Chapter 155
Chapter 155
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 155
Chapter Title: Two Against One
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Cheong Cho-hyeon bit her lip, unable to speak.
In truth, she had seen it clearly.
She had seen Gwan Seok-cheon’s sword twisting unnaturally as it drove toward Bu Eun-seol’s dantian.
No such technique for piercing the dantian existed in the Diancang Sect. Gwan Seok-cheon had deliberately used a vicious sword form to inflict a gruesome death.
“I will not forgive you!”
Enraged, Cheong Cho-hyeon immediately drew her treasured sword and charged at Bu Eun-seol.
*Hwiik!*
The mist-like sword dance vanished from before her eyes, then abruptly reappeared, thrusting toward Bu Eun-seol’s side.
She had unleashed the Peerless Fragrant Cloud Sword Style, the ultimate art of the Emei Sect.
*Chaang! Tiiing!*
The sharp edge of her sword relentlessly coiled around Bu Eun-seol’s entire body.
It was a divine sword art that vanished like mist only to reappear in a sudden flash. Yet, each time, Cheong Cho-hyeon’s blade was blocked by Bu Eun-seol’s Ink Sword.
The first principle of the Peerless Fragrant Cloud Sword, the pinnacle of the Cloud Sword arts, was to cultivate in stillness and wield the blade with a tranquil heart.
But she was brandishing her sword in a fit of rage, preventing its profound subtleties from being fully expressed.
*Flash!*
After successively blocking her forms, Bu Eun-seol finally unleashed Meteor Chasing the Moon.
“Keuk.”
She couldn’t even tell from which direction the light-speed sword strike was coming.
She barely managed to lean back and retreat, but in that single instant, a cascade of her hair was sliced away.
“Do not harm my junior sister!”
With a great roar, Han Seong drew his sword and attacked Bu Eun-seol from behind.
*Swaek!*
As the Peerless Fragrant Cloud Sword Style rained down on him from both sides, Bu Eun-seol executed a footwork technique and switched his sword form to a defensive stance.
“Die!”
Seizing the advantage, Han Seong joined forces with Cheong Cho-hyeon to press the attack on Bu Eun-seol.
For a grandmaster of the righteous faction, his actions could be called utterly cowardly.
However, because he had seemingly leaped out instinctively when Cheong Cho-hyeon was in peril, he was able to avoid public condemnation.
*Chaang! Chaang!*
When two Grandmasters of the Great Path combined their strength, the force of their swords was enough to shake the heavens and split the earth.
Moreover, since they had both trained in the same Emei Sect Cloud Sword art, their movements were perfectly synchronized, as if performing a combination technique.
“Two against one!”
Unable to watch any longer, Myo Cheon-u was about to strike with his palm, but Seok U-haeng quickly stopped him.
“Don’t interfere.”
“What are you talking about? You expect me to just stand by and watch this?”
Myo Cheon-u gritted his teeth as he looked at Seok U-haeng’s cold expression.
“That man challenged them in front of all these people to save us. Do you know that?”
Myo Cheon-u clenched his jaw.
“He knew we couldn’t break through this encirclement in our injured state, so he challenged them head-on like this!”
“I know,” Seok U-haeng said flatly.
“But if you intervene, you’ll fall right into that bastard Han Seong’s trap.”
“What?”
“Look. See what happens if you step in.”
Only then did Myo Cheon-u calm his excitement and survey his surroundings.
The wedding guests had all detoxified from the poison and were now watching the fierce battle, fully recovered.
Not only that, but the Daoists from the Zhongnan and Kongtong sects, as well as the warriors of the Longsword Manor, were all watching intently, preparing to attack.
“They’re just waiting for you to get agitated and jump in. That way, they won’t be criticized for taking us all down at once.”
In that moment, Myo Cheon-u felt as though he’d been doused with ice water, his mind snapping to clarity.
He finally saw through Han Seong’s insidious scheme.
Sensing that Bu Eun-seol’s martial arts were formidable, he had feigned anger and deliberately jumped in to begin a joint attack.
And if Seok U-haeng and Myo Cheon-u couldn’t bear to watch and stepped forward, everyone would rush in at once to finish them off.
“Then what should we do? Are you saying we should just stand here and watch?”
Seok U-haeng emotionlessly shook his head.
“Gather your internal energy. So you can be prepared for any situation.”
Myo Cheon-u and Seok U-haeng were injured, but their legs were fine.
If they wanted to, they could flee at this very moment.
But they were holding their ground because if they left, Bu Eun-seol would be immediately surrounded.
“Hmph, so you do have some loyalty after all, Seok U-haeng.”
Recalling something, Myo Cheon-u snorted at Seok U-haeng.
“If you had intended to escape, you could have done so secretly at any time.”
The gazes of the guests were all focused on the battle between Bu Eun-seol and the grandmasters.
For Seok U-haeng, who had perfectly mastered the stealth techniques of the Extreme Assassination Sect, it would be easy to slip away unnoticed during this opportunity.
“Loyalty?”
Seok U-haeng smiled coldly and said, “Isn’t it more important to see how this fight turns out?”
“What?”
Even as he spoke, Seok U-haeng’s gaze remained fixed on Bu Eun-seol.
“Just by watching this fierce battle, one can gain considerable information and insight. It is a spectacle that absolutely cannot be missed.”
“Seok U-haeng. You bastard.”
“If that man loses, I’ll flee immediately. I don’t care what happens to him.”
Myo Cheon-u’s mouth fell open.
Seok U-haeng had no blood, no tears, and not even a mustard seed’s worth of loyalty.
“That man revealed himself in a disadvantageous place to save us. Just for the simple reason that we are all Disciples of the Ten Demonic Arts.”
Myo Cheon-u spoke in a low voice.
“And you intend to betray him?”
“Don’t be mistaken, Myo Cheon-u.”
Seok U-haeng’s eyes were cold and sunken.
“Since when were the Disciples of the Ten Demonic Arts comrades in the same boat?”
“Seok U-haeng.”
“Have you forgotten the lesson from Hell Island? The martial world is no different from Hell Island.”
Seok U-haeng’s gaze was unwavering.
“We are still living on Hell Island. Even right here, at this very moment.”
—We are still living on Hell Island.
Myo Cheon-u fell silent.
Not a single word Seok U-haeng said was wrong.
Originally, all the trainees had killed each other to become Disciples of the Ten Demonic Arts. From the very beginning, things like camaraderie and loyalty had never existed.
“No. This is not Hell Island.”
Myo Cheon-u shook his head.
“And there’s no way that man doesn’t know that.”
This was not Hell Island.
And it was because Bu Eun-seol also knew this wasn’t Hell Island that he had shown them such favor.
“Of course, Seok U-haeng, your perspective isn’t wrong either. The martial world is as bleak as a desert.”
But Myo Cheon-u valued the perspective of Bu Eun-seol, who had shown him kindness when he was at death’s door, more highly.
“Think what you will. That is your life, after all.”
*Paat!*
In the meantime, Bu Eun-seol’s duel was reaching its climax.
After fleeing the Geol-wang’s attack, Bu Eun-seol had gritted his teeth and trained, and his swordsmanship and internal energy had improved by leaps and bounds.
If they hadn’t, he would have already lost his life to the swords of Han Seong and Cheong Cho-hyeon.
But even so, he was not yet at a level where he could face two Grandmasters of the Great Path simultaneously.
As the two Cloud Swords appeared and disappeared in the air, Bu Eun-seol was gradually forced onto the defensive.
“Even you cannot withstand the combined assault of the two of us!”
As Bu Eun-seol’s defeat seemed imminent, Han Seong shouted with a confident face.
*Paat!*
Before long, Bu Eun-seol’s entire body was covered in cuts, both large and small.
But those were merely flesh wounds. Bu Eun-seol’s eyes burned like flames, and his two legs stood firm and heavy as Mount Tai.
“His internal energy is incredible,” Cheong Cho-hyeon whispered to Han Seong as she watched Bu Eun-seol.
“He’s completely unaffected by the internal energy infused into our swords.”
Having entered the transcendent realm, the two of them, just like Bu Eun-seol, were pouring powerful internal energy into their blades.
Because of this, the moment the blade itself, not just its aura, touched the skin, a formidable amount of internal energy would surge into the opponent’s meridians.
But although the blades had grazed Bu Eun-seol’s skin several times, he fought on, seemingly unharmed and completely unaffected.
“No matter how great his internal energy is, he can’t block our combined assault.”
Han Seong, speaking softly, swung his sword, which glinted with a white light, from side to side.
