Chapter 271: Chapter 271
“What happened to the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader?”
“He died.”
“What about the remaining remnants…”
Trivial questions and answers, no more or less than a simple report, went back and forth.
After about two quarters of time passed like that.
Tak.
Seol Geom put down the brush he held in his hand.
Looking at the paper where the ink had not yet dried, he slightly raised the corners of his mouth.
It was a faint smile tinged with satisfaction.
“You have worked hard.”
Speaking in a low voice, he pushed the paper covered densely with writing to one side.
And then he gazed at Cheon-hwi.
Cheon-hwi, sitting opposite him, had a quite bothered expression.
It was understandable.
Formal questions and answers with no great meaning.
Hadn’t they continued to repeat that?
Seol Geom feigned ignorance of Cheon-hwi’s inner thoughts and asked while gazing at him.
“How much time do you need until the next expedition?”
“I’m thinking of resting for about three or four days before going out again.”
As Cheon-hwi spoke, he recalled the Extermination Unit members.
Their condition was not very good.
Many personnel were in a state of having suffered stab wounds and internal injuries. In addition, the shock of their first real combat had shaken their hearts.
‘Treatment is one thing, but they need to gather their minds first.’
They needed time to brace their minds.
“Hmm, three or four days…”
Seol Geom grabbed his folding fan and fiddled with it.
It was a wartime situation where every moment was urgent.
Amidst that, three or four days was quite long.
Especially in the current situation where Jade Qilin’s detached force had not even been reorganized yet, the strength of Cheon-hwi and the Extermination Unit was even more necessary.
However, he soon nodded.
Because the authority to operate the Extermination Unit belonged not to him, but to Cheon-hwi right in front of him.
“I understand.”
Chwaak!
Seol Geom spread his folding fan wide open.
An ink painting drawn on the folding fan was revealed, and above it, the corners of his eyes curved.
“More importantly, what are your plans for the treatment of the Extermination Unit members? Will you visit the infirmary? Or should I send physicians separately to your pavilion?”
At Seol Geom’s question, Cheon-hwi opened his mouth with an expression asking why he was questioning something so obvious.
“Of course, it’s more convenient for them to come.”
“Then I will separately pass the word to the infirmary.”
Hearing the answer, Seol Geom folded his folding fan with a tak.
“Please tell me if there is anything you need. I will prepare what can be prepared as quickly as possible.”
“Oho, really?”
Cheon-hwi looked at Seol Geom and smiled broadly.
Oh my. Look at how full of greed he is.
His inner thoughts were transparently visible.
No, it seemed he had no intention of hiding them in the first place.
‘If that’s the case…’
Cheon-hwi looked at Seol Geom, whose eyes were sparkling with ambition, and slowly raised the corners of his mouth.
The opponent was trying to use him, so how could he just let it slide?
On the contrary, he planned to squeeze him dry.
Cheon-hwi immediately moved his mouth.
“Then, first of all, we need internal injury medicine and Golden Spear Medicine, and since the weather has gotten quite cold, cloaks and…”
He continuously poured out the items to be prepared.
Not only the absolute necessities, but everything up to the things he wanted just in case, even if they weren’t normally used.
“And it would be good to have salt as well. Since it would be better to cook our own food…”
When Seol Geom was turning pale from the feast of endless demands that were like a waterfall.
“…should be enough.”
Cheon-hwi finally finished speaking.
“Ha, haha. It’s quite a lot.”
Seol Geom, who had engraved the items Cheon-hwi asked to be prepared in his mind, smiled awkwardly as if it was not an easy task.
Cheon-hwi shrugged his shoulders at his reaction as if it were natural.
“Hey, lives are coming and going, so we might as well prepare thoroughly.”
After finishing his words, Cheon-hwi casually looked out the window and spoke.
“And you can prepare this much anyway, right? Even if you do all of that, it won’t cost as much money as that other detached force over there.”
Seol Geom looked out the window Cheon-hwi was looking at and silently nodded his head.
There were many items he asked to be prepared, but it wasn’t difficult to arrange them either.
Because the personnel of the Extermination Unit, even including Cheon-hwi, was only forty-three people at most.
Compared to Jade Qilin’s detached force, which was trying to fill a quota of five hundred people, it would be much easier.
‘This much is getting off cheap. But more than that…’
Seol Geom’s eyes became solemn.
The items he requested were all absolutely necessary for this raid operation.
There were even items he wouldn’t have known about if he hadn’t personally done this kind of work.
‘Has he ever done this kind of work before?’
The moment he harbored doubts and was about to fall into thought.
“By when can you prepare them?”
Cheon-hwi casually tossed the words.
“It would be good if it was fast, if possible.”
At the subsequent words, Seol Geom changed the direction of his thoughts and racked his brain to estimate an approximate time.
“It seems two days will be enough.”
It was the time squeezed out as much as possible.
However.
“It takes as much as two days?”
Cheon-hwi made a displeased expression.
‘What takes so long?’
In the Heavenly Demon Cult of his previous life, such items used to be presented right before his eyes immediately upon speaking.
‘Tsk tsk tsk, how carefree. So carefree.’
Clicking his tongue inwardly and shaking his head, he soon let out a small sigh.
“It’s a shame, but I suppose it can’t be helped.”
With those words, Cheon-hwi rose from his seat.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Please go safely.”
This time, when Seol Geom also didn’t hold him back and offered a greeting, Cheon-hwi casually looked at the roof.
And then he chuckled.
“It seems that rat ran away.”
“…”
At those words, Seol Geom sank into silence.
“Then I’ll see you next time.”
As if he hadn’t wanted an answer, Cheon-hwi left the room just like that.
Soon completely out of the pavilion, Cheon-hwi looked at the room where the oil lamp flickered.
‘They sure are a nuisance.’
His gazing eyes sank colder than the winter night air.
‘I suppose he’s still a Strategist. To assign a guy with ties to spies to be in exclusive charge of me, he used his head a bit.’
Recalling the Strategist, Cheon-hwi looked at the room becoming swallowed by darkness as the oil lamp went out, then soon withdrew his gaze and moved his steps.
* * *
The next morning.
Cheon-hwi, who had gotten a good night’s sleep for the first time in a while, got up from the bed and opened the closed window.
Warm sunlight seeped in.
Seueueu…
A contrasting cool wind blew in.
It was perfect winter weather.
Snow hadn’t fallen yet, but as if proving the current season, the wind was very cold.
It was then.
“Ha Ap!”
“Hap!”
Vigorous shouts rang out loudly.
Cheon-hwi looked down.
In the weed-grown garden, all the Extermination Unit members were diligently training.
Had they been training since early dawn?
The martial arts uniforms they wore and their hair were already covered in sweat and thoroughly soaked.
Cheon-hwi let out a chuckle.
‘Have they regained their senses a bit?’
Cheon-hwi, who had been watching them for a moment, took his eyes off the window and put on the Taoist robe he had hung on one side of the room before sleeping.
And he grabbed two swords.
Right after, he slipped out of the room door.
Only the sound of Cheon-hwi’s footsteps stepping into the quiet pavilion rang out loudly.
And a moment later, Cheon-hwi, having arrived at the garden, looked at them and parted his lips.
“What brings you to train since morning?”
“Squad Leader!”
“Have you awakened?”
A few people offered greetings to Cheon-hwi, and at the same time, a few people shrank their necks.
‘They’re still scared stiff.’
Cheon-hwi glanced at those stricken with fear, then turned his head and opened his mouth.
“Everyone seems anxious.”
Everyone’s bodies jolted for a moment.
It was because he hit the nail on the head.
‘Since their bodies became comfortable, it must have come to mind.’
The reason they had come outside from early dawn like this was simple.
When their bodies were tired, they hadn’t had the leeway to recall their first real combat, but after returning, receiving treatment, and taking a rest, their minds must have been complicated.
“Well, blindly swinging is better than doing nothing, but… it’s too inefficient.”
Cheon-hwi intently scanned them.
“I will help you train.”
With his words, he flicked his index finger.
“Come.”
An obvious provocation.
However, there was no one who moved.
Because they had already clearly seen Cheon-hwi’s martial prowess.
As everyone was standing awkwardly like that.
Taat!
There were those who braced their minds and rushed in.
It was none other than Danli Gwan-cheon, Ho Gwang-gae, and Mu Hong.
‘There’s no opportunity like this.’
‘To cross blows with the Plum Blossom Divine Hero, there’s nothing better than this!’
‘His martial prowess…’
A competitive spirit rose in their eyes.
“Good.”
Cheon-hwi spoke as if it were to his liking.
If there was no competitive spirit, a martial artist’s growth would just stop there.
To move forward, one had to have an attitude like these three who rushed in.
Danli Gwan-cheon gripped his wooden blade tightly.
‘One blade, I’ll bet everything on just one blade.’
