Chapter 152. Trying to Row a Boat On Land (23)
A red veil appeared wherever Lightflash passed.
Coated in sword aura, the blade continued to move without pause, even after cleaving through all of the Blood Wolves who were running in all directions to recapture the prisoners. A cloud of blood cloaked the air.
“S-sword Control!”
“Agh!!!!”
As screams continued to wrack the air, the Blood Wolf Captain yelled, “Dismount!”
“Get off the horses!”
The horses had lost their minds due to Eun-Ah’s roar and were running wild in all directions, terrified. Rather than helping them in battle, they only served to make matters worse for the riders.
Eventually, the entire squadron dismounted.
The Blood Wolf Captain also dismounted, first throwing the girl he was holding to the side.
With her hands tied, and given the angle she was falling at, she would break her neck and die instantly.
Woo-Moon saw that and stretched out his hand.
The girl felt a soft energy envelop her body; she floated into the air and flew safely to the side.
Meanwhile, the screams of the dying Blood Wolves continued to fill the air.
Woo-Moon kicked off Eun-ah’s back and leaped in the air, swinging his sword sharply.
Sword aura rose like a tidal wave and hit the Blood Wolves below.
“Agh!!!!”
As if expressing Woo-Moon’s wrath, the sword aura didn’t just cleave through his opponents but completely destroyed them.
Some had their heads explode, a mush of bone and brain matter splashing everywhere, while others had their torsos torn open, blood and organs spilling over the ground.
The seven people at the very front simply disintegrated under the aura blade as it continued to kill the eleven behind them, then twenty more, and then another forty.
It was only after seventy-eight people had died that Woo-Moon’s aura blade cracked into smaller pieces, piercing yet another row of people before dissipating.
“A-ahh!!!! He’s a devil! A devil!!!”
In the blink of an eye, more than two hundred people had been slaughtered by Eun-Ah and Woo-Moon.
“That’s right. To bastards like you, I am a devil!”
With a wild cry, Woo-Moon kicked the ground forcefully, launching pebbles and shards of shattered rocks through the air.
Squelch, squelch!
The rocks pierced the eyes of those nearby, causing their heads to explode, then continued through to the ones behind them.
The brown wave of dust and rocks became a red wave, expanding in size as it swept through the Blood Wolves.
Eun-Ah bit into the waist of a Blood Wolf, snapping him in twain.
“AGH!!!!”
Clang!
A Blood Wolf screamed and slashed at Eun-Ah, but all his frantic attack did was cause his blade to dull against Eun-Ah’s steel-like hide.
Growl.
Eun-Ah swung her tail as if chasing away a pesky fly, but the Blood Wolf died instantly from the force of her blow. He flew through the air, landing on another Blood Wolf and crushing him underneath.
“Monster!”
With a shout, the Blood Wolf Captain struck down on Eun-Ah’s neck, his saber coated in aura.
Clang!!!!
‘What the hell! Are you saying even saber aura has no effect?’
It wasn’t just that his attack didn’t do any damage, but Eun-Ah didn’t even flinch. On the other hand, the captain’s entire body was shaking from the rebound, the webbing between his thumb and index finger torn and bleeding.
ROAR!
With a roar, Eun-Ah struck the Blood Wolf Captain with her claws, sharper than even the most famous of swords.
Although the Blood Wolf Captain made to move, knowing he had to dodge this blow, he flinched as the deafening roar washed over him.
It left him reeling and unable to move, forcing him to raise his aura-coated saber and try to block Eun-Ah’s claws.
“AGH!”
Fortunately, he was able to avoid being torn to shreds. However, he had been hit with such tremendous force that the impact sent him flying to the side like a rag doll.
“Cough, cough!”
What seemed like buckets of blood poured from his mouth as he looked up at Eun-Ah and Woo-Moon.
The originally four hundred strong squadron now had less than fifty men left. Everyone else was a corpse... if they were lucky. The unlucky ones were just a bunch of body parts spread across the plains.
‘Just who the hell... what the hell are these bastards? Not even an Absolute Master could do something like this!’
The Blood Wolf Squadron wasn’t just any random group of horse bandits.
If that had been the case, they would have never been able to join the ranks of the Cruel Sandstorm Riders. After all, the Cruel Sandstorm Riders themselves would never have been evaluated as one of the three major factions within the jianghu of the Central Plains by relying on a bunch of ragtag bandits.
Simply put, at their level, they wouldn’t have been defeated even if they faced one of the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice of the Justice Coalition head-on.
