The Frontlines (1)

Morning broke after a night of chaos, busy with handling the corpses and cleaning up.

It was time to part with the wandering warriors and head for the front.

Faces that were always cheerful had, in a single night, turned deeply somber.

It was only natural.

Even for martial artists who lived by the blade, the death of a friend was never an easy thing.

All the more so because Warrior Yang, who had always warmed the mood, and Warrior Lee, who always played along as his foil, were gone; their absence was unspeakably large.

“Travel safely, Young Master Seonu. I wish you martial fortune.”

“Thank you. Warrior Jang and Warrior Jong, may you stay healthy. And Warrior Gong, may you build a happy home.”

After clasping hands firmly with each of them, I finally took out three thin booklets I had tucked in my pack.

I had written in them bit by bit over the past few days.

“I originally made five copies, but I never imagined I would give them to only three of you.”

“What are these?”

Seeing them accept the books with puzzled looks, I answered with a bitter smile.

“It’s nothing grand, but it’s better than the Six Harmonies Manual.”

Their grief-clouded eyes snapped wide open.

“The Six Harmonies Manual? Then could it be—?!”

“Yes. It’s called the Bowon Internal Manual.”

“Young Master!”

Reeling, they hurried to flip through the unmarked booklets.

Bowon was no shabby manual.

Captain Seol Pung had somehow obtained it in my past life, and I had cultivated it.

It had raised a man with almost no internal energy—me—to the first-class peak in under ten years.

It did not compare with an apex art like the Chaos-Origin Infinite Art I was cultivating now; at best, it sat on the threshold of first-class.

But it was on a wholly different level from the third-rate Six Harmonies Manual.

“I also put a few saber forms in the back. Nothing amazing, but they’ll help.”

While Warriors Jong and Gong pored over the pages with round eyes, Warrior Jang looked at me, eyes reddened.

“Young Master Seonu, why… why are you doing this? How could we ever repay such grace…?”

I knew very well what a proper internal manual meant to wandering warriors—something most never obtained in an entire lifetime without high birth or connections.

I had suffered for the lack of one in my previous life.

I had decided to give them a proper manual back when we met the Green Tiger Stronghold bandits.

When they risked themselves to hold the enemy and let me escape.

There had been a few like them in my past life.

Friends who stayed behind to protect others.

Early at the front, when my skills were low, I was often the one protected; they sent me ahead and remained—and most I never saw alive again.

And now I had seen the same instinct in these men.

Men who were, after all, merely hired wanderers.

No amount of pay outweighed one’s life; I knew how most wanderers behaved under threat.

Usually they abandoned the client and fled first.

But these men did not.

Whether from conviction or affection, I did not know—but I wanted to answer the trust they had shown me.

I smiled.

“We’ve shared minds and crossed the line of death together. That makes us friends, doesn’t it? This is of no use to me now; giving it to friends is nothing grand.”

“…Young Master.”

Seeing him on the verge of tears, I hurried on.

“All right, I must go. If I stay, I’ll lose a day crossing the two passes. When we meet again, let’s both be first-class masters.”

He wiped his streaming tears and smiled.

“Indeed. I’ll reach first-class and come find you. Then we’ll drink with joy.”

We clasped hands hard, then I turned without regret and started walking.

After quite a while, I glanced back; they still stood where they were, seeing me off.

My heart felt warm.

I had managed to do for them what Captain Seol Pung had once done for me.

For this alone, living again felt worth it.

Then Lady Cheong-yeon, who had stood silent at my side, suddenly spoke.

“I’ve never seen a martial artist share a martial art with outsiders… Young Master Seonu, you are unusual.”

I chuckled.

“It isn’t a Seonu family secret art—so it’s fine, isn’t it?”

She looked at my face without a word and murmured something under her breath.

“…”

“I’m sorry—what was that?”

“It’s nothing. Just talking to myself.”

At any rate, I felt it was time to talk frankly with this unusual young lady.

“My lady, do you truly mean to go to the front? Out there, there are countless monsters like last night’s—immune to sword qi. You could truly die.”

She looked toward the front for a moment, then answered.

“I thought a lot about it last night. But I think I should still go.”

I felt exasperated.

After seeing that, to be stubborn—she seemed terribly headstrong.

Frustrated, I pressed her.

“Even after seeing it yourself?”

Still looking toward the front, she spoke after a pause.

“I don’t understand.”

“Pardon?”

“How is it that fighting such things isn’t known to the martial world?”

“…”

She wasn’t wrong.

Most people only knew that many died at the front; they had no idea what actually appeared there.

It was because of the secrecy oath.

The Martial Alliance made anyone entering the front swear never to reveal what they experienced; if they did, a Kill Order would be issued.

They said it was to prevent chaos in the martial world.

But those of us who had been there suspected they wanted to hide the Diancang Sect’s sordid past as one of the Nine Sects—and the Alliance’s disgraceful defeat.

Even so, the gag order did not answer every question.

She went on.

“If, as you say, those things appear in numbers, then someone is fighting them there right now. If I turn back here, I’ll be looking away while knowing that, won’t I?”

I could not see her eyes, but the steadiness in her voice was enough.

She wasn’t going from childish heroism.

“I didn’t learn martial arts to live like that. My father didn’t raise me so, either. Young Master Seonu, what do you see me as—a woman, or a warrior?”

Her tone was gentle and her eyes unseen, yet there was not a trace of wavering; a sigh escaped me.

“Haaah.”

She was a warrior first.

At the peak of first-class, at that.

And in spirit, more mature than I had been at twenty-one.

To have treated such a warrior like a foolish girl—it made me disgusted with myself.

I bowed formally and apologized.

“I misjudged your conviction, my lady. I sincerely apologize.”

The corners of her lips lifted slightly.

I thought it was the first time I had seen her smile.

“Apology accepted. You admit wrongs and apologize briskly, Young Master.”

Her small, plump, rouge-tinted lips curved in that smile, and I found them very pretty.

“Haaap!”

Splat!

“Kyaaaah!”

A two-chi blade of sword qi raked across a naked Miao man’s chest.

His chest split and blood spattered, but he only faltered and then charged the young swordsman again.

“Fall back, Jeongrang!”

“Hyup!”

The young swordsman sprang back to evade the Miao; while its eyes tracked him, a woman rushing in from the flank skimmed past and cut the already-slit chest deeper.

Shwick!

“Kiiieek!”

As its gaze now chased the passing woman, the man who had withdrawn flashed in like a ray of light and drove his sword into its heart.

Thud!

“Gyaaaah!”

Even with its heart pierced, the Gangwi screeched and flailed its arms; but the man had already released his sword and leapt back.

It was a practiced two-person combo, smooth as meshing gears.

Grinning, the man spoke to the woman,

“One down. Good work, Sonmae.”

“You too, Jeongrang.”

With its heart destroyed, the Gangwi would slow, then stop after half a gak.

Dead once already, it would finally die for real.

After sharing a brief, tender look, the man scanned the surroundings.

Across the dense jungle, eight comrades fought other Gangwi in pairs.

Seeing none in grave danger, he smiled back at the woman.

“Looks like we finished first.”

“Seems so.”

They watched the flow of battle, ready to aid anyone in trouble, and—fingers secretly entwined—savored a brief respite amid combat.

They had begun courting a year ago; for warriors isolated at the front, facing death daily, romance was the last human pleasure left.

Of course, there was a strict rule: it must not interfere with combat.

“The captain went to hunt mid-tier Gangwi, right?”

“Yes. Two of them whose bodies ignored sword qi.”

Watching the others closely, the man smiled sidelong.

“I hope he gets back soon. So we can have time alone.”

The woman smiled shyly.

Then something burst from the brush.

“Keh-heh-heh-heh!”

The man, who had not neglected his vigilance even while talking, shoved the woman aside and whipped out the dagger strapped to his thigh.

“Haaap!”

But the attacker’s weapon glowed red.

CHANG!

Weapon Qi flared.

The warped twin-sickle, clad in Weapon Qi, bit into the dagger and split half through it; the man’s face changed, and he tossed the dagger and leapt back, shouting,

“Run, Sonmae! It’s the Twin-Sickle Seven Fiends!”

