Chapter 1181

For a brief moment, it was as if the world had stopped.

Eyes wide with shock. Lips hanging open in a daze.

At the end of countless gazes, a wave of calamity poured over the distant, winding hills of the plateau, blackening them beneath its tide.

Graaah!

A rumble seemed to rise from the depths of an abyss.

The vast shadow everyone had believed to be a mountain roared—the countless monsters crouched within it.

The earth shook. Torrential rain burst from the sky. They planted a chill in their enemies even deeper than the cold air of the plateau that touched the heavens.

And the name of that chill was fear.

Rumble, rumble, rumble!

People stood frozen, staring at the impossible sight.

Tens of thousands. Perhaps hundreds of thousands.

An unfathomable number of monsters charged forward, their eyes gleaming red.

Some had human faces and the limbs of tigers. Others had bodies larger than pavilions, with dozens of faces hanging from them. One shadow even spread wings unmistakably like an eagle’s and swept across the sky.

“…Primordial Heavenly Venerable.”¹

The dazed mutter that slipped from one Daoist’s lips spoke for everyone.

Anyone who’d glimpsed the enemy in that flash of lightning couldn’t help but think of a god.

They didn’t know the exact name or form of that mighty being who must exist somewhere among the clouds and stars. What did such a trivial detail matter?

You long for light most desperately when you’re trapped in pitch darkness.

Just like now.

So this was it…!

Jin Wikyung gritted his teeth.

The ruined city. The absence of any trace of life.

The answers to every question he’d asked came rushing toward them, hundreds of zhang² away, so clear and horrifying that they became reality.

Straight toward the Murim allied forces’ vanguard. Straight toward where they stood.

“Great Hero Song.”

The meaning in the quiet call was clear. Song Ho, the Thousand-Faced Fox, nodded and hurled a small cylinder with all his might. No one knew when he’d taken it from inside his robes.

Boom!

A signal firework made by the artisans of the Sichuan Tang Clan burst in a dazzling explosion.

Through the sparks drifting slowly down and painting the sky, the hideous monsters appeared once more.

Yet the light was bright enough to be seen from the rear of the army, more than ten li³ away, and the fierce blast briefly washed away the people’s fear.

Jin Wikyung knew what he had to do now.

We have to buy time until reinforcements arrive.

Even the tightest net loosens over time.

The Murim allied forces had set out with enough momentum to bring down Tianshan in a single stroke. But after a month of nonstop advance with no chance to catch their breath, they were already exhausted. The barren land and lack of food had pushed them to their limits.

Their fatigue had piled up, and their march—once as steady as an unobstructed river—had begun to falter.

It was terrible luck that this happened while the Jin Family of Taiyuan, one of the weaker forces in the alliance, was briefly holding the vanguard. But they were fortunate in one respect: Jin Wikyung was leading them.

His martial arts might not match those of his two younger brothers, but everyone acknowledged him as a leader.

“I, Jin Wikyung, Lesser Family Head of the Jin Family of Taiyuan, ask you this!”

His shout, infused with Peak internal energy, shook the plateau. His eyes blazed like torches.

“What are you so afraid of!”

Those who’d instinctively begun to retreat stopped in their tracks.

But that alone couldn’t overcome the fear gripping them. Jin Wikyung met the eyes turned toward him and shouted again.

“What did you come here for!”

Feet that had stopped began moving forward again. Trembling fingers closed around sword hilts.

They all knew the answer.

For the world. For the greater cause.

To protect what they held dear, or to avenge what they’d already lost.

That was why they’d stood beneath one banner and prepared to face death.

“Neither I nor any of you came here as martial artists!”

The ground trembled harder. Jin Wikyung’s voice rang out with rising force.

“We stand here as human beings! As someone’s children, as someone’s parents, here to protect what’s ours!”

The frightened horses snorted fiercely. He could see faces clouded by exhaustion of body and mind.

And yet—

Even so—

“Face them with your heads held high! If you can’t cast off your fear, cut it down along with the enemy!”

Clang, clang, clang!

As if breaking chains around their wrists, they drew their weapons.

Together, they pointed them toward the wave of monsters, now a little over a hundred zhang away.

Their breathing quickened, white puffs spilling from their mouths.

Their mouths felt gritty, as though they’d chewed a handful of sand. Their hearts hammered as if they might burst.

But no one retreated now.

Even as the horses that couldn’t overcome their fear broke free of their masters and bolted in every direction.

Not when the hundred-odd zhang between them shrank by half, then half again.

