Chapter 102
Chapter 102
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 102
Chapter Title: Blood-Eyed Net
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Blood-Eyed Net.
In his previous life, among the mad heretics he'd fought during the Heretic War, this one stood out as particularly powerful and left an especially vivid memory.
'Blood Cult, and from their sixth diocese, no doubt.'
His mind began whirring at full speed.
From what he vaguely recalled, the bastard had been over a hundred and fifty years old back then during the Heretic War.
Which meant he was a monster who'd already passed a century even at this point in time.
'With raw force... there's no way I could win.'
One-on-one, there was zero chance of victory.
If he'd had just five more years, things might have been different, but right now, it was utterly impossible.
Unless Sword Energy became the wildcard.
But he had no need to gamble on that and invite unnecessary danger.
"Brother. Those demon bastards have shown up—what do we do now?"
Chui-dal spoke up as the representative, but the whole group looked equally curious.
"What do you mean, what do we do? We watch for now."
"......"
"Why the long face?"
"I figured the once-in-a-generation genius and strategist of our era would have some brilliant, divine scheme cooked up."
"......"
He'd bragged so much in the past that he was at a loss for words now.
"Still, it's not like I haven't thought of anything at all."
Whether he could use it would depend on how the situation unfolded.
It was at that moment.
Even from over a hundred zhang away, a wave of sinister energy wafted toward them like ripples on water.
"Ugh."
"What a repulsive aura."
"Ugh, demons!"
As his companions grimaced in unison, Blood-Eyed Net began to move.
"Poor fools who have yet to awaken."
Every word from Blood-Eyed Net dripped with a thick, viscous demonic qi so potent it was venomous.
It was the reverse-heaven energy that the Blood Cult called "blood qi" and revered as sacred—forcefully extracted from living humans and steeped in unimaginable grudge and malice.
"I shall grant you an opportunity. The chance to become one with the will of the sacred and holy Blood God."
In the end, it all boiled down to offering up their bodies.
"You think anyone would fall for such nonsense, you demon?"
The one who stepped forward and raised his voice was Hyun-hyeon of the Wudang Sect.
He'd later become the greatest swordsman of Wudang, a martial prodigy, but he was just as unlucky as he was talented.
'But at this point in time, he's barely on my level at best. What makes him so bold?'
Sure enough, Hyun-hyeon couldn't even handle a single finger from Blood-Eyed Net.
He barely deflected the demonic qi shot from the tip of a fingernail with his sword, and that wasn't enough—he was pushed back a good five or six steps. His face was filled with dismay.
That Hyun-hyeon punk had been seriously immature at this age, huh?
Stepping out all confident only to get crushed in one exchange tanked everyone's morale, you idiot.
"All encounters are the start of fate. Even if they end in mutual death, we can at least exchange names, no?"
Stepping forward in Hyun-hyeon's place was Cheong-so, an elder of Wudang.
"This one is called Cheong-so. And who might you be?"
Blood-Eyed Net's lips twisted upward, revealing teeth so sharp they could hardly belong to a human.
They'd clearly been filed and honed artificially.
"Blood-Eyed Net. The net of blood that will devour you all."
"I see. This one hails from Wudang. And where do you come from, Blood-Eyed Net?"
"Would you even know, ignorant fool?"
Cheong-so's face hardened at the blatant insult.
Blood-Eyed Net continued regardless.
"You're neither weary nor starved. Your preparation as sacrifices is lacking."
"I shall atone with my life, Diocese Lord."
Ignoring the Protection Captain who slammed his head into the ground, Blood-Eyed Net spread his blood-red claws in all directions.
"No matter. Fresh meat is best eaten raw and wriggling anyway. Ignorant fools, become blood and flesh for our great cause."
Blood-Eyed Net's index fingernail stretched out grotesquely long, piercing the heart of the nearest warrior.
He savored the throbbing pulsations for a moment before deftly manipulating the claw qi coating his nail to drag the warrior's body right up to his face.
