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Chapter 77. The Black Flame Dragon Who Leaps over the Trial (5)
Autumn mountain fires were not unfamiliar.
Especially when a summer drought had passed and autumn leaves piled thickly on a mountain, even a small wind could cause a mountain fire.
To prevent this, the people of nearby villages would prepare winter firewood in advance and create firebreaks so the flames would not spread widely.
“But Twin Curtain Stronghold did not allow the villagers to climb the mountain.”
For bandits to hide themselves, there was nothing better than dense forest.
For that purpose, Twin Curtain Stronghold had forbidden not only logging, but even the gathering of medicinal herbs, and that dry, dense forest was now not hiding the bastards’ bodies, but gripping their windpipes.
The moment the bandits, who had been charging fiercely down the mountain, hesitated before the pit of fire that exploded instantly because of the oil, the flames spread even farther in every direction.
The thousand or so people tried to turn back and go up the slope, but that was even more difficult.
“Aaaagh!”
“Move!”
“Ah, hot!”
They tangled with one another and fell over, and the line quickly collapsed.
The bandits who tried to leave the road and flee across the mountain were swallowed by the flames that had blazed up violently in the meantime, and because they could not endure the heat and rolled in every direction, the mountain fire spread even more easily.
“This is impossible.”
Eun-ho stared blankly at the sky, which was filled with pitch-black smoke.
The fierce wind quickly pushed away the black smoke, but thanks to that, the flames burned even more violently, as if they had eaten Spiritual Medicine.
All thousand or so people had learned martial arts, but even among them, there were clear differences in achievement.
Those with low inner arts could not hold their breath and inhaled the smoke, then soon began to collapse unconscious.
“Young Master So-un, did you perhaps expect the wind to come?”
Yang Gun-baek asked while sweeping back his hair because of the rushing wind, and without giving any particular answer, I drew the Black Dragon Sword.
“Prepare yourselves.”
At my words, the three brothers each drew their swords.
“They cannot flee toward the mountain because of the flames. But they will come down along the road where the oil was poured.”
“We will go as well.”
Yang Gun-baek stepped forward with the Hao Gate members.
“We have to overwhelm them while they are dazed after passing through the flames.”
No sooner had my words ended than a tremendous tearing sound rang out.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe had joined forces to gouge up the ground and scatter mounds of soil in every direction.
“The flames have weakened! Pass through as quickly as possible!”
Along with the thunderous voice, the bandits who had been searching for an escape route began pouring out onto the road.
Those whose clothes had caught fire here and there desperately tried to put out the flames, only to be trampled to death beneath the feet of the bandits running from behind.
CRAAACK!
The giant trees that had not been cut down in order to ambush both sides of the road caught fire and collapsed onto the path.
“Aaaagh!”
“D-Dodge!”
“Save me!”
In the end, the bandits who gave up on following the two Stronghold Masters began running toward another road beyond the mountain.
Even while the bandits scattered in all directions, Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe had no room to command them.
That was because, to open a path, the two had to join forces again and scatter soil in every direction.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.
As fierce internal power scattered in every direction, dirt and chunks of rock flew everywhere, suppressing the flames to some extent.
After the two men passed, the bandits who followed them burned to death.
“These damned bastards!!!”
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber, whose venomous hatred had risen to the limit because of the repeated deaths, stopped paying attention even to One-Eyed Blood Axe and began rushing down while unfolding his Movement Art to its limit.
“Listen carefully.”
“You are saying that all of a sudden?”
“If they survive, the tragedy of the village will repeat itself.”
“……Yes.”
“Remember only the scene you saw on the hill.”
I was telling them not to show mercy in their hands.
As if they understood my words, the three brothers firmly clenched their mouths.
“Go!”
With my shout, the three brothers and Yang Gun-baek’s group began running.
Unlike their first appearance, when they had feared the bandits’ might, they looked full of courage.
“Jin So-un!”
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber, who had been running toward us like a wild boar with its tail on fire, discovered me and ran even faster.
