Chapter 311: Zhuge Clan (9)
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Zhuge Gyeom’s expression was bewildered. It was only natural, as the strategy he had believed to be his secret trump card had been shattered in a single blow.
“You are committing a truly heinous act.”
I spoke in a cold voice. Zhuge Gyeom must have known as well. He knew what kind of deed he had done.
Even at a glance, it was a formation and energy likely to impair one’s lifespan. Bringing those unknowing children from somewhere and consuming them like that was not something a human being would do, even before considering the orthodox path.
“A rootless family like yours would not understand. Right now, on my shoulders rests the duty to preserve the long history of our clan. For that, I will do anything.”
“There is a proper limit.”
“Don’t you know as well? That one can never become great by walking only the orthodox path.”
“There are also paths one must never walk. The path the Clan Head is walking is precisely that path.”
“If I do not walk it, I die. Then it is better to walk it and die anyway.”
I shook my head. In any case, words would not get through to Zhuge Gyeom.
“What are you doing! Strike him!”
Perhaps feeling that as well, Zhuge Gyeom shouted at the children. Flustered after having been abruptly severed from the formation’s power, the children regained their senses.
“Haaaat!”
Youthful voices rushed at me. Even without the assistance of the formation, the strength of those children was plenty formidable.
Aside from the strangely blended aura of demonic qi and spiritual qi, their power seemed to have been abnormally boosted through the formation. Thus, the children possessed a strength that could never be attained at their age.
However, possessing a strength that could never be attained at that age was the same for me as well.
I swiftly charged in between them. Their objective was me anyway. Naturally, the children blindly followed me. Rather, that was more convenient for me.
I infused my sword heavily with internal energy. Then, I unleashed the Primordial Boundless Sword Art. It was Fullness, shown for the first time in actual combat.
A hemispherical shockwave erupted around my body.
“Ugh!”
The children rushing toward me collapsed one after another. The shockwaves dissipated after tapping the children’s numbing acupoints. Now, my sword strikes were capable of even such precise regulation.
Put conversely, no matter how much those children had elevated their power, that was how vast the gap was between them and me.
“……Ha, useless things.”
Zhuge Gyeom clicked his tongue.
Of course, there were older adopted sons in whom the Zhuge Clan had invested more effort. People who appeared close to thirty. They were somewhat strong.
Yet even through such unorthodox methods, they could not surpass me. In a sense, I was currently someone in the realm of the Dao of Immortality, transcending both the orthodox and unorthodox paths. No matter how much they struggled, they could not match me, who possessed the Martial Talent Shop.
“This will not do.”
Zhuge Gyeom muttered. It was not said for me to hear, but to me, who had already expanded my senses to the maximum, it sounded louder than thunder.
At that moment, Zhuge Gyeom chanted something. Suddenly, the eyes of the Zhuge Clan martial artists turned red. I felt an acute sense of unease. The Wind God talent was signaling danger. The energy of nature was violently fluctuating.
“……What kind of vile trick.”
Knitting my brows, I tracked the movements of the Zhuge Clan martial artists.
A sinister energy filled the Zhuge Clan estate to the brim. The Zhuge Clan martial artists rushed at me with red pupils. The light in their eyes was already completely dead, and they were in a state of having lost their reason.
Just then, a reddish brilliance burst forth from their mouths. Startled, I unleashed Fullness once again. This time, the hemispherical form manifested not as a shockwave, but as a sword barrier. Earlier it had been used for offense, but this time I used it for defense.
Kwwaaang!
Corpse fragments imbued with internal energy struck the sword barrier and rained down in heaps. What had I just seen? For a moment, I doubted my own eyes.
“……You have truly crossed the line.”
I murmured blankly.
The Blood Explosive Art. A martial art that detonates the internal energy of the entire body to explode the body itself. Hearing only the explanation, it sounded like an extreme demonic martial art, but in truth, that was not the case. It was said that originally, the Blood Explosive Art was a martial art that first originated from the orthodox sects.
