Chapter 236. Grand Strategist Lee Jaha

While the Beggar Sect Leader stood firm in front of me, blocking the way, I came up with thirty-eight thousand five hundred varied strategies, but none of them seemed suitable.

“…….”

To exaggerate a little, unless the Cult Leader suddenly appeared here and helped the Beggar Sect Leader, we were outmatched. The odds of that happening were about the same as the Cult Leader attaining enlightenment and becoming a beggar of the Beggar Sect.

Suddenly, I looked up at the clear sky.

‘Today’s weather is clear as well.’

I heard the Beggar Sect Leader speak.

“Cheonak, it has been a long time. Shall we fight one-on-one? Or will all of you come at me together? Either is fine.”

Cheonak Scholar replied with a smile.

“Today is not such an occasion.”

For some reason, it sounded like he was telling us not to expect a romantic sort of fight today.

The Beggar Sect Leader said to me.

“……Sect Leader, what are you doing instead of leaving? This is not yet a fight you can handle.”

The White-Robed Scholar said.

“Jaha, I never said I would let you go, so stay right there.”

Behind the Beggar Sect Leader’s back, I quietly prepared the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven, then spoke calmly.

“Please move aside for a moment.”

As the Sect Leader turned his body, I charged forward with the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven coiled around me and rushed at the three scholars.

The Beggar Sect Leader and the White-Robed Scholar shouted at the same time.

“Jaha!”

“Careful!”

With a crackling sound—pajijijijik—the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven completed itself, and the three startled scholars swung their hands at me all at once. Thinking I might die at this rate, I converted the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven into a curtain of light as planned, then spread both arms wide in the shape of the character 大.

In an instant, the curtain of light I created swallowed every sound in the area.

‘It’s a gamble.’

I drew out the rays of the curtain of light, which had converted the power of the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven into Heaven-Reversal, and took the ultimate techniques of Cheonak, one of the Three Talents, the White-Robed Scholar, the Evil Emperor of my past life, and the Blind Scholar, who had killed the Blade Emperor, with my entire body.

Beyond the translucent membrane of light, Cheonak’s palm force, the White-Robed Scholar’s finger art, and the Blind Scholar’s palm force were clearly visible.

I heard no thunderous roar, yet it felt as though my eardrums would tear.

The scholars’ ultimate techniques that struck the Heaven-Reversing curtain of light were being sent back to their respective masters, but my body was also sent flying in the opposite direction as if shoved by a storm.

At that moment, the Beggar Sect Leader’s hand caught my wrist in midair, and I seized the Beggar Sect Leader’s wrist.

I roughly pulled the Beggar Sect Leader’s arm, then, without asking, hoisted him onto my back and started running away.

From the perspective of a grand strategist.

Out of thirty-eight thousand five hundred strategies, I judged that, for now, taking to my heels was the most efficient, most outstanding, and wisest strategy. Of course, up to this point, it was an intentional plan.

I intended to carry out the next plan while running.

Above all, I found it horrifically regrettable that I had exposed the unparalleled technique called the Heaven-Reversing curtain of light to the scholars, but there was nothing I could do if I wanted to survive.

I ran my mouth to the Beggar Sect Leader on my back.

“Sect Leader!”

“Why are you suddenly running away!”

“Even if you live, I’ll die if I fight. First, listen carefully to what I have to say. Stop worrying about No Sin for now. Because of your disciple, your heart has lost its composure. Trust me. No Sin won’t die for the time being.”

“He won’t die?”

As expected, he had been worried.

“He won’t! Those bastards will kill you, Sect Leader, then pressure No Sin and use him like a slave. Then the Beggar Sect will roll right into their hands, vines and all. Why would they kill him? If they seize control of the Beggar Sect, then when they contend for the world, they won’t fall behind the Demonic Cult or the Martial Alliance when it comes to acquiring information. This isn’t the time to worry about No Sin. Worry about me.”

“I understand that much. But must you run like this? I am faster.”

“……Please stay on my back for a moment.”

“Why?”

“Conserve your internal energy. The fight hasn’t even begun yet.”

