Chapter 30
Chapter 30
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 30
Chapter Title: Wolves' Hunting Ground
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"The men form the first line of defense around the campfire. Dang Yak-ran takes the second line. Bing-seol is last. No matter what happens, don't leave the campfire."
Heuk Do-san said in a low voice.
It wasn't because she lacked martial arts. Right now, Bing-seol was their only hope of finding a way back to the Central Plains. If anyone survived to the end, it had to be with her.
And one more thing—people focused on how he had set up double lines of defense.
Did he think even he himself, the 18 Arhats monk, the Demonic Cult's Seventh Star Lord, and the tough Yeom Jin-sang with his resilient vitality might not hold them off?
"Anything else?"
Dang Yak-ran asked.
"What do you mean?"
"Like how to fight the Blood Wolves. I've hunted tigers, but this is my first time warring against so many Blood Wolves."
"Warring?"
"That's the only word for it..."
Heuk Do-san stared at Dang Yak-ran for a moment.
Thinking about it, it seemed a very fitting expression. That old mercenary from Ara had once said a single Blood Wolf was scarier than any martial artist. With fifty of them, what else could this be but war?
"I've never fought Blood Wolves before either."
"..."
"But there's one thing I know for sure. No matter how much you've hated each other in the past, right now, to survive, we have to watch each other's backs."
A chilly silence fell for a moment.
Human affairs are unpredictable. Just a day ago, they had been waiting for each other to fall asleep, sharpening their knives in their hearts. And now, they had to protect each other's backs to survive.
Was that even possible?
The Righteous Alliance and the Demonic Cult had been mortal enemies at war for over a decade.
The grudges piled up over those years must run deep. It would be fortunate if they didn't stab each other in the back amid the chaos. People shook their heads.
"How did you survive Mount Tai?"
Gong Cheon-ak asked.
"You want to hear more?"
"I've got to know the outcome, right? Just forgetting it feels like I didn't wipe my ass properly—it's nagging at me."
"On the sixth day, we tied the captured enemy leader and wounded comrades to trees and ran. We got as far away as possible while the wolves devoured them."
"You mad bastard!"
Gong Cheon-ak glared with bulging eyes.
Hyeon-gak's eyes widened in shock.
Dang Yak-ran's face hardened, and Bing-seol turned to ice. Only Yeom Jin-sang shot him a look that said, "That's just like you."
Heuk Do-san, who had anticipated such reactions, continued without a hint of agitation.
"Then we circled the mountain, facing the wind head-on as we returned. Next, we lay flat in the grass and aimed arrows at what we guessed was the leader."
By the time he said that, Heuk Do-san had nocked a bamboo arrow and drawn it with all his might.
The horn bow bent as if it might snap. The arrow was precisely aimed at the one in front, slobbering as it approached.
*Twang!*
The bowstring exploded like it might break.
With a yelp, the Blood Wolf leaped into the air and fell. It seemed its body had reflexively sprung up from the sudden impact.
"Hit!"
Dang Yak-ran shouted.
In that instant, the fallen beast rose again. With the arrow pierced clean through its left shoulder.
"N-No way!"
Dang Yak-ran groaned.
An arrow through the body, yet it stood firm. Its size was no joke, so maybe that explained it.
But after tasting steel, shouldn't it tuck tail and flee?
Instead, it lowered its upper body and bared its fangs. The drool dripping between its teeth looked ominous.
The others nearby lowered their bodies too, hackles raised.
"Looks like we just pissed it off."
Gong Cheon-ak said.
"Fighting them was going to piss them off anyway."
At that moment, the beasts suddenly leaped and charged at the group. Heuk Do-san quickly nocked a second arrow.
Quadrupeds have narrow shoulders, obscured by their heads, making it impossible to hit the heart head-on. The nape was the next best vital spot after the heart, but beasts instinctively lower their heads just before attacking, so even that was tricky.
There was only one way: split their skulls. But a wooden arrowhead couldn't manage that.
*Twang!*
The second arrow fired.
It flew straight into the gaping maw of the lead charger, piercing its throat and bursting out the nape.
With just a couple strides left, it leaped into the air and fell with a yelp.
It lay twitching at Heuk Do-san's feet. The spasms of imminent death.
By then, the other Blood Wolves had all reached the campfire.
"Attack!"
Heuk Do-san's shout rang out. Hyeon-gak, Gong Cheon-ak, and Yeom Jin-sang sprang forward elastically.
Heuk Do-san fired arrows in rapid succession.
He yanked arrows pre-stuck in the ground, nocked, drew, and released—the motions flowed like a single seamless action.
*Twang, twang!* The sounds echoed loudly for a moment, and in the blink of an eye, three more went down with arrows in their throats.
Perfect accuracy, no misses.
In that gap, one leaped a full zhang high right in front of him. Astonishingly, it passed straight through the blazing fire pit and pounced on Heuk Do-san.
In an instant, he smashed its skull with the bow. Infused with his power into the sturdy demon-beast horn, it should've shattered the bone.
Yet it clamped down on the bow and dropped.
Unable to bear the heavy weight, Heuk Do-san stepped back. At the same time, his left hand yanked an arrow from the ground and thrust it through the nape.
*Thud!*
Hot blood sprayed his face. He felt the strength drain from the beast as it shook the bow in its jaws.
No time to wipe the blood—he nocked another arrow and fired desperately to the left.
*Whoosh—thunk!*
The arrow buried deep in the mouth of the one charging from the left.
Having dropped six in a flash, Heuk Do-san used the brief respite to scan around.
Hyeon-gak, Gong Cheon-ak, and Yeom Jin-sang fought fiercely, using the campfire as their line, each with their weapons.
"Hold your positions. If the line breaks, we're done!"
* * *
Hyeon-gak's martial arts were explosive.
With dark trails, his staff lashed out amid deafening blasts each time. As if unleashing pent-up rage all at once, he smashed every Blood Wolf in reach. Skull was best; if not, belly, shoulder, muzzle—whatever.
Yelp! Yelp!
Sharp cries rang out in succession.
Blood poured from the mouths and ears of those struck in the skull as they collapsed. Brain trauma, instant death. Those hit in limbs, shoulders, or backs writhed in spasms on the ground.
Could a warrior's staff really kill or convulse them in one blow?
It was due to the Inner Heavy Hand Method, exploding true qi at the impact point.
But the staff work wasn't flawless—a few fled with fractures.
Hyeon-gak kicked the fleeing ones' muzzles and bellies while smashing the limbs of healthy attackers swarming from all sides with his white oak staff.
It looked like random staff flailing and frantic kicks, but it was actually the essence of the Shaolin Staff Method: Linked 18 Strikes.
This technique, delivering eighteen blows in one rotation of the staff, had terrified Demonic Cultists during the Righteous-Demonic Great War.
Yet despite its profound principles, it appeared as if a demon from hell was rampaging.
Gone was the monk who chanted sutras at every turn and spared even small lives.
"If not me, who will go to hell!"
If Hyeon-gak battered Blood Wolves in a frenzy with his staff, Gong Cheon-ak employed more refined tactics befitting his Seventh Star Lord status.
First, he had power.
The six-foot giant with massive muscles ripped open huge Blood Wolves' bellies with each spear thrust.
The fool charging with jaws wide, unaware of the danger, suffered the spear piercing throat to guts.
For those airborne, the sharpened tip burst out their backs. Without pulling it out, Gong Cheon-ak stabbed the next. Before the first even died, the second met the same fate.
A single Blood Wolf weighed at least 150 jin. Monstrous strength.
Only after skewering the second did he stomp them down and yank the spear free like extracting a bandit tattoo. Then he glared around with burning eyes.
He'd finished six or so in moments, but the Blood Wolves still swarmed like a pack.
"Come on—I'll take as many as you got!"
Yeom Jin-sang focused less on killing extras and more on not getting bitten. His fight was thus defensive, almost like fleeing.
But when he suddenly spun sideways and axed down, it was lightning-fast.
