Chapter 34. A Second-Rate Warrior Searching for a Legend (6)
We met again three days later, after each of us had finished our preparations.
The entrance to the cave where Mita Sacred Water lay was beneath a river that flowed between the valleys of Demon Spirit Plateau.
Because the river’s current was so strong, even someone trained in Water Arts would not find it easy to approach.
On top of that, if one forced an approach, one could be swept away by the current and drift all the way down to Dongting Lake before even entering the cave, so Hao Gate, which had been busily selling the maps, had agreed to change the watercourse upstream on a set date.
When the appointed date arrived, Yueyang was on the verge of exploding with people.
“When does it start?”
“They said they would block the upstream current starting from the Hour of the Tiger.”
At Namgung Seon-hwa’s question, the warrior who had checked the information answered.
She relayed the words to us again.
“Let us move starting from the Hour of the Rabbit.”
“How about moving a little more slowly?”
At my words, everyone’s gaze turned to me at once.
It was probably partly because they hated seeing someone who had brought only himself step forward, but it was only natural that the gazes of the Iron Sword Sect warriors, who still held considerable resentment toward me, were far from friendly.
“Why do you say that?”
“The valley may be wide, but if this many people try to enter all at once, there will certainly be a large fight from the very beginning.”
The report that had come up to the Murim Alliance’s Mantongbu said that roughly ten thousand people had walked up along the narrow river channel at the same time, and a melee broke out from the early stages.
Because they could not properly deploy sword formations, even large groups suffered heavy casualties, and masters renowned throughout the murim also met absurd deaths.
“Anyway, the paths inside the cave are so wide and complex that who goes first will not matter. Whether we enter first or not will not be very important.”
Namgung Seon-hwa seemed to understand what I was saying, but thought and action were very different things in practice.
“Then I think it may be better to enter first outright.”
“…I understand.”
I did not step forward any further. In any case, Namgung Seon-hwa was practically the representative of this group. Rather than forcefully trying to persuade her, it would be better to do what I had to do.
“Here, please each take one.”
I handed one scroll I had made to each of Namgung Seon-hwa, Seong Mo-ran, and Yu Ji-ryang.
“I kept thinking it could not be true…… This is astonishing.”
Yu Ji-ryang was astonished after unfurling the scroll.
“Did you prepare one for each of us?”
“We do not know what will happen once we go inside, do we? At the very least, as long as you do not get separated from your own party, you should not lose your way.”
Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran silently nodded as though passing the message on to their warriors, and the warriors also gave slight nods without answering.
“There really are a lot of people.”
The dawn sun had not even risen yet, but the streets were full of crowds heading toward Demon Spirit Plateau.
“On top of that, I can see Black Path groups famous enough that anyone would know them just by name. Those are the Mad Demon Five Dogs, right?”
Seong Mo-ran looked around with an expression that seemed a little overwhelmed.
“It must be because of Mita Sacred Water’s efficacy.”
“Pardon? Is Mita Sacred Water’s efficacy good for the Black Path?”
“Even if the effect is the same, it is different for Black Path martial artists. Disciples of Orthodox Path sects learn one line of inner arts heart method, so their qi centers are pure and there is no dross in their bodies. By contrast, most inner arts heart methods learned by the Black Path lack proper foundations and focus on the quantity of inner arts, so the stronger they become, the more often their true qi wears down and their bodies become corrupted. If people like that can undergo Rebirth once through Mita Sacred Water, it would be no different from being born anew.”
“Oh…….”
“……!”
Not only Seong Mo-ran, who answered, but also Namgung Seon-hwa looked rather surprised.
“But why do you dislike Great Hero Hyeoncheong so much, Young Master Jin?”
Hyeoncheong was Yong So-ah’s Daoist name.
“I do not dislike him…….”
“Do not lie. The way you looked at Great Hero Hyeoncheong carried killing intent far beyond anything in the way you looked at my older brother.”
When I glanced aside, the Iron Sword Sect warriors were glaring at me as though they would kill me.
I wondered whether I should stop Seong Mo-ran or not, then simply gave up and continued.
“I disliked it because he said, without any plan, that we could survive as long as we followed him.”
“But Great Hero Hyeoncheong has the ability to say that, does he not?”
“Of course, if judged only by martial arts skill, that may be true, but we cannot know what will happen inside or how it will unfold, can we?”
“……Even so, there is certainly an advantage.”
“Yes. But I simply disliked his attitude most, as though he held authority over life and death.”
“Truly…… you hate bowing to others terribly, do you not?”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. It is noisy up ahead.”
We passed the muddy road underfoot and entered a path where the water came up to our ankles.
We had begun entering a valley of Demon Spirit Plateau.
