Chapter 87
Inside the largest and most luxurious building of the Nine Dragons Stronghold was Meng Heuk-san, the Nine Dragons Chief and Great Dragon Saber, leaning against a chair adorned with tiger fur while looking displeased. He gave off an intimidating aura and had a large physique, a hedgehog-like prickly beard, and tiger-like eyes.
“You still haven’t found that damned bastard yet?” Heuk-San asked Yeom Jang, who was standing in front of him. Yeom Jang was the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s vice chief and strategist.
“I sincerely apologize. Our members reported that they have found his tracks, so we should get some news if we wait just a little longer.”
“I wonder what kind of person he is. How dare he fearlessly mess with the Nine Dragons Stronghold?”
“It bothers me a little, though.”
“What does?”
“I examined the cause of our brothers’ deaths. It seemed as if finger qi had accurately pierced through their foreheads, so I doubt he’s just an ordinary martial arts expert.”
“Even if so, he is just one guy.”
Heuk-San dismissed Yeom Jang’s concerns as if there was nothing to worry about.
“Understood. I’ll report to you as soon as we find him, Chief.”
Just as Yeom Jang bid his farewell and was about to leave, an ear-splitting roar resonated outside.
“We’re under attack!”
“We’re being ambushed!”
The Nine Dragons Stronghold’s bandits sounded panic-stricken.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ll go take a look.”
“No. I’ll go do it myself.”
Heuk-San took his treasured Nine Dragon Saber. After exiting the building, he soon saw a man slaughtering his subordinates using a golden shield, which the man threw in every direction as if it was a flying wheel. Heuk-San knew as soon as he saw him. That bastard was the guy he was looking for.
Without further delay, Heuk-San charged at him.
* * *
Mu-Gun entered the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s base and, like a ghost, began to slaughter all the bandits all over the place, hiding their presence while standing guard. The bandit who served as Mu-Gun’s guide got goosebumps as he watched Mu-Gun locate and eliminate all the members. It was as if Mu-Gun had seen through everything.
While he was leading Mu-Gun to their base, the bandit had actually scorned the reckless Mu-Gun for wanting to fight the entire Nine Dragons Stronghold alone. No matter how great Mu-Gun’s martial arts were, the bandit thought it would be difficult for him to survive against their entire organization.
However, he began to think Mu-Gun could actually succeed in annihilating the Nine Dragons Stronghold alone the moment he saw Mu-Gun’s martial arts, which could locate the watchmen as if he was plucking hair with a pair of tweezers and kill them before they could even respond.
Soon enough, the two reached a place that put the Nine Dragons Stronghold in sight. Palisades over ten feet tall surrounded it, making it seem no different from a fortress, just as its name suggested. Behind the palisade near its entrance was a catapult. Whenever anyone approached the Nine Dragons Stronghold without permission, the catapult engineers would rain down arrows on them without hesitation.
“Go and draw their attention.”
“That isn’t what you promised, is it? You said you would spare me if I guided you to the Nine Dragons Stronghold.”
“I promised not to kill you with my own two hands, and I never said when I’d let you go. Your mission is to draw their attention. After that, I don’t really care if you run away or do whatever you want to do.”
The bandit sighed and walked toward the entrance of the Nine Dragons Stronghold. Upon identifying the bandit, the catapult engineers standing guard at the entrance momentarily dropped their guard.
“What’s this? Why are you alone? What happened to those who were with you?” one of the catapult engineers asked, becoming suspicious when he saw the bandit returning alone.
As soon as the catapult engineers focused their attention on the bandit, Mu-Gun charged toward the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s entrance and executed the Thunder God's Shadow, causing him to shoot forth like a ray of light and cross a hundred feet in an instant. The bandits hurriedly armed the catapult upon noticing Mu-Gun flying toward them at a frightening speed. However, before they could even aim it, Mu-Gun had tossed the Flying Golden Shield up into the air.
Golden aura enveloped the Flying Golden Shield, which then fiercely rotated and landed on the palisade by the entrance. The deafening collision tore down the palisade along with the catapult engineers on top of it. After incapacitating the catapults by the entrance, Mu-Gun retrieved the Flying Golden Shield. He then jumped to the sky once again, leaping over the palisade and entering the Nine Dragons Stronghold. Shocked by what he had just witnessed, the bandit who guided Mu-Gun couldn’t close his mouth. Nevertheless, he turned around and ran away without delay.
Meanwhile, as soon as Mu-Gun entered the Nine Dragons Stronghold, he was slightly taken aback because it was so huge that it exceeded his expectations. However, that made no difference to him. Without even a moment’s delay, Mu-Gun threw the Flying Golden Shield at the bandits who rushed outside when they heard the palisade crumbling.
With a sharp ear-splitting sound, the Flying Golden Shield flew in a wide arc and hit the bandits. With their chests broken and their hearts ruptured, the bandits fell to the ground.
Mu-Gun mercilessly attacked the bandits without caring about their identities and statuses. After all, they had committed all sorts of wicked deeds. Upon witnessing the Flying Golden Shield’s power, the bandits no longer dared approach Mu-Gun and instead focused on backing away from him. However, retreating didn’t mean they were safe. Mu-Gun chased them and threw the Flying Golden Shield again.
The common bandits could not stop the Flying Golden Shield’s advance at all, and while the Nine Dragons Sky Ascension Squad, the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s elites, managed to defend against it, that was all they could do. They dared not even try to counterattack since they couldn’t even approach Mu-Gun in the first place.
In the middle of the battle, the Great Dragon Saber Meng Heuk-San, a man with a large build, charged toward Mu-Gun. When the Flying Golden Shield immediately flew toward him, he calmly swung his Nine Dragon Saber.
