Complete Victory
Inside the carriage.
A sigh escaped Cheong-su as she peered out the window.
"Ahh. So in the end, their level only managed to draw out Sword Peak from Sword Peak Breaking Mountain. What a shame. I wanted to see the 'Breaking Mountain' I'd only ever heard about…."
"Um…."
At the voice from behind her, Cheong-su closed the window again and took her seat.
"Go ahead."
Her unhurried demeanor seemed to have done a great deal to help the young ladies of Daseonrang regain their composure.
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa addressed her.
"You said the First Young Master of the Sword Family sent you?"
"Yes. Why do you ask?"
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa's words quickened a little.
"Did the First Young Master happen to say anything about our situation? Did he give you any advance notice at all?"
Cheong-su tilted her head.
"Well, he did mention there might be an attack…."
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa cut her off. Her tone grew even more urgent, her speech faster.
"Not about the attack. Right now, our Daseonrang's…."
But her words never reached their end.
It was because Cheong-su had gripped her sword and raised a finger in a signal for silence.
"Um…."
When nothing happened even after they waited, Sang-gwan Nan-hwa tried to speak again.
At that moment, the carriage door burst open.
And in the same instant, the sword in Cheong-su's waiting scabbard shot out as if fired from a bow.
It was a draw so beautiful it was impossible to explain how it could even be possible inside the cramped carriage.
It was the Agency-style variant of the Sword Heart Sword Cry—the common sword art of the Sword Family—the Draw Stance.
The one who had opened the door and tried to look inside recoiled in shock.
But Cheong-su was just as surprised.
Partly because the other woman wore the robes of the Emei Sect.
But more than that, because her opponent had managed to block Cheong-su's draw with the sword she was holding.
I wasn't aiming to kill, so I did ease off the force at the last moment… but even so, it seems Emei is still Emei, no matter how far they've fallen.
As Cheong-su smiled with interest, her opponent was grinding her teeth.
"…Ugh!"
No matter how much inner power she poured in, she could neither push Cheong-su's blade aside nor deflect it.
What saved her were the frantic cries of the Daseonrang young ladies.
"Wait! This person is our teacher!"
"Teacher!"
At that, Cheong-su tilted her head and recovered her sword.
"…Teacher?"
The return of the blade to its scabbard was every bit as swift and precise as the draw itself had been.
"Girls! Are you all right? Is anyone hurt?"
It was a young nun with closely cropped hair who checked on the children's safety with far more anxiety in her eyes than Cheong-su showed.
"Yes! Teacher! We're all unharmed!"
"We're so glad you're safe too, Teacher!"
Sang-gwan Nan-hwa spoke to Cheong-su.
"That person is our academy's self-defense instructor."
"Ah…, is that so."
Not even a master, just a 'teacher'? Unfamiliar with the academy system, Cheong-su answered half-heartedly while her eyes assessed the woman. Unlike the other young Emei martial nuns, this one has seen real blood. I can smell it on her.
She was quite beautiful, yet completely unadorned—so much so that she could only be described as unusual for an Emei nun. Fine scars dotted the exposed skin here and there.
"Thank goodness, thank goodness…. I was so worried about you all…."
After embracing the Daseonrang young ladies for a moment, she looked at Cheong-su.
"And this person is…?"
"Ah, I'm from the Sword Family's…."
Cheong-su never finished.
"You there!"
At the sharp voice, the Daseonrang young ladies flinched.
The self-defense instructor nun also made an awkward face and stepped away from the girls.
Approaching with a fierce expression was a dormitory supervisor nun, sword in hand.
"Do you not realize the fighting isn't over yet?! What on earth are you all doing with your heads in the clouds?!"
The answer came from the roof of the carriage.
"Well, you needn't worry about that sort of thing."
"You are…?"
It was Cheong-su, who had already climbed onto the carriage and was surveying the surroundings.
She looked toward the distant reed field and continued.
"Because it's already as good as finished."
The center had been completely crushed by Elder Yeom.
Even in their drug-addled state, the Blue Night members instinctively split and veered away from his overwhelming presence.
But what awaited them were the warriors of the War Advisory Group, pre-positioned by No-gunsa.
Spread out to left and right like wings, they began to attack the scattering members.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
"Aaaaargh!"
Occasionally a member managed a miraculous successful strike, but it only left a scratch on the War Advisory Group's armor.
Even the martial artists remaining among the members could not last more than a few exchanges before collapsing into the reed field.
The several dozen survivors formed a circular formation, backs to one another, and resisted desperately.
"Hold the formation!"
"Hang on! You bastards! I said hang on!"
Poison filled their eyes as each one wildly swung their weapons at the front.
Elder Yeom's warriors merely watched them with composed expressions.
In the heat of battle one might expect some to lose their heads, but these men—tempered through a hundred battles on the northern frontier—never grew needlessly excited.
Or perhaps a fight of this level simply failed to stir their blood.
"Fuck, come at us! You sonsofbitches!"
"We'll bury every last one of you—come on in!"
The warriors gave no answer.
Some even let out cold chuckles.
As if to mock them, the warriors either deflected the weapons the enemies flailed about at random or, when a gap showed, slipped a single strike through it.
Gradually the members' raging mouths filled with the taste of iron, their lips dried, and strength drained from their bodies.
Their viciousness evaporated as quickly as their stamina.
