Chapter 83 : Retreat

Chapter 83: Retreat

Twelve Strongholds of the Flying Wing Duke.

The twelve forces representing Twin-Winged Lotus.

They expressed their ranks through the Twelve Zodiac Signs.

Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog, Pig.

The Rat was first, and the Pig was last.

On Twin-Winged Lotus’s banner, a stylized wing emblem was drawn. The direct subordinates of the Twelve Strongholds could inscribe a character from the zodiac beneath the wing.

And the forces led directly by the heads of the Twelve Strongholds wrote another word beneath the zodiac character.

The very first.

The force led by the Lord of Twin-Winged Lotus inscribed the word Bi Ik-ju (飛翼主) beneath the character for the first of the zodiac signs, Rat (子).

The second and third inscribed the word Bi Ik-gong (飛翼公) beneath the characters for Ox (丑) and Tiger (寅), respectively. The rest used the title Bi Ik-jang (飛翼將).

A banner with the character for Tiger (寅) and the word Bi Ik-gong beneath it.

In other words, this place was the stronghold of one of the Three Leaders of Twin-Winged Lotus.

The one bearing the zodiac sign of Tiger among the Twelve was Bi Ik Evil Tiger (飛翼惡虎), Sa Do-woong. Known as a master at the level of Boundless Realm, he was a warrior that none from the Suwang Sect present here could possibly match.

It was only because he had vacated the stronghold that they could roam freely and rampage like this.

What if they happened to encounter Sa Do-woong?

"This would be a complete massacre."

That was how formidable Sa Do-woong was.

"Why is that bastard involved in this?"

He had already known that one of the Twelve Strongholds was involved.

Based on information gathered, it was believed that the twelfth, the Pig—one of the Bi Ik-jang—was behind it. But the reality was different.

"No, not just different. It’s not only the Pig bastard involved—Sa Do-woong is too."

And if one of the Three Leaders, Sa Do-woong, was involved, it was highly likely that all of Twin-Winged Lotus was related to this affair.

The cultivator he had met at the place where they found the Beastkin had said so.

That the Martial World was about to face a new order.

Now he understood why those words were spoken.

Twin-Winged Lotus, which had failed to join the Ten Sects and Three Clans, was joining hands with a group called the Ascension Cult in an attempt at a new leap forward.

"These lunatics, they’re teaming up with cultivators?"

The Martial Realm never welcomed entanglements with the Cultivation Realm. Even the Demonic Heaven Palace, which was often labeled a bunch of madmen in the Central Heavens Martial Realm, would strike down cultivators on sight.

Cultivators often ground up humans or monsters to make pills for consumption, and in most of the Martial World, such practices were intolerable. Just as techniques like Energy Absorption or anything similar were unwelcome in any Lower Realm.

"This situation is more serious than I thought."

If the entire Twin-Winged Lotus was involved, this had already gone beyond his control. Though one elder from the Suwang Sect had been mobilized, that alone wouldn’t be nearly enough.

For something of this magnitude, either the Suwang Sect Leader or one of the Vice-Sect Leaders directly below him needed to step forward.

If Twin-Winged Lotus was indeed orchestrating this entire event, there was nothing Maeng Ye-ju could do alone.

“Sister, this is probably all we’re going to find. They wouldn’t lock prisoners in luxury rooms, right? Is there any reason to keep searching? There wasn’t anything down below either.”

“Just in case, let’s search as quickly as possible.”

At Maeng Ye-ju’s reply, Kang Yong reluctantly nodded and dashed off.

Though Kang Yong was rampaging like a madman, he too understood the gravity of the situation.

Kang Yong wasn’t a fool. If he had been alone, he might have even tried facing Sa Do-woong, even at the cost of his life. But he wasn’t alone. There were disciples who had followed them, and they had already rescued nearly fifty Beastkin.

Maeng Ye-ju and the Suwang Sect disciples quickly searched the stronghold. As Kang Yong had predicted, there were no more Beastkin left.

After gathering everyone into one place, Maeng Ye-ju, like Jang Woo-hyun, pierced a hole through the wall of the stronghold. Then, from her Inner Robe, she pulled out several folded Flying Apparatus.

As the folded Flying Apparatus, strangely resembling paper, unfolded, it turned into a rather large ship, onto which the Beastkin and their subordinates were boarded.

They activated the Flying Apparatus and exited.

At the center of the scorched training ground stood Jang Woo-hyun alone. Maeng Ye-ju and Kang Yong steered the Flying Apparatus in his direction.

“We rescued the captives. We need to get as far away from here as possible.”

“What happened?”

“That’s Sa Do-woong’s Floating Stronghold. He seems to be away for now, but we need to escape before he returns.”

“Sa Do-woong? A master of Twin-Winged Lotus?”

“Yes, he’s one of Twin-Winged Lotus’s Three Leaders. It’s known that his level is Boundless Realm. He’s far beyond what we can handle. Get on, quickly.”

At Maeng Ye-ju’s words, Jang Woo-hyun stepped onto the air and boarded the Flying Apparatus. There, he saw some familiar faces. Upon seeing them, his expression slightly relaxed.

“Immortal? You’re really the Immortal, right?”

“Immortal?”

The children, uncertain at first, rushed toward him once they noticed the change in his demeanor and expression.

“Immortal, why did you come so late!”

“Yeah! We were scared.”

The gathered children clung to his legs. Jang Woo-hyun bent down and hugged them.

“But Immortal, you don’t smell like wind anymore.”

“Yeah? The scent’s gone. Are you not the Immortal anymore?”

At the children’s words, Jang Woo-hyun let out a laugh. The children had immediately noticed the absence of the wind scent once he succeeded in suppressing the mark left by the Wind-Passing Great Sage.

“I don’t smell like the wind anymore?”

“Yes, then you’re not the Immortal anymore? But we liked you as the Immortal. Can’t you help us?”

“I can still help, even if I’m not the Immortal.”

“Then please save our village people. We want to go home.”

One child, eyes glistening with tears, began to speak. The others soon followed with their own pleas.

“Yeah. I want to go home. I prayed to the Immortal to go home. Why did you come so late?”

“Right, since the Immortal didn’t come, I got this and made a wish to the Great Sage.”

“The Great Sage?”

“Yes. If you make a wish on this, the Great Sage appears to help us.”

In the small hand the child extended was a small white statue. It was shaped like a monkey, worn smooth from being held often.

Jang Woo-hyun stared at the statue for a moment and then apologized to the children.

“Sorry I’m late. I should’ve come sooner. Let’s go home now.”

“If only you came a little earlier… then the man and woman next door could have gone home with us… sniff…”

When one Beastkin child began to cry mid-sentence, the others followed in tears.

As Jang Woo-hyun stood flustered by the sudden situation, Maeng Ye-ju approached him. She was about to ask, ‘What’s your relationship with these children?’ but Kang Yong called her first.

“Sister!”

Kang Yong pointed to one direction. In the distance, through the clouds, approaching ships could be seen.

Five on the right. Three on the left.

“They’re already here?”

Jang Woo-hyun, seeing the incoming ships, drew the Dragon King’s Scales. He was ready to destroy them all for the safety of the Beastkin.

Just before he rushed out, Maeng Ye-ju grabbed his arm.

“There will be more. We don’t have time to waste here.”

“Won’t it be more dangerous if their numbers increase?”

“No. It’s dangerous if we stall and get surrounded.”

Maeng Ye-ju had already anticipated this. This place was important to them. That meant there was likely a perimeter set up outside.

Twin-Winged Lotus wouldn’t have expected enemies to emerge from within.

Originally, their plan was to have already taken down Maeng Ye-ju and Kang Yong. They had prepared traps in advance to face the two.

But thanks to Jang Woo-hyun’s unexpected intervention, the traps had been nullified, and Twin-Winged Lotus’s plan had gone awry.

“We don’t know how many forces are out there. We have to escape from here.”

“We should deal with those first…”

“Didn’t you hear me? We don’t know how many there are. We don’t know what kind of masters might be out there. Confidence in your strength is good, but know the difference between confidence and arrogance. And…”

Maeng Ye-ju’s voice trailed off as her eyes subtly shifted to the side. The unspoken end to her sentence was clear.

We’re not alone.

There weren’t just martial artists here. Among them were ordinary Beastkin children.

“Can we escape with this?”

“Fortunately, I brought a high-performance artifact just in case, and it’s proving useful. It’s a Flying Apparatus just as good as their ships, so we should be able to escape.”

As Maeng Ye-ju said, the distance between them and the pursuing ships did not narrow. In fact, it gradually increased.

But that wasn’t the end.

“They’re coming from the front, too!”

Just as one Beastkin said, six more ships appeared ahead.

“We’re heading left. Full speed to the left!”

Maeng Ye-ju led the Suwang Sect in an attempt to shake off the ships. Not long after, more ships appeared again.

“They’re coming from the front again!”

“They’re coming from the right too!”

“Twin-Winged Lotus is on the left!”

They maneuvered to avoid every ship that appeared in sight. Before long, the number of ships chasing their group had surpassed twenty.

Although the distance wasn’t narrowing, the sheer number of ships had increased. No one could tell how many forces had been mobilized. Had they delayed as Maeng Ye-ju had said, they might have been completely surrounded by Twin-Winged Lotus.

