Chapter 55 : The Absolute Cavalry

Chapter 55: The Absolute Cavalry

“Where is the location?”

“It’s a small village west of Xinping County in Yunnan. If you’re planning to go, I’ll contact the branch office in Xinping in advance.”

“Please do that. Right now... hmm.”

“Great Hero Jang?”

Yang Rim tensed up at the sudden halt in Jang Woo-hyun’s words.

“Is there something that displeases you?”

Even when spoken to, Jang Woo-hyun didn’t respond.

‘What is this?’

After eliminating the monster at the Demon Extermination Sect, Jang Woo-hyun had returned to the capital of Sichuan Province.

Upon arriving, he immediately sought out Yang Rim of the Hao Sect, but ever since entering the capital, something had been bothering him.

Whisper, whisper.

It felt like someone was constantly talking to him. It had just happened again a moment ago—a faint sound, as if someone were whispering in his ear.

Even when he heightened his senses and focused, he couldn’t make out what was being said.

“One moment.”

Jang Woo-hyun asked for a brief moment and reached out his hand.

Qi burst from his hand toward the ceiling, tearing it apart and dragging out a masked man who had been hiding inside.

Yang Rim and the Hao Sect warrior, suddenly pulled out, were left stunned by the unbelievable skill displayed.

“G-Great Hero Jang! This is a misunderstanding! He’s not here to attack but to protect me! He’s one of my guards!”

Yang Rim quickly explained, afraid that a misunderstanding might lead to a disaster.

Jang Woo-hyun already knew. He was aware the hidden man wasn’t targeting him. He had only wanted to confirm one thing.

He turned to the masked man he had pulled out and asked,

“By any chance, were you sending secret messages?”

The masked man quickly shook his head. He knew he couldn’t make any move against this overwhelmingly strong man.

“You didn’t say anything up there either, right?”

Again, a shake of the head.

Common sense said a hidden person wouldn’t be talking, but he asked just in case.

“Right?”

Having confirmed what he wanted to know, Jang Woo-hyun once again manipulated his Qi and returned the masked man to the ceiling.

Stunned by the abnormal level of skill, Yang Rim and the masked man could only stare in blank astonishment.

“I’ll be heading to that village soon, so please make the arrangements in advance. Where should I go exactly?”

“Stop by the Jihwa Inn in Xinping County. I’ll have everything ready for you.”

At Yang Rim’s words, Jang Woo-hyun nodded and stood up.

“Then I’ll see you again sometime.”

“Wait, but…”

“Do you have something else to say?”

“You can’t go too fast. We need time to send word…”

“Ah, yes, I understand. I’ll take my time. If there’s nothing else, I’ll be going now.”

With those words, Jang Woo-hyun left the pavilion where Yang Rim was staying.

Outside, just like when he had searched for Woo Jeong-hak, Jang Woo-hyun expanded his sensing range, hoping to find something.

But there was nothing in particular that stood out.

He walked for a while. Had it been about a quarter of an hour? Again, a whispering sound reached his ears briefly. Focusing on the sound, he adjusted his direction.

Another quarter of an hour passed, and another faint sound was heard. Again, he adjusted his direction.

After several cycles of walking and stopping, he arrived at the Sichuan Tang Clan.

“Great Hero Jang?”

The gatekeeper warrior recognized him.

“Great Hero Jang! You’ve returned already?”

“Oh? Uh... well…”

It hadn’t been long since he left, so Jang Woo-hyun felt a bit embarrassed. However, the Tang Clan’s gatekeeper seemed genuinely pleased and immediately sent someone to inform the inside.

“That’s not necessary, really…”

“What brings you here? Are you here to see the Clan Leader? The message has already been sent, so you’ll get a response shortly.”

Momentarily flustered by the warm welcome, Jang Woo-hyun once again heard the whispering sound and moved.

“May I go inside?”

“Eh? Yes, of course. Do you have business here?”

“Well…”

It was hard to explain, so he mumbled vaguely.

He couldn’t exactly say, ‘Someone keeps whispering to me, and it sounds like it’s coming from this direction.’

That would just make him look crazy.

He simply smiled faintly and stepped into the Tang Clan’s inner grounds.

Whisper, whisper.

A moment later, the mysterious sound was heard again.

‘So it really is here.’

It was definitely the Tang Clan. He didn’t know the exact location, but the sound had grown slightly louder, meaning he had gotten closer.

