A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide - Chapter 35

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Asakusa

◈ A Wandering Warrior's Survival Guide ◈

Chapter 35: I Became a Rising Star Obsessed Over by Prestigious Clans (3)

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Cheon Hwi had been assigned to the very front of the subjugation force, to the foremost line of the Vanguard Unit, who would have to take any hidden weapons or traps the enemy might have with their bodies.

It was fine. He would have volunteered for the Vanguard Unit or some other difficult assignment anyway, if only to grow stronger.

With an old bamboo hat pulled low over his head, Cheon Hwi silently focused on running while using his lightness art. Maintaining the Well-Returning Moving Art while using lightness art required considerable concentration.

Cheon Hwi's lightness skill did not compare to the others', but it was more than enough to keep pace with a formation of over a hundred people running together.

At first, he had struggled to maintain it even while walking. Now he could do so while using lightness art, and though it broke off now and then, he had reached the point where he could use the Moving Art even while fighting.

Around the time Cheon Hwi had grown fairly accustomed to combining lightness art and the Moving Art, he began to catch snippets of the voices of those running some distance ahead.

Calling it eavesdropping would have been generous. They were practically speaking openly right in front of him.

“Is that him?”

“Yeah. That's him. I'm sure of it.”

“That is him, Young Clan Head.”

“Hmm...”

Murong Rin watched Cheon Hwi run and thought he looked like nothing much.

She assumed the clan was simply giving him excessive credit for returning alive.

She could tell just by looking at his lightness art.

It was hard to even call that a lightness skill. It was just...

‘Isn't that just running really fast?’

Was he insane?

He had joined the subjugation force without learning a single lightness skill? She could not understand how he had even been accepted. There was no technique to it, no principles or logic of lightness art. He simply lightened his body and ran as fast as he could with inner power. How was that any different from merely using inner power to run?

‘...That is the guy the clan is interested in?’

“Rumors always get exaggerated.”

With that, Murong Rin lost interest in Cheon Hwi. At that moment, she could not have imagined that her interest would return less than a few hours after the battle began.

“That guy is the Cheon Hwi from the rumors?”

“I can't believe it.”

“Shouldn't someone teach him a lightness skill first?”

Some were looking for the Cheon Hwi from those rumors.

There was sharpness mixed into their gazes and voices. But Cheon Hwi paid it no mind.

Following his third-rate wanderer father around like a little duckling while serving as a porter, he had always heard all manner of insulting remarks.

“Son. It's all right.”

“It's only because you're weak that you put up with it, Dad!”

“That is true. But there is no need to pick up the thorns others throw and stick them in your own chest.”

Like his father's way of life, Cheon Hwi decided not to pick up the thorns others threw. It was better to build even a quarter of a drop of inner power in real time by using the Moving Art and lightness art together.

Still, he could infer various pieces of information from the scattered conversations he overheard, just as his father had learned about destinations, rest times, and dangers by listening in.

“I hear several hundred of them have gathered around a mountain stronghold called Black Fang Stronghold.”

“I heard they were even planning to strike the Murong Clan's sources of income first, then flee.”

“They're completely insane.”

“Would anyone in their right mind traffic people and cut out children's hearts to dry within Murong Clan territory?”

“There are rumors the Blood Cult is involved behind the scenes.”

“The Blood Cult?”

Various conversations brushed past Cheon Hwi's ears.

Then he heard one title clearly.

“Stay sharp. I hear several first-rate martial artists are among them, including the Blood Serpent Sword. We must wipe them out before they escape.”

‘Blood Serpent Sword... Gwak Do-mun!’

Was that not the very man he had fought over and over within his mind?

After some time passed, Han So-gyeom noticed Cheon Hwi's breathing grow rough. He swiftly closed the distance and asked,

“What is it? Are you nervous?”

Cheon Hwi shook his head and asked,

“What must I do to defeat a first-rate martial artist?”

“You want to defeat a first-rate martial artist...?”

Han So-gyeom frowned at the vague question before answering.

“Not every first-rate martial artist is alike, but I do not know. Unless they are at the initial stage of first-rate, I can say without doubt that you have no chance of winning. That would be true even if several of you attacked together.”

“What if they are at the initial stage of first-rate?”

“Even if you fight like a man with no tomorrow, you might win once in ten thousand attempts. But it would still be difficult. Those Black Path bastards are the sort who live only for today, with no thought for tomorrow.”

“Then if I throw myself in only to live for this moment, I might be able to reach them.”

Han So-gyeom felt an odd sense of unease at those words.

“If you value your life, do not even think of taking them on. Find me or another expert instead.”

Before long, the subjugation force came face to face with the Black Path mountain stronghold in the distance.

Halfway up a rugged mountain, the stronghold had been built among the trees with sheer cliffs at its back.

The scale of the stronghold the nearby Black Path gangs called Black Fang Stronghold exceeded all expectations. There appeared to be three or four tall halls built against the mountain's terrain.

It was the opposite of how Black Path bastards normally rushed to conceal their headquarters.

The subjugation force blended into the mountain terrain, hid themselves, and replenished their strength. Recovering even a little of the inner power and stamina consumed while using lightness art was essential.

Meanwhile, each Outer Hall warrior and lower-ranking martial artist was given a whistle.

They loosely surrounded the ridges outside the stronghold. Their intent was clear: wipe them out in one sweep and kill anyone who tried to flee.

The lower-ranking martial artists who received whistles were given several instructions.

First, blow the whistle if they spotted a fleeing Black Path martial artist.

Second, do not try to fight alone.

Third, survive and report their location. If they died, leave a mark showing the direction the enemy had gone if possible.

Once the time was judged right, a Murong Clan swordsman leading the subjugation force gave a hand signal.

The vanguard surged into the stronghold like a raging torrent.

Dozens from the Vanguard Unit scaled Black Fang Stronghold's weakest outer wall and poured into its front courtyard all at once.

The stronghold was quiet. Not a single cry of alarm rose despite the subjugation force's intrusion.

The moment the Murong Clan's Outer Hall warriors stepped into the center of the courtyard, their fighting spirit rising...

Rat-a-tat-tat!

Crossbow bolts coated in bluish poison rained down like a shower from rooftops and watchtowers throughout the stronghold. It was a deadly formation laid down layer upon layer in advance, knowing the subjugation force would come.

The Murong swordsmen, holding a sword in each hand, used swift swordplay to knock aside the incoming arrows and hidden weapons in an instant, as though spreading a curtain of swords.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Even so, they naturally could not block everything. Several attacks pierced or grazed members of the Vanguard Unit.

People expected Cheon Hwi to fall to the ground like the others.

Instead, his figure scattered away like mist.

Swoosh!

Cheon Hwi's steps were as though he knew every part of Black Fang Stronghold's structure and the locations of all its traps.

Using the Returning Cloud Step, Cheon Hwi slipped between the paths of incoming poisoned arrows like a drifting cloud.

As though he knew. As though he knew exactly where to evade.

That was right. To everyone else, this was merely Cheon Hwi's first charge. But Cheon Hwi had already died seventeen times in this courtyard. In other words, he was more familiar with breaking through this deadly formation and the Black Path bastards than finding the latrine in the Murong Clan Outer Hall warriors' residence.

His speed was so exceptional that Cheon Hwi crossed the courtyard and entered the interior before even the other capable members of the Vanguard Unit.

Murong Rin, who had been too busy knocking away hidden weapons behind him, was thoroughly startled.

‘They said he had no sense of fear... It was true?’

He had the reckless drive of someone who seemed to lack even the barest survival instinct natural to a human being.

“Urgh!”

Thinking she could not let him seize the first martial merit, Murong Rin hurriedly followed after Cheon Hwi.

No matter how much faster Murong Rin's burst of speed had been, Cheon Hwi still entered first.

Crash!

As he kicked the door open and entered, Cheon Hwi's sword unerringly found paths to extend in every direction.

“Get them!”

The instant Cheon Hwi charged inside, a group of Black Path martial artists poured out.

Crash!

Cheon Hwi kicked the table in the center, sending it flying into the air, then darted in the opposite direction.

