Chapter 204
Chapter 204
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 204
Chapter Title: Do You Know Me?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
“Do you know me?”
The Ghost Sect Lord was strong.
Even while manipulating the scholar—who was little more than a corpse—like a puppet.
Boom boom boom boom!
The Lion Blade King was undoubtedly powerful.
Hadn’t he subdued the Three Swords Vanguard Lord and the Blade Hermit Elder in a joint assault without sustaining major injuries, leaving them battle-incapable?
Yet even he seemed to be in a league of his own against the Ghost Sect Lord.
With every swing of his ferocious lion blade, golden lion slaughter aura unfurled like threads, sweeping through all directions.
The resulting gale was as sharp as a lion rampaging through a marketplace.
But the Ghost Sect Lord evaded every assault with utterly nonchalant movements.
My own attacks fared no better.
Not even my chain of Shrinking Wind Blade Resolve, Gale Palm, Rising Wind Kick, and Demon Wind Leg.
Nor the Three Swords Technique hybrid forms I unleashed one after another.
I even scattered Lotus Blossoming Azure Poison mist and hurled hidden weapons with Northern Nether Darts and Spectral Emissary techniques.
Yet despite being invisible to the naked eye, he read and dodged them with effortless grace.
At this point, was his vision or senses simply on another level?
The silver lining was that we’d kept him pinned, preventing him from fully deploying his signature stealth arts.
Since he wasn’t in his own body and we hounded him relentlessly, he couldn’t unleash his specialties freely.
Screeeeech!
As the Ghost Sect Lord deflected the lion blade slicing toward his waist with his left hand, I shrugged my shoulders and unleashed Gale Wind Barrage.
Boom!!
The Ghost Sect Lord twisted his upper body counterclockwise and hurled his right fist like a thunderbolt.
A Striking Air Palm infused with Six Threads energy.
It brimmed with savagery, as if it would shred everything it touched.
It was worlds apart from the Six Threads that Gong Son-beom had displayed.
Rumble—
Kuku ku...!!
I didn’t deflect it but met it head-on.
To implant even a sliver of my embedded force into him via Gale Wind Barrage.
My body screamed in agony, as if it might shatter apart.
Crack!
The Ghost Sect Lord’s right arm let out an unnatural sound from the joint, bending in a grotesque direction.
Even his already pallid skin turned a sickly blue.
It wasn’t just the forced twist on the weakened joint from the infiltrating energy—I’d used Lotus Blossoming Azure Poison to instantly necrotize the meridians channeling his qi.
“It seems the Puppet Yin Soul Technique relies on the root vital energy from the upper dantian, so if we can just block the meridians, we stand a solid chance of victory!”
“The scholar’s body is already in full death state, so his senses must be dulled. If we keep this up, we can—”
The specters’ words didn’t last long.
Because the Ghost Sect Lord casually tore off his own right shoulder with his left hand.
Crack, spluuurt!!
Man, the way he manhandles a body that isn’t his own.
Hey, buddy. That’s desecrating the dead, you know?
“For the Ghost King, our young cult leader, to point out respect for the deceased—truly a rare sight—”
But unlike my surprise, the Ghost Sect Lord spoke with coldly impassive eyes.
“I’ve sensed it for a while now, but you seem to know exactly how to fight me.”
“Got a lot of intel from the spy we planted in your ranks.”
“No. This goes beyond that. These are strategies and tactics that could only come from thoroughly investigating me. You even knew I was controlling this body.”
“Told you, didn’t I? My clan’s intelligence network is top-notch.”
“And how you two blocked me just in time to buy your subordinates time to escape?”
“Yeah, that too.”
“You’re holding the Northern Nether Sword. The poison that took this body’s arm earlier carried the essence of Hell Arts.”
“So?”
“You plan to keep playing dumb? That implies you’re the real killer who took down the North Sea Sect Lord... But a mere orthodox sect junior couldn’t possibly pull that off, could they?”
Just as I thought.
As expected, the Ghost Sect Lord knew the North Sea Sect Lord wouldn’t die outright but could transfer to another body.
He even knew that to claim the Northern Nether Sword, one had to eradicate his final soul fragment.
So when I openly displayed it, fingering me as the true culprit was no stretch.
Hence the probing questions, but I just smirked in response.
“The Northern Nether Sword? Found it on the ground. Hell Arts? No clue.”
“...Looks like I’m a joke to you.”
“I answer, and you deny it anyway. What am I supposed to say?”
I said it while batting aside an attack aimed at my heart.
“I’m a proud heir of the Tang Clan, master of the Gale Winds. You should be amazed at how formidable my clan’s intel network is, not nitpick over weird stuff. Even for a sect lord?”
It wasn’t wrong.
Windflower Pavilion’s espionage outclassed the Demonic Cult by far.
Add in what I knew about them, and it sealed the deal.
So I brushed it off.
His feeble imagination wouldn’t unravel my identity anyway.
“If you insist on being uncooperative...”
Crackle, snap crackle!
“Then I’ll make you cooperative myself.”
Lightning arced up.
Zzzzzzap!!
Thunder Lord Immortal-Slaying Demonic Force.
A sorcery demonic art where the Ghost Sect Lord truly borrowed power from the heavenly thunder lord.
Tension etched across the Lion Blade King’s face.
His golden lion slaughter aura was being torn apart by the lightning.
Who wouldn’t be shocked witnessing the thunder god’s incarnation defying mortal laws?
The scholar’s pupils blazed with lightning.
Proof he was squeezing every last strand of qi from his upper dantian.
Rumble!
At the same instant, white-masked fiends poured down from the sky like they’d been waiting.
Elite assassins of the Flesh Devil Ghost Sect: the White-Faced Ghosts.
They were all gunning for the fleeing Half Evil Vermin.
“Words fail, so you’ll just crush us with brute force?”
“That’s the essence of the Demonic Path. You’ll come with me.”
The scholar’s mask-like face twisted faintly.
As if amused.
The problem? This was within my predictions too.
I’d deduced he’d possessed the scholar—did they think I hadn’t anticipated his follow-up?
“Sorry, but...”
Flash—
I executed Phantom Shift to put maximum distance between me and the Ghost Sect Lord.
His陰 sword grazed only an afterimage.
“I’ve got prior commitments.”
The Ghost Sect Lord opened his mouth to speak.
But a blast from the cliff edge drowned it out first.
Rumble boom!!
Dust clouds and thick black smoke billowed anew across the sky that had just begun to settle.
『Funny thing—why’d you think the buried explosives detonating earlier were all there was?』
『!!』
『Bury them nice and cozy next to that corpse.』
At that moment, the second landslide hit.
Less volume than the first, but rocks and earth cascaded down just as menacingly.
Especially the soil racing down the slope first—it wedged perfectly between me and the Ghost Sect Lord.
His thunder strike battered the debris, only triggering an even bigger slide.
The Lion Blade King and I barely escaped the range and bolted toward White Snow Valley.
“Phew! Thought I was done for.”
“Pahaha! Know how terrified I was? I worried I’d have to sacrifice an arm!”
“My apologies for that part. Luring him here without raising suspicion wasn’t easy.”
“Ah, not scolding you, brother. Just saying how exhilarating it was. When’s an old man like me get to savor that thrill again?”
Even after cheating death, the Lion Blade King was jovial.
The canyon collapse, debris direction, and angles—all meticulously calculated.
Deceptions like this were essential against an absurd foe like the Ghost Sect Lord.
Thanks to it, the White-Faced Ghosts angling for fisherman's profit ended up buried alongside their master—plenty of company on the road to the afterlife.
Of course, the Ghost Sect Lord would crawl back from the Yellow Springs.
But with the South Palace Clan guys already ahead, he wouldn’t be lonely.
Right then.
Tsss...
The White Snow Valley entrance, which had only exhaled eerie canyon winds, began to change.
Light pierced the darkened gorge, and the winds grew warmer and gentler. Above all, the raging formation energy vanished.
The Demon Subduing Heavenly Supreme Formation had halted, opening the valley.
“Perfect timing—the Scenic Gate opened right on cue.”
We’d already coordinated secretly via express messenger with Pure Crane True Person on the White Snow Valley side.
If two landslides hit, they’d open the formation entrance immediately.
A reckless demand that could threaten White Snow Valley itself, but Pure Crane True Person’s condition was simple.
One handwritten line.
—Save my sect’s disciples.
The Lion Blade King eyed them askance.
The Scholar Faction disciples, thrown into chaos by the landslides and Ghost Sect Lord’s arrival, were fleeing toward White Snow Valley.
“Th-the White Snow Valley’s open!!”
“We can live! We can live!”
“Please! Please take us too...!”
The Lion Blade King looked on them with displeasure.
“Those are the types who’d stab their own leader in the back at the drop of a hat. Accepting them back—”
“Isn’t that what makes a prestigious sect and great faction? Enduring such things.”
“......”
“The Collective has endured over a millennium. If it truly dates back to the Stellar Sages of ancient murim as they claim, it’s easily two thousand years. Longer than even Shaolin’s history in the jianghu.”
“......”
“How many upheavals do you think the Collective has weathered? Yet they’ve survived to this day.”
“......”
“Isn’t this just another one? That’s how I see it. How I choose to see it.”
The Lion Blade King pondered deeply, then shook his head.
“I could never do that.”
“Same here. How do you forgive a backstabber? I’d stab ’em right back.”
Reading the implication in my words, the Lion Blade King burst into roaring laughter.
“As expected, my brother and I see eye to eye!”
“You bet.”
If they pulled any nonsense inside without knowing their place, we could crush them then.
White Snow Valley was as good as Half Evil Vermin’s now anyway.
Thus, all the bees entered White Snow Valley.
The Lion Blade King went in first as the last in line, and as I stepped forward.
『As I thought, you do know me.』
The Ghost Sect Lord’s transmission rang out.
I turned.
Atop the debris pile.
The scholar stood tall, his body so wrecked it was a miracle he could move.
But those deep, profound eyes pierced straight through me.
『You... do know me, don’t you?』
Kukuku ku!
The formation’s Scenic Gate began to close.
Darkness encroached from the edges of my vision. Staring at him through the narrowing gap.
Smirk!
I answered with a smile.
Ice cold.
‘Wait just a bit.’
Thud...!!
‘After the North Sea Sect Lord, you’re next.’