The people ahead became packed tight, and our movement began to slow.
At the same time, the people behind us, who had kept their distance, began closing in more and more.
“Why is it so narrow?”
While Seong Mo-ran complained, Namgung Seon-hwa sensed something strange and ordered the warriors to be on guard.
“Prepare for battle.”
As the Namgung Clan warriors drew their swords one by one, the steps of the people approaching from behind slowed a little, but because of the press of people stretching endlessly along the river channel, they began drawing closer against their own will.
“Lady Seong, I think it would be best for you to stay with the warriors.”
“Pardon? What do you mean by that?”
“I hear screams from the front.”
“??”
As Seong Mo-ran tilted her head, red dye began mixing into the water flowing around our ankles.
“!!”
Before Seong Mo-ran could say anything, Namgung Seon-hwa also stepped among the Namgung Clan warriors.
Yu Ji-ryang and the spell practitioners of Maoshan Sect were already inside the group of Namgung Clan warriors.
AAAAARGH!
ARGH!
The screams that had been coming from far away now began sounding quite close.
At the same time, the bloodstains that had been faint, as if dye had been mixed into the river water, steadily increased until a river of blood was flowing.
The battle only continued to grow.
A third party’s group that had been watching the fight would be shoved by the people surging from behind and take a sword blow instead, and the companions of the one struck would then join the battle as well.
A melee with no distinction between enemy and ally had begun.
Because the proportion of Black Path members was overwhelmingly high, the battle spread like wildfire without any sign of stopping midway, and before long, it reached the place where the Namgung Clan party stood.
“Deploy the Great Swallow Sword Formation!”
When a warrior shouted, the Namgung Clan warriors all tried to create the minimum distance at once, but because the people behind them were blocking them tightly, the sword formation did not deploy properly.
“It is too narrow!”
“Protect Young Lady Seon-hwa above all else!”
“As you command!”
Before long, the Namgung Clan warriors were forcibly pulled into the battle, and the Iron Sword Sect warriors behind them were also preparing to fight.
The cliffs on both sides were thirty jang high and narrowed toward the top, so there was no proper space to move aside either.
‘This won’t do.’
I quickly drew the Flying Dragon Claw and drove it into the cliff face.
Like a spider riding the thread it had spun, I flew up the cliff.
“This is chaos.”
Upstream along the river channel, dozens of people had already died, and new people were joining the battle by stepping on their corpses.
If things continued like this, the damage to the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect would not be insignificant either.
For now, we needed to avoid this meaningless battle.
“It is hard, but with One cycles of inner arts.”
After confirming that the Flying Dragon Claw was embedded firmly, I drew up my martial power and protected my right hand solidly.
Then I began striking the wall with the Great Yang Fist, a fist art of Taeul Sect.
THUD—! THUD—! THUD—!
Cracks slowly began to spread through the cliff that had stood hard and unmoving, and when the martial artists raised their heads at the strange sound from above, their faces immediately went pale.
“W-What is that bastard doing?!”
THUD—! THUD, THUD—!
When a hole opened, dirt and chunks of rock broken loose from the hole fell downward.
“D-Dodge!”
“Hey, you crazy bastard! Stop!”
Whether those below shouted or not, I continued pounding the wall, and after securing a hole of a certain size, I shot the Flying Dragon Claw toward Yu Ji-ryang and the others from Maoshan Sect.
“Grab the line.”
Once they grabbed the line, I withdrew my inner arts and pulled the line at the same time.
At the same time, the three of them kicked off the ground, were pulled lightly upward, and landed midway up the cliff.
“Please stay here for a moment.”
“…….”
Yu Ji-ryang, who had just experienced battle, looked dazed for a moment.
I quickly clung to the wall right beside them and began making another hole, and as soon as it was somewhat large enough, I pulled up two wounded Iron Sword Sect warriors and one person who had been protecting them.
“Dig into the wall so the others can come up.”
“……We have nothing right now.”
“Are you going to boil your inner arts into soup and eat it?”
I opened another hole in another section of wall and this time pulled up one Namgung Clan warrior who had been injured while protecting the Maoshan Sect spell practitioners, along with one uninjured warrior.
“…….”
By that point, perhaps having grasped my intention, the Namgung Clan warriors silently began digging into the wall, and among those preparing for battle, those well-versed in claw arts climbed the wall and began digging holes like me.
Thanks to that, the battle briefly lulled as people avoided the falling stones, but the flames of fighting still continued spreading in every direction.
After I pulled up the Iron Sword Sect warriors last, the warriors were left stunned by the melee unfolding below.
Everywhere, people were swinging blades without distinguishing enemy from ally.
The faces of the warriors, who realized that what was happening below was not unrelated to them, drained of color.