But the woman was already seized from behind, acupoints sealed.

“Aaah! Jeongrang!”

The man froze for a heartbeat at the sight of her captured.

That instant decided his fate.

Thud!

“Guhk!”

The sickle of a pursuer drove into his heart from behind.

“Keh-heh-heh! You took your eyes off me with this elder at your back?”

“Jeongrang!”

“Keh-hel-hel! Is that your sweetheart? Don’t fret. I’ll make you forget that whelp soon enough. Keh-hel-hel!”

Seven figures had already ringed the woman.

They were the Blood Demon Cult’s demon lords—the Twin-Sickle Seven Fiends.

Seven middle-aged brothers wielding warped twin-sickles; three at the pinnacle realm, four at first-class peak.

“Look at this one, elder brother! I’m drooling already.”

“Didn’t I tell you the Flying Dragon Unit’s girls are a delicacy?”

“But elder brother, there’s another girl over there. Are we taking only this one?”

They looked to where a woman, having spotted them, fired a red signal flare.

FOOMP!

Watching the red bloom spread across the sky, the eldest, Jimak, spoke.

“They’ve fired red—trouble will swarm soon… but we can still take one more.”

“As expected! Good idea, brother!”

“Second, third, with me!”

“Yes, brother!”

“Yes, brother!”

Three of the Seven Fiends launched toward the woman who had fired the flare.

The assistant leader of the Flying Dragon 13th Unit’s 4th Squad, Mae Yeogyeong, shouted to her squadmates,

“Cease fighting! Form a defensive circle now!”

At her command, the members disengaged from their Gangwi, clustered together, and formed a ring.

Their movement was crisp and drilled.

But to three pinnacle experts of the Seven Fiends, it looked laughable.

“Keh-heh-heh! That won’t do!”

The eldest, Jimak, unleashed a crimson Weapon Qi—the mark of a pinnacle master—and dove at them.

Mae Yeogyeong, herself first-class peak, gritted her teeth and yelled,

“Hold! The captain is coming!”

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Squad Four fought with everything they had, parrying Jimak’s onslaught.

Even so, their weapons’ edges gouged and sank under the pressure of his Weapon Qi.

“We’re here too!”

“Keh-heh-heh!”

Two younger brothers crashed in behind him, their sickles sheathed in thinner Weapon Qi.

As Squad Four grimaced and braced, a whistle trilled from somewhere.

“Piiiiiiiit!”

A long, hawk-like whistle—the sign of their captain, Diancang’s Sword Hawk, Ma Yugyeom.

“The captain!”

“The captain’s here!”

As faces brightened, a handsome young man streaked in like a meteor to the whistle’s call.

“Tch! The Diancang Sword Hawk! Brother, what now?!”

The second asked.

“Just one, is it? I’ll take him. You handle the rest!”

Jimak sneered.

Snarling, Jimak hurled himself at Ma Yugyeom.

“Whelp—die!”

“Haaaaap!”

They clashed in midair; red and blue Weapon Qi collided in brilliant sparks.

TONG! TONG! TONG! BOOM! BOOM!

Ma Yugyeom’s skill was astounding.

Though still in his twenties, he did not yield an inch to the infamous demon lord Jimak.

And he wasn’t the only one arriving.

The fourth of the Seven Fiends, lagging behind, shouted,

“Elder brother! Another one’s coming!”

Where he pointed, a woman raced along the treetops as if flying.

Even from afar, her beauty was arresting; the fourth screamed,

“That wench—Tang Yeo-eun, elder brother!”

Tang Yeo-eun, captain of the Flying Dragon 13th Unit and famed as the Tang Clan’s Sword Phoenix, was a celebrated beauty throughout Yunnan.

The fourth’s eyes burned—and the eldest Jimak, dueling Ma Yugyeom, felt the same hunger.

Truth be told, they had targeted the 13th Unit multiple times to capture Tang Yeo-eun.

Still crossing blades, Jimak shouted,

“I’ll hold this one—everyone else go! Grab that bitch and pull out!”

His brothers answered with glee,

“Yes, brother!”

Seizing only the one woman they had already taken, they leapt away toward the onrushing Tang Yeo-eun.