The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 83

Chapter 83. Those Who Chase the Dragon (4)

I took a deep breath and let out a battle cry.

“Haat!”

With a bursting sound like air exploding, the killing intent constricting my group was pushed away in an instant.

Jong Seo-gang’s brow furrowed deeply as he had been pressuring us with a triumphant expression.

“You want everything? I refuse. How dare a thief act as if he is demanding that I hand over his own belongings? Do you want to die?”

Jong Seo-gang, who had been frowning, suddenly burst into laughter.

“Hah!”

Then, as though even he had not expected it, he covered his mouth.

“My apologies. I simply heard something too absurd.”

Jong Seo-gang smiled slyly.

“It is no concern of mine if you yourself act recklessly, but what do you intend to do if your junior brothers are put in danger because of it?”

“They are not weak enough for you to worry about.”

Jong Seo-gang tilted his head.

“They said a dragon had risen from a small stream in Anhui Province, but it seems he was merely a fearless Lesser Dragon.”

“The reason people call someone a dragon is because he sees what ordinary men cannot.”

“……”

For the first time, Jong Seo-gang’s face, which had been wearing a triumphant smile all this time, stiffened. The same was true of the men surrounding him like guards.

“Hoo……. Nothing ever goes easily.”

Jong Seo-gang shook his head, then looked at me with his eyes glaring fiercely.

“I will warn you one last time. Hand over the tokens, or choose death. Choose one of the two.”

“……”

While I listened to Jong Seo-gang’s nonsense, my Sensory Perception was moving busily, grasping our surroundings.

‘A hundred and fifty? Two hundred?’

The number of people encircling the surroundings at a certain distance around the forest was, from what I had currently grasped, between one hundred and fifty and two hundred.

Judging by past records, there were probably five hundred people surrounding the area.

‘The Young Gang Chief of the Blue Saber Gang has not even shown his face yet.’

Moreover, throughout the conversation, I could not take my eyes off the scar that crossed the eyes of the man standing to Jong Seo-gang’s right.

‘Merciless Yellow Sword Gam Cheol-jin.’

A master who, in the future, would become famous as a fixer wanderer after the Yellow Sword Sect was destroyed and he was cast into the murim alone.

‘Did they even mobilize hidden warriors?’

As the murim saying went, those who knew well that they had to hide thirty percent of their strength raised secret forces unknown to the Murim Alliance.

The Shadow Palace Unit of Namgung Clan was one such force, and Iron Sword Sect’s Black Sword Unit had a similar nature.

And those hidden warriors, raised in secret and kept from public activity in the murim, were used like a treasured blade in events such as this damned Hell Regular Exam.

In some ways, I understood.

If one failed to enter the Murim Academy, one could not occupy a position above Deputy Pavilion Master within the Murim Alliance.

A martial artist’s life was divided at the Murim Academy.

‘If I had hidden warriors, I would want to use them too.’

In any case, there was nothing more infuriating than being unable to use them myself while my opponent could.

“What will you do?”

Of course, that did not mean I would give up.

“I don’t have a habit of saying the same thing twice. I refuse.”

Jong Seo-gang let out a faint laugh, as though he did not doubt his own victory.

“You are the one who chose punishment.”

Shrrrng.

At Jong Seo-gang’s words, Gam Cheol-jin and the other guards drew their swords.

I also assumed a starting stance and showed my intent to aim for Jong Seo-gang’s neck in one stroke.

Then Gam Cheol-jin showed his intent to target Dong-ryong instead.

‘Is he confident in Jong Seo-gang’s martial arts? Or is there another hidden warrior mixed among the guards?’

If we clashed right now, both sides would suffer damage, but it was clear that our side’s damage would hurt far more.

The Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers had already prepared their Sword Formation and were ready for battle, but they were too lacking to handle a master of Gam Cheol-jin’s caliber.

At that moment, Jong Seo-gang restrained those in the field.

“Whoa, whoa. don’t get excited. Did I not say I wanted to talk?”

As if he knew that I would definitely attack him, Jong Seo-gang did not show any intention of starting a battle right away.

“Put away your swords.”

At Jong Seo-gang’s words, Gam Cheol-jin and all the other guards sheathed their swords.

“An injured beast is fiercer by nature.”

With words that sounded as though he was certain of something, Jong Seo-gang turned around.

“Haa.”

Geum-pyo released his tension and breathed heavily. Eun-ho asked worriedly,

“Senior Brother, will they withdraw with this?”

