Chapter 267: Chapter 267
‘The war had already started?’
At Cheon-hwi’s words containing ridicule, the face of the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader was dyed with bewilderment.
However, he soon swallowed his bewilderment and shouted with a confident attitude.
“The Martial Alliance is crazy. To wage war against the Four Black Alliances when the Flying Heaven Society has its eyes wide open!”
His lion’s roar echoed.
But among the attackers, no one listened to his words.
‘A real war…!’
When he was astonished, finally realizing that the Martial Alliance had really drawn their swords.
“Is everyone ready?”
Cheon-hwi opened his mouth while looking at the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader who had an unbelieving gaze.
“Let’s go.”
Cheon-hwi’s command fell, but most of the lined-up detachment members could not easily step forward, nervous from their first real battle.
At that time, one person dashed forward.
Paat!
The one who advanced at a fearsome speed, tearing through the air, was Danli Gwancheon.
In the hand of Danli Gwancheon, who was unfolding Drifting Clouds Leaping Float, a Qingcheng Sect light footwork passed down through history, a bizarre blade with a thin blade body was grasped.
“……!”
The Green Forest bandit, who was hiding behind the wooden fence and observing the situation, flinched and shrunk his neck.
It was because he was overwhelmed by Danli Gwancheon’s fierce momentum as he narrowed the distance like a shooting arrow.
Tak.
A moment later, Danli Gwancheon, who arrived at the wooden fence, forcefully swung the blade in his hand.
Wind Wind Surpassing Blade Art!
The pinnacle blade art most secretly passed down in the Qingcheng Sect was revealed to the world.
In an instant, a gust of wind coiled around the blade body.
Soon, a sharp blade light flashed.
Seogeok!
The blade wind containing terrible killing intent cut the wooden fence long in a diagonal line.
“Heup!”
“The wooden fence was this easily…!”
The Green Forest bandits hiding behind the slowly collapsing wooden fence were startled.
“…There are still many.”
Danli Gwancheon, who climbed on the cut wooden fence, muttered lowly.
Perhaps because there were quite a few people hiding behind the wooden fence, the number of Green Forest bandits revealed by the attack just now was more than expected.
“It will take a long time.”
Around the time he glared at the Green Forest bandits.
‘Escape? No, it’s already too late to escape. If so…’
The Red Tiger Stronghold Leader also quickly scanned them and tried to grasp the enemy’s military power.
And shortly after, a smile hovered around his mouth as he reached a conclusion.
‘…It seems the Martial Alliance was quite in a hurry to suddenly wage a war.’
His crumbled composure revived again.
The enemy was barely over forty people.
And most of them were young.
At least a few were exuding an extraordinary momentum, but…
‘They are all greenhorns.’
His eyes looked at those whose hands were trembling as if slightly nervous, and he shouted loudly.
“Kill those bastards!”
The Red Tiger Stronghold Leader’s lion’s roar echoed.
In an instant, the Green Forest bandits scattered like a fan shape and moved in perfect order.
Tadadat!
They skillfully formed a formation.
The detachment members, who were awkwardly standing at the fast movements unbefitting of mountain bandits, instantly had their bodies stiffen.
They had implicitly ignored them as mere mountain bandits, but their movements just now were truly surprising.
“It wasn’t for nothing that the Green Forest belonged to the Four Black Alliances.”
At that sight, Ho Gwang-gae furrowed his brows.
“Is it a siege defense…? If it becomes like this, it will be quite difficult.”
Mu Hong carefully drew his sword and muttered.
Usually, siege defense was easier than siege offense.
Especially since they were people who had continued to establish their base here for a long time, they would lead the battlefield even more advantageously.
“Gulp-“
Someone swallowed their saliva at the tension that became taut like a thread as if pulled from both sides.
‘We lost in suppressing their spirit.’
Cheon-hwi shook his head side to side.
Unlike the detachment members who only examined the Green Forest bandits while doing nothing out of nervousness, the Green Forest bandits were preparing the best attack at the optimal location.
‘This is why real combat experience is needed.’
Because they were not only deprived of an advantageous position but also pushed back in momentum.
‘Still, isn’t it serious?’
