Return of the Sword Emperor - Chapter 39

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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 14: The Graciousness and Grievance of the Tang Family (2)

“You’ve arrived faster than expected.”

Dok Go Jin smiled as he watched Ye Do Hwang and Jong Gak crossing blades, then spoke quietly to Nam Goong Ho, who was pressing the Cheon Rang Dan alongside Dang In Sung.

“Give it your all. The Tang Family has saved your life twice now.”

When he thought about it, his own ties to the Tang Family had been unusually deep.
After the Heavenly Demon’s death, when everyone had implicitly turned their backs on him in the face of the Mado Ryeon’s onslaught, it was the Tang Family who had continued to send him reinforcements until the very end.
The reason he’d moved on instinct when word came that the Tang Family was under attack was likely for that very reason.

“Remarkable, isn’t he?”

Dok Go Jin couldn’t help but admire Dang Yu Cheon, who fought without yielding an inch even under the fierce assault of Tan Do Je’s Blood Sea Demon Form. From the way Jang Raeue sat off to the side with a stunned expression, it appeared he had already been defeated.
That said, Dang Yu Cheon’s condition was far from good.
Even to the eye, numerous wounds were visible across his body, and his movements were growing noticeably slower. In contrast, Tan Do Je’s attacks grew increasingly ferocious and swift.
Believing Dang Yu Cheon had already reached his limit, Dok Go Jin moved to intervene.

“Stop!”

Just as Dok Go Jin was about to join the fray, Jang Raeue rushed forward like lightning and blocked his path.

“Who are you?”

Having already confirmed that Bang Yo of the Ascending Demon Form had fallen, Jang Raeue’s eyes swirled with a confusion of emotions, the predominant one being bewilderment.
In the Murim where countless gifted masters existed, no oddity could truly surprise—yet the notion that Bang Yo, one of the foremost protectors of the Mado Ryeon, had been defeated by what appeared to be a mere youth barely past twenty summers was something he could not easily accept.
Unlike Jang Raeue, Dok Go Jin, who already knew his opponent’s identity, saw no need for formal introductions and simply swung his blade.
A sword falling like lightning.
Jang Raeue twisted his head and dodged by the narrowest margin, feeling blood droplets scatter from his neck as he burst out in fury.

“You bastard!”

Jang Raeue’s fist, sheathed in a bluish-purple qi, hurtled toward Dok Go Jin.
The Falling Thunder of the Pae Wang Gwon.
With a thunderous crash, the compressed air tore asunder.
Dok Go Jin moved with grace along the path of the Eun Young Bo, effortlessly deflecting Jang Raeue’s attack.
Evidently doubting he could land a blow at this stage, Jang Raeue extended his fists in rapid succession.
The Rainbow Thunder, the most brilliant of the Pae Wang Gwon techniques, unfurled.
His fists, swift and savage, flowed into the variations of the Rainbow Thunder—twelve consecutive strikes targeting Dok Go Jin’s vital points in the span of a single breath.
Crash! Crash! Crash!
As the violent impacts reverberated, both Dok Go Jin’s retreating form and Jang Raeue’s attacking posture shook violently.
Had an observer watched from without, they would have marveled at Jang Raeue’s unrelenting momentum; yet Jang Raeue himself, channeling every ounce of his strength into his fists, harbored a gnawing sense that something was amiss.
Unlike the sensation of striking an iron fortress that he’d felt at first, the rebound force diminishing as time wore on had grown increasingly weak.
Nor had his opponent collapsed.
In a moment, a chill he could scarcely describe pierced through the crown of his head.
Jang Raeue thrust out his hands instinctively.
Catching Dok Go Jin’s blade as though in prayer at a distance scarcely measurable, Jang Raeue clenched his teeth.
Though wounds were evident in places, the opponent’s composure seemed far too calm—and Jang Raeue sensed intuitively that his full-power assault had achieved little.

“Hah!”

