Do I Look Like I Know? (4)

Having the high ground in a battle is absolute.

Moreover, if the battlefield is midair with no foothold, that advantage is beyond words.

Think about it. A void where you can’t launch your body or brace your feet to lend power.

What if rain from the sky were to pour down on you in that void?

‘Th-that!’

There are some twenty cliff faces, but the time to fall is short.

Yet that brief span is by no means short for warriors who live in split-second moments.

Those who were descending looked up in alarm.

They saw comrades drifting down with their robes fluttering.

And above them, red rain was pouring like a torrential downpour.

Kwa-deuk! Kwa-deuk! Kwa-deuk!

Countless sword qi, leaving long afterimages like drops of blood, plunged into the bodies of the black-clad men with terrifying force.

“Gaaaaaaah!”

The swords that fell in staggered intervals pierced flesh, pierced it again, and pierced once more.

They felt dozens of thick poisoned needles pierce their bodies in many places, and in that agony all they could do was scream.

Some frantically swung their blades to try to fend off the raining swords, but in midair with nowhere to plant their feet, stopping every sword raining down was impossible from the start.

Kwa-deu-deuk!

The blades that tore through the qi cloaking their bodies sank mercilessly into soft flesh.

They tore through muscle, crushed bone, ripped out organs, passed through one body and lodged into another.

Shaaah!

Blood gushed from the many punched holes.

As real human blood mixed in, the sword qi that had appeared blood-like became a darker blood rain.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

But humans will always have their survival instinct kick in.

Those who realized they couldn’t dodge the swords in midair noticed one thing: the nearby cliff faces.

A flash of murderous intent crossed the eyes of the black-clad men who grit their teeth.

Those unable to step on air chose the body of a comrade as a stepping stone.

They had trained together and faced death together, but under the absolute law of survival, comradeship is worth less than rotten straw.

Bang!

The black-clad men ruthlessly kicked those beside them and used the recoil to fling themselves at the cliff faces.

“Oh!”

Those trying to swing their blades to block the swords unexpectedly couldn’t withstand the blow from behind and lost their balance.

They were shoved by the pouring swords.

What happened next was all too predictable.

“Gaaaaaaah!”

A harrowing scream echoed.

The black-clad men clung desperately to the cliff faces behind that.

Of course, clinging to the cliff didn’t stop the swords, but there’s a world of difference between using your whole body to block in midair and bracing yourself to only guard against swords pouring down from above.

But they soon faced another problem.

Ka-ga-ga-gang!

A black-clad man wildly swung his blade and repelled the raindrop-like sword qi, his eyes bloodshot.

‘We can block it!’

Each sword qi wasn’t terribly powerful.

If not in midair, they could be blocked somehow.

So they needed to tell their comrades.

He gathered his qi into his voice and was about to shout at the top of his lungs.

Suh-guk!

A searing pain like being burned by fire spread across his back in an instant.

“Grrk…”

Feeling his spine snap at once, the man who sensed his fate forced himself to turn his head.

Taat.

At that moment someone stomped on his waist and shoulders and leapt upward.

Pushed down by the recoil, he fell and saw it.

A person scaling the cliff like a hunting hawk.

Seu-guk! Seu-guk! Seu-guk!

While everyone was distracted by what was above, a swordsman in the black Mount Hua uniform moved rapidly along the cliff and cut down lives one by one.

“Y-you bastard!”

Only then did the black-clad men realize someone below was attacking them; they hurriedly defended a wide radius and swung their blades.

Paaaat!

Yu Yiseol calmly pushed off the cliff and leapt into the void.

It was an urgent situation, yet her movement could only be described as graceful.

She extended her blade as smoothly as flowing water.

Swaeeaaak!

Then Chung Myung, diving like a hawk pursuing prey, immediately thrust his blade.

Chung Myung’s Dark Plum Sword and Yu Yiseol’s Plum Blossom Sword met gently in midair.

They spun.

The two used each other’s force to rotate their bodies.

Ka-gang!

The two blades pushed each other apart in succession.

Using the recoil, the two flew to different cliff faces.

Thud!

The moment their feet hit the cliff, the two turned into lightning.

Bathed again in the sun’s light, their blades shone pure white.

There was no leisure to calmly observe anything.

Yet at that moment, not only the Southern Island sect’s disciples but even Mount Hua’s disciples stared blankly at the cliff.

“… Sasuk.”

Jo Gul said in a half-dazed voice.

“Can a sasuk do something like that?”

At those words Baek Cheon glanced up.

The two who walked the cliff like flat ground ceaselessly swept their blades and slaughtered the black-clad men.

A wry chuckle escaped Baek Cheon’s mouth.

“…I can’t even imitate it.”

Baek Cheon didn’t think he was weaker than Yu Yiseol.

She was certainly strong, but he was confident in the martial foundation he had built himself.

But that’s only on flat ground.

If they fought on that cliff face, Baek Cheon believed he’d throw down his sword and beg for mercy before Yu Yiseol could even strike.

At least in terms of the Light Body Method, no one on Mount Hua could match Yu Yiseol.

