Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: penny
Chapter Title: Farewell, and Enlightenment (2)
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Having sensed the massive explosion of demonic energy, the Flame Light Blade Demon rushed forward without hesitation and discovered Jeok Mu-kyeong.
“You bastard! So you're the culprit!”
Boom! Rumble!
Jeok Mu-kyeong let out a hiss and nimbly dodged the emergence of the flame dragon from the tip of the blade.
Thud!
The Flame Light Blade Demon spun the blade in his grip and narrowed his eyes.
“They say you even drove back the Sword Saint.”
Fortunately, the opponent's appearance was a complete mess.
One wrist had been severed, spraying blood, and several holes were punched clean through his heart.
“It's a miracle he's still alive.”
“Urk. Flame... Light... Blade!”
“A filthy state befitting one who dabbles in demonic arts.”
“If my body were intact, do you think a wretch like you could dare stand against me?!”
Seeing the enemy lose his reason and rampage in madness, the Flame Light Blade Demon raised the tip of his blade.
Roar!
The blazing heat waves unleashed by the opponent were as fearsome as the rumors claimed.
Slash! Slash!
While generating blade aura to sever the heat, the Flame Light Blade Demon turned his attention elsewhere.
“Brother Dokgo! Hurry to Old Master Wang!”
“Will you be all right alone?”
“No need to worry about a fool thrashing about without reason.”
“Understood.”
In truth, the familiar resonance of demonic energy was already adding to his concerns.
The fact that he had even unleashed his ultimate demon art to its extreme meant the situation was dire.
'If this idiot can handle it, that's all the better for me.'
Dokgo Yul kicked off without delay, unfolding his lightness skill without pause.
And upon arrival.
In the midst of traces of an explosion where dozens of trees within fifty jang lay neatly fallen in one direction, there was Wang U, kneeling.
“Father!”
Dan-ya, who had first arrived and was checking on Sima Baek, cried out urgently.
“Little toe! The old master's condition is dire!”
“...I know.”
Even without Dan-ya saying it, Sima Baek's state was beyond words.
His entire body was covered in burns with blisters risen all over, and blood oozed thickly from the sword scars etched across him.
“Hurry with emergency treatment at least.”
“First, we need to lay him down.”
He tried to support him quickly, but Sima Baek, coughing up blood, snapped his eyes open.
“Let go! You fools!”
Even as his life ebbed away, Sima Baek did not forget to shout.
“On my final path, do you intend to make me lie down to greet my liege?!”
'Final path?'
From that shout, the two could tell.
That Sima Baek was now intuitively sensing his own death.
The weary Sima Baek spoke.
“If I lie down, I have no confidence I'll rise again. Just seat me like this.”
“Old Master Sima!”
“Dan-ya! Seat me.”
“No! Even now, if we use the Mysterious Healing Arts, you might recover. If it were the liege, he'd surely use some miraculous method—”
“...Impossible.”
Interrupting him, Sima Baek threw open his robes.
Inside was a large wound in his dantian with the blood jade stone lodged there, pulsing with its eerie crimson glow.
“...This accursed stone has already devoured even my innate vital energy.”
“But if it's the liege...”
“Dan-ya. You know it too. No one survives once their innate vital energy—the root of life—is depleted.”
“......”
“...Hurry and seat me.”
Beside the silent Sima Baek, Sima Yul choked back sobs.
“Father! How can you abandon your life like this? Must you truly force your son to commit the ultimate filial impiety of not lifting a hand in your death?”
The ever-composed Sima Yul could no longer hold back and cried out.
“Don't you understand the reason?”
At last, Sima Baek smiled.
“When you and I faced death like worthless insects, who was it that showed us a way to live?”
“...The liege.”
“When we knew not even a single style and were used as mere pouches of schemes until death, who passed down peerless divine arts and taught us the meaning of living by the sword?”
“That too was the liege.”
“Now is the chance to repay even a fraction of the liege's grace. Say no more.”
“The grace can be repaid while alive...”
Sima Baek's eyes sharpened.
“You fool! Even if we walk the demonic path, we are still human—how dare you urge a wretched life upon me!”
“......”
Regret flowed from Sima Baek's lips.
“My lifelong worry was becoming a needless stumbling block to the liege in my dotage.”
On a path not far from the end, having awaited this chance, he wished to appeal with his death.
“Cough!”
Wiping his mouth with his sleeve after spitting dark blood, Sima Baek spoke.
“I know my own body well. Even if I live, I'll only be a burden.”
Chunks of innards were mixed in the vomited blood. It meant his internal energy had been shaken beyond repair, turned to mush.
“Old Master Simaaah—!”
As Dan-ya pounded the ground and wept, Sima Baek said.
“Dan-ya. Yul-a. Seat me.”
“Father...”
“Please seat me. If I greet the liege lying down, I'll regret it even in death.”
“...Understood.”
Sima Baek's body was like a bundle of dry reeds.
The firm muscles that had unleashed peerless arts had lost their power, and his fingertips dangled limply.
“Grit!”
The pain must have been immense; even the simple act of kneeling down was agonizing, veins bulging on his forehead.
