No Effort, No Worth, No Skill
“As for when I went in…”
Cheolsangi, who had been hemming and hawing, finally opened his mouth.
Thud.
Do-ha shut it for him at once.
“Haa… Looking at those Blood Sect bastards strutting around like they own the place makes my stomach turn.”
Watching the four Great Protectors, Do-ha’s brow furrowed.
He respected true masters. He knew the effort it took to reach that height, and so long as they were not his enemies, he acknowledged their strength—even if he never said so out loud. Against those who fought him, he would mock and dismiss them freely. But otherwise, he gave credit where it was due.
The Blood Sect, though? That was not effort.
They had slaughtered people and built their power on blood. So what, exactly, gave them the right to look so damn arrogant?
“Is that a Blood Sect specialty? Thinking the power you got by murdering people is somehow yours?”
And then they stood there with their shoulders squared, calling themselves Great Protectors. How pathetic could you get?
“People with no effort, no worth, and no real skill, convinced they’re something special. It’s almost impressive.”
“Killing people to gain power is a kind of ability. A kind of skill.”
“Haa… What a load of fucking nonsense.”
In all his life, he had never heard anything so absurd. Even the Great Protectors he had fought before had never spat out anything that ridiculous.
“I don’t know what kind of power you picked up crawling into bed with the Demon God Cult… but I’ll teach you properly. What happens when a human stops being human.”
Slip.
Killing intent bled from Do-ha’s eyes as he dissolved the energy that had been protecting the pill.
And then—
“Gaaaaaah!”
Fsssssssh.
Ashen-white poison smoke erupted from Cheolsangi’s mouth and nose in a violent torrent. The moment the pill met his saliva, it had melted away completely.
“?!!”
“?!!”
The Great Protectors’ eyebrows twitched at the sight.
He had seen what kind of poison that pill was—and he had deliberately dissolved it? Had he done it to restrict their movements?
“A foolish move.”
“We have resistance to that poison.”
“They call him the Absolute One, and he’s this stupid?”
The Great Protectors shook their heads.
This was no ordinary toxin. It was not as lethal as the famous extreme poisons, but it had one particularly nasty trait: the fine particles suspended in the smoke clung fast and would not come off. Most extreme poisons could still be treated if you acted quickly. Even a highly corrosive acid, if you applied an antidote in time, might melt a little skin—but it would not kill you.
This one, however, latched onto the bronchial tubes. Even if a divine physician arrived, immediate treatment was impossible—not without scraping out the entire respiratory tract and the insides of the organs.
“Even someone trained in poison arts would die to this.”
“And Baek Do-ha never even learned poison arts, did he?”
“Exactly.”
They were about to learn how wrong they were.
Shuuuuuuk!
“Hm?”
“?”
The poison smoke that had been spreading thickly in every direction writhed and began to gather. The Great Protectors tilted their heads.
What? That poison did not move like that.
“Dodge!”
Hyeolhwang, who had been watching in silence, shouted and leapt high into the sky.
The problem was that Do-ha’s attack was faster.
Yeokcheon-mudok-ma-gong
Fourth Absolute — Grasping Dry Poison
Chwarararararak!
Squeeze!
“What?!”
Hyeolhwang—the first to react—stared at whatever had seized his leg and recoiled in shock. The poison qi had transformed into something like plant vines, coiling up his body.
Ssssss.
“Ghhhk!”
As the vines climbed higher, Hyeolhwang let out a groan of pain. He was supposed to be immune to all poisons—and yet the toxin was wracking his body from within.
“Hyeolhwang!”
Tap.
At the sight, Hyeolbi launched an attack toward him—more precisely, toward the vines crawling up Hyeolhwang’s body. They were stuck to him, yes, but cutting something like that was easy enough to do with your eyes closed.
“Stay back!”
As Hyeolbi thrust his sword, Hyeolhwang cried out in desperation.
“What?!”
Chwararararak!
Hyeolbi’s eyes went wide. Those bizarre vines were climbing the blade itself.
“Gaaaaaah!”
Thud!
In the end, vines overrunning his entire body, Hyeolbi crashed to the ground with a scream.
“Looks like the Blood Demon never taught you. In the murim, you don’t let your guard down even when you’re looking at a corpse.”
Ssssssss.
As the last of the poison smoke vanished, Do-ha stood there with eyes turned a deep, vivid green.
“Baek Do-ha! What have you done?!”
Hyeolje roared. Judging by their comrades’ condition, it looked like poison arts—but Baek Do-ha was not supposed to know any. And even if he did, all four of them here were immune to every poison under the sun. So how were they writhing in agony without putting up any fight at all?
“Curious? Then how about I tie you up too?”
“You bastard!”
Whirrr.
Clang!
Enraged, Hyeolje gathered his energy and unleashed the Mara Blood Art—a vicious martial technique that required drinking human blood every single day.
Shushushushuk!
“Oh. I can do something similar.”
As blood-forged crimson spikes erupted from the ground, Do-ha’s eyes lit up. He could not use the Mara Blood Art itself—but an attack like that? He could manage just fine.
Blood Spear
Shushushushushushushuk!
