Reaper of the Drifting Moon

It was already pitch black. Coupled with the heavy rain, the atmosphere became even more gloomy.

Pyo-wol leaned his back against the wall and closed his eyes.

Then, a foul smell penetrated his nostrils.

Oh Gu-kyung’s voice came,

“What do you think?”

“Hmpf! Don’t you trust my skills?”

“That’s not it…”

“This is the Dream Soul Incense. Even a large cow can’t withstand this, what more of that guy?”

Han Buyong’s nervous voice echoed under the rocks.

“Stop it. Aren’t you tired of fighting like this every day?”

“Hoo!”

“I thought so.”

After Yang Cheol-hwan said his piece, the two of them kept their mouths shut, while the rest burst into laughter.

This wasn’t something they experienced in just a day or two.

The two argued every day, and they would only stop once Yang Cheol-hwan intervened.

Yang Cheol-hwan got up from his seat and approached Pyo-wol. Then he tapped him with his toe. When Pyo-wol didn’t budge, he grinned.

“Oh this son of a bitch, he had completely fallen asleep.”

“Of course. Do you think a guy like that can withstand my Dream Soul Incense?”

“You did well.”

Yang Cheol-hwan raised his thumb to Han Buyong, who pursed her lips. Only then did Han Buyong smile brightly.

“Fearless bastard!”

“To camp in a place like this. Does he have a liver out of his stomach?”1

Yang Cheol-hwan’s fellow warriors laughed at Pyo-wol, who had fallen asleep.

A deep smile appeared on Yang Cheol-hwan’s face.

He and his brothers were all on their way after being invited by the Snow Sword Manor.

The Snow Sword Manor, which returned to Runan again, was reborn as a sect with great wealth.

He doesn’t exactly know how they earned so much money, but they were throwing a huge amount of money by inviting famous “masters” in Henan.

Yang Cheol-hwan and his fellow warriors were also on their way to the Snow Sword Manor after being promised a huge amount of money.

Yang Cheol-hwan was originally not a person who is swayed by money. However, the amount offered by Snow Sword Manor was high enough to shake his beliefs.

Furthermore, his brothers had insisted that he should stand on the side of the Snow Sword Manor, so in the end, he gave in too.

Yang Cheol-hwan and his brothers were not very righteous people.

They find those who are traveling alone as nothing more than easy prey for them. Furthermore, they found Pyo-wol’s atmosphere to be quite unusual, and he seemed to have quite a lot of money.

So, while Pyo-wol was asleep, he told Han Buyong to spray the Dream Soul Incense.

Han Buyong approached Pyo-wol.

“Should we see the face of this brother who has his liver out of his stomach?”

Han Buyong pulled down the scarf that covered Pyo-wol’s face with her fingers.

Then, Pyo-wol’s face was revealed.

“Whistle!”

“What kind of guy…”

Oh Gu-kyung and the men couldn’t help but admire Pyo-wol’s face. Even if they were the same gender as him, they still find Pyo-wol too beautiful to look at.

Han Buyong’s reaction was even more dramatic.

“Oh my goodness!”

Suddenly, her face was dyed red like the sunset.

She stared at Pyo-wol’s face with an ecstatic expression.

“How could a man’s face be so beautiful? Older brother! Can we not kill him?”

“Crazy girl!”

“I’ll just take him with me!”

“Say something that makes sense.”

“I don’t want to kill him.”

“Quiet. Hurry up and kill him.”

“Hoo!”

Han Buyong sighed at Yang Cheol-hwan’s harsh words.

A sad light was evident on Han Buyong’s face.

She stretched out her hand and caressed Pyo-wol’s face, muttering,

“Look at this skin. How is it so smooth? Hoo!”

She put her face on Pyo-wol’s cheek with an expression that looked like she was about to cry.

“Crazy bitch!”

“This sucks.”

The men who saw her said one word at a time.

Han Buyong glared at them.

“You’re just jealous—”

“Are you not going to kill him?”

“I’m going to kill him. A handsome man like this must die at the hands of a beautiful woman like me.”

