Shattering the Heavenly Net
Boom!
Pitter-patter!
Snow and mud mixed together and poured down like a torrential rain.
I sprinted through the forest with everything I had. I pushed my footwork to its absolute limit, desperate to break free of the encirclement.
Whoosh! Swish-swish!
From every direction a crimson wave surged after us. Snow and mud turned the forest path slick and dark. The snow-laden woods glowed a faint bluish light in the gloom. Trees lay shattered and burst open all around. Smoke rose in thin columns. Corpses of Blood Sect warriors littered the ground.
“Haa! Haa!”
The air was freezing. Every breath scraped my throat raw and left the taste of blood.
“Sogyo… Sogyo!”
Namgung Sogyo had passed out. Her head lolled helplessly from side to side with every leap I took. No child could endure this.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
[Host! They’re right behind us!]
Riiip.
I tore a long strip from my clothes, swung the girl around to my front, and held her tight. I remembered how Baekho had bound me to his back at the Emei Sect before unleashing the full power of the Hyeol-yeong-mu-hwan-sin-sul. I copied it as best I could, wrapping the cloth around and around until she was fixed firmly against my chest.
[Above! One jang above!]
Whiiish—!
A sharp sound of wind being sliced open reached my ears.
“Shit!”
I threw myself forward, rolled with the Falling Leaf Technique, then kicked off the ground with all my strength toward the front.
Craaash!
The spot where I had stood cratered and shattered into fragments.
[We’re being surrounded! Host, you have to run! Get up, get up!]
Ssssss! Splash-splash!
Blood Sect warriors blanketed the sky. They blanketed the earth. They seized every direction. The moment I hesitated even a second they would close the net completely.
The Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare!
This was the legendary formation I had only ever heard of—the one that trapped even rats until they spent a hundred days trying to escape, then killed themselves in despair. The Blood Sect was deploying it against me right now.
“…!”
In pure quality they were equal to the Asura Flame Wolf Corps, or perhaps even above them. I had never faced the Flame Wolf Corps head-on. Those men had dignity; though they never said it aloud, they showed respect to the strong. They clearly distinguished between “hunting” and “dueling.”
The Blood Sect elites had none of that. They were hunting dogs. They would bite into the nape of your neck by any means necessary. The orthodox sects already treated them as less than human, yet the Blood Sect showed a difference even sharper than the divide between orthodox and unorthodox.
I scrambled back to my feet. Barely dodged. My entire body was caked in snow and mud. White breath steaming from my lips, I shouted,
“Direction! Are we even going the right way right now—!”
Trees in every direction exploded into splinters.
[Don’t stop—run!]
“Huk! Huk!”
I ran. Everything around me burst apart.
Ssssak! Pa-bat!
A red mist chased us as if the entire forest were being flipped upside down. The instant I paused for even a heartbeat, blades came flying. Sword qi. The Blood Sect’s unique technique of hurling weapons charged with sword energy left me no room to think.
“North! We have to go north!”
I charged madly forward, yet after tumbling so many times I could no longer tell direction.
[Just a moment, Host! I’m giving it everything I’ve got too! Left—dodge left!]
Whoom!
A spear grazed the tip of my nose. I twisted my body. In that same instant the tree right beside me exploded.
Craaash!
“Gah!”
Wood shards and blood tore through my earlobe. My body lifted into the air. I rolled sideways, wrapping myself completely around the child as I tumbled. Mud filled my mouth. Gravel smashed hard into the back of my skull. My eyelid split and blood sprayed.
Beeeeeep!!
My eardrums rang from the impact.
[Host!]
“Keuk!”
I crawled out of the crater on all fours, yanked the wood splinter from my cheek, and flung it away as I shouted,
“Just tell me which way is north! Sogyo said Musin Yeongneung is definitely to the north!”
“Die!”
A Blood Sect warrior charged straight at me from the front, short sword gripped tight.
“Hup!”
