Chapter 87: Tang Family Internal Strife (2)

I was concentrating all my senses to respond to the instructions of Master Bian Que and Master Hua Tuo. Just by spreading those senses wide, I was able to grasp the surrounding situation.

‘Melting hidden weapons without even touching them?’

The hidden weapons that had been flying in vigorously burned and disappeared in an instant, like straw thrown into a furnace.

‘Yi Hwa, isn’t she stronger than I imagined?’

I knew that Divine Power itself was a mysterious strength that differed in trace from ordinary internal energy.

However, I never expected her to show such an aggressive appearance.

Perhaps it was even more unfamiliar because I had been using the Earth Divine Power or Metal Divine Power as a concept to assist my martial arts until now.

However, that didn’t matter. The problem was what came after.

What if Chief Seneschal Tang Man-ok recognized Yi Hwa’s power?

It would become a troublesome situation.

[It is the twelve needles. We are going all at once!]

However, there was no leisure to be worrying. Master Bian Que roughly led to the next step.

‘Tsk! What has happened cannot be helped!’

Come to think of it, it wasn’t that there was no way at all. Frankly speaking, it was a situation where someone who was the Divine Maiden of the Demonic Cult had rolled into my hands. Even with a little bit of thinking, the ways to utilize this were endless.

‘First, finish the task at hand.’

[Fengfu! Naokong! …Houding! Shengling!]

Master Bian Que’s urgent voice followed.

As if clearing a path by moving the energy raised by the needles and medicine to the head, he recited the main acupuncture points of the head.

Tadat! Tak! Tak! Tadat!

In alignment with the consecutive sounds, I inserted over ten needles at once.

[Tongtian!]

The acupoint mentioned this time was a fatal acupoint where a person could die if stabbed incorrectly. Although I was asked to place a needle in a dangerous spot, I did so without hesitation.

[…Baihui!]

Probably the final instruction.

Meanwhile, those who threw the hidden weapons did not stay still either.

“Don’t let them escape!”

“Kill!”

“Where do you think you’re going!”

I was not here alone.

Pang! Kakang! Kararang!

The position of Chief Seneschal was a post that controlled and supervised the entire family.

There was no way he won the position of Chief Seneschal of the Sichuan Tang Clan, one of the Five Great Families of Martial World, in a gambling match.

As expected, Chief Seneschal Tang Man-ok’s martial arts to counter hidden weapons were great.

‘The variation is delicate.’

I was reading it with my senses, but that only made it feel even more vivid.

It was like a hand technique that contained the sensory feel of hands manipulating hidden weapons in detail. It felt like depicting a ripple spreading like waves.

The rapidly flying hidden weapons collided with those ripples and sank just like that.

[Good! Done!]

“Huu…!”

When I placed the needle on the final Baihui acupoint, a force like a kind of rebounding energy struck my finger. I was worried that something had gone wrong, but hearing Master Bian Que’s sigh of relief, it seemed to be the result of the flow of power induced by the acupuncture penetrating the Baihui acupoint.

‘This side is done!’

“Oh Sam-bo! I did not think you were a person to do such a thing!”

Just as I was about to turn around to join in subduing the attackers, Chief Seneschal Tang Man-ok’s angry shout rang out.

‘Huh?’

I paused.

Among those attacking this place, the person called Oh Sam-bo stood still as if he had turned into a stone statue.

I wondered if he was regretting committing the crazy act of attacking the unconscious Family Head of the family, but it was not simply a reaction of that feeling.

‘Confusion?’

What I felt from the opponent when our eyes met for a brief moment was confusion.

It was not the emotion of someone running wild because they had made an irreversible choice. Nor was it an emotion harboring belated regret.

“Kill the Family Head! If you do, everything you wish for will be achieved!”

However, at someone’s shout, the eyes of the man named Oh Sam-bo darkened.

It contained the last tenacity of a person who had no place to return to.

It was the look of someone who had burned their bridges.

Either die,

Or achieve.

However, the change in emotion was strangely fast. It was a reaction where the process of agony to organize confusion was omitted.

As if it had been forced to flip.

It seemed I was not the only one who noticed something strange.

“Insignificant!”

Yi Hwa suddenly clapped her hands.

Jjaaak!

That sound contained a vibe as strange as the man’s shout.

A sound was generally something that swept past once like the wind, but this sound clung to the eardrum and vibrated continuously without stopping.

“Heup?!”

However, what was clear was that the attackers who heard this sound suddenly trembled and came to a halt.

[Fire has the power to ward off evil and selfish things. That is why it is used as a symbol in many religions. To handle the Fire Divine Power to this extent… Indeed, she has the capability to be called the Divine Maiden of the Cult. Quite impressive.]

Considering Master Zhang Sanfeng’s standards, this was a considerably high evaluation.

[By the way, is that alright?]

‘Heup!!’

At Master Zhang Sanfeng’s subsequent words, this time the sound that had come from their mouths burst inside my head.

“What on earth…”

As the attackers who had charged with their backs against the wall stopped, Chief Seneschal Tang Man-ok seemed unable to grasp the situation.

He seemed to have judged that Yi Hwa had simply stopped them with some bizarre technique.

If he had realized that it was a technique wielded as the Divine Maiden of the Demonic Cult, he would not have shown such a bewildered appearance.

However.

“To think she has the power to break the Black Evil Mind Art at once… No way… No, still… Could it be…!”

There was someone who reacted to Yi Hwa’s technique.

The bastard who forcibly turned Oh Sam-bo’s mind earlier!

Although he seemed half-doubting, his reaction showed that he had grasped a clue.

I had thought she was a relatively clever child, but to recklessly use such a technique…

[If that guy opens his mouth, it’ll be a massive disaster.]

‘I know!’

There was no need to capture him alive.

I had to end his breath before he could open his mouth.

‘Fast!’

Silence him by killing him.

I will mobilize everything to tear his mouth apart at once.

I immediately began to manifest the moment I had moved the fastest.

Within my body, a massive force interlocked and moved in a complex manner in an instant.

‘Unified Fist!’

What was reproduced was the lightning-fast strike that had crushed the heart of the unorthodox master in Go County in a single blow!

Parting through the attackers who had lost their will to fight due to confusion in a single step, I reached the target!

Kwajik!

At the end of the rapid movement, which was as if I had folded space to move, I left a sensation of crushing bones and bursting flesh on my hand.

“Kgeuk!”

“Tch!!”

However, I could not end his breath in a single strike.

In the moment of crisis, he sacrificed one of his arms to block my strike.

Because I interlocked and matched the complex forces without sufficient preparation, the speed and power were not even a fraction of the strike I had unfolded back then.

‘I should have aimed for the head.’

Aiming for the heart like back then was also a mistake.

Things had become troublesome.

In order to clean up the aftermath of pouring out the incompletely finished power, I needed to settle the force boiling inside me.

Then, in the meantime, that mouth would open.

“Di…!”

Just as I thought, the man’s mouth opened.

However, at that moment, a cold voice, unbefitting that of a young girl, rang out from Yi Hwa’s mouth.

“Forbid!!!”

“Kgeuk!”

“I forbid vulgar speech, you evil creature.”

Then, as if by magic, the man’s voice no longer came out. It wasn’t just that he stopped his voice; she had created a ball of fire and seared the inside of his mouth.

“Aaaghh!”

All that could come out of that mouth was a streak of flame burning his mouth and a short death cry.

The state of the opponent, who was no longer able to wag his tongue, was wretched.

[Ho?]

‘Could she have done this from the beginning?’

I thought she had recklessly revealed her strength, but she had her own way.

“What on earth…”

“This was the reason why our family, who lived a secluded life in quiet retirement, was targeted. Our house is a place well-versed in methods to block evil arts, just as you saw. I end up showing my strength to my savior like this.”

She seemed to be explaining to me, but in truth, it was meant for Chief Seneschal Tang Man-ok to hear.

‘Wow! Without even blinking…’

If I hadn’t known her exact identity, I would have fallen for it completely too.

The fact that Yi Hwa was a young girl also played a part. She perfectly exploited the prejudice of whether such a young girl would calmly lie.

“So I hope you will keep my ability as secret as possible. I… don’t want to suffer the same tragedy again.”

The acting of her expression, looking as if tears would drop with just a slight touch, was also perfect.

At any rate, it was clear that she was a clever child.

From my perspective it was like that, but what about the side that was defeated by Yi Hwa?

“Haak!”

I could tell without having to listen to the details.

Because his tongue, which had been burned by the flames, had hardened like charcoal and he couldn’t speak properly, he expressed his intentions in a different way.

Ggeugeuk!

As if his defeat by me was merely because he was ambushed in a flustered situation, a thick energy shimmered around him.

The area around him, where he raised his poison qi, corroded and melted.

He could no longer perform the evil arts of manipulating people, but instead, a threatening poison art bared its fangs.

If it was poison arts, even without an arm, it would not be a big problem in exerting strength.

“Should I call it paradoxical?”

The eyes of someone who had burned their bridges. He had the same eyes as those he was manipulating just a moment ago.

“I… will… k…i…l…l… you!”

The sight of him shouting, covered in blood flowing from his stiffened tongue, was quite eerie.

‘This is getting apologetic.’

However, that will would fade away in vain.

‘Although it has only just settled, something that is its polar opposite is already inside me.’

The power that subdues evil arts and burns away poison qi.

My body, which was as if a spark had been transferred from Yi Hwa, had already accepted the Fire God Power.

In confrontation with the opponent spewing thick poison qi, a hot energy shimmered in my hand.

***

Looking at Yeon Cheong-un, who was confronting a demon managing the most evil and wicked power among the three factions of the current Heavenly Demon Cult, Yi Hwa’s eyes sparkled.

‘No mistake.’

Until now, the will of the Heavenly Demon had never descended to the earth.

However, Yi Hwa did not doubt the oracle to follow Yeon Cheong-un in the slightest.

Yeon Cheong-un, whom she had met by following the oracle in that way, was different from what she had thought.

Although he did show himself communicating with the Fire God Power, no matter how one looked at him, he was not someone who had inherited the lineage of the demonic.

However, when he revealed his true power, she could understand immediately.

Yeon Cheong-un opened his Upper Dantian to communicate with the heavens, and using himself as a vessel, he contained the energy of heaven and earth.

Since he could utilize the massive waterway called the world, no matter how much energy he used, it did not dry up.

Kongling.

An existence that had stepped into the realm that could be called the peak of the Tao of Immortality.

Because he had not enlarged the vessel compared to the realm he had achieved, the size of the power he could handle was still at a crude level, but considering his age, it would not be unreasonable to think that a god of the mythological era had descended.

‘It is His power.’

In that deep place, the great power and will of the Heavenly Demon existed fully.

While revealing his inherent power, Yi Hwa thought for a moment that it wouldn’t be bad if everything was exposed like this and they ended up being pursued by the Orthodox faction together.

Because the place where the Heavenly Demon (Yeon Cheong-un) should be was the Heavenly Demon Cult.

‘But it would not be what the Heavenly Demon wishes.’

Yeon Cheong-un was the existence to whom she would entrust her life. The master of her body and mind. Cheekily wielding the master’s will was not a mind to be harbored by an existence that should serve him by dedicating everything.

Yi Hwa, who had decided on the master of her life, gently bowed her head as she looked at Yeon Cheong-un’s back, which looked much larger than what was visible to the eye.