Chapter 1068

If anyone asked me how to shake off enemy pursuers, I’d answer without a moment’s hesitation.

There were only two things that mattered:

Speed and stamina.

But knowing what to do and doing it were two different things.

Every one of us knew that, yet reality stood before us like a high, solid wall.

Our force of some three thousand hadn’t had a proper rest. The pursuers closing in by the moment were monsters that didn’t even feel fatigue.

“Northwest! About two thousand feet¹ out!”

We’d been coming down the mountains without a break for barely two hours when—

“There! The bastards are here!”

The people who spotted the distant cloud of dust cried out. I immediately turned and sized up the hazy yellow cloud.

Three hundred at least. Maybe five hundred.

The F-rank Hunter who used to scrape by in narrow, pitch-dark Gates was gone.

No—even if some part of that old me still remained, I’d changed in many ways.

I’d learned how to fight multiple enemies and make snap decisions in all kinds of situations.

“Old Master.”

We’d reached the point where we understood each other from a glance.

Jeok Cheongang read the meaning in my brief call and immediately poured internal energy into his voice.

“You slowpokes! What are you waiting for? Run like your feet are on fire!”

That wasn’t just a scolding from a cranky old man.

Jeok Cheongang’s mighty azure dragon’s roar shattered the fear lodged in our allies’ hearts and hurried their hesitant steps, if only for a moment.

And the great martial artist who’d come to be known as the Bow Saint after countless battles knew her abilities and her role precisely.

“Go. I’ll send it at the right time.”

I nodded, kicked off the ground, and charged toward the dust cloud.

Whoosh!

The wind split.

Dust billowed up from the ground beneath my feet, forming another cloud—one larger and denser than the cloud surrounding the several hundred enemies.

I see them.

Beyond the swirling sand and dust, the monsters who were neither dead nor alive came sharply into view.

I angled up the spear clenched in my hands just as a dazzling streak of light reached the enemy a step ahead of me.

Boom!

An arrow of Force exploded.

Shot from the Bow Saint’s fingertips, it swallowed dozens of monsters charging at the front and vaporized them in an instant.

I plunged into the gap it left behind, not about to waste that perfect opening.

Whoosh!

The hair on my arms stood on end at the faint, spine-chilling whistle.

Breath, speed, strength.

As if to prove my skill advanced with every passing day, everything came together without a hair’s breadth of error. The strike only grazed the enemies—but that was enough.

Slice! Splatter!

One cutting sound, but dozens of deaths within it.

A single downward-slanting sweep split rotting bodies and sent blood spraying.

Along with a clear chime, wholly at odds with the horrific sight.

Ding. Ding. Ding-ding-ding!

System

You have slain a Lv. 56 Corrupted Lower-Rank Fanatic!

You have slain a Lv. 75 Corrupted Mid-Rank Fanatic!

You have slain a Lv. 52 Corrupted Martial Artist!

…

…

…

EXP and Fame are calculated based on the level difference between you and your opponents!

You have gained a small amount of EXP!

You have gained a small amount of Fame!

I swung my spear as if entranced, listening to the System notifications ringing one over another.

Everywhere I looked, there were monsters. Enemies.

Each time my spear traced an arc, a dozen or even dozens of them crumpled like rotten logs, never to move again.

Freed from the chains that had bound them to this world, they returned to the order of things as it was meant to be.

Ding.

At the last chime, I confirmed that nothing else was moving and lifted my head.

Beneath a cloud that half-obscured the sun, a black-winged crow drifted through the air.

Its eyes glowed bloodred.

“Come down. Let’s talk.”

Naturally, I got no answer. I picked up someone’s sword from a pool of foul-smelling blood and added,

“If you don’t like that, come yourself.”

Whoosh!

The sword shot upward, tearing through the air. In an instant, its blade covered the crow’s red eyes.

Stab.

“Hmm.”

The man opened his eyes with a low groan and rubbed the space between them.

The pain that had come with the flash of light at the last moment still lingered, as though an awl were digging into his head.

What a monster. He’s gotten even stronger.

Ma Sanbao couldn’t help but be surprised.

Jin Taekyung’s martial skill, which he’d watched through another being’s senses, had advanced even further than when Ma had seen him at the imperial palace.

Was that even possible? In less than three months?

Ma Sanbao asked himself the question, then shook his head.

It was a stupid question.

The time to wonder whether it was possible had passed long ago.

What mattered was that Jin Taekyung had made it real—and that was precisely what made that young man, not even thirty yet, so exceptional.

Ma Sanbao already knew something else, too.

Unlike Jin Taekyung, his own role was set. He would never be the star of this stage.

For now, his most important task was to watch them closely and report back.

“My Lord.”

Ma Sanbao went to the superior he’d only recently begun serving and reported everything in detail. The Blood Lord listened, then furrowed his brow.

“Wait. They even found out you were watching them?”

“Yes. I’m ashamed to say that’s what happened—”

Boom!

A blast of palm force struck before he could finish.

Even an ordinary Peak master would have died on the spot if struck by that blow. Ma Sanbao was swept away by the force, yet despite the tremendous impact, he immediately prostrated himself.

“Huh. Look at how sturdy this body of yours is.”

“Please kill me.”

“Don’t rush me. I was just considering whether to beat you to death right here.”

“…My Lord.”

“What, are you finally scared? I suppose you have reason to be. Your master ended up dead like that too.”

Ma Sanbao bowed even lower.

Unlike his master, the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord, Ma hadn’t achieved Great Completion in the White Illusion Jiangshi Art. His fear of death was all the greater for it.

“Please show mercy…”

“Shut your mouth. If you want to live even fifteen minutes longer.”

The Blood Lord glared down at Ma Sanbao with irritation, but that was the extent of the punishment he could give.

Ma Sanbao was a useful expendable in many ways, and the Blood Lord had never intended to kill one of the few subordinates worth keeping.

He’d threatened Ma so harshly because he wanted to show off his authority and control in front of someone he disliked.

Of course, that someone paid no attention to his display and remained focused on another matter.

“They found out? This soon?”

The Blood Lord answered the Grand Sorceress’s question, which sounded almost like she’d asked herself.

“No need to make a fuss. It’s sooner than expected, but not all that surprising.”

“Looking at the result, sure. That’s about as far as your thinking goes.”

“What?”

“The Bow Saint, the Fire King, Jin Taekyung. And while he’s not on their level, even that old Daoist from the Kongtong Sect. They could’ve noticed. But that’s not what I want to know.”

The Grand Sorceress fixed the Blood Lord with a mocking look, then turned to Ma Sanbao.

“Come now. Don’t worry about your foolish superior. Tell me honestly: who was the first to notice your covert surveillance?”

“That was…”

“Once you’ve said something, you can’t take it back. I find it hard to believe the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord would take in a Disciple foolish enough to lie under these circumstances.”

Ma Sanbao hesitated. But when he met the Grand Sorceress’s fathomless gaze, he realized she already knew.

She had guessed what he’d been too afraid to say for fear of an even harsher rebuke from his violent superior.

“It was someone I’d heard of only vaguely, through brief rumors and scraps of information, more than a decade ago.”

At last Ma Sanbao answered cautiously. The Blood Lord let killing intent seep from him, while the Grand Sorceress wore a faint smile, as if she’d expected as much.

“I thought so. The East Depot wouldn’t be what it is otherwise.”

All under heaven lay within the borders of the Great Nation. To watch what lay both inside and beyond those borders, the imperial family had built a watchtower.

That watchtower was the East Depot.

From its commanding view of all under heaven, it had shared what it saw with Dark Heaven through the Eastern Heaven Demon Lord.

“Though the East Depot’s influence has waned in its conflict with the current Emperor, all manner of information still flowed in through the eyes and ears it had planted across the realm.”

“And among them was the man who noticed the surveillance today?”

“Yes. In Ningxia Province, he is called Great Sir.”

“Great Sir. An odd nickname for a martial artist.”

“It isn’t particularly well known, either. He’s a madman, and his past is shrouded in mystery.”

“Even the East Depot couldn’t find out who he was?”

“I can’t say for certain, but at the time, the Emperor was using the Embroidered Uniform Guard to keep the East Depot in check. That clearly limited what we could find out.”

Caught in those overlapping currents of the times, Great Sir had gradually been forgotten.

Until today, when Ma Sanbao dug through his old memories.

As she listened to the story of this mysterious man, the Grand Sorceress suddenly found an answer to a question she’d forgotten.

The Kongtong Sect. I wondered where Perfected Being Hyeoncheon and the Kongtong Disciples who survived Dunhuang had disappeared to along the way…

It was a suspicion close to certainty. At the same time, another question arose, and her gaze darkened.

Who in the world is he?