Chapter 386
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 386
Chapter Title: Radiant Purification
Clang!
A deafening clang echoed through the air.
Only then did Pyeong Deok-jo finally spot the Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost looming right before his eyes.
"U, ugh!"
Startled out of his wits, he stumbled backward and fell flat on his rear.
He had no choice.
The creature's movements had been utterly invisible.
If Ha Mu-baek hadn't already closed in beside him and drawn his sword...
Pyeong Deok-jo's head would be sailing through the empty air by now.
"Same old habits, I see."
Ha Mu-baek muttered as he eyed the Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost.
The head protruding from its side met his gaze and flashed a ghastly grin.
Then it vanished once more.
It reappeared directly in front of Gwan Ha-kyung.
The monster's left-hand claws slashed toward Gwan Ha-kyung's throat.
But...
Clang!
Ha Mu-baek's sword blocked it.
"Grrrr."
With a guttural growl, the Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost tried to vanish again.
Thwack!
Ha Mu-baek's kick sent it flying backward.
Roll, roll.
The severed side-head tumbled across the ground.
Spotting the group, it curled into another sinister smile.
"Ugh."
"Kuh."
The eerie sight drew involuntary groans from everyone.
Boom!
In a flash, Ha Mu-baek lunged forward and stomped down on the head.
But it rolled away swiftly, rejoining its body.
Ha Mu-baek's foot merely gouged a deep crater in the dirt.
"You filthy rat."
Ha Mu-baek muttered, glaring at the rising Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost.
"Grrr."
The creature growled back at Ha Mu-baek, eyes burning with malice.
It grinned wickedly and vanished again.
Reappearing once more before Gwan Ha-kyung.
The instant Ha Mu-baek moved to block its claws, the side-head launched itself at him.
Baring razor-sharp fangs, it lunged to tear into Ha Mu-baek's neck.
Ha Mu-baek merely tilted his head aside, evading effortlessly.
The body shifted, catching the falling head.
Everyone's jaws dropped at the grotesque fighting style.
Throwing its head. Catching it.
A monster.
The word fit this abomination perfectly.
"For a jiangshi... you're one cunning bastard."
Ha Mu-baek sensed the creature's bottomless hostility toward him.
Yet it targeted those around him.
Waiting for an opening in his defenses.
Tactics unbelievable for a brainless jiangshi.
"Kyak."
Black sword qi surged from the Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost's claws amid its eerie cry.
Its fangs gleamed with the same dark energy.
"Eek!"
Yu Gwi-gwang yelped in shock.
Superior dark blood jiangshi could wield qi like this on rare occasions.
The monster grinned again.
Its form blinked out of sight, claws materializing in an instant.
Clang!
This time, pristine white sword qi coated Ha Mu-baek's blade.
"Kiaaaak!"
The Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost shrieked the moment qi met its flesh.
A reflexive spasm.
Ha Mu-baek remained unmoved.
His sword struck before it could vanish.
Slash.
It severed the right arm clutching the head.
Thud.
Roll, roll.
The head hit the ground and tumbled.
Ha Mu-baek stomped once more.
But it rolled away and floated into the air.
Drawing its own head with Air Grasp.
A glint sparked in Ha Mu-baek's eyes.
No Decapitated Blood Ghost he'd faced before had such a trick.
Likely, this one had mutated from a mere blood jiangshi into a Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost.
The Demon-Sealing Corps, Fierce Dragon Corps, and Pyeong Deok-jo recoiled in horror.
"Hmm."
Ha Mu-baek stared intently at the monster he'd dubbed the Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost.
Wondering what it would try next.
The fallen arm lifted into the air.
It floated back to the shoulder.
Black energy oozed forth, enveloping it.
Rotten flesh sprouted, reattaching the arm seamlessly.
Another first.
"What in the world are you?"
"Grrr."
Only a savage growl answered Ha Mu-baek's question.
"Kiruk?"
Then...
The floating head cocked quizzically.
The shoulder, midway through reattaching the right arm.
The swirling black energy began to falter.
Instead...
A faint white glow shimmered.
Thud.
The arm dropped clean off.
The head whipped toward Ha Mu-baek, staring at its own shoulder.
Killing intent exploded from its pitch-black eyes.
No wonder.
The repulsive energy that lured it here clung to its shoulder and arm.
Preventing reattachment.
"Kaaaaak!!!"
Howling in rage, the body and head charged Ha Mu-baek.
From left and right.
"You've gone berserk?"
Discarding its cunning tactics for a mad rush.
Ha Mu-baek swung his sword.
This time, bereft of sword qi.
Slash.
The left arm fell.
A dark blood jiangshi's body could withstand sword qi, but at Ha Mu-baek's realm, severing a limb bare-bladed was trivial.
Thwack!
His kick hurled the body and head backward.
The head floated up.
The body rose.
The left arm ascended and reattached flawlessly.
A different outcome from before.
Ha Mu-baek nodded.
As if piecing it together.
"My energy counters it perfectly."
That inky black aura withered against his pristine white sword qi.
The earlier rejection? Pure instinct against its bane.
Ha Mu-baek activated his Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Black energy churned in the dantian.
The same swirled within the head.
'Lower and upper dantian?'
A thread-thin qi strand linked dantian and head.
Like a silken cord.
Impossible to detect without the Infinite Bright Wheel Eye.
Ha Mu-baek slashed the thread.
It reconnected instantly.
This time, his sword bore qi.
Thud.
The head dropped, then floated anew.
The thread reformed.
