Chapter 307: Chapter 307
Demonic Arts.
Commonly speaking, the term referred to martial arts practiced by members of the Demonic Cult.
But the Murim Alliance drew the boundaries far wider.
Power that twisted natural order and strayed from truth.
Power that defied laws and broke from common sense—all of it fell under the umbrella of Demonic Arts.
This stemmed from the “Righteous Path Classification” enacted the moment the Murim Alliance was founded five hundred years ago.
For the past five centuries, the Murim Alliance had eradicated every martial art that fell outside that classification, safeguarding the peace of the murim.
As a result, by the present age, few people knew the types or characteristics of Demonic Arts, and not a soul who witnessed Deung Go-hyeon’s transformation thought to connect it to Demonic Arts.
“S-sir! A-are you alright?”
The Lantern Sect members were glad he’d cut down the Poison Fang Sect’s fighters in a single stroke, but the fact that he’d also killed one of their own left them utterly bewildered.
They called out to Deung Go-hyeon cautiously, but he didn’t so much as acknowledge them and charged straight at the Poison Fang Sect members.
SLASH—!
When you faced an armed opponent, taking up arms to defend yourself was the most natural thing in the world.
But when desperate defense proved utterly useless, it was more than enough to shatter people’s reason.
SLASH—!
“GUHHK!”
Another Poison Fang Sect member’s neck was severed along with the blade he’d raised in defense, and a fountain of blood erupted. At this point, small streams of blood had begun flowing across the Poison Fang Sect’s courtyard.
The Poison Fang Sect members fell back, step after step.
And each time, Deung Go-hyeon pursued, lopping off heads and rending bodies—his display no longer resembled a warrior, but an Evil Spirit incarnate.
“S-sir…… I-I think that’s enough.”
A Lantern Sect member who couldn’t stand it any longer tried to reason with him, but Deung Go-hyeon didn’t even pretend to listen.
Then, when three Lantern Sect members finally rushed him from behind to subdue him—
FLASH.
Deung Go-hyeon turned those pitch-black eyes on his own juniors and swung his saber without a flicker of emotion.
“KGHK!”
“GUHHK!”
One had his neck severed. Two lost arms and legs.
Neither the Poison Fang Sect nor the Lantern Sect could process what was unfolding before their eyes.
“Wh-what the fuck is he!”
“H-he attacked his own……!”
“R-run!”
Deung Go-hyeon—who had managed to terrify even the fearless Black Path—licked the blood splattered on his lips and spoke.
“The…… the Lantern Sect is eternal!!!”
Eyes bulging, he charged at Poison Fang Sword again.
GRIND.
Poison Fang Sword ground his teeth until they nearly shattered and braced to meet him with everything he had.
“Think I’ll run?!”
CLANG—!
But Poison Fang Sword’s Sword-Qi-clad weapon was sheared clean through, and the instant his eyes widened just like Deung Go-hyeon’s—
THWACK—
I kicked him aside.
“Wh— KGHK……!!”
CRASH—!
Poison Fang Sword smashed through a pillar and went flying.
“I just saved your life.”
“……F-fuck……”
Expressing gratitude through profanity, as befitting a Black Path man.
I left him behind and studied Deung Go-hyeon closely.
The crimson-flushed face, the white steam billowing with every breath.
Up to that point, it was textbook Blood-Explosion Pill symptoms—but beyond that, something was different.
Obsidian eyes, the whites completely gone.
A bizarre energy that sliced through Sword Qi despite not being Sword Force.
And despite endlessly pouring out Qi Waves, his reserves showed no sign of depleting the way Innate True Qi would.
As if he were drawing qi from somewhere beyond our comprehension.
And above all else—
Killing intent so pungent it stung the skin, and Demonic Qi so thick it seared the eyes just to look at.
I called out to Deung Go-hyeon.
“You…… have you trained in a Demonic Art?”
At my question, his gaze tracked from Poison Fang Sword to me.
“You…… you…… what are you, an interloper?”
“I asked whether you’ve trained in a Demonic Art.”
“Are you trying to get in the Lantern Sect’s way!”
Drooling like an animal, Deung Go-hyeon screamed at the top of his lungs.
“I’ll kill you! Anyone who stands in the Lantern Sect’s way dies!”
No getting through to him.
I sent my intent inward and summoned the Taeul True Scripture.
Internal Qi flowed along the Blood Meridians, stretching through the Fine Meridians, infusing them with power.
I stamped out Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps, leaving two afterimages behind as I seized position behind Deung Go-hyeon.
“Hey, over here.”
The instant he whirled around in alarm, I kicked him in the head and sent him flying three jang.
CRASH, CRASH—!
He slammed through a wooden pillar thick enough for two grown men to wrap their arms around.
CRACKLE, CRACKLE.
But the bastard seemed barely fazed. He sprang right back to his feet.
The difference from before—
“Kill…… kill……”
He was snarling like a beast, as if he’d lost all reason.
