Chapter 1600: It's Not Even Funny (Part 5)

The crimson eyes of the Blood Palace Leader glowed ominously.

However, unlike the initial momentum that seemed ready to rush forward at any moment, the gaze had become more cautious. The members of the Blood Palace, too, subdued the momentum they had raised and returned to a lifeless state.

"Uh, how...?"

Thanks to that, Hye Bang briefly regained the composure to ask them for an explanation.

"Don't worry about it."

Baek Cheon replied, keeping an eye on the Blood Palace Leader.

"It's natural for us to help each other in times of crisis. Moreover, didn't Shaolin already help us once?"

Upon Baek Cheon's words, Jo Gol and Yoon Jong behind him whispered.

"If the Bangjang were here, wouldn't it be different?"

"We would have come to help."

"Do you really think so?"

"But we would've been really tired and exhausted, so we probably couldn't make it right away. At least a half-day later..."

"Well, then it'd be all over."

Upon hearing Jo Gol mutter, "Everything probably burned down, like the old Mount Hua," Baek Cheon coughed awkwardly with an embarrassed expression.

Whenever they try to do something upfront...

Hye Bang, seemingly at a loss for words, suddenly opened his mouth again.

"So... did the Heavenly Comrade Alliance predict that they would target Shaolin?"

"..."

"...Dojang?"

Instead of answering, Baek Cheon subtly looked behind. Not at Hye Bang, but a bit further back, precisely around Yoon Jong's neck.

"Sahyung, he's falling."

"Hmm. It's more loose than I thought. Do we have more rope?"

Yoon Jong grabbed the falling Baek-Ah just before he hit the ground and put it on his neck again. Baek-Ah, lying limp with its mouth open, asleep like a corpse, didn't react at all even when squeezed tightly.

Baek-Ah usually never wrapped its arms around other people's necks other than Chung Myung's. But seeing it like this now, it seemed more than just exhausted.

Even when Jo Gol, who it usually ignored the most, poked it, there was no response... It really seemed like it was dead.

"...Maybe partly."

"What?"

Hye Bang asked back, but Baek Cheon just smirked.

While driving away the Su Lo Chae to prevent them from reaching the commoners, Baek-Ah ran over with tears streaming down its face. When it arrived, Baek Cheon was quite surprised.

"They told us to go to Shaolin."

Deeper questions appeared on Hye Bang's face.

"That's all there is."

The situation was serious, and yet, amidst the absurdity, Hye Bang seemed perplexed.

Anyway, summarizing this strange conversation, wasn't it just that they received a single letter from the spirit creature telling them to go to Shaolin and then led these people here like the wind?

All this without even speaking proper Chinese.

'Is that even possible?'

Right now, communication with Beopjeong wasn't properly established, and Shaolin was split in half in a way that couldn't be imagined in the current situation.

"D-Did Maengju-nim command this?"

Baek Cheon sighed deeply as if the ground had collapsed beneath him.

"Then there won't be a fire, right?" [not sure]

In response, Hye Bang naturally thought of someone's face.

'Mount Hua's Chivalrous Sword.'

In the end, he predicted this situation.

'How on earth?'

No one in the world knew. Even the Beggar's Union, which claimed to have swallowed up all the world's information, and even Shaolin, which was under attack, couldn't have predicted it until the last moment.

But how could Mount Hua's Chivalrous Sword know this fact? It wasn't as if he had eyes in the sky.

"Well..."

Just as Hye Bang, in confusion, was about to add something, Baek Cheon raised his hand slightly to stop him.

Of course, Baek Cheon fully understood Hye Bang's bewildered feelings. Even the people from Mount Hua, who had become accustomed to Chung Myung, often found him acting strangely, so it would be difficult for Hye Bang, who was practically experiencing this for the first time, to understand.

However.

"I understand that you have many questions, but now is not the appropriate time to discuss."

With Baek Cheon's curt attitude, Hye Bang also snapped to attention and fixed his gaze sharply on the intruder, the Blood Palace Leader.

Baek Cheon said.

"Detailed discussions... let's have them after dealing with these guys."

Hye Bang also nodded.

Even during the short conversation between the two, the Blood Palace Leader stared at Baek Cheon and his group without any noticeable reaction.

Finally, he spoke again.

"It seems like... not as many as I thought have come."

According to his assessment, the forces of Mount Hua and Namgung were not at their full strength. The few who arrived here were all there was. It was only a small fraction.

"Ah."

Baek Cheon smirked upon hearing that.

"I value efficiency. I only brought as many as I needed."

In reality, it was more like they couldn't gather everyone spread out in various places to deal with the remnants of the Su Lo Chae. However, there was no need to tell the enemy such things.

The Blood Palace Leader stared at Baek Cheon without saying a word.

Baek Cheon became to tense. Just as the Blood Sect Leader said, in fact, the number of people Baek Cheon led here was not that many. After a month of fighting and rushing here, he was exhausted.

If they clashed like this, even with Shaolin's help, it would be difficult to guarantee the outcome.

Even if they won... they would have to prepare for significant losses.

'If only my condition were a bit...'

Baek Cheon naturally suppressed the feeling of helplessness trying to rise. As he tried to gather himself, the Blood Palace Leader muttered.

"Shaolin, Mount Hua... and Namgung."

Red blood aura poured down abundantly.

"If we wipe out sins like this... Perhaps, we might achieve more than just a one-time crime of rebellion by the sect." [nope, no idea]

The sealed lips around the bandage were moist. Baek Cheon tightened his grip on the sword.

