novelraw Chapter 181 : Attack (1)
Chapter 181 : Attack (1)
Chapter 181: Attack (1)
“Don’t you think this isn’t right, since it’s Bi Ik-ryeon?”
“Th… that… n-no.”
Seo Ryeom denied Mak Ya-wol’s words as he approached from the side.
“Are you really going to follow the Sword Union?”
“Yes. When have you ever seen me joke around, Captain? No—former Captain.”
Though the Rat Beastkin standing beside them had seen Mak Ya-wol joke around more than a few times, Mak Ya-wol didn’t bother to refute him.
They had been together for a long time, and he knew. Right now, Seo Ryeom was immensely disappointed.
‘Of course he must have lost heart when he heard they’d be facing Bi Ik-ryeon.’
The expectations that had soared high must have suddenly collapsed. Seeing Seo Ryeom flustered like that, Mak Ya-wol couldn’t help but smile.
“Sword Union, let’s stick together for a while.”
Rather than worrying about how Jang Woo-hyun would act from here on, Mak Ya-wol was more curious about how the disappointed Seo Ryeom would change.
“Moving together might be a bit difficult.”
“What? You’re planning to bring them along too?”
Cho-su and the Wind-Passing Great Sage spoke at the same time.
“We don’t have enough people. Monkey, didn’t you say you can’t even use something like a Clone Technique?”
“Why do you keep bringing up clones?”
“The Great Sage Equal to Heaven uses clones, doesn’t he?”
“You mean the youngest? How do you know the youngest?”
“There are stories going around, right? That he can use clones. Can’t you do something like that? If you’re not going to help, then just go back. You’re always just lying down anyway.”
“I told you, I don’t fight small fry.”
“Then go lie down. This is my problem.”
After brushing off the troublesome Wind-Passing Great Sage, Jang Woo-hyun asked Cho-su what exactly his concern was.
“The ship’s too small. We can’t fit everyone. There are more than thirty of them.”
“We have a flying apparatus too. Mak Ya-wol! Machinist!”
“Cho-su. With what you’ve got, you won’t be able to keep up.”
“Don’t worry. What we’ve got is pretty high-performance.”
Cho-su pointed at the ship he had modified.
“That’s a giant’s ship from the Land of Giants. I remodeled it.”
“A giant’s ship….”
“Oh! Is that the one made from Dry Wood? Captain—no, former Captain. That thing isn’t ordinary. I heard it can even leap across short distances in space, making it completely incomparable to normal flying artifacts.”
Seo Ryeom’s stiff expression brightened a little after learning the identity of the winged ship.
“So the problem with traveling together is transportation?”
Since Jang Woo-hyun had already made the decision, none of the group opposed going with the Fighting Ghost Unit. And no matter how battle-crazed those men were, they couldn’t possibly be worse than the Wind-Passing Great Sage.
‘He’s even been getting along with monsters without much trouble. What could possibly go wrong?’
That was everyone’s thought.
“The ship’s big, so if we squeeze in, everyone might fit. But it’ll be too cramped. We’ll need to think of a way.”
At Cho-su’s words, Jang Woo-hyun rummaged through the Inner Robe as if something had come to mind.
“Couldn’t we use this?”
What he pulled out were two cores of the Mokryeong Tribe.
“Where the hell did you get those?”
“One I took after dealing with a cultivator. The other was given as a gift.”
“The Mokryeong Tribe gave you a core as a gift?”
Since it was extremely rare for a living Mokryeong to hand over its core, Cho-su was shocked. But Jang Woo-hyun only nodded calmly, as if it were nothing.
Seeing that composed demeanor, Cho-su’s surprise quickly faded.
‘Right. This guy’s always been like this.’
Jang Woo-hyun always seemed to casually produce rare and peculiar objects. With a resigned “Ah, that’s just like you,” Cho-su accepted it.
“With these, I heard you can even revive dead trees. Since the ship is made of Dry Wood, won’t it help?”
“With enough time, I might be able to remodel it into something. But not right away. And even then, it might not be possible with just those. For now, we’ll just have to squeeze in.”
Since the ship was originally a giant’s, it was already quite spacious.
Adding Jang Woo-hyun’s group to the thirty-four men of the Fighting Ghost Unit—they could manage to cram in about forty people total.
“Well, nothing we can do then.”
Jang Woo-hyun walked over to the giant’s ship and nudged the Wind-Passing Great Sage, who was lying on the floor.
“Monkey, get up. Others need to ride too.”
“…What do you take me for?”
“You? A monkey beast.”
