They’ll Handle It Themselves (5)
Geum Yang-baek stared at the scene spread out before him with a stunned expression.
Th-that... Maninbang...
It was one-sided. Maninbang, the very name that inspired more fear in Guangdong than even the Four Great Evil Lords, was being toyed with in the truest sense of the word.
How can this be...?
It had only been a few years since he had seen Cheong Myeong’s skill with his own eyes at the martial arts tournament.
Of course he had known he’d grown stronger. Naturally he would have. If someone with that much talent didn’t keep improving as time passed, that would have been strange.
But this level? He had never even imagined it. The Cheong Myeong he had just seen for himself had soared far beyond anything he had expected, by a ridiculous margin.
If one were to swear on it, the sect that knew better than anyone just how terrifying Maninbang was had to be Hainan. And if one were to swear again, Geum Yang-baek had never once seen Maninbang get beaten this mercilessly.
“Sect Leader.”
Just what sort of martial art had the Mount Hua Divine Dragon learned...?
“Sect Leader!”
At the urgent voice calling him, Geum Yang-baek started and turned to the side. An elder was gripping his arm and shaking him anxiously.
“Please give the order, Sect Leader!”
“O-order?”
“Can’t you see it?”
Only then did the situation around Geum Yang-baek come clearly into view. The Heavenly Friends Alliance disciples were already crashing into the Changgui Squad at incredible speed.
“We have to go too!”
“R-right! N-no, wait! But the signal...”
Then it happened.
Baek Cheon, who had been charging ahead, thrust his sword high into the air and swept it downward. Red sword energy burst from the tip like fireworks, then scattered across Hainan’s sky in a blizzard of plum blossoms.
The moment Geum Yang-baek saw that while crouched low, he shot to his feet.
That was the signal! What signal in the world could be more obvious than that?
“Attack! Now! Seize that ship!”
“Yes!”
The Hainan sect members who had been lying in ambush rose all at once at Geum Yang-baek’s thunderous shout.
But before they could even take a step, Gwak Hwan-so and the martial brothers ambushed on the other side had already charged out ahead of them.
“Run faster! We strike them in one rush!”
“Yes, Senior Brother! Aaaaaah!”
Geum Yang-baek stomped the ground and roared.
“What are you doing? Are you planning to be slower than the disciples?”
At his shout, the elders ground their teeth and picked up speed.
There were well over two hundred Hainan disciples here. But if the situation had been even a little different, then no matter how greatly they outnumbered them, they would never have been able to hurl themselves at the Changgui Squad so recklessly.
The fear of Maninbang would still have remained in their hearts.
But now the Hainan disciples were throwing themselves at the Changgui Squad with all their strength, as if competing, without the slightest trace of fear.
Fear of Maninbang no longer existed. The moment they saw who was leading the charge and understood who he was, Maninbang ceased to be an untouchable terror.
Even while running, they could see it clearly. The Heavenly Friends Alliance disciples who had surged ahead were already crashing into the Changgui Squad.
“A—mi—ta—bha!”
With Hye Yeon’s sonorous Buddhist cry, golden radiance flooded the shore.
BOOOOOOM!
A section of the coastline exploded, sending white sand flying in all directions. Those struck head-on by the sacred light couldn’t even scream before their bodies were blasted into bloody ruin and flung out over the open sea.
Splaaash!
A huge spray of water rose up like a celebratory burst of fireworks.
“Hey, isn’t that a little underhanded, Monk!”
Hye Yeon may have been the first to begin the attack, but the first to reach the enemy, naturally, was Jo Geol.
“You bastards from Maninbang! I’m so happy to see you I could cry!”
Jo Geol, leading the charge, thrust his sword out in a single breath.
Fwoosh!
The sword shadows split into dozens in an instant and rained down violently on the Changgui Squad members, who had not yet gathered their wits.
“Aaaagh!”
“Th-this brat!”
A lightning-fast sword strike impossible to follow with the eye!
But the center of gravity thrown far forward for that very speed invited immediate retaliation.
“Know your place!”
The Changgui Squad members brutally drove their swords toward Jo Geol’s exposed upper body.
“At least think before you—”
Kakakang!
But before those blades could even touch Jo Geol’s body, they smashed into the graceful sword that shot out from behind him and were all knocked away at once.
“Move while thinking ahead!”
“But Senior Brother is blocking them for me!”
“Ha...!”
With a sigh, Yoon Jong swept his sword again and knocked away a blade flying straight for Jo Geol’s face. That lunatic junior was thrusting his sword forward without the slightest thought of blocking even when a sword came flying at his own face.
“Haha! I am Jo Geol of Mount Hua!”
“Kraaagh!”
The Changgui Squad member whose chest had been pierced by the sword let out a scream and collapsed where he stood.
“Damn it! Overwhelm them! Up above—!”
The one speaking suddenly jerked his head up. From the air they had tried to occupy, he felt a shadow falling quietly and swiftly.
W-when...?
A slender figure descended, half the sun hidden behind her.
And that was the last thing he ever saw alive.
Shhk!
Yu I-seol cleanly severed the Changgui Squad member’s neck as she fell, then rotated her body without the slightest pause before touching the ground.
Shaaaak!
Spinning as though she were sweeping the floor, her sword cut through the ankles of the Changgui Squad members around her without mercy.
“Aaaagh!”
“Kraaagh!”
She descended from above, then struck at the lowest place. It was the simplest possible sword, yet at the same time the most effective. And in a chaotic mêlée like this, it was even more devastating.
“Below us!”
“You damn bitch!”
Just as the Changgui Squad members, crouching low, screamed and thrust their blades at Yu I-seol, a soft and chilling cutting sound brushed their ears.
Sharararak!
Those who instinctively sensed something approaching scrambled out of the way. But even then, those whose attention had been stolen by Yu I-seol could not dodge Dang So-so’s plum blossom sword energy raining down from above.
“Haa!”
Sararararak!
With a short, sharp shout, Dang So-so’s Scattered Plum Blossoms poured down like a flower storm filling the entire sky. The plum blossom sword energy, blooming like an illusion, mercilessly swept over the Changgui Squad members who had failed to escape.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!
“Aaaaaagh!”
“Aaaagh!”
The sound of sword energy piercing flesh and desperate screams rang out together.
“R-retreat!”
“Don’t retreat!”
Heo Maeng, the Changgui Squad sub-leader, shouted himself hoarse.
“You idiots! There aren’t many of them! Crush them with numbers! Don’t give them any room!”
He knew better than anyone how absurd his own words were. That damned sword energy, like falling petals, was devastating against tightly packed foes. In other words, it was far more efficient in mass battles than in one-on-one combat.
But right now, Heo Maeng had no choice but to say it.
He had clearly seen the Hainan sect members charging up from behind, foaming at the mouth with fury.
If they failed to thin out those bastards before they arrived, then what would happen next was obvious as day.
“Charge, you bastards! Cling to them! Don’t let go!”
At the order, those steeped in bloodlust ground their teeth and hurled themselves at Dang So-so.
Whooooosh!
But at that moment, small pills came flying down in a steady stream over their heads. A moment later, they burst with a pop.
“Wh-what is that!”
“Poison powder! Damn it, fall back!”
The pink mist billowing out of the pills swallowed the charging Changgui Squad members whole.
“That won’t do. If my little sister gets even a scratch, Father will try to kill me.”
Dang Pae clicked his tongue with easy confidence and shoved a hand back into his sleeve. When the front line was running wild like this, it made his job in the rear much easier. In that sense, it would be hard to find a group in the world whose coordination with him was this perfect.
“Martial arts are supposed to be so delicate...!”
Kwooooooom!
At that very moment, Namgung Dowi, who had leaped forward, brought down his sword in a blazing white arc. A sword aura vast as a house swept through the Changgui Squad standing in his path in a single stroke.
KWAOOOOOOM!
Along with a deafening explosion that seemed to tear the eardrums apart, bodies shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions in a grisly spray.
“...don’t have to be, right. Yeah.”
Dang Pae wilted a little and backed down.
Honestly, wasn’t that practically cheating? No wonder the Tang Family had ground their teeth for so long and still never managed to beat those brute-faced bastards even once.
And at this rate, it seemed as though the Tang Family would never surpass Namgung, not even with his own generation. The family might be one thing, but how was he supposed to beat that monster?
Fwoooooosh!
Then Baek Cheon sprang into the front line. At the tip of his sword, a storm of red petals surged forth. Bright red, beautiful petals swept across the enemy like a vision.
His sword did not pursue dominance the way Namgung Dowi’s did, but it was twice as splendid and twice as precise.
“Push them back!”
Roaring like a tiger, Baek Cheon urged everyone on. Dang Pae shook his head as he watched the broad back of the man charging ahead with such force.
“One after another, every single one of you...”
How was a man without talent supposed to live without resentment?
“Tch.”
He soon flicked the throwing knives in his hand forward with irritation.
Beom Chung’s face twisted hideously.
“Why...?”
That was all he could say.
“Why are you here? Why!”
Unable to contain his fury, the words burst out.
Even if the entire Hainan Sect had laid an ambush and struck them by surprise, they still would not have collapsed this easily.
But the faces they were facing now were far too massive, too overwhelming for the Changgui Squad alone to bear.
The Mount Hua Divine Dragon Cheong Myeong, Mount Hua’s Five Swords, the young masters of Namgung and Tang, even Shaolin’s little divine monk Hye Yeon.
Each and every one of them was a master representing his sect. And if those people had joined hands with Hainan to fight, then what on earth could one mere squad of Maninbang do? It wasn’t even the whole of Maninbang.
“Why!”
When Beom Chung ground his teeth and shouted again in a boiling voice, Cheong Myeong snorted.
“Why should I tell a bastard from the evil sect something like that?”
“You...!”
“Quit spouting crap and do your job, would you? I’m getting sick of waiting.”
The tip of Cheong Myeong’s sword pointed directly at Beom Chung. Beom Chung bit down hard on his lip. What he had to do now was painfully simple.
He took out a long tube from his chest and swiftly pulled the cord attached to its end.
Pop!
A spark burst from the tube and shot high into the air.
He had fired the signal flare, so now the main force would know the enemy had infiltrated. No, they probably already noticed from the sword light Baek Cheon had sent soaring, but this made it certain.
“...Don’t make me laugh, you brat.”
Beom Chung glared at Cheong Myeong as he spoke with venom.
“I don’t know what you’re plotting, but once you’ve set foot here, you’re dead for sure! No matter what you do, you’ll never make it to the Yangtze River alive! Not just you, but all of you—every last one of you will regret ever setting foot in this place...”
Fwoosh!
In that instant, Beom Chung clutched his face and staggered backward.
Drip. Drip.
Blood spilled from the long diagonal cut across his cheek. Cheong Myeong casually flicked his sword as though it were nothing.
“Ah. Sorry.”
“...”
“Listening to evil-sect bastards talk makes me want to puke. Especially bastards from Maninbang—or whatever rat hole they crawled out of.”
“You...”
“Is that your whole last will and testament?”
“Wha...”
At that moment, Cheong Myeong’s sword flew toward him like an illusion.
Beom Chung reflexively raised his sword to block it.
Kakang!
But Cheong Myeong’s Amhyang Plum Blossom Sword severed Beom Chung’s blade in a single stroke and continued driving straight for his throat.
Shhk!
The chilling sound of a sharpened edge slicing through flesh rang out.
Before he even had time to shudder at the death signal sounding from his own neck, a chilling voice came from behind Beom Chung.
“Still, I’m technically a daoist, so I’ll pray you rest in peace. Die well, you idiot.”
That was the last thing Beom Chung ever heard in this world.
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