Chapter 1126

It was a low, faint sound—one no one would have noticed under ordinary circumstances.

Nothing beside the ceaseless roar of battle shaking heaven and earth.

Just the sound of wind brushing past somewhere.

But to someone else, it struck like a sudden storm, an unstoppable bolt of lightning.

Shhk.

The cold slicing sound reached the Blood Lord’s ears a moment late. His lips parted before he knew it.

“…Huh?”

The joy that had filled his eyes moments ago gave way to confusion. In his blood-red pupils, a fine line appeared across his arm.

Before he could make sense of it, blood welled through his skin and raced along the line.

PSSSHHH!

A fountain of blood shot into the air. The Blood Lord could only stare, eyes wide, as his arm fell away in a spray of crimson.

Beside the severed arm collapsed the man who had barely escaped death.

Splatter!

The moment Jin Taekyung’s already-crippled body crumpled to the ground, time began to move again.

Yet even with the man he had wanted so desperately to kill lying at his feet, the Blood Lord couldn’t move.

And he wasn’t the only one who had stopped.

Taekyung’s master, reaching a trembling hand toward his disciple, who lay in a deep pool of blood facing death.

The Bow Saint and the Slaughter Saint, who had finally shaken off countless enemies, including the two Black Ghosts, and were racing toward him with not an instant to spare.

Cheongpung, driving the blade of his sword—now only a handspan¹ long—deep into the ground to force himself upright.

They all felt it. At the same time, they saw it.

Beyond the curtain of wind and rain, someone’s figure wavered into view.

Shhhhh.

Through the endless rain walked a black-clad figure. At a movement of his fingertips, an ancient silver blade swept down.

Shhhk.

In that instant, the world split apart.

The rain and wind.

The air and qi within them.

And the darkness.

SHWAAK!

The dazzling flash that filled their eyes was deeper than sunset and as brilliant as dawn.

Just like that day a year ago, burned into the Blood Lord’s mind like a brand.

This is…

In a moment so brief it seemed time had been cut into slivers, the Blood Lord froze, eyes wide. Someone’s presence flashed through his mind.

A name that could not—and must not—appear here today.

A man without peer when it came to the sword, known as the Number One Sword Under Heaven.

A man whose realm had reached the heavens, known as the Sword Saint.

“Mae Jonghak—!”

The name burst from the Blood Lord’s lips like a scream.

FWOOSH!

Within the swelling flash, dozens of strands of purple Force bloomed.

Tap.

Beneath their dazzling petals, a hand suddenly reached out and touched the Blood Lord’s foot.

No—

KRAK!

It seized the monster’s ankle with all its strength as he tried to turn away.

Just like that day when Mount Song was stained with blood.

“…!”

In the monster’s widened, blood-red eyes, a young man’s faintly smiling face was reflected.

And the purple flash that had finally reached him.

KWA-BOOOOM!

Being unable to feel pain is both a curse and a reason for despair.

Pain is proof that you’re alive and breathing.

For a living person to feel none means death is near.

But that is only one side of it.

For someone who has watched death draw close and accepted it deep in their heart, the absence of pain might be one last blessing instead.

No—it must be.

At least right now, Jin Taekyung was more grateful than ever that he couldn’t feel pain.

Both his legs were crushed. One arm was shattered. Yet he could still move, and that made him so happy he could have cried.

KRAK!

Where had that strength come from?

Even Taekyung didn’t know.

He had reached out as if bewitched, as though something were controlling him. Somehow, the strength in the only one of his four limbs that wasn’t broken had been enough to stop the monster in his tracks.

I got… him.

Taekyung smiled.

Through his blurred vision, he raised the corners of his mouth at the Blood Lord staring down at him.

And then—

KWA-BOOOOM!

A tremendous roar battered his ears. A dreadful explosion of power shook everything around him.

Yet inside, he was as calm as a deserted lakeshore.

This is enough.

The flash swallowed his vision as he murmured to himself.

Yes. It was enough.

He had done all he could. He had no regrets.

No—he couldn’t allow himself even one.

If any regret remained, he wouldn’t be able to leave in peace. He would call out the names of the family and friends he wanted to see, blame himself for failing to see things through, and bawl like a child.

But now it was all right.

Mae Jonghak had come.

With the Martial God—the heavens—gone, the Sword Saint Mae Jonghak was the highest star in the sky and the greatest under heaven in this era.

Taekyung had an inkling of how Mae Jonghak could have appeared here when he should have been protecting the Central Plains as Alliance Leader. He let the thought go.

He was simply grateful for the hope that this unexpected savior could defeat the monster and save everyone who remained.

