Chapter 320
Chapter 320
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 87
>Chapter Title: Fragments of Truth (1)
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-Crack! Craaaack!
The walls of the lodging building began to split, and even the roof tiles started to shatter.
Mara Hyun's heart pounded fiercely as he stood on the roof tiles.
Even from quite a distance away, the waves of killing intent spreading in all directions made him feel death despite being alive.
It was the first time he had seen a mere human's killing intent roil with such agitation.
"Amitabha. I thought the young master's body was filled with demonic energy, but it turns out he is the demonic energy itself."
Ja Geum-jeong, the broken precept monk standing below the roof with arms crossed, fiddled with his shattered prayer beads and recited a sutra for the first time in ages.
Demonic grudges.
Buddhist scriptures refer to demons in various ways.
One of them is demonic grudges, also called demon armies, princely demons... or Heavenly Demons.
Ja Geum-jeong, who had mastered the Infinite Great Ability, could sense the energy of the great nature.
'Even the energy of the great nature is churning.'
Everything that existed was afraid of that killing intent.
Just how furious did one have to be to emit killing intent of this magnitude?
Ja Geum-jeong looked toward Mok Kyung-un.
His form, shrouded in emanating demonic energy, was the embodiment of a demonic grudge.
-Rooooooar!
'W-what the hell is this guy?'
Yi Gwang, floating in midair caught by Mok Kyung-un's true energy, wore an expression of terror for the first time in his life.
Even when he had first met that lord, he hadn't felt this afraid.
He had merely been overwhelmed by the pressure, but now his heart raced so violently he could barely meet his eyes.
'Why... why is he doing this?'
Yi Gwang was terrified yet bewildered.
Why was the person he sought none other than that old man Mun No?
He had thought that old man had no blood relatives or anything of the sort—it made no sense.
Gritting through the fear, Yi Gwang parted his lips.
And toward this immense killing intent and evil heart that made him feel terror for the first time.
"Wha... what... mis... understanding..."
-Swish!
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un lightly raised his hand.
Then he flicked it slightly to the right.
-Splurt! Craaaack!
No sooner had he done so than Yi Gwang's right arm was forcibly lifted, then torn off to the right.
"Kuaaaaaagh!"
Even though the arm he had painstakingly reattached was torn off again, the pain was beyond imagination.
Blood sprayed out like a fountain as Yi Gwang gasped raggedly.
Thanks to his yokai power's regenerative ability, the torn area was healing quickly, but having a perfectly fine arm ripped off was agonizing.
'D-damn it! It hurts. It hurts so much. Kuooo.'
It hurt even more than when it was first severed.
He felt like he would rather die.
As Yi Gwang inadvertently raised his head in agony and met Mok Kyung-un's eyes.
Just from that eye contact, in that instant,
-Slashslashslashslashslashslashslashslash!
He was seized by an illusion of his entire body being hacked apart by swords.
And it wasn't fleeting.
It was as if he were meat bound in a slaughterhouse, unable to move a twitch, endlessly slashed without respite—and it felt eternal.
Like it would continue all day, no, for days.
-Pfsh! Pfsh!
'What the hell?'
Seop Chun, who had retreated due to the killing intent, couldn't hide his astonishment at the bizarre sight.
Yi Gwang was convulsing, his body automatically slashing itself as blood poured out.
No aura was felt beforehand—it was so eerie and bizarre it sent chills down his spine.
"Hah!"
Then Yi Gwang arched his back violently, exhaling roughly, and black blood vomited from his mouth.
His pupils shook madly as he spewed black blood like he was retching it up.
What was that just now?
It felt like days of being butchered, yet when he came to, it had been but an instant.
He thought it was merely an illusion, but his whole body was drenched in blood, and even his organs felt utterly ravaged.
"Kuoooooo."
It hurt too much.
It was so painful he even wished for death.
Thus, Yi Gwang pleaded.
"P-please... stop... please stop..."
"If you tire out from just this, it'll be a problem. We're only getting started."
-Swish!
This time, Mok Kyung-un flicked his hand slightly to the left.
-Splurt! Craaaack!
No sooner had he done so than Yi Gwang's left arm lifted, was yanked to the left, and torn off.
"Kuaaaaaagh!"
Blood vessels burst in Yi Gwang's whites of the eyes, turning both red.
Even bloody tears streamed down.
His body couldn't die easily due to the yokai power repairing it, making it all the more tormenting.
Knowing this, Mok Kyung-un inflicted pain without using demonic or death energy.
To the agonized man, Mok Kyung-un said.
"Why did you do it?"
"Kuoooo. Wh-what..."
"I'm asking why you killed Mun No."
"I... I..."
