Seonak was shocked by the Ice Palace Lord’s appearance.
More shocked than when he had sensed that the Drunken Demon had come to kill him.
“Palace Lord.”
At first, he tried to make excuses for what he had said moments ago. Even if he had revealed his true colors, they had still spent years together.
But from the Ice Palace Lord’s cold gaze upon him, he knew that any excuse was already too late.
“Was this your doing, Palace Lord?”
“You still haven’t answered my question. Was killing Wonju also for the sake of the Ice Palace?”
If things had come to this anyway—
“As always. Every choice I make is for the Ice Palace. I am the Ice Palace.”
The Ice Palace Lord’s eyes sank even colder. To say he was the Ice Palace in front of the Ice Palace Lord herself went beyond insolence; it was a challenge.
The air around them naturally grew colder. Amid it, the Drunken Demon silently tipped back his cup.
Seonak had already overturned the drinking table, but the Ice Palace Lord still treated him with courtesy. After all, there were the many things he had done in the past.
“Was joining hands with those who use blood arts also for the sake of this palace?”
After a brief pause, Seonak spoke in a low voice.
“You knew even that much?”
She had known, and yet pretended not to? Seonak’s expression instead hardened, revealing his displeasure.
The Ice Palace Lord found this face of his unfamiliar. The thought that he had lived so long hiding this true face was horrifying.
When she imagined Seonak forcing the delicate Wonju to write a suicide note in front of him, goosebumps rose all over her body.
“I won’t ask why you joined hands with them.”
She repeated exactly what the Drunken Demon had said to Seonak earlier.
“Because it must have been for some petty, selfish reason.”
At that, Seonak shouted furiously.
“Shut your mouth! How dare you! Even if everyone in the world curses me, you have no right to.”
He revealed raw anger and resentment.
“Whose grace do you think put you in that position?”
This was what Seonak had wanted to say all along.
“When you ascended to the seat of Palace Lord, if I had harbored other intentions!”
The Ice Palace Lord understood. The root of this betrayal had begun there. He regretted it. He regretted not usurping the position of Palace Lord back then.
“So? Did they promise you the seat of Palace Lord?”
Seonak gave no answer, but the Ice Palace Lord understood. It was the silence of affirmation. If he had not received such a promise, he would never have joined hands with them.
When had his heart changed?
Because he was someone she had watched for so long, she thought many questions would come one after another, but when she actually faced it, that was not the case.
Rather, she had no desire to talk with him. It was obvious they would only scrape at each other’s emotions with all manner of sordid words. The bridge back had already been cut; what use was arguing over what lay beyond it?
The Ice Palace Lord looked at the Drunken Demon. As Geom Mugeuk had requested, she had decided to leave Seonak’s disposal to the Drunken Demon. She thought that would be better for herself as well.
Setting down his cup, the Drunken Demon said,
“It won’t take long.”
“I’ll wait outside.”
The Ice Palace Lord walked out into the mist from which she had come.
“A selfish bitch who doesn’t know how to consider another’s heart! A bitch like a block of ice!”
At Seonak’s curse, the Drunken Demon laughed contemptuously.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Because you’re pathetic. Now I see why they chose you.”
Killing intent loaded itself into Seonak’s cold laugh. He still was not afraid. It seemed he thought this was a fight he could take against the Drunken Demon.
Even so, the Ice Palace Lord was outside. What on earth was he relying on?
With that question in mind, the Drunken Demon closed the stopper of Blood Tear.
Seonak stared intently at Blood Tear.
“Is that your signature weapon?”
The next moment, the Drunken Demon flipped over the table in front of him.
Bang!
The instant Seonak’s palm strike shattered the table—
Crack.
A chair flew into Seonak’s shoulder and smashed down. The Drunken Demon had struck him with the chair he had been sitting on.
Seonak was flustered. It was too unexpected an attack. Since there was no way a wooden chair could harm him, only the innocent chair had shattered and scattered—but could the Drunken Demon have not known that?
The Drunken Demon’s next words answered his question.
“What else would a drunkard’s weapon be? Anything that comes to hand is a weapon.”
The Drunken Demon laughed like a scoundrel, but Seonak did not laugh.
What scoundrel in the world could strike him with a chair grabbed at hand? If anything, one could say it displayed greater skill than stabbing him with a treasured sword.
If one were to choose the Demon Venerable most feared by the martial world, the Poison King, the Vile Little Demon, the Soul-Seizing Demon Venerable, and others would fiercely compete. No one would choose the Drunken Demon first.
But if that question were asked of Seonak now? It had become a matter he would have to think about.
Swaaaak!
This time, Seonak launched a surprise palm strike, releasing palm force.
The Drunken Demon lightly twisted aside and evaded it.
Boom!
The wall of the great hall behind him broke apart, shattering the display cabinet placed there. Seonak’s gaze flicked, for the briefest instant, toward the ornaments that had broken and rolled across the floor.
