Chapter 415. From This Moment On, We Are.

I figured that if the six of us fought and charged at the Three Talents without discussing any tactics, defeat was certain. But asking the Three Talents to step aside so we could discuss a plan would be ridiculous.

So I just spoke openly.

“……If the six of us don’t help one another, this will be nothing more than a fight where we face the Three Talents one-on-one and get defeated one by one. Wouldn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

The allies who would be taking part in the duel looked at me, and the Cult Leader and Cheonak also listened to what I had to say.

“If that happens, the fight will only serve to drain a little of the Three Talents’ strength and internal energy, and then the Three Talents will clash among themselves to decide who is the Greatest Under Heaven. This fight must not flow that way. In any case, a match is still a match. If the six of us lose to two men, it wouldn’t be strange even if all six of us retired. It would be shameful enough.”

Big Brother nodded.

“You’re right.”

Cheonak, who would be fighting as our enemy, smiled and said to me.

“You speak the truth. Try devising the broad strategy. How can you defeat the two of us?”

I looked at Ddongsagae, Big Brother, the White-Robed Scholar, Gongsun Sim, and the Blood Cult Leader.

“I’ll say it again. If we want to win, we have to save whoever falls into danger. There are six of us. Turn away once, and we’re reduced to five. Leave someone be, thinking they’ll be fine, and four remain. Think only of yourself, and three remain. After that, we’ll all get beaten to our hearts’ content by the Three Talents and end up watching the duel that gives birth to the Greatest Under Heaven with our asses planted on the ground. Am I wrong?”

Sometimes, even as I speak, I feel strange. This was one of those times.

“…….”

Because in the end, the person who saves someone in danger is a chivalrous hero. In other words, if we did not fight like chivalrous heroes in each passing moment here, we would lose to the Three Talents.

I said exactly what I felt.

“Blood Cult Leader, Big Brother, Ddongsagae, Chief Strategist, White-Robed Scholar. From this moment on, we have no choice but to save one another. I’ll say it again, if six of us attack together and still lose, don’t go anywhere boasting that you’re an expert. That goes for me too. For the six of us here, it can be the first and the last time. Let’s not turn away from another person’s crisis. To put my strategy very briefly……”

I spoke to those who were listening quietly to my words.

“We fight like chivalrous heroes.”

“…….”

“To change the era. Even if it’s only once in our lives. From this moment on, we are chivalrous heroes, understand?”

Whether one had the character “demon” attached to his title, or had the character “evil” attached to him in a past life.

Whether one was treated like a madman because he was seized by madness, or truly was a madman.

At this moment, like chivalrous heroes…….

Did everyone understand what I said?

No one answered.

Instead, the Cult Leader rose and slowly walked toward where the Blood Cult Leader had been. The two said nothing.

The Cult Leader was watching the moon with his back to us, and it seemed he intended to stand like that until we attacked.

Seeing him like this.

He looked like a man who blended well into a silent moonlit night.

The Blood Cult Leader silently stood and walked toward our side, while Cheonak, who had risen in turn, headed toward the Cult Leader and took his place.

Honestly, even I had not known.

That the Cult Leader and Cheonak would end up standing side by side and looking at the moon.

The sight of two of the world’s Three Talents standing together seemed marvelous even without any conversation passing between them.

Whatever the relationship between the two was, it was easy to tell that, regardless of affiliation or conviction, they had acknowledged each other from the beginning.

Unexpectedly, the Cult Leader opened his mouth in a relaxed tone.

“Have you heard anything of the Divine Beggar?”

“I ambushed him once, and even that beggar has grown quite old. In the past, no matter how roughly I attacked, he felt like a man who would not die. But when I ambushed him this time, he even told me we should rest before fighting.”

“So the beggar has grown old too.”

“His internal energy was unchanged, but time is that frightening. He was originally a beggar far older than us, after all.”

“What do you intend to do about those riffraff?”

“Today, we should teach them a proper lesson.”

The Cult Leader turned his head and looked at Cheonak.

“If you fall first, all under heaven will laugh at you.”

At the Cult Leader’s words, Cheonak tilted his head back slightly and burst into laughter.

Wait a moment…….

Now that I thought about it, we had ended up facing two of the Three Talents.

I am the sort who wavers this way and that, so I wanted to cancel the duel.

Does this make any sense?

Cheonak turned first, then looked toward us and said.

“Physician and Manor Lord, move far away. You’ll be caught up in it and die.”

“Yes, Senior.”

Mo Yongbaek and the Plum Blossom Manor Lord sprang to their feet and retreated like people fleeing a disaster.

From where we stood, we rose before the Cult Leader turned around.

Thinking about it, this was an unfavorable fight.