Fortunately, unlike when I had learned lightness art earlier, the Sect Leader’s weight had become as light as a feather. I sprinted so fast that I could not tell whether I was using the Cloud-Stepping Art right now, unfolding the lightness art I had learned before, or mixing everything together and running with a lightness art that had never existed before. I deliberately ran behind buildings to hide my direction, and whenever I saw a wall, I leaped over it. I circled around and hid, sprinted and doubled back, continuously changing direction to widen the distance as much as possible, then ran at full speed across open ground.

After running ahead for nearly half a gak, I felt a chill and asked the Sect Leader.

“……Are they already following?”

The Beggar Sect Leader looked behind us and said.

“They are already coming.”

Of course, I could tell too. From behind us, the White-Robed Scholar’s laughter was continuing for a long while, and he was moving at a speed that made it seem like a ghost was chasing us.

Just how had they recovered so quickly?

I had not been able to see how they blocked the techniques bounced back by the curtain of light. But there was a reason I had chosen to run.

“Senior, the Blind Scholar is blind anyway, so he’ll fall away from the pursuit. If we run at full speed, only Cheonak and the White-Robed Scholar will be able to follow us. If that happens…….”

The Sect Leader cut me off.

“……The Blind Scholar appeared riding a palanquin as well.”

“Pardon? Did you just say a palanquin? A palanquin is cheating.”

The Sect Leader continued explaining.

“Masters of lightness art carrying a four-man palanquin are following with the Blind Scholar borne upon it, and their speed is quite fast.”

They were no ordinary madmen.

“Still, it’s three scholars, right?”

“For now, there are more than thirty people behind them. The gap is gradually widening. Cheonak and the White-Robed Scholar have taken the lead.”

I watched the front, remembered the road we had taken, and then sprinted toward a sparsely populated plain. The Beggar Sect Leader spoke in a noticeably calmer tone.

“Will you even be able to fight after running like this?”

“If I get tired, then the White-Robed Scholar and Cheonak’s breathing will also grow rough. Naturally, I am relying entirely on you, Senior. Do you now understand my strategy that would slap Sima Yi across the face?”

My plan was to carefully carry the Beggar Sect Leader all the way here, then put him down before Cheonak and the White-Robed Scholar, whose breathing had grown ragged. The commander-in-chief of the beggars burst into laughter.

“Hahaha.”

If the Sect Leader laughed, that was enough. After all, laughter brings good fortune. However, I could not laugh because of my breathing.

‘Ah, this is going to make things chilly.’

In any case, the first operation was to drain as much of the scholars’ strength as possible with lightness art, then set down the Beggar Sect Leader, whose breathing and internal energy were perfectly intact, and settle the match. Meanwhile, the strategy of leaving the Blind Scholar far behind had failed.

To think a four-man palanquin would appear.

The Beggar Sect Leader said.

“They will catch up soon. Cheonak and White-Robe are incredibly fast. Blindness continues to fall behind.”

The reason I had fled without hesitation was because, upon cold judgment, there might not have been only three scholars. If the unidentified Hall Master Kwae appeared, or if there were perhaps other scholars as well, it would be certain defeat. Why was I even suspecting this much? This was instinct, intuition, and a sixth sense.

“Are there any other masters?”

“It doesn’t look like it. The White-Robed Scholar gave some order, and part of the troops falling behind changed direction. They’re probably trying to block Alliance Leader Im and buy time. Where are we going? If we go this way, there’s a cliff beyond the plain.”

While running, I answered as the thought came to me.

“To the cliff, obviously.”

There was only one reason.

Even if we jumped off the cliff, we probably couldn’t shake off Cheonak or the White-Robed Scholar, but the Blind Scholar wouldn’t be able to follow. No matter how skilled the men carrying the four-man palanquin were, that much would be impossible.

The Beggars’ Sect Leader belatedly asked,

“You mean we’re jumping?”

“Either we cross the cliff or jump down. It’s not a place a blind bastard would dare come.”

“Not a bad idea, but you’ll have to put me down now.”

A chill ran down my spine.

