Chapter 24: Responsibility for Blood
When Flashing Light Blood grasped his sword and rose with eyes sharpened like honed steel after understanding Yul Han’s words, Cold Blade Blood’s brow creased deeply.
“Bastards. All you ever do is flap your mouths about righteousness and chivalry. You filthy cowards who crack pumpkin seeds behind people’s backs—how dare you!”
Each word spat out by Cold Blade Blood, blazing with rage, flew into Yul Han’s chest like a dagger and lodged itself there.
‘A frontal confrontation is disadvantageous. Poison the food, and once he eats it, launch a surprise attack.’
In the past—no, in his previous life—those were the words he himself had said to the Sect Master in order to capture the demonic head.
Back then, he had thought it was only natural. He believed it was the most efficient way to eliminate the demonic head while ensuring the safety of his master and senior and junior brothers.
Back then, he had believed even that was righteousness and chivalry.
“What in the world have I been doing with my life!”
Perhaps the shock was too great; the lament slipped out of Yul Han’s mouth unconsciously.
At his sudden words, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood turned back in surprise.
“Yes?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing. Be careful. They’ll be charging in any moment.”
No sooner had Yul Han finished speaking than windows burst open from three directions, and assassins poured in all at once.
An assassin’s killing art prized ambush above all else.
That didn’t mean every assassin relied solely on ambush—striking when the opponent was defenseless to assassinate in a single blow.
At times, matters were settled through frontal combat, and sometimes that was mixed with slipping into a blind spot during the clash to carry out the assassination.
This time, the three assassination sects had chosen the last method.
They planned to engage in frontal combat with a portion of their forces while several assassins reputed to be the best attempted ambushes.
After all, even without counting Yul Han, simple ambushes were nearly impossible against someone of Cold Blade Blood’s or Flashing Light Blood’s caliber.
Thus, in the narrow room where dozens of assassins’ attacks poured in, blades and swords flashed as Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood fought with Yul Han positioned between them. Each flash sprayed blood across the room.
It seemed their intent was to prevent the assassins’ attacks from reaching Yul Han’s side.
And that intent was being realized to a certain extent. As if a wall of blades had been erected, the assassins could not break past Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood.
Left and right—each took responsibility for one direction, and the enemies pressing in from the front were dealt with alternately by the two.
The sword of Flashing Light Blood, moving like a streak of light, and the blade of Cold Blade Blood, pressing forward with seemingly destructive force, cut down the assassins in an instant.
The assassins’ attacks were fast and vicious, like lightning strikes, but the defense of the two who blocked them was just as fast—and lethal.
As a result, in the brief span of time it took to draw only two breaths since the assassins had smashed through the doors, the number of those collapsed on the floor, spilling blood, had already exceeded twenty.
Stepping over those corpses, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood moved, and the assassins too surged forward madly over their comrades’ bodies.
Then, at a certain moment, some of the corpses that had been assumed dead suddenly sprang up like thunder and hurled blades at Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood.
It was, in its own way, a decisive strike, but as if they had anticipated it, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood received the ambush and cut down those who had feigned death.
Thus, even though three assassination sects reputed to have some name to them had been mobilized, they had failed to inflict any meaningful damage on Yul Han’s group.
In truth, the Gok Clan, which had mobilized them, had never believed the assassination sects could completely wipe out the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult’s group.
They had merely hoped to inflict at least critical injuries on Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood.
They thought that if they neutralized the Vice Cult Leader’s aides, it would become easier for them to deal with the rest.
But the result had gone far beyond their expectations.
Even though eight-tenths of the assassins mobilized by the three assassination sects were already dead, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood were still lively, rampaging through the entire room.
Watching the situation from outside, the Tang Clan’s Eldest looked toward the Supreme Patriarch of the Gok Clan who had come with him.
“This is about enough. Shall we wrap it up?”
Understanding what those words implied, the Gok Clan’s Supreme Patriarch nodded.
“Leave their disposal to the Tang Clan.”
At the Supreme Patriarch’s reply, the Tang Clan’s Eldest gestured behind him, and Tang Clan experts stepped forward carrying giant bows.
It was the Exploding Flame Giant Arrow, one of the Tang Clan’s secret concealed weapons.
A type of explosive arrow, the Exploding Flame Giant Arrow was a kind of Thunderclap Arrow, said to possess such destructive power that a single shot could blow away an entire house.
It might not demonstrate great power when facing experts in an open area with many places to evade, but in a situation like this, trapped inside a building, the story was different.
“Fire.”
At the Tang Clan’s Eldest’s command, close to thirty Tang Clan experts fired their Exploding Flame Giant Arrows in unison.
For this very purpose, the Tang Clan had brought along thirty archers, even after excluding the Tang Clan’s Eldest himself and three supreme peak experts.
The thirty Exploding Flame Giant Arrows they fired tore through the air toward the guest quarters.
And then—
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
With a thunderous explosion, the Martial Alliance’s guest building collapsed and was engulfed in flames.
Inside the collapsing, burning building were not only the assassins from the assassination sects they had mobilized through the Gok Clan, but that didn’t matter.
They were assassins—cancerous existences gnawing away at the Jianghu anyway.
The expressions and gazes of the Martial Alliance’s martial artists as they looked at the burning building were all the same.
Indifferent.
They were likely thinking that those destined to die had died.
Yet the eyes of those previously indifferent people widened, filling with confusion and shock.
Because people were walking out from within the blazing hall.
Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood emerged as if pushing through a red thorn thicket, casually brushing off the embers clinging to their clothes, their appearances completely unscathed.
The one responsible for making such an unbelievable escape through the flames possible was Yul Han, who unfolded a protective energy barrier to shield the two of them and walked out of the fire-engulfed building.
Moreover, unlike Cold Blade Blood or Flashing Light Blood, he did not appear to have even a single scorched mark on him.
At that completely unexpected sight, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood bared their teeth and charged toward the Martial Alliance experts who stood frozen in shock.
“I’ll kill you!”
Cold Blade Blood rushed out first with a ferocious shout, but instead, blood was scattered first around Flashing Light Blood, who had moved a beat later.
It was a result that vividly demonstrated why the character “Flash” was attached to his epithet.
As the Martial Alliance warriors of the Seven Sects, who had been standing dazed by the two men’s assault, began to respond, a full battle broke out.
However, the Martial Alliance’s Seven Sects deployed only peak-level experts to block Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood, both of whom stood at the supreme peak.
Their intent was to compensate for the gap in realm through numerical superiority, despite their inferior cultivation.
Instead, they committed all of the supreme peak experts they had mobilized to the confrontation with Yul Han.
In other words, they made their resolve clear—to gather supreme peak experts and bring down Yul Han, who possessed power beyond even that level.
Yul Han did not avoid the fight. Though the Martial Alliance had come under the pretext of dialogue, if they wanted blood, there was no choice but to fight.
Having steeled his resolve, Yul Han stepped forward.
And then—
“Kuaaagh!”
Screams filled the surroundings.
A sword sheathed in bluish sword energy shattered along with its wielder, collapsing in two, and a Peng Clan expert who favored an extremely wide-bladed saber was split vertically along with his weapon.
Weapons, realm, martial arts—everything was useless before Yul Han.
There was no one who could stop him as he advanced, cutting down and cleaving apart everything that stood in his way.
The thirty or so supreme peak experts gathered from the seven sects were reduced to twenty in an instant, then to ten, and only when a mere three or so remained did a shout ring out—the roar of the Shaolin Divine Monk, who had rushed over after hearing the explosion.
“Wait! Please, stop for a moment!”
It was in the midst of a fight of killing and being killed. No one thought the Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult would withdraw because of such a shout.
And yet—
Tsaang.
Yul Han lightly knocked aside the sword that had been in the act of cutting down another and shoved his opponent back, then stepped away.
Thanks to that, the Blazing Fire Sword Lord, who had barely escaped death, sucked in rough breaths.
Landing in front of him to block his path, the Shaolin Divine Monk shouted in a voice filled with rage.
“What in the world is this supposed to be!”
“That’s what I want to ask. You told us to wait, then launched an ambush. Is this the Alliance Leader’s answer?”
At Yul Han’s question, hurled in a tone as cold as his voice itself, the Shaolin Divine Monk faltered.
“W-What are you talking about? An ambush?”
“The one the Alliance Leader is protecting right now was also part of the attack. Why don’t you ask him yourself?”
At Yul Han’s blunt words, the Shaolin Divine Monk’s gaze turned behind him.
“Is what he’s saying true?”
Faced with the question, the Blazing Fire Sword Lord avoided his gaze and could not answer.
From that reaction alone, the Shaolin Divine Monk immediately understood what it meant.
They had asked for time, then gone behind his back as Alliance Leader and carried out their scheme.
Who had been involved was easy enough to guess just from the clothing and faces of those sprawled everywhere.
It was devastating enough that the elders had deceived him and acted on their own, but the consequences of an act carried out while deceiving even the Alliance Leader were far more tragic.
If they were going to move so unilaterally, they should at least have succeeded properly, yet everyone lying collapsed in unbearable states all around were people from the Martial Alliance’s side.
Moreover, where Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood stood, blood was still spraying, and Martial Alliance experts were still dying.
“Stop the fighting… please, stop the fighting. I beg you, Vice Cult Leader.”
“And why should I do that?”
“If this continues, you may kill all the experts gathered here, but the conflict between the Hundred Paths and the demonic—no, the Bright Cult—will be impossible to stop.”
“Wasn’t that the very purpose of stirring up this affair? If you want it, I’ll accept it. I didn’t come here out of fear to prevent it.”
“Then why did you come at all?”
“As I already said, I merely pitied those who would die pointlessly in the midst of it all.”
At Yul Han’s answer, the Shaolin Divine Monk hurriedly continued.
“Then it’s not too late yet. If you stop here, we can prevent a full-scale war between the Hundred Paths and the Bright Cult, and no more people will have to die senselessly.”
“I trusted the Alliance Leader’s words to wait, and this is the result. And you’re saying I should still trust you?”
“Please trust me. If my name isn’t enough, I’ll stake the name of Shaolin. This is Shaolin’s promise. We will absolutely see it done, so please—”
The Alliance Leader had no choice but to be desperate.
Just as he had rushed over upon hearing the explosion, ordinary Martial Alliance warriors who had been unaware of the situation were now charging in, getting swept into the fight between Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood and beginning to die.
Yul Han turned his head along the Shaolin Divine Monk’s anxious, darting gaze and confirmed the same sight.
–Please withdraw.
At Yul Han’s voice transmitted through mental projection, Cold Blade Blood immediately tried to object.
–But, Vice Cult Leader—
–I’m asking you.
At Yul Han’s transmission, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood could no longer hold out and withdrew.
The Martial Alliance experts who survived thanks to that gasped for breath.
To be honest, if the Martial Alliance’s supreme peak experts had not been tied down by Yul Han alone, Cold Blade Blood and Flashing Light Blood would not have been able to wield such overwhelming power.
Even though they had killed dozens and turned even more Martial Alliance experts into blood-soaked wrecks, the two of them were also at the supreme peak realm.
From the Martial Alliance’s perspective, repeated errors in judgment had led them to make the worst possible move.
Thus, the fiercely burning flames of the guest quarters illuminated the front courtyard, where well over fifty people lay dead and a similar number of wounded were strewn about.