Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: 33. Okua (2)
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“You who grew strong through evil sorcery cannot defeat me.”
Moyong Chan aimed the tip of his sword at Okua.
“The sword of the Azure Purity harbors the power to vanquish evil. Just as darkness cannot overcome light, you cannot best me.”
Moyong Chan didn't like his tone. Okua had spoken in that same gentle, condescending manner—like teaching a child—from the very beginning.
Okua lifted his gaze toward the sky.
Deep wrinkles formed on his grotesquely twisted face, as if the sunlight were blinding him.
He spread his palm open.
His five claw-like fingers stretched out, casting a shadow.
Okua no longer squinted.
“You've even learned nonsense like that.”
Okua clenched his fist, the hand that blotted out the sun.
He held no weapon, yet it was a more potent means of attack than any other. Moyong Chan had nearly had his neck severed by that grip several times before.
Then, with a powerful twist of his waist, Okua swung his fist toward Moyong Chan. Black energy coalesced into a sphere and hurtled at him.
Moyong Chan traced a soft arc with his sword, deflecting the enemy's attack.
“That foul power cannot harm me.”
Okua unleashed another blast of dark energy.
Moyong Chan countered with his own sword qi.
The two forces collided and exploded.
Okua spread his arms wide. They seemed even larger than before.
The monster was growing stronger by the moment.
Moyong Chan's lip twitched.
“Still absorbing power even now?”
It was utterly repulsive.
The Azure Purity Sect's internal cultivation method was pure and untainted.
From childhood, Moyong Chan had accumulated the mana scattered throughout nature within himself.
But Okua absorbed the life force of other beings. He was truly a fiend of the demonic path, a being that deserved eradication.
Suddenly, Okua's face contorted.
Moyong Chan caught the glance and flicked his eyes toward it.
His disciple—the heir of the former Heaven-Rending Swordsman—was battling an orc warrior. Despite his severe wounds, the boy swung his sword relentlessly, proving his unyielding spirit.
“Could it be...”
Combining Yuri's actions with Okua's sharp reaction, Moyong Chan deduced one fact.
Moyong Chan extended his senses.
The evil qi filling the land wasn't stagnant. It flowed toward Okua.
“Absorbing even your own kin's power?”
Okua grinned wickedly.
His voice was soft, but that hideous smile was pure orc.
Utter nonsense.
Moyong Chan drew up his inner energy.
Now that he knew Okua's power was still growing, there was no reason to drag this out.
He decided to take a bold risk and finish Okua quickly.
Moyong Chan raised his sword.
He felt the flow of the air on his skin. The texture of sunlight pouring from the sky, the pulse of the grassland beneath his feet—his senses embraced every landscape of the plain.
His sword merely attuned itself to the flow of nature.
Azure Cloud Crimson霞 Sword Art.
Following the Current.
His sword advanced slowly.
But with each step forward, its power multiplied exponentially.
His blade contained typhoons and tsunamis. Earthquakes and lightning, wildfires and floods—the calamities summoned by nature dwelled within that single surge of sword qi.
Okua thrust both arms forward to block.
Okua's mouth gaped wide, his tusks bared. Darkness poured from within, coiling around Moyong Chan's sword qi.
But Moyong Chan forced nothing. He simply took one step in harmony with the world's push.
Okua's body lifted into the air.
Moyong Chan advanced another step.
Like morning dew rolling off a leaf, his movements defied no natural order.
Okua staggered back.
Disconcertment flashed in his eyes for the first time.
Moyong Chan spoke.
“Have you ever gazed blankly at the blue sky?”
Okua gave no reply.
“Have you ever closed your eyes because the sunset was too red to behold?”
Before long, Okua hung suspended in midair.
Bloodshot veins burst in his eyes. Yet an incomprehensible force pinned him like a target.
Moyong Chan lowered his eyelids.
An image formed in the darkness.
The serene vista from the peak of Azure Purity Mountain unfolded.
The peerless supreme martial art that dominated the martial world: the Azure Cloud Crimson霞 Sword Art.
Its true form was revealing itself.
Azure Cloud Crimson霞 Sword Art.
Empty Mountain, Bright Moon.
Okua flailed wildly. But Moyong Chan's sword did not waver.
A bluish glow at the sword tip illuminated Okua's entire body.
Okua's body twisted.
His muscles contracted, his massive frame withered away.
Okua desperately summoned black energy, but it scattered, repelled by the light at Moyong Chan's sword tip.
The azure sword qi slashed Okua.
Okua offered no resistance. Like an ancient tree battered by rain, his body was shredded across its entirety by Moyong Chan's blade.
No blood flowed. His skin merely split open.
The assault ended.
The intangible force that had engulfed Okua vanished.
Blood erupted from his body all at once as his colossal form crumbled to the ground.
Okua crawled across the dirt, hacked to pieces.
Moyong Chan gasped for breath.
The Azure Cloud Crimson霞 Sword Art was a supreme technique even he found taxing.
Yet it was devastatingly effective against those tainted by evil qi like Okua.
Moyong Chan approached Okua without letting his guard down.
He had roamed the world, purging countless impure beings. He knew their vile tricks well—playing dead only to spring up and strike from behind.
“Vermin like rats.”
Moyong Chan drove his sword into Okua's skull.
No anomaly occurred. The blade pierced clean through.
Blood trickled down.
Moyong Chan left his sword embedded in Okua's head as he stepped past the corpse.
He stood before the pit.
Up close, it was even wider.
It brimmed with naked human corpses. Branded on their foreheads with hot irons like livestock, every single one had died with eyes wide open in abject terror.
Sacrifices for a human tribute ritual.
Their souls likely remained bound to Okua even in death.
Moyong Chan felt nausea rise.
“I must perform the rites.”
He muttered to himself and turned.
Then he froze.
The head had been pierced clean through.
The being he thought dead now stood.
Okua yanked the sword from his head.
A gaping hole was revealed.
Blood and brains oozed out, yet Okua smiled.
Okua approached Moyong Chan.
His soft voice whispered right in Moyong Chan's ear.
Okua handed Moyong Chan the sword he had pulled from his own head.
Stacking so many corpses meant offering vast tribute. Okua was boasting of his power now.
Moyong Chan summoned the Azure Cloud Crimson霞 Sword Art once more.
Okua's body tore apart in shreds.
But his mouth survived, still moving.
Moyong Chan's sword pierced Okua's mouth.
Okua mumbled around the blade.
The sword twisted.
Okua's head ripped apart. No mouth remained to speak.
Moyong Chan panted heavily as he ground the corpse to nothing.
He obliterated the flesh.
Yet why did an ominous chill crawl up his spine?
A voice came from behind.
Moyong Chan whirled around.
The sound rose from within the pit.
Moyong Chan clamped his jaw and approached. His sword hummed faintly.
The crumpled corpses in the pit spoke in unison.
Moyong Chan's face twisted as he raised his sword. Suddenly, a fierce gust shoved him back.
Moyong Chan fell, landing hard on his rear.
A pitch-black mass rose above the pit. Human corpses had merged into a single form.
Moyong Chan stared upward in a daze.
Okua had been right.
The pit was deep.
It crawled endlessly from the depths, revealing a gigantic true body.
Moyong Chan murmured.
Yuri suddenly glanced back.
Moyong Chan was slashing Okua at will. Okua couldn't resist, his body shredded.
A smile tugged at Yuri's lips.
“That's my master for you.”
In his past life, Moyong Chan had lost to Okua.
But this Okua hadn't yet reached the level of the Ten Strongest. Moreover, Moyong Chan had allied with the coalition forces.
He wasn't unbeatable.
“Oh.”
Watching Moyong Chan drive his sword into Okua's head for the kill, Yuri nodded in admiration.
“Rolang.”
“Yes!”
He called to Rolang, who was locked in combat with an orc warrior.
“Look at that.”
“I'm a bit tied up right now...”
“Big trouble. You'll regret not seeing this.”
“Understood.”
Rolange hurriedly felled the orc warrior and turned as Yuri directed.
At that instant, something black surged from the pit.
“Uh...”
Yuri's mouth fell open.
The Heart-Soul Severing in his core blared an alarm.
“Just as Your Highness said... this is big trouble.”
“Yeah...”
Malevolent energy rampaged wildly. He hadn't sensed such dense evil qi even from Okua.
Instinctively, Yuri took a step back.
Not only the coalition forces—even the orcs recoiled in terror.
What to do?
Yuri had no idea.
Suddenly, he felt a powerful sense of déjà vu.
He had felt this when the Empire's black legions marched on Brioll. Faced with a colossal foe, he hadn't known what to do.
He clenched his fist tight.
He gripped so hard the gauntlet tore.
“Your Highness, what now...”
Rolang's panicked voice reached him.
Yuri covered his mouth.
“Your Highness?”
“Do what we can.”
With resolve came clarity.
Even the sharpest minds falter in crisis. But Yuri was gifted in such moments.
“Jared!”
He summoned a trusted ally.
Yuri told Rolang and Jared,
“Find and kill the shamans.”
Their eyes widened. They grasped his meaning instantly.
“Understood.”
Yuri looked back at Moyong Chan.
He stood confronting the massive corpse amalgam.
His back seemed impossibly vast.
Praying he hold out a bit longer, Yuri moved at once.
“Where to?”
He ran into the Empire's Third Knight Order commander.
Yuri said,
“See that? Doesn't look like a time for swordplay, does it? I'm going to hunt shamans. Not much time left. I can feel it.”
The man nodded as if understanding immediately.
“Then we'll...”
Suddenly, a massive explosion roared.
Both turned.
Moyong Chan soared through the air before crashing into the ground. Ahead, the corpse pile—in Okua's likeness—stirred.
“Can you just help with that?”
Yuri demanded boldly. The man was stronger than him.
The Third Knight Order commander stared at the monster with steely eyes, then nodded.
“Yes. I trust Your Highness.”
“Good. Trust me.”
Yuri spoke without jest.
This was sincere.
He had asked the man to charge into the jaws of death; he bore that responsibility.
“You'll make it.”
The Third Knight Order commander called out names of his men.
Strong knights like Graham and Hose were listed—those who could aid against the corpse amalgam Okua.
A group of knights departed to battle the monster.
“Good luck.”
Yuri grabbed a dazed soldier.
“Y-Your Highness. What in the world...”
He couldn't collect himself. Beyond orcs, now an unknown monster.
Yuri slapped his cheek.
“Snap out of it.”
“Yes...”
“I've got a mission for you.”
“What mission...”
“Run to the rear and find Mage Hernando. Tell him to send a fireball. He'll know it's from me.”
“A fireball?”
“Yeah, fireball. Can you do it?”
“Yeees...”
“My life depends on you.”
“Your Highness's life?”
“Yes.”
The soldier was still bewildered.
Yuri seized both his cheeks and pulled his eyes close. The frantic gaze focused on Yuri.
“Pides, right?”
“Yes, th-that's right. How do you know my name...”
“Pides.”
Yuri grinned and patted his cheek lightly.
“I'm counting on you.”
Pides gaped at Yuri blankly, then nodded with a firm expression.
“Yes.”