Chapter 374
Chapter 374
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 98
>Chapter Title: Sword and Sword (4)
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Ancient texts on various exorcism arts all record it this way.
A resentful spirit with deep grudges, after enduring long years, either becomes purified or refuses to leave the living world, thereby elevating its rank.
That rank progresses from a fresh resentful spirit known as a Red Spirit, to one capable of possessing or afflicting others called a Vermilion Spirit, then to a Yellow Spirit so dangerous in harming humans that it must be exorcised without fail.
A Green Spirit that has existed for decades, influencing even surrounding objects.
A Blue Spirit that has persisted over a century, affecting a wide radius and inducing auditory and visual hallucinations.
An Indigo Spirit that has lasted over three hundred years, so formidable that even dozens of exorcists combining their powers struggle to subdue it.
Finally, the Violet Spirit, born from grudges so profound that even after centuries, they remain unresolved, ascending to a realm akin to calamity itself, embodying endless devastation.
-Roooooooar!
'Violet?'
A glint appeared in Mok Kyung-un's eyes.
Having overcome several crises together, the Blue Spirit had surpassed its original rank to reach Indigo, and now its spectral power bordered on Violet.
Yet, from the Classic of Mountains and Seas to other ancient texts, none properly described such a being, leaving its true existence unconfirmed.
'Is the spectral power itself transforming?'
Mok Kyung-un let out a hollow chuckle at the spiritual energy dyeing purple.
In the end, a resentful spirit's rank depended on the intensity of its grudge.
But then,
"Blood?"
Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu couldn't hide his bewilderment.
Blood welled up from every corner of his workshop, staining the floor red from the bottom up.
'What manner of bizarre event is this?'
Gu Cheon-mu's senses, transcending mere walls, detected the area being enveloped by an eerie aura.
This meant it was likely an illusory domain, not reality.
To escape such illusions surpassing the five senses, one's intuitive senses would need to awaken.
"Huu."
Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu circulated his pure energy and focused his mind.
'It's different.'
Mok Kyung-un turned his head at the sight.
His concerns were unfounded.
As expected of a supreme master of grandmaster caliber with profound insight, he instantly grasped the Ghost Intent Domain and responded calmly.
The Ghost Intent Domain arose from the intense obsession of a high-ranking resentful spirit.
'Blood Realm.'
The phenomenon unfolding before them was the Blue Spirit's Ghost Intent Domain, the Blood Realm.
However, this wasn't deliberately conjured but unfolded by her rage.
-Pak! Pak!
Thorns erupted from the blood-soaked surroundings, closing in.
Mok Kyung-un sent a transmission to the Blue Spirit.
-Blue Spirit... calm down.
-Move aside.
Her fury had reached its peak, directed at Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu.
Feeling it, Gu Cheon-mu,
-Woooong!
infused his sword with stellar energy.
Around the rising blue stellar energy, the blood-soaked areas rippled.
The spiritual-energy-formed Blood Realm seemed unable to withstand the intense aura.
Yet, enduring even against a supreme master's energy with mere rippling confirmed the Blue Spirit's power had exceeded its original limits.
"Young Master, there's an unknown presence in the direction you're facing. Are you truly alright?"
Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu confirmed once more.
Mok Kyung-un extended his palm as if to say not to intervene, yet killing intent brushed his skin.
Of course, aware of it, Mok Kyung-un,
-Swosh!
"Step out for now; it would be best."
Mok Kyung-un waved his hand.
Profound pure energy pushed back the blood behind Gu Cheon-mu, creating a temporary escape space.
"Hurry and go."
"Young Master, are you... "
"Go."
"Understood... "
-Slither!
It was then.
Before Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu could exit the space Mok Kyung-un created, the Blue Spirit rose from the blood on the floor.
"You?"
Gu Cheon-mu furrowed his brows at the materialized Blue Spirit's form.
Who wouldn't react to a being emerging from the blood that looked anything but human?
"You're really making this troublesome."
Mok Kyung-un clicked his tongue at the sight.
'...Moved through the blood?'
With his Ghost Eye, Mok Kyung-un could sense spiritual energy.
But this differed from the usual Blood Realm.
The typical Blood Realm amplified her power, freely materializing illusions and hallucinations with spiritual energy.
'Has she become the Blood Realm itself?'
It felt as if this domain was the Blue Spirit incarnate.
Thus, she might have transcended space by melting into the blood before him.
Meanwhile,
-Pak!
As the Blue Spirit extended her hand, blood thorns surged toward Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu.
Of course, Gu Cheon-mu wasn't one to fall easily.
-Shwashshshsh!
Lightly swinging his sword in a circle, he severed all the blood thorns.
But the severed thorns were mere liquid.
They regrew, targeting Gu Cheon-mu again.
-Shrashrashrash!
To this,
'Is that blood-soaked woman the true body?'
-Pat!
Leaping to evade the thorns, Gu Cheon-mu closed the distance in an instant, slashing at the Blue Spirit with sword force.
But before he could,
-Shlak!
The Blue Spirit's body melted back into blood, and
-Shwash!
reappeared behind the swinging Gu Cheon-mu, attempting to slash his back with a blood-forged sword.
'What?'
Gu Cheon-mu hastily withdrew his sword force, propelling his form forward to dodge her blade.
But it didn't end there,
-Shrashrashrash!
As the Blue Spirit swung her sword, the blood formed qi-like slashes pursuing Gu Cheon-mu.
Gu Cheon-mu righted his stance to unleash sword force again, but
-Shwick!
In that gap, Mok Kyung-un intervened, and
-Shwick!
with razor-sharp sword intent from his sword formula, cleaved the Blue Spirit's blood sword.
