Chapter 473
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 473
Chapter Title: I Have Some Shame Too
Slice.
An utterly quiet cutting sound.
With it, silence descended around them.
There wasn't a breath of wind in the forest.
The second abyss.
That single sword stroke.
Cleaved through the qi.
To be precise, it severed the qi of the myriad savage beasts flowing from the forest to Gae Hong-cheon.
In that instant.
The qi filling the forest scattered.
Sasasasasak.
Like swarms of insects retreating in droves.
The qi of the myriad savage beasts dispersed farther and farther away until its presence vanished completely.
Deep within.
As if fleeing into the deepest recesses.
"Kuh, kuugh."
Only then.
Gae Hong-cheon, finally noticing the change, let out a groan of pain.
"Wh-why... the Blood Demon God's qi, qi..."
The endlessly replenishing qi had vanished.
And now.
Gae Hong-cheon's body was split in two.
Just as Ha Mu-baek had predicted.
The bisected body strained desperately to rejoin.
But it lacked the power to hold itself together.
The qi of the myriad savage beasts lurking in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest had concealed itself.
"Hoo. Enough already, Blood Demon."
Ha Mu-baek let out a deep sigh before raising his sword once more.
By now, three-tenths of his qi had recovered.
But compared to the start, it was barely nine-tenths short.
Pouring all that qi into his blade once again.
He drew it diagonally with a sweep.
The third abyss hurtled toward Gae Hong-cheon.
Pasasasak.
That sound alone.
Gae Hong-cheon, eyes bulging wide, tried to say something.
But without uttering a word.
He crumbled into ash and vanished.
Ha Mu-baek remained frozen in his sword-wielding stance.
Standing there just like that.
Once the abyss sword form ended.
His qi returned once more.
But now, it amounted to less than three-tenths of his full inner power.
Thud.
Ha Mu-baek collapsed straight to the ground.
Then sprawled out flat on his back.
"Fuck. That was really tough."
He turned his head.
Toward where Gae Hong-cheon had emerged.
A passage leading underground came into view.
"You little rats. Just wait a bit."
Muttering that, Ha Mu-baek closed his eyes.
He was truly exhausted.
Qi from all directions surged toward Ha Mu-baek.
Lying down, circulating his energy in meditative breathing.
Ha Mu-baek was resting while simultaneously recovering his inner power.
With his senses heightened to the maximum.
A sphere ten jang in radius centered on Ha Mu-baek.
That was the sensory field he had deployed now.
Utterly shrunken compared to its maximum range.
He could feel even the tiniest twitch of an ant's antennae.
Ha Seol-ran had her eyes closed, concentrating her mind.
Her senses focused solely on where Ha Mu-baek was.
A battle that might be the final showdown.
Facing an enemy's formidable qi.
She tensed up, sensing the movements of the new foe and Ha Mu-baek.
Her expression shifted moment by moment.
"Ah, aah..."
When a sigh escaped her lips.
The faces of those around her stiffened.
"Agh!"
When Ha Mu-baek took a sword wound from Gae Hong-cheon's strike.
A scream had burst from Ha Seol-ran's mouth.
The others wanted to ask what happened but couldn't.
For fear of breaking her concentration.
Ha Seol-ran unknowingly clasped her hands in front of her chest.
Her fists clenched tight with tension.
"Oppa... please..."
The two immense qis waged a battle at such transcendent realms.
Honestly, Ha Seol-ran couldn't grasp how it was unfolding.
She only felt that her oppa had suffered a major wound.
And that it was an evenly matched clash.
How much time passed like that.
A qi utterly different from before erupted from her oppa.
From before.
The qi when he finished off that monstrous jiangshi.
It was unmistakable.
"Ah, aah."
A voice of relief spilled from Ha Seol-ran's lips.
It manifested twice, three times.
Her oppa's qi, shrunken to its limit.
And then.
The enemy's qi.
Vanished.
Completely.
"Oppa..."
Tears flowed from Ha Seol-ran's eyes.
Tears of relief.
At her sudden tears, the others' hearts sank.
But seeing her open her eyes smiling, they sighed in relief too.
If Ha Seol-ran was smiling like that.
Ha Mu-baek had won.
"Oppa won."
Cheers were about to erupt at her words.
"But. His remaining inner power is almost gone."
Words that revealed just how fierce the battle had been.
"Hmm."
Wi Ji-gun seemed lost in thought.
Then turned his body.
"Looks like I need to go myself."
With that, he leaped into the air.
He had stayed here until now, lest he interfere with his disciple's fight.
But now the great battle was over, and little inner power remained.
Time to go stand guard at least.
The battle in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest wasn't fully ended yet.
Hadn't Ha Mu-baek said as much.
To uproot them completely.
An incredible battle had ended, but it didn't seem like that would uproot everything.
As Wi Ji-gun leaped away.
"M-Master! M-me too!"
Ha Seol-ran hurriedly followed.
Han Seol-bing, leaping after her, grabbed her hand and unleashed her lightness skill.
At her current level, chasing would be tough.
"Deputy Corps Leader..."
"Come along. I think I have business there too."
Han Seol-bing said calmly.
Before being the Fierce Dragon Corps deputy.
She could guess where Ha Mu-baek was headed now.
And what he planned to do to uproot them.
She hadn't known remnants of the Blood Cult were hiding there either.
What remained now.
Was to truly stain their hands with blood.
Against jiangshi.
Not these cursed demonic creatures.
Fierce Dragon Corps Squad Seven, the Namgung siblings.
They too hurriedly leaped after them.
Dam Mu-hun turned his head.
