Chapter 292 : Blood Demon Strife (2)
Chapter 292: Blood Demon Strife (2)
“Now!”
Sewoon did not stop. He conceived a way to deal with the Blood Demon’s spatial expansion sorcery and the anomalous abominations pouring out from the gaps all at once.
Saaaaa!
Chwaaaa!
Pure Yang in his hand responded to Sewoon’s will and poured out radiant brilliance.
“Open the way!”
With that command, Sewoon surged forward.
Immediate resistance erupted.
“Kekeke, how dare you order your master around!”
“Grrr!!”
Poison Demon Yelü Seung raised his voice at Sewoon’s resolute command, yet the corners of his lips were lifted.
The Ferocious Divine Corpse also growled, but it was not a sound of defiance against its master’s command.
Tadat!
Paaat!
The Ferocious Divine Corpse charged without hesitation, pulverizing every enemy that blocked Sewoon’s path.
Chwaaaa!
Chiiiiik!
Poison Demon Yelü Seung likewise spewed terrifying poison qi, melting the anomalies away.
With the Ferocious Divine Corpse and Poison Demon Yelü Seung opening the path, Sewoon dashed forward.
Wooooong!
Before anyone realized it, the formless sword transformed into a blade, extending faster than the speed at which space itself was expanding.
‘Cut it apart……!’
Chwaaaaa!
Swaeaek!
With the sound of air tearing, the endlessly extending formless blade Sewoon swung sliced through space itself.
The change wrought by Sewoon’s sword strike was utterly destructive.
Kwaaaaarrrrr!
Kwagagagaga!
In the wake of the sword’s trajectory, space contracted once more, and a massive rupture formed. It was not a mere tear in space.
It was a void of emptiness, a pitch-black abyss that devoured everything around it.
The anomalies instinctively gazed upon the rift and recoiled in extreme terror.
They instinctively knew that once dragged inside, survival would be impossible, and they would be trapped there forever.
But it was already too late.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Pajijijik!
Driven by the power of the formless sword imbued with Sewoon’s will, they were sucked into the spatial rift as if drawn by a colossal magnet.
Woooooong!
Chiiiiiiik!
The physical bodies of the anomalies—once like a locust-swarm calamity blotting out the sky—began to melt with horrific sounds.
Bones, flesh, inner qi, and even souls were all absorbed, reduced to mere handfuls of ash that vanished.
The sight of demonic figures crumpling as if crushed by an invisible hand, disappearing without even managing a scream, was nothing short of a new Path of Hell.
Watching this ghastly scene, Yelü Seung was truly delighted.
“Kekeke, it really looks like I’ll get to see you kneel before my disciple, Blood Demon.”
Yelü Seung cackled as he spoke to the Blood Demon.
His voice carried both madness-laced mockery and a genuine sense of pride.
Having watched the Blood Demon for a long time within the Blood Cult, Yelü Seung knew better than anyone just how overwhelming the Blood Demon’s power was.
Unlike the other elders, he had not sworn loyalty, yet even he had believed that there was no one who could dare stand on equal footing against the Blood Demon.
But now, the disciple standing before his eyes—Sewoon—was different.
The pure white light pouring from his sword was suppressing the Blood Demon’s demonic qi, and his presence did not fall short of the Blood Demon’s in the slightest.
In his ashen pupils was filled with blind faith in his own disciple.
At that moment, Sewoon did not stop.
After sweeping away the anomalies, he closed the distance in a single step, perfectly approaching the Blood Demon seated upon the Grand Teacher’s Chair.
“Blood Demon!!”
Bellowing in rage at the Blood Demon, Sewoon unleashed a sword strike containing all his power.
The Golden Heaven Harmonizing Qi erupting from his physical body boiled like molten lava.
Paaat!
Chwaaaaa!
“Come.”
Only then did the Blood Demon rise from the Grand Teacher’s Chair to meet the blade.
The Reverse Heaven Qi at its peak blazed in the Blood Demon’s hand like dark crimson flames tinged with blue.
Chwaaak!
Kwagagagagaga!
The collision of the two forces unleashed a terrifying shockwave that swept across the surroundings.
The ripple produced by the clash between Sewoon and the Blood Demon was on a completely different level from the battle they had fought here before the regression.
The clash of two martial artists who had reached the extreme of the Life and Death Realm, beings beyond the ordinary, radiated an overwhelming power as if intent on annihilating everything.
Kwaaaang!
Kwagagagaga!
With a thunderous explosive boom, space twisted and tore apart.
Wherever their power reached, everything evaporated, and massive craters formed as though meteors had slammed down.
Their battle was no mere fight. It was like the collision of two entirely different worlds.
The pure white light erupting from Sewoon’s sword sought to purify everything, devouring the Blood Demon’s demonic qi, while the Blood Demon’s demonic qi surged violently as if to swallow Sewoon’s light.
Like the clash of Yin and Yang, the destruction finally reached a brief halt.
Kwaaaaarrrrr!!
Kwaaaaah!
Before long, Sewoon and the Blood Demon stood at a distance, staring at one another.
Unlike Sewoon, who prepared his next attack with a grave expression, a sincere smile bloomed upon the Blood Demon’s face.
“So it really was you.”
The Blood Demon’s gaze upon Sewoon resembled that of a fanatic who had finally encountered the being foretold in a long-awaited covenant.
Sewoon raised his sword once more and spoke.
“Enough nonsense. Wipe the blood running down your face.”
Sewoon mocked the Blood Demon.
And indeed, just as Sewoon said, there was a small wound beside the Blood Demon’s right eye.
Before the regression, not a single person had ever wounded the Blood Demon.
From that unmistakable wound, a thin line of blood flowed.
“So this is my first time bleeding.”
The Blood Demon wiped his blood with a finger.
Saaaa.
The wound recovered to its original state as if it had been a lie.
Yet strangely, the blood he had shed did not disappear.
Wooooong!
With a resonant hum, the blood spilled by the Blood Demon floated in midair and began to deform into bizarre shapes.
Chwaaaaa!
It twisted and writhed horribly in the air, as though it had become thousands of living tentacles.
‘So this is when it truly begins.’
Watching this, Sewoon tightened his grip on the sword.
The Blood Demon’s sorcerous power had no end.
It was, quite literally, infinite.
Among those powers, however, Sewoon clearly remembered the primary abilities the Blood Demon frequently used to slaughter his enemies.
One of them was—
‘Heaven-Transforming Blood Seed.’
That was the Blood Seed’s sorcerous ability.
Blood was, in essence, the source of all life.
By transforming the blood dwelling within his body into thousands of branching forms, it was a power used to utterly annihilate opponents.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Kwagaga!
At that moment, Reverse Heaven Qi far greater than before erupted from the Blood Demon’s entire body.
Then the Blood Demon spoke quietly to Sewoon.
“But this is still not enough. From here on, you must show everything you have.”
Paaat!
With those words, countless arrows and spearheads formed of blood rained down upon them.
Swaeaek!
Kwagagaga!
The three tried once more to approach the Blood Demon while avoiding the bloodstorm pouring from the sky, but—
“Huff! Kgh!”
“Grr!”
Even merely dodging and defending was no easy task.
It felt as though the entire place had turned into a sea of blood.
As the three struggled to neutralize the attacks with their respective powers, Sewoon raised his voice.
“Push your Protective Qi to the absolute limit!! Let even a single one through and it’s over!!”
Sewoon shouted loudly.
Not a single one of those countless blood blades could be allowed through.
The reason was clear.
‘The real danger begins after you’re hit. Once that happens, he can use the victim’s blood as well.’
That was right.
The true terror of Heaven-Transforming Blood Seed began the moment an attack was allowed through.
Once penetrated, the Blood Demon’s blood that infiltrated the body would instantly seize control of the opponent’s own blood at will.
It could boil the blood flowing inside the body to kill them, or cause it to solidify and seal all movement.
Chijijik!
Chii!
Every surrounding structure struck by the blood arrows melted away with horrific sounds.
As if corroded by acidic fluid, the walls rotted through in an instant, and the floor was riddled with black holes, releasing a dreadful stench.
Kwaaaaarrr!
It was the overwhelming power of Heaven-Transforming Blood Seed, capable of twisting and destroying the very origins of all life and matter.
And then—
Something occurred that even Sewoon had not anticipated.
Pabat!
“Grr!”
Disregarding Sewoon’s command, the Ferocious Divine Corpse suddenly charged forward without even cloaking itself in Protective Qi.
Instead, it used the principle of absorption, forcibly redirecting every incoming attack toward itself.
It was tantamount to a suicidal act.
‘What?!’
Pupupuk!
Pupuk!
As expected, in an instant the Ferocious Divine Corpse’s physical body turned like a cactus of the Great Desert.
A strange glint appeared in the Blood Demon’s eyes at that sight.
Even he had never seen such a phenomenon before.
“You’ve brought something interesting.”
Under normal circumstances, it should have died instantly.
Yet the Ferocious Divine Corpse appeared completely unfazed.
‘…!!’
Sewoon was stunned.
When the Ferocious Divine Corpse spread its arms wide, the Blood Demon’s blood was sucked into its body like a colossal storm.
Though it should have died long ago, the Ferocious Divine Corpse remained unharmed.
Instead, dark crimson veins began to surface across its ashen skin.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Gunggi’s demonic qi swelled even more massively.
After absorbing all of the Blood Demon’s blood, the power of the Ferocious Divine Corpse’s soul and physical body had risen to an even higher level.
This was not a simple increase in strength.
It was a wondrous evolution of Gunggi, inheriting the powers of both the Heavenly Demon and the Blood Demon.
‘Ah!’
Only then did Sewoon realize it.
A Jiangshi was, by nature, a dead existence. The Ferocious Divine Corpse was the natural antithesis to Heaven-Transforming Blood Seed, which carried the vitality of life itself.
‘I never imagined such a phenomenon would occur. But if this blocks one of his sorcerous abilities completely, that alone is cause for celebration!’
Even Sewoon had not foreseen this.
Even when he reviewed all his pre-regression memories, there had not been a single existence like the Ferocious Divine Corpse—one that perfectly countered one of the Blood Demon’s core abilities.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Kwagaga!
“Grr!!”
At that moment, the Ferocious Divine Corpse, having absorbed all of the Blood Demon’s blood, released a thunderous roar.
It was merely the howl of a beast, yet the destructive soundwaves swept the surroundings as if Sound Arts at the extreme had been unleashed.
“Kekeke. Well now, it looks like your pointless tricks have been properly shut down. Instead of wasting time, why don’t you kindly offer your neck to my disciple, Blood Demon?”
Yelü Seung followed up by mocking and provoking the Blood Demon once more.
When he had been an enemy, Yelü Seung had wanted to kill him more than anyone. Now that he was an ally, he was useful in many ways.
Yet despite having one of his sorcerous abilities sealed, the Blood Demon showed not the slightest hint of unease or impatience.
If anything, his expression looked amused.
Then the Blood Demon spoke again.
“Then let us see how you deal with this.”
Tak!
The Blood Demon snapped his fingers once more.
There was no longer any blood left for him to control—
Chwaaaa!
Kwaaaaarrrr!
Yet another anomaly occurred.
Suddenly, a jet-black wave towering as if to touch the heavens crashed down upon everyone, including Sewoon.
Every ‘shadow’ that had settled around them surged upward and engulfed them all.