novelraw Chapter 133 : Chapter 133
Chapter 133 : Chapter 133
Chapter 133 Star of the Grasslands (1)
"Hiyah!"
With No-seok's shout, sixty horses shot forward like a gale. The horses, cutting through the wind, kicked up a cloud of dusty earth on the grasslands.
A total of one thousand Imperial soldiers participated in this subjugation. They were said to have split into five groups and were spreading out across the grasslands.
Sixty riders were a woefully insufficient number to face the entire thousand-strong subjugation force. Therefore, Jaun and the tribe's warriors decided to move as quickly as possible and focus on annihilating the commanders of each group.
The speed of the tribe's warriors, who used horsemanship of the highest caliber and drew upon the power of nature, was a level Jaun had never experienced before. Riding across the vast grasslands, Jaun felt as if he had become a gust of wind.
"First, we will join the Rock Tribe."
Confirming that No-seok had slightly altered their course, Jaun expanded his senses to their maximum. The energy of Jaun, who had surpassed the eighth star of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, filled the vast grasslands.
After sensing the flow of energy for a moment, Jaun opened his closed eyes and spoke.
"Let's move northeast first. I can feel a faint trace of blood qi from that direction."
From his galloping horse, No-seok turned his head to look at Jaun. Chun-wol raised her head and spoke to No-seok.
"Let's move as the Great Hero says. He is a man who has reached a realm virtually peerless even in the Central Plains."
No-seok, who had vaguely sensed the immense power Jaun possessed while spending the last few days with him, nodded his head.
"I will follow your lead. Please go first."
"If we ride for about two sijin, I think we will encounter the group with the blood qi. Then, I will take the lead."
As Jaun spurred his horse and raised his energy, the Mad Demon's Rotation Scripture enveloped his entire body.
When a small whirlwind wrapped around Jaun's body, the party felt the wind resistance that had been holding them back momentarily disappear. No-seok, who was staring at Jaun's back with surprised eyes, suddenly burst into a loud laugh.
"Hahahaha. Could it be, this is... The 'one who rules' nature is with us!"
As No-seok clenched his fist and raised it to the sky, a great cheer erupted from the mouths of the tribe's warriors riding behind him.
"Kase hu mata!"
"Kase hu mata!"
Although he could not understand what it meant, the heat contained in that cheer warmed Jaun's back.
"What are they saying?"
The bearded man, who could not even open his eyes properly because of the wind, stuck close behind Jaun and turned his head to Chun-wol.
"It means, 'With the chosen one.'"
"...Aha. It's true, one couldn't possess that level of power without being chosen by the heavens. Indeed, that's right."
The bearded man looked at Jaun's back with a reassured expression.
***
─ SLASH
"Aaaack!"
As the man's head flew into the air, a woman who had been watching the scene screamed her last.
The woman, who had been gritting her teeth and staring at the fallen man, picked up a short spear next to her with a resolute expression and charged toward the subjugation force.
"Dieeee!"
─ SPLAT
A fountain of blood erupted from the body of the woman who was charging toward the subjugation force.
"...Be careful. No blood should be wasted."
The man who was leading the Imperial Army from the very front with a delicate voice frowned and covered his nose with his sleeve.
"Disgusting."
A gold ornament dangled and swayed from the wrist of the man who turned his head to one side and walked forward.
It was a scene of one-sided slaughter.
The tribe's warriors, who had been blocking the advance of the Imperial Army by riding their horses at high speed and racing across the battlefield, collapsed as soon as the masters from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot were deployed.
The strategy the grassland people had used until now was a kind of war of attrition, using their superior horsemanship to create distance and counterattacking with traps and arrows set up in between.
In this kind of war of attrition, the most important thing was speed.
However, once proper masters from the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Eastern Depot joined, their only weapon, their speed, was rendered powerless.
Having instantly annihilated a tribe, the Imperial Army packed the corpses in waterproof cloths and sent them to the rear, then began to move toward their next prey.
