Chapter 121
Chapter 121
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 121
Chapter Title: North Sea Mourning Rite
-----------------------------------------------------------------
‘What... is that?’
Tang Guijin froze for a moment.
Just moments ago, the sky had been perfectly clear, and now these clouds?
Yet it didn’t feel like rain or wind was coming.
Instead, a brutal cold snap swept in.
In an instant, the moisture in the air froze into frost, and every breath sent up puffs of white vapor.
“Why is it suddenly so cold?”
“Yeah, winter’s still far off, isn’t it? Some kind of weather anomaly?”
“No. This is—”
“...Snow?”
The people enjoying the banquet tilted their heads, then turned their gazes skyward as a chill touched their cheeks.
It was snowing.
But not ordinary snow.
Snow as black as ink staining charcoal clouds.
Black snow.
“T-This is—”
“It’s the North Sea Ice Poison Snow!!”
“Damn it all……!”
“The Demonic Cult! The Demonic Cult is here!!”
Ice Poison Snow.
The blizzard that always raged whenever the North Sea Sect’s ice ghosts appeared.
They said if it touched you, your joints would freeze and your inner energy would be corroded by poison?
The warriors who had been laughing and calling for the extermination of the Demonic Cult just moments ago now convulsed in panic.
“Junior Sister!”
“Yes!!”
Boom!
Tang Guijin and Yi Cheolsan leaped forward first, chanting the Demon-Subduing True Words as they unleashed sword winds in all directions, erecting the Pure Wind Barrier high.
Qingcheng Sect’s unique anti-demon spell, protecting the caster from demonic corrosion.
A temporary measure to keep people safe from the Ice Poison Snow.
“Protect the honored guests, Lüke Corps!”
“Pure Wind Pavilion, all hands to the front line!!”
Tang Yeowon, under the Pure Wind Barrier’s protection, immediately mobilized the Lüke Corps. Tang Gon, who had appeared at her side, moved the Pure Wind Pavilion with perfect discipline.
The Lüke Corps and Pure Wind Pavilion moved in flawless unison.
Their strict military discipline was so intense, it was hard to believe these were the same people who had been mingling and feasting moments before.
Whoosh!
The Lüke Corps pushed back the crowd while repelling the Ice Poison Snow. The Pure Wind Pavilion surged toward the main gate in formation, drawing their return soul crossbows.
Dozens of bolts all aimed at the gate.
“…….”
“…….”
“…….”
A suffocating silence fell.
Only the rumble of thunder from the ink-black clouds and the Ice Poison Snow’s ghostly wails filled the air.
At that moment, someone descended quietly from the sky, hands clasped behind their back.
It was the Dark Venerable and Tang Hosan.
The Dark Venerable murmured with narrowed eyes.
“They’re coming.”
No sooner had his soliloquy ended than strange sounds began to reach the crowd’s ears.
Thud... thud...
The slow steps of many people.
Each footfall carried such weight that chills ran down spines involuntarily.
Ting... ting...
A bell tolled with every step.
It sounded like the faint wail of ghosts from distant darkness, or the wind heralding the end of life.
“Oh dear, oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear…….”
The added funeral dirges amplified the gloom.
The already dreary, oppressive air under the Ice Poison Snow grew even heavier.
With each crescendo of the sounds, the crowd felt themselves sinking slowly into a swamp of darkness.
Primal sounds evoking terror and fear. Sounds no living person could endure.
Breathing itself became labored.
That was when the demons appeared.
A funeral procession led by the mourning-clad North Sea Sect Leader, followed by ghosts and the Black Bone Ghost Chorus procession... no, a funeral march.
Black funeral banners fluttered in the sky, and dozens of coffins lined the shoulders of pallbearers disguised as demonic ghosts.
As if warning that these coffins were for their corpses.
And that was likely the intent.
The Blade Demon North Sea Sect had always positioned itself as the vanguard of demonic armies, igniting the bloodiest catastrophes generation after generation...
With every step of the North Sea Sect Leader, the cold intensified, blanketing the ground in white ice.
It suited his mourning garb perfectly.
Screech!
Then the North Sea Sect Leader’s steps halted.
The funeral march stopped with him.
Hands behind his back, he scanned the surroundings.
He saw Tang Gon and the Pure Wind Pavilion, arrayed with weapons trained on them amid the banners.
The North Sea Sect Leader smiled.
“I’ve come solely as an invited guest of your clan leader. But this guest treatment is rather stingy.”
The pallbearers, no less than their leader, showed no sign of lowering coffins or drawing weapons despite being deep in enemy territory.
It spoke volumes of their loyalty to the sect leader, while also demonstrating that the Tang Clan was no match for them.
But Tang Hosan, the Pure Wind Pavilion, and the Lüke Corps remained unshaken.
They weren’t the type to falter under such intimidation.
In the rear, other warriors hurriedly formed encirclement nets.
Just as I had proposed in the anti-Demonic Cult countermeasures.
The North Sea Sect could no longer escape the Nine Dragons Branch Family estate.
“Make way.”
At the Dark Venerable’s words, Tang Hosan and Tang Yeowon’s gazes turned rearward.
“My lord!”
“Grandfather……!”
“The North Sea Demon Blade is my invited guest. We mustn’t discriminate in welcoming guests.”
Tang Yeowon’s gaze urgently flicked to Tang Hosan.
Please stop grandfather.
But Tang Hosan gave a bitter smile, then ordered his subordinates.
“Pure Wind Pavilion, lower your aim.”
The agents slowly lowered their return soul crossbows. Their eyes never left the funeral march.
In the end, Tang Yeowon bit her lower lip and had no choice but to command the Lüke Corps.
“Lüke Corps, clear the path.”
The Lüke Corps exchanged glances before parting wide.
The Dark Venerable walked through the gap.
The North Sea Sect Leader stepped away from the funeral march to face him.
Amid the standoff between the Nine Dragons Branch Family and the North Sea Sect. Two absolutes met.
“Long journey. You must be tired.”
“What hardship for a guest? I came simply because I wished to.”
“Still, I’m grateful you came.”
“More importantly, I have a question for the clan leader.”
“What is it?”
“I hear the new Wild Wind Brigade accepts recruits without regard to background.”
The Dark Venerable burst into laughter.
“Hahaha! Surely you’re not asking if even you could join?”
Unlike the Dark Venerable, the crowd listening paled. What on earth was this?
But the North Sea Sect Leader nodded gravely, his expression unchanging.
“Indeed. That piqued my curiosity.”
“It does. Didn’t I say? No discrimination.”
“Oh ho.”
“But you’d have to turn against those demon scum. That alright?”
“Defect?”
“The Wild Wind Brigade exists to sever demonic necks. Why? Got ideas?”
The North Sea Sect Leader stroked his chin.
“Tempting, but no. Too much invested in the Heavenly Mountains. And considering how many Central Plains folk I’ve slain... it’d be a waste.”
“Right? But if you defected, you could claim more demon necks than all those you’ve killed. I guarantee it.”
“Rather, I suspect I’ll kill more Central Plains folk from now on.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Difference of opinion.”
“Fair enough. Still a shame.”
“Indeed.”
For a smiling conversation, the content was brutally savage.
‘Talking about who kills more like it’s nothing...?’
‘A-Aren’t they bothered at all……!’
Tang Guijin swallowed dryly. He couldn’t dream of interrupting.
He glanced at Yi Cheolsan.
He scanned the surroundings intently, gauging the funeral march’s forces and planning responses if battle erupted.
“Or how about the Dark Venerable joins the Wild Wind Brigade on our side? I’d treat you well.”
“Start anew at my age? Tch. Demons like you, always tormenting an old man with few days left.”
“No torment. I guarantee.”
The North Sea Sect Leader smiled.
“This body is soon to be Cult Leader.”
“!”
“!”
“!”
The abrupt declaration froze the crowd’s faces.
“Cult Leader? Hahaha! Could be easy then. But is it?”
Only the Dark Venerable laughed heartily before narrowing his eyes.
His gaze sharpened like a honed blade.
The North Sea Sect Leader smiled too.
“It will be. Because this body wills it.”
“Confident.”
“One needs that caliber to claim lordship of the Heavenly Mountains, no?”
The North Sea Sect Leader’s aura now blanketed the entire estate.
Winter had arrived.
“So I ask: truly no intent to join this seat?”
The warriors’ faces hardened.
Tang Hosan especially bared open hostility, ready to kill at a word.
But the Dark Venerable remained inscrutable.
The North Sea Sect Leader continued.
“The Central Plains obsesses over grudges and old ways. The New Cult differs. Even with past enmities, if it aids today and the future, we accept foes without prejudice. Unlike you, who brand all different as barbarians and reject them.”
He unclasped his hands, extending one toward the Dark Venerable.
“You, my old friend, unlike Central Plains folk, judge self-interest coldly. Join the New Cult. A new world awaits.”
“…….”
The Dark Venerable silently regarded the proffered hand.
Then.
Clap!
He grasped it calmly.
Tang Yeowon flinched.
Tang Hosan reached out, gripping her shoulder.
The crowd gasped, about to shout—
“Shaking hands is easy.”
The Dark Venerable’s lip curled.
“The question is whether you can handle it.”
Bubble bubble!
The North Sea Sect Leader looked down coldly at his hand.
The skin where he gripped the Dark Venerable bubbled black and necrotic.
Poisoned.
The North Sea Sect Leader sighed.
“A shame. I truly wished good relations with you.”
That was the signal.
He unleashed his left hand like lightning.
The Dark Venerable opened his left palm wide.
Ice Soul Divine Palm
Demonic Rift
Crimson Chain Divine Palm
Violent Surge Palm
The two palm strikes collided in a massive explosion.
The ground upheaved, poison gas billowed, ice shards flew everywhere.
Kaboom!
But that blast was erased by the next.
The Dark Venerable, wreathed in poison smoke, hurled hidden weapons.
Tiny projectiles, too small for the eye, swam wildly through the air—like pollen and petals scattering from bursting blossoms.
Three Yang Chaotic Flying Flower Pollen.
A technique from Full Sky Flower Rain, earning him the alias West Heaven Flower Shower.
Pew pew pew!
Clang clang clang!
The North Sea Sect Leader countered fiercely.
His rotting right arm, somehow healed, drew a blade.
The withering gale that blanketed the distant north blew in.
North Sea Demon Withering Gale sought to freeze the pollen and petals in cold.
As clashes erupted, qi exploded wildly, shockwaves engulfing the estate.
“Slaughter them!!”
“Protect the clan leader!”
The Lüke Corps surged forward.
The Pure Wind Pavilion raised return soul crossbows and pulled triggers.
Pew pew pew pew!
Boom boom boom—
Amid billowing smoke, straps on the pallbearers’ coffins snapped.
From the open lids, jiangshi leaped out, all radiating massive yin energy.
Kiiiiieee!
Shrieking ghastly wails, they plunged into the crowd.
Simultaneously, Nine Dragons Branch Family warriors in anti-Demonic Cult positions charged.
Swoooosh—
Clang clang clang!
Thus, battle erupted.
Later named the Nine Dragons Great Battle—the first clash of the great righteous-demonic war.
Reincarnation Demon God Chronicles