The Martial Genius Who Remembers Everything Chapter 95

[ … words ]

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“In such large-scale battles, the one who remains until the end wins.”

The first one to feel that something was strange was Song-baek of the Hwayang Escort Agency.

Having had the First and Second Gate tokens taken away by Jin-so-un, and having missed them due to the idiocy of his senior disciples from the main sect—which kept him from sleeping at night out of anxiety—he was finally able to breathe a sigh of relief only today.

“It is a force of a thousand. At the point where all of them are martial artists, there was no way for even the Namgung Family or the Iron Sword Sect to survive.”

The person who spoke reliably was someone who had lived the life of a military officer on the front lines.

He had rich experience in commanding thousands of soldiers from his time in the Wei-su, and because he had experienced large-scale battles, his words carried more weight.

“I will only trust Captain Yeom.”

He, who valued hierarchy, had not stepped forward even once in the events that had occurred so far. However, he finally began to show his true worth only when Song-baek had been robbed of the gate tokens and had lost his mind after seeing the senior disciples of the Diancang Sect become water ghosts.

He had caught up to the person they had missed at Jin-gang in Su-cheon, and in Sin-hyeon, he had already been able to get ahead and wait for them.

It would have been impossible if he hadn’t known how to organize troops in a military style and march efficiently.

Now, all that remained was to watch this battlefield that had become a scene of carnage and raid only those who had taken the gate tokens from the Tae-eul-mun, the Namgung Family, and the Iron Sword Sect.

And then they could head to the Third Gate.

He was thinking just that.

“What is that?”

The battle had begun, and the torches lit by the force of a thousand looked as if a festival were being held on the Puyang Plain.

“What is the matter?”

“Look over there….”

The place Song-baek pointed to had darkness settled over it, as if a hole had been punched in the scene.

“Isn’t it strange that there are no torches only there?”

At Song-baek’s words, Captain Yeom looked intently and then shook his head.

“It is perhaps natural that those who are not skilled in war cannot maintain their formation.”

“Is that so…?”

He was someone who had only shown reliability until now. Song-baek did not have the confidence to assert his own stubbornness as he had before.

“Huh?”

But then, a hole opened up again in the wave of giant torches.

“Ca, Captain Yeom! Look there! A hole appeared there again!”

At Song-baek’s pointing, Captain Yeom furrowed his brow.

“Young Master, if you do not know about war, please stay still. It is natural for torches to go out during a night battle.”

But to say that, that place was not even the middle of the battle.

In terms of the battlefield, the situation was not much different from their own position.

At that moment.

Song-baek’s eyes flew open.

The giant hole—the darkness that emerged from there began to move.

Just as countless candles were suddenly extinguished by a gust of wind, the torches were extinguished one after another, creating a path of darkness.

“Th, there!”

“Young Master!”

“Look over there, you bastard!”

“……!”

The path of darkness headed straight for where Song-baek’s party was.

“Hup!”

Captain Yeom, who realized the strangeness, immediately snatched a torch from a warrior next to him and jumped to the front.

Whoosh.

But Captain Yeom was swallowed by the darkness and did not even leave a trace.

“Wh, what is this….”

Before he could even finish his sentence, darkness settled all around. And only then did the screams reach them.

“Kuaaack.”

“Sa, save me….”

“Hiiik! Gho, ghost!”

It was the first time he had heard the sound of flesh being pierced so loudly.

Song-baek, who had even forgotten the thought of running away due to a terror whose source he could not know, put his hand into his bosom and grabbed a signal flare.

It was the most instinctive action, wanting to simply avoid this darkness.

Whoosh.

The signal flare, which should have been fired into the sky to light up the night, flew toward the darkness and exploded.

Song-baek opened his mouth wide, unable to even scream at the sight revealed by the signal flare.

—–!

What he saw in the darkness was a monster whose skin had all been peeled off, with the movements of its internal organs and heart clearly visible.

From the monster’s hand, a bone that looked like a sword popped out.

‘The corpse… is mov…?’

Song-baek was completely eaten by the darkness without even being able to complete his thought.

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“When darkness appears, throw sword energy or fist energy there. You cannot face them with just a sword.”

Namgung-seon-hwa thought this while cutting down an enemy she did not know if it was the thirtieth or thirty-second.

As if that were easy.

Her Dantian was already starting to show the bottom. She had tried to resist by unfolding the Chang-gung Sword Formation with the Chang-gung troops, but the sword formation she had prided herself on being invincible could not withstand the endless wave of torches and crowds.

“Young Lady!”