Watching their condition with a keen eye, No-gunsa gave a broad wave of his hand.
"…Now!"
The instant the warriors forming the two wings clashed with the members, Elder Yeom—who had been quietly observing from a distance—turned away.
"It's over."
Just as he said.
Twenty ironclad heavy cavalry of the Sword Family charged in from the Blue Night members' rear and simply trampled them underfoot.
With hideous sounds of flesh bursting, arms and legs scattered into the air, and heads went tumbling far away.
The ironclad cavalry passed out between the two wings.
No one was left standing there.
Amazingly, the leader of Blue Night was still alive and well.
"Hah… hah…."
Whether Sword Peak Breaking Mountain intervened or not, he had known from the very beginning that there was no chance of victory against the regular forces of the Luoyang Sword Family.
I wonder if that vice-leader bastard managed to buy me a little time….
Right after sending his members into the charge, he had been slipping out of the combat zone through an escape route he had scouted in advance.
"Huff…. Huff…."
In a situation like this, running with lightfoot arts was something only amateurs did.
If he had used lightfoot, he would already have been turned into a pincushion by the repeating crossbows of the Silk Road Guerillas, or else overtaken by cavalry in the end.
Instead—
As the most skilled assassin in the assassin group Blue Night, he was crawling slowly and silently through the dense, wide reed field.
No need to feel regret. As long as I survive, I can rebuild a group like that any number of times.
The Serpentine Movement Art—said to have been created by imitating the movements of a snake—might have looked ridiculous to an observer.
But to him, the Serpentine Movement Art was a divine skill that had saved his life more than once in moments of absolute desperation.
Good. If I can just put a little more distance like this…!
Just as he was muttering that to himself, a woman's voice sounded right beside him.
"Oh my~ Waiting around in a place like this, and another snake goes by."
"…?!"
The sensory field he had been spreading in every direction still detected not the slightest presence around him.
"Who…?! Gyahhh?!"
He swore that in all the years he had been raised as an assassin and lived as an assassin, he had never once let out such an undignified scream.
But anyone would have been the same.
A slender, long-fingered hand had dug into his spine and seized his vertebrae.
"Mmph?! Mmph?!"
It was the pain of every nerve being wrung out at once.
For some reason, other than the scream, his body refused to obey him at all.
At this rate I'll be taken alive…!
He barely managed to move his jaw.
Even that was thanks to the secret body-control techniques he had honed over long years as an assassin.
"Oh my, oh my. No, no, you mustn't."
As if she knew exactly what he intended, the woman's other hand clamped over his face.
Her fingers, slicing into both cheeks like they were soft tofu, stopped him from moving his jaw.
The suicide poison pellet he had tucked between his teeth became useless, yet the woman did not seem satisfied with that alone.
When she moved the fingers embedded in his cheeks in a subtle way, his jaw joint simply dislocated.
"Heehee. With this, I've caught both snakes~."
Beside him, the vice-leader he had expected to buy him time already lay in the exact same state.
Having finished introducing Cheong-su, Yeon So-hyeon pointed to the woman sitting beside Se-a and smiling brightly.
"Here. There's one more new face."
The beauty in courtesan robes rose and offered a polite greeting to the assembled company.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all~."
Though no one knew who she was, they all clapped to welcome her for the moment.
"Thank you~, thank you~."
Se-a, who had risen with her, cleared her throat.
"She is a person hired for this plan on the First Young Master's orders…."
The beauty in courtesan dress raised her hand high.
"I am called Seo Rim-cheong~."
Once again the company clapped reflexively.
This dazzlingly beautiful courtesan had a peculiar power to move people with her gentle smile.
Of course, there was also someone present who remained unaffected by that power.
"She is the foremost underworld expert in Luoyang whom I have employed."
At Yeon So-hyeon's words, everyone turned astonished eyes on her.
"Heeheehee."
She bashfully lifted her sleeve to cover her mouth.
Yeon So-hyeon added briefly.
"And based on her broad knowledge of Luoyang's geography, she will also serve as a guide showing Daseonrang around every corner of the city."
"I look forward to working with you~!"
Cleanup after the battle was underway in various places.
"Their identity is presumed to be Blue Night, the assassin group that once made a name for itself in Henan Province."
Jeong-ryung of the Silk Road Guerillas was reporting to Elder Yeom.
"We have been unable to locate the corpse of the one who appeared to be the enemy commander, and therefore we are expanding the search beyond the encirclement…."
"Over here~!"
A woman in archer's attire came riding across the reed field on horseback.
Behind her, as she waved her hand languidly, the leader and vice-leader of Blue Night were stacked and carried.
"Those are…?!"
"They're snakes~."
Startled, Jeong-ryung ordered his men to secure the leader and vice-leader.
"Oh my, oh my. I've pulled their spines out a little at a time, so please take them down carefully~."
At her words Jeong-ryung's men paused for a moment, then moved with extreme caution.
"Miss…."
As Jeong-ryung was about to speak to her, his gaze fell on the recurve bow hanging from her horse and the quiver mixed with signal arrows.
"Ah! So you are the young lady who fired those signal arrows and revealed the assassins' position!"
"Assassin group…?"
She covered her mouth with her sleeve and smiled.
"Heehee. If you call even those things an assassin group, wouldn't a real assassin somewhere be feeling rather sad~?"