Chapter 439: Chapter 439

Kangkangkang-!

The blades of the two fiercely clashed.

The light flashing in the dark space created a splendor. Although it was so pitch-dark that one couldn’t even see an inch ahead to know who was moving how, the sounds heard at regular intervals and the flashes bursting every time their swords clashed naturally drew the fight between the two in one’s mind.

Chwararak-!

The two retreated and swung their swords.

They cut each other’s hemlines and widened the distance.

Tae Gong-jin grabbed the cut off hemline and fluttered it. Frowning as if something displeased him so much, he laughed in dumbfoundment.

“Weren’t you following the Heavenly Martial Emperor? Clashing swords with me is a betrayal to him, you know…”

“Stop playing around, you detestable bastard.”

“…Haha, that personality is the same as ever. But I’m asking because I’m really curious, how did you know?”

“It’s simple. You didn’t do your best when we fought last time. It was as if you were waiting for me to kill you.”

“Hmm… with just that?”

Cheon Moo-gwang frowned.

Tae Gong-jin definitely knew the fact that Nam Joo-ryun was coming.

He definitely wouldn’t have lost if he just dragged out the time as it was, but he swung his sword suspiciously hastily and revealed multiple loopholes.

Also, it was strange when he was struck by Cheon Moo-gwang’s sword and collapsed.

At first, he thought the fox might have recovered the corpse, but as a result of examining the traces around, that wasn’t the case.

He found traces of the fox returning later, and also found the place where the corpse was buried.

When he dug the ground, a corpse was indeed buried there, but it belonged to an unknown person who had transformed into Tae Gong-jin using a reverse transformation art.

Taking all those circumstances together, Tae Gong-jin was alive without dying, and he had a reason he absolutely had to hide himself.

Then were all of those things the Eight Immortals’ stratagem?

No.

If it had been so, Nam Joo-ryun wouldn’t have gone wild to that extent.

Then there was only one thing he could think of.

Tae Gong-jin’s betrayal.

“Since when?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean crawling under that bastard, the Heavenly Martial Emperor.”

“Haha, you’re truly a terrible friend to casually mention his name…”

Tae Gong-jin shook his head.

However, it was Cheon Moo-gwang of all people.

As his original personality was fiery, he wouldn’t utter it while thinking of the Heavenly Martial Emperor’s greatness.

Tae Gong-jin shrugged his shoulders.

“Anything is fine. Do you intend to continue? Or will you back off?”

Cheon Moo-gwang narrowed his eyes into a squint.

Seeing that, Tae Gong-jin slightly raised his hand.

Suddenly, with a swish, something blocked the space between the two.

It was a human.

But no vitality could be felt from it.

Should he call it a Jiangshi?

Shortly after, the moment he checked its face, Cheon Moo-gwang widened his eyes in surprise without realizing it.

“You beggar-like bastard… what did you do…?”

The Jiangshi standing in front of him.

The one sending lifeless glances while fluttering his blood-red long hair. It was unmistakably the Blood Demon who had once manipulated the Central Plains from behind and fought a head-on battle against the Martial God.

“I’ll ask again. Will you continue?”

“…”

“No, no. I have something I want to ask you. Just why are you here?”

Cheon Moo-gwang, who engraved Tae Gong-jin’s triumphant face in his eyes, let out a sigh. That what he had come looking for just in case had exactly hit the mark.

Because he didn’t like every single situation, anger flared up like an active volcano without him realizing it.

Also, he couldn’t let Tae Gong-jin leave this place.

He also had no intention of letting that Jiangshi be completed.

A Jiangshi made using the Blood Demon was that much of a target of threat.

“Not that I’m exactly burning with a sense of justice or anything.”

“What is it?”

“…Dead guys should go to the afterlife. They’re not supposed to be in this world.”

Cheon Moo-gwang didn’t like this whole situation.

Judging by Tae Gong-jin’s behavior, perhaps the time he started serving the Heavenly Martial Emperor was before Cheon Moo-gwang had betrayed.

With what eyes did Tae Gong-jin see?

Cheon Moo-gwang’s figure crawling under the Heavenly Martial Emperor with the sole thought of betraying the Three Heavens, running out, and becoming stronger.

Also, when they had their final showdown, how much sneer he must have harbored while watching Cheon Moo-gwang moving exactly according to all the plans in his head.

Just thinking about it made his anger surge.

“So… die once again.”

“Huh… I just heard another truly interesting sound.”

Cheon Moo-gwang and Tae Gong-jin faced each other and smiled.

It was right then that the expressionless Jiangshi pounced toward Cheon Moo-gwang.

* * *

Sa Do-hak was to the point where he couldn’t move his body properly for several days. He tried to control his energy by circulating his qi several times, but he couldn’t block Dan Woo-hyun’s touch that felt like it was directly striking his bones and organs, and even that pain didn’t disappear easily.

This was the Martial God.

The one called the World’s Greatest Person across all of Murim, and the Greatest of All Time.

He already knew the fact that he was strong, and had even fought him several times, not just this time, but every time he did, he felt his own powerlessness to the bone.

Sa Do-hak, who was lying on the bed, clenched his fists and stood up from his seat.

The pain still surged to his bone marrow, to the point where he couldn’t move his body properly, but it wasn’t the time to be lying down like this.

In order to make Dan Woo-hyun, who spoke as if he wasn’t of any help, look back at him, he had to become a little stronger.

“Are you really okay?”

Namgung Cheon, who had been watching the whole situation from the side, asked in surprise.

Since no matter how he looked at it, it couldn’t be seen as a situation where he could move, his eyes were full of worry.

However, Sa Do-hak didn’t care.

He haphazardly put his clothes on and opened the room door.

