The war situation was desperate.

So far, six businesses and sect strongholds had been lost.

The damage was even more severe when the casualties of the martial artists were included. About 30% of the family’s forces had been defeated.

The problem was that all of this damage was only on the east side, where the Seohwi family had invaded.

If the main camp was attacked and pushed back like this time, there was a high probability that the other strongholds in the west would also be pushed back.

“There are two empty seats in the conference room.”

“They are the seats of the leaders of the Baekrangdae and the Baeksadae. They will be back soon.”

As soon as Baek Do-gyeong’s answer was finished, a presence was felt at the entrance.

“Leader Baek Gu-jin has returned!”

The person who entered was a middle-aged man with wrinkles on his forehead.

‘He’s quite strong.’

Judging by his momentum, he was at least a super-peak level master.

“We have recaptured the Baekryong Martial Arts Hall in the north.”

As soon as he came, he reported to Baek Do-gyeong. In the meantime, another person came in.

“We have secured the merchant street in the east.”

It was Baek Yu-hwan. Unlike us, who had taken the promotion exam, he had returned to the family as soon as the vacation was approaching and had just participated in the battle since yesterday. As the leader of the Baeksadae.

The Baekrangdae and the Baeksadae. These two armed forces were the main forces of the Baek family.

Baek Do-gyeong, who had watched them take their seats, officially announced the start of the meeting.

“Then let’s discuss the future plans.”

Although they had recaptured the two areas around the main house for now, it was still not enough. There were still four areas that the enemies had taken.

Since they were outnumbered, they had to plan their strategy well.

While the discussion was in progress, I also gave my opinion.

“The south is a strategic point with a river. Just attach a few guides. Baek Hasin and I will go and take care of it.”

“What? Do you know how many martial artists there are right now? More than that, how can you be sure you can win?”

“Because our forces are the strongest.”

At the clear answer, Baek Gu-jin was momentarily angered.

“How arrogant. War is not like that. It’s not a place for a student to step up.”

“Someone who hasn’t even experienced it properly is talking about war. Have you ever fought the Blood Cult properly?”

“…”

Silence followed the rebuttal.

Of course, he wouldn’t have. A person who had been living comfortably, being called a leader in a local city like this, would not have had such an experience.

“Then what did you do in the war with the Heretic Alliance that happened here in Shaanxi? Don’t tell me you’re going to make the excuse that you were protecting your family. Even a dog can guard a house with no enemies.”

“I also, in the past…!”

“Then have you ever seen the Dao-An-Wang, Jin Tae-gyeom? Haven’t you heard who killed his right-hand man, the Transformation Realm master Bae Dong-pa?”

Then Baek Gu-jin shut his mouth. In the Central Plains, the spec was the level of the opponent he had killed.

As expected, there was nothing like achievements and fame at a time like this.

“It seems the guy who’s a leader is no better than a student.”

In the end, with this side’s one word, the argument was settled.

Baek Do-gyeong, who couldn’t stand to watch it, intervened.

“Don’t speak carelessly to a family executive! To put it coldly, it would be difficult for you two alone, wouldn’t it?”

At his point, I took out the Shaolin Temple’s token of gratitude from my bosom.

“I once defeated 500 bandits alone in the past.”

The story of the flying Great Mage’s performance at the Shaolin Temple was still famous. To the point where children’s songs had spread all the way to Shaanxi.

“Th-that’s just a rumor…”

“Then are you saying that I and the Shaolin Temple are lying right now? I’ll have to report this fact to the abbot, Master Ma Won-hyeon.”

“No, no! That’s not it, so don’t mind it.”

Only then did Baek Do-gyeong wave his hands. At a time like this, acting like a scoundrel was more comfortable.

As I went into the meeting with various fame and authority on my back, the meeting proceeded quickly.

It was decided that Baek Hasin and I would retake the southern stronghold, the Baeksadae the eastern, and the Baekrangdae the northern.

“Then who will protect the main house?”

“Is it the acting family head, Baek Do-gyeong, like last time?”

At Baek Yu-hwan’s words, the person’s voice echoed in the conference room.

“No! I will go to the north. We just need to leave 30% of the Baekrangdae and Baeksadae’s forces here.”

It seemed he was trying to build up his achievements, feeling threatened by Baek Hasin’s appearance.

‘This is good.’

Although the opponent thought that staying still was the worst, he had not considered the real worst.

Since he had stepped up to perform the same mission as Baek Hasin, he had become one of the heirs who was good to be compared to from the acting family head.

Now all that was left was to show the gap.

After the meeting. Baek Hasin and I headed south, guided by three members of the Baeksadae.

It was quite a distance, so by the time we arrived at the Baek family’s stronghold, it was completely night.

‘Good. We just have to launch a surprise attack.’

“They’re from the Seohwi family!”

Just then, one of the Baeksadae members whispered, hiding his body in a corner of an alley.

There was a figure sitting on the roof of a tall building, monitoring the city.

“This makes a secret entry…”

“Don’t worry. Cheonwu is good at things like infiltration.”

“I’ll put this down as a debt. Don’t forget.”

While one of the members was expressing his doubt, I kicked off the air and floated into the sky.

Perhaps because I had soared up in the gap where the moonlight was hidden by the clouds, the opponent didn’t even seem to have discovered this side.

‘About three on the roof?’

It seemed they were monitoring all four directions of the small city, centered on the tall pavilion building.

With such a surveillance network, it would be difficult to approach without being discovered.

However, that was a possible assumption only when the opponent was on an equal footing.

Now, this side was superior.

After coming down from above their heads, I flew a First Blade and knocked one person out.

The moment the guy was about to fall, I suppressed his blood points and made his body stiffen into a surveillance posture.

And then I soared into the sky again and knocked down the other two guards who were far away in the same way.

Since I had deliberately attacked after the shift change, it should be quiet for a while.

‘This is not a simple occupation battle. I have to break the enemy’s forces.’

After sending a signal with a weak light magic towards Baek Hasin’s side as planned, I entered.

“Who are you…?!”

I beat up all the martial artists there. Since Baek Hasin was attacking from below and I was attacking from above, we were able to finish the cleaning quickly.

“You guys.”

“Y-yes!”

The Baeksadae members, who saw the mountain of Seohwi family martial artists, swallowed dryly.

“There must be some Baek family servants here. I’ve suppressed their blood points, so tie them up and send them to the main house by carriage.”

The best way to chip away at the enemy’s forces was to kill them, but this was a conflict between orthodox factions.

Since I couldn’t kill them carelessly, the best way was to suppress their blood points and take them as hostages.

“Understood!”

The guys who started to move busily, as if they had understood.

Baek Hasin and I went out and looked at the next building. All that was left was to repeat this.

And so, after half a shichen, we were able to suppress all of the about 30 people who were divided into several buildings.

‘The forces are quite large. Well, since it’s right in front of the main house, there would be many options, whether to hold out or to surround and attack.’

They had already launched a surprise attack on the main house once and had taken the stronghold, and since they had seized the momentum, it was understandable that they had deployed a large number of martial artists to this front line.

‘It would be good to use this point.’

In the middle of my thoughts, Baek Hasin came out, dusting off his two hands.

“I’ve caught all the hidden guys too. Our work is done with this.”

“It’s not over yet.”

“Huh?”

I declared firmly to Baek Hasin, who reacted as if he had misheard for a moment.

“We have to catch more. It’s not enough to just recover the lost areas.”

We have to take their areas too.

“If the enemies have gathered this much force in the front, the rear must be empty. We will strike the enemy’s main camp.”

And that dawn, we struck into the enemy’s camp and cleaned up three more areas.

As expected, perhaps because they were careless since it was the rear, the number of people defending each area was only about ten.

Including the areas we had cleaned up before, we had suppressed a total of 50 forces in one day.

From the perspective of a mid-sized sect, it was an enormous loss.

‘The war situation will be greatly overturned tomorrow.’

It was an achievement made by two super-masters. Though my contribution as a mage was much greater.

While I was sitting and resting for a moment, I saw the three Baeksadae members moving the hostages frantically in front.

It was understandable. No matter how I thought about it, it was an amazing speed.

To the point where suppressing the enemies was faster than loading them onto the carriage.

As the carriage departed for the Baek family’s main house again, I stood up from my seat.

The dawn was breaking in the distance.

“Now all that’s left is the main camp.”

We started to ride the horses we had borrowed.

After riding for a while, the main house of the Seohwi family was visible in the distance.

– What’s the situation inside?

– Two super-peak level and about five peak-level. There are also about twenty first-rate level.

It was a considerable force. To the point where it was understandable that the stronghold defense forces were relatively weak.

– What should we do?

– They’ll probably contact us soon. Let’s wait.

After sending a telepathic message and waiting, a horse suddenly entered the Seohwi family’s house.

Soon, the main gate opened, and about ten forces, including one super-peak master and two peak-level masters, rushed towards the west.

‘Since they headed west, not north, it seems the Baeksadae was active.’

