Chapter 151
Yeom Ra-hyeolseung Chuk Ho-tak, who had ordered the demonic beasts to charge, took the lead himself and surged toward So Nan-so.
In his hand, he wielded a massive crimson ring, which he hurled like a bolt of lightning.
“Hyaaaah!”
Wiiiiiiing!
The red ring spun fiercely as it barreled toward So Nan-so.
She swung her double-edged blade in a wide arc, meeting the attack head-on.
“Haah!”
Kraaaash!
The clash of crimson energies exploded in midair, like bursts of red flames igniting.
That was the signal for battle to erupt.
Starting with the two of them, the warriors and demonic beasts of the Seonwoo clan collided in a brutal, desperate fight.
“Haah!”
“Kyaaah!”
Boom!
Clang! Clang-clang!
“Die!”
Fwoosh!
“Gyaaah!”
Seonwoo Jung and Elder Heo Jin-guk each locked swords with a demonic beast.
Though there were slight differences, both Seonwoo Jung and Heo Jin-guk were warriors at the cusp of their prime, and the demonic beasts they faced seemed to be of similar caliber.
“Haah!”
“Kyaaah!”
Clang-clang-clang!
They exchanged fierce blows, their energies clashing violently.
But since their skills were evenly matched, the outcome was far from decided.
The other warriors of the Seonwoo clan, who were battling two demonic beasts apiece, were in the same boat.
Though the senior warriors and elders of the Shin-eung Corps were still too few and not quite strong enough to take on the beasts directly, their sheer numbers allowed them to press forward, pushing the demonic beasts back even as they fell one by one.
This battle would likely be decided by whether the demonic beasts could hold out until all the Shin-eung Corps members were sacrificed.
While the Seonwoo clan’s forces were holding their own better than expected, surprisingly, the first place where the tide of battle was shifting was not there, but rather on the side of So Nan-so, who was facing both Yeom Ra-hyeolseung Chuk Ho-tak and a peak-level demonic beast simultaneously.
So Nan-so’s specialty was sound-based martial arts.
Though she could fight up close, her true strength lay in sowing confusion among multiple enemies from a distance.
In contrast, Yeom Ra-hyeolseung Chuk Ho-tak specialized in mid-range attacks with his spinning rings.
His blood-ring martial art, which sent the crimson rings spinning like living weapons to strike targets, combined with his own close-range assaults, gave the impression of being attacked by two opponents at once—a terrifying technique of the Blood Sect.
“Haah!”
Kraaaash!
So Nan-so swung her double-edged blade with one hand, deflecting the massive spinning ring once again.
But the impact of the huge blood ring was so powerful that her hand was already going numb.
“Ugh!”
To repel the blood ring with her strength, it would have been better to wield the blade with both hands.
But she couldn’t.
Her other hand had to fend off Chuk Ho-tak’s direct assault.
Sshhhk!
Her left hand swung a bowstaff that emitted crimson energy, carving dense red patterns into the air.
Still, it wasn’t enough to destroy all of Chuk Ho-tak’s incoming counterattacks, which came down like a meteor shower.
Chuk Ho-tak laughed wildly as he swung both hands, pressing her relentlessly.
“Kuhahaha!”
Krak-krak-krak-krak!
The crimson energy from her bowstaff clashed dozens of times with the blood energy from his counterattacks.
But it was like trying to block a hailstorm with a sword.
There were too many, and each strike was too heavy for her to handle alone.
With every clash, she was pushed further and further back.
Gritting her teeth, So Nan-so summoned all her strength and swung the bowstaff with everything she had.
“Hyaaaah!”
Krak-krak-krak-krak!
At last, she managed to block all the crimson counterattacks.
Only then did she finally catch her breath.
“Hah!”
But that was the limit of her endurance.
She had no energy left.
The problem was, Chuk Ho-tak wasn’t her only opponent.
Just as she exhaled, thinking she had blocked all the counterattacks, a demonic beast lurking behind her seized the opportunity and thrust a long spear forward.
“Kihah!”
Shu-shaak!
