Chapter 107
Chapter 107
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 107
Chapter Title: Blood-Eye's Despair
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Skreeee!
The eagle's piercing cry filled the cave interior, which felt surprisingly sparse despite its reputed vastness.
The energy of demon-suppressing righteous qi rode upon that ear-splitting screech, sharp enough to tear eardrums.
Even as Blood-Eye Ra unleashed claw qi to block Yang-hui's assault, he had to divert efforts to guard against the intrusive pure energy infiltrating through the sound itself.
Clang! Thud!
Blood-Eye Ra's body, pierced through the chest by the sword, slammed into the rock wall after taking a kick to the sternum.
"Urk...!"
A venomous rage filled Blood-Eye Ra's eyes as he groaned.
Seeing this, Yang-hui curled his lips in a sneer.
"Hey, birdbrain, having your positions swapped feels pretty fun, huh?"
"How did you grow this strong in such a short time?"
He knew this greenhorn brat had inherited the arrangements of this Sword King's Mausoleum.
But it was impossible for someone as ignorant as a worm to skyrocket in prowess so quickly just from that.
"Even the great grace bestowed through blood qi by the Blood God can't produce changes this profound. What kind of sorcery did you use?"
Yang-hui looked utterly dumbfounded, his momentum completely deflated.
"Sorcery? You have the nerve to say that, you Blood Cult bastard?"
These guys who wielded every foul sorcery under the sun, calling him a sorcerer?
It was like a shit-smeared dog barking at a stick-full of chaff.
"From the start, your way of getting stronger is just brute-forcing realms with raw internal energy. What's so impressive about that?"
"How dare you belittle the grace!"
"Bullshit."
Thanks to memories of his past life, he knew better than anyone.
Hell, he might even understand blood qi better than Blood-Eye Ra did right now.
"Oh yeah, you. You hit a talent wall, got frustrated, and threw yourself into the Blood Cult, right?"
Blood-Eye Ra's face hardened terrifyingly.
This was a secret he'd never shared with a soul.
"Shut your mouth! My devotion to the Great One was fated!"
"Would you have done the same if you'd had talent like mine?"
"......"
His silence said it all.
You know it too, don't you?
The classic tale: lacking innate talent, so turning to sorcery and demonic paths.
Turned out he was just a nobody among nobodies.
"......"
He could deny it, but Blood-Eye Ra stayed silent.
One thing was undeniable... that dazzling talent.
For such a young pup to shatter the pinnacle realm—hailed as humanity's limit—stirred envy that made his head boil.
"Look at the pup biting its own tail—hup!"
Heaven-Covering 108 Swords, first form.
Feather-Piercing Rock-Shooter.
He thrust the Blood Cult's divine sword straight forward in a honest line.
Blood-Eye Ra clapped his palms together like applause, catching the flat of the blade, and a contest of internal energy began right there.
"Insolent whelp, have you truly forgotten your place?"
Internal energy and talent were separate matters.
No matter the genius, internal energy required time as collateral.
Blood-Eye Ra had lived over a century, amassing blood qi by devouring countless humans.
He had full confidence he wouldn't lose in a pure internal energy clash.
But.
"Th-this... this...!"
"Not what you expected?"
Yang-hui shot his foe a pitying glance.
Internal energy duel: a straight-up measure of internal energy depth.
Did that mean superior depth guaranteed victory?
The answer was no. Not at all.
What matters just as much as piled-up internal energy depth is mastery over its flow and output.
In his past life, even with half-ruined meridians from qi deviation, he'd never lost a true qi manipulation bout.
No way he'd lose to the likes of Blood-Eye Ra now, with his fresh, vibrant new body brimming with internal energy.
"Yah!"
His palms pressed against the blade. He deftly swirled and repelled the invading blood qi.
At the same time, Harmonious Heaven qi... no, Harmonious Heaven Immortal Qi now.
He unraveled it into fine threads, infiltrating Blood-Eye Ra's meridians.
"Urk, cough! Cough!"
Thin strands of true qi pierced through Blood-Eye Ra's Crooked Finger acupoint, stabbing his solar plexus and mid dantian's Heaven's Center point.
Each time, thick black sludge surged from his mouth.
Realizing this standoff spelled doom, Blood-Eye Ra shoved the sword away at the cost of his own damage.
"Huff... huff..."
"Tired already? That's why you old folks need to work out more."
Blood-Eye Ra ground his teeth.
He was a powerhouse who could single-handedly sweep every warrior gathered in the Sword King's Mausoleum.
Even if the kid had inherited the arrangements and undergone earth-shaking growth, he shouldn't be a match.
...If he'd been at full strength, able to unleash his original prowess completely.
I shouldn't have charged in without thinking.
Sensing traces of the divine object, Blood-Eye Ra had bulldozed through the Sword King's Mausoleum gates with sheer force.
The third gate, rigged with traps. Bizarre energy-infused iron orbs had embedded in his body; he'd expelled them with blood qi and regenerated, but at tremendous energy cost.
The final gate, deploying illusions. Instead of finding the solution, he'd forced his way through, draining mental energy and leaving his condition at barely thirty percent.
Blood... I need blood qi.
If he could just exert full power, no opponent—no matter how great—would trouble him against some milk-scented brat.
Blood-Eye Ra's gaze naturally turned to the fallen Shaolin monk.
That bulk meant plenty of blood inside.
A fierce hunger stirred, saliva pooling.