The main house of the Seohwi family was in the south. On top of that, since our mobility of flying in the night sky was much faster, we had arrived before the messenger.

Moreover, to lead the forces out like that was proof that the stronghold had fallen.

– Let’s move.

A few minutes after the horse-riding forces had disappeared from view, Baek Hasin and I soared into the sky together.

Now, the remaining enemies were one super-peak level, three peak-level masters, and about a dozen first-rate martial artists.

It was a force that was worth a try.

The grounds of the Seohwi family’s main house were visible below. It was a rather beautiful scenery, receiving the morning sunlight.

Of course, it would be thoroughly destroyed from now on.

– Baek Hasin, you take the super-peak level. I’ll take care of the rest.

– Alright.

With those words, I dropped Baek Hasin towards the tallest pavilion in the Seohwi family.

“Who is it?!”

“It’s an enemy attack!! How dare you to the family head!”

The voices of the martial artists coming from inside. Soon, the sound of Baek Hasin and the enemy clashing was heard.

‘First, let’s get rid of the hindrances.’

Since I could feel the presence of about two peak-level martial artists beyond the wall, I immediately flew four spears of flame lightning.

Kwaaaaaang!

Beyond the blown-open wall, the figures of two martial artists rolling around with burns were visible.

“Keo-eok!”

“Keu-heok!”

It seemed both of them had blocked the first spear of flame lightning but were hit by the second attack.

I immediately flew a high-power thunderbolt at the guys to neutralize them, and then approached and suppressed their blood points.

Chae-chae-chae-chaeng!

Now, all that was heard from this upper floor was the sound of Baek Hasin and the head of the Seohwi family fighting.

Although the opponent was also strong, it was only natural that he would be pushed back by Baek Hasin, who had reached the proficient super-peak level.

‘I’ll have to deal with the ones who are rushing in.’

Before I knew it, the Seohwi family martial artists who had surrounded the main building.

I immediately flew several flame bullets and destroyed the stairs leading up to this place, and then struck a spear of flame lightning at an additional charging peak-level martial artist.

“Keu-heok!! Family head!”

After knocking out the guy whose protective qi had been broken by an additional spear of flame lightning with a thunderbolt, I flew ten thunderbolts at the additional charging first-rate martial artists.

The first-rate martial artists who collapsed, convulsing, without even being able to scream.

‘Now all that’s left is the contact person, I guess.’

As the surrounding presence disappeared, I floated in the air with psychokinesis.

There, I saw a few martial artists who had gathered next to the main gate of the main building, just knocking on the innocent wall.

“The door won’t open! What’s going on?!”

It was thanks to having installed a hallucination formation in advance before the attack.

An electric shock sparked from the tip of the Daoist Scholar’s Fan that was aimed at the target, and soon, about four martial artists who were about to request support collapsed on the spot.

Kwaang!

Just then, the upper floor of the pavilion was destroyed, and a man fell from below.

The head of the Seohwi family, Seo Hwi-myeong.

He had collapsed, unconscious.

“With this, we’ve dealt with all of them.”

While suppressing his blood points, I rummaged through his bosom. After taking out all his self-defense weapons, I tied the guy up with the rope I had brought.

All that was left was to find and tie up all the remaining servants in the house with Baek Hasin.

After sensing their presence, I caught them all with psychokinesis and tied them up in the yard.

In an instant, about 50 hostages were created.

“Now that we’ve caught the family head, the war is over.”

“I know, right.”

“I have some business to attend to for a moment. Keep a good watch.”

Saying so as if I was going to the latrine, I secretly entered the main building.

‘As far as I know, the Seohwi family has a lot to do with the Manjeon Merchant Guild, one of the six great merchant guilds of the Central Plains.’

And then I opened the door to the office of the head of the Seohwi family. A space that looked certainly narrower than when seen from the outside.

The answer was simple.

First, I floated a First Blade with psychokinesis and applied a current. Then, the First Blade rotated. It pointed to one wall.

It had reacted to metal.

When I tore off the wall with psychokinesis, a secret safe appeared from inside.

When I inserted the key I had taken when I had rummaged through Seo Hwi-myeong’s bosom earlier into a hole on one side, the metal gears inside turned, and the safe opened.

There were a few gold bars and several books. Normally, I would have taken the gold bars, but this time, I took out the books.

“Found it.”

I put them in the cloth I had brought with a smile.

One of the reasons I had deliberately intervened in the conflict with the Seohwi family this time.

It was the secret ledger.

(End of Chapter)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep