Chapter 140: Chapter 140
“Sect Leader, should we gather our kids as well?”
A middle-aged man with fierce tattoos carved on his face spoke.
Although the word ‘Sect Leader’ left his mouth, with his fierce expression, crude broadsword, and rough demeanor, he was a man who looked nothing like a Daoist.
However, the old man called Sect Leader was even more so.
He wore around his head the sort of cloth band commonly worn by waiters. On his back, he carried a bow, whose size rivaled the torso of an ordinary burly man.
“We must gather them. Those dog-like Heavenly Demon Cult bastards. We ought to chew them all up to pieces.”
Having spoken so, the Sect Leader spat roughly on the ground.
Who would believe it?
That he was none other than the Sect Leader of the Kunlun Sect, called one of the Nine Great Sects and One Clan.
* * *
Twang!
Along with a crisp sound of rending air, a single arrow cut through the battlefield and surged forward. Even after piercing through the forehead of one demonic martial artist, far from losing its momentum, the arrow killed three more demonic martial artists with the same initial vigor.
“W-What is that!”
Flustered, the demonic martial artists scanned their surroundings. However, not only could they not detect the direction from which the arrow had flown, but they also could not sense any presence anywhere else.
Soon, a middle-aged man wielding a broadsword descended among them.
It was a broadsword that suited his stocky build and fierce impression remarkably well.
Slash!
Each time the broadsword was swung, the head of a demonic martial artist soared into the air. The demonic martial artists of the Heavenly Demon Cult were also people who had overcome hellish training to be incorporated into combat squads.
Drawing out blackish demonic qi like threads, they pounced forward.
Yet the man holding the broadsword merely vanished abruptly, just as he had appeared.
“Damn it all!”
The demonic martial artist in charge of the southwestern perimeter of the Hundred Thousand Mountains spat out curses.
This was already the fifth time.
That unidentified bastards ambushed them and disappeared.
Such events were occurring throughout the outermost regions of the Inescapable Heavenly Net.
Until the rescue squad formed by the Martial Alliance arrived, the martial artists of the Kunlun Sect relentlessly shook the Inescapable Heavenly Net.
The sect that had suffered extermination most frequently in the history of the orthodox martial world was precisely the Kunlun Sect. Whenever the Heavenly Demon Cult ran rampant, they exterminated the Kunlun Sect as if it were a traditional custom.
Because it was the sect situated at the outermost edge of the Central Plains, bordering Xinjiang which was ruled by the Heavenly Demon Cult.
Twang!
The arrow of the Kunlun Sect Leader sliced through the air once more.
After slaughtering seven more demonic martial artists, he quickly shifted his position.
He did not even possess a moniker.
It was the method of survival chosen by the Kunlun Sect, which had been exterminated countless times.
A small elite, each seeking their own survival.
Even combining all the martial artists of the Kunlun Sect, they numbered barely twenty.
Each making a living on their own, they lived in different guises across Xinjiang, Qinghai, and even in the outer cities of the Demonic Cult.
Someone as a fisherman, another as a farmer, a waiter, a back-alley thug, a merchant, an entertainer, and even as a martial artist of the Demonic Cult.
Rip!
A demonic martial artist who comprised the Inescapable Heavenly Net slashed and killed a comrade beside him.
“W-Why are you doing that?”
The surrounding demonic martial artists were greatly agitated.
Regardless, he struck down another demonic martial artist and spoke with venom.
“I have always been like this, you sons of bitches.”
After slaughtering five or six people in an instant, the first-generation disciple of the Kunlun Sect hurriedly fled the scene. Thanks to that, as several gave chase, the Inescapable Heavenly Net shook slightly.
Like the Hao Sect, the Kunlun Sect chose to maintain itself in the form of a clandestine cell network while concealing their respective identities.
However, what differed starkly from the Hao Sect was:
That in the hearts of those who inherited a history of massacres and exterminations perpetrated over hundreds of years, a blind rage toward the Heavenly Demon Cult was deeply rooted.
Thud, thud, thud, thud!
Seven arrows once again created a sea of blood.
* * *
While the martial artists of the Kunlun Sect wildly stirred up the Inescapable Heavenly Net.
The Heavenly Demon Cult was not just taking it lying down either.
Since the era of the Dark Emperor, the Heavenly Demon Cult boasted the strongest martial might under heaven as a single faction.
