Chapter 171 - The Black Flame Dragon That Swallows the Sea of Blood

Returning to his tent after a short meeting with the Kongtong Sect elder who was in the same group on the Second Line, So Chunghyeon heard absurd news.

"What did you say?"

"They said we need to gather all the academy student groups scattered across Sichuan and move as one."

"And exactly who dared to say such a thing?"

"... It was the academy representative."

"Hah!"

He felt an absurdity that went beyond mere displeasure.

There was a limit even to a newborn puppy knowing no fear.

At this rate, wasn't he practically blind to whom he was dealing with?

"So, you're telling us to just wait here?"

"Seungho Hall is rushing here with an official written order from the Mantong Bureau, so they're asking us to wait until then."

"This is ridiculous."

It was so ridiculous that he wondered if the boy had completely lost his mind.

He had even cut his sightseeing short and followed them, anxious that the leading groups from the Mount Cangshan Sect and the Shaolin Sect might handle all the culprits, yet they were telling him to wait?

And to him, no less, someone holding the supreme position of an elder in the Murim Alliance?

"He's gotten completely full of himself just because the Chief Strategist favors him a little. And he dares to mobilize Seungho Hall for this?"

He could not just let this slide.

No, he needed to use this opportunity to firmly reestablish discipline.

"What should we do?"

"If they're coming, we'll just have to move faster. We depart at the hour of the rabbit. Inform everyone."

"Understood."

As So Chunghyeon gulped down his Geumhwabunju—a local specialty of Jiangting—and implicitly ordered his disciple to leave, the disciple turned to head straight out.

Right then.

The Mount Hua disciple suddenly collapsed to the ground.

"Hm? What's the matt..."

At the same time, a sharp sound rang in his head.

JIIING─────

Even though it was a sound he was hearing for the first time in his life, So Chunghyeon dropped the precious Geumhwabunju from his hand.

CRASH.

'Death Spirit Demonic Voice?'

His heart began to pound violently, and his head spun.

The space before his eyes warped bizarrely as the sound of sinister music began to play.

The reason he could clearly identify its true nature despite experiencing it for the first time was that he had heard ad nauseam since childhood just how terrifying this sound was.

'One of the Ten Forbidden Arts!!'

A heaven-defying martial art that should have remained sealed had leaked out into the world.

So Chunghyeon quickly circulated the Purple Cloud Divine Art to protect his mind and shouted.

"What are you doing! Circulate your internal energy and protect your mind! Mount Hua's martial arts will not crumble against such a sinister art!"

"Ugh... Ugh..."

But the disciple gave no answer.

"The Demon-Subduing Mantra! Recite the Demon-Subduing Mantra!"

Protecting one's mind against a sound-based martial art was not something taught to first-year academy students.

It was a moment where he suddenly resented the academy curriculum, something he had never cared about in his entire life.

So Chunghyeon pulled up all his internal energy and unleashed the Lion's Roar.

"KAAH!"

As the booming roar shook the area and instantly dispelled the Death Spirit Demonic Voice, the disciple, who had been trembling on the floor, coughed up a mouthful of blood.

His mind, which had been dominated by the Death Spirit Demonic Voice, tangled with the Lion's Roar, completely ravaging his insides.

"T-This..."

And in the moment So Chunghyeon panicked, the Death Spirit Demonic Voice rang out once again.

JIIING─────

"The Demon-Subduing Mantra... Recite the Demon-Subduing Mantra!"

"Uh... Uh... Ugh... What did you say? Elder..."

Blood was streaming down from both of the disciple's ears.

So Chunghyeon quickly carved the 'Demon-Subduing Mantra' onto the floor, but the disciple had already rolled his eyes back, foamed at the mouth, and collapsed backward.

'This is no ordinary Death Spirit Demonic Voice.'

The versions of the Death Spirit Demonic Voice sealed away among the Ten Forbidden Arts did not possess this level of destructive power.

Furthermore, it had an immense penetrative power that was sharply poking at his own mind, even though he was actively protecting it.

What's more, the fact that no disciples had run out of their tents despite his echoing Lion's Roar was proof that the situation was dire.

"Who is it! Just who are you to dare appear fearlessly before Mount Hua!"

He screamed at the top of his lungs in hopes of waking the Kongtong Sect elder, but somehow, that tent remained completely silent as well.

Just as expected of the Kongtong Sect.

