The Slaughter Begins
"Senior Brother Maeng, how magnificent you look!"
Maeng Chang-haeng's booming cry tore the curtain wide on the grand stage that had been set this day.
Naeng Chu already lay collapsed and powerless upon the martial stage, his eyes flooding with shock and terror. Han Buri subdued him in a flash and bellowed at the Cheonbong Army generals who were about to run wild.
"Cheonbong Army — not one of you lays a hand on anyone!"
"Commander!"
With Naeng Chu pinned, there was no one left who could puppet the crowd with the poison of the Paradise Pill. While Ban Imjung and the other generals stood blinking in confusion, two shadows streaked from the spectator stands like bolts of lightning.
Whoosh!
A single fly-whisk became a chain that stole lives, coiling around Ban Imjung's throat in an instant. Terrifying Profound Qi erupted from the whisk, and Ban Imjung — a Spirit Realm expert — was hurled aside like a rag doll. His neck snapped where he landed, and he breathed his last. A master met a hollow, futile death.
"Peak Master Yeom!"
Everyone was stunned. That Yeom Jin-ri, always so gentle, always so compassionate, would reveal a face this brutal… The way she snuffed out a life in a single heartbeat shattered every expectation. Her skill was beyond anything they had imagined.
"Cheonun Sect — you dare commit murder in broad daylight!"
Caught in Han Buri's grip, Naeng Chu could barely even form the words. Han Buri answered him in a voice cold with mockery.
"What are you talking about, Lord Naeng? Didn't the Cheonbong Army kill our Cheonun Sect disciples as they pleased?"
"So we killed them — what are you going to do about it!"
Peak Master Gu Jeoryang, famous for his gentleness and his silence, let out a roaring battle cry of his own and launched his attack. He surged into the air like a dragon bursting from the sea and swept his hand. Three streaks of light flew like lightning toward the Cheonbong Army generals.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The three flashes punched through the skulls of three early-stage Spirit Realm experts and took their lives with them. It was a cruel, vicious spectacle. No one had seen this coming. The Cheonun Sect, which had seemed so powerless, so oppressed, so much like a trembling rabbit, had in a single breath transformed into a ferocious tiger.
And the sharpest fangs belonged to the two who until moments ago had looked the most incompetent — Yeom Jin-ri and Gu Jeoryang — and to Maeng Chang-haeng, who had only just revealed himself.
Maeng Chang-haeng, who until a heartbeat ago had been holding up the Cheonun Sect's banner, appeared on the platform in a burst of starlight, a long sword already in his grip. As he spun the blade, his entire body became a whirlwind of cutting edges.
BOOM!
A terrifying sword aura stretched more than ten meters and swept the entire martial stage in an instant. Every Cheonbong Army general was hurled into the air. And so a cataclysmic clash that shook heaven and earth began.
"Kill them!"
The Spirit Realm generals of the Cheonbong Army came to their senses and struck back, detonating Profound Qi and unleashing their killing arts in midair. A savage battle erupted between the Cheonbong Army's generals and the Peak Masters of Cheonun Sect.
Down below the stage, the rest of the crowd finally snapped awake. Ha Chung was the only Peak Master who had not been in on the truth. As the situation turned, he grimaced, gritted his teeth, and roared.
"Fine, Lee Sujol, Han Buri! So you two even deceived me? We'll settle this when the fighting's done! Cheonbong Army bastards — Grandpa Ha Chung is coming!"
RUMBLE!
Ha Chung exploded. Peak Master of Hwaun Peak, the strongest expert in Cheonun Sect, he unleashed every ounce of rage that had been building inside him. His fury burned so fiercely it seemed it would swallow Mount Tianyun whole as he charged, unhesitating, at the Cheonbong Army generals.
"Kill them!"