Then.
Kwachik!
After ripping out the heart, he tore into the throat. The warrior's corpse convulsed wildly, and Blood-Eyed Net, his lower jaw drenched in blood, let out a moan thick with pleasure.
"Haaaah. This is the taste. This taste."
At that instant, Yang-hui's keen qi sense read the soul within the blood qi lacing Blood-Eyed Net's words.
"Now it begins."
The half-human, half-corpse abominations standing around Blood-Eyed Net reacted to his intent and lunged in a frenzy.
In his previous life, those half-corpses had been the main force of the Blood Cult's sixth diocese.
'They wouldn't go down unless you severed their heads—such a pain.'
"Kraaaah!"
"Th-these bastards! They won't fall!"
"Aim for the vitals!"
"Kuh, cough!"
"Jiangshi! They're jiangshi!"
After some initial chaos, the warriors finally figured out how to deal with the half-corpses.
"Cut off their heads!"
"They stop moving once the head comes off!"
But did they realize?
The true power of a diocese lay solely with its lord.
At this rate, there was no chance of winning.
Should he head down and join them now, making full use of Sword Energy?
No. Still impossible.
For the current Yang-hui, all he could do was hide and observe.
'Damn it. I don't want to just leave that bastard and run.'
This was the guy he'd come all this way to kill, practically begging for death.
He wanted to deliver the same fate with his own hands as in his previous life.
That's when it happened.
Dokun!
A pulsation.
But not from his heart—from his dantian.
'The Sword Core... it's calling.'
Yang-hui wasn't one to rely on hunches—he trusted his intellect above all.
But right now, just like a few years ago, an eerily clear intuition pounded at his mind.
'No, the second time around, I get it. Not a hunch. A pull.'
"We move."
"Where to, Brother Hui?"
"We split up."
"Little Brother, why?"
"We need to dig out the passage blocked by the landslide so the warriors can escape. And we have to finish scouting the Sword King's Mausoleum too."
He turned to look at A-du.
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"You wanna kill that demon bastard, right?"
"Yeah! Guide them to enlightenment!"
"Right. Then let's start by digging again. Chui-dal, take him."
He sent Chui-dal and A-du toward the western passage with the Iron Poison Fluttering Wings.
It would take time to clear the dirt blocking the gateway, but it had to be done.
'No matter who wins, they'll try to break through the passage to escape the Eastern Blood Hall.'
What if the warriors somehow managed to kill all the Blood Cultists by some miracle?
Then all problems solved.
He'd just have to hurry and grab the Sword King's treasures.
But that was unlikely.
More probably, the Blood Cultists would massacre the warriors in the Eastern Blood Hall.
Even then, they'd need the passage.
'The diocese lord might manage, but the others can't carry all the warriors' corpses up the cliff.'
So the lord would aim to break through the passage and reach the end of the Sword King's Mausoleum.
Because the reward notice he'd spread through the Hao Clan had specified not just the entrance, but the existence of an exit too.
'Exact location unknown, but marked as a waterway, so probably.'
There had to be an exit near the Baeksu River, which flowed from the steepest gorge in Baeksu Mountain down to the foothills.
In other words, if his intuition-based plan panned out.
He could create another slaughterhouse.
One where he held all the initiative.
"Dang Sister. Give me the antidote."
"To get through Poison Hall?"
"Yeah. By myself."
Gu-ak stepped forward.
"Little Brother. It's dangerous. If someone has to go alone, it should be me."
"No need. What would I tell Lady Rang if something happened to you? Brother Gu, stay with Brother Dang and Sister Dang, watch the Eastern Blood Hall, and look for other passages."
With that, Yang-hui snorted and leaped away.
Gu-ak watched him go for a moment.
He seemed reckless, dumping all the annoying chores on others, but when it came to real danger, he took it on himself.
That's why Gu-ak could never truly hate Yang-hui.
"Shall we move too, Young Lord?"
