Chapter 96 :

Chapter 96. The Sharpest Blade in the Darkness (3)

“Eldest Senior Brother likes money.”

Eunho, Seong Moran, and Cho Mubin had been subjected to concentrated attacks from the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps during the early stages of the battle.

Following the explanation that the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps hated light, Eunho set fires in every direction whenever he found an opening.

By the time he had spread fire throughout the area, many examinees had already sensed that something was wrong and begun fleeing.

The problem was Seong Moran, who had exhausted all her internal energy while holding back the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps.

“But I heard men feel burdened when a woman’s family has too much money.”

“…I do not think that is always true. We have a new junior sister named Wang Soso. Her family is extremely wealthy, but Eldest Senior Brother did not seem particularly uncomfortable around her.”

Having exhausted both her internal energy and stamina, Seong Moran was no longer in any condition to fight.

While saying various things to help her regain her strength, Eunho discovered that she reacted whenever he mentioned Eldest Senior Brother.

That was why they were now having a conversation completely unsuited to the middle of a battlefield.

“Wang Soso? You mean the only daughter of the Wang Family Estate? Wang Soso entered the Taeul Sect?”

“You knew her?”

“Of course I know her. The Wang Family Estate is one of the three greatest merchant families under heaven. Besides, she is incredibly beautiful. Damn it, I thought my only rival was Junior Sister Chong.”

“Did the two of them perhaps develop feelings for each other?”

Eunho wondered whether such a topic truly mattered on a battlefield where people were constantly crossing the boundary between life and death.

However, when he saw Seong Moran’s sword art become fiercer as she asked the question, he answered obediently.

“No. The two of them barely had any time to meet in the first place.”

Of course, there was a rumor within the sect that Jin Sowoon might marry into the Wang Family Estate as a live-in son-in-law.

However, this was hardly the time to mention it, so Eunho left that part out.

“Feelings between a man and a woman can develop in a short time.”

Seong Moran’s sword began slowing again.

She looked dejected and increasingly exhausted.

Eunho blocked an attacker who tried to strike her from behind and spoke.

“To Eldest Senior Brother, Junior Sister Wang is no more and no less than his youngest sister. Besides, she is not even his ideal type.”

“Really?”

Seong Moran swung her sword with a heavy whoosh, reducing two examinees to bloody pulp with tremendous destructive force.

Even while exhausted, she wielded a greatsword twice as heavy as an ordinary sword as though it weighed nothing.

Eunho found the sight astonishing.

“Then what kind of woman does Young Master Jin like?”

Eunho had never cared enough to wonder what kind of woman Eldest Senior Brother preferred, so he had no idea.

However, this was not the time to worry about accuracy.

He blurted out whatever seemed useful in the current situation.

“He likes strong women.”

“Women who never give up, no matter the situation, and overcome every trial placed before them.”

“…Is that really his ideal type?”

Eunho realized he might have gone too far, but he did not change his expression.

Had he not learned from Eldest Senior Brother that confidence was everything when deceiving someone?

“You have seen Eldest Senior Brother yourself. Is he not someone with a harsher, more tenacious, and stronger mind than anyone else?”

“…True. He certainly looks stubborn enough to be insane.”

Although they were talking about Jin Sowoon, Seong Moran’s sword continued slowing.

Her arm trembled as she blocked an enemy’s sword.

The problem was no longer her internal energy.

The prolonged battle had drained her stamina to the point of collapse.

“Ah, there is one more thing. I am certain about this.”

“What?”

“He likes women who eat well. Women who are not picky and enjoy all kinds of food.”

“Really?”

As Eunho spoke, he pulled a large amount of dried meat from his pouch and stuffed it into his mouth.

He deliberately showed Seong Moran so that she would naturally imitate him.

“I eat well.”

Seong Moran also grabbed a handful of dried meat and forced it into her mouth.

Since his plan was working so well, Eunho decided to become even more shameless.

“And he likes women who are good at coordinating within sword formations.”

“…”

Despite the urgency of the situation, Seong Moran took the time to glare suspiciously at Eunho.

“Coordinating in a sword formation means matching both actions and hearts, does it not? Eldest Senior Brother likes women who communicate well with others.”

At Eunho’s confident words, Seong Moran’s sword form gradually stabilized and began matching the formation.

Cho Mubin, who had been struggling because Seong Moran kept breaking away from formation, gave Eunho a slight nod of gratitude.

“Hmm… Eldest Senior Brother also likes women who take good care of his junior brothers.”

