Chapter 838: A Moment to Savor (13)

In truth, the Central Plains army was famous for being the weakest.

Individual capability was lacking, and no matter how nicely you wrapped it, the discipline couldn’t be called good.

Worse, soldiers sought their own survival over the group, so when they met a difficult enemy, they panicked, broke ranks, and each ran for their own life.

A complete rabble—an army that was pure chaos.

If you had to pick the one thing they were good at, it was farming.

When it came to farming, they were farmers who could fight a hundred men each—an army no nation under Heaven could match.

You might ask why that was an advantage.

A soldier should be an expert at fighting; why would being a skilled farmer be the army’s strength?

But it was a terrifying advantage.

Because if you left them alone, they farmed on their own and fed themselves.

The fact that the army’s upkeep cost was absurdly cheap—that was the strength of this country’s army.

That cheap maintenance cost.

And the numbers that came from vast land and an overwhelming population, numbers that started at ten-thousand units as a baseline.

Those were the secrets by which the Central Plains army, despite being effectively the world’s weakest, still served as the number-one “mighty army,” the pillar holding up the world ruled by the Son of Heaven.

And conversely.

For the countries near the Central Plains—the so-called barbarians, as the Central Plains called them—it meant they had to stop that huge (not truly powerful, but insanely numerous) army with a small force.

So barbarian armies were, by nature, elite armies.

Great Yue soldiers too were hardened troops: the Great Yue King fed them well, trained them carefully, and raised them into a strong army.

They were soldiers the nation raised as precious assets, so of course their loyalty pierced the sky.

Some vile vampire could never defeat Great Yue’s elite troops!

“[Die, vampire!]”

The gold armor—more precisely, riveted armor covered in golden silk—

Thanks to that, Qing realized that “vampire” in Great Yue speech was pronounced “Macaron.”

Normally, Qing would have thought something like, Ah, now that I’ve heard it, I kind of want to eat one.

But right now, it was time for the demonic energies to run wild for the first time in a while.

And there were enemies right in front of her?

Qing’s cheeks ascended again.

BANG—Qing’s new body launched like a shot.

Her right arm, stretched long behind her left flank, snapped open at ferocious speed.

Moonlit Night in her grip drew a crimson line of sword-energy, like it was about to split space itself.

“[General!]” “[We’ll help!]”

Along the path of Moonlit Night, seven Crescent Blades stabbed in at once, drawing an inverted fan.

CLANG! All seven Crescent Blades bounced away at the same time.

But the Crescent Blades returned again, wrapped in dark-blue saber aura, drawing smooth circles.

The barbarians knew the Central Plains army itself wasn’t frightening.

What was frightening was the sand-grain countless numbers—and even more than that, the artillery.

And if there was something the barbarians truly feared, it was martial artists.

To barbarians, the Central Plains Son of Heaven was a man who had completely lost his mind.

He let individuals with enormous personal force roam freely, without any constraint of national law.

To barbarians, martial arts belonged to the army and the ruling class, so they couldn’t understand that free cultivation in the Central Plains at all.

Of course, the Sons of Heaven could feel wronged.

The land was already this huge and martial arts had already spread everywhere—how were they supposed to control it?

There was even a time when they held a leash and used martial artists as quasi-officials to govern regions, but then some ignorant bastard invaded and grabbed them by the collar, and that was how things ended up like this.

And the law?

Those martial-arts bastards don’t follow it!

Anyway, to barbarians who didn’t know the circumstances, there was nothing more annoying than martial artists—more precisely, high-level masters among them.

So Great Yue soldiers had studied for a long time how to deal with martial artists, and they had honed it in practical terms.

A Great Yue military, anti–martial artist, pass-grade martial art!

And the result was unfolding right now!

Seven Crescent Blades moved together as if a single person wielded them.

CLANG! The sound of one against seven rang out like one sound, making it obvious how precise their coordination was.

In the next instant, Great Yue’s seven warriors all stepped back at once.

To dissipate the impact transmitted through their Crescent Blades.

The general’s eye twitched.

What kind of strength was this?!

How could seven grown men be trying to block one blade and still be short on power, bouncing away like that?!

Was this truly a demon, a vampire?!

A wicked smile bloomed on the vampire’s face.

It was a vicious, horrifying smile that made you wonder how anything on earth could grin with that face.

In that instant, the spear tips of elite troops—already snapping into battle posture—stabbed in from all sides—

A flash of purple lightning!

A beat later, RUMBLE—! A violent thunderclap roared like it would tear apart all space.

