Chapter 310 : God (4)
Chapter 310: God (4)
After successfully completing the grueling round trip between Gansu and the Western Regions twice, Il-mok was now crossing the steppes on his third run.
'Has it really been half a year already?'
A single round trip from Gansu to the Western Regions and back took a good seventy days.
Two of those, plus the time spent blazing the initial trade route and the advance scouting trip to the north, added up to roughly six months.
'Time flies. Like that arrow over there.'
Il-mok had been half-dozing on horseback when a tremendous cracking sound drew his gaze to an arrow punching through the air.
That bizarre object, too large to be called an arrow and too small to be called a spear, had been fired by Jeong Hyeon.
Ever since receiving the massive bow and arrows from Il-mok, Jeong Hyeon had taken to practicing out on the open grasslands like this.
The weapon was far too dangerous to practice with anywhere near people.
"Excellent work, Miss Jeong. You've clearly gotten the hang of that bow."
"Th-thank you, Young Master."
Jeong Hyeon bowed her head at Il-mok's praise.
For the first few days after receiving the bow, she couldn't even bring herself to practice.
Not because she was worried about hurting someone. She was just embarrassed. The thing drew people’s attention wherever it went.
Then Il-mok had suggested.
"The grasslands are wide open with clear sightlines and no one around. Why not practice here?"
Taking his advice, Jeong Hyeon mustered her courage and fired the enormous bow for the first time.
THWAAANG!!!
The arrow screamed through the air and embedded itself in a spot completely different from where she'd aimed.
"Oh. Impressive."
Completely oblivious to her miss, Il-mok clapped in awe. Her face burning, Jeong Hyeon ducked her head and muttered.
"I-I wasn't aiming there, Young Master."
Driven by that humiliating first attempt, Jeong Hyeon made sure to whip out her bow and drill her archery techniques whenever the plains were empty.
She'd realized she needed to adapt to a sensation entirely different from her old bow.
Humans naturally struggled to maintain precision while exerting maximum force, and her new bow was a bizarre weapon that required channeling internal energy at full power just to draw.
But thanks to the Ghostly Spirit Divine Bow's gift of extreme sensory acuity, she'd fully adapted to the monstrous weapon three months later.
Creeeak.
THWAAANG!
Arrows fired in rapid succession embedded themselves right next to each other with pinpoint accuracy.
After spending some time launching those javelin-sized arrows and catching her breath, the group's horses and carriages caught up to where her arrows had landed.
Whoosh.
Jeong Hyeon leapt from her horse and retrieved the arrows she'd fired.
Since these projectiles were custom-forged specifically for her giant bow, she had to deal with the minor chore of manually retrieving them after every practice session.
* * *
After spending a few days crossing the steppes in a peaceful atmosphere, they took a day of rest at the outpost before advancing toward the entrance of the Tianshan Mountain Range.
After resting one day at the forward base, they pressed on toward the Tianshan Mountain Ranges.
Arriving near the eastern edge of the range, they pulled back on the reins and brought the wagons to a halt.
The sky was still blue, but evening had already come. The northern grasslands simply stayed bright because the sun set late.
As always, they planned to sleep here for the night and cross the mountain foothills into Xinjiang the next morning.
"Young Master."
"I noticed too."
At Jeong Hyeon's quiet warning, Il-mok scowled and locked his eyes on the path ahead.
"Everyone, masks and weapons."
The order to prepare for battle.
The moment he barked the order to prepare for battle, the 'empty' foothills ahead of them suddenly came alive as the nomads hiding in the brush stepped out and revealed themselves.
"Ha."
Il-mok scoffed at the sight.
There had to be at least three hundred of them. He marveled at how many had managed to conceal themselves behind scrub and rocks.
"Young Master. They're approaching from the rear as well."
Turning his head at Jin Hayeon's report, Il-mok saw a massive horde of nomadic cavalry closing in from all sides, effectively putting them inside a massive net.
The open plains meant he could see them, but they were still quite far off.
'Running... won't be easy.'
Distant as they were, the encirclement had no gaps. And because of that distance, any attempt to punch through one side would give them time to shift formation and thicken the wall.
Factor in the ambushers at the front who'd pursue from behind, and breaking through became even more hopeless.
Between the ambush force ahead and the encirclement closing from afar, the number easily exceeded a thousand.
A rather exhausting number for Il-mok's group of barely fifty to handle.
It might have been different if they were all small fry, but:
"Who gave you permission to pass through Oirat territory?"
The man shouting from the front alone told him these were no pushovers.
Il-mok wasn't the only one who'd sensed it. The man who'd shouted was staring directly at Il-mok.
"Are you the Khagan of the Oirat Tribe by chance?"
When Ohalak translated, the fierce-looking middle-aged man nodded.
"I am."
The two men locked eyes and understood instinctively. Neither was an opponent to be taken lightly.
"I wasn't aware this was Oirat territory. I'd heard you were based far to the northwest."
"Hahaha. As of this moment, it is our territory."
At the brazen reply, Il-mok curled his lips and countered.
"So what is it you want, going to all this trouble for such a warm welcome?"
"What a foolish question. I will deliver divine punishment upon you wretches for trespassing on our land without permission."
Despite having recognized Il-mok's strength, the man radiated confidence.
Confidence born from sheer numerical superiority.
Il-mok knew it too, so he tried a different angle.
"Why not think long-term? If we keep using this route and pay a toll each time, wouldn't that benefit you as well?"
"Hehehe. Did you think I'd fall for such a transparent ploy?"