But at that moment.

"But this is different."

The Blood Palace Leader turned his body without leaving any traces of reluctance.

"I'm going back."

With a faint and chilling sound, all the Blood Palace members who had been in Shaolin immediately turned around.

"...Huh?"

Baek Cheon was bewildered by the absurd sight.

"What...?"

"Are you going to stop us?"

The Blood Palace Leader glanced briefly at Baek Cheon and asked.

"..."

Baek Cheon's answer was naturally 'no.' It was better not to fight them now. As time passed, more reinforces would join, making fighting the enemy much more advantageous.

"...Clean."

The Blood Palace Leader let out a sardonic smile.

"If the conditions change, renegotiating the contract is fundamental. We can just escape. We're used to having a bad reputation anyway."

The Blood Palace Leader seemed about to turn away.

Baek Cheon called him in a chilling voice.

"However."

"...Hmm?"

"If you're going to retreat, it's better to do so gracefully. If you lay a hand on the civilians, I'll chase you to the ends of hell and cut your throat."

The Blood Palace Leader stared at Baek Cheon with emotionless eyes. A deep silence settled between them.

"I'll remember that."

The Blood Palace Leader abruptly spoke and turned away.

"Baek Cheon, was it? See you next time, young swordsman of Mount Hua. If you're still alive by then."

The Blood Palace Leader left through Shaolin's northern gate, and the Blood Palace members followed him like living corpses.

A belated cold sweat trickled down Baek Cheon's forehead.

'Blood Palace...'

Despite his youth, Baek Cheon's experience was by no means lacking. However, these Blood Palace individuals, especially the Blood Palace Leader, felt different from the Evil Sects he had faced so far.

'It's different from the Demonic Cult too... I don't know how to describe this feeling.'

If the Demonic Cult's fanaticism towards their cult annoyed him, these individuals were cold and eerie in a different way.

"Do we just let them go, Sasuk?"

"Yeah."

Baek Cheon nodded heavily and added.

"For now."

"We've come this far?"

Jo Gol tilted his head with a slightly strange expression. In response, Yoon Jong nudged him.

"We're here to protect, Gol-ah. If we can avoid a fight and protect, that's good."

"Of course, I understand, but..."

Jo Gol stared at the Blood Palace members leaving Shaolin with a somewhat resentful face.

"...I don't want to face them in a different situation. It feels like it would be worse then."

This time, Yoon Jong kept silent. He sympathized with Jo Gol's sentiment.

Even a brief encounter like this brought an indescribable discomfort. It wasn't just because of their appearance; it was the aura they exuded.

'An Evil Cult...'

Yoon Jong's heart sank heavily.

Thud. Thud.

The Blood Palace Leader, slowly descending the stairs, turned his head to look up at Shaolin.

"...Leader. Ryeonju of the Evil Tyrant Alliance won't just let this go."

"Probably..."

Jang Ilso. He was an unpredictable man, but it wasn't hard to guess what he wanted. For him, the conflict between the Blood Palace and Shaolin here would be the best.

"But that's it. For now, he can't be openly hostile to us."

"Do you trust him?"

The Blood Palace Leader's eyes became even colder.

"Trust doesn't go well with a faithless Central Plains person."

With that, he resumed his steps downward.

Although they wasted time to get from Zhangjiajie to here... Anyway, they didn't do any harm to themselves or the Evil Tyrant Alliance.

Because, in the first place, they were...

❀ ❀ ❀

"No?"

At the perplexed question, Chung Myung bit his lips.

"What, what are you talking about, Chung Myung? Are they not targeting Shaolin?"

Chung Myung's gaze turned toward the desolate battlefield.

Yoo Iseol's words were accurate. The damage caused by the enemies was more significant than expected.

Bait? Defeat?

Even with scattered corpses, it was possible to deduce the stratagem Jang Ilso had employed here. However, that alone didn't explain everything.

Even if it were Jang Ilso, would the Myriad Man Manor or the Black Ghost Castle warriors willingly offer their necks to complete the strategy?

In other words.

"From the beginning, not all the forces gathered here were the full strength of the Myriad Man Manor."

"...What?"

It wasn't difficult to understand.

They had been camped in Zhangjiajie, beyond the reach of the eyes of the Beggar's Union for a long time. Yes, longer than necessary.

Taking out a large force at once would be noticeable. However, secretively taking out troops little by little over time was not that difficult.

Especially considering the mobility of martial forces.

"Why would they voluntarily take such a risk?"

"...That's not it. Sect Leader... Great Sect Leader."

"Hmm?"

"The important thing is not why they withdrew their troops but where the withdrawn troops are heading."

Tang Gunak immediately understood the meaning of Chung Myung's words, clenching his fist tightly.

'Anyway, the forces that could be withdrawn behind were probably not beyond fifty percent.'

Then, they would have focused on elite forces. What could a small number of elite units that were withdrawn do?

Let's think about it.

If Jang Ilso predicted everything from the beginning to the end of what would happen here? If there were remaining forces after executing that plan, where would he have sent them?

"Mount Hua..."

Bang!

Chung Myung slammed the ground.

"Chung Myung! Chung Myung!"

Hyun Jong called desperately, but the latter began to dash north without a word.

'No!'

Chung Myung's lips were forcibly bitten until blood appeared.

From far behind, the sound of Tang Gunak crying out that he had to go to Hwaeum reached him.

'Please!'

A beam of light, Chung Myung's body, tore through the world.

The land he left behind, toward Mount Hua.