Chapter 340

The Martial Alliance advance detachment finally spotted a group from the Gathering Demons Division at the entrance to the Valley of Dark Mourning.

“Just as Taoist Hyeongong said. The rats really did flee this way.”

Elder Yue Yeong-bo of the Shandong Yue Family continued, speaking to Taoist Hyeonam.

“There aren’t many of them. They must be a rear guard holding the entrance while the Gathering Demons Division’s main force passes through the valley.”

The Valley of Dark Mourning was a narrow gorge hemmed in on both sides by sheer cliffs, leaving only a cramped road through its depths.

The Gathering Demons Division had abandoned Sword Demon Valley with a great deal of baggage, and they were dragging hostages along as well. Their column was bound to be long and slow.

Peng Seong-u, commander of the Hebei Peng Family contingent, nodded.

“Elder Yue is right. Seems the Gathering Demons Division’s Lord isn’t a complete fool after all.”

WHOOSH!

Peng Seong-u swept his great axe up hard enough to make the air whistle.

“Taoist Hyeonam, leave those men to the Peng Family.”

SHING!

Not to be outdone, Elder Yue Yeong-bo drew his great saber.

“Commander Peng, the Yue Family will lend you a hand.”

“Both of you, stop.”

Hyeonam hurriedly restrained them.

“Didn’t the Commander order us to avoid engagement and wait until the main force arrived?”

Peng Seong-u raised his voice.

“Taoist Hyeonam, how are we supposed to wait when they’re running away?”

Just as he said, the Gathering Demons Division fighters had spotted the campaign force and were beginning to flee deeper into the Valley of Dark Mourning.

Yue Yeong-bo spoke impatiently as well.

“Taoist Hyeonam, battlefield tactics must adapt to conditions on the ground.”

Elder Yue was not wrong.

So long as one did not depart from the broader strategy, front-line tactics had to change according to the situation.

It was one of the most basic principles of troop deployment, found in virtually every military text.

Even so, Hyeonam had no choice but to hold the two commanders back.

“The Commander repeatedly stressed that we were to avoid battle until the main force arrived.”

Peng Seong-u snapped back,

“Wudang must make its fasting pills out of kudzu roots. Everyone from top to bottom is just as stubborn and impossible to budge.”

Peng Seong-u had received direct orders from his Clan Master to prevent the Gathering Demons Division from establishing itself near the Hebei Peng Family.

That meant they could not allow even a single seed of the Gathering Demons Division to escape.

“I’ll answer for disobeying the Commander’s orders later.”

Having openly declared his defiance to Hyeonam, Peng Seong-u turned toward the Peng Family warriors.

“Move!”

“WAAAAAAH!”

The Hebei Peng Family warriors charged forward with a roar.

Naturally, Elder Yue Yeong-bo was not about to stand idle.

“Taoist Hyeonam, the Yue Family will advance as well.”

Hyeonam could no longer restrain men who were desperate to win military merit.

“......”

When Hyeonam answered with silence, Yue Yeong-bo shouted to the Yue Family warriors,

“Everyone, follow me!”

With the Hebei Peng and Shandong Yue warriors rushing ahead, the advance detachment suddenly looked almost empty.

Sixty percent of its strength had departed at once.

By its nature, the advance detachment had been formed exclusively from highly skilled martial artists.

That naturally meant its core consisted of warriors from Wudang, the Hebei Peng Family, and the Shandong Yue Family.

As a result, most of those left behind were Wudang disciples.

“Martial Uncle Hyeonam?”

Seokjangsan looked at Hyeonam in confusion.

“Shouldn’t we help them, at least?”

As vanguard unit leader of °• N ?? v ?? l i g h t •° the advance detachment, Seokjangsan was quietly hoping Hyeonam would order him to move out.

Hyeonam crushed that hope at once.

“Do not act rashly! What difficulty could those two great families possibly have dealing with a handful of demon soldiers?”

“......”

“And now there are people behind you.”

Seokjangsan flinched.

He suddenly realized that his position was no longer what it had once been.

Before Hyeonam appointed him vanguard unit leader, he had needed to think only of himself.

Now there were men under his command whose lives were his responsibility.

There are people behind you.

