novelraw Chapter 192 : Battle of Pingguo County (2)
Chapter 192 : Battle of Pingguo County (2)
Chapter 192: Battle of Pingguo County (2)
Drip.
Dark crimson bloodstains had soaked into the ground.
The severed head of a terrified wanderer rolled away, tumbling out of sight.
Click.
“……Does that make it the seventeenth one.”
“Yes, regrettably.”
As Namgung Baek spoke while sheathing his sword, Do Yecheon nodded in response.
He then dragged over the two wanderers’ corpses and covered them with leaves to conceal them.
Do Yecheon slowly reached out and collected the Aechyae from the corners of the two corpses’ eyes.
“If it weren’t for these Aechyae, we could have taken down two or three times more.”
“…….”
Namgung Baek followed Do Yecheon and retrieved the Aechyae as well.
The sight of it looked extremely familiar.
And that was only natural.
Several days and nights had already passed since they had begun secretly infiltrating the enemy, eliminating them, and recovering their sorcery tools.
And naturally, the reason they were carrying out this mission in Pingguo County was because of Sewoon’s order.
Unlike the other companions, Do Yecheon—who had received a life-saving debt—did not doubt Sewoon’s command in the slightest and followed it immediately.
Do Yecheon quietly gazed at Namgung Baek’s back.
‘……But just what did Namgung junior discuss with the Tang Clan Head, to build trust comparable to mine?’
He knew that after the Namgung Clan withdrew from the Murim Alliance and eventually founded the White Path Union, Namgung Baek had separately sought out Sewoon.
He did not know what kind of conversation they had shared, but he had noticed that afterward, Namgung Baek’s trust in Sewoon had become just as firm as his own.
However, since Namgung Baek was someone who especially refrained from conversing with others even within the Jecheon Unit, Do Yecheon did not pry into the details.
‘……He’ll tell me himself someday.’
Thinking so, Do Yecheon fiddled with the necklace hanging around his neck and spoke softly.
“But this Ghost Sound Jade (鬼音玉) truly is astonishing no matter how much one uses it.”
“……I didn’t know the Captain had such deep knowledge of sound arts.”
“That’s exactly it. A treasure weapon that contains the power of sound arts within a necklace. I never would have imagined it.”
The treasure weapon that allowed them to use the voices of the dead when assassinating enemies was an item Sewoon had enclosed when he ordered the two to infiltrate.
At first, they had been flustered by the unfamiliar function, but the more they used it, the more chilling the power contained within the treasure weapon became.
‘To store the voice of the one killed, speak like the dead, and even appear as the person themselves.’
If the existence of such a rare item were to become known throughout the jianghu, even the assassins of the Gate of Assassins would undoubtedly come running barefoot.
The two began moving stealthily once more, suppressing even the sound of their footsteps.
Every night, they made the wanderers of the Heaven-Piercing Gang disappear in this manner.
The enemies’ morale steadily plummeted due to the continuous disappearances, but because the aftereffects of the spell formations spread so powerfully, they concluded that the missing ones had merely slipped or made mistakes and been dissolved into the formations.
However, there was another reason the wanderers kept silent.
Though they had gathered here, wanderers were, after all, thorough individualists.
Given the immense value of the sorcery tool known as Aechyae,
they suspected that a surviving comrade might have killed and looted the others.
But since they themselves often felt such greed, they did not bother turning it into a major issue.
Sewoon’s scheme, which had anticipated the wanderers’ psychology, worked perfectly.
And exploiting the gaps in the slackened vigilance created by eliminating the enemies, Do Yecheon and Namgung Baek dismantled the first spell formation spread beneath the mountain—the Nokyo Formation.
[Now there’s only one task left for us.]
[Yes. Only dismantling the Haehwa Formation remains.]
They were moving to destroy the core of the second spell formation, the Haehwa Formation, installed along the mountain’s mid-slope defenses.
The final formation installed at the very top required a martial artist of the Manifestation Realm to destroy it, making it impossible for just the two of them.
