We Will Not Let Them Live to Tell It (2)
“Amitabha!”
A solemn golden radiance flooded the world.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“Aaaagh!”
That light looked endlessly auspicious, but the power packed within it was anything but gentle. Those struck by it learned that fact in the worst possible way, flying backward with terrible screams.
Fwoosh!
“Kraaagh!”
After easily repelling the men who had charged in with swords thrust forward, Jo Geol turned to Hye Yeon with a slightly startled look.
Hye Yeon’s face was harder than usual as he bared his teeth and unleashed wave after wave of fist strikes.
Then Yoon Jong called out sharply.
“Stop daydreaming, you idiot!”
“Senior Brother, isn’t Monk Hye Yeon unusually aggressive today?”
But Jo Geol ignored him and asked anyway. Yoon Jong, who had just sent out a sword strike, merely flicked his gaze toward Hye Yeon.
“He’s angry, I’d say.”
“Pardon?”
“Until now, we’ve only heard that they were evil sects or whatever, but we never actually saw the Evil Tyrant Alliance bastards tormenting ordinary people with our own eyes.”
“……What does that even—”
Jo Geol started to ask back, then understood the meaning a little late and nodded.
As the Evil Tyrant Alliance occupied Jiangnan, the unorthodox sects in Jiangbei had also broken out into chaos and made a mess of things. But if they were being honest, the unorthodox forces that had run wild in Jiangbei were not the Evil Tyrant Alliance themselves, but merely the ones who had been driven out and fled before them.
So, to be completely frank, they had never truly witnessed the Evil Tyrant Alliance oppressing ordinary people.
“But on the way here, he saw people suffering with his own eyes. Knowing Monk Hye Yeon’s nature, how could he not be furious?”
“Ah…….”
“In front! You idiot, in front!”
“Whoo!”
Jo Geol quickly twisted his body, slipping past the dao that came flying at him, and sent out a sword aura like lightning.
Fwaaaaat!
“Aaaagh!”
The sword he launched pierced the shoulder of a Zhanggui Brigade member with brutal force.
The fighting unit of the Myriad Man Hall.
This was not the first time Jo Geol had faced them. In fact, their real battlefield experience had practically begun with the battles against the Red Death Brigade of the Myriad Man Hall.
Which was why he could feel it all the more clearly.
They were undeniably strong.
The speed of their dao, the force in their movements—nothing about them fell short of what one would call “peak.” Every single member of the Zhanggui Brigade was clearly a martial artist whose skill would be recognized anywhere in the world.
And yet…….
It isn’t hard!
Fwaaaat!
Twelve consecutive plum blossom sword strikes blasted out in the front line and turned the wrists and chest of the oncoming foe into a shredded mess. The Zhanggui Brigade member’s face twisted in pain. Jo Geol drove the final blow into the man’s chest. Then he bit lightly at his lower lip.
I’ve gotten stronger.
No—he wasn’t the only one who had grown stronger.
“You, you damn wench!”
“Stop her! Don’t let that woman run wild!”
When Jo Geol glanced toward the source of the uproar, he saw Yu I-seol leaping into the air after stamping on the chest of a Zhanggui Brigade member.
It was a sight that never failed to inspire awe. Throwing oneself into the air was no different from exposing one’s entire body to the enemy’s attack. And yet how on earth did Dang So-so keep fighting so freely without getting injured?
It was a miracle that could only be performed if one could control the body with precision down to the width of a sheet of paper.
“Don’t jump, senior sister!”
As Yu I-seol drew everyone’s attention, Dang So-so immediately slipped into the opening in the enemy’s defense.
Dang So-so was, after all, from the Dang Family. The Dang Family was a house that had spent centuries studying nothing but how to unleash hidden weapons the instant an opponent revealed a weakness. Someone born and raised there like Dang So-so would never miss such a glaring opening.
“Haaaaap!”
The sword aura Dang So-so scattered drove in with the same ferocity as the Dang Family’s hidden weapons, cutting into the ranks of the Zhanggui Brigade.