From quite a distance away, I heard, “Hao Sect Leader……” Then, in the same tone, from right nearby, “You’ve gotten pretty fast, haven’t you?” The instant I heard that, I set the Beggars’ Sect Leader down.

As soon as the Divine Beggar’s feet touched the ground, he poured out a palm force.

KWA-A-A-A-A-A-ANG!

A thunderous roar erupted, and by the time I turned around, the Beggars’ Sect Leader was already pouring palm force at Cheonak and the White-Robed Scholar, and a two-against-one battle had broken out in an instant. I deeply regretted that we hadn’t fled farther so the scholars would be more exhausted. Still, this much meant we had won about one breath’s worth in a fight between masters. No matter how outstanding those two scholars were, overwhelming the Beggars’ Sect Leader, who had been comfortably prepared, would not be easy.

I also caught my rough breath for a moment as I watched the fight.

“……”

The Sect Leader was emitting a deep yellow light from both palms, making him look like a rampaging yellow dragon. His movements were so fast they were hard to see, but the deep yellow palm force left visible trails, so it couldn’t help but look like a dragon.

Cheonak fought like a mad tiger that hadn’t washed its hair, thrashing about. Whenever his face flashed into view, he was grinning with his teeth bared.

Meanwhile, the White-Robed Scholar, fighting with an indifferent expression, moved as lightly and slyly as a white crane that had stuffed itself full of miraculous elixirs.

‘That sly bastard.’

After running like I was going to die, just as I expected, only Cheonak and the White-Robed Scholar had arrived. Those shameless scholar bastards were attacking together without a word, but even to my eyes, it didn’t feel like the Beggars’ Sect Leader was being pushed back at all.

‘Good. Confirmed, for now.’

In an instant, every place the three of them stepped with their footwork caved in, and the thunderous booms were so loud it was hard to breathe normally.

Once the fight began in earnest, the three of them didn’t pay me any attention at all. It was a battle ordinary masters couldn’t even interfere in.

If I couldn’t trust the Beggars’ Sect Leader, who in the world could I trust?

I left the Beggars’ Sect Leader fighting two against one for a moment, used lightness skill to widen the distance, then found a place where the ground was slightly sunken and lay flat. Like some unidentified little animal roaming the desert, I poked only my head out slightly and began scouting.

“Whew… here comes the self-loathing.”

The Blind Scholar’s four-man palanquin would arrive soon.

If he had the skill to kill the Saber Emperor of the Hwangbo Clan, just how strong was he? The reason I chose to flee without hesitation was because, whatever else he was, the Blind Scholar looked even stronger than the Leader of the Jecheon Alliance.

Self-loathing and rage surged up because I felt I couldn’t defeat him one-on-one.

In the blink of an eye, I thought up roughly twelve thousand three hundred strategies. Like an idiot, I needed to draw rage from within to use the Zixia Divine Art smoothly, but because I was wracking my brains, the emotion of rage had gone lukewarm. A truly idiotic situation.

They say heaven helps those who help themselves, but it was more like the Mad Demon inside me wasn’t helping me.

‘Damn it…….’

As soon as I saw dust rising in the distance, I drew my wooden sword in advance and prepared an ambush.

‘This is Ambush Captain Cha Seongtae.’

Ah, damn it.

To think Cha Seongtae’s useless words would come to mind in a situation like this.

In any case, now was the moment I had to become Ambush Captain Yi Jaha. Looking at it like this, the four-man palanquin was moving at tremendous speed too. But it truly looked pitiful. Just what sin had those bastards committed in a past life that they were running so hard while carrying a blind man in a palanquin?

‘Sorry, but you lot will have to die today.’

I waited until the four-man palanquin passed nearby, then rose and sent out a low sweep of sword qi.

Shwaaaaaaak!

After lowering my point of aim, I swung my sword like a madman and poured out sword qi indiscriminately. The Blind Scholar, who had been atop the palanquin, shot up into the air.

What I had been aiming for was the palanquin bearers anyway.

In an instant, the bearers whose legs had been severed collapsed, screaming. Honestly, they weren’t the kind of men who would fall easily to sword qi of this level, but they had probably lived like slaves and found it difficult to throw away the palanquin. In that instant, I cut off their legs.

