Chapter 106
Chapter 106
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: A Demonic World
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Dang Baek-ho was about to engage in all sorts of meaningless arguments but stopped. He realized it was truly pointless.
In this cavern beneath his office, a poisonous mist that only he could withstand had spread. It was a mist that even those with the most sensitive sense of smell could not easily detect, being nearly colorless and odorless.
Therefore, if he could lower an opponent's guard here and make them inhale the mist... any master would suffer internal injuries and be unable to gather their internal energy.
Though it was barely perceptible, the poison's effect was certain...
However, Baek Mu-heun was different. He breathed normally without any change. Wondering if the poison took effect slowly, Dang Baek-ho tried to stall for more time, but it was useless.
‘I see... so it's true.’
His opponent was the man called the Divine Doctor. It was absurd to think he would come to face him, the Poison King of the Sichuan Tang Clan, without any countermeasures for poison.
Even so...
How?
By what means?
The only thing he could think of was that Mu-heun had done something using the fruit of the Myriad Fragrance Blood Jade Tree.
As Dang Baek-ho was thinking this, Mu-heun felt the time had come.
‘Foolish man.’
Dang Baek-ho's assumption was not wrong. It was just that he had overlooked one thing: Mu-heun was one who had mastered the Myriad Fragrances. When it came to scents spreading through the air, Mu-heun was unparalleled.
The moment Mu-heun first stepped into this office, he used a fragrance to activate the artifacts placed outside.
The artifacts he received from Pae-seon.
The first formation activated using the Kunlun artifacts was one that sealed the office. But Mu-heun had prepared other formations as well.
As Mu-heun had predicted, the Poison King would surely use poison. However, he wouldn't try some half-hearted method.
He was a very cunning man, so he would use poison with a nonchalant expression, in the least suspicious way possible, as if he hadn't used any poison at all.
However.
There was one way to completely neutralize his poison: analyzing it using the Myriad Fragrance Grand Restoration Formation.
In Mu-heun's eyes, Dang Baek-ho was a man who valued his own life above all else. More than his children, siblings, or even parents...
Therefore, Dang Baek-ho would never use a poison that could harm himself. He would surely use a type of poison to which he was immune, but others were not.
Dang Baek-ho had undergone poison arts training that ordinary people could not even imagine, so almost no one possessed an immunity equal to his.
And Mu-heun aimed for that very point.
A move he had not anticipated.
To copy the poison flowing through the Poison King's blood, dantian, and energy meridians, as well as the antibodies that blocked it.
Mu-heun had manifested a total of three formations, the second of which was a variation of the Myriad Fragrance Grand Restoration Formation that analyzed and healed the Poison King's poison.
The original Myriad Fragrance Grand Restoration Formation would certainly be helpful, but it had the drawback of needing to know what kind of poison was used to heal it quickly after being affected.
The Myriad Fragrance Grand Restoration Formation was slow to heal unknown poisons, and the Poison King's poison was too potent to counter with such a sluggish healing rate.
That was why, while Dang Baek-ho was wasting time with useless chatter, Mu-heun pretended to go along with him, continuously releasing the Myriad Fragrances. To analyze him and neutralize his greatest weapon, his poison.
He had used Dang Baek-ho's own strategy of deliberately stalling with pointless words against him.
‘I've succeeded in analyzing his poison and his immunity to it.’
Now, none of the Poison King's poisons would work on Mu-heun.
At that moment, Mu-heun activated the final formation.
*Vwooom—*
***
Dang Baek-ho finally realized that his poison was ineffective against Mu-heun.
‘Damn it.’
In the darkness, he extended his senses to watch Mu-heun's movements. In the underground cavern where not a single ray of light penetrated, a battle relying solely on senses extended through internal energy had begun.
Dang Baek-ho sent a telepathic message to the grotesque Poison Blood Demons.
‘Heavenly Net of Annihilation.’
*Kieeeek!*
At his command, the Poison Blood Demons used the mechanisms in the cavern to spread a dense net, soon surrounding Mu-heun.
They held nets made of finely processed cold steel.
*Swish!*
They soon cast the nets in all directions, leaving only the ground where Mu-heun stood. They prepared the nets densely, as if to seal the movements of any living creature caught within.
Furthermore, the nets were coated with a different kind of liquid, one that didn't work by infiltrating the human body.
Dragon Bone Acid, said to melt even massive, hard rocks.
That was not all. While commanding the Poison Blood Demons, Dang Baek-ho activated another mechanism.
These were traps he would never have needed to use against masters weaker than himself. Nevertheless, the reason Dang Baek-ho had prepared them was to deal with any masters within the clan who might threaten him, without taking any damage himself.
‘To think I'd have to use such techniques, mechanisms, and traps on you...!’
Moreover, Mu-heun appeared to have just passed the age of twenty, which made Dang Baek-ho even more dumbfounded.
*Click!*
As Dang Baek-ho activated the mechanism, a wall opened, and the Seven Poisons Life-Stealing Needle Canisters were fired.
The bamboo canisters shattered upon being fired, and the countless poison needles within flew out like thousands of arrows.
The needles inside the canisters were coated with various poisons.
They were seven of the Tang Clan's Eight Great Deadly Poisons: Immortal's Ruin, Dove's Blood Coagulant, Meridian-Burning Heart, Gentleman's Powder, Azure Shadow of Auspicious Scales, Seven-Step Soul-Severing Powder, and Soul-Tugging Water.
A net made of cold steel.
Dragon Bone Acid that could melt even rock.
Thousands of poison needles and deadly toxins.
There was no place to escape from all these attacks; for Mu-heun, it was truly a life-or-death situation.
However, Mu-heun smiled with confidence.
Because he had already activated the third formation.
It was a deadly formation that allowed him to use a sword art he couldn't before due to his lower level of martial prowess.
The principle of the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon was to create a chain reaction of energy explosions by clashing processed strands of ki. In other words, if used correctly, one could overwhelm an opponent with nearly infinite energy.
However, despite this advantage, very few could master it, and many died in the process of learning.
The reasons were as follows.
Their ki was insufficient.
They couldn't handle the flow of exploding ki uniformly.
They failed to control the processed strands of ki.
The moment even one condition wasn't met, their own ki would cause their body to collapse, leading to death... a divine demonic art where learning it was akin to suicide.
To generate infinite Heavenly Demonic Ki with such arts, the required condition was Demonic Transcendence, the realm of the Profound.
According to his master, the Heavenly Demon, Demonic Transcendence was the ninth stage of the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon. Currently, Mu-heun had temporarily reached the peak of the Extreme Demon state, the stage just before Demonic Transcendence.
However, this too was an incomplete state achieved through an explosion of ki. Ascending one more step from here was nearly impossible.
That was why Mu-heun decided to borrow the power of a formation.
He had activated a supplementary formation using the Myriad Fragrances to maintain the temporary Profound Realm he had reached through the ki explosion for longer and more stably.
The origin of this supplementary formation lay far away in the Heavenly Dance Family; it was the very formation he had asked his father, Baek Gun-hak, the Family Head, to create in collaboration with the Purple Poison Demon Clan.
This supplementary formation was one of the formations he had requested for aid when leaving the Heavenly Dance Family. Its purpose was to infuse internal energy generated by the family into the formation, and then receive that infused energy across space.
Since he had to use one of the only three Soul Origin Orbs, this would be the last time...
Before entering the Tang Clan, Mu-heun had finished all preparations and sent a message to his father.
‘Finally... I can use it.’
Mu-heun raised his sword.
And he meticulously processed his energy. An immense amount of ki flowed in from the Soul Origin Orb. He added the energy received through the formation onto the processed strands of ki.
He processed the strands of ki with more meticulous care than ever before, and soon, they began to clash.
The ki, rotating in an infinity loop, created an endless explosion. Through the chain reaction caused by the explosion, Mu-heun finally arrived.
At the Divine Arts.
Then, holding the Sun and Moon Sword for the first time, he shouted.
"Divine Sword of the Heavenly Demon."
The net made of cold steel,
The acid that melted even rock,
The deadly poisons that could annihilate the masters of the world,
The thousands of poison needles falling like meteors,
Facing them all, he murmured.
"Divine Sword of the Heavenly Demon. First Form. Nine Heavens Demonic Sword: Asura's Slash."
The cold steel, boasting the highest hardness, meticulously woven into a triple-layered net, split apart powerlessly.
The acid that melted even rock dispersed in all directions the moment it collided with the immense ki.
The deadly poisons that would have claimed a life just by touching the skin, had he no immunity, were also split, burned away, and oxidized.
The thousands of poison needles falling like meteors broke and scattered in all directions.
The divine sword unleashed by Mu-heun was like an arrogance that refused to allow anything to exist in the space besides himself.
It tore through space, neutralizing all attacks coming from every direction.
All the traps and Poison Blood Demons the Poison King had meticulously prepared... were rendered useless before Mu-heun's divine sword.
Mu-heun had unleashed the Divine Sword of the Heavenly Demon for the first time here, and its power was enough to incinerate all the poisons and attacks.
The Poison King was utterly horrified, and not just because all his prepared attacks had failed.
What truly horrified the Poison King was that everything in the direct path of Mu-heun's divine sword had been split asunder. And among them were two Poison Blood Demons and his own left arm.
One of the Poison Blood Demons was split in half, and another had its arms and legs severed. And his own left wrist had also been sent flying.
Dang Baek-ho, spewing crimson blood from his left arm, spoke.
"Gah! Haa... Th-this is... impossible."
At that moment, with the help of the formation, Mu-heun had reached the complete state of Demonic Transcendence. A dark, ominous, purple Heavenly Demonic Ki endlessly poured out from his entire body.
Dang Baek-ho looked at Mu-heun, coughing up mouthfuls of blood, and shouted.
"Did you borrow the power of a demon to kill me?!"
Seeing Dang Baek-ho's desperate cry, Mu-heun thought.
Who was it that truly summoned the demonic into this world?
When the Heavenly Demon master first appeared.
And the second time, when I accepted the demonic.
Perhaps the demonic was born because this world called for it. If so, isn't the power of the demonic the very force that can make this world whole?
Yes, if I appeared because the world needed the demonic...
"Should I make them kneel before the demonic?"
"Wh-what?"
"I asked if I should make the world kneel before the Demonic Path."
On this day, for the first time, Mu-heun uttered the words 'A Demonic World', and there was no more conversation.