Chapter 73

“Ugh.”

I forced my body, heavy as if weighed down by a thousand jin, to rise.

It felt like every muscle in my body was screaming.

Maybe it had been a mistake to ask him to teach me how to handle melees. The past three days had been absolute hell.

If not for the Demon-Gathering Pills Ju Ok-hwa had made, I would have collapsed sick long ago.

I shuffled out of my bedroom with slow steps.

Hidden-Cloud Pavilion was bustling from early morning.

It had been like this for days, because I wasn’t the only one preparing for Heuk Jin-pung’s schemes.

In front of the carriage, Hwang Seung-jong was stroking a talisman attached to the outer wall with a satisfied grin, while to one side of the yard Ak Mu-jin was silently practicing his saber arts.

Im Yeon was holding some sort of document, and when she spotted me, she came over at once.

“Ah, Young Lord. The Silence Fragrance Hall Lord sent this.”

Im Yeon respectfully held the document out.

I had asked Ju Ok-hwa to keep watch in case there were any suspicious signs on Heuk Jin-pung’s side.

Perhaps thanks to the effect of Eternal Snow Blossom, she cooperated without a word of complaint.

She had been sending observation reports every morning for the past two days.

I took the document and unfolded it.

The contents were simple.

She couldn’t point to anything specific, but said she sensed something suspicious.

‘Hmm, are they going to strike today?’

Ju Ok-hwa’s information network was not perfect, but it was far from lacking.

If she said something was suspicious, it meant an attack might occur soon.

“Alright, everyone gather up.”

I immediately called everyone together.

“Today, we do the same as yesterday.”

I briefly reminded them of their roles.

Im Yeon and the other bodyguards would stay by my side, while Ak Mu-jin and Hwang Seung-jong would ride in the carriage with me.

The Longevity Ten would lie in wait along the path between Hidden-Cloud Pavilion and Demon Awakening Peak. They would move when I gave the signal.

“Now, head to your positions.”

I clapped my hands and walked toward the carriage.

Hwang Seung-jong stuck to my side and pointed at the carriage.

“Seventh Young Lord, doesn’t something feel different?”

“Not really. I can’t tell.”

“Your eye is still lacking. This carriage is now a moving fortress. I’m saying we can activate the Four-Quarters Confusion Formation.”

Four-Quarters Confusion Formation, huh.

Pretty grand name.

“How many times can we activate it?”

Hwang Seung-jong hesitated.

“…Once.”

“Only once?”

“What do you mean only? Just being able to activate it from a carriage is incredible. For that interval, even a transcendent master cannot do anything to us.”

“Yeah?”

If it could fend off a transcendent master for that interval, it was definitely worth something.

In that interval, a lot could change.

“Let’s go.”

Everything that needed doing was ready.

I climbed into the carriage with a light heart.

Im Yeon sat in the front, Ak Mu-jin beside me, and Hwang Seung-jong across diagonally.

Normally, Ak Mu-jin and Hwang Seung-jong didn’t come along to Demon Awakening Peak, but that had changed a few days ago.

Since we never knew when a fight might break out, I couldn’t leave those two out.

The carriage rolled toward Demon Awakening Peak.

On the way, I began to think Ju Ok-hwa’s information might be right.

The air along the road to Demon Awakening Peak felt ominous enough to prickle against my skin.

‘So it really is today?’

Heuk Jin-pung’s way of thinking was not so different from Heuk Un-hwi’s.

It was obvious how he would move.

He would have laid an ambush somewhere along the route from Demon Awakening Peak to Hidden-Cloud Pavilion.

He would strike after my training with the Heavenly Demon, when I was exhausted.

So for this training session I had decided I would somehow save some strength.

But.

“Huff, huff…”

That had been nothing but wishful thinking.

Today’s training had been the toughest so far.

“Isn’t this too much? I am pretty sure they picked today as the day on that side.”

I said weakly, sitting collapsed on the ground.

The Heavenly Demon was as cold as ever.

“You are the one who wished to receive melee training.”

“No, but this is way too intense. Do you not want to see your favorite disciple starting tomorrow?”

I deliberately acted weak.

He might help me, after all.

But the Heavenly Demon was the Heavenly Demon.

“If you cannot overcome this, your capacity goes no further than that.”

