Once again, the reaction was split in half.
The much larger group reacted as if they were dealing with a madman.
The absolute sense of security that the number ninety-nine gave them brought smirks to their lips.
A few were tense.
A single worry surfaced in their minds.
What if he wasn't a madman?
The moment that assumption became reality, his words about reducing the number of mouths would be the same as the god of death opening his Underworld Ledger.
Yeom Je was among the worried few.
He stared intently at Geom Mugeuk, trying to gauge his hidden skill, but he couldn't reach any conclusion.
He was too young, and no matter how he looked at him, he didn't seem to be that much of a master.
Yet, he was saying such things in this situation.
"Our Leader has been through thick and thin with you all, so I'll take care of it for you. Which mouths should I start with? From what I can see, they all seem like mouths that could disappear."
The Immortals all frowned in unison.
More than a few wanted to rush out right then and kill this arrogant man.
This was a first for Yeom Je.
No master in the world would dare say such crazy things in front of them.
When they were all gathered, not even the Martial Alliance would dare to invade recklessly.
'Could that be what he's aiming for? Pretending to be a master with such arrogant words?'
He was driven to such thoughts.
The more he looked, the more confusing the man was.
'Right, I should see his skills first.'
Before he could pounce, their side would strike first.
Yeom Je said with a relaxed smile.
"These are stubborn lives, so it won't be easy to reduce the mouths."
At Yeom Je's signal, nine men from the Ninetieth to the Ninety-Eighth Immortal stepped forward.
It wouldn't be too late to accurately gauge the opponent's skill and decide what to do next.
They surrounded Geom Mugeuk.
Geom Mugeuk glanced at them and then spoke.
"Are you the youngest ones?"
He asked as if guessing, but Geom Mugeuk had accurately grasped their skill.
Based on their aura, they were weaker than the others.
Among so many people, Geom Mugeuk had accurately discerned their skill with just a brief glance.
That wasn't all.
"It seems you've never fought together before."
He saw that correctly as well.
They had never had the chance to fight as a group.
Most of the time, they had swarmed their enemies for revenge, resulting in one-sided massacres.
Even that had become rare in recent times.
'He's trying to figure out my skill?'
Of course, Geom Mugeuk was not one to play along with his opponent's intentions.
With his sword lowered, Geom Mugeuk seemed to slowly walk toward the opponent in front of him.
Whoosh.
In an instant, he veered right and charged.
It was such a fast and sudden movement that the man on the right had his throat slit before he could even swing his sword.
Fushaaak!
As blood sprayed in all directions, Geom Mugeuk's form was already rushing toward another Immortal.
The opponent instinctively swung his sword.
Two swords crossed in the air.
Because he thoroughly concealed his skill, Geom Mugeuk's sword was just half a step ahead.
Thrust!
Thus, when he killed the second Immortal, sighs of regret erupted from all around.
It was out of disappointment that if he had been just a little faster, that Immortal could have won.
The sword that had pierced the second opponent's heart now spun wide and flew toward the one charging from the opposite side.
Pash!
The blood on Geom Mugeuk's sword flew through the air and into the Immortal's eyes.
Whether it was intentional or by chance was unknown, but he momentarily closed his eyes.
He would never be able to open those closed eyes again.
Once more, sighs erupted from all around.
How could blood get in his eyes at such a moment?
As he cut down the third man, a surprise attack came from behind.
The attacker was almost certain of his success, but the attack missed by a hair's breadth.
It was so close that the thought 'one more time' naturally came to mind, but he was not given a second chance.
The blood he spewed sprayed in all directions again, obscuring the vision of the remaining Immortals.
Surely he's not intentionally spraying blood like this to block their vision?
That can't be, right?
The onlookers had such thoughts.
That's how much blood was gushing like a fountain.
Geom Mugeuk's fighting was not elegant.
It was rough and savage.
It was a fight that reeked of blood.
Of course, there was a reason Geom Mugeuk fought this way.
The fight was a close call.
If only he were a bit faster, if only he had attacked from a slightly different angle.
Leaving behind such regrets, the remaining Immortals fell one after another.
