Chapter 412
Chapter 412
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 412
Chapter Title: Spectacle (1)
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In the hair-trigger moment, Jin Gworang's form scattered like mist as he charged forward.
Paht-
The way the bastard barreled in with his eyes gleaming was a harbinger in itself.
"Support the Cult Leader!"
"Attack!"
Both sides rushed at each other without waiting to see who would strike first.
In an instant, the clash of blades rang out alongside agonized screams.
Myeong Yeong and I stood at the forefront, blocking Jin Gworang's strike in perfect sync, just as we had in the side hall.
Kaaaang!!!
The moment we shook off Jin Gworang,
Dokgo Cheol's Crimson Vanguard and the Wudang disciples followed, attempting to form their familiar formations.
Chaeng! Chaeng!
Confirming this, I turned to Myeong Yeong.
"Senior Brother!"
Myeong Yeong nodded lightly and addressed the other Wudang disciples.
"As you just saw, the Blood Fiend's qi blasts and qi rings move like living things. We can't deploy the True Martial Seven Ultimates Formation right now."
The Wudang disciples, led by Myeong Il, swung their Pine Gate Swords amid the frenzy and asked back.
"Then are we just supposed to fight these guys head-on without a plan?"
I answered.
"Pair up with the six elites of the Crimson Vanguard."
Myeong Yeong added,
"Just like the Ghost Dragon and I did. Have your juniors block the Blood Fiend's sword strikes. Leave blocking the qi blasts and finding openings for counterattacks to the Crimson Vanguard."
Jeong Hyeon and Dokgo Cheol reacted first to our words.
"Thanks to our ties with the Righteous Martial Academy, we've synced up with the Vanguard Leader plenty of times. We'll pair with you, Leader."
Jeong Hyeon slipped out from the Wudang disciples and moved to Dokgo Cheol's side.
Dokgo Cheol voiced his support for my proposal.
"I agree with the Ghost Dragon's plan."
Kang! Kaang!
Kaaang!
Sa Gyeom, who had been swinging his massive cleaver fiercely, finally spoke up.
"You've spent your lives cultivating the Dao to maintain pure hearts, so we must look like fiends in your eyes. I get that reluctance, but look at the situation."
Myeong Il sliced through a fiend in front of him and replied with a half-palm strike using his free hand.
Chwaak!!!
"Prime Celestial Venerable. I'm just a mortal wandering the muddy world, far from attaining the immortal path. Why would I look down on you gentlemen of the Vanguard who have set your intentions so firmly?"
"You were standing there silent."
"I was just wondering if we could sync up on the fly."
"Don't worry about that. We started as sword-for-hire sellswords scraping by on a few coins, rolling through every underworld there is. We won't drag you down, at least."
Thus began the joint assault of the Crimson Vanguard and Wudang.
"Senior Brother Myeong Yeong and I will handle Jin Gworang's main assaults. The rest of you, focus on blocking his underlings from approaching, but if you have spare moments, rotate in like a wheel formation to support us."
Excluding Dokgo Cheol, Jeong Hyeon, or me, everyone else was syncing up on the spot.
"Sorry for the late intro amid the chaos. I'm Myeong Il."
"Sa Gyeom. Let's go!"
Sa Gyeom, Son Cheon-jeong, and the other Crimson Vanguard elites moved precisely as promised, fulfilling their roles.
Wudang's signature fluid swords adapted to their support.
In just a few exchanges, they formed a solid synergy and backed us up.
Kang! Kang!
Kakakakaaang!!!
Master let out a small sigh of admiration at the sight.
- Wudang's sword experts, even excluding Myeong Yeong, are each top-tier masters worth naming. With them holding the base, everything clicks together like this... but the Vanguard guys are no slouches either.
'Like Sa Gyeom said, they're sellswords at heart.'
Sellswords.
Mercenaries, in modern terms.
'They've wandered from lord to lord, kissing asses to find battlefields, even flowing into the demonic path... so they're exceptional at syncing in tough spots and reading the room.'
Divided into seven pairs, we began pressuring Jin Gworang in earnest.
Kang! Kaang!
Kakakakang!!
With no more hesitation, Myeong Yeong and I charged aggressively, aiming to inflict even a small wound on him.
Whenever Jin Gworang unleashed fierce qi blasts in retaliation,
Swaeaeaeak!
Sa Gyeom and Son Cheon-jeong slipped in like ghosts to deflect the qi.
Their partners, Myeong Il and Myeong Han, thrust their Pine Gate Swords rippling with blue qi, forcing Jin Gworang to retreat.
Pababak!
Where he fell back, other Wudang disciples and Vanguard elites awaited.
This time, it was Dokgo Cheol and Jeong Hyeon.
Ssaek!
Ssaeaek!
Blue qi and red blood aura intertwined into Taiji symbols from all seven directions, pouring attacks in a rotating wheel formation.
Dark red blood trickled from the corner of Jin Gworang's mouth, who had been pushing himself into qi deviation.
"...Kuhk."
Seeing Jin Gworang's ferocious momentum—enough to sweep through our allies in an instant—broken, I suppressed a smile.
'No avoiding the backlash of overexertion, huh? It's almost over, Jin Gworang.'
At that moment,
Master narrated the state of the other fronts.
- That rat-faced demon seems to be targeting the Haomen's ships.
Glancing over,
Ja Wang and his fiends formed a wedge, attempting to break through one section of our encirclement.
'...Ja Wang figures he needs to open a retreat path at any cost.'