The northern grasslands were absurdly vast, with much of the land unfit for human habitation.
From the perspective of a man who'd survived in such a world, expecting released prey to come back willingly was idiotic.
The Oirat Khagan drew his curved saber and pointed it at the Central Plains merchants.
"Attack!"
The instant his order fell, roughly half the men who'd emerged from the foothills raised bows and aimed.
They might have been acting like bandits, but these were proper nomadic warriors with real skill in archery.
Just as they finished aiming and prepared to loose—
THWAAANG!
A single arrow screamed through the air and punched clean through a nomad's body.
"Gkh..."
Jeong Hyeon had instantly fired an arrow and eliminated one of the nomads first, but they were still hopelessly outnumbered.
Triggered by her arrow, over a hundred shafts rained down from the foothills all at once.
"Tsk."
Some targeted people, but most were aimed at the horses. Clearly meant to cut off any escape.
Il-mok swept the Ascension Sword to form a curtain of Sword Qi, deflecting the arrows. Jin Hayeon raised a wall of ice using her cold yin energy.
Ju Seo-yeon and the other martial artists swung their weapons furiously, managing to protect themselves and their horses.
Meanwhile, under Il-mok’s protection, Jeong Hyeon fired again and picked off another nomad, but an even heavier volley came pouring back at them.
While the arrows pinned Il-mok's group in place—
"WAAAAAH!!"
"Kill them!!"
The other half of the ambush force charged with curved sabers and spears.
Il-mok swept away the arrows and gave his orders.
"We push straight through the front."
Retreating now would only push them right into the jaws of the massive cavalry net sweeping in from the rear.
So Il-mok chose a frontal breakthrough instead. Once friend and foe were tangled in melee, the enemy archers wouldn't be able to fire freely either.
Leading from the front, Il-mok used the Heavenly Net Sword to deflect the rain of arrows as he charged.
His party followed close behind.
As the distance between Il-mok's group and the charging Oirat warriors shrank, the arrow volleys ceased almost instantly.
Then fountains of blood erupted across the battlefield.
Schlick!
Standing at the very front, Il-mok swung the Ascension Sword without a shred of mercy, and every time he swung his sword, the bodies of the Oirat Tribe warriors were sliced apart.
His party followed in a wedge formation, picking off those beyond his blade's reach and carving a path forward.
But the one-sided slaughter lasted only moments.
"I, Taragai, will deal with you personally!"
With a roar, Taragai stepped forward and blocked Il-mok's sword with ease, unlike the other warriors.
When Il-mok violently stirred his Demonic Arts to form Sword Thunder, Taragai let out a ferocious laugh and shouted.
"Hahaha. What an interesting trick!"
The Saber Force coating his curved saber began spinning violently with a grinding roar like a saw blade.
Every time Taragai's saber clashed with the Ascension Sword, thunderous booms rolled across the battlefield.
With Il-mok pinned down by Taragai at the front, the rest of the party caught up.
"Don't worry about me! Push through!"
Gritting her teeth, Jin Hayeon immediately obeyed and unleashed her twin palms.
As someone who always kept a cool head, she knew that if she tried to intervene in a fight between two masters of that caliber, she might end up hindering Il-mok instead.
BOOM!
While several foolish Oirat warriors rushed in to help their Khagan and were shredded by stray Force Qi, Jin Hayeon skirted the two masters' battleground and pushed forward along the flank.
Every time her hands danced with cold yin energy, the nomads blocking her path were frozen solid.
Clang!
She'd been carving the path in Il-mok's place for a short while when an enemy warrior who could withstand her White Hand Demonic Art finally appeared,
By channeling a massive amount of his own qi into his scimitar, the man was actively neutralizing her yin energy before it could invade his body.
Forcing herself to stay calm and bury her impatience, Jin Hayeon unleashed a flurry of strikes with the warrior using her White Hand Demonic Art.
CLANG!!
Right as her right palm slammed against the flat of his scimitar in a fierce deadlock—
THWAAANG!
A massive arrow that looks a lot more like a javelin grazed past Jin Hayeon's ear and hurtled toward the warrior's heart with a deafening sonic boom.
Desperate to avoid the flying spear, the warrior violently contorted his body out of the way.
CRUNCH!
"Gkh..."
Unfortunately for the poor bastard standing right behind him, he took the javelin straight to the chest and dropped dead. Incredibly, the arrow still had force to spare after piercing one man. It continued forward and punched through a second warrior.
While Jeong Hyeon's arrow dispatched two fighters, Jin Hayeon didn't waste the opening.
As the warrior who'd twisted to dodge the massive arrow left himself exposed, Jin Hayeon drove her left palm forward.
Thwack!
The contact was barely a graze, but freezing cold surged through her palm and into the man's body.
"Nngh..."
He thrashed to fight off the chill, but Jin Hayeon ruthlessly smashed her palm into his skull with a deadpan expression.
CRACK!
With her enemy eliminated, Jin Hayeon resumed her footwork and continued carving through the escape route.
Meanwhile, at the center of their formation under the martial artists' protection, Jeong Hyeon surveyed the battlefield with uncharacteristically calm eyes with her bow already drawn.
Creeeak.
The moment she released the bowstring straining against its tremendous tension—
THWAAANG
Another arrow tore the air and grazed past a Demonic Cult martial artist, burying itself in a nomad warrior's forehead.
Correction: the arrow completely obliterated his skull into red mist and kept right on flying, instantly skewering the unlucky warrior standing behind him as well.