The Legend of Red Cloud - Chapter 65

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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 65. An Encounter with the Unexpected
Without hesitation, Ryu burst from the forest and immediately swung the Flowing Spear Technique in a long arc.
Three Dense Ghosts caught in its path had their waists torn away in a single motion.
Into the space where enemies had fallen, Ryu’s form flashed forward.
What followed was one-sided slaughter.
In moments, more than thirty Dense Ghost corpses lay scattered throughout the forest.
While Ryu surveyed the woods for any remaining threats, Dong Pil, Jwa Ryang, and Hwangbo Jang Seong recovered the necessary supplies from the Dense Ghost bodies.
From the varied cries torn from them as they died, they recognized these were common Dense Ghosts, not Assassins trained in the art.
Dong Pil and Jwa Ryang moved naturally as they gathered materials from the dead, and Hwangbo Jang Seong’s movements were equally fluid.
He searched the corpses with meticulous care—surprising for someone who, not long ago, had looked with displeasure upon such grave-robbing.
Jwa Ryang, catching a glimpse of that practiced efficiency, smiled.
“Both in combat and supply recovery—there’s nothing left to teach him.”
Dong Pil nodded at Jwa Ryang’s words.
“You pick things up quickly, Hwangbo.”
“Hwangbo?”
Jwa Ryang tapped Hwangbo Jang Seong’s shoulder, whose eyes widened in surprise.
“Getting recognition from Dong Pil means you won’t die uselessly out here on Saja Plain. Congratulations.”
“Recognition… truly?”
Jwa Ryang nodded to Hwangbo Jang Seong, whose expression still refused to believe it.
“That’s right. When he uses age-appropriate speech with you, it means he acknowledges you.”
At Jwa Ryang’s words, Hwangbo Jang Seong’s gaze turned toward Dong Pil.
Dong Pil nodded, perhaps understanding the question in that look.
“Why do you need confirmation of that? Just pick up on it yourself.”
“Thank you… truly.”
Hwangbo Jang Seong was overwhelmed—the simple fact that he had earned recognition from the Jeok Sa Jo seniors made his chest swell.
He wondered if this was really something to celebrate.
And yet he was happy.
For someone like Hwangbo Jang Seong, who couldn’t remember when he’d last felt something accomplished and purely joyful, this was a sensation he hadn’t experienced in far too long.
Unable to hide the smile spreading across his face, Hwangbo Jang Seong heard Dong Pil speak.
“Drop the formal speech if you want. Just treat me like a senior, and I won’t worry about your tone anymore.”
“There’s no question about that. Or wait—is there? Ha, ha! Hahaha!”
Watching Hwangbo Jang Seong laugh heartily, Dong Pil let out a small chuckle and moved toward Ryu.
“I don’t sense any Qi presence nearby. How about you?”
“Same here. We’ve caught all the ones who came through Hwando.”
With Ryu’s confirmation, relief finally settled across Dong Pil’s features.
The Jeok Sa Jo regrouped where Hee Joon and the other members had been waiting, filled in the pit, and moved out.
Only when they reached the far end of Hwando did the Jeok Sa Jo come to a halt.
In the distance, the vanguard of the Hyeol Gwi Dae had advanced and set up camp.
“Their numbers are considerable,” Dong Pil observed.
Ryu’s head nodded in agreement.
According to the operation orders, the Maeng Ui Dan planned to deploy roughly two hundred soldiers drawn from the Black Night Platoon and White Cloak Platoon.
But the martial experts of the Hyeol Gwi Dae positioned out there clearly numbered three to four hundred by any estimate.
Even if the Black Night Platoon and White Cloak Platoon sent their finest, a gap like that meant sending them to their deaths.
“What should we do?” Jang Min Soo asked, moving up beside them.
Ryu shook his head.
“Our mission is reconnaissance. We’ve completed it. The rest is for the higher-ups to handle. Report the findings.”
Jang Min Soo nodded without question, agreeing to Ryu’s words.
Moments later, a Carrier Pigeon took flight from Hwando.
The Hyeol Gwi Dae martial experts stationed nearby spotted the bird but paid it no mind.
The Silver Ghosts—the Hyeol Gwi Dae’s first Assassin unit—had set deadly traps throughout Hwando.
