Chapter 241
Chapter 241. Benefactor of the Tang Clan
The Demonkin whose chest had been torn open staggered, and in that instant, a Demonkin who had been hiding in the tree above leapt at Yeon-ah.
As if she had predicted the direction, Yeon-ah extended her retrieved sword to the upper right.
Pook.
"Keuk......."
The Demonkin twitched, unable even to scream. His feet were not touching the ground, and he could not retreat.
She did not torment the Demonkin who had lunged for her throat.
Slash!
After flinging him aside, Yeon-ah blocked the Demonkin charging from the left.
Clang! Clang!
Yeon-ah cut their vital points and quickly neutralized those who rushed at her.
Slash!
She moved toward the Demonkin's sword embedded in the ground.
Pulling it out, Yeon-ah threw the sword toward the left sky as if casting a flying dagger.
Clang!
The Demonkin hiding in the tree panicked, knocked the sword aside, and fell.
Yeon-ah guessed the positions of the Blood Sect members hidden among the trees. If this were truly a formation following the Post-Heaven Bagua, then their sequence could also be predicted.
The four Demonkin surrounding her on the ground stood at regular intervals.
The four cardinal directions—east, west, south, and north.
If you tilt those coordinates slightly and overlap them, the four directions become eight.
Viewed from above, those two sets of east, west, south, and north form the Bagua Formation.
It was a formation that could be deployed in dense forests or streets filled with buildings. A human prison that cuts off escape routes and corners the enemy.
Yeon-ah guessed that the original form of their formation was not the Bagua Formation.
With only eight people, the combined attack was too full of gaps.
‘Could the original form have been the Sixty-Four Hexagram Formation?’
Since they had created martial arts using the Bagua that embodied the changes of nature, it would not be strange if they also used the Sixty-Four Hexagram Formation, expanded through the changes of nature and humanity.
With sixty-four martial artists stacked tightly in rows and columns, they would have created a perfect inferno, not such a sloppy formation.
Yeon-ah twisted her body and climbed onto the tree, then immediately crossed to the next tree and cut away the thin branches.
Slash!
The Demonkin charging at her panicked and retreated.
Clang! Clang! Claang! Slash!
Pressing the enemy hard, Yeon-ah slashed a vital point.
"Gah!"
As he collapsed, she seized his sword and dropped straight to the ground.
The moment she left the front of the roots, the two martial artists remaining on the ground sensed an opportunity and rushed toward the Tang Clan's direct line.
As if she had been waiting for it, Yeon-ah swung both swords.
Clang! Clang! Claang!
The twin blades blocked the combined attack of the two Demonkin.
Clang! Clang!
After exchanging a few blows, she could feel their speed and strength.
There was a gap in skill level between the two. Only one of them possessed great speed.
Clang! Clang!
They moved in and out together, pressuring Yeon-ah and evading her attacks. However, because of the difference in speed, their coordination easily opened gaps.
Ta-at.
The moment they closed in, Yeon-ah lowered her body and spun.
"Keuk!"
The sharp blades slashed the knees of both Demonkin simultaneously.
As a result, the swords of the Demonkin, who had lost their balance, pointed toward each other.
Yeon-ah escaped from between them and rose behind the warrior with the faster reactions.
Thwack!
She kicked the Demonkin's back with her foot.
Pook.
"Eok!"
The sword of the faster Demonkin pierced his comrade's solar plexus.
Yeon-ah did not cut the defenseless Demonkin's back. Instead, she leapt, stepped on his shoulder and head, and used the momentum to spring straight into the tree.
The Demonkin rushed in according to the Bagua sequence, but the timing of their entries was chaotic.
By offering bait, even the order became mixed, and the martial artist who should have joined last moved.
Her suspicion that it was a hastily assembled formation became certainty.
Ta-at.
The moment Yeon-ah climbed onto a branch, the leaves of the opposite tree shook violently.
Yeon-ah had lived in the forest for over ten years. She had roamed the mountains longer than most wild beasts lived.
Distinguishing between branches shaken to cause confusion and branches shaken by a person stepping on them was not difficult.
Clang!
