Myst, Might, Mayhem

Chapter 470 – The Great Battle (3)

As the Righteous Alliance warriors with shields advanced in formation, Corpse Blood Valley Master Lee Ji-yeom, watching them, spoke in a low voice to Go Chan, who was possessing the body of Wi So-yeon, the youngest disciple of the late Heaven and Earth Society leader:

“You did well to raise our troops’ morale, but it was reckless.”

“But…”

“Go back inside.”

Lee Ji-yeom pointed to a place with a large boulder.

Go Chan, who was about to make an excuse, nodded and walked towards it.

He then slipped into a hole beside the boulder.

Lee Ji-yeom approached and pushed the large boulder to cover the hole.

Rumble rumble!
“Whew.”

After erasing the marks left by the dragged boulder with his foot, Lee Ji-yeom sighed and shook his head.

Under Mok Gyeong-un’s orders, he was the only one who knew the importance of Wi So-yeon’s existence.

That’s why, in a counterintuitive move, he had brought her to the battlefield instead of the Heaven and Earth Society headquarters to protect her.

The hole she entered was one of many hidden ambush points and safe houses scattered throughout the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

It was a reverse strategy, banking on the idea that the darkest place is under the lamplight, but thanks to her blatant appearance, the enemy had now pinpointed her location.

‘This will be difficult.’

Sring!
Lee Ji-yeom, shaking his head, drew his sword and prepared to meet the enemy.

Meanwhile, Axe-Destroying King Ho Tae-gang, on the highest peak of the front line, swung his axe to signal.

The archers holding bows concentrated their true energy on their fingertips pulling the bowstrings.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud!
Thousands of Righteous Alliance shield warriors were rapidly approaching.

Even in wars between martial artists, the battle resembled that between armies until it came to direct close-quarter combat.

Those holding high ground or defending would keep the enemy in check with arrows, stones, and spears.

‘Not yet?’

The flag bearers relaying Ho Tae-gang’s signals watched his axe with tense eyes.

The enemy was approaching, but there was still no signal to shoot arrows.

Wheeeeee!
Ho Tae-gang focused on the incoming wind.

Despite the arrows imbued with true energy flying much further than those shot by ordinary archers, they were waiting because of the wind direction.

The wind was still blowing towards them, so shooting arrows now wouldn’t be very effective.

Thus, they had to wait until the enemy was within proper range.

Thud thud thud thud thud!
The Righteous Alliance shield warriors had approached to about four hundred paces.

The strong wind began to subside gradually.

‘Now!’

At that moment, Ho Tae-gang thrust his axe forward.

With that, flags fluttered, and as if they had been waiting, the archers simultaneously fired arrows towards the Righteous Alliance shield warriors.

Chwachwachwachwachwachwachwach!
As thousands of arrows imbued with true energy flew at incredible speed, the advancing Righteous Alliance warriors stopped.

“Shields up!”

Cha cha cha cha cha cha chak!
At the commander’s shout, they formed ranks of five, raising their shields and lowering their stance.

They then infused true energy into their shields.

Hwangbo Seong, the head of the Hwangbo Clan commanding the shield warriors, grinned.

‘These specially made shields won’t be easily pierced even by arrows imbued with true energy. Go ahead and shoot all you want.’

The purpose of the shield warriors at the front was one:

To quickly deplete the enemy’s arrows.

“Don’t let your guard down and grit your teeth!”

Thousands of arrows rained down like a downpour, striking their iron shields.

Pu pu pu pu pu pu puk!
‘This isn’t as bad as I thought… Huh!?’

But the sound of arrows hitting the iron shields was strange.

Since the arrowheads were also made of iron, they should have made a clanging sound when hitting, but this sounded more like leather or cloth hitting.

Pu pu pu pu pu pu puk!
Though feeling something was off, they couldn’t lower their shields as arrows continued to rain down.

Right at that moment,

Shuuuuuu!
Something like smoke began to rise from around them.

Sensing something amiss, Hwangbo Seong, the head of the Hwangbo Clan, looked at the arrowheads fallen on the ground.

‘!?’

But their tips weren’t sharp iron.

They were actually bundles of leather or cloth, and smoke was rising from them.

‘Could it be?’

Just then, the warriors holding shields began coughing here and there.

“Cough cough!”

“Hack. Ca-can’t breathe…”

Some were even seen clutching their throats as if choking.

Seeing this, Hwangbo Seong shouted in alarm:

“It’s poison mist! Poison mist! Retreat!”

The rising smoke was none other than poison mist.

Blood was now flowing from the mouths of those who had been coughing, and many were collapsing with their faces turning blue.

“Cover your noses and mouths with cloth and hold your breath!”

Hwangbo Seong shouted this while covering his own nose and mouth with cloth, using his true energy to block the poison trying to enter through his skin.

However, the poison seemed stronger than expected, as his skin stung severely.

Thud thud thud thud thud!
The shield warriors who had been advancing in formation were now in disarray, retreating to the rear as they succumbed to the poison mist.

Those in the rear ranks managed to escape relatively unscathed as they were less exposed to the poison mist, but not those at the front.

Thud! Thud! Thump!
“Hack hack!”

“Urrrgh.”

More than half were already dying from poison.

“Damn it!”

Hwangbo Seong of the Hwangbo Clan, also retreating and creating distance, shouted towards the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, unable to contain his anger:

“You cowardly demonic heretics! How dare you use poison!”

In martial artists’ duels or wars, the use of poison was implicitly forbidden.

This was not because of the effectiveness of poison, but because it was seen as a weapon specialized only for killing, giving an impression of cowardice rather than honorable combat between martial artists.

Therefore, the Righteous Alliance side naturally assumed they wouldn’t use poison.

