Book 28 Chapter 16

Raise the flag

-White list

"Hurry up! Hurry up! How far have they gotten?"

"You're three hundred chapters out. There's no sign of the Swordmaster Transcendent!"

"He's not coming for another three days! Anyway, so what's the speed?"

"You're walking normally."

"He's coming soon, rally the warriors!"

"Did you boil the slug, move fast!"

"You're two hundred pages out."

"Open gates! Open the main gate wide, Black Heaven Martyrs, flank it!"

"One hundred sheets out!"

"All hands, grab your angles."

"Thirty sheets out."

"Shut up."

"Ten sheets out!"

"Don't even breathe!"

Upon receiving word from the south gate of the arrival of the Three Great Nanglings and the Divine Eight, the interior of the Black Heavenly League was bustling with activity.

What's all the fuss about?

The young warriors of the Black Heaven Blind could not understand why their elders were so pale and tense, with cold sweat dripping down their faces. But they couldn't say a word because they were so nervous that if they touched them, they would be cut to pieces.

"Tighten up! Keep your wits about you! Or you'll die!"

And finally, the Three Great Nanglangs and the Eight Immortals appeared, including the Nine Heavenly Maidens.

"What is it, a woman?

Some of the younger warriors muttered to themselves. The young Black Heaven martial artists were proud, so they didn't understand why the elders and officers were so quick to criticize the women.

'Egye, how could a woman cause such a fuss over…… kuck!'

At that moment, the foot of the Nine Heavenly Maiden standing in front of her stepped on the Black Heavenly Sect's main gate.

Thump!

At that moment, an incredibly dense intangible flesh spread out in all directions like a spider web.

"Crack!"

Several of the younger Black Heaven martial artists collapsed under the pressure, their eyes rolling back in their heads and their mouths foaming at the mouth. With each step they took, the pressure on their shoulders seemed to increase by a thousand muscles. It was hard to believe that these were the same women who had smiled and parted ways with the Zhongyang Bureau earlier.

"Pathetic!"

Without paying any attention to the martial artists who were falling to the ground like rotten logs, the Honglian Zen Master Dan Hai clicked her tongue and spoke in a gruesome tone.

"They're undisciplined, we don't need them, kick them out!"

Thump!

Once again, she stomped her feet and moved forward.

The young warriors paled and dropped their poodle-poodle bodies from the immense presence, pressure, and life that radiated from that moment.

"If you fall down here, you die!

Some fainted while standing, but no one could blame them.

Shinmagun Limbo (神魔君臨步).

In the Black Heavenly League, the hard-boned elders recognized that the stomping of the feet from earlier was a demonstration of Shinma Gunrimbo, one of the festivals of the Shinto gods. The power of Gunrimbo is to subdue the mind and body.

Some of the elders were visibly nervous. They had to bite their molars to the point of bleeding to keep their teeth from clattering together.

They had sinned.

For failing to protect their chief.

I'm still guilty of not catching the beast.

As if she had read their minds, Nine Heavenly Princess Mu Hua spoke in a cold voice.

"I will ask you about your sins later."

He asked, his voice laced with deep sadness and dark anger.

"Where is my son……?"

Everyone in the room gulped.

Galjoongcheon's coffin was located in the Great Hall.

In front of the western steps of the Great Hall, a banner hung from a bamboo pole was fluttering wildly. Nine Heavenly Princess Mu Hua stopped in her tracks and stared at the fluttering banner, her eyes filled with infinite darkness.

It was a banner, or myeongjeong, indicating that the null of Galjongcheon was enshrined here.

The entire battlefield had taken on the role of a giant shrine.

Inside, a coffin lay at the foot of the south window, and in front of it stood a wooden plaque carved from a giant tree. As he read the words written vertically on it, his eyes shook with passion and sorrow.

The deity position of the Black Heavenly Lord Galzongtian.

There was a plaque to the son she thought she would never see in her lifetime.

Recognizing the group, a white-haired priest hurried over. He was Ha Sheng, a star-reading elder who oversaw the Nebula Pavilion, a divination hall within the Black Heavenly League. He was the head of the Nebula Pavilion, where he read the heavenly qi and advised the masters. He had been there since the time of the previous martial master, Gal Zhonghyeok, so he knew her well.

Sung Dok-no-gun bowed low and said hello.

"Oh, have you come, Great Master, and how I greet you!"

He was an elder of the martial arts world, old enough to be called an elder, but far below the rank of Gu Tianxin.

"……."

The silence returned.

No one said anything for a long time. Ha Sung, who had been struggling, raised his gaze slightly, then stiffened.

The three mothers stood motionless, staring at the coffin beyond the plaque.

"Open the coffin."

Gu Tianxuan said in a strangely dull and flat voice.

Not daring to disobey him, Ha Sung rose to his feet on wobbly legs and, as ordered, walked over to the coffin and carefully lifted the lid.

In heavy silence, the Three Great Nanglangs and the Divine Eight approached the coffin.

Inside the coffin, the Black Heavenly Demon Lord Gal Zhongtian lay asleep.

When they saw him, their eyes turned bloodshot and crimson. It was as if they were biting their lips until they bled, holding back what they wanted to say.

Burrrrr.

The elderly man was shivering from the sudden chill.

'This is…….'

Haesung shivered once more, looking at the white breath that escaped from his trembling mouth. It wasn't even the middle of winter, but he felt like he was freezing to death in a blast of snow from the north wind.

He wasn't the only one experiencing this behavior.

The other warriors in the center of the battlefield were also shivering up and down, exhaling white breath, the most severe of which was Ha Sung, his clothes and face frosted with white.

Through the bars of the coffin, Ha Sheng glanced at the third wife of the Three Great Nanglangs, the Binglian Zen Master Saran. Her expression was impassive as she gazed at the coffin, but this cold blizzard that seemed to blow from the depths of the North Sea was emanating from her.

In an instant, Haesung's vision went white and he was thrown out into a raging winter blizzard.

"Aaahhhhh! What, what?

He stood on a land of endless white snow. He was stranded on a land of snow, a land without end.

He was not the only one stranded on this land of snow and ice. Most of the warriors of the Great War were stranded here with him, and Ha Sung could see it by the astonishment and terror on their faces.

'This is an illusion…….'

But what is that flesh-and-bone freezing chill!

Bam!

At that moment, a giant crack began to form in the icy earth where he and the Black Heavenly Warriors stood. With a great crack, they fell through the crack, and beneath them was a superheated inferno of bubbling lava, flames that would burn their flesh and bones to black ash.

It was a hell of flames everywhere.

'water…….'

My throat was dry. My lungs felt like they were on fire. My throat felt like it was being consumed by fire. Here and there I could hear the screams of those tormented by the flames.

'Sa, help me……. Nothing……. Water……. float…… hot…….'

Ouch!

An unbearable scream erupted.

At that moment, the flames were extinguished from all sides.

Haesung stumbled backward a few steps, then dropped to the floor.

'Hello, this is…….'

After landing on his butt on the ground in disgrace, Ha-sung looked around and breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that he was still in the battlefield. However, his face looked a decade older than before.

The warriors standing around the battlefield were also bloodless and sweating profusely. Some of them were already dead, and it was impossible to tell if they were alive or dead.

'This can't be…….'

With eyes filled with fear, the Sheng Daoist Lord Ha Sheng looked back and forth between the Hong Ling Adept Dan Hye and the Bing Ling Adept Saran.

He and all the warriors in the battle had just been consumed by the vision.

'幻殺 …….'

A supreme martial artist who has attained the highest level of mastery can even injure people by unleashing an intangible energy, which is called a "will injury" in the Kangho.

The men who fainted at the gates of the Black Heavenly League earlier could be said to have been struck down by this intangible force. But the visions that Ha Sung and the other warriors of the Great War were experiencing now could not be explained by a simple intangible. It was something more.

"Phantom killer!

The power of the intangible is so great that the intangible has become a kind of illusion. Even though what you see is an illusion, it is still reality. Rather, it is the brain's equivalent of an illusion in the face of harsh reality. It was similar to the effect of seeing a lantern just before death.

That's why it's called phantom kills!

It meant kill with illusion.

Crackle!

What's all the noise at this tense moment?! Ha Sung, who was just about to get angry, had to swallow his breath as he realized that it was the sound of his teeth grinding against each other above and below.

But there was no need to be ashamed of it.

Crackle, crackle, crackle, crackle!

He wasn't the only one with a cold sweat dripping down his face; nearly all of the Black Heaven's warriors were grinding their teeth together in a collective chorus.

It was then.

