Chapter 255: Stern Judgment

Read more at Nineheavens.org

Ju Yu-gang’s hand techniques, executing massive amounts of internal power, knew no hesitation, and the silver iron sword flew like a bird carrying its master’s will.

The majesty of the Sword-Controlling Technique, traversing bloody space as if flying freely through ten directions.

Each time the blade’s light swept past, enemy flesh was torn and blood sprayed wildly.

There were still many enemies.

All around this area, in all four directions.

Every direction was a target for his Sword-controlling Technique.

Therefore, Ju Yu-gang launched his sword indiscriminately.

A resolute will to repay massacre with massacre.

TUHWAAK-!

Someone had their head severed.

BUUUK-!

Someone had a hole torn through their body.

UDEUDEK-!

And someone else breathed their last as their bones were shattered.

The death pandemonium continued.

Before long, even the count became difficult to track.

Ju Yu-gang’s hand gestures were a dance summoning death, and the sound of the flying sword was a song from the underworld.

THUD, THUD, THUD…

Corpses piling up one after another on the ground.

Everything around where Ju Yu-gang stood was drenched in crimson.

Generally, the Sword-Controlling Technique has lower efficiency compared to its mystical operation method.

This was precisely because of the rapid consumption of internal power.

Hence, even decent sword masters don’t make the Sword-Controlling Technique their primary martial art.

Yet Ju Yu-gang seemed to take pride in his internal power cultivation.

He had been continuously executing omnidirectional Sword-Controlling Technique attacks.

Does he not tire?

Or… is he executing it through indomitable persistence?

PUK, PUPUK, PUK!

The sword that pierced through enemies in a row circled following Ju Yu-gang’s hand gesture, then spewed rotational currents.

PAPAPAPAPA- TUTUTUTUTU-!

Over ten Sun Moon Demon Cult members swept away by the whirlwind sword energy repeatedly transformed into gruesome corpses.

Ju Yu-gang was the apex predator.

He was proving what the world of survival of the fittest was like.

Thus he was establishing the hierarchy and order of the battlefield through overwhelming martial prowess.

The Sun Moon Demon Cult members who had become prey ultimately lost their fighting spirit and scattered rapidly as if dispersing.

HWIIIK- DEOPSYEOK!

Having retrieved his sword, Ju Yu-gang regulated his breathing.

“Huuu.”

Before he knew it, beads of sweat had formed drop by drop on his forehead.

Indeed.

He showed slight signs of fatigue.

It was natural.

Because he too was a person made of blood and flesh.

Having created a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood with the Sword-Controlling Technique alone, how much internal power must have been consumed in the meantime?

At that moment, Second Elite, ranked second among the Sun Moon Eighteen Elite, struck straight at the front.

SHWAAAT!

A long saber slicing through the air and dropping down.

KAKANG- PEOHEOHEONG!

Ju Yu-gang, having defended with his right-hand sword, retreated three or four steps.

JJEONG- KKAGANG- CHENG-!

Continuous metallic sounds, and Ju Yu-gang retreating again.

The Second Elite was strong.

He possessed the highest level of martial prowess among the eighteen Sun Moon Elite.

To the extent that even rising to First Elite’s position would be accepted.

Having seized the initiative, Second Elite immediately prepared a decisive blade strike empowered by extreme internal power.

However,

KKWAAANG-!

Simultaneously with a thunderous explosive sound, Second Elite’s form was pushed back no less than over ten steps.

Grimacing, he soon lowered his head and coughed blood.

“WEK!”

The aftereffect of internal injury.

He was overwhelmed by an intangible force that suddenly rushed in, causing his heart vessels to be shaken.

It was the energy that Ju Yu-gang had released.

Suddenly.

‘AH!’

Startled, Second Elite hurriedly raised his long saber.

KKAAAAAANG- PEOEOEOEONG!

With a great sound, sparks flew and haze spread wide.

KKIKKEUK, KKIK…

An unpleasant metallic sound leaked out.

It was the friction sound produced by Second Elite’s long saber and Ju Yu-gang’s iron sword.

The two blades stuck together, contesting strength.

Second Elite felt his heart chill.

He had barely blocked it.

The swift vertical sword force.

Had he moved just a bit later, his head would have been split open.

Ju Yu-gang, eyes flashing, spoke coldly:

“Did you think I was tired?”

Suddenly the iron sword thrust into the long saber with a SSUK!

As if slicing tofu.

‘HUUEOK!’

In the instant Second Elite turned pale with shock.

TTAENGGEULANG- CHYUHAAAAT!

The iron sword that had split the long saber sliced straight down through Second Elite’s body vertically.

From head to groin.

Thus Second Elite, his body bisected, followed the death collector.

