Chapter 291. The Target Is the Hao Sect Leader.

I approached the man who seemed to be the leader of the river bandits.

“What gave you the confidence to come harass our Hao Sect Leader? Did that bastard Sado put you up to it?”

The river bandit leader charged at me with an expressionless face, unfolding a saber art I had never seen before.

I swung both palms, wreathed in cold qi.

In an instant, the river bandit leader cut through the cold qi in the shape of a cross with his swift saber and advanced, thrusting his blade right before my eyes.

It was an aggressive saber art with no thought for retreat, but it was a foolish move.

Because he had charged at me while covered in ice arts.

When I slipped back slightly, the leader swung his empty hand. A blade shot out from his sleeve.

I drew my wooden sword, knocked away the dagger, and deflected the leader’s saber as well.

Up to this point, though he was an enemy, I thought it was a fine attack. However, I did not get the sense that he was a truly great expert. He simply had an extremely dense killing intent and movements that stood out among a band of river bandits.

For now, I also unleashed a swift sword.

A swift sword that paid no mind to forms or power, and swung solely for speed.

Because desperation was mixed into the river bandit leader’s saber art.

I had fought like that in my previous life as well, so I knew that if I responded in a similar manner, his limits would soon be exposed. When the gap in skill is great, even that kind of desperation is useless.

I infused ice arts into my sword to check his struggle, then infused the Flame Realm to force him back. Then, in turn, I rushed in and, with thrusts alone, marked six or seven points on him. The river bandit leader’s movements had become markedly slower than at first.

Even in the midst of this, the river bandit leader deflected three thrusts with his swift saber, but he could not keep up with the speed of the remaining attacks and took the sword directly in his neck, chest, and shoulder.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Every thrust was infused with wood-element sword qi.

I mercilessly cut off the scream that burst out belatedly after the sword’s movements with another stroke.

Slash!

Blood that began as red lines across the river bandit’s body spread more and more like ink, and he collapsed just like that.

I looked at the Lecherous Demon.

He was still engulfed in a white whirlwind, pouring out palm force like a madman.

‘He’s excited. Idiot. As if he knows how many more enemies there are.’

I stole the valor of the rampaging Lecherous Demon and made it my own achievement.

“How impressive. Hao Sect Leader.”

It was rare for me to praise myself, so the words felt awkward. Even in the middle of that, the Lecherous Demon answered me.

“Shut up!”

I left the Lecherous Demon to fight alone and went to support the Ghost Demon, who was dealing with many opponents.

Near the dock, there was not enough light, so all my attacks gained the effect of ambushes. I moved while mainly cutting off the arms, forearms, shoulders, and hands that held weapons. Since I had already been influenced by the river bandit leader’s swift movements, my own movements were growing faster and faster, and I could not stop.

If you cut the body without killing, you gain the effect called screams.

The effect is simple.

The enemy’s momentum fell.

But strangely, none of them surrendered.

Was it because our numbers were too few? Or did they have something to rely on?

For the moment, I could not know the reason, so I moved quickly while persistently severing arms.

There were so many of them that killing each one individually was exhausting. Now the sobs overlapped to the point that even the bustling district could hear the screams spreading from the dock.

Only when over a hundred river bandits had been killed or injured in an instant...

Perhaps because the fear had effectively spread, they began throwing away their weapons and fleeing here and there.

However, the Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon were experts who understood the psychology of a battlefield, and so they killed the fleeing men even more brutally.

Now we were not merely four men, but four men the enemy could do absolutely nothing about.

They, too, likely had not known that such a scene of hell would unfold at the dock.

At some point, dozens of weapons fell to the ground, and like waves surging, the men still alive dropped to their knees.

All of them were breathing roughly, their faces filled with horror.

Only then did the Sword Demon and the Ghost Demon stop attacking.

The Lecherous Demon, still overcome with rage, beat three or four more men to death before realizing that his surroundings had grown quiet and stopped attacking.

The Sword Demon spoke to his disciple.

“Mongrang.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Fight a little more coldly. You got too excited.”

“Understood.”

In roughly half a shichen, we had slaughtered over a hundred men. I shook the blood off my sword and sheathed it.

The Sword Demon looked around at those who had surrendered and said in a cold tone,

“It would be right to kill them all.”

I asked the surrendered men,

“I’ll spare the one who knows Sado’s whereabouts. If there’s no useful answer by the time I count to ten, just die. One, two, three, nine, ten.”

“Sect Leader!”

“What?”

“Will you spare me?”

Judging by his tone, he was extremely agitated and was simply babbling whatever came to mind.

“Where is Sado?”

The man who had shouted suddenly laughed like a lunatic and answered,

“How would we know that? Hahahaha.”

