Chapter 95

Chapter 95
## Chapter 95. The Sharpest Blade in the Darkness (2)

“In a conflict of this scale, survival until the final moment is the sole requirement for victory.”

The individual who initially perceived the anomalous nature of the situation was Song Baek of the Huayang Escort Agency.

Ever since Jin So-un had stripped him of his first-trial and second-trial tokens, and following the subsequent loss of those tokens due to the absolute imbecility of the senior disciples from the main mountain whom he had foolishly trusted, a profound restlessness had robbed him of sleep. It was only on this very day that he could finally draw a proper breath.

“Their numbers easily exceed one thousand. Given that every single one of them is a trained practitioner of martial arts, even forces like the Namgung Clan or the Iron Sword Sect stand no chance of coming out unscathed.”

The person offering this reassuring assessment had previously held a position as a frontline military commander.

Having transitioned from a frontier guard post, this man possessed extensive familiarity with directing thousands of troops and had navigated large-scale combat engagements firsthand, which lent immense weight to his declarations.

“My dependence rests entirely on your judgment, Captain Yeom.”

Captain Yeom, being a man who rigidly observed proper chains of command, had refrained from asserting himself throughout the preceding events. However, after Song Baek suffered the loss of the Trial Tokens and was left paralyzed with shock upon witnessing his senior brothers from the Diancang Sect perish like drowned spirits, Captain Yeom finally stepped forward to demonstrate his capabilities.

They had successfully reacquired the trail of the individual they lost at Zhenjiang when they reached Suqian, and by the time they arrived at Xinxian, they had bypassed him entirely to establish a waiting position.

Such a feat would have been utterly unattainable had Captain Yeom not possessed the expertise to organize combatants in a proper military formation and execute an efficient advance.

At this juncture, their remaining task was to observe the unfolding chaos of this battlefield, which had transformed into a living hell, and launch a calculated ambush against only those who successfully seized the Trial Tokens belonging to the Taeul Sect, the Namgung Clan, and the Iron Sword Sect.

Following that achievement, they would proceed directly to the third trial.

Such had been the precise outline of his strategy.

“What is happening over there?”

Following the commencement of the engagement, the illumination provided by no fewer than one thousand torches caused the vast Puyang Plain to resemble the grounds of a grand festival.

“Is there an issue?”

“Direct your gaze toward that section……”

The specific area Song Baek indicated was blanketed in an absolute gloom, as if a void had suddenly torn open.

“Does it not strike you as peculiar that that singular location is completely devoid of firelight?”

In response to Song Baek’s observation, Captain Yeom peered intensely into the distance before dismissing the concern with a shake of his head.

“It is entirely expected that individuals lacking formal military training would fail to preserve a cohesive line during combat.”

“If you say so……”

Up to this point, Captain Yeom had proven himself entirely dependable. Song Baek no longer possessed the self-assurance required to stubbornly maintain his own perspective as he once had.

“Wait?”

Yet again, a distinct void materialized abruptly within the massive undulation of firelight.

“C-Captain Yeom! Observe that spot! A separate void has just manifested over there!”

As Song Baek gestured wildly, Captain Yeom knit his brows in irritation.

“Young Master, if you lack an understanding of martial engagements, I must ask you to remain silent. It is a frequent occurrence for firebrands to be extinguished during a nighttime clash.”

Had that been the case, however, the area in question was not even situated within the dense center of the fray.

Regarding its position on the field, the circumstances there were virtually identical to the quiet vantage point where their own group currently stood.

In that very instant.

Song Baek’s eyes widened in sheer astonishment.

The absolute blackness emerging from that massive void began to shift forward.

In a manner resembling a multitude of flickering candles being snuffed out simultaneously by an abrupt, powerful gale, the torches vanished one after another, forging a visible corridor of shadow.

“Th-There it comes!”

“Young Master!”

“Open your eyes and look, you fool!”

“……!”

The advancing corridor of shadow was charting a direct course toward Song Baek’s contingent.

“Hah!”

Sensing an impending catastrophe, Captain Yeom instantly wrenched a torch from the grasp of the fighter standing adjacent to him and charged toward the front.

Swoosh.

Yet Captain Yeom was instantly consumed by the oncoming shadow, vanishing completely without leaving behind the slightest indication of his existence.

“Wh-What sort of power is this……”

Before the sentence could form entirely on his lips, total obscurity enveloped them from every vantage point. Only then did the agonizing shrieks begin to echo.