Feeling the power in the blade grow steadily stronger, Jang Raeue squeezed out every last measure of his inner force and concentrated it in both hands.
Crack!
With a sound like shattering ice, Dok Go Jin’s sword snapped in two.
Dok Go Jin faltered, caught off guard.
Jang Raeue’s face broke into a triumphant smile as he twisted his arm with blinding speed, driving the broken blade toward Dok Go Jin’s throat.
Dok Go Jin hastily retreated and recovered the broken sword.
Successfully blocking Jang Raeue’s assault with the flat of his blade, Dok Go Jin pivoted his body and drove his elbow toward Jang Raeue’s temple.
Jang Raeue unclasped his hands and blocked the attack with his forearm.
In that instant, Dok Go Jin kicked the falling blade upward from the ground.
The sword shot straight up, piercing through the underside of Jang Raeue’s jaw and straight through the crown of his head.
There was no cry.
Jang Raeue simply collapsed, his eyes wide with disbelief, his body going limp.
It was Tan Do Je, locked in combat with Dang Yu Cheon, who grasped Jang Raeue’s defeat before anyone else.
He had not imagined that after Bang Yo of the Seung Cheon Ma Gak and even Jang Raeue, the elder of the Eun Ma Jeon, would fall—without a moment’s hesitation, Tan Do Je spun around. It was plain that his turn would come next.

“Ha!”

A hollow laugh escaped Dang Yu Cheon’s lips.
That an elder of the Mado Ryeon, no less, would abandon even his own subordinates and slip away so ignominiously the moment circumstances turned slightly against him—this was something Dang Yu Cheon had never anticipated.

“Are you unharmed?”

Dok Go Jin glanced at the fleeing Tan Do Je, then approached Dang Yu Cheon and asked.

“I’m fine. Are you from Jung Mu Maeng?”
“Yes. I am Dok Go Jin of the Mil Geom Dan.”
“The Mil Geom Dan, you say.”

Doubts arose that someone who had displayed such extraordinary skill was merely a single member of the Mil Geom Dan, but there was no time to dwell on it.

“My—no, our Tang Family has received a great debt of gratitude.”

Dang Yu Cheon bowed formally.
The flustered Dok Go Jin returned the bow and spoke.

“Not at all. Isn’t the Tang Family’s crisis our crisis as well? Please, think nothing of it.”
“No, we may fight alongside one another, but a debt is still a debt. The Tang Family never forgets favor and grudge.”

Seeing the stubborn light in Dang Yu Cheon’s eyes, Dok Go Jin offered an awkward smile and glanced toward the battlefield, where fighting still raged.
Led by Yu Seol Ran, all his comrades from the Mil Geom Dan had arrived and were engaged in fierce combat with the Cheon Rang Dan.
Though they were vastly outnumbered, they had grown immeasurably from before and were now pressing the Cheon Rang Dan back hard. Still, to minimize casualties, he would need to join the fray himself.

“Your words are thanks enough. For now, we must end this fighting.”

Dang Yu Cheon bit his lip until blood flowed as he observed how sharply the number of his living servants had dwindled.

“I ask this of you.”
“Have no fear.”

Leaving those brief words, Dok Go Jin immediately plunged into the battlefield.
For the Cheon Rang Dan, harried by the Mil Geom Dan who came at them like starving beasts—unlike the Tang Family servants who, armed though they were with great swords and hidden weapons, moved with inexplicable clumsiness, or the warlords already annihilated—Dok Go Jin’s sudden appearance was nothing short of catastrophe.
Dok Go Jin swung his blade at the opponent blocking his path.
Though the sword had been split in half by Jang Raeue, it posed no great inconvenience.
Sword energy unleashed with lethal precision served in place of the missing blade.
The Cheon Rang Dan member targeted instinctively swung the great sword he held to deflect Dok Go Jin’s energy.
Clang!
With a sharp metallic ring, the great sword wielded by the Cheon Rang Dan member shattered outright, and the shock sent him staggering backward.
The moment he thought he’d regained his footing, Dok Go Jin—having closed the distance in an instant using the Eun Young Bo—passed through him like wind.

‘Why would he…?’

