Chapter 479
Chapter 479
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 124
>Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Descent (1)
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-Slash!
‘!?’
What in the world is this?
The clone of Mok Gan, draped in tiger hide, couldn’t hide his bewilderment.
Among all the clones, this body was undoubtedly the finest.
Hyeok Young-je, the Lone Wanderer Supreme Sword, hailed as the pinnacle of the previous generation’s martial world.
Known for having no equal north of the border with his sword, he was a peerless master who vanished without a trace one day.
Excluding the main body, this had been the absolute best, yet even this clone’s flesh couldn’t sense the approach until the blade had already struck.
‘How…… How already?’
What was even more absurd was his arrival.
It was a distance that would take at least half a month on horseback without rest, so how could he appear here already?
It was a speed beyond comprehension.
-Kill.
Clone Hyeok Young-je sent his intent to the other two clones.
No matter what had happened, they had to kill him here.
“You bastard!”
“How dare you!”
The moment Clone Hyeok Young-je’s will fell, the two Mok Gan clones shot forward like bolts of lightning.
But then,
-Slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash!
Black lines streaked through the air between the two charging clones, tracing trajectories like shooting stars across the night sky.
In an instant, their airborne bodies shattered into dozens, hundreds of pieces.
‘Ha……’
Clone Hyeok Young-je’s three pupils trembled.
These clones had been limited to the Profound Realm due to the body’s inherent flaws, yet this foe felled them both in a single breath?
He had grown far stronger than in the bamboo grove of the ruined fortress.
“Cheong-ryeong.”
Mok Kyung-un, who had sliced the two Mok Gan clones into chunks of meat in one go, caught the staggering Cheong-ryeong in his arms.
-Master! Maaaster!
Cheong-ryeong clung to Mok Kyung-un, tears streaming down her face.
She had trusted him and come all this way, but her mind had been filled with nothing but worry for him.
Seeing his face now, the tears she had held back poured out.
As a lingering spirit, they were tears of blood, and Mok Kyung-un gently wiped them away with a soft smile, showing her something.
It was Soon-yeon, her unique weapon.
-Soon-yeon.
“This……”
Before she could finish,
The Mok Gan clone with its arm severed reached out toward Mok Kyung-un, forming hand seals and chanting something.
In that instant, Mok Kyung-un’s eyes flashed.
Then,
-Kwachuk!
“Gahk!”
Black blood sprayed from Hyeok Young-je’s mouth as he formed the seals.
Clutching his chest where his heart lay, his eyes widened in shock as blood fountained out.
A sharp sword had pierced his chest.
Invisible, but it had shredded his heart to pieces.
The pain was indescribable, and Mok Kyung-un regarded him coldly.
“The Jade Emperor’s Sky-Piercing Style no longer works.”
“Guhk…… Guhk……. You……”
“The price for making her cry is death.”
“You baaaastard!”
“Vanish.”
Mok Kyung-un lightly flicked his sword formula toward the clone.
Sharp sword energy coiled around Hyeok Young-je’s body as he formed the seals, and soon,
-Slash slash slash slash slash slash slash slash!
It exploded into oblivion.
A far more precise dismemberment than the others.
With the clone he had prided as the strongest reduced to dust, Mok Kyung-un turned to say something to Cheong-ryeong, as if he had been waiting.
“I……”
However,
-Swish!
Mok Kyung-un gently stroked Cheong-ryeong’s head, as she had lost consciousness from extreme spiritual energy depletion.
She had pushed on without rest to reach here, sustained by sheer will to stop Mok Gan, but with Mok Kyung-un’s arrival, her tension had snapped.
Holding her and stroking her hair, Mok Kyung-un soon gazed down at the base of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Then,
-Fwump!
He shot his form toward somewhere.
It was the peak where Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun clashed with his lieutenants.
With his Three Eyes open, pushing beyond the Profound Realm into power rivaling the Life-Death Realm, Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun was invincible.
-Bam! Kwakwakwakwa boom!
“Keuk……”
Seop-chun, flung back by a single strike, spat blood and glared at Jeong Hyeon-mun with blurring vision.
Two supreme experts at the Fire Realm, one matching them with peerless ability, vengeful spirits, and himself—all attacking together, yet this unbelievable outcome.
Vengeful spirit Ha-yun’s ethereal limbs were torn away, on the verge of dissipation, and Pal-duk-sa-jang Gu Yang-so, master of poison arts, had his abdomen pierced in mere ten exchanges after being deemed the biggest threat, now dying.
Even Ja-geum-jeong and Mara-hyeon, the only ones holding out, were no different.
“Haa…… Haa……”
“Cough cough. Damn bastard.”
Drenched in blood, they staggered to stay upright, on the verge of collapse.
More shocking still: they had gone all-out, prepared to perish together, yet only managed a few scratches.
This was a monster beyond reach.
Even as one of the Seven Heavens at the martial world’s peak, this was excessive.
-Step step!
“Pesky vermin. You thought the likes of you could stop me? I’ll sever all your limbs……”
-Flinch!
Then it happened.
Justice Alliance Leader Jeong Hyeon-mun, approaching them, suddenly halted and looked up.
Wondering what was wrong,
Jeong Hyeon-mun spat incomprehensible words, his face twisted.
“How are you already……”
-Kwaaaaaang!
Before he could finish,
Something crashed down from the sky onto Jeong Hyeon-mun’s position, splitting the earth and sending debris flying, shrouding vision in thick dust.
“Wh-what?”
Bewildered by the sudden event,
-Swish swish swish!
The dust cloud parted on its own, revealing a figure.
Seop-chun’s reddened eyes burst forth as he saw the one cradling Cheong-ryeong’s faint ethereal form.
“My loooord!”