“Cough, cough... I... I have to tell them... even if I’m going to die, I have to go and tell them...”
There was a monster wearing a yaksha mask, a monster at the Absolute realm at the very least! Moreover, he was accompanied by a white tiger with tremendous strength, an Absolute Master in its own right!
Thinking that he had to inform the Cruel Sandstorm Riders and Martial Heaven of the two mysterious assailants, the Blood Wolf Captain used his movement technique to flee toward the main camp while his subordinates died to buy him time.
Suddenly, as he ran, a voice spoke to him from somewhere ahead.
“Brother, where might you be rushing?”
The flustered Blood Wolf Captain looked ahead to see Woo-Moon, who looked as though he had bathed in blood, standing there with his eyes shining coldly.
‘When did he....’
Woo-Moon had clearly been slaughtering his subordinates behind him just moments ago.
An ominous feeling rose within him as he turned around and saw Eun-Ah, who didn’t have even the slightest trace of blood on her fur despite the slaughter. She was slowly approaching him, her figure radiant under the moonlight.
Grrrr....
“W-Who are you, you bastard?! Just what the hell are you?! What sort of grudge do you have with us that you slaughter us like that?”
Woo-Moon was dumbfounded without fail every time he ran into this kind of situation.
These bastards attacked villages of innocent people, brutally murdered almost everyone, and kidnapped the rest, dragging them behind their horses. Yet it was precisely these bastards who talked about mercy and cruelty when it was their own time to die!
Woo-Moon pressed close to the Blood Wolf Captain and whispered in his ear, “My name is Song Woo-Moon.”
Squelch!
“Agh!!”
Pain and shock spread throughout the Blood Wolf Captain's entire body.
‘Song... Woo-Moon.’
Even he had heard of that name. Song Woo-Moon was the grandson of the Palm Martial Emperor and, along with the Palm Martial Emperor himself, had been a nuisance for Martial Heaven for quite a while.
But he had clearly heard that Woo-Moon and his grandfather had died at the Heavenly Demon Mound...
‘I have to inform them; I have to let them know—’
Squelch!
The Blood Wolf Captain's thoughts were interrupted by immense pain.
Woo-Moon's Inkblade had plunged into his stomach.
As soon as Woo-Moon pulled out his sword and stepped back, the Blood Wolf Captain's eyes darkened.
Crack!
Eun-Ah bit the Blood Wolf Captain by the torso and raised her head, shaking it mercilessly from side to side.
Thud!
The Blood Wolf Captain's lower body fell to the ground, and Eun-Ah roared and threw the upper body toward the moon.
ROAR!!!
Tap, tap.
As Woo-Moon walked through the plains littered with four hundred corpses, he suddenly pierced the right shoulders of two corpses lying on the ground.
“Ahh!”
“Agh!!!”
Two suppressed moans burst out, coming from two Blood Wolves who had pretended to be dead out of fear.
Woo-Moon's voice rang in their ears.
“Fuck off. I only spared you because you haven’t committed any mortal sins just yet.”
His voice was grave and gloomy.
He had thought that he could appease the spirits of his grandfather and Si-Hyeon by killing all of the dogs of Martial Heaven, regardless of who or what they were, but as it turned out, he truly couldn’t bring himself to kill indiscriminately.
He was angry at his own weak heart and was even more furious at himself because it felt like his inability to kill the two Blood Wolves meant that he didn’t really love his grandfather or Si-Hyeon as much as he thought he did.
“Piss off now! Before I change my mind!”
The two had been disciples of the Kunlun Sect. They had only joined the Blood Wolf Squadron after being caught by an elder monk while fooling around with the landlady of a hostel.
The two cowards quickly got up and ran away.
They didn’t want to stay in this place even for a moment longer. They knew that they would see this day in their nightmares for the rest of their lives.
It was their greatest luck that they still held on to some morals, as former disciples of the Righteous Path, and didn’t commit any murders or rape anyone.
Woo-Moon stood on the branch of a large tree and looked at the bloody battlefield around him, while Eun-Ah continued to roar at the sky.
He looked down at the corpses of the four hundred—or rather, three hundred ninety-eight bandits.
“Let’s see this to the end, Martial Heaven.”
Lightflash, which had been flying all over the place on its own so far, returned to Woo-Moon and sheathed itself as he stood on the tree branch.
With a flick of a finger, Samadhi True Flame fell on the nearest corpse. It then quickly spread and covered the corpses and body parts lying on the plains.
