CLS-Chapter 660

Chapter 660:

“Hmph!”

Gwang Mu-ryang was watching the battlefield with a subtle expression.

They were pushing forward.

The Central Plains alliance was doing their best to block them, but it was impossible to stop the starving Demonic Cult.

It was only a matter of time before the conclusion would come.

However, Gwang Mu-ryang couldn’t fully enjoy the situation.

“You look troubled.”

At the voice from behind him, Gwang Mu-ryang frowned.

“Isn’t it being proven that your failure at Mount Hua was due to incompetence?”

“…This doesn’t prove that.”

“No?”

Gwang Mu-ryang turned his head.

Mad Blood Demon was looking at him with a bitter smile.

“No, no… It looks right to me though?”

“You’re teasing me when you clearly know better.”

“What do I know?”

“The fact that defeating these ragtag groups doesn’t mean we’ve won.”

“Oh?”

Mad Blood Demon smiled as if amused.

“Then what more do you need to prove?”

“Before defeating the Righteous Martial Alliance, we haven’t defeated the Central Plains. The Central Plains is the Righteous Martial Alliance, and the Righteous Martial Alliance is the Central Plains.”

“These people are also members of the Righteous Martial Alliance.”

Gwang Mu-ryang looked at Mad Blood Demon with hardened eyes and said.

“Then if I were to fall by their hands, would you acknowledge that the Divine Cult has been defeated?”

“…That wouldn’t be the case.”

“It’s the same thing.”

At Gwang Mu-ryang’s response, Mad Blood Demon burst into laughter.

“I can’t even tease you properly.”

“It’s a sensitive matter…”

“I know. So drop that inferiority complex. If you had failed, then we who recognized you as a Bishop would have failed as well.”

“…I don’t have an inferiority complex.”

“Then straighten your shoulders.”

Gwang Mu-ryang flinched. Mad Blood Demon’s subdued voice pierced his ears.

“Being strict with yourself is a good thing. But you shouldn’t lose confidence because of it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Hmm.”

Mad Blood Demon nodded and slowly walked forward.

Watching this scene, Gwang Mu-ryang slightly frowned.

‘Have confidence?’

It wasn’t a difficult thing. When dealing with trash like this, that is. But Gwang Mu-ryang couldn’t shake off his unease.

It’s not them.

The enemy he truly worried about wasn’t even the Righteous Martial Alliance.

‘Wei Yan-ho.’

Wei Yan-ho wasn’t here.

‘Only when he comes will the real fight begin.’

Was this excessive thinking?

No, it wasn’t.

Gwang Mu-ryang thought of when he had exchanged moves with Wei Yan-ho in the past. Wei Yan-ho was impressive then, but not quite threatening enough to Gwang Mu-ryang.

If he had pushed a little harder, he could have easily dealt with Wei Yan-ho. He had only retreated because the situation wasn’t favorable.

He had thought of him as an impressive rising talent, but didn’t think he was a strong hero who could change the tide of war.

But that same Wei Yan-ho had survived from Gwang Ma’s hands, and now had killed two Archbishops without even getting injured.

‘Terrifying growth rate.’

It was an unbelievable rate of growth.

When he heard that Wei Yan-ho had survived from Gwang Ma’s hands, he thought it was possible. Gwang Ma hadn’t been defeated either, and there must have been a reason why he let him go.

But when he heard that So Ma and Dok Ma had been defeated, he really doubted his ears.

Personally, it wasn’t such a bad thing.

His failure at Mount Hua had gained justification. But from the cult’s perspective, it was an irreplaceable loss. Archbishops weren’t people who could be created just by raising them.

Among tens of thousands of Demonic Cult members, only those who had been filtered and filtered again could challenge the position of Archbishop. An Archbishop was someone who was hard to produce even once in ten years.

And they had lost two such Archbishops.

To the hands of a young child.

“Mad Blood Demon.”

Mad Blood Demon, who had been walking ahead, turned his head. Gwang Mu-ryang looked at him and spoke.

“Why did the Archbishops have to go to the Central Plains?”

“Hmm?”

Mad Blood Demon slightly frowned.

“What’s the reason for your curiosity?”

“I’m just curious. If such people had entered the Central Plains, they could have reversed the war situation in one stroke. What exactly were they doing before they came back?”

“You don’t need to know.”

“However…”

“Gwang Mu-ryang.”

“Yes, Mad Blood Demon.”

“Did you say reverse the war situation?”

“…Yes.”

Mad Blood Demon shook his head.

“That’s meaningless.”

“…”

“The victory or defeat of this war has already been decided. There was no war situation to reverse.”

Gwang Mu-ryang slightly narrowed his brow.

“Our purpose isn’t something like conquering the Central Plains. You know that, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Good, that’s enough.”

As Mad Blood Demon walked ahead, Gwang Mu-ryang gripped his sword.

‘It wouldn’t be something like conquering the Central Plains.’

But even so, there were things he couldn’t understand.

‘Why do they keep trying to keep Wei Yan-ho alive?’

There had been several opportunities to kill Wei Yan-ho. Up to Gwang Ma, it might have been just a simple whim, but even after that, there were several times they could have killed Wei Yan-ho.

But why?

Why were they trying to keep Wei Yan-ho alive?

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t understand.

In Gwang Mu-ryang’s view, Wei Yan-ho was the greatest enemy who would block their great undertaking. Yet the higher-ups’ handling of Wei Yan-ho was utterly inadequate.

No, it wasn’t just inadequate.

