Free Web NovelThe Blood Demon pulled out the concealed weapon lodged in the back of his neck.
The blade caught between his thumb and forefinger looked as small as a needle.
He flicked his hand lightly, as if brushing dust from his hair. In an instant, the throwing dagger disappeared.
Thud.
At the same time, the black figure that had been on the roof fell.
Judging from the black martial clothes, it was a martial artist of the Black Tiger Unit. His face was even familiar.
A throwing dagger was buried in Han-won’s chest. When Han-won tried to spring up at once, the Blood Demon raised his hand.
The dozens of concealed weapons flying at the Blood Demon changed direction, following the motion of his hand.
Clang. Clang. Claaang.
The concealed weapons that had seemed about to pierce Han-won instead ricocheted in all directions, contrary to expectation. It was because the Black Tiger Unit martial artists who had dropped to the ground hurriedly blocked the concealed weapons.
They grabbed the incoming metal, and what they could not catch, they deflected by throwing their own concealed weapons.
They, too, were all familiar faces.
Thud. Thud.
A few concealed weapons that they had not managed to dodge struck Ran-hee and Cheol-ho’s bodies, but without the slightest agitation, they bought time for their injured comrade to escape.
When Han-won climbed back up onto the roof with the concealed weapon still in his chest, the Black Tiger Unit member who had landed on the ground also vanished.
The Four Tiger Units, who had briefly halted their concealed weapons techniques out of fear the Blood Demon would use them to attack their comrades, began their assault anew.
The timing between the concealed weapons plunging down from the roof and those flying in from the forest was consistent.
It seemed others had formed a group formation while their comrades were returning.
As befitted the Clan Head’s elite force, they were swift and organized, but it was the worst possible move.
The rain of concealed weapons spiraled like a whirlwind toward its target.
The group formation’s concealed weapons technique was like throwing out a rope.
When the inner energy emitted from the fingertips hooked onto the enemy’s body like a barbed hook, the concealed weapon would ride that path and skewer the enemy.
Thus, the paths of the many concealed weapons did not tangle, and the practitioners could retrieve their concealed weapons at any time.
If one was trapped, one’s entire body would be torn to pieces in the blink of an eye. It was a threatening formation.
Yet the face of the one caught within the formation was calm.
Flash.
The Blood Demon opened three acupoints at once, and a purple millet grain that had shifted to the center of his body began to rampage at tremendous speed.
The three energies chased one another, drawing a circle as they rapidly rotated in the middle dantian.
The energy surging in his chest sent out unstable waves of qi.
Kwooooom.
When it collided with the energies lodged in his body, an explosive sound rang out, and a fierce gale swept through.
The path that had been connected to the Blood Demon opened a channel for a counterattack against the Four Tiger Units.
The whirling concealed weapons returned to their owners’ hands.
Slash.
The martial artists were busy retrieving the concealed weapons flying toward them.
But the Blood Demon did not stop there.
Smack.
He brought both hands together in front of his middle dantian.
The three energies twitched, then suddenly rotated in the opposite direction. Their speed was even faster than before. Pressure rose as space seemed to warp around the Blood Demon.
Shraaaak.
The concealed weapons were sucked in and sliced their owners’ bodies.
“Khuk!”
Ssshhhhh.
When the Blood Demon spread the gap between his palms, the energies reversed again and flew back to their owners.
Dozens of blades toyed with their owners, hacking them to pieces.
Everything happened in an instant.
When the Blood Demon suddenly stretched both arms wide, Sohwa quickly shut the window.
Tat-tat-tat-tat.
The noise that had been pelting the outer wall like raindrops cut off at once.
Right after, she heard the Blood Demon vomit blood.
“Kh-heuk.”
With the window closed, she should not have been able to see anything.
Yet in Sohwa’s eyes, three lights flitted about like fireflies.
The Blood Demon still could not properly control the energy he had created.
The energies that had escaped the ring the Blood Demon had made ravaged his body as they pleased, as if searching for their other half, kneading at his acupoints. The sealed acupoints did not budge, but with such overwhelming energies moving, it was as if the Blood Demon’s organs had burst.
For an ordinary martial artist, it would have been an internal injury that meant instant death.
But even as he spat blood, the Blood Demon let his energies rampage.
He was, in his own way, trying to bring the energies back to a single place, but the energies continued to resist a while longer.
The tiny energies did not disperse inside his body, nor were they expelled outside.
And the ones being shredded by that rebellion were not only the Blood Demon.
The hot energies that had filled the surroundings were reduced by half.
Sohwa wanted to believe everyone had suppressed their presence just to catch their breath.
When she reached with stiff hand to open the window, Namgung Hyun stopped her again.
“It’s dangerous.”
At his quiet voice, Sohwa’s gaze moved past his shoulder.
“Is it only this pavilion that is dangerous?”
When he turned his head to follow her, Namgung Hyun could not say a word.
At some point, the flames had climbed to the third floor and were swallowing the corridor. At that height, it would actually be better to open the window and jump.
When Sohwa put her hand on the window again, Namgung Hyun no longer tried to stop her.
Creak.
Outside, it looked as if a typhoon had passed through: tree trunks broken in half and martial artists scattered like fallen leaves. Fortunately, many bodies were still twitching. It meant they were still alive.
In that time, the Blood Demon seemed to have recovered from his internal injuries.
His stomach must have mended and his torn wounds closed, for he removed the hand that had been clutching his abdomen and wiped the blood from his lips.
Sohwa felt fear.
Without taking a single step, the Blood Demon had neutralized the Four Tiger Units in an instant.
‘......I’m the one who played the worst move.’
The problem had been poisoning the Blood Demon with the goal of eliminating him within one gak.
She had not known that one gak would make him grow like this.
No—who could possibly have predicted that someone could make something like that in the span of one gak?
It seemed even the Blood Demon himself had not known.
Unable to handle the energy he had integrated, he was grinning foolishly.
Red blood dyed his lips like rouge, making the madman’s smile even more intense.
Sohwa quietly swallowed her disgust.
Right now, the Blood Demon was testing his newly acquired energy.
Like a child playing with a new toy, he had tried out the power he possessed on the Four Tiger Units.
Whether the result was satisfying or not, he had even forgotten the purpose that had brought him here, intoxicated by his new realization.
The madman was truly enjoying the slaughter.
Sohwa forced herself to endure the urge to stop everything right away and examined the area around the Blood Demon.
She could not see the Crimson Blood Hall Lord.
It seemed he had remembered that he was supposed to open the gate after two gak.
‘So two gak have already passed......’
Sohwa believed the Wudang Sect and the Namgung Clan would come.
When the Blood Demon had first entered the Tang manor, the one who had sent her the signal had also been the Crimson Blood Hall Lord. And it was also their task to open the gate after two gak so that outsiders could enter.
Seeing that the Crimson Blood Hall Lord had moved personally, something must have gone wrong, but given that he had moved in response to the signal from the Crimson Blood Hall, someone had surely arrived at the gate.
‘Just a little longer. We can’t let everything go up in smoke now.’
Sohwa closed her hand around the round poison smoke pellet in her sleeve.
She had been rolling the egg-sized pellet in her palm as if she might send poison smoke out any moment; then she stopped.
Snap.
A small-framed martial artist landed in front of the Blood Demon.
Heukcheon Amgui, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° who had been maintaining a standoff, stepped fully to the front.
At the same time, an enormous rumbling sound rang out.
Drrrrrrr.
Sohwa’s eyes shifted to the side. The concealed weapons embedded in the outer wall were shaking violently, as if trying to tear themselves free.
Knowing which direction the concealed weapons would fly when they returned, Sohwa went pale and shouted,
“You must not! Fall back!”
But her voice was drowned out by the concealed weapons pouring in from all sides.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Spurred on by Heukcheon Amgui’s actions, the elders leaped in, flaunting their martial skill.
Whoosh.
Concealed weapons were unleashed in utter chaos, but they did not collide; each flew along its own path.
At the same time, the concealed weapons embedded in the wall began to pull free.
Slash.