It was a martial art created as a desperate measure by the orthodox sects when they began to be pushed back in the First Righteous-Demonic War. Thus, the Blood Explosive Art was rather a martial art that symbolized sacrifice and nobility.
Of course, due to its cruelty, not only its use but even learning it was strictly forbidden during peacetime. Yet now, the Zhuge Clan had brought out that taboo martial art once again. All for the survival of a single clan.
“Are you out of your mind?”
Now, I did not even feel like speaking politely anymore. Zhuge Gyeom remained silent.
He had reached the point where, far beyond merely shortening people’s lives with formations, he destroyed them entirely. Shortening lives was already crossing the line, but forcing them to throw their lives away was crossing it by an unfathomable distance.
I immediately deployed a sword barrier and rushed in a straight line toward Zhuge Gyeom. Zhuge Gyeom also pulled his hands from his sleeves and drew his sword.
Th-th-thud!
The Zhuge Clan martial artists who had lost their minds came rushing in and detonated their bodies. No matter how much lower their realm was than mine, the destructive force of corpse fragments laden with internal energy was stronger than imagined.
‘Just what kind of grand art did he cast on them……’
Even so, a human’s fundamental instinct was survival. Was controlling even that truly possible? If that were possible, it had to be an extraordinarily heinous grand art.
I leaped and charged toward Zhuge Gyeom. But at that moment, Zhuge Gyeom’s sleeves swelled immensely. Between his swollen sleeves, the blood vessels of his arm muscles were visibly bulging out.
“You truly were a madman.”
I immediately spun my body in reverse and halted my dash as if springing back. Zhuge Gyeom’s robes swelled completely, as if a peacock were spreading its tail.
“Did you use that formation on yourself as well? Knowing the side effects?”
I asked. Zhuge Gyeom looked at me with sunken eyes.
“I told you. You do not know. To keep the clan alive, the Clan Head must do whatever it takes. That is the Clan Head, and that is the role of the head of the house.”
“What meaning is there in a clan preserved by sacrificing people like that?”
“If even a single person survives to pass down the Zhuge surname, that in itself is meaning.”
“Rather, because of that judgment, the Zhuge lineage looks like it will be wiped out entirely. Do you not know that even the Imperial Palace forbids the Blood Explosive Art?”
“Since when has the New Justice Association followed the laws of the Imperial Palace to the letter?”
“Aside from the laws of the Imperial Palace, you have strayed from the laws of humanity.”
“I do not deny it. But I feel no shame either.”
Zhuge Gyeom closed his eyes and gripped his sword. A vortex swirled around Zhuge Gyeom’s body. It was a shockwave of immense internal energy. Scattered stone fragments and corpse debris on the ground whirled violently. I narrowed my eyes and shielded my face with my arm.
The long robes of his attire swelled until they burst with a loud bang. Zhuge Gyeom’s upper body was laid completely bare. The moment I saw that exposed torso, I let out a sigh.
“You are doing every mad thing imaginable all by yourself.”
All manner of lines were drawn across Zhuge Gyeom’s body as though carved with a blade. Looking at those wounds, some appeared recently made, while others seemed to have formed long ago.
“Your entire body is practically a drawing canvas.”
Even as I said that, I did not lower my guard.
Although it was my first time seeing it, it appeared he had engraved a formation onto his very body. I had seen people cultivate atop or within formations to increase efficiency, but to engrave a formation onto one’s body itself. Even at a glance, it was a method sure to carry severe side effects.
In fact, seeing the scars engraved on Zhuge Gyeom’s flesh glowing reddish and his skin wriggling right now, it was undeniable that it was placing an immense strain on his body. It was a situation no different from unleashing innate true qi, yet a destructive energy far too unimaginable to have been staked on a single individual’s life force surrounded Zhuge Gyeom’s entire body.
