Chapter 64

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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**

In a situation where the blood ghoul who seemed to be the Blood Master of the Dark Shadow Bloodline who had first attacked us retreated, and blood ghouls from who-knew-where swarmed in to surround us.

The sword was one, but the arms were two.

‘Two would be better than one, right?’

The simple arithmetic was finished.

I threw my sword and drove it into the chest of a charging blood ghoul, then immediately twisted and pulled its neck off.

One step of the Slender Willow Flutter followed by the stance of the Tai Chi Chuan’s Grasp the Sparrow’s Tail was enough.

However, there was one thing.

‘It is stiff.’

Its flesh quality was different from the very start compared to the blood ghouls I had faced before in Wuchang.

Crack-squelch-!

Just applying physical strength did not work. The neck was only pulled off when I mobilized my cultivation power as well.

It meant that their physical strength alone was difficult for normal people to withstand with just natural divine strength, and their bodily durability was such that I had to utilize the cultivation power of the Elixir Condensation Stage to break it down.

‘These are no ordinary blood ghouls.’

A sense of vigilance arose.

Moreover, each and every one of the blood ghouls rushed forward while hiding their presences even more stealthily than Taoist Su-gyo.

[Aim for the young punk’s back!]

[Bite his legs!]

Had I not captured the sound transmissions exchanged among the blood ghouls, I would not have been able to face them this easily.

Above all, the blood ghouls disregarded defense. It was likely because they overconfidently trusted their physical regenerative ability.

“Die!”

Thanks to that, most of the blood ghouls who rushed while letting out monstrous screeches to scare us were full of openings.

“Heup!”

This meant that it was possible to execute movements like twisting the opponent’s arm using the Tai Chi Chuan’s Cloud Hands stance, then crushing their cervical vertebrae and pulling off the neck using the palm force of the Wind and Thunder Palm.

It was possible to neutralize the opponents much more easily than expected.

However, the more I faced the blood ghouls, the more there was a point that grated on my nerves.

‘Where did she go?’

The fact that the Dark Shadow Blood Master, who had first attacked us, was nowhere to be seen made me feel quite uncomfortable.

‘If we had faced her directly, we probably would have been pushed back.’

If the Blood Master had been added on top of the blood ghouls, it would have been difficult for the three of us—myself, Taoist Su-gyo, and Namgung Hyo-sin—to hold out.

Yet she had suddenly vanished.

I wondered if the Blood Master had gone toward the passage connecting the inn to the back garden because of the intense presence of Martial Aunt Hye-won felt over there, but.

‘No.’

Something that had been continuously felt through the intuition of the Tai Chi Diagram Exposition.

‘The Blood Master’s strength looked somewhat incomplete.’

Would she really try to target an expert like Martial Aunt Hye-won in such an incomplete state? I shook my head.

And the thought that followed.

‘She attacked me in such an incomplete state.’

While evading the fangs of a charging blood ghoul, I dislocated its jawbone with my fingertips and thought.

‘Could it be that she attacked me first because I looked weak?’

It was known that the more blood the blood ghouls drank, the stronger their authority became. What if she had marked us as the sacrificial lambs to replenish blood and reinforce her seemingly incomplete ability?

It seemed to make sense.

Since the renowned masters of each sect, including Martial Aunt Hye-won, were staying in the inn, instead of attacking that place, she targeted the easy young elites who were doing exercises in the back garden at night.

Thinking about it this way, I could also guess the reason why she vanished after calling in her subordinates.

My guess was, did she go to find a new, easier blood bag because the resistance of the young elites who were supposed to easily become blood bags was too fierce?

‘That is highly plausible.’

As soon as I was convinced by my own reasoning, I looked toward the passage leading from the back garden to the inn.

“Kyack!”

“Kill!”

“Drink!”

Beyond the blood ghouls swarming in while letting out monstrous screeches, two magnificent and ephemeral presences were felt through the sensitivity of the Tai Chi Diagram Exposition.

‘The inn side seems safer than the back garden.’

The moment my thoughts were organized, I immediately shouted.

“Back to the inn!”

