Chapter 15 Flying Dragon Thirteenth Squad (5)

Chapter 15: Flying Dragon Thirteenth Squad (5)

A moonless night of the new moon.

It happened to be the night our squad was on night patrol.

Even for veterans who had spent years on the front lines, night patrols were always a constant state of tension.

In the pitch-black darkness, lurking demons like Hyogwi, and the Blood Sect’s demonic masters who sometimes targeted our members for soul-stealing or lust—even the most skilled masters found them sufficiently threatening.

But our squad was different.

Because our squad had Squad Leader Seolpung.

“Hold.”

Team Leader Seolpung, leading us from the front, murmured lowly. We all halted in place, alert to our surroundings.

He murmured.

“A Hyogui.”

The moment the words left his mouth, a manin burst silently from the darkness.

Thud!

Had we been caught off guard, it would have been a devastatingly threatening ambush.

But the head of the creature that had lunged toward us exploded mid-air.

Crunch!

Seolpung Jo-jang’s retreat technique, launched at a speed far faster than Hyogwi’s, had smashed the creature’s head like a watermelon.

In that instant, Seolpung Squad Leader, who had killed one Hyogui and returned, told us.

“All clear. There are no more.”

He always looked so dependable.

Even as a man, I found myself captivated.

For Captain Seolpung, who trained with his eyes covered even in daily life, night patrols were just another ordinary task, no different from any other patrol.

Young Masters Naseoyu and Cheonju-eun smiled brightly and said to him.

“Great work again today, Captain.”

“You’re truly the best, Captain! So cool, Captain!”

At their words, Captain Seolpung visibly flustered and waved his hands.

“Ah, ah, no. What, what’s so cool about that? It’s, it’s nothing. Uh, let’s keep moving!”

As Team Leader Seolpung fled back to the front like he was escaping, Miss Na and Miss Cheon giggled. We all knew he wasn’t just acting like he was escaping—he really was escaping.

His clumsy, foolish appearance completely erased the impressive image he’d projected just moments before.

Honestly, if only the squad leader didn’t have that fear of women, he’d be perfect.

Having trained in the mountains since childhood, Sergeant Seolpung found interacting with women extremely difficult.

No, ‘difficulty’ wasn’t quite right—’fear’ seemed a more accurate description.

Anyway, he was the kind of person who made you wonder whether you should regret his imperfections or be relieved that at least he was human.

A memory from the past suddenly surfaced.

In his past life, that aspect of him hadn’t changed until after someone had died.

I shook my head, having briefly recalled that bitter memory.

This time around, I wouldn’t let it come to that.

To do that, I first had to deal with the one who caused it all.

I glanced back at Joo Tae-kyung, the Pointed Blade Sword Master, and his henchmen trailing far behind us.

Joo Tae-kyung, who refused to acknowledge Seolpung’s leadership, always acted separately like this, bringing his own henchmen along.

Even if he truly believed in himself, he could have gone ahead of us, but he always just trailed behind like that.

He really was a snake-like bastard.

Of course, that didn’t mean the danger had completely vanished.

I’d heard that before Young Master Ju and I arrived, two of Ju Gwi’s men had been ambushed from behind because they acted just like that.

As I watched their direction, Biseoyoung asked me.

“By the way, in about a week, it’ll be time to face that bastard. Are you confident?”

“Well. Confident? I’m just going to do my best.”

“Hmph! What kind of talk is that? I’ll make sure to beat him to a pulp. I believe in you.”

Then, Seolpung, the squad leader walking ahead, suddenly joined the conversation.

“If their internal energy were equal, Jin’s skill would naturally be superior. Internal energy is the problem. If only he could have reached at least the half-gap stage to wield sword energy…”

“Hmm.”

It was true that internal energy was the problem.

Currently, my internal energy was roughly between twenty and thirty years. Considering that the minimum internal energy required to wield sword energy was half a gapa (thirty years), it was a problem difficult to resolve in just these two weeks.

Suddenly, Lady Seonyu asked with a worried expression.

“But even if one surpasses half a cycle of cultivation, that doesn’t guarantee the ability to wield sword energy, right? One must attain enlightenment to overcome the barrier of the Sword Energy Merchant.”

Her words held truth.

When the barrier of the elite was the Sword Qi Merchant and the peak barrier was the Yi Qi Succession, some found generating sword qi more difficult than generating martial qi.

Of course, this didn’t apply to me, having already crossed the Sword Qi Merchant’s barrier in my past life.

Chungyeon Sojae answered.

“That should be fine. Master Seonwoo is an unusual person whose spirit has already surpassed the first-rate realm, yet his inner strength hasn’t reached it yet.”

…Sharp as ever.

Then, as if frustrated, Biseaeng asked again.

“It seems to me he has some kind of confidence. Couldn’t he just speak plainly? After all, only we are listening.”

Hmm, should I tell him first?

After all, everyone will find out in a week anyway, and I can trust everyone here.

After a moment’s hesitation, I decided to tell them.

“Actually, before coming here, my father gave me a spiritual elixir. It’s one that can grant roughly a decade’s worth of cultivation.”

Actually, there were two, but I decided to keep one hidden for now.

Bisea Young’s face lit up instantly as he asked again.

“Oh, that’s great! Should we take it now then?”

At that moment, Squad Leader Seolpung spoke up.

“Seems there’s an issue with purity. Is the external energy too strong?”

He answered bitterly to his sharp question.

“Yes, that’s correct.”

“How much?”

“If she takes the elixir, it should be about fifty percent.”

“Hmm.”

When Sergeant Seolpung closed his mouth with a serious expression, Lady Cheon Ju-eun, who hadn’t been following our conversation, asked.

“What are you talking about? Am I the only one who didn’t understand?”

At her words, Team Leader Seolpung looked slightly flustered, so Young Lady Cheongyeon answered instead.

“If external energy like the elixir exceeds half of one’s total internal energy, the risk of demonic possession increases. Master Sunwoo seems to be saying that consuming the elixir now could lead to that.”

“Ah, demonic possession.”

That was it.

That was why I had been delaying taking the elixir until the very last moment.

Of course, even now, the outstanding efficacy of the Hun Yuan Wu Ji Gong was rapidly purifying the internal energy within my body. I intended to consume it only after things had become as safe as possible.

If more time passed and that bastard Ju Tae-kyung reached the upper tier of the first rank, it might be different. But at his current mid-tier first rank level, I felt I could somehow handle it.

Chun Ju-eun bit her finger and muttered.

“Huh, I thought taking elixirs was all good, but it seems there are drawbacks too.”

When the petite, youthful-looking Lady Cheon Ju-eun made that gesture, she couldn’t have looked any more adorable.

As everyone smiled at her adorable appearance, Bae Jong-gwan—who had a fatal weakness for cute things—couldn’t resist butting in.

“I, I’ve never eaten anything like that either, Miss Cheon.”

At Bae Jong-gwan’s words, Miss Cheon responded with a shy smile.

“Ah, I see. Young Master Bae is just like me, then.”

“Gah!”

As Bae Jong-gwan clutched his chest at her adorable expression, we all shook our heads and turned away from him.

Young Lady Na Seo-yu suddenly changed the subject.

“Anyway, things will be busy for a while. There’s Young Master Seonwoo’s duel, and right after that, the meeting between the Alliance Leader and the Blood Demon. It feels a bit awkward. I’ve only ever fought demons on the front lines; I’ve never experienced events like this before.”

Come to think of it, that was also true.

About a month after the duel with Zhu Taijing, the summit meeting between the Martial Alliance and the Blood Cult was held, coincidentally, at the Thirteenth Sect.

It was a meeting between the Martial Alliance’s leader, the King of Allies, Murong Jian, and the Blood Cult’s leader, the Demon of Blood, Zhen Wugang. Many worried it wouldn’t be a meeting at all, but the start of another Second Blood War.

But based on what I’d experienced in my past life, they had surprisingly met peacefully, talked, and parted ways.

Bisa Yeong suddenly grumbled.

“Ugh, just thinking about that old commander throwing a fit over being seen is dreadful. Why the hell did they have to hold it at the Thirteenth Generation?”

Everyone nodded in agreement at Bisea-yeong’s words.

Heo Yeong-bo, the squad leader whose mind was already filled with thoughts of impressing his superiors to escape this place, was already causing a ruckus, demanding they start organizing the squad and cleaning up.

Just then, Miss Cheongyeon, who never paid attention to the flow of conversation when something piqued her curiosity, suddenly asked.

“But isn’t that strange? Even if the external energy exceeds fifty, the risk of falling into demonic possession increases. How on earth do the Blood Sect’s demonic masters, who absorb most of their internal energy through suction, manage to stay alive?”

“Huh?”

“Is that… right?”

Usually, when Young Lady Cheongyeon asked such questions, the atmosphere would turn tense, but this time, it seemed to work.

Truth be told, I was a bit curious myself.

Exactly.

Most of those bastards build their inner strength by absorbing others’ vital energy, so how are they still alive and well?

Everyone pondered deeply, but unfortunately, no one knew the answer.

***

The next day, while the other members of the Seventh Division gathered to train, Sword Master Ju Tae-kyung was also deeply engrossed in his practice.

“Haah!”

Shwaaah!

A milky-white sword energy shot out like a spear tip, piercing the air.

It was indeed the form of a disciple worthy of the Spear Point Sect, one of the Nine Great Sects.

Watching his training, the Fourth Sect Leader, Spear-Point Sword Master Ma Yu-gyeom, nodded and remarked.

“Having a goal truly accelerates progress. You’ve definitely improved. Can you now confidently call yourself a top-tier warrior?”

Zhu Taijing bowed respectfully in response to his praise.

“Thank you, Senior Brother. It’s all thanks to your guidance.”

The extinct Spear Point Sect had no official sect master. Yet neither Ju Tae-kyung, who addressed Ma Yu-gyeom as “Senior Brother Sect Master,” nor Ma Yu-gyeom himself, hearing it, felt the slightest awkwardness.

This was because Ma Yugyeom was the third most skilled among the countless Jianchang disciples fighting on the front lines for the sect’s vengeance, and he was also the son of Ma Wonung, the Jianchang Sect leader killed by the Blood Sect.

Had the Jianchang Sect remained intact, he would naturally have become the next Grand Sect Leader.

With that background and skill, coupled with his jade-like handsomeness, Ma Yugyeom’s influence within the sect was immense.

It was known that he commanded numerous followers not only within the Thirteenth Division but also across other divisions.

Ma Yugyeom spoke again.

“Lately, the disciples have been buzzing about that guy, calling him the Diamond Star or the Iron God Star, but I don’t think you’ll lose to a mere second-rate opponent. However, don’t settle for merely not losing. You must show the overwhelming dominance befitting a disciple of the Pointed Spear Sect. Understand?”

“Yes! Senior Brother!”

Mayu Gyeom suddenly recalled his first encounter with that irritating Sunwoo Jin.

When Seon Woo-jin, Cheong Yeon, and Cheon Ju-eun first arrived at the Thirteenth Generation, all the squad leaders had gathered to assign them to squads.

At that time, Mayu Gyeom had actually tried to bring Sunwoo Jin into his own team.

Contrary to his initial impression—a man so overweight he made one frown—Mayu Gyeom had become immediately intrigued upon hearing that Seonwoo Jin and Cheongyeon had captured a Hyogwi the very day before.

“Complete novices caught a Hyogwi?! Is that really true?!”

But Seon Woo-jin gave an awkward smile, trying to downplay his role.

“It was Lady Cheongyeon beside me who captured that blinded demon. As a mere second-rate cultivator, I could do nothing.”

Truthfully, Seonwoojin wanted to avoid Mayugyeom’s attention, but to Mayugyeom, even that seemed like humility.

It was undeniably a very likable gesture.

At that moment, Lady Cheongyeon, standing beside Seonwoojin, had also spoken up.

“My martial arts might be superior, but it was Master Seonwoo Jin who saved my life by striking that demon with a chair, rendering his sword qi ineffective. It was also he who pried open the demon’s eyelids and forced its mouth open. All I did was thrust my sword qi into the demon’s mouth as Master Seonwoo instructed.”

Hearing this, Mayu Gyeom could only marvel.

A warrior who had never even encountered a demon before, and one who was only at the second-rate level, risked his life to approach the demon and force its eyes open.

Moreover, when people asked how he knew that the Hyogui were weak to light, he answered that he had gathered information beforehand in preparation for the front lines.

Considering how tightly controlled the front lines were, preventing any information from leaking out, one could only imagine how much effort he must have put into gathering that intelligence.

There was no reason to hesitate further.

He judged him to be a second-rate soldier for now, but one worth nurturing.

Mayu Gyeom spoke with a satisfied expression.

“Knowing that Hyogui is weak to light is one thing, but actually prying open its eyelids is quite another. Your preparedness is excellent, and your courage is even more so. I like what I see. Grand Master, I’ll take him to Squad Four. We happen to have a vacancy in our squad, so that should work, right?”

Just as Grand Master Pungyang was about to nod in agreement to Mayugyeom’s request,

The creature suddenly shouted.

“No!”

At his abrupt refusal, Mayugyeom’s expression darkened instantly as he demanded.

“What? You say no?”

For a moment, Mayu-gyeom’s mood turned extremely unpleasant.

How dare he refuse his proposal? If the Zhanchang Sect had remained intact, he would have become the sect master. Even now, his influence within the Thirteen Sects rivaled that of the Grand Sect Leader. This refusal was utterly unforgivable.

Frowning fiercely, Mayu-gyeom demanded.

“Are you saying you won’t join my faction now?”

Seon Woo-jin, who had shouted, was actually flustered.

He disliked Mayu Gyeom, but starting a feud with someone who commanded so many followers felt too burdensome.

After staring at him in momentary shock, Seon Woo-jin suddenly whipped his head around and shouted at Seol Pung, the Seventh Squad Leader, who sat leisurely in the corner.

“Team Leader Seolpung, right?! Ever since I got the frontline intel, I’ve been determined to join your team! Please accept me!”

This left Seolpung flustered instead. His eyes widened as he pointed at himself and asked.

“Me? Me?”

Sunwoo Jin nodded vigorously, his eyes burning and voice passionate as he shouted once more.

“That’s right! To think you can smash the heads of monsters immune to swords with your fist technique! The moment I heard that story, I resolved to join Squad Leader Seolpung’s squad and learn the fist technique!”

Of course, it was a lie.

In his past life, Seonwoojin had refused to learn the fist technique even when Seolpung had offered to teach him.

Back then, he had thought fighting monsters with bare hands and feet was too crude and terrifying.

But Mayu Gyeom, who had no way of knowing this truth, scoffed at the thought of losing a rare favorite disciple to someone like Seolpung.

“Ha! You dare reject my proposal—me, the son of the Grand Master of the Great Sword Sect—and instead go to the Seventh Sect? You claim to be the third son of the prestigious Xianwu Clan of Guizhou, yet you’re heading to a place filled with rabble from minor sects and quacks who practice external martial arts like peddlers?”

The newly formed Seventh Sect was indeed a gathering of riffraff, both in terms of martial prowess and status within the martial world.

Therefore, Mayu Gyeom believed that if he explained his background and the reality of the Seventh Sect, Sunwoo Jin would change his mind.

But those words only made Sunwoojin choke up.

It was an insult to the Seventh Sect, which had been his own faction in a past life.

Enraged, Sunwoojin began spewing words without restraint.

“Grandmaster! I absolutely want to learn that! I want to see whose skin is tougher—yours or the Blood Cult’s demons!”

This was a blatant lie.

Bae Jong-gwan, who had dedicated his life solely to martial arts, was the only friend Sunwoo Jin had considered more pathetic than himself in his past life.

But Sunwoo Jin’s desperate gamble, which he thought was unavoidable, fortunately worked out well.

Just as Mayu Gyeom’s eyes widened in shock, Seolpung’s eyes flashed brightly as he leaped to his feet.

“What splendid spirit! To strike down demons with martial arts! Excellent, Master Seonwoojin! Join me! I shall forge your body stronger than any demon!”

Seonwoojin answered with a booming voice, as if he’d been waiting for this moment.

“Yes! Captain Seolpung!”

Seeing the two fools in perfect sync, Mayu Gyeom could only give up on him.

Clinging to him any longer would have been an affront to his pride.

But even after abandoning Seonwoojin, his pride was inevitably wounded.

He had to endure the humiliation of being rejected by Lady Cheongyeon and Lady Cheonju-eun, whom he had tried to bring instead, pretending it didn’t matter.

It was truly a day when just thinking about it made his blood boil.

What’s more, that bastard he’d been eyeing hadn’t even been on the front lines long, yet he was already showing remarkable prowess.

What made it even more valuable was that it wasn’t just his own achievements; he was also boosting the combat effectiveness of others like Biseoyoung and Bae Jong-gwan from the Seventh Squad, whom he had dismissed as worthless scum.

He should have forced the issue and brought him into his own squad back then.

Recalling that thought, anger surged up again in Mayu-gyeom, who shouted at Joo Tae-kyung.

“We must make him taste bitter defeat! Let him learn the true nature of the Jianchang Sect!”

“Yes! Don’t worry! Senior Brother!”

Joo Tae-kyung inwardly dismissed Mayu-gyeom’s request as pointless. He had no intention of sparing Seon Woo-jin anyway.

How dare this second-rate scum insult me, a disciple of the prestigious Jianchang Sect?

The only way to repay that was with his life, wasn’t it?

Joo Tae-kyung’s eyes gleamed dangerously as he thought this.

But Mayu Gyeom, who was about to leave, suddenly stopped and urged him once more.

“This is just me being overly cautious, but please don’t kill him or seriously injure him.”

Startled by the words, Joo Tae-kyung asked.

“Yes?!”

Mayu Gyeom then looked at him with a cold gaze and asked.

“Why are you so startled? Surely you weren’t planning to kill a comrade who must face the Blood Sect’s demons alongside you?”

“Ah, no. I just… still… to teach them a proper lesson…”

Suddenly, an immense aura erupted from Mayu-gyeom’s body.

Whoosh!

He then fixed a murderous glare on Ju Taekyung and declared.

“Ju Tae-kyung, our primary mission is to defeat the Blood Sect and reclaim our headquarters. You haven’t forgotten that, have you?”

“Yes! Of course, Senior Brother!”

“For that grand purpose, we must cooperate even with the scum of the heretical sects. How much more so with comrades fighting alongside the Blood Sect’s demons? I trust even a snake-like bastard like you wouldn’t commit such madness. Do you understand?!”

“Yes, yes! Of course, Senior Brother!”

Standing before Mayu Gyeom, who watched him coldly, Joo Tae-kyung could only break out in a cold sweat.

The vessels of Mayu Gyeom, destined to become the leader of a faction, and Ju Tae-kyung, nicknamed the Snake, were so vastly different.