Chapter 29 - Act 4. The Bamboo Tube Beauty (10)

'First, get close.'

Yise hurled the hand axe in his grip with all his strength. It spun toward the retching Kim Siwon and struck him squarely, yet failed to leave so much as a scratch. He had not even bothered to block it.

“You think these cheap tricks...!”

Kim Siwon reached into his robes and drew out a talisman. It filled with a deep golden energy, then shot toward Yise. Sensing its menacing power, Yise immediately raised his black iron shield to block it. The instant it struck the shield, however, the talisman spread into a net and began engulfing it.

Before the clinging net could entangle his body as well, Yise flung the shield to his left and charged Kim Siwon without slowing. Barely three steps remained between them.

One step. Another talisman flew from Kim Siwon's robes. Rolled into a sharp point like a narwhal's tusk, it buried itself in Yise's left palm. More precisely, he had raised his palm to block it.

Another step. The keen edge of the Meridian-Cutting Blade—the treasure he had kept carefully hidden ever since leaving Gwisu Temple—glittered in the sunlight.

The last step. The Meridian-Cutting Blade darted straight toward the demonic practitioner's neck, aimed at his carotid artery.

But just before the blade could pierce his neck, Yise burst into flames.

“Sir!”

Only when he heard the Bamboo Tube Beauty scream did Yise realize that some unknown spell had struck him. Enormous flames engulfed his entire body. Through his distorted vision, he saw Kim Siwon glaring at him with a red treasure artifact in his hand. The fire pouring from that artifact was burning him alive.

'It burns....'

His advance stopped instantly. The pain threatened to burn away his reason. After six years of grueling training, he had thought himself accustomed to any kind of pain, but this searing agony was worse than anything he had imagined.

Then the support he had been waiting for arrived.

SPLASH!

An enormous droplet of water fell onto his head. The flames vanished. Heat still shimmered off his body, and every inch of him seared as though he were still burning, but his vision quickly cleared. Only then did he realize he was drenched.

A water-attribute spell. Seol Ryeong must have recovered and used one of her ritual implements.

Right. At his back stood the scion of a noble family, whose stock of ritual implements was no smaller than their enemy's.

Yise drove the Meridian-Cutting Blade toward Kim Siwon's neck. But Kim Siwon desperately thrust up an arm to stop him, and the blade failed to pierce it. An ordinary blade could not penetrate a Cultivator's skin when it was cloaked in spiritual energy. Knowing this, Kim Siwon had gauged Yise's realm and blocked the dagger with his arm.

“A half-wit Daoist who can't even imbue a weapon with spiritual energy...!”

The corner of his mouth curled into a sneer. Just as he was considering which ritual implement to use to finish the brat, Yise's other hand clamped around his free wrist.

“Get your filthy hand off me.”

He had to acknowledge the boy's grip strength, at least. No, his physical abilities, spirit, and judgment all marked him as an outstanding talent. He lacked only one thing: reverence for a Cultivator of a higher realm.

“Is that everything you've prepared, you insect—”

Kim Siwon roused his spiritual energy to unleash the most powerful spell he could muster. The foul energy disrupting his qi and blood had finally begun to subside. Now he would show the brat what a difference in realms truly meant.

“Yise!”

But he had more than one enemy. The girl who had been harassing him from behind with low-quality talismans attacked again. A massive droplet of water smashed into his face like a hammer. As if that were not enough, the water soaking his body immediately froze. Perhaps these water- and ice-attribute talismans suited her better than his fire-attribute ritual implements suited him; they posed a far greater threat, even to him.

“You're merely buying time!”

But Kim Siwon did not realize what change the brief moment Seol Ryeong had bought was bringing about in Yise.

HUM.

Golden spiritual energy suddenly flashed along Yise's arm. Realizing what it meant, Kim Siwon was struck speechless.

He had clearly confirmed that this brat was at the second star of Qi Refining. He should not have known how to draw spiritual energy outside his body or imbue a weapon with it. Yet the spiritual energy within him was pushing out, little by little, beginning to envelop the Meridian-Cutting Blade. And it was spiritual energy of heaven and earth far purer and denser than Kim Siwon's own.

“Impossible! You damned butchers...!”

His eyes bloodshot, Yise tightened his grip on the Meridian-Cutting Blade. Veins stood out sharply, as though about to burst.

THUNK!

At last, the blade sank into Kim Siwon's forearm.

His plan to finish him in a single stroke had failed, but this was enough. The Meridian-Cutting Blade was a treasure among supernatural treasures, delivering death to Qi Refining Demons the instant it touched them. As though long starved, it began devouring Kim Siwon's Demonic Energy.

Horrified to realize that the Demonic Energy within him was disappearing, Kim Siwon tried to reach into his robes with his other arm, but Yise's grip held it firmly in place. Yise cloaked his forehead in spiritual energy and smashed it into Kim Siwon's nose.

“Aaagh!”

Kim Siwon screamed and toppled backward. Yise immediately pulled the Meridian-Cutting Blade free and plunged it into his solar plexus.

“Im... possible. Advancing a realm in the middle of combat—”

“Bamboo Tube.”

The Bamboo Tube Beauty flinched when Yise called to her, the demonic practitioner completely subdued beneath him.

“Any last words for him?”

“...”

“I'll take that as a no.”

“My name!”

The Bamboo Tube Beauty suddenly raised her voice. Sensing death upon him, the Cultivator blinked a couple of times, then turned his gaze toward the monstrous thing clasping her hands together.

“Is... Geuma.”

Her voice was thick with tears. The Bamboo Tube Beauty, Geuma, haltingly delivered what would be her final words to him.

“You... gave me that name... because it meant I was precious. I was so happy. So very happy.”

The light began fading from the demonic practitioner's eyes. What had he thought about at the very end?

Remorse over failing to attain immortality through Cultivation?

Regret at having followed us?

An unwillingness to let go of life?

His labored breathing stopped. Yise half rose, pulled out the Meridian-Cutting Blade, and stabbed him once each in the head, neck, and heart. It might seem cruel, but he had heard that some demonic arts could conceal spare lives in vital organs. Despite his thorough preparations, the gap between their realms had been plain, and his injuries were severe. He could not afford another idiotic mistake.

Even that did not satisfy him. He picked up the hand axe lying to one side and made to bring it down on Kim Siwon's throat. As always, he was about to sever the Demon's head and display it, then reveal his Demon-Expelling Mark.

“Yise!”

“...?”

“That's enough. Stop there. You can do that much, can't you?”

Yise stopped his arm at Seol Ryeong's cry. Then his eyes met those of the spiritual being watching him—the Bamboo Tube Beauty, who was gazing at the demonic practitioner's corpse with tears streaming down her face and an expression like a witless fool's. Yise spat. Bits of burned skin fell to the ground, mingled with saliva and blood.

“Seol Ryeong. You can exorcise demonic practitioners too, right?”

“Yes, you can... But are you all right? Your body...”

“Do you want to do it, or should I?”

Seol Ryeong shook her head, as though she could not bring herself to claim the task with Yise standing before her, his skin burned black.

Yise took the “Purification Staff” in hand and recited the formula from the Demon-Exorcizing Spirit Qi Refining Art. The Demonic Energy remaining in Kim Siwon's body was purified and drawn into him. After he had absorbed some of it, the flow of spiritual energy stopped. Then the remaining Demonic Energy began entering his body unchanged.

'... The leftover Demonic Energy isn't dispersing.'

Daemudo had clearly stated that the amount of Demonic Energy one could purify at a time was limited by the realms of the Cultivator and the quarry. He had not expected the unpurified remainder to flow straight into him. Rather than mention it, Yise roughly tore the fine pouch from inside Kim Siwon's robes, then took out the Demon-Sealing Album and recited another formula. Kim Siwon's corpse entered the album, becoming an image upon its page.

His amazement at the sight was brief. His gaze turned toward the Demon still here. Now, with the whole truth revealed.

Kim Siwon had been alive. But he had only used her to obtain her spirituality, then discarded her once she had outlived her usefulness. In the end, he had lost sight of Principle and become a demonic practitioner, returning under false pretenses to exploit her once more, even after she had become a monstrous thing.

Perhaps the betrayal of the master she had trusted had shocked her; Geuma's body had become noticeably transparent. Soon she would transform completely into a Demon and lose her reason.

“...”

Seol Ryeong remained silent.

“So that's how it ended.”

Yise summed up the situation in a few short words. It felt foul, having severed with his own hands the last thread she had clung to. The wounds her waiting had carved into her had accumulated, festering like pus, and finally burst in the name of truth.

“I'm sorry.”

Geuma stood as though frozen, staring vacantly into space for a long while. Then tears began falling from her large eyes.

“Waaah...”

The tears of the being who had now become a Demon glittered sorrowfully.

“Even if you become a Demon, I'll perform a consolation rite so you can pass through the gate of reincarnation without accumulating evil karma. Don't worry.”

Seol Ryeong patted her gently in comfort.

“I...”