Chapter v12c2: The Clash of Iron Chains and Souls

**The Clash of Iron Chains and Souls**

Yong Cheon Myeong, who was trapped on one side of the Iron Chain Soul Sealing Formation and constantly swinging his sword against the unpredictable bad weather (?), momentarily flinched at the sudden cry of a woman.

Who was that heavenly voice, like a celestial orchestra playing in harmony, calling out to? Despite his intentions, he suddenly felt an infinite envy and jealousy towards the recipient.

He had the absurd thought, ‘How many high monks at Mount Song would break their vows for the owner of that clear, transparent, sorrowful voice?’

If there was even a speck of possibility to obtain her, or rather to compete for her, many would willingly abandon their monastic status and break their vows.

Those practicing diligently at the Shaolin Temple were both incredibly fortunate and unfortunate for not having seen her. It was a contradictory statement, but not seeing such a beauty that even the heavens would envy was clearly an unparalleled misfortune. However, they were fortunate because not having seen her, they could focus on their practice without falling into the temptation of worldly desires and suffering from inner conflicts. He knew all too well how many had fallen for her unintended allure.

Even Yong Cheon Myeong himself, when he first saw Na Yerin, had to use his strongest mind-calming technique, the Vajra Immovable Mind Technique, at full power to suppress his unconsciously rising lust. Even that wasn’t enough, and he had to recite the Dharani Sutra from beginning to end without stopping. Only then could he finally escape the illusion of lust and regain his composure.

If his training had been even slightly shallower at that time, it wouldn’t have been difficult to achieve the feat of “ten years of study down the drain.”

‘Back then, I had been in the sect for so long that I had no immunity to the opposite sex.’

Just then,

“AAAAh!”

At that moment, while Yong Cheon Myeong was briefly reminiscing about the past, a neurotic scream with a completely different resonance from the one that had led him to his memories tore through the air, echoing sharply in the split gorge.

It was a blood-curdling scream that made one think their eardrums might burst.

Yong Cheon Myeong briefly covered and uncovered his ears, looking up at both sides of the gorge with a shocked expression. His gaze, as always, was full of seriousness.

“……”

A moment later, he nodded as if satisfied.

“Hmm, it won’t collapse.”

Boom!

The rotating flying wheel descended with its sharp teeth gleaming fiercely. If caught in the violent rotation of the white blade cutting through the air, it would only be a matter of time before a human’s soft body would be torn to shreds like a rag doll.

Bi Ryu-yeon’s response to this was as exquisite as a tightrope walker. He lightly tapped the iron chain with his right foot and used that momentum to leap over the cruel teeth of the flying wheel as lightly as a feather.

From below, Na Yerin’s worried cry could be heard. Bi Ryu-yeon’s ears perked up. Suddenly, he felt refreshed as if he could fly. He wanted to wave and smile at her, telling her not to worry, but the irritatingly impatient guys above didn’t give him the chance.

A dozen arrows came flying towards him, creating a whistling sound as they targeted him. Bi Ryu-yeon had no intention of becoming their practice target, so he tapped his right foot once more. Then his hands moved smoothly.

Six arrows dropped like flies hit by a flyswatter at Bi Ryu-yeon’s touch, while the rest all passed by harmlessly without even grazing a hair on his body.

The members of the Blood Bow Squad were furious, thinking, ‘What kind of guy is this!’ Bi Ryu-yeon’s steps were unhindered. At that moment, the sky turned black for an instant, and they fell in droves.

The Flying Snake God Lord Mo Sa-ryeong’s Flying Snake Formation had been activated.

‘What’s this now?’

Seemingly too lazy to even use his hands now, Bi Ryu-yeon raised his Phoenix Dance to the extreme. A fierce current began to swirl around his body. The wind barrier that instantly formed did not allow the approach of the viper swarm.

Snakes cut by the sharp wind blades fell to the ground in pieces.

“What is that?”

The eyes of the 10th squad members in charge of the Iron Chain Soul Sealing Formation widened. A faint shadow, presumably human, had suddenly appeared before their eyes like a ghost in the middle of the split gorge.

Although both were two-legged creatures, birds and humans were different species, yet the movement technique Bi Ryu-yeon showed was almost miraculous.

“Hello!”

Bi Ryu-yeon waved cheerfully. Number 1011, who was in charge of the iron chain he had climbed, inadvertently waved back. At that moment, a silver flash gleamed from Bi Ryu-yeon’s left hand.

It was the last light he saw in this world.

“Y-You! Who are you? Everyone, deploy the formation!”

