Chapter 324
Chapter 324
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>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 324
>Chapter Title: Potala Palace (4)
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Pop.
Right after the tiniest footstep echoed out.
Il-mok, who had been at the entrance of the hall, was already swinging his sword toward the left elder monk.
It was a shift in position achieved through the ultimate Bow Body Shadow Leap technique.
The pinnacle of lightness skills, yet this was a movement born purely from instinct.
‘Kill.’
It stemmed from pure killing intent, the desire to slaughter the enemy as quickly as possible.
Unfortunately, the left elder monk reacted to Il-mok's explosive motion.
With no time to dodge, the left elder raised his Vajra Staff to block Il-mok's Ascending Heaven Sword.
Boom!!!
The Ascending Heaven Sword clashed with the Vajra Staff, unleashing a thunderous roar, and the sword lightning gathered on the blade began devouring the condensed qi on the staff.
Was it due to the left elder's majestic internal energy? Agonizing pain surged through Il-mok's arm gripping the sword. His fingers felt like they might snap, while the muscles and joints in his wrist screamed in protest.
But that pain only fueled Il-mok's rage further.
‘Kill.’
He knew exactly how these bastards had gained their power, after all.
Ignoring the pain in his arm entirely, Il-mok swung the Ascending Heaven Sword once more.
Boom!!
He clashed swords with the left elder's Vajra Staff several times in succession.
‘Kill.’
Il-mok's body, fully immersed in killing intent, had already forgotten the pain as it swung the blade relentlessly.
Seeking only the optimal path to slay his foe.
“Die!!!”
It wasn't just his body.
As his will, steeped in killing intent, intensified, so too did his energy grow ever sharper and more ferocious.
“Urk….”
The left elder, who had held the advantage in their internal energy clash, could only retreat with a look of utter dismay.
Il-mok's sword, filled with the single-minded intent to kill, was absurdly sharp and swift—even for a transcendent realm elder monk, it was hard to respond to easily.
As he was pushed back by the murderous swordsmanship, the left elder thought.
‘If only we'd started this a few years earlier!’
If they had seized control of the Potala Palace sooner and built up their internal energy, they wouldn't be suffering this humiliating defeat.
And the right elder was in the exact same boat.
He too was gradually being overwhelmed by Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang's fierce swordplay.
Having trained in martial arts together for decades as twins, the two could instinctively read each other's thoughts without a word.
Even now, in this moment, the same idea flashed through both their minds.
‘Can't do it alone.’
As the left and right elders blocked the swords swung by Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang respectively.
Boom!
They entrusted their bodies to the rebound force and flew toward each other.
Tap.
Leaning on each other's power to redirect the rebound, they positioned themselves back-to-back.
The sight of the two identical-faced senior monks gripping Vajra Staffs in both hands while pressed together was bizarre in every way.
If there had been one more, it might have looked like Asuras.
But Il-mok couldn't care less whether they were Asuras or decrepit old monsters worse than trash.
Pop!
He simply wanted to kill them and erase them from the world.
Charging at the pair without a shred of fear, Il-mok swung his Ascending Heaven Sword.
Boom!!
One of the elders raised both Vajra Staffs to block Il-mok's sword, while the other thrust his staff toward Il-mok's torso.
Il-mok yielded to the rebound from the clashing Vajra Staff and twisted sideways to evade it.
At the same time, Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang charged from the opposite side, swinging his sword at the left and right elders.
Clang!
This time, the elder who had swung at Il-mok's torso blocked Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang's sword, while the other thrust his Vajra Staff at Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang.
Realizing it was hard to fight them when charging separately, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang exchanged glances and rushed at the left and right elders simultaneously.
Intending to each take on one from left and right, against the back-to-back elders.
Clang!
But the left and right elders' joint techniques had reached an astonishing level.
As if they had eyes on their backs, when one elder was in peril, he would step and spin, allowing the other to assist—and the gap created was instantly filled by the assisted elder.
