I Will Make Sure That Name Is Engraved (7)

“Green Forest King! Behind you!”

“I know!”

Im So-Byeong, who had glanced back, quickly turned his gaze forward again.

‘Those ruthless bastards!’

They actually pulled off an absurd stunt. This is exactly why he couldn’t shake off the Mount Hua scoundrels.

“Now we just have to get out!”

Those damned Evil Sect men were charging from the front one after another, but they weren’t anything special. A hopeless rabble.

‘No matter if they’re the Ten Thousand People Clan or the Four Sects Alliance, they couldn’t have infinitely recruited troops.’

They could fill numbers, of course, but they couldn’t make up for the qualitative difference. If Jang Ilso himself had acted, it would be different, but the one here was Ho Ga-Myung.

So the problem wasn’t ahead but behind. They had to somehow shake off the pursuit of the Ten Thousand People Clan.

It was Im So-Byeong’s role to come up with that method.

“To the right! Damn Young lord! Don’t just force straight ahead, aim for gaps, you muscle-head!”

“Then hurry up and tell us!”

Namgung Do-Wei shouted but quickly changed direction as Im So-Byeong ordered.

Watching the situation, Im So-Byeong’s eyes flashed coldly.

‘Having many numbers isn’t always an advantage!’

Especially when orders don’t reach properly and troops are mobilized from all directions, the command structure inevitably breaks down.

If exploited properly, it could make them entangle with each other.

‘No, it’s not just possible, it’s necessary!’

“Too far! More to the right!”

“What the…”

“Shut up and do as you’re told!”

Im So-Byeong shouted with an even more brutal force than usual, and Namgung Do-Wei flinched and turned further. Then those charging seemed to avoid him on purpose, opening a path.

Namgung Do-Wei was inwardly alarmed but planted himself without hesitation. A wide path gradually opened where his sword swung.

Seeing that, Im So-Byeong pulled a smirk at one corner of his mouth.

“You were impatient, Ho Ga-Myung.”

He could clearly feel his subordinates watching for cues.

And with good reason.

The Mount Hua’s Sword Saint they’d nearly captured had ultimately rejoined his main force alive, and even those who rushed in to save him had all survived.

They did kill a few more of the Southern Island Sect men in the process, but that was only cutting down minor ranks.

Failure. Considering everything up to now, that’s the only verdict.

Everything sent into this gorge had been for naught.

One versus countless troops, and the sects mobilized, countless were wiped out.

“An accurate assessment.”

“…C-commander?”

Ho Ga-Myung’s eyes calmed as he watched those making a desperate escape.

The Green Forest King’s talent was definitely exceptional. Running his forces with the sole aim of retreat made their speed markedly different from before.

“C-commander! They’re beginning to spread out.”

“I know.”

Those ahead couldn’t stop their escape at all. Moreover, once a breach occurred, they couldn’t even pursue.

All they did was, after being broken through, turn into a wall to block the pursuing Ten Thousand People Clan.

A command failure born of excessive greed.

A strategist would judge it thus: paying the price for blindly throwing uncontrolled men en masse into the battlefield.

But…

“The Green Forest King is certainly an excellent talent. In intellect, he’s better than me.”

“…C-commander?”

“But he lacks experience.”

Questions flashed in the eyes of the officers looking at Ho Ga-Myung. To them, it sounded absurd.

Im So-Byeong had led the Green Forest into countless fights with the Ten Thousand People Clan. To call him inexperienced…

From Ho Ga-Myung’s perspective it might be fair, but by common standards the Green Forest King was more of a veteran for his age.

“How much one has fought isn’t the point. Sometimes too much experience becomes a poison.”

The members held their breath instead of asking questions. That answers were coming without being asked meant Ho Ga-Myung wasn’t talking to them but sorting his own thoughts.

In times like this, one must never interrupt Ho Ga-Myung.

“I hope that certainty doesn’t turn into despair.”

A cruel smile spread across Ho Ga-Myung’s lips.

“Green Forest King!”

Yoon Jong, who had taken Chung Myung from Hae Yeon, ran up and carried him on his back right behind Im So-Byeong.

