Chapter 49: Back from the Brink (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 49: Back from the Brink (2)
Thud!
‘That’s it!’
One of them went down.
Then, blood erupted from the eyes and mouth of another.
‘I knew it. Those bastards never practiced proper mental cultivation.’
With one eyeball bulging out, another monster collapsed.
‘Alright, that’s two dead.’
A third one began to tremble violently.
As if seized by a fit, it shuddered before vomiting blood and falling backward, stiff as a board. It was a textbook display of what dying from Qi Deviation looked like.
‘Three dead. Only two left.’
“Waaaaah!”
A delayed cheer erupted.
As the Blood Luo Living Jiangshi fell one by one, the crowd broke into roars of joy.
I flashed a thin smile.
But soon, that smile began to rot away.
The two Living Jiangshi I expected to die didn't. Instead, they continued to close in on me.
I tried to channel internal energy into my Yongcheon acupoints to dodge.
But there was no internal energy left to channel.
‘Uh-oh.’
Cold sweat trickled down my spine.
It was a miscalculation. I had exhausted all my internal energy while activating the Golden Qi-Poisoning Bracelet and performing the stomping techniques for my lightness skill.
If I couldn't use a technique, I’d have to move on foot.
Stagger!
As I tried to step back, my legs refused to obey. They felt as though the joints had been popped out, turning to jelly. It took two clumsy steps back before I finally managed to find my balance.
Retreating like this wouldn't be enough to evade two perfectly functional Living Jiangshi.
The most despairing part was that there was no one to help me in this situation. Everyone was staring at me with expectant eyes, waiting for me to kill the remaining monsters with another magnificent move.
‘This isn't how it was supposed to go.’
I raised my hand and shouted.
“Righteous Spirit Soars to Heaven!”
I bellowed the phrase, trying to goad them into attacking.
“Righteous Spirit Soars to Heaven!”
However, the people around me merely echoed the shout. Not a single person stepped forward to block the monsters.
Driven by desperation, I shouted what was actually on my mind.
“Kill the monsters!”
“Kill the monsters!”
Again, they only roared the words back at me, their eyes fixed solely on my form.
Ah! I realized it then.
Just how much expectation I had piled onto these people until now. Just how much they had been deceived by my hollow fame and fraudulent martial prowess.
I cast a final look toward Doyeon and the Twin Heroes of Guiyang, hoping they might help.
But as those damn Blood Lamas renewed their assault, Doyeon and the Twin Heroes only spared me a fleeting glance before refocusing on their own battle.
In that moment, the words Elder Third Rate used to say like a habit finally surfaced in my mind.
‘The only one you can trust is yourself.’
Right. Let’s trust myself and try one more time.
I attempted to move my internal energy to use the Golden Qi-Poisoning Bracelet again. Though I managed to gather a bit more energy than before, it wasn't enough to kill two of them.
As the two monsters closed the distance, despair began to coil around me.
‘Ah! Is this where it ends? My glorious life as a small fry?’
As the two monsters raised their glowing red palms, I leveled my sword. I couldn't just die like this.
Seeing this, the warriors watching from the sidelines cheered and shouted.
“Waaaaah! Kill them!”
“Red Sword Hero!”
“Silent Star Throwing Sword!”
“Young Hero Eo!”
The voices of the people chanting my titles and name sounded like a funeral dirge to my ears.
Sshhhhk!
I squeezed my eyes shut at the sound of the monsters' palms cutting through the air. There was no other way. I’d have to tank it with my body.
Just then, something whistled through the air with a peculiar sound, streaking toward the monsters' backs. Sensing the projectile, the monsters spun around to intercept it.
Kwang!
“Hahahaha! So the monsters are still alive, I see. Come, let’s have a little fun!”
An old man dressed in brown robes burst into boisterous laughter as he shouted.
Behind him, warriors wearing the uniforms of the Nine Demons Chamber flooded into the Seong Estate like a tidal wave. I spotted Ham Bi-hye and Deputy Bu among them.
‘Ah, you are my savior.’
In that moment, Ham Bi-hye looked absolutely beautiful.
‘Yes, you are the greatest beauty under heaven. I don't care what anyone else says.’
“I hope we aren't too late,” she said.
I replied with a deliberately boisterous tone.
“If you were even a moment later, I would have been turned into a meat patty by those monsters.”
Ham Bi-hye chuckled at my words.
“You’re laying it on a bit thick for someone who already killed three Blood Luo Living Jiangshi.”
Under the assault of the Nine Demons Chamber experts, the Blood Lamas were forced onto the defensive.
