Chapter 145
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 145
Chapter Title: An Evil Lotus Blooms in a Swamp of Blood (5)
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Claaaang! Sshk!
A deep gash appeared on Seo Ryang's chest where the dagger had sliced through.
Pshaaak!
An upward strike from the crimson saber deflected the dagger, and the blue saber slashed the exposed shoulder.
Thwack!
Blood gushed from Mok Gang-in's mouth. He'd taken a knee strike to the abdomen. His shield of internal energy held, but the internal damage was so severe that even this was a massive shock.
Crack!
Swordsmen don't just use blades. A knife-hand strike from the left hand carved a gash into Seo Ryang's shoulder as well.
Due to extreme internal energy consumption, neither man could unleash overwhelmingly destructive techniques. But they were both martial artists striving for the pinnacle; a lack of internal energy didn't diminish their skill.
The clash of their blades, whirling in close quarters, looked far more brutal than before.
Clang! Taaang!
A sharp blow. He swung the short dagger, yet the longer blue saber was violently knocked to the left.
Thuuump!
Seo Ryang coughed up a mouthful of blood. Mok Gang-in's palm had struck him in the chest.
Sshk!
Mok Gang-in, too, couldn't follow up. In that brief moment, the crimson saber had sliced the right arm that delivered the palm strike.
Their fight was like that. Just when one seemed to gain the upper hand, an exquisite counter would reverse the situation. And just when it seemed to be over, an unexpected technique would turn the tables again.
A brutal fight of constant reversals. They had shed buckets of blood, but neither seemed to notice.
‘This bastard.’
Bewilderment flickered in Mok Gang-in's demonic eyes.
‘Just what is he?!’
The question wasn't about his identity, but the very nature of his being.
It wasn't just Soul Shatter; it was Soul Shatter unleashed through the Demonic Eye Light Sword. He was confident that Light Sword Soul Shatter was a technique not even the Ten Great Masters of the world could easily withstand.
He thought the man was lucky to have survived that absolute sword strike, but then he'd also overcome the poison of the Seven Steps Soul-Severing Powder.
He could understand that much. He figured it was possible if the man had mastered a life-nurturing art specialized in healing or a poison art adept at detoxification.
But he couldn't comprehend that martial art at all.
‘It was a half-baked version, but it was definitely Sword Control.’
Sword Control, or Sword Command.
It is the supreme state of controlling a sword with one's mind, manipulating it at will. A realm beyond the heavens that only transcendent beings who have reached the State of Harmony or the Demonic Pinnacle could properly execute.
‘It wasn't perfect. But the level of the art itself…’
The Demonic Eye Light Sword was an art created to help a swordsman reach the ultimate goals of Sword Control and Mind Sword.
The bastard's half-baked Sword Control was in no way inferior to the Demonic Eye Light Sword. However, he had used a technique that required a much higher level of enlightenment than the Demonic Eye Light Sword.
‘Did he call it the Calamity Saber Art?’
If it was an art that combined Sword Control with its techniques to maximize destructive power, this was no ordinary martial art. It was clearly a supreme saber art, the likes of which might not appear even once in a generation.
‘Could he be the successor to the Cult Leader?!’
A level of mastery unbecoming of a young man not yet thirty. Considering his combat experience, which allowed him to fight on par with the Vice Lord of the Sword Palace, it was impossible unless he was the Cult's successor.
Just then, Seo Ryang kicked upward.
Mok Gang-in, who had been about to step back to create distance, cursed inwardly. It wasn't a simple attack; he had scooped up a pile of dirt on his instep and kicked it.
Pssssht!
His face was covered in dirt. Beads of blood formed on his cheeks, scratched by bits of stone.
Even someone like Mok Gang-in couldn't help but be flustered. He never expected an opponent he acknowledged in his heart to resort to such a cheap trick.
“Keuk!”
Flash!
Mok Gang-in swung his dagger like lightning to block the follow-up attack.
Claaaaang!
Seo Ryang, who had intended to slash his leg in one go, faltered and retreated. The dagger's blade was short, but the energy imbued in it was longer than a three-foot longsword.
‘Damn it.’
It was a perfect chance to land a solid blow. That chance was thwarted by Mok Gang-in's instincts.
‘I can't let this go on.’
Seo Ryang's current internal energy was the result of transforming the high-purity spiritual energy from the Solitary Bamboo Forest into demonic energy using his enlightenment from the State of Harmony.
Its efficiency was on a different level from the internal energy of other masters. That was why he was still fine after consecutively using techniques like the Calamity Saber Art, which consumed a great deal of internal energy.
But the Wandering Soul Flying Heaven was different.
‘At this rate, I'll be at a disadvantage.’
The Wandering Soul Flying Heaven's Saber Control was the strongest technique of the Calamity Saber Art, aside from the final form.
As a technique that incorporated Saber Control, it boasted absolute power and demanded more internal energy than using Hellwind, Infinite Saber, and the Triple Palm of the Great Crimson Lotus combined.
Unfortunately, he couldn't use the Wandering Soul Flying Heaven to its full potential right now. His enlightenment was sufficient, but his demonic art, his physical body, and his internal energy had not been refined to the innate level required to contain that power.
That's why he had to kill Mok Gang-in. Even if he couldn't kill him, he should have at least rendered him incapable of fighting.
Now that it's come to this, there's only one way.
‘A swift and decisive battle!’
The resolve Mok Gang-in had made earlier was now Seo Ryang's.
He kicked off the ground and threw his crimson saber.
Fweeeesh!
The blade shot out like a meteor. Mok Gang-in ducked.
Ssk!
The crimson saber grazed his shoulder and embedded itself in the stone wall.
Mok Gang-in gritted his teeth.
“You cheap bastard! I didn't think you were…”
Crack!
Blood sprayed from his mouth. Seo Ryang, who had spun and closed the distance, had struck his face with an elbow.
Mok Gang-in didn't just take it. The moment his face was struck, he stabbed Seo Ryang's side with the dagger.
Puk!
A sharp pain made his hair stand on end.
Fortunately, the dagger wasn't imbued with internal energy. The blow to his face had shaken his internal energy.
Crack!
Mok Gang-in dropped the dagger that had been embedded in Seo Ryang's side. His right arm had been fractured.
Thwaaack!
His left hand, knocked upward, lost its grip on the blue saber. Seo Ryang's left arm was broken.
Both men kicked out at the same time.
Thwack!
With a violent collision, both Seo Ryang and Mok Gang-in fell backward almost simultaneously. No bones were broken, but the attack knocked the wind out of them.
“Cough! You bastard!”
Mok Gang-in somehow managed to get up from his fallen position and charge. The highly condensed true energy that could create the Light Sword was gone, but the demonic glint in his eyes remained.
Seo Ryang gritted his teeth.
‘Shit.’
This is fucked, isn't it?
Mok Gang-in's body was impressively sturdy. They had exchanged a similar number of blows, but their endurance to withstand the damage was different.
‘It's because he's balanced.’
Perfect harmony, unwavering balance.
The level of his internal energy, his martial arts, and his physical body were in perfect alignment. He lacked nothing in any aspect.
Seo Ryang, on the other hand, was different.
His essence, energy, and spirit were unified, but his body and internal energy couldn't keep up with his enlightenment. His enlightenment had reached the Demonic Pinnacle long ago, but his body and internal energy had not.
His energy and body were constantly chasing his enlightenment, allowing for rapid growth, but the imbalance remained. He was more unstable than Mok Gang-in, who, despite a lower level of enlightenment, was in perfect alignment.
Shwaaaak!
Mok Gang-in, having closed the distance in an instant, kicked at Seo Ryang.
Seo Ryang's eyes narrowed.
‘Damn it! If I let this hit me, I'll really die…’
Booooom!
“Ugh?!”
Mok Gang-in, who had been kicking at Seo Ryang, lost his balance and fell.
His entire leg, from the instep to the shin, was numb. It was because of the burst of energy that had exploded right in front of him.
Mok Gang-in was stunned.
‘He still had that kind of power left?’
Seo Ryang, on the other hand, was also stunned.
“Wha-what?”
He unconsciously looked down at his hands.
He had thought he could neither dodge nor block it. The only way to counter that blow was with a killing technique from the Heaven-Lifting Technique.
The technique that came to mind in that instant was the Mountain-Shattering Force. He recalled the combination of Mountain-Shattering Force and River-Breaking Hand that had incapacitated Hong Gwan, the Lord of the Red Snake House.
That technique had shot out, albeit unstably.
Without him even being aware of it.
“What is this… Keuk!”
Thwack!
Seo Ryang rolled across the ground. He had taken a blow from Mok Gang-in, who had closed in again.
But Seo Ryang neither died nor fell. Quickly getting to his feet and assuming a clumsy stance, demonic energy began to blaze from Seo Ryang's body once more.
Mok Gang-in bit his lip.
“You monster.”
He never thought such words would come out of his own mouth. Seo Ryang's display was that impressive.
“He is a man who must not be allowed to live.”
Woooooong!!
In an instant, a blue-green demonic energy covered his entire body.
Not as Mok Gang-in the swordsman, but as the Vice Lord of the Sword Palace, he decided he absolutely had to kill his opponent. If he was at this level before the age of thirty, then in five years, he would undoubtedly be the greatest under heaven.
And that greatest under heaven would become an arrow aimed at him, at the Sword Palace.
“Die!”
Paaaaak!
Fighting while reserving a minimum of strength is a basic principle for a martial artist.
Now, Mok Gang-in had abandoned even that basic principle. He was convinced that his opponent was not just a simple enemy, but a future calamity.
Urgency was written all over Seo Ryang's face.
‘Son of a…!’
Fast.
He had already exhausted what little internal energy he had left after the extreme consumption and the indiscriminate close-quarters brawl. There was no way to stop that madman's charge.
Furthermore, he had neither the strength to dodge nor the strength to counter.
‘I'm going to die.’
Seo Ryang's eyes wavered.
‘I'm really going to die.’
Saaaaah.
He could feel Ma Dongpil rushing over from a distance. He could see Jong Risan's eyes fill with resignation.
And he could also see the ecstatic faces of the Sword Palace swordsmen waiting inside the inner courtyard.
‘…Is this really how it ends?’
The threat of death, felt for the first time in a long while.
Amidst that threat, Seo Ryang had a sudden thought.
‘You were never this soft, were you?’
When fighting an opponent, or when setting out to kill.
He hoped for victory, hoped for the successful completion of the kill. That was the objective, so it was only natural.
But what he prioritized even more was his own safety.
If I die, winning or killing means nothing. The most important thing is my own survival. Only by living can I get another chance.
He had always been like that. In his previous life as an assassin, and even after joining the Divine Cult of the Heavenly Demon. It was the same even when he realized what his true goal was.
But what about now?
He had been seeing red, charging forward only to kill his opponent. He had become just like the people he was most wary of, the ones he most avoided.
‘Why?’
He saw the eyes of Mok Gang-in, rapidly approaching.
The eyes, radiating a demonic light, were saturated with killing intent.
‘Those familiar eyes…’
In that moment, Seo Ryang remembered.
- But don't you dare tell me to hold back, not even as an empty gesture, when I'm in front of prey I've marked.
Words he had said to the Black Sun Guard of the Hall of Punishments when he was about to crush the Fourth Young Master, Hong Wi-mun.
That wasn't all.
- The important thing is that some random bastard snatched my prey.
- I can tolerate anything else, but I'll never forgive those who snatch my prey from under my nose.
Seo Ryang was bewildered.
‘Since when was I that kind of person?’
Wasn't self-preservation first? Wasn't survival first?
I was the kind of person who valued his own life above all else, wasn't I?
Tssstssstss!
His empty dantian began to be engulfed in a red mist.
The demonic energy, opening and expanding.
The Nine Hells Demonic Art was awakening.
Just then, a deep, resonant voice whispered in his ear.
“Don't turn away from your true self.”
Woooooong!!
Seo Ryang's eyes turned blood-red.
Within the chillingly eerie glint of his eyes, an inexplicable calm settled.
Pooooow!
Mok Gang-in's knife-hand sliced diagonally across his body.
Seo Ryang coughed up a spray of blood. As blood poured out, he muttered softly.
“...Geumho.”
Kraaaack!
From the rear of the inner courtyard, a golden light burst through the outer wall, instantly devastating the lord's private garden and buildings.