Chapter 320 – Human Greed Never Has an End (2)

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Dam-ho’s indifferent gaze turned toward Tang Sa-il.

“Why did you do it?”

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you join hands with the Demon Cult?”

For a moment, Tang Sa-il’s eyebrows twitched. He never expected Dam-ho to come at him so directly. But he soon composed his expression and continued speaking.

“Isn’t it natural? Because of ambition.”

“Ambition?”

“Our wings were broken long ago. By the very same prestigious orthodox sects. They gave us the false honor of being the Three Lords of Sichuan and put shackles on us.”

“……”

“The Three Lords of Sichuan sounds nice. But isn’t it really the martial world’s intention for us to be satisfied living in Sichuan? For us, it was a heavenly punishment and an inescapable prohibition.”

The Tang Clan, which used poison and hidden weapons, was an object of fear to everyone. So the martial world limited the Tang Clan’s sphere of activity to Sichuan.

With the false honor of being the Three Lords of Sichuan.

The Tang Clan had long dreamed of leaving Sichuan and becoming the hegemon of the world. But with their power limited to Sichuan Province alone, they could never scheme for the world.

“That’s when they extended their hand.”

“So you’re saying you joined hands with the Demon Cult?”

“We’re just using each other out of necessity. They needed our poison, and we needed their secrets.”

Tang Sa-il continued speaking without hesitation.

Though Tang Sa-il usually showed almost no emotion, this moment was different.

The strangely heated air was heating up even his cool heart. But Tang Sa-il himself wasn’t aware of this fact as he glared at Dam-ho.

A man wearing completely torn black clothes.

That man, who seemed to have no healthy spots anywhere, was heating up the air in the area.

Hundreds of martial artists were surrounding Dam-ho. They were qualitatively different from the martial artists Dam-ho had faced until now.

Dam-ho’s gaze sank deeply.

At some point, his skin began to hurt as if being poked with an awl, and his eyes stung. The poison energy emitted by the Tang Clan’s martial artists was spreading through the air.

“Kek!”

“Heup!”

The crowds who had gathered to see Dam-ho suddenly clutched their throats and collapsed. They were instantly poisoned.

People who belatedly realized the situation screamed and fled in all directions.

“Uwaaak!”

“Save me!”

But before they could even take three or four steps, they collapsed one by one. Blood was flowing from their seven orifices.

Tang Sa-il didn’t even glance at the dying people.

They should have thought again before coming to this place. It was a place where the Tang Clan of the world was exercising its power. If they thought they could safely watch from such a place like watching someone else’s house on fire, they were mistaken.

The Tang Clan was not such a generous group.

Above all, Tang Sa-il didn’t want to reveal to the world yet that the Tang Clan had joined hands with the Demon Cult.

Dam-ho looked at the Tang Clan martial artists visible behind Tang Sa-il. Several of them particularly caught his eye.

Five martial artists with faces that looked especially emotionless. Their eyes were hollow like those of the dead.

It was a typical characteristic of soul-lost people.

Tang Sa-il said:

“You’ve probably faced Soul-less Warriors before?”

“……”

“But the Soul-less Warriors you faced were half-baked ones who couldn’t even display half their true power. These are truly worthy of being called real Soul-less Warriors.”

Tang Sa-il’s voice was full of pride.

The Soul-less Warriors were the true reason he had joined hands with the Demon Cult.

The madness that Tang Sa-il had been suppressing well until now appeared on his face. When madness was added to his glass-bead-like pupils, it became indescribably eerie.

That’s when it happened.

CRASH!

A gust of wind swept toward Tang Sa-il. Dam-ho had charged without warning.

Following his charging technique, Explosive Star Strike was deployed. But Tang Sa-il quickly threw his body backward as if he had already expected it, avoiding Dam-ho’s attack.

“Hmph! I’ve already figured out your methods.”

During this time, Tang Sa-il had closely analyzed Dam-ho’s tracks and discovered his attack patterns.

When Dam-ho was most frightening was precisely during his first attack.

Generally, martial artists who had gained some reputation valued others’ opinions and restrained themselves from attacking first if possible, but Dam-ho had no such thing.

He preferred first strikes without caring about martial world reputation. Many people were caught helpless because they never expected a master like Dam-ho to attack out of nowhere.

“But I’m different.”

