.｡.:✧ Chapter 24 ✧:.｡.

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Bobt
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The prediction of the two people who would later be called genius siblings was spot on. That uneasiness became a reality.

The warriors of Ongan were out due to the appearance of the Three-Headed Mad Dogs.

The only ones left were the injured and the women. And although their skills and numbers were few, there were a handful of low-level practitioners protecting them.

“Wh-what is that!” the warrior standing on the watchtower exclaimed in horror. At that, the warrior standing on the opposite side shifted his gaze, wondering if something had happened.

“Ah! It’s the Devil Realm!” he shouted.

In the distance where one could barely see by focusing internal energy on their vision, a group from the Devil Realm was approaching.

At the least, there were about a hundred, and at most, about a hundred and fifty.

Seeing them, the warriors realized that the appearance of the Three-Headed Mad Dogs was a diversion. However, it was too late, much too late.

“Wh-what should we do?” they asked.

Everyone who could have had commanding authority had gone out to the battlefield.

The strongest among them was at most a second-rate warrior, and even that was someone who had just reached that level. Among the injured, there were warriors of higher martial prowess, but they couldn’t even properly regain consciousness.

“We… we have to run away,” someone said.

Even including the lightly injured, the number of warriors who could move to some extent was about thirty.

And the strongest among them was a second-rate warrior. With this force, there was no way they could win against those hundred warriors.

“What about the injured and the women?” someone asked. At those words, the atmosphere turned heavy.

“That’s…” they trailed off.

They couldn’t bring themselves to say, “Let’s leave them behind.”

The moment they said those words, it felt like something in their hearts would crumble. However, realistically, they had no choice but to do that.

While they were agonizing over what to do, a boy who seemed to have just reached adulthood walked out from the inside.

“Hmm, I didn’t expect it to be a diversion,” the boy, Joo Seo-cheon, said as he kicked the ground and leaped high, landing on top of the watchtower. The warriors were startled and stepped aside.

“Hmm, roughly counting, there are about a hundred. There could be high-level experts among them, but since Martial Uncle is on the battlefield, that’s unlikely,” Joo Seo-cheon said, crossing his arms and falling into deep thought.

Seeing Joo Seo-cheon like that, the warriors at the bottom of the watchtower showed various reactions.

“That’s right! There was a disciple from the Mount Hua Sect! And he’s even a member of the Lotus Hall! We’re saved!” one of them said.

“You idiot, that kid may look like that, but he’s only twelve years old!” another warrior said.

“Huh?” the first warrior, who had been stretching out his arms in joy, made a puzzled expression upon hearing that Joo Seo-cheon was twelve years old.

It was not only because Joo Seo-cheon was much larger than children his age, but also because the aura he exuded was mature.

“Ha-ha! How slow are you to receive information? That kid is called ‘Rich on the Inside, Poor on the Outside.’ He only has an outrageous amount of internal energy, but everything else about him is empty and incompetent!” another third-rate warrior said, clutching his head in despair.

“We’re all dead now!” he added.

“If we surrender, will they at least spare our lives?” someone wondered.

“Didn’t you hear that the geniuses from the Zegal family also came? But why didn’t they think of the diversion!” they shouted.

The warriors gathered together and wailed. In the extreme situation, even embarrassing low-level curses were heard.

Joo Seo-cheon, standing on the watchtower, looked down at the warriors filled with chaos and despair and chuckled.

During the era of turmoil, when caught in a diversion like this, abandoning the stronghold and running away was countless.

There were even cases where they left behind the injured and women, saying they were a hindrance to escape, and ran away.

Compared to that, the third-rate warriors here didn’t run away, even if they cursed and damned their fate.

“Just because their martial arts are third-rate doesn’t mean their hearts are also third-rate. It’s indeed a prejudice. They’re so splendid. Ha, but they have really bad luck,” Joo Seo-cheon thought.

He withdrew his smile and furrowed his eyebrows fiercely. He smiled warmly, praising the warriors’ actions, but the situation wasn’t that leisurely.

“Excluding the injured, the force that can fight consists of one second-rate warrior and twenty third-rate warriors. It’s not enough,” he assessed.

