Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Sunset
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"Come at me fair and square, one by one."
-Splurch!!
Baek Hyun drove the blade lodged in the back of the man who appeared to be their leader even deeper as he addressed the man's underlings.
The other intruders, who had momentarily failed to grasp the situation, snapped to their senses and were about to charge—
"You rotten bastard!!!"
-Boom!!
—when the leader, having shaken off the Human-Faced Tree, unleashed a ferocious punch straight at Baek Hyun.
Even with a sword buried in his back and eight legs dug into his flesh, the aura of a peak transcendent warrior showed no sign of waning.
The punch he threw with all his might carried enough power to pulverize Baek Hyun's body into a lump of meat in an instant.
However—
-Whoosh, tat!
Baek Hyun seemed to have anticipated the attack, casually ducking his head to evade it before swiftly retrieving the blade from the man's back and pulling away.
The leader immediately thrust out his other hand to pursue Baek Hyun's form, but—
-Sizzle...
"! When did you—?!"
His acupoints were already sealed, neutralized by a finger glowing red-hot.
One Yang Finger.
A secret art of the proxy kingdom's imperial family, one of Baek Hyun's trump cards specialized for interpersonal combat.
He had avoided using it so thoroughly that he only trained in places utterly devoid of any presence, lest anyone discover it.
'I'm going to wipe them all out anyway, so it doesn't really matter.'
Baek Hyun gazed coldly at the intruders charging toward him with overwhelming murderous intent.
He had even tested their reactions just in case, but how accustomed to killing must one be to judge so quickly that they deserved death?
For him, who had agonized over whether to kill them right up until moments before launching his ambush on the way here, it was a mindset truly befitting a martial artist—one he ought to emulate.
'Guess I need to step up my game from now on.'
Ever since possessing this world, he had reaffirmed his resolve to kill when necessary countless times.
Yet actually resolving to end a life with his own hands was no easy matter.
But watching these intruders charge at him with faces brimming with killing intent, the shackles of 'guilt' around his ankles seemed to vanish.
Their movements reeked of blood.
A stench of blood so thick that adding their own wouldn't make a difference.
-Thud!!
Baek Hyun dodged the incoming attacks and used Azure Hawk Seven Forms to instantly widen the distance, observing the situation.
Despite glaring at him with eyes full of murderous intent, the mysterious intruders weren't pursuing recklessly.
The reason was simple.
Their leader had been completely neutralized by the earlier ambush.
Though learned as a foundation for Six Meridians Divine Sword, One Yang Finger was still a high-grade martial art in its own right.
No matter how much of a peak transcendent warrior he was, he couldn't unseal acupoints blocked by One Yang Finger in a single breath.
And with the Human-Faced Tree's poison coursing through him on top of the fatal ambush wound...
The man was no longer their greatest threat—just a convenient lump of baggage.
'The Human-Faced Tree must have breathed its last with that last attack. Well, it more than pulled its weight.'
He hadn't saved it in time, but he had avenged it.
-Thud!!
Baek Hyun's form sprang toward the intruders once more.
Compared to the initial attacks he couldn't even perceive, these were clearly slower—something he could handle.
The intruders met his sword with newfound confidence.
-Clang!!
As expected, Baek Hyun's initial strike was effortlessly deflected.
Realizing Baek Hyun's skill was weaker than anticipated, one intruder moved to end him in a flash—
-Craaack-!!
"Guhk!?"
—when Baek Hyun's index finger, condensed with immense scorching Yang energy, struck the black-clad man's forehead.
One Yang Finger, a technique of extreme Yang nature, synergized perfectly with Baek Hyun's Solar Body.
When the overwhelming Yang qi unique to the Solar Body fused with One Yang Finger, its power was nothing short of devastating.
Faint smoke rose from the intruder's forehead as if it were aflame, and his eyes lost focus in that instant.
"As expected, fighting people is great because their patterns are so easy to read."
-Thump!
Baek Hyun hurled the intruder—who had died instantly, beyond any hope of revival—at one of his approaching comrades.
The comrade flinched at the flying corpse but quickly swept it aside.
-Stab!!
Before he could counter, Baek Hyun's sword pierced through the gap under the corpse's armpit and impaled his face.
That made two.
Enemies still swarmed from all directions.
-Whish, thwack
He leaned back to dodge a blade aimed at his head. He caught a dart targeting his eyes with his fingers.
-Stab!
He naturally stepped on an axe blade swinging at his legs and stabbed the nape of its wielder.
At the same time, he extended his hand toward another charging intruder. Perhaps due to the prior display of One Yang Finger's power, the man's attention momentarily fixated on Baek Hyun's fingers.
A poor decision.
-Craaack!!
Seizing the opening from the shifted gaze, Baek Hyun yanked his sword from the corpse's nape and shattered the man's knee.
The man's upper body lurched forward as he faltered.
-Puk-puk-puk!
Dozens of darts thrown by his comrade embedded in his back.
That made four.
Baek Hyun felt his movements growing sharper as the battle dragged on.
'Things are starting to heat up... but it still feels shitty.'
His heart raced with the thrilling sensation and accomplishment of PvP, a feeling he hadn't experienced in ages—yet it grew ice-cold each time the visceral sound of rending flesh crawled up his fingertips.
He had killed people.
In an instant, several lives had ended at his fingertips.
Even with Clear Mind Heart Method's aid, nausea threatened to rise, but he felt no regret.
This was that kind of world, after all.
He had no intention of becoming some psycho chasing fun in this horrific reality.
"So this is what it feels like to kill someone."
Baek Hyun's eyes began to gleam with the cold light of a blazing sun.
The intruders felt chills rack their bodies at the sight.
Movements utterly inhuman in their ruthlessness and efficiency—unthinkable for a Daoist.
Even seasoned warriors couldn't help but waver before such cunning psychological warfare, followed by merciless strikes exploiting the tiniest gaps.
Movements honed solely for killing, unbound by ethics, preconceptions, or martial forms.
His visible realm wasn't particularly high.
Yet he was terrifyingly strong.
The swordsmanship was unmistakably Daoist, but his motions were more precise and horrifying than those of a great demon who had massacred hundreds.
Just facing him sent shivers to the bone.
The man's thirst for slaughter.
But precisely because of that, he might join them.
"...Not the skill of some green kid whose blood hasn't even dried. Were you a hidden master who returned to youth?"
"Well, my mental age is a bit higher than I look. What about you lot? You called us bandits and such—are you from the imperial side? Doesn't seem like Brocade Guard techniques, though."
"Hah, do you truly consider that muddleheaded bloodline—ruling weakly over the powerless masses without conquering the jianghu—as the imperial family?"
"Hm?"
Baek Hyun couldn't help but take interest in the unexpectedly radical response.
The current imperial family nominally abstained from jianghu affairs under the name 'immutable martial exemption.'
But that was merely a 'privilege' granted out of respect for the martial artists who helped expel Yuan remnants during founding.
In truth, the Nine Great Righteous Sects, Five Great Clans, Martial Alliance, and Evil Alliance all fell under imperial influence, backed by the overwhelming might of the Brocade Guards and Imperial Army.
The imperial family was the supreme power in Dominating the World, capable of controlling the nation with a flick of the finger—yet they mocked it so?
"Emperor means the greatest being reigning over all things in this world. Only one may bear that title.
The rightful ruler of the world is that one alone, and all who refuse obedience are mere filthy rebels."
"Ahh~ So that's why you called us rebels with that logic?"
As expected of this world's shadowy cabal—the reasoning was utterly insane.
"So why are you monologuing about your boss mid-fight?"
"Your sword reeks of thick blood. No amount of Daoist swordplay can hide that blatant stench. I guarantee you're someone who revels in and studies slaughter more than anyone in the world. Even that Heaven-Slaying Star pales before you."
"...Why are you suddenly picking a fight? I just killed my first person."
"No need to hide it. Such instincts are nothing to be ashamed of. His Majesty has declared that those with your brand of madness are the ones fit to rule the world alongside him.
So I'll give you a chance. Overthrow your false emperor and ingrained delusions now, and pledge loyalty to the true emperor..."
-Stab!!
In that moment, the blade in Baek Hyun's hand slammed into the mouth of the man mid-monologue.
"What bullshit."
Treating a normal person like some psycho and trying to 'embrace' him on a whim.
Baek Hyun was genuinely pissed off for the first time in ages.
"...Is that your answer?"
"To spurn His Majesty's grace and choose the rebel path... Your entire clan deserves extermination."
The intruder with the blade in his mouth died pathetically on the spot, and now two peak experts formed sword qi as they charged at Baek Hyun.
Having thrown his sword moments ago, Baek Hyun had no means to form qi barehanded yet.
"Hah, I said come at me fair and square, you bastards."
But in his hand remained the dart he had snatched earlier.
-Ping!!
Baek Hyun infused the dart with intense inner force and flung it at their recovering leader.
His complexion had improved—perhaps from an emergency pill—but he still seemed far from recovering from One Yang Finger's aftereffects.
Blocking a sudden dart would be tough.
One of the men about to attack Baek Hyun thought the same and hastily redirected his sword to deflect it.
He overcommitted so badly that fatal openings riddled his stance.
-Stab-!!!
"Kuh...hek...!"
"Even Carnivorous Dinosaur doesn't dare glance away in front of me—what makes a newbie like you think he can?"
Baek Hyun instantly closed in on the loyal subordinate and drove One Yang Finger into his heart.
The man clutched his chest, face contorted in agony even through his hood, and collapsed.
Baek Hyun snatched the falling man's sword, slit his throat, then enveloped his own blade in sword qi and swung with full power.
-Tssskaaang!!
A blue sword qi flew toward Baek Hyun's nape.
Flames of sword qi from his blade met it head-on.
Or rather, 'met' wasn't quite right.
"! My... sword qi!?"
No one would call it an exchange when one side was utterly crushed.
The blue sword qi disintegrated into ash after losing the clash of power, while Baek Hyun's blazing sword qi didn't diminish in the slightest.
Sword qi forged from scorching Yang energy refined to its limits.
No ordinary peak expert's sword qi could match it.
"Kuh, what are you idiots doing?! Kill him now!!"
Too late, he ordered a joint assault, and the remaining intruders charged.
Baek Hyun eyed them coolly.
He hadn't taken a solid hit yet, but he wasn't fully at ease either.
Forcing Shoot the Sun Sword Art during the initial ambush on the toughest foe had strained his lower body and right shoulder.
The price of outputting beyond his comprehension in martial enlightenment.
Of course, that wouldn't hinder finishing the rest.
But the surest, least taxing way was a swift resolution.
"The moment you lost all your peak experts, you were done."
Don't grovel. Go cleanly.
Shoot the Sun Sword Art, 5th Form
Radiant Declining Sun
Sun-like light began radiating from Baek Hyun's entire body.
The sole wide-area technique of the Starpoint Sect, compressing and unleashing all the user's inner force.
The only form of Shoot the Sun Sword Art Baek Hyun could currently use in real combat.
Unlike the others, it required no martial insight whatsoever.
Only sufficient inner force to unleash its power.
-Kugugugugugugu...!!!
The sun at the brink of setting shines more brilliantly than ever.
Imaginably extreme Yang energy began incinerating everything around it.