Chapter 121 : Chapter 121
Chapter 121. Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable (4)
Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears was, quite literally, an instant-kill technique.
An absurdly powerful strike that affected only a single target.
The moment Dam Jeok-san realized that he had fallen into the clutches of Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears, he drove his sword straight into his own heart.
If he wanted to delay death even a little, that was the fastest and most certain method. Before his heart could explode, he would crush it himself.
Under normal circumstances, even if he had made that choice, Dam Jeok-san would have died within a quarter of an hour—no, within half that time.
However, here and now, on a battlefield overseen by the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle, the outcome was different.
[Fast. You pass.]
Dam Jeok-san drove a single strike into the flank of the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable, a man who had reached a realm far beyond his own.
Even the fact that he had dared to bring out an instant-kill martial art had made that one sword strike rather impressive.
‘A Fourth Elder can only use Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears once every seven days at most.’
At the very least, in this battle, the Fourth Elder’s Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears had been completely sealed.
And the price for that should, by all rights, have been Dam Jeok-san’s death.
THUONG—!!
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable felt his will rebound violently back at him.
‘Impossible.’
The Fourth Elder’s Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears was not some crude will-based attack, but a thoroughly refined supreme technique. It was true that Dam Jeok-san, despite being an Ultra-Peak expert, seemed to handle will by relying on instinct, but such a crude level should never have been enough to block it.
That was why the man had also attempted, without hesitation, to plunge a sword into his own heart the moment Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears was activated.
His judgment and decisiveness were remarkable—but only up to that point. He had no means to escape his predetermined death. That had been certain.
And yet—
Condensed killing intent, death given tangible form, was rebounding outward.
Like a massive wave flowing in reverse. Like shattered foam rewinding back into the sea.
“Man…… Su-geuk.”
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable slowly spoke a man’s name.
One of the Twin Heavens among the Eight Sovereigns of Murim, the grim reaper of all Outer Paths and monsters, the man closest to being the strongest under heaven, the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle—Martial Sovereign Man Su-geuk.
There could be no other who could perform such a miracle.
[Correct.]
A laughter-laced Six-Directions Resonant Voice echoed in all directions.
The Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle had casually blocked a supreme technique capable of instantly killing even an Entering Transformation Realm expert.
Soon after, from the unfathomable void, his figure began to glimmer like a single point of light.
“How dare you……!”
A furious roar burst from the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s mouth.
“How dare you mock this Venerable……!”
As befitted an expert who had reached a transcendent realm, he grasped the truth in an instant.
From the very beginning, he had been dancing in the palm of the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
“Fine, then! At the very least, I will take your disciple with me!”
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable declared in a solemn voice, as if issuing a proclamation of war.
Even now, the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle was descending from the sky with an unhurried air. Killing the disciple before that would suffice.
He could not deploy Blood Cocoon, Exploding Tears again. It had been sealed by the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle’s will, which had suddenly seized control of the surrounding space.
Still, there was no sign of panic on the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s face. If he could not kill with will, then he would simply pierce the chest with his hands, shatter the ribs, and tear out the heart.
His body became a single streak of gale-force wind. Movement art refined to its extreme. His body leapt through afterimages like spatial transposition, arriving before Dam Jeok-san.
SHUUUK!!
Curling his fingers sharply, he raked them across Dam Jeok-san’s chest.
However, the instant Dam Jeok-san realized that the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle had manifested, he had already recovered his composure.
‘Master is never a gentle man.’
He had never expected that, just because Man Su-geuk had intervened, every attack aimed at him would be blocked.
That was why Dam Jeok-san could respond to a killing strike without hesitation.
CLANG!!
He swiftly drew Sky Thunder to his chest and knocked aside the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s hand.
‘This is not the end.’
His opponent was an Entering Transformation Realm expert. That first strike had merely been a probing attack.
Sure enough, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s hand twisted strangely like a serpent and slithered up along Dam Jeok-san’s sword blade.
Just as it was about to climb to his wrist and tear out his throat—
Dam Jeok-san thrust Red Cloud Sword straight into the man’s grasp with his other hand.
KUUUUNG!!
Despite sword arc and flesh colliding, a dull sound rang out, as though stone had struck stone.
Dam Jeok-san’s sword carried a transparent, violently compressed Sword Flame that shimmered faintly. It could no longer truly be called flame, yet it had not reached the stage of Sword Astral.
That transparent shockwave did not yield one-sidedly even against the Blood Jade Astral Qi coiled around the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s hand.
“How dare……!”
With the situation turning against him, it was the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable who grew impatient.
The Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle loomed with overwhelming presence, yet did not intervene directly. Before he could step fully into the battle, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable intended to tear Dam Jeok-san apart.
To do so, he had to hurry. Man Su-geuk was now truly close to the ground. His presence could be felt just beyond reach.
Wrapping his hands in Astral Qi, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable attacked Dam Jeok-san’s lifeline with bizarre fist, palm, and claw techniques.
Scratching the eyes, tearing the throat, piercing the chest—every move was a terrifying form that would lead to instant death if it landed.
Dam Jeok-san received each attack calmly.
Stagger—
However, Astral Qi versus Sword Flame, and Entering Transformation Realm versus Ultra-Peak. The gap was greater than he had anticipated.
Unable to fully disperse the aftershocks, Dam Jeok-san staggered like a man losing his balance, blood spilling freely from his mouth.
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable seized that opening and lunged forward with resolve for mutual destruction.
GROOOOO—!
From his entire body, blood-colored shockwaves surged like a waterfall flowing backward. It was hard to believe this was an expert charging a junior.
At this moment, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable was unmistakably drawing out his full power.
Yet Dam Jeok-san looked at him without the slightest sign of panic.
While he endured several exchanges, Bukgung Wan and Kwon Gi-il also recovered their composure.
Kwon Gi-il had already straightened his saber and was releasing an intense will, suppressing the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.
And Bukgung Wan squeezed out every last ounce of strength to drape a barrier over Dam Jeok-san.
If he had been alone, he would have braced himself to die beneath that strike. But he was not alone.
Because he was not alone, he had room to spare.
Dam Jeok-san raised his visual power to its limit as he watched the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable approach.
Predator’s Eye began searching for an opening within the man advancing with immense power.
An opening certainly existed. The man was looking down on him simply because he was a junior. The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s anxiety and fear stemmed solely from the presence of the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
Even after allowing Dam Jeok-san to land a sword strike, he never once considered that Dam Jeok-san could truly harm him.
Let that arrogance become his cause of death.
With that thought, Dam Jeok-san stepped forward.
There was no leeway to waste on supreme techniques or secret arts. He had to win with fundamentals alone.
‘There. An opening.’
A hair-thin gap. Because of the sword wound on his flank, his movements wavered, and that wavering became an opening in itself.
‘He is not used to fighting while injured—or to enduring pain while doing so.’
A faint sneer curved Dam Jeok-san’s lips.
Following that opening, he naturally pushed his sword forward. An exceedingly simple downward slash. In more archaic terms, the first form of the Three Talents Sword Technique: Mount Tai Crushing the Top.
THUD!
The Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s killing strike halted just before Dam Jeok-san’s neck. This time, it was not the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle’s will that stopped him.
Kwon Gi-il’s will and Bukgung Wan’s barrier. Their cooperation functioned like Body Protection Qi.
Perhaps because of that, the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s mouth twisted grotesquely.
The Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle might be one thing, but mere rabble daring to interfere!
KUGUGUGU!
Blood-red Astral Qi surged from his hand as the barrier shook violently.
Even so, Dam Jeok-san swung his sword in silence, trusting the two of them as if trusting his own Body Protection Qi.
Mount Tai Crushing the Top.
That utterly simple downward slash exploded toward the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.
Naturally, the man twisted his body and extended his other hand, intending to deflect the sword strike.
That was his intent.
Yet, strangely, Dam Jeok-san’s sword maintained its trajectory as if untouched by all else.
‘It struck the opening exactly.’
That alone proved that the sword strike had landed precisely through the gap Dam Jeok-san had captured.
SHRRAK—!!
His sword once more carved a long gash along the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s flank. That strike, too, carried the Ability of Predation.
The wound that had already failed to heal now invaded even the internal organs, worsening the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s condition.
“That is enough.”
This might have been his only chance to press the attack, but instead Dam Jeok-san sheathed his sword and stepped back.
And in that place—
“It has been a very long time since we stood on the same battlefield.”
The man closest to being the strongest under heaven descended.
The Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
Without even sparing the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable a glance, he spoke.
“Yes…… it must be nearly ten years.”
When Dam Jeok-san had just become his disciple—
The Castle Lord had taken his young disciple to a battlefield where the Sword Ghosts of Black Sword Forest, one of the Four Fiends of the Outer Path, were being exterminated.
If one was to be the heir of the Martial Sovereign Castle, one had to see whom the Castle protected, and whom it opposed.
On that battlefield, Black Immortal, the Forest Lord of Black Sword Forest and a figure counted among the strongest even among the Four Fiends, had been brutally slain by the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle.
At the time, Black Immortal had been considered the equal of the Eight Sovereigns of Murim, or even their superior. That such a man died without offering even a semblance of resistance sent shockwaves through Murim.
“That day, this disciple vowed to become a martial artist like Master.”
Looking at the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle’s back, the young Dam Jeok-san had thought—
I want to become someone like that. A strong man who would not fall to any storm.
“Your words that day were empty.”
At fifteen, Dam Jeok-san had been weak. At best, he had formed a Dantian and accumulated a bean-sized amount of internal energy.
Thus, the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle had given no reply to his vow.
“But looking at you today…… yes, perhaps it may be possible after all.”
He finally turned his gaze toward the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable clutching his flank.
“Seeing my disciple grow so large fills me with no small pride. I shall grant you a reward.”
Saying so, the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle walked step by step toward the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.
THUD!!
His fist buried itself in the man’s chest.
A simple punch, neither fast nor slow. Aside from the clean trajectory and movement, it was no different from a street thug’s punch.
Yet the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable could not even think to dodge it and took the blow head-on.
This occurred because the Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle’s will suppressed even the most fundamental will and ability the man possessed.
“Blood Palace rabble. It was not this Seat who defeated you.”
The Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle spoke softly as he looked down at the staggering Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable.
“Your defeat stems from your arrogance, and the one who pierced that arrogance was my disciple.”
Those words were not mere speech, but an utterance. The will carried in his voice surpassed phenomenal limits and even distorted the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s cognition.
Only then did Dam Jeok-san realize what his master was doing.
‘Could it be that he is suppressing the Heaven-Transcending Blood Venerable’s thought?’
So that Dam Jeok-san himself could devour him.
How his master had perceived his ability, he did not know.