It was Mok Kyung-un.
At their long-awaited lord’s arrival, Seop-chun and all the lieutenants lit up with joy.
“Aaah!”
But as the dust fully cleared, their joyous eyes went wide.
A massive crater had formed where Mok Kyung-un stood, and at his feet lay Jeong Hyeon-mun—head and torso utterly crushed.
Flattened as if under immense pressure.
‘Ha……’
Mara-hyeon let out a hollow laugh of disbelief.
The foe they had staked their lives against in a joint assault, barely scratching, reduced to that in one blow.
Calling it a monster felt embarrassing now.
He was a god of martial arts descended upon the mortal world.
* * *
-Whoosh! Clang clang clang clang clang clang clang clang clang!
A faint green staff and a flame-wreathed sword clashed in over a dozen exchanges in a flash.
The green staff, unmarred even against the blazing sword, was the Beggar Clan’s divine relic, the Dog-Beating Staff.
Beggar Clan Leader Hong Won-seok and Blood Valley Lord Lee Ji-yeom exchanged blows without the slightest gap or yielding, making it impossible for anyone nearby to approach.
Gasps erupted from all sides with each clash of the supreme experts.
“Is this a duel between Fire Realm masters?”
“Incredible.”
“I heard Beggar Clan Leader Hong rivals the Eight Stars, the current martial world’s finest, but who’s that one-armed swordsman?”
“To hold his own against Blood Valley Lord. That old beggar’s no pushover.”
Justice Alliance and former Heaven-Earth Society warriors encircled them, watching the duel intently.
The balance in what seemed an endless clash began to tilt due to a feint from the Beggar Clan Leader.
‘Dog-Beating Staff Method, Ninth Form: Press Dog Lowers Head!’
The staff whirled dazzlingly toward the throat, and Lee Ji-yeom tried to redirect it with Plum Blossom Redirecting.
But in that moment,
‘Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms, Second Form: Dragon Wars in the Wilds!’
The staff move was a feint.
The instant Lee Ji-yeom redirected it, Hong Won-seok’s mighty left palm targeted his left shoulder.
Normally, he’d raise his left arm to block, but having lost it in a prior clash with a Shadow Heaven executive, he couldn’t.
-Pahang!
‘Kuk!’
Still unaccustomed to the missing arm, he allowed the absolute technique.
His form reeled back five paces from the palm to the shoulder.
The direct hit stalled his body momentarily with the palm force.
Seizing the opening, Hong Won-seok discarded the staff, leaped high, and shot toward him.
‘Dragon Subduing Eighteen Palms, First Form: Flying Dragon in the Heavens!’
Facing the oncoming dragon-like momentum, Lee Ji-yeom tried to block without fully dissipating the shoulder force.
That was when someone intervened.
Huangbo-sega Clan Head Huangbo-seong.
‘Damn!’
Caught off-guard by the sudden intrusion as he sought to end it, Beggar Clan Leader Hong Won-seok hurriedly unleashed twin palms downward to dispel the force.
-Kwaaaang!
The ground caved under his palms, a massive hole forming.
Rising from it, furious Beggar Clan Leader Hong Won-seok bellowed.
“What is this? Protecting the enemy now?”
“Didn’t I ask you to pause the duel?”
“Pause? You’d believe that bastard’s words?”
The one Hong Won-seok pointed at was none other than Mok Yu-cheon.
Kneeling with hands bound behind, showing no will to fight.
“He’s from Timber Sword Manor.”
“Hah! How naive can you be? Forgot he appeared with Heaven-Earth Society elites? This is an obvious trap.”
“Trap? Didn’t even you find it suspicious, Clan Leader? Even with intel and justification, this war’s been too one-sided.”
“Wars are always one-sided. How can Shadow Heaven’s leader so readily trust a traitor?”
“Then explain the plaques and secret messenger birds.”
At Huangbo-seok’s shout, Beggar Clan Leader Hong Won-seok scoffed.
“Having Shadow Heaven plaques proves nothing—maybe they stole them during spy hunts. Why act like this?”
Huangbo-seok clicked his tongue at the response.
No point arguing; the war was deep in progress, morale high on their side—he wouldn’t listen.
Then Mok Yu-cheon cried out.
“I didn’t betray the orthodox factions. I merely struggled to survive. I sent word of Heaven-Earth Society’s rebellion, and later warned of a third faction’s involvement. Why let them lead you by the nose?”
“What? Who’s being led?”
“This is a board set by a third faction. Doesn’t it seem too strange? Even if Heaven-Earth Society is strong, why ally with Evil Liaison Alliance out of nowhere? Don’t you know? They want Justice Alliance, Evil Liaison Alliance, and Heaven-Earth Society to mutually destroy each other!”
-Murmur murmur!
Mok Yu-cheon’s shout stirred unrest everywhere.
Though they followed the sect leaders’ decisions, they too found the rushed war odd, and despite numerical and power superiority, the sudden Evil Liaison Alliance alliance suspicious.
-Fwump!
“You bastard! Lowering allied morale with lies!”
Nearby, Mount Hua Sect Leader Gu Cheol-ja appeared, heard Mok Yu-cheon, and moved to intervene.
-Flinch!
But Gu Cheol-ja halted mid-leap toward him, staring at his sword in bewilderment.
‘What?’
-Hummmm!
The Mount Hua famed sword, Jade Flower Sword, resonated and trembled in his grip.
It wasn’t just his.
-Rattle rattle rattle!
“What?”
“Why are the swords……”
Swords held by nearby swordsmen shook as if alive.
Then, an unbelievable sight unfolded before them.
'!!!!!!!!!'
Swords from fallen swordsmen in the war, or masterless blades, suddenly floated into the air.
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