Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 28
>Chapter Title: Treasure Trove (4)
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‘Oh no...’
Cheongnyeong watched the tall young man approaching Mok Kyung-un, deep in thought.
Judging by the look in that mortal youth’s eyes as he drew closer, his intentions didn’t seem benevolent.
Right now, Mok Kyung-un was lost in enlightenment from the mental image, fully immersed in a trance.
It went beyond mere concentration—if disturbed in this state, his energy could reverse flow, potentially leading to qi deviation.
‘No way he’s thinking of touching that mortal, is he?’
That’s exactly what it looked like.
She hesitated, wondering if she should break out of the wooden doll to intervene.
As his familiar spirit, their fates were linked as one.
-Swish!
Sure enough, the youth was reaching out with his hand.
‘Damn mortal bastard. Of all times, right at this crucial moment...’
That’s what she was thinking when—
-Shwaaaaa!
In that split second, the portion of death energy—his煞氣—that had left Mok Kyung-un’s body was sucked back inside as if it had never been gone.
Along with it, the dazed light in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes revived.
‘Ah!’
The returned gaze in Mok Kyung-un’s eyes gleamed with vitality and deepened.
She’d worried a heart demon might arise, but it seemed he’d achieved some success.
Confirming this, she hurriedly shouted.
-Look to your right!
At her cry, Mok Kyung-un instinctively turned his head to the side.
The moment he did, someone’s hand was heading straight for his forehead, mere inches from contact.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
The tall youth—no, Yeop Wi-seon, disciple of the Radiant Sword King—couldn’t hide his embarrassment at Mok Kyung-un’s question.
He’d reached out with ill intent, after all.
-Can’t you tell? I was trying to disrupt you, mortal.
‘Disrupt?’
-Touching someone in a trance or mental image state can trigger a heart demon. That leads to energy reversal as a side effect.
That was qi deviation.
Hearing this, Mok Kyung-un coldly stared at Yeop Wi-seon before him.
A stranger approaching with malice.
“They say intentionally disturbing someone in a trance or mental image is an act to induce a heart demon. That right?”
“......”
No answer.
That alone was enough for Mok Kyung-un to draw his own conclusion.
“So you knew and did it anyway?”
“Th-that...”
“No need for words.”
“What?”
-Pak!
“Guh!”
In an instant, Yeop Wi-seon’s head snapped back from the knife-hand strike to his throat with thumb and index finger.
He’d been caught trying to deliberately induce a heart demon, panicking and letting his guard down—but even so, that strike had been incredibly fast.
‘This, this bastard?’
What the hell?
His senses pegged the guy as merely first-rate.
So how was his hand this quick?
But there was no time to be surprised.
‘Damn it, of all places, the throat...’
Among vital points, the throat—once struck—blocked the breath in an instant, hindering free energy circulation.
Thus—
-Pak!
“Cough! Cough!”
Yeop Wi-seon coughed, spinning backward in a somersault-like flip while unleashing a kick technique to create distance.
Having been ambushed, he needed even a moment to recover.
Mok Kyung-un, however, had no intention of allowing that.
-Pat! Ta-ta-ta-tak!
Leaping up, Mok Kyung-un unleashed a flurry of kicks.
Cheongnyeong inwardly couldn’t hide her surprise at the sight.
The kicking technique Mok Kyung-un was using was the fourth form of the Pure Phantom Leg Technique: Shadowless Flash Kick.
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!
‘Damn!’
Unable to draw his sword, Yeop Wi-seon countered the incoming kicks with fist strikes.
Even if the Radiant Sword King Son Yun was famed for his swordsmanship, he wouldn’t neglect bare-handed combat.
-Chwarrr!
He blocked, but Yeop Wi-seon’s soles slid backward.
He couldn’t conceal his inner dismay.
Even accounting for the throat strike impairing his energy circulation, for him—at the peak of peak realm—to be pushed back while blocking kicks?
‘What the hell is this guy?’
His skill exceeded expectations, disconcerting.
But thinking of the ‘young lady’ watching from below fueled a surge of anger.
His original plan was ruined, and now he was thoroughly humiliated.
Thus—
“Hup!”
Switching his defensive fist form to a concise, simplified strike with his left hand, Yeop Wi-seon took hits to the chest and left shoulder—blocking Mok Kyung-un’s kicks with one fist was no easy feat—but—
-Puk!
At the same time, he drew the massive saber strapped to his back.
-Sring!
The moment he drew it, Yeop Wi-seon unleashed a saber strike.
Radiant Sun Saber Technique, third form: Single Stroke Return.
Mok Kyung-un, mid-kick technique, twisted his body sideways in a spin, creating a brief moment of airtime.
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!
-Shwaak!
Immediately after, the five bookshelves behind him were cleaved in half.
The sharp energy’s range was wider than expected.
But seeing the secret manuals halved along with the shelves drained the color from Yeop Wi-seon’s face.
‘Gasp!’
In his rage, he’d swung to cleave the bastard, but ended up slicing some thirty-odd manuals in half.
The third floor wasn’t fully packed, limiting the damage to this number, but shredding original manuals with his blade aura was a grave mistake.
‘Damn it!’
