Chapter 343

Chapter 343
Jong-chu-ak unfastened his garments without even consciously realizing what he was doing. Though the doctrines of his order and the explicit instructions of his mentor demanded he maintain impeccable decorum under all circumstances, such rules vanished instantly when confronted with an agony so severe it made taking a breath nearly impossible.

His breathing came in ragged gasps. He had pushed his physical body to its absolute boundary, and the total exhaustion of his inner qi undoubtedly intensified his suffering. Yet, this sensation was entirely different. It was distinct in its very nature. It felt exactly as though he were suffocating within a chamber filled with a dense, shimmering cloud of vaporized poison. With every inhalation, a sensation like his meridians being violently ripped apart flared through him. With every exhalation, it felt as though his Eight Extraordinary Vessels were being forcibly wrenched out of shape.

Despite the intense pain, he could not permit himself to drop to the soil or take a moment of rest. The Commander had issued an absolute decree that the advance must never halt. Granted, a directive was a directive, but the current circumstances wouldn’t have allowed a stoppage regardless. Vicious aberrations were swarming toward them from every conceivable path. Assaults from hidden adversaries were relentless and unceasing.

*Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!*

Jong-chu-ak, who desperately wished nothing more than to drop to the earth and lose consciousness, forced himself to slash and parry with his blade once again. By maintaining his offense, he managed to press forward another pace. He relinquished the remaining foes to the warriors advancing behind his position.

“Pant! Pant! Pant! Pant!”

“Can you hold on?!”

Wi-rip-gun nudged his shoulder, shouting to check on his condition. This was despite the fact that Wi-rip-gun himself had been nursing severe wounds from the start.

“I—I can manage…”

“Fall back into the ranks for a moment. I will take the vanguard position.”

“Absolutely not…”

“Are we not comrades in the exact same squad right now? If we fail to back each other up, the entirety of the 5th Squad is going to be wiped out.”

“……”

This particular detachment, which had thrown together representatives from the Orthodox Society, the White Faction, the 12 Peaks Stars, and various other groups in a completely haphazard fashion, had somehow locked into a seamless rhythm that made one forget how awkward and disorganized their initial meeting had been. It was tempting to argue that their desperate predicament had forced a sense of camaraderie that dissolved sectarian boundaries, yet the duration of their journey was far too brief to explain such deep solidarity through hardship alone. In truth, it was the crucial responsibility placed upon the 5th Squad, combined with the distinct personalities of the individual combatants, that made this synthesis occur so naturally.

Realizing this truth wasn’t unique to Jong-chu-ak, several voices nearby murmured in profound astonishment.

“Is it truly possible for a makeshift group to coordinate this flawlessly?”

“You aren’t kidding. I am familiar with the sword techniques of the Jong-nam Sect, but I always assumed their martial philosophy operated on a completely separate path from our own order.”

“Precisely. When he shoved us directly into the 5th Squad the very moment he laid eyes on us, I was convinced he was just tossing people wherever he pleased… It turns out he had a meticulous reason.”

“Who in the world is that bastard, our Commander anyhow…?”

The attention of the gathered martial artists shifted toward the absolute front of the traveling line. Standing there was the silhouette of their leader, appearing as immovable and steadfast as a massive peak. He was engaging in the most brutal fighting at the very apex of a chaotic warzone. While masters like Il-gak or Nam-hwa-seong rotated through the front lines to share the burden, Jin-so-un alone remained at the vanguard without a single pause.

It was glaringly obvious that he was enduring the same exhaustion and accumulating the same lacerations as the rest of them, yet Jin-so-un never permitted himself to take a single step backward. Resembling a beacon consuming its own fuel, he illuminated the pitch-black pathway and guided the martial academy students from the absolute front.

Right at that moment.

“Dammit— Dammit— Dammit—.”

Gun-da-seong belonging to the Jeom-chang Sect, who had temporarily disengaged because his muscles had completely locked up from hours of non-stop swinging, began slamming his own forearm with closed fists.

*Thud! Thud! Thud!*

Horrified by the sight, Jong-chu-ak grabbed him to force a halt.

“Hey! What the hell are you doing to yourself!”

