The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 12

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 12. Hunter’s Instinct
“No Retreat! And it’s written in plain language, not cipher.”
“What does that mean?”
Dong Pil wasn’t asking because he didn’t understand what “No Retreat” meant.
An Urgent Standing Order was deployed only in situations so pressing that normal dispatch couldn’t be used, and the operation had to succeed at all costs.
And unless there was some guarantee that the red-tailed messenger eagle—clever enough to approach the level of a spiritual creature—would never fall into enemy hands, the contents written in any dispatch had to be encoded in cipher to prevent the enemy from discovering their side’s orders.
Yet this Urgent Standing Order had been sent in plain language.
That was what he was asking about.
Yi Song answered Dong Pil’s question with a bitter expression.
“It means they don’t care if it falls into enemy hands.”
Their movements and countermeasures were secrets above secrets.
But if information that could reveal them was acceptable to fall into enemy hands, then….
“They’ve abandoned us!”
At Jang Min Su’s hollow words, the others’ faces darkened as swiftly as the atmosphere itself.
It was Dong Pil’s voice that broke the silence.
“I didn’t want to say this given the situation we’re in… but they’re coming again.”
The others’ attention snapped to Yi Song, then followed his gaze to Ryu.
Ryu, aware of their stares, spoke in a steady voice.
“We move again. No Retreat means don’t leave the Lion Gate, not that we have to stay in one place.”
Yi Song nodded at those words, and Jeok Sa Jo began moving once more.
As they moved, Yi Song’s voice transmission reached Ryu.
-What’s your plan now?
-Why do we have to stay within the Lion Gate?
Ryu didn’t answer the question but asked something else instead. Yi Song shared his thoughts.
-I suspect they want to pin down the ones chasing us to us.
-Meaning?
-Meaning there are others deployed in this operation besides us. And they’re the main force, and they’re succeeding.
That also meant Jeok Sa Jo needed to keep the Blood Ghost Corps warriors pursuing them occupied so the others could achieve complete success.
In other words, Jeok Sa Jo itself.
-We’re bait….
-It seems so. It appears command plans to use us as bait to make this operation succeed.
-It’s unfamiliar. Us as bait.
Yi Song sent a voice transmission to Ryu, who looked bewildered.
-The person you needed to rescue must have been quite important. Important enough to use us as bait for.
Jeok Sa Jo had never been bait before.
Until now, they’d always been used to crush enemies or strike them down.
Because Jeok Sa Jo had grown accustomed to that role, they hadn’t even considered the possibility of becoming bait themselves.
They had always been hunters, never the hunted.
As the thought took hold, Ryu belatedly grasped something he’d failed to recognize until now.
‘Hunters!’
That was it.
In every mission, they had been hunters.
When infiltrating enemy positions, they hadn’t crept through anxiously, afraid of triggering their defensive lines—they’d smashed through those lines themselves.
Whatever the nature of the mission, Jeok Sa Jo had always been placed in the attacker’s position.
But not this time.
Because the objective wasn’t combat; it was extraction.
And not in enemy territory, but neutral ground.
That had brought about an unexpected shift in their role, transforming them from hunters into the hunted.
Having realized this too late, Ryu received another question from Yi Song.
-So what should we do?
-Do what we’re good at.
-What we’re good at?
Ryu smiled faintly at Yi Song’s puzzled look.
-Yes. What we do well.
***
Following the guide of Blood Spirit No. 357 at the front, Geum Mil’s footsteps suddenly halted.
At that spot, Blood Spirit No. 357, who’d been leading the way, stood frozen in shock.
The other Blood Ghosts arriving at their location followed their gaze to four corpses laid out in a line.
“Blood Ghosts, sir.”
At one of the Blood Ghosts’ words, Geum Mil’s head nodded in agreement.
It was clear who lay bleeding on the ground before them.
They had to be Blood Ghost Corps operatives, tracking the Jeok Sa Jo members from different positions.
Nine Blood Ghost Corps members had survived the clash with Jeok Sa Jo. Eight of them were in pursuit, while Blood Spirit No. 357 had come to deliver that news to Geum Mil.
And four more had joined in sequence to report the target’s change of direction. So now, including Blood Spirit No. 357 who had been guiding from the start, five Blood Ghost Corps members moved alongside Geum Mil.
Which meant the total number of Blood Ghost Corps members actively tracking Jeok Sa Jo until recently was four.
All four of them now lay as corpses before his eyes.
So there were no more Blood Ghost Corps members tracking Jeok Sa Jo.
In other words, from now on they would have to pursue by traces alone.
It was frustrating, but Geum Mil paid it little mind.
The distance to them was roughly half a league.
Yes, those assigned to surveillance and guidance had vanished, which would cost them some time, but there was no change in their purpose—to deliver death to Jeok Sa Jo and to the one they had named Sal Rang.
“Find them!”
At Geum Mil’s command, the small squads arranged around his elite guard scattered with practiced speed.
The moment one of them located the prey, the rest would converge and finish it.
“Let’s move!”
With those words, Geum Mil hurled himself forward, and some ten of his guard along with five Blood Ghost Corps members followed.
