Overlord of Sichuan

Chapter 13: Heavenly Forge and Heavenly Net

Turning back time.

It had been three years since Sewoon was captured by the Blood Cult.

“Damn it!”

A demonic practitioner slammed the smithy door as if to shatter it.

Sewoon stared around with vacant eyes.

The interior of the smithy, wrecked from the outburst, was a complete mess.

Sewoon walked over lifelessly and began cleaning up, as if it was routine.

It was something he had experienced more than enough to be sick of.

It always ended like this—when someone failed to receive a divine weapon, they went on a rampage before leaving.

Yet the only things to suffer were the items themselves.

Not a single hair on Sewoon's body was harmed.

No demonic practitioner dared to lay a finger on him.

And it wasn’t because Sewoon had risen in martial prowess from his training.

“…It’s laughable that my enemy is now my protector.”

Sewoon muttered bitterly.

Over the past three years, his status within the Blood Cult had risen steadily, to the point that even Elders didn’t dare touch him lightly.

That began when the third of the Black Assassination Unit acquired the second demonic weapon, the Twin Polar Fang.

They had risen to the rank of Captain at the youngest age ever after completing one near-impossible assassination after another.

And after the Poison Demon Yaryusung—whose downfall from Elder status had seemed certain—acquired the third demonic weapon recently.

He turned the Sect Leader of Diancang Sect, known as the Sun Piercing Sword Immortal, into nothing but a puddle of blood.

—“Those who obtain the divine weapon of the Demonic Craftsman gain power far beyond their limits.”

That was the rumor that spread widely through the Blood Cult afterward.

Even demonic practitioners who had initially resisted the idea of giving up their martial arts were now eagerly seeking out Sewoon.

However, Sewoon found none of this favorable.

In fact, he grew increasingly disgusted with himself.

The more his name became known,

The more innocent lives were being destroyed by the weapons he crafted.

—“Kuhaha! Your bracelet is a true masterpiece!”

—“I wonder what kind of expression Tang Eui-tae is making in the afterlife, seeing his grandson help me carry out a blood massacre. Heehee!”

The voice that tormented him the most was that of the Poison Demon, Yaryusung.

He was a madman among madmen, who poisoned thousands of innocent civilians just to lure out the Sun Piercing Sword Immortal.

—“So? Still won’t be my disciple? Imagine the fun, the grandson of Tang Eui-tae with such skills and my poison arts!”

—“Kikiki. You’re mine. My puppet, forever unable to escape my grasp.”

The lunatic who kept babbling about making him his disciple…

Creeeak.

At that moment, the door to the smithy opened again.

“Damn it.”

Sewoon didn’t even look back.

A curse slipped out instinctively.

What kind of horrifying demonic practitioner had come this time?

Slaaash!

“-!”

Suddenly, the sound of the air tearing pierced through the smithy.

Clatter!

Without time to resist, something shot like an arrow and bound his neck and limbs.

That attack carried an unmistakable killing intent.

Struggling to free his neck with both hands, Sewoon identified the strange object.

‘…A sleeve?’

The sleeve of a silk robe had stretched like a serpent’s waist and wrapped around his body.

The energy within that sleeve was far from ordinary.

Snap!

Suddenly, the silk pulled taut.

Thud! Thud-thud!

“Urgh!”

Losing his balance, Sewoon collapsed backward and was dragged across the ground under immense force.

Once he was completely subdued, his body was dragged to the feet of the attacker.

“Tang Sewoon. Atone with your life.”

A voice as cold as the North Sea echoed through the room.

It was clearly a woman’s voice, one he’d never heard before.

Sewoon barely lifted his head to see her face.

The woman wore a robe stained with blood and had a deep sword scar across her face.

She was someone he had never seen before.

“Hic, sob. Master. Everyone…”

“Haha. Ha, haha.”

“Call the Assassins! I’ll kill them! I’ll kill every last one!”

Crying one moment, laughing the next, then falling into sudden madness—her instability was obvious at a glance.