With no proper allied forces and Jin Gworang in poor shape, it was arguably the right call.
- Oh dear. They broke through.
As I thought that,
Ja Wang's Blood Cult detachment pierced the weakest point in our encirclement—the Haomen line—and raced toward the riverside ships.
'...Can't be helped.'
It truly couldn't.
The Haomen had few true elites to begin with, and their top priority was protecting their chief.
'With Ja Wang targeting her, their formation had to waver temporarily.'
Once the elites pulled away,
The mere flag-waving fishermen and boatmen panicked and cleared a path.
Not that it was a bad thing.
'Either way, Jin Gworang is right in front of me.'
As long as we pinned him down, losing the ships meant nothing.
I refocused entirely on Jin Gworang's every move.
Peng! Peng!!!
Suddenly, thunderous explosions rocked the area from the Haomen ships.
Peopeopeopeong!!!!
They'd loaded explosives under the hulls and detonated them.
- Heh. Who'd have thought Mok Yeom-yak had some real cunning.
'One solid move.'
Seeing the ships disintegrate into powder along with the fiends, Master and I let out dry chuckles.
At that moment,
Jin Gworang grabbed one of his subordinates by the head.
"...C-Cult Leader?"
He sucked out the man's qi with the Energy Absorption Technique, then hurled the husk aside.
Kwaduduk-
Kung.
I shook off my stifled laugh and tightened my grip on Regret.
"...You've hit rock bottom."
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ The clash between the Eastern Path Society and the Blood Cult.
The battle had consistently favored the Society, gradually shrinking the encirclement.
But the moment the tide turned dramatically with the Haomen chief's ingenuity,
Paradoxically, the atmosphere in the center—where the main forces clashed—shifted subtly.
"...This foul aura is blanketing the whole area."
Namgoong Yun bit his lip, sensing the ominous energy.
"I need to wrap this up quick and help Eon Yong-un..."
But his own battlefield was no cakewalk.
The Human King, whom he'd encountered again here, seemed unbothered by his missing arm.
Pupupupeok!
Peok! Ppeoeoeong!!!!
He rampaged madly, sending Society warriors to their deaths.
"Guhk!"
"Kuhk!"
Watching the Human King's once-white tiger mustache stain crimson with allies' blood,
Namgoong Yun berated himself.
'If Father or Grandfather were here instead of me... they wouldn't have just severed one arm—they'd have taken his head.'
Namgoong Yun had diligently honed himself, trusting only the words to aim for supremacy.
To him, the adults' excuse that staying put was needed to trap the enemy still felt like a sore spot.
Kwak.
His grip on his sword tightened involuntarily.
Kang! Kang!
Kaaaang!!
At that moment,
One of his allies pressed back-to-back with him.
It was none other than Bandit King Do Jung-gwang.
"Namgoong brat."
"...Senior."
Do Jung-gwang gripped his crescent blade long and blocked incoming foes as he continued.
"From that look on your face, you're thinking something lame like 'all these sacrifices are my fault,' huh."
Do Jung-gwang spoke casually,
But among the Society's forces, the bandits were second-weakest after the Haomen.
In the back-and-forth melee, he'd lost many underlings,
Including one of his trusted lieutenants, Blade-Eyed Vajra.
"......"
Namgoong Yun couldn't respond lightly.
Do Jung-gwang spoke again.
"You lot are all great, but that's your problem. Life's just living since you're born—what's with feeling responsible and all that crap. Eh, I don't even know what I'm saying."
"......"
"Anyway, don't pity us lightly. We've got our own burning grudges—we couldn't hold back anymore, that's why we're in this fight."
With that, Do Jung-gwang gripped his crescent blade and charged at the Human King again.
Watching his retreating shoulder, Namgoong Yun mulled over the words.
"...Don't pity us lightly."
Time stretched like taffy, and overlooked battlefield details suddenly struck him anew.
"......"
A bandit rolling on the ground, hurling dirt at fiends.
A strike team member, chest pierced and vomiting blood, relieved to have felled one fiend as he collapsed backward.
Crimson Vanguard elites clutching dropped ghost masks even in their final breaths.
Terror gleamed in everyone's eyes as they faced the fiends, yet they stepped forward despite it.
"...I really am the arrogant Namgoong young master."
Reflecting thus,
"From whining that I couldn't touch tiger shit, I hadn't even taken a single step..."
The tension in his sword hand eased naturally.
In that instant,
Pachichik-
Unprecedented lightning qi coiled fiercely around Namgoong Yun's sword.
Regripping it, he pursued Do Jung-gwang into the fiends' midst.
Fiends blocked his path, but
Chwaak! Chwaak!!
They were no match for Namgoong Yun, who fully dominated the area with Imperial Sword Forms.
Chwaaaak!!!
Reaching the Human King's vicinity again,
He saw Do Jung-gwang and the Human King exchanging chaotic blows.
"Senior!"
But the fight before him clearly favored Do Jung-gwang's disadvantage.
No— it was a do-or-die crisis.
Ssaeaeaeak!
In the flurry of exchanges, the Human King's hand blade pierced Do Jung-gwang's side.
Puuk!
"You thief scum, think the same trick works twice on me?"
Yet Do Jung-gwang stepped forward instead, pinning the Human King in place.
Witnessing that resolve, Namgoong Yun ignored his senior's peril and dashed at the Human King, slashing down with his sword in one breath.
Chwaaaaak!!!
The moment Namgoong Yun's thunder-wreathed sword cleanly rent the Human King's body.