The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith - Chapter 135

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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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The Return of the Transcendent Blacksmith — Chapter 135
Yong-ryong-i was frustrated.
It would’ve been different back when he was climbing the Tower of Elves long ago.
Now his spirit for battle burned bright, and he had confidence he wouldn’t be hurt.
But Shin Tae-ho cherished him so much that he wouldn’t even give him a proper chance to fight.
At best, he’d breathe out Poison Cloud once or twice to intoxicate the enemies and that was it.
The moment he tried to fight seriously, Shin Tae-ho would shake his head with a stern expression.
Yong-ryong-i had no choice but to stop, dejected, and retreat.
So when Yong-ryong-i received an unexpected proposal from Shin Tae-ho just moments ago, he was startled.
“Yong-ryong. Do you think you can hold your own against that Priest?”
“Ryong?!”
Yong-ryong-i asked in surprise, and Shin Tae-ho explained in a low, steady, rapid voice.
“They think I’m a Tamer. If I use my true power, my identity will be exposed.”
Though he showed nothing outwardly, Shin Tae-ho could feel something subtle in the way Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi were watching him.
And he quickly realized it was because of the swift, economical footwork refined by Guardian Martial Arts.
If he used the full power of Guardian Martial Arts through his footwork on top of that?
His identity would almost certainly be exposed.
But—
“If you take the lead and fight while I support you, we can win the battle without revealing who I am.”
While Yong-ryong-i fought at the forefront, he would guard his flank and pretend to use Bolts.
In that case, even if anyone questioned what kind of power it was, he could simply attribute it to Yong-ryong-i’s ability.
Yong-ryong-i, whose eyes gleamed as he listened to the explanation, nodded without the slightest hesitation.
“Ryong! Ryong-ryong!”
“Are you really sure? If you’re scared—”
“Ryong-ryong!”
At Shin Tae-ho’s concern, Yong-ryong-i answered emphatically, making it clear he wasn’t worried at all.
At that overflowing confidence, Shin Tae-ho, who had been quiet for a moment, let out a short laugh.
“Our Yong-ryong-i is brave. Alright. I’ll stay right beside you the whole time. You won’t get hurt.”
“Ryong!”
With Shin Tae-ho’s permission, Yong-ryong-i finally participated in proper combat.
Shin Tae-ho, who had suggested it, was inwardly tense, but Yong-ryong-i himself felt none of it.
During his time in Sinterhorn, Yong-ryong-i had grown over hundreds of years.
And he understood his own abilities quite clearly.
“Kraaaagh! Die!”
One of the Blood Orcs swung an axe wrapped in Ki toward Yong-ryong-i’s tail.
Since the attack was cloaked in Ki, perfect defense would require more Ki in return.
But though he had time enough, Yong-ryong-i didn’t use Ki.
“Ryong!”
Clang!
Yong-ryong-i swung his tail and struck the axe, breaking the Blood Orc’s wrist.
While the Blood Orc staggered back in shock—
This time, Yong-ryong-i’s tail, wrapped in a faint layer of Ki, flew swiftly toward the Blood Orc’s neck.
Slice!
A clean, sharp cutting sound like a potato being sliced by a well-honed blade.
As the helmeted orc’s head fell, the Blood Orcs’ eyes went wide.
“Kruk. That long one. Strong.”
“Hard too—the axe won’t bite. But it’s fast, and that blade’s strong enough to sever a neck in one stroke.”
‘Are they frightened?’
Tsukuyomi felt a glimmer of hope.
But orcs were a race obsessed with battle.
And hoping for fear from the Blood Orcs, who were far more savage and strong, was a luxury.
“Hunt! Strip the hide from that long creature!”
“Kraaagh! This excites me!”
“Don’t let the greatest prey escape!”
The Blood Orcs howled and charged.
Seeing their emotions inflame and their Ki kindle like wildfire, Shin Tae-ho spoke in an emotionless voice.
“Yong-ryong. Use fire.”
“Ryong? Ryong-ryong~!”
Startled at the unexpected command for a moment, Yong-ryong-i, now eager at the prospect of fighting alongside him, drew in a deep breath.
“Fwoooosh!”
As Yong-ryong-i opened her mouth and exhaled, the flames burst forth in a blossom-like spread, engulfing the Blood Orcs.