‘…Who is she?’

As Sewoon stood in confusion, unable to guess her identity—

She suddenly regained a brief moment of clarity.

Her gaze looked like his own reflection in a mirror.

The eyes of a relentless revenant bent on revenge.

“Because of the sword you made… everyone died.”

‘Ah.’

Only then did Sewoon realize who she was and why she had come for him.

The Shrine Maiden Sect, a female sect known for its superb defensive techniques and unique martial arts that rivaled Mount Mo.

Recently, it had been annihilated—everyone except one captured disciple had been slaughtered.

That had been the most recent assassination carried out by the Assassins.

She was a victim who had lost her loved ones to a divine weapon he created.

“Sob. Why did you make such a cursed weapon? You—you were part of the orthodox sects too, weren’t you?”

“…”

“We didn’t refuse to help you. We couldn’t. We were also fighting against the Blood Cult!”

Seo Surin screamed with eyes full of resentment as she looked at Sewoon.

His vision blurred, and his chest ached like his heart was being ripped apart.

He had known this day would come eventually, but it was even more hopeless than he had imagined.

Sssss.

At that moment, Sewoon stopped struggling against the silk that choked his neck.

As if accepting her will, he surrendered his life.

Seeing this, Surin’s eyes trembled instead.

“…Why aren’t you resisting?”

“Because I don’t deserve to.”

“Don’t give me that disgusting sanctimony! You filthy betrayer…!”

“And because you wouldn’t be able to kill me anyway.”

“-!”

Interrupting her words—

Sewoon slowly rose to his feet.

Crunch!

A chilling sound rang out as the energy choking Sewoon’s neck intensified.

But he did not stop moving.

“D-Don’t move! I’ll snap your neck!”

“You can’t… do it. The martial arts of the Shrine Maiden Sect… don’t… have… any killing techniques…”

“…!”

It was true.

The Shrine Maiden Sect had strictly upheld the doctrine of no killing.

Although rooted in Taoist principles, it wasn’t due to religious teachings.

It was because they believed that true chivalry did not require taking lives.

Because of that, the Shrine Maiden Sect had earned respect across both orthodox and unorthodox circles.

But that was also why a single assassin had been able to massacre them all.

“…And you’ve never killed a person even once, either.”

Thud.

Surin collapsed powerlessly to the ground.

The sleeves that had bound Sewoon’s neck and limbs all fell to the floor without strength.

“Khk, sob… why… why did you do this to us…”

The killing intent she had unleashed had only been half-formed.

It was killing intent, yes—but not the kind that came from someone who had truly taken a life.

Her hatred was real, but she lacked the cruelty that only murderers possessed.

It was then—

Ruff! Ruff! Ruff!

“Find the slave quickly!”

“Damn it! Execute the escapee on sight!”

Thanks to his heightened hearing from the activation of his Upper Dantian, Sewoon could hear the search party’s voices from afar.

Even the demon hound Huma, classified as a spiritual beast, had been deployed—time was short.

Sewoon grabbed a dagger lying on the ground and approached her.

Then he forced the dagger into Surin’s hand.

“-!”

Stab!

Using her hand, he plunged the blade straight into his own chest without hesitation.

Blood splattered.

The dagger pierced his flesh.

Yet Sewoon looked at Surin without so much as a groan.

“Ah… ah…”

She was the one trembling instead.

If she applied just a bit more pressure, Sewoon would surely die.

Looking at her pale, bloodless face, Sewoon spoke.

“I promise you.”

“…What?”

“I will die by your hand. No matter what.”

“-!”

“Cough! But not yet… it’s not time…”

Blood trickled from Sewoon’s lips.

Surin panicked.

Her opponent wasn’t surrounded by a shred of true qi.

An ordinary person would have passed out from the sheer agony.

But Sewoon’s eyes still shone with sincerity.

“I will give you the power to take your revenge.”

“-!”

“…So hide your true self, and survive at all costs. Kill every last one of your targets.”

Sewoon gave her one last command.

