Chapter 256
Chapter 256
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 256
>Chapter Title: Archenemy (3)
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The blood qi that flew in from all directions crushed down on Il-mok's body.
Feeling as if gravity had intensified dozens of times over, Il-mok drew up his internal energy from his dantian to resist.
“Gaaahhh.”
It seemed the spell didn't distinguish between friend and foe, as the last remaining Blood Cult warriors near Il-mok were ground to pieces, screaming all the while.
But that lasted only a moment. The ones shrieking were completely pulverized, reduced to shapes like minced meat lumps.
'Crazy...'
Il-mok gritted his teeth at the merciless methods of the old man called the Third Elder.
Even now, the blood qi spreading from around the altar gathered toward the elder, who was once again invoking his spell.
Realizing that the pressure bearing down on him grew stronger with each passing moment, Il-mok's eyes caught sight of the Ascending Heaven Sword humming with a high-pitched whine.
This time too, the sword was unhesitatingly absorbing the blood qi that touched its blade.
Noticing that the pressure was slightly lighter around the Ascending Heaven Sword, Il-mok concentrated his internal energy and twisted his wrist, causing the sword to spin once and absorb the surrounding energy.
Whirrr.
And in the moment the pressure eased, Il-mok used the blood qi absorbed by the sword to form a kind of sword barrier, pushing back the elder's spell.
Pop!
Not missing the momentary gap that appeared, Il-mok unleashed his full lightness skill and escaped the spell's pressure.
To disrupt the Third Elder from casting his spell, Il-mok swung his sword repeatedly in the air.
Bundles of sword energy embroidered in the air along his trajectories flew toward the Third Elder, but.
“Hasteful Yield Command!”
The blood qi barrier formed by the incantation the Third Elder shouted while raising his staff easily neutralized Il-mok's sword energy bundles.
That wasn't all. As if chasing after Il-mok who had escaped the pressure, countless palms suddenly sprouted from beneath his feet.
Whether hands of evil spirits or of corpses buried here, dozens of translucent, blood-tinged hands thrashed wildly to grab Il-mok's feet, forcing him to swing the Ascending Heaven Sword repeatedly and deploy lightness skill to barely evade their grasp.
Clang!!
At that moment, a fierce noise erupted from the altar side.
While Il-mok's attention was diverted, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord Jeong Yeong, who had belatedly escaped the spell, lunged at the Third Elder and thrust his sword.
The stealthy strike specialized in assassination carved countless cracks into the Third Elder's blood qi barrier but failed to shatter it in one blow.
Immediately after. As Jeong Yeong thrust his sword, a blood-red lightning bolt struck down from above his head.
Boom!!
As if anticipating the counterattack, Jeong Yeong leaped away the instant his ambush failed, narrowly dodging the lightning.
What was absurd was that, even amid all this, spells continued flying toward Il-mok.
Swish!
Il-mok used the Ascending Heaven Sword to push away the mist spreading widely as if to envelop him, only to see Jin Ha-yeon—who wasn't even here—appear and block his path.
'One thing after another, really.'
He thought he'd escaped the spell, but it seemed he'd fallen into an illusion in the meantime.
But it wasn't perfect. Since Il-mok himself recognized it as an illusion, he slashed through Jin Ha-yeon's phantom without hesitation.
Slash!
Il-mok didn't know the reason himself, but at some point, he felt no aversion whatsoever to killing.
His restraint from killing wasn't due to human nature or morality. It was closer to objective judgment. An objective judgment that something was off about himself.
Conversely, once convinced the opponent was an illusion, he could swing his sword at his comrades without a second thought. Because he felt no resistance to killing at all.
The illusion of Jin Ha-yeon sliced by the Ascending Heaven Sword scattered, vanishing like a mirage along with the surrounding fog.
Freed from the illusion, Il-mok's eyes beheld a massive fireball hurtling toward him.
“Damn it.”
Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill at full power, leaping high into the air and barely dodging the fireball.
Having jumped about a zhang high in one go, the surrounding scene came into full view at a glance.
The Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord's figure darting this way and that, chased by the Third Elder's spells.
The Third Elder, diligently chanting incantations inside the blood qi barrier while forming hand seals with his hands.
'Corpse...?'
And behind the Third Elder. A single corpse placed in a depression at the center of the altar.
'No way... the Blood Tower Heavenly Demon's corpse?'
The thought flashed through Il-mok's mind for an instant, but he soon realized it didn't make sense.
The corpse looked far too intact. Impossible to believe it had been there for a hundred and sixty years.
A hundred and sixty years was more than enough time for only bones to remain, or even for the bones to turn to dust and return to nature.
While Il-mok felt a sense of incongruity about the corpse.
To devour Il-mok floating in the air, a massive evil spirit's face appeared in the sky, opening its jaws wide with a crack and lunging forward.
Il-mok frantically drew up internal energy from his dantian, forming sword aura, and inscribed countless trajectories into the air.
Slash!
Consecutive slashing sounds rang out, and the evil spirit's face, shredded by the sword aura, shattered into pieces and scattered into the air.
Il-mok had escaped danger once more, but his expression wasn't bright.
'No end in sight.'
Every spell the Third Elder cast was threatening. One would expect qi exhaustion after unleashing so many in succession, yet the Third Elder was still firing them off relentlessly.
And Il-mok easily realized the reason.
'The blood qi keeps gathering toward the altar's center.'