Remembering Shin Tae-ho’s steady teaching about conserving energy, Yong-ryong-i released the fire in a short burst.
Yet even so, the size of the flames was more than enough to smother the Blood Orcs.
Wrapped in fire, the Blood Orcs were incinerated in an instant, the flames piercing through their armor.
“Shrieeeeeek—!!”
The Blood Orcs crumbled to ash and collapsed.
Melted armor still hissed and bubbled in the lingering heat, not yet cooled enough to escape.
As Yong-ryong-i swelled with pride at her own display, pleased with herself,
Shin Tae-ho’s crossbow at her side fired a bolt.
Boom-boom-boom-boom—Bang!
The bolt, forged from a high-grade Qi Fragment, erupted in tremendous explosion.
Yong-ryong-i spun around in startled surprise.
There stood the Priest, driven back by the bolt’s force, his bizarre scaled arm dangling from between tattered robes as he steadied himself.
Shin Tae-ho, who had stumbled at the recoil, looked at the Priest with surprise.
“You. That arrow. Where did you obtain it?”
“Do I look like I’d answer that?”
Shin Tae-ho asked, incredulous.
Amaterasu and Tsukuyomi, who had been observing, moved silently and charged at the Priest.
Recognizing the dire situation, both had already prepared their most powerful skills.
Flash—!
Whoosh!
The Hwiyunjangsam, unleashed at full power, became a massive slash of light.
Tsukuyomi dashed through the deep shadow cast by that radiance, wrapping the darkness around his fan.
The secret techniques of World Rankers—ones that had bisected even a Stone Skin Ogre in the Tower of Elves like tofu—poured down upon the Priest.
It was a situation where he might lose his life in an instant, yet the Priest’s response was simple.
Boom-boom-boom-boom!
His scale-covered arm, fist clenched, swung toward the two incoming skills.
For a moment, the Hwiyunjangsam had bathed everything in bright daylight.
Then Tsukuyomi, trailing shadow in his wake, came rushing close behind—and struck the Priest’s fist.
Crack—shatter!
The Hwiyunjangsam that had flown ahead shattered like glass against the fist.
Tsukuyomi, following behind with practiced skill, rode the shadow to change direction and aimed for the Priest’s flank.
But by then, the Priest had already turned his gaze, fixing it directly on Tsukuyomi.
“Pathetic.”
The Priest’s arm moved like lightning.
Before Tsukuyomi could even conceive of dodging, the fist arrived and struck the shadow enveloping him.
“Hack—!”
Despite the shadow wrapped around him like armor, blood sprayed from Tsukuyomi’s mouth as the impact tore through both shadow and steel.
The Priest’s hand, having shattered all his skills, seized Tsukuyomi’s throat like a vise.
“To possess such ability and yet achieve nothing. How amusing.”
“Tsukuyomi!”
Amaterasu rushed forward with Hwiyunjangsam wrapped around her Oo-tachi.
But as the Priest stamped his foot, the ground shattered and cracked beneath her.
Amaterasu, running at high speed, caught her foot on the uneven terrain and tumbled to the earth.
As veins bulged across Tsukuyomi’s hand, gripped by the Priest, Amaterasu cried out in anguish.
“No—!”
Boom-boom—bang!
An explosion erupted from the Priest’s arm.
The impact dislodged Tsukuyomi, and the Priest turned his head toward where the bolt had come from.
There stood Shin Tae-ho, shielded by Yong-ryong-i coiled around him, aiming his crossbow at the Priest.
“Surrender. There are no more Blood Orcs to protect you.”
The Priest glanced behind Shin Tae-ho.
He had wondered why help hadn’t come sooner—but in the meantime, Shin Tae-ho had disposed of every Blood Orc.
Yet the Priest showed no fear, only a faint smirk.
“Did you really think those creatures were protecting me?”
Instead of answering, Shin Tae-ho fired another bolt.
Unlike the surprise attack before, the Priest moved with the intention to evade perfectly.
Yet somehow, the bolt’s trajectory unchanged, it flew with perfect accuracy toward the Priest.
Boom-boom-boom—bang!
As the bolt exploded once more, a massive explosion sent thick clouds of dust billowing in all directions.
