Chapter 101
Chapter 101
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 101
Chapter Title: Become the Blood Demon!
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The surroundings had fallen silent. The heart of the disaster victims' area, where everything had been swept away.
There, Gok-cheong pushed himself to his feet.
Blood surged backward through his entire body. Even after vomiting it up, the nausea refused to fade.
Gok-cheong spat out the Shake Blood lodged in his body without surveying the area around him.
An unimaginable leap in that single instant.
A sword forced into a body that had shattered while surpassing its limits, right before his eyes.
That one act...
That impossible defiance had ruined everything.
It couldn't be. To cross an entire realm in that brief moment.
What in the world was it? Exactly... what...
How...?
"Ah... no..."
The Shake Blood scattered. Cracks had even formed in his dantian, the root of his power.
The backlash from forcibly transcending his realm came crashing in late. His inner energy scattered as blood endlessly leaked out.
But he couldn't just take it back in. In this frail state, swallowing all the Shake Blood would only let it devour him instead.
To avoid being consumed, he had to discard it. To survive, he had to lay everything he had down on the ground.
What remained after it scattered and drained away...
Was merely an unknown stranger's sword, buried in the dust.
"...Kuhuk...!"
But he had seen it once.
Once seen, he could recreate it.
Fortunately, the aftermath of destruction had swept everyone away. No one stood nearby.
Not even those irritating bastards were in sight. So, time to get out.
Fortunately, with the Shake Blood dispersed, his crumbling reason had returned to his grasp.
He raised his body and walked toward the escape route. But amid his steps, someone called out to him.
"Gok-cheong."
A familiar voice.
Persistent, relentlessly so-a voice he could never shake off.
"...Wh...what the fuuuuuck...!"
He turned to face the opponent. A figure rose gasping from the dust pit.
He didn't look good either. His limbs were intact, but the regeneration he'd witnessed before wasn't occurring.
His strength was spent. He too was crumbling.
"...Right. We had unfinished business."
He drew his sword, gripping it with trembling hands.
"It's simple... We can settle it with a duel."
"........."
"Pick up your sword! All the stories between us end here! Come! Warrior! You who will clash swords with me, the successor to the Blood Demon's true legacy at the very end! Reveal your proper name and stand before me!"
The opponent coughed raggedly, blood mixed in.
But his growling voice remained calm.
"...Red Cloud."
He gripped his sword-not the lost white blade, but an utterly ordinary sharp one.
The red blood sword faced the world.
"It's Red Cloud."
"...Red Cloud..."
The forms of the Heavenly Tribulation Sword wrapped around his fingertips without inner energy.
Gok-cheong stepped forward.
"I am the one who will surpass all and look down from above...! I am the Blood Demon!"
Hadn't he lived solely for that? Bowing his head, submitting, refusing to stain his blade with blood he didn't wish to shed.
So... seize it now.
To not tremble in fear! To survive!
Stand above! Look down on everything!
Become it!
The Blood Demon!
"Come! Red Cloud! I, Gok-cheong, the Blood Demon...! Acknowledge you as my equal!!!"
...
---Kaaaaang!!!
Swords devoid of inner energy clashed. Sparks flew from the striking tips.
They spun their bodies. Clashed and repelled. Amid it, the opponent aimed for an opening.
He parried it. Twisted to target the side. The raised sword blocked it.
They exchanged blows. The chaotic sword paths jolted their wrists.
I swallowed the blood rising to my throat.
Focus. Don't break. End this story.
My inner energy was depleted. With my strength bottomed out, even Heavenly Tribulation failed to function.
...But.
The same went for my opponent.
---Kaaaaang!!!
Sweat droplets flew from the swung sword tip. A shallow gash sometimes added from a glancing blow.
One block, and he didn't let up. Fearless, he stepped into the enemy's gap.
One wound for one wound.
The sword tip that returned it in kind gleamed.
"Uwaaaah!"
The opponent howled. I could see his sword tip heating up unnaturally.
No blood infused. No vitality either. Yet the mysteriously bent sword path targeted my waist.
I barely parried. My body, unable to fully absorb the shock, slammed into the wall. But I immediately broke free and burrowed into his guard.
The sword slipped from my grasp. His too. They tangled and separated once.
I threw a punch. My fist wavered.
I blocked a punch. My cheek shook.
"To... survive...!"
Blood streamed as the opponent staggered back.
"To survive...! I picked up... the sword...!"
"........."
"That was the sword of survival! That alone was my path to live! To survive, I had no choice but to do what I didn't want! To survive!"
A kick to the thigh.
I tumbled across the ground.
A stomping true kick came crashing down. I dodged it by a hair. Immediately kicked off the ground and launched at his jaw.
The opponent, vomiting blood, staggered while wiping it away. He spat blood-tinged saliva.
"The killing sword I wielded was to keep me alive! Red Cloud! Was that so wrong?!"
Hands clashed. Vying for dominance, they invaded each other's space and struck the chest simultaneously.
---Kwaang!
Bodies slid apart. Amid it, I too vomited blood. I spat and stood again.
"I swung my sword as much as you! I worked as hard as you! But..."
Gok-cheong, clearing his clogged nose, gripped his fist again.
"But... damn it all... why is yours... why is it... so damn... heavy...?!"
A split lip. A hand brushing away dust.
"Come... here...!"
He clenched his fist once more.
Bodies collided.
One crushing impact. One clash.
Flesh pulped. Muscles convulsed.
The power in the fists gradually weakened. The bodies too.
Gok-cheong struck, and I struck back.
When Gok-cheong hit, I hit too.
Within our crumbling bodies, we charged at each other endlessly.
Until the splattered blood soaked the ground. Until the dislodged bits scattered everywhere.
A brawl that seemed endless. Our battered bodies rattled as if ready to collapse any second.
I broke first.
My extended punch couldn't advance further. Eyes that hadn't surpassed their limits failed to track the enemy's flashy techniques.
...But.
Even so, something remained.
My gaze brushed the fallen blood sword. With my crumbling body, I rose once more.
"I was so glad to find someone like you in there, young master."
My goal was the Heavenly Demon.
But the dead friend had shown me the way.
I wanted to be like that.
Even in hell, extending a hand first.
Prioritizing others cherished more than one's own body.
"Red Cloud."
I recalled the First Demon, who had silently buried her sorrow. I straightened my collapsing legs amid vomiting blood.
"Collapse!"
I silently endured the pouring techniques. Caught my breath. Grasped my fraying mind.
"Collapse!"
I clenched my fist. Infused power into that one strike amid the onslaught of fists.
"Collapse!"
Pain poured in. The clashing blows obscured my vision.
"Please...!"
The vision in my struck left eye vanished. For an instant, darkness covered it.
"Please just collapse alreadyyy!!!"
Even my senses flickered into the abyss. An instant of mental blackout from excruciating pain.
...Still.
Sensation remained in my hand.
"Red Cloud."
Unleash it.
What you've built up.
What's left at the end is always one thing, isn't it?
What you invested in yourself.
Not skipped a single day.
Mocked by others as talentless.
Wandering before death.
Howling fiercely.
Endlessly repeating start and end.
Overcoming.
Overcoming again.
And again, to surpass once more, gripped to the end...
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
First Form
Ghost Hand One Demon.
Effort.
---Kwaaaang!!!
The straightforward strike pierced countless techniques and impaled the opponent's abdomen in an instant.
Gok-cheong's body jerked to a halt. Blood and regurgitated stomach acid burst from his open mouth.
He staggered backward a few steps before collapsing in a heap.
Blood endlessly leaked from his open mouth. His limp legs ceased all movement.
"...Ha... ha..."
His muttering voice scattered away.
"Damn... basics... tougher than... I said... twice as... stubborn... bastard... what kind of... simple fundamentals... like this..."
"........."
"Kuhuhu... but... that's why... come closer..."
I stepped forward.
Gok-cheong grabbed my shoulder and pulled me in close.
His voice, on the verge of breaking, reached my ear.
"I... I was... afraid... of not being... on top... meant death... so I bowed... even if I hated it... I bowed... thought it was right... so I became... light... to survive... discarded myself... so I lightened... gave up being... human... so of course..."
"........."
"I... fear dying... so much... dying scares me... so much... ha, but... now... yeah... better you... as my end..."
Gok-cheong smiled.
"You damn... brat..."
"........."
"Tha...nks... for the meals... first time... receiving... from someone... without price..."
"........."
"Be careful... it's behind... the Blood Cult... isn't the end..."
Gok-cheong's trembling body stilled.
"The Blood Cult... isn't the end... don't die... Red Cloud... you've beaten... the Blood Demon..."
His slack pupils lost their light.
The hand dropped with a thud to the ground.
"...Become... the Heavenly Demon..."
The body, fully drained of strength, collapsed. The cooling form marked its end.
I laid him down, gently closing his unclosed eyes.
"........."
He was a villain. Everyone would say so. Even I did.
How many died because of him? Even innocent civilians got swept up.
But...
Could it really be that simple?
His sword was real. His desperate efforts hung at its tip.
Above all...
A faint wish not to end like this clung to the end.
A man pushed by the world. One who accepted the unwanted as his nature because of it.
I rummaged through my robes. Took out the gold medallion I'd received before and placed it in his hand.
"........."
I recalled the battle with the Demon Valley Lord.
When the two characters "凡人" became "範人".
The ordinary man who truly wished to change had become a warrior writing new rules.
Walking the path others deemed foolish, aspiring to be an example.
And now... your story is mixed in there too.
"...Me too."
Watch, Gok-cheong.
I may not become the Heavenly Demon, but someday I'll surpass her.
So...
Rest in peace.
The one who killed you was a man who could fell even the Heavenly Demon.
"It was fun. That gathering that day."
I stood.
Looked back.
The red sky was clearing, the vanished sun returning.
The end of the long battle settled before me. But my heart wasn't at ease.
"It's behind... the Blood Cult... isn't the end..."
What did those words mean?
The reappearing sun's edge remained red.
As if, despite seeming over, it wasn't.
