The Great Heavenly Demon Sovereign - Chapter 767
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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 767.
Whirrrrr!
Hundreds of luminous points scattered in all directions—the sword qi unmistakably bore the essence of the Heavenly Extreme Sword.
‘The nature remained unchanged, so it wasn’t the Destructive Star technique.’
Baek In Cheong’s eyes narrowed as he regarded Ma Cheon Je.
‘Indeed, had he deployed his Limitless Capacity on this single move, he wouldn’t be Ma Cheon Je.’
“Your martial prowess is formidable.”
Even as the Heavenly Extreme Sword’s function proved futile, Baek In Cheong let out a hearty exclamation of admiration.
That a figure of Ma Cheon Je’s caliber could respond instantaneously to such an attack—
it meant his injuries ran far deeper than anticipated.
He could not manifest transcendent, formless power; he was forced to continue the battle through tangible supreme techniques alone.
‘He’s conserving his Limitless Capacity. He can indeed deploy it once more.’
This conclusion had been drawn after countless observations and thousands upon thousands of calculations regarding Ma Cheon Je.
And as if to prove Baek In Cheong’s prediction—
merely by blocking a single sword strike, the aura flowing from Ma Cheon Je’s body had diminished considerably.
“Receive one more.”
Suppressing a satisfied smile, Baek In Cheong closed the distance in an instant.
Thereupon, hundreds of sword qi erupted skyward from the Eternal Heaven Sword, transforming into a whirlwind that enveloped Ma Cheon Je’s body.
This was the function of the Wind Cloud Sword attached to the Eternal Heaven Sword.
Roooaarrr!
Trapped within the swirling tempest, Ma Cheon Je’s robes fluttered as though they might be torn asunder.
This murderous wind possessed not only the power to shred flesh into ribbons—
but also the function to scatter the power contained within an opponent’s body in a single breath.
A faint shimmer.
Then something extraordinary occurred.
As if he were nothing more than a feather, Ma Cheon Je’s body drifted and scattered according to the pattern of the approaching whirlwind.
The sword qi of the Wind Cloud Sword began to pass transparently through his form.
‘He’s altered it using the subtleties of martial technique.’
Baek In Cheong’s eyes flashed with recognition.
Ma Cheon Je had employed the subtleties of martial technique—principles akin to Half-Upper, Half-Lower Heavenly Reversal Force—
to gently transform the sharp, cutting nature of the whirlwind created by the Wind Cloud Sword, allowing his body to pass through.
‘Yet his expression remains composed.’
Slash!
As if waiting for Ma Cheon Je to employ such a method, Baek In Cheong closed the distance once more and unleashed another barrage of sword techniques.
Ma Cheon Je, bearing severe injuries,
remained in a state where he could not properly manifest that fearsome Limitless Capacity.
Baek In Cheong seized this opportunity, intent on severing his lifeline through tangible supreme martial techniques in one fell swoop.
Screeeech!
The Eternal Heaven Sword spun at tremendous speed, its form like a turning wheel as it cleaved toward Ma Cheon Je’s crown.
Unable to directly counter such an attack, the injured Ma Cheon Je sidestepped, evading the blow.
‘I can win this.’
Baek In Cheong’s face bloomed with elation.
No matter how grievously wounded he was.
Ma Cheon Je, supreme master of Tianxia, had actually sidestepped to evade the attack?
If I can maintain this advantage…
I could fell the Great Demon Lord, known throughout Tianxia as invincible.
“Hah!”
With a battle cry, Baek In Cheong wielded the Cheon Geuk Sword, the Poong Woon Sword, and then the Cheon Woon Sword and Cheon Hwa Sword.
He alternated the functions of all four blades, pressing Ma Cheon Je relentlessly.
This tactic was devastating in power, but it consumed his martial force and stamina to the extreme.
Therefore, he could not afford to prolong this exchange.
Kwah! Pah!
Baek In Cheong wielded his sword with every ounce of his being, as if to shred Ma Cheon Je’s body to pieces.
As the relentless barrage continued without respite, Ma Cheon Je’s limbs grew sluggish.
He was forced back a step.
Whoosh!
Then an unexpected assault erupted.
From the Cheon Cheon Sword that cleaved the void, countless luminous points transformed into a cloud-like current that poured down upon Ma Cheon Je’s body.
It was his signature technique of the Cheon Cheon Sword—Cloud Beyond the Sky.
‘Beyond the dark clouds lies clear blue sky’—
Amidst the shadows of countless false strikes, the piercing light points of the true killing technique burrowed into Ma Cheon Je’s vital meridians.
‘Block it quickly.’
Baek In Cheong wore a smile of vindication.
This terrifying sword technique was in fact a feint.
In reality, Baek In Cheong had crafted a mystical sword art that allowed him to discern openings in the enemy’s defense and sever their life force in an instant.
The third form of the Absolute Severance Heaven Sword Three Forms—Utmost Stillness and Perfection.
This method was something Baek In Cheong had mastered through blood-soaked training as he aspired to become the next Alliance Leader.
It was a celestial secret art that unfolded two sharp and exquisite killing sword forms in a single motion.
Suddenly.
Ma Cheon Je halted his movements abruptly.
It seemed he had discerned that Baek In Cheong’s sword technique was designed to create openings by adapting to his defensive motions.
‘Even if he saw through the feint, it matters not.’
Baek In Cheong’s lips curved upward.
If Ma Cheon Je remained motionless, that was equally favorable.
The Cloud Beyond the Sky technique, woven from the feint, possessed enough power to topple even Mount Tai in an instant.
It would tear the ordinary mortal body of Ma Cheon Je to shreds.
Kwaaah!
In a flash, the Cloud Beyond the Sky sword technique enveloped Ma Cheon Je’s body.
Watching this, Baek In Cheong felt a strange thought arise.
No matter how powerful the protective true energy was.
With the Cheon Geom, a blade belonging to the Divine Swords.
No one could withstand a sword technique that concentrated four hundred years of cultivation with bare flesh.
Life or death, survival or annihilation hung in the balance—one should struggle, should attempt anything to survive.
Yet Ma Cheon Je simply gazed at the sword light without moving.
‘There is something more to this.’
Baek In Cheong was also a master who had manifested the Mujik Gyeong.
Sensing the anomaly, he drew forth the secret technique he had cultivated in silence.
A mysterious Daoist secret that allowed one to perceive time several times slower than ordinary martial artists.
He had mastered the Cheon Mun Gak Ja.
A sharp whistle pierced the air.
As he deployed the Cheon Mun Gak Ja, his mind accelerated, and time began to flow impossibly slowly.
In that half-frozen state, confusion flooded his thoughts as the sword light continued to pour forth.
Should he continue unfolding his sword technique?
Or should he switch his swordplay to rapidly protect his body?
—A figure like Ma Cheon Je would never gamble with life.
No matter how grievously wounded, Ma Cheon Je remained Ma Cheon Je.
Before the Demon King who could see through all of human calculation and intent, even the slightest error was forbidden.
A tremendous boom erupted.
Baek In Cheong immediately withdrew the sword technique he had been unleashing and protected his body.
Successive sharp sounds rang out.
Hundreds of transformed sword energies wrapped around Baek In Cheong in layers.
But it was a grave mistake.
A faint sound escaped.
Ma Cheon Je bore a subtle smile.
Victory, defeat. Life and death.
Such things held no meaning.
Because he regarded not only the lives of others,
but even his own life as mere playthings—for he was the Demon King.
‘A mistake.’
Baek In Cheong’s heart cried out in alarm.
He had failed to dispel the doubt in his mind and converted his offense to defense.
The doubt and fear that arose in his heart created a great obstacle, and through it, a flaw emerged in his martial technique.
A sharp whistle.
Ma Cheon Je unleashed a wind blade.
That keen wind blade pierced through the gaps in the sword energy Baek In Cheong had created and lightly grazed his chest.
A tearing sound.
It was merely a light wound, his garment torn slightly, yet Baek In Cheong felt as though his heart had been pierced.
From a single moment of doubt. From a single wind blade strike.
His absolute confidence shattered completely, and all his movements
now felt as though they were being controlled entirely within Ma Cheon Je’s grasp.
At this rate, no martial technique would prove effective.
In the worst scenario, the crack in my spirit would cause my martial power to deteriorate.
‘I absolutely cannot lose.’
Baek In Cheong was no mere martial artist—he was the Wanderer Leader representing the Murim Alliance and a candidate for the next Alliance Master.
If he challenged the wounded Ma Cheon Je only to be soundly repelled and forced to retreat?
It would shatter the morale not just of the Murim Alliance, but of the entire Righteous Path.
‘There’s no choice.’
Baek In Cheong bit his lip until blood flowed.
Commanders who led such vast forces always prepared for the worst of the worst.
And when he challenged Ma Cheon Je this time, he had sealed off Gwan Do in advance.
It was to set a trap that would ensure mutual destruction with Ma Cheon Je under any circumstance.
“Ha-ah!”
Baek In Cheong suddenly plunged his Cheon Cheon Sword deep into the earth.
Whooom.
With a sound that shook heaven and earth, the surrounding landscape began to distort.
Simultaneously, a pale energy current flowed from somewhere and began to be absorbed into his body.
It was the pride of the Shin Wi Dan.
A combined force formation that was already known to have been lost in Murim.