“Aaagh!”

“S-Spare me……”

“Eek! A demonic phantom!”

Never before had the distinct sound of tearing flesh resonated with such terrifying clarity.

Song Baek, stripped of even the instinct to run by an overwhelming dread whose origin remained a total mystery, reached beneath his garments to retrieve a signaling device.

It was a primitive reaction, driven solely by a desperate urge to dispel the encroaching blackness.

Fwoosh.

The signaling device, which ought to have ascended skyward to illuminate the darkness, tore horizontally into the shadow and burst apart.

By the brief illumination granted by the flare, Song Baek was struck entirely mute, his jaw dropping in horror.

—–!

Revealed within the fleeting light was an unnatural abomination entirely devoid of skin, its internal anatomy and the violent pulsing of its heart fully exposed to view.

From the skeletal structure of the creature’s arm, a bony growth resembling a blade suddenly extended outward.

‘A reanimated corpse…… is walking……?’

Before Song Baek could fully process the terrifying reality, the absolute blackness closed over him completely.

—

“Should the shadow manifest, discharge your Sword Qi or Fist Qi directly into that space. Standard weaponry is entirely ineffective against them.”

As Namgung Seon-hwa cleaved through an adversary whose specific number—whether the thirtieth or thirty-second—she could no longer track, she reflected on those instructions.

As if executing such a task were a simple matter.

The energy within her dantian was already bordering on total depletion. She had attempted to form a defensive line by deploying the Firmament Sword Formation alongside the members of the Firmament Unit, yet even the tactical array she had confidently deemed impenetrable proved incapable of enduring the relentless torrent of torches and charging combatants.

“My lady!”

The cohesive structure of the Firmament Sword Formation was thoroughly broken, sending the members of the Firmament Unit scattering in every direction.

With every stride she attempted, the terrain was littered with dozens of casualties, yet the tide of adversaries advancing with blades and firebrands showed no signs of diminishing.

“My lady! Reestablish the Sword Formation!”

Ignoring the severity of his own wounds, Kang Seo-pyo, who had stubbornly maintained his position at their side, bellowed out in utter desperation.

“Captain Kang! The Firmament Unit has already been routed!”

“Then deploy an alternate array!”

“What?”

A different formation? Was he referring to the Emperor Sword Formation? She had not yet received instruction in that particular technique…….

“I am speaking of the White Tiger Sword Formation!”

Ah.

Only in that desperate moment did the tactical layout she had acquired for the sole purpose of securing a hot meal flash across Namgung Seon-hwa’s consciousness.

“But in our immediate vicinity……”

“I will anchor it!”

When she turned her gaze, Dong-ryong, drenched entirely in crimson from his head to his feet, spoke up to answer her.

“At what point did you manage to……”

“My lady! There is no time!”

Deprived of any opportunity to query his arrival, Kang Seo-pyo and Dong-ryong rapidly assumed their designated coordinates surrounding her.

“Array, engage!”

In response to Dong-ryong’s command, Namgung Seon-hwa and Kang Seo-pyo unleashed a flurry of sword strikes.

Clangclangclang.

They narrowly deflected the incoming steel directed by their foes and drove their own blades directly into lethal pressure points. The incapacitated adversaries collapsed heavily onto the earth.

Through the resulting voids in the crowd, the next wave of attackers surged forward.

Adhering strictly to the spatial adjustments directed by Dong-ryong, she rotated her position, securing a fleeting instant to catch her breath.

It was an extraordinary sensation.

While it lacked the sheer, overwhelming power inherent to the Firmament Sword Formation, its adaptability was remarkable. It demanded far less physical exertion.

Typically, once a tactical formation collapsed, reconstituting it under pressure was nearly impossible; however, because this specific array relied on a mere trio of combatants, dismantling and reforming it was as effortless as turning over a hand.

Even more remarkable was the performance of Dong-ryong.

Dong-ryong, an individual possessing fewer than twenty years of internal cultivation, exhibited a level of tactical proficiency that rivaled any elite member of the Firmament Unit once the array was set. In fact, at this very moment, he was effectively dictating the movements of the White Tiger Sword Formation.

“Where are Geum-pyo and Eun-ho?”

Even amidst the perilous demands of the struggle, thoughts of the youths who felt like her own younger kin surfaced. Having endured the tribulations of this arduous path in unison, they had imperceptibly formed a bond as profound as actual siblings.

“Eldest Senior Brother instructed that since we lack the capacity to project Sword Qi, our role must be to sustain the Sword Formations alongside the others.”

