Chapter 377: A Complete ss (2)
Back when Gongsun Hyeon had been dividing up assignnts in Gulang County, he had quietly slipped instructions to a few Martial Alliance fighters to get words to the Zhongnan Sect that the Demonic Cult might be targeting them.
And the Taoists of the Zhongnan Sect who received that letter had now arrived at the battlefield. And they'd picked just about the worst possible mont to show up.
The dying embers of the war instantly flared back into a raging inferno, ignited by the fresh oil that was the Zhongnan Sect.
"Wow, they really never take a day off from being annoying."
Il-mok muttered under his breath with irritation as he kept his focus on Namgung Jin. As if answering his grumbling, the Ascension Sword let out a resonant cry.
"You think you can afford to look away right now?!"
Namgung Jin furiously swung his sword at Il-mok, bringing a crushing aura down upon his body.
After blasting away the Sword Form of the Emperor's pressure with his own Force Qi, Il-mok swung the Ascension Sword in response.
Boom!!
The Ascension Sword rang out again as it clashed against Namgung Jin's heavy sword.
"Tch."
It wasn't for nothing that Seo Wan-pyeong had been reduced to such a sorry state in the span of a single quarter-hour. The Sword Form of the Emperor was a genuinely nasty piece of swordwork.
Frankly speaking, that nasty piece of sword art is only a sword art in na. In reality, the working chanics of the sword art are too bizarre to be called traditional sword art.
Every ti Namgung Jin swung his sword, a crushing wave of force bore down on Il-mok's entire body.
‘It’s a martial art that weaponizes intent and willpower.’
It reminded him of the Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride that his Master had once taught him.
Il-mok theorized that whoever originally created the Sword Form of the Emperor must have designed it specifically to guide the Namgung descendants toward the legendary realm of the Mind Sword.
Regardless of its origins, Il-mok had to constantly pour his own Qi to repel Namgung Jin's crushing Qi waves and withstand the pressure.
‘But compared to Master’s Heavenly Demon Sovereign Stride, this is child's play.’
The only frustrating part was that Il-mok's own mastery was still lightyears behind Hyeokryeon Il-hwi's.
After trading several exchanges and barely holding his ground against Namgung Jin's assault, Il-mok let out a quiet sigh. He'd been hoping that with the Wudang Sect and the Beggars' Gang now in the mix, the senseless bloodshed might finally stop.
"Haa."
By now, his face had settled into an expression of undisguised irritation.
'Should I just give up on the Namgung Family and kill them all?'
While casually debating mass murder in his head and trading a few more strikes with Namgung Jin, Il-mok belatedly noticed sothing odd.
'Is this thing in heat or sothing? Why won't it stop whining?'
The Ascension Sword had cried out once, and it hadn't stopped since. The sword kept ringing and ringing without end.
And for Il-mok, this specific phenonon was all too familiar.
‘No fucking way?!’
Struck by a chilling sense of déjà vu, Il-mok leaped far backward to dodge Namgung Jin's sword and roared at the top of his lungs.
"Stop!! The Blood Cult is here!!"
So people flinched at his shout, but most ignored it.
"Don't try to pull sothing with your words!"
Convinced that Il-mok was just spouting lies to distract him, Namgung Jin prepared to swing his sword with the intent to kill. That was until another shout ca echoing from the east.
"He's telling the truth!! The Blood Cult! The Blood Cult is here!!"
Hearing the desperate scream of an old Taoist sprinting toward the battlefield, everyone entrenched in combat froze and stared at him in utter bewildernt.
That old Daoist was none other than Taoist Master Cheongmok of the Qingcheng Sect.
***
Back when he first learned of Il-mok's true identity, the Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect had spat out what amounted to a declaration of war and imdiately abandoned Gansu to march on Sichuan.
"Sect Leader. What do you intend to do from here?"
"Junior Brother. Why would you even ask such a painfully obvious question? We are going to massacre every last one of those Demonic Cult bastards!"
As the Sect Leader roared in anger, Taoist Master Cheongmok sighed softly and replied.
"I understand that. What I'm asking about is the ordinary people they helped. Not the Demonic Cult."
The head senior brother looked at Taoist Master Cheongmok in silence for a mont, and Taoist Master Cheongmok elaborated.
