Chapter 1189

“Grrrraaaaaah!”

It wasn’t a scream a human could make—or even a sound any living creature could produce.

It was all that remained to a monster that had already died once and forgotten pain: a warning bell announcing that his corrupted soul had burned away, the final cry of his second death.

Fwoooooom!

The hellfire of the Flame-Extinguishing Divine Fist swept wildly through the space.

Then came a blinding flash, followed by an even louder roar.

RrrrRUMBLE!

The ground shook. Embers and ash churned together and scattered in every direction.

Beyond them, a shadow slowly crumpled.

Jangcheon.

No—one of the monsters wearing Jangcheon’s likeness.

Black Ghost.

Jeok Cheongang recognized it at once.

A monster given new life using the body and soul of the dead.

Neither dead nor alive, Black Ghosts were among the strangest and most powerful of the countless monsters under the Lord of Heaven.

Yes, this was surely—

Magic, after all.

A space where even the wind brushing his skin felt alien. Phenomena too intricate and bizarre to be explained by a mere formation.

The suspicion he had harbored became certainty. Jeok Cheongang felt the flow of qi around the area begin to churn.

And he sensed the cause of the change, too.

Shhhhh.

A sudden cold wind pressed down on the heat haze distorting the space and settled the drifting embers and ash.

It wasn’t an ordinary wind. It was a wave of qi announcing the arrival of something else.

“So, you’ve come.”

Jeok Cheongang looked steadily at the new intruders.

East, west, south, and north.

Four shadows had appeared around him, each gazing his way.

Different faces, yet somehow alike.

“Master.”

Four voices rang out as one.

There was Jangcheon as a dirt-covered child, just as he’d looked the day they first met. Jangcheon as a boy, pleading to be accepted as a Disciple. Jangcheon as a young man, and Jangcheon as he’d looked on the day he left.

All frozen in forms from a day that could never be taken back.

“Master. I’ve come. Cheon-ah is here.”

The four Jangcheons spoke together and stepped forward. At the same time, the countless monsters encircling the area tightened their ring.

A net over heaven and earth, drawn tight for one man alone.

Yet even amid the monsters’ killing intent, Jeok Cheongang spoke calmly.

“How strange. Four more Disciples I never knew I had.”

“Master. How could you forget me?”

The voice rang out from every direction, as if all four shared a single body. Jeok Cheongang gave a bitter smile.

“I haven’t forgotten. I’ve only decided to keep you in my memories.”

He wasn’t speaking to the monsters wearing the illusion. He was speaking to his old Disciple, who wasn’t there.

It didn’t matter if his words reached no one. Only now did he know for certain, and if he didn’t say it now, he might never get the chance.

Even if the living Jangcheon had appeared before him, his choice would have been the same.

“I was a poor Master, and you were a poor Disciple. But let’s leave the wrongs we did each other for some distant day when we meet again.”

Spilled water couldn’t be gathered up, and time that had passed couldn’t be turned back.

What mattered was now. And Jeok Cheongang still had someone precious to protect.

“So, Cheon-ah.”

As he had long ago, Jeok Cheongang spoke his old Disciple’s name gently, letting it leave his lips.

His eyes moved from one face to the next, taking in the features still etched vividly in his memory. He felt the warmth and breath of someone on his back.

He felt that he was alive, and resolved to stay that way.

“I expel you from the sect.”

In that instant—

Whoosh!

A flash erupted in the dark mist.

No. It was a flame burning as bright as light—a giant of fire, finally risen to his feet.

Fwoooooom!

The heat of the Flamefire Path distorted the space.

One step. Nearly a hundred yards vanished, and the monsters’ wide eyes rushed closer.

Crunch!

No more words or thoughts were needed.

The Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, crushed everything before him.

Enemies surged in from every direction, but he saw and felt everything happening around him.

With his eyes, his ears, and sometimes with a sixth sense beyond the other five.

“Grrrraah!”

A group of monsters charged at him, each with eight arms and three heads.

They looked like asuras¹ from legend. Their many arms—impossible now to tell whether they belonged to humans or beasts—whipped wildly, raining blows down on Jeok Cheongang’s head.

