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Chapter 95. The Sharpest Blade in the Darkness (2)
“In a large-scale battle like this, the one who remains until the end wins.”
The first one to sense something strange was Song Baek of the Huayang Escort Agency.
After having the first-trial and second-trial tokens taken from him by Jin So-un, and after losing them because of the idiotic bullshit committed by the senior brothers from the main mountain whom he had been counting on, he had been so anxious that he could not sleep at night. Only today had he finally been able to breathe.
“There are no fewer than one thousand people. Since all of them are martial artists, even the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect have no way to survive.”
The man who spoke so reliably had served as a military officer at the front.
He had come from a guard station, had abundant experience commanding thousands of soldiers, and had experienced large-scale battles, so he inspired even greater trust.
“I will trust only you, Captain Yeom.”
Captain Yeom, who valued hierarchy, had not stepped forward even once during all that had happened so far. However, when Song Baek lost the Trial Tokens and then stood there stunned after seeing his senior brothers from the Diancang Sect turn into drowned ghosts, Captain Yeom finally began to show his true worth.
They had caught up in Suqian with the person they had lost at Zhenjiang, and at Xinxian, they had already overtaken him and been able to wait for him.
It would have been impossible if Captain Yeom had not known how to organize forces in a military fashion and march efficiently.
Now all they had to do was watch this battlefield that had become an asura field, then ambush only those who took the Trial Tokens of the Taeul Sect, the Namgung Clan, and the Iron Sword Sect.
After that, they would head to the third trial.
That was what he had been thinking.
“What is that?”
Once the battle began, the torches lit by no fewer than one thousand people made the Puyang Plain look as though a festival had opened there.
“What is the matter?”
“That over there…….”
The place Song Baek pointed at had darkness settled over it, as though a hole had opened.
“Is it not strange that only that place has no torches?”
At Song Baek’s words, Captain Yeom stared intently, then shook his head.
“It is only natural that people unaccustomed to war cannot maintain formation.”
“Is that so……?”
Until now, Captain Yeom had shown only reliability. Song Baek no longer had the confidence to insist on his own opinion as he had before.
“Huh?”
But once again, a hole opened with a pop in the enormous wave of torches.
“C-Captain Yeom! Look there! Another hole opened over there!”
At Song Baek’s pointing, Captain Yeom furrowed his brow.
“Young Master, if you don’t know war, please stay quiet. It is natural for torches to go out during a night battle.”
But if that were the case, that place was not even in the middle of the battle.
In terms of the battlefield, its situation was not much different from the place where they were standing.
At that moment.
Song Baek’s eyes shot wide open.
The darkness that came out of that enormous hole began to move.
As though countless candles had been snuffed out all at once by a sudden gust of wind, the torches went out one after another and created a path of darkness.
“Th-There!”
“Young Master!”
“Look over there, you bastard!”
“……!”
The path of darkness headed straight toward Song Baek’s group.
“Hup!”
Realizing that something was wrong, Captain Yeom immediately snatched the torch from the warrior beside him and rushed forward.
Swoosh.
But Captain Yeom was swallowed by the darkness and did not leave even a trace behind.
“Wh-What is this…….”
Before he could even finish speaking, darkness settled over every direction. Only then did the screams begin to ring out.
“Graaagh!”
“S-Save…….”
“Hiiik! A g-ghost!”
It was the first time the sound of flesh being pierced had seemed so loud.
Song Baek, who had forgotten even the thought of fleeing because of a fear whose source he could not identify, reached into his clothes and grabbed a signal flare.
It was the most instinctive action, born only from wanting to avoid this darkness.
Fwoosh.
The signal flare that should have shot into the sky and lit the night flew into the darkness and exploded.
At the sight revealed by the signal flare, Song Baek could not even scream and simply gaped.
—–!
What appeared in the darkness was a monster with all its skin peeled away, its organs and the beating of its heart plainly visible.
From the monster’s hand, bone that looked like a sword suddenly protruded.
‘A corpse…… is moving……?’
Before Song Baek could even complete that thought, he was completely devoured by the darkness.
“If darkness appears, send Sword Qi or Fist Qi into that place. You cannot face them with a plain sword.”
As Namgung Seon-hwa cut down an enemy whose number she no longer knew, whether the thirtieth or the thirty-second, she thought.
As if that were easy.
Her qi center was already beginning to show its bottom. She had tried to resist by unfolding the Firmament Sword Formation with the Firmament Unit members, but even the Sword Formation she had proudly believed invincible could not withstand the endless rush of torches and people.
