Chapter 266: Chapter 266
“…Does that mean I cannot leave the detached force by my own will?”
Danli Gwan-cheon asked carefully.
“That’s right.”
Cheon-hwi answered refreshingly.
“It’s not just you. No one here can leave right now.”
Cheon-hwi slightly looked back and said.
“Did you think the detached force was some guest house where you could enter and leave as you pleased?”
The majority felt a prick of conscience inwardly.
Cheon-hwi saw through all of their reactions and gave a chilly smile.
“It is a detached force that will take on frontline missions in the war against the Four Black Alliances. In other words, it is a unit where one does not know when or where they might die, yet leaving as one pleases…”
As Cheon-hwi’s naturally murmuring voice settled heavily, the complexions of those who were already overwhelmed by performing their footwork turned pale.
“Why? Were you trying to gain ambiguous fame without risking your lives?”
The majority, including Danli Gwan-cheon, kept their mouths shut like mutes who had eaten honey.
It was because the words hit the nail on the head.
Cheon-hwi scanned them one by one.
However, they could not bring themselves to meet his gaze and cast their eyes downwards.
‘They seem to know it’s embarrassing.’
Cheon-hwi, who smiled broadly, moved his lips.
“If so, that is an act of underestimating Jianghu too much.”
Cheon-hwi’s words pierced sharply like daggers into the chests of Danli Gwan-cheon and a few unit members.
At that moment, Ho Gwang-gae laughed heartily.
“Hahaha! That’s right. Who would enlist in such a detached force without that kind of mindset. Isn’t that so?”
Mu-hong made eye contact with Ho Gwang-gae, who was speaking while looking at him, and nodded his head.
“…I have already decided to bury my bones in the detached force.”
Mu-hong’s eyes narrowed as he answered.
Right now, this was a tremendous opportunity for him.
It was natural, as his position in the Zhongnan Sect was somewhat ambiguous.
Because he was such a Mu-hong, he was expecting to build his reputation and cultivate his martial arts through this detached force mission.
Then, Mu-hong opened his mouth, recalling what he had wanted to ask since earlier.
“By the way, Squad Leader. I have one thing I am curious about, may I ask?”
Cheon-hwi looked at Mu-hong, who asked with a serious expression, and let out a chuckle.
“Speak.”
“What mission are we going to do right now?”
In an instant, everyone perked up their ears.
It was something they had been curious about since he said they had to work, but it was a question no one could spit out because they were swept up in the atmosphere.
Even knowing such an atmosphere, Cheon-hwi gazed intently at Mu-hong.
“You will know if you follow.”
At the words that were like a one-sided notification, Mu-hong slightly twitched his eyebrows.
“…Understood.”
He willingly nodded his head and stepped back.
Right now, he was just a regular member.
It was because Cheon-hwi in front was the Squad Leader.
‘Oho, I like it.’
Cheon-hwi quite liked Mu-hong, who immediately accepted it.
Normally, if it were a rising star of a massive sect, they would have kept interrogating to hear an answer.
But Mu-hong was not.
He knew his current position.
That right now, he was not a rising star of the Zhongnan Sect, but a simple detached force member.
“Tsk, we’ll be late at this rate.”
Cheon-hwi clicked his tongue at the speed that had briefly slowed down due to talking, and opened his mouth towards the unit members.
“I will increase the speed further.”
Immediately after finishing his words, Cheon-hwi roughly kicked off the ground.
Swish… Swish…
The group exhaustingly chased after him.
The group pierced through the thickly cast darkness and continued moving forward.
Tadadat…
“Heuk, heuk.”
Only the sound of running and stepping on the ground in silence, along with heavy breathing, rang in their ears.
A few were so exhausted that they seemed as if they would collapse from exhaustion, but no one uttered a single word of complaint.
Like that, time continued to pass.
How long had they run? In the east, the sun that had hidden its form when they left the Martial Alliance was rising.
“Has half a day already passed?”
Mu-hong, who had been whispering, shook his head.
Right now, his body was in an exhausted state.
A march that had kept them up all night.
Moreover, it was a process of continuously walking and running without taking even a single rest, so how could it not be difficult?
Ho Gwang-gae, whose face was similarly cast with fatigue, looked forward and clicked his tongue.
“…Heo-cham. The Squad Leader is perfectly fine.”
The figure of Cheon-hwi, who was steadily advancing at the very front, did not waver at all.
He was even as fresh as if he had just performed his footwork.
‘Moreover, he is incredibly persistent.’
