Chapter 96 - The Sharpest Blade in the Dark (3)

"Eldest Senior Brother likes money."

Eunho, Seong Moran, and Cho Mubin suffered focused attacks from the Dark Soul-Severing Squad at the beginning of the battle.

Following the information that the Dark Soul-Severing Squad hated light, Eunho set fires all around them whenever he had an opening.

By the time fires were lit everywhere, many examinees had already sensed something was wrong and began to flee.

The problem was Seong Moran, who had used up all her internal energy trying to fend off the Dark Soul-Severing Squad.

"But I heard men feel burdened if a woman's family has too much money."

"... I don't think that's necessarily true. There is a new junior sister named Wang Soso. Her family is incredibly wealthy, but Eldest Senior Brother didn't seem particularly uncomfortable."

Having depleted both her internal energy and stamina, Seong Moran was in no condition to fight anymore.

While babbling about various things to get her back on her feet, Eunho noticed that she reacted to stories about Eldest Senior Brother.

That was the reason they were having a conversation so unfitting for the middle of a battlefield.

"Wang Soso? Are you talking about the only daughter of Wangga Manor? Wang Soso joined the Taiyi Sect?"

"Did you know each other?"

"Of course I know her. Wangga Manor is one of the top three merchant families in the world. Plus, she's incredibly pretty... Damn it, I thought Junior Sister Hong was my only competition."

"Pardon?"

"By any chance, did the two of them connect, or something like that?"

"..."

'Does this kind of talk really matter on a battlefield where life and death are on the line?' he thought, but seeing Seong Moran's swordsmanship grow fiercer as she asked, Eunho answered obediently.

"Nah, those two barely had any time to meet in the first place."

Of course, there were rumors within their sect that Jin Sowoon would marry into Wangga Manor as a live-in son-in-law, but since it wasn't a story he needed to share right now, he left it out.

"A man and a woman's feelings naturally connect in a short amount of time."

Seong Moran's sword started to slow down.

She looked sullen and exhausted. Eunho blocked someone trying to strike Seong Moran from behind and spoke.

"To Eldest Senior Brother, Junior Sister Wang is nothing more or less than a youngest sibling. She isn't his ideal type to begin with, anyway."

"Really?"

SWOOSH!

Seong Moran's fiercely swung sword turned two examinees into bloody pulps with immense destructive power.

It felt fascinating to see her lightly swinging a greatsword twice as heavy as a normal sword in such an exhausted state.

"Then what kind of woman does Young Master Jin like?"

He didn't know because he had never been interested in what kind of woman Eldest Senior Brother liked in the first place, but this wasn't the time to be picky about that.

Eunho spouted whatever words he thought would help the current situation.

"He likes strong women."

"Huh?"

"I mean a woman who doesn't give up in any situation and pushes through hardships."

"... Is that really his ideal type?"

Eunho thought he might have slipped up, but he didn't change his expression. Hadn't he learned from Eldest Senior Brother that atmosphere was everything when it came to scamming?

"You've seen Eldest Senior Brother, so you should know. Isn't he someone with a more vicious, tenacious, and resilient mind than anyone else?"

"... True, he does look as vicious as a madman."

They were talking about Jin Sowoon, but Seong Moran's sword was gradually slowing down again.

Seong Moran's arm trembled as she blocked an enemy's sword.

It wasn't a matter of internal energy; she had reached a state of exhaustion due to the stamina drain from the prolonged battle.

"Ah, and there's this too. I am absolutely sure of this one."

"What is it?"

"He likes women who eat well. A woman who isn't picky and eats heartily."

"Really?"

Saying that, Eunho pulled out a handful of jerky from his pouch and stuffed it into his mouth.

He showed that sight to Seong Moran so she could naturally follow suit.

"I eat well."

Seong Moran also grabbed a handful of jerky and crammed it into her mouth.

Since his plan was working so well, Eunho decided to be brazen about it.

"And he likes women who sync well with sword arrays."

"..."

Even in this urgent situation, Seong Moran went out of her way to take the time to glare at Eunho with suspicious eyes.

"Wouldn't syncing sword arrays mean syncing one's actions and heart? Eldest Senior Brother likes women he can communicate well with."

At Eunho's confident words, Seong Moran's sword forms gradually found stability and began to match their array. Cho Mubin, who had been struggling because Seong Moran kept lunging out, gave a slight nod to express his gratitude.

"What else?"

"Umm... And Eldest Senior Brother likes women who take good care of his junior brothers."

Eunho couldn't predict what consequences his lies would bring, but for now, he had no choice but to make things up as he went.

After all, Jin Sowoon's order was to fight alongside Seong Moran and protect her.

'He didn't say what method I had to use, right?'

Thinking about the distant future was a luxury right now.

* * *

I moved toward the darkness.

Contrary to my past life when I ran away from the darkness.

I relentlessly chased the darkness.

While darting between the pockets of darkness, I also checked on the warriors of Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran's respective sects.

Given that I would have to fight numerous political enemies within the Orthodox faction from now on, the Azure Emperor Divine Sword and the Iron Sword Sect Leader wouldn't sit still if they learned that Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran had followed me and met with a tragic mishap.

"I already have plenty of enemies; I don't need to make any more."

The battlefield, once draped in darkness, was littered with corpses.

It was the rule to overlook any murder and violence that occurred during the standard exam, and it was a convention among examinees to maintain a minimum level of decency, but there was no way demonic practitioners would follow the conventions of the Orthodox faction.

Casting stealth far aside, they tore the corpses to shreds to avoid needing to confirm their kills, just as they had done in my past life.

Their goal was to keep their identities hidden.

Therefore, the ones who had initially targeted us were now making those fleeing this battlefield their top priority.

For me, this was the first opportunity to announce the Demonic Cult's existence to the whole world, so even though these people had come here aiming for my admission token, I was running until my feet sweat to save even one more person trying to escape the battlefield.

"They won't believe it right away, of course."

The corrupt establishments of the Orthodox faction, who already considered themselves the eternal masters of Jianghu, wouldn't try to face the truth right in front of them.

However, if a situation like this occurred two or three times, they would at least develop a minimum sense of alarm.

If that happened, they wouldn't do something as idiotic as throwing the Murim Alliance's low-ranking warriors in front of the Demonic Cult's elites.

"Perhaps I'm hoping for too much?"

There had been many similar battlefields in my past life.

When darkness covered the Murim Alliance's warriors, the Dark Soul-Severing Squad mobilized.

When we reported that the darkness had killed people, the only response we got was to stop talking nonsense.

The number of low-ranking warriors who died like that was a staggering two thousand.

The Dark Soul-Severing Squad was the existence the low-ranking warriors feared the most.

They left deep scars in the minds of the low-ranking warriors who survived, and those survivors lived the rest of their lives avoiding the dark.

"So it makes me wonder. How long does it take to create a single member of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad, which operated with a total of twenty people throughout the entire Orthodox-Demonic Great War?"

"URGH."

The Dark Soul-Severing Squad member, his vocal cords melted, died shedding tears of blood.

"That makes ten."

Including the first one I killed with the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm, that made eleven.

"It's a bit of a shame I can't collect the monthly salary from the Minor Orthodox Unit guys."

In my past life, the guys in the Minor Orthodox Unit said they would give half their monthly salaries for the rest of their lives to anyone who killed even a single member of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad.

"Ugh."

A person at my feet, who appeared to be an examinee, was clutching his wound and trembling in fear. Fortunately, it seemed the bone sword had only pierced his arm.

"Are you alright?"

"Wh-What in the world is that thing?"

The examinee was shivering uncontrollably as he looked at the squad member held in my grasp.

It made sense, given that these bastards had an exceptionally gruesome appearance.

"I don't know. I was just holding onto him because they seemed like people who had nothing to do with the exam."

"..."

At the mention of the exam, the examinee's eyes wavered with complex emotions.

"I-I came to steal your admission token."

The examinee had an expression wondering why I would save someone like him.

"Do you want to challenge me?"

"..."

The examinee lowered his head, seemingly ashamed of his situation.

"No matter how fierce the exam is, aren't we all part of the Orthodox faction in the end?"

"..."

The corpse of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad member held in my hand turned mushy.

Except for the first one I caught with the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm, all the corpses exhibited this phenomenon.

When I threw the bastard's corpse to the ground, it melted away with a SSSSS. of hissing smoke.

After their hearts stopped, the Bone-Melting Powder solution embedded in their bodies would automatically burst, erasing all traces of them.

"The Murim Alliance won't believe it like this."

At my self-deprecating words, the examinee replied.

"I saw it! I saw it clearly with my own two eyes."

"Then you'd better make it back alive."

"..."

"Avoid the darkness, gather as many survivors as you can, and run."

"Will you be alright?"

My condition was poor enough that even a stranger would worry.

"If I don't move, there's no one else to handle them. And then the number of meaningless victims on this battlefield will only continue to rise."

"..."

"Don't worry about me."

"... Thank you."

The examinee looked at me with indescribably complex eyes, nodded, and then supported someone who couldn't walk.

After taking two or three steps, he turned his head for a moment to look at me.

"Take care of yourself. I will definitely repay this favor."

My internal energy was depleted.

It had already bottomed out a while ago.

The bones of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad bastards were modified to be as hard as steel, so I had to pour in my internal energy to break them in a single strike.

"And I can't use the Jade Dragon Bracelet, either."

The only method that came to mind was the Jade Dragon Bracelet.

Setting aside how much internal energy the Jade Dragon Bracelet could extract from demonic qi, if anyone on this battlefield saw me using the Great Star-Absorbing Art, I would undoubtedly be considered to be in league with the Dark Soul-Severing Squad bastards.

But it wasn't as if there was absolutely no way.

"I can't rest anyway. I'll have to take a gamble."

Every time I took a step, a CRACK! constantly echoed from my muscles.

My joints were screaming, and my blood was pumping faster than ever.

But if I didn't move now, there would be no survivors here.

Without survivors, the Demonic Cult's existence wouldn't be revealed to the world either.

BANG!

With a sound that tore through the air, I dove into the next pocket of darkness.

I drew the Flying Dragon Claw, but its golden glow had lost its initial brilliance.

I swung the Demon-Severing Light Whip exactly toward the spot where absolutely no presence could be felt.

CRACK!

As expected, I had lost a lot of strength.

The Demon-Severing Light Whip bounced off weakly, and a white bone sword in the darkness pierced the hearts of two examinees.

"Your opponent is me, you bastards!"

BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM-BAM!

Dozens of fist forms were sucked into the darkness. The bastard who had pierced the hearts with his bone sword used his squishy fluid body to block all the fist forms.

SLASH!

I swung the retrieved Flying Dragon Claw like a whip at that spot.

Finally, the black fluid split apart, revealing his true body.

The muscles of the bastard, whose facial skin was gone, contorted into a dynamic expression.

The moment I drove the Twin Heaven Sword Art toward that spot.

SLITHER.

The fluid that had been split in half ended up swallowing my entire body.

In the end, I was completely swallowed inside the bastard's fluid body.

"Who are you?"

"This feels filthy."

Once trapped inside the fluid, there was no way to escape.

My body would be restrained, and I would be pierced to death by a bone sword coming from nowhere.

"What are you?"

"The grim reaper who's going to send you bastards back to your Demonic God."

I activated the Jade Dragon Bracelet to its maximum.

With this level of absorption power, light would have leaked out through the Flying Dragon Claw, but thanks to being inside the fluid, such a bizarre phenomenon wasn't exposed to the outside.

"Don't tell me... the Great Star-Absorbing Art?"

"You know it well."

"Nonsense! You, Lord Monstrous Demon's... Urgh!"

The bastard trying to speak attempted to break free from my grasp, but he couldn't escape the absorption power of the Jade Dragon Bracelet.

Gradually, the fluid enveloping me began to fall away, and I quickly lowered the Jade Dragon Bracelet's absorption power.

"Kehuk, why would Lord Monstrous Demon's child..."

His form had clearly aged and withered, but because his original appearance was so bizarre anyway, it didn't show at all.

"Go ask your Demonic God about that."

As I struck down on his neck, a fountain of red blood erupted in all directions.

"As expected, demonic qi is hard to absorb."

I had maximized the output and absorbed it in a short period of time, but the internal energy that filled my Dantian was minuscule.

"So it was because of you."

Right then, I heard the voice of another Dark Soul-Severing Squad member.

"You really don't give me a moment to rest."

When I immediately threw my body toward where he was, surprisingly, the bastard retreated far back.

"Were you the only one who killed my squad members?"

It was a strange feeling.

Even in my past life, the only sounds the Dark Soul-Severing Squad bastards ever spat out were 'Die' and 'Keegh'. Unlike the others, this guy's voice was calm.

"You must be the one who orchestrated all of this as well."

"Interesting. Are you the Captain of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad?"

The spectral form in the darkness distinctly wavered.

"You are a dangerous one. A guy who will ruin the grand design."

"That's right. I plan to return exactly what you bastards have done."

Pouring out every ounce of the handful of internal energy I had recovered, I executed the World-Traversing Lone Footwork.

BANG!

As I charged at him with a sound that tore through the air, he also retreated backwards with all his might.

Following that, a sound that seemed to tear at the eardrums echoed in all directions from him.

SCREEEEECH!

Even those fighting frantically on the battlefield instinctively dropped their swords and covered their ears.

At the same time, the pockets of darkness that had spread out in all directions to extinguish the torches abruptly stopped and began to converge toward this side.

