Chapter 94
Chapter 94
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 94
Chapter Title: Life-Seizing Blade
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‘How am I supposed to face the Young Leader again in this state!!’
Onma let out a hollow laugh as he looked down at the ground filled with people staring at him in a daze.
The initial downing by the Bloodbone Death Valley crew had been a ploy to deceive the enemy.
But he couldn’t avoid injury entirely.
The Bloodbone Death Valley fighters had proven more skilled than anticipated.
In his efforts to fully recover, he’d fallen behind Dang Gyujin, and by the time he reached the manor, he’d gotten caught in the formation, struggling to pinpoint their exact locations.
Fortunately, he’d reunited with Dang Gyujin and Sima Seon-ui thanks to their ingenuity.
But in the process, both had suffered unexpected wounds.
That fact gnawed at Onma.
He felt ashamed of his bold promises to the Young Leader—that he could deceive any foe, that he could protect the sisters.
How could he possibly join the Young Leader’s Demon Army in conquering the Heavenly Mountains like this!
He wanted to make up for all these mistakes somehow.
‘Brother’s here too!’
Just then, he spotted Ilno arriving at the manor in the distance.
‘Not a single one of you bastards is leaving here alive!!’
Flames erupted in Onma’s eyes.
* * *
‘Why… why isn’t it working…!?’
Gu Min-chae couldn’t comprehend the catastrophe unfolding before him.
Whatever trick Dang Un-hwi had pulled—donning Dang Yun-hwi’s iron mask and appearing as Yeon Un-hwi—he hadn’t fully regained his past prowess, thankfully.
Back then, Yeon Un-hwi wielded sorcery alone to rival the Ten Great Masters of the world.
Reincarnated now, he could apparently use martial arts alongside sorcery, but at his current level—unable even to manifest qi—it was a far cry from his prime, not even a fraction of it.
In contrast, over the past six years, Gu Min-chae had gritted his teeth in relentless training to become Young Leader, even earning the honor of receiving an opportunity from the Assembly.
Ice Soul Demon Art.
That was the name of the supreme demonic technique that had granted him transcendent martial prowess.
It synergized perfectly with the Life-Seizing Blade, excelling at drawing forth its crystalline ice supreme qi.
That was why the toxicity of Gu Min-chae’s Heart-Piercing Ice Venom was exceptionally potent.
Transcendent cultivation paired with the Life-Seizing Blade wreathed in crystalline ice supreme qi.
These alone should have overwhelmed the current Un-hwi without issue.
And yet.
And yet……!
‘Why!!’
Gu Min-chae stared blankly at his right arm and the Life-Seizing Blade, severed from his shoulder and floating in midair.
The situation felt utterly unreal to him.
Even with the Malevolent Ghost Battle Aura and the Malevolent Ghost Hell Formation activated.
Even with the battle tilting heavily in Un-hwi’s favor, was this remotely sensible?
Un-hwi saw through everything with perfect clarity.
He didn’t just block the trajectories of the Ice White Blade Arts—he anticipated and evaded even the Ice White Divine Palm and the meridian-piercing Heart-Piercing Ice Venom.
Ice Soul Demon Art?
The Life-Seizing Blade’s crystalline ice supreme qi?
All useless.
An attack had to land to be of any use, but if he predicted and dismantled them all, what good were they?
Even the gap in realms meant nothing here.
‘The gap should’ve widened enormously over the past six years, so why are you—’
Gu Min-chae realized it in that instant.
Why Un-hwi read every single one of his moves.
‘…Because he was the Young Leader.’
Second only to the Leader, supreme over all beneath.
Even the heads of the Eight Great Sects had to show him respect.
Officially equal in rank perhaps, but the Young Leader was destined to become the incarnation of the Great Demon God.
During his time as Young Leader, Un-hwi had directly overseen the cult’s major and minor affairs.
From political checks by the Eight Great Sects to the administration of the Seventy-Two Demon Gates—all of it.
Thus, everything in the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult lay within his grasp, including the sects’ hidden shames and secrets.
That insight had elevated Un-hwi to a divine being far beyond Gu Min-chae.
Realm distinctions, skill levels, cultivation gaps… none mattered.
When their very perspectives differed, how could a mere nobody like Gu Min-chae—who hadn’t even become sect head, let alone young sect head—dare challenge him?
Of course it was transparently obvious.
And then.
Only after grasping this did Gu Min-chae recall Un-hwi’s original moniker.
‘Little Heavenly Demon……!’
Young Heavenly Demon.
Its meaning: destined one day to become the true Heavenly Demon.
Considering the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult’s millennium-plus history had produced fewer than ten Leaders worthy of the title, its weight was immense.
Heavenly Demon.
Returned from death, Un-hwi now prepared to become the true one.
‘Aaaahhh!’
Gu Min-chae screamed.
And roared.
‘What the fuck is this pussy-ass bitch?’
‘Hey, just shut up. Don’t wanna catch your weakness. Shoo, shoo.’
‘Gotta be worth fighting to get fought. You got me all worked up for nothing. Hey, you’re distracting, fuck off.’
‘Wanted my seat that bad?’
‘Shoulda said so sooner. Who knows? Might’ve let you sit there after I became Leader. Shoulda wagged your tail or something?’
‘Couldn’t, huh? Knew it. If you could, you wouldn’t be scrambling here.’
Another wall.
Un-hwi himself was.
An insurmountable limit, no matter how he clawed.
‘Again… am I just supposed to take this humiliating defeat again!! I refuse! I—’
Gu Min-chae refused to die crushed by fate’s weight.
Even that exalted Heavenly Demon hadn’t overcome the colossal mountain of the Assembly.
Not even this inhuman Little Heavenly Demon.
So why not cling to the Assembly all the more?
The Ice Soul Demon Art they’d bestowed surely held the key to surpassing the Little Heavenly Demon wall.
Kwaang!
It was then.
In an instant, the demonic nature lurking in a corner of Gu Min-chae’s heart exploded.
Unaware he’d gone mad, he devolved into a monster driven solely by slaughter instinct.
The monstrosity began.
* * *
「Young Leader!!」
「It’s dangerous!」
The moment he reached for the Life-Seizing Blade, a far more intense demonic aura surged from Gu Min-chae.
Like facing a beast that had lost all reason.
I twisted my trajectory mid-motion, hurling a left palm at him.
Thunderclap Gale Cannon.
Kwaaaang!
It clashed with Gu Min-chae’s claw technique.
Immense rebound force.
My body slid back.
“!”
My eyes widened.
Pain so severe I thought my wrist had twisted.
Strength enough to withstand dragon power.
Moreover, icy venom seeped through the gale, so I shook it off to the side in one motion.
Something was definitely wrong with Gu Min-chae.
Hwaaak!
Gu Min-chae unleashed his claw technique again with ferocious momentum.
Northern Abyss Demon Claw.
The North Sea Sect’s signature claw art—its razor-sharp nails were deadly, but its insidious penetration poisoned foes with ice venom over time.
Pabababap!
In an instant, his assaults tangled chaotically with mine.
When his venom-coated nails raked my hand, I repelled with Thunderclap Gale; when I slipped through a gap with Rending Gale, he countered by deflecting with palm winds.
Amid it all, I realized Gu Min-chae was no longer the Gu Min-chae I knew.
Eyes once clouded with rage and madness now chilled like North Sea icebergs.
Like an emotionless weapon of war.
「Young Leader, it looks like he’s become some kind of Demonic Wheel Corpse.」
「Could he have fallen into qi deviation—」
‘Yeah. Eaten up by his Nine Yin Severed Meridians.’
The North Sea Sect had long artificially induced Nine Yin Severed Meridians in people to cultivate demonic ghosts, heirs to the sect head included without exception.
Gu Min-chae had them too, and if the opportunity from the Assembly amplified those traits, his sudden change was no surprise.
「Hah! A prodigy once named among the Ten Demon Lords, yet with such feeble mental fortitude—」
No.
If Gu Min-chae’s will were weak, he’d never have reached that realm.
His breakdown stemmed from sensing an insurmountable wall in me.
Despair or frustration at being pushed back again by one whose body and soul had been destroyed once—it had shattered him.
Now, with reason obliterated and only the instinct to kill me remaining, calling him a monster wouldn’t be amiss.
Drawing every ounce of innate qi, his fists shook my internals with each clash’s shockwave.
My mid dantian trembled.
Uluk!
Foul blood surged to my throat; I barely swallowed it.
But that was fine.
The real issue: my internal energy teetered on empty.
Expending so much on Sword Wind Mara to sweep the demonic ghosts had me dizzy.
That’s why I’d aimed to subdue him quickly and seize the Life-Seizing Blade.
Seemed that wouldn’t work.
Chaechaechaechang—
Peupeupeupeng!
The Life-Seizing Blade, floating midair, hadn’t fully hit the ground yet, spinning wildly.
I’d now resorted to Fear Gale Palm against the Northern Abyss Demon Claw.
Qi blades from his nails battered Fear Gale Palm repeatedly.
Beastified Gu Min-chae was strong.
I’d closed the gap with him only because I knew the counters to North Sea Sect arts—not because I was some realm-transcending genius.
With his form utterly dissolved, I had no choice but to rely on instinct.
Paaang!
A foot technique drawn from Sword Wind exploded midair.
Gu Min-chae staggered back slightly, just as dozens of Storm Needle shots from Fear Gale Palm’s edge struck him squarely.
Peupeupeupeok!
The Storm Needles bore Soul-Severing Death, a deadly poison.
Felled oxen with ease.
Processed through my hands, it amplified the ghost venom’s effects.
Gu Min-chae’s body mottled grotesquely in seconds.
Already poisoned by ghost qi, the toxins now flared.
Wheeeek!
He vomited a gush of red blood yet glared murderously still.
My internals churned from depleted energy too.
Fortunately, Black Dragon Qi shielded me better than him.
Still, no launching big arts like Mara Heaven Sword Form.
Puk!
Just then, the Life-Seizing Blade plunged between us.
“Fucking bastard. If you’re gonna die, die quietly. Really pissing me off.”
“Krurrr!”
“Oh? A real animal now? Gonna drool and charge if I toss a bone?”
“Kraaaang!”
“Yeah. Let’s see who drops first.”
Poison devouring his life bit by bit, my energy spent—we’d both sunk to the bottom, realms irrelevant.
And.
Pat!
Pabat!
As if by agreement, our forms dipped low and reappeared beside the Life-Seizing Blade, colliding.
Five ice flower orbs, riding the whirling gale, stabbed toward Gu Min-chae’s vital points like beams of light.
No—burrowed was more apt.
Then tore out the other side, shredding his flesh bit by bit.
「You bastard! You bastard!」
「Dieee!」
Ghosts possessing the ice flowers accelerated, yet Gu Min-chae forcibly bulged his energy to shield meridians and muscles, clawing toward me.
Even as ghost venom and Soul-Severing Death gnawed his marrow and brain, such malice.
Hatred for me that vast? Or transcendent flesh that resilient? Unclear.
I fought back undaunted.
Maximizing the gale’s spin, each Fear Gale Palm unleashed exploding fireballs in succession.
Kwang! Kwaaang!
I strained for the Life-Seizing Blade; instinctively, he sought to reclaim it.
In the deadlock.
Wuuuuung!
The fiercer the clash, the more wildly the Life-Seizing Blade hummed, as if begging to be claimed.
Then, purple ghost net triggered once more.
Bzzz!
Malevolent Ghost Hell vanished.
Replaced by ocean depths.
Endless seabed.
Guruluk!
Gu Min-chae flailed in panic, bereft of footing.
I seized the gap, reaching for the sinking Life-Seizing Blade below.
‘Come.’
「Your command!」
「We obey!!」
Remaining ghosts surged, possessing the blade.
As if vacuum palm, it flew to my left hand.
Wuuuuuuung!
It trembled so violently I feared it might snap.
“!!”
Gu Min-chae belatedly realized, reaching out—but too late. I’d already brought it to my lips.
The Life-Seizing Blade forged from millennium pure yin crystalline ice.
Inevitably reacted to Black Dragon Qi.
Kwajik!
It shattered absurdly easily, like mere scrap.
Remaining shards fragmented, spiraling into absorption by me.
Hwihwihwihwi……!
Just like devouring Heart-Piercing Ice Venom, Black Dragon Qi consumed the crystalline ice supreme qi in a flash.
In that moment, something exploded within.
Stamina surged back; lower dantian filled instantly.
The long-awaited crystalline ice supreme qi propelled me to new heights.
Mid dantian brimmed full.
Soul expanding sharply.
Riding the momentum, I triggered purple ghost net again.
Bzzz!
Back to Malevolent Ghost Hell.
Gu Min-chae sprawled on the ground; I pinned his nape with my foot, Fear Gale Palm aimed.
“Pathetic, Min-chae. How about crawling back to hell now?”
“!!!”
Gu Min-chae clawed at the ground to rise.
Before he could, I detonated the remaining ice flower in Fear Gale Palm.
But it barely grazed past as he whipped his head aside.
Kwang!
Gu Min-chae slammed the ground and rose, swinging Northern Abyss Demon Claw into my torso.
The second round began.