The instant she hurled one of her twin swords, the leaves burst apart and spat out a person.
Before the Demonkin who fell to the ground could even stand, Yeon-ah charged at him.
Clang!
He blocked her sword while scooting backward on his hips. His expression was wretched, filled with grievance, as if he had already sensed defeat.
Clang! Clang!
However, Yeon-ah showed him no mercy.
She simply found it disgusting that a wretch who had rushed to kill young girls was now shedding tears because his own life was precious.
Then suddenly, his gaze changed.
The whites of his eyes turned blood-red, and he let out a monstrous scream as he rose.
"Aaaaaagh!"
Though his forearm was deeply slashed, the Demonkin immediately brandished his sword.
Yeon-ah's eyes narrowed slightly.
The force transmitted through the blade had changed.
'...... The sword technique changed.'
The sword path mainly connected five points.
Clang! Clang!
As Yeon-ah faced his blade, she quickly read the formula. It was a sword moving within the Five Elements.
Having vaguely heard of the Blood Sect's martial arts, Yeon-ah was unsettled by their sword.
Their swordsmanship felt similar in structure to orthodox sect techniques, as if someone had modified it.
No, since many different strikes were pouring in, she could not claim to have read all of it. She likely failed to read what she did not know and only recognized what she did. Thus, Yeon-ah could only read the orthodox sword techniques she was familiar with.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Soon, the sword that had been roaming the five points of the Five Elements began to move between two points.
Large, solid strokes poured in, as if drawing continuous lines.
Water and fire.
As the antitheses of the opposing poles connected, the surrounding energy fluctuated. The energies of the two extremes were concentrated at the tip of the sword.
Clang!
Every time their swords met, Yeon-ah felt her internal energy churn. The energy gathered in her palm was sucked straight into his blade.
'So it's a sword technique that siphons internal energy.'
He created a flow and stole the energy of others.
However, it was not an attack that worked particularly well on Yeon-ah. To begin with, her internal energy was not exceptional.
Clang!
Yeon-ah's strength was not the energy accumulated in her meridians, nor overwhelming power.
Her weapons were eyes that could perceive movements as fast as a bird's wingbeat, and a mind that could understand them.
Moreover, having learned Wudang's martial arts over the past three years, her body could now keep up with her mind.
The more she fought in real combat, the more insanely she grew. It was truly heaven-bestowed talent.
Clang!
The sword that had been moving in straight lines suddenly began to curve.
Water and fire. Twisted by opposing energies, it seemed as if air currents were being formed.
The fierce current soon split into yin and yang.
To a martial artist who relied heavily on yin or yang energy, that sword technique would likely be fatal.
Yeon-ah had a slightly absurd thought.
Perhaps the one who created this sword technique had never practiced demonic arts.
Maybe they simply tried to bind yin and yang using demonic energy that destroyed vitality.
With an uneasy feeling, Yeon-ah no longer met his blade. She did not try to read his sword, but prepared a single decisive strike.
Slash!
The moment he moved his sword to the left, Yeon-ah struck down the Demonkin's left arm.
"Aaak!"
His arm was deeply cut, bone exposed, and the sword fell to the ground.
Though she had disabled him, Yeon-ah did not stop her strikes.
Slash! Rip!
"Uaaak!"
His shoulder was shredded. One more cut and the arm would have fallen off.
When Yeon-ah raised her sword high again, the Demonkin panicked and fell backward.
"P-please, spare me!"
For the first time, the Demonkin spoke words she could understand. He muttered desperately and crawled on the ground.
His tear-soaked face might have stirred pity, but Yeon-ah did not stop as she approached him. As if demonic energy had seeped into her, her clear eyes were clouded.
Clang!
At the moment she brought her sword down, Yeon-ah flinched.
The Sword Saint, who had blocked her path, pushed her back with a distorted face.
"Get a hold of yourself."
At the voice filled with anger, Yeon-ah jolted and retreated.
Coming to her senses, she gasped for breath.
"Haah... haah..."
She now saw the Wudang martial artists who had filled the surroundings.
When Yeon-ah lowered her gaze, her body froze.