That was why Sewoon had assigned them the task of dismantling the Nokyo and Haehwa Formations, ordering them to prepare things so that the third formation could be destroyed immediately upon his arrival.
Crunch.
At that very moment, the two arrived at the area guarded by the wanderer unit protecting the core.
Nearly fifty wanderers were standing guard with utmost vigilance.
[Namgung Baek.]
[Yes.]
[Take the right side.]
Pabat!
With that brief exchange, the two men’s shadows vanished as if it were a lie.
Do Yecheon’s body twisted and sprang upward, lunging forward.
“W- wh—?!”
The wanderer standing guard at the very front could not even finish speaking.
Slash!
Slash-slash!
Along with a chilling slicing sound, Do Yecheon’s sword struck thirteen times in succession.
Without managing a single proper act of resistance, the wanderer was reduced to dozens of chunks of flesh that scattered across the ground.
Gk—!
Kuhk!
The screams of those who had suffered fatal wounds turned into shrieks, and those shrieks soon faded into silence.
Namgung Baek, however, moved differently.
He was colder than Do Yecheon.
One step forward.
He slit a throat.
Another step forward.
He thrust his sword into an abdomen.
Kwarururung!
Then the embedded sword released lightning energy, killing the enemies in a single decisive strike.
It was the Namgung sword—an efficient killing blade without the slightest excess.
“Kuh…!”
The corpses of the endlessly collapsing wanderers began piling up like a mountain.
“Aaaah!”
One wanderer, realizing the bloodshed, screamed in terror and tried to flee, but Namgung Baek’s eyes had already locked onto him.
Swish.
The sword cut through the air as it advanced.
Chwaaak!
“……!”
A diagonal slash ran from the chest to the shoulder.
Thud.
Drip-drip.
The fleeing wanderer’s body split apart like fragments and collapsed.
After some time had passed.
Silence settled over the surroundings.
There was not a single survivor anywhere.
Do Yecheon wiped the blood from his hands on his waist and asked,
“How long?”
“About one il-gak.”
“Faster than expected.”
“Yes. That location there appears to be where the core of the Haehwa Formation is.”
“Good. Let’s move immediately.”
The two advanced toward the place the wanderers had been guarding.
And the deeper they went inside—
Sssss—
Even the surrounding air changed.
‘That’s it!’
The formation core, disguised as an ordinary rock, revealed itself.
“Shall I do it?”
“No. You prepare the signal flare to inform the Captain of the dismantling. This horrific thing—”
Suaaah!
Do Yecheon paused mid-sentence as an ominous aura poured from his entire body.
From the tip of his sword, a deep plum blossom fragrance spread.
“I’ll dismantle it myself.”
Paaat!
The moment he finished speaking, Do Yecheon brought his sword straight down, as if lightning were striking from the sky.
Along the trajectory, blue plum blossoms embroidered the air.
Pajijijik—!
Kwaaang!
When the sword, imbued with tremendous power, struck the formation core, a massive explosion roared forth, as if dozens of firebombs had detonated simultaneously.
It was as if an earthquake had struck—the ground shook violently.
But the result was a success.
Pueoong!
Unable to withstand Do Yecheon’s sword force, the formation core shattered into pieces and was destroyed.
The barrier of the Haehwa Formation that had covered the sky disappeared cleanly.
“Good work. It looks like it was properly dismantled.”
“Good. Let’s fire the signal flare as well.”
“Yes.”
Namgung Baek took out the signal flare from his bosom, placed it on the ground so it would fly properly, and lit the fuse at its tail.
Piyung!
Pueong!
The signal flare soared into the sky and exploded, creating a vivid plume of red smoke.
It was the signal announcing that the Haehwa Formation had been dismantled.
The two lifted their heads at the same time and let out a breath.
Their role was now finished.
Seeing that red smoke, Sewoon would advance toward this place.
“Now we just need the Captain to arrive.”
“Yes. It ended more cleanly than expected. Now the enemies will come, so we should quickly clean up and—”
However, before Do Yecheon could finish speaking,
“Kheheh, you certainly took your time.”
