novelraw Chapter 207 : The Sichuan Turmoil (3)
Chapter 207 : The Sichuan Turmoil (3)
Chapter 207: The Sichuan Turmoil (3)
The next day.
Just like the battle the previous day, the Tang Clan’s martial artists were intercepting the enemies of the Lee Trading Company and continuing their momentum of victory.
“Drive the enemies back!”
“They’re only tucking their tails and running away!”
“Wipe them out to the last man!”
“They will pay the price for daring to touch the Tang Clan!”
This day did not end with mere defense.
The Tang Clan’s forces went beyond secretly hiding and continuing ambushes, and even while openly revealing themselves, they poured forth an even more aggressive wave of attacks.
This time, they were not content with defense alone; by strengthening their offensive, they were clearly trying to drive the enemy forces completely beyond Sichuan.
Was that effort bearing fruit?
Tudadadada!
“R-retreat!”
“Damn it! Everyone, fall back for now!!”
Having suffered significant damage, the martial artists of the Kongtong Sect and the Lee Trading Company were abandoning the front lines even faster than the day before, fleeing in disorder.
Waaah!
At that unsightly scene, cheers celebrating victory erupted from all around.
Although to anyone’s eyes it seemed like they were achieving clear results.
‘……Something feels off.’
Unlike the excited reactions around him, the expression of the Supreme Clan Head, Tang Muyeol, was not bright at all.
Enemy corpses lay scattered everywhere, torn apart and mangled, yet he could not bring himself to feel convinced.
It felt as though the enemies were being pushed back far too easily compared to the day before.
Even though they were advancing openly, not a single trap had been sprung, nor had there been even one ambush.
Despite the battlefield being wide open on all sides, it was as if the enemy had no intention of counterattacking from the start.
Cheocheok.
[Supreme Clan Head.]
“……!”
At that moment, Jin Mubek’s voice transmission rang in his ears.
[Something about this omen feels ominous. The enemy’s movements are far too unnatural. Advancing further requires careful consideration.]
[……I was having the same concern just now.]
It was a moment of choosing one path.
However, with the allied forces cheering in triumph, it was not easy to make a decision.
If they continued the pursuit as it was, they could sweep away the fleeing enemies in one fell stroke and utterly crush them.
Yet despite that perfect opportunity, as Jin Mubek said, there was an indescribable chill and sense of foreboding.
As his deliberation continued.
“Everyone, halt the advance! We will pursue no further!”
“……!!”
“It is the Supreme Clan Head’s order. Everyone, stop advancing!”
Tang Muyeol’s decision was to halt the advance.
None of his subordinates understood it and they were left bewildered, but since it was Tang Muyeol’s command, they stopped nonetheless.
Then, they reorganized their formation, which had been thrown into disorder by focusing solely on pursuit.
Pasuseuk!
In an instant, all the troops who had openly revealed themselves hid their bodies within the surrounding terrain.
Yet doubt surfaced on everyone’s faces.
Watching the enemy figures growing ever more distant, they could not hide the regret of feeling as though they had let a fish that was already in their grasp slip away.
……However, their feelings were soon overturned completely.
Sswaeaek!
Without warning, a fierce shockwave sound tore through the sky.
“-!!”
“Evade……!!”
Tang Muyeol and Jin Mubek, the first to sense something amiss, shouted warnings of danger to the Tang Clan’s martial artists.
Kwa-rururung!
Kwagagaga!
But it was already too late, as if a meteor shower across the night sky, a cluster of golden stars suddenly flew into one area of the Tang Clan’s camp.
A vicious golden light covered the mountain slope.
Kwaaaang!!
With a thunderous explosion like a landslide, the ground shook violently.
There was not even time to scream.
It was a calamity as though dozens, hundreds of bolts of lightning had struck down at once.
“……!!”
“!!”
Those who belatedly grasped the situation could not utter a single word.
The greenery where the Tang Clan’s martial artists had been hiding—trees and bushes alike—had all burned away, revealing their bare surroundings.
And there, scattered about, were more than a dozen corpses burned pitch-black like charcoal.
There had been no time to even circulate protective qi, and the defensive spells that had activated automatically were utterly useless.
Tang Muyeol’s gaze shook violently.
‘……If we had continued the pursuit without dispersing our forces……!’
Had that attack rained down in the midst of a densely packed formation, a disaster incomparable to this would have occurred.
And then, at that moment.
