Chapter 244
Chapter 244
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 244
Chapter Title: Emerging from the Roaring Flames
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The sight of Namgung Hyeok stepping out from the roaring inferno was truly overwhelming.
Flames surged behind his back, creating the illusion of massive wings.
Was this what a demon looked like upon manifestation?
Everyone stared blankly at Namgung Hyeok as he emerged with a brilliant grin.
"That crazy bastard..."
"He set it on fire... fire..."
"Mad Dragon my ass. He's just a lunatic!"
Only then did the Sacheon Tang Clan poison experts realize why Namgung Hyeok bore the moniker Mad Dragon.
No sane person would set fire to such a barren plateau.
It was something no ordinary mind could conceive.
Who would ignite flames around their own poison mist attack?
Roarrrrr!
The blaze intensified, spewing thick, acrid smoke. It raged like fire on dry tinder.
"Cough! Cough! The poison bugs are fleeing!"
"The poison mist is clearing!"
"Crazy! But now it's on fire!"
Witnessing the poison insects and mist engulfed in flames, people scattered in panic, retreating from the blaze.
Tang Uicheon swallowed hard as he gazed at Namgung Hyeok.
*Just what is this guy...*
He'd known he wasn't ordinary, but he never imagined he'd corner the Odukmun experts like this!
As Tang Uicheon stared at Namgung Hyeok in shock, the Thunder Dragon Squad, which had plunged into the poison mist, went berserk at the sight of the flames.
"Fire!"
"It's coming! It's coming!"
"Those are Odukmun bastards! Grab 'em and interrogate!"
"Hand over the ingredients!"
The momentarily stunned Thousand Poisons Squad widened their eyes.
Crazy!
Had these guys all taken drugs? Their eyes were rolled back in fury.
Even mad dogs weren't this insane.
The Thousand Poisons Squad gritted their teeth.
"Seize them! Grab those guys!"
"Kill those ones first!"
"Not the Sacheon Tang Clan—capture those guys first!"
They were elite experts classified as such even within Odukmun.
They had recognized from the start that the tide of battle was turning with Namgung Hyeok and the Thunder Dragon Squad's arrival.
"Recover the poison creatures and fall back!"
"They're using formations! Form squads and engage!"
The Thousand Poisons Squad weren't ones to just take a beating from foes immune to poison. They quickly devised countermeasures.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
They retreated swiftly with agile footwork and unleashed hidden weapons.
Realizing a frontal clash offered no chance of victory, they created distance and rained down attacks.
Hidden weapons flew from all directions.
Deadly projectiles like the flesh-shredding Piercing Wind Needles mixed with feather-hair needles.
Namgung Ryong stomped down firmly with his formation stance.
Emperor's Dominion Step.
With a heavy thud, Namgung Ryong swung his sword.
Its crushing might seemed capable of flattening a mountain, while waves of ferocious sword pressure swept forward, batting away the hidden weapons.
Crackle crackle!
Fierce lightning rippled out, engulfing the Thousand Poisons Squad.
Boom rumble!
"Argh!"
"Ugh!"
The squad was caught in the lightning-fast sword qi.
"Golden Thread Group! Ingredients!"
As Namgung Ryong rampaged, Geon Cheon-hwi and the others followed, foaming at the mouth in rage.
From the rear, Paeng Jung-hyeok scowled irritably as he swung his blade.
"Damn it! Tang Clan bastards! I don't wanna fight, I said no!"
Boom!
Pitch-black saber qi pierced the poison mist, shattering the Thousand Poisons Squad's formation.
Even hidden weapons from afar couldn't halt the Namgung clan's advance.
The Thousand Poisons Squad paled at the foaming, charging madness.
"H-heek!"
"Huff!"
"D-damn it!"
The squad recoiled in terror. They couldn't withstand the Namgung clan's momentum.
Tang Myeong-ok and Tang Myeong-jin, following behind and witnessing the Thunder Dragon Squad dismantle their formation, were equally stunned.
*Their formation crumbles this easily?*
The Thousand Poisons Squad weren't pushovers who would lose formation and yield ground so readily.
For these poison art masters, distance was their lifeline.
They could only gape in awe at the Thunder Dragon Squad's divine prowess, shattering Odukmun's poison domain as if it were nothing.
