Revenge (5)
Having finished off the Fiendish Slaughter Sword, Cheonhwa steadied his breathing and lowered the raised Okgyeong.
Good thing the strategy using the Heavenly Star Formation worked so well.
Apply pressure gradually until the opponent’s movements grow constrained. Then, with the opening that creates, drive in a major technique and tilt the entire field in your favor. Against the Fiendish Slaughter Sword, who preferred frontal contests, the method had proven effective.
That last ultimate technique was dangerous, but because it contained the principles of the Internal Heavy Hand Method, countering it was actually easier.
Heavenly Cloud Peak specialized in turning back techniques that forced energy outward, much like the Internal Heavy Hand Method. Its range of response was narrower than Heavenly Flash, yet it required no need to seize control of the opponent’s energy and allowed a counter with minimal expenditure. In an open place like this, there had been no need for delicate energy control, so it had been ideal.
How are the others faring?
While the restorative function of his arts eased the fatigue of battle, Cheonhwa swept the surroundings with the Six Harmony Sensory Path. His own fight was over, yet the others were still locked in combat. Outstanding first-class martial artists, Yeonhwa among them, were pinning down one Peak Expert, while Hyeonmyeong was clashing with the remaining Peak Expert. The rest of his sect brothers and sisters continued their individual struggles as well.
From this point on, the tide would turn according to where Cheonhwa chose to join.
Peak Experts first.
The first-class martial artists of Paegeommun were using demonic arts, but his side already knew how to break them. Among first-class fighters the balance would not tip easily. It was right, therefore, to use this opening to deal with the Peak Expert his brothers and sisters were holding down.
Cheonhwa unfurled his light-body art and sprinted to aid them.
Once the man who had defeated the Fiendish Slaughter Sword entered another fray, the battle gradually tilted toward Zhongnan and Mount Hua.
“Retreat!”
Before long the order to withdraw rang out from Paegeommun’s side. Their martial artists immediately began to pull back.
“Don’t let them escape!”
“Capture as many as you can!”
Zhongnan and Mount Hua did not simply watch. They pursued the fleeing Paegeommun fighters, striving to thin their numbers as much as possible.
Then a powerful shout rolled across the mountain path and seized every ear.
“The tactician of Paegeommun, Gal Sahyeok, is here!”
He had cried out so desperately he had even forgotten to amplify his voice with the Six Harmony Full Voice technique. Yet the shout, given with everything he had, echoed along the mountain trail and reached the righteous Taoists whose senses were already honed by battle.
“Paegeommun’s tactician?”
“The one Yeophwa hyung-nim swore vengeance against?”
The reaction among the third-generation disciples of Zhongnan was especially fierce. Who would have thought they would meet the enemy of their sect brother here, a meeting they had always known would come someday?
“Catch him!”
“We can’t let him get away!”
The pursuit of Paegeommun’s disciples transformed, almost without anyone noticing, into a hunt for the tactician Gal Sahyeok. The shift was only natural: the man was Paegeommun’s sole strategist, an irreplaceable asset. More than that, the third-generation disciples of Zhongnan had their own reason to seize him.
“You think I’ll be caught so easily?!”
Yet the fleeing Gal Sahyeok was no easy prey. He pushed the Black Wind Divine Art to its extreme and bolted this way and that. True to a tactician, he seemed to know the surrounding terrain thoroughly; using every fold of the mountain, he slipped away with practiced skill.
Even so, with Peak Experts Cheonhwa and Hyeonmyeong on his trail, they should have overtaken him quickly.
“…?”
In a single instant Gal Sahyeok vanished from sight.
Having lost their quarry, Cheonhwa and Hyeonmyeong halted and sharpened every sense. Nowhere could they feel Gal Sahyeok’s presence. Had he used some stealth art to erase his existence?
No. Even if he is a tactician, he belongs to Paegeommun. There is no reason he would learn the stealth techniques of assassins or spies.
He had disappeared without the slightest trace. Then a dense sense of wrongness snagged on Cheonhwa’s perception.
“…!”
Without hesitation Cheonhwa sent a blade of sword qi toward its source. A sharp cutting sound followed, and what entered his vision was a strangely familiar stake.
“This is…”
“It looks like a stake used to construct a formation.”
