Chapter 430
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 430
Chapter Title: Loyalty!!!!
Winter had arrived before they knew it, their breaths coming out in white puffs.
The Summer Combat Festival was tomorrow.
Meaning today was the last day of training for the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets.
The Fierce Dragon Corps cadets gathered one after another in the grand training grounds.
Everyone knew what today's training would be.
"This is the final battle, right?"
The cadets nodded at the words.
One one-armed poison steel corpse and one intact poison steel corpse.
And four blood steel corpses.
They had continued to serve as training tools for the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets.
Today.
They would finally unleash sword qi to finish them off.
Ha Mu-baek ascended the platform.
"You've all worked hard these past years."
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly.
"Today is finally the last one. Only the second-year cadets will participate in this final training."
At his words, the first-year cadets smartly moved to the edges of the grand training grounds.
"Gulp."
Someone swallowed dryly.
"Even including those who can barely use sword qi, most of you have now mastered it. If you don't slack on your training, even the clumsy ones will soon wield it properly. Today, you'll all have to show what you've got. Advance!"
At Ha Mu-baek's shout, ninety-seven cadets formed nine defensive formations.
Ha Mu-baek watched them.
"Squad Seven, fall back."
With those words, the one formation made by seven cadets peeled off, leaving eighteen formations from the total ninety.
Ha Mu-baek lightly flicked his hand.
The seven steel corpses dropped into the grand training grounds.
The seals on them were released.
The steel corpses glanced around.
Having fought countless battles, did they sense this was their end?
They began moving even more ferociously.
All seven charged simultaneously at the nearest formation.
"Eek!"
No one had expected all seven to rush one spot.
One cadet in the targeted formation gasped in surprise.
Bam!
The one who leaped forward first, blocking the steel corpse's attack with his shield.
It was Woong-cheol.
"Get it together!"
As if his shout was the signal, the eighteen formations began to move.
Woong-cheol's squad halted the seven steel corpses at the front.
The other squads' formations moved toward the flanks and rear of the steel corpses.
Clang! Clang! Swish. Slash.
One cadet's sword bounced off a blood steel corpse's body.
Another's left a small wound.
All their swords emitted a faint blue glow.
The brightness and depth varied.
But as promised, Ha Mu-baek had enabled every Fierce Dragon Corps cadet—who would soon head to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest—to manifest sword qi.
The standout performer was undoubtedly Jeok Ga-ye.
She drove back the surrounding steel corpses with swordsmanship that had reached the pinnacle of transformation.
Bi Jin-hyeop also moved swiftly, relentlessly stabbing at the steel corpses' weaknesses.
Thanks to the two of them?
The cadets maintained the advantage against the six blood steel corpses.
"Not bad at all."
Han Seol-bing said admiringly.
"With that numbers gap, they'd deserve to die if they couldn't manage that much."
Ninety against six.
Ha Mu-baek replied matter-of-factly.
"Against blood steel corpses, plenty couldn't even do that well. If you threw the Hidden Dragon Corps or Wa Dragon Corps kids in there, could they hold their own?"
At Han Seol-bing's question.
"Don't compare them. Do you have any idea what kind of training these guys have endured?"
Ha Mu-baek answered incredulously.
Han Seol-bing smiled faintly.
After all, Ha Mu-baek was the one who had forged them that way.
Of course, she and Instructor Ji Gun-wi had lent a hand too.
"Make way!"
As Bi Jin-hyeop's squad and Jeok Ga-ye's squad inflicted large and small wounds on the steel corpses one after another.
Woong-cheol shouted loudly from the squad that had been silently drawing the steel corpses' attention and blocking their attacks up front.
At his words, the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets pulled back from the surrounding steel corpses, leaving only the central ones.
Woong-cheol kicked off the ground from the center of the frontal formation and leaped forward.
In his hand was a massive sword.
A greatsword taken instead of his usual blade, per Ha Mu-baek's orders.
Larger and heavier than a sword.
But it suited Woong-cheol perfectly.
