Chapter 214
Chapter 214
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 214
Chapter Title: The Demon Extermination War (7)
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The forces of the Righteous Path Alliance were formidable.
The swords of Huashan were sharp, the swords of Wudang were gentle, and the martial arts of Shaolin were profound.
And that was not all.
“Lay down your weapons, and I will spare your lives!”
*Swish!*
“I said, lay down your weapons!”
*Slice!*
“Hmph, I offer mercy, yet none will surrender… Truly, you do not value your lives!”
*Stab.*
“By the Primeval Lord of Heaven!”
*Thrust!*
Though his words offered surrender, the merciless sword of the Alliance Lord gave no time for it, shattering their formation in an instant.
The fifty-odd peerless masters supporting him were just as ruthless.
Among them, the most conspicuous was Jin Gung, the Alliance Lord’s prized disciple.
“Rat!”
“Ox!”
“Tiger!”
“Rabbit!”
He was unleashing the Blood Plum Blossom Sword while calling out the animals of the Zodiac Warriors, one by one.
Unlike the Alliance Lord, who at least offered surrender with his words, this one unleashed a killing sword from the very start.
*Just as I thought. He’s a complete lunatic.*
I didn’t know the details, but it seemed he was commanding them to reincarnate as one of the twelve zodiac animals when they died.
In any case, thanks to the efforts of the Righteous Path Alliance, the warriors of the War King Gate were able to annihilate the enemy.
It was the moment the greatest crisis since my reincarnation into the martial world had passed.
***
After the battle ended.
I had a private meeting with the Lord of the Righteous Path Alliance, who had led the reinforcements.
In terms of rank, I was far below him, but on this battlefield, I was the only one who could represent the Nine Dragons Fortress.
The problem was…
“You scoundrel! Countless people nearly died because of your petty confidence!”
The moment I sat down, a thunderous roar fell upon me.
“We were fighting well, but the difference in our forces was just too great…”
“For the master of a gate, a ruler of a region, to be so foolish! If this were Huashan, I’d have sentenced you to thirty years of wall-gazing. Your late grandfather would be turning in his grave if he saw this!”
A vein throbbed on my forehead.
What does my grandfather have to do with this?
“Hey! What gives you the right to complain when you showed up three days late?! If the Righteous Path Alliance had arrived on time as you say, would any of this have happened?!”
The Nine Dragons Fortress and the Righteous Path Alliance had a mutual defense pact.
That’s why, before the war began, I had borrowed the Underworld Sect’s carrier pigeons to coordinate our future strategy with the Alliance.
I told them we, the War King Gate, would buy time, and asked them to send reinforcements by a specific date.
But the Alliance’s forces didn’t arrive on time, so I had to call them to Gansu through Yong Ma-san just to speed up their arrival by a little.
“If I hadn’t asked that bald man to hurry you along, all my men would be dead. You, Lord Alliance Master, are the main culprit in this disaster!”
“You, you insolent…!”
At a loss for words, the Alliance Lord coughed and his face reddened.
“Ahem, war requires perfect preparation. We were delayed because we were taking care of this and that.”
“…”
“…”
After a moment of silence, the Alliance Lord asked about the war situation.
“So, what is the state of things? On my way here, I saw Hanzhong was swarming with common folk…”
“Ah, about that…”
I slowly and meticulously explained the events of the past days.
I told him about how everyone in Hanzhong helped with the war preparations, the strategy to burn down Lanzhou and the rest of southern Gansu to disrupt the enemy’s supply lines, and the battles where we annihilated the enemy’s vanguard and detached forces.
After listening to my roughly thirty-minute explanation, the Alliance Lord nodded.
“Hmm, you have suffered greatly. To have fought so well against such a force is a great achievement indeed.”
“Please repeat those exact words to the Fortress Lord once the war is over. We need to at least get compensation for the lives of our fallen men.”
“…I will do so.”
“Thank you.”
“So, what should we do from here?”
“Why are you asking me? You should be the one to decide, Lord Alliance Master.”
Until now, I had done as I pleased because it was just us. But now that the forces of the Righteous Path Alliance had arrived, the commander from now on would be the Alliance Lord.
No matter how much of a peerless commander and rising master I was, the elderly veterans and disciples of the Righteous Path Alliance would never listen to me.
However, the Alliance Lord seemed to think differently.
“Whose words should I listen to, if not the one who has been on the battlefield, risking his life? Speak your mind freely.”
“…Well, if you put it that way.”
This was for the best. I was worried this gathering of Daoists and monks would screw things up.
I took a map from my robes, spread it out, and pointed to our current location.
“We need to buy time. By slowly retreating from here to Hanzhong.”
“Have we not bought enough time? We are here now, so that objective has been achieved. We should rather ride this momentum and crush those bastards…”
“Lord Alliance Master, how many days can you go without eating?”
“Hmm, about two months…”
“Don’t lie to me.”
Did he really think he could pull a fast one on a former expert bullshitter?
“If I circulate my energy and absorb the essence of nature, I can last for a month.”
“What about the Alliance members outside?”
“It varies depending on their level, but since they are disciples of Buddhism and Daoism, accustomed to fasting as part of their training, they should be able to last at least a fortnight.”
“Then what about the demonic fiends of the Ten Demon Alliance, who have never gone hungry a day in their lives?”
“Don’t tell me?!”
“That’s right. We burn the fields and kill any animal we see to starve those fiends.”
A look at world history reveals one truth.
The madmen are the ones who win wars.
Hitler was one, and so were the Mongol armies of Genghis Khan.
And I would be one, too.
***
The headquarters of the Ten Demon Alliance, nestled deep within the Tianshan Mountains, was a picture of serene antiquity.
That was to be expected, as they were using the very same temple halls of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, which had stood for over a thousand years.
