Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: Act 6. Return Tenfold for One (1)
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Boom! Crash!
Was this what an avalanche sounded like? The roar of hundreds, thousands of massive boulders tumbling and grinding across the ground echoed through the arena.
Dozens of elite warriors had detonated their Blood Scatter Blossoms in self-destruction. Their bones and flesh became hidden weapons, their spurting blood turned to poison. And then came the attacks from the survivors, heedless of their own bodies.
The Sword King Squad's warriors were less like humans and more like vengeful spirits.
Any human cherishes their life and fears death. But the Sword King Squad felt no such thing.
They discarded their lives like pebbles, as if they were someone else's concern. They believed their deaths served the Namgung Clan.
A group raised to kill foes too powerful to handle otherwise.
That was the Sword King Squad.
Sucheon gritted his teeth.
'You don't know. How desperate a man with so much to protect truly is.'
The Namgung Clan boasted centuries of history.
Before reaching their current glory, they had overcome countless crises—too many to count on fingers. Some had brought them to the brink of annihilation.
And once, it had been by a single absolute master.
That was when the Namgung Clan realized that even hundreds or thousands of warriors couldn't always prevail.
So the previous previous head of the Namgung Clan, Namgung Seonwol, created the Sword King Squad.
He secretly selected prodigies and trained them in special ways. The clan's vast elixirs and manuals were poured into them.
That much was known to the clan's leadership. But the Sword King Squad harbored one more secret.
The Blood Scatter Blossom.
A final mutual-destruction technique. Sacrificing one's life to ensure the enemy exploded alongside.
And then the all-out assaults from the remaining Sword King Squad members followed.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions erupted in sequence.
The ground shook, and dust clouds billowed thickly.
Thud!
Sucheon barely held his trembling body after unleashing everything in a single exchange. The same went for the twenty-odd surviving Sword King Squad members.
'I definitely felt it.'
'He's dead.'
It wasn't just one or two. Nearly a dozen warriors had felt the sword's impact. So they were certain Damho was dead.
At last, the dust settled, revealing the arena's gruesome scene.
What lay before their eyes evoked the pits of hell.
The comrades they had laughed and breathed with moments ago were now unrecognizably pulverized, scattered across the ground.
Torn chunks of flesh and bone mingled with rivers of blood. In the center stood one man.
A bone shard was embedded in his chest, massive gashes tore through his side and thigh. Countless minor wounds covered him besides, but what drew the eye were the two swords plunged into his back.
One was Sucheon's, the other from a now-dead Sword King Squad member. Both were buried deep, gushing torrents of blood from the wounds.
Damho's body swayed precariously, on the verge of collapse. His entire form was caked in dark red blood, obscuring his features.
Through disheveled hair, his eyes were tightly shut. As if he had lost consciousness.
For an ordinary person, it would have been fatal several times over. The mere fact that he still stood was miraculous. But Sucheon wasn't worried.
In his eyes, Damho was as good as dead. No human could survive such wounds. That was the plain, reasonable truth as Sucheon knew it.
The corner of Sucheon's mouth curled up.
"Now you understand, don't you? The terror of the Namgung Clan. For the clan, we can discard this one life like a pebble at any time."
"......"
"You should never have touched the Namgung Clan. Your arrogance and recklessness shortened your life. Don't forget that even in death."
Sucheon turned away.
Only twenty-odd Sword King Squad members remained. Adding the twenty-odd sent to Jong Ri-yeon made just forty survivors.
Sixty of the hundred Sword King Squad had fallen to a single Damho. Unthinkable losses.
Rebuilding the Sword King Squad would demand time and vast funds. But Sucheon wasn't overly concerned.
The Namgung Clan had talent in abundance and wealth that never ran dry, no matter how much they spent.
He bellowed to the survivors.
"We take down Shin-ui. Then we hunt every soul tied to the Fist Demon and slaughter them all. No matter how long it takes."
Cut the grass and uproot the roots.
No one who walked the martial world wanted to leave future threats. The Namgung Clan was no exception.
It was then.
Flash!
Damho's eyes snapped open.
They were entirely bloodshot, as if ready to spew crimson tears.
"W-What?"
A Sword King Squad warrior stuttered at the sight.
The body that had swayed on the brink of collapse now stood straight. In that state, Damho reached back.
His hand grasped a sword hilt embedded in his back. Flesh tore as blood flowed. Yet Damho gripped harder and yanked the blade free.
Shing!
The gruesome sound of steel slicing through flesh and muscle reverberated across the battlefield. In that instant, the Sword King Squad warriors shuddered, feeling as if their own throats were being slit.
Damho drew the second sword.
Sshing!
Blood fountained from the wound like a geyser.
