Chapter 243: Into the Blades
The Divine Maiden of the Demon Cult, who was the granddaughter of the Heavenly Demon and had protected the White Fla, was returning to her holand.
To be precise, only a single palm, burning crimson, had returned.
“Since we’ve co quite deep, be careful of contact with Demon Cult mbers from here on.”
At Captain Jang Jin’s advice, we pulled our black hoods down low.
Disguised and dressed to imitate the Dark Command Unit, we—the Murim Alliance Rescue Team—were walking through the Demon Cult’s territory.
It was then, as we were swiftly traversing the rugged mountain path—
Cha-cha-chang—!
“Kraaagh—!”
From afar, the fierce and desperate echoes of battle began to reach us.
The mont he realized combat had broken out ahead, Captain Jang Jin climbed to higher ground and scouted the scene beyond.
He relayed what he saw directly to us.
“Oh! It’s the group we were searching for—Jeok Unyeop! I can also see Young Lady Murong Cheonghye, Young Lady Tang Yeo-hye, and Young Master Namgung Jin!”
All along the way, I had been worried they might have been captured and suffering—or worse, already cold corpses. Hearing that they were safe, we let out a sigh of relief.
“Orabeoni… thank goodness.”
But that relief lasted only a mont. Jang Jin’s next words tightened us again.
“However, the situation is extrely dire…! Damn it, they’re already completely surrounded by the Dark Command Unit!”
Encircled without a single gap, they were being attacked from all directions.
The four of them stood back-to-back, barely holding on—but among the enemies were quite a few experts, so it was only a matter of ti before they collapsed.
“Then we have to hurry and help them!”
At the ntion that her brother’s life was in danger, Namgung Sohye jumped up, demanding why we weren’t rushing over imdiately.
“Pull yourself together. I said the encirclent is already complete. Jumping in there will only increase the number of corpses from four to eight.”
If they were still being chased, we could’ve joined them and attempted a breakout together. But now, with their escape halted and fully surrounded, it would be nothing more than smashing a few extra eggs against a rock.
“Die! You bastards—!”
From afar ca the fierce, desperate echoes of battle. Tang Yeo-hye’s sharp voice carried along the mountain path.
Even with death looming before her eyes, that small woman was mustering courage and facing the enemy head-on.
Hearing it, sothing stirred within as well.
Cha-cha-chang—!
“Keugh! What are you all doing! Tear the Evil-Slaying Demoness apart!”
And this was also an emotion that stirred the Murong Cheongjin within .
Though he had resented and mourned, it seed he still couldn’t tolerate seeing his own elder sister torn apart before his eyes.
“The enemy… at least three hundred. I can sense many at Peak Master Level or above. If we enter, there’s a high chance we’ll die without even rescuing them.”
Even if we miraculously cut them all down, ti would be lost, and our position would be exposed. A net like the Celestial Net would tighten around us.
We would either burn to death in an instant—
Or be forced into a war of attrition, fighting desperately as we slowly died.
That was the judgnt of the Captain of the Chivalrous Unit, drawn from experience.
“So you’re saying we ca all this way just to retreat?”
“So we’re just going to leave them like that?!”
Namgung Sohye and I shouted at the sa ti.
As our voices overlapped, she looked at in surprise, while Jo Harang beside nodded as if she had expected it.
“Yeah, Mujin—I knew you’d say that.”
Eliminate evil and save the good. Even if it ant diving into certain death—that was my way.
She looked at warmly, as if acknowledging as the Purple Tenuity Star.
At that, Jang Jin looked between us in disbelief and spoke.
“No, why am I the bad one here…? I’m just stating the situation. I also ca here fully prepared!”
He had gathered his courage to volunteer, yet caught between us lunatics, he was now being treated like a coward—he looked quite wronged.
“Then let’s charge into the battlefield and lend our blades.”
So I pushed him once more. Jang Jin was a Transcendence-level martial artist who had seen countless battles. In this situation, even one more blade mattered.
“Uh… well, that is…”
He looked toward the Demon-Slaying Unit, being ground down in a wheel battle.
In truth, that was the normal reaction—like Orabeoni’s—or anyone not driven mad by stars. Thoughts like inefficiency and aningless death must have been circling his mind.
So, as soone with a star lodged in my head, I personally awakened him.
“Captain Jang Jin, are you afraid? If so, you can go back alone.”
A word that could summon boundless courage in a man—‘scared?’
My provocation hit its mark perfectly. His uneasy expression twisted instantly.
“Are you joking? Even when Blood Cult followers sward, I never retreated! What are you all doing—move! We must lend our strength!”
At the words we had been waiting for, Namgung Sohye and Jo Harang grinned.
Jo Harang patted my shoulder approvingly.
“The Evil-Slaying Demoness, Tang Yeo-hye, Namgung Jin, and even Captain Jeok Unyeop—none of them are people ant to die here!”
Muttering that, she drew her massive great blade, as if it could split a log in one strike.
“Orabeoni! Namgung Sohye is coming!”
The first to dash forward was Namgung Sohye.
We suppressed our presence and infiltrated the rear of the chaotic enemy ranks—then struck them down like a hamr in one blow.
KWAANG!
Wrapped in overwhelming Qi Projection, the Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff slamd into the center of the enemy formation.
“Unni!”
At the sight of my blood-covered sister, I shouted without thinking.
There was a saying—Mountain of Blades, Forest of Swords.
It referred to a place where blades filled the surroundings—a taphor for extre danger.
Usually, it described the perilous state of the Central Plains.
But at this mont, it felt as though the entire mountain had turned into blades, pouring down upon us.
“Huff—enemy from the rear!”
