Chapter 304
Chapter 304
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 307
Chapter Title: Countless Variables in Battle
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Fights are full of countless variables.
The surrounding situation, the location of the battle, one's physical condition—innumerable factors act as variables.
Even in a one-on-one duel, dozens of variables exist, so how many must there be on a battlefield where groups clash?
On such a field where variables collide, one might die with their throat slit by a blind sword swinging from who-knows-where, or get stabbed in the back by an ally's mistake.
Variables are always there.
Unless one was an absolute master who transcended the human body, dying to such blind blades was commonplace.
Kwaang!
Namgung Hyuk blocked Jang Taesan's sword and swept across its flat.
Deflect, push, burrow in, thrust, slash.
The enemy was strong.
But he wasn't weak either.
He was a small pebble, and the opponent merely a larger rock.
Even the biggest boulder would eventually be whittled down to a pebble.
And a pebble could chip away at a rock.
It would have been great if he could have severed the head in one strike, but he couldn't.
The opponent was tougher and stronger than he'd thought.
From that single clash, the foe had shed his carelessness and sharpened his edge.
Then use that to his advantage.
Exploit the enemy's wariness of him.
Skakakang!
Sparks dazzled the eyes.
Killing intent sharp enough to flay skin and sword energy grazing flesh drew dense lines.
Amid the flashing sword light and storm of lightning, Namgung Hyuk glared at Jang Taesan.
Kworung! Kwaang!
Fiercely powerful attacks that churned the guts.
Predict three moves ahead, calculate two moves in advance, and move one step first.
Strength, internal energy, swordsmanship realm.
Everything surpassed his own.
For an imperfect man like him to face a master at the peak of maturity, he had to utilize every situation.
And leverage everything he had.
Namgung Hyuk spun the Heavenly Creation Bright King Art to its limit.
Paat!
He burrowed into blind spots with Blood Wind Step.
Then a blue shadow trailed after him like a tail.
The moment Namgung Hyuk unleashed his killing intent.
"No chance."
Shyaaaang!
He retreated a step from the sword energy brushing his nose tip.
'He reacts.'
The opponent, with his sensitive, razor-sharp senses, reacted.
Good.
He burrowed in once more.
Shyaaaang! Shishishik!
Namgung Hyuk's eyes gleamed at the storm of sword energy unerringly targeting his throat.
Strike with Blood Wind Step, then withdraw.
Predict three ahead, calculate two, move one first.
That was the situation he could control now.
Namgung Hyuk did not advance his sword.
He poured out killing intent as if expending everything, yet retreated to bait the enemy's empty swing.
Then he pierced the gap revealed by that miss half a beat faster.
Little by little, so subtly the opponent wouldn't notice, he closed the distance.
Feint, induce a miss, attack, withdraw again.
Skak!
The raging lightning grazed Jang Taesan's shoulder.
His eyes flashed.
"Playing petty tricks! No chance—!"
Skakakakakaka!
Lightning and sword energy tangled like snakes coiling around each other in a fierce melee.
Enduring the searing pain, Namgung Hyuk advanced one more step.
"You...!"
The opponent's eyes widened in shock.
He hadn't expected anyone to advance one more step into the storm of sword energy.
Normally, one would instinctively retreat when sword lights flashed wildly with no gap to enter.
But Namgung Hyuk pressed forward.
Variables don't just appear on their own.
The tenacity to relentlessly hammer at unexpected openings the enemy couldn't anticipate.
In a razor-edge fight where one's head could fall any moment, that ferocity and madness for victory created the gap and birthed the variable.
Namgung Hyuk's eyes calmed.
No chance?
If I were sloppy, I'd have rotted in the gutter long ago.
Not a single moment of my life has ever been anything less than desperate!
Puhiak!
Ignoring the sword piercing his left shoulder, Namgung Hyuk unleashed Blood Wind Step.
His shoulder run through, he shot forward like a coiled spring.
Ignoring the cold bite of the blade digging into muscle, Namgung Hyuk plunged ahead.
Shuaaaaak!
Pajijijik!
"Keut!"
Jang Taesan yanked out his sword and retreated.
He stared at Namgung Hyuk with dismayed eyes, clutching his bleeding flank, trembling with rage.
"...You're insane!"
The blood-soaked Namgung Hyuk grinned at him.