Mu Hua, who was looking into the watery coffin, stretched out her white jade and slowly stroked Gal Zhong Tian's face.

There was no life in her at all. It was better to say that she was dead, not Galjungchun in the coffin. Ha Sung felt a chill run down his spine at the sight.

A lamenting voice escaped from Mu Hua's mouth.

"Wake up…… Wake up……."

I wonder if they're trying to shake a sleeping frog out of its slumber.

Her fingers moved downward, stopping near her heart.

It was the same place where Nie Bai Tian's beloved sword, the White Lightning, pierced his heart.

Ouch.

Her trembling fingers traced the underside of her pierced chest. Though wrapped in a shroud, she could feel it through her fingers. The irreversible mark left by the thunderbolt on her son's chest.

"Was this…… because of this……?"

Her voice began to tremble slightly.

"You mean to tell me that because of this terrible hole…… you'll never get up?"

Her voice cracked, and now her heart was breaking once more. The grief she'd been holding back was trying to reawaken, along with the aura of death.

The air has stopped.

Plants all over the battlefield suddenly started to dry up.

"Kool-Aid!"

"Curb!"

"Boom!"

Not only the younger warriors, who were breathless and nervous, but even the more experienced mid-level officers fell to their knees, vomiting blood.

Their bodies felt like they were being torn apart in a thousand different ways, and then they stopped bleeding for a moment and collapsed. The life was draining out of their bodies.

They did not come on horseback on this rushed road, for they all knew that their horses would fall to the ground, unable to overcome the uncontrolled intangibles.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

The elders who were still standing fell to their knees, pierced their foreheads to the ground, and cried out.

"Godfather, please kill us."

One person spoke, and the rest chimed in.

"Kill us!"

Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!

The elders shouted, their foreheads cracking and bleeding. The elders, their hair and beards balding, slammed their foreheads into the floor of the great hall. Then they called for punishment.

He asked for forgiveness for failing to protect his master.

"Kill us, but for God's sake turn away your wrath, Godfather!"

It was clear that the younger kids weren't going to last much longer.

"Please withdraw your wrath!"

The warriors of the great battle cried out in unison, but the living were not about to be cut down.

"Mother, please relent from your anger for a moment, or all the young men will die."

Gal Hyo-hye stepped forward and said. However, the truth was that even Gal Hyo-hye herself, who was now speaking, could not easily control her mind.

Dada dada dada dada.

At that moment, the sound of urgent footsteps was heard outside the gates of the palace, and a young woman in a white robe rushed in, breathing heavily from the urgency of her situation.

She was none other than Eunsulan.

Eunsulan's eyes were red and bloodshot from crying so much, and her white cheeks were streaked with tear stains.

When Eunuch Snow Lan saw her, she exclaimed in delight.

"Big Mama!"

Eunseulan rushed over and ran into Lady Gu Tian's arms.

At her sudden appearance, Gu Tianxuan, who had been about to fall into despair once again, regained her composure and wordlessly embraced Eunseulan.

"Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

In Gutian's arms, she let out the tears she'd been holding back. The Nine Heavens patted her on the back.

"Yes, cry, cry, cry. You're crying for me. No. No, no. Do not cry, child, for should a child who was once to be the ninth of the Shinmaga show tears so easily?"

True to her word, the Eight Elders could have become the Nine Elders. That would have been the case if Eunseulan had married her fiancé, Galhyo Fong.

But she lost her lover.

It's been a long time coming, and I'm just now getting over the pain.

One person was about to enter her heart that she thought no one would accept.

But then the tragedy struck again.

Gal Zhongtian, who was like a father to many, has been killed. At the hands of none other than the Spiritual Master Nabaxian!

She didn't want to believe it.

But I couldn't help but believe it.

If one of the two witnesses is a sword transcendent, a master of the Black Thousand and Ten, and the other is a magus, how can they express disbelief in his words?

Black and white will never again be compatible.

The entirety of the Black Heavenly League was seething with rage and hatred. It cried out for bloody vengeance.

Now she and Mo Yonghui are enemies.

At this very moment, she didn't realize that Mo Yonghui had come here as a rescue team to rescue Nabaxian, whom she regarded as the source of Iron Heaven.

Would you have made a different decision if you had known?

