Chapter 160
Chapter 160
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 160
Chapter Title: The Eighteen Blade Guests (4)
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'Unbelievable.'
Sanggwan Baek let out a hollow laugh upon seeing the flying dagger he'd deflected change course again under the impact of another dart. The reason he hadn't noticed it was because the remaining daggers had pressed their assault so fiercely.
Clang! Clang-clang!
With a series of metallic rings, the daggers aimed at Sanggwan Baek bounced harmlessly away. Now realizing why he'd been allowing the attacks to land one after another, Sanggwan Baek no longer permitted the monk's petty tricks.
The problem was that he was already nursing serious injuries, and the force behind the daggers was growing ever stronger. With each clash, blood spurted from his wounds, and unable to withstand the power infused in them, he kept stumbling backward.
"Urk!"
After being pushed back nine steps, Sanggwan Baek finally regained his footing—only to suddenly double over, vomiting blood violently.
Once it started, the retching continued for a good while.
As Sanggwan Baek finally stopped heaving with great difficulty, the watching monk spoke in a haughty tone.
"Sanggwan Baek, was it? Not worth remembering the name."
"Should I be flattered?"
Sanggwan Baek gave a bitter smile as he wiped the blood from his lips.
"Let's end this."
The nine daggers that had been dancing in the monk's hand took to their final flight.
Moving at speeds incomparable to before, they scattered in all directions, each darting about with erratic, life-like unpredictability as they sought Sanggwan Baek's life.
Though riddled with wounds and his body feeling as heavy as lead, Sanggwan Baek did not give up.
Driven by a sense of duty to hold out as long as possible, he pushed his senses to the limit and swung his sword. But no matter how strong his will, his body could no longer keep up.
He seemed to barely block the first few strikes, but soon began allowing hits. Especially fatal were the daggers that embedded in both thighs. With his legs pinned, Sanggwan Baek's reactions slowed drastically, leaving him no way to fend off the onslaught from all sides.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Accompanied by the sound of leather tearing, the daggers began piercing Sanggwan Baek's body.
His side, his shoulder, his lower abdomen.
Each time a dagger broke through his sword's guard and sank into his flesh, a groan escaped Sanggwan Baek's lips, his face twisting in agony.
"Gah!"
A deathly scream burst from Sanggwan Baek's mouth.
His trembling hand reached for his chest.
The dagger was buried so deep in his chest that he could barely see the hilt, but as he tried to pull it out, his hand lacked the strength.
'Is this... the end...?'
His hand fell limp, and his body swayed violently.
Through his dimming eyes, he caught sight of his retainers rushing toward him, wailing in grief.
The last sight in life—for Bi Cheon Jang's great elder, Sanggwan Baek—it was the faces of his retainers that he took in before quietly breathing his last.
"Urgh!"
With a pained groan, Hahu Hyo rolled on the ground and struggled to rise, leaning on his half-severed sword.
Blood streamed from all seven orifices; Hahu Hyo could barely keep his eyes open and staggered unsteadily. He no longer looked like a living man.
The Blood Radiance Martial Emperor stared rigidly at the blade embedded in his own side.
Hahu Hyo's desperate last stand had wounded him in several places, though none were life-threatening.
But this attack was different.
The reckless strike, ignoring all defense in a suicidal bid for mutual destruction, had forced even him to show a slight opening. As a result, he'd taken a fairly serious wound to the side.
Of course, in exchange, he'd inflicted an irreversible fatal blow on Hahu Hyo—but it still left a bad taste.
"Brother!"
"Uncle!"
Hahu Clan experts rushed frantically toward Hahu Hyo's peril. But locked in fierce combat with Myeong Wang Mun's elites, only a limited number could move to aid him.
Attacks poured in from all sides.
The Blood Radiance Martial Emperor left the broken blade in his side untouched and twisted his body.
Wielding his jet-black sword Ae-do and radiant sword Gwang-hwi wildly, he rampaged like a wounded beast. Wherever his gaze lingered, blood sprayed without fail, followed by agonized screams.
