Chapter 354

Clang! Krrr-kang!

“They’re such vile bastards that even chewing them to pieces wouldn’t satisfy me! Don’t hold back!”

“The Lord of Heaven desires it! Destroy the Tang Clan!”

Sword clashed against sword. Harsh breathing mixed with ragged cries. The killing intent and scent of blood given off by several hundred people tangled together flooded the battlefield.

Amid the dawn mist blackened by poison smoke, those who had come to kill raised their weapons and charged at one another.

Pfft!

“Gaaah!”

A scream burst from the mouth of a young man.

Born into a collateral branch of the great Sichuan Tang Clan, he had reached the First Rate realm without much difficulty. His considerable martial talent and composure beyond his years had made him the focus of everyone’s expectations.

But now, the young man’s bright future lost its light alongside the black Sword Energy.

Fwoooosh! Slash!

The Sword Energy carved down diagonally through his upper body, and that was the end.

The black-clad man stared pale-faced at the young man as he collapsed, spilling blood and entrails.

The kid’s vicious.

The fight had been decided in only three exchanges.

Yet the unknown Tang Clan martial artist had sacrificed his own life in an attempt to leave them both grievously wounded.

The ox-hair needle that had somehow burrowed beneath the black-clad man’s clavicle was proof of that.

So this is what it means to be from the Sichuan Tang Clan.

Clicking his tongue, the black-clad man pulled out the needle.

Its tip was so thin that it could only be seen on close inspection, and it had already turned black. There was no question that it had been coated in poison.

“Ghk!”

His vision blurred for an instant. The poisonous energy that had begun around his clavicle was rapidly spreading throughout his body.

At this rate, even with Peak internal energy, the most he could do was buy himself some time.

And in a chaotic battlefield like this, after being struck by one of the Sichuan Tang Clan’s deadliest poisons, he was as good as dead.

But the black-clad man did not panic.

No—instead, he smiled.

“The Lord of Heaven is… great.”

The words came out muffled between his clenched teeth.

When the black-clad man opened his mouth for the first time, a small bead could be seen inside.

At the same time, an eerie light flowed from the bead, running down the black-clad man’s throat like a river.

Ssssss.

The change was instantaneous. His blurred vision cleared, and the body that had been losing its strength regained its power and vitality.

After every trace of poison had been removed from his body, the black-clad man shuddered.

The Lord of Heaven, the most dignified and greatest of all.

The life force granted by his god filled his entire body.

“The Lord of Heaven has descended upon me!”

The black-clad man cried out in ecstasy and turned his head to search for another victim.

That was when—

“Wrong. The one descending upon you bastards is Yama.”

Crack!

A dagger flying from somewhere buried itself in the black-clad man’s forehead.

The internal energy imbued in the dagger bored through flesh and bone, turning the black-clad man’s brain into mush. He died instantly.

Thud. Crash!

The bead that rolled from the dead man’s mouth was drawn into someone’s hand.

An old man gazed at the bead with wizened gray eyes and muttered,

“These bastards… They’re carrying artifacts.”

An ordinary martial artist would have assumed that the bead was a poison-warding pearl.

But the old man, Tang Jinhu, was a direct descendant of the Sichuan Tang Clan and a veteran of the Great Faction War. He instinctively realized that this bead was something different from a poison-warding pearl.

What is this?

Poison-warding pearls normally had a clear color. The greater their transparency, the more effective they were at neutralizing poison, and their value rose accordingly.

But the bead the black-clad man had possessed was an ominous black, as if it held storm clouds inside.

Even so, its power had been great enough to neutralize one of the Tang Clan’s deadliest poisons.

The greater problem was—

Every single one of them has an artifact of this level. At this rate, neither our family’s poison techniques nor the poison formations we set up in advance will be of any use.

On top of that, they wore leather armor that even ordinary swords and blades could not pierce.

Tang Jinhu finally understood why the Tang Clan drum had sounded.

At this rate, a bloodbath even more horrific than the one in the Gyeongwol Year would unfold.

“These bastards…”

Crunch.

Tang Jinhu crushed the bead in his hand and extended both arms, his face filled with killing intent.

The silver threads wrapped around his wrists absorbed his internal energy and sprang rigidly upward.

The next instant, a dazzling white flash filled the battlefield.

Screeeech—thud-thud-thud!

“Ghk!”

“Gaaah!”

Only a handful of those struck managed to leave behind even a death cry. Death came equally for First Rate and Peak masters alike.

Raising their weapons to block was useless. The threads Tang Jinhu shot out lived up to the name Soul-Severing Thread, cutting through everything in their path.

Blades, bone and flesh, and even the lives of his enemies.

Tang Jinhu felled over ten black-clad men with a single move and let out an azure dragon’s roar.

“Don’t retreat! Aim for their vital points with hidden weapons and attack together!”

“Head Elder! This old man has come as well!”

“Would you look at these fucking bastards! How dare they invade our family? Can’t you see the Heaven-Poison Wanderer standing before you?”

Tang Jinhu was a Supreme Peak master who had retired more than a decade ago and the head of the Council of Elders.

The sight of veteran masters joining the battlefield one after another at precisely that moment brought color back to the faces of the Tang Clan martial artists who had begun to falter.

“G-Grandfather!”

“The Head Elder is here! The Council of Elders has mobilized!”

But their joy lasted only an instant.

Krrr-kang! Slash!

“Gaaah!”

“Tang Hwi!”

“Hey, brat! Do you have time to look away?”

Pfft-pfft-pfft!

“Help me… Ghk!”

“Lord of Heaven!”

“The great Lord of Heaven is with us. Kill them all!”

The black-clad men were more skilled than the Sichuan Tang Clan martial artists, and the armor and bizarre poison-warding pearls they carried rendered the Tang Clan’s famed poisons and hidden weapons useless.

A dozen Elders, including Tang Jinhu, and dozens of Peak masters whom the Tang Clan had painstakingly trained were fighting desperately.

But their limits were clear.

Screeeech—thud!

Tang Jinhu severed the throats of two black-clad men charging at him with the Soul-Severing Thread and ground his teeth.

“Where did these bastards come from…?”

The sight unfolding before his eyes was utterly tragic.

The black-clad men shouted the Lord of Heaven’s name as if possessed and swung their weapons.

Whenever they blocked swords and hidden weapons with their armor and continued advancing through the poison smoke, blood sprayed and corpses piled up.

In the vacant eyes of a Tang Clan martial artist whose breath had stopped, red flames that had sprung up somewhere flickered. The hot fire and acrid smoke drove away the poison mist and consumed the fallen corpses.

Tang Jinhu roared in a voice that seemed to spit blood.

“No! You bastards! How dare you—how dare you lay hands on my own flesh and blood!”

Even the mighty forces of the Demonic Cult had suffered more than a thousand casualties to overcome the Tang Clan.

How could a mere three hundred enemies create such a horrific scene?

“Ghk! H-Head Elder…”

“Hyung!”

Pfft-pfft-pfft!

Even the Elders who had once roamed the martial world could not escape death.

Although they had not reached the supreme realm of Supreme Peak like Tang Jinhu, every one of them was a veteran master who had reached the very edge of Peak.

But whenever one was cut down, five more charged forward. When those five were cut down, ten more came rushing in.

Among those ten black-clad men who charged forward without regard for their lives, a Peak master was hiding.

Slash. Crash!

After using dozens of his subordinates as sacrifices to behead another Elder, the black-clad man laughed smugly.

“A Tang Clan Elder is nothing special.”

“You bastard!”

Screeeech! Thud!

Despite Tang Jinhu’s furious struggle, the situation did not improve.

More than a hundred clansmen had already lost their lives, and half of the Outer Hall had fallen into the enemy’s hands.

“Huff, huff.”

On top of that, his internal energy and stamina were rapidly running dry.

The battle had already reached a point where it could no longer be turned around by the strength of a single aging Supreme Peak master.

A lament escaped Tang Jinhu’s lips when he realized that.

“What are the Family Head and the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders doing?!”

If they were here, the situation would have been different. Tang Sadok, the head of the family and its strongest master—and the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders.

If they joined the battle, they could turn the tide.

But—

“Heh-heh. They’re probably quite busy by now.”

At the voice that suddenly pierced his ear, Tang Jinhu felt his heart drop.

“Who are you?”

“As for who I am… Damn it. I can’t see a thing. Get the hell out of my way.”

Boom!

With a powerful blast of displaced air, three or four black-clad men were hurled away, reduced to bloody mush.

An old man covered in blood stepped into the clear space ahead and flashed Tang Jinhu a wide grin.

“Much better. Now I can see.”

The old man was short, with an ugly face.

Tang Jinhu’s eyes trembled as he stared at him.

“You…”

“Hm? Do you know me?”

“…I never expected the Fiend of Qinghai to still be alive.”

The old man, First Fiend, stared at Tang Jinhu for a moment before his eyes suddenly widened.

“Ah, now I remember. You’re that youngster from the Tang Family. So, have you gotten any better at using the Soul-Severing Thread?”

“Good enough to cut off your head.”

“I thought the Sichuan Tang Clan were fairly practical people for an orthodox faction. But looking at you, I suppose that isn’t entirely true. You’re still lost in such foolish fantasies.”

“…”

“Youngster. You still haven’t figured it out, have you? This old man will tell you personally.”

First Fiend cackled as he continued.

“You, your Family Head, and those idiots called the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders will all die. Whether they bear the Tang surname or are nothing more than dogs, I’ll kill and burn every last one of them.”

“You—!”

“Don’t be too upset. The Lord of Heaven treats all people equally—he has handed down the same punishment to the Buddhist nuns and those Daoist bastards. Heh-heh-heh.”

Tang Jinhu froze, forgetting even his anger.

Only now did he realize that First Fiend’s two younger brothers, who had always followed him like shadows, were nowhere to be seen.

…Emei and Qingcheng.

The carnage of corpses and blood had not been limited to the Tang Clan.

The Sichuan Tang Clan, Emei, and Qingcheng.

He could feel the people’s screams and deaths.

Today, the three factions that ruled Sichuan would fight a battle for their very survival.

Inside the hellscape those men had painted.

“Even after all these years… You truly are a Fiend.”

Tang Jinhu spat the words out through clenched teeth.

First Fiend answered with a smile brighter than ever.

“How kind of you. Could there be greater praise for this old man?”

“I’ll kill you.”

“Your body is old, but your dreams are ambitious.”

First Fiend laughed like a madman and raised the twin axes in his hands.

“Now, shall we taste blood again?”

As if that were the signal, hundreds of black-clad men who had already occupied the Outer Hall poured forward like a wave.

The Tang Clan martial artists who had survived stood in their way with the resolve to fight to the death.

“Go! Kill anything you see!”

“We have to stop them! Never let them into the Inner Hall!”

Those trying to break through and those trying to stop them.

At the very front, two men charged straight toward each other.

Screeeech!

Tang Jinhu threw the Soul-Severing Thread with every ounce of his strength, firm resolve shining in his eyes.

Family Head, please be safe.

Kwahhhhhng!

“Cough!”

Tang Sadok stared at his palm with trembling eyes. Small pieces of internal organs were mixed in with the dark-red blood.

“How… How could this…”

His head slowly rose with his exhausted voice.

At that moment, another life disappeared.

Thud! Crash!

The body of a man whose head had vanished collapsed like a rotten log.

Considering his fame in life, it was a death of unbelievable futility.

“Were they called the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders? They’re more capable than I expected.”

A few steps from the corpse, a middle-aged man wiped the blood spattered across his face and continued.

“Of course, we’ll have to call them something different now. Let me see… Yes, the Tang Clan’s Three Skills¹ seems appropriate.”

“…”

Tang Sadok looked at the middle-aged man through a blurred gaze.

The man had introduced himself as the Western Heaven Demon Lord, and the enemy who had killed Tang Sadok’s father was overwhelmingly strong. Neither Tang Sadok’s poison arts nor the combined assault of the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders had been of any use.

Is this really the end?

Tang Sadok still had enough strength to fight. The other three survivors among the Tang Clan’s Ten Wonders did as well.

But…

How are we supposed to stand against that monster?

What made him rise despite the despair weighing him down was the mettle he could display as the Family Head and the Tang blood flowing through his body.

“Not yet. It’s not over yet.”

“Why don’t you just sit down? You must be out of strength.”

“I don’t know why, but I know you have no intention of killing this old man.”

“…Hm. As I said, the Poison King raised his son well.”

“Then kill me.”

“That won’t do. But I do need to wear you down a little first.”

Just as the Western Heaven Demon Lord frowned and reached out toward Tang Sadok—

“Wait, please, wait!”

“…”

A young man came rushing in with a shout and let out a sigh of relief.

“Phew. I’m not too late. Thank you for waiting!”

Looking at the young man, Cheongpung, the Western Heaven Demon Lord thought,

What kind of lunatic is this?