Chapter 125: Cao the Runner

A mocking sneer suddenly curled the corners of Jiang An’s mouth.

The next instant.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Nam Myeong-gi suddenly opened fire. With cold, expressionless precision, he gunned down his subordinates one by one. Before they could even react, they were already gasping their last breaths.

The scene was shockingly abrupt. A mole within a mole?

Nam Myeong-gi continued his frenzied assault, killing a dozen men in mere moments. Even after his pistol clicked empty, he continued to pull the trigger obsessively.

"Ah!"

The few remaining clerks on the periphery were paralyzed with terror, shrieking as they huddled on the ground, frozen in fear.

Then, clarity returned to Nam Myeong-gi’s eyes as he realized what he had done.

"Impossible, impossible! It wasn't me!"

He stared at the bodies lying in pools of blood, the searing hot pistol in his trembling hand, and the looks of horror and hatred from the survivors. It was all too much; he was on the verge of a breakdown.

Click! Click!

He lunged at Jiang An, pulling the trigger repeatedly, but only the hollow sound of a spent chamber echoed. "It must be you! You devil! You controlled me! I didn't mean to kill them! I am no traitor!"

Nam Myeong-gi roared, unleashing a string of Korean accusations at Jiang An.

Jiang An couldn't have cared less. Having invaded Nam Myeong-gi’s mind, he had sensed the man’s fleeting, pretentious desire to be a "modern-day Yi Sun-sin." On a whim, Jiang An had decided to kindly "fulfill" that wish.

"Haha, well done."

With a malicious sense of humor, Jiang An left behind an ambiguous remark and walked straight out the door. Having used his wall-phasing, invisibility, and night-vision techniques to obtain the information he needed, he saw no reason to disturb the remaining survivors in their tragic performance of mutual destruction.

Nishimura and Cho Tae-hwan were his true targets. Though he did not know their names, he had seen their status on the Japanese vessel and had no intention of letting them escape.

Meanwhile, the speedboat carrying Cho Tae-hwan and Nishimura was nearing the shore.

They had been lucky; Jiang An had arrived at the command center just after they left. As the coastline came into view, a profound sense of relief washed over them, a feeling of having escaped the jaws of death.

But then, a sharp, piercing whistle echoed from far behind them!

The chill of death descended once more. Caught between relief and terror, the two men were nearly driven to internal injury. "Faster! Row faster!" they screamed.

The coast guard officer piloting the boat could do nothing more; the vessel was already at top speed.

Cho and Nishimura kept glancing back. Beyond the distant, illuminated warships, the area behind them was shrouded in absolute darkness, save for the rhythmic, slapping sound of someone running across the water—the pursuer had caught up!

Faced with Jiang An, the two had spent the entire time fleeing. Their conditioned fear had become so deep-seated that they could summon no courage to fight back; instead, their dread only grew more marrow-chilling.

"No! I, Nishimura, am no coward! Since we cannot escape, let us fight to the death! That man cannot hold out forever. With my spirits and your martial arts, we still have a chance. Let us fight!"

At the extreme end of terror, Nishimura suddenly seemed to have an epiphany, shouting with desperate bravado.

"Fine, let's do it!"

Cho Tae-hwan’s expression shifted. He gritted his teeth, narrowed his eyes, and suddenly kicked Nishimura overboard!

"Nishimura, that man only said he would kill all the Japanese. I am Korean, so I won't be throwing my life away for you! You must win!"

Leaving those words behind, Cho Tae-hwan didn't even look back.

Nishimura, plunged into the water, was so enraged he coughed up blood. As an Onmyoji, his physical constitution was far inferior to that of a martial arts grandmaster; caught off guard by Cho’s kick, he had no time to react. The final words left him utterly livid.

*You bastard, you betrayed me!*

Consumed by hatred, Nishimura scrambled to summon his spirits in the water. He commanded them to envelop him as he surfaced, his first act being to charge toward Cho Tae-hwan.

He no longer cared about the "Demon," or death itself. He only wanted to drag Cho to the grave with him.

