Jang Woo-geun cautiously spoke.
“Sect Leader. We’ve only just returned. Why are you suddenly ordering us to form ranks?”
Lee Woo-yang shot him a sidelong glance.
His already long, narrow eyes became even thinner.
“What are you all doing? Get into formation!”
He ignored Jang Woo-geun’s words.
Instead, he shouted at the corps members again.
His booming voice rang across the training ground.
Form ranks again?
Had they ever returned from battle only to reform their battle lines?
Perhaps it was because their usual battles were little more than formalities, or perhaps Lee Woo-yang simply found it bothersome.
Whatever the reason, no matter how much of a piece of shit he was, he had at least shown them that much consideration before.
At Lee Woo-yang’s thunderous command, the corps members looked around, gauging the situation.
But the Sect Leader’s orders were absolute.
Before long, they began arranging themselves into their battle formation.
Sssst.
Lee Woo-yang quietly approached Jang Woo-geun.
“Second Elder, after handling matters that badly, what was that? ‘Suddenly’? You certainly have the leisure to say such things.”
His voice was low, spoken right beside Jang Woo-geun’s ear.
As Lee Woo-yang’s quiet breathing brushed past him, Jang Woo-geun’s knees nearly gave way.
Cold sweat ran down his forehead.
“I have no excuse. But….”
“Hmm…. Then wouldn’t it be better to keep that mouth shut? If you hope to make up for your mistake next time, our dear Second Elder ought to take very good care of himself, shouldn’t he?”
The needling tone sent chills crawling across Jang Woo-geun’s skin.
Gooseflesh rose all over his body.
‘What the hell is this piece of shit planning?’
Curses erupted inside him.
Of course, Jang Woo-geun had played his part in the failure of this battle.
He had failed to properly read the enemy’s intentions and responded too late.
‘He’s probably not going to let this end quietly. Every corps member moved under my orders. If he touches them, my authority will suffer too.’
Judging from Lee Woo-yang’s words, it seemed Jang Woo-geun would continue going to the battlefield in the future.
If he lost face before the corps members, the Golden Dragon Corps might no longer follow his orders completely.
In the meantime, the formation was completed.
Because of their wounds, the corps members clutched injured areas and dragged their legs into place.
Quite a few could barely remain standing.
Some had been carried on stretchers, only to climb down and force themselves into formation.
The empty spaces scattered throughout the ranks must have belonged to the dead.
Lee Woo-yang narrowed his eyes and surveyed the formation.
The two sides had suffered the greatest losses.
‘Those bastards from Ironblood Hall and the Tiger Fang Gang screwed up again. Are there really no other subordinate sects capable of forming defensive walls? How long are they planning to keep those idiots on the two wings? Myo-wol… you incompetent bastard.’
He did not need an explanation.
He could tell at a glance.
It had always been this way.
Fine.
At least that side did not matter much.
It was not the Ascending Dragon Sect’s responsibility.
The problem lay elsewhere.
‘The center….’
A sharp light flashed in his tiny eyes.
The front row in the center had collapsed, with holes scattered throughout.
The center had been breached?
The very center that was supposed to hold firm above all else?
Two Golden Dragon Corps members were missing from the center.
Three Silver Dragon Corps members were gone as well.
As for the Iron Dragon Corps… it seemed they were at least still alive.
Lee Woo-yang lifted his beloved weapon, the greatsword Black Death Sword.
The blade itself could not be seen.
The other corps members carried their weapons bare, without scabbards.
The edges were dull anyway, so even brushing against them would not normally cut anyone.
The Black Death Sword, however, was covered by a thick scabbard.
Its dark body was inlaid with golden dragon patterns, giving it an eerie grandeur.
It was indeed a sword befitting the Sect Leader of a martial sect.
Lee Woo-yang tightened his grip around the Black Death Sword and paced in front of the formation.
“What is your duty? Isn’t it just one thing? To block the front? And you couldn’t even manage that? If you can’t do even that much, what reason do you bastards have to keep eating and living?”
Lee Woo-yang’s gaze turned toward the center of the defensive formation.
“Well, well. The center is in tatters. It looks like a damned rag.”
“I-I’m sorry.”
One of the Golden Dragon Corps members, Gwan Cheol, lowered his head.
Cold sweat streamed down him.
The spot beside him was empty.
Ho Jeong.
The man Moyong Jeong-cheon had beheaded.
That had been his place.
“Good. At least your apology sounds proper. But an apology naturally comes with a fitting price, doesn’t it?”
THWACK.
Gwan Cheol’s head snapped sideways.
The scabbard kept him from being cut, but it did nothing to lessen the tremendous impact.
“Ghk.”
With a short groan, Gwan Cheol’s body flew several jang and crashed into the ground.
“Oh dear…. Perhaps it’s because it’s been a while, but controlling my strength isn’t easy. I merely intend to teach you a lesson, so don’t be afraid.”
His words were gentle.
His fury was beyond imagining.
All because the center had been breached.
The Black Death Sword came crashing down upon those who had stood in the center.