“Ah…….”

In the midst of the frantic melee, she had temporarily lost sight of those perilous entities. Concurrently, she harbored doubts regarding whether they could genuinely alter the course of such a chaotic skirmish.

Furthermore, the directive to strike blindly into seemingly vacant air was exceedingly difficult to rely upon.

“Direct your attacks there!”

At that critical juncture, Dong-ryong ceased his blade work and gestured toward a specific vector.

An absolute blackness descended roughly ten jang away, subsequently hurtling toward them in a straight trajectory.

As if a wave of water had been selectively cast over that path, the firebrands vanished instantly, and the surrounding mass of people scattered.

“My lady!”

“I perceive it!”

On this occasion, Dong-ryong shifted to the rear, while Kang Seo-pyo and Namgung Seon-hwa advanced to the vanguard.

The very scenario she had dismissed as impossible was unfolding before her eyes.

Namgung Seon-hwa mobilized the absolute remainder of her internal energy reserves.

“Execute!”

At Kang Seo-pyo’s command, she summoned every ounce of her vitality and unleashed a surge of Sword Qi. The energy she propelled forward, entirely unguided by refined style or formal technique, carried nothing but the raw, unadulterated force of the energy itself.

It possessed not the slightest degree of precision…….

And yet.

-SCREECH!

The rapidly advancing shadow halted abruptly, and an unearthly, animalistic shriek erupted from within the void.

“Hah!”

The entity that materialized from the gloom bore the gruesome visage of a walking corpse stripped entirely of its skin.

The visible movement of internal organs within the cage of its ribs was a deeply sickening spectacle.

The abomination, having been exposed for a mere instant, sought to submerge itself once more into the blackness by shrouding its form in a barrier resembling the dark canopy it had previously cast wide.

Regrettably, both Kang Seo-pyo and Namgung Seon-hwa had reached the absolute nadir of their strength.

The pair experienced a wave of profound helplessness at the prospect of allowing the horrific adversary directly before them to slip away unchallenged.

“Hah!”

In that precise heartbeat, Dong-ryong propelled himself forward with the velocity of a lightning bolt.

“Dong-ryong! Pull back!”

Dong-ryong forced his way directly into the shadow, raining a torrent of strikes upon the exposed abomination.

Clangclang. Clangclang. Clangclangclang.

His maneuvers consisted of fundamental strikes entirely devoid of Sword Qi, yet whenever Dong-ryong’s weapon connected with the creature’s skeletal frame, the obsidian canopy that was attempting to repair itself was forced wide open once more.

“How could he possibly……”

Furthermore, Dong-ryong’s offensive displays were incredibly swift and devoid of any redundant motion, focusing exclusively on lethal targets.

He thrust at the heart, pierced the internal organs, targeted the eyes, and drove his weapon into the maw.

With each successive strike, the abomination exhibited visible signs of distress.

“Captain!”

“Understood, my lady!”

They required no extensive exchange of words.

Driven by the singular conviction that they could not afford to squander the critical opening Dong-ryong had aggressively secured, they maintained a relentless assault.

For the initial time since the outbreak of hostiles, a glimmer of optimism emerged. Their offensive maneuvers were yielding tangible results against an adversary whose fundamental nature they had been entirely unable to identify until now.

“What is that?”

The collective mood among the prospective candidates who had swarmed the field in pursuit of the Trial Tokens, alongside the mercenaries they had retained, grew distinctly unsettling.

Namgung Seon-hwa instinctively shifted her gaze, her eyes expanding in shock.

A separate wave of shadow materialized elsewhere, hurtling aggressively toward their location.

The competing martial artists who were locked in combat also identified the anomalous threat and began desperate attempts to retreat from the oncoming dark.

Regrettably, a chaotic theater of war containing hundreds of compressed combatants was not an environment from which one could easily extricate oneself.

“Clear the way!”

“What in damnation is that creature!”

“This was completely absent from the intelligence briefings!”

Dozens of martial artists were engulfed by the gloom in a flash, and just as the absolute blackness threatened to swallow Namgung Seon-hwa, Kang Seo-pyo, and Dong-ryong simultaneously—

Slash!

A radiant, shimmering cord arced through the air from an unseen origin, binding itself securely around the shadow.

Within the dark space where nothing visible should have existed, a distinct humanoid silhouette was ensnared by the cord and violently dragged across the earth.

“Eldest Senior Brother!”

