Chapter 69: Phantom Soul (1)
I continued walking.
My brothers were shocked when they saw the state I was in, muttering something, but I had no reason to care about that.
The sound of the drums grew even more intense.
The coalition forces resumed their advance, and Lü Bu’s soldiers, seeing that I had returned alive, could not hide their agitation.
“No way, Lord Lü Bu…”
“There’s no way! Lord Lü Bu wouldn’t be defeated by some brat like that!”
As I approached them, their constantly changing expressions were quite amusing.
With each step I took, fear, denial, and anger erupted alternately on their faces.
I raised my sword.
My shoulder ached. It wasn’t just the shoulder.
My entire body was still a wreck.
‘Remember.’
I slowly closed my eyes.
The more one refines their intent, the more martial arts grow, and new realms are reached.
It could be called a kind of enlightenment.
And I had once glimpsed the next level of the Heavenly Extreme Linked Illusion Sword Technique.
That was when I exchanged martial arts with Zhao Yun.
What I witnessed was a boundary.
It was the boundary formed between the harmony and disharmony of a frail body and the world.
What resides in a frail body is a strong heart.
Harmony was never achieved by the body alone.
Yes, it didn’t need to have a form.
Even the infinitely vast sky was merely a formless part of nature.
Standing on that boundary.
That was the form of the technique called Phantom Soul, which went beyond the Linked Illusion Sword and the Six Linked Illusion Slashes.
However, my qi had reversed.
As soon as I stimulated my dantian, this is what happened.
“Tsk…”
Blood eventually flowed from the corner of my mouth.
Adding insult to injury, a soldier from Lü Bu’s army, who had taken the lead, swung his sword at me.
“A dying bastard like you dares…!”
It was a desperate, reckless move.
I could see the violent rage in his eyes.
In a life-or-death duel, emotions should never be involved.
Look, his stance was already broken.
Even without using internal energy, I could deflect such an attack with ease.
I tilted my sword diagonally. His sword trajectory went astray.
“You… damn…”
– Swish!
I cut his neck.
The clean, straight sword strike sent his head rolling.
“Brother!”
Then, the sound of hoofbeats approached.
It was Unsam and Baekrang.
“What kind of mess are you in?”
“Brother, you’re not in good shape!”
“Haa… I’m barely hanging on, so don’t talk to me.”
That was the truth. I felt like I was on the brink, so I wished they would stop talking to me.
Still, they didn’t back down.
Just as they were about to say something—
“You two there! What are you doing?”
From behind me, Zhao Yun shouted as she charged forward, gripping her reins tightly.
“Return to your positions at once. Especially in times like this, you must not break formation. Perform your assigned roles diligently.”
“Captain Zhao Yun! Are you saying we should just leave Brother like this?”
At Zhao Yun’s words, Unsam yelled.
Zhao Yun then pulled out her spear and thrust it forward.
The spear tip stopped right in front of Unsam’s throat. He could only gulp, unable to continue his words.
“This is an order from your superior. Disobey, and you’ll be severely punished according to military law. Don’t run your mouth during a battle.”
It was something I always said out of habit.
When fighting, you fight with your sword, not with your mouth.
As expected, my disciple.
A sense of pride welled up in me.
In the end, the two could no longer resist and respectfully clasped their hands together.
When I glanced at Zhao Yun and smiled, she turned her head sharply.
“Now, what will you do?”
“What do you think? The commander of an army can’t just sit back and twiddle his thumbs.”
“Yes, I expected as much… Understood. Please take care of yourself. I believe you won’t die meaninglessly in a place like this.”
“Right, you too, don’t get hurt for no reason.”
“That’s a needless worry.”
Though her face was hidden, I could faintly see the corners of her lips lift.
Seriously, she gets unnecessarily prideful when it comes to martial arts.
And so, Zhao Yun also departed.
I rolled my eyes and quickly read the situation on the battlefield.
Lü Bu’s army was still in turmoil.
It seemed that after helping me, Lü Bu hadn’t returned to her forces immediately.
Honestly, I was curious about her whereabouts.
But everything has priorities.
I was the leader of Unryong’s forces, and she was the leader of Lü Bu’s.
Unnecessary worry was a luxury.
If I wanted to know why she helped me, I could ask her when all this was over.
Eventually, their reinforcements poured in.
Just by eyeballing it, there were a ridiculous number of them.
However, the terrain here was narrow.
If I blocked their advance at the narrow path, there was still a chance of victory.
I gathered my internal energy back into my dantian.
Forcibly pooling my qi disrupted my entire body, but I barely managed to control the flow.
If I lost focus even slightly here, I would fall into a state of qi deviation.
Before long, the center was swelling with their forces.
Flow, flow.
Phantom Soul was an intangible, ghost-like existence.
Simultaneously, it referred to the essence and soul of a person.
Reaching beyond the material realm into the spiritual domain was the key to this martial art.
The boundary between material and spiritual existence.
I had to cross that boundary.
I took one step forward.
I opened my eyes wide.
***
“What? Lü Bu, that wench has retreated?”
“Yes, to be precise, her whereabouts are currently unknown…”
Upon hearing the soldier’s report, Li Ru gritted his teeth.
“However, the Mad Dog of Bingzhou seems to have fought fiercely, and he’s sustained serious injuries. To the naked eye, he appears too injured to move.”
“…I see.”
Losing Lü Bu was a significant blow to Dong Zhuo’s forces, but hearing that the troublesome Mad Dog was also nearly dead changed the equation.
“Tsk, I made all this effort to get here, but I suppose they’ll retreat.”
Even with a rough calculation, it was easy to predict that the coalition forces would fall back.
With this overwhelming difference in strength, and with their highly praised hero severely wounded, their morale would surely be affected.
There was no way they would think they could fend off these reinforcements.
However, the soldier continued.
“B-but, they’re actually intensifying their efforts to capture Hangu Pass.”
“…Go on.”
“Unryong, that man is leading the charge, and the coalition forces’ shouts are echoing throughout, plunging Lü Bu’s forces into despair, leaving them unable to exert their full power. Additionally, due to the chaos, their forces have been unable to regroup and are being pushed back helplessly…”
“Hmm…”
Li Ru sighed.
Does he have some kind of trick up his sleeve? But there was no way he could win against our current forces…
As Li Ru pondered, his forces split left and right to merge with Lü Bu’s.
As expected, the terrain was narrow.
However, the appearance of reinforcements slightly boosted Lü Bu’s army’s morale.
“Where is the Mad Dog?”
“T-that man over there at the front, the one with black hair, bleeding.”
It was a vague description.
Normally, I would have snapped, asking how I was supposed to know with such a description.
But I could immediately spot the man the soldier was pointing at.
Even though he was limping, the man cutting down his enemies stood out.
His movements didn’t seem particularly remarkable.
But he was cutting down soldiers with ease.
Watching him was mesmerizing.
How could someone cut down warriors so deftly with such slow movements?
But—
“Hmm.”
Is that madness?
As they say, he truly lives up to the name Mad Dog.
Charging into the front lines with a body like that was pure stubbornness and bravado.
For now, it might positively affect his allies’ morale, but in the long term, it was a foolish move.
Stubbornness and bravado.
Those alone couldn’t change the tide of a battlefield.
“This is perfect.”
Li Ru clapped his hands.
Then, he smiled brightly.
Heroes are symbolic by nature. If I bring back the head of that symbol, the tide of this battle will turn instantly.
“Gather the left and right wings at the center. Bring me the head of that fearless fool.”
“Yes!”
A mad dog needs a clubbing.
So, I, Li Ru, will personally discipline him.
By doing so, I can earn Dong Zhuo’s trust and gain even more substantial power.
Jia Xu, you poor woman.
Wrong questions, wrong answers, even the wrong choices.
If you had stayed with me, you could have lived the peaceful life you so desperately wanted.
It seems your brilliant mind has finally reached its limits.
Thinking this, Li Ru laughed heartily.
Thus, half of Li Ru’s forces merged into the center.
Li Ru leisurely observed the battlefield, waiting for the fool’s head to be brought before him.
But.
No matter how long he waited.
And waited again.
The fool’s head never came.
A whole hour had passed.
‘What is this?’
Li Ru was filled with unease.
Was that walking corpse putting up this much of a fight?
Eventually.
“That, that’s a monster!”
“Damn it, run!”
“No… We can’t beat something like that!”
“Please… spare me…!”
Screams from his own troops reached his ears.
Their faces were indescribably horrifying.
***
A man dripping blood.
He was little more than a corpse.
Thus, Li Ru’s forces stepped forward confidently, certain of victory.
“A monster, a ghost, the rumors are never worth believing!”
A soldier’s sword descended towards Unryong’s head.
He intended to split him in half on the spot.
Unryong simply lowered his gaze and closed his eyes.
The soldier grinned so wide it seemed his mouth might tear.
“Haha! The glory is mine!”
– Swish!
The soldier’s sword drew a perfect line.
“…”
And silence.
There was no scream, no satisfying impact.
Before his eyes, there was only the faint swirl of dust.
He had vanished.
This wasn’t a figure of speech.
He had simply disappeared.
There was no other way to describe it.
It was then.
“Aaaargh!”
“Stop it! Stop him!”
“We can’t… We can’t win against that!”
“Please, save us!”
Shrill screams rang in the soldier’s ears.
He turned his head.
“What… What is this…”
In the empty space where the man had been, there was a shimmering haze.
And behind it, the man was calmly swinging his sword.