Chapter 413 : This Old Body (3)

Although the movements of the Left Guardian and Right Guardian became significantly faster and the internal energy infused into their weapons grew twice as strong, the old monk easily blocked both the sword and saber with his bare hands.

Clang!

Even with Yeom Ga-hwi and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang pressing in from the sides to keep him occupied, the old monk could still remain composed.

But as expected from old monsters who'd spent decades in service to a living incarnation of martial arts that put this old monk to shame, none of the masters from the Divine Cult were shaken by his might.

Instead, the Left and Right Guardians kept swinging in tacit understanding and bellowed out together.

"Head of the Zhuge Family!!"

Zhuge Mun caught their meaning without any trouble. He clenched his jaw so hard his teeth made some noises and roared his order.

"All forces, fall back!!"

The men on standby to relay his commands froze for a split second at the command, but they snapped into motion and carried the order.

A different rhythm of gongs rang out across the field, and different-colored smoke began rising from the Zhuge Family’s estate.

"Son of a bitch."

Not exactly the language you'd expect from a man who usually carried himself like a textbook Confucian scholar, but Zhuge Mun muttered it under his breath anyway.

The battle had been going their way.

Every angle except the fight between the old monk and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's top fighters was in their favor. A little more time and they could've done lasting damage to the enemy.

But he forced himself to think clearly.

That advantage was an illusion. The moment the monk took out even one of the Divine Cult's elites, the whole situation would flip completely. Making their move while they still had the advantage was their last chance to get out with their lives.

As soon as Zhuge Mun's retreat order echoed across Mount Longzhong, the allied forces of the Demonic Cult fell back in unison.

The traps and Formations still blanketing the mountain were still fully functional, making their retreat remarkably smooth. Those who'd already pushed to the midpoint or the lower slopes looped around the outer paths and withdrew. Meanwhile, Wudang retreated from their battle with Shaolin and the Peng Family and began to retreat directly into the Zhuge Family’s estate.

"Don't let them run!"

"Leave not one of them alive!"

The elite fighters who weren't caught up in the Formations ran after the retreating forces with masters from the Shaolin and Peng Family through the gates of the Zhuge Family’s estate.

But the moment they stepped through the gate, they stopped in bewilderment.

They'd expected a last stand. Instead, Wudang was retreating in full formation without a fight, and Zhuge Mun himself had already slipped out before Wudang forces even arrived.

Then—

BOOM!!

With a ground-shaking crash, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's four elite fighters came flying through the air and landed hard inside the estate compound.

A heartbeat later, the old monk came sailing in after them using the Sky Walk.

"What are you all standing around for!!"

The old monk's thunderous scolding from the sky jolted the Shaolin monks into motion, and they immediately sprinted after the fleeing defenders. Worried that Shaolin was going to steal all the glory, Peng Muyeol bellowed to his own men and unleashed his lightness skill to the fullest.

"After them, now!"

Meanwhile, the four masters from the Divine Cult were putting up a hell of a fight. Even though they were being relentlessly battered by the monk, they somehow kept their footing and refused to break.

Once Zhuge Mun confirmed that Wudang, Shaolin, the Peng Family, and the Divine Cult's fighters had all pushed inside the estate, he peeled away from the retreating crowd and slipped quietly toward the clan's main hall.

True to the old saying that a crafty rabbit has three burrows, Zhuge Mun had prepared for the worst long before it ever arrived.

‘I thought we'd at least have a few days before it came to this.’

Pushing his regrets aside, he stepped into the hall and began rapidly adjusting the positions of various tables, antique ornaments, and books scattered across the room.

As he shifted and angled each object according to the hidden pattern only he knew, a concealed passage beneath the main table slid open with a soft hiss.

Shhk.

He stepped in and immediately executed the Profound Origin Sandalwood Divine Art that had been passed down only to the heads of the Zhuge Family. He channeled everything into his right palm and drove it into a protruding section of wall near the entrance.

THUD!!

The wall resonated with his Qi and the stone block sealed the entrance shut behind him.

With everything set in motion, Zhuge Mun looked back at the sealed wall one last time.

‘Please... just buy us a little more time.’

He prayed for the safety of the Divine Cult’s four masters and broke into a full sprint down the tunnel without hesitation.

***

Back inside the Zhuge Family’s estate, Yeom Ga-hwi and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang began drawing on their Innate Life Force the moment they crossed through the gates.

They weren't blind. They both knew exactly what the Left and Right Guardians had just set into motion.

As proud members of the Demonic Cult, neither of them was the kind of person who'd stand by while two old men shouldered everything alone.

But the Guardians moved as if they'd already seen this coming.

BOOM!!

Bracing themselves against a wave of force erupting from the old monk's double palms, the Left and Right Guardians bellowed at them.

"Leave him to us!"

"Go help Wudang pull back!"

Yeom Ga-hwi and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang hesitated, completely caught off guard by the order.

Then the Left Guardian added one last thing. “Sacrifice is the duty of old codgers like us who have little time left to live.”

Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang and Yeom Ga-hwi smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile.

They were old enough to be called elders themselves, but next to those two, they were still the young ones.

Understanding what the Guardians meant, neither of them wasted another breath. They launched into their lightness skill and bolted with the Wudang forces.

“How dare you!”

Hyeon Am was not about to let his prey slip away.

A majestic energy that was completely at odds with his skeletal frame gathered into his palms and he launched them toward the fleeing duo like cannonballs.

But even with that devastation bearing down on them from behind, Yeom Ga-hwi and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang didn't even turn their heads.

BOOM!!!

Behind them, the sound of the Left and Right Guardians throwing themselves into the path of those force spheres shook the air.

"Khuk..."

Taking Hyeon Am's full force head-on came at a price. Both old men spat blood at the same time.

“You wretched creatures worse than hungry ghosts, how dare you!”

Hyeon Am's voice rang out like grinding metal as he charged.

Fighting an opponent who had easily overwhelmed all four of them was suicide for just the two of them.

BOOM!!

Every single punch and kick they blocked felt like their bones were being ground into powder. Their dantians screamed as if about to burst, and blood kept surging back up from inside.

"Kehehehe..."

And yet, the two old men from the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult started laughing, spitting blood with every chuckle as if they couldn't even feel the pain.

"You heretics finally lost your minds completely."

Sickened by their bloody grins, Hyeon Am scowled and threw another heavy fist straight at their faces.

Clang!

They only lasted a few more rounds under Hyeon Am’s relentless barrage. Finally, the Left Guardian's arm hit its breaking point; it buckled and snapped under the force of the monk's internal energy.

CRACK.

With a sickening sound of splintering bone, a blast of energy from Hyeon Am’s left palm ripped through the arm entirely.

But even with his eyes bulging in pure agony, the Left Guardian didn't stop.

He pulled a dead warrior’s sword using Telekinesis into him and gripped it with his remaining hand.

"HAAA!"

Meanwhile, the Right Guardian was already swinging his saber at Hyeon Am. But Hyeon Am just snatched the blade out of the air with his bare hand.

CRACK!

He swept his left leg out and completely destroyed the Right Guardian's right leg.

Even through that blinding pain, the Right Guardian let go of the saber with his left hand and drove his fingers straight at Hyeon Am's fatal acupoint.

"AHAHAHA!"

At the same time, the Left Guardian was already swinging for Hyeon Am's back with a bold laugh.

Hyeon Am dodged the sword coming from behind while simultaneously driving his free fist into the Right Guardian's attack.

CRACK!!

The Right Guardian's fingers on his left hand exploded under the punch.

The exchange kept going for a few more rounds, and by the time it was over, the Left Guardian was missing his entire right arm and had a gaping wound torn open in his left side, exposing innards through the gap. The Right Guardian was in no better shape. He had a broken right leg, crushed fingers, and one eye burst open.

It was a miracle they were even standing.

If the Left Guardian hadn't willingly taken a gut-wrenching blow to shield his comrade, the Right Guardian's head would have been popped like a watermelon.

They looked like walking corpses. And yet, they were still smiling.

A creeping irritation had been building in Hyeon Am for a while now.

His face twisted into a full scowl and he drove both palms forward.

This time, both old men just crumpled backward and tumbled to the ground without any resistance. The Qi they'd been channeling through their forbidden art was running dry, and the Innate Life Force that had kept refilling their dantians was gone.

"Tch."

Hyeon Am watched them rolling across the ground like insects, and his expression changed.

‘What is this?’

Beneath the ground under his feet, a massive surge of Qi was moving under the Zhuge Family’s estate.

He whipped his head around and fixed his eyes on the Shaolin monks who hadn't gotten out of the compound yet due to Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang and Yeom Ga-hwi’s reinforcement to the Wudang forces.

Only then did Hyeon Am realize what their enemy was planning.

Hyeon Am moved fast, launching himself toward the Shaolin monks.

The two old wrecks rolling on the ground were finished anyway. They'd be dead without his help.

But before he could leap, those two wretched demons threw their bodies off the ground and grabbed onto his legs with everything they had left.

They grinned like the demons they are.

"Why is a man your age in such a rush?"

"You don't look like you have much longer yourself. Why not come with us?"

Hyeon Am slammed both palms down in a panic.

CRACK!!

The explosive force blew both their heads apart.

But even headless, those bodies still wouldn't let go of his legs, and the surge of Qi from underground was growing massive and violent by the second.

“Y-you crazy, demonic bastards!”

Frantic now, Hyeon Am kept swinging his palms out again and again.

Only after a series of deafening explosions echoed and the two corpses turned into unrecognizable red mist did Hyeon Am finally break free from their grip.

But it was already too late then.

BOOM!!!!

With a catastrophic roar, the entire Zhuge Family’s estate went up in a massive fireball.

***

After barely escaping outside of the blast radius of the explosion, the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal, Yeom Ga-hwi, and Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang stayed at the very rear to cover for their allies.

They were busy holding off the pursuers from Shaolin and the Peng Family when they felt a massive shockwave of Qi surging from the estate.

