Chapter 348
Chapter 348
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: Ryuma
>Chapter: 348
>Chapter Title: Confusion (2)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
About one daekyeong earlier.
Clang!
Another nun from the Ami Sect swung her blade at Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, who had just blocked the swing of a sword from an Ami Sect nun. Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a leaped away, barely dodging the blade.
Having narrowly escaped a brush with death, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a gritted her teeth.
She was being pushed to her limits.
It wasn't just because of the current situation, where she had to fight while concealing her demonic arts.
- Ha, but if you keep doing it like this, you, you’ll never escape being the little sister. You’re just, just acting like a child who needs to be babied all the time.
The words Jeong-hyeon had said to her not long ago kept tormenting her.
The koan Jeong-hyeon had thrown at her had violently shaken the self that had merged with the side effect.
- Oppa must be mine.
‘But if I do it this way, Oppa won’t acknowledge me.’
Thanks to sharing the same goal of becoming Il-mok’s woman, her self and the side effect had been waging war every day lately.
- Just kill them all, and I’ll be the only one left.
‘Oppa wouldn’t accept a woman who killed the people precious to him.’
For her, who was already tormented by heart demons, the current situation was driving her to the brink.
The condition of having to suppress her demonic arts to fight.
- Why hold back? They’re the ones getting in Oppa’s way, aren’t they? They’re bitches who all need to be torn apart!
And the side effect of her demonic arts, itching to rampage.
Having to face external enemies and internal enemies at the same time, her movements inevitably grew tangled.
The moment Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, cornered by the combined assault of the Ami Sect nuns, could no longer hold back and began gathering energy to unleash the ultimate technique of the Blood Fox Crimson Claw Art.
Thud.
Jin Ha-yeon, who had snuck up, struck the side of one of the nuns cooperating in the assault on Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a with a left palm strike.
“Show some restraint.”
Jin Ha-yeon scolded in an indifferent tone, then leaped off with the same impassive demeanor to aid the others.
- I don’t like her. I need to kill her.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a unwittingly let out a chuckle.
It was the voice of the side effect she had been fighting tooth and nail with every day lately, but it was a rare moment of agreement.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a hated Jin Ha-yeon.
It was only natural. Their first meeting had been the worst.
The woman who had bluntly told Il-mok to cast her aside immediately was Jin Ha-yeon.
When she was young, suppressed from associating with anyone, Il-mok had been her salvation for Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, and Jin Ha-yeon was the one obstructing that salvation.
Even now, eight years after their first meeting, nothing had changed.
Even after eight years, Jin Ha-yeon was still Il-mok’s closest confidante, the woman he trusted most.
At least that’s how it seemed to Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, and she still hadn’t caught up to her.
‘Just because she was born seven years earlier, what’s so great about that!’
If she had been born seven years earlier, things wouldn’t have turned out like this.
But amusingly, Jin Ha-yeon’s existence was sometimes helpful to her.
At least she could learn how to earn Il-mok’s trust by observing Jin Ha-yeon.
In the brief moment she glared at Jin Ha-yeon.
More Ami Sect nuns charged at Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a again.
As she deflected that nun’s sword, the side effect howled once more.
- I hate that bitch and that one too! Tear apart everything that’s in the way!
Amid the piercing scream that brought on a headache, for some reason, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a wore a sticky smile that reeked of blood.
‘Right. I need to kill all the bitches who get in the way. But do you know who’s the biggest obstacle right now?’
Was it because she was questioning herself? In the eyes of the nun swinging her sword, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a’s reflection appeared.
‘It’s you.’
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a thrust out her crimson claws toward herself, to tear herself apart.
Crunch.
Her claws sank into the heart of the nun who had overlapped with her own image.
Then, the nun’s face, contorted in agony, overlapped with Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a’s own face, like the side effect screaming in pain.
Buddhism teaches of killing Buddha and killing the patriarch.
If they obstruct enlightenment, erase even Buddha’s teachings and the patriarchs’ teachings.
And at this very moment.
Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a vowed to kill herself, for obstructing Il-mok.
She swung both hands at the nuns whose eyes reflected her image, killing the self mirrored in their pupils.
Crunch.
She began tearing apart with her own hands the shell called Extreme Demon that had warmly enveloped her.
- Kyaeeeek!
Along with the side effect’s scream echoing in her mind, parts of the shell encasing her body shattered.
“Haa.”
Feeling her choked breath ease slightly, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a let out a light sigh.
“Now I feel like I can live.”
It was a serene gaze that didn’t match her face splattered with blood.
* * *
For about one daekyeong, weaving through the nuns forming the Demon-Exterminating Tiger-Leopard Formation, matching their coordination while darting her body here and there with lightness skill.
‘Now!’
Seizing the opportunity at last, Il-mok hurled the Soaring Heaven Sword in a surprise attack.
Screeeeech!!
The Soaring Heaven Sword flew at tremendous speed, wrapped in qi.
“Where do you think you’re playing tricks?!”
An Ami Sect elder, bolstered by the formation, wrapped her sword in qi to strike down the Soaring Heaven Sword, but the path of the Soaring Heaven Sword slicing through the air twisted.
Il-mok had already raised only his left index and middle fingers as if swearing an oath, swinging them, and the Soaring Heaven Sword’s path twisted accordingly with his left hand’s movements.
Il-mok’s sword, slipping through the nuns like an eel, instantly reached the face of a middle-aged nun at the edge of the formation.
The woman hurriedly thrust out twin palms in startled panic.
Crunch!
The Soaring Heaven Sword, cloaked in qi, pierced through those twin palms and straight into the nun’s heart.
“Guh….”
As the nun whose heart had burst collapsed with a choked groan.
“Die!!!”
The enraged nuns charged en masse at Il-mok, who had lost his sword.
Instead of facing them directly, Il-mok unleashed his lightness skill at full power and soared into the air.
The nuns swung their weapons or twin palms at him, sending sword qi and palm winds flying.
Pop!
Il-mok executed sky treading to evade the onslaught and simultaneously flew toward the direction of the nun he had just killed.
He had made a hole in the formation; now it was time to widen it.
‘Nothing’s better for widening a hole than this.’
Recalling his memory of the Potala Palace, Il-mok drew a dagger from his bosom and recklessly drew energy from his dantian.
Vast energy formed qi blades, which tangled together again to form a ring-like shape.
It was the Gang Ring.
Mimicking the feat Hyeok-ryeon Cheon-gang had displayed in the battle at Potala Palace, Il-mok swung the dagger wildly toward the area near the dead nun.
Boom!!!
With a massive explosion, that area erupted.
The two nuns right beside her were shattered beyond recognition, and even the two a bit farther away had parts of their bodies torn off, in a state where death was imminent.
Having dispatched five nuns in an instant, Il-mok hurriedly leaped back and simultaneously executed Air Grasping.
Screeeeech.
The Soaring Heaven Sword, which had pierced the nun’s heart, fallen behind, and been flung even farther by the Gang Ring’s shockwave, flew back to his hand at his will.
Turning after recovering the Soaring Heaven Sword, Il-mok saw the nuns charging with yaksha-like expressions.
Perhaps because five who were like family to them had died.
Though five had already perished and the Demon-Exterminating Tiger-Leopard Formation’s power had long dissipated, their killing intent grew even thicker.
“Whew.”
Il-mok let out a light sigh.
It wasn’t because of their formidable aura. It was due to the rapid depletion of his internal energy.
Having already consumed internal energy for one daekyeong against the Demon-Exterminating Tiger-Leopard Formation, then using remote sword control with qi and even the Gang Ring, his dantian had emptied by more than half in an instant.
But it wasn’t a big problem.
He could replenish the lacking internal energy with the Soaring Heaven Sword.
Slash.
The moment Il-mok swung the Soaring Heaven Sword, slicing through the upper body of an Ami Sect first-rate disciple, the Soaring Heaven Sword voraciously sucked in the nun’s blood.
That blood quickly transformed into vital energy.
Slash!
The Soaring Heaven Sword, infused with vital energy, severed the neck of the next charging nun.
The Soaring Heaven Sword could be said to be specialized for massacring the weak, in a way.
Slash.
Now that the Demon-Exterminating Tiger-Leopard Formation was broken, to Il-mok, the Ami Sect nuns were all nothing but weaklings.
“T-This can’t be….”
The ones charging with yaksha-like expressions belatedly realized.
That they were not yakshas, but mere stray ghosts.
At that moment, a familiar roar stimulated Il-mok’s eardrums.
“You bastard~!!!!”
It was the scream-like shout of Ami Sect’s leader, Golden Purity Immortal Nun. No, it was closer to a shriek than a shout.
The old nun was charging at Il-mok, shedding bloody tears.
Watching her, Il-mok clicked his tongue and swung his sword in response.
“Tsk. At least you know the value of your own family.”
Il-mok’s sword clashed with Golden Purity Immortal Nun’s, erupting in continuous explosions.
From Golden Purity Immortal Nun’s sword, qi streamed out relentlessly.
It was a bizarre sight. To Il-mok’s eyes, Golden Purity Immortal Nun’s realm hadn’t reached the level of freely manipulating qi.
Her already wrinkled face rapidly aged further with each sword clash, allowing Il-mok to easily grasp the situation.
‘She’s recklessly drawing on her innate qi.’
A sudden thought occurred, and Il-mok spoke toward Golden Purity Immortal Nun.
“If you knew Ami Sect was so precious, why didn’t you know others’ families were precious too?”
Unlike the left and right protectors of Potala Palace who fled when the tide turned, Golden Purity Immortal Nun was fighting even at the cost of her life.
So, at least she was better than those left and right protectors, he thought.
“Die, you demon!!”
But Golden Purity Immortal Nun kept roaring as if she couldn’t hear Il-mok’s voice.
“I’ll curse you! Even in death, I’ll curse you!! Even if I fall to hell!! I’ll curse you!!”
Il-mok belatedly realized. Golden Purity Immortal Nun had already gone mad.
“Tsk.”
Clicking his tongue again, Il-mok used feints to lure her attacks, lightly dodged, then severed Golden Purity Immortal Nun’s neck.
Slash.
“Sect Leader!”
“How dare you!!!”
At Golden Purity Immortal Nun’s death, the remaining nuns around screamed like shrieks once more.
Their morale, crushed by Il-mok’s near-massacre, shifted again.
They charged at Il-mok with resolve to die, and like Golden Purity Immortal Nun, they all began recklessly drawing on their innate qi.
At their desperate sight, Il-mok felt anger surpass into absurd laughter.
“Ridiculous.”
It was Ami Sect who first picked a fight with Maitreya Illuminating Cult helping the common folk, Ami Sect who schemed falsely to drive out Maitreya Illuminating Cult, and even Ami Sect who struck first with killing intent.
Yet they acted like victims, showing resolve for a last stand.
“Fine. If that’s what you want, I’ll gladly play the villain.”
In response to their killing intent, Il-mok willingly swung the Soaring Heaven Sword.
Countless red flowers bloomed in the air.