“Don’t worry. Who am I? I’m Sa Do-hak!”

“Heo, my.”

Namgung Cheon, who had no way of knowing what had happened, found Sa Do-hak’s sudden behavior truly bizarre.

He was already fully aware of the fact that he was aiming to become stronger, but it seemed like a change of heart had occurred far too suddenly.

Even malice permeated his eyes.

Namgung Cheon thought that it wasn’t good.

“You should rest a bit…”

“I told you I don’t have time for that! Keuk…”

“Oops…”

Sa Do-hak, who had been shouting, staggered greatly.

As if he felt dizzy, he held onto the door frame and steadied his breathing. Every single one of those figures looked extremely precarious to Namgung Cheon.

“Wait a minute. You’ll suffer from qi deviation if you keep doing that.”

“What qi deviation…”

Qi deviation wasn’t simply something one fell into while circulating qi. One could fall into it from internal energy flowing in reverse, and what could occur when a person’s mind wavers was qi deviation.

Therefore, martial artists naturally put their greatest effort into reverently cultivating their mind and body, which was to prevent qi deviation by firming up their spirit through correcting their mind and conduct.

Right now, Sa Do-hak had crossed that line.

If he went on like this, a huge disaster might happen.

Namgung Cheon lightly reached out his hand.

He intended to poke his sleep acupoint as it was and put Sa Do-hak to sleep. It was a coercive method, but there was no method as certain as this.

However, the opponent was Sa Do-hak.

What’s more, there was a gap between Namgung Cheon and Sa Do-hak whether they knew it or not, and Sa Do-hak was also someone whose qi sense was sharply on edge due to the early symptoms of qi deviation.

He quickly turned his back and swung his hand.

Peong!

In midair, Namgung Cheon’s energy was offset and disappeared. It was a small sound, but it was enough to fill the room. A brief breeze blew, and a small gust of wind fluttered.

Namgung Cheon’s and Sa Do-hak’s hair wildly flew up.

The two faced each other and slowly unleashed their momentum.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“Stay in this spot for now.”

“You think I have to listen to your words?”

“Heoheoheo, I’m saying this because I’m worried, aren’t you listening too offensively?”

“Ha!”

“Hmm…”

A strange current began to flow between the two. Sa Do-hak, his eyes flushed red, stared as if he were going to chew Namgung Cheon up and eat him.

His gaze was so sharp that even Namgung Cheon, who had seen Sa Do-hak for a long time, couldn’t erase the feeling that it was as if he were looking at someone else.

If things went wrong, it seemed like a major accident would occur.

“If you go in your current state, do you think it’ll be anything more than getting beaten to death by the Dan Family Lord?”

“Keuk!”

The killing intent gathered in Sa Do-hak’s eyes was genuine. The moment Dan Woo-hyun sensed it, he wouldn’t throw a punch as a joke.

He might really kill him.

Because Dan Woo-hyun was a person who would try to exclude it the moment he thought it was a threat.

It was self-evident that going out like this would never result in seeing a good sight.

Did Sa Do-hak really not know that fact? He also seemed to have his pride greatly hurt by Namgung Cheon’s word uttered a little while ago.

The momentum flowed riding the wind.

Feeling the dark red demonic qi flowing out, Namgung Cheon tightly tensed up.

He had faced Sa Do-hak many times so far, but he had never been as serious as today, and he had also never felt such dark energy to this extent.

Swallowing his breath without realizing it, he lifted the sword that he had neatly placed next to the bed.

The momentum of the Emperor Sword Form spread out in all directions.

Hair-trigger situation.

“It’s noisy.”

At that moment, Dan Woo-hyun’s voice was heard.

The gazes of the two, completely startled, quickly turned around.

At the same time…

Ppeogeok!

“Keoeoeok…”

Sa Do-hak, who turned his head before anyone else and was closest to the door, was struck in the abdomen without being able to do anything.

It seemed like the world was spinning round and round, and he vomited without realizing it.

“Uwek!”

“Where are you showing such killing intent? You’re out of your mind.”

Dan Woo-hyun frowned and swung his hand once again.

With a thud, Sa Do-hak’s body, which had been bent like a shrimp, sprawled on the floor dumbfoundingly easily. As if he had fainted, he was foaming at the mouth, and his eyes were half-rolled back.

“Hmm…”

Namgung Cheon was at a loss for words while looking at that.

He knew this would happen, but actually seeing it before his eyes made his heart unnecessarily ache more.

Letting out a small sigh, he slowly approached the collapsed Sa Do-hak.

“Is he okay now?”

“It’s because malice was instilled in him. He got hit once, so his senses should have returned.”

“Just what on earth happened?”

Namgung Cheon could not know what kind of things Sa Do-hak went through.

Did Dan Woo-hyun say something enough to crush the pride of and cause qi deviation to a person on Sa Do-hak’s level of all people?

It was somewhat incomprehensible.

“I said he would die.”

“By whom?”

“By the ones who might appear in the future.”

“…!”

At those words, Namgung Cheon stiffened his body.

It was a word spat out at Sa Do-hak, no one else. What that meant was, in the end, it was unknown what kind of people would appear, but if they did, they were monsters that had already surpassed their level.

Namgung Cheon smiled awkwardly.

“That’s truly… a scary saying. Heoheo.”

He tried hard to force a smile, but the ominous words still lingered in his ears.

Because no matter who they were, if they knew what a high-class level of martial artists the Five Emperors of the World were, they wouldn’t be able to just take Dan Woo-hyun’s words as a joke.

Enjoyed the chapter?

If you like our work, consider supporting us on Ko-fi. This site solely runs on donations. Every donation helps us keep translating!

Support on Ko-fi