The Priest’s eyes widened in confusion at what made no sense.
‘What? I clearly moved in a direction and speed where I could evade. Yet that bolt still came at me.’
Despite moving along an obvious evasion path, the outcome didn’t change—he was hit.
It was proof that a force of a higher order than simple firing and dodging was at work.
And if that were true.
‘This is dangerous.’
The Priest’s robe fell to the ground.
When the robe came off, what emerged was an abnormal arm covered entirely in scales.
And as if existing solely for that arm, the Priest’s body revealed itself, sinews and veins bulging grotesquely.
‘I must kill him here. No choice.’
The Priest poured all his energy into the scaled arm, letting bloodlust seep through.
The scaled arm began to swell, making wet, gurgling sounds as if it might burst any moment.
Just as the Priest was about to bring that force down upon the earth and lay waste to everything around him—
He suddenly felt an alien energy rising from the ground itself.
“?!”
The startled Priest looked down at the earth beneath him.
From the footprints Shin Tae-ho had left behind, a faint residue of energy climbed upward like creeping vines.
Before the Priest could even sense the anomaly and move to dodge—
Shin Tae-ho, who had fired his crossbow in rapid succession to kick up dust, drove his heel toward the Priest.
Smack!
The Priest caught the oncoming heel kick that Shin Tae-ho had launched at him.
But the moment the kick connected, the energy condensed within Shin Tae-ho’s foot penetrated into the Priest’s arm.
The energy that had invaded the arm spread like living roots, wrapping itself around the Priest’s own energy.
“This technique… could it be…?!”
The rooted energy twisted like a whirlwind, contorting the muscles of the arm.
In alarm, the Priest tried to shake off the energy by concentrating it in his arm—
But each attempt only fed more power to Shin Tae-ho’s energy.
Shin Tae-ho’s gaze fixed on the panicking Priest like a hunter regarding its prey.
‘This one recognized that Yong-ryong-i was a dragon, just like the Apostle I killed on Floor 70 before. I have to end him here.’
Having decided to kill the Priest, Shin Tae-ho moved again.
Using Guardian Martial Arts as he was, he had to finish the fight before the dust settled, or risk exposure.
Smack! Smack!
Crunch-crunch-crunch!
With each successive kick, the Priest’s body twisted in ever greater agony.
The kicks themselves were powerful enough that each block sent hairline fractures through bone.
The Priest’s movements began to grow increasingly desperate.
‘This is impossible. If my suspicion is correct, I cannot defeat him. I must escape from here.’
With his arm twisted like a pretzel, the Priest steeled himself against the pain and smashed his hand into the earth.
The dust that had been gradually settling rose once more, thickly obscuring the air.
The Priest concealed his position and concentrated all his energy into his legs to flee at full strength.
Yet even with every ounce of energy focused there, the Priest could not launch himself upward.
“Well done,” Shin Tae-ho said.
The Priest’s head snapped around.
Through the dust that had risen to obscure all vision, he could see Shin Tae-ho looking down at him.
In Shin Tae-ho’s hand was a Throwing Hammer that hadn’t been there moments before.
A hammer forged through Mana Forging using the energy of the World Tree itself.
Having bound the Priest with its unique power—Shinyok’s Shackle—Shin Tae-ho poured energy into his legs as well.
“I’d like to keep you alive to extract information if I could, but circumstances don’t allow for it. A pity.”
With those words, Shin Tae-ho’s heel came down like a guillotine toward the Priest.
The Priest watched with wide eyes as that foot descended upon him.
Bound by the ethereal chains of Shinyok’s Shackle, the Priest could not move so much as a finger.
Crack!
Splinter!
The Priest’s head shattered under the weight of that heel.
His body, now fragmented like shattered pottery, scattered in all directions.
Within the shattered remains, there were no organs, no blood—nothing that a living being should possess.
‘Like a puppet. Disgusting. What exactly are these things?’
Shin Tae-ho’s expression darkened with revulsion as he watched the Priest’s body crumble away like sand.
To be continued ▶
The Transcendent Blacksmith’s Return
Author
Seal Release
Publisher
Kim Seok-hwan, Choi Se-ra
Published by
Grae Publications
Inquiries
[email protected]
Publication Date
May 26, 2026
UCI
G720:N+A327-20260227067
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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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