Kang Sogun

-Boom! Boom!

The Fire Dragon Saber cut through the air in succession, pouring out red saber qi. A single bamboo staff lightly deflected the rough saber qi.

Each time, an explosion erupted.

"Kuh!"

Jo Unryong finally retreated three steps.

Jo Unryong's face, hidden by a mask, was contorted. A stream of blood flowed from the corner of his mouth. He had suffered an internal injury in just a few exchanges.

'There are truly many masters in the world.'

The bamboo staff that the white-haired old man, who would not be strange if he collapsed and died right away, swung lightly was like an iron staff.

Jo Unryong glared at the white-haired old man and circulated his qi.

The white-haired old man looked at Jo Unryong and gave a sinister smile.

"As I heard, you are quite something. To receive this old man's black bamboo. I will personally kill you."

After speaking, the white-haired old man looked at Gongno and the Ghost Shadow Brigade and said in a cold voice.

"What are you doing? Are you saying this old man has to clean up after those rabble? You should bring the bodies of those bastards before me."

The Ghost Shadow Brigade that had come to the Jeongha Martial Hall was forty in all. Among them, a dozen had been defeated by Wi Eunghwan and Jo Unryong. The remaining thirty gritted their teeth and slowly closed the distance to Jang Mugang's party with their swords and sabers in front.

Gongno picked up the halberd that had fallen on the ground and approached Jungrang. He was only aiming for the one he had been hired to kill.

Wi Eunghwan untied Yeon Hwasim, laid her next to Sim Mabaek, and blocked the front with his hidden weapon pouch.

Jang Mugang went next to Jungrang and stood side by side.

"Are you alright?"

"I will kill that man."

Jungrang aimed his sword at Gongno. He was the one who had tried to kill Yeon Hwasim.

In fact, he was in a situation where it was difficult to even stand. Although he had taken a moment to circulate his qi, he had no internal energy left. But he was prepared to die together.

Gongno let out a hollow laugh and took a step forward when a sound of qi echoed from the other side of the night sky.

-Swoosh!

When everyone looked back, a bloody spear was flying.

The momentum contained in the spear was so violent that it was as if a blood dragon were flying.

-Thwack!

The bloody spear was embedded between Jang Mugang's party and the white-haired old man's party.

Following it, a long sound was heard, and a person appeared.

It was Kang Sogun.

***

Jo Gaeryang watched from a hill as the Great Righteous Martial Hall and the masked men fought a fierce battle.

The situation was developing faster than he had thought.

The fact that the Crown Prince, Zhu Zhanji, had taken refuge in the Great Righteous Martial Hall also gave him a lot of worries.

'Was the imperial family really behind them?'

For Jo Gaeryang, who dreamed of unifying the martial world, he had met a troublesome variable.

The Great Righteous Martial Hall and the Dragon Slaying Society had rapidly expanded their power in the past few years. But their roots were ambiguous.

The Heavenly Martial Faction was originally a small sect that had taken root in the Hubei region for generations. Then, in this generation, an outstanding martial artist named Gu Yeongang had appeared. With Jo Gaeryang joining, they had been able to grow into one of the Four Great Powers of the world, combining military power and strategy.

The Yocheon Pavilion had been founded by the mysterious figure, the Yocheon Pavilion Master, by gathering the evil factions, so it could not be said that it had no roots either.

But the origins of the Dragon Slaying Society and the Great Righteous Martial Hall were unknown.

Jo Gaeryang was estimating that the Prince of Han was behind the Dragon Slaying Society. If the imperial family was behind the Great Righteous Martial Hall?

'If I leave them alone, the two will fight.'

The problem was that he was here. He had come to Hefei chasing Kang Sogun, but the crown prince's party had suddenly appeared.

The Prince of Han had sent a letter to the Heavenly Martial Faction Master, Gu Yeongang, asking him to capture the crown prince. Although it was in the form of a request, it was very much in the tone of a lord giving an order to a vassal.

Gu Yeongang was not pleased with this. Jo Gaeryang also did not want to get involved with the court.

But to run into the crown prince in Hefei. The situation was coincidental.

The masked men confronting the Great Righteous Martial Hall were surely the private soldiers of the Prince of Han.

If he pretended not to know, the Prince of Han's order was at stake, and if he participated in the war, the situation that would unfold next was unpredictable.

The battle was in favor of the Great Righteous Martial Hall. It was a natural result since three of the Great Righteous Martial Hall's hall masters were fighting in person.

In particular, Yeomga's martial prowess was amazing. Although he did not know what kind of technique he was using, whenever he swung his hand, the surrounding masked men would spurt blood and fall.

