I Prayed for a Murim Reincarnation, But I Was Born as the Youngest Imperial Prince - Chapter 113
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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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Chapter 113
The moment the blade is wrenched free, a torrent of corrupt blood erupts from the wound.
Without a sound, Iho collapses to the ground.
“You bastard!”
Enraged by the deaths of his two cherished companions, Ilho throws his full strength into a Poison Palm, striking hard against Absolute Shadow.
Clang!
The impact rings out, sounding exactly like a solid sheet of iron being struck.
And that is all.
Absolute Shadow immediately follows up with a ruthless counteroffensive.
A thrust.
A slash.
A tempest of exceptionally swift consecutive strikes descends upon him, and though Ilho scatters venom wildly, only then does the truth dawn on him.
‘This bastard… the poison isn’t working properly. Could it be…?’
He might not possess complete Immunity to All Poisons, but could he at least be Immune to All Poisons to a lesser degree?
Only now did they accurately gauge the true capabilities of the Iron Ox Invulnerability Qigong.
By then, however, Absolute Shadow’s sword had already pierced straight through his Dantian.
A fraction of a second too late, his Poison Palm managed to brush against Absolute Shadow, but because the swordsman pulled back his blade and retreated in the same motion, it amounted to nothing more than a glancing nudge.
With that, he too tumbled into the dirt.
“They are taken care of.”
As he spoke in an entirely flat, level tone, Zhuge Jun deactivated the Earthen Wall Formation.
He had been watching the progress of the skirmish through a tiny fissure in the mud wall.
Because of what he saw, a cold shiver ran down the back of Jun’s neck.
‘I knew he was formidable, but still…’
To be perfectly honest, his friend Seonwu was entirely hors de concours and had to be left out of the equation.
He also knew that among the Seven Dragons, the rising stars of the age, Jian Long possessed a level of skill that vied for the absolute top spot.
He was well aware that even when considering the entire Peak Realm, that swordsman ranked among the upper echelons.
Even within the same Peak Realm, achieving it merely meant one had refined a single form of internal energy to its absolute limit, so it was common knowledge that vast disparities in strength existed within that tier.
Having spent twenty years living as a member of the Zhuge Clan after reincarnating into the Wulin, how could he possibly not know that?
‘But I never imagined he could absolutely cook all three of them simultaneously without sustaining a single scratch!’
The Sword Dragon of the Namgung Clan certainly didn’t lose for nothing.
That Imperial Sword Form, which had managed to endure such a swift sword technique, had truly proven its legendary reputation.
‘If that guy loses his mind and comes at me, I could genuinely die before Seonwu even has a chance to pull him back.’
Not that he intended to walk on eggshells from now on, of course.
Even if he wanted to, what could the swordsman really do when Seonwu held his leash so tightly?
A loyal hound like that would never actually snap and go rogue.
“Ahem, truly magnificent. Do you possess complete Immunity to All Poisons?”
“Not to that extent. I am merely immune to most common venoms. If they had assaulted me with a Poison Ring or a Poison Qi Manifestation, I would have responded differently.”
Naturally, the vast majority of those in the Peak Realm were utterly incapable of utilizing those two advanced techniques, and even if they could, it would only be for a fleeting moment or two, meaning he could easily evade or deflect the strikes before launching a counter.
“More importantly, focus on supporting my senior brother properly.”
“Of course. Now that Mandok Mazon has undoubtedly sensed the fall of his three lackeys, the battle is about to resume in earnest.”
Only now could Jun finally clear his mind and fully concentrate on providing reinforcement to Seonwu.
* * *
Mandok Mazon, who had been deliberately taking his time to pressure Seonwu, realized things were deviating from his design when the formation refused to break even after a significant duration.
‘Did the three of them truly fail to handle a single Sword Dragon despite working together?’
Granted, there were echelons of strength even within the Peak Realm, but his three personal guardians were by no means incompetent martial artists.
They were men who possessed every fundamental required of a true Peak Realm master.
‘I did hear that the Sword Dragon displayed an incredibly potent defensive martial art when he triumphed over the Namgung brat, but…’
Could that be all, or was he truly immune to most poisons as well?
Even if that were the case, how could three masters fail to overcome a single opponent?
He had completely overlooked the fact that Absolute Shadow’s radically fast sword technique exerted far greater lethality when systematically dismantling a Three Talents Formation composed of weaker links one by one.
‘I have heard tales of his velocity… but because I have not witnessed it firsthand, he must be significantly faster than I originally anticipated.’
As a master who had attained the Ultimate Demonic Realm, Mandok Mazon deduced the nature of Absolute Shadow’s martial arts with pinpoint accuracy without ever having to look at them.
