Chapter 90 : Chapter 90

Chapter 90. He Simply Forces His Will Through Strength (1)

The continent was vast.

Though the Hell Gate’s disciples had already entered Hunan, it would still take at least ten more days of travel before they actually arrived at Honam.

Even considering that they weren’t ordinary people but martial artists, that pace was already quite fast.

Still—

“Ambush! We’re under attack!”

“Everyone up!”

As the Hell Gate disciples were pitching luxurious tents and preparing camp for the night, chaos erupted.

The cause of the panic was—

“Fire! Don’t hold back—rain arrows on them!”

A group of mounted archers firing from afar.

Jo Bi’s cavalry unit never closed the distance, instead staying far away and loosing arrow after arrow.

“Tch… those bastards!”

“Damn it, those cowardly rats!”

“I won’t lose to mere arrows—ugh…!”

“Idiot! Don’t rush out! There are too many arrows!”

To a first-rate martial artist—or even a decent second-rate one—arrows weren’t particularly terrifying weapons.

From long range, arrows flew in gentle arcs, far too slow by Jianghu standards.

That was true when considering a single arrow.

The true terror of the bow lay in massed, coordinated fire.

One or two arrows posed little threat, but when dozens rained down over a single area like a storm, even first-rate experts were placed in serious danger.

“Ugh…!”

“Aaagh!”

Dozens of the enemy were struck down by arrows.

Jo Bi’s cavalry emptied two full quivers per rider.

And once the arrows were gone—

“All units, spears out!”

At Jo Bi’s command, the archers switched to spears.

The Hell Gate disciples ground their teeth and readied themselves.

“Come on, then!”

“I’ll kill you all!”

They’d been hit by a sudden ambush, but the Hell Gate wasn’t about to just take it.

They were determined to teach those cowardly bastards a lesson.

What they saw next, however, was—

“Withdraw as is!”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

The enemy turning their horses and retreating.

“……”

“……”

What?

They were retreating?

Then why bring out the spears?

No—more importantly—

“P–pursue them!”

“Damn it, stop right there, you bastards!”

The Hell Gate disciples rushed after them.

They couldn’t just let themselves be toyed with like idiots.

But—

“Ugh…!”

“Damn it, they’re too far!”

Catching up to cavalry already accelerating at full speed wasn’t easy, even for martial artists.

Even a first-rate expert in lightness skills would struggle to catch mounted troops from a distance of thirty zhang.

If lightness was your specialty, once the gap widened to sixty zhang, it became nearly impossible to match a horse’s full gallop.

Jo Bi had attacked and withdrawn while maintaining a sixty-zhang distance from the start.

At that range, there was no way the Hell Gate could catch the cavalry.

“Stop right there!”

“You cowardly bastards!”

“Get off your horses and fight!”

Hearing the enemy’s shouts from behind, Jo Bi grinned.

“Idiots. Who told you not to ride horses?”

No horses.

No armor.

Why?

As a former military officer, Jo Bi simply couldn’t understand the mentality of Jianghu martial artists.

“Well, thanks to that, it’s really easy to whittle you down.”

And from that day on, the Hell Gate learned firsthand just how terrifying cavalry could be.

***

The first ambush.

Jo Bi struck swiftly and withdrew just as fast, leaving roughly twenty casualties among the Hell Gate.

“Alright. Let’s get started.”

And with that, he immediately prepared the next operation.

The second ambush.

After retreating from the first strike, Jo Bi launched a night raid that very evening, exploiting the enemy’s complacency.

This time, the method was the same—firing arrows from afar and withdrawing—but with one key difference.

They used fire arrows.

Unprepared for a second ambush on the same day, and thrown into chaos by flaming arrows raining down at night, the Hell Gate suffered another thirty casualties.

“Idiots. How do you not even post sentries at night?”

Martial artists relied on their senses even while sleeping, so they rarely posted guards.

To Jo Bi, a man from the regular army, they just looked lazy and stupid.

The third ambush.

The same tactic, but this time the Hell Gate was prepared.

They focused entirely on blocking arrows.

Though Jo Bi’s cavalry fired three full quivers per rider, the Hell Gate suffered only minor injuries.

“So they prepared, huh?”

Clicking his tongue in disappointment, Jo Bi turned his horse around.

The fourth ambush.

Jo Bi had his men fell trees and drag boulders to block the road.

Judging it to be a childish delaying tactic, the Hellfire Dragon stepped in personally and blasted the obstacles apart with blazing internal energy.

KWA—BOOM!

Trees and rocks shattered into pieces.

Watching from afar, Jo Bi scratched his head.

“Yeah… no way we win head-on.”

The fifth ambush.

Jo Bi attacked after a two-day interval.

Blocking the road and firing arrows, his cavalry harassed the enemy.

The Hell Gate disciples blocked the arrows while advancing bit by bit.

Once they closed to within forty zhang, Jo Bi immediately ordered a retreat.

“Withdraw! Fall back!”

Jo Bi and his men turned their horses and fled.

The Hell Gate disciples—

“Get them!”

“Let’s tear those horse-haired bastards apart!”

“Horse-hair bastard, you’re dead!”

“Waaaargh!”

—went berserk and gave chase.

Forced into repeated hit-and-run engagements without rest, fatigue had piled up heavily.

They chased Jo Bi as if he were their mortal enemy.

Just as a few fast lightness-skill users began to close in on the cavalry’s rear—

“Waaah!”

“Now! Fire!”

A sudden noise erupted from behind.

The Hell Gate disciples froze.

From the opposite direction of their pursuit, arrows were flying at them.

“…Don’t tell me—?”

A few sharp ones realized it instantly.

“You ever heard of a basic but effective feint?”

“Tch, horse-hair bastard?!”

Jo Bi had already wheeled his horse around and charged back in.

A mocking grin was plastered across his face.

He’d split his forces in two—using himself to lure the enemy while a second unit lay in wait behind.

A simple, textbook feint.

And because the enemy was utterly ignorant of strategy, it worked almost laughably well.

“Horse-hair bastard!”

“This honorable elder’s name is Jo Bi!”

Roaring like a tiger, Jo Bi charged spear-first at three Hell Gate disciples.

And—

“Guh…!”

The first couldn’t block Jo Bi’s thrust and was pierced straight through the heart.

It was different from Han Cheong-un’s thrusts.

Han Cheong-un favored speed and precision, exploiting gaps with sharp, lightning-fast strikes.

Jo Bi’s thrust, on the other hand, was brute force.

Using the momentum of cavalry, it crushed defenses and skewered enemies even if they tried to block.

“You bastard!”

Another seized the moment of his comrade’s death and leapt in, aiming for an opening.

Jumping into the air to attack a mounted opponent was natural—but it was a fatal mistake.

Jo Bi drew a short javelin from his saddle and hurled it.

The throwing spear pierced straight through the heart of the man mid-air.

The third attacked from behind.

‘On horseback, he won’t be able to respond easily to a rear attack—huh?’

That assumption was wrong.

As the enemy closed in, Jo Bi’s horse reacted first.

The horse lashed out with its hind legs.

“Ugh…!”

Even a skilled martial artist could die if hit cleanly by a horse’s kick.

The Hell Gate disciple barely avoided a fatal blow, but the ambush failed.

And then—

“Catch this.”

From above, Jo Bi brought his spear down with both hands.

The enemy raised his saber in a desperate block—

BOOM!

It was useless.

With a sound like a watermelon splitting open, the man’s skull was crushed in half.

One strike per man.

None of the three could withstand even a single exchange.

“Not much, after all.”

Under normal circumstances, they wouldn’t have fallen so easily.

But they’d been running full tilt, pushing their lightness skills to the limit.

They were already gasping for breath.

If they’d been given time to recover, it might’ve been different.

But—

“On the battlefield, it’s not the strong or the weak who die first—it’s the thoughtless.”

Jo Bi showed no mercy.

That single maneuver resulted in nearly forty casualties.

Of the three Jo Bi personally killed, all were experts of vice-hallmaster rank within the Hell Gate.

Looking down coldly at their corpses, Jo Bi muttered,

“This is starting to wear me out.”

The sixth ambush.

The seventh.

The eighth, ninth, tenth…

Jo Bi’s relentless attacks bogged down the Hell Gate’s advance and inflicted heavy losses.

Thirty.

Twenty.

Sometimes even forty at a time.

Before they realized it, the elite force that had begun with five hundred men had dwindled to three hundred.

And inevitably—

KWA—BOOM!

“You useless, worthless trash!”

