Chapter 364
Chapter 364
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 364
>Chapter Title: Truth (4)
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After several hours of nonstop screams finally died down.
The man who had been slapped earlier approached the elderly eunuch once more to report.
“My apologies, Eunuch. It seems the women and children knew nothing. The captured tribe leader was equally clueless.”
“Tch. Let’s move on to the next village. If there’s another blunder like this, I’ll punish you all with the utmost severity.”
“We shall keep that in mind!”
No sooner had the eunuch issued his command than the eunuchs moved with disciplined precision.
After agonizing deliberations, they dealt with the fainted women and children. Then they packed up and began heading west, following the trail.
But they had overlooked one crucial fact.
Unlike the Central Plains, the nomads here did not settle in one place permanently.
They followed the trail of the horse the escaped child had ridden for half a day.
At deep night, they discovered signs of a group of at least fifty people who had lived together.
“Eunuch, the traces are only a few hours old.”
Unfamiliar with the nomads’ ways, the eunuch furrowed his brow and gave the order.
“Pursue them at once.”
Following the eunuch’s command, they tracked the trail for another half day.
As dawn broke and visibility cleared, they spotted far ahead a group fleeing together on horseback.
“Chase them!”
At the eunuch’s order, the Eastern Depot agents spurred their horses.
The horses from the merchant carriage they had brought for disguise, along with those seized from the massacred village, picked up speed.
As daylight grew, the nomads seemed to notice the pursuit and began urging their horses faster as well.
It was a bizarre chase unfamiliar to both the eunuch and the Eastern Depot eunuchs.
They could clearly see each other’s positions, and even with that visibility, the distance between them was absurdly wide.
‘Damn it.’
The eunuch’s face twisted.
He hadn’t anticipated things spiraling like this over letting one child escape. No, he hadn’t even imagined a child could slip away from them.
He certainly hadn’t expected the child to ride well enough to shake off an Eastern Depot eunuch.
As the eunuch’s expression soured, the eunuchs gritted their teeth and spurred their horses harder.
How long did the grueling chase continue?
Shadows fell over the Eastern Depot eunuchs’ faces.
The horses, exhausted, began slowing noticeably.
As they trembled recalling the eunuch’s harsh punishments, an unexpected order came from his mouth.
“Dismount immediately and pursue with lightness skill! Their horses must be tiring too—this is our chance!”
The eunuchs’ eyes lit up at the command. They leaped from their mounts and dashed forward with lightness skill.
The eunuch who had given the order had already taken to the air, leading the charge toward the nomads.
As expected, the gap closed rapidly, unlike before.
Just as the eunuch halved the distance, an unexpected turn occurred.
The nomads, whose speed had dropped sharply, suddenly scattered in all directions.
Startled, the eunuch bellowed with infused inner energy.
“Split up and pursue!”
With that order, he charged full speed toward his predetermined prey.
The one wearing the enraged Four Heavenly Kings mask.
Convinced this man was directly tied to the Maitreya Divine Cult, the eunuch raced madly to capture him alive.
By the time the eunuch narrowed the gap somewhat, the nomads had already splintered into small groups fleeing every which way.
Across the vast, barren steppe, shouts, screams, and cries from pursued nomads and pursuing Eastern Depot agents began echoing everywhere.
“Hah!”
Finally closing the gap completely, the eunuch moved to subdue the man.
Thud.
Suddenly, the masked rider tumbled from his horse to the ground.
“!!!”
Rushing over in alarm, the eunuch checked and found the man’s neck snapped from the fall—instant death. No, upon closer inspection, black blood trickled from his mouth.
He had bitten a poison pill and killed himself again.
“You filthy dogs!!”
Enraged, the eunuch unleashed his lightness skill to grab others, but the distance to the rest had already widened considerably.
It was because the cultist had deliberately delayed his suicide to buy time.
How long did the screams from the Eastern Depot agents echo from all sides?
The agents, who had scattered in pursuit of the nomads every which way, began returning.
Adding up those they killed or captured alive, the total barely exceeded twenty.
They had numbered over fifty before scattering—less than half caught.
“You incompetent fools!!!”
The furious eunuch shrieked shrilly over and over.
The Eastern Depot agents could only bow their heads and tremble, speechless.
“Load those women and children onto the cart and move. Track the signs to find another tribe—we’ll interrogate them en route.”
After issuing the order, as the agents hurriedly mobilized, the eunuch stayed behind alone, biting his nails.
‘This is a hard-won opportunity. A chance to impress Chief Eunuch Tae!’
He feared failure would cost him his Eastern Depot command to that other eunuch again.
The Eastern Depot agents gathered the horses and carriage and set off once more.
Most horses seized from the previous village had fled during the fight, but those captured from the nomads made up for it—no major issue.
