Chapter 265: Not a Request, But a Warning
Read more at Nineheavens.org
The party including Ximen Yue also instinctively knew upon seeing the blood-colored demonic energy.
That it was Blood Stream Divine Demon Art.
The Blood God’s Reign Period.
The demonic art representing the era when the Blood Demon Martial God – the Blood God – had descended, pacified the great bloodshed era, and ascended to the pinnacle had appeared.
Moreover, not through a foreign land’s demonic martial artist, but borrowing the body of the orthodox martial artist Cheol Ryu-heun.
It was wondrous.
Not only the Heavenly Demon’s Heavenly Demon Divine Art, but even Blood God’s Blood Stream Divine Demon Art…
Having been surprised so many times today, their heads felt dizzy.
What was it? Did that strange ability of Cheol Ryu-heun have no limits?
While everyone shuddered, Woon Ja-heon sentiments were particularly exceptional.
Because he had grown up reading records of the ancestral master related to Blood God that were kept at the Kunlun Divine Palace, the prestigious sect where he had trained since childhood.
Precisely two hundred ten years ago.
The Kunlun Divine Palace Palace Master who sparred with Blood God Mu-wol at that time was Jeong Su-ja, one who had mastered the sword technique consummate art called the Primordial Six Harmony Sword Technique at the extreme level.
Those who know, know.
The fearsome wondrous functions of the Primordial Six Harmony Sword Technique, which was included in the Kunlun Divine Palace’s Three Great Sword Studies.
Its final ultimate moves were close to what could be called killing swords.
The series of forms were truly domineering and murderous.
For that reason, it was once sealed for about thirty years.
However, after experiencing a large-scale bloodshed, it was ultimately unsealed.
They had newly realized after going through a great fight.
That there were times when one had no choice but to kill others to protect one’s own life.
Especially if the opponent was a formidable enemy difficult to handle, a sure-kill technique was needed.
Call it a compromise with reality.
Thus they unsealed the forbidden Primordial Six Harmony Sword Technique.
Even though the Kunlun Divine Palace was a Taoist lineage oriented toward the Orthodox.
The other Nine Great Sects were the same.
They possessed at least one or two combat martial arts whose ultimate essence was solely taking life.
Of course, there were cases like the Great Demon-Slaying Annihilation Technique, created by Gwang-jong the Destruction Dharma Master who was one of the Eight Great Patriarchs of Shaolin Temple, where the operation method was excessively domineering and murderous, so it was completely forbidden and fell into disuse.
In any case, Jeong Su-ja had mastered the ultimate moves of the Primordial Six Harmony Sword Technique at the extreme level in preparation for the arrival of chaotic times.
Mu-wol was the one who first made him bring them out.
It couldn’t be helped.
Because for Jeong Su-ja, he was the absolutely strongest master he had ever experienced until then.
At that time, Mu-wol had been vanquishing strongmen and forces in various places with unstoppable momentum and earned the terrifying epithet of Blood God.
And then began the full-scale confrontations with the Seven Great Families and Nine Great Sects…
-I shall break through the final gates of the Seven Great Families and Nine Great Sects head-on and ascend to the position of the supreme sovereign of past and present.
Thus having declared boldly, Blood God Mu-wol’s advance was indeed unstoppable.
First, the Mount Tai Sect in the Shandong region, located at Mount Tai, the Eastern Peak among the Five Great Mountains of the martial world, was defeated and bowed its head.
Also, not long after, the Taoist prestigious faction called the Mount Huang Sect, the pillar of the orthodox in the Anhui region, knelt on the ground and prostrated.
But what was more surprising was that two massive forces of the unorthodox martial world also collapsed helplessly during that time.
With that as the turning point, the unorthodox camp declared surrender.
It was natural.
Because those two places were essentially the last bastions of the unorthodox.
So only the orthodox remained.
Afterward, Putuo Temple, the holy ground of Buddhist martial arts located in the archipelago of the Zhejiang region, suffered humiliation.
The seven orthodox martial world prestigious families, the Seven Great Families, were no exception.
Starting with Zhejiang’s Son Family, Sichuan’s Tang Family, Hebei’s Peng Family, and the Murong Family all surrendered to Mu-wol’s overwhelming martial power.
