Chapter 192
Chapter 192: The Reason for Chivalry (2)
Bae Dal-pae was smiling toward him.
A sincere smile, one Dong Bong-soo rarely showed, formed at the corner of his lips.
— As you well know, the current Martial World is corrupt.
Tch
At Bae Dal-pae's words, Dong Bong-soo's snow-white teeth were revealed. A very heroic and natural expression—and yet an instinctive one.
— Originally, is it not so that pus and insects, maggots, swarm in a rotted wound?
— How much?
A question worthy of Dong Bong-soo.
— Enough to require a great physician.
The answer Dong Bong-soo had wanted.
Originally, a hero is like a physician.
Only the method of treatment differs.
— Shall we head outside now?
[A commission has been submitted to Hero Gate.]
Dong Bong-soo reviewed once more the quest he had obtained from the earlier conversation with Bae Dal-pae.
【Guild】 First Commission: The goddess of fate has led you to command a group. That too is the destiny of a hero.Now, the first mission has been entrusted to you and those who follow you.
This was the first 'prescription' for the Martial World here.
․ Disband the Red-Red Alliance.
├─ Progress: 0%
└─ Reward: History +1, Bae Dal-pae's Trust Level slight increase
Red-Red Alliance.
According to Bae Dal-pae:
It was a group formed from the merger of all the 'bandits' near Azure Dragon Lake that he had failed to fully clean up when he arrived here.
There couldn't be a more fitting quarry for bringing things full circle.
Dong Bong-soo raised the forsythia flower in his hand once.
A rough hand that had gone through countless cycles of blood staining and drying and washing and staining again, of being wiped clean, of wounds opening and healing and gushing blood and healing again.
No matter how he turned the hand this way and that, it was clean now.
Only after confirming all of that did the flower come into view.
He had certainly been holding a forsythia flower.
Indeed, it was clear.
What was needed right now……
A short while later.
He left Gangdo with empty hands.
That day, in a corner of an alley in the Gangdo marketplace, a small forsythia was planted.
***
The Red-Red Alliance.
The various kinds of foul-smelling refuse—like oil and water, utterly incapable of mixing—from the Rainbow Lake had at last merged together.
The reason was not extraordinary.
It had been plain as day that if they did not unite, they would all die.
Originally, the bandits based at Rainbow Lake had been exceedingly peaceful.
Sometimes receiving the scraps that the garbage of Gangdo had eaten and tossed away.
Sometimes robbing escort agencies that passed through the vicinity without knowing any better.
Sometimes abducting nomads from the border region with Northern Yan not far from here, plundering and raping.
It had truly been a peaceful era……
Then one day, a meteorite fell, and from that day on, the peace of this place was shattered.
When Plum Blossom Stronghold first disappeared, they thought it was the fault of a meteorite that had fallen in an unlucky spot. But then one stronghold became two, two became four, four became eight.
And eventually.
Of the Ten Mountains, Twelve Waters and Twenty-Four Horses that had dominated the vicinity of Rainbow Lake, no fewer than twelve of the mountain bandits, water bandits, and horse bandits had been subjugated.
Twelve out of forty-six.
While there had been cases before where one or two mountain strongholds or water strongholds were exterminated or merged due to conflicts over each other's interests, there had never been a case where twelve were smashed apart in such a short span of time.
At first, nobody knew how things were unfolding.
They simply thought the meteorite that had struck the vicinity was no ordinary meteorite.
However, it was soon revealed that the meteorite that had struck them was not a meteorite but a single person—and with that, the fact that every mountain stronghold and water stronghold along that person's path of movement had been wrecked.
The destination of the path was far too clear.
The Lawless City, Gangdo.
And so the bandits were reassured.
Whoever that person was, if he had entered Gangdo, he would no longer be able to run rampant.
Whether he died there or had been keeping a low profile from the start, it would come to that.
However,
The rumors that arrived thereafter shattered their wishes to pieces.
— Gangdo has been pacified!
It was something unimaginable, something that should never have been.
And then.
