Chapter 147
Chapter 147. Main Battle
At the word Cult Leader, the firelight blazing from the strange person's eyes intensified even more for a moment.
"You bastard! Do you still even think of me as Cult Leader?"
"You won't believe me, but... I have never once not thought of you as Cult Leader. You are still the Cult's only Cult Leader. Just as I am eternally the Grand Apostle."
The gazes of the strange person and Kong Na-chu intertwined bizarrely in the darkness.
That strange confrontation continued for a while before it was cut off as the strange person's firelight sank low.
"Enough. What did you come to confirm? You didn't come just to check whether I've gotten dementia or not yet."
Finally, the strange person seemed willing to have a proper conversation. Kong Na-chu's slit eyes grew even sharper.
"What happens to the Subject of the Method after an incomplete Eight Desolations Heaven-Defying Great Method is released?"
"Heh heh heh. It's not me but you who has dementia. You're not asking because even someone who's a Grand Apostle doesn't know that, are you?"
Kong Na-chu said nothing.
The strange person looked at Kong Na-chu like that for a moment before speaking.
"You're anxious too. Worried that child might survive."
"I can't say I'm not. If such a monster were to live forever by any chance... the place called Central Plains would disappear."
"Heh heh heh. That's not something the madman who let Yeong-ha out of our territory in Yunnan should say."
Were the strange person's words too direct and uncomfortable? A moment of silence fell.
Squeak-squeak-squeak—
Flutter-flutter-flutter.
The silence was broken by the fluttering of bats flying out of the cave hole, unable to bear the heavy atmosphere.
Not missing the moment, Kong Na-chu parted his lips.
"...So what happens to the Subject of the Method?"
Firelight returned to the strange person's eyes. That unpleasant-sounding voice continued with it.
"As you know, first she'll emit all the Extreme Yin Heavenly Calamity Energy through every one of the eighty-four thousand pores in her body without remainder. And then..."
"And then?"
"She'll pour out all her pitch-black contaminated blood."
"Contaminated blood...?"
"Blood, tears, nasal discharge, saliva, even vaginal fluid—all of that child's bodily fluids. It goes without saying, but that child's bodily fluids, which were the vessel for Extreme Yin Heavenly Calamity Energy, down to the very last drop..."
The strange person paused briefly and caught his breath. However, that time wasn't very long.
"Are lumps of impurities from the Spirit Realm."
"Is there no possibility of purification?"
"So that's ultimately what you came to find out from me."
"..."
Kong Na-chu didn't bother to deny it.
The strange person cackled lowly once more before opening his mouth.
"Heh heh heh heh. There isn't. Well, there is, but it's as good as not existing."
"What do you mean? There is but it's as good as not existing?"
"As you know, Extreme Yin Heavenly Calamity Energy is a Spirit Poison that ordinary people absolutely cannot handle. Unless you're a chosen vessel, you cannot contain it for even a single moment. And right now in the Central Plains, there's only one chosen vessel—that child. Unless there's another Chosen One of the Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity somewhere... that child will eventually die."
"What if it were a Great Enemy who has achieved a body impervious to Ten Thousand Poisons?"
"Impossible. Even if they had a body impervious to Ten Thousand Poisons, the moment they absorb the Extreme Yin Heavenly Calamity Energy, they'd turn into a handful of poison water and melt away instantly. Great Enemy? Heh heh heh. Ridiculous. If someone who isn't a chosen vessel could endure the Extreme Yin Heavenly Calamity Energy... Central Plains? Heu-heu-heu-heu. Laughable. If such a bastard truly existed... cough, ptui."
Perhaps because he'd talked too much without clearing his clogged throat? The strange person could only continue speaking after roughly spitting out the phlegm stuck in his throat.
Kong Na-chu quietly watched this and waited for his next words.
"Cough-cough. The human species would be annihilated. Completely."
"...That severe?"
"That severe. Without a doubt. Is that enough now?"
Kong Na-chu clasped his hands behind his back again and thought for a while before answering.
"Enough. However."
"What now?"
"Have you ever seen the New Star directly?"
"Heh heh heh heh heh, ha ha ha ha ha!"
It was clear mockery. The strange person knew well why Kong Na-chu had asked such a question. That's why it was even more amusing.
"Hey, Kong Na-chu. A firefly is still a firefly no matter how much it grows. It can't become the moon or sun. Just as humans can't become gods or demons."
Kong Na-chu knew this well too. Humans are humans. Even monsters like Yeon Yeong-ha are ultimately derivatives of humans. Though they are vessels containing the crystallization of evil.
"I'm tired. If you're going to keep me tied up like this, don't make me talk anymore."
It was the strange person's order to leave.
He wouldn't answer any more even if Kong Na-chu asked further questions now.
"...Understood."
Kong Na-chu stood there for a while longer before turning and exiting the cave hole. Now he would commence his sortie to Xinjiang as soon as he went outside. Though he was leaving without being completely reassured.
As he completely disappeared into the darkness, the strange person began some sort of murmuring. Though there was no one to understand, he didn't stop.
"Sacrificing to Heaven Illusion God Blood Wave Motion Desolation..."
That was...
The Lord's prayer of the Sacrificial Illusion Blood Cult, long forgotten in the Central Plains.
***
The battle that began in the morning continued fiercely until the sun rose to its zenith, and intensified much more as Jiangshi crossed over Muhwa Gate or the Murim Alliance's walls.
The sites where gorgeous and magnificent buildings had stood were stained red and devastated, so that now it was impossible to distinguish where buildings had stood and where roads had been.
Countless victims were naturally produced in the endless combat and were still steadily increasing even now. There was no way to count how many had died.
Even the survivors fell into a state of panic at the thought that they didn't know when they might die. Dying at the hands of Jiangshi, or being swept up in those two's fight and dying.
Even the Martial World masters were no exception.
***
Hwa Seon-hyang couldn't come to her senses.
It was too sudden.
Everything, all events were flowing far too abruptly—and horribly at that.
'What is this? Wasn't it during the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament finals?'
It certainly had been.
Dong Bong-soo and Eul Ji-chu had kicked off the start of the finals.
The atmosphere around the arena had heated up and people had shouted loudly.
But now...
In a different sense, the Murim Alliance was burning hot, and people were screaming their heads off.
Screams ran rampant in all directions and fresh blood was abundant.
The face of Hwa Ye-ji standing next to her biting her lower lip hard looked especially pale in contrast. Her own face probably wasn't much different.
Thud-thud-thud...
"Gyaaah—!"
"Waaaah—!"
Martial Jiangshi with severed heads and limbs were indiscriminately killing people. They were surging into the Murim Alliance endlessly, inward and inward.
She turned her head left and right.
Even through the gaps between collapsed buildings in the distance, Jiangshi were pouring in indiscriminately.
The distinction between Jiangshi and people was truly easy.
Black clothes, black bamboo hats.
Though most were now stripped off, Jiangshi nevertheless had another characteristic that made them easily distinguishable.
Black Death Energy rose faintly from the Jiangshi's bodies, and also their body parts were twisted here and there or severed. Even if Jiangshi had intact full bodies, their eyes were dead and black.
Eyes of the dead.
If you think it's a living corpse, it's invariably a Jiangshi.
Thud—!
The senior martial brother who had been protecting her from the front had his head completely smashed by a fist swung by a Jiangshi. He was the one remaining senior martial brother.
The other senior martial brothers had long ago...
Died.
Now among the people who came from Mount Hua Sect, the only ones alive were herself and her junior martial sister Hwa Ye-ji standing beside her...
"Ah..."
Was this a dream? Was it not reality?
She wanted to believe so.
She simply kept backing away. But there was a limit to backing away too. Because behind her, an even worse massacre was taking place.
The woman disguised as a man who always watched over Big Brother Dong was rampaging madly while spouting streams of black, pitch-dark energy. Each time her hand moved, people melted into pools of blood in heaps.
The Death Energy flowing from the Jiangshi's bodies grew that much stronger.
"Gyaaah—"
The Jiangshi that killed her senior martial brother charged at Hwa Seon-hyang.
She urgently raised her sword to block the Jiangshi.
That's when it happened.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, slice, thud-thud-thud!
From somewhere, a great blade came flying while spinning round and round, blowing away both of the Jiangshi's arms in an instant.
"So you're still alive."
Following that, with a heavy thud-thud footstep, a man with a solid and broad back blocked the Jiangshi's path.
He pulled out his great blade that had been embedded diagonally in the ground after cutting the Jiangshi's arms and split the Jiangshi in two completely.
"Kk-gyaaah..."
"If you're dead, just keep sleeping the sleep you were sleeping. You rotten bastard."
The Jiangshi made a bizarre sound with its half-remaining mouth while writhing. The man who struck down his blade again at that Jiangshi's mouth while gruffly snapping at it was...
"Big Brother Paeng!"
"Family Head Paeng..."
It was Paeng Ho-ryu.
Paeng Ho-ryu raised his Five Tiger Gate-Breaking Saber again with his back to Hwa Seon-hyang and Hwa Ye-ji while saying.
"Don't be too glad to see me. I've barely got breath in me myself."
Indeed, his shoulder was still injured and gradually worsening.
The bandage that had been wrapped around his shoulder had already become a rag fluttering in the airflow, and the wound that had barely begun to heal had torn open with blood oozing out soggily.
Moving forcibly in such a state, his body was becoming even more of a complete wreck.
"Still better than Brother Dong though. He's blocking that monster alone over there."
He spoke while striking down his Five Tiger Gate-Breaking Saber toward another charging Jiangshi.
"Eurya-aaaah!"
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
A hegemon-like Blade Wave arose and enveloped the surroundings.
Then it immediately swept toward Hwa Seon-hyang and Hwa Ye-ji's front. The Jiangshi that had been surging forward in front of him and then were torn to rags in heaps and scattered in the air.
It was Sweeping the Four Seas, the first form of the Five Tiger Gate-Breaking Saber Technique he had created.
Whoosh—
The aftermath of the Blade Wave soon calmed down, and a strong wind blew with a KABOOM— roar from far away.
Paeng Ho-ryu hurriedly blocked the two women's front and looked that way.
About three hundred-some meters away behind them, Dong Bong-soo's blood-red sword and Yeon Yeong-ha's black claws were fiercely clashing.