Hyeonmyeong examined the object Cheonhwa had severed and spoke.
“Then Gal Sahyeok’s sudden disappearance was because of a formation as well.”
“Yes. And a highly sophisticated one at that.”
Ordinarily a formation operated across an entire array. Yet this one had concealed a single person while leaving the rest completely unaware. Even the Jegal Clan, famed masters of formations, would have needed considerable effort to produce something of this level.
“Gal Sahyeok seems to have fled in the meantime.”
“He was always skilled at running, but to think a formation had been prepared… Strange.”
“Indeed. I have never heard of Paegeommun employing formations of this kind.”
Paegeommun was, as its name declared, a sword sect. Occasionally they used fist techniques or other weapons, yet the root remained the sword. A sword formation, perhaps—but an array of this nature was not their way.
“If there is a sect that would support Paegeommun through formations…”
“Yes. There can be only one.”
The mysterious force that had sown demonic arts across the Central Plains and stood at the root of every calamity: the Heavenly Demon Cult. The Demonic Cult, in other words, was almost certainly aiding Paegeommun.
“We should return at once and report this.”
“Agreed. There is also the aftermath of the earlier battle to settle.”
Judging further pursuit impossible, Cheonhwa and Hyeonmyeong turned back toward the mountain path where they had begun. In the interval the disciples of Paegeommun had scattered in every direction and fled; complete capture through pursuit was no longer possible. Still, they had succeeded in seizing the supply train, so the operational goal had been achieved. The raiding party collected the carts the enemy had abandoned and began the journey home. The captured supplies were to be returned to the common folk from whom they had been plundered.
On the way back Cheonhwa examined the condition of his sect brothers and sisters with the Six Harmony Sensory Path. He noticed that Yeophwa’s expression was particularly dark. Missing Gal Sahyeok clearly weighed on him.
“Yeophwa hyung-nim, are you all right?”
“Cheonhwa, I am sorry. I let Gal Sahyeok escape.”
“How is losing Gal Sahyeok yours alone?”
“No. I was the first to spot him.”
In a heavy voice Yeophwa began to explain. He had found Gal Sahyeok by pure chance—and little wonder. Who would have expected the tactician, thought to be waiting safely in the rear, to appear here?
“He has aged, yet he looked little different from the man I remembered. The moment I saw him I knew.”
He had charged without scanning the surroundings. The opponent, however, was far from soft. Unlike most of the unorthodox path, Gal Sahyeok had mastered and controlled demonic arts.
“I could do nothing but hold on. Had the battle not turned against them and forced a retreat, the gap would have been wide enough for me to die.”
Even so he could not simply let the man flee, so he had urgently announced Gal Sahyeok’s presence. In the resulting chase after the tactician, the rest of Paegeommun’s disciples had been given the chance to scatter and escape.
“If only I were stronger than I am now—if only I possessed enough martial force to overwhelm him alone—none of this would have happened.”
Yeophwa’s clenched fists trembled. Through spiritual consciousness Cheonhwa felt the emotion surging within him. The dark, fear-laced feeling that had once filled Yeophwa now burned a fierce red. That flame-like emotion was vengeance itself.
Simply facing the living nightmare of his past, the enemy he had sought, was enough to set his heart seething. Losing that enemy before his very eyes had poured oil on the fire. The boiling emotion became a new driving force for Yeophwa.
“Cheonhwa, before this war ends I want to grow strong enough to crush Gal Sahyeok.”
At the fierce longing in Yeophwa’s eyes, Cheonhwa nodded. It seemed he would need to hurry the conversion of sword techniques into fist arts after all.
Near the mountain path linking Botap and Yan’an.
Having successfully escaped the pursuit of Zhongnan and Mount Hua, Gal Sahyeok was catching his ragged breath. He had not fled by skill alone; a helper had been waiting.
“Th-thank you. I owe you my life.”
Gal Sahyeok offered his gratitude to the one who had aided him. The man had accompanied the messenger of the Heavenly Demon Cult. Introducing himself as a formation master, the man answered with a soft smile.
“Keep your thanks. We helped Tactician Gal because we needed to.”
“…”
The smile was pleasant enough, yet Gal Sahyeok found it thoroughly unsettling. The mysterious technique of the formation had let him evade even Peak Experts, yet somehow he felt he should never have accepted the Demonic Cult’s aid.
