The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 19

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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 19. Reinforcement
Hwangbo Jangseong’s expression had grown rigid as he pressed forward, opening the path ahead with Paeng Gyeong in the middle carrying the worsening Cheol Jayong on his back, and Yoon and Gwak Giryang bringing up the rear in a defensive position.
Weighing the gravity of the task his grandfather, the head of the family, had entrusted to him, his departure from Jeoksajo was an inexcusable blunder with no excuse to hide behind.
More than that, by doing so, he had drawn into a place fraught with danger the very person his grandfather had insisted he must protect.
Yet there was no choice but to take this path, for it was Hwangbo Jangseong himself—he alone—who had set in motion the cause of Cheol Jayong’s sudden decline.
Worried that Cheol Jayong’s Danjeon might become unstable, Hwangbo Jangseong had given him the precious Naesang-yak he had hoarded—only for it to harm him instead.
Though it had not been intentional, when the outcome was this grave, any claim to original intent was nothing but excuse.
This incident risked making enemies of both Sojuocheolbang and the Hwangbo family.
He had set out to revive the family, not to burden it with his ruin.
Even if it meant defying his grandfather’s command.
That was why Hwangbo Jangseong had insisted he and Cheol Jayong would turn back alone, leaving the others behind.
And it was why he now stood at the vanguard, carving the path forward.
As his stern expression deepened, Hwangbo Jangseong’s eyes turned glacial.
Following his sudden halt, the rest of the group gradually slowed their pace as well.
To them came Hwangbo Jangseong’s voice, tight with tension.
“Ready yourselves.”
The party understood his meaning at once, drawing their weapons without hesitation.
In that instant, as if they had been waiting for exactly this moment, enemies poured forth from all sides.
Crimson robes, blood-red as the fluid itself.
The Hyeol-hyeol-gwi of the Hyeol-gwidae.
Though they had been overwhelmed by the sheer intensity of Jeoksajo’s strength beyond their expectations, Hwangbo Jangseong and his companions were by no means weaklings.
Far from it—they were masters whose names carried weight in the martial world.
Now, for the first time, their full power erupted without restraint.
Bang!
Screech.
A terrible cry.
Amid a cacophony of sound, six or seven of the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi fell in an instant, and over a dozen more writhed on the ground, spraying blood.
Of course, Hwangbo Jangseong’s side, forced to clash against enemies numbering several times their own, could not escape unscathed.
Paeng Gyeong in particular, who had to fight while bearing the now-unconscious Cheol Jayong on his back, sustained a deep wound to his left arm so grave he could scarcely use it.
Similarly, Gwak Giryang, who had to dart frantically to protect Yoon, who was relatively less skilled, was becoming soaked in blood from wounds across his body.
Hwangbo Jangseong fared somewhat better than the rest, though even he bore a grave wound to his right thigh.
Hand techniques are far more dependent on footwork than one might think.
Because hand combat relies on unarmed strikes, swift movement is essential.
Yet now the very legs needed to execute that footwork bore injury.
His ability to deploy his movements was immediately compromised.
It was as crippling as if a swordmaster’s blade had been snapped in half.
The enemy knew this well.
So even as three fell to Hwangbo Jangseong’s hands, they attacked his injured thigh with relentless fury.
‘This will be difficult.’
His opponents were veterans of real combat.
He recalled how the Jeoksajo members had conducted their operations smoothly against such foes.
But Hwangbo Jangseong did not know one thing.
What he had witnessed was only a fragment of the whole.
The recruits, divided into two decoy groups and focused solely on running in confusion, had seen nothing of Jeoksajo’s true combat prowess beyond that first collision.
Because of this, even Hwangbo Jangseong’s belated admiration for Jeoksajo’s fighting ability fell far short of their actual capability.
Whether misconception or not, as he remained lost in wonder at Jeoksajo’s martial prowess, the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi surged forward and filled his vision entirely.
Thus began a brutal, prolonged battle of few against many.
As time wore on, Gwak Giryang’s blade that had been spraying wildly began to slow, Paeng Gyeong’s straight-cutting sword that had shown raw destructive power grew heavier, Hwangbo Jangseong’s fists that had struck with shattering force lost their edge, and Yoon’s blade—striving to fulfill his role—all became sluggish and weighted.
Overwhelmed by their enemies’ numbers and worn down by the savage attacks of the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi, hardened through real combat, they were flagging.
Moreover, they had been locked in battle for far too long, their entire bodies riddled with wounds both great and small.
Perhaps because their exhaustion became apparent, the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi threw themselves at Hwangbo Jangseong’s group with even greater savagery than before.
Worse still, their numbers seemed actually to be increasing.
As they killed and killed yet the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi would not diminish, Hwangbo Jangseong’s despair deepened.
‘Is this truly the end?’
Mirroring his despair, from the rear ranks of the seemingly endless tide of Hyeol-hyeol-gwi, a sudden scream erupted.
And the fierce momentum of the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi rapidly crumbled.
Hwangbo Jangseong grasped the cause of this sudden reversal.
‘Reinforcements!’
Hope glinted in Hwangbo Jangseong’s eyes, which had begun to glaze with death, and a shout tore from his throat.
“Reinforcements! Hold on! Push forward!”
Emboldened by Hwangbo Jangseong’s cry, Paeng Gyeong’s blade came alive again, and Gwak Giryang’s sword, which had begun to flag, regained its vigor.
Clinging grimly to their positions, they finally broke through the enemy formation, and reinforcements emerged from the trees.
“Is that Jeoksajo?”
Hwangbo Jangseong nodded at the question from the man with the striking mustache.
“Indeed.”
