Chapter 323

“I understand perfectly well how deeply Unit Leader Hyo admires Martial Uncle Uncheon of our sect.”

Taoist Hyeonam felt his anger surge at Hyo Jiryeong’s insolence, but he forced it down and continued.

“However, someone of Martial Uncle Uncheon’s exalted standing can hardly be expected to deal personally with a handful of lowly demon soldiers. So enough of these absurd remarks, Unit Leader Hyo. Lay down your weapons with your men. If you do, I will at least spare your lives.”

Hyo Jiryeong, the Supreme-Heaven Demon, gave a derisive chuckle.

“Mule-headed Taoist, spare me that nonsense. If we cared about our miserable lives, we would never have come here in the first place.”

“Unit Leader Hyo, resisting when you are hopelessly outnumbered is nothing more than throwing your lives away.”

“Silence! Whether our deaths are meaningless is for us to decide.”

The Supreme-Heaven Demon roared, then turned toward the members of the Roaming Demon Unit.

“Send every last piece of Martial Alliance trash over there straight to hell!”

“At your command!”

The demonic-path fighters answered as one and charged forward, raising a rush of wind.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOOSH!

Taoist Hyeonam could not understand why the Gathering Demons Division’s fighters were attacking without the slightest trace of fear.

Even if they had been chosen as a death squad, the people facing them were elite masters of the orthodox martial world.

Most demon soldiers cultivated demonic arts through accelerated methods, allowing them to advance more quickly than ordinary martial artists in the short term.

But with such hastily cultivated demonic arts, becoming an elite expert of the first-rate level or above was as difficult as plucking a star from the heavens.

And the demonic-path fighters were overwhelmingly outnumbered besides.

This should have been no different from smashing an egg against a rock.

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG!

The campaign force against the Gathering Demons Division drew their weapons and met the charge, and the encampment instantly became a battlefield.

Contrary to Hyeonam’s expectation that the Roaming Demon Unit would last only a few exchanges against the orthodox martial world’s elite, the demonic-path fighters continued battling fiercely.

So they truly were skilled enough to be chosen for a death squad.

Hyeonam was impressed despite himself, but he still expected them to reach their limits soon.

Even a lower-grade martial artist was difficult to suppress at the beginning of a fight, when they were willing to pour every ounce of cultivation they possessed into the opening engagement.

Sure enough, the Roaming Demon Unit gradually began to give ground.

Their formation started to break apart, and one after another, its members were isolated and surrounded by orthodox masters.

SWISH! SLASH!

“Ghk!”

Hyeonam cut down a charging demonic-path fighter with a single stroke, then called out to Hyo Jiryeong.

“Supreme-Heaven Demon! Come exchange a move with me.”

Hyeonam intended to break the Roaming Demon Unit’s morale by defeating their leader and bring the battle to a swift end.

“Mule-headed Taoist, that is the first welcome thing I’ve heard all night!”

Hyo Jiryeong, who had been ranging across the battlefield while fighting and urging on his subordinates, launched himself toward Hyeonam.

“I’ll cut off your head and teach all under heaven to fear the Gathering Demons Division!”

ROOOAR!

Hyo Jiryeong’s great saber came crashing down toward the crown of Hyeonam’s head with a thunderous roar.

But the instant Hyeonam’s Songmun Sword flashed, the thunder abruptly died.

The blade aura surrounding the great saber vanished as though it had been washed clean.

BOOM!

With the explosive collision, Hyo Jiryeong was hurled two steps backward.

“I heard there was a lion running wild on Mount Wudang. So the rumors were true.”

SWISH.

Hyo Jiryeong leveled his great saber straight ahead.

Hyeonam lowered the point of his Songmun Sword toward the ground and answered with cold pride.

“Once the sword is drawn, what need is there for idle talk? Let us settle this quickly.”

The white-robed Taoist assumed the stance of Immortal Points the Way with his Songmun Sword, and for an instant he seemed wreathed in immortal aura.

After their first exchange, Hyo Jiryeong had also realized that his cultivation was inferior to Hyeonam’s.

His confidence rapidly faded.

His fighting spirit, however, did not diminish in the slightest.

He had not accepted Hyeonam’s challenge because he intended to survive and kill the Taoist.

He had merely chosen Hyeonam as the blade with which to awaken the god of death within himself.

“A bared blade needs no words. A martial artist always speaks through steel. Exactly so! At least you are an honest mule-headed Taoist, Hyeonam. Then let us settle this properly.”

ROOOAR!

With another thunderous roar, the Supreme-Heaven Demon’s great saber shot forward.

Thus began a one-on-one clash between a demonic-path master of the Gathering Demons Division and an absolute master of the Wudang Sect.

The duel between two mighty foes grew fiercer with every passing moment until a circle nearly five zhang in radius had been cleared around them.

At first they appeared evenly matched, but after a cup of tea’s time, the difference between them gradually became apparent.

Hyo Jiryeong was bleeding from wounds all over his body.

Hyeonam, by contrast, remained immaculate, without so much as a cut in his robes.

As befitted an absolute master who had brought orthodox martial arts to great completion, Hyeonam had maintained a solid defense and methodically worn his opponent down.

SWISH! SLICE!

“Ghk!”

At last, Hyeonam’s Songmun Sword carved a massive wound across Hyo Jiryeong’s chest.

SPURT!

Hyo Jiryeong clutched the blood-gushing wound and dropped to one knee.

Hyeonam withdrew his Songmun Sword.

By then, the fighting throughout the encampment was also nearing its end.

A handful of demonic-path fighters were still resisting with desperate tenacity, but most lay sprawled across the ground, drenched in blood.

“Unit Leader Hyo, the outcome is already decided. There is no reason to throw your lives away for nothing. Tell your men to cast down their weapons.”

Still kneeling with his head lowered, Hyo Jiryeong let out a sinister laugh, as though mocking Hyeonam’s proposal.

“Heh... heh heh heh. Have we really lost?”

“......?”

Hyeonam stared at him in disbelief.

Then Hyo Jiryeong slowly raised his head.

“......!”

A chill ran down Hyeonam’s spine.

Hyo Jiryeong’s eyes were steadily turning red.

That isn’t ordinary bloodshotting.

Blood vessels were not simply bursting in his eyes.

Mere bloodshot eyes could never emit such a gleaming, concentrated light.

“Mule-headed Taoist, even if we’d known this was a trap, we still °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° would have come. Heh heh heh!”

The instant Hyo Jiryeong said those words, Hyeonam remembered what Kwak Yeon had told him about the blood fiends.

“That is why you must exercise the utmost caution when facing demonic-path fighters. Assume that every fighter of the Demonic Eight Divisions has undergone the great evil art. You must never show mercy in your attacks.”

Kwak had even told him to dismember the corpses of every demonic-path fighter they killed.

Hyeonam had felt deeply uncomfortable about that.

Dismember a dead man and kill him twice over....

Was it truly necessary to go that far?

Then, when no particular warning about such measures came from the Martial Alliance’s Strategists’ Office, Hyeonam had allowed the matter to slip from his mind.

The Strategists’ Office had merely issued a vague warning to the campaign force that the Demonic Eight Divisions appeared to be employing some form of great evil art.

Hyeonam hurriedly looked around.

The Martial Alliance warriors were scattered throughout the entire encampment.

And among them, the fallen members of the Roaming Demon Unit lay strewn everywhere.

If they turn into blood fiends and start rampaging just as Junior Brother Kwak warned, while they’re scattered all across the camp like this...!

The meaning behind Hyo Jiryeong’s claim that they would have come even knowing it was a trap became painfully clear.

Ah!

Some of the black-clad bodies were already twitching and beginning to rise.

“Everyone! Show no mercy with your swords! Dismember the corpses of the demonic-path fighters immediately!”

Hyeonam shouted at the top of his lungs.

“They are turning into blood fiends! Hurry! Dismember every body near you!”

But the Martial Alliance warriors were caught in the chaos of battle and could barely hear him.

Meanwhile, the fallen black-clad figures began rising one after another like mushrooms after rain.

Shouting won’t be enough.

Hyeonam turned his attention back toward Hyo Jiryeong, intending to deal with the Supreme-Heaven Demon first.

At that instant, a pitch-black figure lunged at him.

“Damn!”

A blood fiend that had risen nearby rushed him, and Hyeonam swung his Songmun Sword toward its neck.

SWISH!

The blood fiend dodged with astonishing speed and immediately slashed back.

BOOM!

The sheer force of the blow nearly knocked the Songmun Sword from Hyeonam’s hand.

He twisted his blade using the principles of the Cloud-Flow Returning Sword and severed the blood fiend’s neck.

SWISH! THUD!

Even after its head was cut away, the blood fiend’s body staggered another two steps forward, wildly hacking with its weapon as though convulsing before finally collapsing.

GURGLE....

And even then, the corpse continued heaving several more times.

Hyeonam could not hide his horror.

Heavens. Such an evil art actually exists. It was true—a blood fiend becomes several times more powerful than it ever was while alive.

While Hyeonam had been occupied with the blood fiend, Hyo Jiryeong had vanished.

That meant the man still retained his will.

He had not yet transformed completely into a blood fiend.

I have to find him immediately.

Even a blood fiend made from an ordinary demon soldier was terrifying.

If a master like Hyo Jiryeong completed the transformation, he would be exceedingly difficult to handle.

The transformed encampment filled Hyeonam’s vision.

With blood fiends rising everywhere, the battle had completely reversed.

The Martial Alliance masters who had been overwhelmingly dominant moments before were now the ones being driven into desperate straits.

It took six or seven masters working together just to hold off a single blood fiend.

There was no longer any need to shout warnings to the orthodox martial artists.

Hyeonam rapidly swept his gaze across the battlefield.

Where in the world did he go?

Then a nearby tent caught his eye.

There!

Judging from everything Hyo Jiryeong had said and done, the man knew exactly how long the transformation into a blood fiend required.

Hyeonam launched himself toward the tent without hesitation.

SWISH!

He drew out his sword qi to its limit and cleaved straight through the entire tent, intending to split apart both the canvas and the Supreme-Heaven Demon hiding inside.

RIIIP!

The instant the tent tore open—

“GRAAAAAH!”

A blood fiend with blazing crimson eyes burst out with a monstrous howl.

BOOM!

It smashed aside Hyeonam’s Songmun Sword with its great saber.

Just as Hyeonam had expected, the blood fiend was Hyo Jiryeong transformed.

Damn it. I’m too late!

CLANG!

BOOOM!

BANG!

The blood fiend’s savage attacks came without a moment’s respite.

Hyeonam was driven back relentlessly, barely managing to defend himself.

Their positions had completely reversed.

Previously, Hyeonam had pressed Hyo Jiryeong at leisure, steadily forcing him toward defeat.

Now Hyeonam was the one being overwhelmed.

As he reeled from the blood fiend’s terrifying power, regret stabbed through him.

If he had taken Junior Brother Kwak’s warning seriously and dismembered Hyo Jiryeong immediately, he would never have fallen into this predicament.

Worse still was the bitter realization that his mistake had allowed the blood fiends to claim lives among the orthodox martial artists.

That brief wavering in his mind created a fatal opening.

CLANG! CLATTER!

His inner power and true qi faltered.

The strength in his grip loosened by the slightest degree, and the Songmun Sword flew from his hand.

“Heh heh heh!”

With a hideous laugh, the blood fiend raised its great saber and brought it down toward the now-unarmed Hyeonam.

SLASH! RIP!

Hyo Jiryeong’s body split cleanly in two.

Behind it stood Seokjangsan.

“Martial Uncle Hyeonam, are you all right?”

Hyeonam answered before he had even fully gathered his thoughts.

“...I’m fine.”

“Understood.”

Seokjangsan immediately dashed toward the other blood fiends nearby.

Hyeonam stared after him, eyes wide.

Even from behind... he split a blood fiend that powerful in half with a single sword stroke?

He remembered what he had seen just before the blood fiend’s body separated.

A streak of white light had appeared as though drawn from the top of the creature’s body all the way down.

Ah! Then Seokjangsan...!

Hyeonam was shaken to the core.

But he immediately forced himself back to his senses.

This was no time to stand there overwhelmed by the astonishing achievement of a disciple of his sect.

He hurriedly retrieved the fallen Songmun Sword and surveyed the battlefield.

“Ah....”

Orthodox masters who had suffered almost no casualties during the opening battle now lay fallen all across the camp.

Fortunately, Uncheon Zhenren, the Clan Masters, and the elders—who had initially remained to the rear so their disciples and clan members could gain real combat experience—had all rushed into the battle.

Thanks to their intervention, the number of blood fiends was rapidly dwindling.

Even so, Hyeonam trembled at the horrifying combat power produced by the great evil art.

They had already suffered considerable losses at the very entrance to the Qinling Mountains.

A grim premonition crossed his mind.

This campaign would not be easy.

Yet even amid that foreboding, one small consolation rose within him.

Only when darkness falls does one realize there are stars in the sky.

Through this campaign, another new star of Wudang would surely begin to shine with dazzling brilliance.

Whatever comes later, clearing this place comes first.

Hyeonam tightened his grip on the Songmun Sword and charged back into battle.