The Cheon Rang Dan member’s question did not linger.
Consciousness shattered in an instant, accompanied by a sharp, excruciating pain that bloomed from his chest.

“He’s dead!”
“Fall!”

Seeing their comrade fall, members of the Cheon Rang Dan lunged forward from both sides, blades extended.
Confirming three attackers converging from the front, Dok Go Jin simply hurled his sword.
The blade flew like a shaft of light, piercing through the chest of one of the enemies rushing toward him.
Deploying the Eun Young Bo technique, Dok Go Jin gracefully slipped the strikes coming from left and right, then caught the falling sword with a sweeping arc and rotated it smoothly.
Screech!
With a chilling rasp, the two Cheon Rang Dan members charging from the front seized their necks.
As jets of blood spurted between their fingers and drenched the ground, Dok Go Jin collected the crimson drops on his sword’s flat with delicate precision, spinning his body to redirect the blade.
The blood bead gathered on the sword’s surface shot forward at terrible speed, piercing the glabella of the Cheon Rang Dan member who had rushed from the left.
He collapsed without even comprehending what blow had struck him.

“M-monster!”

Having lost four comrades in the blink of an eye, the Cheon Rang Dan member lost all will to engage. He staggered backward, fighting spirit broken, only to take a hidden weapon through the throat from a Tang Family servant and fall.
Dok Go Jin offered a casual bow to his unwitting ally and leapt to find his next opponent.
Hurling himself into the heart of the battlefield, Dok Go Jin kicked the head of a Cheon Rang Dan member who had lost his footing under Yong Cheol Seung’s assault.

“Hey! That was mine.”

Yong Cheol Seung griped at having his target stolen, but Dok Go Jin pressed on without pause.
Moving in every direction at once—like a tiger rampaging through a flock of sheep—he swept through every enemy in his path as effortlessly as scattering leaves. He even attacked Yu Seol Ran’s opponent, earning himself a torrent of curses for the intrusion.

“It’s breathtaking.”

Watching Dok Go Jin’s exploits from a distance, Dang Yu Cheon stood half-mesmerized.
For a lifetime traversing the Murim, he had encountered countless masters, yet he harbored no memory of anyone Dok Go Jin’s age possessing such prowess.
The faces of the Dharma Cave’s successor at Shaolin Temple and the young prodigy of the Hua Shan Sect flickered through his mind, but they paled in comparison to Dok Go Jin.

‘A true Kirin Child! An authentic genius, then.’

Yet doubt crept in. Why would a genius capable of shaking the entire Murim languish in the Mil Geom Dan, the most neglected combat unit within the Jung Mu Maeng?
Even as Dang Yu Cheon pondered this mystery, Dok Go Jin’s dominance continued, and in precisely half a breath—from the moment he entered the fray—the battle was essentially decided.
Precisely half a breath, and the battle was essentially over.
Despite their dire straits, not a single Cheon Rang Dan member surrendered; each fought to the last and perished.
Only one conflict remained.
When Dok Go Jin began to move as though he might intervene in the duel between Ye Do Hwang and Jong Gak, Yu Seol Ran seized the back of his neck.

“Hey! That’s far enough. I’m content to let this slide, but if you wade into that fight, the sect leader won’t stand for it. It’ll be over soon.”
“Very well.”

At Yu Seol Ran’s glare, Dok Go Jin grinned wickedly and tossed aside his half-broken sword.
Moments later, true to their faith, Jong Gak succeeded in driving his blade through Ye Do Hwang’s chest.
Ye Do Hwang stared down at the sword embedded in his chest, a wet rattle escaping his throat.
In the Murim, those who lack strength must surrender their lives.
From the moment their blades first met, he had sensed this outcome, so he harbored no anger or resentment.
Strangely, he felt no particular pain. Only a curious sensation of strength draining from his body and everything fading into mist.

‘Come to think of it, I never managed to apologize properly….’

As consciousness flickered, Ye Do Hwang recalled Jung Yu Hwa’s face and shook his head ruefully.

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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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