novelraw Chapter 196 : There Is Power That Even Defies the Heavens (2)
Chapter 196 : There Is Power That Even Defies the Heavens (2)
Chapter 196: There Was Power That Even Defied the Heavens (2)
Kwaaaaarrr—!
Sewoon’s Reverse Heaven Qi (逆天罡) tore through the void as it surged forward.
That destructive aura alone was enough to instill despair just by witnessing it.
However, Yelü Seung had been blind from the very beginning.
“Kuhahahaha!”
From his empty sleeve, black venomous insects burst forth and coiled like a whirlwind, while the aura of Spirit Medium Qi (神媒罡) also surged skyward.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!
The instant the two forces collided, the very air was ripped apart.
Mountain ridges snapped and collapsed, the atmosphere howled, and the entire area shook to its core.
Chijijik!
Puh-puh-puh-pung!
Deafening explosions rang out in succession.
The venomous insects imbued with Spirit Medium Qi were detonating one after another against the Reverse Heaven Qi.
The function of Reverse Heaven Qi was exceedingly simple.
Annihilation (滅).
It was the power of destruction that erased everything it touched from the world.
Yelü Seung, who had been relentlessly pressing Sewoon back, was instead being forced backward.
Swaeaeak!
Puh-eo-eong!
“……!”
Along with the tearing shockwave of air, one of Yelü Seung’s arms was severed and fell to the ground.
Thud.
But it was an illusion.
It had already been an empty sleeve, long since hollowed out while spewing venomous insects.
Paat!
At that moment, Tang Sewoon’s figure flashed like a beam of light as he charged straight toward the Poison Demon, Yelü Seung.
Chwaaaah!
Sewoon unleashed both hands once more.
Following his movements, two strands of Heavenly Thread imbued with extremely pure Reverse Heaven Qi surged like ocean waves and crashed toward the enemy.
Their momentum was as though they would pierce the heavens themselves.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Kwa-ga-ga!
Yelü Seung swung his remaining fist toward the Heavenly Thread rushing at him.
Chwa-la-la-lak!
In that instant, venomous insects clung to his fist and twisted into a bizarre shape.
They transformed into the image of a massive black Poison Dragon and tried to swallow Sewoon whole.
Kwaaaahhhhh!
Heavenly Thread and venomous insects.
Reverse Heaven Qi and Spirit Medium Qi.
Four powers crossed in a single instant, shaking the earth violently.
Kwaaaaanng!
Puh-eo-eong!
The shockwave from their collision blasted outward in all directions, as if an earthquake had struck.
Like a sandstorm sweeping across the great desert, enormous clouds of dust engulfed the surroundings.
Chwaaaah!
After a brief silence, the situation hidden by the dust slowly came into view.
Yet the appearances of the two men were completely opposite.
Yelü Seung looked like a ragged wreck in an instant.
One ear had been severed, and from his cloudy White Eyes (白眼), where only the sclera showed, blood vessels had burst, spilling bloody tears.
Despite the agony that should have accompanied such wounds, he did not utter a single groan.
“Cough, kuh! Keuk, kuhahahaha!! Interesting, very interesting! As expected, you really knew how to use the Blood Demon’s power!”
“When did you secretly receive a ‘baptism (洗禮)’ from that bastard!!”
Rather than suffering, Yelü Seung burst into manic laughter, his voice brimming with exhilaration.
As his suspicion that Sewoon was using the Blood Demon’s power was confirmed, the excitement in his voice spilled out unabashedly.
But Sewoon merely ignored his outburst.
Unlike the Poison Demon, his own appearance was not the slightest bit disheveled.
Ssswk.
Sewoon once more infused power into the Heavenly Thread.
‘This time, 반드시—.’
Kill him.
Pabat!
Swallowing the final words in his heart, Sewoon stepped forward again toward the Poison Demon.
Kwa-ddeu-deuk!
The ground caved in as Sewoon lunged straight ahead like a bolt of lightning.
Yet Yelü Seung instead shouted as if delighted.
“Yes! If you’re my disciple, then the power of the Blood Demon should be something beneath you!!”
“Come at me with everything you have—!! I’ll tear you apart!!”
Sssaaaah!
Kwaaaaarrr!
Black poisonous mist erupted from his body, and Spirit Medium Qi condensed, wrapping around him entirely.
