Chapter 57

“Faster! Go faster!”

“Huff… huff!”

We ran like mad. Hyuk Mujin was panting like he was about to drop dead, but he didn’t. Whenever he started to slow down, I pressed the spearhead against his back, and he took off like Red Hare.¹

Then the sounds began to reach us.

Screams. Steel clashing against steel…

Good. The battle wasn’t over yet.

Relief hit me, and my heart hammered at the same time. The fighting was still going on, but I still hadn’t confirmed whether Jin Wikyung was alive or dead.

What if he died because we were a minute—or even a second—too late?

If that happens…

Crack.

My grip tightened around the spear before I realized it. I drew internal energy from my dantian and sent it flowing into both legs.

“C-Captain!”

I kept running, leaving the reconnaissance squad’s voices fading behind me. The countless tracks left by the main force and the growing din of the battlefield showed me the way.

Stay alive. Stay alive. Please, stay—

There!

Below a low hill, less than two hundred meters² away, countless martial artists were locked in a bloody struggle, killing and being killed.

“Die!”

“Gaaah!”

Corpses and blood—and more corpses, more blood!

The sight before me was so brutal that it left me speechless.

If my years as a Hunter hadn’t hardened me to this sort of thing, I probably would have stood there stunned for a long time.

Jin Wikyung! Where is Jin Wikyung?

But someone else caught my eye first.

White hair, unmistakable even from this distance.

The Head Elder!

He stood in front of someone, sword in hand.

The Head Elder’s back blocked most of my view, but the man kneeling in front of him was huge and held a sword of his own.

A big man with a sword?

Only one person came to mind.

Jin Wikyung. If I wanted to save him, I had to act now.

Open Inventory.

My Murim Inventory was packed with all kinds of things.

The spear I pulled out was one of them, with a wooden shaft and a steel head.

Equip Weapon.

Spear in hand, I took several steps back.

Two hundred meters.² An impossibly long distance—especially if I was trying to hit someone with a thrown spear.

But I had to do it.

No reason I can’t.

Strength, Stamina, Agility.

I pushed the stats I’d built up traveling between Murim and reality to their limits.

With internal energy in my arm, I could send the spear farther and harder.

“Hup.”

I held my breath and stepped forward. The first step was slow, the final step heavy. My arm snapped out like a whip, and the spear shot from my fingertips.

Fwoooosh!

The throw was faster and more accurate than I’d expected. It looked ready to punch straight through the Head Elder’s back.

But then…

Shhk.

What the hell was that?

Blue light flashed, and the spear split cleanly in two from the tip of the spearhead to the end of the shaft.

I couldn’t tell whether I’d thrown a spear or a birthday cake.

“Who the hell are you?”

The old man had quite a set of lungs.

“It’s me, you son of a bitch!”

That was probably the first time in the Head Elder’s life anyone had cursed him like that.

To make matters worse, he and I belonged to the same family in Murim. Going by the family tree, the difference in seniority between us was roughly that of an archaeopteryx and a chick.

That alone was plenty of reason for him to be stunned, but I still had one finishing blow left.

“The Head Elder is—!”

My voice, loaded with internal energy, thundered across the battlefield. Even I was startled by how loud it was. I could only imagine what it sounded like to everyone else.

I stared at his cold, frozen face in the distance and shouted with all my might.

“A traitor!”

Jin Wikyung heard the voice immediately after bringing down all three Peak masters of the Mount Heng Sword Sect.

No, it wasn’t just him. Everyone on the battlefield heard the shout.

“Who the hell are you?”

“It’s me, you son of a bitch!”

Cursing?

That was common enough on a battlefield. But it was a different matter when the target was the Head Elder and the young man who had appeared out of nowhere to hurl such abuse at him was Jin Taekyung.

“Isn’t that… isn’t that the Third Young Master?”

“What? That’s Jin Taekyung? But why?”

“What’s going on?”

Jin Wikyung was wondering the same thing.

What in the world is happening?

His youngest brother, who should have been in the rear, had appeared on the battlefield. That alone was bewildering enough, but now he was hurling unspeakable abuse at one of the family’s most senior elders.

Wipeng, standing beside him, muttered, “He’s completely lost his mind.”

Jin Wikyung was about to nod without thinking when—

“The Head Elder is—!”

An even bigger bomb dropped.

“A traitor!”

An icy silence fell over the battlefield. Even the sporadic clash of weapons came to an abrupt stop.

Everyone stared blankly at Jin Taekyung.

What kind of bullshit is this?

Betrayal? The Head Elder?

Is he drunk? The Third Young Master must be slipping back into his old habits.

The martial artists of the Jin Family of Taiyuan naturally thought so, and those of the Mount Heng Sword Sect were no different.

Even the senior members who had recently begun to think better of Jin Taekyung gaped at him.

“What a lunatic.”

“Does he have any idea who the Old Master is?”

If anyone deserved the most credit for this war, it was undoubtedly the Head Elder.

He had helped Jin Wikyung unite the family’s forces, and in today’s battle, he had defeated Lee Cheonbaek.

Even setting aside his contributions to the war, Jin Taekyung’s claim could only sound absurd.

Who was the Head Elder?

He was a master of the previous generation whose title, the Blade of Flowers, was renowned even across the Central Plains. He was a symbol of righteousness who had struck down countless fiends during the Great Faction War.

Every martial artist in Shanxi held some measure of respect for him.

“That man? A son of a bitch? A traitor?”

“Good heavens. That boy is smearing shit over the Jin Family of Taiyuan’s three-hundred-year history.”

The Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Mount Heng Sword Sect—everyone present seemed to share the same thought.

With at least one exception.

The Head Elder. Betrayal.

The moment Jin Wikyung heard his youngest brother’s words, he felt all the blood in his body run cold.

The vague sense that something was wrong had finally taken shape.

Lee Seogeun’s death was where it began.

He had died after being poisoned with a lethal toxin. The Mount Heng Sword Sect had named the Jin Family of Taiyuan as the culprit, sparking the war.

But the most important question had been left unanswered.

Who was the killer?

Even now, with the war nearing its end, the culprit hiding behind it all had never been identified. No—precisely because the war was nearing its end, no one cared about the killer’s identity anymore.

Survival of the fittest. The strong would survive and claim everything.

This war… was wrong from the very beginning.

Lee Seogeun’s death.

The unnaturally rapid spread of the rumors.

The Mount Heng Sword Sect had declared war, and the Jin Family of Taiyuan had responded. That was how the fighting had begun in earnest.

And the Head Elder was there.

The Head Elder, who had shut himself away from the world, had emerged immediately after news of Lee Seogeun’s poisoning reached the family. His role within the family had been enormous.

A respected martial artist. A revered elder of the family.

Without the Head Elder’s active support, the Jin Family of Taiyuan might have split in two.

We made it this far because of his help.

Then Jin Wikyung turned the thought around.

We made it this far because this was exactly what the Head Elder wanted.

In a moment too brief to even call an instant, Jin Wikyung reached his conclusion and spoke.

“Wipeng.”

“Your orders.”

“Cut down the First Elder.”

“What?”

The stooped, emaciated old man—the First Elder—stared wide-eyed.

The senior members nearby were equally shocked.

“L-Lesser Family Head!”

“What is the meaning of this…?”

But Wipeng did not hesitate. Before anyone could react, his sword was already flying toward the First Elder’s chest.

Clang-clang-clang!

Two swords suddenly cut in and knocked Wipeng’s blade aside.

Their wielders were two enormously tall, fat old men.

They were the Second and Third Elders, who, together with the First Elder, called themselves the Head Elder’s hands and feet.

Wipeng’s brow twitched when he saw the faint Sword Energy clinging to their blades.

“You were hiding your martial arts.”

The First Elder answered with a punch.