Although he didn’t know what kind of force the enemy had, it was difficult to fight with this level of power, especially when morale was at its lowest.

“If it’s those geniuses, they might notice that it’s a diversion. They will definitely send reinforcements. Then, we just need to hold out until then,” Joo Seo-cheon thought.

He came down from the watchtower and looked around. Everyone was in despair, saying they would die today.

“…If it followed the original history, this place would have been annihilated or taken hostage after falling for the diversion,” he thought.

Originally, there was no such person as Joo Seo-cheon here. It was natural since he wasn’t a member of the Lotus Hall.

The same went for Zegal Seung-gye. Originally, he shouldn’t have been here.

When they first set out, Zegal Shak only intended to show Zegal Seung-gye the battlefield. However, Zegal Sang intervened and dissuaded him, saying, “Uncle, the situation isn’t good, so it’s better to leave him behind. Isn’t Young Master Joo also here?”

Although he only had an outrageous amount of internal energy, in Zegal Sang’s eyes, Joo Seo-cheon was more normal than Zegal Seung-gye.

He seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders compared to children his age, so he could be trusted and left in charge.

“Judging by the commotion earlier, it seems he’s hiding. That’s even better. I had no intention of making him fight anyway,” Joo Seo-cheon thought.

Zegal Seung-gye was not good at martial arts. Although he had learned an internal cultivation technique, it was only Minor Heavenly Star. How could he be told to fight with that?

It was questionable whether he could win even against an ordinary person. Since he would only be a hindrance anyway, it was better for him to hide obediently without causing trouble.

“Well then, shall we begin?” Joo Seo-cheon said.

Shing!

He drew his sword.

The main gate of the Ongan branch shattered with a loud noise.

The warriors of the Devil Realm were trying to squeeze through the not-so-large gate.

“Aaah!” the female doctors who were treating the injured screamed. Their faces, which didn’t even blink at the sight of blood, turned pale.

“Hahaha! Come here!” the warrior of the Devil Realm standing at the very front shouted. His beard, which had grown wildly like a bandit, was his distinguishing feature.

“I am Mak Won-gap, the one who makes even the crying children in Guizhou stop… Huh? What’s with this kid?” Mak Won-gap said with a puzzled face, staring straight ahead.

Inside the courtyard, Joo Seo-cheon, who seemed to have just reached adulthood, was standing and looking at the intruders with a lowered sword.

“There’s no need to give a name to someone who’s going to die anyway,” Joo Seo-cheon said, raising his sword and taking a stance.

“What did you say? Hahaha!” Mak Won-gap burst into laughter at Joo Seo-cheon’s words. It was half absurdity, half ridicule.

“Kid, don’t tell me you’re thinking of facing us alone?” he asked.

“No, not alone,” Joo Seo-cheon replied.

He raised his left hand. At that, twenty third-rate warriors came out and surrounded the area near the broken gate.

“Damn,” Mak Won-gap thought. He hadn’t even crossed the gate yet, and there were many warriors following behind him.

Knowing that there was no one left to fight in the Ongan branch, they had all been at ease.

The ones who had escaped from near the gate were only fifteen. They were all unnecessarily large, so there wasn’t much space.

“Defend,” Joo Seo-cheon ordered.

The third-rate warriors changed their stances. They all had expressions filled with tension and anxiety.

“I commend you for thinking of using the gate, but don’t think you can stop us with that,” Mak Won-gap said.

For a moment, a truly fleeting moment, he had shown an anxious expression, but soon he displayed a confident smile.

There were no high-level experts in the Ongan branch, so there was no need to be intimidated.

“Kid, you’re being too confident, so I was a bit flustered. I’ll make sure to bury the sin of looking down on us with this blade!” Mak Won-gap said, pointing the tip of his sword at Joo Seo-cheon.

“Attack!” he shouted.

“Yaaah!” the warriors of the Devil Realm roared.

The warriors gathered at the gate swung their swords threateningly.

The warriors of the Ongan branch faltered, but soon realized there was nowhere to retreat and desperately clashed their swords.