Eunho had no idea what consequences his lies might cause.

However, for now, he had no choice but to keep inventing things.

After all, Jin Sowoon had ordered him to fight alongside Seong Moran and protect her.

‘He never specified what method I had to use.’

Thinking about the distant future was a luxury right now.

I moved toward the darkness.

It was the opposite of my previous life, when I had spent my time fleeing from it.

This time, I pursued it relentlessly.

As I moved between patches of darkness, I also checked on the warriors of Namgung Seonhwa’s and Seong Moran’s respective sects.

I would soon have to fight countless political enemies within the righteous faction.

If the Azure Emperor Divine Sword or the Iron Sword Sect Master learned that Seong Moran or Namgung Seonhwa had followed me and met with some terrible misfortune, neither would remain still.

“I already have enough enemies. There is no reason to create more.”

Corpses littered every battlefield where the darkness had descended.

The rules stated that murders and violence committed during the Martial Academy entrance examination would not be questioned.

Even so, examinees generally followed a minimum standard of conduct.

There was no chance that demonic practitioners would respect the customs of the righteous faction.

They cast secrecy aside and, just as they had in my previous life, tore corpses to pieces so no one could perform a confirming examination afterward.

Their objective was to keep their identities hidden.

For that reason, the ones who had originally targeted us were now prioritizing those attempting to flee the battlefield.

For me, this was the first opportunity to expose the existence of the Demonic Cult to the entire world.

Although everyone here had originally come to steal my checkpoint plaques, I was now running myself ragged trying to save as many fleeing people as possible.

“They will not believe it after seeing it only once.”

The corrupt powers of the righteous faction already believed themselves to be the eternal masters of the murim world.

They would refuse to face even the truth before their eyes.

However, if such an incident occurred two or three times, they would at least become slightly more vigilant.

Then perhaps they would not commit the idiotic act of throwing low-ranking warriors of the Alliance directly at the elites of the Demonic Cult.

“Perhaps I am asking for too much.”

There had been many similar battlefields in my previous life.

Whenever darkness descended over the Alliance’s warriors, the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps would appear.

Whenever someone reported that the darkness itself had killed people, the only response was that they should stop speaking nonsense.

A full two thousand low-ranking warriors of the Alliance died that way.

The Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps became the beings most feared by the Alliance’s low-ranking warriors.

They left deep scars even in the minds of those who survived.

Those survivors spent the rest of their lives avoiding darkness.

“That makes me curious. How long does it take to create a single member of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps, which operated with only twenty members throughout the entire Righteous-Demonic War?”

“Kehk.”

The member of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps, whose vocal cords had melted away, died while shedding tears of blood.

“That makes ten.”

Including the one I had killed first with the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, the total was eleven.

“It is a shame I cannot collect monthly wages from the Sojeong Unit bastards.”

In my previous life, the members of the Sojeong Unit had promised to give half their monthly wages for the rest of their lives to anyone who killed even one member of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps.

“Ugh…”

Someone who appeared to be an examinee was crouched at my feet, clutching his wound and trembling in fear.

Fortunately, the enemy’s bone sword appeared to have pierced only his arm.

“Are you all right?”

“Wh-What in the world is that thing?”

The examinee trembled as he looked at the member of the Soul-Severing Corps held in my grip.

It was understandable.

Their appearance was horrifying beyond words.

“I do not know. I merely captured it because it appeared to have nothing to do with the examination.”

“…”

The moment I mentioned the examination, complicated emotions flickered in the examinee’s eyes.

“I-I came here to steal your checkpoint plaque.”

He looked as though he could not understand why I had saved someone like him.

“Do you still wish to challenge me?”

“…”

Ashamed of his circumstances, the examinee lowered his head.

“No matter how fierce the examination may be, are we not ultimately members of the same righteous faction?”

The corpse of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps member in my hand began turning limp.

Except for the one I had killed with the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, every corpse had undergone the same change.

When I threw the corpse to the ground, it dissolved with a hissing cloud of smoke.

After the heart stopped, Bone-Melting Acid embedded within the body automatically ruptured and erased all traces.

“At this rate, even the Martial Alliance will not believe us.”

The examinee responded to my bitter remark.

“I saw it! I saw it clearly with my own two eyes!”

“Then you must survive and return.”

“Avoid the darkness and take as many survivors with you as possible.”

“Will you be all right?”

My condition was so poor that even a complete stranger felt compelled to worry about me.

