Chapter 32
Reverse Karma Cult (5)
A cold light lingered within Lee Seha's eyes.
They seemed unusually dark.
Holding his sword lowered at his side, he stared at the Reverse Karma Cult Leader and asked,
“Was I very late?”
Namgung Jun spat out dark blood before answering.
It was a considerable amount, yet he straightened his back as though nothing were wrong.
“No. Only half a gak has passed.”
Though Lee Seha's gaze remained fixed on the enemy, the warmth in his voice gently brushed against Namgung Jun's shoulders.
“My disciple.”
“You carried out your mission perfectly.”
After praising his disciple, the master strode forward.
Every step, accompanied by violently writhing lightning qi, tore through the air.
“Now leave the rest to your master.”
Wrapped in lightning qi, Infinite Step carried Lee Seha directly toward the cult leader.
The furious movement aura surged upward like a bolt of lightning.
“Reverse Karma Cult Leader. Or should I say... doesn't the title Moon-Felling Saber Demon suit you better?”
The moment Lee Seha exposed his true identity, the Moon-Felling Saber Demon roared.
“So you've been digging into my past, you hounds of the Azure Sky Society!”
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon tried to seize the initiative.
Lee Seha was faster.
KRAAA-BOOOOM!
The techniques of the Heavenly Thunder True Yang Sword Art erupted violently, accompanied by deafening thunder.
Startled, the Moon-Felling Saber Demon hurriedly lowered his stance and raised his saber.
Yet a sword strike from the left smashed into his blade and shook it violently.
Azure Cloud Wanderer! Of all people, it had to be that woman!
Forced two steps backward, the Moon-Felling Saber Demon immediately unleashed a series of powerful attacks in an attempt to regain momentum.
Lee Seha never retreated.
Instead, she stepped forward and thrust her sword repeatedly.
More than twenty thrusts erupted in an instant.
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon's vital points were completely exposed.
KWA-KWA-KWANG!
Apparently finding his saber techniques insufficient, he began pouring out fist shadows with his free hand while desperately deflecting her sword.
Yet he was given no chance to breathe.
Several layers of nets woven from crackling lightning qi tore apart the techniques of the Rumored Moon Scattering Saber.
His sleeve was sliced open in an instant.
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon's expression hardened.
He immediately retreated.
Lee Seha gave him no opening.
She caught up at once and launched a long thrust.
Faced with a strike aimed directly at his solar plexus, he was forced to twist his chest desperately aside.
Having driven him back, Lee Seha relentlessly targeted his left shoulder.
She had accurately discerned that his left side had become weaker.
An injury to the left shoulder. The Protective Qi is intact.
Then was it an Internal Destruction Technique? But how did he penetrate Protective Qi in the first place?
The more she examined his condition, the more astonished she became.
Judging from the traces, Namgung Jun had fought him alone.
Simply surviving would already have been extraordinary.
Yet he had clearly landed a counterattack.
It was the sort of strike that required extremely advanced skill.
Slash!
Not something a mere Supreme Realm expert could even attempt.
Ordinarily, it required Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, where internal energy responded instantly to one's intent.
Jun always finds new ways to surprise me.
The fact that Namgung Jun had accomplished such a feat meant he possessed talent and instincts bestowed by heaven itself.
Once again feeling the depth of her disciple's potential, Lee Seha extended her sword.
Stab!
Heavenly Thunder True Yang Sword Art.
Twin Lightning Peach Strike.
The sword split into two trajectories and descended diagonally like twin bolts of lightning.
Thunder crashed across the battlefield.
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon's Protective Qi flickered and trembled.
After Jun put in this much effort...
As a master, allowing the battle to drag on any longer would be shameful.
The sword descended vertically onto the Moon-Felling Saber Demon's already injured left shoulder.
His left arm flew upward.
Blood sprayed from his entire body.
