Chapter 142
Chapter 142
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 142
Chapter Title: Tenfold Divine Demon Style
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『Kraaaah! Kraaaaaah!』
The North Sea Sovereign writhed in agony, thrashing wildly.
Even as the Primordial Spirit, it was still his flesh.
The shattering of his soul could not be anything but excruciating.
No, precisely because it was a Primordial Spirit, the pain was several times more intense.
It felt like being torn to shreds.
The problem was that Yunhwi had crammed the Crimson Dragon Flag with as much hidden weapons as it could hold.
The explosive power was thus even more tremendous, and the flames that erupted now spread along the cracks in his upper body.
Crack-crack-crack—
Splurt!
Boom!
Boom! Boom-boom!
The ice armor forming his upper body crumbled and fell in a cascade.
It was just like ice layers collapsing in the North Sea's ice crevasses.
The glacier swept over his massive frame, scouring the canyon above.
An avalanche of enormous scale unfolded.
Rumble...
Now, the North Sea Sovereign had gone from a leaky jar to a shattered one.
The rate of spiritual power loss grew dire.
Even trying to extinguish the flames with absolute zero was no easy task.
Yunhwi's flames were demonic fire infused with the pure demon's will.
Its heat and tenacity rivaled the sulfur flames of the deepest hellfire pit.
But the issue was that the power Yunhwi unleashed didn't end there.
Kieeeek—
Kee-kee-kee-kiik!
「That arrogant mug of the North Sea Sovereign was infamous even in the Divine Cult for being a total jinx!」
「Ehehehe! Become our baby brother, you Gu bastard!!」
Lost souls were mixed in among them.
Carrying curses and grudges, they rampaged wildly inside the North Sea Sovereign's Primordial Spirit.
The soul poison they spread poisoned his colossal form in an instant.
The once icy-blue Primordial Spirit gradually turned a murky, dark crimson.
Yunhwi gripped the Fear Balloon tighter still.
From his eyes downward to his groin, lightning stretched long and thin, carving a vertical path.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!!
A searing red heat trail lingered.
The North Sea Sovereign now swayed perilously, on the verge of collapse.
Yunhwi, who had already landed on the ground, moved to finish it.
Switching his internal energy operation from the Crimson Dragon Flag to the Black Dragon Heart Formula, he drew all the Golden Binding Chains to bind the North Sea Sovereign.
The Fire Dragon twisted fiercely, coiling around the North Sea Sovereign.
Ssshhhrrrrk!
『This won't... this can't happen...!!』
The North Sea Sovereign clutched his injured eye with one hand, thinking.
Through the vision of his remaining eye, the sight of dozens of iron chains lunging at him was horrific.
A flash of mortal peril surged through him.
He knew that damned Little Heavenly Demon enslaved the dead as eternal slaves.
If he fell like this, it was over.
No, not just him.
The Demonic North Sea Sect itself could be finished.
The Little Heavenly Demon he knew was one who always followed through.
He could not be the one to let his sect perish in his generation. That was not the path he had walked.
Thus, the North Sea Sovereign decided to abandon his prior plan to seize Yunhwi's body.
His Primordial Spirit had long been shattered.
Even his head wouldn't hold out much longer, and even if he took Yunhwi's body, the ritual was likely to fail.
In that case, he had only one option.
‘Perish together with the Little Heavenly Demon using my life... No, seal him away in the bottomless abyss of this Crimson Lotus Hell!!’
Yunhwi had already returned from one death.
Killing him again here didn't guarantee he wouldn't revive.
If he did, the Demonic North Sea Sect would be done for.
He had to sink him into the coldest, darkest depths of the world, deeper than the abyss itself, where he could never awaken.
With that, the North Sea Sovereign detonated all his remaining spiritual power.
The divine power of the Descent of King Songje flooded into the ruined Primordial Spirit in an instant, amplifying it several times over.
‘What the—?'
Yunhwi sensed in that moment that the North Sea Sovereign's aura had changed.
He hurriedly tried to withdraw the Golden Binding Chains, but the North Sea Sovereign twisted his upper body savagely first.
A massive fist, nearly transparent again, batted away all the chains.
The fist flew over the shattered Fire Dragon and smashed into Yunhwi with full force.
The attack was so swift that even Yunhwi's keen senses failed to catch it.
Kwaaaang!
“Guh!”
「T-This!」
「Young Cult Leader!!」
Yunhwi was blasted away in one go, smashing through two canyons before finally skidding to a halt on the ground.
The tremendous impact had shaken his organs, leaving his mind reeling.
「Dodge!!」
When he came to and looked up, a colossal shadow loomed overhead.
It was the very iceberg the North Sea Sovereign had conjured in the air before Yunhwi first unleashed his Stormwind Lightning.
Crimson Lotus Hell Technique
Ultimate Art
Great Crimson Lotus Annihilation Jewel
『Be buried!!』
With the North Sea Sovereign's roar, the gigantic ice sun plummeted toward Yunhwi.
There was no escape for Yunhwi beneath it.
Kwaaaang!
The remaining canyon collapsed entirely.
“Kuuh...!!”
Yunhwi was on the verge of being crushed flat.
Lightning flashed and gale winds struck. Even the Sword Realm pierced in, attempting destruction.
But before the overwhelming weight and destructive force, it all bounced off futilely.
On top of that, the infiltrating Heartfreezing Poison was a problem.
‘When the hell?!’
It seemed he had planted the ice poison during that permitted strike moments ago.
Yunhwi hurriedly tried to absorb the Heartfreezing Poison with the Black Dragon Heart Formula, but the poison laced with the Descent of King Songje's divine power was not easily neutralized.
His blood vessels froze. His internal energy flow slowed, weakening his sword force.
‘I need to find a way—’
The iceberg's weight cut Yunhwi's thoughts short.
『That you began mastering the Heavenly Demon Armament Sword was unexpected, but even so, your Mara Heavenly Sword Forms can do nothing against this.』
The North Sea Sovereign confidently foresaw Yunhwi's end.
The Mara Heavenly Sword Forms relied on destructive power from extreme speed; it wasn't suited for defense.
He needed arts that packed more power per strike or rigid defensive swordsmanship to protect himself—what could he do like this?
‘If it were the Tenfold Divine Demon Style, maybe...!’
A sword art from the Heavenly Demon Armament Sword that perfectly controlled the body for rigid, defensive swordplay came to mind, but since he hadn't used it yet, he clearly hadn't mastered it.
In the end, Yunhwi couldn't fully withstand the Annihilation Jewel and was driven deep into the earth.
Kwaaaaaang!
The iceberg buried Yunhwi all the way to the underworld, and the avalanche from the collapsing canyon covered it over.
Snow, frost, and ice piled dozens of feet thick; Yunhwi's presence was utterly erased.
But the North Sea Sovereign wasn't satisfied.
He thrust his hands desperately over the Great Crimson Lotus Annihilation Jewel.
A massive shadow fell over the snow mound.
Kwaaaa!
Crimson Lotus Hell Technique
Sealing Art
Tiger-Tiger Mortal Hand Seal
He meant to pour his remaining spiritual power into completing the 'seal.'
If he fully solidified the ice layer and sealed the formation, even the Demonic North Sea Sect would be safe now—
Pak!
At that moment, a sharp sting pierced his massive ice arm.
『This... what?』
It felt like a mere mosquito bite.
He tried to ignore it, but strangely, the joint stiffened, refusing to exert force.
The North Sea Sovereign hurriedly looked down at his right arm.
An iron chain was embedded in his right elbow.
It was the Golden Binding Chain.
『When did—』
He had no time to remove it.
In that instant, other red-hot chains erupted from spots in the snow mound, piercing his arm and shoulder, wrapping around his arm.
Ssshhhrrrrk!
Fwoosh—
At the same time, flames from the chains melted the ice that armored his arm like gauntlets.
And they began rapidly draining the North Sea Sovereign's spiritual power.
『Kraaaaaah!!』
A horrific wail shook the hell to its core.
* * *
「Young Cult Leader!」
「Are you all right!?」
「Please, come to your senses!!」
No matter that it was a half-ruined holy relic undergoing spiritual decline, the North Sea Sovereign was still the North Sea Sovereign.
As if to prove he hadn't claimed the throne of one of the Nine Great Sects for nothing, he was overwhelming me even at a fraction of his living power.
I had to admit it.
The bastard was strong.
Even using the Dark Lord, botching his grand ritual, trapping him in the Evil Ghost Hell Formation—he still held the advantage over me.
But because he had the upper hand, it opened certain moves for me.
Namely, exploiting the Golden Binding Chains.
A Primordial Spirit was the spirit body humans created to become gods.
In other words, a mere vestige of godhood unrealized.
Conversely, the Golden Binding Chains—as the name implied—were made of the exact same material and power as the fillet the Three Realms Monk placed on the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, Sun Wukong.
Meaning, they bore spells to bind and control gods.
Naturally, the North Sea Sovereign's pathetic Primordial Spirit, unworthy of Sun Wukong's toenail clippings, couldn't withstand them.
The divine power from King Songje that bolstered him was suppressed, and his spiritual power loss accelerated.
And that power flowed entirely through the chains back to me, their original owner.
Energy Absorption.
The first stage of soul devouring.
Fwaaa!
My withered dantian swelled anew.
Fatigue fled, my mind sharpening.
「To steal divine power like this—」
「But swallowing it all might be hard to control, no?」
As the lost souls fretted, this alien true energy—utterly different from what I'd cultivated—could muddy my own internal energy.
It even contained not just the North Sea Sovereign's Northern Fate Arts but King Songje's divine power.
Fusing it would be even harder.
But I didn't care in the slightest.
My vow to usurp the Demonic North Sea Sect's throne was no empty words.
‘It’s possible.’
I focused all my consciousness on the Triple Dantian.
‘With the Heavenly Demon Tyrant Heart Art, anything is.’
Qi is the culmination of will.
Thus, I needed to awaken the pure demon slumbering within.
Thump!
My heart pounded fiercely.
Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!
The savage beats filled my entire body.
I peered into the depths of my internal energy. I strove to merge my entire mind with the qi.
Then, the ferocious nature of the pure demon dormant in my qi awakened.
A savage beast bared its fangs.
Kaaaaah!
The essence of the demon, as I defined it, was hegemony.
The power to subjugate, dominate, and press forward over all.
Even a Hell King ruling the underworld could not escape that truth.
The North Sea Sovereign's spiritual power tormenting me and King Songje's divine power vanished in an instant, absorbed by the pure demon.
With my internal energy's total volume surging, everything else fell into place effortlessly.
『Uwaaaah! Uwaaaaaah!』
Woooooo!
The world quaked.
The North Sea Sovereign's agony, as his soul began to be devoured, now rocked the entire Crimson Lotus Hell.
Now, it was my turn to turn the tables.
The balance of power had fully shifted from him to me.
The North Sea Sovereign could barely maintain even supreme mastery now.
I gripped the bundle of chains with one hand.
I focused the surging power of my Triple Dantian entirely on controlling my body.
There was a perfect sword art for this moment.
‘The Tenfold Divine Demon Style.’
A universal sword art aiming for god-demonhood by perfecting its ten elements: footwork, body techniques, lightness skill, smashing, starting stance, intent, mind-image, breathing, energy accumulation, and operation.
It began with total mastery of the body.
It meshed perfectly with the Crimson Dragon Flag Arts.
Tenfold Divine Demon Style
Power Mountain Uproot
The Crimson Dragon Flag infused my arm with tremendous strength.
I yanked the chain bundle inward with all my might.
Ku-kwaaaang!
Soon, with a massive shockwave from above, the huge iceberg covering my body shattered.
The North Sea Sovereign's Primordial Spirit had finally fallen.
Amid the ice debris shooting up to the grim crimson sky, I soared high as well.
『Little Heavenly Demon! Little Heavenly Deeeeeemon!』
Below, half-submerged in the glacier, the North Sea Sovereign flailed about.
Half his Primordial Spirit was trapped in the chains; he barely retained any form.
“Let's end this.”
With my left hand, I swiftly formed a mudra and thrust my index finger downward.
Crimson Lotus Hell Technique
Azure Lotus Garden
Fwaaa!
Bluish-green spots bloomed profusely over the North Sea Sovereign's body.
The soul poison the lost souls had infiltrated was erupting.
It looked just like a swamp bursting with azure lotuses.
『No... Not like this, I can't end like th—』
Weighed down by that floral field, the North Sea Sovereign sank deeper into the abyss.
The chains clung even tighter, dragging him down to devour him.
Beneath my hand, for the first time, I executed the Demonic North Sea Sect Sovereign's secret art, and thus the North Sea Sovereign submerged into the swamp of death.