“I am Jeokmel Daejoo. I’ve come to extract you. But where is the Third Young Master—or rather, where is Cheol Jayong?”
At Jeokmel Daejoo’s question, Hwangbo Jangseong’s face, which had been bright with relief, darkened suddenly.
Jeokmel Daejoo’s voice trembled at the shift in his expression.
“Don’t tell me…….”
Hwangbo Jangseong, understanding what Jeokmel Daejoo was thinking, spoke hastily.
“No, no. He is unharmed… rather, he’s alive.”
Unable to say he was unharmed, he had corrected himself quickly, though Jeokmel Daejoo seemed not to notice the shift in words.
“Where is he?”
“Here…….”
Hwangbo Jangseong turned slightly to reveal Paeng Gyeong setting down Cheol Jayong, whom he had been carrying all this while.
At the sight, Jeokmel Daejoo rushed forward and took Cheol Jayong into his arms.
Finding his entire body burning like a boiling cauldron and his consciousness gone, Jeokmel Daejoo’s expression hardened visibly.
Hwangbo Jangseong spoke quickly to him.
“He has suffered an internal injury, but his life is not in danger.”
At those words, Jeokmel Daejoo nodded with some relief, his expression easing slightly.
When he gestured, a warrior wearing a cloth marked with the character for “medicine” across his shoulders rushed over from among the Jeokmel-dae members who were still driving back the Hyeol-hyeol-gwi.
“Examine him closely.”
“Yes, Lord.”
Jeokmel Daejoo entrusted Cheol Jayong to the field physician who responded and rose to his feet.
There were still many enemies, and the battle was far from over.
With that, Jeokmel Daejoo threw himself back into the fray.
When the battle—lasting nearly half an hour—finally ended, the small clearing in the mountains was blanketed with corpses numbering well over a hundred.
Though most were Hyeol-hyeol-gwi, the bodies of Jeokmel-dae members were also scattered across the ground.
Ma Ryang, the commander of Jeokgwangjo, approached Jeokmel Daejoo, who was staring at the fallen, and reported.
“Two from Jeokgwangjo, five from Jeokwajo, seven from Jeokpyojo, and three from Jeoktujo have fallen.”
That was seventeen in all.
In the two battles they had fought on the way here, they had lost forty-four; altogether, they had lost sixty-one members.
Despite deploying Jeokwajo, Jeokpyojo, and Jeoktujo—each at full strength of a hundred—and even having Jeokgwangjo, composed entirely of twenty masters, join the fight, they had suffered tremendous losses.
Had he deployed only Jeokwajo and Jeokpyojo as originally planned?
Or had Jeoksajo not already dealt Hyeol-hyeol-gwi such devastating casualties?
Jeokmel Daejoo shook his head, casting away thoughts he did not wish to entertain, and approached the field physician examining Cheol Jayong.
The field physician attached to Jeokgwangjo reported to Jeokmel Daejoo, who had drawn near.
“For now, as the Jeoksajo members said, his life is not in danger. The problem is the internal injury——it’s continuing to progress, which is strange.”
“Continuing to progress? Could it be poison?”
In answer to Jeokmel Daejoo’s question, the field physician withdrew a silver needle that had been inserted into Cheol Jayong and held it up.
“I’ve checked multiple points across his body, but there are no signs of poison.”
“Then the internal injury is worsening even so?”
“Yes. Unfortunately, the four field physicians here present, myself included, lack the skill to determine the cause.”
He meant that the field physicians from Jeokwajo, Jeokpyojo, and Jeoktujo were equally unable to identify it.
And if the most skilled field physician of Jeokgwangjo could not discern it, then those from the other groups, who were less accomplished, certainly could not.
“Are you saying there is no treatment available here?”
“Yes. Here, there is no way. We must return to the Garrison as quickly as possible and seek proper treatment there.”
The Garrison held physicians whose skill was incomparable to any field physician.
“Return…….”
According to Hwangbo Jangseong’s report, which had been made while the field physician was examining Cheol Jayong, the rest of Jeoksajo’s members had remained in the mountains to continue their mission.
That was the problem.
Jeokmel-dae’s orders were to extract Jeoksajo.
In such circumstances, Jeokmel Daejoo found himself unable to decide whether he could simply leave the remaining Jeoksajo members behind and withdraw.
The field physician addressed him with worry in his voice.
“The internal injury is progressing rapidly. If he does not receive proper treatment by today, Cheol Jayong may lose the ability to use his Danjeon entirely.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yes. Completely certain.”
At the field physician’s firm answer, conflict vanished from Jeokmel Daejoo’s expression.
“We withdraw!”
To Jeokmel Daejoo, Cheol Jayong—the youngest son of Sojuocheolbang—mattered more than all the remaining Jeoksajo members combined.
It was an unavoidable burden for Jeokmel Daejoo, who had risen through the ranks of Sojuocheolbang.
At Jeokmel Daejoo’s command, Jeokmel-dae swiftly culled the wounded and withdrew toward Maengui-dan’s garrison.
In their wake lay the corpses of enemy and ally alike.
There was no practical way to carry the dead with them.
The rough terrain of Sajagwan itself became an obstacle to transporting the bodies.
To haul the dead through such treacherous mountain passes would demand both skill and stamina from those tasked with the burden.
It would become a grave liability in any engagement with the enemy during their withdrawal.
In their position—needing to return with as many living as possible—it was a hardship that could not be risked.
This was why they left behind not only enemy dead but their own fallen, as they had done before.
The bodies of their own could at least be given proper burial, unlike the enemy corpses scattered carelessly across the ground—a small consolation, all they could offer.
Over the abandoned bodies of Hyeol-gwidae, crows gathered in dark clouds, settling thick and black upon the dead.

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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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