Return of The Mount Hua – Chapter 1680. Just Believe (4)
Editor: Hoamz
Co-Translator: Xoxo
Jo-Gol clenched his teeth.
The sight of the burning Mount Wudang entered his eyes. It was a terrible sight, but nevertheless, Jo-Gol’s eyes did not miss the fact that the flames had not yet encroached upon the very peak of Wudang.
“Sasuk! Up there!”
“I know!”
Baek Cheon shouted back without reducing his running speed.
“No, the front! Acting Sect Leader! The front is the priority!"
"Hm?"
Baek Cheon lowers his gaze at Hye Yeon's urgent voice.
Then a scene entered his eyes as if the mountain below was churning.
‘What?’
No, no! That wasn’t it. The idea of a mountain moving was absurd. What he was seeing was not the mountain shaking, but the massed forces of Evil Tyrant Alliance deployed thickly below the mountain turning their direction toward them.
Even Baek Cheon, who now had no shortage to call himself having gone through all trials and tribulations, felt momentarily dizzy at that sight.
"What should we do?"
At Yoon Jong's voice, Baek Cheon turns his head back.
No matter that he was acting sect leader of Mount Hua, his position was only that of a vice hall leader. If the hall leaders step forward now...
However, what Baek Cheon faced when he turned his head wasn't his hall leader but Jin Geumryong's irritating face that had already taken position behind him.
"What."
"Huh?"
Jin Geumryong gives a short snort.
"What are you doing, looking back now of all times? After doing as you pleased all along."
"N- No!"
"Why, are you scared now that you see them? Coward?"
Baek Cheon's face suddenly distorted mercilessly.
"What dog bark..."
“If not, keep your head forward and give order!”
Jin Geumryong jerked his chin toward the front, as if telling him not to even think about looking back.
"The one to give orders right now is you."
At that moment, Jin Geumryong raised his sword and thrust it slightly forward as if showing it to Baek Cheon.
“I will watch closely to see if you bastard behaves like a human being.”
“...”
"What are you doing?"
"Ugh..."
Baek Cheon glared at Jin Geumryong as if he wanted to kill him, then sharply snapped his head forward with a face boiling with anger.
'Anyway!'
That personality.
The only person in the world who could say, ‘Whatever order you give, I’ll support it with everything I have,’ in such an infuriating way was Jin Geumryong.
Chung Myung makes people angry in a different meaning from that bastard. Wouldn't they be almost neck and neck when it comes to being annoying?
But still.
“Sasuk! What do we...”
"What 'what we do'?! This guy!"
Paat!
Baek Cheon's sword was drawn like lightning.
“Yoon Jong! Jo-Gol!”
"Yes!"
“Strike the enemy's left and right! Disperse them!”
“Yes!”
Yoon Jong and Jo-Gol needed no further explanation.
"I'll pierce the center! Namgung Dowi! Hye Yeon! Help!"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
No sooner had those words ended than Heavenly Comrade Alliance's forces, which had been running like a single mass, split into three branches.
People who had never practiced coordination moved like an army that had trained together for decades.
"There's no turning back! We break through at once!"
"Yes!"
"Everyone!"
Baek Cheon raised his sword ahead and shouted.
“Crush the Evil Sects rabble!”
"Let's goooo!"
Paaaaat!
No sooner had those words ended than two figures brushed past Baek Cheon and charged forward.
“Huh?”
"Hm?"
Jin Geumryong and Yoo Iseol.
The two who had leapt out at just the right moment exchanged a brief look at each other with hardened expressions. But that was only for a moment.
Paat!
Without anyone going first, the two kicked off the ground and swiftly surged toward those coming to face them.
"Get lost! Woman."
“You're in the way.”
The sword tips of those who charged like wind pierced in one breath through those who didn't know what to do.
Kwadeuk! Kwadeudeuk!
"A- Aaaaaargh!"
Jin Geumryong and Yoo Iseol, having poked wind holes in over ten bodies in a single breath, glanced at each other again and hardened their expressions.
“I told you to get lost!”
“I said you're in the way?”
Paat!
The two plunged into the enemy lines. Even before those pierced by their swords could fall.
“B- Block them!”
“A-mi-ta-bha!”
“Haaaaaaaaaap!”
The moment they tried to react to that speed, a Buddhist chant grand beyond compare and a tremendous shout reached their ears.
A golden Buddhist light and a massive white sword energy descended upon Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists who were trying to subdue the infiltrators.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
A storm of fearsome internal strength swept through.
Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists struck by fists and sword energy were flung in all directions, like foam thrown up by waves crashing against a cliff.
"Wh- What the hell?"
Battle was something all too familiar to Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists.
But even for such people, the power of martial arts unleashed with full strength by Shaolin's greatest talent and Namgung's sogaju was nothing but shocking.
Being highly skilled and possessing great destructive power were never the same thing. There may be few in the world who could defeat these two, but those capable of unleashing such power with a single technique could be counted on one hand.
That feast of power was swallowed whole by those facing them.
"These monsters!"
But they were not given much time to grasp that power.
“Pierce through!”
Before they knew it, Yoon Jong and Jo-Gol, leading their respective halls and splitting to the left and right, were aiming for them like the fangs of a beast piercing from above and below.
Crush the center, cut off the left and right.
That thorough coordinated attack was happening naturally without even a few words of discussion.
"...N- No! I said don't charge too far ahead! Samae! Jin Geumryong!"