Sreung!

Han Buyong took out a small dagger from her bosom and held it up.

It was a dagger with poison smeared on it.

The poison in the dagger is so strong that just brushing against it could immediately mean death.

Han Buyong pointed the dagger towards Pyo-wol’s neck with tears in her eyes.

Yang Cheol-hwan and the men looked at Han Buyong with an interested expression.

They were well aware of Han Buyong’s perverted tendencies.

In particular, she was morbidly obsessed with handsome men. She had a perverted tendency that she would only be satisfied when she killed them with her own hands.

“Hi, my love.”

She whispered in Pyo-wol’s ear and thrust the dagger into it. However, no matter how hard she tried, she could not push the dagger forward.

“What?”

Startled, Han Buyong’s eyes widened.

What greeted her was Pyo-wol looking at her.

Han Buyong’s dagger was held in between Pyo-wol’s fingers.

“You— didn’t you fall asleep?”

She was surprised that her Dream Soul Incense didn’t work. But it didn’t take a while for her expression to change. Her expression became sharp again.

“How nice would it be if you just died quietly. You’re making this complicated for no reason.”

Han Buyong channeled qi into her hand that was holding the dagger. However, the dagger remained unmoving in Pyo-wol’s hand.

“Hiic!”

Han Buyong’s face turned red in an instant.

“This bastard!”

“He was awake!”

Yang Cheol-hwan and his men, who came to their senses belatedly, rushed out defensively.

Pyo-wol scanned their faces one by one.

Those who met his eyes trembled without realizing it. They all felt a ghastly feeling similar to being thrown into a snake pit.

“You—?”

When Yang Cheol-hwan was about to say something to Pyo-wol,

Puk!

Pyo-wol took Han Buyong’s dagger and used it to stab her in the throat.

“Keuk!”

Han Buyong vomited up bubbles of blood with an expression of disbelief. Pyo-wol plunged the dagger deeper into her neck.

“Heukkuuh!”

A choking sound came out of her mouth.

Her face turned black in an instant. The poison in the dagger had spread to her body.

Han Buyong died instantly.

She died from her own dagger and poison.

Pyo-wol tossed the dead Han Buyong to the side and got up.

Yang Cheol-hwan glared at Pyo-wol.

“How dare you kill Han. Do you think you’re going to get out of this alive?”

“You didn’t intend to spare me in the first place, did you?”

“I’ll tear you apart and kill you!”

Yang Cheol-hwan’s body swelled up.

His muscles became similar to steel, and every tendon in his whole body bulged out.

It was a phenomenon that only occurred whenever he performed the Golden Bell Qigong. This is what made him earn the nickname of the Iron-blooded Bear.

He raised his huge log-like hand high and tried to hit Pyo-wol. But his arms didn’t move as if they were caught in a cobweb.

“Huh?”

Only then did Yang Cheol-hwan tilt his head, feeling something strange.

Sak!

At that moment, both of his arms were cut off from his forearms.

Pyo-wol had pulled out the Soul-Reaping thread and wrapped it around Yang Cheol-hwan’s arms without his knowledge.

“AHHHHHHH!”

Yang Cheol-hwan screamed loudly at the unbelievable sight and excruciating pain.

At that moment, a phantom dagger pierced his chin and became stuck in his head.

Thud!

Yang Cheol-hwan’s huge body fell backwards like a withered tree.

No matter how great the Golden Bell Qigong was, it could not handle the phantom dagger Pyo-wol had injected with his qi.

“Crazy!”

“Get him!”

The men who noticed Yang Cheol-hwan’s death belatedly rushed in. But before they could even reach Pyo-wol, their limbs were cut off.

Pyo-wol had spread out the Soul-Reaping Thread like a net without them knowing. So when they ran towards him with all their might, their body had been sliced off by the Soul-Reaping thread.

“Heuk!”

“AHHHH!”

“AH! My leg!”

Two men died, while Oh Gu-kyung screamed while holding his severed right leg.

Pyo-wol approached Oh Gu-kyung.