Immediately after, Mu-wol visited the Kunlun Divine Palace in the Gansu region.
Jeong Su-ja deployed the ultimate moves of the Primordial Six Harmony Sword Technique from the start to face Blood Stream Divine Demon Art.
However.
Mu-wol’s martial prowess was solid.
No.
It was overwhelming.
The Blood Stream Divine Demon Art was an invincible sword and an iron curtain.
In the end, Jeong Su-ja exchanged about twenty moves and suffered severe internal injury.
He was outmatched in power.
An inexcusable defeat.
He left a written impression about that sparring match.
-I held out for roughly twenty moves. In truth, it was a miracle. Because he didn’t give his all from the start. He said the Blood Stream Divine Demon Art is in an incomplete state. That’s right. That rather saved my face, did it not? I wager that history shall record the Blood God’s martial accomplishments and status, posthumously honoring him as of divine rank in the demonic path. Everyone, wait and see. His martial reputation shall rise to the same level as the Heavenly Demon, Sword Emperor, Evil Emperor, and Martial Immortal. At last, the true owner of the Divine Martial Sword has appeared. An unapproachable blood-red sky has arrived. Today, the defeat I suffered at his hands is not shameful. Indeed, indeed. Only that my own cultivation was lacking is shameful. But everyone, do not despair. It is I who have fallen, not the history and traditions of our sect. With such a mindset, devote yourselves to the Way and maintain our position as one pillar of the Orthodox Nine Sects.
Woon Ja-heon muttered internally while recalling that writing.
‘Ancestral Master Jeong Su’s impressions… everything came to pass exactly as he wrote.’
Jeong Su-ja’s predictions were accurate.
Subsequently, the Ximen Family and Murong Family also followed in the Kunlun Divine Palace’s footsteps.
Successive crushing defeats of the Nine Great Sects and Seven Great Families representing the Orthodox.
Heaven and earth held their breath.
At Blood God Mu-wol’s transcendent martial prowess.
After the Ximen Family and Murong Family’s defeats, the prestige of the Seven Great Families was practically in a state of collapse.
Because six families had knelt, leaving only one last.
However, the martial artists of all under heaven placed curious hope in the final family.
Namgung Family.
A newly risen sword family that was newly included in the ranks of the Seven Great Families after the Zhuge Family of the Hubei region declined and perished.
At its center was the first Family Head, Azure Sky Sword Saint Namgung Je.
As the owner of the Divine Martial Sword at that time, he was a towering figure who had elevated Namgung Family to a giant prestigious clan in merely seven years after debuting in the martial world.
Namgung Je was a rare talent of the generation who had created Supreme Sword Techniques such as the Azure Heaven Great Evolution Sword Art, Heaven Vault Formless Sword, Imperial Four Arts Sword Technique, Azure Sky Sword Form, Heaven Flow Cloud Wall Sword Technique and the Sky Breaking Sword Forms.
But the expectations of the masses were dashed.
Mu-wol even subdued Namgung Je, the strongest of the Seven Great Families, and claimed the Divine Martial Sword that had been the condition of the match.
However.
Rather, Namgung Je’s reputation rose due to that day’s defeat.
Because those who sparred with Mu-wol for around fifty moves, combining Orthodox and Unorthodox, were exceedingly few.
Thus, due to Azure Sky Sword Saint Namgung Je’s defeat, the curtain fully rose on the Blood God’s Reign Period.
After obtaining the Divine Martial Sword, Mu-wol even succeeded in spiritual communication with it.
Like the unrivaled absolutes of past eras – The Heavenly Demon, Sword Emperor, Evil Emperor, and Martial Immortal.
What remained before Mu-wol was now only the rest of the Nine Great Sects.
He conspicuously made Enlightened Truth Zen Master, the Abbot of Shaolin Temple, called the Taishan and Beidou of the orthodox and its center of gravity, kneel first.
Following that, the Sect Leaders of the Wudang Sect, Emei Sect, and Mount Hua Sect also…
Mu-wol, having firmly established his position as the absolute sovereign, arrived at Mount Heng Sect and declared:
-The Buddhist devotion of Mount Song has sunk, the stone cliff of Wudang has collapsed, the Bodhisattva of Emei has submitted, and the plum blossoms of Mount Hua have withered… Now only the Cloud Peak of Mount Heng remains. To commemorate today’s great martial achievement, I shall engrave my indelible mark upon this Taoist holy ground.