Baek Cheon shouted as if through gritted teeth.
"Follow! Don't let them be isolated!"
"Yes!"
As if drawn along by one another, Baek Cheon's force in charge of the center charged at fearsome speed.
“...Hmm.”
Southern Edge Sect's Sect Leader Jong Nigok, who had been watching that scene, hardened his complexion.
'Is this possible?'
Putting aside the power, he had merely given a few words of commands. Yet those who had never fought together even once were moving as if it were familiar work.
Jong Nigok knew. How difficult it is to move such a large force according to one's own will. Yet that seemingly impossible feat was unfolding right before his eyes.
"How in the world..."
"Because it's simple."
"Hm?"
Jong Nigok turned his head.
There stood Im Sobyeong, soaking wet all over his body while panting heavily.
“...Did you fall into the water somewhere?”
“Because it’s simple.”
Im Sobyeong, who completely ignored the words, continued his explanation between gasps.
"No need to think complicatedly. The only order given to them is to move following Vice Hall Leader ahead."
"...Follow along?"
"Then things like systems and such are unnecessary. That might matter when holding a line or facing off, but an attack always begins from a single point.”
Jong Nigok nodded.
'Certainly...'
There was no end to the depths of military strategy, but the framework clearly exists. It was even clearer in terms of offense.
"One main attack (주공(主攻)) and four supporting attacks (조공(助攻))."
“...”
"In any military strategy, attack branches never exceed five. In other words, if you can maneuver just those five, you can attempt every possible attack. As a sect leader, you must know what that means, right?”
A hollow laugh escaped Jong Nigok's lips.
“That sounds like nonsense.”
"Yes. Well, it's not a proper method. However..."
Im Sobyeong pointed ahead with his chin.
“It works?”
“...”
Even Jong Nigok couldn't refute this.
Anyway, there's no way to create complex tactics and systems at this point. No, even if ten years passed, there’s no guarantee it would function properly. But there’s a simple method.”
"...Think of them not as five forces but as five people?"
"Yes. And make them do what they're good at."
Jong Nigok looked forward again.
One breaks through, two assist. And the other two scatter to the enemy's left and right to induce confusion.
"...Five Elements (오행(五行))?"
“Correct.”
That was the most basic of basics of the Five Elements formation. A formation anyone raised in a martial family would have practiced countless times. The only difference was that what originally one person performed, now one hall performs.
"That’s..."
Jong Nigok understood.
With this approach, there was no real need for a chain of command. The ones leading each hall now were people who could understand each other with just a glance. They were people who had broken through countless battlefields shoulder to shoulder.
"So that's why they made the vice hall leaders the center?"
“Well, only the General would know that.”
"Hah..."
Jong Nigok let out another empty laugh.
“Reckless beyond comparison. This is a half-baked strategy that works because we are the ones launching the offensive..."
At that moment, Jong Nigok flinched.
The moment he was about to finish his sentence, something someone had said flashed through his mind.
- Now it's our turn to attack.
“...Attack...?”
Not 'will attack,' but must attack. No, have no choice but to attack.
'Since when?'
Wasn’t the intention merely to mix the sects together and suppress each sect’s greed?
"...Ho."
Jong Nigok shook his head.
He cannot keep up. No, he doesn't even dare to try to keep up.
“This isn’t the time to admire things, Sect Leader. This is when you need to put in some effort.”
“…Aren’t our positions roughly the same?”
"I'm a civil official though?"
“...”
Jong Nigok sighed silently and moved forward.
He didn't intend to stand by with his hands behind his back anyway. That would really make him feel like a useless person.
“I don't know about brains, but my sword isn't behind yet."
Jong Nigok's sword emitted a clear sword cry as if to prove that fact.
"Strategist!"
Ho Gamyeong, standing below blood-stained White Face Rock, looks down the mountain. By now, he too could clearly see the forces of Heavenly Comrade Alliance that had broken through here and crushing Evil Tyrant Alliance martial artists gathered below.
"H- How did they already get here!"
“...”
"Strategist! W- We must hurriedly devise countermeasures!"
"No need to make a fuss. I knew they would come."
"Huh?"
Ho Gamyeong's eyes sank low.
Heavenly Comrade Alliance was visible, but Ryeonju-nim was nowhere to be seen. That means Ryeonju-nim has succeeded in his plan. Which also means Chung Myung is not among them.
But Ho Gamyeong checked their forces thoroughly as if examining them one by one again and again. The moment he became certain that Chung Myung truly was not there, Ho Gamyeong’s head gave a slight nod.
“He’s not here.”
“…Strategist?”
"Then it's merely a ragtag.”
Ho Gamyeong spoke coldly.
“Tell them not to face them head-on, but to fight appropriately while retreating.”
"However, Strategist, their momentum..."
The adjutant who tried to object flinched at Ho Gamyeong's cold gaze and deeply bowed his head.
“As your command.”
“Lure them into this mountain.”
Ho Gamyeong's eyes sank deeper and deeper.
‘An opportunity like this does not come again easily.’
Ho Gamyeong's gaze briefly turns towards White Face Rock.
‘If there’s bait they can’t help but bite… then it should be used.’
All that remained now was to reel in the big fish.
Ho Gamyeong's gaze passed beyond the battlefield where fierce battle was occurring, toward that deep darkness.
"You'll regret not coming. Plum Blossom Sword Demon."
Ho Gamyeong clenched his fist tightly.
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