You’ve Been Waiting a Long Time, Haven’t You? (1)
“Those bastard sons of bitches!”
Chung Myung clutched the window frame so hard it looked as if he might hurl himself straight out of the window at any second.
But just then, Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol each seized one of his arms from either side.
Chung Myung snapped his head around to stare at Baek Cheon.
“What the hell are you doing? Let go.”
“No.”
Baek Cheon cut him off flatly. Chung Myung blinked at him in disbelief.
“No what?”
Baek Cheon frowned slightly.
“You weren’t planning to rush in there just now?”
“What, do you think I’m some idiot? Of course not.”
Chung Myung gave the frame one last hard squeeze, then let go and stepped back.
He clicked his tongue as though he still had some lingering regret, but at least he didn’t throw his usual tantrum.
Watching him, Jo Gul leaned close to Yoon Jong’s ear and whispered, “He’s being unusually obedient.”
“He is. That’s odd.”
If it had been the usual Chung Myung, he would’ve sent Baek Cheon and Yu I-seol flying without a second thought and leaped out the window already.
Baek Cheon, who had been glancing outside, furrowed his brow.
“Junior Sister. How many enemies?”
“At most a hundred. Visible count: fifty.”
“I see…”
It wasn’t far off from what Baek Cheon had already estimated.
There were over a thousand warriors in the Ice Palace alone. Even if he excluded the stragglers who couldn’t fight and those already wounded in the previous battle, there were still well over five hundred.
No matter how you looked at it, it was hard to imagine that fifty could possibly take on five hundred, even if they were from the Demonic Sect.
“For now, let’s watch. No matter how crazy those Demonic Sect bastards are, they wouldn’t have come here with only fifty men to attack the Ice Palace.”
Hearing that, Chung Myung let out a snort. Baek Cheon’s brow twitched.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Sasuk.”
“Hm?”
“You know why I’m not rushing out there right now?”
“Because you don’t have a sword?”
“……”
That startled Chung Myung so much he reflexively reached for his waist.
Oh, shit.
He’d nearly jumped out without a sword.
Still, that wasn’t why he hadn’t charged straight over there. A sword wasn’t a problem; he could just rip one off some Ice Palace punk and use that.
It was just—
“Watch.”
“...Huh?”
“Watch how those bastards move. It’s probably going to be a lot different from what you’re thinking, Sasuk.”
“……”
Baek Cheon’s expression slowly hardened into something serious.
“I was thinking along those lines too. Rather than rushing in blindly, it’d be better to see it with our own eyes first.”
Click.
Chung Myung took an Ice Snow Pill from the jade box in his hand and, without the slightest hesitation, tossed it into his mouth.
“I’m going to circulate my energy now, so don’t take a single step outside until I get back up. Not one.”
“...You’re going to cultivate now?”
“It won’t take long.”
Chung Myung’s eyes sank a shade darker.
“But you’d better watch closely. Why those bastards are the Demonic Sect.”
Having finished speaking, he moved to the center of the room and sat down cross-legged. Before he closed his eyes, his last glance fell on Seol So-baek.
“You watch closely too. Who’s in the North Sea right now. What exactly it is you’re facing.”
With that, Chung Myung closed his eyes.
Seeing him enter meditation, the Mount Hua disciples gaped at one another in disbelief. Jo Gul and Yoon Jong whispered under their breaths.
“...He really is cultivating.”
“Is he fearless, or just insane…”
“Isn’t it the latter? Definitely the latter?”
“You’d better watch your mouth first, Gul. You still haven’t gotten beaten for what you pulled on the fortress wall last time, have you?”
“……”
Meanwhile, Baek Cheon only stared quietly at Chung Myung.
Of course, he must trust the people here to meditate like that now, but...
It also means things are urgent enough that he has to eat a pill and recover with circulatory breathing right this instant.
He couldn’t fully understand it because he couldn’t feel it himself.
They said it was the Demonic Sect, but could a force of that size really do anything to the Ice Palace?
Then Dang Soso pulled him out of his thoughts.
“Sasuk.”
“...Right.”
With his expression set, Baek Cheon turned around.
