The Demon Sword Prince Wants to Destroy the Martial World 121 - The Murim Alliance Steps In (3)
It was no exaggeration to call Hyeon Yucheon's Formless Mystery: Formless Flash Light Extreme Exhaust Sword the fastest sword technique in the martial world.
From an ordinary person's perspective, it was so fast they might not even realize what had happened. But from Hyeon Yucheon's viewpoint?
Fwaaash!
He summoned his monstrous inner power and unleashed the second form of the Formless Mystery.
The strike headed exactly where he had announced—toward Bong Hyocheon's heart—without a single inch of deviation.
And what was the response of Bong Hyocheon, the Supreme Spear of the World and Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear?
Slash!
Response? What response?
He didn't even realize he'd been sliced, merely blinking his eyes in bewilderment.
Swoosh!
Only moments later did he sense the unnatural pain and glance down at his chest. Sure enough?
To his astonishment, his heart had been cleanly pierced and carved out.
"Wha—what?!"
Bong Hyocheon was so flustered he couldn't accept reality, alternating his gaze between his wound and Hyeon Yucheon's face.
In truth, the strike had been so swift that even after his heart was removed, Bong Hyocheon's body hadn't registered it yet—no blood flowed at first, only gushing out in a fountain moments later.
"I told you clearly. I was aiming for your heart."
Hyeon Yucheon smirked as he gazed at him.
Bong Hyocheon's face was still blank with shock.
I didn't even sense it... I couldn't even see it properly!
The pain hadn't fully set in yet, and he wondered why blood was spraying.
Moreover, his current-sensing ability hadn't detected it at all, so there was no way he could have blocked Hyeon Yucheon's attack.
"This is... the Formless Flash Quick Sword..."
Only after losing his precious life and having his heart carved out did Bong Hyocheon belatedly realize.
"A true Demon Sword..."
Thud!
Those were his final words before his body collapsed.
And in that moment, he fully understood why the Formless Flash Quick Sword—not its original name—was called the sword of a wicked demon. The price of that realization was far too steep.
He had to forfeit his one and only life.
Woooaaah!
As Hyeon Yucheon claimed victory with ease, the Demon Sword Sect erupted in fervent cheers.
The Four Peak Elders were figures shrouded in even more mystery than the Heaven's Five Venerables, quietly held in higher regard by many.
Even half-joking phrases like "above the Five Venerables stand the Peak Elders" had become popular.
Yet Hyeon Yucheon had now defeated Bong Hyocheon, the eldest of those Four Peak Elders and the Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear, right after the Five Venerables. This was a monumental upheaval.
"The Supreme Spear of the World is dead!"
"No, the Supreme Sword of the World defeated the Supreme Spear."
"Our sect leader isn't just at the level of Supreme Sword... He's the greatest Supreme in history."
"Right, the previous sect leader was great, but he's surpassed him."
Even the Demon Sword Sect disciples no longer casually compared the Demon Sword Ghost Elder Cheon Baeksang to Hyeon Yucheon.
This wasn't out of disrespect for Cheon Baeksang.
It was simply because Hyeon Yucheon, the Demon Sword Prince, was that exceptional.
"This can't be real."
"How could one of the Four Peak Elders..."
"Ugh... What do we tell the Alliance Leader and the Strategist?"
On the other hand, the Murim Alliance forces—who had kicked open the Demon Sword Sect's gates in high spirits—were now pale with dismay.
They couldn't wipe out the entire sect themselves, but they'd expected Bong Hyocheon to defeat the Demon Sword Prince.
Even if Hyeon Yucheon was half a step superior in skill, Bong Hyocheon's spear style should counter him—or so they'd believed.
But what was this?
The Demon Sword Prince Hyeon Yucheon has no such thing as a counter!
Just as Bong Hyocheon had realized too late in death, the Alliance forces now understood.
This great unorthodox sovereign had no counters or weaknesses—he bestowed death equally upon any warrior, the true Supreme of the World.
"Today, I'll specially let you lot live."
Having won a great victory, Hyeon Yucheon decided to show mercy.
He would send back the Murim Alliance members Bong Hyocheon had brought unscathed.
Of course, this mercy had a purpose.
"Go back to the Murim Alliance headquarters and relay this: There is no one to condemn or judge Monk Jeong Myeong. And furthermore..."
Hyeon Yucheon unleashed a piercing gaze from his eyes, overwhelming everyone present.
"If you dare come to our Demon Sword Sect again and cause this outrage! I will bombard your headquarters and branches alike, slaughtering every last one."
This was no mere threat or bluff.
The Murim Alliance believes they own the martial world.
They'd sent men to interrogate remnants and brand Jeong Myeong a public enemy for extradition—what else could it be but proof?
"..."
Faced with Hyeon Yucheon's majestic declaration, the Alliance forces could only tremble in place, unable to respond.
And one more thing.
"Relay a message to Shaolin as well."
This time, it was the Little Divine Monk Jeong Myeong who spoke.
"From now on, I swear to the entire martial world that I will forget all martial arts I learned at Shaolin and never use them again. So... ask Shaolin to forget me as well and ensure this never happens again."
Jeong Myeong drew a firm line.