She couldn't forgive Nie Baiqian, no matter how much of a Spiritual Master he was, he had crossed a line that shouldn't be crossed. How dare he use such a dirty method to assassinate the Black Dao Sky. Even if he hadn't done that, she couldn't forgive him…….

"You have lost a father and a father-in-law, and I have lost both a son and a grandson, but we still have work to do. Incense must be offered, incense! I will never show tears until the work is done."

Eunsulan's feverish crying ceased.

The one person who wanted to cry more than anyone else was Gutian herself. But she didn't cry. Instead, her heart was filled with tears of blood. She was going to get what she deserved for making her heart cry.

"The price of this blood will surely be taken by my hand. I will surely do so……."

The Nine Heavenly Mistress's words were soft, but they had a terrifying life to them. Eunseulan shuddered at her will, hard and sharp as a blade of steel.

Eunsulan knew.

He is a man of his word.

That she has the power within her to make those words a reality.

"What should I do?

That night, after that nightmare night when Gal Hyo-fong suddenly went mad and rampaged. She ended up divorcing him, but Gal Zhong-tian still cared for her as if she were his own daughter. He made sure she didn't get too heartbroken. Without him, she wouldn't have been able to bear the grief and shock. For her, he was like another father figure. She would like to thank him for that. …….

Eunseulan's mind was made up.

"Big Mama, please let me come along!"

Looking up at Gu Tianxuan, Eunuch Snow Lan said in an eager voice.

"I, too, want to repay the enmity of my Lord, who has treated me like a daughter, as His daughter!"

Gu Tianxuan stared into the determined eyes of Eunuch Snow Lan for a moment, then nodded.

"Yes, you too, the child who once almost became the Lady of Shinmaga……. I suppose you deserve your revenge."

I looked at my sisters and daughters and they nodded in unison, as if they were on the same page. That was enough.

"Are you ready?"

Suddenly, a face flashed through Eunseulan's mind.

"I will forgive nothing. You could kill someone you knew, someone you loved. All the ties you've ever made with the White Sword may be severed, and so what?"

The face of a man became increasingly clear in her mind. The face of someone who always wore pristine white robes. But Eunseulan shook her head.

There was no reason for him to be here right now. He's not a member of the Spiritual Clan, and he's still a student at the Heavenly Martial Academy. He had no business being involved in this. But if you happen to run into him, you should know that…….

"It doesn't matter, Big Mama. I've already made up my mind."

After shaking her head as if to clear her face, Silver Snow Lan replied in a firm tone. She looked at the coffin, where the incense was still burning, and then spoke quietly.

"He won't be able to sleep at night without seeing the blood of his enemies, without smelling the burning of their bones and flesh. Good, follow me."

"Thank you, Big Mama!"

Eunseulan said with a deep sigh.

"Is what you said ready?"

Moo-hwa's question was answered as if Dan-hye had been waiting beside him.

"Yes, Big Sis, I made it just like you said."

When Muhua nodded, Danhye ordered.

"Raise the flag!"

"Yes, Mother."

Hearing Dan-hye's voice, her second daughter, Hyo-hong, raised a long flag. At the top of the long banner, which was as white as a crown, were the following words, written in sharp, sword-like script

Killer (殺生簿).

Underneath it was written "salza ji ji" (殺子之怨), a grudge for the murder of his son.

And then there was a long list of names below it. Most of the names on the list began with Mr. Na. At the top, of course, was the name Na Baekcheon.

"All those associated with the beasts on this list will not be spared! I will cut off the line of the Nasu family, every last one of them!"

Even if it wasn't a declaration of unilateralism on behalf of figs, the flag's meaning was clear.

They will not cease until every name written here is blotted out.

"Let's go."

She said to her daughters.

"Yes, Mother."

As she walked out of the Great Hall, she was followed by ten women in black robes and a woman in white robes made of raw white silk.

The hordes of people in front of the battle split off to the left and right, like an ocean splitting, creating a path.

"Black Heaven Immortal!"

"Shinma Kang Fu!"

"Hyeon-nyeo-jeol (玄女出世)!"

Regaining their senses, the warriors lined up on the right and left, saluting them in unison and sending them on their way with the utmost courtesy.

No one did anything great to block the path of the Three Great Nanglangs and the Divine Eight.

"Open the door!"

With a shout, the front gates of the Black Heavenly League swung open.

At last, the most terrifying women in Kang Ho have arrived, each with a fearsome Han within them.