“Ack!”
“Damn it!”
Groans rose from all around. The wounds were not fatal, but who could remain calm when sword aura was piercing through their bodies?
And while their senses were scattered by the pain, Yu I-seol descended like a hawk spotting prey.
Shrrk! Shrrk!
The chilling sound of flesh being sliced and tendons being severed rang out one after another.
Though screams burst up and blood sprayed everywhere, Yu I-seol’s expression did not twitch in the slightest. Her sword techniques unfolded cleanly and without waste, like a snowstorm from the northern heavens.
She’s strong.
Jo Geol tightened his grip on his sword.
Of course, Yu I-seol had always been strong. She was the only swordswoman in Mount Hua who could be compared to Baek Cheon, so that was only natural.
But what Jo Geol was seeing now wasn’t just her swordsmanship. It was Yu I-seol’s fearless audacity—the way she never hesitated, never flinched, even against many opponents.
Yu I-seol always plunged straight into the most dangerous place without the slightest hesitation, firmly believing that someone behind her would protect her back. And that boldness was throwing the powerful enemies of the Zhanggui Brigade into chaos in an instant.
“……It wasn’t for nothing, after all.”
“Hmm?”
“Nothing!”
Jo Geol grit his teeth and thrust out his sword, determined not to fall behind Yu I-seol.
Man, she really is like a ghost.
Watching this scene, he finally understood. He understood the strange unease that had lingered in his chest ever since the fierce battle in Hangzhou.
“Taht!”
Yoon Jong surged forward, scattering plum blossoms in every direction. The enemies who had been about to close in on them all faltered and lost momentum.
Jo Geol did not miss the opening. His eyes flashing, he thrust his sword. Like a viper striking its prey, his blade darted in and pierced the enemy’s body with deadly precision.
This is it!
The thing Mount Hua lacked most was numbers.
That was why, until now, they had trained by combining their strength against the overwhelming monster that was Cheong Myeong or by serving as one another’s sparring partners.
That had been enough so far. The enemies Mount Hua had faced were all either stronger than Mount Hua itself, or the kind of monsters that had to be met with combined force.
But in Hangzhou, Jo Geol had clearly realized something.
The foes they would face from now on would not be a single overwhelming expert, nor a deathmatch opponent to meet one on one, but a force that held absolute superiority in numbers.
And now the coordination Yu I-seol and Dang So-so had shown was telling him something else: that ghostlike bastard Cheong Myeong had, as always, figured it out first and already prepared a response.
The Yangtze River!
The ceaseless sparring between sects that had taken place on the Yangtze River. That time they had fought as organized sects rather than as individuals.
What had sometimes felt like waste had, in fact, never been waste at all. Without that experience, they would never have been able to handle the Zhanggui Brigade this calmly.
What they had thought was a way to sharpen the other sects had, in truth, also been a way to strengthen Mount Hua itself.
“Taaaaaah!”
Namgung Dowi had not been idle either.
Kwaaaaaang!
The white sword aura he unleashed instantly turned the charging enemies into a bloody mess.
The moment Jo Geol saw that formidable sword aura, a hollow voice slipped from his mouth.
“……I should’ve been born into the Namgung Clan.”
“What the hell are you rambling about now?”
“……Or maybe into Shaolin.”
“You can’t even keep your focus for a second!”
At Yoon Jong’s rebuke, Jo Geol, seething with grievance and injustice, unleashed more than ten sword strikes in a row.
He had to stab with all his might just to bring down one person, while those guys were sending two or three flying with every swing. How could he not feel wronged?
This is why Shaolin, this is why Namgung!
The leaders of the Nine Great Sects and the head of the Five Great Families.
Proving that their renown had not been gained by luck, the future leaders of each sect displayed their power in full, and…….
“Aaaaaaagh!”
Shaaash! Shaaaash!
“Aaaaagh! Why are there so damn many of them!”
For a moment, Jo Geol’s eyes filled with a sense of shared suffering. Dang Pae was swinging his arms furiously like a windmill to cover Namgung Dowi while hurling hidden weapons everywhere.
