The Terrifying Pursuer (1)

“Are you saying this is all?”

Byeon Bong was beyond dumbfounded and almost going mad. He could overlook the scarecrow-like Necromancer Cultists, but of the Kunlun disciples who had numbered in the hundreds, only around thirty could be seen.

At least the experts of Jieun Territory, his direct subordinates, seemed to have escaped safely except for a few. The problem was that with this number of people, they could not stop the Black Alliance’s great army.

In order to live, in order not to die, they fled backward and encountered a group of people. They were the ones carrying the supplies that Neung Je-gang had seen earlier. Made up only of Necromancer Cultists, they had only now appeared.

After meeting them and finding a brief chance to rest, Byeon Bong was so dumbfounded that he could no longer say anything.

“Soul Hunters!”

He loudly called the Soul Hunters who had been responsible for guarding, but far from answering, not even their shadows could be seen.

“Did the Soul Hunters betray us?”

At Byeon Bong’s question, everyone shook their heads. There was no way they would know that. Byeon Bong could find no reason for the Soul Hunters’ absence other than betrayal. It was because he knew the Soul Hunters’ abilities well. He could not imagine that someone had stepped forward and killed all the Soul Hunters.

There was one being who might have had such a possibility, but had that being not fallen into Kunlun’s Bottomless Prison and died?

“Let us go to U-gak Hobong.”

Byeon Bong shouted to his surviving subordinates. In any case, they could no longer fight here.

They abandoned the Necromancer Cultists who had been carrying the supplies, took only the things they needed from the supplies, and fled like that. The Necromancer Cultists left behind only stared blankly at the sight of them running away. They truly were the ones struck by a bolt from the blue. They had gone through all that trouble to bring the supplies here, only to be abandoned by those people so they alone could live.

The lower-rank warriors who had been controlling the Necromancer Cultists gathered and whispered about something, then gave an order to the Necromancer Cultists.

“Wait here, and when the enemies come, fight them. You must kill all the enemies.”

Then those men took the valuables from the supplies and launched themselves in a different direction from those who had run ahead. Though they were only lower-rank warriors, they were people who had learned martial arts, so their movements were swift.

The Necromancer Cultists left behind stood firm and waited for the Black Alliance. They would recklessly charge in there and all die. Because that was the final order they had received.

“Those low-down bastards!”

Neung Je-gang had been about to chase after Byeon Bong, but when he saw the men abandoning the Necromancer Cultists and fleeing in another direction, he stopped.

If they had fled together instead, Neung Je-gang might have pretended not to see them and followed Byeon Bong. But the sight of them running away to save only themselves angered him.

“Since Byeon Bong said he was going to U-gak Hobong anyway, I should punish those bastards first.”

Neung Je-gang launched himself after the men who had fled in another direction. The men who had abandoned the Necromancer Cultists like that ended up leaving this world far earlier than those who remained.

“Where did they go?”

It seemed it had been a mistake to briefly chase after those other men in the middle. Neung Je-gang, who had run to U-gak Hobong, searched for the traces of Byeon Bong and his group, but they were nowhere to be seen. It seemed they had hidden themselves in some extremely secret place.

Neung Je-gang felt as though his heart was burning black. He had missed an enemy, and one of the ringleaders at that, right before his eyes.

He searched every corner of U-gak Hobong. However, he could not find Byeon Bong. He discovered only a few villages of natives, but they were simple people who knew nothing of martial arts.

“Ah, damn it!”

Neung Je-gang collapsed to the ground.

“This is strange. If they definitely came here, there is no way they would not have caught my eye…….”

It had not taken him very long to deal with the men who had fled separately. Immediately after that, he had run to U-gak Hobong with all his strength.

Leaving aside everything else, Neung Je-gang prided himself that he was second to no one when it came to lightness skill. Yet for dozens of people to vanish without a trace made no sense. Unless they had slipped off somewhere else in the middle.

“Did they go somewhere else? Then there are only two places they could go…….”

Either Kunlun or Seon-yeong. The possibility was greater on Kunlun’s side. Was it not their base and symbolic place? They would want to defend Kunlun at all costs.

However, Neung Je-gang chose the direction of Seon-yeong. He did not know when the Cheon-geum Domain’s plot would explode, so he could no longer let time slip away on other matters.

If Byeon Bong had fled to Kunlun, then that too could be called his luck. Would that not be heaven’s will telling him to extend his life a little longer?

In order to make up for the time he had wasted searching for Byeon Bong for nothing, Neung Je-gang ran toward Seon-yeong at full speed. But even if he was a master of lightness skill, Seon-yeong was a terribly distant road from U-gak Hobong.

