Chapter 301
Chapter 301
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 304
Chapter Title: The Tide Turns with Reinforcements
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Leading the Ghost Valley Manor's Ghost Valley Swordsmen, the unorthodox faction's elites were thrown into the battlefield.
Skak!
"Kuhk!"
"Block them!"
"Don't run—fight!"
The Namgung Family warriors strained every nerve to hold back the surging experts.
But the elites, led by the Ghost Valley Swordsmen, were beyond what the regular warriors could handle.
Each one was a master who wielded their internal energy with complete freedom.
As the Ghost Valley Swordsmen entered the fray, the delicate balance shattered in an instant.
"Block, block... Aaak!"
"Kuh!"
"Hold on, hold!"
The Ghost Valley Swordsmen's prowess was truly terrifying.
The Namgung Family warriors began to be swept away by the Taihu Sword Sect and Three Gates elites charging from the front and flanks like hunting falcons.
Seok!
After slicing off yet another head, Namgung Hyeok readjusted his grip on his sword.
Blood sprayed out, covering his face.
Every time Namgung Hyeok advanced and swung his sword, flesh was torn, and blood spurted.
He killed and killed again, pushing forward.
He trampled the endlessly surging enemies like pouring sand.
Pang!
Skak!
Namgung Hyeok's hand moved like a beam of light, employing the initial form of the Soul-Severing Twelve Hands to deflect his opponent's sword and sever their throat in one motion.
The martial arts of the War King, once called the world's greatest with bare hands in the era before the Poison Calamity, unfolded without restraint.
In the chaotic melee of the battlefield, it was a devastating technique more efficient at slaying foes than spear or blade.
Even as he unleashed the Enemy-Subduing Bare Hands with one hand, his demon sword swung relentlessly, absorbing blood and gleaming even redder.
Crimson lightning swept the area like flames.
Kwarung! Kwaang!
Yet the enemies kept coming, no matter how many he swept away.
Everything surging from the front revealed its venomous fangs amid flashing sword lights.
Namgung Hyeok dodged with Infinite Step and kept shouting.
"Keep your wits about you! Keep moving, keep moving!"
The Namgung Family warriors, grasping their dazed minds, desperately followed behind Namgung Hyeok.
The Namgung Family warriors squeezed out their voices and yelled.
"Fight!"
"Don't give up!"
"Slay the unorthodox scum!"
"Waaaa!"
In that instant, a terrifying flash burst from Namgung Hyeok's eyes.
His gaze whipped toward the source of the screams.
Seeing his allies being swept away, Namgung Hyeok gritted his teeth.
In just a momentary hesitation, the enemies' momentum reignited like wildfire, enveloping the Namgung Family warriors.
Desperate screams echoed from all directions.
Ghostly wails filled the Namgung Family estate.
The midday massacre grew even more vivid in its horror.
Rending flesh, thick blood like paint, something spilling everywhere...
Terror crept closer, and hot, foul breaths began to heat the air.
Amid the fierce melee, nearly fifty elites from the Three Gates—Blood Path Guests—charged toward the Thunder Dragon Squad.
Namgung Hyeok lowered his demon sword.
'It has to be different from the past. I'll make it different.'
Muttering to himself, Namgung Hyeok exploded forward and shouted.
"Geon Cheon-hwi! Command the Thunder Dragon Squad!"
"Young master?!"
"No hesitation!"
There was no time for delay.
He would handle the elites, and the Thunder Dragon Squad would support.
Save one more life.
Kill one more foe.
The Blood Path Guests, scattering and lunging, surrounded Namgung Hyeok in an instant.
Cheok!
Namgung Ryong landed beside Namgung Hyeok, while Paeng Jung-hyeok and So Hye-yeon blocked front and rear.
Feeling the presence of the three behind him, Namgung Hyeok's pupils trembled faintly.
Namgung Ryong raised his sword and said.
"We fight together. We carve the path."
Namgung Hyeok stepped forward and lifted his sword.
His expression turned icy.
"Sweep them!"
Kwarurung!
The demon sword split the sky and tore one Blood Path Guest in half.
Piercing the flying chunks of flesh, Namgung Hyeok's Soul-Severing Twelve Hands pierced another Blood Path Guest's throat.
"Kill!"
Following the roars echoing everywhere, Namgung Hyeok's sword whipped around.
The endless battle dragged on.
Bodies that seemed tireless grew heavy, and the rotation of Heavenly King Supreme Art slowed.
The ceaseless fighting wore down the mind.
Madness mingled with killing intent.
The blood-soaked heaven and earth blurred the line between friend and foe.
Yet Namgung Hyeok clung to his sanity.
It was familiar.
He was back in that familiar world.
Remember the damned cesspool of the past.
How he survived, how he crawled.
Dodging irregularly flashing blades from all sides, Namgung Hyeok hurled his body aside.
'Move.'
Move!
"Hyeok!"
Namgung Ryong threw himself to deflect a sword flying from the side.
Kwaang!
Following the Blood Path Guests, flocks of Taihu Sword Sect's Killing Swordsmen swarmed in.
Blood-drenched Namgung Ryong, Paeng Jung-hyeok, and So Hye-yeon panted roughly as they faced the Blood Path Guests, Killing Swordsmen, and unorthodox masters.
Namgung Hyeok straightened his bent waist.
Killing intent gathered in Namgung Hyeok's eyes, soaked in fatigue and blood.
No end in sight.
The endlessly surging enemies attacked without giving time for a single breath.
Overwhelming numerical pressure.
Hundreds, thousands of eyes shooting murderous glares.
Blades piercing from all sides.
Warriors falling.
The Namgung Family warriors faltered and were pushed back.
"Kwaaaak!"
Allies' screams rattled his ears.
Horror and madness descended on the brutal battlefield.
Namgung Jangcheon and the elders fought desperately, swords held high.
"Hap!"
Namgung Jangcheon's once-pristine robes were rags, soaked in blood and disheveled.
Jjeoeok!
His sword severed an enemy's neck as he advanced.
"Don't fall back!"
"Family Head!"
"Protect the Family Head!"
The Emperor Sword Squad, Sky Bow Sword Squad, and elders rallied around him.
But the tide could not be turned.
Unorthodox warriors leaped through the broken formations, sparking chaos and hunting Namgung Family forces.
Distant.
Hopeless.
Yet they had to fight.
That was the battlefield.
Namgung Hyeok raised his demon sword.
"The survivor takes all."
That was the world he lived in.
If you couldn't wield a blade, use your fists; if not, bite; crawl through the dirt to survive.
Live or die. That was it.
Reinforcements?
Don't count on it.
The Orthodox Alliance protects the murim?
Bullshit.
On the battlefield, only yourself and your sword were trustworthy.
"Huaap!"
Namgung Hyeok's shout rang out, and Namgung Ryong, Paeng Jung-hyeok, and So Hye-yeon charged at the masters encircling them.
A storm of blood erupted.
Unorthodox masters surrounded the frenzied sword-wielders like a wall.
"Kraaak!"
"Kill!"
"What the hell are these bastards!"
"Kuhk!"
Namgung Hyeok swept forward like a gale.
The encircling wall began to shake with screams and slaughter.
* * *
Skak!
Mukyung's sword took the necks of Namgung Family warriors.
He could see the Namgung Family warriors thrashing in desperation.
The unorthodox alliance was devouring the Namgung Family forces.
The unorthodox masters were carving them up one by one, like rats in a trap.
'Yes, isn't this a far finer picture?'
Rather than half-heartedly picking them off east, west, north, and south, driving the Namgung Family into their inner courtyard and wiping them out was a greater feat.
The unorthodox alliance toppling the Namgung Family—one pillar of the Nine Great Clans, symbols of the orthodox murim.
Nearly a hundred years.
No, two hundred years—had any unorthodox force ever toppled the Namgung Family?
That unprecedented achievement was now within reach.
Yeo Dongpa laughed heartily.
"We haven't even properly joined in, and they're already getting smashed!"
Heuk Tae-cheon followed.
"With our numbers, even all Five Great Families together wouldn't be a problem—not just Namgung!"
"Hahaha! Whatever the case, the battle's already decided!"
"Kuhahaha!"
The unorthodox leaders grinned in satisfaction.
The overwhelming force crushing the Namgung Family naturally brought smiles.
The Namgung Family's outer courtyard was now filled with pitch-black unorthodox alliance masters, and the Namgung warriors were helplessly pushed back.
The scales of victory had already tipped.
Mukyung eyed them coldly.
"This is exactly when we must finish it thoroughly."
"But it's already..."
"Only cutting the Family Head's head ends it for real."
"Ah!"
The unorthodox leaders realized something at Mukyung's words and changed expressions.
Mukyung's gaze turned to Namgung Jangcheon and the leadership struggling fiercely.
His eyes flicked sideways.
'Can't look foolish with the main sect's master here.'
Jang Tae-san silently surveyed the battlefield, sword in hand.
His sharp gaze seemed to search for someone.
At first, it looked like Namgung Jangcheon, but no.
He couldn't have missed Namgung Jangcheon advancing at the forefront, sweeping unorthodox masters.
'No way?'
