Chapter 275
Chapter 275
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 275
Chapter Title: The Yaksha Mask
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On the hill overlooking the Blood Sword Family manor, where Cheonhwi and So Gwangpae stood in confrontation.
Unlike the manor filled with scorching heat from the fierce battle, a cold silence blanketed the snow-covered hill.
Presences emerged amid the stillness.
There were four in total.
Each wore pitch-black uniforms that starkly contrasted the pure white snow blanketing the world.
"What an astonishing presence."
The old woman at the far left of the group took a step forward and whispered while gazing down at the Blood Sword Family manor.
It was shocking.
The distance between their position and the Blood Sword Family was over a hundred zhang.
It was too far for ordinary people to sense a presence.
"A daoist robe blending black and red..."
A cracked voice leaked out.
"Is that kid the Plum Blossom Divine Knight?"
The middle-aged man's eyes gleamed with sharp light. His robes were embroidered with a splendid golden dragon.
He was fixated on capturing Cheonhwi, standing at the center of the manor, in his gaze.
That was when it happened.
"What do the two of you think of that Plum Blossom Divine Knight?"
A chilling voice erupted.
It was like the scraping of iron—the mere sound sent shivers down the spine.
The old woman and middle-aged man turned around.
Toward the figure clad head to toe in pure black.
The person's appearance—gender indeterminable—was utterly bizarre.
A deeply hooded wide-brim hat and thick black uniform so long it fully concealed their body.
It was as if they despised revealing even a glimpse of themselves.
"He must die!"
The middle-aged man answered forcefully.
The presence felt across this distance was excessively profound for such a young age.
"He'll be a dangerous foe for our faction in the future. No—even now...!"
Killing intent flowed from his body.
An instinctive urge had arisen.
The mountains trembled under the eerie killing aura.
Yet the other three stood unmoved, utterly unfazed.
As if accustomed to it.
"What do you think, Lady Protector?"
"What use is the opinion of this wretched old woman? We simply follow the Young Master's lead."
The old woman replied humbly.
If anyone who knew her identity had seen this, they would have rubbed their eyes in disbelief.
She was none other than Star Radiance Rakshasa Yeo Un-yak.
A guardian of the Evil-Black Alliance and the old monster who had once turned Yunnan into a sea of blood.
"I see."
Hearing Yeo Un-yak's response, he turned his head and asked the woman who had always attended him at his side.
"What do you think?"
Unlike his tone with the previous two, this was casual.
The woman responded to the question with a fresh smile, like flowers blooming in spring.
"I intend to follow the Young Master's opinion as well."
"No, I want to hear your opinion."
At his follow-up, the woman erased her smile, her expression turning icy cold.
"We must kill him. If we leave him be, he'll obstruct the Young Master's path in the future."
"Obstruct my path..."
He turned his head at the woman's answer.
And stepped forward.
Sabak.
The moment his black leather shoe pressed into the pristine snow, the surrounding snow melted away.
Following his footsteps, all snow within a three-zhang radius melted, revealing barren ochre earth.
It happened in an instant.
Not from circulating inner energy or emitting presence—just a simple step.
Yet the land had changed.
As if dying.
Soon, he reached the hill's edge.
At the same time, he stimulated the inner energy dormant deep in his lower dantian, awakening it.
His five senses heightened to the extreme.
The clashing of weapons leaking from the Blood Sword Family manor below the white hill rang in his ears, while the thick scent of blood tickled his nose on the wind.
Fishy and noisy.
Yet strangely, his mind and body settled.
As if returning home.
His gaze, slowly sweeping the Blood Sword Family manor, halted at one spot.
"...Plum Blossom Divine Knight."
He murmured the title of the one in his sight.
That chilling voice was hazy, like dusted, and vanished in an instant.
At the same moment, the hem of his long robes fluttered.
Wind arose from beneath his feet due to the naturally manifested surge of power.
"I need to get a closer look."
Suddenly, a fierce blue gleam shot from his eyes, hidden beneath the hood.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Cheonhwi scanned So Gwangpae.
For someone with snow-white hair and beard, the rest of So Gwangpae's appearance was remarkably youthful.
Generously, mid-thirties at best?
But that was only skin deep.
His publicly known age was sixty.
It signified he had reached the realm of profound energy that slowed physical aging.
True to his lofty realm, the aura emanating from him distorted space here and there, erasing its form.
His muscles visibly relaxed and contracted in cycles.
A stance fully prepared for an instantaneous strike.
Yet So Gwangpae made no rash moves.
He simply maintained distance from Cheonhwi.
"No matter how long I wait, he won't come first. Guess I'll have to go to him."
Cheonhwi applied strength to his toes.
The moment the tip of his leather shoe gently pressed the piled snow.
Whiaek!
Cheonhwi's body shot forward.
A fierce wind chased belatedly.
Reaching So Gwangpae's side in an instant, Cheonhwi drew Hwawol mid-air.
Sreuk—
A beautiful crimson glow flashed as Hwawol's blade emerged into the world.
Simultaneously, colorless energy flowed like threads, enveloping Hwawol.
Hwaaak!
Cheonhwi swung Hwawol straight ahead. Raised to his waist, it accelerated and slashed in one breath.
An aerial strike in mid-air.
The swift sword warped the air, slicing space diagonally.
It deserved to be called a bolt of lightning.
So Gwangpae widened his eyes at the ultra-fast sword that arrived without a blink's delay.
Overwhelming speed and ferocious momentum.
A sword impossible to resist.
No intent to parry it.
'Must dodge!'
So Gwangpae instinctively rolled his body.
And in that instant.
Sgak!
The sword wave that severed his hair slammed into the rear manor wall.
Kuwaaaang!
The ground shook violently.
An impact like a shell strike.
As if an earthquake had struck.
