Chapter 557
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 557
Chapter Title: Are You Prepared to Die, Old Monster?
Un Se-hyuk stared at Ha Mu-baek, who had stepped in front of him, with eyes wide in shock.
"Y-You... bastard..."
It was a face he remembered.
The guy he'd crossed paths with multiple times during the two Martial World Wars.
They'd even fought side by side once or twice.
And every time, this rude punk had called him an old monster.
"Ha Mu-baek."
He growled out the three syllables of the name.
Even back then, the man had been at the peak absolute realm.
A monstrous figure stronger than Un Se-hyuk himself—not to mention his own disciple.
He wasn't from a prestigious orthodox sect, and since he was the Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader's closest confidant in the Hocheon Corps, the Nine Great Sects and Five Great Clans had dismissed him instead.
Because he wasn't the type to become a hero.
Still, those who'd fought on the same battlefield as him knew just how strong he was.
Of course, none of them truly understood him—they just thought they did.
Ha Mu-baek casually glanced around.
At the end of his gaze stood the Plum Blossom Sword Immortal Gyeo Hwi.
"Long time no see, Sword Immortal old timer."
"Indeed, it has been a while."
Gyeo Hwi knew him too, so he returned the greeting.
He was already used to that rude tone.
Wi Su-yeon jumped at her grand martial uncle's mutterings.
It was because of the name Ha Mu-baek.
Her master had mentioned him once before.
Said he might be the one who could answer the questions weighing on her heart.
But seeing this arrogant, disrespectful attitude toward not just her grand martial uncle but even Sword Immortal martial uncle left her utterly confused about what kind of man he was.
Ha Mu-baek's gaze shifted past the Sword Immortal to Gwan Ha-kyeong and Pung Geon.
"Somehow, it feels like you two are the ones dragging trouble everywhere you go."
Even at Ha Mu-baek's words, the pair could only stare back in stunned silence.
A man who shouldn't have been here had suddenly appeared.
Ha Mu-baek repeated the kind of things he'd often heard from Han Seol-bing to the two of them, but their blank faces made him lose interest.
"H-How did you... Corps Leader?"
Gwan Ha-kyeong had sent word, sure, but no matter how he calculated it, there wasn't enough time for him to show up like this.
"Got your messenger hawk. Heard you were tangled up in some headache. Didn't realize it was this much of a headache, though."
Ha Mu-baek's eyes turned to Un Se-hyuk.
To think even a peak absolute expert would get dragged into this.
And without him around, no less.
Clearly, Han Seol-bing's assessment that she attracted incidents was off the mark.
As he scanned the rest of the group with those thoughts in mind, Ha Mu-baek's gaze stopped on Gwan Po.
"What's with that guy?"
His voice carried clear surprise.
"And who the hell are you calling 'that guy'?"
Gwan Po snapped back irritably at being referred to that way.
He'd just seen this stranger casually block Un Se-hyuk's strike—the one meant to slaughter everyone here.
Still, it rubbed him the wrong way.
He reacted with the prickly temper he'd picked up in his black path days.
Ha Mu-baek just smirked at Gwan Po's response.
"Let's deal with that old monster first, then talk."
Ha Mu-baek turned back to Un Se-hyuk.
Killing intent flickered once more in his eyes.
"Old monster. I acknowledged your skills back in the war... Did living too long finally rot your brain?"
"Insolent whelp."
"Filthy old monster. The stench of demonic qi vibrating off you is beyond revolting—it's downright nauseating. Where the hell did you pick up that crap?"
Ha Mu-baek's voice dripped with contempt and murderous intent.
"Go ask Yama in the afterlife."
With those words, an overwhelming wave of killing intent erupted from Un Se-hyuk's body.
Thud.
He charged straight at Ha Mu-baek.
A blade of inky purple sword force hurtled toward Ha Mu-baek's entire body.
Clang!
The pristine white sword force from Ha Mu-baek's drawn blade deflected Un Se-hyuk's strike.
"Hmph. No chance now!"
A few years ago, during the Martial World War.
