Chapter 475
Chapter 475
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 122
>Chapter Title: One (2)
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A baby born from black flames.
As the final, intense memory faded, Mok Kyung-un's eyes reddened slightly in the space where time crawled endlessly slow.
-Roarrr!
The black flames blazing larger than his own body before his eyes had dwindled to the size of a fist.
Mok Kyung-un gazed at it and sent his thoughts.
'Why entrust it to me, a mere human thought-form?'
-......
'Can't you just take everything for yourself?'
Having recovered all his memories, Mok Kyung-un was identical to him, though their personalities differed.
Yet the fact remained that he was a thought-form born from becoming human.
Regardless of realm, he could devour his thought-form, which had lived such a brief life.
But he did not.
Mok Kyung-un couldn't help but feel perplexed by this utterly irrational choice.
Then, the black flames flickered.
-A mere one? No.
'......'
-Doesn't it shine even brighter?
'You......'
[Someone told me that. That it shines brighter because it's short. We can live that way too, right?]
Her smiling face flashed by.
Was that everything to you?
Born as the king of demons, nearly immortal, you desired a fleeting yet brighter human life than any other.
-Ssssh!
The black flames shrank smaller and smaller.
They were dying out.
-Truly.... so long.... and endless.
'Stop. There's no need to fully melt your will into me like this. No, why are you trying to vanish?'
-I'm not vanishing.
'You!'
-No need.... to think.... that way. I am.... you. You are.... me. In the end.... we are one.
As the black flames reduced to the size of a fingertip, even the voice grew fainter.
Mok Kyung-un tried to block it from seeping into him.
But it would not stop.
'Enough! Stop it. Didn't you want to see her? Every time you awoke, didn't you want to tell her?'
Having assimilated all memories, he knew.
In each awakening, countless times—dozens, hundreds, thousands—he repeated the same words inwardly.
[I've missed you so much. My one and only bride.]
Yet he never spoke them aloud.
He knew exactly why.
To leave no lingering attachments.
Even the slightest regret might make him abandon merging with his human thought-form self.
Thus, he never said it to her in the end.
Even so, Mok Kyung-un wanted him—his true personality—to say it while he still could.
However,
-Ssssh!
As the flames burned away, only red embers flickered.
His faint voice echoed in Mok Kyung-un's ears.
-So.... Wol...... and...... my...... beautiful.... shining.... story...... ended then. Now...... it's Cheong-ryeong.... and.... yours.
The dying embers.
In that instant, he envisioned his reunion with her.
And finally, he pictured his breathtakingly beautiful bride.
-She was beautiful...... so beautiful, like a single crimson peony.
-Shoooo!
The embers extinguished, scattering like heat haze.
As his final will settled in his mind, the fully merged Mok Kyung-un shed a single tear that trailed down his reddened cheek.
-Drip!
At that moment, a crack split the endlessly slow-flowing time.
-Crack!
* * *
-Crack!
The moment the Taegong Heavenly Seal cracked, the three pupils of Mokgan's clone trembled.
'How?'
The Taegong Heavenly Seal, called an ancient alchemy.
It was an absolute incantation crafted to bind beings defying the natural order—those approaching the divine realm.
Unlike before, it had been perfectly deployed, unbreakable by anyone but himself.
Yet what was this?
-Crackle crackle!
The initial fissure spread in all directions.
Mokgan's clone's gaze turned to Mok Kyung-un at the center of the Taegong Heavenly Seal.
-Thump!
Then, a heartbeat echoed in his ears.
In time that flowed endlessly slow, no heartbeat should be audible, yet the bastard's was quickening to where it could be heard.
-Thump! Thump! Thump!
No illusion.
The heart had returned to normal rhythm.
Mokgan's clone spread his arms wide.
Staring at Mok Kyung-un's position, he clasped his hands as if enclosing it.
Then,
-Shoooo!
The vast Taegong Heavenly Seal contracted, the light intensifying around Mok Kyung-un.
It gradually formed a sphere.
He was compressing the incantation's wide-range power to make it more solid.
"Cough... cough."
Blood coughed from Mokgan's clone's mouth.
His utterly weakened state forced the power unnaturally.
Yet he had no confidence in stopping this anomaly otherwise.
Even if too late, if the bastard escaped a perfect Taegong Heavenly Seal...
-Crackle crackle!
'!?'
The dazzling sphere began to split.
'No. Must block it somehow.....'
"Pfft!"
Black blood sprayed like a fountain from Mokgan's clone's mouth, the sphere shattering as the condensed light burst outward.
-Swoooosh!
From the spilling light, a black shadow shot out, seizing Mokgan's clone's throat.
-Grip!
"Gah!"
It was Mok Kyung-un.
The clone's pupils shook violently, gripped by the throat.
An overwhelming pressure beyond imagination made even eye contact unbearable.
It felt like facing an absolute being.
Though not in this flesh now, he had felt this once before.
"Gah.... gah..... you....... "
"Vanish."
"Wh-what......"
That instant.
His entire body was assailed by razor-sharp sword intent.
Before he could sense it,
-Kwachak!
Mokgan's clone's body exploded.
Despite the blood spraying everywhere from the blast right before him, not a drop stained Mok Kyung-un.
Having slain the bastard thus, Mok Kyung-un gazed toward the distant south.
"That place."
-Boom!
