Chapter 230: The Deity Who Descended to the Desert (2)

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Translated by Frog in the Well

Read it only at Nineheavens.org
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“Y-You bastards?”

As stones poured down like rain, the panicked bandits turned their backs.

They even threw away the broadswords they had drawn with grand dignity and tried to flee, but even that was not easy. For they were twenty, whereas the villagers numbered over a hundred.

“Aaargh!”

“S-Spare me!”

In the end, they could not even run a few steps and collapsed, covered in blood.

“Ugh, damn it. Have you bastards truly gone crazy with a death wish! If our chieftain knows… Urgh!? W-Wait! Aaaaargh!!”

Screams burst from the mouths of the bandits who were threatening while clutching their broken limbs.

For they were beaten thoroughly by the villagers who rushed at them with angry expressions.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

How long did the tight fight continue?

The expressions of the villagers, who had been stomping the bandits while half-losing their reason, darkened.

When they committed it, it was thrilling enough to clear their chests, but that was brief. Now it was their turn to deal with the aftermath of touching the Blood Wind Band.

“…What do we do now?”

At someone’s muttering, the hunter with the most robust build in the village stepped forward.

“What do you mean what? Since the Blood Wind Band bastards will invade, we must prepare.”

“Is the chieftain of the Blood Wind Band not a first-class expert who handles Qi? How are we to block such a monster.”

“…”

Amidst the uncomfortable silence, someone voiced an opinion.

“How about using those unconscious bandit bastards over there as bait to lure them in, and then setting fire?”

“Fire? It is not a bad method, but… are we not just needlessly provoking their anger by doing such a thing?”

“Is this a time for us to calculate such things? We must do whatever it takes to live.”

“Would it not be better to abandon the village and flee instead?”

“Where to in this desert? Going to other villages is useless. If rumors spread, far from helping us, they will catch us and try to offer us to the Blood Wind Band.”

“Ugh.”

Just as various opinions were exchanged centering on the hunter.

“Wait a moment. I have a treasure.”

As the hesitating Mak-ran intervened, everyone paused.

“What treasure do you mean?”

“It is an incredibly sharp sword. It might be of help in defending the village.”

“…Sigh. Mak-ran, I am sorry, but the current situation is not a problem to be resolved by a single sword.”

“Yes. The Blood Wind Band’s numbers exceed five hundred, and the chieftain is a monster who handles Qi.”

Mak-ran, who was about to reply something, shut her mouth.

In fact, there was nothing wrong with the adults’ words. The situation was not one to change with a single sword now.

“…Still, I shall bring it. Because it is far sharper than you uncles think, it will be helpful.”

Without even listening to a reply, she headed straight into the desert and faced the suffocating heat.

“Ugh.”

The sun was high in the sky, so it was too hot. The desert at midday was dangerous enough to make one’s head hazy, but now was no time to calculate such things.

With her skin only roughly covered in thin cloth, she walked as if running.

“Pant… pant…”

How much did she walk amidst the dripping sweat?

Right before collapsing from exhaustion. She arrived at the giant rock that had been a useful livelihood since childhood.

Squeezing through the cracks in the rock, she entered the cave, and was able to retrieve the mysterious sword she had buried in the ground.

Just as she was about to leave immediately, she paused.

‘Let us just grab water.’

She scooped the water from the jar into the leather skin she always carried at her waist. Since her older sister who collapsed from dehydration might die without this water, she could not possibly leave it behind.

After finishing all her business.

She hurriedly returned to the village, but it was twice as hard as the path she had come.

“Pant, pant…”

Every time she exhaled gasping breath and inhaled again, it felt like her lungs would cook.

Trying to cross the desert under the blazing sunlight made her mind go faint.

“Ugh.”

However, she could not stop. Sinking ankle-deep in the sand, she kept moving forward.

Around the time the sun that had been floating high in the sky was sinking slowly.

An acrid burnt smell pricked the tip of her nose.

Spurred by an ominous feeling of ‘no way’, she squeezed out her remaining strength to increase her speed.

‘If only I cross this hill.’

The village would be visible. Just as she climbed the sand dune almost crawling and stood at the top.

“…Ah.”

The world was red.

Fiercely burning flames were enveloping the village.

The neighbor’s house that would eventually give bread even while pouring out curses when she went there hungry, the familiar alleys, and even the tree that served as shade, all of them.

They were swallowed up by the bright red flames.

Mak-ran, who had been dumbfounded, gritted her teeth and ran.

She was clearly on the verge of collapsing, yet it was unknown where such strength emerged from.

The moment she entered the village.

Blood redder than flames filled her vision.

“Ah.”

Smelling the fishy blood odor wafting through the acrid burnt smell made her head spin.

The hunter uncle, who had robust forearms hard as steel and looked reliable just by looking at him, was collapsed on the ground with all his limbs severed,

and the village women, including her older sister who collapsed from dehydration, were bound with ropes and loaded onto carriages like luggage.

It was such a miserable scene that she could not distinguish whether it was a dream or reality.