“……The future of the Dang Family doesn’t look too bright.”
“Concentrate, you bastard!”
Just as Yoon Jong was about to bark in anger and step forward—
Fwaaaaaaat!
A piercing burst of airflow came from behind them, and an intense surge of energy brushed against their backs.
Both men snapped their heads around at once. Blooming scarlet plum blossoms filled their vision.
It was a dazzling sword aura so brilliant that even those who used the same sword art would be momentarily stunned. At the center of that sword aura, Mount Hua’s Acting Sect Leader, Baek Cheon, was charging forward at full speed. And behind him, the Hainan disciples were clinging on with desperate determination.
At that instant, the same light entered both Jo Geol’s and Yoon Jong’s eyes.
“Senior Brother!”
“Right!”
The two of them broke through the formation in front and behind and ran forward side by side.
“You bastards!”
And as if they had planned it in advance, they split left and right right in front of the enemy, scattering red plum blossom sword aura.
“St-Stop them!”
“You damn—!”
The Zhanggui Brigade’s solid formation split slightly for an instant, swaying left and right. At that moment—
“I’m through!”
Baek Cheon, with Hainan at his back, plunged straight through the tiny gap and swung his sword.
Fwaaaaaang!
Baek Cheon opened the gap created by Jo Geol and Yoon Jong with a single, clean strike, then ignored the dao flying at him and slammed his foot down hard.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
“As if, you bastards!”
Gwak Hwan-so and Lee Ja-yang, desperately following behind, knocked away the dao flying toward Baek Cheon.
And then!
Fwaaaaaaaat!
From the tip of Baek Cheon’s sword, extended on faith in Gwak Hwan-so and Lee Ja-yang, red petals burst forth. On the white sand that evoked the snow-covered peaks of Mount Hua, scarlet plum blossoms bloomed in full glory.
Sarararak!
The plum trees blossomed like an illusion for a brief instant, then vanished. But the petals did not disappear; carried by the Southern Sea wind, they swept across the battlefield.
To some eyes, they were incomparably beautiful.
To some, incomparably fierce.
And to some, utterly dangerous!
“Aaaaagh!”
“T-This—!”
“Ack!”
Baek Cheon’s Falling Plum Blossoms in Disarray, erupting in the very center of their formation, was threatening enough to force even the battle-hardened Zhanggui Brigade members to leap away and abandon their positions.
Once the path opened, Baek Cheon shouted so all could hear him.
“We’re taking the ship! Move!”
“Yes!”
Leading the charge, Baek Cheon’s Hainan disciples became one body, like a dragon surging upstream against a torrent, and pierced through the red wall raised by the Zhanggui Brigade.
Fwaaaat!
Baek Cheon cut down the one blocking the way and kicked off the ground, springing into the air. A large Myriad Man Hall ship was anchored on the shore ahead.
“Forward!”
“Yes!”
Gwak Hwan-so and Lee Ja-yang shot out ahead. Then, sweeping their Hainan sword techniques like crashing waves, they cut down the people trying to block them. Their faces were filled with unwavering resolve.
Clang!
In the split second created as dao and sword collided, Baek Cheon stepped on Gwak Hwan-so’s shoulder and sprang into the air.
“Huh?”
“What—”
The enemies, startled by the shadow suddenly looming over them, hurriedly looked up. What they saw at that moment was the figure of a swordsman silhouetted against the blazing sun.
“Taaaaaat!”
With a roar, Baek Cheon swung his sword. Following its arc, a crescent-shaped sword aura tore through the hot Hainan air and surged forward.
Kagagagagakang!
The thick mooring ropes securing the Myriad Man Hall ship were severed at once.
Landing lightly as he spun, Baek Cheon immediately swung his sword again and split the back of a Zhanggui Brigade member.
Inappropriately radiant for such a brutal battlefield, he smiled and murmured softly,
“You should know what it feels like to have something taken from you, too.”
Whether those words would ever reach their ears was another matter.