Chapter 412
Chapter 412
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 108
>Chapter Title: Encounter (3)
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[Episode 108: Encounter (3)]
Mok Kyung-un's lips curled upward.
That smile, which seemed bright at first glance, was filled with such malice that it sent chills down the spine of anyone who saw it.
It was something only those who had committed slaughter, hellish screams, bloodshed, and agony could possess.
The moment he saw it, Na Yul-ryang was quickly seized by doubt.
If the being inside was a resentful spirit, he could understand such deep yin emotions, but something felt off.
'Had it elevated its rank as a resentful spirit?'
Even if its resentment had deepened from being sealed, by now it should have reached the rank of Azure Spirit.
A rank of Azure Spirit could certainly instill some intimidation or wariness.
But what was this sensation?
Alien? Was that the word?
Even if a century had deepened its grudge, could the Ryu So-wol he knew really wear such an expression?
Yet no matter what, it couldn't threaten even his senses.
"You..."
-Snap!
Before he could say anything.
Mok Kyung-un had already drawn his curved sword, Yakjuk, slicing toward Na Yul-ryang's neck.
However, Na Yul-ryang lightly tilted his head back to dodge the blade, only for Mok Kyung-un to twist its path mid-swing and aim for the neck once more.
Then,
-Swish!
-Boom!
Mok Kyung-un's sword bent softly before being repelled away.
-Clang!
Mok Kyung-un's form was pushed back three paces.
It looked like it would slide further, but his feet dug into the ground like roots, stopping him dead, with cracks spiderwebbing out from his soles.
-Crack!
Sharp sword intent leaked from the split earth.
"To redirect energy to your Surging Spring acupoint in that instant. Impressive."
At Na Yul-ryang's praise, Mok Kyung-un narrowed his eyes and spoke.
"......The Repelling Form."
Mok Kyung-un instantly recognized that bizarre technique which had deflected his sword momentum as the first form of the Shattered Intent Eight Forms: Repel.
-Is that the Repelling Form?
-Yes.
It was certain.
The Shattered Intent Eight Forms was an uncanny supreme art unleashed without warning.
Even Azure Spirit couldn't hide her astonishment.
Both she and Mok Kyung-un knew the Repelling Form as a method to divert energy before it even connected.
He knew the profundity deepened with practice, but to think it had reached this level.
-Host. If he's mastered the Repelling Form...
-......He might be that bastard who stole your heart.
After the Day of Great Catastrophe, only three people in the world had learned the Shattered Intent Eight Forms.
Azure Spirit, Mok Kyung-un, and Heavenly Vein's Bi Saeng-hyeon.
At that moment, Na Yul-ryang smiled faintly and opened his mouth.
"Good. I was worried for a moment, but it seems not. Yes, the Repelling Form. In this world, only you and I can recognize it."
-He learned it after all. Yes, of course he did. No way he wouldn't have.
A voice trembling with boiling rage.
As conviction upon conviction built that he was Bi Saeng-hyeon, Azure Spirit nearly shattered the wooden doll to charge out.
-Crack!
-Azure Spirit. Wait a moment...
-If that bastard is truly the third Mok and Bi Saeng-hyeon, what's there to hesitate? He's the enemy of you and I.
Azure Spirit could endure no longer.
At her sky-piercing grudge and killing intent, Mok Kyung-un finally nodded.
He didn't yet know how this third-eyed lord of the secret meeting was also Azure Spirit's enemy, Bi Saeng-hyeon, but if he truly was the root of all evil, there was no reason to hesitate, just as she said.
-Crush!
The wooden doll shattered.
At that instant, Na Yul-ryang, who had been smiling and stepping forward, froze.
-Roooar!
He had sensed a massive spirit force devouring the surroundings as the seal broke.
The eye on Na Yul-ryang's forehead gleamed strangely.
It made sense—feeling spirit force meant manifesting as a spirit body.
Na Yul-ryang clasped his hands behind his back and spoke leisurely.
