First, I would like to thank Kim Jeongjin of Hitel for pointing this out. As Jeongjin said, the Fenguang Sword Art
does indeed belong to Diancang.^^ To think I confused it with the famous Fenguang Sword Art of Diancang along with
the Sail Sword Art—what a mistake……. I will correct it. This is truly the worth of serializing online.
I try to revise as best I can, but readers still sharply point out mistakes
that even I failed to notice. Then I ask for much criticism and reprimand from all my readers.
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Watching the Demon Cult masters slowly build their encirclement, Dokgo Seong quietly
ground his molars.
‘If my body were in normal condition, it would be worth a try. But I am already in no state
to fight…….’
But once he judged that he had to fight, Dokgo Seong’s mind moved smoothly.
‘There is only one way. I must burn every last bit of my remaining origin true qi without leaving a trace. If I use that
to execute the final technique of the Son of Heaven Blood Demon Art, Heavenly Demon Blood World (天魔血世),
I do not know about Wi Cheong, but I should be able to kill all the masters under his command.’
Once his course was decided, Dokgo Seong’s body reacted instinctively. Following the principle he had honed
on the battlefield—that if he did not kill, he would be the one killed instead—Dokgo Seong gathered up every last scrap
of his remaining internal energy and launched a preemptive attack.
“Hmm. No matter how I look at him, he is so strong that he hardly seems human. Even after slaughtering
so many swordsmen, he still has strength left…….”
“Among those he killed were several Master-class swordsmen as well. Judging by that, he
must be the Grand Master class we have only heard of in rumors. At that level, he is a swordsman
fully comparable to Emperor Croisen. The level of the warriors in this place is truly astonishing.”
“We must take him to our continent by any means necessary. That alone is the way
to save our Truvenia Continent, which stands in peril like a lamp before the wind.”
“But with our current ability, how could we…….”
The voice ringing through the air was tinged with distress.
“It is something we must do, no matter how. By the way, how much mana remains in the Dragon Heart?”
“The mana consumption is beyond imagination. By my calculations, we have only enough left
to endure for another three or four hours. Above all, to return, it will consume
at least ten times more mana than we used to come here. In the worst case, we may not be able
to go back.”
“This is grave. Somehow, we must persuade that man and bring him to where the magic circle is.”
“Let us observe the situation a little longer. From how things look, that warrior does not seem
likely to fall easily.”
“Let us do that. Even if it means all of us remain here, we must take that man with us without fail.”
“Indeed.”
“Th-this is impossible…….”
Wi Cheong’s eyes were opened so wide they seemed about to split. As an elder of the Demon Cult’s Guardian Court,
a supreme master officially ranked sixth, it was no common thing for the Twin-Handed Demon Venerable (雙手魔尊)
Wi Cheong to show such astonishment. Since he was usually renowned as being peerless
in composure, the fact that he was so shocked was proof that something was now happening
that completely overturned his expectations.
“Kuaaaak!”
Around him, screams burst out one after another. Those who had come here were all
proven masters from the Demon Cult’s main headquarters. And yet such masters were dying
with absurd ease.
What was killing them was none other than a blood-red mist. Whoever came into contact with it,
without exception, had their blood vessels burst apart and met their end. For an instant, Wi Cheong suspected
that the Council of Elders’ prediction had been wrong. Otherwise, there was no reason
for carefully selected headquarters masters to die so helplessly.
“Was this the power of the Son of Heaven Blood Demon Art I had only heard about?”
He followed the blood-red mist and repeatedly sent his saber flying, but all he struck was an empty sensation.
It was as though it were deliberately avoiding him. While Wi Cheong was thrown into confusion,
the headquarters masters kept dying and collapsing without pause.
“Kyaaak!”
Only after the final master fell did the blood-red mist gradually scatter. What appeared
from within the mist was none other than Dokgo Seong. His face was pale, without a trace of blood.
He looked almost like a jiangshi. Dokgo Seong slowly turned his head and looked at Wi Cheong.