Even when they could easily kill him, they seemed to be trying somehow to keep Wei Yan-ho alive. Even when Wei Yan-ho had infiltrated the headquarters and tried to extinguish the Sacred Fire, committing an unimaginable great sin, Mad Blood Demon hadn’t deployed Archbishops to pursue Wei Yan-ho.

Moreover, hadn’t he even given orders to capture him alive? Mad Blood Demon, being someone of his caliber, couldn’t have been unaware that capturing Wei Yan-ho alive without Archbishops was nearly impossible. So why did he give such orders?

‘I can’t understand it at all.’

The cult he had known was a more straightforward place.

Sometimes unreasonable things happened, but there were rarely incomprehensible situations like now. And even if such things occurred, the Archbishops wouldn’t hesitate to explain to their subordinates.

But not now.

Everything was ambiguous.

‘If weakening the Central Plains’ power isn’t important, then what exactly are we doing?’

Standing in the middle of the battlefield, Gwang Mu-ryang couldn’t concentrate on this situation at all.

‘First, I’ll do what I need to do.’

Gwang Mu-ryang, having steeled his resolve, charged forward. Now their defensive line was almost broken. Just a little more help and…

“That’s far enough.”

Gwang Mu-ryang’s eyes showed interest.

‘Who?’

It was quite a strong presence.

Gwang Mu-ryang turned his head and looked at the young man standing in front of him, then frowned.

“You are…”

“We met once before. I’m Baek Geom-yeong of Baek Geom Fortress.”

“Baek Geom-yeong… Right, I saw you at Mount Hua before too. But… are you saying you’re going to stop me now?”

“It won’t be easy.”

Baek Geom-yeong scratched his head with his finger.

“But I have no choice. If that guy did it but I couldn’t, I’d be so frustrated I’d flip inside out.”

“That guy…”

Gwang Mu-ryang chuckled.

He seemed to know who the ‘that guy’ Baek Geom-yeong was referring to was.

“It’s natural for a hero to have competitive spirit toward someone of the same generation who’s ahead.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“However…”

Gwang Mu-ryang began emanating fighting spirit from his entire body.

“If a sparrow tries to follow a stork, its legs will be torn apart. You’ve chosen the wrong opponent.”

“I acknowledge there’s a difference at this point, but I don’t think it’s as much as between a sparrow and a stork. Of course, that’s something I’ll have to prove from now on.”

Swish.

Baek Geom-yeong drew his sword and pointed it at Gwang Mu-ryang.

“I’ll warn you in advance. If you underestimate me, you will die. Even though I may look like this, I’m a descendant of the Ten Thousand Swords Hundred Families.”

“A likeable fellow.”

Crack.

Gwang Mu-ryang clenched his fist.

“I’ll kill you cleanly.”

“That’s my line.”

The two rushed toward each other.

‘We’re being pushed back.’

Darkness fell on Cheong-yeong’s face.

They couldn’t stop them.

It had been impossible from the start. The Demonic Cult had brought everything they had. It was impossible to face the Demonic Cult’s full power with just the alliance of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

Wasn’t this the same Demonic Cult that hadn’t been pushed back even when facing the entire martial world in the previous war?

Winning against them wasn’t their role. What they had to do was use their geographical advantage to hold out as much as possible and buy time.

But now even that had reached its limit.

‘Damn it.’

Hold out as much as possible.

Pour out everything they could and hold out.

But Cheong-yeong couldn’t help but wonder if that choice was really right. Focusing on the goal of blocking and holding out, they had missed the proper timing for retreat.

The collapse of the defensive line here meant the annihilation of everyone present.

Mount Hua would burn, and would never again recreate its past glory.

“Aaaahhh!”

“Urgh, these Demonic Cult bastards…”

“We’re being pushed back! Here! Help here…!”

Screams were heard from all directions.

But he couldn’t even figure out where and how to help. If one place was being pushed back, they could concentrate their forces there, but when everywhere was being pushed back, where could they help?

“Sect Leader!”

Cheong-yeong bit his lips tightly.

“Don’t panic!”

It was something he said to others, but it was also something Cheong-yeong said to himself. If he couldn’t pull himself together here, everything would be over.

“Hold out! Even if you lose your lives, hold out! This is the last bastion of the gorge! This is where we die! Seeing these Demonic Cult bastards trample the Central Plains with their dirty feet once is enough! Today we die here!”

As Cheong-yeong’s blood-spitting cry erupted, venom appeared in the eyes of those who had been panicking.

“Hold out! The Righteous Martial Alliance is coming! The Lord Commander is bringing reinforcements! So hold out! If we hold out, we win!”

This was a lie.

It was true that the Lord Commander was coming with the Righteous Martial Alliance and Baek Geom Fortress as support. But they still needed time to arrive. They wouldn’t be able to arrive before the battle here ended.

But people needed something called hope to fight their best. Right now, Cheong-yeong had given these people hope. Hope by the name of lies.

‘Forgive me.’

Between the choice of retreating and suffering massive casualties, or fighting to the end and killing at least one more enemy before dying, Cheong-yeong chose the latter.

A last stand wasn’t always a good choice, but he believed it was the best option now.

“Mount Hua ends in my generation.”

Not just Mount Hua.

If everyone here was annihilated, Shaanxi and Sichuan would suffer devastating damage. More than half would be destroyed, and even places where descendants survived would never recover their current glory.

But there was no hesitation in his choice.

‘If we protect the Central Plains, the soul of martial arts won’t disappear.’

Cheong-yeong gritted his teeth and shouted.

“Haven’t we learned martial arts for this moment! Don’t retreat!”

It was then.

“Foolish fellow.”

Along with a cold voice, a tremendous explosion was heard.

BOOOOOOM!