"No matter how high the rank, manifesting your spirit body is futile. I don't know how you tempered that flesh so well, but you'd be better off maintaining..."
-Shrieeeek!
It was then.
The sky suddenly dyed blood-red.
At the bizarre phenomenon, everyone's gazes in the plaza turned upward.
Even the grotesque figures with eyes protruding from their eyes.
-Murmur!
"Look over there!"
"The sky's turning red."
"What is this?"
It wasn't just the sky turning red.
-Shh! Shhh shhh!
Blood began gushing from the plaza floor like springs.
Rubbing their eyes in disbelief, the blood still filled the ground, carrying the foul stench unique to it.
-Ssss!
The blood flooding the floor surged toward the sky in reverse rain.
Everyone was dumbfounded by the surreal sight, but not Na Yul-ryang.
"Realm of Ghostly Intent...... To deploy it even at high noon. Deeper grudge than I expected."
This was beyond Azure Spirit's rank.
It required more.
At least Indigo Spirit rank, and to blanket the entire manor plaza...
"......Violet Spirit?"
Na Yul-ryang's expression grew subtle.
Violet Spirit was a rank only achievable with immeasurable spirit force and grudge as a resentful spirit.
Even he, versed in barrier arts enough to craft artificially high-rank spirits alchemically, couldn't comprehend it.
No way So-wol could reach Violet Spirit in a mere century.
What on earth had happened?
Even if that child Bi Jung-seon had stolen the heart manual made from his heart that day, he believed it would inevitably return to him, so he waited leisurely.
But what had she done?
It was then.
-Splash splash splash!
The pooled blood around him sharpened into thorns and stabbed inward.
Na Yul-ryang casually swung his hand.
The thorns melted away like oxidation before they could touch.
-Drip drip drip!
"Such things won't work. Since you've manifested, show your face after all this time..."
-Splashhhh!
Before his words finished, the blood on the ground swirled around him, rising in a vortex.
The blood in the vortex became countless uncountable blades, seeking to shred Na Yul-ryang's flesh.
-Splash splash splash!
"G-Good heavens..."
"Blood, how!"
The tremendous spectacle of the blood vortex shooting skyward made everyone nearby recoil in shock.
'Die!'
Azure Spirit poured her grudge and spirit force to the limit, devoting everything to kill one man.
Since it incorporated the Moon Vein's sword forms, its interior was tantamount to an absolute sword formation of blood.
She harbored no carelessness.
If he had comprehended the Shattered Intent Eight Forms enough to repel even Mok Kyung-un's sword intent, he had grown incomparably stronger than the Bi Saeng-hyeon she once knew.
Then she must face him with desperate resolve.
At her current Violet Spirit realm, she could even oppose a Profound Realm master deemed invincible.
'End everything here. Bi Saeng-hyeon.'
If she could kill him, even if her spirit body shattered, so be it.
Even if she perished here, she would kill this bastard no matter what...
-Clang clang clang!
'!??'
What was this?
In an instant, an immense aura burst from within, exploding her blood vortex.
'This is......妖力 (Demonic Power)?'
If not an illusion, it was closer to the demonic power of yaomo than internal energy.
Right then.
Na Yul-ryang, hands behind his back without a drop of blood on him, stepped forward with a smirk.
"Useless, as I said. And you want to play hide-and-seek? Then I'll find you myself."
-Whip!
No sooner had he spoken than the eye on his forehead moved.
The moment it scanned the surroundings.
"Inside, huh."
With those words, Na Yul-ryang muttered something, raised one hand, and slammed it down toward the blood-pooled ground.
-Boom! Splashhhh!
The instant his palm struck, the blood surged like waves in all directions.
Then, someone bounced out from the blood like propelled upward.
It was Azure Spirit, wearing a ceremonial crown and holding a shaman's rattle.
"Found you!"
Seeing her, Na Yul-ryang grinned and shot forward.
So fast his form reached right before her in an instant—but then.
-Claaang!
