The Two Most Vicious (5)

To Danmok Jin — a reincarnator who had once been a well-mannered web novel reader — a joint formation was nothing more than "group violence dressed up in elegant language."

And that elegant violence existed, above all else, for the purpose of being shattered.

The Shaolin Sect's One Hundred and Eight Arhats Formation? The Wudang Sect's Seven Star Sword Formation?

At least in the countless murim novels Danmok Jin had read in his past life, he could not recall a single occasion on which a formation like that had produced a good outcome.

...The original novel of this world was no different.

Naturally, the One Hundred and Eight Arhats Formation existed in this world's Shaolin as well. It even carried a legendary reputation — said never to have known defeat once in the entire long history of the murim.

That is, right up until the final boss, the Heavenly Demon, made his appearance. In the novel, the formation's role had been nothing more than a sacrificial offering to herald the Heavenly Demon's shocking first entrance.

The Heavenly Demon, revealing himself at last. To wash away the humiliation of his defeat in the Great Righteous-Demonic War, he came to Shaolin — the sect founded by Cheonbul, the legendary Alliance Leader. The warrior monks of Shaolin spread the One Hundred and Eight Arhats Formation to capture the supreme evil who had arrived alone, but they could not hold him.

A painfully predictable development. It was, after all, a novel that got called a walking pile of clichés. The author was probably so conscious of that criticism that he suddenly pulled a genre drift out of nowhere.

At any rate, that was why Danmok Jin had pinned little hope on the joint formation of the Mystic and Yellow Rank cadets.

...If the One Hundred and Eight Arhats Formation collapsed before the Heavenly Demon alone, could the Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation — far inferior to it — possibly stop Baek Woohyeok?

A natural thought for a reincarnator.

Still, there was one thing Danmok Jin had allowed himself to hope for.

Even so, snagging his ankles and bleeding his stamina — that much should be possible, no?

Sure, the Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation was worse than the Arhats Formation, but Baek Woohyeok wasn't the Heavenly Demon either. Danmok Jin's expectations were realistic enough.

"...A report just came in. Woohyeok has begun demolishing the Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation in an instant."

But there was one fact Danmok Jin had overlooked: Baek Woohyeok's absurdly unrealistic strength.

...How does merely regressing make you that strong? At best, wasn't he supposed to have regressed from his peak?

Danmok Jin still did not know Baek Woohyeok's exact capabilities. Even after watching him fight any number of times. Even while suspecting that he was a regressor.

In the end, Danmok Jin was a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠reincarnator. His knowledge extended only as far as the original novel. And simply reading text was never enough to grasp what a master's actual martial force looked like when put to use.

"...For once, things started smoothly."

All Danmok Jin could do in the end was sigh.

Pardon the sudden detour, but let us speak of realms for a moment.

For a murim warrior, there are broadly two great walls. The wall of Peak, and the wall of Flower.

Why call them walls? Because reaching those realms is gruelingly difficult — and because the gap between those who reach them and those who do not is enormous.

Well, legend does speak of a realm beyond them called the Profound Realm...

I, who stood at the Flower Realm in my past life, never faced such a wall myself, so I cannot say for certain. Perhaps the Heavenly Demon came up against the wall of the Profound Realm. ...That bastard was honestly on a different dimension entirely.

The Heavenly Demon — against whom I, a Flower Realm master, had to brace myself for mutual destruction just to tear off one of his arms. In truth, neither the Heavenly Dragon Sword Hero Danmok Jin nor I could ever have beaten him single-handedly. His skill stood on a level far above ours.

It is not for nothing that I quietly tolerate Namgung Cheon, whom I do not even particularly like. He is a man who dreams of being the protagonist, so I hold back in the hope that he will prove useful in the coming Great Righteous-Demonic War and the battle against the Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon — and the demonic cult that worshipped him — were opponents that difficult.

At any rate, the reason I suddenly brought up realms, even dredging up the out-of-nowhere Heavenly Demon to do it, is simple.

"Hoo... Everyone, spread the Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation as you were taught! Press the Blood Wolves!"

I wanted to say that for someone like me — someone who had crossed the wall of Peak — dealing with those who had not was an exceedingly easy affair. All the more so, given that I carried the enlightenment of the Flower Realm.

"Unfold!"

Besides, the Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation was a sword formation I knew intimately. Among the cadets spreading it now, I doubted a single one had probed that formation as deeply as I had back in my model-student days.

...Though that became meaningless once I gained the Iron Blood Yama Divine Art.

Ultimately, a formation was the desperate flailing of the many weak to take down the few strong. Piling on convoluted theories of the Five Elements or the Six Harmonies did not change the fact that it was flailing.

And flailing by the weak rarely produced good outcomes.

"Your opponent, the Blood Wolves, boasts swift footwork! Steal their mobility first! Hold the formation and target the legs!"

Shuuuuk!!

Swords came flying from every direction — front, back, left, right. Following the commanding cadet's orders, every slash angled for my legs.

Whoa. One mistake and I'd take a serious wound to the leg here.

They did call this a combat-oriented exam; the attacks were certainly vicious.

"Then I won't hold back either."

I drew up the energy of the Iron Blood Yama Divine Art and drove my heel into the earth with everything I had.

KWAAAANG!!

With a tremendous roar, the earth split apart.

It was the manifestation of Tongue-Plow Quake, recorded within the Iron Blood Yama Divine Art — a heel technique derived from one of the punishments handed down by the Great King Yama, lord of the underworld and judge of the Hell of Tongue-Plowing. Just as that sentence plows and tills upon a tongue, this art stamped the ground hard enough to grind the terrain itself to pieces.

Not that I could actually plow a field with it, of course.

Well, isn't that how most martial arts are? When Cheonbul created the Iron Blood Yama Divine Art, he merely grafts his enlightenment onto the hells; he never truly intended to plow fields with his heels.

"...Ughaaak!!"

At any rate, the effect was devastating. The enemies surrounding me lost their balance outright, and a few cadets even went tumbling this way and that across the ground.

Thinking about it, that was only natural. This was Tongue-Plow Quake — the same technique that had once downed a man whose name I cannot even remember, who was, for what it's worth, a fairly renowned late-stage master from Anhui. There was no way lower-ranked cadets with comparatively shallow martial arts could absorb a shock of that magnitude.

Which meant...

"The formation is broken."

The Heavenly Dragon Sword Formation was, to be fair, a formation of considerable quality — the combined work of the academy's martial scholars. But with the warriors spreading it this weak, there was simply no way its true power could be brought to bear.

"Sigh... Did none of you hear the instructors say that a formation is at its most vulnerable the moment it is first broken?"

I threw the question back at them out of sheer exasperation, but no answer came.

Thud.

I stepped into the Ghost Shadow Step — the very swift footwork they had tried so hard to neutralize.

KWAAANG!!

"...Guaaak!!"

My plan was to start by shattering the legs of the ones sprawled across the ground. They had tried to steal my legs first, so call it karma.

"Ngh... Cadets still standing, reform the formation! We have not yet lost!"

At the bellow of the cadet commanding the formation's core, the recovered enemies attempted to spread the formation once more —

"Oh dear. Wrong call."

Unfortunately, his choice was a mistake.

"Rather than forcibly re-spreading a formation that had already collapsed once, the correct judgment would have been to fall back and reorganize your strength."

Not that I would have let them run away, of course.

KWAAANG!!

After snapping the leg of one cadet sprawled across the ground, I swept my gaze over the enemies struggling to steady their formation.

"...A commander's mistake, in the end, always leads to his subordinates' deaths."

An unpleasant memory surfaced unbidden. My hands might just grow rougher.

The Earth Rank cadet from Swift Shadow Gate, serving as the defenders' messenger, could not close his gaping mouth at the carnage unfolding before his eyes.

...What is this.

Even if they were lower-ranked Mystic and Yellow Rank cadets, they had numbers that should have posed a real burden. Yet Baek Woohyeok had neutralized every last one of them in an instant. A presence difficult to believe even granting that he was a Peak realm master.

Could our Gate Lord do that?

He doubted it enough to wonder whether the Swift Shadow Gate Lord — a master of the very same realm as Baek Woohyeok — could ever pull off such a feat.

...No. He couldn't.

The answer the Swift Shadow Gate cadet arrived at was that this was something even his lord could not do. ...Our sect specializes in lightness skill and concealment arts, not pitched combat.

Barely shaking off the shock, the man quietly readied himself to move. The battle was over; he needed to slip away from this spot as quickly as possible.

"The little rat finally moves."

Just then, Baek Woohyeok — standing blankly at the center of the cadets strewn across the ground — uttered a quiet remark.

"Ah."

The Earth Rank cadet of Swift Shadow Gate turned his trembling eyes toward Baek Woohyeok and let out a short groan.

Baek Woohyeok's blood-red eyes were fixed precisely on him.

"We've lost contact with Young Hero Yu of Swift Shadow Gate. It appears..."

Jegal Hui, her face stiff, finished her report to Danmok Jin.

"Good grief..."

Baek Woohyeok's strength was monstrous — far beyond their vague expectations.

...Will what we prepared really be enough?

It was only natural for Danmok Jin to doubt. After all, what they had to face was not Baek Woohyeok alone.

"...Namgung Cheon. How fares the One Sword Lightning?"

At Danmok Jin's question, Jegal Hui scanned the reports streaming in from the messengers in real time.

"Ah..."

Her groan told the result well enough.

"Ngh..."

Blood trickled from the corner of Seomun Yeol's mouth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠as he gripped his broken sword.

"...Impossible. Even a Peak realm master — how could he take down every last one of us without even using sword qi..."

Namgung Cheon had appeared like an absolute thunderbolt before the Earth Rank cadets waiting in ambush, blocking one of the two roads leading to the melee grounds.

"Young Lord Namgung! Today we shall test your skill for ourselves! We're curious whether the Young Lord's sword is truly sharp enough to deserve the epithet One Sword Lightning!"

As one of the Earth Rank cadets stepped forward to challenge him to a duel,

"Ha. Absurd."

Namgung Cheon burst out laughing,

"There is no time. Come at me all at once."

and plunged straight into the very midst of the Earth Rank cadets.

CRRRACK!!

Lightning flashed.

"Hah... hah..."

And when he came back to his senses, the only Earth Rank cadet still standing was Seomun Yeol.

"I say, Young Lord Namgung. If you were to let me go now, would that be so terrible? You know who I am. I am Seomun Yeol, of the Seomun Clan."

His arrogance from moments before nowhere to be found, Seomun Yeol groveled shamelessly before Namgung Cheon.

"I cannot be eliminated here. I, Seomun Yeol, who will become one of the stars of the murim..."

Watching him, Namgung Cheon glimpsed, for an instant, his self from before the regression. The Namgung Cheon of his Cheonryong Academy days — the one who had nursed his inferiority complex watching Danmok Jin — had been no different from this Seomun Yeol.

...And who's to say I am any different now?

A displeasure rose in him, unbidden.

"Tch."

Namgung Cheon clicked his tongue without meaning to.

"Young Lord Namgung... I beg you... no — I beg you! Please, I implore you, let me go!"

As Seomun Yeol all but dropped to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠his knees, Namgung Cheon released his lightning energy.

"...Guhok!!"

Striking Seomun Yeol in the abdomen with the flat of his blade, Namgung Cheon murmured in a low voice.

"The Seomun Clan... Why should I look out for a family that is about to disappear?"

Seomun Yeol, unconscious in an instant, would unfortunately never hear Namgung Cheon's final words.

CRRRACK!!

Namgung Cheon's silhouette became a streak of light as he executed the Thousand-Li Lightning Step, the secret lightness art the Namgung Clan prided itself on. Where he had passed, the lightning energy of the Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art lingered faintly in the air.

Namgung Cheon came to a halt at the head of the main road leading to his target — the melee grounds — where the two branching paths converged. His brow furrowed of its own accord.

"Oh. You're late."

Baek Woohyeok had arrived before him. Namgung Cheon had been left behind yet again.

"Hoo..."

After a brief, deep breath, Namgung Cheon declared in a sharp voice:

"...Fighting Danmok Jin is mine."

Namgung Cheon stared hard at Baek Woohyeok's mouth, waiting for it to open.

That bastard Danmok Jin must have taken the role of melee commander. If you, Baek Woohyeok, say you'll take him for the sake of your score, then...

By then, Namgung Cheon had even resolved to draw his sword. The contest against Danmok Jin meant that much to him.

"Suit yourself."

But Baek Woohyeok simply nodded, accepting Namgung Cheon's proposal.

"...I thank you."

At the unexpected turn, Namgung Cheon offered his thanks in a low voice — unaware,

Whether Namgung Cheon crushes Danmok Jin or fails to, I can just take him down myself... So does this mean that bastard ends ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠up playing the role I had before my regression?

that Baek Woohyeok's judgment carried a rather cunning streak of its own.

"Well then. Shall we go?"

Their destination was visible, not far ahead.