Having not held high expectations from the start, So Chunghyeon drew out Mount Hua's treasured sword, the Jeokhwa Sword.

Right now, catching the culprit would be more efficient than trying to wake the children who had succumbed to the Death Spirit Demonic Voice.

So Chunghyeon elevated his qi senses with all his might.

Nothing could be felt in the surroundings.

However, a faint energy was eventually caught by his qi senses.

"Stay right there!"

Stepping with the Dark Fragrance Floating, So Chunghyeon's figure shot forward like a flash of lightning.

SWISH.

The moment So Chunghyeon, having shot out as if splitting the wind, was about to swing his sword without delay.

'A lantern?'

Instead of the enemy that should have been there, a red lantern floating in the air caught his eye.

"Did you think you could stop Mount Hua's steps with such a shoddy heterodox art!"

So Chunghyeon swung his sword without hesitation.

SLASH.

As the red lantern was extinguished, nearly a hundred blood-clothed figures appeared in the area, as if a veil had been torn away.

Despite their massive numbers, So Chunghyeon kept his legs firmly planted and glared at them.

"Such a shoddy trick, you say? You are incredibly arrogant."

"..."

The figures were wrapped in red from head to toe.

Moving as if they were a single person, they drew heavy swords from their backs and took up offensive stances.

So Chunghyeon corrected his grip on the Jeokhwa Sword.

"Come! Today, I shall show you just how terrifying Mount Hua's sword truly is!"

FLUTTER.

A single plum blossom petal appeared.

Behind it, two more plum blossom petals.

Followed by four plum blossom petals beginning to encroach upon the space.

The Plum Blossom Swordsmanship, which had reached the twelfth star.

Plum blossoms began to bloom abundantly across the area, and the scent of plum blossoms intensely vibrated in every direction.

Before long, the plum blossoms that were violently swirling all around as if scattering in the wind began to fall toward the blood-clothed figures.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

The blood-clothed figures touched by the plum blossoms had their arms severed, chests split open, and heads chopped off without even being able to mount a proper defense.

Blood redder than the clothes the figures wore spewed out like fountains in all directions, and the pooling blood on the ground soon formed a small stream.

SPLASH.

Even though So Chunghyeon's feet were stained red from stepping into a puddle of blood, he did not retreat from where he stood.

"This right here is Mount Hua's plum blossom!"

But no matter how much blood flowed, the scent of the plum blossoms could not be erased.

It was a truly overwhelming destructive power.

The nearly one hundred figures were reduced in an instant.

However, for some reason, So Chunghyeon's face did not look very at ease.

"What a persistent bunch."

A Mountain of Corpses and a Sea of Blood.

Corpses piled up like mountains all around, and blood flowed like a sea.

But a new group of a hundred figures had appeared out of nowhere to fill that space.

Even though their comrades had died, not a single one of them let out even a scream.

"Right, you need at least this much confidence to be an enemy of Mount Hua."

He had been flustered by the Death Spirit Demonic Voice, but after directly crossing swords with them, they were not opponents with particularly great skills.

'Generally speaking, this is just how the heterodox path operates.'

When had those who used the arts of heterodox sects ever surpassed the power of the Orthodox faction?

If he caused chaos among them so that the array masters could not continue the Death Spirit Demonic Voice, the children would soon regain their senses and come here.

'When that happens, we can wipe them all out.'

If he could just escape this place, they could reorganize and annihilate the bastards all at once.

So Chunghyeon, envisioning an optimistic future, once again unleashed the Lion's Roar.

"Disciples of Mount Hua, gather here!"

Worried that they might not hear him, he infused his internal energy and yelled multiple times.

Then, scattering plum blossoms once more, he began to cut down the approaching enemies.

At the same time.

At the Mount Hua and Kongtong camps a short distance away, the disciples who had regained their senses were panicking.

"What about the elder? Has anyone seen Elder So Chunghyeon?"

"He is not in his tent either."

"Where did he go so suddenly?"

The academy students who had rushed out of their tents at the sudden booming sound looked for Elder So Chunghyeon and the Kongtong elder first, but both of them had vacated their tents.

"... Could it be that the two of them went off to drink separately?"

At the words of a disciple of the Hwaseong Sect, a lay sect of Mount Hua, the Mount Hua members replied with stiff faces.

"Don't be stupid! Where would the elders go in the middle of all this!"

"I-I apologize."

"They definitely must have gone first to investigate that booming sound. Wake up all the other academy students! And we look for the elders first."