“Central Plains! It’s those Central Plains bastards!”
“Rip those dogs apart too!”
Cha-cha-chang!
Blades stabbed and slashed from all directions.
Normally, with only two arms and two legs, one would be helpless in such a situation.
But we were masters who could wield Qi Projection and shatter weapons.
Shraaaak—!
“Aaagh!”
“Keugh!”
Namgung Sohye’s Boundless Sky Sword Technique swept through the enemies like a gust of wind.
Crimson killing intent and blue trajectories surged as she harvested death. Wherever she passed like a ray of light, Dark Command Unit mbers were flung away, scattering blood and screams.
“Hup!”
KWAANG!
At the forefront, like a single war chariot, Jo Harang of the Purple Tenuity Star carved through enemies in chunks with her great blade.
Swords and spears rose to block her—but before the overwhelming mass and blade flux that split steel like tofu, they were helplessly torn apart.
“What are you doing! Tear those bastards apart!”
As her massive blade split the battlefield like a mountain, a Dark Command Unit Leader scread wildly from the center.
anwhile, I swung my long staff in a frenzy, clearing a path toward Murong Cheonghye’s group.
Tak-tak-tak! Pupupupuk!
The essence of Hwang Geolgae’s technique—Dog-Beating Staff Technique—striking like beating a mad dog. My staff, wrapped in pure white Qi Projection, smashed into chests and shoulders, sweeping through enemies.
The mont it touched them, blades shattered and spearheads snapped, and the enemy ranks were swept away before our storm-like advance.
After fighting with everything we had, we finally ca face-to-face with Murong Cheonghye’s group.
“…Unni!”
At my urgent cry, the two won turned simultaneously.
“M-Mujin?! Why are you here!?”
“Hey, you crazy bastard! Do you even know where this is?!”
Their eyes widened in shock.
No—not even a thank you after I ca all the way into this death trap to save them. Both were furious, asking what the hell I was doing.
“Seriously, you could at least say thank you!”
Crack!
I shifted the balance of my staff and smashed the chest of a black-clad enemy rushing from the opposite side.
“When your sworn younger sibling cos here to die, who would welco that…!”
Tang Yeo-hye growled, her poison-trained claws extending as she faced the enemies.
Her temper was as fierce as ever. The presence and aura emanating from her small body seed to dominate the battlefield.
“Captain of the Demon-Slaying Unit—good to see you alive!”
Jang Jin joined the blood-soaked Jeok Unyeop, deflecting incoming weapons.
“Captain Jang Jin… I never thought a coward like you would co this far. The sun must rise in the west tomorrow…!”
Jeok Unyeop joked, both pleased and incredulous.
“Ahem! Call it rational, not cowardly!”
The two captains fought side by side, tearing apart Demon Cult mbers from all directions.
“Orabeoni! Orabeoni! Namgung Sohye is here!”
The Namgung siblings were finally reunited in the heart of the battlefield.
After swiftly killing a Demon Cult mber, Namgung Sohye ran toward Namgung Jin with a bright, blood-stained smile.
“You crazy girl—why are you here?!”
Namgung Jin was horrified at the sight of his younger sister.
“Why? I ca to save you, Orabeoni!”
It seed when people cared like family, their first reaction was to ask why you ca.
But then—
Why had Murong Cheonghye looked at with such sorrow earlier?
She shouldn’t even know who I was.
“You Central Plains rats…! Good. Since you’ve gathered in one place, I’ll wipe you all out at once!”
Seeing us regain montum with reinforcents, the Dark Command Unit Leader roared in fury.
At his command, the Dark Command Unit regrouped like fanatics burning with vengeance.
Blood flowed like rivers across the mountain, severed limbs and corpses scattered everywhere—it looked like a painting of hell.
The survivors, drenched in blood, glared at each other as if to kill.
“No… I’ll let a few of you live. I’ll leave you barely alive, so you can beco the spark of the Great War Between Orthodox and Demonic Factions!”
This hell would spread across the Central Plains.
That was the will of the new Cult Leader of the Ming Cult—the Heavenly Demon.
“This is bad.”
We now had one more reason to survive.
If the world turned into a battlefield, the Blood Cult would also expand amid the chaos and take root in the Central Plains.
The fragile peace would shatter, and without the Heaven-Slaying Star, evil would run rampant.
‘Good… you said you’d take responsibility… didn’t you?’
As if knowing I had rejected the fate of the Heaven-Slaying Star yet still felt so responsibility, the Salseongi flicked its finger and smirked.
“Dan Mujin, it’s been a while.”
Namgung Jin’s voice sounded beside .
Even covered in blood, his jade-like face shone. The perfect hero of this era smiled at .
“It seems we always et at desperate monts, standing against evil.”
I gave a bitter smile at how much he seed to enjoy this situation.
That guy really wasn’t right in the head either.
“Namgung Jin, if we fall here fighting bravely in enemy lines… soone will rember us and spread our tale as heroes, right?”
If one had a heroic end, shouldn’t there be a fitting legacy?
But I quickly realized I had chosen the wrong person to ask.
“That would be difficult. Very few know of our actions, and even those will be classified. It will be a righteous, but lonely death.”
“….”
Normally, at tis like this, people at least told comforting lies—that the entire Central Plains would rember us.
I glanced sideways at his handso face in disbelief.
“You’re seriously a cold bastard.”
“…?!”
Namgung Jin’s eyes widened at my sudden informal tone.
But when you might die at any mont, what did manners matter?
The tide of the Demon Cult had already surrounded us tightly, closing in.
“Co at us, you black-clad bastards!”
Clear staff qi coiled around the Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff.
We began charging straight toward the oncoming wave of Demon Cultists.
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