At that moment, Zhuge Gyeom vanished from before my eyes. It was an explosive speed. To the point where even my eyes could not catch him. Without relying on any talent, I predicted the sword’s path based on the sparring experience accumulated thus far and blocked it.
“……What.”
Th-th-thud.
Zhuge Gyeom’s clashing sword was trembling violently. From somewhere within Zhuge Gyeom’s body, popping sounds rang out. Taking a closer look, his skin was gradually necrotizing, and the whites of his eyes were staining red.
Kwwang!
For now, I gathered internal energy in my empty hand and detonated it. Zhuge Gyeom was sent flying by that explosive force.
However, Zhuge Gyeom’s body was already beyond common sense. He counteracted the force sending him flying and charged forward. If it was enough force to cancel out an explosion’s power, I could hardly fathom how strong it was.
I addressed the single point with the Ultimate of the Primordial Boundless Sword Art, but Zhuge Gyeom’s brutal advance without even a stance swallowed it all whole.
Kwakwakwang!
A colossal force poured onto my body. Even the Primordial Boundless Sword Art piercing a single point served as only slight resistance. As I rolled across the ground and was flung away by Zhuge Gyeom’s attack, Peng Chae-hyang screamed.
“Gaga!”
Just before crashing into the wall, I plunged my sword into the ground and barely halted myself from flying backward.
“Urgh!”
Between the sheer force and the internal energy shaking my whole body, blood surged up and spilled from my mouth.
Yet Zhuge Gyeom showed no sign of satisfaction. It was only natural. Right now, by anyone’s standards, Zhuge Gyeom was attempting to kill me even at the cost of consuming his own lifespan.
“If not for you, if only you didn’t exist!”
Zhuge Gyeom rushed at me while spitting hatred. His skin had ruptured and necrotized, and his eyes appeared already blind.
Under the influence of the Wind God, I could see the energy of nature falling away from Zhuge Gyeom.
Suddenly, Gwan Seo-ye’s words came to mind. That one who grew strong through formations would certainly pay the price. To deceive the heavens, one had to reach the realm of Heavenly Evasion, but that was a realm of legends.
Zhuge Gyeom had twisted his entire body as well, but in the end, he had merely created a defective product that combined spiritual qi and demonic qi only to boost destructive power.
“Just what, just what grudge do you hold against me!”
Zhuge Gyeom screamed. Zhuge Gyeom advanced toward me once more. However, that speed had drastically plummeted. To the point where even a commoner could watch and easily dodge. The way he flailed his hands blindly was truly the posture of a blind man swinging a sword.
“I hold no grudge. It is simply that our paths were different.”
“You could certainly have become a great merchant, and you might not have antagonized us.”
Zhuge Gyeom’s words were correct. It was not a mere hypothetical. In my previous life, that was indeed how it had been.
Yet Zhuge Gyeom had not spoken knowing of the previous life. He was merely feeling wronged.
“How unsightly.”
Zhuge Gyeom let out a bizarre scream that could no longer form words and slowly walked toward me. The energy of nature gradually departed Zhuge Gyeom’s body.
As the energy of Water departed, moisture vanished from his skin; as the energy of Fire departed, heat vanished from his body; as the energy of Wood departed, harmony broke; as the energy of Metal departed, the spirit shattered; and as the energy of Earth departed, the flesh broke apart.
A human body abandoned by the energy of nature collapsed in utter ruin. Even though I had seen my fair share of brutally slain corpses, it was enough to make nausea rise.
“Bleeegh.”
The sight of a person becoming a monster and melting away seemed too hard to endure for Zhuge Yan, who was not even a martial artist.
“……”
In the end, Zhuge Gyeom turned into a handful of bloody water and returned to nothingness. It was a miserable demise, unable to scatter into the sky or be absorbed into the earth.
“Ha.”
A chilling wind blew through the Zhuge Clan estate. As if there had never been a person named Zhuge Gyeom in the first place, not a trace of Zhuge Gyeom was visible.