“My lady!”
The Firmament Sword Formation was shattered, and the Firmament Unit scattered in all directions.
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With every step she took, the ground was full of dozens of wounded, yet the number of those rushing in with swords and torches still did not seem to have decreased at all.
“My lady! Enter the Sword Formation!”
Despite his injury, Kang Seo-pyo, who had stubbornly followed them, shouted as though in desperation.
“Captain Kang! The Firmament Unit has already collapsed!”
“Unfold another one!”
“What?”
Another Sword Formation? Was he talking about the Emperor Sword Formation? She had not learned that yet…….
“I mean the White Tiger Sword Formation!”
Ah.
Only then did the Sword Formation she had learned just to eat one warm meal come to Namgung Seon-hwa’s mind.
“But around us…….”
“I will do it!”
When she turned her head before she knew it, Dong-ryong, covered in blood from head to toe, spoke.
“When exactly did you…….”
“My lady! Hurry!”
Without even having time to ask when he had come, Kang Seo-pyo and Dong-ryong took their positions around her.
“Formation, deploy!”
At Dong-ryong’s shout, Namgung Seon-hwa and Kang Seo-pyo began swinging their swords.
Clangclangclang.
They barely deflected the swords their enemies sent flying and stabbed their swords into vital acupoints. Wounded enemies collapsed to the ground.
Through that gap, the next enemies pushed in.
Following Dong-ryong’s guidance, she changed positions and gained a moment of rest.
It was strange.
It did not have as much destructive power as the Firmament Sword Formation, but it was flexible. It required less strength.
Once a Sword Formation broke, it was almost impossible to establish it again, but because this Sword Formation was formed by three people, dissolving and reopening it was as simple as turning over one’s palm.
Even stranger was Dong-ryong.
Dong-ryong, who had less than twenty years of inner arts, displayed skill no worse than a Firmament Unit member once the Sword Formation was formed. No, right now, he was actually leading the White Tiger Sword Formation.
“What about Geum-pyo and Eun-ho?”
Even in the urgent situation, the children who felt like younger siblings came to mind. As they had gone through this difficult journey together, they had unknowingly grown as close as true younger siblings.
“Eldest Senior Brother said that since we don’t know how to handle Sword Qi, we should form Sword Formations with the others.”
“Ah…….”
In the middle of fighting frantically, she had forgotten about those dangerous beings for a moment. On the other hand, she also wondered whether they could really intervene in this chaotic melee.
Moreover, the instruction to strike empty air where there was nothing was even harder to trust.
“Over there!”
But at that moment, Dong-ryong stopped swinging his sword and pointed in one direction.
Darkness descended ten jang away, then approached in a straight line.
As though water had been sprinkled only there, the torches went out, and the crowd disappeared.
“My lady!”
“I saw it!”
This time, Dong-ryong fell back, and Kang Seo-pyo and Namgung Seon-hwa stepped forward.
What she had thought impossible had truly happened.
Namgung Seon-hwa scraped up what little inner arts she had left.
“Now!”
At Kang Seo-pyo’s shout, she drew out all her strength and sent out Sword Qi. The Sword Qi she sent flying without observing any technique or form possessed only the destructive power of Sword Qi itself.
It had not the slightest sharpness to it…….
And yet.
-SCREECH!
The darkness that had been approaching rapidly stopped, and the scream of a beast rang out from within it.
“Hiiik!”
The thing that revealed itself from the darkness had the appearance of a corpse whose skin had all been peeled away.
The sight of organs moving inside its ribs felt even more horrifying.
The monster that had revealed itself for a moment tried to hide in the darkness once again by wrapping its surroundings with something like the shell it had spread out.
However, both Kang Seo-pyo and Namgung Seon-hwa were now at their limit.
The two fell into despair at the fact that they had to let the terrifying enemy before their eyes go.
“Chaa!”
At that instant, Dong-ryong shot forward like lightning.
“Dong-ryong! No!”
Dong-ryong squeezed into the darkness and poured attacks onto the monster that had revealed itself.
Clangclang. Clangclang. Clangclangclang.
They were merely simple attacks without any Sword Qi, but whenever Dong-ryong attacked the monster’s bones, the black shell that had been restoring itself spread open again.
“How in the world…….”
Moreover, Dong-ryong’s attacks were agile and free of wasted movement, aiming only at vital points.
He stabbed the heart, stabbed the organs, stabbed the eyeballs, and stabbed into the mouth.
Each time, the monster showed signs of panic.
“Captain!”
