Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 100
Chapter Title: True Blood Forbidden Emperor
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True Blood Forbidden Emperor.
Gokcheong groped at his body amid ragged gasps.
His qi was rampaging. He'd thought he could control it, but this energy was utterly different from what he'd imagined.
Strange. What the hell is this? This energy... it's like it's alive from the start...
Wasn't this completely different from what the Blood Cult Leader had described?!
"Th...is...?!"
Reverse blood surged up once more. The backlash from forcibly pushing past his limits made his entire body tingle and numb.
The more he wielded this unfamiliar heart sword, the worse it got. His whole frame trembled, unable to withstand the reaction from the power.
His vision warped. Something was wrong with his body.
He'd done exactly as his master instructed, so why...?
His master had said his body was all but complete for mastering True Blood Forbidden Emperor, so why the hell...?!
"...I..."
His body felt beyond strange now-it was twisting somehow.
Something kept crawling up from inside. A vengeful spirit? Or a scream?
Amid the deafening noise, Gokcheong gasped for breath.
This... this...
"...is trying to devour me...?"
True Blood.
It was the True Blood that was coveting his body instead.
"You think... it'll go your way...?!"
He tensed his body. Amid the chilling sounds, he expelled everything that had gathered.
I am me. I am Gokcheong. Young Cult Leader of the Blood Cult.
The one destined to become the Blood Demon. The one who will subjugate all, escaping the fear of death.
Surpass it! I must surpass it!
"I will devour everything and claim it all! I am no longer that weakling who could only look up! I am... I am...!"
He suppressed the force bursting up through his entire body.
"Blood Deeeeeeeeemon!!!!!!"
---Kwaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!
The churning qi swallowed the structures whole. The uncontrolled power rampaged at the outskirts.
Uncontrollable killing intent crawled up. For now, he needed to urgently suppress that murderous urge by drawing blood into it.
He reached out his hand.
The heart sword devoured the area.
---Kwadddddddrrrrrrrrr!!!!!
Countless flesh and blood crumbled without even a scream, scattering before his eyes.
His reason frayed. Now, only laughter escaped him.
The flickering lights of countless lives at his feet. With a mere gesture, they all vanished.
This is power... this is violence.
"No one...!"
He recalled the time he'd picked pockets. The eyes of the constables who had looked down on him pitifully.
The taste of the scraps he'd devoured when there was no food. The beatings that had come down for encroaching on territory.
The close friend he'd killed to survive. Those dazed pupils that had stared at him in the end.
"No one...!"
He recalled it.
The days trembling in fear of death, hands endlessly stained with blood.
"No one can mock meeeeee!!!!!!!"
His clenched fist slammed down once more. The qi in the form of an indefensible blood snake bared its jaws at the people again.
But in the next instant, its neck was severed.
"...What?!"
"Gokcheeeeeeeeong!!!!!!"
A man who should have been dead stood before him. Among the countless warriors, he alone glared with bared teeth.
That eerie smile. Now, someone beneath him looked up.
"We still have unfinished business, don't weeeee... ugh...?!!"
"You... crazy bitch...!"
Wolhyang. Blood Slaughter Squad member.
Even if she hadn't died, her body should have been wrecked! How was it still moving?!
...No!
He just had to crush her right now!
"I'll crush you flat!!!!!!"
Gokcheong gripped his power. He prepared to smash her down.
But before he could, he spotted another man.
The man he'd first crushed after obtaining True Blood. The warrior he'd dismembered and thrown into a pit too deep to climb from.
For an instant, his reason flickered enough to loosen his heart sword grip. In disbelief, he asked.
"You... how are you...?!"
Blood covered his entire body.
His unshaking hand gripped the sword.
No answer came. He simply looked up as if it were natural.
Did he trust the sword in his own hand? Or did he trust something else?
Either way, it grated on him. It grated so much he couldn't bear it.
The fact that someone like you dares stand before me right after I've gained this power... I can't tolerate it...!
"Don't... climb...!"
Qi boiled in his tensed body.
Veins bulged on his forehead amid his fleeing reason.
The earth wailed.
From within it, he struck down.
"Don't you dare climb, you bastard!!!!!!"
...
He gripped his sword. He thought of his next move.
He recalled what Wolhyang had said.
"A heart sword isn't simple. Someone wielding it for the first time is bound to be clumsy as hell. You can tell just by looking. He can't control it, so he's smashing down over such a wide area."
"Then what do we do?"
