Chapter 12: A Killing Method That Cannot Be Hidden, Extreme Slaughter
Among the carrier pigeons used by the Nine Sects, there were several kinds, but the fastest and most accurate was the message hawk that made use of the Eastern Goshawk brought in from the East.
Because it was an extremely expensive and rare hawk, no sect could keep many of them. Each of the Nine Sects merely kept one or two that had been trained to fly back and forth between the sects.
Even so, the number still approached twenty, and simply maintaining them meant that each sect of the Nine Sects was spending an enormous amount of money. It was, in other words, an exceptionally costly communication system.
That was why it was not used unless the matter was truly important. And yet, one such Eastern Goshawk took flight from Mount Kunlun. Its direction was southwest.
Spreading its wings, the Eastern Goshawk that had risen from Mount Kunlun flew at high speed toward Yunnan, where Mount Dian was located.
The Mount Dian Sect was situated in Yunnan, a region that was part of the Central Plains yet treated as a frontier, often even referred to as lands beyond the borders.
The people who lived there were different, and not only their customs but even their way of life differed in many respects from those of the Central Plains.
Most of the land in this region was highland. It was not hot even in summer, nor particularly cold in winter, so people called it the Spring City—or rather, the land of spring.
However, its products were few, and there was insufficient farmland to sustain agriculture. As a result, many people depended on hunting and what the mountains provided, which made their dispositions rough and fierce.
That influence was conveyed intact to Mount Dian.
Though it had begun as a Daoist sect and even now remained one, the frequent influx of secular figures from Yunnan, with their harsh temperaments, had turned it into a place more aggressive than any other sect.
It was to that Mount Dian that Kunlun’s message hawk flew.
<Emperor Salyejin, heading (向) toward Mount Dian.>
At Kunlun’s message stating that Emperor Salyejin—namely, the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult—was heading toward Mount Dian, the sect erupted into chaos like a kicked beehive.
Those who, including the Sect Master, wished to preserve what little Daoist character remained argued that they should first send a reception envoy and ascertain the reason for the visit. In contrast, the majority of hardline elders insisted that they should pour out all their strength and launch a surprise attack.
The hardliners believed it was obvious that when the Vice Cult Leader—called the Demonic Cult’s ultimate weapon—was traveling thousands of li from the Heavenly Mountains all the way to Mount Dian, something disastrous was bound to happen.
Rather than sitting around and being struck, they argued, it was better to strike first.
If they launched a surprise attack, they could attack in a manner of their choosing and select advantageous terrain, gaining at least some benefit. That was their reasoning.
In short, they advocated attacking first, before being struck.
Given that there had never been an incident involving the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult in which the Hundred Paths had not seen blood, the hardliners’ argument was ultimately accepted.
It was decided that they would launch a full-strength surprise attack before the Vice Cult Leader arrived at Mount Dian.
Once the decision was made, the Sect Master—who had opposed the ambush throughout the meeting—unexpectedly made a bold move by mobilizing all of Mount Dian’s top experts into the strike force.
Perhaps finding this strange, Elder Jaehwa, who had been regarded as a moderate and had come with the Sect Master, asked,
“Why are you helping so actively?”
“They are not facing just anyone, but going out to fight Emperor Salyejin. The risk is boundless, so I merely thought we must do our utmost.”
“Do you truly believe they can succeed?”
“If not? Then everyone going out there is as good as dead. Could it be that the elder wishes for that?”
“N-no, that is not it, but… the opponent is who he is…”
“When I think of the countless events carried out in his name, he is indeed a terrifying opponent. Still, so long as he is human, if one stabs him with a blade, it will go in.”
“That may be so, but is the real problem not whether one can stab him at all?”
“Which is precisely why we must make it possible.”
Because of the Mount Dian Sect Master’s decision, the figures included in the strike force were truly staggering.
First and foremost were the masters of the Sun-Shooting Sword, regarded as the very essence of Mount Dian’s fast sword techniques.
Included among them was the Hall Master of Taiyi Hall, who oversaw the Sun-Shooting Sword practitioners that Mount Dian possessed.
Also one of the elders, he was the most accomplished of Mount Dian’s Sun-Shooting Sword users and, at the same time, Mount Dian’s strongest expert.
The sword speed of the Sun-Shooting Sword, which began from the moment of drawing the blade, was so fast that it always ranked first among the many fast swords of the Central Plains.
As the one who had achieved the highest mastery of that sword art in the current age, his speed went without saying.
There were even rumors that no one had ever actually seen the Taiyi Hall Master draw his sword with their own eyes.
It was because his speed was so extreme that even trained experts’ eyes—let alone mine, despite having cultivated inner techniques—could not follow it.
That Taiyi Hall Master was included in this strike force together with thirty top-tier Sun-Shooting Sword practitioners from Taiyi Hall.
