Chapter 192
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 192
Chapter Title: Won't Die Easily
A mad impulse surged within him.
He truly felt like scooping up the dirt right in front of him and shoving it into his mouth.
No, he didn't even have the luxury for that.
He wanted to gnaw on his own right arm hanging from his shoulder.
It was useless anyway, smashed to pieces.
If he used it to quell this raging hunger and appetite, wouldn't that give it some meaning in itself?
Such thoughts dominated Gwang Hoe-cheon's mind.
"Ugh... Uwaaa... Uwaaah..."
Grotesque groans spilled from his lips.
Saliva drooled down in streams.
'No... I can't.'
Amid it all, a thread of sanity barely clung on, desperately maintaining reason in his head.
That was why he could still sit cross-legged.
Gwang Hoe-cheon hurriedly circulated the Blood Art.
A Blood Art he knew only in theory, never practiced.
It was only natural. Just that morning, his internal energy had still been sealed.
There was no way he could have learned it.
No, even beyond that, he had no intention of learning a Blood Art.
He had merely memorized its formulas, theories, and energy pathways in depth for research purposes.
This was his first time actually moving his internal energy according to them.
And with the Phantom Soul Poison ravaging him, it was far from easy.
Still, he had to do it.
No, he must succeed.
If he failed...
'I'll become a starvation corpse. I can't let that happen.'
Gwang Hoe-cheon desperately circulated the Blood Art.
The antidote for Phantom Soul Poison was simple yet profoundly difficult.
The poison only manifested its effects upon merging with a Blood Poison Art.
Golden Command Devouring Blood Poison Art.
A Blood Poison Art long vanished from the Blood Cult.
He had approximated a restoration using the remaining Blood Poison Arts instead.
Naming it Devouring Blood Poison Art.
Sever the link between it and the poison, and the poison's effects naturally ceased.
A truly simple principle.
But severing that link was the hard part.
No, he wouldn't even be able to find the connection point between the Blood Poison Art and the poison.
It was all but impossible.
But Gwang Hoe-cheon could do it.
Because it was a poison he himself had created.
However, to sever that link required a Blood Art.
Ordinary internal energy couldn't even approach the connection.
Not just any Blood Art would do.
A Blood Art capable of blocking the Devouring Blood Poison Art's function.
The Golden Command Blood Art.
Thus, Gwang Hoe-cheon was now attempting to circulate a Blood Art he had never learned.
Relying solely on the theory in his head.
Ha Mu-baek watched Gwang Hoe-cheon silently.
His Infinite Bright Wheel Eye scrutinized every movement of the internal energy within Gwang Hoe-cheon.
He couldn't see the poison's flow.
But he could guess. He had experienced it once himself.
'That's the movement of a Blood Art...'
The internal energy just starting to writhe in the lower dantian. Ha Mu-baek recognized it as a Blood Art at once.
'It requires a Blood Art, does it.'
Indeed, what did he intend to do with that Blood Art, and how?
Ha Mu-baek focused even more intently on the changes in Gwang Hoe-cheon's dantian.
'Time is short. Please... please.'
Gwang Hoe-cheon was desperate.
The poison pouch Ha Mu-baek had shoved into his mouth.
The amount of poison that had poured out and been inhaled was enormous.
Swallowed into his stomach, inhaled into his lungs.
The poison was already on the verge of manifesting from both places.
Even for a cultivator with internal energy, there was an incubation period—but the quantity here overwhelmed that entirely.
At most, one da gyeong—about fifteen minutes.
Time to sip a cup of tea.
That was all he had.
No, considering the intense cravings surging in his mind right now, it might not even be half that.
Half a da gyeong.
That was the time left to Gwang Hoe-cheon.
He had to succeed in circulating the Golden Command Blood Art within that window.
The Golden Command Blood Art was a high-level Blood Art permitted only to the Blood Cult's elite.
Gwang Hoe-cheon had received its manual from the Elder One when he began researching Blood Poison Arts.