The Hellfire Dragon erupted in rage, like a demon crawling out of hell itself.

The disciples bowed their heads and held their breath.

If they so much as met his gaze, they wouldn’t survive.

“The enemy has fewer than fifty men! And you’re being toyed with like this?!”

“……”

“And you dare call yourselves my subordinates?!”

No one answered.

They all knew—nothing they said would quell his fury.

Their response was correct.

But—

“You garbage, crippled idiots!”

KWA-KWA—CRASH!

Even correct behavior couldn’t save you when a madman exploded.

The Hellfire Dragon crushed heads and tore bodies apart at random, venting his rage.

“P–please restrain yourself, my lord!”

“These are your loyal—guhk!”

“Shut up! I don’t need useless trash like you!”

He slaughtered several subordinates before finally calming down enough to steady his breathing.

The survivors were too terrified to approach.

“Pathetic wretches! What’s the point of my own excellence if I’m surrounded by trash like you? How am I supposed to accomplish great things with this?”

Roaring at the sky, the Hellfire Dragon ranted.

The disciples prostrated themselves, begging for mercy.

“We beg your forgiveness, my lord!”

“Please quell your wrath!”

The Hellfire Dragon snorted, radiating blazing Yang energy.

“Vermin…”

Among the Evil Path Eight Sects, the Hell Gate was notorious for having the weakest overall talent.

Perhaps that was because this tyrant killed anyone at the slightest provocation.

And when subordinates prove inadequate, most leaders arrive at the same conclusion.

“In the end, I must act personally. All because of these worthless vermin.”

There was no other choice.

“I beg your pardon, my lord.”

“Please forgive your incompetent servants.”

“We deserve death…”

After glaring at them, the Hellfire Dragon declared,

“The next time they ambush us, I will step in myself and end it.”

Hellfire Dragon Yado.

He was brutal, despicable, and greedy.

But if he acted personally, the situation might yet turn around.

Because he truly was that strong.

***

The next day.

Another ambush.

The enemy was now accustomed to Jo Bi’s hit-and-run tactics, so the results were modest.

But Jo Bi knew—even without early success, persistence mattered.

There were two objectives.

First, to steadily accumulate minor losses, like rain soaking clothes.

And second—

KWA-KWA—BOOM!

“I’ll kill you all!”

—to catch a big one.

Arrows poured down from the sky.

Normally, the Hell Gate disciples would crouch and knock them aside.

But this time was different.

The Hellfire Dragon stepped forward and swung his saber once, forming a blazing curtain that shielded everyone behind him.

Arrows that touched it burned to ash.

Seeing his might, the Hell Gate’s morale surged.

“Oooh…!”

“As expected!”

They thought he should’ve done this earlier.

But regardless, his power left everyone in awe.

Blocking the arrow rain, the Hellfire Dragon charged forward.

“The games are over, you brat!”

Even from over forty zhang away, his charge was terrifying.

Jo Bi shouted urgently,

“Withdraw! Full speed retreat!”

The Hellfire Dragon’s lightness skill was on a completely different level.

Even at full gallop, the cavalry saw the distance rapidly closing.

“Tch… miscalculated?”

Jo Bi clicked his tongue.

Recently, the Hell Gate had abandoned pursuit, focusing solely on defense.

Because of that, Jo Bi had been gradually narrowing the distance.

From sixty zhang at first…

To forty zhang in this ambush.

Against someone like the Hellfire Dragon, that proved fatal.

“I’ll slaughter you vermin!”

The murderous pressure from behind made the cavalrymen’s hair stand on end.

Jo Bi spoke calmly.

“We’ll need a rear guard to block him.”

It was basic military doctrine.

If a full retreat wasn’t possible, a small force stayed behind to delay the enemy.

Those left behind were essentially sacrificed, but their deaths preserved the main force.

A cruel but effective tactic.

Then Jo Bi turned his horse and barked orders.

“All of you, keep riding straight.”

“C–Captain?”

“What are you—?”

“Ride, damn it! That’s an order!”

And Jo Bi charged straight at the Hellfire Dragon pursuing from behind.

He chose to remain as the rearguard himself.

“Take this!”

“You insignificant vermin!”

KWA—BOOM!

Jo Bi’s spear collided with the Hellfire Dragon’s saber, and the impact exploded.