Chapter 80: Chapter 80

“…No, what on earth…”

When first discovering the broken wagon, Jeo Ryang, Hun-ma, and even Jang Geon could not guess that the flesh pieces scattered around it belonged to humans.

However, as they drew closer, the shape of those flesh pieces became detailed, and there was no way not to know the situation.

“…My heavens, ugh!”

Looking at the corpse fragments, Jeo Ryang turned away with a pale face, tightly closing both eyes. Hun-ma also couldn’t dare enter into that mess, hesitating. Only Jang Geon dismounted from Jojo’s back and strided into the scene.

It was a dreadful scene. The wagon had its wheels collapsed and smashed as if a giant had struck down a club the size of his own physique, and around it human flesh pieces smashed into pieces just as much as the wagon were scattered.

Jang Geon carefully inspected the surroundings so as not to step on flesh pieces or fragments of the wagon. And he was able to discover heads gathered like balls in the center of that scene. Jang Geon squatted in front of them and inspected the faces of the dead. There were six heads in total.

Dreadful pain, fear, and despair were drawn on all their faces. Looking at those faces, Jang Geon turned his head to check the surroundings again. And stroking his chin, he thought for a moment, then stood up and exited the scene.

Hun-ma, who looked very troubled even if not as much as Jeo Ryang, asked him.

“…Can you guess what kind of situation this is?”

“Tearing the corpses to pieces was done after they died. Of course, they seem to have done horrific things while they were alive too, but either way, making this mess appears to be an expression of rage.”

Fluster appeared on Hun-ma’s face.

“Rage? Then you’re saying this happened due to a grudge?”

Hun-ma inspected the surroundings again, overcoming the difficulty of looking straight. However, it appeared hard to find out anything more from that mess. Jang Geon scratched the back of his neck with his left hand and spoke.

“I don’t know well what it is precisely either. Checking the faces of the corpses, there were no particularly impressive faces. There were women, and there were elderly people too. Looking at that alone, they are merely faces of an ordinary pioneer family.”

“Meaning they were ordinary people… Yet due to a grudge of unknown reason, they became such dreadful states…”

Jang Geon’s left hand that was scratching his neck naturally came down and gripped his scabbard.

“What is certain is that it’s not a deed mere bandits would commit. At least looking at what they did, an evil ghost is correct.”

Just then, Jeo Ryang who was dry-heaving behind the wagon approached while trembling and spoke.

“Everyone, l-let’s pass quickly. I can’t stay here any longer… Hurry…”

Hun-ma nodded and supported Jeo Ryang, leading him to the wagon. Watching that scene, Jang Geon raised his head and looked up at the sky. The blue sky was filled full of clouds. Looking only at that, it was a beautiful scenery, but Jang Geon felt strangeness.

Considering the state of the corpses, a day had already passed since this chaos occurred. Though a gruesome story, if corpses were laid out like this in the field, all kinds of scavenger animals should have flown over long ago, neatly clearing away flesh pieces with only white bones remaining. However, nowhere in the sky were flying beasts fluttering wings visible.

Looking up at the sky, Jang Geon soon let go of his sword and turned his body toward Jojo who was snorting. Whether the one who committed this madness was a demonic practitioner of the Demonic Palace or merely a crazy bandit, either way, Jang Geon received a hunch that he would inevitably encounter that presence.

Jang Geon mounted on Jojo, while Jeo Ryang and Hun-ma boarded the wagon. Leaving the dreadful and strange slaughter scene, they began galloping north again.

Jeo Ryang seemed to have received quite a big shock, looking drained of energy. Well, not just ordinary corpses, but seeing a scene where humans were torn and scattered like paper scraps, it was understandable. Because right now Jang Geon didn’t feel well in his stomach either.

After seeing the dead people, they merely galloped silently without any conversation. Considering they originally intended to kill time chatting about trivial stories, it was a funny thing. Of course, among the three, no one actually laughed with such thoughts.

Skipping even lunch and moving recklessly, they slowly paused their steps in the full afternoon. Jojo looked reasonably fine, but the two horses pulling the wagon grew heavily exhausted. Hun-ma, who had been sitting on the driver’s seat continuously, also felt the need to rest.