The spear-wielding demonic beast was the highest-ranked among those Chuk Ho-tak had brought—an internal energy master with eighty years of cultivation.
So Nan-so’s spine chilled.
“Ugh!”
She leapt up hastily to dodge the spear.
Normally, this opponent wouldn’t have been a threat, but at this moment, the attack was terrifyingly dangerous.
And as she lifted her body to avoid the spear, another massive blood ring came spinning fiercely from behind.
Wiiiiing!
“Damn it!”
She swung her double-edged blade desperately to strike it away.
Kraaaash!
But the hurried swing couldn’t fully dissipate the blood ring’s momentum.
Her slender body couldn’t withstand the impact and was lightly knocked backward.
“Ugh!”
Behind her, Chuk Ho-tak charged again.
The spear, still hunting for an opening, followed closely.
“Kuhahaha!”
“Kiiihah!”
Choo-shaak!
Sshhhk!
“Ugh!”
So Nan-so spun wildly, trying to evade.
But she couldn’t fully dodge Chuk Ho-tak’s counterattack, which flew straight at her.
Choo-shaak!
A critical moment.
She could avoid the spear, but not the counterattack from a master of Chuk Ho-tak’s caliber.
Screeeech!
But So Nan-so leapt back just in time, letting out a breath of relief.
The counterattack grazed only the sleeve of her left arm.
Though her pale arm was exposed up to the shoulder, she was uninjured.
It was a chilling moment—she could only think it was luck.
But as she caught her breath and looked at Chuk Ho-tak, she realized the truth.
He hadn’t failed to wound her—he hadn’t wanted to.
Grasping the torn sleeve, he smiled greedily at her exposed arm.
A surge of shame and anger flared up inside her.
“You perverted bastard…!”
She immediately understood.
He intended to toy with her until the moment he killed her.
The shame she’d only felt as a young apprentice courtesan now boiled up to her head.
But she couldn’t show it.
Because at that moment, the blood ring came spinning down again with deadly force.
Wiiiiing!
“Ugh!”
Kraaaash!
After barely deflecting the blood ring, Chuk Ho-tak and the spear thrust at her again.
It felt like an endless wheel turning.
A wheel that would only stop when she fell.
She was growing more and more exhausted.
While So Nan-so barely held on, the first place where the wheel ground to a halt was surprisingly not her side.
It was the group of ordinary warriors fighting two demonic beasts, like honeybees swarming a wasp.
Dam Mu-ho, a senior warrior of the Shin-eung Corps who had stood by Seonwoo Jin through all his past lives, was still a young man in his early thirties.
He was a passionate warrior who hated retreating more than anything.
His comrades in the Shin-eung Corps admired him and shared his spirit.
“Uyaaah!”
Unlike other elders and senior warriors, Dam Mu-ho threw himself recklessly at the peak-level demonic beasts without regard for his own life.
But the difference in skill was undeniable.
His sword was easily blocked by the demonic beast’s blade.
“Hmph!”
Puk!
Dam Mu-ho’s sword was half-sunk like wood into the demonic beast’s blade.
If he hadn’t been a top-tier warrior, the sword would have shattered in two.
Still, this gap in skill didn’t break Dam Mu-ho’s fighting spirit.
He refused to let go of the demonic beast’s blade embedded in his own.
Instead, he struggled to twist it free.
“Ughh!”
The demonic beast looked baffled.
Why try to twist the sword without defending?
If it dropped the blade and struck his head, Dam Mu-ho would die instantly.
The beast raised its hand to smash his head.
But then—
“Uyaaah!”
“Die!”
“!”
It never got the chance.
Dam Mu-ho’s comrades, reckless like their leader, charged in.
“Yaaah!”
“Haah!”
Like moths to a flame, they threw themselves at the demonic beasts.
The beasts scowled at their audacity but struck back.
“Hah! Insolent fools!”
Puff!
“Ugh!”
“Ughh!”
The result was brutal.
One warrior’s head was crushed instantly by a single blow, another was struck in the abdomen and his back burst open.
But as the demonic beasts turned to attack the next wave, they were shocked.
