Chapter 382: One Who Stands Against Ten Thousand (3)
"Kill him!"
"I will grant a thousand gold to anyone who even wounds him!"
"Uwooooooo!!"
They surged in like a pack of wild dogs.
Including the Cheon Clan's outer hall martial artists and those who had gathered, their number neared two thousand.
Most of them charged in to take my head.
"If I ascend to the Elder Hall, you bastards will receive generous rewards too!"
"Push him until he’s exhausted! He’s just a man! No one can stand against numbers!"
Greed.
Even though I had slain a Peak Master Level martial artist in a single strike, the greed for the title of 'Elder' made them forget all circumstances.
My status, my clan, my martial arts.
Your status, your martial arts, your forces.
They forgot all of it.
But on the contrary—
"Outer hall warriors of the Cheon Clan, form formations of ten or more and seal the entrance!"
"Do not approach! You never know when you’ll be caught in it!"
Indeed, they were the Cheon Clan.
The outer hall martial artists focused on blocking the entrance rather than charging at me.
"That man isn't aiming for the leader! Something is definitely going on!"
‘Heh, smart.’
In battles where one faces many, the standard tactic is to aim for the leader first.
Only then can the enemy’s morale be shattered and their formation broken.
What if that isn’t achieved?
You’d be overwhelmed by numbers and slowly wither to death.
And that, precisely, was what I wanted.
To imprint in their minds the image of me withering away.
"A mere husk with only an impressive first strike! Keep pushing!"
"Hahaha! The rumor that the Demonic Faction Lord transcended the Demonic Realm was bullshit. Looking closely, he doesn't even seem like he's reached the Extreme Demon Realm!"
"More, more! Stab your blades into him!"
The heads of the factions who had come to curry favor with the Cheon Clan urged their subordinates forward.
Even in such a situation, I only cut down those who came directly at me.
At times, I pretended to be overwhelmed and retreated.
Other times, I even deliberately let myself be struck by blind swords.
"Uwooooo! I’ve slain the Demonic Faction Lord… huh?"
Truly, humans are creatures of forgetfulness.
Even though they had just seen their sword break apart after striking me, they cheered just because they got one stab in.
"Why, why are there no wounds…?"
"Well, who knows?"
Thwack!
I smashed the face of the one who dared to damage my martial robe with my bare fist.
Another corpse was added to the heap already littering the ground.
Even after witnessing such brutality up close, the enemies' morale remained unbroken.
Though no visible wounds were on me, my martial robe was now tattered beyond recognition.
I had intentionally weakened my aura and disrupted my breathing.
"Huff… huff…!"
Every time I showed signs of heavy breathing, their morale surged even more.
"Kill himmm!"
"He's a wreck! Just a bit more pressure and he’ll fall!"
And so they charged, regardless of casualties.
Nearly a full hour passed like that.
Only when the number of dead reached half and the survivors the other half—
Did they finally begin to sense something was wrong.
"Something… something’s off."
"Is he really tired…?"
Only then did the heads of the factions realize something was amiss.
The captain of the outer hall guards, who had been observing the situation, muttered with a pale face.
"We’ve been had."
"W-what do you mean, sir?"
"Usually, when many hunt one, they block the retreat and form a Jade Green Heavenly Net to force a rotating battle."
"Y-yes, that’s right?"
"If the opponent proves too strong, you pull back and switch to long-range attacks or retreat entirely. That’s the basics of fighting one against many."
The captain’s voice trembled.
"But not once did they form a Jade Green Heavenly Net. Instead, they kept throwing subordinates at him like moths to a flame."
"…Are you saying?"
"From the beginning, he lured it into this situation. To kill even just one more."
The sight of Jin Yeomyung seated atop a pile of corpses.
His entire body smeared with blood, yet none of it was his own.
"A, Asura!"
"He’s Asura!"
As the heat of battle gradually cooled and the madness of combat slowly faded,
Even the warriors on the frontlines began to realize the abnormality of this situation.
The guard captain pointed his finger and shouted.
"From the very start, he intended to grind down the Cheon Clan’s forces!"
Grin!
I flashed a wide smile at the guard captain who had given the correct answer.
Only then did the heads of the factions come to their senses.
And looked down at the corpses of their subordinates and blood kin, more than half of them dead.
"W-what is this?"
"What the hell happened?"
Just a little more, just a little further.
They had thought that if they pushed him, they would get what they wanted.
But the result was devastatingly brutal.
It was as if gamblers, consumed by their addiction, had lost everything and come back to their senses.
"Hmph, the riffraff were a good warm-up. Now it seems I have to deal with the real ones…."
I looked beyond the outer hall’s walls and shouted.
"You’ve been gathering for quite some time, and you still plan to hide like rats!?"
My booming taunt echoed into the inner part of the outer hall.
And not long after—
Tsutsutsutsu!
Once again, a massive army nearly a thousand strong descended on the walls of the Cheon Clan’s outer hall.
Their uniforms were uniformly refined, their formation precise and composed.
Their very arrival was a spectacle that ordinary people could never hope to witness.
‘This time… this really won’t be easy.’
They were on a completely different level from the ones who came groveling to the Cheon Clan.
I assessed the enemy’s strength as I scanned along the outer hall’s walls.
‘Every single one of them is at least at the peak of First Rate level. Dozens of Peak Master Level… Honestly, I could say they’re all on par with the Thirty-Four Demon Squads.’
More importantly, I sensed as many as eight individuals at the level of the Extreme Demon Realm.
In other words, not only the elders belonging to the Seven Elders Council, but also the hidden experts of the Cheon Clan who weren’t part of the official hierarchy had gathered.
‘This is practically… about half of the Cheon Clan’s entire power? Maybe more?’