Only then did I approach the Blind Scholar with my sword lowered toward the ground.

I thought that as long as the bearers kept groaning, it would confuse the Blind Scholar’s hearing……

The Blind Scholar landed on the ground and mercilessly swung his blade a few times, taking all the sobbing bearers’ lives before looking at me.

“……”

A man having a staring contest with a blind bastard—that was me.

Goosebumps……

White eyes with no black pupils fixed on me.

“Are you the Hao Sect Leader?”

Just in case, I moved to the side, and the Blind Scholar’s head also moved toward me. As I shifted here and there, I answered in a disguised voice.

“I’m just a passing swordsman. What seems to be the matter?”

The Blind Scholar smiled faintly and said,

“Let us see if you can make such jokes even when you die.”

The Blind Scholar charged like a ghost. I poured out sword wind with my wooden sword as I retreated. I deliberately used noisy footwork that seemed to sweep up the ground, raising clouds of dust, then swept it all up with my sword wind and attacked the Blind Scholar with it.

But the Blind Scholar scattered the fine dust with a few strokes of his blade and gifted me a clear sky.

I nodded, then spoke in a serious tone.

“Good. Let’s have a proper fight. But before that, let’s introduce ourselves.”

“Shut up.”

“Son of a bitch.”

As soon as I saw the Blind Scholar charge, I lowered my wooden sword to my lower right and fled.

He was a blind scholar, but he followed extremely well.

Every time sword qi flew at my back, I dodged it without even looking—somersaulting through the air, spinning sideways, and leaning diagonally while airborne. I leapt this way and that, jumped high, and after a while it became so exhausting that an inner conflict surged up, wondering whether it might be better to just fight.

But no.

One must thoroughly exploit the opponent’s weakness.

I simply kept running.

I was not someone who would lose a lightness skill contest to a man who had lost both eyes.

“Scholar, shall we compete in lightness skill first?”

“Are you not ashamed for the leader of a sect to run away like this?”

Even while fleeing in a hurry, I did not let go of the thread of conversation.

“Ashamed? I have never felt ashamed even once in my life. Do you know what that means? It means I’m shameless.”

I praised myself and encouraged myself as I fled with all my might. In all of history, had there ever been anyone who had achieved the three great feats of being chased by the Murim Alliance, chased by the Demon Cult, and chased by a blind man?

Only me, that’s who.

As I fled toward the cliff, the Scholar’s subordinates suddenly appeared nearby and surrounded the entire area. Chilgyeom’s voice came from somewhere.

“Sect Leader, you are surrounded.”

I found Chilgyeom and answered.

“I let myself be trapped on purpose. For old times’ sake, I’ll spare you, so step back now.”

I turned once in place and looked around…….

Nameless masters, the sort one rarely encountered, had gathered in a group and were staring at me as if I were a monkey.

Chilgyeom advised me to surrender.

“If you kneel and allow yourself to be bound, we will spare your life. Since we do have some history together, we should at least treat you like a slave.”

At Chilgyeom’s words, those who had formed the encirclement let out low laughter. I hardened my expression and spoke to the Blind Scholar.

“Scholar, did you not teach your men manners? I may be your enemy, but I am the head of a sect. What kind of way is that for those beneath you to speak?”

The Blind Scholar turned his head toward Chilgyeom and replied.

“Mind your tongue.”

I put away my wooden sword, let both hands hang down, and exhaled at length. My mind grew calm. In any case, since the Blind Scholar was blind, he was at a disadvantage in a group battle. He would leave things to his subordinates while recovering his energy.

The Scholar’s subordinates were my shield. As I watched the enemies slowly approaching as though a binding rope were tightening around me, I thought of ten thousand—no, just one technique.

‘Will it work? It has to work if I’m going to live.’

I recalled the Lust Demon’s state of mind. After freezing a woman solid with ice arts, what in the world had he meant to do?

At last, cold and frigid rage, born from the Wolyeong Mujeonggong, began to surge up within me. Since the name of the ultimate technique I was about to unleash would not come to mind, I muttered according to the flow of my thoughts.

“Lust Demon, you son of a bitch…….”