The clash of swords echoed everywhere, scattering the rising blood rain with a gale, vacuuming the space between them.
"You?"
Na Yul-ryang's eyes widened as their blades met.
It was because the one blocking him was unexpected.
It was Mok Kyung-un.
"How are you...?"
Hadn't the possession ended with manifestation?
How was he moving?
Behind the blocking Mok Kyung-un, Ryu So-wol was clearly visible.
'What is...... this?'
Of course, there were cases of immediate recovery after possession ended, but for a body long dominated, the soul wouldn't normalize instantly.
Moreover, possessed by a Violet Spirit, the pinnacle of resentful spirits.
No matter how strong the flesh...
'!!!!!!'
Then, the eye on Na Yul-ryang's forehead trembled violently.
It clearly saw.
The red thread connecting Mok Kyung-un and Azure Spirit.
That was,
'A karmic bond?'
In a flash, Na Yul-ryang's mind reeled.
He had found the possessed body's prowess suspiciously strong but chalked it up to occasional strengthening during possession.
But a karmic bond?
Didn't that only form when low-rank yaomo were bound as familiars?
Resentful spirits were human souls, born with all possibilities of the myriad phenomena, their negativity too one-sidedly intense to follow yaomo paths, unfit and unable to bond as familiars.
How was it connected?
'Impossible. This can't...'
As he puzzled, Mok Kyung-un's left-hand curved sword Geopsal flew toward his neck.
-Slash!
Seeing it, Na Yul-ryang raised his hand,
-Hum!
Trying to deflect the sword intent with the Repelling Form again.
But in that moment, Mok Kyung-un's sword ignored the Repelling Form.
'This?'
A strong suction emanated from the hand linked to the sword.
'The Adhering Form?'
The opposing forces clashed and canceled each other out.
Thus,
-Clang!
Na Yul-ryang pressed harder on the clashing sword to push it back, launching his own form rearward.
As Mok Kyung-un pursued without letting go,
-Swish!
"Get lost."
Na Yul-ryang pointed his finger at Mok Kyung-un.
Then,
-Booooom!
The surrounding space compressed to a single point, sucking Mok Kyung-un's body into its center.
'The Void Suppression Form!'
Another of the Shattered Intent Eight Forms.
A technique compressing a four-zhang space in an instant toward a desired direction, one of the most taxing on mental and energy reserves.
-Drip drip!
Blood tears flowed from Na Yul-ryang's three eyes.
'Certainly taxing in this new body.'
Anyone caught would be flung to an unknown place with the folded space, emergence unpredictable.
Naturally, he assumed Mok Kyung-un would too, but,
-Splashhhh!
The unfolding Void Suppression Form was suddenly sucked into another one that overlapped it.
'!??'
Na Yul-ryang's face hardened terrifyingly.
His eye saw Azure Spirit pointing her finger just like him.
Azure Spirit stared at her own finger in shock.
-......How?
As a resentful spirit, she had lost all the power she wielded in flesh.
Yet, thinking Mok Kyung-un in peril, the Shattered Intent Eight Forms' incantation instinctively arose, and she pointed.
However,
-Hic.
An immense spirit force drained in an instant.
With it, the Realm of Ghostly Intent's blood realm maintaining the surroundings cracked and scattered like shattering.
-Shatter!
Amid the fragments of the crumbling blood world, Mok Kyung-un and Na Yul-ryang clashed once more in midair.
-Claaang!
-Boooom! Crackle crackle!
Their swords met, unleashing gales, lightning-like azure beams rooting outward everywhere.
Locked in clash, Na Yul-ryang bellowed with bloodshot eyes.
"What the hell are you?"
To his question, Mok Kyung-un replied in a low voice.
"Forget who I am—Mok Kyung-un, Heavenly Demon... It doesn't matter."
"What?"
"I'm the one who'll kill you."
-Clang clang clang clang!
No sooner said, dozens of swords floated around their locked blades, tips aimed.
[Episode 108: Encounter (3)] End