Chapter 251
Chapter 251
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 251
Chapter Title: A Spared Life
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The battle was over, and the victor had been decided.
Song Dowan, ensnared by Hyeok Mulin's demonic grasp, squeezed his eyes shut at the end.
Thousands of lines etching across his entire body.
It was plain as day what gruesome fate awaited him.
However.
"...?"
Contrary to expectations, time dragged on with no changes whatsoever.
In the end, Song Dowan slowly pried his eyes open.
And confronted with an unbelievable sight, he recoiled in shock.
"What in the world is this...?"
Song Dowan stared down at his own flesh with eyes popped wide.
Hyeok Mulin's attack had clearly struck home, and it should have carved countless sword scars into his body.
A situation where his breath should have been snuffed out before he could even scream.
Yet what filled his vision now was...
'All the sword strikes halted just before burrowing into my skin.'
His clothes lay in tatters, shredded to ribbons, while his skin was etched with a dense web of pale white lines.
But not a single one had pierced his body to draw blood.
'A dream?'
Gazing at the sight, Song Dowan could only gape in stunned bewilderment.
He had waged hundreds, thousands of battles in his time.
And before attaining his current realm, he too had danced on death's edge countless times against fellow masters.
Which was why he was so certain.
The instant Hyeok Mulin unleashed a storm of sword strikes, weaving countless lines through the air, there was no escaping death.
True to his prediction, his body now bore myriad sword marks.
Marks from an assault no mortal frame could endure.
Had it run its full course...
'It surged to a point of no return.'
When a martial artist unleashes a technique, halting it varies wildly in difficulty based on its nature and stage.
And the swordsmanship Hyeok Mulin had loosed right up to his throat? In Song Dowan's eyes, it was no attack one could simply pull back.
How does one rein in thousands of strikes already unleashed?
Impossible.
Moreover, in that final glimpse Song Dowan caught, the assault had left Hyeok Mulin's grasp entirely, beyond any hope of recall.
And yet...
'How did he pull off the impossible...?'
Hyeok Mulin had done it.
He had dialed back the fury of that uncontrollable onslaught, preserving Song Dowan's life.
Groping tentatively.
Still refusing to believe he lived, Song Dowan patted himself down from head to toe.
Nape, forearms, flanks, collarbones, wrists.
No drop of blood anywhere. Even the sword traces on his skin were fading away.
'Was it all a hallucination?'
He entertained the notion, questioning his own senses, but soon set it aside.
No matter how he replayed it, those thousands of sword strikes had been real—not some illusion.
Unable to puzzle it out alone, he finally turned to Hyeok Mulin.
Two questions burned in his mind. He weighed which to voice first, then spoke.
"H-how did you stop the attack?"
A fundamental query from one martial artist to another.
What trick allowed him to halt a strike that had already left his hand?
Hyeok Mulin, who had been watching him, glanced down at the sword gripped in his fist.
Fixated on it, he let his lips part in a flat line.
"Who knows. Guess I'll have to figure that out myself first."
Song Dowan cocked his head at the cryptic reply.
No straight answer, but that was fine.
The second question mattered more right now, after all.
Steadying himself, he faced Hyeok Mulin once more.
"Then why did you stop it?"
The reason for pulling back at the very last instant.
Hyeok Mulin stared wordlessly at the moon.
Truth be told, before facing the Three Stars Convergence, Hyeok Mulin's mindset had been straightforward.
Simply erase that lofty title from existence. Killing or capturing anyone specific? Not a priority.
With those thoughts, he had stepped into the Heroes' Gathering Hall.
Met all sorts of wanderers along the way, culminating in a clash with Song Dowan—their undisputed apex.
'First impression? Surprisingly mundane.'
Just a wandering swordsman who savored music, utterly smitten with performers and courtesans.
Strip those quirks away, and he came off as utterly ordinary. Steady, unremarkable.
But...
'Which might be what made him special.'
In a village of three-eyed folk, wouldn't the two-eyed outsider draw all the stares?
The world brimmed with oddballs like grains of sand. Among masters of his caliber, few matched Song Dowan's bland, impeccable demeanor.
And so...
As blades locked at battle's close, Hyeok Mulin's final sentiment was...
'...I don't want to kill him.'
A man he had no desire to end with his own hands. In the dying seconds, he chose to withdraw.
The timing was perilously late—he hadn't been sure he could—but succeed he did.
Going in, mercy wasn't even on the table.
Spare the righteous hero out of chivalry? Hyeok Mulin hadn't entertained it.
He never fancied himself some flawless paragon.
Nor did the demonic path he tread allow for absolute good or evil.
Still, at the end, he opted to let Song Dowan live.
No grand schemes or burning ambition drove the man. No greed, no hubris.
His convictions rooted deep, he simply acted on what lay before him—a true hero.
Couldn't the martial world spare room for one like him?
A faint chuckle escaped Hyeok Mulin as he met Song Dowan's eyes again.
"You took to the tune I played rather well."
"Tune?"
Thrown by the abrupt shift, Song Dowan averted his gaze, sifting through memories.
He had been moved, yes. Profoundly so—waves of emotion no prior performance could rival.
Of course, learning the player was the Heavenly Demon now raised gooseflesh in hindsight.
'Doesn't diminish the impact, though.'
It wasn't about the hands that plucked the strings, but the soul poured into them.
To Song Dowan, Hyeok Mulin was a virtuoso without peer.
His awed response had been only natural.
'But to spare my life over that?'
Mid a duel where death hung on every clash?
Try as he might, Song Dowan couldn't wrap his head around it.
He lifted his gaze to press further—but
"...Huh?"
No words came.
Hyeok Mulin was gone from before him.
Bewildered, he whipped his head around, scanning the area, then flared his senses wide.
Nothing. No trace of presence.
As if spirited to the heavens or swallowed by the earth—in a blink, he had vanished.
"Heh... heh..."
A dry, incredulous laugh bubbled up as Song Dowan rested a hand on his waist and shut his eyes.
The Heavenly Demon granting mercy.
It only deepened his long-held belief.
Righteous, wicked, demonic—none reveal their true colors without a closer look.
'Makes me wonder, though.'
Should a Heavenly Demon of such temperament ascend to the cult's absolute throne...
What winds of change would sweep the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult?
His encounter with Hyeok Mulin had ignited a burning curiosity about the cult's path ahead.
Eyes snapping open, Song Dowan tilted his gaze to the moon overhead.
Tonight, it blazed with an almost oppressive radiance, banishing true darkness from the world.
"No need to fret if the sun dips low."
Something always rises to pierce the gloom, wherever, whenever.
Thus, staring heavenward, Song Dowan let a smile tug his lips.
"A total rout."
Since attaining his realm, he'd half-forgotten the sting of defeat.
It had been that long—etched dimly in memory at best.
Yet losing brought no bitterness. Distractions melted away, leaving a strange refreshment.
'Departing without a word...'
Meaning he'll keep this under wraps?
The Hyeok Mulin he'd faced wasn't one for loose-lipped bragging.
No need to trumpet his triumph far and wide.
Thus.
"This debt, I'll settle personally."
Resolve hardened.
Three Stars Convergence?
What did such a blemish matter now.
'Too lofty a perch for me from the start.'
Deep down, Song Dowan had known.
His skills lagged just a touch behind the other two.
His inclusion stemmed from their zeal to bar any demonic cultist.
One from the Martial Alliance, one from the Four Black Alliances.
The rest "righteous" sorts, cherry-picked for repute—himself among them.
News breaking at first, the hero's pinnacle couldn't yield.
"Now's the hour to set it all aright."
A smile playing on his lips, he strode forth into the moonlight.
The conclusion diverged a touch from expectations, but...
"Well, this works fine."
Having departed, Hyeok Mulin pressed on through the rugged peaks.
He had targeted the Three Stars Convergence for erasure, only to pivot at the last.
Chose life for Song Dowan, status quo for the trio—no regrets lingered.
'After all, I gained something far weightier than the Flowing Sword Saint's neck.'
Hyeok Mulin delved ever deeper into the mountains.
Spotted a few caverns, but skipped the shallow ones or those on shaky footings, probing onward.
Then.
Crunch.
One cave caught his eye; Hyeok Mulin halted.
Brushing past the mouth, he trudged inward.
Before long, at the heart of the grotto, he invoked threefold discernment—the layout sprang clear.
A single sinuous tunnel from the entrance. No forks, no chambers.
Terminating in a cozy stone room walled by rock on all sides.
'This'll do.'
Thumping down in the center, Hyeok Mulin assumed the lotus position.
Deep, regulating breaths.
Hooo—
Surveying his frame, he converged his extreme demonic flows, then gently shut his eyes.
"At long last, the moment arrives."
Pure Soul Divine Demon Art.
The wall to the seventh layer.
The time to breach it.