In conclusion, Byeon Bong had no luck. It seemed heaven had decided not to permit him any more life.

Neung Je-gang, who had been running toward Seon-yeong, abruptly stopped. He saw people who ought to be called defeated soldiers running ahead of him. Neung Je-gang smiled in satisfaction. In order to die, Byeon Bong happened to be running toward the very place he was going.

“Heh heh heh!”

Neung Je-gang’s laughter flowed out softly. This time, his laughter was laughter of thanks to heaven.

Ma-jil came to his senses. No, in truth, Ma-jil had already come to his senses long ago. But was he not being carried on someone’s back? And on the back of Cheong Yeon, with whom he had always bickered, no less.

Ma-jil had woken, but he did not pretend to be awake. When would he ever enjoy such luxury again? Was this not the cold and terrifying Eastern Depot, and at that, an expert of the Capture Bureau whose very shadow he had once feared to see?

Ma-jil wanted to keep being carried, but he could not do so to the end. In order to return to the Martial Alliance’s encampment, they had to crawl through the tunnel they had come from. He could not pass through that tunnel while being carried on Cheong Yeon’s back.

“Uuugh!”

Ma-jil pretended to regain consciousness while letting out a groan, but at that moment, his eyes met exactly with Je So-yeon, who happened to be looking at him. Je So-yeon was looking at Ma-jil with a meaningful smile.

Flinch!

Ma-jil’s liver dropped with a thud. It seemed Je So-yeon had noticed that he had deliberately pretended to be unconscious.

He slowly turned his head. He could not meet Je So-yeon’s eyes.

“Have you come to your senses?”

Cheong Yeon asked in a tone full of concern.

“Where is this……? Huh? Why did we come back? There are still many places left to set on fire.”

Ma-jil played dumb and pretended not to know.

“Since you were injured and lost consciousness, there was no one to set fires, and since our traces were discovered by the enemies, we could not keep setting fires either, so we decided to withdraw.”

“Ah, then did the people who went to deal with the enemies’ food warehouses succeed?”

“We do not know yet. We will know once we return. But can you pass through the tunnel? If it seems too difficult, I think we can rest before going…….”

Cheong Yeon set Ma-jil down. Ma-jil exaggerated his condition and staggered a few times, then caught his balance and stood.

“There is no need to worry about me. This much is nothing, really.”

“Understood. Then let us return now.”

They removed the stones that had temporarily blocked the tunnel and crammed their bodies into it. They had to crawl for quite some time before they could rest comfortably.

Meanwhile, the Soul Hunter returned to the place where he had lost his subordinates with ten of his men. However, naturally, there was no sign of the enemy. They searched for traces. Then they found the direction Cheong Yeon’s group had returned in and began pursuit.

“It is here.”

Cheong Yeon’s group had not blocked the tunnel as they returned. Since they knew it would be discovered anyway, they had comfortably left it alone.

The Soul Hunter was dumbfounded. A tunnel, of all things. He had never imagined there would be someone who could dig a tunnel from the Martial Alliance’s encampment all the way here.

“Shall we pursue them?”

Soul Hunter No. 72 asked.

“Do you want to die? Though we are in a position where we move according to the Cult Commandment and under the Cult Leader’s orders, there is no need to throw away our lives in vain. If we go in under the pretext of chasing them and the tunnel collapses, will we not all die?”

At the Soul Hunter’s words, the other Soul Hunters nodded. Though they were bound by the Necromancer Cult’s Cult Commandment, even their hearts were not obeying Deung Gak. They were merely following Deung Gak’s orders because they had no choice. That was because Deung Gak was the current Cult Leader of the Necromancer Cult.

“We have lost many of our family. From now on, do not step forward uselessly first. Looking at the situation, it does not seem this Cult Leader will last very long either. We must preserve our strength for the next generation.”

“Understood.”

In truth, the real Necromancer Cult was precisely these Soul Hunters. When the Necromancer Cult was destroyed in the past, they had hidden themselves for the sake of the future. However, because Deung Gak saved the previous Necromancer Cult Leader and summoned them, they appeared in the world once again.

“The pursuit failed. It seems the Martial Alliance has a tunnel expert. From now on, strengthen the guard even further.”

“Yes.”

They instead collapsed the tunnel into which Cheong Yeon and the others had fled, left that place, and returned to the Necromancer Cult’s encampment. With this, they were able to protect most of the crops that had not yet been harvested.

However, most of the food supplies they had painstakingly brought in from the Central Plains were destroyed by another special mission team of the Martial Alliance. Thus, both the Necromancer Cult and the Martial Alliance had achieved half a failure and half a success.