Blue energy gathered on the blade.
A deep sword qi.
Woong-cheol raised the greatsword high, then swung it with full power.
Kuwaaang!
A massive explosion rang out.
Woong-cheol was different from last time.
After unleashing the strike, he immediately assumed a defensive stance and shifted sideways.
The result of Woong-cheol's sword strike.
One poison steel corpse was cleaved in two.
Two blood steel corpses each lost an arm and a leg.
"Good! Let's go!"
Bi Jin-hyeop charged first, relentlessly attacking a blood steel corpse that could no longer move properly with its severed leg.
Jeok Ga-ye took on the one-armed blood steel corpse.
The remaining poison steel corpse and two blood steel corpses were handled by other cadets' formations.
From the start of training, the steel corpses had been pushed back relentlessly.
Bi Jin-hyeop severed one blood steel corpse's neck, and Jeok Ga-ye sliced another's waist.
Two more steel corpses fell.
"Here we go!"
With Woong-cheol's shout, another powerful sword strike descended.
Bam!
This time, Woong-cheol didn't retreat.
He pressed forward, swinging the greatsword even more fiercely.
Slash. Slash!
Parts of the poison steel corpse and blood steel corpse were severed.
"Push them!"
Bi Jin-hyeop's shout.
"We're going all in too!"
Jeok Ga-ye threw herself into the fray, swinging her sword with full force.
Moments later.
All the steel corpses lay defeated.
Only the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets stood tall.
Ha Mu-baek smiled in satisfaction.
"Good work. Pretty impressive. Can't compare to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, of course. But today's experience will help you greatly there. That's the end of all training. Rest up moderately today and enjoy the Summer Combat Festival. Competitors compete, spectators watch. See you on the day."
Ha Mu-baek delivered his rather long speech and stepped down from the platform.
"All hands!"
Then.
Woong-cheol shouted loudly.
Not just the second-year cadets straightened up—even the first-years did.
"Bow to the instructor!"
In unison with the shout, every Fierce Dragon Corps cadet clasped their fists and deeply bowed toward Ha Mu-baek.
And the resounding salute followed.
"Loyalty!!!!!"
The roar from nearly two hundred cadets echoed behind Ha Mu-baek's back.
"Tch. What a pointless fuss..."
Ha Mu-baek walked away.
Despite his words, a thick smile played on his lips.
After Ha Mu-baek left.
The other instructors also departed the grand training grounds in groups of twos and threes.
Only the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets remained.
The eyes they turned to each other held not triumph, but solemn resolve for what lay ahead.
They all knew too well.
The day they would meet Ha Mu-baek again after the Summer Combat Festival.
Was the day the second-year cadets departed for the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
"I never knew your true colors until now. That voice really rang out loud and clear all the way here?"
Dragon Training Pavilion Lord Pang Do-yul chuckled as he spoke, and Ha Mu-baek replied impassively.
"Even the Pavilion Lord is making jokes."
"Thank you."
Pang Do-yul, standing opposite Ha Mu-baek, clasped his fists with a serious expression.
"What's this about?"
"You've done more than I asked. It was like watching veteran Demon-Sealing Corps members."
Pang Do-yul recalled the Fierce Dragon Corps cadets' final training, which he had observed from the pavilion lord's quarters.
"They need at least that much to have even a slim chance of returning alive."
"Is that so?"
Ha Mu-baek nodded at Pang Do-yul's question.
"Not just a month or two—five years. What choice do they have?"
They had spent every day dancing between life and death amid steel corpses and demonic beasts.
The longer one stayed there, the lower the survival rate.
"But isn't the future uncertain now?"
Han Seol-bing, seated with them, spoke up, and a question appeared in Pang Do-yul's eyes.
"What do you mean?"
Instead of answering, Han Seol-bing looked to Ha Mu-baek.
"Pavilion Lord."
Ha Mu-baek opened his mouth.
"I'm thinking of stepping down as head instructor of the Fierce Dragon Corps."