Behind them, in the space they had just vacated, lay only the corpses of four Blood Ghost Corps members, their breath spent.
The first principle of the hunt is superiority of speed.
See first, move first, strike first.
All of it demands a tempo at least half a beat faster than the enemy.
To achieve that, Jeok Sa Jo had divided their numbers.
Dong Pil and Yi Song formed one unit, Jwa Ryang and Jang Min Su another, and Ryu alone constituted a third.
Of course, Paeng Gyeong and Hwang Bo Jang Seong, who had vehemently opposed dividing their already inferior numbers, remained to serve as guardians for the badly wounded Cheol Ja Ryong and Hee Jun, who stayed to treat him, while continuing to move.
Gwak Ki Ryang and Yun were the bait.
Unlike Paeng Gyeong and the others, who had been ordered to move fast without worrying about leaving traces, Gwak Ki Ryang and Yun were to move separately, erasing their trail as much as possible.
But why was it Gwak Ki Ryang and Yun who served as bait, not Paeng Gyeong and his group?
***
“We’ve found two sets of traces—one large and clear, one faint and small.”
At his subordinate’s report, Geum Mil’s eyes flashed cold.
“Tail Cutting. They’re making those too wounded to recover leave the obvious trail while the rest slip away unseen.”
It was a technique the Maeng Ui Dan favored in desperate moments.
In their minds, it was a compromise—sacrifice the few to save the many—but they had chosen the wrong opponent.
“Send only ten men after the large trail. The rest pursue the small one. Warn them not to be deceived.”
“Yes, Geum Mil!”
Once his subordinates received and acknowledged the order, all but one unit rushed into the mountains after the faint traces.
They spread so widely across a single trail because their aim was encirclement.
Every encounter with Jeok Sa Jo so far had demonstrated their extraordinary speed.
So those who had faced them before would lose them the moment they blinked, the instant a gap appeared—slipping through and vanishing before anyone could react.
Geum Mil had no intention of making such a mistake.
So from the start, when heading toward the Lion Gate, he had brought every member of his guard except the twenty left to protect the Blood Ghost Corps commander.
That numbered one hundred and ten men.
Six had been killed, so now he commanded one hundred and four. He dispersed them to form a wide encirclement.
This time, escape was impossible.
They would die by his hand here at the Lion Gate!
No—they could only die.
The thought alone delighted him enough that Geum Mil, hidden behind his mask, drew a cold smile and pushed off from the ground.
He too was returning to join the pursuit.
Gwak Ki Ryang and Yun had never been deeply skilled in the Lightness Martial Art.
Given that they had to move while erasing their traces, their speed could only become far slower than usual.
For the Blood Ghost Corps members to catch up to them was not a difficult matter.
Perhaps that was why.
The first to catch them were not one unit but two—twenty men.
The unit approaching from the left decided to move first.
At a glance from their commander, a Blood Ghost Corps member was about to blow the Signal Horn, their means of communication, when a Flying Knife with a silver tail came streaking in and lodged in his throat.
“Hack—hack!”
Instead of a horn’s call, only the sound of coughed blood came from the Blood Ghost Corps member, who collapsed uselessly with the Signal Horn still between his lips.
In that same instant, a dozen Flying Knives flew, and through the gaps, Jang Min Su, his feet clad in dark Water Shoes, burst forward.
Crack! Hack!
Following the anguished groans of those struck by Flying Knives from an unexpected direction came the terrible screams of those taking the full brunt of a terrible Fist Force.
A roar of agony!
Just then, another group of Blood Ghosts approaching from the right was about to collide with Gwak Ki Ryang and Yoon when a sudden scream startled them, and they faltered for a moment.
In that instant, three glinting blades shot out from behind them.
Yi Song’s sword and Dong Pil’s twin blades cut through the air simultaneously.
At once, the forest erupted with the continuous screams of dying Blood Ghosts.
“Aghhh!”
“Aghhhh!”
Without even knowing whose screams these were or who had created them, Gwak Ki Ryang and Yoon, startled as rabbits, accelerated without leaving a trace behind.
As those two fled in panic, Geum Mil and the other Blood Ghosts swarmed into the spot they had just abandoned.
But what awaited Geum Mil, arriving one step too late, was nine Blood Ghosts scattered about with their breath cut off, and eleven surviving Blood Ghosts standing hollow-eyed.
“What in the hells happened?”
To Geum Mil’s furious question, the leader of the left squad, which had lost five fighters, answered in panic.
“Just as we thought we had their rear, we were ambushed suddenly from the flank…….”
“You utter fools!”
Though Geum Mil could not afford to waste time on rage, he barked orders swiftly.
“You lot—clean up the bodies and follow. The rest of us will pursue them at once. Move!”
With his command, Geum Mil threw himself forward, and the Blood Ghosts that had gathered scattered once more in all directions, rushing into the forest in pursuit.
Behind those departing comrades, the surviving Blood Ghosts began collecting the corpses and were busy recovering things that could not be exposed from the bodies when a blade rose quietly behind them.
It looked unusually long, as if two blades had been joined together.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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