Chapter 202
Chapter 202
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 202
Chapter Title: Disaster
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The assassins of the Third Frontline were thrown into panic.
“What the hell is going on!?”
They had thought it would be a simple matter of leisurely watching the internal strife in the Kongdong Sect, then just harvesting the heads of Pure Crane Immortal and his underlings.
So why had a fierce battle suddenly erupted from the Dark Bow Unit’s side, and why had the Lion Slaughter King barged in?
But their thoughts didn’t last long.
Their own situation was far from easy.
Rumble!!
Suddenly, a sound like exploding gunpowder echoed from the sky above.
Not the thunderous force of martial arts, but the genuine blast of a gunpowder device igniting.
The assassins hurriedly looked up.
Their faces soon turned pale.
No, the sky was darkening.
The massive cliff behind them... was collapsing, sending rocks tumbling straight toward them.
Earth and stones came sweeping down.
“Everyone, evacuate—”
The screams were quickly buried and vanished.
* * *
“…To think this actually worked.”
Bae Hye-in trembled as she watched the swordsmen of the Dark Thunder Division and White Thunder Sword Division being buried alive in real time under the landslide of rocks and earth.
Her comrades, who had carried out the operation together, seemed to share the same thought. They nodded grimly, lips pressed tight.
It had only been a few days since they had slipped away on their separate mission.
Unhwi had gathered them before the expedition and said,
‘This mission of yours holds the fate of the Anti-Wicked Justice Platoon. So keep your heads straight and move carefully. If you don’t want to get us or our comrades hurt.’
At the time, they hadn’t grasped the weight of those words.
They had simply felt proud that the Lord of Justice needed them and resolved to carry out their duties diligently.
But it wasn’t that simple.
What if the placement of the gunpowder had been even slightly off?
The collapse might have gone in the opposite direction, burying the forest instead of White Snow Valley.
That would have spelled doom for the Anti-Wicked Justice Platoon.
No, even if not, what if the Heavenly Grace Merchant Group hadn’t helped?
Procuring all this gunpowder, let alone hiding it from the Dark Thunder Division’s eyes, would have been impossible.
If traces had been discovered beforehand?
It would have been nipped in the bud, and they themselves eliminated.
It was the result of meticulous calculations, preparations, and heaven’s luck, every step of the way.
And.
The one who had made this complexity possible was entirely thanks to the man Unhwi had assigned to them.
‘Ilno… was it?’
The middle-aged man, who had revealed himself as a mere servant of Unhwi, gazed down below with a stern look.
A reaction utterly different from the tense Justice Envoys.
It was as if he were familiar with such scenes, or as though this outcome was only natural.
Without his help, fledglings like them could never have completed such preparations properly.
‘To have someone like this as a servant… Just what is the Lord of Justice’s true identity…?’
At first, they had thought of him as merely a respected senior of the martial world, despite his young age.
But not anymore.
To Bae Hye-in and her comrades, Unhwi had become an object of mystery.
Shing!
At that moment, Ilno slowly drew the sword from its sheath on his back.
“The landslide seems to have calmed somewhat. Let’s go.”
Bae Hye-in nodded heavily.
Then she put the prepared signal horn to her lips.
Whooo!
It was the signal calling the Justice Envoys waiting outside.
Flash! Pop!
Swish swish swish swish—
In an instant, the Dark Fire Formation filled the sky densely, as if it had been waiting.
To the Dark Thunder Division and White Thunder Sword Division, already thrown into chaos beyond mere disarray by the landslide, it was no different from a summons from the King of Hell.
“Dark Fire Formation!!”
“Everyone, run—”
Of course, there was nowhere for them to flee.
An assassin pinned under rocks, unable to move his lower body.
A White-clad assassin buried alive, crying out for help.
Some struggling to save buried comrades, others barely surviving the earthslide and catching their breath, still others losing their wits in the frenzy.
Anyone affiliated with the South Palace Clan fell into despair without exception.
Boom boom boom boom boom!
Rumble, rumbllle—
Roooar…!!
The Dark Fire Formation arrows, fired indiscriminately, ravaged them just as wildly.
The gunpowder in the arrowheads exploded again, triggering more large and small landslides, while the spreading Dark Fire Poison Smoke, like a cloud of dust, burned their lungs and flesh.
“Aaah! Aak!”
“Kuaaah!”
“The flames won’t go out! The flames won’t stop burning!”
“S-save me—”
“Landslide! Another landslide—”
A scene from hell unfolded.
Having unleashed every bit of gunpowder and poison weaponry they had brought, the South Palace Clan warriors had no means of countering.
Protective aura?
Sword barriers?
What use were such things?
Before overwhelming firepower, everything was futile.
The moment they tried to circulate their qi, the scattering poison blocked their dantians.
The moment they raised sword barriers, the white phosphorus shots from the Dark Fire Poison Smoke roasted their vitals, leaving them unable to even breathe.
In this feast of poison and gunpowder, the South Palace Clan were mere dancers dying on a hot griddle.
Disaster.
This was a natural disaster.
A natural disaster named Gale Force.
“Gale Force…!!”
Thus, the South Palace Clan warriors were forced to recall an old name they had long forgotten.
When the Nine Dragons Branch Family declared the revival of the Gale Force, many in the South Palace Clan had laughed it off.
Gale Force?
Scary.
A fearsome name, sure.
But that was the Gale Force of old.
What was there to fear from some newly minted Gale Force? They were just fledglings.
No matter how they rampaged with their unripe skills, it would only tarnish the Gale Force name.
But apparently not.
The new Gale Force was intense—too intense.
Rumbllle!!
“Follow the Lord of Justice!”
“Don’t leave a single one alive!”
“Show them the feats of the Gale Force!!”
At that very moment, the Justice Envoys were deployed.
By rights, they were still hopelessly inferior in skill compared to the assassins and White-clad warriors—mere fledglings.
But to finish off those already neck-deep in the swamp of death, their skills were more than sufficient.
Thus, the Gale Force enveloped their heads.
At the forefront was Gong Son-beom.
Screeeeech!
Flying Heaven Swift Step, Continuous Stride.
With every Wall Mountain Palm he unleashed, leaving a long tail of afterimages, a South Palace Clan warrior’s head was sure to explode.
“Flying Heaven Tiger Roarrrrr!”
Among them, a Third Frontline officer spotted Gong Son-beom and charged with a guttural roar.
But anyone hearing it might think I was their friend.
Gong Son-beom instead scoffed lightly, switching to Annihilation Stride and crushing him with overwhelming thunder force.
Boom!
Roooar!
“!!”
“!!”
“!!”
The bodies of the assassins surrounding Gong Son-beom stiffened rigidly.
To those who had dismissed him as a mere spy, this was martial prowess beyond imagination.
Gong Son-beom laughed coldly, unleashing bright yellow thunder qi to the fullest.
“You South Palace trash always strut around despite being worthless. Every time, I wanted to smash those thick skulls of yours, and now that I finally can, it feels so damn good.”
“Die—”
Rumbllle!
Gong Son-beom didn’t bother hearing their replies.
He didn’t want to hear them, wasn’t curious.
What was the point of listening to men doomed to die here anyway?
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Gong Son-beom switched back to Continuous Stride, deploying Phantom Shift in all directions and leaving Thunder Seals like footprints.
As he did, he quickly scanned the surroundings.
Checking if any comrades were injured.
If any Justice Envoy was in peril.
Fortunately, unlike the fight against the Dark Soul Division, there were minor wounds but no serious injuries.
That single prior battle had brought great enlightenment to the Justice Envoys.
‘The riddle the Lord of Justice tossed us must have helped too.’
Gong Son-beom marveled at how the balance between his Six Threads and Chasing Thunder—which had always grated slightly and strained his body—was now harmonizing exquisitely.
A mix of South Palace and Demonic Cult arts, orthodox and unorthodox, so he had given up on fusing them as one.
Yet following Unhwi’s advice on qi circulation had erased all those flaws.
A miracle.
‘How does he know? He shouldn’t know the full formulas for Six Threads or Chasing Thunder. Did he just watch me and give that advice?’
Gong Son-beom well knew Unhwi’s talent was unparalleled.
And that Unhwi’s intellect far surpassed even his talent.
But this was beyond reason, wasn’t it?
‘Upper Dantian… Unless the Baihui is fully open, it’s impossible.’
Of course, that was nonsense.
The Baihui was in the realm of the brain gate.
A mysterious domain where the unknown far outweighed the known.
Few in the vast martial world had fully opened it.
Perhaps someone like the Sacred Law Master, who had awakened to their own path?
So maybe a Sacred Law Master could offer advice like Unhwi’s.
But they knew only the world of sorcery, not martial arts.
The reverse held true as well.
Even pinnacle experts of the sacred path said nothing of sorcery.
Their domains were entirely separate from the start.
Thus, martial artists couldn’t advise sorcerers, nor vice versa.
Much less Unhwi, a martial artist, fully opening his Upper Dantian like a Sacred Law Master. Truly remarkable.
‘But… if for some unknowable reason, the Lord of Justice has fully opened both his Upper Dantian like a sorcerer and Lower Dantian like a martial artist.’
And furthermore, flung wide open his Middle Dantian as well.
‘Then we might be witnessing the birth of a grandmaster who has pioneered a new realm.’
Gong Son-beom’s gaze shifted elsewhere.
Unhwi was there.
Scattering Forgotten Thought Sands wildly and hurling North Bright Tablets to slay enemies.
Corpses littered his wake.
Yet the very man perpetrating this slaughter traversed the battlefield with dignified grace, his pure white robe fluttering like a banner.
The sight contrasted so sharply with the carnage it seemed unreal, as if beholding the incarnation of a demon god risen from hell.
Gulp!
Gong Son-beom swallowed dryly.
His heart pounded fiercely for some reason.
* * *
I spread my qi sense as widely as possible.
To scrutinize the battlefield meticulously.
To prevent any overlooked variables or potential mishaps.
Though we had seized the advantage with overwhelming firepower, I still felt like I was walking on thin ice.
The Anti-Wicked Justice Platoon still fell short of the Dark Thunder Division and White Thunder Sword Division in many ways. Get cocky about winning, and we’d be devoured in an instant.
Fortunately, things had gone exactly as planned so far.
Ilno had handled the gunpowder placement perfectly, and Gong Son-beom had fooled the enemies right up to the end. The Triple Ghost Assassins had followed my lead without question and shone even in dire straits.
And the Lion Slaughter King.
Slash! Slash!
Fwoooosh—
He fought flawlessly, boasting divine feats by severing one arm of Iron Guard Secret Sword, the Third Frontline Commander, and the head of Second Sword Old Man, Sword-Severing Monk, in a single stroke.
His martial arts, having fully made Dao Companion Three Yangs Return to Origin Art his own and ascended to yet another supreme realm, exploited the South Palace Clan’s fatal error of failing to recognize how close he was to the sacred pinnacle.
And now, only one thing remained.
The culprit disrupting Mount Kongdong: the Teaching Scholar.
“Ghost Demon.”
『Your command!』
The shadow writhed.
It flashed black trajectory, streaking through the asura field.
Thud!
A hole pierced the Teaching Scholar’s forehead.
His head snapped back limply.
“Elder! The Elder has fallen!!”
Someone’s scream rent the air.