The words meant that he had to put his men before his own hunger as a martial artist.

“Martial Uncle Uncheon once said that even merit piled as high as Mount Tai is worth less than a single life.”

From Hyeonam’s firm tone, Seokjangsan realized that he too was suppressing his desire to fight.

Seokjangsan’s own eagerness for battle rapidly cooled.

He gave a silent bow.

“I will always remember that.”

Hyeonam regarded him with satisfaction.

Seokjangsan was beginning to carry himself like a proper commanding officer.

He possessed the potential to grow into an even greater pillar of Wudang than Hyeonam had expected.

That was precisely why Hyeonam had appointed him vanguard unit leader after seeing his exceptional performance in the first battle against the Gathering Demons Division.

There had been objections because of Seokjangsan’s youth and lack of experience.

Even so, Hyeonam had stubbornly refused to change his decision.

He had done it for Wudang’s future.

Hyeonam was convinced that discovering Seokjangsan was the greatest gain Wudang would take from this campaign against the Demonic Eight Divisions.

If Seokjangsan distinguished himself as vanguard unit leader, perhaps he could finally erase the prejudice against him lingering in the hearts of Wudang’s elders.

The discrimination surrounding his illegitimate birth and his background at the training ground might diminish as well.

Hyeonam knew that the elders of Wudang quietly reproached themselves for having failed to recognize the towering figure Kwak Yeon would become.

Child, once the main force arrives, you will have more than enough opportunities to distinguish yourself. There is no need to rush.

After reassuring Seokjangsan with a look, Hyeonam turned back toward the entrance of the Valley of Dark Mourning.

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG...!

The fierce battle was already drawing toward its end.

At that moment, the campaign force’s main body arrived under Uncheon Zhenren and the two Clan Masters.

“Taoist Hyeonam, how can the commander of the advance detachment simply stand here watching his own men fight?”

At Peng Cheon-hwi’s rebuke, Hyeonam gave a respectful clasped-hands bow.

“As commander of the advance detachment, I was following the Commander’s orders.”

The answer was brief, but for that very reason it explained the situation perfectly.

A faint flush rose to Peng Cheon-hwi’s face.

Uncheon Zhenren quickly intervened.

“Clan Master Peng, the advance detachment’s primary duty is not pursuit. I ask for your understanding.”

“......Well, that is true.”

Uncheon Zhenren then addressed Hyeonam sternly.

“Even so, it is a commander’s duty to safeguard the men under him. Apologize to Clan Master Peng.”

Hyeonam immediately bowed toward Peng Cheon-hwi.

“Clan Master Peng, my judgment was lacking.”

Peng Cheon-hwi gave a short bow of his own.

“Hmm. I was somewhat hasty as well.”

Wanting to put the minor discord completely to rest, Uncheon Zhenren continued,

“Advance Detachment Commander, your unit’s principal duty remains protecting the main force. See that your formation is not disrupted again. And the Valley of Dark Mourning holds too many hidden dangers. From this point onward, maintain your distance from the main body and do not let the gap widen.”

“Understood.”

At the entrance to the valley, the Yue and Peng warriors had finished off every Gathering Demons Division fighter and were now making certain they stayed dead.

Cutting corpses into pieces was gruesome work, but there was no other way to ensure they did not become blood fiends.

After clearing the battlefield, the Yue and Peng warriors saw that the main force had arrived and waited instead of entering the valley on their own.

Before long, the Martial Alliance campaign force entered the Valley of Dark Mourning with the advance detachment leading the way.

Once they had traveled some thirty zhang into the gorge, arrows poured down from ahead.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOOSH!

The arrows carried considerable inner power, but they posed little threat to the elite masters of the orthodox martial world.

The campaign force had even prepared rattan shields for precisely such an attack.

“Rattan shield bearers, to the front!”

At Uncheon Zhenren’s command, the shield bearers moved forward in perfect order, raising their rattan shields before the formation.

As the campaign force advanced behind the shields, the rain of arrows eventually ceased.

Uncheon Zhenren projected his voice with inner power.

“Do not pursue recklessly! They are trying to lure us into breaking formation!”

If the distance between the individual units widened, they could be caught in an ambush.