"I'll handle the heart sword, so watch for an opening and charge. Just land one solid sword strike. This has to be a short fight from the start. He's basically in qi deviation. Even a small hit will shatter his balance. Then-bam! Everything he trusts will swallow him whole. To survive, he'll have to throw away everything he's gained."
"So..."
"We'll draw his attention, so just think of it as stabbing his side once. One chance. Remember: if you fail, we're all really dead?"
Wolhyang charged. Black and white mingled on her leaping sword.
Gokcheong raised his hand. The qi emanating from his body became a crimson blood snake and devoured Wolhyang.
She was swallowed. But in the next moment, she burst free, spewing blood.
Her body drenched in blood again from a single exchange of blows. Yet she laughed.
"This is your heaaaaart sword?! Ahahaha!!! Gokcheong!!! This is your Blood Demon?! Is this really a Blood Demon?! Your house's red mongrel shit isn't even this good!!!"
"I'll smash that mouth too!!!"
Wolhyang had said an opening would come. It had no choice but to.
I had to believe her. I measured the distance, unable to charge recklessly.
Noise erupted. A building collapsed. Wolhyang crawled out from beneath, covered in blood.
The massive blood snake moved. The earth overturned with that single motion. She bore it all alone.
A fight alone.
Blood spat alone.
Her body couldn't have fully recovered just from the Ghost Shadow Black Night Squad. Yet she endured.
To create an opening.
I gripped White Night for that single moment.
My hand didn't tremble.
But my heart did.
The opening still didn't appear. Gokcheong's back, which seemed momentarily defenseless, was protected by solid qi.
His gaze focused on Wolhyang, but still nothing. Could her body hold out?
Could Wolhyang manage in her current state?
Unthinkingly, I shifted my foot. Wolhyang's voice rang out desperately.
"Don't butt in!!!"
Gokcheong's gaze locked onto me once more.
"You bastard! You're plotting something! As if it'll go your way...!"
"Don't talk to my disciple like that."
In an instant, a massive jade light burst through the buildings. The Nine Heavens Jade Girl, one eye injured, swung her sword.
Vast sword qi that filled every direction clashed with the blood snake. Gokcheong flinched for a moment and ground his teeth.
"You tenacious bitch dare?!"
"If you're not dead, the duel isn't over. Normally, I'd want to fight alone until one of us drops, but... circumstances have changed. I'm the Ghost Demon Squad Leader now. With so many lives on my back, what I must do is not a martial bout but a life-or-death struggle. Since I've belatedly recognized your status, no choice."
The Nine Heavens Jade Girl rolled out from under the writhing blood snake and stood beside Wolhyang.
"I'll go with you. Blood Slaughter Squad Member Wolhyang."
"Nine Heavens Jade Girl? Big shot! Ahaha!"
"You... filthy trash... dare...!"
"Don't leave out this lord toooooooo!!!!!!"
In an instant, the blood snake's side burst open. Blazing azure flames and the Flower Heaven Fist Demon standing amid them.
The Flower Heaven Fist Demon emerged, wounds covering his body, wrapped in blue flames.
"You bastard! How dare you hurt Mireung!"
"Don't interfere. Flower Heaven Fist Demon."
"She was my prey to begin with! You crazy bitch!"
"With so many enemies, your head must itch at night! You'll catch a cold!"
"...You dare..."
A crack formed on Gokcheong's forehead.
"Joking around right in front of me?!?!?!"
Boiling blood qi subdued everything around. Swallowing even human voices, a house-sized blood snake coiled up.
Its size grew. The qi within swelled. Condensed and compressed into a serpent form, the heart sword moved.
"I will wash everything in blood...! And your corpses will be the first!!!"
---Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The qi that devoured the three mingled with three colors of sword qi.
Of course, the latter was pushed back.
But at that moment, it opened for the first time.
The path.
"......!"
I charged. I leaped onto a building and slipped into the gap.
The blood snake's qi grazed past me. Even without a direct hit, my skin split open.
Even my protective qi was useless. Everything I'd built up showed its limits from a mere graze.
Yet I moved. Because nothing changes if you don't.
Chase it.
Grit your teeth and surpass.
Cling on somehow. Even if just to protect. Even if just one person.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
First Form.
Ghost Prisoner One Demon.
I swatted away the showering qi fragments with my hand. Blood flowed from torn flesh, chunks of meat fluttering in the wind.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Second Form
Soul-Pulling Thrust
The scales of the blood snake formed by the heart sword. I climbed atop them. I pierced through the barrage of blood qi blades flying past.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Third Form
Tyrannical Power Demon Path
I gripped my sword with my blazing body. Surpassing the pain threatening to tear me apart, I roared.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Fourth Form
Flickering Scatter
The erupting sword qi tore the scales. My eyes met the man atop them.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Fifth Form
Blood Shadow Twin Flowers - Myriad Piercing
The advanced lightness skill from the latter half.