The stories that came in one by one additionally made them tremble all the more.
— A man called Kim Rae-won swept clean Gangdo's Eastern Road and Western Road overnight!
— Hero Gate Leader Kim Rae-won has joined hands with the authorities and is sweeping away every evil in Gangdo!
The security vacuum and disorder that arose from Gangdo's existence.
For the bandit hordes of the Red-Red Alliance who survived on the crumbs of the resulting lawless chaos, it was news like a bolt from the blue.
It was around that time that all the bandits of Rainbow Lake came to understand.
That as long as Kim Rae-won existed, the peaceful days would never return to them.
And so it was formed.
The massive alliance formed from the total convergence of thirty-four strongholds of mountain bandits, water bandits, and horse bandits—the forty-six minus twelve—the Red-Red Alliance was formed for their own peace.
And with a trump card weapon at that.
***
An atmosphere entirely unlike anything before now hung over Rainbow Lake.
Not only were everyone's pupils laced with tense bloodshot veins and dark shadows draped heavily beneath their eyes, but from every single person there emanated a resolute energy that one might only sense from soldiers preparing for battle, filling the entire vicinity of the Red-Red Lake.
The clouds of war.
A ferocious energy of the kind one might feel only on a battlefield where tens of thousands are being torn apart was flowing from the various weapons the bandits were holding.
Spears, axes, halberds, battle-axes, sabers, swords, bows, and more.
"Alright. At this level even that monster bastard wouldn't dare come charging in recklessly……."
The overlord of the Red-Red Alliance, Underworld Stronghold Leader Heo Tang-hyang, murmured quietly while sweeping his gaze across the deployment of the bandits from the peak of the summit.
"Are all the formation masters holding their positions?"
At his words, the Alliance's Guardian, Spiked Tooth Stronghold Leader Ak Sa-bi, nodded.
"That they are."
Formation masters, or formation Taoists. Shortened simply to formation-do.
Their numbers were by nature bound to be few. Martial arts could be achieved to a certain degree through training, but one had to be born receiving at least some measure of blessing from each of the Yin-Yang and Five Elements to be able to master all eight paths of formations or formation-do.
For that reason, these were individuals who, in a different way from the extreme powerhouses called Cultivation Seekers, had set foot in an unfathomable realm impossible to achieve by ordinary means.
That was to say, they were exceedingly scarce and of strategic value—and furthermore, their worth was beyond measure.
However,
No matter how high that worth, it could only be lesser than the worth of a life.
The Red-Red Alliance, in preparation for the inevitable invasion of Hero Gate, had poured out all the wealth accumulated during the peaceful times to hire a considerable number of freelance formation Taoists from Formation Tower as 'mercenaries.'
"But you know. If that bastard doesn't come, wouldn't everything we're doing right now be completely pointless? Every last bit of it."
Ak Sa-bi tilted his head with only one cheek twitching.
At that, Heo Tang-hyang turned his head toward him.
"That won't happen."
"How can you be so certain?"
"A few days ago I sent a spy into Gangdo."
Heo Tang-hyang immediately turned his gaze back in the direction of Gangdo and relayed the results of the reconnaissance.
"Gangdo is already not the kind of city we knew it to be."
"Then what is it?"
"The spy said this. It was far too quiet."
"Quiet? What's wrong with that?"
"That is precisely what's wrong. When has Gangdo ever been quiet?"
"……."
"It was because Gangdo was noisy that we could peacefully receive its leftovers."
Heo Tang-hyang then stated his conclusion with even greater certainty.
"If Gangdo has fully recovered its stability, who do you think will be next?"
Even without needing to finish the sentence, everyone understood.
After Gangdo, it will be here.
Though it was a conversation between just Heo Tang-hyang and Ak Sa-bi, it was a conclusion that the dozens of other stronghold leaders deployed in the vicinity could not help but agree with.
This place, where mountain strongholds, water strongholds, and horse bandit strongholds of every kind were crammed together like an anthill.
The next target of those evildoers of Hero Gate was far too clear.
