Chapter 1124

Beep.

System

Time Limit: 5 minutes, 00 seconds

The second hand of a clock granted to only one person on this vast battlefield began to move.

Flash.

Space split apart.

It was erased, shattered.

And at its center, four figures hurtled toward one another with all their might.

More precisely, one monster and the three humans standing against it.

Among them was Jin Taekyung.

SHWAAK!

A horrifyingly low whistle of air pierced his ears.

A strike that seemed capable of splitting a mountain, faster than sound itself.

The Red Blade came down at an angle, swift and fierce in equal measure.

Could Jin Taekyung have followed that movement even in his usual condition?

Even if he had, he wouldn’t have dared meet the enormous Force coiling around the blade head-on.

But his senses, honed sharper than ever at the edge of death, were guiding his still-warm body toward a path of survival.

Rustle.

The wind stopped. Time slowed.

In Jin Taekyung’s eyes, hazy as a clouded sky, the blood-red blade and its blazing Force passed barely an inch from his face.

Slice!

Following the strike’s path, the ground split like tofu mere inches from him.

The wind pressure whipped around like a blade and raked his body, but Jin Taekyung had already forgotten pain. As if entranced, he thrust out his spear.

SHWAAK!

The spearhead pierced straight through space.

At the same time, Jeok Cheongang’s Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist and Cheongpung’s sword cleaved through the wind.

FWOOSH, SHWISH-SHWISH-SHWISH!

Two streams of flame surged forward as one, while sunset-violet Force scattered like flower petals.

Their renown might differ, but each of the three Supreme Peak masters could make the entire Murim tremble at the sound of his name. Together, they launched a perfect combined attack.

But waiting for them was a monster that had already far surpassed the limits of humanity.

HWAASH!

Enormous qi boiled up in an instant.

At the same time, the Blood Lord’s hands, now free of the hilt, struck through space like a bolt of lightning.

KWA-BOOOOM!

Two palms, faster than sound itself.

With a roar as if the sky had split, a blood-red flash erupted around the Blood Lord and swept in every direction.

An overwhelming, destructive force that made no distinction between friend and foe.

RUMBLE, RUMBLE…!

A deep reverberation spread through the devastated space.

It swept past the fanatics’ corpses, scattered in countless chunks of flesh, and reached the three men staggering as they steadied themselves.

“They survived that?”

The Blood Lord muttered despite himself.

He had put tremendous power into that strike—poured a third of his strength into a single attack.

Enough to erase every living thing within a radius of over ten jang¹ and turn the area into a hellscape where only death remained.

Of course, the outcome wasn’t entirely beyond what he’d expected.

No matter how grievously wounded and bloodied they were, a beast was still a beast.

Especially when even the weakest beast among them was called the Huashan Divine Dragon.

No—perhaps this was for the best.

If he’d killed them all with that last strike, he might have been left feeling empty.

“No. Not like this. Not so easily.”

The Blood Lord let out a low laugh and took a step forward.

Rustle.

Something felt wrong.

He raised his hand to see what it was, and his gaze turned cold.

Blood.

Beads welled up from a shallow split in his skin—too slight to even call a wound—and ran across his palm.

The very hand that had just met someone’s attack head-on.

“This is…”

The Blood Lord trailed off and slowly lifted his head.

And saw him.

One man, covered in blood from head to toe, struggling to catch his breath.

His face was so pale he could have collapsed at any moment, yet his eyes still held a flame that hadn’t died out.

Jin Taekyung.

The Blood Lord ran his red tongue over his lips.

How had this happened?

He’d been sure he had blocked the attack.

None of their strikes could have broken the Palm Force gathered in his hands.

And yet—

“Yes. This is how it should be. You ought to manage at least this much.”

The Blood Lord murmured softly, almost to himself.

The light that had dimmed in his eyes flared to life, and his wavering lips curled into a gentle smile.

At this moment, he was truly enjoying himself.

Carelessness? Fear of what might happen?

He’d felt none of that from the start.

He had simply been certain.

Certain that he could hunt the prey before him, whether it was a powerless rabbit or a beast hiding its fangs.

Though it had been only a single exchange, the Blood Lord had realized once again just how immense the power within him was at this moment.

And how boundless.

Squelch.

As the monster stepped forward, the pool of blood at his feet, spread out like a small lake, swirled and rushed toward him.

SHWAAAAA!

The Blood Lord greedily swallowed the blood. Intoxicated by the strength surging through him anew, the monster shot through space like a flash of light.

Drip.

A single drop of blood fell behind him.

The Blood Lord’s confidence was no arrogance.

He moved faster than anyone else on the battlefield, and the immense blood-red Force bursting from his Red Blade was enough to make anyone who saw it think of the word unprecedented.