Even then, he'd felt inferior to the young Ha Mu-baek who had surpassed him.
Fueled by rage at how many geniuses there were in the world.
But not anymore.
Now, he far outstripped that version of Ha Mu-baek.
The brink of absolute peak.
Right on the verge of shattering that wall.
That was how Un Se-hyuk assessed his own realm.
His sword, brimming with confidence, whipped toward Ha Mu-baek in a frenzy.
A storm of dark purple light raged.
It should have carried the fragrance of plum blossoms amid the vibrations, but instead, a subtle foul stench dominated the air.
The rotten smell of demonic qi mingling with the plum scent twisted the floral aroma into something subtly repulsive.
Unleashed through demonic qi, the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques could only be described as bizarre.
Un Se-hyuk, a Huashan disciple who had reached the pinnacle of the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword, now wielded it corrupted by demonic qi.
It was neither orthodox swordsmanship nor demonic.
A half-baked in-between.
Ha Mu-baek effortlessly parried the storm of Un Se-hyuk's strikes bearing down on him.
His pure white sword force grew denser by the moment.
"Kekeke. Looks like you haven't been slacking either!"
Un Se-hyuk's momentum turned increasingly savage.
And with it, the plum fragrance began to fade.
Taking its place was the putrid reek of demonic qi.
"That rotten stench is vibrating strong."
Ha Mu-baek's sword moved even faster.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang! Kang! Ka-ka-kang!
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques clashed against the Infinite Free Eight Ultimate Sword Sea.
An even exchange—no one held the clear upper hand.
"Kekekehek."
Un Se-hyuk let out a grotesque laugh, and the demonic qi thickened further.
The plum scent grew fainter still.
Soon, the fragrance vanished entirely, leaving only the stench in the air.
The Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques were no longer plum blossom swordsmanship.
"He's fully immersed now."
Ha Mu-baek muttered, having observed the full transformation of the sword.
"Kakakaka! This is the Demonic Plum Twelve Annihilations!"
Not the Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Techniques, but twelve demonic sword forms Un Se-hyuk had devised based on demonic qi.
Rooted in Huashan, built on plum blossom foundations—yet the swordplay he displayed now bore no trace of Huashan.
Twelve demonic flowers blooming amid the stench.
The aura pouring from Un Se-hyuk reached its zenith, whipping up a terrifying storm.
Gyeo Hwi watched with a rigidly tense face.
"To think... he's reached that level..."
Un Se-hyuk had surpassed even Gyeo Hwi's enlightenment realm by a vast margin.
Had they truly clashed at full power, defeat would have been certain.
He might have escaped alone somehow, but no one else here would have survived.
"Where the hell was that vicious power hiding in Huashan...?"
Gyeo Hwi muttered in lament.
"Martial Uncle Sword Immortal. What is that...?"
Wi Su-yeon asked in a trembling voice.
She could almost glimpse the faint shadow of what she'd been seeking at Un Se-hyuk's fingertips.
Freely transgressive, grotesquely fluid sword movements.
"Don't get drawn in. That's the evil path—the demonic path."
Wi Su-yeon, whose eyes were starting to lose focus, snapped back to her senses at Gyeo Hwi's sharp rebuke.
"That's not freedom. It's self-imposed bondage."
Gyeo Hwi's cold assessment.
It stemmed from the gap in their realms.
Wi Su-yeon saw the transgressive grotesquery as freedom.
Gyeo Hwi saw it as shackled by its own excess.
One thing was certain.
"He's too strong. Way too strong. Even Ha Corps Leader might not be able to handle that..."
Years ago, in the Martial World War.
Gyeo Hwi clearly remembered Ha Mu-baek's astonishing realm that had surpassed his own.
Even accounting for growth since then, the level Un Se-hyuk displayed now far eclipsed it.
As if confirming his fears.
Un Se-hyuk was gradually pressing Ha Mu-baek back.
The crowd retreated further from the noxious demonic qi he exuded.
Gyeo Hwi and Wi Su-yeon did the same.
Thud.
They backed all the way to the training hall's edge, backs against the wall.
