Chapter 159
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 159
Chapter Title: It's My Turn to Speak
He ran and ran and ran.
A full day straight.
Only stopping for the bare minimum time to relieve himself.
He didn't eat a thing.
Hydrated solely from the waterskin hanging at his waist.
Just kept running and running and running.
He truly gave it everything he had.
This was how he had to do it to escape that bastard.
He had to run with his life on the line.
Had to push right up to the brink of death before he could finally slip from the guy's clutches.
He'd been through it a full three times already.
This was the fourth.
Do Mun-wi had no doubt he'd escape Ha Mu-baek this time too.
After all, he'd poured every ounce of his strength into the run.
The sun had set before he knew it.
Night deepened.
The long night passed, and the eastern sky began to brighten once more.
How far had he come in just one night?
Was it his imagination, or was it real?
The air felt colder and colder.
He didn't rest.
He continuously channeled internal energy from his dantian into his legs.
He had to keep running until his energy hit rock bottom.
He pushed his lightness skill to the absolute limit.
And so he ran on until, after twelve full sichen— a solid day— it was nearly over.
Do Mun-wi's internal energy, seated in his dantian, was just starting to scrape bottom.
"Huff... huff... huff."
He gasped for breath, ragged and heavy.
He was in a state of utter exhaustion.
Do Mun-wi collapsed flat on the spot and immediately sank into meditative recovery.
Teetering on total collapse, he needed to reclaim even a sliver of internal energy, and fast.
Then run again.
That demon of a monster was relentlessly tenacious.
Do Mun-wi believed half the reason the Blood Cult had lost the last war was that bastard Ha Mu-baek.
Sitting cross-legged, Do Mun-wi slowly sank inward.
How much time passed?
Having recovered just enough internal energy to run again, Do Mun-wi opened his eyes.
The moment he thought now to go and started to rise—
"Gasp!"
Do Mun-wi jolted in shock, eyes flying wide.
Directly across from him sat a man on the ground, chin propped in hand, gazing at him—and waving cheerfully.
A man who absolutely could not be here.
Ha Mu-baek.
He was smiling faintly.
"H-How..."
It was unbelievable.
He'd run at full tilt for an entire day.
The meditation had only taken about half a sichen.
Yet he'd been caught up to in that short span.
Impossible, with the lightness skill level of Ha Mu-baek that Do Mun-wi knew.
He had to admit it.
Ha Mu-baek's lightness skill was fast.
But only reasonably so.
Not on his level of extreme speed.
And that was after a full day of all-out running.
"What’s with that face? Thought you could keep running forever, Blood Phantom?"
"How did you know?"
"Who else bolts off tail aflame like that but you, Blood Phantom? You underestimated me way too much after those three successes."
Ha Mu-baek patted the dirt off his rear and stood.
Dust billowed up, caught the wind, and blew straight into Do Mun-wi’s face.
Do Mun-wi grimaced.
He rose slowly to his feet.
"Even so, with your snail-paced lightness skill..."
His face still screamed disbelief.
Ha Mu-baek smiled faintly.
"You’ve been holed up in the Hao Clan so long your instincts have dulled. How many years have passed? You really think I’m still the same level as back then?"
Ha Mu-baek’s aura began to dominate the surroundings.
A thick, viscous killing intent settled over Do Mun-wi.
Sweat soaked the back of his robes.
"What? Gonna try running again?"
Ha Mu-baek eyed him with utter disdain.
"Got internal energy left? Wonder how far you’ll get at full speed?"
The mocking tone stung.
Do Mun-wi’s face flushed redder by the second— provoked on the very lightness skill that was his pride.
"No matter how strong you are, if I run full-out..."
"You got caught like this."
Ha Mu-baek cut him off before he could finish.
"If you’re really that confident, chase me again and..."
Escape this spot first, somehow.
He’d tried to turn Ha Mu-baek’s mockery against him, but...
"Why would I? Let go of a fish I’ve already hooked? No reason to do something that stupid. Especially when it’s a Blood Cult rat."
Ha Mu-baek bared his teeth in a grin laced with killing intent.
Do Mun-wi despaired at the sight.
With words like that, it looked like he’d meet his end right here.
"Hah. You think you’d actually escape if I gave you a chance?"
Do Mun-wi’s eyes snapped wide.
What was this fiend up to?
"What do I have to do?"
There had to be an angle, but playing along mattered more than anything— survival first.
"One sichen of meditation, then half a sichen wait. Sound fair?"
Do Mun-wi’s eyes flashed again.
That meant a full sichen to meditate, then half more before giving chase?
He cheered inwardly.
Even if the bastard had gotten faster, it took twelve straight sichen to close a one-sichen gap— and that with nearly simultaneous starts.
Now he’d start half a sichen later?
But he soon grimaced.
The terms were far too favorable to him.
'Damn bastard... what’s he scheming...'
A slower man offering such a handicap so casually?
Knowing Ha Mu-baek’s nature, unease began to creep in.
But his confidence in his own lightness skill overrode it.
'He got lucky catching up this time, but next’ll be different. And I’ve got my ace in the hole.'
He was already deep in Gansu Province.
His ace: hideouts scattered across the province, impossible to find under normal circumstances.
The nearest was half a day off.
No way Ha Mu-baek caught up in that span.
Ha Mu-baek’s question flew at Do Mun-wi as he rolled his eyes calculatingly.
"Yeong So-hyang. What’s with her?"
If he’d been alone, he’d have bolted long ago.
The girl had slowed him down.
Thus, Ha Mu-baek concluded she held some secret.
Do Mun-wi hesitated.