Im So-Byeong’s face hardened at the sight of Chung Myung.

“Is he even alive?”

“Is that even a question…!”

“…In that state, of all things.”

Im So-Byeong gritted his teeth. Seeing Chung Myung’s gruesome condition, an indescribable fury welled up from deep within him.

“Damn it!”

“Green Forest King! Where are we going now?!”

At the shouted question, Im So-Byeong turned to look back.

Baek Cheon had flown back to hold off the Ten Thousand People Clan pursuing from behind. Those attacking from the front were rabble, and from behind came the Ten Thousand People Clan, his decision was natural.

This meant it was entirely Im So-Byeong’s role to lead everyone ahead and pull them out of danger.

“Did you ask where we’re going?”

“Yes!”

“Asking the obvious stuff now!”

The conditions for where they had to head were fixed.

A place where a few could leverage terrain advantages against many.

And a place where fleeing few could hide themselves with absolute advantage.

There was only one such place nearby. History had proven it; countless had bled to prove its worth. Hence it became cursed ground that no one dared enter.

“Great Mountain!”

Yoon Jong snapped his head up. He saw a wide plain meeting the horizon and jagged peaks stabbing upwards like planted blades.

A shiver ran down his spine.

That mountain range stretching thousands of ri across Guangdong and Guangxi the world called the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.

“This way!”

Im So-Byeong seized Chung Myung and slung him over his shoulder.

“Help the Young lord! An instant! In an instant we’ll arrive! Then we can lose them!”

“Yes!”

Yoon Jong also ran forward without argument. Among Mount Hua’s disciples, he and Baek Cheon were in the best condition. He had to fulfill his role.

“There’s an ambush on the left! To the right!”

“Yes!”

“After that they’ll charge from the front! The instant you pass the ambush, turn left! Do not overrun your speed! If your waist snaps it’ll be disaster!”

“Understood!”

Yoon Jong swung his sword fiercely.

‘It’s different!’

It didn’t make fighting the enemy easy. But even cutting down one man advanced them significantly more.

‘Is this military strategy?’

He felt in his body what it meant to know the enemy’s flow and strike its grain. A realm he never fathomed; he now, clumsily, understood how strategists view the world.

“Don’t think, just go!”

“Yes!”

Im So-Byeong gritted his teeth.

‘One chance is enough!’

They only needed to hide within the Ten Thousand Great Mountains and buy time once. Then the situation would be incomparably better. They just had to reach Great Mountain.

“Go straight! Break through at full power!”

“Yes!”

As those ahead increased speed, Geum Yang-Baek also shouted himself hoarse.

“Don’t fall behind! You must catch up!”

At the same time, an elder collapsed to the ground. But Geum Yang-Baek squeezed his eyes shut and looked away. There was no time to tend to each person now.

“Run, hurry!”

Im So-Byeong checked the rear.

Hwaaaaak!

From the rear, red plum blossoms were erupting explosively. Even the Ten Thousand People Clan would find it hard to pierce that impossible sword qi.

The divine might Mount Hua’s disciples displayed in this pursuit was, to say the least, oft-praised.

But the sword qi Baek Cheon was showing stood out even among those Mount Hua disciples.

‘Lucky we didn’t meet him as an enemy.’

Baek Cheon would definitely hold the rear. So now they only had to think ahead and run.

“Keep going!”

Im So-Byeong screamed until his throat hurt. At the same time he whirled his fan brilliantly. Those rushing from the side were sliced by the rippling qi he emitted and toppled en masse.

“Press them!”

Gwak Hwan-So charged the hesitating Evil Sect members and drove his sword in hard. The reinvigorated Southern Island Sect disciples also drew on their last strength to swing swords and surge forward.

Their numbers had already been reduced by more than half. The sacrifices made to get this far were immense.

But now was not the time to dwell on sacrifices already made. They had to look only ahead, to where they must go now.

“Ugh, ughhh…”

“G-go away!”