As he staggered, Lee Seha unleashed a ferocious sword strike powerful enough to whip her sleeves into a frenzy.
“Ghk!”
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon desperately blocked, but his movements gradually became tangled.
“Azure Cloud Wanderer! How dare you—!”
“And who exactly do you think you are?”
CRAAACK!
Lee Seha's icy voice pierced him like a blade.
The shattering sound of collapsing Protective Qi followed.
Shuaak!
She slashed across his left flank and chest.
Then drove her sword into his thigh.
Straightening her blade once more, she prepared the finishing strike.
“If I complete this mission, I'll be promoted to the rank of Bright Mirror Master—!”
Lee Seha did not grant him the courtesy of final words.
A horizontal slash cleanly severed his neck.
Crackling lightning spread wildly in all directions.
The Moon-Felling Saber Demon wore an expression of bitter grievance.
Then his head dropped to the ground.
If not for Jun, I would have needed at least thirty more exchanges.
After taking the enemy's head, Lee Seha turned around.
Looking for her disciple.
BOOOOM!
“Something major seems to be happening outside.”
“Perhaps that young man caused all this.”
“But what can he possibly accomplish by himself?”
Every time explosions and screams echoed from outside the prison, the commoners flinched.
The martial artists among them at least pretended to remain calm.
Even so, their expressions remained grim.
For a brief moment, the prisoners had allowed themselves to hope.
Soon afterward, they shook their heads bitterly.
No matter how they thought about it, the situation seemed hopeless.
The Reverse Karma Cult disguised itself as an ordinary religion.
But within its ranks were numerous practitioners of martial arts.
The youth who had slain the mage was clearly no ordinary person.
Yet that alone was not enough to take on the entire cult.
“I... believe...”
A hoarse, broken voice echoed from the deepest part of the prison.
Everyone immediately fell silent.
The speaker was the oldest prisoner in the dungeon.
Rumor held that he had once been a rather famous figure in the martial world.
“The swordsmanship that young lad displayed... was far from ordinary.”
“He didn't seem like a mere wandering martial artist.”
“Let us wait.”
With those words, silence settled over the prison once more.
Though the old man had tried to encourage everyone, the atmosphere remained gloomy.
Even so, not a single person took their eyes off the iron gate.
Because every one of them longed for the same thing.
Hope.
Not a life lived as livestock, forcibly kept alive only to serve as food for the cultists—
But a life lived as a human being.
BOOM!
A tremendous explosion rang out near the prison gate.
The prisoners instantly tensed.
Clank—
With the harsh sound of metal, the iron door slowly began to open.
At some point, dawn had broken.
Pure white light spilled through the opening like flowing silk.
The sunlight was so brilliant that many of the prisoners could barely keep their eyes open.
Because of that, they could not immediately tell whether the one entering was the young swordsman—
Or the Reverse Karma Cult.
Then it happened.
Parting the cascading sunlight like a curtain, a sharp, sword-like nose came into view.
“Everyone.”
The clear voice of the youth swept away the stale air filling the prison.
“I've come to keep my promise.”
The sword in Namgung Jun's bloodstained hand shone with flawless sharpness.
Its edge turned toward the prison lock.
Slice.
“Take my hand.”
Though his body trembled violently from exhaustion, Namgung Jun personally supported the imprisoned commoners and helped them outside.
“Thank you... truly.”
“I merely did what needed to be done.”
“What is your name?”
“Namgung Jun.”
“Namgung... Jun.”
“I'll remember it.”
After helping even the elderly man confined in the deepest cell leave the prison, Namgung Jun looked around.
The swordsmen of the Heavenly Sword Hall had spread throughout the compound.
Some were subduing cultists.
Others were securing documents that appeared to prove the connection between the Reverse Karma Cult and the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult.
With this, the secret branch of the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult that had quietly rooted itself throughout Anhui Province could be completely eradicated.
In the span of a single night, the headquarters of the Reverse Karma Cult had been reduced to ruins.