The old man facing two Blood Luo Living Jiangshi by himself was incredibly powerful. Though I was seeing him for the first time, it was obvious at a glance that he was at least at the Super-Peak Realm.
While it was silly to categorize martial arts into rigid realms, bored experts with high egos insisted on dividing levels of mastery to elevate their own status. Regardless, by those standards, he was definitely a Super-Peak master.
And a Super-Peak master was bound to hold a high position within the Nine Demons Chamber.
“Who is that gentleman?”
Ham Bi-hye answered with a bright smile.
“He is one of the Elders of the Nine Demons Chamber, and also my maternal grandfather. Have you heard of the Mad Demon, Seop Jung?”
No wonder he was so strong.
The Mad Demon Seop Jung was one of the Great Demons, a master ranked just below the likes of the Phoenix King, the Sword King, or the Blade King.
“Deputy Bu, what are you dawdling for? Hurry up and finish them off!”
Despite his command, the Blood Lamas were no pushovers, and a fair number of Nine Demons Chamber warriors were being cut down. However, with the Seong Estate warriors fighting for their lives and the Nine Demons Chamber experts showing no mercy, the Blood Lamas were eventually overwhelmed by numbers and slaughtered.
Boom!
The Mad Demon Seop Jung slammed one Living Jiangshi into the ground like a frog and kicked the other high into the air.
“Wild Wind, Wild Chaos!”
Seop Jung bellowed the name of his technique and swung his arms wildly toward the sky.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
A barrage of palm blasts struck the Living Jiangshi suspended in mid-air.
“It’s so embarrassing. He always has to shout his technique names and show off whenever there’s a crowd. This is why I hate traveling with Grandfather,” Ham Bi-hye muttered.
Shouting technique names while fighting was something protagonists did in martial arts novels; in reality, it was a foolish move. Experts could often discern the essence of a move just by hearing its name. Shouting it was practically a suicide mission.
Yet, the Mad Demon Seop Jung was doing exactly what one would see in a novel. Should I call it madness? Or the leisure of a true master?
Thud!
The Living Jiangshi hit the ground. Its body had been reduced to something resembling a tattered rag, its original form unrecognizable.
“What are you lot dawdling for? If you can't even handle these red ants, how can you call yourselves the Blood Wind Squad of the Nine Demons Chamber?”
At the mention of the Blood Wind Squad, the blood of everyone in the Seong Estate ran cold. The Blood Wind Squad was the personal elite unit of the Chamber Leader, Ham Jeok.
One could easily understand the nature of the Nine Demons Chamber just by looking at the Blood Wind Squad. Although the Nine Demons Chamber belonged to the Black Path, they were, in a sense, a sect that walked the Middle Path.
The Nine Demons were individuals who had reached the pinnacle of mastery through demonic arts, yet they did not kill indiscriminately. In fact, it had reached a point where even warriors of the White Path admired them. The Nine Demons had founded their own chamber because they loathed both the arrogant leaders of the White Path and the Black Fortress, which claimed to be the sovereign of the Demonic Path.
The White Path and the Nine Demons Chamber had never once engaged in open conflict. On the contrary, the Nine Demons Chamber had a history of cooperating with the White Path to oppose the Blood Cult.
During those battles against the Blood Cult, the Blood Wind Squad had shown the world the true meaning of combat. Although they were technically the fifth martial unit of the Nine Demons Chamber, they were more famous in the White Path than the first unit, the Dragon-Slaying Blood Demon Squad, because they were warriors who truly did not fear death.
In reality, it was the Demonic Cult League and the Black Fortress that frequently clashed with the White Path. Since the masters of those organizations were obsessed with hegemony, they bumped heads with the Murim Alliance at every turn.
In contrast, the Nine Demons Chamber was closer to the Middle Path in character, despite its name being associated with the Black Path.
After his outburst, the Mad Demon scanned the battlefield. Deciding his intervention was no longer needed, he walked over to where Ham Bi-hye was standing.
“Are you the lad named Eo Ja-seo?”
“Yes, Elder. It is an honor to meet you. I am Eo Ja-seo, a humble junior of the Murim.”
When I gave him a polite, respectful greeting, the Mad Demon nodded with a satisfied expression. Trying to act tough or prideful in front of an old man like this would only invite trouble.
For a simple and blunt man, use simple and blunt flattery. He was the perfect target for that maxim.
“You know your manners. Did you kill those three?”
He was referring to the Living Jiangshi.
