Chapter 412 : This Old Body (2)

“Listen, children who have been deceived by the demons!”

The jarring cry of the frail old monk echoes from the base of Mount Longzhong, making those who had gathered at the Zhuge Family’s estate feel the hair on the back of their necks stand on end.

The distance was so vast that you could barely make out the man's shape without boosting your eyesight with internal energy, and yet that old monk's voice drove itself into their ears like a spike.

"Those who descend and surrender at once shall receive the mercy of the Buddha! This is your last chance. Turn your backs on the Buddha's mercy, and you'll all burn in hell!”

He was talking to them like a bunch of naughty kids, but nobody on the mountain was laughing. Most of the men gathered on the mountain exchanged uneasy glances.

That was when the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal forced himself through the crushing pressure and yelled back.

"With all due respect, Senior, why do you claim we are the ones deceived? It's you who are blind to the truth! The Imperial Family's wicked—"

"Silence!!!"

But before the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal could finish, the old monk's roar erupted again. The shout was so devastatingly powerful that the trees and shrubbery at the base of Mount Longzhong literally exploded in unison.

"How dare you try to deceive me with that serpent's tongue!! To think that those who should be walking the path of virtue would stoop to such wordplay! Wudang has clearly fallen completely into the hands of the demons!!"

Seeing how the old monk had already made up his mind and refused to hear anything else, the Left Guardian of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult let out a dry laugh. “Well, well. Turns out the Central Plains has its own version of old man Dokgo.”

Several of the Divine Cult's masters who knew Dokgo Ryong well couldn't help but snicker.

But nobody was actually relaxed.

Every one of them had reached the pinnacle of martial path, and they could all feel the old monk's presence bearing down on them more than anyone else on the battlefield.

The Left Guardian had only cracked that joke to shake off the numbness creeping through his hands and feet.

Forcing the tension aside, the Left Guardian fixed his gaze on the old monk with a resolute expression.

‘I thought it was just empty boasting.’

The old man wasn't just strong; he was a genuine old monster.

And that monster had just signed their death warrants.

"It seems you have all surrendered to the demons, so today I shall personally lift the restriction on the Killing Precepts!"

He declared it like some judge of the underworld, then turned and began walking toward Longzhong.

He looked so ancient and fragile that you’d expect him to collapse without a cane, yet his steps were steady and powerful.

Each time his foot pushed off the ground, he covered dozens of feet in an instant, as if he were folding space itself.

Everyone stared slack-jawed at that impossible sight, the gap between motion and result completely defying reason.

"Shaolin shall follow in our Grandmaster's footsteps!!"

The Shaolin Abbot's belated cry snapped his disciples out of their daze, and the Shaolin monks surged toward Longzhong. Right behind them, Peng Muyeol's face flushed red as he bellowed:

"The Peng Family, with me!!"

With Peng Muyeol's roar as the signal, the martial world's fighters began charging up Mount Longzhong en masse.

Among them all, the old monk who had moved first was already well past the mountain's midpoint.

The Right Guardian tore his gaze away from the old monk and turned to address the Divine Cult's masters.

"It seems we'll have to move according to the Head of the Zhuge Family's plan after all."

The Left Guardian, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang, and Yeom Ga-hwi all nodded in agreement.

Even in those few brief seconds, the old monk was closing the distance at a terrifying pace. Without wasting another breath, the four warriors of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult vaulted over the fortress-like walls of the Zhuge Family’s estate and intercepted him head-on.

Seeing them fly toward him, the old monk simply whipped out his right hand from behind his back as if swatting flies.

The result of that simple gesture was anything but simple.

A massive golden palm projection erupted from his palm and came crashing straight toward the quartet. Faced with that enormous blast of palm that looked ready to sweep all four of them away at once, Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang and the Left Guardian twisted sharply left and right to barely dodge it, while the Right Guardian and Yeom Ga-hwi leaped skyward to avoid it before launching counterattacks.

The Right Guardian sent out a slash of Saber Force while Yeom Ga-whi coated his hand with Force Qi.

The old monk extended his left palm and casually deflected both strikes, then finally stopped walking.

"So these are the demons from the Demonic Cult."

At that moment, the old monk’s aura shifted completely.

A vast and boundless Buddhist Qi surged out and seized control of the entire area, and a crushing pressure bore down on the Cult's quartet. It was unmistakably a Buddhist aura, and yet it carried none of the compassionate weight one might associate with the Buddha.

If anything, it felt like prey standing face-to-face with an apex predator.

But the Cult's quartet were all masters who had reached extraordinary heights, and they refused to buckle under that pressure.

Grk.

Each of them clenched their teeth and drew on the internal energy from their dantian to fight off the monk's suffocating aura. But the old monk wasn't about to stand there and wait for them to catch their breath. 

BOOM!!

Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang barely managed to block the old monk's casually thrown punch, and the impact sent him flying backward with a grunt.

"Ugh..."

In that opening, the remaining three finally broke through the monk's oppressive aura and attacked simultaneously.

The old monk sidestepped the Left Guardian's sword with minimal movement, then blocked both the Right Guardian's saber and Yeom Ga-hwi's fist with his left and right palms at the same time.

Despite fending off two powerful attacks simultaneously, the monk’s expression remained utterly serene.

Meanwhile, the faces of the Right Guardian and Yeom Ga-hwi were turning a deep red like they were about to burst.

Their muscles were screaming, and the rebound force from the clash was churning their insides, forcing blood up their throats.

"Hah!"

The Left Guardian didn't let his missed strike slow him down.

With a spirited shout, he swung his sword that blazed with a flame-shaped Sword Force. In response, the old monk simply extended his left foot and whipped it in a brutal back kick, all while blocking the Right Guardian and Yeom Ga-hwi.

BOOM!!

"Ggh—"

The Left Guardian was sent flying. In the split second the old monk's attention shifted, the Right Guardian and Yeom Ga-hwi managed to pull back and gain some distance.

As the monk moved to pursue them, a sharp blast of Force Qi came flying at his blind spot from behind.

"Hmph."

The old monk casually swung his left hand and batted the attack aside like swatting a fly. He glanced back to find Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang now rushing back into the fray. There was a faint smear of blood at the corner of Hyeokryeon Cheon-gang's mouth, and he hadn't even had a moment to wipe it away before throwing himself back into the fight.

From that point on, it was a desperate battle of survival. The Divine Cult’s four masters could do nothing but cover each other's blind spots, barely staying alive under the monk's terrifying pressure.

But holding their own was the most they could do.

In reality, they were just desperately delaying their deaths, constantly forced to give ground.

That was when a roar came from the rear.

"Aid our Grandmaster and eliminate the demons!!"

The Shaolin monks who had followed the old monk up the mountain had arrived.

But they never got the chance to join him.

"In the name of the Primeval Lord of Heaven, none of you shall advance any further."

Wudang had slipped out of the Zhuge Family’s estate at some point and now stood blocking Shaolin's path.

Knowing full well that words were useless at this point, the Wudang Taoists and Shaolin monks threw themselves at each other without another word.

Leading the charge were the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal from Wudang and the Buddha Venerable from Shaolin.

The golden Force Qi carved into the Buddha Venerable's fists bore down heavily on the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal, while the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal's sword circled without pause to redirect and deflect that force.

And all around them, the screams and war cries of Wudang and Shaolin disciples rang out without end.

Right then, another booming shout came from the rear.

"Butcher every last one of those Wudang bastards!!"

Peng Muyeol joined the fray.

With Shaolin and Wudang already locked in combat, the Peng Family crashed into the fray, slowly driving the Wudang Taoists backward. The only reason Wudang was still in the fight at all was thanks to their defensive swordplay, which let them parry the onslaught with all their might.

Seeing Wudang faltering right after the Divine Cult's heavy hitters, Zhuge Mun shifted his gaze to scan the rest of the battlefield.

“You call yourselves righteous, yet you dare stomp on beggars?!”

“Hmph. I'll make sure the Beggars’ Gang is erased from the Nine Great Sects and One Gang starting today.”

In another part of the battlefield, the Beggar King had just led his beggars into a clash with the Mount Heng Sect.

“Do you really think a bunch of filthy beggars and weak scholars can stop me?”

Elsewhere, other beggars and the Zhuge Family’s fighters had moved to block Namgung Jin's path.

Zhuge Mun swept his gaze over the rest of the battlefield to check on the mid-tier sect fighters who had just crossed the entrance of Mount Longzhong and the allied fighters closing in to engage them, then gave his order.

“Activate it!”

The moment Zhuge Mun's order rang out, a thunderous gong sounded from inside the Zhuge Family's manor, and pillars of smoke rose into the air. 

Hidden sorcerers scattered across the mountain spotted the signal and immediately began chanting their spells. Zhuge Mun had deliberately held off until the enemy forces pushed deep inside Mount Longzhong. He wanted to lure them in first, then activate the Formations and mechanical traps to inflict maximum casualties.

One by one, the Formations set up throughout Mount Longzhong activated and resonated with each other, transforming the entire mountain into one gigantic trap.

Screams and groans of enemy fighters caught in the mechanical traps rang out from all across the mountain. Babbling cries of men hallucinating under the Formations' illusions echoed from every direction.

Slash!

Blinded by the illusions, the invaders began slaughtering their own allies, while those who managed to survive were easily cut down by the Divine Cult’s warriors who knew the safe paths of the Formations by heart.

"You despicable lowlifes!!"

Yangmuja's face had gone completely crimson as he watched his disciples collapsing helplessly around him.

Namgung Jin stared at the Zhuge Family’s fighters blocking his path with barely concealed irritation.

On their own, these guys were just a trivial annoyance, yet they could not be easily breached just by force. Empowered by Mount Longzhong's active Formations bolstering their sword array, the Zhuge Family’s martial artists were exerting several times their original strength.

Even Wudang was using the Formations’ supports to easily hold off the combined onslaught of Shaolin and the Peng Family. The top-tier masters could still manage to survive, but the average fighters were getting shredded by the traps before they could even draw their weapons.

But even though things were going exactly according to his plan, Zhuge Mun wasn't smiling.

BOOM!!!

Instead, his expression darkened as he turned to face the source of a massive explosion.

The spot where the old monk and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult's masters were locked in battle.

Various Formations had been set up in that area as well to support them. And it wasn't purely a matter of the Divine Cult's masters being driven back.

From the start, they had planned to guide the old monk toward that zone.

BOOM!!

"Did you really think those petty tricks could fool me?"

Every time the old monk moved his arms or legs, the area around him exploded into ruin, and the shockwaves sent the Formations shaking violently. Even with the Divine Cult's quartet engaging him at the same time, the old monk was tearing through the Formations without any apparent effort.

"Begone!!!"

With the old monk's thunderous roar, the already-cracked Formations shattered completely.

It was a brutal demonstration that no amount of tricks could face the overwhelming power of absolute being.

The Formations didn’t even manage to scratch the old monks, thanks to the golden aura coating his body.

Seeing that, the Left Guardian and the Right Guardian exchanged a wordless look.

The two of them were seasoned veterans.

They understood that this one old monk alone could unravel every single plan they had made if they didn’t stop him here.

'Unless Cult Leader Wi Jin-hak achieves Trascendence in the Heavenly Demon Divine Arts, he wouldn't stand a chance against this man.'

This old monk was a monster on an entirely different level.

In that moment, the image of the late Supreme One who had ascended beyond this world flashed through both of their minds.

If only he were still alive.

But grief was a luxury they couldn't afford right now.

‘We cannot allow the field that the Supreme One devoted his entire life to building to burn to the ground, even if it costs us our lives.’

Seizing the moment when the old monk shattered the Formations, the Left Guardian and the Right Guardian moved at the same instant.

Tap-Tap-Tap.

The moment they struck the acupoints scattered across their own bodies, a roaring wave of energy exploded from deep within their cores.  An exhilarating feeling as if they had shed decades off their age flooded through their meridians.

It was a variation of the forbidden art known as Blood Reversal Art, a method that ignited their latent potential for a brief window of time and materialized it into reality for fifteen minutes. And the moment that the fifteen-minute window closed, so will their life with it.

Given that they were already nearly a hundred years old, they might not even last for five, let alone fifteen minutes.

Which meant they couldn't waste a single second.

"Hah!!"

The Left Guardian and the Right Guardian swung their sword and saber and threw themselves at the old monk. Jet-black energy burned fiercely around their blades, consuming them whole.

It was a sight that made one think of the sunset.