Chapter 19

Chapter 19

The Corpse-Blood Demon’s appearance was bizarre.

Compared to his great height of nearly 210 centimeters tall, his body was as thin as chopsticks, and both arms were deformedly long, reaching down below his knees.

The most chilling thing of all was his eyes.

Between his narrow, slit-like eyelids, blood-red light flashed like a snake.

Yu Seol-ah’s face hardened.

‘If that man is the Corpse-Blood Demon…… then those bastards must be the Blood Mist Corps.’

It was the worst possible situation.

The Blood Mist Corps was one of the most prominent martial forces even within Kunlun Demon Palace. For the exhausted Iron Soul Unit, with only fifteen members, facing them was close to impossible.

‘Why is that monster here, of all places?!’

She did not know it well, but the Corpse-Blood Demon bore a grudge against Grand Elder Yong.

And in his malice, he had been waiting for an opportunity to repay it until now.

The Corpse-Blood Demon stared at Yu Seol-ah with a fishy smile.

“Hoo. I did not expect anyone here to recognize me. You have a good eye, girl.”

His eyes narrowed.

“Come to think of it, the Iron Soul Unit’s only Vice-Captain was a woman, was it?”

“…….”

“Now I understand. You people are that Iron Soul Unit, then?”

Yu Seol-ah quickly drew a firework from within her robes and shot it.

Fiiing∼ Boom!

Red flames embroidered the night sky.

With a hardened expression, she shouted.

“The Captain will come soon after seeing the signal! Endure until then!”

“As you command!”

However, the Corpse-Blood Demon did not pay it much mind.

“How laughable.”

He waved his hand as if annoyed.

“Kill them all. Leave only the Yong girl alive.”

That indifferent order was the signal.

Papapat—!

Over fifty members of the Blood Mist Corps rushed forward all at once. In both their hands, they held daggers emitting a chilling light.

Watching them, Dokgo Jin thought.

‘This is a difficult fight.’

Judging coldly, if he excluded himself, this was a situation where they would struggle to endure even one quarter-hour.

‘In the end, we have to endure somehow until the Captain arrives.’

It truly would not be easy.

Even if Yeom Baek’s group joined them right away, victory could not be guaranteed.

‘……I will have to be a little diligent.’

Yu Seol-ah’s shout pierced his ears.

“Defensive formation! Cluster in a circle and defend Lady Yong!”

“As you command!”

Along with a thunderous response, the remaining fifteen members of the Iron Soul Unit drew a circle around Yong Chae-rin and Han Seo-ryeong.

Soon, the Blood Mist Corps fell upon them.

Clang, clang, clang! Clang!

Sparks flew in every direction along with fierce metallic sounds. As the encirclement tightened, a suffocating melee began.

“Not a chance! don't let them break through!”

Their initial momentum was not bad.

Although they were numerically inferior, the Iron Soul Unit members, who had shared life and death for years, instinctively protected each other’s backs and formed an organic defensive wall.

They blocked the Blood Mist Corps’ sharp offensive and even counterattacked by seizing openings. That tenacity was indeed worthy of the Northern Heaven Alliance’s elite.

It was such solid defense that even the attacking Blood Mist Corps faltered.

‘If this continues…… we can endure!’

The unit members held hope.

Even if they could not win, they judged that they would be able to buy enough time for Captain Yeom Baek to see the signal flare and rush over.

However, there was something they had overlooked.

Their bodies had already reached their limits after a two-day forced march.

“……!”

The pupils of Shin Pyeong, a member of the First Squad, shook as if an earthquake had struck them.

‘Ah!’

He thought he had knocked it away with his sword.

However, his sword had cut through empty air, and the enemy’s dagger was already right before his chest.

Accumulated fatigue had disturbed his eyesight and numbed his sense of distance.

‘Damn it…… I am too late!’

At that absolute moment of crisis, when he could neither dodge nor block.

Thud.

With a dull sound, the dagger rushing toward him stopped midair.

It was a strange phenomenon, as if it had been blocked by an invisible wall.

‘Hm?’

There was no time to wonder.

Shin Pyeong instinctively swung his sword and knocked away the halted dagger.

Clang!

Having narrowly escaped danger, Shin Pyeong breathed roughly and took his stance again. A similar situation occurred right beside him.

Clang!

“……?!”

Jo Tae-gwang, a member of the Iron Soul Unit, dazedly passed through a moment where his neck had nearly been severed.

A blade he clearly could not react to had flown toward the nape of his neck, but a blind pebble from somewhere had struck the hand holding the dagger.

From that faint impact, the enemy’s blade passed his neck by a hair’s breadth.

‘What was that? Was I lucky?’

In his confusion, he cut down the enemy who had shown an opening and felt relieved. Of course, none of it was “luck.”

It was all the result of Dokgo Jin helping them secretly.

While holding his position and facing the enemy, he was also coordinating the entire battlefield with his sharp senses.

“…….”

Even while maintaining the formation, Dokgo Jin flicked Returning Seal Finger from within his sleeve or kicked up pebbles with the tip of his foot whenever he found an opening, erasing the unit members’ blind spots.

Thanks to his covert support, the Iron Soul Unit members were miraculously avoiding fatal injuries and holding out.

As time passed, Dokgo Jin’s secret hand movements gradually grew faster.

‘They are enduring better than expected, but…….’

The unit members’ stamina was showing its bottom, and the enemies’ offensive was growing fiercer and fiercer.

Moments of crisis that needed saving were becoming too frequent. It was nearly impossible for him to fill all these gaps alone.

However, Dokgo Jin silently endured it.

Swish, swish, swish!

Thud, thud, thud!

The Blood Mist Corps members struck by Returning Seal Finger faltered, and thanks to that, two Iron Soul Unit members saved their lives.

