The Appearance Of The Small-Hand Art (4)

Neung Je-gang returned to the Necromancer Cult’s encampment again.

He could see the Necromancer Cultists, roughly piled together and fallen asleep while being dampened by dew.

War was this filthy. One often saw the sight of humans giving up on being human. If they had not met the Necromancer Cult, they would probably be asleep by now in a warm room, covered at least by a single-layer quilt.

He randomly chose one tent and entered it. Perhaps because they trusted the Soul Hunters too much, there was no one awake inside or outside the tent. In any case, that might have been happiness for them. Perhaps dying as if sleeping, without knowing pain, was also happiness on a battlefield.

Neung Je-gang quietly pressed each person’s death point one by one. Aside from a few people who occasionally twitched and showed movement, they truly departed to the other world in silence.

Perhaps this was the tent of the lower-rank warriors who controlled the Necromancer Cultists, for there were none who noticed even the slightest sign.

Neung Je-gang left the tent and approached another tent beside it. Inside it, around ten people wearing traditional Taoist robes were asleep. Kunlun disciples, who should have been devoting themselves to attaining the Way deep in the mountains, had fallen into weary sleep in the middle of a battlefield.

“According to Sohee, most of the Taoists here belonged to Jieun Territory under Byeon Bong, did she say? Then among them, there may be some who participated in my family’s bloody calamity.”

He muttered softly and slowly began to emit killing intent. If they had participated in his family’s bloody calamity, he had no desire to let even a single one go. Yet he also had no desire to press their death points and kill them comfortably as before.

“If I use poison, the warriors of the Black Alliance may also be poisoned, so that won’t do. What method is there?”

Neung Je-gang could not think of any particularly sharp method. He wanted to torture them and find out exactly who had taken part in that day’s cursed bloody calamity, but there was far too little time left for that. In the end, killing them easily was the best revenge he could carry out right now.

“Ah……!”

Neung Je-gang stretched out his finger to press a death point, then suddenly thought of something. He left the tent and went to the place where food was prepared. There, he found what he wanted. An important ingredient that always had to be nearby when cooking—oil.

Carrying one oil jar, he returned to the tent and poured oil over the Taoists’ bodies until their Taoist robes were soaked through. Though it was oil used for cooking, once it caught fire, it would burn fiercely all the same.

“Just as my family and our village burned and turned to ashes, you too must disappear like that.”

Like a madman, Neung Je-gang carried the oil jar and went around the tents. He could not go through every tent, but he poured oil over nearly all the large tents where many people were asleep. Now, if even a spark fell there, they would immediately turn into a hell of flames.

After circling one more tent and coming out again, Neung Je-gang headed toward another tent, then heard sounds coming from afar. It was the Black Alliance’s surprise attack, swarming in while suppressing their noise. It was a surprise attack, but because it was a large-scale offensive, it seemed they could not completely silence the sound.

“What is it?”

Murmur, murmur.

The tents that Neung Je-gang had not yet handled became noisy, and people began to come outside one or two at a time.

“It’s a surprise attack!”

“Wake up! Wake up, you bastards!”

They awakened the Necromancer Cultists who had been sleeping out in the open. The Necromancer Cultists, sunk in exhaustion, could not easily wake from sleep.

“What is happening?”

It was then. A man who stepped outside while unleashing a lion’s roar that rang thunderously in everyone’s ears entered Neung Je-gang’s eyes.

Perhaps the Necromancer Cultists’ minds were jolted awake by his shout, for they hurriedly rose and each picked up their weapons.

“It seems to be a surprise attack from the Black Alliance, Territory Lord!”

A man who had come out from another tent bowed his head toward the one who had shouted and answered. That word, Territory Lord, flew into Neung Je-gang’s ears and lodged there. In Kunlun, there was now only one person who would be called Territory Lord.

“Byeon Bong!”

The name burst from Neung Je-gang’s mouth as though he were spitting it out through clenched teeth.

“What of the Soul Hunters?”

Byeon Bong was not particularly surprised even by the words “surprise attack.” It was likely because he trusted the Soul Hunters. He thought the Soul Hunters would be able to stop the surprise attack just as they had until now.

But this surprise attack was not small-scale, and there were also no Soul Hunters to stop it.

“We received no contact at all.”

“What? Something has happened.”

Only then was Byeon Bong startled.

“Hurry and wake the warriors. Prepare for battle.”

“Yes.”

At Byeon Bong’s order, those beside him ran into the quiet tents.

It was night now. There was still a long while before dawn. Naturally, in the hands of those who went into the tents to wake the sleepers were burning logs that had just been pulled from the campfire.

Whoosh.

And the moment they entered the tents, sparks from the burning logs leapt out, and the tent cloth caught fire.

“Fire!”

Those who were flustered by the sight of the suddenly blazing tents shouted. But tent cloths that had been thoroughly soaked in oil would not go out just because someone shouted.

“Heh heh!”

Neung Je-gang laughed softly. There had been no dead inside the tents he had poured oil over. In the end, they would burn to death in the fire set by their own comrades.

However, there were still more tents that had not caught fire. Neung Je-gang stealthily approached one campfire, picked up a pile of logs, and threw them one by one toward the tents that had not yet caught fire.

“Fire!”

The flames grew beyond control. The flames spread even to the tents over which he had not poured oil. Because the tents were clustered close together, the fire was now spreading on its own.

“Waaaah!”

“Destroy the Necromancer Cult!”

As if the flames had been the signal, the Black Alliance surged in at that moment. As if trying to be compensated for having retreated endlessly all this time, they sprayed blood with their eyes turned red.

“Stop them! What is the Necromancer Cult doing?”

Byeon Bong drew his sword, cut down the Black Alliance warriors, and shouted, but the lower-rank Necromancer Cult warriors, most of whom had been swallowed by the flames, could not follow his orders. The Necromancer Cultists, receiving no instructions from them, simply milled about in confusion, collapsed by themselves, were trampled, and died.

“Retreat!”

Perhaps thinking it was already too late to hold them back, Byeon Bong shouted at the top of his lungs. Even without him shouting so, the surviving people had already fled from the offensive.

Neung Je-gang also launched himself after Byeon Bong, who had fled while crying out for retreat. The fighting here had already ended in an overwhelming victory for the Black Alliance. However, the Black Alliance would now also have a headache to deal with. The problem of handling the Necromancer Cultists who had not even been able to flee would hinder them.