Ascension of the Heavenly Demon - Chapter 107
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 107
A sword pointed straight ahead.
The anger that settled upon it became killing intent and spread outward.
But Geumri, who faced it, was as calm as if receiving a passing mountain breeze, his gaze fixed on the seated Zhuge Munhyeon.
The sight of him devouring the fruit of a hundred years of effort and circulating qi was infuriating and infuriating again.
Originally, the spiritual fruit could not be contained in a vessel that had not cultivated… In the end, that vessel would break and crumble into dust…
To mistake a malicious connection for a fortunate one and harbor wicked greed without knowing death.
Grind grind grind.
His teeth ground so hard he could feel them wearing down.
A hundred years of effort had become futile.
The tower he had carefully built had collapsed overnight due to the visit of unknown intruders.
It was so close.
The spiritual fruit’s energy had reached its peak, and his heart had swelled with the thought of soon creating an elixir to cross the boundary between human and immortal.
His heart was breaking.
A hundred years of cultivation, all for nothing.
But the faint spiritual energy flickering around that bastard’s body.
He cannot contain it.
It is difficult to dissolve.
It is natural.
He wouldn’t know the method to hold spiritual energy within his body.
Then there is hope.
The Infant Treasure Fruit method uses newborn babies as fertilizer to create spiritual fruit, but since that damned bastard devoured the spiritual fruit, if he quickly petrifies the dantian, it would become a human elixir.
No one had ever tried it, but now was not the time to worry about uncertainty. If the spiritual energy would disappear anyway, it would be better to try something…
But then.
“Is it you? Are you the one who kidnapped all those babies and used them as fertilizer for the bamboo?”
“…”
Mujin’s hair rose upward as if scattered by wind in his anger.
His obsidian-like gleaming black eyes radiated a chilling coldness, but Geumri merely frowned slightly at most.
Why should he care?
Though his aura was not light, he was ultimately within the category of humans.
To him, who had cultivated for long years and was on the verge of reaching the realm of Half-Immortals, Mujin was nothing more than a stone kicked on the roadside.
“Speak. I’m asking if you’re the one who committed this outrageous act.”
The killing intent that changed from formless to tangible became a fierce wind that clawed at all directions.
Crack!
Small stones beneath his feet burst apart and the ground split with spider web-like cracks.
Mujin’s anger was drawing out the power contained in the third seal to its limit.
“Hmm…”
Even killing him wouldn’t be satisfying enough.
But Geumri was not in a situation to pay attention to such annoying gnats before his eyes.
First, that bastard who swallowed the spiritual fruit…
He took a step.
With a slight step, Geumri’s form glided forward.
Normally Mujin would have admired such speed and mystique, but with all his senses colored by rage, he immediately swung his sword.
Slash!
Blue sword light sparked like lightning as it drew a horizontal strike.
He had once been the foremost disciple of Jasogoong, learning Flowing Cloud among the countless sword arts representing Wudang.
Flowing clouds.
Sometimes leisurely, sometimes flexible and unpredictable as if swept by wind.
It was the ultimate art of Softness Conquers Hardness, subduing strength with gentleness, but what Mujin displayed today was a dark cloud heavy with rain and pouring forth lightning.
Crack crack crack!
Though he avoided the horizontal strike, Geumri’s eyes trembled as he was forced to step back, unable to advance further due to the fierce sword energy that followed.
“Answer me. Why did you commit such atrocious acts?”
At Mujin’s question, Geumri’s complexion hardened.
In the single step he had retreated, the spiritual energy emanating from Zhuge Munhyeon’s body was diminishing.
Wh-why?
Why was what should have increased due to his inability to accept it being stored within that bastard’s body instead?
Dissolving it? A mere human?
Then was he also a cultivator like himself?
His heart immediately became urgent.
But.
“Evil bastard! I clearly told you to answer!”
The sword flowed toward him.
Leaving no afterimage, everything scattered was real.
