The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 18

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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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Chapter 18. Finding a New Way Out
The man walking leisurely through Sachwan Pass had a gentle, bright demeanor.
Though the blade hanging at his waist marked him unmistakably as a Martial Artist, his expression was so mild that one might doubt he could raise even a stick against another, let alone a sword.
Leading the way before him, as if guiding him, was a cat whose ear tips were stained blood-red, as though drenched in crimson.
One would be gravely mistaken to dismiss it as mere folly, given that its body was barely one-third the size of an ordinary cat.
It was a ferocious beast—or rather, a Spirit Beast—with records documenting how it had killed not only foxes and wolves but even tigers with that small frame.
Though “Spirit Beast” was perhaps the more fitting term than “ferocious beast”…….
In any case, this small cat, known to people as Chu Yeon Myo, never forgot the scent of anyone with whom it had once formed a bond.
Moreover, its ability to track that scent was so extraordinary that it defied logical explanation.
According to records, it had once found someone who was ten thousand leagues away using scent alone, so its prowess was beyond question.
Following such a Spirit Beast, the man traversed the notoriously treacherous Sachwan Pass with the ease of one walking across level ground.
***
When any problem is repeated often enough, one adapts to it; and through adaptation, one begins to discover methods to resolve it.
From this perspective, it was hardly surprising that the Black Ghost Squad had found the most effective tracking method against the Jeok Young Jo.
Of course, it was a misfortune for the Jeok Young Jo, now facing a desperate crisis because of it.
Compounded by such successive misfortunes, the Jeok Young Jo had lost yet another member.
As the now four-strong Jeok Young Jo fled, Mo Yong Ji-eun’s expression grew progressively darker with despair.
Until now, the pursuers seemed intent on pursuit and capture, never directly targeting Mo Yong Ji-eun herself; but in recent days, that criterion had shattered.
Indeed, shortly after climbing the fourth cliff, a member of the Jeok Young Jo was slain while fleeing—having sacrificed himself to protect Mo Yong Ji-eun.
Though Mo Yong Ji-eun had honed her Concealment Art through extensive practice, it was inevitably inferior to that of the Jeok Young Jo, who were specialists.
In the midst of repeated mistakes, it was hardly difficult for the Black Ghost Squad to discover such a weakness.
She did not even know the name of the Jeok Young Jo member who threw himself in the way to die in her place as she was being attacked by the Black Ghost.
There was no time allowed even to learn his name, caught as she was in flight.
Thinking that at this rate they would not escape even the territory of Blood Ghost Squad Territory but would meet their end there, Bong Jin resorted to a last desperate measure.
“From now on, direct our escape toward the east, not the south.”
The choice of escape route still fell to Mo Yong Ji-eun.
For this reason, Bong Jin could only suggest the direction of flight.
To his request, Mo Yong Ji-eun could not help but ask the reason even as she ran breathlessly.
“Wasn’t the rendezvous point where the Maeng Ui Dan’s reinforcements were waiting to the south?”
“It was. But the point where they wait is too far. Instead, to the east, there are those nearby who can aid us.”
“Are they ones worthy of staking our fates upon?”
To Mo Yong Ji-eun’s question, Bong Jin recalled those who had once saved them two years ago when they were isolated deep in enemy territory, dying.
“If it’s them… they won’t allow us to die away like this.”
In Bong Jin’s voice, mingled with ragged, labored breathing, Mo Yong Ji-eun perceived an unshakeable faith.
For this reason, Mo Yong Ji-eun asked nothing further and nodded.
The east was a region where not only the Blood Ghost Squad but the Mi Gui were also entrenched, yet she chose to stake her fate on Bong Jin’s faith.
It was because, from what she had observed of Bong Jin until now, he was not a man who trusted others easily.
‘If he trusts them…….’
She reasoned that at minimum, their chances of survival would be greater than they were now.
With that decision made, the movements of Mo Yong Ji-eun and the Jeok Young Jo shifted from south toward east.
***
The expression of the Black Ghost Squad’s third captain, still maintaining his ambush, was grim.
A senior subordinate who had earlier asked if it was truly all right to remain in this region—the territory of the Mi Gui—approached him.
“Is there perhaps something that troubles you?”
“This is a key passage, isn’t it?”
To this unexpected counter-question, the subordinate answered dutifully.
“Certainly. If one were to go to the main garrison of the Maeng Ui Dan, this is the only passage in the vicinity.”
“Would you leave such a place unguarded?”
“Never. We would certainly block it completely.”
At that response, the Black Ghost Squad’s third captain, who had been lost in thought once more, rose from where he sat.
“Something’s wrong.”
“Sir?”
“What you know and I know, that damned bastard Keumil couldn’t possibly not know either. More than that, he’s not someone short on numbers like us.”
“What do you mean, sir……?”
The Black Ghost Squad’s third captain answered the bewildered subordinate.
“Isn’t it strange that throughout this long time at such a critical passage, we haven’t encountered a single member of the Mi Gui?”
Only then did the subordinate’s eyes widen as understanding dawned.
“Then… could it be……!”
The subordinate’s words, spoken with eyes wide in apprehension at what he was beginning to grasp, could proceed no further.
A Flying Blade that suddenly arrived pierced clean through his throat.
Glug-glug.
The sound of blood and viscera boiling as a subordinate crumpled, a dozen Flying Blades came streaking through the air—a sight that caught the attention of the Black Ghost Squad’s three squad leaders.
“Scatter!”
Shouting a warning for his men while dodging the blades himself, the Black Ghost leader saw it.
His subordinates moving at his word, evading the Flying Blades, and attackers converging from all sides in a coordinated assault.
“How dare they!”
About to charge forward with a roar of rage, the Black Ghost leader’s eyes fell on his own chest in shock.
