Reaper of the Drifting Moon

The woman glaring at Pyo-wol with a frustrated expression on her face was definitely Hong Ye-seol, whom Pyo-wol had met not too long ago.

‘Did she receive the request from the Snow Sword Manor?’

He had his doubts about her from the moment he met her back at Runan, but he didn’t expect that she would already be in the Snow Sword Manor.

Pyo-wol was more surprised that someone from Snow Sword Manor invited Hong Ye-seol than the fact that Hong Ye-seol accepted Snow Sword Manor’s request.

Hong Ye-seol is a top assassin who belongs to the Hundred Wraith Union. It would take an unimaginable amount to commission someone like her.

The person who requested Hong Ye-seol must be at the end of this small alley. And it was certain that it’s the same person who ordered Jang Gwang-san and Sa Ok-yeon to visit and pressure the Jin family.

This made Pyo-wol curious.

Who could the person be for them to be so meticulous?

Hong Ye-seol opened her mouth again,

“Hmpf! You’re not going to reveal your identity, are you?”

She bit her red lips softly.

She was embarrassed that she was hurt by Pyo-wol.

Buddeuk!

She twisted her dislocated wrist to put it back in place.

Despite the pain, she never let out a single scream.

She glared at Pyo-wol with cold eyes.

It was definitely her first time seeing him. Nevertheless, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she had seen him somewhere.

“You…”

The moment she opened her mouth,

Suddenly, four black shadows rose from the wall.

They also smelled like assassins.

Hong Ye-seol shouted at them,

“Wait! This is my job. Mind your own business!”

Sususu!

They ignored Hong Ye-seol’s cry and attacked Pyo-wol.

The black shadows were all assassins like Hong Ye-seol. Similar to Hong Ye-seol, they all attacked Pyo-wol without saying a word.

Shiak!

They swiveled like cogs as they attacked Pyo-wol.

While the assassins’ attacks couldn’t be compared to Hong Ye-seol, they felt more stronger because of their perfect coordination.

If he decided to fight with all his might, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. But this was the enemy camp. He had no reason to take the time to risk it.

Pyo-wol dealt with them in moderation and looked for an opportunity to retreat.

It was then.

Screech!

Suddenly the door at the end of the alley opened and someone appeared.

“……”

The person who appeared accompanied by Jang Gwang-san and Sa Ok-yeon was Lee Yul, an attendant of Snow Sword Manor. He sensed an unusual movement from outside of his room and stepped out.

The moment he saw Lee Yul’s face, Pyo-wol realized that he was at the center of all this.

An expressionless face as if wearing a mask, deep eyes that seemed to see through everything, and even a refined atmosphere.

He was different from the average person in many ways.

Lee Yul did not show a surprised expression when he saw Pyo-wol fighting the assassins. He just carefully watched Pyo-wol fight.

Rather, the one who was surprised at the sight of Pyo-wol was Jang Gwang-san and Sa Ok-yeon, who had just returned.

“What?”

“It’s an intruder!”

At their cries, the nearby warriors came rushing in.

Lee Yul frowned, not liking the sudden uproar.

A light of contempt passed through his eyes as he looked at the two.

‘How can they be so noisy when it’s their fault they came back with a tail.’

He then looked at Pyo-wol without expressing his thoughts.

Pyo-wol continued to hold out for a bit before quickly pulling back and then escaping.

The assassins who were fighting with him prior went after him, followed by the Snow Sword Manor warriors who arrived late.

“An assassin has infiltrated!”

“Surround him so he can’t escape!”

Lee Yul shook his head slightly at the fuss caused by the Snow Sword Manor warriors.

The room at the end of the alley leads to the attendant’s office.

There was no way that a person who had infiltrated this far would be caught by the Snow Sword Manor warriors.

At that time, Hong Ye-seol approached Lee Yul.

“So you hired other assassins besides me?”

“I asked the Hundred Wraith Union to send a few more people.”

“Are you saying I’m not enough? That’s a breach of contract.”

“I just wanted to be sure.”

Hong Ye-seol frowned at Lee Yul’s answer.

The assassins who attacked Pyo-wol were at the bottom of the hierarchy in the Hundred Wraith Union.

It’s name is Four Red Lotus Ghosts.1

Although it was unusual, there are times when quadruplets are born.

While their individual’s abilities don’t hold a candle against Hong Ye-seol’s, the power of the four, when united, was never inferior to her.

She hadn’t heard that the Four Red Lotus Ghost had been dispatched here, so she guessed that Lee Yul had separately sent a separate commission to the Hundred Wraith Union.

Hong Ye-seol shuddered at Lee Yul’s meticulousness.