However,

“What’s cowardly about killing each other in war? It’s childishly hypocritical to say that pushing with numbers when you can’t win with strength is fine, but poison isn’t.”

“Hahahahahahaha!”

At Axe-Destroying King Ho Tae-gang’s mocking shout, laughter erupted from all over the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

‘Damn it!’

Hwangbo Seong became even more enraged at the sound of laughter.

Poison King Baek Saha raised the corners of his mouth as he watched less than half of the thousands retreat.

“Hohoho. They’ve tied their own noose.”

Shadow Clan Master Ya-seon nodded in agreement with his words.

“If they wanted to counter poison, they should have brought the Sichuan Tang family by any means necessary, sealed doors or not. Such foolish people. Hohohohoho.”

The Sichuan Tang family was the only group in the righteous faction that dealt with poisons.

However, they had been sealed off after being defeated by Mok Gyeong-un.

Thus, the Righteous Alliance had to wage war without the Sichuan Tang clan.

The righteous faction, which valued principles, was tripped up by their strict adherence to established rules.

“Th-th-those bastards actually used poison. Tsk.”

Hong Won-seok, the leader of Beggar’s Sect, clicked his tongue as he watched their allies retreating.

Other Righteous Alliance executives also couldn’t contain their anger as they watched the shield warriors retreating from the very start.

Grind!
“So it’s come to this.”

They hadn’t expected the absence of Thousand Poison Hand Tang In-hae, one of the Eight Stars, and the Sichuan Tang clan to have such a huge impact.

But only now, as the war unfolded, could they realize:

The fact that poison can only be countered with poison.

“In this situation, we’ll have to abandon any attrition strategy of depleting their arrows and quickly close in for close-quarter combat.”

“That’s right. If we engage in close combat, they won’t be able to use poison due to the risk to their own troops.”

Jin Sok-ja, the head of the Qingcheng Sect, expressed agreement with Gu Cheol-ja, the head of the Huashan Sect.

While most of the Righteous Alliance executives agreed with their opinion, Jung Myeong Sa-tae of the Hengshan Sect expressed concern.

“Amitabha. Even if we cover our noses and mouths with cloth and hold our breath until we get close, our troops will suffer heavy casualties. How do you plan to address this?”

“We have no choice, Sa-tae. We can’t just stand by out of fear of poison casualties.”

“But…”

At that moment, Danmok In-ho, the head of the Danmok Clan, stepped forward and spoke:

“As it happens, our Danmok Clan has prepared some poison-repelling beads. How about using those?”

“Poison-repelling beads, you say?”

Poison-repelling beads.

These were beads with detoxifying properties.

They could be used as medicine, and due to their strong detoxifying properties, if used to start a fire, they could also have the effect of pushing back and blocking things like poison mist.

“Oh! How many do you have?”

“About a hundred.”

“You have a hundred of those precious things?”

“Yes.”

“But is it alright to use them like this?”

“If it’s for the justice of the martial arts world, how can we worry about their value?”

“Excellent! Excellent! Thanks to the foresight of the Danmok Clan head, we can reduce our casualties!”

The Righteous Alliance executives showed relief at the large number of poison-repelling beads.

Watching this, Righteous Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun, his mouth twitching, turned his gaze towards the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

‘Hmm.’

He had them prepared just in case, since the Sichuan Tang clan had been sealed off, but he didn’t expect them to use poison so soon.

Even though they weren’t on the righteous path, he thought that Heaven and Earth Society, also aspiring to martial arts, wouldn’t use poison from the start unless completely cornered.

But seeing them use it without hesitation, it seemed they had been greatly influenced by someone.

Was it him after all?

Just as he was thinking that they had taken the initiative at the start of the battle,

Thud thud thud thud!
The ground began to shake.

Murmur murmur!
As the trembling gradually increased, the stirring Righteous Alliance warriors all turned their gazes backward.

There, they saw numerous cavalry units filling the plains in a straight line.

‘What’s this?’

‘Could it be… already?’

The expressions of the former Heaven and Earth Society warriors, who had been cheering at the retreating Righteous Alliance front line, began to harden.

The number of rapidly advancing cavalry alone seemed to reach nearly ten thousand, and the flag fluttering at the front read:

邪連盟 (Evil Alliance)

***

Inside the ancient forbidden technique Supreme Void Sealing Reversal Technique.

Mok Gyeong-un’s face, trapped in extremely slowly flowing time and unable to move, was becoming more haggard than at first.

Even though time flowed slowly, his mind didn’t slow down accordingly.

However, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes were still alive.

The single-minded thought that he had to escape from here somehow was keeping his spirit intact.

But this was not easy.

The completed Supreme Void Sealing Reversal Technique was literally close to perfection, making it impossible to find even the slightest gap.

So even if he tried to break it with intense will, he couldn’t do anything to this space itself with his mind sword.

‘Is it impossible to cut without the capacity of nothingness?’

Within the Supreme Void Sealing Reversal Technique space, time barely flowed, making it impossible to even gather the capacity of nothingness.

Without this capacity to support him, there was a limit to manifesting sharpness with will alone.

‘What should I do?’

Mok Gyeong-un was becoming increasingly anxious.

As time passed, he grew more worried about Cheong-ryeong’s safety.

Knowing this feeling of his, Mok Gan maintained a manic smile while looking at him, even though his avatar was facing near death.

‘……’

Is it really going to end up as he wants?

Will I be trapped here, unable to do anything?

Am I going to lose Cheong-ryeong like this?

These repeated questions to himself.

Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes gradually became clouded with deep darkness.

Ordinary people tend to become mentally weak when they fall into anxiety.

However, this anxiety awakened a deep darkness that had been deeply dormant in Mok Gyeong-un.

Whooosh!
Before he knew it, black flames flickered in Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes.