Chapter 287 : Setting Out (3)
Chapter 287: Setting Out (3)
The Blood Giants were the hidden trump card prepared by the Eternal Life Sect.
The moment they rampaged across the battlefield, the tide of war changed drastically.
The beastkin of the Beast King Sect, who had finally begun gaining momentum, were pushed back.
Each Blood Giant was stronger than the giants of the Eternal Life Sect they had faced before, and there were many of them.
Fortunately, thanks to Maeng Ye-ju’s command, the beastkin were not collapsing in complete disarray like before.
However, once the Sect Master of the Eternal Life Sect himself entered the battlefield, the flow completely shifted.
Whenever the Eternal Life Sect Master appeared, the Beast King Sect’s forces were crushed apart, forcing Maeng Ye-ju to gather her disciples together in order to prevent them from being defeated one by one.
She intended to gather all their strength and oppose the Eternal Life Sect Master directly.
---
‘This won’t be easy.’
The small fox beastkin, Dan Hong, retreated from the battlefield while recovering her ruined body.
Her gaze rested upon the gigantic giant in the distance.
The Giant King Ban Un-hwang.
A native of the Great Human Nation who called himself a descendant of the primordial giant Pangu, and the Sect Master of the Eternal Life Sect.
Though he failed to earn a place among the Seventeen Emperors, he was still recognized as a powerhouse possessing comparable strength.
Yet according to what Dan Hong had heard, he should have lost all his power after the elders of the Beast King Sect severed his limbs under Hae Ryang’s command.
That was certainly what she believed.
Yet now he had returned.
And in a horrifying form at that.
【Uwooooooooar!】
When the massive Ban Un-hwang opened his mouth, crimson lava poured forth.
He was not breathing flames.
He spewed magma like an erupting volcano.
Ban Un-hwang stood over twenty jang tall, and his entire body resembled hardened rock and metal.
From his metallic flesh protruded the faces and limbs of other giants.
Ban Un-hwang looked like a gigantic statue formed by fusing countless giants together.
The ones opposing the giant larger than most towers were the Beast King Sect’s Young Sect Leader Maeng Ye-ju and Dan Hong’s younger sibling, the Crimson Curse Evil Fox, Dan Yeong.
Dan Yeong transformed into a gigantic Eight-Tailed Fox and charged toward Ban Un-hwang with Maeng Ye-ju riding atop his head.
‘They won’t last long.’
At first glance, it appeared as though they were fighting evenly.
But Dan Hong knew better.
They were merely buying time.
She needed to recover from her injuries quickly and assist them.
Looking across the battlefield, there was nowhere where the situation favored them.
Everyone was barely holding on against the attacks of the Blood Giants swarming from all directions.
If Maeng Ye-ju and Dan Yeong fell here, the entire battlefield would be swept away instantly.
“Elder Sister!”
A sickly-looking fox beastkin approached Dan Hong while she observed the battlefield.
Though thin and gaunt, his eyes were sharp, and his aura resembled the edge of a blade.
The Evil Ghost Blade, Dan Mun.
Together with the Thousand Slaughter Evil Beast Dan Hong and the Crimson Curse Evil Fox Dan Yeong, he had once been known as one of the Three Vicious Beasts or Three Evil Beasts—the troublemakers of the Beast King Sect.
Due to his violent and twisted temperament, he and Dan Yeong had once been imprisoned by the former Sect Leader Hae Ryang as punishment, but they had recently resumed activity.
The ones who competed with Jang Woo-hyun and crushed the Twin-Winged Lotus were none other than Dan Hong and her younger siblings.
“Mun-ah, go help them too.”
“Just focus on healing already. It’s not like the battle’s going to change just because I join in.”
Dan Mun approached and placed his hand against Dan Hong’s back.
A tremendous amount of internal energy flowed from his hand into her body.
“At a time like this—”
“I said no. While those two buy time, you and I need to recover as quickly as possible and attack together. Otherwise we have no chance.”
“…….”
Unable to refute her younger brother’s cold judgment, Dan Hong focused entirely on recovering her body.
“These bastards planned this from the beginning. If the Sect Leader were here, we could’ve managed somehow, but they targeted him because they knew this would happen from the start.”
Their current fighting force matched up terribly against Ban Un-hwang.
Against a giant like that, the Beast King Sect Leader Baek Gang—with his monstrous destructive strength—would have been perfect.
But he had suffered severe injuries and could barely move properly.
“So that’s why it felt like they were forcing things.”
The assassin who attacked Baek Gang had used far too many methods for a mere assassin.
All sorts of treasures, poisons, and curses.
Now that she thought about it, none of them had been lethal poisons or fatal curses.
Their goal had not been to kill him instantly, but to leave him too injured to rise again.
Realizing he could not be killed easily, they instead prepared to bind his movements.
All to prevent the Beast King Sect Leader from interfering in the battlefield.
“How long will it take?”
“I can move right now if necessary. But if I want to actually contribute to the battle…… I’ll need at least one gak.”
“Finish it in half a gak.”
“You brat, do you think it’s that easy just because you say it?”
“Do it even if your body breaks apart.”
“So now you’re threatening me just because I’m old. At least you used to be cute when you were younger. What am I supposed to do with you now?”
“If you get old, you die. What else can you do?”
“What?”
“Even if we die, we still need to leave a proper sect behind for that child.”
When Dan Hong turned her head, Dan Mun gestured with his chin toward the front.
He was referring to Maeng Ye-ju.
“She’s more talented than the current Sect Leader. We can’t leave a shattered, ruined sect to a child like that. Our era’s already over anyway.”
“…….”
“I wondered how impressive she could be if even you admitted defeat, Elder Sister, but your eyes are still good. She’s the best among the Sect Leader’s disciples, both in martial arts and character. She might even be the most outstanding child in the entire Central Heavens Martial Realm.”
Though the situation was grave, Dan Hong ended up laughing at Dan Mun’s premature judgment.
It was true Maeng Ye-ju was exceptional.
But Dan Hong knew someone far more extraordinary than her.
“You only say things like that because you haven’t seen that child.”
“Who? That guy called the Sword Hero? Is he really that incredible? How does he compare to Ye-ju?”
“There’s no comparison.”
At Dan Hong’s firm declaration, Dan Mun’s face twisted.
“What? Don’t say ridiculous things. It hurts my pride to admit it, but even we—the Three Vicious Beasts—weren’t at Ye-ju’s level at her age.”
Not only himself, but even Dan Hong, the strongest among them, and Dan Yeong, the most talented youngest sibling, had never been that strong at Maeng Ye-ju’s age.
Maeng Ye-ju truly deserved to be called a genius.
“That’s enough talking. Focus now. Count to one hundred, then move immediately.”
“Will that really work?”
Since her injuries were far from light, he asked worriedly.
“Who do you think I am? I am the Thousand Slaughter Evil Beast, eldest of the Three Vicious Beasts.”
Dan Hong bared her teeth in a grin.
She looked nothing like her usual self.
Normally she always smiled and was called the Smiling Fox.
But what she showed now was the face of a predator.
Knowing her strength better than anyone, Dan Mun nodded and silently began counting.
Once he reached one hundred, he would immediately release his hand and charge toward Ban Un-hwang.
‘One, two, three, four, five, six…….’
As he slowly counted, he quickly approached one hundred.
‘Eighty-seven. Eighty-eight. Eighty-nine…….’
As the counting neared its end, Dan Mun bent his legs and crouched low.
All he had to do now was let go and charge forward.
When only five numbers remained—
Suddenly, the sky on one side of the battlefield rippled strangely.
Wondering if he had imagined it, Dan Mun stared as brilliant light suddenly erupted from the distorted space.
A moment later.
After the light vanished, a gigantic floating fortress appeared.
“Uh……?”
The unexpected intruder caused Dan Mun to stop counting, and Dan Hong also opened her eyes.
And before either of them even realized it—
A man was suddenly standing in front of the floating fortress, stepping upon empty air.
“……!”
The instant he saw him—
Dan Mun retreated dozens of jang backward and grabbed his blade.
The hand gripping the sword trembled uncontrollably.
Unlike him, Dan Hong remained standing still.
She recognized the distant man immediately.
The name slipped from her lips.
“Sword Hero……?”
Only after some time did Dan Mun finally hear the words from Dan Hong’s mouth.
‘That’s him?’
That human was the Thousand-Lin Sword Hero?
No—was that thing even human anymore?
Dan Mun was different from Mak Ya-wol or Seo Ryeom, who sensed nothing from Jang Woo-hyun.
His beastly instincts screamed at him desperately to flee.
That was no mere natural predator.
It was a monster beyond all opposition.
A living calamity.
Living fear itself.
Death wearing human skin.
Even if all the malice and killing intent in the world were gathered together and molded into human form, it would not reach this level.
Dan Mun was not the only one who felt this.
The humans of the Beast King Sect, including Yeom Jong-myeong, stopped fighting in shock at the sudden appearance of the Great Thunder Fortress.
But the beastkin reacted differently.
The moment Jang Woo-hyun appeared, the beastkin began retreating frantically.
They looked like wild animals fleeing from a forest fire.
The savage beasts of the Beast King Sect became tiny creatures fleeing from an irresistible natural disaster.
Even though their leader still fought, it did not matter.
This was instinct.
Even the rampaging Blood Giants turned their heads toward Jang Woo-hyun the moment he appeared.
Having halted the battle merely through his arrival alone, Jang Woo-hyun finally spoke.
“Stop fighting.”
He neither infused his words with willpower nor shouted loudly.
Yet his voice sounded as clear as though he were speaking directly beside everyone’s ears.
---
The moment they arrived where the Beast King Sect was fighting, the martial artists of the Immortal-Slaying Division eagerly prepared to rush out.
But Jang Woo-hyun moved before any of them could.
The instant they saw him already standing outside atop empty air, no one rushed forward.
For some reason, it simply felt as though they should not.
“Stop fighting.”
At Jang Woo-hyun’s short sentence, the entire world seemed to freeze.
Everyone stopped moving.
Only Ban Un-hwang glared at Jang Woo-hyun and roared.
【You insignificant insect! Who do you think you are ordering around?!】
Drunk on his own power, Ban Un-hwang failed to properly grasp what kind of martial artist Jang Woo-hyun truly was.
【Kill him!】
At the command, the Blood Giants turned away from the Beast King Sect and shifted toward Jang Woo-hyun instead.
Jang Woo-hyun looked at them.
Their crimson bodies burned away their own life force to produce immense power.
All of them were effectively dying already.
Their upper dantians had completely burned away, leaving them able to react only to simple commands.
After surveying the battlefield once, Jang Woo-hyun raised his hand.
“Baekmu.”
The moment he called the artifact connected to his soul, a white sword appeared in his hand.
Holding Baekmu, he slashed through empty air.
It was a simple horizontal slash.
But what followed was anything but simple.
Pu-hwaak!
Hundreds of Blood Giant heads flew into the air simultaneously.
This was different from when he fought the elite forces of the Demonic Cult charging at him in the Central Plains.
Back then, he spread his willpower to its limit and imagined cutting apart the world visible before his eyes.
He endlessly extended sword aura to slash through a vast area at once.
But this was different.
It was neither martial arts nor sword aura.
He did not even imbue it with willpower.
The moment he thought of cutting—
The world itself responded.
He had altered the laws of the world.
As a result, no one else was harmed.
Only the heads of exactly three hundred and forty-one Blood Giants were severed.
No one could react to what had just happened.
【……Y-you bastaaaard!】
Ban Un-hwang reacted belatedly, but it was already too late.
The moment Jang Woo-hyun’s gaze landed upon the twenty-jang giant—
Kururung!
The sky split apart as a gigantic sword descended like lightning.
【Kuaaaagh!】
Ban Un-hwang could do nothing as he was skewered like meat upon a skewer, and gigantic swords ten jang long crashed down afterward to seal his movements completely.
Jang Woo-hyun took a single step.
Then vanished from his original position and appeared directly before Ban Un-hwang.
【Y-you……! I won’t let you go! I absolutely won’t let you go!】
The restrained giant twisted his body and shrieked wildly, but he could not move.
Jang Woo-hyun approached him and extended his hand.
The moment his palm touched Ban Un-hwang’s body—
Peeeeong!
The gigantic giant exploded apart.
And hundreds of giants came falling down below.