Chapter 114 : Judgment (6)

Chapter 114: Judgment (6)

Sewoon never once thought that Do Yecheon’s brainwashing had truly been broken.

It only seemed like the manipulation had failed, but in reality, Pa-eum Bima would surely try to use Do Yecheon to strike at his back.

He had already finished his defenses in his mind.

‘Brainwashing an enemy’s comrade through sound arts, and cowardly ambushes using puppets. That was the strategy that raised Pa-eum Bima to that seat.’

That was why Sewoon secretly wrapped Extinction Thread around his fingertip, waiting for this moment of reversal.

Sewoon was already above Pa-eum Bima’s head.

This was dangerous!

Pa-eum Bima instinctively felt the threat to his life as he saw the axe blade and sword blade descending, ready to split open his crown.

Pabat!

He stopped his performance and immediately unleashed Centipede Spirit Steps, the footwork of the Poison Sect, retreating backward.

It was a grotesque movement, like a massive centipede crawling, but as Pa-eum Bima ranked among the top within the Ten Great Elders of the Poison Sect, its completion was exceptionally high.

Chwaaaa!

Kwa-kang!

The space where Pa-eum Bima had just been standing was swept by sword flux and axe qi.

It was a massive explosion, like a thunderbolt had gone off.

If he had been even a little late……!

For a brief moment, Pa-eum Bima’s eyes trembled violently, as though an earthquake had struck them, at the sheer destructive power beyond his expectations.

Puhfuk!

“Keuk-!”

Suddenly, he felt a violent impact to his abdomen.

A terrible pain so great that his vision blurred.

“Refreshing, isn’t it? You rat bastard.”

Somehow, Sewoon had rushed in like lightning, his fist slamming into Pa-eum Bima’s abdomen like a storm.

But how?

Pa-eum Bima couldn’t hide his shock.

Even while using his footwork, his ultra-sensitive hearing, heightened by the Soul-Returning Melody of the Pointing Finger, had been tracking Sewoon’s movements.

Yet suddenly, his opponent vanished from his perception and landed a successful strike.

‘……There wasn’t any sound of movement at all. What is this?’

Unless the opponent possessed a sound art equal to his and had released interference sounds, this should have been impossible.

But such thoughts did not last long.

“Do Yecheon!”

Tadadat!

Even as Sewoon’s words ended, Do Yecheon was already charging in with all his might.

His eyes, fixed on the enemy, were dazzlingly clear.

‘My mind feels so clear.’

Just moments ago, the aftereffects of having the Heavenly-Slaying Star’s power forcibly unleashed by the enemy’s sound arts had nearly burst his meridians. But with the power of demon-subduing energy given by the Master, it had completely calmed.

No, it wasn’t just calmed—he felt a perfect balance of qi, something he had never experienced before, overflowing throughout his body.

Do Yecheon spun fiercely, like a top, pivoting on one foot.

Chwarara!

He began to bloom blue plum blossoms in the air.

Twenty-Four Plum Blossom Sword Art (二十四手梅花劍法)

Second Form

Plum Blossoms Piercing the Heavens (梅花衝天)

Petals of blue plum blossoms scattered in a storm.

Though the movement seemed chaotic and disorderly—

Chwaaaa!

They surged as one stream, stabbing forward like a sharp spear, aiming for Pa-eum Bima’s throat.

‘I, I must block this……!!’

Ttirring!

Startled, Pa-eum Bima plucked the strings of his pipa.

His qi spread through his limbs and meridians, forming a translucent barrier in front of his face.

Like the ultimate defense of a swordsman—the sword barrier—he had formed a sound barrier.

The sound barrier, boasting a defense as though protective qi had been stacked into walls, appeared solid.

Kwa-ru-ru-ru!

Puh-puh-puhng!

‘So easily??’

But the power of the newly-forged Plum Blossoms Piercing the Heavens tore the sound barrier apart with shocking speed.

Already more than half had been destroyed.

Panic welled in him. Even when he had once battled a reclusive expert of the Mount Hua Sect, it hadn’t been this difficult.

Just as he was barely managing to hold on—

Chucheok!

“Here, let me lend you a little strength.”

Buuuuung!