From the very center of that tragedy.
“Heh heh. Now that I see it, the Tang Clan’s peerless talent isn’t poison-heartedness, but sharp intuition. To think you didn’t fall for this.”
A strange voice echoed out.
A tone full of mischief, completely unfitting for the situation.
Ssaaaah!
Kwagaga!
Along with that mocking laughter, a powerful presence suddenly covered the surroundings.
It was as if a single whirlwind was raging, and then abruptly, a man revealed himself.
It was the moment when the Golden Wave Dignitary Roh Gyeongmyeong finally showed himself.
Tang Muyeol and Jin Mubek let out involuntary groans.
Even after spreading their senses wide, they had not felt the slightest trace of his presence.
Yet the opponent had appeared while toying with them with absurd ease.
Cheocheok!
Cheocheocheok!
At the same time, the band of wanderers following Roh Gyeongmyeong also emerged from all directions.
It seemed they had been hiding everywhere, ready to swing lethal swords the moment the Tang Clan’s forces arrived.
Realizing they had nearly stepped through the gates of hell, cold sweat trickled down the backs of the Tang Clan members.
Soon after, the main force of the Lee Trading Company, which had fled in disorder and concealed itself, also returned.
And the one leading them at the front was none other than.
“Lee Jamyeong……!”
“Good to see you, Clan Head Tang.”
It was Lee Jamyeong himself, the master of the Lee Trading Company and the one who had started this war.
As the gazes of Tang Muyeol and Lee Jamyeong crossed in midair.
Jin Mubek and Myeongwolja stepped forward respectively, as if to guard each of them.
At that moment, Roh Gyeongmyeong clicked his tongue and spoke to Lee Jamyeong.
“Tsk. Clan Head Lee. What a waste of the net we laid out. We only caught some worthless minnows.”
“That is fine. All of those fellows will end up like that anyway. You can think of it as showing them in advance so they can prepare themselves.”
“……!”
“Heh heh, how merciful of you.”
At Roh Gyeongmyeong’s words, dismissing the slain Tang Clan martial artists as mere minnows, the expressions of Tang Muyeol and the Tang Clan members turned ice-cold.
And then it happened.
Step.
“Hoh?”
“……!”
Roh Gyeongmyeong reacted with apparent interest.
Without the slightest hesitation, Tang Muyeol and Jin Mubek stepped forward to the front lines.
Though they knew full well that they were no match for the Golden Wave Dignitary, they did not retreat.
“Heh heh, setting aside this old senior, Tang Muyeol, your courage is truly admirable, is it not?”
“Before a sworn mortal enemy, should someone who stands as an elder of the Tang Clan retreat?”
When Roh Gyeongmyeong mocked him, Tang Muyeol answered proudly.
However, Roh Gyeongmyeong did not find that sight amusing in the least.
‘Even so, he’s nothing more than someone at the Transformation Realm.’
The gap between the Manifestation Realm and the Transformation Realm was truly the difference between heaven and earth.
Roh Gyeongmyeong reached his hand behind his back.
Sreung!
A single spear reminiscent of Zhang Yide’s long serpent spear revealed itself.
The strike that had just collapsed the Tang Clan’s formation had originated from this divine spear.
Hoisting the drawn spear onto his shoulder, Golden Wave Dignitary Roh Gyeongmyeong curved his lips into a grin and secretly sent a voice transmission to Tang Muyeol.
[Instead of that, how about you try persuading me? If you pay a higher price, this body might very well switch sides.]
“…….”
Though it was a covert proposal to betray the client behind their back, Tang Muyeol did not so much as twitch as he opened his mouth in reply.
“If that had been your intention, you should not have laid a finger on a single brother of the Tang Clan.”
“……!”
Having never once considered that he would be refused, a look of genuine surprise surfaced in Roh Gyeongmyeong’s eyes for the first time.
But it lasted only a moment.
“Hahahaha, I heard you followed your son and walked the path of the unorthodox. Yet you still recite the grand words of chivalry.”
The smile faded from Roh Gyeongmyeong’s lips.
A horrifying killing intent began to scatter into the air.
Saaaa—
Kwaaaaaar!
Like a golden tide, the momentum raging from the spear tip engulfed the surroundings.
It was the overwhelming martial might of an absolute expert who had reached full mastery of the Manifestation Realm.
Sreung!
At the same time, Roh Gyeongmyeong firmly gripped the spear shaft with both hands.