However, having already lost his three guardians, there was very little he could do to alter his strategy now.
“Tsk, This Seat has blundered. I have allowed three valuable subordinates to depart this world far too early.”
“Why don’t you go ahead and follow them? I’d be more than happy to help you out.”
“Impudent brat. A youth who has tasted a modicum of success grows arrogant far too quickly. Do you truly believe you are a match for me simply because This Seat granted you a brief moment of respite!”
“If that’s the case, why have you been stealthily attempting to administer Formless Poison to me for some time now? Though I suppose you stopped since it wasn’t working.”
At Seonwu’s remark, Mandok Mazon’s expression contorted slightly.
In truth, his words were precisely on the mark.
He had not merely been exerting mental pressure; he had been covertly dispersing Formless Poison, employing every underhanded trick at his disposal.
This was only possible because his mastery of poison manipulation had reached the pinnacle of controlling poison with Qi.
Yet, it had completely failed to take effect.
To be exact, the moment the Formless Poison drifted near the Chivalrous Dragon, an equivalent, opposing energy would surge forth and utterly neutralize it.
Rather than Yaxian, who had dedicated his life to the Vatality Restoring Poison Medical Art, it was the Chivalrous Dragon who proved far more adept at eradicating the venom.
‘To think he possesses a domain that actively suppresses all poisons, moving far beyond mere immunity… his martial affinity is entirely antithetical to mine.’
Fortunately, at this current juncture where the boy was barely scratching the surface of the Realm of Creation, Mandok Mazon could still overwhelm him through sheer brute force.
Should more time pass and the youth truly consolidate his position within the Realm of Creation, he himself would be forced to beat a retreat.
‘Furthermore, a monster like that is even in possession of the Brahma Bell from the West.’
He absolutely had to ensure the boy perished this very day.
Compared to this youth, an old relic like Yaxian was a trivial matter.
“Very well. I shall no longer limit this contest to mere domains and willpower.”
If their respective Nine Dragons Destroying the World techniques merely canceled each other out in a tense stalemate, trading ultimate qigong maneuvers would do nothing but waste precious time.
To bring about a decisive conclusion, they had no choice but to close the distance and clash directly with physical martial arts while their domains nullified one another.
‘Even if Yaxian lends his aid, and even if you resort to the Flying Sword Technique, I still do not believe a boy like you can match me.’
Soaring into the air via Void Walking, Mandok Mazon descended toward the earth in the next instant, unleashing a cataclysmic, suffocating momentum directly toward the ground.
As if intent on utterly crushing Seonwu into the dirt, the concentrated poison Qi gathered tightly around his descending form, morphing into the shape of a colossal, menacing dragon.
[Poison Dragon Descending from Heaven]
Hidden within the heart of the plunging toxic beast was Mandok Mazon himself.
The twin palms thrusting outward from the Demon Sovereign were heavily laden with an incredibly perilous Poison Astral Qi.
The urgent warning of the divine sword struck Seonwu’s ears.
[Hey, here it comes!]
[I know.]
And he, too, was entirely prepared.
The venomous dragon violently shatters the barrier of wind.
The twin layers of swirling gales manage to dampen the momentum of the toxic dragon to a small degree, but that is the extent of it.
It is breached without mercy.
Seeing this, Yaxian thrusts both his palms forward, unleashing a massive burst of Palm Wind.
It was a single strike unleashed with the absolute maximum internal power of his Vatality Restoring Poison Medical Art, carrying the greatest destructive force he could muster.
[Saving Lives Under Heaven]
That torrent of palm energy clashes with the toxic beast, successfully scattering the momentum of the poison dragon once more.
Deep within the dispersing fog, the silhouette of Mandok Mazon becomes faintly visible.
As the Demon Sovereign swoops down with both hands brimming with lethal poison Qi, Seonwu kicks off the ground and leaps upward to meet him.
The Demon-Subduing Divine Dragon Sword shoots forward alongside him, acting as his companion in the air.
Cloaked in a thick layer of Sword Gang, the divine blade thrusts directly toward Mandok Mazon’s right hand.
Simultaneously, Seonwu draws his own sword from its sheath.
[Neither Flying Nor Crying]
The moment it leaves the scabbard, a cascade of Sword Gang erupts, scattering a brilliant, blinding light across the battlefield as if a miniature sun had descended upon the earth.
A solar radiance that completely eclipsed the dim light of the stars.
“What?!”
This massive, chaotic dance of immense Gangqi far exceeded anything Mandok Mazon had anticipated, catching him completely off guard.
‘What in the world is this! When on earth did he gather this much energy!’
If the boy had been accumulating this magnitude of Qi, he himself would have naturally unleashed the Nine Dragons Destroying the World to match it.
To think he had tightly compressed and concealed such a massive reservoir of energy entirely within his scabbard?
To the point where even his own seasoned senses had completely failed to register it?
How could such an absurd—
‘Indeed, under normal circumstances, it would be entirely impossible.’
No matter how exceptional the Neither Flying Nor Crying technique was, if he had gathered it inside a normal scabbard, it would have been impossible to deceive someone of Mandok Mazon’s caliber.
He would have detected it much earlier.
A broad smirk spread across Seonwu’s face.
The Storage Ring.
By adapting the principles of Neither Flying Nor Crying, he had continuously channeled and stored his Sword Qi within the pocket dimension of the ring.
While they were seemingly locked in a tense standoff, Mandok Mazon had merely been focused on dispersing hidden poisons and keeping a watchful eye to ensure Seonwu didn’t attempt any tricks—but Seonwu had been doing something else entirely.
He had diligently channeled his maximum internal power, storing it deeper and deeper inside the ring.
And now, in this single, critical moment, he drew it all out and flooded his blade with the accumulated energy.
[Banquet of Broken Hat-Strings]
Ordinarily, this was a sword technique characterized by a chaotic dance of stealthy, hidden energies, but right now, it manifested as a wild tempest of blinding Demon-Subduing Solar Sword Astral Qi.
“Urgh! You wretched brat!”
In a frantic panic, Mandok Mazon swung his twin palms wildly, desperately deflecting the incoming beams of solar energy.
[Heavenly Net Poison Wave]
However, it was far too sudden for him to perfectly deflect every single strand of the max-powered Sword Gang that had been unleashed all at once.
Ultimately, a brilliant flash of the blade sliced through his left arm, severing it completely.
“I… someone like me…”
It was not an attack he was fundamentally incapable of withstanding.
Had he unleashed his own Nine Dragons Destroying the World in advance, he could have easily deflected it.
But when in the world had the boy prepared an attack of this magnitude?
And why had he failed to notice even a single inkling of it?
Only now did a deep sense of regret wash over Mandok Mazon.
‘I should have continuously driven him into a corner instead of opting for a standoff.’
Or, at the very least, rather than leaping blindly into close quarters, he should have maintained his distance, deployed his domain, and tested the waters a bit further.
Because he had kept his eyes on the boy the entire time, he had firmly believed it impossible for the youth to prepare such a definitive ultimate move.
On the surface, there was absolutely no indication that he was gathering such a massive reservoir of energy.
Just how had he pulled it off?
Even if one possessed a secret method to gather energy covertly, there was a strict limit to how thoroughly one could erase the sheer presence of such accumulated Qi.
And to do so before him, of all people?
Unless he had somehow gathered it inside an entirely separate, isolated space altogether—
Could it be?
‘I may have lost my left arm, but do you truly believe This Seat is a man who will fall from a wound of this caliber!’
It was precisely in moments of mortal peril that a martial artist’s deep well of experience truly shone through.
[Scattered Poison Blood Bullets]
Mandok Mazon forcefully extracted the toxic blood directly from his severed left stump, unleashing a boundless swarm of blood bullets that filled the air like a storm of scale-shaped hidden weapons.
More than half of them were instantaneously vaporized upon coming into contact with the searing Demon-Subduing Solar Sword Astral Qi, but the remaining projectiles sailed through and slammed heavily into various parts of Seonwu’s body.
Or rather, they merely collided harmlessly against him.
The As-You-Wish Treasure Clothing unleashed its protective power, closely followed by the Diamond Indestructible Body art, perfectly absorbing the impact of the toxic blood bullets.
They failed to pierce his defenses.
‘This brat? Just how can the very nature of his internal power be so incredibly volatile and ever-changing?’
At first, it was the Peerless Prajna Divine Art.
Next was an Extreme Yang form of Sword Gang that felt reminiscent of the legendary Solar Divine Art.
And now, had he somehow mastered the Diamond Indestructible Body art as well?
Amidst Mandok Mazon’s growing bewilderment, Seonwu, having utterly erased the threat of the toxic blood bullets, seamlessly pressed his offensive forward.
Now that he had successfully neutralized the counterattack, there was nothing to hold him back.
‘Mandok Mazon is an absolute powerhouse who knows exactly what to do the moment you give him a single breath of room.’
He drives the advantage home.
He condenses the chaotic, rampant solar energy into a single, unified point.
He lets go of the sword he was holding.
In its place, he summons the divine blade.
The Demon-Subduing Divine Dragon Sword flies directly into his palm, and an ultra-Extreme Yang Sword Gang—an energy that even a masterfully forged blade would struggle to endure—coalesces along its length.
