WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 152: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (26)
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“Hold the line! Show them the spirit of Yuezhou’s Patrol Guard Army!”
The commanders shouted.
“Drive the authority of the government straight into the hearts of those arrogant Jianghu scoundrels!”
“Waaaaah!”
Several dozen members of the White-Robed League had gathered here.
The government troops numbered five hundred.
The White-Robed League members’ martial arts levels were exceptionally high. Only those who had returned from the water raider suppression campaign a few days earlier without serious injuries had gathered, and every one of them was close to the first-rate realm.
Even the weakest had reached late second-rate.
The government soldiers, on the other hand, were third-rate at best. Even with more than ten times their numbers, they seemed pitifully outmatched.
Yet government soldiers were not simply third-rate martial artists. They were an army.
The more soldiers gathered, the more their strength became like a mighty river. Under the command of a powerful general, they became a raging tidal wave.
The soldiers at the front raised their shields with both hands and braced them with their entire bodies.
Even so, a single soldier could not withstand an expert’s attack alone.
But an army’s ranks were themselves a formation array. When the qi released by a commander wrapped around the soldiers and flowed through the formation, the strength of hundreds moved as one. Such force could withstand a thousand catties.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sword qi and saber qi scattered by the experts struck the shields, sliding off, rebounding, and flying away.
“Ghk!”
“Hold!”
The shield soldiers at the front staggered, but they did not give ground. Behind that solid breakwater, spearmen thrust their long spears at the approaching martial artists.
“Tch!”
Several experts kicked off the ground, trying to leap over the shield soldiers.
“You insolent fools!”
A commander roared, and a shower of throwing spears and arrows rained down on them. They could only land again with great difficulty.
“You dared challenge an army head-on? You have no fear at all!”
The commanders’ rebukes rang across the field.
The White-Robed League faltered at resistance fiercer than expected.
Then, having read the pulse of the battle perfectly, the commanders shouted as one.
“Now! Advance!”
“Shield soldiers! One step forward!”
“Spearmen! Thrust!”
The long spears advanced one step at a time, thrusting with terrifying force.
“Hup!”
“Urgh!”
“Fall back for now!”
“Fall back! There’s no need to catch a falling blade!”
As the White-Robed League retreated under that pressure, one man rushed forward alone.
“Young Hero Won! It’s dangerous! We need to fall back now...!”
Someone shouted, but Won Huiseung did not stop.
“That’s too ordinary.”
Instead, he stomped down and built greater momentum.
Qi-blood pulsed hotly through his Eight Extraordinary Vessels, and he gathered the true qi pouring from his entire body into a single sword.
Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven
The Strongest Star
Heavenly Spirit Star
A sword qi like starlight flashed through the mist.
“Exceptional people do exceptional things.”
Only by doing exceptional things could one be exceptional.
Crack!
The mist split apart to the left and right.
The five hundred government soldiers hidden within it were revealed all at once.
So was the shock on their faces.
Crash!
Rumble!
Unable to withstand Won Huiseung’s fierce sword qi, fifteen or so shield soldiers collapsed in a heap.
The Patrol Guard Army’s front line broke.
“Spearmen, thrust! Shield soldiers, reform the formation!”
The commanders gripped their spears and charged forward, trying to fill the gap.
“Huff... Huff...”
After unleashing such tremendous power, Won Huiseung steadied his breathing. Mist swirled through the heat haze rising around him.
“Rest.”
Someone placed a hand on Won Huiseung’s shoulder and stepped past him.
Hummmmm!
A majestic sword cry rang out.
“Take this.”
Namgung Ujin said arrogantly.
Great Expansion Sword Technique
Sword qi as blue as the sky surged upward in great waves.
“Th-This...!”
Even the commanders rushing forward to reinforce the broken ranks could not face that enormous power head-on. They hesitated and stepped back.
Boooom!
The blue sky swallowed one corner of the formation.
“Ghk!”
“Urgh!”
The commanders in heavy armor could not endure the weight of the blue sword qi and tumbled backward.
The breach Won Huiseung had made in the front line widened even further under Namgung Ujin’s strike.
“Now!”
“Press them!”
The White-Robed League members shouted and charged in.
“Stop them! Stop them!”
All the martial officials directing from the rear rushed forward.
Ga Geukjun, the sixth-rank Roving General commanding five hundred soldiers, gripped his spear and took the lead himself.
“I’ll hold them back! Reform the defensive line!”
The White-Robed League, trying to break through, and the government soldiers, trying desperately to stop them, became entangled in confusion. They pressed forward and were driven back, advancing and retreating.
Then,
“Aaargh!”
“Ghk!”
“Argh!”