The academy students gathered in small groups and began to spread out in all directions.

And behind them, red lanterns slowly began to follow.

* * *

"You said we would avoid them!"

Nam Hwaseong shouted in anger.

All that talk about flashing east and disappearing west had been a blatant lie.

Jin Sowoon had fought battles big and small with all three of the Green Woods strongholds they encountered while running.

Amazingly, every place they ran to happened to have a Green Woods stronghold planted right there.

Dammit, even if someone wanted to find them this perfectly, they couldn't.

Furthermore, because they got caught by the Green Woods strongholds every time, the three strongholds were now practically collaborating just to catch the two of them—Nam Hwaseong and Jin Sowoon.

A truly miraculous operation.

"Are you blaming me because you were too slow and got caught?"

"Fuck..."

The Deer Horn Wind Cloud Steps was an outstanding movement technique that absolutely never fell behind in terms of speed in Jianghu.

He had unleashed his full skill with the intention of showing Jin Sowoon what he was made of, but Jin Sowoon's speed did not lag behind at all.

On the contrary, while he himself was running like his life depended on it, Jin Sowoon was casually chattering next to him about operations and whatnot.

'What the hell is going on.'

Setting aside Jin Sowoon's skills, the movement technique he was displaying was not from the Taiyi Sect he knew of either.

Nam Hwaseong, who had not believed the rumors about the Taiyi Sect until now, had to completely rewrite the information regarding the Taiyi Sect in his head.

As Nam Hwaseong furiously wracked his brain, organizing what he needed to report to Cheol Sunjik, Jin Sowoon pulled out a bundle of talismans and handed one of them to him.

"What's this?"

"You know how to use Samadhi True Fire, right?"

"Pant, pant, who do you take me for?"

"It's the Mount Heng Sect's Demon-Subduing Talisman. Burn the talisman the moment you feel like your body isn't being controlled and you're seeing illusions. It will break you out of the heterodox art."

This was the Mount Heng Sect's talisman?

The Mount Heng Sect's talisman, which was said to require a hundred days of prayer from an array master with high Daoist power to create, was a representative luxury item among martial artists.

Something nice to have, but not particularly useful for the price.

What was commonly known as a luxury good.

Not only was he surprised that Jin Sowoon had a whole bundle of them, but his heart also sank at the thought that the heterodox art Jin Sowoon mentioned might actually be real.

Right, this was clearly a life-or-death situation...

"Why do I only get one?"

Jin Sowoon spoke bluntly, as if asking why he was questioning the obvious.

"If I gave you half and you ended up dying, wouldn't it be a waste of the talismans?"

"Fuck! You just had to put it like that!"

SWISH.

As soon as the sound of something tearing through the wind was heard, Nam Hwaseong turned his head.

Then, seeing an arrow flying toward him, his body froze.

'S-Since when!'

The Green Woods bandits of the Jeokhwa Stronghold, whom he thought they had shaken off, had already caught up to arrow range.

'I can't dodge.'

Because his senses were dulled, he had spotted it too late and had no way of dodging the arrow.

The moment he raised his hand with the intention of at least protecting his head.

THUD.

The expected pain was not felt.

"Hm?"

Nam Hwaseong cautiously opened his tightly shut eyes.

What appeared before his eyes was Jin Sowoon, who had caught the arrow with his bare hand.

"They've gotten close. Let's speed up."

"... Y-Yeah. L-Let's do that."

Just as Nam Hwaseong scraped up the internal energy in his nearly empty Dantian to pick up the pace.

Ten men dressed in a colorful assortment of outfits suddenly dropped down right in front of them.

"How dare you look down on our Jeokhwa Stronghold..."

Before the Green Woods bandits of the Jeokhwa Stronghold could even finish speaking.

Jin Sowoon brutally began swinging the long iron staff he had been carrying on his back.

Bizarrely, phantom images of the staff formed around the iron staff, beginning to embroider the air.

As if it were their first time witnessing such an overwhelming sight, the ten bandits desperately began swinging their swords and axes.

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

However, whether it was swords or axes, the iron staff shattered them all, and it even mercilessly smashed the heads of those wielding the weapons.

There was absolutely no way mere bandits could counter the profound phantom principles of the Taiyi Sect, whose true substance could barely be perceived even if one reached the Peak Realm.

Nam Hwaseong's gaze was helplessly stolen by Jin Sowoon.