Spikes far thicker and far more numerous than Hyeolje’s burst up from the earth.
“?!!”
Tap!
Hyeolje leapt high in pure alarm. What had he just seen? Magic like that existed? It did not seem like elemental magic…
“Hyeolje!”
While Hyeolje stood lost in thought over the vampire magic, Hyeolyeong shouted. That idiot! Of all people, to let his mind wander in front of the Absolute One, Baek Do-ha—!
Slash.
“?”
At Hyeolyeong’s voice, Hyeolje turned his head—and his eyes filled with confusion.
What? Why is my vision…
The ground flipped. The sky came down. In plain terms, the world was spinning.
Did I just take a hit?
Thud.
Roll…
The light in Hyeolje’s severed head slowly went out.
“Aaaaaaah!”
Hyeolyeong screamed and charged at Do-ha. Hyeolje was dead. Hyeolhwang and Hyeolbi were thrashing under the poison. Only he remained.
A head-on fight with Baek Do-ha has no chance of winning… but I can at least create a small opening. If I can make even a crack, I’ll grab my comrades and get out of here.
“I told you, didn’t I? You have no effort, no worth, and no skill.”
Do-ha threw himself at the attacking Hyeolyeong—diving deeper into the oncoming assault rather than away from it.
“Wha—?!”
Hyeolyeong reeled in shock. The whole point of this attack had been to force him to dodge. Why was he coming in?!
“I figured you’d throw a big attack to create an opening.”
Clench.
Do-ha slipped inside Hyeolyeong’s guard and used the flat of Un-jeop-bi-jang to pin his forearm. Then—
Thwuck!
—with the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword in his other hand, he drove the blade clean through Hyeolyeong’s jaw.
“Ghk…”
“You know why I left those two alive? Because I figured whichever of you was left would try to grab them and run.”
That was exactly why he had used Grasping Dry Poison to inflict nothing but agony. He had not known which of the remaining two would be last, but once only one of the four was standing, that one would absolutely try to escape with his comrades. To do that, he would launch an attack meant to create an opening—and Do-ha could turn that right back on him and finish things cleanly.
And that was precisely what had happened.
“If you actually had any skill, you would have noticed while those two were still alive and suffering.”
Why cut off Hyeolje’s head and kill him instantly, yet leave Hyeolhwang and Hyeolbi alive? Why not attack with wide-range martial arts or magic, and instead take them one by one?
Twist.
Grrrind.
“Ghrrrk…”
Do-ha slowly turned the hilt of the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword, and Hyeolyeong—impaled on the blade—let out a strangled moan.
“Martial arts is a game of moves. You learn them, and you refine them, through real combat.”
But look at the Great Protectors—no, look at the entire Blood Sect. They sacrificed people and gained power the fast, easy way. So the moment you forced them into a real exchange of moves, this was what you got. Until now, every Blood Sect member including the Great Protectors had simply crushed their opponents with raw power, and that was how they had won. Against masters of equal or higher realm, that approach was worthless.
“You abandoned being human for this power… and it’s so damn empty, isn’t it?”
“Spare…”
“Don’t give me that bullshit. Go to hell.”
Thwuck!
Do-ha smirked and drove the blade straight through Hyeolyeong’s skull.
Two left.
“Hmm. How should I kill you two?”
He looked down at Hyeolhwang and Hyeolbi, trembling as they desperately tried to force the poison out. Simply ending them felt too clean, given the scale of their crimes. As he had said—building power to this level meant far more than one or two human sacrifices.
“Ah. That’ll do.”
Earth Overturn
Kuuuuung!
As the Fifth-Circle spell took hold, a section of the ground rose in a single cake-like mass. The pit left behind plunged more than thirty meters deep.
“You two were the strongest of the four. Which means you two ate the most people.”
Insects. No—at least insects included beneficial ones. These things were garbage that could not even be recycled.
“Die as slowly and as painfully as you can.”
“Baek… Do-ha…”
“No…!”
Thud.
With an indifferent expression, Do-ha kicked Hyeolhwang and Hyeolbi into the pit. A thirty-meter fall could shatter bones or kill outright—but he had already cast a protective spell over their bodies.
“Dying from the fall would be boring.”
Thud!
Only after the delayed impact finally sounded did he dissolve the protection.
“I don’t know how long you’ll last, but hang on as long as you can! That’s how it hurts more.”
Swoosh.
Kugugugugugugugu!
Having spat his curse down at the two in the pit, Do-ha moved his hand and sealed the floating mass of earth back over them.
“First time burying someone alive… not bad, actually. I should plant demons all over Hell the same way.”
Looking thoroughly refreshed, Do-ha started walking. He had not been told where the Blood Demon was, but it did not matter.
“Whether he just crawled out of a cocoon or not, he’s pouring out killing intent like a fountain.”
After every last Great Protector had fallen, something far off was radiating a suffocating murderous aura. It was not the intent to kill. It was a signal—I’m here. Come.
“When someone calls, you answer.”
Shrrrk.
Do-ha stowed the Heaven-Cleaving Blood Demon Sword in his subspace and launched himself into the air.