Whether or not the formation master sensed those thoughts, he continued in a gentle voice.
“Tactician Gal is one of the few with whom conversation is possible. More importantly, we have no desire to see the very head of Paegeommun die an untimely death in a place like this.”
If the tactician vanished, Paegeommun’s situation would grow still worse. They did not mind if Paegeommun won, but they had no wish to see it crushed by the orthodox sects. Gal Sahyeok could read that intent clearly in the man’s words.
They sincerely want Paegeommun to win, and they are supporting us to that end.
Their true aim was almost certainly to topple the orthodox sects or at least bleed them dry. For that, Paegeommun could not be allowed to collapse too quickly, so they offered this help.
Yet knowing their inner thoughts changes nothing I can do.
The war had already begun. All that remained for Paegeommun was to win or, at the very least, hold out for a year. If they lasted a year the military would move; Zhongnan and Mount Hua would be forced into a truce, and Paegeommun could survive without falling.
Of course, whether Paegeommun after the war could retain its former glory is another matter.
Demonic arts had already permeated every corner of Paegeommun, and the supplier of those arts was none other than the Heavenly Demon Cult. Gal Sahyeok himself was patching the gaps in his own attainment with demonic arts.
Besides, my own nose is already under water; I have no leisure to think of the distant future.
Sweat slid from Gal Sahyeok’s brow and ran down his jaw—not the sweat of flight.
To think he would truly appear before my eyes.
The one blemish he had left behind. That blemish had crossed more than a decade and stood before him. Growth had faded much of the boyish look, yet traces of childhood remained, and the face itself—proof of blood even if only through the maternal line—resembled the Paegeommunju’s lineage. A nightmare had stepped into reality, and his mind reeled in confusion.
Danmokjeong… that his Taoist name is Yeophwa means he has carved Yu Unyeop’s death into his entire life.
It was as good as a vow of absolute vengeance. The way he had charged the instant he saw Gal Sahyeok’s face only confirmed it. Cold sweat beaded on Gal Sahyeok’s forehead. Thankfully he had learned demonic arts; without them he might well have been driven back.
The greater problem was that Yeophwa had not yet passed twenty.
The boy still has room to grow. Time is not on my side.
Gal Sahyeok recalled Yeophwa’s eyes. Those eyes had burned with pure vengeance. That furious gaze hardened the tactician’s thoughts and dragged anxiety upward.
I must kill him before he grows any further—before this war ends. Only then can I live.
But how? Even if he asked the experts of Paegeommun, would they listen? They would only sneer and tell him to settle personal grudges with his own hands.
“It seems you are in need of help.”
Sensing that anxiety, the formation master whispered that he had a method.
“Tactician, why do you think the front is currently being pushed back?”
“…Because we lack high-level experts.”
Below first-class, Paegeommun held an overwhelming numerical advantage. Above Peak Expert, however, Zhongnan and Mount Hua possessed more. For now sheer numbers dominated, yet as time passed the shortage of true masters would become critical.
Hearing this, the formation master smiled faintly.
“Then what if forces of Peak Expert caliber were to increase?”
“Would the Heavenly Demon Cult send Peak Experts…?”
“No. If we did that, the Paegeommunju would surely issue a severe warning against outside interference.”
“….”
Gal Sahyeok could not deny it and closed his mouth. What the sect leader desired was combat against strong opponents. If another sect interfered he would take offense; even if the other party were the Heavenly Demon Cult, he would cut them down without hesitation.
“Then how do you propose to help?”
“Rather than us helping, it is closer to… mountain beasts, shall we say. Have you heard of Jiangshi?”
“Jiangshi… you mean those that appeared in Jiangsu?”
“Yes. Those were defective products capable of nothing but the simplest commands.”
The formation master’s smile took on a faintly chilling edge as he continued.
“What if, near Yan’an, Jiangshi that have grown to Peak Expert level begin attacking the martial artists of the orthodox sects?”
Only then did Gal Sahyeok understand. The “help” the formation master spoke of was no proposal. It was a notification that Peak-level Jiangshi, hunting only commoners and orthodox martial artists, were already roaming the vicinity of Yan’an.