Clang! Krrr-kang!
“They’re vile bastards we could chew to pieces and still not be satisfied! Show no mercy!”
“The Lord of Heaven wills it! Destroy the Tang Clan!”
Sword clashed against sword. Ragged breathing mingled with hoarse cries. The killing intent and stench of blood from hundreds of people locked in battle flooded the air.
Amid the dawn mist, blackened by poison smoke, those intent on killing raised their weapons and charged at one another.
Pfft!
“Gaaah!”
A young man screamed.
Born into a collateral branch of the great Sichuan Tang Clan, he had reached the First Rate realm without much difficulty. His considerable martial talent and composure beyond his years had earned him high expectations from everyone around him.
But now, the young man’s bright future was extinguished by a flash of black Sword Energy.
Fwoooosh! Slash!
The Sword Energy carved diagonally through his upper body.
That was the end.
The black-clad man stared at the young man’s collapsing body, his face pale as blood and entrails spilled out.
The kid was vicious.
The fight had been decided in only three exchanges.
Yet the unknown Tang Clan martial artist had staked his life on leaving them both grievously wounded.
The ox-hair needle that had somehow burrowed beneath the black-clad man’s collarbone was proof.
So this is the Sichuan Tang Clan.
Clicking his tongue, the black-clad man pulled out the needle.
It was so fine that he had to look closely to make it out, and its tip had turned black. There was no question that it had been coated in poison.
“Ghk!”
His vision blurred for an instant. The poison that had entered near his collarbone was rapidly spreading throughout his body.
At this rate, even his Peak-level internal energy could do no more than buy him time.
On a chaotic battlefield like this, being struck by one of the Sichuan Tang Clan’s deadliest poisons meant he was as good as dead.
But the black-clad man did not panic.
No—he smiled.
“The Lord of Heaven is… great.”
The muffled words slipped between his clenched teeth.
When he opened his mouth for the first time, a small bead lay inside.
An eerie light flowed from the bead and streamed down his throat like a river.
Ssssss.
The change was instantaneous. His blurred vision cleared, and strength and vitality returned to his weakening body.
As every trace of poison vanished from his body, the black-clad man shuddered.
The Lord of Heaven, nobler and greater than any other.
The life force bestowed upon him by his god filled his entire body.
“The Lord of Heaven has descended upon me!”
With a cry of ecstasy, the black-clad man turned in search of another victim.
That was when—
“Wrong. The one descending upon you bastards is Yama.1”
Crack!
A throwing blade flew from somewhere and buried itself between his eyebrows.
The internal energy carried by the blade tore through flesh and bone, reducing his brain to pulp. He died instantly.
Thud. Crash!
The bead that rolled from the dead man’s mouth was drawn into someone’s hand.
An old man studied it with wizened gray eyes and muttered, “These bastards… They’re carrying artifacts.”
An ordinary martial artist would have assumed the bead was a poison-warding pearl.
But the old man, Tang Jinhu, was a direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Clan and a veteran of the Great Faction War. He instinctively realized that this bead was something different from a poison-warding pearl.
What is this?
Poison-warding pearls were normally clear. The more transparent they were, the more effective they were at neutralizing poison—and the more valuable they became.
But the bead the black-clad man had possessed shone with an ominous black light, as though it held storm clouds within it.
Even so, it had been powerful enough to neutralize one of the Tang Clan’s deadliest poisons.
The greater problem was…
Every last one of them has an artifact of this quality. At this rate, neither our family’s poison techniques nor the poison formations we prepared in advance will be of any use.
On top of that, they wore leather armor that ordinary swords and blades could not pierce.
Tang Jinhu finally understood why the Tang Clan drum had sounded.
At this rate, the bloodbath would be even more horrific than the one in the Gyeongwol Year.
“These bastards…”
Crunch.
Tang Jinhu crushed the bead in his hand and thrust out both arms, his face brimming with killing intent.
The silver threads wound around his wrists drank in his internal energy and snapped taut.
The next instant, a dazzling white flash filled the battlefield.
Screeeech—thud-thud-thud!
“Ghk!”
“Gaaah!”
Only a handful of those struck managed even a final scream. Death came equally to First Rate and Peak masters alike.
Raising their weapons to block was useless. The threads Tang Jinhu unleashed lived up to the name Soul-Severing Thread, slicing through everything in their path.
Blades. Bone and flesh. Even the lives of his enemies.
