Chapter 445
Chapter 445
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 115
>Chapter Title: Wicked Heart Granny (3)
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-Rumble rumble rumble!
With a deafening roar, the plains shook violently as if struck by an earthquake.
It wasn't just the ground.
The clear sky rippled like waves, and cracks began to spiderweb across everything in sight.
-Crack crack crack!
In that split second, Mok Kyung-un sensed it.
Along with the cracks, the chaotic energy that had been rampaging wildly stabilized in an instant.
He absolutely would not miss this moment.
Mok Kyung-un thrust his sword formula toward the Wicked Heart Granny, who had turned her head toward the thatched hut.
-Shing!
A nearly invisible formless sword immediately surged toward her with ferocious speed.
At that moment, the Wicked Heart Granny whipped her head around, dropped her staff, and extended her hand.
One might wonder if it was possible to block a formless sword—the pinnacle realm of sword arts—with bare hands, but in that instant, something transparent took shape resembling her hand.
-Hummmm!
It was,
'Formless Claw?'
-Crash crash crash crash crash!
The moment the formless sword clashed with the formless claw, a flash erupted, dazzling their vision.
No one knew what was happening, but now that he could properly control energy again, Mok Kyung-un's eyes gleamed as he aimed to subdue the Wicked Heart Granny in one go.
He had known she was no ordinary foe, but he never imagined she could unleash a formless claw, let alone a formless sword.
Then,
"Hmph!"
Having blocked the formless sword with her formless claw, the Wicked Heart Granny launched her body toward Mok Kyung-un.
In that instant,
-Vroooom!
A bizarre energy stimulating her senses made her look up.
There, a massive blue sphere the size of an ox floated, and upon closer inspection, its interior spun rapidly.
-Pop pop pop pop pop!
The grasses of the plains ripped from the ground and floated upward.
They were drawn into the blue light and incinerated upon contact.
-Sizzle sizzle!
The sphere possessed tremendous gravitational pull. As its interior spun faster—fiercer—the surrounding area began to get sucked in over a wider range.
Even chunks of earth shattered and lifted.
-Rustle rustle!
Under the immense pull, the Wicked Heart Granny's body was dragged toward the sphere, showing signs of floating.
Pa Je watched with a sinister curl of his lips.
'Now that I've recovered my strength, I won't be toyed with by the likes of you anymore...'
-Vroooom!
'!?'
Pa Je's eyes widened in shock.
The Wicked Heart Granny, who had been on the verge of being pulled in by the sphere's immense gravity, sneered and extended her hand, forming an even larger formless claw.
The moment she clenched her fist in a gripping motion,
-Crack crack crack crack!
The formless claw manifested in midair snatched the sphere and crushed it outright.
The energy inside burst apart, scattering and causing aftershocks, but by then, the Wicked Heart Granny beneath it had vanished.
'Damn!'
Realizing this, Pa Je hurriedly tried to move, but
-Pak!
He could only feel someone gripping the back of his head.
-Bam!
In that state, Pa Je toppled forward, his face slamming into the ground.
The impact was so fierce that the earth cratered deeply, forming a pit nearly a zhang wide.
Yet Pa Je did not die.
The writhing, groaning Pa Je heard the Wicked Heart Granny sneer.
"Did you think things would change dramatically just because the energy flow returned to normal?"
-Crash crash!
At that moment, the white scale armor Pa Je wore began to shift on its own, covering his entire body and attempting to transform into something else.
However,
-Pak! Boom!
The Wicked Heart Granny lifted Pa Je's head again and smashed it into the ground. The white scales, which had been changing like a living thing, halted.
Pa Je's body no longer moved.
"Not human, but tough—perfect."
Gripping his head, the Wicked Heart Granny muttered something softly, as if chanting a spell.
Then,
-Flinch!
-Shink!
In a flash, a black line sliced across the plains' space, aiming to pass the Wicked Heart Granny.
But in that instant, she moved so swiftly her body seemed to multiply in layers, catching the black line with both hands.
-Pak!
-Rustle rustle rustle!
Her body was pushed back nearly twenty paces.
At the end of those twenty paces, as her hands turned bone-white, the black line began to take shape.
It was Mok Kyung-un's demon sword, Ak-chuk.
'......'
Mok Kyung-un, who had been holding the hilt of the Ak-chuk Sword, grew even more serious.
He had faced countless enemies, but this was the first to catch—not dodge—a concentrated strike of his full power, unleashed as a surprise ambush, with both hands.
The Wicked Heart Granny smirked and spoke.
"You're full of surprises. You... can concentrate your energy into one point? At this level, it's no exaggeration to say you've reached the pinnacle. And..."
-Pak!
In that moment, Mok Kyung-un moved the sword formula on his left hand.
The sword formula pierced toward the space between the Wicked Heart Granny's eyes, who was gripping the blade.
But in that split second, while holding the blade, she twisted both palms slightly to the side.
Then,
-Pang!
Mok Kyung-un's body, gripping the sword, twisted as well and lifted into the air.
Toward such a Mok Kyung-un's abdomen, the Wicked Heart Granny unleashed a claw technique with a hand glowing white like lightning.
-Thud!
Struck by the claw, Mok Kyung-un's body rippled with waves in the air and flew back over ten zhang.
-Boom!
Having sent Mok Kyung-un flying, one of the Wicked Heart Granny's eyebrows arched up.
Her body had been pushed back quite a distance. She soon looked at her palm.
She too had surpassed the wall of walls, reaching the realm where energy could be concentrated into one point. The moment she struck his abdomen precisely,
'Deflecting the force and bouncing some back.'
Lifting her head, the Wicked Heart Granny spoke.