They even leaped around the interior of the hall with lightness skills and footwork as if they were a single body despite being two.
With the left and right elders constantly swapping positions and darting about, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang found it impossible to isolate and fight one each.
Furthermore.
Clang!
Incredibly, there were moments when Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang ended up swinging at each other.
The left and right elders' joint techniques, honed over decades as twins, exerted far greater power than when fighting individually.
In contrast, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang, who had never fought together before, only hindered each other's movements.
“Tch.”
“Damn.”
As they stepped again, blocking each other's sword paths once more, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang let out brief regrets and hastily pulled back.
And where they had stood, four streams of qi slammed down.
Boom!!
Having narrowly evaded the left and right elders' attack, Il-mok sent a transmission to Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang.
- We'll pull out of the hall first.
Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang grasped his intent.
The calculation that, if they fled, the elders might show an opening while pursuing.
With Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang signaling agreement with his eyes, Il-mok leaped toward the hall's entrance. Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang followed without delay, exiting the hall.
“Hahaha!”
“What obvious trick is this?!”
The left and right elders pursued them out of the hall as well, but contrary to Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang's hope, the two elders remained stuck together like a single body.
Even while pressed against each other as they moved, their bizarre movements didn't hinder each other's lightness skills or footwork in the slightest.
They had only fled a short distance after exiting the hall.
Once they were a bit separated from it, Il-mok spun around and charged back at the left and right elders, who moved as one.
Both Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang and the left and right elders had misread his intentions.
Il-mok hadn't chosen to flee to split them apart.
Whiiiiiing.
As massive internal energy concentrated into the Ascending Heaven Sword, the blade began to hum with resonance.
Accordingly, sword lightning far larger than usual gathered on Il-mok's sword, creating intense noise.
Just before the Ascending Heaven Sword collided with the elders' Vajra Staffs.
Clang!!
The massive sword lightning shattered into hundreds of qi fragments that scattered outward.
Il-mok had exited the hall to protect the children.
There had been a risk of the qi fragments sweeping them up.
Faced with hundreds of qi fragments pouring down right in front of them, the left and right elders flinched in shock and desperately swung their arms.
The four Vajra Staffs flailed wildly in all directions like madmen, and the fragments that struck them shattered harmlessly.
But with so many fragments, they had no time to choose anything but defense.
In the meantime.
Having grasped Il-mok's true intent, Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang had already leaped into the air, soaring above the left and right elders.
His sword was now laden with densely condensed qi.
“Turn to dust!”
Instead of targeting one elder, the qi orb he launched flew precisely at the center between the two.
Having barely blocked all the qi fragments, the left and right elders paled and flung themselves left and right to survive.
Boom!!
Immediately after, the qi orb struck the ground and exploded with a deafening blast.
Pop.
Il-mok charged at the elder who fled left, while Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang went after the one who fled right.
Having already suffered from the left and right elders' joint techniques once, Il-mok and Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang clung tenaciously to keep them separated. Ensuring the elders couldn't get close again.
Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang was steadily overwhelming his elder, but the problem was Il-mok.
His internal energy was already lacking compared to his realm, and after dumping it recklessly into the sword lightning earlier, his dantian was starting to empty.
If he hadn't been absorbing vitality by killing the esoteric monks from the start, he might have run dry right after that lightning burst.
The elder seemed to notice this too, countering by scattering his majestic internal energy wildly.
But even with his internal energy waning, Il-mok didn't care.
No matter how his bones and muscles screamed with every clash against the Vajra Staff, Il-mok relentlessly swung his sword to press the elder.
Not to prevent the left and right elders from regrouping...
No.
‘Kill.’
Il-mok's mind was still filled only with the thought of killing them with his own hands.
Even if it meant mutual destruction. No matter the method—he wanted them dead.
It had been a long time since Il-mok had felt such boiling rage while living as Il-mok.
When Tae-hyeon, the elder who had taken him in, died due to the Martial Alliance's schemes. It felt just like that time.