The innate power of the Demon-Subduing Divine Dragon Sword itself is added to the mix.
[Inquiring the Weight of the Nine Cauldrons]
With a destructive force that could only be described as a transcendent form of Sword Gang, Seonwu thrusts his blade straight toward Mandok Mazon once more.
“You bastard!”
Mandok Mazon does not simply sit still and accept his fate.
Unleashing a torrent of Poison Astral Qi with his remaining hand, he simultaneously channels his willpower alone to whip the surrounding poison Qi into thousands of razor-sharp needles, sending them hurtling forward in a piercing wave.
[Poison Rain Filling the Sky]
A magnificent, cascading downpour of toxic needles floods the air.
The wind barrier of the Divine Wind Four Symbols Formation acts swiftly to temper the ferocious momentum of the needles, but that is all.
A barrage of toxic projectiles infused with the direct willpower of a Demon Sovereign was not something that could be halted by a defensive formation alone.
Yet, Seonwu does not even attempt to deflect them.
Completely ignoring the incoming onslaught, he drives his sword straight into Mandok Mazon’s form.
The blade pierces deeply through the Demon Sovereign’s right hand, traveling all the way up into his arm.
In exchange, countless toxic needles strike violently against Seonwu’s frame.
A mutual destruction?
Far from it.
‘I have something I can put my absolute faith in.’
The As-You-Wish Treasure Clothing successfully filters out the vast majority of the cascading needles.
Yet, such was the terrifying majesty of a Demon Sovereign that a few managed to breach even the celestial garment.
However, as the old adage goes, even the most elite army grows weary after marching ten thousand miles.
By the time the toxic needles shattered the wind barrier and tore through the treasure clothing, their destructive force had finally reached its absolute nadir.
In the face of a physical body that had achieved the Diamond Indestructible Body art, they ultimately ground to a complete halt.
Even so, it was not entirely over; the corrupt blood smeared across his flesh attempted to seep through his pores, intending to corrode him from the inside out.
But the World-Saving Medicine and Poison Horn residing within the Cintamani stirred to life, flawlessly sweeping away every single trace of the remaining toxic energy.
In the end, the Poison Rain Filling the Sky was rendered entirely futile, and the divine sword plunged forward once more, piercing cleanly through the Demon Sovereign’s heart.
“To think This Seat… This Seat… would fall to a mere greenhorn like you…”
Gazing upon Mandok Mazon, who stared back with eyes full of absolute disbelief, Seonwu offered a quiet nod of acknowledgment.
“To be completely frank, you were significantly stronger than me.”
The Eight Great Demon Sovereigns of the Shadows certainly earned their reputation as the living terrors of the world.
Just how many legendary divine artifacts had he been forced to deploy throughout the course of this single engagement?
From the Demon-Subduing Divine Dragon Sword to the Brahma Bell from the West.
From the As-You-Wish Treasure Clothing to the World-Saving Medicine and Poison Horn.
He had even resorted to the Golden Needles of Life and Death and a Tianlong Pill.
Furthermore, he had benefited from Jun’s Divine Wind Four Symbols Formation and the direct assistance of Yaxian.
Even with all of that, if Mandok Mazon hadn’t grown careless and taken a direct hit from the unorthodox combination of the Storage Ring and Neither Flying Nor Crying, how would this battle have truly concluded?
‘It would have been a brutally tight stalemate.’
And the moment the surge of energy granted by the ritual via the Tianlong Pill began to fade away, he would have suffered a crushing defeat.
He would have been the one chased down by a strict, ticking clock.
But the only thing that truly mattered was that he was the one standing victorious.
Regardless of whether he had used every single treasure available to him by virtue of his imperial royalty against a monstrously powerful foe, a victory was a victory.
“Have a safe journey.”
With a single, clean strike, the blade cleaves through Mandok Mazon.
Wrought from a seamless blend of the Peerless Prajna Divine Art and the Solar Divine Art, the Demon-Subduing Solar Sword Astral Qi ignites his form, reducing the Demon Sovereign’s body to nothing but ash.
The demonic Qi and the poison Qi vanish into nothingness alongside him.
“Whew, he was a genuinely terrifying opponent.”
Half of him was consumed by a lingering dread, a desperate desire to never entangle himself in such a perilous life-or-death struggle ever again.
The other half was filled with an intoxicating rush of excitement and anticipation, a burning yearning to test his limits against such a formidable adversary once more.
These two contradictory, polarizing emotions crashed over him simultaneously.
The trembling of his hands was a testament to the delayed onset of raw terror, beautifully intertwined with a thrilling sense of pure ecstasy.
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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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