Chapter 113 : Chapter 113
Chapter 113. The Faded One (3)
BOOM!
An old man clad in a robe as red as blood manifested upon the ground. The instant his foot touched the earth, a thunderous roar erupted, and the land itself trembled.
“Ghk.”
A groan escaped Dam Jeok-san’s lips.
The immense shockwave embedded in the old man’s stepping force traveled through the ground and violently churned Dam Jeok-san’s insides.
“Hah… Your accumulated qi is crude, but obscenely deep.”
Even so, Dam Jeok-san sneered as he swallowed the blood surging up his throat.
“But… is that all?”
He continued, having already steadied his expression.
“There is no overwhelming aura that crushes the spirit the moment we meet. No vast momentum like an endless sea, no grandeur like towering mountains. No mental domain that presses down upon all things. All that remains in you is bloated genuine qi.”
Relentless verbal abuse, delivered without the slightest hesitation.
Dam Jeok-san did not know the man’s precise identity.
But he knew this much.
That this was someone who had once reached the Entering Transformation Realm and then fallen, an utterly vile scoundrel who had pledged himself to the Outer Path group known as the Blood Palace.
And one more thing.
“You are disgustingly ugly.”
He added it casually while looking at Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s grotesque face.
“…What?”
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend failed to immediately comprehend the barrage of words pouring from Dam Jeok-san’s mouth.
When he was mocked for having fallen from his realm, fury had surged.
But when even his appearance was ridiculed outright, his mind went blank.
Only for a moment.
“How dare you!”
Seeing Dam Jeok-san’s crooked grin, he roared and struck.
Dark crimson demonic energy billowed thickly around both of Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s hands. A density so suffocating it made one gasp. Dam Jeok-san searched his memory, wondering if he had ever encountered someone else with demonic energy this dense.
‘Roughly equal to the Sword Ghost, or slightly inferior.’
As he reached that conclusion—
WOOOOO—!
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s palm force surged forward like a raging torrent.
At a glance, it looked as though the entire space itself was being pushed forward, an eerie spectacle.
Dam Jeok-san forced his staggering body upright despite the aftershocks and advanced.
His footwork was not especially mysterious. Yet his steps aligned strangely well with the trajectory of a sword cleaving through the air.
Ascending. Strengthening sword strikes through movement. Dam Jeok-san remained faithful to that logic.
KRAAACK!
His sword began to grind its way against the oncoming wave of palm force.
“Pathetic—though I suppose…!”
Even as blood filled his throat, he did not stop sneering.
“If you were truly an Entering Transformation Realm expert, I would already be torn to shreds. Your will is so feeble it is hard to believe you ever shone.”
No matter how powerful the demonic energy, if the will embedded within it was blurred, it was only half-formed.
That was why Dam Jeok-san could oppose palm force that bordered on a localized catastrophe.
‘Unlike yours, my will is solid.’
And that struck home.
“I will tear that mouth apart!”
“Oh?”
“I will rip open that insolent mouth and stuff your eyeballs and nose into it… then we will see if you can still babble!”
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend finally lost all restraint and spewed abuse.
Dark crimson light overflowed from his eyes.
At the same time, the palm force surged with nearly twice its previous might.
A festival of brute force. Even Dam Jeok-san was being pushed to his limits.
“You have completely lost your mind.”
Yet Dam Jeok-san looked almost amused.
‘He has not even noticed Elder Heaven-Dominating Saber.’
His power was immense, but his mind was clearly unsound. Even an ordinary Ultra-Peak expert should have been able to detect Kwon Gi-il’s presence through perception alone.
Still, Dam Jeok-san could understand him to some degree. The despair of falling from a great height was vast enough to make one shudder at the thought.
‘That is why I will cast you straight into hell.’
So that you can never crawl back up. So that you will never even feel despair again.
Dam Jeok-san poured all of the genuine qi surging from his Dantian through the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique straight into the tip of his sword.
