Chapter 195
Chapter 195
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 195
Chapter Title: Opening the Heavens
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Something had happened. Something irresistible.
A sensation like being thrown back to Akmin in an instant. It felt just like the first time he'd been struck by a Heart Sword, burrowing into his body.
And then...
Like this.
"Red Cloud."
His master's voice rang in his ears. He turned his head, searching for the impossible sound.
But there was no one around. Just his flashing field of vision and the Heavenly Dragon Society Leader struggling to keep up.
...Alone.
I'm alone.
"......."
He wanted to grasp his sword. But it was gone.
His hands and feet as well...
None of them remained with him.
The limbs torn away by the Heart Sword weren't regenerating as bizarrely as before. The wail of Heavenly Tribulation was unlike anything he'd ever heard.
Something's different.
Different from what had happened in Akmin. Back then, he'd at least had the strength to stand...
Not now.
That's a monster. A complete monster.
If he had the Heavenly Demon as an enemy, would it feel like this? Would he be unable to even dream of climbing up, forced to just gaze upward?
A memory flashed through his mind.
That whisper telling him to run if he encountered a martial artist like himself.
"......."
...Bu...t...
He couldn't do that.
---Ruuuuumble...
Heavenly Tribulation cries out. He can hear it.
In this battlefield where the heavens and earth are rent asunder and Heart Swords fly about, its voice rings out clear as day.
To the unprecedented scream of Heavenly Tribulation proclaiming his death, he whispers back.
Still, he has no choice but to fight. He has no choice.
He can't let that thing chase after his companions, his daughter.
Move, even if just to protect them. Heavenly Tribulation. Please.
Help me.
He knew it was impossible after just one strike, but...
Still, he would strive to surpass it. Just as he always had.
---KABOOOOM!!!
"Kuhk!"
The Heavenly Dragon Society Leader crashes into the ground. The thunder dragon formed of Heart Sword groans along with him.
Jin Baek-cheon flicks his sword back and smacks his lips.
"Not enough... As expected, one isn't quite cutting it. Come on, Red Cloud. I've given you plenty of time. Move. I told you-if you don't satisfy me, I'll go chasing after the ones I so graciously released."
"......."
"That flickering black aura. Heavenly Tribulation. Right? That's it. Use it. It should be able to reattach those limbs you've lost."
Following his whisper, he raises arms that no longer exist.
Heavenly Tribulation howls. With it, his severed limbs slowly begin to return.
Jin Baek-cheon's brows furrow ever so slightly.
"...Hmm? Faster than I thought? Well, now. You had a hidden card after all. It's different from the usual. Quite mysterious..."
His broken body slowly returns to normal.
From within that, he exhales the breath that had been caught in his throat. He picks up the sword he'd dropped.
Focus...
Focus.
"Good eyes."
"......."
"Struggle with all your might."
Jin Baek-cheon moves his sword again.
"For me."
.
.
.
He grips his sword tightly.
He holds nothing back. He pours everything into that single instant, as if it were his last.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Sixth Form
Blood-Dyeing Emissary
The swung sword devours the world. It advances, painting everything red.
But in the next instant, the arm holding the sword vanishes.
"Light."
Before he can even think about what happened, he seizes the demon sword with his left arm. White Night, now gripped in reverse, lets out a wail.
A chilling yin energy surges up. The sword accelerates with it.
Ice-White Blood Ghost Sword
Sixth Form
Blood-Dyeing Emissary
But even that left arm disappears in an instant.
"Slow."
The arm soaring into the air shreds into hundreds of pieces and vanishes. The fragments he glimpses at the end are tiny, like grains of sand.
Both arms lost. With his mouth still intact, he bites down on the black pearl.
He advances without collapsing.
Fire Wheel Blood Ghost Sword
Sixth Form
Blood-Dyeing Emissary
But...
Even that doesn't work.
"Weak."
The erupting flames split apart before his eyes. The demon sword clamped in his mouth shatters in an instant.
The sword that had never chipped even once scatters like shards of glass. The steadfast ally oxidizes away with the flames.
A sword pierces his chest. He staggers back, breath blocked in that single moment.
The barely regenerated hand clutches White Night again, but the end is the same. The moment it moves, what was a sword becomes fragments and vanishes.
"It had a bit of bite to it... Must've been a decent divine relic."
Both demon swords gone in one go.
Unable even a single proper act of resistance...
Shattered to pieces.
The Heavenly Dragon Society Leader belatedly unleashes a torrent of cheers. He leaps past Red Cloud and clashes with Jin Baek-cheon.
Something sounded like it happened. But he couldn't see it. Strangely, his legs wouldn't support him, and he knelt right there.
He tried to stand.
But he couldn't.
He saw the shattered demon swords scattered about. He wanted to gather them, but he had no hands.
Heavenly Tribulation's regenerative power was slowly weakening. He could feel his inner energy draining away at a rapid pace.
Something had been severed. Something beyond the flesh. Amid that horrific sensation like his soul was being carved out, even Heavenly Tribulation's screams were growing faint.
He had to fight.
He had to stand and fight. He had to cling on with even his teeth.
"......."
Stand...
Stand up.
He moves his body, restored even slower than before. Instead of the Heavenly Dragon Society Leader, who crashes into the ground again and spits blood, he throws himself forward.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
First Form
Ghost Prisoner One Demon
He swings his fist. He moves his body and slams his sincerity into it.
But it crumbles. In the next moment, his wrist flies off into the air.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Second Form
Soul-Pulling Thrust
He leaps up like a beast. He grabs the severed wrist and forces it back on.
Jin Baek-cheon laughs. He moves his hand to drive his sword into that face. The blood sword far away is sucked into his grasp, but...
---KAANG!!!
His upper body is sliced long by the sword thrust as if in play.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Third Form
Supreme Demon Path
Unimaginable pain floods in. But he endures. He endures and moves.
Like a beast. He roars just as he always had. He throws his entire body forward. To surpass the insurmountable wall.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Fourth Form
Flash Scatter
The thrust sword is engulfed in light. It devours the space before his eyes, as if to cleave through an instant.
But his ultimate technique, painstakingly unleashed, is smashed by the opponent's casually swung sword. It crumbles utterly, shattering into scattered pieces.
The blood sword trembles. Cracks begin to spiderweb across it, as if it might break at any moment.
No.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Fifth Form
Blood Shadow Twin Flowers
Hadn't he always overcome? No matter what crashed down before him, hadn't he always surpassed it in the end?
Believe in your own efforts. Believe in the time you've built up yourself.
You can do it. Red Cloud.
You...
"Not enough. Red Cloud. Not enough, I said."
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Sixth Form
Blood-Dyeing Emissary
Neither bare-handed combat nor qi-based martial arts.
All of it is blocked before his eyes. Jin Baek-cheon, clashing swords with him, lets out a sigh.
"I know those with eyes like yours. They take pride in having spent such grand times. But time is relative. It's not the same for everyone. For some, time is heavy; for others, light. Even the same deeds yield different totals. Do you know why?"
His body slams into the ground.
A sword pierces his shoulder. It severs clean through, and his right arm falls away.
"Talent."
The blade's tip digs into his heart.
He strains with all his might not to scream.
Lest he collapse.
Lest he truly give up everything.
"Only talent divides the two. Time isn't fair. Effort isn't truly fair between them either. What you can do is merely what someone like me accomplishes as a matter of course. The point is, you're nothing special."
"...Kuh...Ugh...!"
"Did you think you were the protagonist of the stage? That because you're special, you could do anything? No. You're not... There are plenty in the world to replace you. From my perspective, the sword you're swinging right now is nothing more than the flailing of a side character."
The sword gouging his chest whispers to him.
"So, enough already. Show me everything you have to show. But if this is the end, if this is really it..."
Jin Baek-cheon looks into him.
His disappointed gaze holds nothing. That's why his words ring utterly true the moment he speaks them.
"To repay your disappointment of me, I'll chase after your companions."
Predator.
The eyes of a predator.
"I'll start by gouging out the eyes of whichever one gets caught first."
No voice comes out.
"Then I'll snap her waist. Trash spines like theirs fold with a single finger."
His voice... won't come out.
"After crushing and bursting them all, I'll finally face your daughter. Red Cloud. And I'll teach her exactly how you died-ever so kindly and gently."
No hands. So he can't resist.
Can't grasp a sword. Doesn't know what to do.
"She'll tremble like a fawn. I'll savor every moment. I'll make her decorate the corpses for the tale with her own hands, and then..."
...Still.
He has to move.
"That neck."
No chance of victory.
No strength left to fight.
Even if he wants to scream right now.
Even if the words 'I can't win' try to burst from his throat.
...Still.
"I'll twist it myself."
I can't let this bastard go after them.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Seventh Form
White Demon Divine Blood
"...Hm?"
His body twists. At the same time, perfect image-form qi seizes and engulfs him.
But that's not enough. The swordsmanship he'd built on Mount Hwasan alone can't surpass this monster.
A little longer.
Long enough to hold him back.
"...What are you doing right now...?"
Akmin.
Recall the Blood Demon he'd seen there.
Imperfect, yet strong.
One who had ultimately seized what he desired...
The back of that martial artist.
"What?!"
In the next instant, it doesn't matter if he can't breathe. It doesn't matter if he vomits blood from being unable to move.
Reach out toward what he sees. Support the lacking enlightenment with his body.
"Become it. The Heavenly Demon."
Just like that. Just as he had done.
Even if imperfect, force it in.
Into the world of the Heart Sword...!
---KAAAAANG!!!!
The erupting red aura swallows his future. Jin Baek-cheon, flung back, skids across the ground.
An act burning everything he'd built for a single instant.
He plants his foot on the earth. The accelerating world begins to dye red as he forcibly reaches the Hyeon-gyeong realm.
Forcing it somehow.
Even as it burdens his body.
His bursting red light.
The backlash will be immense. From the moment he forcibly pioneers what should come naturally, he'll have to worry about what follows.
But it's fine. Burn it all.
Flail pathetically if he must. Seize it even if he breaks.
"...Pfft."
He picks up the cracked sword. Toward the one beginning to burst into laughter, he bares his entire soul.
Natural qi floods into his body in place of his depleted inner energy. The blood qi absorbing the qi of heaven and earth blooms from his sword tip, forcibly stepping forth into the world.
Half-baked.
A scene similar to what he'd shown in Akmin.
He compensates for that deficiency with Heavenly Tribulation. He forcibly controls the raging energy, revealing his own sky within the opponent's domain.
The sky dyes red.
Opening the Heavens, shaking heaven and earth with enlightenment.
"You...!"
His mind wavers. He can feel his life burning away second by second from the backlash.
Qi deviation. He stands on the boundary between life and death. The price of forcibly stepping in gnaws at his throat through time.
But howl.
Howl like the beast that learned the sword.
Even if it's the last breath of his life.
Even if he won't be able to grasp his sword next.
"You won't get past this...!"
He is a martial artist.
One who moves his sword for what he wishes to protect.
The blood sword on the verge of shattering trembles.
Heavenly Tribulation wails. As if sensing the end.