“Junior Sister. Let’s use the Combined Assault Formation.”
The Combined Assault Formation.
It was a two-person combination technique used when two masters who had mastered the Peerless Fragrant Cloud Sword to the tenth level or higher fought an enemy together.
One person would use Ice-Shattering Dissolution, while the other would use the Wind-Scattering Cloud Dispersal technique, attacking simultaneously.
Doing so created a perfect sword form that was utterly impossible to evade: the Combined Assault Formation.
“Understood.”
Cheong Cho-hyeon nodded gravely and began to execute the motions for Ice-Shattering Dissolution.
*Saaaa.*
A faint, mist-like sword energy enveloped Bu Eun-seol’s entire body. At the same time, a sharp wind poured from the tip of Han Seong’s sword.
*Seuk.*
Bu Eun-seol raised his Ink Sword.
Could he break a sword form unleashed by the combined power of two Grandmasters of the Great Path?
No such question existed in Bu Eun-seol’s mind.
There was only one thought in his head.
‘I will not retreat again.’
Retreating due to a lack of strength was something that should happen only once. He would never experience such a thing again.
*Woooong.*
With a strange vibration, a faint light began to flow from Bu Eun-seol’s entire body.
That light gradually moved to his Ink Sword, and then to his left hand.
During his training, he had striven to fill the gaps in his abilities, and that meant perfectly mastering the manual of the Seven Demonic Fists.
“Combined Assault Formation!”
At that moment, a unified shout erupted from the mouths of Han Seong and Cheong Cho-hyeon.
With it, a pure white sword energy poured down on Bu Eun-seol’s head. It was like a beautiful and magnificent white cloud.
But in reality, that cloud was a formidable sword energy that could pass through any substance in this world.
*Hwiiiing!*
At that moment, a faint light gathered in Bu Eun-seol’s left fist.
He was not going to use the Formless Celestial Flow, but the Seven Demonic Fists.
‘Seven Demonic Fists…’
A brilliant light shot from Bu Eun-seol’s eyes.
Simultaneously, the light gathered in his fist began to rotate furiously, like a whirlwind.
As he thrust his fist forward, a tornado that seemed capable of sweeping away everything in this world erupted forth.
It was a technique he had never used before: the third form of the Seven Demonic Fists, Selfless Obliteration.
*Swish-swish-swish-swish!*
The swirling, formidable fist energy soared into the air and began to push back the descending sword energy.
*Paaaat!*
At the same time, the sword energy that had painted the entire world white completely dissipated, revealing the stunned faces of Han Seong and Cheong Cho-hyeon.
*Flash! Flash!*
In that instant, the Ink Sword held in Bu Eun-seol’s right hand created two brilliant streaks of light.
He had used Meteor Chasing the Moon from the Formless Celestial Flow twice in succession.
To seamlessly deploy different martial arts in succession, compensating for any lack of power or gaps in technique—this was an application of the principle of using one’s strengths to cover one’s weaknesses, something he had grasped during his fight with Seong-ryun, the grandmaster of the Beggars’ Alliance.
*Saaaaat.*
The brilliant light passed through the bodies of Han Seong and Cheong Cho-hyeon and vanished into the sky above.
Suddenly, the entire world fell silent, and time seemed to stand still.
*Click.*
The sound that broke the heavy silence was Bu Eun-seol sheathing his Ink Sword.
Simultaneously, the wide-open eyes of Han Seong and Cheong Cho-hyeon began to glaze over.
*Shuuuuut!*
And from the necks of the two figures standing stock-still, crimson flowers of blood bloomed.
*Thud.*
Without even a single cry, the two of them collapsed like logs.
“He defeated two grandmasters at the same time…”
Everyone present doubted their own eyes.
A Disciple of the Ten Demonic Arts had single-handedly defeated the combined assault of two Grandmasters of the Great Path!
“Seong-ah!”
At that moment, Han Yeong-baek’s heart-wrenching wail echoed through the Longsword Manor.
“You, how could you…!”
Han Seong was the son he had raised like a precious gem, the pride of the Longsword Manor, a Grandmaster of the Great Path.
Clutching his son’s corpse and sobbing, Han Yeong-baek pointed at Bu Eun-seol and shouted to the guests.
“Seize him! Seize that man and eliminate him!”