Chapter 216
Chapter 216
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 216
Chapter Title: Heavenly Demon Divine Cult Double Agent
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Stage.
All martial arts have stages.
Also referred to as realms, they change as one ascends from the bottom up. And those walls are sometimes given names.
A realm where people, where things in the martial world, drastically change.
A martial artist who has just picked up a sword for the first time is called third-rate. Naturally, as a beginner, they might even be compared to a commoner who has never swung a blade.
Next comes second-rate. This is where those who've eaten a bit of sword rice belong. A step further makes one a first-rate, called skilled...
Then pinnacle.
That's a place determined by innate talent. The realm where one can proficiently gather internal energy and manifest sword qi.
Transcendent goes without saying. They lift house-sized boulders, cover distances in a single step, and begin to be called superhumans.
Above that, the enlightenment realm? It's the stage where one starts engraving intent into reality. From there, it's hard to even call them human. More like monsters. That's what you have to call them.
I heard that reaching the profound realm at last allows one to truly be called a 'living god.' Of course, few have seen it with their own eyes. Even in the world, there are only a handful, and even those rare figures are hard to glimpse in a lifetime.
...But.
If that's the case.
...what do you call 'that thing'?
One of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Villages.
The expert, Hwang Jang-in, trembled violently.
Something was off. Terribly, terribly off.
I mean... that... was truly bizarre...
If the profound realm is called a living god.
Then that thing should be called a living calamity.
"......"
His vision was shattering. There was no other way to put it.
Mountains, rivers, grasses, trees, rocks, cliffs, earth, people, swords, metal, clothes.
All of it shattered in unspeakable ways.
Hwang Jang-in looked back at himself amid the battlefield.
I, Hwang Jang-in.
How have I lived?
As a bandit of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Villages. It was tough when I first joined, but now I've risen steadily.
"...Haha."
I bedded plenty of women. And not just that? I set fire to the faces of those who refused.
Stimulation can't be gotten from repeating the same thing. What I had was power, which soon became authority, so naturally I craved stimulation to match.
At first, killing felt awkward, but later it became routine like eating. I even tried human flesh made in the village and found my favorite parts.
I pissed on corpses and spat on them too. I carried poison and smeared it on handsome faces when I saw them.
But kids? I hated them. So I broke their legs whenever I saw one. Their crying faces weren't bad, after all.
Ah.
It was fun. Yeah. I had a blast. Haven't I lived well?
"...Hahaha!"
Still.
Honestly, I want to live.
I want to enjoy more. More of what I've enjoyed so far. Greed. Wasn't that my drive?
That's why I honed my martial arts. That's why I made it under Kwak Cheon-geuk, called the Bandit King.
Except for him, my sword made me confident. The transcendent realm I'd reached made everyone tremble at its name alone.
I thought I'd have even more from now on.
But... what now?
What do I do now, with corpses flying and blood-mixed rain falling?
"Ch-Cheon... Ra... Ji... Mang..."
Green Forest Seventy-Two Villages.
The Heaven's Net, made up mostly of their experts.
"Heaven's Net... is breaking... hahaha!!!"
Not letting even a single ant escape.
The Heaven's Net that would eventually devour any expert.
Shattering before his eyes.
By just two people.
Ah, no.
Not two. One, if you nitpick. The other is just providing support.
Hwang Jang-in cackled with laughter. His sword, drained of will, clattered to the ground.
The man who herded blood-soaked corpses stood before him. Though the man was slightly shorter, locking eyes made him piss himself.
"Kuhuhu... uhuahaha... I... I'm dying today..."
"......"
The man stared at him impassively. Then he lightly kicked up the dropped sword.
The blade spun into the sky. At the same time, he whispered.
"I'll at least give you a chance to die as a martial artist."
"......."
"Grab the sword."
Hwang Jang-in's mouth gaped. Martial artist. Martial artist.
Ah, fuck.
I shouldn't have come here.
His past flooded his outstretched hand. Amid comrades' corpses and shattered terrain, trembling memories flashed like a panorama.
Hwang Jang-in snatched the sword.
Immediately, his vision twisted.
"...F-fuck..."
He hadn't even swung it.
In the overturned world, Hwang Jang-in saw last.
Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
The footsteps of the one soaked in blood.
...
Heaven's Net.
The act of spreading a net between heaven and earth.
I gazed at it impassively. I looked at the bandits charging like moths to a flame.
Each one an expert. Experts aren't all that common to begin with.
Even the talented must put in effort to build their martial foundation.
The path they walk silently is like asceticism, sometimes compared to that of pilgrims.
Each one had devoted their life to the sword in earnest. That's why I couldn't understand them at all.
With the sword they'd built up.
With the time they'd built up.
Why do such vile things?
"......."
We probably can never understand each other. Not now, not ever.
I was certain of it. At the same time, I moved my sword.
Nine Heavens Blood Demon Art
Second Form
Soul-Pulling Thrust
Humans and beasts can never truly understand each other.
---Kwarrrrrr!!!!
Insight fills the thrust sword. Beyond mere qi, it splits the world.
No need to conserve strength. Internal energy is infinite. And the vessel is complete.
Now, I could split anything, cut anything. And I confirmed it was becoming familiar bit by bit.
Each strike differed from the last.
The downward slash split the world.
---Kwaaaaaaaaang!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soul-Pulling Thrust is a simple cleave. Just slamming down with full weight and power.
But infused with vast internal energy and strength, every martial artist in its path became bloody pulp, smashed into the ground.
No one withstood my single strike.
And even if they did, they vomited blood from every orifice and died.
I continued along the path of blood. The bandits, who had swarmed like moths, now backed away despite appearing.