Daggers and hidden weapons thrown by the enemies flew into the airborne table and embedded themselves in it.

It was a marvelous movement. As though he had surveyed the enemy lines, there was unerringly an enemy extending a sword from the opposite side.

Swish! Slash! Thud! Whirl! Slash!

Whenever his sword drew a line through the air in an instant, an enemy collapsed to Cheon Hwi's left and right.

“Fast!”

As he stamped the ground and leaped forward, Cheon Hwi's sword shot out in every direction, drawing chaotic lines.

There was not the slightest hesitation in his movements as he precisely struck his enemies' vital points with each thrust and cut.

Murong Rin's eyes widened as she came in behind him.

‘...What is this?’

It was as though a sword demon had descended. As if he had no need for flashy forms or sword techniques.

Slash! Thud! Swish! Slash!

Maintaining his running speed, he moved up, down, left, and right. He stepped on walls and leaped, spun off the backs of collapsing corpses, and advanced using the heads of those he had stabbed and cut down as shields.

Cheon Hwi's unique swift swordplay shone.

Slash! Thud! Swish! Thud-thud-thud!

A swift blade cuts through tangled hemp.

At every point Cheon Hwi passed, corpses foaming blood fell like harvested rice stalks.

Cheon Hwi, having grown stronger once more by assimilating the flows from the martial arts manuals he had read in the Outer Hall Archive, had already experienced their strategies, positions, and attacks dozens of times. The attacks of these third-rate rabble could never reach him.

“Get them!”

Murong Rin raised a sword in one hand and a straight sword in the other, then charged straight at the pouring mass of Black Path martial artists.

Her clan-assigned guards followed on either side. As soon as they did, the remaining Vanguard Unit members stormed inside all at once, and the place became utter chaos.

Then a dying scream erupted to Cheon Hwi's left.

An Outer Hall warrior lay sprawled on the floor, their thigh pierced by a Black Path martial artist's blade. The Black Path martial artist excitedly raised their sword, about to drive it into the warrior's solar plexus and kill them.

Clang!

With a cold ring of metal, the Black Path martial artist's sword flew into the air.

“Uh, uh...?”

Standing with his back to the stunned Outer Hall warrior, Cheon Hwi mercilessly twisted his sword, ending the Black Path martial artist's life. Blood splashed hot across the Outer Hall warrior's cheek.

Without even looking at the fallen warrior, Cheon Hwi flicked the blood from his blade and once more surged like lightning deep into the enemy ranks.

Whenever the Black Path martial artists' spears and swords targeted him, Cheon Hwi's body always moved half a beat faster.

He lowered himself to the floor, sprang up at once to cut one enemy down, stepped on a wall to evade a blade, kicked off the wall to avoid a spearpoint, and cut off an enemy's head as he landed. Then he deflected and blocked with his sword as he cut, cut, and cut again. He used falling corpses to block enemy blades, passing by and cutting again.

“This... What...”

“Th-that is truly a newcomer from a third-rate wanderer background...?”

Having narrowly escaped death, the Outer Hall warrior braced a trembling hand against the floor and stared in astonishment at Cheon Hwi's back as he ravaged the enemy ranks with unstoppable momentum.

The young whelp thrown in as a meat shield was instead slaughtering the Black Path martial artists alone at the forefront of the battlefield.

Black Path corpses scattered to either side along the corridor Cheon Hwi ran through, piling up layer upon layer and spilling down.

Of course, Cheon Hwi had not broken through all of it in one go.

It was only the result of having memorized the fighting sequences in a battle he had experienced dozens of times through death.

Murong Rin cut down an enemy chasing after Cheon Hwi, her eyes shaking.

“That is... an Outer Hall warrior from a second-rate wanderer background?”

It was hard to believe he was the man thrown into the Vanguard Unit as nothing more than a blade catcher.

Only a few hours ago, she had inwardly thought his lightness art was pathetic and considered his abilities exaggerated, as the rumors suggested.

But now that he had been thrown into real combat, he was displaying the valor of a warrior worth a hundred men on his own.

“Young Clan Head?”

“Young Clan Head!”

“Uh...? Ah!”