Chapter 283
Chapter 283
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 286
Chapter Title: Blood Wind over Anhui
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“What in the world is this...?”
“Egrmoney! The Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency...”
“This can't be. What kind of bloodbath is this!”
The common folk crowding around the hellish scene spread out amid the crumbled walls of the Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency gasped in horror.
People gulped nervously at the commotion unfolding in broad daylight.
The masses were overcome with fear at the atrocity that had erupted overnight.
“W-who the hell are those guys?”
“No idea! Why would fiends like that come to Anhui Province? C-could they be bandits?”
“They're messing with the Nangong Clan! They're insane!”
It was shocking enough that the Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency, with over two hundred men, had been drowned in blood by a mere dozens, but behind that agency stood the Nangong Clan.
They couldn't believe that someone had attacked an escort agency operated by the Nangong Clan, the overlord of Anhui Province and one of the Five Great Clans.
Thud thud!
Ho Tae-gun prodded a twitching escort agent on the ground with his foot.
“Is this one the last?”
“Yes, Sect Leader.”
“Hmm...”
Ho Tae-gun let out a low breath and turned his head.
Even after sweeping away the agency's chief and its escorts, it still wasn't enough to satisfy him.
Ho Tae-gun's gaze shifted to the crowd gathered beyond the ruined walls.
Swoosh.
“Got an audience?”
“Let's go, sir. Too many eyes on us.”
“Let 'em watch. That's how the rumors spread, right? We have to make this much noise so even those Nangong Clan bastards know we're coming.”
Ho Tae-gun chuckled and laughed even louder.
They would weave through Anhui Province like a net, slowly tightening around the Nangong Clan's throat.
They would sever the clan's limbs one by one, spreading their infamy.
That was precisely what the White Cloud Sword Faction and the unorthodox horde were after.
To make the world watch the Nangong Clan's downfall and thereby announce their own presence.
Ho Tae-gun rose to his feet.
At that moment, a commotion erupted among the murmuring crowd by the walls.
“Kyaaack!”
“L-let go! What do you think you're doing!”
“Y-you fiend! What is this?!”
A White Cloud Sword warrior grinned wickedly as he grabbed a woman's hair and dragged her along.
The commoners cried out in shock and grabbed at the warrior's arm, but villagers without even a scrap of martial training had no power to resist.
Smack!
“Gahk!”
The grown men crumpled like sacks after a casual swing of his hand.
The White Cloud Sword warrior laughed.
“You worm bastards, we'll skin you all and hang you up, so shut up and wait.”
The crowd recoiled in terror at his chilling voice and murderous glare.
“W-what outrageous villainy!”
“Stop it, you filthy scum!”
“Tell the Nangong Clan! The Nangong Clan!”
“What's the government doing?!”
The crowd stamped their feet helplessly, too afraid to step forward.
The warrior approached Ho Tae-gun, chuckling as if savoring the sight.
“Sect Leader! This bitch ain't half bad. Who knew a stunner like this was hiding in some backwater dump! Heh heh!”
Ho Tae-gun eyed the woman trembling in the warrior's grip by her hair.
“Me first, heh heh!”
The lecherous warrior's laugh made the woman shudder violently.
A pained voice cried out from the crowd by the walls.
But no one dared step forward.
Just seeing the slaughterhouse that the Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency had become was enough to befuddle the mind; there was no one present with the guts to confront those murderers head-on.
Ho Tae-gun's lips slowly curled into a grin.
“Hahaha.”
“Heh heh heh.”
“Hahaha!”
The warrior laughed along.
Ho Tae-gun stared straight at the warrior and chuckled.
As the laughter peaked, Ho Tae-gun slashed the warrior's throat with his hand blade mid-cackle.
Slash!
Blood spurted as the warrior's pupils dilated.
“G-guhk!”
Clutching his gaping throat, the warrior stared at Ho Tae-gun in bewilderment.
The smile had already vanished from Ho Tae-gun's face.
“Who told you to do something stupid.”
“G-gurk! S-sect Leader... why...”