Chung Myung is a different story entirely, but even if Baek Cheon spent his whole life, he couldn’t catch up to Yu Yiseol’s divine techniques.

“Still, I win underwater.”

“…Pathetic, sasuk.”

Baek Cheon twitched his face once at those words.

Then he quietly stared up at the cliff.

Though Chung Myung and Yu Yiseol had cut off many black-clad men’s breaths in an instant, many more still hovered above them.

What mattered was that those who had been descending clung to the cliff and had already slipped once.

There’s no need to explain how crucial timing is in tactics.

Those who noticed the blood red sword qi above losing power tried to descend again, but those below weren’t idiots.

“Fire them!”

At the thunderous shout of the Southern Island sect’s leader, Geum Yang-Baek, Southern Island sect disciples fired the full-force sword qi they’d gathered at their blade tips toward the cliff face.

Even if they couldn’t normally emit sword qi at the instant blades collided to injure the enemy, given enough preparation time like this, the result changed.

Blue sword qi like waves resembling the sea surged together toward the black-clad men.

Suh-guk! Suh-guk! Suh-guk!

Those about to leap from the cliff were cut one after another by the blades that rose from below.

The blade qi they fired didn’t harm Chung Myung, but the strikes launched by the Southern Island Sect were clearly cutting them down.

“Aaaaargh!”

Watching those whose lifelines were severed and who fell, Geum Yang-Baek clenched his fist.

Extreme tactics always carry both opportunity and risk.

If they work, the gains are immense; if they fail, it’s worse than a frontal assault.

There’s no need to explain how big the difference is between being suddenly met by descending attackers and leisurely firing sword qi at those climbing down the cliff.

The ones who reversed the situation were the two who leapt upward.

How could such a thing be possible?

They were in a situation boxed in on all sides, with enemies pouring down from above.

Even those seasoned in the martial world would be flustered and staggered.

At best, they could only brace their defenses.

How could anyone conceive of aiming for the enemy’s high ground to prevent them from dropping straight down?

All in an instant.

If Geum Yang-Baek had command, could he have handled this situation?

‘No question about it.’

Without those two, the enemies would have already slipped through their ranks and slaughtered the Southern Island Sect’s disciples.

No, perhaps they wouldn’t even have made it into this gorge.

If he had clung to petty pride and refused, the Southern Island Sect’s fate would already be sealed.

“Sect leader!”

At that moment Baek Cheon’s loud shout pierced Geum Yang-Baek’s ears.

Snapping back to his senses, he saw black-clad men cut by sword qi spraying blood as they fell.

But among them, some had dodged the sword qi by luck.

“Block them!”

“Yes!”

At Geum Yang-Baek’s command, Southern Island’s elders immediately leapt upward.

Driven by fury, the elders’ venom-filled blades mercilessly cut down the black-clad men whose momentum had faltered.

Having scanned the situation above, Baek Cheon snapped his head around.

At that level of situation, there was no point in waiting any longer.

Many of them might still fall alive to the bottom, but having lost momentum and been wounded, they wouldn’t withstand Southern Island’s assault.

So what’s left?

Kuwoooong! Hae Yeon’s fist instantly shoved an enemy aside.

It was still an impressive sight, but Baek Cheon didn’t miss the man hit by Hae Yeon’s fist who, despite falling, scraped the ground without losing consciousness.

“Die!”

Soon the enemies, driven by fury, all hurled spears at Hae Yeon.

Tak! Tak! Tak!

Hae Yeon’s hand made a wide circle and knocked away all three spears.

But one of the spears that had been knocked away stopped in midair and then flew toward Hae Yeon at an even faster speed.

Swaeeaaak!

The sharp spear tip grazed Hae Yeon’s chest.

Sensing she couldn’t block it, Hae Yeon gritted her teeth and gathered qi to her chest.

Kaaang!

A blade that flew from behind instantly struck away the spear that was nearly touching Hae Yeon’s chest.

Suh-guk!

The emitted sword qi then sliced through the spear-user’s neck.

Watching the spearman fall spraying blood, Hae Yeon stood momentarily stunned.

“Shift change.”

“Now, Acting Sect Leader!”

Hae Yeon shouted as Baek Cheon stepped forward toward her.

“I’m not—yet…!”

“I know. But don’t exhaust yourself here. Help the rear! It’s impossible for one Tang young lord alone.”

At those words Hae Yeon glanced toward the rear.

“Hurry!”

“…Yes!”

Hae Yeon nodded and stepped back.

Then two people flew in to Baek Cheon’s left and right.

Tat. Tat.

Jo Gul on the left. Yoon Jong on the right.

Baek Cheon, standing in the center, raised his blade and said.

“Doesn’t it feel like we’ve delayed too long?”

“There is certainly that side to it.”

“No need to drag it out.”

A smile spread across Baek Cheon’s mouth.

Hae Yeon is excellent.

Namgung Do-Wei is formidable.

But still, to Baek Cheon, these two men were the most reassuring in the world.

“We’ll go in one breath. To the end of this gorge!”

“Yes!”

“Yes, sasuk!”

Baek Cheon, Jo Gul, and Yoon Jong.

The three Mount Hua swordsmen surged at the enemies in a single breath.