ROAR—!
Howling like a wild animal, he kicked off the ground and hurtled toward me like an arrow.
SLASH— SLASH— SLASH—
His saber strikes came in the blink of an eye. I dodged each one by a hair’s breadth.
But the strands of hair and scraps of clothing his saber caught were beyond saving.
This was the expensive outfit So-so had bought me.
Accursed bastard.
“Snap out of it, you piece of shit!”
I clenched my fist and smashed his jaw hard enough to shatter it.
His body floated a full two jang into the air, his head snapping back as if his neck would break—then he spun a full rotation mid-flight and righted his stance.
TAP.
Touching down, Deung Go-hyeon vomited a bowlful of blood, then hurled away even the saber he should’ve treated as an extension of his body. He dropped to all fours and began scanning his surroundings.
“Grrrr.”
Baring his teeth and growling like a rabid dog, Deung Go-hyeon suddenly pivoted and lunged at the Poison Fang Sect members.
“GYAAHK!”
A Poison Fang Sect member had an entire chunk of his neck torn away and died instantly. Deung Go-hyeon immediately discarded the corpse and bolted toward the next target.
“Wh-what the! What is he!”
“R-run!”
I watched the sequence of events unfold with a frown I couldn’t smooth away.
The energy he was giving off was unmistakably that of a Demonic Art, yet his behavior was markedly different from a Demonic Practitioner’s.
Demonic Practitioners might be crazed killers, but they didn’t lose their reason this easily.
If anything, it was precisely because they were colder and more calculating than anyone that they regarded killing so lightly.
From that perspective—
‘It doesn’t add up.’
The sight of a man consumed solely by murder, having apparently lost all sense of purpose, was deeply incongruous.
Moreover, the idea that someone who prided himself on being a lay disciple of a lay disciple of Qingcheng Sect had trained in a Demonic Art didn’t sit well at all.
‘Would an Orthodox Path man who secretly trained in a Demonic Art really expose it this carelessly?’
I, too, possessed a strange ability through a relic called the Azure Dragon Bracelet, but I could never use it openly.
If I revealed it, I’d be branded a Public Enemy of the entire murim and face certain death.
Which meant—whether intentionally or not—the fact that Deung Go-hyeon had revealed a Demonic Art in this situation was almost certainly not by his own volition.
‘What is it…… what am I missing?’
While I was lost in thought, Poison Fang Sword staggered to his feet and drove his sword at Deung Go-hyeon.
“Damn you, Deung Go-hyeon! What the hell is this!”
“GYAAHK!”
Even with a blade buried in his own hand, Deung Go-hyeon lunged to bite Poison Fang Sword’s throat.
Blue veins began surfacing on Poison Fang Sword’s crimson face.
That was a sign the Blood-Explosion Pill had begun to overload……
‘Ah!’
It suddenly hit me—starting with Poison Fang Sword, every single person in both the Poison Fang Sect and Lantern Sect had taken Blood-Explosion Pills.
‘Could the Blood-Explosion Pill have acted as some kind of catalyst?’
I drew on Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power and fired the Flying Dragon Claw.
“S-save me!!!”
Just before Deung Go-hyeon could tear out Poison Fang Sword’s throat, the Flying Dragon Claw coiled around Deung Go-hyeon’s neck and wrenched his entire body away.
But.
SHRIEK—!
Even as he was being dragged, the bastard righted himself and charged at me.
I drew Red Radiance and channeled Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power to form Sword Force.
SLASH—!
Red Radiance traced a blazing arc of light, but the bastard contorted his body at an inhuman angle and dodged the Sword Force.
‘He dodged that?’
The instant I pulled the sword back to execute the Minor Heaven Sword Art—
CRACK, CRACK.
The sound of bones grinding came from his feet, and he shot forward like a cannonball.
“Shit!”
WHAM—!
No technique, no form—he hurled his entire body at me.
I raised the Devouring Gauntlet to block, but the impact radiated through every part of my body except the gauntlet.
The force was enough to lift me off the ground and send me flying backward.
THWACK!
The moment my body hit a pillar, I tried to spring back up—but he was already right in my face.
“Kill! Kill! I’ll kill every enemy of the Lantern Sect!”
I lashed out with Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist to shove him back, but he seemed to have gone beyond feeling pain entirely—even with a shattered jaw and a crushed nose, he kept attacking.
‘This son of a bitch!’
Not a true Demonic Art, but tenacious and relentless as a real Demonic Practitioner.
An image that could only be seared into countless people’s minds as pure terror—the very sight I’d grown sick of seeing in my past life.
GRIND.
Memories of the past surged up, and my teeth ground together.
“Hey.”
“Grrrr! Kill! Kill!”
“You picked the wrong guy. I’m someone whose blood boils at the sight of Demonic Practitioners.”
If he didn’t care about pain, then I wouldn’t care about it either.
I drove my fist straight into his open maw as he lunged to tear out my throat.
CRUNCH.
Teeth sank into the back of my hand, and searing agony flooded through me—but I shoved my fist deeper into his mouth.
“Chew on this!”
Simultaneously, I unleashed the Holy Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand, and the bastard—who’d seemed immune to pain—bulged his eyes wide.
SHRIEEEEK—!
Whether his jaw dislocated or his teeth fell out, he didn’t care.
He thrashed wildly, focused only on pulling my hand free.
I kicked him away, then picked up a nearby stone and closed in.
The flames of the Holy Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand had spread inside his mouth, and his brain must have been half-cooked by now—he was scooping sand into his mouth, desperately trying to douse the fire.
Once he’d barely managed to extinguish the flames in his mouth and was gagging and retching, I brought the stone down on his skull.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
His struggling gradually subsided.
Just as his breath was about to give out entirely—
“Not yet. You don’t get to die.”
I placed my hand on his Hundred Convergences Acupoint and poured in Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power.
His body, which had seemed moments from death, jerked back to life.
A short while later—whether his reason and senses had returned—Deung Go-hyeon began screaming in agony.
“GAHK! GAHK! GAHK! S-save…… save me……”
The Holy Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand had already scorched his airway, leaving him unable to breathe properly.
I grabbed a fistful of his hair and asked.
“Where did you get the Demonic Art?”
“……S-save……”
I backhanded him across the face and asked again.
“The Demonic Art! Where did you get the Demonic Art!”
“D-Demonic Art……?”
“That’s right—the heaven-defying martial art you trained in. Where did you get it!”
“N-no. I…… I learned a divine art……”
Deung Go-hyeon’s skill was first-rate at best.
Quantitatively speaking, he was only about Deputy Hall Master level in the Murim Alliance.
And someone like that claimed to have learned a divine art?
“Who…… who taught you this martial art?”
“……”
The light was slowly fading from Deung Go-hyeon’s eyes.
I poured more Jade Purity Heavenly Image Power into him.
But.
“The…… Lantern Sect…… eternal……”
With that as his final words, the light in Deung Go-hyeon’s eyes went out completely.
***
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
Poison Fang Sword’s heart would not stop pounding.
The Blood-Explosion Pill’s effects had already been neutralized with a Dormant Blood Pill.
Yet his heart still hammered on—because the visceral awareness that he’d truly faced the moment of death would not release him.
‘Wh-what the hell was that……?’
He’d survived decades in the Black Path murim, where every sort of freak roamed free, but this was the first time he’d ever felt genuine terror.
‘I was…… dead for certain.’
Especially the moment Deung Go-hyeon had lunged to tear out his throat with blood-soaked teeth.
Even recalling it now drained every ounce of strength from his body.
Poison Fang Sword turned to look at Deung Go-hyeon.
The Black Flame Dragon had the man by the collar, interrogating him about something.
He’d thought the Black Flame Dragon was nothing more than a lunatic brimming with reckless madness—and that same being had saved his life.
Against a nightmarish opponent the likes of which he’d never seen even in his darkest dreams.
If the Black Flame Dragon hadn’t visited the Poison Fang Sect, every last one of them would have been buried here.
‘C-could it be……’
A sudden thought occurred to him.
Could the Black Flame Dragon have visited the Black Path gangs to ensure their safety?
A peculiar hope bloomed in his chest.
Since his official identity was Orthodox Path, he couldn’t visit on friendly terms. So perhaps he’d come on the Black-Path-appropriate pretext of extortion, conducting reconnaissance under that guise.
If that weren’t the case, what reason would he have to risk his life for the Poison Fang Sect—a group he’d never met before?
The rumor that the legendary masters of the Black Path had painstakingly created a Joint Successor to counter Yong So-ah, the rising star of the Orthodox Path murim, who would one day dominate the martial world.
At last, that rumor seemed to fit together perfectly.
‘Ahh……!’
With that realization, the word “friend” the Black Flame Dragon had used took on a far more special meaning.
He’d been saying it all along, between the lines.
That he was one of them—a man of the Black Path.
‘Truly…… the Rising Star of the Black Path murim.’
Just as Poison Fang Sword gazed up at him with eyes full of admiration—
The Black Flame Dragon rose to his feet.
He flicked the blood from his hands and called out.
“Poison Fang Sword.”
“Y-yes, sir!”
Now that he’d realized the Black Flame Dragon was the Joint Successor, honorifics came naturally.
“Do you know where the Lantern Sect is?”
“Why…… do you ask?”
The Black Flame Dragon ground his teeth as though he’d come face-to-face with his mortal enemy.
“Take me there. I have business.”
“……”
That bottomless hatred directed at the Orthodox Path.
That was a fundamental rage that only someone born of the Black Path’s very essence could possess.
He truly was……
“What are you waiting for? Take me there.”
“Y-yes, sir! Understood. I’ll escort you at once!”
Now, Poison Fang Sword harbored not a shred of doubt that the Black Flame Dragon was the Rising Star of the Black Path.