Volume 2 Chapter 8 – Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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The Black Claw Rabid Dog.

With his entire bare upper body densely covered in black skull tattoos, he was notorious as the specialized fixer of the Black Bone Gang.

He was in a different league from the common unorthodox martial artists who, despite having learned martial arts, merely killed ordinary people like government soldiers or bragged after killing a few swordsmen.

He had specialized in hunting down martial artists who stood in the way of the Black Bone Gang.

He was a born battle maniac who made life-and-death duels his calling.

The thing he cherished most was his favorite weapon, the Black Claw.

Made of an alloy mixed with ink-iron, which was incredibly hard, his claw had broken the weapons of countless enemies until now, and he did not doubt that it would continue to do so in the future.

And he was watching that ink-iron alloy claw shatter to pieces in a single exchange.

“Huh…?”

Neither the countless experiences of life-and-death duels he had accumulated so far, nor the sharp senses built upon those experiences, were of any use.

The opponent’s hand, which came in while crushing his cherished weapon, smashed his breastbone, tore his heart to shreds, severed his spine, and then protruded from his back.

Up to that point, it was a single exchange.

The one called the Praying Mantis Ghost Demon was sliced into three pieces in mid-air without even being able to swing his chain-sickle once.

The one called the Iron Pillar had his body melted by the terrible demonic qi after the first strike, and his breath was cut short.

The master of the Dark Cloud Art, the Twin Flood Dragon Hands who was said to handle twin swords as if they were alive, and even the One Kill, One Question.

They were torn apart in mid-air without being able to launch any attack, becoming a red mist.

Each and every one of them was someone who had made a name for themselves in the unorthodox martial world of Luoyang.

Yet, no one was even able to resist properly.

It was a one-sided slaughter.

“C-Crazy…?!”

The Tiger Hunter, Gang Ja-mu, quickly assessed the situation.

As soon as he saw those who had climbed the tower first get sliced to pieces and scattered, he turned his body around.

Then, utilizing his proud movement technique, he ran down the outer wall of the tower.

His slightly excessive quickness to grasp the situation and his outstanding movement technique were the primary contributors that had kept him alive until now.

Of course, this time he had met the wrong opponent.

He was disassembled in mid-air without even knowing what he had been hit by.

His blood and flesh were sprayed onto those who were climbing the tower behind him.

And those who were covered in it soon met the same fate.

Those who were climbing the outer wall of the tower died and fell in droves.

Wherever the figure wrapped in black demonic qi crossed, blood flowers carrying a fishy scent bloomed.

The sight was like an ink-colored serpent crawling down the tower.

“You foolish bastards! Don’t climb the tower!”

When those who had jumped in first were killed in vain, those following behind realized that climbing the tower, where movement was difficult, was a foolish thing to do.

“Encircle him widely!”

Although nearly twenty percent of them were killed in an instant, they did not give up easily.

No matter how monster-like a majesty the opponent displayed, a limit to internal energy clearly existed even for masters who had crossed the wall.

“Buy time! Buy time somehow!”

“Don’t try to strike back head-on! Use your footwork! Help from the sides!”

And they believed that if he wasted his internal force recklessly like that at the beginning of the battle, an opportunity would surely arrive.

That was why those who had reached the wall or felt its existence were peeking for an opportunity at the very back.

Their thoughts were identical.

‘Once that guy’s internal force shows its bottom…!’

* * *

The beautiful girl who had fought against Geum-ju alongside Gyu had received emergency treatment from a Crescent Moon Pavilion agent and was standing on a roof.

For she could not miss the Dark Venerable’s battle.

“Wow, this makes no sense. Seriously.”

Her small mouth gaped wide.

At first, she too had given up on the tower and made the same judgment as those who widely encircled the Dark Venerable on the ground.

Against a master, it was important to buy time through a battle of attrition to deplete the opponent’s internal force.

Yet the Dark Venerable was clearing the field with the same power and speed as the beginning, as if to ridicule such common sense.

As if he possessed infinite internal force.

“Amazing…”

She held her two hands together, feeling a thrilling shiver.

It was awe, the emotion felt when welcoming an absolute existence.

“Crazy…”

At her appearance, the large-bodied man whose entire body was almost wrapped in bandages shook his head.

At his reaction, the beautiful girl puffed out her cheeks.

“What is crazy?”

Trembling at the flesh-cutting killing intent felt even from a distance, the man replied,

“…I knew long ago that your head was broken, but you find that cool? I cannot understand it at all.”

The sight of the Dark Venerable twisting and pulling off the neck of an unorthodox martial artist entered his eyes.

As soon as his head was grabbed, that unorthodox martial artist did his best.

However, caught by the white hands rising from the ground, he could not even resist properly.

In the meantime, two unorthodox martial artists aimed for the Dark Venerable’s rear with their respective weapons.

But the Dark Venerable had already vanished, leaving behind only the torso that had lost its head.

While those who lost their target were temporarily flustered, the Dark Venerable smoothly raised his body behind them.

His hands flashed.

The two unorthodox martial artists died with their waists split apart, scattering blood and intestines.

Beyond the sight of them being split and dying, the Dark Venerable was holding the head he had twisted and pulled off in his mouth.

The abnormally wide-opened ‘maw’ of ‘it’ chewed and crushed the head at once.

It burst into wild laughter.

Struck by the wild laughter, the unorthodox martial artists faltered.

From its maw, the contents of the crushed head flowed down here and there.

It was an extremely bizarre sight.

The bandaged man felt disgust and fear simultaneously.

“…That cannot be human.”

The Dark Venerable.

When he first heard the rumors, he actually sneered a little.

Handing down heavenly punishment on behalf of heaven.

Wasn’t that childish to the extreme?

He had thought another eccentric chivalrous hero burning with a sense of justice had appeared somewhere.

And on the other hand, he had felt admiration.

A feat that reduced the powerful Black Bone Gang to name only within a mere two days was something he could only dream of.

However, the Dark Venerable he saw in reality had no resemblance to his vague imagination.

That was merely in a shape similar to a human.

The unknown, hair-raising energy completely surrounding the area, the sight of driving people to death with bizarre sounds, the white hands rising from the ground and swallowing the corpses, and even chewing and eating people alive with a maw filled with awl-like teeth.

It was a scene that looked as if it had just run out from the worst nightmare.

He knew.

The reason he could maintain his sanity was thanks to him being this far away from that thing.

And above all, it was thanks to the fact that its target was not himself.

“A demonic entity…”

With what other words could he refer to that?

* * *

“Don’t come near! I said, don’t come!”

He had waited until the very end.

He had only prayed for the guy’s strength to drain.

However, that was a miscalculation.

He had been facing the wall right before his eyes.

Having been specially invited after receiving a large sum of money from Geum-ju, he immediately poured out all the ultimate arts he knew.

“Aaaaargh!”

He did not bear in mind the distribution of internal energy or the aftermath of the fight at all.

He poured out his everything, literally all of it.

The ultimate arts that had brought down countless martial artists devastated the front.

It was powerful enough to cause several structurally unstable buildings to collapse.

He poured out everything to the point of wondering if he had ever poured out his ultimate arts to this extent until now.

They were attacks so perfectly executed that he felt as if he had caught a glimpse beyond the limit for a moment.

“Huff, puff.”

He barely stood, leaning on his long saber.

As his internal force was rapidly and completely exhausted, his vision spun, and it felt as if all his acupoints were about to burst.

“Bleah!”

It was an absurd, reckless operation of internal energy that he would never have done under normal circumstances.

He vomited a handful of dark red blood.

It was clear that his dantian had suffered an irreversible blow.

Even so, he was feeling it.

The gaze of the guy felt beyond the densely rising dust.

That the freezing killing intent had not weakened in the slightest.

“F-Fuck…!”

In the final moment, what filled his field of vision were the teeth densely packed inside the wide-open maw.

* * *

‘It makes no sense…’

Geum-ju could not believe it.

Nothing made sense.

The terrible momentum felt from the guy was growing stronger and stronger.

The smell of sulfur wafting from him made it feel as if her nose would rot and fall off.

‘This makes no sense…’

Those who held out until the end also died, without gaining anything.

‘How can it be like this…?’

No matter how strong the guy was, she had believed she could win if it was herself, who had even used the secret art learned from her mad master.

So she hid herself and waited.

She waited and waited.

And now, she was placed in a situation where she had to deal with the guy who had become far stronger than at the beginning, left all alone.

‘No, it’s not…’

She tried to scatter the thought that kept coming to her mind since earlier.

The strength that thing showed kept reminding her of the person she feared most.

That thing was just like her master.

The energy wafted, the momentum, and the appearance were completely different, but there was definitely a point in common.

That no common sense was of any use.

That not a single thing made sense from start to finish.

And even the fact that someone like her could not know its depth.

‘No, no! No! I have crossed the wall now! I have become a master now!’

Although temporary, she was currently in a state of having crossed the wall.

A realm that everyone dreams of from the moment they obtain internal energy.

A realm that was like a privilege, allowed to only an extreme few.

She had now reached that realm where humans escape their limits as a species and are reborn as true supermen.

‘I am strong now, I am strong…!’

For this secret art, she had sacrificed even her own lifespan.

And decades of lifespan at that.

Therefore, she could never accept the fate placed before her.

‘I will kill him! I will kill that bastard, and I will rip all those wenches to death! I will kill every single one of those who laughed at me, leaving none behind!’

She was not perceiving her own appearance right now.

‘I will kill them all!’

Her appearance of hiding inside a dilapidated building and shouting inside her mind that she would kill, despite having stepped onto the path of a true strong person temporarily.

Her appearance of not even being able to raise her internal force, nor project killing intent outward.

“……”

That was why she did not even acknowledge that the sound of whistling that had been heard in her ears for a while was gradually drawing closer.

She did not acknowledge that the mournful tune, which felt desperately sad, was now being heard behind her back.

She pretended not to know that the surrounding temperature was gradually dropping and that the smell of sulfur was growing thick.

“……”

However, when she finally felt its breath on the back of her neck, she could no longer look away.

“So you were here, Geum-ju.”

He corrected his words.

“No, shall I call you Se Yu-hwa?”