It flowed from my fingertips onto the sword. The principle fused into the blade drew out sword qi to pierce the heart sword's wall.
It touched.
Pushing against, climbing over...
The sword arrived before my target.
---Kaaaaaaaang!!!!
Blood qi scattered amid the resounding eerie clang.
Beyond the crimson energy, Gokcheong ground his teeth.
"Did you think a worm like you could even reach my toe with that sword?!"
Yeah. He's right.
The gap in realms was already two stages or more.
Not a stage where I could even step in. This place...
Was overflowing with people several times stronger than me.
Yet I gripped my sword. I poured in power.
White Night wailed. Amid it, I reminded myself what I had to do.
"If you can't draw it when you mean to draw it, can you even call it a sword?"
I'd sworn. Before her.
To become a single sword.
And to prove it, I'd come here.
I'd set foot in Yeommin to save Wolhyang.
Many things happened on that journey.
"How to make dried fruit. Did your sister tell you?"
I met Juryeongryeong.
"Guess I should start with my name. Black Wind. Call me that."
I met Black Wind.
"Nice to meet you. Friend."
I met Black Peony.
"Blazing Tiger Maniac."
I met Flower Heaven Fist Demon.
"But indirectly, I'll help as much as I can."
I met Nine Heavens Jade Girl.
And finally...
"Wolhyang."
I met even the one I'd been searching for.
All of them were entangled here. Entangled with me, they'd entered Yeommin.
If I don't do it, who will?
If I don't pull it off, who will?
I gripped the rattling sword with both hands. Amid the chilling wail of Ghost Sword White Night, I twisted my entire body.
"Your sword is somewhat detached from reality."
The man before me had said that.
The ones who'd passed by probably thought the same.
But...
But I'd already wielded a sword compromised with reality. I knew what it brought me.
Powerlessness.
Pain.
Emptiness.
I'd found nothing in it. In the end, there was nothing there.
Strength?
It's important. Survival too. Because only by living can you paint any future.
But merely surviving... just being strong alone... did that solve everything?
No.
I know it's not like that.
What made my heart beat again? Amid the agony of Heavenly Tribulation trying to devour me, what made me grit my teeth and write the character for 'endure'?
A dream.
Only by harboring a dream can a person live.
I look back on the path everyone ignored. I recall those who called it foolish.
I pour more power into my gripped sword. Amid the crumbling sword qi, I whisper.
He might be right. There may be times to bend.
There may be times you have no choice but to stain your hands with blood to survive. Times you flail to cling to life with a killing sword.
But...
"I am the Heavenly Demon. Red Cloud. You must have resented your name. But now, take pride. You will be beneath me, soaring the heavens."
I decided against it.
"It may not be the highest in the heavens, but..."
I swore to raise my sword for my ideals.
Because I knew a colorless world held no meaning for me...
I dreamed of painting my own colors.
I am slow.
Slow, dull, foolish.
But didn't I decide to walk that way?
"Even the geniuses called prodigies will never look down on you again."
With this sword given to me, didn't I swear to catch up to you?
So.
So.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Switch your grip. If one way fails, change how you hold it.
Pour in power. Grit your teeth and do what no one else can if you don't.
Proclaim your will. Thrash toward the world.
Even if you die hundreds of times, grip the sword in the next instant. Shake off the haze as your body is torn apart.
Protect it! The will you proclaimed!
Surpass even the impossible! Stand tall even if you break!
Reach out without bending!
"Wh...?!"
A shake. Sword qi's collapse.
Heart sword's superiority. My inferior realm.
Don't crumble to wordplay-charge!
The story is piled high enough! Overflowing, I tell you!
Believe only in the moment it forges into a blade for that single instant!
This moment now...!
With all the time offered for that one instant...!
Draw it!
Ice White Blood Ghost Art
External Sword
Giant Slay Force Nachal
A sword to one day surpass even the Heavenly Demon!
"What...?!"
The scenery shifted.
Amid the sensation of my standing place growing distant, the gripped sword howled. Frost rose at my lips as White Night's wail added ice to the blood qi.
A helical white sword qi from the blade's tip. The descending sword tip within it.
In the tangled world, my molars gleamed.
The beast trying to climb.
And the belatedly moving heart sword.
The next moment.
A crimson flash swallowed me.
---Kwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!