The second-generation elders standing upon the martial stage watched the Peak Masters fight, and fighting spirit blazed in their chests. With resolute eyes they leaped into the battlefield. In an instant the spectator stands became a living hell. Led by Maeng Chang-haeng, the people of Cheonun Sect fell upon the Cheonbong Army generals without mercy. Under a relentless assault that left no room to breathe, the Cheonbong Army was driven onto the defensive at once. And below the stage, the spectacle was even greater.
On the mountainside, Yi Hwawu — who had been facing off against Han Un's group — smiled faintly and spoke to Han Un and Wang Maeng.
"Elder Han, Senior Brother Wang — would you be willing to join me, Yi Hwawu, in wiping out the Cheonbong Army?"
"Yi Hwawu… don't tell me you—"
Han Un's group stared, eyes wide. They understood everything now. There was no more reason to hesitate.
Han Un raised the Cheonun banner whose pole had been snapped in two and roared with all the power in his lungs.
"Kill them!"
Wang Maeng's group howled like wild beasts and followed Yi Hwawu down the slope, hurling themselves at the Cheonbong Army's eight thousand soldiers.
At that very moment another battle cry thundered from the far side of the plaza. A host radiating imposing momentum appeared with footsteps like rolling thunder.
"Those… those are the Cheonun Sect disciples who were locked in Cheonroe?"
While the crowd reeled, Hwa Cheonpung, Un Cheoncheon, and Jo Jacheong strode out at the front. Behind them, So So-un and the elders and disciples who had been imprisoned in Cheonroe poured onto the battlefield with heads held high.
Naeng Chu looked at them and sank into despair.
"I was a fool. A complete fool!"
Look at the Cheonun Sect disciples who had burst out of Cheonroe prison! Every last one of them was plump and well-fed — did they look like people who had been tortured? Now it was all clear. Han Buri locking people in Cheonroe had been nothing but a performance. They had been protecting the disciples loyal to Cheonun Sect all along. This entire affair had been Cheonun Sect's scheme. Naeng Chu had merely been played from start to finish.
"Charge!"
"Kill them!"
Combined with the forces from the mountainside and those who had stormed out of Cheonroe, Cheonun Sect's army of two to three thousand crashed into the Cheonbong Army's eight thousand. The Cheonbong Army had the numbers — but Cheonun Sect had monsters powerful enough to overturn the entire field.
Star Cloud Eight Desolations
Clang!
In the heart of that vast battlefield, a young man was executing the Falling Star Sword Technique in a manner entirely his own. Unlike Yeop Pung's bold, ferocious swordplay, this youth's blade was elegant — as graceful as a gazelle lightly brushing its horns. Every streak of light from his sword traced a trajectory of death, scattering like falling meteors.
More chilling still: the meteor-like sword qi he unleashed flew on and on, piercing through dozens of bodies before it finally vanished. This was Profound Qi Manifestation — a divine ability only a Spirit Realm expert could wield.
Sword qi condensed into tangible, long-range meteors — each one a streak of death that punched through rank after rank before fading.
"Yi Hwawu!"
The Cheonun Sect disciples cried out in awe. Yi Hwawu, the taciturn young genius of Cheonun Sect, had finally reached the Spirit Sea Realm. As expected, the greatest among them was cut from different cloth. His strength was staggering.
On the other side of the field, a streak of white shadow swept unhindered through the slaughter, crushing everything in its path. Un Cheoncheon. She was not using the mental method of the Nine Heavens Cloud-Spirit Scripture, but a deep purple Profound Qi no one had ever seen before.
The White Cloud Ribbon coiled about her like a white dragon guarding a goddess. Wherever her gaze fell, the ribbon — sheathed in thick purple light — came roaring in. A single gesture snuffed out countless lives.
It was merciless. Cold. A slaughter without a hint of hesitation.
"Kill them!"
Across that vast battlefield, Yi Hwawu and Un Cheoncheon burned like two torches, leading the charge.
Elsewhere, Yeop Pung had already thrown himself into the fighting. He blazed like a dazzling sun, overwhelming his enemies without a shred of mercy.
