Chapter 60: Reducing Stoves to Lure the Enemy (3)
Bi Mu-geuk.
A Plum Blossom Swordsman of the Mount Hua Sect and an instructor at the Ascending Heaven Academy of the Martial Alliance.
He was currently heading the pursuit squad chasing the Public Enemy of the Martial World, the Death Plum Blossom, making his way through this nameless forest.
Despite the chilly weather, the forest was lush with dry grass and vines.
Between the sharp conifers, shrubs grew higher than a person’s height, and beneath them was a gravel slope that would collapse with tremendous momentum if stepped on even slightly wrong.
…Rumble!
The landslides occurring beneath the slope every time he set foot down occasionally made Bi Mu-geuk’s hair stand on end.
Right then.
“……!”
Bi Mu-geuk discovered something midway up the peak composed of solid bedrock.
A giant tree.
A single tree so massive that its age could not even be guessed was firmly rooted beneath the peak.
Each fine root was as large as a house, the trunk was thick enough for dozens of sturdy men to surround, and the branches extended high enough to obstruct the passage of drifting clouds.
In the days when this mountain range was still composed only of soil and stone, if there had been a first sprout to shoot up here, it would have grown just like this giant tree by now.
“…….”
Bi Mu-geuk looked up at this giant tree for a while.
A tree that seemed to have lived for thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands of years.
Toward it, Bi Mu-geuk drew his sword.
Flash!
A razor-sharp aura burst out from his sword.
…Crack!
The base of the tree was sliced off.
Along with a sound of thunder, the tree collapsed to the side just like that.
Boom! …Splat! …Splat! …Splat!
Sap as red as blood burst out.
It was as hot as human blood, emitting a thick steam into the air.
Bi Mu-geuk looked at the fallen giant tree and spoke.
“Huizi said, a tree that is too large is hard to use.”
A tree that is too large has no place to be used.
The trunk is large and bumpy, so it cannot be marked with an ink line, and the small branches are twisted, matching neither square nor compass.
That is why woodcutters turn their steps when they see a tree that is too large.
Because compared to the trouble of cutting it down, the result is unsatisfactory.
Bi Mu-geuk looked at the tree with its waist severed and continued.
“Do you think the Demonic Cult will readily embrace you, Oh Ja-woon?”
Death Plum Blossom. That was the demonic name currently shaking the Central Plains in a frenzy.
It was something quite burdensome even for the Demonic Cult to embrace.
“You are a lumber too large to newly enter anywhere.”
If an expert of Oh Ja-woon’s level suddenly threw himself into the Demonic Cult, it was natural that all kinds of secret struggles would break out within it.
To embrace him, or to stop others from embracing him, a new fight would break out and a new justification would be made.
Hence, paradoxically, accepting an expert of Oh Ja-woon’s caliber ran the risk of harming the existing order and raising a storm that did not exist.
Whether the existing forces would go out of their way to take such a risk was unknown.
“Oh Ja-woon. You will not be welcomed anywhere.”
Bi Mu-geuk raised his sword.
And he spoke toward the felled giant tree.
“Rather than having your neck fall to the demonic leaders of the border…… rather fall beneath my sword.”
At that moment, as if in response to Bi Mu-geuk’s monologue.
[Kee-aaack!]
A roar like thunder was heard from far beneath the giant tree.
Thud— thud— thud—
In the darkness, two fireballs glowed.
For a moment, Bi Mu-geuk mistook it for the light emitting from Oh Ja-woon’s two eyes.
Soon, the owner of the place walked out from the cave beneath the roots of the giant tree.
A tiger. A great tiger with a massive build.
The Mountain Lord ruling these nearby peaks revealed its form before Bi Mu-geuk.
But Bi Mu-geuk did not retreat even slightly.
He merely moved his sword in hand to the side and stepped toward the tiger.
“Was it a tiger?”
The face of the enemy before his eyes and the face of the enemy he was originally chasing seemed to overlap.
That glowing gaze, fierce momentum, everything resembled each other.
“Great. I shall capture you and hold a rehearsal.”
No sooner had Bi Mu-geuk finished speaking than the tiger leaped toward him.
[Grrrr!]
The sharp claws grown on its forepaw targeted Bi Mu-geuk’s chest.
…Rrrrip!
Bi Mu-geuk’s Taoist robe was instantly ripped to tatters.
Then, enormously trained muscles were revealed inside.
Slash— splat!
Hot blood stretched out in five directions from beneath the skin slit by the tiger’s claws.
Whew—!
When Bi Mu-geuk held his breath once, the bursting blood stopped abruptly.
He had stopped the bleeding solely through the strength of his muscles.
The five blood lines engraved on his steel-like body seemed instantly buried between the muscles.
Simultaneously, Bi Mu-geuk’s sword reached out into the empty air.
Swish—
The sword of him, who would have been praised as the Mount Hua Sect’s greatest genius and the youngest Plum Blossom Swordsman if not for Oh Ja-woon, sliced past the tiger’s belly.
…Flash!
A bright red plum blossom bloomed in the empty air.
It was a blood plum blossom grown by feeding on blood.
[Ka-hak!?]
The tiger backed away.
Along with blood, a part of its entrails gushed out onto the rock it stepped on.
[Grrrrrrrr……]
The hero of the mountains was infuriated.
For the first time in its life, it had a strong enemy before its eyes who was capable of wounding it.