If I went solely by the proportion of those at the Extreme Demon Realm, it might be even greater.
At that moment, an old man with a familiar face bellowed out a lion’s roar.
“Demonic Faction Lord Jin Yeomyung! Why have you come to our clan to commit such brutal and barbaric violence?!”
I let out a deep laugh at the old man’s absurd provocation.
“You’re Fourth Elder of the Seven Elders Council, aren’t you? I saw you during the Heavenly Demon Pavilion meeting.”
Since Second Elder’s death, Fourth Elder was practically the acting leader of the current Seven Elders Council.
The one sitting at the very top of my Cheon Clan kill list.
“To clarify, saying that I caused a disturbance is a misunderstanding.”
“…What?! You create a sea of blood like this and have the nerve to say such nonsense?!”
“As you can see, this is still the outside of the outer hall. It’s not within the Cheon Clan’s territory.”
Of course, the entire vicinity was part of the Cheon Clan’s domain.
But the area outside the wall felt different from what was inside.
“How dare you spout such sophistry….”
“Look, if your eyes still work, then use them. Did I kill even a single outer hall warrior?”
“…….”
“…….”
Fourth Elder’s gaze subtly shifted around.
I hadn’t killed a single outer hall warrior from the Cheon Clan.
But that was only because the outer hall’s security chief was quick-witted enough to pull his subordinates back—it wasn’t like I intentionally refrained.
Of course, such circumstances weren’t what mattered right now.
“They lunged at me in a desperate competition for merit. Why should I spare them?”
“…Kuhm!”
I held the moral high ground in this incident.
Sure, I was the one who stirred up their greed in the first place, but it was they who made the first move.
Still—
I tossed that justification onto the ground.
“Fourth Elder, let’s be honest.”
“What?”
“You brought your entire force here like a pack of dogs not because of some noble reason, but simply to take my head. Then why bother talking about justification?”
“……?”
“Let’s just fight. Why waste time with petty debates?”
“…Hmph.”
Fourth Elder let out a hollow chuckle for a moment, then his expression darkened.
“To throw away justification at such a crucial moment… Like husband, like wife—they say couples resemble each other. Your arrogance knows no bounds.”
“Ah, sorry, but I take that as a compliment. If you want to insult me, you’ll have to do better.”
“You bastard! If you’ve come here to die that badly, then I’ll grant your wish!”
Srrrk!
As Fourth Elder raised his hand, the Peak Master Level experts began preparing to move.
‘This is going to be rough, but just like earlier….’
That was when it happened.
–Young Master.
Suddenly, a sound transmission came from Gu Chil.
–I told you to wait nearby. What’s going on?
–They have arrived in the vicinity.
I tilted my head at his mention of “they.”
–They? Who do you mean?
–That is, to be precise….
–…….
–…….
After hearing everything Gu Chil had to say through sound transmission, I let out a faint scoff.
“Geez, I told them not to get involved, but they really don’t listen.”
–What should we do?
–What do you mean, what do we do? They’ve come all the way here—can’t exactly send them back. Just have them stay put for now. I’ll draw the fight in their direction when the time’s right, so make sure they’re ready.
It was additional firepower that had come of their own volition.
No reason to drive them away unnecessarily.
–Understood.
–I’ll say this just in case, but you and the Underworld King Unit must not interfere.
–…….
–Your opponent is none other than the Demonic Ghost Execution Squad.
–I understand, sir….
Even though it was only through sound transmission, I could practically hear Gu Chil’s lips pouting in frustration.
With his personality, leaving his master to fight alone was something he could barely tolerate.
“Well then.”
I gripped the sword handle tightly.
I threw away all the pretense I had maintained until now.
“Shall I go wild for real this time?”
Two streams of energy coiled like a spiral along the blade of the Ten Heavenly Record Immortal Sword.
Resonance Qi
Great Annihilation of Daera
To the eyes of the Extreme Demon Realm masters of the Cheon Clan charging at me, a brilliant white light, one that illuminated the heavens and earth, exploded forth.
Roughly fifty li away from the Cheon Clan’s outer hall wall, where Jin Yeomyung was rampaging.
In a spot obscured by vegetation with limited visibility, elites from three families numbering around three hundred had gathered.
“Hmph, did we bring too few?”
“This much is enough. If we move any more troops, we’ll get spotted by the bastards from the Divine Ghost Unit.”
One wielded a saber, the other was simply a hulking brute.
It was the Saber Demon and Jin Gun-ak who had brought their families’ elites.
Jin Gun-ak let out a long sigh.
“No matter how strong he is, going head-on against the Cheon Clan is suicide. Instead of direct battle, we should focus on securing his safety depending on how the situation unfolds.”
That was why he had deliberately brought only a hundred of the elite, not the full force of his family.
“That’s the right approach. A rash war will only lead to mutual destruction.”
At those words, the Saber Demon’s gaze shifted to the opposite side of Jin Gun-ak.
“Still, even if the Black Gold Sa Clan is under the Cheon Clan’s watch, I never expected you to step in so suddenly.”
Despite having made no prior coordination, “they” had appeared—something neither the Saber Demon nor Jin Gun-ak had foreseen.
All clad in dark red Blood Dragon Robes—sword-wielding fiends.
And the youth commanding those fiends at the front.
Though his presence was overshadowed by Jin Yeomyung, who had risen to the rank of Demonic Faction Lord, the youth was still more than worthy of being called a rising star of the Heavenly Demon Cult.
“Young Clan Leader of the Ma Clan, Blood Dragon Heavenly Sword, Ma Chulsoo.”
“……”
“Should I take your current actions as the will of the Ma Clan?”
Due to the influence of Heaven-Slaying Star, Ma Chulsoo’s eyes, dyed a deep crimson, slowly turned toward them.