Chapter 296 : Ten Thousand Turns, Yet It Flows East (2)
Chapter 296: Ten Thousand Turns, Yet It Flows East (2)
Kwa-jijik!
Kwaduk!
The moment Sewoon extended his foot, the space his step reached twisted and folded.
Using that tangled space as a foothold, Sewoon shot toward the Blood Demon like a beam of light.
Saaaah!
In one hand, he gripped Pure Yang.
Kwa-rururung!
In the other, he held the power of Angshin Tears, brimming as it returned to its original form.
Originally, a single Angshin Tears had been split in half and absorbed, so the power of Angshin Tears held by Sewoon and Yelü Sheng had each been incomplete.
However, when Yelü Sheng, on the brink of death, passed his Angshin Tears power to Sewoon, Sewoon was taken aback.
‘Since when had he been preparing for this moment?’
The Angshin Tears Yelü Sheng handed over looked as though it had been carefully refined and crafted specifically to be passed on to someone.
So that it could seep naturally into Sewoon’s Angshin Tears—the parent body—without any resistance.
Chwaaaah!
And the result of that effort was magnificent.
Sewoon was startled by the energy surging within his body.
From Sewoon’s body, now having inherited the entirety of Angshin Tears’ power, an overwhelming poison energy—on a scale incomparable to before—was pouring out like spiritual energy.
As Yelü Sheng’s half and Sewoon’s half merged, the true Angshin Tears was being born.
The poison flowing through his blood vessels was no longer something that merely melted matter.
Now, surpassing all things, it exerted its effect even upon space itself—intoxicating it, and ultimately erasing everything.
This was the very end of Poison Arts.
‘Even the Poison Human has been surpassed.’
Sewoon realized his new realm.
He had surpassed even the Poison Human worshipped by all poison practitioners—a realm that, throughout all ages, only a single being had ever reached.
The realm of the Heavenly Poison Human.
And at that moment.
Sewoon gained yet another realization.
‘Could it be… was there a realm beyond the Life and Death Realm?!’
Having completely devoured Angshin Tears, Sewoon was truly gazing beyond the very extremes of the Life and Death Realm.
A realm he had only glimpsed faintly and hazily, still beyond reach.
But it undeniably existed.
Wooong!
Wooong!
He felt his Heavenly Aperture, both shackle and punishment, resonate ever so slightly.
Sewoon sensed it instinctively.
If he advanced to that realm, it would be the ultimate end of a martial artist—
That is, the realm of truth that composes all creation and which all martial arts strive to reach.
He wanted, if only briefly, to delve deeper into martial principles and investigate that truth.
But regrettably……
“Martial Craftsman, you saw it as well, did you not? What lies beyond.”
“!!”
There was no time to savor his enlightenment.
At that instant, the Blood Demon’s voice rang in his ears.
The Blood Demon, already upon him, stared at Sewoon with eyes brimming with killing intent and madness.
‘I’ll melt him down without leaving even a trace of blood with poison!’
At that moment, Sewoon launched the first strike.
Kwa-rururung!
Pajijik!
From Sewoon’s body—now ascended to the realm of the Heavenly Poison Human—the poison energy of Angshin Tears writhed like a living poison dragon.
Kugugugung!
Kwagagaga!
As if soaring toward the firmament, the poison dragon lunged at the Blood Demon.
Every portion of space touched by Angshin Tears’ poison melted away like festering flesh.
Kwaaaah!
Chiiiik!
Amid a horrific stench of everything being scorched away, Sewoon’s poison energy crushed down upon all of the Blood Demon’s demonic qi and surged fiercely toward his body.
Paaaat!
Chiiiik!
The Blood Demon was pushed back by Sewoon’s attack.
At the same time, the protective qi that had wrapped his body like thousands of layered shields melted away futilely, leaving only bare flesh.
Paaht!
At that moment, Sewoon—his body seeming wrapped in a cluster of glittering stars in the night sky—charged in without missing the opening.
Chwaaaah!
Countless formless swords now filled the void, raining down upon the Blood Demon like a torrential downpour.
“Heh heh, to elevate your realm using the power of the being you so deeply despised. You truly are unpredictable.”
Still, the Blood Demon did not endure passively.
Each time his Dual Hands, entwined with countless eerie entities, sliced through the void, space warped and horrifying explosions erupted.
Watching the battle, Nameless could not even consider helping in the fight, focusing all his strength merely on avoiding the shockwaves spilling out from the clash.
He wanted to rush in at once and aid Sewoon—
But he could not.
‘Interfering in that battle would only become poison to Senior Brother. Right now, all I can do is watch.’
All they could do was survive.
Kwagaga!
Kwa-rururung!
The battle between Sewoon and the Blood Demon was no longer a mere clash between humans.
It was a wondrous yet terrifying sight, as though two universes were colliding to annihilate each other’s worlds.
Chwaaaah!
Sewoon fought the Blood Demon with countless splitting formless swords.
The power imbued in each invisible blade did not merely intoxicate space—
It annihilated everything existing at that single ‘point’.
The Blood Demon’s power was no less formidable.
Chwaaaah!
From his widely spread body, the Reverse Heaven Qi at its extreme ran rampant.
The Blood Demon polluted everything his power touched, twisting the world’s natural laws to exclude from reality all the spaces Sewoon erased.
Kwaaaang!
Jjeojeok!
Amid their back-and-forth exchange, the Blood Demon twisted his lips and spoke meaningfully.
“All beginnings must have an end to exist.”
“……!”
“Martial Craftsman, I shall show you both your beginning—and your end.”
Swae-aek!