The righteous faction's top young talent and Shaolin's greatest prodigy was now completely severed from Shaolin.
Demon Sword Prince Hyeon Yucheon defeats the Supreme Spear of the World, Heavenly Thunder Divine Spear Bong Hyocheon!
The Four Peak Elders make a rare appearance, only to become sword ghosts under the Formless Flash Quick Sword!
Murim Alliance's prestige crashes to the ground!
Hyeon Yucheon, who had been carving a path of unprecedented vengeance by toppling the Heaven's Five Venerables one by one, had now defeated even one of the Alliance headquarters' Four Peak Elders.
The rumor spread like wildfire across the region.
The news was utterly shocking.
The orthodox martial world had harbored immense illusions about the Murim Alliance headquarters.
Many even rated the Four Peak Elders higher than the Five Venerables.
Yet Hyeon Yucheon had become the sole figure to slay both groups—a moment of jubilation for the unorthodox martial world.
"These are the end times, the end times."
This was inside a building at the Murim Alliance headquarters.
Night had deepened, but only sighs of lament echoed hollowly.
The white-robed scholar pressing his hand to his forehead while decrying the end times was none other than Jong Ri-gwang, the Murim Alliance Strategist—Divine Calculation Wonder Hand—second only to the Alliance Leader and Vice Leader in status.
"Hoo..."
Jong Ri-gwang sighed repeatedly.
He was a unique figure in the Alliance.
His martial prowess fell short of first-rate, yet his exceptional wisdom and schemes boasted a devilishly brilliant mind.
The Strategist position had traditionally been held by the Jegal family, so for it to come from the minor Jong Ri family spoke volumes of his talent.
Even defeating one of the Four Peak Elders...
Not just the Alliance, but the entire world revered Jong Ri-gwang—yet now he was deep in thought.
No matter how he pondered, he saw no solution to capturing Hyeon Yucheon.
"Strategist, what troubles you so? Like when we caught the Demon Sword Ghost Elder, plant a traitor inside the Demon Sword Sect, lure him out, or strike during his closed-door training?"
One of his subordinates offered an idea.
It wasn't a bad scheme.
That's how they'd captured the era's greatest Supreme, the Demon Sword Ghost Elder, so it should work again.
"Foolish talk. Hyeon Yucheon inherited everything from the Demon Sword Ghost Elder—the supreme inheritor. He witnessed his master's death firsthand, learning from it as a negative example. You think he'd fall for the exact same trick?"
Jong Ri-gwang rarely lost his temper, but he snapped now.
It was sound logic.
What disciple falls to the same method that killed their master?
What an obtuse fool.
His mind was clogged, and no one understood—his composure nearly shattered.
"R-right... Those heaven-cursed bastards should just fight among themselves and mutual destroy..."
The subordinate muttered, retreating in panic.
"...!!"
At those words, a flash struck Jong Ri-gwang's brilliant mind.
"What did you just say?!"
"Y-yes? I said scum like them should fight similar scum and mutually destroy."
The headquarters subordinate panicked at Jong Ri-gwang's sudden excited rise.
Fearing a scolding, but this turned misfortune to fortune.
"Yes! That's it!"
Jong Ri-gwang had seized inspiration from his subordinate's offhand remark. The method?
"Use barbarians to control barbarians!"
It meant ensnaring foes with their own kind, without dirtying one's hands.
A groundbreaking plan sparked by the subordinate's words.
"You mean... use unorthodox warriors to target Demon Sword Sect Leader Hyeon Yucheon?"
The subordinate, unwittingly providing the key, asked.
Working under the headquarters Strategist, he wasn't clueless.
He instantly grasped the intent from "use barbarians to control barbarians."
"Exactly."
His tone, fiery moments ago, turned affable.
Thanks to this subordinate, a fine stratagem had emerged—only natural.
"But won't any unorthodox warrior revere the Demon Sword Sect and Hyeon Yucheon?"
The subordinate asked, a hint of grievance.
In a way, it echoed using an internal traitor.
"Nonsense. There are still utterly wicked sorts untouched by the Demon Sword Sect."
Jong Ri-gwang's eyes sparkled like a boy's—heaven-sent genius at play.
This expression appeared only when a divine stratagem dawned.
"Who would they be?"
To the question, Jong Ri-gwang replied confidently.
"The last of the unorthodox Five Great Sects: the wicked fiends of the Paradise Cult!"
The subordinate laughed at Jong Ri-gwang's words.
Of course, them!
In hindsight, it was simple.
Not all unorthodox forces supported Hyeon Yucheon and the Demon Sword Sect.
Some practiced demonic arts, lost to madness, massacring innocents and reveling in destruction and blood.
Representing them was the Paradise Cult—one of the Five Great Unorthodox Sects, small in number but fanatical zealots.
Each a blood-maddened lunatic, impossible to reform.
"Move the Paradise Cult against the Demon Sword Sect. What better 'use barbarians to control barbarians'?"
Hahaha!
Laughter now filled the Alliance headquarters, as if the gloom had never been.
Yet even Jong Ri-gwang's keen mind remained ignorant of one fact.
The Demon Sword Prince Hyeon Yucheon was a far more vicious and powerful breed than the Paradise Cult.