Chapter 219 Blood Cult (8)
Genius.
A talent bestowed by the heavens.
In the world of Murim Returner, these were the kinds of people who tripped you up like stones scattered along the roadside.
But even among them, there were those with overwhelmingly superior gifts.
Like the Heavenly Demon or Sa Wol.
The author had officially stated that those two possessed the greatest talents in the entire setting.
But right now...
I was witnessing a talent that rivaled even theirs.
Sa Wol's Nine Swamps Ghost Step.
Mo Yong Su's Perseverance Sword and Mo Yong Hak's Meteor Sword.
Un Yeop Ja's Cloud Dragon Eight Forms.
Paeng So So's Five Tigers Broken Gate Blade.
The Little Poison Witch's poison techniques.
Cheol So Pyeong's Iron Tower Divine Art.
Kwak Ri Yeon's Nine Yin True Armor.
Gwang Yeon's Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Swordsmanship.
Hwarang's Hundred Steps Divine Fist.
The Blood Rain Sword Lord's Blood Rain Sword.
The Dao King's Heaven-Earth-Falling Blade Technique.
Pa Cheon was unleashing them all as if they were his own martial arts.
The sinister shadow of Asura flickering behind him shifted its stance with every technique he switched to.
There were just too many reasons why this shouldn't be possible.
I could brush off the copy-ninja act of mimicking techniques after seeing them once by saying he was originally some cutting-edge murim AI...
But the most absurd part was the nature of the inner energy.
Martial arts were fundamentally a combination of forms and inner energy.
The forms were techniques designed to manifest one's inner energy in the most optimal way, and inner energy wouldn't function properly without the matching forms.
The prime example was the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
After the Heavenly Demon Blood Massacre, it had split into two parts.
The front half for inner energy and the back half for forms.
As the front half flowed into the Sado Family, post-Cheon Yu Hak Heavenly Demons could only learn the back half.
They were stuck without mastering the "true" Heavenly Demon Divine Art.
One might think a Heavenly Demon-level figure could get by with just the forms.
'The reason Yi Se-ryeong suffered internal injuries was those forms.'
Even the world's strongest, Yi Se-ryeong, had sustained internal injuries from practicing forms mismatched to her inner energy. And those wounds were so severe they never fully healed by the end of Murim Returner.
It was a perfect demonstration of how crucial harmony between inner energy and forms truly was. Or at least, it should have been.
But Pa Cheon, now deploying even his simsang, was shattering those very laws.
The problem was, it wasn't just the laws he was breaking.
"Cough!"
He was breaking me too.
I spat up blood.
Vomited from all the martial arts Pa Cheon had unleashed.
It had been three full days of this.
Three days without food, water, or sleep—just endless fighting.
I'd have been better off passing out, but whenever I seemed on the verge, the bastard would hit harder to wake me. Madman.
And this was the result.
Rags.
No other word fit my condition.
My entire body, face aside, was covered in wounds. A rib or two must've cracked—breathing sent sharp stabs of pain through me—and my sword-grip wrist throbbed unnaturally.
Pa Cheon, meanwhile, hadn't broken a sweat. Not a single wrinkle in his clothes.
An utterly overwhelming gap in skill.
What pissed me off even more? He wasn't wielding a sword. Just some random arm or leg from a wooden doll he'd grabbed.
A craftsman doesn't blame his tools, sure—but considering my sword was the Pa Cheon Sword, this was bullshit.
"Is that all you've got? You're still far from ready."
Pa Cheon spoke to me, looking fresher than ever.
"Seems like you're finally getting the hang of it. Already tired?"
He wasn't wrong.
Fighting Pa Cheon with his simsang unleashed had been utterly impossible at first. Dodging or blocking? Forget it.
Day one: I got pummeled like dust in a rainstorm.
Day two: I could start evading attacks.
Now, on day three, I thought I could finally aim for a counter.
Until just moments ago.
I'd tried a counter and nearly gotten sent to the afterlife for real.
The funny part?
Woooom—
The Heavenly Demon Divine Art's energy was surging through my body on its own, healing my injuries.
Without me guiding it. Even mending spots I hadn't realized were hurt.
Like it was urging me to keep fighting.
"Fuck."
Bloody vomit dribbling from my mouth, I forced myself back up. Then a ridiculous thought hit me, and I let out a chuckle.
"What?"
"Nah, fuck. Hey. Pa Cheon."
I poured every ounce of strength into my shaking legs and raised my sword at him. His eyebrow twitched.
"Anyone seeing just this scene would think it's a killer regression story prologue, right?"
"Re... what?"
"Stabbed in the gut, kneel over dead, wake up as a baby. Boom. Could even stop my parents' accident. Wouldn't get dragged here either. If I regressed, I'd never touch Murim Returner again. Well... maybe peek a little?"
"...Has your head gone mad?"
"Yeah."
I gritted my teeth.
"Pissed off enough that my brain's frying right now."
Pa Cheon listened silently.
"While I was giving up, blaming my constitution, you—trapped in a sword—kept grinding away like hell."
"No bodily functions while inhabiting the sword."
"You fucking T or what?"
"Your mouth's gotten vulgar."
"This is the real me, fuck. Got socialized working at that shitty corp."
I spat out the blood pooling in my mouth.
"So yeah. Makes me wanna lose my shit at how pathetic I am. Since when was I such a defeatist?"
Losing my parents young and growing up in an orphanage?
Ditching dreams to survive and slaving at a crap company?
Who knows.
I'd called the First Heavenly Demon a cockroach, but looking back, I wasn't any different.
No—worse. At least that guy endured centuries on sheer will to get home.
Me? I'd just talked big.
Chickening out whenever shit got real, always leaning on Pa Cheon.
"All that talk about unbreakable will, but I wasn't even trying half as hard as you."
"Self-loathing? Or looking down on me?"
"Both, you bastard. You wouldn't be human without me."
"Hm. Fair point."
"Like losing an arm-wrestle to your grown kid."
"No kids, so can't say."
"Who does? Just a figure of speech. Quit acting like a T—"
Bam!
I kicked off mid-sentence.
Already channeling Latent Blood Explosion into my foot while talking.
Unsettling sounds came from my right leg's joints, bones, muscles, tendons—but screw it.
I'd gained insane speed.
Vision blurred from the velocity.
'Blink Jade transfers kinetic energy as-is.'
Flash!
I blinked behind Pa Cheon.
He casually predicted it, extending his arm my way.
But I'd seen that coming.
After all he'd put me through, I knew at least one thing.
'Straight line.'
The pattern of that move.
'Not yet—!'
My feet hadn't hit ground yet. Still moving.
Flash!
Another blink, right in Pa Cheon's face.
Three blinks left.
Mid-blink, I channeled Latent Blood Explosion into my right arm this time.
Maybe from being pushed to my limits by Pa Cheon.
Normal me couldn't have imagined using Latent Blood Explosion while blinking, but it came easy.
Not because of Latent Blood Explosion.
Rooooar—
The dormant Heavenly Demon Divine Art in me was truly obeying now.
Vast energy focused to a point, making my arm tremble.
Had to stop the shaking.
"A trembling sword tip disrupts the trajectory—you can't swing as intended, you stupid yokai."
Got punched in the solar plexus earlier for that exact reason.
'I am Sado Hwan.'
Like self-hypnosis, the tremor steadied.
But not enough.
Pa Cheon was already adapting. His wooden sword spun fluidly despite its speed.
'Curve. Plum Blossom Sword?'
Blink.
Flash!
Flipping mid-air, appeared at his low guard. Gravity hit heavy—Domination.
Abandoned the full swing, blinked again.
Flash!
Now above his head. Poured everything into the slash, stance be damned. Total mess, obviously.
His eyes narrowed crookedly as his wooden sword—the doll remnant—surged up.
Like a tiger lunging for prey.
That's what I'd baited.
Deliberately wrecked my stance.
Final blink.
Flash!
Appeared to his right, where his swing left him open.
He tried pulling back fast.
Boom boom boom!
Blood droplets I'd scattered mid-blink exploded all at once.
Blood Explosion Jade's power.
Delayed his recovery.
Now!
Detonated the unused Latent Blood Explosion energy in my left leg, stomped hard.
And thrust.
'I am Sado Hwan.'
Head spun from blood loss, but ignored it. This was nothing.
Pull back thrusting right hand, supported by left—for explosive acceleration—
KABOOM!
Failure.
Pa Cheon had somehow blocked my Pa Cheon Sword with his wooden one.
Red lightning sparked, wrapping his wood sword.
"Gah!"
The impact flung me back.
"Foolish brat."
Pa Cheon said, hands behind his back like he had all the time in the world.
"Of all attacks, you pick Asura Twelve Forms? Think I'd fall to my own family's heirloom?"
"F...uck."
"The blink tricks were impressive, at least. Compensating for slow blood control with body movement. Worth the training. Oh, and attacking mid-conversation? Hit where I least expected."
"..."
Righteous faction folks would've screamed foul play, but cult mindset was different.
"Inspired me to make a new technique too."
"From... the jade?"
"Yeah. Wrap weapon in lightning for hyper-speed movement. Like a thunderbolt, so name it... Thunder Shadow—"
"Didn't hear. La la la, missed it."
"Nah, not grand enough for a form name. Just a Thunder Shadow Saber variant."
Pa Cheon's zero-copyright bullshit made my head spin.
Speaking of—vision actually blurring, dizziness hitting.
"Really regressing now, huh."
Still talking, so not dying yet.
I hauled myself up again.
"...Still going?"
"Gotta. Time's precious. Cliché says time dilation in spaces like this. Exit and boom, year passed outside."
"Recklessness."
"Call it courage."
"Foolhardiness."
"Bravery—"
Mid-sentence, I couldn't hold anymore and collapsed.
"Yokai?"
Pa Cheon approached, sounding surprised.
Even as consciousness faded, I burst out laughing.
"Bastard. Learned to bluff too?"
His right arm—the one that blocked my sword.
Blood dripping from wounds.
Pretending to Be the Heavenly Demon