Chapter 78
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 78
Chapter Title: Life and Death Struggle
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When Kuluy unexpectedly hesitated before speaking, the subordinates of the Stormwind Division stared at him with puzzled expressions.
“If, for argument’s sake, I happen to fall from my horse, you all flee immediately. Temukan, you’ll take command after that.”
With those words tossed out, Kuluy whipped the flanks of the horse he was riding.
And then he charged straight toward the single enemy.
The Stormwind Division riders left behind watched his retreating figure in stunned bewilderment.
Only much later did they grasp the meaning of what Kuluy had said.
Indeed, the Stormwind Ironclad Arrow Barrage unleashed by three hundred elite Stormwind experts held the power to blanket the world.
Each arrow carried a different intensity of energy, fired at varying times and speeds.
Yet they had adjusted their angles to intercept a single target at the exact same instant.
Three hundred arrows assaulting from every direction at once—it was an attack impossible to counter without supreme peak-level mastery of Rebounding Energy Shield.
But Seonwoyong had dropped all those arrows filling the sky with a single gesture and stood there calmly in place.
There was no need to advance any further.
The opponent he sought was galloping toward him now.
The Primordial Great Desert God. The divine ruler of the vast steppes, Kuluy.
His title encompassed every meaning.
Here on the steppes and deserts, for the past several decades, the name Primordial Great Desert God Kuluy had been synonymous with invincible and undefeated.
His Mad Wind Blood Sand Art, comprising twelve levels, wielded through a six-foot great moon blade in the Mad Wind Blood Sand Blade Method, represented the pinnacle of steppe cavalry martial arts.
And now, that Primordial Great Desert God Kuluy was drawing his great moon blade and charging in.
Crimson energy was already surging vividly along its edge.
Seonwoyong, too, drew his Rider’s Victory Sword for the first time.
“Wait, you whelp! I’ll sever your head in one stroke!”
As the distance narrowed to three zhang, Kuluy bellowed.
It was no mere shout—this was the Blood Sand Roar, exploding his Mad Wind Blood Sand Art as sonic force to shatter the enemy’s will entirely.
Immediately, Kuluy’s great moon blade flashed with blood-red light.
In that instant, the Gureoa beneath Seonwoyong flinched and reared back.
Kuluy’s great moon blade was slicing toward Gureoa’s skull.
Seonwoyong nodded, kicked Gureoa’s flank with his foot, and swung his Rider’s Victory Sword horizontally.
Gureoa, having staggered back, suddenly lifted its forelegs and pivoted sideways, meeting Kuluy’s great moon blade with Seonwoyong’s Rider’s Victory Sword.
The Rider’s Victory Sword was already sheathed in a streak of pure white light, tracing a silver arc.
Boom!
In that moment, the world exploded in silvery white.
Kuluy’s great moon blade floated in the silvery void.
More precisely, half of it did.
The Rider’s Victory Sword had cleanly bisected the blade midway.
But without a hint of surprise, Kuluy hurled the ruined great moon blade aside and leaped skyward, fingers crooked like an eagle’s talons.
He had stepped on the stirrup, then the horse’s back.
Kuluy’s Great Desert Blood Eagle Claw plunged toward the skull of Seonwoyong’s Gureoa.
“How can you treat a speechless beast like that…….”
Seonwoyong immediately tossed his Rider’s Victory Sword aside.
And he too launched himself from Gureoa into the air.
Kuluy decided to evade the Rider’s Victory Sword flying straight at him, withdrew his Great Desert Blood Eagle Claw, twisted midair, and landed on the ground.
Seonwoyong spun twice in the air before landing as well.
He then extended his bronze scabbard to catch the Rider’s Victory Sword completing its loop through the sky.
Click.
The sword, flashing like lightning, slid perfectly into the scabbard without a fraction’s deviation.
Seonwoyong turned, sheathed the Rider’s Victory Sword behind his back, and clasped his hands.
The technique Kuluy had just displayed was dazzlingly worthy of the Great Desert God moniker. Yet Seonwoyong’s was leagues superior.
“Who the hell are you?”
Kuluy demanded in a rough voice.
His expression had grown even graver.
Now, all he hoped was that his Stormwind Division subordinates watching from afar would hurry and leave.
It was a resolve he had steeled himself for when charging down here.
That was why he had targeted Seonwoyong’s horse specifically.
Overwhelming Seonwoyong had never been likely from the start. But if he could at least eliminate the horse, his men could escape more easily.
“You look well, Kuluy. It’s been a long time.”
“What nonsense is this, you brat?”
“Heh heh…… You’ve aged like this too. That scar on your chest must be just a mark now, eh?”
At Seonwoyong’s question, Kuluy laughed loudly and shot back.
“Ha ha…… A scar on my chest? As if I’d have something like that…….”
“You’re not senile yet? Have you already forgotten the Rider’s Victory Sword? I drew it specially so you’d recognize it on the second encounter.”
Only then did Kuluy’s face harden.
“No way…….”
“No way? You’re not totally addled. Heh heh…….”
“What’s your identity? It can’t be that the one said to be dead has come back to life.”
“Dead? Ha ha…… Who told you that? Am I some ghost now? I’ve been away from the world for decades, sure, but dead? What the…….”
Kuluy slowly scrutinized Seonwoyong’s features again.
His gaze locked especially on the Rider’s Victory Sword in Seonwoyong’s hand.
“Indeed, that sword looks familiar. My chest starts aching again…….”
“So the old sentiments are stirring at last.”
“Grgh. No wonder deflecting the Stormwind Ironclad Arrow Barrage with that sword felt so familiar. Even the aura I sensed from afar.”
“Well? How have you been?”
Seonwoyong smiled in reply, but Kuluy’s face grew more solemn.
He raised both hands again, gathering his energy.
“Whether you’ve returned from the grave, or you’re a ghost, whatever—if you’re the U Cheonso of old, then I’ll have to stake my life here.”
Seonwoyong smiled back steadily.
“You’re as stiff-necked as ever, then and now. If you want, I’ll carve another notch in that chest of yours. Kah kah kah…….”
“Though it was just a glancing blow once, how could I ever forget you?”
As Kuluy ground his teeth and channeled energy through his body, a red glow enveloped him, blazing fiercely.
Even after the fall of the Mongol Empire led by Yuan, the Stormwind Division had maintained some prosperity—until the Great Cloud Bright Religion’s cavalry units ruined them.
And some seventy years ago, the one who crushed the invincible Stormwind cavalry was U Cheonso, leading the Azure Sky Dragon Riders.
For Kuluy, who at a mere twenty-something had shouldered a generation of Stormwind Division to face him, the name U Cheonso was unforgettable.
Countless brothers and comrades had been bisected by his hand, rolling in pools of blood, and Kuluy himself had suffered a deep chest wound, teetering on the brink of life and death.
“Well, well, isn’t this nice? If old sentiments are to be settled like this, so be it.”
“Old sentiments…… Before I die, I prayed to meet you just once more, and heaven hasn’t turned a blind eye.”
Before Kuluy finished speaking, Seonwoyong thrust forward both palms and charged.
Kuluy unleashed the Great Desert Blood Eagle Claw once more to meet Seonwoyong’s hands.
The two immediately plunged into a brutal brawl.
No distancing techniques or energy shields were used.
They targeted vital points solely with fists, feet, knees, and elbows—striking, stabbing, smashing—so that to an outsider, it would look like a clumsy street fight between amateurs.
But their brawl was anything but.
Powerful rebounding palm techniques enveloped their bodies, and the instant their limbs connected, explosive forces erupted chaotically.
Boom. Thud…… Bang!
Each clash of their hands thundered like bursting thunderbolts, tearing the surrounding air.
Long ago, in truth, Seonwoyong had relished such brawls.
Back in his youth, when he made the name U Cheonso known to the world.
Rather than settling victories with elegant swordplay or intricate fist forms, he savored the sweat, the blood filling his nostrils, the vivid sensation of his own limbs ripping flesh and shattering bone.
But such opportunities had been absent for far too long—until today, facing this opponent, the instinct he had buried deep in the distant past revived.
Perhaps it was an instinct innate to all humans.
The primal urge to tear and devour flesh, to drink blood.
As Seonwoyong lost himself in the frenzy, wielding hands and feet, he marveled at it himself.
Kuluy was a peak master who had transcended that realm long ago, yet also a battle-hardened veteran of countless fields.
For such a Kuluy to stake his life today in this life and death struggle—what rarer chance could there be?
Having shed his bones and reborn in a new body, he had actually been forgetting the old U Cheonso.
More precisely, the aged U Cheonso of later years was fading.
The fresh youth he had gained was reshaping even his mind and spirit.
“Do as you please. Live it up.”
The words his dying wife had flung at him suddenly resurfaced.
Lately, all the desires he thought he had discarded long ago were filling Seonwoyong.
He hadn’t shown it outwardly, but everyday urges included savoring rare delicacies and fine liquors, stripping beautiful and alluring women bare and tormenting them through the night.
He yearned to find strong foes, crush their strength beneath his own, to lash the world and force it to kneel at his feet.
And now, brawling hand-to-foot with Kuluy, the animalistic instinct his youthful U Cheonso had reveled in had awakened.
No—it wasn’t youthful U Cheonso. It was Seonwoyong now, his own desires.
Even as he fought Kuluy, Seonwoyong was truly battling himself, questioning himself.
Would he live by instinct and desire, or uphold morality and conscience?
What did he truly want?
Having resolved to seize Mount Divine Wood and lead the Great Cloud Bright Religion once more—what was it all for?