Chapter 67 – Desert (6)

Breath flowed from the mouth of the bandit crouched on the corner of a low building rooftop. As the night deepened, the temperature was dropping again.

Fortunately, tonight there was no sandstorm so visibility was good even at a distance, but the desert at night was extremely eerie.

“Tsk, is it really okay for things to proceed this recklessly?”

He was a member of a small bandit group that wandered the desert outskirts robbing merchants. Though he had committed robbery, theft, and murder, he had kept things small-scale.

But several months ago, small bandit groups suddenly united as one and settled in this desert ruins. And they plundered surrounding oases, the Divine Cult branch leader appeared, and terrifying sorcerers became allies.

He too had excitedly plundered villages and felt extremely thrilled while racing across the desert with dozens, hundreds of comrades. But the events of recent days had made him frightened.

Killing all residents of nearby oases and sweeping through even the branch city to create their own nation… Even in his thinking, it seemed too extreme.

“I should run away soon if the atmosphere turns bad. Can’t die in the wrong place for nothing.”

“But it’s already too late.”

The bandit tried to raise his body in surprise at the sound from behind him, but instead his body was slammed to the floor.

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom rose up behind the bandit sprawled on the rooftop.

“Tsk, moving like a night thief doesn’t suit my temperament.”

But if they made a fuss unnecessarily and those other-world fellows appeared leading brainwashed people, it definitely wouldn’t be fun.

Moreover, with reliable support available, he couldn’t not do it.

Slither.

Sand began flowing over the fallen bandit’s head. Shortly after, the sand transformed into an arrow and the number ten.

“Diagonal right direction, 10 zhang (30 meters)?”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom looked at the sand characters with a curious expression. He had already seen these characters many times while coming here, but it was fascinating every time.

Sun-woo’s techniques kept increasing. Moreover, his martial arts growth level was tremendous, so it was hard to gauge how far he would grow.

“Well, he’s an other-world fellow. Let’s not worry about it.”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom brushed off the thoughts that rose in his head.

Swish.

Then a deflating sound came from the distance.

“Could that be our Sword Flower? I should hurry. I might not know about other-world folks, but I can’t lose to Mount Hua Sect.”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom jumped down and ran into the alley.

At that time, Sun-woo was at the entrance of the ruined city with Yeon-hwa. He was kneeling on one knee with his hand pressed to the ground.

The internal energy of a peak-level master was all being converted to sorcery through Sun-woo’s body and flowing through his hand throughout the entire city.

The ruined city had an incredibly thick rock layer below a shallow sand layer, making it difficult for Sun-woo’s sorcery to detect deep places.

But Sun-woo used the difficult-to-penetrate rock’s nature in reverse. Instead of trying to forcibly detect below the rock, he flowed sorcery into the ground surface as much as possible.

When the sorcery spreading in a circle spread out as a thin plane, its detection power could sense areas several times wider than before.

Sun-woo devised a method to send information to others by focusing on the fact that this region was sand.

It was to write by moving the sand thinly covering the ground surface.

While quite strong sorcery was needed to move earth or ground itself, creating characters by moving sand grains merely required strong concentration, new ideas, and micro-level control.

Right now, Sun-woo was no different from an early warning aircraft with powerful radar and radio.

“The outer area is all cleared. Let’s move too.”

Sun-woo’s senses felt that all bandits monitoring the surroundings had been eliminated.

After leaving a marker for the two people saying ‘continue forward’ in front of the building above the plaza he had entered earlier, Sun-woo raised his body.

Yeon-hwa quickly clung to Sun-woo’s back and Sun-woo began running swiftly along the path.

Sun-woo originally hadn’t planned to take Yeon-hwa. Because it was a combat situation, there was no reason to bring the ordinary person Yeon-hwa.

But because of the problem of rescuing people, he had no choice but to take her. If brainwashing could be broken, the Holy Maiden was absolutely necessary when controlling people.