Cheon-hwi frowned.
Except for the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader, the individual martial prowess of the detachment members was ahead.
Even so, they were in a completely intimidated state.
‘I’ll have to fix their mentalities first.’
Cheon-hwi, who narrowed his eyes, spoke towards them who were still standing still.
“What are you doing? Not going.”
Cheon-hwi, who looked at them with a pathetic gaze, lightly shook his head.
“Now is the chance to establish merit, are you just going to spectate here?”
Cheon-hwi scanned them one by one, and soon smacked his lips while looking at Danli Gwancheon.
“At this rate, all the merit will be stolen.”
As soon as those words ended, Danli Gwancheon, who trampled the broken wooden fence, charged at the Green Forest bandits.
Ta-at!
A violently blowing gust of wind.
Danli Gwancheon advanced without hesitation towards the Green Forest bandits who formed a formation, properly mixing Drifting Clouds Leaping Float and the Wind Wind Surpassing Blade Art.
“Damn it!”
“Shit!”
The Green Forest bandits urgently blocked him.
However, they had no choice but to helplessly collapse at the attack of Danli Gwancheon, who had reached the pinnacle realm even among the up-and-coming stars.
Kwaaang!
The gazes of the members who saw the appearance of Danli Gwancheon performing a great active role suddenly changed.
Why did they enter the detachment?
It was to establish brilliant merit and gain great fame in Jianghu.
“I can’t lose.”
“I should go.”
Ho Gwang-gae and Mu Hong, who shined their eye light, kicked off the ground and advanced, and the others also chased after them and charged.
The detachment members rushed at the Green Forest bandits who surrounded them.
Jjeojeojeojeong! Ka-ang!
Fierce fierce battles unfolded in all directions.
Cheon-hwi, who saw the detachment members clashing with the surrounding Green Forest bandits, shined his eyes.
“Then shall I check their skills one by one?”
* * *
The fight between the two forces was fierce.
The detachment tried to pressure the Green Forest bandits by showing off the martial prowess they had, but piercing through them who formed a formation was not an easy task.
Especially, the Green Forest bandits did not care about the means and methods in attacking, like mountain bandits.
They scattered dirt or threw broken wooden fences to block their vision, and occasionally threw hidden weapons to interfere with their charge.
“Such cowards!”
“Heok!”
“And you call yourselves martial artists?!”
And the detachment members flinched every time at such unexpected actions.
It was because such a type of attack was a first for them, who had always only engaged in honest martial arts competitions and sparring.
However, even amidst that, there were people performing surprising active roles.
They were the disciples of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang.
Not to mention Danli Gwancheon who went out solo, the disciples of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang including Ho Gwang-gae and Mu Hong were showing off their martial prowess and pressuring the Green Forest bandits.
And one of them.
Yuk Se-gon, a disciple of Kunlun, was wrinkling his brow while looking at the Green Forest bandit in front of his eyes.
“Heup!”
Yuk Se-gon, who took the lead and attacked the Green Forest bandit, dripped sweat from his forehead.
‘Why can’t I pierce through…?’
He had clearly unfolded his martial arts with full power, but he was failing to pierce through the encirclement of the Green Forest bandits.
The martial art he unfolded was the Cloud Chasing Fist linked with the Divine Movement Trace-losing Footwork, a concise yet powerful fist art.
His martial brothers and sisters had also failed to properly respond to this attack in sparring and often fell victim to it.
But now it was all being blocked.
And to mere mountain bandits at that.
‘To such mere guys…’
He felt anxious and muttered inwardly.
The opponent was at best in the third-rate realm, and the difference with himself, who was first-rate, was obvious.
But what kind of sight was this now.
He couldn’t pierce through a single person.
When he gently bit his lower lip at the incomprehensible situation.
“S-senior martial brother!”
An urgent voice was heard from the side.
The moment the surprised Yuk Se-gon turned his head.
Seugeok!
A burning pain was felt on his forearm.
“Keuk!”
Yuk Se-gon, who let out a short moan, urgently struck the back of his left hand upwards from below.
Ppagak!
“Keoheok!”
