Volume 2 Chapter 10 – Demonic Path of the Underworld (2)

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Translated by Rain

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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“Two.”

Geum-ju was startled and retreated from where she was.

“…?!”

She could not understand.

How could the person who had been blown far away by her be standing next to her?

And whose finger was it that he was holding in his mouth?

The corners of his mouth tore wide, drawing a smile.

Crunch, crunch.

The sound of bones being chewed reached her ears.

Urgently widening the distance further, she checked her hands.

She could see that the spot where her right pinky finger used to be was empty.

“Uh… uh…?”

Right next to her, as she stared blankly down at her hand, the chuckling laughter of the Dark Venerable was heard again.

“Aaaargh!”

Shouting some sort of scream, she drove a powerful blow into that white mask.

With a loud sound of tearing air, his head was thrown back heavily.

With his head tilted back, he said in a whisper-like tone,

“Three.”

This time it was the left index finger.

Crunch, crunch.

Having lost three fingers in that manner, Geum-ju screamed in anger.

“Does a wench like you, who cut the throats of girls begging for their lives and enjoyed bathing in their blood, scream so over a mere three fingers?”

In a situation where an ordinary person would have already lost their mind, internal force equivalent to a master’s was protecting her upper dantian.

The sorcery she had cast was protecting her soul.

Barely.

Geum-ju shouted fitfully,

“You! You! I will grind you up and drink you!”

* * *

Geum-ju unleashed attacks with all her might toward the Dark Venerable.

She poured them out and poured them out again.

She mobilized all the ultimate arts she knew.

However, her fingers only continued to be reduced one by one.

The white mask standing before Geum-ju’s eyes seemed to receive no damage no matter how much it was hit, and remained unpierced no matter how much it was skewered.

“Immortality…?”

At the sound coming from Se-ah’s mouth as she watched the sight from afar, Gyu shook her head.

“No, that is…”

* * *

“…An amazing realm. Just what is the identity of that entity called the Dark Venerable?”

The large man sighed.

The wounds he had received while dealing with Geum-ju were not light.

Blood was seeping through the bandages wrapped around various parts of his body.

Even so, he could not take his eyes off the art of the entity called the Dark Venerable unfolding before him.

“It’s truly absurd.”

The beautiful girl who was hiding with him and watching the battle that was not a battle clicked her tongue.

“It looks like he is being hit, no, he was hit, but in reality, he is receiving absolutely no damage.”

Even in the eyes of martial artists of considerable level like them, Geum-ju’s attacks were too fast and powerful.

When that irregular trajectory was added, it was an attack that they could barely manage to block.

Had they not gone right to the brink of death because they couldn’t even block that properly?

Yet the entity called the Dark Venerable was now treating Geum-ju’s attacks like a joke.

At first glance, he seemed to endure those attacks even after taking all of them.

However, as a result of continuous observation, they had reached that chilling conclusion.

“What on earth is that?”

Massaging the back of her neck where goosebumps had broken out, the beautiful girl could not take her eyes off the bizarre sight.

“It’s so cool, isn’t it?”

* * *

“Is he narrowly evading Geum-ju’s attacks with faster movement?”

At Se-ah’s question, Gyu shook her head again.

“No. I did not know at first either, but now I finally understand.”

She had concentrated all her internal energy into her vision.

“He is shedding all the attacks into the ground.”

Every moment Geum-ju’s strike touched his body, the ground where the tips of his feet touched split wide.

The split ground was drawing a spiral shape.

Following the tips of his feet moving lightly, just like lotuses blooming.

* * *

“But what on earth is the principle behind that…?”

The beautiful girl asked with a frown, but the large man only shrugged his shoulders.

“Well, to be honest, I can only make an assumption…”

“Make an assumption then. As you know, my learning of martial arts is almost entirely self-taught.”

The large man scratched his head.

“First, receiving the attacks might be utilizing the principle of penetrating force in reverse. Then, by utilizing the subtlety of silk-reeling force with the tips of his feet, he emits the opponent’s force into the ground.”

Having finished speaking, he shook his head.

“No. If so, the flow of the hostile force passing through the inside of the body…”

Listening to him ramble for a while, she sighed.

“You don’t even know what you’re saying, do you?”

“To be honest, yes.”

The beautiful girl snorted.

* * *

“Gyu, honestly, I don’t understand a single thing you’re saying.”

As the head of an intelligence organization, Se-ah knew far more theory about martial arts than most martial artists.

Yet even she could not understand the supreme martial arts Gyu spoke of in the slightest.

“It is fine.”

Gyu answered Se-ah’s question without taking her eyes off the Dark Venerable’s movements even for a moment.

“It does not matter if you forget everything I told you.”

“Then?”

“Simply put, the essences of forces possessed by several different sects are compiled and contained in that movement.”

“If I summarize it again, does it mean he mixed martial arts theories with completely different origins and completed them into one?”

“Yes.”

It was not that Gyu did not take her eyes off it, but that she could not.

Even while watching it directly, she could not believe her eyes.