It was far too terrible an event for Mak-ran, who had only just become an adult, to undergo. It felt like today’s memory, engraved through her five senses, would follow her around as a nightmare for the rest of her life…

Just as she was in shock.

The man in his mid-thirties, who alone wore clean clothes among the band of bandits, spoke in a cold voice.

“Tie those pieces of trash to poles and stand them on top of the hill. So that everyone in this desert can know what the price of daring to touch the Blood Wind Band is.”

“Hehe. Got it.”

A bandit with yellow buck teeth kicked the hunter uncle to flip him over. Regardless of the wounds, he bound him brutally and tried to hang him from a pole.

“No!”

Snapping back to her senses, Mak-ran drew her sword and rushed in recklessly.

“Hm?”

As a woman whose frame was not even large ran wild holding a sword, the gazes of the bandits who were devastating the village focused.

“Is she a crazy bitch?”

Rushing in instead, when even fleeing would be insufficient?

The bandits, who were staring as if it were absurd, soon burst into loud laughter.

“You are acting too wild, relying on your pretty face. You bitch, do it in moderation. You will get hurt doing that.”

“Looking at her cheek, she already got slapped once, though?”

“No, which stupid bastard hit her face.”

Even though she held a sword, it was not threatening at all, so only relaxed chatter continued, and the bandit who was hanging the hunter on the pole clicked his tongue.

“Ah, what a pain.”

He pulled out a broadsword larger than a human torso to strike away the sword Mak-ran swung, but…

Slice!

Along with the broadsword cut like a sheet of paper, a fountain of blood surged from his split chest.

“Urgh! W-What!”

Everyone gaped their mouths open at the absurd result.

For a thin sword that looked like it would break at a nudge to cut a thick broadsword? It was an absurd, bizarre event.

“Everyone step aside.”

Someone among the bandits, who were merely blinking their eyes, stepped forward.

He tried to subdue Mak-ran using a shield and a one-handed sword, but since anything was sliced smoothly once it touched the blade, there was no answer.

“W-Wait!”

The one-handed sword split into three pieces leaving only the hilt, and the shield, thick enough to block even an iron mace, was also sliced into sections all too easily.

“I-It is a divine sword.”

“…Insane.”

To slice even armaments made of steel like sheets of paper, everyone was shocked at the incomprehensible sharpness.

Although it was an unexpected good defense, Mak-ran’s condition was not good.

“Pant… pant…”

Was it because she had already traversed the desert? Her physical strength was exhausted, so she could not even hold the sword properly. She had no choice but to drag it to the point where the blade tip touched the ground.

She looked like she would collapse at a nudge, but no one was willing to step forward.

For it would be a dog-like embarrassment if one ended up losing while dealing with a frail woman, and if one got cut and hurt by such a sword or lost their armament, only they themselves would suffer loss.

The chieftain, who was watching the bandits behave half-heartedly, clicked his tongue.

“Idiotic bastards. I do not know what kind of behavior this is over a single bitch. Tsk! At any rate, there is not a single useful bastard.”

Shring!

Drawing and raising a brilliant sword decorated with gems, he infused it with Qi.

As a whitish light flickered on the vibrating sword, the watching bandits burst into exclamations.

“Ooh.”

The chieftain, curling up the corners of his mouth, walked making thudding sounds.

As if showing off, he openly struck down with the sword he held high in the sky.

“Ugh.”

Mak-ran, who was tense from the intimidating momentum, reflexively swung her sword,

and the sword full of cracks collided with the thick sword, the cherished weapon of the Blood Wind Band’s chieftain.

Slice!

The result of the two weapons colliding was shocking enough to make everyone doubt their eyes.

The sword cut smoothly in half flew through the air.

Slicing everything it touched and proceeding without hesitation, the blade tried to carve the chieftain’s chest.

Just as Mak-ran was about to rejoice at the superiority she herself had not expected.

“Humph.”

The chieftain, twitching one eyebrow, snorted.

Tilting his upper body to evade the sword by a hair’s breadth, he straddled inside immediately.

‘…!’

It was too fast for her to even react.

Had she taken too lightly a first-class expert who had fought numerous actual combats? The chieftain coped skillfully even though his sword was cut away.

Thud!

Following a pain that turned her vision white,

she floated high into the air and was flung to the ground, unable to breathe.

“Keck, ke-eck…!”

She could not even tell what she had been hit by.

From the throbbing pain felt in her abdomen, she merely guessed that she had been kicked.

A slight ringing echoed and her vision was distorted. She tried to rise somehow, but her body did not obey.

“Waaaa!”

“Keuu! As expected of the chieftain!”

She gritted her teeth at the cheers heard within her blurred vision.

“Ugh…”

She tried to clutch the missed sword again even by crawling slowly, but the Blood Wind Band’s chieftain was far faster than her sluggish movements.

“It is indeed a peerless divine sword. Now this is mine.”

The chieftain, whose voice even trembled from being swept by intense greed, strode over and reached out his hand.

‘No!’

He tried to grab the sword, her final hope. Just as she was in despair, too pained to even scream.

