The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 15

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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 15. The Brilliant Mind Mo Yong Ji Eun
“Listen, Ryu, we need the commander’s decision.”
Lee Song had drawn near without warning, and only then did Ryu turn his gaze away reluctantly, shaking his head.
“We’re still in the middle of our mission.”
“If something happens to that one, Dan Ju won’t be pleased.”
“Doesn’t matter. I’m not particularly fond of Dan Ju either.”
Ryu tossed out what seemed like a joke without humor and rose from his seat.
“We move in two hours.”
At those words, Paeng Gyeong shot to his feet.
“If you’re afraid of punishment for defying orders, at least send us alone.”
By now even the newcomers, including Paeng Gyeong, understood.
That Ryu was the true leader of Jeoksajo.
That’s why Paeng Gyeong had dared to make his appeal directly to him.
Ryu, who had been watching him intently, asked a question.
“If I send you, are you confident you’d come back alive?”
“The pursuers are already dead…….”
“Are you certain? That all the pursuers are dead?”
“Isn’t that why we’ve been resting like this?”
At Paeng Gyeong’s words, Ryu looked up at the sky for a moment, then shook his head.
“The air is heavy and sharp. It means there are still pursuers out there. But if you insist on leaving separately, I’ll let you go. Will you?”
Paeng Gyeong couldn’t bring himself to answer as he lowered his gaze from the sky to meet Ryu’s steady stare.
The skill of the pursuers he’d encountered was nowhere near sufficient to survive alone, separated from the group.
If there were more of them…….
Unable to say anything, Paeng Gyeong bowed his head helplessly, and Ryu turned away without another word.
The newcomers watched his departing figure with conflicted expressions.
After two hours of rest restored their depleted strength, and the tents were struck and preparations for departure completed, Dong Pil once again stood at the head of the Jeoksajo column.
But Ryu positioned himself at his side.
At that sight, Lee Song asked in an anxious tone.
“Why… is something weighing on your mind?”
“The air has grown heavier and sharper.”
“Enough that you need to take point?”
Seeing Ryu nod in response, Lee Song was struck by a memory of a bitter past.
That time, eleven years ago, when Jeoksajo had lost most of its members…….
“Wouldn’t it be wise to give the members a warning at least?”
As Lee Song posed the question loudly enough for all the others to hear, Ryu said nothing.
He understood Lee Song’s heart.
Because the memory of losing so many members from the past was just as bitter for Ryu as it was for Lee Song.
Understanding Ryu’s intent, Lee Song raised his voice even higher.
So that even the newcomers standing at the very rear could hear.
“The pursuers are stronger than expected. Don’t let your guard slip.”
“When have we ever let our guard slip on a mission?”
At Dong Pil’s blunt reproach, Lee Song’s expression hardened.
“That level won’t be enough.”
Lee Song was naturally anxious even on ordinary days, but today was unusual.
Finding that strange, Jwa Ryang, who had been quiet until now, fixed his gaze on Ryu.
“Does he mean… you’re thinking the same thing?”
To Jwa Ryang’s question, Ryu simply nodded, his expression unreadable as always.
Yet that single gesture was enough, and Jwa Ryang swept his eyes across Dong Pil and Jang Min Soo before speaking bluntly.
“I’ve got a thirty-tael Bank Note sewn into my pillow. Whoever lives will own it.”
Dong Pil and Jang Min Soo’s eyes widened as they understood what he meant.
Before they’d even faced their enemy, Jwa Ryang had hinted that he himself might not survive.
The members who knew how formidable Jwa Ryang’s true strength was were all the more shocked by those words.
Once that shock had passed, Dong Pil adjusted the Twin Swords on his back to draw more easily and muttered.
“Damn it! No wonder the manager of Maewolru kept demanding I settle my debts in my dreams like that…….”
The moment Dong Pil’s grumbling ended, Jang Min Soo’s voice continued.
“One hundred seventy tael. I’ve sewn it into the upper edge of my blanket.”
With Jang Min Soo’s words—not quite a will, but close to one—the core of Jeoksajo steeled themselves.
