Chapter 40
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 40
Chapter Title: Attacking the Escort Convoy (2)
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I don’t know how long I’ve been waiting here.
Jinmyeong was passing the time, perched on a tree branch overlooking the main road.
He spent his time on that branch, circulating the energy of the Divine Arts of Heavenly Flame.
‘If anyone else were around, they'd be making a racket.’
It wasn't just Jinmyeong; most of them were hidden in the bushes or trees.
Given their high statuses, they likely had no experience with this sort of thing and were probably complaining nonstop.
If Jinmyeong himself hadn't spent a year training in a cave, he too would have found this waiting tedious.
‘A lot of time has passed.’
It was already the fifth day of hiding here, waiting for their target, the escort agency, to arrive.
Jinmyeong simply waited on his branch, practicing the Divine Arts of Heavenly Flame and occasionally sating his hunger with beef jerky.
‘Hm?’
Jinmyeong, who had been circulating the Divine Arts of Heavenly Flame with his eyes closed, slowly opened them as he felt a vibration in the tree.
A single carriage was passing on the road he was watching.
But even as the carriage passed, Jinmyeong's expression remained perfectly calm.
‘Not this time either.’
There was no one guarding the carriage. It was probably a small merchant group that couldn't afford an escort.
An escort agency would have guards and porters.
They wouldn't be moving with just a single carriage.
At first, Jinmyeong had wondered if he should check every carriage that passed, but now he was completely unfazed.
*Screeeech!*
I wonder how much more time passed as he watched people go by.
A strange sound suddenly reached Jinmyeong's ears.
It was like a ringing in his ears, but slightly different.
‘This is it.’
Jinmyeong instantly recognized the strange sound as the whistle given to him by the Demonic Shadow Brigade.
‘It's farther than I thought.’
Pinpointing the general location, Jinmyeong immediately leaped from the tree.
‘What on earth is this?’
The sound had only come once.
But strangely, he felt like he knew the approximate location.
Finding it odd, Jinmyeong hurried toward the source.
‘Were they all gathered?’
Hiding himself as he neared the direction of the sound, Jinmyeong could sense many presences nearby.
Everyone had gathered after hearing that sound.
‘But why do they look so calm?’
The sound had been loud enough to be heard from a considerable distance.
They should have been on alert, yet the escort agency members paid it no mind and continued on their way.
- We will wait until dark.
The telepathic message of the Demonic Shadow Brigade Leader, Neung Byeokmun, reached Jinmyeong's ears.
It seemed not only Jinmyeong but everyone else had heard the same message, as they could be seen nodding.
- Let's follow them carefully.
They began to follow the escort guards as cautiously as possible.
‘There are more guards than I expected.’
The number of escort guards was greater than Jinmyeong had thought.
‘Those don't look like escort guards.’
Among the similarly dressed guards, there were some wearing different attire.
They were men dressed in pure white martial arts uniforms embroidered with purple patterns.
‘The Mount Hua Sect.’
The name of the Mount Hua Sect came to Jinmyeong's mind as he examined their uniforms.
‘Even though they said it was an agency established by a secular family of the sect, I didn't expect the Mount Hua Sect to get involved directly.’
Of course, the martial artists from Mount Hua were not more numerous than the escort guards.
But since they were supposed to be moving cautiously, he wondered if it was really okay to clash with Mount Hua.
However, even after recognizing the Mount Hua Sect, Neung Byeokmun showed no sign of alarm.
He simply continued to wait for nightfall.
“How about we rest here?”
“…Understood.”
The sun hadn't fully set, yet one of the Mount Hua martial artists spoke up.
The man who appeared to be the head escort guard nodded, but his expression was far from pleased.
He had planned to travel a bit farther before making camp, but he couldn't refuse the words of the Mount Hua martial artist.
“Prepare to make camp!”
At the head guard's command, the escort guards and porters unpacked their belongings and quickly began to prepare for the night.
Even as they expertly prepared the camp, Neung Byeokmun did not move.
Unlike the guards and porters, the Mount Hua martial artists weren't preparing to camp; they were standing guard.
‘He must be waiting for the right moment.’
The presence of the Mount Hua martial artists didn't seem to make the group that much stronger.
There weren't many of them, either.
And yet, Neung Byeokmun was being extremely cautious.
He was likely waiting for them to fall asleep in order to kill every last one of them, leaving no one behind.
In the end, Jinmyeong had no choice but to wait quietly with the others until night fell.
The Demonic Shadow Brigade Leader began to move again only when the night had grown completely dark.
- Let's go.
The Demonic Shadow Brigade Leader sent a short telepathic message and shot forward.
The members of the Demonic Shadow Brigade followed suit with practiced ease.
“Gack!”
The Brigade Leader appeared behind a Mount Hua martial artist on guard and thrust his sword into the man's neck.
“Hm?”
The Mount Hua martial artist hadn't even cried out as he died, but there were those who reacted to the small sound.
“Gah!”
But they too were unable to react in time.
Other members of the Demonic Shadow Brigade had already slit their throats.
“Ambush!”
They had killed the sentries, but it seemed there were some who had been awake.
They had hastily opened their eyes at the faint sound and assessed the situation.
And at the sudden shout, those who were sleeping snapped their eyes open.
They shot up with incredible speed and drew their weapons.
“Kill them.”
The Demonic Shadow Brigade Leader said calmly.
