Chapter 177
Chapter 177
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 177
Chapter Title: Evil Ghosts, Rakshasas, and Mahoragas
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Mu-heun rotated the countless strands of ki in his dantian. The strands of ki, spinning like a tempest, became extremely refined, achieving an impossible balance.
‘Balance. Balance. Balance.’
Soon, the strands of ki, honed to a needle's point, began to clash relentlessly against each other.
The explosion of demonic energy. The thousands of strands of demonic energy erupted with ferocious momentum, and the energy, amplified by the explosion, grew even greater than before.
‘Now!’
Mu-heun poured more effort into refining his ki, delicately crafting a violet-black dragon.
The black dragon, exuding a savage aura, coiled around Mu-heun, who raised the Sun and Moon Sword high.
An amplification of ki that would startle even the Plum Blossom Sword Venerable and the Martial Alliance Leader.
Jin Hong watched Mu-heun and murmured softly.
“It's as if I'm looking at the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader, Cheon Mu-jin...”
Du Baek was also unable to hide his astonishment.
“Is this even possible!?”
‘To have such martial prowess at his age!? Not even the Transcendent Realm! But an incomplete Profound Realm! I can't even fathom how much stronger he'll become.’
Mu-heun paid no mind to how others saw him.
He simply swung down the Sun and Moon Sword he held high.
A smooth arc.
From its tip, the ferocious black dragon surged forth.
KWWAAAAANG!
The door was instantly blown to smithereens. Mu-heun strode confidently through the shattered doorway and entered.
A chill ran down his spine.
He could feel it more clearly now. An energy that was literally goosebump-inducing filled the room.
The Mahoraga's aura was on a different level from any monster or ghost spirit he had ever encountered. The chilling sensation was like facing the Heavenly Demon Cult Leader, Cheon Mu-jin.
‘So this is its power.’
Feeling the Rakshasa's killing intent on his skin, Mu-heun trudged forward.
Only forward.
There was no retreat.
The answer was always a direct confrontation.
As he walked, Mu-heun repelled all the ghostly energy and spoke.
“Who's the boss of you evil bastards? Show me your face.”
At Mu-heun's shout, the Mahoraga sitting on a massive throne rose. Its upper body was that of a bizarre human with six arms and five eyes, but its lower body was that of a complete serpent.
“Insolent humans. Do you know where you are?”
The Mahoraga began to unleash its immense aura.
A tempest of energy surged from it. A red aura spread beyond the room, throughout Guiwon Temple—no, beyond that, across the entire mountain where the temple stood.
Outside the mountain, the skin of the priestesses, monks, and Taoists maintaining the formation prickled with goosebumps.
Such a malevolent aura...!
Just then.
“Step back for a moment.”
The Plum Blossom Sword Venerable, Jin Hong, and the Martial Alliance Leader, Du Baek, stepped forward.
They too unleashed the aura of the Profound Realm without hesitation.
KUUUNG!
It felt as if the sky was collapsing. Four colossal auras clashed, as if to determine their superiority.
Though it was midday, clouds gathered to obscure the sun, and the atmosphere churned as rain began to fall.
The sound of the sky tearing apart. With it, currents of electricity rode the air, splitting the void. Lightning struck several times, spreading a sense of dread far and wide.
All these phenomena announced that a calamity had descended upon the mortal world, creating the sensation of the ground shaking.
Mu-heun looked at the Mahoraga and said.
“It's beginning.”
***
The mountain where Guiwon Temple stood. From the earth-shattering roar and the clash of savage auras, those surrounding the mountain felt a bone-chilling terror. Words like disaster, death, and despair echoed in their minds.
One monk, sensing his impending death, collapsed to the ground, hung his head, and muttered to himself.
“We're all going to die. We're going to die..., we're receiving divine punishment... This is divine punishment...”
The priestesses, Taoists, and martial artists were no exception. As the sky split open, wind and rain raged, and the apocalypse loomed, they felt a terror as if it were all descending upon them.
However, there were also those who overcame their fear and stood firm.
“There are heroes inside fighting the calamity! We too must do our best at our given tasks until we die!”
“That's right! Even if we are to die, we can't just sit here and give up!”
“They're right. Even animals hide in their dens when disaster strikes. We must not stop struggling.”
“Don't give up until the very end!”
A Taoist shouted, and the priestesses nodded. The monks also comforted those who had collapsed and helped them back to their feet.
“Get up and lend your strength to maintaining the grand formation!”
It was but a small cry compared to the tempest of disaster and despair. Yet, that small hope began to lift people up again, spreading like wildfire.
Like a tiny ember spreading.
Those who came to their senses began to lend their strength to the grand formation once more.
They were all people who desperately hoped to contribute even a speck of strength to the heroes inside.
***
The power of the Mahoraga could truly be called a natural disaster. Before it, Mu-heun, who had temporarily reached the threshold of the Profound Realm using the Divine Arts of the Heavenly Demon, stood firm. He confronted it after amplifying his aura by exploding his demonic energy to its maximum.
The sensation on his skin.
The sound ringing in his eardrums.
The sight before his eyes.
To not miss a single detail, he heightened his visual prowess and sharpened his sense of ki.
Mu-heun was finally looking directly at a fragment of the calamity. A form that seemed to combine a snake and a human. A power that would surely dye any human with fear to the very bone. But it was something he had to see.
It seemed as though confronting the thing before him was not permitted, even for a martial artist.
However!
Mu-heun was not alone. Before him stood those who had already transcended the realm of mortals.