Only Hahu Myeong and Hahu Geun could somewhat withstand the Blood Radiance Martial Emperor's ferocious onslaught; most others failed to survive even three exchanges and perished pointlessly.
Moreover, with Dark Thunder Monk Chu Seung—having finished Sanggwan Baek—now joining to attack the Hahu Clan, their casualties surged.
The Eighteen Blade Guests, having utterly crushed Ja Ha Mun, now moved to the center.
As they engaged in earnest, the balance that had held swung sharply against them.
"N-No! Put your backs into it!"
Sanggwan Cheon dashed across the battlefield, shouting himself hoarse, but he couldn't stem the collapsing dam.
"Brother, we must retreat."
Bloody Sanggwan Su grabbed Sanggwan Cheon's arm and yelled.
"What nonsense is that? Retreat where?!"
"The left flank has completely collapsed. The center can't hold much longer. If we stay, we'll lose our escape route too."
"Shut up. Even if we die, we'll die here."
Sanggwan Cheon shook off Sanggwan Su's arm and swung his sword even louder. But no matter his efforts, there was no reversing the tide.
The Heavenly Demon Cult warriors, sensing victory, were sky-high in morale, while the warlords who had willingly aided Bi Cheon Jang saw theirs plummet to rock bottom. Bi Cheon Jang's greatest elder Sanggwan Baek and Hahu Clan's leader Hahu Hyo had fallen, along with most of the key experts meant to lead the warlords.
At the moment victory and defeat diverged, life and death hung in balance—a wolf's howl echoed from somewhere.
Though the battle had tilted sharply toward the Heavenly Demon Cult, it was still fierce; few paid heed to the distant howl.
One group was different.
The Ghost Blade Hall warriors, fighting more fiercely than any to claim merit and mourn their fallen comrades, halted as one.
"Th-This sound..."
Gok Seon, dragging his battered body at the forefront to lead his men, whipped his head around in panic. Covered head to toe in gore, he looked like a yaksha from hell—but his eyes trembled with great agitation.
"It's them."
Jo Geon-saeng, who had rushed to his side, said with a grim face.
Bathed in blood—whose, friend or foe?—he was Gok Seon's spitting image.
The Ghost Blade Hall men, who had rampaged like beasts, now clustered around them; their earlier ferocity against the warlords was gone, replaced by faces pale with fear.
As Ghost Blade Hall warriors fell into terror, Hahu Clan men—especially Hahu Yeon, close to Sima Geon—harbored faint hope.
'Black Wolf?'
Unsure if the rapidly approaching howl was the Black Wolf's, she desperately wished it was. But in the heat of battle, such distraction came at a steep cost.
"Urk!"
A groan escaped Hahu Yeon's lips.
Pain exploded in her sword arm.
In an already grueling fight, it was a fatal mistake.
"Daring to get distracted?"
Man Sa Gok's Hosea Leader Pung Gae charged with murderous eyes.
As if to wash away the shame of struggling against a mere youth who looked barely twenty before his many subordinates, he spewed curses and roars, unleashing relentless attacks without pause.
Exhausted from successive battles, and with her sword arm injured from the brief lapse, Hahu Yeon could only give ground frantically.
"Kuh!"
Another groan burst from Hahu Yeon.
Blood spurted from her left nape.
A near-miss where her head nearly severed if she'd turned a fraction slower; the even graver error was not noticing the corpse behind her retreating foot.
Pung Gae didn't miss Hahu Yeon toppling backward off-balance.
His full-force sword plunged toward her.
Hahu Yeon desperately raised her sword to block, but with her stance utterly broken and her sword arm wounded, she couldn't muster proper strength.
As Pung Gae watched her sword fly away weakly and she stared in blank despair, his blade closed in on her face.
Hahu Yeon couldn't even think to dodge and squeezed her eyes shut.
Then, a sudden gust whipped past her.
Feeling her hair and clothes flutter in the wind, Hahu Yeon opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a massive body cloaked in snow-white fur.