Thank goodness. Really.

With that hollow thought swallowed deep in his heart, Taekyung’s eyelids began to close.

CRACK!

Amid the fading roar and flash, a hand shot out like lightning and seized his throat.

Drip. Drip.

Something hot and sticky fell onto his forehead.

Above him, the monster’s blood-red eyes still burned.

“How dare… cough… the likes of you…”

The Blood Lord growled like a wounded beast.

He had to swallow mouthfuls of blood just to speak. Wounds deep enough to expose bone covered his body. Yet he was still alive.

He lifted his dying prey like a trophy and bared his bloodstained teeth again.

“Did you think you could defeat me? Me, who inherited the Lord of Heaven’s mighty power?”

Just then, a faint voice escaped Taekyung’s lips, which were turning white under the grip around his throat.

“Yeah. You son of a bitch.”

“…What?”

“I think he can.”

Taekyung smiled faintly at the Blood Lord, who stared at him in silence. At those blood-red pupils, now trembling ever so slightly.

And he understood. Anger wasn’t the only thing behind that tremor.

“You’re scared, aren’t you? Of what’s happening.”

“…You.”

“Yeah. Even a bastard like you has to be scared. That’s why you’re pulling this cheap hostage stunt.”

Grind.

The Blood Lord gritted his teeth without realizing it.

A cheap hostage stunt?

Bullshit.

It had to be bullshit.

So why couldn’t he answer? Why did his grip loosen instead?

Taekyung’s mocking voice reached his ears.

“Look around. Then you’ll know whether you’re the hunter right now—or the prey.”

The Blood Lord didn’t answer. He didn’t look around, either.

He couldn’t bring himself to.

He didn’t want to admit that five Supreme Peak masters, led by the Sword Saint, had surrounded him. Or that he had seized Taekyung to hold them back, if only for a moment, and buy himself time.

At this rate… I’ll die.

He could feel it against his skin. He knew it instinctively.

That cruel truth, impossible to believe and unbearable to accept, pierced him to the core.

Why?

He couldn’t understand how the power bestowed on him by his great master had left him in an instant.

Gone. All of it.

The healing that might as well have been immortality. The qi that had surged endlessly from blood.

Only the strength left over after that power vanished kept him standing.

But I will not die.

The Blood Lord bit his lip, trembling with shame.

He thought of the last hope he had left—the final hammer blow that would end this terrible, immense battle.

“Watch closely. See who survives here today.”

He spat the words at Taekyung, who was still smiling.

Bwoooooo!

A powerful trumpet call shook the battlefield. At last, the hope he had waited for appeared.

Rrrrrumble!

Countless footsteps shook the earth. Enormous flags waved high, as though they might pierce the sky.

Tens of thousands of troops in all manner of dress marched beneath them. Everyone could clearly see the words on the two flags flying overhead.

Yangtze River Channel League.

And Green Forest Alliance.

“…!”

“…!”

A wave of unseen shock swept across the battlefield.

“Ah. Ahhh…”

The suicide squad and civilians, who had fought the invaders with everything they had, froze like statues.

“Lord of Heaven!”

The Dark Heaven fanatics, who had held the battle at a stalemate despite a counterattack backed by overwhelming numbers, began chanting the eight-character invocation praising the Lord of Heaven as if entranced.

The Blood Lord watched with joy in his eyes.

“In heaven and on earth, all demons bow…!”

A shiver ran down his spine. He turned to Taekyung, eager to see the despair on his face as soon as possible—and for as long as possible.

Then he realized something was wrong.

His last hope might have been despair all along.

“A meeting when the Yellow River runs clear.”

“What… did you say?”

“Someone sent me a letter once. Said she’d wait for the Yellow River to run clear. That we’d meet again then.”

Taekyung remembered the letter Wolhwa had sent while he was staying in Gansu.

A single line he had long since forgotten.

Hoping that someday we can meet when the Yellow River runs clear,
Wolhwa.

Wearing his brightest smile yet, Taekyung lifted a trembling hand and pointed east.

“Looks like this is the moment.”

More precisely, he pointed to another enormous flag slowly rising behind the two at the head of the army.

Through rain falling hard enough to clear the Yellow River, three characters came into view.

Murim Alliance.

“…!”

The Blood Lord stood frozen, eyes wide.

Taekyung made his final move.

KRAK!

The Blood Lord couldn’t stop Taekyung’s teeth from sinking into his neck like a beast’s.

Through the overwhelming pain, the world slowly tilted.

Splatter.

The monster, stripped of all the power he had been granted, finally crashed into the pool of blood.