Chapter 495
Chapter 495
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 127
>Chapter Title: Epilogue (1)
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-Slash!
Amid the endless barrage of exploding orbs of light, a single black line emerged.
A razor-sharp sword energy sliced through space, and in an instant, the right arm of the golden Heavenly King holding Aden's sword was severed.
-Spurt!
‘!?’
The golden Heavenly King's eyes widened, unaware even as his arm was cut off.
What in the world had just happened?
The sharp energy had traversed space without slicing through the orbs of light.
Thanks to that, he only realized he'd been slashed a moment too late.
-Kuh!
The immense pain furrowed the golden Heavenly King's brow.
Even so, he didn't cry out.
Having lived through unimaginable ages and countless wars, he could endure pain like this.
However,
‘I need to retrieve the sword.’
-Kukukukukukuku!
With his arm severed, he lost his grip on the sword, and the gravitational field dissipated.
Even his attempt to pull in the meteors by opening space came to a halt.
He had to recover the sword and send it back into orbit.
The golden Heavenly King summoned divine power to draw in his severed arm and the sword.
It was right then.
-Pachachachachachachang!
The orbs of light scattered in all directions, and someone burst through the gap.
It was Mok Kyung-un.
‘Damn you!’
The golden Heavenly King generated even more orbs of light to keep Mok Kyung-un at bay.
But at that moment,
-Shrrrrrrrr!
Formless swords materialized around Mok Kyung-un, spinning fiercely to deflect the incoming orbs of light and prevent them from approaching.
Desperate as Mok Kyung-un closed in, the golden Heavenly King went beyond using divine power and tried to move himself to retrieve the sword.
Entering the realm of ultra-high speed, their movements slowed to a crawl.
The golden Heavenly King's hand was mere inches from the sword,
Right then,
-Slash!
‘This!’
A sharp sword energy crossed space, drawing a red line across his extended left arm.
As sensation vanished from his left hand, the light from the ring on it rapidly dimmed.
Then,
-Kugugugugugugu!
The spatial rift high in the sky contracted and sealed shut.
With it, the scorching heat and pressure crushing the earth vanished, and those pinned beneath it gazed at the closed sky, roaring in cheers.
-Waaaaaaaaaa!!!!
They had been despondent amid the falling stars.
But with Mok Kyung-un halting it, regardless of righteous or demonic sects, they could only shout in joy.
‘Mok Kyung-un, you really...’
Mok Yu-cheon watched the scene, unable to contain his excitement, his chest trembling.
No matter the past, he had thought his half-brother had joined the Heaven-Earth Society, abandoned the righteous path, and turned to the ways of evil demons.
But all that was meaningless now.
Before his eyes stood the world's greatest master and unparalleled hero.
-Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon! Heavenly Demon!
Everyone called out to him with awe.
Only he could slay that transcendent being who proclaimed himself a god.
Thus, they united in their plea.
As if hearing their wish, Mok Kyung-un's form surged toward the golden Heavenly King, who had lost his left arm as well and flapped his wings in panic to create distance.
‘How can this be!’
The golden Heavenly King found it unbearable—not from pain, but from humiliation.
Had this happened before losing his core, against the absolute being he'd opposed for eons, it might have been less shameful.
But now it was entirely different.
Having lost his core, he had fully forfeited his power as the Demon King, and even been defeated by one of his own limbs, losing his divine artifact and falling to the mortal realm as a human.
‘A puny human! How! How dare you push this king like this?’
He couldn't accept it.
-Grind!
Thus, he was forced to choose the option he'd most avoided.
-Thump!
He'd thought his divine artifact's power alone sufficient to kill him, but no.
A century ago, he'd suffered fatal damage from that one's core, entering recovery, yet only thirty percent restored.
He'd avoided drawing on the core's divine power as much as possible, but now he had no choice.
-Thud thud thud thud!
-Cough!
Pulling on the unrestored core's divine power made blood spew from his mouth.
Yet, after a century, the core stirred, circulating divine power through his body, surging with immense strength.
-Spurt! Spurt!
The circulation instantly regenerated his severed left and right arms.
With his arms restored, the golden Heavenly King halted his retreat and flew toward the charging Mok Kyung-un.
If he underwent another long recovery, he might lose his position to someone else, but here he would surely kill him...
-Shhhhhhhhhh!
In that instant, countless black sword trails wove a dazzling pattern in the air.
-Chill!
The golden Heavenly King's pupils shook wildly.
He couldn't see the sword's trajectory.
Only lines slashing through the air filled his vision, leaving him no way to respond.
-Bam!
The golden Heavenly King hurriedly wrapped himself in his massive golden wings.
Wings that were the crystallization of divine power alongside the core.
Concentrating divine power, they boasted hardness far surpassing Aden's armor.
But,
-Shhhhhhhhhhhslash!
‘!?’
Nerves connecting each feather were all severed,
-Pachaaaaa!
And feathers shredded into thousands of pieces scattered everywhere.
In thousands of years of war, he'd taken minor wounds but never lost his wings.
Yet now, his prized golden wings were disintegrating.
‘This... this...’
Unlike flesh, they couldn't be restored quickly.
But it didn't end there.
-Slash!
Mok Kyung-un's pitch-black demonic sword Akjeuk sliced his right arm, and simultaneously, his left fist slammed into the golden Heavenly King's abdomen.
-Bam!
A piercing energy rode the fist inward.
That force tore open the golden Heavenly King's mouth, who'd been enduring pain until now.
-Keurk!
Not stopping there, Mok Kyung-un's elbow struck his chin upward.
-Bam!
-Kwak!
With the sound of his jaw shattering, his head snapped back.
"You're still far from done."
-Flinch!
The golden Heavenly King's face paled at Mok Kyung-un's voice ringing in his ear.
He had no idea how, but each of his strikes carried vicious, sharp energies that shredded his insides, inflicting unprecedented agony.
‘No!’
-Gooooo!
The golden Heavenly King gathered divine power in his left hand, creating a vortex of light to repel Mok Kyung-un.
But the extended left arm,
-Slash!
Was severed outright.
-Kraaaaaak!
As he screamed in pain, Mok Kyung-un seized his cheeks.
-Grip!
"You'll need to stay conscious until I've chewed through every scrap of your flesh, every bone shard, every organ."
‘Th-this bastard...’
Beyond chills down his spine, goosebumps wracked the golden Heavenly King's entire body.
This one was different from the Demon King he knew.
Gone was the dignified grace of the demon clan; replaced by sheer brutality and viciousness.
"Shall we start with those eyes?"
Mok Kyung-un extended his fingers toward the golden Heavenly King's eyes with a chilling smile.
But right then.
"You'd best stop there. Incarnation."
Mok Kyung-un's hand halted midway at the voice echoing in his mind.
Not from far away, he instantly pinpointed its source.
It came from the direction of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.
Mok Kyung-un slowly turned his head.
‘!?’
His pupils shook as he did.
Above the Ten Thousand Great Mountains' skies floated a face-covered-in-scars figure, identified instantly by the third eye on his forehead.
It was Mok Gan.
‘...Body-swapped?’
Mok Kyung-un had thought him, forcibly ejected from the Great Power King, would have burst apart in the golden Heavenly King's gravitational field.
Despite countless atrocities and madness, did he have heaven's luck?
What tenacious life force.
-Grip!
Mok Kyung-un's grip tightened on his demonic sword Akjeuk.
And for good reason: the two beings in the scarred Mok Gan's hands.
In his left: Cheongnyeong, dimmed after expending most of her spiritual power.
In his right: Wi So-yeon, slumped unconscious.
At last, both Wi So-yeon's soul and Cheongnyeong's魄 had fallen into his grasp.
-Grind!
Murderous intent blazed fiercely in Mok Kyung-un's eyes.
He wanted to sever the bastard's neck immediately, but the distance was too great.
Beyond mind sword range, even hard to reach with bullet sword gang—likely calculated precisely.
Mok Kyung-un's prediction was spot on.
"Kuhuhuhuhuhu."
Mok Gan laughed maniacally, unable to hide his excitement.
Just when all seemed lost to variables, they were now in his hands.
Then a voice rang in his mind.
-Well done. Half the main body is down there, so...
-Shut up. From now on, this seat handles it. You just follow my will.
-...Do as you please. Your judgment has surpassed mine.
The yielding will was Mok Gan's; the firm rejection, Bi Yong-heon's.
Bi Yong-heon's will cared nothing for eradicating Central Plains martial world or purging humans for the Heavenly Clan—he'd waited only for this moment.
Mok Gan—no, Bi Yong-heon—gazed at Cheongnyeong with a madness-filled smile.
"Now we can return to how it was. So Wol."
-Return? Ha...
Cheongnyeong had no words left for his madness and obsession.
She felt sorry only for one person.
‘Lord of Life.’
Cheongnyeong shook her head at Mok Kyung-un.
She prayed he wouldn't make a foolish choice for her sake.
‘...Please don’t.’
If he did, she couldn't endure even until her dissipation.
She steeled her resolve inwardly.
Her spiritual power nearly depleted, barely able to move, but she aimed for one chance.
-Swish!
Cheongnyeong looked at Wi So-yeon, her flesh containing her soul.
Surely Bi Yong-heon would use alchemy to merge their bodies.
She'd aim for that moment for mutual destruction with her soul.
‘I won’t hold you back.’
You’ll grieve, but if it saves you, I’ll vanish gladly.
As expected, Bi Yong-heon began chanting some incantation.
Clearly, the alchemy of the Evil Heart Sect for handling souls and魄.
He meant to merge them immediately.
-Swish!
Bi Yong-heon brought himself close to Wi So-yeon's body.
Cheongnyeong waited tensely.
Just once.
The moment of soul contact.
But then, mid-chant, Bi Yong-heon halted his ethereal form before Wi So-yeon and said something shocking.
"I won't let him steal you from me a third time."
‘!?’
Cheongnyeong's pupils shook.
A third time?
No way...
Her eyes turned to Mok Kyung-un, staring unwaveringly from afar.
Then,
-Paaaaaak!
-Baaaak!
A curse power burrowed into the nape of her ethereal body, freezing it solid.
To her flustered state, Bi Yong-heon smirked.
"If you were planning something, forget it. After a hundred years waiting solely for this, did you think I'd be careless?"
With that, he resumed chanting, trying to insert the immobilized Cheongnyeong's ethereal form into Wi So-yeon's body.
-Swish!
Cheongnyeong's eyes reddened.
She'd just realized something—couldn't forget it all like this.
But her ethereal form was already seeping bit by bit into Wi So-yeon's flesh.
Bi Yong-heon smiled meaningfully, as if victorious.
But,
‘!?’
His expression twisted in an instant.
"What is th..."
-Stab!
Wi So-yeon's eyes snapped open, thrusting something toward Bi Yong-heon's heart.
-Thud!
Startled, Bi Yong-heon released Cheongnyeong and hastily grabbed the dagger.
Rage-filled, he bellowed.
"How dare a lowly lingering soul enter this body?"
"Why didn't you check, then?"
"What?"
-Grip!
Wi So-yeon—no, Escort Go Chan inside her—strained desperately to stab Bi Yong-heon's chest, to no avail.
Their internal energy gap was too vast.
Enraged by the momentary interference, Bi Yong-heon,
-Clang!
Snapped the dagger instantly, placed his hand on Wi So-yeon's chest, and chanted an anti-demon spell.
Then,
-Shoooooo!
Go Chan's lingering soul in her body was forcibly ejected.
-Ugh!
Bi Yong-heon, in fury about to obliterate Go Chan's soul instantly, suddenly recalled dropping Cheongnyeong and reached downward.
Right then.
-Slash!
His arm severed as someone soared upward.
‘!?’
It was Mok Kyung-un.
Seizing the tiny opening created by his servant and lingering soul Escort Go Chan, Mok Kyung-un had flown here in a flash and caught the falling Cheongnyeong.
To Mok Kyung-un holding and ascending with her, Cheongnyeong spoke in a trembling voice.
"Lord of Life, no, you... you..."
Before she finished, Mok Kyung-un gently caressed her cheek with tender affection and said.
"It was all me."
At those words, tears gushed from Cheongnyeong's reddened eyes.
[Chapter 127: Epilogue (1)] End