Then Oh Gu-kyung begged Pyo-wol with terrified eyes.

“S, Save me! I was really against them attacking you. I swear! Trust me!”

Pyo-wol looked down at him without saying a word. Then, Oh Gu-kyung became even more scared.

The pain of having his leg amputated combined with his fear of Pyo-wol drove him mad.

Pyo-wol’s face, which looked down at him without saying anything, could hardly be seen as something human.

Had he known that such cruelty was hidden under his beautiful face, he would never have touched him.

‘Fucking bastards! Why did they mess with someone like that—?’

He internally cursed Yang Cheol-hwan and Han Buyong, who planned the attack.

In truth, he himself actually took part in the lead. He just selectively decided to forget about that fact and blamed only the two of them.

Pyo-wol knelt down on one knee and met Oh Gu-kyung’s gaze.

Oh Gu-kyung did not dare to meet Pyo-wol’s eyes and turned his head away.

Crackle!

His teeth chattered like crazy.

The man he looked down on was actually the grim reaper.

Oh Gu-kyung trembled. He had the urge to pluck out his own eyes.

Pyo-wol opened his mouth,

“Tell me.”

“W-What?”

“Everything you know…”

“Will you spare me?”

“I will not let you die painfully.”

“Crazy! Then why would I agre— AHHH!”

Oh Gu-kyung screamed.

His left ankle was cut off before he knew it. He did not see Pyo-wol move at all. So the fact that his ankle had been amputated drove him mad.

“D, Devil!”

Puk!

At that moment, a phantom dagger pierced his left shoulder.

“I-I’ll tell you! I’ll tell you!”

Oh Gu-kyung cried and begged.

Pyo-wol said nonchalantly,

“I’m listening, so tell me.”

“So…”

In the spirit of confusion, Oh Gu-kyung said what he knew.

He didn’t know exactly what Pyo-wol wanted, so he just said anything.

Fortunately, Pyo-wol did not cause him any more pain.

In fact, Yang Cheol-hwan took the lead in handling everything, so he didn’t know much.

He just knew that the power of the Jin family had rapidly declined these days. As for the detailed reason for their decline, he doesn’t know.

Still, he had to think of something. In this way, he would not suffer anymore.

Oh Gu-kyung rambled on.

His voice was getting softer and softer.

However, Oh Gu-kyung did not know that fact.

The fear he felt was so great that he didn’t even realize the condition he was in.

His voice got quieter and quieter until eventually, no sound could be heard from him at all.

The last thing he did was to talk about everything he knew to Pyo-wol.

There was a pool of blood at Oh Gu-kyung’s feet.

All of it was his blood.

Pyo-wol looked at Oh Gu-kyung’s body indifferently.

He had killed five people unexpectedly, but there was no guilt on his face.

It was they who sought his life first.

Pyo-wol had let them into his camp to show them favor, but they reciprocated his courtesy with murderous intentions.

They should have known that to take the lives of others in Jianghu, they should also be prepared to risk their own lives as well.

Pyo-wol searched each of their belongings.

A bag containing a considerable amount of money and other valuable items came out of each of their bosoms. Among them, there were things that didn’t match with them.

There were jewels from Yang Cheol-hwan’s bosom and accessories from Oh Gu-kyung.

It’s easy to deduce where they got these things. It was clear that they had killed someone and robbed them of their stuff afterwards, just as they had planned to do so with Pyo-wol.

Now, all of these have become Pyo-wol’s possessions.

After Pyo-wol’s encounter with Geum Woo-sin, he now had also robbed Yang Cheol-hwan and his men of their money.

Pyo-wol felt like he became a villain.

The rain was still pouring heavily.

The rainwater now overflowed to the place where Pyo-wol decided to set camp.

The rainwater that flowed in swallowed the bodies of Yang Cheol-hwan and the others.

SoundlessWind21’s Notes

Thank you for reading!

Liver out of one’s stomach. It is a Korean saying used to make fun of, condemn, criticize someone who acts way too recklessly without fearing possible consequences.