Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 168
>Chapter Title: God is Great (5)
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The murky, clouded pupils of Jeong-hyeon cleared up.
Riding on her already heightened senses, an overwhelming flood of information from the battlefield poured into her.
Even as she teetered on the brink of another seizure.
"Focus!!"
The voice of Eun-ryeo, the one person she could trust and rely on, barely managed to hold onto Jeong-hyeon's mind as it was being sucked back into the abyss.
Jeong-hyeon turned her head, her clear eyes now fixed on her, and Eun-ryeo repeated what she had said moments before.
"Those around you are not people trying to harm you! They are people trying to protect you! Trust them! Do not fear!"
Eun-ryeo was anxious. Jeong-hyeon's pupils had cleared, but her face was still deathly pale.
"So, you must protect them too, mustn't you!"
If Jeong-hyeon spaced out again this time, Eun-ryeo would have to make a decision. She no longer had the luxury to hold onto her.
'Please! Heavenly Demon! Save this fragile mortal!'
Was it that Eun-ryeo's prayer worked?
Jeong-hyeon began to raise her bow once more.
Amid her still deathly pale face, blood trickled down from her lips.
Eun-ryeo worried that Jeong-hyeon had suffered internal injuries, but that was not the case.
'This is no time for weakness.'
That blood was from Jeong-hyeon biting her own tongue.
"Aim for them!!"
As Jeong-hyeon raised her bow, Eun-ryeo urgently shouted and pointed somewhere.
Toward the heretic chanting an incomprehensible spell, swinging his staff.
Jeong-hyeon, whose mind was too burdened to think for herself, simply followed Eun-ryeo's orders first.
She nocked an arrow and took aim at the forehead of the heretic waving his staff.
Then, according to the incantation of the Ghost Spirit Divine Bow, she channeled her inner energy.
Twang!
The moment the string, freed from tension, produced a crisp sound.
Thud!
The sorcerer whose forehead was pierced collapsed with a smile.
As if greeting Allah amid the lantern show of his life.
Eun-ryeo, who had been watching the precarious Jeong-hyeon who looked ready to collapse at any moment, urgently shouted.
"I'll protect you, Cadet Jeong-hyeon, so you all go help them!!"
After issuing orders to the cadets around her, Eun-ryeo then gave instructions to Jeong-hyeon.
"This time, aim for that one!"
Even as she seemed on the verge of fainting, Jeong-hyeon pulled back the string and aimed her bow, relying on a single flickering candle flame rising amid the darkness, following Eun-ryeo's command.
* * *
'Hoo.'
Gwak-sul let out a secret sigh of relief inwardly, unnoticed by others.
After Jeong-hyeon regained her senses and began targeting the sorcerers and commanders with her bow, the dire situation had stabilized somewhat.
But the feeling of relief lasted only a fleeting moment.
They were still in the midst of battle, everyone fighting a precarious fight against death at every instant.
That was why he shouted urgently.
Now that cracks had formed in the enemy lines with the death of several sorcerers and commanders, this was the chance to open the escape route he had spotted.
"Break through to the right!!"
The place he bellowed and pointed to was in an entirely different direction from where the Deputy Branch Leader and Chu Il-hwan, who were leading the charge, were fighting.
At the spot Gwak-sul indicated, Dugu Pae was rampaging, unleashing the Dugu Solitary Sword.
The escape route Gwak-sul had found was there from the beginning. To be precise, far from the Deputy Branch Leader and Chu Il-hwan who were clearing the path.
From the start, he had judged that he needed to use the Deputy Branch Leader and Chu Il-hwan as bait.
And even without his separate orders, the Deputy Branch Leader and Chu Il-hwan had performed their roles as bait admirably.
Rampaging with their superior martial arts, they drew the enemies' attention, forcing the enemy formation to tilt toward them.
As the enemy formation, which had filled every direction, became biased to one side.
Dugu Pae and the Black Tiger Squad members were steadily breaking through the thinned encirclement, and Jeong-hyeon had begun intercepting the most threatening sorcerers.