The Nine Dragon Saber, which contained herculean strength, clashed with the Flying Golden Shield head-on. Heuk-San thought the Flying Golden Shield would be blasted away, but it wasn’t even pushed back. Rather, it dug fiercely into his weapon, seemingly scraping through it. At this rate, the Flying Golden Shield would split him in half.
Heuk-San hurriedly mustered his internal energy and put more strength into his swing. Unable to withstand his power, the Flying Golden Shield was finally deflected to the side. Now that he had felt the power the Flying Golden Shield contained, Heuk-San realized that Mu-Gun was no less of a martial arts master than himself.
“What an outstanding young man!”
Mu-Gun’s ability genuinely impressed Heuk-San.
“How dare a bandit judge my skills?”
“What did you just say? You shouldn’t thoughtlessly babble on just because you have a mouth, young brat.”
“Cut the chatter and come at me. I don’t talk to people who are about to die soon.”
“Fine, if you wish to die, then so be it.”
Heuk-San’s grip on the Nine Dragon Saber tightened as he planned to run straight toward Mu-Gun.
“You should probably check behind you first.”
“You’re still spouting nonsense—!”
Heuk-San was about to ignore Mu-Gun’s words when he sensed sharp energy approaching him from behind. He hurriedly turned around and swung his weapon, narrowly blocking the Flying Golden Shield, which was enveloped in a golden ray. Heuk-San tried to deflect it away again, but the power it contained proved too strong.
‘This crazy fucker!’
While Heuk-San was flustered, Mu-Gun thrust his sword and unleashed moonlight sword qi toward Heuk-San to put him in a dilemma.
If Heuk-San blocked the attack coming from behind, it would be impossible to stop the Flying Golden Shield from hitting him. Conversely, if he focused on blocking the Flying Golden Shield, he wouldn’t be able to defend against the incoming attack.
Fortunately, Heuk-San’s personal guards, the Jiulong's Four Tigers, were nearby to save him. The moment Heuk-San was in danger, the Jiulong’s Four Tigers immediately jumped between Mu-Gun and Heuk-San to block the incoming attack.
Not only did the Jiulong's Four Tigers barely manage to block Mu-Gun’s attack, but its strength pushed and blasted them toward Heuk-San as well. They soon crashed into Heuk-San, who had also just barely managed to deflect the Flying Golden Shield.
“Nine Dragons Sky Ascension Squad, kill that bastard now!” Heuk-San hastily shouted as he fell to the ground with the Jiulong's Four Tigers.
Upon receiving his order, the Nine Dragons Sky Ascension Squad charged toward Mu-Gun. Mu-Gun retrieved the Flying Golden Shield and waited until they had gotten as close to him as possible. As soon as they were ten feet away from him, he tossed his shield again.
The Flying Golden Shield, which was now imbued with golden lightning, began to fire golden lightning in all directions as it circled Mu-Gun. That technique did not exist within the Heavenly Sea God Sect’s Flying Golden Shield Scripture. After all, it was Mu-Gun who made it by incorporating the Thunder God qi from the Heavenly Thunder Constellation Divine Art with the Flying Golden Shield Scripture. It was truly powerful.
The golden lightning being discharged through the Flying Golden Shield quickly enveloped the space within a fifty feet radius, electrocuting the over fifty bandits caught inside it to death. Witnessing the unbelievable scene of a single attack taking out more than half of the Nine Dragons Sky Ascension Squad made it impossible for Meng Heuk-San and the Jiulong’s Four Tigers to hide their flustered expressions.
Considering even the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s strongest reacted that way, then it was only natural for the Nine Dragons Sky Ascension Squad, who were weaker than them, to be even more affected. Having been reduced to half their original number by Mu-Gun’s overwhelming martial prowess, they completely lost their will to fight. The bandits turned around and began to run away, which they thought was the only way to save themselves in the current situation.
The other bandits also gave up and began to escape from the Nine Dragons Stronghold. However, all of their attempts failed. As Mu-Gun had already stated, he had no intention of sparing even a single bandit.
Mu-Gun flew above the fleeing bandits and blocked the Nine Dragons Stronghold’s entrance. Flustered and confused, the bandits frantically ran around. They could neither run away nor attack Mu-Gun. As they panicked, Mu-Gun tossed the Flying Golden Shield in their direction.
“Argh!”
“Save me!”
The Nine Dragons Stronghold’s bandits tried to run away from and evade the Flying Golden Shield only to trip and fall over each other. At that moment, the Flying Golden Shield once again discharged golden lightning in all directions, reducing the number of survivors to less than fifty.
“Please spare me!”
“I have committed a crime deserving of death. If you spare me, I will live a good life from now on!”
The surviving bandits prostrated themselves before Mu-Gun and begged for their lives.
“Get out of the way, everyone!”
The Great Dragon Saber, Meng Heuk-San, pushed his way through the crowd and came forward. The Jiulong’s Four Tigers followed behind him.
“You probably think you’re an apostle of justice, don’t you? However, you, who mercilessly kill those weaker than you, are no different from us.”
“Perhaps you’re right. Someone might even condemn me for this. But it doesn’t matter. I’m just doing what I think is right,” Mu-Gun unwaveringly replied.
Heuk-San tried to sway Mu-Gun’s decision somehow, but he immediately gave up upon seeing the firm conviction on Mu-Gun’s face. The only way to survive this situation was to defeat Mu-Gun.
“Listen up, all of you! That person has already decided to massacre us all. No matter how much we plead guilty and promise to turn over a new leaf, his mind will not change. If you want to live, pick up your weapons and put up a desperate last stand against that bastard. That’s the only way we can survive this.”
Heuk-San’s words made the remaining bandits stand up and pick up their weapons with determined expressions.
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