Chapter 168
Chapter 168
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 168
Chapter Title: Let's Talk After We Survive (2)
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I did my best to ignore Huangbo Hyo-seon's shocked gaze as I faced off against the Second Elder and his cronies.
"You should've stayed hidden like a rat until the end, but no—you came out and hurried to your death."
"Isn't it a bit much for a guy about to keel over from old age to talk about hurrying to death...!"
As I spoke, I subtly gathered my internal energy and flicked out a Phantom Finger strike, but the Second Elder effortlessly dispersed my finger force and charged right at me.
"Forgive me for not playing along with your word games!"
"That's why a geezer like you won't even have anyone to bury you!"
Oh, trash talk works wonders.
The Second Elder's eyes twitched upward in fury, and thick demonic energy poured out in an instant, making my skin tingle.
"I'll rip you apart!"
"Like your bastard son?"
I could feel an enormous amount of energy concentrating in his palm—he clearly intended to kill me in one blow.
It wasn't true sword aura, but the technique concentrated his energy to mimic its effects almost perfectly.
Clashing head-on would shatter me for sure, so I tried to widen the distance, but the room was too cramped.
'Damn it all.'
Screeech—
The air screamed as it split apart in a chilling sound, and I focused entirely on evasion.
Even one solid hit would be fatal. I had to maximize my footwork to dodge.
His palm projections, dense with dark green energy that flickered black at times, painted the air.
Sixteen of them targeted me directly—mostly aiming for my head or chest.
'He really wants me dead.'
It was good that I'd drawn their aggro so well, but the ten strands of Finger Wind he'd scattered in the air weren't enough to discern feints from real strikes.
I layered Palm Force over my hands like gloves, several folds thick, then countered with my own palm projections.
Of course, I had no way to withstand them fully, but I had to pick out the real ones somehow... damn it!
"Urk!"
While filtering out the feints, I tried to block a real strike aimed at my chest, only to feel my insides churn from a glancing Palm Force that grazed my side.
Thud thud thud.
Under the immense force riding his pseudo sword aura, I staggered back several steps right there.
At least I'd managed to protect my chest by moving both hands, but they were already numb—I doubted I could hold out much longer.
"They say the Mouth Brings Disaster Sect lives up to its name."
The Second Elder boasted smugly. I wanted to keep him talking, but unfortunately, he wasn't that stupid. He advanced again, hands dyed deep green.
"For daring to insult my daughter, pay with your life!"
I wasn't even sure if the dead one was his daughter or son. No time to quibble—I rallied my whole body's energy and fought back.
Even as the demonic energy that grazed my side pierced my meridians like skewers, I poured everything into dodging that damned pseudo sword aura.
'Young Ho-kyeong...'
He still hadn't gotten up. Whatever hit him, he was groaning helplessly, unable to move despite emanating intense demonic energy.
Our escape routes were all blocked by the enemy. Even if we somehow made it to open space, Huangbo Hyo-seon would suffer next.
I was barely keeping these four pinned down by exploiting the tight space—if they could swarm from all sides, she'd be done for in no time.
'He might even kill Young Ho-kyeong.'
With escape completely cut off, I had no choice but to fight for survival with everything I had.
His tricky palm techniques were a blessing in that they mostly targeted my head or chest.
They occasionally went for my thighs, shoulders, or sides, but since they aimed to kill in one strike, I managed to hold on.
"You bastard...!"
I laughed.
My head spun dizzily from the pseudo sword aura battering me, and the demonic energy lingering in my body, refusing to dissipate despite my internal energy, was rapidly draining my stamina.
But I could hear the Second Elder's frustrated voice clearly, even in my hazy state.
'Fucking hate that guy.'
Our dirty connection started with him screwing me over from the first meeting.
Just hearing his frustration gave my exhausted body a fresh surge of energy.
I didn't realize it.
My martial arts were chipping away at a wall I'd never breached before, crack by crack.
The Second Elder felt his breathing grow ragged.
This technique wasn't meant to be sustained long-term.
He'd chosen to forcibly summon pseudo sword aura by over-concentrating excessive internal energy—normally awakened through enlightenment—purely to kill Kang Yun quickly for insulting his daughter.
'This guy... is he a monster?!'
Breathing meant internal energy. As his breath faltered, so did his flow, and the forced pseudo sword aura rapidly weakened.
At this rate, killing him was becoming impossible.
Time was short. He had to kill this one, then Huangbo Hyo-seon, and stage the scene to frame her for murdering the Young Cult Leader...!
"No time... huh?"
Even with his insides shaken and his face pitch-black, Kang Yun smirked and taunted him.
"Your mangy mutt bit the master's daughter, so you gotta lie and say the neighbor's dog did it before the owner shows up...!"
"Shut up!"
With a roar, he dispersed the concentrated energy and pressed with nimble movements, putting the brat on the defensive in an instant.
The brat's fingertips resisted sharply, severing his energy flow decently, but this level was nothing to...!
'Wait...'
Severing his flow?
The Second Elder scattered Palm Force to disrupt Kang Yun's stance, then drew a dagger from his waist with a reverse grip and stabbed down.