Moreover, the Crown Prince, Zhu Zhanji, was also surprisingly outstanding in martial prowess. Each time he swung his sword, the masked men would fall one after another.

'They said he received the previous emperor's favor, and it's true.'

The previous emperor had taken his grandson, Zhu Zhanji, with him while roaming the frontier battlefields.

Although the current emperor was weak in literature, his half-brother, the Prince of Han, was a brave general. In a situation where the enemies on the frontier were constantly running wild, words had flowed from a corner of the court that the Prince of Han was more suitable for the throne than the current emperor.

Nevertheless, the reason the previous emperor had not deposed the current emperor from the position of crown prince was probably because he had trusted his grandson, Zhu Zhanji.

Jo Gaeryang, who was surveying the battle situation, looked back and gestured.

"Wu Chan."

The Ghost Shadow Brigade Commander, Wu Chan, silently approached and waited for Jo Gaeryang's order.

Although Wu Chan was silent, he was expressing his dissatisfaction deep in his heart.

He knew that the Divine Martial and Dragon Slaying Brigades, which were supposed to join, had returned to the Heavenly Martial Faction.

'Close combat is the job of the Divine Martial and Dragon Slaying Brigades.'

The military brigades of the Heavenly Martial Faction each had different uses. If the Heaven's Mandate Brigade was the assault brigade, the Ghost Shadow Brigade was the support brigade.

The Divine Martial and Dragon Slaying Brigades were military brigades accustomed to chaotic battles. He could not understand why such military brigades had been made to return.

In Wu Chan's view, Jo Gaeryang did not use the military brigades as military brigades. Jo Gaeryang was treating the Ghost Shadow Brigade as if it were his private army.

The Ghost Shadow Brigade had been annihilated by twenty or so people after clashing with the sixth hall master of the Great Righteous Martial Hall, Yeomga, and his subordinate killers while trying to ambush Kang Sogun at the inn in the village outside the city.

If they had deployed the entire Ghost Shadow Brigade, they would not have suffered such a situation.

The Ghost Shadow Brigade, as a support team, was divided into members who handled fire lances and crossbows, and members who protected them. Since it was not a military brigade, it was vulnerable to frontal battles and could only display its full power when its formation was perfect.

But Jo Gaeryang deployed them without considering the nature of the work. In terms of military tactics alone, he was so reckless that his nickname of Divine Strategist was colorless.

It was natural for a member of a military brigade to die in battle. But shouldn't it be worth that much?

'Does he consider the lives of martial artists as pawns on a chessboard?'

It was a natural complaint for Wu Chan.

Even now, it was the same.

The first team leader had taken four teams and had gone to support the Blood Flute and the others who had ambushed the Jeongha Martial Hall.

Behind Wu Chan, there were only three teams, thirty members of the Ghost Shadow Brigade. If he were told to jump into the fight that was taking place in front with this number of people, he could not judge whether he should follow.

Fortunately, Jo Gaeryang ordered a retreat.

"Secretly withdraw to Anqing. Have the Ghost Shadow Brigade that went to the Jeongha Martial Hall return and erase their tracks. We were never here in the first place."

This was also an order that Wu Chan could not understand, but it was better than being told to charge into a battlefield.

Wu Chan sent a messenger and disappeared into the darkness with his members.

Jo Gaeryang watched the place where the Great Righteous Martial Hall and the private soldiers of the Prince of Han were fighting a chaotic battle for a moment and then disappeared.

The fight was heading towards its end.

***

The moment Kang Sogun crossed the city wall, he felt that the thick wall in his heart was cracking.

Although he did not know exactly what that meant, he also knew that it was related to Yeon Hwasim.

Come to think of it, what did he have to do with Yeon Hwasim's party? Nevertheless, a corner of his heart was always reaching out to that side.

It was not as if there had been any great event between him and Yeon Hwasim. Although Yeon Hwasim had a rare beauty, she could not awaken his already dead soul.

His soul was already dead.

In the Martial Tomb, he had killed the living and had killed the dead again. He had to kill them when they were alive and kill them again after they were dead.

Those who were mad with blood energy had to have their heads cut off. Kang Sogun had also cut off the head of Ma Unryong, who had stabbed his own heart and had died. He had cut off the heads of all those many brothers with whom he had eaten from the same pot and had roamed the battlefields.

There were over a thousand. Was there a case where one person had killed so many people, not on a battlefield, but in one space?

His soul had sunk into a sea of blood, and his body had been encroached upon by blood energy. Although he had barely managed to put the blood energy of his body to sleep with the Golden Elixir True Art, he could not retrieve the soul that had sunk into the sea of blood.