A blade of unusual length had pierced through from his back, its point protruding from his ribs.
‘When? How…?’
More than that, he was desperate to know who had managed to slip behind him without making a sound.
His body was already giving out as he tried to turn and see.
His limbs betrayed him, falling into darkness.
Unable to solve the mystery, the Black Ghost leader’s vision darkened, filling instead with the sight of his own men falling around him, blood spraying from their wounds.
***
Panting.
Ragged breathing came from all directions.
All four running figures were exhausted, unable to hide their gasping breaths.
Bong Jin felt despair knowing that this escape would have been impossible without the last squad member who had remained behind with a smile, buying them time.
That despair deepened when he realized another set of footsteps had gone silent.
He spun so sharply his neck cracked, catching sight of the squad member left behind, waving goodbye with a smile on his face.
Like the one before, this man too had thrown away his own safety to buy them time.
Without being told, without being ordered, they had chosen to stand because they all knew the truth—that otherwise, everyone would die.
Tears streamed down Bong Jin’s face as he realized there was nothing he could do for such loyal men.
Yet he did not indulge in the cheap pride of staying behind to fight.
To do so would betray the will of those who had sacrificed themselves to complete this mission.
And so Bong Jin, together with Mo Yong Ji-eun and the last remaining subordinate, ran for their lives down the harsh mountain trails of Sachwan Pass.
Branches cut at their skin, drawing blood; they stumbled down slopes and tumbled, yet the three raced on like madmen.
Still, the distance between them and their pursuers continued to narrow.
Now the hunters were close enough to be seen with the naked eye, flickering in and out of view.
The last remaining squad member, seeing this, flashed a smile at Bong Jin and stopped running.
Though Bong Jin understood that this action too meant death, he did not object or slow his pace.
Not because he clung to life.
Ever since setting foot on Sachwan Plain, death had been like an old companion, always at his side.
Yet gritting his teeth and pulling Mo Yong Ji-eun forward, he did not stop—because as the leader, he could not abandon the mission that his squad members were willing to die to complete.
Swallowing tears of anguish, he ran deeper into the forest for another half a moment.
The dense trees ahead suddenly opened up, and a small clearing appeared before their eyes.
And when Bong Jin spotted the people he so desperately hoped to find, joy flooded his face.
But that joy vanished as quickly as it had come.
Liu, who had been retrieving a blade from one of the corpses scattered on the ground, suddenly hurled that very blade at Bong Jin and himself.
Screeeech!
The blade came hurtling through with no space or time to dodge, cutting through the air with a terrible shriek, passing just inches from Bong Jin’s cheek.
And…
Thud!
At the sickening sound from behind, Bong Jin turned to see a Black Ghost member collapse, the blade Liu had thrown buried deep in his chest.
The distance between that Black Ghost and Bong Jin was barely three feet.
Had there been even a moment’s more delay—half a breath—the pursuers would have been close enough to slit his throat.
Shocked at how close the hunters had drawn, Bong Jin was passed by Liu, who had just thrown the blade to save him.
Other members of the Jeok Sa Jo drew their weapons and swept past, engaging the Black Ghost members.
Boom.
The sound of collision erupted from all sides, and weapons clashed in a frenzied dance.
Fortunately, the Jeok Sa Jo members engaging the Black Ghost pursuers unleashed a savage fury.
It was a terrible display of power that far surpassed the might of the Jeok Sa Jo as it was known within the Maeng Ui Dan.
***
Martial Family.
When you first heard this word, what was the first thing that came to mind?
The Nangong?
Or perhaps the Hebei Peng Family?
Or could it be the Jeol Family, called the Greatest Under Heaven?
Most people think first of those three names.
But few know that Martial Families existed in the Central Plains long before those three families ever made a name for themselves under heaven.
And there are even fewer who know that this place belongs to the Hwang Bo Family, called the foundation of Hebei.
That is why the people of the Hwang Bo Family always harbored a sense of injustice.
It was because they lived with the conviction that their history and their strength were never properly recognized.
The current patriarch, in whom this resentment ran particularly deep, clung to his position well past eighty and labored ceaselessly to place the family upon an unshakable foundation.
That patriarch of the Hwang Bo Family sat alone in a pavilion erected beside a decorative rock garden, his gaze fixed endlessly upon the sky.
“What captivates you so?”
As the family Elder approached with his question, the patriarch kept his eyes upon the heavens and answered instead with an oblique one of his own.
“If one were to pull up a pillar and sell it to buy a roof, would that roof be sound?”
“It would depend upon what sort of pillar it is.”
“What sort of pillar, you say. What manner of pillar do you suppose Jang-seong is, in your estimation?”
Jang-seong. Hwang Bo Jang-seong.
The eldest grandson and the most likely heir to the family leadership.
Yet for now, a treasure sent out into the world to secure the family’s future.
“A pillar best forgotten, sir.”
“Forgotten, you say.”
“If all goes well, he shall be Cross River Unload Donkey. If things go poorly, he is a pillar that simply cannot exist.”
“Yes, that would be so.”
“That said, it is not a matter of complete indifference, so until the work is done, one cannot entirely release one’s attention.”
“True enough. We must exact the price of Cross River Unload Donkey.”
“Given their disposition, if things go well, they will pay that price in full.”
“Yes, as it should be. We pulled up the pillar for precisely that reason.”
“Patriarch.”
…….
The Elder offered one more word to the patriarch, who answered his call with silence.
“Once you have cast something forth, whether it be stone or gold or diamond, you do not look back.”
“Yes, that is how it must be.”
The patriarch repeated the same words once more, his gaze still fixed endlessly upon the heavens.
Upon the western sky, where the pillar he had torn up and cast forth would eventually find itself.

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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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