His gaze turned to the spot where unorthodox groups had surrounded.
The direction Blood Path Guests and Killing Swordsmen, along with unorthodox elites, were pushing.
Jang Tae-san's interest was there?
Puzzling, but Mukyung thought it fortunate.
In this war, no greater merit than capturing Namgung Jangcheon.
"Soul-Escaping Guests!"
Chachak!
Ten of Ghost Valley Manor's top elites, the Soul-Escaping Guests, backed him.
A wounded beast rages fiercer.
He intended to sever the neck and end it surely.
The war's scales had tipped.
One more step, and the Namgung Family would vanish into the battlefield's shadows.
It was then, as Mukyung charged straight for Namgung Jangcheon—
Kwaaaang!
A deafening roar that could burst eardrums rang out with screams.
"Kwaaaak!"
"T-the wall over there!"
"Ambush, ambush...!"
"Kraaak, who is it!"
In an instant, amid pale dust, a group burst into the battlefield's center.
Shieeee! Kwaaaang!
A massive cleaver flying through the dust cloud sliced the waists of unorthodox masters blocking the path.
Puhwaaak!
As the dust cleared, a blood wind howled.
And then, Daoists in robes redder than the blood appeared.
Gasps exploded from the unorthodox faction.
"Ha, Ha Buk Paeng Family!"
"Wh-why are those bastards here?!"
"How?!"
Those charging in, wielding cleavers in crimson uniforms emblazoned with a clear lion emblem, were unmistakably the Ha Buk Paeng Family's elites, the Blood Lion Corps.
Chaos erupted in the unorthodox ranks.
Why had the Ha Buk Paeng Family—arch-enemies of the Namgung Family—appeared here!
The Blood Lion Corps roared at the panicking foes and began devastating the unorthodox alliance attacking the Namgung Family.
Puhwaaak!
Skiaaaang!
With explosive assaults overwhelming the left flank in an instant, the Ha Buk Paeng Family's Mixed Origin Squad and Paeng Family Eighteen Cleaver Warriors were thrown into the fray.
Tyrannical cleaver arts and relentless chain attacks severed enemies' breaths.
They chopped through foes like splitting firewood, whipping the battlefield.
Shieeee! Peok!
"Kueok!"
Paeng Jung-hyeok's eyes widened.
Having barely blocked the enemies' waves, he turned toward the flying cleaver.
A massive, tiger-like middle-aged man strode into the battlefield with fearsome momentum.
Relief and joy lit Paeng Jung-hyeok's face.
"Father!"
Paeng Cheon-wi drew his enormous cleaver and bellowed.
"Slay the enemies threatening the Namgung Family!"
With Paeng Cheon-wi, the Paeng Family Eighteen Cleaver Warriors, Blood Lion Corps, and Mixed Origin Squad moved, shifting the battlefield's flow.
The Ha Buk Paeng Family elites' momentum was truly fearsome.
They tore into enemies like beasts pouncing.
Namgung Jangcheon's eyes burned hot.
"Paeng Family Head!"
"Our family stands with the Namgung Family!"
"My thanks!"
Strength filled the two leaders' gazes.
"Waaaa!"
"Smash the enemies!"
"Protect the Namgung Family!"
Ha Buk Paeng Family warriors and Northern faction alliance masters poured through the breached wall.
The unorthodox warriors recoiled at their instantly overwhelming momentum.
"Wh-what the hell?"
As the panicked unorthodox warriors tried to retreat—
Fwaaa!
Pitch-black smoke billowed from beneath their feet.
"Ku, kueok!"
"P-poison!"
"Wh-what?"
Chaos colored the unorthodox warriors' faces.
Shieeee!
Pupuupu-pu-puk!
Black-feathered needles like swarms of crows and dozens of flying daggers slicing the wind swept the unorthodox groups.
Figures in green robes atop the roofs rained down hidden weapons.
Green robes with blood insignia.
The Green Shadow Blood Guards—death messengers of the Sa Cheon Tang Family—blocked the retreat from the rooftops.
"T-Tang Family!"
"How is the Sa Cheon Tang Family here?!"
"Wh-what is this?!"
The shock rivaled the Ha Buk Paeng Family's intrusion.
Sa Cheon Tang Family Head Dang Ui-cheon descended gracefully, robes billowing.
His cold eyes slowly turned to the front.
"Save the Tang Family's benefactors!"
The Green Shadow Blood Guards poured poison and hidden weapons toward the rising toxic smoke.
The arrival of the Ha Buk Paeng Family and Sa Cheon Tang Family—rivaling the Five Great Families' strongest—quickly drove the unorthodox alliance into a corner.