Chapter 358
Chapter 358
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 94
>Chapter Title: Extreme Blade (4)
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In the forging of any sword, the most crucial step lies in the finishing.
That was the infusion of the sword heart.
Whether the sword became a famed blade or a mere butcher's tool, or remained an ordinary weapon, all hinged on whether that sword heart took hold.
-Shhk! Shhk!
The eyes of the old man, who was honing and refining the blade with every ounce of his soul, were one with the sword itself.
In his lifetime, he had poured his very spirit into creating a blade that surpassed all others, and now, the greatest sword was on the verge of birth.
-Shhk! Shhk!
As the elder focused solely on infusing the sword heart, a furrow formed between his brows.
In his trance, he heard nothing and saw nothing.
In fact, when fully immersed, he forsook even food and sleep.
Yet,
-Zzt!
Something pierced his heightened senses.
The aura was so overwhelming that it dragged him from his trance even at this most critical moment.
The wrinkles on the old man's brow deepened.
Soon, the supreme sword—his clan's long-cherished dream—would emerge from his hands.
'No.'
If his focus broke now, everything would be ruined.
Infusing the sword heart required his utter devotion; releasing his grip here would render all his efforts for naught.
In a way, this might be a trial.
A trial from the heavens, aimed at his clan and himself as they sought to surpass it.
'I must not waver.'
The elder desperately tried to steady his mind.
But once disrupted, his spirit refused to slip back into that trance state easily.
It was because that overwhelming aura wasn't one, but two.
Both had transcended the wall of walls.
'......'
Cracks began to form in the elder's composure.
What in the world was happening outside?
* * *
-Shoosh!
Mok Kyung-un accelerated, launching his form toward Gu Ung-seong—the second son of Spirit Sword Manor's former clan head—who was plummeting toward the ravine below. He extended his hand.
To minimize true qi expenditure, he unleashed the Grasping Form of the Eight Forms of Breaking Directions.
The Grasping Form pulled in anything.
-Shwaaaah!
Fortunately, he'd caught up immediately after the slip, halting Gu Ung-seong's fall mid-descent with the Grasping Form.
'Got him.'
As Mok Kyung-un manipulated his sword control seal,
-Pfuk!
The Demon Sword Fear Slaughter, flying via sword control, embedded itself into the ravine wall.
-Thud!
Standing atop Fear Slaughter's blade, Mok Kyung-un intensified the Grasping Form.
Gu Ung-seong's body shot upward in the opposite direction.
If he caught the incoming Gu Ung-seong and pulled them both up to the cliff above, that would—
-Twitch!
In that instant, Mok Kyung-un twisted his waist slightly and swung the Demon Sword Evil Instant.
-Clang!
It was the Blade Fiend's broadsword.
'Blade control with qi?'
The clash's force propelled Mok Kyung-un's form backward at even greater speed.
To counter, Mok Kyung-un kicked off the air, executing Sky Treading, to avoid plummeting below.
-Pahng!
But the blade shot in swiftly, forcing him to block.
-Clang!
-Slash!
"Argh!"
The moment he parried, a scream erupted from below.
Glancing down, he saw the Blade Fiend had severed Gu Ung-seong's hand with his blade qi.
The Blade Fiend's immediate goal was the pearl clutched in Gu Ung-seong's hand.
His lips curled wickedly as he reached for the severed wrist.
'To think I'd claim another origin pearl here...'
-Pahng!
In that instant, the severed wrist clutching the pearl—hurtling toward him via Sky Grasping—halted in midair.
'!?'
The stopped wrist trembled violently in the air.
The Blade Fiend glared up at Mok Kyung-un.
To deny him the wrist, Mok Kyung-un had unleashed Sky Grasping with his other hand.
'You won't yield it easily, eh? Fine.'
-Shoosh! Thunk!
The Blade Fiend recalled his qi-controlled blade,
-Pahng!
kicked off the air with Sky Grasping, embedded his blade into the ravine cliff, and clung to it.
Stabilizing his stance, the Blade Fiend drew up more true qi.
Unintentionally, it devolved into a true qi clash.
-Tremble tremble tremble!
The hand suspended in midair inched slowly toward the Blade Fiend.
Having absorbed origin pearls, the Blade Fiend was confident in his inner power.
'Ah?'
At this, Mok Kyung-un considered halting the Eight Forms of Breaking Directions with his right hand.
On second thought, with the hand holding the pearl severed, there was no reason to save Gu Ung-seong anymore.
As he withdrew the force directed at Gu Ung-seong,
-Pahng!
In that moment, Gu Ung-seong's body didn't plummet but surged upward.
'Rising?'
-Twitch!
Bewildered by the sight, both Mok Kyung-un and the Blade Fiend looked up with gleaming eyes.
An extraordinary aura emanated from above.
On the cliff above stood an old man gripping a sword.
"Clan Head Gu!"
"The clan head is here!"
"Wooooaaah!!!"
From the cheers echoing above, Mok Kyung-un instinctively knew this was the lord of Spirit Sword Manor—one of the Six Heavens—Gu Cheon-mu.
Yet the clan head's face, peering down, was contorted with explosive rage.
-Thunk!
"Urgh... F-Father?"
Gu Cheon-mu seized the hem of his suffering second son's clothes—clutching his severed arm—and hurled him backward.
"Hngh!"
The instant he tossed his son onto the cliff above, Gu Cheon-mu declared,
"Both of you interlopers will pay for disrupting my manor."
-Gooooong!
Manifesting a colossal sword aura nearly ten feet long, he unleashed a sword strike toward those locked in true qi clash against the wall just below the cliff.
-Shwa shwa shwa shwa shwa shwa!
Mok Kyung-un and the Blade Fiend abandoned their true qi contest as countless trajectories of弹 sword aura stormed forth.
This was the full-force sword strike of Gu Cheon-mu, clan head of Spirit Sword Manor and one of the Six Heavens, the pinnacle of the present martial world.
It wasn't something they could block while dangling from the cliff in a true qi duel.
-Thunk!
The Blade Fiend yanked his broadsword from the cliff and kicked off.
Launching toward the incoming弹 sword aura strike, he ignited blade aura and unleashed a blade strike.
'Second Form: Blade Apex Subduing Form!'
Likewise, Mok Kyung-un used the rebound from Fear Slaughter's blade—his foothold—to vault upward, executing the first form of the Demonic Sword Art.
-Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!
In an instant, at the ravine's drop point along the cliff, a clash of supreme techniques unfolded among three peerless masters.
Normally, the one holding the high ground held the advantage, but since both Mok Kyung-un and the Blade Fiend had surpassed the wall of walls, position mattered little.
Their technique trajectories sparked like shooting stars with every clash.
-Clang clang clang clang clang!
The aftermath was so fierce that the ravine cliff cracked, fragments scattering wildly.
Thus, the clash of techniques between these Six Heavens-caliber peerless masters ended in,
-Boooom!
a deadlock.
Unable to withstand the shockwave in midair—without solid footing—the three were repelled in opposite directions from their strikes.
Gu Cheon-mu, striking from above, was fortunate to be flung upward, landing safely on the cliff amid the people.
-Thud!
"Clan Head!"
The sword guards called out.
But Gu Cheon-mu extended a hand, signaling them to stay back.
-Shhk!
"Ah!"
Having halted them, the clan head soon grimaced.
-Drip drip.
Black blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Even one-on-one, these foes were hard to gauge, yet trusting his high-ground advantage and fueled by rage, he'd unleashed his sword strike—only to suffer internal injuries instead.
Not only had his final sword heart alignment been interrupted, but seeing the strewn corpses in the sword forge and his second son's severed arm left him no choice but to vent his fury.
Yet,
'Who the hell are these two?'
As a master swordsmith, he took pride above all, but as a sword guard standing at the martial world's apex, he knew every notable figure.
Even he had neither heard of nor seen these two before.
Though merely one exchange of techniques, he realized upon clashing that both were peerless masters who matched him without yielding an inch.
-Pat!
Briefly regulating his internal injuries with a breathing technique, Gu Cheon-mu launched his form and peered down the cliff.
The clash's shockwave was immense; they must have plummeted below.
If it were an ordinary ravine, it would pose no issue for them, but
'Valley winds will be fierce.'
For some geographic reason, ferocious valley winds howled here.
Falling in meant even ropes wouldn't easily haul them up.
The deeper the fall, the worse it got.
Delay meant risking being swept away by the violent gales.
Yet,
'No?'
Gu Cheon-mu frowned.
Rather than climbing back up from deeper in the ravine, they were plummeting while still fighting—for some reason—in that state.
-Whoooosh!
In the ravine battered by raging valley winds.
-Clang clang clang clang clang!
Propelled faster by their clash's aftermath, Mok Kyung-un and the Blade Fiend fiercely dueled in midair, swords and blade colliding.
Throughout, their gazes never wavered from one spot.
It was Gu Ung-seong's severed hand clutching the pearl.
-Clang clang!
The Blade Fiend extended his left hand, attempting Sky Grasping to retrieve the pearl-clutched hand falling alongside them into the ravine.
Of course, Mok Kyung-un wouldn't allow it.
-Thunk!
Mid-fall, he hurled the recovered Demon Sword Fear Slaughter, unleashing qi sword control.
-Pfuk!
The flying qi sword pierced the wrist like a skewer, snatching it.
Though the Blade Fiend's Sky Grasping was profound true qi, it couldn't match the qi imbued in the qi sword.
The qi sword veered off in another direction.
'Heavenly Demon, you pest!'
-Screeech!
The Blade Fiend swung his blade fiercely at Mok Kyung-un.
As Mok Kyung-un parried with equal force, the Blade Fiend used the momentum to propel himself.
Naturally, toward the Demon Sword Fear Slaughter skewering the wrist.
'He covets it fiercely.'
-Shhk!
Mok Kyung-un manipulated his sword control seal to redirect Fear Slaughter elsewhere.
But,
-Whoooosh!
Blasted by a fierce valley wind, the sword wobbled and veered wildly off course.
'He'll miss it.'
-Pahng!
The Blade Fiend kicked the air with Sky Treading, twisting his trajectory likewise.
Falling amid the ravine with winds too violent for balance, his propelled form via Sky Treading closed in on Fear Slaughter.
His hand was a mere breath from Fear Slaughter's hilt.
That very instant.
-Twitch!
The Blade Fiend hurriedly twisted his body.
-Thunk!
-Slash!
A black line sliced through the air, vaporizing everything below his right elbow—his forearm unable to fully evade.
'!!!!!!'
Having lost his right arm, the Blade Fiend glared with a twisted face at where the black line had grazed.
There stood Mok Kyung-un, having recovered even Fear Slaughter.
'What was that just now?'
For a split second, he felt power converging to a single point.
Its might and speed left utterly no room to dodge.
Mok Kyung-un, who had claimed the Blade Fiend's right arm, smacked his lips.
He'd held back that converged single stroke for precisely such a perfect moment—pity he hadn't killed him.
'Well, taking his right arm isn't bad.'
A one-armed foe's combat power would inevitably drop...
'!?'
Then Mok Kyung-un's eyes narrowed.
From the vanished elbow of the Blade Fiend's right arm, bone began slowly regenerating, veins and muscles intertwining.
It was regeneration beyond mere swift recovery.
The lost part was growing back as if anew.
Noting Mok Kyung-un's reaction, the Blade Fiend curled his lips and spoke in a meaningful tone.
"This seat is a being nigh unto immortality."
'Immortality?'
Instantly, words from the one who called himself a prophet flashed through Mok Kyung-un's mind.
[Due to one immortal being, the vast organization and descendants you build—nay, the entire martial world—will face peril.]
[He is a peerless powerhouse pursuing the apex of the blade, and his appearance now means he seeks to kill you and sever your lineage.]
Could this be the very one the prophet warned of?
Come to think of it, it was odd.
From their first sight, he'd acted as if he knew him.
As if he knew the future...
-Woooong!
It was then.
The severed wrist embedded in Demon Sword Fear Slaughter.
More precisely, the pearl gripped in Gu Ung-seong's hand trembled violently, emitting a blinding light.
[Chapter 94: Extreme Blade (4)] End