Yelp!
The Blood Wolf struck in the spine screamed, leaped, and fell. Even then, it flailed desperately to live.
But like a shrimp on its side, it twitched busily without rising.
Without Hyeon-gak's Inner Heavy Hand on the crown or Gong Cheon-ak's thick spear through the torso, instant-killing these beasts in one hit was impossible.
So he targeted the spine.
Man or beast, a broken spine meant no standing.
Yelp!
Another fell in a blink.
This one missed slightly—it rose frantically, back bleeding profusely. Then it sprang and bit Yeom Jin-sang's side. A searing bite.
"Gah!"
The Blood Wolf shook its head viciously.
Instinct to widen the wound and stun prey. In seconds, his side was soaked in blood.
Shocked, Yeom Jin-sang axed at its spine again.
But the Blood Wolf, tasting the stone axe, wasn't easy. It clung to his side while circling rapidly behind with hind legs.
Yeom Jin-sang spun with it biting, the wolf dodging the axe by whirling faster.
"Damn it!"
Desperate, Yeom Jin-sang hurled the axe and grabbed the muzzle with both hands. He slammed his body down on it while gnawing the nape like a feral dog ripping dog meat.
Fur flew, flesh tore after a couple bites—his face blood-smeared.
The ambushed Blood Wolf screamed and tried to flee.
But Yeom Jin-sang held on. Only after five bites did it go limp.
No time to savor victory—he stood hastily and lifted his shirt flap.
Blood poured, revealing clear fang marks. He'd twisted at the crucial moment, so no organ damage.
Still, no light wound. Especially bitten by Blood Wolf fangs—untreated, who knew what disease.
"Damn! Damn! Damn!"
In that moment, Yeom Jin-sang sensed something odd from the pack. Many fighting Hyeon-gak, Gong Cheon-ak, and Heuk Do-san suddenly eyed him, growling.
"You rotten—!"
War Sword.
Literally, a sword born on the battlefield. Whether secret arts from martial sects or the eighteen military weapons arts—it didn't matter.
In blood-soaked battlefields, they refine and mutate based on personal traits, builds, habits, becoming entirely new martial arts.
In places where life and death flip hourly, purely experiential, utterly practical, personal techniques.
Untethered to any sect, wanderers called them War Sword. Though termed "sword," it was optimal killing with any cold weapon—blade, spear, all.
Out of arrows, Heuk Do-san drew his waist dagger and axe, gripping one in each hand. Short weapons meant close-quarters one-hit kills. And that was his specialty.
Heuk Do-san slashed the nape of one airborne from the left with the dagger, then chopped the hindneck with the axe. He whirled like a gale, smashing another's muzzle with the axe, slicing its side with the dagger.
*Thud! Thud!*
Yelp! Yelp!
Every impact ended in a Blood Wolf's scream. Hot blood sprayed everywhere, of course.
In a blink, he'd felled over ten. He scanned around again.
Gong Cheon-ak, Hyeon-gak, and Yeom Jin-sang held their roles well amid the blood-soaked dead.
Yet the clearing's numbers hadn't thinned. The pitch-black white oak forest kept vomiting more dark Blood Wolves.
'Not fifty!'
Even with deep inner arts, human stamina has limits. Especially expending qi explosively.
They'd mowed them down at first, but motions slowed over time.
Sure enough, Yeom Jin-sang already bled profusely from his side.
Spotting the injury, Blood Wolves swarmed him. Panicked, he flailed the axe wildly, dodging everywhere.
"Don't break formation!"
Heuk Do-san's shout was futile. Yeom Jin-sang, mind broken, drifted from the fire—soon pushed to the clearing's center.
Suicide. Instantly, he was isolated, surrounded.
From then, things grew dire. As he swung the axe in afterimages at leapers, one latched onto his left leg.
The Blood Wolf that bit his thigh shook its head hugely, ancient instinct.
Mind reeling, Yeom Jin-sang lost reason. No forms, no power—just mad axe swings.
"You stupid bastard!"
Heuk Do-san shot forward.