And Ju Yu-gang’s sword once again soared in all directions, singing a requiem for the sacrificed common people.

Meanwhile,

PEOPEOPONG, PEOPONG, PEOPEOPONG…!

In the space where the few remaining smoke bombs had exploded, the death god appeared and extended the touch of death.

It was Head-Severing Yama Seop Pyo.

His assassination sword, linked with ghostly movement, was truly terrifying.

SEUGEOK, SEUGEOK-

He approached quietly, then severed necks and vanished again.

The smoke screen was meaningless.

From the enemy’s standpoint, having detonated the smoke bombs had actually become an adverse factor.

The physical condition of the Seventh Apostle, who had been fighting while concealed in the dark smoke, was truly in complete shambles.

He had endured and endured by continuously using lower-ranking cultists as human shields, but against Seop Pyo, who had recently even achieved Return to Simplicity and Truth, he had reached his limit.

‘KEUEUK, to approach while continuously ignoring presence detection… where is he hiding again!’

Around him, over ten elite fanatics were still gathered, performing the human shield duty.

At that moment, Seop Pyo’s Six Directional Transmitted Voice was heard.

-I shall send you all together. Before King Yama’s presence.

Immediately after.

SEUSUT, SEUSUT, SEUSUT…

Seop Pyo’s form appeared and vanished in rapid succession.

The Seventh Apostle, startled, heightened his senses.

‘Madness…! He’s moving in all directions at tremendous speed!’

Tension and fear intensified rapidly.

Presence and murderous intent were clearly detected.

But when he and his subordinates actually executed counterattacks, it was an illusion.

The wondrous function of Void Expanse Afterimage Technique harmonized with Hidden Movement Stealth Technique.

The internal power consumption was high, but the result was equally certain.

Only death.

At some point, Seop Pyo multiplied into over ten.

Then he surrounded and circled around the Seventh Apostle’s group.

Presence and murderous intent ran rampant.

They couldn’t tell what was real and what was fake.

Bone-chilling sounds burst forth in succession.

CHYUHAK, CHYUHAAAK, CHYUHAAK-!

Heads that rolled on the ground, spewing blood.

Over ten cultists met their end.

The Seventh Apostle, left alone, wildly unleashed attacks in all directions while shouting sharply:

“Come! Let’s see you try!”

But those were the last words of his life.

SEUGEOEOK!

Before he knew it, Seop Pyo had taken position behind him and severed his neck.

TUTUK, DEGURUURU.

His head fell forlornly.

And Seop Pyo vanished like a ghost again.

SEUGEOK, SEUGEOK, SEUGEOK…

Only the sounds of severing heads quietly made his presence known.

Around that time, Moon Right Envoy was secretly leaving the battlefield while grinding his teeth.

‘How can this be… there are this many variables!’

Before he knew it, nearly half the forces including the cult’s experts had fallen.

Meanwhile, the orthodox-unorthodox camp’s casualties were merely thirty percent of their total.

It was clearly a disadvantageous battle situation.

Yeom Sang-ah and Yo Mong-ji’s whereabouts had become unclear.

Moreover, the Third Priest had also vanished.

Just moments ago he had been fighting Azure Edge Sword Expert Seol Hu-yong…

Did he just give up and flee?

he couldn’t know.

In any case, now there was only one option left.

To help with the escape of the Cult Leader Sun Moon Demon Saint Aryun-nan, the object of his devotion.

Immediately after the resolved Moon Right Envoy headed toward the north of the temple grounds.

“KKEUHAAAK!”

The Fourth Apostle over in the distance screamed and collapsed.

He had suffered a deep stab wound to the abdomen.

Not far from him stood a curly-haired man boasting a robust physique.

A defrocked monk draped in purple Buddhist robes.

He was Gung Roe the Green Forest Martial Buddha, the current Alliance Leader of the Green Forest Alliance and a powerhouse among the Six Extreme of Hubei.

Frustration soon invaded the Fourth Apostle’s chest.

‘KEU… it would be difficult to continue.’

Still, befitting a supreme Master of the cult’s leadership, he had endured through forty-some exchanges against Gung Roe’s advanced martial power.

‘Amazing. How… is it more destructive than demonic arts?’

He was unaware.

That Great Demon-Slaying Annihilation Technique, the consummate art of Gwang-jong who was once the Eighth Patriarch of Shaolin Temple in the old days, had been passed down to Gung Roe.

An essence optimized for countering demonic arts, an art that is extremely domineering despite being based on sacred Buddhist power…

Why else would the founder Gwang-jong have been called the Destruction Dharma Master in the past?

“The place for demons is hell.”

As Gung Roe delivered his right-hand sword vertically.

KUKUKUKUKU-!

Energy rapidly released along the blade shattered the ground as it advanced.

