novelraw Chapter 197 : The Affairs of the World Always Flow Toward the Unpredictable (1)
Chapter 197 : The Affairs of the World Always Flow Toward the Unpredictable (1)
Chapter 197: Worldly Affairs Always Flow Toward the Unpredictable (1)
Heaven-Piercing Gang’s main headquarters.
A secluded inner sanctum completely cut off from the outside world, reachable only by passing through a boundary guarded by nine layers of surveillance.
This was the chamber where the master of Heaven-Piercing Gang resided—the Bangju Chamber.
In this place, where only heavy silence had ever settled.
“Th-this, what is……?!”
A flustered cry rang out.
An Cheongmyeong, the Ghostly Arcane Underworld King, seated upon the massive jade throne, failed to conceal his bewilderment at the sight before his eyes.
Wooooong!
Before him floated a Spirit Qi Orb Acupoint in the form of a massive crystal.
Within the crystal, which emitted a mysterious and radiant glow, a mist-like aura swirled in layers.
And within that mist, two human figures were suspended.
Kwa-rururung!
Kwagagagaga!
The air tore apart, space twisted, and scenes of Form-Shaped Qi colliding unfolded.
That was right.
The battle between Tang Sewoon and the Poison Demon Yelü Seung was being reflected there.
The Spirit Qi Orb Acupoint was a medium connected to the eyes of Baek Choryang, the Ghost-Crying Blood Warrior, head of the Ghostfire Unit that An Cheongmyeong had dispatched.
Kwarururur……!
Earth-shaking impacts resounded three times, four times, in succession.
An Cheongmyeong stared at the projection of the battlefield at Mount Jusan, letting out a low murmur.
His fingers repeatedly tapped the armrest of the jade throne as if anxious, and deep within his eyes lingered unmistakable confusion.
‘I always knew Yelü Seung was a monster to begin with. That terrifying old fiend had only piled on more years—reaching mature mastery of the Manifestation Realm was understandable. But…….’
Within his vision unfolded the figure of a man charging forward while spewing black threads.
At a glance, the form of martial arts he unleashed appeared utterly irregular.
It held neither the orthodox purity of the righteous sects nor the unrestrained freedom of the unorthodox path.
Yet instead, it seemed to blend the strengths of both, achieving something superior.
“……Just what in the world is that bastard?”
Reflected in his eyes was Tang Sewoon, drawing forth new power as he pressed the Poison Demon relentlessly.
With every fleeting exchange—one move, then another—the texture of his martial arts shifted anew, its flow quickly taking shape and cleaving through the void.
This was not a light, momentary enlightenment, but a distilled essence engraved into his very body through long years of relentless cultivation—fully internalized.
Crunch.
Witnessing that sight, An Cheongmyeong unconsciously bit his lip hard enough for blood to seep out.
He could not deny it.
His opponent stood in the same Manifestation Realm as the Poison Demon.
Moreover, at the level of full maturity.
‘How is such a rate of growth even possible? When I first had him investigated…… he was nothing more than a promising up-and-coming talent…….’
Yet the moment he saw his true nature.
He could no longer regard him as merely a rising star of the jianghu.
The Blood-Thread Tyrant’s martial might and realm had risen to a level where he could sufficiently challenge Yoo Jinhak, the Sword Emperor and the world’s strongest.
Shudder.
In an instant, goosebumps spread across An Cheongmyeong’s entire body.
Over long years of leading Heaven-Piercing Gang, he had observed countless experts undergo transformation.
But the emotion stirring within him as he watched this battle was neither admiration nor displeasure.
It was simply fear.
To be precise, fear of an astonishing, unpredictable level of talent.
“……Even so.”
But then—
Killing intent-filled ghostly qi flared vividly within An Cheongmyeong’s eyes.
“……If it’s now, I can still catch him.”
Fwoosh!
A crimson mist bloomed within the Spirit Qi Orb Acupoint, and the reflected scene shifted.
Baek Choryang, who had been observing the enemy battle, turned his gaze toward the beings hiding alongside him.
The Vice Bangju, Gongsun Beon, the members of the Ghostfire Unit—the highest-ranking combat force of Heaven-Piercing Gang—
And the horrifying figures of his dreadful masterpieces came into view.
