Chapter 180 : Hall of Subduing Demons
Hall of Subduing Demons
A strange surge of energies began pouring in from behind, sensed with acute ki sense.
None were overwhelmingly strong, but the sheer overwhelming *number* was like the tidal wave I'd only ever heard described.
"Crazy!"
"What is this...?!"
My companions beside me let out groans of disbelief. This was impossible.
Hadn't we just walked in here on high alert, feeling for any signs with our ki sense?
Other than the one Jeong-un cut down at the entrance, there hadn't been a trace of anyone.
And now, a countless number of presences was suddenly swarming in? That simply wasn't possible.
At that moment, the sealed door flew open with a whoosh.
"...!"
The sight through the wide open door was breathtaking.
The origins of the suddenly surging ki weren't human.
They were corpses, breaking out of the burial mounds we had seen on the way here.
"Jiangshi...?"
"No wonder, there was no sign of life in their energy."
"Those... actually exist?"
My companions murmured in shock and confusion. Their faces showed disbelief despite what they were witnessing.
Understandably so—jiangshi were supposed to be nothing more than monsters from old booklets.
As we stared at the wave of dead bodies flooding in through the door, the demonic cult leader spoke from behind.
"I shall give you a choice."
There was amusement in his voice.
When I turned around, his face showed he simply wanted to see how I would respond.
"I'm a man who values mercy as a virtue. Those little brats beside you must be dear to you, right?"
"What are you trying to say?"
"Choose one. I'll let that one live and go free."
"What nonsense."
Jeong-un cut him off sharply, and the cult leader laughed. Clearly, he'd only ever meant to mock us.
'No need to overcomplicate this.'
Saaak!
Drawing Dragon Sky at his waist, Jeong-un thought—there may be many of these bizarre creatures, but not one radiated particularly strong energy.
At his current level, Jeong-un found counting the number of foes meaningless.
What mattered was not quantity, but the enemy's martial arts level.
Numbers alone weren't truly threatening.
'So then...'
The real priority was not the approaching horde outside.
Wuuuung!
As he thought this, energy suddenly flared through all the meridians of his body, converging at the central channel, dispersing through the veins, and heating his whole body.
He was getting ready to withstand the onslaught of those powerful ki waves.
Hooook—
Jeong-un's body bent like a bow, then blurred.
It was the elastic movement of Bow Body, Bullet Shadow, a technique using flexibility to move like a gust over short distances.
Thanks to harsh training and fortuitous encounters, his body had become strong enough for such advanced mastery, and he could shift his body's center of gravity with true ki effortlessly.
KWAANG!
He tore through space, the red carpet beneath him ripping apart along his path due to the force.
No matter how tough the fabric, it couldn't stand against the surging ki wave.
"Kgh!"
The companions instinctively raised their hands, frowning, but were otherwise unaffected.
The lightness skill was executed with such refined ki flow that it didn't impact them.
Saaaak!
He was now face to face with a pair of crimson pupils.
It was hard to believe these were human eyes, yet they didn't remind him of any beast either.
Eyes of someone who'd walked a unique path, so clear as if bearing some noble destiny.
This guy definitely lived by his own rules. Even in those fleeting seconds, he sensed it fully.
'So what?'
Jeong-un had no interest in what life he'd led. Wasn't he the self-proclaimed leader of traitors?
Setting this place up like the imperial palace of Beijing was laughable.
Someone who valued life less than dust, sitting on a throne—it was an absurd sight.
To Jeong-un, he was nothing but one of those unorthodox villains with wild ambitions.
Saaaak!
As the sword blade swept along a semi-circle arc, golden flame-like true ki surged up, spreading over the entire blade in an instant. It looked like he was literally holding a lightning bolt.
Whoooom!
The sword pierced straight through the neck of the man seated on the throne.
It happened in a flash.
The sword move, from body cultivation to the strike itself, felt like a single seamless motion.
The man's head teetered on the verge of falling.
Yet Jeong-un's expression was composed, even after finally cutting down an odious, heinous foe.
'Again.'
He murmured, letting Dragon Sky, veiled in gold, drop to his side. He didn't even look straight ahead.
"You've grown even stronger. Even more than when I saw you last."
A voice came before a form materialized.
From thin air, his body manifested.
Simultaneously, the corpse on the throne disappeared as if it had never existed.
This was true deception. Even the neck that was supposedly struck left no sign of injury.
But Jeong-un, showing no surprise, muttered with a blank face.
'I think I'm starting to understand.'
That movement was familiar.
It was just like when I first met Divine Physician in the cave, and again, dodging my blow atop Mount Song.
Back then, even right in front of me, I hadn't noticed the trick.
Now, though, it was different.
His ki sense was so sharp he could feel every strand of natural energy flowing through the air.
It was almost uncanny how naturally he could maintain such awareness.
Jeong-un spoke.
"That movement—you're not using body cultivation, are you?"
"What?"
"The surrounding energy just now flowed in a strange way. Are you using the help of a spell formation?"
