Chapter 178. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (24)

Chapter 178. Even If I Have to Paint Myself with Lacquer or Swallow Charcoal (24)

Demonic Horses collided with each other and tripped over the fallen bodies, toppling over, and the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron members riding them were naturally flung into the distance. The sheer momentum drove them into the ground, breaking their necks.

Seven of the squadron members ended up dying like this, and the only reason there were so few casualties was that they were all masterful riders.

As the injured squadron members stood up and freed themselves from the Demonic Horses, a bloody shadow flickered between them.

“It’s that bastard!”

“He’s trying to run past us, stop him!”

Although Woo-Moon was a Paragon, he was still unable to use any qi because of the Qi Dispersion Poison.

Even the weakest of the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron members had reached the Peak Stage, while their stronger members were all Transcendents. Considering how strong the squadron was, they all knew exactly how much ridicule they would be under if they were to allow Woo-Moon to disappear, let alone after getting embarrassed to such a degree.

There was venom in the eyes of the squadron members.

However, unfortunately, venomous glares couldn’t do much to poison people. And while they were pulling themselves together and trying to get back into formation, Woo-Moon fled.

“You’re not allowed to escape!”

The Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron leader, who had been quietly watching Woo-Moon move, suddenly swung his great saber with all of his energy. However, instead of trying to be quick, he simply focused on producing the most massive amount of saber force he could muster.

The other squadron members were confused, wondering why the captain had made that decision.

Woo-Moon was running away as fast as he could—too fast, in fact, for the captain’s strike to reach him under normal circumstances. So why had the captain given up on speed and chosen to put all his energy into sheer power?

The riders had no idea what the captain was thinking; Woo-Moon, on the other hand, sensed that things were not going well for him.

‘Pretty impressive!’

Woo-Moon had been dodging all of the attacks coming his way so far by using only speed and accurate judgment of timing, letting them pass by without using any strength.

He was more than confident in a competition of speed when it came to quick attacks. However, if his opponent were to choose strength like the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron Captain had...

Woo-Moon’s fleeting figure actually stumbled! He was caught in the powerful wind pressure of the great saber!

Since his qi reserves were running dangerously low and his stamina was gradually reaching its limits as well, he wasn’t even able to withstand the wind pressure, let alone the power of the blow itself.

‘As I expected!’

Internally screaming with joy, the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron Captain quickly changed the direction of his great saber and swung again.

WOOSH!

A large gash opened up on Woo-Moon’s back, and he was thrown forward, rolling on the ground.

Barely managing to stop by dragging his legs onto the ground, Woo-Moon vomited blood profusely.

His legs were shaking.

His consciousness was fading.

This was his own plan. He had started this guerilla warfare in order to make use of his personal strength to minimize casualties among those who were to follow him into the war. Yet because he had let his guard down, he had been hit by that vicious Qi Dispersion Poison and driven to the brink of death.

He was both dumbfounded and angry with himself.

‘I’m a fucking idiot.’

He couldn’t die here.

He had to take revenge.

He especially couldn’t let himself be killed by Martial Heaven.

Never!

Woo-Moon tried not to give up hope. However, there was no longer a way out for him in this current situation.

Things might have been different if he had called Eun-Ah earlier, but it was too late to do that now. She was too far away to be of any help, as he had left her at the base to guard Yu Yu.

By this point, all of the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron members had dismounted and were surrounding Woo-Moon.

“It’s the end for you, you rat bastard.”

“I’ll boil you in piss and feed you to the pigs!”

A Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron member walked up to Woo-Moon, who no longer had the strength to move, and swung his guandao in an attempt to cut off Woo-Moon’s legs.

There was no way for Woo-Moon to avoid it.

However, the moment Woo-Moon gave up all hope, he heard the voice of a girl.

A voice he had been longing for.

“Idiot.”

A single word rang through the air as a dazzlingly beautiful girl in a gorgeous dress appeared in front of him, so quickly it seemed like a mirage.

Right as she appeared, the squadron member who tried to cut off Woo-Moon’s legs with a guan dao fell to the left and right simultaneously. He had been cut in half before he even noticed.

Then, her hands flickered as two Silver Moon Discs split the air.

Woosh! Squelch!

The transparent discs moved in an arc. Their trajectory was invisible for a moment, but then it was marked by a long trail of blood.

“I’m just back where I belong. There is nothing to be thankful for.”

Her words were so pretty and lovely that Woo-Moon couldn't control himself and kissed Ma-Ra's lips.

"Mmm!"

Ma-Ra's eyes widened as her face turned red.

Her expression was incredibly cute, an expression Woo-Moon had never seen before. In fact, it was so cute that Woo-Moon kept kissing her over and over.

“Mmmphhh stop!”

Ma-Ra pushed Woo-Moon hard.

“Ughhh, cough!”

Woo-Moon groaned in pain. “T-that hurts, you know! I’m injured!”

“Hmph! You deserve it.”

Woo-Moon clicked his tongue as Ma-Ra drove a verbal stake through his heart.

“Ma-Ra, we don’t have any time. Take me to this place.”

“Okay.”

The moment they got up, they could see people running toward them. They were the Murderous Wind Battalion, a group ranked even higher within the Cruel Sandstorm Riders than the Heaven-Defying Demon Squadron.

The one at the forefront of the charge was the person who had attacked Woo-Moon alongside the Great Evil Palace Master—the Murderous Wind Battalion leader, Gam Ak.

Seeing them, Ma-Ra immediately threw out dozens of hidden weapons she was holding within her sleeves.

The hidden weapons flew toward the Murderous Wind Battalion like a hurricane. Several cloth pouches thrown along with the weapons exploded mid-air, scattering poison powder everywhere.

After she had unified the assassin organizations, Ma-Ra had gotten her hands on a large variety of weapons.

Although her actions were enough to stop most of the battalion, it wasn’t enough for her to stop the leader, Gam Ak, from using his movement art.

Realizing this, Ma-Ra understood that she had to resort to more drastic measures. She drew one of her remaining Silver Moon Discs and threw it as hard as she could.

Swish!

Right as the Silver Moon Disc left her hand, she grabbed onto Woo-Moon and quickly darted away into the woods.

“You try to stop me with a mere hidden weapon?!” Gam Ak shouted, splitting the Silver Moon Disc in half with a single strike.

However, the moment the Silver Moon Disc split in half, a small mechanical device attached to its bottom exploded, shooting out some black metallic bits.

It was modeled after the Tang Family’s Lotus Drop and was made by one of the assassin sects skilled in hidden weapons, under Ma-Ra’s orders.

Its explosive power was so strong that even a single fragment had the power to pierce through an Absolute Master’s defensive qi.

Gam Ak could sense its power and was startled, swinging his sword with all his might to try to deflect it.

“I almost died there. Just who the hell is that bitch?”

And then, it clicked.

“Fuck, that was Death God Ma-Ra! And that bastard has to be Song Woo-Moon! There’s no other explanation as to why she’d appear now. So he wasn’t dead!”

Then, he became even more convinced that he had to chase after and kill Woo-Moon.

If he were able to, he would be achieving a great deed for Martial Heaven.

“Hurry! Follow them!”

***

As an assassin, Ma-Ra’s lightness art was far ahead of anyone else’s, so her speed was far greater than Gam Ak’s even as she carried Woo-Moon. Obviously, lower-level people could not remotely catch up.

Thanks to this, Woo-Moon and Ma-Ra were able to steadily increase the distance between them and the Murderous Wind Battalion.

As they continued on their way through the woods, Ma-Ra suddenly stopped. In front of her, there was a patch of ground that was particularly dark, as if someone had dug the ground recently.

“What’s wrong? We have to move quickly,” said Woo-Moon.

“Something is strange.”

Ma-Ra kicked at the ground with her foot, causing the shallow layer of dirt to rise into the air and reveal a tragic scene underneath.

“This is! Wait... there’s no way... Sect Master!”

Coincidentally, they had come across the place where Na Ban and his companions had been massacred by the Great Darkness Palace Master!

A single glance was all it took to see how gruesomely they had been slaughtered. Woo-Moon could clearly see what had happened to the head of one of the young men lying there, and the sight of Na Ban and his disciples, turned into withered mummies by some kind of heretical technique, was painfully seared into his brain.

He gritted his teeth so hard that he heard a crack.

“Which...which bastard dared to do this....”

How could he not feel grief?

The very reason he had been attacking the Cruel Sandstorm Riders and almost ended up dying in the process was precisely in order to avoid casualties among his own allies.

And yet...