I walked over to him, grabbed him by the hair, and looked at his face. His eyes were filled with a jumble of despair, desperation, anger, and fear.

I asked him,

“What exactly do you know? Why did you live like this?”

The man answered informally.

“If I knew that, would I have lived like this?”

“True enough.”

It seemed that if they saw our faces up close, they knew who the Hao Sect Leader was.

“Go to the other world and finish playing river bandit there. Though I don’t know if there are boats there too.”

“Wait.”

I wrapped Baekjeon Sipdan-gong around the hand gripping his hair and shook his head.

“Kyaaaaaaaak!”

Because I had deliberately infused lightning qi, his scream rang farther and farther into the night sky before cutting off at some point. Clumps of burned hair scattered from my left hand. I blew on my palm.

“What a noisy death. Damn bastard. Anyone else want to mock me? Trading your mockery for your life—what a fine mindset. You pathetic bastards.”

The men who had attacked, thinking the Lecherous Demon was the Hao Sect Leader, were only then looking at me from all over.

I received all those gazes.

“Yeah, that’s right. It’s me. I am me.”

At that moment, from beyond the pitch-black river, the heavy sound of a horn was heard. The buuuuuuh of the horn overlapped, and ships larger than the dozen or so that had arrived first came rushing in.

Because they could not be seen clearly, it looked as if the darkness on the river was surging.

From the prow came a voice imbued with internal energy.

“...Is the Hao Sect Leader at the dock?”

Those who had surrendered answered.

“They are here.”

“Well done.”

The expert on the large ship asked something else this time.

“Have those who intend to kill the Hao Sect Leader arrived as well?”

This time, an answer came from behind us.

“We have just arrived.”

Around the dock, enemies with the lights of the bustling district at their backs were slowly swarming in, forming an encirclement.

They seemed to be the unidentified jianghu men Dan Hyeoksan of the Martial Alliance had spoken of.

Now the eyes of those who had surrendered first while kneeling came alive again. The thought that they might survive if luck was on their side seemed to have kindled a spark of hope.

Rather than examine the enemy, I first checked the expressions of the Four Great Villains.

“…….”

The Four Great Villains, standing here and there, met my eyes and smiled as if by agreement.

In other words, that smile reflected the thoughts we were all sharing at the same time. We had never expected the fight to go easily, smoothly, or according to plan. From the start, we had come to Dongho with the mindset of killing every enemy we encountered.

I looked around and said.

“Quite a lot of them have come from both front and back.”

The ones who appeared from the bustling district somehow had a different air from the river pirates, so they did not look like subordinates of the Number One of the Unorthodox Path. However, they all had their backs to the light, so I could not tell which faction they belonged to.

Since the number of enemies had grown considerably, I introduced myself from amid the kneeling men.

“Everyone, I am the Hao Sect Leader.”

I deliberately raised my hand to confirm my position for them.

Despite my kind introduction, there was no particular reaction. Instead, the river pirate who had appeared by boat and the leader who had appeared on land conversed while ignoring me.

“Get off the ship. It would be better to strike at the same time.”

“Let’s do that.”

I looked around at the kneeling men, then took a signal flare from my robes and pulled the cord attached to its end. There was a sound like air escaping, and the flare shot into the sky before bursting with a bang, setting off fireworks in the dark night sky.

Had it been made by a master craftsman of signal flares?

When I looked at the shape of the sparkling flames with a bit of imagination added, a single sword was illuminating the night sky.

Someone’s voice came from the large vessel.

“The Martial Alliance.”

I drew my sword and looked around at the Four Great Villains.

“Did you rest well?”

The three of them nodded without saying much. I met the Sword Demon’s eyes and said.

“Let’s kill them.”

The Sword Demon and I moved at the same time and mercilessly slaughtered the ones who had surrendered first. Once the encirclement tightened from all sides, they were the sort who would get up and fight anyway. Realizing the situation a beat late, the Ghost Demon and the Lust Demon also began killing the surrenderers nearby.

From the beginning, it was a matter of killing or being killed, so there was no reason to let my guard down, nor did I have anything one could call mercy. I killed the river pirates around me whenever they came into view while checking the enemies disembarking from the ship and those pressing in from the bustling district.

Even in the midst of this, I was inwardly impressed that the Number One of the Unorthodox Path still had not shown himself. Then, as I was killing the fellows nearby, I suddenly came face-to-face with an enemy who had appeared from the bustling district.

“…….”

A familiar voice came from the darkness.

“Sect Leader, have you been well? I am glad to see you look healthy.”

I cut off the head of a fellow nearby who was watching for an opportunity to flee, then answered.

“Comrade Chumyeong, you’ve come?”

