As we continued forward under Dang Gyu-young’s guidance, signs of chaos began to stir in the distance.
We exchanged glances and immediately picked up speed, and before long, the battlefield unfolded before our eyes.
Shhk shhk shhk shhk!
The sleeves of the Dang Clan martial artists billowed as countless metal projectiles rained through the air.
With enough force to shred everything within range into pieces.
The problem was that their opponents were Iron Jiangshi.
The creatures endured the barrage of hidden weapons with their entire bodies and kept hopping closer, wildly swinging their stiff arms as they clawed at anything in reach.
“Damn it…!”
The Dang Clan martial artists were forced into close combat after only a few exchanges.
Some swung swords while others struck with fist and palm techniques, but none of it proved effective against the jiangshi.
Bit by bit, they were driven onto the defensive until eventually one of them took a solid hit.
“Urgh.”
A middle-aged man staggered backward with a groan.
Blood streamed down from his arm where chunks of flesh had been torn away.
As if that weren’t enough, two jiangshi came hopping toward him to finish the job.
But at that moment, a shadow suddenly rose from beneath the man’s feet and took human form.
Its upper body swelled like a balloon to block the incoming claws, then it grabbed one jiangshi in each arm.
A swift shadow rushed in right after and sliced both creatures clean in half.
Shhk! Shhk!
Qyu Shadow Lord and Qyu Sword Commander dashed across the battlefield in search of their next targets.
The middle-aged man stared at them with wide eyes before turning his gaze toward Dang Gyu-young.
Judging from the complicated look on his face, he was probably from the Council of Elders faction.
Meanwhile, the others were defeating jiangshi in their own ways as well.
Perhaps thanks to accumulating experience, they handled them with far greater skill now.
Shrrrk!
Jegal So-so’s sword moved too quickly to even follow with the eye.
Her consecutive strikes sliced away the talismans before she passed by the collapsing jiangshi as though it were a puppet with its strings cut.
Then she launched another flurry of strikes at the next one.
Shrrrk!
The Hye-seong Group marksmen were no different.
They loaded crimson bullets into their magic firearms, aimed at their targets, and pulled the triggers.
A clear tung echoed out,
Boom—!
And the jiangshi were engulfed in flames.
Flame special bullets.
They had realized it after watching the Spiral Explosion + Inferno Fist combination.
That burning everything down at once was far easier than removing every talisman individually.
“……!”
Watching the scene, Seo Ye-in’s eyes sparkled.
A moment later, she held out her hand toward Ahn Jeong-mi.
“Me too.”
“Young miss, the model you use is designed specifically to maximize the power of standard magic bullets.”
“Can’t use special bullets?”
“The compatibility is rather poor.”
“A shame….”
Seo Ye-in’s hand slowly drooped back down.
She seemed to understand logically, but the longing in her eyes as she stared at the flame special bullets was still painfully obvious.
As the Hye-seong Group team leader and her butler, Ahn Jeong-mi simply couldn’t ignore that look.
In the end, she handed over her own magic firearm.
“…For now, please use mine.”
“Burn them all…!”
Seo Ye-in’s eyes sparkled brightly.
After loading flame bullets into the butler’s firearm, she fired toward the Iron Jiangshi.
Boom!
Ahn Jeong-mi watched the scene with complicated emotions.
Though for slightly different reasons than the Elder Council uncle earlier.
For some reason, it felt like about twenty squeaky toy hammer bonks had just been added to her future.
Whether Seo Ye-in realized it or not, she remained completely absorbed in burning the Iron Jiangshi.
Boom! Boom—!
Before long, the battlefield was cleared.
The Dang Clan martial artists respectfully cupped their fists in salute.
“Thanks to you, we were able to escape the crisis. We will never forget this debt.”
“We only did what needed to be done. For now, please evacuate the wounded somewhere safe.”
“We shall.”
“Would you like us to escort you?”
There was always the possibility they might encounter enemies again while retreating.
But the Dang Clan martial artist shook his head.
“With the clan’s mechanisms and formations, defeating those creatures may be difficult, but avoiding them is not.”
“I’m just worried about the possibility of something happening.”
“If we fall nonetheless, then perhaps that too is the will of heaven. Rather than worrying about us, please help the other family members.”
“Understood.”
Before leaving, the middle-aged man and several others who appeared to belong to the Elder Council approached Dang Gyu-young.
They hesitated briefly before finally speaking with difficulty.
“Thank you. And… I’m sorry.”
Now that they owed her their lives, they could no longer cling to personal feelings.
Especially not in the Dang Clan, where debts and grudges were valued above almost everything else.
Dang Gyu-young gave a small nod in response.
“Take care of yourselves.”
“When this is all over, I’ll come see you.”
Meaning he intended to apologize properly then.
With those words, the Dang Clan martial artists turned their backs and disappeared into the darkness.
“……”
Dang Gyu-young looked somewhat relieved.
As though she had finally set down one heavy burden.
But her expression soon hardened again, likely realizing the night was still long and many clan members still needed help.
After glancing briefly in my direction, Dang Gyu-young took the lead once more.
“Let’s go.”
***
After defeating several groups of Iron Jiangshi and rescuing Dang Clan martial artists a few more times, we once again sensed a disturbance ahead.
The scale of the battle was so large that even through the Blood Cult’s formation, which dulled the senses, the vibrations still reached us.
As expected, the battlefield was filled with several times more martial artists and jiangshi than before, all tangled together in chaotic combat.
Here and there, figures in blood-red robes stood out.
Blood Cultists.
The bastards hid among the Iron Jiangshi, closing in on the Dang Clan martial artists before launching sudden sneak attacks.
The Dang Clan fighters seemed to have recognized the tactic as well, because they had finally begun using poisons they previously wouldn’t even have considered against jiangshi.
Acrid smoke billowed throughout the battlefield while poisonous sand scattered through the air.
But among the jiangshi were some that deliberately leaped straight into the poison smoke and poison sand.
Unlike the Iron Jiangshi, they showed no interest in combat and focused solely on absorbing the toxins.
Poison Jiangshi.
They were probably planning to absorb it all now and release it back later.
At the same time, the Dang Clan martial artists had no choice but to keep using poison.
The battle situation was already unfavorable enough as it was, and they still needed some way to restrain the Blood Cultists.
At least we’re not too late.
There still seemed to be plenty of room to turn things around.
We immediately joined the fight and began taking down enemies.
Meanwhile, in one corner of the battlefield, Dang Eun-bi also caught my eye.
She darted around here and there, and every time she spread poison, another Blood Cultist would clutch their throat and collapse.
“Ghk.”
“Ugh…!”
As expected of a future Dragon Slayer Academy promising student, she was putting up quite a fight.
That prompted a Blood Cultist who appeared to be a squad leader to point at Dang Eun-bi.
“That little rat…! Capture her!”
Nearby Iron Jiangshi came hopping toward her like a swarm of locusts.
Yet instead of panicking, Dang Eun-bi broke into a triumphant grin.
She pulled a cylindrical object from her robes and yanked the string hanging from it like a tail.
In the next instant, a blinding flash erupted—
Boooooom—!
—and an enormous blaze swept through the creatures.
At least she listened to what I said.
When I first guessed that the Blood Cult’s trump card would be jiangshi, I had given the Dang twins some advice.
That hidden weapons imbued with fire qi would be effective.
Still, since the suggestion came from me, I figured Dang Eun-bi might ignore it—but apparently she had prepared properly and was putting it to good use.
While I felt a bit proud watching her, the squad leader-class Blood Cultist ground his teeth at the unexpected losses.
“I’ll make sure to capture you, no matter what.”
Then he personally stepped forward and began executing his movement technique.
Dang Eun-bi responded with another triumphant grin.
She rummaged through her robes as though reaching for another hidden weapon.
But confusion soon spread across her face.
Looks like she ran out.
