Tales Of The Nine Dragons [EN]: Chapter 203

“Huff, huff… Just hold on a little longer. I shot a signal flare, so people will be here soon.”

Lee Seo-won reassured the young masters, who were trembling with fear, trying to calm them.

They had set out to find traces of the Soeum Temple monks who were attacking the Daeri family’s businesses to pressure them, but they were instead ambushed and were now being chased by those very monks.

The Soeum Temple monks were skilled not only in martial arts but also in *sulbeop* [a type of esoteric Buddhist magic], making it impossible for the young masters to handle them.

Only then did they realize they had been reckless, but it was already too late.

The Soeum Temple monks were stronger than they had anticipated, and they used *sulbeop* that felt alien and unfamiliar, restricting their movements and causing them great difficulty.

Fortunately, Lee Seo-won, the young master of the Cheonryangsa family, and Bae Jeok-ha, the young master of the Yeoknasa family, were skilled in martial arts, so they barely managed to escape the worst of the initial crisis. However, in the process, several young masters, including Jong-yoon of the Lee Youngsa family, were injured. Jong-yoon’s injury, in particular, was so severe that his life was in danger.

“How is he?”

“He’s in bad shape. There’s no time to delay. We need to get him to a doctor as soon as possible…”

Bae Jeok-ha stopped talking. At the same time, Lee Seo-won also turned his gaze elsewhere and frowned.

“They’re tracking us faster than I thought. It seems like there’s someone among them who’s good at tracking.”

“Jeok-ha, you protect the others for now. I’ll try to stop them up ahead.”

“Be careful.”

After telling Lee Seo-won to be careful as he stepped forward, Bae Jeok-ha gathered the young masters of the other families and said,

“I need to help Seo-won if necessary. You guys have to protect Jong-yoon no matter what.”

“I’m sorry, *hyung-nim* [an honorific term used by younger men to address older brothers or respected male figures].”

“This is all experience. Real combat experience where you could die, not prepared training. So grit your teeth and endure.”

“Understood.”

Before long, figures wearing red monastic robes appeared, and they were indeed the monks of Soeum Temple.

Unlike the monks of the Central Plains, they grew their hair long and partially covered their faces with tattoos rather than imprinting *gyein* [Buddhist vows or marks] on their foreheads, making them look menacing.

The one standing in front counted Lee Seo-won and the others and gave a bitter smile.

“The reason you die is because you saw something you shouldn’t have seen.”

“What did we see that warrants you persecuting us like this?”

The Soeum Temple monks acted as if they didn’t know that they had come as guests of the Daeri family and were trying to kill them simply for witnessing their plot.

“The children who were with us!”

Lee Seo-won narrowed his eyes.

“Who are those children?”

“You don’t need to know that. You just need to die here.”

As soon as the leader finished speaking, he held out one hand, and in it was a bizarre-looking voodoo doll.

“Damn it!”

Lee Seo-won cursed and closed his eyes.

*Shweeeeek!*

At the same time, a sharp sound of air being torn was heard from behind Lee Seo-won.

A dagger pierced the air and flew towards the monk holding the voodoo doll.

The monk was startled and dodged the dagger by retracting the voodoo doll and moving his body to the side.

“Kill them.”

After giving the order to the monks who came with him, he stepped back and held out the voodoo doll again.

“*Omsallida, Ombada, Yalliom…*”

As the monk chanted a strange spell, black smoke flowed from the voodoo doll in his hand.

Once again, a dagger flew through the air, heading for the voodoo doll in the monk’s hand, and the monk hurriedly withdrew his hand.

At the same time, the Soeum Temple monks approached Lee Seo-won and the young masters.

Lee Seo-won used the Cheonryangsa family’s unique sword technique, Yongma Blood Sword, to prevent them from reaching the others, but it seemed insufficient on his own.

Still, Lee Seo-won gritted his teeth and said to the Soeum Temple monks,

“We didn’t see anything. Why are you persecuting us like this?”

Lee Seo-won tried to deny the monk’s words, but the Soeum Temple monks had already decided to kill them, so they didn’t even listen.

*Cheeeeeeeng!*

After parrying the monk’s sword, he immediately counterattacked with Yongduse, the first form of the Yongma Blood Sword.

Lee Seo-won moved his body using quick footwork and struck the sword vertically, and the monk hurriedly raised his sword to block it.

Normally, it is standard to relentlessly attack with a series of attacks, but Lee Seo-won could not continue the attack because there were injured people behind him, so he had to move his position to block another monk.

Lee Seo-won quickly moved with the help of footwork to block the monks approaching the others, and Choi Heon, the young master of the Nokjang family, held a dagger in his hand and was only looking at the monk holding the voodoo doll.

Whenever the person behind him tried to use *sulbeop* using the voodoo doll, Choi Heon aimed at him and threw a dagger.

The Nokjang family’s assassination techniques were so great that even the Tang family would give way, and even in his injured state, he accurately aimed at the voodoo doll and threw.

The young masters of the Twelve Families were not weak martial artists, but they suffered greatly because they knew too little about their opponents.

With the previous experience, they knew what they had to do in the battle with the opponent, so they were able to buy time by fighting the Soeum Temple monks, but it was not enough to overcome the crisis in a situation with many injured.

-If I move one more time, the possibility of someone else living increases. So I gritted my teeth and moved one more time.

Lee Seo-won recalled what Hwa-rin, whom he had met at the Hwasan Assembly in the past, had said.

-That all becomes experience later, and that experience accumulates and comes as enlightenment. And while doing that, I realized one unchanging truth.

-What is it?

-My efforts may be insufficient to obtain satisfactory results. But the effort I put in never betrays me.

-Really?

-Yes. Just like experience accumulates, effort also accumulates and will appear as a result later.

*Cheeeeeeeng!*

Grit-toothed Lee Seo-won muttered inwardly as he blocked the Soeum Temple monks from heading towards the young masters.

‘If there’s no enlightenment, just you wait.’

Because Lee Seo-won alone could not block all the Soeum Temple monks, some managed to get past him and aimed for the young masters, but Bae Jeok-ha, the young master of the Yeoknasa family, blocked them.

Bae Jeok-hwa unfolded the family’s unique sword technique, the Death Sword Technique, and blocked the Soeum Temple monks at all costs. In the meantime, Choi Heon was throwing daggers to prevent them from using *sulbeop* with the voodoo doll.

“*Cheeeeeeeng!*”

Bae Jeok-hwa, who was pushed back by the strong repulsive force and felt pain as if his wrist was tearing, frowned as he looked at the opponent’s sharp sword.

He was pushed into a disadvantage at once because he was pushed back by strength, apart from the sophistication of the sword technique.

‘If I can’t deal with him with strength, I’ll let his strength flow and look for an opportunity.’

Bae Jeok-hwa realized that he could not deal with his opponent with strength and decided to focus on defense and look for an opening.

The Soeum Temple monks were stronger than the young masters of the Twelve Families, even without *sulbeop* or spells.

Only Lee Seo-won and Bae Jeok-ha were able to fight them on equal terms, and the others were not strong enough to fight against them.

‘It’s impossible to save them all.’

Lee Seo-won moved his waist and feet to avoid the sword reaching for his chest, and then looked at his colleagues who were fighting hard.

‘Rather, taking only those who can live…’

-If you give up once, you give up when things are hard, rather than fighting. Why? Because it’s easier that way. But that may help in the short term, but it doesn’t help at all in the distant future.

‘Why did I become friends with Hwa-rin?’

The sword in Lee Seo-won’s hand moved. He twisted the sword around using his wrist and palm, grabbed it as a reverse sword, then pulled his arm to his body and spun around in place.

He counterattacked the monk who was stabbing his sword at his chest with the Yongbihoicheon form, the third form of the Yongma Blood Sword.

“*Heot!*”

The monk took a breath and tried to lower his sword to block it, but the monk’s sword was bounced off by the rotational force of Lee Seo-won’s rotation, and Lee Seo-won’s sword cut the monk’s waist due to the centrifugal force of the re-rotation.

*Seogeok!*

Lee Seo-won, who tore the red monastic robe he was wearing and deeply cut his flesh, had no time to check the extent of his injury and had to move to the side to block another monk.

“*Hyung-nim*, Jong-yoon is…”

Lee Hyun said urgently as Jong-yoon’s condition, which was life-threatening, worsened.

“Damn it…, Lee Hyun, take Jong-yoon to the Daeri family. Save Jong-yoon no matter what.”

Knowing that he could no longer delay here, Lee Seo-won entrusted Jong-yoon to Lee Hyun, the young master of the Jongjang family.

“*Hyung-nim*……”

“Go. Don’t give up. Then Jong-yoon can live. So just go to the Daeri family.”

“Oh, they’re the guys sent by the Daeri family.”

A bitter smile grew on the lips of the monk holding the voodoo doll, and he said with an evil laugh.

“If I cut off your heads and send them to the Daeri family, I think they’ll really like it.”

“Do it if you can.”

Lee Seo-won shouted fiercely at him and then said to Lee Hyun.

“Go quickly!”

At Lee Seo-won’s roar, Lee Hyun picked up Jong-yoon. Then, after taking off his coat and tying them tightly together, he said to Lee Seo-won.

“*Hyung-nim*s, please come back alive. I will go to the Daeri family with Jong-yoon no matter what.”

As Lee Hyun kicked off the floor and soared into the air, the Soeum Temple monks tried to stop him.

*Shweeeeek!*

Five daggers cut through the air and attacked the Soeum Temple monks, and in this gap, Lee Hyun drew a parabola in the air and escaped the battlefield.

“How are the others?”

“We can handle it, *hyung-nim*!”

“Okay. Good job. If we were attacked, it means Seo-won’s group was also attacked. It’s an emergency, so endure even if it’s hard.”

“Understood.”

“Let’s hurry.”

“Yes!”

They tried to move quickly to where Lee Seo-won was, but they couldn’t.

*Shweeeeek!*

Seeing several arrows flying with a sharp tearing sound, Baek Gun-seong instinctively jumped forward and moved his sword.

Baek Gun-seong, who was parrying the flying arrows, frowned.

‘They know who we are.’

He looked around to see if there was a place to hide from the flying arrows, but there was no suitable place to hide because it was an open space.

“Use the corpses as shields to protect yourselves.”

It was unpleasant to use the dead, but they had to live, so there was no other way.

Baek Gun-seong lifted the dead with one hand and blocked the arrows falling in a parabola.

Fortunately, the arrows did not penetrate the corpse and were embedded in it, so it played a role as a shield.

“The guys will appear soon. As before, focus on defense with the Five Elements Sword Formation.”

“Understood.”

Baek Gun-seong’s hand holding the sword tightened.

‘If I hadn’t learned martial arts while being nagged by Hwa-rin, I would have been in big trouble.’

While Hwa-rin was visiting the Heungchin Prince’s mansion in Sichuan, Baek Gun-seong trained in martial arts.

He trained in the Four Spirits Demonic Art according to Hwa-rin’s advice, and that is now of great help in dealing with the Potala Palace warriors.

Baek Gun-seong looked at where Lee Seo-won was.

‘Hold on a little longer. I’ll finish these guys off and run to you.’