Chapter 167
Chapter 167
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 167
>Chapter Title: God is Great (4)
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“It’s a trap.”
The Black Tiger Squad Vice Leader muttered as he scanned the fanatics closing in from all sides once more.
Only then did Il-mok roughly grasp the situation.
‘These aren’t the guys who ambushed us earlier.’
Not a single one of them had blood on them. Besides, if they’d been chasing from behind, it would’ve been impossible for them to surround like this.
They’d lured them to flee in one direction, straight into those lying in wait.
That realization brought a new question to Il-mok’s mind.
‘But who the hell set this trap for?’
If it was just targeting a Demonic Cult combat unit, there’d be no need for something this elaborate.
Luring them down an escape route and digging in meant they had a specific target they expected to come this way.
Even if the Demonic Cult’s surveillance net had thinned lately, who could be worth hundreds invading their territory for?
The question resolved itself easily enough.
Amid the enemies closing in from all sides.
“علينا قتله”
Someone pointed straight at Il-mok, relaying something to a middle-aged man who looked like their leader.
“Why me again?”
It was exhausting.
Not just because of the fanatics swarming without end.
Ever since being kidnapped by his master, he couldn’t figure out why so many people kept targeting him.
‘Goddamn Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.’
He swallowed the curse he couldn’t quite spit out, surrounded as he was by yet more fanatics.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
With a shout that made him want to convulse just hearing it, the energy stirred again.
The Allah sorcerers began their incantations.
“الحروب المقدسه”
As expected, they charged with more incomprehensible roars.
Even as flames from Allah erupted behind him, aiming for his back, not a trace of fear showed in their eyes.
Just pure faith under the name of madness.
“Get your heads straight!”
“Reform the formation! We have to break through somehow!”
To avoid being swallowed by their frenzy, perhaps, Chu Il-hwan and the Black Tiger Squad Vice Leader bellowed with infused inner energy.
“Follow me!!”
“Instructors and assistants, protect the cadets and follow!”
Having issued orders, the Vice Leader and Chu Il-hwan boldly charged straight ahead.
They cleaved necks as the fanatics wished, burning bodies with black lightning to carve a path.
But the situation wasn’t great.
The Vice Leader and his eight Black Tiger Squad members were all injured from the previous fight, and most were Demonic Path Academy cadets with little real combat experience.
Among those worthy of being called experts, only the Vice Leader and Demonic Path Academy instructors could fully unleash their skills.
Even so, with the Vice Leader and Chu Il-hwan rampaging at the forefront to open a way, perhaps their goal was too obvious.
“هناك”
The fanatics began converging on the direction the Vice Leader and Chu Il-hwan were breaking through.
As the path narrowed and their combined assaults grew fiercer, amid the panicking cadets facing their first chaotic melee, a shout rang out.
“We need reinforcements northwest!”
The one yelling was Kwak Sul.
For some reason, in this horrific first-time ordeal, he could see a path.
And there was one other cadet who saw the same path.
Slash!
The moment Kwak Sul shouted, Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill in a flash, soaring northwest. His sword sliced through the fanatics’ vital points.
It was a strange feeling.
The moment he realized a monster who didn’t seem like a fellow cadet had seen the same path, an inexplicable certainty washed over him.
Il-mok cleaved through the fanatics to open the way, then bellowed at Kwak Sul.
“Keep giving orders!!”
Kwak Sul froze for an instant.
‘In, in a situation like this, you want me to take command?’
But at Il-mok’s follow-up shout, calm quickly settled in his eyes.
“Follow Cadet Kwak Sul’s orders!!”
Amid the screams, shouts, and clashing metal filling the battlefield’s heart, his mind oddly eased.
In this crisis of imminent slaughter, the strategist who’d cracked the egg kept his mouth moving nonstop.
These weren’t mere directional commands.
“Cadet Dokgo Pae! Don’t hesitate—break through! Show them the power of Dokgo Lone Sword! Black Tiger Squad seniors, support the charging Cadet Dokgo Pae!”
“Cadet Jeong Hyeon! Intercept the commanders and the sorcerers! Everyone near Cadet Jeong Hyeon, prioritize protecting her!”
He recalled allies’ positions, enemy formations, and the traits of their martial arts, barking out the most needed orders moment by moment.
* * *
Dokgo Pae’s mind kept replaying what Il-mok had said earlier.
- Our seniors can’t fight properly because of us, you dumb bastard!!!
He was furious.
Not at Il-mok.
In this long-awaited real battle, he trembled at his own incompetence, able only to flee.
Yes. If he died on the battlefield due to his own weakness, he’d gladly accept it.
But.
‘Me... Dokgo Pae, firstborn of the Dokgo family, reduced to mere obstacle for our allies?’
As descendant of a great warrior, becoming the vanguard piercing enemy lines was the life of a Dokgo Lone Sword practitioner.
Yes. Just like the Black Tiger Squad Vice Leader and Instructor Chu Il-hwan breaking through ahead right now.
But he couldn’t reach that place.
‘I can’t break through like those two right now.’
Because he was incompetent.
So Dokgo Pae just swung his massive sword out of habit.
Running along the path others had cleared, merely blocking approaching heretics.
Unbeknownst to himself, heart demons were creeping into his mind.
“Cadet Dokgo Pae! Don’t hesitate—break through!! Dokgo Lone Sword’s power, show it! Black Tiger Squad seniors, support the charging Cadet Dokgo Pae!”
A voice all too familiar pierced his ears.
Kwak Sul.
That scrawny Demonic Path Academy cadet he’d dragged around, useful enough brain to bother with.
And at some point, the strategist always directing him during exams.
Even amid helplessness, he moved on instinct honed over months.
“Haaah!”
Following Kwak Sul’s order, he unleashed Dokgo Lone Sword at full power, charging ahead.
Force imbued his massive sword.
Crunch!
Not so much cleaved as crushed—the heretic’s body split in a form better described that way.
‘This isn’t it!’
Dokgo Pae gritted his teeth.
The Dokgo Lone Sword stance he’d comprehended last time, Army-Piercing Overlord Sword, wasn’t this pathetic.
Reviving that day’s memory, he raised his massive sword again.
Now fully ingrained, inner energy flowed through his meridians without thought.
At its peak, the force-laden sword whipped along the optimal path.
Slash!!
It bisected the heretic’s curved sword and body entirely.
“This body is Dokgo Pae, firstborn of the Dokgo family!!”
Freed from the heart demon, Dokgo Pae roared in fury as he advanced.
Yes.
Dokgo Lone Sword wasn’t for holding ground or protecting others.
It was solely for advancing.
It ended only when no more enemies to pierce remained—or he died.
“Die!!!”
At some point, Dokgo Pae focused solely on swinging his sword.
His own usefulness, anger, humiliation—such thoughts meant nothing.
Only breaking through mattered.
‘Stronger!! Faster!!’
And devising ways to swing harder and faster to do so.
Meanwhile.
“Whoa.”
As Dokgo Pae charged straight ahead, the four nearby Black Tiger Squad members’ expressions shifted.
“As expected of the Dokgo family.”
“Such talent.”
In the horrific melee, Dokgo Pae’s sword grew steadily stronger with each swing.
The Black Tiger Squad members exchanged glances, nodded, and leaped forward. To support Dokgo Pae charging alone.
It was just an order from a mere Demonic Path Academy cadet, Kwak Sul, but they’d decided to follow.
Not just because of Il-mok, the Heavenly Demon’s disciple.
Normally, maybe not. But injured from protecting cadets in the last fight, they realized yielding the vanguard to Dokgo Pae was most efficient.
* * *
Jeong Hyeon felt like she’d snap.
Over a hundred enemies filling every direction, howling unknown cries, eyes brimming with madness.
Worse, ignoring death, they pressed in, densifying the Demonic Cultists’ formation ever tighter.
People kept entering her zone, the backlash of Ghost Spirit Divine Bow trying to devour her.
She’d barely sighed in relief after Black Tiger Squad Leader Gu Yang-hyeok broke through for escape.
“Allahu Akbar!!”
Again, with unknowable shouts, fanatics surrounded and charged them.
Already near her limit, her face had gone deathly pale.
Arm holding the bow already limp, half-dazed, she didn’t even hear Kwak Sul’s order.
As her mind blurred and the world hazed.
“Cadet Jeong Hyeon!!”
A shout right in front snapped her fading mind awake.
“Eek.”
Regaining a shred of sense, Jeong Hyeon screamed. She’d startle at anyone within a zhang, yet Instructor Eun Ryeo was suddenly right there, calling her.
Shock brief.
“Snap out of it!!”
At Eun Ryeo’s urgent cry, Jeong Hyeon felt bewildered.
Over a year relying on Instructor Eun Ryeo, but this was a new expression. Always composed, now her face mixed pity and urgency.
“Listen well! The people around you aren’t here to harm you! They’re here to protect you! Trust them! Don’t be afraid!”
Still not fully free of Ghost Spirit Divine Bow’s influence, Jeong Hyeon couldn’t quite grasp Eun Ryeo’s words.
Like head submerged, hearing muffled voices from above water.
Seeing Jeong Hyeon still dazed, Eun Ryeo gritted her teeth.
‘This won’t do.’
Most efficient was abandoning Jeong Hyeon. Even now, tied to her, the unit suffered losses.
But Eun Ryeo couldn’t.
Maybe the demonic art’s backlash, but as instructor, she couldn’t abandon her disciple.
Nor stay pinned here forever.
‘I need a way! Get Cadet Jeong Hyeon out of the heart demon fast!!’
In the life-or-death battlefield center, memories flashed like a lantern show in Eun Ryeo’s mind.
“!!!”
Suddenly, what Physician Seo Jae-pil had said came to mind.
- Come to think, one way to treat the backlash was pushing the mind to extremes. Young Master Il-mok called it shock therapy.
No time for hesitation. Eun Ryeo reached out, grabbing Jeong Hyeon’s face.
She forced the flinching girl’s head to turn, making her look somewhere.
“If you zone out now, Cadet Il-mok could die!”
Eun Ryeo’s hands turned Jeong Hyeon’s gaze to Il-mok locked in bloody combat with fanatics.
Watching her pupils dilate instantly, Eun Ryeo bit her lip.
‘Please.’
She didn’t like Il-mok. Thought he toyed with Cadet Jeong Hyeon’s heart.
But to Eun Ryeo, Il-mok was who Jeong Hyeon treasured most in the Demonic Path Academy.
Calculation: to save him, she’d snap out.
And at some point, relief and worry mixed in Eun Ryeo’s eyes.
The dazed Jeong Hyeon was slowly raising her bow.
Not fully free of the heart demon.
Ghost Spirit Divine Bow’s backlash made everything feel dreamlike.
‘Must protect him.’
The scene before her overlapped with one from her inner world.
The one where she’d intercepted the assassin targeting Il-mok last time.
Creak.
Habitually drawn bowstring tensed her muscles.
Twang.
That familiar sound. The taut string releasing—crisp, freeing—jolted her blocked mind awake.
Thud!
Her arrow slammed into the forehead of the heretic thrusting a spear at Il-mok.