Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Fighting Poison with Poison
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Baek Hyun and Mokheon.
Just before the two master and disciple stepped back into the Three-Legged Crow's range.
Mokheon gave one final instruction to his disciple.
"Don't move until I've completely drawn its attention. If that thing turns its focus to you even for a moment, it's over."
"I've already thought that part through, Master. Don't worry."
"...Right. If you're saying that, then you must have a plan."
No more words were needed.
All that remained was to trust each other and charge forward.
-Whiiiing!!
Mokheon's blades, gracefully slicing through the air, once again bent their trajectory toward the Three-Legged Crow.
Four blades, now reinforced with even greater power and will after a third of them had melted away in the previous attack.
Mokheon drew the Three-Legged Crow's gaze by wielding the four blades from different directions in the most dazzling techniques possible.
And in that instant when the beast's attention scattered—
-Bang!!
Baek Hyun, who had been waiting for exactly that moment, shot forward like an arrow.
Unlike the four swords blazing with flashy presence, he had suppressed all his internal energy and aura to the limit in a stealth state.
When he threw himself into the storm of flames created by the Three-Legged Crow's wingbeats in that condition, even the beast could no longer detect his presence.
It was like trying to find a lost item in a fiercely raging storm—nearly impossible.
His already faint presence was completely shrouded by the overwhelming flames of the Three-Legged Crow, vanishing from the world entirely.
'Indeed, with a method like that, it's more than possible to slip past the Three-Legged Crow's senses.'
Watching this, Mokheon smiled in satisfaction, admiring his disciple's ingenuity.
A bold strategy of charging straight into those terrifying flames to hide within them instead.
Of course, it wasn't a method just anyone could use.
No matter that these were merely flames born from the aftershocks of its wingbeats rather than a direct attack—they were still the Three-Legged Crow's flames.
Unless one had absurd heat resistance like Baek Hyun, jumping into them—even with protective aura—would be suicide.
Mokheon himself wasn't sure how long he could endure direct exposure to those infernos.
A mere peak-level martial artist piercing straight through the Three-Legged Crow's field of vision.
An astonishing feat achieved by fully leveraging the immense advantage of his 'Solar Body' physique, a trait unseen in ages.
Even he, who had known in advance about Baek Hyun's Solar Body, was amazed—what must the Three-Legged Crow itself feel?
It surely couldn't even imagine overlooking a bug-like existence such as him.
'This makes my role even clearer.'
Until his disciple retrieved the divine relic from the Demon Subduing Hall, he had to somehow keep the Three-Legged Crow pinned down.
"Come forth, O Sun! Today, I, the lord of Starpoint, challenge the feats of the Divine Archer!!"
________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A battle passed down only in myths began to unfold in the present world.
-Crackle... Crackle...
The area around Starpoint Mountain had been reduced to complete ashes by the Three-Legged Crow's flight.
In that desolate place where nothing remained, a boy with burns all over his body groaned in pain.
"Ugh... Ack, fuck, that's hot as hell...!"
Baek Hyun spat curses laced with irritation as he quickly suppressed the intense burning pain.
Absurd heat resistance that let him feel only a scorching sensation after charging headlong through the overwhelming inferno unleashed by the Three-Legged Crow.
However, conversely, it meant that even with that level of resistance, the beast's flames were still nearly unbearable.
He could only imagine how grueling a fight his master—who lacked such heat resistance—was enduring. Gritting his teeth against the pain surging through his body, Baek Hyun pressed onward.
He then enhanced his vision with internal energy to locate the ruins of the Demon Subduing Hall from which he had fled.
He couldn't use his usual Upper Elixir Field for scouting.
Activating it now, with the burning pain still lingering, would cause his senses to overload and likely send him into shock.
'Damn it, the whole environment's changed. Makes it tough to pinpoint the location...!'
It took longer than expected to find the Demon Subduing Hall's site.
With all landmarks and natural features incinerated by the Three-Legged Crow, and relying solely on eyesight without the Upper Elixir Field, searching was limited.
The scorched area was so vast that tracing the beast's path to the hall wasn't easy either.
Even so, after desperately searching for who knows how long, Baek Hyun finally spotted a dilapidated structure reduced to its foundations amid the ashes.
