Chapter 22: An Unexpected Turn
He found himself in a desolate world with no one in sight. Not even a bird.
Just a desolate world that stretched endlessly.
In the heart of this great emptiness stood Yu Gyeongseong.
Dust often billows through the desert, and there is a good reason for that. When there's nothing to block the wind, it just does whatever it wants. And with all that loose sand piled up everywhere, of course it's gonna get kicked up into the air at the slightest breeze.
'It would be stranger if it were any other way.'
He climbed up a tall sand dune to get a better look, and the world opened up around him. But no matter how far he looked in any direction, all he could see was sand. It was a literal sea of wind and sand that stretched on forever, so vast that it seemed blended into the sky.
From this distance, it looked like everything was frozen still. But the sand was actually moving pretty fast, tickling his feet. It was weird. The whole desert looked like it was stopped, but it actually felt like it was alive.
He'd left as soon as he'd made up his mind about it. Still, it wasn't like he'd rushed off completely unprepared. Before leaving the Tianshan Mountain Range, he'd stopped at a valley and filled his water pouch to the brim. He'd also swiped some food from the kitchen while no one was looking.
But still...
'Did I underestimate this?'
Looking at the empty world stretched out before him, it was hard to avoid that thought.
Not a single living thing in sight. No way to find food out here. And absolutely no water anywhere.
Yu Gyeongseong went over what the Six Demons had told him in his mind.
[The distance from Shazhou in the southeast to here is roughly 2,500 li.]
With that data in hand, he made his judgment.
'Okay… I can make it that far with the food and water I have.'
After the past few days of training, he had a pretty good sense of what he was capable of.
Yu Gyeongseong started moving again, this time adjusting his pace. Now that he knew exactly how far he needed to go, he could figure out the optimal way to handle it.
'At this rate, I should be able to keep moving without having to stop.'
Across that vast, empty desert, a single figure moved without rest.
***
Meanwhile, the Righteous Alliance forces had charged toward the Tianshan Mountain Range at incredible speed.
And leading them at the very front was the Sword God himself.
On the way, the Alliance members started to understand why their predecessors had never been able to wipe out the Demonic Cult before.
True to their infamous reputation, the enemy was far from a simple foe. The moment they'd entered the desert, they were met with a relentless campaign of guerrilla warfare. Their goal was clearly to wear them down and inflict maximum damage with minimal effort.
The attacks were relentless and just never seemed to stop. It would be a lie to say they hadn't gotten on everyone's nerves. They'd actually taken some real hits too, and none of the Alliance members had been able to rest easy.
But even so, it was fine.
Because not a single one of those bastards made it back alive.
It didn’t matter what kind of Demonic Cult member they were; once they revealed themselves, they were caught without fail. No matter how quick they moved, no matter what crazy methods they used to try and escape, one strike from the Sword God settled everything.
You'd think someone who'd risen to become a leader would just stand in the back with his hands clasped behind him, but he led from the front in everything. Which meant right now, the most exhausted person in the entire Orthodox Faction should've been the Sword God himself.
And yet, the Righteous Alliance's momentum just wouldn't die down. They'd traveled this insane distance without proper rest, and now that they were almost at the Tianshan Mountain Range with their morale was even higher than ever before. The meaningful damage from the Demonic Cult's guerrilla warfare had only pissed everyone off more, making them even more fired up.
They were an unstoppable force, like a hot knife through butter.
The Alliance leaders were sure of it.
'We’ll win!'
Soon, the Demonic Cult would be history. Then those bastards would stop siphoning off their money, and they could expand their own power in the area. They all started daydreaming about the sweet future they were about to grab for themselves.
But then—
'...?'
The march suddenly stopped.
The Sword God had abruptly set up a tent and shut himself inside.
Following his lead, tents were hastily erected all around him.
Nobody knew why the Sword God was doing this.
"What's... what's the Alliance Leader doing in there?"
“Beats me. How would I know?”
But as the hours passed and he showed no sign of emerging, a piece of information began to circulate among the murmuring soldiers, quieting their anxious whispers.
[The Sword God is conducting a sacred ritual!]
The members looked at each other, confused.
Was he praying to the heavenly gods before the battle, asking for a great victory?
Either way, nothing to feel bad about.
"What are we waiting for? Let's use this break to get our strength back!”
“Yeah! We need to be at our best!”
They were about to storm the enemy's main base, after all. And the enemy was obviously already prepared for them. What’s the point of rushing themselves when victory is already in sight?
"See? The Alliance Leader knows what he's doing!"
He must be trying to make the Demonic Cult bastards anxious by pressing a blade right up to their throats, and while they're on edge, we'll take it easy and stay fresh. This had to be it!
That way, those bastards would be even more worn down!
But then...
'???'
The alliance members fell into confusion again as something unexpected happened.
***
The Six Demons were frozen in place after hearing that the Divine Demon had gone.
He was our only hope…
This was a worst-case scenario they hadn’t even thought was possible.
“…What do we do now?”
“If it's just us, we're guaranteed to lose. We can’t beat the Sword God.”
"If we fall, the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult ends with us."
"......"
"......"
The horrible reality of it all just shut them up.
After a moment of heavy silence had settled over the room, Crushing Demon spoke up.
“How about we retreat for now and look for another chance later?”
Rock Demon shook his head.
“That's not an option. Maybe if we'd done it earlier, but we’re too close now. If we try to run, they’ll catch us from behind and wipe us out.”