In particular, the thick steel gate, personally forged by the first Heavenly Demon and which had guarded the main entrance for a millennium, was the pride of the Ten Demon Alliance.
But today, that pride was being brutally shattered.
*BOOM!*
A sound echoed from the main gate.
The unique vibration made it sound almost grotesque.
“…”
*Gulp.*
Watching the scene, a member of the Ten Demon Alliance couldn’t hide his fear and swallowed hard.
And he wasn’t the only one.
“The Heavenly Demon will protect us! There is no need to be afraid!”
Even the one commanding the Alliance members was shouting with a tremor in his voice.
But that didn’t last long.
*BOOM!*
After a few more strikes, a clear handprint was seared into the main gate.
The Alliance members flinched, wanting to block it with their bodies, but even that was impossible.
*Sizzle.*
By some means, the gate had been heated until it glowed cherry-red.
In fact, just moments ago, Alliance members who had mastered extreme yang arts had charged forward to block the gate, only to melt away.
*BOOM!*
Another deafening roar echoed.
And then.
*CRASH!*
Unable to endure any longer, the steel gate melted, and a hole large enough for several people to pass through was torn open.
*Thud, thud.*
A middle-aged man walked in, exuding the majesty of a demon king risen from hell.
It was Bukgung Baek, known as the Heaven and Earth Combat King, the man who had slaughtered the most demonic practitioners in this war.
He scanned the hall with bloodshot eyes.
“Where is the Alliance Leader?”
“…”
For some reason, his question carried a sense of urgency.
The Sword Sect Leader of the Ten Demon Alliance drew his blade.
“What are you all doing! Kill that insolent bastard!”
*The demons reign eternal! The Divine Cult is undefeated—!*
*Fwoosh.*
A blistering inferno, hot as the flames of hell, engulfed the headquarters.
***
In terms of results, the delaying tactic was working perfectly.
Day by day, the agony of starvation began to etch itself onto the faces of the Ten Demon Alliance members.
It was only natural.
The journey from the Tianshan Mountains, where they had started, to this place in Shaanxi was five thousand li.
No matter how many provisions they had brought, they were bound to run out.
To prevent this, they had gathered supplies in Lanzhou, but I had plundered them before they arrived.
The strategy itself was certainly effective. The problem was…
“You’re telling us to leave the land we’ve farmed our whole lives? Where are we supposed to go?!”
“You’re going to set it on fire?! No! You’ll have to kill me first!”
“No, you bastards! Aaargh!”
Because we were burning perfectly good fields, the people were collapsing, clutching the backs of their necks.
“…This is quite bitter.”
The bigger problem was that this job had fallen to me.
Since I had sent the entire War King Gate to the rear for transport duty, I had nothing else to do.
Thanks to that, I had become the designated villain, absorbing every curse and insult.
Still, what could I do?
“Now, now, please don’t be so angry. Listen to what I have to…”
*Thwack!*
I caught a rock that was thrown at me and cleared my throat.
A dignified voice was best for these situations.
“Ah, where are my manners? I have not introduced myself. I am Jin Mujeon, the Master of the War King Gate.”
As I presented the token proving my identity, the people hastily knelt.
Of course, there was no way these slash-and-burn farmers, who didn’t even pay taxes, would know who I was.
They were just groveling, assuming I was someone of high status.
They burst into tears and pleaded their case.
“Oh, my lord! How… how could you do this to us? If it’s about taxes, from next year we’ll…”
“This isn’t about taxes. The demonic practitioners of the Ten Demon Alliance will soon be upon us, which is why I’m telling you to leave.”
In truth, this was as much about evacuating the people as it was a scorched-earth strategy.
In an age without internet or even newspapers, they were stuck in these deep mountain valleys, likely having never heard news of the war.
“Is… is that true? Still…”
“If you go to Hanzhong, you will be given enough grain to last until next year’s harvest, as well as fertile land and a decent house to live in. You will no longer have to toil with slash-and-burn farming.”
“We will pack up our families and leave for Hanzhong immediately.”
Evacuating the riverside villages, which were not settlements of slash-and-burn farmers, was a bit easier.
“…They’re already gone.”
I didn’t know where they’d heard the news, but there was no one left.
*Fwoosh.*
Thanks to that, I finished the job by simply setting fire to the cultivated lands.
After burning five villages, I arrived at the Righteous Path Alliance’s camp.
It seemed we had been pushed back about fifty li since morning.
“We held up well.”
Right now, we had only one objective.
To buy time.
That was why the forces of the Righteous Path Alliance thoroughly avoided confronting the Ten Demon Alliance’s main army.
When the enemy tried to advance, we would feign a fight to stall for time before retreating.
When they tried to launch a surprise attack, we would immediately fall back.
But you couldn’t just run away.
*Even retreating is a skill.*
We kept the demonic fiends on edge by feigning that we could attack at any moment.
Thanks to this, the members of the Ten Demon Alliance were forced to maintain their tension and advance slowly.
Honestly, we could win if we fought them head-on.
We had the absolute master, the Lord of the Righteous Path Alliance.
Frankly, if he just charged in, cloaked in his Purple Mist Aura, they would have no choice but to pray to the heavens for salvation while waiting for his internal energy to run out.
You could think of him as a sort of nuclear weapon.
The reason we were employing such a troublesome strategy, even though we could win in a direct fight, was simple.
Lives.
It was to minimize our own casualties while defeating the demonic practitioners.
When there was a better way, there was no need to senselessly throw away lives.
And if many of the Ten Demon Alliance members surrendered, all the better.
*I think I’ll destroy their dantians and make them work without pay for about ten years.*
I had even thought of such a merciful and generous punishment.
Just when it seemed everything was going according to plan, a variable appeared one day, quite suddenly.