“…”
“Hurry up and move. Others need space too.”
At Jang Woo-hyun’s casual attitude toward him, the Wind-Passing Great Sage scratched his head and went sulking to the corner.
When Maeng Ye-ju first saw him, he had seemed like a god. But now, faced with his current behavior, she still hadn’t fully adjusted.
‘At this point, isn’t he just a monkey Beastkin?’
Leaving her doubt behind, their group of six grew to exactly forty with the addition of thirty-four members of the Baekmu Society’s Fighting Ghost Unit.
When they first heard they’d be facing Bi Ik-ryeon, Seo Ryeom and the warriors of the Fighting Ghost Unit couldn’t hide their disappointment.
But after half a month of pursuit, on the day they stormed Bi Ik-ryeon’s Floating Stronghold, their opinion changed completely.
“You filthy bastards!”
“Die!”
Those who usually refrained from killing unless absolutely necessary were now running wild.
Seo Ryeom hacked the bandits into pieces, while Mak Ya-wol swung his scythe with enemies still hooked on it, bursting them apart.
And it wasn’t just them. Every warrior of the Fighting Ghost Unit was frenzied, turning Bi Ik-ryeon into mangled flesh.
Inside the Floating Stronghold they had pursued, Beastkin had been imprisoned. Only then did the Fighting Ghost Unit finally understand what Bi Ik-ryeon had been doing to them.
“What the hell are you doing to children, you bastards!”
A warrior wielding a crescent blade crushed his enemy’s limbs with the flat of the weapon instead of its edge.
“Gyaaah!”
“Spare me!”
Screams filled the Floating Stronghold as the bandits begged for mercy, but the Fighting Ghost Unit showed no hesitation.
They had seen Bi Ik-ryeon’s atrocities with their own eyes and were furious.
After witnessing what had been done to children and powerless Beastkin, they completely lost control.
The Baekmu Society was a group that loved fighting and sought strength.
But they didn’t fight just anyone. Since their pursuit was strength, they only battled those considered strong.
Ordinary people, or those who had never trained in martial arts, were not part of their concern.
Though few in number, some of them did feel a sense of responsibility to protect the weak. Yet not one of them believed it was acceptable to exploit or kill the powerless as they pleased.
They only knew how to fight and couldn’t do anything else, so they considered ordinary people who allowed them to live their daily lives to be important.
And in their eyes, Bi Ik-ryeon was kidnapping Beastkin and committing cruel acts against them. Adults, children, women, the elderly—none were spared.
Naturally, the Fighting Ghost Unit could not help but be enraged.
The Floating Stronghold they arrived at was one of the Twelve Strongholds of Bi Ik-ryeon. Though one of Bi Ik-ryeon’s Twelve Powerhouses resided there, he could not stop the enraged Fighting Ghost Unit.
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
The massive Floating Stronghold shattered and fell.
From then on, everything went smoothly.
Having witnessed Bi Ik-ryeon’s atrocities, the Fighting Ghost Unit’s blood boiled, and they urged Jang Woo-hyun to go capture them.
It was no longer a matter of strength or fun. To the Fighting Ghost Unit, Bi Ik-ryeon had become trash that needed to be erased from this world.
The Fighting Ghost Unit did not forgive Bi Ik-ryeon. The group kept moving without rest.
During this time, they heard news of Dan Hong through Maeng Ye-ju.
“The Elder has already destroyed two Floating Strongholds.”
That news became the spark. The Fighting Ghost Unit refused to fall behind, demanding faster movement and more battles.
Before long, their initial dissatisfaction disappeared, and they were following Jang Woo-hyun. For the first time in a while, they were fighting not for amusement but for meaning.
Tracking with artifacts Cho-su had crafted, traveling on the giant’s ship, they destroyed every Bi Ik-ryeon they came across. Jang Woo-hyun’s group was sweeping Bi Ik-ryeon from the Central Heavens Martial Realm.
When the number of destroyed Bi Ik-ryeon ships reached the triple digits—
The group finally encountered the leader of Bi Ik-ryeon.
“It’s enormous.”
Jin Ha-un’s brief remark spoke for everyone.
At the place they reached after leaping through space, they saw an immense Floating Stronghold.
A massive structure that naturally made one wonder how it could move.
If all the Floating Strongholds they had seen so far were “fortresses” that flew, then what they saw before them now was like a towering “mountain.”
The Floating Stronghold showed no particular reaction. From Bi Ik-ryeon’s perspective, it was probably just a single small ship, hardly worth notice.
“Monkey, let’s go.”
Jang Woo-hyun grabbed the scruff of the Wind-Passing Great Sage.
With more people aboard and less space, the Wind-Passing Great Sage had shrunk his body and lay sprawled on the deck.
When Jang Woo-hyun tossed the shrunken sage into the air, he gradually expanded.
Returning to his original size, the Wind-Passing Great Sage revealed his presence.
A fierce and sharp aura filled the surroundings. Those inside the distant Floating Stronghold, too, finally sensed the disturbance and grew restless.
Before they could prepare anything, the Wind-Passing Great Sage kicked off the air and charged.
Kwa-ru-ru-rung!
A massive barrier covering the entire stronghold briefly appeared, then shattered. It was a protective shield, but the Wind-Passing Great Sage tore through it with brute force and entered.
Almost simultaneously, a gaping hole opened in one side of the Floating Stronghold’s wall.
“Let’s go.”
Following after him, the rest of the group also kicked off the air and headed into the Floating Stronghold.
Mak Ya-wol was the first to swing his chain-scythe wide.
The massive strike, as if to cleave a mountain, targeted the Floating Stronghold. With a thunderous roar, the enormous fortress trembled.
Then everyone leapt through the hole the Wind-Passing Great Sage had made.
“A melee.”
“Yes!”
“Form up!”
At Mak Ya-wol’s words, the Fighting Ghost Unit split into groups of four.
Since battles were not always one-on-one, they had multiple formations prepared.
Front guard, flanks, and rear. In chaotic melees, the four-man formation that covered all directions was the most effective. Having trained together for years, the Fighting Ghost Unit swiftly arranged themselves.
“Attack!”
At Seo Ryeom’s command, the Fighting Ghost Unit scattered in groups of four. Within this place, they would annihilate everyone they met.
While the Fighting Ghost Unit moved according to their style, Jang Woo-hyun followed the Wind-Passing Great Sage.
All around lay shattered debris and torn corpses. The Wind-Passing Great Sage had left clear traces, making him easy to follow.
Kwa-gwa-gwang! Kwa-gwang!
Hearing explosions ahead, Jang Woo-hyun quickened his pace.
Arriving swiftly at a broad corridor, they found ten martial artists waiting with weapons in hand.
‘Clumsy Transcendence Realm.’
They were ones who had forcefully raised their realm using the Divine Beast King’s power extracted from Beastkin blood. Their number was not small, but they were no longer opponents for Jang Woo-hyun.
And besides, he wasn’t alone.
The Wind-Passing Great Sage vanished, replaced by a gust that filled the corridor. Five Transcendence Realm warriors were shredded without even moving.
On the other side, a single line was drawn through the air.
As Jang Woo-hyun passed by in a streak of blinding light, five severed heads flew upward.
The Wind-Passing Great Sage took the five on the left, Jang Woo-hyun the five on the right.
When the two met in the center, only ten corpses remained.
“Try keeping pace with me.”
Mak Ya-wol and Seo Ryeom landed beside Jang Woo-hyun and the Wind-Passing Great Sage.
“What about the others? Why is it only you two here?”
“Don’t worry. This is our way. Besides, we’ve got something to take care of.”
Rather than worrying about their subordinates, Mak Ya-wol and Seo Ryeom’s task was to eliminate the dangerous strong ones.
“Enemies!”
“Block them!”
“Who goes there!”
At Mak Ya-wol’s words, Bi Ik-ryeon warriors came rushing from the far end of the corridor.
But they soon halted at a distance. Their numbers split in half, and out stepped a man holding a crimson spear. The eyes of Jang Woo-hyun’s group lit up when they saw him.
“Bi Ik-ryeon’s Red Dragon God—urk!”
Before he could even finish his words, Mak Ya-wol’s chain-scythe smashed his spear shaft and pierced his chest. Jang Woo-hyun’s sword split his upper and lower body, and the Wind-Passing Great Sage ripped out his spine by the neck.
The last to move, Seo Ryeom, swung his sword swiftly, reducing what remained into pieces that fell to the floor.
Overwhelming might. The Bi Ik-ryeon warriors who had been shouting now fell silent before the four men’s power. None dared to move.
The one just dismembered had been one of Bi Ik-ryeon’s Twelve, the Dragon. Yet he had died without even managing a proper defense, let alone an attack.
“Keep some order, will you?”
“I struck first.”
“What are you talking about? I was the one who grabbed his neck.”
“Didn’t you see my weapon pierce his chest first?”
Silence fell over the corridor.
Only the voices of the Wind-Passing Great Sage and Mak Ya-wol echoed.