Eun-Ah's roar continued to echo through the smoke rising into the sky.
***
“B... bleergh!!!!”
Princess Mok Yong, who had run with all her might to reach the battlefield, ended up losing the entire contents of her stomach in front of the ashes and remains that stank of death.
“Didn’t I tell you not to follow me?” said Formless Flying Sword, her words tinged with a scolding tone.
She was able to speak like this to a direct descendant of the emperor due to her history of protecting her and her unique position as an Absolute Master.
“B-but what am I supposed to do when I wanted to see him?”
Princess Mok Yong couldn’t maintain her usual arrogant expression or dignity. She was acting foolishly as if she was some common girl staring wistfully from a window.
‘Who could have known he would be this cruel?’
Upon hearing that Woo-Moon was engaging in battle with the Blood Wolf Squadron of the Cruel Sandstorm Riders, Formless Flying Sword and the Saber Emperor had offered to visit the scene of the battle and report to her. However, the princess had refused to stay back and followed them here despite their efforts to dissuade her.
“To think he killed these four hundred people alone... how impressive. Moreover, in such a short time, too....”
Judging by how the corpses were distributed, it was clear they hadn’t run away... or rather, that they were unable to run away. This meant that they were killed in a ridiculously short time.
As an Absolute Master, Yoon Ha-Rin knew that she could have also killed all of these bandits by herself. However, she definitely wouldn’t have been able to do it this quickly.
“It only took him that long because he took his time. He wanted to vent his anger, to force them into fear and despair,” the Saber Emperor said from the side.
“Pardon?” Princess Mok Yong asked in surprise.
Jeong Yi-Moon was an Absolute Master. Moreover, he was one of the treasures of the Imperial Palace and wasn’t someone she could treat carelessly. If he said something, then that was the truth.
Still... even if it came from the famed Saber Emperor, Princess Mok Yong found it hard to believe.
It was already hard enough to believe that Woo-Moon killed all of these people by himself, even after seeing the aftermath with her own eyes, but to think he had purposefully slowed down....
“How can one person possess so much power?”
Of course, she already knew that Woo-Moon was strong—that was why she had asked him to kill the Regional Military Commissioner and the Imperial Regalia Seal-Holding Eunuch Director.
But this... this was absurd.
‘Considering his strength, forget assassinating the imperial government; even if he were just to fight our armies head-on, he could just...’
***
Two days passed, but there was no movement within the Cruel Sandstorm Riders.
It was now the day that Woo-Moon had decided to leave for the North Sea Ice Palace. Right as he was about to leave, Princess Mok Yong's hidden guard came again.
“We’ve discovered more movement from their camp. This time, it’s the fifth-strongest group of the Cruel Sandstorm Riders, the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion. They have roughly a thousand members. Would you like me to take you to them?”
This time, they were moving in the day, not night. The last time the Cruel Sandstorm Riders had sent a force, they had moved at night. But this time, for some reason, they were making their moves during the day.
‘Is it because they trust their own power? Fine, I’ll crush that confidence.’
In Woo-Moon's opinion, this was his last chance to reduce the Cruel Sandstorm Riders' forces.
More experts would definitely emerge after this attack, and their forces would likely include an Absolute Master or possibly one of the Paragons he had met last time.
Woo-Moon might end up being discovered if that were to happen, or worse, fall into danger.
‘At the very least, neither of the Paragons should be in this detachment. After all, the weight of one’s ass matches the size of one’s confidence.’[1]
“Please lead the way.”
Woo-Moon followed the guard and stood alone at the location where the government spies had predicted the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion would eventually get to.
The hidden guard named Cho Yeon had left immediately after guiding him, leaving Woo-Moon standing on Eun-Ah’s back with the yaksha mask on, waiting for the battalion to arrive.
At that time, a child who looked to be about thirteen passed by Woo-Moon and walked forward in the direction from which the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion was coming.
“Kid, it’s going to be dangerous, so run away from here.”
The child only looked back at Woo-Moon and smiled once. However, he didn’t run away; rather, he just stopped in place.
‘Something is coming.’
Sensing the coming force, Woo-Moon simply ignored the child.
THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD!
A thousand Great Desert Black Demons came galloping from afar, causing the earth to shake.
Suddenly, Nu Jin-Cheol, the leader of the Great Desert Black Demon Battalion, saw a white tiger standing in the distance, with someone riding it.
1. A funny little idiom: the more one’s self-importance increases, the less likely they are to make an effort when they aren’t forced to. ☜