Not even when a giant monster, its height level with the pavilions of a great city, tore a massive boulder from where it lay embedded in the plateau and hurled it at them.

Whoooosh!

For an instant, the rain stopped.

No—the great boulder overhead had blocked the rain falling on them.

“Ah…!”

Someone cried out. Jin Wikyung’s tightly closed lips parted.

“Second brother.”

Shing!

A ray of blue, bluer than a cloudless sky, shot upward.

It was quiet, and it was sharp.

Sharp enough to cut through raindrops, wind, and air—and even a thousand-geun⁴ boulder that had lain there for centuries—in a single silent stroke.

Slice!

A flash like lightning blazed, and it was over.

Blue Wave, Falling Bird.

The blue wave surging from one man’s sword split the enormous boulder—not a bird—into dozens of pieces and sent them tumbling down the hill.

Rumble!

Through rain so heavy that not even a cloud of dust could rise, the young Sword Demon of the Jin Family of Taiyuan returned, having finally shaken off the monsters pursuing him. He muttered under his breath.

“I told you I’m the Commander of the Heaven Shaking Squad.”

Jin Wikyung smiled faintly.

“I thought you called me ‘hyungnim’⁵ a moment ago.”

“…You must have imagined it.”

“Oh dear. I must have misheard.”

Jin Wikyung answered gently, as if soothing a child, and handed him a bamboo hat.

“Put it on. You’ll catch a cold.”

Jin Mukyung sighed softly at his older brother’s tone and accepted the hat.

Once he’d tied the oil-treated bamboo hat’s chin strap tight, the driving rain no longer obscured his vision.

But why did the world look so pitch-black now that he could see it clearly?

Rumble!

The earth shuddered beneath the darkness pouring in from every direction.

The monsters showed no sign of slowing. Jin Mukyung stared at the countless creatures charging toward him and tightened his grip on his sword hilt.

His breathing was steady, his gaze composed.

There wasn’t a trace of fear in him.

Not because he was confident he’d win this battle.

He simply had a reason to fight, and faith in that reason. That was why he didn’t waver.

That’s right. I believe in him. We all do.

Jin Mukyung thought of one person.

His younger brother, whose whole life had changed overnight—and who had then changed everything around him.

He wasn’t here, but that was a good thing.

The more monsters filled the view before them, the smaller the threat to Jin Taekyung would be.

That guy, at least, has to survive to the end.

Jin Mukyung took a deep breath, stepped out of the tightly formed defensive formation, and walked forward.

That single step closed the last distance between humans and monsters.

Whoooosh!

A monster’s enormous fist plunged down with a fierce burst of air. Its horrible stench seeped deep into his nose, but he didn’t care.

Whatever the outcome of this battle, by the time it was over, the stench of blood would blanket the entire plateau—worse than anything he smelled now.

Shhhhh.

Blue Wave.

True to its name, a blue wave of Force surged up once again.

It silently carved apart the fist bearing down on them, swallowing the monsters at the front whole.

Crunch!

Severed limbs and blood sprayed in every direction.

The monsters, no longer human or beast, collapsed with mournful final cries.

But why?

The stench rising from their rotting bodies wasn’t as foul as the one Jin Mukyung had smelled before. And a new light was layered over the blue Sword Force that blazed through the surroundings, illuminating and tearing through everything in its path.

Like the sunset gently coloring the world as the sun slowly sank.

Or a flower petal drifting on a breeze from nowhere.

Ah.

As the realization sounded within him, Jin Mukyung understood what this strange yet warm power was.

He knew, too, whose purple Force had slipped quietly onto the battlefield like a passing breeze.

Swish.

The hem of a robe fluttered in midair.

No one had noticed exactly when he appeared or how he’d moved.

Not even Jin Mukyung.

All that remained was the rich scent of plum blossoms, lingering at the tip of his nose and erasing even the monsters’ stench.

“Good. I’m not too late.”

Having reached the pinnacle of the sword long ago, he was the Number One Sword Under Heaven. With no one beneath this vast sky who could compare to him, he was the brightest star above the clouds.

The Sword Saint, Mae Jonghak, spoke, his eyes sinking deep.

“Then let’s begin.”

At that moment—

Fwoosh!

Above the purple plum blossoms that finally bloomed and scattered, the Sect Leaders of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the heads of the Five Great Families plunged down like meteors, led by four of the Ten Kings.

Boom!

Deep darkness and dazzling beams of light began tearing into each other with all their might.