Chapter 67: The Lu Tribe
Because they had been scattered across such a vast area, by the ti the squad leaders gathered after seeing the signal flare, the sun had already set and the night had grown deep.
Even that had only been possible because the squad leaders, believing so sort of accident had occurred, ignored the bitter cold and the rugged mountain terrain and rushed through the night.
Taking those squad leaders with him, the Ghost Demon swiftly descended the western slope of the Heavenly Mountains.
By the ti they arrived at the entrance of the Lu Tribe’s village, regrettably, the sun was already rising.
It was no longer a ti when they could receive the aid of darkness that pushed the Ghost Demon’s illusion arts to their peak.
It was possible to artificially summon darkness, but that had the limitation of being confined to the caster’s imdiate surroundings.
And it wasn’t just the Ghost Demon. The illusion arts learned by the squad leaders of the Third Elder’s Chambers were also far more effective in darkness than in daylight.
Thus, following the Ghost Demon’s decision to act at night, they hid around the village and waited.
The prison lined up across the open ground was clearly visible, with people from the Golden Flower Manor’s Western Regions Trade Caravan locked inside, making ti seem to pass even more slowly.
When the sun rose to its zenith, as if they were about to eat lunch, the Lu Tribe’s warriors gathered in the open ground.
Soon, fires were lit, and as they roasted sothing, several warriors suddenly stood up and abruptly dragged one of the captives out of the prison.
The Ghost Demon stopped the squad leaders—who imdiately tensed and reached for their swords—with a glance. The sun was still far too bright.
As the squad leaders forcibly cald their agitation and watched alongside the Ghost Demon, the captive who had been dragged out was forced to kneel.
And then—
Thud!
The Ghost Demon’s eyes widened, and the squad leaders all grabbed their swords at once.
Without even being able to scream, the captive’s head was severed, and the Lu Tribe collected the blood from the corpse.
The Ghost Demon and the squad leaders glared with ice-cold eyes at the Lu Tribe warriors as they painted patterns all over their bodies with that blood, screaming like beasts.
That didn’t an they looked down on them as barbarians. Even within the Bright Cult, there existed countless bizarre rituals that the Hundred Paths could not understand.
So killing a captive and saring the blood all over their bodies wasn’t what concerned them.
What concerned them was that it didn’t seem like the loss of life would end with just one captive.
As soon as no more blood flowed from the beheaded corpse, they dragged out a new captive.
Judging by his clothing, this one looked like a laborer. He begged to be spared. He scread that he didn’t want to die.
That was because he had just witnessed, with his own eyes, the death of his companion whose head had been cut off and whose blood had been completely drained.
That laborer was bound and forced to kneel at the center of the village clearing.
Behind him, a tribal warrior holding a large blade took position. The Ghost Demon and the squad leaders exchanged glances as they realized what that ant.
After that brief mont passed, sothing like black mist began to force its way out of the Ghost Demon’s body.
He had begun to deploy his illusion art.
Realizing the Ghost Demon’s decision, the squad leaders simultaneously unleashed their movent techniques.
They moved first to create an environnt in which the Ghost Demon could rampage without restraint.
From the bodies of the squad leaders as they flew forward, black mists were also spewing out—fainter and with a smaller range than the Ghost Demon’s, but mists nonetheless.
“Graaah!”
The first scream burst from a Lu Tribe warrior who had been about to swing his large blade down behind the captive.
The small black mists that led to the Lu Tribe warrior’s death drew screams from all directions.
“Graaah!”
Amid the screams erupting everywhere, the warrior chief sprang to his feet, his eyes gleaming as the warriors panicked in confusion.
And then—
“Enemies!”
In most cases like this, people would suspect ghosts before enemies, but the Lu Tribe’s warrior chief judged it accurately as an enemy attack.
Under the warrior chief’s command, the Lu Tribe warriors—who had been busy avoiding the black mists—drew their blades and charged.
The situation changed abruptly.
The Lu Tribe, whom they had looked down on as a remote mountain tribe, proved strong enough to push the squad leaders back.
Several of them clearly possessed martial prowess that the Central Plains martial world would call peak mastery.
