Chapter 1114

The beam of light that crossed the space between them in an instant was dazzling—and devastating.

Even barehanded, the Blood Lord had been slaughtering the defenders without mercy. Now the flash forced him to draw the beloved blade that had rested quietly at his waist.

BOOM!

A deafening crash—and blood sprayed in every direction.

But this time, it wasn’t the defenders’ blood. It belonged to the fanatics who followed him.

“C-cough. Blood Lord……”

Was the man lucky or unlucky?

Dozens of his comrades had been caught in the sudden flash and died without even a chance to scream. He had barely survived. He crawled toward the Blood Lord, hoping the great Apostle chosen by the Lord of Heaven would ease his pain, even a little.

And the Blood Lord answered his desperate plea.

With the weight of a thousand geun¹ behind his foot.

Crunch!

The man’s spine shattered. That was the end of it.

The Blood Lord didn’t know whether the man had been grasping at the last thread of life or hoping for the peace of death.

No, that wasn’t quite right. The death of a nobody, little more than a disposable pawn, had never interested him in the first place.

His gaze had been fixed all along beyond the thick cloud of dust.

“Come out.”

The instant his cold voice left his lips—

Whoosh!

A flash burst from the dust and hurtled toward him.

More precisely, it was heat that shone like a flash of light.

Fwoosh—BOOM!

Flames swept through the air.

Their terrible heat turned suspicion into certainty. The Blood Lord brought the Red Blade down with all his might.

Slice!

The flames split to either side with a sharp cutting sound.

The avenue, more than twenty jang² wide, was engulfed in fire. Through the rising heat haze, a figure wavered.

“Where are you in such a hurry to go?”

The voice was low and steady.

Even through the heat haze, the eyes pouring out flames shone clearly.

Fire King Jeok Cheongang.

The Blood Lord’s eyes narrowed at the sight of him. He hadn’t expected Jeok to appear yet. Perhaps he had thought he would never see him again.

“So the head of the Ten Kings, whom the orthodox faction praises so highly, is just another warrior after all. You abandoned all those allies to save your one and only disciple?”

Certain Jeok had deserted the North Gate to come here, the Blood Lord spoke with scorn.

Jeok Cheongang caught his breath before replying. “I never asked anyone to praise me. But there’s a reason for everything.”

“What?”

“Ever since the day I defeated a thousand demonic soldiers, the world has called me the Fire King. It’s been so long I was starting to tire of the name…… Perhaps that will change after today.”

“……!”

The Blood Lord’s face twisted as he finally understood what Jeok’s arrival meant.

The Potala Palace forces sent to the North Gate had been formidable. There was the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s greatest master, and the Twelve Secret Monks, who included two Supreme Peak masters, greenhorns though they were.

Two Black Ghosts had been sent as well, in case anything unexpected happened. They should have been capable of more than holding Jeok in place. It wouldn’t have been surprising if they’d killed him.

But how?

The Blood Lord had no answer to the question that sprang to mind. Perhaps he never would.

The battle between those fighting to protect something and those consumed entirely by revenge could often defy expectations by a wide margin.

And Fire King Jeok Cheongang had someone he would protect even at the cost of everything he had.

“Did you think a few bald monks like that could stop this old man?”

The Blood Lord clenched his teeth at the low voice.

“You crazy old bastard. No matter how hard you struggle, nothing will change.”

“I have protected him. And I will protect him.”

“That precious disciple of yours? The one who might be dying right now?”

“……What did you say?”

Jeok Cheongang faltered. The Blood Lord’s mouth twisted into a smile.

“No. Perhaps he’s already dead. Last I saw him, he was at death’s door.”

“You dare……!”

The news of his disciple’s danger shook Jeok more than he could hide.

Whoosh!

With a faint whistle of air, the Blood Lord vanished like a phantom. He crossed more than ten jang and struck.

Slice!

The ground split like tofu.

Jeok Cheongang twisted aside just in time to avoid the blow, but blood spurted from several places on his body.

Drip, drip, drip!

The force of the blade was enough to wound him without touching him.

Jeok knew better than anyone what that blood scattering through the air meant.

My body……!

It felt as heavy as a thousand geun. Even his senses were slow to respond.

