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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: The Heavenly Demon's Power
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"Did you just sense that?"
Moyong Taese's eyes widened as if they might pop out, and he shouted at me.
But I had no time to worry about it.
"Eighth Elder, we have to run!"
[Too late.]
Moomyeong's icy murmur slithered up my spine.
Five red silhouettes vaulted lightly over the wall and landed in front of us.
"Hah?"
It was her.
The one who killed me.
There she stood before me, the Red Mask, exactly as she appeared in that nightmare.
"Ah, ahh."
My hands trembled uncontrollably.
Just looking at her choked the breath from my lungs.
I was suffocating in terror.
She was the one who murdered me.
No doubt about it.
I never imagined I'd encounter my killer twice in less than a full day.
Her long hair, tied up in a single ponytail, fluttered from behind the red mask.
The curves of her hips and waist, wrapped in red garb, revealed a woman's figure.
"How is this possible? You were definitely dead."
Her voice trembled with agitation.
*Whirrr*
Like a silver serpent flicking its tongue, a paper-thin sword uncoiled from her wrist, snaking up along her waist and hips before settling into her grasp.
"Fall back. Moyong Bi."
Moyong Taese stepped in front of me.
"Eighth Elder Moyong Taese?"
"You know me?"
Her eyebrows twitched beneath the mask.
"So the Eighth Elder himself is protecting you, and to prevent any leaks, they've chased away even the ants. At this point, denying that punk is Moyong Bi would be pointless anyway."
The Red Mask crossed her arms and sighed.
"Ah, whatever. I'll just kill anyone suspicious. That'll solve it."
"We went to such lengths to hide it, but it's meaningless now."
Moyong Taese clicked his tongue and dropped the wooden sword he'd been holding.
"I may be the weakest among the Moyong family's eight elders, but I can't just stand by idly."
A true sword slid from the sheath at his waist.
"Tell your employer this: Moyong Bi, blood of the Moyong family patriarch, is under my, the Eighth Elder's, protection from this day forward."
"What?"
"Is that a difficult request for a hunting dog who has to watch its master's mood?"
The masked woman's eyes narrowed, her gaze locking with Moyong Taese's.
Her shoulders shook.
"Ha, haha. As if Soyeomgyo answers to anyone. You've really pissed off our elder after all this time."
The air froze solid.
The assassin leader had revealed her own name.
It meant one thing.
She had no intention of letting even a single ant escape alive today.
"No more words. Everyone, go."
*Snap.*
At her gesture, her subordinates shot forward like arrows in unison.
"You bastards!"
Moyong Taese shoved me backward.
A cascade of blue energy erupted from his body like a waterfall.
"Heaven-Earth Breaking Flash Sword right from the start?! Aren't you pushing too hard, Elder?"
"Hah!"
With Moyong Taese's shout, eight streaks of blue sword qi surged toward her.
"Hmm!"
The Soyeomgyo leader's eyes widened.
The blue sword strikes devoured her afterimage in an instant.
*Boom boom boom!*
My first glimpse of high-level martial arts.
I'd never seen sword qi infused with inner energy materialize beyond the primal act of swinging a blade.
It was a force that could tear apart someone like me without even letting me lift a finger.
[No. It's not enough.]
Moomyeong's voice echoed in my head.
"Moomyeong?"
[Host, I have something to say.]
Moomyeong continued in an urgent tone.
*Clang!!*
The screech of clashing steel swords rang out everywhere.
"What?!"
Moyong Taese's eyes bulged.
*Clang.*
Four assassins blocked his path.
They effortlessly parried his sword strikes, shielding the Soyeomgyo leader.
"Someone said the estate would be empty for an hour, and it's true. No one's coming despite all this commotion."
The Soyeomgyo leader marveled.
"This is bad."
Moyong Taese gritted his teeth.
Moomyeong's voice resounded in my mind.
[Five more times. Within five clashes, Moyong Taese will definitely die.]
"Die?"
Ignoring my reaction, Moomyeong pressed on.
[After Moyong Taese dies, the host dies next. Easier than snapping a child's wrist. To be honest, I don't care if the host lives or dies. But if the host dies, I die too. And...]
"You...!"
[I don't want to die.]
Moomyeong's tone was flat, but it burned with unspoken emotion.
The same desire as mine: not wanting to die.
[Does the host want to live?]
"Of course."
Not a moment's hesitation.
[No matter the cost?]
A chill like ice water poured down my spine.
"What does that mean?"
[Nothing special.]
A lie.
He was lying right now.
But no time to argue.
Want to live?
"..."
My silence was assent.
[Then prepare from now on.]
"For what?"
[There's only one thing the host can do right now, isn't there?]
My breath caught.
To my hesitating self, Moomyeong said coldly.
[Prepare. A worm gets only one chance.]
*Crack!*
With the fourth clash, Moyong Taese vomited black blood.
"Cough! Hack hack."
The Soyeomgyo leader gave him no respite.
She masterfully disrupted his rhythm with rapid strikes, stabbing into his openings.
She toyed with him mercilessly.
Moyong Taese gasped for air amid spurts of blood.
"Haa, haa! How can there be experts like this...!"
"You'd need at least a Shinsinwi from the Nine Great Sects and One Gang to stop me!"
Red energy exploded from the Soyeomgyo leader's arms, coiling around them like crimson serpents.
"Let's end this, Eighth Elder!"
It was a storm of blood.
She was resolved to sever his breath in one blow.
-Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword
A slaughterous tempest that would pulverize anything in its path!
*Grrrrraaaah!!!*
The red serpent climbed her body, roaring.
It tore through the air, flying toward Moyong Taese from eight directions.
"Urgh!"
Moyong Taese unleashed all his inner energy, drawing forth his ultimate technique.
-Twin Dragon Whirlwind Sword
Two azure dragons rose from the earth.
They smashed and ravaged everything, a sword storm surging forward with thunderous momentum.
*Boom boom boom boom!*
A cataclysmic clash of overwhelming blue and red energies.
"...Moyong Bi?!"
Moyong Taese spotted me still standing dazed nearby and widened his eyes in shock.
"What are you doing?! If you stay there, you'll get caught in it—! Cough!"
Moyong Taese's shout cut off as the energy storm hit.
*Rumble rumble...*
The ground quaked.
The earth wailed.
Rocks flew.
[Targets: two. Position: twelve steps ahead!]
Moomyeong shouted.
*Whish, whish!*
Debris shredded past my cheek.
Vibrations shook beneath my feet.
'Haa, haa.'
All sounds faded into the distance.
My legs shook.
I swallowed hard.
'Can I do it?'
Impossible.
Absurd.
Unthinkable.
No way such a cheat-like thing could work.
'But!'
I have to.
Moomyeong's urgent cry rang in my head.
[The official activation chant is four characters! It begins by reciting them in two pairs of two! I'll signal—focus! Host!]
Moyong Taese and the Soyeomgyo leader.
The two masters' ultimate techniques, wrapped in fierce red and blue auras, hurtled toward collision.
*Rumble rumble!!*
Blue and red energies charged at each other ferociously.
The ground shook.
My soul felt like it would shatter.
My teeth chattered.
A white shockwave filled my vision—!
[Start!]
*Flash!*
My eyes began to glow red.
"Urk!"
Blood surged through my body.
Veins across my body contracted, bulging as if to burst.
-Nam Sang
The first two characters of my life's first technique name, igniting the fuse in a powder keg.
[Next, two syllables!]
I shouted the two words he taught me, awakening the Cheonma's authority.
-Sam Mae
My eyes turned into crimson pools of blood.
The movements of the two high-level techniques were traced like a rubbing, hammered straight into my brain.
*Crunch! Crack crack!*
An onslaught of information flooded in.
Pain like my brain tearing apart assaulted me.
