The suddenly revealed black sphere—and with it, the Blood Cult’s leadership evaporated all at once.

The Blood Cult’s garrison fell silent in an instant.

The Blood Cult elders, who were among the masters, flung themselves in all directions the moment the black venom exploded, but the venom swallowed even them whole, and the masters surrounding the area, as well as the peculiar ones in black martial uniforms, had all vanished.

It was a scene outside the brain’s capacity to comprehend.

A black sphere suddenly spread out from the frog, and the people who touched it disappeared in an instant without even being able to scream—there is no way to fit that into the category of “understanding.”

The ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) circular sphere rose there, solitary, as if imposing silence.

‘Wow! I may be immune to that poison, but I’m breaking out in a cold sweat.’

Even I broke into a cold sweat at the sight.

Once you register a spirit creature, you become immune to its poison.

So it was certain I would be fine inside that poison, yet seeing such a massive form and overwhelming might made a clammy sweat bead down.

—Shaa. 『A-a-amazing, So-ryong-nim.』

“Right?”

『“Hongbi, are you okay?”

—Kwaa. (My body is fine. But I’m a little tired. Once this is over, I think I’m going to fall asleep.)

“Sleep?”

—Kwaaaa. (It feels similar to right before hibernation.)』

Is it because he ate a spirit creature’s shell and spewed out too massive a force all at once?

Hongbi was saying he felt like hibernation was coming.

『“You’re not hurt anywhere, are you?”

—Kwaa. (Just sleepy.)

“Then grab a nap. I’ll take good care of things.”

—Kwa. (Understood. I leave it to you.)』

It was the very instant I told Hongbi that if he was tired he should sleep, that I’d take care of the rest.

What broke the quiet atmosphere born of Hongbi’s poison was a scream.

Strangely, someone walked out of the black sphere.

For a moment the sphere’s surface rippled, and then—shook—out came a hand.

No, calling it a hand is generous; it was closer to a bare skull.

“G-uaaaah...”

—Sssssss.

Judging by the smoke gushing madly from the hand, it seemed to be realgar, and the outline of the body was a familiar outline.

It felt like one of the Blood Cult elders we had just been fighting.

‘Oh, wow.’

Whether he was an elder from the Five Venoms Sect or not, he clutched the realgar in trembling hands and barely escaped that black miasma.

Of course, there was no way that body could survive.

The realgar evaporated from his hand the instant it left the sphere, and his body was scattering bit by bit in real time into the black venom.

In the end, a body with almost only bones left completely exited the sphere and then collapsed on the spot.

“E-Elder! Th-this is... Gyaaaaah!”

Someone rushed to support him and touched his body.

And his hand disappeared along with it.

As that hand vanished, the fear that began there started to spread like an epidemic.

“Uwaaaaah!”

The cry spread, beginning with a terror-stricken scream.

“F-fall back!”

“F-fall back! Fall back!”

“Out of the way!”

Watching from the sky, I swiftly flew into the city interior and shouted.

“Five Elders! The leadership is annihilated! Let’s begin! But absolutely do not approach that black sphere!”

“G-good heavens. I-I understand!”

“Understood. Even from this far, it’s terrifying.”

“Now it’s our turn to step in.”

As I said we had wiped out the leadership just as discussed beforehand, the Five Elders and the troops dashed out.

“The Blood Cult’s bosses are gone! Strike!”

“Kill them all! They’re all just a disorderly rabble now!”

“Kill them!”

The remaining government troops and Murim masters charged in at the stupefied Blood Cult scum.

At the spearhead was the Wheel Lady, Heo Muha.

Passing through the ruins of collapsed, charred buildings and piercing in with straight, correct footwork, the Wheel Lady Elder slipped a wheel, shaped like a hula hoop, over one leg, spun it, and shouted.

“Illusion Full Bloom!”

The fired wheel brushed the neck of a Blood Cult warrior who, at a loss, had been rushing the troops.

Then the warrior’s head fell, and the wheel split into two and flew toward another warrior nearby.

Thus the wheel that began as one became one, two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, increasing its number and covering the area in the wheel’s glitter.

—Shiiing, shiiing.

What reached the ear was the sharp sound the wheel made as it flew.

Where the sound passed, only the corpses of Blood Cult scum who had lost their heads remained.

I could see why the Wheel Lady senior was so confident about mowing down the weak.

That so-called Illusion Wheel Method was twelve actual wheels.

It looks like one, but it starts with twelve wheels layered thinner and sharper than blades, sent as if they were one.

The moment it hits the first target it splits into two, then four, eight, twelve.

From the instant it appears to split into sixteen in the eye, the real and the illusory mix; from then on, the speed ramps up and it looks like the wheels are increasing exponentially.

Someone with eyesight like mine—no, even anyone at the Peak Realm—doesn’t get fooled by such a trick easily, and if it doesn’t hit a target it doesn’t split, so it’s certainly not a martial art to fight masters.

But to the low-level who can’t tell real from illusion, it’s hell itself.

When the wheels that had been mowing down Blood Cult warriors like bundles of straw were about two hundred, they swung back and settled again into the Wheel Lady’s hand.

“Good! That’s it! You used to cackle, saying you’d suck our vital blood, didn’t you? Let’s see if you can live after your necks are cut!”

The wheel flew once more.

As glittering wheels covered all directions and heads were harvested like sheaves again, far off the Axe Lady, Seop Biyu, was raising a black whirlwind.

“Die, all of you! Kyahahahaha! One head! Two heads!”

Was it that she had mastered a storm-method devised by a reclusive master who admired Li Kui, the Black Whirlwind from Water Margin?

A whirlwind footwork?

The dusky-skinned senior created small black whirlwinds with her twin axes.

Winds that shredded everything they swept—limbs, necks, heads—into pieces.

Where the black wind passed, only chopped hunks of flesh remained.

‘Like some berserker barbarian. No—like a blender?’

And then, a fair distance away, the Staff King, Gam Muncheong, came into view, skewering people with his staff as if executing a masse shot in billiards.

—Tadadadak.

Gripping the staff with his right hand and using his left as a cue rest, he thrust the staff; the staff flew as a point and drove in like a bullet, and those standing in front died with several heads pierced through at once.

I’ve trained in swordsmanship too, and no matter what anyone says, the strongest attack is the thrust.

An attack that comes as a point feels completely different from a cut that comes as a line.

The striking point is also small, making it hard to block; who could block that when a Transformation Realm master is the one thrusting?

When a burst of rapid-fire thrusts went out—tatatat—those who were lucky enough to block still had their blocking arms and weapons together, heads pierced, and toppled—the Blood Cult scum.

“Kill them!”

“Die! You vicious bastards!”

With the government troops and Murim masters following behind, the panic spread, and they cut down the floundering Blood Cultists.

As we mowed the Blood Cult scum like straw and pushed forward, a brave voice rang from the Blood Cult’s formation.

“Everyone get a grip and respond! They aren’t many!”

“Right! Get a grip and respond!”

It was in that moment.

The body of the one shouting to get a grip suddenly sank into the ground—thunk.

And he never rose again.

The one next to him had his leg bitten by Juhwang and was flung into Hongbi’s black sphere.

I’d asked Juhwang to take out the ones giving orders to the warriors, and the guy was roaming underground and eliminating the Blood Cult’s fighters.

That repeated several times—that was Juhwang’s move repeating in quick instants.

Through the path the warriors and Five Elders had opened, countless snakes poured in.

Snakes leaping as if they had wings, biting people.

Behind them, Cheong-yu Sojeo was moving the snakes and following.

As Cheong-yu Sojeo, with glittering horns, drove the snakes forward like a wave, even those Blood Cult warriors who had been trying to mount some kind of response found their steps moving back, back.

“F-fall ba—”

“#%@#%#$%”

“R-run!”