They loaded the acupoint-sealed women and children onto the cart. The agents took turns sleeping two or three to a carriage to catch minimal rest.
Those not sleeping followed the trail, driving the horses and carriage, or stepped up one by one to select a woman or child for brutal torture.
It was no longer torture for Maitreya Divine Cult information.
Neither children nor women knew any cult secrets, and the agents knew it deep down.
They were simply venting their rage over the mission’s peril by abusing them.
Days passed as they wandered the barren northern steppe like this.
No matter how they roamed, they found no nomad villages—just signs of recent ones.
With only three sealed women and children left for torture, and food and water seized from nomads nearly gone.
“Eunuch, someone’s approaching.”
Over the barren horizon, thirty-odd riders headed their way.
“Looks like the ones who killed the Martial Alliance spies we sent.”
At his subordinate’s report, a gleam of delight entered the anxious eunuch’s eyes.
“Heh heh heh. Walking right into our grasp. Heaven hasn’t abandoned me yet.”
The eunuch felt no fear of them.
Excluding Alliance Leader Jeong Il-ho and Supreme Blade Cheok Pae-myeong, no Martial Alliance warrior matched him.
Unless the spies they killed were Cheok Pae-myeong himself, there was no reason to fear.
“Since they’re coming to die, let’s rest here and wait.”
With everyone exhausted, the eunuch gladly ordered a break.
They sprawled out to rest, rising as the enemies drew near.
“You trash!! How dare you torment the innocent!!”
A man roared furiously, charging at the forefront.
“Hmph.”
One Eastern Depot agent snorted and rushed at him.
“Leave half alive. We need to extract information.”
Right after the eunuch’s warning before the fight.
Slash!
A gruesome slicing sound rang out.
The agent’s body split in two along with his sword.
The madman charging ahead swung his massive sword, cleaving the agent effortlessly.
“!!!”
Only then did the eunuch realize something was wrong.
“You must be the leader!!”
Spotting the eunuch’s superior realm instantly, the man charged straight at him.
Sword energy already cloaked the man’s massive blade. The eunuch hastily formed his own and swung to meet it.
Boom!!!
A fierce explosion echoed, and the eunuch staggered back three steps, outmatched in raw power.
“Urk.”
As the eunuch swallowed a groan and gritted his teeth.
“Pay dearly for tormenting the common folk!!”
The masked man, even more ferocious, swung his massive sword, pressing the eunuch.
The eunuch barely parried with swings, rolling on the ground shamelessly when needed, enduring several exchanges.
He shrieked shrilly.
“You!! You must be the Demonic Cult’s Dokgo Ryong!!”
Working with Chief Eunuch Tae on the Martial World Extermination Plan, he knew some Demonic Cult intel.
The opponent’s lofty realm, massive sword, and brutishly straightforward attacks made identification easy.
“Gah! And you’re the castrated imperial hounds! What business do you eunuchs have coming here!!”
At Dokgo Ryong’s blatant insult, the eunuch’s eyes blazed as he swung his sword.
But fury changed nothing.
Though both at the Profound Realm, Dokgo Ryong was at least a level above.
And on top of that.
“Arghhh.”
The Eastern Depot agents who had come north with him were dying one by one to the Demonic Cult fanatics.
‘This is dangerous.’
Realizing his life hung by a thread, Dokgo Ryong’s massive sword flew at the eunuch again.
“Eyes wandering, are they!!”
Barely blocking, the eunuch was pushed back once more.
Gazing at the charging Dokgo Ryong, the eunuch urgently leaped sideways.
He dove behind the cart holding the tortured woman and child. Dokgo Ryong, swinging boldly, hastily altered his sword path.
Seeing such finesse from the brute wielding the massive sword, the eunuch conceived a possibility.
Boom!
As Dokgo Ryong’s hastily redirected blade struck the ground. The eunuch leaped again, grabbing a child with his left hand.
“Argh!! You worthless scum!!”
Flames of rage burned in Dokgo Ryong’s eyes, visible even through the enraged Four Heavenly Kings mask.
But whether Dokgo Ryong raged or not, each time he swung, the eunuch thrust the child forward like a shield.
Each time, Dokgo Ryong veered his blade to avoid the child.
“Using a child as a shield!! You filthy eunuch!!”
Undaunted by Dokgo Ryong’s outright condemnation, the eunuch suddenly hurled the child at him while leaping back.
Even midair, he swung his sword, firing sword energy at the tossed child.
Clang!!
Dokgo Ryong desperately swung his massive blade to dispel the energy and catch the child.
Whoosh!
By then, the eunuch had turned and fled far with lightness skill.
Abandoning all his still-fighting, struggling Eastern Depot agents.
“Finish off the rest! This lord will chase that trash to the ends of the earth and cut him down!”
Gently setting the child down, Dokgo Ryong transformed into an avatar of wrath and pursued the eunuch.