After struggling for a long while, Sima Baek, now kneeling, tugged roughly at his robes.
Then, with trembling fingertips, he gathered his disheveled hair and swept it back.
His movements were utterly reverent.
“Sob!”
“Grit.”
Dan-ya and Sima Yul swallowed their tears and watched this scene.
Only after tidying his attire did Sima Baek raise his fading eyes toward the empty air.
“Fine weather. Just like the day I met the liege.”
A good day to depart.
Hiss. Hiss.
The deathly shadow was evident in his increasingly ragged breaths.
It was then.
Most fortunately.
“That day was when the Sima family manor burned. Isn't calling it a 'good day' a bit of a stretch?”
Swish.
A gentle breeze carried a voice.
“My liege.”
The kneeling Sima Baek thudded his forehead to the ground repeatedly with a faint smile.
“This lowly disciple of the demonic path, Sima Baek, pays respects to the master of the demonic path.”
'Tch.'
At the fading voice, Chu Un-hwi felt his heart churn.
It overlapped with the final moments he had witnessed in his previous life, fueling his killing intent even more.
“My liege.”
Without Sima Baek's quiet call, he might have unleashed his fury.
“Why did you fight the apostle?”
“......”
“I clearly told you to avoid him.”
Closing his eyes and steadying his breath, Sima Baek politely opened his mouth.
“Your unworthy servant Sima Baek has a humble request for his master.”
“...Speak.”
“Having been defeated under the name of the Dark Soul Black Wind Division, I have no face to show. I beg you—expel me from my seat.”
“...No need for that.”
Knowing the pride he took in being a member of the Dark Soul Black Wind Division above all others, Chu Un-hwi tried to refuse.
But Sima Baek was resolute.
“You said it yourself, my liege. The name of the Dark Soul Black Wind Division is immortal—it never knows defeat.”
“...I did.”
“I do not wish to leave my name as the first to suffer defeat under that immortal name.”
“What does it matter?”
Please grant it.
Thud thud.
The old retainer seemed he wouldn't stop until his skull cracked if not permitted.
'I've never once overcome Old Man Sima's stubbornness.'
In the end, he knew he would grant the earnest plea.
“...Very well.”
“Heh heh. To not tarnish the immortal name—what fortune for this old man.”
“Old Man Sima. Don't think of leaving just yet. I haven't permitted your death.”
“With your extraordinary abilities, my liege, holding my life for a time should be possible.”
Perhaps days. Perhaps years of clinging to life.
“Please do not let me die as a useless wretch.”
“I know well Old Man Sima's worth. Even without martial prowess.”
“Now is when this old man can be most useful.”
I beg you.
“Please heed my advice one last time, offered with my life.”
At the resolute words, Chu Un-hwi squeezed his eyes shut.
Still so stubborn, this retainer.
At the same time, too worthy a man. Even facing death, he straightened his neck to make his plea.
Sima Baek spoke.
“At last, this foolish old man thinks he understands why you distanced yourself from the Mangcheon Association.”
“......”
“You seem to have a very deep connection with the Mangcheon Association.”
“Why do you think that?”
“When the Eight Thousand Apostles came for the blood jade stone, he clearly said it.”p>
That the Demon God had descended.
Amid his wavering gaze, Sima Baek asked with a steadfast face.
“Why does the 'most evil Demon God' they speak of take your form, my liege?”
Faced with the old retainer staking his dying breath to press the question, Chu Un-hwi could no longer hold his tongue.
“It seems.”
The secret he had hoped would never arise in this life.
“The most wicked existence since ancient times they speak of. The one that plunges the world into despair.”
Is me.
When had it begun?
Right, I once told you I dreamed a long nightmare, didn't I?
Chu Un-hwi began, drawing out his thoughts fluidly.
“It was an incredibly painful time.”
Continuing a lonely fight in a world where I alone remained was no easy task, even for me.
“I clashed with those called apostles time and again. I killed some myself.”
They didn't take my form from the start.
“Some were beings once called Blood Demons, others nameless wanderers without repute.”
But you see.
“At some point, the Demon God they spoke of became too much to handle.”
Probably when I seized the world and began mass human sacrifices to forge the blood jade stones in earnest.
Even I couldn't cope once the legendary monsters poured out for real.
“In the end, I came up with a scheme.”p>
Let's unravel the stone's secret and gain its power.
“So I killed the apostles and seized the stones.”
The problem came after.
The reason apostles are special is their unique constitution that resonates with the pain and despair in the stones to draw power.
Demon God Incarnate, or something?
They said it's a rare trait, maybe one in a million.
“The issue was, I later learned I had that same special constitution.”
The rest is simple.
“When I came to, everything was ashes. Several nations must have perished.”
I, eroded by the stone, had led the world to ruin.
“Not a living thing in sight, even after walking a month straight.”
Not even a tiny insect could escape death by my hand.
“Even more despairing was what I encountered at the end of that solitary month's walk.”
At the end of the calamity, it wasn't some legend of the past I didn't know or a mere villain.
“It was an apostle in my very likeness.”
Only then could I be certain.
The Demon God of the Demonic Sect.
“That I had become the very worst, most heinous existence since ancient times they spoke of.”