Chapter 409 : Expansion (4)

"Lay down your weapons and surrender!!"

Il-mok had let the poor souls who'd been dragged into the fight pass by without attacking them.

‘But where the hell did that bastard go? I can't find him anywhere.’

He'd pushed deep into enemy territory, yet there was no sign of the opposing leadership anywhere.

"Don't tell me they already ran?"

"It would appear so, Young Master."

Il-mok shook his head slowly.

"Funny how things just ended up working out perfectly for Dokgo Ryong."

His maids couldn't help but giggle at his dry remark.

***

About a quarter-hour earlier.

"Y-you've got to be kidding me."

Qinghai’s Provincial Military Commander was sporting a completely brain-dead look on his face. It was all because of the terrifying martial arts the man named Il-mok had just put on display.

He was so shell-shocked that he didn't even react when the religious fanatics charged at them, screaming their lungs out.

"P-please, spare me!"

It wasn't until the soldiers at the very front of his own formation started surrendering en masse that he finally snapped out of it.

"What the hell are you idiots doing?!"

Not that snapping out of it changed much. He was completely useless, doing nothing but screeching at his officers to fix the mess.

Amid the chaos, one of his aides suddenly blurted something out.

"C-Commander, sir! Something's wrong!"

"What is it now!"

"These men should be engaged with the Western Military Command right now. So how in the hell are they here attacking us?"

It was a realization that came far too late.

"Don't tell me the Western Military Command has already fallen!?"

"That may very well be the case, sir."

By then, the Commander's face had gone completely white.

‘An eighty-thousand-strong army of elite soldiers, and these men tore right through it. How the hell are we supposed to beat them?’

The moment he accepted there was no winning this, he made a decision and made it fast.

"Relay the order, any man who surrenders will have three generations of his family wiped out!!"

He relayed the order through his aides, forcing them to broadcast it across the chaotic battlefield. And the moment those words left his mouth, he turned and ran without ever looking back.

He was entirely prepared to throw every last one of his soldiers into the meat grinder just to save his own skin.

His aides knew exactly what kind of man they served, so the instant they finished passing on the orders, they bolted right after him.

"Charge! Fight them back!"

"Push forward!"

They kept shouting commands even as they fled, putting on just enough of a show to look like they were pulling back for tactical reasons rather than deserting outright. The army's morale was already in the gutter, so the officers knew that if they openly ran, their men wouldn't fight hard enough to act as a meat shield.

When it came to saving their own hides, their brains worked at 200% of normal human capacity.

Like salmon swimming upstream, they shoved their way backward through the sea of their own soldiers until they finally broke free from the formation.

But they hadn't even been running for a minute when a deafening roar exploded from a small hill right next to them.

"BWAHAHAHA! Kill every last one of them!!"

It was Dokgo Ryong and his three thousand nomadic cavalrymen.

This nomadic strike force had ridden out as the vanguard the very second the Gansu Army began its march, allowing them to lie in wait at this spot.

They hadn't actually predicted that the Qinghai commanding officers would flee in this specific direction.

Just like in their battle against the Western Military Command, placing themselves here was merely a tactical choice aimed at striking the enemy's rear or flank.

It was a basic strategy to tip the scales in their favor.

But thanks to the cowardice of the Qinghai Commander, that basic strategy accidentally turned into the move of the century.

"W-wait, sir!?"

The sight of cavalry bearing down on them made every single fleeing officer spin around to look at the commander.

Qinghai’s Provincial Military Commander was also frantically whipping his head around in panic.

Behind them were their own troops, but they'd already put some distance between themselves and the allied camp.

"Screw this!"                                        

In an act of desperation, the Commander abruptly spun around and sprinted back toward his own encampment.

The aides scrambled to do the same, but then—

Swoosh!!

A merciless rain of arrows from the nomadic riders abruptly cut their retreat short.

"Ugh..."

Some of them ran without thinking and caught arrows in the back, face-planting into the dirt. Others managed to spin around and deflect the shafts with their weapons, barely keeping themselves alive.

But that meant they couldn't keep running.

And that was the problem. Turning to block arrows meant you couldn't escape the walking disaster that is Dokgo Ryong.

"If any of you can beat me in a fight, I'll spare your lives!!"

