Chapter 1064

If they’d spotted it even a little later, the messenger eagle would have flown right over everyone’s heads.

Even messenger eagles, raised with far more rigorous training and care than messenger pigeons, were only trained to fly between set destinations.

But a handful of people, Jin Taekyung among them, noticed it just in time. The Bow Saint was one of them.

When it came to archery, she was the greatest under heaven—perhaps even the greatest in all history.

Shing. Clack.

It happened in an instant.

Steel joints locked together with a metallic clack, transforming her two strangely curved swords into a bow. The Bow Saint drew the string without hesitation.

“Now!”

At Jin Taekyung’s shout, she released the taut bowstring.

Boom!

The air tore apart.

A streak of light shot faster than sound and reached the messenger eagle, a distant speck in the sky, in the blink of an eye.

Jin Taekyung, who had anticipated all of this, shot forward at the same moment.

Whoooosh!

He surged ahead like a gust of wind.

In a single bound, he crossed dozens of jang¹ and caught the falling eagle, an arrow through its wing.

Peep. Peep.

“Spit on it and it’ll heal in no time, you idiot.”

Despite his gruff words, Jin Taekyung stroked the mournfully crying eagle’s beak. Then he hurriedly checked its leg.

This is…

He swallowed a groan. A missive had been rolled into a tight little bundle and fastened around the eagle’s leg.

Foreboding struck before he’d even read it.

There was no doubt about the reddish substance smeared across the missive. It was blood, spilled from someone’s body.

And in his experience, a premonition like this had never been wrong.

Kunlun fallen.

The moment Jin Taekyung read the first line of the missive, scrawled in a rough hand, he bit down on his lip without realizing it.

The Kunlun Mountains.

This immense range at the western edge of Qinghai held an ancient history and countless legends.

Its ridges stretched for thousands of jang¹, reaching plateaus and deserts. Its peaks rose high enough to deserve the name of the highest summits.

But the Kunlun Mountains held particular significance for the martial artists of the realm for another reason—one every bit as important as the Kunlun Sect, birthplace of Daoist martial arts and heir to a long history.

“So the pass we had to hold has been breached.”

Jeok Cheongang spat out the words. The missive, already passed through several hands, was crumpled in his fist.

“If what’s written here is true and they’ve occupied Kunlun, then we’ve effectively lost half of Qinghai.”

At his low words, everyone nodded, their faces grim.

Jeok Cheongang was right. Most of the area around the Kunlun Mountains consisted of basins, and that vast region covered nearly half of Qinghai Province. If the enemy held it, the allies had lost control of it.

“Must bring back old memories. Doesn’t it, you old hag?”

The Bow Saint frowned at Jeok Cheongang’s sudden question.

“That’s not something I want to hear from you. Whether you mean my age or the unpleasant memories of the Great Faction War.”

“So how was it at the start of the Great Faction War? When those Demonic Cult bastards crossed Kunlun.”

“It was an unexpected attack. The Demonic Cult’s last invasion before the Great Faction War had been hundreds of years earlier, and even then they’d been soundly defeated before they could cross the Kunlun Mountains. So of course we never expected it.”

But people always fixated on what they couldn’t have.

The Heavenly Demon, who had built the Demonic Cult into a force stronger than ever some fifty years ago, was no exception.

“How many days did the Kunlun Sect hold out back then?”

“Three. They fought for exactly three days and nights before they could hold out no longer and retreated. Their losses nearly destroyed them.”

“Three days against a hundred thousand Demonic Cult bastards. They held out a long time.”

He wasn’t mocking them.

The Kunlun Sect had always accepted only a small number of Disciples because of its difficult location and strict rules. It had the fewest Disciples of the Nine Sects and One Gang.

Yet its Disciples were formidable, and the Kunlun Mountains were more treacherous than even the Great Snow Mountain. Together, those advantages had let the sect repel the Demonic Cult’s invasions time and again.

Even so, the Kunlun Sect had its limits.

During the Great Faction War half a century ago.

And now.

The difference was that this time, unlike in the last Great Faction War, when the Demonic Cult dealt the Kunlun Sect a devastating blow as soon as hostilities began, they had made a wiser choice.

“At least they decided to retreat right away. Isn’t that right?”

At Jeok Cheongang’s sudden question, I nodded. I’d been lost in thought.

“Even I think that was the best choice. Facing them head-on would’ve been insane.”

The Demonic Cult and Dark Heaven were different in kind.

I wasn’t talking about the quality or number of their troops. The darkness within Dark Heaven was far deeper and more boundless than anyone could imagine.

Even I couldn’t begin to guess its true size or depth.

But one thing was certain.

“If they’d decided to fight to the death like they did during the Great Faction War, the Kunlun Sect would already have been erased from the world.”

Maybe the Kunlun Sect had realized the battle was hopeless, too.

That would explain why they’d retreated so quickly despite having been joined by Qinghai’s martial artists and government troops—a combined force of some twenty thousand.

The missive said around a thousand people had been killed or wounded during the retreat, but that didn’t change the fact that retreat had been their best choice.

“Fortunately, they withdrew to Qinghai Lake with most of their forces intact. We haven’t lost all of Qinghai yet.”

Perfected Being Hyeoncheon, Sect Leader of the Kongtong Sect, had spoken up. I immediately shook my head.

“You’re not wrong, but at this rate, it’s only a matter of time. The forces left in Qinghai can’t hold them back.”

“That’s…”

“They have magic—no, dark arts with power that’s hard to believe. And the Dark Heaven forces occupying the Kunlun Mountains are too numerous to count.”

That wasn’t a figure of speech or an exaggeration.

I was only repeating what was written in the missive carried by the messenger eagle I’d just caught.

In the missive sent when the decision to retreat was made, a Kunlun Sect Elder had written:

Enemies too numerous to count were filling the mountains and advancing toward them.

At the sight of that overwhelming, terrifying force, he had found himself thinking of a day decades ago.

“…The Hundred Thousand Demonic Disciples.”

The groan slipped from someone’s lips, and the air grew heavy. It was only natural.

Most of those present had already seen it with their own eyes.

They’d felt it on their skin, in every part of their bodies.

Most of the people here had seen and experienced Dark Heaven wield supernatural powers.

They must have felt despair and defeat as they watched a sight that tore down every assumption they’d ever held.

And now there were a hundred thousand.

Even if fear had gripped the Elder who wrote the missive, an army that brought the Hundred Thousand Demonic Disciples to mind couldn’t be far off in size.

And someone I know is probably among them.

Though we’d met only briefly, one unforgettable face passed before my eyes.

The Grand Mage.

No—the Grand Sorceress.

I couldn’t be certain, but I felt it in my gut. She had survived, and if she had, she would be in Qinghai by now.

If Qinghai falls, there’ll be no containing this.

Not just because it was Qinghai. Gansu, which we’d barely managed to protect, was in much the same position.

The realm was one enormous dam. A small crack, and the gap it opened, could bring the whole thing down.

We need time. Time to find a better way to stop them without taking even greater losses.

A headache came on.

But once again, time wasn’t on my side.

Or rather, not time. The System.

Logout.

I carefully repeated the word in my mind, holding on to a sliver of hope.

The System’s answer was calm and cold.

Beep.

System

Logout is unavailable.

“…Damn it.”

Everyone’s attention snapped to me at the curse that escaped on instinct, but I didn’t care.

No. The situation was so fucked I couldn’t spare a thought for their stares.

Why?

I’d already spent months in Murim and faced death several times over.

But at some point, the System had shut the door tight and refused to open it.

It blocked my only way back to the modern world, forcing new Quests and a brutal reality on me instead.

Just as it had a few days ago, when we’d finally brought the long, cruel battle at the Great Snow Mountain to an end.

Just as it was doing now.

System

The ongoing linked Quest, To Qinghai, has not yet been completed!

Crack.

I stared at the holographic window floating before me and swallowed the curse that sprang to my lips.

And, in a stroke of good luck amid all this misfortune, I cursed the System for tossing me a clue like alms in the form of a new Quest title. Then I spoke to a certain lunatic, who was the only one there nodding off like a sick chicken in the middle of this dire situation.

“You said you’d guide us, right?”

“Huh? Yeah?”

Only then did Great Sir blink blearily awake. He wiped the drool from his mouth and spoke in a sleepy voice.

“I think I did say that… So, have you decided where you’re going?”

“Yes.”

I straightened my back and looked around.

We had all paused here, in the Qilian Mountains. After several days of travel, we’d reached the far end of the range, where a new land awaited us.

Qinghai. Strange and dangerous.

“Let’s go.”

At my quiet words, everyone’s eyes lit up, and they rose to their feet.