Taoist Su-gyo, Namgung Hyo-sin, and even me.

We began to move against the flowing current of the blood ghouls.

And amidst that flow.

Someone dropped straight down from the sky.

“Baek-jung, are you alright!”

It was Martial Aunt Hye-won.

“Yes, I am fine!”

Glancing at me as I replied, she nodded, stood behind me to block the path, and said.

“Return to the inn! Join up with Great Master Goeng-mu and Immortal Hyeon-ryo! I will block this place!”

With those words, Martial Aunt Hye-won blocked the narrow passage leading from the main inn to the back garden. She blocked the blood ghouls in the back garden from going to the inn building.

She was one of the Nine Swords of Wudang, Martial Aunt Hye-won.

Since it did not seem like Martial Aunt Hye-won would be hurt by such blood ghouls.

The three of us immediately left Martial Aunt Hye-won behind and headed toward the inn building, the quarters of Group Jiazi and Group Bingzi.

**

Amidst the flow of the melee, Immortal Hyeon-ryo, an elder of the Mount Hua Sect, was enraged.

“How dare you! Impudent things!”

The tip of his sword displayed twenty-one variations in a single strike.

Every single one of the variations was a real strike, not a feint.

Thick blood splattered as the tough skin of the blood ghouls crumbled like sand.

However, the time the blood ghouls raided was the problem.

“Hehehe.”

“Rush in again!”

“Overwhelm them with numbers!”

Despite being chopped to pieces by sword strikes filled with the true qi of a high-level expert, the blood ghouls repaired their bodies once more and rose.

A time that had passed the Hour of the Rat and reached the Hour of the Ox.

The time when the sun, the source of Yang light, set, and all Yang energy dissipated and vanished beneath the ground.

The problem was that the raid of the blood ghouls had begun at that exact hour when darkness and Yin energy were at their peak.

Even the blood ghouls whose hearts were pierced rattled their bodies, then regained the light in their eyes and charged.

It was useless unless their necks were completely severed.

At first, it was not a major problem. However.

“Just watch your necks!”

“Thrust your arms forward!”

“It is fine to take it with your torso!”

The blood ghouls were not fools either.

They covered their necks and pushed forward with their bodies. Since they exposed weaknesses everywhere else and protected only their necks, sword strikes aimed instinctively at openings flew out.

Even if blood sprayed with a splat and a blood ghoul rolled on the floor, while facing other blood ghouls, the one that had rolled on the floor rose and charged again.

As that process was repeated over and over, his mind became exhausted.

‘What in the world!’

This was not a matter of cultivation power.

It was a matter of mental strength.

Blood ghouls were cut by mechanically swung sword strikes, recovered, and charged again. Accordingly, the number of blood ghouls having their necks cut gradually decreased.

Instead, the number of charging blood ghouls increased little by little.

“He is slowing down!”

“They say the blood of a high-level expert is so sweet!”

“Target the young human!”

Furthermore, the members of Group Gengzi he had to protect were also a problem.

“Martial Uncle! Are you alright!”

Disciples of the Mount Hua Sect were also included in Group Gengzi.

It was impossible to abandon them and leave.

Yet, since he also worried whether the young elites of Group Gengzi alone could withstand this vast number of blood ghouls the moment he left his spot.

He was forced to be tied to his position.

In the meantime.

Crash-!

A wall collapsed and a golden light soared.

It was one of the Shaolin seventy-two ultimate arts.

The Arhat Divine Fist pounded a blood ghoul into mush and buried it in the collapsed wall.

“Are you alright?”

“Of course!”

Immortal Hyeon-ryo’s voice in response to the question of Luohan Hall Master Goeng-mu was not comfortable. It was something like humiliation.

However, it was not the time to be swept away by such personal emotions.

“By any chance, have you seen the members of Group Jiazi or Group Bingzi?”

“Would they not be with Taoist Nun Hye-won?”

“Taoist Nun Hye-won went toward the back garden… Then you mean even Immortal Hyeon-ryo does not know?!”

Simultaneously with the words, Goeng-mu turned his body.

“Follow me!”

Following Goeng-mu’s shout, the members of Group Dingzi who had come with Goeng-mu also leaped forward.