“It seems we should have come later, as Young Master Jin said.”
Namgung Seon-hwa expressed guilt, saying she had not known things would turn out like this.
“Should we stay here and enter when the people have cleared out?”
Namgung Seon-hwa, who had nearly placed not only the Namgung Clan warriors but also the Iron Sword Sect warriors in danger, no longer seemed to trust her own decisions.
“Now that the fighting has begun, this will go on for a long time anyway. More and more people will climb up the cliffs one by one too.”
“Then what should we do?”
“We go to the entrance like this.”
“……How? We do not have any such device.”
“Is there anyone who has learned claw arts?”
When I asked the Iron Sword Sect and Namgung Clan warriors, one of the warriors who had been glancing at the others raised his hand.
He was an Iron Sword Sect warrior, the one who had glared at me as though he would kill me every time I stayed close to Seong Mo-ran.
“Through a certain connection, I once learned the Soul-Breaking Claw Art.”
The killing intent he had directed at me had vanished at some point, and he was speaking as though reporting to a superior.
“Then if I make a small gap, can you make openings around it that people can step on and grip?”
“……I believe I can.”
“Then let us do this. I will make the path. Warriors with strength to spare will each carry one Maoshan Sect spell practitioner on your backs and follow the grooves this man makes to the entrance.”
“Understood.”
“Understood.”
Once I received firm answers even from Seong Mo-ran and Namgung Seon-hwa, preparations proceeded smoothly, like water rushing a thousand li in one course.
The Namgung Clan warriors began carrying the Maoshan Sect spell practitioners on their backs one by one, and the remaining warriors decided to guard against surprise attacks coming up from below, just in case.
“I will begin.”
TWANG.
I shot the Flying Dragon Claw and flew toward the cliff on the opposite side.
Then I broke part of the wall with the Great Yang Fist and made a gap.
Then I shot the Flying Dragon Claw toward the opposite cliff again and flew.
The Iron Sword Sect warrior who had learned the Soul-Breaking Claw Art used the gap I had made to hang from the wall, and while doing so, he made grooves that the next person could step on.
Unlike how lightly he had spoken of it, whenever his hands dug into the wall, the solid rock was hollowed out easily, as if it had turned into mud, unlike when I broke it.
When we began flying between the cliffs toward the entrance like that, people who followed behind us began appearing one by one.
“Young Master Jin! People are following behind us.”
“Leave them be. If they attack anyway, they will not be able to go any farther either.”
By the time we had drawn quite close to the entrance.
Seong Mo-ran pointed to one side and shouted.
“Over there!”
There, Yong So-ah and Ha Min-jung’s party were engaged in a desperate bloody struggle amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
While Yong So-ah and the Daoist priests of Wudang seemed fairly composed, it appeared Ha Min-jung and his companions had suffered a certain number of casualties.
“We will reach the entrance soon. Focus.”
The area near the entrance at the upper part of the valley was, if anything, quiet.
Most of those who were going to die had died, and the living had all gone into the cave.
After landing on the ground, I avoided the swords thrusting in from every direction and swung the Minor Heaven Sword Art.
“AAAAARGH!”
“URK!”
Fountains of blood sprayed, and now, in place of water, bloody water began flowing down the valley.
The Iron Sword Sect warriors who landed behind me rushed forward like mad and cut down everyone blocking the entrance, and we hurried into the cave before the others could interfere.
Even after entering the cave, we avoided those who swung swords at us when we suddenly appeared, passed several forks in the path, and stopped only after reaching a place without any sign of people.
“Huff, huff, huff!”
“Hah! Haaah!”
Only then did those who had been frantically catching their breath realize that they had entered the cave without taking any damage.
“It is fortunate there are no casualties.”
“……Haa.”
“……Huh.”
Not only the Namgung Clan warriors but also the Iron Sword Sect warriors were looking at me with complicated gazes.
“It is all thanks to Young Master Jin. If not for Young Master Jin, several people would already have died.”
“Let us discuss merits and rewards later. Right now, we do not know when excited martial artists will rush in and start a bloody fight.”
“But because we came in so hurriedly, we did not have time to check the map.”
“It is fine. I remember it.”
Even after I said that, Namgung Seon-hwa stared blankly at me without taking a step.
“Young Master Jin, may we ask you to guide us?”
At Namgung Seon-hwa’s words, I was just about to say that the Namgung Clan warriors and the Iron Sword Sect warriors would object.
But when I looked around, Seong Mo-ran as well as all the Iron Sword Sect and Namgung Clan warriors were looking at me with tense expressions.
“Would that be all right?”
“Please.”
Only then did a faint sense of relief pass over the faces of the Iron Sword Sect and Namgung Clan warriors.