"Why did you drag this out for so long when it's this easy?"
When the man with the delicate voice asked, one of the Imperial soldiers next to him bowed his head and answered.
"These are people who do not settle in one place but continuously move the land they stay on. They are difficult to find, and as soon as they spot a subjugation force, they flee immediately..."
"Then just chase them and kill them."
"The horsemanship of the Imperial Army cannot keep up with the horsemanship of the grassland people. Moreover, the land they live on is a vast grassland that amounts to one-third of the Central Plains. No matter how much we chase them, there is no end to it."
"Then you should have sent in proper martial artists from the start."
"For that, this northern grassland is too barren and vast compared to the Central Plains. To catch all the grassland people spread across this land, we would have to dispatch a large number of masters, but there is too little practical benefit in doing so."
"What? Does that mean you were just pretending to carry out subjugations all this time?"
"...Well, you could see it that way. In fact, the purpose of the subjugation force is not to take their land, but to reduce the number of warriors they have so they cannot covet the Central Plains. You can think of it as a passive subjugation having been carried out until now."
"I understand. So unless there was a special purpose like now, you just hunted them from time to time. Anyway, those Embroidered Uniform Guard bastards, they were always taking funds under the pretext of keeping the north in check, but in reality, they were just sitting around playing like this."
The man in military uniform answered the man with the delicate voice with silence.
"Where to next?"
"The scouts will find their location soon. Please rest for a while."
As he finished speaking, from ahead, half a dozen martial artists with gold ornaments on their wrists approached using a strange footwork that made them seem as if they were floating on air.
"Squad Leader Pyeon. There is another group of barbarians in the north."
The face of the man who answered with a slight bow of his head was finely powdered with white, which made the bloodstains scattered on it appear even more vivid.
Squad Leader Pyeon, looking down at the strange flush on the man's face, snorted and asked.
"...Do you guys find this fun?"
"It has been a while since I've seen blood... it is true that I am a little excited."
Squad Leader Pyeon frowned and shook his head from side to side.
"What's so fun about hunting these vulgar things?"
Squad Leader Pyeon, who let out a small sigh, turned his head and looked toward the Central Plains.
"Tsk. Let's finish this quickly and go back. I want to wash up in some warm water."
"Yes. We have filled half of the target number, so if you endure just a little longer, you will be able to return."
Squad Leader Pyeon, who was frowning and dusting off his body, suddenly turned his head.
"Hey, you said the other tribe was in the north?"
"Yes. They said another group was found in the north..."
"Then who are those guys?"
From the west, where Squad Leader Pyeon was pointing, a cloud of dusty earth was approaching them at high speed.
***
"One ilgak to go."
At Jaun's words, No-seok and Chun-wol nodded.
"Everyone, increase your speed and prepare. We will engage in battle soon."
The warriors of the Root Tribe spurred their horses and began to gallop faster.
Jaun, who was riding at the very front, straightened his back, took out the horn bow he had slung, and held it.
─ THWANG THWANG
Jaun, who naturally drew the empty bowstring a few times on horseback, took out an arrow and nocked it.
'The arrow isn't that sturdy, so the amount of demonic energy I can imbue is limited, but...'
As Jaun raised his energy, black demonic energy coated the arrow he was holding.
'Instead, if I use the path of the wind, I can produce sufficient power.'
Jaun gripped the horse's back tightly with his thighs and lifted his upper body.
In Jaun's eyes, the sight of the Imperial Army dragging corpses in the distance came into view.
'...As expected. There is someone who possesses blood qi.'
Jaun's expression hardened as he found traces of blood qi on the martial artist in embroidered clothes leading the group.
With a cold expression, Jaun held the horn bow forward, drew the bowstring with all his might, and slowly inhaled.
'Hoo.'
After a very brief moment passed.
─ TWANG!
