Chapter 184 : Hall of Subduing Demons
Hall of Subduing Demons
"Aaagh!"
At the very moment the man screamed, an enormous amount of blood splattered into the air.
The space beneath the table where they sat was the very center and core of the formation.
It was also where the flow of the formation's true ki surged most violently.
From the beginning, the act of placing a table and sitting at it was a form of disguise—another deception toward his opponent.
It was much like when he had opened the Immortal Spirit Pill's wooden box right in front of Jeong-un at the Divine Physician's tomb.
That same reckless negligence and arrogance had brought disaster down on the man once again.
While conversing with him, Jeong-un read the surrounding air currents with his ki sense, and realized inwardly that with his own pure cultivated power, he could sever that flow at will.
The close-range strike he had dealt the man earlier was also helpful.
It gave him a close-up opportunity to keenly observe how the formation's energy was manipulating him.
Even after that, he had kept listening to the man solely to expose his every last resource.
He had never intended to accept whatever nonsense the man spouted from the start.
So Jeong-un slammed down on the table with a fist-and-palm art brimming with cultivated power, and in an instant, the formation's swirling ki currents were torn asunder.
The orderly flow of natural energy stopped as if it had lost all control, and in that opening, Jeong-un simply seized the man's arm as he hurriedly scrambled to rise.
The severed currents of the formation resumed flowing in the very next moment.
As expected, the formation was not governed by the man's intent—it was not a true ki formation responding to his will.
Once the currents recovered, as if following natural law, they pushed the man back, and the wrist firmly grasped by Jeong-un was torn from his arm with violent force.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Red blood trickled from Jeong-un's fingertips onto the floor.
It was not his own. The blood dripped from the man's wrist, still firmly in his grasp.
"You... you lunatic...!"
Clutching his left arm, the man yelled out.
From the elbow down, the wrist was completely gone—ripped off, bone and all.
Thunk.
Jeong-un tossed the severed arm to the floor.
On inspection, it looked quite ordinary—unbelievably so, considering it had once belonged to the body of the most notorious figure among the Central Plains' unorthodox villains.
"How dare you, how dare...!"
The man's handsome face flushed a dark red, the madness in his eyes now mixed with fury.
Watching this, Jeong-un opened his mouth.
"Don't make a scene."
"What?"
"You've probably killed at least thousands by now. Don't make such a fuss over losing just one arm."
"Silence!"
Now one-armed, the man bellowed and raised his remaining hand.
Instantly, the surrounding ki waves thrashed and rumbled with a thunderous roar.
Even the space itself seemed to warp and twist.
The man shouted,
"If you call yourself a martial artist, you should understand the karma you bear! Your well-forged body, pure internal energy, even your precious life! Don't you realize that I'm the foundation for all of it?"
"You really are shameless."
"What did you say?"
Jeong-un spoke calmly.
"It's laughable how you try to claim everything happened according to your plan. Deep down, you must know it was all just the result of your own arrogance."
"My arrogance?"
"Isn't it obvious? You lost your arm because you overestimated yourself. Yet you immediately shift the blame elsewhere, not even considering your own fault. Life must be awfully easy for you."
"Shut your mouth!"
Ssshhh—!
At that moment, the surrounding ki waves surged fiercely. This space was still the man's territory.
Even with his left arm lost, nothing had changed; the currents followed his every movement, adding force to each gesture.
Babababat!
Splitting the space as if slicing it apart, the man rushed in close.
But Jeong-un had already prepared for this, already drawing his sword as swift as a flash of light.
Kaang! Kwa-kwakwakwang!
It felt almost like his fingers clutching the sword guard were screaming.
What came down was not a burst of fist-and-palm arts, but a single blow, packed with tremendous cultivated power.
It was remarkable that Jeong-un could block such a massive force head-on.
Whooom!
But Jeong-un adapted quickly.
As the man had said, his body wasn't just excellent—it was wondrously well-honed.
From his toes, cultivated power boiled upward and spread through his body, with explosive strength surging from every muscle.
Crack-crack-crack!
With the pure strength of true ki, he withstood the man's blow and even drove him back, the surrounding floor and walls cracking and splitting.
The ornate look of a pleasure house was long gone.
As the man charged toward Jeong-un, the scene blurred, turning pitch-black, then transforming into the interior of a cave—as if he cared for nothing but pressing forward in attack.
And as Jeong-un prepared to strike again after pushing the man away—
Srrk!
The man's body's form blurred like mist and vanished from midair.
He reappeared where he'd originally stood, as if unwilling to let even the trajectory of Jeong-un's blade approach him.
Opening the distance, the man spoke.
"You were lucky just now to lay a finger on me, but you won't come close again. This space still does not tolerate any harm done to me. You'll never cut me down here."
Ooooong—
Even before the man finished speaking, Dragon Sky in Jeong-un's grasp shone gold.
In an instant, brilliant golden true ki swept from wrist to sword tip, as if he deemed those words not even worth a reply.
'He's not wrong.'
As Jeong-un looked at the man, he muttered inwardly.
It was true, as the man claimed.
The formation still stood strong.
Severing his forearm had only been possible because he exploited a moment of carelessness.
That strange movement of the man was still intact.
In fact, he could do more than just evade—just as earlier, he could suddenly reappear and unleash a strike from a blind spot that Jeong-un couldn't predict.
Yet Jeong-un's expression was calm, almost indifferent, as if this offered not the slightest threat.
"......"
On the contrary, the man's face started to contort, discomforted by his opponent's greater composure.
Indeed, the man had always seized the advantage.
Against opponents not crushable with strength, he had always prepared clever traps to take the best position.
He had even done so at the Shaolin cliff.
Hadn't he faced the Big Dipper of Mount Tai, the leader of Central Plains' martial world, without a hint of anxiety?
Back then, it was likely he had already set up the formation's axis with the cliff as its center.
He'd even said himself that he could hold the core of the formation within his body.
'This time, it's different.'
Back then, he probably could only deploy that strange movement a few times—not completely alter the environment as he did here.
And especially, there was no way he could prepare such a formation behind that vast cliff in Shaolin.
As Jeong-un scrutinized the man, he sensed the surroundings with his ki sense.
They had become a complete cavern.
As suspected, all he'd seen so far was merely the formation's illusion.
Conversely, that meant the man was now pouring all his power into battle.
Then, the man spoke again.
"Let's see how far your bravado takes you."
Once more, his body's form vanished.
Ssshh!
Bang!
The very next second Jeong-un's gaze flicked to the left, the man appeared, bringing down his palm strike.
In an instant, surrounding air currents gathered into his palm as if sucked in, amplifying the power of that blow many times over.
Craack─!
Jeong-un barely intercepted the attack.
The enormous ki wave packed into the man's wrist was unraveled, strand by strand, by the golden sword aura of Dragon Sky.
Even a single stray fragment would have severed anything it touched on the body.
Crack!
Several strands struck Jeong-un's body directly. Some trajectories pierced through in a perfectly straight line.
"Krgh."
Yet blood did not spurt forth. Only a thin, quick breath erupted from Jeong-un's lips.
He had employed body-protecting enhanced ki.
Since he'd first learned to wield enhanced energy, it was the first time he'd so completely covered his body and reaped its benefits.
He'd heard that peerless experts always sleep wearing their enhanced ki—now, he understood why.
The man opened his eyes wide.
"... Lunatic."
His face, now calm and cool, was unlike his earlier rage at losing his arm.
As inscrutable as his identity, he was impossible to read.
"Your mastery of channeling true ki through your entire body really touches the heavens. Maybe heaven made a mistake. Why would someone like you appear at a time like this... No, perhaps because you're here, the formation could be perfected? Then maybe you've given me a chance instead."
"......"
He began muttering to himself.
'He's not in his right mind.'
Jeong-un cast a sidelong glance at the man's left arm—not only had the bleeding stopped, but it had already started healing.
Even the severed arm that had rolled across the floor had disappeared—it was apparent the man had retrieved it.
Could he actually reattach it?
Even in this world of countless martial arts, Jeong-un had never heard of a technique that could reconnect a severed arm.
Still, a brief regret flashed through him. He should have finished the job more thoroughly.
Once more, the man's body's form faded into the air like mist.
"......"
But this time, Jeong-un did not wait idly for the man to reappear at close range.
Rather, almost as if he'd been waiting, the very moment the man's form blurred, he stepped forward.
He had always stood his ground, unmoving, even as the man launched his attacks.
Boom!
As he raised his knee, cultivated power already traveled from his dantian down his central channel to the Yongcheon acupoint in his sole—all primed to explode.
As he stomped down, enormous recoil ripped out in a circular burst of bursting energy.
Ssshaa!
There was a reason he had held that spot despite enduring all of the man's blows.
This was the very core of the formation. No matter how the surroundings changed or how far away the man seemed, nothing else mattered.
A formation's established location never moved. Even with all the movement, the core's position remained unchanged.
Crack-crack-crack!
Now the surrounding air itself began to fray and split, thunderously, as if huge boulders saturated with water were cracking apart.
All this, even though it was taking place within seemingly transparent air.
Srrk.
At that very moment, the man appeared in midair—as if a shroud that had forcibly concealed him was ripped away.
His face showed unfeigned surprise.
"This is impossible...!"
At that, golden light traced a perfect arc through the air.
Ssshh─!
Brilliant golden enhanced energy shot forth from the sword tip, slicing through the distance between them in a flash.
Fwaak!
Once again, blood arced through the air. Simultaneously, the man staggered back clutching his arm.
Along the flash of a blade's path, his already severed left arm was sliced off yet again—this time, a full hand-span more.
Watching, Jeong-un spoke.
"Did you forget? I'm still here."
"......!"