“Wow. That’s cold.”

I had tried just in case, but as expected, it did not work at all.

Well, what could I expect from the Heavenly Demon.

I had to handle my own problems.

‘I might as well do some Qi circulation.’

I was just about to sit cross-legged when the Heavenly Demon added a line.

“You only know a sword’s weight once you have swung it.”

“Huh?”

The Heavenly Demon then left Demon Awakening Peak just like that.

I pondered the meaning of the words he had left behind.

Was it something like, what I had honed so far had to be used in real combat to truly become mine?

‘Or maybe not.’

It was vague, but whatever he meant didn’t matter.

It wasn’t like I intended to avoid what was coming.

Once I started breathing cultivation, I felt my exhausted body grow at least a little better.

“You have worked hard, Young Lord.”

“I did… work hard, yeah.”

We left Demon Awakening Peak behind and set off for Hidden-Cloud Pavilion.

The smoothly running carriage suddenly creaked to a stop.

Through the small window connected to the driver’s seat, Im Yeon questioned the coachman.

“What is going on?”

“S-someone is blocking the road ahead.”

So it had finally come.

Im Yeon spoke in a tense voice.

“Young Lord, I will go out and have a look.”

“No. Let’s go out together.”

We stepped out of the carriage.

A bald, musclebound man was blocking the middle of the road.

In his hand was something like a portrait sketch. He alternated glances between it and us as he muttered.

“A woman and four guards, a carriage with seven flags, and… a decently handsome face. No mistake. You are Baek Su-gyeong.”

“You found the right person. I am Baek Su-gyeong. And you are?”

“I am the will to set the Cult’s future straight.”

I couldn’t help but tilt my head.

What was this guy saying right now?

The bald man raised his hand high.

He would not be facing us alone, so it had to be a signal to summon his subordinates.

“Wait.”

I stopped his movement.

“What?”

The bald man looked at me with puzzled eyes.

I reached into my robe, pulled out a signal flare, and raised it high. Then I tugged the fuse at its tip.

Peong!

With a loud bang, a flare burst up into the sky.

“You little…!”

“I couldn’t just let you make the first move.”

As I mentioned earlier, this signal flare was for the Longevity Ten.

Some would rush here, others would bring the outer patrol squad.

“Everyone, come out!”

At the bald man’s shout, enemies poured out from the brush on both sides of the road, from up in the trees, and even from beneath the dirt.

From their ragged appearances, they had clearly been lying in ambush at least a full day. There were nearly fifty of them.

Their effort was almost admirable, so I clapped my hands.

“You hid quite well.”

“Young Lord, please get back into the carriage. We will protect you!”

Im Yeon shouted as she drew her sword.

‘That won’t be easy.’

Calmly, I gauged the enemy’s strength.

First, there were no overwhelming top masters among them.

Even the bald man, who looked strongest, fell slightly short compared to Ak Mu-jin.

The remaining fifty or so were mostly between second and third-rate, so they were not a major threat.

However, I felt a strange sense of dissonance.

Their mood was grim to an abnormal degree.

It was as if they were not merely here to kill me, but had accepted this place as their burial ground.

In other words, they had no intention of leaving alive.

People like that were often more troublesome than those with higher martial skill.

‘Where did Heuk Jin-pung find these guys?’

As if answering my curiosity, they all pulled something out from their sleeves at once.

They were blood-red claws, like congealed blood.

They shouted a slogan.

“In the name of Heaven Rebelling, we sever the old heavens!”

“In the name of the Heaven Rebelling Society! For the Divine Cult’s new future, eliminate the Cult Leader’s heir!”

At that moment, I understood the source of the dissonance.

These people were the Heaven Rebelling Society.

‘Why are they here?’

Questions rose one after another.

Before my regression, these bastards didn’t reveal themselves until much later, so why had they already appeared?

I had already found it odd when Im Yeon mentioned them on the ice plains not long ago. What were they to Heuk Jin-pung?

Before I could reach an answer, they charged forward with savage cries.

Hwang Seung-jong, who had stepped out of the carriage with Ak Mu-jin, clicked his tongue.

“What’s the Heaven Rebelling Society? No, more importantly, since when were you the Cult Leader’s heir, Seventh Young Lord?”