It wasn't like the Crushing Demon didn't know that. He'd just brought it up again because he couldn't think of any other options. But Crushing Demon didn't get angry at Rock Demon's attitude. He didn't have the luxury for that, and besides, he knew there was no personal grudge in those words.
Illusion Demon's somewhat deflated voice echoed through the room.
"Abandoning the Tianshan Mountain Range was never an option to begin with. Not with all our people here.”
This had been their home for generations. If they left here, where the hell were they supposed to go?!
The other Clan Lords nodded in agreement.
But now that things had turned out this way, it was hard not to beat themselves up about whether they should've taken this more seriously from the start. If they'd evacuated the regular cult members earlier, it would've been easier to make an escape.
And with that thought came another.
'This is all the Cult Leader's fault!'
They couldn't even think about leaving because he said that if the Sacred Flame disappeared, the divine artifacts would lose their power. They couldn't even consider the option of temporarily retreating and then reclaiming their territory later.
And now, the big gamble they’d bet everything on had just fizzled out.
Mind Demon spoke up.
“What if we just leave the civilians behind?”
That way, they could at least escape.
Illusion Demon's heavy voice responded.
"The Sword God will do exactly what he proclaimed; he'll erase the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult from this world. He'll kill all the cult members, destroy every building, shatter every foundation stone to dust."
They all knew he was right.
Having faced him directly, they could be certain of his resolve. What they'd felt from the Sword God was a pure hatred so raw that it felt almost pristine in its purity.
Which meant the cult members left behind wouldn't be safe.
Mind Demon continued.
"I know that. But the Sword God is just one man. How’s he going to kill that many people by himself? That's why he brought so many people with him. And those guys are supposed to be from the Orthodox Faction, right? Would they really massacre people who don't even know martial arts?"
It was a nice thought, but you couldn't count on it.
“We can’t just leave them here with that kind of risk! If that’s the plan, we might as well just tell them to run for it now!”
Mind Demon raised his voice to match Illusion Demon's reaction. “And get caught from behind because we’re moving in a huge, slow group? What if we tell just the elite squads to leave and tell the civilians ‘Good luck’? You think that'll go over well? And what happens when our elite soldiers try to run with their families? You think they’ll follow orders when they’re watching their kids die?”
Rock Demon's thick voice cut in.
"That's why retreating is a losing move. Better to fight with everyone ready to die."
“And then what? We just sit here doing nothing and die together? You think the Sword God gets weaker just because we’re ready to die?” Mind Demon pressed on.
"You think all the followers are on the same page? You tell the regular people to grab a spear and fight real martial artists, you think they're going to volunteer? Most of them will run.”
"......"
After a lot of yelling, the room went quiet again.
No matter how much they talked about this and that, the conclusion was always the same. They couldn't beat the Righteous Alliance led by the Sword God.
Right now, the most important thing wasn't whether to retreat or not. The only thing that mattered was…
'How do we get rid of the Sword God?'
At the end of that thought, an answer slipped from the Flying Demon's lips.
"...We need to find him and bring him back. I don't know why he left, but..."
Rock Demon immediately shot back. “Now? When we're about to fight the Sword God? We’d have to go ourselves to even have a chance of bringing him back. That’s insane.”
When would they have time to do that? Even if they found him right away, the war would be over by the time they got back.
Then Life Demon, who’d been quiet, spoke up.
"That's the only way to overturn the fate of destruction hanging over our cult."
She was backing Flying Demon’s suggestion.
Everyone else in the room couldn't think of any other method either.
"......"
Crushing Demon stepped forward, reviving his original proposal.
"Let's retreat. We will continue to fall back. As long as we don’t fight the Sword God head-on, some of us can escape."
Then those people could go look for the Divine Demon.
"......"
"Withdraw the Strike Forces first. We need to preserve our strength. And tell the civilians to evacuate too."
Rock Demon was still negative about it.
"The result will be the same anyway. All we can do is run deeper into the mountains. Most of us will get hunted down on the way, but even if we hide, it’s a problem. If you can’t work, you can’t eat. We might not die tomorrow, but we’ll all starve to death eventually.”
Crushing Demon pushed harder.
"But we'll buy time, won't we?"
Meaning they wouldn't starve immediately.
"......"
Sensing the atmosphere in the room begin to shift in his favor, his voice gained a new strength, as if to drive the final wedge into their debate.
"Two of us will go find him and bring him back. The rest will scatter and disappear deep into various parts of the Tianshan Mountain Range. That's our only way of survival."
"......"
Maybe it was a scenario they really didn't want to face. They knew there was no other option, but... nobody could bring themselves to say it out loud.
Crushing Demon knew how they felt, so he spoke one more time.
"We are the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult itself! It doesn’t matter if all the followers die, or if the buildings are all destroyed and the Tianshan Mountain Range itself crumbles. As long as we’re alive, that's enough! We can rebuild! Just like our ancestors of a distant past did. We can start over!”
Though they rarely showed their emotions openly, only grief settled over the room at this moment.
To give up their home for hundreds of years was the biggest disgrace imaginable. And yet, it was also their desperate will to survive.
BAM!
The door to the room was suddenly thrown open.
"My Lords!"
Rushing in like the wind with that loud voice was the Commander of the Flying Demon’s Strike Force. He was currently the person in charge of monitoring the Righteous Alliance. So it wasn't strange for him to suddenly burst into the Six Demons' meeting like this.
But it definitely meant something big was happening.
"What is it?"
"The Sword God..."
Sensing the tremors in his voice, the Six Demons focused their attention on him.
Is he already attacking?!
The report that followed shook them all.
"The Righteous Alliance has stopped moving!”