Enemies she thought she had only lightly cut were scattered on the ground. The Demonkin had their necks severed and limbs torn off. Without even realizing it, Yeon-ah had slaughtered them.
Then, the Sword Saint grabbed her wrist.
"Ugh!"
A cool current began to flow through her entire body. Yeon-ah did not know what he was doing, but she trusted her master and stayed still.
When the energy completed a circuit through her body, the Sword Saint withdrew his hand.
Yeon-ah felt her mind clear.
The world began to look sharp and vivid.
Only then did the Sword Saint's gaze and the Sect Leader's expression come into clear focus.
Remembering something she had forgotten, Yeon-ah turned her head to look at the tree roots. The twins hiding in the hollow stared at her with blank faces.
Yeon-ah realized she had forgotten the twins and had gone berserk.
When she dismantled and cut through the sword technique of the first Demonkin she faced, she had lost her mind in excitement.
Only then did Yeon-ah realize she had entered a state of trance.
And she could now understand the angry reactions of the Wudang martial artists.
What she had gained through that state was not enlightenment into the principles of martial arts. She had recognized the chaos residing within her...
Yeon-ah recalled the moment she broke the Demonkin's formation and closed her eyes.
Whether the opponent died or begged for mercy, she had not stopped her sword.
It was not because she had to protect the twins.
The emotion she had clearly felt each time she dismantled a sword technique was...pleasure.
It was an attitude unacceptable in Wudang, which values the weight of life, and both the Sect Leader and the Sword Saint, who had long lived in the Murim, had read all of Yeon-ah's inner self.
Yeon-ah lowered her head.
It was because she, too, had felt the evil residing in her own abyss.
Then, something damp touched her hand.
Splash.
A first-generation disciple of the Wudang Sect, who had approached silently, poured disinfectant on Yeon-ah's hand. Soon, his gaze moved up to the Sword Saint.
The first-generation disciple spoke gently.
"Sword Saint, Yeon-ah is injured."
Although Yeon-ah was the Sword Saint's direct disciple, she was very young, so she had first been registered as a third-generation disciple. If ranks became tangled, elders would have to use honorifics toward a child, so when taking in very young direct disciples, they sometimes arranged the hierarchy this way.
It was rare in Wudang for someone of the Sword Saint's stature to take in a chick-like child as a disciple, so he did not argue about her generation and followed the sect's decision.
Thus, even the first-generation disciple regarded Yeon-ah as a much junior martial artist.
As if she were a niece he needed to protect, he shielded Yeon-ah from the gazes of the Sword Saint and the Sect Leader.
"The Tang Clan must be worried about the twins' survival, so wouldn't it be best to return for now?"
The calm voice of the first-generation disciple cut through the tension.
The Sword Saint let out a heavy breath and turned away.
As they moved to return to the Tang Clan estate, the first-generation disciple placed the bottle of disinfectant into Yeon-ah's hand and smiled with crescent eyes.
"It's fine. Once they see the Tang Clan's reaction, they'll quickly forget and think well of you. Didn't the Tang Clan's direct line survive thanks to you?"
"Yes..."
"Don't make that face."
"What face am I making?"
"You saved the children alone, yet you look as if you've committed a great sin."
When Yeon-ah could not answer and lowered her head, he patted her shoulder in comfort.
"When I first killed someone, I also lost my reason and saw nothing. The others were probably the same. So don't be too intimidated."
"......."
"Now, now. Let's go to the Tang Clan estate. Once you experience how the Tang Clan treats their benefactor, you'll feel better."
Benefactor.
That word pounded at Yeon-ah's heart.
She slowly lifted her head. The Tang Clan girls were being led out from the roots by Wudang martial artists.
Yeon-ah knew from the Divine Physician that Tang So-hwa cherished her siblings dearly.
Suddenly, guilt faded in color, and joy began to wriggle and assert its presence.
"Still, don't get too happy. They might scold you harshly to keep you from getting cocky."
At the first-generation disciple's concerned voice, Yeon-ah nodded and managed her expression.
But her heart was still pounding.
She wanted to return to the Tang Clan's estate quickly and tell the woman who had once been her benefactor that her siblings were safe.