Or, more precisely, on the spot where he had been.

Crack-crack-crack!

Their attacks cut through empty air and carved up the ground. Then a voice pierced the monsters’ ears.

Quiet, yet hot as fire—and somehow colder than ice.

“How many hearts do you have?”

That was the last thing they heard.

Fwoosh—SPLAT!

Even as their consciousness faded, the monsters didn’t know when or how they had died.

They didn’t know Jeok Cheongang had launched himself off the ground, extended his Palm Force, and slashed downward with it. Nor did they know that the horrific heat within it had burned not only their hearts, but every organ in their bodies.

But the four pairs of eyes watching Jeok Cheongang did know.

They had been waiting for this moment from the start. As if on cue, they moved together without a hair’s breadth of error.

ShhhhK!

A low, faint whistle slipped into his senses, keen as a blade and chilling enough to raise goose bumps.

Jeok Cheongang, who had just melted dozens of monsters in an instant, immediately sensed the ominous energy closing in on him.

He sensed that there was more than one.

But their speed—and the power they carried—exceeded anything he’d expected.

“……!”

In that slowed instant, Jeok Cheongang sensed four streaks of Force flying at him from his blind spots.

He twisted with all his might, moving by instinct more than reason.

Shhk!

Blood sprayed with a cool slicing sound.

Not the monsters’ green blood, with its foul stench and poisonous fumes, but the red blood of a living human.

Even through the sting of pain, Jeok Cheongang regained his balance at the last possible moment and landed with a satisfied smile.

What a relief.

His own flesh had been cut, but Jin Taekyung hadn’t so much as been scratched.

The smile brought on by that relief didn’t last long.

His wound wasn’t serious. The battle, however, was clearly going against him.

A Master fighting to protect his Disciple, against countless monsters charging without fear of death.

And the greatest problem of all: the four Black Ghosts, carefully measuring their distance and looking for an opening even now.

Strong. Stronger than I expected.

They seemed at least a step above the other Black Ghosts he had faced—perhaps nearly two.

He had no way of knowing whether that was because of the Magic surrounding the area or because these four were particularly powerful Black Ghosts. But one thing was certain.

This will be a tough fight.

In truth, even that didn’t begin to describe it.

Their individual strength was formidable, but the four Supreme Peak masters moved like one organism, sharing their thoughts. Even Jeok Cheongang couldn’t afford to underestimate them.

That would have been true even if they were living humans. But these monsters felt neither emotion nor pain.

And everything was going in their favor.

Even now.

“Grrrraaaah!”

The monsters roared and charged again, while the Black Ghosts vanished among them. Jeok Cheongang understood their intentions at once.

They’re taking turns wearing me down…!

To break a huge rock quickly, you needed a sharp chisel and a heavy hammer. Given enough time, though, even the occasional shower would do.

Drop by drop, the water struck the hard surface of the rock until cracks began to form.

But the monsters surging endlessly under the Black Ghosts’ command were neither light raindrops nor a passing shower.

They were waves.

Raging waves, driven by the force to smash through any reef and a blind madness that sent them hurling their lives away without hesitation.

But Jeok Cheongang wasn’t a rock that would stand still and wait to be worn down.

I’ll end this at once.

His nature was fire. He had raised a greater flame than anyone under heaven, and so he was the Fire King.

Crack.

Jeok Cheongang clenched his teeth.

His eyes glowed red, piercing the dark mist. Space warped along the heat haze rising in strands from his entire body.

Fwoooosh.

Energy like molten lava surged through his limbs and every part of his body. A breath like steam escaped between his slowly parting lips.

“I’ll kill every last one of you.”

If they were rocks, he would melt them. If they were waves, he would make them evaporate.

Even if he himself turned to ash, even if everything burned away, the Fire Gate Clan’s flame would not go out.

No—a blaze greater than his own would rise from it.

“Come!”

The giant’s roar shook the air in every direction as he completed his preparations.

“Whoa, you startled me. My ears are going to burst.”

“……!”

Jeok Cheongang barely managed to rein in the internal energy that had nearly surged back against him.