The commoners were shocked by the sight.
Yet what they learned next astonished them even more.
“This can't be... the Reverse Karma Cult was an evil cult?”
“I don't believe it.”
“But the evidence is all here...”
The truth was revealed.
The Reverse Karma Cult was a heretical sect operating under the influence of the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult.
Documents proved it.
So did the testimonies of the imprisoned commoners and martial artists.
“The karma exchanges were actually stealing our vitality?”
“Will we be alright?”
As confusion spread among the rescued people, Lee Seha stepped forward.
“Our society has already gathered physicians from the surrounding area. Everyone will receive a medical examination free of charge.”
Using the food and wealth seized from the cult headquarters, Lee Seha arranged treatment for the commoners.
Though their vitality had been drained by the Absorption Art, minor losses could be healed with medicine and time.
Lee Seha and the Heavenly Sword Hall patiently comforted those struggling to process the truth.
Then Lee Seha approached her disciple.
“Jun, are your injuries alright?”
“This is nothing unusual for a martial artist. I'm fine.”
Lee Seha gently patted his shoulder.
“That wound from the saber looked quite deep.”
“I treated it quickly. It won't be a problem.”
“Good.”
Her eyes softened slightly.
For martial artists, injuries were as common as battlefield casualties.
Even so, Lee Seha's heart always ached whenever members of her hall returned wounded.
And when it came to her disciple, those feelings were even stronger.
That was why she could not take her eyes off him.
I wonder if he's simply pretending not to be hurt.
Then—
Namgung Jun, who had been quietly looking at her, slowly sat down.
“I think I need to circulate my energy.”
“Master, would you mind standing guard for me?”
Had he noticed her concern?
Seeing her disciple awkwardly open up to her, Lee Seha smiled warmly.
“Of course.”
“As long as I'm here, no one will lay a finger on you.”
Namgung Jun immediately entered a state of energy circulation.
He had consumed the Solar Flame Marten's inner core and opened the first blockage of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
Much of its power had been expended during his life-and-death struggle against the Moon-Felling Saber Demon.
Even so, he needed to properly absorb what remained.
As his breathing deepened, Namgung Jun gradually descended into the depths of his inner world.
Reaching the Supreme Realm meant that the mental landscape forming the foundation of one's martial path had finally taken shape.
And now, he confronted the mental landscape of this life.
Before him stretched a miserable scene.
The same dream he had seen before.
The final battle of his previous life.
The ground was covered with the corpses of his disciples.
Blood-soaked earth stretched endlessly in every direction.
Yet above that crimson wasteland spread a clear and brilliant sky.
Heaven and earth existed in complete opposition.
“You still haven't let go.”
His guilt toward his disciples.
His regrets.
His hatred and resentment toward the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult.
His anguish over the choices he had made that day.
All of it had combined to create this mental landscape.
“My disciples.”
“I will continue forward.”
Steadily.
Without wavering.
If he wished to become someone they would not be ashamed of, there was no other path.
“Watch over me.”
Namgung Jun made a vow.
One day, he would change this desolate landscape.
And on that day—
He would finally be able to face his disciples without shame.
When his energy circulation ended, Namgung Jun slowly opened his eyes.
“Jun, did you finish refining all the energy?”
“As expected of Young Hero Namgung. You've accomplished something incredible.”
“Namgung Jun. I owe you a debt.”
When he awoke, he found Lee Seha and the swordsmen of the Heavenly Sword Hall still standing guard around him.
Like an unshakable wall, they remained by his side.
His vision filled with the sight of comrades protecting him.
His disciples were gone.
But now he had a master and new companions who stood beside him.
Lee Seha, sitting closest to him, extended her hand.
“Let's go back.”
“To the main stronghold.”
“Yes, Master.”
Without hesitation, the disciple took his master's hand.
It was warm.
Wonderfully warm and gentle.