Of course, using the two strongest as bait in their small numbers was akin to gambling.
If another path broke open elsewhere at any moment, they could face total annihilation.
Yet they had held out until now due to several factors.
Cheok Il-so and Instructor So-hong were leading the assistants and cadets to block the swarming fanatics, and unexpectedly, Bang Mi-hwa was playing a huge role.
Having mastered the Immortal Arts, she had almost single-handedly blocked the flames conjured by the sorcerers and the arrows shot from the rear until Jeong-hyeon regained her senses.
Even as her clothes were reduced to rags by the flames' heat, her hair half-burned, and her face smeared with soot everywhere.
"Ohohoho!"
She boldly laughed as she unleashed her Immortal Arts and stirred up winds.
In truth, Gwak-sul had looked at her like a madwoman during their time at the Demonic Path Academy, but today, that smile felt beautiful.
Like this, everyone was fulfilling their roles, allowing them to hold on.
But in Gwak-sul's view, the one who had made the greatest contribution was someone else.
'...Without Young Master Il-mok, we would have already collapsed.'
Whenever cracks appeared in their formation, Il-mok was there.
Even before Gwak-sul could issue any orders.
Unlike the instructors and assistants too busy herding nearby cadets, or the wounded Black Tiger Squad members, he was reading the flow of the entire battlefield and moving accordingly.
* * *
Slash!
Even as his throat was slit, the fanatic's blood splattered on his face amid his cries calling to his god.
In the battlefield rife with blood and screams, Il-mok's senses, pushed to the extreme, were reading the flow of the entire battlefield.
Through hearing and sight. Above all, through his qi sense, dubbed instinct, excessive information stimulated his brain.
- It's to the west!!
- You're too slow! Move faster, I said!
Before Il-mok could even fully process the information, another self was already indicating the direction to advance.
It felt like he was going mad.
Everything on the battlefield stimulated Il-mok.
Sweat pouring like rain from the prolonged battle. Clothes caked in enemy blood and dirt.
The shouts and screams of fanatics filling every direction.
- It must be more perfect!
- Are you going to let them all die like this?
- Heh heh heh. If you're going to fight like this, why not just hand over the body to me?
On top of that, another self constantly lurking to seize control of his body.
'Please.'
Wishing this horrific battle would end even a little sooner, Il-mok swung his sword.
And as if granting his wish, his overly sensitive qi sense detected a hole that had opened somewhere in the enemy formation.
"Break through to the right!!"
At the same moment, Gwak-sul's command echoed across the battlefield.
"Clear the path!"
The Demonic Cultists, who had seemed merely focused on holding out, suddenly surged toward that side.
Il-mok also unleashed his lightness skill to aid them.
Slash!
Amid the gruesome sounds of flesh being cut and screams.
The small hole Dugu Pae had opened rapidly widened, and finally, the moment Dugu Pae broke through the encirclement.
Thud!
Someone landed lightly on the ground, blocking the only open escape route.
"Don't block my way!!"
Dugu Pae, immersed in the Dugu Solitary Sword, shouted boldly and fully unleashed the insights gained in this battle.
Inner energy raced through his whole body's meridians, and the mighty sword laced with power swung to bisect the middle-aged man blocking the front.
"Guh...."
And in a single exchange, Dugu Pae was sent flying, vomiting blood with a faint groan.
"!!!"
"Dugu, junior!!"
The Black Tiger Squad members who had been supporting him and clearing the path charged at the man blocking them with shocked faces, but they were repelled by the curved sword he wielded.
The man single-handedly blocking the hard-earned escape route moved strangely.
It wasn't just about the martial art he displayed.
After repelling Dugu Pae and the Black Tiger Squad members, instead of blocking the path alone.
Whoosh!
"Do you think you can escape?!"
He charged toward Il-mok, who had approached near the escape route.
"Urk."
Miraculously reacting to the ambush, Il-mok let out a faint groan as he blocked the curved sword swung by the middle-aged man.
As their sword and curved blade intertwined, Il-mok finally got a proper look at the man's face.
'As expected, a trap aimed at me.'
The leader of the fanatics, who had been leisurely issuing orders from the rear. He had finally moved.
Even when Chu Il-hwan and the Deputy Branch Leader, assigned as bait, were massacring the fanatics, this guy had just watched idly, but now that Il-mok was trying to break through the encirclement, he popped out.
He had even left the barely blocked hole unattended.
But the most peculiar thing grating on Il-mok's nerves was the man's eyes.
'It's different.'
Unlike the other fanatics who welcomed even death with blind faith.
Flames blazed in this man's eyes. Flames named rage and malice.
And that malice was blatantly directed at Il-mok himself.
Unfathomable malice from an opponent he was meeting for the first time today.
But Il-mok had no curiosity about the reason.
Clang!
"Urk...."
It was urgent enough just to protect his own body.
The enemy leader, Muhktar Khan, swung his curved sword in bizarre trajectories Il-mok had never seen before, slowly approaching.
Clang!
Il-mok barely managed to track the trajectory with his innate senses and block it, but the repulsion transmitted through his sword clashing with the blade rippling with blade qi twisted his wrist and whole body's muscles.
Amid that.
- What are you afraid of?
- You know it too, don't you? The more perfect sword path.
- Uhahaha. The body is merely a tool. Even if bones and muscles are crushed, dreaming of a single perfect sword. That is what a warrior is, isn't it?
In his mind, the other self of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword whispered ceaselessly.
"Shut up!!!"
Infuriated, Il-mok roared and swung his sword in return.
Clang!
As sword and curved blade clashed, amid the exchange of life and death.
The noise coming from all directions. The discomfort from sweat, blood, and dirt covering his body.
The damned side effects of the demonic art. The searing pain transmitted with every sword clash.
'...Why do I have to go through this?'
Il-mok wanted to abandon everything.
He had dreamed of a peaceful life of working moderately and playing moderately. What meaning was there in this desperate, pain-filled existence.
Clang!!
Once more, Il-mok's sword and Muhktar Khan's curved blade clashed, and Il-mok's stance shook from the overwhelming power.
"There is only one God in the world!"
Muhktar Khan raised his curved sword and shouted.
Intense qi waves rippled around his body, and ceaselessly gathered inner energy continuously formed and layered blade qi.
When Muhktar Khan swung his curved sword at Il-mok, whose stance had collapsed.
The blade qi accumulated on his curved sword had already formed a cluster of stars.
Blade Qi Forming Gang.
Il-mok stared with a half-dazed face at the brilliant starry cluster seeking to grant him rest.
Slash!
Amid the unpleasant cutting sound and splattering blood, his vision shook, but for some reason, no pain came.
Il-mok grasped the situation a beat late.
That cutting sound and blood were not his.
The woman who had thrown her body to save him was bleeding above him.
The woman with a deathly pale face smiled foolishly and said.
"How about it, Young Master? With this, don't I pass as your maidservant?"
"......"
Was it the shock of suddenly collapsing to the ground? As Il-mok wore a blank expression, unable to comprehend.
Joo Seo-yeon spoke again.
"If we survive and return, will you take me as your maidservant?"
At her resolve to even stake her life to become a maidservant, expression returned to Il-mok's face.
"Don't lay such ominous death flags."
Returning to his usual everything's-a-hassle face, Il-mok swiftly moved his hand to seal Joo Seo-yeon's acupoints.
After stopping her bleeding, Il-mok carefully stood, ensuring her wound wouldn't reopen, and said.
"You have to graduate from the Demonic Path Academy and become Jin Sojeo's junior first, right?"
At Il-mok's firm affirmation, Joo Seo-yeon smiled brightly and fainted. A smile unfit for the battlefield.
And as Il-mok fully rose to his feet, he muttered lowly.
"Fine. I'll do as you wish, you bastard Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword."
Veins bulged on the back of Il-mok's hand gripping the sword.
Whether muscles were crushed, bones broken, meridians twisted, or he went insane from the demonic art.
"Let's see it once. Whether it's some perfect sword path or whatever, that damned sword art."
That was for his future self to worry about, not his current self.