Chapter 684

RRRUMBLE!

The earth shook with a thunderous roar.

Ancient trees whose roots had held for longer than anyone could guess. Boulders weighing ten thousand geun.¹ Even the strange creatures of the Poisonblood Grounds that had been hiding somewhere, watching the battle with bated breath.

All were buried as the earth heaved and overturned like a wave.

KRRRUNCH!

It was hot.

At the center of the shock wave, I felt a scorching wind whip around me. There was not a trace of coolness in the muggy air, and the thick dust cloud covering dozens of jang² left me unable to see a thing.

But I remembered clearly how the old man had driven both palms, packed with immense Yin-Cold Qi, toward the spearhead bearing down on him. I remembered the red blood gushing from his body, too, and the White Tiger’s figure disappearing into the distance in a flurry of white fur.

That bastard…

Muyaho’s sudden ambush on the Great Snow Fiend had not been planned. I had told him the opposite: stay out of the fight and find Yohi, who was probably being held captive somewhere in the Poisonblood Grounds.

Even if I died here today, I wanted that clever beast to get out alive. If he went to the Nanman Beast Palace with the two Great Chieftains, there would still be hope of preventing the disaster to come.

But Muyaho had ignored me, and his reckless, dangerous ambush had worked.

It was a tiny difference, but it was there. The unexpected attack slowed the Great Snow Fiend’s reaction.

Sending White Flame flying—practically an extension of myself—had been worth it.

A wounded hunter who had lost his composure was no longer a hunter. He was prey.

Where are you?

POP!

I muttered the question and shot forward.

Thick dust swirled around me. Soil and stones rained down on every side. They blocked my sight and masked every presence, so I drove a fist through them.

BOOM!

I did not even need to put internal energy into it. My fist broke the sound barrier, and compressed air burst outward under the force of the blow.

The enormous dust cloud split in two, revealing what lay beyond.

FWOOSH!

Hot wind swept past me. The instant I glimpsed someone’s blood-soaked clothes through the dust, I reached out without hesitation.

I had fought hard for this opening. Now that the balance was beginning to tip my way, I could not let it slip—even if it meant revealing abilities I had yet to show the Great Snow Fiend.

Inventory Open. Summon.

With the command in my mind, I hurled the spear that appeared in my hand with all my strength.

SHWAAAAK! BOOM!

It split the air and struck with a thunderous roar. Before the sounds had faded, another spear was in my hand.

SHWIK!

Again.

KWAANG!

And again.

More. More. More, more.

My body moved as fast as I could think. I twisted my waist, drew back my shoulder, and put my full weight behind each throw. The spears devastated everything around me like a bombardment.

RRRUMBLE!

I ignored the dust cloud as it began to rise again after briefly scattering.

I was pouring out attacks even more powerful than that.

Every spear was cheap iron, nothing compared to White Flame. But once I sent one flashing from my hand, no one it struck would come away unharmed.

Even a Supreme Peak master. No…

Not even the Great Snow Fiend.

BOOM! KWAANG! KRAAA-BOOM!

Explosions roared without pause. In a matter of moments, I drove more than ten spears into the earth like bolts of lightning.

Then I saw it.

KRRK! SPLAAASH!

Beyond the thick dust, bright-red blood scattered into the air to the grisly sound of torn flesh.

There you are.

Certain now, I stepped forward. The tip of my foot, bearing the weight of a thousand geun,¹ dug deeply into the overturned earth.

KRRRUNCH. BOOM!

An explosion occurred at the same time as I compressed my internal energy. I surged forward, erasing more than ten jang² of space in an instant, and plunged into the dust cloud.

The noise and falling debris had made it nearly impossible to tell front from back. But I did not hesitate.

I’ve already seen him.

My sharp senses detected the metallic scent of blood, and my keen eyesight once again found someone’s back through the dust cloud.

The Great Snow Fiend had been injured blocking White Flame. He could not be faster than me now.

I summoned a spear from my Inventory and slashed it down diagonally.

SHIIING.

With a low sound of splitting air, blue-white flames rose around the spearhead and slowly cut through the wind.

But the spearhead was not the only thing that had slowed. Extreme concentration paralyzed my brain and brought the world to a standstill.

In that frozen moment, the flames parted the dust and touched the edge of the man’s clothes. Certainty flashed through me.

It’s over—!

Then why did I feel this inexplicable chill? This strange sense of déjà vu?

One more chi³ would end everything. Why was my body trying to retreat against my mind’s command?

I understood at once. It was reason, but it was instinct too—instinct that had acted before reason could.

The Great Snow Fiend.

An old monster who had crawled out of the depths of a distant past. But what made him dangerous was not that he was a Supreme Peak master who had opened his Middle Dantian.

He possessed something the overwhelmingly powerful Blood Lord and Western Heaven Demon Lord had lacked—or had never felt any need for.

Caution. Thoroughness. Those were the old monster’s sharpest weapons.

