I Was a Madman Too (7)
“Hold them off!”
The Law Enforcement Messengers had spent countless hours thinking, and thinking again, about the Middle Kingdom. It was their great enemy, a foe whose numbers were so vast they could not even be compared. They had long debated how to face them, how to destroy them.
But in this moment, they were confronted with a situation they had never once imagined in all their years of devotion.
It was the people of the Middle Kingdom—fewer in number than they were—who were instead breaking through their ranks and forcing their way forward. For those who had given everything to the sacred being known as the Heavenly Demon, such a thing was beyond imagination.
That was why they could not react at once. How to deal with a handful of powerful enemies was, to them, a completely unknown field.
Fwaaaaaaa!
Cheong Myeong’s sword flashed like lightning and shattered the Demonic Cultists charging at him in an instant. For a strike unleashed by a Taoist’s hand, it was horrifyingly cruel and merciless. Before that sword, everything was equal.
Even the steeliest heart would flinch at the sight of a comrade being torn to pieces before their eyes. But the Demonic Cultists proved with their very lives why they were called the Demonic Cult.
“Kraaaagh!”
A cultist behind them rammed both arms into the pulverized remains of his companion, flinging the wreckage aside as he charged Cheong Myeong. His hand, blackened through and through by demonic energy, was reaching for Cheong Myeong’s face the very instant it struck.
Claaang!
The cultist’s hand was blocked by something that flew in from the side, and a sharp metallic ring rang out. Jang Il-so, who had stopped the Demonic Cultist’s claw with the rings packed tightly over his hand, swung his arm again without pause.
Crunch.
The cultist’s head exploded into fragments, spraying blood and brain matter in all directions.
“How rude.”
Jang Il-so’s brief comment dropped into a cold, dark gaze. His eyes then shifted toward the lofty pavilion beyond the Demonic Cultists still surrounding them.
At that moment, Hye Yeon and Namgung Dowi rushed past him and sprinted ahead. Jang Il-so gave a faint smile.
“Who would have thought I’d live to see the day I’d be escorted by Shaolin and Namgung? Now that is a rare experience.”
“If you’ve got time to flap your mouth, then fight!”
“...Even hearing that is rare.”
Jang Il-so shook his head as if he truly could not be bothered.
What a mad thing to do.
By now, they had broken through about half of the blocking cultists. But that also meant they were standing in the very middle of the enemy formation. Everything might look like it was going well at the moment, but...
The moment their feet stop,
they’ll be swarmed from every direction.
They had effectively walked into the enemy’s encirclement with their own feet.
The instant that happened, everything would end. Numerical superiority was sometimes nothing at all—but at other times, it became an absolute difference no one could overcome.
The moment their feet stopped and they were forced to face the Demonic Cultists around them head-on, all that would remain for them was despair.
And they know that full well.
And yet here they were: one man calmly doing that insane thing, and others following after him without question. That fact sent a chill through Jang Il-so.
If the target right now had not been the Bishop’s head, but Jang Il-so’s own head? If the one waiting on the far side had not been a Bishop, but Jang Il-so himself—what expression would he have on his face watching these people right now?
“Truly rare, indeed.”
Jang Il-so raised both arms. The bracelets on his wrists rose all at once into the air, then began spinning violently directly above his head.
“To think this Middle Kingdom...”
He spread both arms wide.
“...would contain madmen even crazier than I am!”
Kwaaaaaaaaaa!
The spinning bracelets shot forward in unison. In an instant, more than ten golden meteors blasted toward the Demonic Cultists.
“Ghk!”
The cultists dragged up every shred of demonic energy they had and struck at the bracelets flying straight at them. Or rather, they tried to. But in that very instant—
Whoooooosh!
The bracelets flying straight ahead writhed as if alive. Dodging the cultists’ incoming hands, they curved in bizarre arcs and bored into their bodies.
Crk-crk-crk-crk!
The skin, tough beyond belief, resisted for a moment, but the bracelets spinning at terrifying speed ground flesh away as they drilled deeper and deeper inside.
“Kyaaaargh!”
The bracelet that had burrowed into a man’s chest tore through his insides and burst out through his back. Without losing momentum, it then pierced through the bodies of the cultists charging from behind as well.
The bracelets whirled furiously in all directions, carrying enough force to smash apart the cultists they had pierced through and then some.
“Kraaaagh!”
“Aaaargh!”
Piercing screams erupted everywhere. It looked as if ten golden snakes were rampaging through the air.
One cultist tried to seize a bracelet flying toward his chest with both hands, but the golden ring arced upward and pierced his face instead. Soaring into the night sky, it looked almost like a massive star.
“I should keep up too, shouldn’t I? You only need to keep moving, after all.”
The momentum of those who had charged in so fiercely collapsed in an instant. Even the Mount Hua disciples running in step with them were left speechless for a moment, staring blankly at the spectacle unfolding before their eyes.
And yet, even then, there was one person who never lost sight of what he had to do.
Fwaaaaat!
Cheong Myeong’s sword severed the necks of the shuddering cultists in a single sweep.
“Oh?”
Just as Jang Il-so was about to praise him, two shadows surged in from Cheong Myeong’s left and right.
Fwaaaaat!
Fwaaaaaaat!
Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol, perfectly filling the left and right flanks, unleashed sword strikes that were unmistakably similar to Cheong Myeong’s. They were razor-simple, fatal flashes of steel—ferocious killing swordplay that allowed no waste.
The cultists’ heads flew up into the air one after another.
Then, as though by agreement, the swords of the two changed. The instant their simple slashes secured room to move, they transformed into a terrifying swirl of sword energy, scattering countless flashes in every direction.