From then, I became the hunter instead. I accelerated to hunt beasts, split their formation, and devoured them all.
The pursuers became the pursued.
The pursued turned hunter on them.
As Heaven's Net collapsed, the enemy's top experts were thrown in.
And naturally...
I split them all.
"Wh-what... impossible...?"
The throat of one who called himself a transcendent expert flew with one strike.
"Monster...!"
I punched a hole through the heart of one growling from the enlightenment realm, clumsily drawing out his aura.
"Human... butcher...!"
I tore off the head with one hand of one who called himself the Bandit King's guard.
Slaughter. Pure slaughter.
But I carried no emotion in that slaughter.
They all deserved death.
I tore and ripped.
Smashed.
Destroyed everything in sight.
"...Crazy..."
And finally, I faced him.
The master of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Villages, trembling and retreating with his bandit horde.
"You mad... bastard...!"
His eyes were already filled with fear. He held a sword, but it seemed useless.
Gu Ok-kyung, who had been cleaning up behind me, stood by my side for the first time. She poked my ribs and asked.
"Can't you hand that one over to me?"
"...Why?"
"That bastard always gave me lecherous looks. Well, no man doesn't look at me that way... but his were especially sleazy? And he never listened... Hand him over. Yeah? Honeyyyy."
I sighed. I nodded, and Gu Ok-kyung beamed.
She licked the blood from her face and stepped forward. As she removed her mask, Bandit King Kwak Cheon-geuk flinched.
Eyes like he'd seen something he shouldn't here.
"...Lian Lord...? B-but the Lian Lord is surely at the center of the Sa Do-ryeon...!"
"Yeah. Long time no see?"
"Wh-why... are you doing this...? Aren't you afraid of the Elder Council...?!"
"Fuck off. What good are words from dogs serving a fake? Huh? And we're not close enough for chit-chat anyway. You were always scheming to fuck me."
Gu Ok-kyung tossed her broken sword aside.
She grabbed any sword lying nearby.
"Bandit King, right? If you're gonna use the title 'king,' fight with swords, not words. Come on. Beat me, and I'll bark under you. I can even shake my ass. Like this. Like this."
"......."
"Oh my. Look at those sleazy eyes. What? Think you can actually do it?"
"...If I win... will you spare me?"
I frowned at Kwak Cheon-geuk's question. Gu Ok-kyung poked my waist.
"Honey. You said you'd yield him to me?"
"...Tch."
I reached out to clean up the remnants. The trembling experts cried out desperately.
"Sp-spare us! We'll never show our faces again!"
Spare you...
I asked.
"What happened to those who said that to you?"
"Y-yes?"
"Did you spare them, or kill them?"
They couldn't answer the simple question. Maybe they didn't grasp my intent, or perhaps they already knew the answer.
Yeah. That's it. That silence was no different from a beast's reply to me.
The Nine Apertures wailed.
I moved my sword to soothe its cry.
"I'll answer you the same way you did then."
"...You fuck...!"
Pathetic last words.
But it didn't matter.
I didn't want to hear their final words anyway.
...
Gu Ok-kyung spun her sword. She whispered to Kwak Cheon-geuk, frozen by the massacre beside them.
"Let him handle that side, yeah? Don't we have some private business?"
Kwak Cheon-geuk turned. His half-resigned face held a glimmer of hope.
He raised his sword but opened his mouth first, as if he had something to ask before fighting.
"...Is the Lian Lord in Sa Do-ryeon right now a fake?"
"Fake. Obviously? My actions so far are totally different. Only an idiot wouldn't notice."
"...I didn't know."
"So you're an idiot."
Kwak Cheon-geuk shifted his feet bit by bit.
"That monster... who the hell is he? What have you been raising?"
"Huh? My man?"
"...Pardon?"
"The one I want to fuck. Seriously... so damn seductive. I want to lick his nape but holding back. Even you as a man can see it, right?"
"What are you..."
"Blood-soaked sword. Blood Sword. That's what proves him. He won't turn it on humans normally. He wouldn't want to. But you know. When drawn, it gets ruthless, right? You're right. He's a monster. But a monster I desperately want to have..."
Sa Do-ryeon Lord Gu Ok-kyung sighed. She lightly touched her bloodied cheek.
"I want to have him. Possess him. Bind him and devour his soul. Keep him for life, feed him only my food, lock him in the cage I make. First man like this. Even just his martial prowess makes my body tremble, and his personality too. I've never seen a beast like him. For me to call someone 'beautiful'... Isn't it amazing?"
"......."
"So fuck off, bastard. Stop scheming and focus. You were always eyeing my body, right? Always plotting to fuck me. I've seen and heard plenty."
"...Promise... one thing."
"What?"
"That you'll keep your word."
Eyes gleaming with lust. Even now, those eyes.
Beasts gonna beast.
Gu Ok-kyung smirked.
She deliberately loosened her collar, flashing her cleavage at him.
"Do as you like. If you win. If needed, I'll shake my hips on top myself. I can bark like a dog too?"
"...Keep that promise."
Kwak Cheon-geuk bared his teeth. With it, vast internal energy surged through his body.
As expected of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Villages' chief. At the peak of enlightenment realm. No wonder he's one of the pillars supporting Sa Do-ryeon.
...But.
"On the other hand."
If that bastard were stronger from the start, he'd have taken the Sa Do-ryeon Lord seat long ago.
Gu Ok-kyung bared her teeth in a grin.
"If I win, I'll rip off your limbs and toss you in a pigsty. Of course, I'll cut out your tongue and pull all your teeth too? How's that, sound good?"
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