Kang Sogun

Jo Jeongpyeong highly praised Sim Mabaek's technique and spun his body like a windmill.

The two clashed for over ten exchanges in an instant.

It was an even match, but Sim Mabaek, who had an injury on his thigh, was inevitably slow in his movements.

'The Nine Flowers Demonic Sword is a rather well-known figure, but to think he's just an Heaven's Mandate Brigade team leader in the Heavenly Martial Faction.'

Jang Mugang lamented.

It had been five years since they had secluded themselves in Yueyang.

He thought he had not lost touch with the news of the martial world, but the Heavenly Martial Faction was more than what he had heard in rumors.

"Fifth team, subdue the remaining enemies!"

The man still on horseback must have been the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader.

He gave the order without caring about the fight between Jo Jeongpyeong and Sim Mabaek.

The ten members of the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team moved out at once.

Swish!

An iron arrow shot from the crossbow and flew towards the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader.

The Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader swung his saber and deflected the iron arrow.

Three members of the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team charged towards Wi Eunghwan, and seven attacked Jang Mugang.

"Not a chance!"

Jang Mugang swung the kitchen knives in both hands like a windmill and threw himself in front of Wi Eunghwan.

He was trying to resolve Wi Eunghwan's crisis first.

Wi Eunghwan rolled on the ground to avoid the saber of the enemy charging from the front, then shot up and kicked the head of the man next to him.

"Kuh!"

In addition to his skill with arrows and hidden weapons, Wi Eunghwan was outstanding in lightness skill. It meant his footwork was that good.

The warrior, who was hit in the head, unable to avoid Wi Eunghwan's improvisation, which seemed to be on the verge of death, was sent flying.

"I can beat you bastards even by fighting with my feet."

Wi Eunghwan gritted his teeth.

In the meantime, Jang Mugang pushed back the enemy and stood in front of Wi Eunghwan.

He had suffered cuts here and there on his body as he had charged straight ahead without caring for his own safety.

"Big Brother! If you do that, I'll really die. You have to take care of yourself first."

Wi Eunghwan burst out in anger as he saw Jang Mugang's wounds.

"Isn't it the same whether I die this way or that way? What's the big deal about a few flesh wounds? Let's really go at it now."

Jang Mugang stood back to back with Wi Eunghwan and held his kitchen knives crossed.

Wi Eunghwan also took out daggers from his bosom and held them in both hands. His injured arms trembled continuously.

Swords and sabers flickered and approached like a snake's tongue.

Clang! Clang!

Jang Mugang's kitchen knives flashed from all directions like fallen leaves in a gale.

"Ugh!"

Two Heaven's Mandate Brigade warriors died with their chests mangled.

The face of the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader contorted.

The movements of Jang Mugang and Wi Eunghwan were different from before.

The previous fight was to buy time, but now it was a mutual destruction technique to take one more with them before death.

Jang Mugang and Wi Eunghwan continuously unfolded killing moves.

"Be careful. These men were famous in Shandong until five years ago."

Jo Jeongpyeong deflected Sim Mabaek's spear and warned the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader.

Among the Heaven's Mandate Brigade, only Jo Jeongpyeong knew the true skills of the Three Tigers of Shandong.

'Hmph!'

The Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader snorted inwardly.

After Bang Geon was imprisoned for the crime of Gu Yangun's death, Jo Jeongpyeong had suddenly become the first team leader.

Unlike the Heaven's Mandate Brigade, who had shared joys and sorrows, he was a figure who had been parachuted in from above, so the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader secretly held a grudge.

"Then I'll kill him myself."

The Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader gritted his teeth, shot up from his horse, and attacked, swinging his wolf-fang saber.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The moment he thought it had clashed with Jang Mugang's kitchen knife, the wolf-fang saber was hit repeatedly and thrown back.

The momentum of striking down from horseback was rendered useless.

'Hah!'

The Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader was flustered, but he was also no pushover.

He quickly stepped back to escape the range of the kitchen knife's offensive and protected his body with his wolf-fang saber.

While the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader was briefly pushed back, swords and sabers flew towards Jang Mugang from both sides.

Jang Mugang gave up on the saber flying towards his right side, struck down the sword with the kitchen knife in his left hand, and slashed up from below with the kitchen knife in his right hand.

"Ugh!"

The man who had used the sword collapsed, spitting blood from his stomach to his chest.

Instead, a knife grazed Jang Mugang's right side.

The pain was so intense that it felt like a chunk of flesh was being torn off, and the hair on his head stood on end.