She really didn’t expect he would go through such lengths of hiring assassins from the Hundred Wraith Union.

Lee Yul asked,

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know. The only thing I know is that he’s the same as me. An assassin.”

“Hmm! Is he an assassin hired by the Jin family? So there’s someone in the Jin family who knows how to use their brain. This is unexpected.”

In order to hire an assassin from the Hundred Wraith Union, Lee Yul had to spend a huge amount of money. An assassin from the Hundred Wraith Union was worth that much.

If an assassin is able to successfully kill the leader of the enemy camp, then it can instill great fear amongst its constituents. So an assassin is absolutely necessary in order to break the opponent’s fighting spirit.

They were efficient tools.

The problem is that the Jin family also hired assassins. Moreover, it was clear that he had infiltrated this place by tracking Jang Gwang-san and Sa Ok-yeon.

If Hong Ye-seol had not found and stopped him, Lee Yul could easily predicted what could have happened to him.

He ordered Hong Ye-seol,

“Find out who he is.”

“You don’t think the Four Red Lotus Ghosts can catch him?”

“If he was so easy to catch, he wouldn’t have been able to make it all the way here. Don’t you have any guesses?”

“I’ll find out.”

“Report to me as soon as you find out who that person is.”

“Alright.”

Hong Ye-seol nodded.

* * *

When Hong Ye-seol opened her closet, she saw colorful clothing.

It was a shiny red silk garment created by a well-known artisan.

This was her favorite outfit.

She mainly wore this when she was working as a singer. This was so she could look good in front of a large crowd.

It wasn’t just her silk clothing in the closet.

There were several leather belts of unknown use.

Hong Ye-seol loosened her belt. Then the clothes she had on slipped down from her smooth skin and fell onto the floor.

Hong Ye-seol, who is now naked, wore a leather belt on both of her wrists. Inside the two-inch-thick leather belt were all sorts of hidden weapons.

She wore a slightly thicker leather belt around her white calf. A dagger the size of a child’s palm was stuck in a leather belt worn around her calf.

After wearing all the leather belts like that, she changed into the clothes she kept in the closet. The leather straps around the wrists and ankles were hidden underneath her colorful garments.

To finish her look, she wrapped a colorfully patterned bamboo belt around her waist.

Threads and poison bottles were hidden underneath her waist belt.

When she completed her preparations for her upcoming assassination request, Hong Ye-seol came out of the Snow Sword Manor.

Despite the presence of an assassin in the Snow Sword Manor, the atmosphere in the sect remained peaceful.

Many of the warriors had no idea what was going on inside the Snow Sword Manor. Even though the Four Red Lotus Ghosts were busy chasing the assassin.

Just as the assassin infiltrated, he left no trace during his escape.

There weren’t that many assassins who didn’t leave traces as they fled. It was a skill that only those who belonged to the upper ranks in the Hundred Wraith Union could do.

Hong Ye-seol walked past the people.

In the direction she was heading, she saw four men walking among the crowd.

Even though four men with the same face walked by, people didn’t recognize them. That’s how thoroughly they erased their presence.

Hong Ye-seol recognized their identities at a glance.

It was the Four Red Lotus Ghosts who was tasked of going after the assassin.

They shook their heads slightly at Hong Ye-seol.

It meant that they lost the assassin.

Hong Ye-seol passed them by without a word.

She didn’t even expect that they would be able to catch the assassin anyway. If the assassin was such an easy opponent, then she would’ve subdued him in their fight earlier in the Snow Sword Manor.

Hong Ye-seol suddenly took out a small bottle of medicine from inside her waist belt.

After gently shaking the vial and opening the cap, a thick scent flowed out.

Hong Ye-seol put her nose near the mouth of the vial and inhaled its scent.

The moment she inhaled the scent, it felt like lightning flashed in her head, and her sense of smell suddenly amplified dozens of times.

It was an incense called Thunder Blood Dog Incense.2

It had the effect of instantly stimulating a person’s sense of smell and amplifying it dozens of times.

With Hong Ye-seol’s special technique added to it, she would temporarily possess a sense of smell that is almost the level of a hunting dog.

She didn’t want to use it frequently since the drug’s aftereffects are serious. After the effects wore off, it would cause her sense of smell to be paralyzed for almost 10 days.

She began to smell all sorts of scents in her nostrils.

Hong Ye-seol felt a surge to vomit at the sudden increase in sensitivity. She tried to hold it in and began to distinguish the smells that enter through her nose.

She found it difficult to get used to at first, but after some time, she finally found the scent she was looking for.

A Thousand Miles Chasing Incense.3

The Thunder Blood Dog Incense she inhaled momentarily amplified her sense of smell, making her detect the scent of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense.