At least at this moment.

He was the strongest predator on this vast battlefield, an absolute being no one could oppose.

With even the two giants among the Three Saints pinned down by the enemies’ fierce counterattack, he was powerful enough to crush the three Supreme Peak masters—each already seriously injured—in an instant.

Jin Taekyung knew that better than anyone. Which was why he couldn’t understand what was happening.

SHWEEEE!

Why—

KRRRCH!

Why was that terrifying Force, powerful enough to split a mountain—

SHWAAK!

Why was the Blood Lord’s movement, seemingly faster than wind, sound, even light—

WHOOOOSH!

Missing him by a hair every time, every single moment?

Why couldn’t it touch him?

“You—!”

Jin Taekyung didn’t hear the monster’s voice echoing through the blade-sharp wind.

No. More precisely, he couldn’t hear it.

Amid the flashes that continually washed across his hazy vision, he simply kept moving as if entranced.

Slice!

He brought his advancing foot back to where it had been and ducked his head. The blood-red Force passed overhead.

A nearly flawless dodge, without a moment’s hesitation.

Jin Taekyung himself didn’t know how he had evaded such a swift, ferocious strike. He didn’t know why he’d moved that way, either.

He just felt he had to.

It all seemed perfectly natural.

Like the sun rising in the east each morning, or water flowing downhill.

Like a duel whose every move had been carefully arranged in advance.

But that was true only for Jin Taekyung.

Rustle, SHWEEEE!

The Red Blade was descending toward the crown of his head when it abruptly changed direction.

KWAANG!

With a single deafening crash, Cheongpung, who had rushed in to attack from the blind spot, dropped to one knee and spat up blood.

Above him, the Red Blade had wiped away the path of the Thirty-Six Plum Blossom Swords in an instant. It crashed down like lightning and bore upon his sword with the weight of ten thousand geun.²

CRACK.

The violet Force faded rapidly, and hairline fractures spread across the blade like a spiderweb.

As Cheongpung swallowed blood and summoned all his strength, the Blood Lord’s dark-red light poured down on him.

“You dare, you little—!”

The monster’s earlier delight had turned to anger.

Why? How?

With martial prowess this immense, and Jin Taekyung clearly dying, why couldn’t he finish this simple fight whose outcome was so certain?

And even when victory was all but decided, why did that damned brat before him keep resisting to the end?

Just as he had on that day at Mount Song, when he’d inflicted a humiliation that was like a brand upon the Blood Lord.

“Fine. I’ll kill you first.”

The Blood Lord spat out the words. The blood-red Force swelled and dug into Cheongpung’s blade.

Then—

HWAASH!

Heat swept in from behind him. The Blood Lord released the hilt without hesitation and thrust out a fist.

KWA-BOOOOM!

Two fists collided in midair.

White light-flames and blood-red Force charged at each other, each trying to devour the other.

But the difference in their power was already clear. Through the thick heat haze, the Blood Lord bared his teeth at Jeok Cheongang.

“Get lost, old man.”

BOOM!

Blood-red Force swallowed the flames. With an explosion, Jeok Cheongang was sent flying helplessly and rolled across the ground.

Right where someone had been standing just moments before.

…What?

The realization came in an instant.

An alarm rang in the Blood Lord’s mind, and a current of air crossed the space between them.

Fwoosh.

A whistle of air so low and faint it raised goose bumps.

In time slowed to a crawl, the Blood Lord turned. Jin Taekyung filled his blood-red eyes, thrusting out his spear with a hazy gaze.

“…!”

The Blood Lord couldn’t even get out the word How?

Nor could he think how he, overwhelmingly powerful as he was, had lost track of the presence of a bloodied wretch sinking deeper into death with every passing moment.

Jin Taekyung was no different.

Now.

It was as if someone else, someone he didn’t know, were whispering in his ear.

His vision was clouded white, and he couldn’t see a thing.

Time was running out. A horrible weariness—and an even stronger feeling of death—was seeping into his body.

Shhk.

Jin Taekyung thrust out his spear smoothly.

The shouts and screams of friend and foe, ringing out without pause even now. The cold clang of steel. The sound of a trumpet, now drawing close.

Even the palm the Blood Lord thrust out on instinct.

Nothing could stop him.

Leaving it all behind, as if it had been decided from the beginning, Jin Taekyung let the flames deep inside his body flow toward a single point.

Pshk.

The spearhead, carrying a faint heat, pierced the palm wrapped in Force and drove on through.

Past that very hand, whose wound, for some reason, still hadn’t healed.

KRRRCH!

The monster’s eyes flew wide, bulging as they filled with shock.