The Blue Spirit unleashed a barrage of blood-forged sword strikes in succession.
Mok Kyung-un effortlessly bisected them.
-Shwashwashwash!
Frustrated by the interference, the Blue Spirit cried out with blood-red eyes.
-Move aside! Mortal!
"Even if I tell you to calm down, you won't listen."
Mok Kyung-un sighed faintly, subtly moving his left fingers.
-Pak! Pak! Pak!
Soldier! Fight! Split! Array!
It was the mudra of the Nine-Character Empowerment Method.
Despite losing reason to rage, she had been observing Mok Kyung-un's every move, scoffing.
-You think that works on me?
She knew most of the exorcism arts he frequently used.
Thus, she instantly recognized the mudra as the Four Peaks Linked Binding Art.
-Slither!
She concealed herself in the Blood Realm's blood.
Her surging spiritual energy instinctively unlocked a new application of the Blood Realm.
'Now, how will he contain me?'
She was the Blood Realm itself.
But,
-Pak!
Where Mok Kyung-un pointed with his mudra was none other than,
-Paaaaah!
four invisible pillars rising around Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu.
'!?'
Even hidden in the blood, the Blue Spirit saw it and was dumbfounded.
Mok Kyung-un had sealed not her, but Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu.
The pillars around him thickened, forming walls that sealed entry.
Realizing invisible barriers forming walls around him, Gu Cheon-mu asked puzzled.
"Young Master, what is this?"
"Just stay still inside there for a moment. I'll resolve it soon... "
-Aaaaaaaargh!
Then, a scream tearing eardrums echoed everywhere.
The blood-filled space heaved like waves.
Blood surged like a tidal wave toward Mok Kyung-un and the trapped Gu Cheon-mu within the Four Peaks Linked Binding.
-Shwaaaaaah!
The momentum was tremendous.
Violet spiritual energy infused the blood, poised to sweep everything away.
Seeing it, Mok Kyung-un whispered.
"If you don't want to get hurt, stay right in the center of where I'm looking."
-Roooooooar!
At that instant, as Mok Kyung-un mimed gripping a sword in empty air, space rippled, faintly forming a sword shape.
It was none other than,
"Formless Sword!"
Gu Cheon-mu exclaimed in admiration upon recognizing it.
The realm where qi forms a sword, said to be achievable only by those reaching true sword extremity.
That was the Formless Sword.
Holding the Formless Sword inverted, Mok Kyung-un slammed it down onto the surging blood-red floor.
-Shwick!
Centered on the impact, blood sprayed outward, exposing the floor.
From the revealed floor, eight strands of invisible razor-sharp energy erupted.
-Shwashwashwashwash!
It was the Eight Immortals Blade Dance, one of the pinnacle blade arts the Blade Guest had wielded.
Mok Kyung-un embodied it as swordsmanship, manifesting via Formless Sword.
Its power far surpassed the original.
In an instant, the eight energies spread throughout the Blue Spirit's Blood Realm, cleaving the entire space.
-Pashshshsh!
The blood-forged space split, the Blood Realm shattering to pieces.
Witnessing this, Gu Cheon-mu inwardly admired, reaffirming his wise choice.
The Young Master was a monster.
Had he clashed out of pride then, he surely would have lost his life.
Nor would he have witnessed such an astonishing sword art.
-Pashshshshsh!
Amid the crumbling blood shards of the shattered Blood Realm stood someone shedding bloody tears with a sorrowful face.
It was the Blue Spirit.
Only where she stood remained untouched by the Formless Sword's traces.
Mok Kyung-un called to her.
"Blue Spirit."
-......
-Swish!
The Blue Spirit glanced at Mok Kyung-un while shedding bloody tears, then bit her lower lip and flew off, piercing through the workshop ceiling.
Seeing this, Mok Kyung-un said to Clan Head Gu Cheon-mu with a hardened face.
"We'll talk more later."
-Pat!
-Kwang!
Mok Kyung-un smashed through the ceiling where she had passed and departed.
Gu Cheon-mu stared blankly, then looked down at the workshop.
His ancestral workshop, cleaved end-to-end in eight gashes, teetered perilously.
"......"
Deep wrinkles formed on Gu Cheon-mu's brow at the sight of the inherited workshop on the verge of collapse.
* * *
A mountain peak not far from Evergreen Sword Manor.
Atop the peak, the Blue Spirit stood gazing sadly at the reddening western horizon as the sun set.
Mok Kyung-un quietly approached her from behind.
Without turning, she spoke to the setting sun.
-......Leave me alone.
Her trembling voice halted Mok Kyung-un's steps.
He had felt her grudge before but never seen her sad or suffering.
Staring at her, Mok Kyung-un soon spoke.
"Are you in a lot of pain?"
-......If I look that way, can't you leave me alone?
She refused his continued approach.
To her, Mok Kyung-un said.
"You've been alone all this time."
-......You!
"I just... can't leave you be."
-What?
-Step step!
Mok Kyung-un walked right up to her.
As he tried to face her, she whipped her head away, avoiding him.
Biting her lip, she suppressed surging emotions.
Gazing at her trembling shoulders, Mok Kyung-un embraced her back.
'!?'
At his action, her pent-up emotions burst forth like a dam breaking.
Her face crumpling, she shed bloody tears and spoke.
-It hurts... it hurts so much.
A century as a resentful spirit.
Her grudge burned deep, but so did her loneliness.
She had endured long years with the resolve to avenge her fallen Moon Pulse followers and fulfill that purpose for him.
But...... But...... Why do you shake me like this, when I've endured solely for that?