Chapter 15

Chapter 15 — They’re All Dead

For the moment, Jaha put aside the matter of the escorted goods and focused on the reality in front of him.

Even if he remained interested in the cargo, there was nothing he could do about it right now anyway.

What mattered was figuring out how to deal with the twenty or so martial artists entering the forest together with Shinbi.

“Didn’t some of them die in the formation? Why are there even more of them now?”

Wang Gyeong stared ahead with a grim expression, feeling an ominous premonition that this place might become his grave.

“They gathered all the subordinates who had been scattered around the area.”

Jaha picked up some branches nearby and casually stuck them into the ground around them.

“Are you setting up another formation?”

“No.”

“Then what are those for?”

Jaha continued drawing something on the ground with a branch. What he was doing looked quite similar to when he had created the Surei Formation before.

“I’m putting on a show so they won’t dare attack us carelessly.”

Just as Jaha had predicted, the group of attackers hurriedly stopped when they saw what he was doing.

They had already suffered terribly because of the Surei Formation.

Naturally, they were extremely wary of any formation Jaha might be setting up.

Wang Gyeong nodded and spoke.

“Young Hero Byeok, wouldn’t it be better to create another powerful formation like before and fight them with it?”

Wang Gyeong believed that would give them a better chance of survival.

“There is no formation stronger than the Surei Formation that I can use here. Even that couldn’t kill all of them. There are limits to killing experts with formations. You can trap them or stop them, but wiping them all out is difficult. And in our current situation, there is nothing stronger than the Surei Formation.”

“Then what are you trying to accomplish by stalling for time like this?”

At Wang Gyeong’s question, Jaha straightened his back and looked seriously into his eyes.

“What you are about to see must remain known only to you, Great Hero Wang. Can I trust you?”

Wang Gyeong stared at Jaha for a moment before nodding.

“You can trust me.”

“You must not even tell your superior, the branch leader.”

“Until the day I die, I alone will know what happens here.”

In truth, Jaha did not completely believe those words.

He knew very well that people from the Black Way often behaved completely differently depending on whether they were entering the latrine or leaving it.

Still, among those of the Black Way, Wang Gyeong was a man with a certain amount of integrity.

Given the situation, Jaha decided to trust him and at least secure his promise.

After all, what Jaha was about to show him could be quite shocking.

Jaha stepped forward and picked up a stone.

“I’ve set up a formation here! It’s even stronger than the Surei Formation, so come inside if you dare! You sons of bitches!”

Shinbi’s cheeks twitched repeatedly at those words.

Just looking at Jaha’s face made anger surge inside him.

Shinbi carefully examined the surroundings, but he could not sense any formation.

There was no such thing as creating a formation without leaving any traces whatsoever.

At the very least, there should have been patterns drawn on the ground.

There were indeed some markings, but to Shinbi, they looked like nothing more than the bluff of some country bumpkin.

He could not feel the presence of a formation at all.

“There is no formation here. Go in and capture him!”

Even so, Shinbi remained where he was and ordered his subordinates to move instead, just in case.

Jaha smirked and mocked him.

“Stop sending your innocent subordinates to do your dirty work. Come here and catch me yourself!”

As he said that, Jaha even dropped down and sat right on the ground.

Han Seol and Jo Unryong felt their hearts burning with anxiety at the sight.

Shinbi trembled in humiliation, but desperately held himself back.

After suffering so badly in the Surei Formation, even though he could not sense another formation now, he did not want to recklessly approach Jaha.

His mind screamed at him to capture Jaha, but his body refused to obey.

He had already learned fear.

No matter how Jaha provoked him, he could not take even a single step forward.

“Senior Brother Byeok...”

Jo Unryong was worried that Jaha was provoking the enemies too much and tried to approach him, but Han Seol quickly grabbed him.

“Maknae, wait. Senior Brother Byeok wouldn’t act like this without thinking. He must have some kind of plan. Staying here is how we help him right now.”

“What kind of plan could possibly involve doing that? He’s practically asking them to kill him! And it’s not like he set up a formation like before.”

“Unryong, just trust him. We have to trust Senior Brother Byeok.”

At Han Seol’s words, Jo Unryong clenched his fists.

He trusted his second senior brother.

But being unable to do anything in a situation like this was driving him mad.

In truth, there was someone even closer to losing his mind than Jo Unryong.

Wang Gyeong.

When Jaha finally closed his eyes completely, Wang Gyeong almost wanted to close his own eyes as well.

What in the world is he thinking?

He had not created another formation like the Surei Formation.

Nor did he possess some incredible hidden martial art.

No matter how Wang Gyeong thought about it, there seemed to be absolutely nothing that could be called a proper countermeasure.

And yet, considering Jaha had told him not to tell anyone about what he was about to see, he clearly had some kind of plan.

But all Wang Gyeong could see was empty bluffing.

It was enough to drive a man insane.

Jaha had not closed his eyes merely to continue his bluff.

He was actually circulating a secret formula.

Back when Jaha had been the Young Cult Leader, whenever he became exhausted from practicing martial arts, he had a hobby of learning the countless strange arts of the Demonic Cult simply to amuse himself.

The Banyang Pyeongong, Gyoryeong Ilchegong, and the Surei Formation were all martial arts he had learned during those days.

But among them, there was another art he had found the most entertaining.

Because of Jaha’s position, he always had to remain wary of his surroundings, and he could not casually make friends.

There had been a friend he grew up with like a brother when he was young, but once they became older, the difference in their status made even meeting difficult.

Because of that loneliness, Jaha began raising animals.

He particularly kept dogs and birds close to him.

Then one day, he had a thought.

He wanted to communicate his intentions to his pets.

So he searched through the martial archives for days, looking for a method that could accomplish such a thing.

Eventually, he finally found one.

It was a martial art with the strange name Jesaeng Chongyong.

Jesaeng Chongyong was a general term for techniques used to control all living creatures, and because it used a human soul to control them, it was far more powerful than any ordinary Beast-Control Art.

At that time, Jaha had already been practicing Gyoryeong Ilchegong, so the two arts were extremely compatible.

Through separating his spirit from his body, he could connect with living creatures nearby and share his mind with those he had formed a connection with.

However, there was one serious drawback.

Because the technique controlled living creatures through the soul, the user’s physical body would become rigid like a corpse.

That was why Jaha had abandoned the technique after experimenting with it only a few times.

But in their current situation, there was no martial art more suitable than this one.

Jaha used Byeokho’s baekryeong to activate Jesaeng Chongyong.

There probably was not another spirit in existence as powerful as Byeokho’s baekryeong.

Jaha circulated the formula of Jesaeng Chongyong and spread Byeokho’s baekryeong throughout the surrounding area.

Ah... Byeokho really must have died with tremendous resentment. Even though this is only half of a spirit, its spiritual energy can spread over such a wide area.

Even Jaha was surprised.

He had thought it would already be fortunate if he could connect with the wolves in the area.

But after actually activating the technique, he discovered that he could even communicate with the poisonous insects nearby.

That was how powerful Byeokho’s baekryeong was.

Because of the rain, poisonous creatures had emerged from the swamp and were crawling throughout the Poison Forest.

The venomous creatures clinging to the trees and bushes came into contact with Byeokho’s baekryeong and slowly began moving toward Jaha.

Sssssssssss!

The sound resembled reeds crying in the wind.

Jaha had deliberately chosen this particular day and place after studying the map, but even he had not expected Jesaeng Chongyong to work this effectively.

After all, he had never used Jesaeng Chongyong over such a large area before.

Jaha suddenly opened his eyes.

“What good is a monkey bastard with guts that small?”

Jaha casually tossed the stone in his hand forward.

Shinbi flinched in surprise.

The middle-aged man in black felt embarrassed just watching his Young Master react to every little thing Jaha did.

He could not even be compared to his own lord, Hwancheonma Shinjeok, but Shinbi was not even on the level of the deceased First Young Master.

If Young Master Shindok were still alive, we never would have suffered this kind of humiliation...

With that thought, the middle-aged man in black shouted at the subordinates who were merely watching for orders.

“What are you doing?! There is no formation! Go and capture him!”

Having no other choice, Shinbi’s subordinates approached Jaha.

When nothing happened even after they drew closer, Shinbi suddenly threw back his head and burst into loud laughter.

“Hahahaha! I don’t know what gave you the courage to bluff like that, but today, you will experience hell!”

Only now did Shinbi realize that Jaha had merely been acting out of desperation, and his heart finally relaxed.

When the formation still did not activate, his subordinates approached without hesitation.

The instant they charged forward to seize Jaha—

Wolves suddenly leaped out of the forest.

“GRAAAAH!”

The wolves bit into the necks of the martial artists rushing toward Jaha and violently tore them apart.

