Chapter 146

Chapter 146

It’s not particularly noteworthy, but Baek Riyun has quite a bitter history with the Blood Cult.

The beginning was the Jinan Blood Incident. At that time, Baek Riyun refused to go to Jinan because of the clearly visible red energy, and thanks to that, the Changcheon Corps didn’t lose a single member in Jinan.

But conversely, from the Blood Cult’s perspective, wasn’t it as if they’d missed the opportunity to eliminate one of the Murim Alliance’s military corps all because of Baek Riyun?

Because of that, the Blood Cult consistently sent assassins and experts to kill Baek Riyun. Once they even dispatched about five mystical arts practitioners, sacrificing an entire village to try to kill Baek Riyun, and sometimes sent experts ranking among the Blood Cult’s finest.

Despite the Blood Cult sending assassins so numerous times, Baek Riyun survived through his abilities and martial prowess. And that became accumulated experience for Baek Riyun.

Conversely, that meant.

Even searching all of the Central Plains, it would be hard to find anyone as experienced in anti-Blood Cult combat as Baek Riyun.

That’s what it meant.

Ka-aaa-aang—!!!!!

Initial strike.

At the straightforward thrust extending from top to bottom, the Blood Demon reflexively swung his hand to deflect the sword and looked at the appeared Baek Riyun with a flustered expression. A startled cry burst forth.

“Who the hell are you?”

“Who am I? It’s not hard to say, but I don’t feel like telling a Blood Cult member.”

Leisurely receiving Yuknachar’s words while spinning his sword once, Baek Riyun scrutinized Yuknachar. And at that sight, Agwi’s body flinched.

‘He’s strong…!’

Though called a vile thing by Yuknachar at every turn, Agwi’s martial skill level is by no means low. In the first place, considering that those who can be called Agwi number fewer than two hundred even in the massive Blood Cult, making them elite personnel, it’s natural.

Even if Agwi went out alone, annihilating one village would be easy work. If willing to accept losses, he could fight on par with average military corps members from the Evil Path Alliance or Murim Alliance. Given that such is Agwi’s martial skill level.

‘I couldn’t even see him properly…!’

From Agwi’s perspective watching, Baek Riyun couldn’t even be properly seen.

Because he was far too fast for eyes to follow.

“You seem rather arrogant for having some skill. Do you know who you’re dealing with to run your mouth so carelessly?”

“Well.”

At Yuknachar’s question, Baek Riyun glanced at Yuknachar and stroked his chin with his index finger. His following speculation.

“Judging by strength, you don’t seem to be from the Agwi ranks, so probably Rakshasa level. Not an upper Rakshasa… Seventh Rakshasa? No, about Sixth Rakshasa.”

“Did I hit the mark?”

At Yuknachar’s loss for words, Baek Riyun chuckled and took a step forward while flicking his sword.

“I won’t waste words. If you don’t want to die, release that formation.”

“Formation?”

“The black fog.”

“Ah.”

At Baek Riyun’s words, Yuknachar grasped the situation and wore a fishy smile.

“So you’re the guardian of those brats inside. Did you come to get the brats back?”

“If so?”

“What to do. I already killed them all with my own hands. The sound of their screaming was so sweet, I had a great feast after so long. Hahahaha!”

A stratagem of agitation.

Seeing Yuknachar laugh while speaking falsehoods, Agwi involuntarily trembled. Because he could see Yuknachar’s eyes, coldly sunken even while laughing, measuring the gap.

“Killed them. Killed them, you say. Hmm.”

While staring into Yuknachar’s eyes for a moment to discern truth from falsehood, Baek Riyun grinned. Then came his following statement.

“Your stratagem of agitation is clumsy.”

“You think it’s false?”

“I don’t think it’s false—it is false. You didn’t kill my disciples. Strictly speaking, it’s not that you didn’t kill them but that you couldn’t kill them.”

“Interesting. What’s your basis?”

“Isn’t that how the Blood Cult’s grand plan works? Minimal intervention, let things flow according to heavenly energy.”

At Baek Riyun mentioning the grand plan, Yuknachar’s eyebrows twitched involuntarily and he clenched his fist.

“You bastard, you know about the grand plan!”

“Roughly.”

“Where did you hear that information?”

“A reliable source.”

“You mean you won’t tell me.”

“Actually, I heard it from your grandfather last night. He jumped out of his grave asking me to beat up his grandson.”

“He said you’re a pathetic fellow and asked me to take good care of you.”

Seeing Baek Riyun chuckle while spouting nonsense, Yuknachar looked at him with cold eyes and drew up his internal energy. Soon, an eerie voice flowed from his lips.

“So you’re the type that won’t respond to words.”

“Did you ever intend to use words from the start?”

“I’ll acknowledge you have some skill. But you should have begged for your life the moment that skill was blocked. Now escaping is impossible.”

Dense blood energy flowed from his hands, eyes, and mouth.

“Since you know about the grand plan, I can’t let you live.”

At Yuknachar’s appearance—displaying red energy like some supernatural being despite being human—Baek Riyun wore a faint smile while lowering his sword at an angle.

“Die.”

The moment Yuknachar thrust forward his blood-stained hand.

“Arrogance. That’s the Blood Cult’s chronic problem.”

Cheonroesin Entrance

Gaesin

Kwang—!!!

The blood energy wrapped around Yuknachar’s hand shattered halfway.

“Wha—…”

What.

As Yuknachar opened his mouth to say that.

He instinctively twisted his head to evade the attack. Thunder grazing past his cheek.

“Rest assured. I won’t kill you.”

No sound accompanies it.

Just silently, just transformed into light, the sword strikes cut, pierce, break, and shatter Yuknachar’s entire body. Fast, unpredictable, and destructive swordsmanship.

Blood energy gets shaved away. Even without letting his guard down, if he blinks, it feels like the chilling lightning will pierce his heart.

If the Thunder God descended to the mortal world transforming lightning into a sword, would it feel like this?

“Keu-aaa-ak!”

Goebyeok Yeokcheon Ganggi

Hyeolryong Sangae

Sensing crisis, Yuknachar responded by spraying blood-red energy in dragon form in all directions. Dragons seemingly large enough to blanket the world at first glance.

The dispersed dragons all at once chased and bit at the lightning. Don’t they say dragons control wind and rain and cause natural disasters?

True to those words, the dragons biting lightning looked majestic and grand like mythical dragons at a glance.

Only at a glance, that is.

Gaebyeok Cheongeomryu

Cheongyeok

From top to bottom.

The lightning that split open as if driven down cleaved through the darkness. The single strike that had erased half the Baekgwiyahaeng that descended on Akyang cut through the foreheads of seven dragons faster than sound. A circle of light drawn in half-moon shape.

“First, the left arm.”

Descending lightning.

“Eu, keu-aaa-ak!”

Realizing at some point that his left sleeve had become loose, Yuknachar groaned in intense pain and retreated. Watching that, Baek Riyun tapped his sword upward.

“The Blood Cult’s most chronic problem. Lack of worldly experience.”

“Wha, what… just what…!”

“Rakshasa level. You’re certainly strong. Upper-level Rakshasa can compete on par with the Murim Alliance’s military corps commanders.”

But that’s all. No matter how advanced their martial arts, they lack experience. An absolute difference in experience.

“The Blood Cult is an organization that mustn’t come to the forefront. Their only real combat experience is fighting among themselves.”

What makes the Demonic Cult fearsome?

Partly their bizarre demonic arts, but also the harsh position of Xinjiang where the Demonic Cult is located. The wastelands are places where great yokai casually roam, where demon heads with rolled-back eyes wander the wilderness.

Every day is real combat. The Demonic Cult’s followers who’ve lived in such places know no fear and gauge the gap of killing intent at an instinctive level.

What about the Blood Cult?

“Weak ones. Those who’ve abandoned the will to fight and willingly degenerated into livestock. Vermin who seek only safe paths, worrying about ruin that hasn’t even come.”