The Thousand Poisons Squad weren't weak by any means.
Just look at Tang Myeong-ok and Tang Myeong-jin struggling against a single Odukmun member—that alone showed the squad's strength.
The Thunder Dragon Squad simply transcended common sense.
Immunity to the poison domain's toxins and overwhelming martial prowess!
While the Thunder Dragon Squad massacred the enemy, the regrouped Poison King Squad and Ghost Soul Escaping Hand Tang Cheon-u reentered the fray.
As Ghost Soul Escaping Hand Tang Cheon-u hurled hidden weapons at the foes, he turned to Tang Myeong-ok and Tang Myeong-jin.
"The Namgung Clan has sent true nobles! Why on earth were we told to hold them in reserve? Experts like these!"
"......"
"I can't fathom why we didn't call them sooner! To perform like this even in such conditions!"
*We didn't know either.*
*We had no idea they'd built true resistance to poison!*
Tang Myeong-ok wanted to scream it but held her tongue.
Even amid the chaos, wherever the Thunder Dragon Squad swept through, Thousand Poisons Squad members collapsed in heaps.
"Charge!"
Seizing momentum, the Sacheon Tang Clan warriors pursued the Thousand Poisons Squad.
Salmugeuk, who had been observing the unfolding events, widened his eyes.
The battle had flipped in an instant.
The Thousand Poisons Squad cornered.
This was utterly unlike what he had anticipated.
But he couldn't afford to remain flustered.
Salmugeuk charged at Tang Uicheon.
"You bastards!"
Twisting his face like a vicious demon, he unleashed killing strikes.
Odukmun hidden weapons, led by the Flying King Kill, targeted Tang Uicheon.
The viscous killing intent was worlds apart from before.
Tang Uicheon’s eyes gleamed.
"Hah!"
He channeled Return to Origin Divine Art to its limit. Emerald inner force blocked Salmugeuk's assault, while the poison blade in his other hand savagely swept the surroundings.
Clanggggg!
The razor-sharp blade strike, potent enough to cleave boulders, devastated the area.
There had always been a gap in their martial skill.
With Tang Uicheon ignoring his surroundings to focus on Salmugeuk, that gap widened further.
The Sacheon Tang Clan Patriarch was the pinnacle of poison arts.
Each poison art he unleashed blackened Salmugeuk's skin with toxins.
"Arrrgh! You damned filth! This old man will turn you all to sludge and dump you in the Golden Thread River!"
"Before that, I'll melt you down and scatter you in the Golden Thread River!"
"Impossible!"
Salmugeuk launched the White Winged Poison Snake coiled around his forearm.
Swoooooo!
Flapping scales like side wings, the White Winged Poison Snake flew at Tang Uicheon.
It was Odukmun's secret technique of hurling venomous creatures like projectiles.
Midair, the snake twisted into an eerie angle, diving into Tang Uicheon's blind spot.
But Tang Uicheon shredded the snake with aura alone, targeting Salmugeuk.
Faster than Salmugeuk could counter with poison palm, Tang Uicheon's poison blade coiled around his arm.
Just as he moved to slam him into the ground!
Fwoooooosh!
Dark green mist erupted from Salmugeuk's body, enveloping Tang Uicheon.
"Poison? Ngh!"
Even the great Tang Uicheon struggled to breathe—this was lethal venom.
*Again?*
Its toxicity differed vastly from Odukmun's absolute poisons. How did he carry such a thing inside him? Where did he get it?
But no time for questions.
As he retreated to avoid poisoning, Salmugeuk lunged with killing resolve.
"Dieeee!"
Throwing himself at Tang Uicheon with mutual destruction in mind!
Killing intent filled Tang Uicheon's eyes as he prepared to detonate the Thunderbolt Orb, Sacheon Tang Clan's secret poison weapon.
In that instant, Namgung Hyeok, unleashing Blood Wind Divine, wedged between them.
"Not this one! You can't kill this one!"
"What?"
"I said you can't kill him!"
What nonsense is this?
"If you don't wanna die, quit flailing and stay down, punk!"
Salmugeuk bulged his eyes.
Tang Uicheon was about to launch the Thunderbolt Orb, and now Namgung Hyeok burst in from the side—momentary fluster.
