Read Novel Full Chapter 1298: Is There A Place To Rest On This Land? (3)
Chapter 1298: Is There A Place To Rest On This Land? (3)
Swoooosh!
The entire forest shook violently.
Branches flailed and collided like crashing waves, and from within poured a crimson-clad group who surged forward at an incredible speed.
Baek Cheon’s face hardened in an instant.
‘They’re different!’
His senses, his fingertips, his instincts shouted: these were on a completely different level from the foes they’d faced before.
Only one word rose in his mind.
‘Four Sects Alliance!’
Without another thought, Baek Cheon shouted loudly.
“Hold the front!”
It was unclear whom the order was for, but some responded immediately and decisively.
Jo Gul, Yoon Jong, Yu Yiseol, and Tang Soso shot to the front like shafts of light the moment Baek Cheon’s words fell.
“Look alive, you bastards!”
Jo Gul barked harshly as if refusing to be intimidated. Yet the two eyes visible above the masked blood-clad warriors were chillingly cold and composed.
Whooosh!
A blood-clad warrior’s slim blades flew toward Jo Gul like vipers.
Even Jo Gul, master of swift swordplay, held his breath at the astonishing speed of the strike.
Clang!
Jo Gul, brandishing his Plum Blossom Sword, deflected the incoming slim blades in one move.
The blood-clad warrior’s eyes flashed eerily for a moment. He then slightly slowed his rush.
Jo Gul was briefly rattled.
‘What the—?’
Before the question fully formed, the answer came: the blood-clad warrior who had slowed synced up with others joining from behind and charged Jo Gul again in coordination.
Three of them, with a single exchange each, sized up his skill and lined up the numbers needed to hunt him.
Shing!
Needle-thin blades sliced repeatedly toward Jo Gul’s body.
Slim blades are fast and hard to parry because they require precise handling to bat aside. Of course, their thinness limits how much force they can carry, so they aren’t inherently devastating weapons.
But the moment there were three of those slim blades, the situation changed entirely.
“Ugh!”
Jo Gul swung repeatedly and deflected the incoming slim blades.
His specialty was offense — rapid, incisive flurries that overwhelm foes. But here he couldn’t use that at all.
Clack! Clang! Clang!
Like precisely meshing gears, three blades kept coming at Jo Gul. Every time he deflected one and tried to counter, another aimed at his vitals.
Deflecting them wasn’t impossible. Dodging wasn’t either.
But he couldn’t dare seize an opening to counter. The moment he clumsily switched to offense, one of those blades would pierce him, blades laced with such potent poison they’d blacken an entire blade.
‘These... bastards!’
Jo Gul had never feared fighting numbers before.
He’d always fought many at once. In actual combat, not drills, he swung his blade against crowds; so he believed his style had naturally evolved for that.
But these...
‘Damn! They’re skilled!’
It wasn’t just a numbers game anymore.
The opponents they’d faced before were only greater in number; fighting two at once just doubled the difficulty.
But not these. Their swordplay complemented each other cunningly. Ridiculous as it sounds, it felt less like many attacking at once and more like someone with three arms, each wielding a sword in coordinated strikes.
Jo Gul understood desperately that fighting numbers and fighting those trained in precise cooperative techniques were worlds apart.
Whoosh!
Jo Gul’s head snapped violently to the side.
A thin blade grazed past his cheek. But before it fully passed his face, it was swiftly pulled back.
‘Damn you!’
Sparks flew from Jo Gul’s eyes.
They hadn’t thrown their full force. If they had, they couldn’t pull back so easily. In other words, they had held back some reserve.
Jo Gul knew what that meant. Had they used their reserves, they could’ve slashed sideways and scarred his face.
But they simply retracted their blades. It meant they’d rather take their time and methodically bring him down.
Sure enough, the blood-clad warrior who withdrew his blade looked colder and more composed than before.
A chill ran down Jo Gul’s spine.
The terror of being hunted.
For the first time Jo Gul was overcome by the fear of being driven into a single path strewn with countless hunters’ traps.
‘I’m...’
His face contorted horribly.
“Do you take me for a rabbit, you sons of bitches!?”
Whoooosh!
Jo Gul’s blade momentarily split, trying to bloom red Plum Blossom petals. Or rather, it tried to.
But at that very moment.
Thud!
A look of dismay crossed Jo Gul’s face. Just as his blade was about to flourish, a blood-clad from the front lunged and struck his sword down hard.
‘What?’
A heavy impact jolted his wrist, snapping the blossoming effect in mid-air.
Jo Gul’s eyes met the blood-clad warrior’s in midair.
Shraaak!
Two blades lunged in tandem at the seam. As Jo Gul recoiled and tried to pull back, an astonishing suction erupted from the blood-clad warrior’s sword, yanking his blade in.
‘Huh?’
Shraaak!
Just as blades stabbed from both sides like viper fangs, aiming to sink into Jo Gul’s body.
Kaaang!
A lightning-like strike from the rear collided with the incoming blade and deflected it. At the same moment someone grabbed Jo Gul’s shoulder hard.
“Don’t get excited.”
“S-sasuk!”
Baek Cheon, who’d pulled Jo Gul from danger, said quietly while glaring at the enemy. His face was slightly contorted.
“These bastards... they’re professionals.”
Baek Cheon’s gaze seemed to be analyzing the enemy.
Jo Gul’s alarm was natural. These opponents differed from those Mount Hua had faced — they didn’t rely on brute force to crush.
‘And that sword strike just now...’
Baek Cheon’s face grew grave because of that blow which had sealed Jo Gul’s unfolding technique.
Mount Hua’s swords bewilder and unsettle, yet that strike targeted exactly where Mount Hua’s blade would extend. No matter how grand a plum tree, without branches it cannot bloom; that blow cut off the branch from which Jo Gul tried to bloom his flower.
A momentary feint?
‘No.’
It wasn’t something a spur-of-the-moment impulse could produce. They’d analyzed in advance. They knew Mount Hua well — they’d studied how to counter Mount Hua’s swordsmen.
Sure enough, it wasn’t only Jo Gul; others were being hampered too.
“Ugh! These bastards!”
Tang Soso staggered backward.
Normally, he could’ve handled three clinging to him without trouble. But Mount Hua’s disciples had never faced opponents so practiced in coordinated strikes.
Besides, they were exhausted from the journey here.
Yoon Jong and Yu Yiseol, by temperament, were holding out better than the two ahead, but that was all — they weren’t overwhelming the enemy.
Above all, the biggest problem was......
Baek Cheon’s sharp gaze turned to the distance. The blood-clad who weren’t engaged with Mount Hua’s disciples lowered their swords and watched the situation. In their center, a figure who stood out even at a glance nonchalantly surveyed the battle, then slowly raised his arm.
“Go.”
The moment he gestured, those waiting charged in unison at the Southern Island Sect’s disciples protected by Mount Hua. Their speed was so great it seemed a red bloodline was tearing through the air.
Papat.
A silent, un-shouted charge.
The Southern Island Sect’s disciples at the receiving end turned pale.
They hadn’t crossed blades yet, so they didn’t know how strong these foes were; they lacked the experience or keen eye to gauge their prowess at a glance.
Still, they could tell.
The prey senses the predator.
A great stag doesn’t flee from a tiny snake because it knows its size or venom; instinct detects a threat.
The Southern Island Sect’s disciples felt the same.
Having lived without such threats, instincts that had lain dormant now screamed for retreat.
But the blood-clad warriors were faster than their instincts could heed.
Ta-at!
Without a shout, one of the assailants hurled a black slim blade with a horrifying sharpness.
“Ugh!”
Cornered though they were, Southern Island Sect’s disciples were elite of the Nine Great Sects. They weren’t weak enough to be stunned by the swordplay Mount Hua had shown.
A Southern Island Sect’s blade slashed like lightning and struck the incoming slim blade, threatening to split it in two — a perfect response against a sharp but light weapon.
But.
Boom!
When the fragile slim blade met the rough Southern Island’s sword, instead of a small sound, a massive explosion rang out.
Gwak Hwan-So’s eyes went wide.
A sahyung’s sword was actually deflected by the slim blade. Unbelievable.
‘What...?’
Was the force in that thin blade greater than the full-power strikes of the Southern Island disciples?
No, that’s not it!
Gwak Hwan-So hastily examined the blood-clad’s wrists; they trembled. Their faces paled for the briefest moment.
‘Those bastards!’
They had anticipated this.
They’d predicted how Southern Island Sect’s would respond, so they’d momentarily forced excessive internal qi into their blades to withstand the blow.
An extraordinary, unconventional technique, but the cost of that technique revealed itself immediately.
Whooosh!
Pook pook pook!
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
The blood-clad warrior’s blades pierced the momentarily stunned Southern Island disciples like lightning. They’d only planned for what to do after pushing back the opponent, so when faced with this unforeseen situation they panicked. The outcome was all but decided.
It was the result.
“No, damn it!”
Gwak Hwan-So cried out and reached forward. If ten things could collapse in an instant like that, they’d all fall before they could act......
Kwaaaaang!
Then with a deafening roar, a blinding white flash erupted. The charging blood-clad were flung back as if struck by a shell.
“Huh?”
“Fall back!”
A man landed lightly before them, his face set. He was strikingly handsome, almost arrogantly so — a supreme swordsman.
“I’ll take the front.”
Namgung Do-Wei slowly raised his sword awash in white light. A regal presence radiated from his entire body.