At that time, Mount Heng Sect abandoned its pride.
Intuiting that they couldn’t win, the Sect Leader and the sect’s highest-ranking Taoists, the Three Saints of Mount Heng, all fought him together.
Mu-wol overcame the numerical disadvantage and was victorious.
He subdued the combined attack of the three in roughly fifty moves.
As he had proclaimed, he engraved his mark.
Precisely in the cave of Holy Sacred Peak within Mount Heng.
The meaning of that place was exceptional.
Because it was a location that had become the sect’s traditional sacred ground after Mount Heng Sect’s founding ancestral Leader Immortal Cloud Treading had practiced wall-facing cultivation there.
From that day, the cave of Holy Man Peak became a space filled with demonic energy.
It was a famous historical tale that all martial artists naturally knew.
Gun Mu-ak briefly exclaimed in admiration.
“Truly amazing.”
It was a dry but sincere-sounding voice.
At that, Cheol Ryu-heun simultaneously sheathed the unique demonic energies of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art and the Blood Stream Divine Demon Art.
“Now do you understand?”
Simultaneously with Cheol Ryu-heun’s blunt question, Gun Mu-ak recalled the earlier words.
-The Blood Demon Cult is off the table?
-Because it has nothing to do with the Heavenly Demon Cult.
-This is puzzling. It shouldn’t be an affair you need to involve yourself in.
-It is related.
-Why?
-Well, what do you think?
-…
-I am that very root.
Soon, a faint smile passed across Gun Mu-ak’s lips.
‘Hoo. Blood Stream Divine Demon Art… that I didn’t expect at all.’
Then he asked, as if immediately guessing.
“That power… did you go to the Mount Heng Sect’s forbidden area to obtain it?”
“You’re well informed. It’s no longer a forbidden area.”
“How fascinating. Does that body of yours truly not suffer constraints from the mind methods?”
“Whether orthodox or demonic arts.”
“Does the Blood Demon Cult also know this fact?”
“I’ve already met their leader and come back. And I have been recognized as the inheritor of the Blood Stream Divine Demon Art. Just like you.”
“When?”
“I made time. Right before I went to meet the Asura Demon Cult Leader.”
Cheol Ryu-heun turned his head backward along with those words and made a chin gesture.
In the direction he indicated, Divine Wind was positioned.
“That fellow is much faster than you think.”
Meanwhile, Seol Hu-yong, Ximen Yue, and others were inwardly shocked.
They hadn’t known.
That he had not only met with the head of the Asura Demon Cult but even settled matters with the head of the Blood Demon Cult…
Cheol Ryu-heun turned his head again and gazed forward.
“Do you understand what I mean when I say don’t touch the Blood Demon Cult?”
“That it’s not a request, but a warning.”
“Correct. Now then, considering things are settled between us…”
Cheol Ryu-heun suddenly looked at a rock touching a nearby cliff.
An enormous stone symbolizing Toad Rock Hill.
“Since I came here anyway, I should take everything. How convenient that there are so many people. Originally, I planned to stop by the Mount Hua Sect briefly and then come back to handle this, but I didn’t expect things would coincide so conveniently like this.”
At that moment, Ximen Yue in the rear tilted his head.
“Pardon? Take what…?”
“Treasure and secret manuals.”
At Cheol Ryu-heun’s brief reply, the party each looked puzzled.
Huh? Treasure and secret manuals? Suddenly? No, from where…?
Along with that, Eun Yi-bi and Ya Baek-ji also had questioning looks.
Cheol Ryu-heun, having walked with bold strides to the front of the rock, stroked somewhere at its bottom with his left hand.
KKUGUGUNG…
A dull sound accompanied by vibration occurred.
GEUREUREUREU, GEUREUREUREUR-
Soon, one part of the cliff touching the large rock opened its dark mouth wide.
Amazingly, a hidden cave had appeared.
Cheol Ryu-heun, having shrugged his shoulders, spoke apathetically:
“This is a place of fortuitous encounters that Sword Emperor secretly arranged. First come, first served, don’t you think?”