Slash slash slash slash!
And it poured down.
It rushed like pouring rain.
With his path blocked, Geumri could no longer endure.
“Damn gnat! Get out of my way!”
His widely spread palm created a terrible wind as if it were a banana leaf fan.
He tried to scatter it, but when his clothes were cut as if blade-like sword aura was contained within, Mujin hastily blocked Zhuge Munhyeon’s front and created a barrier with his sword.
Crack crack crack crack crack!
The wall made of layered sword energy crumbled helplessly.
Each collision’s rebound shook his internal energy and induced nausea, but Mujin could not retreat.
If he dodged, Zhuge Munhyeon, who was circulating qi, would be in danger.
He had to block it.
But what exactly was this Evil Seed’s identity that he could break sword energy with just wind created by his hands?
Above all, his aura was different from any martial arts he had seen before.
Having already reached Ui Qi, sword energy shouldn’t break against equal power, and having seen the power of those who reached Gang Qi among the main mountain’s masters, he could compare.
But the Evil Seed’s power was different from anything else.
What exactly…
But it wasn’t a matter for contemplation.
He had to fill the broken gaps.
The sword became faster and the energy increased.
Blue light changed to black light and blood-red radiance rippled in his obsidian eyes.
But a hand suddenly pierced through the gaps in the sword energy wall.
H-how?
Mujin’s sword hesitated in surprise, and the hand that didn’t miss that opening dug deep into his abdomen.
Thud!
Internal energy cut off in an instant.
A shock that made him want to vomit.
“Gack!”
Mujin’s knees buckled as he was pushed back a considerable distance.
He felt like his breath would stop.
His sword had not worked.
What exactly is this guy’s identity?
Could it be that the Immortal of Dongho Lake that Zhuge Munhyeon spoke of actually exists?
He struggled to lift his head.
He could see his opponent taking a step.
Just a single strike.
But it was enough of a moment to feel the difference in power.
His trembling legs showed no sign of straightening, and the pain in his abdomen wouldn’t subside either.
At this rate…
Mujin gritted his teeth.
At that moment, something came to his mind.
Mad Soul Art.
This was not martial arts but a mental technique.
A method to amplify internal energy through intensified emotions.
The five desires and seven emotions are flames of fierce anger, and all sounds shall become the roar of beasts.
It was the martial arts of the Evil Seed.
This damned connection had come to him.
But he couldn’t avoid using it.
In destroying evil, good and evil don’t matter, so if destroying it benefits all people, why wouldn’t one take on the role of evil!
Stab!
Mujin pierced a part of his own body.
The fourth seal.
Previously, Zhuge Munhyeon had cast darkness upon him, but now he was advancing toward darkness of his own accord.
The demonic nature that had remained trapped in the deepest prison of his heart without seeing sunlight awakened with a roar as the door opened.
Mujin operated the Mad Soul Art.
Anger amplified the demonic nature even more intensely.
Kwaaaaaa!
The moment energy flowed like rapids through his blood vessels, extending to all four limbs and reaching his fingertips and toes.
Bang!
Thunder and lightning struck in his head.
And his consciousness became distant.
“…?!”
Geumri couldn’t put down the foot he had lifted to step forward.
In an instant.
Mujin’s aura, who had collapsed powerlessly, changed.
Dark and sinister energy.
And beneath his flowing hair, eyes like gleaming obsidian.
Grrrrr.
Even a beast-like howl.
Though he was a cultivator already transcending humanity and approaching immortality, goosebumps rose at the cry that rang in his ears.
Meanwhile, that energy was… similar to his own kind?
Kraaaaa!
Mujin, who had been crouching and glaring like a four-legged beast, launched his body forward with a wild cry.
“Th-this bastard!”
The startled Geumri quickly swung his hand.
But simultaneously, Mujin’s strike that came swinging collided with the wind pressure.
Boom!
The air burst and energy waves spread in all directions.