“By the way, is it okay to be summoned like this? It seemed you had guards.”

Running along the path, Sun-woo asked Yeon-hwa. Sun-woo hadn’t been able to ask Yeon-hwa personal questions until now because he was conscious of another person’s (Nan-seol’s) attention.

“Ah, when at the Cult headquarters, I have almost no separate guards. Most of my time is spent performing rituals at the divine hall, so it’s rare to be with other people. My teacher keeps getting called to Cult events and the senior Holy Maiden is traveling locally performing ceremonies, so right now I’m almost alone.”

Fortunately, there seemed to be no room for problems.

“Well, even if I’m suddenly summoned, if I say I was called by the divine and returned, everyone will understand.”

A Holy Maiden committing fraud. Sun-woo could only make a troubled expression at Yeon-hwa’s calm words.

“Moreover, the senior Holy Maiden who went out is returning late and seeing how busy my teacher is, there won’t be worries for quite a while.”

Sun-woo couldn’t follow Yeon-hwa’s thinking at all. She showed a proper Holy Maiden appearance in front of people but showed an appearance difficult to gauge in front of him.

Shortly after, Sun-woo and Yeon-hwa met the party at the plaza.

“From now on, I’ll take the lead. After silently charging into the underground plaza, move according to plan. If a situation different from expectations occurs, we’ll prioritize escaping from the plaza.”

This was content Sun-woo had explained once before departing. The party nodded at Sun-woo’s words and Sun-woo shot into the building first.

Following behind, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom ran and Nan-seol followed behind him.

Finally, Yeon-hwa entered the building.

While Hwangbo Ja-gyeom and Nan-seol eliminated bandits resting inside the building, Sun-woo eliminated the two bandits at the end of the corridor.

The bandits on guard duty tilted their heads at Sun-woo running with <Illusion Arts> before meeting death, and Sun-woo immediately jumped into the stairs.

Previously he had carefully descended the stairs, but now speed was priority. Because Sun-woo’s senses felt Hwangbo Ja-gyeom and Nan-seol following behind, there was no need to slow down either.

The stairs ended quickly. And the underground plaza appeared before Sun-woo’s eyes.

‘Am I late?’

All people who had been lying down were standing facing the opposite side. Over several hundred people – even if the maximum was first-rate, this much personnel exceeded an average mid-level sect.

Sun-woo who had been frowning soon sensed the surrounding energy and could relax his expression.

It wasn’t too late yet. The people who had risen were in a dazed state and each had a strand of energy connected to the superpower user standing on the platform on the opposite side.

These people’s brainwashing wasn’t completed yet.

“Who are you!”

It seemed they all came down hastily without hiding. Seeing Sun-woo standing at the entrance, the Blood Cult member shouted. At his words, people standing on the platform looked at Sun-woo and Sun-woo shouted lowly.

“Now!”

Nan-seol and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom burst out from behind Sun-woo and ran forward.

They ran forward stepping on the shoulders and heads of people standing dazedly and instantly rushed at the Divine Cult branch leader and Blood Cult member standing on the platform.

The surprised branch leader blocked Nan-seol but immediately began being pushed back, and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom sent blocking bandits flying one by one as he approached the Blood Cult member.

“What suddenly!”

“What do you mean what? It’s a raid. Hurry and move the kids!”

Shouting at the surprised superpower user looking around, the mage raised his staff.

“Ah, got it!”

The superpower user drew up his ability and gave instructions to people dominated by him.

“Everyone attack the intruding enemies!”

The instructions came down in the superpower user’s world language, but it seemed everyone understood. The dazed people’s eyes became clear and soon began moving toward Nan-seol and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom.

“Whoa! Sun-woo, do something!”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom shouted in surprise at the suddenly surging people. But Sun-woo’s figure wasn’t visible and only people swarmed in all directions.

The blonde was annoyed by the unexpectedly stupid humans.

