Chapter 476
Chapter 476
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 123
>Chapter Title: Great Catastrophe (1)
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Blood from the corpses of those who had been slain.
The blood began to writhe and slowly rise into the air.
-Squelch!
Lee Ji-yeom, the Lord of Blood Valley, had been so fixated on Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun—one of the Seven Heavens at the pinnacle of the current martial world—that he failed to notice the floating droplets of blood. Only when the world around him gradually turned red did he realize what was happening.
'What in the world?'
The mountain peak's floor was soaked through with blood, making it slick and muddy. The floating blood droplets made it seem as if the entire world was drenched in crimson.
At that moment, Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun scanned his surroundings and spoke.
"If you're here, show yourself. Sowol."
'Sowol?'
A glint of light entered Lee Ji-yeom's eyes.
Had she returned?
It was then.
-Fwosh!
Though he hadn't taken his eyes off him even for a moment, Jeong Hyeon-mun's figure suddenly blurred and reappeared right before Lee Ji-yeom.
With no time to think, Lee Ji-yeom leaned back and launched his body away to create distance.
-Slash!
But in an instant, his sword was slicing toward Lee Ji-yeom's throat.
Even if he wanted to dodge, the moment was too fleeting for his body to react.
'Can't even block a single strike?'
Setting aside the injury, was the gap between Eight Star and Seven Heavens truly insurmountable?
As he stared helplessly at the unavoidable blade, it happened.
-Clang!
Just before the sword could touch his neck,
Something erupted from the blood on the ground and blocked the stroke of the famed sword Ilhwi, even though it seemed impossible for anyone to intervene.
At the same time,
-Boom!
"Huh!"
A chilling,阴 cold energy sent Lee Ji-yeom's body flying backward.
Realizing it wasn't meant to injure but merely to push him away, Lee Ji-yeom refrained from unleashing rebounding true energy.
As he was repelled, his eyes caught sight of a figure wearing a veiled crown.
She was Cheongryeong, the final head of the Moon Vein Clan, whom they served across generations.
"Even as a vengeful spirit, you're still so weak. Letting a golden opportunity to sever this throat slip away out of sentiment, just to save the descendant of that bastard."
Cheongryeong glared fiercely at Jeong Hyeon-mun as he mocked her.
-What would a thief like you, who knows only how to steal, ever understand?
"That's why you've come back to steal it from me again, haven't you? My..."
-Clang!
Before he could finish, Jeong Hyeon-mun's famed sword Ilhwi was deflected upward by Cheongryeong's pipe staff.
-Shut your mouth!
Jeong Hyeon-mun's lips curled up at her explosive spiritual power.
'Has she transcended the limits of a vengeful spirit?'
It was purple spirit energy—no, even beyond that.
Not even the sorcery of solitude could produce such a powerful vengeful spirit, no matter the time invested.
It must mean her resentment had reached its peak.
However,
-Slash!
The moment his sword was deflected, Jeong Hyeon-mun's sword finger struck like lightning toward Cheongryeong's forehead.
She dove into the blood on the ground, but in an instant, the veiled crown she wore shattered and flew off.
-Slip!
Having evaded his strike, her form emerged from the blood more than ten paces behind.
Jeong Hyeon-mun smiled at her.
"Shall we clash swords like old times?"
-Do you think I'll let myself be swept along by your whims?
She had no intention of playing by her enemy's rules.
Now that she had drawn him into her domain, she planned to thoroughly shred and kill him.
-Swish!
As she swung her pipe staff, the countless blood droplets hovering in the air began to quiver.
At a glance, it looked like mere vibrations in the droplets,
'They're rotating.'
Lee Ji-yeom, watching from a distance, realized the droplets were spinning at high speed, creating the phenomenon.
-Shrrr!
Small and hard to see clearly, the droplets spread thin and spun rapidly, sharpening themselves and building power.
Controlling that uncountable number of blood droplets?
It was jaw-dropping.
'Indeed.'
Even Jeong Hyeon-mun's smile faded, his expression turning deadly serious.
What Cheongryeong was about to unleash was no trifling matter.
