Reincarnation of the Blood Demon - Chapter 44

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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 Reborn
Chapter 44
Not the Demonic Path
“……Hah.”
Hyeon Won’s expression went blank.
It took only a few clashes of blades to understand.
‘The Counter-Breaking Method isn’t the issue.’
No matter how well one possessed the Counter-Breaking Form of a martial art, merely having it could never resolve everything so simply.
The Counter-Breaking Form for a specific technique was essentially another martial discipline unto itself. Naturally, it demanded extensive mastery.
Applying the Counter-Breaking Form in actual combat was a realm so entirely different that it might as well have been another art altogether.
And yet, watching this boy parry his own blade—not anyone else’s, his own—with such ease sent a chill down his spine.
It was a level of refinement a youth of that age had no business possessing.
‘Could he have been raised solely to counter the Gongdong Sect?’
That was his first thought, but he soon realized it was not the case.
Clang—
The thrust aimed at his wrist was already caught and twisted by the blade of the Three Lords, lying in wait.
In that instant, their blades shot upward together to their middle cores.
Hyeon Won immediately released his force, letting his sword slide up the blade’s flat toward the head, but the Three Lords, as if he had been expecting it, pivoted half a step back to evade and countered with a slash aimed at the nape of his neck.
Clang—!
Metal rang against metal once more.
The two stood apart in silence, their eyes locked.
Hyeon Won’s gaze hardened. He felt cold sweat seeping into his palms.
‘……’
He had read it.
In that last exchange, the intended principle was the fundamental subtlety of False-False True-Loss.
Yet the Three Lords saw through it as if it were obvious and struck at the opening in return.
Hyeon Won remained unharmed only because he had responded well—he had barely escaped by pushing through with sheer inner power.
From the beginning to now, every exchange had followed the same pattern.
What the sequence of events spoke to was this:
‘Even in psychological warfare and improvisation—the hallmark of elite swordsmen—not merely in the martial arts unique to the Gongdong Sect, he towers far above me.’
He was ranked among the foremost of the Gongdong Sect itself, a master of transcendent skill whose reputation shook the world—the Heaven Thunder Devil Subduing Divine Sword.
‘……It feels like facing some cunning old sage.’
And Hyeon Won was himself no spring chicken.
‘Could even the Sect Leader do what he does?’
He could not say for certain.
To describe the boy in one word:
‘Genius.’
Yet to leave it at that alone would be far too much of an understatement.
Soon, and certainly within a short span of time, that youth would grow into a force capable of shaking the very heavens.
‘……How lamentable.’
Why, of all places, had such a prodigy emerged not in the Gongdong Sect, not even in the Orthodox Faction’s domain, but in the Blood Sect?
It felt as though the very Mandate of Heaven had tilted.
Even as despair crept in, Hyeon Won’s blade began to tremble finely.
Exhilaration.
‘He clearly has the chance, yet he keeps allowing me to retreat instead.’
Why was that?
Hyeon Won met the Three Lords’ gaze.
‘Show me everything you can do.’
That is what his eyes were saying.
In the face of that gaze—so arrogant and so audacious for a boy to carry—Hyeon Won felt, for the first time in ages, the thrill of a true martial artist awakening within him.
‘……Why not go a bit further?’
The power he had restrained out of consideration for his junior.
As he unleashed it, Hyeon Won’s momentum shifted to an entirely different plane.
Thump—!
His heartbeat echoed like thunder through his chest.
His middle dantian, now fully awakened, was flooding his entire frame with fierce energy.
Thump—!
“I’m warning you—you could be injured now.”
To his grave warning, his opponent answered with the same unperturbed demeanor.
“I welcome it.”
His enthusiasm was so genuine that Hyeon Won found himself grinning savagely, mirroring Jeok Un Hwi’s fierce smile without quite meaning to.
“Excellent!”
* * *
“Shouldn’t we stop this……?”
One of the Gongdong Sect’s martial artists murmured.
It came from one of the lowest-ranked among them, save for the supervisors—a remark that might have sounded presumptuous, yet no one corrected it. Their silence was unanimous because they all felt the same way.