Even though the squad leaders were considered top-tier, they were still only at the master level. They were not rely being pushed back—they were forced to fight with all their might just to avoid death.
Into that scene of utter chaos seeped a dark, dense fog.
“Guhk.”
“Graaah!”
From the areas where the fog spread, screams leaked out in rapid succession.
The Ghost Demon had joined the fray.
The warrior chief, staring into the dense fog, imdiately drew his blade and charged.
The Lu Tribe warrior chief’s blade, flying in at terrifying speed and slashing down, flickered with blue Force Energy.
‘Transformation Realm!’
The Ghost Demon’s eyes widened as he received the warrior chief’s attack.
This wasn’t a crude imitation. It was a fully matured realm.
Regrettably, the opponent’s skill was clearly above the Ghost Demon’s—on par with a Profound Demon, and seemingly just below an Iron Demon. The Ghost Demon clenched his teeth.
Even so, as the exchange continued, it beca unmistakably clear that the Ghost Demon was being pushed back.
If not for the fog of the Black Cloud Phantasm—said to have been passed down since the days of the Apostate Cult—the Ghost Demon’s head would have been taken long ago. The situation was that dire.
He regretted it.
If it were night, ghostly wails would have echoed, the internal energy of those caught within the black clouds’ range would have scattered, and their minds would have fallen into chaos.
In monts like this, when he was being overwheld, the aid of that phenonon was desperately needed.
But the situation wasn’t lenient enough for him to dwell on regret.
Because the warrior chief’s blade, whirling and striking from all directions, was relentlessly fierce.
While frantically blocking the warrior chief’s attacks and preparing a decisive strike, a sudden kick flew into the Ghost Demon’s side.
The warrior chief, who had been wielding his blade techniques like a madman, had abruptly executed a kicking technique.
The experience contained within that kick was far too formidable to ignore.
The Ghost Demon wrapped Force Energy around his sword as it descended to block, intending to sever the leg outright.
In that instant, the incoming foot dropped sharply, and the warrior chief’s body surged forward.
While the sword that had lost its target lingered in midair, the warrior chief’s blade burrowed into the Ghost Demon’s shoulder.
Thud.
Had the Ghost Demon not twisted his body at the last mont, it would have pierced straight through his throat.
Just as the Ghost Demon tried to move to counterattack, Force Energy flowed along the warrior chief’s blade embedded in his shoulder.
It was a threat—move, and the Force Energy would surge, slicing clean through the shoulder and taking half of his upper body with it.
As hesitation crossed his mind, the Ghost Demon closed his eyes, and the black clouds that had been coiling around the surroundings like dark mist dispersed.
The clearly revealed scene around him brought even greater despair.
A significant number of his subordinate squad leaders had been killed or captured.
‘I was too careless.’
It was the price of looking down on them as a re mountain tribe. Deep regret churned violently within the Ghost Demon’s heart.
Among the mbers of the Third Elder’s Chambers who had taken part in this surprise assault, the one assigned to rescue the captives was the First Squad Leader, Myeongho.
As the Ghost Demon and the other squad leaders shook the Lu Tribe, Myeongho had been waiting in concealnt to act at the right mont—and now his eyes widened.
It hadn’t taken long.
Once the fight broke out, the fellow squad leaders collapsed in barely a quarter hour, and before another eighth of an hour had passed, even the Ghost Demon was defeated.
He had never even imagined that a backwater mountain tribe would possess such power.
Shock aside, the problem lay in what ca next.
Rescuing the captives alone seed impossible. He needed to report the situation to the Bright Cult—but the thought of abandoning his superior and comrades made his feet refuse to move.
It was in that mont of inner conflict that Myeongho spotted a birdcage, carelessly tossed among the looted Golden Flower Manor goods.
At a glance, it was clearly a ssage Hawk brought for communication with the Golden Flower Manor.
Stirring the Black Cloud Shadow Art he had learned from the Ghost Demon to its extre, Myeongho concealed himself and approached the pile of plunder.
He quickly reached into the cage, pulled out the ssage Hawk, and fled into the forest.
Myeongho waited for nightfall.