"Uk!"

With a low groan, the movement of Wi Eunghwan, who was back to back with him, was transmitted.

Before he had time to look back, swords and sabers flew again.

'I didn't know the enemy.'

The advantage of the Heaven's Mandate Brigade was their team-based combined attacks.

The reason they could be easily defeated at the Mohong Inn was because they were guarding a narrow door.

If Gu Yangun had used his head a little more at that time, he would have drawn the Three Tigers of Shandong out to fight.

The fight lasted longer than both sides had initially thought.

The Heaven's Mandate Brigade was strong, but the Three Tigers of Shandong were also formidable. Jang Mugang and Sim Mabaek were masters who were on the verge of reaching the peak.

As the fight dragged on, darkness completely fell.

Only the faint moonlight illuminated the main road.

Jo Jeongpyeong judged that it would be difficult to subdue Sim Mabaek easily and instinctively knew that the time had come to make a decisive move.

When he sent a feint of a straight thrust, Sim Mabaek struck with his spear and extended it at the same time.

Jo Jeongpyeong's sword spun. In an instant, nine sword shadows bloomed.

The sword shadows, illuminated by the moonlight, were like flowers.

"Nine Flowers?"

The secret technique of Jo Jeongpyeong, which had given him the nickname Nine Flowers Demonic Sword, was unfolded.

Sim Mabaek rotated the spear in his hand and brought it over his shoulder.

The spear flowed over Sim Mabaek's shoulder and then suddenly shook greatly from side to side.

The tip of the spear flew towards the sword shadows like a snake's tongue flicking.

Jo Jeongpyeong's sword flowers were struck by the spear tip and disappeared, but the last remaining sword flower grazed Sim Mabaek's chest.

Sim Mabaek instinctively turned his body, but he could not properly execute his footwork due to the injury on his thigh.

Thwack!

Sim Mabaek's chest, grazed by Jo Jeongpyeong's sword flower, became a bloody mess.

"Ugh!"

Sim Mabaek knelt down.

Jo Jeongpyeong's sword flew towards Sim Mabaek again.

It was the moment of death.

Just then.

"Second Brother!"

Swish!

Wi Eunghwan disregarded the saber flying towards him and threw the dagger in his hand at Jo Jeongpyeong.

Jo Jeongpyeong could not ignore the dagger flying towards him.

He withdrew his sword and deflected the dagger.

"Be careful!"

Instead of deflecting the saber that flew at Wi Eunghwan, Jang Mugang could not block the sword that flew at his thigh and was stabbed.

"Go!"

While Jo Jeongpyeong was deflecting the flying dagger, Sim Mabaek swept the ground with his spear.

Jo Jeongpyeong threw himself back. But the spear extended a foot long and swept Jo Jeongpyeong's leg.

"Ugh!"

Jo Jeongpyeong let out a groan without realizing it as his thigh was cut.

In the meantime, Sim Mabaek rolled to the side of Jang Mugang and Wi Eunghwan.

The three stood back to back in a triangular formation.

"You're amazing. To hold on like this with injured bodies."

Jo Jeongpyeong, who had an injury on his leg, gritted his teeth but was inwardly impressed.

They were heroes he would have wanted to befriend if he had met them in the martial world.

There was no grudge between him and the Three Tigers of Shandong. This fight was just being fought because of the order of the organization he belonged to.

The Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader shouted at Jo Jeongpyeong, who had not been able to abandon his disposition as a lone martial artist.

"First Team Leader! What are you doing! Praising the enemy in front of your subordinates. Let's cut their throats quickly."

He was the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader who had lost four subordinates. He was also bleeding from his side and thigh, hit by Jang Mugang's kitchen knife.

Jo Jeongpyeong sighed.

It seemed difficult to live the life of a martial artist as long as he was part of an organization.

"Heaven's Mandate First Team! Send them off honorably!"

As Jo Jeongpyeong's order fell, the ten members of the Heaven's Mandate First Team approached the Three Tigers of Shandong.

"Kekeke. Come on. You guys are nothing!"

Sim Mabaek lifted his long spear with difficulty.

"Mabaek, cut it out. Do you think those bastards will come because they're scared!"

Jang Mugang said as he spat out a lump of blood rising from his throat, but his energy was so low that it sounded like a mumble.

Wi Eunghwan didn't even have the energy to speak.

But the approaching Heaven's Mandate First Team members stopped in their tracks.

Thump, thump, thump, thump.

From the darkness on the other side of the main road, a group of men and horses appeared with a sound that shook the earth.

