense of the barrier is proportional to the amount of mana used.

I couldn't find any trace of martial arts just from looking at his attack skills; as the Heavenly Demon said before, it seemed that I had to experience his attack first to know for certain.

The old man continued talking, even though he could have just attacked instead.

“You came alone relying on your magic power to see you through? Have you no fear? I’ll make you regret it!”

The Master rushed in.