Tang Jinhu felled more than ten black-clad men with a single move, then released an azure dragon’s roar.
“Don’t retreat! Aim your hidden weapons at their vital points and attack them together!”
“Head Elder! This old man has come as well!”
“Would you look at these fucking bastards! How dare they invade our family? Do you not see the Heaven-Poison Wanderer before you?”
Tang Jinhu was a Supreme Peak master who had retired more than a decade ago, as well as the head of the Council of Elders.
The sight of veteran masters joining the battlefield one after another at precisely that moment brought color back to the faces of the Tang Clan martial artists who had begun to falter.
“G-Grandfather!”
“The Head Elder is here! The Council of Elders has mobilized!”
But their joy lasted only an instant.
Krrr-kang! Slash!
“Gaaah!”
“Tang Hwi!”
“Brat! Is this the time to be looking away?”
Pfft-pfft-pfft!
“Help me… Ghk!”
“Lord of Heaven!”
“The great Lord of Heaven is with us! Kill them all!”
The black-clad men were more skilled than the Sichuan Tang Clan martial artists, while their armor and bizarre poison-warding pearls rendered the Tang Clan’s famed poisons and hidden weapons useless.
A dozen Elders, including Tang Jinhu, and dozens of Peak masters whom the Tang Clan had painstakingly trained fought desperately.
But their limits were clear.
Screeeech—thud!
Tang Jinhu severed the throats of two black-clad men charging at him with the Soul-Severing Thread and ground his teeth.
“Where did these bastards come from…?”
The sight before him was appalling.
The black-clad men swung their weapons while crying out to the Lord of Heaven as if possessed.
Each time they blocked swords and hidden weapons with their armor and pressed onward through the poison smoke, blood sprayed and corpses piled up.
In the vacant eyes of a Tang Clan martial artist whose breath had stopped, red flames that had sprung up somewhere flickered. The hot fire and acrid smoke drove away the poison mist and consumed the fallen corpses.
Tang Jinhu roared, his voice raw enough to spit blood.
“No! You bastards! How dare you—how dare you lay hands on my own flesh and blood!”
Even the mighty forces of the Demonic Cult had suffered more than a thousand casualties to overcome the Tang Clan.
How could a mere three hundred enemies wreak such horrific devastation?
“Ghk! H-Head Elder…”
“Hyung!2”
Pfft-pfft-pfft!
Even the Elders who had once roamed the martial world could not escape death.
They had not reached the exalted Supreme Peak realm as Tang Jinhu had, but every one of them was a veteran master who had reached the very edge of Peak.
Yet whenever they cut down one enemy, five more charged in. When they cut down those five, ten more rushed forward.
Among those ten black-clad men who charged forward without regard for their lives, a Peak master was hiding.
Slash. Crash!
After sacrificing dozens of his subordinates to behead another Elder, the black-clad man laughed triumphantly.
“So much for a Tang Clan Elder.”
“You bastard!”
Screeeech! Thud!
Despite Tang Jinhu’s furious efforts, the situation did not improve.
More than a hundred clansmen had already lost their lives, and half the Outer Hall had fallen into enemy hands.
“Huff, huff.”
Worse, his internal energy and stamina were rapidly running dry.
The battle had already reached a point where one aging Supreme Peak master could no longer turn the tide.
A lament slipped from Tang Jinhu’s lips as he realized the truth.
“What are the Family Head and the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders doing?!”
If they were here, things would be different. Tang Sadok, the head of the family and its strongest master, along with the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders.
If they joined the battle, they could turn the tide.
But—
“Heh-heh. They’re probably quite busy by now.”
The sudden voice in his ear made Tang Jinhu’s heart drop.
“Who are you?”
“As for who this old man is… Damn it. I can’t see a thing. Get the hell out of my way.”
Boom!
With a tremendous blast of displaced air, three or four black-clad men were hurled away as bloody pulp.
An old man drenched in blood strode into the newly cleared space and flashed Tang Jinhu a wide grin.
“Much better. Now I can see.”
He was short and ugly.
Tang Jinhu’s eyes trembled as he stared at him.
“You…”
“Hm? Do you know me?”
“…I never expected the Fiend of Qinghai to still be alive.”
First Fiend stared at Tang Jinhu for a moment, then his eyes widened.
“Ah, now I remember. You’re that youngster from the Tang Family. So, have you gotten any better at using the Soul-Severing Thread?”
“Good enough to cut off your head.”