“Unclench your hands! I am Gun-da-seong of the great Jeom-chang…! Am I supposed to breathe easy and hide comfortably in the wake of a practitioner from a bottom-tier lineage like the Tae-eul Sect?!”

His vocabulary was incredibly abrasive, but Jong-chu-ak could perceive the raw, agonizing truth buried beneath the shouting. The man was driven mad by his own current lack of power. He felt a deep self-loathing for his previous arrogance, back when he used to look down on and mock Jin-so-un.

“……”

Recognizing that exact same bitter regret within his own heart, Jong-chu-ak found himself unable to interfere any further. Gun-da-seong, having relentlessly battered his own flesh, began to rhythmically squeeze and extend his fingers, seemingly testing if the nerve responsiveness was returning to his hand. A few moments later.

“Good enough. It responds. I’m taking the line!”

Gun-da-seong lunged toward the outer defensive perimeter to intercept the incoming aberrations. However, the squad members currently holding the defensive line immediately shoved him back into the center.

“What nonsense are you spouting? Retain your position in the queue! Your rotation isn’t coming up for a good while yet.”

“What are you implying…”

“Do you honestly believe the rest of us are comfortable watching this from behind?!”

“……”

It was an unbelievable sight. Lineages that had historically engaged in bloody feuds were now actively shielding one another in a scenario where a single mistake meant demise. This was no longer about risking one’s life for a fellow disciple of the same temple; it was a willingness to die for a fellow squad member. They had shared no prior history, yet every individual was moving as though this selflessness were standard protocol. Even in a catastrophic environment where mortality could strike at any second without warning.

‘How is this even happening…?’

*Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!*

A titanic reverberation tore through the air, shaking the contemplative Jong-chu-ak out of his thoughts. Because the sound of the detonation originated from the very front, every eye was instantly pulled forward. In that spot.

“Pant…”

The silhouette of Jin-so-un was barely visible through the smoke as he advanced another pace, having just pulverized a combined force of human adversaries and corrupted beasts.

‘Jin-so-un…’

He couldn’t fathom how these warriors, hailing from entirely disparate backgrounds and schools—and worse, factions that had actively tried to slaughter one another—were now functioning with the unified will of a single organism, but looking at that figure, a deep certainty took hold of him. Observing that slender form clearing the path ahead, an intense wave of emotion swelled inside his ribs, threatening to overwhelm him. Jong-chu-ak gathered what little internal energy he had managed to cultivate during his brief respite and pushed forward to relieve a fatigued fighter. This time as well, the person he relieved belonged neither to his own Qingcheng Sect nor to the broader Orthodox Society alliance.

Throughout my previous incarnation, my position was invariably at the absolute rear. Even when the practitioners of the Tae-eul Sect were deployed to the front lines under the intense prodding of Gye-cheol-yeong. I remained sequestered within the archives of the Man-tong-bu, endlessly transcribing and cross-referencing intelligence reports. Even when I was ultimately reduced to a disposable vanguard shield as a conscript of the So-jeong-dae. I anchored the very back of the So-jeong-dae formation, spending my days staring at the broad shoulders of those miserable bastards ahead of me.

The martial principles of a bottom-tier school like Tae-eul, completely devoid of real-world combat efficiency and possessing a laughably weak internal cultivation method, were less practical than the messy, crude brawling styles utilized by low-tier mercenaries drifting through rogue mercenary syndicates.

[Stay tucked away in the back, you damn bookworm!]
[To be fair, he isn’t even a real scholar. The kid failed his exams!]
[Young Master Jin, make sure you stay directly behind my back.]

The members of the So-jeong-dae, who had scratched out an existence like stubborn weeds their entire lives, and even Mo-yong-seol, who had watched her entire lineage get butchered, consistently positioned themselves ahead of me. Because I was always the first to run out of stamina, I ended up being the one who outlived them all. Despite being completely useless on the field. Due to that reality, I harbored a deep bitterness toward the very sect whose weak teachings had saddled me with such a crushing weight of survival guilt. I cursed and loathed my own inadequacy to the point of wondering if being fragile was an unpardonable offense against heaven.