Pang Do-yul started in shock at the unexpected words.
"What do you..."
Staring blankly at Ha Mu-baek, Pang Do-yul soon nodded in understanding.
"I suppose so. For someone like you to stay with the Fierce Dragon Corps for two whole years is impressive in itself."
In truth, it was odd that Ha Mu-baek had remained an instructor in the Dragon Training Pavilion's Fierce Dragon Corps for two years.
"So what are your plans moving forward? Even for you, you need orders from the alliance to move..."
As he spoke, Pang Do-yul suddenly shouted in alarm.
"You don't plan to leave the alliance, do you?"
From what he knew of Ha Mu-baek, it seemed entirely possible.
"Well, it's not like I haven't considered it... but I still have some business here."
"Then...?"
"I need to meet old man Gong Son first."
"Me too."
Pang Do-yul nodded at Han Seol-bing's follow-up.
He had always suspected they would leave someday.
"Hm. With both of you going, I'm worried about the Fierce Dragon Corps."
"Don't worry. I've trained a suitable successor."
"Instructor Pyeong Deok-jo?"
Pang Do-yul spoke as if he already knew.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
"Hand the head instructor role to that guy, and he'll do fine. I've taught him a bit, and I've seen what he's capable of."
"When you brought him along, I wondered if this might happen. But now that it's real, it feels bittersweet."
"Not relieved to be rid of the troublemaker?"
Pang Do-yul burst into hearty laughter at Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Hahaha. As if. Honestly, when I first heard you were coming, I thought the world had ended. But looking back, I wonder how we would've managed without you. Truly, thank you."
"No big deal."
"So when do you plan to leave?"
"After the Summer Combat Festival ends, once I see off the second-year cadets."
Pang Do-yul nodded at Ha Mu-baek's answer.
"Right. Then let's say our farewells properly then."
Ha Mu-baek and Han Seol-bing left the pavilion lord's office.
"Do you know where I'm headed and plan to tag along again?"
"Obviously."
Han Seol-bing smirked.
Henan Province, Luoyang.
Righteous Heaven Alliance.
A massive army was preparing to depart.
The alliance elders' strongest force, the Dragon Child Corps.
The lord's residence's strongest force, the Dragon Horn Corps.
Both stood in formation, radiating fearsome auras.
After Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong's speech.
They exited the alliance's main gate and headed toward Jiangxi Province.
It was truly a spectacle.
Enough that Luoyang's residents crowded out to watch.
"They're off."
Heavenly Eye Pavilion Lord Gong Son Dan-gyeong said, gazing at the sight.
"So they are."
So Hwi-woong replied calmly.
"Any more news from the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest since then?"
"Nothing. It hasn't appeared again."
So Hwi-woong's eyebrow twitched.
"Was it a false alarm from the Demon-Sealing Corps?"
"No way they'd mistake the walls shaking. They said it was right behind them."
"Then the Demon-Sealing Corps' field training..."
"Will proceed as planned."
So Hwi-woong frowned at Gong Son Dan-gyeong's report.
He agreed it wasn't right.
But.
They had already made a promise at their last meeting.
"Sigh. I hope that whatever—Mieol-cheon or whatever—shows up quick when I get there."
"When do you plan to go?"
"They're gone now—why drag it out? I'll leave quietly this evening."
He intended to inform the elders as late as possible about the lord's absence.
"What about the Hocheon Corps...?"
"Mu Hyeon will take about ten men with him."
"What about the Hocheon Corps Leader position?"
When Namgung Hwa-u ascended as Namgung Clan head, the Hocheon Corps Leader seat became vacant again.
Despite the time passed, it remained empty.
Gong Son Dan-gyeong could guess why.
They were waiting for the original owner to return.
But in his view, whether the one the lord awaited would take that seat.
"We'll have to appoint someone suitable. Well, I'm off. Take good care of the alliance."
"Loyalty."
Gong Son Dan-gyeong clasped his fists and replied softly to So Hwi-woong's words.