In that instant, the three of them pushed their internal energy to the limit to cast off a massive dome of Force Qi to shield themselves.

BOOM!!

The explosion was so massive that it felt like the world was being turned upside down.

"Ngh..."

Fighting through the flare of internal injuries, the three of them stared through the barrier at what lay beyond the smoke.

What they saw was a hellfire born of pure malice.

For centuries, the Zhuge Family had prepared this trap for the day they faced total annihilation from outside invaders or internal traitors.

It was built on nothing but the malice to kill the enemies of the Zhuge Family.

The flames of that malice devoured everything in their path.

Even high-tier masters standing at a distance from the estate could barely weather the shockwave. Anything and anyone still inside or too close was being melted down by fire and blasted apart by the force.

When those flames finally burned themselves out, the surviving Shaolin and Hebei Peng Family warriors totaled fewer than ten.

Of those, only the ones who'd been fighting in close proximity to Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, Yeom Ga-hwi, and the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal made it at all, and even within that small group, it was only the most capable few who'd pulled through.

People such as Peng Mu-yeol, the Buddha Venerable, the Shaolin Abbot, and a handful of others.

But even with so few enemies left standing, neither the Wudang, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, nor Yeom Ga-hwi moved to attack.

Their eyes were fixed on the center of what had been the Zhuge Family’s estate where the last of the smoke was being carried away by the wind.

Everything had burned. Everything had been destroyed. The whole place was a wasteland.

But standing in the middle of it was a single figure.

His already-tattered yellow monk's robes had been burned to ashes, and soot blackened his skin. Blood trickled from the corners of his lips as he suffered internal injuries, but even after all of that explosion, he was still standing.

‘Is he actually a monster?’

‘How can a living person survive that?’

Not one person who laid eyes on that gaunt old monk could afford to take him lightly anymore.

***

Upon receiving a letter bearing the news of the destruction of the Zhuge Family’s estate and the deaths of the Left and Right Guardians, Il-mok led the Gansu forces and immediately set out for Shaanxi Province.

Knowing the regular soldiers would only slow him down, he handed the command chain of his army to the trusted generals and pushed ahead with only his elite martial artists.

Flanked by his maids and Dokgo Ryong, he pushed his lightness skill to the limit for two full days before arriving at Xi'an.

A Heavenly Demon Divine Cult warrior standing guard at the city gate led them to where Cult Leader Wi Jin-hak was waiting.

"The Heavenly Demon Descends. Ten Thousand Demons Obeys!! We greet the Cult Leader!"

With Il-mok leading the way, they quickly knelt and offered their formal salutes.

‘I've never seen Eldest Brother this furious since he achieved Transcendence in the Raging Demon Sword Art.’

One look at Wi Jin-hak told Il-mok everything. Wi Jin-hak was a volcano one breath away from erupting.

‘Good thing I got here as fast as I could.’

In all fairness, calling this a clean defeat wasn't quite accurate.

Although they had lost the Left and Right Guardians and a lot of good men, they had made the enemy pay double. 

The letter had clearly stated that Shaolin and the Hebei Peng Family had been nearly wiped out.

But knowing all of that, Il-mok kept his mouth shut.

Trying to talk someone down before they were ready to hear it had a way of making things worse.

"Youngest."

"Yes, Cult Leader."

"Do you know how long I've been waiting for you to get here?"

"I can only apologize for my slow feet."

"No. Don't. I know you ran as fast as you could. It's just that your Eldest Brother is struggling to hold himself back, even knowing he can't afford to leave."

Il-mok could sense why.

Shaanxi was a territory that the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had seized purely by force. If the one who'd forced its submission suddenly vanished, the newly absorbed factions could easily have second thoughts. Someone had clearly put their neck on the line and talked Wi Jin-hak down from leaving, probably at no small cost to themselves.

‘And the fact that he actually listened shows how much he's grown.’

That thought crossed his mind at the same moment he had a pretty clear idea of what Wi Jin-hak was about to say next.

"But now that my dependable little brother has arrived, there's no reason this Cult Leader needs to stay."

‘And there it is,’ Il-mok thought.

"The Central Military Command is currently marching this way. You will remain here and hold Shaanxi against them. This Cult Leader will take a minimal escort and head straight for Mount Wudang in Hubei."

Wi Jin-hak rose from his seat and added, "I will take that monk's head and honor the souls of the Left and Right Guardians who served our Divine Cult faithfully for a hundred years. You hold this province by any means necessary until this Cult Leader returns. Can you do that?"

Il-mok bowed again and answered, "I will hold this place by any means necessary."

Hearing his reliable youngest brother’s answer, Wi Jin-hak nodded in satisfaction before letting loose a thunderous roar.

“Listen well! As of this very second, I appoint Il-mok to the vacant position of Left Guardian!”

“Your will be done!”

"In accordance with the Left Guardian, who acts as my direct proxy, you will defend Shaanxi Province to the last man!”

"YOUR WILL BE DONE!!!”

The thunderous cry of the Demonic Cult warriors rang out as one.