“No. Those hiding in the forest have not left their positions yet.”

“don’t worry. We’ve fought nearly a thousand people before, haven’t we?”

At Geum-pyo’s words, Eun-ho could not hide his pathetic expression.

“……”

“What?”

Twin Curtain Stronghold had possessed an overwhelming force in terms of numbers, but it was difficult to compare bandits who had not learned a single unified martial art to prestigious sects proudly listed among the One Hundred Eight Peaks.

Moreover, in a situation where we did not know where the hidden warriors were mixed in, if we faced them head-on, there was a high chance my junior brothers would be put in danger.

“First, we move—”

The moment I was about to leave, I met Dong-ryong’s gaze and stopped.

“Is it hard?”

“……Pardon?”

Dong-ryong’s eyes had turned bright red. Perhaps Dong-ryong himself had not realized it, because he looked surprised as he glanced at his brothers.

After being struck directly by Gam Cheol-jin’s killing intent, his Killing Star Nature had instinctively begun boiling up again.

“Of all times, now…….”

“N-no! I’m fine!”

I took the Demon-Purging Spirit Beads out of my bundle and hung them around his neck.

“Senior Brother…… I’m fine…… huh?”

Then, strangely enough, his eyes, which had been glowing red, returned to their original color.

“Senior Brother, this is…….”

“don’t neglect your study of the Taeul True Scripture. Relying on a sacred relic always carries risk.”

“Yes.”

“Let us move.”

As soon as we left our position, the forest began shaking greatly.

There was no wind, yet the branches struck one another violently.

“……Senior Brother, how many people are there?”

“Would it not be better not to know?”

“……Ugh. That is true. But why did they not attack right away?”

“They either want to reduce their losses, or they are watching one another to see who moves first. It is one of the two.”

“Pardon?”

“They are a group formed by a total of seven sects.”

“……Senior Brother.”

Eun-ho suddenly called me in a solemn voice.

“What is it?”

“If there comes a moment when we can survive only if you abandon me, please abandon me at any time.”

“……”

While I could not answer because I had no idea what he was talking about, Eun-ho continued.

“Please promise me. Promise that you will not give up entering the Murim Academy for my sake.”

It seemed he had been provoked by the nonsense Jong Seo-gang had said earlier.

Just as I was about to tell him not to mind it, Geum-pyo spoke.

“Senior Brother, the same goes for me. If there comes a moment when you must abandon me, please abandon me without hesitation.”

Then Dong-ryong, whose eyes had returned to normal, added,

“Senior Brother, me too!”

“What are you saying, Lee Dong-ryong! You’re the youngest, so you have to return alive!”

“You’re the eldest son of our family, Brother! If you’re going to inherit the mill, you have to return alive!”

The three brothers refused to yield, each insisting that he would die instead.

“What are you all doing?”

“……Well.”

“Where did you brats learn to think of throwing away your lives first? Even if I entered the Murim Academy by sacrificing you, do you think I could attend with a peaceful heart?”

What I had regretted to death in my previous life was surviving alone while leaving behind my senior and junior brothers and my Martial Uncles.

And now, I was running with the resolve to die precisely so I would not repeat that mistake.

“B-but, risking our lives for our senior and junior brothers is only natural…… Eldest Senior Brother, you said…….”

Why on earth did they keep saying I had said things I did not even remember?

“I will warn you once. Never die. don’t even think of dying. If any of you thinks of sacrificing himself for me, or offering up his life, I will immediately send that person back to the sect and tell Sect Leader to expel him!”

“……!”

“Why is there no answer?”

“Y-your command!”

“Your command!”

“Your command!”

“……”

What was this “your command” all of a sudden?

Seeing the children become stranger by the day, I was left speechless.

Since we were being chased by pursuers anyway, taking mountain paths was meaningless.

We immediately turned our steps, descended onto the main road, and began running.

“Senior Brother, should we not run faster?”

If one used Moving Circulation, the speed of Movement Art naturally decreased.

Perhaps because the pressure of unseen opponents was great, Geum-pyo and Eun-ho looked as though they wanted to shake them off at once.

“No matter how fast we run, we will not be able to shake them off.”

Once we had been surrounded, the moment we clashed to break through the encirclement, the comrades spread around us would rush in like mad.

Considering that this was a method commonly used by humans to hunt tigers, it was clear that the method the Yellow Sword Sect and the Blue Saber Gang were using to hunt us could produce the greatest effect with the least damage.