As the Jade Dragon Palm accurately struck the chin of the Green Forest bandit who swung the sickle, the Green Forest bandit kneeled right as he was.
“A-are you okay?”
When Cheol-ho approached with concern, Yuk Se-gon endured the pain and nodded.
“I’m okay. More than that, the other people…”
He, who was about to speak, frowned.
“…He endured that?”
Because the Green Forest bandit who had kneeled after getting hit on the chin was getting up.
“I expected somewhat since it’s Kunlun, but he’s no good either.”
Cheon-hwi, who was watching Yuk Se-gon’s fight from a distance, held a ridicule.
“This is why flowers in a greenhouse are no good.”
Cheon-hwi, who thought it was a sight of bringing danger upon oneself, clicked his tongue, saying tsk tsk.
Right now, Yuk Se-gon had unfolded a martial art sufficient to kill the opponent, but instinctively showed mercy in his hand speed at the last moment.
Was that all.
Perhaps because it was his first real battle, his muscles stiffened and his posture was disheveled every time he unfolded a martial art.
And as a result, he couldn’t unfold a proper martial art, and it was warped.
Moreover, in this sense of urgency, they didn’t even realize their own mistakes.
It was this much because the opponent was at least weak; if they were even a little stronger, Yuk Se-gon would not have avoided death.
‘But this isn’t just one or two people.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes narrowed.
It was not only Yuk Se-gon.
Except for a few, everyone was hesitating to kill the opponent.
On the contrary, the Green Forest bandits launched attacks overflowing with murderous intent to kill them.
And that difference was huge.
‘They turn a winning fight into this.’
Cheon-hwi’s eyes sank coldly.
It was a truly laughable sight.
“They are a rabble. A rabble.”
What use is it if one’s martial arts are high and strong.
There was no more fatal weakness than this for a martial artist walking the path of life and death.
It was when he was examining them one by one like that.
“Hm?”
Cheon-hwi’s gaze got stuck on a woman who was struggling against the Green Forest bandits.
She was the woman he had selected first as a detachment member.
‘She said her name was Im Ha Yul, right?’
Her martial prowess could be said to be the lowest among the detachment members.
That was naturally so, as she was a person who had learned martial arts from the Jinmu Pavilion, not a disciple of a proper sect, so her skills were bound to be shallow.
At least her basics were faithful, so she was able to join the detachment by a hair’s breadth.
As if proving that, right now her entire body was riddled with wounds.
Her hair, which used to be long down to her waist, was already cut to her neck, and the martial uniform she wore was already cut here and there.
The most miserable state among the detachment members.
However, Cheon-hwi rated her highly. Her basics were faithful, but there was one big reason he rated her highly.
It was the ambition residing right in her pupils.
‘Kids like her achieve something.’
At the time when Cheon-hwi was looking at her with shining eyes.
Peo-eok!
“Ugh!”
Her sword, having purposely given up her abdomen to the Green Forest bandit’s palm art, accurately stabbed and pierced the neck of the charging opponent.
Puk!
Blood splattered and covered her.
“Heok, heok.”
She, who was covered in the Green Forest bandit’s blood in an instant, inhaled and exhaled a short breath.
Her hand trembled faintly.
It was the first murder she committed.
The resulting shock was enough to shake her mind, but she bit her lower lip tightly and braced her heart.
‘Snap out of it!’
She shouldn’t be shaken to this extent.
Would there be another chance for her, merely from a martial arts pavilion, to obtain such a position!
Because of how hard she bit, at that moment blood streamed down from her lip.
Kkwa-ak!
She, who put strength into her shivering hand, shouted to herself in her heart.
‘I must unconditionally succeed in this mission!’
She, who suppressed the confusion and shock rising inside, raised her nerves.
Here was a battlefield.
Seueuk-
She, who pulled out the sword from the corpse’s neck, lifted her head and scanned the surroundings.
‘It’s dangerous in this state.’
The detachment’s advance was sluggish.
The only places with quite a bit of progress were where Danli Gwancheon broke through and the side where Ho Gwang-gae and Mu Hong were combining their strength.
But the other places were in a state of being stopped right there without even advancing.
She, who grasped the situation, shouted.
