Appearance of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 40

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 40
Bang!
“…!”
After the strange contortion of bone and sinew, Gwangchamdo’s power had grown as massive as his enlarged frame.
‘How in all the heavens is this possible?’
Wun Hyeon couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
Complete Body Metamorphosis?
No—such a thing was absurd.
Complete Body Metamorphosis couldn’t possibly be achieved while standing, not in an instant.
‘Some extraordinary power at work here.’
The exact cause eluded him, but one thing was certain—this defied the natural order. Nothing less could make such a thing possible.
“Krahaha! Power! Such overflowing power!”
Crash! Boom!
Gwangchamdo swung his saber wildly.
His already massive frame had swollen further, making him seem less a man and more a monster.
“Where do you flee to so eagerly? Did you not swear to claim my head!”
Boom!
“Ugh….”
Gwangchamdo planted his foot with the full force of his stance.
The power and weight were so tremendous that the very ground beneath Wun Hyeon trembled.
Wun Hyeon steadied himself and regarded Gwangchamdo.
‘I’ll uncover the reason soon enough.’
But for now, it seemed unwise to drag this out any longer.
Whoooosh—
A blue aura surged around Wun Hyeon.
‘End this in one strike if I can.’
Sheath!
The ancestral martial art of the Namgung Clan’s household master.
The Boundless Heaven Sword.
Wun Hyeon’s blade flew toward Gwangchamdo, tracing the arc of a boundless sky.
The sword technique he had chosen was a secret art passed down only to the household masters of the Namgung Clan.
It was the very same sword that had cut down scores of warriors on the slopes of Seolhon Mountain.
Screeeee!
A vast blue Sword Force laden with tremendous power hurtled toward Gwangchamdo.
Yet Gwangchamdo merely watched it approach with utter confidence, making no move to evade the oncoming force.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
In an instant, a crimson, violent aura erupted from Gwangchamdo’s body.
Wun Hyeon’s brow furrowed as he witnessed it.
‘What is that aura?’
It was not the aura of Gwangchamdo that he knew.
Though Padowan’s martial arts had a rough quality due to their Tyrant Way inclination, the sect had once been recognized as Orthodox. Yet this aura…
‘The foundational meditation method should not deviate from righteous principles?’
There was no reason such an aura should appear.
Gwangchamdo’s secret saber art.
Mad Blood Chaotic Slash!
“…!”
In that moment, Gwangchamdo’s two hands gripping the saber unleashed hundreds of strikes in the span of mere heartbeats.
Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Slash! Crash!
Before him, the cascading saber strikes wove like a net, and the Saber Force tangled and intertwined with terrible density.
Wun Hyeon could not trust his own eyes.
The speed alone—difficult even to track with his sight—was staggering, but what truly defied belief was the Saber Force radiating from each individual strike.
No matter how strong a warrior, the release of such force could not be squandered so recklessly.
‘What in blazes—!’
Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash! Crash!
Before the saber shield that Gwangchamdo had created, Wun Hyeon’s Sword Force began to shatter.
Though his body was not at its absolute peak, this was the sword of one called the Best in the Land.
Yet that formidable aura was blocked with frightening ease.
“Krahaha! Is that all! The Emperor’s Sword shows no great feat after all!”
“….”
Wun Hyeon resumed his stance.
‘This won’t do….’
Finishing it in a single blow had been nothing but greed.
Then.
‘Whittle him down.’
No matter how vast a force, if you pare it away bit by bit, eventually it will exhaust itself.
Gwangchamdo’s strength is incomplete.
I don’t know what method he’s using to manifest such power.
‘But surely it won’t last long.’
Whittle away. And endure.
Swoosh!
Wun Hyeon rushed forward toward Gwangchamdo.
Gwangchamdo’s crimson eyes flared with light.
“Yes! That’s it! Today, I’ll show you how that heaven you boast of so much crumbles in utter ruin!”
Gwangchamdo, saber raised, charged forward to meet Wun Hyeon’s advance.
The inherited blade art of the Namgung Clan’s patriarch.
Emperor’s Incomparable Sword Force.
Gwangchamdo’s unique saber technique.
Blade Madness Chaotic Dance!!
Crash-boom-boom-boom-boom-!!
Heaven and earth trembled; the ground wailed.
Bang! Crash!
Wun Hyeon’s sword and Gwangchamdo’s saber collided with violent force.
Due to the poison he’d suffered before and the Mountain-Piercing Poison he’d drunk moments ago, Wun Hyeon could not exert his full strength.
Conversely, Gwangchamdo’s power surged beyond anything before.
It was that excess which fed his arrogance.
Bang! Crash! Boom!
Gwangchamdo’s both arms whipped the Saber Force about like a madman possessed.
Merely parrying and dodging it was enough to strain him to his limit.
“Emperor’s Blade! I’ve carried a debt with you, haven’t I!”
Wun Hyeon’s brow furrowed.
‘Is he speaking of what happened at Heuksan?’
The incident in which the Padowan’s name was struck from the Murim Alliance’s roster.
The day when eighty percent of the Padowan met their end.
