Chapter 302
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 302
Chapter Title: What Are You?
Sword and fist.
Fist and sword.
Black and white.
White and black.
The pure bright white fire.
And the evil dark black smoke.
The two energies clashed ferociously in midair, scattering their savage auras.
Hyeon-hwang gritted his teeth.
It was the thunderous crash of collision that Hyeon-hwang had imagined.
However.
It didn't unfold as Hyeon-hwang had envisioned.
White Fire Sword Aura
Shattering the evil dark smoke, cleaving it in two!
With a deafening crackle.
The pure bright white fire utterly shattered the evil dark black smoke, slicing it apart.
A wide-open path formed between Ha Mu-baek and Hyeon-hwang.
The pristine white fire incinerated Hyeon-hwang's pitch-black energy.
Hyeon-hwang's eyes widened in shock.
The black energy extending from his fist tip split apart to either side.
Filling his vision was a blindingly white world.
That pristine white energy pouring from Ha Mu-baek's sword.
It hurtled straight toward Hyeon-hwang.
"Th-this... This can't be happening!!!!"
Hyeon-hwang's desperate scream.
The white fire sword aura swallowed him whole, heedless of his cries.
Only then did the explosive roar Hyeon-hwang had imagined shake heaven and earth.
The Shaolin monks stared at the scene in stunned silence.
Among them, Hyeon-gwang seemed to suffer the greatest shock.
"It didn't go as Sahyung anticipated."
Hyeon-gil spoke calmly beside him.
His voice held not a shred of respect for the Shaolin Temple's long-time leader.
On the contrary.
It carried contempt and pity for his wayward senior brother who had strayed from the righteous path.
The storm of sword energy raged fiercely.
No one could see what was happening at its center.
Yet the Shaolin monks all anticipated the outcome.
Inside, Hyeon-hwang's body would be torn to shreds, leaving no intact corpse.
Ha Mu-baek's sword technique came to an end.
The white fire sword aura's storm subsided.
The scene revealed before them.
Everything around was pristine, as if nothing had happened.
In the midst.
A lone figure lay collapsed.
It was Hyeon-hwang.
Shockingly, though his body was covered in wounds.
He was alive.
"H-how..."
The Shaolin monks trailed off in astonishment.
Their predictions had been spectacularly wrong.
But that wasn't the only reason.
How.
How could he emerge from that immense energy storm looking relatively intact?
Ha Mu-baek wrinkled his nose in irritation.
He had sensed it with his energy perception and anticipated as much, but seeing it firsthand was still aggravating.
"What are you?"
Ha Mu-baek spat the irritated question.
What are you?
The very question Hyeon-hwang had hurled at Ha Mu-baek.
Now thrown right back.
"Kuhhuhuhu. Kuhh. Kuhhuhuhu."
Hyeon-hwang lay sprawled, chuckling.
Not a scrap of energy remained in his body.
He had expended it all in the clash with Ha Mu-baek just now.
Truly scraped from the very bottom.
That was why his clothes were intact.
His body was riddled with wounds, but nothing was severed.
Yet that wasn't the only reason for his laughter.
It was a new fact he had learned from this defeat.
Hyeon-hwang slowly rose and sat on the ground.
"Kekekeke. You can't kill me."
That was it.
When Ha Mu-baek's white fire sword aura had engulfed him completely.
A surge from deep within Hyeon-hwang's dantian had protected him.
Darkness. Chaos. And void.
Those three energies.
From some unknown hiding place, that energy shielded Hyeon-hwang's dantian, heart, and head.
Ha Mu-baek had sensed it too.
That was why he asked.
What are you?
It felt like no mere human.
But the response was that smug laughter.
Tch.
Ha Mu-baek slowly stepped through the air, raising his sword once more.
"Shall we see if that's really true?"
The sword swung again.
And the Five Absolutes Heavenbreaker revealed its form anew.
That majestic sight unfolded once more.
This time, Hyeon-hwang did not fire back his energy.
He lacked the inner power for it anyway.
But more than that, he was confident Ha Mu-baek couldn't kill him.
The area around where Hyeon-hwang sat was devastated once more.
