Chapter 341

Several martial artists from the campaign force were crushed beneath the avalanche of boulders.

“Aaagh!”

“Gah!”

“Ugh!”

More rocks continued to rain down over their agonized screams.

BOOM! RUMBLE! CRASH!

In moments, a pile of boulders four or five zhang high had sealed off the entrance to Gourd Sky. Only then did the rain of stone cease.

Uncheon Zhenren had no time to mourn the martial artists who had died such gruesome deaths.

Screams were still erupting one after another from deeper inside Gourd Sky.

He shot onto the dust-shrouded mound of boulders and shouted to the Wudang disciples.

“Disciples, hold this position! This is the only way out for our fellow Wudang disciples and our comrades. Do not yield a single step!”

“We obey!”

By the time the disciples answered as one, Uncheon Zhenren had reached the top of the rock pile.

Blue fire filled his eyes as he looked into Gourd Sky.

Countless fire arrows wreathed in blue flame were pouring down from the cliffs like a meteor shower.

The instant Taoist Hyeonam heard the deafening crash behind them, he halted the advance detachment.

“Everyone, stop the pursuit!”

From the earthshaking roar alone, Hyeonam understood that their route of retreat had been cut off.

We fell for a lure!

Then there had to be an ambush.

In a narrow path hemmed in by cliffs, there was only one place from which an ambush could be launched—the cliffs above.

And the obvious means of attack would be projectiles.

Arrows.

“Shield bearers, raise your rattan shields! Everyone else, get underneath them!”

Hyeonam’s quick judgment proved correct.

The problem was that the arrows fired from the cliffs were anything but ordinary.

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

Each arrowhead carried a ball of blue fire—and those flames were no ordinary flames either.

THUNK!

WHOOSH!

The moment a fire arrow buried itself in a rattan shield, flames spread across the entire surface.

One shield bearer tried to stamp out the fire, only for the blue flame to leap onto his foot.

“Damn!”

Startled, he threw himself to the ground and rolled, but the flames clinging to him refused to go out.

“Aaaagh!”

THUNK!

Another fire arrow buried itself in his body as he rolled across the ground.

Only then did his screaming stop.

Taoist Hyeonam remembered what he had heard about the demonic flames that had erupted around Kwak Yeon in the marketplace of Aju County City.

The Blue-Scale True-Flame Demon Blossom!

He immediately shouted to the campaign force.

“Do not touch the flames on the shields! That is demonic fire that cannot be extinguished by any ordinary means! Shield bearers, deflect the fire arrows instead of taking them head-on!”

Thanks to the advance detachment commander shouting himself hoarse, further losses among the shield bearers were stopped for the moment.

They were skilled martial artists in their own right. Once they understood what they were facing, they began angling their shields and skillfully knocking aside the fire arrows raining down on them.

THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!

But there was nothing they could do about the sparks that scattered onto the shields and clung there.

As time passed, more and more sparks accumulated until the shields themselves began to burn in earnest.

WHOOOSH!

Rattan shields were made by weaving layer upon layer of thoroughly dried rattan stalks, making them both light and sturdy.

Their strength and elasticity made them difficult to pierce even with powerful arrows.

Their outer surfaces were also coated with mud, which made ordinary fire arrows all but useless against them.

But against the Blue-Scale True-Flame Demon Blossom, none of that mattered.

If anything, the shields were perfect kindling for it.

Sure enough, the dried rattan began to burn, giving rise to fierce red flames.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

A sudden question occurred to Hyeonam.

Why hadn’t Grand Strategist Sagong Ui accounted for the Blue-Scale True-Flame Demon Blossom?

He had heard that Chief Secretary Kwak had explicitly informed the Strategists’ Office of its existence.

If so, then even if they were heavy and inconvenient, the shield bearers should have been equipped with iron shields.

Yet instead, every single shield bearer was made to carry a rattan shield?

“Aaagh!”

“Ugh!”