Shinbi’s subordinates were all skilled martial artists.

They were certainly not the kind of people who would fear attacks from wild wolves.

However, after witnessing the terrifying power of Jaha’s formation, they had already been frightened out of their minds.

Their attention had been so completely focused on Jaha that they had not even noticed the wolves surrounding them.

The middle-aged man in black felt his face burning with shame.

Six of their men had died after wolves tore into their throats.

For martial artists, it was a humiliating death.

The strongest expert present was himself.

And yet, even he had failed to sense the wolves approaching.

Although he had tried not to show it, this proved that his entire attention had also been focused on Jaha.

Trying to hide his embarrassment, he irritably shouted at the remaining subordinates.

“Go and drag that bastard over here!”

The subordinates approached Jaha again, and once more, wolves leaped from the forest and attacked.

But wolves were no match for experts who were already prepared for them.

“Yelp!”

“Woof!”

“Graaah!”

In an instant, the attacking wolves were cut apart and killed.

Seeing this, Shinbi sneered.

“Your tricks are quite impressive. It was absurd enough that you knew the Surei Formation, but you can even control beasts. The more I see, the more remarkable you become. If you weren’t someone I had to kill, I would have taken you back to our cult and made you my disciple.”

Jaha stared at him in disbelief before shooting back.

“What kind of bullshit is that?! Why would I become the disciple of a son of a bitch like you?! Ah, right. You were the monkey bastard, weren’t you?”

As Jaha casually cursed him, Shinbi once again trembled violently from humiliation.

“That damned bastard! There’s no reason to fear a few wolves! Kill them all and bring that bastard to me!”

At Shinbi’s command, the dozen or so remaining subordinates charged toward Jaha all at once.

Jaha burst into roaring laughter.

“Hahahahaha! You’re protecting your own hide until the very end. Fine. I’ll come to you instead. I’ll come.”

Instead, Jaha began walking toward them.

The moment he did, not only the subordinates but even Shinbi took a step backward.

Fear once carved into the mind was not something that disappeared easily.

Watching them, the middle-aged man in black let out a sigh.

The truth was, even he had nearly stepped backward.

So he gritted his teeth and boldly moved forward instead.

“It seems I’ll have to beat you half to death before we can have a proper conversation.”

As the middle-aged man in black advanced, his empty left sleeve fluttering beside him, Jaha mocked him.

“Want me to cut off your right arm too?”

“You mad bastard!”

The middle-aged man in black could no longer tolerate this reckless brat.

Just as Jaha had done to him, he planned to cut off both of the brat’s arms first and then try talking to him.

Clang!

He drew his sword.

But just as he was about to advance toward Jaha—

Something suddenly came raining down from the branches overhead.

Rustle! Rustle! Rustle!

“What?”

Caught completely off guard, the middle-aged man in black swung his sword at the falling objects.

However, the things he struck were scattered in every direction by his blade, falling directly over the surrounding subordinates.

“P-Poisonous insects!”

“Aaaaargh!”

Screams suddenly erupted from all around.

All kinds of scorpions, snakes, poisonous spiders, and venomous ants clung to their necks, arms, and legs.

“Hahahahaha! How do you like that, you bastards?!”

Watching Jaha laugh like a madman, Han Seol and Jo Unryong looked at each other.

They simply could not understand where their second senior brother had been hiding such coldness and brutality all this time.

However, Jo Unryong was currently feeling a thrill greater than anyone else.

Even when Han Seol had told him to trust their senior brother and simply watch, he honestly had not understood Jaha’s behavior.

But now that he saw Jaha controlling the wolves and poisonous creatures around them to fight his enemies, goosebumps spread across his entire body.

Wang Gyeong was beyond goosebumps.

His hair was practically standing on end.

I thought he was only bluffing, but he wasn’t. My god... Even entering the Poison Forest was part of his plan. From the very beginning, he intended to use the wolves and poisonous creatures living here.

But the truly terrifying part is his ability to control them.

At this point, Wang Gyeong could barely see Jaha as human anymore.

With an ability like this, no one could blame him for acting proud wherever he went.

Then Wang Gyeong suddenly remembered what Jaha had told him earlier.

“What you are about to see must remain known only to you, Great Hero Wang.”

Now he understood why.

Honestly, even if he told someone about this, who would believe him?

If Wang Gyeong claimed that a martial artist who had not even reached the first-rate level possessed an ability like this, people would undoubtedly think he was the madman.