Chapter 263
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 263
Chapter Title: I'll Kill You (2)
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Ju Yak-seon watched the fierce clash between the two men with her eyes wide open.
'No way...!'
She was well aware of the white-haired man's martial prowess, but Kang Yun's skills far exceeded her expectations.
Kang Yun's cultivation was only slightly above hers, and as a physician, she had gauged his level based on his physical development and the faint sense of his inner energy. Yet the feats he was displaying shattered those estimates.
'He's too strong...?'
His movements were so swift and powerful that she couldn't even dream of intervening.
At first, she thought she might be seeing things, but one glance at Kang Yun's complexion told her everything.
'He's forcing out power beyond his limits...'
He wasn't showing it outwardly, but it was clear his body was being steadily devoured from within.
Yet Kang Yun's hands brimmed with power. The four-edged sword, which had been weaving intricate patterns to encircle him, lost its momentum, caught in the swift palm strikes radiating outward like whirlwinds.
Not only that—his bizarre footwork propelled his body like the wind, blocking every direction the white-haired man could evade, slowly tightening around the enemy's throat.
"You bastard! I don't know where you learned such freakish techniques, but I know they won't last long!"
The white-haired man seemed to sense the situation as well, launching his form skyward—the only path left open—buying time. But suddenly, his body halted and began to wobble.
"Freak."
"Urk!"
Upon closer inspection, something had grabbed the white-haired man's ankle. As Kang Yun yanked it, the man, airborne, was helplessly dragged down.
He looked about to be slammed into the ground, but as a master, he struck the earth with his palm, righting himself and simultaneously unleashing a strike from the four-edged sword coiling toward Kang Yun.
But Kang Yun had anticipated even that. With his free hand, he seized the four-edged sword and pulled, throwing the white-haired man off balance as one leg and one arm were dragged.
Ju Yak-seon shuddered at the sight of him gripping the blood-sprouting sword without a care, yanking with all his might.
Dragged into this brutish contest of strength, the white-haired man thrust out his remaining hand to block as Kang Yun's foot, laden with pure white energy, rocketed toward his face.
"Urgh!"
The devastating kick that would have crushed his skull smashed the man's hand and dislocated his shoulder, but it didn't claim his life.
Still, it seemed only a matter of time. As the man fell backward, Kang Yun's foot came stomping down again toward his face—likely his final moment.
"Cough!"
Seeing Kang Yun vomit blood, Ju Yak-seon realized his body had finally given out.
The backlash from unleashing prowess far beyond his realm had struck at this worst possible time.
Seizing the opening, the white-haired man sprang away, escaping Kang Yun's attack range.
"Hah, hah... Y-You damn... brat...!"
The man's face twisted in extreme hatred. But that wasn't all—his features were actually reverting to a wrinkled, aged visage.
Though he appeared young, the skilled physician Ju Yak-seon had seen through it from the start.
He was maintaining his youth through a longevity elixir, naturally consuming extra inner energy to sustain it.
'And now he's reversing it...?'
His handsome face shriveled pathetically in an instant, but in exchange, the aura pouring from the now-elderly man grew far more savage and terrifying.
"How dare you force me to reveal this form...? I'll carve you up for sure...!"
His four-edged sword, brimming with gray, murky energy, rose to aim at Kang Yun amid waves of killing intent. But Kang Yun merely spat curtly.
"Suits you, freak."
And once more, the two forms melted into the air with blinding speed.
I swallowed the blood surging up my throat again, gathering energy in my palms through my meridians that felt like they were tearing apart, then shook it off.
The energy became palm force, sweeping through space, but the old man's whip-like weapon sliced its core, dissolving it into the air like a mere breeze.
'I want to kill him.'
Eon So-young had grown strong.
Strong enough to aim for the transcendent realm right now, standing at the pinnacle of peak mastery.
I'd rushed here upon hearing she was at the physician's, but it never crossed my mind she'd be in mortal danger from anyone short of a transcendent expert.
But I was wrong. The thought of her ending up like that while I was entangled with Lady Ju filled me with uncontrollable rage.
"Brat, no matter how hard you squeeze, it's futile. Offer your neck willingly!"
There was definite self-loathing toward myself. But before that, I had to kill this old bastard first.
My internals were already a mess, but the dual yin-yang energies, responding to my fierce will, ravaged my body further to keep clashing and producing Mysterious Heaven Energy.
Thanks to the insight gained saving Young Ho-kyeong last time, the burden of generating Mysterious Heaven Energy had lessened considerably. Even after burning through two bursts on the way here, I could maintain this level.
'But it's dangerous now...'
Despite his techniques overwhelmingly outclassing mine in finesse, I'd been crushing him with raw power and speed.
But the enemy had his hidden true strength too. As he matched my strength and speed without wasting energy like I was, the scales tipped back against me.
"Kahaha...! I'll make you pay for your insolence before me. You'll die in agony!"
The old man cackled as he seized the advantage, but there was no carelessness in his strikes.
His whip-like weapon lashed out rapidly, using the terrain to assail me from all eight directions.
In pain so intense it threatened to shatter my focus, I improvised on the fly, adapting known techniques to track his movements.
I had to digest, in this instant, the true meaning of what opponents had shown me and what I'd unconsciously countered—making them my own weapons.
Not just hands—forearms, elbows, backs of hands, shoulders. Wherever not yet shattered, I concentrated energy to deflect attacks and inch into his range.