While they were stuck between a rock and a hard place, an unhinged old man on a big black warhorse came roaring down on the survivors like a force of nature.

***

The Qinghai Army was basically a mob of amateurs on a good day. Now, with their entire leadership gone, they folded like a wet paper towel.

But there was no massacre on the battlefield.

Since morale had been in the dirt from the start, a good chunk of the Qinghai troops had been surrendering in droves early on, so the actual casualty count was remarkably low.

"BWAHAHAHA! Are there no more brave souls willing to challenge me?!"

To make matters worse for the enemy, the severed head of their commander dangled morbidly from the saddle of the rampaging Dokgo Ryong, accelerating the rate of surrender even further.

"A great victory, Young Master Il-mok! Out of the sixty thousand men on this field, the dead and critically wounded barely scratch three thousand. And our side lost less than a hundred men!"

Listening to the glowing post-battle report from the general acting as his second-in-command, Il-mok couldn't help but chuckle in disbelief.

"I suppose we ought to be thanking the enemy commander for his incompetence."

Not sure if he was joking or dead serious, his maids and the general just busted out laughing.

The mood was just as festive everywhere else.

All around the command tent, soldiers were either belting out victory songs or dropping to their knees in passionate prayer. They were supposed to be standard government soldiers and reservists, but right now, they looked like hardcore zealots of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

Il-mok watched them for a moment then spoke.

"Filter out the Qinghai conscripts who were dragged here without even a rusty sword, and send them straight back to their villages. And while you're escorting them home, make sure to pass out the 'gifts' we brought along."

With the new orders echoing down the chain of command, the zealots moved like a well-oiled machine to clean up the battlefield.

Meanwhile, those who'd been dragged into the fight without so much as a sword or a shield departed the camp alongside the Gansu soldiers who'd be walking them home.

Oddly enough, their convoy to home was trailed by a bunch of heavily loaded wagons.

Fast forward a few days.

"Oh, my dear Tae-su!"

All across Qinghai, tearful family reunions broke out one after another as the conscripted soldiers returned home.

But the surprise didn't end there.

"W-what is all this?"

Scraps of coarse cloth, crude paper, and thin strips of bark began appearing all over Qinghai.

Scrawled across them were the dirty deeds of the Imperial Family and the eunuchs, paired with the grand vision of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult to change the world.

"Anyone who copies this text or draws this image will be paid for their work!!"        

Spurred on by the Gansu soldiers shouting this offer in every town square, the viral propaganda that began in Lanzhou began to reproduce itself across Qinghai.

While this massive grassroots recruitment and pamphlet-copying campaign was just getting off the ground, Il-mok swallowed the Qinghai Army into his forces and turned his march around and headed back to Lanzhou.

Two pieces of news were waiting for him there when he arrived.

One was from the Gansu Provincial Military Commander who had gone to Sichuan, and the other was a direct dispatch from Wi Jin-hak over in Shaanxi.

The moment he read Wi Jin-hak’s letter, Il-mok's expression turned serious.

"Tell the men to prepare to march for Shaanxi immediately!"

***

About ten days ago.

Just one day after the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's main army had sealed the gates of Zhongnan and Mount Hua shut, a group of high-profile guests arrived from Hubei.

"I am grateful that you have come all this way."

Wi Jin-hak welcomed them with a respectful cup of his fists, and the Head of the Zhuge Family, the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal, and the Beggar King mirrored the gesture in kind.

"We can only apologize for our delayed arrival."

"We just didn't expect you to actually shut down two major powerhouses in a mere twenty-four hours."

"The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's strength is greater than any of us anticipated."

After the brief round of greetings, Zhuge Mun stepped slightly to the side and introduced the woman who had come with them.

It was the same daughter of the Zhuge Family who had visited Gansu a while back with Hwangbo Yeon and Hwangbo Se-hui.

"This is my second daughter, Eun-yeong."                 

"Eun-yeong of the Zhuge Family pays her respects to the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult."

"I am Wi Jin-hak of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult."

Wi Jin-hak's Overhaul Body Transformation had made him look younger than his actual age, but he’s actually in the middle of his forties. Watching him politely greet a young woman the same age as Hwangbo Yeon made Hwangbo Ak clear his throat awkwardly.