At this rate, he'd run out of internal energy and die before he could kill the Third Elder.
As the old adage went, fighting a sorcerer in their prepared battlefield was akin to suicide.
But fleeing like this could leave his comrades trapped in the Illusory Dream Formation, succumbing to demonic deviation and dying.
There was a contradiction in casually slashing Jin Ha-yeon's illusion while worrying about his comrades, but in his urgency, he didn't notice his own inconsistency.
He could only fully concentrate on finding a way to resolve this situation.
'Get the Third Elder away from the altar, or hold out until the blood qi runs dry... Wait, blood qi?'
A peculiar idea struck Il-mok, and he hurriedly turned his head back.
There lay Chwi-gae, sprawled on the ground.
Dead or not, he was certainly gravely injured and unconscious.
Confirming Chwi-gae's state, Il-mok made his decision.
Tap.
The instant his feet touched the ground, he unleashed full lightness skill toward somewhere.
* * *
'Filthy vermin.'
Contrary to Il-mok's expectations, the Third Elder felt pursued as he dealt with the two uninvited guests.
He unleashed spells without respite using the enormous energy gathering at the altar's center, but there was a critical problem here.
He was using energy meant for the grand ritual.
The silver lining was that new prey had appeared to supply more energy and blood.
The cultists killed by them, Fifth Elder's corpse. And if he sacrificed those damned three uninvited guests, it should suffice, the Third Elder calculated.
The Fifth Elder's blood, foolishly killed off-guard, would still hold immense energy, and the three intruders were considerable masters as well.
His calculations went awry because of the masked uninvited guest. Especially the sword he wielded was the variable.
'How does that bastard have a Blood Spirit Sword?'
As a Blood Cult elder, recognizing the sword was easy. It was one of the various treasures created through the cult's spells.
Judging by its sharpness and spirit energy, it seemed to have absorbed blood from over a hundred people.
'If I had time, I'd capture and torture him, but the grand ritual comes first.'
Still, the Third Elder was confident. Handling near-infinite energy, he couldn't fail to kill mere vermin.
But that confidence was short-lived.
Seeing the masked guest land on the ground and head somewhere, the Third Elder's eyes widened as if to pop out.
“You bastard!!!”
The Third Elder, who had been chanting incantations nonstop, bellowed a shout instead.
But in response to the Third Elder's reaction, the masked man smirked and plunged his sword into the ground.
Toward one of the paths channeling blood qi to the altar's center. A place where massive blood qi flowed.
* * *
'Whoa. Must've been really hungry.'
Plunging the Ascending Heaven Sword into the blood qi path, the sword sucked it up greedily.
Seeing the sword devour the blood qi as ravenously as a beggar who'd fasted for days scarfing food, Il-mok thought that.
'With the ghostly energy gone, it's fine as hell. Just a bona fide demonic sword now.'
At that moment. Spells flew at Il-mok from all directions.
The Third Elder's desperate attempt to dislodge him from there, but.
“Heh heh heh. Can't hog this good stuff all to yourself.”
The Ascending Heaven Sword had already absorbed an enormous amount of energy.
Il-mok circulated the energy transmitted through the sword once through his body, formed sword aura, and shattered the incoming spells from all sides.
Then, he plunged the sword into another blood qi path to absorb more, and swung it ceaselessly in the air.
In response, countless blood-tinged sword energy bundles flew relentlessly toward the Third Elder.
Whenever his energy waned, he plunged the sword again to replenish it—that was Il-mok.
Originally, Il-mok had no intention of ever absorbing the energy transferred from the Ascending Heaven Sword into his body, unless it was a life-or-death crisis.
But this was exactly that crisis, so there was no reason to hesitate.
“Hahaha! Sword energy barrage!”
As Il-mok playfully shouted and fired sword energy, the Third Elder's face flushed beet red.
In that instant. The Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord seized the opening when the Third Elder's gaze focused on Il-mok and launched a sneak attack.
Boom!!
The blood qi barrier guarding the Third Elder blocked him as expected, but this time, a hole was finally punched through it.
However, the moment the Third Elder formed a hand seal, a fierce wind whipped up and sent the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord flying back.
“You filthy vermin! I'll grind you alive and drain every drop of your blood!!”
Roaring in fury, the Third Elder flailed his arms and chanted like a madman, unleashing a torrent of spells.
But Il-mok, ceaselessly draining blood qi with the Ascending Heaven Sword, blocked those spells by swinging his sword like a madman in kind.
In the meantime, the Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord launched another sneak attack on the Third Elder, and during that brief moment as the elder fended him off, Il-mok deployed lightness skill aggressively.
Not aiming for the Third Elder.
The blood qi in the path where he'd plunged the sword had nearly dried up, so he simply moved to another spot.
Realizing Il-mok's intent, the Third Elder refocused his spells on him, but Il-mok, now draining blood qi from another prime spot with the sword, somehow held out.
In the meantime. The Flying Dragon Pavilion Lord, grasping Il-mok's goal, approached yet another blood qi path.
Lacking the Ascending Heaven Sword, he couldn't absorb and wield the blood qi. Instead.
“Haaah!”
He swung his sword aura-coated blade like a madman, smashing the path to pieces.
As one path withered completely and another was seized by Il-mok, draining its energy, and the third was destroyed, the Third Elder completely lost it.
“You motherfucking bastards I'd grind to drink and still not quench my thirst!!!”