Chapter 74
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 74
Chapter Title: Black Dragon Mark, Blood Rain Nail
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“Heh heh… What kind of harsh words are those? The reason I went into such tedious detail is ultimately to serve you comfortably, Sword Immortal elder. So where exactly do you plan to go?”
Ha Jin raised his longsword at the same moment, igniting a crimson sword aura.
The seventeen Blood River Assassins encircling him likewise revealed identical sword auras as they took up positions at the four cardinal directions around the Six Gates Immortal.
The Six Gates Immortal’s subtle probe had accurately gauged Ha Jin’s level of martial prowess.
The auras pressing in from Ha Jin and the remaining Blood River Assassins were no less formidable.
The Six Gates Immortal could find no further reason to hold back.
The instincts honed over a lifetime with the sword demanded he give his all.
He reached back with one hand and drew a mid-sized sword from the bamboo bundle strapped to his back.
Though barely two feet long, its short blade bore the faint etching of a coiling black dragon on the blue steel.
It was Black Dragon Mark, the beloved sword that had accompanied him through life.
“Truly, it’s been ages since I last held this fellow. You lot had best give it your all as well.”
By now, he had withdrawn the Supreme Purity True Qi enveloping his body and began circulating the Kunlun Sect’s supreme inner art, Supreme Purity Divine Art.
At that moment, the eighteen assassins closed to within a zhang.
But then Ha Jin abruptly raised his blade to the height of his face and sliced his own tongue.
The other eighteen followed suit, performing the exact same action in unison.
“With this, there will be no shortcomings in our service to the Sword Sovereign.”
Mangling the words through his lacerated tongue, Ha Jin spat a mouthful of pooled blood straight at the Six Gates Immortal. Taking it as their cue, the other assassins likewise sprayed blood from their mouths.
They began chanting some unintelligible incantation.
“Gooo…….”
In an instant, a scarlet mist erupted around them, and the eighteen figures vanished.
The Six Gates Immortal’s expression hardened as he thrust out with his sword.
Realizing an unheard-of sinister blood formation had activated in a flash, he seized the initiative.
Soon, a streak of blue light shot from the Six Gates Immortal’s Black Dragon Mark, cleaving through the crimson mist in a single stroke.
It was the Kunlun Sect’s most bizarre and elusive sword art, the Subjugating Sword Method.
The Kunlun Sect was a Daoist sect, and what Daoists truly prized above arts for battling the living was sorcery to subdue demons and exorcise evil.
Such arts had originated in the primordial era of Daoism’s birth, long before martial disciplines for Daoists even existed, and had been passed down ever since.
The Kunlun Sect’s arts in particular stemmed directly from these demon-subduing sorceries, with several techniques surviving to this day that were built upon those ancient rites.
And the Subjugating Sword Method was one such rite in sword form.
The Six Gates Immortal instinctively knew ordinary swordplay would struggle against the grotesque blood-mist formation now engulfing him.
“Kieaak!”
The blue sword force shooting straight from Black Dragon Mark rent the red mist, eliciting a bone-chilling shriek.
Something had snagged on the Six Gates Immortal’s Black Dragon Mark and been sliced, crying out in agony.
The first stance of the Subjugating Sword Method yielded immediate results, followed seamlessly by its chain forms.
Indeed, the Six Gates Immortal lived up to his title.
Unfurling the Cloud Dragon Great Eight Stances footwork to engage all four directions at once, he whipped forth streak after streak of azure sword force. His form evoked an immortal pacifying the infernal realms.
But afterward, there was no reaction from the Blood River Assassins buried in the red mist.
Instead, the thickening fog crept toward the Six Gates Immortal like a living thing, coiling upward to blot out the sky.
The Six Gates Immortal was now fully trapped within the crimson haze.
For a time, he swung his sword without respite, but eventually sheathed it and focused on sensing the qi around him.
Beyond the enveloping red mist, nothing was visible.
Wild swings held no meaning now.
Sword strikes with nothing to cut were less than pointless—a mere sword dance.
“What a profoundly sinister spell. One I’ve never even heard of…….”
The Six Gates Immortal muttered to himself, then slid Black Dragon Mark into its scabbard.
From his sleeve, he drew a small wooden sword.
It resembled a child’s toy, but its blade was etched with unreadable characters from antiquity.
With the foe laying down a demonic spell, he resolved to counter with an evil-warding rite.
Eerie wails soon emanated from somewhere within the red mist.
Hearing them, the Six Gates Immortal felt lethargy seep into his limbs as his inner energy wavered.
“Not a chance.”
He pressed the sword formula of his left hand to the wooden blade in his right and began chanting.
An astonishing sight unfolded.
Dazzling radiance poured from the wooden sword, driving back the surrounding red mist.
But at that instant, a thunderous explosion erupted from the crimson fog, and small, sharp objects flew toward him like rain—faster than the eye could follow.
“Urk.”
The Six Gates Immortal let out a grave groan.
The surrounding mist slowly cleared.
Eighteen crimson shadows reappeared before the Six Gates Immortal’s eyes.
Smoke curled from the cylindrical objects in the Blood River Assassins’ hands.
“How is it? The Blood Rain Nails pack quite the punch, don’t they?”
Defeat was plain on the Six Gates Immortal’s face.
Dark red blood oozed from his flank and back, staining his tattered robes.
He hadn’t dropped his protective aura, but his immersion in the rite had left an opening.
“What in the world are they? Quite the sting indeed.”
“Heh heh…… Think of them as mere nails our cult has started using lately. Made by freezing leech blood laced with various poisons, they can’t be extracted, and protective auras are useless against them.”
Ha Jin explained smugly, but the Six Gates Immortal’s expression grew graver.
The two Blood Rain Nails embedded in his body had already melted away inside him. Their toxin coursed through his veins, spreading everywhere.
Dizziness assailed him; his body grew languid and fatigued.
Worse, his inner energy was steadily dispersing.
“Oh right, what a pickle. That leech blood is especially potent against Dispersing功, they say. No antidote besides this, either…… Heh heh heh…….”
The Six Gates Immortal gnashed his teeth and bellowed.
“You filthy scum. Resorting to such cowardly, demonic tricks now.”
“Come on, give it up and come along. The good news is it won’t kill you—if you take one of these pills every day, that is. Heh heh…….”
Ha Jin dangled a small porcelain vial from his bosom, sneering.
“So that demonic spell was just to create an opening for the Blood Rain Nails.”
“Hah hah… Exactly. As if we could subdue the Kunlun Sword Immortal with some crude Cycling Blood Mist Formation? We just needed you to lower your blade and relax your guard a bit.”
At that moment, the Six Gates Immortal suddenly drew Black Dragon Mark again and roared.
“You treacherous dogs. One may kill a scholar, but one cannot shame him. I shall punish your insolence now.”
In an instant, his Black Dragon Mark took on the form of a colossal black dragon, sweeping the forefront.
“Eek. You’re furious now. Scatter!”
It was the Supreme Purity Dragon Form Sword.
The very sword art that had allowed the Kunlun Sect’s Six Gates Immortal to claim the title of Sword Immortal over the elites of the Wudang and Huashan Sects.
If Wudang’s swordsmanship was wondrous and Huashan’s swift, Kunlun’s was raw power incarnate—and the Six Gates Immortal was its pinnacle.
The inky sword force swept forth as a black dragon, sending the eighteen figures leaping away like grasshoppers.
But the Supreme Purity Dragon Form Sword’s might was far from spent.
The black dragon surged skyward, devouring most of them.
“Kuhk. Kurk…….”
The Blood River Assassins who crashed to the ground were horrific to behold.
Limbs missing here and there was commonplace; waists and heads severed were plentiful.
Even Ha Jin, barely landing on two feet, was missing his left arm.
“Kuhk. To unleash twelve circuits of power in that state… impressive. Cough.”
Ha Jin’s severed arm was the least of it; black blood poured from his seven apertures, his internal injuries far graver.
Yet five Blood River Assassins who could still stand gathered slowly around him, regripping their swords.
The Six Gates Immortal had no intention of stopping there.
Without retort, he raised Black Dragon Mark in his right hand once more, rousing the Supreme Purity Dragon Form Sword’s momentum.
He unleashed its latter half’s ultimate stance: Ferocious Dragon Knows No Regret.
Ferocious Dragon Knows No Regret was a merciless killing blow devoid of mercy.
Ha Jin’s eyes darkened as the black dragon’s claws bore down again.
His comrades arrayed beside him fared no better.
“Tch. So close.”
As Ha Jin uttered those words and braced for the Sword Immortal’s sword force—
“Boom.”
A broad wedge-shaped sword beam flew in from somewhere, deflecting the Six Gates Immortal’s Black Dragon Mark.
“I’m late.”
A man descended into the arena, retrieving his falling blade from midair.
It wasn’t a longsword but a bizarre saber with a broad rectangular blade like a kitchen cleaver.
Wearing a red hood and red robes that hid his face, his voice betrayed no youth.
“The humble cultists pay respects to the Elder.”
The surviving Blood River Assassins, spotting the red-hooded man belatedly—including Ha Jin—bowed, clasping their sword hilts in salute.
The man in the red hood lifted it slightly, scanning their conditions at a glance, then issued a command.
“You’ve done well. Withdraw now. Take good care of those fellows too.”
At his order, Ha Jin and his comrades swiftly gathered their fallen brethren and vanished.
They left not a single severed head or limb behind, clearing everything meticulously. Throughout, the Six Gates Immortal’s eyes never left the red-hooded figure.