“Yes, my lady!”
They did not need a long conversation.
With the single thought that they absolutely could not let the opportunity Dong-ryong had seized slip away, they attacked persistently.
For the first time since the battle began, hope could be felt. Their attacks were working on an enemy whose true form they had not even been able to grasp until now.
“Huh?”
The atmosphere among the examinees who had rushed in after the Trial Tokens and the warriors they had hired was strange.
Namgung Seon-hwa instinctively turned her head, and her eyes opened wide.
Darkness appeared once again and came surging fiercely toward them.
The examinees who had already been in the middle of battle also sensed something strange and began fleeing from the darkness.
However, a battlefield where hundreds had gathered was not a place one could escape from so easily.
“M-Move!”
“What the hell is that!”
“This was not in the information!”
Dozens of warriors were consumed by darkness in an instant, and just as it was about to swallow Namgung Seon-hwa, Kang Seo-pyo, and Dong-ryong all at once—
Slash!
A shining whip flew in from somewhere and wrapped around the darkness.
In the darkness where there should have been nothing, a human shape was caught by the whip and dragged across the ground.
“Eldest Senior Brother!”
“Well done!”
Its owner was none other than Jin So-un.
With the shining whip wrapped around his left hand, he poured Fist Qi into the darkness he had subdued.
Thudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthud.
The attacks were so fast and powerful that the ground caved in within an instant.
Soon, the darkness made a cracking sound as it flattened and poured out red blood.
Perhaps the monster Dong-ryong, Namgung Seon-hwa, and Kang Seo-pyo had been facing saw that sight as well, because it quickly tried to kill the three and leave the area.
However, Dong-ryong’s relentless offensive did not allow it to shake him off.
Slash!
In the end, the whip of radiance extending from Jin So-un’s left arm wrapped around the monster’s neck.
-Keek!
The monster was dragged away like a beast caught in a trap, and soon its head was cut off.
Seeing the bone that had felt like steel when she struck it severed in an instant, Namgung Seon-hwa could not even gauge how much inner arts Jin So-un was pouring into fighting that monster.
“Young Master Jin.”
“Hah, hah, are you all right?”
As expected, he looked as though they should be the ones asking him whether he was all right.
“Young Master Jin, what exactly are you doing right now…….”
His face had turned pale, and all the veins in his body were swollen as though they would burst.
They were symptoms that appeared when one drew one’s inner arts up to the limit.
He had already passed far beyond the danger stage of Qi Deviation. If anything went even slightly wrong, he could become a cripple on the spot.
“don’t move anymore.”
Namgung Seon-hwa grabbed Jin So-un’s arm, but Jin So-un took her hand.
“I still have to move.”
“What do you mean, Young Master Jin?! If you move any more here, you really might die.”
“Fortunately, I have not used my Innate Energy yet.”
The corners of his mouth, forced into a smile, were trembling. The phrase “madman” that Seong Mo-ran had said several times suddenly came to mind.
“I have caught eight. Now I only have to catch eleven more.”
Namgung Seon-hwa spoke desperately.
“You will die if you keep doing this!”
Jin So-un let out a small breath. It seemed that only now had his breathing barely returned.
He looked steadily into Namgung Seon-hwa’s eyes and spoke.
“If I don’t move……. others will die.”
“…….”
“I don’t want to see that.”
The words, “Then what if you die?” circled around her lips, then were swallowed back down.
Before she could say anything else, Jin So-un continued with what he had to say.
“Please hold out a little longer. The examinees gathered here are also beginning to sense something strange because of them and are withdrawing little by little. The battlefield will soon clear.”
“…….”
“Lady Namgung…….”
The only thing she could say now was something that would ease his worries, even a little.
“……I understand. I am sorry. I could not be of any help.”
“That is not it……. Please make sure you stay alive.”
“……Pardon?”
Jin So-un gave a warm smile that one could not imagine seeing in the middle of a battlefield.
“I will be back soon.”
“…….”
The moment Namgung Seon-hwa tried to answer, Jin So-un kicked off the ground and threw himself into the darkness once again.
The light of the golden whip he held stretched along his path like a shooting star.
“Are you all right?”
“He said…… he would come back to me soon, did he not?”
Kang Seo-pyo tilted his head.
“……I don’t think that was what he meant…….”
“I clearly heard him. He said he would come back to me soon…….”
“……My lady, you seem tired. Please rest for a little while.”
“No. I truly am all right. I have recovered.”
For some reason, Namgung Seon-hwa felt as though half of her depleted inner arts had been filled again.