He would no longer care.
For it was a scene announcing that a new life had begun.
Swaaaang!
When the second palm force came flying, the Drunken Demon vanished into the mist. Since no scream was heard, he must have avoided this one as well.
Suddenly, Seonak felt that his body was different from usual.
‘This isn’t ordinary mist. It’s wine qi.’
That was why his body grew tipsy and languid. His vigilance naturally loosened. This was not a matter of mental strength, nor of how much internal energy he possessed. His body was naturally reacting to the intoxication.
As Seonak drew up his internal energy, a cold chill rose from both his hands.
‘Get a hold of yourself! If you get drunk, you die!’
Seonak’s signature martial art was the Cold White Divine Palm.
Even if one was lightly struck, cold energy would enter the organs and torment them for life; if struck properly, the whole body would freeze solid and die on the spot. It was a terrifying martial art.
“See here, Demon Venerable. Don’t hide cowardly in the mist. Come out and face me fair and—”
Swaaaak!
Seonak twisted his body aside to avoid what flew at him from the front.
Bang!
What flew on and smashed through the rear wall was an iron bead that had been rolling on the floor. It had fallen from one of the ornaments broken earlier.
As he had said, the Drunken Demon was fighting while using everything that came to hand as a weapon. But the trash he picked up from the floor flew in more fearsomely than the martial world’s golden-grade hidden weapons.
“For a Demon Venerable under heaven to be so cowardly—”
Swaaaaaak.
This time, an attack flew from behind him. It was too late to turn. Seonak drew up his protective aura and blocked it with his back.
Thud!
The moment he was struck, he knew. It had been the Drunken Demon’s fist.
Seonak was flung forward as if hurled, then whipped around. His back hurt as if it might break, but it was bearable.
The Drunken Demon stood where Seonak had been standing, drinking.
He was looking at Seonak as he drank, and the instant Seonak saw those eyes, a chilling wind blew through his chest. Those languid, decadent eyes held a kind of killing intent and madness he had never seen before.
At that very moment—
Whoooooosh!
Seonak’s sudden palm force tore through the mist and surged forward.
But the Drunken Demon lightly avoided it with nimble steps, then concealed himself in the mist. This place, overflowing with wine qi, was the Drunken Demon’s world.
The stronger the expert, the more they would feel how terrifying this mist was. They were people whose victory and defeat were decided by the smallest of differences.
Just then, something gleaming cut through the smoke and flew in.
Shik! Shiiik!
Puk! Puk!
The swiftly flying objects pierced Seonak’s shoulder and arm. In the Drunken Demon’s hand, revealed from within the mist, was a dagger. It was too fast for him to avoid in time.
Seonak swung a palm strike a beat late, but the Drunken Demon had already disappeared into the mist.
‘He’s strong. Stronger than I expected.’
Seonak also moved quickly, trying to hide himself in the mist. But the mist was not on his side. The mist around where he launched himself scattered, revealing him.
Swaak!
Kwaaang!
He blocked the palm force flying toward him, but he was pushed back in internal power, and his arm hurt as if it might be torn off.
‘Even palm techniques!’
And that was not all.
Swaaaaaak!
The Drunken Demon’s fingers shot out from the mist and raked past him. Skin was torn away and blood sprayed.
‘This time it’s claw arts!’
Now Seonak knew for certain. The Drunken Demon had mastered all kinds of martial arts.
Because a drunkard’s martial arts had to be this way.
Striking and exchanging blows, stabbing, rolling, throwing.
This was the Drunken Demon’s martial art.
The martial art of a drunkard fighting wildly was a skill that broke his bones and tore off his flesh.
The Drunken Demon revealed himself again. Up ahead, he was drinking as if to show off. The more he drank, the stronger he became.
Seonak drew up all of his internal energy. The energy rising from both his hands had been blue, but now it turned pure white.
He was about to unleash White Annihilation Palm, the most powerful technique among the forms of the Cold White Divine Palm.
‘He’s not dodging? He’ll take White Annihilation Palm right there? Good!’
Just as he cried out in delight inwardly—
Seonak saw it.
The surrounding mist rushed toward the Drunken Demon in an instant, then formed a single shape. It was the back of a Wine God, standing with his back turned.
Among the many martial arts he had learned, this was the Drunken Demon’s shining signature martial art.
Swaaaaaaaaaak.
White Annihilation Palm was unleashed. Tearing up the floor and ripping apart the air, a massive aura-force flew toward him.
At the same time, the Wine God standing behind the Drunken Demon turned around and launched itself forward.
Among the Drunken Demon’s signature martial art, the Wine God Art—
The Fourth Cup, Wine God’s Rampage.
The wine qi flying in the shape of the Wine God converged and became a single streak of light.
Kwaaaaang!
As the two enormous aura-forces collided, a tremendous explosion burst out.