Of course, their confidence came from not knowing those traps had already been completely dismantled by the Jeok Sa Jo.
Upon receiving the message from the Jeok Sa Jo, the Maeng Ui Dan stopped the operational force newly deployed from the Black Night Platoon and White Cloak Platoon just as they were leaving their camp.
Sending half their numbers to fight against superior forces was, as the Jeok Sa Jo had assessed, nothing less than pushing them to their deaths.
Soon the entirety of both the Black Night Platoon and White Cloak Platoon was assembled.
Unlike the Black Night Platoon, which had recovered from the damage sustained in the last Hwando conflict, the White Cloak Platoon had yet to be brought up to strength.
Thus, even combining all soldiers from both units, they barely reached four hundred.
While they couldn’t overwhelm the Hyeol Gwi Dae positioned nearby in raw numbers, neither would they be overmatched.
To them came the order from Chaminyeong.
‘Advance.’
Quietly, two hundred of the Black Night Platoon and one hundred seventy of the White Cloak Platoon began moving toward Hwando.
***
Gwak Ki Ryang shook his head as he watched the Maeng Ui Dan warriors thronging inside Hwando.
“We told them the enemy’s numbers, and they send only this much? I don’t understand the reasoning.”
Yi Song spoke to him, whose expression clearly betrayed his bafflement.
“To keep the fighting from escalating.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we dispatch forces overwhelming enough to crush the Hyeol Gwi Dae’s operational units? They’re not thousands of leagues away—the Hyeol Gwi Dae’s main encampment is only a few dozen leagues from here.”
“You mean they worried about reinforcements from the Hyeol Gwi Dae?”
“Exactly. If they increase their numbers, we increase ours. If that keeps repeating, we’ll have a full-scale war between the Maeng Ui Dan and the Hyeol Gwi Dae. They’re trying to avoid the horrific casualties that would bring.”
“If that’s the worry, shouldn’t they have refused to fight in the first place?”
“Pride gets in the way.”
Gwak Ki Ryang still bore the look of someone who didn’t understand.
Yi Song offered him a wry smile.
“Don’t strain yourself trying to make sense of it. I don’t understand it either. Just know that this cursed Saja Plain is a place where things run mad in exactly this way.”
With that, Yi Song ended his explanation and turned his gaze toward Jeok Sa.
“Much blood will spill, it seems.”
Jeok Sa nodded silently, and Yi Song asked again.
“What do you intend to do?”
There was something more behind Yi Song’s question, and the eyes of the veteran Jeok Sa Jo members all fixed on Jeok Sa at once.
Following their lead without understanding why, even the younger recruits turned their gazes to Jeok Sa’s mouth.
Receiving the regard of all the Jeok Sa Jo members, Jeok Sa turned to Jang Min Soo.
“Any additional orders?”
“There were none.”
At Jang Min Soo’s answer, Jeok Sa’s brow furrowed.
When they didn’t know his capabilities, that could happen.
They might have thought the Jeok Sa Jo couldn’t exert much influence on the battle.
But not anymore.
They know about the Tai Chi Sword King, and they know about the strategists.
So the fact that there’s still no word means…….
“They want to see blood spilled.”
Yi Song nodded at Jeok Sa’s words.
“They need the blood of the White Cloak Platoon.”
Jang Min Soo interjected, having grasped the conversation’s meaning.
“If they’re letting the White Cloak Platoon suffer to provoke the Baek Ui Ryeon, wouldn’t the Black Night Platoon’s casualties be severe?”
Jwa Ryang nodded at Jang Min Soo’s words.
“Sacrifice the Black Night Platoon? That’s insane.”
The Black Night Platoon was composed of disciples from the Hwangha Suli Maeng and the Sojuchulbang—two of the nine pillar sects that upheld the Cheol Hyeol Maeng.
Those two sects would never stand by while their own disciples were squandered for nothing.
But.
“That would be true before, but not now. The composition of the Black Night Platoon has changed.”
Yi Song’s words drew a counter-argument from Jwa Ryang.
“I know about half of them being replaced with ordinary martial artists. But half still remain. The Hwangha Suli Maeng won’t be able to abandon them.”