Every Mount Hua disciple and Hye Yeon had gathered at the windows. The black silhouettes standing atop the wall were now clearly visible.
“Let’s see then. Just how impressive these Demonic Sect bastards really are.”
Their faces, fixed on the wall, began to stiffen with tension.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The Law Enforcer looked down coldly at the Ice Palace warriors massing beneath the wall.
“They’re no different from an ant swarm.”
Like ants pouring out in a panic after their tunnel had been invaded, the Ice Palace warriors were surging out in a hurry, seemingly without end.
Even though the number was clearly not something to dismiss lightly, the Law Enforcer’s expression remained as composed as before.
Where are the Central Plains brats?
He didn’t see anyone dressed differently.
“In case we lose track of the Ice Crystals, if you see anyone from the Central Plains, capture them alive instead of killing them.”
“Capture them without injuries?”
“They just need to stay alive.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Law Enforcer lifted his chin and spoke in a grand, resonant voice.
“Show those who have forgotten the terror of the cult what it means to face the Demonic Sect. Show them how false their peace truly was!”
“As you command!”
With that icy reply, the Demonic Sect members stationed atop the wall all leaped down at once.
A slow smile twisted the Law Enforcer’s lips.
The moment he saw the Ice Palace warriors scrambling out of the fortress in confusion, Yeo Sa-hon went pale.
He had seen them all leap from the wall together.
The Demonic Sect!
He recognized them instantly. How could he not? During his labor in the mine, he had encountered Demonic Sect members more than once. They were all dressed just like this.
Fifty men? No, maybe a little more?
They came with only that many?
His face flushed red.
If they had simply held their ground on the wall and attempted to speak, he might even have been willing to entertain it. But coming down from the wall with only that few was nothing short of provocation, a brazen insult to the Ice Palace.
Yeo Sa-hon shouted to the Ice Palace disciples, fury burning in his voice.
“Listen well!”
“Yes!”
“There is no need for negotiation! Those who have invaded the Ice Palace with filthy feet and without permission will pay the price! Take them all alive! Anyone who resists may be killed!”
“Yes!”
The Ice Palace warriors answered in fierce, ringing voices.
Strategy? Tactics?
None of that mattered.
Once the difference in numbers exceeded tenfold, no strategy had any meaning. All you had to do was crush them beneath overwhelming numbers and strength.
What’s more, because those bastards had openly leaped down from the wall, all the Ice Palace warriors could plainly see that the enemy wasn’t numerous.
I don’t know who’s commanding them, but they’re truly foolish beyond belief.
Yeo Sa-hon couldn’t help wondering whether everyone had simply been too frightened of the name Demonic Sect.
Back on the day of the former Palace Lord’s assassination, they had been caught so completely by surprise when the palace was seized that they had been helpless. If the Ice Palace’s full force had been available then, the result would surely have been different.
As that old bitterness rose again, Yeo Sa-hon bellowed, “Today, we will avenge the former Palace Lord! Bring those treacherous dogs to their knees!”
As his voice thundered across the field, the Ice Palace warriors in their white robes surged forward with renewed courage.
To see that many people charging at once was like watching an avalanche pour down from a snowy mountain.
Yeo Sa-hon had no doubt that, with this momentum, the Ice Palace warriors would sweep away the Demonic Sect members in an instant.
The Ice Palace warriors at the front let out fierce roars, blood coursing hot through their veins. The exhilaration of knowing hundreds were racing behind them was something no one who had never experienced it could ever truly imagine.
The Ice Palace warriors hurled their swords at the Demonic Sect members who had landed on the ground. Their confidence in their blades was absolute.
“Die, evil scum!”
“You treacherous bastards!”
More than ten swords flew toward a single body at the same time.
And then, in that instant—
Hm?
The one at the front saw it.
He saw the Demonic Sect member who had remained utterly still despite the incoming swords suddenly curling his lips into a thin, bloodless smile.
Shwaaaaaaaaaak!
A sound like silk being torn apart by a razor-sharp blade rang out, cutting through the wind.
“……”
The man charging at the front froze solid.