The retreat path that was created as a result.

“Do you think you can pass?”

As Immortal Hyeon-ryo and the members of Group Gengzi lined up.

The indoor encirclement broke, and they had effectively blocked the narrow path.

Once again, the melee began.

**

Tang Si-hyeok, a member of Group Bingzi from the Sichuan Tang Clan, flew a hidden weapon toward a spot the moment a faint presence rippled.

“Kack!”

A Life-and-Death Blade that hit the forehead disappeared into the blood ghoul’s head without a trace. Tang Si-hyeok immediately threw another Life-and-Death Blade to block a blood ghoul aiming for the back of his fellow Group Bingzi member, Jeon Uk.

However.

“Hehehe.”

‘?!’

The blood ghoul who had collapsed after being hit in the forehead by the Life-and-Death Blade rose again.

“Do you think this kind of thing will work? At this hour, of all times.”

Seeing the blood ghoul smiling while revealing its fangs, Tang Si-hyeok got goosebumps.

‘Poison… does not work?!’

He possessed neither sword force like the Namgung Clan’s Great Billowing Heavenly Wind Sword, nor splendid sword qi like the Hainan Sect’s Thirty-Six Swords of the Southern Sea.

He only possessed martial arts specialized in cutting off opponents’ breath with hidden weapons and poison. But neither hidden weapons nor poison worked?

It was a checkmate.

Moreover, the distance was too close.

‘Am I going to die?’

At the moment he thought so.

‘Oh?!’

The wind rippled.

A lightning bolt flashed in the dark room.

Rumble-splat!

**

The largest guest room reached by following the presence of the Group Bingzi members.

The moment a blood ghoul appeared in front of Tang Si-hyeok, with whom I had spent the entire summer, I immediately raised the lightning energy accumulated in my middle dantian.

‘First form: Obscure Dust Accumulated Clouds.’

The cultivation power in my palm spun natural energy like thread, and true qi began to condense around the Daling acupoint on my palm.

Simultaneously, the lightning energy arising from my middle dantian flickered over the charged particles gathered along with the cultivation power.

‘Create a path with wind and discharge.’

A path of wind was formed along the rotating routine, and lightning raced across it.

The palm force of the unity of wind and thunder hit the body of the blood ghoul, slamming it into the wall.

Rumble-!

The moment the delayed sound of thunder echoed through the guest room.

Just as in the underground canal of Wuchang before, I was able to confirm the structure and existences inside the guest room through sound waves.

Neither emitting infrared rays.

Nor shaking true qi, a stealthy presence was sketched in a corner of the guest room.

‘So you are there.’

I immediately continued the routine.

Wind once again settled in my palm, which rotated along an elliptical orbit resembling the movement of a star, and lightning energy began to discharge.

‘Second form: Cloud Mystery Primal Chaos.’

The palm force of the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm, which I was displaying properly for the first time after obtaining both the True Formula of Wind and the True Formula of Thunder, condensed in the palm of my left hand along the Silk Reeling Force that started from my toes.

As the number of charged particles was added over the overlapping true qi.

The thread-like energy added rotation and harbored a thunderbolt.

The palm force extended directly along the centrifugal force aimed at the shadow in the deep darkness.

Rumble-crack!

Although it was a palm force that exploded properly, this time it produced a different result from the first form: Obscure Dust Accumulated Clouds.

“What a bothersome child!”

Only the smoke rising above the long-grown fingernails of the Dark Shadow Blood Master seemed to be a token proving the earlier palm force.

The moment the figure of the blood ghoul showing murderous intent sank down like a shadow with a whoosh, I raised the palm force of the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm’s third form: Primal Chaos Producing Infant.

**

Rumble-!

Watching the Blood Master’s lethal strike colliding with the bursting lightning, Namgung Hyo-sin felt as if lightning struck his upper dantian.

‘Is that lightning energy?!’

Seeing in reality what he had only heard of through words from his clan younger brother Namgung Hyeok made it even more unbelievable.

-Taoist Yeon can handle lightning energy. If it is you, brother, simply practicing together will surely allow you to advance to the Sovereign Sword Form.

What was felt.

Yeon Baek-jung had not even reached the stage of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak yet.

Yet, the power of heaven.

Being able to use lightning energy meant.

‘He is an unprecedented genius!’

Though it was a short time of a mere two days since they met, he had felt it even while practicing the sword together. It was a talent he had already perceived from the way Yeon Baek-jung reproduced the sword path exactly as Namgung Hyo-sin described, or rather, even beyond it.

While it was gratifying to see the young junior of the Jianghu who immediately did even more once told, he felt to the point of fear at the way he terrifyingly absorbed his teachings.

That was how it was when he held a sword.

However, the martial prowess of Yeon Baek-jung displaying fist and palm close combat without holding a sword evoked another sentiment.

‘How on earth, at that age!’

It did not agree with reason.

Extremely few people in the Namgung Clan had mastered the Sovereign Sword Form that loads lightning energy onto the sword.

Of course, because his internal strength had not yet accumulated qi as much as the elder seniors of the Namgung Clan, the power of his lightning energy was also not as great as theirs.

But utilizing lightning energy with that level of cultivation power was rather a more amazing feat.

‘The moniker of Bringer of Chaos was indeed not given in vain!’

Yeon Baek-jung’s talent was, in Namgung Hyo-sin’s view, a mistake of heaven that deviated from common sense.

However, no matter how great such a Yeon Baek-jung was, he was still a young elite who had not even reached twenty.

His martial arts had not matured to the point of facing a leader who led one of the ten bloodlines of the Dark Shadow Bloodline.

“Die!”

The moment the Dark Shadow Blood Master’s lethal strike tried to slash Yeon Baek-jung’s neck, Namgung Hyo-sin naturally drew his sword and blocked the front.

Although many people persecuting a single person was a taboo in prestigious families.

‘Since the opponent is not a person.’

Such a rule was an exception against a blood ghoul.

In addition to the unprecedented talent, the noble spirit of forgetting fear for the sake of a comrade and standing against a stronger opponent also ignited a fire in Namgung Hyo-sin’s chest.

“Step back, you non-human entity!”

Shouting as he pushed his sword with all his might, the Blood Master was pushed back along the path of Namgung Hyo-sin’s sword.

Her face was heavily scowling, as if something did not please her.

However, the Blood Master was fast.

In addition, she was stealthy.

She mocked his eyes even within the cognitive domain of Namgung Hyo-sin, who had dipped his toes into the high-level realm.

The place she reappeared was right in front of Namgung Hyo-sin’s nose.

Clang!

He barely managed to raise his sword and block the Blood Master’s claws.

A red demonic energy wavered over the Blood Master’s claws that were entangled with the Namgung Clan’s treasured sword.

Along with a screeching sound of metal scraping, the non-human entity’s claws gradually dug into the Namgung Clan’s treasured sword.

At that sight, Namgung Hyo-sin recalled the family motto of the Namgung Clan.

‘The sword qi pierces the heavens, the spirit of righteousness lasts for a thousand autumns!’

Following the phrase that acted like a spell to awaken the upper dantian, the air around his sword blade rippled.

‘Boundless Firmament Sword.’

The righteousness filling his upper dantian flung open the sword path.

Of course, while Yeon Baek-jung interpreted it as an air pressure change caused by density variations of true qi and air, to Namgung Hyo-sin it was the manifestation of righteousness.

“Hah!”

Along with the shouted battle cry, the floor beneath his feet planted on the guest room floor crumbled, and his sword advanced.

The body of the Blood Master was pushed back along with a metal-scraping noise.

At the same time, Yeon Baek-jung extended his palm force.

And as if possessed, Namgung Hyo-sin also extended his sword.

Instantly, the spirit (Shin) of his upper dantian rippled.

As if synchronizing with something, Namgung Hyo-sin’s essence in his middle dantian moved in an unintended direction.

Simultaneously, a small spark of lightning began to flicker on the sword blade extended along the path of the Boundless Firmament Sword.

The sword force synchronized with the palm force of wind and thunder emitted the power of a sovereign.