The impact completely blew away the great hall.
When the rising dust settled, the two men were revealed.
The Drunken Demon stood where he had been from the beginning.
Seonak, on the other hand, had been pushed back more than ten steps.
Wine God’s Rampage had overwhelmed White Annihilation Palm and driven it away completely.
Seonak’s entire body was in tatters.
“Kheeeek.”
He vomited a gush of blood. It was a fatal wound beyond recovery.
The Drunken Demon had defeated him without using Blood Tear, his signature weapon. Seonak had been strong, but the Drunken Demon was stronger.
The Drunken Demon drank. The final mouthful was a drink for Wonju.
Before the death that would soon come, Seonak was furious. He was not angry that he had lost, but furious at those who had broken their promise.
“They said they would protect me…”
Blood flowed down from Seonak’s mouth. What he had trusted in was not only his own ability.
Then a new voice was heard there.
“They didn’t break their promise.”
Something flew in front of Seonak. What was flung down before him were two corpses.
The one who entered was none other than Geom Mugeuk.
“You must have been important to them after all.”
The two martial artists had been lying in ambush in a secret place within Seonak’s residence.
They were no ordinary experts. Their martial skill was one thing, but their stealth and lightness arts were also outstanding; they had been prepared to take Seonak and flee if the need arose.
As Geom Mugeuk walked over to the Drunken Demon, he asked,
“Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. You?”
Geom Mugeuk nodded to say he was fine, then looked to the other side.
“Something’s coming!”
Beyond the mist, something was running toward them.
Piiing!
The Drunken Demon instinctively twisted his body. Something grazed past his face.
It was a drop of blood.
What had flown like a hidden weapon was unmistakably a drop of blood. But it was no ordinary drop of blood. It was blood energy in the shape of a droplet.
Soon after, the one who had sent the blood droplet revealed himself as if pouncing upon them.
His eyes, face, neck, and hands were bizarrely red.
“Dodge!”
At Geom Mugeuk’s shout, the two men avoided to either side.
Kwaaaaang!
The man who had charged in exploded, and blood sprayed in every direction. The spurting blood pierced through the collapsed walls. It was a self-destruction art. The power of the blood energy released upon death was tremendous.
This was why Geom Mugeuk was wary of the Blood King, and why he hated him. He was someone who used his subordinates’ lives in this way.
This was not someone who had merely learned a self-destruction art in a short time. He was a martial artist raised through long training in order to use this self-destruction art effectively. And what awaited at the end of that effort was this single instant of self-destruction.
That was why fighting the Blood King became a revolting battle.
This time, he had to ask.
“Are you all right?”
At Geom Mugeuk’s question, the Drunken Demon nodded and was about to answer when—
Both men’s gazes turned once again to one place.
Someone else was running toward them. And it was not just one or two.
“There are many this time!”
The Drunken Demon cleared away the mist spread out before them to secure their field of vision.
At that moment, the two of them saw it.
The dozen or so people running toward them seemed to leap into the air all at once—
Kwaaang-aang!
Then exploded together, unleashing their self-destruction arts. Whether they had been raised solely for this moment, they showed not a single instant of hesitation.
It was a self-destruction art made so that the blood energy would concentrate only forward.
Piiiiiiiiiiiiik!
Hundreds of streams of blood energy flew toward the two of them.
With an ear-splitting sound as they tore through the air, they came densely enough that there was nowhere to evade.
They flew in over too wide an area to dodge.
The Drunken Demon stepped in front of Geom Mugeuk.
“Young Cult Leader! Behind me!”
The Drunken Demon blocked Geom Mugeuk’s front and drew his protective aura up to its limit. At the same time, he crossed both arms to shield his face.
In that moment of crisis, the Drunken Demon called Geom Mugeuk Young Cult Leader. At this moment, he was not a younger brother, but the Young Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, whom he had to protect at all costs. And he himself was the Demon Venerable who protected him.
The Drunken Demon raised his internal energy to the extreme. Judging by the power of the blood droplet that had flown earlier, injury was unavoidable. Even if he himself was hurt, he would absolutely not allow a single hair on Geom Mugeuk’s head to be harmed.
Because this was the pride of a Demon Venerable who had come out accompanying the Young Cult Leader.
Thudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthudthud!
He heard the sound of the incoming blood energies striking something.
The next moment, a momentary silence passed.
The Drunken Demon slowly lowered the arms he had crossed before his face.
With a startled expression, he looked up ahead. The blood energy that had flown in with terrifying force had not reached him.
Something had been erected before his eyes.
A wall of aura-force, brilliantly shining as it reflected the sunlight.
The blood energy had poured in densely with no place to escape, but not a single strand of that blood energy had pierced through this shining wall of aura-force.
A massive wall of aura-force, the greatest wall to all demonic practitioners.
The Great Demon Wall of the Guhwa Demonic Art had been erected.