In response,
-Crack!
His forehead split open, revealing a third eye.
Lee Ji-yeom's eyes widened at the sight.
'Could that be...?'
It resembled what he had seen from Great Young Master Na Yul-ryang during the Heavenly Earth Society's civil war.
Did that mean Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun was connected to that secretive group as well?
How formidable must this "Secret Society" be to ensnare someone like Jeong Hyeon-mun, one of the Seven Heavens?
Lee Ji-yeom grew inwardly concerned.
How many more were hiding in the shadows?
Then,
-Die.
-Swish!
As Cheongryeong thrust her pipe staff, the furiously spinning blood droplets surged toward Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun all at once.
-Shhhh!
Each rotating droplet of blood carried enough power to obliterate the spot it pierced upon contact.
Even against Mokgan, she believed he couldn't evade this technique she had painstakingly refined over years.
Yet she saw Jeong Hyeon-mun's lips curl up, contrary to her expectation of dismay.
-Flinch!
What did that mean?
Then Jeong Hyeon-mun plunged his famed sword Ilhwi into the ground and spread his arms wide.
Was he planning to take it head-on?
It was then.
-Pop pop pop pop pop!
The fiercely spinning blood droplets flying toward him slid away to other directions before they could even touch his body.
Cheongryeong's expression hardened at the sight.
'Deflection Stance.'
That technique of smoothly deflecting incoming force was one of the Breaking Thought Eight Forms: the Deflection Form.
He had reached the pinnacle in those enlightened Breaking Thought Eight Forms techniques.
-Pop pop pop pop pop!
The deflected blood droplets flew straight toward the surviving warriors of Blood Valley.
"Dodge!"
Lee Ji-yeom shouted urgently, but it was too late.
Exhausted from blocking the enemy, they had no strength left to evade.
-Boom!
In that instant, as casualties seemed imminent, Cheongryeong slammed her palm toward the ground.
Then,
-Shwaaaa!
The pooled blood surged upward, forming a barrier that encircled them.
This absorbed the deflected blood droplets into the blood wall, averting what could have been a disastrous backlash.
-Haa... haa...
She tried not to show it, but Cheongryeong's complexion was poor.
In truth, she hadn't fully recovered her spiritual power yet.
Under the single-minded drive to thwart Mokgan's scheme, she had raced here day and night without rest.
Thus, she had hoped for a quick decisive battle against Jeong Hyeon-mun—Mokgan's avatar—but that was no longer feasible.
Any further major expenditure of spiritual power would put her in greater peril.
So,
-Swish!
With a wave of her hand, the blood domain—Ghost Intent Blood Realm—that had dyed the peak's floor and surroundings in crimson vanished as if it had never been.
Everyone looked baffled, but Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun spoke as if he had anticipated it.
"You're not in full condition, so why not stop here? Further resistance is pointless."
-Resistance? You're mistaken. This is revenge.
"Revenge... Heh heh heh. That requires power. What you're doing is mere flailing. Sowol."
Cheongryeong snorted at his words.
-Fine. Then I'll flail with all my might. Until my kick crushes your skull.
-Swish!
With those words, Cheongryeong assumed the starting stance of the Moon Vein Sword Style.
Then Lee Ji-yeom, the Lord of Blood Valley, shouted.
"My lord! Take this!"
He tossed her the sword sheath strapped to his back.
-Catch!
Without even looking, she reached back, caught it, and in one fluid motion drew the sword from its sheath.
-Shing!
A pure white blade emerged with a clear sword cry.
It was the famed sword Sunyeon, a unique weapon forged exclusively for her by Gu Mun-hyeok, descendant of the great swordsmith Gu Ya-ja.
The moment she gripped it, sword light flickered from Sunyeon, accompanied by a powerful resonance.
-Woooong!
Held in its master's hand after a hundred years, Sunyeon wailed.
'You've waited a long time too, haven't you, Sunyeon.'
Truly a famed sword.
Even grasping it in spirit form rather than flesh, it recognized her as its owner.
At that moment, an inexplicable energy flowed from Sunyeon.
-Shoooo!
'What is this?'