The ground overturned and the withered bamboo shattered into pieces and scattered.
“H-how is this possible?”
He wasn’t injured.
Mujin, who had collided with him, didn’t fall but was pushed back like before.
However, instead of groaning, he let out an even more ferocious cry.
How could this be?
Though the nature had changed, it was still human power – how could his wrist be aching?
Spiritual energy was transcendent power.
It was much stronger than the energy that martial artists possessed in their bodies.
“Were you also a cultivator?!”
He shouted in anger, but no answer came back.
Kwaaaang!
Not martial techniques but pure physical movements – instinctive attacks like a beast.
Mujin charged recklessly.
“Damn it!”
Geumri eventually had to stop his steps toward Zhuge Munhyeon and face him.
Bang! Kwabang!
Mujin was repeatedly pushed back and slammed down by his attacks.
But he wouldn’t fall. He hadn’t learned Shaolin’s Vajra Indestructible Technique, yet no matter how much he was beaten, he would get up and charge again. He kept charging as if rushing to his death.
Geumri couldn’t understand it at all.
He had briefly misunderstood, but this wasn’t a cultivator.
The scent was different.
But then why could this guy’s power shock him?
However, the Mad Soul Art.
It was the final mental insight that Heavenly Demon Baek Ganghwi had recalled before forming his spiritual body while cultivating the Ascension Method in Taiji Cave.
Therefore, it was power that transcended the human realm through evil rather than good.
Though it was energy possessed by humans, it was enough to match spiritual energy…
Especially for a cultivator like Geumri who hadn’t become a Half-Immortal, that power was sufficiently effective.
Bang! Kwabang!
As the exchanges increased, just like Mujin’s body becoming covered in blood, wounds began appearing on Geumri’s body too.
Red bloodlines formed where he was scratched, and throbbing pain remained where he was struck.
But more than the pain in his own body, he was much more concerned about the traces of spiritual energy that had completely disappeared from Zhuge Munhyeon’s body.
Because of this bastard…
Because of this damn bastard…
Geumri’s body, heated with rage, turned red as if crimson blood had spread through it.
Scales sprouted roughly all over his torn skin.
As if he was wearing fish-scale armor.
Long whiskers grew on both sides below his jaw, fluttering like dragon whiskers.
They did not appear as immortals.
They called themselves half-immortals, but in my eyes they were monsters, demons, and ghosts.
As the current emperor had said, Geumri’s appearance seemed to fall somewhere between that of a monster and a demon.
Furthermore, his power revealed in his true form was so immense that it caused mild earthquakes throughout the region.
CRASH!
Mujin’s attacks were no longer effective.
Part of it was due to the depletion of mana he had been drawing out all along, but Geumri’s body, as if clad in young armor, possessed defensive power no different from an iron wall.
Thud!
Each time they collide, it’s Mujin’s body that bursts instead.
My flesh, my head…
Grrr.
After colliding several more times, Mujin’s cries gradually diminished, and finally he stopped moving, gasping for breath.
His strength was exhausted.
The demonic influence lifted and his consciousness returned.
In his unfocused, wavering eyes, he could dimly see Geumri’s strangely transformed appearance.
A red shadow…
Was it blood flowing?
Or was it my own eyes filled with blood that made it appear so?
Mujin collapsed with a thud, falling to his knees and letting his arms hang limply.
Why is evil so terribly strong?
Even though I chose to become evil myself, why couldn’t I defeat him?
His heart crumbled with regret.
Death approached through his dazed vision.
What was even more heartbreaking was the fact that he could no longer protect Zhuge Munhyeon.
The approaching death stopped right in front of Mujin and looked down at him.
“Because of you… I’ve lost even my last hope. Because of you!”
A coldly subdued voice.
Geumri’s hand rose.
And it swung toward Mujin’s head.
It was just about to make contact.
Whoooosh!
A streak of light flew like a beam and struck Geumri’s body with tremendous force.
Kwaaaaang!
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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