The Great Snow Fiend, this easy?

No. Not the Great Snow Fiend I had fought.

In a fraction of an instant, I twisted with all my strength. My body stopped short, and the internal energy surging through me like a raging sea reversed course.

Hot blood welled up in my throat. My spearhead veered in midair and sliced through the clothes.

Then I saw it clearly.

SHNK.

In the slow-moving world, flesh and bone parted beneath the spearhead like tofu. Blood drifted upward as though weightless. Beyond it, disheveled hair fluttered, and over the shoulder of a corpse already dead, a pair of cold eyes gleamed.

I’ll return it to you. Exactly the way you did.

I felt those words from a voice I could not hear.

Then a bitterly cold flash erupted from the gaping hole in the Black Hand Fist Demon’s chest.

SHWAAASH!

I knew at once. I could not dodge this attack.

But I could avoid a fatal wound. Covering my upper body was Fire Dragon Armor, the extraordinary divine weapon I had gained by killing the Western Heaven Demon Lord.

But…

KRRUNCH! THUD!

Cold—and hot at the same time.

The Yin-Cold Qi seeping into my body. And the spearhead of another divine weapon, White Flame, which had broken through Fire Dragon Armor and lodged in my chest.

BEEP. BEEP. BEEEEP!

System

• Part of Fire Dragon Armor has been destroyed by powerful energy!
• Time remaining until Fire Dragon Armor is automatically repaired: 3 days
• Yin-Cold Qi is violently shaking your insides!
• Status abnormality: Bleeding
• Status abnormality: Massive Internal Injury
• There is a risk of qi deviation! Calm your energy as soon as possible!
• Your body has suffered severe internal and external damage!

…

…

…

My vision grew hazy from the horrible pain. As warning sounds continued to pierce my ears without pause, I thought:

This was truly turning out to be one hell of a day.

Jin Taekyung was not the only one who felt the world stop in that instant.

Hidden in the dust, waiting for his final chance, the Great Snow Fiend felt it too. After the longest, hardest wait of his nearly century-long life, he could finally let out the breath he had been holding.

KRRUNCH. THUD!

A spearhead buried in a man’s chest. A body trembling. Eyes filled with pain and despair.

“Gueeek!”

SPLASH!

Dark-red blood mixed with bits of organs splattered across the Great Snow Fiend’s face.

The foul, bloody stench filled his nose, but it did not bother him. No, what stunned him was the sight of that young bastard still alive.

What a lunatic.

The Great Snow Fiend’s plan would have been perfect if Jin Taekyung had not twisted away at the last moment. The spearhead meant for his heart had struck his chest instead.

And if this old man hadn’t adjusted the thrust to follow him… it would only have caught his side.

A chill ran down the Great Snow Fiend’s spine.

He had revised his assessment of Jin Taekyung long ago.

Not fifty years. Thirty. No—perhaps in twenty, he’ll rival the Martial God and the Heavenly Demon.

A monstrous talent. A determination fiercer than fire.

It went beyond martial arts. It was strength that came from the man himself, an aura that inspired not merely wariness but fear.

In the Great Snow Fiend’s eyes, Jin Taekyung was already strong enough to stand beside the leaders of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families. Even beside the Ten Kings, he would not fall short.

But this is as far as you go.

GRIND.

The Great Snow Fiend gritted his teeth and tightened his grip on the spear shaft.

His right sleeve hung empty, as though something had torn the arm from it. He had lost it to the White Tiger’s ambush and the spear that had come crashing down immediately afterward. He had no regrets.

An arm was nearly as precious as his life, but Dark Heaven’s uncanny sorcerers would surely find a solution without much difficulty.

What mattered now was that he could finish Jin Taekyung—that terrifyingly tenacious monster.

Did I not tell you? You will die, and this old man will live. That is the natural order. Heaven’s mandate.

Fear and joy mingled on the Great Snow Fiend’s face as he gathered the little strength he had left.

The cool shaft of Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron drove deeper into Jin Taekyung’s chest.

KRRUNCH!

The spearhead, wreathed in cold instead of flame, dug into its owner’s chest. Flesh split, bone cracked, and Jin Taekyung’s body jerked.

PFFT. SPLAAASH!

Blood spurted like a fountain. His eyes slowly dimmed.

The Great Snow Fiend had watched countless people die. He had never been more certain.

No one can save him now. Not the Divine Physician. Not even the Great Firmament Immortal.

But he had forgotten something.

The young man dying right before his eyes was an existence akin to supernatural powers—something that could not be predicted by his judgment.

GRAB. THRUST!

He had neither time nor strength to respond.

In his eyes, coldness gave way to shock. Reflected there was Jin Taekyung, gripping the spear shaft with all his strength and pushing himself forward, driving it deeper into his own chest.

And in his blood-soaked hand, the last flame burned.

“……!”

Blue-white light-flames spread across the Great Snow Fiend’s widened eyes.

FWOOSH—KWAANG!