Reincarnation of the Blood Demon - Chapter 26

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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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Blood Demon Reincarnation
Chapter 26
There are still at least ten more left.
“I… what the…!”
The light drained from Dae Ryeok-bu’s eyes, leaving them hollow with despair.
His instinct, honed through countless trials, should have served him well.
But this time, it had led him catastrophically astray.

Thud.

The corpse, now split cleanly in half, struck the ground and spilled its still-warm blood.
“…!”
In the instant that the notorious Dae Ryeok-bu was slain with a single blow,
Heuk Seo’s complexion blanched with shock.

‘How is that even possible…?’

He had been watching intently the whole time, so he understood.
In that final moment, the qi Dae Ryeok-bu had mustered was every bit as formidable as the boy’s.

‘If anything, it exceeded it by far.’

A master of the Demonic Path, he had built his reputation and survived through long years of cultivation.
Even with Jeok Un-hui having absorbed the life force of five strong men to bolster his strength, his body remained unhealed and not yet fully restored—there were limits to the qi he could draw forth in such a state.
Compared to Jeok Sa-hyeok in his prime, the qi Jeok Un-hui had channeled in this struggle with Dae Ryeok-bu was scarcely a speck of dust.
Yet none of that mattered.

‘The moment they clashed, Dae Ryeok-bu’s qi simply… scattered.’

Like a predator consuming its prey, that speck-of-dust Blood Demon Qi had swallowed Dae Ryeok-bu’s formidable power whole and executed its death sentence.

‘…It isn’t just monstrous.’

A situation so incomprehensible naturally inspired terror in any human heart.
Heuk Seo found himself breathing heavily without meaning to, but Jeok Un-hui remained unmoved, as indifferent as before.
“Two now.”
As though he had never been rattled, he counted with bureaucratic precision.
But in that very moment—

“Cough!”

Jeok Un-hui suddenly coughed up blood, violently and without warning.
His wavering gaze snapped urgently toward the remaining I Rang, still standing.
Without waiting for any signal, Il Rang and I Rang seized their opportunity—draining every ounce of inner strength to rush at Jeok Un-hui from front and back.
‘Now is the moment…!’
What he had witnessed—the death of Dae Ryeok-bu—had been almost too incredible to believe even as he watched it.
Yet even so, such a feat could not come without cost.
The blood he was coughing now was the proof: the backlash was crashing down upon him, undeniable and violent.

“Die, you monster!”
Il Rang’s blade sang toward Jeok Un-hui’s throat.
In perfect synchronization, I Rang arrived and spun like a top, his strike targeting the lower back.
Screeeee!
A combination repeated dozens, hundreds of times—there was no gap to escape through.
Jeok Un-hui, hindered by his injury, seemed unable to react in time, his stance still not fully established.
‘It’s finished!’
Il Rang’s cry of triumph rang out—and in that instant, it seemed Jeok Un-hui’s head would be severed from his shoulders.
It was then that Il Rang’s eyes and Jeok Un-hui’s met, head-on.
And in that brief moment, the expression revealed on his face was…

‘…… smiling?’

The boy’s face twisted into a faint smirk, as though amused by something absurd.
The anguish that had contorted his features moments before had vanished without a trace.
As if it had been a lie from the start.
At the same moment, Jeok Un-hui clenched his fist as though to crush the very air itself.

Crack!

It was then that Il Rang felt it.
The ominous qi wave that had been radiating from him expanded in that instant to a distance of one zhang.
And then.

Thud!
With a violent impact, Il Rang’s blade—which had been streaking forward thick with killing intent—stopped abruptly, inches from its mark.
“……!”
It hadn’t stopped on its own. It had been stopped.
“Cough!”
Bright crimson blood erupted from his mouth. His vision flooded red.
Slowly, he lowered his gaze to look down.
A dark-crimson spear had pierced through his abdomen and right arm, protruding on the other side.

‘What is this?’
Confusion overtook pain.
Il Rang raised his head again, and he could see it.
A spear of the same dark-crimson light had run through I Rang’s chest.
Unlike Il Rang, I Rang had been less fortunate. His heart had been pierced, and he was already dead.
But where, exactly, had this weapon come from?
There was little need to ponder it. The answer was far too clear.
Behind I Rang lay a puddle of blood spilled by Sam Rang, who had died first.
From that pool, a single sharp Blood Spear jutted upward.

“Ah.”