“Let me think. It hasn’t been many days.”

Ak Mu-jin and Hwang Seung-jong each drew their sabers and talismans.

The Heaven Rebelling adherents, claws equipped, slowly closed in.

“Captain Ak, you block that bald one. Wastrel, use your talismans to confuse the enemy. And Captain Im, you and the other guards form a sword formation and attack from right to left.”

Ak Mu-jin and Hwang Seung-jong quickly followed my instructions.

Im Yeon didn’t move right away, so when I looked at her, she was muttering the same word over and over.

“Heaven Rebelling Society… Heaven Rebelling Society…”

“Captain Im, what are you doing?”

“Hah, y-yes?”

“Form a sword formation with the guards and cut from right to left.”

“B-but our duty is to guard you, Young Lord.”

I raised my voice at the hesitating Im Yeon.

“I’ll be fine, so go!”

“R-right!”

Panting, Im Yeon hurried to join the guards who had already gathered.

Our side and the Heaven Rebelling adherents clashed violently.

Ak Mu-jin engaged the bald man, while Hwang Seung-jong flung talismans here and there, scrambling the enemies’ minds.

Im Yeon and the others were doing their part as well, so I nodded broadly.

‘I’ll wipe them out just like this.’

There was nothing to be gained yet by becoming enemies with the Heaven Rebelling Society, but they were the ones who attacked first.

So I had to make sure the Heaven Rebelling Society and Heuk Jin-pung understood clearly what happened when they touched me.

If you didn’t know who your opponent was, that could be a problem, but fighting when you knew was a different story.

‘I should save my internal energy as much as possible.’

One way or another, thanks to the Heavenly Demon, my body had become very sturdy.

On top of that, I had the Cold-Iron Dagger as a weapon, so it should be doable.

I stepped forward, recalling the essentials of melee combat the Heavenly Demon had hammered into me over the past few days.

–Do not waste strength. Even simple movements can kill as many enemies as you like.

The first lesson.

I swung the Cold-Iron Dagger at a Heaven Rebelling adherent.

He raised his blood claw to block, but the claw was sliced through like tofu.

I kicked him in the solar plexus, his pupils blown wide, then immediately drove the Cold-Iron Dagger into another man.

At the same time, my sense of qi caught another enemy rushing in to strike my back.

I pulled the dagger free and turned, slicing back in the same motion.

Before he could defend, his neck was cut. He gagged and collapsed.

After I took down three in a row, their killing intent focused on me. I had been their target from the start, and now I was rampaging, so of course they would.

–Move ceaselessly.

Several tried to form an encirclement around me.

But by then, I had already slipped out of that spot.

–Make the enemy’s rhythm match yours.

As I kept moving, the Heaven Rebelling adherents’ formation began to crumble.

Taking that opening, Im Yeon and the guards steadily reduced their numbers.

–Compassion is a luxury. Do not hold back your hand. Use any means necessary and survive.

I also dashed wildly through the ranks of the Heaven Rebelling Society.

Without using internal energy, my breath rose to my throat, but I did not stop swinging the Cold-Iron Dagger.

‘This is going smoothly.’

They already had over twenty casualties, while on our side not a single person had even a minor injury.

Was it thanks to the melee methods the Heavenly Demon had driven into my entire body?

The hellish training of the past three days flashed before my eyes like a life-light.

There had been more than one moment when I had wanted to quit because it was so hard, but enduring had been worth it.

‘Truly, he is the Heavenly Demon.’

I honestly could not hold back my admiration.

In three days, he had taken someone like me, who had never experienced a melee, and made me adept at them.

At this rate, I could finish this fight while spending almost no internal energy.

‘What are they thinking?’

I grew curious about Heuk Jin-pung and the Heaven Rebelling Society.

They attacked with only this level of force?

Against me, who had been making quite a name in the Cult lately?

‘Something is off.’

It was then.

I suddenly caught sight of Im Yeon.

More precisely, my vision filled with an enemy closing in right beside her, fumbling at his waist.

In that instant, something flashed into my mind.

‘Falling Thunder Powder?’

“…!”

All the hairs on my body stood on end.

I unleashed Soul-Extinguishing Flash Step with all my might.

Any thought of finishing the battle without using internal energy flew far away.

Because Im Yeon was in danger.