Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 185
Chapter Title: Assault on Sayu Valley
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Shrrrip!
The Sayu Valley Master shredded the letter into pieces, snorting roughly through his nose.
He was utterly furious.
The watching Chief Officer held his breath.
The Valley Master had already been on edge lately due to the growing interference from those manipulating Sayu Valley from the shadows.
The anxiety that had been building up to the top of his head now exploded completely because of this letter.
"Those damn bastards!"
The Valley Master's face flushed bright red. He trampled the torn letter underfoot.
"May I ask what has happened, Valley Master?"
The Chief Officer asked cautiously.
He knew it was dangerous to interject in the current situation, but he had no choice for the sake of what came after.
"Those bastards have cut off their support."
"Th-they've cut off...!"
As the Chief Officer struggled to hide his shock at the unexpected words.
"They stir up all this trouble and then pull their feet out just for themselves!"
The Valley Master vented his rage.
Thanks to the power of those whose identities he didn't even know, he had been able to grow his strength rapidly.
But now.
The communication network he had with them was severed.
And right before the decisive battle between Mount Hua Sect and Zhongnan Sect, no less!
The Chief Officer seized the opening and spoke.
"Valley Master. This is actually an opportunity."
"What?"
"There are no longer any backers behind us. That means if we can just get past this clash with Mount Hua Sect and Zhongnan Sect, you can finally stand on your own as you've always wished."
"Who doesn't know that!"
The Valley Master bellowed.
"What we have to face are Mount Hua Sect and Zhongnan Sect. How are we supposed to win without their support!"
"There are the other Shinju Sapae."
"...!"
"As long as they don't find out that our backers have vanished, they'll take care of crumbling Zhongnan and Mount Hua on their own."
"...So you're saying to rely on other tigers for protection again."
"Yes."
The excited Valley Master calmed down.
"Do you think it will work?"
"They are puppets too."
The Chief Officer's voice rose slightly.
"How would they know if the forces backing our valley have withdrawn or not?"
"But couldn't the backers supporting them figure it out?"
"Until now, they've deliberately used other sects as fronts. It's hard to imagine they'd take actions now that might reveal their own identities."
The Chief Officer's words were perfectly reasonable.
If they wanted to gather information, they could uncover other backers anytime.
But doing so would risk exposing their own identities.
And they weren't the type to take such risks.
The Valley Master plopped down into his seat.
"...Then we'll have to bluff that they're still around for now."
"A wise judgment."
"But with our current forces, won't the other Shinju Sapae get suspicious?"
"Conveniently, the Death Soul Ten Swords we've been raising with their support have completed their secluded training and emerged."
A smile crept onto the Valley Master's lips.
"Much sooner than expected."
"The spirit medicines and mind methods they sent were astonishing. The Death Soul Ten Swords' skills now surpass first-rate and approach the peak realm. Of course, it's regrettable that they've lost their reason in exchange, but isn't this more than enough?"
"Ten peak realm experts..."
The Valley Master's eyes curved into gleaming half-moons as he muttered.
Sayu Valley had been an unknown sect on the outskirts just a few years ago.
But after White Ghost Castle fell.
They had come, and everything changed.
He himself had first learned a new martial art and reached the peak realm.
"As the Chief Officer says, if we get through this one, we'll be fine."
As he watched the now-relaxed Valley Master, a sharp glint flashed in the Chief Officer's eyes.
But it happened in an instant, so the Valley Master didn't notice.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ In Weinan of Shaanxi.
A group moved through the mountains sprouting up haphazardly everywhere.
Cheonhwi, at the front of the group, asked Cheon Ig-ae, who walked alongside him.
"How much farther?"
"Just over this mountain."
"They're hiding pretty deep."
"That's why it's called a valley. And the more guilty someone feels, the more they hide away tightly—that makes it the perfect spot for those unorthodox scum."
Cheonhwi nodded.
Indeed, the central force of the demonic path, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which was persecuted in the Central Plains, hadn't settled in the rugged Tianshan Mountains for nothing.
The more enemies, the better to hide in such narrow, complex terrain.
Cheonhwi glanced back briefly.
"No time, so let's hurry."
Seeing the disciples keeping up well, Cheonhwi increased his speed even more. At the same time, the disciples poured out every ounce of strength, unleashing their movement techniques to closely follow behind him.
Crossing the mountain in one go, Cheonhwi stared at the grand hall perched precariously on the cliff above the clouds.