“I was so bored I almost tore someone’s head off.”
“-!!”
“?!”
At the voice of an unknown person coming from behind them, both men froze.
They had sensed absolutely no presence whatsoever, and so they could not help but be horrified.
‘Who is it……!?’
The two turned their heads toward the source of the voice at the same time.
And there—
“Kihihi, nice to meet you.”
“You orthodox trash.”
A man stood there, his black robe fluttering.
Suaaah!
A thick stench of blood seeped outward, and a dreadful poisonous aura twisted even the surrounding energy.
The moment they saw him, the name of a great demonic figure—one Sewoon had once clashed with in a fierce battle—rose into their minds.
“Yelü Sheng……!”
“The Poison Demon.”
Namgung Baek and Do Yecheon clenched their teeth.
The fact that the Poison Demon had joined the Heaven-Piercing Gang had never been relayed to them.
The Poison Demon slowly trudged toward them.
“Kuhk, cough. P–Poison Demon-nim. Th–the poison aura is too strong, c–cough!”
At that, another man who had been hiding behind him was revealed.
Gongsun Beon, with bruises around his eyes, was unable to endure the poisonous aura and kept coughing violently.
That was right. Although the Heaven-Piercing Gang Leader An Cheongmyeong was believed to have been away on external affairs ever since the Poison Demon joined the Heaven-Piercing Gang,
he had actually moved here directly, hiding in the darkness and observing Namgung Baek and Do Yecheon’s actions.
“Kheheh, you may step aside now.”
“As I said, if you make any unnecessary contact with that fellow, I’ll cut off your lifeline immediately.”
“O–of course. Y–yes, yes.”
Gongsun Beon, his face drained of all color, scampered off to the side.
The Poison Demon’s gaze then poured back onto the two men.
“Good. Seeing that flame, the Tang Clan lot will be heading this way.”
“……!”
Crunch.
Namgung Baek’s hand tightened around his sword hilt.
Do Yecheon also steadied his breathing and slowly lowered his stance.
At that moment, the Poison Demon suddenly burst into mad laughter.
“Kuhahaha!! It’s been so long—truly, so very long!”
“Thanks to you lot, I’ll finally be able to reunite with my damn disciple!”
“……!”
‘Disciple?’
At those words, both of their eyes widened as if they would burst.
After Poison Commander Tang Eui-tae had left, there had only ever been one person in the Tang Clan with whom he had such a malignant tie.
‘The Captain……?’
‘That man’s disciple?’
But the light in their eyes quickly settled.
They had no intention of being shaken by such absurd words.
[There’s no way we can escape from his hands anyway.]
[Yes. It seems there’s only one option.]
Realizing through telepathy that their intentions aligned, the two launched themselves forward.
Paaat!
Two streaks of light were drawn across the air.
They had decided to resist the Poison Demon with their lives on the line.
Namgung Baek’s sword tore through the air as it flew forth.
Do Yecheon’s sword likewise split into dozens of branches, once again drawing plum blossoms.
Kuuung!
Kwaaang—!
A shockwave like an earthquake swept the surroundings, and a massive explosion erupted.
“Tsk.”
The Poison Demon tilted his head mockingly and snapped a single finger.
Tang!
Pang!
An incomparable pressure swept away one corner of space itself.
No—it was not even a proper martial technique.
It was merely condensed killing intent.
And yet—
“Kuhk, cough!”
“Kkeuk!”
Both of their bodies were flung away at the same time, rolling pitifully across the ground.
The Poison Demon staggered forward.
“Kheuheuh, is this all you’ve got?”
“With that, you can’t even compare to the tip of my disciple’s toe.”
Namgung Baek and Do Yecheon used their swords like canes to push themselves upright.
But they knew instinctively.
They could never defeat this man.
“Now then, I’ll tell you your role.”
“If one is to meet a disciple after a long time, a gift is required, is it not. So—”
Madness alone filled his eyes.
“Die first.”