Chapter 13
Chapter 13
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 013
Chapter Title: Fierce Battle in the Reed Fields
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The distance was too great for perfect accuracy, but Seok Du-myeong's qi sense had reached a peerless level.
He detected the faint clashes of swords, shouts, and screams echoing from over five li away.
'That half-assed upper dantian opening my master botched is screwing me over again! Ugh, why isn't that old geezer showing up in my dreams today?'
Even as Seok Du-myeong entertained these random thoughts, the sounds grew louder and clearer.
Sounds of this magnitude indicated a massive clash unfolding on that side.
It was something even the supreme expert and Demon-Exterminating Corps Leader Wi Ji-hyeok's qi sense couldn't miss.
Wi Ji-hyeok rose from his spot and stared intently toward the source of the noise.
"All Demon-Exterminating Corps members, rise and prepare for battle."
His words seemed quiet, but laced with internal energy, they rang clearly in the ears of every sleeping corps member.
'No way, he's heading that way?'
Seok Du-myeong pretended not to hear Wi Ji-hyeok's voice and abruptly rolled over.
"Everyone up. Rise."
This time, the squad leaders bellowed the order.
Demon-Exterminating Corps members began stirring from their sleep all around.
Seok Du-myeong showed zero intention of getting up, maintaining his rigid lying position while curling up even tighter.
"Seok Du-myeong, get up."
Jo Ja-muk shook him awake.
'Alright, alright! Man, that Demon-Exterminating Corps Leader is such a stickler for the rules. At times like this, you just pretend you didn't notice. Why drag us all the way over there to fight? Honestly, if the roles were reversed and we were in that mess, those guys wouldn't bother coming to help. Help my ass.'
Grumbling inwardly, Seok Du-myeong reluctantly hauled himself up, fumbling for his sword and other combat gear.
"Leave all non-weapon gear here and move out at top speed."
The entire Demon-Exterminating Corps finished preparations and began to move.
The hot-tempered Corps Leader and about thirty elite experts from the other deputy leader units had already dashed ahead using lightness skills.
The regular members followed in formation at a brisk pace.
The distance wasn't far, so they reached the Subdue Demon Corps and Justice Assault Corps campsite in less than a quarter of an hour.
Bodies littered the ground everywhere, as if a massive battle had swept through.
Painful groans rose from the wounded who still clung to life, and the earth squelched underfoot with dark red blood.
It was the moment the fishy stench of war, forgotten for a time, assaulted his senses once more.
'Damn it, back in this hellish battlefield again! Again!'
-Ching! Clang!
-Thud.
"Kuh. Aaaack."
Thick reeds blocked the view ahead, but the fighting was happening inside the reed fields.
Demonic Cultists had launched a nighttime ambush and retreated into the reeds, with the Subdue Demon Corps and Justice Assault Corps in pursuit—battles erupting everywhere.
The reed fields stretched across twenty li in all directions.
Hundreds were locked in fierce combat, yet only the clamor reached them; the details remained hidden.
The reeds were that dense.
"Form up by squads and advance. If you encounter the enemy, fire a signal flare and maintain distances to support each other."
Demon-Exterminating Corps Squad 1 Leader Jo Jin issued the decision and command.
With the impatient deputy leader already charging into the reeds to fight, the squad leaders had no choice but to follow.
"Rally point is beyond the reeds, in front of the hills."
Squad Leader Jo Jin finished speaking, took point, and plunged into the reed fields.
Seok Du-myeong's Squad 2 was paired with Squad 3, but the over twenty men struggled to move together through the reeds.
Heavy clouds made the moonlight dim, turning the already dark night pitch black and hard to navigate.
The squad started clumped together but gradually split into groups of three or four, pushing through the reeds.
By chance, Seok Du-myeong ended up with Jin Yeom-pal, I Jo-hyeok, and Gong Seo-chil, hacking forward.
Nearby squadmates were audible by their reed-chopping sounds, but the reeds and darkness hid them from sight.
"Hold up."
Seok Du-myeong spoke lowly to Yeom-pal-i and the others around him.
"What's up, hyung-nim?"
Yeom-pal-i asked in a tense voice.
"Demonic Cult."
Seok Du-myeong had sensed demonic qi about seventy jang ahead—over ten of them.
"Let's go this way instead."
"Hyung-nim, the rally point's at the hills ahead. Doesn't this direction make sense?"
Yeom-pal-i, missing the mood, piped up obtusely.
"Yeom-pal, the squad leader mentioned the rally point but didn't set a deadline, right?"
Seok Du-myeong grinned and continued.
"No rush then. By the day after tomorrow, the fight'll be over. Heh heh."
Even he found his own idea satisfying, ending with a sinister chuckle.
Yeom-pal-i nodded vigorously, seeing the logic.
"As expected of hyung-nim. How do you come up with such sly ideas?"
Yeom-pal-i gazed at him with admiring eyes.
'Sounds like a compliment... but coming from this guy, it rubs me wrong.'
As Seok Du-myeong tilted his head inwardly,
-Clang! Clang!
The metallic clash of swords rang out ahead.
The battle with the Demonic Cult had begun.
"Ugh."
"Eek."
"Kuh."
Sporadic stifled screams suggested casualties on both sides.
