Chapter 157: Naek's Left Eye
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 157: Naek's Left Eye
With those words, the Hyeolgwi kicked off the ground and began to swarm forward.
They smashed through the room’s walls, charging inside.
[ Stop. ]
At that moment, a beautiful voice echoed out, and the bodies of the charging Hyeolgwi froze in unison.
Then, their bodies began to swell before exploding one by one.
Seeing this, Jin Yong-nyeo’s eyebrow twitched.
Her expression filled with deep displeasure, she stared down at the scattered remains of the Hyeolgwi on the floor.
‘An ability that uses blood.’
Though she didn’t know what it was, Jin Yong-nyeo sensed it was a special power from another world. She pulled a few more needles from her lapel.
“So you won’t go down so easily, is that it?”
As she spoke, the needles she threw flew through the air and embedded themselves in the Hyeolgwi once more.
The Hyeolgwi, their faces now turning purple, rose to their feet again.
She was the Blood Demon, Jin Yong-nyeo, master of the reanimated dead.
If her Hyeolgwi were rendered useless this easily, she, the leader of the Blood Sect, would become a laughingstock.
Just then, the rich scent of plum blossoms tickled her nose.
When Jin Yong-nyeo lifted her head, she saw a wandering warrior with striking plum-blossom-colored hair standing there.
“Do Hwa!”
Jin Yong-nyeo’s crimson eyes widened as a bewitching smile spread across her lips.
“You have no idea how much I’ve been looking forward to this!”
As she cried out and thrust her hand forward, the Hyeolgwi charged once more.
Blood gushed from their bodies again, but the Hyeolgwi did not stop.
Jin Yong-nyeo had already taken countermeasures.
“So you can use blood a little, too.”
At that moment, another voice spoke, and a girl with her left eye closed appeared.
It was Naek, a girl with an otherwise ordinary appearance, who grinned playfully.
“But I think I’m a cut above you, don’t you?”
The charging Hyeolgwi suddenly lurched to a halt.
“Huh?”
As the Hyeolgwi began to turn toward her, Jin Yong-nyeo’s expression shifted to one of confusion.
Her fingers continued to move, but the Hyeolgwi showed no signs of stopping.
“What in the world, how?!”
Jin Yong-nyeo shrieked in disbelief.
Her hands moved frantically, but the Hyeolgwi continued to rush toward her.
Seeing this, Jin Yong-nyeo’s eyes widened in alarm before her expression hardened in an instant.
She raised a hand and grabbed one of the Hyeolgwi by the head, slamming it into the ground.
But that wasn’t all.
She moved continuously, smashing the Hyeolgwi to pieces one after another.
As the situation unfolded in a flash, Naek’s eyes went wide.
“So those things weren’t the real deal?”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
Jin Yong-nyeo’s hair whipped through the air as she spoke.
Her red pupils, visible between her eyeliner, flashed menacingly.
Having obliterated the Hyeolgwi in an instant, Jin Yong-nyeo cracked her knuckles.
“Do you know why they call me the Blood Demon?”
She slowly swept her bangs back from her face.
“It’s because I myself, as the leader of the Blood Sect, am a vessel of great power.”
To Jin Yong-nyeo, other reanimated corpses were nothing more than a bonus.
Her own body was already composed of one.
“So move aside while I’m asking nicely. I have more important matters to attend to right now.”
“Wow, Do Hwa, you’re so popular.”
Naek sighed and drew a red spear.
“But what to do? Do Hwa isn’t here.”
“Do Hwa isn’t here?”
Jin Yong-nyeo’s eyes wavered.
The flower petals that had been swirling behind her began to slowly fade away.
“It seems Do Hwa really didn’t want to see you. I helped him prepare with a little martial arts.”
“Hah?”
In that instant, Do Hwa’s presence vanished completely.
Seeing this, Jin Yong-nyeo’s eyes contorted with fury.
“Did you think luring me here would accomplish something?”
Her figure blurred.
With a burst of footwork, she charged toward Naek.
She was the Blood Demon.
Her plan was to not only break through this pathetic trap but also kill Naek and escape immediately.
The blood-red spear and crimson claws began to clash wildly.
With each impact, the walls and surroundings were blown away, leaving a trail of destruction.
The battle between Jin Yong-nyeo and Naek raged on.
However, their skills seemed remarkably similar, and a victor was not easily decided.
Naek’s clothes were torn, and blood splattered from Jin Yong-nyeo’s body.
After another fierce exchange that left them both battered, they were thrown back from each other.
The two caught their breath, glaring at one another.
Naek, having recovered her breath, spun her spear and gave a slight, smiling crinkle of her eyes.
“You’re pretty good, aren’t you?”
“You too.”
Jin Yong-nyeo replied, tearing off the tattered sleeve of her arm.
“I have no intention of dragging this out any longer, either.”
As she said this, red needles suddenly shot out from her body.
A crimson heat began to radiate from her.
Veins bulged on Jin Yong-nyeo’s arms as they swelled up.
As if she had released a limiter, the sight was bizarrely contrasted with her slender frame.
Crack.
Jin Yong-nyeo clenched her fist hard enough to make her bones pop and offered a grim smile.
“I didn’t want to show you this form, but I need to end this quickly.”
With those words, she vanished again.
‘Fast!’
Naek hurriedly raised her spear to block.
Jin Yong-nyeo’s fist slammed into the spear without hesitation.
CRACK!
In that instant, Naek’s spear shattered.
The fist that broke the spear continued onward, crashing into Naek.
CRASH!
Naek was sent tumbling across the floor, smashing through several walls.