The ten members of the 10th squad, who had been staring blankly at their comrade’s absurd death, suddenly came to their senses and surrounded him from all directions, wielding the iron chains, the unique weapon of the Blood Chain Squad (the nickname for the 12th squad of the Twelve Blood Demon Squad).

Dialogue was meaningless in this situation.

‘Who are you?’, ‘Where are you from?’, ‘How old are you and what’s your affiliation?’, ‘Are your parents well?’, ‘Do you have any pretty sisters? If you introduce them, we might spare your life…’ and so on – such identity checks were as useless as dog droppings on the road to those standing on the boundary between life and death.

As the Ten-Way Iron Chain Formation was activated, dark iron chains flew from ten directions, including the eight trigram directions of Qian, Dui, Li, Zhen, Xun, Kan, Gen, Kun, plus up and down, with a sound that tore through the air. They seemed to want to bind him in an instant from ten directions and then crush him with the dark iron chains.

‘Do these guys think I’m just a standing log?’

That ridiculous thought only lasted for a moment before Bi Ryu-yeon decided to prove with actions that he was not a scarecrow or wooden doll standing stiffly like a log.

Clank!

Ten strands of iron chains, like enraged black snakes, wrapped tightly around Bi Ryu-yeon’s body with a harsh metallic sound, as if binding a death row prisoner.

“Gasp!”

At that moment, a cry of shock burst simultaneously from the mouths of the ten men, their faces bulging with surprise.

He was gone.

In the place where he should have been, where he should have been experiencing the pain of his bones shattering under the merciless punishment of ten iron chains, there was nothing.

Only a tangled mass of iron chains hung emptily in the settling yellow dust. The gazes of all ten men turned to the sky at once. And they saw. No, they felt they clearly saw.

Although they couldn’t see with their eyes due to the sunlight that was turning the white clouds golden, their subconscious clearly saw it. The smile of the death god with the sun at his back!

Whoosh!

Swish!

At that moment, ten spears of light burst forth from the brilliantly shining sun, emitting a dazzling flash like sharp thorns. The spears of light, shining like divine power, instantly pierced ten hearts.

The ten members of the Blood Chain Squad, gazing at their last sun, stiffened like sunflowers yearning for light or statues longing to cross the sky to reach the sun, never to breathe again.

“Y-You bastard!”

As his ten subordinates died without even taking a breath, Xue Suo, the leader of the 12th squad of the Twelve Blood Demon Squad, gritted his teeth and glared at Bi Ryu-yeon with hatred-filled eyes.

Bi Ryu-yeon’s gaze, descending lightly as if from the sun, met head-on with Xue Suo’s smoldering, venom-filled eyes. Lengthy words would only be a waste of time.

A situation on the brink of explosion!

It was at that moment.

“Kyaaaah!”

From the split gorge below, where the mist had not yet cleared, a scream that could turn a house-sized boulder into powder in an instant echoed. Perhaps due to the reverberation in the narrow gorge, the sound heard from high above was even more grotesque.

The corner of Bi Ryu-yeon’s eye twitched for a moment.

“How noisy!”

**Yong Cheon Myeong vs. Maha Ryeong (?)**

– Fierce Battle of Stubborn Heads

“Kyaaaah!”

“Ugh!”

It was like the chilling, neurotic metallic friction sound of an old, rusty sword being forcibly pulled from its iron scabbard.

Yong Cheon Myeong almost instinctively covered his ears and slumped to the ground at the unidentified sound attack that mercilessly violated his thin and delicate (?) eardrums. However, he stood firm on the ground, exerting his will to the utmost.

‘W-What is this sound? This terrible noise?’

He felt a sense of déjà vu, as if he had heard this torturous sound, as horrifying as his roommate’s terrifying snoring, many times before.

‘Who was it?’

That unique and distinctive voice, seemingly impossible to imitate no matter how hard one tried, was not something easily forgotten.

‘Surely the owner of that voice must be eccentric, narrow-minded, irritable, and unreasonable!’

As he thought this, the face of a woman flashed through his mind.

“Kyaah, get away! I said get away! Don’t come near! Die, die!”

And as that blood-curdling scream echoed through the gorge again, threatening to bring it down, he could finally be certain of his deduction. Come to think of it, all the conditions of the “qualities that the owner of such a scream should possess” that he had imagined matched her perfectly.

“As expected!”

In a corner, Maha Ryeong was frantically emitting saber light in all directions, screaming continuously with a pale, ashen face. The saber light, densely spread like a spider’s web, had almost formed a barrier, and the vipers caught in this deadly light curtain were helplessly being cut to pieces.