Crash-crash-crash-crack—!
The two figures whirled like a tempest unleashed.
Because they shared the same lineage, they could tell.
“The Elder doesn’t seem to be holding back at all…….”
Though it was a Martial Demonstration and not full power cultivation, the techniques themselves were being unleashed without restraint.
What this Blood Sect’s Third Young Master was doing to receive all of it—he couldn’t fathom. But one thing was certain.
‘If this goes on, someone will get hurt.’
He didn’t think the Heavenly Sword would lose. But if the Third Young Master fell, that too was a problem.
If he simply acknowledged defeat after close combat, it might have ended there—but the atmosphere flowing between them suggested otherwise. Someone would have to bleed before it ended.
If by any chance the Third Young Master died here, it would be catastrophic. The Blood Sect would declare war.
“We have to stop this——!”
As the Gongdong Sect’s martial artists moved urgently forward, men in Crimson Martial Robes stepped into their path.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
The Gongdong Sect’s senior disciples shouted, their brows furrowed, but the Jeok Un Dan members blocking them didn’t budge an inch.
Ma Hyeol Jin spoke with a cold sneer.
“This is not your fight. Does the Gongdong Sect not even teach such basic manners?”
“This has already exceeded ordinary limits! Do you truly wish to see blood spilled!”
As they spoke, the Gongdong Sect’s martial artists released their True Qi in unison.
Their sword light was uncommonly sharp, proving their elite status, yet not a single member of the Jeok Un Dan flinched.
‘We didn’t train all this time to retreat at a place like this!’
Though it was also true that some understanding of the situation escaped them. Their opponent was, after all, the elite of the Nine Great Sects.
‘……They’re just the Gongdong Sect. Why wouldn’t we be a match for them?’
‘Compared to Lord Ju I Gyeom, they seem like nothing at all.’
Ju I Gyeom—the Unconquerable Lord—possessed a suffocating killing intent that he revealed from time to time, usually during training when subordinates disobeyed.
This was how Ju I Gyeom had been able to hold the Jeok Un Dan’s reins while Jeok Un Hwi was away.
The captains of the Jeok Un Dan were rough men who had lived hard lives. Even with Jeok Un Hwi’s stern orders, such complete control would have been impossible without something more.
And so, though hidden, the aura that leaked out naturally had, without the Jeok Un Dan members themselves realizing it, been enough to condition them.
Buoyed by this, Ma Hyeol Jin stepped forward and pressed harder.
“Even if that were true, it is the Lord’s affair. The Heavenly Sword’s affair. It seems you disciples don’t trust your Elder?”
“That’s——!”
The senior disciple’s words caught in his throat, and his face flushed.
“And more than that…….”
Ma Hyeol Jin turned his head to observe the two figures still clashing violently.
“Do you think those two are overheated by competitive spirit?”
“What are you saying?”
“To my eyes, they look like they’re enjoying themselves.”
For two people engaged in such a bloody battle, they could not hide the bright laughter that played at their lips.
“Hmm…….”
The Gongdong Sect’s martial artists also found they could not refute that observation alone, and so could only squint and fall silent.
Crash—!
A thunderous sound punctuated the moment.
Setting aside the tension that had built up, both the Gongdong Sect and Blood Sect observers turned their gazes to one place.
The Martial Demonstration was entering its crescendo.
* * *
Clang——
Sparks scattered as the blades locked, their reflections dancing in widened eyes. Both their gazes had turned crimson.
White and red Sword Qi shimmered and scattered.
In the instant the fragments of energy faded into the void and the scattered sparks fell to earth, Hyeon Won and Jeok Un Hwi collided once more.
‘There’s no doubt now.’
Though he lacked the qualification to learn the Heaven Thunder Devil Subduing Divine Sword, Hyeon Won was an Elder of the Gongdong Sect who had trained for decades.
Every martial art he had mastered belonged to the Gongdong Sect, and the Gongdong Sect had its roots in Daoism.