If I thought selfishly, it was unfavorable without end. In truth, I had also considered splitting into groups of three and attacking, but I canceled that idea. After all, in order to win, Cheonak and the Cult Leader would not hesitate to use any means necessary, and there was a high chance they would change opponents whenever they pleased and deal with our groups of three.

In other words, against the Three Talents, there were no petty tricks.

Cheonak looked at me and gave a faint smile.

“Sect Leader, what fool in this world would fight like a chivalrous hero?”

In Cheonak’s question, I found the answer at once. Since everyone was waiting in extreme tension, I stepped forward first.

“That fool is me.”

When I moved to the front, only then did the other five move as well, widening the distance little by little as they approached as if surrounding the Three Talents.

As we drew closer and closer, the Cult Leader slowly turned around. There were no particular words to embellish the Cult Leader’s appearance. It simply came out as an exclamation.

‘Good grief…….’

I had meant to ambush him like Seongtae, but the Cult Leader stretched his hand toward the sky. Before I even had time to confirm what that attack technique was, a massive palm force poured down from the air.

As I raised my left palm into the air…….

I confirmed that a massive hand-shaped palm force was covering all six of us. Instinctively, I unleashed the Chogye palm force of the Geumgu Soyogong toward the front. While the Cult Leader’s palm force fell from the sky, Cheonak swung his forepaw. Of course, it must have been his hand, but in the realm of perception, it felt like a tiger’s forepaw.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

It was a situation where we nearly fell to our knees in a single move. When I deflected the palm forces of the Cult Leader and Cheonak, my body was already spinning in the air. In a fleeting moment where the world seemed turned upside down, I realized that the other allies were also floating in midair.

‘At this rate, we’ll get beaten and finished in no time.’

Such a hollow fight would be disrespectful to the Three Talents. The moment I landed and staggered, Gongsun Sim had drawn his sword and was attacking the Cult Leader, while Big Brother was swinging the Radiant Sword toward Cheonak.

Naturally, Ddongsagae joined in as if supporting Big Brother.

Perhaps the Blood Cult Leader had never wanted to attack the Cult Leader in the first place, for he charged at Cheonak with dozens of streams of blood energy wrapped around his back.

In the end, the White-Robed Scholar, who had been observing the situation, met my eyes and then approached the Cult Leader, who was facing Gongsun Sim one-on-one.

The White-Robed Scholar muttered in an unpleasant tone.

“We nearly all had to do the Lazy Donkey Roll in one blow.”

“Exactly.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a damned fight.”

The White-Clad Scholar, who had been openly looking for an opening in the Cult Leader, attacked him with a finger technique. As a beam of tangible qi shot forth like a ray of light, the Cult Leader, who had been knocking away Gongson Sim’s sword as casually as if he were batting aside chopsticks, flicked a finger once. The White-Clad Scholar’s beam vanished without a trace in midair, and the next instant the White-Clad Scholar shot up into the air and joined Gongson Sim.

Just because it was a three-on-one fight did not mean anyone could join in whenever they pleased.

I moved closer and watched the three of them fight.

For the most part, I could see no opening to interfere. The Cult Leader was deliberately unleashing palm force to block my approach, and the very moments in which one could slip in, like joining a group jump rope, only appeared in the briefest instants.

Even so, I kept prowling around like a neighborhood cat, waiting for my chance. In the end, I judged that we could only win if we fully understood the Cult Leader’s martial arts. And so, while watching, I said to Gongson Sim and the White-Clad Scholar,

“Switch out. Take a rest.”

Rest, my ass.

The two of them, who had suddenly clashed with his palm force once each, flew backward to my left and right like wings sprouting from me. At the same time, I stepped forward and drew the Geumgu Soyo Art up to its peak.

Was it finally the Cult Leader?

All I could see before my eyes was the Cult Leader’s palm. When I smashed it apart with my fist, a formless qi fell from the air as if pressing down on me. Just as I felt the Cult Leader’s attack, unleashed almost simultaneously, vanish into nothing, the sword qi sent out by Gongson Sim was shooting up into the sky.

It seemed the Swift Hall Master had split the palm force falling from above.

When the Cult Leader stamped his left foot on the ground, the earth shook violently. Did the demonic arts include seizing objects through the void? It would be stranger if they didn’t, wouldn’t it? When countless shattered stones rose into the air all at once, I released the cold qi of the Wolyeong Mujeong Art in midair to defend myself.

Then Gongson Sim once again engaged the Cult Leader.

I saw with my own eyes a pale, wing-shaped qi spreading out to either side from the back of the White-Clad Scholar as he walked toward the Cult Leader.

Rustle!

I had once felt that the White-Clad Scholar fought like a white crane, and somehow that had now manifested directly on his body. As I closed the distance to the Cult Leader with the Amhyang Step, I heard a laugh that chilled my spine.

“Hehehehe……”

Cheonak, who had suddenly appeared in front of the White-Clad Scholar, now transformed like a white crane, lashed out at him with his right hand.

