Chapter 264

Chapter 264

There’s a saying called ‘the calm before the storm.’

This refers to the desolate atmosphere on the night before a storm, and it’s often used to describe the strange atmosphere right before something happens. Great tides that sweep many people into them often reveal their omens beforehand.

It’s the same right before war begins. The air mixed with mutual vigilance and hostility inevitably circulates with the scent of metal.

Since ancient times, people have called this strange air like so.

‘War clouds gather.’

“Have you grasped the enemy’s forces?”

“Of course. We’ve completed a certain level of reconnaissance on our side.”

The Murim Alliance Search Party.

At Sword Emperor Baek Rigang’s question, a man standing at attention with clearly tense features, the Murim Alliance Secret Pavilion Master, bowed his head.

“From the Blood Cult, we’ve confirmed the three Chilryun of the Demonic Cult’s Ilryun are guarding the front as mentioned earlier.”

“Hyeolgyeom, Ambi, and Eungryong. That will be troublesome. What about the others?”

“The Blood Cult Leader hasn’t shown himself, but he’s such an elusive figure that it wouldn’t be strange whenever he appears. It seems Ilnachar is playing the leadership role.”

“Five Sipcheon-level masters. That’s headache-inducing. What about the yokai side?”

“The yokai side is…….”

The Secret Pavilion Master, who had been gauging the enemy’s forces in his head for a moment, clenched and opened his sweat-dampened fist as he continued.

“It seems certain they received yokai support from the Great Demon Realms as we speculated. We’ve confirmed the appearances of Great Yokai Eupro, who was active in Gwireongji, the great demon realm of Gansu, and Great Yokai Cheongseol of Yunnan.”

“……What else?”

“We estimate there are about five more yokai of similar level confirmed.”

“That’s a headache.”

Eupro and Cheongseol.

They were the names of Great Yokai who, while not comparable to Heukya, the ruler of Sinseongok, looked down on most masters of the martial world. In terms of individual martial prowess, they couldn’t compare to the Sipcheon, but they possessed bizarre and monstrous abilities that made them incredibly troublesome opponents if encountered as enemies.

“What do you think? Do we have a chance of victory?”

“It’s not impossible.”

At Cheon Seoryeong’s question, Baek Rigang quietly answered and looked around. Bulgoe and himself. And Cheon Seoryeong and Daesageom. Finally, including the Water God Guard that Ilryun had attached, there were five Sipcheon-level masters.

“While the yokai are said to be troublesome, this isn’t their territory. Considering that yokai encountered outside their demon realms have their power halved, if we clash well, it should be possible to decide the match.”

“Don’t the numbers of masters fall short?”

“Masters aren’t only at the peak. While those gathered here are the most outstanding masters, the other members of the search party aren’t greatly inferior either. We can’t assume certain defeat in a situation where forces of this magnitude are gathered.”

“…….”

“Though this is all just theoretical talk.”

The enemy side also had many additional forces.

Setting aside the bizarreness of each yokai following the Great Yokai, weren’t the Blood Cult followers said to have reached the peak of sorcery? Even judging the situation as optimistically as possible, our forces were inferior. The fact that the enemy could maintain an encirclement formation was also for that reason.

“Our goal isn’t to protect Oyeon.”

“…….”

“Buying time, that’s our objective. Just by the enemy bringing their main forces here, our work is already done. All that remains is surviving.”

“It sounds like you’re saying we must somehow break through this situation?”

“That’s right.”

Surviving.

If that’s the goal, there might still be methods. Though the enemy has formed an encirclement, our forces aren’t at an overwhelming disadvantage. If we somehow break through one point, we could seek a way to survive.

“Should we escape under cover of night?”

“It would be difficult since the enemy is yokai, Sword Sovereign. They’re not greatly constrained by the darkness of night, and moreover, they feed on fear.”

Daesageom lightly rejected Cheon Seoryeong’s words and frowned.

“Daytime.”

“…….”