In truth, with his internal energy sealed, he couldn't have practiced it anyway—and even without the seal, he had no intention to.
It was only natural.
Gwang Hoe-cheon had his sights set on a different martial art.
The absolute supreme art slumbering in the Dan Mok Clan's secret vault.
Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula.
An internal art that could rival the world's best.
Learning a Blood Art would prevent him from cultivating orthodox internal arts.
To obtain it, he had even orchestrated the Dan Mok Clan's destruction—why would he bother with something like the Golden Command Blood Art?
Still, he had studied the Golden Command Blood Art closely.
To reference it in restoring the Golden Command Devouring Blood Poison Art.
Not just that one—he had researched countless Blood Arts and Blood Poison Arts.
And in that process, he discovered it.
That the Golden Command Blood Art disrupted the fusion between the Devouring Blood Poison Art and the poison.
That was why Gwang Hoe-cheon was now desperately trying to circulate the Golden Command Blood Art.
And the Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula?
'First, I need to survive.'
Gwang Hoe-cheon was abandoning his lifelong goal.
For the sake of his even more precious life.
However.
Even if he escaped the Phantom Soul Poison, the Ha Mu-baek before him wouldn't let him go.
But right now, Gwang Hoe-cheon couldn't think that far ahead.
He was solely focused on escaping the immediate crisis.
Gwang Hoe-cheon's talent for martial arts was, as Byeok Ryeok-gae had said, genius-level.
His dantian was already writhing, moving his internal energy along the Golden Command Blood Art's pathways.
Ha Mu-baek confirmed every one of those pathways.
'Golden Command Blood Art.'
He had fought countless high-ranking Blood Cult members in the last war.
Thus, he knew its circulation paths as well.
He recognized it immediately.
He observed the internal energy's movements and Gwang Hoe-cheon's changes closely.
As the energy swirled through his meridians, Gwang Hoe-cheon's expression shifted.
The drooling saliva had stopped.
His face, twisted by uncontrollable appetite, slowly returned to normal.
He was overcoming the poison's energy.
No, the Phantom Soul Poison's effects had halted.
After a brief moment.
Gwang Hoe-cheon opened his eyes.
They gleamed with a strange mix of gold and blood-red.
"You bastard. Because of you, my lifelong goal is ruined."
Gwang Hoe-cheon growled ferociously as he rose to his feet.
"I don't know what your lifelong goal is, but right now, you should be worrying about your life more than that."
Ha Mu-baek had achieved his objective.
Golden Command Blood Art.
He knew its characteristics, and he'd just witnessed it firsthand.
He could experiment by mimicking it.
No need to learn the Blood Art himself. Just imitate its properties.
This bastard's usefulness was now gone.
All that remained was death.
"I'm different from before. Because of you, I ended up learning a Blood Art... My half-completed supreme art has become impure."
The moment those words ended.
A terrifying aura erupted from Gwang Hoe-cheon's entire body.
It was an immense energy incomparable to before.
If he had been in this state at the Moon Dragon Hall, Byeok Ryeok-gae would have lost without question.
'I could have held out for about two hundred breaths.'
Ha Mu-baek coldly assessed his opponent's power.
An aura and energy capable of defeating a peak absolute expert like Byeok Ryeok-gae in two hundred breaths.
That was what Gwang Hoe-cheon now possessed.
Blood Spirit Sealing Origin Locking Acupoint Great Law.
The Blood Cult's supreme art that sealed the lower dantian and internal energy.
It wasn't just sealing.
It accumulated the built-up internal energy layer by layer throughout the body's meridians.
Upon release, it all flooded the dantian at once, explosively boosting internal energy.
Like a one-time burst of latent power.
But on top of that.
If one who had mastered a superior Blood Art beyond Golden Command then sealed and released via this Great Law...
An enormous synergistic effect propelled their realm skyward in one go.
The time required: at least five years.
Five whole years without internal energy—even the Blood Cult had never attempted it.