Even as a disciple of the Radiant Sword King—one of King O’s elites—he might face severe punishment.
That thought only fueled Yeop Wi-seon’s fury further.
This bastard had thoroughly botched everything.
‘No choice.’
-Pak!
Yeop Wi-seon stabbed his saber into the floor.
Concentrating energy into one hand, he formed a sharp blade aura.
His master’s massive Ceremonial Saber was too large; infusing it with aura for strikes caused excessive collateral damage.
Better to wield bare-handed aura, even if it consumed more energy.
‘I’ll kill him in one go.’
Things had gone this far; he had to finish him off.
That way, no one could claim he’d sabotaged the guy’s mental image.
‘It’s not meant for a place like this, but...’
Yeop Wi-seon assumed an extraordinary stance.
The Radiant Sun Saber Technique consisted of eleven forms, with five hidden ultimate techniques.
His master, the Radiant Sword King Son Yun, had said:
[Use the ultimate techniques only on those you must kill.]
Because each was a sure-kill move.
Warriors disliked their common forms being revealed or analyzed—but ultimates even more so.
The less analyzed, the deadlier they became.
-Pat!
Yeop Wi-seon shot forward.
‘Radiant Sun Saber Technique Ultimate, second form: Life-Reaping Recital!’
The saber’s trajectory split into five streams in an instant, converging like a whirlwind toward the center, strikes focusing and surging in.
It was his favorite ultimate; victims’ chests were obliterated entirely, ensuring death.
‘Die!’
Right then—
-Smolder...
As Mok Kyung-un gripped his sword formula, the air around his fingers shimmered like heat haze.
Blade aura had manifested.
-You!
Cheongnyeong couldn’t hide her astonishment.
It meant Mok Kyung-un had attained enlightenment, reaching the perfected peak realm.
‘This guy has blade aura?’
Yeop Wi-seon saw it too.
Seeing aura on Mok Kyung-un’s sword formula, he realized the man was at least a mature peak realm expert.
‘He hid his power.’
All the more reason to go all-out and kill him.
In that fleeting moment, Mok Kyung-un’s focus sharpened to the extreme.
‘I can see it.’
It was bizarre.
Perhaps from becoming one with the trance, experiencing forms diversely?
In Mok Kyung-un’s eyes, he could see how Yeop Wi-seon’s Life-Reaping Recital saber formula would complete its trajectory.
The moment he saw it, a faint gap appeared.
-Pat!
Confirming the gap, Mok Kyung-un moved without hesitation.
Incredibly fast.
Yeop Wi-seon smirked.
‘Fool.’
The only counter to Life-Reaping Recital was keeping distance and striking the gap when the form converged then dispersed.
Closing in like this only made the strikes fiercer, tantamount to suicide.
-Chok!
Mok Kyung-un’s sword formula plunged into the heart of that form.
The five saber strikes of Life-Reaping Recital wrapped around his sword formula, wrist, shoulder, waist, and chest, aiming to rend him into five pieces.
Right then—
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pang!
Before touching Mok Kyung-un’s body, the five aura-infused saber trajectories bounced away as one.
‘No way?’
The gap sharpened clearer.
Mok Kyung-un’s sword formula targeted it precisely.
The gap was Yeop Wi-seon’s left eye.
The aura-clad sword formula flew toward the left pupil like lightning.
‘Th-this!’
Too fast to dodge.
Right then—
-Pak!
‘!?’
Just before Mok Kyung-un’s sword formula reached the eye, someone grabbed his wrist.
Simultaneously, the wrist of Yeop Wi-seon—mid-saber strike—was seized too.
It was a slender woman in a bamboo hat.
“Young lady?”
-Thud!
“Hngh!”
Yeop Wi-seon’s wrist twisted, forcing him to his knees on the floor.
Dumbfounded, he looked up to speak—but words caught in his throat.
The gaze visible through her face veil was chillingly cold.
As if it commanded silence.
-Swish!
Having silenced Yeop Wi-seon, she turned her head.
A glint shone in her eyes beneath the veil.
Even Yeop Wi-seon, second disciple of the Radiant Sword King—one of King O’s elites—couldn’t withstand her power and knelt.
But not Mok Kyung-un.
She’d meant to force him down, but he held firm.
‘Withstanding Three Stars Internal Energy.’
Incredible.
He looked merely first-rate at a glance.
But using blade aura revealed him as a peak realm master.
She’d thought Three Stars would suffice, yet he endured.
-Pa-rururu!
“As expected of a cadet with three top honors. Stronger than most division leaders.”
At her words, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes narrowed.
She hadn’t used mid dantian energy, but her internal energy was no joke.
The faintly visible face through the veil was remarkably young.
Yet the aura emanating from her evoked the vast energy of Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom.
“......Your wrist looks delicate, yet your power is extraordinary. May I ask who you are?”
“You madman! You can’t address her like—”
-Kruk!
“Hup!”
“Quiet.”
Pressing Yeop Wi-seon’s wrist harder in warning, the bamboo-hat woman smiled and said.
“Wi So-yeon.”
‘Wi So-yeon?’
A name alone didn’t ring bells.
But she continued.
“Third disciple of the Heaven and Earth Society Leader, Wi So-yeon.”