His gaze captured Cheon-hwi’s back.
He was a truly nasty individual.
Among those chasing him right now, a few had faced the crisis of falling behind multiple times in the middle.
And each time that happened, Cheon-hwi stopped his footwork and walked. Then, when he thought those who were exhausted had somewhat recovered, he performed his footwork again.
‘Is he seeing through everything?’
At first, he thought it was a coincidence.
Because it was an impossible feat without grasping the internal energy of this many people.
However, as it continued not just once, but twice, three times, he realized that the current situation was not a coincidence but due to Cheon-hwi’s skill.
‘…He is indeed as the rumors say.’
At that moment, Cheon-hwi stopped in his tracks.
Withdrawing the Flying Heaven Footwork, he looked at the mountain ahead and nodded his head.
“Is it there?”
Cheon-hwi’s gaze scanned the faint light that was gently illuminating the mountain.
“We arrived faster than I thought.”
Cheon-hwi made a satisfied expression.
Was it thanks to running all night performing footwork and moving by walking without stopping even when exhausted?
They were able to quickly arrive at a destination that would have originally taken more time.
Cheon-hwi turned his body and looked back.
The expressions of those who arrived one by one and stopped in their places were not very good.
Looking at them, Cheon-hwi spoke shortly.
“Let’s rest for just one hour.”
At that moment.
Thud…
The unit members who were standing and exhaustedly catching their breath collapsed onto the ground.
A few laid down spread-eagled and panted heavily.
“Heuk, heuk. I, I thought I was going to die.”
“It’s my first time being this exhausted.”
Cheon-hwi withdrew his gaze directed at them and drew out the internal energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art.
The sense of Qi spread in an instant.
Cheon-hwi illuminated his eye light amidst his sharply honed senses and examined the mountain before his eyes.
‘Tsk, there are few of them.’
The signs of people felt inside the mountain.
The number was roughly a little over a hundred people.
‘Still, I wonder if it will be good to experience real combat.’
Having meticulously checked the presences, Cheon-hwi soon stored away his internal energy.
Reorganizing his internal energy that had been stored away in an instant, Cheon-hwi looked at the detached force members who had now become his subordinates.
Except for about ten people, everyone was either sprawled out or sitting down taking a rest.
‘Still, there are some quick-witted kids.’
He saw those who were undertaking Qi circulation breathing amidst everyone else being busy resting comfortably.
They were the ones who had tactfully noticed that Cheon-hwi’s standard was footprints even when selecting the detached force.
‘It would be convenient if I told them to undertake Qi circulation breathing because we will fight right now, but…’
Cheon-hwi purposefully did not speak.
This was real combat.
Informing them with words had no meaning.
They had to clash directly and realize it.
Only then would they be able to know what a foolish act they had committed.
‘Because there is no better method to realize than that.’
Meanwhile, those who felt much better thanks to taking a rest began to whisper.
“…Is this the destination?”
“What are we trying to do in this place?”
They were in a bewildered state.
They had run endlessly, but the place they arrived at was just a wild mountain, so it was understandable for them to be doubtful.
However, at that moment.
“…I see.”
A Taoist draped in a gray Taoist robe muttered as if he had realized something.
Everyone’s gaze was concentrated on him.
And among them were Taoists wearing the same robe standing behind him.
“Senior Martial Brother, did you realize something?”
At the words of his Junior Martial Brother, Cheol-ho, the Kunlun Taoist, Yuk Se-gon, moved his lips.
“Do you know where that place is?”
When Cheol-ho tilted his head at the question asking while pointing at an unknown mountain.
“Jeokho Stronghold.”
An answer popped out abruptly from the side.
At the place where the answer was heard, there was a swordsman wearing a pure white hero’s bandana tied around his forehead and fluttering a green martial robe.
It was Song Dae-geuk, the illegitimate son and fourth disciple of the Pine Martial Sect Leader.
“The Plum Blossom Divine… No. The Squad Leader seems to be thinking of attacking the Jeokho Stronghold right now.”
“…!”
“T-The Jeokho Stronghold?”
A few people who finally grasped the current situation were startled and gulped their saliva.
At the same time, a sense of anxiety soared.
“W-Will it be okay?”
“Attacking the Jeokho Stronghold without receiving any training is…”
It had been one day since the detached force was formed.
No, speaking accurately, it had not even been a day.
However, their heads were dizzy just from starting a mission right away, yet to think that mission was attacking one of the Green Forest’s strongholds.