Under Uncheon Zhenren’s command, the campaign force flowed steadily through the Valley of Dark Mourning like a single wave.

With hundreds of martial experts moving in disciplined formation, it looked like a fortress advancing under its own power.

Several more provocations followed, but the campaign force’s formation never wavered.

Nor did they suffer a single casualty.

As he led the advance detachment onward, Hyeonam found himself thinking that Uncheon Zhenren had been right.

They were pursuing the Gathering Demons Division slowly, without casualties, but with absolute certainty.

From the enemy’s perspective, it had to be terrifying.

Their pursuers were advancing like an unbroken wave, one solid mass that never stopped coming.

Sure enough, discarded baggage soon began appearing along the road throughout the Valley of Dark Mourning.

As the distance between them and their pursuers narrowed, the Gathering Demons Division leadership had evidently abandoned their heavier baggage to increase their speed.

Peng Cheon-hwi saw the evidence and spoke confidently.

“Commander, it seems they’ve begun fleeing in earnest. We should increase our pace as well.”

This time, even Uncheon Zhenren could no longer insist on holding back.

“Advance detachment, move twenty zhang ahead!”

“Understood.”

Hyeonam led the advance detachment swiftly forward.

Uncheon Zhenren then ordered the main body,

“Main force, increase speed and follow the advance detachment!”

The slow-moving wave accelerated.

Thanks to that increased pace, the advance detachment finally caught sight of the Gathering Demons Division’s column.

“There they are! Slaughter every last one of them!”

At Peng Seong-u’s shout, the advance-detachment warriors charged as one.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

A fierce battle erupted between the advance detachment and the Gathering Demons Division’s main force.

The campaign force’s main body soon arrived as well.

Seeing the advance detachment locked in an evenly matched struggle with the Gathering Demons Division, Uncheon Zhenren made an immediate decision.

“Full assault!”

Their numerical superiority had to be brought to bear all at once. That would minimize their own losses while securing victory.

Once the main body joined the fight, the Gathering Demons Division ranks that had been holding the advance detachment to a stalemate began to collapse into disorder.

The Gathering Demons Division leadership, positioned at the deepest end of the Valley of Dark Mourning, immediately began retreating.

That became the signal for the rest of their battle line to disintegrate.

Even amid the fighting, the Clan Masters of the Shandong Yue and Hebei Peng Families noticed what was happening and rushed ahead with their elite masters.

“After them!”

“Don’t let a single one escape!”

SWISH!

“Ghk!”

Uncheon Zhenren cut a demonic-path fighter in two with a single stroke. The man had been pressing a Wudang disciple hard with surprisingly sharp swordsmanship.

Uncheon then watched the two Clan Masters charge ahead.

They are far too impatient.

He could understand their desire to win merit.

Under the Martial World Pact, the head of a single formidable demonic master could mean another village’s worth of territory for their family.

How could they not be impatient?

Knowing that their courage sprang from greed, Uncheon Zhenren gave a bitter smile.

Suppressing the demonic path was the stated justification, but beneath it lay private desire.

In that sense, this campaign against the Demonic Eight Divisions amounted to killing for personal gain.

And he himself was helping make it possible.

Of course, he knew that the Demonic Eight Divisions they faced had been tainted by evil energy and could not be allowed to continue as they were.

Even so, he could not entirely rid himself of the bitter taste it left behind.

As that bitter smile lingered, Uncheon Zhenren’s gaze fell on the path ahead.

“......!”

The cliffs suddenly constricted into a narrow passage like the neck of a bottle.

A name flashed through his mind.

Gourd Sky!

It was the narrowest passage in the Valley of Dark Mourning.

The place was said to have earned its name because, once one entered it, the strip of sky overhead looked like the mouth of a long wine gourd.

Was it really coincidence that we encountered the Gathering Demons Division here?

Of course it was not.

The hair on Uncheon Zhenren’s head stood on end.

He roared like a thunderclap.

“Stop the pursuit!”

But most of the campaign force had already entered Gourd Sky.

Only a dozen or so Wudang disciples halted at the entrance.

“Retreat immediately! Retreat!”

At that very instant, a deafening roar erupted as boulders came crashing down from the cliffs above.

RUMBLE!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOOOM!