Chapter 107: The Sea of Death (3)
DUDUDUDU!
An inexplicable tremor. Panic-stricken, they turned around to see a dust storm rising like a towering tsunami.
“What? One quarter-shi hasn’t even passed yet!”
“That’s impossible…”
As Mao cried out in alarm, Gwa-pyeong tilted his head in equal bewilderment. There had never once been a deviation in timing.
Moreover, the more he surveyed the surroundings, the stranger it became. If it were a sandstorm, it should be blowing from all directions, not just surging from behind.
However…
“Don’t tell me.”
Jang I-seo and So-o simultaneously dropped flat on the ground and raised their qi senses.
DUDUDUDU!
Though muffled by the sand, the vibration was unmistakable.
The two lay flat, exchanged grave looks, then sprang to their feet simultaneously and shouted.
“Run!”
“Scatter!”
And the true identity of the sandstorm finally revealed itself.
DUDUDUDUDU!
[Not a single one escapes!]
NEIIIIGH!
Along with a Six-Harmony Sound Transmission, a cavalry unit burst through, tearing through even the sand-laden wind.
The Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry, their massive frames encased in iron armor, so overwhelming they parted even the sand itself!
The Maeng Family’s personal guard, boasting the greatest mobility in the Demonic Cult, said to have pierced even the blizzards of the Northern Sea, had appeared.
And naturally, at their forefront…
『Great Shattering Spear Technique, Ninth Form: Great Explosive Wave』
KWAGWAGWAGWAGWAANG!
A man thrust his black spear, erupting the ground in all directions like a geyser.
An overwhelming divine prowess, clad in iron armor atop a black horse!
The Third Elder, Maeng Cheol-yong, was there.
*
‘Damn it!’
How could he even describe this? To put it plainly, from thirty meters away, root-like dark lines spread across the ground in thousands of branches, and KWAGWAGWAGWAANG! they detonated in sequence from the point of origin, shooting toward them.
Devastation triggered by a single spear thrust.
And all he had done was leap atop his horse, crash down, and drive his black spear into the earth.
Strictly speaking, the spear tip hadn’t even touched the ground. The emitted demonic qi had burrowed underground and detonated the earth from within.
‘So this is the skill of a man counted among the top ten in the Demonic Cult. Truly overwhelming.’
Thanks to that, Jang I-seo activated the Thunder Circulation Method without a moment’s hesitation.
There were many eyes watching, but this was no time to distinguish between cold and hot rice.
‘If we stay like this, we all die.’
BZZZT! The moment his pure demonic qi transformed into lightning qi, Jang I-seo’s form shot forward like a bolt. He scooped up Mao, who had been standing within the explosion’s range, in a single motion.
“Uwaaah!”
Then he shoved aside Gwa-pyeong, who had been standing slack-jawed in bewilderment, saving him too.
KWAGWAGWAANG!
Explosions engulfed the surroundings.
“Are you alright?”
Through the rain of falling sand, Jang I-seo extended a hand to Gwa-pyeong and asked. Looking around, it was an utter pandemonium.
The area swept by the single strike was completely obliterated.
The earth was cracked as if stricken by drought, and the piled sand had been scattered and blown away.
And this was the work of a single technique.
The word “earth-shattering” wasn’t enough.
Of course, to Gwa-pyeong, who didn’t know martial artists well, Jang I-seo was equally astounding.
‘What the hell are these people? First he saves me like a lightning bolt. Now the earth is exploding. Is this even possible?’
Fear and gratitude struck simultaneously. He swallowed hard, took the hand, and stood up.
He had nearly paid off his life debt only to incur another. Damn it.
“Be careful. He’s no ordinary opponent.”
“Uh, right.”
Jang I-seo patted Gwa-pyeong’s shoulder and surveyed the front again.
The monster astride the massive black horse, staring their way. Maeng Cheol-yong.
As he raised his hand, dozens of Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalrymen lined up on either side, ready to charge.
‘Myo Chae-gyeong… To think you’d drag in even the Third Elder. Do you have no conscience whatsoever?’
Jang I-seo clenched his jaw.
The Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry’s imposing presence, like a storm cloud, made anyone shrink just from seeing it.
Moreover, at roughly three times the size of a pony, from head to saddle to hooves. Warhorses clad in top-grade iron armor.
They had pushed through the restrictive terrain of the desert with sheer brute strength and endurance, bearing all that heavy weight.
At this level, it was nothing short of awe-inspiring.
Charging in recklessly would mean absolute defeat.
“Hey, Adjutant Jang. Isn’t it too much to save everyone but me? I was waiting, you know.”
He probably dodged first instead of waiting. So-o approached, covered in black scorch marks. Mao and Gwa-pyeong stood alongside him.
And.
[Capture them!]
With the Third Elder’s Six-Harmony Sound Transmission.
DUDUDUDUDU!
The Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry began their fierce charge once more.
“Run!”
The group turned and sprinted toward the Nine Dragon Fortress.
The remaining distance was roughly two hundred and ten meters.
[Don’t let them escape!]
The Third Elder’s sound transmission echoed ceaselessly from behind, and the cavalry closed the gap to breathing distance in just a few breaths.
Jang I-seo quickly assessed the situation.
‘The entrance to the fortress is in the ground.’
He understood now why Gwa-pyeong had said it was over once they got inside.
The tower rose like a solid block of scrap iron with no visible entrance, and some distance away, a pair of iron doors lay wide open in the ground.
Simply put, passing through those underground doors was the only way to reach the actual gates of the Nine Dragon Fortress.
So once those iron doors closed and the sandstorm blanketed the surface, there was no way in.
The problem was.
‘At this speed, we’ll be caught before we’re even halfway there. I need to stall for time somehow.’
But how?
A deep shadow fell over Jang I-seo’s face.
Given the remaining time, he needed to hold out for at least one quarter-shi more.
And the Third Elder was a master of such towering realm that he could never defeat him with his current abilities.
Fending off both him and the Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry simultaneously was preposterous.
Of course…
That didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.
Dash!
Jang I-seo spun like a top and slammed a kick into the head of the charging warhorse that had closed to point-blank range.
BAM!
NEIIIIGH!
The vanguard crumpled along with its horse. Instantly, Jang I-seo leapt sideways like lightning and landed on the back of another cavalryman.
“N-no!”
The panicked cavalryman glanced left and right behind him. But recognizing it changed nothing.
“Uwaaagh!”
Jang I-seo seized him by the back of the neck and hurled him backward. CRASH! He collided with another pursuing cavalryman, and both tumbled simultaneously. Then Jang I-seo immediately settled into the saddle, grabbed the reins, and squeezed the horse’s flanks with his inner thighs.
NEIIIIGH!
Ordinarily, a warhorse would be impossible to control without its master, but this was a battlefield overflowing with tension. Without even registering its changed rider, the warhorse galloped at full speed.
Next, he thrust his right hand toward another cavalryman riding ahead.
『White Thunder』
Flash! Black lightning shot forth and THWACK! pierced straight through the cavalryman’s back. Instant death.
“Gwa-pyeong!”
At Jang I-seo’s shout, Gwa-pyeong frantically glanced sideways and leapt atop the riderless horse.
Done. Success.
Jang I-seo immediately retrieved White Thunder and, riding his mount, took down another cavalryman.
One cue after another.
This time, So-o nimbly mounted and pulled Mao onto his back.
Though their horsemanship was inferior to the enemy’s, stalling just a little longer would see them safely to the Nine Dragon Fortress.
‘Phew…’
The moment Jang I-seo exhaled in relief and turned to check behind him.
BAM!
A horrific sound of flesh splitting, followed by CRASH!
“Kuh!”
The horse he rode collapsed powerlessly, tumbling across the ground.
Executing a breakfall, Jang I-seo narrowly avoided serious injury. On one knee, covered in dust, he surveyed his surroundings.
