Chapter 196
Chapter 196
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 196
Chapter Title: Forged for Revenge
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Yeongwol took in the moment the war began and ended with her own eyes.
No need for her to step in personally. Without the Heavenly Dragon Society Leader, the balance of power was already tipped.
The front line, barely held by transcendent realm experts, collapsed in an instant.
They had more experts on their side.
Their numbers were greater too.
Occasionally, there were mishaps where allies mistook each other for enemies, but Chief Steward Song Namcheon deftly managed them all.
Not for nothing was he in charge. He was truly capable.
"Alliance Leader. The war is nearing its end. How shall we handle the aftermath...?"
"No need for prisoners. Kill them all."
"...Understood."
He was too capable for his own good. Song Namcheon.
She'd have to pin some crime on him and get rid of him at the right moment.
Yeongwol advanced forward, even dismissing her escorts. She cut down any stragglers who charged at her with a single stroke.
In the midst of it, she came across a familiar face. The Earth Dragon Commander, whom she'd faced on the battlefield several times at the Demon Apostle League Leader's request.
One arm severed and a sword buried in his chest, he was on the verge of death.
"You vile... unorthodox... dogs..."
His eyes blinded too? Yeongwol cleanly ended his meaningless gasps.
What concerned her was what lay ahead. Jin Baekcheon. The space where he might have taken those two experts.
He wouldn't lose. That was the kind of man he was. But if, by some chance, he was dead or on the brink...
It would be best to finish him off for certain. For her Demon Apostle League Leader's sake, if nothing else.
Yeongwol followed the path upstream. A trail of blood began to appear, slinking into view.
Here and there lay shattered trees and the corpses of Heavenly Dragon Society warriors, tumbled amid the wreckage. But the real battlefield seemed a bit further in.
Yeongwol moved quietly, following the bloodstains.
The scent of blood brushed her nostrils.
It grew overwhelmingly intense.
Shreds of flesh clung everywhere. And not just that-craters pockmarked the ground like meteor impacts.
Was the Heavenly Dragon Society Leader that strong? Walking a bit further, Yeongwol soon spotted a body.
A mangled corpse. A massively torn-open chest.
The Heavenly Dragon Society Leader Im Wolryong's body lay half-buried in a crater.
Traces of brain energy lingered here and there, unscattered. He'd resisted to the end. Yet he must have known he couldn't overcome it.
The expression on his barely intact face was one of utter despair. Yes, that. The face everyone made upon meeting Jin Baekcheon.
A genius impossible to surpass, no matter the struggle-that was him. A man who'd been in the transcendent realm when he left the Demonic Cult... now his standing was unfathomable.
Wondering if there was anything worth salvaging, Yeongwol rummaged through the Heavenly Dragon Leader's robes. But all that came out were remnants of what had once been artifacts.
Everything broken. As expected of Jin Baekcheon. No mercy even at his fingertips. But...
His usual habit was absent too. That habit of toying with prey.
What was this? The man who'd said tormenting something worthwhile was half the fun... Did the Heavenly Dragon Leader not amuse him?
And yet, a transcendent realm master.
A warrior who'd reached the realm of divine ascension.
Yeongwol decided to press further ahead. She roughly pulled the Heavenly Dragon Leader's body out and flipped it onto the ground, then continued on.
The already foul stench of blood intensified. The collapsed terrain had gone beyond extreme, nearly flattened.
No trace of the forest remained. Just echoes of it. Was this where he'd fought the Heavenly Dragon Leader? Or that emerging powerhouse?
Doubts swirled in her mind. Then, Yeongwol finally faced the truth she'd sought.
Jin Baekcheon, lost in thought. Around him, vast pools of blood spread wide.
And...
A single lifeless corpse.
"......."
Regrettably, not on the brink of death. No point stabbing him in the back. Yeongwol neatly gave up. Instead, she softly called out to him.
"Jin Baekcheon."
"...Hm?"
He turned around.
Spotting Yeongwol snapped him from his long reverie, and he gave a wry smile.
"What? The war? How'd it end?"
"Wrapping up. Is this the emerging powerhouse?"
"...Probably...?"
"What's wrong? You look like you've seen something you shouldn't have."
"...Who knows. I still can't make sense of what I saw."
"Pardon?"
What was that supposed to mean? Yeongwol blinked.
Jin Baekcheon glanced up at the sky.
"Night's already falling. It's all over. But... I can't figure out why."
"What are you talking about?"
"...I've got a narrow view of the world. Thought he was just a toy, nearly got my head lopped off."
"...Pardon? You?"
"Well, it was a fluke strike, close to coincidence. But man, he was tenacious. The most persistent sword I've ever faced in my life."
He bent his knees, crouching down and reaching toward the corpse.
The already ruined body didn't stir. Limbs torn, torso massively gouged, embedded in the cliff face.
The forcibly lifted head swayed precariously, as if it might detach any second. Jin Baekcheon whispered.
"I'll keep my promise. Red Cloud. Your sword... it was superb even for mere entertainment, so as agreed, I won't pursue."
"...Pursue what?"
"The group he sent ahead first."
"...You, of all people, letting that slide? You love toying with others."
"Who knows..."