'I've seen phantom swords many times, but this is the first time I'm seeing a phantom staff.'

Having dealt with the ten bandits in a flash, Jin Sowoon strapped his staff back on and began moving forward.

"I-If you do this, won't it leave traces?"

It was precisely because of traces like these that three Green Woods strongholds were desperately chasing them down.

Jin Sowoon spoke as if it were absurd.

"So I guess the traces you left behind weren't traces, huh?"

It was true that the Samwon Sect's domineering fist arts did not dispatch enemies as cleanly as swordsmanship.

Even so, he couldn't understand why Jin Sowoon, who wielded a sword, would go out of his way to pull out an iron staff just to leave people alive.

Nam Hwaseong spat out a curse inwardly.

'Just what in the world is he plotting?'

Desperately chasing after the unresponsive Jin Sowoon, Nam Hwaseong was slowly feeling his limits.

The moment he was about to toss aside whatever pride he initially had and beg to please take a break, just a short one.

Jin Sowoon's figure slowly reduced its speed.

"Gasp, gasp, gasp, n-now even you've reached your limit, right? Isn't that right?"

Panting heavily with breaths catching at his throat, Nam Hwaseong looked at Jin Sowoon.

"..."

But even Jin Sowoon's breathing was tranquil.

'Just what the hell is wrong with this guy!'

Whether Nam Hwaseong was inwardly struggling or not, Jin Sowoon slowly walked forward.

Following Jin Sowoon with staggering footsteps, Nam Hwaseong's figure abruptly stopped.

'The scent of blood?'

A fishy scent of blood piercing his nose intensely.

When he instinctively lowered his head. Only then did he realize that what was wetting his feet was not water.

"Hup! What is this!"

He quickly turned his head to look at Jin Sowoon, but he had already gone quite a distance ahead.

Not only that, he was identifying corpses among the bodies scattered haphazardly around.

"The Hwaseong Sect?"

The insignia engraved on the martial robes.

The shape of the broken swords.

They all indicated that these were disciples of the Hwaseong Sect, which was essentially a direct lay sect of the Mount Hua Sect.

What's more, it was a face he had seen in passing at the academy.

"What on earth..."

That wasn't all.

Most of the corpses sprawled around belonged to people affiliated with the academy.

The Mount Hua Sect and the Kongtong Sect.

And the disciples of the lay sects affiliated with those two sects were found as corpses.

"J-Jin Sowoon!"

Forgetting that he had been gasping for air just moments ago, Nam Hwaseong approached Jin Sowoon like a bolt of lightning.

"W-We need to quickly inform the Murim Alliance! T-This is definitely no small matter!"

But Jin Sowoon replied in an immeasurably calm voice.

"Don't make a fuss."

In an instant, the air surrounding him sank heavily.

Unlike the other academy students, the corpse Jin Sowoon was examining belonged to someone who looked significantly older.

Nam Hwaseong recognized him instantly and screeched.

"Red Plum Blossom Sword So Chunghyeon?"

To think that an expert of the Plum Blossom Swordsmanship, whose every swing was said to make red plum blossoms bloom in full across the area, was found as a mere corpse.

TREMBLE.

Nam Hwaseong's hands began to shake unconsciously.

"According to the intelligence, they were around the Second Line, so have they already stormed this far?"

A look of deep concern appeared on Jin Sowoon's face, which hadn't shown a single trace of worry even while being chased by three Green Woods strongholds.

"W-Who... Just who on earth could commit such an act against Mount Hua and Kongtong?"

"Do not act rashly. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like everyone suffered casualties. However, it's a bit surprising that they were unilaterally beaten like this."

What was even more surprising was that while the casualties among the academy students were evident in the area, there was no sign of the enemy.

"Then what about the others?"

"They probably ran away. They're still disciples of Mount Hua and Kongtong, after all."

"Ran away? Just who is the enemy?"

"The enemy?"

The usual heavy killing intent oozed from Jin Sowoon's body.

"Attacking the Murim Academy like this is something even the boldest figures of the Underworld wouldn't dare do."

"... Didn't you say it wasn't the Underworld."

At that moment, Jin Sowoon stood up and turned his head to one side.

"Perfect timing, here they come."

"W-What?!"

Following Jin Sowoon's chin gesture, Nam Hwaseong's gaze shifted.

'What is that...'

Through the darkness, red lanterns floating gently in the air were approaching them.