The Seventeenth Assassin was afraid.
The ones who had captured them were none other than the Faceless Ones, the very followers of the Evil Heart Laughing Demon.
If she was taken by them, a pain worse than death would be waiting.
Ordinarily, assassins would hide a poison pill in their molars in case of capture, but the assassins of the Cult of Beauties did not.
It was the will of their leader, Cha Iran.
If you have the strength to bite down on a poison pill, then clench your teeth and fight to live until the very end!
'I shouldn't have been so careless.'
No. This wasn't a matter of carelessness.
Even if she hadn't been careless, the result would have been the same.
An assassin whose position was exposed was no different from an ordinary martial artist.
Besides, they had been ambushed.
“How on earth did they find us?”
Was there a traitor? Even if someone wanted to betray them, it would be impossible.
They didn't even know where the others lived.
But these people had found them with pinpoint accuracy.
It was at that very moment.
Piiiii, popopopong!
The sound of fireworks exploding could be heard from not too far away.
They were fireworks that made a peculiar sound.
The Seventeenth Assassin and the Fifth Assassin exchanged glances.
Those fireworks were the signal the assassins of the Cult of Beauties used to alert each other of danger.
That meant the Faceless Ones were targeting their comrades elsewhere as well.
A Faceless One stuck his head out the window and looked in the direction of the firework's sound.
'How can he not even think to glance at us?'
Any other man would have looked at least once.
Had they truly been raised in the Demon Sect to feel no emotion at all?
Of course, she didn't know.
How relentlessly the Faceless Ones could stare when they did decide to look.
The carriage slowly began to reduce its speed.
The two assassins had but one hope, no matter who was being targeted this time.
'Please, let her have heard the signal!'
Just as the carriage entered a deserted street on the outskirts of town.
Thud, thud.
The Faceless One in the driver's seat knocked hard on the back wall, and the carriage sped up.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
They could feel something repeatedly flying into and embedding itself in the carriage.
The moment the Faceless One opened the curtain of the opposite window to look outside.
Shwaaaak!
A hidden weapon flew through the window and out the other side.
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The sound of hidden weapons striking the carriage was heard again.
The carriage swerved as it made a sharp turn.
One wheel lifted, and the carriage tilted to its side.
The Faceless One moved to the opposite side and raised his inner energy.
Just as the carriage, which had lifted on one wheel, barely regained its balance.
Pooooow!
A hidden weapon that looked like a short arrow pierced through the carriage wall.
It wasn't an ordinary hidden weapon.
It was powerful enough to penetrate the carriage wall.
And it flew towards where the Seventeenth and Fifth Assassins were sitting.
The Faceless One struck down with his dagger, deflecting the hidden weapon flying toward them.
Kaang.
The force of the hidden weapon was so powerful that his wrist felt like it would break, but thanks to his action, the weapon's trajectory changed.
The hidden weapon flew past, piercing the space behind the two women's heads.
If the Faceless One hadn't blocked it, both of them would have lost their lives.
At the same time.
Puk!
A hidden weapon tore through the arm of the Faceless One, who had exposed himself at the window to protect them.
Blood spurted from his arm, but there was no time to tend to the wound.
Another hidden weapon flew in.
Shwaaaaaak!
A longer hidden weapon than before flew toward where the women were sitting.
It was faster and stronger than the previous one.
The Faceless One grabbed the two women and pulled them to where he had been standing.
Pooooow!
The hidden weapon pierced through the spot where they had been sitting.
An indiscriminate attack was being launched from outside.
The Seventeenth and Fifth Assassins knew who the attacker was.
Eighth Assassin, she was the most skilled in hidden weapon techniques in the Cult of Beauties.
Of all people, it had to be her.
The Eighth Assassin's personality was selfish and merciless.
She was the type to launch an indiscriminate attack even if she knew her allies were in the carriage.
Chaeng! Chaeng!
The Faceless One parried the hidden weapons that once again pierced through the carriage.
One of them would have hit the two women, but he blocked it at great risk to himself.
'Why is he trying so hard to save us?'
The Seventeenth Assassin was secretly puzzled.
When it came to cruelty and mercilessness, these Faceless Ones should be worse, not better.
Hidden weapons rained down, but the carriage continued to drive well.
The Faceless One in the driver's seat parried the incoming projectiles with his finger techniques to keep them from hitting him and the horse.
His skill in driving the horse and launching finger techniques were both impeccable.
He tapped the back wall twice, giving a signal, then stopped the carriage next to a group of trees that could provide cover.
The moment the carriage stopped!
The Faceless One opened the carriage door, threw the women outside, and then hurled himself out.
Papak! Papapak!
With the carriage stopped, the hidden weapons flew in with even greater accuracy.
After getting out of the carriage, the Faceless One first checked the driver's seat.
His colleague who had been driving was nowhere to be seen; he didn't know where he had jumped to.
Ting! Shhwik!
Just as a hidden weapon ricocheted off a wall and flew toward the Seventeenth Assassin's face.
Shwing.
The Faceless One sent out a gust of wind from his fingers and deflected the weapon.
He was faithfully following Geom Mugeuk's joke about not hitting the face.
Just as he was about to hide the two women behind a tree.
Shuaaaaaaaaaa!
Hidden weapons poured down on them like rain.
Chaengchaengchaengchaengchaeng!
The Faceless One could have dodged on his own, but he stood in front of the Seventeenth and Fifth Assassins and deflected the weapons.
Blood splattered on his white mask, but the Faceless One did not move.
The Seventeenth and Fifth Assassins silently watched the back of the man who stood his ground until the very end to protect them.
It was a situation where they truly didn't know who to cheer for.
'He can't block it! It's too much!'
What the Eighth Assassin was currently unleashing was not an ordinary hidden weapon.
It was one of the Martial Alliance's forbidden weapons, something she only used in the most desperate situations.
It was the Annihilation Rainstorm.
Blood spurted from the Faceless One's shoulder and waist.
He somehow managed to block the attack, avoiding his vital points even if his limbs were injured.
Kaang!
With a final, sharp sound, the Faceless One's arm dropped.
He let out a ragged breath.
He was too exhausted to block any more hidden weapons.
If even a single dagger came flying, it would be over.
But no more hidden weapons came.
When the Faceless One raised his head, he saw his colleague from the driver's seat standing on a roof across the way, looking in their direction.
A woman lay collapsed beside him.
While he had been blocking the hidden weapons, his colleague had succeeded in subduing her.
A short while later, three assassins sat side-by-side in the tattered carriage.
The Seventeenth Assassin, the Fifth Assassin, and the Eighth Assassin.
The Faceless One finally tended to his injuries properly.
Though not critical, the cuts were quite deep.
With an indifferent expression, he pressed on his pressure points to stop the bleeding, applied golden salve, and wrapped bandages around the wounds.
“Ugh.”
Seeing the Faceless One's eyes as he grimaced in pain, the Seventeenth Assassin found it strange that this man, too, could feel pain.
His mask was heavily stained with blood.
Most of it was blood he had shed to protect her.
The Seventeenth Assassin thought that this time, the Faceless One wouldn't hold back.
The Eighth Assassin had nearly killed him by using a series of forbidden weapons.
Even if he didn't kill her, she expected him to beat her half to death.
But the Faceless One didn't even utter a single curse; he just gazed out the window.
'What on earth is he thinking?'
The Seventeenth Assassin also silently watched the passing scenery outside through a hole in the broken carriage.
The women arrived at the guest hall.
The women gathered today to receive their seat assignments were those who had made it to the main tournament but failed to be chosen as one of the final seven.
They greeted and chatted with familiar faces.
“I can't believe we're here again.”
“I thought I'd never be back.”
This was the very same guest hall where they had waited during the main tournament.
“We were sitting right here, remember?”
“Back then, I really thought I would make it to the finals.”
Laughter erupted here and there.
The atmosphere was good.
There was a strange sense of camaraderie born from having been eliminated together.
Once all the women had entered the guest hall, a martial artist wearing a deep bamboo hat followed them in and closed the door.
Chief Steward Jo was waiting in the guest hall.
“The reason I have gathered you all today is to arrange the seating for the final stage.”
One side of the guest hall had been decorated like a stage, and behind it were chairs where they would sit.
“Please check your assigned seats carefully today so there are no mistakes on the day of the event. Now, I will begin assigning the seats.”
Chief Steward Jo called out their names one by one and assigned them their spots.
He seemed more nervous and stiff than usual, but everyone was too busy checking their seats to notice such details.
“Alright, please come up and sit in the spot with your number. On the day, the chairs won't be numbered, so you must not get confused.”
One by one, he had them take their seats.
All the women had been assigned their spots, and they sat looking at the stage.
The stage was a temporary setup for the seating arrangement, but their regret was real.
A sigh escaped from someone's lips.
Everyone knew it was a sigh filled with the regret that the stage could have been theirs.
For they all had let out the same sigh in their hearts.
At that moment, a sharp voice rang out.
The words were hard to believe even after hearing them.
“Stupid woman, why are you sighing? You were eliminated because you're ugly.”
All eyes turned to the woman who had made the insult.
She was even sitting right next to the woman who had sighed.
At her words, the woman who had sighed opened her eyes wide in surprise.
“What did you just say?”
“Are you deaf, too? You've been acting all high and mighty since the preliminaries, serves you right.”
Slap!
The woman who had sighed slapped her cheek without mercy.
“This wench dares to hit me?”
The two women grabbed each other's hair and started fighting.
It was a situation where they should have been stopped, but another woman watching them shouted.
“Kill her!”
What was this now?
The women's gazes turned to the one who had shouted 'kill her'.
It didn't seem to be a joke or a prank, as she shouted for her to be killed again in a shrill tone.
The woman who insulted, the woman who slapped her in an instant, and the woman who watched and shouted for her to be killed—none of them were normal.
Three abnormal people were already a lot, but then there was another.
“How uncivilized. No wonder pathetic women like you were eliminated. I can't be seen with you.”
At another woman's words, a woman from the back row struck her hard on the head.
“You wench, you're the most pathetic one here!”
This time, two more women began to fight.
Chief Steward Jo ran over in shock.
“Stop! What is wrong with all of you!”
He tried to stop them, but the agitated women were seeing red.
The fight spread in an instant.
It wasn't that someone was instigating the fight.
Nor were they fighting in two opposing groups.
They just fought with the person next to them, and with those they held grudges against from the tournament.
They even fought with people they had never exchanged a single word with.
Shouts and curses erupted from all directions.
It was as if they had been waiting for this very moment, all of them screaming and spewing profanities at each other.
They threw punches, scratched, and tore clothes.
They grabbed and pulled hair.
There was a woman who bit another, and a woman who sat down and burst into tears.
There was a woman cursing her parents and lamenting her fate, and another screaming that she was the Greatest Beauty Under Heaven.
It was truly a scene where everyone was saying all the things they usually held back.
Chief Steward Jo's jaw dropped at the sight unfolding before him.
It was truly the first time in his life he had seen anything like it.
How could people act like this, no matter how bitter they were about being eliminated from the finals?
It was hard to believe these were the same elegant and beautiful women he had seen when they first entered.
It was as if a sudden madness had taken hold and they had all gone insane together.
Of course, there were also women standing perfectly still, just watching the scene.
So it wasn't a contagious disease.
In any case, he couldn't just let this pandemonium continue.
“Stop! All of you, stop!”
As Chief Steward Jo's shout echoed.
Like a lie, the noisy space began to quiet down.
Even Chief Steward Jo, who had shouted, was surprised.
Everyone had suddenly stopped fighting.
Hands that were grabbing collars were released, and hands pulling hair were let go.
The women looked around, bewildered.
They straightened their torn clothes, fixed their disheveled hair, and wiped their bloody noses.
They didn't look like people who had been fighting like madwomen just a moment ago.
On the contrary, their expressions seemed to say:
What did I just do? Was that really something to fight over like that?
They all looked embarrassed.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Only after Chief Steward Jo's scolding did the women who had fought bow their heads.
"I'm sorry."
Some women bowed their heads in apology, while others hid behind people in shame.
Some even apologized to the opponents they had been spitting at and cursing just moments before.
At that moment, the martial artist in the bamboo hat who had been standing by the entrance walked forward.
The women were suddenly terrified.
They had caused a disturbance and even gotten into a fight right before an important event.
The Divine Flower Sect could punish them or spread rumors.
The martial artist in the bamboo hat raised his hand and pointed at the women.
He herded the chosen women to one side.
They were all the women who had been excitedly fighting a moment ago.
Not only that, he also pointed out a few among the women who had not fought and were just watching.
After separating the women, the martial artist in the bamboo hat spoke to Chief Steward Jo.
“Lead them out.”
Even as they left, the women were puzzled.
Wouldn't it be normal to let the women who didn't fight go, and keep the ones who fought to be scolded?
But he was sending out all the ones who had fought.
Oh, of course, there were a few women who hadn't fought.
It was impossible to tell what criteria he was using to send them out.
Chief Steward Jo led them outside without a word.
Now, only twenty women remained.
The remaining women looked at each other with serious expressions.
It was because the people left in this place were a group that should not have been together.
They were the assassins of the Cult of Beauties.
The highest-ranking among them was the Third Assassin.
She could not understand the situation.
Among so many women, in the midst of that pandemonium.
'How on earth did he leave only us?'
The gazes of the Third Assassin and the other assassins turned to the man in the bamboo hat.
The man in the bamboo hat walked forward.
He righted a chair that had been knocked over in the fight and sat down.
When he slowly took off his bamboo hat, the Evil Heart Laughing Demon, wearing a silk veil, revealed himself.
“You all know your places, right?”
The Evil Heart Laughing Demon's low voice echoed through the great hall filled with assassins.
“First, have a seat.”