He withdrew his hand.
The corpse's head lolled with a thud.
"Call it a whim."
The sword beneath Jin Baekcheon's foot shattered into fragments.
Blood-red metal scattered everywhere.
Irreparably.
Yeongwol stared at his retreating back, then subtly reached toward the corpse.
But without turning, Jin Baekcheon calmly said,
"Just leave it. Don't touch it. He deserves that much. Let nature claim him on its own."
"......."
This side of him was a first.
What battle had he been through?
Yeongwol complied for now.
It was a corpse to begin with, and nothing intact remained...
Nothing worthwhile would come from searching it.
Everything shattered and ruined...
Rifling through him would be pointless.
...
The world had changed.
The Heavenly Dragon Society's annihilation. The Demon Apostle League's expanded territory.
This fueled the unorthodox sects' momentum. It also came to light that the Murim Alliance had ignored the Heavenly Dragon Society's plea for aid, tanking the current Alliance Leader's prestige.
This sparked massive power struggles.
The Murim Alliance split into two: the old guard led by the current Leader, and the new faction opposing him.
Internal war erupted from the divided power structure.
The Demon Apostle League faced turmoil too. Dividing the seized Heavenly Dragon Society territory ignited infighting. Chaos swept the world.
Then.
The Demonic Cult stepped into the world.
Their sudden emergence from seclusion in the Heavenly Mountains shocked the realm.
Chaos upon chaos in an already turbulent world.
War's bloody winds howled through the murim, now divided into three major powers. Unresolved internals and external foes baring teeth everywhere dragged the world into an unprecedented wave of massive war.
A world teeming with takers and taken.
Heroism buried in the dirt; only those slyly seizing others' wealth and power survived.
In a world prizing personal survival above all, could justice endure?
"......."
The Demonic Cult's second-in-command, the First Demon, set down her brush on the document. She slowly sipped her tea, seated.
It was a time when even information brokers struggled. Words failed, swords flew first; everyone minimized talk, wary of prying eyes.
Yet one piece of news had reached her.
A Murim Alliance inspector sent as reinforcements to the Heavenly Dragon Society.
Her disciple, Red Cloud, was dead.
"......."
Red Cloud dead? How absurd.
The kid who'd clawed out of a manure pile. Probably faked his death too.
A discarded identity, shed via death. The First Demon firmly believed it.
He couldn't be dead. On the day the departed returned, he'd stroll in laughing.
Then she'd chew him out. How dare he startle his master, even briefly. Such an insolent disciple.
And a daughter?
She'd heard late of the adopted girl, but still. He should've at least gotten her permission before taking in an adopted daughter on his own...
Twice over, she'd have to scold him. Really.
"......."
...So.
To scold him.
Just walk in.
Even minus a few limbs. As long as the head's attached.
Somehow squeeze into this house.
That wasn't asking much.
Even an ordinary person could manage it.
So...
So...
"...First Demon."
The First Demon quietly looked down at the warriors before her. She met the gaze of the small child staring up with empty eyes.
She reached out. Long journey, no doubt. The dirt on her body told it.
But that ragged exterior was shallow compared to the inner ruin.
Look at those vacant eyes.
Just like mine.
"...Are you Sua?"
"......."
A slight nod. Lips that had lost speech.
The daughter... who'd sent her father away.
Only then did the First Demon grasp the reality slumped before her.
She'd raised him as a disciple, only for him to die beyond her reach.
...Shouldn't... have grown attached.
---Thud.
Hand on the child's head. A gentle stroke.
What she'd planned for her returning disciple.
A soft whisper.
"...You did well."
The First Demon didn't voice her emotions. Didn't wail.
She just sat quietly after hearing the tale. Even as the warriors who'd pursued him wept and howled, she listened in silence.
She understood their pain.
But their pain came after something else that needed addressing.
Twice.
The second time.
This was the second time they'd wounded her Demonic Cult, her heart.
"......."
So.
The weeping, the howling.
The lonely toasts, the longing for the departed.
All later.
"I know the long road was hard."
"......"
"But there are things that must be done. I can't leave here due to circumstances. I must obey my sole master's command. So..."
The First Demon quietly regarded Sua.
"I've heard through messenger birds about your talents-enough to make my ears ring."
"......"
"And above all, entrusting family vengeance to others is laughable."
She raised her head.
The First Demon asked softly.
"What do you want?"
Her trembling hand answered the question.
A red glint flickered in her vacant eyes.
"...I want... to kill that man..."
"Then we're set. Our goals align. Our paths match."
Master-disciple bonds are likened to father and son.
Family. That's the thread binding us.
...So... so...
"Kill him yourself. I'll train you to do it."
"......."
"If you don't want to, refuse here and now. I'm not taking you as a disciple. Just forging you into a sword."
"...I..."
"From now on, I'll raze Yeokcheon on my own whim."
The First Demon extended her hand.
"Anyone else is fair game, but that Jin Baekcheon... I'll ensure you kill him with your own hands."
"...Yes."
Sua nodded.
In a world stripped of light, filled with void, purpose had finally dawned.
"Train me. Into unbreakable metal."
A genius unmatched in the world.
Such beings united.
Solely for revenge.
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