The chieftain’s right hand, which was right before touching the sword, vanished along with his forearm. It was an event that occurred suddenly without any precursor.

“Ah?”

The chieftain, who lost one of his limbs in an instant, stared blankly at his forearm, but not a single drop of blood emerged from whatever he had been hit by.

Literally within the blink of an eye, half of his arm was erased from the world.

Just what had happened?

It was a bizarre sight to the point where the pain was momentarily forgotten.

Right then.

Rumble!

Within the lightning that plunged from the sky, a young man wearing greyish-white martial robes appeared.

Mak-ran, who was crawling the ground with all her might, blankly lifted her head, and their eyes met in an instant.

‘Ah…’

But why? A warm light settled in the eyes of the young man, which had been so expressionless that it was difficult to read emotions. As if finding her admirable.

“A-A deity! A deity has descended!”

The bandits who were giggling while burning the village bowed their heads flat.

Since they did not know how the suddenly appeared deity would act, they could not even flee and froze tight, at a loss.

The chieftain who had swaggered, calling himself a first-class expert, was no exception either.

Just as he tried to bow awkwardly, he froze.

Did he intuit something upon meeting eyes with the young man? His complexion turned as pale as a sheet, and he hastily shouted.

“O deity! Why does such a noble person try to lay hands on a mere mortal! Please bestow mercy!”

“The only mercy I can bestow is killing you gently.”

At the all too resolute reply,

the Blood Wind Band’s chieftain, who stood blankly for an instant, gritted his teeth.

“Argh! You are truly going too far. No matter how much of a deity you are, dying when stabbed by a blade is the same. What are you all doing! If you do not want to die in vain, strike!”

He drew a dagger with his one remaining arm and rushed in.

It was a sneak attack too fast to even be visible to Mak-ran’s eyes, but it had no meaning of any kind.

Starting with the chieftain who rushed in screeching like a beast, focus vanished from the eyes of the band of bandits who were awkwardly drawing their weapons.

Thud!

Close to five hundred robust men collapsed simultaneously without even being able to make a squeak. The young man had not flicked a single finger, yet they expired.

Subsequently, with a single light wave of his hand, even the flames burning the village vanished.

“Ah…”

Just as she was dumbfounded by the deity’s transcendental divine power that she had only heard of.

The young man, who carefully picked up the black longsword fallen on the ground, exhaled a long breath as if relieved.

“I finally found it.”

The moment the young man closely examined the sword and nodded his head.

The sword held in his hand vanished with a whoosh. It was as if it had been moved to another world.

And,

scanning the village that had become a miserable shape due to the band of bandits, he frowned, then flicked his finger.

Snap!

Something like a round pill that appeared in the empty air turned into powder. Riding the wind, it entered the mouths of the collapsed villagers.

“…!”

Thereupon, a surprising thing occurred. The bones and flesh of the people whose limbs had been severed and turned into terrible shapes regenerated in an instant, and their limbs became perfectly fine.

Excluding those who were already dead, all of them became perfectly fine in an instant and rose from their spots.

“T-Thank you!”

“O deity! Thank you truly!”

The villagers who came to their senses bowed flat, no matter who went first.

It was the same for Mak-ran.

Her distorted vision became clear, and breathing became easier. The wounds inflicted by the chieftain were all healed.

As even her older sister who collapsed from dehydration rose perfectly fine, tears streamed down in torrents.

Just as she, filled with emotion, bowed flat like the villagers.

-Normally, I would have left after doing this much, but since your combative spirit in fighting while risking your life is laudable, I shall help you one more time.

“…Pardon?”

Simultaneously with the voice echoing in her head, the ground shook as if an earthquake had occurred.

“Uh?”

The lake that had been dried and twisted from the long drought split open, and the water located deep underground was revealed.

Subsequently,

a mysterious energy felt for the first time in her life swirled, and clear water began to pour from the empty air where nothing had been.

The water pouring in torrents only stopped after filling the lake.

To create a lake with a single light wave of his hand…

The mouths of the bowing people gaped open. Only then did they feel how powerful the strength possessed by a true deity was.

Compared to that transcendental strength of manipulating nature, dealing with the five hundred Blood Wind Band was truly nothing.

“It will not dry for at least three hundred years.”

Leaving behind just those words, the deity vanished like smoke.

Despite performing an immense miracle, he did not leave even a single name.

***

Jin So-myeong, who discovered the sword in which Hong Seol was harbored in the desert lacking a single spiritual vein, headed straight to the Sacred City.

It was to recover her in the relatively safe eastern cave dwelling area.

How many teleportation arrays did he go through?

Arriving at the Sacred City, Myo Seol, who was waiting in a respectful posture, spoke in a slightly rapid tone.

“Lord Lord of the Divine Wood. The Soul-Refining Altar Master, having finished preparations, wishes to challenge the Soul Formation stage.”

“I see. Is there no other news?”

Perhaps because he brushed off the extremely important news lightly, panic settled on the face of Myo Seol, who was always calm.

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