Cutting through the grain of the blowing wind, Jaun's arrow was shot diagonally upwards.
The arrow, shot at the speed of lightning, instantly disappeared from sight.
The arrow, which flew up, cutting through the air with tremendous force, soon drew a parabola and began to fall downwards.
─ WHOOSH
The arrow, imbued with black demonic energy, began to spin rapidly and, with the wind at its back, accelerated and plunged toward the ground.
─ THWACK!
Jaun's arrow pierced through the head of the Embroidered Uniform Guard member leading the Imperial Army and then severed the knot of the waterproof cloth.
─ THUMP
As the waterproof cloth came undone and the corpses fell to the ground, the tribe's warriors behind Jaun all raised their bows in unison.
"Fire."
Following No-seok's command, more than fifty arrows covered the sky of the grasslands.
─ WHOOSH
─ WHIZ
The arrows that cut through the air soon rained down.
─ THUD
"Keuk."
"Aack!"
"W-what?"
"Ugh."
Except for the Embroidered Uniform Guard martial artists, the martial arts level of the Imperial soldiers was not very high, while in contrast, the warriors of the Root Tribe were exceptionally skilled at handling the power of nature.
Thus, the arrows that fell, imbued with the wind, instantly took the lives of the remaining Imperial soldiers.
"Gushing Stream of Water. Please recover the bodies of our comrades."
"Okay."
Seung-su, who nodded, led several tribe members and ran toward the corpses of the grassland people scattered on the ground.
"The ones at the back are masters of a different level from those we just faced. Follow carefully."
At Jaun's words, which he uttered while galloping toward the front, No-seok and Chun-wol both nodded their heads.
"We will go in first. Brother Sam-sik."
At Jaun's words, the bearded man nodded with a tense expression.
"Hiyah!"
As the bearded man shot forward, Jaun bent his waist, lowered his body, and followed behind him.
The bearded man, who had been riding at full speed for a while, took out a rope with stones tied to both ends from his waist.
─ THUDUDUDU
On the horse that was galloping forward at a tremendous speed, the bearded man took out the rope and began to swing it in circles above his head.
─ WHOOSH WHOOSH
"Die, all of you! You damned Blood Cult trash!"
[Frenzied Wind Thirteen Decisions, First Form: Rotation]
Seven martial artists with pale skin and small builds were visible ahead. The bearded man threw the rope at them with all his might.
─ WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH
The stones tied to both ends spread out to the left and right, and the long rope, receiving centrifugal force, began to rotate.
The rope, having left the bearded man's hand, spun like a giant wheel and shot toward the martial artists of the Eastern Depot.
The Eastern Depot martial artists, sensing the force contained in the thrown rope, turned their bodies with tense expressions.
"Be careful! He is no ordinary foe!"
The men, who had instantly formed a line, simultaneously stretched their hands forward. Seven white, slender hands pointed forward at the same time.
─ KIIING
As a strange noise was heard and a hazy force was shot forward, a dry energy began to spread from the body of the bearded man, who was watching the rope.
"Haaaaaap!"
─ BOOM BOOM
The bearded man, who was watching the flying rope, struck the air with both of his fists. A huge amount of energy shot forward and quickly followed behind the rotating rope.
As soon as the bearded man's fist strike reached the stones tied to the ends of the rope, the rope, imbued with that energy, stood up vertically and soared toward the sky.
─ WHOOSH
The rope, which had changed direction and narrowly missed the range of the force, fell back to the ground and aimed for the ankles of the Eastern Depot martial artists.
"W-what is this?"
The Eastern Depot martial artists, their eyes wide open in the utterly absurd situation, jumped into the air to avoid the rope flying toward their ankles. If they had been greedy and tried to cut it, and its trajectory had changed again, they would have been hopelessly entangled in the rope.
─ KRRRRR
Jaun, who did not miss that moment, drew his bowstring taut, and a thick demonic energy settled on the arrow.