Chapter 355

“Kill them!”

The moment Flame-Saber Divine Demon gave permission, all six demonic practitioners rushed forward at once.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

Of the two burly men approaching from the opposite direction, the filthy-looking one bared a set of yellow teeth.

“Well, well! What a stroke of luck! I was worried we'd gotten here so late there wouldn't be anything left for me.”

Flame-Saber Divine Demon was utterly dumbfounded by the filthy giant’s delighted shout.

Is that bastard insane?

Six murderous demonic practitioners were charging at them with gleaming blades drawn, intent on killing them, and he called that a stroke of luck?

“Taoist Cheongmu, wait here a moment. I’ll clear these vicious bastards out of our way in no time.”

“Uh, all right, Big Beggar.”

The other giant, who had a much cleaner complexion and had been called Taoist Cheongmu, stopped in the middle of the official road.

WHOOOM!

Still charging forward, the filthy man pulled an enormous staff from behind his waist and swung it out.

In that instant, Flame-Saber Divine Demon realized who he was.

Big Beggar.

The filthy appearance, the yellow teeth, and that grime-blackened staff.

It all came together.

Hu Gae of the Beggar Clan!

The utterly incorrigible beggar with such a rotten temper that, once drunk, he was said to cause a scene even in front of the emperor himself.

That was why he was called Hu Gae.

It has to be him!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon had heard that Hu Gae had been traveling together with Cave Hermit Taoist.

When Cave Hermit Taoist caused that incident in Fujian Province, Hu Gae had reportedly been right there beside him.

Goddammit!

He had fled a tiger only to run into a wolf.

No.

A bear.

There were two of them, so it never even crossed my mind.

Besides, Hu Gae was not dressed like a beggar.

Running into the Beggar Clan’s Hu Gae was damned unlucky, but it was nowhere near as terrifying as encountering Cave Hermit Taoist.

Hu Gae’s known cultivation was only at the Transcendent stage.

As Hu Gae, he had inherited the Beggar Clan’s profound consummate arts, which made him troublesome to fight, but if things went badly, Flame-Saber Divine Demon could always turn tail and run.

Having only six subordinates made matters somewhat difficult, but they were skilled at coordinated attacks. Together, they should at least be able to contend with Hu Gae.

If luck favored them, they might even capture him.

And even if we can't, I should be able to find an opening and stick a blade in him once.

If he could at least wound Hu Gae, it would be much easier to obtain the Lord of the Gathering Demons Division’s forgiveness.

SHING.

With a satisfied smile, Flame-Saber Divine Demon quietly drew his cherished Flame Demon Saber.

At that moment, the six demonic practitioners clashed with Hu Gae.

SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!

When Flame-Saber Divine Demon saw his men surround Hu Gae and attack in concert, he shot forward.

He intended to hide in their shadows and launch a surprise attack.

He had done this more times than he could count on both hands.

Naturally, he expected it to succeed again.

BOOOOM!

CRUNCH!

With a tremendous explosion, the man in front was reduced to a bloody wreck and flew backward past Flame-Saber Divine Demon.

Hmm. He turned a first-rate expert into paste with one strike....

They said Hu Gae possessed heaven-shaking innate strength.

Apparently, that part was true.

But after pouring everything into his first exchange, that beggar won't be able to respond as strongly to the next one.

BOOOOM!

CRACK! CRUNCH!

An even more violent blast erupted.

Two more of his men flew backward, fountains of blood spraying from their bodies.

They were moving so fast that it looked as if someone had grabbed them both and hurled them through the air.

WHOOOOOSH!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon might not have believed it if he had not seen Hu Gae’s Tagu Staff carving an arc through the air, scattering droplets of blood as it produced a deafening air-tearing roar.

How was the second strike even stronger?

With the three men who had been in front now gone, his view cleared.

He saw black sword aura coiling around Hu Gae’s Tagu Staff.

Sword aura!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon finally realized that Hu Gae had reached the Flower Realm.

The latest intelligence on Hu Gae was wrong as well, just like the information on Cave Hermit Taoist.

Fuck! Why is the intelligence on Cave Hermit Taoist and Hu Gae the only thing that's wrong?

Flame-Saber Divine Demon simply could not understand it.

A report on someone’s cultivation level was one of the hardest pieces of intelligence to get wrong.

The higher one climbed, the more difficult each additional step became.

From the Pinnacle stage onward, advancing even a single level normally required well over a decade of grueling cultivation.