In his anger and desperation, he had forgotten how exhausted the battle at the North Gate had left him—and how badly a moment’s emotional turmoil could cost him in a life-and-death duel.

The Blood Lord saw it, too.

BOOM!

Blade strikes tore through the air like a storm.

Dozens—no, hundreds—of attacks poured back and forth, as though slicing time itself apart. Already exhausted, Jeok Cheongang sensed that this fight was close to its end.

He knew that end would be his death. He also knew he had one move left that might change it.

Dance of the Fire God and Demon.

A final flame fueled by everything he had.

The divine art had been passed down through generations of the Fire Gate Clan, yet its terrible aftermath had made it forbidden. Jeok Cheongang had nearly died from using it once already.

But now it was all he had left. It was the only way to defeat the Blood Lord, whose power came closer to Regeneration than mere healing.

Even that brief moment of thought might have been more than Jeok could afford.

An opening!

The Blood Lord’s eyes flashed.

Whoom!

The Red Blade was buried deep in the ground. Instead, he drove a fist toward Jeok’s side like a cannonball, putting all his strength behind it.

For some reason, his strength and speed had grown greater still since Jin Taekyung’s One Annihilation had put him in danger.

“……!”

Jeok had no time even to gasp.

His body was exhausted, his senses dulled, and his internal energy was nearly spent. All he could do was cross his Force-clad arms and brace with everything he had.

BOOM!

His vision overturned.

The blow hurled Jeok more than ten jang through the air and straight through a large inn that had once been crowded with people.

CRASH!

A pillar collapsed. Splinters flew.

Not until he had smashed through seven buildings, beginning with the inn, did Jeok cough up the hot surge rising from his gut.

Splatter.

Blackened blood stained an alley he didn’t recognize.

Through his blurring vision, he saw the Blood Lord rushing toward him like a gale. Joy and killing intent burned together in those blood-red eyes.

“Jeok Cheongang!”

The Blood Lord roared his name and brought the Red Blade down.

CLANG!

A sharp crash rang out.

The Blood Lord was forced back, eyes wide with disbelief, after deflecting five streaks of light fired from an unexpected angle.

Whoooom.

A vibration ran through his grip.

The Red Blade trembled, then steadied. The Blood Lord’s face, twisted like a Fiend’s, did not.

“Not bad…… But after living this long, you ought to know when to stay out of a fight. Don’t you think?”

He slowly turned his head as he growled.

His blood-red gaze fell on the five old men standing between him and Jeok Cheongang.

“If you don’t want to be torn limb from limb and die.”

Despite the killing intent bearing down on them, the slender old Daoist at their center quietly helped Jeok to his feet.

Fwoosh.

Internal energy flowed into Jeok, and a little color returned to his deathly pale face. He coughed up another mouthful of blood.

“Thank you for all your hard work,” the old Daoist said calmly. “We’ll take it from here.”

“Cough. You’re……”

“Jin Taekyung may not have much time left.”

“……!”

“Go. Quickly. It’s for everyone’s sake, too.”

Of course, the old Daoist’s “everyone” left out one person.

“Ha. Now there are six crazy old men.”

Sneering, the Blood Lord angled the Red Blade downward.

“Then you can all die.”

Whoosh!

A crescent of blood-red Force shot along the Red Blade. The Force alone was a full jang across, and the strike carried terrifying power.

The next instant—

BOOM!

A crash like the sky splitting apart rang out. Everything within a ten-jang radius crumbled to dust.

Above it stood six figures, high in the air.

“……!”

The Blood Lord’s gaze darkened. The slender old Daoist bowed his head slightly to Jeok Cheongang, whom he had been supporting.

“Please forgive the impertinence of one so far your junior.”

Jeok was too drained to answer. Severe exhaustion and Internal Injury had been building since the North Gate.

No—there wasn’t even time for an answer. Before he could speak, the old Daoist’s arms swung with force.

“You crazy—!”

The Blood Lord’s frantic shout came too late.

Whoooosh!

Jeok Cheongang shot through the air toward the Inner City.

Before the enraged Blood Lord could pursue him, the five old Daoists landed softly on the ground and blocked his way.