“Then what do we do?”

“If we cannot shake them off, we use them.”

“Pardon?”

After passing Deqing, we were approaching the fork between Mount Makgan and Huzhou.

“Senior Brother.”

Eun-ho’s head was turned behind us.

At the far end of the main road, Jong Seo-gang and his guards, whom we had seen a moment ago, were following openly, and beside them, warriors wearing the same yellow martial arts uniforms had spread out at regular intervals and were displaying an encirclement.

“Senior Brother! The forest!”

From the mountain slope we had just left, people wearing deep-blue martial arts uniforms were also beginning to slowly close the distance. They were the Southern Fragrance Sect based in Zhejiang Province.

What was strange was that even now, the members of the Blue Saber Gang were still nowhere to be seen.

“Senior Brother, ahead.”

The reason became clear the moment we entered the fork between Mount Makgan and Huzhou.

Jang Sun-won, the Young Gang Chief of the Blue Saber Gang, was blocking the road to Huzhou with people who appeared to be his guards.

“It seems they are trying to guide us into the mountain.”

“Because hunting is easier in the mountains than in a city.”

“They are working together perfectly.”

“……We go into the mountain.”

“Pardon? Are you serious? don’t flee into a mountain when you are being chased. Even a seven-year-old child knows that.”

“I know that too.”

I immediately changed direction toward the opposite side of the road Jang Sun-won was blocking.

Mount Makgan was a harsh mountain not yet famous in Zhejiang Province.

Medicinal herbs or wild greens did not grow well there, and it did not produce good-quality timber either, so even the people nearby had little interest in it.

‘That must be why they chose this place as their hunting ground.’

However, this Mount Makgan would become a place that drew people’s attention only a few years later because of a certain incident.

From the beginning, I intended to use that incident a little earlier.

When I looked back, the warriors of the Yellow Sword Sect had begun slowly encircling Mount Makgan in a wide semicircle.

“We move faster.”

When we climbed halfway up the mountain, a path appeared that could cross the mountain toward the opposite direction.

“Senior Brother, there are people who look like warriors of the Blue Saber Gang on the other side.”

The opposite side of Mount Makgan was already blocked by the Blue Saber Gang.

“There is no way out.”

Geum-pyo’s voice was bleak.

At that moment, Eun-ho snapped irritably, sounding annoyed.

“Shut up for a bit! Eldest Senior Brother must have his own plan if he came here!”

“……Shut up? You bastard! To your older brother?”

“Fuck! What do you want me to do?!”

When a curse burst from Eun-ho’s mouth, Geum-pyo adjusted his grip on his sword hilt as though he would kill Eun-ho at any moment.

Only Dong-ryong looked as though he had no idea what had suddenly happened.

“Brothers, what’s wrong?”

“You shut up too! This is all because of you!”

At Geum-pyo’s harsh shout, tears welled at the corners of Dong-ryong’s eyes.

The three brothers, who only a moment ago had been so close that they told one another to survive, were growling as though they would kill each other.

I quickly released Moving Circulation and felt through my Sensory Perception.

‘As expected.’

Killing intent could be felt prickling against my entire body.

It was not the direct killing intent scattered by humans, but killing intent that had naturally spread through the air and was ambushing the whole body.

When exposed to killing intent like this, humans instinctively felt fear, and to overcome that fear, they spread anger in every direction.

“Stop!”

When I unleashed Lion’s Roar, the bodies of the three brothers, who looked as though they would fight at any moment, froze in place.

“Focus on Moving Circulation.”

Because we had increased our speed after entering the mountain, Moving Circulation had gradually loosened, and killing intent had seeped into their righteous minds.

As one example, Dong-ryong had moved at the same speed, but because he was wearing the Demon-Purging Spirit Beads, he had not been consumed by anger.

Even as I spoke, Geum-pyo and Eun-ho had been wearing expressions full of dissatisfaction, but as though nothing had happened, their fierce expressions slowly relaxed.

“Huh?”

“Wh-what on earth is this…….”

“Senior Brother, have we perhaps fallen into a Formation?”

Could this really be called a Formation? If it could be classified as one, then this was the cruelest Formation in the world that humans could use against other humans.

“It is similar, but different. You must have heard of it too…….”

A tactic mainly used by Demonic Practitioners of the Demonic Cult to deal with absolute masters of the Orthodox Path and the Black Path.

“It is the Heavenly Net and Earthly Snare.”