The conviction that they were sure to come, though when was unknown, was shared among all the bandits.
With that conversation concluded, no further voices flowed from this place.
Instead, only the cawing of crows and a bleak atmosphere pressed down upon the entire vicinity of Rainbow Lake.
Then, at a certain moment—
"Aah!"
A short scream shattering the peace of this place echoed across the approach road to the southwestern peak. It was precisely the position where the Demon Horse Bandit Corps had been deployed.
"They're here! They actually came! The bastards actually came!"
"Attack! Attack instead of running your mouth, you idiots!"
"Strike! Kill!"
"The enemy's here!"
The bandit horde that had been holding its breath, waiting only for that moment.
It did not matter whether it was on land, on water, or on horseback.
From every area near Rainbow Lake, scorching energy erupted simultaneously together with dust and water spray.
The number was still unknown, but Hero Gate had appeared—and for the sake of their own survival, the bandits had no choice but to slaughter their enemies with everything they had.
"Raaaah!"
"Kill them!"
"You filthy wretched scoundrels! Die!"
"How many came? How many came, you goddamn pieces of trash!"
"For the women, I'll tear open their lower halves! For the men, I'll rip out every last testicle and shove them up their own backsides!"
Spewing every curse and foul oath imaginable, the bandits swarmed in droves toward the place where the first scream had been heard.
The Red-Red Alliance, having concentrated all its forces here, could no longer recover if it lost this single battle. This place had to become the grave of Hero Gate.
Bang!
An explosion erupted across the area where the Demon Demon Horse Bandit Corps had been circling on horseback. Every person on the battlefield perceived something.
It was far removed from the destruction caused by ordinary Energy Waves.
What could it have been?
Before the question could even continue, a second and third explosion were heard in rapid succession.
Bang! Bang!
It was not the entrance to the peak where the Demon Horse Bandit Corps had been.
The second rang out from mid-slope of the peak, the third from directly below the summit.
Had the enemy secretly infiltrated and risen up all at once?
It was impossible to know precisely.
But the explosions were already striking various places across the battlefield.
Boom, bang, BOOM-BOOM, CRACK—
The forms of the thunderous sounds varied, but the result was the same.
Every area was being breached, every battle situation was being trampled.
No matter how many days they had spent preparing, the entire deployment across the vicinity of Rainbow Lake was collapsing all at once.
The Alliance could mount no response, no countermeasure.
"Attack! Attack! Attack, you worthless bastards!"
Heo Tang-hyang shouted and shouted, but the tide of battle was lurching sharply.
"The formations! What happened to the formations? What are the formation Taoists doing, goddamnit!"
Beginning with the Demon Horse Bandit Corps, the formations of Green Forest Stronghold, Blood Wind Lake Squad, Dark Bird Bandit Corps, Flowing Water Bandit Stronghold, and Night Moon Rainbow Stronghold could be seen collapsing before his eyes.
And then.
Only then did Heo Tang-hyang realize.
That the enemy was a single person.
'He' was breaking through the Heaven-and-Earth Net the Red-Red Alliance had constructed. He was in the midst of trampling it recklessly.
The Soul Demon Horse Bandit Army had charged at 'him' in formation, but the instant they closed in, every single one of them turned to dust.
They had boasted that even if the leaders of the Ten Great Sects came, they could hold them off…… yet they were crumbling.
Nothing could be done.
"……."
Words would not come.
Heo Tang-hyang could only watch. Their peace and well-being collapsed in an instant.
Powerlessness.
An emotion he had never felt once in his life dominated his entire body.
Before his eyes in that state, something appeared. It was someone's afterimage.
Boom—
A short explosive sound.
In an instant, his consciousness vanished.
The Red-Red Alliance had been laboring under a misconception.
That if they built embankments, dug drainage channels, and erected solid structures, they could block a storm.
But a storm merely passes through.
No questions, no answers, no exchange of any kind holds any value.
Let alone when that storm is Dong Bong-soo.
The natural disaster that was Dong Bong-soo swept over the entirety of Rainbow Lake.
In an instant……