Thud!
The warrior's head slammed into the ground.
Ho Tae-gun swept his gaze over the White Cloud Sword warriors scattered about haphazardly.
“No stupid moves. The only ones we kill are the Nangong Clan and anyone connected to them.”
“Yes, Sect Leader!”
“Ruined the mood.”
Touching the commoners would complicate things.
He couldn't give the authorities any opening to intervene.
Ho Tae-gun glanced at the trembling woman and strode out of the Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency.
The White Cloud Sword warriors, scattered like a ragtag mob, fell in behind him.
They swept their eyes over the people clustered by the walls and passed by indifferently, as if eyeing roadside pebbles.
The commoners held their breath and parted to make way.
Some collapsed to the ground, sweating profusely.
“...What in the world.”
“Those vicious monsters...”
“But didn't that leader just say they're targeting the Nangong Clan?”
“Yeah, he did.”
The people's gazes turned to the path the White Cloud Sword Faction had taken.
The faction's ferocious aura, the devastation they'd wrought, and the fact that they were marching on the Nangong Clan as their target—all of it shocked the onlookers.
And those gathered there sensed it instinctively.
A massive blood wind was sweeping through Anhui Province.
* * *
Whoosh! Flutter flutter!
Messenger pigeons blackened the sky as they took flight.
It felt as though a vast curtain had been draped across the heavens.
Their momentum was so tremendous it could have passed for thunder.
Half of the pigeons blotting out the sky headed for Hefei.
Then half of those veered toward the Nangong Clan, while the other half flew to the sects and merchant groups in Hefei.
People gasped at the sudden pigeon swarm overwhelming the sky.
No one in Hefei had ever witnessed anything like it in their lifetime.
Beggars from the Beggars' Sect prowling Hefei's streets for scraps leaped up and scattered in their wake.
The Hefei residents panicked at the scene, reminiscent of a natural disaster.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Weren't those Beggars' Sect beggars just now?”
“Wait, what's that?”
Thud thud thud!
Carriages and wagons formed a procession rumbling through Hefei's streets.
People gaped at the sight of the warriors, looking frantic and urgent.
“That's the Sword Heaven Martial Hall!”
“I-isn't that Grandmaster Hyeong of the Shadow Righteousness Hall? Why is the Shadow Righteousness Hall...?”
“Huh? White Cloud something!”
“T-they're taking down the plaques!”
The crowd gasped anew at the news of sects removing their plaques.
What else could removing a sect's face-equivalent plaque mean?
It meant abandoning Hefei and fleeing.
And these weren't failing sects.
They were thriving martial schools that had been doing brisk business, coexisting peacefully with the Nangong Clan.
Yet now they moved with a haste surpassing even a midnight flight.
Confusion clouded people's minds.
The air seemed to grow chillingly cold in an instant.
“D-did you hear?! I just overheard the beggars—there's chaos in Anhui Province right now!”
“What's that supposed to mean?”
“You blind? Unorthodox hordes are swarming into Anhui Province out of nowhere!”
“W-what are you talking about?”
“The Heavenly Thunder Escort Agency got massacred, you fools! The unorthodox fiends declared they're wiping out everything tied to the Nangong Clan as they march up!”
Eyes bulged.
The onlookers stared at one another, souls seemingly fled.
“The Nangong Clan...?”
“The Nangong Clan hasn't been right lately! They shut down their family business like it's wartime!”
“N-no way! D-does that mean we should flee too?”
“Those aren't bandits after us villagers. Just lock the doors, stay quiet, and we'll be fine.”
“B-but what about the Nangong Clan?”
“Who knows! They vanish or survive. Anyway, the other sects'll have to choose too.”
Gazes turned to the fleeing sects' backs.
With Hefei's sects abandoning their bases one by one, who would stay to fight?
People swallowed hard amid the suffocating war clouds over Hefei.
White Shadow Sect Leader Ju Hyeong-un sat face-to-face with the Iron Cloud Merchant Leader.