-Moomyeong also called this the 'Cheonma's Authority.'
The Cheonma's innate ability.
Or perhaps one of the Demonic Cult's martial arts.
Moomyeong said he didn't know.
He might have known when he was the Cheonma itself in the past, but in his current incomplete, jumbled state, he couldn't say.
But what did it matter?
The key was that I could use it now.
Causes didn't matter.
Reasons didn't matter.
Extra worries were a luxury for survivors only—not for a dayfly uncertain of tomorrow.
*Rumble!!*
"Kuaaaagh! Aagh! Aaaaagh!"
Bloody tears welled up.
*Splurt!*
A vein in my right arm burst.
*Crunch!*
A vein in my right thigh burst.
Like shards of glass driven one by one into my brain.
Unable to endure the influx, my right eye exploded.
The dripping blood melted the dirt floor amid blue smoke.
"Gurk, gurgle!"
Black blood bubbled from my mouth.
In my raised crimson eyes, the world was dyed red.
The world slowed.
Everything divided into fractions of seconds, etching into me.
*Crackle crackle.*
A acrid smell as my brain burned.
Nothing like Dang Sowee's Plum Blossom Spinning Dagger.
Regardless of my body's agony, the started process didn't stop.
My eyes moved grotesquely, greedily devouring the Soyeomgyo leader and Moyong Taese's movements.
-Possession Experience Synchronization
A gloomy, damp voice different from Moomyeong's.
The voice I heard when I first died to the Soyeomgyo leader.
This is the Cheonma.
Leader of the Cheonma Demonic Cult, first cult leader.
This is the essence of the Cheonma, Moomyeong's origin, now just lingering aspiration.
-Extraction System Full Display Complete
-Cheonma Great Archive: Target Form Martial Arts Analysis Complete
Grade 2: Blood Killer Sect Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword
Grade 3: Moyong Family Twin Dragon Whirlwind Sword
Indescribable, multicolored, incomprehensible vast knowledge stabbed through my eyes.
Like slamming a massive waterfall jet into my eyes, heedless if my belly burst.
"-, --!!"
I cried.
Tears mixed with blood streamed down my jaw.
It was impossible from the start.
For trash like me, tripping hazard underfoot, to copy two masters' supreme techniques? Such a ridiculous plan...!
[Host! Don't stop. Stopping midway is worse than death@#[email protected]!!]
Moomyeong's scream faded into the distance.
Like gouging my pupils with a blunt needle to embroider.
In hellish torment, regrets and vows repeated thousands of times in a flash.
-Drip.
Blood flowed from both eyes.
Bloody tears hit the ground.
I'd lived like a worm.
Whenever it got hard, thinking "this is enough," retreating.
Mocked by others, enduring their snickers, pretending not to hear while grinning like a fool.
Pretended not to hear what I heard.
Pretended not to see what I saw.
Pretended not to feel what I felt.
Bought a sham manual with half a year's savings.
Practiced it for half a year, believing it real.
Took the disciple exam, showed it proudly, earned everyone's ridicule.
Still grinned like it was nothing, tried again.
But no one acknowledged the effort.
'But.'
I gritted my teeth.
The die was cast.
End this life like this?
This hard-won hope.
I'm alive, breathing now.
Existing here.
I'll do anything to survive.
Even scrape mud by the sewer.
'Any cost?'
Moomyeong's earlier question.
"Fuck, isn't it obvious!"
It hurt so much I cried.
Vomited blood, howling.
"Yeah, any cost—to never go back!"
The answer was meaningless.
My regret-filled past life had already decided it.
"I won't go back."
-All Martial Arts Tracing Complete
-Absorption Full Process Complete
Grade 2: Blood Killer Sect Blood Demon Snake Wheel Brush Sword
Grade 3: Moyong Family Twin Dragon Whirlwind Sword
-Ready for Execution
"-! --!!"
With bloody tears, my silhouette shot forward desperately.
The Heavenly Demon Copies Martial Arts