"......"
Suffocating silence enveloped the manor.
The fierce battles raging throughout the manor had halted sometime ago.
All stared blankly at the wall.
From the crumbled wall, dust and small stones whirled.
"......I-Is this even possible?"
"A human did that?"
"Such martial prowess......!"
Shock poured from their eyes.
Unbelievable.
The result of a truly staggering single sword strike.
Meanwhile, Cheonhwi—the architect of this feat—showed no change in expression.
"Unexpected?"
He simply gazed at So Gwangpae, whose robes were dirtied.
"To think you'd resort to rolling on the ground."
Cheonhwi chuckled amusedly.
Family heads typically valued face above all.
Perhaps because he was unorthodox.
He had executed the naryeotagon that warriors despised more than death.
And thus survived.
"......H-How......"
So Gwangpae's lips quivered.
The shock he felt was indescribable.
But he couldn't remain stunned forever.
"Back to your senses?"
Cheonhwi had closed in, smirking right before him.
"......!"
Startled by the blade at his face, So Gwangpae raised his sword in response.
Cclang!
A thunderous clash rang out.
The shockwave from the collision warped the air, sparks flying briefly between them.
Chwaaak!
So Gwangpae's body was repelled by the impact.
His feet, dug in an inch, dragged long scars across the ground.
The backlash of the foot technique infused in the sword.
"Kuhk!"
A groan escaped between clenched teeth amid the intense shock.
His internals churned momentarily, a fishy taste of blood filling his mouth.
Likely internal injuries.
So Gwangpae gripped his sword hilt tightly.
The heat from the sweat-soaked hilt seared his mind.
Soon, he circulated his inner energy.
The Blood Sword Art's power surged through his body, rotating fully.
A great heavenly cycle in a fleeting gap.
Blood boiled, steam rising from his body.
Cheonhwi, preparing to swing amid Dark Fragrance Step, narrowed his eyes at the sudden hazy steam.
'Aiming for victory in one exchange?'
Grasping So Gwangpae's intent, Cheonhwi added more force to his advancing step and leaped.
Dodging would end it anticlimactically.
But Cheonhwi did not.
Why dodge such an entertaining bout?
'Show me your all.'
The inner energy of the Plum Blossom Divine Art roiled greatly.
The energy dominating his body's meridians surged past the middle dantian to the upper.
Baihui acupoint opened, thoughts spun rapidly.
In the slowed time of consciousness—like stasis—energy enveloped his eyes swiftly.
The world became vividly graspable.
Auras, flows, air's tremors.
And So Gwangpae's movements preparing to strike before him.
Pat!
At that moment, So Gwangpae moved.
His form elongated.
Like a shadow cast in sunset glow, his body stretched long and rapidly closed the five-zhang gap.
The Blood Sword Art's secret footwork.
Shadow Shadow Step.
So Gwangpae, stepping forward, brought his gripped Blood Rain Sword down from above.
A strike with his all.
Air wailed and tore under the desperate thrust of a transcendent expert.
Simultaneously, the sword split profusely.
One became two, two four, four eight—repeating endlessly.
By the end, dozens of sword shadows overturned the air, pouring down like rain.
The Blood Sword Art's ultimate technique.
The manifestation of Blood Heaven Sword Rain.
'An altered strike loaded with illusions?'
Cheonhwi inwardly admired while steadily watching Blood Heaven Sword Rain.
Even as the sword shadows tore air and reached his side, leisure adorned his face.
So Gwangpae's eyes flashed.
Hoping against Cheonhwi's lack of defense to Blood Heaven Sword Rain.
And only then did Cheonhwi move Hwawol.
In that instant.
Hwaaa—
Plum blossom fragrance spread everywhere.
An intoxicatingly thick scent.
Simultaneously, the sky reddened.
Not yet sunset, yet crimson heavens bloomed with plum blossoms amid it.
Seductive and beautiful.
Enough to blanket the falling sword rain.
Then.
Sgak—
A single sword trace dropped like lightning from sky to ground, straight down.
Splitting the world in two, the descending trace cleaved the red sky, plum blossoms, and sword rain alike.
A sword art blending splendor with ferocity.
Falling Petals Sword Art.
Chwaaak!
Long gashes etched across So Gwangpae's entire body as he executed Blood Heaven Sword Rain.
"This can't......"
So Gwangpae's pupils shook.
A dazed, hollow gaze.
Soon, vitality faded from his eyes, and he collapsed forward with a thud.
A pitiful death for the Blood Sword Family lord who had dominated the western regions.
"......"
So Gwangpae's demise brought silence to the entire manor.
Especially before Cheonhwi's beautiful yet eerie swordsmanship, hands trembled regardless of foe or ally.
Amid it, Cheonhwi's lips moved.
"What are you doing?"
A light tone, unbecoming of one who had just displayed transcendent swordplay.
"Now clean up the rest... Huh?"
About to order the Extermination Squad to finish their task, Cheonhwi raised his head.
Sinister auras approached.
At terrifying speed.
Soon, four figures in all-black garb vaulted the walls.
"......!"
"What?!"
As the Extermination Squad and even the Blood Sword Family warriors recoiled in shock at the sudden quartet.
Swish.
One among them—the one whose face was fully concealed by a black wide-brim hat—raised a hand.
The long sleeve covering even his hand slid down, revealing a pitch-black hand.
Precisely, a hand wrapped in black cords of cloth.
Having raised his hand, he carefully lifted the hood covering his face.
Ashen, faded hair—like burnt firewood—fell straight down.
"Hup!"
"Th-That is......!"
Those who saw the revealed visage bulged their eyes.
Beneath the hood was not a face, but a mask.
And not an ordinary one.
With eyebrows piercing arrogantly skyward and sharp fangs...
Ghost King. Yaksha.