Following the sound, he continued deeper into one part of the Tang Clan.

“Has he already returned?”

Perhaps they had already heard the news, as Tang Moon-seong came running toward Jang Woo-hyun with his household members in tow.

“What brings you back? Did you return because you needed help?”

“No. I’ve taken care of what I went to do.”

“Taken care of? What do you mean by that?”

In response to Tang Moon-seong’s question, Jang Woo-hyun raised a hand and made a slashing motion across his neck. The Tang Clan members, recognizing the gesture, all widened their eyes in shock.

He had faced off against members of the Demon Cult alone, returned unscathed, and claimed to have taken care of them. Naturally, they were astonished.

“Who from the Demon Cult did you face…?”

“Clan Leader.”

“Yes? What is it?”

“What’s in this direction?”

“This way? If you go that way and turn left, it’s where the clan’s blacksmiths work. If you turn right, it’s where we enshrine our ancestors’ spirit tablets.”

“Spirit tablets… you mean the plaques inscribed with the names of the deceased?”

“That’s correct.”

‘Then could it be a ghost?’

This direction was definitely the source. If the whispering sound came from the place where the spirit tablets were kept, it was possible that he—someone whose Upper Dantian had been opened—could hear things that others couldn’t. Things like spirits or ghosts.

‘I really can’t figure this out.’

“What’s this all about?”

“Well… I’m not exactly sure myself. But something keeps trying to speak to me.”

“Trying to speak to you?”

“Yes. I followed the sound as best I could, and that’s how I ended up here at the Tang Clan.”

At the renewed sound, Jang Woo-hyun turned his head mid-conversation with Tang Moon-seong.

“Excuse me. Let’s talk again later.”

Jang Woo-hyun began moving toward the direction the sound had come from.

Seeing the serious expression on his face, Tang Moon-seong didn’t ask further and followed with his household members.

Jang Woo-hyun, who had paused and moved several more times, fortunately headed toward the blacksmiths' workshop instead of the ancestral spirit tablets.

The place resounded constantly with the clanging of iron being struck.

It was the domain of the Tang Clan’s artisans, known as the Single Pulse of the Divine Sword.

“Clan Leader? Great Hero Jang?”

One of the blacksmiths working there—Tang Un-jang—was surprised to see the Clan Leader and the Tang Clan’s upper leadership approaching with Jang Woo-hyun at the lead.

It was a strange sight.

An outsider was at the front, with the Clan Leader and the inner circle of the Tang Clan following behind.

“Great Hero Jang, what brings you—”

Seeing the Clan Leader raise a finger to his lips, Tang Un-jang stopped mid-sentence.

Jang Woo-hyun continued to glance around, stopping and walking again, repeating the process. It was as if he were under some kind of spell.

Watching him closely, Tang Un-jang quietly approached Tang Moon-seong.

“Clan Leader, what is happening here?”

“I don’t know either. Great Hero Jang seems to be looking for something... and it appears to be nearby.”

Even the artisans of the Single Pulse of the Divine Sword who weren’t engaged in urgent work had come out to watch. Before long, the number of people following Jang Woo-hyun surpassed twenty.

Unconcerned with the growing crowd, Jang Woo-hyun continued his cycle of stopping and walking, heading toward a specific place.

“If he goes this way…”

“That’s the Pool of Broken Swords.”

Pool of Broken Swords.

An artificial pond located within the Tang Clan.

It was the place where failed hidden weapons or broken arms were discarded.

Passing the blacksmiths' workshop and then a warehouse where metals and materials were stored, they arrived at the Pool of Broken Swords that Tang Un-jang had mentioned.

An artificial pond.

All around it were scattered broken or rusted weapons.

Economically, it would have made more sense to melt the iron down and forge new weapons, but for some reason, the Tang Clan’s artisans didn’t do so.

At the center of the pond stood a large stone pillar, upon which a dragon’s figure was carved.

Staring at the dragon, Jang Woo-hyun opened his mouth.

“Is it you?”

Everyone who had followed him turned to look. He had just spoken aloud, seemingly to no one, like a madman.

“Why did you call me? And what the hell are you?”

As he approached the pond, the voice finally became clear.

A childlike voice.

It sounded familiar—he remembered hearing it when he had previously confronted Tang Clan Leader Tang Myung’s Ten Thousand Heavens Transformed into Rain technique.

– It’s not enough.