“I cannot forget that humiliation! The day the Padowan shattered into pieces by your hand!”
Crash-crack!
As Wun Hyeon received the saber Gwangchamdo swung, he spoke.
“That matter—”
“Only you!!”
Boom!
“Had it not been for you alone, the Padowan would have risen to command the world!”
Boom! Bang!
Gwangchamdo’s force grew fiercer still.
“We could have trampled underfoot the shoulders of the Nine Great Sects and One and ascended to power!”
Bang!
As a result, Gwangchamdo’s movements grew increasingly expansive.
And those movements meant that openings were beginning to reveal themselves within his technique.
Whoosh-crack!!
“Gah?!”
“Trample, you say?”
Wun Hyeon’s soft voice struck clearly into Gwangchamdo’s ear.
His sword had already burrowed into Gwangchamdo’s left flank.
“Martial arts are no mere means to trample upon another.”
Wun Hyeon regarded Gwangchamdo with a cold gaze.
“That is why your righteousness will never rise above all beneath heaven.”
“You, you bastard—!”
Screech-ahhh!
Gwangchamdo twisted his body, whipping both arms about.
The dark-crimson Saber Force that erupted from his blade crossed back and forth, rushing toward Wun Hyeon.
Boom-crash!
Wun Hyeon reversed his sword, raising it to block Gwangchamdo’s Saber Force with his Protective Vital Energy.
Hisssss….
The forces of the two colliding figures annihilated each other.
In that fraction of a second, their gazes locked.
“With such arrogance in your eyes….”
Whoosh! Crack!
Their energies surged forth again—
“Dare not look down upon me!!”
The two hurled themselves at each other.
Bang! Crash!
The heavens and earth trembled.
Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!
Gwangchamdo unleashed an enormous torrent of Saber Force once more.
That impossible sabre technique from moments before—the one that had stopped Wun Hyeon’s Boundless Heaven Sword.
Mad Blood Chaotic Slash!
“…!”
Whoosh—
Unable to receive all of that Saber Force, Wun Hyeon drew upon his Internal Energy to shield his body.
Protective Vital Energy.
A deep blue aura enveloped Wun Hyeon’s entire form.
Crash-crash-crash-crash-crash!
Wun Hyeon held his sword aloft, meeting the cascading Saber Force from Gwangchamdo.
Yet the poison’s influence, though slight, intermittently disrupted Wun Hyeon’s energy flow.
Slice! Tear!
One, two, three sabre marks carved themselves into Wun Hyeon’s body.
Blood sprayed; skin tore open.
Yet Wun Hyeon’s keen gaze did not lose sight of Gwangchamdo’s movements for even an instant.
‘His momentum is waning.’
This flurry of slashes was certainly weaker than when he had received Wun Hyeon’s Boundless Heaven Sword moments before.
The force was so absurd that another would never have discerned the difference, but Wun Hyeon understood.
‘It is definitely eroding.’
So it was a temporary power after all.
The source—the Transformation Pill he had consumed just now?
Clang! Crash!
‘If I continue to endure like this….’
Rumble….
“…!”
In that moment, the ground beneath their feet began to shake.
Wun Hyeon instinctively understood what that tremor was.
That same vibration from Seolhon Mountain, when he had brought down the snowy peak with his own hands.
The same sensation now consumed his entire body.
Crack-crack-crack-crack… Screech! Screeeech!
The ground beneath Wun Hyeon and Gwangchamdo began to fracture.
“Khahahaha! Now the effect shows itself!”
Effect?
Wun Hyeon regarded Gwangchamdo.
Even as the earth collapsed beneath them, Gwangchamdo showed no sign of alarm.
‘Surely not….’
Wun Hyeon looked down at Gwangchamdo’s feet.
‘That tremor from before….’
Had it been intended to bring down the cliff from the start?
Screech! Screeeech!
“…!”
Wun Hyeon’s body twisted and swayed.
The moment he pushed off the crumbling earth to leap clear—
“Where do you go!”
As though he had been waiting for precisely this instant.
Slash! Skreeeeeee!
Gwangchamdo, already airborne, launched himself at Wun Hyeon.
A massive shadow with the moon at its back descended, crimson eyes flaring with murderous intent.
Rumble—
Rocks cascaded down.
Through the torrent, the auras of Wun Hyeon and Gwangchamdo collided ferociously.
Gwangchamdo’s saber cut across Wun Hyeon’s eyes and forearms.
Wun Hyeon’s blade swept around to rake Gwangchamdo’s abdomen and the hollow behind his knees.
Boulders crashed in from all sides, and Gwangchamdo wielded his Saber Force wildly against them.
He sliced through the falling rocks, used them as footholds to move, and continued his assault against Wun Hyeon.
When azure Sword Force rushed forth, an enormous boulder blocked his vision.
When the frenzied Saber Force surged, a heap of earth swallowed it.
Their auras, their movements.
One by one, two by two, buried and vanished beneath the cascade.
A shadow descended over their heads, darkening the sky itself.
Beneath it, the two wielded their force toward each other.
A massive boulder swallowed their combined auras.
Crunch—
Then silence fell.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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