Past the Transcendent stage, it was common for martial artists to train their entire lives without ever breaking through again.

There was no reason anyone would have expected Cave Hermit Taoist and Hu Gae to advance so much in the space of only a few months.

What shocked Flame-Saber Divine Demon even more was the fact that Hu Gae had wrapped sword aura around the Tagu Staff.

Manifesting sword aura around a wooden staff was on an entirely different level from doing so with dense, refined metal.

It proved just how tremendous Hu Gae’s inner power truly was.

ROOOOAR!

As Hu Gae spun the Tagu Staff wreathed in black sword aura, it seemed as though a black dragon had appeared in midair and let out a roar.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon recognized the Beggar Clan’s consummate divine martial art.

The Tagu Staff Art—

Soaring Dragon Shakes Heaven.

Anyone who had so much as set one foot in the martial world knew the might of the ancient supreme art passed down only through the leaders of the Beggar Clan.

And Hu Gae was unleashing that supreme art from the Flower Realm.

Only a madman would doubt its power.

He's trying to finish all of us with one strike!

BOOOOOM!

Seeing the black dragon bear down with its dark maw wide open, Flame-Saber Divine Demon hurled himself to the ground.

The ground was the only space left outside the trajectory of Soaring Dragon Shakes Heaven.

WHOOSH!

The remaining three demonic practitioners, their reason consumed by demonic qi, charged straight into the black dragon’s maw and thrust their blades forward.

As Flame-Saber Divine Demon rolled across the road, he desperately hoped their combined attack would stall the black dragon for even an instant.

KABOOOOOM!

SPLAT! SPLAT! SPLAT!

The roar shook heaven and earth.

Above his head came the sounds of leather drums bursting.

PATTER-PATTER-PATTER!

Hot rain poured down.

There was no need to check whether it was the blood spraying from the shattered bodies of his subordinates.

“You little rat! Where do you think you're going, rolling around like a donkey?”

KRAAANG!

A thunderous roar accompanied the shout, but Flame-Saber Divine Demon poured every scrap of power he had into continuing his roll.

BOOM!

SPLAT!

His clothes tore.

The ground shook, and fragments of dirt and stone battered his back.

By rolling with everything he had, he had escaped Hu Gae’s Tagu Staff by the barest margin.

SWISH!

At the short air-tearing sound, Flame-Saber Divine Demon realized Hu Gae was already launching another strike with the smallest possible movement.

I can't dodge again!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon raked his left hand through the dirt and flung it upward.

It was pure instinct.

He had to do something.

SHRAAASH!

Dust, dirt, and bits of stone burst into the air.

“Ptoo! Goddammit!”

Hearing the startled voice from above, Flame-Saber Divine Demon rolled again.

BOOM!

He saw a deep crater appear where he had been lying a moment earlier and pissed himself a little.

He had just passed the threshold of the underworld by less than half a chi.

Even a demon feared throughout the martial world could hardly remain composed after that.

WHOOOSH!

Hu Gae squeezed his eyes shut and swung the Tagu Staff.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon immediately twisted his body with Swallow-Turning Body.

RIIIP!

His clothes tore, and his back burned.

His quick judgment had spared him a fatal wound.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon sprang forward and ran.

As Hu Gae of the Beggar Clan, Hu Gae was naturally a master of lightness arts as well.

But with his vision temporarily obscured by all that dust, he would not be able to catch Flame-Saber Divine Demon immediately.

So Flame-Saber Divine Demon raced down the official road without looking back.

THUD-THUD-THUD!

As expected, he sensed no pursuit behind him.

Relief flooded through him.

I'm alive!

He had long since forgotten about the wrath of the Lord of the Gathering Demons Division.

A man had to be alive before he could worry about anything else.

Still running, Flame-Saber Divine Demon spotted a man standing blankly in the middle of the official road ahead.

“...!”

He remembered Hu Gae calling him Taoist Cheongmu.

Cheong generation! Then he's a Wudang Taoist!

He was wearing ordinary martial clothes, however.

Just as Hu Gae was not dressed like a beggar, this Wudang Taoist was not wearing Taoist robes.

Probably because it would be inconvenient if people knew he was from Wudang. In that case....

Hu Gae had made him stop well away from the fighting.

That clearly meant he did not know martial arts.

Either way, that was not what mattered.

After everything I've suffered today, at least I've finally found something to enjoy.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon was almost grateful that someone he could vent all his humiliation and rage on had appeared before him.

WHOOOOSH!

The man was still standing there staring blankly, apparently unaware of the danger he was in.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon thrust the Flame Demon Saber straight at him.

THUNK!

The saber drove forward—

then abruptly stopped dead.

Its tip had halted just short of the man’s chest.

As if it had struck an invisible wall.

Flame-Saber Divine Demon soon saw why.

The man had caught the blade of the Flame Demon Saber in one hand.

“...?”

It was absurd.

This was not even the classic bare-handed blade-catching method of clapping both palms against the flat of the weapon.

The man had simply grabbed the blade with his bare hand.

The Flame Demon Saber was sharp enough to cut through a reasonably thick iron plate.

And right now, blue blade aura coated its edge.

The man’s hand should naturally have been sliced clean off.

But the bizarre things happening to Flame-Saber Divine Demon did not end there.

No.

That was only the beginning.

“Don't... blame me.”

Flame-Saber Divine Demon could not make sense of the hesitant words that came from Taoist Cheongmu’s mouth.

“...?”

That was supposed to be his line.

He was the one who had attacked Cheongmu.

And there was even a trace of sadness in the man’s voice.

Is this... another lunatic?

As Flame-Saber Divine Demon stared at him in disbelief, Cheongmu continued.

“You attacked me first, so I'm going to hit you once too.”

“...!”

WHOOSH!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon suddenly felt his body being dragged forward.

GRAB!

A huge hand seized him by the collar.

“Ghk!”

Only when his throat tightened did Flame-Saber Divine Demon realize that the man had pulled him closer without ever touching his body.

Heavens! Grasping Objects Across Space!

And not merely some weak demonstration of it.

This was Grasping Objects Across Space powerful enough to drag in a demon like him.

Even accounting for how stunned he had been by everything happening around him, Flame-Saber Divine Demon could scarcely believe it.

But that was not the end of his shock.

WHIRL!

The world abruptly spun.

Then this is...?

The man called Taoist Cheongmu had clearly lifted him into the air and flipped him over.

No!

Flame-Saber Divine Demon had no idea why, but instinctively he began struggling.

BOOOOM!

His head smashed into the ground first.

CRRRAACK!

He clearly heard the bones inside his body breaking.

His neck vertebrae collapsed first, followed one after another by the bones of his spine.

As Flame-Saber Divine Demon realized what was happening, consciousness began to fade.

So I die after all.

He had struggled so desperately to stay alive.

And after all that, he had ended up caught by a lunatic Taoist and was going to die in this bizarre fashion.

For the first time, Flame-Saber Divine Demon envied Blood-Axe Mad Demon for being stupid enough to die quickly.

A black curtain rapidly closed over his vision.

Ah. So when that last bit of light between the darkness goes out, I'll be dead.

But just as the world was flickering toward darkness, it slowly began to brighten again.

...?

Had he opened his eyes in the underworld?

Then a familiar voice reached him.

“Big Beggar, this isn't my fault! He struggled, so I couldn't turn him as far as I meant to.”

There was no way that lunatic Taoist had followed him all the way into the underworld.

Then... I'm still alive?

Suddenly, agony ripped through his entire body as though someone were tearing him apart piece by piece.

Ghhhh...!

Even through the pain, the mad Taoist’s voice came through clearly.

“I was only trying to make him land on his back so he'd lie there on the road. But then....”

In other words, if Flame-Saber Divine Demon had not resisted and had simply let himself be flipped, Cheongmu would only have dropped him onto his back and knocked him unconscious.

That made Flame-Saber Divine Demon feel even more wronged.

Then you should've said so!

Hu Gae’s irritated voice came next.

“Taoist Cheongmu, I understand. Now please be quiet. He's at the critical point.”

“...All right.”

Flame-Saber Divine Demon felt true qi flowing into his pulse gate.

...?

“Hey, demon. Stay conscious! You can't die yet.”

Only then did Flame-Saber Divine Demon realize Hu Gae was pouring his own true qi into him.

Why...?

As though he had heard the question in Flame-Saber Divine Demon’s mind, Hu Gae answered.

“There's something you need to do for us! So hold on no matter what!”

Flame-Saber Divine Demon decided Hu Gae was every bit as insane as the Taoist named Cheongmu.

Why waste true qi more precious than life itself trying to save a man already standing at death’s door?

And not merely any man—

a demon like him.

If only to find out the answer to that question, he first had to stay conscious.