While maintaining the Inescapable Heavenly Net, they organized and deployed a chasing squad to catch and kill the unidentified bastards.
Three elders of the Demonic Cult were included in this chasing squad.
A first-generation disciple of the Kunlun Sect lay fallen and resigned.
Looking at him, Demonic Cult Elder Yeo Hu-rak let out a laugh resembling a ghost’s wail.
“Kekekekekeke, why are you stopping already? You ought to struggle even more like your dead comrades. Who knows? If your struggles amuse me, I might let you go after cutting off just an arm or two.”
Ah, people originally only had two arms.
Having said that, Yeo Hu-rak extended his index finger and traced the first-generation disciple’s body. Because his fingernails were exceedingly long, goosebumps rose across the disciple’s entire body as if being scratched with thin iron wires.
As if pondering for a long time, Yeo Hu-rak brushed over the first-generation disciple’s arms, legs, navel, and solar plexus, then stopped.
“Yes, here.”
The place where his finger stopped was a rib.
Yeo Hu-rak’s fingernail dug into his flesh, soon hooking around a rib like a gaff.
“Urgh!”
Even so, the Kunlun disciple gritted his teeth and endured to the point where blood trickled from his mouth. He had not the slightest desire to let such bug-like bastards hear his screams.
“Heh, you are truly stubborn. I wonder what kind of scream a stubborn bastard like you will let out when dying.”
Yeo Hu-rak applied force to his finger.
It seemed he was about to tear out the rib right then and there.
Just as the mouth of even the resolute Kunlun disciple was about to open from instinctive terror.
Thwack!
Something lukewarm covered the Kunlun disciple’s face. Soon, something dropped down atop his solar plexus.
When he opened his eyes cautiously, it was the head of Elder Yeo Hu-rak. Even that was blown half apart, leaving only half behind.
“Are you all right?”
Cheon Woo-jin extended the Crescent Moon Staff toward the disciple. It was an offer to grab it and stand up, but blood and flesh dripped down the staff.
First-generation disciple Cheong-in placed his hands on the ground and rose.
[Are you from the Martial Alliance?]
At the sound transmission that reached him, Cheon Woo-jin nodded.
“I am Hidden Dragon Squad Leader Cheon Woo-jin. Pleased to meet you.”
At that, Cheong-in was startled. For what purpose had they maintained such a clandestine cell structure? It was precisely to prevent any pretext for a Righteous-Demonic War to erupt.
If the Martial Alliance officially intervened, it was tantamount to handing the Demonic Cult that very pretext.
“If you speak all of that aloud here…!”
Naturally, Cheon Woo-jin had also heard about it beforehand and knew.
What kind of history the Kunlun Sect possessed, and why Cheong-in had spoken through sound transmission even while standing right in front of him.
But it did not matter.
Looking at the surrounding demonic martial artists, Cheon Woo-jin spoke to Cheong-in.
“We will attack three locations in total. They say these are the places where the Courier Hall Master is most likely hiding if he is alive. This is one of them. The other people went to the remaining two places.”
As masters of the Realm Beyond the Heavens, Cheon Woo-jin and the Dragon Head Sect Leader took charge of one location each, while the Disciplinary Hall Master and the Sword Maiden took charge of the last location.
It was agreed that after attacking the three places simultaneously, if they found the Courier Hall Master, they would fire a signal flare to converge in one place.
“I understand the situation, but what will you do if you say all that where those bastards can hear it!”
“What does it matter?”
After scanning the surrounding demonic martial artists, Cheon Woo-jin suddenly swung the Crescent Moon Staff. An ink-black Dark Heavens Qi stretched outward following the trajectory of the Crescent Moon Staff, drawing a massive full moon.
Dark Sky Full Moon.
Cheong-in lost his senses for a moment at the full moon that rose before his eyes.
Soon, by the time he struggled to regain his senses:
“They are all going to die anyway.”
The demonic martial artists in the area had been horrifyingly dismantled.
“W-What in the world…”
Most who witnessed Cheon Woo-jin’s martial arts for the first time showed a similar reaction. However, the experienced veterans of the Hidden Dragon Squad skillfully sorted out the surroundings and searched for traces of the Courier Hall Master.
Having spread out and searched quite a distance away, the Hidden Dragon Squad members soon returned and shook their heads. There was no trace of the Courier Hall Master anywhere.