The green spirits glowed against the dark sea. Seeing Cho Tae-hwan reach the shore, Nishimura rushed toward him with bloodshot eyes. But he had not taken a dozen steps when a spiraling force of internal energy struck his back, shattering his chest. He had only enough time to look down before he collapsed backward, falling flat into the water as the green spirits around him slowly dissipated.

In his final moment, he saw a figure pass by, leaving behind a single sentence: "That man—I will kill him for you."

*That’s fine...*

Nishimura suddenly felt at peace. Dying at the hands of the demon was acceptable. *Cho Tae-hwan, I’ll be waiting for you in hell!*

...

Cho Tae-hwan was losing his mind.

He reached the shore and immediately dove into a waiting vehicle, cranking the engine and screeching into a sharp turn. His movements were fluid and practiced.

As he sped away, he glanced back and saw the glow of Nishimura’s spirits extinguish, followed by a pair of cold, indifferent eyes locking onto him.

His heart dropped into an icy abyss. Cho pushed the car to its limit, racing toward the Coast Guard station. Seeing several vehicles approaching from the opposite direction, he screamed, "I am Korean! There is an intruder behind me! Open fire!"

A grandmaster’s voice carried immense authority. The oncoming vehicles suddenly erupted in gunfire, raking the beach behind Cho with lead.

Cho sped past the firing line and plunged into the Coast Guard compound, knowing that only a place swarming with people could slow Jiang An down—even for a moment—to buy him time to escape.

"Slow down! Stop!"

As Cho reached the front of the station, the guards, seeing the official vehicle, didn't immediately deploy the spike strips, shouting at the approaching car instead.

Bang!

Cho didn't slow down at all, smashing through the gate and sending the guard flying. He barreled into the courtyard until the car slammed into a wall. He stumbled out, disoriented, and sprinted into the building.

The interior was in chaos. Most of the armed personnel had already been deployed, leaving only clerks and service staff. Cho plowed through the hallways, punching anyone in his path until they flew aside, their fate unknown. Scarlet blood stained his clothes and face, making him look monstrous and deranged.

He seemed to have fallen into a state of madness. Only one thought remained: run. He couldn't stop running. He began to suffer auditory hallucinations—or perhaps they were real—as he heard a light, steady footstep following him. Step by step, like the tread of a devil coming to claim his soul.

*Ah, I remember! I can be saved!*

Cho suddenly recalled something. On a mountain not far from here, there lived a savior—a great Korean master named Moon Jo-hyeon!

People called Park Yi-seong the greatest grandmaster in Korea, but that was merely a tribute to his talent—a once-in-a-century prodigy. In terms of sheer cultivation, Korea possessed grandmasters of the third realm who could suppress him. Currently, the two surviving pillars of Korea, the brothers known as the "Two Sages of the Moon Family," were the nation's final line of defense, though they had long lived in seclusion.

The elder brother, Moon Jo-hyeon, did not live nearby, but Cho knew that every year, to mourn his late wife, the master stayed on Red Leaf Mountain, a few miles away, where they had first met.

Moon Jo-hyeon was aging and his vitality was fading; he had no hope of reaching the Great Grandmaster realm, so he didn't seclude himself in death-defying meditation. Regardless, he remained a third-realm grandmaster. Cho had met him a few times. If he could reach him, he would be safe. Furthermore, the younger brother, Moon Woo-hyeon, was even more powerful—the twelfth-ranked fighter on the Divine Ranking, whose "Great Snow Peak" aura was peerless in both offense and defense.

*Yes, just reaching Moon Jo-hyeon will be enough. Even if he cannot defeat him, that brat Jiang wouldn't dare kill him!*

Clinging to this hope, Cho picked up his pace, reaching the courtyard and racing toward salvation. But the moment he burst through the door, he froze.

Jiang An was already waiting there, calm and composed.

*I am finished.*

Cho’s legs gave out, and he nearly collapsed as an endless, bottomless despair swallowed him whole. Just then, a deep, resonant voice echoed from the distance: "Who is fighting there? Cease your actions at once!"

Jiang An turned his head, and Cho looked up to see a figure rushing toward them from the far side of the courtyard. Bathed in the soft light, moving through the dancing shadows of the trees, a man radiating a yellow, divine glow sprinted toward them, his path unimpeded by boulders or hills.