Chapter 123 : Fear, and Then Gladness

Chapter 123: Fear, and Then Gladness

The sun had set, and the moon had risen.

The large complex of pavilion residences visible far below lay quietly submerged in darkness.

“There are about a hundred escort warriors, but their skill is nothing worth noting. Around ten of them are First Rate Martial Artists, and the rest are said to be insignificant. However, it troubles me that a few secular disciples of Mount Hua are among them.”

At his junior brother’s report, Byeokcheon Jinren asked,

“Secular disciples of Mount Hua?”

“There is one called Lee Chang. He has not been very active in the Martial World, so he has no sobriquet, but his skill is said to be quite respectable. Mount Hua has reported him to be at the Peak Master Level.”

“Peak Master Level…”

It was burdensome.

Peak Master Level meant he was on the same level as Byeokcheon Jinren himself.

Naturally, his gaze shifted toward Jeok Danho and Ok Ranghwan, who were waiting some distance away.

They were rumored to have reached the Super-Peak Realm.

“I can only hope it is not an empty rumor.”

With that quiet murmur, Byeokcheon Jinren gave the order.

“Attack! Finish it as quickly and as quietly as possible.”

The moment his command fell—

“Waaaah! Kill them all!”

“It’s a merchant guild! Loot everything!”

“The women are all mine!”

Curses and lewd shouts filled the air as the vagabonds charged down. They looked exactly like bandits going to plunder a merchant caravan.

Byeokcheon Jinren’s face twisted at the sight. His junior brother stepped closer.

“They are vagabonds. Once this matter is over, we will never see them again. Do not trouble yourself over them, Senior Brother.”

“Ha… How did it come to this? Fine. Let us go.”

With a sigh, Byeokcheon Jinren moved, and the disciples of Mount Zhongnan who had been lined up behind him quietly followed.

Moments later, screams began erupting from the once-peaceful Yeonryuk Merchant Guild.

The escort warriors of the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild responded with considerable agility.

They had already been aware of the possibility of an attack and had prepared for it in advance.

The problem was the difference in skill.

While the escort warriors were overall First Rate to Second Rate Martial Artists, a considerable number of the attackers were masters at Peak Master Level or higher.

Moreover, during the fight, throwing dirt or spitting was merely the least of their despicable acts.

They did not hesitate to stab blades into backs.

The preemptive response plan, set up under the assumption that the attackers would be from the Martial Alliance, failed entirely against such savage, chaotic fighting.

It was not even a gradual assault.

Utter chaos.

Some rushed straight into the granary. Others seemed obsessed with killing. Still others charged toward the pavilion residences where the women stayed.

This was absolutely not the fighting style of the Hundred Paths’ Martial Alliance.

Lee Chang, who had been taken aback by this, was approached by Bi Hyeon, who was fighting alongside the escort warriors of Golden Flower Manor.

“They are vagabonds! If not the Martial Alliance, why would vagabonds target the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild?”

At Bi Hyeon’s question, Lee Chang shook his head.

He did not know why the vagabonds were targeting the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild either.

Still, now that he knew the identity of the enemy, responding became somewhat easier.

“Gather together! If we scatter, we will fall in vain. They are skilled in chaotic melee—stand back to back and respond in circular formation!”

At Lee Chang’s shout, the escort warriors grouped in threes and fours, pressing their backs together to form circular formations.

Even so, the number of survivors was already down to half.

In that short time, more than fifty escort warriors had been killed.

Grinding his teeth, Lee Chang gripped his sword—

And before him approached a man in a red short robe, with eyes like a tiger.

At a glance, he could guess his opponent’s identity.

“Jeok Danho!”

“Let us not drag this out. End it quickly.”

With that curt remark, Jeok Danho attacked savagely. Lee Chang hastily unleashed the Plum Blossom Sword Art.

Lee Chang was driven back. Jeok Danho, whose strike had been blocked, was equally shocked.

Jeok Danho was astonished that his sword had been stopped, while Lee Chang was flustered that his Plum Blossom Sword had been shattered.

It was only because Lee Chang, who had partially mastered the Plum Blossom Three-Point Sword, managed to block Jeok Danho’s final strike after it crushed through the Plum Blossom Sword Art.

The Plum Blossom Three-Point Sword was one of Mount Hua’s sacred ultimate techniques. That Lee Chang, a secular disciple forbidden from receiving full transmission, had been able to learn even half of it was possible only because his master had been Samhyeon Jinren, a master of the Plum Blossom Three-Point Sword.

Now retired and residing in the Council of Elders, his master had secretly taught him, despite the limits imposed upon a secular disciple.

It had been a master’s wish—that even half-mastered, the Plum Blossom Three-Point Sword would protect his disciple’s life in the harsh Martial World.

And that wish had come true today.

The problem was that Jeok Danho was truly enraged that his sword had been blocked because of it.

“You bastard! I will kill you!”

Gnashing his teeth, Jeok Danho charged fiercely.

Bi Hyeon, who had been fighting alongside Golden Flower Manor’s escort warriors, felt despair.

They had done their utmost, just like the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild’s escort warriors, but it had been a hopeless mismatch.

They were inferior in both skill and numbers.

In the end, even merchants who had only trained in swordsmanship for mental discipline threw themselves into the fight with desperate resolve, but it was not enough.

It had only increased the number of corpses.

Well… even if they had done nothing, they would have been massacred anyway. Should he at least commend them for resisting?

As he saw the last remaining Golden Flower Manor escort warrior besides himself collapse in a spray of blood, Bi Hyeon’s knees buckled.

Sway.

He forced himself upright, but a blade flew in during that instant and slashed deeply across his shoulder.

Quickly staunching the bleeding, Bi Hyeon swept his gaze around—

And saw Lee Chang, just as battered as himself, rolling across the ground.

He was an incredible man.

It was a sight that made one truly understand why the martial arts of great sects were so revered.

In terms of raw skill, Jeok Danho clearly held the advantage.

Yet he repeatedly failed to sever Lee Chang’s neck.

Every time, Lee Chang’s final extending strike blocked Jeok Danho’s sword.

That was undoubtedly the greatness of swordsmanship restraining Jeok Danho’s superior power.

“Tch. Next life, I will be born as a disciple of a great sect. Then I would not end up like this—ugh!”

With a short scream, Bi Hyeon looked down.

A blade protruded grotesquely through his abdomen.

One of the attackers had circled behind him and stabbed him in the back.

“You damned—”

He could not even finish his curse before collapsing. Yet for some reason, the corner of his mouth twisted upward.

Just before his breath stopped, he saw it.

From beyond the walls of the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild, figures were rushing like the wind—

And at their very front, fluttering boldly, was the Bright Cult Banner!

‘You are all dead now.’

It was Bi Hyeon’s final thought as his consciousness faded.

“Not a single one—cut them all down without leaving anyone alive!”

At the thunderous command of the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon, over a hundred martial artists of the Crushing Faction shouted in unison.

“By your command!”

The battle ended so quickly it was almost anticlimactic.

Dozens of vagabonds in the vanguard had their heads taken before they could even react, struck down by the martial artists of the Crushing Faction.

Only then did the remaining vagabonds realize who their opponents were, and they immediately threw down their blades and raised their hands.

Vagabonds knew.

Unlike the great sects of the Hundred Paths, they had no shield to protect them. As lone drifters, they could not hope to survive if they made an enemy of the Bright Cult.

Thus, in an instant, the battlefield was subdued, and the vagabonds were forced to kneel here and there by the Bright Cult’s martial artists.

Jeok Danho, who had been relentlessly pressing Lee Chang into a battered ruin, also let go of his sword.

He knew better than anyone that if he tried to show off his martial prowess and resist, he would die a miserable death.

Because that had been his master’s fate.

His master had been skilled—for a vagabond. Like Jeok Danho now, he had stood on the brink of the Transcendent Realm.

Trusting in that strength, he had challenged them—and had been crushed in a single stroke.

Revenge?

As a disciple, he should have sought it… but the situation was complicated.

His master had not been killed for nothing. He had been caught violating the younger sister of a Bright Cult Elder and had been executed for it.

It had supposedly been an outburst of rage for being beaten like a dog and driven away, rather than killed outright.

And of all days, the day he sought revenge had been the very day that Elder visited his sister’s home. From the beginning, Jeok Danho’s master had been cursed with misfortune.

But his greatest misfortune had been that the Bright Cult Elder in question was a man who would resent being second only in cruelty.

His brother-in-law dead. His young nephews lying as corpses. His sister being violated before his eyes.

Even in such a situation that would paralyze reason, the Elder had grown cold with fury.

He calmly subdued Jeok Danho’s master in an instant, bound him, and for one hundred days, carved him apart bit by bit.

Selecting only the places that inflicted the greatest pain, he sliced away ever so slightly, ever so minutely, all day long.

For one hundred days.

Begging to be killed, writhing in indescribable agony, Jeok Danho’s master had ultimately died when his head was eaten alive.

At the final moment, the Bright Cult Elder had thrust his master’s head into a pigsty of hogs starved for half a month.

The sound of starving pigs rushing forward and chewing a living man’s head was still vivid in Jeok Danho’s ears.

Yes. He had witnessed it all.

The Elder had bound him as well and forced him to watch.

Why?

Because the story had to spread.

So that the world would know what happened to those who dared to touch the Bright Cult.

Thanks to that, Jeok Danho had been released unharmed.

He had to spread the tale.

But he had never spoken of it to anyone.

He had been afraid.

Afraid even to utter that man’s name.

Yet now he faced someone with an aura identical to that man’s.

That was why he had dropped his sword without a word.

“What is your relationship to the Crushing Demon?”

At Jeok Danho’s question, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon replied,

“You know my master?”

At that question, Jeok Danho shut his mouth and could not utter a sound.

It felt as though the Crushing Demon, his master, might come charging at him this very instant.

‘No matter how much they paid me, I should never have gotten involved in the Bright Cult’s affairs.’

Jeok Danho squeezed his eyes shut, belated regret sinking deep into him.

While Jeok Danho was drowning in remorse, Lee Chang was engulfed in confusion.

He stared blankly at the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon’s outstretched hand. He tried to stand on his own, failed, and finally took the offered hand.

Even then, he could not stand properly.

Though he had succeeded in preserving his life, Jeok Danho’s blade had sliced through the muscles behind his knee, leaving him unable to stand upright.

Looking at him, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon said,

“Your injury is severe. Receive treatment first.”

“I suppose I must. Though… should I be thanking you?”

At Lee Chang’s blunt remark, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon smirked.

“Seeing the plum blossom engraved on your sword, you must be one of Mount Hua’s lot. I do not care to hear such words from a Hundred Paths dog. If we meet on the battlefield later, do not disgrace yourself—just cut me down.”

He spoke as though Lee Chang would be the one to win—but that was not the case.

At a glance, the Bright Cult martial artist before him possessed divine might far beyond Lee Chang’s realm.

“The leisure of the strong, huh? Ha. Damn it! The Bright Cult’s banner felt welcome, and now even a Bright Cult bastard looks impressive. It must truly be my time to die.”

At Lee Chang’s grumbling, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon merely laughed.

After the battle was settled, the Master of the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild treated the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon with utmost hospitality.

Naturally—he was not only the personal savior of the Guild Master but also the savior of the merchant guild itself.

At such earnest gratitude, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon shook his head.

“Offer your thanks to the Golden Flower Manor Lord’s daughter. I encountered her by chance on the road to Shanxi, and it was at her request for aid that I came.”

Indeed.

From the beginning, the destination of the Crushing Faction martial artists led by the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon had been Shanxi.

There, the Emperor’s half-brother was gathering troops.

The Crushing Faction had chosen that place for one reason alone.

Among those within the government offices dividing into factions and amassing forces, it was the weakest power base.

Being weak, it would be the first and most heavily targeted. Battles would erupt fiercely and frequently.

It was a decision befitting those who headed to the battlefield solely for real combat.

In any case, while traveling the official road toward Shanxi, they had happened to encounter Hwayeong returning to Golden Flower Manor.

And at her request, the Heaven-Mixing Crushing Demon had rushed to the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild.

Though it risked a clash with the Hundred Paths contrary to his promise to the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult, he could not turn away after hearing that the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild supplied more than half of the rice entering the Bright Cult.

Even after hearing his explanation, the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild Master’s lavish hospitality did not change.

After all, thanks to them, he—and many within the guild—had survived.

Thus, the martial artists of the Crushing Faction found themselves receiving extravagant treatment out of nowhere.

As the Yeonryuk Merchant Guild filled with laughter, a pair of cold eyes watching it vanished.

But neither those who had survived death, nor those intoxicated by hospitality, noticed the existence of those eyes.