“Run!”

The Blood Cult’s formation turned frantic as Dai Viet speech and Central Plains speech got mixed together, and when one of them threw down his sword and turned to run, the rest followed and started fleeing like mad.

“Chase them! Kill even one more!”

“Don’t let them cross into the Central Plains—kill even one more!”

The pursuit began to stretch on without end, following the Blood Cultists fleeing into the jungles of Dai Viet.

***

The Beast Palace’s Audience Hall.

This place being used as a council chamber was filled only with quiet silence.

Were there no people?

That wasn’t it.

The Murim Alliance Leader and the leadership of the Third Army that had retreated, and others besides, were all gathered inside.

People were packed even outside the open doors.

And beyond that, the front yard before the Audience Hall was a sea of people.

With so many people, the reason all were quiet:

Since dawn, everyone had been focused on the lips of three women.

They were Tang Hwa-eun of the Sacheon Tang Clan, Princess Yoo Ji-ryeon, and another of So-ryong-nim’s wives.

After the news came that So-ryong-nim had found the First Army’s surviving troops, whom they’d thought annihilated, So-ryong-nim declared he would bring them back alive.

They were waiting for the results of the fight of Murim’s young hero, So-ryong-nim.

The helpless sun was tilting anxiously.

In the stillness, someone couldn’t bear it and asked,

“Is there still no word?”

Everyone looked at him and spoke in turn.

“Come now—when a message arrives, won’t they duly tell us?”

“Wait a little.”

“I—I know, but I asked out of impatience.”

After a brief ruckus, silence returned.

Then—

—Crash!

Tang Hwa-eun of Sacheon Tang Clan shot to her feet.

At her sudden rise, a chair clattered away.

Hwa-eun, Her Highness the Princess, and the other of So-ryong’s wives clasped hands tightly, faces bright.

“H-how did it go!?”

“Child, how did it go!?”

To the Alliance Leader’s and the Beast Palace Lord’s question, Hwa-eun answered in a ringing voice.

“Sanggong and the First Army’s remnant forces repelled fifty thousand of the Blood Cult on the eastern coast! They slew five Blood Cult elders and most of the leadership and are in pursuit of the fleeing ones!”

“Ooooooh!”

“As expected! As expected of Great Hero So-ryong!”

“As expected of So-ryong!”

“As expected, our So-ryong!”

“As expected of the Alliance Leader’s successor!”

As Hwa-eun’s victory report rang out bright in the hall used as a council chamber, the room blazed up in an instant.

They had found and kept alive the First Army’s survivors, whom they had given up on after contact was lost—and on top of that, had routed the enemy’s one hundred fifty thousand.

Only bleak news had been pouring in; at the good news, everyone clenched their fists and shouted.

To rout fifty thousand with five thousand—

What a tremendous feat!

Just as all rejoiced together—

A single warrior, sprinting from outside with swift obeisance, flew down the aisle left open in the middle and prostrated before the Alliance Leader.

“Alliance Leader!”

At that, the people fell silent at once.

Because there could be only one thing to report when one ran in now.

“Speak.”

“A day’s march away—a report that the Blood Cult’s vanguard has appeared!”

It was the report that the Blood Cult scum had appeared.

It seemed the ones who had come to strike the Central Plains were finally about to cross the border.

The Murim Alliance Leader, Zhu Jung-hak, was silent a moment, then asked the strategist Zhuge Hu.

“They’re here already... It’s time we prepared. Strategist. The formation?”

They had the Zhuge family’s absolute formation prepared to block the enemy.

When he asked if the formation was complete, Strategist Zhuge Hu answered in a confident voice.

“It is already complete. You need not worry.”

The Alliance Leader nodded at that and said,

“Everyone, make ready. So-ryong has done it—there’s no way we can be the ones pushed back, is there?”

“Yes, Alliance Leader!”

Those who had filled the inside quickly gathered outside and began to kindle their resolve.

A vast battle was right at the doorstep.