Well, it wasn’t as if weapons with that much destructive power could be manufactured endlessly.
Dang Eun-bi hurriedly scattered poison instead, but the squad leader dodged effortlessly and continued advancing with his footwork.
Just as he was about to close the distance—
A shadow suddenly burst upward beneath his feet and smashed into him.
Smack!
Dang Gyu-young rested her shadow club casually on one shoulder.
“You’re really going this far just to catch one kid? At least pick someone at your own level.”
“Unniiie!”
Dang Eun-bi’s face lit up with admiration and emotion.
She looked like someone gazing at a prince riding in on a white horse.
Dang Gyu-young affectionately patted her little cousin on the head before turning toward the squad leader-class Blood Cultist.
The man staggered back to his feet and glared at Dang Gyu-young, about to spit out something through gritted teeth—
Boooooooom—!
—but before he could speak, a magic bullet slammed into him and blasted him away.
The sniper was none other than Ahn Jeong-mi.
In her usual calm tone, she remarked,
“You’re leaving yourself far too open.”
This was a chaotic battlefield, and no one had agreed to a formal one-on-one duel with Dang Gyu-young.
He had focused solely on the opponent in front of him and completely neglected the possibility of sniper fire.
As the Blood Cult’s command structure faltered, the flow of battle rapidly tilted in our favor.
The Iron Jiangshi were steadily cleaned up one by one, while the Poison Jiangshi appeared to receive orders from several Blood Cultists and attempted to withdraw from the battlefield.
They had already succeeded in absorbing poison, so they were probably planning to use it in another fight.
But Dang Gyu-young noticed immediately and moved Captain Gyu-young into action.
Shhk—!
The creatures were neatly sliced in half.
While the Dang Clan warriors were cleaning up the battlefield, Dang Eun-bi approached us and bowed her head.
She even thanked me.
“Thank you for helping us.”
I might have been the bastard who stole away her unnie, but apparently gratitude was still gratitude.
Though the moment she spent expressing it was very brief.
Then Dang Eun-bi spotted Jegal So-so and widened her eyes.
“So-so unnie……?”
“Eun-bi, it’s been a while.”
“So-so unnie……!”
The two immediately clasped hands.
They must have known each other from before.
Well, Sho-Qyu had said they’d known each other since they were very young, so they probably became close while spending time together back then.
Still, after Dang Gyu-young stepped down from the direct line, contact between them likely became infrequent, so there was a good chance this was their first meeting in years.
Maybe that was why Dang Eun-bi seemed reluctant to let go of the hand she was holding.
“When did you arrive? I hadn’t heard anything.”
“Just today. I didn’t even tell her before coming.”
“Her”, of course, meant Dang Gyu-young.
Dang Eun-bi nodded and continued asking questions.
“I see. The timing is incredibly coincidental… did you come to help?”
“Mhmm. I heard things had become chaotic. If someone’s your friend, helping out at a time like this is the right thing to do.”
“Thank you so much……!”
Dang Eun-bi’s eyes shimmered with emotion.
Quite a different level of warmth compared to when she thanked me.
With a gentle smile, Jegal So-so replied,
“Let’s get everything settled and hang out together again like before.”
“Yes……!”
“I also promised to hang out with him.”
As she said that, Jegal So-so casually placed a hand on my shoulder.
The gesture was so natural and familiar that the smile vanished from Dang Eun-bi’s face instantly.
Then she stared at me with hollow eyes, as if silently asking,
Would you only be satisfied after stealing every last one of them away?
First Dang Gyu-young and Seo Ye-in, and now even Jegal So-so?
Without meaning to, I had somehow become “Kim Ho, the Unnie-Stealer”.
Just as Dang Eun-bi kept shooting me dissatisfied looks—
Jingle…….
From somewhere, the eerie sound of a bell echoed through the air.
I looked around for the source of the sound and spotted an old man standing atop a pavilion some distance away.
I still couldn’t tell who he was, but I recognized the object in his hand immediately.
The Soul-Summoning Bell.
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