It was to avoid the disaster of the ssage Hawk being spotted against a bright sky.
After a nerve-wracking stretch of ti passed and the sun finally set, Myeongho scribbled a few words conveying the situation, attached them, and released the ssage Hawk.
“Please… make it there safely.”
As he prayed while watching the ssage Hawk fly off into the distance, Myeongho’s gaze turned back toward the Lu Tribe’s village.
The mont Myeongho launched his movent technique, resolve freezing his eyes cold, his entire body was swallowed by black mist spreading into the darkness.
When he slipped back into the Lu Tribe’s village, Myeongho hadn’t been thinking of a frontal assault or a bold rescue operation.
Ideally, he would quietly infiltrate and extract the Ghost Demon. If that failed, freeing one or two squad leaders to plan for the future would suffice.
However, Myeongho’s plan collapsed the instant he infiltrated.
He ca face to face with the warrior chief, who was sitting alone guarding the area around where the captives were held.
Judging by how completely the surroundings had been cleared—likely to eliminate anything that could interfere with detecting concealnt—it was clear the man had been waiting.
If it couldn’t be avoided, then the only choice was to clash. Inferior skill was no excuse.
Drawing his blade, Myeongho clenched his teeth and charged straight at the warrior chief.
Compared to how brutal and savage it was, the fight ended in an instant.
The warrior chief ordered his subordinates to lock Myeongho away after he was shattered, broken, and knocked unconscious.
Then the warrior chief sat back down in his chair.
Knowing how persistent those who lived beyond the mountains to the east were, he expected another rescue attempt.
“Filthy bastards from beyond the mountains.”
Spitting out a curse, the warrior chief cradled his blade against his chest and closed his eyes.
The aura he slowly released blended with the energy of the Heavenly Mountains, spreading wide like a net.
Dense enough that no concealnt could slip through.
Imdiately after the Martial Alliance’s reply arrived at the Golden Flower Manor, Yul Han—who had planned to return to the Bright Cult—was unable to depart right away.
Replacing the dead and injured laborers, repairing broken wagons, and exchanging rice rendered inedible by soaked blood took several days before the Golden Flower Manor was ready to transport goods again.
Fortunately, the third Western Regions Trade Caravan had suffered almost no damage, so their preparations were completed swiftly.
As a result, it was only on the fifth day after the Martial Alliance’s response arrived that Yul Han’s departure preparations were finalized.
Just as the long escort formation lined up once more and was about to depart amid farewells from the Golden Flower Manor Lord and his people, a laborer ca running in a panic, holding a written dispatch, delaying the departure yet again.
After receiving the dispatch, Yul Han set out first, accompanied only by the Iron Demon, Cold Blade Blood, and Flashing Light Blood.
The Profound Demon was tasked with commanding the remaining Thirteen Bloods and squad-leader–level martial artists to transport the rice to the Bright Cult.
Demon Flower and the squad leaders of the Fourth Elder’s Chambers were ordered to proceed as scheduled with the escort mission of the third Western Regions Trade Caravan.
After Yul Han departed, both the Profound Demon’s rice transport unit and Demon Flower’s third Western Regions Trade Caravan left the Golden Flower Manor.
The people of the Golden Flower Manor watched them depart one after another, their expressions filled with worry.
It took ti to find the Lu Tribe’s village beyond the Heavenly Mountains.
The contents written in the dispatch were far too sparse. Then again, it was impossible to cram much information into a ssage barely the length of two finger joints.
Thus, Yul Han and his group searched along the Silk Road.
It was a response to the report that the Lu Tribe, identified as the culprits, had attacked the trade caravan.
After three days of scouring the Heavenly Mountains, Yul Han finally succeeded in locating the Lu Tribe’s village and moved at once.
There was no reconnaissance for the rescue.
They had brazenly constructed crude prison-like structures in the village clearing and confined all the captives there.
Several prisons were arranged in a semicircle, and seated at the center of the village clearing was a man—the warrior chief.
In short, it was a provocation, daring them to try and save the captives.
With Yul Han’s indifferent expression at the forefront, the group slowly advanced into the village.
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