Chapter 114
Chapter 114
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 114
>Chapter Title: Rampage (3)
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Bang!
We exchanged blows with Chu Il-hwan at tremendous speed. Even though it was my own body locked in this fierce battle, it felt like I was a third party spectating the fight.
It was an unfamiliar sensation.
‘Can my body really move this fast?’
My entire body’s muscles and meridians screamed nonstop.
Bang!!
It wasn’t just from clashing with Chu Il-hwan’s black lightning.
The other self known as the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword had cranked my physical output to the absolute limit my flesh could endure.
Muscles squeezed to their extreme tore apart with every moment.
The internal energy I’d drawn up until my dantian was empty rampaged through my meridians, ripping them to shreds with its sheer mass.
- More! More! More!
- Swing it more precisely!
Even as I unleashed swordsmanship stronger, faster, and more refined than ever before, the other self in my head kept howling without pause.
But even surrendering my body to the rampaging demonic art couldn’t bridge the gap in skill.
Bang!!
The moment my sword blocked Chu Il-hwan’s black lightning-wreathed twin palms.
Crack!
Unable to withstand the force, I was sent flying, smashing through the door and into the Black Dragon Pavilion hallway.
Tap!
Even in that chaos, my body moved mysteriously, swiftly regaining its balance.
“Keheheheheh!! Die!!”
Chu Il-hwan, his eyes already rolled back in madness, showed no intention of slowing his assault. He charged again, alternating his twin palms at incredible speed.
It was a bizarre feeling.
While the rampaging Chu Il-hwan had completely lost his mind and was thrashing about.
“Hoo.”
My body, which had handed the reins to the demonic art, remained eerily calm.
If anyone else saw it, they might think I was the one maintaining reason, not succumbing to the demonic art.
- Why are you swinging the sword so crudely?
Before I knew it, my sword wove together the various intricacies of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword.
To match the speed of Chu Il-hwan’s twin palms, I gripped my right hand according to the essentials of Single Soul Flash, emphasizing extreme quickness.
As the demonic art demanded even more extreme speed than usual, my muscles screamed in protest.
Absurdly, the sword qi gathered on my Single Soul Flash strike formed a rebound barrier according to the subtleties of the Later Initial Rebound Soul Sword.
Bang!
The fiercer Chu Il-hwan’s onslaught grew, the more complex and profound swordsmanship the other self of the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword unleashed. It was hard to tell if this was a life-or-death struggle or a lesson.
But my body still fell short of fully executing the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword’s commands, so I was repeatedly pushed back by Chu Il-hwan’s attacks.
“Ehehehehehit!”
At Chu Il-hwan’s eerie laugh and follow-up barrage, my body was finally flung backward again.
Crack!
My vision filled with the full moon hanging in the black sky as I flew through the Black Dragon Pavilion’s window.
“Euhehehehehet!!”
Then Chu Il-hwan, leaping through the shattered window after me, appeared silhouetted against that moon.
Hovering in midair, Chu Il-hwan clapped his twin palms together. Black lightning arced between them, rapidly swelling in size.
Seeing my body airborne as his chance, he was preparing a major technique.
Naturally, the tiny sliver of reason left to me—most of it stolen by the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword—couldn’t help but feel a sense of wrongness.
‘Crazy. He’s really trying to kill me?’
Come to think of it, this madman had been screaming “die” over and over since earlier.
‘Wasn’t he just trying to pounce...?’
I finally realized Chu Il-hwan’s intent was something else, but that wasn’t important now.
“Die!!”
Finally, Chu Il-hwan thrust his twin palms downward, firing a massive bolt of black lightning at me.
As instinct rang alarm bells of mortal peril.
“Sip.”
My body drew in a deep breath and began circulating the last of my internal energy at tremendous speed.
‘This is the Ghost Soul Sword essential, and this is Soul Jade Strike. Wow. Even mixing in the later initial forms?’