And the revealed sight.
Hyeon-hwang sat cross-legged in full view, grinning wickedly.
He had endured this time too.
Without any resistance at all.
Perfectly intact.
He felt something drain rapidly from within his body.
The power drawn by the darkness, chaos, and void.
A force so immense he wondered if he even possessed it.
Truly remarkable power.
The Abyss.
From somewhere, it replenished that vast energy.
Mysteriously profound.
Right now, it was protecting him thus.
"Kekekekeke."
Hyeon-hwang laughed maniacally.
"......"
"...Insane..."
The Shaolin monks gaped at him, dumbfounded.
They had no choice.
Surviving Ha Mu-baek's attack unscathed was shocking enough.
But Hyeon-hwang's current appearance was even more astonishing.
He had aged a decade in an instant.
How could a person.
Suddenly.
Like that.
Black smoke briefly rose from Hyeon-hwang's body, then seeped outward.
And.
Hyeon-hwang slowly reverted, looking a decade younger.
Back to his original form.
Instead.
The surrounding vegetation withered and twisted.
They had witnessed it all.
"Seriously, what are you?"
Ha Mu-baek asked, his face a mix of disbelief.
Not content with drawing on innate true energy, he had absorbed life force from nearby creatures to restore it.
That.
Was beyond human limits.
"H-huh, Soul Absorbing Great Law..."
One of the Shaolin monks snapped out of it and muttered.
He was terrified.
How could he not be?
The Soul Absorbing Great Law.
Wasn't it the most vile demonic art, eschewed even by Demonic Cult or Blood Cult scum?
That terror spread to the surrounding Shaolin monks.
"Uuu..."
"...Euu."
Hyeon-hwang's gaze turned their way.
"What did you say? Soul Absorbing Great Law?"
Hyeon-hwang chuckled in absurdity.
How dare they liken him to those demonic wretches.
"Pathetic worm."
The Shaolin monk who met Hyeon-hwang's eyes trembled violently and averted his gaze.
Hyeon-hwang turned back to Ha Mu-baek.
"Kekeke. What now?"
Ha Mu-baek, standing about three jang away, sheathed his sword, crossed his arms, and stared at Hyeon-hwang.
"You. You don't even know what just happened in your own body, do you? No way you don't."
"What nonsense?"
"Something about the Abyss? Looks like it's messing with your senses too."
Hyeon-hwang scowled.
"Just now. The energy you used. That was innate true energy."
Ha Mu-baek spoke pityingly.
Innate true energy.
The vital source of life one possesses from birth.
He had drawn on that energy.
Yet he hadn't even noticed.
Impossible for any normal martial artist.
Of course, a third-rate who couldn't read their own energy might miss it.
But even second-rates who sense energy flow could detect innate true energy's movement.
Failing to sense such a crucial vital force was absurd.
In other words, Hyeon-hwang's energy perception was no better than a third-rate's.
At Ha Mu-baek's words, Hyeon-hwang startled and touched his face.
No notable changes.
Using that much innate true energy should have wrinkled his skin.
Yet the skin under his fingers felt the same as when he gained the void.
"Where'd you pull that cheap trick..."
Hyeon-hwang glared at Ha Mu-baek, relieved.
"Tch tch. Can't see around you?"
Only then did Hyeon-hwang look around, eyes widening round.
As expected.
The surrounding grass and trees had withered away.
Not natural death.
Drained beyond limits by someone sucking out all vitality.
"Your doing."
Ha Mu-baek's words made Hyeon-hwang tremble.
Now he understood the Shaolin disciple's mention of the Soul Absorbing Great Law.
"Last question. What the hell are you?"
The third time.
The same question, asked thrice.
Hyeon-hwang stared at Ha Mu-baek.
"I am Hyeon-hwang. A martial artist who obtained a fragment of primordial power. Hyeon-hwang."
Ha Mu-baek shook his head.
"Not you. The thing hiding inside you. Abyss? That one."
At Ha Mu-baek's words.
Hyeon-gil's expression changed.
The Abyss.
When Hyeon-hwang mentioned primordial.
