Chapter 1434
You’ll have to get through me first. (4)
“Th-These scoundrels!”
The faces of the elders paled as they saw the enemies charging again.
Didn’t they see it clearly?
How dangerous Sichuan Tang’s forbidden weapons were. How superior their power was. Yet, these bastards showed no fear at all. How could they be like this unless they were willing to give up their lives?
“Aaargh!”
They clearly gained momentum for a moment, but unfortunately, they couldn’t sustain it. Just one grim scream echoing in their ears made them vomit out everything they had gained.
“Brotheeeeeer!”
Those who had lived their whole lives as the backbone of the clan. Those who were feared and revered throughout the Central Plains. The emotions that rose in their eyes right now were confusion and fear.
Should they have fled?
Like those who fled without even looking back when they heard Tang Oe’s words, should they have abandoned their futile efforts and at least tried to save their lives?
Or perhaps even now…
“Spread the poison!”
At that moment, the desperate voice of Tang Byeok erupted.
“B-Brother! Using poison in this situation…”
“What are you waiting for! Spread the poison immediately! You fools! Is our purpose to defeat them?”
Those words jolted the elders back to their senses.
“We die here. Until our dying breath, spread the poison and shoot all the hidden weapons! It’s inevitable that they’ll trample our corpses. But make sure they never catch up to our family!”
Tang Byeok screamed with a face flushed with blood.
“We are the elders of Sichuan Tang Clan! Die worthy of that name!”
Usually, there needs to be a significant reason for someone to risk their life. But sometimes, no significant reason was needed. As befitting the elders of Sichuan Tang clan. What more could be required than those words?
In the eyes of the elders, who were momentarily seeking a way to save their lives, a venomous determination surged.
“Aaaargh!”
The flying sword struck one of the elders.
Yet, despite a sharp blade piercing his chest, the elder of the Tang clan did not despair.
“Grrr…”
Just as the member of Maninbang was about to distort his face horribly, he saw the elder of the Tang clan making a bizarre smile.
“Whaaaa!”
From the elder’s sleeve, pinkish venom coiled and rose.
Gasp!
Momentarily startled, the warrior of Maninbang tried to withdraw, but no matter how hard he tried, the sword lodged in the elder’s chest didn’t move, as if pinned between the rocks.
“Sichuan Tang…”
The elder’s face contorted grotesquely.
“Do not underestimate… the Tang clan…”
Shaaaargh!
A viscous liquid sprayed from the elder’s sleeve in all directions. Maninbang’s warrior, struck head-on by the black venom, bit his lip and grabbed the elder’s throat.
“You useless old man!”
Thunk!
The elder with a broken neck collapsed on the spot. However, Maninbang’s warrior who had ended his life was not unscathed either.
“Ugh, aaaaaaaah!”
Black blood gushed from his mouth like a waterfall. Intense agony, as if his head was being struck with a hammer, enveloped him.
“Grrrk…”
His body convulsed violently. If he hadn’t suppressed his inner energy, his body would have likely turned into a handful of blood by now.
“Release!”
At Tang Byeok’s command, venomous vapors rose from all directions. But this time, it wasn’t a defensive wall in front of them. It was the venomous dragon technique, coiling around the elders like a poisonous dragon.
Despite Sichuan Tang elders’ partial immunity to poison, they were not entirely immune to poisoning. To wrap themselves in poison in such a situation was to embrace death willingly, or rather, to hasten it.
And that wasn’t the end of it.
The elders poured blood poison into their mouths. This toxin would surely poison them, but it would also turn their blood into an even deadlier venom. Thus, those who dared to cut into their bodies would not emerge unscathed!
Even the elite Maninbang’s warriors hesitated for a moment at such a horrendous response.
But…
“Khaaaa!”
As those who unknowingly retreated backward looked on, they saw none other than the Red Dogs charging behind them.
The eyes of Maninbang’s warriors were momentarily filled with terror. Moving forward meant risking poisoning, but retreating meant certain death. Were those crazed Red Dogs even considering them as allies?
“Aaaargh!”
Surrounded on all sides, Maninbang’s warriors, with grim determination, charged towards the billowing poisonous clouds.
“Come!”
Elders of the Tang clan, fueled by malice, screamed as they watched the approaching enemies.
“We will never let them through! Never!”
“Aaaargh!”
At the savage scream erupting from behind, Tang Sobo flinched and turned to look back. No, she tried to.
“Don’t look!”
The elder’s shout stopped her head. She wanted to block her ears, to close her eyes and turn away from the unfolding situation. But she didn’t have the luxury to do so now.
‘I must go!’
She knew it. She knew what she had to do.
One step. Just one more step. Otherwise, those elders’ deaths would turn into utter despair.
‘I must survive! I must!’
With tears streaming down her cheeks, Tang Sobo pulled Tang Oe along.
Just one.
“Go!”
In that moment, Tang Or shoved her from behind.
“Elder!”
Despite Tang Sobo’s fervent cries, Tang Oe remained strong.
“Hurry, go! Quickly!”
“But what about the elders?”
“I said go, didn’t I?!”
Summoning strength from somewhere deep within, Tang Oe let out a thunderous shout, surprising even himself. With a determined gaze, he pushed Tang Sobo’s shoulder again, his eyes ablaze with determination.
“Go! You must survive! You must!”
“Elder!”
Tang Oe didn’t press her further. Instead, he simply turned away.
In his eyes, the black poisonous clouds billowed ominously to the sky. Within them, screams and cries reverberated distinctly.
The elders were prepared to die.
But they wouldn’t last long. They were anything but weak, yet their numbers were too few, and the enemy too formidable.
Not everyone could survive. Someone had to stop them. Someone had to hold them back right here.
Tang Oe’s eyes flickered with momentary conflict. The directive that emerged from this brief internal struggle was one he might never have issued in his former state.
“Send the children and women first! Quickly!”
“Yes, Elder!”
Men carrying children passed them over to the women.
“My dear!”
“Go!”
Cries mingled with sobs as the women were pushed forward by the men’s hands.
Seeing this scene, Tang Oe’s hands trembled momentarily.
Was this right? Was it truly the right thing to do?
Even if they were men who had not learned martial arts, even if they had lost their workshops and the poison repository, they were craftsmen of hidden weapons and researchers of poisons.
Is it truly right to use them as shields for women and children who may not even be of help to the future of the clan?
Tang Oe didn’t know. He realized that he couldn’t know everything in the world. He couldn’t provide answers to everything in the world. Believing he knew and understood more was purely his arrogance.
Now, he was just listening. He listened to what his heart was crying out. It was a voice that wanted to do something incredibly foolish.
“Chief administrator, lead the women and children! Men, support them from behind!”
“Yes!”
Tang Oe, biting his lip, turned his head without realizing it.
“I’m sorry.”
Tang Oe himself wasn’t entirely sure of the meaning behind those words, but the craftsmen who heard them couldn’t help but laugh.
“While a hammer isn’t made to strike people, can’t it break even iron? Even if we haven’t learned martial arts, we are part of the clan. Naturally, that’s how it should be. If it were the other way around, I wouldn’t have followed the elder’s orders.”
“I wanted to prove that the one who makes the poison uses it best. Well, it worked out.”
Tang Oe couldn’t help but laugh at the banter of the nervous men.
‘Have I been disregarding these people?’
They were all part of the clan. Yes, all of them.
From the children playing in the courtyard to the craftsmen awaiting their old age and death. They were all part of the Tang clan.
“Don’t talk nonsense! I’m not telling you to die here! You need to survive too! Go! Just one more step!”
“Yes!”
At that moment, as Tang Oe turned to start running again.
“Ah!”
With a piercing sound of splitting wood, the swirling venom erupted, and from within, a man burst out with a surge of blue energy surrounding him.
It was a middle-aged man with an oppressing gaze. Jeok Ho grabbed his black sword in reverse and charged at them in an instant.
“Run! Quickly!”
“Yes!”
The craftsmen of the Tang clan ran desperately, but escaping the pursuit of an absolute master was a dreamlike tale from the start.
In an instant, as he closed the distance, the clan’s craftsmen saw the enemy charging towards them and bit their lips.
“We can’t make it!”
Their hammers swung fiercely in their hands. Amidst abandoning everything and fleeing, the hammers they could never discard were now wielded to protect the clan.
However, their hammers were too feeble to counter the massive black sword.
Wiiiiing!
With a sound that seemed to crush the air, the bodies of the craftsmen were cleaved in half and soared upward. It was a gruesome sight. Yet, even in the midst of it, the clan’s craftsmen grabbed onto Jeok Ho’s ankles, and the pale experts of poison released poisons relentlessly.
“Don’t hesitate!”
But Jeok Ho’s sword cut through them smoothly. A fierce killing intent surged in his eyes, which were always serious.
It’s pointless to pick them off one by one from behind. The way to crush those fleeing is to break their vanguard.
Jeok Ho blocked and pushed them aside, advancing forward in one breath.
“Hurry! Quickly!”
Seeing this, Tang Oe turned his body.
“Elder!”
Tang Oe’s hand slipped from his sleeve.
Holding about a dozen vials of poison in both hands, he opened one and poured its contents into his mouth.
With a sensation akin to his throat burning, his body immediately ignited.
‘Oh, divine powers!’
With poison coursing through him, Tang Oe staggered and charged at Jeok Ho. Jeok Ho’s sword casually cleaved through Tang Oe’s chest in a straight line.
Squelch!
A crimson line appeared on Tang Oe’s chest, and his eyes lost focus.
As Jeok Ho tried to pass Tang Oe, seemingly ignoring him, a blackened line appeared on Tang Oe’s chest, and simultaneously, his hands wrapped around Jeok Ho.
“Hmm?”
“You can’t…”
Jeok Ho’s face contorted as he noticed the seeping balck blood of Tang Oe, who was grasping his leg.
“You vile old man!”
Thud!
Jeok Ho’s blade plunged into Tang Oe’s back in one swift motion. Tang Oe convulsed, but his grip around Jeok Ho’s leg remained firm.
“You… can’t… move…”
“This!”
Squelch!
Jeok Ho’s blade sliced through both Tang Oe’s arms in one stroke.
“These venomous bastards.”
Jeok Ho bit his lip as Tang Oe’s gripping hands, now tainted black with a deadly venom, clung tightly to his robes. For now, there might not be an immediate issue, but if time dragged on, he would inevitably succumb to the poison.
“Then I won’t let time drag on!”
Thud!
Jeok Ho’s eyes gleamed with a piercing blue light. In his vision, the figure of a woman fleeing ahead came into view.
‘I have to go!’
Tears streamed down from Tang Sobo’s eyes.
The screams from behind were too agonizing.
Too heart-wrenching.
Nevertheless, she had to go. She must go.
‘Don’t cry! You are from Tangga!’
Though she hadn’t mastered martial arts, proving her loyalty to the Tan clan wasn’t solely dependent on her martial prowess. Those who carried the bloodline of the Tang clan must never show weakness in the face of the enemy.
Screams erupted once again from behind her, sending shivers down everyone’s spine. The faces of those who turned around in surprise turned a ghastly shade of blue.
Children wailed, some froze in place, and sinister curses permeated the air. They were all going to die. Every single one of them.
No matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t survive on their own. The deaths of everyone who sacrificed themselves to save them would be in vain.
Tang Sobo’s mouth hung open in shock.
“Who…”
Please, someone.
“Please, someone help us!”
Then, from behind her, a fierce voice rang out.
“Die, you worthless fools!”
A chilling sensation crept up her back. Intuitively sensing her fate, Tang Sobo tightly shut her eyes.
‘Sister!’
But at that moment, what Tang Sobo faced was neither agony nor tranquility.
Just a fierce gust of wind. A violent gust that slammed into her back as if something had exploded.
And then…
Thunk.
Something made contact with her face.
Before she could comprehend what it was, a soft voice reached her ears.
“Are you okay?”
Tang Sobo’s eyes widened. Before her eyes was the figure of a man she had never seen before.
“I’m sorry I’m late. But… everything will be okay now.”
“Uh… yes?”
With a stern face, the man patted Tang Sobo’s back once and then walked past her.
“Who…?”
Tang Sobo’s eyes were filled with questions. But her curiosity was no greater than Jeok Ho’s concern.
“…”
Jeok Ho’s face grew cold. His wrist was pierced with sharp ache.
‘What’s this?’
Even if it was an unexpected strike, it shouldn’t have been easily deflected. No, the fact that it was deflected wasn’t the important part. What mattered was that when his blade made contact with that sword, it felt like striking a solid rock.
Jeok Ho’s face contorted in disbelief.
“You…”
The man who stood before Jeok Ho, blocking his path, surveyed the scene quietly. Countless lives had already been lost and many people have bled to death. Lives that could have been saved had he arrived just a little earlier.
The man’s expression hardened.
“Is taking lives so easy for you?”
“Who are you, youngster?”
“Jongnam’s Lee Songbaek.”
“What?”
Jeok Ho’s face showed confusion. With such martial prowess, he should have at least heard of this name before, but it was unfamiliar to him.
“To kill them, you’ll have to get through me first.”
The man’s foot dug into the ground. Lee Songbaek’s stance was as firm as a thousand-year-old tree, his eyes shining with unwavering clarity.
“Come.”
His resonant voice echoed far and wide across the still battlefield.
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