Chapter 648: The Right Decision

After Baek Suryong slashed through the air with his sword and vanished from the battlefield with the Blood Demon...

“......” Namgung Su stared quietly at the transparent, shimmering space. Baek Suryong had left behind this faint trace when he cut through the air.

With the keen senses of a peerless master, he could sense something beyond it, something transcendent that surpassed martial arts. When he focused to the limit, he could faintly make out an intense clash of energy inside that space.

“Stop. It’s not your turn to step up yet.”

Namgung Su pondered those words in silence as he glared at the shimmering void.

Baek Suryong had called only Namgung Su here because he did not want the people he left behind to resent the man. No one would ever know what happened inside this place. Once he and the Blood Demon perished in the mindscape, he would vanish without a trace.

Suddenly, a familiar voice broke the silence from right beside him.

“...I can’t make heads or tails of what’s going on. Do you know anything?” the Sword Sage asked. “The Apostles suddenly ran off, the Blood Demon disappeared with the Azure Dragon Hero, and most of all...”

He trailed off and looked up at the night sky. Deep wounds showed through the gaps in his blood-soaked, tattered martial uniform, severe enough to require at least several months of recovery, but he ignored them.

RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!

The vortex, which had weakened momentarily, was growing fierce once again. Dark red storm clouds swirled on a vast scale, large enough to swallow the city. Countless stars poured down from beyond the clouds, as if warning that the world was about to end.

The Sword Sage let out a hollow laugh, seemingly overcome by an indescribable emotion. “Why are the heavens so enraged...?”

“I’m afraid I know nothing either,” Namgung Su replied flatly.

The Sword Sage shook his head. The Young Lord of the Namgung Clan’s poker face made it hard to tell whether he truly knew nothing or was hiding something, and he wasn’t someone who would talk just because he was pressured.

“Then why are you here? Thanks to the Azure Dragon Hero, we have a chance to catch our breath, but the fight isn’t over yet.”

The Samsara Hell Annihilation Formation had been greatly weakened, yet heaven-defying energy still pulsed across the battlefield. The Blood Cultists, who practiced demonic arts, still had the upper hand.

“The Supreme Lord... will return!” Ju Ilcheon shouted. He, the strongest Patriarch among the Blood Cult’s Eight Clans, had gathered the surviving elders and elites and was commanding their forces.

The Sword Sage looked at the enemies wearily and clicked his tongue. “These are the bastards who withstood that horrifying wave of energy without passing out. We have to treat every last one of them as a great villain. At least the Apostles aren’t here...”

No one in the alliance could deny the fact that, had the Apostles remained in the fray, the Orthodox-Unorthodox Alliance would have been wiped out by now.

Namgung Su carefully studied the opposing forces. Contrary to the other Alliance masters, who were regrouping, however, he remained motionless before the shimmering space.

“...I am saving my strength.”

“For what?”

“There is something I must do.”

“Is it more important than this fight?”

“Yes,” Namgung Su answered without a moment’s hesitation.

Sensing the firm resolve in Namgung Su’s voice, the Sword Sage nodded and asked no more.

Namgung Su’s golden eyes did not waver.

Baek Suryong stood covered in blood, waiting for Namgung Su. When the latter finally arrived, he smiled faintly. “Man, I look like crap, huh?”

The word ‘wretched’ couldn’t even begin to describe his current state. Countless wounds and dried bloodstains covered his body. Although his wounds were slowly regenerating, he looked as ghastly as a corpse.

His hair and eyes flickered, turning red and then back to black. His lips trembled as he slowly said, “Namgung Su. Do what you have to do.”

Despite his words, his body took a fighting stance. The Blood Demon Sword in his right hand glowed red as if it had drunk human blood, and his torn clothes fluttered in his powerful aura.