Chapter 239
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 239
Chapter Title: Commencement
The morning of the decisive battle.
I slowly lowered my head after gazing up at the fog-shrouded sky, still enveloped by the spell.
Countless people came into view.
The Wudang Sect Taoists, led by Sect Leader Muheoja, and all my companions were staring at me.
I looked at them for a moment before turning to Yeo So-ha and asking,
“What’s the situation outside? How are they holding up?”
“The horde of monsters is still surrounding the Wudang Sect. They’ve formed a tight encirclement without any gaps, so the ‘second’ spell should work perfectly.”
“That’s a relief.”
I nodded and shifted my gaze to Muheoja.
“And the Wudang disciples?”
“They’ve all steeled themselves. From me down to the third-generation disciples. Every last one of us will fight those things to the end.”
Finally, I turned to Hwa-ryeon standing beside me.
Her eyes were firm, without a trace of fear.
“We’re ready. All that’s left is to win.”
Hearing Hwa-ryeon’s response, I gave a slight smile and looked back at everyone.
Then, hardening my expression, I declared,
“Alright, let’s begin.”
The battle for the Wudang Sect, the hundred thousand residents of Gyunhyeon, and our fates had begun.
*
“Hmm…”
Yuk-gan frowned as she peered through her eyes at the fog blanketing the Wudang Sect.
It had already been three days since the sect’s main hall vanished into that thick mist.
In all that time, nothing had changed around the Wudang Sect—it had remained utterly still.
Even Yuk-gan, who had initially dismissed it, couldn’t help but sense something off by now.
“What are they thinking? Just planning to hide indefinitely?”
If pressed, it wasn’t entirely incomprehensible.
They probably didn’t even know their fate would be decided today.
But even so, holding out like this endlessly felt wrong.
‘At the very least, shouldn’t they try to break through and call for outside aid?’
That was it.
No matter how many of the seven hundred sacred beasts she had deployed, these were the same foes who had handled the previous assaults on the Wudang Sect.
They should have at least attempted to punch through the encirclement and seek reinforcements.
Yet they hadn’t. That guy, Goon Ja-seong, hadn’t stirred from within the fog for three whole days.
‘Out of curiosity, I even tried prodding once…’
The attempt had failed.
She’d sent a few sacred beasts to pierce the fog, but they couldn’t get through at all.
It was like a solid barrier—the mist stubbornly repelled their intrusion.
Yuk-gan racked her brains staring at the fog but eventually gave up thinking about it.
“Whatever. It’s far too late for any schemes now.”
She turned to look up at her doppelganger.
Compared to when she first arrived at Wudang Mountain, it had grown at an astonishing rate.
The density of the blood-red aura it emanated had intensified as well.
Just breathing near it made her feel her own power steadily growing.
Just a little longer. Truly, just a bit more.
Yuk-gan gazed up at the massive doppelganger with an ecstatic smile.
But at that very moment, the anomaly she’d been waiting for struck—not at the fog-shrouded Wudang Sect, but at her.
The vision from the eyes she’d scattered across all of Wudang Mountain—fragments of her own flesh—turned pure white all at once.
“What…?”
Confused in the sudden shift, an immense agony then shook her soul.
“Aaahhh!?”
The pain felt like her soul was being torn to shreds; Yuk-gan collapsed, slamming her head to the ground and thrashing in convulsions.
‘It hurts, hurts, hurts—!’
Unexplained torment.
The agony of her very existence unraveling made her scream until her throat tore, her body twisting wildly.
Nor was she the only one losing control.
The sacred beasts, whose souls she’d linked to maintain command, began rampaging under the influence of her pain.
-Kieeeh-!
-Kraaang!
The sacred beasts, utterly berserk, turned on each other, biting and tearing.
The area around the Wudang Sect descended into pandemonium in an instant.
And as if seizing that exact moment, the fog concealing the sect rapidly expanded, engulfing the monsters’ encirclement.
The beasts grew even more frenzied within the impenetrable mist, slaughtering one another.
Seizing the gap, a group slipped through the encirclement using the fog for cover.
*
The operation began with my declaration.
The first step was attacking So-so’s soul through her eye.
“Where’s the eye you smuggled out?”
“Right here.”
At my question, Yeo So-ha pulled the eye from the pouch in her hand.
Everyone grimaced or shuddered at the sight of it.
“Ugh…!”
Just as Cheong had sketched it before, the eyeball with wings sprouting from it was as grotesque as the drawing—nay, even more so.
Clicking my tongue at the eye in Yeo So-ha’s grip, I turned to the group to reconfirm the plan.
“To avoid clashing with monsters and getting boxed in, we need to move without delay at the right moment.”
“The instant we strike the soul, activate the second spell and slip through the encirclement while the outer monsters are in chaos. Right? You’ve explained it three times already.”
She cut in with her chattering voice.
I looked down at Seol-i’s tiny head, barely reaching my chest, and smacked my lips.
Truth be told, I’d planned to leave Seol-i behind at the Wudang Sect for this mission.
With unknown threats everywhere, I worried dragging this little one along might lead to trouble.
But she’d stubbornly refused, insisting on coming no matter what.
“…I’m not sure taking you is the right call.”
“Ugh, not that again!”
As I grabbed the head of the swinging-fist kid and glared suspiciously down at her, my master interjected.
“No need to worry. Young as she is, she’s a warrior who’s been through countless battles. She’ll pull her weight.”
“I know, Master, but…”
“Besides, there’s no guarantee it’s safe here either. This place will become a battlefield too.”
His eyes asked if I didn’t already know that.
In the end, I could only nod with a sigh.
As my exchange with Master ended, Yeo So-ha spoke up as if she’d been waiting.
“Shall we stop chatting and get moving? From here on, it’s a race against time.”
We followed the urging Yeo So-ha toward the mountain gate.
The gate, half-destroyed and nonfunctional from repeated assaults, shrouded in thick fog.
I took a deep breath, peering into the mist where nothing was visible, then turned to Yeo So-ha.
“…Let’s start.”
At my silent signal, she nodded, clutching the eye tightly in her left hand and raising her right.
Her golden eyes seemed to shine brightly, and a streak of white lightning coiled around her right hand.
-Crackle!
Despite the menacing static, Yeo So-ha didn’t flinch and slammed her right hand down onto the eye in her left.
-Zzzap!
-Kieee-!
The eye shrieked convulsively the moment the lightning wrapped around it, crumbling to ash in an instant.
The eye fluttered away as scattered ashes.
Yeo So-ha then turned to gaze toward the Shangqing Hall, where Hong and Cheong waited.
Her golden eyes flashed once, and the fog over the Wudang Sect began spreading outward.
As the seamless fog dispersed, revealing gaps, the monsters’ shrieks pierced sharply into our ears.
-Kieeeeh-!
-Kraaang!
“Now!”
At Yeo So-ha’s signal, we vaulted over the mountain gate and charged.
“I’ll take the lead as planned. Follow me!”
The fog had spread and thinned somewhat, but it still obscured our vision.
We followed Yeo So-ha as she plunged fearlessly into it.
Bringing up the rear, I extended my sensory field forward.
To prevent anyone from straying.
-Kiiik!
-Kwachak!
-Krheeeung!
Roars of monsters echoing in the fog, sounds of tearing flesh, agonized screams.
The cacophony from all directions made the chaos vivid.
“Ugh…!”
Startled by the noise, perhaps, Seol-i faltered right in front of me.
“Should’ve just stayed at the Wudang Sect, huh?”
“…I wasn’t!”
Poking her hunched shoulders teasingly, she yelled back as if she’d never been scared, picking up speed.
Smirking at her back, I refocused on my sensory field.
Fortunately, aside from Seol-i’s brief hesitation, everyone was keeping up with Yeo So-ha.
She wove expertly through the monsters’ gaps up ahead.
We broke through the encirclement without incident, and soon the view brightened.
We’d escaped the spell-forged fog.
The Wudang Mountain landscape after three long days.
The sky remained blood-red, trees and grass withered and twisted in bleak desolation.
Beyond that scenery loomed a pillar of blood-red energy.
“…That’s where the sapling is below?”
“Yes. The energy surging so massively means it’s nearing full maturity.”
Hearing Yeo So-ha’s answer, I glanced back.
The fog still clung thickly around the Wudang Sect, roars unrelenting within.
“…Wish they’d just annihilate each other in there.”
Yeo So-ha shook her head at my mutter, saying no chance.
“Their numbers might thin out some, but don’t count on it. We hit her soul hard through the eye, but if she’s near the sapling, she’ll recover fast. She’ll likely stop the rampage soon and march on the sect.”
Which meant the Wudang Sect couldn’t avoid battling the monsters.
I’d trained the Taiji Sword even using sensory sharing hacks, so I didn’t think they’d fall easily, but…
Why this unease nagging at me?
“With the sapling gone, those monsters will flop like fish out of water and die soon enough. Our best move is destroying it as fast as possible.”
“…Got it. Let’s hurry.”
Yeo So-ha persuaded me as I kept looking back.
Nodding at last, I quickened my pace toward the sapling.