At that moment.
“You’ve all rested now, right?”
Cheon-hwi appeared from among them.
‘When?!’
‘This cannot be!’
Yuk Se-gon and Song Dae-geuk swallowed their astonishment at Cheon-hwi’s mysterious footwork that had abruptly appeared.
However, without even paying attention to the two of them, Cheon-hwi examined the surroundings and opened his mouth.
“Now, then, shall we start working?”
Cheon-hwi spewed forth a deep blue eye light.
An eye light that was colder and more chilling than the north wind blowing right now.
* * *
“Are you saying a division occurred in the Mount Heng Stronghold.”
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader, who muttered softly, drank directly from the liquor bottle he was holding in his hand.
His insides were burning.
Just like his currently complicated head.
“Just what in the world happened here.”
He pressed on his throbbing head.
Until before, the Green Forest had been on a winning streak.
Since they had entered the Four Black Alliances and came to receive treatment comparable to the Five Imperial Sects.
However, that collapsed all at once.
‘To think the General Stronghold Leader would be defeated.’
It was an unbelievable matter.
The ones who attacked the Mount Hua Sect were the Green Forest Great Emperor and his elites. Even then, they had moved secretly and succeeded in the attack successfully.
Yet they were defeated.
On top of that, since the General Stronghold Leader was completely missing, it was natural for a division to occur in the main stronghold, the Mount Heng Stronghold.
‘Was it the Plum Blossom Divine Hero?’
His eyebrows twitched as he thought about the recent situation.
He had heard the rumors currently circulating in the streets, but he did not believe them.
No, he could not believe them.
He well knew the level of martial prowess of the Green Forest General Stronghold Leader, the Green Forest Great Emperor.
A peerless realm that could not be grasped with hands.
He was no different from a divine being.
Yet he was defeated by a young Taoist who had not even reached thirty years of age?
How could he believe it.
“…It’s complicated, complicated.”
As the furrow dug into his glabella gradually deepened.
“Stronghold Leader!”
Suddenly, the door was flung open.
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader, who was lost in thought, frowned as he looked at the subordinate who had abruptly appeared.
“What is it?”
The subordinate flinched and trembled at the Jeokho Stronghold Leader’s sharp gaze, but forcefully parted his quivering lips.
“I-It’s an attack!”
“An attack…? Who is it?”
“T-That cannot be known in detail, but among them, the attires of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang…”
“What?!”
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader suddenly stood up from his chair. Then, he pushed away the subordinate standing in front of the door and urgently went outside.
And he stiffened his face at the sight he saw.
It was because those who were swiftly climbing up the mountain path leading to the Jeokho Stronghold were not ordinary.
Restrained bearing, fast lightness arts.
He could confirm that they were all individuals who had properly learned martial arts.
‘Kunlun? Beggars’ Sect? And Qingcheng?’
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader’s eyebrows, who swiftly checked their attires, trembled faintly.
“Did they come from the Martial Alliance?”
He burst out in bewilderment.
The current Green Forest was affiliated with the Four Black Alliances.
However, the Martial Alliance attacking meant…
‘Are they thinking of starting a war?’
There was a thought that came to mind for a moment, but he shook his head.
Unless they were crazy, they could not do that.
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader bit his lips tightly and soon stomped forcefully.
Crunch!
Standing on the cliff above the mountain in a single breath while trampling the ground, he looked down at them.
And then he took a deep breath.
“What are you all doing right now!”
He erupted with a booming Lion’s Roar.
At that, the attackers who were rushing in unhesitatingly stopped for a moment.
“It’s noisy.”
An annoyed voice could be heard from there.
The Jeokho Stronghold Leader narrowed his glabella at that voice and looked at the one who spat out those words.
‘Mount Hua Sect?’
His eyebrows twitched.
‘Does coming from the Mount Hua Sect mean they are trying to take revenge?’
He immediately grasped the situation.
However, even so, he could not just let it pass.
“Attacking our main stronghold right now is the same act as attacking the Four Black Alliances. Is the Martial Alliance trying to wage a war with the Four Black Alliances?”
He, who purposely left out the matter between the Mount Hua Sect and the Green Forest, glared at the Mount Hua Sect Taoist, Cheon-hwi.
Just then, his mouth opened.
“Why is the information of these guys so late?”
A scathing voice knocked on his ears.
At the same time, one corner of the mouth of Cheon-hwi, who was staring at the Jeokho Stronghold Leader, twisted sharply.
“The war has already begun.”