Concealed weapons sharp enough to slice even the air tore toward Heukcheon Amgui. But the concealed weapons the Blood Demon had pulled to himself did not reach Tang Min—instead, their paths twisted under the force of the concealed weapons he threw and turned to strike the Blood Demon.
Crunch. Craaack.
A chilling sound spread in all directions.
The sound of the Blood Demon being chopped into pieces continued without pause.
But Sohwa saw that concealed weapons were not absolute.
If you did not kill your opponent, all you did was hand them a weapon.
Knowing why the Blood Demon was remaining so docile, Sohwa grew all the more frantic.
In the end, he had succeeded in gathering the rampaging energies into his upper dantian.
“You must fall back!”
She shouted, ashen-faced, but no one listened.
At that moment, Sohwa lifted her head at the shadow falling across her face.
The concealed weapons swarming like a cloud of bees merged into one in the sky.
The tip of the massive cone was fixed to the Blood Demon’s Baihui acupoint. At once, the blades drove down toward the ground.
Kwooooom.
A purple ring that appeared from the Blood Demon’s chest deflected the concealed weapons.
Shraaaaak.
The concealed weapons shot up into the sky and scattered in all directions.
Like lava spraying, the red blades mercilessly shredded the forest.
Slash.
Whether everyone had managed to move quickly or not, no groans or sounds of flesh being pierced reached her ears.
Sohwa thought she understood why the elders had not lost confidence even after seeing the state of the Four Tiger Units.
However, the concealed weapons were especially savage toward one particular section of the forest.
Slash. Slash.
The trees on the western side were cut apart, slowly opening up the view.
Sohwa’s face hardened.
Through the bamboo grove, she caught sight of a martial artist drenched in blood.
A fear utterly different from any she had felt until now surged over her like a wave.
The killing intent on that youthful face was quickly hidden by the Clan Head’s tall frame.
“C-Clan Head. I am all right.”
Even when facing the Blood Demon, Tang Hak’s face had been cold; now it had gone white.
Sohwa’s gaze shifted to the Blood Demon. As if he had been watching her from the start, their eyes met at once.
Sohwa realized the Blood Demon had deliberately carved open the bamboo grove.
To show her.
Goosebumps rose along the back of her neck as she understood his intent.
The Blood Demon could distinguish the Tang clan’s energy.
It meant he could seek out and devour Tang Hak whenever he chose to hide.
With a curl of his lips, as if to show her something amusing, the Blood Demon stopped the rotation of the ring in his upper dantian.
She did not know what he meant to do, but she knew whom he intended to harm.
In an instant, she was pulled into the past.
Sohwa recalled the memory of standing alone, the only survivor, facing the ruined Tang manor.
The one who had created that tragedy was now smiling in front of her as if toying with her.
Every time his laughter broke with a cough, the Blood Demon’s ravaged skin healed over.
Sohwa lost her reason.
At that moment, she smelled pine resin drifting in from afar.
Sensing that something in the air had changed as well, Namgung Hyun spoke.
“It seems more dangerous to go out that way. Rather, if we cross the corridor to the room on the other side......”
When he poured out his words in an uneasy voice, Sohwa cut him off.
“Sir.”
As he turned his head, not understanding, he saw an expression on her face he had never seen before.
The demonic flame swelled and shrank, over and over. Reflected in those unruly flames, her eyes showed countless emotions.
To call it anger alone, the redness around her eyes felt too powerless; her set lips betrayed confidence and self-loathing at once.
Even Namgung Hyun, who was sensitive to others’ feelings, could not grasp her heart.
“I tried to forgive you. And I thought that if we came this far...... I would be able to.”
Her cold voice dug into his eardrums.
“But I’m sorry.” ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Tang Sohwa confessed, her tone changed as if she had become another person.
“In this life as well, it seems I will not be able to forgive you.”
Before he could even process the meaning, Namgung Hyun’s vision flipped.
Snap.
He felt a chill at his neck.
Pressing a throwing dagger to his throat, Tang Sohwa immediately put strength into her hand. ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom
Boom.
But before it could cut flesh, the throwing dagger flew into the air.
The Blood Demon, standing on the railing, had grabbed Tang Sohwa’s wrist.