A brief hesitation, just one breath late, but in a clash of masters, that tiny difference spelled irreversible doom.
Namgung Hyeok, arriving at superhuman speed, unleashed a powerful double side kick at Salmugeuk.
A moment of no escape, surrounded on all sides!
"Hrah!"
Boommmmm!
Salmugeuk instinctively raised his arms to block, but Namgung Hyeok's kick wasn't something to just parry.
A thunderous boom shook his arms as if they might snap.
His body floated into the air.
The Thunderbolt Orb narrowly grazed his cheek.
Boommmmm!
Flying twenty paces away, it exploded, showering Piercing Wind Needles like rain.
A split second later, and he'd have been riddled with holes!
*Did this bastard just save me...?*
As Salmugeuk's eyes widened, Namgung Hyeok swung his demon sword.
"Hup!"
The extreme killing intent and demonic energy from the blade terrified Salmugeuk.
He felt his body stiffen like a frog before a snake.
The flat of the demon sword smashed into Salmugeuk's shoulder.
Crack!
"......!"
Salmugeuk's mouth gaped wide. The thousand-catty blow twisted his body sideways.
Crackle crackle crackle!
Belated crimson and azure lightning engulfed him.
Swoooooom! Boom!
Salmugeuk flew to one side and crashed into the ground.
The fire demon thrashed fiercely, as if mourning him.
Namgung Hyeok wiped his brow.
"Whew! That was close to dying."
Who?
Him?
Tang Uicheon stared at Salmugeuk, flung far away.
"Groan... groan......"
With limbs twisted unnaturally, was Salmugeuk even alive?
He thought dying cleanly to the Thunderbolt Orb might have been a more dignified end.
"You......!"
"Trying to kill such an important witness?!"
"Witness?"
"Life is precious."
You lunatic—would someone who values life set fires and brutalize enemies like that!
*Even if it was a surprise attack, to reduce the Thousand Poisons Squad Leader to that...*
Salmugeuk's skills were no joke.
Tang Uicheon stared blankly at Namgung Hyeok.
Namgung Hyeok shook out his hands and whipped his head around.
Fishing in troubled waters.
"Easy peasy?"
Taking down Salmugeuk, who was fixated on Tang Uicheon, was child's play.
As the Thousand Poisons Squad Leader, he'd know Odukmun's secrets!
Pleased with capturing a fine prize, a smile tugged at Namgung Hyeok's lips.
He glanced at the Thunder Dragon Squad frothing and rampaging nearby.
"Golden Thread Groooooup!"
"I'll kill 'em all!"
"Why am I fighting for the Tang Clan! Whyyyyy!"
"Ow hot! Ow, damn it! Do something about the fire! Fire!"
"We'll exterminate them!"
Watching them united in frenzy, Namgung Hyeok clicked his tongue.
"Arrrgh!"
"Ugh!"
"S-stop! Stoooop!"
The Thousand Poisons Squad's screams echoed across the flame-wreathed plateau.
Namgung Hyeok clicked his tongue at the roaring fire demon.
"Too much fuel?"
The heat must've driven the kids mad.
Shaking his head, Namgung Hyeok casually strolled toward Salmugeuk.
With a light tug like reeling in a net, he hoisted Salmugeuk over his shoulder.
Tang Uicheon gaped at Namgung Hyeok.
Namgung Hyeok said,
"Shall we head back?"
"......Now?"
"If we don't leave now, we'll be roast pork."
"Mm."
Roar!
Gazing at the fire demon blazing behind Namgung Hyeok, Tang Uicheon nodded.
He was right.
The flames had the ferocity to burn a hill without hesitation.
*How is this guy so nonchalant?*
Capturing the Thousand Poisons Squad Leader, incinerating the poison mist, saving the beleaguered Sacheon Tang Clan, handling cleanup...
After all that, Namgung Hyeok shouldered Salmugeuk like luggage, grinning ear to ear.
His face was like a shopper picking up an antique at a market stall.
Whether Tang Uicheon was shocked or not, Namgung Hyeok's mind was filled with thoughts of his fresh(?) catch, Salmugeuk.
*How should I grill this one to get him talking? Heh heh!*
Salmugeuk would have a fit if he knew, but who cared?
He was already foaming and down.
Namgung Hyeok strode off vigorously.