At the tips of both blades, thousands of petals bloomed at once. Red plum blossoms swept violently through the Demonic Cultists, who had not yet recovered their footing, and drilled into their bodies. There was no way to block sword energy that filled every visible space.
And then—
“Amitabha! Taaaaaaap!”
Hye Yeon, unleashing a rough shout utterly unlike a monk, dragged up every ounce of his internal energy. The terrifying power that Shaolin had carefully cultivated and Mount Hua had brought to completion began to pour into his fist.
Bang!
A powerful stamping step!
Kiiiiiiiing!
Then, with a roar that sounded as if a massive building were collapsing all at once, a fearsome force of fist energy burst from Hye Yeon’s fist.
The fist of Buddhist law, which eradicated all evil and purified all corruption!
Hye Yeon’s Arhat Divine Fist exploded at its peak and swept through the Demonic Cultists.
Through the space he created, Yoon Jong, Jo Geol, and the rest of the Mount Hua disciples instantly drove themselves forward.
“Break through!”
“Open the way!”
Their sword strikes poured forward, again and again, tearing through the dense Demonic Cult formation in an instant. They were like a row of sharpened drills.
They did not even bother aiming at heads. What they had to do was not kill the enemy, or even bring them down. They only had to carve out one straight path leading to the pavilion.
“You damned bastards!”
The Law Enforcement Messengers clenched their teeth and surged toward Cheong Myeong. It was obvious who they had to kill first.
Bang!
But Mount Hua’s disciples, who had been forcing the path open, scattered in all directions in perfect coordination as if by prior agreement and threw themselves in front of the charging Law Enforcement Messengers.
Claaang!
The hand of a Law Enforcement Messenger and the sword of a Mount Hua disciple collided in midair, producing a huge metallic shriek.
“Get out of the way! You filthy dogs!”
“No chance!”
Jo Geol bared his teeth in a grin, taunting the Law Enforcement Messenger.
“We’re desperate too, you know!”
His eyes flicked toward Cheong Myeong’s back as he ran.
“That guy doesn’t stop moving until I’m dead, you stupid Demonic Cult bastard!”
The swordsmen of Mount Hua hammered the impatient Law Enforcement Messengers with brutal force.
“Ghk!”
“You little brats!”
The Law Enforcement Messengers were undeniably strong. But they couldn’t fight at full strength with their minds split elsewhere, and if they couldn’t commit fully to the opponent in front of them, there was no way they could show their true power.
While the Mount Hua disciples kept those Law Enforcement Messengers occupied for a moment, new faces surged forward to fill the gaps.
“Looks like it’d be a bit much for him alone.”
“Huff. So now I’m in the front again, huh? You really ought to stop using people like pack mules!”
Un Geom and Im So-byeong, leaving the rear to the Red Dogs, rushed forward.
“Hah! Hah!”
Seeing this, sparks flew in Namgung Dowi’s eyes. He was already panting like he might collapse at any moment, yet he still grit his teeth.
“The vanguard is...”
A great lion’s roar burst from his throat.
“...my place!”
Namgung Dowi, forcefully drawing up the last of his nearly depleted internal energy, sprang forward and raised his sword.
Gooooooo...
The white sword energy at the tip of his blade kept swelling in size without end. Having summoned a sword force larger than an ordinary warhorse, Namgung Dowi widened his bloodshot eyes and swung his blade in one fierce motion.
“Ooooooooooo!”
Emperor Manifested.
The ultimate stroke of the Emperor’s Sword Form, carrying the very essence of Namgung, exploded in a single instant.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaaang!
The white sword energy that dropped into the midst of the enemy unleashed a massive explosion.
“Go, Daoist!”
“Go, Cheong Myeong!”
Hearing all those cries, Cheong Myeong slammed his foot into the ground. He did not turn his head. There was no need to confirm the people left behind him. To do so would be to insult those who had opened the path.
There was only one thing he had to do: run that path to the end and arrive there.
The moment Un Geom and Im So-byeong drove back the Demonic Cultists rushing in desperately, Cheong Myeong and Jang Il-so slammed their feet into the ground at the same time, as though they had made an appointment. The two men, turned into streaks of red and black light, broke through the thinning encirclement at terrifying speed.
At last—
Bang!
Cheong Myeong seized the head of the final cultist blocking the way with one hand and smashed him into the ground. Using the rebound, he launched himself upward. The Plum Blossom Sword, raised high, shone white.
“Taaahaaaaaaap!”
Then the red sword energy burst forth and drove straight into the lower floor of the pavilion.
Kwaaaaaaaaaaang!
With a deafening blast that left the ears ringing, the pavilion—which was already half destroyed—began to collapse in an instant.
Kuararararung! Kuararararararung!
“Ah....”
Jeokil’s eyes filled with despair and terror.
Thick dust rose from the collapsed pavilion. It was proof that Cheong Myeong’s sword had finally reached where it was meant to go.
Kurururung! Kuung!
The pavilion came completely apart in the blink of an eye. The billowing dust was slowly pushed away by the wind that swept in.
And then... in the middle of the wreckage, so devastated that its original form could no longer even be imagined, a man slowly came into view.
The world fell silent.
“B-Bishop...”
Only Jeokil’s scream-like cry echoed out.
The man who heard it slowly turned his head. Even through the dust that had not yet fully settled, the coldness of his gaze was unmistakable.
Cheong Myeong met those eyes and bared his teeth like a wolf.
“Should I say I’m glad to see you?”
The Plum Blossom Sword gave off a sword cry so chilling it seemed to cut the air itself.