Free Web NovelNamgung Hyun quietly shook his head.
At that soundless warning, Sohwa came to her senses.
What she could do right now was not to join the fight. In any case, even if she went out there, she would be of no help.
‘Calm down. You already thought that if the Blood Demon obtained the Blood Jade, he would be able to integrate his energy just as he wished.’
She had simply not known it would be this fast.
That monstrous old man had formed a dantian while facing an enemy.
No, “made a dantian” was not the right expression.
All he had done was refine the energy he held and combine it.
Several of the brilliant colors that had shone from all over the Blood Demon’s body disappeared. By the number that had decreased, the energy in the Blood Demon’s dantian had grown.
It meant he could do that several more times.
To make matters worse, the purple mass seated in the Blood Demon’s dantian began to divide.
It split to the size of a chestnut, then was broken down to the size of a bean, and then divided further until it was smaller than a grain of millet.
The Blood Demon scattered those through his whole body along his meridians.
The moment he evenly placed those tiny grains in his acupoints, all light vanished.
Sohwa knew that meant the poisoning had ended.
In truth, she could no longer feel the Blood Demon’s energy.
Step.
It seemed the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had managed to steady himself in that time; he stepped one pace closer to the Blood Demon.
Watching Hae-rak come toward him, the Blood Demon turned one shoulder.
Crack.
A grotesque sound rang out, whether it was the sound of the burning pavilion collapsing or the sound of the Blood Demon’s bones moving, she could not tell.
As if to confirm Sohwa’s suspicion, the Blood Demon turned his other shoulder as well.
Crack. Craack.
Even though the flames hung like a curtain between them, the sound carried clearly. That was how much of her focus was fixed on every part of the Blood Demon.
Through the torn cloth, his skin could be seen growing smooth, and the twisted lines of his body straightened into sleek curves.
The Blood Demon’s approaching figure was soon hidden by the flames.
But Sohwa felt a gaze from within the fire.
It felt like someone was staring holes straight through her.
Proving that her sense was not wrong, a tiny purple millet-sized grain glinted into view. At the same time, a sharp sound slammed into her eardrums like a typhoon.
Boom.
A pillar of flame shot up, swallowing the incoming energy.
The mass of fire, its size doubled as if it meant to burn the sky, surged upward. Without realizing it, Sohwa screwed her eyes shut for a moment.
Boom. Bang.
Roars struck her ears several more times.
When the heat receded, Sohwa opened her eyes again.
The two martial artists with the pavilion at their backs were plunged into shadow. The flame pillar that had been dying down had gone completely out on the ground.
Sohwa touched the back of her hand. Her body was cooling.
It had been something that happened as vainly and instantly as a candle going out in the wind.
Crash.
The fully restored Blood Demon stretched out his hand.
This time, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord did not offer up his own.
But the direction of the two men shifted.
Their speed was too great to see clearly, but it seemed Hae-rak had caught his leg. Using the Blood Demon’s hand as a support, he had sprung up and was sealing an acupoint at the back of the Blood Demon’s neck.
The Blood Demon twisted his body in counterattack.
Boom.
The two of them were driven away from the pavilion.
With no light reaching them, it was no longer possible to track their movements with the naked eye.
She could only roughly gauge the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s movements by the faint waves of heat. It seemed he was pouring out his strength, but his momentum had greatly diminished.
In the distance, the Blood Demon’s purple energy flashed about twice.
By contrast, Hae-rak, who had lost the upper hand, grew fainter and fainter. Soon even the residual heat was gone.
When the scent of peony drifted on the wind, the Blood Demon’s silhouette came into Sohwa’s eyes.
The Blood Demon stopped his steps as he approached the pavilion and turned one shoulder. His arm, which had been grotesquely twisted, found its proper place.
He walked a few more slow steps closer. Because the fire clinging to the pavilion had not gone out, once he had come near enough, the Blood Demon’s figure became clearly visible.
Perhaps his arm was still quite uncomfortable; he rolled his shoulder again.
Crack.
But the sound came from the ground. It was the sound of the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s head rising, following the Blood Demon’s hand, after Hae-rak had been struck in an acupoint.
In a voice tinged with amusement, the Blood Demon said,
“Two fearless children put their hands together, so a foolish judgment like this is only natural.”
As he lifted his hand higher, she heard the sound of hair snapping.
“So you meant to deal with me quietly.”
Crunch.
As the Blood Demon stood still, the sound of bones setting rang out. The distorted muscles and bones were returning to their places.
The Blood Demon’s body was not unscathed either. Even so, as he walked, he restored the damaged body in that brief span.
The sense that this was an unbeatable opponent pressed in clearly.
No matter how they fought with all their strength, if they did not sever that throat, his body would become as good as new, and his opponent would have their energy drained and fade away.
“Keeping others from coming here was wise. It has given you one more chance.”
