Chapter 38
Chapter 38
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 38
Chapter Title: Of course it's because of you, you idiot
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‘This is what the hell!!’
The White Bone Sorcerer was utterly baffled, driven to the brink of madness.
He had thought he was fleeing from the Little Heavenly Demon, only for some bizarre sword qi to come flying in out of nowhere.
If it had been ordinary sword qi, he could have easily deflected it, but who would have imagined it carried the energy of the Pasa Hyeonjeong?
‘Dang Gyujin!!’
The fact that Namgung San-yeong’s daughter was a swordmaster of the Qingcheng Sect flashed through his mind.
She was a fairly renowned later-generation talent in Sichuan’s martial world, so he had planned to eliminate her alongside the Dark Lord during the assassination attempt—who would have thought he’d end up like this?
The White Bone Sorcerer instinctively realized this was Unhwi’s scheme.
He had no idea how a man dead for six years had come back to life, or why he had returned wearing Dang Unhwi’s face.
But given the Little Heavenly Demon’s knack for outlandish tricks, this was probably more of the same—a vague guess was all he had.
‘Why didn’t I notice sooner? I should have seen it from the moment the ancestral hall was taken and the ranches were raided!’
If Dang Unhwi was the Little Heavenly Demon, all the lingering mysteries suddenly made perfect sense.
The shadowy backer behind Dang Unhwi that he could never identify.
The plans that had started going awry out of nowhere.
Even the covert raids on the ranches.
‘If only I’d been more wary of that damned name!!’
That was why, the instant the White Bone Sorcerer realized the Little Heavenly Demon’s true identity, he chose flight over fight.
Fight and subdue him?
That option had never even crossed the White Bone Sorcerer’s mind.
The fact that he had hidden his identity so well until now, only to reveal it so brazenly, meant he was now confident enough to hunt him down!
It was certain the Little Heavenly Demon hadn’t yet regained his power from six years ago.
But so what?
That didn’t change the fact that he was the Little Heavenly Demon.
The Little Heavenly Demon never let a marked prey escape.
Hadn’t that been the case even during the Devil’s Maw Palace incident?
It was obviously the Little Heavenly Demon’s doing, yet no evidence could be found, leaving it an unsolved mystery.
The Black Bone Ghost Valley had struggled desperately to escape the Little Heavenly Demon’s clutches but ultimately suffered massive losses.
The damage had been so severe—or the fear of the Little Heavenly Demon so profound—that even now, his moniker and the name Yeon Unhwi remained taboo in the Black Bone Ghost Valley.
And now, he was about to suffer another massive blow at the Little Heavenly Demon’s hands.
The ranches he had built across the Central Plains were all stripped bare, and now the ghost ritual array he had painstakingly constructed over more than a year was gone in an instant.
So what now?
‘I’m gonna die… I’m really gonna die like this……!’
The White Bone Sorcerer was a jiangshi—or more precisely, a dead man walking.
But he had no memories of his past life.
He knew from the Ghost Valley Lord that he had been an exceptionally skilled master back then.
Yet scarcely any memories from that time remained, and his identity as the White Bone Sorcerer had grown far stronger.
He had lived over a hundred years in this self.
Didn’t that make him alive in his own way?
That was why the White Bone Sorcerer didn’t want to die pointlessly here.
He wanted to enjoy so much more.
If possible, to live eternally and seize the world.
He didn’t think it impossible.
‘Because I have the Little Heavenly Demon’s grimoire…! Because I’ve received the Assembly’s blessing…! I! I!!’
The White Bone Sorcerer bit down hard on his lower lip.
Perhaps because he had once briefly instructed the Little Heavenly Demon, he had no trouble understanding the Ghost Prince Chronicles.
No, it had actually shocked him deeply.
The Little Heavenly Demon, who had lived only twenty-odd years, possessed far deeper enlightenment than he, who had lived a century.
Jealousy surged within him.
He wanted to take it for himself.
So he devoured the text and grew this strong.
With the Assembly’s aid on top of that, he now considered himself the pinnacle as a sorcerer.
He couldn’t just perish meaninglessly like this!
Mid-fall, he twisted his body dramatically and landed on the ground.
By now, his hands and feet had fully regenerated.
Ding-a-ling!
He quickly shook the Spirit-Subduing Bell in his hand.
Arf! Arf arf!
The water jiangshi he had scattered across the hills beforehand—luckily spared from the explosion—came rushing toward him.
He didn’t expect these things to capture the Little Heavenly Demon.
But at least they could grab his ankle—
Kwaaang!
“Son of a bitch!”
The water jiangshi he assumed would protect him suddenly bared their fangs.
Only then did it hit him.
These water jiangshi were monstrous entities first and foremost.
They could not defy the Ghost Prince, the Little Heavenly Demon.
The water jiangshi’s eyes brimmed with urgency.
It was because of Unhwi’s threat(?) that they’d all end up as summer soul stew if they failed to catch their old master.
In the end, the White Bone Sorcerer had no choice but to face the water jiangshi himself, claws at the ready.
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
A fierce chase unfolded: the White Bone Sorcerer desperately trying to escape the hills, pursued by the water jiangshi determined to catch him.
* * *
「Puhahaha! Look at that bastard scamper away!」
「Like a wild boar struck by lightning! Well, no matter how much he scurries, he’s still in the palm of the Young Leader’s hand!」
「Nothing feels as filthy as being bitten by the dogs you raised yourself! Hehehehe!」
The wraiths, their reputation as the Twelve Black Ghosts ill-matched to their glee, couldn’t stop laughing at the White Bone Sorcerer’s pathetic display.
「But, Young Leader. Is it truly wise to bring a Qingcheng Sect swordmaster to a place like this?」
「Right now, the Heavenly-Earthly Unity Array makes it convenient, but if the White Bone Sorcerer reveals your identity to Elder Cheonyeop—」
‘Don’t worry. That won’t happen.’
「Oho, as expected!」
「We lesser demons failed to grasp the Young Leader’s brilliant wisdom and committed a rudeness!」
With Gale Wind Divine Speed, I arrived safely where the White Bone Sorcerer was.
To think he dared flee right in front of me? I was pondering how to cook him when Dang Gyujin appeared opposite me.
Tap!
“Unhwi.”
“You’re here, sis?”
“What the hell is—”
Dang Gyujin glanced back and forth between me and the White Bone Sorcerer.
She had instinctively grabbed him since he was charging her way, radiating demonic qi, but she clearly hadn’t expected me to appear right after.
Well, of course.
From the moment I entered the mountain, I had known she was nearby, but she had no clue about me.
That was why I had let the White Bone Sorcerer flee.
Dang Gyujin had been rushing in from the opposite side, so he was running straight into his own trap.
“I was catching a Ma Cult lackey alongside Lady Gyujin.”
“Oh… you? No, more importantly, why is the Ma Cult suddenly—”
Her face was full of confusion.
Of course she was baffled.
She had been trying to kill me until now, and suddenly I was teaming up with Namgung San-yeong.
What kind of ridiculous pairing was this?
Serves you right for being absent all this time.
“I’ll explain the details later. For now, Lady Mu and Lady Gyujin are back there—could you go help them? There are more jiangshi than expected. I think it might be too much for them.”
Dang Gyujin narrowed her eyes at me, then let out a light sigh.
“Fine. But later… you have to tell me everything.”
“Yes. Understood.”
Dang Gyujin glanced briefly at the White Bone Sorcerer, then leaped toward Dang Gon and Namgung San-yeong.
Even though the White Bone Sorcerer looked dangerous, since he was fleeing from me, she probably figured he wasn’t a big worry.
Whereas I had emphasized the danger on Namgung San-yeong’s side, so that caught her attention.
No matter how estranged, Namgung San-yeong was still her birth mother.
Paat—
Once Dang Gyujin vanished, I drew the Evil Ghost Cloak from the Evil Ghost Charm and draped it over myself.
The silk robe I wore instantly turned pitch black, a twisted evil ghost visage appearing on the back as demonic qi billowed forth.
And then.
Tss-tss-tss—
A scant few strands among my long, trailing hair began bleaching white strand by strand.
「Ahh! Finally—」
「The white hair transformation has begun.」
「When the white-haired demon appears, the Thousand Mountains shall tremble… It seems the Little Heavenly Demon’s legend is set to return. All the more mystical the more I see it.」
As Yeon Unhwi, I was famous for having stark white hair unbefitting a Central Plains native.
It was one of the Ghost Prince Chronicles’ side effects: as the upper dantian hypertrophied, ghost qi settled in, draining the pigment from my hair.
The onset of white hair meant I was regaining my realm as the Little Heavenly Demon.
With all three dantian opened and the Evil Ghost Cloak amplifying my ghost qi, the change had resurfaced.
Sure enough.
Vitality overflowed in my body.
“Let’s go.”
No more witnesses now—I could rampage freely.
Any lingering demonic qi left behind? Just blame it on the White Bone Sorcerer. No holds barred.
Gale winds raged.
Cheonsin-go.
Kwaaaang!
I slammed the ground ferociously.
Swaeeeeeak—
Flying like a beam of light, I blasted the White Bone Sorcerer and the water jiangshi together with overwhelming force.
“Kuuk!”
The White Bone Sorcerer flew back, barely regaining his stance.
But I pursued relentlessly, raising my hand blade taut.
A razor wind coiled around it. Shredding Gale Blade.
Kaang!
The White Bone Sorcerer barely raised one arm to deflect the hand blade.
As I’d felt during Gale Wind Fury, his body was truly indestructible like a Diamond Jiangshi befitting a demon wheel jiangshi.
To capture him, only one method remained.
Crank output to maximum and shatter the jiangshi’s body with sheer destructive power.
Wuuuung!
The three dantian resonated once more.
The upper dantian’s vast sorcery amplified my inner power to its limit, surging from lower to middle dantian in an instant, flooding my entire body.
My sensory and motor nerves sharpened to the extreme.
Fwoosh!
Violet lightning flared above my eyes.
Gale Wind Dance
Gale Wind Frenzy
“Violet eyes and white hair…! He really is the Little Heavenly Demon!!”
His pupils darted wildly.
“Did you think otherwise? Anyway, time to die. Come here. I’ll send you off painlessly.”
Kwa-kwa-kwang!
Kurung, kurur—
I hounded the White Bone Sorcerer without respite.
Grab his wrist? Snap it.
Grab his forearm? Rip it off.
Shatter his ribs, drive his breastbone deep into his organs.
“Please, just, let me—talk—”
No room for him to cast spells.
I knew their techniques inside out anyway—nothing to fear.
“Kehek!”
But above all, he still hadn’t fully recovered from the Thunderbolt Orb’s shock.
To survive, he must have burned through nearly all his sorcery.
To hold out this long after the ghost ritual array’s total destruction was impressive in itself.
“Wait, just a moment, Young Leader! I surrender! I surrender! So stop—”
In the end, even the White Bone Sorcerer signaled surrender.
“Then stick your neck out nice and clean. You know full well what happens if you die by my hand, right?”
“Damn iiiit!”
For the White Bone Sorcerer, the greatest terror seemed to be not dying peacefully but becoming my slave even in death.
“I didn’t want to resort to this!! Dieee—!”
In that instant, one of the White Bone Sorcerer’s eyes gleamed violet.
Soul Subjugation Spell.
Flash!
Regaining my senses, I found myself standing on a vast sandy beach. Clear ocean waves lapped at my ankles.
「Young Leader!」
「It seems the Black Bone Ghost Valley’s soul subjugation ability—」
“Yeah. Seems much stronger now? The ghost ritual array was pathetic, but this is different.”
Impressive.
Even with the Evil Ghost Cloak’s mental barrier, he had trapped me in this illusion.
The cold splash at my ankles, the salty sea scent stinging my nose—everything felt real.
This wasn’t something you could achieve just by stealing and strengthening from the Ghost Prince Chronicles.
‘Assembly.’
No doubt about it.
These bastards clearly had backing from the so-called Assembly.
Otherwise, the Black Bone Ghost Valley’s sorcery couldn’t have improved this much.
Fragmentary knowledge from the Ghost Prince Chronicles had its limits.
‘Are those bastards really here?’
All the better.
I might finally glimpse the abilities of these enigmatic Assembly bastards.
One odd thing, though: how had he activated such a soul subjugation?
If the ghost ritual array were intact, maybe, but after the Thunderbolt Orb obliterated it, pulling off something this big must have cost him dearly?
『Little Heavenly Demon, you are now trapped in the prison of my soul.』
Then, the sky quivered slightly, clouds gathering into the White Bone Sorcerer’s ruined face.
As expected.
My lips twisted into a smirk.
“Trading your life for a spell? You seemed so stingy with your life before.”
Nothing is more precious than one’s own life.
The fundamental principle of all sorcery, including spells, is equivalent exchange, and human sacrifice—offering one’s own life as tribute—manifests miracles beyond one’s power.
This world the White Bone Sorcerer had created was proof.
『Shut up!! Who do you think forced me to this extreme?!』
“Of course it’s because of you, you idiot. Did I tell you to do this shit? You did it yourself.”
『Iiiik! I’ll rip that damn mouth of yours apart somehow!!』
The calm waves began surging. Massive waves the size of houses rushed in from all directions.
『I’ll drown your soul in mine and take everything you have!!』