I also stepped with the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art and increased my speed, facing Golden-Faced Buddha Saber.
BOOM.
“I will kill you!”
The moment the Great Saber containing Saber Qi struck down to split my head, I unfolded Lotus and threw Golden-Faced Buddha Saber into the pit of fire.
THUD, THUD, THUD!
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber broke several trees with a roar that was hard to believe came from a human body and was slammed into the flames.
“Gaaaaaaah!”
In the meantime, I unfolded the Breaking Strike Form of the Minor Heaven Sword Art and began cutting down the bandits who had run out in order to breathe.
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“S-Spare……!”
“Guhh!”
The sword forms that aimed for Vital Acupoints scattered blood everywhere, causing the chaos to grow even worse.
Taking one life with each form, whenever my sword swung without hesitation, bandits began dying.
Even though their comrades were dying like that, the bandits could not stop their feet.
The breath that had already risen to their chins paralyzed their reason, making them continue running endlessly, and if they fell, it only made them crawl forward.
CRASH!
While I was swinging my sword without pause, a sudden enormous impact forced me two steps backward.
When I raised my head, One-Eyed Blood Axe was emitting thick killing intent.
“You are quite a bold fellow.”
“How is this junior’s move?”
“You made the wrong choice!”
CRASH. CRASH. CRASH. CRASH. CRASH. CRASH.
Each time the Blood Axe and the Black Dragon Sword collided, explosive sounds spread in every direction.
Even the bandits who had been rushing madly forward sensed the danger and detoured to the side.
After withdrawing the Breaking Strike Form of the Minor Heaven Sword Art, I immediately began unfolding the Twin Heaven Sword Formula.
The Black Dragon Sword began creating illusions like the ribs of a fan spreading open, then shot out while aiming for Vital Acupoints.
“You bastard! You were hiding your skill!”
One-Eyed Blood Axe’s one remaining eye spat fire.
His Blood Axe sometimes tried to strike an Illusion Sword and swept through empty air, while at other times it happened to strike the real sword and block an attack.
However, because of the subordinates constantly pushing in from behind and the inner arts he was using to block the flames, his hands were becoming extremely complicated.
“You bastard!”
A Lion’s Roar burst out from inside the pit of fire, and Golden-Faced Buddha Saber, scorched black, sprang out.
“I will strip every bit of flesh and bone from you and chew it all up!”
I retreated two steps and began releasing the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula.
***
The Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers could not come to their senses after the fight began.
They formed the Sword Formation and faced the enemy, but the enemy had no thought of dodging or blocking the swords the three brothers thrust out.
They merely wanted to flee madly from the flames.
“Eun-ho! Dong-ryong! Keep maintaining the Sword Formation! We do not need anything else!”
“Brother! There are too many!”
“Just maintain the Sword Formation! Then…… Then……”
Geum-pyo felt that he had to say something, but he did not know what to say.
Would there be an end to this battle?
How long did they have to fight?
Even if the other side was fleeing in utter panic because of the flames, could they truly handle them by themselves?
The martial arts of the two Stronghold Masters of Twin Curtain Stronghold were clearly at a level they could not approach.
“Then what?!”
When Eun-ho shouted at him, Geum-pyo snapped back to his senses and blurted out whatever came to mind.
“Eldest Senior Brother will come! If it looked like we were going to die, would Eldest Senior Brother have started the battle?”
“Is that not just Eldest Senior Brother thinking of us by his own standards?”
There was no way to answer that.
From the start, receiving a mission to subjugate a mountain stronghold and then thinking of subjugating the greatest force among the Seventy-Two Green Forest Strongholds was already far outside the ordinary.
“Guhh!”
“Aaaagh!”
“D-Damn it……”
While their minds had slipped for a moment, they heard the sounds of bandits dying beside them.
When they turned their heads, Dong-ryong was dealing with the bandits using sword forms they had never seen before.
Every one of those forms was something he had learned in the Taeul Sect, but the trajectory itself was different.
