Chapter 454
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 454
Chapter Title: She Looks Just Like Her
"Sharp ones, aren't they."
Chu Geum-neung muttered as he kicked off the ground.
In his senses.
He had caught the movements of those trying to flee from them.
The direction they were heading.
"Toward the wall?"
The wall that had transmitted an unpleasant sensation to him.
Chu Geum-neung glanced back at the jiangshi following him.
Dark Blood Jiangshi, Ironclad Jiangshi, Blood Jiangshi, Poison Jiangshi.
"That'll definitely be an obstacle for them."
His senses were telling him as much.
The wall posed no problem for Chu Geum-neung himself.
It merely gave off a displeasing, nauseating vibe.
But.
For those trailing behind him, it would be a solid barrier.
It was a wall with that much power.
"Guess I need to smash it first."
Chu Geum-neung clenched and unclenched his fist as he stared ahead.
Then, in his senses.
A new presence registered.
He glanced back casually.
"Another one awakened? No need for that. Tch."
In truth, he wasn't thrilled with Il-no's actions.
But when Il-no spoke of sweeping away those who had entered the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest and using that momentum to conquer the world.
He had watched without interfering.
In Chu Geum-neung's view, the Blood Cult's current situation was utterly ridiculous.
They who had once dominated the entire Mountain-Crossing lands.
Now trapped in this mere forest.
Confined by a barrier, living such a wretched existence.
It naturally stirred his rage.
As Il-no said, this was the chance.
To shatter that damned wall and place the world beneath the Blood Cult's feet.
Thud thud thud thud thud.
Deep into the night.
The advancing jiangshi created a heavy echo through the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
Dust rose in the forest.
They pressed straight ahead in one direction.
The direction Chu Geum-neung led.
Toward the strongest human among those who had entered this forest.
They charged with murderous intent.
Chu Geum-neung, emanating a ferocious aura bent on destroying and sweeping everything away.
Suddenly flinched.
His gaze shifted elsewhere.
"What is that?"
He sensed a human aura he had never felt before.
How could it have slipped past his notice?
Chu Geum-neung, who had been sprinting, gradually slowed and came to a stop.
The jiangshi halted with him.
Only the pack of lowly corpse jiangshi continued howling and charging forward.
Chu Geum-neung's expression hardened rigidly.
Even though his face as a jiangshi showed almost no expression, the change clearly betrayed his tension.
"What in the world..."
He fell into momentary confusion.
The strongest among the humans who entered the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
That one was said to be the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader.
Yet this newly sensed aura was no less.
No, it even seemed stronger.
'Strong, sure. But did they really hide all this time out of fear of just that level?'
Chu Geum-neung tilted his head slightly.
Il-no.
He had clearly been preparing to resist while fearing some existence intensely.
For a moment, he thought this sudden aura might be that existence.
But at this level, he could take it down alone.
It wasn't something to be that wary of.
But if that aura was heading toward where the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader was?
The situation grew ambiguous.
One or the other, he could handle.
Both at once?
Even Chu Geum-neung couldn't manage that alone.
Even as a jiangshi, he objectively assessed his forces and stopped in place.
Then he glanced back again.
"Not a coward, but a smart one, I suppose."
He revised his assessment of Il-no.
Probably out of vague fear toward that new presence's owner.
Even so.
If he joined forces with the additionally awakened Divine Cult Protectors.
They could surely smash them.
Chu Geum-neung chose to wait for a moment.
For certain victory.
The vibrations shaking the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest's ground ceased.
The dust settled bit by bit.
The night deepened.
"What's wrong?"
Yeon Ha-min asked Ha Seol-ran, whose face had gone pale.
"Another incredibly powerful jiangshi aura..."
Bad news.
"Only way is to link up as fast as possible, I guess."
Ha Seol-ran nodded at Yeon Ha-min's words, her brows slightly furrowed.
Then she glanced to one side.
Where Wi Ji-gun was hiding his presence.
Wi Ji-gun, moving in sync with Ha Seol-ran's group, directed his gaze toward the jiangshi horde—and even further back.
Toward where the newly appeared aura was.
'Something's there.'
A new aura had suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Impossible.
Unless blocked by some formation or spell disrupting aura detection.
But there were no blocks.
'Then...'.
Wi Ji-gun expanded his aura detection range.
He changed his flat, expansive aura sense into a spherical one.
Something caught in the massively expanding spherical aura, like a giant orb.
'Underground?'
That was the limit of Wi Ji-gun's aura sense.
He only felt some group down there.
[Seol-ran.]
Ha Seol-ran flinched at her master's sudden mental transmission, her expression startled for an instant.
She knew where her master was, so she didn't look around.
[Change your aura sense form. Not just spreading it flat and wide. Make it a sphere to check underground too.]
Ha Seol-ran followed her master's instruction.
She had been spreading her aura sense wide like a disk to detect people on the surface.
Switching to spherical as instructed naturally shrank the range.
Even so.
She could sense most of the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest's situation.
The place where the second jiangshi had appeared.
Underground there.
Ha Seol-ran, too shocked, stopped dead in her tracks.
"Wh-what? Seol-ran!"
Yeon Ha-min swiftly wrapped an arm around her waist and kept running.
Stopping like that could cause the rear to crash into them, sparking a major accident.
"M-more... way more... monster-like jiangshi... nine in total... and one more that's either a jiangshi or not, too strong to tell..."
Her voice trembled with fear.
Because she could sense it directly.
She knew how strong the enemies were.
That was her reaction.
Wi Ji-gun frowned upon hearing Ha Seol-ran's mutter.
Underground, beyond his aura sense.
Such things had been hiding there.
Wi Ji-gun's face also hardened.
'Nine...'.
