Chapter 90: Blood Incident of the Yangtze River (6)
Chui’s spear flew in.
It shot in a straight line, then suddenly changed its trajectory, aiming for the Tiger Butcher’s face.
Had it been as usual, he would have avoided it easily.
However, because the Tiger Butcher’s limbs did not obey him right now, his movements were unnatural.
In the end.
…Rip!
The left side of the Tiger Butcher’s face, who had leaned his head to the side, was torn away.
Explosion!
His skin was completely shredded, scraping away his hair, ear, flesh of his cheek, half of his nose, the four leftmost molars, and a portion of the outer surface of his skull.
“Argh-aaaaaargh!?”
The Tiger Butcher tried to raise his hand to cover the wound, but
Creak!
this time as well, the joints of his arms refused the head’s command and were bending at will.
“Urgh! T-This cannot be! Why! Why are these slave bastards……?!”
By this point, it was time for the Tiger Butcher to slowly recognize the cause of the situation.
Tiger Ghost (倀鬼).
What was hindering the Tiger Butcher’s movements right now were the spear ghosts he had absorbed so far.
Chui spoke as he retrieved his spear.
“Your Spear Ghost Calling is incomplete.”
“……?”
“The amount of internal energy extracted from a spear ghost is explosive, but you grant that much autonomy to the spear ghost in return.”
“……!”
It was just as he said.
The Spear Ghost Calling practiced by the Tiger Butcher had a large amount of internal energy that could be extracted from a single spear ghost.
……However.
Despite squeezing the spear ghost ruthlessly to generate even more power, the reason Hong Gong classified the Spear Ghost Calling of this time as a failure was clear.
The danger that the spear ghost could acquire a portion of the body’s control when the mental strength of the one practicing Spear Ghost Calling weakened.
That was simply all.
No matter how many slaves there were, and even if there was a technique to thoroughly squeeze their lifeblood, if the slaves revolted, it was a loss in the end.
In the process of suppressing the slaves, the place where the battle occurred was devastated, the power used for suppression was wasted, the lost labor of the slaves was a matter of course, and a high cost was incurred to restore it.
It was the same for Spear Ghost Calling.
Hong Gong had considered Spear Ghost Calling to be in the completed stage when he bequeathed it to the Tiger Butcher.
However, after seeing many test subjects including the Tiger Butcher eventually devoured by the spear ghost and running wild, he changed his mind.
Even if running wild according to one’s own subconscious was unavoidable due to side effects, being conversely devoured and controlled by the spear ghost was an entirely different story.
On the other hand, the Spear Ghost Calling Chui practiced was in many ways weaker than the Tiger Butcher’s Spear Ghost Calling.
Because the yield of internal energy that could be extracted from a spear ghost was lower, the increase in internal energy was much greater on the Tiger Butcher’s side when they absorbed the same headcount of spear ghost.
However, Chui possessed an absolute advantage.
“If there is a concept of ‘incomplete’, there must also be a concept of ‘complete’, right?”
“……?”
“That is precisely my case.”
“……!”
Stability.
A spear ghost once absorbed by Chui could absolutely never stage a rebellion.
Although the amount of internal energy that could be extracted was lower, it submitted thoroughly regardless of what state Chui’s body was in.
To use an analogy…… the Tiger Butcher’s slaves had good strength but were existences with the risk of stabbing their master in the back at any time, whereas Chui’s slaves had weak strength but were existences that served with loyalty regardless of the master’s state.
Rumble—
Chui raised his momentum.
The two red stars floating in the night sky cast an eerie light.
Among them, the newly appeared star, rather than the original one, expanded the size of its light with a terrifying momentum.
It was attempting to swallow the pre-existing star.
“……! ……! ……!”
The Tiger Butcher wriggled his body to evade Chui.
Yet his body still did not move well.
Only blood fountains kept gushing out through the minor wounds here and there.
Only then did it begin to be visible to the Tiger Butcher’s eyes.
[Kekekekekekeke……]
the spear ghosts he had devoured so far.
They were crawling out through the wounds opened between skin and skin, wrapping around his limbs.
Just as a ruling monarch in the center struggled with a rebellion arising in a distant province, the Spear Ghosts were thus occupying in turn starting from the fingertips and toe tips that were furthest from the Tiger Butcher’s consciousness.
“Urghhhhhh……”
The Tiger Butcher made endless efforts to regain control of his limbs.
