Chapter 124
Chapter 124
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Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 124
Chapter Title: The Price That Must Be Paid
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Feeling the presence of Hwa Ryeon, who was carrying the old man on her back, fade into the distance, I vaulted over the shattered prison wall.
Then came a triumphant burst of laughter.
“Keheheh, how ridiculous. You think you can make me pay? Do your eyes still see me as that pathetic wretch sealed away with his spells, groveling like a spineless worm?”
“No, I see a vile traitor who tried to murder his own master.”
My response made the Jade-Faced Fiend’s face harden for a moment as he snarled.
“Master? Don’t make me laugh! If it weren’t for that old fool, I never would’ve ended up like this! It’s all his fault!”
“So blaming everyone else eases your mind, does it?”
I let out a hollow chuckle at his utterly unoriginal nonsense, and the lecher demon twisted his now-smooth face into an ugly grimace.
But that lasted only a moment.
As if struck by some new thought, he began to smirk again.
“Ha! Enjoy your cheeky attitude while it lasts. As you can see, I’ve been reborn anew. No matter how monstrous you are, you can’t kill me now!”
Who’s calling who a monster?
His utterly baseless assessment left me dumbfounded, and his confidence that I couldn’t kill him was infuriating.
It seemed one blocked thrust had made him all high and mighty.
“If you’re banking on that strangely sturdy body of yours, I’d advise against overconfidence.”
“Keheheheh… Save that talk for after you’ve cut me down.”
“Shall I?”
The words had barely left my mouth when I planted my true stance and charged at the lecher demon.
In less than a single breath, I closed the distance to him, my eyes tracing a crescent arc before swelling into a full moon.
“What….”
Before the startled cry could fully escape his gaping mouth, the light gathered at my sword’s tip carved a long trajectory.
-Shieeeek
The body that had blocked a pinpoint thrust with the sword tip wasn’t tough enough to withstand the sword aura of the Heavenly Bow Single Stroke.
The blade plunged into the lecher demon’s left side, slicing across his waist and emerging from the right.
“…Huh?”
A dazed gasp escaped instead of a scream of shock.
Right after, the demon’s upper body separated from his lower half and fell away.
“U, uwaaaagh!?”
The lecher demon, crashing to the ground and staring at his severed lower body, let out a scream.
Of course, it wasn’t a scream that would last long.
Even through my energy sense, I could tell the Jade-Faced Fiend’s current form wasn’t some illusion.
What on earth had happened in that short time to reshape his entire body?
I wouldn’t get an answer from a man about to die, so I’d have to ask the old man later.
I’d sent him off with Hwa Ryeon without thinking, but I hoped he’d be alright.
Thinking I should follow right away, I turned.
But at that moment,
“Aaaagh… kehahaha-!”
The lecher demon’s scream turned into mad laughter.
Turning back, I beheld an unbelievable sight.
“You…?”
I had clearly bisected the lecher demon at the waist with the Heavenly Bow Single Stroke.
Yet the cleanly severed upper and lower halves were now rejoining right before my eyes.
Not just the surface knitting back together—his nerves and muscles seemed fully restored, as he soon stood upright on two perfectly fine legs.
“Hahaha…! To think even this is possible…! Incredible!”
Even he seemed astonished at his restored body, as if he hadn’t anticipated it.
Suppressing my shock at the impossible phenomenon, I asked quietly.
“…What the hell did you do to your body?”
The lecher demon answered with a hateful smirk and swung his hand blade at me.
-Whoooosh!
“…!”
A sharp blade wind followed the path of his hand.
I sidestepped with footwork, and the wind that passed me diagonally sheared a stone lantern behind me.
-Thud!
Taking in the sight of the smoothly severed lantern crashing to the ground with a heavy boom, I turned back to the Jade-Faced Fiend.
So his seals were broken, and he could use spells beyond illusions now.
“What did I do to my body? Simple. I was reborn with the power that’s rightfully mine!”
“I wasn’t asking for that nonsense.”
My indifferent reaction seemed to irk him, as he curled his lip and unleashed a barrage of large and small fireballs.
I dodged the big ones and batted away the small ones, planting my true stance to charge at him again.
“You think I’ll fall for the same ambush twice!”
At that instant, the Jade-Faced Fiend’s form melted into the air before my eyes and vanished.
Hiding with an illusion, was that all he had?
He knew it was useless by now.
Harboring a sliver of doubt, I expanded my energy sense to locate the concealed Jade-Faced Fiend.
Moments later, I detected him charging straight at me from the front.
Right at me, head-on.
Not even bothering with a rear ambush.
I snorted inwardly and swung my sword.
In the end, the silently bisected Jade-Faced Fiend reappeared,
-Pop!
turned to smoke before my eyes, and vanished.
All that remained was a single torn talisman in two pieces.
“What…?”
Right then, dozens of blade winds and fireballs rained down on me from behind.
-Kwaaaang!
*
“Elder Gok!”
Hwa Ryeon, clutching Sa-kyeong’s diminutive form, raced toward the hall with the office and cried out desperately for Gok Il.
Just then, Gok Il emerged from the hall with a grim face alongside Geun Young, only to recoil in horror at the sight of his friend’s massive chest wound.
“Brother Yeon!”
As soon as Hwa Ryeon gently laid Sa-kyeong on the ground, Gok Il examined his condition closely.
He was shocked once by how deep the wound was, and twice more by the fact that blood wasn’t gushing out uncontrollably.
“N-No. How is there no blood…?”
“Young Master Goon stopped it. Can you heal him?”
At the mention of self-treatment by Ja-seong, Gok Il nearly blurted out *how?*, but instead nodded and cupped the wound with both hands.
Muttering in some incomprehensible tongue, light began to seep from his palms.
“What exactly happened?”
Geun Young asked on behalf of the treating Gok Il.
Hwa Ryeon informed him of the Jade-Faced Fiend’s revival.
“The Jade-Faced Fiend has been revived. He’s fighting Young Master Goon right now.”
“What? But surely he exhausted all his innate energy…?”
“I don’t know the details, but I saw it with my own eyes. Using illusions perfectly fine.”
To be precise, the demon stone’s power had reconstructed his body, but unaware of that, Hwa Ryeon simply thought he’d changed appearance with an illusion.
In any case, hearing of the Jade-Faced Fiend’s revival, Geun Young’s face stiffened as he scanned the surroundings.
Spotting the branch’s chief steward who had come running at Hwa Ryeon’s shout, he issued orders.
“Chief Steward! Send word to the Heavenly Wind Corps to head to the prison immediately! Tell them the Jade-Faced Fiend is rampaging!”
“A-Ah, Branch Chief…!”
The chief steward hesitated at Geun Young’s command.
Sensing something ominous from his expression, Geun Young pressed again.
“Where’s the Heavenly Wind Corps?”
“Th-They…”
The man hesitated to reply.
Geun Young finally lost his temper.
“Chief Steward! Answer me now!”
“They’ve left!”
The roared response was utterly absurd.
Geun Young bombarded him with incredulous questions.
“Left? Where to? By whose authority!”
“Th-The lecher demon was captured, so the Heavenly Wind Corps Leader said this morning they were returning to headquarters…!”
“Damn it…”
Jeokgal Cheon-sang, that bastard again.
Returning because the lecher was caught? Even a stray dog would laugh.
They’d obviously fled to avoid Ja-seong.
Given their usual conduct, he’d predicted they’d leave without a word to him, the branch chief.
But today of all days…!
Barely suppressing the curses rising from his gut, Geun Young returned to the office, grabbed his sword, and headed out.
“I’ll go help Young Master Goon myself. Miss Hwa, stay here with the elders.”
“Huh? Wait…!”
Ignoring Hwa Ryeon’s words, Geun Young dashed toward the prison.
Staring blankly at his retreating figure, she was suddenly assailed by a massive explosion in her ears.
-Kwaaaang!
“…!”
A earth-shaking roar, like a cannon blast.
The source was unmistakably the prison.
*
The combination of blade winds and fireballs led to a fierce explosion.
If my energy sense hadn’t detected the rear ambush a step ahead, I would’ve been seriously hurt.
Brushing the soot clinging to my robes, I stared at the Jade-Faced Fiend smirking triumphantly through the black smoke.
“As expected, you can’t distinguish a solid clone from the real body. I don’t know how you pierce illusions, but I know how to deal with you now.”
“…A clone, huh.”
In simple terms, he’d hidden with an illusion, used a clone to divert my eyes, and ambushed from behind.
“You think one measly clone is enough to take me down? Isn’t that a bit too optimistic?”
“Who said one?”
With a smug voice, more Jade-Faced Fiend clones appeared from all directions.
Easily over twenty by rough count.
My energy sense told me every one surrounding me was solid.
In other words, they were all clones.
“…What are you, the Monkey King?”
My disbelieving question drew an infuriating chuckle.
“Keheheheh, how long can you last against this many?”
“You must’ve hidden a lot of those talismans around. You didn’t stash any in your crotch, did you? I’d rather not slice there.”
“…You’ve got quite the mouth on you.”
Unhappy with my composure even against a horde, the Jade-Faced Fiend erased his smile and glared.
Soon, he and his clones vanished with illusions, and a resounding shout echoed from all sides.
-I’ll tear you to shreds!
With that cry, the illusion-cloaked clones charged at me all at once.