The Mount Dian Sect Master did not stop there in composing the strike force.
The Red Dragon Eighteen Blades.
These eighteen blade warriors, who had mastered the Red Dragon Eighteen Blades—a blade art of Mount Dian rivaling even the Sun-Shooting Sword—were collectively given the same name as their martial art.
It was said that the combined formation these eighteen deployed had originally been created to capture a peerless number-one expert who had once ascended to the realm of the divine.
The reason the Red Dragon Eighteen Blades, who possessed such a combined formation, were included in the strike force was clear.
Certain kill!
It was a single-minded resolve to kill and eliminate the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult at all costs.
Yet even that seemed insufficient to the Mount Dian Sect Master, for he additionally included the Flying Heaven Twelve Predators.
Having mastered Mount Dian’s unique high-level lightness skill, the Flowing Cloud Movement Art, as well as the Flowing Cloud Sword Art, these individuals excelled in swift, agile movement. Their specialty was rapid pursuit and annihilation.
Their deployment meant that even if the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult broke through the combined formation of the Red Dragon Eighteen Blades and the continuous assault of the Taiyi Hall Sun-Shooting Sword practitioners and attempted to flee, they would pursue him without fail and kill him.
By the time the strike force had been assembled, it had gathered nearly eighty percent of Mount Dian’s experts—fully half of the sect’s total strength. It reached the point where even the hardline elders who had advocated the ambush said it was excessive.
Nevertheless, the Mount Dian Sect Master pushed forward with the composition of the strike force as it was.
As a result, on the third day after receiving Kunlun’s message, the fully organized strike force departed Mount Dian in search of its target.
The number of ordinary disciples mobilized to assist them in tracking the target alone exceeded a hundred, and the number of outer disciples brought in to support them reached several hundred.
Truly, Mount Dian had committed its full strength.
* * *
The road from Cheonghae, where Mount Kunlun was located, to Yunnan, where Mount Dian lay, had roughly two routes.
The first was to pass through Sichuan, and the second was to go down through Tibet.
By simple distance alone, the route through Tibet was shorter, but most people chose the longer path through Sichuan.
Even if the road that cut across eastern Tibet and descended into Yunnan was shorter, danger lurked everywhere along that route.
Even so, Yul Han’s group chose to pass through Tibet. The reason was the Hundred Paths sects based in Sichuan.
Just as Henan and Hubei—where Shaolin and Wudang were located—were densely packed with Hundred Paths sects, Sichuan was also a place where they gathered in great numbers.
Cold Blade Blood said that since it was the path the Vice Cult Leader was taking, those insignificant ones would not dare do anything.
Nevertheless, Yul Han judged that enduring a bit of hardship was better than dealing with needless complications, and thus chose the route through Tibet.
Judging by how he followed that decision without objection, despite his words, it seemed that even Cold Blade Blood—who had stepped forward as the guide—felt burdened by the idea of driving a carriage bearing the clear insignia of the Bright Cult through Sichuan.
Though the Tibetan roads were treacherous, there were paths worn by merchants, so there was no problem for a carriage to pass.
The real problem was not the road, but the people who lived in Tibet—especially the Tibetan martial artists.
Their relations with the Central Plains martial world, to which the Bright Cult belonged, were poor.
The hostility was so severe that it was often compared to the relationship between the Bright Cult and the Hundred Paths martial world, who had confronted each other and shed blood for a thousand years.
Those Tibetan martial artists stepped forward to block Yul Han’s group barely half a day after the carriage entered Tibet.
Tibetan martial society differed from that of the Central Plains, revolving around the Potala Palace.
Whether because the Potala Palace was also a Buddhist sanctuary, or because of Tibet’s inherent disposition, most Tibetan martial artists were monks—in other words, warrior monks.
The ones who blocked the carriage under the name Heavenly Dragon Temple were likewise monks.
“Get down and state who you are and where you are headed!”
The voices of roughly thirty warrior monks, shouting while wearing large blades wholly unsuited to their monastic robes, were filled with menace.
At them, Cold Blade Blood, who had been serving as the guide, roared back like a growl.
“It is a carriage of the Bright Cult! Do you dare block the Bright Cult and still hope to live?!”
Considering Cold Blade Blood’s usual temperament, the fact that he growled with words rather than drawing his blade meant that the opponents were anything but easy.
After all, Heavenly Dragon Temple was a monastery that wielded great influence in Tibet, second only to the Potala Palace.
The monk leading the warrior monks of Heavenly Dragon Temple answered Cold Blade Blood in kind.
“This is Tibet! Even if you were the emperor of the Central Plains, you cannot pass without dismounting and stating your destination!”
Though he shouted bravely, the monk who stepped forward had eyes filled with tension.
He knew well the Bright Cult’s violent disposition and overwhelming power.
A single clash here could escalate into a conflict between Heavenly Dragon Temple and the Bright Cult.
In that case, it would be difficult for Heavenly Dragon Temple to avoid total annihilation.
The Bright Cult clearly possessed that much strength.
Despite that risk, they had no choice but to step forward, because they could not simply allow the forces of an outside sect to pass through their territory unchallenged.
If Heavenly Dragon Temple let the Bright Cult’s carriage pass without resistance, they would be ridiculed by the other Tibetan sects as having been frightened.
Using that as a pretext, countless Tibetan sects would surely encroach upon Heavenly Dragon Temple’s interests.
To stop that, Heavenly Dragon Temple would have to spill an unbearable amount of blood.
Tibet, poor in resources, tolerated not even the smallest opening. Every sect in Tibet was desperate to seize another sect’s interests whenever the opportunity arose.
Thus, Heavenly Dragon Temple found itself in a paradoxical situation where, in order to survive, it had no choice but to block the Bright Cult’s carriage.
Unaware of Heavenly Dragon Temple’s circumstances, the door of the carriage opened, and Yul Han stepped down.
Perhaps feeling deeply apologetic that they had failed to resolve the matter themselves and had forced the Vice Cult Leader to dismount, Cold Blade Blood quickly climbed down from the driver’s seat and bowed deeply before Yul Han.
“My apologies, Vice Cult Leader. I will resolve this quickly and clear the way, so please wait just a moment.”
“No. I will speak with them myself.”
“But….”
“It is fine.”
Cold Blade Blood glanced at Yul Han, who offered him a slight smile, then hurriedly bowed again.
“I obey!”
Though Yul Han smiled faintly, it was nothing more than a hairline expression, completely obscured by his murderous gaze.
In any case, once Cold Blade Blood stepped back, Yul Han moved forward.
“I am Yul Han of the Bright Cult. I wish to pass through and enter Yunnan. Would that be difficult?”
The calm tone of his question was steeped in courtesy.
Unfortunately, Yul Han’s voice, as he spoke, was colder than a northern wind and driving snow.
That was not all—his eyes surged with a killing intent sharp enough to flay flesh.
In truth, this was an aftereffect of mastering Extreme Slaughter, which even within the Bright Cult was classified as one of the Three Great Forbidden Demonic Arts.
A thousand years ago, the Blood Demon—disciple of the Heavenly Demon, a master who would not die no matter what—had created Extreme Slaughter, a legendary killing art, in order to kill his teacher.
Its killing intent was so excessive that it leaked out regardless of the practitioner’s will.
Even without any murderous intent, killing aura streamed out through the eyes.
Because of that, the Blood Demon himself had been unable to approach in secret, and thus failed to assassinate the Heavenly Demon—an almost laughable anecdote attached to the art.
The story might be absurd, but the fact that it was designated a Forbidden Demonic Art, meaning a demonic art banned even among demonic arts, was explanation enough of its danger.
Indeed, after mastering Extreme Slaughter, there was no one Yul Han had set his mind on killing whom he had failed to kill.
After all, it was said that the third Cult Leader, the Phantom Divine Demon, had designated it a Forbidden Demonic Art precisely because of its danger.
That Extreme Slaughter drew limitless killing intent from Yul Han’s inner power, who was regarded as the greatest under heaven of the age.
It meant that even without conscious intent, a killing aura so dense that it would make even the Cult Leader—called the greatest of the demonic path—flinch was leaking out.
Everyone Yul Han had encountered so far had been terrified, contrary to his own intentions, because that killing intent did not merely leak out—it overflowed.
Moreover, Yul Han showed almost no change in expression. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
A polite tone utterly mismatched with an expressionless face, an icy voice, and eyes streaming with killing intent—when all of that came together, the opponent’s confusion became indescribably severe.
They could not tell where to focus.
On top of that, the opponent was a warrior of the Bright Cult, infamous for its brutality and ferocity. The pressure they exerted was greater than imagined.
That pressure caused a monk to make a mistake.
Overwhelmed by tension, he unconsciously grabbed the hilt of his blade.
He had not drawn it, nor swung it—he had merely grasped the handle. Unfortunately, the fellow warrior monks standing behind him took it as a signal to attack.
After all, they were facing someone whose killing gaze alone made their knees tremble.
In an instant, nearly thirty warrior monks rushed forward, and the scene descended into chaos.
Flashing Light Blood, who had been sitting on the driver’s seat, and Cold Blade Blood, who stood beside the carriage, reacted immediately.
As they kicked off the ground and leapt into the air, they saw the Vice Cult Leader raise his hand, restraining their movements.
Forced to land back in their original positions midway, the eyes of Flashing Light Blood and Cold Blade Blood widened in shock.