The Support Ate it All - Chapter 608: Hop-Hop (5)

Another iron jiangshi was swallowed by flames.

As the talismans plastered all over it turned to ash, it collapsed in a heap—like a puppet with its strings cut.

With this fight wrapped up too, I spoke to the group.

“Quick reset, then we move.”

Dang Eunbi was pulling her weight in her own way.

She wasn’t much help in the fighting itself, but just like she’d said, she had serious skill in medicine.

On top of that, I had no idea where she’d learned them, but she also had a few recovery skills—enough that several wounded people managed to survive critical moments.

After finishing treatment, Dang Eunbi rejoined us.

Then, for some reason, she stared at me for a long beat before speaking.

“……I was just thinking again. It’s kind of amazing.”

“What is?”

Dang Eunbi flicked her eyes toward the others.

“That you’re the one giving commands. I thought Team Leader Ahn or the older sisters would be the ones doing it.”

“Normally, that would be right.”

“Yeah, but… everyone follows like it’s obvious. And the teamwork looks… really good.”

At that, Dang Gyu-young and Zhuge Soso each tossed in a line.

“If you just do what he says, you win.”

“At least, it doesn’t feel like we’ve ever taken a loss.”

Dang Eunbi nodded, then looked back at me.

“And it feels like a lot of trust has built up, too.”

“Sure. But why the sudden observation?”

“I just figured… you’ve got one or two strengths, after all.”

“Oh? Thanks for seeing me so kindly. So can we get along now?”

“No?”

Dang Eunbi went stone-faced and took a step back.

Apparently, having a single redeeming quality wasn’t enough to become friends with a big-sister snatcher.

We still had a long road ahead.

Leaving the minor incident behind, we headed for the next battlefield.

Then Seo Ye-in suddenly turned her head and stared into the distance.

“……?”

“What is it?” I asked. “Do you see something?”

“Loud.”

With her eyesight, she must have spotted something.

“Loud” probably meant fighting.

Dang Gyu-young stared the same way and knit her brows.

“……That’s toward the Clan Head Hall.”

The Clan Head Hall was one of the core locations of the entire household.

If a battle was happening near there, there was a high chance the key figures were involved—the Clan Head, the Elder Council, and more.

Ahn Jeongmi seemed to reach the same conclusion.

“What shall we do?”

Up to now, we’d deliberately avoided merging into the biggest fight, instead clearing smaller engagements in succession—to keep casualties down.

It’s been a while now.

Most of the battles would have been resolved one way or another. Wandering around blindly wouldn’t accomplish much anymore.

And Ghost Demon was still on my mind.

He’d said he was switching to the “next best option” and hurried off. If that “option” was focusing on taking out the Dang family’s strongest—

We had to stop it before it was too late.

So I answered Ahn Jeongmi.

“Let’s go. We at least need to confirm what’s happening.”

“Understood.”

We pushed our speed, and before long we arrived at the “loud” place.

Just like we’d expected, it was a battlefield.

The strongest experts of the Dang family and the Blood Cult were locked in a brutal clash.

There were an absurd number of Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi too—like they’d gathered every last one they’d prepared.

And with Ghost Demon in sight, it was basically certain.

Countless Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi had surrounded a single person.

He was so drenched in blood it was hard to identify him at a glance—until Dang Gyu-young’s eyes widened and she shouted immediately.

“Father!!”

“…….”

The Dang family head slowly turned his head this way.

He looked like he’d been through hell—wounds of every size covered him from head to toe, and one arm was gone, cut clean off and nowhere to be seen.

Blood poured from his seven openings, which meant his internal injuries were severe too.

The one who’d pushed him this far was, nine times out of ten, the woman in blood-red martial robes across from him.

Even if she’d been coordinating with Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi, she still felt like elder-class strength.

And with a massive saber in her hands…

Saber Demon?

A sneer curled at her lips.

“Looks like the daughter has arrived. Maybe I’ll finally get to see something entertaining.”

“—!”

A rare fury surged across Dang Gyu-young’s face.

Dang Gyu-young charged with the shadow club leveled—while the shadow beneath Dang Gyu-young’s feet erupted like an explosion.

As if he’d been watching for it, Ghost Demon immediately shook the soul-summoning bell.

When the eerie chime rang—

About half the Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi surrounding the Dang family head surged toward us.

Dang Gyu-young had to know blunt impact didn’t work well, but Dang Gyu-young didn’t care.

“MO—VE—!”

The shadow club swept wide, and jiangshi toppled in a crashing wave.

Zhuge Soso joined in, blade flashing, and Hyeseong Group gunners started pouring special rounds downrange.

Meanwhile, my focus was elsewhere.

On a Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi at one edge of the battlefield—its body swollen like a balloon.

The dark green aura seeping out of it looked like concentrated poison.

So this is ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) what they were doing with the poison-absorbing jiangshi.

Until now, all those things had done was absorb poison from Dang family martial artists, then disengage and retreat.

I’d been wondering what they were aiming for.

They were funneling all that poison into that thing.

If it pops, it’ll be a catastrophe.

Every poison used tonight would be mixing inside it into some kind of compound toxin.

Even a Dang family expert wouldn’t be able to neutralize it quickly.

The Blood Cult had clearly prepared this with ambition, counting on exactly that.

Better to remove it first.

So I said a single word to Seo Ye-in.

“Pot.”

“Here.”

The moment I took the Immortal Pot, I kicked off the ground straight at the bloated one.

Several Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi blocked my path and attacked—

I triggered ★Blink★ and appeared in the middle of the enemy formation.

When the bloated one entered my range, I thrust the pot forward.

[Severed Space]

A night-sky-colored space opened and swallowed it whole.

Ghost Demon’s eyes went wide at the unexpected development.

“What—!”

He shook the soul-summoning bell and pointed at me.

Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi swarmed in, swinging every kind of weapon—swords, spears, whips, clubs.

I dodged by a hair again and again, until it hit the point where I knew I couldn’t keep it up.

That was when I triggered it.

[Ghostless Shadow]

And I returned to my original position.

Both elders seemed thrown off enough that their movement stalled, and the battle dipped into a brief lull.

Ghost Demon looked at me and rattled off admiration.

“You saw through our aim in a single glance. And once you decided, you moved without hesitation—bold, decisive……. Every part of you is extraordinary.”

Then he issued an order to Saber Demon.

“Leave the Dang family head for now.”

“What a shame. I wanted to take his head.”

“He’s already little different from a living corpse. The important one is that boy.”

Saber Demon had watched what I’d done, and nodded without much resistance.

“He doesn’t look like a mere youngster. He’ll become a major obstacle to our great undertaking.”

“He already is. The Blood Sword Squad Leader, the Dark-Shadow Commander, even Phantom Demon fell to him.”

“……!”

“We must kill him. Even if it means we bury our bones here.”

In the next moment, every Blood Cultist and every Yin-Yang Blood Jiangshi in the area focused their attention on me alone—along with the two elders.

And still, I spoke in a calm tone.

“Before we start, let me ask one more thing. I forgot earlier because I was busy checking my romance fortune.”

“…….”

Ghost Demon blinked like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

Then he let out a big, hearty laugh.

“Heh-heh……. Fine. For you, the right is more than earned. What else are you curious about?”

“This ‘great undertaking’ of yours—did it really have to be accomplished by striking the Dang family?”

“Of course.”

Ghost Demon nodded and continued.

“The martial world is like a massive gu jar. Do you know this? Poisonous creatures are surprisingly docile. Even when you cram them together, they don’t fight at first.”

“…….”

“But with a small stimulus—say, shaking the jar lightly—they start tearing at each other, killing, and devouring.”

“…….”

“If the Dang family falls, a tremendous vacuum will open in Sichuan’s power structure. Everyone will rush in to seize it. Chaos will bloom.”

“And after that?”

They hadn’t come to conquer Sichuan. They weren’t going to grind up elders and armed forces just to stir trouble for fun.

At my question, Ghost Demon looked even more pleased.

“As expected, you’re looking beyond. In chaos, experts are born—just like gu.”

“So you did all this just to produce experts?”

“Exactly.”

At least now I understood why the Blood Cult wanted to erase the Dang family.

If you only poked at second, third, fourth—while first place stayed standing—nothing about the power structure would truly change.

But there was still too much that didn’t add up, so I kept going.

“What do you do with those experts?”

“If you wish to create stronger gu, you put them into a larger jar.”

“So you’re feeding them to your cult leader.”

“You’re quick. Endless life-and-death duels against countless rivals—at the end of that path lies the cult leader’s ultimate objective.”

EX-rank.

No one knew the method to reach it, but like S-rank, it likely had something to do with enlightenment.

It seemed the cult leader believed the path was a constant succession of life-and-death battles—and the entire Blood Cult was throwing their lives away to support it.

He can’t stand not being the ‘best.’

The cult leader still hadn’t appeared even once. If he reached it first, that title would come with the word “first.”

Even if it were just a game, it would make your eyes go wild—so in a real world like this?

Losing a few elders or armed groups was a cheap price to pay for being recorded in history as the first EX-rank… and the strongest under heaven.

I understood that much.

But another question surfaced, so I threw it out as-is.

“If you need rivals that badly, wouldn’t it be better to let me live? I’m confident I can get stronger.”

“Heh-heh……. Perhaps. But not you. You’ve interfered with our affairs far too much. It will benefit our undertaking for you to disappear here.”

I’d inflicted massive losses, and I was going to keep doing it—so the numbers didn’t work for them.

Then, unexpectedly, Seo Ye-in stepped forward.

“……No.”

“And what, exactly, is ‘no’?”

“Kim Ho. Gyu’s house……. can’t disappear.”

Maybe because Seo Ye-in spoke longer than usual, Ghost Demon seemed to understand sloth-language just fine.

“Heh-heh……. A Hyeseong child. It might not be bad to erase you here as well. It could provoke that Chairman.”

“I’m angry…….”

“I think that’s enough questions and answers. Let’s begin.”

The soul-summoning bell rang again, and the battle was about to restart.

Seo Ye-in’s ash-gray hair began bleaching to white, gradually—soaking up a dazzling light.

With that light still gathering, Seo Ye-in raised one hand overhead.

“……I’ll punish you.”

A pillar of light speared upward, smashing the Blood Cult’s formation array to pieces—then even tore the storm clouds apart.

With the night sky revealed, a swarm of stars began to pour down.

“Ultra-first kill move.”