Chapter 342

The advance detachment’s fighting spirit surged, and their newfound resolve succeeded in reversing the momentum that had been driving them back.

But for every blood fiend they cut down, two or three members of the advance detachment were dying.

Even at such a terrible cost, they could not seize the advantage.

For every blood fiend they killed, more steadily dropped from the cliffs above to replace it.

The leaders of the Gathering Demons Division are rotating them in waves.

They were using that tactic to compensate for the blood fiends’ weakness: once transformed into monsters, they would die after a certain amount of time.

SWISH!

“Ghk!”

Taoist Hyeonam split a blood fiend charging him head-on and began to think that perhaps he truly would leave his bones here today.

He had no lingering attachment to his own life.

There was only one thing that troubled him.

And watching Seokjangsan fight so fiercely at the very front made his heart ache more than anything else.

Ever since the melee with the blood fiends had begun, Seokjangsan’s performance had been extraordinary.

He raised sword aura around his blade and carved through the blood fiends without hesitation.

But he was still too young. His reserve of inner power could not support a realm that high for long.

As the battle dragged on, the sword aura that had once blazed high dwindled steadily until only a thin layer remained around his sword.

Hyeonam’s heart did not ache because Seokjangsan was destined to become one of Wudang’s future pillars.

To think that such limitless potential will be cut down here before it ever has the chance to bloom...

And Seokjangsan was hardly the only promising hero whose talent would die before it could flower.

Most of those who had volunteered for the advance detachment were young martial artists.

Young heroes with bright futures ahead of them.

For one brief moment, Hyeonam regretted ordering the entire advance detachment to fight to the death.

They might have sworn to accept death when they volunteered, but what right did he have to make such a merciless decision and sever their futures with his own command?

“One day, you will regret that narrow-minded certainty of yours—the belief that only you are right.”

He could almost hear his master’s rebuke in his ears.

Just then, he saw a blood fiend drop behind Seokjangsan.

WHOOSH!

The hulking creature stood nearly seven chi tall. Raising a blue-gleaming great saber, it began advancing on Seokjangsan.

Seokjangsan was locked in an even struggle with another blood fiend and had his back completely exposed to the giant.

He had to know perfectly well that it was approaching him.

But the blood fiend in front of him was so powerful that he had no choice but to devote everything he had to fighting it.

He can’t handle that thing alone.

There was no one from the advance detachment left near enough to help him.

Hyeonam drew up every last shred of his inner power and true qi. Swinging his Songmun Sword, he launched himself forward.

SWISH!

He took the head off a blood fiend that swung at him from three steps away and immediately vaulted over it.

SLASH!

WHOOSH!

A sharp tearing sound came from behind him, followed by a searing pain across his back.

The blood fiend had lost its head, but its body had continued attacking.

Worse, as the torso toppled sideways, the trajectory of its blade had shifted unpredictably.

The saber had carved across Hyeonam’s back.

His vision swam from the impact, yet he continued hurtling forward.

Two more blood fiends blocked his way.

Hyeonam unleashed the ultimate technique of the Supreme Purity Sword Art—

Returning Clouds, Raging Dragon.

SLASH!

THUD!

One blood fiend’s head came clean off.

He managed to cut only halfway through the other’s neck.

The wound across his back had disrupted the flow of his inner power and true qi.

But Hyeonam’s sole objective was to save Seokjangsan. He did not waste time finishing the creature’s neck.

Instead, he sprang upward with the lightness art Lone Crane Soars to Heaven and drove a Tiger-Tail Kick into the blood fiend’s head.

CRACK!

SLASH!

A sharp pain stabbed through his right thigh.

The blood fiend’s final flailing strike had cut him there.

Hyeonam had suffered yet another wound, but the recoil from his kick propelled him forward even faster.

WHOOSH!

CLANG!

He arrived just in time to raise the Songmun Sword and block the great saber the hulking blood fiend brought down at Seokjangsan.

“Martial Uncle Hyeonam!”

Seokjangsan flinched when he realized who had appeared behind him.

“Focus on the blood fiend in front of you! I’ll handle this one!”

At Hyeonam’s shout, Seokjangsan gritted his teeth.