What Baek In Cheong had prepared as his final trump card was
concentrating all human abilities, including martial power, into a single person
to unleash a devastating attack—the Gathering Force Divine Position Formation.
Ku-ku-ku-ku.
Baek In Cheong’s body gradually became gigantic, towering toward the end of the sky.
The martial artists he had brought to activate the Gathering Force Divine Position Formation numbered eight thousand.
In other words, he intended to combine the strength of all the Shin Wi Dan’s warriors to attack Ma Cheon Je.
“If you can stop this, then victory is yours.”
Countless points of light continuously gathered on the enlarged Baek In Cheong’s Cheon Cheon Sword.
The power concentrated from eight thousand warriors.
If such an attack were unleashed, even Ma Cheon Je could not emerge unscathed.
“Take this!”
Flash!
At last, a force that split heaven and earth descended from the sky.
Only then did Ma Cheon Je seem to unleash his limitless capacity, radiating brilliance from his body as he swept his hands.
But the Cheon Cheon Sword, concentrated with the power of eight thousand warriors, fell faster.
Ku-rur-rur.
A massive crater dozens of feet deep suddenly appeared where Ma Cheon Je had been standing.
All the air in the vicinity evaporated and vanished.
“Huff, huff.”
Baek In Cheong, breathing heavily, felt his heart pounding as if it would burst.
He sensed no vital signs of Ma Cheon Je from within that black void.
‘It’s done!’
Which meant that with this final strike, he would leave no trace of Ma Cheon Je’s existence in the world.
He had perfectly erased Ma Cheon Je from existence.
“Lord!”
At that, the subordinates who had been hiding while sealing off Gwan Do came pouring out in a rush.
“We’ve done it!”
They too sensed victory and came rushing toward Baek In Cheong, their cheers filling the air.
Though he was wounded, he had eliminated the Demonic Path’s sky in a single breath…
Now only the matter of ascending to the position of Murim Alliance Leader by unanimous consent remained.
‘Once I perfectly master the secret techniques of the previous Alliance Leaders, I will surpass Jeong Cheon Je’s martial prowess… and then only the throne of the greatest under heaven awaits me.’
“Ahahaha!”
Baek In Cheong could not contain his joy and burst into laughter.
There could be nothing better in this world.
Now that he had savored all glory as a martial artist, he had no regrets.
“Truly, no regrets….”
As Baek In Cheong continued speaking, his expression grew strange.
The faces of his subordinates who had been cheering while looking at him suddenly froze rigid.
It was as if time had stopped, and the skin of the rushing subordinates gradually took on a corpse-like gray pallor.
“Why are your faces….”
The moment Baek In Cheong turned his body,
Thud. Thud.
Suddenly his subordinates collapsed like logs to the ground, becoming cold corpses.
Drip, drip, drip.
The bodies of the fallen martial artists had their hearts ripped out, with bodily fluids and crimson remnants scattered about.
Thump, thump.
The sight of hearts bouncing on the ground, severed from their masters… was nothing short of hell itself.
“How….”
“Did you have no regrets?”
Then a voice that shook his mind erupted.
Baek In Cheong turned his head to look.
Ma Cheon Je stood before him, regarding him calmly.
In both hands flowed crimson blood, and he held beating hearts that throbbed violently.
“A true martial artist must not rely solely on meticulous plans. No one knows what will happen during combat.”
“Surely not.”
Upon hearing Ma Cheon Je’s words, Baek In Cheong finally felt a strange realization dawn on him.
―I, the Lord, will….
―accept this.
He had not said the words of challenge.
In fact, what he had been about to say then was——
‘I will challenge you’ was not the statement, but rather an excuse to challenge.
Yet Ma Cheon Je spoke as though he had been waiting, as though accepting the challenge.
Everything that followed was precisely what he had orchestrated.
The developments unfolded exactly as he had anticipated.
Struggling to kill easily with the Cheon Geom Technique, finding himself in a difficult battle.
Eventually being cornered, only to be defeated by the concentrated power of eight thousand martial artists.
Every element of the plan.
Deviated not a single iota from what he had foreseen.
“Did you use the Mujik Gyeong back then?”
Baek In Cheong finally understood.
From the very beginning, Ma Cheon Je had used the Mujik Gyeong only once.
Through the Mental World, he had imprisoned me in an illusion.
In that span, he had torn out the hearts of all eight thousand Shin Wi Dan martial artists.
“This isn’t a faction technique….”
“Someone told me something.”
Ma Cheon Je murmured softly, recalling the Blue-Robed Elder who had visited him not long ago.
“How much longer did you think that antiquated faction technique would work?”
“Hehehehe. Hahahaha!”
Tears of blood streamed from Baek In Cheong’s eyes.
I had been foolish.
Exploiting an enemy’s weakness was not inherently wrong for a martial artist.
But if I had truly meant to face the supreme master of the Demonic Path….
I should not have rushed in merely because he was wounded—I should have spent considerable time analyzing him and preparing for the confrontation.
Instead, I relied on the Cheon Geom Technique and the power of the Shin Wi Dan, hastily leading my forces forward.
Because I could not afford to miss this golden opportunity.
I had to eliminate the wounded Ma Cheon Je before anyone else could touch him.
In the end, that impatience, that ambition.
Had caused me to make a ridiculous mistake—throwing away an entire branch of the Murim Alliance.
“You truly are a demon.”
Baek In Cheong murmured softly, raising the Cheon Geom high.
And in a low voice, he spoke.
“There will come a day when you too receive the karmic retribution for this.”
Thunk.
And immediately, he drove the Cheon Geom through his own heart.
Boom.
Baek In Cheong, who had long wielded his authority as leader of the Shin Wi Dan, thus ended his life through self-inflicted death.
“Hmph.”
Ma Cheon Je gazed down at Baek In Cheong’s corpse with an expression of lost interest.
“Karmic retribution.”
Ma Cheon Je spoke coldly, his gaze fixed upon the distant sky.
“I shall transcend the shackles of Heaven’s Law and begin my ascension beyond all constraint.”
A deafening boom.
The sound of torrential rain.
Suddenly the sky darkened, and a downpour began to fall.
The blood of corpses scattered across the ground mingled together, forming a crimson stream.
A blinding flash.
As if the world itself was hurtling toward its end, thunder and lightning struck down in rapid succession.
“I shall become the will of Heaven and the law of Gangho!”
Ma Cheon Je’s cry transformed into thunder born of terror, reverberating across the entire world.
* * *
An unbelievable rumor spread throughout Gangho.
―Ma Cheon Je had attacked the Shin Wi Dan alone.
After his duel with Geom Joon, bearing fatal wounds, he had been wandering Gangho solitary.
Yet suddenly, single-handedly, he had annihilated the entire eight-thousand-strong force of the Shin Wi Dan.
But the rumor was soon corrected.
―It was not Ma Cheon Je who attacked the Shin Wi Dan, but rather Divine Position Sect Leader Baek In Cheong who had ambushed Ma Cheon Je, only to be annihilated in return.
When the truth came to light, the warriors of Murim were shocked, and the Murim Alliance suffered a humiliation from which they could not recover.
The position of one of the Seven Lords of the Murim Alliance was no mere figurehead.
Each of them was a pillar of the Murim Alliance and a candidate for the next Alliance Master.
Yet to think that one had launched a surprise attack on Ma Cheon Je, exploiting his wounds, only to have an entire faction collapse as a result?
―Then was the injury a fabrication? Had he deliberately provoked the attack?
The warriors of Murim questioned.
If Ma Cheon Je had swept away the Divine Position Sect Leader and his sect without cause?
It would be a grave matter that could spark an immediate war between the Orthodox and Demonic Paths.
But since the Divine Position Sect Leader had independently led his faction in ambushing Ma Cheon Je, they could never hold him accountable, and instead…
They had suffered only an irredeemable disgrace.
―Surely he had feigned injury.
The Murim Alliance gnashed their teeth.
Ma Cheon Je had deliberately spread rumors of his wounds to provoke them, then…
Executed a calculated scheme to cripple the Murim Alliance’s forces.
But soon the Murim Alliance realized they had overlooked one critical fact.
Ma Cheon Je’s injury had been confirmed by Bul Jon himself.
He who had never spoken a falsehood in his entire life, a pillar of the Righteous Path, had no reason to deliberately spread such rumors.
In other words, Ma Cheon Je, while bearing his wounds,
Had swept away Divine Position Sect Leader Baek In Cheong and eight thousand soldiers in a single breath.
―Ma Cheon Je. Was he now walking the path to become the greatest under Heaven?
Ma Cheon Je, Sa Do Moo Myung.
Since his emergence in Gangho, he had enjoyed undefeated supremacy.
The only one with whom he had failed to decide victory was Sin Do Mu Bi, known as Jeong Cheon Je.
Yet as time passed, the paths of these two great masters diverged greatly.
Ma Cheon Je had produced an excellent successor, while Muk Hon Ryeong Ju displayed invincible might whenever he appeared in Murim.
In contrast, Jeong Cheon Je had failed to distinguish himself with any remarkable feats, and the Murim Alliance still had not elected its next leader.
Thus, through this incident, Ma Cheon Je had once again—
—sent tremors through Gangho with his existence as the Sky of the Demonic Path, and proven his power beyond doubt.
Now, unless Jeong Cheon Je stepped forward himself,
there was no one in all of Gangho capable of breaking Ma Cheon Je’s momentum.
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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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