“Everyone must unite as one! If we fight recklessly like this, it might eventually end in our defeat!”
At her sudden outburst, the detachment members who were helplessly suffering attacks flinched and turned their heads.
‘Even in this state, such eyes…’
Im Ha Yul’s brow furrowed.
Because their gazing stares were implicitly looking down on her.
It was perhaps a natural thing.
All of them had already grasped most of the martial prowess while running here.
Therefore, they well knew that Im Ha Yul’s martial prowess was in the lower ranks among the detachment members.
But since she was saying words no different from a command, how could it be pleasing.
At the time when they were reacting sensitively.
“Hahaha! Miss Im’s words are correct!”
Ho Gwang-gae laughed heartily and said.
After doing so for a moment, he shined his eyes, approached next to Im Ha Yul, and stood side by side.
“How about uniting as one? If we needlessly scatter, it will rather turn out exactly as they wish, so it seems there will be a possibility if we do a single point breakthrough.”
Those who were unhappy with Ho Gwang-gae’s proposal inevitably nodded their heads and united as one in a single breath.
‘Oh, that’s not bad.’
Cheon-hwi stroked his chin, looking at Ho Gwang-gae who acknowledged Im Ha Yul’s words and refreshed the situation.
The more one belonged to a great sect, the more they had a tendency to implicitly look down on other sects.
Even worse, how would it be if their affiliation wasn’t even a sect but a martial arts pavilion.
Most were bound to ignore it.
But by Ho Gwang-gae, a beggar of the Beggars’ Sect, which was one of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang, acknowledging Im Ha Yul, the members accepted those words without anyone feeling uncomfortable.
‘The two of them changed the atmosphere.’
Cheon-hwi, who recalled Im Ha Yul’s shout and Ho Gwang-gae’s handling, lightly cleared his throat.
“I should make one of those two a vice squad leader and put them together. And as for another vice squad leader, is it only that guy.”
Cheon-hwi’s pupils moved to the side.
At the end of that gaze, there was Danli Gwancheon mercilessly cutting down the Green Forest bandits.
Kwaaang!
A rough explosion sound knocked on the ears.
Danli Gwancheon was vigorously advancing while shooting out his internal energy.
Seugeok! Chwaaak!
He swung his blade without hesitation.
One life per one blade stroke.
He had no reluctance in killing people. The unhesitating offensive looked as resolute as it was cold.
Chwaaak!
Blood splattered on Danli Gwancheon’s face.
However, he swung his blade toward the Green Forest bandits with an offensive that did not waver in the slightest.
At some point like that.
Jjeo-eong!
His unhesitating blade stopped abruptly.
It was not out of his own will but from another’s.
Danli Gwancheon slowly looked up at the person who struck away his blade with a palm.
A muscular man with a giant physique.
It was the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader.
“Like a foal-like bastard…”
The Red Tiger Stronghold Leader, who lightly shook off his numb hand, opened his eyes glaringly and muttered.
“Doing as you please ends here.”
Along with the words, the clothes he wore seemed to shake, and then his fist became gigantic.
“……!”
Danli Gwancheon’s eyes widened.
It was a tremendous fist shadow.
An offensive bearing such a superlative momentum that it was hard to believe it was unfolded by a mere mountain bandit.
‘They said Jianghu was wide…!’
He, who recalled the words his master said every time, drew out all the internal energy of the Great Luo Divine Art.
Hwaaak!
This time, the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader’s eyes widened.
‘For an up-and-coming star to have such internal energy!’
The Red Tiger Stronghold Leader gritted his teeth.
In an instant, the muscles on his jaw stood out, and at that moment, Danli Gwancheon’s blade moved like lightning.
Kwaaaaang!
The fist wrapped in internal energy and the blade wrapped in a gust of wind crashed toward each other in the empty air.
The two, who were glaring at each other while clashing the fist and blade in the air, shot out their internal energy.
“This bastard…!”
“Ha Ap!”
When the two, unable to resolve the intense internal energy collision, stepped back to the rear.
“Since I’ve seen everything there is to see now…”
Cheon-hwi got up from his seat.
“Shall I do some cleaning up?”