"Wh-What in the world..."

"D-Did you just see that? Can shadows move artificially like that?"

"Hey! Look here! C-Corpses!"

"BLEGH!"

As the darkness gathered in one place, those nearby began to waver upon seeing the mountain of corpses and sea of blood created by the Dark Soul-Severing Squad.

The war waged over admission tokens was now over.

"Won't your grand design collapse if your identities are revealed like this?"

"I don't know how you found out, but you and all of them will bury your bones here today."

The clumped darkness undulated before spewing out a black gas in all directions.

"Fuck!"

Seeing the black gas, I instinctively spat out a curse and shouted.

"Run! It's poison!"

Dark Bone Black Qi.

A unique demonic qi flowing inside the bodies of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad who had undergone the Fluid Bone Sword procedure.

It was difficult to truly call it poison, but it was a demonic qi that acted like poison.

The moment it seeped into the body, it ate away at the bones and dulled one's movements.

Those with weak internal energy would harden like stones on the spot, and even those who were strong would have to suffer for a long time to expel the demonic qi.

The reason the bones of Taejeong from the Wudang Sect and Yeon Umun from the Mount Hua Sect were found blackened and decayed was because they had fallen victim to that Dark Bone Black Qi.

I had moved first, but I was also trapped within that Dark Bone Black Qi.

Additionally, the examinees and warriors who reacted slower than me suffered the same fate.

Having already been discovered amidst the chaotic battlefield, those bastards turned even more cruel and ferocious.

They no longer cared about leaving traces of themselves on nearly a thousand people.

"These crazy bastards."

I extended the Demon-Severing Light Whip, snatched one of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad members, and activated the Jade Dragon Bracelet.

I sucked in internal energy with all my might, but as expected, the amount absorbed into my Dantian was minuscule.

"Geum-eun-dong! Run!"

Starting from my waist, my entire body slowly began to grow paralyzed.

I poured all my remaining internal qi into my shout, but it didn't feel like my voice was spreading.

'Is this the end...'

Even though there were countless people around me, I couldn't feel any presence at all.

My senses dulled so much that the moment I thought all that was left was for my heart to be pierced by a Fluid Bone Sword...

My right hand twitched.

Sensation, starting from my fingers, began to travel up my forearm and reach my shoulder.

And at that moment, I remembered an item I had obtained in the Demonic Spirit Plateau.

'Heavenly Demon Supreme Ring.'

The thing I had named and carried around as the Red Phoenix Ring because it looked similar to the Jade Dragon Bracelet.

That Red Phoenix Ring was dispelling the Dark Bone Black Qi on its own.

Without even a moment to continue my train of thought, I took the Red Phoenix Ring off my right hand and put it on my left hand along with the Flying Dragon Claw.

Then, reaching into the darkness, I snatched a squad member and activated the Jade Dragon Bracelet.

"Kehehehek, gurgle."

Internal qi surged up through my left hand.

It was different from when it had to filter out thick demonic qi and only recovered a trace amount.

A massive amount of internal qi, like a vast ocean, instantly filled my Conception and Governing Vessels.

The internal qi circulating through my entire body burned away all the Dark Bone Black Qi encroaching on my insides and settled into my Dantian as if it belonged there.

Following that, the Flying Dragon Claw extending from my left hand flashed with its original brilliance.

As the darkness cleared, all seven skeletons were staring with wide, rabbit-like eyes.

"What is this!"

I operated the Taiyi True Scripture using the profound principles of the Reverse Demonic Scripture.

It was the same internal qi as before, but the qi I was emitting now was distinctly different.

It was light, transparent, and above all, solid.

I scattered the Twin Heaven Sword Art in all directions. It didn't matter what I cut or who I deceived. That was how close the Dark Soul-Severing Squad and I were to each other.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH!

Every time my sword was swung, the darkness was torn apart, and the bizarre screams of the Dark Soul-Severing Squad members rang out.

"You were hiding a strange trick."

Having lost two squad members in an instant, the Captain spoke while clacking his skeletal jaw.

"But do not think you will be able to make it out alive."

"I don't think I can take on all of you yet, either."

These were bastards that even the Top Ten Experts of the World couldn't survive against.

If it weren't for the ambush and the Reverse Demonic Scripture, I wouldn't have even been a match for them in the first place.

"Still, I won."

"What?"

"The sun is rising."

Regardless of the fierce midnight battle, a radiant light began to shine its dawn rays upon the gruesome plains.

"D-Damn it."

"Tell the Heavenly Demon of this generation. Jianghu has learned of the Demonic Cult's existence."