“Kid, I’m curious what you’re relying on to step forward like that!” the warrior with the largest build among the Devil Realm’s warriors broke through the encirclement and charged like a wild boar.

He didn’t have the tusks of a wild boar, but instead, he had a ferocious sword gripped in his hand.

“Die!” he shouted.

The sword flew. From top to bottom. It was a sword technique that drew a straight line so cleanly.

It wasn’t a great swing. It was only at the level of third-rate.

“…” Joo Seo-cheon’s eyes closed. The world passed by slowly. The surrounding sounds passed through his eardrums and resonated in his brain.

Waaah!

In a moment that could hardly be called a moment, past memories flooded and influenced his surroundings.

The era of turmoil. The era when he knew nothing but fighting.

Corpses piled up into mountains, and blood formed rivers.

When he came to his senses, he was standing there. His uniform had turned bright red, stained with someone’s blood.

He was holding a sword in his hand, and his legs were trembling. In front of him, he saw someone’s back. It was the back of a hero.

“I always saw their backs,” he thought.

He saw someone’s reliable back. It was a back that could belong to either a man or a woman. He didn’t know if it was an old man, a child, or an adult.

However, one thing he could tell was that the back felt more massive than Mount Tai compared to anyone else’s.

“Now,” Joo Seo-cheon said, putting strength into his sword.

“Haha, you got scared and pissed your pants!” the large warrior laughed, seeing Joo Seo-cheon standing still.

“I…” Joo Seo-cheon said, drawing internal energy from his lower dantian.

The internal energy he had obtained from the plum blossoms displayed its explosive power.

The energy that started from below his navel and lower abdomen circulated through his well-trained meridians, connecting to the sword in his hand. For some reason, it felt like a faint fragrance of plum blossoms was spreading.

“…am the back,” he finished.

Swoosh!

“Huh?” the large warrior uttered.

The sword drew a line while making a sound of cutting through the wind. It was a line that stood vertically like the character “one,” without any wavering.

That line shone white, but it burned with a bright red color and turned into a blood line.

The large warrior’s sword stopped in midair. His eyes were wide open. He had an expression of not knowing what had happened to him.

The top of his head split open with a crack. And starting from the top of his head, a blood line was engraved down to his crotch.

Drip.

A drop of liquid fell below his crotch. It was bright red blood.

Blood flowed out onto his unsightly chest.

“That’s imposs…” His words were not continued.

Thud!

His large body could no longer hold on. His body split in two like firewood and collapsed.

“…” Silence filled the battlefield for a moment.

The warriors of the Ongan branch, who had been desperately blocking the warriors of the Devil Realm while surrounding them, and even those enemies, could not understand the situation.

“The plum blossom is by the road,” Joo Seo-cheon recited, still in a defensive stance without moving.

“Dancing like a plum blossom and a butterfly,” he continued.

Whoosh!

Joo Seo-cheon’s body disappeared. Not literally disappeared. He moved at a speed that was invisible to the eyes of the third-rate warriors.

Joo Seo-cheon penetrated the warriors of the Devil Realm in front of him and swirled with graceful movements.

“The plum blossom spits out frost,” he said.

Joo Seo-cheon swung his sword. Invisible energy rippled from his sword and swept the surroundings.

There were three warriors of the Devil Realm around him.

“The plum blossom blooms and sharply leads (梅開利導),” he continued.

And that energy bloomed from within and spewed out fierce energy. Something invisibly stabbed them.

“Aaaah!” the three warriors of the Devil Realm screamed and fell backward.

Upon closer look, holes had been made in their acupuncture points on their chests and other areas.

“Wh-what is this?” Mak Won-gap’s voice trembled. No one here had noticed what kind of swordsmanship Joo Seo-cheon had used.

“What is it!” Mak Won-gap shouted, widening his eyes.

Joo Seo-cheon shook his sword to wipe off the blood.

The warriors of the Ongan branch stared blankly at Joo Seo-cheon.

It was a small yet grand back.

“I am…” Joo Seo-cheon said, twisting the corners of his mouth upward.

“…a passing swordsman of Mount Hua!”

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