I raised both hands and caught the descending blade between them. My knee drove up into his gut. I twisted his neck until it snapped.
“Kyaaak!”
Even as he died he managed to bury his blade in my shoulder. I pulled the knife free, tucked it into my belt, and roared,
“Mumyeong! Hurry! At this rate we’re both going to die! We’re going to die!”
[Just keep running straight! If the direction goes wrong I’ll tell you again! Five more are closing in from left and right! Run!]
I put the storm of pursuers at my back and sprinted with everything I had.
There was only one path to survival. We were a single torch in the dark. Wherever we went, these hundred Blood Sect warriors would chase us like moths to flame. If I dragged us somewhere random just to live a little longer, nothing but meaningless slaughter would follow. To truly survive we had to reach a place of certain, overwhelming force.
In this entire region there was only one such place: Musin Yeongneung, where the entire Namgung Family had gathered for their ceremony.
[You’ve drifted a little left. You need to turn a bit more!]
“North…?”
I looked in the direction Mumyeong indicated. A nearly vertical cliff face of rock rose ahead. Far below, a raging current churned. Massive logs, snapped by the water, floated down the gorge.
I hesitated. Behind me the forest filled with ragged breathing—the breathing of the Blood Sect warriors closing in.
“And in the middle of all that you still managed to kill ten of my men! Just how much have you grown in such a short time?!”
Ryu Hwasa’s voice boomed through the trees behind us.
“As expected, only you can give me this kind of thrill! Not the Martial Alliance Leader, not the Blood Demon Cult Master, not even the Heavenly Demon himself! Only you, Moyong Bi-gun! I, Ryu Hwasa, acknowledge you alone in the entire jianghu! Uwahahaha!”
A thick, throat-tearing voice thick with madness thundered through the forest like a storm.
“Kill the little girl right now! I’m waiting! Don’t dull the tension of our little game!”
A vivid wave of terror blanketed the woods.
“As you command!”
The Blood Sect warriors’ pupils flipped white with fear and pressure as they pursued me.
“Goddamn it!”
Rumble-rumble!
I hurled myself onto the rocky slope. Boulders shattered; stones rained down.
“After him!”
The Blood Sect warriors threw themselves after me without the slightest hesitation.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!!
Along with the collapsing rock face, nearly a hundred martial artists slid down the cliff in a single mass.
One of them crouched, then launched his body forward in a sudden leap.
“…Keuk!”
I tried to dodge, but I was already sliding. In that moment of hesitation the Blood Sect warrior slammed his shoulder into me. His short sword buried itself in my side.
“Gyaaah!”
Sparks exploded behind my eyes.
“You fucking bastard!”
I seized the dagger, grabbed the man’s head, and smashed it against the rock face beside us.
Craaash!!
The back of his skull burst open and he died instantly. I yanked the dagger from my side and, the moment another warrior lunged from the side, drove it into his throat. His eyes rolled back as he convulsed. Carried by the same momentum that had thrown him at me, his body crashed into mine.
“Keuk!”
We tumbled down the cliff locked together.
Boom! Rumble-rumble-rumble!
We rolled. We rolled like madmen. My waist slammed into a huge boulder. The back of my head cracked against stone. My body bounced off a jutting ledge and smashed into the ground again. I went airborne.
“Keok!”
The rebound flung the corpse of the Blood Sect warrior far away; the current swallowed him. In that same jolt the cloth binding Namgung Sogyo to me came loose. The girl began to fly free.
I snatched her out of the air and crushed her against my chest.
Splash!
We hit the water. I jerked my head up.
“Keuk!”
A massive log bore down on us in the rapids. I dodged, hooked it with my free arm, and hauled Namgung Sogyo up onto it.
Blood Sect warriors poured down in a black tide, leaping from the rock face into the gorge waters.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
They rode the floating logs, flying toward us. In an instant one of them snatched Namgung Sogyo away.
From the cliff top Ryu Hwasa howled,
“Ohahaha! Kill her!”
The warrior hopped to the neighboring log, drew a short sword from his robes, and brought it down without a second’s hesitation.
“No!”
From underwater I seized his ankle and yanked. He toppled backward. I scrambled up onto the log and lunged at him. We tangled and rolled.
“You bastard!”
His fist smashed into my cheek. My head snapped back. I spat blood, grabbed his collar, and drove my forehead into his face.
“Ke… keok!”
Thick blood poured from him. I brought my fist—strong enough to shatter granite—down onto that face.
Craaash!
Half his face caved in at once. I kept hammering like a madman.
Craaash! Craaash! Craaash!
I flung the ruined body aside and crawled toward Namgung Sogyo.
Clunk.
My body stopped. I looked down. The man whose face I had pulverized was still clutching my ankle, screaming with desperate ferocity,
“Kill the child while you have the chance! Or we all die!”
The night sky filled as Blood Sect warriors launched themselves as one. Short swords glittered in their hands. Thick green liquid—venom like a viper’s fangs—coated every blade as they plunged toward Namgung Sogyo.
“Ah… no!”
They were too close. I couldn’t stop them.
“Long live the Seventh Palace Lord! Ten thousand years!”
The ruined-faced warrior’s eyes blazed. Nothing but pure malice remained in them. His nails dug into my ankle, locking me in place. A dense rain of short swords stabbed toward the girl’s face.
No choice!
I bit my lip until it bled.
“Fuck! Mumyeong!!!!”
I roared with every ounce of strength I possessed. At the same instant my eyes blazed into blood-red demonic eyes.
Possession Experience Synchronization
1st-Class — Heavenly Demon Cult — 5 Stars!!!
Rumble!
Beyond mere thunder-flame, a scorching inferno erupted in every direction. The water itself flipped upside down.
“Aaaagh!”
The hand gripping my ankle exploded into fragments. Like a waterfall flowing in reverse, the river surged upward and inverted.
“Th-this is definitely the Heavenly Demon Cult’s Flame Wolf King’s—!”
Ryu Hwasa cried out in shock. The Blood Sect warriors’ eyes went as wide as lanterns.
Red and yellow lightning-flame boiled up from my entire body.
Crack! Crackle-crackle!
Every muscle screamed as it necrotized in real time, thrashing in agony. My eyes steamed white like evaporating lava while they blasted out crimson light.
“Gyaaaaaah!”
I launched myself forward with every last scrap of power, snatching Namgung Sogyo into my arms. The instant I pulled her free, countless short swords stabbed into the empty space where she had been. I kicked off the spot and soared upward.
“You sons of bitches!”
I drove my heels down onto the water’s surface with full force.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The river exploded. Logs shattered. The water inverted so completely the riverbed became visible. The entire flow of the gorge was severed in a single stroke.
“E-even the corpses—!”
Nothing remained but scattered red scraps of cloth and chunks of flesh—the only proof that Blood Sect warriors had ever stood there.
In just five leaps I crossed the gorge. I tore through the forest with everything I had left. Residual tremors still slowly collapsed the canyon walls behind us.
“No!!!”
Ryu Hwasa’s desperate scream shook heaven and earth.
“You… you bastards…! I told you not to let them get away!”
Scarlet heat haze erupted from his entire body.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!!
Heaven and earth shook. Stones floated into the air. Trees half-uprooted themselves, roots exposed. Branches snapped all at once and rose skyward. The river surged; water droplets hung suspended in midair.
“Anyone who ruins the game between him and me will be torn to shreds—!”
“Palace Lord! They won’t get far!”
One Blood Sect warrior raised his sword.
“I-I did it!”
Clear red blood ran down the green-poisoned blade.
“…!”
Ryu Hwasa’s eyes abruptly calmed. A smile began to spread across his face.
“There’s no way we’ll lose them now.”