Which meant that what had pierced his own abdomen and arm was also…….
“…… blood?”
By cruel chance, a puddle of blood had formed behind him as well—the blood spilled by Dae Ryeok-bu, split in half.
The sensation of reality warping. Was it blood loss? His mind felt hollow.
Il Rang stared at Jeok Un-hui with trembling eyes.
“What exactly are you?”
There was no resentment in him. Only bewilderment. Nothing about this sequence of events made sense.
But Jeok Un-hui was not a patient man.

“How careless of you.”

Jeok Un-hui’s mouth twisted into a mocking smile.
“You……!”

Indignation arrived too late. The clarity that had filled his pupils gradually dimmed, his gaze growing vacant and dull.

Drip.
The Blood Spear that had pierced them transformed back into blood, trickling downward.
Thump.
Two more corpses—holes bored through chest and abdomen—were added to the ground.
Jeok Un-hui wiped a drop of blood from his cheek with a casual swipe, then surveyed the battlefield and murmured.

“Now…… it’s over.”

The battlefield fell silent.
“…… what was that.”
Whether Blood Demon Sect or bandit, those who watched him spoke the same words in unison.
It was a spectacle so surreal that it defied belief—as though a nightmare had crystallized into flesh and blood.
Most of the bandits who had been resisting lost their will to fight and let their weapons fall slack.
And Ju I-gyeom was no exception.

‘……What is this?’

The sword he’d been gripping fell lifeless from his hand.
He had been poised on high alert, ready to rush in at any moment, but there was no longer any need.
The battle he’d been prepared to enter had already ended.
His usual composure had vanished entirely—Ju I-gyeom’s eyes flew wide open.

‘A martial technique like that exists in the sect?’
Having once stood on the threshold of the Blood Heaven Realm, he occupied a central place in the Blood Demon Sect’s hierarchy, yet he had never even heard of such a bizarre technique.

‘The Reverse Heaven True Blood Method would be one thing.’

The supreme, most terrible blood art passed down only to the Sect Master.
Yet it was common knowledge that the current Sect Master had refused to learn the Reverse Heaven True Blood Method.
Moreover, there was no possibility that the Third Grand Prince—not even the heir apparent—could have mastered such a technique. This had to be something entirely different.

‘Then what in the world could it be……?’
He had no inkling. For the past five years, he had stayed at the Third Grand Prince’s side constantly, yet he had never once witnessed him cultivate or refine such a skill.
He’d thought he had finally grasped the extent of the Third Grand Prince’s abilities, but again and again, the man kept unveiling things Ju I-gyeom could never have imagined.
‘……Even if that rumor were true, I would believe it now.’

The whisper that the Third Grand Prince’s true identity was none other than a hidden blade personally cultivated by the Sect Master himself.
It was a rumor that had recently spread through Namhwa Prefecture like wildfire.
Ju I-gyeom, who had even faced the Sect Master directly, knew better than anyone that it was false—yet witnessing this now shook even his certainty.

‘What in heaven’s name are you?’

Jeok Un-hui murmured softly, his face twisting into a grotesque expression—or perhaps it wasn’t at all.

“Ah, one remains.”
All four who had faced him were dead, yet there was no need to wonder why one still lived.
Jeok Un-hui’s cold gaze had fixed on Heuk Seo.
“Blood—how could blood……?”
Heuk Seo stammered, his face drained pale as ash.
If he had been struck down by something else—a blade, a spear—he might have comprehended it. But this defied all sense of reality.
Blood is a liquid, is it not?
How could it possibly become a weapon lethal enough to kill masters of the highest caliber?
“……Void Grasping?”
That was the only explanation that came to mind.
Void Grasping—the art of manipulating objects without touching them, a technique only masters at the pinnacle of their power could demonstrate.
Perhaps it was indeed possible to infuse blood with invisible qi and hone it like a spear.
‘If that were the case, why not simply use a blade?’
Weapons lay scattered everywhere. There was no logic to such an inefficient approach.
But he had long since transcended the realm of understanding what unfolded before him.
“I failed to recognize a master of the highest sphere. Forgive me, I beg you.”
Heuk Seo simply knelt there, his soul scattered to the winds.
In that moment, Jeok Un-hui swallowed the blood welling up in his throat and smiled coldly.
“Yes. Shall we start with the index finger?”