Naturally, both the Sword Qi wrapped around his blade and the True Qi flowing through his body carried the pure, orderly energy distinctive of the Daoist path.
Though not quite equal to the Heaven Thunder Devil Subduing Art, a Blood Sect martial artist should have taken damage merely from meeting such a blade.
‘Yet he shows no sign of being affected at all.’
A scene that overturned the common wisdom that Blood Qi and the Daoist Three Pure Powers were in ultimate opposition.
As their blades drew near, the gap between them closing, Hyeon Won spoke with a grave expression.
“How did you achieve Evil-Piercing Invulnerability? Is it even possible for Blood Art to develop to such an extent?”
“I told you. It didn’t develop—this is Blood Art in its original form.”
“What differs in the fundamental Blood Art? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
If what he said was true, then what Jeok Un Hwi was displaying was the martial knowledge of the Blood Sect from ages past.
Yet even Hyeon Won, an elder of the Gongdong Sect, possessed no clear understanding of what the Blood Sect had been in ancient times.
Jeok Un Hwi suddenly muttered, his tone edged with irritation.
“……Of course.”
The present Blood Sect had been deliberately corrupted by someone.
Nearly every trace he had left in the sect had been erased. Information was controlled, and history was distorted.
As if…….
‘A villain had been deliberately cast upon the stage.’
To create for the world a common enemy, and hide in that shadow to work in secret?
If one thought of it this way, the logic held. As a hidden force, there would be no reason to leave behind old records that might become a future threat.
Yet even if history had been erased, one thing was certain.
“If my Blood Qi does not react to your Three Pure Powers…….”
Jeok Un Hwi exhaled softly as he answered, and his eyes suddenly blazed.
“Then it was never that Blood Qi was evil to begin with.”
“……!”
The Heaven Thunder Devil Subduing Divine Sword is not the Demonic Path.
Only the Hegemon Path.
In that tone—pressing the meaning down hard—Hyeon Won’s pupils trembled for a moment.
‘Perhaps the Blood Sect of later generations…….’
Would not reign as an object of fear as it does now.
Would he not have to regard this youth before him merely as a future threat?
“…….”
He was uncertain whether such thoughts were permissible for a Daoist of the Gongdong Sect.
He could not entirely rule out the possibility that all the boy’s actions were deception.
The easiest path would be to cut down Jeok Un Hwi here and now.
‘Someone of that caliber would be worth the price of war.’
If such talent had been born within the Orthodox Faction, then the masters of the Heterodox Path and Demonic Path would have spared no effort to capture and kill him.
The blood that would flow as he grew to manhood would far exceed any war fought to prevent it.
Suddenly, Hyeon Won realized the weight of his responsibility.
‘Much rests upon my blade.’
At his age, he possessed martial power equal to his own. In a matter of years, he would grow to a level beyond imagination.
If this boy were truly evil, if he continued to grow and reached manhood, then the Martial World would face yet another catastrophic star.
Like the blood-soaked figures of legend who once swept through the entire Central Plain.
‘The chance to kill him exists only now.’
Conflict flickered across the eyes of the old Daoist who held his blade.
Had there not already been precedent? Even his own sect had witnessed it.
Yet even such deliberation, when faced with those eyes shining with such unwavering confidence——
When he beheld in them that pure yearning for martial excellence, something utterly at odds with a sageuk master——
It all seemed hollow, and Hyeon Won only gripped his blade tighter.
“Prove to me that I am wrong.”
With a soft murmur, the Sword Qi that had clad the blade deepened.
White brilliance took on substance, solidifying with terrible density.
The destructive force that had dwelt only upon the blade spread forth, stretching to cover the sky itself.
Chaotic and dizzying in its formless trajectory.
Yet it flowed without ceasing, circulating in a perfect round.
The Changeless Heavenly Circulation Sword.
In that moment, the Gongdong Sect’s cardinal art took shape in the elder’s hands.
“I don’t know if you’re wrong.”
A vivid crimson light surged up, severing all that flow.
“But I know I am right.”
Demon Heaven Blood Sea Severing, Second Severing.
Shadow Severance.

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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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