Mookbi’s arrival proved to be the decisive move.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! BOOOOM!
Direct and arcing shots rained down on Soh Bang from every angle.
Under normal circumstances, she would have opened the distance and evaded them, or found a gap and broken through. It would not have been easy, but neither would it have posed any serious difficulty.
The problem was that Soh Bang was far from her normal condition.
I’ll kill them!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM! RIP!
Soh Bang’s sleeve split apart.
Responding to the attacks was becoming increasingly difficult. The addition of a single archer had somehow strengthened the formation pressure generated by the five spearmen. It clung to her entire body like a net, making every movement feel as though she were wading through mud.
What kind of formation is this?!
It was absurd.
Determined not to fall for the same trick twice, she had tried to kill them with long-range attacks before they could engage her formation.
But that had proven impossible. They had already been charging forward in formation, and the closer her palm force came to their formation pressure, the more power it lost.
She had unleashed every long-range technique at her disposal, yet the five spearmen had blocked each ranged palm strike with their astonishing coordination.
Even our cult has no formation like this. I’ve never heard of the Mad Blood Cult or the Divine Flame Cult possessing one either.
Soh Bang ground her teeth.
It was cheating.
They were merely five weaklings she could normally kill with a single punch, yet forming one formation allowed them to hold back a master standing on the threshold of the half-divine apostle realm?
How could such a thing be possible?
It defied all common sense.
KABOOM!
A fierce shock wave drove Soh Bang back several steps.
The flow of her True Qi slowed even further. Her stamina was visibly declining, and the power of her force emission seemed to have fallen by at least thirty percent.
At this rate, she would inevitably suffer the same fate as before.
What do I do? There has to be some way...
Soh Bang’s eyes suddenly trembled.
The instant she realized that no matter what she tried, she could not kill them, a single word surfaced in her mind.
Escape.
“...Fuck that!”
FWOOSH!
Her Blood-Drinking evil qi blazed even more fiercely beneath the force of her extreme rage.
Soh Bang let out a maddened roar.
“You think I would retreat because of insects like you?!”
KABOOM!
This palm force was truly ferocious.
BLEGH!
Song Yeonggyeong and two of the spearmen coughed up blood.
Anyone could form a formation with sufficiently brutal training, but its power inevitably depended on the Inner Qi and understanding of its members.
Even before joining the Evil-Smiting Corps, the Emei spearmen had trained extensively in coordinated combat. Among all the Evil-Smiting Corps’ small-unit formations, theirs boasted the greatest power.
Only because they were that capable had they endured Soh Bang’s one-sided assault. Any other troops would have seen their formation collapse long ago.
“I’ll kill every last one of you!”
Soh Bang charged forward with a deafening roar, only to notice the spearmen’s eyes waver.
Hm?
In an instant split into its smallest fraction, Soh Bang’s keen senses detected the formation pressure beginning to falter.
It’s weakening? The formation pressure?
Only then did she understand.
Of course. They’ve reached their limit too!
She was right.
The Evil-Smiting Three-Kill Formation displayed extraordinary power against high-level masters.
But no matter how exceptional a formation was, it could not sustain this degree of strength indefinitely. It had a clear limit, and once that limit was exceeded, the formation became a lethal threat to its own users.
The Three-Kill Formation’s weakness was time.
A handful of fighters could confront a supreme master through it, but the energy forming its pressure still came from the members’ own Inner Qi.
Inflating that Inner Qi to such a degree required an explosive surge of True Qi. That surge caused extreme fatigue, and once the time limit was exceeded, it could inflict terrible internal injuries upon the users.
It was an equivalent exchange.
The formation granted an extreme increase in power, but crossing its limit could kill those maintaining it.
That was why it was called Three-Kill.
Either the enemy died, the user died, or both friend and foe died together.
And now, the five spearmen had reached their limit.
BOOOOM!
Soh Bang retreated a hundred feet.
She was not trying to flee.
She intended to buy time until the formation collapsed on its own.
Mookbi urgently released a volley.
BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG! BOOOOM!
Soh Bang blocked six shots, but failed to stop the last. An explosion burst from her shoulder.
It did not matter.
She was changing the battle from an offensive contest in which she had to kill them before her own strength ran out into a defensive one where she merely had to wait for theirs to fail. She could grit her teeth and endure an impact like this.
WHOOSH!
Mookbi shot into the air.
The enemy had discovered the formation’s weakness. The only option left was to unleash overwhelming firepower before it collapsed.
BOOM! BOOM-BOOM! BOOOOM!
Mookbi attacked with uncanny archery while Soh Bang evaded through erratic lightness skill.
Between them, the formation pressure spreading like a spiderweb gradually lost its strength.
And finally—
SNAP! SNAP-SNAP!
Soh Bang’s eyes gleamed.
She could feel the web binding her body breaking strand by strand.
FWOOSH!
The sluggish flow of her True Qi suddenly accelerated.
KABOOM!
This time, she did not evade Mookbi’s arrow. Soh Bang’s palm force shattered a Formless Bolt outright.
Mookbi’s eyes trembled.
SNAP-SNAP-SNAP-SNAP! SNAP-SNAP!
Half of the Three-Kill Formation’s power restraining Soh Bang broke apart.
FWOOSH!
The domain of her Blood-Drinking evil qi doubled in size.
Soh Bang felt as though she could finally breathe again.
At last, she could display her true strength.
“You fucking bitches! I’ve waited long enough!”
FLASH!
Soh Bang appeared above Mookbi’s head.
Her speed was on an entirely different level than before. As her True Qi began flowing faster, so did her reactions, and the density of her power rose with them.
FLASH!
Mookbi dropped to the ground.
Had she reacted even a fraction slower, Soh Bang would have snapped her neck.
“You’re fast, archer.”
WHOOSH!
Soh Bang was still slower than Mookbi.
But catching up to her was no longer impossible.
She closed the distance at terrifying speed, no longer sparing the five spearmen a glance.
Once I kill that bitch...!
At that moment—
...?!
The archer’s face rapidly filled her vision, but the expression on it was strange.
It looked as though Mookbi had known she would approach this way.
Then Soh Bang sensed concealed Killing Intent closing in from the left, right, and above.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Violent explosions erupted in midair.
Invisible Formless Bolts had been fired in every direction to form a net, then curved and manipulated through True Qi.
It was the Dragon-Slaying Divine Net of the Nine-Dragon Heaven-Shattering Bow Mastery.
Unlike the other forms, which could be performed with either arrows or Formless Bolts, the Dragon-Slaying Divine Net could only be used with Formless Bolts.
The reason was simple: it required absolute control over qi.
This was the first time Mookbi had employed this supreme archery technique since crossing the Wall of Martial Arts.
Did I get her?
Mookbi stared into the air, then abruptly ground her teeth.
Damn it!
She unleashed the Dragon Flight Sequence.
WHOOSH! KABOOM!
A massive crater appeared where Mookbi had been standing.
“You damned bitch!”
THUD!
Soh Bang landed on the ground in a gruesome state.
The pressure of the Formless Bolts had torn open or burst flesh across her body. She was drenched in blood from head to toe.
None of the wounds were fatal, but she had lost a great deal of blood in an instant.
Dragging the battle out any longer would be dangerous.
HISSSSSS.
The pressure of the Three-Kill Formation had nearly vanished.
WHOOOOOM.
The bleeding from Soh Bang’s wounds stopped.
She had sealed all of them at once through the power of her Blood-Drinking evil qi.
Song Yeonggyeong clenched his teeth.
“Everyone, hold on! We have to keep her bound somehow—!”
Mookbi shouted.
“No! You’ll die if you keep this up!”
“Deputy Commander Mook!”
“Release the formation! Even if she escapes, do not push yourselves any further!”
“But—!”
“I’ll say it again! Release the formation! That is an order!”
Mookbi’s voice carried absolute authority.
Song Yeonggyeong gritted his teeth.
“...Everyone, dismantle the Three-Kill Formation.”
WHOOOSH.
The formation’s power vanished as though it had never existed.
“Haaah!”
“Cough!”
The spearmen staggered as they gasped for breath.
Two of them were bleeding from both nose and mouth. They had already pushed beyond their limits and suffered internal injuries.
WHOOSH!
The True Qi pouring from Soh Bang like an erupting volcano suddenly condensed back into her body.
“...I’ve waited long enough.”
CRACK-CRACK!
Soh Bang rolled her shoulders.
She had suffered internal injuries, and her external wounds were severe.
But now that she could fully wield her Blood-Drinking evil qi, none of that posed much of a problem.
Soh Bang sneered coldly.
“Should I start with you, archer? Or would you rather I deal with those things first? Go on. Pick whichever you prefer.”
Mookbi raised the Red Lotus Bow without answering.
Soh Bang’s words were not an empty threat.
With the Three-Kill Formation gone, the battle had completely reversed. The qi wave alone made that unmistakably clear.
Even so, Mookbi remained calm.
CREEEEAK!
The Red Lotus Bow screamed as she poured every last drop of Steel-String Bow True Qi into it.
“Oh? You first, then? Fine. I’ll grant your wish.”
Mookbi released the string.
KABOOOOOM!
A massive explosion erupted directly in front of Soh Bang.
It was a powerful Formless Bolt.
But that was all.
WHOOOSH.
The smoke cleared, revealing Soh Bang with one hand extended.
She had blocked it single-handedly.
Soh Bang’s eyes darkened.
“Playtime is over, you fucking bitch!”
At that moment—
CLATTER-CLATTER-CLATTER!
Soh Bang’s eyes flew wide at the chilling sound of metal.
Mookbi spoke in an icy voice.
“You’re right. Playtime is over.”
CLINK-CLINK-CLINK!
“Gasp!”
The Flood Dragon Chain had already wrapped tightly around Soh Bang’s left arm.
It had moved so quickly that she had not even been able to react.
No—its point of origin had not been far away at all.
Mookbi drew the string of the Red Lotus Bow once more.
“I knew you would block it instead of dodging. With arrogance like yours, how could you do anything else?”
Soh Bang looked behind her.
Yeon Hojeong had already entered within thirty feet of her.
Only then did she understand.
The archer had poured everything into that Formless Bolt not to harm her, but to generate a shock wave powerful enough to conceal that monster’s approach.
Soh Bang met Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.
They were utterly devoid of emotion—the very embodiment of indifference.
No...!
WHOOSH!
Soh Bang threw herself backward and released her Blood-Drinking evil qi, trying to tear free of the Flood Dragon Chain.
BOOOOM!
“KAAAGH!”
A Formless Bolt struck her abdomen.
Soh Bang screamed and collapsed on the spot.
Mookbi showed no mercy.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM!
Five consecutive Formless Bolts slammed into Soh Bang’s body.
“Cough!”
Even the shield formed from her Blood-Drinking evil qi could not keep her insides from being violently shaken.
And it did not end there.
FWOOSH!
A monstrous wave of Fire energy traveled through the Flood Dragon Chain and began devouring her Blood-Drinking evil qi.
HISSSSSS!
Pale smoke rose from Soh Bang’s left arm as the Vermilion Bird Fire Qi burned through her flesh.
“AAAAAAAH!”
BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG!
Mookbi coldly continued firing.
Pinned helplessly by Yeon Hojeong’s Inner Qi, Soh Bang took all twenty-eight Formless [N O V E L I G H T] Bolts without exception.
THUD!
Soh Bang collapsed.
The sheer severity of her internal and external injuries had rendered her unconscious.
Yeon Hojeong rushed forward and stamped on her thigh.
CRACK!
Soh Bang’s femur broke.
Even if she regained consciousness, she would no longer be able to flee.
Mookbi let out a breath.
“That was close—”
“Carry her. We’re moving to the third rendezvous point.”
“What?”
“Okcheong is in danger. I’ve managed to keep him alive for now, but we have to get him to a physician as quickly as possible.”
“...!”
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