But the answer was obvious.
Life came first.
Survive now, scheme later.
"...It’s Ye Cho-a’s constitution."
"Constitution?"
"That woman’s body resists the Curse of the Demon Eradication to a degree. It passed to her two daughters."
Ha Mu-baek furrowed his brow at the reply.
"It’s called the Vermilion Blood Spirit Physique."
"Didn’t strike me as anything special."
"Of course not. It only resists the Demon Eradication’s curse. Nothing else."
Ha Mu-baek pieced it all together from the answer.
In the end, he’d used the mother and daughters to study and refine the Demon Eradication.
"Then that precious thing you’ve got tucked in your robes isn’t the Demon Eradication manual, but the Divine Demon Eradication one."
"......"
Do Mun-wi nodded silently.
"Foolish, obsessing over it despite knowing the curse."
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"It’s your fault. You, the Blood Cult’s sworn enemy."
"That’s my line."
Ha Mu-baek’s voice dripped with killing intent.
"Hate to admit it, but the moment the Cult Leader fell to you, it proved every Blood Cult technique useless against you."
"A guy who just ran away screaming."
Do Mun-wi’s expression didn’t change at Ha Mu-baek’s sneer.
How could it?
His every thought fixed on survival.
"To get revenge on you, I needed greater power. Turned my eyes to the Demon Eradication. Its insane might before the curse hits. Knew it was poison, but drank anyway. All for revenge on you."
Without the curse, the Demon Eradication might be the world’s deadliest art.
That unimaginable growth up to the eleventh star...
Ha Mu-baek eyed him with pity.
"That’s your reason? Think it’ll work?"
Do Mun-wi gave no reply.
A brief silence hung.
Then he spoke.
"That enough? Can I go...?"
Ha Mu-baek shook his head at the question.
"Where are the others?"
"Who?"
"The surviving Blood Cult remnants. Even we Ten Elders let a few slip away."
"......"
Do Mun-wi clamped his mouth shut for a beat.
"Don’t know."
The delayed answer wouldn’t fool Ha Mu-baek.
"Fine. Found you, so the rest’ll turn up. Last question: who knows what you just spilled?"
"......"
Do Mun-wi shut his trap again.
"Better answer straight this time."
Ha Mu-baek pressed.
"N-No one. Really. Wasn’t time to spread it yet. Too much opposition."
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
He’d gleaned a few more truths from it.
"N-Now can I go?"
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"Wh-What?! You said..."
As Do Mun-wi shrieked in hysterics, Ha Mu-baek jabbed a finger at the ground.
"One sichen meditation. Start with that. I keep my promises."
Do Mun-wi’s eyes bulged round.
"You’re not gonna pull something while I’m meditating, are you..."
"Want me to?"
Ha Mu-baek growled.
Do Mun-wi dropped cross-legged on the spot and dove into meditation.
Ha Mu-baek plopped back down and watched intently.
Infinite Bright Wheel Eye active in his gaze.
Not missing a single twitch of the man’s internal energy.
'Looks like this Divine Demon Eradication he named hasn’t spread to the others yet. Manual’s only with Blood Phantom here.'
So thinking, he focused on Do Mun-wi’s arts.
To probe the Divine Demon Eradication from the energy flow in meditation.
One sichen passed.
Do Mun-wi opened his eyes right on the dot— somehow knowing the time.
"You keep time well."
Ha Mu-baek remarked, chin still propped.
Do Mun-wi lurched awkwardly to his feet.
"Half sichen! Half sichen! Keep your word!"
"Told you, I keep it."
The instant Ha Mu-baek spoke in annoyance, Do Mun-wi kicked off the ground.
Leaving a red afterimage, he fled into the distance.
This time, he poured every last drop of strength he’d nursed since infancy.
Ha Mu-baek watched impassively.
"Still fast as ever."
He smirked.
"But I’ve gotten faster."
In truth, he’d only realized it by pushing Radiant Light Myriad Miles to the extreme.
That he could go even faster.
He’d thought his sprint to Chang’an was top speed.
Wrong.
Chasing Blood Phantom with total focus on lightness skill and full power opened the path.
No— thrust him into a new realm.
Courtesy of Blood Phantom.
Twelve sichen of pure, all-out lightness skill concentration unveiled a new domain.
Before, no matter how fiercely he chased, he couldn’t breach it.
But enlightenment from breaking the wall changed everything this time.
Eleven sichen flat-out, and the higher realm dawned.
That let him arrive right after the meditation plus about one gak.
Still, the half-sichen buffer was simple.
'I can catch him.'
He was certain.
Plus, dangling firm hope of escape would make him spill every detail he knew.
No intent to spare him, but the illusion had to feel ironclad.
Hence the half sichen.
The one-sichen meditation served to inspect his arts too.
All goals met.
Reviewing the energy flow burned the half sichen.
Ha Mu-baek rose.
"Time to go?"
He kicked off.
Radiant Light Myriad Miles.
True to its name— outpacing light across myriad li— his form vanished.
Undeniably faster than Do Mun-wi’s departure.
One sichen later.
Do Mun-wi’s eyes bulged wide.
A figure had whipped past him in a flash, blocking his path.
Unbelievable.
Half sichen late start, yet overtaken in half sichen.
Meant at least double his speed.
No such lightness skill existed.
His one pride: fastest in the world.
Orthodox sects, unorthodox, Demonic Cult, Blood Cult— all combined.
Now shattered.
"I kept the promise fair and square. You’re the slow one."
"L-Liar... guk!"
He tried to shout something, but couldn’t.
Ha Mu-baek’s sword had sliced his throat in an instant.