Chapter 252
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 252
Chapter Title: Chapter 252
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 252
Chapter Title: Sealing the Demon (4)
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"So you've decided to live as Hong Sun-deok's lackey after all?"
At Geum Sihyeon's sneer.
Cheon Siu couldn't easily find the words.
That meeting back then.
After that promise.
Cheon Siu could instinctively sense it.
And he recalled.
Long ago.
Before his father, the previous Demonic Cult Leader who sired him, abandoned him.
- "You're nothing but a half-baked wretch not even granted a fate."
A single phrase he absolutely couldn't comprehend back then.
Since that day, he had pondered it relentlessly, strived endlessly, carrying those words like a stubborn lump deep in his heart.
But that lingering doubt had shattered in one utterly ridiculous encounter.
Because Cheon Siu himself had ascended to a supreme realm beyond merely defying providence, where he could faintly glimpse the world's natural flow.
The fate bestowed upon him was merely a fragment of someone else's.
And the place where that fragment truly belonged—
was right there, occupied by that man named Geum Sihyeon.
He had no choice but to sense it.
If he unleashed his full power, he could harm him and claim a complete fate for himself.
Or perhaps...
if that man vanished, then he himself—a being who had escaped fate's providence—might completely cease to exist.
....
......After vowing to burn the world to ashes, this now?
"Strictly speaking, we're bound by a contract. And I must honor my promise to Hongryeon."
"You sure love harping on those damn promises. Did some girl cheat on you as a kid or something? Tsk."
Amid his swirling confusion.
Geum Sihyeon's baffling words pierced through, echoing faintly.
"......Never happened."
As Cheon Siu gritted his teeth and spat it out, Geum Sihyeon let out a sigh.
Hong Sun-deok, who had been rampaging like a madwoman moments ago, had finally lost consciousness and gone limp—a small mercy that made this a proper one-on-one.
But after tussling so viciously with her, he couldn't exactly claim his mind and body were at peace.
"Hey, Blood Lord."
"Hm?"
"Like I told you before—do you still want to burn the world, flip it upside down, pull off some grand counter-revolution like that?"
To Geum Sihyeon's question.
Cheon Siu couldn't answer right away.
In the most extreme terms, really.
He had only recently realized it was nothing but a childish impulse to smash what he couldn't have—but how could he voice such an epiphany? Some truths stood without words.
"If you hadn't stuck your nose in, half my plan would be done by now."
That was the snide retort that slipped from Cheon Siu's lips instead.
Mad Wind Temple.
Lesser Thunderclap Temple.
Forces that would have thoroughly shaken the western and northern Central Plains by now had been crushed by Geum Sihyeon's fingertips and silver tongue.
And the warning to beware that man's "three tips" wasn't empty bluster after all.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult itself had fallen to his final tip, utterly beyond Cheon Siu's control.
Now, the only cards Cheon Siu could play were two.
Hong Sun-deok and Sa Do-ryeon.
And one of those was right here, sprawled out like a corpse in a dead faint.
As for Sa Do-ryeon, experts from across the Central Plains were converging on the Martial Alliance.
Even if they clashed head-on, it'd be mutual destruction at best—or utter defeat.
In the end, for his original plan alone.
Or to honor the promise forged through unique mind-images with Hong Sun-deok.
He had no choice but to rescue her right here.
"Geum Sihyeon. Let's make a deal. Spare Hong Sun-deok's life here, and once later on, no matter what, I'll aid you. Naturally, I won't lay a finger on your defenseless self right now."
A voice tinged with lament flowed from Cheon Siu's mouth.
Even daily renewal had its limits.
Even eye-rubbing astonishment had to be tempered.
He had grown this much in so short a time.
Next time they met, Cheon Siu couldn't be sure of the upper hand.
But.
At least today, he couldn't take Geum Sihyeon down here.
Given that madman's temperament.
The instant his life hung by a thread, he'd drop everything and charge solely to kill Hong Sun-deok.
Cheon Siu doubted he could protect her from an attack that courted mutual destruction.
Naturally.
Cheon Siu's reasoning was spot on.
'Gotta finish that bitch off here, one way or another.'
Only one thought filled Geum Sihyeon's mind.
He had to neutralize Hong Sun-deok somehow.
As much as Cheon Siu warily noted Geum Sihyeon's growth.
Geum Sihyeon had confirmed today, clashing with Hong Sun-deok, that her mind-image and actions utterly defied providence—heightening his own wariness.
If Cheon Luri weren't here.
If he had no ties to the Wudang Taoists.
Geum Sihyeon would've chosen flight over the perilous gamble of confronting and devouring her mind-image head-on.
But the very reason he hadn't was to deal with Hong Sun-deok before she grew any stronger.
"Sorry, but no dice. Hong Sun-deok ends here today. You know the horrors that bitch has planned, don't you?"
Geum Sihyeon flatly refused.
"Why go that far? Cheon Luri will grieve."
"Don't utter my wife's name."
"Heh, really."
He knew they hadn't even held a proper wedding, yet here was the bold claim of "wife."
Cheon Siu's thoughts briefly brushed Cheon Luri.
Touching on memories of her appearance, her body—eternal and unchanging forevermore.
"Fucking crazy bastard."
A very human curse slipped out.
"Guess being Blood Cult's golden boy means you never learned Master Mozi's impartial love. True love knows no conditions."
If Mozi heard that in the afterlife, he'd claw his way back with a switch to thrash Geum Sihyeon's skull.
Alas, no one to perform such reincarnation arts existed, and Cheon Siu's wild life left him unequipped to counter with Mozi's teachings anyway.
Or more precisely, he saw no point in bothering.
"If you meet your end by my hand here, won't that girl grieve? Holding off this needless fight seems the rational choice."
"Bullshit. Who's dying?"
Geum Sihyeon muttered another curse.
And he didn't stop there.
For his tongue to loosen like this from the start.
meant he needed that much time.
His heart force, depleted from devouring Hong Sun-deok's soul marriage, had recovered somewhat.
Already confirmed by the reemergence of his inner Nong Sihyeon, Ppang Sihyeon, and assorted other Sihyeons.
The unique mind-image of that man—the former Beggars' Sect vice deputy who had once glimpsed the twist of providence.
Yeonsa-gang.
He summoned the Form-Shadow White Blossoms.
Geum Sihyeon leaped, clashing against Cheon Siu as he gathered his power.
Geum Sihyeon leaped, driving his left palm into the formation's writhing core—still ominously twitching atop the Primordial Heavenly Venerable statue.
Geum Sihyeon leaped, seizing the throat of Hong Sun-deok as she twitched on the floor.
"You can't kill──!"
"Don't worry, I won't kill her."
Cheon Siu's desperate shout.
And the three Geum Sihyeons chanting in unison, resonating like harmony throughout the stone chamber.
Hongryeon's consciousness still hadn't recovered from the shock within Geum Sihyeon's myriad phenomena, wandering chaotically through the void.
"Heh, hehehe, hahaha... As expected of you, my lord. How could you pull off something so delightfully vicious?"
Coincidentally.
Hongryeon was thinking something similar to Geum Sihyeon.
Looked like she couldn't let him live after all.
That inner cultivation method.
Not even the purest Daoist arts in the world could compare—let alone those of her three senior brothers—it was absurdly pure energy.
And unlike the likes of Absorption Great Law that indiscriminately devoured others' true qi, this mysteriously embraced it all into his vast sea of self.
To keep him by her side just to sate lust...
Too...
Way too delicious, sweet, fragrant, maddeningly irresistible—the intense pull promising transcendence beyond this world the moment she devoured him whole.
It was fine.
If she awakened to a greater path and became a Blood Immortal reaching that realm beyond.
She could peel away the remnant thoughts of Geum Sihyeon embedded in her body and refashion them into an obedient dog for her alone.
Lost in such sweet fantasies.
"Oh? My lord?"
In the eyes of Hong Sun-deok, still lingering in the void.
A face that shouldn't appear in this space—Geum Sihyeon's face—began to manifest again.
Was this the power of love?
She had longed for him so desperately that he appeared as a hallucination...!
She knew it was impossible since she'd escaped his mind-image, so she entertained the soft thought briefly.
: : Amitabha.... Hong, lay sister, repent. : :
"Wh-what is this?!"
The being that emerged in the void was Geum Sihyeon, yet not.
What burrowed into her was Geum Sihyeon's Buddha-nature.
Not the most prominent among his myriad selves, but one fragment—alongside the lion's roar—that had settled in his mind now began to bind Hong Sun-deok's body.
"Stop! Stop right now...!"
Hong Sun-deok thrashed in horror at the terrifying sensation of her existence slowly scattering.
But the bald-headed Geum Sihyeon, sleeves lightly rolled up, just cackled at the sight.
: : I was lonely, but to guide such a being in my final years fills me with Tripitaka's compassion. I'll embrace Lay Sister Hong Sun-deok and reach the Western Paradise together. Amitabha, Amitabha, Om Mani Padme Hum. : :
The moment those words ended.
The greatest barrier keeping Hong Sun-deok from the next realm—the tiniest shred to her, her remaining humanity as Hongryeon.
was left behind there alone.
The bald Geum Sihyeon hurled himself into no-self.
"Let... LET GOOO!"
: : Give up. : :
Of course, taking Hong Sun-deok with him.
For her remnant humanity—no, her original self—to behold the light of the Saha world again.
As the bald Geum Sihyeon said.
It would be when she finally attained enlightenment like Sun Wukong.
And by then.
She would disrupt the world no more.
Geum Sihyeon's Buddha-nature accepted that sacrifice willingly for her.
In any case, Hong Sun-deok had gained a chance to live eternally alongside her lord.
"......What the hell did you just do, Geum Sihyeon?"
Having dispatched all but one of Geum Sihyeon's clones, Cheon Siu demanded.
"She's alive, isn't she? You didn't refuse, so I'll honor that promise from earlier. From now on, no tentacles on this Lord's body."
"What kind of twisted logic──"
He had clearly pulled some trick, so how could he be so brazen? As Cheon Siu geared up to snap back.
His karmic bond responded even to Geum Sihyeon's nonsense, forging an unbreakable chain of promise between them.
"Think hard about where to use that Wish Token. Now take Sun-deok and get lost, Blood Freak. Answer my MartialTalk on time."
There was the minor issue that she probably couldn't achieve Buddhahood now.
But Geum Sihyeon had no intention of Buddhahood anyway.
Ascension neither.
That's just how humans were.
Geum Sihyeon wore a thoroughly relieved smile at the corner of his mouth.
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