The Iron Cloud Merchant Leader stared at Ju Hyeong-un with a pallid face.
“What do you plan to do, Sect Leader Ju? Why are you still...”
The Ju Hyeong-un the Iron Cloud Merchant Leader knew was no fool who took losses.
He was the sort who never boarded a sinking ship, yet while the Iron Cloud Merchant Leader and other profit-driven sects fled, Ju Hyeong-un remained. It baffled him.
Ju Hyeong-un scanned the leaders of Hefei's Ten Great Sects.
They gulped dryly, eyes fixed on him.
“Sect Leader, just because relations with the Nangong Clan improved doesn't mean we ignore practicalities.”
“Exactly. This is their fight, not ours!”
“The White Cloud Sword Faction is coming. We can't handle them. The whole world knows how vicious their hands are.”
“But we owe the Nangong Clan! Betraying that honor...”
“So we all die for honor?!”
The Ten Great Sect leaders argued heatedly.
Their eyes soon turned back to Ju Hyeong-un.
Creases formed between his brows.
At last, he parted his tightly shut lips.
“You're right. The bond between us and the Nangong Clan isn't worth dying for.”
“R-right! As expected...”
“But!”
Ju Hyeong-un cut off the Iron Cloud Merchant Leader.
He squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them, speaking with resolve.
“Hefei is my hometown, where my sect stands. You want me to abandon this land and hand it to those lawless unorthodox scum? I've lived here my whole life, grown here. My descendants will live here too!”
“...Sect Leader Ju!”
“My pride won't stand for it.”
Ju Hyeong-un rose roughly.
“I'll fight. What sect can rebuild after losing its base?”
“B-but...!”
“Those who want to stay, stay. Those who want to leave, go. I've made up my mind!”
His voice echoed through the hall.
The Ten Great Sect leaders gawked at him, stunned as if struck on the back of the head.
This was truly the last chance.
Miss it, and they'd lose their escape—and face the flames.
The leaders exchanged glances.
Ju Hyeong-un buckled on his sword and declared.
“I'm heading to the Nangong Clan now. Follow if you will!”
Conflict flickered across their faces, but soon they rose one by one to stand beside him.
Hefei was their base, their home, their legacy for descendants.
Their footsteps turned toward the Nangong Clan.
* * *
A Beggars' Sect beggar pounded on the Nangong Clan gates.
“Little Division Leader! Little Division Leeeader!”
“Beggars' Sect! Let them through!”
The guards hurriedly cleared a path at the urgent cry.
The beggar dashed toward where Little Beggar was.
In the courtyard before Nangong Hyeok's quarters, Little Beggar—who'd been rubbing his bruised face—sprang up at the Beggars' Sect disciple's voice.
“What's going on!”
The beggar shouted frantically at Little Beggar charging like lightning.
“T-they're coming! Huff, huff! They're coming!”
The other junior disciples groaning in the training yard lifted their heads at the shout.
“Who?”
“T-the bastards have reached near Hefei! Their eyes blazing with killing intent...”
“Get to the point!”
“The Ghost Valley Manor... unorthodox horde from Fujian Province is climbing up from south of Hefei right now. They've turned the road into a river of blood— the stench is already thick!”
“...!”
The juniors flinched at the news of enemies at their doorstep.
“Already?!”
“They said it'd take days more...”
“Ugh!”
Groans erupted everywhere.
Everyone panicked at the unorthodox horde arriving ahead of predictions.
Little Beggar bit his lower lip and turned.
“Y-Young Master...!”
That was when.
Creak.
The door flew open, and Nangong Hyeok emerged calmly, having finished circulating his energy, shuffling along.
He secured his demon sword firmly at his waist.
Nangong Hyeok swept his silent gaze over the staring crowd.
Then he smirked.
“Why the panic?”
“...”
“You knew they'd come, right?”
“Young Master...”
Nangong Hyeok hardened his expression and stepped out of his quarters.
“Let's go. Get your heads straight.”
Those witnessing the aura and battle spirit emanating from him nodded and followed.