A pair of clear eyes came to the mind of the running Kang Sogun.

The eyes that had been watching him from beside the willow tree on the hill. Now, when he thought of Yeon Hwasim, those eyes came to mind.

The sound of qi waves clashing in succession was heard from the direction of the Jeongha Martial Hall.

-Boom!

Kang Sogun unfolded his lightness skill with all his might. His body flew through the sky like a single gust of wind.

The people who were confronting each other in the rear courtyard of the Jeongha Martial Hall came into his eyes.

Kang Sogun, while floating in the air, threw the red spear in his hand.

The spear was accurately embedded in the middle of the two camps.

-Thump!

As Kang Sogun fell, a qi wave spread around him.

The collapsed Yeon Hwasim came into Kang Sogun's eyes. It was as if the world had stopped. Time stopped, and the surrounding sounds were also cut off.

Only the faint sound of Yeon Hwasim's breathing was heard.

'She's alive!'

The moment he knew that Yeon Hwasim was alive, the blood dragon energy exploded from within Kang Sogun.

Kang Sogun's figure disappeared.

"Aargh!"

The spear that had been embedded was now in Kang Sogun's hand, and Gongno's chest was cut diagonally, and he collapsed, spurting blood.

The masterless twin halberds rolled meaninglessly on the ground.

Kang Sogun's figure was not visible.

-Swoosh!

The darkness was torn, and the blood dragon energy poured out horizontally from Kang Sogun's red spear.

"This..."

The white-haired old man kicked the ground with his bamboo staff and retreated a full thirty feet.

But the Ghost Shadow Brigade did not have that skill.

"Kuh!"

"Aargh!"

With one horizontal stroke, a dozen were cut in half at the waist and collapsed.

If they blocked with a saber, the saber broke, and if they blocked with a sword, the sword shattered.

A scene from hell unfolded in the short moment that Kang Sogun had appeared and had taken a breath.

When the people, who had been dumbfounded by the sudden tragedy, came to their senses, Kang Sogun had already disappeared.

Yeon Hwasim had also disappeared.

"Hwasim!"

Jungrang shouted and looked around.

Jo Unryong strode over and stood firmly in front of Yeon Hwasim's residence.

Only then did Jungrang realize that Kang Sogun had taken Yeon Hwasim and had gone into her residence.

***

As No Ichil and the others were cleaning up the battlefield, there were a few figures running from the direction of the city.

They were children who looked to be about thirteen or fourteen.

"What are you doing here?"

The master of the Jeongha Martial Hall and the ninth hall master of the Great Righteous Martial Hall, Hyeong Uncheon, asked.

Since it was an emergency situation, he had left only the servants and the young disciples who had just entered and had come out.

"An enemy has attacked. The remaining servants and disciples have been defeated."

"An enemy!"

Hyeong Uncheon's brow narrowed. The Jeongha Martial Hall was the number one martial hall in Hefei. Who would dare to attack?

"The first to appear were a middle-aged man who used a red flute as a weapon and an old man who used twin halberds."

"Then masked men appeared and mercilessly slaughtered the servants and disciples."

The young disciples shed tears of grief and indignation.

"The Heavenly Martial Faction!"

No Ichil intervened.

"If it's a red flute, it's the Blood Flute. That bastard is the fifth of the Ten Guests of Heavenly Martial. The twin halberds are surely the Twin Halberds of Noisy Death."

Since No Ichil had investigated various things about the Heavenly Martial Faction, he also knew a little about the Ten Guests of Heavenly Martial.

"This is not the time. I'll go first."

Hyeong Uncheon ran towards the city with the disciples of the Jeongha Martial Hall.

"I have to go too. It seems they were after Miss Yeon's party."

No Ichil also threw himself forward urgently.

***

A dead silence flowed in the rear courtyard of the Jeongha Martial Hall, which had been swept by a bloody wind.

The white-haired old man could no longer afford to be leisurely.

The martial prowess that Kang Sogun had shown in an instant was at a level that even he could not fathom.

-Screech!

A strange sound echoed in the night sky.

The Ghost Shadow Brigade members quickly collected the bodies of their comrades and disappeared.

The white-haired old man also looked around the arena and then disappeared somewhere.

Jo Unryong muttered.

"Heartless bastards. They use them like dogs and don't even collect their bodies."

The bodies of the Blood Flute and Gongno were still lying on the ground.

With those last words, Jo Unryong also disappeared. It was awkward for the third young master of the Dragon Slaying Society to be in the Jeongha Martial Hall, which was under the Great Righteous Martial Hall.

As soon as Jo Unryong disappeared, No Ichil, Hyeong Uncheon, and the others rushed in.

(End of Chapter)