Chapter 063
Bang Soran smiled as she watched her disciple. Who would have thought this was the same So Seonha who had once been dismissed as talentless? Among the children staying at the dormitory, she was growing stronger at an incomprehensible rate. But still, she lacked experience in the martial world. As her teacher, Bang Soran would need to guide and teach her much more.
...
'What kind of monster is this...'
White Cat Fairy? A title he'd never heard before. This meant she was a new martial artist who had only recently made a name for herself. Not only was she the owner of the Moon White Night Cat, but she wielded an ancient sword that looked like it belonged to prehistoric times. Despite the blade appearing dull, she cut down Blood Cult warriors with ease.
"Ugh!"
"Damn it, our regeneration is slowing! Be careful not to touch her sword!"
The warriors of the Crazy Blood Unit's first squad could only grit their teeth at the young sword master blocking their path. With such martial prowess, she should rightfully be among the Thirteen Elites, the greatest young talents in the Central Plains. Yet So Seonha's name couldn't be found anywhere. Moreover, Bang Soran standing beside Seonha was equally troubling.
'The Thousand Sword Heroine is her teacher?'
Though Bang Soran was said to have reached her peak, Seonha's martial prowess far exceeded what Bang Soran could teach. Who would have thought? That So Seonha had taken a novel as another teacher, using it as a secret manual to learn martial arts. Especially since it was So Yuhyeon's exclusive sword technique called the "Heaven Fleeing Sword Art." It was only natural that Blood Cult warriors, who knew of the Wudang Sword Hero but not the Little Immortal's Chivalrous Journey, couldn't understand the origin of her martial arts.
"Damn it!"
They couldn't cross the line Seonha was defending. If they approached even slightly, sword energy would fly at them immediately. Somehow her sword seemed to possess the power to subdue demons and evil, as even exposure to the sword energy slowed their regeneration. This meant they couldn't force a war of attrition by exploiting the Blood Cult's advantage of regeneration.
Though the other martial artists were clearly struggling, with Seonha in the way, they couldn't even target Baek Sugyeong who must be behind her.
"Break through!"
The man who appeared to be the squad leader shouted as he pulled out a Thunderbolt. The other Blood Cult warriors also drew their Thunderbolts.
Each had been issued two shots. If they used them all at once, even someone with high martial arts couldn't withstand the blast and would burn to death.
"Throw them!"
"Th-there!"
"The Blood Cult is throwing Thunderbolts!"
"Scatter!!"
The orthodox faction martial artists scattered in panic. Perhaps because they had already witnessed the power of the Thunderbolts, they dispersed using their lightness skills, leaving only So Seonha and Bang Soran standing alone.
But the Thunderbolts weren't aimed at the two of them — they fell behind them instead.
"...!!"
As the Blood Cult warriors rushed toward Seonha who had turned around, Bang Soran blocked their path. Metal clashed loudly as Bang Soran's sword met those of the Blood Cult warriors.
"Seonha, go!"
"Master, but—"
"Hurry!"
Bang Soran's sword traced a fierce arc, cutting off a Blood Cult warrior's neck. It was the first move of the Tiger Protection Sword that Seonha had demonstrated at the mountain stronghold. The Blood Cult warriors frowned at Bang Soran's sword technique that swept fiercely like a tiger biting off its prey's windpipe.
"Thousand Sword Heroine!"
"Are you trying to interfere with our cult's affairs?"
"Who invaded this place first?!"
With Bang Soran's sharp cry, sword energy extended outward. Like drawing chaotically in the air with a brush, the powerful sword energy seemed to make characters flutter in the sky.
"Eternal Character Brush Technique?"
"Using brush techniques with a sword?"
As some Blood Cult warriors retreated from Bang Soran's sword momentum, other Blood Cult warriors attacked those fleeing in panic, causing screams to ring out.
The Blood Cult warriors' choice to use Thunderbolts to turn the situation around was certainly a good one.
"It's Baek Sugyeong!"
"Found him! He's with a woman!"
"There are two women!"
"Doesn't matter! Anyone with one or more women is our target!"
The Blood Cult warriors' gazes followed Baek Sugyeong trying to escape with Namgung Somin and So Ssanga. Blood-colored sword energy poured down toward them.
The sword attacks targeted Namgung Somin and So Ssanga, not Baek Sugyeong. This was the cold killing intent strictly following the cult's order that everyone except Baek Sugyeong was expendable.
As Namgung Somin drew her sword against the hail of sword energy, Seonha leaped through the air, her sword dispersing all the energy with a blue light.
With a soft landing, Seonha stood in front of Baek Sugyeong and swung her ancient sword. Clear sword energy flowed like beads down the blade of the dull ancient sword. The sword energy of the "Epiphyllum Rainbow Divine Art" supporting the Heaven Fleeing Sword was so clear and transparent that it resembled autumn frost.
"Autumn Frost Sword..."
Baek Sugyeong's voice trembled. Should this be called a recreation of legend? Just as he had written in his novel like a daydream, Seonha was clearly demonstrating one of the ten sword techniques and energies of the "Heaven Fleeing Ten Swords" that Baek Sugyeong had named the Autumn Frost Sword Energy. It made his head spin.
"Damn this!"
The Blood Cult warriors retreated, grinding their teeth.
Seonha's sword, imbued with Autumn Frost energy, rushed toward them like an autumn wind. A horizontal sword energy cutting through the air as if dividing heaven and earth — the third move of the Heaven Fleeing Ten Swords, Heaven-Earth Division.
As the terrified Blood Cult warriors tried to retreat, Seonha's sword pursued and cut them down.
Amidst the screams of those whose waists were severed, Seonha turned toward Baek Sugyeong, holding her bloodless ancient sword in reverse grip, and performed a formal salute.
"...So Seonha greets the Grandmaster."
At those words, Baek Sugyeong's face crumpled. Countless gazes fixed on Seonha and Baek Sugyeong. The situation Baek Sugyeong had most wanted to avoid was unfolding before him. Deep bewilderment appeared on Baek Sugyeong's face.
"L-Lady? Are you perhaps Lady Bang's disciple...?"
"Yes!"
All the previous solemnity gone, Seonha answered with the bright voice of a child her age, causing Baek Sugyeong to hold his forehead.
'You learned martial arts from a book? How is that even possible? Don't learn martial arts from my novel!'
But the situation was not good.
The Blood Cult warriors whose waists had been severed were not dead but rising again. Their lifeless eyes regained a blood-red glow.
"GRAAAAH!"
With that monstrous cry, one of the Blood Cult's Ten Great Death Arts, the "Corpse-Summoning Demon Art," awakened.
Standing in front of them, Seonha said:
"I'll handle this, please escape!"
"Lady!"
"Hurry!"
The Moon White Night Cat on Seonha's shoulder holding the ancient sword howled fiercely. The fact that the previously calm cat was now howling meant that a ghostly calamity was approaching.
An unnatural art that revived the dead. Should this be called martial arts, or should it be considered evil sorcery?
The ancient sword in Seonha's hand trembled, as if it could not forgive the Blood Cult warriors who had become evil spirits before her eyes.
"GRAAAAH!"
The Blood Cult warriors, now living corpses seeking the warmth of the living, lurched forward at frightening speed toward Seonha.
With a flash, the ancient sword imbued with Autumn Frost energy cut through the air with terrifying light.
BOOM—!
A delayed explosion shook the arena.
...
"Tch. Failed, huh."
The man carrying five spears on his back clicked his tongue lightly. He no longer held the spare spear he had brought as he had already thrown it, but he hadn't expected his spear, thrown with internal energy, to be shattered by Astral Energy.
He had deliberately prepared from over fifty zhang away, outside the range of energy detection, to snipe Ju Geumye, but he hadn't expected it to be intercepted.
"The imperial family's precious princess... not a powerless princess after all."
Having grown up pampered in the imperial palace, he had assumed she wouldn't be able to respond properly. If nothing else, she should have lacked practical experience and energy detection. But Ju Geumye wasn't that soft.
"It seems Emperor Myeongjeong went to great lengths not to lose his daughter..."
The man's lips twisted.
The humiliation from twenty years ago. How much time had they wasted trying to recover their strength after imperial palace experts decimated their headquarters in Mount Tianshan?
They had kidnapped a woman from the martial world who seemed promising, only to discover she was the empress — a ridiculous situation when one learned the full story.
But that didn't erase the Blood Cult's resentment toward the imperial palace after having their headquarters ravaged by imperial experts.
A subordinate asked:
"Shall we advance?"
"Why ask?"
The man drew a spear from his back and said:
"Wipe them out."
"Yes, sir!"
...
"Princess!"
Officer Jin's voice was filled with shock. A fragment from the shattered spear had left a slight cut on Ju Geumye's cheek — a wound on the jade-like body of a royal, the imperial crown princess at that.
"Please allow us to kill them!"
"...It's fine."
Ju Geumye calmly wiped the blood flowing down her cheek.
The Blood Cult. Again, the Blood Cult.
This was not her usually gentle face. The face she showed when looking at Baek Sugyeong was nowhere to be seen, replaced only by the legitimate daughter of the Ju imperial family revealing cold anger.
'Mother's enemies...'
The reason her mother, Empress Sohyeon of the Tang family, had passed away.
The Blood Cult had slaughtered all the Sichuan Tang Clan warriors escorting her while visiting her family home and taken her away. Whatever hardships she endured, Empress Sohyeon's condition was unspeakable when she was rescued from the Blood Cult.
Emperor Myeongjeong had wanted to overturn the martial world because of this incident, but was stopped by his ministers who prostrated themselves until their foreheads nearly split. The front of the imperial hall had been stained red with the blood of countless ministers, and even now those stains hadn't completely faded.
Yet again, they had set foot in the Central Plains.
"Protect the Princess!"
Officer Jin drew his sword and took the center position, with Embroidered Uniform Guard warriors gathering around him as an axis, showing strong killing intent toward the Blood Cult warriors invading the arena.
Blood Cult warriors poured in, causing screams and blood to spray everywhere.
"The princess is over there!"
"Kill her!"
"Let's wash away our cult's grudge with the princess's blood!"
The bitter resentment of losing countless comrades met the heaven-piercing grief of a child who lost her only mother. They faced each other here.
Ju Geumye's eyes flashed coldly.
"They say grudge and resentment are one piece, inseparable from each other."
A statement that felt somewhat empty.
She extended her hand toward an Embroidered Uniform Guard warrior.
"Your sword."
"Princess!"
"Now."
She was not her usual gentle self. The woman standing here was a child who had lost her parents.
The young girl who couldn't understand Emperor Myeongjeong's words that her mother wouldn't return, and Princess Ju Geumye of Nakbong Commandery standing here now, were fundamentally the same person.
If there is bitter resentment, there must also be piercing grief.
"Form a tight formation!"
With Officer Jin's shout, Ju Geumye snatched a sword from a hesitant Embroidered Uniform Guard warrior and leaped over the protective formation they had formed.
One of the many lightness techniques kept in the imperial palace — the Passing Star.
As Ju Geumye's form shot like a star crossing the sky, crimson Astral Energy gathered in the sword she held.
"Princess!"
As if using Officer Jin's belated cry as a stepping stone, the crimson Astral Energy transformed into a massive sword and slashed through the air, plunging toward the Blood Cult warriors.