"I've already found another hole leading down, so let's see if it can serve as an escape for the warriors."
"We must hurry. To save as many as we can."
For now, scouting the situation fell to Dang Yeon-ja naturally.
She peeked out just enough to take in the battle below without missing a thing.
'Good thing Wudang's here—it's not turning into a one-sided massacre.'
Separate from the Taoist sect's lay inclinations, Wudang's energy was pure and refined, infused with sword haze that unleashed orthodox might.
In short, it countered demonic arts.
Thanks to that, the Eastern Blood Hall's warriors were holding out better than expected.
At least the orthodox ones.
"Kraaaah!"
"P-please! Spare me!"
"Why do this between fellow unorthodox? Please, I— Kraaak!"
The Protection Captain snagged an unorthodox warrior's head with his sarcomere-like long arm and lopped it off with a sneer.
"Fellow unorthodox, huh? You're insulting us. I heard filth, so I need to wash my ears in blood."
It was then.
Kwaaaang!
Dang Yeon-ja's eyes widened like a rabbit's at the golden blaze erupting from the southern side of the Eastern Blood Hall.
"Al-already cleared the dirt?"
No, "blasted away" fit better.
Chunks of earth were still flying through the air.
At the same time, she noticed one obvious fact.
Every demonic bastard in the Eastern Blood Hall was glaring at the golden glow, their faces twisted in extreme disgust.
'As expected of Shaolin. A whole different league from Wudang.'
All Shaolin's ultimate arts carried the power to subdue demons and exorcise evil.
That trait seemed to provoke the demons.
"The passage!"
"Everyone, run that way!"
The warriors surged toward it en masse, and the Blood Cultists followed with shouts.
"Chase them!"
"Perfect timing—the passage is open! Pursue without rest until we hit a dead end and catch them all to devour!"
"Find the one emitting that golden energy and bring me his limbs."
"Understood!"
High on the ceiling, Dang Yeon-ja unwittingly wore a worried frown.
"Monks... too fast......"
It was surely much sooner than even Yang-hui had anticipated.
Dang Yeon-ja tensed slightly and swallowed hard.
Then she clasped her hands and prayed.
That everything would unfold according to her clever Baek Clan little brother's plan.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ "Huuu."
Exhaling to relax his body.
He looked up ahead, where a corridor teemed with all sorts of vermin.
"Tch. Even sprinting full speed, it'll take dozens of rooms."
He'd taken the antidote orally and applied it topically, but there were limits.
To fend off the poison qi, he'd need to circulate his qi, which meant he'd need time to recover afterward.
'Can't have that.'
The antidote was insurance.
Yang-hui had one surefire way to blitz through Poison Hall.
Dokun!
The Sword Core pulsed again. He placed a hand on his dantian, hardening his gaze.
"I'll be there soon. So stop throbbing."
With that, he launched forward.
Phantom Thousand Steps, swift-swift-swift-swift!
Eight layers of inner power poured into his legs for the Phantom Thousand Steps.
Yang-hui's form pierced the Poison Hall at blinding speed.
Of course, with so many poisons, it was like charging into a den of venom...
'Poison or not, if they don't dare bite me, that's that.'
His intuition revealed one fact.
The Iron Poison Fluttering Wings of the first hall.
The vermin-infested corridor of the second.
'The Sword King's tomb full of nothing but poison was suspicious from the start.'
For selecting an heir, the World's Greatest's setup was far too aggressive.
Common sense dictated that to pass on martial arts, he'd want young, promising talents unharmed.
Thus, the Sword King's Mausoleum's structure and trials should test pure martial prowess.
Neither the first nor second hall fit a master's design for an apprentice.
Rather.
'More like it's meant to trap and keep people out. Except for someone specific.'
Sting!
"Ack!"
Lost in thought, a vermin bit his ankle.
Looked like he'd need to clear out the bugs and snakes first.
Bwoooong!
Yang-hui's sword began to hum softly.
It was at that moment.