Stopping the horses, Hun-ma and Jeo Ryang came out of the wagon and straightened their waists. Looking at Jang Geon and Jojo who appeared no different from morning, Jeo Ryang spoke.

“Isn’t it tough? You rode your horse all day, yet you’re perfectly fine.”

“A wanderer must get accustomed to such journeys as a rule.”

Jang Geon spoke so with a faint smile, and perhaps thanks to that, Jeo Ryang’s complexion also brightened slightly. Patting his waist, he spoke.

“Ha… Once we leave here, it seems we must immediately find a Martial Alliance branch. In my view, it appears a matter where a Martial Alliance striking squad should be dispatched immediately.”

“Whether a striking squad or a patrol squad, someone must come. When people died so gruesomely.”

“I really don’t know what on earth this matter is. Could it really be an evil ghost? Could it be them by any chance?”

“Them?”

To Jang Geon’s counter-question, Jeo Ryang continued speaking with a serious face.

“Them. Meaning those who carry on the will of the ancient Demonic Overlord of Chu. They didn’t go extinct for a thousand years in the end. Furthermore, according to what I heard, their roots continued in this New Continent? Though slightly absurd, there’s also a story that to the far east beyond the reach of the Empire’s influence, they built their own kingdom…”

Just then, Jojo suddenly neighed long and raised his forelegs. Though it was a sudden movement, Jang Geon wasn’t flustered and grabbed the reins. And before he could scold him asking why he was making a fuss, he was able to see something standing on the far eastern hill.

Unconsciously holding his breath, Jang Geon focused toward that something. Soon internal energy swirled into his two eyes, making his vision vivid. Atop that hill, there was a large black horse enveloped in black smoke and a presence mounted on it.

A body black as charcoal and a face red as blood, wearing a hat decorated with feathers black as his body atop his head. Thanks to that, that presence appeared as a monster opening a bright red mouth while his entire body was pitch-black. And in Jang Geon’s eyes, that monster’s hat looked like a feather-decorated hat commonly worn by high-ranking native leaders of the New Continent.

In that moment, Jang Geon’s eyes met his.

[Central-Plains-Person-!]

Thunder struck in his mind, and though for a fraction of a second, his vision blurred. Simultaneously, that red-faced presence rapidly raised a bow as if in a single motion, drew the string, and released.

It was over twenty years since Jang Geon began practicing martial arts. Knowing that real martial arts existed in this world, he had fallen deep into it since childhood. It wasn’t for nothing that his clan had expected much from him.

Thanks to that, his body possessed senses expanded to the realm of instinct regarding fighting and martial arts, such as attack and defense, counterattack and re-counterattack. And because of that, in that moment he was reflexively able to draw his blade and deflect the arrow targeting his head.

A high, clear clanging sound echoed, and afterwards the deflected arrow flew straight into the upper section of the wagon. Afterwards, the arrow smashed the upper section of the wagon as if it were some cannonball.

At the booming explosion sound, Hun-ma and Jeo Ryang lowered their bodies with dazed expressions. However, that was merely an instinctive action, and neither of them understood what situation this was.

Holding his throbbing head and humming blade, Jang Geon staggered. At the tremendous force felt just now, his wrist trembled. It was a relief the blade didn’t snap. Forcing strength into his blurring eyes, he checked ahead. On that far-off hill, a black horse galloping like a wild beast and its rider were visible. Behind them galloping, black smoke was scattering like an afterimage.

Even amidst his head being dizzy, Jang Geon forced himself to speak.

“Get in, the wagon…!”

“Wh-What? Warrior Jang?”

Fully awakening internal energy of his dantian and sprinting through blood points across his whole body, he shouted loudly.

“Get in the wagon and run! Right now!”

At that shout, Jeo Ryang wore a blank expression, but fortunately Hun-ma snapped to his senses and grabbed the nape of his neck. Afterwards, throwing him straight inside the wagon where only the lower part remained, he mounted the driver’s seat and whipped the horses startled by the sudden noise. Already startled, the horses leaped forward right away.

Feeling internal energy sprinting through his whole body, Jang Geon suddenly raised his head. The sky had turned dark. Like the appearance right before rain, grey clouds covered the sun and blue sky, creating a dim ceiling that gave a stifling feeling. And the black smoke monster galloping beneath that combined with that stifling feeling, giving a suffocating pressure.

