Book 11 Chapter 9

Annihilation!

Im Kae and Lee Song-hak waved them off.

"Phew…, I could have kicked your ass……."

Im's words were true.

Ice Sword, a member of the Heavenly Five Great Swordsmen, and Yeomdo, a member of the Heavenly Five Great Swordsmen. The strength of these two alone was enough to turn this Black Rangetree from a powerhouse into dust. Even against these two alone, victory was not certain, but against the fifty or so delegates from the Volcanic Mountain Association, the prospect was terrifying enough to make one shudder.

After the people from the Heavenly Martial Academy had left, Black Rangecoat Lin Kai wiped his sweaty brow and breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn't even realized that the Grim Reaper was in their midst, and they had acted with such reckless abandon. It was a miracle his neck was still attached.

If Ice Sword and Yin Dao hadn't been so moved by Yi Songhak's heart-wrenching story that they hadn't saved his face, they would have become ghosts and wandered the Nine Heavens. Lin Kai swung his head around to look at them, then exclaimed.

"I guess that's what they call a good life. I'll do something nice tomorrow to celebrate."

"Do you think it's a good thing?"

Good deeds were one of the last things a bandit wanted to do, and it had been so many years since they had heard of them that they doubted they existed. They suspected a vegetarian of insanity.

"I wonder if he's a little frazzled from the trauma of it all?"

Jang Gyu, the foreman of Im Kae's men, whispered to his colleague, Nogu, next to him.

"Well, maybe you're right, but otherwise, what the hell good is a bandit doing, don't you see this chicken shit?"

Nogu thrust his forearm in front of his friend's eyes. With a snap, the skin on his forearm sprouted a bump like a plucked chicken, a testament to how much he resisted the idea of being good. His friend Zhang Gyu nodded in understanding.

"I get it. I got goosebumps when I heard the word "good deed" earlier, and I almost had a fit."

They had to keep their voices as low as a tiny mosquito, for fear of offending the boss if their conversation reached his ears.

Boom!

Suddenly, the sharp, harsh gaze of Chaiju Lin's eyes fell on them, and their fragile hearts nearly sank.

"Hey, Joe!"

Lim Kai called them.

"Yes, boss!"

They both answered at the same time.

"When you work on it tomorrow, make sure you only dust half of it! "

The good deeds he spoke of must have taken that form. Zhang Que and Nogu's eyes widened.

"Whew, that's so incredibly nice of……?"

They both stared at Lin Kai in wonder, as if they were seeing someone else.

But then it happened.

"I don't think that's necessary."

Lim's head snapped around at the sound of a low, sullen voice. His eyes narrowed. No one knew when they'd been there; there was no one here with the skill to sense their presence. But the black shadows had already completely surrounded them.

"Whoa…, who are they?"

His instincts, honed by years in the forest, screamed at him of imminent danger, and his keen sense of smell picked up the scent of blood, death, and fear that emanated from the whole bodies of those wrapped in black cloth.

'Ugh! This is not going to be fun…….'

Even at first glance, these guys were incredibly dangerous. Dry saliva slid down his throat. He was now fighting fiercely against the fear that instinctively surged through him. The corner of the dark, middle-aged man in the lead curled up slightly: he was their leader, the man they called Red Blood.

"Who are you, reveal your identity! "

Lim Kai asked in a trembling voice, and Red Blood replied in a voice that was completely devoid of emotion.

"Let's go! The day of your sacrifice is this very day next year."

It was a voice that seemed to belong in hell. Even the men of Black Rangchae, who lived off the flesh and guts of the people all around them, were sealing their mouths, unable to utter a word. Normally, they would have at least uttered the most basic of profanities first.

"Don't worry! You won't be lonely, because we'll send you off to the other side all at once."

"Nigimi, Tsububu, do whatever you want, guys, hit!"

As if he didn't need to think about it anymore, Lim Kai exclaimed. There was nothing to be gained by stalling for time.

"Oooooooh!"

The black-and-white bandits charged, weapons drawn in unison, and the black shadows of the Twelve Blood Horsemen moved as swiftly as if they had been waiting. It was hardly a fight at all. It was a complete one-sided slaughter. Each time the Twelve Blood Horsemen's blades swung with a grim smile, the bandits were forced to lay their lives down beneath those blades. No matter how great the name of the Green Forest Clan, they were no better than a child against a grown man.

Blood! Blood! Blood!

The entire mountain was painted red, as if the fullness of autumn had been forcibly hastened. The slaughter continued for half a day.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Breathing harshly and raggedly, Lim Kai looked around with tearing eyes. His face was already covered in a demonic amount of blood, but the placenta of that blood was the blood of his men, alive and well.

"Hey, ink, ink, ink, isso-o-ong!"

But there was no answer. None of his men were still breathing. With blood dripping from wounds all over his body, Lim Kai glared at the Red Bloods' captain, Red Blood. His eyes glowed with madness, but his axe was already tattered like a hunk of scrap metal. His wounds were from defending his life against the merciless blades of the Twelve Bloods.

My right thigh was already numb, my left arm was already tattered and cumbersome, and the soreness in my side and stomach made me wonder if the knife hadn't passed through a few times.

"Holy shit, is this it?

I only had enough strength left to swing it once, and then I would not die alone! Lin Kai squeezed the last handful of jinqi from the bottom of his dantian. The more allies he could have on his way to the afterlife, the better.

"Kaaahhh! Die!"

Boom!

A piercing, blood-curdling screech! And a huge explosion!

It became the last trace of his existence in this world. Unwittingly, Gu Gongsan was forced to drink dozens of vials of blood that day.

"Damage?"

Standing in the middle of a gruesome pile of corpses that reeked of thick blood, the Twelve Blood Horsemen Patriarch Red Blood asked in an emotionless voice.

"Two dead, three seriously injured, seven slightly injured."

The Bloodsword, who doubled as the first captain and deputy captain, reported after taking inventory. Redblood's face hardened coldly.

"Are you kidding me? We've been fighting these bastards and we've already lost two people to them, and now we've got ten wounded? How the hell have we been training?"

A curse fell from Redblood's mouth. It was a blow to his pride that his organization's finest assassins had suffered this much damage against a bandit like Naboorang.

"To which battalion does the deceased belong?"

"This is the Ninth and Eleventh Battalions. Apparently, the axe of the Black Rang Chieftain, Black Rang Bu Lim Kai, was too strong. He didn't get his name for nothing."

"Even if he's a member of the Green Forest Clan, he's still just a bandit. Tell the ninth and eleventh bosses that they will be reprimanded when they return, and anyone who is seriously injured will be sent to the special enhancement training course, three months of Infernal Haze, one month for minor injuries. Assuming they're still alive at the end of this operation, of course!"

At the mention of the infernal haze, the Chief Bloodsword's face paled.

"Poor bastards!

But it was a small price to pay; there was no mercy for the weak here.

"Yes! I get it."

"How am I ever going to get any work done if I have to deal with two of these jerks, you worthless pieces of shit!"

"In addition to Im Kae, there was an unexpected master among them. He was a swordsman."

"Bandits are swords……?"

It was a very mismatched weapon.

"Judging by his sword technique, I'm guessing it's a military sword transfer technique."

The Twelve Blood Horsemen were not a ragtag army that ignored intelligence in favor of strength.

"A man whose accumulated erudition could fill a river, Yi Songhak, a kunjia sword master, rogues?"

For once, the report surprised even the red bloods. But that luxury was short-lived.

"And him?"

For a moment, the swordsman forgot how to answer. Even if he had ten mouths, he was at a loss for words.

"Sin…, I'm sorry. I missed it."

The whole point of this operation was to leave no survivors behind. A fierce, frightening gaze of rebuke penetrated Bloodblade's entire body, and his body shuddered.

"We'll hold him accountable later. What about him now?"

He sounded like a gust of wind.

"The Eighth sent a pursuit party."

"Really?"

His face relaxed a little, and he smiled. The Eighth had specialized in stalking, and they had never lost their prey.

"Search far and wide, even beyond the horizon, and destroy it. If you fail, you will pay for it with your lives. We leave no trace. Exterminate. We are reorganizing our forces now. Do it!"

"Yes! I get it."

"Re-track as soon as you're done. And release the bait, so that the Forest King may bite. The bait shall be a severely wounded man! Good thing we don't have to hurt them on purpose. And the one who escaped is to be eliminated at all costs! Over!"

It was an ice-cold command.

"復命! "

One seriously wounded, but not too incapacitated, soldier was dressed in the clothes of a dead green man, tied to his face, and played the part. The wounds weren't fake anyway, and blood was still oozing out of the bandages. It was the look of a defeated soldier.

In a matter of moments, he had been transformed into a wounded bandit minion, his stabbing flesh sinking deeper and deeper into his body. Those who engage in this line of work are naturally strong, but sometimes it's hard to stay in the business if you can't hide it.