‘Gasp! How could this be… I didn’t know Miss Ma had such a feminine side? To be so terrified of snakes…’

For a moment, an incredulous laugh escaped him, but his gaze quickly turned worried. He was struck by the fear that if she continued screaming like this, the gorge might collapse and bury everyone. Although her saber was currently not allowing any viper’s fangs to approach, the saber technique she was displaying was far from rational. The clean and refined moves she usually showed were nowhere to be seen.

Well! How could a saber wielded with all one’s might, biting one’s lower lip until it bled, with bloodshot eyes, be rational?

In fact, such a reckless and powerful technique wasn’t necessary to block the viper swarm attack of the Flying Snake Formation. Excessive use of internal energy was just a waste that rapidly depleted the body’s strength.

If this continued, there would be no other way but to collapse on her own, just as the enemy intended. Feeling urgent, Yong Cheon Myeong rushed to help her, parting the bad weather of falling arrows and snakes with an umbrella of sword wind.

“Are you alright, Miss Ma? Are you hurt or bitten anywhere?”

Her appearance was a mess. Her usually neat attire was disheveled as if she had rolled on the ground, and her neatly tied hair had come undone from her violent movements, hanging loosely like a shabby straw garment. It was a disastrous appearance that she would never want anyone to see.

“Let me help you, Miss Ma!”

Suddenly, her face turned bright red.

“I don’t need it!”

She shouted irritably, then immediately took a deep breath. It was in stark contrast to Yong Cheon Myeong’s steady breathing. It was also evidence that she had been moving much more wastefully compared to him. The bloodshot look in her eyes still hadn’t subsided.

Her nerves were already on edge due to the attack of hundreds of blue-scaled creatures crawling on the ground, and it wasn’t a problem that would be resolved quickly.

“Again, you’re speaking words that aren’t true, just as you please.”

Yong Cheon Myeong shook his head. Although it was unpleasant to have his goodwill rejected so harshly, he had become somewhat immune to it and had enough composure and generosity to endure it once more. And if Maha Ryeong knew, she would weep and wail on the ground, but after countless rejections, he had become accustomed to dealing with this fierce tigress.

“Do you really mean that, Miss Ma?”

Yong Cheon Myeong looked directly at Maha Ryeong with eyes like a calm lake, speaking in a more gruff, subdued voice. She flinched at his indifferent gaze.

“I’ll ask one last time. Do you really not want my help? I don’t care what happens to me, but…”

His tone was full of threat, implying that if she said no again, he would turn around and leave right away.

“W-Well… I…”

Under normal circumstances, she would never have acknowledged such an outrageous act out of stubbornness. Her high pride would never have allowed it. However, she currently lacked the mental composure to assert her stubbornness and pride. It was an emergency, and for her, it was a major crisis.

The psychological shock imprinted in her childhood. On her tenth birthday, a mischievous boy had put a blue-scaled, creepy creature down the back of her neck. That scaly, cold, sticky, slippery, and horrifyingly disgusting thing had writhed around on her back, turning the mind of a young girl into a blank slate. Since then, she had developed an intense aversion to snakes.

The stubbornness that had flared up like sparks on an anvil for a moment had already disappeared without a trace. Maha Ryeong looked around her surroundings with squinting eyes. The scene around her was a hellish landscape, too terrifying to even focus her gaze on.

“Are you really sure you don’t need my help, Leader of the Gun ung hoe?”

She still didn’t answer.

The snakes that had been swept away by Yong Cheon Myeong like sandcastles before a wave were being replaced, and more were approaching from all directions with a horrible sound of their white bellies scraping the earth. There seemed to be well over a hundred of them.

‘Ask for help, Maha Ryeong! Is this the time to be maintaining your pride? Are you in a position to be picky? Hurry and ask for help! There’s hardly anyone more reliable as an ally than him!’

But she shook her head vigorously.

‘No! I can’t. I shouldn’t. Am I crazy to ask that man for help? Think about your status. And remember what happened in the past. That man has probably long forgotten about that incident. It was over ten years ago. How can I ask such a man for help? You are Maha Ryeong, the Iron Jade Bamboo, leader of the Gun ung hoe. You absolutely must not ask for help from the leader of the Nine Dragons Society. Especially not from that man. I’d rather die here today than do that! No, I won’t! But…’

Two contradictory thoughts were waging a fierce war in her head. However, a conclusion didn’t seem likely to come easily.