Even its counter endured the severance.
His own power countered the energy birthing such abominations.
'But which of my energies acts as the counter?'
Ha Mu-baek tested methodically.
His white sword qi blended Infinite, Yeoui, and Radiance.
By will, he segregated Infinite Yeoui from Radiance.
Infinite Yeoui resisted separation.
Having mastered them together from the start.
Higher mastery would allow it, he mused.
Infusing Infinite Yeoui qi, he severed the shoulder again.
The fallen shoulder reattached.
'Radiance, then.'
That confirmed the counter.
Wounds from qi lacking Radiance healed fine.
He knew all now.
Ha Mu-baek's sword blazed with pure white sword qi.
Radiance in its unadulterated form.
"Kiaak! Kiak!"
The Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost shrieked hysterically and lunged.
A simple thrust.
It pierced the creature's dantian clean through.
Radiance erupted like a tempest within its body.
Shatter.
The torso crumbled to dust in an instant.
"Kraaaaa!"
The head's cry was unmistakably a scream now.
A wail brimming with agony.
The energy flooding the head ebbed away feebly.
"Kuhhh."
The scream's timbre shifted.
"Kuh. Wh-what... is this..."
A human voice spilled forth.
The onlookers jumped in shock.
A lone head... speaking.
What fresh horror was this?
They retreated further.
Only Ha Mu-baek perceived the change in the head.
Radiance infiltrated where black energy had fled.
A fleeting return to clarity, like a dying light.
"Y-you? D-definitely... Hocheon Corps Leader..."
"You know me?"
Pung Gi-hyu tried to nod, but couldn't.
"What happened to you?"
"Turned into a monster. I put it down."
A curt reply.
Pung Gi-hyu grasped the gist.
His body was gone from view.
Far removed from his brief lucid spell earlier.
"Who are you?"
"Pung Gi-hyu. Wind Spirit Valley Lord. Th-thank... Ho... cheon... corps..."
Words unfinished, Pung Gi-hyu's head dissolved into dust and faded away.
Nothing left, as if it had never been.
"Pung Gi-hyu..."
A faintly recalled name.
The reason was simple.
He who'd mastered Demonic Arts and erased his own sect with his hands.
They'd failed to capture him as a dark blood jiangshi back then.
And here he was.
"Come to think of it..."
Another memory surfaced.
Yeon Baek-ryang—the dark blood jiangshi that troubled them before perishing by their blades.
This one's face matched perfectly.
Realizing it only now.
"As I thought. A dead dark blood jiangshi revived as a Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost? No inner core, either."
Dissolved completely to dust—no inner core remained.
Though jiangshi should possess one.
"I-Instructor... what the hell was that...?"
Pyeong Deok-jo edged closer warily.
"Beats me. First specimen I've seen, too."
Raiding Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest, he'd cataloged countless fiends.
But a dark blood jiangshi evolving into Decapitated Dark Blood Ghost? Unprecedented.
Its form and antics suited the "ghost" label to a tee.
"How'd it feel?"
Ha Mu-baek turned, asking.
Faces drained bone-white all around.
He chuckled softly.
"Sorry about that. Its presence screamed dark blood jiangshi. Had no clue it'd be that."
His nonchalance stunned them anew.
Pung Geon and the rest couldn't hide their awe.
"Catch your breath. Then we move. With that gone, the territory shifts—more jiangshi inbound soon."
Deep into the night, after the day's training wrapped up.
Ha Seol-ran and Yeon Ha-min, fresh from their baths and readying for bed, received an unexpected visitor.
"Instructor Han?"
Han Seol-bing.
She'd come all the way to their room in Graceful Dragon Dormitory herself.
"What's the matter?"
Ha Seol-ran asked.
"I need a word with Cadet Yeon Ha-min. Mind if I borrow her briefly?"
"Sure."
Uncertain what it was about, Yeon Ha-min nonetheless rose and draped her Featherwind Robe over her nightclothes.
Easier than changing fully.
The pair set off.
Yeon Ha-min trailed silently behind Han Seol-bing.
Her destination: the instructors' quarters—Han Seol-bing's room.
As Yeon Ha-min sat at the low table, her eyes caught stacks of boxes in the corner.
"Those...?"
"Blood Poison Pills your instructor fetched from the Sichuan Tang Clan."
Han Seol-bing replied curtly.
"Ah."
The instructor who'd dipped back briefly, then vanished just as quick.
That must be the haul.
Han Seol-bing fixed her gaze on Yeon Ha-min.
Then spoke.
"Not regretting your current martial arts?"
The unforeseen query gave Yeon Ha-min pause.
"I do."
Honest words.
She knew Three Talents Arts and its forms were superb.
Regret lingered all the same.
"What if it were Yeon Clan techniques? Would you train them?"
Another bolt from the blue.
Grind.
Yeon Ha-min clenched her teeth, the sound echoing.
Eyes sharpening, she shook her head fiercely.
"Never. I'd die before learning their arts."
A response forged in steel.
Han Seol-bing regarded her steadily, then produced a manual from her bosom and set it on the table.
"...What's this?"
"The Deputy Pavilion Lord asked me to pass it to you."
Her youngest uncle, mentioned.
But Yeon Ha-min whipped her head away.
Obviously.
If it was from her uncle to deliver, it had to be Yeon Clan arts.
This, she wouldn't yield.
No matter his aid to her and her mother, or the letter delivered.
Not a speck of desire to learn Yeon arts.
"The Deputy said you'd train this one."