“If I do not keep moving, no one else will be able to deal with them. Then the number of meaningless casualties on this battlefield will only continue increasing.”

“Do not worry about me.”

“…Thank you.”

The examinee looked at me with an indescribably complicated expression, then nodded and helped support someone who could no longer walk.

After taking two or three steps, he briefly turned back toward me.

“Take care of yourself. I will repay this debt without fail.”

My internal energy had run out.

It had gone far beyond merely reaching the bottom.

The bones of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps had been modified until they were as hard as steel.

To destroy one instantly, I had to pour tremendous internal energy into every attack.

“I cannot use the Blue Dragon Ring either.”

The only method that came to mind was the Blue Dragon Ring.

Leaving aside how much internal energy the Blue Dragon Ring could extract from demonic energy, if anyone on this battlefield witnessed me using the Great Energy-Absorbing Art, they would unquestionably assume I was allied with the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps.

Even so, I was not entirely without options.

“I cannot simply stop. I will have to gamble.”

With every step, cracking sounds rang repeatedly from my muscles.

My joints screamed, and my blood raced faster than ever.

However, if I stopped moving now, no one here would survive.

If there were no survivors, the existence of the Demonic Cult would never be revealed to the world.

With the sound of air being torn apart, I leaped into the next patch of darkness.

I drew the Flying Dragon Claw, but its golden radiance had lost much of its original brilliance.

I swung the Demon-Severing Radiant Whip precisely toward the place where I sensed no presence.

Slash.

As expected, most of its power had disappeared.

The Demon-Severing Radiant Whip was weakly deflected, and a white bone sword within the darkness pierced the hearts of two examinees.

“I am your opponent, you bastards!”

Thud, thud, thud, thud!

Dozens of fist forms were swallowed by the darkness.

The creature that had pierced the examinees’ hearts used its fluid body to block every fist form.

Slash!

I swung the returning Flying Dragon Claw like a whip.

At last, the black fluid split apart, revealing the creature’s true body.

The exposed muscles of its skinless face twisted into a vivid expression.

The moment I drove the Twin Heaven Sword Art into it—

Squelch.

The fluid that had been split in half swallowed my entire body.

I had ultimately been engulfed within the creature’s fluid form.

Who are you?

“This feels disgusting.”

Once trapped inside the fluid, there was no way to escape.

My body was restrained, and I would eventually die when bone swords from unknown directions pierced through me.

What are you?

“The messenger of death who will send you back to the Demon God.”

I activated the Blue Dragon Ring at maximum power.

With suction this strong, light would ordinarily have escaped through the Flying Dragon Claw.

However, because I was trapped within the fluid, the strange phenomenon remained hidden from outside observers.

Could that be the Great Energy-Absorbing Art?

“You know it well.”

Impossible! You… are the Demon Fiend’s… Kehk!

The creature attempted to continue speaking while escaping my grip, but it could not resist the suction force of the Blue Dragon Ring.

The fluid surrounding me gradually began falling away.

I quickly reduced the Blue Dragon Ring’s suction.

Kehk… Why is the Demon Fiend’s child…

The creature’s form visibly aged and withered.

However, its original appearance had already been so grotesque that the change was barely noticeable.

“Ask the Demon God when you meet him.”

When I struck its neck, a fountain of red blood erupted in every direction.

“As expected, demonic energy is difficult to absorb.”

Although I had maximized the output and absorbed everything for a brief period, only a small amount of internal energy had accumulated in my dantian.

So you were responsible.

At that moment, I heard the voice of another member of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps.

“You do not give me even a moment to rest.”

I immediately threw myself toward the source of the voice.

To my surprise, the creature rapidly retreated backward.

Did you kill all the members by yourself?

Something felt strange.

Even in my previous life, the only things the members of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps ever said were “Die” and “Keeeek.”

Unlike the others, this creature’s voice was calm.

You were also the one who planned all of this.

“Interesting. Are you the captain of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps?”

The fluid within the darkness rippled clearly.

You are dangerous. You are someone who will ruin the grand plan.

“That is right. I intend to return everything you bastards did to us.”

I poured every trace of the internal energy I had recovered into the World-Solitary Divine Movement.

I tore through the air and rushed toward the creature, while it retreated at full speed.

Then an ear-splitting sound rang out from it across the battlefield.

Screeeeech!

Even those fighting frantically throughout the battlefield instinctively dropped their swords and covered their ears.

At the same time, the patches of darkness spread throughout the area, which had been extinguishing torches, stopped abruptly and began gathering toward this location.

