Chapter 78: Kill Them All
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“Kuh…!”
Wenren Yindao’s eyeballs widened to their fullest.
He knew immediately without even looking back.
That the identity of the one who had approached from behind in surprise and thrust a sword was none other than his ally Jeo Gyeom.
Why?
A light of disbelief and shock swirled within his pupils.
But.
He realized in an instant.
That Jeo Gyeom had planned to act this way from the very beginning.
Indeed.
He had been used.
He had calculated that if he executed the Three-Advance Heartless Sword, the final ultimate technique of the Cold Blood Eleven Swords with maximum cultivation, Cheol Ryu-heun would also pour out corresponding power in response.
To make the opponent consume energy one more time before Jeo Gyeom himself stepped in for real.
The series of telepathy earlier had merely been groundwork for that.
Suddenly.
CRASH!
Jeo Gyeom kicked off the ground with his sword thrust forward and charged.
Thus, the figures of Wenren Yindao and Cheol Ryu-heun, connected by being pierced by one sword, were pushed by that force and CRASHED into the wall along that directional line.
CRACK, CRA-CRACK-
The wall surface in contact with Cheol Ryu-heun’s back cracked.
‘Gah!’
Mun Bin saw the attack that had just passed beside him like a ray of light and was shocked.
Indeed, it was extraordinary martial prowess.
Though he knew well of Jeo Gyeom’s terrifying power, seeing that scene in person still made goosebumps rise all over.
Could Cheol Ryu-heun win? Anxiety crept in.
Meanwhile, Jeo Gyeom, with Wenren Yindao between them, peeked his face over that shoulder and let out a killing smile.
“Heh. I tried to imitate you.”
The meaning of those words was clear as day.
It was an expression of pride that the series of martial prowess Cheol Ryu-heun had displayed, he too was fully capable of.
At that, Cheol Ryu-heun responded indifferently.
“I knew you’d do this.”
In an instant, a peculiar light passed over Jeo Gyeom’s eyes.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s face showed no change whatsoever.
It was utterly expressionless.
At the same time, meeting those eyes brought a strange feeling.
It was different from how it looked from afar.
What was it?
Did emotions not exist in his heart?
Seeing up close like this, the opponent’s tranquil and serene gaze reminded him of an abyss whose depths were unknowable.
It was a first.
Beyond unfamiliar.
Just as everyone who had faced Cheol Ryu-heun until now had felt, Jeo Gyeom too, upon encountering that emotionless gaze and face up close, was steeped in a strangely indescribable feeling.
Of course, all those impressions lasted only an instant.
In the blink of an eye.
GRAB!
Cheol Ryu-heun grabbed Wenren Yindao’s neck with his left hand and pushed him slightly to the back, where he was in front.
“Gack!”
Drip, dri-drip.
Blood falling to the floor.
In that instant, Jeo Gyeom’s expression changed completely.
He dodged!
As expected.
He had dodged the sword strike he had deployed as a surprise while deliberately sacrificing Wenren Yindao.
It had driven into the side of Cheol Ryu-heun’s clothes, but it had failed to pierce through his body by a narrow margin.
“The likes of you can’t easily imitate me.”
Before Cheol Ryu-heun’s words could finish, Jeo Gyeom yanked out his beloved weapon, the Hunming Sword.
SHWIIING-!
Not to be outdone, the Ganjiang Sword pierced through Wenren Yindao’s chest and a tremendous roar burst forth.
KABOOOOM!
Heavy sword power exploding, and flesh torn to shreds and scattering, swept up by that force.
Having instantly annihilated Wenren Yindao, the Ganjiang Sword did not stop its fierce momentum and struck the dead center of Jeo Gyeom’s chest.
CLAAAAANG-!
The moment sparks flashed on the surface of the Ghost Skull Divine Armor.
FWOOOOOSH!
Cheol Ryu-heun explosively burst vital energy through his entire back from head to toe, pushing the opponent hard.
WHOONG-
Leaving behind a heavy wind sound, the two figures immediately disappeared.
KA-BOOM- CRASH!
Immediately after, thunderous sounds and vibrations rang from inside the building.
Mun Bin’s eyes reflexively turned there, creating ripples mixed with light of admiration.
‘…!’
It seemed Cheol Ryu-heun was being pushed back, but before he knew it, together with Jeo Gyeom, he had shot past beside him like a ray of light and entered the building whose door had been shattered.
