Chapter 25 : Chapter 25
Chapter 25: It’s about time to pull another one out.
Kwaaang!
Kwa-deu-deu-deuk!
The crystal lattices were being brutally crushed.
As several Azure Steel Rakshasas that had lost their footing lost their balance and were sucked into the ground.
As if enraged by the loss of its wife, a crimson light shot out from the two eyes of the Azure Steel Asura in the front row.
Kkiiiiiik.
Geu-reu-reu-reuk.
Its eight arms then began to twitch as if they were alive.
The great swords and ghost swords broke their silence and began to dance.
Thus, the giant mechanism was coming to life.
“W-what is it!”
Startled by the earth-shaking roar, the Blood Demon, who had arrived without even properly donning his robe, froze solid.
What in the world was that crazy bastard doing now?
Was he really jumping into the Sword Forest with his bare body?
The Sword Forest.
A vast life-killing formation that could turn hundreds of masters into chunks of meat in an instant.
This Sword Forest was a mechanism that could never be destroyed by the martial prowess of a single person.
Even he himself had never even imagined being able to forcibly break through the Sword Forest while guaranteeing his survival.
“Y-you moron! Can you not stop at once!”
The man, floating in mid-air, glanced back sharply.
But, he was smiling.
At the sight of the man’s strangely twisted lips, the Blood Demon finally lost his temper.
“Th-this! You crazy bastard!”
It wasn't something that would end with just his own death.
If he recklessly smashed the stone walls and crystal floor like that, the entire Sword Forest would eventually collapse.
But he couldn't easily stop the man.
The mechanism had already been activated, and hundreds of Rakshasas and Asuras had begun to awaken.
As the crystals embedded in their eyes emitted a red glow, the entire cave was being enveloped in a ghostly energy.
Even for him, who had lived a not-so-easy life, it was hard to dare take even a single step.
And yet.
The man was already moving.
Swish!
He easily avoided the trajectories of the Sword Forest that split into hundreds and charged at him, by using the technique of the Cloud-Overturning Flying Body to soar vertically.
He then charged into one Rakshasa and rammed it with his shoulder.
Kwaaaaaang!
A roar that couldn't possibly be the sound of a human body colliding with an Azure Steel Rakshasa spread in all directions.
By the time the Rakshasa's four arms were dangling with broken joints.
In that fleeting moment, the man was once again rolling on the crystal floor.
“W-what!”
Suddenly, in the man's two hands were a giant ghost sword and a dark blue spear blade.
Shu-shu-shuk!
At a glance, it seemed like he was moving haphazardly, but he wasn't.
The man had already climbed onto the back of a Rakshasa.
‘Hah…?’
The man was resting.
He was standing on the shoulder of a Rakshasa, which could be called the mechanism itself, looking down at the situation and composing himself.
He calmly waited for one Rakshasa to approach.
He then held the ghost sword in a reverse grip and plunged it into the Rakshasa's neck.
Ga-ga-ga-ga-gak!
Ting!
The Rakshasa's neck joint bent unnaturally, and dozens of steel gears scattered in all directions.
But the man was already no longer there.
He was between the legs of an Asura, holding a long spear blade in his hand, his eyes flashing.
‘He understands the formation!’
All of the man's movements pointed to just one thing.
A series of movements as if prepared long ago.
He clearly already knew the trajectory of the blades that would extend towards him, and the movements of the ever-changing Asuras and Rakshasas.
Otherwise, it simply couldn't be explained.
To jump into the wave of tightening blades without any preparation?
That was not something that cunning man was capable of.
Kwaaaaaang!
Another pile of stone walls collapsed.
From within the teetering Rakshasa, the man’s gaze flashed.
Startled by that madness, the Blood Demon couldn't help but take a step back.
How were such bold movements possible for that young man?
Just now.
If that man had slipped even by an inch, his neck would have been cut.
But the man found that minuscule gap and instead slid forward head-on.
‘…….’
No matter how much experience a martial artist accumulated, they could never be completely free from the fear of an approaching blade.
It had taken even him a full five years to not close his eyes in any situation.
Even for him, Jaegal Hwi’s choices and movements right now were in the realm of the incomprehensible.
That was not simply the level of overcoming fear; it was the movement of a martial artist who understood fear.
‘What in the world did Jin Gang-cheon do to that man?’
No matter how great the Martial Emperor was, how could he pass down even things like that?
Besides, if what that man said was true and Jin Gang-cheon's mind was in and out of consciousness, at most, all he could do was convey it through words.
The martial arts of a single martial artist were not called a Martial Soul for nothing.
If the enlightenment of an absolute master could be conveyed through mere words, then all of the Sword Saint’s numerous disciples would have to become Sword Saints.
But reality was different.
Even the greatest talents of the world, handpicked by the Murim Alliance, could not properly follow even half, no, even thirty percent of the Sword Saint.
Hadn't he himself watched over all the desperate years of the Great Young Master, who had despaired before the Divine Demon's Martial Soul?
‘But that man is……!’
He was wielding all sorts of weapons dropped by the Asuras and Rakshasas, whatever he could get his hands on.
The Martial Emperor, who was said to handle all weapons freely.
He had never witnessed his martial prowess directly, but it was undoubtedly the very divine might of the Martial Emperor that he had heard of until his ears ached.
As the Blood Demon spent half a day in repeated admiration.
The giant Sword Forest finally ceased all movement.
Trudge, trudge.
Jaegal Hwi, who was walking out as a man of blood, collapsed.
He then sat on the crystal floor, which was crushed like tofu, and gasped for breath.
The Blood Demon stared intently through Jaegal Hwi’s disheveled hair.
“……You truly are a remarkable man.”
It was not a simple compliment.
It was a sincere praise for the Martial Soul the opponent had shown, as a fellow human walking the path of martial arts.
“Why are you pushing yourself this hard?”
Jaegal Hwi, who was gasping for breath, revealed eyes full of madness.
“A portrait of the enemy who killed my parents and siblings is hanging in my house. Could you just leave something like that be?”
“I would have torn it to shreds.”
“Yes, it’s like that. For me, this Sword Forest is.”
The moment he heard it, goosebumps rose on the Blood Demon’s back.
Did he mean that the Nine Phoenix Gates had taken the lives of his blood relatives, so he was now taking revenge?
“In the end, you intend to kill me too.”
The man smiled.
“Ah, that’s a misunderstanding. You are my precious prey… no, friend.”
The Blood Demon simply could not comprehend what this monster before his eyes was thinking.
There should have been cause and effect, a context to a person’s actions, but for this man, such things simply did not exist.
“How long have I been in here?”
“Three years.”
“Damn it, a lot of time has passed.”
Just as the man had boasted, the power of the One Ki Divine Origin Art was truly great.
The efficiency of its ki accumulation was beyond imagination.
On top of that, he had even consumed Shaolin’s legendary Great Cycle Pill, so his One Ki Divine Origin Art, which had multiplied upon multiplication, had now reached the state of two Gapja.
“Hoo… a lot has accumulated. It’s about time to pull another one out.”
The Blood Demon, who understood those words immediately, turned pale.
“D-don’t do it.”
“You’re speaking carelessly again because it’s not your problem. Do you have any idea how much energy I have stored in my fine meridians right now? My whole body feels like it’s about to explode even now!”
Every time that man used a technique, energy accumulated in his thousand fine meridians.
He had to eventually release the energy he had channeled into his fine meridians to maintain the balance of his Conception and Governing Vessels.
In other words, he had to periodically perform the Madness Annihilation Soul Force even if he wasn't in a combat situation.
He had finally understood the reason why periodic earthquakes of unknown origin occurred at the headquarters of the Great Murim Alliance.
“If you keep repeating that damn Madness Annihilation Soul Force, this entire mechanism will eventually collapse! Do you really want to be buried under hundreds of millions of tons of dirt?”
It was the greatest strength of the One Ki Divine Origin Art, but in a sense, it was definitely a curse.
“I’m leaving now, though?”
“What……?”
He was finally leaving?
A sudden flush of color returned to the Blood Demon’s face.
“G-good thinking. You’ve truly suffered a lot during this time. So, are you planning to leave right now?”
“Huh? Why are you so happy?”
“You haven’t forgotten our promise, have you? As soon as Jin Gang-cheon wakes up, you must contact me immediately.”
“Ah, senior. About that.”
When that man suddenly used polite, formal language, it made him anxious.
The Blood Demon was already feigning indifference.
“No, senior, please hear me out. How do you know when Jin Gang-cheon will lose consciousness again? What if he faints again while I’m contacting you? Then we really don’t know when he’ll wake up.”
“E-even so……!”
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
He wanted to break that damn leg, but in the end, he couldn't deny the man’s words.
The Blood Demon bit his lip.
“I am the next Blood Demon of our cult. For me to walk around in the territory of the Orthodox Faction, what that means—”
“Ha, scared?”
Th-this bastard.
“You’re not the Blood Demon that the Orthodox Faction knows anyway, right? I was suspicious at first too, you know? Because your face wasn't in the portrait.”
“Even a young brat like you smelled it right away and started talking about the Blood Demon! If I were to meet some experienced people……!”
“That’s what I’m saying. As long as you hide the energy of that murderous Red Mist Demonic Art well, there won't be any problem.”
The Blood Demon, who was staring blankly at Jaegal Hwi, shook his head violently and shuddered.
He had almost been persuaded again.
“Kugh, don’t you want a drink too? You’ll grow mold all over your body if you stay like this. How long are you going to keep chewing on grain pills in this damp basement?”
“The Jaegal Clan Head! What about the secret pact with him!”
“Ah, my father?”
Jaegal Hwi’s indifferent eyes were scanning the far end of the mechanism.
A fiery madness flickered in his two eyes.
“I’m going to destroy this whole place on my way out anyway, so what can be done? Even if he is the great Jaegal Clan Head, can he continue to operate the Nine Phoenix Gates without a secret place like this?”
The Blood Demon then froze in shock.
“……You’re going to destroy this whole place?”
“I told you earlier. To me, this place is like a portrait of my enemy.”
“C-crazy!”
It was truly dumbfounding.
This mechanism hell was, strictly speaking, the property of the Jaegal Clan.
Was it okay for the third young master of the Jaegal Clan to so easily talk about destroying the family's property like that?
“What are you doing? We have to move now. I’m going to pull one out right away.”
“W-where do you mean?”
“The Ice Stream.”
The Blood Demon’s mouth fell open.
If the Ice Stream lost its balance and poured out tens of millions of tons of ice at once, this Sword Forest would disappear without a trace.
The Ice Stream was right on the floor above the Sword Forest.
“D-don’t do it! Hey, you bastard!”
But Jaegal Hwi had already left behind an afterimage of the Galaxy Eternal Spirit Steps and was disappearing into the distance.