Sword energy in the form of a giant Buddha statue.

Yet the face was fierce like that of a demon.

As if Buddhism and demonism had merged as one.

The Fourth Apostle, swept away by the Great Demon-Slaying Annihilation Technique, had his entire body burst open before causing a great explosion.

KWAHAAANG-!

As a large mushroom-shaped dust cloud soared upward, shattered flesh and bones rained down like a downpour.

HUDUK, HUDUDU, HUDUK…

In another area, Hae Su-yeon showed off her skill.

Her opponent was the Second Apostle.

KANG, KAKANG, KANG-!

Each time metallic sounds burst, petal-like haze spreads.

It was Hae Su-yeon’s unique energy being released through the Enchanting Flower Sword.

‘EUEUK! She’s strong!’

The Second Apostle, who had screamed internally, stumbled backward, pushed by the repelling force generated from the sword energy collision.

Hae Su-yeon’s pressing sword power became even fiercer.

JJEOJEONG, JJEOJEOJONG, JJEOJEOJONG-!

Before he knew it, his hand movements became confused, busy filling gaps.

Hae Su-yeon’s swordsmanship was exquisite.

The continuous linking of cunning, precise, and flowing forms was outstanding.

The Second Apostle, who had been retreating repeatedly, realized.

‘She has the qualities to become a Sword Empress!’

At that moment, Hae Su-yeon’s Enchanting Flower Sword created a sphere of compressed energy.

CHIIIIING-

Following that, the blade thrust straight out.

Simultaneously, the sword energy sphere exploded fiercely.

CHWACHWACHWACHWA, CHWACHWACHWACHWA-!

Countless sword energies resembling petals poured out across a wide range.

In an instant, the Second Apostle’s mind became hazy.

What is that?

So beautiful.

For sword energy to be so exquisite.

It felt as if countless petals were gently embracing his body.

The Second Apostle didn’t know.

That it was the aftereffect of powerful enchanting energy manifesting the essence of enthrallment.

Thus hundreds of sword energies shaped like small petals rushed like a vast wave, wrapping around and constricting his body.

The martial art of beautiful sword flowers created a scene of carnage.

PUHAAK, PUHAAAK…!

The Second Apostle, with holes covering his entire body, fell soaked in blood.

Not far away on the side, Namgung Sang-rin was waging a fight while holding the advantage.

KKAAANG- KKWAUUUNG!

Along with a heavy sound, the First Apostle flew rapidly backward.

KUNG! Having slammed into a building wall, he spewed fresh blood.

‘KEOK!’

He had barely blocked it.

Namgung Sang-rin’s supremely powerful sword force.

But having merely deflected it, he felt as if his chest was being pierced through.

That’s how supremely powerful it was.

Shall we call it sword power of a different dimension?

Power against power – the opponent before his eyes had been charging in like that all along.

Setting aside internal power for now, his muscular strength was exceptional.

Iron-wall solid to the extent that penetration of energy seemed impossible…

That was precisely the power of the legendary Nine Grade Martial Bones.

In the blink of an eye, Namgung Sang-rin approached right in front of him.

SSWAESSWANG!

Startled, the First Apostle reflexively raised his sword.

KKAAANG- KKWAGWANG!

His sword broke away and his form flew backward through the building.

KKUGGUNG- JJEOJEOJEK…

The First Apostle, his back slamming into a fence wall, breathed out labored sounds.

“KEU… HEO…”

He had finally suffered a piercing wound.

Right in the center of his chest.

At that moment, an immense sword current resembling the blue sky filled his two eyes completely.

Azure Heaven sword energy.

Truly brilliant yet majestic.

The First Apostle, with death before his eyes, recognized what it was.

Azure Heaven Great Evolution Sword Art.

The vast sky immediately covered him.

KKWAGWAGWAGWAGWAGWANG!

A thunderous roar that shook heaven and earth.

The First Apostle, swept away by the magnificent sword power, was completely annihilated along with the building.

Great echoes spread outward.

That was precisely a cry announcing the revival of the Namgung Family to all under heaven.

* * *

“KEU…”

Aryun-nan’s condition, connected to Cheol Ryu-heun’s bizarre and unfathomable divine power, was precarious.

He was on the verge of his breath being cut off.

BULUK…

Aryun-nan’s body slightly swelled again.

As if proving it was the limit.

At that moment, a person’s silhouette appeared without sound far in the rear.

It was the Moon Right Envoy.

‘Cult Leader!’

Greatly startled, he soon glared fiercely at Cheol Ryu-heun’s back.

‘He’s unguarded! Now is the opportunity!’

He immediately deployed an extreme-level stealth technique and targeted Cheol Ryu-heun’s rear.

PAPAK-!