Chapter 062
"Huff, huff…"
Her disheveled hair swayed like a red snake. The red locks, damp with sweat, drooped like seaweed. Soaked with blood, they resembled reddish-brown seaweed swaying in the sunlight. Despite her best efforts to evade, she couldn't dodge everything and had been cut in several places. Sharp pain radiated from her shoulder and leg.
'I can't stop.'
Gal Yerung gritted her teeth.
She had volunteered as bait. It made more sense for her to go rather than Cheongpyo and Red Tides, given her superior speed. She had successfully lured out the Hao Sect members by going alone to their last known location and provoking them, but the blood-clothed man following her from behind seemed disturbingly unhurried. As if he was certain he would kill them all anyway.
"Damn it…"
She had confidence in her escape abilities. The Hao Sect specialized in survival, and the foundation of that was naturally footwork—lightness techniques. Gal Yerung had the highest achievement in lightness techniques, making her body light to run faster. Excluding Baek Won, the youngest who wasn't counted among the commanders, Gal Yerung was the fastest in the entire Hao Sect.
Yet before she could even react, she had been cut on her shoulder and leg.
'If it had been Red Tides or Cheongpyo, they would have died.'
Her teeth ground together audibly.
Red Tides and Cheongpyo were stronger than her in some ways. In terms of overall martial arts, the three were similar in total strength. However, Red Tides focused on speed at the expense of destructive power, while Cheongpyo emphasized power at the cost of speed. Gal Yerung was considered the most balanced, but her true specialty was in lightness techniques.
That was why she had volunteered as bait.
"You run well for a little rat."
The blood-clothed man's voice suddenly reached her ears.
When had he closed the distance?
The man who had seemed quite far away was suddenly right behind Gal Yerung. Ghost-like movement. The internal energy coating the sword in his hand glowed blood-red.
"Did you really think you could escape me?"
Kwagagang!
The man's sword carved a violent arc through the air, tearing it apart.
At the end of that trajectory stood Gal Yerung.
But even a blade of internal energy that violently tears through the air is useless if it doesn't hit.
Gal Yerung's form blurred and then disappeared like mist.
"Such petty tricks!"
The man pulled his left arm back like tightening a loosened thread, pushing the air away. A blood-colored palm force released with the momentum of a tidal wave flowed like a river.
The rain-like palm force covering a radius of fifty feet engulfed Gal Yerung's fading form and swept it away.
The terrifying power scorched the forest not far from Luoyang.
On the ground that had been cleanly cut and flattened, there was no sign of Gal Yerung.
Only spots of blood she had shed remained.
"Oh ho…"
A fierce smile spread across the man's face. His gaze shifted left and right.
"Chase her."
"Yes, sir!"
"She intends to draw our cult to Luoyang. No matter how she flees, she cannot hide the scent of blood."
The footsteps of the man, chuckling, pounded the main road toward Luoyang.
...
"It's the Blood Cult!!"
"B-Blood Cult?!"
"Why would the Blood Cult come all the way to Luoyang?!"
Shouts revealed the identity of those who had stormed the arena where the Dragon Gate Gathering was being held.
In the moment of confusion, as the Hao Sect members planted by Red Tides and Cheongpyo raised the alarm, Blood Cult warriors unleashed their internal energy toward those gathered in the arena.
"Kill them all!"
"Leave no one alive!"
"I heard the imperial princess of the Zhou Dynasty is here! Find her and kill her!"
"Exterminate the orthodox sects!"
The Blood Cult warriors were few in number. However, among those gathered at the arena were many civilians who knew no martial arts, and many martial artists exhausted from intense competitions.
In such a situation, the Blood Cult's attack quickly worsened conditions.
The Blood Cult warriors threw small black spheres from their sleeves, and flames erupted everywhere.
A delayed boom followed.
After that came the shocked cries of the martial artists.
"Th-Thunderbolts!"
"This is insane!"
"The Blood Cult is using Thunderbolts!!"
Forbidden weapons of the martial world.
As they were designated as highly controlled items by the imperial court, trading the gunpowder used in Thunderbolts was strictly illegal. But the Blood Cult paid no attention to such restrictions.
If they were the type to care about such things, they wouldn't have set foot in this place where the orthodox sects' forces were gathered in the first place.
"Argh!"
"Aaah!"
"They're throwing Thunderbolts! Scatter!!"
Screams rose everywhere.
Amid them, the Blood Cult warriors' shouts echoed.
"Find the scholar named Baek Sugyeong!"
"The Cult Master ordered us to keep him alive!"
"Find Baek Sugyeong!"
"But we don't have a description of him!"
"We'll find him as we kill! He's said to be accompanied by three women! Look for a man with three women!"
The sound of clashing weapons erupted violently from all directions.
Chaos immediately engulfed the area.
Like flames fueled by blood, the sound of metal weapons bloomed like flowers throughout the surroundings.
So Seonha's form cut through the battlefield of metallic sounds like lightning.
With an ear-splitting burst, the Blood Cult warriors who had been thrusting their swords forward retreated with frustrated expressions.
So Seonha, who had forcibly pushed them back, shouted.
"Master, they're looking for Teacher Sugyeong!"
"We can't let a single one of them get through, Seonha!"
"Yes!"
So Seonha drew the ancient sword from her back, and White Cat leapt onto her shoulder.
The Epiphyllum Rainbow Divine Art instantly coursed through her entire body.
The number of attacking Blood Cult warriors wasn't that great. Compared to the more than a thousand heroes gathered here, they were less than half that number.
But the sinister energy they emitted was excessive.
The Epiphyllum Rainbow Divine Art seemed to react to it, almost visibly flaring up.
This was evidence of how sensitively it responded to evil energy.
"Haah!"
She gripped the ancient sword with both hands and thrust it forward.
The invisible energy wave that shot through the crowd of heroes like it had eyes bloomed like a flower, knocking five Blood Cult warriors out of the air.
Pububeok!
While the Blood Cult warriors exposed to So Seonha's attack hesitated to regain their balance, the ancient sword in So Seonha's hand—who had leapt over the heads of the crowd—alternately thrust through the air.
The extended sword formed a massive circular energy field, striking down the Blood Cult warriors who were drawing their sword energy.
"Urgh!"
"What is that little brat?!"
Chak.
So Seonha, who had forced the Blood Cult warriors to retreat with a single strike, lightly swung her ancient sword.
A swift sword movement that made her hand blur.
A long line was drawn three zhang in front of So Seonha.
"Shall we stop? If you don't want to die."
White Cat meowed on So Seonha's shoulder, above the ground that smoked as if forged with lava.
The faces of the Blood Cult warriors contorted at the sight.
"A white cat?"
"The Moon White Night Cat!"
Exclamations of shock erupted among the Blood Cult warriors.
The snow-white fur gleamed with a cloud-like luster in the sunlight.
Its eyes were gold and blue, emitting a strange radiance.
A monster?
No—it was different from such low-quality beings.
Without even raising its fur, simply resting on its master's shoulder, the spiritual energy emanating from it disrupted the evil energy of the Blood Cult warriors.
The expressions of the Blood Cult warriors twisted as they watched White Cat easily repel the evil energy of the Blood Essence Demon Spirit Art.
"Damn it all! Why is that thing here?!"
The Moon White Night Cat was a spiritual creature that drove away evil energy.
Commonly said to be born under the Six Killing Calamity of the Wen Valley Star, it was a divine beast that brought good fortune to its master and calamity to evil practitioners.
Yet records of this creature had been lost for more than five hundred years.
There were only mentions in legends, with abundant speculation, but now this spiritual creature had actually appeared in the Central Plains.
Moreover, it had chosen a young female martial artist as its master.
"Kill her!"
"Blood Unit, first formation! Blood Calamity Demon Formation!"
As the Blood Cult warriors moved in unison, So Seonha's eyes narrowed.
Her ancient sword instantly thrust in all directions.
The sword that stabbed in all four directions seemed to point to the ground, then soared toward the sky.
A strange stance, as if performing sorcery.
"What nonsense is this…!"
"Pillar and Roof Tile Formation!"
Like pillars standing in a row with roof tiles covering them.
Sword energy rose densely to form a forest, and above it, sword energy poured down like a lid covering a box.
The Epiphyllum Rainbow Divine Art naturally supported So Seonha's sword technique.
Her eyes turned green, like green jade.
The forest of sword energy became countless pillars of sword energy, and as sword energy stabbed down vertically like a lid covering them, a tremendous sound echoed with immense power—overshadowing the commotion in the arena where the martial arts competition was being held.
"Argh!"
"Kheuk."
A rain of blood fell.
Those who had cultivated the Blood Cult's unique demonic arts collapsed, bleeding from their own bodies.
In an instant, more than twenty were incapacitated.
Though they were recovering by absorbing their own spilled blood, the fact that a single strike had disabled Blood Cult combat unit members was significant.
Even those with the Blood Cult's unique regenerative abilities could be neutralized by So Seonha's sword in one strike.
Because of this, So Seonha lowered her sword.
"…"
A heavy silence descended.
Her young age—not yet twenty—brought about this deep silence.
So Seonha spoke.
"If you want to pass through here, you'll have to step over me."
The master of the Moon White Night Cat.
The martial prowess of So Seonha—chosen by the Moon White Night Cat that had manifested after five hundred years—instantly enveloped the arena thrown into chaos by the Blood Cult's attack.