Hair bristling like large needles, claws sharply protruding, tail tightly swollen, glowing eyeballs.
Soon, the wounded wild beast opened its bright red mouth to chew on Bi Mu-geuk’s head.
If it were an ordinary person, they would have immediately foamed at the mouth and fainted, but Bi Mu-geuk instead took a step toward the tiger’s jaws.
Swish!
Bi Mu-geuk struck down with his sword.
It entered the wide-open tiger’s jaws and pierced the tongue wriggling like a snake.
Simultaneously.
Crunch!
The tiger’s sharp teeth firmly bit Bi Mu-geuk’s sword blade.
Squeeeeze……
The human and the tiger contested in strength.
The tiger tried to bite and break the sword in its mouth, and the human forcefully twisted the sword.
Soon, the confrontation of strength was broken.
A sword of three feet and seven inches.
The arm strength of the sword tiger who had swung it for a lifetime was to the extent that he could lightly bring an axe to firewood and split it by pressing down firmly.
Rrriiiip!
It split.
The bright red jaws that had devoured countless beasts in the mountains until now tore into two pieces, and a dense mist of blood splattered into the fog.
Bi Mu-geuk split the body of the massive great tiger in two just like that.
…Thud! Collapse—
The tiger’s body rolled down beneath the rocks and was soon swept away by gravel, disappearing far below the foot of the mountain.
“Whew……”
Bi Mu-geuk exhaled a long breath and relaxed the strength in his entire body.
Only then did blood spurt from the five scars on Bi Mu-geuk’s chest.
“I still have a long way to go.”
Bi Mu-geuk clicked his tongue, looking at the blood line left diagonally across his chest.
Soon, he left the traces of the fierce battle behind and climbed the peak.
Shhhhhh……
Fog and clouds mixed and flowed before his eyes.
Only the sound of branches brushing against each other was loud in his ears.
Absolutely no sign of anything living was felt nearby.
It was too high and lonely a place for anything to live.
Thud—
Bi Mu-geuk sat on a high towering rock.
Then, he took out gold sore ointment from his chest and sprinkled it on his chest.
The white powder coagulated with the red blood clots, turning sticky.
It filled the gaps of the split flesh and stopped the bleeding.
“…….”
Bi Mu-geuk sat cross-legged and began to regulate his breathing.
He extended his internal energy to every corner of the blood vessels in his body.
It repaired the damaged Qi and blood and calmed the boiling emotions.
Naturally. The thoughts that had been beyond the subconscious in his mental world rose to the surface.
The martial brother with whom he had practiced the sword for a long time.
The man who had now become a public enemy of the entire Jianghu.
And the noble yet cold-hearted mission of slicing off the neck of the one who was once a brother and offering it before his junior sister’s spirit.
Recalling his mission, Bi Mu-geuk knitted his brows.
Sweat drops like molten iron dripped down.
Tendons like serpents wriggled, and strength entered muscles like iron blocks.
It took less than half a shijin to complete one full cycle of celestial circulation.
Soon, Bi Mu-geuk slowly raised his closed eyelids.
In an instant.
“……!”
Bi Mu-geuk’s eyes widened greatly.
On the rock standing before his eyes, there was a message written vertically.
-費無忌 死在這裏-
Bi Mu-geuk unconsciously read it aloud.
“……Bi Mu-geuk dies here?”
That which dripped bright red at the end of each stroke was surely blood.
And in front of it, chipped swords were stuck in a disorderly fashion.
They were the swords of the Martial Alliance pursuit squad members who had come with him.
* * *
In the mountains where raindrops fell bit by bit.
Bi Mu-geuk hurriedly returned to the gathering place.
The place where the extinguished campfire was sending up smoke.
This was a wide flat ground on the mountainside.
“Is anyone there!?”
Bi Mu-geuk raised his voice in urgency.
However, there was not a single reply.
Bi Mu-geuk hurriedly looked around the campsite, but no sign of presence was felt at all.
Neither the subordinates of the Martial Alliance nor the task force members of the Namgung Clan were visible.
‘Could it be…….’
Instantly, there was an intuition that brushed past his mind.
It was of a highly ominous kind.
At that time, something came into Bi Mu-geuk’s view.
The place where the dying campfire was sending up thin smoke.
Traces of battle were visible there.
Marks of someone being slammed down, marks of ashes being thrown, and……
“……!”
At the end of the footprints printed in disorder, Bi Mu-geuk discovered torn clothing and sliced hair.
It was indeed Namgung Yul’s.
Seeing the faint bloodstains left on the ground, Bi Mu-geuk knitted his brows.
“……Were they defeated?”
As one lives life, things that were not expected often happen.
To Bi Mu-geuk, the reply to the single word he had just muttered was exactly that.
“They were indeed.”
Beyond the faint smoke rising from the ash heap.
The reply to his monologue, which he had not expected at all, returned.
No, it might perhaps be the reply he had been waiting for so long until now.
…Clang!
Bi Mu-geuk quickly drew his sword and aimed it straight ahead.
Between the smoke splitting in two at the tip of the blade, there was a figure wavering like a ghost.
Long disheveled hair, terrifyingly spreading eye light, the sleeve of his left arm fluttering in the gentle breeze.
The plum blossom of death bloomed glowingly.
“Long time no see, friend.”
Oh Ja-woon was there.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost