Chapter 219
Chapter 219
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 219
Chapter Title: The End of the Demonic Path (4)
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Perhaps it was from watching the battle between supreme masters.
Unlike before, I could now grasp the imagery contained within the Heavenly Demon Sword.
Annihilation.
It was truly worthy of being called the martial lineage of the Heavenly Demon, the vilest and strongest of all martial arts.
*Sizzle…*
The Great Pure Adept, whose entire right arm had vanished, coughed up blood.
He had belatedly unleashed the Sun-Shooting Sword, but it had failed to block the attack.
The only silver lining was that he had avoided severe internal injuries.
"Cough."
The Lord of the Fortress, on the other hand, was in mortal danger.
Though he appeared outwardly unharmed, the black blood he was vomiting was a grave sign.
The Heavenly Demon Sword seemed to have inflicted massive internal damage.
Of course, both men were supreme masters.
They had not been defeated one-sidedly.
The Sun-Shooting Sword had struck the wrist of the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance, obliterating his left hand, while iron butterflies were embedded in his right eye and abdomen.
Each iron butterfly was coated in a deadly poison, causing a constant stream of blood to flow from his mouth.
However.
*'He's strong...!'*
The Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance was strong even in spirit.
*Thud, thud.*
Despite such grievous injuries, he showed no sign of pain, instead walking forward to finish the two men off.
"Th-this is...!"
The seven elders beside me rose to their feet.
As did I.
My internal injuries made it difficult to move, but I had to save them.
But the Lord of the Fortress stopped us.
"Do not... interfere!"
He looked as if he could die at any moment, his voice devoid of strength, yet his brief words carried immense resolve.
Unable to defy him, we halted.
"How does it feel?"
The Lord of the Fortress, having stopped us, gave a small smile as he watched the approaching Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance.
"What are you talking about? This? Or this?"
The Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance pulled the iron butterflies from his eye and abdomen.
Poisoned by the Soul-Severing Powder, his eyeball had already dissolved, and yellowish pus dripped from his abdomen, yet he merely smiled calmly, showing no sign of pain.
"Surely you don't think I was asking about something so trivial."
The Lord of the Fortress continued in a strained, simmering voice.
"I was merely asking how it feels to be staring death in the face."
"If you're banking on the Tang family's Soul-Severing Powder... I'd advise you it's useless."
The Lord of the Fortress shook his head at the response.
"I already know that something like Soul-Severing Powder cannot kill you."
"Then why do you ask me about death?"
To any observer, our side was clearly losing.
Even with one eye and one hand gone, there was no one here who could defeat the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance.
The Lord of the Fortress, on the other hand, was already in a state of terminal lucidity.
It was as if he already had one foot in the grave.
The Great Pure Adept, who could have helped him, had already lost consciousness and collapsed.
And yet, to treat the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance as if he were already dead meant one thing.
*'N-no way?'*
He still had one more card to play.
And just as I thought.
"It seems you haven't noticed yet."
As the Lord of the Fortress let out a small laugh.
*Kwoong!*
A tremor from a ground-shattering stomp shook the earth.
"Long time no see?!"
An old beggar charged toward the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance with the speed of a thunderbolt.
At this, the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance shouted in alarm.
"War King!"
That was right.
The trump card the Lord of the Fortress had prepared was the War King, the most elusive master in the current martial world.
The War King.
Though his origins, name, and whereabouts were unknown, preventing him from being called one of the Four Kings, he was still one of the greatest masters in the martial world, ranked among the top ten.
He was especially renowned for being stronger than anyone in a chaotic battle against multiple opponents.
Perhaps feeling that even mobilizing such a figure wasn't enough, the Lord of the Fortress had thrown his own life on the line to create the perfect opportunity.
In other words.
*'Lord of the Fortress...'*
He had bet everything on his revenge.
*Shiver.*
A satisfied smile graced the lips of the Lord of the Fortress as he watched the War King and the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance fight on the stage he had set.
"Khuhu, this... is the end."
His sorrowful voice tugged at the heartstrings.
Meanwhile, as I turned to watch the two fight, I couldn't hide my astonishment.
*Rumble. Crash! Kwoooaaah!*
The War King's martial arts, which battered the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance like a storm, were incredibly familiar.
*'What in the world is this?!'*
Except for the way he split his energy to use as force, the martial art the War King was using now was so similar to the War King Arts that they could be considered the same.
It was an utterly incomprehensible situation.
Hadn't Master Bukgung told me that I was the sole successor to the War King Arts?
The Explosive Death Force unleashed from the War King's hands.
*Wooooong. Kwaaaaaang!*
A massive explosion rang out, generating a powerful gravitational pull.
*Shwiiiiik!*
The blade of the Ultimate Death Force, energy compressed to its absolute limit, threatened the neck of the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance.
And then.
*Groooowl. Crunch. Crack.*
A Hellish Force, incomparably larger than any I could create, manifested and began to suck in everything around it.
"Kugh!"
"Tough, are you? This is getting fun!"
As the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance groaned under the frenzied assault, the War King began to rampage even more fiercely.
*Fwip. Fwipfwipfwip. Papapapak.*
He continuously used Phantom Steps to circle his opponent, unleashing a barrage of attacks.
Ordinary punches and kicks.
In form, they looked no different from those of a third-rate thug guarding a pleasure house, but their power was on another level.
*Boom! Boom! Boom!*
Each one was comparable in power to my own Explosive Death Force unleashed with all my might.
In that moment, I recalled the teachings the leader of the Righteous Path Alliance, the Sword Saint of Mount Hua, had imparted before his death.
*'When one reaches the pinnacle, everything becomes ordinary.'*
*'The simpler it is, the greater the power it holds. However, if one pursues simplicity without understanding complexity, one will never reach the truth.'*
Like the old martial world adage that all things connect at the pinnacle, the War King's fighting style resembled the Sword Saint's swordsmanship.
But there was a fundamental difference.
"Hahahaha! This is fun! So much fun!"
Like a wild beast on the attack, his strikes were formless and free.
*Whoosh!*
*Smack!*
He would bend backward to dodge a sword, only to whip a kick toward the groin.
*Pow!*
While relentlessly targeting the wound from the Lord of the Fortress's hidden weapon, he suddenly threw a handful of sand he'd scooped from somewhere and followed with a punch.
*Chwaak!*
"Kuk!"
"Still too green!"
Thanks to that, the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance was forced to close his one remaining eye.
*Bambambambambam!*
He had no choice but to expose his side, where the hidden weapon was still embedded, to a flurry of Thirteen Strikes.
"Guhk!"
It was sheer, unadulterated madness.
Watching him punch, strike, and kick, a single image came to mind.
*'This is...?'*
Killing.
The essence of martial arts (武) is the act of killing an opponent.
The study of this is called martial arts (武功), the search for the way through martial prowess is called the martial way (武道), and one who practices it is a martial artist (武人).
However, the War King's art negated all of that, containing only the truth of killing an opponent.
Faster than anyone, more efficient than anything.
*Boom boom boom boom!*
Amidst the endless rain of attacks, the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance gritted his teeth and swung his sword.
*Fwoosh!*
A black torrent of energy, filled with the aura of Annihilation, shot toward the War King.
*Smirk.*
But he, as if expecting it, used his Phantom Steps to evade.
"......!"
He hadn't dodged after seeing it.
He had dodged by predicting that such an attack would come at that exact moment.
Although the Lord's sword had slowed due to his injuries, it was still an astonishing feat.
*'To dodge it like that...'*
I could see why they called him the strongest in a chaotic battle.
*Guoooo.*
The Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance, seemingly deciding he couldn't just take the beating, gathered a black torrent of energy onto his sword.
It looked like he was about to unleash the final technique of the Heavenly Demon Sword, the one that had defeated the Lord of the Fortress and the Great Pure Adept.
However, his injuries had inevitably dampened his momentum.
*Drip, drip.*
*'Is the poison taking effect?'*
As the fight dragged on, yellowish pus dripped continuously from near his eye and abdomen.
He was likely drawing upon the internal energy he had been using to suppress the Soul-Severing Powder.
Which meant.
*'He's reaching his limit!'*
The Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance was also not far from death.
"I can see the end!"
The War King, also noticing this, raised his own aura to meet the Lord's sword.
And so, as the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance slashed his sword.
*Flash.*
The world was engulfed in black darkness.
*Grrrrumble.*
A gray sphere, presumably the Hellish Force, erupted from the War King's hand.
A battle between the black torrent seeking to annihilate everything and the gray sphere seeking to absorb everything.
The result.
*Crrrrrackle.*
Was the gray sphere's victory.
Seeing his Heavenly Demon Sword defeated, the face of the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance instantly turned black.
The Soul-Severing Powder had spread throughout his body.
*Thud.*
He knelt, vomiting dark red blood.
The end of an absolute ruler had come.
"Ughn..."
The War King staggered forward on trembling legs.
"I'll end your suffering."
The Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance stared blankly up at the War King.
"......Can you give me a moment? I have some last words for them."
"Fine by me."
As the War King nodded, he shouted to the demonic path followers he had brought with him.
[Children of the Demonic Path—!]
His powerful voice spread across the battlefield. The followers of the Ten Demon Alliance replied with tears in their eyes.
Advent of the Heavenly Demon—! The Divine Cult is Invincible—!
[I will die now. But the soul of the Demonic Path will not.]
He continued with a small sneer.
[I have made all arrangements at Mount Cheon. Return and strive to rebuild the Demonic Path. Do not emerge into the world until you are perfectly prepared, be it a hundred years or a thousand.]
Advent of the Heavenly Demon—! The Divine Cult is Invincible—!
"......?"
At his command, the War King, myself, and everyone in the Nine Dragons Alliance looked at the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance with eyes full of confusion.
The main forces of the Nine Dragons Fortress are currently gathered at Mount Cheon.
With even Master Bukgung present, if they returned without a leader, they would be annihilated nine times out of ten.
As everyone stood dumbfounded by the incomprehensible order, he looked at the dying Lord of Nine Dragons.
"As you wished, I have wiped out the seed of the Demonic Path. Are you satisfied now?"
"......Why did you give such a foolish... order?"
"Because I wanted to destroy the Demonic Path with my own hands."
"What?"
"You're not the only one who lost family at the hands of the Demonic Path."
"I... see."
Now, all my questions were answered.
Having lost his family in a coup, he never had any intention of conquering the world.
He started this war to sever the bloodline of the Demonic Path.
To destroy the Ten Demon Alliance.
Hearing the full story, the Lord of the Fortress, with a look of utter emptiness, called out the name of the deceased Green Dragon Master.
"Seong-ah... where are you... Grandpa is here..."
Watching the fading flame of life, the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance wore an expression of profound relief.
"Born as the heir to the Demonic Path, I killed two pillars of the Righteous Path. Was it not a life without regrets?"
Heir to the Demonic Path, my ass, after he destroyed it with his own hands.
*'Crazy bastard.'*
It was like watching a psychopath.
Forcing myself up on trembling legs, I walked in front of him.
Not to kill him.
He would die soon enough if left alone.
"Not two... but o...ne. Cough."
It was to nullify half of his supposed achievement.
"......?"
I showed a small pill to the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance, who was looking at me as if I were spouting nonsense.
"The Great Golden Elixir of Immortality. A miraculous medicine said to revive even the dead. I'm going to use this to save the Lord of the Fortress."
His expression twisted like that of a vengeful demon.
"You, you!"
Perhaps due to the sudden stress, he collapsed, blood pouring from all seven of his orifices.
It was the end of the Lord of the Ten Demon Alliance, the man who had made the world tremble.
"F-feed this to the L...ord... And don't go any...where... please stay... I have something to say..."
My memory of that day ends with me handing the Great Golden Elixir of Immortality to the War King.