“Well, if you insist on choosing punishment wine. There’s no need to stop you.”
Pabat!
Kicking off the ground, Roh Gyeongmyeong charged forward.
The earth beneath his step caved in deeply, as if struck by a falling meteor.
Sswaeaeaeak!
Dozens of rending air currents tore through space, releasing a shockwave sound that threatened to deafen the ears.
[Grand Elder Clan Head!]
[Understood!]
Jin Mubek dashed forward as well, hurriedly sending a voice transmission to Tang Muyeol.
It was a signal to launch a joint attack.
Tang Muyeol instinctively synchronized with the flow.
“Kuhahaha!!”
Pajijeuk!
At that very moment, Roh Gyeongmyeong’s spear blade, brimming with lightning qi, was descending upon Tang Muyeol.
With a momentum that threatened to cleave him cleanly in two—like a log split by an axe.
‘Hup!’
‘Wave Flame—!’
Sswaeak!
Hwaruruk!
Tang Muyeol twisted his body downward and released hidden weapons, while Jin Mubek raised his true qi and unleashed a wave of blazing flames.
Chwaaaaak!
The true martial arts unleashed by the three collided in midair.
Spear, flames, and hidden weapons clashed in a single point.
Kwaaaaaarrrrr!
Kwaaaang!
Yet the conclusion came far too swiftly.
The hidden weapons melted away without a trace under the lightning qi Roh Gyeongmyeong poured forth, and the flames were devoured entirely.
“-!”
‘So strong……!’
With just a single exchange, the gap in strength became painfully clear.
But even so, they could not give up, despair, and stop.
Hwiik!
Bending his waist like a drawn bow, Tang Muyeol sprayed a continuous volley of poisoned needles toward the exposed acupoints the enemy revealed.
At the same time, Jin Mubek scattered a palm strike imbued with scorching yang qi.
Yet Roh Gyeongmyeong merely twisted the corner of his mouth.
“With tricks this pathetic, is that why you were acting so arrogant?”
Tititing!
Pueong!
That familiar golden aura wrapped around the spear tip, blocking every last hidden weapon and trace of yang qi.
And it did not stop at neutralizing the attack.
Pasussss!
Spear strikes rained down in rapid succession like a torrential downpour, their trajectories invisible to the eye.
Kwaaaang!
Chwaaak!
“Kuh, uhk!”
“……!!”
A deep wound was carved into Tang Muyeol’s thigh, and another into Jin Mubek’s shoulder.
Even so, as they forced their bodies to move to fend off the relentless spear strikes, the ground became soaked with the blood they spilled.
“Come on, take this too!!”
Roh Gyeongmyeong’s spear traced a single arc through the air.
Sswaeak!
Kwaaaaar!!
Under that momentum, the ground split apart like drought-stricken farmland.
And after only a few exchanges—
Kwaaaang!
“……!!”
“Kugh!”
Tang Muyeol and Jin Mubek were sent flying at the same time, crashing miserably across the ground.
What was even more tragic was that Roh Gyeongmyeong had yet to use even half of his true strength.
‘Heh heh. Now then, how much longer should I toy with you before killing you?’
To a warrior of the Manifestation Realm, they were little more than insects to begin with.
“Hoo… huk.”
“C-come… on!”
Yet despite that, Tang Muyeol and Jin Mubek did not retreat.
The moment they did, the next sacrifices would undoubtedly be the Tang Clan’s martial artists.
While such a fierce battle was unfolding.
The gazes of Lee Jamyeong and Myeongwolja crossed as they observed the fight.
Though it was an amusing sight to see their allies toying with the enemy, they paid it no heed and instead discussed an entirely different plan.
[Everything prepared properly?]
[…Yes. The moment you give the order, the disciples will proceed immediately.]
[Good.]
The preparations naturally referred to the installation of Thunderburst Bombs.
Unbeknownst to them, Thunderburst Bombs had already been placed throughout this battlefield where the fight was raging.
[…However, Clan Head. Do you truly have no intention of changing your mind? If, by some chance, remnants of the Tang Clan or the Golden Wave Dignitary survive and spread this to the jianghu—]
[Myeongwolja.]
[…!]
[Do you truly believe there is a path left to return to?]
‘!!’
In the end, Myeongwolja lowered his head deeply.
Looking down at him with contempt.
‘I will kill them all.’
Lee Jamyeong reaffirmed the plan in his heart.