Sewoon had once again closed in, but this time he swung not his fist, but the Great Axe.

The frozen axe blade howled with a ferocious Yin-Cold Qi.

Chwaaaaa!

Along the diagonal slash of the Great Axe, crescent-shaped qi flew forth like a raging storm.

‘Bring harmony and balance.’

Sewoon released his power with that thought in mind.

He carefully avoided interfering with the space already occupied by Plum Blossoms Piercing the Heavens. His qi truly served only to reinforce it.

The two different powers blended in harmony, creating even greater destructive force.

Jjeojeojeok!

Puh-puhng!

At last, the sound barrier, half intact, was ripped apart like paper.

And then—

“-Keuk!!”

Sgeuk!

With a chilling slicing sound, Pa-eum Bima’s throat was cut.

Because he had retreated the instant the barrier shattered, it wasn’t a clean beheading.

Pishuk!

But a piece of flesh as thick as a finger was sliced away, and bright red blood sprayed from the wound.

Pa-eum Bima clutched his wound with one hand, staggering backward in shock.

Ttirring!

At the same time, he plucked his pipa again with his other hand, sending shockwaves flying.

Without caring for wasted qi, he unleashed them wildly, desperate to cling to life.

Too many shockwaves prevented the two from advancing further.

Seogeok!

Chwak!

With the Great Axe and the Plum Blossom Sword, they succeeded in extinguishing all the shockwaves.

Pa-eum Bima’s hair was in disarray, and the makeup on his face was hideously smeared with blood and sweat.

“You vile… bastards…!”

The grotesque voice of Pa-eum Bima, a mixture of man and woman, now rang out thick and coarse like that of a mountain bandit.

Sewoon smirked.

“Finally, you’re using a voice that suits your face.”

“You brat!! I’ll kill—!?”

Pa-eum Bima, eyes wild, was just about to risk death and use the last power bestowed upon him by his master when—

Pupuk!

Suddenly, with a chilling piercing sound, two blades jutted out from his chest.

“Well, killing is my specialty.”

“Kkeug?!”

Nameless had leapt out from the shadows, stabbing his chest with the Twin Daggers.

While Pa-eum Bima was distracted in battle against Sewoon and Do Yecheon, Nameless had moved silently within the blind spot of his awareness.

‘My… my qi, it’s vanishing…!’

Peuseuseuk!

The demonic qi stored in his dantian was vanishing at a terrifying rate.

It was because Nameless had precisely pierced his dantian with the Twin Daggers.

“Kkeugeo, kkeugeugeuk!!”

Extreme pain descended upon Pa-eum Bima.

For one who had cultivated demonic arts, losing the dantian was a torment worse than torture itself.

Even the warriors of the Jecheon Unit, watching from the side, trembled in their eyes at the ghastly sight.

Pabat!

But Sewoon did not relax in the slightest.

‘Completely suppress him.’

After the Kaifeng Blood Massacre, Sewoon had gained an enlightenment—there was no longer such a thing as carelessness for him.

With eyes blazing like a Yaksha, Sewoon unleashed the Double Slash at tremendous speed.

Seogeok!

Seogeogeok!

The Ice Axe flew like a falling thunderbolt, and something soared into the air.

Tuduk! Tuk!

Soon, Pa-eum Bima’s two arms, severed from their master, rolled across the ground.

‘That makes two now.’

After Baek Yacha Heo Sochang, Sewoon had subdued yet another among the Ten Elders of the Blood Cult.

“Kkeueu, kkeugeueu.”

The pain of losing his demonic qi was so severe that Pa-eum Bima’s hair had turned snow white.

Though they had stopped the bleeding and temporarily halted the dissipation of his qi to extract information, at a glance, he was clearly not in his right mind.

“Master, it seems the pain has driven him half-mad.”

“Hmm. If so, we won’t be able to obtain any information about who is behind this…”

“What if we bring him to the Alliance and receive the aid of the Supreme Strategist or the Shrine Maiden Sect Leader?”

As Peng So-hye carefully suggested, Sewoon spoke firmly.

“We are a unit erased from the Murim Alliance. We cannot receive any support from the Alliance.”

“But, being erased from the Alliance also means there are things only we can do.”

Sewoon pulled something out from his chest.

Suaa!

It was a small pellet wrapped in a mysterious golden glow.

‘Golden Pellet (金丸)?’

‘What in the world….’

As even Nameless and the others tilted their heads in confusion—

“Guuek!”

“L-Leader?”

Sewoon forcibly pried open Pa-eum Bima’s mouth and shoved in the Thousand Blood Gu, wrapped in Extinction Thread.

‘Now, you too shall taste the agony of the Thousand Blood Gu.’

As it slid down his throat, Sewoon swiftly retrieved the Extinction Thread.

And then the Thousand Blood Gu began to unleash its true power.

Jjeojeojeok!

Empowered by Sewoon’s Reverse Heaven Qi, the rapidly grown Thousand Blood Gu finally hatched within Pa-eum Bima’s body.

“Kkeuaaaak!!”

Pa-eum Bima once again clutched his stomach, rolling across the ground.

His pupils vanished, leaving only the whites of his eyes.

Foam frothed at his mouth, his skin bulged grotesquely with thick veins, transforming him into a horrific sight.

The expressions of the Jecheon Unit warriors grew grave.

At a glance, they realized the Master had used the Gu Poison he had obtained here upon his enemy.

As orthodox warriors, as followers of the Orthodox Path, such power was forbidden. Yet none of them could stop their Master.

For without such means, the hidden enemies in the shadows could never be unearthed.

And then, Pa-eum Bima’s convulsions suddenly stopped, as if it had all been a lie.

He looked utterly calm, as though he felt no pain at all.

It was proof the Thousand Blood Gu had completely taken root in his heart.

Sewoon spoke in a low voice.

“Speak. Who are you?”

The Thousand Blood Gu possessed two powers.

The first: without periodic infusions of special qi, it would burst the heart of its host during seizures.

The second: any words spoken to its host, through its master, would be answered truthfully, without lies.

“I am… the Blood Cult’s Elder. Pa-eum Bima, Dong Wonpyeong.”

The Blood Cult.

Shock flashed in the eyes of the warriors.

At last, they had uncovered a fragment of the darkness they pursued.

“The Blood Cult? Is it just another branch of the Demonic Cult?”

Sewoon deliberately feigned ignorance.

Pa-eum Bima shook his head and answered.

“We are different from the likes of the Demonic Cult. We follow not the Heavenly Demon, but the supreme master of blood, the Blood Demon…!!”

But then it happened.

At the mention of the Blood Demon’s name, Pa-eum Bima’s face suddenly twisted.

“Kkeuaaaak!!”

With a scream of agony, blood-tears streamed endlessly from his eyes.

At the same time, his body convulsed violently, as though struck by lightning.

“I’m sorry…! Forgive me…!! My Cult Leader… kkeureuk!”

In that moment, Sewoon and the Jecheon Unit realized it immediately.

A binding spell placed upon Pa-eum Bima had been triggered.

As all the others faltered in dismay, only Sewoon’s eyes remained calm.

‘If left alone, his head will explode.’

Paat!

Sewoon reached out and placed his hand upon the man’s head.

Suaa!

He then poured Yin-Cold Qi mixed with his Reverse Heaven Qi into him.

The Reverse Heaven Qi of the Blood Demon that had already rooted within clashed with Sewoon’s own Reverse Heaven Qi, each devouring the other.

Before his regression, the moment they clashed, Sewoon’s power would have been utterly consumed.

‘But not anymore.’

After his regression, having gained countless powers and utterly transformed, Sewoon’s Reverse Heaven Qi—

Kwa-deuk!

Ugeok!

—it devoured all in its path, and when there was nothing left, it devoured itself, leaving only emptiness.

It was enough to evoke the great monster of legend, Greed (탐), who devoured the world until nothing but void remained.

Rather than being consumed, the Blood Demon’s power was crushed beneath Sewoon’s relentless fangs.

Screams of torment burst from Pa-eum Bima’s body.

And finally—

Pazuzuzuk!

‘Did you think I would fall to you again, Blood Demon?’

For the first time, Sewoon had shattered the Blood Demon’s schemes, utterly and mercilessly.