That exact regret was the reason why… upon discovering I had been granted a second chance at existence, I pursued legendary elixirs and rare herbs like a lunatic. I refused to ever look at the backs of my companions’ heads as they died for me again. I refused to let the old, unerasable horrors of my past life overlay themselves onto this new reality. I was determined to safeguard the people who belonged to me this time around. I pushed myself to the absolute brink, thrashing against fate with everything I had.

And right now. There was not a single soul blocking my view ahead.

*Clang, clang, clang!*

A combatant draped in crimson robes narrowly avoided the trajectory of my So-cheon Sword Technique.

‘Has my speed dropped this significantly?’

Under normal parameters, he was an opponent I should have cleaved in half with a single fluid motion. If an enemy managed to slip past to the flanks, I would typically leave them for the supporting ranks to clean up, but this particular bastard seemed hyper-focused on taking my life, stepping backward only to lunge straight at my throat once more.

“You miserable, heretical scum!”

The instant I lunged forward with my Red Light Sword, his own blade flashed straight toward my vitals. He fought as though his own survival was a worthless metric as long as he succeeded in ending my life. But that math is completely skewed, isn’t it? Do you honestly believe the worth of my existence matches the cheap value of yours?

“Do you think I’ll let you have your way!”

I forcefully altered the angle of the Red Light Sword, slipping inside the bastard’s guard to penetrate his core. His edge scraped past the flesh at the base of my skull, missing a lethal strike by a hair’s breadth. I had already lost track of how many shallow cuts and deep gashes adorned my skin. Rather than backing off to nurse the injury, I seized the bastard’s torso and executed the devastating **Yeon-hwa** strike.

*Whoosh!*

Just as the enemy’s shattered body, launched high into the air, was on the verge of crashing down onto the clustered academy students below.

*Thud.*

Nam-hwa-seong, maintaining his guard directly behind me, shattered the bastard’s cranium with a single decisive blow.

“Commander, your execution speed is noticeably dropping!”

Immediately following his strike, the secondary line rushed forward, aggressively driving their blades into the incapacitated demon’s critical points.

“Cut the crap. You bastards are clearly pushing yourselves past your limits.”

“How about you gracefully fall back into the middle of the pack? Commander Jin.”

The very idiots who addressed me with the formal title of ‘Commander-Nim’ simultaneously chose to speak to me using casual, informal terms (*banmal*). Those disrespectful bastards. How could such a disorganized, moronic collection of fighters ever expect to make it out of the Muk-rim alive? True military order is supposed to mirror the flawless coordination of a peak martial sect.

“Well, for someone who trained under the Tae-eul Sect, you’ve honestly carried the entire group on your shoulders for long enough.”

This time, Wang-jo-eun representing the Yu-wol-mun bounded past my position, taking up the vanguard run. Immediately following him.

“I’ve been looking for an opportunity to give you a proper demonstration of what the true Visionary Sword (*Hwan-geom*) looks like.”

Jo-gae-ryong of the prestigious Huashan Sect also accelerated past my shoulders to claim the leading spot.

“Did you somehow forget that the directives of the Commander are absolute and non-negotiable?”

“If my grandmaster ever discovers that I hid behind a disciple of the Tae-eul Sect to save my skin, he will personally beat me to death.”

That specific bastard certainly has a talent for combining absolute insolence with perfect logic.

“Don’t be so stubborn. Where under the heavens have you ever heard of a commanding officer who spends the entire war anchoring the absolute tip of the vanguard?”

Yet another warrior bypassed me, tossing those parting words over his shoulder. As our proximity to the Demonic Realm (*Ma-gyeong*) grew closer, the intensity of the adversarial onslaught was rapidly escalating. What is wrong with these idiots, do they actively desire a quick death?

“You fools, can you not see that the density of the opposition is multiplying by the minute?”

Just as I had calculated, the aberrations were displaying a highly volatile reaction to the presence of corrupt energy. Whenever these mutated beasts swarmed the area, the standard demons held back, and any aberrations that materialized while we were locked in combat with the demons would immediately fall upon the demons first. As we drew nearer to the Demonic Realm, the window of time between successive ambushes was shrinking rapidly.

“We are fully aware. We are taking the front precisely because we understand the situation.”