Boom!

The profound internal energy he had accumulated over his long life sent Wipeng flying. Then the First Elder straightened his stooped back.

The entire field froze at the emergence of yet another Peak master, one who had spent his life hidden in the Head Elder’s shadow.

“First Elder, what… what is this?”

“Then could it be…?”

Betrayal.

The word stamped itself into everyone’s mind.

“That’s impossible!”

The White Tiger Hall Leader let out a shrill shout. If the Elders were the Head Elder’s hands and feet, then he had served faithfully as the First Elder’s.

“Elder, Lesser Family Head. There seems to have been some misunderstanding…”

But he never finished.

The First Elder jerked his chin, and the Second Elder moved with blinding speed, severing the White Tiger Hall Leader’s neck.

Shhk. Thud.

Jin Wikyung and the First Elder locked eyes across the space between them.

“You recruited the White Tiger Hall Leader too?”

“He was loud. That was all. The others were no different.”

Jin Wikyung’s guess had been half right and half wrong.

The Elders had betrayed them, but the senior members of the Elders’ faction had not.

“Then why… Ah!”

“Sharp. I’ll give you that.”

The First Elder drew a dark, grimy bamboo tube from inside his robes. The fuse was already burning, and almost nothing remained.

“How could we share such an important secret with men like them? Their job was done once they’d thrown the family into confusion. It made things easier if they had no idea what was happening outside.”

Jin Wikyung screamed, “Stop him!”

“You’re too late.”

The First Elder was right.

The moment the fuse burned to its end, something burst, and a red flame shot high into the sky.

Fwish—boom!

It was a signal.

The martial artists of the small and mid-sized sects collectively known as the Five Gates of Shanxi changed in an instant—the Samdo Sect, an alliance of three sects; the saber-focused Byeokdo Sect; and the Gunggui Sect, which had been raining arrows down from the cliffs without pause.

“Kill everyone in your path!”

“No exceptions! Wipe them all out!”

They were no longer the clumsy Third Rate martial artists they had seemed to be. Killing intent flowed from their eyes, and their sword paths were sharp.

This wasn’t something they prepared overnight.

Jin Wikyung’s expression hardened.

Boom!

The Head Elder looked up at the sky. Before the red flame had even faded, thunderous shouts erupted from every direction.

Too fast. Far too fast.

The signal was supposed to be sent only after the Mount Heng Sword Sect had been annihilated. The Five Gates of Shanxi were a blade honed over decades. It had to be swung once and bring everything to a lightning-fast end.

All things have their proper flow.

The plan that had proceeded without a hitch was beginning to unravel.

As the Head Elder smiled bitterly, a voice reached his ears.

“So… it was you.”

Lee Cheonbaek.

His voice was faint, but his eyes burned more fiercely than ever.

“You still have the strength to speak?”

“I’ll tear you apart while you’re still alive.”

No sooner had Lee Cheonbaek finished speaking than blood gushed from his mouth. The Head Elder pressed one of his acupoints and murmured, “That would be inconvenient just yet. You still have something to do.”

Lee Cheonbaek despaired.

The Mount Heng Sword Sect had suffered heavy losses, but several hundred martial artists still remained. With its entire leadership destroyed, if the Sect Leader were now taken prisoner…

Kill me instead!

The anguished cry never left his mouth. The Head Elder pressed the Mute Acupoint, taking his voice. Then his hand brushed the Paralysis Acupoint, and Lee Cheonbaek’s body went rigid.

He had become a living corpse with his eyes still open.

“You bastard! Get your hands off him!”

At the same moment, something shrieked through the air.

Fwoooosh!

The Head Elder did not panic. He swept his sword upward from below. Beyond the spear splitting in two along the line of his Sword Energy, Jin Taekyung was charging toward him at terrifying speed.

“Aaaaaah!”

“Captain! Please slow down a little!”

And with him came a dozen or so riffraff who had appeared from who knew where.