"Even if the murderer who killed your parents genuinely repents and starts doing good deeds, a sinner remains a sinner. But is there any reason to punish the people that the sinner helped?"
"Haa. Are you really taking the word of a Demonic Cultist?"
"I am simply trusting my own two eyes. At the very least, there was nothing wicked about the things they provided under the na of the Maitreya Luminous Cult."
The Qingcheng Sect Leader stared steadily into his Junior Brother's eyes and Taoist Master Cheongmok t that gaze without flinching.
A brief staring contest passed between them.
"Haa..."
The Sect Leader then exhaled a sigh carrying a whole tangle of feelings and nodded.
"You're right. What sin could ordinary people possibly bear?"
And with that, the Sect Leader laid out how the Qingcheng Sect would move going forward. They would hunt down and execute the Demonic Cultists hiding behind the false na of the Maitreya Luminous Cult, but they would leave the civilian worshippers strictly alone.
With their plan set, they returned to the Qingcheng Sect, rallied and equipped their disciples, and marched straight back to Sichuan.
But to their utter surprise, by the ti their army reached Sichuan, every last warrior of the Maitreya Luminous Cult had already evacuated the province.
It was a deflating outco, to say the least, given the resolve it had taken for them to co out in the first place. But it wasn't like they could draw their swords on innocent civilians to vent their frustration. They trudged back to Mount Qingcheng, only to hear deeply disturbing news a few days later.
"What do you an Zhongnan is harassing the commoners?"
"Reports say they are indiscriminately torturing anyone who was a believer of the Maitreya Luminous Cult to forcibly extract intelligence on the Demonic Cult. What's worse, they are actively confiscating the charity funds the Cult handed out, using the excuse that it's dirty money."
"Those so-called Taoists must have lost their damn minds to—“
The Qingcheng Sect Leader was about to curse those bastards from their ancestors down to their grandkids when he stopped mid-sentence.
But the reason was not out of his sense of propriety.
Rather...
'Heavens... our Qingcheng was almost no different from them.'
If Taoist Master Cheongmok hadn't stopped him, he would have done the sa thing he was now cursing Zhongnan for.
He shot a grateful glance briefly at Taoist Master Cheongmok and made up his mind.
"Ready the disciples imdiately! We have to stop the Zhongnan Sect's atrocities!"
They set out from Mount Qingcheng again and headed north into Sichuan. When they arrived, the Qingcheng Sect squared off against the Zhongnan Sect Taoists who were in the middle of shaking down the locals.
"What in the hell do you think you're doing?!"
"I could ask you the sa. What brings the esteed Qingcheng Sect all the way out here?"
"We ca because word reached us that you were oppressing innocent people!"
"Ha. Innocent, you say? It seems Qingcheng has been thoroughly tainted by the Demonic Cult."
That sneering voice belonged to Taoist Master Amgak, the Sect Leader of the Zhongnan Sect, and the veins on the Qingcheng Sect Leader’s forehead bulged in anger.
The Qingcheng and Zhongnan disciples bickered at length with the commoners caught between them.
"Tch. Fine. Since Sichuan is technically Qingcheng's ho turf, we'll back off for today. But if you start eyeing Gansu, we won't be so accommodating."
The Zhongnan Sect Leader made no effort to hide his displeasure, gave the Qingcheng Taoists a sweeping look, and left with his disciples.
"Sect Leader, our priority right now is to treat the civilians who were severely wounded by Zhongnan's swordsn."
"...Yes. Let's do that."
And so, the Qingcheng Taoists scattered across the northern region to tend to the wounded civilians when Taoist Master Cheongmok found traces of the Blood Cult in one of the villages the Zhongnan Sect had been staying in.
"This can't be..."
The clues were incredibly faint, but having spent so much ti fanatically hunting the Blood Cult with a burning vengeance, Taoist Master Cheongmok recognized the signs instantly.
He moved quickly with his disciples to the next county over, where the Sect Leader was tending to commoners and reported to him.
"Senior Brother! It's the Blood Cult!!"
When Taoist Master Cheongmok explained the traces he'd found, the Sect Leader muttered with a grave expression.
"Then everything that the Demonic Cultist told us was the truth."
While the Sect Leader tried to sort out his muddled thoughts, Taoist Master Cheongmok had just realized sothing critical and cried out urgently.