“……What the hell is that supposed to—!”

In that precise instant, Il-gak, who was keeping pace directly to my rear, dropped a heavy palm onto my shoulder blade.

“Jin Si-ju. I have been led to understand that the interior of the Demonic Realm is an incomparably more perilous territory. Wouldn’t it be far more prudent to replenish your inner reserves even a fraction before we breach the boundary?”

“Replenishing reserves, my ass…”

“Besides, it isn’t as though you stop contributing to the slaughter just because you happen to be positioned at the rear of the line, is it?”

I suppose they aren’t labeled the elite generation for nothing. Before I could even register the shift, I found myself running while staring at the back of someone else’s head, recreating the exact visual from my previous life. Yet, the overwhelming sense of impotence and suffocating despair that had defined my past incarnation failed to manifest. Instead, a peculiar, uplifting sentiment that defied easy verbalization filled my chest. I forcefully swallowed down that rising emotion before it could show on my face or alter my voice.

“Address me as Commander, you fraudulent monk!”

“Kukuku… branding Priest Il-gak a fraudulent monk. If the grand elders of the Shaolin Temple ever caught wind of that, they would drop dead from shock!”

The elite fighters comprising the 1st Squad erupted into unified laughter. How do these maniacs find the capacity to chuckle given our current predicament? The sudden burst of dark humor eventually quieted down.

“Commander, our lips are sealed on the matter. Just ensure you purchase a round of wine for us once we clear this forest.”

“A round of wine?”

“It may be an impromptu assignment, but you have functionally assumed the mantle of the Unit Commander. It remains an unbroken custom of the Murim Alliance for the commanding officer to fund a celebratory drink for the troops upon the conclusion of a campaign.”

Ah, it was precisely due to these ridiculous financial burdens that the veterans of the So-jeong-dae absolutely despised accepting a promotion to squad leader. Fortunately, in this lifetime I am sitting on a massive fortune, so financing a tavern night for the survivors wouldn’t even register as an expense. Getting together around a table to share a drink didn’t sound half bad either.

“Very well. I will foot the bill once we make it back to civilization. I will buy enough liquor to literally preserve your corpses in alcohol, so make sure you fight like actual warriors.”

“Oh? Does that offer extend across all faction boundaries regardless of affiliation?”

Jo-gae-ryong of the Huashan Sect twisted his torso mid-stride to query. That—that hypocrite, who supposedly takes vows as a righteous Taoist initiate…

“Hostiles incoming! Vanguard, brace!”

“Ha! Have a taste of this!”

A magnificent display of phantom plum blossoms bloomed across the dark air, cleanly cleaving the chest of an approaching demon. Jo-gae-ryong, having barely executed the finishing strike on the creature, immediately snapped his gaze back in my direction.

“Pant… you are completely serious about buying the rounds, correct?”

“I said yes. However, I will allocate the funds by individual squads, so you can drink until your stomachs burst.”

“Hehe. I look forward to demonstrating the true alcoholic tolerance of our Huashan Sect.”

Amusement danced in the corners of his eyes, sparking a chain reaction of subtle smirks across the faces of the adjacent martial artists. Since when had this mismatched group developed such casual familiarity? They traded knowing looks, sharing grim, weathered smiles. Annoyed by the display, I cast a glance toward our rear guard and initiated a direct sound transmission to Eun-ho.

—*What is the status on your end?*

Eun-ho, who was maintaining a rapid pace with a visibly tense countenance, registered a flash of astonishment before locking eyes with me across the distance.

—*We have sustained a few losses, but the line is holding.*

Hearing the confirmation of deaths caused a heavy weight to drop into my stomach.

—*What is the nature of the casualties?*

—*The hostiles are executing flanking maneuvers against our wings, aren’t they?*

—*What is the status of the Tae-eul apprentices and our core team?*

—*They remain unharmed.*

Thank god. They are safe… My fingers clenched around my hilt until the knuckles turned white.

—*You are doing an exceptional job handling the rear.*

—*Dae-sa-hyeong…*

Our connection via sound transmission snapped shut instantaneously. When I whipped my head around to check, Eun-ho was boring his eyes into me with an incredibly intense, unreadable expression.

