Chapter 243: The World Doesn't Change (5)
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Rumble!
With an explosion, pitch-black dust clouds rose.
Flash! Flash!
Thunder qi traversing various parts of the clouds emitted an intimidating glow.
Azure Tiger, who was about to attack again, quickly stepped back. It was an extremely elastic movement, but his body had already reached its limit.
‘This can’t be.’
Fluster was cast in Azure Tiger’s two eyes, which were full of fierce killing intent like a beast.
‘Was the Clan Head of the Six Great Clans this strong?!’
Murong Jun’s martial arts were truly amazing enough to make one’s mouth drop open.
It is known that the martial arts of White Rat, the eldest among the Twelve Earthly Branches and the one who served Yang Cheon the longest, are capable of rivaling the Clan Head of the Six Great Clans.
However, it wasn’t that there was no one among the other Twelve Earthly Branches who approached White Rat’s martial power. Representatively, Ox, Dragon, Sheep, and himself, Tiger, were like that.
‘It’s different.’
Azure Tiger lowered his posture.
‘I don’t know the exact level of an actual Clan Head of the Six Great Clans’ martial arts. But it’s clear that Murong Jun’s martial arts are at an exceptional level even among them.’
Paaaaak!
The dust cloud split in half, and a streak of blue lightning struck towards Water Dragon.
“Eek!”
Kwareung!
The lightning sword strike that grazed Water Dragon’s sleeve smoothly split a quite large rock in half.
When it came to evasion ability, Water Dragon was superior even to Azure Tiger and Mad Dog. The power and speed of the sword strike were so great that even such Water Dragon was busy dodging, let alone counterattacking.
‘What on earth is that.’
Paaaaang!
Azure Tiger, who jumped in like a tiger that found prey, swung his Tiger Iron Claws.
‘What on earth are those martial arts!’
Murong Jun’s eyes flashed.
Kwaang!
“Keuk!”
Azure blue light scattered as if breaking on Azure Tiger’s body, who bounced back while vomiting blood.
Azure Tiger, who hurriedly tried to get up, suddenly bent his upper body.
“Blargh!”
It was a massive vomiting of blood.
The Tiger Iron Claws, which ridiculously split even iron plates, couldn’t make a single scratch on Murong Jun’s internal energy barrier. Rather, the one who suffered internal injuries from the lightly struck palm force was Azure Tiger.
‘Fearsome!’
He couldn’t believe there were such martial arts in the world.
“Truly…….”
Murong Jun frowned.
“Truly annoying things. If nothing else, I have to acknowledge your tenacity.”
Azure Tiger had good stamina, Water Dragon was good at evasion, and Mad Dog had a good eye for aiming at loopholes.
If he hadn’t cultivated the ancient absolute arts, the Thunder God Art and the Heartless Heaven Thunder Style, he would have suffered a great failure.
If it were a one-on-one decisive battle, the Heaven and Earth Martial Resolutions, which was the Clan Head’s learning, would also not fall greatly behind the Thunder God Art. However, in a chaotic battle like this, the Thunder Qi itself could pose a psychological threat to the enemies.
That was the reason Murong Jun could afford to be relaxed while dealing with three peak masters.
‘They are holding out better than expected.’
Murong Jun glanced up at the sky.
‘I wonder if this is enough.’
The sunset, which had turned red at some point, was slowly crossing beyond the darkness. With this much, the Operations Group must have also escaped a significant portion of the Black Dragon Manor’s sphere of influence.
‘Yeon Ho-jeong.’
Murong Jun frowned.
‘He knew I would cover his back no matter what trick he played…… Ha!’
He couldn’t know what kind of guys he co-opted to inflict a blow on the Black Dragon Manor. Well, if he set his mind to it, gathering people wouldn’t have been that difficult.
‘He intends to make our clan and the Black Dragon Manor enemies?’
Isn’t he a truly bold bastard.
He had admired him a few times before, but he really hadn’t expected this attack this time at all. He couldn’t even entertain the thought that he would deceive him in the first place.