“Me.”

“The Assassins.”

“The Blood Demon.”

Whoosh! Huff!

With every pump of the bellows Sewoon stepped on, the furnace’s temperature soared.

Hummmm!

And from within, the blade Wave Moon let out a resonant wail, almost like a scream.

Both the blade and edge of Wave Moon were made of meteorite iron.

Normally, melting meteorite iron with just the firepower of the Ten Thousand Iron Hall furnace would have been impossible.

Because meteorite iron carried special energy from its celestial origin, it required either a high-level sorcerer of at least First Rank to assist in the forging process,

Or the use of the unique furnace possessed by the White Night Iron Guild, the most renowned smithing guild in the Central Plains.

But in this moment—

Drip. Drip-drip.

Astonishingly, Wave Moon was melting rapidly, as though shedding tears.

‘In the slow flow of time, there lies perfection.’

All of this was thanks to the manifestation of Divine Weapon Creation, the power of the Golden Bridle Movement Technique.

Fwoosh!

The furnace, imbued with the energy of Golden Bridle, was melting materials that normally wouldn’t melt.

‘A sleeve that can block all and cut through all.’

The bellows weren’t blowing ordinary air—they were fanning the wind of a blacksmith god.

Clang!

Clang-clang!

The hammer strikes rained down relentlessly, pushing the material beyond its original limits.

The fully melted Wave Moon no longer resembled its original form—it was transforming into something entirely new.

Shimmer.

The molten meteorite iron spread wide across the anvil and even into the air, fluttering like the wings of a celestial maiden.

If one had to compare, it looked most like a pibaek—the long ornamental sash that women drape from the back of their necks down to their chests.

‘The material’s too scarce—I can only make one.’

What Sewoon was now forging was the fourth of the Ten Demonic Weapons, once the symbol of Blood-Satin Demon Queen Seo Surin.

‘Heavenly Forge’ was incomplete.

Heavenly Forge was originally composed of nine pibaek.

But there wasn’t enough meteorite iron left in Wave Moon to create more than a single strip.

Still, it didn’t matter at all.

‘What I’m forging now… is not the original Heavenly Forge.’

Flash!

In that moment, Sewoon dropped the hammer and grabbed the edge of Heavenly Forge, tossing it high into the sky.

The Heavenly Forge soared as if to reach the ceiling.

Chwararak!

Like a sudden downpour, it split into hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of fine threads and fell.

The shape resembled a net spread across the sky.

This was the sibling creation of the Ten Demonic Weapons’ Heavenly Forge—

A weapon that far surpassed the properties of Celestial Silkworm Thread, said to be the thinnest and most durable in the Central Plains.

It was Sewoon’s main armament, Heavenly Net.

Countless strands began to overlay in both of Sewoon’s hands.

It looked like a pair of thin black gloves, even thinner than a pair of regular gloves.

Just as everything was concluding—

Slaaash!

Suddenly, the sound of air splitting rang out.

A blade wrapped in vivid sword qi was charging straight toward Sewoon.

‘You’re dead!’

A black-clad figure, who had hidden on the ceiling of the smithy until now, attempted an ambush.

Targeting the brief moment when one’s guard dropped was the basic of all assassinations.

…However, there was something he had overlooked.

Crack!

With a shattering sound, the blade failed to pierce Sewoon’s nape and stopped midair.

Fzzzt!

Orange-colored will-o'-the-wisps flared in succession in the air.

“?!”

“For an elite of the Murim Alliance, that was a pretty clumsy move, don’t you think?”

What the assailant had failed to consider—

Was that Sewoon hadn’t let his guard down for even a single moment.

The black threads of Heavenly Net, connected to each of Sewoon’s ten fingers, had entangled the assassin’s blade in midair like a spiderweb.

Sewoon had sensed the presence since the moment he stepped out of the clan estate.

Looking at the shocked attacker—

“Rear Dragon Guard Leader. Or rather, Sun Ugon?”

Sewoon gave a cold, sneering smile.