Chwaaak!
At that moment, the Blood Demon’s sword cleaved through the void.
Sewoon hurled his body aside and avoided the sword slash without difficulty.
Seogeogeok!
However, at the sudden cutting sound that followed, Sewoon realized that the Blood Demon’s slash had not been aimed at him.
‘……What is that?’
The space itself had been cut by the Blood Demon’s slash, creating a rift.
And within that rift, like a lingering afterimage, an unknown and horrific sight unfolded.
Chwaaaah!
The rift gradually expanded, covering the entire surrounding area.
Then, the scene of the grand hall of the Murim Alliance transformed into something else entirely.
A ruin filled only with dried blood and white bones.
It was, quite literally, the world after the advent of the end.
“……!!”
Sewoon froze when he saw a single skeleton sprawled on the ground.
With half of its skull blown away, its head buried into the earth in death.
‘That’s me.’
It was none other than his own corpse from before his regression.
Yes. The world the Blood Demon had peeled open was the reverse side of the world Sewoon had left behind.
The Blood Demon twisted his lips, as if greatly amused, and spoke.
“How is it? Your impression upon seeing the final 모습 of the ‘previous world’ after you departed.”
“You bastard, just what have you done……!”
“I brought it to an end. The final curtain of that world.”
“!!”
The Blood Demon’s voice was far too calm, and that calmness made Sewoon’s heart churn with even greater horror and revulsion.
Sewoon had believed the Blood Demon’s goal was to seize the world.
But that was not his goal.
From the very beginning, the complete annihilation of the world itself had been his purpose.
‘To find a variable like me… he destroyed world after world, again and again.’
Sewoon did not believe that the exterminated world before his eyes was the only one.
Just as he himself had been sent to the past, the Blood Demon must have repeated infinite lives—repeating these atrocities endlessly as well.
Sewoon ground his teeth.
‘I must eliminate him, no matter what.’
The being before him was evil itself.
For the sake of the lives of those he sought to protect, he had to kill him, even if it cost everything.
Pabat!
Sewoon charged once more, swinging Pure Yang mercilessly.
Saaaah!
Swae-aek!!
Filling the entirety of the torn space, formless swords imbued with the poison of Angshin Tears poured endlessly down upon the Blood Demon.
It was like witnessing a meteor shower that blanketed the world.
The Blood Demon overlapped his Dual Hands, forming a circular barrier that wrapped around his body—
Pupupuk!
Pupuk!
‘Now!’
The poison of Angshin Tears contained within Sewoon’s formless swords melted even the Blood Demon’s Evil Arts without leaving a trace, turning his body into something like a cactus.
Chiiiik!
The poison then directly infiltrated the Blood Demon’s flesh.
Bugle-bugle!
As if volcanic lava were boiling, bubbles erupted across his entire body, twisting his appearance into something grotesque.
Without a doubt, Sewoon’s attack had gone beyond an even exchange and was inflicting clear damage.
‘It worked……!! Senior Brother’s attack worked!’
Nameless, gasping for breath, looked upward and cried out in triumph.
At that moment, the Blood Demon slowly moved his lips, his face warped into something bizarre.
Among the embedded blades, one had pierced precisely into the Blood Demon’s right heart.
Yet Sewoon’s expression did not brighten.
“So this is the ultimate Poison Art the Poison Demon sought to achieve. Astonishing—this alone makes this world worth its existence.”
Chwaaaah!
The Blood Demon’s frenzied body began to recover little by little.
The formless swords lodged within him were slowly being pushed back out.
Watching this, Sewoon’s expression darkened.
‘It was slightly off.’
He realized his attack had failed.
He had certainly struck him—but it was not a fatal wound that would lead to death.
The strike had missed the exact center of the right heart by a minuscule margin.
And that difference was enough for the Blood Demon to survive.
“Cough!”
Black blood spilled from the Blood Demon’s mouth.
Still, it was not as though the attack had been meaningless.
A significant blow had undeniably been dealt.
And yet, at that moment—
Despite the horrific pain of his internal organs and entire body burning away—
“……Did you say the reason you grew this strong was to protect past bonds and those you newly formed ties with?”
The Blood Demon spoke cheerfully, uttering words whose meaning was unclear.
Sewoon replied in a low voice.
“Yes. For them, I will not fall.”
Kwaduk.
As he tightened his grip around the hilt of Pure Yang—
“Then I wonder what you, Martial Craftsman, will look like when all those reasons disappear.”
“……What?”
As he spoke, the Blood Demon—
Tak!
Snapped his fingers once more.
Chwaaaah!
Wooooong!
Suddenly, countless clusters of stars burst forth, and hundreds—no, thousands—of gates appeared.
Chwaaak!
Tudadadada!
And emerging from those gates—
Were the martial artists of the allied forces who had slain the aberrations and broken through each floor.
“Huff—huff. Chairman!!”
“We’ll help as well!!”
“Kill the Blood Demon!!”
The allied martial artists surged forward like mad, forming formations as they surrounded their enemy.
Their appearances showed the ferocity of the battles they had endured—every one of them was drenched in blood and utterly battered.
Though it would not have been strange for them to collapse at any moment, they did not falter before the Blood Demon’s horrific demonic qi and advanced with swords in hand.
Cheocheok!
At that moment, Ha Yeong stepped forward at the very front.
“For the countless innocent lives you sacrificed, I will execute you!”
Cheocheok!
Pointing her sword at their final enemy, the Blood Demon, she shouted.
“Blood Demon Tang Sewoon!”
But.
To them, the Blood Demon had already become Sewoon.