“If we’re going to move, it has to be in broad daylight. And we must move from the front as much as possible so morale doesn’t drop. Once martial artists start becoming gripped by fear, it becomes uncontrollable.”

“But breaking through the encirclement head-on means.”

“We’ll have no choice but to accept major losses. So we have two choices. Break through the encirclement and move, or…….”

“Maintain a defensive battle here.”

“That’s right.”

The enemy’s main force being here meant conversely that Gahyang, where the main force headed, was practically an empty house.

The main force would organize Gahyang in less than half a day and grasp the situation. They would surely turn back here immediately and strike the enemies from behind.

“The main force consists of outstanding martial artists. We said five days when going, but if they hurry their steps, they can arrive here within three days. They’re not people whose forces would greatly decline just from running for three days and nights.”

“Ultimately, one thing is important. Whether we’ll take less damage by defending for three days, or whether we’ll take less damage by breaking through the encirclement.”

“Mm.”

It was hard to say which was better.

Everyone fell into contemplation, letting out groans over a problem they couldn’t easily answer. A moment of silence. The conference room fell into silence deep enough to hear even a pin drop.

‘Either way, we’re bound to take major losses.’

Baek Rigang, resting his chin, furrowed his brow as he fell into thought. The current situation rapidly flashing through his mind.

Oyeon wasn’t a fortress.

Though they could maintain some advantage over the attacking side, ultimately the general laws of defense and siege didn’t apply to Oyeon. Holding out for three days against enemies whose methods they couldn’t even guess wouldn’t be easy. Then would breaking through the encirclement be the right choice?

‘That’s the same.’

War is a war of attrition.

Colliding head-on with the enemy was the same as meaning they would extremely consume their own forces. If they wanted to minimize damage, they shouldn’t choose frontal battle either.

Whichever they chose would result in great loss. A situation where they had to choose the lesser evil to avoid the worst.

‘How can we overcome this predicament?’

Which choice would minimize losses? Which was the best option in the current situation?

──Zzzt.

“Who’s there!”

Those who had been deep in contemplation all took combat stances at once upon confirming something caught by their energy sensing. At the same time, a talisman fluttering down from the sky.

“This is…….”

“A talisman, perhaps?”

“It seems so. It appears to have been sent here using sorcery.”

“Could it suddenly explode or something…….”

“I don’t sense such signs.”

Baek Rigang, who had categorically dismissed Cheon Seoryeong’s concern, unfolded the talisman folded into a butterfly shape and narrowed his eyes. Characters densely written at the bottom of the talisman.

“This is…….”

“What is it?”

“……I’m not sure either. It’s too far-fetched a story.”

“A far-fetched story?”

“Yes.”

As he finished speaking and showed everyone the contents of the talisman, everyone focused their attention simultaneously. Soon after, letting out groans while reading the talisman’s contents at the same time.

“Eungryong wasn’t actually a traitor?”

“That’s still uncertain. This could also be part of a deception strategy. But what comes after is concerning.”

“……Tomorrow we’ll open the sky. So respond and attack the enemy?”

What on earth did this mean?

Everyone who read the story from the self-proclaimed spy Eungryong wore puzzled expressions. And watching that, Baek Rigang quietly spoke.

“Prepare the troops.”

“……Do you understand what that means, Sword Emperor?”

“I don’t. But I know one thing.”

“What is that?”

“That Eungryong is trying to do something tomorrow.”

Whether this secret letter meant Eungryong was hiding as a spy infiltrating the enemy, or whether he sent a strange secret letter to deceive this side didn’t matter. Either way, it was certain he would take some action tomorrow.

“The content of the secret letter doesn’t matter. Whether it’s for this side or for that side, we need troops to respond.”

“Then…….”

“Whatever Eungryong has prepared, we don’t need to bet everything on this secret letter. While they’re doing useless things, we’ll break through the encirclement.”

Baek Rigang, who had ended the drawn-out conference and made a decision, let out a deep breath.

Battle was right around the corner.

* * *

Yokai rarely form what you’d call a society.

