Chapter 122. Five Dragons Fight for a Pearl (18)

After disappearing for a moment, Ma-Ra reappeared completely opposite of where Cho Mu-Gwang and the Four Maras were looking.

"Be careful!"

Cho Mu-Gwang screamed as he sensed her reappearance. At the same time, Ma-Ra raised both sleeves and fired her wrist crossbows.

Thwip, thwip, thwip, thwip!

Arrows rained down on the five.

Even dealing with Woo-Moon right now was too much for them, leaving them completely overwhelmed by Ma-Ra’s additional attack.

Woo-Moon used the Divine Phantasm Steps to get close to the five as they barely managed to knock aside the arrows. He silently swung Inkblade, impossible to see as it assimilated into the darkness, and simply slaughtered all of them in a moment.

Finally, as Cho Mu-Gwang’s heart was pierced and he died instantly, the other members of the Black Bull Gang ran away screaming.

“Aah!”

There was no need to chase and kill those who were running away. Moreover, Woo-Moon could feel his qi reserves bottoming out.

He looked around after the battle ended.

There were countless bodies lying everywhere. Although Woo-Moon knew that all of them were part of the Black Hand and deserved to die, he still felt strange seeing the corpses of those who had lost their lives at his hand.

He felt stuffy—as if a very heavy stone had been placed on his chest. He couldn’t help but feel as though all of the corpses here had died because of him.

Ma-Ra held no distinction between good and evil to begin with and was completely desensitized to death. To her, any enemy of Woo-Moon’s or hers was met with an “either we die or you die.” She didn't give it any meaning or value, so she naturally had no such worries.

That was exactly why Woo-Moon felt as though he had killed all of those here, including those who died at Ma-Ra’s hands. In times like these, Ma-Ra was nothing but his sword, moving in whatever direction he brandished it.

True to her usual self, Ma-Ra was staring at Woo-Moon with an expressionless gaze, unimpressed by the piles of corpses by her side.

“Woo-Moon. What is it?”

“I-it’s nothing. Let’s go.”

Woo-Moon took the lead and set off, heading to the rendezvous point. However, his chest was still heavy and burdened.

He had always taken his grandfather’s belief that killing evildoers wasn’t a sin. It had always been his motto, and he had lived that way without fault. However, seeing so much blood today, he just couldn’t help but feel guilty.

Although he had decided to cultivate in his own way and follow his own Dao, he wondered if he could really become a Sword Immortal even after spilling this much blood.

‘I don’t know... what a difficult question. Really, so difficult.’

As Woo-Moon had expected, although all of the other members of the Wind Sword Squadron were covered in wounds and looked exhausted, they still all returned safely and were waiting for him.

As Woo-Moon had dealt with most of the reserve force, they had only faced about forty assailants at most.

As he continued back to the encampment with his squadron, he saw about five hundred Justice Coalition experts approaching from the opposite direction. They had great momentum, and their ranks seemed to include a good number of elites.

“Captain of the Wind Sword Squadron! What happened? I heard that the enemy set up a trap for the scouting teams.”

Woo-Moon greeted Lee Chung, the Rear Guard Battalion leader, and explained what had happened.

“...so that’s about it. Considering how far they went to stop our reconnaissance and the conversations they were having between them, the Black Bull Gang is most likely organizing a separate army to target the rear.”

The gathered Rear Guard had also realized that the enemy organized a separate army by now.

“So you’re saying that you took them on all by yourself and won? And it wasn’t just any old Black Bull Gang soldiers, but Cho Mu-Gwang, the Twin Daredevil Murderers, and the Four Maras? Hoho. And you’re telling me to believe that?”

The others with Lee Chung also couldn’t believe Woo-Moon’s words.

“You deserve to be praised for shaking off the enemy’s trap and coming back alive. However, it’s quite careless of you to try to increase your reputation with such ridiculous bragging.”

Although the Rear Guard knew that Woo-Moon had played an integral part in the sparring tournament against the Hegemon Clan, they didn’t think highly of him as they chalked it up to be a fight between the younger generation.

Of course, none of them knew that San Woo-Gyeol wasn’t a member of the younger generation. After all, how could they?

Woo-Moon wasn’t in a good mood right now, irritated that they wouldn’t believe him. For that reason, he reacted so much more emotionally than usual.

“If you don’t want to believe me, then don’t. However, if you think I’ll permit you to call me a braggart just like that, you are wrong.”

“What? You won’t

permit

me? Ha! Not only is that not an attitude a talent of the younger generation should have toward a leader of the

gangho

, but it’s also not an appropriate way for a mere Wind Sword Squadron captain to speak to me, the Battalion Leader of the Rear Guard!”

Woo-Moon smiled coldly.

“I may be young, but I am not only the grandson of the great Palm Martial Emperor but also an elder with a rank equivalent to the head of one of the

murim’s

Great Families. Also, I didn’t even want to be the captain of the Wind Sword Squadron; I was offered this position by Martial Commander Palan Shin-Tong. I will step down if you wish. Is that acceptable?” he said with venom.

There wasn’t a single thing wrong with what Woo-Moon said.

However, Lee Chung still became enraged to hear a young man so much younger than him not only bluffing like crazy but also continuing to talk back to him so arrogantly.

“Although you may have a high rank, you’re still younger than me. Respecting and treating your elders properly is a basic human duty!”

“Then are you saying that we need to respect and follow whatever our elders say, even if it's wrong? Then what would be the difference between great leaders and tyrants who only insist on their tyrannical words?”

Naturally, Lee Chung took that personally and didn’t bother to think about what Woo-Moon actually meant.

‘This newborn brat dares to teach me?! He dares to taunt me?!”

“You little...!”

Lee Chung was about to curse before Woo-Moon interrupted him, imbuing qi into his voice.

“Hey, let's stop here. Considering it’s an urgent situation, let’s just say that I was wrong. You don’t have the time to waste here right now, do you? Something big will happen if we don’t catch the hidden force right now.”

It was only then that Lee Chung also realized it—they were indeed on an urgent mission, and he couldn’t afford to waste time on such a senseless argument.

“Then, I’ll be leaving here. If you don’t believe me, you can go to where I fought and see for yourself,” Woo-Moon ended coldly. After he finished, he, along with the other members of the Wind Sword Squadron, passed by the reinforcements and returned to the main encampment.

***

Now that all of the forces of the Shaolin Temple, Beggar Gang, Zhuge Family, Hwangbo Family, Baek Family, and Namgoong Family had gathered together, the third army of the Justice Coalition was fully formed.

Although the momentum had swung to the Black Bull Gang at the beginning of the war, not only did they have comparable strength now, but also, due to the fact that they were led by the Fist Emperor, the Justice Coalition would enter a more advantageous state as the war progressed.

“But why the hell do I have to act together with the Battalion Leader of the Rear Guard?”

Woo-Moon sighed. Although his depressive feeling had subsided after a day or two, the thought of carrying out a new mission with Lee Chung, more specifically under his command, all he could see was darkness in the days ahead.

This mission was also an extension of the last one. The hidden force that the Black Bull Gang had set up in secret to attack the Baek Family still existed and had to be dealt with.

After parting ways with Woo-Moon, Lee Chung chased after the enemies. Surprisingly, however, the Black Bull Gang's hidden force included two of the Ten Demon Generals.

The troops led by Lee Chung weren’t enough to take the force down, and after a struggle, they returned in defeat.

The Black Bull Gang had sent a total of four hidden forces to infiltrate into the rear. Considering the overall strength of their army, the Justice Coalition leaders thought that there wouldn’t be any other forces secretly hiding anywhere else, an opinion that Woo-Moon also shared.

Moreover, worried that they would be destroyed if they continued to travel individually, the four hidden forces also joined together and formed two larger forces after being discovered.

“Ahem.”

As the Black Bull Gang forces grew closer, Lee Chung called over all of the people under his command at the rank of captain and higher to assign tasks. His face heated up the moment he saw Woo-Moon. He barely held back his anger as he cleared his throat with an unpleasant grunt.

It was only after that incident that he had realized there was nothing wrong with Woo-Moon’s words, and it had, in fact, been him who had erred on account of Woo-Moon’s young age. However, the way Woo-Moon had gone about it hadn’t been the most polite of methods, leaving Lee Chung still angry.

A small part of him did, in fact, feel sorry, as after returning from the fight with the hidden forces, he had run into the countless corpses of the Black Bull Gang that Woo-Moon had mentioned.

Of course, not all of his questions had been answered due to the number of corpses who had died from weapons other than the swords that Woo-Moon obviously used. But in any case, as the number of dead was the same as what Woo-Moon had reported, it was impossible for them not to believe him at all.

However, because he was so stubborn and stubborn still, Lee Chung couldn’t bring himself to admit it even to himself, much less to Woo-Moon.

He was worried that he had been the one to make a mistake, and he was horrified to think of the humiliation he would have to face if that really was the case.

‘What an arrogant little brat...’

Lee Chung once again surreptitiously glared at Woo-Moon.

‘And what are you going to do about it, you old man who doesn’t act his age?’

Woo-Moon was just as irritated with Lee Chung as the Battalion Leader was with him. When Lee Chung glared at him, he couldn’t help but glare right back.

After holding a staring contest for a moment, Lee Chung realized that he had a mission to hand out, so he looked away for a moment before starting to explain.

The gist of the entire operation was as follows.

They would split the forces of the Justice Coalition according to their mastery of their movement arts. The half that could travel quickly would take a detour to block the enemy’s march, while the half with slower movement arts would attack the rear.

It was a simple yet effective tactic that took advantage of the characteristics of people in the

murim.

The most crucial part of this plan was for the troops blocking the path and the troops attacking the rear to enter the battle at the same time. While a slight delay may be acceptable, if their timing was off by too much, whichever side engaged first would be destroyed, resulting in a crushing defeat overall.

‘If those bastards have any wit to them, they would aim for and attack whichever troop comes first with everything they have and try to wipe them out quickly.’

Woo-Moon, who had been listening quietly, raised a hand.

“What is it, Wind Sword Squadron Captain?”

“Our Wind Sword Squadron should have the highest average martial skill. We offer to play the role of coordinating the time to enter the battle between the diversionary force and the rear force.”

This coordination was the key that could determine victory and defeat in this battle. Thus, Woo-Moon wanted to take on that role himself.

‘We have to win. I refuse to lose anything, no matter what.’

However, Lee Chung just snorted in response.

“The Wind Sword Squadron should have the highest average martial skill? This is the first time I've heard something like that, hoho! We’re speaking of the same Wind Sword Squadron that was evaluated as the weakest of the Five Swords of Heavenly Justice, correct? You mean that evaluation is incorrect? Moreover, why would you, of all people, take on the easiest task? If your martial skills really are high, shouldn’t you take the lead in battle?”

The others who had been with Lee Chung two nights ago also agreed with him solely because they didn’t like Woo-Moon.

“That’s right, Battalion Leader.”

“To think that you bragged as if you didn’t know how high the heavens were, just to try to stand back and save yourself from battle.”

Lee Chung had completely misinterpreted Woo-Moon’s intentions. It was only because he hated Woo-Moon. Nothing more, nothing less.

“You say that the Wind Sword Squadron should have the highest average martial skill. Moreover, as the Captain of this terrifyingly strong Wind Sword Squadron, you even single-handedly defeated a large army of Black Bull Gang members. Don’t you think you should be joining the diversionary force with me and blocking the enemy’s path with that level of strength?”

His ridiculously trapping logic made Woo-Moon realize his true nature.