Chapter 84
Hwa Young-bin, the master of the Crimson Divine Sword who had formed the curved straight-line formation, along with the skilled warriors of the A-mi faction, slowly advanced toward Sa Won-yang.
At that moment, the faint smile on Sa Won-yang’s face faded. She formed energy spheres in both hands once again and shot them out like lightning.
Shu-hak!
“Watch out!”
“Energy spheres!”
The spheres still carried tremendous power and speed.
But this time, they weren’t nearly as effective as before.
The remaining fighters were seasoned masters with over seventy years of internal energy cultivation, and this time they were tense and prepared in advance.
They hurriedly dodged the spheres, which sliced through the empty air in vain.
Sa Won-yang’s expression had now turned completely blank.
Seeing this, Gyeol Han-sa-ta sneered and shouted mockingly, “Demon! Looks like you’ve run out of tricks! Your end is near!”
The A-mi warriors felt a slight relief at his words.
Victory suddenly seemed within reach.
But Hwa Young-bin was not so sure.
He swallowed nervously.
Having known who Sa Won-yang was, he was well aware of what happened when the smile vanished from the face of the So-myeon Ma-gun.
Sa Won-yang’s expressionless face slowly parted her lips.
“You filthy vermin… I tried to end this quickly, but you’ve only made things troublesome for me. Especially you—there’s no way I’ll let you die easily.”
Then she took a step forward.
At that moment, Hwa Young-bin shouted, “She’s coming!”
Simultaneously, Sa Won-yang lunged toward the A-mi warriors at an incredible speed.
Kwaak!
But the remaining warriors were no pushovers.
Those in her path quickly stepped back, tightening their defense.
At the same time, Gyeol Han-sa-ta and Hwa Young-bin closed in from the sides, attacking her.
Gyeol Han-sa-ta’s ethereal sword technique, which seemed to slice through space itself, and Hwa Young-bin’s majestic crimson sword style, painting a grand sunset in the air, were both extremely threatening.
It looked as if Sa Won-yang was surrounded.
But she merely scoffed.
“Hmph!”
She spun like a top on the spot, slashing her claws through the air.
Wiiing! Tatter-tatter-tang!
Streams of energy radiated from her claws, deflecting the swords of Gyeol Han-sa-ta and Hwa Young-bin to either side.
In that instant, Sa Won-yang charged again.
Puhak!
“Ahhh!”
“Master Jang!”
It didn’t take long for the A-mi disciples standing before her to be torn apart.
And this time, she didn’t just kill them.
Even after their deaths, she laughed like a madwoman, savagely mutilating their bodies.
“Kuhahaha!”
Chaaak! Chaaak! Puhwak!
Blood and flesh splattered everywhere.
“Ugh!”
“W-what the…!”
Those who witnessed the scene were so horrified they couldn’t even think of attacking.
They could only gather together, their faces twisted in terror, helplessly watching.
Then, covered in blood after shredding two bodies to pieces, Sa Won-yang smiled again and asked,
“Do you still think I’m finished?”
Hwa Young-bin and the A-mi disciples were speechless.
She was overwhelmingly powerful.
There was no hope of winning.
Inside the main hall, Sun Woo-jin and Bi Sa-young moved at top speed, searching every corner.
There were guards inside, but fortunately, they were low-level fighters that Sun Woo-jin could easily handle.
The problem was they couldn’t find the kidnapped women.
They had searched from the first floor up to the fourth, but no luck.
Frustrated, Sun Woo-jin shouted, “Damn it! I was sure they’d be in the basement, but there’s no entrance down there!”
He must have been mistaken.
Time was slipping away, and something terrible might happen to Hwa Young-bin.
If anything happened to him, it would all be because of Sun Woo-jin’s flawed plan.
His anxiety grew.
After a moment of thought, he muttered, “We have to go back. We need to escape with Master Hwa…”
At that moment, Bi Sa-young gently grabbed his shoulder and said, “Calm down, Jin. I don’t think you’re wrong. This has to be the place.”
Her unwavering confidence warmed Sun Woo-jin’s heart for a moment.
Still, he sighed softly.
He was grateful for his friend’s faith, but deep down, he felt he was mistaken.
Shaking his head with a bitter smile, he said, “Thanks, but I don’t think so. There’s no basement here at all.”
Bi Sa-young looked around and said, “Maybe it’s here, but we just haven’t found it. Could it be a secret passage?”
“A secret passage?”
“Yeah, like one only Sa Won-yang knows about.”
Hearing that, several possibilities flashed through Sun Woo-jin’s mind.
Only Sa Won-yang knows? That makes sense. It’s not like other warriors never enter the main hall. If there is a basement, they wouldn’t put the entrance on the first floor where ordinary warriors could find it.
Suddenly, the layout of the main hall he had glanced at earlier appeared vividly in his mind.