There was no mercy.
THUD, THWACK, THUD, THWACK….
Dull impacts echoed across the training ground.
Those terrified by the sounds froze rigidly in place.
The people in the center had fought more than anyone else.
They had also suffered the most wounds and shed the most blood.
Lee Woo-yang did not care.
War was money.
These people carried out war.
Therefore, these people were money.
The master of this region was Hegemon Fortress.
Thirty years ago, Hegemon Fortress had appeared from nowhere and seized control of the entire region in an instant.
It unified all the unorthodox factions, then reclaimed every business right and raiding right those factions had once controlled.
The individual sects were left with no means to survive on their own.
That was when Hegemon Fortress made them an offer.
Participate in the war.
Fight the orthodox path.
Those who participated were paid.
They still had to put food in their mouths.
The sects, blinded by gold and silver, picked up their blades one after another.
Threatening commoners and squeezing a little out of them was easy enough, but that alone could barely keep them fed.
Hegemon Fortress, however, gave them more than that simply for participating in the war.
The Ascending Dragon Sect was no different.
As a subordinate sect, it received tremendous financial support whenever it went to war and achieved merit.
“Golden Dragon Corps. If you bastards get breached, what are the rear ranks supposed to do? As their seniors, shouldn’t you have stood at the front and stopped the enemy? Yet the center was breached? Did you spare even a thought for your juniors?”
Words he did not mean in the slightest.
‘If Hegemon Fortress cuts our support, what the hell am I supposed to do then?’
He forced his true thoughts down.
There was nothing to gain from letting the corps members know about the support money.
That money belonged entirely to him, after all.
‘These bastards all came up through the Non-Dragon Corps anyway. They’re fools. Idiots. Illiterate morons. I kept them from learning what money even is precisely so it would be useful at times like this….’
Just as Lee Woo-yang had intended, most of the Ascending Dragon Sect knew little about the secular world.
The concept of money was no exception.
They had grown up here and lived here, so these fools believed this place was the entire world.
Nothing more than puppets who earned money for him.
That was all Lee Woo-yang saw when he looked at the corps members.
In any case, poor battle results meant receiving less money.
And as the money decreased, Lee Woo-yang’s fury could only grow.
Hegemon Fortress distributed funds according to battlefield performance.
Whatever else could be said of them, they were thorough about that.
‘We just came back from a war.’
‘We didn’t even lose. Why is he doing this?’
The Golden Dragon Corps and Silver Dragon Corps were mercilessly beaten without being able to resist at all.
Watching them, Numbers 48 and 87 trembled in the very back.
Even the strongest Golden Dragon Corps members were collapsing one after another.
What chance did the Iron Dragon Corps have?
Lee Woo-yang’s eyes gradually went wild as he swung the Black Death Sword indiscriminately.
“You bastards might as well die.”
He would not actually kill them.
They were his source of income.
But his momentum truly suggested murder.
The Black Death Sword, a massive lump of iron, swung without mercy.
The corps members could do nothing but curl their bodies inward and offer themselves to the incoming greatsword.
Lee Woo-yang’s eyes were bloodshot as he swung the Black Death Sword wildly.
He showed no mercy even to the newcomers.
THWACK, THWACK….
“AAAAARGH!”
A scream burst from Number 48’s mouth.
The pain inflicted by the heavy Black Death Sword.
It was beyond imagination.
Scabbard or not, the sword itself was a monstrous mass of iron weighing well over a hundred geun, wrapped in thick wood, and the one swinging it was no ordinary man.
Even a glancing blow sent pain through his bones as though they were being crushed apart.
Number 48 had survived the battlefield by rolling across the ground.
Now, once again, he rolled across the floor.
The wounds beneath his bandages split open.
Clotted blood burst free.
Blood streamed from the torn wounds.
“Ughhhhh….”
Once the pain reached its peak, even screaming became a luxury.
Only a groan barely escaped him.
Then, after unbearable agony, something strange happened.
The pain slowly began to disappear.
The fact that it was fading frightened him even more.
His body was clearly breaking apart.
Yet it no longer hurt.
‘So… this is dying.’
Huff, huff.
Lee Woo-yang breathed heavily.
Beating more than a hundred people at once was no ordinary task.
Even so, the sight of him freely swinging the massive Black Death Sword made the depth of his martial arts apparent all over again.
The reason none of the corps members dared utter a word while being beaten ultimately came down to the strength Lee Woo-yang possessed.
The reason he had become the head of an unorthodox sect was obvious.
He was the strongest man in the Ascending Dragon Sect.
“Bah! Useless vermin.”
Lee Woo-yang went straight into the Great Dragon Hall.
When he swung the Black Death Sword through the air, blood stuck to the scabbard sprayed in every direction.
Then it happened.
Scrape… scrape.
The unpleasant sound of clothing dragging across dirt.
The Golden Dragon Corps members were slowly rising to their feet.
The real beginning was now.
Like the Sect Leader, they too carried enormous greatswords and great sabers.
Their shapes differed slightly from the Black Death Sword, but every one of them was an absurdly oversized weapon.