Fortunately, the performance of the Flying Apparatus they were aboard was excellent, and they had not yet been caught.

They had flown about this much distance. Just as they passed above the Floating Island, a sudden blue light shot up from the ground.

The Flying Apparatus caught in the pillar of light lost power and began to fall.

“We’ve lost control!”

“Kyaaah!”

“Help us!”

“Immortal!”

The Beastkin screamed in fear, and Maeng Ye-ju along with the disciples of the Suwang Sect desperately tried to control the Flying Apparatus. But they could not stop the fall. All three Flying Apparatuses carrying their party plummeted to the ground.

Kwa-ga-ga-ga—

Luckily, they managed to control it somewhat and avoided a major impact. No one was seriously injured.

“Damn it.”

Maeng Ye-ju, who was the first to regain her senses and scan the surroundings, cursed under her breath. They had landed on top of a massive Spell Formation.

“It’s a trap.”

Maeng Ye-ju got off the Flying Apparatus and stayed on alert. Jang Woo-hyun had already deployed his qi before the fall.

‘Were we lured here from the beginning?’

They had ended up here while dodging the ships appearing from the front and sides. That meant the enemy likely led them here intentionally.

The Beastkin tried to reactivate the Flying Apparatus, but perhaps due to the power of the Spell Formation, they were damaged and unresponsive.

“Senior Maeng, another Flying Apparatus!”

At Jang Woo-hyun’s words, Maeng Ye-ju shook her head.

“We can’t… take everyone.”

There wasn’t a Flying Apparatus capable of carrying this many people. Jang Woo-hyun desperately tried to think of another way.

“We can move them into the Space Inside the Gourd…”

“We don’t know how to use it properly. And if ordinary people enter that space, who knows what might happen? If something goes wrong, we could end up killing them ourselves.”

“Still, somehow we must…”

Ku-gu-gu-gu—

Jang Woo-hyun’s words were drowned out by a tremendous roar. From a distant forest, the trees shook, and ships began to rise. Everyone’s gaze turned in that direction.

Five ships.

And on the decks stood numerous martial artists. The number was not small.

Jang Woo-hyun's eyes lit up as he looked at the five ships.

‘We’ll suppress them quickly from the inside and hijack one to escape.’

He was determined to find a way no matter what.

However, the ships of Twin-Winged Lotus did not charge in as if knowing Jang Woo-hyun’s plan. Instead, they quickly pulled back to increase the distance.

‘Why?’

Jang Woo-hyun was puzzled by their retreat after pulling them to the ground. He had expected an immediate attack.

The ships that had floated into the air adjusted their positions. From three of the five ships, red beams shot out and marked red dots near their group.

‘What is that?’

The red beams weren’t attacks. The energy was faint, and there were no explosions. It felt more like a marking of some kind.

‘A mark? Don’t tell me…’

Jang Woo-hyun thought of one possibility. He hoped it wasn’t what he was thinking.

But as he saw the ships that had been chasing them from afar begin to glow, he realized his guess had been right.

Countless rays of light pierced through the spaces between the five ships and rained down. The red dots were targeting markers for bombardment.

“These maniacs…”

It was clear now that the enemy no longer intended to capture the Beastkin alive.

Beams of light poured down like rain.

It was an attack that had to be avoided. Even someone in the Transcendence stage wouldn’t come out unscathed from that scale of assault.

But Jang Woo-hyun didn’t evade. No—he couldn’t. He couldn’t abandon the children who believed in him.

The Dragon King’s Scales disassembled and deployed.

It became a massive wall, shielding the group.

Kwa-gwa-gwang! Kwagwang!

“Kyaaah!”

“Mom!”

“Waaaah!”

Amid the explosions, the Beastkin children screamed. Though Jang Woo-hyun wanted to protect them personally, he had no time to spare.

He clenched his teeth against the force of the impact.

Even for Jang Woo-hyun, defending against this was no easy feat. With each impact, chunks of his Internal Energy were shaved away. Though reaching the Transcendence stage made it seem like his Internal Energy had become boundless, even he was nearing his limit.

After enduring the first wave, a second assault followed.

Kwa-gwagwang!

The beams relentlessly struck the wall formed by the Dragon King’s Scales. Meanwhile, the pursuing ships picked up speed and closed the distance.

From the ship that had quickly approached nearby, martial artists aboard their own Flying Apparatus flew up.

Twenty-two.

All of them were at the Transcendence stage.

“…Damn it.”

Kang Yong let out a soft sigh.

More than half had been forcibly pushed into Transcendence, but at that number, it changed the story entirely.

