Chapter 33
Part 8: A Mountain of Corpses, a Sea of Blood
Black Claw Mad Dog
The man whose bare upper body was densely covered in black skull tattoos was the Black Bone Gang's infamous specialist fixer.
Unlike those empty-headed black-path martial artists who strutted around after learning a few martial arts and killing ordinary people such as government soldiers or a handful of swordsmen, he was different.
He specialized in hunting martial artists who stood in the Black Bone Gang's way.
A born battle maniac who had made life-and-death duels his very profession.
The treasure he valued above all else was his personal weapon—his Black Claw.
Forged from an alloy mixed with the incomparably durable Black Iron, those claws had shattered the weapons of countless enemies, and he had never doubted they would continue to do so.
Yet now...
He was watching those Black Iron alloy claws shatter into countless fragments from a single move.
"...Huh?"
The countless life-and-death battles he had survived...
The razor-sharp instincts he had honed through experience...
None of them mattered.
The opponent's hand crushed his treasured weapon, smashed through his ribcage, tore his heart apart, snapped his spine, and burst out through his back.
All of that...
Happened in a single move.
The man known as Praying Mantis Ghost Demon never even had the chance to swing his chain sickle before his body was split into three pieces in midair.
The one called Iron Pillar survived only the very first exchange before his body melted away beneath horrifying demonic qi and he died.
The master of Dark Cloud Arts...
Twin Flood Dragon Hands, who was said to wield a pair of swords as though they were living creatures...
One Kill, One Question...
None of them managed to launch even a single proper attack.
They were ripped apart in midair and reduced to clouds of blood.
Every one of them was a famous figure within Luoyang's black-path martial world.
Yet not a single one of them managed any meaningful resistance.
It was nothing less than a one-sided slaughter.
"Y-You're insane...?!"
Tiger Hunter, Kang Ja-mu, instantly grasped the situation.
The moment he saw those who had climbed the tower first being hacked into pieces and falling, he turned without hesitation.
Activating the movement technique he prided himself on, he sprinted down the tower's outer wall.
His exceptionally accurate judgment—even to the point of seeming excessive—and his outstanding movement technique had been the two greatest reasons he had remained alive until today.
Unfortunately...
This time, he had chosen the wrong opponent.
Without ever realizing what had killed him, his body exploded apart in midair.
His blood and flesh rained down upon those still climbing the tower.
And the moment they were drenched in it...
They met the very same fate.
The men climbing the tower's outer wall began dying in droves.
Wherever that figure wrapped in dark demonic qi passed...
Bloody blossoms carrying the stench of fresh blood bloomed in its wake.
The sight resembled a pitch-black serpent slithering down the tower.
"You idiots! Stop climbing the tower!"
Only after the first wave that had rushed forward was slaughtered so effortlessly did those following behind realize what fools they had been.
Trying to climb such a cramped tower had been sheer stupidity.
"Spread out! Surround him!"
Nearly twenty percent of their force had been massacred in the blink of an eye.
Even so, they refused to give up.
No matter how monstrous their opponent appeared...
Even a master who had crossed the Wall possessed limits to his internal energy.
"Drag this out! However you can, buy time!"
"Don't confront him head-on! Use your footwork! Attack from the flanks!"
They believed that if he continued recklessly expending his internal energy like this from the very beginning...
An opportunity would inevitably come.
That was why those who had reached the Wall—or at least sensed its existence—remained at the very rear, quietly waiting for their chance.
Every one of them shared the same thought.
Once that bastard runs out of internal energy...!
****
The young girl who had fought alongside Gyu against the Golden Spider had received emergency treatment from Hyeonwol Pavilion's agents and was now standing atop a rooftop.
She simply could not miss the Dark Heavenly Venerable's battle.
"W-Wow... This is unbelievable. Seriously."
Her small mouth hung wide open.
At first, she too had abandoned the idea of climbing the tower and come to the same conclusion as those surrounding the Dark Heavenly Venerable on the ground.
Against a true master, the key was to wear them down through continuous waves of attacks until their internal energy was exhausted.
Yet the Dark Heavenly Venerable mocked that common sense itself.
He continued sweeping through the battlefield with exactly the same overwhelming speed and destructive power as when the battle had begun.
As though his internal energy were limitless.
"Amazing..."
She clasped both hands together, a thrilling shiver running through her body.
It was the emotion one felt upon witnessing an absolute being.
Reverence.
"...Crazy."
Seeing her reaction, the large man whose entire body was wrapped in bandages slowly shook his head.
The young girl glared at him.
"What's so crazy?"
Shivering from the skin-cutting killing intent that could be felt even from afar, the man answered,
"...I've long known something was wrong with your head, but... you actually think that is amazing? I honestly can't understand you."
At that moment, the Dark Heavenly Venerable ripped the head clean off a black-path martial artist.
The instant his head was seized, the man struggled with everything he had.
But white hands reaching up from the ground seized him, preventing any proper resistance.
Meanwhile, two other black-path martial artists attacked the Dark Heavenly Venerable from behind with their respective weapons.
But by then...
The Dark Heavenly Venerable had already vanished, leaving behind nothing but the headless corpse.