“Do you bastards know how many people died because of the stupid shit you pulled today?”
“We taught you and trained you all this time, and this is what you amount to?”
“Meat gets tender when you beat it. You sons of bitches. Today, we’re doing this properly.”
The Golden Dragon Corps members lifted their brutish masses of iron and began beating the Silver Dragon Corps and Iron Dragon Corps all over again.
Perhaps they resented what the Sect Leader had done to them, because their blows were even harsher than Lee Woo-yang’s.
‘The Golden Dragon Corps was in the front. You were the ones who got breached. I was all the way in the back.’
Number 48 swallowed the words he could never say and screamed.
The battle during the day.
Perhaps the people who died there had worn the same expression he did now.
The pain stopping.
Their gazes growing distant.
The chill of the ground touched his cheek.
Even that cold sensation gradually faded into the distance.
Soon, Number 48’s vision sank into darkness.
***
Iron Dragon Hall.
An old building.
Through cracks split across the walls, the cold wind of late autumn and the moonlight seeped inside as though competing with one another.
HISSS….
When the wind brushed across his wounds, pain throbbed through them.
His body trembled slightly in the draft.
Number 48 pulled his clothes tighter around himself.
“Ugh….”
He had barely moved, yet pain surged through him.
His eyes slowly opened.
“Snoooore… wheee….”
“Snrrrk….”
The snoring of the Iron Dragon Corps members flowed through the night like a strange melody.
Everyone seemed to be asleep.
Perhaps it failed to serve as a lullaby, because Number 48’s foggy mind gradually cleared.
He remained still, staring up at the rafters.
A spider illuminated by moonlight hurried around, repairing its web.
‘What…? This is the Iron Dragon Hall. I was definitely getting beaten by the Sect Leader on the training ground….’
“Ugh.”
The moment he reached for the end of his memory, pain rushed in.
A splitting headache came with it.
When he shifted his body slightly, every joint screamed.
Faint blood seeped through the places wrapped in bandages.
He could not move at all.
It hurt.
Were these… fresh bandages?
One of the Silver Dragon Corps members must have changed them.
Even while lying still, the pain continued as though sharp needles were stabbing every part of his body.
And yet those bastards were sleeping soundly enough to snore.
Number 48 forced himself to adjust his position, then let all the strength drain from his body.
That was much better.
Number 87 lay beside him.
Like Number 48, he was wrapped in bandages, while dark bruises swelled across every uncovered patch of skin.
It looked as though black blood would pour out if someone so much as touched him.
Number 48 knew exactly what condition he was in because the two had been together all day.
Number 87 had also suffered serious wounds on the battlefield and then been beaten by the Sect Leader.
Especially badly.
After all, Number 87 had also stood in the center.
Was he snoring?
It seemed he was still alive, at least.
The large Iron Dragon Hall could hold more than forty people lying down together.
Many Iron Dragon Corps members had died in the previous day’s battle.
The number of empty sleeping spaces must have increased considerably.
Soon, those vacancies would be filled from the Non-Dragon Corps.
With great difficulty, Number 48 turned his head to the side.
One place was empty.
Number 92’s sleeping space.
‘It wasn’t a dream. Yesterday’s battle really happened.’
Everything felt like a dream.
The savage battle.
Number 92 had died there.
Seeing his empty place made grief suddenly surge through Number 48.
A single tear rolled down his temple.
“Ugh….”
He raised a hand to wipe it away, then stopped.
Even that hurt too much.
He hated this body.
If only he had been a little stronger, he could have wiped away as many tears as he wanted.
He would not have been injured like this.
Number 92’s sleeping place would not have been empty either.
For years, Number 92 had been like an older brother.
Back in the Non-Dragon Corps.
Even when they had only just risen to the Iron Dragon Corps.
He had always looked after them, even while keeping the irritating Number 32 in line….
Now….
He was gone.
‘This place wasn’t special after all. Without strength… it’s no different from the Non-Dragon Corps.’
Number 48’s memories began in the Non-Dragon Corps.
He remembered nothing from before then.
He had simply grown up in the Non-Dragon Hall, training as he grew.
Back then, he had seen glimpses of shoe-clad feet above the cliff.
How desperately had he stared up at them and longed for them?
He had sworn he would enter the Iron Dragon Hall.
They called this place a Peach Blossom Paradise.
Was something like this really a Peach Blossom Paradise?
People dropped dead here just as they did in the Non-Dragon Hall.
In the end, he had no choice but to repeat the same thing he had done in the Non-Dragon Corps.
If he did not rise higher, none of it meant anything.
No matter what it took, he had to become stronger.
‘Is there even any point in doing this? I’m going to die anyway.’
No.
That wasn’t right.
He still had to do what needed to be done.
Number 48 lay flat on his back and placed both hands neatly beside his body.
When he concentrated, a bead rolled out from his qi center and traveled along his flow of qi and blood.
Then another.
Another.
And another….
The Ascending Dragon Sect’s exclusive inner cultivation method.
The Red Heart Art.