—*What is it, did something go wrong?*

—*…Nothing. I am simply urging you to prioritize your own safety.*

—*Worry about keeping your own skin intact.*

—*…….*

*Kachow, crash!*

Accompanied by the roaring thuds of explosive techniques, the screeching din of metal colliding with metal never relented for even a single breath. With every stride we took, the imminent threat of an agonizing death expanded exponentially, yet halting our momentum was a luxury we did not possess. The absolute second we allowed our forward progress to cease, our lives would be forfeit.

We maintained our grueling sprint for two complete days before finally arriving at the outer perimeter of the Demonic Realm. The concentration of ravenous, twisted aberrations was steadily rising, but conversely, the calculated ambushes orchestrated by the demons themselves were beginning to dwindle.

‘They almost certainly calculated that we wouldn’t attempt to navigate straight through the Demonic Realm in the first place.’

Because mapping a course through such a hellscape was a strategy reserved exclusively for suicidal lunatics. Then again, if my own insanity served as the unpredictable variable in this war, then so be it. But I couldn’t allow myself to become complacent. The moment they deduced we were traversing an unthinkable path, they would immediately restructure their operational forces and come barreling toward this sector like starving wolves.

‘They will strike… exactly one more time, targeting the absolute tail of our formation.’

If I were the commanding strategist of the Demonic Cult, I would deploy everything to ensnare the ankles of the academy students, who lacked the high-speed mobility of seasoned masters, slowing them down just enough to deliver a single, catastrophic parting blow. A solitary, overwhelming strike right before we slipped across the threshold of the Demonic Realm.

Seeing as we had successfully conserved some of our front-line stamina by rotating through the rear, the moment had arrived for me to reclaim the vanguard.

“Uh—oh, Commander, what brings you back to the front lines? Good grief, I thought we explicitly instructed you to remain safely nestled in the back.”

To crack that sort of joke while literally dripping with gore from head to toe. The man possesses a completely broken radar for humor.

“Brace yourselves.”

“Eh?”

“The main force is descending upon us.”

“I don’t detect any incoming—”

Wang-jo-eun, cut off mid-sentence, instantly clamped his jaw shut. The sudden, suffocating silence expanded outward from the 1st Squad, rapidly enveloping the entire detachment.

“Come to think of it, the frequency of the enemy skirmishes did drop off rather unnaturally.”

“Dammit, the hair on my arms is standing straight up.”

“Just how long have they been lying in wait inside this dense thicket…?”

The atmospheric pressure grew incredibly heavy. The very warriors who had just barely navigated through a landscape of slaughter found themselves staring down the barrel of demise once more. The marching column degenerated into an absolute hush, the crude banter and jokes evaporating instantly. Naught but the rhythmic thudding of the academy students’ boots resonated through the trees. I offered a bit of grim reassurance that offered little actual comfort.

“Every man here witnessed it. The aberrations will turn their fury upon our adversaries before they target us. The moment we breach the border of the Demonic Realm, we will at least have the luxury of focusing our blades solely on mutated beasts.”

“……”

Predictably, the oppressive atmosphere refused to clear. Right then.

“Precisely! I would infinitely prefer trading blows with mindless aberrations instead!”

Nam-hwa-seong, keeping stride right beside me, clumsily picked up the thread of conversation to break the tension. Seizing the momentum, Jang-gwang-bo bellowed out in support.

“He speaks the truth! At the very least, an aberration has the decency to roar before it tries to rip your throat out!”

“That’s right…! They are a massive upgrade!”

“Let’s slaughter every last one of them!!!”

Forced, desperate bravado began to echo out from various points along the line. Yes, this would suffice. The moment we plunged into the meat grinder of a full-scale engagement, adrenaline would take over and they would fight like demons anyway. And—

‘As we lose ourselves in the rhythm of the slaughter, we will manage to claw our way back to survival once again.’

Regardless of whether they were assigned to the 1st or 2nd Squad, any combatant who still retained the physical capability to swing a weapon pushed their way to the perimeter.

“Pant, pant, pant.”

The sobering reality that a warrior who looked on the verge of collapsing from sheer fatigue was considered one of our more functional assets served as a grim reminder of just how critical a state our detachment had reached.