It was a moment when the brief anxiety transformed back into anticipation.
Amazing.
Still powerful.
How many people in this entire region could drive Jeo Gyeom in such a brute-force manner?
In the garden where the two protagonists of the battlefield had disappeared inside the building, only the sounds of the remaining masters clashing swords remained, striking the ears.
CLANG, CLA-CLANG, CLANG…!
Inside the building.
Cheol Ryu-heun, still in the posture of thrusting the Ganjiang Sword, drove Jeo Gyeom’s body into the inner chamber wall.
Cracks spreading like spider webs centered on where his back touched, and countless fragments of fixtures scattering.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s charge just now was a completely different profound use from what Jeo Gyeom had executed.
Rather than gathering vital energy in both legs and kicking off the ground to advance, his entire back had become like one Yongquan point, fiercely releasing energy while advancing without any motion.
A method of operation that greatly departed from the common sense of internal energy technique.
Jeo Gyeom also noticed that.
To think it was possible to simultaneously burst out such energy through all the pressure points on the back of his body.
Furthermore, he couldn’t even feel the flow of internal energy through energy sense until it explosively burst from the body.
Earlier, he had babbled that his body itself was a divine weapon.
The opponent’s boast struck him anew with profound meaning.
At any rate, thanks to the Ghost Skull Divine Armor wrapping his front and back torso, most of the impact on his back had been absorbed.
At that moment, a bland voice burrowed into his eardrums.
“Since you tore my only expensive outfit, it’s only fitting I smash your armor too.”
No sooner had Cheol Ryu-heun’s words ended than Jeo Gyeom knocked away the Ganjiang Sword touching the Ghost Skull Divine Armor.
CLANG-!
Immediately after.
SHO-SHWING!
A horizontal sword attack deployed in an instant.
The Hunming Sword that had built its reputation alongside the alias Netherworld Sword Fork drew a rapid trajectory loaded with thick bloodlust.
But Cheol Ryu-heun had already pulled his body outside that horizontal slash’s range in the blink of an eye.
A momentary silence.
Jeo Gyeom’s gaze soon rested on the Ganjiang Sword.
“You’ll smash the Ghost Skull Divine Armor?”
A tone of absurdity, and a tone of impossibility.
Naturally.
Though the blade’s color and overall feel seemed extraordinary like a precious or famous sword, it couldn’t neutralize the Ghost Skull Divine Armor’s solidity.
Even if he received an attack mobilizing maximum personal cultivation defenseless, his body might be damaged, but there was no way a Chest-Covering Armor nominally belonging to the divine weapon category could be destroyed so easily.
Cheol Ryu-heun, reading that sentiment, said.
“I can do it. This is a sword that will become a new Divine Martial Sword.”
Suddenly, Jeo Gyeom’s eyes radiated energy light.
“…!”
That thing will become something on par with the Divine Martial Sword?
It wasn’t a joke and it wasn’t bravado.
Indeed.
Apart from his indifferent attitude, he had already grasped that this was not someone who carelessly spouted false words.
It somehow made him covet it.
It didn’t seem like something to hear with one ear and let pass through the other.
“If you covet it, try taking it.”
Cheol Ryu-heun’s gruff voice, followed by Jeo Gyeom’s cold voice.
“I won’t refuse.”
Simultaneously, currents of different colors spread from both their bodies, shaking the inner chamber’s air.
White currents symbolizing White Peak Sword Sect martial arts and indigo currents symbolizing Dark Hall martial arts.
RUMBLE- RUM-RUMBLE-
Thus, the powerful pressure emitted by the two’s vital energy caused the surrounding walls to CRACK-CRACK! and cry out.
Amid all the fixtures in the wide inner chamber appearing transparently distorted.
Jeo Gyeom heard the sound created by the ghost energy contained in the Ghost Skull Divine Armor and amplified the bloodlust in his chest.
-Kill them all! Cut off his breath!
Auditory hallucinations like telepathy.
CREAK, CREE-CREEK-CREAK, CREE-CREAK…
All the large, round iron pieces like fish scales comprising the armor’s body trembled in their joints, playing metallic sounds like ghost wails.
The ferocious demon face embossing in the center also began faint vibrations.
Immediately after.