Then, the gashes—split wide like fish gills—suddenly constricted. Bleeding slowed to a trickle.
Not pressure points, but raw muscle control to staunch the flow. Unbelievable, even seeing it.
Damho plucked the bone shard from his chest.
Crack!
It crumbled to dust in his hand.
"You bastard!"
Sucheon ground his teeth, glaring at Damho.
Chills raced across his skin.
Alarms blared in his mind. His body sensed danger and reacted first.
But Sucheon tried to ignore it.
The enemy was critically wounded, barely able to move. What could he do in that state?
"Don't fear him. He's just bluffing on death's door."
In that moment, Damho's gaze locked onto Sucheon.
He had learned a valuable lesson.
The Sword King Squad's mutual-destruction tactic was an extreme method even he hadn't anticipated.
He now knew humans could discard their lives so readily—and realized how foolish he'd been to leave himself exposed.
Things had been too easy lately.
Perhaps complacency from lacking true rivals. Complacency bred arrogance, and arrogance left him scarred.
A broken bone shard had pierced a lung; even breathing hurt. Still, Damho smiled.
He was alive.
That mattered most.
The living had options.
Thud!
Damho kicked off the ground.
His rag-doll body surged forward in a charge.
Sucheon's eyes bulged. He hadn't expected Damho to target him in that state.
But Sucheon was no ordinary master. Though he operated in shadows, his skill surpassed even the Namgung Clan's elders.
"You bastard!"
Tsss!
Swordless, he summoned all remaining qi and unleashed Heavenly Thunder Palm. A barrier of lightning qi formed before him.
Boom!
Damho's body crashed into the lightning veil.
The barrier rippled violently from the impact, jolting Sucheon. Blood trickled from Sucheon's mouth.
"You demonic ghost! Can't you stray from the captain?"
"Die already!"
The Sword King Squad belatedly attacked Damho.
Terror and rage warred in their eyes.
They feared the man Damho himself—his strength, his tenacity.
To rampage with such wounds.
If they didn't kill him today, the repercussions would be endless.
Desperation filled their faces. They poured everything into this assault.
Whoosh!
Immense qi waves stormed toward Damho like a tempest.
In that instant, madness gleamed in Damho's eyes.
Whoom!
His body vibrated ultrahigh. He had deployed his barrier shield.
Ting! Ting!
The enemies' strikes glanced off the shield.
Damho's palm slapped the air. Severing Air Wall, a technique shattering eardrums by disrupting air currents.
"Urk!"
"Gah!"
Warriors with burst eardrums staggered unwittingly.
Boom!
Damho's fist punched the void nine times in succession.
Nine Layer Cannon unfolded.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions chained outward, hurling Sword King Squad bodies backward.
"No!"
Sucheon screamed at the sight. Their deaths would sever the Sword King Squad's lineage.
In moments, twenty more meat chunks joined the pile. Steam rose hot from their blood-soaked corpses.
"You fiend!"
Sucheon roared. But he could say no more.
Thud!
Damho's iron grip clamped his nape.
"You?"
Crack!
Sucheon's side exploded with a rupture. Damho's fist had struck unseen.
"Hurk!"
Sucheon vomited blood.
Crunch!
Another fist pulverized his side.
He knew without looking. The ribs there were shattered to bits.
Damho hoisted Sucheon's body high.
His feet dangled limply, like a puppet with cut strings.
Damho slammed him into the ground.
Boom!
"Argh!"
Sucheon wailed in agony.
His spine shattered, skull cracked, spilling floods of blood.
Consciousness blurred.
But Damho's brutality wasn't over.
Crunch!
His foot stomped Sucheon's abdomen.
Overwhelming pain clouded Sucheon's vision. Yet he forced his eyes open to glare at Damho.
The merciless Damho wielded violence without pity.
Despite his grievous wounds, no pain showed on his face.
As if inflicting pain was his sole purpose, he ground Sucheon underfoot, indifferent to his own injuries.
'He's... different!'
Only then did Sucheon realize.
Damho was beyond his grasp.
Born solely for destruction.
'We should never have crossed him.'
Too-late regret consumed his mind.
"M-Mercy... The Namgung Clan will never... again..."
He tried begging for peace. But he couldn't.
Crunch!
Damho's fist caved in his skull.
That was the end of Sucheon, guardian of the Namgung Clan from the shadows.
Only then did Damho halt his blows and rise.
"Hah!"
Rough breaths escaped.
Wounds he had clenched shut with muscle now burst open, blood flowing anew.
Dizziness assailed him, vision dimmed.
Swipe!
Damho wiped his eyes with his sleeve. Clarity returned slightly.
"Huff!"
Breathing raggedly, Damho took a step.
He wanted to collapse and rest, but couldn't. Enemies remained.