A circular wave of ripples spread, space shuddering as Mok Kyung-un's form vanished to a point.
* * *
-Ugh!
The bamboo hat man standing in the shadows winced at a sudden headache.
The long-haired man with red lips guarding nearby approached and asked.
"Mokgan. Are you alright?"
The bamboo hat man called Mokgan raised a hand, signaling him not to approach.
The man halted abruptly.
Mokgan then spoke to him.
"......It seems the bastard's free."
"Yes? You mean that incarnation?"
"Who else would I mean?"
"F-Forgive me. But Mokgan, sir. No one trapped in the ancient alchemy Taegong Heavenly Seal has ever escaped by their own power."
Even the Six Demons, said to border divinity, had been sealed by it.
Even those reaching the Life-Death Realm—highest among martial artists—still fell short of the Six Demons.
Yet,
"Does that mean this seat is mistaken?"
The red-lipped man's face paled at the sharp tone, dropping to his knees and bowing his head to the ground.
-Thud! Thud! Thud!
"F-Forgive me. How could this subordinate harbor such irreverent thoughts?"
"Withdraw."
At Mokgan's command, the red-lipped man's form blurred and vanished.
Once he was out of sight, Mokgan slightly raised then lowered his hand.
He nearly lost control of his rage and madness.
'What is it?'
His souls connected him to his clones almost inseparably.
Thus, he shared their wills and saw what they saw.
Yet the last sight was the Taegong Heavenly Seal cracking.
The clone had been compressing its power into a sphere when its will darkened and severed.
The soul's impact confirmed the clone's death.
But why no view of the final moment?
'Someone intervened?'
Mokgan shook his head after a moment's thought.
It didn't matter anyway.
Even if someone aided the incarnation and he broke free by some heavenly luck, it was too late.
The distance from there to here was too vast.
By the time he arrived, everything would be over.
All he would see was death.
-Sneer!
Mokgan curled his lips slyly and sent his will toward his clone at Mount Shiwanda.
* * *
'Crimson Flame Sword Technique, Seventh Form: Transcendent Flame Without Form!'
-Roarrr!
Yi Ji-yeom, lord of Blood Gorge Valley, traced an exquisitely intricate flame trajectory, overwhelming the ice-formed blade.
-Clang clang clang clang clang!
'Damn it!'
-Crack!
Nung Jin-sun of the Second Platoon desperately blocked the full-force flame sword forms with his Frost Plains Blade, but it couldn't withstand the heat, cracking, then,
-Clang!
Splitting in half and flying away.
Seizing the moment, the flame sword sliced from Nung Jin-sun's right shoulder through his heart and out his waist.
"Yours.... is the victory."
Acknowledging defeat, Nung Jin-sun uttered his final words with his last strength.
His bisected upper body toppled backward.
-Thud!
The heat cauterized the wounds, no blood spurting.
Yi Ji-yeom, barely felling him, dropped to one knee, breathing raggedly.
"Huff.... huff..... huff......"
A truly formidable foe.
Having reached the Flame Realm and perfected his divine art, Yi Ji-yeom thought victory easy, but this man rivaled the Eight Stars—a supreme master.
Had he not sacrificed an arm with mutual destruction resolve to keep his oath, he might have lost.
His left arm dangled, more than half severed.
Essentially, he had lost the arm.
-Slice!
Yi Ji-yeom severed the dangling limb.
Though agonizing, he stifled any groan, pressing acupoints to staunch the bleeding.
Then, applause rang out.
-Clap clap clap!
His expression hardened at the sound from behind.
Despite wounds, he hadn't relaxed vigilance—yet undetected approach.
'Fooled my senses?'
Now comparable to the Eight Stars, martial world's pinnacle.
To deceive such senses...
-Swish!
Turning, Yi Ji-yeom's face darkened instantly.
Before him stood Righteous Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun, clapping.
".......Jeong Hyeon-mun."
"Impressive. I thought your fixation on needless loyalty would limit you, missing greater duties."
'!?'
Yi Ji-yeom furrowed his brow and spoke.
".......What are you?"
Never leaving Blood Gorge Valley, he had no direct clashes with the Righteous Alliance.
Thus, its leader shouldn't know him.
Yet how did he know the Crimson Flame Sword Technique was based on Flame Sun Energy?
Puzzled,
-Shing!
Jeong Hyeon-mun drew his signature weapon, the famed sword Ilhwi, approaching.
"A pity. To die just as your talent blossoms."
-Rumble!
Merely drawing it unleashed immense aura, trembling Yi Ji-yeom's sword-grip hand.
Even unwounded, not a winnable foe.
Could he block even one of the Seven Heavens' forms—martial world's apex?
Even one?
Staring at the approaching man, Yi Ji-yeom exhaled deeply.
'Pointless.'
Victory wasn't the goal.
What he aimed to do was protect.
-Rip!
Yi Ji-yeom tore his garment hem, bit the cloth with his teeth, and wrapped it around his sword hand.
Resolve: die before releasing the sword.
"Commendable. But futile. Step aside, and you might survive a bit longer."
"Cut my throat and pass."
"Pfft."
Jeong Hyeon-mun sneered at Yi Ji-yeom's determination, stepping forward.
That instant.
-Slither...
Blood from the dead on the peak began rising drop by drop.
At the eerie sight, Jeong Hyeon-mun's lips curled slyly.
'You've come.'
[Chapter 122 One (2)] End