At his words, the brigade members began to move quickly.
“Tsk.”
Was it because the Brigade Leader's words felt like a command?
The sound of clicking tongues could be heard from here and there.
Nevertheless, they began to swiftly attack the escort guards.
“Who are you?”
Jinmyeong, too, was facing a first-generation disciple of the Mount Hua Sect.
“Do you know who we are?”
Despite being ambushed, the Mount Hua disciple's voice held a note of confidence.
There were only a little over thirty of them, but they were first and second-generation disciples of the Mount Hua Sect.
They outnumbered the attackers. Besides, they had the escort guards on their side as well.
The first-generation disciple didn't think for a moment that they couldn't fend off this ambush.
“The Yuk Escort Agency and the Mount Hua Sect.”
“You attacked us even knowing that?”
But hearing Jinmyeong's reply, he felt that something was wrong.
It meant they had attacked knowing full well that disciples of Mount Hua were present.
He had thought they were mere bandits, like those from the Green Forest, but this meant they weren't.
“You bastards, who in the world are you?”
“If I intended to reveal my identity, would I be wearing this?”
Jinmyeong said, pointing to the mask covering his face.
If they were truly from the Green Forest, they wouldn't have bothered hiding their faces with masks like these.
“Are you not afraid of the Mount Hua Sect?”
“The entire Mount Hua Sect isn't here… Don't get so high and mighty with just a few people.”
Jinmyeong's demeanor was far too composed.
As if he wasn't afraid of the Mount Hua Sect at all.
Because of that, the disciple could instantly tell that these attackers were no ordinary men.
“So, how long are you going to keep talking?”
Jinmyeong moved toward his opponent.
But despite using footwork that didn't seem very complex, Jinmyeong's movements looked rather awkward.
It was as if he was constantly conscious of something every time he took a step.
“To think that such ridiculous bastards…”
Watching Jinmyeong, the Mount Hua martial artist wore a look of disbelief.
He couldn't believe that this man with such clumsy movements was disrespecting Mount Hua and had launched this attack.
He dismissed Jinmyeong and thrust his sword forward.
“Ugh!”
Just as Jinmyeong's hand moved, something flashed and struck his sword away.
Unable to withstand Jinmyeong's strength, his body was pushed back.
‘Such clumsy and simple movements, yet this much power…’
The power behind the sword was formidable, but the speed was also too fast.
It was as fast as a swift sword, yet the force it carried was like that of a heavy sword.
‘It's not even easy to block.’
Of course, the way Jinmyeong wielded the sword itself was not clumsy.
But his footwork was so awkward that it made his swordsmanship look clumsy as well.
It seemed he had let his guard down too much because of that.
“Aaargh!”
“Keuk!”
Was it because he kept receiving Jinmyeong's attacks?
The hand gripping his sword was trembling uncontrollably.
Just as he was thinking he wanted to drop his sword, screams reached his ears.
“What in the world…”
He blankly looked around.
He could see the escort guards and Mount Hua martial artists being helplessly slaughtered, unable to handle the thirty or so attackers.
“The Mount Hua Sect is…”
The number of Mount Hua disciples wasn't large, but there were still close to thirty of them.
Their numbers were similar to the attackers, yet the Mount Hua martial artists were being pushed back. It was unbelievable.
‘To think that each and every one of them is on par with our senior brother.’
The senior brother of the Mount Hua disciples.
He was referring to the Six Harmonies Divine Dragon, Song Johyeok, the head disciple of the Mount Hua Sect and one of the Fifteen New Dragons of the Righteous Alliance.
But some of them seemed comparable not to Song Johyeok, but to the elders of Mount Hua.
“Why would such masters be after the Yuk Escort Agency…?”
He didn't know where these masters had come from, nor did he understand why they were after the escorted goods.
The items inside the carriage were extremely old.
He didn't think they were valuable enough to warrant the attention of such powerful masters.
“You bastards, don't tell me!”
He was wondering where such masters could have appeared from.
The Mount Hua disciple exclaimed as if he had remembered something.
He too had heard the rumors that about thirty martial artists had recently appeared in the Central Plains.
Since their location was also in Shaanxi, the disciples of Mount Hua had been helping the Yuk Escort Agency just in case.
It occurred to him that the number of people and their level of martial arts were similar.
“I heard they weren't making a move at the Yuyun Escort Agency. So it really is the Demo…”
He couldn't finish his sentence.
*Swish!*
Jinmyeong's sword had already sliced through his neck.
Jinmyeong stared silently at the Mount Hua disciple's head, which had fallen to the ground.
‘He still figured it out.’
This was why Neung Byeokmun had said not a single one could be left alive.
Hadn't the man whose head was just cut off ultimately realized they were from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?
‘I'm not using my sword control arts because I might be recognized, but it's definitely inconvenient.’
He was being extra cautious, having even earned the title of New Demonic Sword Controller.
Besides, he needed to get used to moving his body.
But he couldn't help but feel that it was more comfortable to stand still and attack by controlling his swords.
Of course, others would probably find it easier to move their bodies than to meticulously control their internal energy.
Then again, how many people could even use Sword Control through Ki?
“How about you stop standing around and move a little?”
Someone said to him as he stood still.
He couldn't tell who it was just by their voice, but Jinmyeong nodded and threw himself at the screaming guards and porters who were trying to flee.