Read Novel Full Chapter 1261: I Will Not Send You Alive. (1)
Chapter 1261: I Will Not Send You Alive. (1)
Thud!
With each step on the ground, the shock traveled up his legs and swelled into his chest.
That was probably why, the reason his chest felt like it would burst.
‘Faster!’
His feet slammed the earth like a madman, yet strangely his body felt unbearably slow compared to usual.
The battlefield wasn’t that far. Normally he’d reach it in a single bound. But now, no matter how much he ran, the distance refused to close.
Had he weakened in the meantime? No, that couldn’t be it.
Gwak Hwan-So knew: it wasn’t that he was slow, but that they were fast. He was running faster and more focused than usual, yet their abilities were simply so far beyond his that comparison was meaningless.
“Damn it!”
Gwak Hwan-So stamped the ground more urgently in panic.
“S-sahyung!”
A gasp-scream sounded from behind, but he didn’t slow by an inch.
‘This place!’
Thud!
Gwak Hwan-So’s body shot forward even faster.
“This is Southern Island!”
Mount Hua might be stronger than them. Namgung or the Tang Family could naturally be stronger than them.
But this is a war defending none other than Southern Island.
Even if the Southern Island sect were weaker, they could not simply hand everything over to them and let their deeds be stolen.
Yet the envoys of the Heavenly Friends Alliance who first engaged the enemy seemed entirely unaware of Gwak Hwan-So’s feelings, pressing the Ten Thousand People Clan with tremendous momentum even now.
As if they intended to make Southern Island’s disciples mere scarecrows.
“Aaaaah!”
Gwak Hwan-So screamed until his chest burned and surged forward. The elders, including Geum Yang-Baek, seemed to think the same and shot toward the enemy like arrows loosed from a bow.
‘Faster!’
Pouncing like a leopard hunting prey, Gwak Hwan-So lunged straight at the Ten Thousand People Clan members, whose confusion showed plainly.
“This is Southern Island! You bastards!”
Fwoooom!
The Southern Island sect’s lethal martial art, the Wave Blast Sword Technique resembling raging waves, unfurled. The wave-like sword intent from Gwak Hwan-So’s blade instantly engulfed the Tiger Ghost Troops.
“W-what!”
Whether startled by the sudden numbers or still reeling from the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s attack, the Ten Thousand People Clan members who had raised their blades to resist were helplessly swept away by Gwak Hwan-So’s sword technique.
“Aaaaargh!”
A deep slash sent red blood spurting from the chest. At the same time, a hot rush surged in Gwak Hwan-So’s chest.
Blood!
As a disciple of Southern Island, inheritor of the Justice faction’s lineage, it was unbecoming to voice it, yet how long he had longed for the blood of those evil warriors. How he had awaited the moment to dispatch them with his sword.
Boom!
Riding the momentum, Gwak Hwan-So struck decisively and shouted at the top of his lungs.
“Drive out all the villains who ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) invaded Southern Island! Do not fall behind the Heavenly Friends Alliance!”
“Yes, sahyung!”
Gwak Hwan-So charged straight ahead. He now understood precisely what it meant for his blood to boil.
‘This is real combat!’
In that instant he realized anew that he had never truly cut down a person before.
He had trained all his life as a disciple of the prestigious Southern Island sect of the South Sea; it might seem odd that this was his first time cutting a person.
But Southern Island disciples had never had cause to fight to the death. There were rarely disputes on Southern Island Sect, and given the island’s nature, there was little opportunity for wandering heroics.
And yet, their first real opponents were none other than the Four Sects Alliance’s Ten Thousand People Clan! It was inevitable he would be excited.
Gwak Hwan-So gripped his sword hard.
Tales of Mount Hua’s deeds had traveled even to distant Southern Island. How could Gwak Hwan-So not know how formidable they were?
Each time he heard those stories, the warrior in him swelled with pride and rivalry. He vowed countless times that one day he too would face enemies like those from Mount Hua.
That long-held wish would be fulfilled today, right here.
‘I can do it too!’
Gwak Hwan-So gritted his teeth and lunged forward like lightning.
“Taaaah!”
His sword swung fiercely.
The feeling of earth beneath his toes.
The full surge of internal qi filling his body.
The grip of the sword’s hilt in his palm!
And above all, the satisfying sense of unity!
This must be what it means to become one with the sword.
His sword plunged straight and fierce toward the Tiger Ghost Troop member, whose face still showed utter bewilderment.
Kaaang!
And at that moment, a terrible pain stabbed his wrist and Gwak Hwan-So involuntarily gaped.
His sword had been stopped by a large blade raised in a flash. Even with all his force, the Tiger Ghost Troop’s blade had blocked his sword like solid rock.
“No...”
Flustered, Gwak Hwan-So looked at the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s eyes. Through the gap where sword met the blade he saw bloodshot eyes, and the hot blood that had surged in his own chest began to chill.
The Tiger Ghost Troop member sneered and muttered.
“This brat...”
Bang!
With an explosive sound, Gwak Hwan-So staggered backward and then back again. The palm that had met the blade was torn; dark red blood streamed down.
But there was no time to feel pain, the enraged Tiger Ghost Troop member unleashed his fury and charged straight at him.
“Brattt!”
Kwaaang!
Gwak Hwan-So instinctively blocked the flying blade and was thrown back. The arm that held the sword felt crushed from the shoulder down. Unable to withstand the clash of internal qi, he took internal damage and blood welled in his throat.
‘They’re... strong...’
They were absurdly strong, far stronger than the ones who had been helplessly swept moments ago.
‘Why?’
At that moment Gwak Hwan-So realized what mistake he had made.
They had only seemed weak because the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s vanguard pressing them were stronger. In truth, these were the Ten Thousand People Clan’s blade-wielders who had struck fear across the land.
So under normal circumstances, they were not enemies Gwak Hwan-So could face alone.
His initial strike had succeeded only because they were dazed by the earlier onslaught. Facing them head-on on pure skill alone, he could never match them.
In the flush of excitement and the confidence of his successful first strike, he had for a moment overlooked that fact.
‘S-such a mistake...’
But as always, no matter how quick the regret, it’s already too late.
“Die!”
With no time to properly regret his mistake, the blade strike hurled by the Tiger Ghost Troop flew for his chest.
“Ugh!”
Kakang!
Gwak Hwan-So twisted his sword desperately to block the saber. Pushing his internal qi into it, he managed to skew the blade’s trajectory, but his sword was knocked aside.
With his throat momentarily exposed, the Tiger Ghost Troop’s blade lunged again at an even faster speed than before.
“S-sahyung! Noooo...”
The world seemed to slow down.
Lee Ja-Yang’s terrified scream stretched out as if heard underwater. The flying blade seemed to approach so slowly that a fly could land on it.
‘Ah...’
But Gwak Hwan-So was equally slowed in that world. No matter how he writhed and strained, he couldn’t avoid the saber aimed at his throat.
‘Damn it...’
As Gwak Hwan-So, sensing death, clenched his eyes shut, something abruptly intervened in his view.
‘A sword?’
A white-bladed sword flew in at high speed and intercepted the blade aimed at Gwak Hwan-So’s throat.
But to Gwak Hwan-So it looked a feeble resistance. In a clash of strength, wasn’t a heavy blade clearly superior to a slender sword?
Yet the scene that unfolded before his eyes completely shattered that notion from his mind.
Kaaang!
The moment sword met the blade, the sword twisted slightly and bled off all the force from the blade. At the same time, the sword’s emitted intent flicked the heavy blade back like a sheet of paper.
‘What?’
Gwak Hwan-So clearly saw the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s face contort. His wrist twitched and trembled, it seemed he was feeling the same pain Gwak had moments before.
The sword that had repelled the blade did not stop there.
Fwoooom!
The white sword moved, drawing an almost illusory arc in the air, seeming straight yet curved, sharp yet smooth.
Startled by the incoming sword aimed at his neck, the Tiger Ghost Troop member twisted and dodged.
Sssst.
The keen edge of the sword grazed the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s neck as it passed.
In that again-slowed sensation, Gwak Hwan-So saw clearly: the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s skin split and droplets of blood spattered from the wound.
‘He avoided it...’
Gwak Hwan-So’s eyes widened.
The sword that had skimmed the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s neck halted abruptly in midair, then was drawn back at twice the speed it had first plunged.
In that instant Gwak Hwan-So saw.
He saw the recovered sword, tracing a trajectory sharply different from when it thrust in, slice cleanly through the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s neck.
Shik!
Shock slowly spread across the Tiger Ghost Troop member’s face, which had moments before shown relief at evading the blow. That shock turned to despair, and then to stark terror.
Thud.
Blood spurted from the fallen Tiger Ghost Troop member’s neck and seeped into the white sand, spreading.
Gwak Hwan-So could not speak. A chill ran up his spine, not because he’d escaped death.
‘This... their skill.’
He saw and felt clearly the enormous gulf in ability between the Heavenly Friends Alliance members and these men.
How many among those here would realize that the fallen man had been felled not by a single strike but by this very sword?
Gwak Hwan-So himself, terrified and slowed, might have believed at first that his initial strike had severed the neck. If later he were to check that man’s body, he would then notice that the cut to the neck was not one but two and be puzzled.
He realized: true skill doesn’t manifest in obvious spectacle, but hides in the fleeting instants ordinary people can’t perceive.
“Are you all right?”
“...Yes? Ah... yes!”
Gwak Hwan-So looked up blankly. He saw a handsome man clad in a white hero’s robe.
“Ah...”
“You are not fighting alone! You fight with your sahyung sajaes. Do not forget this is not the young hero’s fight alone but the Southern Island sect’s war.”
Gwak Hwan-So, dazed, nodded absentmindedly, and the man returned the nod in response.
“Then...”
The man turned; Baek Cheon lightly swung his sword and flicked the blood from its tip as he spoke.
“Let’s go seize the ship.”
“...Yes!”
Gwak Hwan-So clenched his teeth as he watched Baek Cheon run ahead. Then he shouted.
“Follow the Acting Sect Leader’s lead!”
“Yes, sahyung!”
Southern Island disciples in blue robes swept over the Tiger Ghost Troop members like a crashing surge onto the shore.
White sword light scattered like foam upon the blue waves, and over that South Sea scene red-petaled blooms of blood blossomed brilliantly.