Namgung Hyuk indifferently stanched his shoulder wound and caught his breath.
Seuweueu-!
The demon sword that had tasted blood absorbed it, spewing a crimson glow.
Namgung Hyuk's lips curved down.
His gaze swept the surroundings.
Kwaaang!
Sk aaaang!
Namgung Ryong, Peng Jung-hyuk, and So Hye-yeon were blocking the pushing enemies.
While they held the bloody melee to seal off the black-clad intruders, not far away, the Thunder Dragon Squad rampaged.
"Fall back—!"
"Block them, block!"
"You bastards!"
The Thunder Dragon Squad, arrayed in Ghostly Valley Linked Formation, targeted the unorthodox group's flank.
...Seeing them guarding his back, a strange emotion flickered in Namgung Hyuk's eyes, then vanished.
It was different from back then, when he flailed to avoid sinking into the mud.
It was the same battlefield as before—blood spraying, sword lights flashing, screams tearing ears—but he realized it was different now.
Namgung Hyuk gripped his demon sword tighter and surveyed the field.
An asura's slaughterhouse.
Corpses scattered like roadside pebbles, the bluestone ground stained red.
Warriors trampling over it.
Watching the scene blur and smear as it was crushed, Namgung Hyuk regulated his breathing.
"It's not over yet."
At the end of his dazed gaze, Jang Taesan came into view.
"Round two?"
Jang Taesan glared at him, steadying his own breath.
"Don't get cocky. You only landed one lucky hit."
"You don't know? Even a grain of rust can kill iron?"
"Ridiculous nonsense."
"I'm serious. Why do you think that's bullshit?"
Namgung Hyuk bared white teeth as he wiped down the demon sword's blade.
Jang Taesan's eyes wavered as he stared at the demon sword.
"Talkative fool. A man who can barely stand is spouting bravado!"
"I'm losing? Then why not come at me? Step up and crush me."
Namgung Hyuk sneered.
Jang Taesan gripped his sword.
Kadeudeudeuk!
A chilling clash of metal, and Heavenly Demon Art surged along the blade.
Blade-like energy radiated from him.
"I'll kill you."
The aura was so intense it stung the skin.
It poked at his five viscera and six bowels like pouring liquor on wounds.
Burning pain flared from the gashes on his body.
'Still, my condition's way better than back then.'
He stood on two feet, internal energy flowed, and he had the strength to hold his sword.
This was as good as it got.
Namgung Hyuk shook off the blood and assumed his stance.
He muttered.
"Yeah, if you can't kill me now, you never will in your lifetime."
Seuwut!
He raised his sword.
Move.
"I'm not aiming for the world's best yet—first I'll claim the greatest through the ages. And this? Not even a warm-up."
Move.
Amid the boiling screams from all sides, he saw the Thunder Dragon Squad fighting to protect him and his allies locked in desperate struggles.
Fighting, fighting again...
The tide was turning swiftly and surely.
"And if you're gonna catch me, hurry up. This is your only shot. Looks like your guys are about to get wiped by ours soon?"
Namgung Hyuk's vision widened ferociously then narrowed.
Jang Taesan's gaze sank.
"...You must die, no matter the sacrifice."
"Lucky us, same page."
Namgung Hyuk stepped forward boldly.
"I've got questions after I take your head, you bastard!"
As if he'd never stopped, Namgung Hyuk became a streak of lightning and charged at Jang Taesan.
Crimson flames erupted from the demon sword.
* * *
The Yeodong Branch of the Taego Sword Wave and the Three Gates' Black Great Heaven recoiled in horror.
The massive ink-black saber qi plummeting as if to split Mount Taesan made their heads feel like they would cave in under its might.
"Kuheup!"
"Heuheup!"
They barely dodged the falling saber momentum, but it ruthlessly swept up his subordinates behind them.
"Kraaaak!"
"Keoeoeok!"
"Kuheut!"
Corpses tumbled in the wake of the monstrous saber qi.
'The Peng Family Head is this strong?!'
'Insane... How can this be.'
'He's not our match.'
Peng Cheonwi's saber art, hailed as Hebei's Greatest Blade, chilled them to the bone.
It raged like a unleashed fierce tiger.
Over thirty masters clung to him just to barely hold off one Peng Cheonwi.
Kwa-aang!