The wounded warrior with the torn back still clung fiercely to the beast’s arm.
Despite his injuries, his eyes blazed with determination as he refused to let go.
A terrifying willpower.
The demonic beast scowled and struck his head again.
“Stop clinging like a leech!”
Smack!
No matter how strong his will, he couldn’t keep holding onto that arm with a shattered head.
He became a headless corpse, collapsing weakly onto the ground.
But that was only the beginning.
“Haah!”
“Die!”
While he struck twice at one opponent, more warriors swarmed him relentlessly.
“Damn these bloodsuckers!”
Whack! Whack! Whack!
Madou wildly swung both hands, battering them away.
But in his haste, he couldn’t finish them all with a single blow.
And those who didn’t fall clung to him desperately, refusing to let go until their last breath.
Some grabbed at his collar; others even bit into him, hanging on like parasites.
Madou finally began to panic.
“Y-You bastards!”
The warriors of the Shin Eungsa Corps clung to him in increasing numbers, their bodies draping over him like vines.
His movements grew sluggish and awkward.
Flustered, Madou frantically smashed the head of a charging warrior right before his eyes.
“You!”
Crack!
But the moment that warrior’s body collapsed, he couldn’t block the strike that came hurtling from behind—Dam Muho’s blow.
The distance was too close, and Dam Muho’s sword strike was far faster than the others’, leaving Madou no time to react.
Thrust!
“Ugh!”
Dam Muho’s blade pierced Madou’s chest.
It was the first real success in this battle.
Dam Muho roared loudly toward the sky.
“Waaaaah!”
His fierce cry ignited the spirits of the Shin Eungsa warriors and chilled the hearts of the other Madou alike—a blazing battle cry of a passionate warrior.
As Dam Muho killed one Madou and cheers erupted among the ordinary soldiers, the balance was also tipping elsewhere.
At the side of Sunwoo Jung.
Sunwoo Jung, head of the Sunwoo clan, had been stuck at the threshold of the peak for nearly a decade, unable to break through to the next level.
It wasn’t for lack of effort, but psychological barriers.
The burden of protecting his clan alone amid rival factions, the sacrifices made, and the bitter realization that the clan was heading in an undesirable direction had left him feeling hollow and powerless.
But now, things were different.
Since his third son, Sunwoo Jin—the clan’s painful pride—had grown into a fine warrior and returned, Sunwoo Jung had found a psychological stability he’d never known before.
His sword finally shook off the weight of burden and despair, moving freely and boldly.
“Haah!”
Sunwoo’s Thirteen Sword Technique, twelfth form: Twin Wings in Flight.
Whoosh!
Violet sword shadows spread like four wings, striking the Madou in succession.
The wings fluttered as if alive.
Cornered and desperate, the Madou wildly swung his blade in a frenzy.
“Ugh!”
Slash!
He’d been struggling amid the alternating illusions and real sword strikes.
When he fought with all his might, the strikes seemed illusory; when he tried to ignore them as illusions, they turned real.
The seamless blend of illusion and reality left him utterly disoriented.
Sunwoo Jung had been deeply shaken recently by the version of the Thirteen Sword Technique his son had shown him.
Though he’d trained in it his whole life, he realized he still didn’t truly understand it.
What he’d been performing until now was merely a fixed afterimage created by rigid sword forms.
But Sunwoo Jin’s sword was like a living illusion, vibrant and breathing.
With this revelation, Sunwoo Jung’s illusion swords writhed endlessly, as if alive.
“Haah!”
As the four wings of the Twin Wings in Flight disoriented the Madou’s blade, a beam-like sword strike connected through the third form, Shin Eung Gangha, shot straight into Madou’s chest.
Swoosh!
“Ugh!”
The desperate Madou slammed his blade down to block the piercing strike.
Buzz!
But his sword sliced through empty air.
What appeared to be the third form, Shin Eung Gangha, was actually the fifth form, Saekjeuk Sigong—a technique that replaced real sword strikes with illusions.
“!”
Madou’s eyes widened in horror as his desperate strike cut nothing but air.
Sunwoo Jung’s swift sword was already flying toward his fully exposed chest.
