That moment.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
"Wh-what!? Raaaaah!"
The newly appeared water bandits began wildly swinging weapons like swords and axes at the water bandits on this side. Over ten water bandits who had fallen to the very back were slaughtered in an instant.
Those who had been relieved thinking they were allies couldn't block the blades that suddenly flew at them at all.
Among them, the one standing at the very front of those wearing their clothes inside out appeared distinctly exceptional in both valor and martial arts at a glance.
"General Chief?"
"Why is the General Chief doing this to us...?"
"What on earth!?"
The General Chief of the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds, Yangtze Dragon Hero Sa Sa-ho, that is, Water Shadow, beheaded one more panicking water bandit's neck and shouted.
"Don't leave a single one—sweep them all away!"
At Water Shadow's command, most began attacking, but a minority still hesitated, seemingly reluctant to attack allies.
Water Shadow immediately killed such people and shouted again.
"Those who step back will have their heads fly off according to the Law of the Yangtze!"
The Law of the Yangtze.
It was the absolute law that water bandits had to follow. Among them were two things: absolute obedience to superiors, and never step back in battle. What Water Shadow was saying right now was precisely those.
Though it was difficult to understand the General Chief's command right now, they had to follow. That's what an absolute law was. There was no room for likes or dislikes. If they wanted to question it, they had to wait until after finishing the battle. Right now there was no choice.
The water bandits hesitated no longer.
From that moment, the water bandits wearing their clothes inside out began indiscriminately attacking the water bandits who had been the pursuit force.
Now the water bandits who had been pursuing the survivors became the pursued by other water bandits instead.
Looking at just the current situation, they faced an even worse situation than the survivors fleeing up above. Those at least had the front open and could flee freely, but the pursuit force water bandits' feet were bound between the congratulatory guests and the other water bandits attacking them.
Truly caught between a rock and a hard place.
Naturally, the pursuit forces quickly fell into chaos.
At least it was fortunate in misfortune that the congratulatory guests who had survived until now, though bewildered seeing the current situation, fled up the mountain as quickly as possible. As they moved away, they could distance themselves from the General Chief and water bandits trying to kill them.
But a similar thing was happening among the Heavenly Demon Castle members too. The Heavenly Demon Castle members who had been the pursuit force were also being hunted down by Heavenly Demon Castle members wearing their clothes inside out.
A difficult-to-understand confrontation situation unfolded. And that situation couldn't last long. The balance of power had been tilted to one side from the beginning.
Dong Bong-su, even in the urgent midst, surveyed all directions then launched his body toward an empty space. That was the side face of the mountain slope. It was a judgment that if he could just keep going that way, he could circle the mountain and escape to the opposite side.
"Kill them! Don't let a single one escape!"
However, that direction was already being occupied by water bandits wearing their clothes backwards as they climbed up. One fairly agile water bandit among them rushed at Dong Bong-su like lightning.
Bam‑bam‑bam!
Dong Bong-su didn't bother avoiding him and mercilessly cut him down. It was possible because there was still margin until level-up.
Bam-bam-bam-.
Dong Bong-su immediately used the skill Circulating Energy then displayed Lightness Arts and turned direction upward. Behind and to the left were already occupied by swarms of water bandits, the right by Heavenly Demon Castle members. However, the front, that is, up the mountain, couldn't be considered safe either. There were the surviving congratulatory guests there.
But there was no other path Dong Bong-su could choose. Following behind the congratulatory guests who were quickly moving away seemed better for now.
He ran while maintaining a precarious distance where the congratulatory guests' attacks could just barely reach or not. It was the only thing he could do now.
However, he still didn't stop thinking. Now was the time to find another survival method.
Meanwhile, when the water bandits and Heavenly Demon Castle members fell into strange internal conflict. Tang O finally reached the peak of Seonjoong Mountain.
"...!"
As soon as he arrived at the summit, he stopped his feet. It was absolutely not to take a brief rest.
"G-Grandfather! This is...!"
The terrain was blocking their footsteps.
The peak of Seonjoong Mountain was wide and flat like a plate meticulously hammered by a heavenly deity. If only it had stopped there, but the heavenly deity had split the mountain in half. As if a divine axe had split the mountain exactly in half, a valley stretched out in a straight line. There was a mountain on the opposite side that looked exactly like this mountain, so clearly the two mountains were originally one. Probably if viewed from above, it would look like a large plate split in half and scattered to both sides. However, the distance from here to that precipice over there looked like over a hundred meters at a glance. It was a far distance that absolutely couldn't be jumped over in one go unless one was a bird.
Only then did Tang O seem to understand why the demonic soldiers had focused more on blocking him from turning direction sideways rather than climbing up the mountain.
The enemies probably knew well about the terrain here from the beginning. So it was certain they had deliberately driven him and the survivors here.
Tap‑tap‑tap…
Tang O stood at one end of the cliff with a bewildered expression.
A small stone piece inadvertently kicked by his foot fell below the cliff. It pierced through clouds hanging on the mountainside and disappeared far below.
"..."
Tang O and Tang Hwa blankly looked down where the stone had disappeared. The stone's whereabouts were unclear, but they already knew. That the stone had probably already shattered into pieces, split into dozens or thousands of fragments.
"Grandfather... What do we do now?"
Tang Hwa collapsed with a thud, perhaps feeling dizzy.
Tang O had no answer. Not that there was any sharp solution in this situation anyway.
Click—tack.
While the two were in a daze like that, the survivors who had been chasing Tang O appeared at the summit of Seonjoong Mountain. Looking at how they were all covered in blood from head to toe, it was easy to guess what hardships they had gone through.
Along with their exhausted rough breathing, the sounds of swords and spears clashing were also gradually approaching. It seemed the pursuers had almost reached the summit along with the survivors.
There were about twenty survivors. As soon as they arrived, they came one by one to stand beside Tang O.
"..."
They too, like Tang O, lost their words in an instant. They thought they had reached the end of the path to survival after a thousand hardships, but that path was also a path to death... how futile must it be?
"Are these everyone who came here?"
Tang O asked, forcing himself to be calm.
"That's right... Great Hero Tang."
A tall man standing beside him answered. His voice lacked vitality as if he had almost given up on living.
"Then who are those fighting down below?"
Tang O's ears still heard someone approaching this way while fighting fiercely. His question was asking about their identity.
The person who had just answered replied again.
"Water bandits and demonic soldiers."
At the incomprehensible answer, Tang O asked again.
"Are you trying to joke with this old man now? I'm asking who is fighting against the water bandits and demonic soldiers. Looking at how quite noisy it is, it seems like at least several hundred?"
"No... How could I joke with the Great Hero in a situation like this? Though it may be difficult to understand, right now those fighting against the water bandits and demonic soldiers down there are water bandits and demonic soldiers. Newly appeared other water bandits and demonic soldiers are attacking the water bandits and demonic soldiers who were chasing us."
"...!"
Tang O lost his words again. It was such an absurd matter separate from the current desperate situation.
'Internal conflict among water bandits and demonic soldiers.'
The timing of the internal strife occurring was utterly absurd. And for such a thing to happen simultaneously on both the water bandits' and demonic soldiers' sides.
It was hard to believe. However, since it was the words of someone who had been chased until just now, he couldn't not believe it either.
A bit of vitality returned to Tang O's face.
'A good opportunity!'
Taking advantage of the enemies' internal conflict, they might be able to break through the encirclement once more and go down the mountain.
However, the man who read Tang O's such intentions said.
"It will be useless. The General Chief of the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds and the Heavenly Demon Castle leader were on the side that came up behind. The water bandits and demonic soldiers who were initially pursuing us will be annihilated without enduring long."
As soon as his desperate answer ended, several blood-soaked water bandits climbed to the summit where they were. Their number was at most about ten, and there wasn't a single demonic soldier. The demonic soldiers who had been the pursuit force had probably already been annihilated.
The water bandits' appearance was even more wretched than the survivors who had climbed up earlier. Especially, the face of the one standing at their very front was so terrible it couldn't be looked at with eyes open.
Dozens of crossed sword wounds had completely mangled his face, and on top of that, dried blood was stuck in several layers, making it a complete mess. His nose was about half cut off and dangling, and his ears were torn, constantly pouring out blood.
The peculiar point was that despite being hurt so severely, only his eyes were intact.
His eyes were strangely emotionless, strange eyes difficult to find again in the mortal world, but no one noticed that point.
He, Dong Bong-su, as soon as he climbed onto the cliff clearing, headed toward the other precipice edge where Tang O and others weren't standing.
Tang O and the congratulatory guests, since they didn't come toward their side, just remained standing there on guard and didn't launch attacks. Dong Bong-su had acted that way knowing it would be so anyway. Whether it was them or themselves, they were all like cornered mice anyway. If mice fought each other, it would only give the fisherman's profit to the cat.
Strangely, the water bandits who barely survived naturally followed behind Dong Bong-su when he moved. That was because they instinctively knew they could climb to this place by following behind him.
In fact, unlike what Tang O and the other survivors saw, Dong Bong-su had moved while exquisitely maintaining distance between the pursuers and survivors, so he could climb to this place without fighting at all. The water bandits who had followed beside him now all instinctively realized that too.
Whooosh—
The updraft coming up along the thousand-year cliff licked past Dong Bong-su's gruesomely peeled forehead as he looked down below the cliff.
Even the slightest brush of wind sent unbearable pain thrilling through his entire body. Nevertheless, there wasn't the slightest change of expression on Dong Bong-su's face. He could do so because he knew how important now was.
Dong Bong-su was driven to a point where he absolutely couldn't escape, but he still hadn't given up on life. Because it wasn't over until it was over, until it was really over, he would do his best.
Dong Bong-su continued looking down below the cliff.
The sheer vertical rock wall, and the clouds on the mountainside blocking the view, and the bottom whose end couldn't be seen.
Everything was desperate, but his impression of looking down below was quite different from Tang O's.
If Tang O looked below the cliff and saw despair, Dong Bong-su looked below the tall steep cliff and rather glimpsed the possibility of survival.
"..."
Dong Bong-su's eyes sparkled transparently while looking below the cliff.