Chapter 86 Zheng Xiefang-5

Chapter 86: Zheng Xiefang-5

It was then.

Something glowing blue flew toward the back of Saryangyang, who was about to pounce on Hwayeongbin.

Shu-hak!

“!”

Startled, Saryang stopped his attack on Hwayeongbin and had no choice but to defend against it.

Kwaaang!

When Sa Won-yang’s swinging hand collided with it, a tremendous explosion erupted.

It was Kang Hwan.

The same one Sa-won-yang had used earlier…

Saryang-yang, who had blocked the Kanghwan, shouted with a distorted face.

“Who the hell are you?!”

Then a voice came.

“Who’s this? Could it be the real Temple Maiden? So the Demon King was hiding in a place like this!”

Standing atop the wall of the Zhengxie Pavilion was a middle-aged Taoist priest with a serene countenance, clad in blue robes.

Hwayeongbin, seeing him, cried out in surprise.

“The Sect Leader?!”

Huh? The Sect Leader?

Then the head of the Qingcheng Sect, Qingming Zhenren?

Then, with a twisted expression, Saryang also called out his name.

“Cheng Ming, you bastard…”

“Daring to invade north of the front lines. It’s over now, Demon Lord.”

Then, one after another, figures clad in blue robes appeared atop the surrounding walls.

They were the masters of the Blue Star Sect.

Hwayeong-bin muttered, looking slightly flustered.

“How could the Sect Leader?”

According to what Hwa Yeong-bin had told him, he was a figure aligned with the Martial Arts Alliance. Moreover, precisely because of that, he had become the head of the Cheongseong Sect after participating in the Blood Pledge War, leveraging the Martial Arts Alliance’s power behind him.

Therefore, Hwa Yeong-bin had initially assumed he would oppose attacking the Zhengxiefang.

That was why he couldn’t help but be flustered by the current situation where the man himself had come down to the Zhengxiefang.

But I could roughly guess what the situation was.

I transmitted my thoughts to Hua Yingbin.

– It seems a messenger arrived from the Martial Alliance. It must be the same situation as with the Amipa. That’s why they could come so quickly.

Sawon Yang burst into a maniacal laugh, his eyes bloodshot.

“Kwahahahaha! Do you really think this Sister Yang would fall to a bunch of Qingcheng Sect scum?! I’ll make you all my companions on the road to the underworld!”

Then, another voice came from behind.

“If the Qingcheng Sect isn’t enough, what about us?!”

Looking back, people were appearing atop the opposite wall as well.

This time, they were masters clad in green robes.

Hwayeongbin muttered again, his eyes filled with panic.

“The Tang Sect too?”

The Tang Sect. So they were the Sichuan Tang Sect.

Come to think of it, the Ami Sect, the Qingcheng Sect, and the Tang Sect were all martial arts sects that had participated in the Blood Pledge War.

It seemed the influence of the Martial Alliance had reached all three sects.

Anyway, it was fortunate.

Thanks to that, it seemed my life had been spared.

I quickly darted out while Siyang’s attention was elsewhere.

Pang!

Then, grabbing Hwayeongbin, I moved toward the Cheongseong Sect while whispering to him.

“It seems Heaven still won’t permit the arrival of the great hero Hwa.”

It was what I wanted to say to him, who seemed almost relieved that his life was ending.

Then he stared blankly at me for a moment before murmuring with a faint smile.

“…Is that so?”

Somyunmagun Saryang watched us move away from him, yet he couldn’t bring himself to intervene.

He was unable to move under the pressure of the Qingcheng Sect and Tang Sect masters watching from both sides.

A master who appeared to be the leader of the Tang Sect shouted.

“Sawen Yang! Resistance is futile! Surrender peacefully!”

But Saryang, as if burning his last ounce of strength, unleashed a crimson energy from his hands and roared.

“Don’t make me laugh! You righteous faction fools! Do you really think this master will fall to the likes of you?!”

Then the representative of the Tang Sect met Qingming Zhenren’s gaze and said.

“If you truly desire the Punishment Wine, then so be it. Very well! I shall grant your wish!”

Then he flashed his body and moved to the vicinity of Saryangyang.

Thud!

The other Tang Sect masters and Qingcheng masters did the same. They too swiftly surrounded Siyang.

Combined, Qingcheng and the Tang Sect numbered roughly a hundred people.

Moreover, even at a glance, several individuals on both sides appeared to be supreme masters, no less formidable than Saryang.

It was a dead end.

It now seemed impossible for Saryang to escape this place.

But surprisingly, the situation was still far from over.

“Sir! Sir! Sir!”

A voice boomed across the earth, and from the distant night sky, someone was hurtling down like a shooting star.

It was a man of such immense stature that he could be mistaken for Bae Jong-gwan at first glance.

But a master with such overwhelming presence couldn’t possibly be Bae Jong-gwan.

Moreover, I remembered having heard his voice before. And that was on the front lines.

No way?!

Flying an immense distance like a shooting star, he plunged straight toward the temple and shouted.

“How dare you betray the Supreme Sovereign! I will not forgive you!”

His massive body itself resembled a crimson meteor.

This was because a massive, crimson circular membrane enveloped his body.

“That’s…”

If my eyes weren’t deceiving me, it seemed to be the protective barrier that Temple-yang had barely managed to cast earlier, now covering his entire body.

I muttered without realizing it.

“Oh my god…”

Saryang’s eyes widened in horror as she stared at the massive meteor hurtling toward her.

The creature frantically swung its giant, crimson-aura-covered hand to strike the meteorite away, shouting.

“What?!”

But the giant, enveloped in his defensive aura, plunged forward with unrelenting force and unleashed a single punch.

It was a blow like divine punishment.

Thud.

That massive, overwhelming blow struck both the temple and the very ground where he stood.

The next instant, a tremendous explosion erupted.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!

The deafening roar, the ground overturning, the earth shaking like an earthquake, and the crushing pressure surging like a typhoon forced us to crouch low to avoid being knocked down.

“Ugh!”

“Is… is this all it takes?”

A moment later, lowering the hands that had shielded our faces from the aftermath, we stared at the scene and could only mutter once more.

“Oh my god…”

Where the temple maiden and the giant had collided, a massive crater now gaped open, as if a meteorite had struck.

And standing alone at its center, arms crossed, was the giant.

Ms. Sa-won was nowhere to be seen.

But instinctively, we knew what had become of her.

Perhaps the bloodstains and flesh crushed beneath the giant’s feet, pressed flat against the ground, were indeed the temple lamb.

Now, not even words could come out.

The temple wall that had felt like an insurmountable barrier, no matter what we tried, had fallen like that in a single move…

It was beyond belief, leaving us utterly hollow.

Then, Qingming Zhenren, the leader of the Qingcheng Sect, looked at him, swallowed hard, and muttered.

“Iron God Light Demon… Chekgang?”

That was it.

He was none other than Cheolshin Gwangma Cheokgang, the demonic leader of the Blood Sect who had nearly defeated all the members of the Flying Dragon Thirteen Division with sheer momentum alone during the Blood Sect Summit.

Moreover, he was a member of the Blood Cult of the Demon King and also a monster among the Thirty-Six Heavenly Stars, positioned just below the fifteen Absolutes.

That man had crossed the front lines and appeared here.

The middle-aged man with a jade-like face, who appeared to be the leader of the Tang Sect, shouted with a stern expression.

“Chek Kang! You of all people appearing here—the Blood Sect has finally shown its true colors!”

According to Hwa Yeong-bin, this man was none other than Dang Jeong-hu, the head of the Dang family, known as the Supreme Sovereign of the Poisonous Rock.

Yet, despite his words, Chek Kang merely looked down on him with a haughty gaze.

It was as if he were asking, “So what are you going to do about it?”

Then a voice answered.

It was not Cheokgang’s voice, but someone else’s.

“You misunderstand. This is to capture a traitor of our Blood Sect… you could call it a mission.”

Along with that voice, a masked figure clad in black robes slowly rose from Cheokgang’s shadow.

Even at his appearance, I couldn’t help but be startled.

Up until now, with others—Cheongseong, Dangmun, even Cheokgang—I had sensed their presence to some degree.

But I hadn’t sensed the slightest trace of the one who just appeared.

Even now, seeing him with my own eyes, it felt like witnessing a phantom.

A ghostly presence that felt utterly insubstantial.

Swallowing hard with tension, he asked.

“Who the hell is that guy…?”

Before Hwayeongbin could answer, Dang Jeong-hu, the Supreme Master of Dokam, shouted his name first with a look of utter shock.

“Guyu Yemma Jigi-eum?!”

Gu Yu-eumma Ji Gi-eum?

Oh, my goodness.

Gu Yu-eumma Ji Gi-eum was one of the Blood Cult Demons, like Cheokgang.

He was also one of the Three Great Assassins of the World.

Two of the Thirty-Six Heavenly Generals belonging to the Blood Sect had now appeared before them.

Dang Jeong-hu shouted with a furious expression.

“Even you, Jigieum of Cheokgang! Does the Blood Sect truly desire this very Blood War?!”

Ji Guiyin bowed respectfully and replied.

“As I just stated, that is not the case. His Majesty received intelligence from the Wulin Alliance’s Zhuge Zhijiang forces that traitors from our Blood Sect had crossed the front lines to disrupt the martial world. He was greatly angered and personally ordered us to be dispatched to deal with them. This was also agreed upon with the Wulin Alliance’s Zhuge Zhijiang forces, so you may verify it yourself.”

“…What?”

At the mention of it being coordinated with Zhuge Zhijiang, the Qingcheng and Tangmen disciples exchanged bewildered glances.

“This was agreed upon with General Zhuge?”

“Those dreadful bastards, you say?”

It seemed Zhuge Zhijiang had a secret channel to contact the Blood Sect after all.

But something felt off.

‘He just casually mentions that? In front of so many people?’

As the warriors murmured, Gu Yueyin, the Demon of the Nine Hells, bowed respectfully toward the warlords once more and asked.

“His Excellency the Blood Demon commanded that while the traitor’s leader, Saryang, must be executed, the disposal of the others should proceed only after securing the consent of the righteous factions. Therefore, we intend to eradicate this place known as the Zhengxie Hall from this moment onward. What are your thoughts? May we eliminate this place and all who belong to it?”

I couldn’t help but admire his polite question.

It wasn’t merely because he spoke of clearing out the Zhengxiefang as easily as tidying his own front yard.

To anyone watching, Chek Kang’s killing of Saryang just now could only be seen as the Blood Demon severing its own tail.

And that would be true, I suppose.

But by giving the choice to the faction members like that, Jigeum had implicitly shown that they had merely punished a traitor, not severed the tail.

Of course, this was an action only possible because they were utterly confident their trail would never be traced.

Dang Jeong-hu glared at Jigi-eum with a terrifying look before spat out,

“There’s no need for that. Let us, the martial artists of Sichuan, handle the rest.”

Ji Gi-eum then bowed respectfully and replied.

“Understood. Then we shall take our leave now.”

Then, Ji Gi-eum, with a look brimming with dissatisfaction, addressed Jeong Pa-in, who was pretending to scan the crowd.

“Surely you haven’t forgotten the Supreme One’s command. Let us return now.”

Chukgang, who flinched slightly at the mention of the Blood Demon, nodded and bowed his head before shooting into the night sky.

Whoosh!

He soared through the night sky like a crimson meteor, just as he had when he first appeared.

While everyone’s gaze was momentarily stolen by his ferocious leap, Gu Yueyin, Ji Yueyin had already vanished.

He was truly nothing short of a ghostly figure.

As they vanished, Dang Jeong-hu suddenly addressed the Clear Bright Immortal.

“You must be weary from your long journey, Qingming Zhenren. There is a Tang family branch nearby. How about resting a while before we discuss matters?”

As if he had been waiting for this, Qingming Zhenren smiled benevolently and replied.

“Hehehe, a disciple of Qingcheng has endured such hardship for the safety of Sichuan’s martial world. As the head of the sect, how could I possibly rest? It’s fine.”

Having said this, Qingming Zhenren looked at Hua Yingbin.

It seemed the disciple of Qingcheng he referred to was Hua Yingbin.

Then, Dang Zhenghou gave a sly smile and said.

“Hmm, I hear rumors throughout Sichuan’s martial world that Young Master Hwayeongbin doesn’t quite see eye to eye with Master Cheongmyeong. So suddenly emphasizing your status as the sect’s revered elder leaves me a bit flustered.”

“Heh heh heh! Rumors in the martial world have been flying for ages, haven’t they? While we may differ in our opinions, could our hearts for the sake of Qingcheng possibly be any different?”

Despite their smiling faces, the atmosphere between the two men seemed fiercely tense beneath the surface.

It took me a moment to grasp the hidden meaning behind their words.

So when the Tang family told Qingcheng they must have had a hard journey, were they implying that since this area is the Tang family’s territory, they hold priority over the Zhengxie Sect’s domain? And when Qingming Zhenren brought up Huayingbin, was he saying that since it was Qingcheng’s disciple who exposed the Zhengxie Sect as the Blood Sect’s followers, they hold priority?

Simply put, both sides revealed their greed for the Zhengxie Sect’s territory the moment Chekang and Jigiyin vanished.

They had completely set aside concerns about the relationship between Zhuge Zhijiang and the Blood Sect, the sacrifices made by the disciples of the Amita Sect, and the abducted women.

A tightness was rising in his chest.

He glanced at the martial artists of the Blue Star Sect and the Tang Sect.

They seemed to have brought roughly a hundred warriors with them, and even at a glance, each group appeared to have over thirty peak masters.

Moreover, their level was astonishing.

Not only the leaders of both sides engaged in the verbal battle, but also two or three individuals from each faction displayed a presence comparable to that of the Four-Eyed Demon Lord, Siyang.

It was indeed a sight befitting forces that formed one pillar of the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Families.

‘But…’

He recalled the moment when the Iron-Skin Demon, Chek Kang, had appeared earlier.

His imposing presence, appearing alone before this gathering of formidable warriors and gazing down upon them all.

Though it lasted only a moment, the emotion the warriors on both sides revealed toward him was unmistakably fear.

A hollow laugh suddenly escaped him.

“Ha, ha ha.”

He had thought that only by reaching the pinnacle of his art could he mount a meaningful offensive against the Blood Sect…

But the more time passed, the more painfully he realized how utterly ridiculous that notion had been.

The world viewed from a mere first-rate realm and the world seen from the pinnacle were this different.

Suddenly, I asked myself.

Can I truly change the future?