They were about thirty martial artists.

"The Three Blade Sect?"

Jo Jeongpyeong recognized the insignia on the chests of the martial artists, which shone in the faint moonlight.

Three sabers were embroidered with white thread.

The face of the Heaven's Mandate Fifth Team Leader contorted as much as it could.

'Jo Jeongpyeong! You've ruined things by hesitating while pretending to be a martial artist!'

He burst out in anger inwardly, but there was nothing he could do.

The Heaven's Mandate Brigade had a strict hierarchy, and the Heaven's Mandate First Team Leader was the superior.

"Form up!"

The remaining Heaven's Mandate Brigade formed a dense formation.

In the meantime, the Three Blade Sect had approached.

"Could it be the Great Tiger of Shandong, Great Warrior Jang?"

The man in the lead recognized Jang Mugang.

The voice was familiar to Jang Mugang.

"Great Warrior Yeon?"

"That's right. It's Yeon Seongyeol of the Three Blade Sect!"

***

Wu Wonsong had two teams chase the Three Tigers of Shandong and sent one team to the north. And he led the remaining seven teams and galloped south.

After running for a while, he saw a carriage coming this way on the other side of the main road.

"Search that carriage."

Seeing the carriage, Wu Wonsong ordered.

There was no one in the carriage.

The Heaven's Mandate Second Team Leader asked the driver.

"Where are you going with an empty carriage when the sun is setting?"

"I'm just running an errand."

"An errand?"

"They asked me to take it to Yueyang."

"Who are they?"

"They were people I'd never seen before. A martial artist, a young woman, and..."

"Let's get on our way!"

Before the driver could finish his words, Wu Wonsong, who was listening from the other side, shouted.

His prediction that Yeon Hwasim would have taken the southern road was correct.

Now, all he had to do was chase.

"Gallop at full speed."

Wu Wonsong urged the Heaven's Mandate Brigade and was able to reach the pier before the sun set.

"Inquire about the culprits."

A moment later, the Heaven's Mandate Second Team Leader brought a boatman.

"This man says that a boat that seemed to be carrying the culprits' party left half an hour ago."

Wu Wonsong asked the boatman directly.

"Where did they say they were going?"

"I don't know that."

The boatman shook his head.

He had received the silver coin, but he couldn't answer what he didn't know.

Wu Wonsong asked.

"Where is the closest pier to Wuhan?"

"Yuncheng Port is the closest."

Wu Wonsong was lost in thought for a moment, then called the Heaven's Mandate Second Team Leader.

"I'll give you five teams. No matter what, you must surround Yuncheng Port before sunrise tomorrow."

"I will obey your command."

The Heaven's Mandate Second Team Leader, who had received Wu Wonsong's order, led five teams and rode his horse.

Wu Wonsong took out a brush, ink, and paper, wrote something, and then called a messenger.

"You go to the safe house in Yueyang and deliver this letter."

The messenger also left.

Wu Wonsong personally led the remaining two teams and got on a boat.

Unsal, who was leaning against the side of the boat and drinking, asked.

"Do you think they will land at Yuncheng Port? They seemed quite cunning."

"Wherever they land, they will be caught. Isn't it obvious where they are going? If we go by the fastest route and guard the intersection, we can catch them."

"You mean they're going to the Three Blade Sect. That's true, but don't you know that the Wuhan area is the territory of the Three Blade Sect?"

"The Heaven's Mandate Brigade is a match for the Three Blade Sect."

Wu Wonsong cut off his words and turned his gaze to the dark, rippling river.

The letter he had given to the messenger would be delivered to the Dark Heaven Brigade.

The Dark Heaven Brigade was a military force that the Heavenly Martial Faction mobilized to annihilate its enemies. They were also called the force of darkness because they did not hesitate to use even despicable and cruel methods.

'Now that the Dark Heaven Brigade has come out, not only the culprit but also the Three Blade Sect will be annihilated.'

Unsal did not know that the Dark Heaven Brigade had also been deployed. If he had known, he might have tried to back out, saying that he didn't need to use his hands.

Wu Wonsong was not a man who said unnecessary things. In his opinion, Heaven, Earth, Wind, and Cloud were guests, not true members of the Heavenly Martial Faction.

'Tomorrow! Another sect will disappear from the martial world.'

After the miscellaneous sects disappeared, the Heavenly Martial Faction would literally become the number one faction in the world.

Wu Wonsong's hand, which was holding the side of the boat, tightened.

(End of Chapter)