Hyeonam had no time to pursue the question.

Unable to endure the flames any longer, the shield bearers began throwing away their rattan shields, and casualties mounted rapidly.

“Shield bearers, throw your shields into the middle of the path and press yourselves against the cliff walls! Peak-level experts, use your sword qi to protect them!”

The peak-level experts had survived the first volley of fire arrows thanks to the shield bearers.

Now it was their turn to repay that debt.

Following Hyeonam’s command, they began using sword qi to knock aside the incoming fire arrows and protect the shield bearers.

Ordering the burning rattan shields piled in the middle of the path also proved effective, reducing the danger posed by the flames.

The number of casualties began to fall.

Even so, Gourd Sky itself had become a vision of hell.

Corpses engulfed in blue-radiant flames illuminated the narrow passage as brightly as daylight.

TWANG!

SWISH!

Hyeonam’s heart felt as though it were being torn apart, but he did not lose his composure. He repeatedly coiled sword qi around the fire arrows and swept them aside.

If he struck them directly with the body of his sword, sparks from the demonic flames would scatter in every direction.

The drain on his inner power and true qi was enormous, but if he wanted to reduce the casualties, there was no other choice.

“Everyone, hold on! There must be a limit to how much of that demonic flame they possess. This cannot continue much longer!”

The materials needed for an artifact such as the Blue-Scale True-Flame Demon Blossom could hardly be common.

Encouraged by their commander’s shout, the martial artists of the campaign force gritted their teeth and endured.

At last, the rain of fire arrows began to thin.

“That’s it! Now we make those bastards pay for using this vile demonic fire!”

Peng Seong-u, commander of the Hebei Peng Family contingent, had barely vented his fury when—

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Thunderous noise erupted overhead.

Boulders were rolling down the slopes of the cliffs.

Hyeonam instantly assessed the situation and gave his order.

“Rocks! Everyone, press yourselves against ?? (Original source) the cliff walls on either side!”

No matter how skilled one was in lightness arts, predicting and dodging boulders tumbling chaotically from directly overhead was nearly impossible.

The safest choice was simply to take shelter against the cliff and wait for the downpour to pass.

BOOM! THUD! CRASH! THUMP! BOOM!

CRACK! THUD! CRACK! THUD! CRUNCH!

Boulders slammed into the burning rattan shields, sending flames surging high into the air.

CRASH!

“Ugh!”

“Ghk!”

Several rocks rolled toward the cliff walls and injured a handful of martial artists.

Considering the ferocity of the attack, however, those injuries were relatively minor.

We made it!

His heart ached for the dead and wounded, but they had survived an otherwise fatal crisis.

Hyeonam had only just begun to feel a measure of relief when his eyes abruptly widened.

The flames that had surged high into the air were sinking as though dying out, while glowing embers drifted down through the air.

Amid them, black silhouettes began rising here and there.

“Heh... heh... heh...”

“Hee-hee-hee!”

“RRAAAGH!”

The grotesque figures opened blood-red eyes as sinister laughter spilled from their mouths.

Blood fiends!

Hyeonam remembered the strange noises he had heard mixed into the deafening crash of the falling boulders.

That was the sound of those blood fiends hitting the ground!

“Senior Brother Hyeonam, whatever happens, avoid encountering blood fiends in an enclosed space.”

Kwak Yeon had warned him of the monstrous power of the blood fiends.

“And remember—the blood fiends’ weakness is time. Make full use of that.”

Thanks to Kwak’s warning, during the few ambushes they had already suffered, they had been able to block the blood fiends’ attacks with rattan shields and evade them, keeping casualties to a minimum.

But that had only been possible because they were fighting in open ground.

Now they were inside Gourd Sky, a narrow passage trapped between cliffs.

Worse, their route of retreat had been sealed by a mountain of boulders.

Hyeonam realized that the true trap prepared by the leaders of the Gathering Demons Division was only now beginning in earnest.

