Every martial art contains at least dozens of movements, each with its own principles.
But no matter what martial art you’ve learned, there are ultimately only two ways to deal with an enemy’s attack.
Block it, or dodge it.
And in that moment, I chose the latter.
KWA-BOOOOM! KRRRUNCH!
A flash came hurtling in with a fierce whistle and slammed into the ground.
The earth buckled as if an earthquake had struck, and a tremendous shock wave swept through the area.
At least a dozen enemies were caught in its wake and vanished without a trace. I’d escaped with only a few scratches from flying bits of rock, yet a chill ran down my spine.
Fast. And powerful.
It was hard to believe a javelin thrown from so far away could move that fast and hit that hard.
Dodging had hardly been a choice. I’d had no other option.
If I’d met it with a counterattack, that alone would have cost me a considerable amount of strength.
Jeok Cheongang, standing beside me, knew it too.
“I suspected as much, but those bastards certainly don’t have ordinary internal energy.”
Jeok Cheongang muttered in a low voice and clenched his fist.
Following his gaze, I saw four ghost horses approaching, each carrying a rider as they stepped through the air.
“Four, huh? How many passed us by earlier?”
The Great Snow Mountain region might not be as vast as the Qilian Mountains, but it was still enormous.
The frost-covered land at the foot of the mountain was broad enough for a battle like this, with countless enemies and allies tangled together. Jeok Cheongang and I had punched through the enemy lines ahead of everyone else like a single awl, but we couldn’t stop them all.
Besides, the surest way to win a battle was to cut off the head, not the body.
“If I saw right, two.”
I recalled the distant crash and tremor that had reached me before the javelin came flying.
Judging by their direction and distance…
“I think those two headed toward the Zhongnan Sect.”
The Zhongnan Sect numbered only a thousand among our thirty thousand, but every one of them was an elite disciple of the main sect, not a lay affiliate. With three Supreme Peak masters among them, they were a formidable force.
If the enemy wanted to secure victory, stopping them would be crucial.
“Then that makes five, counting the ones who’ve just appeared.”
We’d already let two slip past, and now four more had shown up.
But as far as we knew, there were seven of these monsters called Death Knights—or Black Ghosts—in all.
I adjusted my grip on White Flame and murmured, “One’s unaccounted for.”
“Then the last one…”
“Either guarding the Blood-Sword Demon Lord, or headed toward the Gansu martial artists led by Sima Gong. If it isn’t the latter…”
I let my voice trail off, but Jeok Cheongang already knew about Sima Gong’s suspicious behavior. He needed no further explanation.
“Then Sima Gong, that damned unorthodox bastard, has thrown in his lot with Dark Heaven.”
Exactly.
A Black Ghost not going after Sima Gong’s forces wouldn’t prove it on its own. But there was no denying it would make betrayal far more likely.
If I were the Blood-Sword Demon Lord, I wouldn’t bother sending a Black Ghost to Sima Gong if he was already an ally.
Especially…
With forces like these.
I watched the Black Ghosts draw closer, radiating a terrifying aura.
Armed with a saber, a sword, a spear, and a chain sickle, they sprang over the heads of the advancing enemy soldiers and shot toward us.
Each was a Supreme Peak master powerful enough to shake an entire city. They felt neither pain nor emotion, and their ability to recover was beyond human.
No—they were monsters through and through. Strange beings the likes of which no one in Murim had ever encountered.
“Old Master.”
“Nothing more to say.”
KRRUNCH!
Jeok Cheongang smashed the head of an enemy charging at him with soulless eyes in a single punch. Then he went on.
“I don’t know what kind of monsters those things are, but we’ll just keep killing them until they’re dead.”
The instant those quiet words left his lips—
Pop.
We kicked off the ground together and shot forward, striking with all our strength.
I swept out White Flame’s spearhead, dark-blue Force surging around it. Jeok Cheongang thrust out a palm wreathed in pure white flames.
FWOOOOSH!
A brilliant flash enveloped everything within a radius of a dozen or so jang1. The waves of fanatics flooding in from every direction parted.
No—they evaporated.
KWAANG! KRRRUNCH!
The ground shook with a crash that sounded as if the sky itself had split.
Bodies charred in an instant by the Flame Divine Palm’s terrible heat crumpled lifelessly. Others, cut apart along with their weapons by my spear, flew away in pieces.
They had been stripped of pain and emotion, but death came equally to the hundred or so enemies who lost their lives in that moment.
And through the gap in the battlefield, blanketed in death in an instant—
Ssshh…
Four Black Ghosts rushed toward Jeok Cheongang and me, shrouded in an aura of death like dim night fog.
SHWING!
The wind split around the blades sweeping toward us with terrifying force.
Each took a direction—north, south, east, west—and struck. Their attacks meshed like finely crafted gears, leaving not the slightest opening.
But…
There is one. I’m sure of it.
I took a long step forward to meet the saber blade and spearhead streaking toward me, their outlines blurred by speed.
Straight toward those two chilling flashes aimed at my neck.
Fear of death chilled my spine, but I held fast to my conviction.
“What are you doing—!”
And just as Jeok Cheongang’s urgent shout rang out—
Pshk!
The two weapons grazed either side of my neck, leaving the faintest cuts. Forgetting even that moment’s pain, I smiled.
Just as I thought.
I hadn’t dodged their attacks.
In the life-or-death moment just now, the two Black Ghosts had forced their weapons to twist and change course.
Why?
Simple.
They weren’t allowed to kill me.
Their commander on this battlefield—the Blood-Sword Demon Lord—had given them that order.
The Three Elders of Tianshan couldn’t have done that.
No, that wasn’t right.
They wouldn’t have done it.
Unlike the Black Ghosts, they still had their emotions and reason. Their own lives would have mattered a hundred, a thousand times more to them than carrying out an order.
They would have known that making even this tiny mistake to capture me would lead straight to their deaths.
Just like now.
SHWOOOSH!
I didn’t miss the opening that had been invisible until they exposed it themselves.
THUD!
A Black Ghost went rigid as a statue.
White Flame’s spearhead pierced its throat, and the four jiazi2 of Scorching Yang Qi I’d sent through it erupted.
KABOOOM!
Flames exploded.
Before the headless Black Ghost could fall from its saddle, another belatedly realized its comrade was in danger. It twisted the saber that had passed beside my neck and swung.
SHNK!
Hot. The force of the wind alone sliced into my shoulder, sending blood gushing from the wound.
But when you lose something, you gain something too.
KRRUNCH.
A touch so cold it sent a shiver through me.
With my free hand, I seized the wrist encased in jet-black armor and twisted it without hesitation, as though wringing it dry.
CRACK. KRRUNCH.
Flesh and bone crushed with a sickening, wet sound.
The Black Ghosts had grown stronger through death and rebirth. I had surpassed human limits by surviving countless brushes with death.
So they weren’t the only monsters here.
KRRRUNCH!
I ripped off its wrist, the weapon still gripped in its hand, and drove my fist into the Black Ghost as it stood frozen.
KWAANG!
The body went flying, trailing a foul, burnt stench as its black armor shattered.
But I knew.
I knew what kind of monsters they were, and how tenacious and dreadful the cursed life they’d been given could be.
Step.
Leaving Jeok Cheongang to fight the other two Black Ghosts, I walked toward the ones already staggering to their feet.
“Fine. Let’s find out.”
Ssshh…
Dusky mist rose around their bodies, regenerating the arm I’d torn away, the flesh and bone melted and crumbled by flames—even the missing neck.
“Which of us is the bigger monster?”
SHWOOOOSH—SHNK!
Fire Dragon’s Single Tail.
Fire blazed around the dazzling white spearhead. The strike flashed through the mist like lightning, becoming a dark-blue wave that cleaved through them.
“Magnificent. Absolutely magnificent!”
Like a child given a toy he loved on his birthday, the Blood-Sword Demon Lord watched the battlefield spread before him, his face flushed with excitement.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
From the high hill to the snowy plain in the distance, a mountain of sabers and a forest of swords danced across hundreds of jang1. Those gleaming blades, forged and tempered again and again for a single purpose, were finally doing their work.
THUD!
“AAAGH!”
Amid the shouts and screams pouring in from every direction, crimson blood sprayed over everyone’s heads like a fountain.
Dozens of lives vanished with one breath in. With one breath out, their places were filled.
Even now, death followed death without end across the horrific battlefield. It was enough to stir the nostalgia of someone who’d spent so many years confined to the lands beyond the desert.
“This is it. This is what I wanted…”
The Blood-Sword Demon Lord murmured as if half in a daze. His eyes had grown hazy and moist.
How he’d missed it.
How he’d longed for it.
In the distant past, he’d led a hundred thousand followers of the Demonic Path across the land at the side of the one called the Heavenly Demon. But those memories weren’t especially pleasant for the Blood-Sword Demon Lord.
Even then, he’d been nothing more than a hunting dog mad for blood, and the Heavenly Demon had given him little authority to command.
Now things were different.
His new master had given the Blood-Sword Demon Lord power over the lives and deaths of tens of thousands.
All he’d been given was one simple condition: under no circumstances was he to kill Jin Taekyung.
To show me such absolute trust…
The seven Black Ghosts he’d been given were proof enough.
And besides…
With them there, we cannot lose this battle. Not under any circumstances.
The Blood-Sword Demon Lord looked away from the battlefield toward the white-robed figures under heavy guard not far away.
They were no less formidable than the Black Ghosts. Perhaps they would prove an even greater force.
Comments
Comments need a network connection.