Pay‑to‑Win King of Martial Arts (Novel) - Chapter 221 - Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (4)

Chapter 221: Night Parade of One Hundred Demons (4)

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Translated by Heavenly Cat

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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I noticed that the Namwon Gang, including the Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand, was hesitating.

The unorthodox sects on Hainan Island were also divided into factions. Then again, since the most vicious bastards on the mainland had gathered on Hainan Island, they couldn’t possibly be contained within a single fence.

“Come out and talk. Stop hiding like cowards.”

The Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand spoke.

He said that despite having hidden himself until Gok Pyeong-un was defeated. He was not only a coward but an incredibly shameless bastard.

Gradually, people began crawling out from deep within the bushes one by one.

“That young master seems to have sharp senses. To think our Silent Concealment Art, which we learned from the Assassination Sect, would be exposed.”

Out of those who emerged, not a single one looked normal.

One had a fluttering empty sleeve as if missing his left arm; another had a severely collapsed saddle nose as if afflicted by leprosy; one was missing an ear; and another’s face was mangled with so many sword scars that he was unrecognizable. All of them had hideous and menacing appearances.

“Long time no see, Ugly-Faced Monster. I wonder when that tough life of yours will finally end.”

“There will be a good day to die.”

The man whose face was mangled with sword scars seemed to have the title of Ugly-Faced Monster. Besides him, others also exchanged greetings.

Every single one of their titles was as gruesome and terrible as their appearances.

The ones I had heard of were Seductive True Demon, Shadowless Black Guest, Three Poisons Ghost, One-Eared Asura, and Poison Hand Ghost Claw.

If someone like me, who had little interest in the unorthodox path, knew of them, one could easily guess how notorious they were. There were also many other unorthodox martial artists whom I had never heard of before.

The Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand looked at them with a fed-up expression. It seemed that even though they belonged to the same unorthodox path, he was thoroughly sick of their faces.

“First of all, shouldn’t we combine our strength in times like this?”

“Heh, you said the exact same thing when we faced the Divine Sword of the South Sea. And how did that turn out again?”

“I don’t recall.”

“Don’t recall my foot. When you thought you were going to die, didn’t you push me forward and run away?”

The One-Eared Asura flashed a murderous smile. The Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand snorted, looking completely devoid of guilt.

“I heard that you also survived by pushing the Heartless Guest into harm’s way.”

“Well, I had to survive, didn’t I?”

Just listening to their conversation made my head spin. It seemed they were constantly watching for a chance to stab each other in the back.

“But things are a bit different now. The Sly Sword of Hainan is a massive catch. For the sake of our collective survival, it is only right to kill him now.”

“That is true.”

Someone voiced their opinion. Their consensus was reached swiftly. Naturally, they decided to kill me first before discussing anything else.

Turbid intents began to overlap in the space around me. It was now impossible to tell where the intents were emanating from.

But it wasn’t entirely meaningless. The color of one’s intent revealed their nature. Usually, the intent of Wudang Sect members or prestigious orthodox practitioners was clear, whereas those who practiced unorthodox martial arts possessed turbid intents.

The moment the turbid intents converged to a single point at my heart, they kicked off the ground.

Their martial arts levels varied, but their veterancy was at least the real deal. Come to think of it, many of the orthodox martial artists I had fought had never engaged in real life-or-death battles.

However, the people here had at least personally committed murder. They didn’t hesitate in the slightest when launching killing strikes, and they knew exactly when to advance and when to retreat. These were movements impossible without seasoned experience.

I chanted the mnemonic of the Heavenly Demon Heart Art and spread the Primordial Origin Qi throughout my entire body. My ragged and sagging martial robes stiffened straight.

While only half a year had passed in reality, the time I experienced was closer to five years. During that time, I focused on internal energy rather than sword forms.

If sword forms were skill, internal energy was strength. I had always subdued people with skill, never with raw power. That was why I sought to balance power and technique.

And now, I was witnessing the results for the first time.

“What on earth is this…!”

I released my Primordial Origin Qi outward to form a Body-Protection Wall.

Zhu Mun-hwan truly deserved to be called my second master after Cheong-hwa. While Cheong-hwa had built my martial foundation, mindset, and structure, Zhu Mun-hwan had taught me real combat.

‘Narrow down the angle. The angle.’

‘The angle? The elbow angle?’