“I always thought the Sichuan Tang Clan was fairly practical for an orthodox faction. Looking at you, I suppose that isn’t entirely true. Not if you still indulge in such foolish fantasies.”
“……!”
“Youngster, you still don’t understand, do you? Then this old man will tell you himself.”
First Fiend cackled.
“You, your Family Head, and those idiots called the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders will all die. Whether they bear the Tang surname or are nothing but dogs, I’ll kill and burn every last one of them.”
“You—!”
“Don’t be too upset. The Lord of Heaven treats all people equally. He has bestowed the same punishment upon the Buddhist nuns and those Daoist bastards. Heh-heh-heh.”
Tang Jinhu froze, forgetting even his anger.
Only then did he realize that First Fiend’s two younger brothers, who had always followed him like shadows, were nowhere to be seen.
The carnage of corpses and blood had not been limited to the Tang Clan.
The Sichuan Tang Clan, Emei, and Qingcheng.
He could feel the people’s screams and deaths.
Today, the three factions that ruled Sichuan would fight for their very survival.
Inside the hellscape those men had painted.
“Even after all these years… You truly are a Fiend.”
Tang Jinhu spat out the words.
First Fiend answered with a radiant smile.
“How kind of you. Could there be any greater praise for this old man?”
“I’ll kill you.”
“Your body has grown old, but your dreams remain ambitious.”
First Fiend burst into mad laughter and raised the twin axes in his hands.
“Now, shall we have another taste of blood?”
As if those words were a signal, hundreds of black-clad men who had already occupied the Outer Hall poured forward like a wave.
The surviving Tang Clan martial artists stood in their path, resolved to fight to the death.
“Go! Kill everything you see!”
“Stop them! We must never let them into the Inner Hall!”
Those trying to break through and those trying to stop them.
At the forefront, two men charged straight at each other.
Screeeech!
Tang Jinhu unleashed the Soul-Severing Thread with every ounce of his strength, firm resolve burning in his eyes.
Family Head, please be safe.
Kwahhhhhng!
“Cough!”
Tang Sadok stared at his palm with trembling eyes. Small pieces of his organs lay amid the dark-red blood.
“How… How could this…”
His head slowly rose as the exhausted words left him.
At that very moment, another life was extinguished.
Crunch! Thud!
A headless body toppled like a rotten log.
Considering the fame the man had enjoyed in life, it was a pitifully meaningless death.
“Were they called the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders? They’re more capable than I expected.”
A few steps from the corpse, a middle-aged man wiped the blood spattered across his face and continued.
“Of course, we’ll have to call them something else now. Let me see… Yes. The Tang Clan’s Three Skills5 seems appropriate.”
“……!”
Tang Sadok stared at the middle-aged man through blurred eyes.
The man had introduced himself as the Western Heaven Demon Lord. This enemy who had killed Tang Sadok’s father was overwhelmingly powerful. Neither Tang Sadok’s poison arts nor the combined assault of the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders had been of any use.
Is this how it ends?
Tang Sadok still had the strength to fight. So did the other three surviving members of the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders.
But…
How can we possibly stand against that monster?
What raised him from the depths of despair was the mettle he possessed as the Family Head—and the blood of the Tang Family flowing through his veins.
“Not yet. It isn’t over yet.”
“Why not remain seated? You cannot have much strength left.”
“I don’t know why, but I know you have no intention of killing this old man.”
“…Hm. As I said, the Poison King raised his son well.”
“Then kill me.”
“That won’t do. But I suppose I should wear you down a little more.”
The Western Heaven Demon Lord frowned and reached toward Tang Sadok.
That was when—
“Wait! Please, wait!”
“……?”
A young man rushed in with a shout, then let out a sigh of relief.
“Phew. I’m not too late. Thank you for waiting!”
As the Western Heaven Demon Lord stared at Cheongpung, a single thought crossed his mind.
What kind of lunatic is this?
Footnotes
-
Yama is the Buddhist lord of the underworld who judges the dead. ↩
-
Hyung is a Korean term a man uses to address an older brother or a close older male. ↩
-
Emei is a Buddhist martial sect associated with Mount Emei in Sichuan. ↩
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Qingcheng is a Daoist martial sect associated with Mount Qingcheng in Sichuan. ↩
-
In Korean, the words rendered as “Wonders” and “Skills” are pronounced alike; he changes both the number and the written title to belittle them. ↩
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