Chapter 323
Chapter 323
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 323
>Chapter Title: Potala Palace (3)
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Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang's retreating figures headed toward the hall ahead lasted only a brief moment in Jin Ha-yeon's gaze.
She turned her body, looking down at the Esoteric Buddhist monks swarming up from below.
Her face bore the same icy expression as always, but she knew it well herself.
That she was a little different from usual.
‘Anger… is it?’
It was an emotion she hadn't felt in a very long time.
Ever since her Bare Hand Demon Art had approached the Extreme Demon realm, she hadn't had occasion to feel anger.
It was the same even after escaping the Extreme Demon stage. As she still hadn't reached Transcending Demon, feeling emotions wasn't easy. Unless it involved the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult or Il-mok.
But now, a tiny flame was flickering inside her.
As if someone had spat insults about Il-mok or the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult right in her face.
Was it because she was a woman too? Ever since learning of Potala Palace's atrocities, that heavenly wrath wouldn't subside.
“Rip the men to shreds, and just subdue the women!!”
The voices of the Esoteric Buddhist monks, their intentions blatant, rang out right before her. Amid gazes filled with lust fixed on her face.
“Sip. Hoo.”
With a deep breath, she unleashed the anger she had been suppressing.
Thwack!
The cold-enshrouded palm of her hand struck the chest of the lead monk charging forward, freezing him in place mid-swing of his staff.
“Guh….”
The monk let out a short groan before turning rigid like a stone statue.
The cold that had burrowed into his chest had frozen his heart solid.
Starting with that monk, Jin Ha-yeon's hands danced.
For a dance to vent anger, the movements were eerily still, but not a single monk who clashed with her emerged unscathed.
Right after freezing five more monks to death in succession.
Clang!
For the first time, a monk blocked her strike.
“You've got some face value to you.”
The old monk's face, brimming with greed, relentlessly swung his Vajra staff at Jin Ha-yeon.
It was a brazenly overt attack. Every swing of the high monk's Vajra staff targeted her chest or lower abdomen.
It stemmed from his sexual cravings, but it was also a ploy to provoke her.
High-level female warriors often lost their heads to rage when faced with such humiliating strikes, leading to mistakes.
As the high monk intended, Jin Ha-yeon was swept up in fury.
She thrust out her left palm again at the Vajra staff blatantly aiming for her chest, and the monk, who had been waiting for it, poured energy into the staff.
Vajra staff's energy began forming blade aura, and Jin Ha-yeon's extended left palm met it squarely.
Clang!!
The cold was repelled by the blade aura, wounds opening on her palm as hot blood welled up along them.
Jin Ha-yeon's brow furrowed.
Not from the pain in her palm.
Once she started unleashing the ignited fury, it was spiraling out of control, growing uncontrollably.
Paradoxically, the more she vented her pent-up hot anger, the colder the energy gathering in her hands became.
A change came late to the high monk's face as he pressed Jin Ha-yeon with a lecherous grin.
Panic overlaid his features.
The blood flowing from her hand had already frozen solid, and the terrifyingly frigid chill pierced through the blade aura, burrowing into the Vajra staff.
“You bitch!!”
The panicked high monk changed his mind. Instead of subduing her moderately, he'd kill her.
‘I’ll kill this one and go after another!’
Whether from that sinister thought or from drawing up the yang energy amassed through his dual cultivation harvest technique to its limit.
The energy on the Vajra staff grew even fiercer, and his crotch bulged obscenely.
Fortunately or not, that ugly sight didn't enter Jin Ha-yeon's eyes.
Even as anger consumed her, her self calmly observed from within.
From her enraged self, she gained an insight.
‘Harmony of yin and yang….’
Absurdly, the hotter the emotions erupted, the stronger the yin energy coalesced in her hands.
As if it needed even colder power to freeze those blazing feelings.
Thus, she acted differently from usual.
‘Who are you.’
Instead of forcibly suppressing the emotion.
‘Those who terrorized fragile women.’
She fanned it instead.
‘Villains who dragged away innocent young girls!’
As if hypnotizing herself, reaffirming the anger, the yin energy remaining in her dantian burst forth.
“N-Nooo!!”
The high monk clashing his Vajra staff against her left palm froze solid with that final scream.
“Hoo.”
Having explosively vented her emotions, she exhaled deeply and turned to survey the battlefield.
More precisely, the Esoteric Buddhist monks charging with their wicked arts.
‘There they are. Trash blinded by lust, abandoning all humanity.’
The anger she had meant to quell after slaying the high monk—she forcibly stirred it back to life.
Was it because the frozen emotions were thawing? She felt grotesque about herself.
Forcing anger to rise felt like exploiting the misfortunes of those women.
Strangely, even that self-directed anger fueled her now.
* * *
While Jin Ha-yeon emanated yin energy that froze the area.
The other women, too, were slaughtering the Esoteric Buddhist monks with faces wrapped in fury.
Atrocities that would enrage any human, but the wrath felt by fellow women was bound to be greater.
“Filthy bastards!!”
Joo Seo-yeon, eyes practically spinning, spewed curses at men nonstop while swinging her spear like a madwoman.
She even blatantly targeted the monks' manhoods. As if to eradicate the filth.
“Th-That crazy bitch.”
The monks trembled at her vicious assault on their vitals.
But Joo Seo-yeon wasn't the elite warrior Jin Ha-yeon was, so despite her overt vital strikes, monks held their ground.
They were formidable, having built their skills through dirty methods.
“Feisty bitch, eh. Let’s see if you’re still like that after some training.”
Her spear blocked by the filthy monk's staff, Joo Seo-yeon gnashed her teeth in rage.
“Eek!!”
That venomous face suited his tastes, a lewd smile creeping onto the monk's face.
Thwack!
Soon after, an arrow slammed into the monk's eye.
“Kwaaaagh!!!”
Joo Seo-yeon seized the opening.
Crunch.
While Joo Seo-yeon finished off the monk, Jeong-hyeon, who had aided her, scanned the battlefield with her bow trained from the rear.
Not just her eyes—all her senses monitored the entire field.
Screeech.
The bizarre bow in her hands screamed under the immense draw strength.
Twang!
Releasing her grip, the freed bowstring viciously spat an arrow.
The arrow she loosed grazed the sword of a demon from the Hyeok-ryeon clan and embedded in an Esoteric Buddhist monk's forehead.
But Jeong-hyeon didn't visually confirm the result.
The instant the string released, she drew another arrow from her thigh quiver, nocked it to the bow body, and took aim again.
Her gaze, realigning the arrow in a flash, was already fixed elsewhere.
Five warriors from the Hyeok-ryeon clan and three of Il-mok's maidservants—eight in total—held the front against the monks, while she supported from the rear.
Thanks to that, she grasped the battlefield's flow.
‘As expected, Senior Ha-yeon is incredible.’
Jin Ha-yeon's side needed no help. Allies risked getting swept up if they approached.
The Hyeok-ryeon warriors and Joo Seo-yeon were holding their own adequately against the monks.
They dispatched the weaker ones easily and traded blows evenly with the older ones.
Whenever they struggled, Jeong-hyeon aided with her bow.
It was hard to believe they faced monks with absurdly vast inner power for their age, amassed through dual cultivation harvest.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult could reach high demonic arts realms beyond one's age too.
But even among demonic art cultivators, standout talents shone.
‘…Direct descendants of the Five Great Clans are on another level.’
To Jeong-hyeon, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a exemplified it.
Her eyes, hair, even the red aura on her nails—she scattered it across the battlefield, rampaging like she was born to drain villains' blood.
Her skill surpassed Joo Seo-yeon, three years her senior, and Jeong-hyeon, also three years older, couldn't claim victory for sure.
‘…Without Young Master's help, I wouldn't even be a match.’
It wasn't just the bizarre bow she held now. The insights gained from Il-mok weren't few.
Jeong-hyeon, nearly bruised in pride by Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a's brilliance, quickly reined in her thoughts.
‘Right. Since Young Master helped me, I must help him in return.’
This wasn't the time for distractions.
Composing herself, she focused solely on her bow and foes.
Recalling certain advice Il-mok had given her.
During the grueling journey between the Western Regions and Gansu, Il-mok had given her a clue.
One that might aid in escaping the Extreme Demon realm.
‘I must live up to Young Master's expectations.’
The arrow from her resolute heart.
Thwack!
Pierced another monk's body once more.
* * *
Leaving the rear to their companions, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang soon reached their target hall.
Slash!
Il-mok's single sword stroke cleaved the hall's doors, and simultaneously, two fierce energies from within shattered the remnants, flying at him.
Having sensed it from the sword swing, Il-mok moved swiftly.
Dodging one with minimal motion, he flicked his Ascending Heaven Sword to effortlessly deflect the other.
Clang!
Having casually handled the ambush from inside, Il-mok's eyes caught the interior beyond the obliterated doors.
Within stood two elderly Esoteric Buddhist monks with identical faces, firmly positioned left and right.
The culprits who corrupted Potala Palace—the Left and Right Great Virtues.
“How dare you defile the sacred ground of holy Esoteric Buddhism.”
“Want to be torn apart and cast into the Eightfold Hell, do you.”
From those two, with their brutish expressions unfit for monks, leaked a terrifyingly heavy aura.
Vast inner power incomparable to the high monks faced before.
Yet, for some reason, Il-mok's gaze wasn't on them.
Beyond the Left and Right Great Virtues, at the hall's rear.
There, two young girls shrouded in cloth trembled in fear. At best, barely early teens.
The moment he confirmed their sight.
In Il-mok's mind, the taut string snapped with a resounding crack.