It was frighteningly sharp, as if it followed the most efficient Sword Path for killing.
Moreover, despite the fact that they were deploying the Sword Formation, the killing intent spreading from Dong-ryong chilled them to the bone.
“Damn it!”
With a curse, Geum-pyo met Eun-ho’s eyes and nodded.
Eun-ho, who knew what state Dong-ryong was in, did not look good either.
The Heavenly Killing Star was an innate nature that thirsted for blood.
As Eldest Senior Brother had said, if the Heavenly Killing Star bloomed before Dong-ryong’s cultivation of the heart deepened, something terrible would happen.
“Brother!”
“Yes!”
Though they did not say it aloud, Geum-pyo and Eun-ho’s thoughts had already connected.
“Aaaagh!”
“Guhh!”
The number of bandits falling to the two of their swords gradually began increasing, and Dong-ryong’s killing intent also slowly diminished.
“Brother! There are too many enemies!”
Thanks to Moving Circulation, their internal power was barely being maintained, but many bandits were still alive.
Moreover, those who slowly came back to their senses began detouring around the three brothers or taking a defensive stance to buy time.
The fifty Hao Gate members were guarding the well and blocking the bandits from approaching, but because there were too many, they were gradually being surrounded by bandits.
Moreover, they could not hope for Jin So-un’s help either, because Jin So-un was at the mountain entrance facing Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe while also cutting down the fleeing bandits.
At this rate, they might die before Jin So-un came.
“Keep your senses sharp! Right now, think only about the enemies in front of you!”
Geum-pyo shouted desperately like that and swung his sword.
At that moment, a thick cloud of dust rose outside the village, and the sound of battle cries began to ring out.
“Let us go!”
“Waaaaaaaah!”
Led by Village Chief Heo, the villagers who had left their positions began running in while carrying farming tools.
“Save the children first!”
“Do not leave the exhausted bastards alive!”
There were not only sickles and hoes, but also people who had sharpened axes and bamboo.
Those who had never learned even a bit of martial arts began approaching the exhausted bandits and using their hands brutally.
“S-Spare me!”
“My son starved to death because of you!”
“Have you forgotten that you violated my younger sister?!”
“Kill them!”
The hands of the people, filled with deep resentment, were no less fierce than those of people who had trained in martial arts all their lives.
***
CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG, CLANG.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
The sword forms extending from the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula swept through every direction, cutting off the necks of bandits while facing Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe.
The two men were already covered in wounds, but facing two people who had reached the peak realm at the same time was still too much for me.
If it had not been for the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula and the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist, which used the principle of ten thousand to create an effect as if the opponent were facing more than one enemy, it would have been a situation where I could not have dared even endure.
“I will kill you! I will kill you! I will absolutely kill you!”
“Die!”
Moreover, Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe were charging in recklessly while disregarding defense, barely avoiding only their important vital points, which made them even harder to deal with.
“Even if I die, I will definitely take you with me!”
“I have no intention of going with you.”
“Hmph!”
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Saber Qi stretched out in every direction and caused explosions without distinguishing friend from foe.
The bandits dying to Golden-Faced Buddha Saber’s Saber Qi looked at him with eyes full of betrayal, but Golden-Faced Buddha Saber paid them no attention and merely continued sending Saber Qi toward me.
“Your Movement Art is rather excellent!”
One-Eyed Blood Axe said through gritted teeth toward me, whom he could not catch.
“That is because it was made by the two greatest people of all time.”
“Yes, having such good martial arts and then dying by our hands must feel very bitter.”
“I will say it again, but I have no intention of dying by the hands of you two.”
“That is not for you to decide. That is for us to decide.”
CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
As the Blood Axe swung, chunks of wood containing flames shot out like hidden weapons.
The moment I unfolded the Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps and narrowly avoided the wood, Golden-Faced Buddha Saber swung his Great Saber.
At this rate, I would inevitably be the first to tire.
“This is the end!”
“Haaat!”
I also drew up the Taeul True Scripture with all my strength, unfolded the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist, and lifted my body into the air.
And the moment One-Eyed Blood Axe and Golden-Faced Buddha Saber tried to swing their weapons toward me,
WHOOOOOSH. THUD!
“Hieek!”
“Damn it!”
A rock as large as a house flew toward the two men, and the two of them panicked and dodged.
After landing on the ground, I looked back and said,
“Why are you so late?”
“Were you not the one who sent me to the opposite side in the first place?”
“I thought you would figure out that much on your own.”
In that brief time, Bang Du-chil and his party had dealt with the bandits who had fled to the opposite side and run along the road to arrive here.
“If you are tired, rest. I will handle the rest.”
He looked quite different from the way he had distrusted my plan and shown hostility from beginning to end.
“I am fine. I have to go help my junior brothers.”
“Then let us handle this quickly before you go.”
At our exchange, the faces of Golden-Faced Buddha Saber and One-Eyed Blood Axe turned bright red.
“You damned bastards!”
“How dare brats like you!”
As if he knew he could not drag this out for long, Bang Du-chil immediately gathered both palms and drew up his internal power.
His martial arts uniform swelled as if it would burst, and a tremendous Qi wave erupted.
‘As expected of the Heavenly Dipper Limitless Body!’
One-Eyed Blood Axe turned pale at the Qi wave he was feeling for the first time in his life.
“What kind of inner arts are……!”
The moment One-Eyed Blood Axe, who had been charging in, kicked off the ground, changed direction, and tried to flee, Bang Du-chil’s unique martial art, the Gale Divine Palm, poured out from both his palms along with the movement of air currents that made the atmosphere thrum.
BOOOOOOOM!
The Gale Divine Palm, which burst the air in succession and extinguished even the blazing flames for an instant, reduced every bone in One-Eyed Blood Axe’s body to powder.
“Insane……”
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber, who had been charging at me, had his mouth wide open.
“This is not the time to look there.”
I also fired the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm at Golden-Faced Buddha Saber.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Golden-Faced Buddha Saber hurriedly changed direction, but he could not escape the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm after its range had been raised to the maximum.
At the same time that the air and flames exploded, Golden-Faced Buddha Saber’s body burst apart.
Whoooosh.
In the space where all the air had vanished for an instant due to the effects of the Gale Divine Palm and the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm, even the flames had died down.
“…….”
And within that space, Bang Du-chil was looking at me with his eyebrows trembling.
“What is it?”
“…….”
Instead of Bang Du-chil, who gave no answer, Baek So-ryeong approached from behind, wielding a Soft Sword.
“This is the first time he has seen someone with stronger internal power than his own.”
That seemed to be the reason Bang Du-chil was surprised.
He had probably never seen someone of the same generation with stronger internal power than his in his entire life.
“You truly…… dealt with Twin Curtain Stronghold. And comparatively easily, at that.”
Mountain fires rose throughout Mount Tianmu, and beneath them, the corpses of bandits were piled up like peaks.
Although there were still many remnants at the bottom of the mountain, now that the two Stronghold Masters had become lonely ghosts, Twin Curtain Stronghold was as good as finished.
“It is thanks to you.”
When I lightly clasped my hands and expressed my thanks, Baek So-ryeong and Bang Du-chil’s subordinates clasped their hands in return.
“…….”
While Bang Du-chil stood there blankly, looking at me as if I were some strange animal, Baek So-ryeong struck him once with her elbow, and he staggered before clasping his hands.
“I am sorry I doubted you.”
“That can happen. In any case, it is not over yet, is it? Let us finish this properly.”
“Good.”
Just as we were about to go down the mountain to deal with the remnants, Eun-ho, who should have been forming the Sword Formation below the mountain, came running up this way while panting heavily.
“Eldest Senior Brother! Something terrible has happened! Please save Dong-ryong!”
Before those words even ended, I drew up all the inner power I had left and unfolded the Unrivaled under Heaven Movement Art.