‘Why on earth would you narrow your elbow? I mean narrow down the angle from which you can be engaged!’

There were various ways to narrow the angle. One could put their back against a wall, change their stance, shift their position… And among those, I chose to create a Body-Protection Wall with my internal energy.

Like insects crashing into a window pane, the unorthodox martial artists bounced off, blocked by the Body-Protection Wall.

Even I was surprised by this. They were martial artists of a certain caliber. I had only expected the barrier to withstand a single sword strike, but it far exceeded my expectations.

With the angle narrowed, there were fewer opponents to deal with at once. I immediately performed a shock step and shot forward.

The internal energy rising from my lower dantian surged through my heart, shoulder, elbow, hand, and finally into the sword. In this very moment, the sword was an extension of my body.

The opponents’ swords snapped whenever they clashed with Myeong-a. Considering that even the famous sword of the Hainan Sect Elder had broken, it was only natural for the crude blades of these unorthodox bastards to shatter.

“What kind of sorcery is this?!”

To hear such words from unorthodox bastards, which I hadn’t even heard from orthodox practitioners… It was truly deeply moving.

If even they acknowledged it as sorcery, it meant it truly looked like magic. A strange sense of pride welled up within me.

Once their swords shattered, their true colors were revealed. The one-eared bastard kicked the Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand in the back, launching him toward me while using the recoil to leap backward.

I looked at the Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand as he flew toward me, having lost his balance. His eyes held regret rather than panic. It seemed he too had been plotting when to stab the others in the back.

Thrusting Myeong-a in a straight line, I skewered the Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand’s torso. Despite being pierced clean through in a straight line, the rotational force of the Primordial Origin Qi infused in the blade shredded his internal organs.

“Aaagh!”

The Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand shrieked his last breath as a final scream, but no one paid him any attention.

It was the same for me. Kicking the Soul-Snatching Ghost Hand’s mangled chest to extract my sword, I pursued the One-Eared Asura.

The One-Eared Asura glanced back and naturally shook his sleeves. Before I knew it, hand arrows were lodged between his fingers.

The arrowheads were barbed like caltrops, and their glistening tips indicated they had been coated in something.

Without hesitation, he hurled six hand arrows at me. A foul, pungent odor drifted closer with every inch the arrows gained.

My sword danced at a speed that even I found hard to adapt to. Deflecting them, I realized that the coating on the arrowheads was likely fecal water.

Since lethal poison was quite expensive, it seemed he had coated them in fecal water to cause an infection. It was disgustingly foul.

To them, the speed of the Heavenly Demon Body-Protection Scripture felt fast enough to be like lightning.

The One-Eared Asura glanced back again. He probably wanted to see if I had been struck by the hand arrows. But I had already leaped over his head and stood right in front of him.

“…?”

Before the One-Eared Asura could even turn his head forward, I roared and slashed his throat.

“Take that, you bastard!”

The reason I roared was that some of the fecal water had splashed onto my clothes while deflecting the hand arrows. Although I was going to discard these clothes soon anyway, it felt incredibly disgusting and unpleasant.

“Aaaah! He’s a lunatic!”

“A monster!”

With two of their key figures dead, the dozens of unorthodox martial artists scattered in all directions. Frankly, if they had engaged in a battle of attrition, I might have grown exhausted, but their unity was far too weak for that.

Before long, all the unorthodox martial artists of Hainan vanished from sight.

The Hainan disciples, who had been watching me while protecting Gok Pyeong-un behind me, stood with their jaws slack.

“…What in the…”

One of them couldn’t even finish his sentence.

Only Gok Pyeong-un smirked, as if he had expected this outcome.

“Now, shall we go take a look at the famous Hainan Sect?”

I wiped the blood off Myeong-a with a leaf and sheathed it.

“…Yes. Let’s do that. No, we absolutely must.”

Perhaps because they had witnessed my martial prowess, the Hainan disciples’ tone and gaze had become remarkably polite. Their eyes even held a trace of awe.

Just then, I felt another cluster of energy waves approaching us from afar. I stayed on guard, placing my hand on Myeong-a’s hilt.

Soon, they emerged from the bushes, landing around me and surrounding me.

However, I didn’t bother drawing my sword. Their attire was identical to Gok Pyeong-un’s. They were Hainan Sect disciples who had rushed from afar after sensing our energy waves.

“Who are you, you bastard?!”

“Elder, are you alright?”

The newly arrived Hainan disciples immediately pressed me. However, Gok Pyeong-un dragged his battered body and slapped the back of the head of the disciple who had shouted.

“What did you do so well to shout like that?!”

“Agh, what?”

The Hainan disciple looked back, feeling aggrieved. While keeping their guard up against me, the other surrounding disciples kept glancing at the corpses of the unorthodox martial artists.

It seemed they couldn’t quite comprehend the situation.

“He is my guest. Escort him.”

At Gok Pyeong-un’s words, the Hainan disciples quickly sheathed their swords and gave a martial salute.

“We apologize, Great Hero!”

“Shut up and stand guard. I need to temporarily regulate my internal injuries.”

“Ah. You suffered internal injuries from these damn unorthodox bastards.”

“Well, yes. Thanks to your incredibly swift arrival, I managed to survive. Thank you.”

Gok Pyeong-un’s sarcastic tone made the Hainan disciples look embarrassed. I was just grateful that he didn’t mention he had suffered the internal injuries from me.

“We apologize, Elder. We ran as fast as we could, but we were patrolling the opposite side…”

“I know, you brat.”

Gok Pyeong-un snapped and sat cross-legged to temporarily regulate his internal injuries. Since it was merely a temporary patch, he would likely need proper treatment once back at the Hainan Sect.

“Let’s go now.”

Having finished regulating his injuries, Gok Pyeong-un stood up. For a mainlander, it was the moment to head toward the Hainan Sect, a mysterious sect.

* * *

The Hainan Sect was located on Limu Peak of Wuzhi Mountain at the center of Hainan Island. Situated at the very heart of Hainan with high terrain, it offered a view of all surrounding villages—truly a heavenly location.

As soon as I arrived, I changed my clothes first. Whether it was the One-Eared Asura or the lop-eared bastard, they had splashed fecal water, and the feeling of my clothes brushing against my bare skin while running was extremely bothersome the entire way.

Washing up with clean water and changing clothes for the first time in a while refreshed my mood. Honestly, since circulating qi expelled wastes from my body, it wouldn’t have mattered if I didn’t wash, but washing was a matter of mood. After all, wouldn’t I face contempt if I proudly went around without washing?

Now that I had awakened as a martial artist, I felt the need to raise the standard as a member of the community.

“Did you rest well?”

“Yes. Did you treat your internal injuries well?”

“I did. Thanks to you.”

“There seems to be a bit of a thorn in your ‘thanks to you’. As expected of a senior who has spent a long time in the jianghu.”

“I had absolutely no intention of being sarcastic.”

“Perfect to the very end.”

I looked around the Hainan Sect under Gok Pyeong-un’s guidance. Perhaps because it was far from the mainland, it felt incredibly tranquil and quiet. Of course, the Wudang Sect was similar, but since the Hainan Sect faced the sea, it offered a slightly different atmosphere.

“Our Sect Leader would like to meet you.”

Once we finished a brief tour of the Hainan Sect, Gok Pyeong-un spoke.

“The Sect Leader? Why?”

I immediately raised my guard. What I needed right now was information on the mainland jianghu, the Wudang Sect, and the Radiant Crystal Merchant Company. There was no real need for me to meet the Sect Leader.

“If you were the Sect Leader, wouldn’t you be curious too? To hear that a young man barely past his youth defeated an Elder of his own sect.”

“I suppose so.”

“What you need is probably information, right? I don’t know much myself. However, our Sect Leader is privy to all information entering Hainan, so it will be beneficial for you as well.”

Gok Pyeong-un’s words were persuasive. I nodded. Honestly, I had no valid excuse to refuse. Since I had entered the Hainan Sect, I had to meet the Sect Leader if he wished for it.

“Yes, well. Let’s do that.”

I nodded. In any case, I needed someone who could provide me with information.

Gok Pyeong-un led me straight to the Sect Leader’s chamber. Fortunately, it wasn’t a private audience; Gok Pyeong-un entered with me.

Upon entering the chamber, I saw a robust old man sitting there, looking well over seventy. Unusually for a martial artist, he wore spectacles.

“So it is you.”

The Sect Leader of the Hainan Sect raised his eyes to look at me.

“The descendant of the Heavenly King Sect who has appeared once more.”

“…?”

At his sudden words, my eyes widened in surprise.

The Hainan Sect Leader quietly gazed at me with a calm look.