...As if.
The real beginning started now.
...
The disaster victims' area, its center collapsed, was quickly restored.
The captured Blood Cult operatives were all handed to the Rakshasa Clan. It got a bit noisy, but none of that reached me.
The Nine Heavens Jade Maiden, bandaged head to toe from her injuries, beckoned me. Lying on her sickbed, she spoke languidly.
"Disciple. It'll go as you wish. Many saw you, but things weren't calm enough for close looks, so no one will remember you. If any do, I'll handle it."
"Thank you."
"You broke through. In that instant. Shed your shell entirely?"
"Shell... you mean..."
"I mean Marrow Cleansing and Bone Transformation."
I felt my still-unrecovered body. Come to think of it, my appearance had changed a bit.
My facial lines were sharper, my body overall lighter. More toned. My features more defined, perhaps.
Felt like someone else. The Nine Heavens Jade Maiden nodded repeatedly.
"Your already decent looks are even more to my taste now. The ultimate self-care is Marrow Cleansing indeed. The scars remain, though. Your own choice?"
"Probably... yes."
Traces symbolizing my weak past. They felt familiar just existing, and seeing them in the mirror reminded me to steady my heart.
I probably didn't want them gone myself.
The Nine Heavens Jade Maiden patted my shoulder.
"My disciple's growth gladdens this master's heart."
"A guy you never taught spouting nonsense... ugh!"
The Flower Heaven Fist Demon, lying bandaged on his sickbed, panted. The wrappings over his upper body made his already brutish face even more so.
"This damn heart sword or whatever! Wounds that should've let me jump up by now, why like this...!"
"Even half a heart sword packs a punch. Truth be told... maybe not even half, more like thirty percent realm? Kiddo, where you at?"
Wolhyang called me. As I approached, she pulled me into a hug.
Her entire body was wrapped so tight she could barely move. The physician had freaked out, saying it was like reviving a corpse.
Rubbing my cheek, she nodded at her jaw. Pain must surge with every movement, yet she grinned wide as if unbothered.
"Go get some meat. Lots of tasty stuff. My mouth's a bit torn up... but it'll heal while eating, right?"
"The physician said only liquids, Senior."
"Pfft. That reach the liver? No way. No way. Get it. Quick. Got it?"
"...Yes."
"Get mine too!"
"I don't need any. Can't make my disciple do menial tasks."
"Don't score points! You bitch!"
"Once I check your hand... kuh."
"I'm the Flower Heaven... ugh."
I left the groaning pair clutching their waists and exited the room.
The next room also held patients. Three of them, same as before.
The trio with similar injuries welcomed me.
"Young Master Mu. I'm dying here, and you're recovered in three days... ain't that weird?"
Black Wind. He'd tied down that U-sa to the end, destroying all silver spirit tokens and even throwing his body into the fray.
His reward: full-body fractures. I sat before him.
"Whatever you need, I'll fetch it."
"Just some of your status update..."
"Black Wind. Quit barking from the side. It's noisy."
Black Peony. She wasn't unscathed either. After exhausting all her myriad white lotuses, she'd unleashed her hidden ace too...
Besides body wounds, her face was torn. Looking closer, she seemed down, fiddling with her hand.
Black Peony smiled.
"Why the long face? Don't worry. Know what? The Myriad Sages Divine Healer is coming here personally. Cult Leader's order to treat those who stopped the blood calamity. No need to fret over injuries. The Myriad Sages Divine Healer revives even the dying. Plus, with merit suppressing Blood Cult's U-sa, he'll fix this burn too."
"Who'd guess the Heaven-Entrancing Seductress had such woes."
"Saw your biggest disappointment when my veil tore?"
"Hey! If I expected, maybe a bit let down? Still friends!"
"Me? With you? Ha. Ridiculous..."
Something clung to my back. Turning, Zhu Ling-ling's face was close.
The least injured of the three. How shocked I'd been at her unexpected arrival in the disaster area. Black Peony said we won thanks to her; I felt a bit pleased.
"Ling-ling. How's the wound?"
"Fine. Told you casual's okay?"
"I'll switch when comfy."
"Whaaat. If not comfy with me, with who? Huh? Casual alreadyyy."
I supported the dangling Zhu Ling-ling so she wouldn't fall.
Black Wind foamed.
"Miss Zhu! Young Master Mu's groping your butt! Careful! Looks fine but definitely harboring dirty thoughts!"
"...Zhu Ling-ling? Embarrassing in front of others. Better not."
"I'm fine? Butt touch what's the big deal. Grope away."
"Th-then me too..."
"You no. Only nameless. Right?"
"Just supporting your thigh. Never groped."
Including the dangling Zhu Ling-ling, I asked the others what they wanted to eat.
Memorized lightly, then left the room.
Zhu Ling-ling stayed clung on.
"Let's go together."
"Then me too... ugh."
"Miss Zhu. Me too... kuh."
I left the waist-clutching pair and took Zhu Ling-ling out.
Before final departure, I peeked into the last room.
"Miss Yeon."
I opened the door.
She turned to look at me.