The Chang-gung Sword Formation was shattered, and the Chang-gung troops were scattered.

Every step she took, the floor was full of dozens of wounded, but the number of those still running at her with swords and torches did not seem to have decreased at all.

“Young Lady! Get into the sword formation!”

Gang-seo-pyo, who had followed her despite his injuries, shouted as if he were struggling.

“Captain Gang! The Chang-gung troops have already been dismantled!”

“You must unfold a different one!”

“What?”

A different sword formation? Was he talking about the Emperor Sword Formation? She hadn’t learned that yet…….

“The White Tiger Sword Formation!”

Ah. Only then did the sword formation Namgung-seon-hwa had learned just to try and eat a warm meal once come to her mind.

“But, around here….”

“I will do it!”

When she turned her head, Dong-ryong, who was covered in blood from head to toe, said.

“When on earth….”

“Young Lady! Quickly!”

There was no time to ask when he had arrived, as Gang-seo-pyo and Dong-ryong took their positions around her.

“Launch!”

At Dong-ryong’s shout, Namgung-seon-hwa and Gang-seo-pyo began to swing their swords.

Clang, clang, clang.

They barely managed to deflect the swords thrown by the enemies and thrust their swords into vital points. The injured enemy fell to the floor.

Through that gap, the next enemy poured in.

According to Dong-ryong’s guidance, they changed positions and took a moment to rest.

It was a strange thing.

It did not have the destructive power of the Chang-gung Sword Formation, but it was flexible. It required less strength.

A sword formation was something that was almost impossible to reorganize once broken, but because it was a sword formation formed by three people, changing the formation and opening the formation was as simple as flipping a palm.

What was even more amazing was Dong-ryong.

Dong-ryong, who had less than twenty years of internal energy, displayed skills not inferior to the Chang-gung troops once the sword formation was formed. No, rather, he was leading the White Tiger Sword Formation right now.

“Where are Geum-pyo and Eun-ho?”

Even in this urgent situation, the children who were like her younger brothers came to mind. Through the difficult journey they had been on together, a closeness like that of real younger brothers had formed before she knew it.

“The Senior Brother said that since we don’t know how to handle sword energy, we should form a sword formation with the others.”

“Ah….”

Because she was fighting in a daze, she had forgotten about those dangerous existences. On one hand, she also doubted whether they could intervene in a situation where such a chaotic battle was unfolding.

Moreover, the story about hitting empty air where there was nothing was even less trustworthy.

“Over there!”

But just then, Dong-ryong stopped swinging his sword and pointed to one side.

Darkness fell at a distance of 10 jang (approx. 30 meters) and approached in a straight line.

As if water had been sprayed only there, the torches were extinguished, and the crowd disappeared.

“Young Lady!”

“I saw it!”

This time, Dong-ryong pulled back, and Gang-seo-pyo and Namgung-seon-hwa stepped forward.

The thing she had doubted had truly happened.

Namgung-seon-hwa scraped together the little internal energy she had left.

“Now is the time!”

Simultaneously with Gang-seo-pyo’s shout, she drew out all her strength and flew her sword energy. The sword energy she had flown without keeping any form or pattern had only the destructive power of the sword energy itself.

Without a single bit of sharpness…….

However,

-Kyak!

The darkness that had been approaching quickly stopped, and a beast’s scream was heard from within.

“Hiiik!”

What revealed its body in the darkness was the appearance of a corpse whose skin seemed to have been completely peeled off.

The sight of the organs moving inside the rib cage felt even more terrifying.

The monster, which had revealed its appearance for a moment, tried to hide in the darkness by surrounding itself again with something like the shell it had spread out.

But Gang-seo-pyo and Namgung-seon-hwa were now at their limit.

The two despaired at the fact that they had to let go of the scary enemy in front of their eyes.

“Cha-ah!”

At that moment. Dong-ryong sprang out like lightning.

“Dong-ryong! No!”

Dong-ryong, who had pushed his way into the darkness, poured attacks onto the monster that had revealed itself.

Clang. Clang. Clang, clang, clang.

It was nothing more than a simple attack without even sword energy, but every time Dong-ryong attacked the monster’s bones, the black shell that had been restored spread out again.

“How on earth….”

Moreover, Dong-ryong’s attacks were aiming only for vital points, as agilely and cleanly as possible.

He stabbed the heart, stabbed the organs, stabbed the eyeballs, and stabbed into the mouth.

Every time, the monster’s embarrassed appearance could be seen.

“Captain!”

“Yes! Young Lady!”

There was no need for a long conversation.

With the belief that they must never miss the opportunity Dong-ryong had caught, they attacked persistently.

For the first time since the battle began, she felt hope. The attacks were working on an enemy whose true form they hadn’t even been able to grasp until now.

“Uh-uh?”

The atmosphere of the examinees and the warriors they had hired who had been rushing in aiming for the gate tokens was unusual.

Namgung-seon-hwa’s eyes, which had turned her head instinctively, flew wide open.

Darkness was appearing again and approaching fiercely toward this side.

The examinees, who had already been in the middle of battle, also felt something strange and began to run away from the darkness.

But the battlefield where hundreds had gathered was not a space they could escape from so easily.

“Ge, get out of the way!”

“What is this, anyway!”

“This wasn’t in the information!”

As dozens of warriors were swallowed by the darkness in an instant, and the moment it was about to swallow Namgung-seon-hwa, Gang-seo-pyo, and Dong-ryong all at once.

Chwaak!

A glowing whip that had flown from somewhere wound around the darkness.

In the darkness where there should have been nothing, a human form was wound by the whip and swept to the floor.

“Senior Brother!”

“Well done!”

The identity was none other than Jin-so-un.

With the glowing whip wrapped around his left hand, he poured fist energy into the darkness he had subdued.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.

A fast and powerful attack that was enough to dent the floor in an instant.

Soon, the darkness made a crunching sound, turned flat, and gushed out bright red blood.

The monster that Dong-ryong, Namgung-seon-hwa, and Gang-seo-pyo had been facing seemed to have seen that scene, so it tried to quickly kill the three people and leave the spot.

But it could not shake off Dong-ryong, who was focused on attacking.

Chwaak!

In the end, the whip of radiance that extended from Jin-so-un’s left arm wound around the monster’s neck.

-Kek!

The monster was dragged away like a beast caught in a trap, and soon its neck was cut off.

Seeing the bones, which had been like steel when he struck them, cut in an instant, they could not gauge how much internal energy Jin-so-un was pouring into dealing with that monster.

“Young Master Jin.”

“Huff, huff, are you okay?”

Sure enough, it was a state where the question of whether he was okay should have been asked by them.

“Young Master Jin, what on earth right now….”

His face had turned pale, and the veins all over his body were swollen as if they were about to burst.

Symptoms that appear when internal energy is drawn up to the limit.

He was already far past the crisis stage of Qi deviation. It was a situation where he could immediately become a cripple if he made even a slight mistake.

“Do not move anymore.”

Namgung-seon-hwa grabbed Jin-so-un’s arm, but Jin-so-un grabbed her hand.

“I must move still.”

“What does that mean, Young Master Jin! If you move more here, you could really die.”

“Fortunately, I haven’t used the innate Qi (Seon-cheon-ji-gi) yet.”

The corners of his mouth, which were forcing a smile, were trembling. The words ‘crazy person’ that Seong Mo-ran had said a few times suddenly came to mind.

“I caught eight. Now I only need to catch eleven more.”

Namgung-seon-hwa said desperately.

“You’ll die doing that!”

Jin-so-un let out a small sigh. It seemed his breath had finally returned.

He looked intently into Namgung-seon-hwa’s eyes and said,

“If I don’t move… others will die.”

“…….”

“I don’t want to see that.”

The words ‘And what if you die doing that?’ hovered around her lips and were swallowed back down.

Before she could even say anything else, Jin-so-un continued what he had to say.

“Please hang on a little longer. The examinees gathered here are also starting to feel something strange bit by bit because of them and are backing away. The battlefield will also be resolved soon.”

“…….”

“Young Lady Namgung….”

The words she could say now would probably only be to ease his worries a little more.

“……I understand. I’m sorry. For not being of help.”

“It’s not that……. Please make sure to stay alive.”

“……Yes?”

Jin-so-un wore a warm smile that one would not think to wear in the middle of a battlefield.

“I will be back soon.”

“…….”

The moment Namgung-seon-hwa was about to answer, Jin-so-un kicked off the floor and threw his body into the darkness once again.

The light of the golden whip he was holding stretched out along his trajectory like a shooting star.

“Are you okay?”

“He said… he would come back to me soon, right?”

Gang-seo-pyo tilted his head.

“……I don’t think that’s what he meant….”

“I clearly heard it. That he would come back to me soon….”

“……Young Lady, it seems you are having a hard time. Please rest for a little bit.”

“No. I am truly okay. I have recovered.”

Namgung-seon-hwa felt as if her drained internal energy had been half-filled for some reason.