“Splendidly executed!”

The individual responsible for the intervention was none other than Jin So-un.

With the luminous cord wrapped tightly around his left fist, he channeled a powerful torrent of Fist Qi directly into the restrained shadow.

Thudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthud.

The concussive strikes landed with such velocity and immense force that the ground collapsed inward within a mere moment.

Shortly thereafter, the shadow emitted a sharp, fracturing sound as it collapsed completely, discharging a torrent of dark blood.

It was highly probable that the abomination Dong-ryong, Namgung Seon-hwa, and Kang Seo-pyo were actively combating observed this development, as it immediately attempted to butcher the trio and escape the vicinity.

Nevertheless, Dong-ryong’s unyielding pressure prevented the creature from severing the engagement.

Slash!

Ultimately, the glowing cord extending from Jin So-un’s left limb lashed around the abomination’s neck.

-Keek!

The creature was dragged backward like a wild beast snared in a net, and its skull was severed from its torso an instant later.

Witnessing the bone—which had responded like solid iron when her own weapon struck it—cleaved through in a single motion, Namgung Seon-hwa found herself entirely unable to calculate the sheer volume of internal cultivation Jin So-un was expending to neutralize such an entity.

“Young Master Jin.”

“Hah, hah, are you all unharmed?”

Precisely as anticipated, his physical state suggested that they ought to be the ones inquiring after his well-being.

“Young Master Jin, what manner of madness are you currently putting yourself through……”

His complexion had faded to a deathly pale, and the blood vessels across his entire form bulged aggressively, looking as though they might rupture.

These were the precise manifestations that occurred when a practitioner forced their internal reserves to the absolute threshold.

He had already advanced well past the critical threshold of Qi Deviation. Should a solitary variable falter even slightly, he risked immediate and permanent crippling.

“Cease your movements at once.”

Namgung Seon-hwa reached out to restrain Jin So-un’s arm, but Jin So-un firmly clasped her hand instead.

“My task is not yet concluded.”

“What are you saying, Young Master Jin?! If you persist in exerting yourself under these conditions, you will surely perish.”

“As luck would have it, I have refrained from depleting my Innate Energy thus far.”

The edges of his lips, strained into a forced smirk, vibrated with tremors. The epithet of “lunatic” that Seong Mo-ran had applied to him on numerous occasions suddenly echoed in her thoughts.

“I have neutralized eight. My remaining obligation is to eliminate eleven more.”

Namgung Seon-hwa pleaded with absolute desperation.

“You will not survive this course of action!”

Jin So-un released a ragged breath. It appeared that only now was his respiration beginning to stabilize to a small degree.

He maintained a fixed, unwavering gaze into Namgung Seon-hwa’s eyes as he spoke.

“If I choose to remain idle……. others will surely perish.”

“…… Cort.”

“That is an outcome I refuse to permit.”

The retort, “Then what is to become of us if you perish?” hovered on the edge of her tongue before she forced herself to swallow it down.

Before she could articulate an alternative thought, Jin So-un pressed forward with his remaining statements.

“I must ask you to endure for a brief period longer. The practitioners assembled here are likewise beginning to comprehend the anomaly due to these entities and are commencing a gradual retreat. The field of battle will empty shortly.”

“…….”

“Lady Namgung…….”

The solitary contribution she could offer at this juncture was a statement that might alleviate his tribulations, if only slightly.

“……I comprehend. Forgive me. I proved incapable of offering meaningful assistance.”

“That is an incorrect assessment……. My only request is that you preserve your life.”

“……What?”

Jin So-un offered a gentle, serene smile that seemed utterly incongruous with the horrific violence of their surroundings.

“My return will be swift.”

“…….”

In the identical instant Namgung Seon-hwa opened her mouth to reply, Jin So-un bounded off the terrain and launched himself directly into the oncoming shadows once more.

The illumination of the golden cord he manipulated traced a path through the dark like a falling star.

“Are you unharmed?”

“He stated…… that his return to my side would be swift, did he not?”

Kang Seo-pyo tilted his head in confusion.

“……I suspect that was not the intended meaning of his words…….”

“I perceived it with absolute clarity. He gave his word that he would return to me shortly…… Cort.”

“……My lady, you appear entirely exhausted. I implore you to take a brief intermission to recover.”

“No. I am truly quite functional. My strength has returned.”

For reasons she could not fathom, Namgung Seon-hwa experienced a sensation as though half of her spent internal energy had been suddenly replenished.