Crackle.
The Blood Demon lifted his hand a little higher.
“Will you quietly come along with me like this, or else...”
His gaze shifted toward the dark forest.
“Will you bury all your lingering attachments here and be dragged away?”
When Sohwa did not answer, the Blood Demon pressed his fingertips together, as if in threat.
She felt she now understood why he had gone to such trouble to create a medicine that would butcher his own body.
In merely one gak that he had loosened his body, he had ultimately integrated several energies into one.
The new inner energy, even when divided into very small pieces, possessed tremendous power.
By splicing together and making his own the inner energy that others had accumulated over decades, he had achieved a result no different from theirs. Or perhaps the power of someone who arbitrarily broke apart and grafted together other people’s energy and used it as his own was even more potent than that of someone who had poured in pure time and effort.
Vaguely, Sohwa understood the Alliance Leader’s despair.
That man must also have seen such a sight.
‘How can you possibly defeat a monster like that?’
Though fear and despair spread through her, Sohwa’s face showed no expression. Unaware of that inner state, the Blood Demon was just about to twist the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s hair higher.
Slash.
The hair, taut as black silk being pulled, was cleanly cut by something.
Thud.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s body hit the ground.
The Blood Demon’s eyes moved at once toward the direction the dart had flown from. And he blocked with his hand the throwing dagger that was about to bore into his eye.
Crack.
His palm split open, but the blade tip stopped just in front of his pupil.
In that time, the Crimson Blood Hall Lord rolled his body and kicked at the Blood Demon’s leg.
Snap.
The moment the Blood Demon reflexively leapt, the sound of flesh bursting rang out in a chain.
Crack. Pak. Pak.
Metal flashed in the sky, reflecting the burning pavilion.
It was like watching sparks scatter.
For whatever reason, the Blood Demon offered his body without hesitation.
Before the wounds could close, the concealed weapons spun in spirals and opened long gashes through the Blood Demon’s body.
Shraaaaak.
The sound of bone and flesh being sliced drowned out all other noise.
The concealed weapons arts that were said to blacken the sky, now that it was night, instead made the sky bright. fгeewebnovёl.com
The metal pieces filled with light flickered over and over in the air like red stars.
Slash.
Perhaps it was finally bothering him; the Blood Demon opened his hand and showed his palm to the sky.
At the same moment that Sohwa spotted a purple millet grain bursting from his forearm and was about to shout, Heukcheon Amgui, who had noticed it first, sprang high from atop a tree.
Kwooooom.
The tree he had been standing on turned to ash in an instant, and the forest vanished.
“Y-you...!”
Whether truly enraged, Heukcheon Amgui shouted in rebuke,
“Do you know how long it takes to grow trees like that? You have some nerve, coming into another’s territory and destroying their property! I will get back every last bit of what you owe me!”
At those words, the Blood Demon only let out a laugh and did not reply.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Concealed weapons were lodged in a straight line down his arm, but the Blood Demon paid them no mind. Rather, as if his arm had been solidly armored in iron, he swung it to block the concealed weapons Heukcheon Amgui hurled.
Clang. Clang. Clang.
His movements were as relaxed as a crane beating its wings.
There was no trace of impatience.
Nor did his face show that he found his opponents trivial.
Instead, his gleaming eyes stared fixedly at Heukcheon Amgui. They were a predator’s eyes, watching a delectable form.
The moment Sohwa read that intention and her hand tightened, the Blood Demon twisted his body.
Kwooooom.
A gigantic pillar of flame shot up where he had just been.
The Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s scorching fiery yang art continued to fly at him.
From above, red concealed weapons came raining down, and from the ground, fists and kicks filled with flame crashed in. Though they had not arranged their moves together, perhaps because their domains were divided, their attacks never hindered one another and pounded the Blood Demon.
After the Blood Demon offered his body to fist and kick techniques several times, soot marked his clothes.
Even then, he clearly still had leisure.
He did not seem to have any thought of killing anyone.
Yet every time he bared his white teeth in a smile, Sohwa felt goosebumps.
She was uneasy, feeling as if at any moment those sharp fangs would sink into the Crimson Blood Hall Lord’s arm and Heukcheon Amgui’s neck.
At that moment, Sohwa felt the heat surrounding the pavilion.
The Tang Clan’s warriors who had returned were approaching.
Now, even the Blood Demon would no longer be able to maintain his leisure.
Sohwa did not welcome that fact.
Boom. Boom. Bang.
The Blood Demon moved his arm without rest, knocking away the concealed weapons that poured toward him.
Crack.
No sooner had he swept aside Heukcheon Amgui’s rain of concealed weapons than a concealed weapon scorched by demonic flame struck the back of the Blood Demon’s head.
At some point, a Tang martial artist who had climbed up onto the pavilion roof had taken position and was attacking the Blood Demon from behind.