* * *

Crack.
“Aaaahhhhh……!”
The index finger, snapped without mercy, burned with an agony that seared like living flame.
To dismiss the torment over a single finger would have been easier to bear—this was the sixth time. He had already broken all five fingers of his left hand; now the right hand was next.
“Why? Why on earth are you doing this?”
Heuk Seo felt genuinely wronged.
Without asking a single question, the man had simply begun breaking his fingers.
Heuk Seo still had no idea who he was or why this was happening to him.
By now, he alone remained among the bandits still living.
‘Damn it! Hell and damnation!’

Overwhelming despair washed over him, twisting his face into something unrecognizable.
The moment he’d discarded his weapon and surrendered, his men had surrendered in unison. How could they resist alone when their leader had already knelt?
But these mad Blood Demon Sect fanatics had slaughtered the defenseless men who’d laid down their arms without a moment’s hesitation.
After that, they gathered in a circle as though nothing had happened, simply watching Heuk Seo suffer.

‘These insane bastards……!’

Heuk Seo screamed, his eyes bloodshot with fury.
“If you want to know something, just ask! I’ll answer!”
Jeok Un-hui did not respond.
He only broke another finger with an expressionless face.
Crack.
“Ahhhhh!”
Then Jeok Un-hui seized yet another finger and began to bend it slowly.
Snap—
Despair settled into Heuk Seo’s face. If this continued, he’d never hold chopsticks again in his life.
No—first he needed to worry about surviving at all.
‘What does he want…… Ah!’

Desperate inspiration struck him mid-panic, and he cried out urgently.
“The Heuk Wol Gate! We did deal with the Heuk Wol Gate!”
A correct answer—the fingers stopped breaking.
As Heuk Seo let out a relieved breath, Jeok Un-hui finished snapping that finger anyway.
Crack.
“Ahhhhhhh!”
The pain was all the worse for his relief having let his guard down.
‘But I told you!’
He looked up with eyes full of bitter resentment.
“Why the delay? Where are those people?”
Twitch.
Jeok Un-hui’s hand seized another finger at once.
Heuk Seo shrieked convulsively.
“The inner quarters! They’re in the inner quarters! I haven’t laid a hand on them, not a single hair, I swear!”
“The inner quarters again? Lacking in imagination.”
The Heuk Wol Gate had done the same.
Well, there wasn’t anywhere else particularly suitable for confinement.
‘If they’re being held, there must be another purpose.’

No one had fled or escaped during the entire battle.
Either they hadn’t noticed the fighting, or they’d been so carefully hidden they couldn’t have fled even if they had.
It was deeply strange—to have bought them for good money and then lock them away without doing a thing.
“Tell me every detail. I’ll decide what’s useful.”
“…If you promise to spare my life, I’ll tell you everything.”
Crack.
“Ah, ahhhhh!”
He snapped the finger the moment Heuk Seo dared to negotiate.
Then came that cold voice once more.
“Don’t talk if you don’t want to. I still have ten more.”
He’d already broken nine—how could ten remain?
Then it dawned on him.
‘Ah. The toes.’

Heuk Seo surrendered at once and began pouring out everything he knew.
Perhaps Heuk Seo feared that madman might snap another finger, and so he explained with vivid detail, careful in his recitation.
But even that couldn’t last long, and soon they reached the point where his useful knowledge ran dry.
“That’s all? Then you’re worthless to me.”
Faced with that sharp, glacial stare, Heuk Seo finally surrendered even the secrets he’d held back.
“……I’m a middleman.”
Heuk Seo confessed that he was merely an intermediary.
Jeok Un-hui smiled coldly and pressed further.

“Stating the obvious. So who’s the bastard you were dealing with?”

For a moment, Heuk Seo seemed to weigh his options, then swallowed hard and spoke with grim resolve.

“The Hwan Hon Gate.”
Ma Hyeol-jin and the other members of Jeok Un-hui’s faction exchanged startled glances.
“The Hwan Hon Gate? The one from Seolyong Prefecture?”
He understood why they were so alarmed.
Even Jeok Un-hui himself had heard of this sect.

‘Troublesome people are tangled up in this.’
Among the four prefectures—north, south, east, and west—Seolyong Prefecture was territory directly ruled by the First Grand Prince of the Blood Heaven Divine Sect.
Though there were many forces under the First Grand Prince’s command, the Hwan Hon Gate was among the most formidable sects.
In other words, they held a position that could only be described as close confidants of the First Grand Prince.
The implications were clear.

‘One way or another, the First Grand Prince is involved in this matter.’

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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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