But.
"You gonna make it? Get up already, Adu."
The massive form, slumped like the dead, twitched.
"Groan..."
An arm thick as a woman's waist, ending in a pot-lid hand, pressed against the ground and pushed.
Not hyperbole—truly steel-tough, unyielding flesh, now gleaming with golden radiance once more.
Adu clutched his half-severed neck wound, face scrunched in pain.
"Hing. It hurts."
"Tough it out. If not for the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, you'd be dead already, man."
"Huh? How'd you know?"
"How? If you hadn't cultivated it, you'd be dead right now—that's how."
The Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, famed as Shaolin's supreme art.
Precisely, it's the Dharma Muscle-Tendon Scripture and Huike Marrow-Washing Scripture.
Dharma, Shaolin's founding patriarch.
Huike, the second patriarch who followed.
From them stemmed the Muscle-Tendon Changing Classic, Shaolin's foundation and origin.
Its effect was simple.
Restoring the human body's innate strength.
In short, toughens the body and bolsters innate qi.
Not that it was that simple an art to dismiss.
But he couldn't cultivate it himself anyway—what was the point of details?
Anyway.
"Didn't you want to guide them to enlightenment? Let's finish this together."
Without Adu, they'd both be dead here.
After all that hardship, he deserved a shot at the kill.
"Yeah! Gotta enlighten the demon."
"Remember last time?"
Adu looked baffled, so Yang-hui flicked his forehead.
"Ah, yeah!"
"One more time."
"Got it. Haaaaah!"
Adu cranked his Prajna Great Ability to the max, becoming a golden luminous body.
Skreeee!
Toward Adu's fresh-shaven bald head, sword qi carrying an eagle's cry hurtled.
Golden light clashed with white. The ensuing sonic wave.
Dooong!
Golden and white waves exploded.
A majestic bell toll filled the cave, echoing off walls in reverberations.
Of course, both light and sound brimmed with demon-suppressing Harmonious Heaven Immortal Qi.
On top, the Buddhist trait of Demon-Smiting Exorcism dwelled within.
"Kuh, grrrgh!"
Like the black sludge he'd spewed with each wound, Blood-Eye Ra's skin blackened and rotted across his body.
Moreover, the bloody glow in his eyes dimmed, his elongated talons grinding down and chipping away.
"Adu!"
Yang-hui and Adu seized the opening.
In the instant of light and sound, their forms shot toward Blood-Eye Ra.
Heaven-Covering 108 Swords, second form: Twin Wings Fold Slash!
Prajna Great Ability: Bodhi One Swing Demon Breaker!
Left to right, right to left. Heaven's sword qi split in two, scissoring inward at Blood-Eye Ra's torso.
Simultaneously, the Buddhist wisdom's demon-shattering strike swung straight.
Blood-Eye Ra spewed ten strands of claw qi to deflect sword and fist strikes, but.
The sword qi sliced the claw qi apart.
The fist qi shattered the claw qi.
"Kraaaah!"
Blood-Eye Ra barely escaped, sacrificing one arm.
Watching this, Yang-hui couldn't help but laugh.
All his prior composure vanished; his twisted face was pure catharsis.
"The retard's turned into a real retard now?"
"...Huff. Huff."
Blood-Eye Ra's bloodshot eyes darted around.
Obviously hunting for an escape route.
"You think there's an out for you now?"
That's why ripe rice bends low.
Arrogance and hubris were poisons that destroyed from within.
What if Blood-Eye Ra had been cautious, moved with minions, conserved energy and mind through the gates?
What if? I'd still win. Just more of a hassle than now.
Yang-hui kicked the severed arm on the ground like trash.
Viscous fluid oozed stickily from it—utterly repulsive, like filth.
"A decrepit old body forcibly sustained... no wonder it reeks of rot."
The Blood Cult's sixth parish mostly consisted of half-human zombies as underlings.
This applied to Blood-Eye Ra too; his body was barely "alive" by any standard.
Without periodic blood qi supplements, even moving was impossible.
Right now, his complexion resembled a rotting corpse, thanks to sustained energy drain preventing peak bodily maintenance.
"Time to wrap this up."
"Yeah. Send the demon to hell."
"Which hell?"
"It stabbed my neck, so... Sword Tree Hell?"
Sword Tree Hell brimmed with trees bearing blade-like leaves and thorns.
Sinners there suffered eternal stabs and slashes.
Perfect fit for a bastard like Blood-Eye Ra.
"Old man. Time to die."
The cave brightened. Sword qi around the blade expanded five or sixfold, spewing white radiance like a waterfall.
"Come here. I'll cut you nice and pretty. Where first? Neck? Crotch?"
That was the moment.
"Hm? You're... Baek Yang-hui?"
"......"
"......"
Yang-hui couldn't respond right away.
It was too ridiculous.
Namgung Cheon-hu, why the hell are you popping out from there?
With Wudang bastards strung up on your minions like trophies, no less?
No way those Namgung pricks could pass the absolute barrier with their dispositions?
They professed righteousness and white path, yet harbored hearts black as pitch.
So surely not... unless?
Did Blood-Eye Ra's forceful breakthrough mess up the barrier?
"Shit!"
"Uahaha! The divine aids me!"
Joy lit Blood-Eye Ra's entire face, while Yang-hui's soured.
Ah, for fuck's sake.
Namgung bastards never showed up without screwing things up.