To their left were Pung Geon and Gwan Ha-kyeong; to the right, Gwan Po and Ban Go-rok.
But their reactions couldn't have been more different.
Ban Go-rok was pale with terror, completely frozen.
Gwan Po clenched his teeth, trembling furiously, one hand clutching his dantian.
In contrast.
Gwan Ha-kyeong and Pung Geon remained calm.
Even as this unbelievable monstrous energy from their martial granduncle devoured everything around them.
Not knowing their experiences, Gyeo Hwi could only look at them with puzzled eyes.
Pung Geon and Gwan Ha-kyeong truly were serene.
Their surprise was solely at Ha Mu-baek's monstrous feat of arriving in an impossible timeframe.
Un Se-hyuk's display was impressive, but it paled against the monsters they'd seen in the Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest.
They knew that clearly.
That's why they stayed composed.
They'd witnessed—and survived—much of how Ha Mu-baek had dismantled those Mountain-Crossing Demonic Forest horrors.
"Kyahahaha! Die, you damn bastard! That rude mouth of yours has always pissed me off!"
Mad laughter burst from Un Se-hyuk's lips as Ha Mu-baek fell further on the defensive.
Ban Yun edged backward even more, step by hesitant step.
Toward the open gate of the Yuun Martial Hall.
'Gotta run...'
Whether his master had fallen to demonic qi didn't matter.
What mattered was that his master would slaughter every witness.
With some intruder briefly diverting attention, now was the last chance.
The Yuun Martial Hall wasn't the issue.
Nor was the Plum Fragrance Sect.
He had to escape Shangnam entirely.
Flee to safety right now.
'H-Huashan... Huashan...? N-No. Luoyang! Luoyang...'
The Huashan First Sword, Plum Blossom Sword Immortal Gyeo Hwi—his senior brother—couldn't handle his master.
No one from Huashan could stop him, then.
There was only one he could trust now.
Righteous Heaven Alliance Leader So Hwi-woong.
Only Luoyang, where he resided, offered any chance of survival.
So Ban Yun thought of nothing else.
Not his subordinates. Not his son.
Only his own survival.
Un Se-hyuk glanced at his disciple but let him be.
He could kill him anytime.
Instead, he focused on Ha Mu-baek.
Ramping up the demonic qi further, he pushed the Demonic Plum Twelve Annihilations to their limit.
Not content with dominance—he aimed to end it.
"Kyahahahaha!!"
Successive bursts of mad laughter accompanied increasingly ferocious, frenzied swordplay.
How much time passed like that?
"Hm?"
Wi Su-yeon sensed something off.
Clearly, her grand martial uncle was overwhelming this warrior called Ha Mu-baek.
He had been for a while now.
But that was it.
At this level of dominance, it should have ended long ago—yet the assault dragged on.
He was overwhelming, but not finishing.
"Hmm."
Gyeo Hwi had noticed it a bit earlier too.
Only Un Se-hyuk remained oblivious.
Drunk on his own demonic qi, lost in his demonic sword, he bellowed mad laughter as he pressed Ha Mu-baek.
"Guess that's all you've got."
A calm mutter slipped from Ha Mu-baek's lips.
Too serene for someone on the absolute ropes.
Un Se-hyuk flinched at the words.
A gut feeling that something was wrong flashed through his mind.
"Is that all the power you bought selling your soul to demonic qi?"
Mockery laced Ha Mu-baek's voice.
Un Se-hyuk felt it fully.
"What the hell are you babbling about, you damn cur?!"
As Un Se-hyuk's sword surged toward Ha Mu-baek's mouth with vicious intent to tear it apart.
Boom!
A different clash rang out, and Un Se-hyuk staggered back a step.
It was the first time.
The first time he'd fully unleashed his demonic qi and been forced back.
Until now, it had always been Ha Mu-baek retreating bit by bit.
"Eeek."
As Un Se-hyuk ground his teeth and tried to swing again.
Boom!
Ha Mu-baek's sword struck first.
"Are you prepared to die, old monster?"
Ha Mu-baek's chilling voice rode the wind into everyone's ears.