On top of that, nearly thirty ships of Twin-Winged Lotus surrounded the area.

Once again, the ships began bombarding, beams of light pouring like rain targeting the wall created by Jang Woo-hyun.

With each impact, his Internal Energy was gouged out in chunks. He was trying to replenish it through breathing, but the amount lost in one hit was too great.

If it were only the bombardment, he could somehow endure. But the Transcendence-level martial artists remained. If they attacked too, he wouldn’t be able to withstand it.

‘Might as well…’

He wanted to dispel the wall and rampage.

It felt too unjust to collapse here like this. He wanted to shoot up in one leap, cut down the Transcendence-level warriors, and destroy the ships unleashing the bombardment.

But he couldn’t—because of the eyes fixed on him.

“Immortal…”

Children clasped their hands together and looked at him from within their parents’ embrace. Not only them, but the eyes of all the Beastkin were focused on him.

He couldn’t give them up. Gathering all his strength, Jang Woo-hyun desperately searched for a way out.

‘Is there a way?’

If they abandoned everyone, Jang Woo-hyun, Maeng Ye-ju, and Kang Yong could escape. That too, while inflicting considerable damage on the enemy.

But saving everyone and overcoming this situation—he couldn’t think of a way.

Amid the hopelessness, he slowly scanned the surroundings.

Maeng Ye-ju and Kang Yong were darting around, deflecting attacks he couldn’t fully block.

The disciples of the Suwang Sect had gathered the Beastkin in the center and surrounded them in protection. The Beastkin trembled in each other’s arms.

Then Jang Woo-hyun caught sight of something.

‘Huh?’

A monkey Beastkin praying while holding a small statue.

“Please, please. Watch over us who have gathered here. Great being, please protect us.”

A statue made of white material.

The shape was a familiar monkey. It looked just like the one the Beastkin child had shown earlier.

—If you make a wish on this, the Great Sage will appear and help us.

One thought came to mind. A thought that might have seemed ridiculous.

‘Could it work?’ he wondered. Would that being even respond?

No—more than that, he wasn’t even sure if that monkey was the one he knew.

‘Still…’

He decided to try. At this point, there was no other option.

They had said it was a mark to find him. They had said the monkey was a godlike being worshipped by the Beastkin.

With determination set, Jang Woo-hyun opened his mouth.

“Senior Maeng! Kang Yong!”

The two, who were deflecting the bombardment Jang Woo-hyun hadn’t been able to fully block, turned toward him.

“Cover this for just a moment!”

“You have a plan?”

“I don’t know if it’s a plan, but I’m going to try something. We could all die.”

“I don’t know what it is, but just try. Dying like this or that, it’s all the same.”

Maeng Ye-ju smiled and drew in her energy. She pushed off the ground and soared into the sky.

As she pierced through the Dragon King’s Scales and spread her arms wide, energy radiated from her center and formed a massive barrier.

Jang Woo-hyun gathered back the energy he had deployed and approached the praying Beastkin.

“Is that the statue of the Wind-Passing Great Sage?”

“Eh? Y-Yes.”

Startled by Jang Woo-hyun’s sudden approach, the Beastkin nodded.

“I’ll borrow this for a moment.”

He snatched the statue and roughly tore away the left shoulder of his robe.

A small metallic plate gleamed silver.

It was the device suppressing the mark of the Wind-Passing Great Sage, and he removed it.

Fwooooosh!

As the sealed energy was released, wind blew from his shoulder. The Beastkin nearby widened their eyes as they stared at Jang Woo-hyun.

“Immortal?”

“O Great One…”

One by one, the Beastkin knelt. Then, with joined hands, they began to pray.

Jang Woo-hyun brought the statue in his right hand to his shoulder and muttered quietly.

“Come, you damn monkey.”

But there was no response.

“If you’re really the god they call on, then get your ass here and help! You bastard!”

He shouted at the top of his lungs, but only the sound of Maeng Ye-ju blocking the bombardment could be heard.

Jang Woo-hyun let out a quiet curse and returned the small statue to the monkey Beastkin. It had been a pointless hope. If it were that easy, the monkey would’ve shown up long ago.

“Senior Maeng, now I’ll…”

He stopped mid-sentence, sensing something strange.

He looked around. It seemed no one else had noticed yet.

The aftershocks that usually followed the explosions had suddenly ceased. As if all the wind around had come to a stop.

“Huh?”

One by one, they realized what Jang Woo-hyun had sensed.

The warriors of the Suwang Sect nearby, the praying Beastkin trembling in fear, and even the attacking Twin-Winged Lotus—all of them felt the oddity and stopped.

Everyone froze amidst the eerie stillness.

Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu—

The sky of the Central Heavens Realm split open.