Chapter 231
Chapter 231
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 231
Chapter Title: Crimson Sword Fury
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“Kill them!”
With Wi Jungyeon’s frenzied shout, the Green Forest bandits’ long spears thrust forward.
Shweeeek!
A chilling killing intent swirled from the spear tips they had honed to perfection, shooting toward Cheonhwi.
It was a different aura from when they had attacked the escorts.
It was instinctive.
They knew that holding back against the enemy before them was an act of arrogance.
Thus, they drew up all their inner energy and unleashed their full-powered strike in an instant.
Whoooosh—
The long spears covered all directions, all eight, no, all thirty-six, sweeping toward Cheonhwi.
A storm of intense ki gathered from dozens of men.
The long spears stabbing like arrows, carrying that immense energy, seemed ready to pierce through Cheonhwi’s body and skewer him like a kebab.
But even as those attacks rushed in, Cheonhwi stood calmly.
His hair lifted in the raging spear wind and qi storm, his mouth and Daoist robes flapping wildly, but he didn’t move a muscle.
He simply stood still.
Seeing that, Wi Jungyeon grinned.
‘He must be flustered.’
The opponent before him was undoubtedly strong.
Strong enough that in a one-on-one life-or-death duel, he himself would likely lose.
But this wasn’t one-on-one.
‘This is war.’
As Wi Jungyeon gripped his polearm tightly, staring at the immobile Cheonhwi.
Smoothly—
Cheonhwi moved the hand holding his sword.
‘Finally coming to his senses?’
His smile deepened.
It had only been the brief time it took to blink a few times, but in this life-or-death situation, it was far too late.
The long spears were already closing in on Cheonhwi’s body, and the moment their fully bent elbows extended, they would impale him!
In contrast, the sword was only now moving.
No matter how skilled the opponent, it was too late now.
‘The outcome is decided.’
In that split second, a victorious smile spread across Wi Jungyeon’s and the bandits’ lips.
It was a futile struggle, nothing more.
Confident of victory, they extended their bent arms, thrusting the long spears forward.
Shweeeek!
As the spears sliced through the air at ferocious speed, intent on tearing Cheonhwi apart.
Fwaaaah!
Vast inner energy poured from the sword, dyeing the pure white White Lotus Sword red.
‘This energy...!’
The moment Wi Jungyeon saw the red sword aura enveloping the White Lotus Sword and felt an ominous chill.
Sneer—
Cheonhwi’s red lips twisted wide, revealing stark white teeth.
And in that instant.
Cheonhwi’s right hand and sword vanished.
The sword had been swung at a speed far beyond their perception.
“......!”
“The sword?!”
Only after a fleeting moment did they realize Cheonhwi’s right hand and sword had disappeared.
But by then, it was too late.
Kwaaaang!
A dizzying roar echoed as a blood-red sword strike suddenly appeared.
Redder than blood, blazing fiercer than flames, the sword strike shot out in an instant, clashing with their swung long spears.
Kwaduduk!
The long spears bearing down on Cheonhwi crumbled helplessly upon contact with the red sword strike.
Their spear techniques and momentum shattered in a single moment.
The red sword strike pulverized everything, advancing at terrifying speed.
Soon to smash even the Green Forest bandits gripping the spears.
“Hup!”
Wi Jungyeon, snapping to his senses first, planted strength in his toes and leaped back.
“Such a vicious...”
Having escaped the sword strike’s range in one breath, he bellowed at the still-dazed bandits.
“What are you doing?! Get a grip!”
His inner energy-laced voice struck them, finally bringing the bandits to their senses.
But the sword strike was already at their noses.
“Huk!”
“Dodge...”
They tried to evade somehow.
Srake!
The red sword strike, having reached its targets, swept across those attempting to flee.
Long gashes appeared at their waists.
Drip—
Blood gushed from their waists, forming pools on the ground.
And slowly, their upper bodies began to tilt, until finally.
Splat—
“Hup!”
Gulping sounds echoed from here and there.
It was a gruesomely horrific sight.
The watching bandits trembled, teeth chattering.
They were consumed by terror, facing a situation beyond comprehension.
Then.
Plip plip—
Blood droplets splashed largely into the pools.
Turning their heads, they felt their breaths catch.
Cheonhwi was flicking the blood from his White Lotus Sword, tilting his head.
“How many are left now?”
As Cheonhwi muttered and his eyes shifted to capture them.
Thud!
Their hearts pounded heavily.
Even after this massacre, his eyes held no emotion.
Indifferent, serene as a lake.
As if nothing had happened.
Then Cheonhwi stepped forward.