Those who had reached the mid-stage of the Profound Realm:
The Plum Blossom Sword Venerable, Jin Hong, and the Martial Alliance Leader, Du Baek.
When he broke down the door and entered, he had sent all the other martial artists outside, except for these two. This was a battle that none but those in the Profound Realm could join, so he hadn't let even the masters of the Transcendent Realm intervene.
There were seven masters of the Transcendent Realm in total. Du Baek had them remain at the edge of Guiwon Temple to guard their position and prevent any potential damage.
He also ordered the masters below the Ascended Realm to descend the mountain.
Instead, he had them protect the priestesses, monks, and Taoists who were stationed outside the mountain, disrupting the ghost arts.
Therefore.
In this place—the innermost room of Guiwon Temple, like a grand assembly hall, revealed as the distorted space shattered—only the three men and the Mahoraga existed.
The Mahoraga felt the Ghost Soul Dark White Wheel in its hand cracking unstably. It also realized why the ghost spirits it had gathered earlier had died without being able to lay a hand on these intruders.
Just as they had used house ghosts to drive stakes in eight locations and set up a formation.
Just as they had distorted the space of Guiwon Temple, splitting it in two...
The power that weakened the ghost spirits. Their grand formation, which currently enveloped the entire mountain where the temple stood.
At this rate, its reason for holding its breath and hiding its power for so long would all be for naught. The best time to strike was when the enemy was ignorant of them.
‘They used their heads.’
Killing those maintaining the grand formation would be a simple task, but just getting out of this hall seemed difficult now. The power of those before it was at a level where even it could not afford to be careless.
The Mahoraga ground its massive teeth with a grating sound and spoke.
“Insolent humans...”
A startlingly gruesome feeling. Jin Hong and Du Baek sensed that a difficult battle lay ahead.
However.
There was one who had never backed down as long as he believed he was doing the right thing—not when his limbs were pierced by the Golden Fang Poison Claw's poison talons and he writhed in agony, nor when he met his master, the Heavenly Demon, and felt the fear of death.
Hearing the Mahoraga's words, Mu-heun, standing behind Jin Hong and Du Baek, displayed an anger even greater than the Mahoraga's and replied sarcastically.
“You son of a bitch! You arrogant snake bastard!”
“Wha-what did you say?”
“What do you mean, 'what'? You snake bastard. How does it feel to order your petty ghosts to kill humans, steal their souls, and even use their corpses? Hey, you bastard. That's not something one living being should do to another.”
“Kuhahahahaha! What a funny one! Do you humans, who devour animals, harm plants, and repeatedly kill each other after dividing yourselves into classes, have any right to say such things?”
“What kind of bullshit are you spouting? Don't animals eat each other? Are there no ranks in a troop of monkeys? Are humans the only ones who kill their own kind? Don't cows graze on grass? Doesn't lightning strike and set fire to perfectly still trees?”
“...”
“Not all humans are the same. Though the world is full of those who are worse than beasts, many more wish to live each day in harmony, sharing kindness with their neighbors. And what wrong did the humans you killed commit for you to burden them with such karma?”
“Kuhuhu, you're a human who's impossible to reason with.”
“That's my line. You're an impossible snake bastard to reason with.”
“...Though I may be a fallen divinity, even before my fall, the sight of you humans made me shudder. I originally planned to bring other Rakshasas with me to annihilate you all, but since you've come to me first, I'll kill you and then slaughter the rest.”
“Just what I wanted. I'll bury you right here, you snake bastard.”
After hearing the Mahoraga's final words, Mu-heun sent a telepathic message to Jin Hong and Du Baek.
[ As you've heard from its words, now is the perfect opportunity to kill it. If it escapes this place and brings its comrades, we won't be able to handle them with our current strength. ]
Du Baek and Jin Hong looked at Mu-heun and nodded.
On this day, the two of them came to understand everything.
The meaning of the prophecy spoken by the Soul-Stealing Immortal.
The one who would become the focal point of the great war to come. The one who overcomes fear and assesses the situation faster than anyone. The one who acts on his beliefs, no matter what adversity may come.
The one who interprets unfamiliar things and teaches everyone. The one who foresees the coming disaster and prepares for it.
How could they not believe in him?
Jin Hong and Du Baek immediately unleashed the ultimate techniques they had honed their entire lives and charged at the Mahoraga.
The Mahoraga shattered the Ghost Soul Dark White Wheel in its hand and absorbed the red souls of the ghost spirits contained within. Then, it emitted an aura like an electric current from a lightning strike.
A dark red current. A power on a different level from ordinary lightning erupted from the Mahoraga's body.
PZZZZZZT!
The Mahoraga then formed sharp energy in its six hands. The energy soon transformed into pointed spears. Spears like lightning itself.
It was a spear-throwing art.
Moving with its serpentine body, the Mahoraga moved so fast that its movements were impossible to read, despite its massive size, and threw the electric spears with its six arms.
KWAGAGAGAGWANG!
Massive bolts of lightning filled the hall, demonstrating tremendous power as they shot forward, their immense force reaching even outside Guiwon Temple.
The masters of the Transcendent Realm waiting outside desperately moved to prevent the lightning bolts emerging from within from reaching the foot of the mountain.
“Don't let the lightning reach the bottom of the mountain!”
The masters of the Transcendent Realm twisted the direction of the lightning.
Fortunately, because they had surrounded Guiwon Temple and held their positions, the damage did not spread further.
Just then, inside, the Plum Blossom Sword Venerable, Jin Hong, summoned a powerful aura and confronted the Mahoraga's lightning spears.