Complex, rapid flows of internal energy churned inside me, yet bizarrely, my body moved with perfect calm.
Sword extended forward as I plummeted, I waited briefly for the black lightning to meet it.
The moment the sword tip touched the black lightning, a sword veil unfurled, enveloping it.
The veil, following my gentle swing, guided the black lightning to veer right.
But only the external motion was smooth.
The arm swinging the sword screamed as if about to snap.
Even pushing the flow subtleties to the limit couldn’t dissipate the rebound force, which flung my body leftward.
Bang!!
My body, crashing to the ground and rolling several times like a bouncing ball, finally absorbed all the impact and stopped.
“Keok....”
Black blood sprayed from my mouth in a huge gush.
My body, declaring it could move no more, began forcibly expelling my consciousness.
In my fading awareness, I vaguely saw the instructors rushing over.
“Cadet Il-mok!!”
“Instructor Chu! Pull yourself together!!”
For some reason, their shouts brought a bitter smile to my lips rather than relief.
It wasn’t that I distrusted them.
‘Looks like I’m screwed anyway?’
Even if I survived this crisis, I’d suffer severe enlightenment and side effects for a while.
* * *
“Oh no....”
Eun-ryeo, arriving first at the scene, couldn’t hide her troubled expression.
She’d just had a not-quite-interview interview with Il-mok in the Black Dragon Pavilion, which let her reach the spot quickest.
Standing between Il-mok and Instructor Chu Il-hwan, she locked eyes with him and realized.
‘He’s completely lost his reason.’
As if to prove her prediction, Chu Il-hwan charged at her, radiating killing intent.
“You want to die too, bitch!!”
Eun-ryeo swiftly drew her triple sword with graceful motion, blocking Chu Il-hwan’s black lightning demon palms.
“Kuh....”
The more they exchanged blows, the more she was pushed back bit by bit.
Chu Il-hwan, a combat instructor, was top among the instructors even normally—and now he was rampaging.
Protecting Il-mok behind her alone made him too much to handle.
But she didn’t care.
She knew the other instructors were coming.
“I’ll join you!”
Shouting that, External Arts Instructor Cheok Il-so hurled himself forward, thrusting his spear.
As if anticipating it, Chu Il-hwan countered with his left palm toward the spear tip.
Sizzle!
As Chu Il-hwan’s black lightning clashed with Cheok Il-so’s spear, producing a nauseating noise.
Screeech!
Instructor Eun-ryeo’s triple sword whipped toward Chu Il-hwan at an odd angle, swaying languidly.
Chu Il-hwan responded in an outrageous way.
He poured more internal energy into his left palm clashing with the spear.
Bang!!
Instead, he executed a backward footwork, using the rebound from the spear to retreat and evade Eun-ryeo’s triple sword.
Eun-ryeo and Cheok Il-so clashed with Chu Il-hwan a bit longer after that.
Before long, cadets, instructors, and assistants who’d noticed the commotion gathered around them.
“Tch.”
Vice Branch Leader Yoo Geuk, clicking his tongue with cold eyes, drew his saber to step forward.
“Everyone, stand aside.”
Demonic Path Academy Lord Yeom Ga-hwi’s heavy words crushed the area.
Vice Branch Leader Yoo Geuk sheathed his saber and stepped back, and those around naturally created distance.
Eun-ryeo and Cheok Il-so, facing off with Chu Il-hwan.
Bang!
Used the rebound from his black lightning to leap far back.
Stepping forward, Yeom Ga-hwi faced Chu Il-hwan and sighed inwardly.
‘He’s completely lost his reason.’
The killing intent billowing even toward him left no doubt.
“Kraaaah!!”
With a bizarre shout, Chu Il-hwan spewed black lightning and charged.
Yeom Ga-hwi took a straight punch stance, drawing a deep breath.
Blood-red energy rippled around Yeom Ga-hwi’s body, taking the form of a three-headed, six-armed mirage.
Flash!
In an instant, Yeom Ga-hwi was in a right straight punch pose.
The motion skipped the mid-process, like it was omitted.
Furthermore.
Six blood-red fist auras traced different trajectories in midair.
Bang!
Subtle time differences produced explosions too fast for normal ears to distinguish. Chu Il-hwan’s black lightning vanished without a trace.
Flash!
Yeom Ga-hwi was suddenly in front of Chu Il-hwan’s nose.
Thud!!
With a drum-beat thud, the struck Chu Il-hwan’s body flew back.
“Kraaaak!”
As the rolling Chu Il-hwan tried to rise with a howl.
Yeom Ga-hwi’s fingers moved like lightning, rapidly striking Chu Il-hwan’s acupoints in succession.
Having subdued him, Yeom Ga-hwi turned to Eun-ryeo.
“Cadet Il-mok’s condition?”
“No major external injuries, but the internal damage is severe. If left like this, there’ll be major aftereffects.”
“...Transfer him immediately to the medical quarters at headquarters.”
“Understood!”
Instructor Eun-ryeo scooped up Il-mok and flew off on lightness skill, leaving the academy.
Finishing his orders, Yeom Ga-hwi looked down at the unconscious Chu Il-hwan on the ground with a complicated expression.
* * *
Vast clearing.
There, I swung my sword.
“Hoo.”
Sometimes just slashing at empty air alone.
“Kahahahaha!”
Sometimes my eldest senior brother appeared, swinging wildly like a madman, or my third senior brother appeared attempting assassination.
After nearly dying and refining my sword anew, Master would appear, or Jin Ha-yeon.
Everyone I’d ever crossed swords with appeared one after another, attacking me.
Screeech.
How to draw a more perfect sword path. How to perfect the Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword.
Lost in such thoughts, swinging my sword for a while.
After dozens of life-and-death duels, honing my swordsmanship alone.
A question arose belatedly.
‘How am I still swinging my sword?’
I didn’t remember exactly, but it had been quite a while since I started.
By now, my internal energy should be depleted, my muscles exhausted to the point I couldn’t twitch a finger.
Of course, even now, my muscles screamed nonstop, and my meridians wailed.
Screeech!
But regardless, the sword kept swinging.
Yes, just like when Instructor Chu Il-hwan ambushed me.
‘Ambush?’
Doubts chained together. Had I been ambushed?
“Ehehehehehi! I’ll kill you!”
In the midst of it, Chu Il-hwan charged from the front, spraying black lightning wildly.
For some reason, the scene looked like a repetition of something that had already happened.
And I, too, repeated what had happened, as if strings pulled me like a puppet, countering.
After exchanging preset blows with Chu Il-hwan for a while.
Soon, Chu Il-hwan’s form scattered like heat haze.
Shoooo.
Chilling air blanketed the area, and Jin Ha-yeon’s silhouette began forming in midair.
After clashing briefly with the mirage-like Jin Ha-yeon.
I finally realized the situation.
‘It’s a damn dream. Or demonic deviation?’
Sighing, I ignored Jin Ha-yeon’s assault and let my sword droop.
No, I tried to.
‘Damn demonic art.’
As if refusing to stop sword training, my body kept moving on its own.
But now that I knew it was a damn dream, I had no intention of being dragged along.
Halt.
The moment I forcibly stopped the sword, Jin Ha-yeon’s twin palms flew toward my chest.
As if to counter, my sword arm tried to move.
Flash.
Instead, my left hand grabbed and halted my sword right hand.
Thud!
Right after, Jin Ha-yeon’s twin palms finally struck my chest.
Icy cold enveloped my body, making it shudder violently.
Amid it, my body convulsed again to swing the sword.
“Yeah. My realm is still lacking, sure.”
I gritted my teeth, suppressing the spasm.
“But what are you gonna do about it? Soul-Stealing Heartless Sword, what can you even do? Besides yowling in my head, what can a side-effect-ridden piece of trash like you do?!”