Chapter 243
Translator: True Detective
Chapter: 243
Chapter Title: Tai Chi Mercy Sword
-Whoooosh!
A heavy whoosh of air accompanied the blood energy surging toward me from the wooden puppet.
In response, my sword, infused with sword energy, traced another circle.
The blade, embodying the principles of the soft sword, gently deflected the force. Once again, the blood energy's trajectory twisted off course.
If it had been the Tai Chi Sword, deflecting the attack like this would have been the end of it.
But the Tai Chi Mercy Sword didn't stop there.
The blood energy, wildly diverted from its original path, twisted once more.
No—more precisely, it was caught up in the circle drawn by my sword.
The intense blood energy chased after the flowing sword energy, tracing the circle in its wake before being naturally absorbed without any resistance.
Tai Chi fundamentally refers to the origin of all things in the universe.
Before the Tai Chi Mercy Sword, which embodied that truth, even the Bloodwood Cult's blood energy was merely a part of that origin.
It wasn't repelled—it merged naturally, as if it had always been one.
Oblivious to this, the puppet simply kept pouring out its energy endlessly.
Naturally, each time it did, the blood energy was wholly absorbed into my sword energy, and the hazy sword energy rapidly grew in presence.
-Whiiiing!
Before I knew it, my sword was wrapped in a brilliant crimson glow far brighter than incomplete sword force, letting out a resonant hum.
Only then did the wooden puppet seem to sense something was amiss. It belatedly halted its attack and tried to evade.
Sorry, but it's too late for that now.
I let out a short snort and unleashed all the crimson sword energy at the puppet.
-KABOOOM-!
A deafening explosion echoed in all directions.
The massive crimson sword energy slammed into the puppet's entire body.
The wooden puppet, thrown back after receiving its own blood energy in full, collapsed.
I gazed at it, gripping my sword, which had lost its glow after expending all the blood energy.
The puppet's condition after being struck by the crimson sword energy was truly wretched.
It looked as if a pack of wolves had torn into it, chunks ripped away here and there.
It tried to rise, but its regeneration speed had noticeably slowed, causing it to topple repeatedly.
Seeing its pathetic state, I curled my lip in a sneer.
"Looking pretty good in that shape, huh?"
As I slowly approached the flailing puppet, I noticed the blood core in its chest.
The blood core, which could only be destroyed by sword force.
A massive crack marred the crimson orb.
A deep, wide fissure that seemed ready to shatter at the slightest touch.
Seeing that split, one corner of my mouth twitched upward involuntarily.
I'd cracked the blood core.
This meant the Tai Chi Mercy Sword's power, having absorbed the opponent's energy, rivaled sword force—and it provided a new way to destroy blood cores and spirit trees.
In other words, these puppets were no longer a challenge for me.
Certain of victory, I aimed my sword at the puppet with a triumphant smile.
Whether due to the damaged blood core, it still couldn't regenerate properly.
Moreover, the blood core itself looked unstable, as if a single stab would shatter it.
No need to drag this out in that state.
I stepped forward to finish off the broken puppet.
-Thud!
Releasing true energy from my Dantian, I shot toward the wooden puppet like an arrow.
Sky-Splitting Single Flash.
Becoming a single streak of light slicing through the heavens, I charged at the puppet and swung my sword.
But my blade couldn't reach the damaged blood core.
-BOOM!
"Ja-seong, watch out!"
Whether reacting to their kin's crisis, the other wooden puppets that Hwa-ryeon and my master were fighting intervened.
Two puppets, battered from taking hits from Hwa-ryeon and my master's sword strikes head-on, blocked my path in various states of damage.
"What, you think ganging up two-on-one will let you win?"
I posed the question they couldn't answer and prepared to unleash the Tai Chi Mercy Sword.
The moment they unleashed their blood energy, I planned to absorb it and hurl it right back.
But the two puppets did something I never expected.
-CRACK!
"What...?"
Instead of attacking me, they plunged their hands into the broken puppet's body.
*
Wood Spirits.
The Bloodwood Cult's secret weapons, created by fusing the blood cores formed within Blood Explosion Technique cultivators' bodies with wooden puppets inscribed by the cult's sorcerers using all sorts of spells.
Drawing on infinite blood energy through their blood cores and tireless since they weren't human, they were undoubtedly highly threatening.
Most ordinary martial artists would have no choice but to collapse helplessly before them.
Among the current martial world's experts, perhaps only around ten supreme masters could face them.
And the Bloodwood Cult sorcerers who created the Wood Spirits boasted that three of them could even kill a supreme master.
Why three, not two?
The answer to that question lay right before Ja-seong's eyes.
"What... is this?"
Ja-seong couldn't hide his bewilderment.
The scene unfolding before him was that astonishing.
As the two other Wood Spirits thrust their hands into the body of the one with the damaged blood core, their forms began to intertwine chaotically.
Like formless creatures, the tangled Wood Spirits soon took on a new shape.
A giant several times larger than the original Wood Spirits.
The giant, with three blood cores protruding from its chest, gaped its mouth and bellowed a thunderous roar.
-Roooaaar-!!
"...Heh. It grew a mouth?"
Ja-seong let out a hollow laugh at the sight of the giant, but shadows fell over his face.
Having roared once heartily, the giant abruptly swung its fist down toward his head.
Ja-seong swiftly executed the Heavenly Insight Preemptive Step to evade, and the giant's fist crashed into where he had stood.
-KABOOM!
A thunderous boom that tricked the senses into thinking an earthquake had struck.
As Ja-seong dug at his ringing ears with a finger, Hwa-ryeon and Dae-un approached him.
"...I didn't see this coming."
"Who could have?"
Ja-seong chuckled wryly at Hwa-ryeon's words laced with dismay.
Dae-un then asked him,
"What do you plan to do?"
"Well, it'll depend on how they come at us..."
No sooner had Ja-seong finished speaking than the giant gaped its mouth wide toward the three of them.
Vast quantities of blood energy began pouring from the three blood cores embedded in the giant's chest, gathering in its mouth.
Seeing this, Ja-seong immediately issued orders to the two.
"Hwa-ryeon, Master. Fall back."
"You're not thinking of facing it alone, are you? That's reckless!"
Ja-seong flashed a confident smile at Hwa-ryeon's cry, filled with worry and concern.
"Don't worry. I'll end it in one go."
*
The blood energy condensing in the wooden giant's mouth.
Feeling that enormous power, I hardened my expression and focused all my senses.
There was no need to spell out what it was trying to do.
It was obviously about to unleash that condensed blood energy.
Even after seeing me absorb its blood energy with the Tai Chi Mercy Sword and throw it back, it chose this.
It must have judged that triple the output would overwhelm me with sheer force.
Well, we'll see about that.
-Kiiiiing-!
At that instant, the blood energy condensed in the wooden giant's mouth exploded toward me.
A crimson spectacle filled my vision.
Facing the bewitching light that entranced my eyes, faint sword energy traced a circle.
Soft overcomes hard.
The faint sword energy moved fluidly to counter the overwhelming blood energy.
The blood energy, which had seemed to overpower the sword energy for a moment, began to slowly rotate in sync with the circling sword.
Soon, the blood energy started being absorbed into the sword energy.
The amount drawn in with a single rotation was incomparable to before.
-Whoooong!
In an instant, such a massive amount of energy gathered that my sword hummed loudly.
I gripped the trembling hilt tighter and furrowed my brow.
The internal energy consumption for executing the Tai Chi Mercy Sword was far exceeding expectations.
Apparently, absorbing such potent energy required proportionally more of my own reserves.
Dragging this out would cause me to collapse instead.
I seized the humming sword with both hands and charged at the giant.
-Flinch.
The giant flinched as if alive.
Seeing the massive crimson sword energy cloaking my blade, it finally realized its mistake and hastily retreated.
Too late for that.
I swung my sword wide at the giant.
My target: the three blood cores in its chest.
Destroy those, and the giant would crumble.
"Haaah!"
With a shout, crimson sword energy poured from my swung blade, engulfing the giant.
-KABOOOM!
Through the sword energy piercing the giant's upper body, three orbs floated up.
-Crack!
A particularly sharp sound rang out as one blood core shattered to pieces.
Soon after, the other two couldn't withstand the sword energy and exploded, vanishing into the crimson haze.
The giant, with a gaping hole blasted through its chest, halted its movements.
But only for a moment.
Cracks soon spiderwebbed across its entire body, and it collapsed entirely.
-Rumblle-!
With a massive boom, dust billowed high, forming a thick cloud.
"...Did you take it down?"
Hwa-ryeon stared blankly at the sight and murmured.
I turned to meet her dazed expression and grinned.
"I said I'd end it in one go, didn't I?"
Hwa-ryeon let out a small chuckle at my boastful tone.
As the dust settled, the debris of the collapsed wooden giant came into view.
Just to be sure, I nudged the wreckage with my foot, but only powder flew up—no signs of revival.
This time, it was truly defeated.
With that certainty, I turned my gaze elsewhere and muttered.
"Now what? Their trump card's wrecked."
My eyes shifted to a nearby withered branch.
More precisely, to the winged eye perched on it.
Staring coldly through that eye at whoever was watching this scene, I smiled chillingly.
A warning: You're next.
*
"...Incredible."
So-ha, who had been treating Seol-i, couldn't hold back her admiration as she watched the giant—born from the fusion of the Wood Spirits—collapse.
The blood energy the giant had spewed moments ago.
Even she couldn't dream of blocking it without unleashing her main body.
Yet he had stopped it with a human form.
No—he had turned it into his own power and counterattacked.
As a result, the giant, which had wielded Rogog's energy, crumbled under its own might, and Ja-seong stood tall as the victor on the earth.
'As expected of the prophecy's warrior. That power will surely be a great asset in the coming war.'
To secure his aid in the great war approaching in the near future, she needed to boost his favor toward her as much as possible.
'The best way is probably a gift offensive, right?'
Lowban had already been given by Hong-i, so what else should she offer?
Even after finishing Seol-i's treatment, So-ha's dilemma only deepened.