“Yes. I managed to kill those three, but I was at my limit. If you hadn't arrived exactly when you did, Elder, I would have surely died in a foreign land. I thank you once again, Elder.”
“Bwahahaha!”
The Mad Demon let out a thunderous laugh.
“You’re the smartest lad I’ve seen in a long time. No wonder my granddaughter took an interest in you.”
After a few more compliments, the Mad Demon was beaming with joy.
The Blood Wind Squad of the Nine Demons Chamber finished mopping up the Blood Lamas. This left the Demon Subjugation Group in a rather awkward position. Having lacked the skill to contribute significantly to the fight against the Blood Lamas, they stood around like useless sacks of grain, looking quite dejected.
“Line up the Demon Subjugation Group behind me.”
I gave the instruction to the Twin Heroes of Guiyang and then turned to Seong Du-kwon.
“Today’s victory was forged by the righteous spirit of the Seong Estate. I, Eo, shall not forget this battle as long as I live. I will forever remember the courage of the Estate Lord and the Seong Estate—warriors who would rather die standing than live on their knees.”
As the Demon Subjugation Group lined up behind me, I issued my command. I knew exactly how to make us, the weakest party here, stand out the most.
“Let us pay our respects to the fallen warriors of the Seong Estate.”
I performed a cupped-fist salute, and the Demon Subjugation Group followed suit in perfect unison. As expected, even without prior practice, these low-level types acted like disciplined elites in moments like this.
One of the Seong Estate warriors, seemingly overcome with emotion at the sight of us, raised his sword and shouted.
“Righteous Spirit Soars to Heaven!”
“Seong Estate!”
“Righteous Spirit Soars to Heaven!”
“Seong Estate!”
The ones who needed to shine the most here weren't us, nor the Nine Demons Chamber—it was the Seong Estate. If the Nine Demons Chamber, who came in at the end to help, took all the credit and glory, it would be the Seong Estate and us who would be left with the short end of the stick.
In essence, I was throwing a feast for the underdogs.
Only then did many of the Seong Estate warriors begin to weep silently for their dead comrades and family.
Seong Du-kwon responded to my words. He, too, performed a deep cupped-fist salute and spoke in a loud voice.
“I, Seong Du-kwon of the Moon Shadow Slashing Blade, also bow my head in gratitude to Young Hero Eo. When word spread that the Blood Lamas were attacking, not a single sect offered to help us. Many sects claimed to have sent Demon Subjugation Groups to our estate, but not one of them dared to face the Blood Lamas. We were prepared to die a glorious, lonely death fighting them. In such a time, how could I, Seong, not bow my head to Young Hero Eo’s group, who risked death to come here and bleed with us? I solemnly swear that if Young Hero Eo ever has need of the Seong Estate’s strength, we will rush to his side regardless of the time, the place, or the opponent!”
Oh? What a windfall!
For a Murim warrior, this was an incredibly radical statement. It was a public promise to lend me his military strength whenever I desired, and since it was made in front of everyone, he was bound to keep it.
With the backing of such a solid, capable force, I could swagger around anywhere without looking out of place. Word would surely spread that Eo Ja-seo had the support of the Seong Estate, allowing me to receive the treatment of a master without having to struggle so hard to act like one.
Furthermore, the Seong Estate was bound to gain new prominence in the Murim after this incident. The fact that they weren't wiped out by the Blood Lamas but instead annihilated them would cause quite a stir.
And thanks to that, my false reputation would become even more solidified.
Still, the response had to be humble. That was the way of the small fry.
“Not at all. To have fought alongside the Seong Estate, whose righteous spirit reaches the heavens, is an honor I will cherish for the rest of my life. Your words alone fill my heart with emotion. Thank you, Estate Lord.”
As I saluted again, Seong Du-kwon stepped forward and grasped my hand firmly.
“Thank you, young brother,” he said warmly. “I spoke as the Estate Lord just now, but now I speak as a senior in the Murim. Truly, thank you. If it weren't for you, Young Hero Eo, we never would have held out until the experts of the Nine Demons Chamber arrived.”
Watching us, the Mad Demon muttered to himself.
“What a fine sight. Seeing such decent juniors after all this time makes me crave a drink. Righteousness hasn't died out in the Murim just yet. Indeed.”
While the Mad Demon said that, Deputy Bu seemed to have other thoughts as he whispered to Ham Bi-hye. His voice was loud enough that I could hear every word.
“I think Young Hero Eo would be better suited for politics than the martial path.”
“Hohoho, I was thinking the same thing.”
At their whispering, I subtly nudged Seong Du-kwon and moved to a different spot.