As the two attackers hesitated in confusion after losing their target...
He slowly rose behind them.
Both of his hands flashed.
The two black-path martial artists were split clean through the waist, spraying blood and entrails before dying.
Beyond their bisected bodies...
The Dark Heavenly Venerable was still holding the severed head he had torn off.
The grotesquely distended mouth of that thing bit down on the head in a single crunch, crushing it to pieces.
It burst into mad laughter.
The black-path martial artists flinched as the insane laughter struck them.
Fragments of the shattered skull and its contents dripped from its gaping maw.
It was a scene of indescribable grotesqueness.
The bandaged man felt both revulsion and terror.
"...That... can't possibly be human."
The Dark Heavenly Venerable.
When he had first heard the rumors...
He had honestly laughed at them.
Delivering heavenly punishment in place of the heavens?
How childish.
He had simply assumed some eccentric righteous hero overflowing with a sense of justice had appeared.
At the same time, however...
He had admired him.
To cripple the mighty Black Bone Gang in merely two days...
That was the sort of feat he could only dream about.
But the Dark Heavenly Venerable he had seen with his own eyes...
Bore no resemblance whatsoever to the vague image he had imagined.
That thing merely wore the shape of a human.
The indescribable, skin-crawling aura surrounding it...
The way it condemned people to death with those grotesque sounds...
The white hands rising from the ground to devour corpses...
Even the sight of it chewing living people apart with a maw packed full of needle-like fangs.
It looked as though it had just crawled out of the deepest abyss.
He knew.
The only reason he had managed to keep his sanity...
Was because he was standing this far away from it.
And above all...
Because he wasn't its target.
"...A monster."
What else could one possibly call that thing?
***
"Huff... Huff..."
"D-Don't come any closer! Stay away!"
He had waited until the very end.
Praying only that the monster would finally begin to tire.
But it was a futile hope.
He was already standing before the Wall.
Specially invited by the Golden Spider for an enormous sum of money, he unleashed every ultimate technique he knew the instant the opportunity came.
"UAAAAAAAAAHHH!"
He no longer cared about conserving internal energy.
Nor did he think about the flow of battle.
He poured everything he had into that single attack.
His ultimate techniques—
The very ones that had felled countless martial artists—
Reduced everything before him to ruins.
Their destructive force was so overwhelming that several structurally weakened buildings collapsed outright.
He had never before unleashed his techniques with such complete abandon.
He truly gave it everything.
For a fleeting instant, he even felt as though he had glimpsed a realm beyond his own limits.
Supporting himself with his long saber, he barely remained standing.
His internal energy had been completely drained.
His vision spun violently.
It felt as though every one of his meridians were about to burst apart.
"Urgh!"
He had forced his qi far beyond what he would ever normally dare.
A mouthful of dark crimson blood erupted from his lips.
His dantian had undoubtedly suffered irreversible damage.
Even so...
He could still feel it.
The monster's gaze beyond the thick cloud of dust.
The murderous intent...
Not weakened in the slightest.
"...Fuck...!"
The last thing that filled his vision...
Was a gaping maw lined with countless razor-sharp fangs.
***
Impossible...
The Golden Spider couldn't believe it.
None of this made any sense.
The horrifying presence emanating from him...
Was only growing stronger.
The stench of sulfur pouring from him was so overwhelming it felt as though it would rot her nose away.
This... this is impossible...
Even those who had endured until the very end had achieved nothing.
Every last one of them had died.
How... how can this be...?
No matter how powerful he was...
She had believed that with the secret art taught to her by that insane master...
She could defeat him.
That was why she had hidden herself.
She waited...
And waited...
Only to find herself as the sole survivor...
Forced to face an enemy who had become even stronger than before.
No... No...
She desperately tried to suppress the thought that kept resurfacing.
The strength that monster displayed constantly reminded her...
Of the one person she feared most.
It was just like her master.
Its aura was different.
Its presence was different.
Its appearance was completely different.
Yet...
There was one undeniable similarity.
Common sense meant absolutely nothing before it.
Nothing about it made sense.
And someone like her could never hope to comprehend its true depths.
No... No! No! I've crossed the Wall! I've become a true master!
Though only temporarily...
She had crossed the Wall.
The realm every martial artist dreamed of from the moment they first cultivated internal energy.
A realm granted only to a tiny chosen few.
A privilege.
A realm where a human transcended the limits of their species and was reborn as something greater.
She had reached that realm.
"I'm strong now... I'm strong...!"
To use this secret art...
She had sacrificed her own lifespan.
Not just a few years...
But decades of it.
There was no way she could accept the fate awaiting her now.
I'll kill him! I'll kill that bastard! Then I'll tear those bitches apart too! Everyone who mocked me... I'll slaughter every last one of them!
She failed to realize what she herself looked like at that very moment.
I'll kill them all!
Even after placing one foot upon the path of a true master—
Even if only temporarily—
She still hid inside a crumbling building...
Doing nothing more than screaming those threats within her own heart.
Unable even to properly circulate her internal energy.
Unable even to release her killing intent.
"...So this is where you were, Golden Spider."
He corrected himself.
"Or... should I call you Se Yu-hwa instead?"