“…An evil ghost appearing in broad daylight. Tremendous.”

Recovering from the shock of the roaring voice in his mind, Jang Geon checked the state of his blade first. He saw a single notch chipped on the blade edge. Not a bad state considering it blocked a cannonball pretending to be an arrow. His eyes saw the red face galloping over.

Drawing closer, his face was visible in detail. Inside his bright red face, two eyes glinting with only whites without pupils, a mouth agape like a beast, and black shadows squirming inside that mouth showed that he was not a human disguised by painting dye. Perhaps he was a real evil ghost.

Just then, thunder echoed in Jang Geon’s mind again.

[Central Plains person-! I will kill you-! I will kill every last one of you-!]

However, Jang Geon, who had already awakened internal energy, did not receive a huge shock like a moment ago. So lighter and smoother than a moment ago, he was able to deflect the arrow flying over again to the side. This time not even a notch was chipped on the blade edge.

The arrow flying to the ground made a boom sound, turning over a mound of soil. Jang Geon, who almost gave a dry laugh at that absurd power, looked at the red face again and lightly tugged the reins.

“Let me go.”

At those words, Jojo, holding his head high like some wolf and howling long, soon galloped off like an arrow leaving a bowstring.

Both the black horse enveloped in pitch-black smoke and Jojo galloped roughly while shaking the ground with thud-thud-thud sounds as if born solely for running. As if folding the ground, the space between the two rapidly decreased.

Jang Geon held the reins with his left hand, drew his right hand holding the blade horizontally to the side, and looked at the evil ghost without shaking with two eyes. Facing him, the red-faced presence galloping over simply let go of the bow he held and grabbed the smoke scattering around. Then the released bow scattered and mixed into the black smoke, and the smoke caught in his hand whirled and gathered to become a single short spear.

Jang Geon’s calm eyebrows knitted slightly. Setting aside the scene hard to believe right now, as he drew closer to that presence, a strange roar hard to understand echoed in his mind.

[I will avenge! I will kill every single Central Plains person in this world! Ah! Mother! No! Don’t do that! Avenge! Kill! Father, run away! Everything is burning… We shouldn’t have trusted them! No, he’s still just a young child! Don’t do that… Ahh, spirits, Mother of Earth…! Monster-like bastards, how could you to that person… It cannot end like this, no… To Central Plains people, avenge to Central Plains people…! Avenge! Avenge! Avenge-!]

Screams of the dying, shouts of the killers, ringing of blades cutting skin, pillars burning and collapsing, strange roars as if rising from the entrance of hell.

The closer Jang Geon drew to that presence, the more he felt as if his ears were tearing. Even while internal energy relentlessly swirled through blood points across his whole body, that unknown strange roar echoed as if to crush Jang Geon’s mind. It was a sound making it impossible to focus on the short spear and rider drawing closer before his eyes.

So Jang Geon raised his blade held horizontally high, and bellowed a Lion’s Roar like thunder.

“Shut—! Up—!”

Simultaneously, lightning struck down as if following behind the thunder. The flashing blade sliced the black smoke apart. The black horse and red-faced rider scattered into faint smoke as if they hadn’t existed from the beginning. Jang Geon’s and Jojo’s bodies passed far forward even through that smoke.

Jang Geon hastily gripped Jojo’s reins, stopped running, and turned back to look. He saw the rider and black horse scatter before his blade even touched. In his right hand holding the blade, there was no feeling either.

[I will kill all Central Plains people-! Every single Central Plains person-!]

Just then, a strange roar echoed once more from far off. Looking, Jang Geon saw the black horse and red-faced rider running with their backs to him in a place far separated from him. In front of that presence, the wagon carrying Hun-ma and Jeo Ryang was running frantically.

“Are you saying you won’t let a single one escape right now?”

Jang Geon muttered so with a stiffened face, and lightly kicked Jojo’s flanks. Shining his two eyes blue and exhaling breath with a deep huff, the guy began galloping in pursuit behind the black horse. The sound of fierce wind echoed in Jang Geon’s ears.