They had the bearing of immortals, an aura like noble cranes, and a movement technique astonishing enough to match.

Only then did the Blood Lord recognize the intruders.

“The Kunlun Five Immortals.”

“You know us?”

“How could I not? I’ve heard the heartbreaking tale of five old men who should have died long ago, still eating up the Kunlun Sect’s rice.”

Naturally, the Blood Lord’s account bore little resemblance to their reputation.

The Kunlun Five Immortals were Martial Uncles to Cheongheoja, the current Sect Leader, and Elders who still upheld the Kunlun Sect well into their eighties.

Each had stopped just short of Supreme Peak. But they had grown up as close as brothers, and their combined technique was said to withstand even a Supreme Peak master.

To the Blood Lord, they were merely five more troublesome old moths.

“Get out of my sight. I’d tear you apart right now, but even that would waste time.”

The slender old Daoist, the eldest of the Kunlun Five Immortals, Perfected One Taecheong, shook his head.

“I cannot accept that offer. So I’d like to suggest an alternative.”

“There is no alternative. You’ve just thrown away your last chance.”

The Blood Lord let the Red Blade hang at an angle and stepped toward them.

First Jin Taekyung. Now Jeok Cheongang. Twice he had lost prey he’d nearly caught—prey he had to kill.

Their auras felt far stronger than their reputations suggested. That was puzzling, but even a combined technique capable of facing a Supreme Peak master would be a tower built on sand before him. It would fall in moments.

Or so he’d thought.

“You’re mistaken,” the old Daoist said. “We still have a chance.”

“What?”

“This is the alternative we came up with.”

Only then did the Blood Lord notice the calm smile on Perfected One Taecheong’s lips. Something was wrong.

Shaaaaa.

Power surged from Perfected One Taecheong—no, from all five of the Kunlun Five Immortals—and shook the air around them.

Their fierce aura was hard to believe in men whose skill was said to have stopped at the very edge of Peak. It was so rough, it made the immortal meaning of their title seem absurd.

It took the Blood Lord little time to recognize what felt so familiar about it.

“You…… Don’t tell me.”

“It’s as fearsome as I heard, this Temporary Strength Pill.”

“……!”

“No need to look so surprised. None of us has ever practiced demonic martial arts. We had to pay a price to take it.”

Perfected One Taecheong was telling the truth.

The Temporary Strength Pill’s power was chiefly for practitioners of demonic, heterodox arts—particularly those whose martial arts remained incomplete because they had not reached Supreme Peak.

Even if someone who cultivated pure qi took one of the spare pills carried by Dark Heaven’s followers, it would have little effect.

Unless they did something mad: broke the innate qi they had built up over more than eighty years and forced themselves to absorb the pill’s energy.

“To stop a monster……”

Whoooom.

His words faded beneath a deep rumble.

An unstable, hazy Force gathered around the sword in Perfected One Taecheong’s hand. There was no mistaking what it was.

And it wasn’t his sword alone. Force rose from the blades of all five Kunlun Five Immortals.

“If that’s what it takes, then we’ll gladly become monsters, too.”

Whoosh!

Space split, and six figures clashed in a tangle.

Fifteen minutes.

That was all the time the Kunlun Five Immortals remained on their feet.

But for someone else, they had bought a full fifteen minutes.

Perhaps that was why Perfected One Taecheong could smile even through the overwhelming pain as both his legs were torn off.

Slice!

Then his arms were severed.

Boom!

Even as the organs inside him tore apart, he swallowed his screams.

And when the shadow of death finally fell over him, the old Daoist held fast to his principles and offered a last farewell to his Junior Brothers, whose breathing had already ceased.

“Remember…… Our deaths will not be in vain……”

Crack!

His brain matter burst out with a horrible pop.

The Blood Lord lifted his foot from Perfected One Taecheong’s shattered head.

“No. This is a meaningless death.”

As he slowly raised his head, cries sounded from every direction, louder and closer than before.

No. It was a creed of exactly eight characters.

Above heaven and below heaven, ten thousand demons bow in homage.

Above heaven and below heaven, let all things kneel.

“……So it shall be.”

Leaving those low words behind, the monster continued toward the Inner City.

Sticky blood followed in his wake.