In a brutal, law-of-the-jungle group like the Blood Cult, voluntarily sealing one's power for five years was as good as suicide.
Thus, no one in Blood Cult history had combined the Blood Spirit Sealing Origin Locking Acupoint Great Law with Golden Command Blood Art.
Gwang Hoe-cheon was the first to succeed.
Crack. Crack.
Gwang Hoe-cheon twisted his neck this way and that.
He rolled his shoulders and flexed his fingers.
His right hand, crushed by Ha Mu-baek, had already healed.
"To think even the remaining internal energy from the Great Law achieves this much..."
Gwang Hoe-cheon muttered with a complex expression.
The Blood Spirit Sealing Origin Locking Acupoint Great Law was a Great Law in name and truth—not a Blood Art to cultivate.
Thus, he had used it to seal his lower dantian and internal energy.
Mid dantian activation allowed its use, granting immense internal energy upon one-time release.
And it didn't interfere with cultivating the Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula.
But now, forced to learn Golden Command Blood Art and experiencing synergy with the partial internal energy from the Great Law...
Regret flooded in: Was clinging to the Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula truly necessary?
The euphoria surging through his body made him feel invincible.
Like he could shatter the Ha Mu-baek before him in an instant.
What if he had learned Golden Command Blood Art first, then executed the Great Law?
Could he have grown this strong even obtaining and cultivating the Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula?
No, even if obtained, the time to cultivate it?
Orthodox martial arts demanded that, didn't they?
At least ten years of training to glimpse their power's edge.
Yet he had gained this strength merely by sealing for a few years?
Of course, Gwang Hoe-cheon's case was exceptionally unique.
The Blood Cult had been annihilated by Ha Mu-baek and the Righteous Heaven Alliance, now in a phase of desperate revival preparations.
Sealing his energy for years posed no issue for him.
No one vied for power against him, and he was essential for restoring Phantom Soul Poison.
"A shame. Maybe it was needless stubbornness. Well, I can check what the Void Lake Billowing Heart Formula is like later."
Gwang Hoe-cheon smiled faintly at Ha Mu-baek.
"How do you want to die?"
His smile soon bared teeth as he asked Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Mu-baek smirked at the question.
He looked drunk on his sudden power, like he couldn't even control his bowels.
Gwang Hoe-cheon's hand went to his waist.
Having swung only fists until now, his sword's presence had been negligible.
Yet it was his cherished blade, brought even as the stronghold crumbled.
A masterwork sword forged at great expense.
Shing.
The sword slid from its sheath.
Its blindingly white blade seemed ready to cleave everything around it.
"You won't die easily. You dare shove a poison pouch in my mouth? Then you must have more. This time, I'll stuff them all down yours."
With those words, Gwang Hoe-cheon assumed his stance.
Big Dipper Illusion Sword Method.
One of the Dan Mok Clan's signature techniques.
Ha Mu-baek frowned as he watched.
"You dare use the Dan Mok Clan's sword art? Truly a beast in human skin."
Ha Mu-baek drew his sword as well.
Won't die easily.
That was what Ha Mu-baek wanted to throw back at Gwang Hoe-cheon.
Red sword energy surged along Gwang Hoe-cheon's blade.
Different from the earlier red fist energy.
This wasn't mere red—it was blood-red.
Blood Gang.
The signature energy of the Blood Cult's peak absolute experts.
It now coated Gwang Hoe-cheon's sword.
Ha Mu-baek's sword gleamed with energy too.
Ink Gang, darker than the night itself.
The gang embodying Ha Mu-baek's intent to utterly demolish his foe.
Taat!
Gwang Hoe-cheon kicked off the ground.
His Blood Gang-infused sword flew straight at Ha Mu-baek.
Ha Mu-baek's sword moved.
Ink Gang, descending like thick darkness to engulf the blood-red.
Boom!
A massive explosion erupted.
Gwang Hoe-cheon's sword moved swiftly.
Like the Big Dipper stars lighting up the dark night sky, points of light hurtled forth.