“Wh-What in the world…”

“D-Did you see that? Can shadows really move that deliberately?”

“Hey! Look over here! C-Corpses!”

“Ugh!”

As the darkness gathered in one place, the people nearby saw the mountain of corpses and sea of blood created by the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps and began panicking.

The battle over the checkpoint plaques was over.

“Now that your identities have been exposed like this, will your grand plan not collapse?”

I do not know how you discovered us, but you and everyone here will bury your bones in this place today.

The darkness gathered into one mass and began spewing black vapor in every direction.

“Damn it!”

The moment I saw the black vapor, I instinctively cursed and shouted.

“Run! It is poison!”

Black-Bone Side Energy.

It was a peculiar form of demonic energy flowing through the bodies of those who had undergone the Corpse-Fluid Bone Sword procedure.

It could not technically be called poison, but it functioned like one.

The moment it entered the body, it corroded the bones and slowed movement.

Those with weak internal energy became as rigid as stones.

Even those with strong internal energy required a long time to expel the demonic energy.

The reason the bones of Wudang Sect’s Taejeong and Mount Hua Sect’s Yeon Umun had been found blackened and decayed was that they had been struck by the Black-Bone Side Energy.

I moved first, but even I became trapped within the Black-Bone Side Energy.

The examinees and warriors who reacted later than me suffered the same fate.

Now that their existence had been exposed in the chaotic battlefield, the creatures became even more cruel and ferocious.

They no longer cared that nearly one thousand people might preserve traces of their presence.

“You insane bastards.”

I extended the Demon-Severing Radiant Whip, seized one member of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps, and activated the Blue Dragon Ring.

I absorbed its internal energy with all my strength, but once again, only a small amount entered my dantian.

“Geum, Eun, Dong! Run!”

Starting from my waist, my entire body gradually became paralyzed.

I shouted with all the internal energy I had left, but it did not feel as though my voice spread outward.

‘Is this the end?’

Despite the countless people surrounding me, I could sense no presence at all.

Even my senses had grown numb.

Just as I thought all that remained was for a Corpse-Fluid Bone Sword to pierce my heart—

My right hand twitched.

Sensation returned from my fingers, climbed along my forearm, and reached my shoulder.

At that moment, I remembered an item I had obtained on the Maling Plateau.

The Heavenly Demon Sovereign Ring.

Because it resembled the Blue Dragon Ring, I had named it the Red Phoenix Ring and carried it with me.

That Red Phoenix Ring was neutralizing the Black-Bone Side Energy on its own.

Without even having time to continue thinking, I removed the Red Phoenix Ring from my right hand and placed it on my left hand together with the Flying Dragon Claw.

Then I reached into the darkness, seized one member of the Soul-Severing Corps, and activated the Blue Dragon Ring.

“Keh-heh-heh-hehk… Grrk.”

Internal energy surged into me through my left hand.

This was completely different from before, when only a tiny amount had been recovered after filtering out the dense demonic energy.

An enormous quantity of internal energy, like a vast ocean, instantly filled the Conception and Governing Vessels.

The internal energy completed a full circuit throughout my body, burning away all the Black-Bone Side Energy that had invaded me.

It then settled into my dantian as though it had always belonged there.

The Flying Dragon Claw extending from my left hand once again flashed with its original brilliance.

The darkness receded, revealing seven skull-like heads, all staring with rabbit-like eyes.

What is this?

I circulated the Taeul True Scripture through the principles of the Reverse Demon Scripture.

It was the same internal energy as before, but the energy I now released was completely different.

It was light, transparent, and above all, solid.

I scattered the Twin Heaven Sword Art in every direction.

It did not matter where I cut or whom I deceived.

The members of the Dark-Side Soul-Severing Corps were that close to me.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

Each time my sword moved, the darkness was torn apart and the grotesque screams of the corps members rang out.

You were hiding some strange technique.

The captain, who had lost two members in an instant, clicked his skull-like jaw as he spoke.

But do not think you will leave here alive.

“I do not believe I can defeat all of you yet either.”

These were creatures even the Ten Great Experts Under Heaven could not survive against.

Without surprise attacks and the Reverse Demon Scripture, I would never have been their opponent in the first place.

“Even so, I won.”

What?

“The sun is rising.”

Unaffected by the fierce battle that had continued throughout the night, brilliant light began spreading the first rays of dawn across the devastated plain.

“D-Damn it.”

“Tell the Heavenly Demon of this generation that the murim world now knows of the Demonic Cult’s existence.”