Winds and Waves at Shu Dao Pass (5)
Jeong Su Sa Tae, the seasoned leader of the Ami faction who had navigated countless battles across the Central Plains martial world, swallowed hard in astonishment at Seo Baek's words.
"The operation has failed?"
"Yes. The explosives detonated in the underground passage."
"I see..."
After a brief silence, Jeong Su Sa Tae quickly regained her composure, as befitting the head of a sect.
"Everyone, withdraw from the walls!"
She issued the command to the Ami faction disciples and soldiers holding the line against the revenant horde atop the battlements.
But it was already too late.
Each of the four carriages had carried eight crates of explosives—a total of thirty-two crates.
The massive detonation had collapsed the underground beneath Shu Dao Pass.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The entire fortress shook as if struck by a great earthquake.
Low-level soldiers dropped their weapons and tumbled to the ground, while even the Ami disciples who barely managed to stay upright lost their balance and fell.
Seo Baek planted his feet firmly into the earth.
As those around him toppled like autumn leaves in the wind, only Seo Baek stood unmoved in place.
Suddenly, one side of the courtyard caved in, forming a deep pit.
"Aaaagh!"
The soldiers standing directly above screamed as they plummeted.
Once the first pit formed, the fortress began to collapse in a chain reaction.
Pits opened everywhere, the ground giving way, and the battlements—deprived of support—shed bricks and crumbled.
Roooar. Boom boom boom.
A deeply rooted tree withstands even the fiercest storm, but once its roots lose their grip, it is uprooted entirely.
That was Shu Dao Pass now.
The colossal underground explosion had hollowed the earth, and the fortress and walls were crumbling one after another.
Seo Baek thought coldly.
'There's no saving Shu Dao Pass now.'
At that moment, two Ami disciples on the battlements lost their footing and tumbled toward the open field.
"Aaaah!"
Jeong Su Sa Tae launched herself toward them.
Whoosh. Tat tat tat.
She ran vertically up the sheer wall as if it were flat ground.
As she grabbed one disciple's waist, Seo Baek shouted from atop the wall.
"Over here!"
Jeong Su Sa Tae channeled her inner energy and hurled the disciple upward.
Even a young female disciple in her prime weighed no small amount, yet with a swing of her arm, she soared like a feather toward Seo Baek.
Seo Baek caught the disciple's hand and set her down safely on the wall.
Jeong Su Sa Tae was already flying toward the other disciple.
But the second one was unlucky. She fell right where the revenants were climbing the wall.
The revenants reached out from all directions, seizing the disciple.
"Sect Leader!"
Jeong Su Sa Tae shot forward, her monastic robes fluttering, and grabbed the disciple's hand. Clutching her, she ran inverted up the collapsing wall and landed atop the fortress.
"Are you all right?"
"Sect Leader..."
The Ami disciple trailed off, her eyes vacant.
"...!"
Jeong Su Sa Tae's expression changed as she looked at her.
The disciple's neck was torn open by revenant bites, drenched in blood. Her arms bore countless teeth marks as well.
Jeong Su Sa Tae gazed at her disciple with sorrowful eyes for a moment, then drew her sword and severed her head in one stroke.
Splatter.
As the severed head and body fell below the wall, the revenants lifted their heads and let out shrieks.
Kieeeek.
The revenants prowling the wall for blood surged forward en masse.
Those crushed under the fallen rubble of the collapsing wall had their bones shattered, yet they kept moving. Dead flesh felt no pain.
Soon, the ruined battlements were swarmed by revenants like a black cloud of flies.
A tower of corpses!
The weakened walls crumbled like sandcastles under the onslaught of tens of thousands.
Boom boom boom boom.
The revenants climbed over, pouring inside.
"Aaaagh!"
Soldiers struck by revenants screamed.
Jeong Su Sa Tae commanded.
"Loose fire arrows!"
Soldiers tilted cauldrons of boiling oil over the walls, pouring it down. Archers then lit arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth and fired.
Swooooosh.
Hundreds of fire arrows streaked red lines across the dark night sky.
Soon, flames erupted below the walls.
Fwoosh fwoosh boom. Kweeeek.
Revenants drenched in oil ignited, engulfed in fire.
But Jeong Su Sa Tae's plan came to naught.
With the horde breaching through the collapsed sections, more than half the oil cauldrons had toppled the wrong way.
The flames caught nearby soldiers instead.
"Aaaagh!"
If hellfire painted inferno, Shu Dao Pass was it now.
The difference lay between the living and the dead.
Revenants, aflame but intact, clambered up relentlessly as long as limbs remained.
Younger Ami disciples froze, swords in hand, at the sight of rotting corpses ascending wreathed in fire.
In that instant, the disciples' hair whipped in a gale.
Flash. Whoooosh.
Seo Baek charged in, slashing revenants with his sword.
He leaped across the crumbling wall like stepping stones.
Each swing felled two or three revenant heads. Some torsos split diagonally from his wild arcs.
The Ami disciples stood rigid at the sight.
One murmured unconsciously.
"Sword Ghost..."
Dozens of revenants were bisected by Seo Baek's blade in moments.
Yet his expression remained icy.
'Shu Dao Pass is finished.'
Seo Baek shouted to Jeong Su Sa Tae.
"Will you keep delaying?"
Urging retreat.
"Shu Dao Pass has already fallen. It's time to decide."
"..."
Jeong Su Sa Tae silently surveyed the chaos.
The meticulously prepared fire attack had failed utterly.
The impregnable fortress lay in ruins, surrounded by flames.
Worst of all, tens of thousands of revenants crawling over the breaches!
Ami disciples held them at bay, but soldiers barely fought, eyes darting for escape. With officers and officials fled, who could blame them?
'Is this the end?'
Jeong Su Sa Tae thought despondently.
'The fall of Shu Dao Pass is my responsibility...'
She turned toward the base of the wall, resolved to leap down, slay revenants, and take her own life.
But a greatsword blocked her path.
"I heard the Central Plains didn't surrender even amid the revenant outbreak."
It was Seo Baek.
"Shu Dao Pass may fall, but your resolve must not."
"...Thank you."
Jeong Su Sa Tae's eyes hardened with determination.
"All forces, retreat! Abandon Shu Dao Pass and fall back to Mount Ami!"
"Understood!"
The Ami disciples obeyed their leader.
"Form the Subduing Dragon Anti-Demon Formation!"
At Jeong Su Sa Tae's order, the disciples moved in perfect unison, swiftly completing their formation against the horde.
"Withdraw while maintaining the formation!"
Moments ago, helpless against the climbing revenants.
Now, in the Subduing Dragon Anti-Demon Formation, they moved as one. Revenants charging the wedge pierced the sword net and were slaughtered.
Kweeeek.
Seo Baek admired the Ami formation anew.
'Individually no masters, but united, they transform.'
The might of a righteous sect!
Jeong Su Sa Tae directed the array and spoke to Seo Baek.
"Thank you. Will you patrons retreat with us? Or head to the docks?"
"We'll go to the docks."
"Amitabha. Safe travels."
Jeong Su Sa Tae led her disciples, carving through revenants. As the horde's momentum broke against the wedge, soldiers rallied and joined.
Even taking every last soldier in retreat—Jeong Su Sa Tae's choice.
Seo Baek nodded at the sight.
'With Jeong Su Sa Tae, Ami faction will endure.'
Now, for his group's escape.
Seo Baek dashed toward the underground passage entrance.
Wang Yi Sam swung his broad dao, Yu So Un loosed arrows, fending off revenants.
"Senior Brother!"
"There you are? Ami's retreating?"
"Told the sect leader we're heading to the docks."
"Good. Let's break through!"
"Docks are this way."
Wang Yi Sam whirled his broad dao; Yu So Un embedded arrows in revenant necks.
Suddenly, Seo Baek halted.
"The map shows a small hermitage en route to the docks."
"Know it. Why?"
"You two go there first. I'll finish my business and follow."
"What? Business?"
"Wait one hour. If I don't come, leave without me."
Wang Yi Sam and Yu So Un exchanged puzzled glances.
"What business in this hell? Escape with us."
"Don't worry. I'll join you."
Seo Baek flashed a faint smile, turned, slashed through revenants, and vanished into the shadows.
"Can't read that guy."
"Worry about us first. He'll return."
"True enough."
Wang Yi Sam and Yu So Un cleared a path, slaying revenants.
Meanwhile, Seo Baek raced through the fortress.
He soon reached his target.
The stables of Shu Dao Pass.
'Horses would make Ami's retreat easier.'
But upon arrival, Seo Baek's brow furrowed.
'Too late.'
Two Ami disciples guarding the stables lay dead.
'The horses?'
As he moved to check, a strange sensation stopped him.
A faint blue tinge hung in the stable air.
'Poison!'
Seo Baek held his breath and retreated.
Sharpening his gaze, he scanned inside and bit his lip again.
The horses lay dead, unable even to whinny. All slain by the airborne toxin, none spared.
The culprit who sabotaged Jeong Su Sa Tae's plan and doomed Shu Dao Pass.
He had moved one step ahead of Seo Baek. This scheme was long in the making, meticulously planned.
Chasing his trail now would be futile.
'I must move ahead of the culprit.'
Seo Baek calculated the perpetrator's gains from this chaos.
He now knew who it was. What they sought.
What remained: their profit.
They'd appear where that profit lay...
A realization flashed through Seo Baek's mind.
'Of course.'
Uncharacteristically, he curled his lips in a cold smile.
A shadowy figure approached Jeong Su Sa Tae's command tent.
With her retreat order, no guards remained. The figure slipped inside easily.
Spotting the jade seal of Shu Dao Pass on the wall, the figure smirked.
"Fucking idiots from Ami."
The torchlight revealed his face.
He was one of the two black-clad men who first arrived with the Sichuan Tang Clan's carriages.
As he pocketed the seal, footsteps sounded behind. Feigning calm, he spoke without turning.
"Who goes there? Pretend you saw nothing and leave—I’ll spare your life."
"Lying without even wetting your lips."
"What? You little—"
The black-clad man whirled, startled.
He'd assumed an Ami disciple. Wrong.
It was Seo Baek, who had predicted his crime and stormed the tent.
"I've caught the one who destroyed Shu Dao Pass. Time for punishment. Normally, we'd expose your crimes to the martial world and execute publicly, but no time—off with your head."