Coming to a stop against a half-collapsed wall, Naek felt her head spin and her stomach churn.
“Keuk.”
Drip.
As if some of her internal organs had been damaged, Naek spat out a mouthful of blood.
Naek grimaced, her eye twitching, and staggered to her feet.
“Why are you getting up? A few of your bones must be shattered.”
As Jin Yong-nyeo voiced her confusion, Naek spat out another glob of blood and tossed aside her broken spear.
“I know, right? It’s just… I really hate stalkers.”
At that moment, Naek’s closed eyelid began to slowly open.
“I just can’t let this go.”
The moment Jin Yong-nyeo looked at Naek with a puzzled expression, her body suddenly began to stiffen.
Naek’s opened eye was completely empty.
Within it, a single point of red light resided. The moment Jin Yong-nyeo saw it, tears of blood began to stream from her eyes.
“Time for your punishment, stalker.”
Simultaneously, everything around them began to turn blood-red.
Saaaaa—
In that single moment, Jin Yong-nyeo realized it.
She had just come face to face with something she should never have encountered.
The moment she saw even the walls turning crimson, Jin Yong-nyeo kicked off the ground and began to run.
It was a purely animalistic instinct.
From the moment she recognized that death was the only outcome if she didn’t escape, she did nothing but run.
But no matter how far she ran, she realized she could see nothing but a space filled with blood.
At the same time, the blood flowing from her eyes began to increase.
‘What… what in the world is this.’
Having never experienced anything like this in her life, she could feel all her senses beginning to break down.
I’m going to die.
Death began to tighten its grip around her neck.
Her breath caught in her throat.
She felt a sensation as if all her hair was falling out at once.
Her vision turned black.
In that moment, as something beyond her comprehension constricted around her…
“Haaak!”
Her hair turned stark white and her face wrinkled in terror as she realized she was collapsed on a beach.
In that instant, Jin Yong-nyeo understood that she had only been thrashing on the floor, her legs kicking uselessly.
As if her mind had completely shattered, she could do nothing but open and close her mouth like a fish out of water.
Realizing all her senses were destroyed, she lay there in a pool of her own blood.
Clack, clack—
The sound of heels striking the floor echoed out.
When Jin Yong-nyeo managed to turn her eyes, she saw Naek standing there.
“This is what happens when you mess with my Do Hwa. Got it?”
Jin Yong-nyeo wanted to scream something, but she couldn’t utter a single sound before her eyes closed.
*
16
“Cheon Hong-ryeon!”
Yeopyeonggang burst through the crimson flower petals.
His body was dyed a deep violet, and his eyes were wide as he scanned his surroundings.
But the space was empty.
“Show yourself, now!”
Yeopyeonggang’s voice echoed through the area.
It was like a Lion’s Roar, powerful enough to shake the very walls.
“Hah, you truly are no different from a beast. You can’t even see what’s right in front of you.”
At the voice that whispered by his ear, Yeopyeonggang’s head snapped up.
In the empty space before him, a woman had appeared at some point.
With a beautiful face framed by red hair that looked as if it were carved from camellias, she stared down at Yeopyeonggang with an incredibly arrogant expression.
Facing him, Cheon Hong-ryeon let out a bored yawn.
“Did you really come all this way to capture me with only that much power?”
When Cheon Hong-ryeon asked as if she couldn’t believe it, Yeopyeonggang bit his lip so hard it could have drawn blood.
Despite having trained endlessly since he last saw her, reaching a level where he could be called one of the strongest in Murim…
In this moment, he realized he still couldn’t reach her.
But he had no intention of admitting that fact.
And so, in defiance of Cheon Hong-ryeon, he drew forth even more Magi.
A violent, violet energy flared up around him.
But even as Yeopyeonggang burned with fighting spirit, Cheon Hong-ryeon’s expression remained bored.
‘Damn bitch.’
Yeopyeonggang hated that expression.
That perpetually arrogant air of hers always drove him mad.
‘Soon, I’ll make it so you can never lift that face again.’
He had a hidden card up his sleeve.
Tucked inside his robes was a needle personally designed by the Blood Demon, one that would instantly force her to descend as the True Heavenly Demon the moment it touched her.
The instant this touched her, it was over.
“It seems you have some sort of scheme.”
Cheon Hong-ryeon looked at Yeopyeonggang with an expression of pity.
“But is there any reason for me to face you directly?”
“Hah? Is the Heavenly Demon thinking of turning her back on me now?!”
“Heavenly Demon? How long ago was that?”
She scoffed at Yeopyeonggang.
“If you want to live in the past, be my guest. I have no intention of dealing with you.”
The moment she spun around, plum blossom petals swirled through the air.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
Yeopyeonggang immediately lunged after her.
Clang!
But just before he could reach Cheon Hong-ryeon, a single sword blocked his path.
Appearing where the plum blossom petals had passed was none other than Do Hwa.
Seeing him block his attack with a single sword, Yeopyeonggang’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“Do Hwa, are you in your right mind?”
“I have always been in my right mind.”
Yeopyeonggang’s eyes contorted fiercely.
He was already short on time to fight Cheon Hong-ryeon, and now he had to deal with Do Hwa. The anger boiled inside him.
Yeopyeonggang unleashed the violet Magi coiling around his arms with even greater intensity.
“I have no time to waste on the likes of you! Get lost, now!”
Yeopyeonggang roared, intending to swat Do Hwa aside.
But in response, Do Hwa’s plum blossoms began to bloom even more fiercely.
Amidst the swirling petals, Do Hwa’s eyes met Yeopyeonggang’s.
“Shouldn’t the affairs that began in Murim be ended by Murim?”