Pak!

Then the Cult Leader thrust out both palms and attacked Gongson Sim and me.

Kwaaang!

While I crossed both palms and defended with the Wolyeong Mujeong Art and the Geumgu Soyo Art, and Gongson Sim held his sword upright to receive the blow……

My ears rang so hard I could no longer hear the sounds around me.

“Ah……”

But my opponent had, before I knew it, changed to Cheonak, who was beating the White-Clad Scholar like some mad neighborhood dog. Dust and piles of stone were mostly floating about, making it hard to secure my sight, but the White-Clad Scholar looked like he was about to be battered miserably, so I hurriedly rushed at Cheonak.

Now that I looked, I began to wonder if Cheonak was using a moment like this to beat the White-Clad Scholar half to death. After all, even between friends, there are times when you want to smack each other around.

The Cult Leader’s voice rang out.

“……Is this the result of running wild with a wooden sword?”

“……”

It seemed he had clashed with Eldest Brother, but I had no room to watch. I pulled the White-Clad Scholar away with my left hand, and at the same time collided my right palm with Cheonak’s.

Thud!

For an instant, I felt pain as if my wrist, elbow, and shoulder blade would all snap at once, but I poured out my inner force as I was. Maddeningly, when Cheonak retreated to avoid Gongson Sim, I was dragged along with my palm force still stuck to his.

Cheonak flung me away like someone throwing aside an object, then swung both palms in a crossing motion and pressed Gongson Sim hard. This was no joke—it was a damn lunacy like a tiger pouring out sword qi several times with its forepaws.

When the Swift Hall Master blocked it by swinging his sword in rapid succession……

The palm force sent out by the White-Clad Scholar in midair collided with the enormous fist-shaped force released by Cheonak.

Kwahahahahahang!

Cheonak seemed entirely unharmed, and he laughed as he charged at the White-Clad Scholar.

“……You’ve improved a little. You lazy bastard.”

Feeling that in this state I absolutely could not inflict any damage on Cheonak, I shouted to the coachman standing some distance away.

“Senior Coachman! Ilsal!”

The coachman, who had been watching beneath the moonlight with his arms folded, lifted the roof of the carriage, grabbed Ilsal, and immediately threw it to me.

Shweeeeng!

As soon as I caught Ilsal in midair, I drew the sword and said,

“White-Clad, move. I need to punch a few holes in this ignorant tiger bastard’s body.”

As soon as the White-Clad Scholar stepped back, he exhaled the breath that had been troubling him and steadied himself. I took on Cheonak’s forepaws. Then, together with Gongson Sim, I pressed Cheonak with two swords.

How the hell does it make sense that he can endure this?

This was a joint attack by the Swift Hall Master and the Hao Clan Leader.

Suddenly, ten daggers shot out from Cheonak’s fingers, and gang qi surged from each one. I did not know the name of the martial art, but they were real claws. He even knocked away Ilsal and the Swift Hall Master’s sword as if it were nothing.

The instant I judged that the Swift Hall Master’s waist was about to be cut in two, I lowered Ilsal to defend him, and with my left palm attacked Cheonak’s face using the Middle Finger Flicking Art.

At that moment, five streaks of gang qi poured toward me.

Only one was offset by the Middle Finger Flicking Art and vanished, and when the remaining four streaks reached the vicinity of my body, Gongson Sim knocked them all away with a single sword stroke.

Cheonak smiled faintly, as if he found it a shame.

“Ha……”

Suddenly, with a scream of “Aaaah!” the Lecherous Demon flew in from somewhere, and as soon as he twisted his posture in midair, he thrust both palms toward Cheonak. Since the Lecherous Demon was also putting all his strength into it, the white palms had taken on a distinct form.

As Cheonak retreated, he spun through the air and, astonishingly, shattered the white palm force completely with a single kick, sending even the Lecherous Demon back the way he came. Once again, the Lecherous Demon screamed as he flew farther away.

‘What the hell is that bastard even doing?’

As Cheonak and the White-Clad Scholar were already clashing again, Gongson Sim asked me,

“While one person holds out against the Three Calamities, can the five of us not subdue one of them with the Lazy Donkey Roll?”

“Of course, that one person would be the first to suffer the Lazy Donkey Roll.”

“Damn it!”

The fact that the word “damn it” had burst from the mouth of this dignified chief strategist told me everything about the state of this spar.

The Swift Hall Master and I shot forward as if competing in lightness skill and joined the White-Clad Scholar, who was enduring it as though he were simply being beaten. For the most part, I had no idea what was going on, but we fought with the feeling that we were truly, stubbornly holding on.

The fortunate thing was that no one had dropped out yet.

The problem was that the Three Calamities were still not being pushed back by us at all.

My mouth was already parched dry.