"Ahem. Head of Zhuge Family, isn't this a bit rushed?"

When Hwangbo Ak called him out on this shamelessly aggressive matchmaking, Zhuge Mun just stared back with a serious expression.

"Head of the Hwangbo Family. Do I look like the kind of man who behaves this way on a normal day? I'm forcing the issue because we have a war breathing down our necks.

Do you honestly think I would act this way under normal circumstances? We have a war right on our doorstep, which is exactly why I have no choice but to move quickly. I might be standing here right now, but I have to head back to Hubei tomorrow to prepare for the war. I don't have the luxury to sit back and play matchmaker slowly."

With that, Zhuge Mun covered his mouth with his fan and slipped a sound transmission to Hwangbo Ak.

—If it bothers you that we moved first, perhaps you should just be honest about it.

Hwangbo Ak had no answer to that.

Because honestly? He was still stuck in his own head trying to make a decision.

Is becoming in-laws with the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult truly the wiser choice for his family? And if so, is it more prudent to send someone to Wi Jin-hak, the Cult Leader himself, or to Young Master Il-mok?

Just then, a voice cut through his thoughts.

"Head of the Hwangbo Family. I hope you'll forgive me for speaking plainly, but I'm not some naive little girl who doesn't know what's going on around her."

It was Zhuge Eun-yeong.

"My Family Head did not drag me here against my will. I made this choice entirely on my own, and I certainly didn't propose this marriage just to win anyone's approval. But at the end of the day, none of that matters unless the Cult Leader himself agrees."

With that, she turned away from Hwangbo Ak and looked directly at Wi Jin-hak.

"Cult Leader. I know you may find me lacking since I have no knowledge of the teachings of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult. But I believe the value of the relationship between people lies in the continuous process of getting to know one another, and I don't think that's any different between a man and a woman."

Arranged marriages were common in this world, so it was equally common for couples to only get to know each other after the wedding.

"Therefore, starting today, I will strive to learn everything about you and the Divine Cult, and to make myself a woman worthy of standing beside you. But if you have no desire to marry me, I ask that you tell me so right now."

Even Hwangbo Ak could tell that she really hadn't been dragged here against her will.

She had come on her own terms, and she had accepted this marriage on her own terms.

'Right. That's how it should be. If I can't make up my mind, I should ask Se-hui what she actually wants.'

While Hwangbo Ak was having his little epiphany, Wi Jin-hak flashed a genuine smile.

"Hahaha. I like that boldness. Of course. And rightly so. If you are to be the mother of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, you should hold your head high."

It was his way of accepting the marriage.

From there, the leap from 'nice to meet you' to 'I do' happened faster than a blink.

The Zhuge Family’s retainers scrambled to put together a makeshift wedding on the spot, while the Divine Cult's warriors, the Beggars’ Gang, the Hwangbo Family, and the Wudang folks all filled in as makeshift guests.

It was a rushed affair with no time to invite anyone else and barely enough to observe the formalities. But despite the bare-bones ceremony, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's warriors couldn't stop cheering and congratulating.

"Congratulations on your wedding, Cult Leader!!"

"The Heavenly Demon Descends!!"

"Ten Thousand Demons Grant Their Blessings!!!"

Amid the thunderous cheering, Wi Jin-hak turned to Zhuge Eun-yeong with a gallant smile.

"I apologize for keeping such an important affair modest, but don’t be disappointed too soon. Once we win this war, I'll make sure we have a proper ceremony."

Zhuge Eun-yeong offered a gentle smile in return.

This was nothing more than a political transaction to keep her family alive. But as she looked at the man she had met mere hours ago, she had to admit that the confidence with which he promised victory was quite attractive.

***

But while the jump from 'hello' to 'husband and wife' broke speed records, they didn't actually get to consummate the marriage that night.

Right after the ceremony ended, while the celebrations were still going strong, a handful of beggars blurred into the party using high-speed movement techniques. After hearing the urgent news they brought, the Beggar King marched straight up to Wi Jin-hak with a grave expression.

"Looks like the Orthodox Faction is rallying in Henan, with the Hebei Peng Family and Shaolin leading the charge. To make matters worse, intel says the Central Military Command is sending off imperial edicts to every province as we speak."