"That's it?"
"Yes."
"Built in such a precarious spot."
"Mount Hua Sect isn't much different."
"True."
Cheonhwi lightly cracked his neck.
"Then let's go."
Cheonhwi stepped forward.
His footsteps were light and brisk.
And the steps of the Non-Sword Squad and Fire Spirit Squad following behind were steady.
The uphill path was quiet.
Quiet enough that only the faint echoes of their footsteps resounded.
But that silence shattered in an instant.
"Enemies?"
A clear, resonant voice stimulated their ears.
A woman stood opposite them.
She was a delicately featured woman who appeared to have just turned thirteen or fourteen.
"Why is she dressed like that?"
"Huh? What's with that getup?"
Jeokgeom and Cheonhyang frowned.
Her attire was bizarre.
Her clothes, half-undone and not properly worn, dragged on the ground, and her eyes were glazed over.
Some of the observing Taoists blushed and hurriedly turned their heads.
At that moment, Cheonhwi took one step forward.
"Enemy?"
The woman tilted her head.
It was such an innocently naive gesture, mismatched with her age, yet captivating.
Cheonhwi smiled coldly.
"Yes, enemy."
The moment those words fell.
"You're the enemy!"
Her expression, which had shouted in a pure voice, turned ferocious in an instant.
The innocent face vanished, replaced by something like a vicious demon, sharp killing intent spreading chillingly.
"Then die!"
Along with a chilling voice utterly different from before, the killing intent exploded.
"Hup!"
"What is this...?"
The Non-Sword Squad and Fire Spirit Squad hurriedly circulated their internal energy outward against the storm of killing intent pricking their skin.
Thud!
The woman charged at Cheonhwi.
A snow-white fist swung toward Cheonhwi's face, but it hit empty air.
And at the same time.
Bam!
Cheonhwi's kick struck her back, sending her sliding across the dirt ground.
"Interesting. Very interesting."
Cheonhwi's eyes narrowed as he looked down at the woman who had fainted from a single blow.
'Demonic energy has invaded her mind.'
Her condition was the worst.
Her reason had been stripped away by the demonic energy, leaving her to follow orders only.
'Who knew there were guys even more vicious than the Blood Cult.'
The Blood Cult, whose goal was to dye the world in blood, was no joke, but whoever turned this woman into this didn't seem right in the head either.
How could anyone think to steal a person's reason and turn them into a weapon?
And that wasn't all.
Her lower dantian had been gnawed away, creating a small hole from which innate energy leaked out bit by bit.
It was a tiny amount.
But as the saying goes, water drops can pierce stone.
If it accumulated, it would undoubtedly lead to fatal consequences.
No, no need to look that far.
'If it keeps leaking, she won't last even five years.'
Watching her lifespan dwindle even now, Cheonhwi stretched his neck and glared at the grand hall teetering atop the cliff.
'I want to see the face of the bastard who pulled this crazy stunt.'
At that moment.
"Third Sword! Where are you... Hup!"
The burly man emerging from the bushes spotted Cheonhwi and the group, turning to flee in haste.
But someone moved faster.
"Where do you think you're going, you filthy rat?"
Cheon Ig-ae grabbed his wrist.
The burly man swung his captured wrist violently to break free, but instead, his body floated up.
Bam!
He crashed face-first into the ground.
Having fallen victim to an advanced flower-plucking technique, the burly man stared blankly before his face paled.
"What the hell did you do?!"
Cheon Ig-ae gritted his teeth and said.
Not as perceptive as Cheonhwi, but he too had noticed the change in the woman and was expressing fierce anger.
"What do you take people for...?"
At that moment, a massive sword blade came crashing down.
Whoosh!
Against the powerful slash, Cheon Ig-ae retreated while looking at the wielder.
Cheon Ig-ae's face twisted savagely.
"Not just one?"
His gaze fixed on the man.
The man's eyes holding the sword were glazed and unfocused, just like the woman's moments ago.
Scanning him, Cheon Ig-ae finally couldn't hold back his rage and bellowed.
"Have you ever seen such mad bastards! What the hell do you think people are?!"
As his shout echoed loudly throughout Sayu Valley.
"I'll leave this place to you."
Cheonhwi mouthed the words.
"What?"
"Pardon?"
"What do you mean?"
As everyone, including Cheon Ig-ae, looked at Cheonhwi for his sudden words.
Swish—
Cheonhwi's figure vanished.
Unleashing Phantom Hundred Changes, he ascended the cliff in one leap and slipped straight into the grand hall.
"...Mount Hua Sect? Why are those bastards attacking our valley...?"
Cheonhwi narrowed his eyes at the middle-aged man shouting and the flustered scribe in front of him, then spoke.
"Because you provoked them first."
"...!"
"M-Mount Hua Sect?"
The Sayu Valley Master leaped back.
He stared at Cheonhwi and asked.
"Provoked? What do you mean?"
"Hwayu Escort Agency."
"...!"
The Valley Master's eyebrows shot up.
'They went and shat all over us right up to the end!'
Recalling the man who had led his Sayu Valley subordinates out the day before, he bit his lower lip and spoke.
"Did you come alone?"
"For now."
For an instant, killing intent flickered in the Valley Master's eyes.
"You've got some guts. Coming alone to our valley where even the Whirlwind Sword Force was repelled."
"Huh? The Whirlwind Sword Force was repelled? Didn't look that way to me."
Cheonhwi's lips curved up.
"Ah! Back then, unlike now, you had guys watching your back, huh."
"...!"
The Valley Master's eyes widened.
"So why aren't they here now?"
Cheonhwi didn't stop there.
"Hm. Maybe they went somewhere else, like when you attacked the Hwayu Escort Agency. Or..."
Cheonhwi's eyes pierced through the Valley Master.
"They're not helping you anymore?"
"...?!"
'Just a shot in the dark, but it hit.'
Cheonhwi twisted the corner of his mouth.
He had openly attacked like this, yet no experts appeared, so he threw out a guess.
Judging by the intense reaction, it had pierced the truth exactly.
"...You know too much that you shouldn't."
Realizing his mistake, intense energy flowed from the Valley Master's body.
'Oh, so the Valley Master is a bit different after all.'
He had thought him just a minor unorthodox Valley Master, but his aura was fiercer than expected.
'At this level, on par with that Reverse Yin Technique guy? Or maybe a slight edge. Very marginal, though.'
Flash!
The Valley Master charged.
The moment Cheonhwi seemed lost in thought, he pierced the opening in one go.
A surprise attack exploiting the lapse in guard.
The perfectly aimed strike, reading his psychology, targeted Cheonhwi's solar plexus.
Swish—
But he dodged lightly by twisting his body.
Krunch!
The palm wind that cut through empty air smashed into the wall behind Cheonhwi, caving it in.
'He dodged Sayu Eight Palms this easily?'
His eyes filled with shock.
Sayu Eight Palms was a qi palm technique that sucked in surrounding energy to subdue in one strike.
Yet the opponent hadn't even been swept up, dodging effortlessly.
At that moment.
"Now it's my turn?"
A chilling voice drummed in his ear.
There stood Cheonhwi, emitting a fierce blue glow from his eyes as he stared.
"Take this."
His drawn sword swung before he knew it.
A fierce gale blew.
The Valley Master swung both palms wide against the gale.
Clang! Clang!
It was an exceedingly fast fist technique, like light.
And it carried heaviness too.
For a minor unorthodox group's technique, it was quite impressive.
But.
Craaaack!
Cracks began forming in the fists blocking the sword, and soon he staggered.
"Kuhk!"
The Valley Master groaned.
His palms were already mangled by the sword, soaked in blood.
'At this rate, I'm dead!'
Biting his lips tight, he blocked Cheonhwi's attacks while bellowing.
"Chief Officer! Give him that...!"
"W-Will that be alright? If you take that, even you, Valley Master... "
"Is this the time to worry about that!"
"U-Understood!"
The Chief Officer hurriedly bowed his head, flashing a faint smile before erasing it.
'Finally, time to feed him that!'
Quickly returning to his usual expression, he pulled something from his sleeve and hurled it toward the Valley Master with all his might.
"Here!"
"Hm?"
Cheonhwi half-closed his eyes at the object tracing a graceful arc through the air.
"An elixir?"
At that moment, the Valley Master swiftly snatched the thrown elixir.
"Ugh!"
Perhaps because of his blood-smeared hands, he let out a short groan before tossing it straight into his mouth.
"I'll make you pay for forcing me to take this!"
Changes occurred in that instant.
The Valley Master's black pupils vanished, leaving only the whites, and intense killing intent burst forth.
Seeing it, Cheonhwi smiled.
"So that's it. The thing that stripped the reason from that woman and man."