And he realized.
The warhorse he had been riding was gone without a trace. Only the shattered remains of its hide were scattered like fragments.
And before him.
“Third Elder…”
An absolute master looking down at him impassively, blocking out the sun.
The master of the Maeng Family and the third Elder of the Demonic Cult.
The Divine Spear Demon, Maeng Cheol-yong.
He was there.
*
As Jang I-seo looked up at him, Maeng Cheol-yong, looking down, was inwardly shocked in more ways than one, despite his composed exterior.
‘So it’s you.’
Jang I-seo. He didn’t even need to ask who he was. He instinctively knew this was the man he had been searching for.
The troublemaker Seventh Young Master’s adjutant.
A half-talent who had been nothing more than a Seventh Grade Ghost.
The value Maeng Cheol-yong remembered from the personnel records was just that much. Trash that could be disposed of at any time. A lowborn wretch draped in ill-fitting silk. Nothing more, nothing less.
And yet his son had fallen completely for such a worthless wretch and gotten himself kidnapped. How could he not be furious?
However.
‘This one… he’s the real deal.’
Maeng Cheol-yong was a powerhouse who sat at the very pinnacle not just of the Demonic Cult but of the entire Central Plains.
Such a man would never fail to recognize true worth when he saw Jang I-seo’s divine prowess.
Swift situational judgment backed by commensurate skill.
And that gaze, unwavering even while facing him directly, already calculating the next move.
Everything about him proclaimed that Jang I-seo was genuine.
Not an adjutant who had gotten lucky, but a strongman worthy of the Third Grade Ghost rank.
That was when it began.
When he started feeling that something was off.
“A pleasure to meet you. I am Adjutant Jang I-seo.”
Maeng Cheol-yong suppressed his fury completely and asked in a heavy voice.
“How old are you?”
Hm? Jang I-seo narrowed his eyes.
Was it a Demonic Cult custom to ask someone’s age after exchanging greetings, just like Ji Dae-ho had done?
Instead of answering, Jang I-seo swallowed and scanned his surroundings with peripheral vision. He was already surrounded on all sides by the Maeng Armor Ghost Horse Cavalry. Fortunately, his companions seemed to have escaped safely. Now he just needed to look after himself…
PA-PA-PA-PAT!
“Hup!”
Right at that moment. In the brief moment he took his eyes off, sharp energies embedded themselves like arrows around where he stood.
Looking down at the ground, ten holes had been punched deep, like bottomless pits.
Maeng Cheol-yong had unleashed the second form, the Ten-Light Wave, in that brief span of time. Had he been targeting Jang I-seo, his body would already have been riddled with holes.
There was only one choice available.
“Twenty-eight.”
Jang I-seo offered a friendly smile and answered politely. A gesture to get along. A shrewd survival tactic befitting a spy.
Unfortunately, Maeng Cheol-yong was not Ji Dae-ho.
“That will be your age at death.”
Conversation over.
Crrrk!
Maeng Cheol-yong twisted his grip on the spear shaft and spun it.
Inhale! Jang I-seo could tell from the hand shape alone what technique this was. It was the very form Maeng Hwi had been practicing tirelessly at the Seventh Small Palace.
『Great Shattering Spear Technique, First Form: Wind Dragon Wave』
FWOOOOSH!
The moment he drew the spear back, a massive whirlwind began swirling around it.
‘The moment it touches the wind, you’ll be torn to shreds beyond recognition.’
The rotational force was so powerful that it was nearly impossible to block. Jang I-seo’s mind raced like wildfire.
‘Once initiated, the direction cannot be changed mid-course. The wind travels only toward its designated target point. So… if I dodge ahead of time, I can survive.’
He had already observed the Wind Dragon Wave multiple times.
With a mind like Jang I-seo’s, while he couldn’t fully counter it, identifying its characteristics was not difficult.
The moment of activation. He just needed to catch that exact moment.
And that was… now!