“It seems this place is not it. Ah, our introductions are late. I am Hidden Dragon Squad Member Song Yi-yeon.”
“I am Jin Un. We seem to have met before.”
No matter how much the Kunlun Sect took the form of a clandestine cell network, they occasionally interacted with other Daoist sects.
Sensing the bizarre phenomenon of astonishment and relief arriving simultaneously, Cheong-in nodded. Seeing the remaining person’s Firmament Sword, that one was surely the Little Sword Dragon of the Namgung Clan without even needing to ask.
It was at that moment.
A red signal flare soared high into the sky and then scattered into the empty air.
It was a signal that they had discovered the Courier Hall Master.
Cheon Woo-jin immediately dashed in that direction, and the Hidden Dragon Squad members followed behind him, bringing Cheong-in along.
* * *
The Sword Maiden’s Firmament Sword and Chu Pung-gae’s wooden club were aimed menacingly forward. Even so, the demonic martial artists surrounding them narrowed the encirclement bit by bit without the slightest hint of fear.
Beneath the feet of the Sword Maiden and Chu Pung-gae lay the Courier Hall Master, who had literally been reduced to rags.
Continuing his faint breaths was all he could manage. His entire body was already drenched in blood, and there were countless wounds large enough to threaten his life.
Just looking at his condition, one could vividly feel how grueling a time he had endured here.
“Hey, pull yourself together. Keep saying something. People will come to help soon. We will definitely return alive. So I’m telling you, don’t stop talking!”
Even while glaring forward, the Disciplinary Hall Master kept talking to the Courier Hall Master. He could intuitively sense that once consciousness was lost, he would never wake again.
The Sword Maiden bit her red lips. Even in this situation, the lust-filled gazes the demonic martial artists sent were so disgusting that she was filled with the urge to cut them down with a single stroke.
With the Sword Maiden’s realm, she could easily slaughter a dozen of them and escape without difficulty, but… the situation did not help her. If the slightest gap opened, the Courier Hall Master would be in danger.
The demonic martial artists also knew that situation well. They thought the orthodox bastards were truly weak. If it were them, they would have abandoned comrade or whatever without hesitation and slaughtered the opponent.
“Hehehe, foolish wretches.”
Soon, the moment the demonic martial artists’ encirclement narrowed to the point where their weapons could touch.
Everyone’s gaze turned in one direction.
An immense sound, like the buzzing of a fist-sized hornet’s wings vibrating the air, was heard.
The demonic martial artists could not identify its true nature, but the Sword Maiden and the Dragon Head Sect Leader recognized it at once.
Soon, the Disciplinary Hall Master raised his club. At that, a startled demonic martial artist hurriedly raised his arm to block his head.
“You fell for that, you idiot!”
Instead of swinging the club, the Disciplinary Hall Master poured out palm force with his opposite hand. In the first place, his specialty was palm arts, not staff arts.
Thwack!
Struck by the palm force, the bodies of three or four demonic martial artists burst apart like drums. At the same time, the Sword Maiden’s Firmament Sword sliced narrowly through the air.
She possessed a youthful and fair appearance that belied her forty years of age. Originally, figures of the Namgung Clan, regardless of gender, were mostly like that.
Yet none who knew her dared even think of courting or admiring her.
Selfish yet intelligent, showing little emotion, and known to be arrogant at times, the most cold-blooded martial artist even within the Namgung Clan was precisely the Sword Maiden.
Slash! Slash!
She had no intention of killing the demonic martial artists.
Instead, she severed their manhood along with an entire leg.
If they were lucky, they would die of excessive bleeding; if they were unlucky, they would fail to die and live a hellish life.
For martial artists who revealed lust even in such a situation to lose their most precious manhood and their martial arts, it was only natural.
But the disaster for the demonic martial artists had only just begun.
A brief opening was created by the attacks of the Disciplinary Hall Master and the Sword Maiden. In that opening, demonic martial artists urgently charged in to take the Courier Hall Master hostage.
However, an ink-colored iron staff flew in at a speed several times faster than that. It was so fast that the staff seemed to elongate to more than ten feet.
They were not given even the time to be surprised.
Booooom!
The Crescent Moon Staff, imbued with Dark Heavens Qi, crushed around twenty demonic martial artists in an instant.