Chapter 17 : Fifteen Years Later (2)

Dududu! Dudu!

She rode the horse.

The more the woman rode the horse, the more she felt the true value of the black horse with her whole body.

The horse did not breathe heavily. It just ran lightly, as if taking a stroll. And yet, the sound of the wind brushing past her ears was audible. It was running very fast, but it was extremely natural.

‘To think there was such a horse!’

The woman forgot what kind of situation she was in.

She enjoyed the pleasure of riding a horse.

It would be great if she wasn’t being chased. She wouldn’t spare any praise for it being a very good horse.

At that moment, she sensed a very bad sharp energy.

The feeling was chilling. A shiver ran down her spine, as if she had put a poison pill in her mouth and bitten it.

“Haat!”

She immediately snatched the reins.

Hee hee hing!

The black horse lifted its front legs and came to a stop.

It was fast at running, but it was also very fast at stopping.

Considering its running speed, the distance it took to stop while running was unbelievably short.

‘Ambush!’

The woman stared ahead and slowly rode the horse.

Clop! Clop! Clop!

The sound of the horse’s hooves awakened the darkness.

The straight official road was filled with black darkness. The surroundings were also dark. The trees looked black, and the rocks were a dark gray.

The woman read the killing intent in it.

“Chiit!”

A sound of clenching her teeth came out on its own.

The Living Sword Sect had moved very quickly.

The time it took for her to infiltrate the stable and take the horse was only a moment. About the time it takes for a person who has just woken up to get dressed? But the Living Sword Sect had already taken their positions and ambushed their disciples.

A killing sword was waiting.

They were a sword sect, but they would not use swords.

They would use flying weapons like bows or hidden weapons. To catch someone riding a horse, even a sword sect had no choice but to use flying weapons.

Or they could have dug a trap on the official road.

They probably couldn’t have set up a roadblock in time, but they could have laid hidden weapons like iron nails on the ground.

“I told you not to kill it, but I might have to let you die. I’m sorry, I can’t help it either.”

In a situation where the horse could be injured, the woman muttered softly and stroked the horse’s neck.

The horse walked calmly, unaware of the danger it was in.

Clop! Clop!

The sound of the horse’s hooves rang out very clearly.

“This is all I can do. I trust you. You have to save me.”

The woman patted the horse’s neck again.

Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop! Clop!

The horse began to run.

At first, it walked… then it walked a little faster… then it began to run slowly, slowly.

The place where the ambush was felt was a bend in the mountain.

Where the official road curved, martial artists were spread out on the right mountain ridge. On the opposite side, in the fields… it would be enough to just lay an ambush on the mountain ridge, but if they were to be perfect, they would have deployed them in the fields as well.

It was good to shoot arrows from the mountain. It would be good to throw things like flying locust stones from the fields.

What this side thought, the other side also thought.

There was definitely an ambush.

If there was no ambush here, if such luck were to happen, then she could be confident that she had escaped the hands of the Living Sword Sect.

“Hiyah!”

Dududududu!

The black horse charged forward.

To anyone watching, it would look like someone who had not felt the ambush at all was running defenselessly.

‘Horse! I only trust you!’

Finally, she arrived at the place where the ambush was predicted. In that instant,

Shwaeeek! Shwaeeeeek!

Thin black lines were drawn densely in the night sky.

Arrows! It was arrows!

The black lines that filled the sky poured down on her like hail.

Papak! Papak!

The sound of beans being roasted also rang out from the fields.

It was a repeating crossbow. She had thought they would use something like flying locust stones, but they were trying to pull out the roots altogether.

“Hiyah!”

She kicked the horse’s belly hard without any hesitation.

In that instant, the black horse charged forward like a shot.

Time difference!

This was the only way to escape the ambush.

They would calculate the speed at which the horse was running and shoot their flying weapons. In front of the running horse, behind it, and in the middle… a weapon like a repeating crossbow would be a direct hit.

She would steal that time difference.

She had to run much faster than they had thought. A little faster would not solve it. She had to shoot forward at an unthinkable speed, as if shaking off something that was rushing at her.

Could the black horse do it?

If its current running speed was its maximum, she would become a hedgehog.

But there was nothing she could do. She only trusted the horse.

Dududududu!

The horse ran hard.

The sound of the wind brushing past her ears rang like the sound of an arrow flying.

“Ah!”

She was startled.

She knew that the black horse was a famous horse, but she had not thought it would be this fast.

It was to the extent that it would not be out of place to call it a flying horse, a heavenly horse.

The arrows fell behind her. The repeating crossbow grazed past her back. The sound of the arrows falling on the ground burst like water droplets falling into a pot of oil.

‘It worked! It worked…!’

She smiled brightly and ran hard.

“Haat!”

But, she had no choice but to stop the black horse.

On the official road… ten horses were lined up in a row.

A martial artist sat on each horse. Some held long swords in their hands, and some had them on their shoulders.

“Hmm!”

A groan escaped from her mouth.

The martial artists of the Living Sword Sect were skilled in all martial arts. It wasn’t just their sword skills that were strong. They were proficient in all eighteen martial arts.

Their horsemanship was also excellent.

Among their horsemanship, there was a formation in which ten people fought as a team, and it was called the Overlapping Formation.

It was a linked formation in which ten people attacked in turn.

It wasn’t that ten people attacked with their swords at once. One person would attack, then the next person would attack, and then the next attack would follow… ten people would continue to attack without giving a moment to breathe.

If you blocked all ten attacks, it would start again from the beginning.

In the end, to get out of the fight, you had to either kill all ten people or die.

The Living Sword Sect’s Overlapping Formation was famous for being undefeated.

Befitting its reputation of being undefeated, all the martial artists on horseback would be the best masters that the Living Sword Sect boasted of.

She bit her lip hard.

She was not proficient in swordsmanship on horseback. She had almost never performed a sword form on horseback.

‘It’s an absurd fight, but I have no choice but to do my best.’

Shing!

She drew her sword.

The black horse had helped her escape the ambush, but she had to break through the Overlapping Formation herself. The horse could not break through it.

Clop clop clop!

The ten horses charged forward at once.

Ten horses were running, but it seemed like one horse was running. The distance between the horses was constant.

Her breath was caught in her throat.

Shwaeeek!

The martial artist on the first horse swung his long sword.

‘Twin swords…!’

Thunderbolt Axe Swing!

It meant the form of an axe shining in a thunderbolt. The right sword flashed! The left sword flashed! It emitted light.

Clang! Clang!

She frantically blocked the twin swords.

Her grip ached as if it would tear. She almost dropped her sword due to the impact of the twin swords.

It was a considerably heavy sword. The internal energy contained in the sword was as heavy as if it were supporting a huge rock.

Dududududu!

The first martial artist passed by, and the second martial artist rushed in.

Shwaeeek!

Right Sword Left Swing!

He swung the sword in his right hand to the left.

Swordsmanship on horseback was completely different from the forms performed on the ground. Flash! When the light was emitted, it was over. Only the martial arts of an instant existed.

Kaang!

She also blocked the second sword attack.

‘Kuk!’

A faint groan almost escaped.

She had endured it by clenching her teeth… but the pain that rang from the sword was transmitted to her wrist, elbow, and shoulder. Her entire right arm tingled as if it were paralyzed.

‘Another heavy sword!’

They seemed to be trying to drain her true energy first, so they clashed with immense brute force.

“Hoop!”

She quickly inhaled.

In that instant, her true energy circulated once, and the Cotton Silkworm Art gathered in both her hands.

If the Living Sword Sect used a heavy sword, she was thinking of using a soft art. She would not meet the strong art head on, but would let it flow away softly. She would wrap the sharp sword with a cloth.

Dudududu!

The third mounted martial artist rushed in. In that instant,

“Hook!”

She inhaled a gasp of air.

The third martial artist’s sword was not visible. His form also suddenly disappeared in front of her eyes.

She hurriedly tried to find the opponent’s traces.

The black horse continued to run forward. The opponent’s horse also charged forward. But the opponent was not visible. He had completely hidden his form, and she didn’t know where he had disappeared.

She did not dare to let her guard down until the horses passed each other.

It would not be strange at all if an attack suddenly came out from somewhere. So she had to be fully prepared…

Shugak!

The killing sword came out when the horse was passing.

When the horses had completely passed each other, around the time she had to look at the fourth martial artist.

Jiiik!

The clothes on her side were torn long, and red blood spurted out.

The sword used by the third martial artist was a fast sword. He had only used a heavy sword, but a very fast sword had come out.

Dududududu! Baaaak!

The fourth clash occurred.

It was a heavy sword again. He had only swung a three chi long sword, but the impact of clashing with an eighty jin iron flail was transmitted.

Only the fourth of ten… but in this clash, her finger bones were broken. She no longer had the strength to hold the sword. She was barely holding on to the sword, but she had no strength to shake it off.

Dudududu! Shwaeeek! Peok!

The fifth sword contained the Thunderbolt Sword. It was fast, strong, and dazzling.

Kaang!

She barely managed to raise her sword and block it. But she could not overcome the internal energy of the Thunderbolt Sword.

The sword left her hand and flew away.

The Overlapping Formation was said to be undefeated… she had only blocked half of them, but she had lost her sword. Even if she blocked all ten of them, she would have to continue the same fight over and over again. Until one side completely collapsed.

She calmed her mind.

Three Inch Gaze!

Let’s risk my life. Let’s use the Three Inch Gaze. A high degree of mental concentration… after using the Three Inch Gaze, all the energy in her body would drain out at once and she would faint, but she had to try what she could.

After that, she didn’t know if she would live or die.

If she couldn’t face them… she would perform the strongest martial art she could and then wait.

She immediately untied one side of her belt and tied it to the saddle.

She was trying not to fall off the horse even if she fainted.

She would die, but she would not be captured alive.

Dudududu!

The sixth martial artist rushed in.

He also had twin swords. With the sword in his left hand, he came to cut her head, and with the sword in his right hand, he came to cut her waist. He used twin swords with both hands, but he executed different forms with each.

She looked at the sword. Her eyes, which had killed her mind, watched the sword until the end. She followed the trajectory that the sword drew. The human eye cannot follow the trajectory of a sword, but an eye that has killed life can.

Shwaeeek!

The sword was about to strike her neck. In that instant,

Shwek!

When the opponent’s sword reached three inches, just before the sword touched her flesh, the hand that had been waiting until then moved suddenly. It struck the opponent’s chest.

Do not cling to life. You must be determined to die. You must be able to watch without even batting an eyelash until the opponent’s weapon touches your flesh. After that, only an instant remains. If you cannot avoid it in an instant, you will die. If you avoid it in an instant, you can seize the chance of victory. This is the Three Inch Gaze.

The eye that had abandoned life had found the opponent’s opening. It had found the empty space between the trajectory of the sword and the chest. And it had even calculated the opportunity to extend its hand.

Peok!

The opponent was thrown off his horse.

She looked at the seventh martial artist. But… her mind was already hazy. Her vision blurred, and then she collapsed, burying her head in the horse’s back.