Blood splattered over them, Yoon Jong and Namgung Do-Wei charged like demons, and the Evil Sect men recoiled in terror. The two swung their swords as if to devour the frightened.

Namgung Do-Wei’s explosive sword and Yoon Jong’s perfectly restrained blade combined in a harmony of discord to ravage the enemy.

Swoooooosh!

Slash! Slash! Cut them down again!

It was as Yoon Jong, half out of his mind, cut down the enemy right before him.

“Guh!”

The man whose throat was cut grabbed the wound and fell aside. In that moment Yoon Jong realized there was no one left to stop him.

Before he knew it, a hill-like mountain loomed right ahead of him.

Between the towering peaks a clear path was visible.

“Green Forest King!”

“At the rear! Hold off the pursuers! Send the Southern Island men in first!”

At those words, Yoon Jong felt an indescribable thrill.

They had arrived.

They had crossed the sea, passed Guangdong, pierced through the hellish gorge, and finally reached this place.

“Keep going! We’ll hold the rear!”

“But…!”

“Go, hurry!”

At Yoon Jong’s shout, the Southern Island disciples gritted their teeth and ran. The mountains rising on either side weren’t very tall, but they were so steep they resembled cliffs as the Southern Island disciples dashed between them.

“Aaaah!”

Some collapsed outright from the blows, and others, having reached this spot, collapsed exhausted.

But most of the Southern Island disciples, in the meantime, rushed into the promised land of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains without looking back.

“Monk!”

“Yes!”

Hae Yeon, carrying Yu Yiseol, hurriedly followed. Tang Soso, carrying Jo Gul, also ran at full speed and took the lead.

“S-sahyung…”

“Go ahead, Gul!”

Yoon Jong met Jo Gul’s eyes and nodded deeply.

Yoon Jong quickly checked the rear. At that moment he saw countless plum blossom leaves scattered across this Southern land.

Perfect sword qi, flawless in every bit!

Baek Cheon, who had torn the clinging enemies away at once, was running up.

“Sasuk!”

Baek Cheon’s whole body was stained with blood. Yoon Jong at first thought it was enemy blood, but on closer look much of it was Baek Cheon’s own. Realizing this, a scream involuntarily escaped Yoon Jong’s mouth.

“Run!”

But Baek Cheon urged Yoon Jong on instead.

Yoon Jong, Im So-Byeong, Namgung Do-Wei and Tang Pae passed by Baek Cheon and entered the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains.

“Sasuk!”

“We’ll cut them off before they catch up! Let’s go!”

“Yes!”

Yoon Jong’s voice was slightly uplifted.

They hadn’t completely shaken off the pursuit yet.

But now the situation would be very different. These thornlike mountains rising from the earth would provide places to hide and make the enemy’s pursuit difficult.

Simply being able to ambush would change everything. Wasn’t that what they’d thought upon seeing the Ten-Thousand Great Mountains on the way to Southern Islands?

‘We can do it!’

The sacrifices made to get here, their cost, were not in vain.

As Yoon Jong unconsciously clenched his fist, he saw those gathered up ahead.

“Don’t wait, keep moving, either way!”

At that, the Southern Island Sect’s disciples ahead turned to look back.

The moment the Mount Hua disciples saw those faces, they instinctively knew something was wrong.

The Southern Island Sect’s disciples’ faces were ashen, as if they’d met a ghost.

“W-what’s wrong?”

“…sir.”

“Yes?”

A voice full of despair slipped from Gwak Hwan-So’s mouth.

“The front… the front is blocked, Taoist.”

For a moment everyone fell silent as if speechless. A bleak wind swept through the still space.

Cold sweat formed on Im So-Byeong’s brow.

“N-no way…”

Im So-Byeong hurriedly looked out beyond the mountain valley.

Step. Step. Step. Ho Ga-Myung slowly advanced toward the valley Mount Hua and Southern Island had entered. The satisfied smile at his lips betrayed his intent.

“They were enemies, but excellent. So…”

A voice devoid of feeling slipped out.

“I’ll at least engrave that name. So that everyone will clearly know his end.”

It was a declaration marking the end of the long pursuit.