Step—
At the quiet footfall, all recoiled in terror-stricken faces.
“Get a grip!”
Wi Jungyeon bellowed.
The bandits hastily refocused at the thunderous shout, looking to him.
His neck veins bulged prominently from the force of his yell.
In that moment.
Thud!
Wi Jungyeon slammed his polearm into the ground.
Simultaneously, his hair rose, and fierce eyes gleamed through.
His enraged face resembled a yaksha.
“There’s only one enemy!”
At his shout, the bandits regained confidence, fear fading from their eyes as they gripped their spears anew and charged Cheonhwi.
“Huh? Are these really Green Forest bandits?”
Cheonhwi gazed at them curiously.
“They’ve really changed.”
With those words, he smiled amusedly, eyes glinting with interest.
The Green Forest he’d seen before was full of selfish mountain bandits.
Yet now, they seemed better than many sects.
‘The one leading this changed Green Forest is the Green Forest Great Bandit Chief, right? I’d like to meet him.’
His interest piqued momentarily in the total bandit chief leading today’s Green Forest.
“But first, time to clean up.”
Cheonhwi grinned and raised his sword.
Then swung it at the charging bandits.
Slash!
The chests of five or six charging bandits split open, blood spraying.
“Convenient that they come to me.”
At Cheonhwi’s laugh, a nearby bandit flinched instinctively but gritted his teeth.
“Uwaaaak!”
“Die!”
Cheonhwi said approvingly.
“I like that.”
As Cheonhwi’s sword danced through the air like a painting, beautiful red flowers bloomed along its trajectory in all directions.
Dozens of blood blossoms in an instant.
A gruesome scene, yet so dreamlike and bewitching it stole the viewers’ breaths.
“Is this really a Mount Hua Daoist...?”
Wi Jungyeon, watching it all, sweated profusely.
For a Mount Hua Daoist, his hands were crueler than any unorthodox faction’s.
‘Not the time to worry about that.’
Wi Jungyeon shook his head fiercely.
That wasn’t important now.
If time dragged on like this, they’d be annihilated!
‘...Only a surprise attack left.’
Having sorted his thoughts, Wi Jungyeon gripped his polearm tightly.
It was torture watching his subordinates drop dead by the half in moments. Blood trickled from his bitten lip.
‘Now!’
Wi Jungyeon’s eyes flashed.
The moment Cheonhwi turned to strike a bandit from behind, he channeled inner energy into his toes.
Taat!
Moving nimbly despite his massive frame, Wi Jungyeon swung his polearm at Cheonhwi’s turned back.
Srake!
But before the polearm could fully swing, Cheonhwi’s sword moved.
And a horrific scream erupted.
“Kuaaaak!”
Wi Jungyeon’s right arm, still clutching the polearm, convulsed on the ground, spraying blood.
“My arm! My arm...!”
Cheonhwi glanced at the screaming Wi Jungyeon clutching his shoulder, then flicked his sword lightly.
“Tch, my mistake.”
Cheonhwi scratched his head.
“Should’ve gone for the neck instead of the arm.”
The bandits, including Wi Jungyeon, felt chills down their spines at his chilling words delivered so casually.
As terror overtook their eyes.
“This time, I’ll finish it properly.”
Cheonhwi lightly stamped his forward stance.
Simultaneously, the sword raised to chest level drew a very gentle horizontal line.
No sound, no aura.
But the sword continued its arc unhindered.
And as the sword reached its end.
Srisk!
The bandits’ robes split thinly at chest level, red blood spurting forth.
No screams.
Of course not.
Those who should scream were already dead, collapsing to the ground.
“......”
A suffocating silence fell.
The escorts and coachmen covered their mouths, unable to look away from the scene.
A single sword strike.
But that one strike changed everything.
Those emanating killing intent moments ago became dozens of corpses, crumbling while spilling blood.
And in place of their motion, only the spilled blood remained on the ground.
Forming scarlet pools.
And at its center stood the sole survivor, Cheonhwi, tall and proud.
“Handled all that needed handling...”
Cheonhwi turned his gaze to the carriage.
“......!”
The escorts and coachmen flinched at his glance, whipping their heads away.
Trembling in fear, dreading eye contact.
‘They’re scared.’
Cheonhwi shrugged.
It was all too familiar.
In his past life, everyone he met trembled in fear just like this.
Then.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Cheon Yi-gae, who had been aiding the escorts and coachmen, glared wide-eyed.
“Instead of thanking your savior, you flee from him?”
Cheon Yi-gae scowled deeply.
“Don’t you know gratitude?! Tch, tsk tsk!”