‘He intends to reduce the influence of our clan in Hunan, is that it?’
Even Yeon Ho-jeong would know that the Murong Clan wouldn’t collapse with this level of trickery.
It wasn’t because the Murong Clan’s power was stronger than the Black Dragon Manor. At least for now, the Black Dragon Manor couldn’t touch the Murong Clan.
Touching the Murong Clan was no different from a declaration of war against the Murim Alliance. It would be a different story if their strengths were equal, but unless that was the case, the Black Dragon Manor could never overreach.
However, since he inflicted a blow on the Black Dragon Manor using the name of Murong, the Black Dragon Manor would also have no choice but to keep a close eye on the Murong Clan.
If that happens, the Murong Clan won’t be able to strut around like they have so far. Because they always have to calculate where the Black Dragon Manor might strike from.
Instilling that anxiety of ‘just in case’.
A large sect with the scale of the Murong Clan could suffer great restrictions and damage just with that alone.
‘But you know.’
The corners of Murong Jun’s mouth rose.
‘It hurt quite a bit, but we won’t stagger with just this much.’
He had to clash with the Black Dragon Manor once anyway. It’s enough to think that the timing was just moved forward a bit.
However, there was one thing he was puzzled about.
‘Does he also think this much is enough?’
He wasn’t certain there.
Is it really over here? Or will another attack he never even thought of come in?
“Dog-like bastard.”
Mad Dog ground his teeth furiously.
“You dare to attack the headquarters? You must have gone crazy wanting to die!”
Murong Jun answered leisurely.
“Well, I don’t know. Orthodox and Unorthodox are hard to coexist anyway, so is there anything new about it?”
“This bastard!”
“Come to think of it, whether the Black Dragon Manor disappears or our clan disappears, it seems that’s not something you should care about.”
Jiiiiiiiing!
Fearsome Thunder Qi was emitted from Murong Jun’s sword blade. It was a power twice as strong as what he had used so far.
Horror dwelled on the faces of the three people who saw that sight.
Murong Jun spoke with a cold face.
“Because I plan to bury you all here.”
He swung his sword vigorously.
Water Dragon shouted.
“Dodge!”
Flash!
A deep blue sword light flew towards the three people drawing a huge crescent moon.
The density of power, the speed of the slash, the range of internal energy emission, etc., were on a different dimension from before. Even if they tried to dodge in advance, the speed at which the sword strike rushed in was too fast, making evasion itself difficult.
‘Damn it!’
Failure dwelled on Azure Tiger’s face.
‘So that’s how it was!’
This attack is a sure-kill attack. In other words, after using this level of sword strike, a gap is bound to occur.
The reason Murong Jun hadn’t unfolded this sword until now was probably to drastically reduce the reaction speed of the three people.
Actually, even while watching the sword strike approaching right up to his nose, Azure Tiger didn’t dare to dodge. Because his body wasn’t normal.
‘Fucking hell.’
Azure Tiger tightly closed his two eyes.
‘Forgive the disloyalty of this subject who goes first without being able to serve you further……!’
It was then.
Pashak! Puuuuck!
Along with a chilling sound of flesh tearing, a sound of something falling with a thud was heard.
Azure Tiger opened his eyes.
Horror was cast on his and Mad Dog’s faces.
“……Because he was a guy who dodged well like a rat. Since I caught that one guy, the fight will become twice as easy.”
Murong Jun tapped his sword blade and caught his breath. As Azure Tiger guessed, this sword strike was a martial art that consumed so much internal energy that it was burdensome to use consecutively.
But there was a gain.
Pusheuk! Pusheuk!
The lower half of Water Dragon, whose upper body had entirely flown off, spurted blood and soon collapsed.
It wasn’t a slash but a stab. From the beginning, Murong Jun’s target was Water Dragon, who was skilled at evasive maneuvers.
“……!!”
Azure Tiger and Mad Dog felt a chill down their spines.
“You guys shouldn’t run away. No, you shouldn’t run away. Am I not your enemy?”
Pajijijik.