"Go do your job and do it right, and I'll cut your hellhole in half for your efforts."

At Redblood's words, his expression turned grim. The Infernal Smoke was a difficult process, even for those who had practiced it. It had been a mistake to underestimate the axe of the Black Ranger as a bandit.

"Go!"

"Bokmyeong!"

As soon as he ran out of red blood, he quickly moved his new prisoner to disappear into the direction of the Green Forest Seventy-seven, where the Green Forest King is said to reside.

"We're pulling out! "

With a red-blooded command, their new machines vanished as if they were being extinguished into the ground. Only the chilling silence of death lingered in their wake, along with the thick stench of blood.

Doo-doo-doo!

The sound of a mighty force spurring the earth.

"Whoa!"

A carriage racing down a mountain road, its hooves pounding the ground, came to a halt at the coachman's command. The sudden braking caused the horses to jerk and jostle. The black carriage drawn by four Phils' horses had come to a halt at the scene of a massacre of Black Rangetree bandits not long before.

Bam!

The carriage door opened, revealing a stunningly beautiful woman inside.

She had to cover her nose with a handkerchief at the gore that instantly spread.

"That's terrible."

A light frown creased her beautiful ami, and disgust flickered in her lake-like eyes.

"Who could it be?"

Zhang No, who was sitting in the coachman's seat, replied.

"Judging by the markings on the bodies, they're probably bandits from the Black Rangchae, one of the Green Forest Bandits, which is a very disciplined group of fishermen unlike any other pirate paddle, and they're all dead before they've had a chance to fight back. Their wounds are very clean. Judging by their wounds, it must have been done by professionals, which is scary."

"Then……."

It was then. Suddenly, Zhang Ren raised a finger to her mouth, signaling her to be quiet. She immediately raised her white jade to cover her red lips. Zhang Ren's sharp gaze and perky ears looked around.

Pod!

At that moment, Zhang Ren's eyes flashed sharply, and his hand stretched out faster than the wind, a flash of light disappearing from his fingertips as it was sucked into the grass.

Sah-la-la-la!

The sound of the grass swaying assaulted my ears.

"Did I miss it? "

"You're a pretty fast rat, you must have had a reaction but missed it."

"That's fine, let's get them out of here sooner rather than later, I'm worried something might have happened to them."

"Yes, Sojae!"

In fact, the idea of her being concerned about their well-being was quite ridiculous given her affiliation and background, but she was not at all ashamed of it. On the contrary, she took it all for granted.

"Yay!"

Click!

Jiangnao's whip cut through the air, and the chariot's wheels began to roll again.

The red blood was quite offensive. And with good reason. One of his men, whom he had left behind to clean up the mess, had returned with an ugly blow to the shoulder. The unkempt, unkempt subordinate had wrapped his left hand around his right shoulder and was groveling apologetically.

"When did I become the leader of such a weakling?

I couldn't help but curse. How could I go back and show my master's face? My face was burning, and I was ashamed of myself.

'Maybe I should give him some bone-crunching training again!'

A centuries-old law of steel dictated that there was no room for the weak in the shadows of the heavens.

"That's quite a feat of craftsmanship."

The deputy sergeant-at-arms said after examining the subordinate's wounds. The shoulder piercing was a common one that could be found anywhere, but it wasn't enough to determine the user's identity. More information was needed.

"This was no ordinary wagoner's workmanship. I thought I'd hidden my tracks completely, but……."

The wounded man, 512, replied. No. 512 meant he was a member of the Fifth and Twelfth. They had no names, except for their master and foreman. No. 512 seemed to want to make an excuse.

"The skill of the peak cilantro is evident. If it hadn't been dodged, it would have gone right through the heart."

The swordsman's judgment is probably correct. He has never been wrong in this regard before.

"And……."

512 seemed to have something left to say.

"Is there anything left to say on the topic you've been running away from?"

Redblood asked with a piercing stare.

"No disrespect, but the person riding in that wagon was …"

"What?"

The red blood nearly clenched his jaw.

"That horse! Can you take responsibility?"

"I'll bet my life on it, it's a silver fox."

"Why didn't you say that first, you idiot!"

The angry red blood screamed at the top of his lungs, and the realization that he was now weakened and dumbed down made 512 feel hopeless.

"Send a messenger to inform the higher-ups and get a response. And investigate the presence of the coachman, who is surely no ordinary person."

"Okay."

At Red's command, the Twelve Blood Horsemen began to hustle and bustle, and a single falcon soared into the sky with flapping wings.