Chapter 410
Chapter 410
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 108
>Chapter Title: Encounter (1)
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“Resentment is truly frightening.”
“······.”
“The rage directed at that person has driven this mere possessed body to such heights? Wraith—no, progenitor of the Moon Vein, Ryu So-wol.”
‘!?’
At his words, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes sharpened.
He had considered that the Assembly Leader, being of the Heavenly Vein bloodline, might know something, but he never imagined the true name of Cheong-ryeong would come from his lips.
As if reading Mok Kyung-un’s thoughts, the Assembly Leader spoke in a solemn voice.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know? That manual was untouchable, unlearnable due to its overwhelming resentment from the start. The moment I learned you had mastered it, I knew you were inside that body.”
Manual.
It was the medium created from the heart that had sealed Cheong-ryeong’s vengeful spirit.
To know this much meant the current Assembly Leader had likely inherited all these secrets from his predecessors.
-Chung-saeng.
‘······.’
-Kill him.
Cheong-ryeong’s voice, thick with fury, boiled over.
She had waited only for this moment, and now she could no longer contain her rage.
At her reaction, Mok Kyung-un called out via transmission.
-Cheong-ryeong.
-Don’t even dream of stopping me. Haven’t you heard what this damned clan is saying? If you won’t do it, this seat will manifest directly and tear this bastard—born of their blood—limb from limb.
-I’m not trying to stop you. Just wait a moment.
-Wait for what? Right now······.
-I told you.
-What?
-If we’re doing it, we do it right.
-······.
Before the eyes of every single member of the Heaven-Earth Society, he had declared he would wipe this massive organization from existence.
And before all those watching, he had demonstrated overwhelming power, turning the plaza of their symbolic tallest building, the Celestial Regret Pavilion, into a hellscape soaked in blood.
Witnessing this, she had felt immense exhilaration for the first time in a century.
-Ah, ahh.
Finally, the long-awaited moment had arrived.
Now, with the pinnacle and final target of her revenge—the bloodline of the Heavenly Vein, descendant of Pi Bon-heon—right before her eyes, what more was there to hesitate over?
His recognition of her existence meant he knew what his ancestors had done.
Of course, he mistakenly thought she had possessed Chung-saeng, but since she and Chung-saeng were effectively one now, it hardly mattered.
-What more is there to do here? Kill this one, and it’s all over.
-If that alone would resolve your grudge, Cheong-ryeong, I’d do it in a heartbeat, but it’s not that simple. Surely there are things nagging at you too.
-······.
At Mok Kyung-un’s words, Cheong-ryeong fell silent.
Nagging doubts.
Yes. Beyond the resentment, there were questions.
Why had she been sealed for nearly a century in a manual made from her heart? How did it happen? Who did it, and why? She wondered about it all.
But the ancestor who was truly the object of her desire for vengeance had likely died long ago. Would hearing something from his descendants change anything?
Wouldn’t it only make things more suffocating, knowing she couldn’t take her revenge directly on him?
That was what Cheong-ryeong truly feared.
-Chung-saeng······. This seat······.
She was about to say something when the Assembly Leader let out a strange sigh and spoke.
“Haa. No matter how deep the resentment, you shouldn’t have revealed yourself so recklessly. Ryu So-wol.”
“······What do you mean by that?”
Pretending as if he were Cheong-ryeong herself, Mok Kyung-un asked without denial.
In response, the Assembly Leader uttered words that were hard to comprehend.
“I thought distancing it as much as possible or severing its attachment would improve things, since no method could burn or tear it away. But thanks to your resentment—matching that person’s madness—it was all for naught. No, perhaps it was this seat’s own foolishness in failing to account for it.”
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un aimed his formless sword at the Assembly Leader’s throat.
One thrust, and he would lose his life.
“You speak in riddles. That person’s madness? Who is this ‘that person’ you keep mentioning? One of your dead ancestors?”
“Dead ancestor······. Do you truly believe that? Ryu So-wol.”
“······What?”
At Mok Kyung-un’s retort, the Assembly Leader scoffed incredulously and said,
“Are you pretending not to know? Or have you forgotten?”
“······.”
“Whatever the case, this seat’s plans have already gone up in smoke. Whether trying to pull that person from the mire or restore the Society to its original state······.”
-Flinch!
Before his words could finish.
Mok Kyung-un raised one eyebrow and looked down at the plaza.
All around, eerie energies were beginning to rise sinuously from various spots.
The Assembly Leader sighed once more, then spoke in a meaningful tone.
“In the end, you’ve drawn them in.”
-Crack! Crack!
At that moment, from the places where the eerie energies spread, some of the Society members clutched one side of their faces around their eyes, writhing in agony.
“Keuk!”
“W-What is this······.”
Contrary to their torment, their bodies began moving against their own will.
It was as if they had lost control over their own bodies.
* * *
Just moments ago.
The plaza’s atmosphere was utterly divided.
From the instant the Assembly Leader’s arm was severed, the factions supporting Mok Kyung-un cheered wildly, unable to hide their joy, while the forces under Crown Prince Na Yu-ryang plummeted into despair.
Already, nearly half had submitted, and countless lives had been lost to the Ego-Scattering Sword Gang, tilting the tide decisively. This was the worst possible turn.
‘······Damn it.’
Na Yu-ryang, gripped by his first-ever intense envy and rage toward another, also judged that reversing the situation was impossible. His sole remaining left eye dulled with emptiness.
-Murmur, murmur!
The severed arm on the ground.
The expressions of everyone who had retreated in a circle were beyond shock—utterly dazed.
Who could have imagined such a thing?
Even Na Yu-ryang was no exception.
‘Master······. Overpowered?’
Though hailed as a genius and growing swiftly, he had never envisioned surpassing his master—not even in his mind.
Yet it had happened right before his eyes.
Morale was now beyond salvaging.
If even the Assembly Leader—one of the Seven Heavens, the pinnacle of the current martial world—couldn’t stand against that monster, no one could.
Even if he tried mutual destruction······.
-Grip!
It would just be a dog’s death.
The suffocating hopelessness of a situation offering no hope at all was choking.
Na Yu-ryang’s eye darted around.
Always cold, arrogant, brimming with self-confidence, he had never in his life cared for others’ gazes.
But this time was different.
A simple personal defeat he could accept as his own weakness.
Yet in a battle where the fates of so many rested on his shoulders, to show nothing but powerlessness—this plunged him into an unprecedented shame he had never felt before.
[This is the best you can do, and you thought you’d lead us?]
[Ridiculous, aiming for Assembly Leader.]
[To stake our lives on trash like that.]
It was bizarre.
Normally, no one dared look at him that way.
But their gazes were icy cold.
They didn’t say it outright, but their eyes clearly blamed and condemned him.
‘Rats.’
He wanted to kill them all.
He knew why they resented him and held back, knowing lashing out would only make him look worse, but his emotions tangled further.
With everything already a filthy mess, maybe he should just vent and end it.
Rip and tear everyone in sight for some relief······.
-Grip!
“Young Master!”
At that moment, Mo Yak grabbed the cheeks of Na Yu-ryang, who was on the verge of qi deviation from shame and rage.
Instinctively sensing he was breaking, she believed she had to anchor his mind somehow.
“Young Master, snap out of it! You’ve never been shaken by something like this before. Since when did you care about others’ stares?”
At her words, Na Yu-ryang replied in a despondent voice.
“······It’s already over. Mo Yak.”
Mo Yak barely suppressed a lump in her throat and shook her head vigorously.
This was absolutely not his fault.
That thing was a natural disaster, plain and simple.
Even the pinnacle of the martial world couldn’t handle that monster—how could Na Yu-ryang, genius though he was, do anything?
Gently stroking his cheek, she said,
“Young Master. This······. All happened because you’re so pathetically weak.”
‘!?’
Na Yu-ryang’s face twisted at Mo Yak’s utterly unexpected words.
On his face, Mo Yak’s expression turned momentarily bewildered, her left eyelid twitching.
‘W-What······.’
Why had she said that?
She had meant to say it was absolutely not his fault.
Yet words completely against her will had spilled out.
Mo Yak tried to say it wasn’t her intention.
However,
“Because of your weakness and frailty, you’ve dragged all these people to ruin. You should end your own life and have no right to seek comfort—is that what you want to hear?”
Her mouth continued spewing words against her will.
At this, Na Yu-ryang’s twisted expression turned outright terrifying.
“······What are you?”
Though mentally cornered, on the brink of qi deviation, a shred of reason remained.
Others might fear and abandon him, but Mo Yak never would.
She was the companion who would walk with him even to hell’s end, to destruction—she would never let go of his hand.
Just as suspicion and rage began coloring his sole remaining eye,
“You would never······.”
-Stab!
At that instant, Mo Yak’s left thumb—stroking his cheek—dug into his empty right eye socket.
“Kuh!”
Caught off guard, he couldn’t block the sudden intrusion but managed to grab it belatedly.
-Smack!
Na Yu-ryang seized her wrist, trying to pull it out.
But not only her arm—her finger didn’t budge.
As he panicked, Mo Yak smiled chillingly and said,
“I’ve been waiting for this moment.”
“Grrr.”
“You’ll forget that weakness soon enough.”
‘!?’
In Na Yu-ryang’s lone eye, he saw Mo Yak’s left eye split into a cross shape, another pupil eerily emerging from within.
‘This······.’
“Urk.”
Na Yu-ryang’s head jerked back.
With it, something bizarre—enough to chill his spine—began filling the right socket stolen by Mok Kyung-un.
Soon, his mind grew hazy.
Though staring ahead, everything blurred, his consciousness clouding.
Before long, his empty socket filled, birthing a golden pupil identical to the one taken by Mok Kyung-un.
But it didn’t end there.
-Stab!
Mo Yak forcibly gouged out her own split, protruding left eye without hesitation.
It should have been agonizing, yet she grinned eerily.
Then, she brought the extracted eye to Na Yu-ryang’s forehead.
-Ssssh!
The eye, as if alive, sprayed forth thread-like veins that burrowed into his flesh.
The wriggling veins split the forehead open, creating a cavity.
The eye she held slotted perfectly inside.
With that, Mo Yak collapsed like a puppet with cut strings, losing consciousness.
Na Yu-ryang—now with three eyes, including the one embedded in his forehead—muttered at the fallen Mo Yak.
“Worth preparing for the worst.”
He then lifted his head.
Each of his three eyes precisely fixed on one figure hovering in the air.
It was Mok Kyung-un.
Staring at Mok Kyung-un, the corners of Na Yu-ryang’s mouth curled wickedly.
“So that’s what was inside?”
Na Yu-ryang’s three pupils gleamed with ecstatic joy.