At that yaksha-like appearance, Wi Cheong felt a chill rise of its own accord. But the moment
Dokgo Seong had just begun to step toward Wi Cheong—
“Huk.”
With a short groan, Dokgo Seong’s knees buckled powerlessly. As Dokgo Seong collapsed,
he coughed violently and spat out fresh blood without cease. From the fragments of organs visible
among the clots of blood he vomited, one could tell at a glance that his insides had been completely crushed.
Once he grasped Dokgo Seong’s condition, only then was Wi Cheong able to stroke his chest in relief.
Inwardly, Wi Cheong finally understood the desperate struggle Dokgo Seong had just shown.
“Impressive, Cult Leader Dokgo. To think you would attempt a final struggle
by exhausting even your origin true qi…….”
To exhaust one’s origin true qi meant that the practitioner had cast away everything of himself.
For origin true qi was something one began to accumulate from the moment one learned martial arts;
in other words, it was no exaggeration to say it was everything a martial artist had achieved.
For that reason, an ordinary martial artist could not even think of exhausting his origin true qi
until the very moment he faced the end of his life.
Though it had the drawback that it could not be executed unless one reached the peak realm,
martial artists generally tended to treasure the martial arts they had achieved more than their own lives.
Seeing Dokgo Seong resist while unreservedly exhausting even that origin true qi, Wi Cheong
could readily guess the extent of Dokgo Seong’s attachment to life. But now was no time
to be lost in such sentiments. Wi Cheong infused gangqi into his pitch-black hands
and approached the fallen Dokgo Seong.
“I applaud your endless fighting spirit, Cult Leader. But there is nothing more I can do.
Since you have exhausted all your origin true qi, you should no longer have even the strength to lift a finger.
I shall allow you to meet your end as a martial artist. This is the final
consideration I offer you, Cult Leader.”
Standing before Dokgo Seong, Wi Cheong raised both hands high toward the sky. Since his opponent
could now be said to have completely lost his martial arts, Wi Cheong did not hold the slightest vigilance.
But Wi Cheong never dreamed that because of that, he would meet such an absurd end. In Dokgo Seong’s eyes,
as he had been hanging his head, light abruptly flared.
“Hah!”
Still seated, his hand shot straight forward. From the tiger claw, whose shape was no longer recognizable
after the succession of fierce battles, a dazzling radiance suddenly erupted.
“Huk!”
Wi Cheong, who had been just about to bring down his long saber, was scared out of his wits. To think
an entirely unexpected hidden weapon was installed in the tiger claw……. Hastily drawing up his body-protecting gangqi
to shield his chest, Wi Cheong kicked out and struck Dokgo Seong squarely in the chest.
Thud.
It was an action that came reflexively from his confidence that no mere hidden weapon could ever pierce
his body-protecting gangqi. But that carelessness mercilessly exchanged life and death. The hidden weapon
fired from the tiger claw leisurely pierced through the body-protecting gangqi and burrowed deep into Wi Cheong’s chest.
Feeling a chilling sensation pierce his heart, Wi Cheong let out a heavy groan.
“Kuh. Th-this is.”
Wi Cheong’s entire body trembled as if struck by lightning. What his opponent had fired was no mere hidden weapon.
It was none other than a divine artifact (神器) specialized in breaking body-protecting gangqi. To think
he would meet his end because of a brief lapse in caution; it was no different from his pride
collapsing entirely. He saw Dokgo Seong, who had been sent flying by his kick and tumbled in the distance,
stagger to his feet. At that sight, Wi Cheong’s expression became even more incredulous.
“H-how? Even a bear would have been killed instantly by the force I put into that blow…….”
Dokgo Seong, barely managing to raise himself, wore a gloomy expression. The cloth over his chest
crumbled, revealing the Heart-Guarding Armor hidden beneath. But perhaps because it had exhausted all its strength
protecting its master at the final moment, the Heart-Guarding Armor shattered weakly and fell away
as soon as Dokgo Seong rose. With a desolate expression, Dokgo Seong removed the tiger claw from his hand
and threw it far away. His face was ashen, without a single trace of blood. He coughed violently
and barely managed to continue speaking.
“It is the Severing Meridian Heart-Piercing Nail. As you know, it is a Tang Clan masterpiece
that specializes solely in breaking bo-body-protecting gangqi. I obtained it from a Tang Clan master
I ki-killed during the Great Orthodox-Demonic War. I installed it in the tiger claw just in case,
but I did not know it would prove so u-useful like this. And this Heart-Guarding Armor
is a protective item that we of the Guardian Demon King Army wear as standard. Since it is made of
ten-thousand-year cold iron, it is somewhat heavy, but its defensive power alone is comparable to body-protecting gangqi.”
Gathering his consciousness, which seemed about to depart at any moment, Wi Cheong squeezed out his words.
“Just why do you cling to life so stubbornly? If it were me, I would have given up
on life long ago.”
The sorrow on Dokgo Seong’s face deepened further.
“You would not understand. The days when I was thoroughly mocked by a subordinate I trusted.
Until I take revenge for that, I cannot possibly leave this world.”
Whether or not it was the answer he wanted, Wi Cheong could not hear those words. For a body
whose soul had departed could understand nothing.
Glancing at Wi Cheong’s corpse, which had met its end standing upright, Dokgo Seong tried once more to move.
He had long since abandoned the thought of escape. What he wished for was only one thing:
to take his own life (自盡). Was that not why he had fled all the way here, to the highest peak
of Tianling Mountain? Not far away lay a sheer precipice whose bottom could not even be seen.
If he could only reach that place, he would be able to put an end to his life, so full of resentment.
But his wretchedly ruined body had long since gone beyond his control. He tried to leave that spot
even by crawling, but his battered arms also refused to obey him. He was in a state
where he could not move even a single foot by his own power. In the end, Dokgo Seong lay flat on his back
where he was. As the starlight pierced his eyes until they ached, he unknowingly squeezed his eyes shut.
“Does it end like this?”
Now there was nothing left with which he could attempt resistance. He had exhausted every last bit of his origin true qi
in dealing with Wi Cheong and his subordinates. The Son of Heaven Blood Demon Art had been completely
destroyed, and not a single strand of internal energy remained in his body. From his torn-apart dantian,
he could no longer even feel pain. A body destroyed in the truest sense. Lying spread-eagled,
Dokgo Seong suddenly began to laugh, the muscles of his face twitching.
“Dokgo Seong. Dokgo Seong. Your life has been truly ill-fated.”
Thinking about it, he felt there was probably no one in the world who had lived a life as unfortunate as his.
With an ugly appearance that even a beggar would spit at, and being a hunchback who could not even
straighten his back and look up at the sky, he had also been born as the son of a giant of the unorthodox path,
and for that sin, his childhood had been filled with contempt and humiliation too hard to express in words.
To escape such a fate, he had thrown himself into martial training with all the strength he had, yet in the end
he could not escape from being thoroughly used……. At the thought that he had to end his life
without ever shaking off his destiny, Dokgo Seong truly resented the heavens. Opening his eyes
and looking straight up at the sky, Dokgo Seong muttered quietly.
“Wi Cheong. You will likely be the last person I ever killed.”
Now that the Son of Heaven Blood Demon Art had been broken, the technique performed by the Shaolin Saint Monk
would activate once more. Since it had been suppressed for so long by the Son of Heaven Blood Demon Art,
the power of the Sevenfold Severing Prohibition Art would have become even greater. He would now
no longer be able to stir up killing intent. In other words, it meant he could never kill again.
“Now I have no ability at all. Not even enough to kill a newborn infant.”
Though his martial arts had vanished, it seemed the senses he had honed on the battlefield had not disappeared.
He could feel the signs of countless figures approaching, targeting him. They were surely a pursuit party
come to eliminate him. Dokgo Seong completely gave up on life and squeezed his eyes shut.