It began from the rear.
The government soldiers who had been fighting well suddenly began to collapse in droves.
* * *
Crack!
Breaking a collarbone felt like snapping frozen chocolate.
With Clear Mirror still in its scabbard, Yeon Sowol drove its blunt end into a soldier’s collarbone. At the point of impact, bone snapped.
“Aaaagh!”
The collarbone.
Nerves were densely packed there, so breaking it caused extreme pain. Even a martial arts expert could not fight with a broken collarbone.
Yet collarbones healed surprisingly well.
They broke cleanly, and even without setting the bone, they would mend on their own if the shoulder was kept still.
That was why Yeon Sowol aimed for the collarbones.
Crack!
“Aaaaargh!”
Snap!
“Ghhh!”
Soldiers with crimson faces sank to the ground, looking as if they might faint.
“Th-This!”
“The rear! They’re attacking the rear!”
Every commander’s attention had been fixed on Won Huiseung and Namgung Ujin at the front. Yeon Sowol had circled around and ambushed the rear, where nothing stood in his way.
There were no shield soldiers in the rear, nor were there any commanders skilled in martial arts.
He simply swung his blunt scabbard as though sweeping fallen leaves.
Crack!
Snap!
Crack!
“Aaaah!”
“Guaaah!”
The soldiers screamed with all their strength at the unbearable pain of their broken collarbones.
Their screams were so horrific that even the soldiers in the front ranks visibly wavered.
The rear had collapsed, and the front line was shaken.
An army was held together by its formation and momentum. Once both were broken, there was nothing it could do.
The Patrol Guards, who had bravely held out against experts only moments ago, began to scatter like a disorganized rabble.
“Th-This can’t be...”
The faces of the commanders, so confident until now, fell.
* * *
The battlefield was cleared in an instant.
“Ghh... It hurts. It hurts...”
“Aaah... Agh...”
The government soldiers endured the pain with their flushed faces twisted into grimaces.
“Ghh... Do you think you’ll get away with this?!”
The commanders were no different.
Their weapons and armor had been taken, and their collarbones were broken. They still spat threats through their fury, but no one paid attention to them now.
“Watch closely.”
“What are we supposed to watch?!”
“Watch.”
Yeon Sowol took them one by one and leaned them against trees or rocks.
They all faced Dongting Lake.
Once he completely shattered the formation array and the mist lifted, they would be able to see what was happening beyond it.
“Watch closely.”
Only after he had seated the last government soldier did he straighten up.
His gaze turned toward the formation node.
Stone pillars built from piled rocks stood throughout the area.
This was what the Yuezhou Patrol Guard Army had been protecting.
As Yeon Sowol approached, Ga Geukjun, the sixth-rank Roving General, roared from behind him.
“You bastard! Do you think breaking that will make your wishes come true? The principles of a formation array are not so simple! Even if you destroy it by force, the formation’s power will simply move elsewhere. The formation will become even more mysterious and bind you tighter!”
A broken collarbone caused agonizing pain with even the slightest movement of the upper body, yet Ga Geukjun could still shout like that.
Yeon Sowol admired him inwardly as he held out his hand.
“You needn’t worry about that.”
The entire world looked flat.
Threads rose from every direction.
Yeon Sowol could see them clearly.
Even the threads rising from the formation node.
Was it because his realm had improved somewhat?
Yeon Sowol now understood a little more about what the power of Heaven-Killing Star truly was.
‘This is a power that kills the principle itself.’
No matter how profound the principles contained within a formation array were...
Yeon Sowol’s hand touched the formation node.
He detonated the energy gathered in his hand as a distraction, then poured force projection into the node.
At the same time,
Snip!
He severed it.
The thread.
Rumble!
The node collapsed.
Whoosh!
The mist was pushed back. They could see clearly even sixty paces away. Sunlight shone bluishly through the fog.
Beyond it, the rippling waters of Dongting Lake could be seen faintly.
“H-How?”
He had only destroyed one node, yet the entire formation array was shaking.
It was only natural. A formation array worked because every element fit together perfectly, and one of those elements had just been completely killed.
Yeon Sowol quietly closed his eyes and spread his qi sense.
‘If we destroy two more nodes like this, the outer formation array will collapse completely.’
He nodded and turned around.
“White-Robed League. Move out.”
“Yes, sir!”
Yeon Sowol led the way, and the White-Robed League followed.
“You bastards!!!”
The commanders left behind screamed in fury, but no one looked back.
Only Yeon Sowol’s words drifted back on the wind.
“Please. Don’t close your eyes. Watch closely.”
* * *
They destroyed the second node with overwhelming force.
Having fought the government soldiers once, they had grown much more accustomed to it.
Ha Jeop blocked the arrows.
Won Huiseung and Namgung Ujin drew their attention.
Yeon Sowol swept through them.
After they destroyed the second node, the mist grew noticeably thinner. They could see not only Dongting Lake’s waves, but even Junshan Island faintly beyond them.
They were moving to destroy the third node when it happened.
“You’ve come.”
A man waited in the faint mist, holding a long spear at an angle.
“...”
Though five hundred elite soldiers stood in formation behind him, Yeon Sowol could only see that man.
The momentum of one person rose like Mount Tai, overwhelming the momentum of a thousand.
Yeon Sowol calmly walked up to him.
He cupped his fist.
“Yeon Sowol of Shinheung County greets Prefectural Inspector General Shin Gilrip.”
“Very well. Shin Gilrip, Prefectural Inspector General of Yuezhou, acknowledges Yeon Sowol, the traitor from Shinheung County.”
There was playfulness in Shin Gilrip’s expression.
But his words were sharp.
Yeon Sowol quietly looked at him.
The Prefectural Inspector General was the provincial governor’s closest military official.
The army the provincial governor kept closest and used as his hands and feet was the Inspector Corps.
Its commanders were Prefectural Inspectors.
And the leader of all those Prefectural Inspectors was the Prefectural Inspector General.
That was why Yeon Sowol had initially suspected Shin Gilrip.
He had wondered if Shin Gilrip had joined Yang Hoeam and the Demonic Path faction.
But after exchanging moves with him at the martial arts tournament, Yeon Sowol had eased some of that suspicion. Shin Gilrip’s manner had been open, and he had clearly leaned toward goodwill.
Now that Yeon Sowol faced him again here, even the last trace of suspicion vanished.
‘If Shin Gilrip were an insider working with the Demonic Path faction, he would be at the ritual site, not here.’
Was it not strange for Shin Gilrip, the equivalent of the provincial governor’s personal guard commander, to be stationed here alone?
There was a high chance Shin Gilrip had not joined hands with the Demonic Path faction.
That was why Yeon Sowol did not want to fight.
If he fought someone who had reached the peak realm, he was not confident he could break through without casualties as they had until now.
“Sir. Will you hear me out for a moment?”
Yeon Sowol spoke.
Just as he had to the White-Robed League.
He honestly told the entire truth of everything that had happened so far, hiding nothing.
His tone was earnest.
His expression was sincere.
Even the martial officials and government soldiers behind Shin Gilrip began to waver.
“What... Jiangshi?”
“Now that you mention it, there are commanders we heard had been sent out, but they’ve been gone far too long without any word...”
“Human sacrifice...?”
“Quiet. Watch what you say.”
The older martial officials had to rein them in.
Shin Gilrip had closed his eyes at some point.
He listened as though he would not miss a single word Yeon Sowol said.
At last, after explaining everything, Yeon Sowol pleaded.
“So please, open the way. Soon, hundreds of innocent young children will be sacrificed. You will be able to see it with your own eyes before long.”
The soldiers murmured.
The older martial officials shouted at them again, but it was useless this time. Even the younger martial officials whispered among themselves, watching Shin Gilrip’s reaction.
The words from Yeon Sowol’s mouth were simply too shocking.
Yeon Sowol of all people would not be making something like this up...
After a brief, noisy silence,
“Denied.”
Shin Gilrip spoke.
“General!”
Yeon Sowol tried to plead again.
Whoosh!
Shin Gilrip’s long spear aimed directly at him.
“I follow only the provincial governor’s orders. If you wish to pass through here, step over my corpse.”
“...General...”
Yeon Sowol bit his lip.
What filled Shin Gilrip’s eyes was a soldier’s pride.
It did not seem possible to persuade him.
‘We can’t subdue him... can we?’
Yeon Sowol had a good impression of Shin Gilrip.
He did not want to kill him.
But...
Shin Gilrip.
A peak-realm military commander renowned as the strongest among Yuezhou’s military officials.
‘If we face him halfheartedly, we’ll be the ones wiped out.’
Shing!
Clear Mirror’s cold blade slipped free from its scabbard.
Yeon Sowol formed a sword gesture beside the blade and said quietly,
“General. You are not at fault.”
He would kill him.
But that was not Shin Gilrip’s sin.
He was only fulfilling his duty as a soldier.
Shin Gilrip twisted his spear in his grip.
Blue veins rose across the back of his hand.
“Young subject of Shinheung County.”
The corners of his mouth split beneath his long beard, revealing white teeth in a fierce grin.
“The Emperor will decide who is right and wrong.”
Heat haze rose thickly from his spear and shoulders.
Footnotes:
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