"The subtlety of the Energy Shifting True Scripture."
It was a technique beyond flower grafting, not only returning the opponent's force but also blending in one's own.
Seeing this was quite—no, extremely—rare after so long.
'I heard from those intruders that the current martial world has regressed greatly, but that doesn't seem to be the case.'
The Wicked Heart Granny smirked in satisfaction.
The anger over her formation being broken had already vanished from her mind.
She felt joy at encountering an opponent worthy of her full strength after so long.
On the other hand,
-Drip drip!
Mok Kyung-un, who had barely deflected her force and stopped, wiped the blood trickling from his mouth.
He had unleashed the Energy Shifting True Scripture's subtlety in a split second, but failed to deflect it all, suffering internal injuries.
But that wasn't important.
What lingered more was the technique the Wicked Heart Granny had just used.
Clearly, it was,
'Concentrating energy into one point.'
She had executed a claw technique just like his final stance of the Demon Sword Arts—the subtlety of gathering all energy into one sword strike.
This left Mok Kyung-un astonished.
Moreover, it was remarkably natural.
She unleashed the claw as if performing an ordinary technique, yet all her energy was focused in that single move.
'She's strong.'
Without a doubt, this woman was the strongest foe he had ever faced.
An enemy capable of infusing full power even into a casual strike could drive one to death with a single lapse in vigilance—a true monster.
Though Mok Kyung-un had been half-mad with rage upon hearing Cheong Ryeong had vanished, realizing this opponent couldn't be killed easily restored his calm.
At that moment, the Wicked Heart Granny,
-Swish!
Extended her hand and drew the demon sword Ak-chuk to her via air-stepping.
Upon reaching her hand, Ak-chuk trembled violently, resisting as if rebelling against a non-owner's grasp.
She chuckled softly and said,
"Quite the rebellious one, refusing your new master."
As expected of a transcendent powerhouse beyond the wall of walls, the Wicked Heart Granny was unaffected by the demon sword.
Instead, she lightly suppressed it with her pure energy.
As she infused her energy, the violent trembling of the demon sword Ak-chuk ceased.
Aiming such an Ak-chuk at Mok Kyung-un, she said,
"What a peculiar fellow. I thought you were merely at the pinnacle of the current martial world, but you reek of our era."
"......"
"You seem quite cautious now, good at concealing your killing intent. Yes, that's how it should be. Killing intent might fuel battle spirit, but in fights among those at the pinnacle, it only hinders. And killing intent isn't used that way... but..."
-Slither!
The Wicked Heart Granny's form blurred and vanished.
She began moving at ultra-high speed with her lightness skill.
Mok Kyung-un's eyes tracked it precisely.
Yet her form soon split into two.
-Slither! Pop! Pop!
The two forms split to either side, charging at Mok Kyung-un with terrifying momentum simultaneously.
Even without a special lightness skill, she had reached a level where her personal footwork could divide her form in two.
-Swoosh!
From the one approaching on the right, an intensely strong killing intent emanated.
The intent to kill was overwhelming.
This suggested the left form was a feint or support, with the right likely the real attack.
That would be the usual assumption, but
[Killing intent isn't used that way...]
Mok Kyung-un heeded the Wicked Heart Granny's words to him.
If true, she intended to demonstrate some use of killing intent.
Thus, she had deliberately made him aware of it.
It no longer mattered which of the two was real.
'Both are real.'
Accordingly, Mok Kyung-un spread his left and right hands, manifesting formless swords in each and gripping them.
-Hummm!
The Wicked Heart Granny's split forms were nearly upon him.
Mok Kyung-un prepared to counter her with right sword, left sword technique.
But in that instant,
-Flinch!
Mok Kyung-un urgently swung the formless sword in his left hand upward.
-Crash crash crash clang!
A formless claw chopping down from above clashed with the formless sword, flashing white.
He blocked the formless claw trying to crush him from above in an instant, but its power's weight was so immense his knees buckled, and
-Boom boom boom!
The ground caved in, shaking his stance.
In that split second, her split forms simultaneously flew at him from left and right in pincer attack.
-Pop!
There, Mok Kyung-un realized.
She had first sown confusion with words, then deliberately exposed strong killing intent to make him unconsciously overlook her formless claw's energy for a moment.
This was a strategy born not just of keen combat sense, but of vast experience.
'This is what experience is, kid.'
It was over.
Impressive, but the experience gap was vast.
She had no intent to kill, but planned to take an arm as payment.
But right then—
-Crash crash clang!
Mok Kyung-un released power from part of the formless sword's blade he held.
The pressing formless claw's force shifted to the slackened side, and
-Pak!
Mok Kyung-un redirected it toward the Wicked Heart Granny's form flying in from the right. Simultaneously, toward her form from the left,
-Clang!
He unleashed a sword strike concentrating energy into one point to block.
'Huh?'
The Wicked Heart Granny was genuinely shocked.
She had thought it impossible to block, yet he had never imagined using a formless sword to perform flower grafting and redirect the formless claw.
It was akin to redirecting pure energy with pure energy.
He was compensating for the insurmountable experience gap with an unimaginable combat sense.
'This guy's the real deal.'
But it didn't end there.
The moment the left form clashed with the concentrated sword strike, a massive shockwave threatened to erupt. In that instant, Mok Kyung-un used the Energy Shifting True Scripture to ripple waves, absorbing her energy while
-Bam!
Stamping the ground with a true step, and
-Whirl!
Infusing both his and her energies into the sword while spiraling the tip.
With it, space tore with a sound, and the sword momentum carrying both energies created a vortex like a storm.
-Slash slash slash slash slash!
In that moment, the Wicked Heart Granny's eyes widened.
'T-This is?'