Chapter 346 Book 14: Chapter 22: Half-Immortal, Counter-Demon

Indeed, one should expect nothing less from the Zhuge Clan.

Those who racked their brains to harm people, seized their profits and made accumulating grudges their family business.

To prepare for any contingency the directional explosive mechanism installed to kill the person sitting opposite—meaning a potential assassin— possessed a surprising amount of power.

However.

“It was you.”

At the voice flowing out from the armored command carriage, which was on fire and emitting black smoke, grand Tactician Zhuge, clutching his torn shoulder, shouted convulsively.

“What are you all doing?!”

“Kill him!”

Before that voice could even echo, already, the bodies of the elite warriors from the Namgung Clan, who were in the immediate vicinity of the carriage, were sliding into motion.

“Hup...!”

Treading like feathers on the ground, which had become a muddy swamp deep enough to sink their knees they charged forward with their drawn swords held upright before their faces, shattering the falling rain, and their blades pierced the carriage like lightning.

*Clang!* scattering the flames clinging to the carriage and tearing apart the carriage's thick armor, the moment a sword embedded itself inside, with shouts of concentration, regardless of front, back, left, or right, all the directions were pierced through at once like a single body without any separate orders, showing at a glance how much training these elite warriors had undergone together in ordinary times.

“Hahap...!”

“Hreup!”

*Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!* the swords of the warriors flying in afterward pierced the carriage in rapid succession.

“Dogs of the Namgung Clan.”

However the voice that was heard was no longer coming from inside the carriage.

“Even while wearing the martial robes of the Sword Family and wasting the Sword Family's wealth and provisions,” with only that voice, which sounded like boiling metal, the warriors felt their qi and blood flow backward.

“you are like parasites who do not actually show loyalty to the Sword Family.”

Through self-acupoint sealing rendering Grand Tactician Zhuge's efforts to stop the bleeding of his torn shoulder futile, he shouted in shock.

*Splurt!* due to his agitated qi and blood, fresh crimson blood poured anew from his shoulder.

“Aaargh!”

“I-It is a sound technique!”

“Everyone, protect your ears and upper dantian with your internal energy!”

Reflexively responding to that command, the warriors circulated their internal energy to protect their insides, but previously, several times, since Yeon So-hyeon had seen martial artists above a certain level defend against a voice filled with demonic energy using their internal energy, the pure demonic energy of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, carried on the subtlety of the sound technique, instantly shook the warriors' minds, vibrated their dantians, and made even their fine meridians boil.

“It is useless.”

“what you must protect is not a mere shell of flesh,” there was no way he had not refined his technique.

“but your souls filled with sin.”

“Cough!”

“Ugh!”

In order of lower cultivation, they spewed handfuls of dark, dead blood from their mouths one after another.

“The enemy is above!”

By the time they reflexively raised their heads at someone's shout flash.

Along with the lightning, the dark figure floating in the air silently sliced through space, plunging to the ground like a black bolt of lightning.

* * *

“----!”

The first victim struck by that black lightning could not even scream.

Would the end of someone struck by a heavenly iron mace slammed down by a giant from above the clouds be like this?

*Boom!* due to the terrifying force, the surrounding ground was pushed back in an instant, creating a vacuum at a single point, and the body, made of mere flesh and blood, exploded into thousands, tens of thousands of shreds of flesh.

“This martial art is—?!”

No matter how much they were from the Namgung Clan how could those who had associated with the Sword Family fail to recognize that distinctive martial art?

“Sword Peak Mountain Destroyer—?!”

The eyes of those who recognized the martial art grew wide as if tearing.

Sword Peak Mountain Destroyer a solo-style martial art.

Super-Heavy Sword, Mountain-Destroying Force.

“Do not panic!”

A scream-like voice from Grand Tactician Zhuge echoed through the crowd.

“The bastard is the Eldest Young Master!”

Accordingly, even on the ground undulating like a crazy wave, a warrior who had found his balance by planting his feet lunged his sword toward that vacuum with animalistic instincts.

“You bastard...!”

“Die!”

Namgung Clan.

Boundless Blue Sky Sword Technique.

First Chapter, Rock Sword Shatterer.

The sword of Namgung that shatters rocks and pierces cliffs.

It was the moment that the Namgung Clan's secret sword technique was unleashed with a sword clearly engraved with the emblem of the Luoyang Sword Family.

“The swords of the Sword Family are not permitted to you bastards.”

In the wide-open eyes of the warrior, his sword, which had been advancing like a ray of light, and the energy that was completely loaded onto that blade, glowing white-hot, twin Ramparts of Moving Wheels.

“…….”

*Screeech!* met the sword-resolving finger gesture formed by the opponent's snow-white fingertip, and the moment it crumbled from its tip was clearly engraved.

‘This martial art is...?!’

Ultimate Art.

Phoenix Intercepting Strike.

The Lord of the Elders' Hall of the Luoyang Sword Family.

The extremely powerful, solo-style martial art that he, who was called the Little Giant, had displayed in the Elders' Hall.

That became the last sight he saw in his life.

*Bang!* the sword-resolving finger gesture, magnifying boundlessly in his eyes, pierced and exploded his head.

Even before blood could spurt from his headless body with a splattering sound, reversely utilizing the fact that their swords were stuck in the carriage, two warriors executed sword-drawing techniques.

“Hap!”

“Hreup!”

Namgung Clan.

Boundless Blue Sky Sword Technique.

Third Chapter, Detonation.

As if a master calligrapher had raised a brush to draw a single character vigorously in one breath their snow-white swords were launched from the left and right, slicing the opponent along with the falling raindrops.

*Clang-clang!* just as their breathing had matched like a single body, the sound of their swords breaking like sorghum stalks was heard as one.

“…….”

“…….”

And at the moment they confirmed the futile sight of the broken swords floating in the air the sword-resolving finger gestures executed by each of his hands harvested their heads.

Soul-Dazing Ghost-Slicing Kill.

The Head Collector of the Tea Horse Road.

The Twin Sickle Technique of Tang Baek, the Blood Wind Envoy of the Tang Family, was unleashed through the sword-resolving finger gestures of the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon's hands.

When their heads were sharply severed from their bodies and separated by about an inch from their necks, along with hard-to-understand battle cries, the next warriors arrived.

“---!”

“--!”

Four warriors blocked the four directions of east, west, south, and north executing a high-level joint strike formation that rushed in like a whirlpool in the shape of a swastika.

That was an attack that could not be handled all at once unless one had three heads and six arms, along with a low laugh that sounded like boiling molten iron, the swords of the two warriors that had been broken in half earlier— those blade fragments floating in the air, instantly

“Hehe...”

Wriggled in a bizarre trajectory and dashed through the air like arrows.

“……!”

“...Argh!”

A short death rattle echoed and two warriors, whose half-bodies were sliced off along with their hearts that pulsed until the final moment, died instantly, the blade fragments that had taken the lives of their comrades returned and took their lives as well.

*Clang!* and the remaining two warriors, who were hurriedly pulling back the swords that had been deflected by Yeon So-hyeon's sword-resolving finger gestures along with a loud metallic clash, fell backward with holes punched in their philtrums with a hissing sound.

“Muhahaha!”

“Watch out—!”

“Qi-Controlled Sword—!”

Although cries of astonishment burst from the mouths of those rushing in next for Yeon So-hyeon, who had broken the enemies' sharp vanguard, there was no longer any intention of letting them take the initiative, so a sentence dropped from his mouth as his wild laughter abruptly stopped.

“Everyone, die.”

Life-Snatching Ghost Sword's solo-style sword technique.

Asura's Five Yin Extremes.

Ultimate Art.

Creation of the Five Aggregates.

Softness can overcome hardness.

One broken blade fragment smoothly suppressed a warrior's sword and severed his limbs.

Hardness can cut softness.

The other blade fragment shattered another warrior's sword and cut his body in two.

And the swords they dropped along with their death rattles floated back into the air tearing apart different enemies with different martial principles, cutting down the next, and the next enemy.

As the lives decreased, the swords increased and as the swords increased, more death rattles rang out.

That was indeed the essence of the extraordinary sword technique known as the Qi-Controlled Sword.

* * *

“I-Impossible...”

At first he thought the Eldest Young Master had lured him alone to assassinate him.

So, somehow he moved to escape that spot and ultimately, somehow at the point where he escaped the carriage and the warriors moved, he judged that the tide of victory had turned in his favor.

“It makes no sense...!”

However it was not.

*Whoosh—* now, without even the noise of swords clashing with sword-resolving fingers and without the voices of the screaming warriors only the sound of rain rang out loudly, blanketing all directions.

Hot steam rose from the pieces of corpses pelted by the cold rain and the swords engraved with the emblem of the Sword Family, broken without exception were impaled in each corpse replacing their tombstones, while the occasional lightning strikes replaced the Buddhist chants praying for their souls.

“Where are the reinforcements?!”

Grand Tactician Zhuge's convulsive shouting echoed lonely across the high plains.

“Are the reinforcements still not here?!”

He flung the signal flare he had bitten open and launched with one hand to the ground.

The ground was already heaped with the empty shells of the signal flares he and his subordinates had launched.

To ambush and kill the Eldest Young Master, his forces were deployed over a wide area and before they could gather again upon seeing the signal flares, the main camp was annihilated.

Since the necessary people were not where they were needed all the dozens of experts Grand Tactician Zhuge had hastily mobilized became useless.

“Dammit...!”

While he was ignoring his vision blurring due to blood loss and pulling out the remaining signal flares from the box, along with that bizarre voice, he bit open another signal flare and launched it, but he barely realized the opponent's identity while his intellect was tangled by the demonic energy.

“Is your struggle finally over?”

*Thud, thud.* the sound of the person who was standing tall alone slowly approaching reached his ears.

“Dammit! Dammit!”

*Screeech—* the signal flare launched under the combination of massive blood loss and a panicked mind tilted sideways, eventually crashing into the ground and weakly emitting light.

*Step, step.* the signal flare containing phosphorus glowed and illuminated the approaching opponent, and he felt an unspeakable, instinctive dread from the shape of the yellow talismans stuck all over the white mask.

“Hieeeek...?!”

“S-So that was it! You, Eldest Young Master...!”

“You were indeed the monster known as the Dark Venerable...!”

Why did the Eldest Young Master act so confidently?

It was the moment he realized the reason for the incomprehensible ease the other had shown while talking with him.

“No.”

Yet, unexpectedly the white mask sealed with talismans written in Mirror Cinnabar shook its head.

“I am the Eldest Young Master, Yeon So-hyeon.”

Even at the moment he was being chewed up alive inside the demonic energy, Grand Tactician Zhuge could not understand the meaning contained in his words.

That it meant the Eldest Young Master Yeon So-hyeon had begun to fully control the demonic energy of the age-old monster, the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, as his own.

Yeon So-hyeon himself referred to this new form as: half-Immortal, Counter-Demon.

* * *

When Yeon So-hyeon took off the mask, along with ominous smoke, the talismans that had served their purpose and begun to melt burned up all at once.

“…….”

“I will go soon.”

Yeon So-hyeon, looking at the sky clearing from the north, wiped the thin stream of blood flowing from his mouth and said.

“...Un-jeong.”

His figure vanished as if melting into the shadow of the retreating clouds, and what was left for Grand Tactician Zhuge's troops, who arrived late, was merely the scene of devastation left behind by the one born with the fate of the Heavenly Killing Star.

“Over there...!”