Chapter 271 — Blades Standing Like a Mountain 2
Cheon Manseok walked ahead.
His hand pointed forward as if guiding the way, but his shoulders and back were listening to every movement behind him.
Footsteps followed.
Not one or two.
From both sides of the corridor, from the shadows of the courtyard, and from beneath the eaves, warriors silently flowed out.
They did not rush in at once.
They kept a distance of about ten paces and followed.
Their hands rested low on their scabbards, their spearpoints faced the ground, and outwardly they had taken the shape of guards.
Yet that distance was not the distance of an escort.
It was the distance for leading someone elsewhere and striking him there.
Yeongu muttered without slowing his steps.
"Should I kill all of these too? Is that why they are following?"
Cheon Manseok looked back.
In that instant, a chill ran down his spine.
Almost all the warriors of the Li Family Great Estate had gathered.
Men who had come out from behind doors, men pressed beneath the walls, men holding blades inside the curtains—they filled the road behind them like a single wave.
Among them, he saw the Three Absolutes of Changbai.
They were three men who had not shown themselves a moment earlier.
Their hands were already touching scabbards and spear shafts, and the tips of their feet were open toward the path Yeongu would take.
They were ready to rush in the moment a word fell.
They were men who boasted that, if the three of them joined forces, they could break any master.
Even Cheon Manseok himself could not guarantee victory if he fought all three.
Their specialty was combined assault.
The sword bound the wrist and the gaze.
The spear cut off the retreating foot.
The axe struck the opened defense.
The length and weight of different weapons locked together and moved like one net.
Block the sword, and the spearpoint entered.
Avoid the spear, and the axe blade fell over the shoulder.
Lower the body to avoid the axe, and throwing darts and flying needles shot out from the sleeves.
Their combined attack did not simply press with force.
They were skilled at interlocking the mutual generation and mutual restraint of weapons, binding the opponent before he could unfold his martial skill.
Each of the three was familiar with more than three kinds of arms.
Not only the eighteen common weapons—sword, saber, spear, and axe—but also short blades hidden in sleeves and needles held between the fingers.
When they clung to an opponent in a cunning chain, the opponent lost the space to use his own weapon's advantage.
Long weapons had their inner range eaten away.
Short weapons lost the outer range.
Empty hands were bound by the shadow of hidden weapons.
For a moment, just for a very brief moment, a thin hope rose in Cheon Manseok's heart.
Those three might be able to do it.
If the Three Absolutes of Changbai bound his path first, and the warriors behind them covered him all at once, perhaps they could bring down that bloodstained Goryeo general here.
But Cheon Manseok soon remembered the inside of the door that had just closed.
More than a hundred personal guards and close bodyguards had collapsed in that room.
Among them, too, had been named warriors.
No matter how sharp the Three Absolutes of Changbai were, he could not say they would stop the man who had filled that room with blood and walked out.
There had been several highly skilled and well-known warriors inside.
The path was not wide.
A wall blocked one side, and the eave pillars cut through the other.
It was enough for people to walk, but too tight for armed men to rush in together.
Cheon Manseok remembered the room from just before.
There too, at first, there had been many.
Shields pushed in, spears thrust, blades poured down.
Yet once they clashed, only the first two or three had truly faced Yeongu, and those behind them had merely waited for their turn.
When the man in front fell, the one behind tripped over his body.
A blade trying to strike from the side was stopped by a comrade's shoulder.
This path was no different.
No matter how sharp the Three Absolutes of Changbai were, only one or two could enter first.
The warriors behind them would only push their backs.
Long spears would catch on the eave pillars, and axes and blades would steal each other's space.
If Yeongu took just one step into that gap, blood would cover the road again.
Cheon Manseok saw it too clearly.
So he shook his head.
The premonition that they would all fall again came faster than the thought that they might stop him.
Cheon Manseok turned his head and gave a short shake.
The Three Absolutes of Changbai saw the signal, but their eyes did not withdraw.
The man who seemed to be the eldest among them moved half a step forward.
With that one step, the shoulders of the other two moved at the same time.
It was the beginning of a combined strike.
Cheon Manseok felt that this alone would not be enough.
He stopped and shouted loudly.
"Do not act rashly!"
The warriors in the corridor and courtyard flinched at once.
They froze stiff.
Hands gripping scabbards stopped.
Spearpoints trembled near the ground.
Only then did the Three Absolutes of Changbai halt.
Cheon Manseok glared at them one by one.
"There was an order from His Highness. We open the way out for him. Whoever moves first, I will cut down with my own hand."
The eyes of the Three Absolutes of Changbai grew fierce.
Yet even they could not ignore Cheon Manseok's words.
He was the bodyguard who guarded Yelü Zhangnu's side, and he was the man who had judged just before that they should avoid a fight.
More than anything, there was certainty in his eyes rather than fear.
The certainty that if they touched that man, everyone would die.
Yeongu chuckled beside him.
"Thanks. My clothes almost got even dirtier for nothing."
Cheon Manseok did not answer.
If he answered, he felt he would be dragged into that manner of speaking.
He walked forward again.
Yeongu followed behind him, the bloodstained hwandō hanging low in his hand.
The warriors opened the way.
None of them put away their blades, but none of them entered first.
Silver edges glittered low on both sides.
Between them, the bloodstained Goryeo general walked slowly.
Blood fell from the blade and dotted the stone floor.
How much blood had it soaked up that it kept dripping as he walked?
It was the blood clinging to Yeongu's arms and sleeves, running down his arm, reaching his hand, and then sliding along the blade he held.
Cheon Manseok heard the sound.
One drop.
Then another.
The sound seemed strangely loud.
It felt as though every person in the estate was hearing it.
The sound of a bloodstained man walking out.
The sound of the survivors making way.