Soldiers bounced away in the opposite direction from their charge.

The vampire’s head whipped around.

The general turned his head too—and saw soldiers charging in behind a Blocking Cart meant to stop her.

The vampire’s eyes flashed.

“[No!]”

“[Yes.]”

The vampire split into eight.

One leapt high, one ran on all fours like a beast, one flickered forward in an unnatural blink.

The general ground his teeth.

A true demon—wasn’t that sorcery something only a demon could wield? What the hell had that Central Plains man dumped on them?!

“[Damn it—Water Soldiers, the vampire! That way! The monster is targeting the soldiers!]”

But it was already too late.

One of the eight semi-transparent vampires revealed its true form atop the Blocking Cart the soldiers were pushing.

And then—blood.

“[Vampire, it’s a vampire!]” “[Die, monster!]”

The vampire swept through them.

Swinging a huge blade, its handiwork was monstrously cruel.

It chopped soldiers into pieces and dropped them as chunks.

Her left arm flashed up, and a massive black-twisted palm appeared—one swing, and a soldier’s head vanished all at once, erased without a trace.

The soldier’s body collapsed with a thud.

The vampire brushed past, snatched up a soldier’s Crescent Blade, then stomped the ground hard and surged up high into the sky.

“[Now! Net—throw the net!]”

“[Firecracker—where’s the Firecracker!]”

Historically, against a strong individual, nets were the most effective tool.

Even in this massacre, well-trained elite troops threw nets into the path where the vampire flew—

thinking the vampire would leap into the net on its own.

But.

The vampire stopped, upright, in midair.

Not just stopping—stopping while inverted, squatting.

“[It’s a real vampire! It can fly! Aaaagh!]”

“[But—it didn’t put its toes in its nostrils! How?!]”

For reference, Great Yue’s demon “Macaron” is said to be able to fly only if it grips both earlobes with its hands and blocks both nostrils with its big toes.

If you weren’t Great Yue, you wouldn’t understand—why would a human-shaped monster be frightening when it flew around holding its ears with its hands and plugging its nostrils with its feet?

Isn’t that just funny?

Great Yue people would object.

Then what—something is flying in a human shape, holding both ears with its hands and blocking both nostrils with its feet, and that’s not scary?!

In the next instant, the vampire, squatting upside down in midair, straightened its legs and dropped.

The net sliced uselessly through the air—and worse, it fell on a few soldiers and crushed them.

But those soldiers pinned under the net were probably the lucky ones.

THOOM!

The ground caved in, and soldiers flew away like rag dolls with cut strings, rolling on the dirt.

WHEEEK—blood vomited up, and someone else screamed, clutching a broken arm or leg.

And at the center, the vampire—one knee on the ground, one hand braced—snapped its head up.

“[AAAAAGH! Die!]”

“[This monster—how dare it take Won Ijunmo!]”

They said the moment a soldier truly became a soldier was when they lost a comrade.

The soldiers who’d lost friends, comrades, brothers-in-arms went rabid, stabbing with spears and hacking with Crescent Blades.

But the vampire only rose, crossing both arms above its head.

CLANG-CLANG-CLANG! Crescent Blades struck the vampire’s forearms, and the sound of metal being struck rang loud.

Countless spear tips drove into the vampire’s torso beneath its raised arms—

“[Uh... uh...?]”

“[The spearheads won’t go in! Monster!]”

The spear-wielding soldiers were Lower Soldiers—grown men who still hadn’t achieved success in the military internal method.

Only after building the minimum strength and stamina to handle heavy polearms through the military internal method could one finally lift a Crescent Blade.

Seeing that, the general let out a sigh.

With the strength of Lower Soldiers, they can’t even pierce the monster’s skin—how can there be such a terrifying monster?!

“[Upper Soldiers! We have to stop it! Vampire—your opponent is here!]”

The general bellowed, leading the highest elite troops, the Upper Soldiers, to the front.

Then the vampire bellowed back.

“[I am not a vampire! I am the Supreme Thief Overlord, the rice-eater, Elder Bandit Lotus!]”

“[Die, vampire!]”

“[I said Elder Bandit Lotus!]”

The vampire surged at the general again.

But Great Yue’s seven heroes had already watched the enemy—the vampire—the Elder Bandit Lotus—fight.

It could split into eight and move like phantoms, but they could track where its gaze went.

It could leap high and fly at terrifying speed, then suddenly flip in midair, change direction, and pour down.

...How the hell do you fight that?

But even so, they couldn’t run.

