Chapter 89
Chapter 89
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Assault on the Clan Manor
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Assault on the Clan Manor
Drawn in by the beauty of the two women, the three had approached defenselessly, right up close.
Hwa-ryeon and Seol, sensing the long-awaited opportunity had arrived, struck at the same moment.
-Whish!
In an instant, the two swords that had slipped into their embrace sliced throats and pierced chests.
“Gah!?”
“Gurk...!?”
The two Celestial Light Corps members met their end in a single breath.
The last one, who had been smirking along with them, freaked out at the sight but was too late—his head was sent flying by Yak-byeong’s belated sword.
“What the... insane?!”
Seeing this, the others let out cries of alarm and hurriedly drew their swords.
They had been so entranced by Hwa-ryeon and Yak-byeong’s beauty that they were only now scrambling to ready themselves.
But their response was far too late.
Hwa-ryeon and Seol, who had felled the two Celestial Light Corps members in one strike, immediately charged at the rest.
‘When the enemy shows an opening, press them relentlessly without pause.’
Sharing the same thought, the two dashed toward the Celestial Light Corps members at speeds that left only afterimages in their wake.
“Huh?”
In the blink of an eye, a beauty reminiscent of the moon palace’s nymph appeared right before their noses.
Stupefied as if dreaming, the Celestial Light Corps member uttered a dumb sound—then felt a searing heat at his throat along with the sound of air being sliced.
Hwa-ryeon brushed past him then.
‘D-don’t... go...’
He tried to say don’t go, but his mouth wouldn’t move.
His body wouldn’t either.
‘What the hell is...?’
With that unfinished question, his consciousness snapped off.
Right up to the end, he never understood that Hwa-ryeon’s sword had severed his nape, delivering death.
In his ignorance, he might have died a happy man.
“Argh!”
“You damn bitch—!”
“Guh!”
At least he didn’t have to die in terror and chaos like his comrades.
The surviving Celestial Light Corps members couldn’t get their bearings amid the whirlwind assault from Hwa-ryeon and Seol.
They’d swing their swords to attack, only for the women to vanish from the spot and slice their backs before they knew it.
They’d crouch low to strike at the legs, only for the women to leap high and attack from above.
The Celestial Light Corps members, never imagining such fragile-looking women could be this strong, couldn’t hide their shock.
‘In the world...!’
With Hwa-ryeon and Seol taking the lead, Yak-byeong had fallen back to protect the others—and she watched their movements in undisguised astonishment.
It wasn’t on the overwhelming level Ja-seong had shown, but even so, their combat prowess was astonishing.
Of course, the most shocked were Hwa-ryeon and Seol themselves.
‘This... me?’
‘In the world...!’
Just like with Dae-un, the two marveled at how astonishingly their own movements had changed.
Confidence and excitement now filled the hearts that had been cowed by their first multi-opponent fight.
“Haap!”
“Yap!”
Hwa-ryeon and Seol pressed the Celestial Light Corps members even harder, and before long, all the ones who had chased them lay sprawled on the ground.
“Hoo....”
Standing amid the corpses of the Celestial Light Corps members, the two took deep breaths.
As if unable to believe the scene they had created, they scanned the surroundings with wide eyes.
“You two were incredible!”
Yak-byeong approached them with a cry of admiration.
After a few deep breaths, Hwa-ryeon shook the blood from her sword and glanced sidelong at the servants and maids stumbling toward them before speaking.
“...Let’s prioritize evacuation first.”
“Ah, right.”
Yak-byeong snapped back to reality at Hwa-ryeon’s words.
And so they led the people out through the main gate, beyond the manor.
“...Huh?”
They returned to the front of the main gate, where the Celestial Light Corps corpses were cooling.
“W-what is this...?”
The three women couldn’t hide their bewilderment at the inexplicable phenomenon.
They crossed the main gate once more, but whenever they came to their senses, they were back in front of it.
“W-wait a second...!”
This time, Seol headed for the manor’s main gate alone.
And reappeared behind the group.
Finally, Hwa-ryeon tried leaping over the wall instead of the gate.
But the result was the same. She too reappeared behind the group.
It was utterly illogical—people clearly exiting only to appear inside again.
There was only one explanation for this situation.
“...A formation. And a highly advanced one at that.”
Yak-byeong murmured gravely.
She didn’t know much about formations herself.
But given the lack of visible changes like thick fog,
and how it seemed to encompass the entire vast Nangong Clan Manor,
it was clearly a very high-level formation.
“A formation? Is there a way to break it...?”
Seol asked Yak-byeong with a sliver of hope, but she silently shook her head.
“At this level, tampering without expert knowledge could lead to anything. It seems Tyrant Heaven Fortress is dead set on killing everyone here...”
Yak-byeong’s words suddenly trailed off.
Her eyes widened as if struck by a great shock.
“...? What’s wrong...?”
Hwa-ryeon and Seol turned to follow her gaze.
Soon, their eyes too flew wide in horror.
“T-that...!”
The Celestial Light Corps members that Hwa-ryeon and Seol had cut down like autumn leaves.
Their corpses had vanished.
No—more precisely, in their place stood perfectly alive Celestial Light Corps members, as if nothing had happened.
“Leave the small fry and kill those bitches first!”
What in the world was going on?
Could it be the Celestial Light Corps members we took down were illusions?
“N-no way. I definitely felt the sword cut...!”
Seol muttered in a trembling voice.
Beside her, Yak-byeong spoke with a pale face.
“...Take back what I said earlier. It’s not just a high-level formation. It’s a nightmare of a formation.”
Unable to escape, and enemies felled—whether illusions or whatever—reviving good as new.
In simple terms, it was a vicious formation forcing endless hopeless combat unto death.
‘Young Master Goon...!’
Facing the charging Celestial Light Corps members, Hwa-ryeon called out for Ja-seong inwardly.
*
Meanwhile, as the group split into two and clashed with the Celestial Light Corps.
Chilji had activated her soul-seizing technique and infiltrated Ja-seong’s mind.
‘Now, where’s a chink I can slip through?’
To delve into the depths of Ja-seong’s mind—his subconscious—she swam through the surface consciousness, seeking gaps, wounds in the heart.
Everyone had them: wounds in the heart. The soul-seizing technique’s principle was entering the subconscious through those wounds to dominate the spirit—the soul.
How long did she search?
Chilji finally found a promising scar.
‘Good. Smooth sailing so far.’
Smiling in satisfaction, Chilji burrowed into the scar, and soon memories tied to it unfolded before her.
She couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the scene.
“W-what is this?”
What spread before Chilji’s eyes was utterly unexpected... no, incomprehensible.
-Patient vitals?
-Stable so far.
An endlessly white, pristine space.
People in equally white outfits—utterly alien to Chilji—rushed about busily.
-Patient’s complaining of pain. Prescribe painkillers?
-Doesn’t seem that bad... Let’s monitor for now.
She wandered amid people spouting incomprehensible words, staring around in confusion.
“Where the hell...?”
Chilji had lived far longer than her appearance suggested.
Over those long years, she’d visited the Western Regions, Pasak Kingdom, even crossed seas to Wa.
But in all those countless lands, she’d never seen a scene like this.
It was only natural for doubts about Ja-seong to arise in Chilji.
“This guy... what’s his true nature?”
She sought Ja-seong, who must know the answer to this scene.
This was a memory in his mind.
Naturally, the subject himself should be somewhere.
But...
“You bastard...! Where are you?”
No matter how she searched the surroundings, Chilji couldn’t find Ja-seong.
“.......”
Amid the oblivious bustling crowd,
a clearly ill boy glanced sidelong at her.
Beside him towered stacks of books.
*
I glanced sidelong at Chilji, who stood out like a sore thumb amid all the people in doctor coats, nurse uniforms, and patient gowns.
When I first opened my eyes in the hospital room, I wondered for a moment if I’d been dreaming.
“...No way all that was just a dream, right?”
Hwa-ryeon, Seol, Master.
The martial arts I trained in and created.
The moment I first manifested sword aura after long efforts, and so on.
Just as anxiety and fear gripped me at the thought it might all be a dream, this woman named Chilji appeared.
That blew away all my confusion and fear.
If it was all a dream, she wouldn’t be here.
Ridiculously, the enemy’s arrival steadied my mind—and I recalled my last memory before opening my eyes in the hospital room.
My body suddenly paralyzed, unable to move.
That woman’s eyes glowing red.
Having read plenty of similar tropes in wuxia novels, I could roughly guess what happened.
“So... this is it? My memory world? My mental realm?”
Probably got hit with some soul-seizing technique, letting Chilji enter my mind.
Ha, soul-seizing technique.
In a world without sword aura or lightness skills?
Isn’t this a bit unfair?