Hyeon-gil had inwardly nodded, agreeing with Elder Gwanghae-seung's guess.
But hearing Ha Mu-baek utter "Abyss" shocked him.
The entity he had encountered.
The Abyss.
How long had it been since he accepted it?
Ha Mu-baek was seeking the Abyss from Hyeon-hwang.
From his senior brother turned demon.
"The Abyss is merely an intrinsic part of the power I possess."
Hyeon-hwang replied to Ha Mu-baek, who shook his head.
"It's no simple thing. You showed it yourself."
Ha Mu-baek glared at Hyeon-hwang.
"Let's see how long you last. Your innate true energy isn't infinite."
Ha Mu-baek raised his sword again.
And the Heavenbreaker unfolded without mercy.
After that, three more Heavenbreakers followed.
In total, six Heavenbreakers.
Hyeon-gwang endured them all without a scratch.
Instead, the surroundings turned into a land of death.
Even the trees near the Shaolin monks withered away.
Fortunately, that black smoke didn't drain human life force.
However, who knew for sure.
Around the withered trees lay shrunken field mouse corpses and desiccated insect husks.
It devoured animal vitality too.
If that power grew further and took human life force?
It would become a devilish great law surpassing the Soul Absorbing Great Law.
The consequences terrified them.
With each Heavenbreaker endured, Hyeon-hwang aged more severely and absorbed more life force.
The fourth Heavenbreaker.
Engulfed Hyeon-hwang's body.
"Kuhuk. Keuheheheuk."
For the first time, a groan of agony burst from Hyeon-hwang's mouth.
Sitting still, he collapsed to the ground, shuddering.
His body shriveled, on the verge of death.
Yet his dantian remained intact.
As black energy draped over it, grass, trees, field mice, and insects withered anew.
Hyeon-hwang's recovery took longer.
"Feels like this is the last one?"
A smile tugged at Ha Mu-baek's lips.
As if eager to see if he'd endure.
Hyeon-hwang's eyes changed.
Filled with black energy, whites vanished entirely.
Growing blacker, deeper now.
The moment abyss-like darkness filled his eyes.
"You."
Hyeon-hwang's voice changed.
Hoarse and cracked.
That instant.
Ha Mu-baek sealed his energy presence.
Not wanting the Shaolin monks to hear.
"Are you the Abyss?"
"......"
No answer.
White fire sword aura rose from Ha Mu-baek's sword.
"...Indeed."
"What are you?"
Ha Mu-baek asked again.
"Consider it an honor. You're the first to make me hear the same question four times."
"The Abyss is merely the Abyss. Nothing more."
Ha Mu-baek eyed him crookedly—not Hyeon-hwang, but the Abyss.
"The will dwelling in the power from beyond this world, passed down from the primordial origin. That is I, the Abyss."
"Doesn't feel right for primordial. Feels like it hoarded all the world's malice and foulness."
"Loathsomeness, viciousness, filth—they too are part of the primordial."
Primordial.
The beginning of the world.
And all things in it.
In that sense, it was true.
Loathsomeness, viciousness, filth—all parts of the world.
"What's your goal?"
Ha Mu-baek asked.
The Abyss answered.
"No goal. As the will within power, we simply exist as we are."
"Then this mess now?"
"Hyeon-hwang, who gained power. His will alone."
"Not you egging him on?"
"We merely strive to fulfill the owner's desires."
The question and answer continued.
Ha Mu-baek scowled.
Ultimately, Hyeon-hwang's base desires manifested through his power as this Abyss's will.
Claimed as primordial will.
In truth, another face of the caster's deep inner will and aspirations.
Hence, the Abyss.
"Well, we'll see if that's true."
But Ha Mu-baek didn't buy it easily.
The sword moved.
Toward the sole intact dantian.
A massive storm raged.
"Keueueuk. Keuk."
A scream burst from Hyeon-hwang's mouth.
Different from before.
His body drenched in blood.
From the immense attack, one arm severed, face grotesquely torn.
Knees twisted unnaturally.
Only the dantian area remained intact.
Perfectly.
Ha Mu-baek smiled again.
"See? This is your will."