The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 23

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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 23. The Jade Demon Dragon Mo Yong Chang Yun
“Mo Yong Chang Yun might ring a bell, but I suspect you’d remember if I called him by his proper title—the Celestial Luminary.”
“The Celestial Luminary…….”
I’d heard of him before.
A mind brilliant enough to earn the name “finest talent in the realm,” coupled with martial prowess to match.
“You’re telling me the Celestial Luminary is held prisoner? By the Alliance of Righteous Virtue?”
The shock in Yi Song’s voice—so much starker than his reaction to Liu—made it plain at once what weight this man carried.
There was good reason for it. Mo Yong Chang Yun, known as the Celestial Luminary, had been the master of the Magic Demon Palace, one of the five supreme powers of the Demon Martial Force.
His formal title was the Jade Demon Dragon.
An Ultimate Master at the peak of the realm, standing at the very threshold of the Immortal Gate.
That such a man was held captive explained the depth of Yi Song’s astonishment.
But Bong Jin shook his head at the claim.
“I’ve never heard anything like that.”
“That’s absurd! We might not know, perhaps, but you handle intelligence—you can’t possibly be ignorant of something so significant!”
“It’s not a lie. I have no reason to hide anything right now.”
“Then… you’re saying it might not be true?”
Yi Song posed the question, and Bong Jin answered.
“We’d need to verify it first to know.”
As he spoke, Bong Jin’s gaze toward Mo Yong Ji Eun filled with the light of suspicion.
He was asking whether she was lying.
Just as Mo Yong Ji Eun began to explain further, to prove her innocence, Liu’s gesture silenced her.
“Quiet!”
“What?”
Bong Jin’s immediate protest met no answer; Liu only looked toward Dong Pil.
Dong Pil caught the meaning at once and turned his head…….
“Quite a number of them. Too many to count easily.”
At Dong Pil’s assessment, Liu nodded, and the camp erupted into frantic motion as the Red Death Squad members prepared for battle.
In the midst of this, Liu divided the squad into two groups.
He placed Jwa Ryang, Jang Min Soo, and Bong Jin together, assigning Dong Pil as their guide.
The other group he paired Yi Song with Hee Jun, then added Mo Yong Ji Eun and Dan Ri Hyeon, with Liu himself standing with them.
Liu’s voice turned cold as he addressed Bong Jin, who looked anxious at being separated from Mo Yong Ji Eun.
“You’re carrying excess baggage, and I have a prisoner to monitor. Tying you and that woman together throws off the balance. That means one group bears heightened risk. I have no intention of accepting such danger.”
“But she remains my responsibility. Even if it costs me, I must—”
At Bong Jin’s stubborn insistence, Liu flickered his eyes, and every member of the Red Death Squad except Bong Jin, Mo Yong Ji Eun, and Dan Ri Hyeon stepped back.
Seeing Bong Jin’s confusion, Liu’s voice grew colder still.
“We split into two units. The Red Death Squad and the Red Guard Squad. The Death Squad handles combat; the Guard Squad handles transport and custody. Any objections?”
Only Bong Jin had survived from the Red Guard Squad.
So Liu’s words meant Bong Jin would move alone with Mo Yong Ji Eun and Dan Ri Hyeon.
Even if the Death Squad would face the main pursuit, the Guard Squad would not escape pursuit either.
No—the enemy would pursue them all the more viciously.
And under those conditions, Bong Jin would have to drag along Dan Ri Hyeon, whose martial prowess far exceeded his own…….
It was impossible.
Not something he could attempt.
“This is impossible. Surely you know that!”
Liu spoke to Bong Jin, who made no effort to hide his anger.
“I have no intention of jeopardizing my people for your sense of duty, nor for the mission’s sake. If you want to protect her so badly, protect her with your own strength.”
Bong Jin, watching Liu deliver these words with glacial finality, had no choice but to accept his own defeat.
“Wait, never mind…….”
As Liu watched Bong Jin’s expression shift from panic to surrender, he flickered his eyes again, and the Red Death Squad members who had stepped back now moved forward.
Liu’s gaze turned to Dong Pil, who would guide Bong Jin’s group.
“Feint to the side and break east-to-south. I’ll strike west and circle north to the south. We reconvene thirty li south of here.”
“Y-yes, Captain!”
Liu studied Dong Pil’s surprised expression directly.
“Trust me.”
At those words, Dong Pil gazed at Liu for a moment, then nodded.
“Be careful, Captain.”
With a grave nod, Liu turned away, and Dong Pil immediately wheeled around. He led his group eastward into the night.
As they departed, Liu and the rest moved west.
In the camp they left behind, only the wreckage of Liu’s tent remained, broken and torn where Dan Ri Hyeon had collapsed and destroyed it.
***
The Blood Demon Scouts numbered just over six hundred.
For a force tasked with reconnaissance and infiltration, it was an unwieldy number, yet the Blood Demon Force, bent on surveilling every corner of Saja Plain, deployed them relentlessly in pursuit of intelligence—and still found the tally insufficient.
Even so, all of those Scouts had been funneled into Saja Pavilion.
Casualties continued to mount under such circumstances, but the Scouts showed no sign of retreat.
Nor did they harbor any intention of scattering as they had before, only to be picked off one by one—so they had consolidated into a single force.
Their number had dwindled to just over three hundred.
Even accounting for those too distant to rejoin, the forces committed seemed pitifully few.
It meant that those who had failed to arrive had fallen in battle against the enemy.
“We’ve suffered too many losses.”
At Dae Hyeol’s murmur—Dae Hyeol, who commanded the Blood Demon Scouts—the heads of the So Hyeol gathered nearby nodded heavily.
As the squad leaders overseeing each unit, they too recognized how many comrades had been lost in this operation.
The problem was that despite such devastating casualties, the operation remained unresolved and still ongoing.
“What of those who came as a ‘rescue force’?”
“They’ve withdrawn completely.”
“Is there any possibility a defector escaping among them could have slipped in with the arrivals?”
At Dae Hyeol’s question, the So Hyeol who had been coordinating intelligence shook his head.
“The timing and direction rule it out entirely. Most importantly—there were no women among them.”
The Blood Demon Scouts, whose primary duties centered on reconnaissance and espionage, had no female martial artists in their ranks.
The work was brutal and demanding; scouts often went days without proper rest or food while fulfilling their duties as a vanguard unit.
In winter campaigns, they would huddle together in the field to share body heat and survive.
One could not assign female martial artists to such operational conditions.
It was not a matter of doubting their abilities.
The Demon Martial Force itself, and the Blood Demon Force under its command, possessed no shortage of skilled female martial artists.
The same held true for the Iron Blood Alliance and the Alliance of Righteous Virtue.
Yet among the Red Extinction Force, whose circumstances mirrored those of the Blood Demon Scouts, no female martial artists had ever been observed.
They shared the same reasoning.
Therefore, had a female defector infiltrated the Red Extinction Force contingent that came as a rescue party, she would have been conspicuous.
Even disguised as a man, the Scouts were not so foolish as to fail detecting a difference in sex.
So the defector had not yet escaped Saja Pavilion.
If the defector remained trapped inside, then Sal-rang—that contemptible wretch—likely remained within Saja Pavilion as well.
Still, for now…….
“We prioritize the newly issued orders over vengeance. We cease pursuit of the Red Extinction Force as they withdraw—and we abandon tracking the Red Death Squad despite Sal-rang’s involvement among them. Instead, we hunt the female defector. If, after suffering these losses, we cannot even accomplish that…….”
The rest need not be spoken aloud.
They would face ridicule so crushing they could scarcely lift their heads for months to come.
The martial artists of Demon Martial Force held pride above all else—they would never abide such humiliation.
Seeing the resolve crystallize across the So Hyeol’s faces, Dae Hyeol issued the command.
“Move!”
The moment the order fell, roughly thirty So Hyeol sprang into motion, and three hundred Blood Demon Scouts surged in their wake, hurling themselves toward the depths of Saja Pavilion.
***
Though martial artists clashed individually, when forces of significant numbers moved in coordination, the engagement often took on the character of military warfare.
One such element was reconnaissance.
Scouts advanced ahead of the main force, securing the route of advance and detecting or neutralizing hazards such as enemy ambushes—an indispensable function.
Among the Blood Demon Force, the Blood Demon Scouts excelled at this task above all others.
Among the Scouts themselves, the Twelve Blood Squads assigned to reconnaissance duties this night were considered the finest practitioners of their art.
Led by their squad commander So Hyeol, these thirty scouts dispersed in a fan formation, maintaining control over a radius of two hundred paces as they advanced with speed.
They were ambushed by Jwa Ryang’s contingent, having just separated from Ryu.
Burst!
Twelve Flying Blades cut through the air, silencing twelve throats in an instant—and as the scattered formation of Scouts contracted like a tightening net, Dong Pil and Jang Min Soo hurled themselves into their midst.
Among Red Death Squad members, the pairing of Jwa Ryang and Dong Pil reached their peak when executing surprise attacks.
By contrast, the combination of Dong Pil and Jang Min Soo approximated a Coordinated Formation that divided offense and defense in perfect measure.
The Xuanwu Fist Technique that Jang Min Soo had mastered possessed a defensiveness that seemed nearly flawless.
Between those intervals of defense, Dong Pil’s Dual Swords darted through with such speed and sharpness they could tear at an opponent’s throat.
Because of this synergy, their Coordinated Formation wielded power beyond expectation.
That fearsome capability silenced fifteen Blood Demon Scouts in mere moments.
The remaining throats—So Hyeol’s among them—were expertly severed by Jwa Ryang’s Palm Technique as he recovered his Flying Blades and swept across the entire field.
Bong Jin, who had charged into the fray with mortal resolve despite his late arrival, could not hide his shock as he found himself amid a forest reeking of blood.
Dong Pil, spurring him onward, broke through the trees and pivoted south at a run.
A sharp whistle call pursued them as they vanished.
If Dong Pil’s contingent had sprinted eastward in chaos, Ryu’s force moving westward proceeded as leisurely as if taking a stroll.
After covering roughly a li, Ryu came to a halt.
Like ducklings following their mother, Ryu turned to look at Mo Yong Ji Eun as the party came to a halt, trailing behind him.
“You’ve been glancing sidelong at me since earlier. Do you have something to say?”
“I simply… wanted to get a better look at the one who subdued my brother.”
“I don’t think you’re talking about this fellow. You mean Mo Yong Chang Yun, the one being held captive?”
At Ryu’s question, which included a brief glance at Dan Ri Hyeon, Mo Yong Ji Eun nodded.
“Yes. According to the survivor’s report, the one who subdued my brother is you—Sallang, precisely.”
“A survivor? I’ve never let anyone live.”
“There is… one, my lord.”
Turning at the sound of his name, Ryu saw Hee Jun smiling awkwardly.
“What?”
Hee Jun answered Ryu’s question.
“About a month ago? The man who was searching for his mother while unconscious…….”
The memory returned at last.
A martial artist from Demon Martial Force—bearing a long sword wound that ran from his left shoulder across his chest, searching desperately for his mother even as consciousness slipped away.
Hee Jun smiled slightly as he saw recognition dawn in Ryu’s expression.
“I’m glad. The wound was so deep that I was worried whether the rough first aid I gave him would even be effective.”
“You… treated him? An enemy?”
Dan Ri Hyeon’s question carried disbelief, and while Hee Jun merely smiled, the answer came unexpectedly from Mo Yong Ji Eun.
“Yes. The survivor had received first aid treatment. So perfectly that even our own physicians were taken aback…. So that was your skill. And…….”
She understood that Ryu, known by the blood name Sallang and marked as the number-one target for assassination among the Blood Demon Force, had chosen to let him live.
From what she had observed, nothing contrary to Ryu’s will could happen within the Red Death Squad.
Watching Ryu stand impassively and then turning to regard him anew, Dan Ri Hyeon shook his head and asked.
“But why have I never heard of this?”
“Because it was deemed that news of the enemy treating and releasing our wounded warrior would not benefit the Blood Demon Force.”
“The higher-ups did this?”
Dan Ri Hyeon, unaware that he himself was one of those higher-ups, spoke without satisfaction, and Mo Yong Ji Eun smiled.
“It was in the midst of battle. We could not afford to lower morale, much less damage it. Moreover, the involvement of Chang Yun and the masters of the Magic Demon Palace in the fighting on Saja Plain was kept secret.”
If Demon Martial Force deployed its elite warriors from the main force, the Iron Blood Alliance would take the same measures.
That would lead to a full-scale confrontation at Saja Plain, ultimately causing devastating casualties on both sides.
Unless one intended to see it through to the bitter end in all-out war, such a thing could never be allowed to happen.
For this reason, whenever elite combat units from either Demon Martial Force or the Iron Blood Alliance were deployed, it was customary to do so only in very special circumstances, and then only for a very brief period without the enemy’s knowledge.
Of course, that was not the only reason for maintaining secrecy this time.
If it became known that the main strength of Demon Martial Force, including a master of the highest caliber, had been deployed and then defeated, the fallout would be unmanageable.
That was why, even though Mo Yong Chang Yun—a figure of legendary renown—was held captive, it remained classified.
And there was another benefit: preventing the Alliance of Righteous Virtue from learning the identity of Mo Yong Chang Yun, who had been taken alive.
Having grasped the background to some degree, Dan Ri Hyeon nodded and stepped back, while Mo Yong Ji Eun turned her gaze to Ryu.
“Is my brother safe?”

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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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