-Stab!
"Guhk!
Mok Kyung-un's hand plunged into his hesitating abdomen.
Piercing even the tough scales effortlessly, Mok Kyung-un gripped his organs with his hand.
"Kuaaaaaaaaagh!"
Surface wounds were painful enough, but direct agony to the organs made Yi Gwang tremble as if he would faint any second.
Even the only clothing he wore, his lower garment, was staining with bodily fluids and blood.
'I... I need to die.'
Feeling he couldn't endure, Yi Gwang resolved to an extreme choice.
He couldn't move his body, but he could still circulate his energy internally, so he planned to induce death by causing it to rampage.
As he tried to draw up his energy,
-Grip!
"Huhk!"
The hand buried in his abdomen had shifted toward his dantian.
As Mok Kyung-un's hand touched the dantian,
-Shhhh!
The gathered internal energy corroded and dispersed like by some strange force.
The scattered energy slipped from his control, steaming out through his skin like heat haze.
"Uuuuuh."
As the energy drained, the scales on his skin gradually lost color.
The pain he had felt until now doubled, tripled.
Even the slightest movement of the hand in his abdomen made him wish for death.
"Kuaaaaaah, please! Please just kill me."
"Can't do that."
"Kill... kill me..."
At his suffering form, Mok Kyung-un grinned so chillingly his mouth reached both ears.
Seeing it, Yi Gwang felt like he would go mad.
This guy was enjoying the situation.
His pleas for death only prolonged the guy's pleasure.
He wanted to grit his teeth and endure, but ever since falling into fear once, that will had long been broken.
Enduring itself was impossible.
"Uuuuuuu."
"You don't even have to answer my questions. Just keep suffering like that."
This was sincere.
Mok Kyung-un intended to give him pain worse than hell, not fleeting but sustained indefinitely.
He hadn't sought him out for a one-time end.
Yet Yi Gwang strained to speak.
"Wha...t ex...actly... what relation... do you have... with Mun No... to do... this to me?"
"Ah, right. Yeah. You need to know that."
Mok Kyung-un nodded, turned toward Seop Chun with a smile, and said.
"Seop Chun. Go over there for a bit?"
"Y-yes, understood."
-Shoot!
At Mok Kyung-un's command, Seop Chun, pale-faced from watching, hurriedly shot his form toward the lodging building.
Once he left, Mok Kyung-un turned back and said.
"Yes. You need to know why you're suffering."
"Uuuuuu."
"He's my grandfather."
'!?'
At those words, Yi Gwang's eyes widened.
He doubted his own ears.
Mun No was his grandfather?
"Th-that... what?"
"It's exactly as you heard. Mun No is my grandfather."
"No way? I thought Mun No had no blood relatives... Huh?"
The burning house flashed in Yi Gwang's mind.
He had thought that crazy old coot Sea Ying Pill Immortal had noticed their approach, erased traces of living there, and fled by burning the house.
But that wasn't it.
The house was burned not to erase traces of his own residence.
It was to hide this guy.
To conceal the being he was with.
'Wait... then what about my First Realm Ghost Sword Merit...'
-Thud!
"Kuaaaaaagh!"
At that moment, Mok Kyung-un gripped his intestines.
Yi Gwang screamed in pain.
To him, Mok Kyung-un said.
"Not blood-related, but no need to be so surprised—you seem to know something? Is that why you killed my grandfather?"
"P-please let go... kuoooo."
"Does it hurt? Endure it. You'll get used to it soon enough."
This mad bastard gripping his organs—get used to what?
Was this guy truly a devil?
His shaking pupils reflected Mok Kyung-un, emanating demonic energy like a fiend incarnate.
At that sight, Yi Gwang was dumbfounded.
The words that old Holy Flame Spirit Lord had spoken.
He recalled the prophecy's original text.
[The incarnation of Ahriman, who will dye the sacred flames black with evil, shall appear in the present world—beware.]
That lord had said the prophecy referred to a being beyond human, nonexistent in the world.
An existence different from spirits or imae-mang-ryang, an evil that must be eradicated.
Indeed, he and everyone had assumed it was some inhuman entity.
But it seemed they were mistaken.
'...No way.'
To have it so close and not recognize it.
A monster of five talents who, at not even seventeen and a half—too late to even learn martial arts—reached grandmaster realm.
No ordinary human could achieve that.
'Hah?'
Yi Gwang raised his head and stared at Mok Kyung-un.
Blaze Transformation Cult's Chief Protector... the existence that Sea Ying Pill Immortal Mun No had desperately hidden...
It was none other than,
"You... it was you."
".......What are you talking about?"
"You were the incarnation of Ahriman in the prophecy."
'!?'