Amid agony like my body was ripping apart, I felt a strange exhilaration as I pressed forward.
The urge to kill him was fading in importance, yet the killing intent itself sharpened into crystalline clarity—a bizarre sensation.
'I will kill this bastard.'
In that moment, the flow of my techniques shifted. Like a sheath slipping from a blade.
And it didn't feel bad.
A jolt.
'No, this is...!'
The old man, Eun-ho, felt the creeping dread he'd sensed from the start—and thought suppressed—reform sharply to threaten him.
Its source was unmistakably the bleeding brat before him.
'What the hell is this guy...?'
The report from the Black Tiger faction in Namgung that this brat caused their failure had piqued Tiger Command's odd interest, leading to the kill order.
Though younger, Tiger Command's insights had elevated him effortlessly to his current realm, so he'd complied.
He'd thought a brat barely past his early twenties would snap like a child's wrist.
'But what the hell is he...?'
Forcing peak power via some special technique wasn't shocking; such life-saving arts were common in Jianghu.
Yet even as Eun-ho unleashed full power, cornering him, the terror from the brat's techniques only intensified.
He knew its nature instinctively, but not consciously what it was.
And now, he felt suddenly naked before a razor edge. The dread's source crystallized in his mind.
Eun-ho hastily widened the distance, lips trembling as he spoke—like a malarial patient, but he had no room to care.
"Y-You...!"
Recalling that nightmare day of his youth, he desperately sought traces in his foe.
Unlike that man's ordinary build and startlingly beautiful youth, Kang Yun had a handsome face and towering frame—utterly different.
His techniques differed greatly too, but in that shift, he sensed the same essential martial principles.
'I must avoid him!'
Never tangle with this man. He'd mistaken a tiger cub—Jianghu's most fearsome—for a kitten to squash.
Among those who knew how terrifying he became when touched, only Eun-ho survived.
If he harmed the disciple, even fleeing to the world's end, that man would hunt him down.
'Blood Demon...!'
As terror-stricken Eun-ho tried to flee, Kang Yun stomped and pursued.
"Where... do you think you're going?"
Eun-ho was going mad. Spitting blood relentlessly, yet the brat clung tenaciously.
"Y-You leech!"
"Die... by a leech, then..."
Incomprehensible. Why would Blood Demon's disciple risk life for petty righteousness?
His rapidly evolving skill amid exchanges befitted the disciple, but he'd never shake him without killing.
And killing him would unleash Blood Demon's pursuit.
'Not yet, not yet! Not until I become transcendent!'
For that, he'd endured serving the younger Tiger Command.
Not his false name Eun-ho, but his true name resounding as Jianghu's thirteenth transcendent.
"Urgh...!"
Then, the opponent staggered, blood flowing again.
Seeing Kang Yun hit his limit once more, Eun-ho retreated jubilantly.
'Escape now...!'
The signal horn for his subordinates was in his bosom, but he wouldn't sound it.
They had to fight to the end, dying for him.
Glancing at the blood-spitting, staggering Kang Yun, Eun-ho turned to flee—just as.
Shiiiing
A chill froze his spine. He flung sideways, feeling his left arm ignite.
"Aaaargh!"
"Tch. Too shallow."
Kang Yun, cough halted, had closed in. His Dragon Claw Strike extended three talon-like energies, severing Eun-ho's left arm as its name implied.
The cough had been a feint from the start. Having survived one before, Eun-ho fell for it inevitably.
"You dare...!"
His arm gone below the elbow, now one-armed, Eun-ho's rage boiled over.
Kang Yun already teetered on collapse. He couldn't forgive the persistence.
"Who said... you could run...?"
"Shut up!"
The fury-laden strike missed emptily. His unadapted body lost finesse, unable to catch even the crumbling foe.
And there was another reason for the disruption.
The path to transcendent for a one-armed man was far harder—especially at his age, adaptation would take time.
That despair gnawed his mind, further unsettling his techniques.
"Hup!"
Kang Yun's fist pierced the gap; Eun-ho snapped alert.
'Can't go on. Staying means certain death.'
His senses detected another master breaching his subordinates.
If they joined Kang Yun, he was done.
He surged energy till his dantian ached, sweeping the four-edged sword around, then truly fled.
This time, he'd watched closely—no tricks. Kang Yun clearly lacked strength to pursue.
Finally relieved, Eun-ho turned opposite the approaching master, fleeing the clinic, grinding his teeth.
'Someday, I'll pay you back...!'
Tiger Command was undoubtedly transcendent, rivaling the Three Venerables.
The other Spirit-grade experts in Silver Spirit Society, though below him, were near-transcendent.
They might refuse to protect Eun-ho, but knowing Blood Demon backed Kang Yun, they'd aid to topple him.
That was one purpose of Silver Spirit Society's existence.
'Once Blood Demon's gone, I'll return and erase you...!'
Relishing thoughts of tormenting the insolent brat, Eun-ho froze as an immense presence bore down.
He unleashed his four-edged sword to block, but the gray-energy-laden blade shattered futilely, followed by his body.
'What... red... saber...?'
A single saber glowing faintly red pulverized his life's work and bisected him—unreal, yet his severed corpse didn't lie.
'This damn clinic... what transcendent is hiding here...!'
An experienced Jianghu veteran, Eun-ho sadly hadn't mastered surviving torso severance.
'If only I had that arm...'
Dubious even with both arms against that energy-clad weapon, the fading elder's eyes brimmed with regret for the lost limb to the end.