That’s because yokai, unlike humans, are predators even alone.

Since ancient times, yokai have reigned as apex predators even without gathering in groups, so they had no need to band together for survival. Naturally, they had no need to form societies either.

Predators don’t communicate with each other.

The same was true for yokai, who couldn’t even reproduce. They had no need to leave descendants and no need to cooperate, so they didn’t converse. They didn’t communicate. So

Expecting normal conversation from beings called yokai was foolish.

“What on earth are you saying! This is different from what we discussed!”

The Blood Cult’s First Elder, Hyeolong, truly thought so.

“We…… move separately…….”

That was because he was currently experiencing that very situation.

“Eupro!”

“…….”

Right before the scheduled attack.

At the Great Yokai’s sudden declaration after arraying the Hundred Demons Night Parade, Hyeolong, unable to hide his bewilderment, raised his voice. The words of the yokai in the form of a tear-stained old woman made no sense at all.

“We’re not telling you to follow our orders!”

“…….”

“We’re just asking you to move as planned, so why are you being so uncooperative! This was a strategy everyone agreed upon!”

“Agreed……upon…….”

Eupro, who wiped away the black tears flowing down, looked as if she’d heard something strange, then hunched her already bent back even further and craned her neck to look up at Hyeolong. An utterly bizarre appearance.

“We never…… agreed…… You just…… wanted it that way…….”

“What nonsense is that!”

“This was how…… it was meant to be…… all along…….”

For yokai, humans are lowly creatures and livestock.

While there might be owners who grant livestock’s requests, there are no owners who follow livestock’s strategies. In the first place, for yokai, annihilating the enemy wasn’t that important.

“Our goal…… is destroying the Great Seal…….”

“…….”

“Then…… we don’t need…… to dedicate our strength…… to crushing…… those lowly creatures…… Just driving them away…… is enough…….”

The Blood Cult mutually destroying itself with the enemy?

For yokai, that didn’t matter at all. The Blood Cult had already destroyed three of the Great Seal’s axes, and only Oyeon remained.

Even if the Blood Cult was defeated, it didn’t matter. Unlike yokai, humans couldn’t feed on fear and would tire after fighting. They could just strike and kill the exhausted humans and harvest fear, and that would be enough.

“Kiii……!”

“…….”

“……I’ll report this matter to the Cult Leader.”

“Do as…… you please…….”

“Damn it.”

Hyeolong, who spat out curses and disappeared, left Eupro watching his retreating figure with a gloomy expression before clicking her tongue. Such an utterly foolish appearance.

‘How can…… that lowly creature…… not even guess…… its own future……?’

Eupro had met the Blood Cult Leader and Ilnachar and formed one impression. That those two were extremely meticulous humans.

There was no way they hadn’t considered the characteristics of yokai, who dislike control. Surely they had anticipated things would turn out this way.

They had even told Cheongseol and Eupro, who indicated they had no real intention of cooperating obediently, that it was fine. That meant this situation itself was within their calculations.

‘We can’t…… not cooperate…… at all…….”

There was a need to reduce human forces to destroy the Great Seal.

However, that definitely didn’t mean they welcomed the consumption of the Hundred Demons Night Parade. The yokai here weren’t a single collective, and the more yokai following oneself, the greater achievements one could make after the Great Seal’s destruction, right?

‘Participation…… will be after…… the initial war of attrition…… ends.’

To maintain superiority over other yokai in battle as well, they had to conserve their forces as much as possible. Anyway, the humans had no way out. They couldn’t retreat from here.

Eupro, who answered with a gloomy expression to Cheongseol watching her with a cold expression from far away, bowed her head. And at that moment, a sound reached her ears.

‘Has it…… begun……?’

At the loud drum sound announcing the start of battle, Eupro, who involuntarily raised her gaze upward, suddenly wore a blank expression.

Far away where only Eupro, who had good ‘eyes,’ could see if no one else could.

At the edge of her vision.

“How…… could that be……?”

A black dot floated in the sky.

Wearing the Blood Wind Robe.