Chapter 275: Chapter 275
CRACK—
The moment the sword shattered, Cheol Sun-jik could not tear his gaze away even as his body was sent flying.
He was clearly a disciple of the Taeul Sect, which used swift swords and illusion swords.
And yet the Bamboo String Gang’s Blue Bamboo Sword Art had unfolded from that man’s hand.
“How…?”
Jin So-un, plainly exhausted, twisted the corner of his mouth into a smile.
“Did you forget that I have a good memory?”
“Even so…”
Moreover, the Blue Bamboo Sword Art he had used was Cheol Sun-jik’s own.
It was a sword art Cheol Sun-jik had built layer upon layer over countless years, yet Jin So-un had replicated it exactly as it was, simply by seeing it.
Then he spoke with ease.
“Just as you have your own way of fighting, I have my own way of fighting.”
“Ha…!”
Once the immense shock faded, resentment surged in its place.
In the end, this was his defeat.
My operation, which should have guaranteed victory, had failed.
His operation, which should have guaranteed defeat, had succeeded.
Once he grasped reality, a rush of injustice welled up within him.
Why had he lost?
Cheol Sun-jik’s gaze turned toward the people standing near Jin So-un.
Comrades who had faithfully followed the insane order to charge into the middle of the enemy formation.
They were all injured somewhere, or barely keeping themselves upright as though they might collapse at any moment.
Had they been anyone else, they would have raised both hands and feet and given up on the evaluation long ago, but not a single one of them let go of their weapon.
By contrast, most of the people of his own unit on White Mountain were standing perfectly fine.
That meant there were that few who had truly joined him in carrying out his operation.
“How can there be such a difference?”
“…”
Cheol Sun-jik’s gaze moved to Nam Hwa-seong.
At that gaze filled with resentment, Nam Hwa-seong turned his head away.
Cheol Sun-jik clenched his teeth and repeated,
“Why are you all able to become one like that?”
Jin So-un and Cheol Sun-jik were not so different.
A lacking background, an excellent mind, and a will that did not yield to pressure.
They were both beings who crawled upward from a low place, clawing their way higher with everything they had.
And yet Jin So-un’s comrades did not fear leaping into death alongside him.
The daughter of the Iron Sword Sect, which had once been the Taeul Sect’s enemy; the cherished youngest child of the Namgung Clan; and even the disciple of the Three Origins Sect, who had been his competitor in the Regular Exam.
He could not understand it at all.
“Why are only you people showing such a thing?”
Share benefits, and create a common enemy.
Surely there was no difference between what Jin So-un had done and what Cheol Sun-jik had done, yet they had produced different results.
He had never resented the heavens for making him be born in the same generation as Yong So-ah, Il-myeong, and Dang Seo-hui.
From the beginning, he had thought of them as beings with different weapons.
But there was greater resentment than anything else in being made to live in the same generation as Jin So-un.
Because he felt like a wall that could never be crossed.
“Answer me! Jin So-un! Why is there such a difference?”
Despite his desperate outcry, Jin So-un merely rose from his place as though he had nothing he could say.
“Why… Why…”
In the end, tears began falling drop by drop from Cheol Sun-jik’s eyes.
He, who had never once cried from resentment, shed tears at the first suffocating frustration he had ever faced.
And at that moment.
“…It is not… It is not over yet, Sun-jik…”
Cheol Hyeon-jik, who had collapsed unconscious, stood up while leaning on his sword.
“Brother…”
With trembling arms, Cheol Hyeon-jik lifted his sword and staggered toward Jin So-un.
“…I, I will complete your operation.”
“Brother…!”
Cheol Hyeon-jik barely ran forward, dragging the blade along the ground as though he no longer even had the strength to hold it up.
Jin So-un watched him with indifferent eyes, and the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist unfolded from his hand.
THUD THUD THUD THUD THUD!
In a single move, Cheol Hyeon-jik lost consciousness again and collapsed.