From the toes pressing into the ground to the sword’s edge, every movement interlocked and produced an ascending synergy.
The completed slash—
“Is that all the bravado you had?”
—met Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s single punch.
Reverse-Blood Shaking Fist.
At his peak, it was a domineering fist art that had endured two exchanges even against the Taeguk Hye Sword of the Spirit River Sword Immortal.
BOOM!
The moment Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s fist smashed into the flat of Dam Jeok-san’s blade, Dam Jeok-san felt his mind go white.
Strong.
So overwhelmingly strong that talk of will and intent felt meaningless.
Cough—
Dam Jeok-san reflexively spat blood. Something inside his body felt broken.
The best choice here would be to neutralize the shockwave and retreat, pulling his body back.
He would lose momentum, but he would certainly avoid a fatal wound.
But Dam Jeok-san knew this.
The best choice was not always the greatest.
His opponent was stronger than him. Not only in accumulated qi, but also in martial attainment—there was no clear inferiority.
The only thing Dam Jeok-san had over this faded transcendent was an unyielding will. If he retreated now, even that would become meaningless.
Trusting that instinct, he advanced instead.
KRRRNNNG!
Sky Thunder, held in one hand, forcibly pushed back the fist. Willpower driven to its limit slightly erased what seemed like an insurmountable gap in strength.
At the same time, the Red Cloud Sword in his left hand cleaved through the air.
Both blades were wrapped in blue lightning.
Each sword form carried a different principle.
‘Bind them into one.’
Twin-sword technique, yet not a twin-sword technique. Two swords that aided one another, forming an ascending principle.
It was the same logic as footwork amplifying swordsmanship. The ability to flexibly apply one principle to another domain—this was Dam Jeok-san’s true talent.
In that instant, his eyes were nearly half-covered in blue lightning.
His Upper Dantian also burned blue-hot, as if at white heat.
Inspiration that began at the Hundred Meetings Point raced down his spine, passed through the Huiyin Point, and reached the Yongquan Point in his soles. It felt like a bolt of lightning piercing his entire body.
“I will kill you.”
Dam Jeok-san declared calmly. He was certain he could do it now.
‘I promised.’
To that girl, Lee Hyang. And to himself. That tragedy… he had sworn to hunt down and kill every last one connected to the Iron Blood Woo Clan’s atrocities.
Blind killing intent surged forth.
Why? Why go this far?
That question surfaced on the man’s face. But Dam Jeok-san had no intention of answering it.
None of those who had died by his hand had been told why they had to die.
The narrowed gap in power. Through that needle-thin opening, the two swords crossed like a storm.
KRRRAAAK!
Sword marks began carving through his garments. When evasion became impossible, the blade that had been slicing cloth now bit into flesh—
“…You… could it be you are one of us?”
Without relying on the methods of the Outer Path, a person’s aura could not change so drastically. That was his judgment. But Dam Jeok-san still did not answer.
Facing overwhelming internal power, carving out an opening with will, riding momentum, weaving different principles together to forge a reversal—how could one who depended on the Outer Path ever comprehend such ascending harmony?
Whatever the man thought of him, Dam Jeok-san did not care.
“How laughable! There is no power in this world without a price!”
Even if it were the power of the Outer Path!
Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend shouted as he thrust out both palms. He retracted his punch and unleashed a twin palm strike at lightning speed, the seasoned reflexes of someone who had once touched the Entering Transformation Realm.
THUD!
The palm force struck Dam Jeok-san square in the chest. Yet even as a crimson line of blood spilled from his lips, he continued advancing.
A frenzied battle stance that utterly disregarded his own body.
SHRAAK!
As the twin palms struck his chest, the Red Cloud Sword carved deep into Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s shoulder.
Thus, even after landing a blow, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend could not continue his assault.
From afar, Dam Jeok-san’s movements resembled a beautiful dance. The lightning-wreathed swords glittered faintly like scattered stars.