For their great homeland, for the glory of their people, to repay the benevolence of the great Great Yue King.

“[Let’s go! For His Majesty!]”

“[For His Majesty!]”

The general shouted with gusto and charged.

The six Upper Soldiers followed behind him, each silently reciting the conclusions they had drawn from the clashes so far and the demon’s slaughter.

The swing of that huge blade carried monstrous weight in proportion to its size, and it was sharp and fast.

But the trajectory was simple and predictable—always watch carefully.

And the left arm—it attacked by layering a phantom of a huge black hand and a phantom of a huge white hand.

The black one smashed people to pulp.

The white one sliced with nails and chopped them apart.

You could block and knock away the black one, but the white one cut weapons along with you—so you had to dodge it no matter what.

But they failed to notice that an even redder glare was shining in the vampire’s eyes—

—and because of that, they did not see the rotating pattern, invisible within those eyes.

Light-Drunk Killing Sword-Energy. A demonic art that, each time it killed the living, doubled its killing intent and poured out stronger and stronger sword-energy—there was a reason it was counted among the Ten Great Demonic Arts Under Heaven.

One-Hundred-Eight Asura Sword. A demonic art that, splashed in the blood of the living, exploded into greater savagery, blew away reason, and intoxicated the user with slaughter—this too was one of the Ten Great Demonic Arts Under Heaven.

Wheel-Cycle Demonic Tribulation. A vicious demonic art that tore enemies apart with rotating saw-blade sword-energy and left wounds that could never be healed—this too (omitted)—

Three tenths of the Ten Great Demonic Arts Under Heaven were poured into a single sword.

They had blocked it once, so they thought they could block it again.

Six Crescent Blades collided with the massive sword, and collide, collide, should have—

Sparks burst, and six Crescent Blades were cut apart.

And three heads—no, half of three heads—three bodies with nothing left above the philtrum fell to the ground.

“[How—]”

“[I am Elder Bandit Lotus!]”

A beastlike shout.

And the remaining four saw it: the vampire swung its sword, its torso tilted diagonally, its arm pulled tight behind it—

—and layered over it, a huge white palm.

Ah.

The three who’d been diagonally sliced spilled onto the ground.

More precisely: two almost-corpses chopped at the upper body and waist, and one “lucky” survivor whose legs had been cut off.

“[No—! KKYOOOOT!]”

The general, alone, thrust his Crescent Blade.

And—KWA-RUNG!

Purple lightning burst.

KWA-RUNG, KWA-RUNG, KWA-RUNG—purple lightning in rapid succession, and with each strike, the general was forced a step farther back.

KWA-RUNG, KWA-RUNG, KWA-RUNG, KWA-RUNG.

Eight bolts of lightning, seven steps of retreat.

The general collapsed to his knees.

“[You are.]”

The general felt a vast regret.

This woman wasn’t some mere vampire.

How could a mere vampire be this strong?

He should have known her true identity sooner.

If he had known sooner...!

Then—THUD—he pitched forward, face-planting as he fell.

“[You were an Ordinary Mortal...]”

A shocking true identity!

Unknown general, you are declaring: you are an Ordinary Mortal, an ordinary person—no more than a common fellow!

What kind of dogshit is this?

Qing, soaked in the intoxication of slaughter for the first time in a while, froze—and a faint blue light crept back into her eyes.

It was that shocking.

What is it? A farewell, strongest? Common fellow?

And Great Yue’s soldiers were shocked too.

“[An Ordinary Mortal—he was an Ordinary Mortal...!]”

“[R-run! Ordinary Mortal—everyone has to run...!]”

“[AAAAAGH! We’re all going to die! We heard the name of the Ordinary Mortal! We heard it! Elder Bandit Lotus was an Ordinary Mortal! The Ordinary Mortal’s name was Elder Bandit Lotus!]”

“[No! Don’t say that name! AAAAGH! I can’t hear anything!]”

It was the moment those brave soldiers—who had just been charging in furious grief over fallen comrades—finally turned their backs and started running.

Ordinary Mortal!

In Great Yue speech: Pamnyeon!

And Pamnyeon was the name of the demon Great Yue feared most in the world.

They feared it so much that they erased the name from the world and called it only “an ordinary person.”

And if any of them made it back alive, Great Yue would remember the name “the rice-eater, Elder Bandit Lotus.”

As the rebirth of the most feared demon in the world: Pamnyeon.

But Qing—who could speak Great Yue but didn’t know their culture at all—was only dumbfounded.

No, what the hell is this?