He knew the warm liquid soaking his back was Hyeonam’s blood.

“Hup!”

Seokjangsan wrung every last drop of inner power and true qi from himself and thrust his sword forward.

Killing the blood fiend before him as quickly as possible was the only way to save the badly wounded Hyeonam.

SWOOOSH!

The sword aura that had nearly faded surged up once more and swept toward the blood fiend’s torso.

But the creature darted backward.

The sword aura Seokjangsan had forced out with such difficulty lost its target and sliced through empty air.

“Hee-hee-hee-hee!”

The blood fiend displayed astonishingly swift lightness arts, relentlessly pressuring Seokjangsan.

Hearing Hyeonam’s breathing grow rougher by the moment, Seokjangsan became increasingly desperate.

But he was pinned down by the enemy before him and could do nothing to help.

BOOM! BOOM! CRASH!

CLANG! CLANG! CLAAANG!

To Hyeonam, the Songmun Sword in his hands seemed to be screaming each time it blocked the blood fiend’s great saber.

I’ve lost too much blood. I’m hearing things!

He realized that if he continued defending like this, he would not last much longer.

BOOM!

CLANG!

This time, Hyeonam received the full force of the descending great saber directly through his Songmun Sword.

He used the True Dragon Rides the Force Form of the Mystic Heaven Seven-Star Sword, a supreme sword form that embodied the principle of Grafting Flowers onto a Tree—receiving an enemy’s force, redirecting it, and returning it.

It was Hyeonam’s ultimate life-saving technique.

And it was also the last move he had left.

CRRUNCH!

The blood fiend’s internal force invaded through the Songmun Sword.

Starting in his palm, the muscles of his wrist and then his shoulder twisted violently.

CREEEAK!

His joints ground together.

His blood vessels swelled as though they might burst.

Ugh...!

It felt as if some giant had thrust his entire arm into a mortar and was grinding it to pulp.

I have to endure it!

With inhuman patience, Hyeonam bore the excruciating agony and scraped together every last trace of inner power and true qi remaining in his dantian, using it to resist the invading force.

At last, he stopped the blood fiend’s power just before it reached the Shoulder Well point.

Now!

Hyeonam reversed the force packed from his shoulder all the way down to his hand and released it back the way it had come.

SWOOOSH!

He poured the entire returning force into his Songmun Sword and sent the blade mercilessly toward the blood fiend’s neck.

WHOOOSH!

It was his final strike—the blood fiend’s own power, absorbed through Grafting Flowers onto a Tree, combined with every last ounce of strength Hyeonam himself still possessed.

Once he completed this attack, he would not have enough strength left to so much as twitch a finger.

But if he could kill this giant blood fiend, that would be enough.

At least Seokjangsan would have a chance to escape.

A satisfied smile formed on Hyeonam’s face.

THUD!

CRUNCH!

There came a horrible sound of flesh tearing and bone grinding.

But then...

“Heh-heh-heh-heh!”

The blood fiend’s sinister laughter sounded as well.

“Ugh...!”

Hyeonam trembled when he saw where his Songmun Sword had ended up.

The blade had cut through the blood fiend’s hand and buried itself as far as its wrist.

The creature had caught the Songmun Sword with its bare hand.

No human being could have done such a thing.

Only then did Hyeonam realize what he had overlooked.

His opponent was a blood fiend.

A creature with no fear of death.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh!”

Hyeonam did not move even as the red-eyed blood fiend raised its great saber.

He simply did not want to release the Songmun Sword in his final moments.

There was not a wisp of true qi left in his body anyway. Even if he abandoned the sword, he could manage two or three steps at most.

Rather than die scrambling pathetically for another moment of life, he wanted to meet his end with the sword his master had bestowed upon him.

“Heh-heh-heh-heh!”

The great saber rose high overhead.

As Hyeonam watched it stop at its highest point, he thought of his master.

Master, forgive this unworthy disciple. I have disappointed you to the very end.

Then the blood fiend’s sinister laughter vanished.

SWISH!

Its head suddenly shot into the air.

A streak of white light burst through the fountain of blood erupting from its neck.

“...?”