-Hummmm
Even as the building lay in ruins, the formation at the heart of the Demon Subduing Hall stood firm.
The most perilous yet vital duty of Starpoint Sect: sealing countless Monstrous Beings beyond number.
The Earth Wood Seal Ghosts Formation.
And at its core—the bloodstained mulberry wood club, the only means to stop the Three-Legged Crow.
Baek Hyun reached for it without hesitation, intending to grab it and go.
-Shoooo...
'!!'
The moment he grasped the mulberry wood club to move it, a chilling aura unlike anything he'd ever felt raced down his spine.
A horrific sensation like tens of thousands of insects crawling through his veins toward his heart.
"Urk... Blech...!!"
In the end, Baek Hyun couldn't budge the club an inch and had to let go.
The instant he tried to remove it from the formation's center, a sensation washed over him as if something massively compressed was about to burst free.
He realized it instantly—not through sharp intuition or reasoning, but pure instinct.
He must not move that mulberry wood club.
The instinct that had saved his life countless times screamed it.
And the reason was obvious.
'No way... Taking it releases the seals on the other Monstrous Beings too?'
Baek Hyun felt a dizzying vertigo.
If the Monstrous Beings Starpoint Sect had painstakingly sealed over centuries were unleashed, it would be a catastrophe far worse than the Three-Legged Crow's awakening.
To stop one disaster by unleashing an even greater one—what absurdity.
Releasing the remaining sealed Monstrous Beings would turn all of Yun'nam Province to ruins, with devastating damage spreading to neighboring regions.
Those ruins would then be claimed by the Depraved Monks to enthrone and rule under their king.
The worst-case scenario.
The trusted divine relic was an insane self-destruct button.
Yet leaving the Three-Legged Crow unchecked was equally disastrous.
How the hell was he supposed to handle this shitty situation...!!
'Wait, it's not like there's no way at all.'
In that moment, a certain idea flashed through Baek Hyun's mind.
The absurd contradiction of countering one worst-case with another.
But what if he aimed for the clash point of those contradictions?
It might make things even worse than before if it backfired...
'No choice.'
-Click!
Baek Hyun snatched the mulberry wood from the formation's center and hurried away.
"Hah... Huff... This far...?"
Mokheon laboriously drew in heated breaths, sensing death was near.
All six swords he'd controlled with Sword Flight had melted away; only the Shoot the Sun Sword in his hand remained.
Though barely clinging to life via protective aura, his body—exposed repeatedly to overwhelming heat—had gone numb, and decades of cultivated internal energy were depleted.
He had undoubtedly poured out everything he could.
Yet still...
________!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The sun endured unscathed.
Were the feelings of those ancient people, helpless before ten suns, like this?
Like a sun forever out of reach, no matter how one stretched—no attack ever landed.
It incinerated all assaults with overwhelming heat, and even if one pierced through to its feathers, its sun-like vitality shrugged them off effortlessly.
He deeply realized: this was a being beyond human power.
But so what?
No matter how strong the foe, his final duty remained unchanged.
To shoot everything toward the unattainable sun.
What Starpoint's founder sought to embody in his sword was not merely the Divine Archer's godlike archery.
The unyielding spirit that never yielded before a mighty existence—that was Starpoint's foundation.
How could he, the sect leader of Starpoint, end in disgrace?
'At least... so Hyun can escape while I hold it!'
As Mokheon prepared his life's final technique—
-Rumble...
A heaven-shaking vibration echoed, and massive dust clouds rose from the direction Baek Hyun had fled.
Mokheon and the Three-Legged Crow's attention snapped there in unison.
Soon, they were both forced to recoil in horror.
-Kieeeek!!
-Krawr, Kraaaaa-!!
-Grraaaaa-!!!
Malevolent Spirits.
Existences hostile to all life, akin to the world's calamities.
The horrific beings Starpoint Sect had hunted and sealed over centuries charged forth in a massive horde, kicking up grand dust clouds.
And at their vanguard...
-Shooo, Shoooo!!
A single boy, continuously emanating Malevolent Spirits from the mulberry wood club in his grip.
"Monster showdown! You damn crow bastard-!!"
Two 'worst-cases' were about to collide right here.