The Redflame Unit
Clang, clang, clang!
At the harsh, urgent peal of the bell, Jin Somyeong frowned.
The demon beasts are attacking already?
After a moment’s thought, it wasn’t strange at all. Sky Island was about to enter the Demoncry Sea, and there was no way the demon beasts would simply sit idle and watch.
Whoosh!
He shot into the air and looked beyond the city walls.
Nothing in sight yet...
There wasn’t a single demon beast on the plains outside the city, yet the frantic bell kept ringing. Before long, no doubt, the creatures would fill the horizon on all sides.
Just as he descended, a Foundation Establishment cultivator he had become fairly friendly with as a neighbor approached with a grave expression.
“Fellow Daoist Jin. I was just about to look for you, but here you are. What do you plan to do now?”
There was no need to think about the answer. From the moment Jin Somyeong learned Sky Island was entering the Demoncry Sea, he had already decided.
“I plan to join the Redflame Unit.”
“The Redflame Unit? You mean the squad that hunts only command-level demon beasts?”
“Yes.”
The Redflame Unit was, in a sense, a small detached force. It had been formed by gathering wandering cultivators who did not want to formally enlist in the army, yet still wished to hunt demon beasts.
“Huh. Fellow Daoist Jin, as a wandering cultivator, do you really need to take on such a dangerous assignment?”
“The rewards are good. And if the situation worsens, we’ll be conscripted eventually anyway. There’s no harm in building up military merit before that happens.”
“...True enough. Since you’re the champion of the boarding tournament, I suppose you don’t have to worry about your life being in danger. I’ll need to think it over a little.”
After parting with his neighbor, Jin Somyeong went straight to the central plaza of Xiaoyue City.
Sure enough, the place was packed.
The plaza was easily ten times the size of an ordinary soccer field, yet it was filled to the brim. It made one wonder where all these people had even come from. The atmosphere was unsettled, but at least some minimum order had been maintained, thanks to Xiaoyue City’s armored enforcement cultivators keeping the peace.
“Fellow Daoists! The demon beasts have dared to surround our Sky Island. But do not be afraid. So long as the Golden Core seniors maintain the Reverse Extreme Suppression Formation, third-rank Demon Kings cannot enter Sky Island!”
A Foundation Establishment cultivator standing on a platform shouted, even amplifying his voice with spiritual power.
“However! If the city falls, the Reverse Extreme Suppression Formation will collapse, and Sky Island will become a battlefield for third-rank beings. That is why we must defend it! Join the defense force. I promise you will be treated generously!”
As Jin Somyeong listened to the speech, his gaze drifted away. He had seen scenes like this dozens of times over the past few years, so he already knew what would be said.
All five Golden Core cities on Sky Island were cores of the formation. If any one of them fell, the third-rank Demon Kings would run rampant, and that had to be prevented at all costs.
To apply for the Redflame Unit... Ah. There it is.
On one side of the plaza was a place arranged like a registration desk. As he approached, the clerk’s face brightened at once.
“Welcome! ...Hm? Have we met somewhere before? Your face looks familiar.”
“I’m not sure. This is my first time seeing you.”
The clerk furrowed his brow, thinking hard, then spoke in frustration.
“Haa. I can’t remember. In any case, may I have your name?”
“Jin Somyeong.”
The clerk, who had been recording something on a jade slip, flinched.
“Jin Somyeong? Aaaah! The boarding tournament champion! No wonder I thought I’d seen you before!”
Apparently delighted that he had remembered, the clerk snapped his fingers and spoke in a much friendlier tone.
“Fellow Daoist Jin, is there a unit you would like to apply for? If you have any specialty, I can assign you accordingly.”
“The Redflame Unit, please.”
“Er... That unit hunts late Foundation Establishment-level demon beasts. Are you sure you’ll be all right?”
“Yes.”
His answer was firm and clean. The clerk, who had been subtly trying to dissuade him, gave up and was just about to nod.
“For such a young brat, you’re unbearably arrogant. Do you even know how strong an upper second-rank demon beast is?”
Someone had picked a fight with him outright.
Jin Somyeong glanced over and saw a man in his thirties at the late Foundation Establishment stage wearing a sneer. At a glance he looked young, but the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes suggested he was not so young after all.
After carefully observing the sword at the man’s waist, Jin Somyeong tilted his head and asked, “A sword cultivator?”
“Hmph. Can’t you tell by looking? Even the neighborhood mutt would know I’m a sword cultivator.”
“My apologies. Your edge was so weak I got confused.”
“...Ha. Winning the boarding tournament has made you quite full of yourself. Let’s see just how sharp your Sword Qi is.”
Clang!
The moment the man drew his sword, eleven more flying swords shot out from his storage pouch. Twelve flying swords in total drifted freely through the air as if they were alive.
Their movements were dazzling enough to make the eyes swim, but one vital thing was missing.
Sword Qi.
The sharp energy gathered on the blades was faint, as though it might vanish at any moment.
The instant Jin Somyeong saw that, his desire to exchange blows with the man vanished.
All at once, he understood why this fellow had been picking a fight. The man wanted to use Jin Somyeong as a whetstone to hone his weakened Sword Qi back to sharpness.
“Tsk. Clinging to me won’t do you any good. You have to resolve your Sword Qi yourself.”
“...What nonsense are you spouting?”
The man flinched and glared at him through clenched teeth. Just then, the clerk, who had been staring with his mouth agape, hurriedly stepped in.
“H-Hey! What do you think you’re doing at a time like this? Put away your artifacts right now!”
“Tch.”
After hesitating, the man finally put his swords away. Jin Somyeong stared at him for a moment, then shook his head.
No longer paying any attention to the nameless sword cultivator, he spoke to the clerk.
“Then I’m officially part of the Redflame Unit now, correct?”
“Yes? Ah... yes. Your identity is clear, Fellow Daoist Jin.”
“I heard that if I join the Redflame Unit, I’ll receive a formation token that allows me to enter and leave Xiaoyue City during wartime.”
The clerk blinked, then slapped his own forehead.
“Aigoo, I’m sorry. I forgot because of that idiot. Please infuse spiritual power into this token. Do be careful, as only you can use it. And also...”
Jin Somyeong nodded as he listened to the various precautions and accepted the wooden token carved with a crescent moon.
Now he would be able to pass in and out even when the formation was active. If he wanted to hunt demon beasts outside the city at a time like this, having such a token would make things far more convenient.
Whoosh!
Leaving the sword cultivator glaring daggers at his back, Jin Somyeong headed toward the city wall.
He climbed onto a building high enough to overlook the entire plain beyond the city, then sat down cross-legged.
How long had he waited in quiet meditation?
As the moon sank and the sun began to rise, he opened his eyes at a strange tickling sensation in his heart. The horizon, at some point, had begun to darken to pitch black.
Quite the spectacle.
There was no need to wonder what had surrounded them so completely that not even water could leak through.
An army of demon beasts.
The entire plain had turned black. The numbers were absurd.
Boom!
An explosion rang out in the sky. The battle between third-rank beings had begun outside Sky Island.
At the same time...
Doom! Doom! Doom!
As though they had been waiting for it, war drums thundered, and demon beasts of every shape and color advanced.
There were giant apes that brought to mind the titans of legend, and monstrous birds with three heads.
There were truly many of them.
The primal killing intent pouring from the creatures gathered in such density that it made the formation tremble. The sheer pressure of their overwhelming numbers sent a ticklish thrill through Jin Somyeong’s heart.
Suddenly, a curiosity almost like impulse surged up within him.
How much of my power would work against that army?
He wanted to test it.
Without realizing it, he rose to his feet and took one step forward.
“Haa. Finally found you.”
The sword cultivator he had encountered at the registration desk had appeared again. Judging by his words, he had searched the whole city looking for Jin Somyeong.
What is with this guy?
Why had he come here? Did he truly want to fight?
When Jin Somyeong’s brow furrowed sharply, the sword cultivator clicked his tongue.
“Tch. Playing hard to get, are you? I was just curious what you were doing. And I’m part of the Redflame Unit now too.”
The man proudly held out a token engraved with a crescent moon. The sight was absurd.
Is he insane?
Surely he wasn’t following him around because he was curious about the secret to his strength?
For an instant, an utterly ridiculous reason occurred to Jin Somyeong, but he chose to believe that could not be it.
“...”
Yet for some reason, seeing the man glare at the demon beast army with a rigid expression made Jin Somyeong want to ask something even more than why he was here.
“Hey. What’s your name?”
“Ha. You ignored me completely earlier, and now you’re curious about my name?”
“Can’t you see those demon beasts? You don’t even know if you’ll be alive tomorrow. Don’t you at least want to leave your name behind?”
“...Hong Ungwang.”
For the first time in a long while, mischief flickered in Jin Somyeong’s expression as he smiled.
“Want me to tell you why your Sword Qi has weakened?”
“...!”
Hong Ungwang’s eyes widened as if Jin Somyeong had struck the mark.
To the man, who could not even answer properly, Jin Somyeong said, “No. To be precise, it’s a method to hone your Sword Qi until it becomes sharp. But this secret is fairly expensive. I had a hard time figuring it out myself.”
“H-How much?”
The desperate look on Hong Ungwang’s face overlapped with someone else.
A wandering cultivator who had awakened Sword Qi without any proper teaching.
His own self from the dream he had after taking the Dreaming Primordial Soul Pill.
What happened to me?
After awakening Sword Qi, had he safely escaped the Red Cloud Secret Realm?
And after that?
Perhaps he had joined the Giant Sword Gate, a sect of sword cultivators...
“Nah, forget it. I won’t tell you. It’s too expensive for you to afford anyway.”
“Damn it! I asked how much!”
“Let’s see... Would ten thousand mid-grade Spirit Stones be enough?”
Jin Somyeong said it as though joking, and Hong Ungwang’s face crumpled at once.
He had been half serious, but Hong Ungwang glared at him as if he were being mocked.
“Hmph! As if some mid Foundation Establishment cultivator’s secret could be that impressive. I’ll figure it out myself.”
Jin Somyeong ignored the man as Hong Ungwang folded his arms beside him, apparently intending to follow him openly from now on.
The stench of beasts hovered at the tip of his nose, and Jin Somyeong turned his gaze. He focused on the demon beast army, now close enough that he could hear their breathing.
The moment they came within three kilometers...
“Gwooooooh!”
A particularly conspicuous hulking figure, an ape the size of a building, roared and hurled a boulder.
Booom!
The boulder shrieked through the air and smashed against the city wall. Spiritual power churned wildly, proof that the formation had taken a considerable blow.
Overwhelming mass itself was no different from a siege engine.
Gulp...
At the same instant Hong Ungwang swallowed dryly...
“Kieeeeeek!”
A demon beast army numbering in the hundreds of thousands charged.
Blazing flames and the metallic clash of spears and blades stained the entire sky.
Doom, doom, doom!
Each time the drums sounded, thousands of demon beasts launched ferocious assaults, heedless even of their own lives.
“Gwoooooooh!”
The most troublesome among them were the ones as large as buildings. Whenever they hurled boulders from afar, the formation shook as though it might collapse at any moment.
Just then...
“Everyone, prepare yourselves! The formation will weaken briefly!”
A commander shouted so loudly that the entire city seemed to ring.
At the same moment, directly above Xiaoyue City, a tremendous power began to condense in midair.
Rumble...
A heavy pressure crushed down over the whole city. Even the demon beasts that had been rushing forward in a frenzy began to retreat.
It was like the sun itself. When the brilliant, compressed power reached its limit...
——!
Sound vanished.
The sphere of light became a whip and lashed the earth. Nothing remained where the pillar of light had raked across.
Thousands of demon beasts evaporated in a single strike.
The giant apes that had been hurling boulders like catapults were no exception. They vanished from the world without leaving even a handful of bloody mist behind.
...Doom! Doom! Doom!
Then, as drumbeats began to sound within the silence, the frozen demon beasts erupted into savage howls.
They roared and charged toward the city wall.
“Hold them back!”
They broke through the formation weakened after unleashing that single strike and collided with the cultivators.
In the span of only a few short seconds... countless people died and died again. This was war.
Slash!
While cutting down demon beasts that had climbed onto the wall, Jin Somyeong suddenly paused.
Spiritual power was stirring within his Redflame Unit token.
The instant he infused Divine Sense into the wooden token...
Demon beasts are setting up a formation fifty li to the southeast. Three upper second-rank demon beasts are presumed to be present. All who receive this transmission are to gather at the south gate.
The first mission he had been waiting for had been assigned.
They found late-stage demon beasts this easily.
This war might become another opportunity.
Jin Somyeong unleashed Sword Qi and dealt with every demon beast around him before kicking off the ground.