Blue energy rose in Jeo Gyeom’s eyes.
Haze like will-o’-wisps flickering squirmed and wriggled, exuding an eerie atmosphere.
It was enough to make one wonder if such an aura was emitted when a human’s bloodlust was maximized.
Soon, Cheol Ryu-heun and Jeo Gyeom moved their hands without needing to go first or second.
SHWING- SHO-SHWING-!
The collision of Ganjiang Sword and Hunming Sword.
KABOOOOM-!
When the sword energies loaded in each blade clashed, a massive shockwave was generated that destroyed not only the inner chamber but the antique building in its entirety.
CRA-CRA-CRASH, CRA-CRA-CRASH…!
* * *
The trees densely positioned outside the western wall of the manor.
Among them, Ximen Yue, skillfully hidden on an upper branch of one tree, looked down at the situation inside the garden and let his pair of pupils flash.
Heh.
His red lips, hidden by the jet-black mask, slightly moved and created a faint smile.
It was a battlefield adding interest upon interest.
SCHRI-SCHRI-SCHRICK- SCHRI-SCHRI-SCHRI-SCHRICK- SCHRI-SCHRICK-! KA-KA-KA-KA-BOOM-!
The Three-Advance Heartless Sword – the three forms of sword energy resembling saw blade, axe blade, and scythe blade that Wenren Yindao had executed – had been shattered all at once by Cheol Ryu-heun’s White Peak Sword Scripture ultimate technique Mountain Road.
The more he watched, the more impressive.
Cheol Ryu-heun’s powerful martial prowess.
Suddenly, an agonized scream echoed sharply.
“AAAAAAARGH!”
Cheol Ryu-heun’s blade work had cost the opponent an arm.
That wasn’t the end.
Before he knew it, Jeo Gyeom had approached behind his own ally Wenren Yindao and driven the Hunming Sword deep in.
Following that.
CRASH!
The scene of the two people impaled on the Hunming Sword crashing into the wall due to Jeo Gyeom’s forceful charge entered his field of vision.
Just when he thought Cheol Ryu-heun had been struck.
‘Oho.’
Cheol Ryu-heun’s left hand grabbed the neck of the martial artist in front of him, and his right hand moved quickly too.
KABOOOOM!
Thus, Wenren Yindao’s body, caught between Cheol Ryu-heun and Jeo Gyeom, was torn to shreds.
CLAAAAANG-!
Cheol Ryu-heun and Jeo Gyeom flew like lightning into the building and vanished from sight in one breath.
Ximen Yue half-rose the moment he saw that.
‘Obtaining the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique has become nothing…’
For now, his top priority objective was lost.
The Ghost Shadow Sword Technique book had been completely destroyed by Cheol Ryu-heun.
‘If Cheol Ryu-heun defeats Jeo Gyeom there, then I’ll personally take up my sword and clean everything up.’
His plan was to observe the series of events and then kill everyone including Cheol Ryu-heun.
It was something he absolutely had to do.
Since it was obvious he would be held accountable in the future by the person who had ordered him to find the Ghost Shadow Sword Technique, that was the best choice to prove that he too had made efforts here.
He had already thought up an excuse for mission failure.
Although he couldn’t obtain the book, that was due to unforeseeable circumstances caused by unexpected others, so it was force majeure.
So since he couldn’t contain his anger and slaughtered everyone, please understand that sentiment…
He needed resulting evidence to back up that excuse.
That was why he intended to kill everyone.
At least that much had to be done for the intensity of the reproach he would receive from that person to be lessened.
Naturally, that rare horse presumed to be a spirit creature would fall to him.
‘I want it for myself, but since things have gone awry like this, it would be better to offer it to that person.’
A pheasant instead of a chicken, so to speak.
Since the ruthlessly torn Ghost Shadow Sword Technique could no longer be restored, his plan was to at least take the spirit-creature-class horse.
SWOOSH.
Raising his head, Ximen Yue looked at the forest outside the opposite eastern wall and pulled out a small reflector.
He intended to send a covert signal to Gale Squad Third Squad Leader Nu-heum who was waiting there.
But he soon changed his mind and put the reflector back.
‘No. Let me go over there. It seems better to move together.’
He still didn’t know.
About the existence of Head-Severing Yama Seop Pyo, who was currently secretly observing Nu-heum hidden in the old tree over there.