Book 12: Chapter 18: Battle of Annihilation

The Valley of Sin, upper reaches.

The camp of the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.

The government soldier, Jang Sam, was exhausted.

It was a very long night.

Following the subjugation battle of the Valley of Sin, this battle, which continued without any proper rest, had caused his physical strength to hit rock bottom.

Inside that terrible barrier of the Demonic Cult, his mental strength had also hit rock bottom.

It was a harsh night.

“…….”

Yet he was now forgetting all that fatigue, standing tall, looking down the valley.

“Uaaaaah—!”

The shouts of the underworld forces isolated in the valley were quite loud.

Those who had packed the lower reaches were preparing for their final stand in every alley to escape this valley alive.

“…….”

Appearing with the rising sunlight from the east at their backs, the Sword Family's War Department warriors were closing in on the underworld forces at a chilling speed.

Numerous spearheads, thrust out by the lead underworld forces to receive the charge in the front line, shone bluishly.

And then, the clash.

“……!”

The eyes of the government soldier, Jang Sam, widened as if they would tear.

There was no such thing as the violent clashing sound he had expected.

“Kuaaa!”

“Keohk…!”

Sword light, clearly visible even from afar, flashed in all directions.

Only leather and flesh were torn, and screams filled the air.

The Sword Family's War Department warriors, like chopsticks slicing through tofu began to split and pierce through the underworld's formation in a straight line.

It was a sight that even felt unrealistic.

“Uaaah—” the government soldier, Jang Sam, saw an underworld executive survive that shocking first clash.

It was possible because he was a martial artist.

But his luck ended there.

“……!”

The second Sword Family warrior who brushed past him sliced off his arm.

The third Sword Family warrior who passed by him tore open his belly skin.

The fourth Sword Family warrior who went past him severed his neck.

The body of the executive, which fell backward like a felled tree, was not even visible as it mixed with countless corpses.

From main road to main road.

From alley to alley.

Wherever the Sword Family's War Department warriors reached, the battle lines collapsed and shattered.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Without realizing it, Jang Sam raised his hand holding his spear and shouted cheers.

Seeing those who had harassed them all night long being shattered into pieces, he could not bear it without shouting cheers.

“Good!”

“Kill them all!”

And he was not the only one cheering like that.

The Heavy Armor Brigade of the House of Benevolence and Love who had been receiving medical treatment those who could not easily escape from the mental shock caused by the Demonic Cult's barrier, even the Maid Division, the Four Heroes of Hwangho, and the martial monks of the Emei Sect.

Even the military strategists and tacticians of the headquarters had all flocked out before they knew it, watching the sight and shouting cheers.

“Look!”

Penetrating those cheers, a boy's clear voice was heard.

“Our enemies are collapsing!”

Everyone's eyes turned toward the boy one by one.

He was Yeon Bi, the Fourth Young Master of the Sword Family and the temporary commander of this camp.

“The night that harassed us is ending!”

Even though that boy must have also suffered from the Demonic Cult's barrier standing on the rooftop of the command center, the Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi's attitude was dignified without a single speck of disorder, and his voice was straight.

“Will you, will we… just stand by and watch the collapsing enemies?!”

At that cry, the people around him responded, shouting without exception.

“No!”

“We cannot just watch!”

Even at that passionate response, as if it was still not enough, the Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi raised his fist and shouted.

“Will we just stand by and watch the night that harassed us end like this?!”

At that voice.

At that question.

Jang Sam's mind went completely blank.

“No!”

His depleted physical strength, his exhausted mental power, and all those confusing things were not in their minds at this moment.

“No!”

In the voices bordering on screams raised from all directions, the voice of the government soldier, Jang Sam, was definitely included.

Among the weapons raised high enough to pierce the sky, the spear lifted by the government soldier, Jang Sam, was definitely there.

“We will end our enemy with our own hands!”

The Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi's voice rose even higher.

“We will end our battle with our own hands!”

Everyone's eyes.

Everyone's ears.

Focused on the Fourth Young Master Yeon Bi.

“All units, charge!”

He did not even know where such physical strength had welled up from.

He could not even tell where the strength to shout like this had remained.

“Uooooooooh!”

Beside the government soldier Jang Sam, who ran down the valley and alleys holding his spear, were his fellow government soldiers.

“Let's go! Let's run!”

At the very front of the soldiers was their commander, Constable Park.

“Let's show those fellows the power of our soldiers!”

He ran at the front, even while the bandages wrapped around his head injury sustained from the bombardment fluttered.

“Those who fall behind the line because they run out of strength, just go straight home!”

The junior constable, who had excellently filled the vacancy of Constable Park after he lost consciousness and was evacuated, was running in the rear row.

“We cannot just sit still after seeing that Mountain-Splitting Force earlier.”

Leaping from rooftop to rooftop, there were those who passed like arrows over the heads of the soldiers.

“No, really. We do all the hard work, and only our Lord gets all the real fun?”

“We cannot let the most delicious part be stolen entirely!”

They were the War Advisory Council, the direct subordinates of Elder Yeom.

Exchanging conversations in that manner, they began to run ahead.

“We are going ahead too!”

“Follow slowly!”

The Eldest Young Master's martial artists.

The Four Heroes of Hwangho and the Emei martial monks.

And the young chivalrous heroes belonging to the Spring of Luoyang ran as if flying past the soldiers.

But.

The first among them to reach the rear of the enemies was, the Maid Division of Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, who rode the armored carriages and raced down that steep descent at full speed.

“In the name of the master!”

“Kill them all!”

At the same time that the voice of Hyang, the captain of the Maid Division, echoed.

The armored carriages slammed into the rear of the enemies at full speed.

“———!”

Unlike the clash of the War Department warriors this time, a colossal crashing sound shook the entire valley.

Crunch, scrch!

The hooves of the warhorses equipped with thick horse armor trampled the enemies mercilessly.

The massive body of the armored carriage swept the enemies.

In that way the procession of armored carriages, which did not lose its charging power in the slightest even after crushing dozens of people in an instant, began to dig straight into the enemy camp.

“Run! Do not stop!”

Inside the armored carriage, the ringing voice of Elder Gwak, the Crouching Dragon of Nanman, erupted without rest.

“Dig in with the determination to split the enemies in a single strike!”

Normally, they would have worried about the procession stalling in the midst of the enemies but Elder Gwak now urged the charge without even having such worries.

Because, following the brutal charge made by the armored carriage procession, the warriors of the War Advisory Council rammed the rear of the enemies.

“Where are you looking?!”

“Kill them all!”

Immediately after, the martial artists under the Eldest Young Master rushed in.

“Uoooooooh!”

After the tightly united soldiers arrived.

“The Medicine Fairy is with us!”

The ruthless charge of the Heavy Armor Brigade of the House of Benevolence and Love swept them.

“Kuaaak!”

A charge from high ground with high morale.

On top of that, a charge that struck the rear rather than toward the front completely broke the enemies' formation in an instant.

“Run, run away!”

“Retreat! Retreat!”

Even the executives of the underworld threw down their weapons and ran.

“Fuck, where on earth do we retreat to?!”

The executives ran without even knowing where to go.

Those running after them also just started running first, not knowing where they were heading.

“There are enemies in all directions…!”

In front were the warriors of the Sword Family's War Department.

Behind were the Eldest Young Master's forces.

In the midst of being practically compressed between them, there could be no proper resistance from the underworld members.

“Fire!”

Huge iron arrows fired from the repeating crossbows of the armored carriages stitched through the enemies.

What flashed in the air were the weapons of allies, and what fell to the ground were the lives of the enemies.

“Where do you think you are running to?!”

The spear thrust by the government soldier, Jang Sam, skewered an enemy who was fleeing with his back turned.

“Keohk…!”

The scream leaked from the enemy's mouth was trivial buried in the colossal shouts raised by Jang Sam and all their allies.

* * *

Even in that great chaos, there were those who managed to set a direction and flee.

It was the landing party of the Fresh Blood Fleet, the pirate mercenaries.

“Captain! This way!”

To the lieutenant who pointed out the direction, the master of the Fresh Blood Fleet, the Four Seas Carnage, shouted.

“The rear! They are still chasing us!”

At that shout, the lieutenant turned around and fired the long rifle in his hand toward the rear.

Bang!

Along with a loud roar, it shattered against a solid wall but those tracking them had already nimbly hidden themselves behind cover.

“Fuck!”

While a group of pirate mercenaries fired suppressive shots toward the rear following him, the rest ran down the narrow alley.

“Damn it, fuck!”

Curses leaked from the mouth of the running Four Seas Carnage.

‘We came all the way to Luoyang only to fail to achieve any proper merit and lost face completely…!’

Actually, they had done their part.

The fire support from the ships was sufficient.

Because the initiative in the battle situation was continuously lost, the landing party could not play a big role but though unsatisfactory, they did achieve some results.

However, it was far from enough.

‘Damn it, those guys on the Second Young Master's side…!’

The words they said in the past when requesting help from Evil Tyrant Heaven came to mind.

Did they say they had made preparations to the extent that everything would run smoothly with just a little help?

‘What a load of bullshit…!’

The Eldest Young Master's side had made more than double the preparations.

And the forces they had stubbornly stockpiled were at a level that far exceeded expectations.

Kept in line with that, the quality of those forces was not lacking compared to the forces of the Jiangnan region, who had fought battle after battle.

‘Shitty Luoyang! Shitty Luoyang Sword Family!’

If the Jiangnan region ruled by Evil Tyrant Heaven was a burning hell luoyang, which only looked soft and peaceful on the outside, was actually a bottomless abyss.

“Keohk…!”

A pirate mercenary, who was skillfully inserting a ramrod into the muzzle to hasten reloading while running, had his neck torn by a flying secret weapon.

At the sight of his subordinate pouring blood while clutching his neck, the Four Seas Carnage distorted his expression like a demon.

“Fire…!”

Firing was poured down once again, but those who projected the secret weapons hid themselves once more.

“What a shitty…”

In his heart, he wanted to turn around and chop off the necks of those fellows who were like a swarm of mayflies.

But.

He could not do so.

The lieutenant shouted from behind.

“Just a little further—!”

He must have wanted to say that the small dock they had prepared in advance as a retreat point would appear.

“Keoheok—!”

But the lieutenant, suspended in the air bound by chains, had his neck snapped in an instant and dangled limply.

It was something that happened before the Four Seas Carnage, who reacted to presence with absurd sensitivity, could even cope.

“Shitty Head Collector!”

Although his Hainan-style long saber struck the chain simultaneously with drawing, the sickle hanging at the end of the chain had already cut off the lieutenant's head.

“Kh…!”

“Keohk!”

Instead, as his footsteps were delayed, his subordinates lost their lives one after another to flying secret weapons.

Firearms spat fire once again, but the figures of the enemies were not even visible.

“Fuck, fuck!”

In the narrow and winding alleys, it was impossible to utilize the advantage of firearms.

Yet, he could not discard precious escape time having a battle here with Tang Baek, the Head Collector of the Tea Horse Road.

“The dock is nearby!”

Abandoning all his subordinates, the Four Seas Carnage unfolded his movement technique at full power.

Scaling a wall, he distanced himself from his subordinates in an instant and broke through the alley.

“Survive on your own and let's meet again!”

A truly pirate-like judgment.

It was fortunate at least that his fleet had retreated to the other side after giving up the meaningless bombardment.

As soon as he boarded with the survivors, he would be able to escape Luoyang.

He anticipated so.

“……!”

However mocking that expectation what the Four Seas Carnage saw upon arriving at the small dock was, the sight of the fleet burning fiercely across the Yellow River.

“F-Fuck…”

“…….”

The fleet, which was equivalent to his life's achievements, was all burning, raising black smoke.

In the ears of the Four Seas Carnage, who lowered his long saber and stared blankly at the scene, the voice of someone grumbling blatantly was heard.

“Ha, seriously.”

“I don't know how that gentleman, the Eldest Young Master, can drive a person so harshly.”

A person who suddenly popped his head out of the river grabbed the ground of the dock and came up to the land.

“Who are you…?!”

“Really, sigh. It's so dirty, I should either quit being a gatekeeper or something…”

Mumbling like that and roughly shaking off the water on his body, the middle-aged man gave a murderous smile to the Four Seas Carnage.

“Still, we must kill all the dirty pirate bastards. Don't you think?”

Unlike the master who was shabbily soaked five swords let out eerie rings, shining their elegant blades in the morning sunlight.

How could a pirate of Evil Tyrant Heaven not know his name?

In the past could they forget their greatest nightmare, who had ruthlessly slaughtered and slaughtered pirates?

“……L-Life-Snatching Ghost Sword?”

“Yeah, it's me, you bastard.”

The Four Seas Carnage stepped back hesitantly, unbecoming of his notorious reputation.

“T-That's nonsense. I heard for sure you were dead or retired…?”

In the ears of the Four Seas Carnage who was retreating in denial of reality, the clanking sound of chains was heard.

“……!”

In front was the Life-Snatching Ghost Sword.

Behind was Tang Baek.

For the pirate who crawled up after choosing the wrong land to land on there was no path to escape.