The man stared at Jeong-un for a moment, then smirked.
"So you can now sense even the currents of natural true ki. Surprising. Not even the old man of Shaolin saw through this."
Still watching him, Jeong-un extended his ki outward, sweeping the surroundings.
The spot where he had just sat on the throne, the eruption of ki wave had vanished all at once, leaving a trace like debris.
This wasn't a normal lightness skill move.
'But then...'
Jeong-un quietly stared at the man now standing ahead.
After vanishing from the throne right under his nose, there was no flow connecting him to his new location.
If this had been a true ki move, there should be a lingering trail, but now the line was simply and strangely broken off in mid-air.
'But it's not like he actually vanished and reappeared, right?'
If such movement wasn't achieved with body cultivation alone, it had to involve some external help.
From experience, he had deep knowledge of formations and spells but wasn't able to use them with complete freedom.
Like when fighting the Blood Cult leader. He didn't use such movements then but relied on his own martial might.
'So he needs certain conditions to do that.'
Jeong-un, reaching a conclusion in a fleeting instant, spoke again.
"Are you perhaps inscribing the mysteries of formations inside your body?"
"..."
"That's it, isn't it? Unless it's a pre-established formation like this, you're improvising this way."
The always-smirking face stiffened a little.
He gave Jeong-un a strange look, his gaze oddly calm.
But for someone wrapped in madness to have calm eyes was all the more eerie.
At last, he spoke slowly.
"Insight, and intuition."
"...?"
"You possess something even greater than your innate martial talent. Being sensitive doesn't guarantee such conclusions."
"You're not invincible. Sooner or later, a blade will pierce your body. Maybe even today."
The cult leader laughed.
"Is that so? Well, let's discuss again shortly. After I take care of these vermin by your side."
He lifted his hand and casually swept it with a whoosh.
There was no cultivated power at his fingertips, just a light gesture as if to brush away a cloud of dust.
But Jeong-un instantly gathered his entire internal energy.
This was his domain. It was only right to react keenly to even the smallest movement.
"...?"
His action was just a simple small gesture.
There was no sign of internal energy, no martial arts power being channeled through his body.
But *something* certainly happened.
The space itself began to tremble.
Dudududung—!
At the same time, Jeong-un unleashed a ki wave from the Yongcheon acupoint at the soles of his feet, surging forward.
Paaaak!
Simultaneously, the space in front tore apart.
"This is insane!"
"What's happening...?!"
The companions who had been watching tensely cried out.
They'd already been wary of the corpses rising from the earth, waiting for Jeong-un's strange confrontation to end.
Jeong-un, dashing forward with bursting ki, kept his eyes on the receding enemy.
Dragon Sky in his right hand was seething with thunderous true ki, ready at any moment for a lightning-quick strike.
But the uncanny sense of distance stayed his hand.
Wuuuuung!
The air started to resonate and the space tore like paper, the enemy retreating in an instant.
The gap filled with pitch-black darkness.
An unbelievable sight.
It looked as if darkness had painted over the space itself, the enemy's figure vanishing into the blackness—almost as if conjuring an ultimate illusion with formation power.
"Young Hero Yu!"
Baek Il-gang cried out behind me, asking for a decision. The corpses were now at point-blank range.
Hoo.
Jeong-un gathered all his cultivated power in his danzhong, then forcefully sent it through his central channel and into his Yongcheon acupoint.
Stepping forward, he slammed it into the ground.
Paaaaang—
An intangible wave of true ki blasted out from Jeong-un's center.
The stagnant air blew fiercely as if a storm had been unleashed.
The power spread in all directions, colliding with the array of true ki forming the formation.
These currents were intricately meshed to uphold the formation.
As Jeong-un's wave struck, the energies shattered and splintered throughout.
Pabababat!
Suddenly, within his sharpened ki sense, the changing air currents clashed midair.
Each current was information, none escaping his attention as he took it all in.
Every subtle strand of energy was etched into his mind with perfect clarity.
'Illusion and reality are overlapping.'
It was as expected.
He hadn't believed a place like this could actually exist.
If so, the enemy wouldn't have raised these crude jiangshi to fight this way.
"Young Hero Yu!"
As Baek Il-gang screamed again, the enemies were almost upon us.
At last, Jeong-un pointed his finger outward and spoke.
"There—Gate of Life."
At that moment, three figures burst from the ground.
Kwadang!
The door flew open, and everyone surged in the direction Jeong-un had indicated.
There was no time for questions—there was no other way.
Then—
A tremendous shockwave exploded behind us, exactly where Jeong-un had been, as if he'd expected to follow.
"...?"
Baek Il-gang, without slowing and running with all his might, couldn't help but glance back.
Kwa-gwang!
With a thunderous boom, a thick golden beam shot past them.
Kwaaaaang!
"What the...?"
Baek Il-gang muttered in shock.
When he looked forward again, the mass of corpses parting like a tidal wave had been split down the middle—a path had opened.
From behind, Jeong-un called out:
"Go ahead. I have something left to do."