Good heavens. They killed their own subordinates and threw them down into the valley.

Even as the thought crossed his mind, more blood fiends continued dropping from the cliffs.

THUD! THUD!

But the blood fiends falling now landed on the ground with remarkable stability.

THUMP! THUMP!

Ah! These ones falling now were transformed from demons!

The blood fiends that had first fallen among the boulders had been demon soldiers.

Engaging them head-on is too dangerous.

Hyeonam cleaved through an onrushing blood fiend and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“Form a retreat formation! Unit Leaders, take the front and protect your men!”

SWISH!

SLASH!

Even with one hand severed, the blood fiend continued charging him.

WHOOSH!

Hyeonam slipped past the blade it swung at him and sent his Songmun Sword flashing toward its neck.

SLASH!

The blood fiend’s head flew into the air.

Its body nevertheless continued bringing its blade down.

WHOOSH!

Hyeonam hurriedly wheeled his Songmun Sword around to block.

CLANG!

The internal force behind the blood fiend’s strike was so tremendous that the hand gripping his sword went numb.

THUD!

The headless body toppled over like a felled log.

A chill ran through Hyeonam.

If a blood fiend transformed from a mere demon soldier possessed such tremendous power, then how strong would one transformed from a demon be?

Facing them head-on is suicide.

If they wanted to minimize casualties, they had to keep retreating and buy time.

But the situation was already grim.

Far from forming a retreat formation, the members of the advance detachment had been scattered into chaotic melees with the blood fiends.

The creatures had fallen too close to them.

Worse, they had already transformed into blood fiends while tumbling down from the cliffs, leaving the martial artists no time at all to prepare.

“RRAAAGH!”

“Aaagh!”

“GRRRR!”

“Ugh!”

The martial artists of the advance detachment were being brutally cut down.

They were elites handpicked from the entire campaign force, yet even they were falling helplessly.

Blood fiends were monsters that knew no fear of death.

And unless their bodies were dismembered, they continued attacking.

With the creatures attacking from such close range, anyone below the Transcendent stage could scarcely withstand them.

Somehow, we have to buy enough time for their demonic qi to dissipate and for them to collapse on their own.

But even that seemed hopeless.

THUD! THUD!

More blood fiends were still dropping intermittently from above.

Their only chance was to escape Gourd Sky somehow.

The cliffs sealed them in on both sides, and they could not continue forward.

That left retreating as their only possible escape route—but the rear, where the main force was located, appeared to be in the same situation.

No.

The main force was in even worse shape than the advance detachment.

A single glance behind him revealed flames surging up in several places.

Screams filled the air as well.

The main force had clearly failed to respond to the trap in time.

If the advance detachment retreats now, we’ll become tangled up with the main force in this narrow passage. That will only make things worse.

Hyeonam realized there was only one thing they could do.

The advance detachment had to remain here and buy enough time for the main force to retreat.

“Heh-heh-heh!”

SWISH!

SLASH!

Hyeonam cleaved an onrushing blood fiend in two, then shouted so loudly that his voice rang through all of Gourd Sky.

“The advance detachment makes its last stand here! Bring every ounce of the power you have spent your lives cultivating to bear, and leave no regrets!”

At their commander’s declaration that this would be their final battle as martial artists, the eyes of the advance detachment warriors began to blaze.

“Righteous Heaven, Fight to the Death!”

Hyeonam shouted the cry first and charged forward.

Every martial artist in the advance detachment answered as one.

“A TRUE MAN LEAVES NO REGRETS!”

A true man leaves no regrets.

It was the oath they had sworn when they volunteered for the advance detachment.

Once they let go of their attachment to life, the edges of their blades grew sharper.

This was no mere last stand.

They had accepted death itself.

There was no longer any reason to fear the blood fiends.

And so began a desperate battle to the death between blood fiends that had forgotten death and orthodox martial artists who had willingly cast aside their own lives.