But seeing the enemy skillfully step aside to avoid a fatal wound, the Second Elder screamed inwardly.
'I have to kill him!'
He was a Peak Realm master.
This brat before his eyes had ascended to the Peak Realm right in front of him.
Peak Realm masters were those who established their own world of martial arts.
Not just learning techniques as taught, but reinterpreting them in their own form.
'How... how...!'
This kid, who could only swing his deep internal energy for his age in a mess, had grown this much in just half a year?
"Eeeeek...!"
The Second Elder rallied his energy again. His uneven breathing made it far weaker than before, but energy gathered at his fingertips, forming pseudo sword aura once more.
He'd survived the Poison Fang Double Jaw once already. But this time, he'd finish him.
Index and middle fingers extended straight like twin fangs, the technique's name fitting as it closed in on the brat.
Poison Fang Double Jaw was a lethal move that could strike from various angles, distracting the foe's focus and piercing their openings to kill.
'He'll let his guard down, thinking it's the same as before.'
Was it to fight him? The man's movements oddly mimicked the Second Elder's.
Like a snake, his sharp, nimble fingertips shifted positions subtly to deflect attacks, probing all directions.
Except the rear.
When the sword aura clump, linked by a thread of true energy, left his fingertips to silently arc toward the back of the head, it was already too late to dodge.
'Die!'
He was certain it would pierce Kang Yun's skull, but the Second Elder couldn't believe his eyes.
Swoosh.
One of the man's feet moved like a separate creature, kicking vertically to sever the true energy thread linking the sword aura, then deflecting it away.
The Second Elder stood frozen, momentarily captivated by the three-pronged sharp energy in that kick technique.
Screeech.
"Elder!"
Snapping to at his subordinates' shouts, the Second Elder belatedly realized the signal from outside.
"You must go!"
The signal that the First Elder or the Cult Leader's men were heading here. If unfinished by then, it meant retreat.
The brat, Kang Yun, pointed his mangled hands at him.
Too late. He felt it in his bones: no chance to kill him in time.
Emotions had ruined everything.
"That kick technique... what's its name?"
"...Dragon Claw Slice from the Dragon Ascending Step."
"Ha..."
Indeed, the three sharp bursts of energy deserved the name dragon's claw.
"...Not a snake, but a dragon after all."
"Everyone in Jianghu knows that—maybe you were the only one out of the loop?"
Even the brat's snark to the end couldn't stir enough rage to overcome the emptiness of failure.
He'd believed killing those two would open a path to slaughtering the righteous faction scum.
Preoccupied by some weird loach, he'd botched it—turns out the loach was a dragon.
"We retreat. Survive... and we'll meet again."
But this wasn't the end. If not for ties beyond the cult, he wouldn't have dared something so reckless.
It would start anew. In a new nest, afresh.
There, at least, he'd rise faster than in this cult.
"And you... I'll definitely kill you."
With those words, the Second Elder vanished.
I wanted to say, "Try it," but truthfully, just standing was excruciating.
Fighting again in that state, I might not last a few exchanges before dying for real.
"Lady hero, you okay...?"
While I'd fought the Second Elder, Huangbo Hyo-seon had battled four experts and was utterly spent.
She had cuts and wounds here and there, but nothing fatal.
More worrying was Young Ho-kyeong, collapsed by the table.
He'd somehow hidden behind the overturned table amid his groans, but his flushed face and profuse sweat showed his condition unchanged—or worse.
But my part was done.
"Young Cult Leader!"
A elderly man radiating immense presence—the First Elder—appeared from afar.
Exhausted, I pointed to reveal Young Ho-kyeong's position. The First Elder hurried his men to fetch a physician.
While I briefly circulated my energy for recovery, the physician carried by the First Elder's subordinate gave this diagnosis.
"Overdose of Sacred Blood Pills...?"
"Yes. Normally, only one pill is..."
"I know that much! Damn it, there must be a way, right? Make him puke it up!"
The First Elder, who gave off a Taoist-like impression with his carefree demeanor despite coming to kill me, now hectored the physician like a street thug.
But hearing the physician's response nearly made me lose it.
"There is an antidote, but the Second Elder recently took all the stock, saying he needed it somewhere. It's rarely used anyway, so we planned to gather ingredients and make more later..."
Learning the Second Elder had orchestrated this, the physician paled and waved his hands frantically.
"I-I had no idea! I swear, I never ate the cult's rice just to harm the Young Cult Leader...!"
"Should toss the bastard to the beasts! Daring to target the Young Cult Leader...!"
Meanwhile, the First Elder, who'd been focused on the Young Cult Leader and unaware of the situation, bellowed at the absent Second Elder. I approached the physician and asked,
"If not the antidote, is there no other way?"
"Th-Theoretically, one method: the patient himself controls the rampant demonic energy eating his body and expels it."
The physician said the agony made it impossible. The First Elder shook him, demanding what use that was.
But I had a hunch.
"If the First Elder permits, there's one thing I'd like to try."
Now was the time to overcome the clash between Ascending Immortal Art and demonic arts.