Even while conversing, Tang Sa-il had been continuously monitoring Dam-ho’s movements. So the moment he felt strange signs, he threw his body backward without hesitation.

But there was something he hadn’t expected.

Whirrr!

A strange attractive force occurred from Dam-ho’s body and grabbed his ankle.

“What?”

CRASH!

At that moment, Dam-ho’s fist struck Tang Sa-il. He barely concentrated power in both palms to block Dam-ho’s fist, but couldn’t completely deflect the impact.

“Kreuk!”

A frustrated groan flowed from Tang Sa-il’s mouth. His neatly tied hair was completely disheveled and fluttered messily.

At that moment, Dam-ho’s consecutive attacks came rushing in.

With Dam-ho’s attacks continuing without a word, Tang Sa-il had to move without even a moment to breathe.

“How dare!”

“Attack!”

If the Tang Clan martial artists hadn’t intervened at the right time, Tang Sa-il would have suffered greater hardship.

The Soul-less Warriors attacked Dam-ho first.

Since Soul-less Warriors had no reason, they had no emotion called fear. They blocked Dam-ho’s attacks with their bodies.

CRASH!

With a roar, their bodies swayed. But no wounds were visible anywhere on their bodies.

A subtle green energy was already surrounding their bodies. It was Body Protection Poison Shield.

Tang Sa-il, who had barely caught his breath, uttered a voice filled with killing intent:

“Hunt the Fist Demon.”

The Tang Clan martial artists all moved simultaneously.

Rustle!

The sound of clothes brushing against the ground echoed eerily.

Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

It was a formation method passed down like a legend within the Tang Clan.

The Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation was literally a formation combining a thousand poisons. The number of martial artists participating in the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation was about four hundred. Each of them possessed two or three different poisons and knew how to use them freely.

When four hundred people each deployed two or three poisons, it became over a thousand, and these poisons would dramatically increase in potency through mutual generation and harmony, creating entirely new poisons.

No human could endure the dozens of absolute poisons newly formed through harmony with over a thousand poisons. No matter how terrifying poison techniques a martial artist had learned.

The Tang Clan martial artists deploying the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation were the same. They were poison users, not poison people whose entire blood was made of poison. That’s why the formation was important.

The air currents that arose when deploying the formation could protect their bodies from poison temporarily. But those who deviated from the rules would have their entire bodies melt away due to the poison they themselves had deployed. That’s why Soul-less Warriors made from soul-lost people were important.

Soul-less Warriors were poison people whose blood was made of poison. Not only could they move freely within the terrifying poison energy of the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation, but they could absorb the surrounding poison energy to display even more terrifying power.

That was the reason Tang Sa-il had joined hands with the Demon Cult. The Demon Cult had applied the method of making soul-lost people to Soul-less Warriors.

With the Soul-less Warriors joining, the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation became complete. No human could survive before the terrifying poison energy of the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

“Melt him down without leaving even a bone fragment.”

Tang Sa-il muttered while looking at the battlefield.

His eyes were completely dyed green.

Swoosh!

A thousand poisons were scattered. Hazy green smoke confused the vision.

The poisons that had been floating randomly in the air began to sweep toward Dam-ho like blades according to the rules of the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

Hiss!

Dam-ho tore cloth to cover his mouth, nose, and ears. And he closed his eyes.

He didn’t know how much the cloth would block the poison energy, but it would be better than being completely defenseless.

Tssss!

The sound of poisonous wind like blades echoed eerily. Even with his ears covered by cloth, the sound pierced sharply.

The atmosphere in the area rippled as if thousands or tens of thousands of bees were flapping their wings simultaneously.

Dam-ho’s black clothes, which had already been like rags, slowly melted away in the poisonous wind.

The problem didn’t end there.

Swoosh!

The Soul-less Warriors all attacked simultaneously. Every time they threw punches and swung feet, terrifying poison energy arose and covered Dam-ho.

Dam-ho deployed Explosive Star Strike toward the Soul-less Warriors in the lead.

CRASH!

With a roar, the Soul-less Warrior’s body swayed.

It was a strike powerful enough to pierce even a large castle wall in one go. But the Soul-less Warrior only staggered and suffered no damage whatsoever.

This was impossible with a Soul-less Warrior’s power alone. Dam-ho, who had already faced Soul-less Warriors, knew this fact best.

Dam-ho’s eyes narrowed.

Tang Clan martial artists were placing their hands on the back of the Soul-less Warrior struck by Explosive Star Strike.

Power transmission through the body.

An advanced technique of transmitting each other’s internal energy was being deployed.

Only then could Dam-ho understand the true nature of the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

An advanced combined formation where poison techniques and power transmission through the body harmonized. It was an unknown formation Dam-ho had never experienced even once.

Swoosh!

Soul-less Warriors rushed in with the wind-like blades. The Tang Clan martial artists added their internal energy to them.

In an instant, a green barrier was created around Dam-ho.

It was a space completely cut off from the outside. Tremendous pressure was being applied to Dam-ho trapped inside.

Seeing this, Tang Sa-il smiled.

“People call you the Fist Demon and fear you, so you must have rampaged madly without knowing how high the sky is. But that too ends today. The Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation is definitely not a formation an individual can handle.”

The Tang Clan had conceived the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation a very long time ago.

When the Demon Cult first revealed itself to the world, the Tang Clan had also clashed with them. The damage the Tang Clan suffered then was indescribably enormous.

Especially the damage inflicted by Cho Gwak, the Demon Cult’s leader at the time called the Destruction Emperor Divine Demon, nearly led the Tang Clan to near annihilation.

The Tang Clan realized then how far an individual could become strong. And they felt fear at the fact that the castle they had built over hundreds of years could crumble like sand grains by just one person. That’s how the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation was created.

However, the formation created with the Demon Cult’s leader in mind couldn’t be completed for hundreds of years. It was because they couldn’t create poison people capable of withstanding the terrifying power of the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

The completion of such a Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation was paradoxically because they received help from the Demon Cult. Though the Tang Clan’s predecessors had so tried to check and defeat the Demon Cult, later generations joined hands with the Demon Cult and completed the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

If this fact became known, they would receive condemnation from the martial world, but Tang Sa-il was calm. If he could just kill Dam-ho here today and perfectly control Sichuan Province, he wouldn’t fear anyone.

Sichuan Province’s closed terrain was like a natural fortress, and even if the Martial Alliance was mobilized, they would have no choice but to retreat after suffering many losses. Moreover, it was impossible for the Martial Alliance, busy with the war against the Demon Cult, to pay attention to distant Sichuan Province.

CRASH CRASH CRASH!

A poisonous typhoon swept around Dam-ho as the center. Soul-less Warriors approached riding the wind. They attacked Dam-ho with full power.

CRASH! CRASH!

Roars burst forth and fierce winds swept in all directions.

Dam-ho’s body was flung this way and that way.

No matter how profound his power was, with his single body he couldn’t match the power transmission through the body deployed by over four hundred martial artists.

BANG!

Dam-ho’s Single Yang Strike hit a Soul-less Warrior’s head. His body, which bounced away from the strong impact, was caught by Tang Clan martial artists behind him. And they injected internal energy through power transmission through the body.

The Soul-less Warrior who had momentarily lost consciousness quickly regained his senses and counterattacked.

CRASH!

Dam-ho’s body was flung backward.

Other Soul-less Warriors’ attacks poured down indiscriminately on top of that.

A typhoon infused with poison energy pressed down on his entire body, and Soul-less Warriors deployed wave attacks. Plus the Tang Clan martial artists supporting the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation.

Dam-ho’s appearance was as precarious as a candle before a typhoon. Blood was flowing from his nose and mouth. Yet he didn’t retreat and was facing the Thousand Poison Soul Annihilation Formation head-on. His appearance was even tragic.

“Today, this place is your grave, Fist Demon.”

Then Dam-ho kicked the ground. His body shooting forward like a battering ram.

It was the moment when Tang Sa-il was about to say “not a chance” with a face full of ridicule.

CRASH!

With a thunderous sound, the body of the Soul-less Warrior in the lead was flung away. Tang Clan martial artists tried to inject internal energy against such a Soul-less Warrior’s back.

Swoosh!

At that moment, Dam-ho leaped over the Soul-less Warrior’s body and covered the Tang Clan martial artists.

A typhoon-like poison wind pressed down on his entire body, and his body’s meridians were about to melt from the terrifying poison energy. Still, Dam-ho didn’t stop.

The moment he stopped would be death. He had to move.

If he had even the strength to exhale one breath.

Dam-ho’s eyes flickered white.

CRASH!