Though Jwa Ryang spoke from deep understanding of the Hwangha Suli Maeng—being himself of the similar Dongjeong Sippalche—Yi Song shook his head.
“Look at those who remain. Wouldn’t the Hwangha Suli Maeng consider them expendable if they looked?”
Having seemingly forgotten this was a battlefield, Jwa Ryang studied the Black Night Platoon, who were chattering noisily among themselves.
As Jwa Ryang examined the composition of the Black Night Platoon, his eyes wavered.
“These are…….”
“Not every warrior bearing the Hwangha Suli Maeng name is truly of the Hwangha Suli Maeng.”
That was it.
The ones remaining in the Black Night Platoon were largely assassins who had defected from those hunted down by the Hwangha Suli Maeng and surrendered to join its ranks.
Among them, Jwa Ryang could spot a handful who, like himself, were originally from the Dongjeong Sippalche.
Seeing Jwa Ryang grinding his teeth in silence, Yi Song turned his gaze to Cheol Ja Ryong.
“What’s your assessment?”
“I see scarcely any from the Bang Ga. Most are hired by independent disciples whom the main sect employs.”
One might wonder what “independent disciples” means for a secular sect like the Sojuchulbang, but most secular sects refer to disciples who have separated from the main branch as independent.
In that sense, the current Sojuchulbang disciples in the Black Night Platoon are hired warriors sent by such independent branches, bearing their names.
The Saja Plain bleeds so profusely that sects send hired fighters bearing their seal rather than their own to meet their quotas.
By Cheol Ja Ryong’s account, such expendables were all that remained.
Both the Hwangha Suli Maeng and the Sojuchulbang had left only the pieces they could afford to lose in the Black Night Platoon.
“That’s why we received no additional orders to aid them.”
Everyone now understood what Yi Song meant.
It was that Headquarters hoped the Jeok Sa Jo, having completed their reconnaissance mission, would return to base, leaving the Black Night Platoon and White Cloak Platoon behind.
Indeed, whenever the Jeok Sa Jo finished a mission, they had always returned to base without looking back.
There was no point in lingering and getting drawn into a fight—it only increased the risk of losing members.
“This isn’t the first time we’ve seen something like this. Let’s head back.”
At Jwa Ryang’s words, Ryu’s gaze turned toward him.
“You’re really sure about this?”
“What do you mean?”
Ryu gestured silently toward a single point in response to Jwa Ryang’s question.
Jwa Ryang’s eyes widened as he looked in that direction.
……!
At Jwa Ryang’s shock, every member of the Jeok Sa Jo turned their gaze toward that same spot.
Ah!
Exclamations similar to the one that escaped Dong Pil’s lips spilled from the mouths of the Jeok Sa Jo members.
In the place they were looking at,
there was So Yeo Woon, wearing a bright smile and waving her hand toward Jwa Ryang.
“Why is she here of all places…….”
Yi Song was equally bewildered.
So Yeo Woon was the escort warrior for Yeo Jeong, who was assigned to Chaminyeong in her capacity as senior strategist.
There was no reason for her to appear on the battlefield just because the White Cloak Platoon was participating.
The Jeok Sa Jo members, watching with startled eyes, turned as So Yeo Woon approached—specifically toward Jwa Ryang.
“There you were. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
Jwa Ryang asked in a startled voice, his eyes fixed on So Yeo Woon’s beaming face.
“You—why are you here?”
“The White Cloak Platoon was short-handed, so I was told to lend a hand if I could…….”
That was what she said, but the truth was that she had volunteered.
When she heard that the Jeok Sa Jo had been dispatched here, she had rushed over, hoping she might be of some help to Jwa Ryang.
As So Yeo Woon spoke of her reasons, embarrassment coloring her expression, Jwa Ryang caught on to what lay in her heart.
Nor was it only he who noticed. The rest of the Jeok Sa Jo understood as well.
That she had come here, risking danger, for Jwa Ryang’s sake.
“Hee Joon, dig up the ground. Tonight, let’s roast some meat.”
At Dong Pil’s words, quiet laughter rippled across the faces of the gathered men.
And so the Jeok Sa Jo’s withdrawal passed without incident.

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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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