What the—
A strange unease surged up, turned violently into nausea from deep within his stomach, then hardened into a hellish pain beyond the power of language to describe, scorching through his body.
“Keh...”
But he couldn’t even scream. Five red lines had already bloomed across his body.
Fwaaaaaaah!
Neck, chest, stomach, thigh, ankle.
His severed body flew backward like chunks of wood kicked aside by a child.
Blood gushed wildly from his spinning corpse, painting the blackened North Sea sky in crimson.
A freezing silence fell.
The fierce charge stopped dead.
Those who had raced forward as if they would trample anything in their path and keep going froze in place as though someone had nailed them there.
The scene they had just witnessed was raking through their minds in complete chaos.
They had all learned martial arts. None of them had ever thought they would die in battle without accepting that possibility.
But what they had just seen was enough to horrify any human being, martial artist or not.
There are limits to cruelty. There are limits to brutality.
There have to be.
At the very least, if you still regarded your opponent as a fellow human being, you couldn’t kill them in such a pitiful, mangled state.
Thud. Tock.
The broken body hit the ground.
A hand severed from the wrist twitched faintly, and a head with its eyes still bulging crashed upside down into the snow.
“……”
Silence swept across the Ice Palace, so heavy it made even breathing feel enormous.
The one thing that broke that stillness was the crack of bones from the Demonic Sect member’s hand.
Crk, crk.
The Demonic Sect member’s hand, hanging beneath his black robes, began to darken to a sinister black.
Snikt.
Black sword energy burst from the sharp tip of his blade, and from the fingertips of his lowered hand, claw-like qi grew more than a foot long, like the talons of an asura.
“Kill them all.”
At the order, the Demonic Sect members charged at once at the Ice Palace warriors like wolves descending upon sheep.
The red of their eyes seethed with murderous intent, and from their mouths poured strange chants, almost like beastly cries, in a relentless song.
“Heavenly Demon descends, all demons rejoice! Heavenly Demon descends, all demons rejoice!”
Kwaaaaaaaang!
This was less a clash than a massacre.
The clawed qi at the Demonic Sect members’ fingertips tore through flesh with horrifying ease.
Kaaaang!
Impossible to block.
If one raised a sword to defend, the sword and body alike were split apart; even force-laden palm strikes were ripped asunder as they came charging in.
It was clearly an unrefined attack.
There was no precise technique aimed at exploiting an opponent’s opening. No dazzling art meant to toy with the enemy.
They simply swung, shattered, and broke.
And yet no one could properly stop those worthless-looking attacks.
Kwaaaaaaak!
Watching them ravage the bodies and sever heads with hands wrapped in black, black demonic energy was enough to make the heart seize up in horror.
Half-crushed bodies that had been cut apart still stood there, trembling violently.
Blood poured from their mangled flesh, and half-broken heads soared through the air.
But the Demonic Sect members did not stop there.
They thrust those claws once more into the bodies that had not yet fallen—corpses now by any reasonable standard.
Shwaaaaaaaak!
Only after tearing the torso cleanly in two did the Demonic Sect member finally move forward.
Eyes blazing red, filled with madness and killing intent.
Mouths stretched wide with manic laughter, as though nothing delighted them more.
Soaked in Ice Palace blood and turned black-red in an instant, the Demonic Sect members crushed everything blocking their path in the literal sense. Those Ice Palace warriors who failed to flee in time were shredded to pieces, as if thrown against a spinning circular saw.
It had truly been an instant. So brief that the word hardly seemed excessive.
And in that brief span, the mood had been utterly reversed.
“Huh...”
His mouth had fallen open before he knew it.
His knees wobbled and buckled, and his body began trembling uncontrollably.
Then—
“Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!”
The ability to think rationally had long since been lost.
Faced with a terror that had stepped beyond the realm of comprehension, the Ice Palace warriors began to run, screaming with a despair they had never once given voice to in their lives.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
“Aaaaaaaagh! Aaaaaaaagh!”
No, it was barely even a scream. It was more like a howl, a wail with no meaning or intent behind it—just the body shrieking its agony.
And the Demonic Sect members chased after them with horrifying persistence.
Soon, the claws of the demons began ravaging the pure white Ice Palace.