Chapter 85
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 85
Chapter Title: Frozen Counterstrike
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Creeeeak!
“Gaaah!”
Even underwater, the groan burst out.
Damn tentacles...
No matter how immersed in Buddhism the bastard was, how the hell was he using eight legs at once like he was some Thousand-Armed Guanyin?
Splat! Thwack!
It was underwater.
In a situation where his movements were already restricted, and he couldn’t recklessly use his remaining inner energy since he didn’t know how long he could hold his breath, Yu Hyun was helplessly pummeled by the tentacles’ attacks.
Even slammed into the sandy bottom, the pain felt like being smashed onto ice.
Shuuuush, splat!
And on the legs whipping him were countless basin-sized suckers attached.
What... what the hell is this thing?
They clung tightly to his skin, refusing to let go—like he was getting cupped while being beaten or something...
Crack!
He’d swallowed so much water from the beating that he’d lost track.
While he was practically out of it taking the hits, the tentacles that had been relentlessly pounding him suddenly coiled around his body like snakes.
Along with a burning sensation like cupping points all over his body...
“Grrrrr...”
The immense force squeezed his bones as if to crush them, his mouth gaping open involuntarily as seawater poured endlessly down his throat.
Damn it, I gain weight just from drinking water...
Crack.
To make matters worse, the Yeocheon Jade in his mouth shattered, and he could no longer hold out with the breath he’d managed to catch.
Ears, nose, mouth...
Water filled his body, his consciousness fading.
“Guh...”
Was it because Yu Hyun’s body went limp?
Thinking it had won, the creature leisurely dragged him toward itself while coiled around him.
Shit, am I dying like this...?
Was his grand ambition going to crumble here?
Through his blurring vision, he spotted a pitch-black, sharp beak-like thing in the center of the body from which eight legs extended.
It twitched like the maw leading to hell.
Not a mouth, though...
If it’s between the legs...
“...!”
In that instant, his fading consciousness snapped back.
You damn squid-headed bastard!
No respect for the defeated?
No matter how pissed you are, you dare try to eat me through your ass?
You’re the one forcing this humiliation on me?
Crunch!
Snapping to attention in this unexpected crisis, Yu Hyun’s eyes blazed with fury.
He couldn’t let this happen.
Even if he died, not like this.
Let go! You bastard! Let me go now!
If you’re gonna eat me, use your mouth!
Thud! Thump! Boom!
Yu Hyun struck at the tentacle coiled around him with all his might.
Pummeling with fists, biting with teeth, pinching with nails...
He tried every desperate method, but the damn thing’s body was so squishy it seemed utterly unaffected.
Of course. It had withstood the Hundred Paces Divine Fist.
Invincible not in hardness, but in squishiness—pathetic attacks like these wouldn’t faze it.
Meanwhile, his body steadily drew closer to the creature’s rear.
Ah, if only its body were hard, maybe he could break it... hard, huh?
A brilliant idea flashed in Yu Hyun’s mind.
A ingenious thought born from his desperate will to avoid this final humiliation.
If it’s not hard?
Then make it hard...
Perfect timing—it was underwater, and he’d learned a seemingly useless trick from the Water Dragon King: turning water to ice.
You damn squid-headed freak.
Fine, let’s see who wins.
Thump, thump, thump.
Yu Hyun’s heart pounded explosively as he unleashed his stored inner energy, gathering it fiercely in his hands.
All energies in the world fundamentally consist of yin and yang in harmony.
Though it’s orthodox that they must balance without conflict to produce power, amplifying one extreme—yin or yang—within the body is yin art or yang art.
A shortcut to qi deviation for novices, but with control and understanding, it becomes Samadhi True Fire to incinerate the world or Extreme Frozen Qi to freeze the Yangtze River.
Though his realm was low and he couldn’t freeze mist like the Water Dragon King, your legs were another story.
Shaaaa...
Yu Hyun gripped the monster’s tentacle with all his strength.
And released.
Crack, creeeak, craaack.
The chill from his hand—white turning transparent—spread, freezing the tentacle solid.
Startled?
The monster, pulling Yu Hyun toward its rear, frantically tried to shake off the coiled tentacle.
No can do. We’re just getting started...
You grabbed however you wanted, but letting go is up to me, you damn squid-headed monster!
Creeeak!
As the cold spread further, freezing the tentacle, the monster went berserk.
Snap!
Too much force?
Or the thrashing?
The tentacle shattered into pieces, sinking to the bottom.
Yu Hyun’s body was free, and the now tentacle-less monster tried to flee in panic.
Kwaaang!
But Yu Hyun wasn’t about to let it escape.
He shot forward like an arrow and seized the squid head.
Slippery, yet silk-smooth and gripping nicely—easier to hold than expected.
In that moment, his eyes met the monster’s.
Where do you think you’re going?
I just gave up something huge in life. Might not breathe soon and turn into a water ghost.
So from now on, I’ll live like one.
Let’s die together, you freak!
Creeeak! Craaack!
Caught in Yu Hyun’s grasp, unable to flee, the monster’s head began to freeze.
Crack!
Yu Hyun’s clenched fist brutally smashed the frozen surface.
Even with a gaping hole in its head, it kept moving.
Tough bastard.
Fine, I’ll go all out till my last breath!
Crack! Snap! Craaack! Snap!
After smashing the freezing head repeatedly, Yu Hyun’s fists gradually weakened.