The voice that had once claimed it wasn’t enough—this was it.

“Why did you call me? And what are you?”

Jang Woo-hyun spoke to the stone pillar that had been speaking to him.

“What do you mean, ‘okay’?”

Crack, cr-crack. Creak. Snap.

The moment Jang Woo-hyun asked, a crack appeared in the stone pillar.

The dragon carved into it split open, pieces of stone dropping into the pond.

“What in the world…?”

“What is happening…?”

Even the Tang Clan members had never seen such a thing. How many could say they’d seen a stone pillar destroy itself?

When the cracked pieces completely fell away, what was revealed inside was a dragon made of metal.

Like shedding its skin, the metal dragon had emerged from the stone.

“You want me to draw my sword?”

Unlike the shocked onlookers, Jang Woo-hyun spoke quietly to himself and drew Flying Swallow Sword.

He raised the sword and pointed it at the pillar—but nothing happened.

“Not this one? How picky.”

Muttering again, he sheathed Flying Swallow Sword.

Then he drew the broken Black Wilds Sword.

As the broken sword’s tip pointed at the pillar—

Click! Clack! Clatter.

Sounds came from the metal dragon, and its scales began to shift.

Flutter.

Hundreds of scales flew toward the broken Black Wilds Sword that Jang Woo-hyun held.

Click. Clack. Snap. Clink clink!

One by one... ten, twenty... a hundred...

The dragon’s scales layered themselves onto the broken Black Wilds Sword, forming a new shape.

A sword.

Hundreds of scales overlapped to create a single weapon.

Everyone who had followed Jang Woo-hyun fixed their eyes on the sword.

A weapon that was both a hidden weapon and a sword.

If one were a member of the Tang Clan’s Single Pulse of the Divine Sword, or any of their warriors, they would have heard of it.

The Tang Clan’s unique secret weapon, once wielded by Tang Myung, Hidden Sky Divine Sword.

“The Absolute Cavalry Weapon... Dragon King’s Scales Sword…”

The name came quietly from Tang Un-jang’s lips.

At the same time, near Tianshan in Xinjiang—

An elderly man with an otherworldly appearance stood facing three individuals.

A young man with a large scar across his face, a middle-aged man with broad shoulders and a muscular body, and a skinny old man with closely cropped hair.

In the Martial World, these were unmatched powerhouses. The elder was attempting to stop their advance.

“Elder Heo, are you intending to break the pact?”

“The pact?”

The young man, seemingly the leader of the three, let out a scoff.

“The current Cult Leader and the Demon Cult’s elite three hundred were wiped out. And you're talking about a pact in this situation?”

“It's unfortunate, but we are beings who must not interfere with the human world. We…”

“One person.”

“What do you…”

“It was just one person who did it. The Cult Leader and the elite three hundred—taken down by one person.”

“Do you think that’s something a normal human can do?”

The young man laughed in disbelief.

“We didn’t move first. Judging by what I saw from the corpse sorcerer, this isn’t the work of Inner Kunlun. So it’s obvious, isn’t it? Either someone raised by Eun Ja-rim, or the remnants of Blood Valley who we thought were gone have created something new again.”

“We’re still not sure. There’s no definitive proof that it was them…”

“Don’t talk to me about proof. I said it was just one person! And it didn’t even take long. That thing’s not human anymore. It might even be stronger than me—or you. So stop with the talk. What are you going to do?”

As he spoke, the man raised his fist. In response, the skinny elder drew his short blade, and the burly middle-aged man flexed his massive muscles.

“You can’t stop us alone anyway, can you?”

“If you break the pact... then I will have no choice but to pursue you, if not now, then later.”

“Suit yourself. Then I’ll deal with you then. Shall we go?”

At the young man’s words, the elder with the immortal-like appearance stepped aside. Though the pact was binding, it was ineffective here—and alone, he couldn’t stop them.

With no one left in their way, the three disappeared swiftly.

The elder stared at the spot where they vanished.

“So the True Demon Palace is heading for the Central Plains.”

The Devil Practitioners who had left the Demon Cult and gone into seclusion—each one stronger than even the Cult Leader.

They had vowed not to meddle in worldly affairs. But now, with the annihilation of the Demon Cult’s elite, they had begun to move.

The elder affiliated with Inner Kunlun watched them vanish before turning away. To stop the True Demon Palace, he would now have to gather the scattered allies.