Slash, slash, slash…
Whether the wounds were deep or shallow did not matter. Dam Jeok-san had completely seized control of the rhythm of this battle.
At times, fists or palm strikes struck his body, but he paid them no heed.
The lightning swirling around him mitigated the impact, if only slightly.
‘At this level, I will not die.’
That alone was enough.
“You madman. Who are you…?!”
Dark crimson liquid streamed from Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s eyes as he demanded. Every blood vessel in his eyes had burst, tears of blood flowing.
“There is no name worth telling you.”
Dam Jeok-san answered, driving his sword through the man’s shoulder once more.
The arm was already a mangled mess. Yet thanks to the regenerative power unique to half-demons, it was not severed.
That, too, was Dam Jeok-san’s intent.
At the shoulder, muscles constantly reknit and flesh refilled in a cycle of defiance of heaven.
But Dam Jeok-san, who had fought half-demons endlessly and carried memories of a previous life, knew—
That such defiance was not infinite. While regenerative power concentrated in the shoulder—
‘Pierce the nape.’
This was the only chance.
Dam Jeok-san did not hesitate and swung his sword.
At the same time—
[Young Cult Leader, bind him.]
A request he would normally never make.
Not because he lacked confidence in victory. But because he wanted to grant the man a truly miserable end.
The reason the hideous old man asked his name was simple. On the road to the afterlife, he wished for the one who took his life to be a great martial artist.
Dam Jeok-san wanted to trample that paltry vanity completely. Just as his life had been, he wanted even his death to be stripped of all meaning.
That, he believed, was true revenge.
Whether Bukgung Wan read Dam Jeok-san’s intent or simply acted without much thought, he swiftly moved his lips and formed hand seals.
From the earth, dark crimson vines rose like smoke.
In an instant, they coiled around Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s body. Given even a moment’s leeway, he could have shaken them off.
But Dam Jeok-san did not grant him even that moment, pressing him relentlessly.
“Did you ask who I am?”
Dam Jeok-san spoke as he thrust both swords forward at once.
“I am a vile man who will gladly use heretical arts if it means winning.”
“……”
At those words, Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s mouth trembled, clenched tight.
“Is that not fitting? For taking the life of someone who lived such a pitiful existence.”
As he tried to speak—
SHLK—
The twin swords carved deep through Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend’s neck.
That was the end.
Not grandiose. Not glorious.
“A hollow thing, life is.”
That this was the end of someone who had once reached the Entering Transformation Realm.
“What did you think about as you died?”
He did not particularly want to know, but he soon would.
—Predation begins.
He was prey, after all.
I hope it was miserable.
With that thought, Dam Jeok-san accepted the torrent of demonic energy and thoughts that poured in.
The quantity was overwhelming, nearly impossible to digest. Normally, he would have had to let it leak away or seal it—
‘Well then, I might as well try compressing it.’
The experience of witnessing the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord’s genuine qi guided him toward another path.
But before that—
The mental image world that always accompanied predation.
“Do I have to deal with that first?”
Dam Jeok-san frowned as he looked at the wave of dark crimson blood rushing toward him.
—Who are you? You must be someone special.
—You could become even stronger than the Spirit River Sword Immortal.
—Perhaps you are a secret weapon specially nurtured by the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord.
“Shut up.”
Dam Jeok-san leapt upward and stomped down on the wave.
CRRRUNCH!
Terrifying pressure gathered beneath his sole.
The massive wave was driven straight into the ground.
“I will send you where you belong.”
With those words, the man’s ego and thoughts were crushed into the deepest layer of the mental image world.
A place where trivial monsters screamed after losing all sense of self. His future would be no different from theirs.
Dam Jeok-san erased all memory of the man completely.
As though even his name or alias held no interest.
Immediately after exiting the mental image world, he sat down in the lotus position without hesitation.
Now, he had to compress the genuine qi.
Before the demonic energy dispersed or sank.