Chapter 59
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Chapter 59: The Heaven and Earth Net (3)
The martial arts world depicted here was unlike the typical settings found in novels.
While most martial arts worlds are based on ancient China, this place felt like a completely different realm altogether.
‘This place is just… a completely different world.’
It was as if a martial arts world had simply sprung up on an unknown continent, distinct from the Chinese martial arts realm.
If the Chinese martial arts world is world A, then this place would be world C.
It made sense since the gate itself was a fragment of another world.
Anyway, he had already scouted out all the castles and sects that could be potential escape routes from the beginning.
‘Hanlim Castle.’
A castle with 10-meter-high walls, ruled by the Lee family, a part of the Murim Alliance.
‘Oh, I remember, their eldest son died by my hand.’
An older-looking man named Lee, defeated despite teaming up with two other experts.
He must have received the news by now and is probably rushing over here.
‘I heard that the martial artists in this world can mobilize the government.’
That was how the martial arts world of this setting worked.
Invincibility of martial artists? Not by a long shot.
They had to bow their heads and say, “Please come in, sir.”
The reason was simple.
‘Every hundred years, the strongest person from the martial arts world emerges.’
No matter how many soldiers or experts there were, what could they do? They won’t even be able to touch the true strongest person.
If the people who obtained the thread of ascension continued to remain on this land, the martial artists might have become emperors from generation to generation.
‘It’s a good thing they ascended.’
He heard that they lived for a few decades and then suddenly disappeared one day.
Of course, they must have ascended to heaven like the unblemished.
Anyway, after being raided a few times like that, the government apparently started to bow their heads.
The government can be easily manipulated.
= If you have the will, you can simply ask and get what you want.
= They can manipulate the soldiers of the castle at their will.
This was the general idea.
‘Well, it would be difficult to turn the soldiers outside the castle walls… .’
The Lee family was said to be a powerful clan, but they were just one of the many clans belonging to the Murim Alliance.
After all, there was the dignity of the government with the emperor. They wouldn’t be able to completely grab the power to command the soldiers, even those of the top-notch ones.
They would have to be at least the Murim Alliance, the Sado Alliance, or the main body of the Demonic Cult to show that level of performance.
Oh?
But the three of them are all together?
‘…If I get caught, they’ll really come at me like a pack of dogs.’
Right now, they’re probably chasing him while pretending to maintain some dignity, but what if he runs away further than they think he can?
They could even bring out all the soldiers from the city and scatter them.
‘So that’s the Heaven and Earth Net?’
Damn it.
In the end, it was a race against time.
In the dark of night, he could see the tightly closed castle in the distance, and even the soldiers standing guard between the burning torches.
“Here you go.”
He handed her several potions.
[Strange Invisibility Potion]
[Rank: Normal+]
[A potion that makes you look transparent when you drink it. However, it also seems to have
side effects.]
[Effect 1: Turns you transparent for 20 minutes upon consumption.]
[Effect 2: Gives you a random side effect upon consumption.]
“……Strange Invisibility Potion?”
She examined the potion and tilted her head.
It was a creation of the skeletons.
Originally, it was only 5 minutes when he first made it, but as the crafting level increased, it increased to 20 minutes.
“……What are the side effects?”
“I experimented with it, and it’s nothing major. It just lowers your stats for a few hours. It’s a small price to pay compared to being transparent.”
“How transparent is it?”
“Even in the dead of night, they won’t be able to find anything above level 200.”
They could find low monsters but not mid-level ones.
‘Well, it’s still good enough.’
They should be able to easily avoid the eyes of the soldiers on the walls.
There were plenty of potions that simply increased stats like vitality, mana, or abilities.
However, potions with unique abilities like this one could only be made if you had the recipe or learned the crafting method from someone else.
This made them very rare.
Luckily, the skeletons had been directly trained by the elves, so it didn’t matter.
‘The elves weren’t paid in gold for nothing.’
They could casually craft potions that even a master human alchemist couldn’t make in their lifetime.
They were like dwarves.
“The plan is simple. I’ll go in and open the outer gate. Please get some horses, Yerim. As many as possible.”
“To shake off the pursuers?”
He nodded.
The bag was also one of the pieces of equipment.
Even when the skeletons were recalled, the armor and equipment remained in place, along with the bag of odds and ends.
What if they got some horses and put the skeletons on top?
‘They’re about the same weight.’
It would cause chaos again during the pursuit.
“Just get them, and then use whatever means necessary, whether it’s intimidating them with your presence or whatever, to bring them back to my side. And then I’ll head towards the eastern gate.”