The sighs of regret continued, and by the time the ninth sigh ended, they were all corpses lying on the ground.
The smell of the blood they shed filled the hall.
The silence in the hall was naturally heavier than when the Ninety-Ninth Immortal had died.
They hadn't expected nine masters to die like this without even leaving a scratch on their opponent.
Yet, they didn't think the opponent was that great.
Instead, most of the onlookers felt, 'He's a really lucky bastard!' In their eyes, it was a fight lost by a very narrow margin.
Moreover, Geom Mugeuk's swordsmanship was too ordinary.
'Defense should be like that, and attack should be like this.'
It was a fight that would be perfect to show to novices learning martial arts for the first time.
A fight that looked like it could be drawn and published as a textbook.
Of course, in Yeom Je's eyes, this fight looked different.
'It looked like he was fighting instinctively and wildly.'
His nine subordinates had not once managed a proper joint attack.
If two or three of them had attacked simultaneously, they could have certainly led the fight more easily.
They must have tried to attack together, but the opponent's movements didn't allow it, and in the end, they were defeated one by one.
'What if it was an intentional fight? What if this narrow, lucky fight was thoroughly calculated?'
Yeom Je knew.
He knew how difficult it was to kill them with basic techniques.
It was far more difficult than killing them using flashy forms.
"This man has a hidden card up his sleeve."
Geom Mugeuk flicked the blood off his sword, then looked at Yeom Je and spoke.
"Well, I've reduced the number of mouths for you, so pay up now, will you?"
Yeom Je gave no answer.
'Where in the world did they find a guy like this and send him?'
Geom Mugeuk saw the unconcealable greed revealed on Yeom Je's face.
Through his prior investigation, Geom Mugeuk already knew Yeom Je was this kind of person.
A man who valued money more than his subordinates.
He was the type to give up his life rather than give up all the money he earned.
Therefore, to open Yeom Je's coffers, he must not rush.
He could wipe them all out at once, but by shedding blood like this and gradually heightening the atmosphere, he had to break down his spirit bit by bit.
The main purpose of today was not to kill them, but to recover the money.
"Getting full of yourself after killing a few errand boys."
Of course, they weren't such men, but Yeom Je forced himself to maintain his bravado, suppressing an unknown anxiety.
'Who should I send?'
Just as he was contemplating whether to send out the Ten Immortals to nip this in the bud.
Geom Mugeuk did something completely unexpected.
"Excuse me, just passing through."
Geom Mugeuk suddenly started walking towards the Immortals standing on his right.
At his sudden action, the Immortals on that side drew their swords and retreated.
As they parted to the left and right, a path naturally formed.
Though the Immortals with fierce auras glared at him from both sides, Geom Mugeuk walked through the gap without a single hint of fear on his face.
An opening appeared in his natural gait.
They debated whether to attack, but the opening was so obvious that they dared not.
But there was one Immortal who couldn't hold back.
It was an attack calculated to raise his rank by ten levels with this single move.
Shweek.
It was a surprise attack that, to anyone watching, seemed to have landed perfectly.
Puk.
Geom Mugeuk twisted his body to dodge and thrust his sword.
This time too, he luckily avoided the attack and succeeded in a narrow counterattack.
Even at that moment, several Immortals flinched.
They were tormented by the desire to seize the opportunity and attack, but the man who had just died was the Forty-Fifth Immortal.
A man of above-average skill among those present had failed in his ambush.
When the Ninety-Eighth Immortal attacked, it was close.
When the Forty-Fifth Immortal attacked, it was also close.
A wise conclusion should be drawn from this result, but Geom Mugeuk was not giving them the leisure to do so right now.
"Is this painting genuine?"
Holding the sword dripping with blood, he had walked over to the painting hanging on the back wall.
Yeom Je asked with a puzzled look.
"Why do you ask?"
"Because if the Leader is short on money, I was thinking of taking this too."
Yeom Je's expression hardened.
The opponent was openly disrespecting him.
There was a certain dignity he had to maintain in front of his subordinates.
But for now, the strange anxiety this young opponent gave off was greater.