Every time he exerted force, the blood that had been escaping from his wounds repeated entering like an ebb tide and then flowing out again while scanning the mood.
At that time.
“……!”
From the wound under the Tiger Butcher’s right armpit, a single stream of exceptionally dark red blood trickled down.
It seemed to stretch stickily like honey, then soon transformed into a human shape.
[You fellow Ga Jeong-maeng! Did you truly hope to live even after doing that?!]
It was none other than Ja Butcher Seo Woo-hak.
At the same time, there was something squeezing out from the wound on the Tiger Butcher’s left knee back.
[I will absolutely make you my traveling companion to the Yellow Springs!]
Chuk Butcher Woo Cheol-woo was tightly constricting the Tiger Butcher’s lower body.
“Urghhhhh! These bastards……”
The Tiger Butcher clenched his teeth.
He forced the spear ghosts he had summoned deep within his dantian.
“Fine! In that case, I just won’t use you bastards!”
The Tiger Butcher withdrew Spear Ghost Calling.
As he withdrew the internal energies that had been running throughout his blood vessels, the Spear Ghosts were dragged like an ebb tide and locked in the prison of the dantian.
Only then did the Tiger Butcher finally regain control of his body.
Right at that moment.
“Urgh!?”
The Tiger Butcher coughed up a handful of blood from his mouth.
“……?”
Chui shook his spear once toward the Tiger Butcher, who looked this way as if not knowing the reason.
“The poison of your junior brother. The effect was good.”
“……!”
Chui had coated his spear with Sa Butcher’s Miao poison beforehand, prior to engaging in the decisive battle with the Tiger Butcher.
The Tiger Butcher began to tremble violently.
To channel the internal energy of Spear Ghost Calling to suppress the lethal poison spread in his body, he feared the rebellion of the spear ghost.
Yet not using the spear ghost, there was no way to suppress the poison with standard cultivation methods and internal energy.
The Tiger Butcher had been caught in a checkmate.
Step, step, step—
Chui leisurely moved his steps.
“If you don’t use the spear ghost, it will be difficult to suppress the poison. What are you doing?”
“……”
The Tiger Butcher broke into a cold sweat.
Chui was tempting him right now to use the spear ghost to handle the immediate emergency.
However, if he brought out and used the spear ghost as urged, he would lose control of his body once again.
“Urghhh……!”
Ultimately, the Tiger Butcher had no choice but to draw out the spear ghost once again.
“That’s it. You must.”
The moment Chui raised his spear, red arms sprouted from the Tiger Butcher’s neck.
[You fellow! Traitor!]
[A fellow like you is better off dead!]
The arm of Ja Butcher Seo Woo-hak and the arm of Chuk Butcher Woo Cheol-woo were strangling the Tiger Butcher’s neck.
As he choked, blood vessels bulged in his eyes.
His eyeballs with burst capillaries were dyed red, and blood-tears (血淚) trickled down naturally.
“Urgh-cough…… Kahk!”
The Tiger Butcher stumbled while clutching his neck.
However, to Jeok-hyang and Gyeon Sul watching from afar, the Tiger Butcher merely appeared to be strangling his own neck where nothing was present.
Before long, Chui approached in front of the Tiger Butcher.
“Where is Hong Gong?”
At those words, the Tiger Butcher closed his eyes tightly.
And he laughed, trickling cold sweat mixed with blood.
“Perhaps…… you will meet him soon.”
At the same time, the Tiger Butcher snapped his eyes open.
Taking off his two hands that had been clawing his neck, he gripped the curved barbarian blade.
Then, he drew out every single spear ghost he had absorbed until now.
Rumble—
Even while countless Spear Ghosts were strangling his neck and twisting his limbs, the Tiger Butcher raised his curved barbarian blade high.
“Watch out! It’s his final struggle!”
Jeok-hyang shouted, but it was already too late.
“Kekekeke! Even if I die, I won’t die alone. I will at least take someone of your level with me!”
The Tiger Butcher’s curved barbarian blade fell down.
It flew toward Chui like a red lightning bolt tearing through the darkness.
“……”
Chui was also preparing his final strike.
…Clack!
The Plum Blossom Ghost Spear, assembled into a single long spear, shot like a beam of light.
The red-burning blade and spear met very briefly in the air.
Then, soon passing each other, they shot toward their respective trajectories.
Directly opposite paths. Directly opposite targets.
The Tiger Butcher’s curved barbarian blade spun, drawing a circle, and fell straight toward Chui’s head.
Chui leaned his head back.
The curved barbarian blade fell down and sliced Chui’s chest and flank.
And right after that, it plunged straight into the ground.
If, if the Tiger Butcher had not lost one eye due to the joint attack of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher.
If so, would the blade he threw at the final moment have struck Chui’s head?
……But a hypothesis about what has already occurred is meaningless.
Sssshhh—
On the other hand, Chui’s spear flew in a straight line.
And precisely, it penetrated the Tiger Butcher’s heart.
…Bang!
The Tiger Butcher could not even utter a single shriek.
Flying backward while impaled on the spear and being deeply nailed to a pine tree was his end.
Jeok-hyang was seen running toward the Tiger Butcher with her axe in hand.
Right at that moment.
Crack!
A loud sound was heard from the ground Chui was stepping on.
Turning his head, he saw the curved barbarian blade that the Tiger Butcher had thrown at the last moment deeply embedded in the ground.
Around it, deep cracks were continuously appearing.
The Tiger Butcher had gone while burning his malice toward Chui until the very end.
Rumble!
Along with a loud roar, the corner of the cliff collapsed.
“Hey! Look! Pretty boy!”
Gyeon Sul ran quickly and reached out his hand, but it was already too late.
Chui fell down along with a colossal amount of rocks.
Beneath, the fiercely running main flow of the Yangtze opened its mouth wide.
* * *
Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble…
Chui was swept away by the water current.
Beyond his blurred vision, something was seen.
The corpses of Myo Butcher, Oh Butcher, and Mi Butcher, who had fallen first, were spinning round and round, trapped in a colossal whirlpool.
If trapped inside the navel of that main flow, one could not cross the Yellow Springs even in death.
One would just have to keep floating in this whirlpool prison forever, until the flesh swelled and burst, leaving only white bones.
‘……’
Chui, by extreme good fortune, was swept only by the water current without striking a rock.
He reached out his hand to grab a reef, but because the sword wound he received from the Tiger Butcher at the end was too deep, strength did not enter well.
His hand slipped, and Chui struck his head against a reef with the sheer force of the current.
…Thud!
His mind grew dazed, but if he lost consciousness here, he would truly become a water ghost.
Chui struggled.
As a result of reaching out his hands and kicking his feet with all his might, he was barely able to escape from the outermost edge of the whirlpool.
Yet even so, he had merely escaped the whirlpool.
The fierce current, the freezing cold water temperature, and the hard rocks and sharp driftwoods lurking everywhere were ready to kill the submerged at any moment.
Having exhausted all his strength, Chui was swept away by the current just like that.
Like a worthless scrap of fallen leaf, colliding here and folding there.
‘……’
Chui thought.
The sword wound sustained from the Tiger Butcher had torn him long from his chest to his flank, and the massive blood loss resulting from it would constrict Chui’s neck moment by moment.
He had to get out of this freezing water as soon as possible.
Chui reached out his hand to grab something protruding nearby.
Driftwood, a reef, a vine, anything was fine.
He could grab anything that could pull this dying body above the water surface.
But was it because the current was too fierce?
Nothing at all to grab was visible nearby.
During that time, Chui struck his head against reefs three more times, and his soles and palms were pierced by sharp wood splinters.
‘Mmm. This is a bit troublesome.’
Chui closed his eyes briefly.
If he went to the downstream where the current slowed down like this, the situation might change, but it was unknown whether his body temperature would hold out until then.
Chui’s body was already in a state of growing freezing cold.
It was not something to be resolved just by operating the spear ghost.
……Right at that moment.
Splash—
A small water sound was heard from the side.
The moment Chui wanted to turn his head, wondering what it was,
…Rip!
something wrapped around Chui’s neck.
It was a tough paper mulberry rope.
‘Kahk!?’
At the rope noose that suddenly strangled his neck, Chui hurriedly raised his head.
Thereupon, a hand pulling the rope noose hung on his neck was seen.
“Bubbllle!”
There was one person who was continuously pulling the rope even while spitting out a massive amount of water bubbles from the mouth.
And surprisingly, the face of that person was also one Chui knew well.
Swoosh!
Soon, they emerged from the water and landed Chui onto the gravel-filled riverbank.
And without any room to take any other action, they immediately placed their lips over Chui’s lips and began performing artificial respiration.
Sword Flower Namgung Yul.
She had pursued Chui all the way to this place.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost