Chapter 118 : Chapter 118
Chapter 118. Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable
“Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.”
A voice tinged with amusement flowed out within the Heavenly Martial Hall.
It had not even been that long since he had departed, yet Dam Jeok-san had already sent a counter-message to the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord.
A request for support that was closer to an order, claiming that the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable was likely to manifest.
“If he cuts off that bastard’s head and sends it over, the Unorthodox Alliance Leader will be pleased.”
The Martial Sovereign Castle Lord spoke with an indifferent expression.
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable, Left Protector of the Blood Palace.
The Sword-Breaking Corps Commander, who had lost his life at that man’s hands, had been a subordinate the Unorthodox Alliance Leader cherished like a son.
Had he not borne the title of Alliance Leader, he would likely have chased him to the very ends of the Central Plains—or even beyond the frontier—and killed him himself.
“Are you going personally?”
Mu-yeong asked, eyes wide with surprise.
The Martial Sovereign Castle Lord was an absolute being who stood above countless others. It was exceedingly rare for him to move at someone’s request or command.
“My disciple is asking for help.”
Man Su-geuk spoke calmly, as though it were only natural.
“As a master, should I not step in at least once?”
Besides, the Blood Palace needed a proper warning.
“To think they held this seat in such contempt that it was not enough to establish a branch, but even sent their Left Protector himself.”
A faint killing intent seeped into Man Su-geuk’s voice as he spoke.
That alone caused the entire Heavenly Martial Hall to tremble violently for an instant.
“It is time to make an example of them. Because this seat has been acting like a ghost—present yet absent—the rabble of the Outer Path has begun to bark.”
The Martial Sovereign Castle Lord smiled coldly.
For the past several years, he had focused more on sealing the Demonic Realm than on keeping the Outer Path in check.
But Man Su-geuk was, by nature, a man of the path of dominance. If the Blood Palace sought a collision with him, he would gladly uproot them and trample them down to their very roots.
“And there is also something I wish to confirm.”
“What would that be…?”
“How thoroughly that child, Jeok-san, has embodied my teachings.”
The Martial Sovereign Castle Lord’s face looked genuinely pleased as he said it.
The Eldest Young Master, Jeok Yeon-jun, was a prodigy endowed with innate talent. Yet he lacked the element of surprise that could amuse or excite him.
The second disciple, Woo Seo-gwang, now dead, had possessed excellent talent as well, but he had been crushed by the pressure and had effectively destroyed himself.
Of the three disciples, the only one who could still bring enjoyment to the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord was Dam Jeok-san.
“A war is about to begin once more.”
Leaning back deeply into the Grand Preceptor Chair, the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord murmured as if to himself.
Ominous stirrings were erupting one after another within the Demonic Realm.
The forces of the Outer Path, which had been quietly building their strength, were suddenly revealing their presence as though in a convulsion.
That meant only one thing.
The time was coming.
The time for the Demon Emperor to descend.
For a brief moment, an exhaustion so deep it defied description passed across the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord’s face.
Strong ones were needed. Strong enough to uphold the next generation, even if he himself, the Heavenly Demon, and all others of this era were to die.
***
Step— step—
A mountain stronghold stained only with congealed traces of blood. Into it walked a man clad in ritual robes as red as fresh blood.
He gathered his long hair up with a hairpin and powdered his face stark white. His appearance was more ornate than that of most women. Yet what truly drew the eye was not his flamboyant adornment, but his left eye.
Or rather, the place where an eye should have been.
The man’s left eye socket had been torn out down to the root.
In place of an eyeball was embedded a crimson jade, emitting a bewitching glow.
“What a wretched and filthy end.”
Light flared from the crimson jade as the man muttered.
All the corpses were already gone, but from the residual traces left on the ground alone, he could roughly reconstruct what kind of battle had taken place here.
The Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had undoubtedly been defeated in utter misery.
“You should have died with honor.”
He murmured indifferently.
A martial artist who reaches the Entering Transformation Realm is a being who distorts the world through an inflexible and obsessive belief. They are praised as great masters and supreme experts, but in truth, they are little different from madmen.
And to lose the Entering Transformation Realm is to have that belief—so firm it could warp reality itself—utterly denied.
Most masters who had reached the Entering Transformation Realm would choose death over enduring such a horrific experience.
“If you had survived so ignominiously and then risen again, I might have acknowledged that obsession of yours…”
But if the end of that disgraceful flight was this kind of death—
“Still, revenge must be taken.”
He muttered while surveying the chaotic traces of battle.
The Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend had never managed to recover his realm.
And the reason the Left Protector had come all this way in the first place was to kill him if he had failed to do so.
The three dantians and acupoints of one who had once reached the Entering Transformation Realm were perfect ingredients for elixirs, with nothing to waste.
If he could not recover his realm, killing him was preferable. That had been the judgment.
But the Reverse-Blood Heaven Fiend was already dead, and the culprit was the man most famous of late—
‘Sword Dragon Dam Jeok-san.’
He had thought it was an exaggeration. That the Martial Sovereign Castle had inflated the man’s exploits for some political reason.
But a single glance at the traces of battle made the truth clear. Sword Dragon—that young upstart—was real.
Each and every sword mark he left behind carried a fragment of genius.
He had to be killed now.
If not, another monster like the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord would be born.
‘It is a little bothersome to act in Shanxi, but…’
The Martial Sovereign Castle Lord was more interested in wandering the world to eliminate things that might masquerade as the Demon Emperor than in remaining at the main castle.
As long as that man did not personally manifest, it did not matter.
After all, he had once shaken off even the pursuit of the Unorthodox Alliance Leader.
‘Come to think of it, I wonder how that old man is doing.’
One seat among the true Eight Sovereigns of Murim.
The power the Unorthodox Alliance Leader possessed was enough to rival even the Blood Palace Lord.
That day, the Unorthodox Alliance Leader had said this:
If he had not been bound by the position of Alliance Leader, he would have torn him limb from limb.
And he had also warned him not to rest easy just because he was retreating now. The last face he would ever see in his life would surely be his.
‘Heh… it really sent shivers down my spine.’
In truth, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable had been eagerly awaiting that moment. Perhaps serving the Blood Palace had broken something within him as well.
Flutter—
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable let his blood-red robes billow as he left the mountain stronghold.
His steps headed straight down the mountainside without the slightest hesitation.
As though he already knew exactly where Dam Jeok-san was.
***
“Please, eat your fill.”
Dam Jeok-san said as he practically shoveled down the noodles, which had gone slightly cold.
“It looks like we will need to exert ourselves soon.”
A breeze carrying the scent of blood drifted in. It was already too late to flee.
In this situation, standing and fighting was the best option.
“This time, Elder, I think we will need you to take the lead.”
He spoke while looking at Kwon Gi-il, the Heaven-Dominating Saber. The Entering Transformation Realm was a stage that utterly surpassed human limits. Facing someone who had not fallen from it and who ranked among its upper echelon could not be easy.
“And the Young Cult Leader, you as well. The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable is someone who survived even against the Unorthodox Alliance Leader of the Eight Sovereigns of Murim. He could kill people like us in a single breath.”
Even though Kwon Gi-il had reached the Entering Transformation Realm, that fact did not change.
“Survival should be our priority, then.”
Bukgung Wan nodded with his arms crossed.
Words flexible enough to seem unbelievable coming from the Young Cult Leader of the Ming Cult.
“I think I can play a fairly significant role. Sorcery follows a different track from martial arts. With sufficient preparation, it can restrain even an Entering Transformation Realm master to a degree.”
“…If the opponent were one of the Eight Sovereigns of Murim?”
“Hm. The only Sovereign I know is our Cult Leader. Even if he used no sorcery at all… impossible. It would be hard to bind him even for the briefest instant.”
No matter how strong the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable was, he could not be on the same level as the Heavenly Demon Bukgung Dantian, who stood at the pinnacle of the Eight Sovereigns alongside Man Su-geuk.
Bukgung Wan seemed to know this as well. After pondering a little more, he spoke again.
“But against the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable, it should be possible.”
“And how can you be so certain?”
“Because the roots of the Blood Palace lie in our cult.”
Bukgung Wan gulped down the strong liquor sprawled across the table and continued.
Dam Jeok-san and Kwon Gi-il could not hide their surprise at being suddenly exposed to a secret history of the Ming Cult.
“In the distant past—when our cult was at war with you Central Plains martial artists—it was led by the Eight Great Sects.”
Now all had declined under the overwhelming might of the Heavenly Demon, but back then, each sect possessed power that eclipsed the Nine Sects and One Gang.
“And one of those sects was the Blood World Heavenly Sect.”
They believed that by washing the world clean with blood, they could achieve true emptiness and build an ideal kingdom in its place.
“I have heard that they, too, once faithfully followed the cult’s grand cause. The Righteous–Demonic War was the fastest means for the Blood World Heavenly Sect to realize its ideals.”
“So to cleanse the Central Plains in blood, using the power of the Ming Cult was the only answer?”
Dam Jeok-san asked with interest.
“Exactly. The demonic world under heaven is an arduous goal, but not an impossible one… at least, that is what our ancestors seemed to believe.”
Of course, Bukgung Wan, born centuries after them, held a rather skeptical view.
It was true that the Ming Cult’s power even now was enough to contend for supremacy under heaven.
But the Martial Sovereign Castle, the Imperial Palace, the Righteous Heaven Alliance, the Unorthodox Alliance—and all the reclusive masters and eccentrics of the Central Plains who would rise against a sudden invasion.
‘Could our cult really have handled all of that?’
Absolutely impossible.
Thus, Bukgung Wan had long regarded the idea of a demonic world under heaven as little more than an empty slogan—at least until now.
What changed his thinking, surprisingly, was meeting Dam Jeok-san.
Dam Jeok-san was a genius who far surpassed Bukgung Wan’s own understanding.
Perhaps even the Heavenly Demon of old and the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord had not grown at such a rate.
If he continued to grow without limits, might he not one day become a transcendent powerhouse who could overwhelm all Eight Sovereigns of Murim alone?
‘If the previous Heavenly Demons were such beings…’
Then the demonic world under heaven might not have been a mere fantasy.
“Anyway, to return to the main point—surely you have heard the saying that the Heavenly Demon reigns above ten thousand demons?”
That was not just a figure of speech. In reality, the power of the Heavenly Demon suppressed and subjugated all demonic arts.
“No matter how much the Blood Palace has grown independently over the centuries since breaking away from our cult, one cannot change one’s roots.”
Especially regarding the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable, the Ming Cult possessed a certain amount of information.
“The supreme technique he used to annihilate the Sword-Breaking Corps, Blood World Vast Expanse, is one of the Four Great Profound Intents once held by the Blood World Heavenly Sect.”
In other words, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s martial arts might be closer to the original form possessed by the Blood World Heavenly Sect than expected.
“Well, if not, that would be disappointing. Even so, I am confident I can suppress his power to some extent. He is not our Cult Leader.”
Bukgung Wan declared confidently.
“That is enough. I will trust you.”
Dam Jeok-san did not press further. He had heard enough.
“As for a plan… there is none. Any plan we devise will be meaningless before his sheer force. Each of us should simply do our best. However, we must absolutely prevent a situation where even one of us dies.”
If even one of the three fell, the balance would collapse, and the battlefield would become overwhelmingly favorable to the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.
Each of them likely had a life-saving ultimate technique hidden away.
Dam Jeok-san had the Reverse Scale of Dark Heaven and the sealed power of Wi Cheon-rak.
‘As for the Elder, I do not know…’
But he would not be empty-handed. He was someone who had survived this harsh martial world and reached the Entering Transformation Realm.
And Bukgung Wan.
Bukgung Wan was connected to the Heavenly Demon Bukgung Dantian. Dam Jeok-san could sense it with an instinct bordering on intuition.
He did not know how close or firm that connection was, but it was certainly more than a mere exchange of messages.
If the three of them deployed even techniques that exceeded their own limits, they should be able to endure.
‘At least until Master arrives.’
And if the Martial Sovereign Castle Lord did not come in the end?
Dam Jeok-san did not believe that would happen.
But even if it did—
‘We can survive.’
By any means necessary.
As they spoke of matters that barely qualified as a plan at all, the wind, heavy with the scent of blood, slowly drew closer to the Silver Tear Pavilion.