He’ll ride off on a horse. It should still be able to run at full speed for a day or so. After that, the horse will be too tired to ride.
‘I’ll worry about that when the time comes.’
He had been running all day and hadn’t slept. If he couldn’t get a horse, it would be a bad ending.
She nodded.
“Then I’ll go around the ice and head towards the gate on the other side. If there’s any commotion, I’ll bring the horses.”
“Okay.”
They went their separate ways.
‘I’ll draw their attention first.’
A lot of skeletons had been recalled so far. There were about 500 of them in total. But not all ten groups had been wiped out.
A few skeletons were recalled per group.
It seemed like the ones who were holed up in caves or mountains were recalled.
With Cedric at the helm and about five hundred skeletons,
‘Opening the gate is not a big deal.’
It was a surprise attack in the dead of night.
Were they really thinking that they were going to attack the castle with just two of them?
‘I don’t think so.’
They would have received the news, so they would be on some sort of alert, but that’s about it.
‘Their vigilance isn’t that high.’
The number of warriors was small. The soldiers were filling in the gaps with patrols due to the shortage of warriors.
He had roughly figured out the patrol times, so it was time to go in.
He drank the invisibility potion.
[You will become transparent for 20 minutes!]
[As a side effect, your strength and agility will decrease by 10 each for two hours!]
He jumped up onto the wall with all his might when the soldiers passed by.
His powerful stats allowed him to jump over the 10-meter height in one breath.
The downtown area inside was very quiet, perhaps because it was night.
‘There are no guards down there either.’
He jumped down and ran forward. After running for about 20 minutes, he could see the gate on the opposite side.
Here too, a small number of warriors and a large number of soldiers were on guard.
He drew his sword and charged.
“Who’s there!”
The warriors noticed his presence a step ahead of the soldiers. However, the distance was already close enough.
A skeleton that had sprung up from the ground swung a mace at the warrior’s leg, shattering it.
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“Crack!”
A skeleton decapitated the fallen warrior with an axe.
Kim Minwoo also killed a charging warrior in one breath.
“A-a raid!”
The entire castle was in an uproar.
Lee Wonpyeong, the head of the Lee family.
He woke up to the commotion outside as he was sleeping.
“What’s going on?”
“M-master! Something terrible has happened! Those we’ve been searching for from the Alliance have appeared!”
“……What? You mean those bastards got inside the castle?”
“Yes. The North Gate has been breached, and they’ve escaped with dozens of horses!”
Lee Wonpyeong’s hair stood on end.
Baek Socheon and Choi Ang-ang.
He had heard that their location was still unknown.
It was also uncertain whether they would head towards the capital city, and even if they did, he naturally expected them to bypass the capital city and go around.
Who in their right mind would come inside the castle and cause havoc when a large army was chasing them?
It was as if he was screaming to everyone that he was here.
‘That bastard Baek Socheon…’
Lee Wonpyeong gritted his teeth.
He heard that they had passed the test where they had to kill all but three.
Perhaps that bastard was the one who killed his eldest son.
The scores suggested that it was not unlikely.
Even then, he had been trapped inside the castle because of the sealing order from the Alliance, unable to even leave the castle.
But this changed the situation.
The location of the bastards had been known for a while now.
It was possible to attempt a pursuit.
“Send a messenger to the Alliance immediately and gather the warriors of the family! I will personally track down those bastards!”
“Understood, Master!”
He then rushed towards the government office, his eyebrows furrowed.
The government office had also been in an uproar for a while now due to the news of the intruders.
Lee Wonpyeong approached the official in charge of Hanlim Castle.
“Lord Gam! Can I borrow the soldiers of the government?”
“Didn’t we already actively help with the sealing? That’s all we can do.”
“Those are the rebels that the Alliance is chasing! You must cooperate actively!”
“Rebels is not the word to use in a situation like this. They have to commit treason to be rebels.”
“Lord Gam… This will be difficult. What if the Alliance finds out later?”
“So, do you have a document with the Alliance’s seal on it, like before?”
“…”
Lee Wonpyeong fell silent.
When he had issued the sealing order for the castle earlier, he had been able to move the government using the document from the Alliance as evidence.
But things were different now.
Those bastards had just been discovered.
No matter how fast the messenger was, it would take hours to reach the Alliance. There was no way there could be a document with the seal in that situation.
“Without that, we cannot send the soldiers outside the castle. We have a duty to protect His Majesty’s territory and the people.”
“……ha! You’re a nobleman!”
What was that emperor even saying?
Lee Wonpyeong, who barely swallowed his words, turned around abruptly. It seemed like he would only be able to get verbal support at best.
Those bastards were strong.
It was too much of a burden for the Lee family to stop them alone. That was why he had come to the government office.
‘There’s no other way. We have to move at least.’
This was a matter where the thread of ascension was at stake.
If he could just stall for time, he would be able to receive great recognition for his achievements.
And then.
‘They took several horses, didn’t they?’
Were they planning to switch horses in the middle?
‘No.’
There would have been no reason to take so many horses if that was the case.
It was just the weight of one person anyway. They would all collapse from exhaustion if they ran for a day.
‘They’re trying to confuse the pursuit.’
He heard they had played tricks with the dead.
They could do the same thing by putting them on horses.
Then the pursuit would be split again.
If only he could find out the real direction those bastards were heading in from here?
‘Becoming the top contributor won’t be a dream either.’
Lee Wonpyeong’s eyes sparkled.
When he arrived at the gate.
Nearly four hundred warriors were already waiting for him on horseback.
“We must chase those bastards. Run with the determination to die. Let’s go!”
“Yes, Master!”
The pursuit party began to depart from the castle. Even though they had been running for about twenty minutes, the large number of horse hooves continued to point forward.
‘I’ll destroy all the illusionary tactics you have!’
If they split the horses into two and caused confusion in the pursuit, they would also split their forces.
In addition to equipping each group with firecrackers, the main force also had five messengers.
This was the number that the Lee family, who were enjoying their prosperity, could afford to have.
It was then that they entered the straight forest path.
Lee Wonpyeong’s eyes narrowed.
He could see something gleaming in the darkness.
Something that even he, at the highest level, could barely make out.
Then his eyes widened.
‘Chains?!’
Taking advantage of the darkness, thick chains were strung between the trees on both sides.
“Jump off!”
Lee Wonpyeong quickly threw himself to the side of the road. The warriors at the front also followed without hesitation.
However, the warriors who were relatively less skilled were different.
Before they could react.
The horses in front tripped over the chains and fell, and they were entangled from all sides and slammed to the ground.
The warriors were the same.
The skeletons that jumped out of the two-pronged forest attacked the warriors who had fallen in this way.
Hundreds of warriors died pathetically in the fatal surprise attack.
Even more serious.
Boom.
Boom.
A giant monster made of bones also appeared.
‘Baek Socheon! Choi Ang-ang!’
The two people who looked exactly like the faces on the wanted poster showed up.
‘A trap?!’
Lee Wonpyeong’s eyes widened.
He thought they would only run away, but he never imagined they would set a trap in return.
It seemed that his impatience to chase them had backfired.
“Those bastards…!”
Lee Wonpyeong gritted his teeth.
Just one trap.
The blow was devastating.
Nearly 350 warriors were killed.
All that was left was a mere 50 elite troops.
On the other hand, what about the size of the enemy force?
“It’s close to two thousand.”
The surroundings were a graveyard.
Could they really capture the two of them with only fifty warriors?
No, could they even break through this encirclement in the first place?
Everyone’s faces darkened.
A true master can easily handle dozens of other masters of the same level.
What’s more, weren’t those two the monsters who slaughtered the elite guards of the Dragon Phoenix Gathering, who were said to be able to fly and wield swords?
Looking at his subordinates, Lee Wonpyeong shouted,
“Hurry up and send out the carrier pigeons!”
The firecrackers were meaningless.
There were no forces nearby to come to their aid.
The subordinates hurriedly wrote a message on paper and sent out the carrier pigeons.
Five carrier pigeons soared into the sky.
Just then.
Choi Ang-ang raised the bow on her back.
Thwack!
She pierced one of the carrier pigeons right through.
The unimaginable sight made the eyes of the masters, including Lee Wonpyeong, widen.
“Stop that woman!”
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
Choi Ang-ang drew her bow without taking a breath.
Four of the carrier pigeons died in an instant.
Only then did Lee Wonpyeong, who had barely reached her front, glare at her with bloodshot eyes.
“You bastard!”
Thunk!
Choi Ang-ang began to face his opponent with a raised sword. Only then could Lee Wonpyeong breathe a sigh of relief.
At least one survived.
Even though he was sucked into the encirclement, he managed to avoid the worst.
“Clear the way, everyone! Each one for themselves!”
“Yes!”
The warriors of the Lee Clan rushed in all directions.
It was to ensure that at least one survived. That was when the chaotic battle erupted.
Amidst the chaos, Carrier Pigeon, the only one left alive, was thrown into the air.
Thunk!
With a crash, his body crumpled like a small car hitting a truck, and he began to fall powerless.
[Translator – Pr?ks]
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