“Where did that loudmouth disappear to, the one who promised to show me the true essence of the Visionary Sword? Has the pride of the Huashan Sect already run out of gas?”

“……”

“……Did he fall?”

“……He mentioned he was going to take a brief rest along the path.”

“I see…”

He won’t be showing up to the tavern celebration after all. After talking such a big game about demonstrating how much liquor a Huashan disciple could drain… Son of a bitch.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Letting loose a primal roar from the depths of my lungs, the volatile fury threatening to shatter my chest cavity eased up a fraction. Because I had been fighting with such manic intensity, it felt as though my cognitive faculties weren’t operating at peak capacity. Was this the exact reason why the old texts always advised the commanding officer to direct operations from the relative safety of the rear? I honestly don’t give a damn anymore. For the sake of the people who follow me. To ensure their survival by any means necessary, I told myself it didn’t matter what foul methods I employed or how much I degraded myself. Because those exact same bastards had thrown away their lives for me in my previous existence anyway. So I reasoned it was perfectly acceptable for me to return the favor now… because this arrangement wasn’t entirely one-sided like before.

However. Is it because they—meaning the diverse martial artists making up this ragtag unit—have officially become *my* soldiers now? Or is it because I have been forced to witness far too many souls expire right before my eyes? My heart, which I had steel-hardened and assumed would remain detached, felt as though it were about to burst apart under the strain.

*Thump.*

Why am I reacting this way? Whether they trace their lineage to the Orthodox Society, the White Faction, or the 12 Peaks Stars. In the days of my past life, not a single one of these organizations would have lifted a finger to stand by our side.

*Thump—*

No matter how many times I methodically recited the sacred verses of the Tae-eul True Scripture within the chambers of my mind, the violent quaking of my core refused to settle. It felt exactly as though I had just stood over the fresh corpse of a lifelong companion. Even though we had never shared a moment of genuine friendship.

*Thump——!*

Perhaps this cognitive instability is a direct symptom of demonic energy contamination. Their corrupted qi is notorious for warping a practitioner’s sanity. Yes, that explanation carried the highest statistical probability. There must exist a highly concentrated variant of corrupt energy that even the specialized properties of the Red Peak Pill are entirely incapable of filtering out. But regardless of whatever hidden variable is causing this.

“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

I am utterly, thoroughly sick and tired of watching people turn into corpses. My people. The rivals who constantly vied against me. The arrogant masters who refused to grant me a shred of recognition. It didn’t matter who they were.

*Thump———!*

I refuse to allow my memory to be populated by any more of these grotesque images. Yes, I want to completely erase the sight of these slaughters from my consciousness forever.

“Commander!”

At that precise second, a heavy hand gripped my shoulder, and a warrior jerked their chin forward to direct my attention.

*Crack, crack, crack.*

Immediately following the gesture, the sharp, violent splintering of ancient, sturdy trees thundered through the woods. Every single martial artist, as if operating under a single shared instinct, swallowed hard and tightened their grip on the handles of their respective weapons. They recognized the sign on an intuitive level. They understood exactly what that cacophony echoing from the front signified.

‘The Final Confrontation.’

If the core objective of the raiding parties that had harried our flanks until now was simply to stall our forward momentum, the underlying purpose for delaying us was glaringly obvious: they needed to consolidate and reorganize their own military assets. A tactical consolidation designed to pull together the various tracking units that had been dispersed across the landscape for the Heaven and Earth Net, condensing them into a single, overwhelming fist.

*Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.*

The massive trees toppled over in a domino effect, completely unraveling the natural concealment of the forest terrain. Immediately following the collapse.

*Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.*

Within the deep shadows of the wilderness, a sea of torches began igniting in rapid succession. Every single time another flickering point of fire cut through the darkness, the mental images of my fallen comrades whose lifeforces had been violently snuffed out superimposed themselves over the flames. Forcing down the volcanic rage that threatened to rip my chest open, I forged an unyielding vow deep within my soul. If the only way to ensure these bastards are dragged down into the deepest pits of perdition is to become the consuming inferno myself, I will gladly let the flames take me.