Clicking his tongue loudly on purpose, Cheon Yi-gae approached Cheonhwi.
“Ignore their reactions.”
“Wasn’t paying attention anyway.”
Cheon Yi-gae relaxed at Cheonhwi’s impassive expression, then wrinkled his nose.
A thick bloody stench assaulted him.
Scanning the corpses that made him grimace, Cheon Yi-gae said quietly.
“No. You should pay attention.”
As Cheonhwi looked at him bewildered by the sudden reversal.
“Strictly speaking, you’re part of the problem.”
Cheon Yi-gae scolded.
“How long will you keep using such cruel methods?”
Cheonhwi replied as if puzzled.
“What’s the issue? They’re dead either way.”
He couldn’t understand Cheon Yi-gae’s question.
Dead is dead—what did cruelty matter?
But Cheon Yi-gae thought differently, listing reasons.
“The dead are dog meat however they die, but the living are watching. They feel things too. Think about it. What Daoist in the world would commit such atrocities?”
“Me.”
“You damned...!”
Cheon Yi-gae pounded his chest in frustration at Cheonhwi’s oblivious response, glaring.
“Fine! Do as you please! But if you keep this cruelty up, not just you, but Mount Hua Sect later won’t hear good things.”
Unlike usual, Cheon Yi-gae advised seriously.
“If you care for Mount Hua Sect, think hard about this brutality.”
“......”
Cheonhwi shut his mouth.
Consider that too?
He’d never thought separately about cruelty—just killed.
Yet Cheon Yi-gae said even the method mattered for righteous sects.
So finicky.
He didn’t like it, but Cheonhwi nodded anyway.
“I’ll think about it later.”
Cheon Yi-gae frowned at the answer but sighed instead of pressing.
No point talking more; it wouldn’t get through.
“Think it over properly.”
Leaving those final words, Cheon Yi-gae returned to the carriage.
His head ached from the blood stench.
‘But maybe it’s for the best. I was planning to give him a stern talking-to someday.’
Looking at the terrified escorts and coachmen, he smirked inwardly.
A guy who’d rival the Eight Armies someday.
But this cruelty would surely trip him up one day.
‘If only he’d wise up.’
As Cheon Yi-gae worried for Cheonhwi.
Step— step—
Cheonhwi, emerging from the blood pools, moved to sheath his sword but paused.
“Hm? What’s this?”
His brows furrowed at the Hwaryeong Unit fiercely battling the Black Shadow Corps.
The Hwaryeong Unit was faring poorly.
Their Daoist robes were torn, staining red with flowing blood.
Meanwhile, the Black Shadow Corps were still fresh.
“They might lose at this rate.”
The gap was worse than expected.
“You think so too, right?”
Cheonhwi muttered, glancing sideways.
A middle-aged man in the same pitch-black blood-red robe as the Black Shadow Corps appeared.
“They call you Plum Blossom Divine Sword Hero, and you have an eye for this.”
“Hm? You know me?”
“How could I not know the man stirring up the current martial world?”
The middle-aged man chuckled.
“But unlike the rumors, you have no manners.”
Cheonhwi shrugged at that.
“No need for manners with enemies.”
“What? Puha-hat!”
The middle-aged man burst into laughter, delighted.
“True. No need for courtesy with those you’ll kill anyway.”
After laughing heartily, he showed regret and spoke.
“What a shame.”
Killing intent gathered in his eyes fixed on Cheonhwi.
“I finally meet someone I like, and I have to kill you myself.”
“No need to be sorry.”
Cheonhwi slung the unsheathed White Lotus Sword over his shoulder.
“You’re the one dying.”
“Hahaha, that confidence. Good. Very good.”
The middle-aged man’s eyes flashed.
“Come out.”
At his words, black shadows emerged from both sides one by one.
Seven including the middle-aged man.
But their auras outclassed the entire Black Shadow Corps fighting the Hwaryeong Unit combined.
“So Yeon-gang. That’s my name. Lately, they call me Black Shadow Assassin in the martial world.”
Cheonhwi eyed curiously as So Yeon-gang suddenly revealed his name.
“It’d be a pity to die without knowing who killed you.”
So Yeon-gang smiled.
‘Oh? Look at this guy.’
Cheonhwi smirked at So Yeon-gang’s relaxed expression.
“Then no need to remember.”
Lowering the sword from his shoulder, Cheonhwi added, “Oops.”
“Right! Almost forgot. Do you know my name? Want me to tell you now?”
Twisting his lips, Cheonhwi said.
“It’d be a pity to die without knowing my name.”