Chapter 50
Chapter 50
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: Blade Ghost
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The second son of the North Sea Sect Leader, Gu Min-chae, found the day utterly boring.
"Boring. I thought it'd be fun, but it's not at all."
Tsk!
Gu Min-chae clicked his tongue lightly while overlooking the marketplace of Do-seong-hyeon from above.
As his status suggested, he was absolutely not the sort of person to handle such a miscellaneous task.
Hadn't he personally received the baptism from the Assembly, ascending to the Super Peak realm?
It wouldn't have been strange at all for him to be assigned to command one of the newly established halls of the Divine Church.
Yet the sole reason he had volunteered for this mission was one.
The targets they were pursuing right now were remnants of the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect.
Gu Min-chae was the martial artist in the world who hated the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect the most.
No, it went beyond hate—he utterly loathed them.
It was all because of the previous generation's Little Church Lord, Little Heavenly Demon Yeon Un-hwi, who was now fully dead.
Back in his younger days, when Gu Min-chae was still ignorant of the world's vastness and full of youthful arrogance.
His status as the second son of the North Sea Sect had always granted him immense power.
Moreover, his brilliant talent, drawing his blade aura in his teens, had brought him great expectations and praise.
How far did it go? They said he was the talent who would become a pillar of the next Divine Church, even securing one of the seats among the Demon Path Ten Pillars.
So life for Gu Min-chae had been far too easy and monotonous.
It felt like the entire world lay beneath his feet, like toys existing solely for his amusement.
That was why he had viewed Yeon Un-hwi, who rampaged around claiming he would become the Little Church Lord, as utterly ridiculous.
A half-cripple who couldn't even properly learn martial arts and had to resort to shamanistic arts—it was laughable.
So he had confronted him with the intent to warn him to know his place, saying something like, "A bastard like you doesn't even qualify to be the Church Lord's disciple, so stay in your lane—"
'What the fuck is this shithead?'
'You—'
'Hey, hey, just shut up. Weakness is contagious. Shoo, shoo.'
'!!!'
'You gotta be worth fighting for me to bother. You're scaring me for nothing. Hey, you're messing up my vibe, so get lost.'
For the first time in his life, he had been defeated by a peer.
A crushing defeat.
A complete loss with no excuses.
It was a duel he himself had provoked.
He had stepped up to crush the guy's arrogance, only for his own to be crushed instead.
And it happened in just a single exchange.
That was when it began.
Gu Min-chae's life plummeted into the abyss.
The power his status provided vanished like a mirage when the North Sea Sect Leader turned his back on him, and expectations and praise turned to mockery.
He was dropped from the Demon Path Ten Pillars and pushed to the fringes even among the Divine Church's promising juniors.
He later clawed his way back to reclaim a seat among the Demon Path Ten Pillars, but the ridicule still clung to him like a tail.
He was ignored and despised. There was no longer any place for him.
Gu Min-chae gritted his teeth and struggled desperately to return to his former position.
He wanted to somehow defeat Un-hwi and regain his father's recognition.
But.
'What? He's dead? That inhuman bastard?'
The Chain Heaven Seal Blood Massacre erupted.
A massive incident where more than half the elders died in droves.
Even the Demon Dragon Sword, the sacred relic of the founding Heavenly Demon, was lost, plunging the Divine Church into great turmoil.
But Gu Min-chae was shocked by something else.
There was no longer anyone he absolutely had to defeat.
He... would forever be trapped in the yoke of a loser.
That fact left an enduring resentment.
That was why he had begun relentlessly hunting down the remnants of the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect.
He simply couldn't bear the reality of having no one left to settle his grudge against.
Even if it was just the followers of the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect that the Little Heavenly Demon belonged to, he had to catch them and vent his rage or it wouldn't satisfy him.
So he had doggedly pursued and exterminated the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect's remnants over and over.
He had already wiped out over a dozen branches.
The number of followers he had sacrificed numbered in the hundreds.
And now.
The roots of the Divine Transformation Sect were finally coming into view.
The lackeys they had caught this time were the tail leading straight to the root.
'If I eradicate every last remaining follower, even the Sect Leader will have no choice but to acknowledge me. And if I rack up major merits in assassinating the Dark Lord... the Assembly will surely elevate me to the heavens.'
The ideal paradise that every martial artist dreamed of was shimmering right before his eyes.
So the Four Inspectors were eagerly awaiting the remnants' heads to roll—
'...What?'
Suddenly, something spine-chilling emanated from the far distance.
As a hunter who had long pursued the Dark Demon Divine Transformation Sect's remnants, he could sense the Dark Demon sorcery.
It was advanced sorcery at that.
No, it wasn't just advanced.
Wasn't it sorcery of such pure quality that only legitimate heirs could possess?
He had never heard of a new heir appearing among them?
"Baek-san."
Sss...
"Your command."
A middle-aged man in neat mourning robes quietly appeared behind Gu Min-chae.
He looked just like a snow woman from folklore.
His skin was so pale that veins were clearly visible, and frost settled on the ground with every step.
Even in the still sweltering summer, white breath puffed out with every exhale.
White Hand Blade Ghosts.
Or simply Blade Ghosts, they were experts artificially afflicted with Frozen Yin Meridian Blockage from childhood, fed ice crystals like daily meals.
Like all meridian blockages, the White Hand Blade Ghosts possessed exceptional talent and sharp minds, allowing them to master any martial art with ease and build immense power.
However, their lifespans were extremely short, lasting only a decade,
But even that had played a huge part in establishing the North Sea Sect's current prosperity.
Baek-san was the Blade Ghost who normally protected Gu Min-chae at his side.
"Go check out what's happening."
Gu Min-chae had separate business here.
He planned to leave the cleanup entirely to Baek-san.
"As you command."
Sss...
Baek-san vanished as silently as he had appeared.
A blizzard howled toward the source of the Dark Demon sorcery.
Gu Min-chae silently watched that direction before turning to the opposite side.
Paat!
Soon, he too disappeared from his spot.
* * *
An immense blast of cold wind and blizzard.
It stung the skin.
My eyes curved into crescents behind the mask.
Few in the North Sea Sect could unleash such cold winds.
Moreover, that guy was someone I recognized.
"I had a hunch, but I didn't expect a walking corpse to actually show up?"
Walking corpse.
A derogatory term for the North Sea Sect's Blade Ghosts.
"Not seeing you in the Heavenly Mountains but in the Four Heavens makes it almost nostalgic. Long time no see, Baek-san."
In an instant, his pupils dilated.
The identities of specially crafted Blade Ghosts were almost unknown to the outside.
Yet I had called out his name precisely, so he was shocked.
"Gu Min-chae must be around here somewhere? Feels like just yesterday I beat him like a dog. How's he doing?"
"...There's only one person in this world who could refer to the young master that way. Could it be... you."
"You guessed right."
"Little Heavenly Demon!!"
Kwarung!
Crackle!
His aura exploded like a storm.
The ground was entirely covered in ice.
It was as if a North Sea iceberg had appeared.
「This energy, this presence... It is indeed from the North Sea Sect.」
「To think it's the Blade Ghost of the North Sea Sect Leader's second son. If the second son is nearby, shouldn't we be cautious?」
Gu Min-chae had once been one of my fiercest rivals in the contest for the Little Church Lord position.
By tradition, the Heavenly Demon Divine Church's Little Church Lord seat never passed through blood ties or master-disciple relations.
Even being the current Church Lord's disciple didn't guarantee an easy path.
Heirs of the Nine Great Sects and promising juniors from the Seventy-Two Minor Sects would all gather for a grand battle, and only the one with the highest score could claim the seat.
In other words, in my previous life, I had defeated all the Divine Church's renowned figures one by one to take that position.
And among them, there were some particularly tough opponents.
The Demon Path Ten Pillars.
The ten pillars destined to uphold the next Divine Church.
Gu Min-chae was one of them, and Baek-san was his master and protector who had raised him.
But when Gu Min-chae suffered a crushing defeat to me in a single exchange and fell into ruin, this guy's fate had crumbled alongside.
Who would've thought he'd still be alive after six years.
"You managed to cling to life after all? You ice ghosts live freakishly long for ten years. What are you now, about fifteen? Still a baby, huh? Go on, baby talk. Waah~ Waah~"
Flames ignited in Baek-san's eyes.
"You're the one who's clung to life remarkably, Little Heavenly Demon. I thought you'd died six years ago. Did you want to scrape by so pathetically?"
"Of course. Why would I die when I haven't even beaten the likes of you? So I safely returned from hell."
"Oh dear! Is that why you couldn't meet your followers? You probably never even thought of coming back."
Baek-san laughed.
Smirk!
"I personally escorted your followers all the way to hell myself."
"......"
I prided myself on my sharp tongue, but I couldn't laugh at those words.
I silently looked at my follower.
The follower nodded gravely.
『...While the Little Church Lord was away, there were a few who hounded us viciously. The North Sea Sect Leader's second son was one of them.』
My eyebrow twitched.
He had dared to lay hands on my followers?
They said you get eerily calm when anger overwhelms you. My mind cleared like ice water had been poured over me.
Looks like he held a grudge ever since I beat him half to death in the Little Church Lord contest.
I really should've just let him die back then.
It was the first time even past me had been hated this much.
"You survived like a cockroach, but your injuries must have been severe. You don't show even half your former skill. Pathetic trash."
His gaze scanned me up and down, filled with scorn.
Clank!
Shing—
Slowly, he drew the blade from his waist.
Fallen Blade.
The demonic weapon bestowed exclusively upon Blade Ghosts by the Blade Demon North Sea Sect.
「After the Black Bone Sword, another fine piece has come our way.」
「The North Sea Sect's ice crystals are the epitome of yin energy even coveted in the Black Bone Ghost Valley, and the Fallen Blade gathers dozens of them. But that one seems to go further, mixed with thousand-year cold iron?」
「It'll be useful for the Little Church Lord who handles spirit sorcery.」
「I'm curious how it'll change if soaked in Ghost King Blood like when we made the Ghost King Sword.」
「The problem is that guy's skills won't be pushovers—」
You couldn't reach the Half-Step Ghost King realm through trickery alone.
Meanwhile, even with my Three Dantians open, I hadn't recovered half of my past prowess. I was at a disadvantage in every way.
But I had no intention of losing.
Past or present, I had never fought from a position of advantage.
—Struggle.
My life had always been a continuous struggle overcoming adversities and trials.
—Invincibility.
And at the end of it all was always victory.
There had been no defeat in the karma I had accumulated.
This time would be no different.
"Come at me. I'll give you three moves."
I beckoned with my fingers, and Baek-san grinned, baring his fangs.
"Fine. I'm curious how long you can keep up that arrogance!!"
Screee—
Baek-san became a streak of light, thrusting the Fallen Blade at me.
"For real—"
At that moment, I unfolded my arms and stomped down hard.
Boom!
The ice shattered, sending shards and powder flying into the air.
It looked as if mist enveloped me.
"Whether Black Bone Ghost Valley or North Sea Sect, you lot never learn even after getting wrecked."
In that instant, the violet demon eyes gleamed.
The technique I had taken from the White Bone Net Sect.
Soul-Seizing Ghost Net.
Flash!