His photographic memory—the reason he was called a prodigy—was at work.
If it’s somewhere convenient for Sa Won-yang, it should be near her room.
Fourth floor, third floor, second floor, first floor.
Sun Woo-jin began to mentally reconstruct the structure and size of each floor in three dimensions.
The building’s exterior and interior layout became transparent in his mind, and he compared the rooms and corridors on each floor.
It took only three breaths.
Finally, he spotted something.
He urgently told Bi Sa-young, “Follow me!”
She grinned and followed behind.
“You found it! I knew it!”
Sun Woo-jin headed to a large square pillar in the center of the building.
He tapped it and said, “This pillar is right next to Sa Won-yang’s room on the fourth floor. And…”
Tok! Tok! Tok!
He smiled.
“It sounds hollow inside.”
Using his sword energy, he traced four lines—two horizontal, two vertical—on the pillar’s surface.
A square panel fell away, revealing a dark passage.
A ladder led down to the basement.
“Found it!”
The situation for Hwa Young-bin, fighting So-myeon Ma-gun Sa Won-yang, was dire.
Only four of them remained alive.
Two had been killed not long ago, and now two more had fallen.
Sa Won-yang was holding the severed head of an A-mi disciple, tossing it into the air and catching it with a chuckle.
“Only four left, huh? It’s a shame this fun is almost over. But…”
She squeezed the head in her hand until it burst.
Puh-seok!
“Life’s always like that.”
Covered in white brain matter and blood, Sa Won-yang smiled brightly—like a demon from hell.
The two remaining A-mi disciples were visibly trembling with fear.
Gyeol Han-sa-ta was no different.
Though not shaking like them, his eyes darted nervously, his fighting spirit broken.
Glancing at them, Hwa Young-bin recalled what Sun Woo-jin had told him.
“If the battle turns against you, you must retreat.”
Now seemed to be that moment.
Sun Woo-jin’s advice was sound.
Gyeol Han-sa-ta was a cancer within the A-mi faction, and her death would be better for them.
The other two were merely her followers.
So abandoning them and fleeing shouldn’t bring guilt.
But Hwa Young-bin smiled bitterly and thought, I can’t.
He simply couldn’t run.
Not because of Gyeol Han-sa-ta or the others.
Because of himself.
For over ten years, he hadn’t truly felt alive.
Since losing half his soul, he had no reason to live.
He was just breathing, slowly dying.
The only thing left was to avenge her.
And now, standing before the blood cult’s demon who killed her, he was supposed to run away?
Because he was afraid to die?
That was not who Hwa Young-bin was.
Fighting the blood cult’s demon was the only thing he could do for the dead woman.
If he couldn’t even do that, there was no point in living.
Besides, he wasn’t afraid of death.
He hadn’t felt alive for ten years—why would he suddenly fear dying now?
Sharpening his sword again, he steeled his resolve.
His eyes burned red with determination.
Today, I will die here. And then, I will go to her.
Just as Hwa Young-bin ignited his fighting spirit—
“Ei!”
Pah-bak!
An unexpected event occurred.
Suddenly, Gyeol Han-sa-ta leapt backward.
The shocked A-mi disciples shouted,
“Master Jang?!”
“Sa-jeo?!”
They couldn’t believe their eyes.
Their Master Jang Sa-jeo was abandoning them, flying off into the dark sky.
Her action stunned even Hwa Young-bin, who had just been roused to fight.
But among everyone present, only one person seemed to have anticipated this.
So-myeon Ma-gun Sa Won-yang burst into laughter.
“Kuhahaha! Just as I expected!”
Kyeolhan Satae found herself unable to think of anything else.
The sight Sa Won-yang had shown her was so terrifying that she simply couldn’t bear it any longer.
She didn’t care if she abandoned all her followers and was locked away in the brain prison.
She absolutely refused to die here.
To her, this felt like the last chance to escape.
The Amipa sect disciples might not be enough to hold off Sa Won-yang, but that foolish Hwa Young-bin could probably buy her some time.
Her heart pounding as if it would burst, Kyeolhan Satae unleashed her lightness skill and fled.
Just the fact that she was putting distance between herself and that horrifying figure made a smile involuntarily spread across her face.
Now, she alone would survive.
“Hehehehehe!”
Then—
A chilling sensation made her glance back.
She saw Sa Won-yang’s fierce energy orb blazing with light, hurtling toward her.
“!”
Startled, Kyeolhan Satae flipped her body midair, narrowly dodging the attack.
Whoosh!
She watched the orb pass just beneath her, and a smile returned to her lips.
‘Dodged it! Now, nothing more…!’
But at that very moment—
The orb exploded right below her.
KABOOM!
“Ahhh!”
Caught completely off guard, Kyeolhan Satae was engulfed in the blast.
Her vision went white, and a high-pitched ringing filled her ears.