Se-ah approached Gyu’s side and asked in a low voice,

“…Is it a technique of the Sword Family?”

It was the Luoyang Sword Family, known for collecting all kinds of martial arts officially or unofficially.

If it was that Sword Family, perhaps they had melted the secret books of several sects to create a new martial art.

“…Perhaps so. However, the core is not where that technique belongs, or who made it.”

Gyu clenched her teeth.

Was it said that there are eccentric experts as numerous as grains of sand in the martial world?

Although it was sometimes too complex to comprehend, there were those who somehow created martial arts that at least theoretically held up.

“Young lady.”

For example, there was such a thing in her own sect as well.

Tenth Sword, Chaos.

Like a legendary ultimate art that no one could master in this current era.

“…The problem in the first place is how one can use that.”

Even in real combat.

And consecutively at that.

Without a single mistake.

Only then did Se-ah, who understood the situation, furrow her brows.

When even she, who merely dipped her toes into the world of martial arts at a superficial level, felt this absurd, how must it be for Gyu, who was facing the wall?

“…Then that Dark Venerable is actually accomplishing the impossible.”

“Yes.”

That was a realm of the incomprehensible that Gyu could not explain.

Did the Dark Venerable, the Eldest Young Master of the Luoyang Sword Family, actually cross the wall?

The wall was something she, who had been praised by those around her for her outstanding talent, could only stand by and watch blankly.

Had he, who was merely in his teens, lightly crossed that massive wall?

Something hot welled up from deep within her chest.

It was awe and a strong competitiveness felt toward the individual named Yeon So-hyeon, rather than the entity called the Dark Venerable.

* * *

“And one more thing.”

“What is it?”

The large man pointed a finger.

“Fingers, I mean, fingers.”

“Huh?”

Staring at the large man’s finger with a puzzled look for a moment, goosebumps broke out all over the beautiful girl’s body.

“……!”

The Dark Venerable was not merely receiving and shedding the attacks.

In the midst of that, he was— tearing off and eating Geum-ju’s fingers.

And at the end of her attacks which drew that terribly fast, powerful, and simultaneously irregular trajectory executed with all her might.

Steadily, one by one.

* * *

From the beginning, killing Geum-ju was an extremely simple matter.

It was something that could have ended by simply twisting her neck when she was crashed inside that building at first.

A master?

An temporarily raised realm was of no use at all.

Even if the ‘Gatekeeper’ had been here in his place, though the process might have differed, it would have ultimately ended in Geum-ju’s clean defeat.

Although it was difficult to guess the origin of the bizarre martial art she possessed, it was not a particularly tricky martial art to deal with.

He simply had no intention of letting her go easily.

Thus, he experimented one by one.

Since becoming the chosen one of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens, he had never once executed proper techniques.

The body he possessed was too perfect from the start, and on top of that, the demonic qi of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens was lodged in it.

Demonic energy, the power that erodes, corrodes, and distorts reality, departed far from the conventional path.

Those without internal energy often had their minds shattered and were deprived of reason, losing their sanity just by being affected by demonic qi.

Martial artists with internal energy were too weak.

They were too slow, and not a single person could be found who properly understood the martial arts they had learned.

They were like puppets who merely imitated, just as they had been taught, just as they had learned.

Occasionally there were those who showed a bit of promise, but even so, it was not to the extent of making him feel even a slight threat.

Honestly, killing them was easier than moving his facial muscles to create expressions.

Of course, he could not deny that killing them was a rewarding thing.

On one hand, it was even enjoyable.

For devouring the wicked as the chosen one of the Scripture of Controlling Darkness and Shaking the Heavens was also his mission as the Dark Venerable, and a cornerstone in achieving the grand plan as the Swordless One, Yeon So-hyeon.

Even so, there was a thirst that could not be quenched, which was the futility he felt as a martial scholar.

So, he decided to experiment.

Geum-ju possessed sufficient qualities, at least as a subject of experimentation.

She had grit, and her physical strength was excellent.

And she also had plenty of reasons to be tormented for a long time, so it was the icing on the cake.

Thus, he actually performed the things he had only thought about in his mind in the past.

He realized complex martial principles with his body, and put the theories that came to mind on the spot into practice immediately.

He enjoyed the sensation of his body moving along as if it had already remembered it.

He recalled the past.

The memory of when he first held a sword.

The moment he held the sword, the moment he was intoxicated by that sense of omnipotence, feeling as if he could do anything with that sword.

Why had he forgotten that pleasant memory until now?

* * *

“Ten.”

Crunch, crunch.

Geum-ju screamed, looking at her hands where all the fingers had vanished.

It felt as if she was having a nightmare.

However, no matter how much she screamed or struggled, reality did not change.

The Dark Venerable wore a broad smile, looking at her.

“And…”

His figure vanished.

“Cough…”

Geum-ju vomited blood and collapsed on the spot.

Held in his hand, which appeared behind her back, was her heart that had been beating vigorously until just moments ago.

“With this, eleven.”

Crunch!