It was the true third form, Shin Eung Gangha—a strike descending like a hawk hunting its prey.
Thrust!
“Ugh!”
Sunwoo Jung drove his sword deep into Madou’s chest, tearing him open, clenching his fist tightly.
Splash!
“Argh!”
He realized he had finally broken through the wall that had held him at the threshold of the peak for so long.
“It’s done!”
But his joy was short-lived.
The balance had collapsed on the most critical battlefield—the arena of the ultra-elite masters.
Nan Hon Witch Sonanso’s clothes were already tattered and torn in places.
Her shoulders and thighs were exposed, and though she felt shame and anger at her appearance, there was nothing she could do.
She knew she was lucky to be alive, that her life now hung by a thread in Chuk Hotak’s hands.
But that was the story until now.
When the Sunwoo clan’s warriors killed two Madou and the rest were on the brink of death, Chuk Hotak no longer hesitated.
“Enough games! Die, Sonanso!”
Whoooosh!
His massive blood ring hurtled fiercely toward Sonanso.
Chuk Hotak followed close behind.
Though unseen, a Madou wielding a long spear lurked behind her, waiting for an opening.
Gritting her teeth, Sonanso swung her double sabers to strike the blood ring.
Kraaaang!
Using the recoil, she bounced backward—toward the spear-wielding Madou.
“Ugh!”
Startled by her sudden move, the Madou tried to dodge.
But Sonanso didn’t let him escape.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
Swish!
Her bow-shaped blades carved countless diagonal slashes through the air—and across the Madou’s body.
Blood burst from the many cuts.
Splash!
“Argh!”
The Madou who had tormented her like a mosquito was brutally torn apart.
But at that moment, Chuk Hotak charged toward her exposed back.
Turning her back to him was a fatal mistake.
“Die, witch!”
Chuk Hotak’s twin sabers came crashing down with terrifying force.
But Sonanso hadn’t turned her back without a plan.
In a moment of crisis, she poured all her energy into a full-body release.
Whoosh!
Chuk Hotak’s sabers struck her—but they didn’t connect.
Sonanso’s entire body was enveloped in a crimson barrier—the Hoshin Gang-gi, a protective energy shield.
She trusted this shield enough to expose her back to Chuk Hotak.
Though his sabers failed, Chuk Hotak sneered and pressed the attack.
“Hmph! Using all your strength, huh? Let’s see how long you can hold out!”
Patter-patter-patter-patter!
He relentlessly hammered the shield, knowing well how much energy it consumed.
The Hoshin Gang-gi wasn’t an invincible barrier as common folk believed.
Forming and maintaining it drained enormous internal energy, and each time it blocked an attack, the cost grew even greater.
For Sonanso, already exhausted, using the Hoshin Gang-gi meant she had little strength left to continue fighting.
“Ugh!”
Just as Sonanso barely turned her body to release the shield and face Chuk Hotak, another blood ring came crashing from the side.
Whoooosh!
“Ugh!”
She swung her double sabers again to deflect it—but she couldn’t.
Her energy was too depleted.
Kraaaang!
Sonanso was blasted backward, blood spurting from her mouth.
Her internal energy and stamina had reached their limits.
As she was thrown back, Chuk Hotak’s spear came down like a hawk diving for prey.
Swoosh!
“This is the end…”
Sonanso despaired.
She had no strength left to stop Chuk Hotak.
And if she fell, even if the entire Sunwoo clan united, they would never be able to defeat him.
This was how the fight would end.
“Die!”
Swish!
Just as Chuk Hotak was about to tear out Sonanso’s throat with his spear, his senses suddenly alerted him.
“!”
His ultra-elite instincts warned him.
Something was flying toward him from behind.
Probably a high-speed hidden weapon.
Swoosh!
“Damn!”
Forced to turn, Chuk Hotak tried to strike down the projectile first.
But as he turned, he realized it wasn’t a hidden weapon.
“!”
A young man streaked toward him, sword flashing like a beam of light.
It was an incredible new technique he’d never encountered before.
Swish!
Sunwoo Jin had arrived.