"Do I look like a man who hangs fakes in a place where people come and go?"
Such pride in a situation thick with the smell of his subordinates' blood?
Geom Mugeuk felt a strange sense of dissonance.
But Geom Mugeuk was the only one who found it dissonant.
On the contrary, his subordinates felt no incongruity in those words at all.
For all of them, their own pride and money were more important than their comrades.
Geom Mugeuk began to take down the frame that was attached to the wall.
He's really taking the painting? The moment Yeom Je's expression hardened completely.
Shwiiiiik!
A nearby Immortal did not miss the chance and launched a surprise attack.
It was at the very moment he took the painting down and held it.
Moreover, when Geom Mugeuk held the painting in his right hand, the man couldn't restrain himself.
Of course, in the end, he should have.
Pow!
By a hair's breadth, the sword missed, and Geom Mugeuk's left fist, as he turned, struck him on the jaw.
The Thirty-Ninth Immortal should have been able to withstand a single punch, but he died on the spot and collapsed.
It didn't even look like a particularly amazing Fist Technique.
Yeom Je's gaze was not on his dead subordinate but on the painting.
He was lost in a certain doubt.
'Why go to the trouble of taking the painting now? If he really needed it, he could take it later.'
Geom Mugeuk took the frame and placed it on the table where the Promissory Notes were stacked.
It was as if he was declaring that everything here was his.
"What do you think you're doing?"
To Yeom Je's question, Geom Mugeuk answered calmly.
"Because you all chose to live this kind of life, there aren't many ways to deal with you. So don't blame me."
The Immortals stood there, looking at Geom Mugeuk with expressions that said, 'what kind of nonsense is this?'
An ominous thought suddenly crossed Yeom Je's mind.
'No way.
It can't be, right?'
It was at that very moment.
Shwiiiiiiiiiiiiik!
Yeom Je saw a single line.
Not only him, but everyone saw it.
A single line drawn coolly and then vanishing.
The line appeared on Geom Mugeuk's right.
The very side where Geom Mugeuk had walked to take the painting.
The line passed through the Immortals standing before it.
It passed the Immortals in the first row, and also those in the second and third rows.
Afterward, they saw Geom Mugeuk extending his sword towards them.
Seeing that, they finally understood.
The line they had just seen was the sword line created by Geom Mugeuk's sword.
'Can Sword Qi fly in a single line like this?'
It didn't fly like a brilliant light, nor did it leave an afterimage.
A single line, as if drawn with a ruler.
They had never seen such a clean Sword Qi in their lives.
Silence flowed through the place.
Click.
The moment Geom Mugeuk's Black Demon Sword entered its sheath.
Srrrrk.
The bodies of the Immortals standing on the right began to shift.
The Immortals, whose bodies were bisected, all spewed blood and crumbled on the spot.
"Aaaaaaaargh!"
An Immortal who was watching the scene from the front let out a scream.
No matter how brave these masters were, the sight of over twenty people being cut in half in a single move was both shocking and terrifying.
And they understood.
Why he had brought the painting from the back.
The Sword Qi that had cut the Immortals left a long line on the back wall.
Yeom Je's eyes widened.
He had overcome many crises after entering the martial world, but had he ever been this surprised?
He knew the opponent had a hidden card, but he never imagined he would kill over twenty of his subordinates in a single move.
It was the same for the other Immortals.
Now, there was no one there with a smirk on their face.
The pungent smell of blood that had flared up filled the great hall.
"He must have used a lot of inner energy and has none left!"
It was a statement that would never have been made if he had looked into Geom Mugeuk's energy core, but at Yeom Je's shout, the Immortals all drew their swords.
They all revealed their killing intent, but Geom Mugeuk was not frightened at all.
"I told you to pay your debt, not draw your swords."
Even in this situation, with over thirty of his subordinates dead, the words "I will give you the money" did not come from Yeom Je's mouth.
Even with their lives, he hadn't touched a single hair of the three million nyang.
"It seems more mouths need to be reduced."
Geom Mugeuk this time looked to the opposite side, the left, and spoke softly to the Immortals standing there.
"Fortunately, there are no paintings on this wall."