"Black... Wolf?"
As if answering Hahu Yeon's question, the Black Wolf clamped onto Pung Gae's forearm and shook its head savagely.
Pung Gae's body whipped about—then his arm tore clean off, his body flying far away.
"Gaaahhh!"
Pung Gae's agonized scream didn't last. The Black Wolf, leaping five zhang in an instant, smashed his face with a forepaw.
In the blink of an eye, it had crossed the battlefield, saved Hahu Yeon from peril, and slain Pung Gae with one strike—then let out a triumphant howl.
The Black Wolf's roar shook the field; the fierce battle halted as if by agreement.
But the Eighteen Blade Guests—who had crushed Hyeong San Sect's Heavenly Martial Sword Formation and were late in devastating the right flank—couldn't stop. An unimaginable danger was charging them.
"Above!"
The Blood Radiance Martial Emperor's urgent cry from afar drew the Eighteen Blade Guests' eyes upward.
A man, backlit by moonlight, leaped into the air and slowly descended while swinging his sword.
Not even a proper attack yet, but the Eighteen Blade Guests felt inconceivable pressure.
"Unite!"
At Wang Heonji's shout, eight of the Eighteen Blade Guests positioned around him and assumed the same sword stance.
"Thunderclap, unleash!"
At Wang Heonji's command, the Eighteen Blade Guests simultaneously unleashed the ultimate technique of their Mixed Origin Thunderclap Blade Art: Thunderclap Ocean Surge.
Nine streams of energy soared skyward, centered on Wang Heonji's blade aura!
With a faint thunderous rumble, the unified energies erupted into a massive thunderbolt that shook the heavens.
All shuddered at the unprecedented sight of such immense sword energy. The warlords battling the Eighteen Blade Guests trembled in fear, while Heavenly Demon Cult warriors cheered in ecstasy, certain of victory.
But those who knew the descending man's identity couldn't join in.
Shhh!
Crimson light poured from the Heavenly Demon Sword.
The red energy thickened and expanded, dominating the surroundings in an instant—by the time it clashed with the thunderbolt, it had dyed the world red.
The massive thunderbolt stepped into the domain created by the Heavenly Demon Sword.
Boom rumble rumble!
With a deafening impact, shockwaves, and vibrations, the thunderbolt wrapped in red energy vanished in a flash.
"Hah!"
A low shout echoed from midair.
In that instant, the red energy dominating the space transformed into dozens, hundreds of sword energies that rained down onto the ground.
A shower of sword energies perfectly blanketed a dozen zhang around the Eighteen Blade Guests; no one could move. They could only stare in shock and terror.
Kaboom kaboom kaboom!
Heaven and earth flipped.
Simultaneous clashes, explosions, and screams rang out.
Sima Geon, who had devastated the surroundings with a single strike, pierced the towering dust cloud—too thick to see through—and landed on the ground.
Moments later, as the swirling dust settled, gasps of horror erupted from all who had held their breath watching Sima Geon.
Of the Eighteen Blade Guests at the attack's epicenter, only three including Wang Heonji survived; the rest lay torn to shreds.
Even the survivors bore fatal wounds that made survival a matter of time. Despite uniting their power after the first failure, this was their state.
Man Sa Gok warriors caught in the red sword energy’s influence also collapsed in a miserable state.
"Cough!"
Man Sa Gok Lord Dong Chuk doubled over in pain, spewing dark red blood.
Staring at the blood soaking the ground and his broken sword, his expression was half-dazed. A single attack had wiped out half his forces, leaving him with severe internal injuries.
Regrettably, the disaster wasn't over.
As all froze in awe of Sima Geon's divine might, another man crossed the battlefield.
By the time Dong Chuk noticed him, it was too late to do anything.
"Fuck!"
That one curse was all he managed.
Splat!
With a leather-tearing sound, Dong Chuk's head vanished without trace.
Stepping over the crumpling corpse, the man—Cheol Woo—grinned and said,
"Long time no see, old timers."