As his thoughts were transmitted to his Lower Dantian, the internal energy of the Great Luo Divine Art boiled like fire.
Pure white steam spread in an instant.
The internal energy of the Great Luo Divine Art, which was circulating the Great Heavenly Circulation through his blood vessels, spread throughout his whole body.
Soon, as internal energy moved to his lower body.
Kwadeudeuk…
His muscles let out a scream.
The excessive internal energy of the Great Luo Divine Art caused his thighs and calves to swell to the fullest.
Was it because of that?
At the same time as severe pain arrived in his side where he had been struck by the Red Tiger Stronghold Leader, his Qi and blood showed an unstable flow, as if the internal injury that had somewhat stabilized had relapsed.
However, he did not stop.
He had to see a conclusion.
In a single blade.
Danli Gwan-cheon, who was advancing while unleashing the Drifting Clouds Leaping Float, took a large step forward with his left foot when he was just four zhang away from Cheon-hwi.
Kung.
Dust rose from his rough stomp.
At the same time, Danli Gwan-cheon’s upper body tilted sharply forward as if he was going to fall.
At that moment, his right hand disappeared.
It was a movement so fast that it brought about an illusion as if it had disappeared.
And a moment later.
Flash!
A dazzling ray of light cleaved the empty air.
The third form of the Wind Wind Surpassing Blade Art, Wind Thunder Blade.
The blade that appeared like thunder cutting through the wind aimed for Cheon-hwi’s neck in a single breath.
It was too dangerous to be called a spar, and it was a blade art laden with intense killing intent.
‘Reach him!’
Danli Gwan-cheon gritted his teeth.
But right then.
Seueuk…
Cheon-hwi’s eyes, which had been gazing forward, dropped straight down.
And at that moment.
Kwaang!
His vision blacked out.
“It was a good attack, but it had too little forethought for the aftermath.”
Cheon-hwi, who grabbed Danli Gwan-cheon’s head and smashed it into the ground, slightly turned his head with his words.
Hwik!
A sharp wooden sword brushed past.
Cheon-hwi quietly stared at Mu Hong, who swung the wooden sword, and moved his mouth.
“Aren’t you too late? If you were going to swing, you should have done it at the same time.”
The moment those words ended, Ho Gwang-gae abruptly appeared from behind and reached out his hand.
Hundred Knots Divine Palm.
The palm art of the Beggars’ Sect accurately aimed at Cheon-hwi’s back, which clearly exposed a gap.
Shortly after, the moment the palm touched his back.
‘Success…’
Ho Gwang-gae swallowed his breath.
Because his hand passed right through Cheon-hwi.
“Form Shift Illusion?!”
The moment he shouted.
“That just now was decent.”
A sound was heard from right behind him.
The surprised Ho Gwang-gae turned his head.
There, Cheon-hwi was extending his left palm with a smile on his lips.
“But if you wanted to launch a sneak attack, you should have hidden your presence like this.”
Peoeok!
Ho Gwang-gae’s waist bent like a sickle.
“Keok!”
When Ho Gwang-gae retreated backwards while grabbing his waist with his hand.
Peoeok!
Successive sounds were heard.
Cheon-hwi, who had somehow stuck to Mu Hong as fast as a flash of lightning, was holding a wooden sword.
“…W-When?!”
Mu Hong was terrified.
Because the wooden sword that had been in his own hand was now held in Cheon-hwi’s hand without anyone noticing.
It was so fast that if he hadn’t seen it, he wouldn’t have even known his wooden sword was taken.
“Was this the sword art you showed me last time?”
As he spoke, Cheon-hwi swung the wooden sword.
“What!”
Seeing that, Mu Hong lost his wits.
What he saw before his eyes was the sword art he had learned, the Mutual Injury Sword Art.
“What’s important in martial arts is not to imitate, but to embody it.”
Cheon-hwi’s words lingered in his ears.
And at that moment.
“Do not be swept away by martial arts, but dye it in your own way. Like this.”
Along with the words, a new sword art appeared that was not the Mutual Injury Sword Art he knew.
‘This is…’
The moment Mu Hong was looking at the sword art unfolding from Cheon-hwi’s hand with dazed eyes.
Peok!
Pain arrived in his head.
Cheon-hwi looked at Mu Hong, who fainted just like that, and rested the wooden sword on his shoulder.
After that, he stared at the frozen Extermination Unit members one by one, stretched out his index finger, and leisurely flicked it again.
“Now then, the others should come too.”