It was the pure intent accumulated in the famed sword Sunyeon over a century.
That century of intent had become a highly refined energy, and as it entered her, her severely depleted spiritual power began to recover bit by bit.
A gleam entered Cheongryeong's eyes.
A famed sword, but not a demon sword—did it possess such ability?
'Was this Master Gu Mun-hyeok's arrangement? Or did the century shape you thus?'
The master swordsmith Gu Mun-hyeok, who had forged and delivered this sword for her.
He had crafted the ultimate blade for her.
Gripping the famed sword Sunyeon tightly, Cheongryeong returned to the mindset of a swordswoman and assumed her stance.
-Swaaaa!
As she did, sharp sword intent radiated in all directions.
Sensing the change in her aura, Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun drew his famed sword Ilhwi from the ground.
In the meantime, she transmitted her will solely to Lee Ji-yeom, the Lord of Blood Valley.
-Leave this one to me. Convey to the leadership immediately: halt the battle between the Justice Alliance and Death Alliance.
'How?'
As Lee Ji-yeom showed puzzled eyes,
-This is his scheme. It's not just targeting my soul incarnation Wi So-yeon or the Heavenly Earth Society. What he truly aims for is to gather the majority of the martial world in one place...
Before she could finish,
Jeong Hyeon-mun, having closed the distance, unleashed the Heaven Sword Style toward her.
She hurriedly countered with the Moon Sword Style using Sunyeon.
-Clang clang clang clang clang!
As the famed swords Ilhwi and Sunyeon clashed, blue sparks flew amid explosive sounds echoing everywhere.
Unlike before, the moment their swords met, Jeong Hyeon-mun's eyes took on a strange glint.
It had been over a century since he last crossed blades with her.
But it was fleeting. Soon, he unleashed intricate, dazzling techniques to press her.
-Clang clang clang clang!
'To sense his taint in the Moon Sword Style.'
The swordplay Cheongryeong wielded was no longer the Moon Sword Style he once knew.
Rather, it resembled his own swordsmanship.
It was enough to twist his emotions.
-Clang clang clang clang!
As the sword exchanges grew fiercer, unable to spare the focus to transmit her will separately, Cheongryeong shouted to Lee Ji-yeom.
-Hurry and stop them!
At her cry, Lee Ji-yeom hesitated briefly.
It meant momentarily abandoning his duty to protect Wi So-yeon, Cheongryeong's reincarnation.
But he could not defy her command, so he launched his body away.
-Fwosh!
As Lee Ji-yeom descended the peak, Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun sneered amid his swordplay.
"Too late."
-No. I won't let things go your way.
"Pity. Sowol, you can't stop anything. Forget it all and come back to me."
-Shut up! Even if this is my end and I dissipate, I will never be with you!
-Clang!
Deflecting his sword upward, Cheongryeong wrapped her blade in blood-red spiritual power.
She then spun the blood-red spiritual power, thrusting toward Jeong Hyeon-mun's face.
Jeong Hyeon-mun responded with a meaningful smile.
-Smile!
-Claaaaang!
'He's blocking this?'
But it didn't end there.
-Pop!
Along with parrying her blood-red spiritual power-infused ultimate technique, he used the Pear Flower Grafting method to infuse his own true energy and deflect it upward.
-Boom!
The force was so immense that Cheongryeong's spirit body shot straight up.
Soaring nearly thirty feet in an instant, she wrapped herself in spiritual power to halt her ascent.
As she came to a stop, Jeong Hyeon-mun was already upon her.
She righted her form to attack him, but
-Flinch!
The sight before her eyes forced her to halt.
Even from the peak of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, it hadn't been visible—but beyond the horizon, something blackening the earth was swarming toward them.
Too distant to see clearly, but undoubtedly,
'Yi Mae Mang Ryang.'
They were the grotesque horrors known as Yi Mae Mang Ryang.
An innumerable horde of them was writhing toward the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
At their speed, they would arrive soon.
With them at his back, Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun spoke.
"I told you. It's already too late. Heh heh heh."
[Chapter 123 Great Catastrophe (1)] End