The problem was the newcomers.
Since life had already been a series of dangers and crises, they looked as though they didn’t understand what all this talk meant now.
As Lee Song watched the newcomers for a moment, he shook his head.
Words alone couldn’t convey the truth of it.
You had to experience what a real fight with the Heukgwi truly meant before you understood.
He’d been the same once, so he held no blame against them.
That’s why Lee Song added one more word of warning.
“I beg you—exercise caution.”
With that signal, the Jeoksajo departed.
The night sky still hung thick with stars—the depths of midnight.
***
The Jeokeyeongjo, like the Jeoksajo, belonged to the Jeokbyeoldae and carried out infiltration and reconnaissance missions as their core duty.
To that end, the Jeokeyeongjo’s members were selected from those with exceptional skill in the Concealment Art and Infiltration Art.
This meant, relatively speaking, that combat prowess had not been the primary criterion for recruitment.
When Bong Jin, the commander of the Jeokeyeongjo, was first assigned this mission, his anxiety ran extraordinarily high.
Unlike their usual operations, they were being forced to penetrate far deeper into enemy territory, and his knowledge of the terrain was far from perfect.
Moreover, given the status of the person they were escorting, it was certain that the Heukgwi would never release them lightly.
Of course, he’d heard that there would be another operational unit to draw the Heukgwi’s attention before their deployment, but that knowledge did little to ease his dread.
And so, after meeting the planned contact, he had prioritized speed over stealth.
He had resolved to extract from the Sajagwan at maximum velocity, even if it meant leaving some traces behind.
The problem was that the cursed forests of the Sajagwan clung to the Jeokeyeongjo’s heels without mercy.
There were places where the dense vegetation was so thick they couldn’t possibly force their way through, and careless turns led them face-to-face with sheer cliffs or ravines.
To minimize the chance of detection by enemies, they had to use an escape route entirely different from the one they’d used for infiltration, and their unfamiliarity with the terrain made it worse.
They’d never come to such depths of hostile territory before, so there was no helping it.
But they couldn’t unfurl the Lightweight Movement Technique and bound across the treetops as if announcing their presence—the Jeokeyeongjo had no choice but to flail about in the mountain paths like the damned.
The moment those trackers following them since contact with the escort showed their figures above the trees, they would be cut down without hesitation.
“How far do you think we’ve come?”
When Bong Jin asked, the member leading the way at the front answered with an awkward expression.
“We’ve made little progress due to losing our way. From what I can tell of the terrain, we’re still deep within Heukgwi territory.”
Having penetrated so far into enemy lines, the distance they needed to cover to escape was greater than expected.
“This is maddening. Hurry.”
The member nodded at Bong Jin’s command and resumed cutting a path ahead.
The Jeokeyeongjo followed again, pressing forward through the mountain trails.
Having to carve passages where none existed took a terrible toll on the members.
Bong Jin would have liked to let them rest and recover their strength, but knowing the trackers’ abilities, he couldn’t afford to.
Even that brief respite would narrow the distance between them and their pursuers.
For this reason, Bong Jin watched the woman accompanying them on their forced escape with a heavy expression.
She was none other than the Brilliant Mind of the Heukgwi—the one they had to escort.
Her name, he recalled, was Mo Yong Ji Eun.
When he’d first encountered her, Bong Jin had genuinely believed the Maenguidan had been deceived.
Mo Yong Ji Eun looked far too young.
Even being generous, she appeared to be in her mid-twenties; at first glance, she seemed barely out of her teens.
He couldn’t believe such a young woman could be the Brilliant Mind orchestrating the countless Heukgwi operations that had dealt such devastating blows to the Maenguidan.
But such doubts vanished without trace not long after the escape began.
The stratagems Mo Yong Ji Eun had demonstrated during their brief time together were more than enough to dispel any suspicion.
Thanks to the brilliant tactics of the extraordinary Mo Yong Ji Eun, the Jeokeyeongjo had already evaded the grip of the Heukgwi trackers—whose very thought sent chills down the spine—for a full day.