As Sewoon closed in to point-blank range, he swung the Heavenly Thread of his left hand first.
Kwaaaaarrr!
In an instant, the blade-sharp Heavenly Thread cleaved through the void and struck straight into Yelü Seung’s Spirit Medium Qi.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!
The two forces collided head-on, tangling and twisting violently.
“Now it begins!!”
Yelü Seung roared as he drew out his Spirit Medium Qi even further.
Pa-sseu-seu!
Chwaaaah!
Sewoon extended both Heavenly Threads crosswise.
With the Reverse Heaven Qi in his left hand, he erased the venomous insects, and with the Heavenly Thread in his right, he slashed into Yelü Seung’s true body.
Kwa-ddeu-deu-deu-deuk!!
Seogeogeok!
“Kuhahahaha!!”
A chilling slicing sound rang out as Yelü Seung’s robe was stained with blood, yet he continued to endure, using Spirit Medium Qi as a shield to receive the Heavenly Thread head-on.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Puh-puh-pung! Pu-pung!
Their intertwined energies triggered a chain of explosions.
Thud! Ku-thud!
Sewoon’s heart pounded as if it would burst.
His blood vessels swelled with searing heat, pain crashing over him as though they might rupture.
‘Keuk!’
Sewoon clenched his teeth.
The Reverse Heaven Qi flowing through his body was constantly gnawing at his meridians.
Even so, he did not stop.
Paaat!
In an instant, Sewoon slipped into Yelü Seung’s blind spot.
Casting the pain aside, he twisted the Heavenly Thread and compressed the Reverse Heaven Qi.
Kwaaaaanng!!
The compressed Reverse Heaven Qi exploded outward, annihilating Yelü Seung’s Spirit Medium Qi.
Swaeak!
Pueok!
Before anyone realized it, Sewoon’s clenched left fist smashed into Yelü Seung’s face.
“Kuk!”
Yelü Seung staggered for the first time.
But immediately, he shot back with a crazed glare and counterattacked.
Chwaaaah!
From his loosened shoulder sleeve, the last of the venomous insects poured out.
Swaeak!
The venomous insects fused with Spirit Medium Qi charged toward Sewoon like living spears.
Kwa-ddeu-deuk!!
Pu-uk!
This time, the sound of penetration rang out from Sewoon’s own body.
Blood splattered, and his qi and blood ignited.
His body screamed as if it would shatter, yet he clenched his teeth.
Sewoon once more drew up the Reverse Heaven Qi throughout his entire body.
“Haahhhhhhh!”
Kwaaaaarrr!!
Sewoon condensed his qi, loaded it onto the Heavenly Thread, and hurled it straight toward Yelü Seung.
Kwaaaaanng!!
The void warped as radiance exploded outward.
Kwa-ddeu-deu-deu-deuk!!
Following the trajectory where the Heavenly Thread swept past, dozens of branching shockwaves followed and scoured the mountainside.
Hwiik!
“Cough!!”
Vomiting black blood, Yelü Seung was shoved far backward.
Kwa-jik!
The cracking sound of something shattering rang out.
At last, the Spirit Medium Qi fractured, and shockwaves erupted from all across his body.
Had he been an ordinary martial artist, it would have been an aftershock he could not have survived—instant death (卽死).
Ssiik.
Even so, Yelü Seung smiled.
He could not help but smile.
Sssaaaah!
As if confirming his disciple’s tricks, his Spirit Medium Qi once more revealed a new transformation.
‘So this was the path you saw!’
‘Without my knowing, you had been trailing right behind me all along!!’
Was it because they had both devoured Angshin Tears and grown stronger?
It should have been impossible, yet the essence of the martial arts Sewoon used in battle was strikingly similar, as though Yelü Seung himself had taught him.
The roots—no, the origin—were the same.
Each time he watched Sewoon scatter the realizations he had built up so far, technique by technique, his own martial arts were also advancing a step further.
In that instant, Yelü Seung’s eyes widened.
His Spirit Medium Qi flared with its final light and began to run wild.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!
Amid the erupting roar, Sewoon and Yelü Seung repeatedly hurled their bodies toward one another.
Chwaaaah!
Sewoon’s Heavenly Thread descended, cleaving through the void.
Yelü Seung wrapped his torn sleeve with venomous insects and condensed his Spirit Medium Qi.
Kwaaaaarrr—!
The moment the auras of the two absolutes collided.
Sewoon, too, maintained clear awareness.
Gaining new enlightenment through battle was not something exclusive to the Poison Demon.
‘……If I handle power the way that bastard does, I should be able to suppress the spasms of the Reverse Heaven Qi at least a little.’
The martial insights forcibly injected into him by the Poison Demon before his regression were now being revisited in his mind.
Jjeojeok!
In the deepest reaches of the Reverse Heaven Qi—an abyss even he himself had been unable to touch—a small fissure was opening.
It brushed against a clue to a narrow path by which he could control the Reverse Heaven Qi that had been constantly running rampant.
Kwa-ddeu-deuk!
Paaat!
In the next moment, the two figures became twin streaks of light and charged at one another.
“Yelü Seung!!”
“Kuhahahaha!!”
Sewoon’s roar and Yelü Seung’s maniacal laughter overlapped.
Between the vortex of black poisonous qi and the Reverse Heaven Qi, a delicate harmony began to bloom.
The two men, driven to the brink, were stepping into a new realm.
They were clearly trying to sever each other’s hearts and throats.
Yet strangely enough, for a fleeting instant, the scene looked like that of master and disciple.
‘That man, too…….’
Sewoon realized it instinctively.
Yelü Seung was currently in the same state as he was.
That is, he had surpassed full maturity in the Manifestation Realm (玄境) and reached the boundary just before touching the Ultimate Essence (極意).
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!
Sewoon held his breath and dove in again.
Faster, and even deeper.
The Reverse Heaven Qi coursing through his entire body was still gnawing at his flesh and bones.
But Sewoon did not care.
Kwa-ddeu-deuk!
Embracing pain as if his body were being torn apart, Sewoon fought ferociously.
He burned his entire being and charged toward a single moment.
Kwaaaaarrr!!
Kwaaaaanng!
Thus, dozens of exchanges, hundreds of exchanges.
The two slashed, kicked, and tore each other to pieces.
Dark red blood scattered through the air.
Their figures collided once more and fell apart.
Hoo—!
Sewoon drew in a deep breath.
Suppressing the scorching pain in his chest as though hellfire were blazing within, he stared coldly at the Poison Demon.
Yelü Seung, too, was panting as he glared back at him.
At that moment, Sewoon realized it.
‘Half a move……!’
What he was seeing here and now—
the opponent’s condition, breathing, the amplitude of his qi.
After calculating everything—
‘I am clearly half a move above the Poison Demon!’
It was certainty.
Not arrogance.
Without the slightest conceit, it was a conclusion obtained purely by fully unfolding the sensations of his entire body.
One might say it was only half a move.
But in a life-and-death battle like this, being half a move above the opponent’s strength was an enormous difference.
‘If it goes to the very end, I win!’
Sewoon’s chest throbbed violently.
Before and after regression—across two lives—the moment to settle this tiresome 악연 was clearly approaching.
Kwa-ddeu-deuk!
Sewoon slowly adjusted his stance.
Even knowing his body was nearing its limit, he finished preparing to advance toward the end.
At some point, Yelü Seung had also reined in his wild laughter and quietly pressed his lips together.
“…….”
“…….”
A silence fell so deep that not even breathing could be heard.
The two men regulated their breaths and fixed their gazes solely on each other.
Both likely sensed it instinctively, if only vaguely.
Now, only one thing remained.
That one of the two would meet death.
‘How delightful. Truly delightful.’
Yet the current Poison Demon, Yelü Seung, seemed not to mind at all, even if this were to be his end.
Kwaaaaarrr!
Just as the auras of the two began to surge again.
Chwaaaah!!
Paaat!
Suddenly, dozens of foreign auras exploded from all directions.
‘……What?’
As Sewoon failed to hide his bewilderment.
Kwa-ga-ga-ga-ga!!
Kwa-ga-ga!
Though only a few steps had passed, dozens of shadows were already surging over the ridgeline.
Inhuman beings devoid of even a shred of vitality (生氣).
Clear marks of sorcery and modification were engraved upon their bodies.
“Die—!!”
Along with the familiar shout of someone he recognized.
The Heaven-Piercing Sect’s Spell Bodies (呪術體) were charging madly toward Sewoon.