The monster, unable to endure, also slackened its remaining tentacles and went limp, drifting with the current.
It’s over...
This is the end.
Damn it, me—the one meant to save the world. Back from the past through my six masters’ wishes—dying so pointlessly.
Yu Hyun dangled limply, stuck to the creature’s basin-like suckers.
Crack...
At that sound from somewhere, Yu Hyun—who’d given up everything—laboriously turned his eyes.
What?
On the wide, flat rock he’d first seen, a white line appeared, slowly widening.
The ground splitting?
To welcome him to hell as he died?
Shit...
Ruuuush!
As Yu Hyun finally lost consciousness, a pale light burst from the fully opened crevice, sucking everything in.
The monster, and Yu Hyun clinging to it...
The moment they were swallowed by the light, the rock sealed shut.
Grind, thud.
Yu Hyun vanished like that.
* * *
“Arrrgh!”
A scream of agony echoed.
Splash!
Sprayed blood soaked the ground.
“Guh...”
The old man, arm severed, knelt and lifted his weary head.
“Did it... have to come to this?”
“...”
Poisonous hatred filled the old man’s eyes as he glared at the man looking down on him.
“I waited... but this way is fastest, after all.”
“You bastard...”
Was his rage too much, or blood from the wound seeping into his eyes?
The old man, Yang Lim, looked like he wept blood tears, his eyes bloodshot. The man smirked coldly.
“Oh dear, didn’t you know? The Hwan Clan chief has been mine for a long time.”
“...”
“Without him, how would I know you tried to hide your grandson? Or where you were headed? And if he hadn’t leaked your rebellion, would you have dared move your warriors during such a critical time with the Justice Alliance envoys here?”
The man glanced sideways—there stood the Hwan Clan chief, one of the six clans.
Betrayed. By the one he’d trusted without doubt...
Following his grandson Yang Hyo’s report of returning, Yang Lim had urgently messengered the other five chiefs for a secret meeting.
But on the planned day, the new Island Lord, Gok Ja-seong, led warriors in a raid on the Wol Clan village.
They resisted desperately, but it was futile.
Their midst already held the suborned Hwan Clan chief and his warriors.
Attacked from within and without, they collapsed without proper resistance.
Sensing the other chiefs were late, Yang Lim knelt first, sparing his clan—for their safety, an inevitable choice, though he endured to the end.
He had to stop it...
But Wol Clan warriors alone couldn’t match Gok Ja-seong’s forces.
Warriors in black bamboo hats.
The Island Lord’s direct troops, Hweopung—long Haenam Island’s strongest, ruling with elite sword qi users, mercilessly beheading women, children, eyes unblinking.
The Wol Clan, long rooted in the Three Valleys, crumbled helplessly.
Village ablaze, streams ran red with blood instead of water, streets piled with corpses.
“Give it up now. Unless you want to doom those stubbornly holding out. Especially this kid...”
“...”
At Gok Ja-seong’s words, Yang Lim’s gaze shifted.
Behind him, in a black-hatted warrior’s arms, lay the unconscious, limp Yang Hyo.
Crunch.
“Aren’t you afraid of heaven?”
“Heaven? Why fear that?”
“Committing such unfilial acts, yet unafraid of heaven?”
“...”
Gok Ja-seong chuckled chillingly at Yang Lim’s venomous cry.
“Unfilial...”
“The previous lord’s sudden illness, the young lord’s qi deviation! Deny it, will you!”
“Hmm, still that nonsense? No witnesses...”
“True, no witnesses. But heaven knows. It will punish you!”
“...That damn heaven... Truly nowhere to lean on.”
“What?”
“Life has sunny days and rainy ones. Curse heaven for it? Beg it to stop? Think it listens?”
“You...”
“...”
As Yang Lim ground his teeth glaring, Gok Ja-seong smiled and approached slowly.
Stopping before him, he drew his sword and swung.
Shuuuush! Slash!
“...!”
No expected pain—he spun around urgently.
Beside him, one kneeling clansman collapsed.
Blood gushing from the headless neck...
“Th-this...”
Eyes tearing open in blood tears, the veins burst red.
The tears mixing with blood became true blood tears.
Grab, squeeze!
Gok Ja-seong seized Yang Lim’s disheveled hair and yanked.
“Look closely. The longer you resist, the first to die are these fish-catching, never-sword-wielded folk.”
“You scum...”
“...Tsk tsk, to the end?”
Shuuuush!
Second slash, another death.
Gok Ja-seong took innocent lives one by one, expression unchanged.
No—sneering with murderous eyes.
“Fix that tone first. I’m the new Island Lord, your chief—not the despised bastard son anymore.”
“...”
Released, Yang Lim could only sob, forehead to ground, speechless.
“Good, listen and bow. From now on, I’m Island Lord.”
“...”
With Yang Lim submitting, Gok Ja-seong rose and bellowed.
“Hear me, all!”
Willing or not, submission or loyalty, all bowed.
“The rebellion ends now. Doubt me no more—unless you want to end like the Wol Clan!”
“Yes! Island Lord!”
“Cart the rebel Wol Clan remnants to the main fortress. After the Justice Alliance guests’ banquet, I’ll appoint a new Wol Clan chief myself and cripple the rebels’ martial arts, enslaving them!”
“Yes!”
With that, Gok Ja-seong departed.
With his brought warriors...
The rest could only pitifully watch the bound Wol Clan chief and his warriors dragged away in chains.