Back then too, Il-mok had lost his reason and hurled curses at the Heavenly Demon, who radiated terrifying menace.
Under Il-mok's relentless assault, heedless of his own life, the elder eventually fell completely on the defensive.
He had spotted several chances for mutual death, yet hadn't dared to take them.
Like all greedy men, his own life was paramount.
‘Damn it. If only I could build more internal energy!’
As the same regret repeated in the elder's mind, a strange thought surfaced.
‘Wait. What if my brother flees in all this?’
Was it because his life hung by a thread? Distrust toward his twin, fighting another expert at a distance, suddenly surged.
That distrust gave him justification for his actions.
‘Right. This guy's almost out of internal energy anyway. If I just create some distance, I can escape anytime. Heh heh heh, brother. I'll avenge you later once I've built up more power—so don't hold it against me. You're thinking the same thing, aren't you?’
Finishing his calculations, the elder drew up the massive internal energy from his dantian and coated his Vajra Staffs.
Gigantic qi, looking like swords, formed along the staffs in both hands, and the elder swung the two Vajra Staffs at Il-mok.
As Il-mok swung his Ascending Heaven Sword to meet them, a sinister smile crept onto the elder's lips.
The plan was to use the rebound after the clash to spring back and flee.
But just before their weapons collided, the Ascending Heaven Sword twisted in a bizarre motion.
It grazed past the oncoming Vajra Staffs and drove straight for the elder's heart.
Even as the elder's Vajra Staffs flew toward Il-mok's head.
“Y-You mad bastard!?”
Realizing his opponent truly intended mutual death, the elder startled and swung the Vajra Staff in his left hand.
Not at Il-mok's head, but tracking the Ascending Heaven Sword's movement.
Clang!!
Il-mok's right wrist was flung aside by the force on the Vajra Staff, but using that momentum, he spun sharply and burrowed into the elder's embrace.
Slash.
The Vajra Staff in the elder's right hand grazed past Il-mok's torso.
Thud.
Il-mok's left fist, thrusting in unexpectedly, smashed into the elder's chest.
“Guh….”
His heart ruptured by the internal energy-infused strike, the elder dropped to his knees with a short groan.
And both Il-mok and the elder coughed up blood.
“Cough….”
The difference was that the elder collapsed to the ground after his cough, while Il-mok still stood on both feet.
Unlike the elder, whose heart was destroyed and fatal, Il-mok had merely accumulated internal injuries from fighting with depleted energy.
With his insides somewhat relieved after vomiting blood, Il-mok turned to survey the battlefield.
Slash!
Just then, he caught sight of Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang severing the remaining elder's neck.
“…Same bastards.”
Just like the one Il-mok had fought, that elder too had died while trying to flee.
Il-mok turned again to look below.
Over half the esoteric monks had already been dealt with.
“Th-The elders have fallen!!”
With the left and right elders dead, their morale had plummeted.
At that moment, Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang's voice pierced Il-mok's ears.
“Circulate your qi and recover a bit. I'll handle the rest, old man.”
Il-mok pondered briefly, then plopped down cross-legged.
He wanted to help, but his injuries were severe, and his internal energy was completely spent.
* * *
After sitting cross-legged and focusing on recovery for a while.
“Whew.”
When Il-mok, having recovered the bare minimum, opened his eyes. The first thing he sensed was the stench of blood.
‘…Better than aphrodisiac scent, I suppose.’
A temple reeking of aphrodisiac or one reeking of blood—which was worse? He couldn't tell.
Shaking his dizzy head lightly to clear it, Il-mok looked up.
A shadow was blocking his view.
“Is your body alright?”
To Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang, covered head to toe in blood, Il-mok rose and replied.
“No issue moving.”
The fight seemed over anyway. Just cleanup left.
As Il-mok moved toward the group to direct the aftermath.
Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang stepped forward, blocking him, and brought up something out of nowhere.
“You. Ever thought about becoming the next Cult Leader?”