Chapter 70: The Title of Villain (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 70: The Title of Villain (1)
Wind Shadow Eight Streams.
It was the secret technique of the Merciless Wind God Jin Seong-baek, known as the god of wind among the Eight Great Masters.
No matter how much one practiced, it was difficult to create more than four afterimages before breaking through the wall. However, a single moment of enlightenment had elevated the essence of this secret technique to a higher level.
Eight divided afterimages each performed a different martial art.
The forms of the Fist, Palm, Kick, Finger, Claw, Saber, Sword, and Spear moved in perfect harmony, as if eight peerless masters were launching a combined attack.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
The Fake Blood Demon frantically blocked the feast of ultimate techniques created by the eight afterimages with a web of sharp killing intent formed by his sword-fingers.
A superhuman who had crossed the wall was truly a superhuman.
Despite the relentless pressure of the Wind Shadow Eight Streams, he managed to desperately parry the sword strikes.
Experience was something that could not be ignored.
He was somehow evading the decisive blows.
'I have to hurry.'
The Lesser Conversation Sword asked, sounding worried.
While I had broken through the wall by realizing my own limits during the fight, I had been maintaining the Blood Demon transformation and the True Blood Golden Body for quite a long time.
Thanks to that, I—having just crossed the wall—was pushing the Fake Blood Demon back, but I would soon hit my physical and mental limits.
I had to settle the match quickly before that happened.
I know.
I have to stop those hands.
Or I have to launch an attack that even that speed cannot handle.
I fell into thought for a moment at the Lesser Conversation Sword's words.
The sword technique I was currently using was the Shadowless Sword Technique of the Wind Shadow Eight Streams.
However, the Wind Shadow Eight Streams relied on the harmony of eight different martial arts. If I were to perform a different technique within that, I couldn't guarantee if the harmony would hold or if my body could withstand it.
I know.
But what both of you are saying makes sense.
If I could utilize a stronger martial art within the Wind Shadow Eight Streams instead of the original eight styles, the power of the forms would far exceed the original.
It was a risk well worth taking.
Flash!
I changed the sword form from the Shadowless Sword Technique.
It was the first form of the New Path Life-Drawing Sword Technique: Tiger Fang Momentum Sword.
Creeeeeak!
'Ugh.'
The moment I unleashed the form, it felt different from when I performed the standard Wind Shadow Eight Streams.
I was already moving at incredible speed with the Wind Shadow Step while executing eight ultimate techniques, but when one of those forms became a peerless sword strike, the burden on my body doubled.
I could feel my muscles screaming, rupturing from the forced movement.
However, the effect was immediate.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
"W-What on earth is...!"
The Fake Blood Demon's face contorted as he struggled to block the forms of the Wind Shadow Eight Streams.
He had barely been holding on as it was, but when the New Path Life-Drawing Sword Technique was added, the precarious balance finally shattered.
Slash-slash-slash-slash-slash!
"Gah! Cough!"
The afterimages performing the eight forms of the Wind Shadow Eight Streams, including the Tiger Fang Momentum Sword, swept past him as if piercing through him.
The afterimages slashed, stabbed, and struck as if carving up his entire body.
Trapped within the Wind Shadow Eight Streams, the man was bounced around in the air, losing his senses.
'I'm ending this!'
I had to aim for his neck with the final strike.
If the head is severed, no one can survive, no matter what kind of recovery ability they possess.
I swung my sword toward his neck.
"I've been waiting for this!"
Flash!
The moment my sword flew toward his neck, his sword-fingers lunged for the space between my brows.
Sharp killing intent flew at me like a bolt of lightning.
'!!!'
Even while being overwhelmed, he had hidden one last move.
In that split second, I quickly twisted my body downward.
And while narrowly evading his sword-fingers, I sliced through his waist entirely instead of my original target, the neck.
Splurt!
"Aaaaaagh!"
A scream bordering on a shriek erupted from his mouth as his waist was split open.
His upper body slid off as he collapsed forward.
Blood geysered from his severed lower half.
I intend to.
Even if I've cut him in half, I can't be careless.
I tried to hurry toward the fallen man.
It was at that moment.
Twitch! Twitch!
My entire body was jolted by an immense pain, as if I had been struck by lightning.
Thud! Clang!
The pain was so intense that my knees buckled involuntarily.
I even dropped my sword.
I'm not okay at all.
I didn't realize the backlash of adding the Life-Drawing Sword Technique to the Wind Shadow Eight Streams would be this severe.
My muscles throughout my body seemed completely ruptured; they refused to move.
Whoosh!
The True Blood Golden Body I had been maintaining also deactivated against my will.
I figured.
The mental focus in my upper Dantian was almost completely depleted.
My breathing grew ragged.
"Haa... haa..."
It seemed I had pushed my body beyond its limits even before crossing the wall.
Even my recovery ability couldn't keep up with this.
Then, I saw something wriggling and approaching me.
The Lesser Conversation Sword clicked its tongue.
The thing wriggling and crawling toward me was none other than the Fake Blood Demon, whose body had been cut in half.
Only his upper body remained, yet he was miraculously still alive.
"Cough... cough... Do you think... I'll go... alone?"
Tenacious bastard.
It seemed he was clinging to life because of his recovery ability.
On the other hand, my body still wouldn't move, perhaps because I had exhausted it beyond its limits rather than just suffering a simple wound.
If I could recover even a little, I could cut his throat, but I couldn't budge.
"Hehe... just wait. I'm almost there."
The distance between the crawling man and me was barely two paces.
He reached out his hand toward the Namcheon Iron Sword lying on the ground.
'Move! Move, damn it!'
It was the moment the Fake Blood Demon was about to grasp the sword.
Thwack!
"Gah!"
A scream burst from his mouth.
I lifted my head to see what had happened, and a sword was plunged into his back.
"Our Blood Cult Leader is always courting danger, it seems."
The moment I heard that mocking voice, the tension left my body.
The person who had stabbed the Fake Blood Demon in the back was Baek Hye-hyang.
I thought she wouldn't be able to escape the Martial Alliance's encirclement, but she had made it all the way here.
I couldn't have been happier to see her.
But there was something to settle first.
"What a shame. You must have wanted to kill me."
The man glared at me with a face contorted in rage.
I asked him.
"What exactly is your organization trying to do?"
"......Do you think... I would... tell you that?"
As expected, his lips were sealed.
Baek Hye-hyang stepped on his head and spoke in a mocking tone.
"A dying man trying to keep his loyalty, are we?"
Crunch!
As she applied pressure with her foot, the man's head was crushed into the ground.
It looked as if his skull might shatter at any moment.
"Uuuugh."
"Speak."
"Ugh... just kill me."
"Not the answer I wanted."
Even as she increased the pressure, the man only repeated his plea to be killed.
At this, Baek Hye-hyang shrugged and looked at me.
"That's what he says."
I hadn't expected him to open his mouth anyway.
"You have to kill him."
"He'll die a painful death in this state anyway. Are you trying to give him a peaceful end? What a merciful Cult Leader you are."
"......If you don't cut off his head, he'll keep clinging to life."
"What?"
She looked down at him with curiosity at those words.
Though in agony, he was indeed still alive.
"Uuuugh."
"He doesn't die even after being cut in half and stabbed through the heart. What a perfect body for torture."
'!?'
At those words, the Fake Blood Demon's expression froze.
To come up with such an idea—in a way, she was truly remarkable.
After staring at him with interest for a moment, she pulled the sword from his heart and struck his neck in one swift motion.
Slash!
The man's head rolled across the ground.
Seeing him dead with his eyes wide open, I finally felt a sense of relief.
A master who had crossed the wall combined with recovery abilities was truly a nightmare to deal with.
Just who was this guy?
While I was wondering, Baek Hye-hyang approached me.
"Looking at the surroundings, it seems a war broke out here."
As she said, the entire area was a mess.
Trees were snapped, and the ground was scarred with countless sword marks.
Since two masters who had reached the realm of superhumans had clashed, it could be said that the damage was actually quite contained.
Baek Hye-hyang stared at me intently and asked.
"......Did you perhaps cross the wall?"
I didn't deny her question.
At this, she let out a hollow laugh as if it were absurd.
"Ha!"
She must have been stunned by my rate of growth.
I hadn't expected to cross the wall in a situation like this either.
It seemed that crisis truly was a powerful catalyst for growth.
I asked her what I was curious about.
"But the Martial Alliance should have blocked off the Guangxi area. How did you get here?"
"By lightness skill."
"......."
Was she joking?
I think that was the first time I'd heard her make a joke.
Baek Hye-hyang smirked and said, "I came with a small elite group. You're the Leader of this cult; I couldn't just let you die in some Martial Alliance trap."
"If I died, wouldn't you be able to become the Cult Leader?"
"Well, that wouldn't be bad either, but I haven't had a taste of you yet."
'!?'
A hollow laugh escaped me at her words, which she said while provocatively licking her upper lip.
It was a reason that was quintessentially her.
Creeak!
I felt the muscles throughout my body beginning to loosen.
It seemed my recovery speed had increased significantly after crossing the wall.
To think that even ruptured muscles throughout my body were healing within a mere fifteen minutes.
"If you came with an elite group, where are the others?"
"Those slowpokes? I have no idea when they'll arrive."
Does that mean she rushed here alone to help me?
It was a strange feeling.
This arrogant woman, who seemed like she would never follow anyone, was showing more and more unexpected sides of herself.
Baek Hye-hyang said to me, "Anyway, if we stay here, annoying pests will start swarming, so let's head back to the main cult."
I shook my head at her suggestion to return.
She asked, puzzled, "Are you planning to wrap things up with the Right Army Commander's Office in the midst of all this?"
"I've already settled that."
"What?"
Her eyes widened.
Did she think I wouldn't be able to solve that problem?
"I made a deal with Gyeongwang, so the Martial Alliance won't be able to use the government to target the cult anymore."
"Gyeongwang... do you mean the Prince?"
"That's right."
She was shocked when a Prince was mentioned.
She had thought it was just a trial at the Right Army Commander's Office, but to hear that I had made a deal with one of the three princes mentioned as successors to the throne of the Great Yan Empire, such a reaction was only natural.
I briefly explained the details of the deal to her.
Excluding the part about the Demon Sword, of course.
"Ha! You went as far as making a deal with the Imperial Family? You really are something..."
Unable to finish her sentence, Baek Hye-hyang clicked her tongue while looking at me.
Then she said, "Then you should be able to return to the main cult now. Why aren't you going?"
"If I do that, the Guangxi area will remain blocked, and it will hinder the plan to unify the Evil Faction."
At my words, she frowned, her fine brows knitting together.
"Since you've crossed the wall, if you and the First Venerable move together to take out the Taiji Sword Emperor and the Wudang Sect, a path will open, won't it?"
I shook my head and replied, "If we do that, the Martial Alliance will use it as an excuse to fight with everything they've got."
Right now, we were in a temporary state of truce under the pretext of finding an antidote for the poisoned prisoners.
In such a situation, if one of the two Eight Great Masters, who were luminaries of the martial world and symbols of the Martial Alliance, were to die, it would give them a justification for a full-scale war.
Before we could even unify the Evil Faction.
"Then what do you plan to do?"
At her question, I smiled broadly and said, "I happen to have the identity of the disciple of the Namcheon Sword Guest, one of the Twin Heroes of the Martial Alliance."
It was an identity that no one in the Orthodox Martial World had caught onto yet.
At that, one of her eyebrows arched.
"You... are you planning to move alone? You're insane. Your status now isn't just a cult member, but the Blood Demon..."
"We have a Blood Demon here who can take my place."
At my words, Baek Hye-hyang's expression became peculiar.
Tap-tap-tap!
Shortly after I released his pressure points, Taoist Master Manjong, the leader of the Quanzhen Sect, regained consciousness.
As soon as he woke up, he asked me, sounding bewildered.
"Young Hero So? ...What happened?"
"Taoist Master. Another Blood Demon appeared while you were out."
"Another Blood Demon?"
"If it weren't for that person, both you and I would have died."
Taoist Master Manjong wore an expression of utter incomprehension.
"What on earth do you mean? Come to think of it, earlier you..."
It was right then.
Something rolled and fell in front of us.
It was a head wearing a broken mask.
"T-This man is..."
Having fought him once, he recognized him immediately.
Thud!
That wasn't all.
An imitation Blood Demon Sword, its blade plated in red, was plunged into the ground next to the head.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"Taoist Master. Over there!"
I pointed somewhere as if I had just noticed something.
Standing there was someone with red hair, wearing an evil ghost mask and a black robe.
Taoist Master Manjong jumped to his feet in shock.
"Blood Demon!"
To the startled Taoist Master, the red-haired Blood Demon in the evil ghost mask spoke.
"To be toyed with by a mere fake... how utterly foolish."
"What?"
The Blood Demon in the evil ghost mask drew the sword at her waist.
A Blood Demon Sword with a silver blade and a unique pattern revealed itself.
Soon, a red light flickered, and the blade of the Blood Demon Sword turned crimson.
'!!!'
"This is the real Blood Demon Sword."
At those words, Taoist Master Manjong looked at the red-plated sword on the ground with disbelief.
Since it had been exposed as a fake.
I winked at the Blood Demon in the evil ghost mask as she sheathed the Blood Demon Sword.
Flash!
Then, she vanished into the distance.
I spoke to the confused Taoist Master Manjong, pretending to be horrified.
"I can't believe it! If that person is the real Blood Demon, then who on earth is this man?"