“Brother!!!”
Jin So-un spoke to Cheol Sun-jik, who was staring blankly at that sight in a daze.
“There is someone here who follows your will too.”
“…”
“Think carefully about the difference between your brother and the Twelve Peak Citadels. Then you will find the reason you lost this battle.”
After saying that, Jin So-un turned around without hesitation.
Before anyone knew it, there was a flag in his hand, and he raised it into the sky without restraint.
Soon, the Red Army’s flag was planted in the White Army’s base.
“Waaaaah!”
“Waaaaah! We won!”
“We captured the White Army base!”
While watching the few remaining people burst into cheers, Cheol Sun-jik spoke with a stiff expression.
“But this is the end for you too.”
“…”
“Your unit was already completely spent while capturing the White Army base.”
Cheol Sun-jik looked around at Jin So-un’s people and sneered.
“Perhaps, as you said, there is something different between you and me. But… even so, my operation ultimately succeeded. The two people in your representative delegation, Seong Mo-ran and Lee Geum-pyo, will fall behind in the end.”
He lifted the hand wounded by the sword fragments and continued.
“Look. The Blue Army, which has preserved its force until now while merely watching the tide of battle, will soon come in and seize the final victory for itself.”
“…”
“In the end, you did not cross the wall that is me. Hahahaha!”
Jin So-un looked toward the Blue Army Cheol Sun-jik had pointed at, then shrugged.
“That is good.”
“Hm?”
Jin So-un let out a faint laugh and gestured forward with his chin.
“Watch closely.”
“…”
Cheol Sun-jik forced his laughter to stop.
Because Jin So-un’s tone sounded as though he were saying something utterly obvious.
“Watch how high we climb.”
Because Jin So-un’s comrades began moving as if it were only natural.
Following Jin So-un’s gaze, Cheol Sun-jik’s head also turned.
The few remaining members of his unit, like fragments of a shattered sword, began moving one by one.
They were people so exhausted from fierce battle that it would not have been strange if they collapsed right then and there.
Such people began gathering beside Jin So-un as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
Cheol Sun-jik could not take his eyes off him.
“Are you all right?”
Geum-pyo’s face crumpled at once.
His expression seemed to ask whether that was really a question.
“I feel like I am going to die.”
“So do I.”
Hoo. A sigh came out on its own. I really could not hold this in, no, why was I even holding it in from the beginning…?
THUD.
I smacked the back of Geum-pyo’s head.
“Then why did you receive three Grade E evaluations?”
“…”
Geum-pyo, who had been hit, bowed his head like a sinner, and Seong Mo-ran, standing on the other side, reacted sharply.
“Young Master Jin, was that perhaps meant for me to hear?”
I answered politely.
“Of course.”
“…”
Seong Mo-ran’s expression stiffened as though she had been wounded.
I looked at Seong Mo-ran and Geum-pyo and spoke firmly.
“I have absolutely no intention of seeing the two of you expelled. So we must not lose this time.”
At that, Seong Mo-ran’s expression softened a little, and she nodded.
“But the opponent is that bal… no, Il-gak.”
From the beginning, the best method would have been for the Red Army to conserve its strength while the Blue Army and White Army fought, then face the Blue Army after it had defeated the White Army and exhausted itself.
But unfortunately, this was how things had turned out.
The situation was so bad that one could wonder if it could possibly be any worse.
‘I knew that damn bald monk would grab me by the trouser leg someday.’
I looked over the remaining unit members one by one and asked quietly,
“But that does not mean we can retreat obediently, does it?”
Soon, the instructors began waving red flags.
It was the signal that the evaluation would soon end.
The Blue Army and the remaining Red Army now had no choice but to clash in an all-out battle.
I adjusted my grip on my sword once more.
“Prepare the sword formation.”
“Yes!”
At my order, the unit members moved with perfect efficiency.
It was pitiful, but this was the only thing we could do now.
“Erase every thought that the enemy is from the Nine Sects and One Gang or Shaolin Temple or anything else. They are simply the enemy.”
“Young Master Jin, do you not know that when you tell someone not to think about something, they think about it even more?”
“Erase it anyway. There is no other way.”
“…”
Just do it when I tell you to.
On the battlefield, one must not complicate one’s mind.
“Survival means survival. Attack means attack. You must think of only one thing. I, as the commander, will think and judge the rest, so simply follow.”
“You are telling us to trust only you in this situation, Young Master Jin?”
“Is there another way?”
After pondering for a moment, Seong Mo-ran shook her head.
“…There is not. But if I fall behind, then later, when I go to the Murim Alliance as a Lower-Rank Warrior, put me in your unit. I do not want to take orders from anyone else.”
“I promise.”
The Blue Army, which had initially approached the Red Army, had also stopped moving as the battle between the White Army and Red Army intensified.
While the White Army and Red Army fought fiercely, the Blue Army had finished establishing its hierarchy and preserved most of its people, so their numbers were not much different from the beginning.
“Amitabha.”
Before long, Il-gak approached, leading what appeared to be at least ten times our number.
As expected, that damn bald head seemed to have become the leader of the Blue Army.
Well, in a way, perhaps it was only natural.
“Is it not a little too sly for one who studies the Buddha?”
Il-gak smiled brightly, as though my words had not harmed him in the slightest.
“The Buddha said that if one properly establishes oneself, wicked people will fall away on their own.”
Just look at that oiled tongue. I had to wonder if he was secretly eating meat somewhere.
“That is quite something, considering how petty you were in the beginning.”
“Among the Buddha’s words, there is this: ‘One who covers the evil karma he once created with good karma shall illuminate the world like the moon emerging through the clouds.’ Since I have already covered my evil karma with good karma, one could say I have become a new man.”
“Good grief. Becoming a new man is easy.”
Il-gak smiled gently and subtly asked me,
“Benefactor Jin, you look very tired. How about giving up now?”
“Then could that bal… no, could you, Monk, give up for the sake of those who would fall behind here, out of the Buddha’s mercy?”
“That is not the Buddha’s proper will. Namu Amitabha.”
Had I known it would come to this, I should have memorized some Buddhist scriptures.
Then perhaps that bald head might have wavered and stepped back.
“I do not like this. I suppose that is why I am not a disciple of Buddhism.”
“There is a Buddha within Benefactor Jin’s heart as well, so you need not worry. Moreover, Black Maitreya…”
“Oh, please!!!!”
“Ahem.”
Il-gak cleared his throat and asked me again.
“Will you truly continue?”
“There was such a saying among the Buddha’s words, was there not?”
I drew the Black Dragon Sword and continued.
“Make no one else, but only yourself, your lamp.”
At my words, Il-gak smiled.
“You see? There is indeed a Buddha within Benefactor Jin’s heart.”
I smiled faintly back at him.
“Then let us see whose side the Buddha takes!”
This time, instead of Nam Hwa-seong, I stood at the very front with Geum-pyo.
Cheol Sun-jik did not take his eyes off the front for even a moment.
It was partly because he had reached his physical limit and could not move his body, but more than that, it was because he wanted to engrave Jin So-un’s end into his eyes.
“You will fail as well.”
Just as I did.
Cheol Sun-jik barely held his exhausted body together.
From the beginning, the Blue Army’s final victory had never mattered in his operation.
His only goal had been to eliminate Jin So-un and his platoon members.
Rather, according to the plan in his head, after Jin So-un was eliminated, the White Army was also supposed to be defeated by the Blue Army.
So, Jin So-un, you too.
“You will surely… fail…”
As he repeated the same words, the Blue Army and Red Army clashed.
The tenfold difference in numbers eventually allowed them to form an encirclement.
An encirclement quickly exhausted people and ultimately led them to annihilation.
“Surely… surely…”
But why was it?
Jin So-un’s unit did not fall easily.
“How…?”
The sword formation they were displaying was the White Tiger Sword Formation, which every academy student knew.
In a situation where internal energy was entirely sealed, there should have been nothing particularly special about it, and yet they stubbornly endured.
“How…?”
No, it was a little different.
The current sword formation was slightly different from the White Tiger Sword Formation he knew.
Each person filled the gaps of another, creating moments for counterattacks and shaking their opponents.
As though it had been made from the very beginning for lacking humans to complement one another, it was faithful to the basic effect of a formation.
“Hah…”
Shaolin Temple’s fist-and-kick arts and even the martial arts of the Nine Sects and One Gang could not properly break through.
The people waiting on Blue Mountain could not endure the urgency and began climbing White Mountain one by one.
The number of Blue Army members surrounding Jin So-un steadily increased.
“This cannot be…”
Yet on the other hand, doubt also arose.
In any case, victory was distant for Jin So-un.
With so few people, he could not reach the Blue Army base, nor could he break through the Blue Army personnel who had now even built an encirclement.
And yet Jin So-un and his unit members stubbornly continued a fight they were obviously going to lose.
As though victory were possible.
“That cannot be.”
Il-gak and the Blue Army pressed them even more fiercely, as though they had no mercy at all.
At last, one member of Jin So-un’s unit collapsed, and the sword formation staggered.
They were resisting with all their heart and strength, but once the sword formation had been disrupted, it could not be properly restored.
FLAP, FLAP!
The instructors waved black flags.
It was the signal that the evaluation was about to end.
The Blue Army must have seen it as well, for they began pressing even harder to see the end.
The corners of Cheol Sun-jik’s mouth twisted upward.
“Yes, this is it. This is their strength.”
Although his operation had failed, he felt it could be considered half a success.
Jin So-un was already exhausted to the limit, and most of his unit members had also been scattered in all directions.
As expected, just as Cheol Sun-jik had failed, Jin So-un had failed as well.
Just as he was about to take satisfaction in that and laugh at him.
‘Scattered?’
Cheol Sun-jik’s eyes began moving quickly.
‘They are not here. They are gone!’
Several of Jin So-un’s platoon members were nowhere to be seen.
Wondering if they had perhaps been eliminated along the way, he swept his gaze across the entirety of White Mountain, but they were nowhere.
Then.
“Waaaaaah!”
Twenty people were running up Blue Mountain like mad.
“S-stop them!”
“Aaaagh!”
“Move aside, you bastards!”
They did not stop, and they did not fight.
They only ran forward, forward.
They abandoned falling comrades, and even when enemy fists flew at them, they did not engage; they avoided those enemies as well and ran toward the summit of Blue Mountain.
And then, while people cried out, “Huh? Huh?” fewer than ten people planted the flag in Blue Mountain’s base.
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!”
“Waaaaaah!”
Cheers rang out from the distant Blue Mountain.
Around ten Red Army members, including Lee Eun-ho and Yaryul Geuk, had planted the red flag in the Blue Mountain base.
“…”
Judging from the hollow expressions of the Blue Army members guarding the base, they had not expected the Red Army to launch a surprise attack.
Cheol Sun-jik’s body trembled as though struck by lightning.
‘Was defeat never even in his mind from the beginning?’
Otherwise, how could he have thought to pull people away and create a surprise attack unit in such an unfavorable situation?
Cheol Sun-jik turned his head and looked at the Mount Tai that had made him taste defeat once again.
Hanging from Il-gak’s shoulder, whose mouth hung open in shock.
“CHOMP…! Hrrgh, come on!! Ptooey, ptooey!”
…Jin So-un was committing the irreverent act of biting the glossy head of the monk without hesitation.
“Just what… are you…?”
Feeling even more miserable than when he had seen Yong So-ah, Cheol Sun-jik could not take his eyes off him even for a moment.