The white streak that had severed the blood fiend’s head wheeled through the air, then shot toward the creature fighting Seokjangsan.

SLASH!

The white light cleaved that blood fiend in two and rose into the air once more.

Only then did the air-tearing crack reach them.

KRAAACK!

The sound finally told Hyeonam what that streak of white light truly was.

Qi-Guided Sword!

And not merely Qi-Guided Sword.

The flying sword was carrying sword aura.

“Ah! Martial Uncle Uncheon!”

The sword that had dismembered the blood fiend returned to the hand of its master, Uncheon Zhenren.

Hyeonam saw that Uncheon’s white Taoist robes were soaked red with blood.

It was immediately clear that Uncheon Zhenren had fought his way through the blood fiends inside Gourd Sky to reach them.

“Advance Detachment Commander, withdraw immediately with your men. From this moment on, I will hold the rear.”

“Martial Uncle! But—”

Uncheon’s voice thundered through the passage.

“Where do you think you are, using a private form of address?”

“...”

“And do you not understand that getting out of here one step sooner is the best way you can assist me?”

Under Uncheon Zhenren’s furious rebuke, Hyeonam hurriedly bowed his head.

“We obey!”

After witnessing the heaven-shaking might of the Sword of Wudang with his own eyes, protesting had been little more than foolish fretting.

In their present condition, they were nothing but burdens that would hold Uncheon back.

Once Hyeonam acknowledged the order, Uncheon turned to Seokjangsan.

“Unit Leader Seok, support the Advance Detachment Commander.”

Hyeonam realized that Uncheon had assessed his condition at a single glance.

“Yes, sir.”

By the time Seokjangsan answered, Uncheon was already sending his sword flying toward the newly arrived blood fiends.

KRAAACK!

With Seokjangsan supporting him, Hyeonam turned away and hurriedly addressed the martial artists of the advance detachment.

“Those who are unhurt, support the wounded and withdraw! Unit Leader Peng, Unit Leader Yue—take the lead and clear the way!”

“Understood!”

Peng Seong-u of the Hebei Peng Family and Yue Yeong-bo of the Shandong Yue Family answered together, then rushed toward the exit of Gourd Sky.

Their task was to stop the blood fiends still falling intermittently from above and protect the retreating men.

Supported by Seokjangsan as they withdrew, Hyeonam let out a low groan.

“Ugh...”

The ground ahead was so completely covered with corpses that the floor of Gourd Sky could no longer be seen.

A mountain of corpses.

A sea of blood.

The main force had suffered far heavier losses than he had imagined.

Unlike the advance detachment, which had reacted in disciplined unison the instant the Gathering Demons Division’s trap was sprung, the main force had fallen into confusion and failed to respond properly.

Whatever the circumstances, this was a catastrophic defeat.

As the commander responsible for leading the campaign force’s advance detachment, Hyeonam felt as though his heart were collapsing under the weight of it.

Responsibility, grief, and rage surged through him all at once.

His true qi reversed its flow.

“Cough!”

Hyeonam spat out a mouthful of blood.

Seokjangsan immediately struck several of his paralysis points.

“Martial Uncle Hyeonam, I will accept punishment for this disrespect later.”

Hyeonam was already gravely wounded. If his emotional state deteriorated further, his life could be in danger.

Seokjangsan had no choice but to commit the breach of etiquette. He needed to get Hyeonam somewhere safe and treat him as quickly as possible.

With Hyeonam’s body now rigid, Seokjangsan swept him up into his arms.

“Unit Leader Yue! Unit Leader Peng! I leave the rest to you!”

Yue Yeong-bo and Peng Seong-u were working with their men to drive back a blood fiend.

They answered one after the other.

“Don’t worry about things here. Get the commander out safely.”

“We’ll see you outside shortly.”

“Thank you.”

After thanking the two Unit Leaders, Seokjangsan raced ahead.

He reached the pile of boulders blocking the entrance to Gourd Sky and leaped onto it.

For a moment, Seokjangsan looked back from the top of the rock pile.

Only a few blood fiends remained inside Gourd Sky now, and Uncheon Zhenren was already returning after disposing of those at the front.

Reassured, Seokjangsan launched himself over the far side of the boulder pile.