"Sect Leader! We don't have ti for this! We have to stop the war between the Orthodox Faction and the Demonic Cult from happening!"
"Don't tell you actually believe that Demonic Cult bastard's talk of the Imperial Family’s conspiracy?"
"It's because of the Blood Cult!"
For a brief second, the Sect Leader looked completely lost. But then, the puzzle pieces clicked together, and his eyes widened in horror.
"Those bastards are planning sothing in this war!"
Both of them imdiately recalled what Il-mok had told them.
The very culprit behind the bloodbath that occurred in Sichuan, and the creator of the Jiangshi, still hadn’t revealed their trump card until the very end.
They urgently rallied all their forces and marched out of northern Sichuan for Gansu Province.
But to their dismay, the Zhongnan Sect’s personnel who should have been in Gansu were nowhere to be found.
"They went to Qinghai. To deal with the Demonic Cult mbers who attacked the Mount Hua Sect."
Upon hearing that news, the Qingcheng Taoists imdiately tracked Zhongnan's trail and bolted toward Qinghai.
***
After traveling for days on end, Taoist Master Cheongmok finally arrived in Qinghai, only to be struck by a wave of despair.
The battle had already begun.
No, it was far beyond a simple battle. Hundreds of mangled corpses littered the battlefield, and the sickening stench of blood was so thick he could practically taste it from a distance.
"Damn it."
Taoist Master Cheongmok cursed under his breath before he could stop himself.
And then, a familiar voice rang out from the heart of the battlefield.
"Stop!! The Blood Cult is here!!"
It was Il-mok.
'Thank the heavens. The Blood Cult hasn't made their move yet!'
Realizing they still had one last sliver of hope, Taoist Master Cheongmok roared at the top of his lungs and backed up Il-mok's warning.
"He's telling the truth!! The Blood Cult! The Blood Cult is here!!"
Il-mok and Cheongmok's back-to-back shouts brought the chaotic battlefield to a brief halt.
"The Blood Cult?! What are you talking about, Taoist Master Cheongmok?!"
Yangmuja was utterly confused and unable to comprehend the situation.
"This can't be."
"So they actually made their move."
The Supre Ultimate Sword Immortal and the Beggar King grew visibly serious and began scanning their surroundings.
Amidst the tense atmosphere, Taoist Master Cheongmok pushed his lightness skill to the limit and sprinted into the battlefield while continuing to shout his warnings.
"I found traces of the Blood Cult in northern Sichuan!! They were still there!! They're exploiting this war to enact so sinister plot!!"
The martial artists all reacted with wildly different expressions.
So looked confused.
So looked like they had no idea what nonsense was being spouted.
Others looked like they were about to collapse from the relentless fighting.
In the unsettling chaos, a sudden spike of energy made Il-mok and several other top-tier fighters snap their gazes toward a single direction.
"!!"
‘When did they?!’
Standing right there, an ard force easily numbering over a hundred n had silently taken up position without anyone noticing.
‘Did they use so kind of sorcery to hide their presence?’
While that thought crossed Il-mok's mind, the Qi around the group began to twist and warp in every direction.
"Blood Cult remnants!!"
"Attack them before they can cast their sorcery!!"
Others began picking up on the Blood Cult's presence one by one and bellowed at the top of their lungs. But just as the direction of the war began to change, a shocking turn of events was unfolding.
Slick.
Squelch.
All across the battlefield, the sickening sound of flesh being pierced and bones being broken echoed loudly.
"S-Senior Brother?"
All across the battlefield, Taoists clad in Zhongnan Sect robes were rcilessly driving blades right through the hearts of their fellow disciples.
Every single one of them was wielding a bizarre and intricately designed dagger with engravings that had absolutely nothing to do with Zhongnan's traditional swords.
In the blink of an eye, those daggers greedily absorbed the blood of the Zhongnan swordsn and began to resonate with the incantations the Blood Cult sorcerers were chanting.
Flash!
A massive blood-red wave of Qi swept across the entire battlefield.
Realizing that a wicked Formation had just been activated across the entire warzone, Taoist Master Cheongmok's face flushed with pure rage.
"How dare you bastards do this!!!"
He imdiately recognized exactly what this disgusting Formation was.
It was none other than the Formation that had forced his Qingcheng disciples to slaughter each other during the massacre in Sichuan.
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