Two or three, maybe.
Nine?
Even he would struggle.
Even combining forces with the powerful presence ahead.
He couldn't guarantee victory.
Wi Ji-gun looked at Ha Seol-ran.
'Perhaps...'.
Wi Ji-gun, planning ahead while considering the worst case.
He bit his lip hard and moved.
Yang Bi-chang was startled by Dam Mu-hyeon's sudden appearance.
And even more by what he said.
The vanished jiangshi were reappearing en masse and swarming.
From where?
Yang Bi-chang chewed his lip.
"Then what should we do?"
"We must evacuate outside the wall as quickly as possible."
As vice leader of the Demon-Sealing Corps, Dam Mu-hyeon replied politely.
"The closest direction is..."
Yang Bi-chang recalled the surrounding terrain.
"Probably near where the Alliance Leader headed."
Yang Bi-chang concluded.
"Please move at full speed."
Dam Mu-hyeon left those words and kicked off the ground.
His mission complete, he was returning to the Alliance Leader.
As Hocheon Corps vice leader.
His duty was solely the Alliance Leader's protection.
Even if they headed the same way, they couldn't catch Dam Mu-hyeon at full sprint.
So he went ahead.
Yang Bi-chang roused the sleeping Demon-Sealing Corps and Dragon Training Pavilion trainees, hurrying them along.
"What's going on?"
Namgung Hu tilted his head amid the rush.
"Looks like the calm before the storm is over, and the storm's begun."
Namgung Ji-yu replied tensely.
The Demon-Sealing Corps vice leader was with them.
This frantic scene.
Meant it wasn't ordinary.
So Hwi-woong's group, charging full speed toward the wall.
While running, So Hwi-woong glanced back.
'Stopped? Why?'
He sensed the jiangshi halting.
Precisely, the Heaven-Destroying Jiangshi had stopped.
But he didn't know why.
That was the limit of So Hwi-woong's aura range.
If they stopped, all the better.
They needed to reach the wall fastest.
It was a long, long night.
Those scattered across the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest ran full tilt through the night.
As dawn broke.
The Fierce Dragon Corps arrived at the wall, where So Hwi-woong's group had arrived slightly earlier.
The forced march ended.
The Fierce Dragon Corps and Demon-Sealing Corps advance team, arriving at dawn.
"Huff... huff... these damned bastards..."
Swept up in the mood, he had no choice but to run here.
Now, time to fix these Fierce Dragon Corps trash's attitudes.
And the one who defied orders and led was Ha Seol-ran.
'Good, perfect excuse...'.
Recalling Ha Seol-ran's face, looks, figure, harboring other desires.
He approached her.
"You wench! Defying orders and inciting the group! Think the sacred alliance rules are a joke?!"
He strode toward her, bellowing in rage.
At Manya-do's roar, the seventh squad members with Ha Seol-ran turned to him.
"We saved your lives when you were about to die. If we'd stayed, we'd all be dead."
Dang Jin-san stepped forward.
Ha Seol-ran looked extremely urgent.
First time seeing her like this since knowing her.
Truly desperate, as if in a life-or-death crisis.
So they ran full speed as she said.
No time to persuade Demon-Sealing Corps members.
Just used numbers as a weapon.
"You too, defying alliance rules is the same damn..."
Manya-do's voice, raging at Dang Jin-san, trailed off.
His glaring eyes caught the whip emblem on Dang Jin-san's waist.
'Th-that's the Tang Clan emblem... how is a Tang Clan member...'.
Those bearing weapons with the emblem were direct descendants or close branch members.
Meaning this guy held some important position in the Tang Clan.
How did such a person end up in the Fierce Dragon Corps...
Manya-do hesitated momentarily.
But this was the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, and he was a Demon-Sealing Corps squad leader.
Those were their shield, the Fierce Dragon Corps.
How bad must a Tang Clan guy be to get booted to Fierce Dragon Corps? The thought struck him.
"You bastard. I'll deal with your crimes later, so step aside!"
Thus, Manya-do grew bolder, more arrogant.
His judgment clouded by the frantic events from last night till now.
"What crime, exactly?"
At the voice from behind.
Manya-do whipped his head around.
"And who the hell are y..."
He froze mid-sentence.
A sturdy warrior in middle-aged guise before him.
A massive sword at his waist.
Piercing eyes.
A face he'd seen from afar.
Someone who absolutely shouldn't be here.
When crazily sprinting.
Crossing the Mountain-Crossing Great Wall.
He'd seen an advance group arrive first.
Demon-Sealing Corps' white uniforms too.
Feng Geun of the black unit, maybe.
With some elders.
So he thought Demon-Sealing Corps was on another mission.
Why was this man here?
"A-All... Alli... Alliance Leader?"
Manya-do, dazed, unaware of his own words.
"I stepped out briefly to scout the terrain. What's this?"
Before Fierce Dragon Corps arrived.
So Hwi-woong had gone to find a suitable spot for full-force battle against the Heaven-Destroying Jiangshi.
He'd returned before dawn, standing here with the just-back Dam Mu-hyeon.
"Th-th-that's..."
Manya-do trembled.
Why was the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader here?
Thud thud thud thud thud.
In his confusion.
A group arrived at the wall.
So Hwi-woong's gaze shifted there briefly.
"Vice Leader Yang and the Dragon Training Pavilion trainees."
The direction Dam Mu-hyeon had come from.
They arrived a bit later.
So Hwi-woong nodded slightly, gaze returning.
His eyes stopped on Ha Seol-ran's face.
The stern expression toward Manya-do softened into that of a kindly neighborhood uncle.
"She looks just like her. Definitely."
A gentle voice.
A soft mutter, yet everyone heard it clearly.