Intimidating Thunder Qi spread out from Murong Jun’s body.
Because it was right after unleashing an explosive strike, he was temporarily unable to perfectly control his internal energy. However, that sight rather presented even greater fear to Azure Tiger and Mad Dog.
“Now, shall we start the second round?”
Azure Tiger ground his teeth.
“Mad Dog.”
“……What?”
“I will stall for time somehow. Return to the Manor and request reinforcements.”
“Don’t bullshit me.”
“Mad Dog!”
“Do you think it’s possible to run away in the first place? Don’t you see that crazy bastard’s internal energy? The moment you run away, you die.”
Mad Dog growled.
“Whether it becomes porridge or rice, we have to settle it here.”
Azure Tiger nodded with a stiff face.
“Good. Let’s see the end here.”
It was then.
Peeeeeeong!
With an explosion from the riverbank far to the west, a terrible scream echoed. The troops of the Murong Clan and the units under the Twelve Earthly Branches were engaging in a life-or-death struggle.
Of course, the fight had been ongoing from before. However, this explosion was exceptionally loud.
Mad Dog spat out curses.
“This son of a bitch! Did you even prepare explosives?! You shameless bastard! Fine, even if I die today, I must take one of your arms…….”
Mad Dog, who was continuing his words, frowned.
Murong Jun’s face was unusual. His two eyes looking to the west were colored with shock.
“……Mu-yeon?”
The troops of the Murong Clan deployed on the road leading to the river and mountains did not have explosives.
Getting explosives is a difficult task in the first place. Moreover, they were merely sacrificial lambs for securing the retreat route. There was no need to possess such things as explosives.
But Mu-yeon is different. Mu-yeon always carried small explosives for suicide bombing.
‘Is it really Mu-yeon? No way!’
Mu-yeon was a master of stealth techniques. If he set his mind to hide his presence, he was a master to the point where even Murong Jun couldn’t detect his presence.
Did such a person get hit? Why? How?
A guy he had endless things to do together with in the future, really died here?
Jiiiiiing!
Heaven Thunder descended onto the merciless sword blade.
“This won’t do.”
Murong Jun’s face contorted heavily.
“Playtime is over, you trash.”
Flash!
The lightning sword strike swept Azure Tiger and Mad Dog as it was.
Murong Jun captivated by anger, but unfortunately, his misfortune did not end there.
* * *
Dududududu.
The sound of hooves shook the mountains and streams.
Nearly fifty warhorses boasted tremendous majesty without a single exception. Their whole bodies were muscular, and once they kicked the ground, they easily crossed a distance of three zhang, their running itself overflowing with elasticity.
They cannot be made into such warhorses just because their breed is good. Extremely systematic management is required, such as medicinal herbs suitable for the horse’s body, abundant food, and making them run on time.
Heeheeheeheehing!
The warhorse running at the front burst into a cry like a dragon’s roar.
The warhorse, carrying no one on its back, looked exceptionally large and sturdy. Judging by the scars from spears and swords on its neck and forelegs, it seemed to be a cavalry horse with rich battlefield experience.
“Faster!”
Right next to the riderless horse.
A woman with a red bow slung over her back shouted in a vigorous voice.
“We have half a day’s distance left now! Pull yourselves together! A battle might break out straight away!”
The fifty or so warriors following behind her shouted at her cry.
“We obey!”
A vigorous answer that even drowned out the sound of horse hooves.
It was a voice mixed with internal energy. All of them were Murim people who had learned outstanding absolute arts.
However, they were not ordinary Murim people.
Their appearance, wearing light armor on their shoulders, chests, forearms, and shins, was already complete as a single army. Each of their two eyes, from which fighting spirit could be seen, simultaneously harbored the composure and resolution of hundred-battle veterans, and their aura, which didn’t disturb anyone, transformed into massive military spirit and shook the atmosphere.
The independent mobile unit belonging to the Murim Alliance heading south at a terrifying speed.
It was the sprint of the Evil-Annihilating Army, the best actual combat unit of the current Orthodox Murim.