‘Until the Captain arrives. With the minimum sacrifice, we only need to endure until then.’

The Iron Soul Unit members, who could have collapsed at any moment, were holding out through indomitable willpower.

It was thanks to the hope that they only had to endure until Yeom Baek appeared, but the Iron Soul Unit’s grit certainly had something different about it.

‘As long as you keep enduring without falling, I will not give up either.’

However, Dokgo Jin also had to pay attention to another side.

Even while secretly firing Returning Seal Finger, he did not forget to observe the Corpse-Blood Demon, who was watching from a distance.

‘If the Corpse-Blood Demon moves before the Captain arrives, even this will lose meaning.’

The moment the Corpse-Blood Demon moved would become the Iron Soul Unit’s greatest crisis.

Clang, clang, clang!

Meanwhile, Yu Seol-ah was desperately maintaining the battle line while swinging her twin swords like a windmill.

“Everyone is doing well! don't break the formation! If we endure just a little more, the Captain will come!”

At her encouragement, the unit members screamed and thrust out their blades.

The situation was not bad. No, they were holding out strangely well.

‘This is more manageable than I expected! As long as that monster does not step forward.’

She too was conscious of the Corpse-Blood Demon.

His known martial prowess was evaluated to be even above Yeom Baek’s.

Of course, Yu Seol-ah did not believe that exactly as it was, but there was no disagreement that he was a tremendous master.

‘Just keep watching. At least until the Captain arrives…….’

As the commander, Yu Seol-ah had to continue being conscious of the Corpse-Blood Demon, so she could not display her full ability. That alone made the Corpse-Blood Demon’s existence quite uncomfortable.

Clang!

After knocking away an incoming dagger, Yu Seol-ah suddenly felt a cold chill crawl up her spine.

“……?!”

At the ominous feeling, her gaze turned toward the spot where the Corpse-Blood Demon had been.

He was gone.

That red figure had vanished like smoke.

‘Where did he…….’

Suddenly, she felt a cold energy above her head.

“……!”

Before Yu Seol-ah could even raise her head, a terrifying pressure, like the ceiling collapsing from above, crushed down on her.

It was something she could not dare respond to.

‘Ah…….’

Yu Seol-ah instinctively sensed death and squeezed her eyes shut.

Booooom—!

Along with a heavy impact that shook the earth, a fierce gust swept out in every direction.

The aftershock was strong enough to make even the nearby Blood Mist Corps members stagger.

“……?”

However, no pain followed.

Yu Seol-ah lifted her trembling eyelashes and slowly looked forward.

Amazingly, a reliable back was blocking the space right before her nose.

“……Dokgo Jin?”

In his hand was Extinction, which had completely erased its usual frost-like silver glow and had become pitch-black, swallowing even light.

Tsssssss!

Extinction’s blade, holding Black Flame Qi, crossed above Dokgo Jin’s head and firmly received the Corpse-Blood Demon’s Blood Claw as it fell from midair.

Dokgo Jin’s feet were planted deep into the ground, but his figure was like an unmoving boulder.

Dokgo Jin sent a Sound Transmission to Yu Seol-ah.

[Vice-Captain, I will try to stop this man somehow, so take care of the unit members.]

“……What?”

Instead of answering, Dokgo Jin raised Extinction with a shout.

Flash!

The recoil sent the Corpse-Blood Demon flying into the air.

Dokgo Jin stared at him, left the formation, and confronted the Corpse-Blood Demon.

After lightly turning through the air and landing, the Corpse-Blood Demon looked down at his own palm and let out a hollow laugh.

‘Huh, this is absurd.’

When the Iron Soul Unit members held out better than expected, the bored Corpse-Blood Demon had tried to eliminate Yu Seol-ah, the commander, and quickly settle the situation.

But.

A mere unit member had blocked his blow.

Although he had not used his full strength, it contained enough power to kill Yu Seol-ah.

If Dokgo Jin had not interfered, Yu Seol-ah’s head would surely have fallen.

There was no way an ordinary unit member could have taken such a powerful attack head-on and still be fine.

“…….”

That was not all.

The Corpse-Blood Demon’s gaze turned toward Extinction, which Dokgo Jin had drawn.

‘That sword…….’

The fingertips that had met Extinction tingled.

Even though they were wrapped in Blood-Yin Strong Qi, the strong qi created through his unique martial art, the Blood-Yin Rigid Body Art, he had felt a chilling sharpness.

Because of that, he had no choice but to retreat.

‘That is not an object an ordinary unit member would possess.’

He knew it instinctively. That sword was a divine weapon, one of the few in the world.

‘But even with the help of a divine weapon, he could not have blocked it if his skill had not supported him.’

The Corpse-Blood Demon stared at Dokgo Jin with cold eyes and replayed the earlier situation.

‘He did not block it with strength.’

At the moment of collision, the opponent’s sword vibrated faintly and diverted his force to the side.

That was not something that could be called simply having strong inner arts.

It was the profound principle of Grafting Flowers Onto Wood, an advanced technique that read the flow and twisted the direction of force.

‘The Northern Heaven Alliance accepts useful masters regardless of whether they are orthodox or unorthodox…… Is he from Wudang?’

If it was the principle of Taiji, which subdued strength with softness, it was not impossible.

‘Interesting.’

The Corpse-Blood Demon’s pupils flashed with cold killing intent. It was worth confirming whether it had been coincidence or skill.

Wooooong!

The red Blood-Yin Strong Qi wrapped around his hands rose even thicker and more ominously. A cold sneer hung on the Corpse-Blood Demon’s lips.

“I will make you regret daring to stand in my way.”

“Try as much as you like.”

Dokgo Jin’s eyes shone sharply as he held Extinction.