When she came to, her body was tumbling wildly across the ground.
Though she was a master aiming for transcendence and didn’t lose consciousness like before, she still struggled to regain her senses.
When her rolling finally stopped, she remembered she had to run.
Frantically, she tried to lift her sluggish body.
“I-I have to get away…!”
But when she raised her head, what she saw was Sa Won-yang’s face, beaming brightly.
Terrified, Kyeolhan Satae screamed.
“Ahhh!”
At the same moment, Sa Won-yang reached out and tore into both of Kyeolhan Satae’s shoulders.
“Gyaaah!”
Her scream of terror instantly turned into one of agony as Sa Won-yang mercilessly tore at her legs as well.
Rippp!
“Ahhh! Ahh! Aaaah!”
Kyeolhan Satae’s eyes rolled back as she screamed wildly, seemingly losing her mind.
Sa Won-yang watched her with a look of ecstatic delight.
“Good, very good. There’s nothing more thrilling than the screams of a righteous woman brought to her lowest depths. Be thankful—I won’t kill you for now, just to hear those screams.”
A woman, her limbs torn apart, screaming madly, and before her, a bloodied old man smiling brightly.
It was a scene too horrific to describe.
The two Amipa disciples trembling in fear looked at him and suddenly bolted in panic.
“Ahhh!”
“Please, help!”
But there was no way they could escape—if even Kyeolhan Satae, who was aiming for transcendence, couldn’t.
Sa Won-yang glanced at them, clicked her tongue, and fired another energy orb.
“Tch. Where do you think you’re going?”
Whoosh!
The orb flew at lightning speed, but the two fleeing disciples didn’t even notice.
Sa Won-yang had no doubt it would strike them squarely in the back.
But between them stood Hwa Young-bin.
“Hah!”
Suddenly leaping up, Hwa Young-bin swung his sword down at the two incoming orbs.
A crimson blade sliced through the air, painting the sky with a majestic sunset glow.
Bang!
“Ugh!”
He was thrown backward, spinning several times before barely regaining his balance and landing.
The recoil was tremendous.
But when he looked up, he saw the smile on Sa Won-yang’s face falter—and he grinned fiercely.
He had succeeded in redirecting the orbs.
The two Amipa disciples fleeing were already quite far away.
With blazing eyes, Hwa Young-bin declared,
“I won’t let anything go your way.”
Sa Won-yang’s expression briefly turned blank, then she smiled brightly again.
“You’ve been wearing that dull look for a while now. It’ll be fun to twist your face into something like hers.”
She used her wind technique to roughly seal Kyeolhan Satae’s acupoints.
It seemed she truly intended to keep her alive for now.
Then, leaping toward Hwa Young-bin, she shouted,
“Let’s see how long you can hold out!”
Despite her small frame, Sa Won-yang’s lightning-fast assault was like a rabid wildcat pouncing.
Gritting his teeth, Hwa Young-bin immediately activated his sword defense technique.
The Scarlet Cloud Veil of the Jeokha Sword Style.
A red blade curtain spread before him like a hazy sunset.
But Sa Won-yang burst into a radiant glow and charged straight through it.
“A sword veil? You’re better than the Amipa sect leader! Kihahaha!”
Her arm, swollen and massive like a giant’s hand, smashed down on the sword veil.
Bang!
“Ugh!”
Hwa Young-bin was blasted backward helplessly.
The force was incredible.
“Kihahaha!”
Sa Won-yang didn’t stop.
She pursued the flying Hwa Young-bin, relentlessly pressing the attack.
Bang bang bang!
“Ughhh!”
Her seemingly wild strikes battered Hwa Young-bin like a storm.
He managed to block with his sword, but it was a struggle just to hold it.
The blade vibrated as if alive, trying to slip from his grasp.
Then Hwa Young-bin saw Sa Won-yang throw her arm back with all her might.
Her concentrated energy made her small hand glow red and grow as large as a giant’s.
His eyes widened in shock just as she swung it down with full force.
“Hahaha!”
Bang!
Crack!
“Gyaaah!”
Hwa Young-bin’s sword shattered into pieces, and the impact sent him flying like a bullet.
It was only thanks to the sword’s final resistance that his body wasn’t hit directly.
He crashed to the ground with fierce momentum, rolling across the earth.
Sa Won-yang laughed triumphantly.
“Kihahaha! Say that again, just like before! Kihahaha!”
Hwa Young-bin staggered to his feet, forcing a weary smile.
“I won’t let anything go your way.”
Though his sword was broken and his body trembled from the impact, his eyes still shone with the same clear light as before.
Seeing that look, Sa Won-yang’s smile slowly faded.
“I wonder if you’ll still have that look after all your limbs are torn off and your tongue cut out.”
She lunged at him like a wild beast once more.
Then—
Someone flew in, shouting,
“Master Magun! There’s a serious problem!”