Most rushed at the intruding enemies, but a few people showed the pathetic sight of tangling together and falling in front of him.

The moment he tried to shout at the brainwashed humans in anger, someone shouted first.

“Watch out!”

The mage had shouted toward him. The surprised superpower user looked at the mage and saw the mage’s staff that had been toward the enemies was pointing in front of him.

At the same time, the large mass of water that had gathered in front of the staff flew toward the fallen people.

Whoosh!

An ordinary mass of water flew, but it was like a shell falling. The fallen people bounced in all directions and even the rock floor was dented.

“Why on earth…”

The superpower user opening his mouth with a dumbfounded expression saw one man shooting toward him through the burst water shell and his pupils dilated endlessly.

It was a man who hadn’t been visible until just before. The man endured the water shell with his body while shooting toward the superpower user and his sword pierced through the superpower user’s chest.

Sun-woo inwardly groaned at the pain felt throughout his body. Though he blocked it by drawing up <Body Enhancement> to the maximum, the water mass the mage shot wasn’t ordinary impact.

But still, Sun-woo’s tactic succeeded. The tactic was for Nan-seol and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom to draw attention while Sun-woo hid his body among people to approach the superpower user.

When the superpower user lost his life to Sun-woo’s sword, people who had been rushing at Nan-seol and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom stopped moving with bewildered expressions.

As Sun-woo expected, brainwashing wasn’t completely finished yet.

But unfortunately, the Divine Cult branch leader and bandit boss’s brainwashing didn’t break. It seemed both people had already completed brainwashing.

Sun-woo rushed at the mage right after taking down the superpower user, and Nan-seol and Hwangbo Ja-gyeom continued pushing the enemies.

And there was someone shouting toward the bewildered people.

“It is the Holy Maiden’s command! Everyone escape to the stairs!”

Standing at the exit stairway entrance, Yeon-hwa shouted to the people.

People surprised by the word Holy Maiden, upon confirming her appearance, some immediately ran toward her while others tried to prostrate and bow on the spot.

“Bowing later! You must quickly leave here!”

But at Yeon-hwa’s words shouting again, people began following her words.

“These bastards! Could they be summoned!”

The mage blocking Sun-woo’s attacks with a water-made barrier erupted in anger seeing people fleeing. At his anger, the water barrier rippled and Sun-woo’s senses felt the water underground moving.

‘Good thing I evacuated them.’

Whether he drew in more surrounding moisture, the barrier kept growing larger and while Sun-woo struggled, Hwangbo Ja-gyeom also ended up in a difficult position.

The Blood Cult member had poured down pills and joined the fight. Since they hadn’t yet eliminated all bandits and a peak-level master full of contamination spreading agents joined, struggling was natural.

“Sword Flower! What are you doing!”

Hwangbo Ja-gyeom, being pushed back, saw Nan-seol fighting and shouted. Nan-seol was tediously continuing the fight against the branch leader.

“Hmph, it seems he has high expectations of you, but what a pity.”

With swords crossed, the branch leader taunted her.

Because he could feel from the opponent’s sword that she hadn’t reached peak-level very long ago.

It was extremely surprising that a female peak-level master appeared from Mount Hua, but there was no way he would lose to a swordswoman who just reached peak-level.

But Nan-seol didn’t respond to his words and just pushed the sword strongly.

After the two separated like that, Nan-seol glanced behind her.

Quite many people were escaping and Yeon-hwa wasn’t visible either, perhaps leading the party at the front.

After confirming Yeon-hwa wasn’t there, Nan-seol lowered her stance and her eyes gleamed. And internal energy surged from her body.

“Consideration ends here. Plum Blossom Falling Flower.”

Along with her quiet murmur, her body shot toward the branch leader. Countless plum blossom petals fluttered following her body.

Slash!

The branch leader fell backward with surprised eyes while spraying blood all over his body, and his clothes poured down from the sky torn to shreds. That appearance was like plum blossom petals falling from the sky.