Bong Jin, lost in such reflections, was drawn back to reality by Mo Yong Ji Eun herself, who had been advancing alongside his members.
She had suddenly stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
Bong Jin asked urgently, and Mo Yong Ji Eun pointed back along the path they had traveled.
“We need to go back.”
“What are you saying?”
“By now, we should have encountered at least one or two of them. It’s been too quiet.”
“That’s because we’ve managed our escape properly—”
Bong Jin’s words scattered mid-sentence.
He’d seen Mo Yong Ji Eun slowly shake her head.
“You know as well as I do. They’re not that sloppy.”
God, he knew it far too well.
The trackers on their heels were the Black Ghosts—the most dangerous faction within the Heukgwi itself.
According to the Maenguidan’s intelligence, a mere thirty Black Ghosts could extinguish the bloodline of the Mil-gwi—a force of one hundred thirty that the Maenguidan rated as their supreme nemesis.
That was how formidable the Black Ghosts truly were.
As fear crept in at the mere thought of such adversaries, Bong Jin addressed Mo Yong Ji Eun.
“Are you really telling me to backtrack the path we’ve barely escaped after a full day of struggle?”
“In my judgment……. Yes, it has to be this way.”
Bong Jin saw the desperate plea in his comrades’ eyes, but after long hesitation, he had no choice but to turn away from it.
He was forced to acknowledge that it was thanks to Mo Yong Ji Eun’s wit that they had survived thus far, even with those terrifying Black Ghosts at their heels.
Moreover, if they made a mistake, the one most in danger would be her.
She knew better than anyone how the Hyeolguidae dealt with traitors.
So she would have no desire to be captured by the Black Ghosts any more than Bong Jin or the members of Jeokeyeongjo would.
For this reason, Bong Jin squeezed his eyes shut and issued an order in keeping with her intentions.
“We turn back……. Now!”
At Bong Jin’s command, despair flooded the faces of the Jeokeyeongjo members.
An hour later, as the Jeokeyeongjo retreated along the path they had come, their shoulders sagging, ten figures clad entirely in black from head to foot emerged at the spot where Jeokeyeongjo had briefly stopped.
“Tracks, sir. Approximately ten people. Among them, the lighter, more delicate footprints—clearly those of a woman.”
The eyes of the Black Ghost commander Lee glittered as he gazed at the tracks his subordinate reported and indicated.
There were women among the Maenguidan as well.
So discovering footprints presumed to be female was nothing particularly noteworthy.
Yet the fact that his subordinate had emphasized the female footprints so distinctly was due to their unusual shape.
The truth was, whether the prints belonged to a woman or a man made no difference.
The shoes worn by all the Brilliant Minds were specially crafted to leave distinctive footprints.
They had been designed to aid in rescue operations should any of them be kidnapped or go missing—but this time, they were making it somewhat easier to track the traitor.
Of course, thanks to stratagems that had certainly come from that traitor woman’s head, more than a full day had passed since they discovered the trail, yet they still hadn’t captured her. But that too was merely a matter of time.
Even if she were a Brilliant Mind’s grandfather rather than a Brilliant Mind herself, she could not completely evade their pursuit.
The real question was whether they could seize her before the other Black Ghost operation unit deployed alongside them in the pursuit of the traitor did.
As the Black Ghost commander Lee sank into these thoughts, his subordinate’s report continued.
“Based on the tracks, the direction of movement is that way, sir.”
The Black Ghost commander Lee drew a cold smile as he looked toward the direction his subordinate indicated.
“She backtracked? So she realized we were gaining on her……. The more she does this, the cleverer she proves to be.”
“What shall we do, sir?”
“What do you think? Catch her and strip her bare.”
With a smile twisted in an unsettling way, as though contemplating something sinister, the Black Ghost commander Lee issued his next order.
“Move out.”
The moment the command left his lips, the ten figures in black vanished in an instant.
Their Lightweight Movement Technique was so masterful that even if observers had been watching from nearby, they would not have seen when they disappeared.

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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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