The Hunyuan Divine Saber's momentum smashed down on the enemies.
It struck as if to split the mountain and shatter boulders, striking again and again.
Starting from small swings, the saber grew fiercer, crushing the enemy lines, its momentum blanketing them.
'He endured against these foes until now?'
Peng Cheonwi let out a soft exclamation.
Was the Namgung clan's foundation this deep?
Even the Peng Clan of Hebei, vying for top among the Five Great Clans, would have suffered massive losses trying to hold them off from the start.
They were that formidable—masters and forces capable of overturning a province.
For the Namgung Clan to hold out to the death against such power gave him a subtle shock.
'Hmm! The King Sword Clan, indeed.'
It wasn't just that one guy, Namgung Hyuk.
The Namgung Clan was strong.
He could see it with his own eyes.
His gaze flicked sideways.
Peng Cheonwi chuckled dryly at the majesty of Namgung Jangcheon crushing Sword Escape Master Mokyung and the Sword Escapers as he advanced.
"Just how much are they hiding their fangs?"
The aura pouring from Namgung Jangcheon's body differed from the prowess Peng Cheonwi remembered.
It was as if the entire Namgung Clan had been tightly coiled, now unleashing.
Not just Namgung Hyuk and Namgung Ryong taking flight—the whole clan seemed to be spreading wings.
His investment in the Namgung Clan for the distant future seemed shortsighted now.
That realization spurred him strongly.
Peng Cheonwi turned fearsome eyes toward those blocking his path.
"I'll show you curs south of the Yangtze the taste of the Peng Clan's blade."
Intense aura erupted from his body channeling Hunyuan Divine Art.
He raised his great saber high and unleashed his assault.
Chwaaaa-!
With Peng Cheonwi, the Peng Clan's Eighteen Blade Warriors charged at the unorthodox warriors.
Blood mist rose along the flashing saber lights.
"Huh, heoeok!"
"Hiiiik!"
"Ru-run awaaay!"
It was as if the reaper of death had arrived.
With Peng Cheonwi's terrifying saber art, the Peng Clan's strongest bladesmen, the Eighteen Blade Warriors, butchered an entire unorthodox division in an instant.
Geum Jeoksan of the Dominance Sect swung his rugged saber and bellowed.
"Peng bastard! Die—!"
Sasasasak!
"The Peng Clan's saber is laughably slow! With this seat's Dominance Sect saber art here, how dare trash like Peng claim world's best blade! This swift blade is truly..."
Peng Cheonwi laughed coldly.
The Hunyuan Divine Saber swept away the dozens of saber lights flashing before his eyes.
Seueoeoeok!
"Guk!"
Geum Jeoksan, Hebei's stalwart, rolled back his eyes with a death rattle.
A red line ran from the crown of his head to his groin.
Kung!
Peng Cheonwi, who had bisected the mighty Geum Jeoksan in one stroke, shook off his blade and strode past.
"A worm who can't even take one stroke dares critique the Peng Clan's saber."
Peng Cheonwi pursued the unorthodox alliance warriors stumbling back in fright.
"Don't leave a single one! Eradicate these unorthodox scum and proclaim the Peng Clan's prestige!"
The Eighteen Blade Warriors swept forward.
When Peng Cheonwi glanced aside, he saw Tang Uicheon turning enemies to bloody pulp with his poison hands.
Peng Cheonwi frowned at the gruesome method that melted bones, but soon shook his head.
With the Tang Clan fighting alongside from one flank, it was hell for the enemy but the sturdiest backing for them.
Tang Uicheon and his Melt Shadow Blood Hands scattered deadly poison mist, crushing foes.
"Kreoeeok!"
The unorthodox alliance was being herded and hunted by the Hebei Peng Clan and Sichuan Tang Clan.
They were quickly cornered, trembling.
Peng Cheonwi and Tang Uicheon's gazes crossed in midair.
Without a word, they shared subtle trust and continued slaughtering the enemy.
Just as the battle's end seemed in sight.
Kuuuung!
"Hm?"
Tang Uicheon and Peng Cheonwi simultaneously turned at the low-spreading qi clash and resulting shockwave.
"Uhm!"
"Heo!"
Their eyes widened in unison.
Their gazes fell on the fierce duel between Namgung Hyuk and Jang Taesan.