‘As expected!’

Hong Ye-seol’s eyes shone sharply.

The Thousand Miles Chasing Incense is not a natural scent.

It was an incense made with a special formula. The only group that is capable of creating and producing the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense in the present Jianghu is the Hundred Wraith Union. And among the Hundred Wraith Union assassins, Hong Ye-seol is the one who knows the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense the best.

She had only recently used the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense once.

‘It’s him… Pyo-wol!’

When she met him at Runan, she handed him the Strength Grinding Demonic Martial Arts booklet with the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense buried in it.

There was no other person in Runan where she used the smell of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense on.

The face of the assassin who broke into the Snow Sword Manor was different from that of Pyo-wol. However, there were countless ways in changing appearances.

Of course, it was extremely rare to be able to change it naturally like Pyo-wol.

Hong Ye-seol checked her armament once again and moved on.

One of the characteristics of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense is that the scent does not become diluted even if a long time has passed.

Unless a person uses a special drug to erase its scent, the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense would stick and follow the person until they die.

Hong Ye-seol tracked the smell of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense at a rapid pace.

The farther she got to the outskirts of Runan, the stronger the scent of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense became.

Hong Ye-seol erased her presence as much as possible and moved.

At some point, her steps stopped.

She saw a large abandoned house at a distance.

Both of its walls and ceiling had already collapsed. Rain and wind could easily penetrate through the house.

A bright light was seeping through the collapsed walls of the abandoned house.

Hong Ye-seol cautiously approached the abandoned house with her brow furrowed.

Inside the house was a person sitting in front of a bonfire.

Pyo-wol.

Pyo-wol was silently watching the bonfire burn.

His face glowed even more fantastically at the fire.

Hong Ye-seol sighed at his dazzling appearance.

‘Hoo! He’s truly handsome.”

Even if she underwent harsh training to erase her emotions, in the end, she is still a woman. The appearance of a handsome man makes her heart race.

It was then.

“Come out.”

She heard Pyo-wol’s voice.

Hong Ye-seol, who was startled for a moment, shook her head.

Pyo-wol was already looking straight at the place where she was hiding.

There was no point in hiding any longer.

Hong Ye-seol meekly walked out of her hiding spot and went to the place where Pyo-wol was.

Hong Ye-seol’s gaze suddenly turned to the bonfire. She saw a familiar object burning in the bonfire.

Strength Grinding Demonic Martial Arts.

It was the booklet she gave to Pyo-wol after burying the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense in it. Intense flames were engulfing the Strength Grinding Demonic Martial Arts booklet.

Hong Ye-seol’s eyes shook.

“Did you know about it?”

“From the beginning.”

“Ha! I must have looked like a fool. Playing tricks in front of someone who know better.”

Hong Ye-seol sighed.

It was like a monkey playing in Buddha’s palm.

She didn’t know how long it had been since she was treated like a monkey by someone.

Her blood ran cold.

Then her anger grew.

Hong Ye-seol forcibly suppressed her anger and said,

“I didn’t pursue you, you lured me here.”

“I expected that you would follow the scent of the Thousand Miles Chasing Incense.”

“Ha! It’s been a while since I’ve been pissed off. Okay. Why did you call me here?”

“I have something to ask you.”

“Will you even believe me?”

“That person’s identity.”

“Do you think I will answer?”

“You have no choice but to answer.”

Pyo-wol stood up.

Hong Ye-seol’s angry face was visible over the bonfire.

SoundlessWind21’s Notes:

Thank you for reading!

Four Red Lotus Ghosts. Raws: Hongryeonsagwi, 홍련사귀(紅蓮四鬼). 紅 hóng, gōng, jiàng – red, vermillion; blush, flush 蓮 lián, liǎn – lotus, water lily; paradise 四 sì – four 鬼 guǐ – ghost; spirit of dead; devil Thunder Blood Dog Incense. Raws: 뇌섬혈견향(雷関血犬香). 雷 léi, lèi – thunder 関 guān, wān, wǎn – frontier pass; close; relation 血 xiě, xuè – blood; radical number 143 犬 quǎn – dog; radical number 94 香 xiāng – fragrant, sweet-smelling; incense A Thousand Miles Chasing Incense. Raws: Cheonrichujonghyang, 천리추종향(千里追従香). 千 qiān – thousand; many, numerous; very; (Cant.) a cheater, swindler 里 lǐ – unit of distance; village; lane 追 zhuī, duī, tuī – pursue, chase after; expel 従 cóng – from, by, since, whence, through 香 xiāng – fragrant, sweet-smelling; incense