Star Spirit Body Art — golden starlight instead of pale blue, a sun of slaughter walking the field.
"Kill them!"
Yeop Pung no longer had the leisure for any other thought. He knew only this: Cheonun Sect and the Cheonbong Army had crossed a river from which there was no return. Not a single one of the eight thousand Cheonbong Army soldiers on Mount Tianyun today could be allowed to leave alive. If they did, they would become the army that came back to destroy Cheonun Sect. This was an unavoidable duel to the death. The moment the Cheonbong Army set foot on this mountain, their fate had already been sealed.
So Yeop Pung showed no mercy. The Black Frost Sword in his hand became death itself. Every time starlight flashed, lives fell in droves. His perfect swordsmanship — which even Sa Cheonseong had struggled to defend against — was nothing less than a divine art of death to ordinary Cheonbong soldiers. They died just looking at his blade.
Shlick. Shlick.
Wherever Yeop Pung went, there was only the sound of steel parting flesh and a landscape drowning in blood. No one withstood even a single one of his strikes. The Black Frost Sword had become a word that meant death.
Heukgu was even more brutal. To a Spirit Realm expert lurking among Profound Realm fighters, the enemy meant nothing at all. One swipe of his claws and it was over. In the thick of that savage battlefield, people could see an invincible rat leaping up and down, tearing out Cheonbong warriors' throats with his talons.
Heukgu was busy calculating how many humans he had to kill for his master today before Yeop Pung would be pleased enough to cut his evening transcription quota and reward him with roast rabbit. He muttered as he fought.
"One rabbit leg, one pheasant neck! Sprinkle some chili powder and add a bit of pepper too!"
Heukgu was probably the only creature in the world who killed people this cheerfully.
From the first exchange, Cheonun Sect had seized the field. On the platform, Maeng Chang-haeng was butchering enemies without restraint, riding a tide of victory. Several Peak Masters advanced without hesitation. In Cheonun Square, Yeop Pung and four demon kings stirred wind and cloud until the Cheonbong warriors broke into panic.
The Cheonun Sect disciples caught that fierce momentum. Those who had not dared step forward from the sidelines finally began joining the battle, one after another. Today, the disciples of Cheonun Sect fully exploded.
"I can't take it anymore! Cheonbong Army — I'll fight you!"
"Drive out the Cheonbong Army! Protect Cheonun Sect!"
"Kill them! Charge!"
Human nature is sometimes this ridiculous. When Yeop Pung had fought alone on the martial stage, soaked in blood, not a soul had stepped forward. Now that the tide had turned, they were shouting louder than anyone. As all ten thousand Cheonun Sect disciples hurled themselves into the great wave of war, the Cheonbong Army collapsed completely.
Naeng Chu was already drained of all strength. He could only stare blankly as Ban Imjung and the others were crushed into the dirt by Maeng Chang-haeng's group, their heads torn from their bodies. Below, Cheonbong warriors were surrounded and buried under a tide of Cheonun disciples.
Is that Deung Chung…?
Deung Chung was being grabbed by the hair by a feminine-looking Cheonun Sect disciple and beaten with wild abandon. Deung Chung was already dead.
That's Noe Bun…
Noe Bun was having his face slapped furiously by a Cheonun Sect disciple named Wang Maeng. Even as Wang Maeng struck, he kept spitting.
"Don't act so high and mighty — go on, act high and mighty, you bastard. Try showing off one more time!"
The scene was as savage as a street brawl. And Jo Bi, Sa Ok… the Cheonbong warriors who had once toyed with Cheonun Sect disciples had all become rotting chunks of meat, corpses beneath their white armor.
Today, with the blood of the Cheonbong Army, Cheonun Sect would open a magnificent prelude — the rise of a sect in a chaotic age.
"Cheonun Sect will not perish."
"Death to those who invade us."
Everyone steeled themselves with the same resolve.