Ignoring it, Seok Du-myeong tried veering off through the reeds.
"Du-myeong hyung-nim, shouldn't we at least check that way? The squad leader went that direction..."
I Jo-hyeok said hesitantly, eyeing Seok Du-myeong pushing through.
"Jo-hyeok, in war, being nosy is a one-way ticket to death. Don't worry—the squad leader's an expert; he won't go down easy. We might end up dying first if we butt in."
With that, Seok Du-myeong decisively cleaved reeds and led the way.
Yeom-pal-i followed right behind, then Gong Seo-chil. I Jo-hyeok paused briefly before catching up.
After veering off for a while, Seok Du-myeong halted the group again.
His qi sense told him Demonic Cultists were everywhere—no safe direction—and fierce battles raged all around.
No need to extend his sense; shouts, curses, metal clashes, and screams overflowed from every side.
Time to revise Seok Du-myeong's "Avoid fights whenever possible" strategy.
"No need to go anywhere. Let's just hide right here."
That was his conclusion.
The reed fields held about eight hundred Murim Alliance troops; Demonic Cult numbers were unclear, but from their ambushes and attacks, he guessed at least five hundred.
Over thirteen hundred clashing to the death— reeds or no, fights would be everywhere.
Better to stay put and hide than risk running into enemies anywhere.
'Yeah, let's play it safe here. Who'd come all the way to this spot in these vast reeds? Unless we're cursed with the worst luck.'
Following Seok Du-myeong's lead, the group hunkered low under the reeds, sitting quietly huddled together.
"Seo-chil, got water? Thirsty."
Gong Seo-chil quickly handed over his leather canteen.
"Gulp! Ah, refreshing."
Seok Du-myeong downed the cool water from the canteen and passed it to Yeom-pal-i beside him.
"Like hyung-nim says, hang out here a couple days and the battle'll be done when we head out."
Yeom-pal-i swigged some and passed the canteen back to Gong Seo-chil.
"If luck's on our side, maybe."
Seok Du-myeong replied.
If luck's on our side...
Seok Du-myeong dozed off briefly and opened his eyes.
'Luck my ass. That's not my fate.'
"Yeom-pal, gear up."
Seok Du-myeong shook awake Yeom-pal-i next to him.
"Eh—ack."
The dozing Yeom-pal-i yelped oddly as he jolted up.
"Demonic Cultists incoming. Lots of them."
Seok Du-myeong grabbed his sword and stood; Yeom-pal-i snatched his saber, and I Jo-hyeok and Gong Seo-chil rose too.
Feeling the demonic qi closing fast, Seok Du-myeong inwardly hoped they'd pass by.
But his wish went ungranted.
Their spot was smack in the middle of a Demonic Cult-Murim Alliance standoff.
All that dodging had landed them in the heart of the fiercest battlefield.
Ludicrous to think they'd last two days here, but it wasn't really Seok Du-myeong's fault.
Just rotten luck, pure and simple.
Ten jang.
Five jang.
Three jang.
-Swish!
-Swoosh!
Seok Du-myeong lunged first, slashing horizontally at the oncoming Demonic Cultist.
From the Cultist's view, the sudden assailant swinging a sword was impossible to block.
Whoosh—splurt.
The struck Cultist's body split sideways, blood spraying everywhere.
Thus, Seok Du-myeong's group plunged back into the hellish crimson maelstrom of battle.
Whoosh—slash!
Seok Du-myeong's sword blazed with dazzling speed, striking left and right.
"Eek."
"Agh."
"Kuh."
Each time, a limb flew from the charging Demonic Cultists, screams following.
'Easy. Too easy. Was combat always this straightforward?'
Seok Du-myeong had entered a strange mental state.
He'd been on high alert for that first swing.
From past fights, he knew one strike never incapacitated or killed.
He had to push his body to the limit just to down one foe.
Yet with that first horizontal slash, something felt vastly different.
He never imagined cleaving a Demonic Cultist clean in two so effortlessly.
Testing further on the next rushers, their limbs severed with one or two swings.
They felt pathetically weak.
'Were these guys always this pushover?'
Like struggling with a dull knife on tough meat, then switching to a razor-sharp one on soft veggies—his swings flowed without effort.
The enemies were human; the sickening spray of blood and crunch of bone still repulsed and hurt...
But the sword art Seok Du-myeong wielded now was the Master's Augmented Piercing Swift Sword Technique.
Familiar forms he'd practiced since childhood transformed utterly upon his master Dan Mun-hyeok's touch.
A complete metamorphosis of the sword art.
'Is this really the technique I used?'
Even as he swung, the resulting power stunned him.
Another key factor was his internal energy cultivation.
Before, he'd had scant inner power, and what little he had mismatched his swordplay, unusable efficiently.
The Clear Wind Heart Formula, proven supreme by forging the world's greatest, meshed perfectly with the master's sword—channeling qi from dantian and meridians optimally into every form.
The hundred-pulse cleansing made the flow as natural as water.
Dan Mun-hyeok hadn't lied; Seok Du-myeong's inner power was nine years in his dantian, forty-five in his meridians—nearly a full jiazi.
Enough for peak first-rate expert level.
Dormant until now, the qi surged wildly within him, as if resentful of its neglect.