"Not going?"
So Hwi-woong shook his head at the question.
"Even I have a sense of shame. This time, what Mu-baek did should count fully as his own merit. We return to the Demon-Sealing Corps."
At So Hwi-woong's words.
The Hocheon Corps began preparations.
The Demon-Sealing Corps, the Fierce Dragon Corps with them, and the people of Seon Yu Valley also prepared to return to the Demon-Sealing Corps headquarters.
Only the new Fierce Dragon Corps recruits looked around uncertainly.
Chase after those who left first.
Or.
Follow these.
"You come with us. The Fierce Dragon Corps always stops at Demon-Sealing Corps HQ first before missions anyway."
Yu Gwi-gwang stepped forward, unable to stand it.
Among the Fierce Dragon Corps here now.
He was the most senior.
If Deputy Han Seol-bing were here, maybe, but she had left the corps behind to rush to the corps leader.
"Y-yes, sir."
The new recruits answered and hurriedly began preparations.
Pung Geon approached Yu Gwi-gwang.
"So what about the Fierce Dragon Corps now?"
Yu Gwi-gwang shrugged.
He was leaving the corps anyway.
His five years were nearing their end.
Crackle.
Thud thud thud.
Earth and small clumps of dirt kept falling from everywhere.
Inevitable.
Above their heads.
A heaven-shaking clash raged on the surface.
Il-no sat in his office, biting his lip.
He had done everything he could.
"Will it be alright, Eldest Brother?"
A worried question.
From Yuk-no.
After the aphrodisiac poison incident in Mu-chang, he had returned to the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
He now knew everything that had happened here.
The Ho-gyo Gods had all gone out to fight the enemy.
Even Il-no secretly turning the former cult leader into a jiangshi and sending him out.
"What nonsense, Sixth Brother? Of course the Cult Leader will win."
He was the Eighth of the Blood Cult's Ten Elders.
He declared it with his bulging eyes.
"Hoo. If Fourth Brother were here..."
Someone muttered regretfully.
The Third Elder.
First, Third, Sixth, Eighth Elders.
The four who had secured the safety of Gae Seo-ak, grandson of the Blood Cult Leader and current cult leader, and evacuated here.
Five including the Tenth Elder, Heol Bi-yeong Do Mun-wi.
But Do Mun-wi had died to Ha Mu-baek.
The other three's sharp gazes turned to the Third Elder.
"Don't even mention that traitor's name."
Il-no said in an anger-laced voice.
At the height of the war.
The Second Elder had told Il-no that the eldest brother's path was wrong, that he would seek the right path, then left headquarters to join the fray.
Whether he died or just vanished after.
To Il-no, he was a traitor.
Meanwhile.
The ground-shaking explosions and tremors grew fiercer.
Then.
Stopped.
And silence arrived.
The four Blood Cult Elders tensed up.
Their senses all directed outward.
"Wh-what happened?"
They waited over one gak.
No sound, no movement.
That meant.
The great battle had ended.
A victor emerged.
Il-no scowled.
Different from the other jiangshi.
He couldn't control even the Heaven-Exterminating Jiangshi or Asura Blood Heaven Jiangshi.
So he didn't know.
It might have torn Ha Mu-baek apart and left elsewhere.
Or it might return.
But.
This quiet for one gak after it ended, with no movement.
At least it hadn't returned.
"It didn't lose, did it?"
The Eighth Elder asked cautiously.
Even deep underground.
That overwhelming qi piercing through thick earth.
Recalling it, Gae Hong-cheon seemed unbeatable.
"Who knows."
The Third Elder answered carefully.
"Tch."
Il-no clicked his tongue.
"I'll go check."
The three were startled by his decision.
What if Ha Mu-baek.
That monster won?
Reading their faces, Il-no said.
"One gak has passed. If that bastard could move, he'd have stormed in by now."
True.
The battle started soon after Gae Hong-cheon burst to the surface.
Ha Mu-baek.
High chance he learned the entrance here.
Yet no movement so far?
"Even if that bastard somehow beat the Supreme Cult Leader, he's gravely wounded or at mutual destruction. We go out now, finish him off, and plan for the future."
True.
But.
Plan for the future?
What was left of the Blood Cult?
All Ho-gyo Gods awakened, even former cult leader made jiangshi.
The cult leader crushed under rubble, screaming his last.
Anything left?
If anything.
Just the vast Blood Cult knowledge in their heads.
How many years to rebuild with that?
Ignoring their tangled worries.
Il-no stepped forward thud thud.
The other three hurriedly followed.
Light streamed in from the entrance.
Meaning all concealment was shattered.
Thus.
Emerging toward the entrance.
Nothing was there.
Just barren wasteland.
This was once the Blood Cult headquarters.
Ha Mu-baek had wrecked it.
Reduced to ruins.
Yet remnants of its grand halls hinted at past glory.
Now, nothing.
No hall debris.
No trees.
Barren wasteland empty of all.
One thing existed in that wasteland.
A single figure sprawled spread-eagled.
"H-Ha Mu-baek!!!"
Il-no bellowed upon seeing it.
His judgment was swift.
Seeing Ha Mu-baek passed out.
At least seriously injured.
Even if mutual destruction.
Still needed to confirm.
Drawing his saber from his waist, he leaped.
"Kill him!"
At Il-no's shout, Third, Sixth, and Eighth Elders infused their weapons with qi and leaped.
In that moment.
Ha Mu-baek's eyes snapped open.
"Fuck. Finally crawled out, you rats."
With a murderous mutter.
Ha Mu-baek rose.