“I heard the news and found my way here without much difficulty.”

I nodded.

“How is your hand?”

“Thank you for your concern. It is only a little inconvenient. And do not call me comrade. Our convictions differ.”

“How disappointing. If you would only free yourself from a little narrow-mindedness, we are all people who have inherited Jing Ke’s will. Legalism certainly doesn’t suit me.”

The forces of the Legalist School grew greater and greater, blocking out the lights of the bustling district with darkness. Why was the moonlight so stingy tonight of all nights?

It was a difficult day to fight properly.

But those who were going to die soon had it just as difficult anyway.

I left the newly increased number of river pirates to the three of them and walked alone toward the forces of the Legalist School, saying.

“I’m sorry about the Blind Scholar. Seeing you cling to this so obsessively, I suppose you were either close martial brothers or blood brothers.”

From somewhere, the Chumyeong Scholar answered.

“Make your apology when you meet him in person.”

“Still, you are a scholar in name, so will it be one-on-one? Or do you intend to rush me in a complete free-for-all?”

The Chumyeong Scholar laughed.

Only then was I able to pinpoint the Chumyeong Scholar’s position. I intended to prepare the Sun-Moon Light Stream. The problem was that the Chumyeong Scholar’s movements were fast, so there was a risk I would be counterattacked immediately. In the end, just as I resolved to prepare the Sun-Moon Light Stream while weaving through the men who had surrendered, a voice mixed with internal energy came from behind the Legalist School’s forces.

“……Why are there so many troops?”

“I do not know.”

“Isn’t this far more than what was reported?”

“It seems the unidentified martial artists we had identified were all enemies of the Sect Leader.”

“Impressive.”

The moment I heard the voice, I felt a little strange.

I thought emotions were truly strange things. Emotions were certainly mine, and yet I could not control them as I wished.

I was dumbfounded, and yet somewhere in my heart felt quite heavy.

It was difficult to put my ambiguous feelings into words.

Some of the Legalist School’s forces turned around to check the enemy behind them. The number of my reinforcements who had arrived from the bustling district was not very large.

There was an encirclement outside the encirclement, and allies beyond the enemies.

We had each other surrounded.

The Chumyeong Scholar’s voice flowed out.

“……Honored retainers, lend me your strength. If the Sect Leader dies, I shall reward you handsomely.”

Laughter arose here and there.

At that moment, a voice was heard once again from behind the Legalist School’s forces.

“What is going on? Do I have so little presence?”

“It is because it is dark.”

“Is that so? Light the torches.”

As my support troops standing here and there began lighting torches, the surroundings slowly grew brighter.

I could not help but first show courtesy to the man who had come as the leader of the Dongho Special Operations Unit.

“Unit Leader, you have come.”

With the Chumyeong Scholar between us, I exchanged an ordinary conversation with my sponsor. The Special Operations Unit Leader answered me.

“Sect Leader.”

“Yes.”

“This makes the second time we are joining forces. This time, I will try to put in a little more effort.”

He was a difficult person to joke with, so finding something to say was rather hard.

“Senior, if you get hurt, I’ll be the one cursed for it.”

The Special Operations Unit Leader burst into hearty laughter.

“How insolent.”

I answered with a smile as well.

“If you are ready, let us go.”

“Let’s go.”

The moment I saw the Special Operations Unit Leader move, I charged into the Beop Clan’s forces with my wooden sword in hand.

The instant I cut down the first enemy I met at the front, a thunderous roar erupted behind me. Martial artists clad in black were being flung into the air. The voices of the Alliance members came from all around, utterly calm. Every one of them was relaying information to grasp the situation. Mixed among them were also words urging everyone to pay the utmost attention to protection.

I broke through the Beop Clan’s forces alone.

Somehow, I felt as though I were a moth flying toward the lights that had appeared in a bustling street.

The faces of those who blocked my way were not even visible.

Only their uncommon skill could be felt through their swords.

There were many masters mixed among them, the sort rarely seen, yet for some reason, the more I swung my sword, the more courage and spirit boiled up within me.

Who was I……

to be receiving help like this, I wondered.

And yet it also felt as though the Murim Alliance was simply doing what it naturally should.

A short while later, I advanced as if breaking through the Beop Clan’s forces, then exchanged glances with the man from the Murim Alliance in the midst of the enemy. The man, like a tiger appearing under the moonlit night, was slaughtering most of the enemies with a single stroke when he spoke to me.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine.”

“Keep your breathing steady. There are many enemies.”

“Understood.”

I maintained a proper distance from the man as I swung my wooden sword at the Beop Clan’s forces.

Nearby, Special Operations Unit Leader Im Sobaek was swinging his sword.