If it were the High Priest, or upper Rakshasa level, if it were the Blood Cult Leader at the Blood Cult’s pinnacle, they might be different. They must have accumulated numerous real combat experiences while operating in the shadows of the martial world. But the Rakshasa before his eyes?

Compared to the martial arts he possesses, his ability to demonstrate power is far too lacking. Probably because he devoted himself only to cultivation while eating elixirs within the Blood Cult.

“That’s why you’re weak. Because you accumulated martial arts trying to avoid reality.”

Slowly.

The smile disappeared from Baek Riyun’s lips as he lowered his sword. White lightning escaping from his eyes and flowing backward.

“I’ll say it once more. I won’t kill you. Because there’s much I need to hear from you.”

The Blood Cult’s grand plan. Transforming humans into yokai?

He has no interest in such things. Whether Blood Cult members transform themselves into yokai or not, that’s none of Baek Riyun’s concern. He only wants one thing right now.

“That formation—how do I release it?”

Rescuing his disciples and saving people.

“I still have four limbs left to cut. Take your time answering.”

As long as you answer before I cut them all.

Having finished speaking, Baek Riyun swung his sword.

And once again, lightning cleaved the world in a straight line and drove down.

Village standby area.

“…So, to summarize, this is it.”

Baek Risan, who’d just returned from dealing with yokai and looked clearly fatigued, tapped the table with his finger while continuing.

“We don’t know if the means protecting the village is functioning or not, and we either sit here defending, or figure out a way to escape. One of the two?”

“Yes.”

“Well… what a shitty situation.”

While Seohwa was away, the third wave of yokai came. From three directions, no less.

No casualties besides minor injuries, but the defense line nearly broke. If Jinwoong and Seomun Cheok hadn’t stepped up in time to buy time, there might be one or two holes in the wooden palisade by now.

“There were more in the second wave than the first, and more in the third than the second. The fourth will have even more. At this rate, we might have seriously wounded or dead.”

“We can’t just stay holed up defending like this. That’s certain.”

“But we also can’t just leave recklessly.”

Seomun Cheok, who’d put a damper on Baek Risan’s opinion, continued while wiping blood from his spear blade.

“It’s certain that only destruction awaits if we only defend. But escaping is just as difficult. Could you escape leading this many people?”

“If it’s just us escaping, that’s different. We’d only need to protect ourselves. But you’re thinking of protecting the village people too, aren’t you?”

Two hundred households, nearly a thousand village people—protecting them with fewer than twenty people while escaping?

That’s impossible. Even if all twenty were at Seonwoo Gang’s level or higher, it wouldn’t be easy.

“We need to think realistically.”

“It’s better than doing nothing, right? Better to try something than sit waiting to die.”

“Sitting and dying isn’t confirmed either. The Divine Maiden’s protective ability might return, or the Sect Master might arrive here before then.”

“…Looking at how he still hasn’t come, don’t you get it? He’s definitely in a situation where he can’t come here. If he could have come, he definitely would have. Maybe he’s in danger too.”

Back and forth.

Watching Seomun Cheok and Baek Risan clash opinions in fierce debate, Seohwa closed her eyes. Neither was saying anything wrong.

‘Waiting quietly hoping the situation improves… that’s the wrong move.’

The situation won’t improve just by waiting. As Baek Risan said, if Baek Riyun could have come, there’s no way he wouldn’t have arrived by now, right?

‘That said, escaping is also… the risk is too great.’

If they lead the village people out now, nine out of ten—no, at an even higher probability—everyone dies. Having even one person survive and escape would be as difficult as a camel passing through a needle’s eye.

Then what should they do?

‘Rather, if we abandon all the village people and just escape by ourselves…’

In the worst case, they might have to do that.

While Seohwa bit her lip slightly and clenched her fist under the weight pressing on her shoulders, her eyes suddenly turned to the side of the table.

At the sight of the assassin Jangil chewing on foxtail grass, Seohwa blinked after thinking for a moment.

There was one.

One method they could take.