They were neither human nor beast.
They possessed human skeletons, yet their skin was dried tight against their frames, with veins bulging grotesquely as if about to burst through.
Their unfocused eyes bore auspicious patterns carved into them, and iron rings engraved with spells were fastened around their limbs.
There were twelve in total—spell constructs.
‘Without question, among all my sorcery achievements, these are the most “successful failures.”’
Successful failures.
Clearly a contradictory phrase, yet nothing described the spell constructs more aptly.
They were aberrations born from forcibly sealing the souls of great native yokai from Dongyeong into living human bodies.
Originally, sorcery was nothing more than humans imitating and mimicking the powers of yokai.
Thus, is it not natural that humans struggle to face yokai, whose sorcery—wielded through yokai power—is several times stronger than that of humans?
The essence of the spell constructs he created lay precisely there.
‘Allowing the power of great yokai to be used through human bodies.’
That part had succeeded.
However, when one thing is gained, another must be abandoned.
Though humans were able to wield yokai power to near perfection, the spell constructs—eroded by yokai souls—lost all sense of self, becoming beasts obsessed solely with slaughtering whatever stood before them.
‘I had left them dormant until that instability could be corrected.’
Yet despite that instability, as mentioned earlier, the current Sewoon could still be dealt with.
The reason was simple.
At that moment, An Cheongmyeong’s gaze gleamed coldly.
‘You’re no longer in proper condition either!’
A battle surpassing several hundred exchanges with the Poison Demon.
His blood vessels were tangled, and his qi and blood had already exceeded their limits.
Sewoon’s body was, quite literally, a wreck.
Tap. Tap.
An Cheongmyeong tapped the jade throne once more.
But unlike before, it was not anxiety that surfaced—rather, pleasure.
He turned his gaze back to the crystal display.
Kwarurur!
-Prepare the Ghostfire Unit for full combat readiness.
-Yes!
-The moment the order is given, deploy the spell constructs first.
-Understood!
Baek Choryang was issuing commands to his subordinates.
As An Cheongmyeong held his breath while watching—
-Now!
Baek Choryang finally gave the order to attack.
The Ghostfire Unit’s members awakened all the sealed spell entities’ consciousnesses.
-Die-!!
And together with Gongsun Beon’s clamorous shout echoing out.
Tudududud!
The awakened spell entities began charging toward Sewoon, the sacrifice, at a lightning-fast speed.
An Cheongmyeong looked down at the scene and smiled.
You ended here.
His gaze was that of someone certain of victory.
‘Blood-Thread Tyrant, I will make good use of your corpse as spell materials.’
But it was at that very moment.
Kwa-ruuuumble!
“?!?!”
Suddenly, the crystal screen shook as if an earthquake had struck.
An Cheongmyeong’s pupils trembled just the same.
Inside the crystal orb, a completely unexpected scene was erupting.
Kwagagaga!
“……W-what is this?!”
For a while, he could not continue speaking.
His calculations had gone completely awry.
-You damn bastards!!
-How dare you interfere with me!
That was right. Right now, the one showing hostility toward the spell entities—
The one who had been fighting Sewoon to the death.
-How dare you!!
The Poison Demon.
Yelü Sheng.
‘……What?’
Sweat trickled down An Cheongmyeong’s forehead.
Something irreversible had begun to go wrong.
The moment Sewoon confirmed unknown enemies charging into the battlefield, his mind began to spin rapidly.
When an unexpected situation occurred, the first thing to do was to precisely grasp the anomaly.
Shaaah!
Sewoon’s perception spread wide enough to cover the entire battlefield.
From the distant rear, there was a group emitting considerable sorcery power.
‘Reinforcements from the Heaven-Piercing Sect.’
While grasping the details of the enemies, Sewoon also identified the being commanding them.
Thirty sorcerers of the Ghostfire Unit supporting them from the rear.
Aside from An Cheongmyeong, the most troublesome opponent in the Heaven-Piercing Sect—
The Ghost-Crying Blood Warrior, Baek Choryang.
They were certainly figures with considerable fame in the jianghu, but—
‘If it were only those bastards, they wouldn’t pose much of a threat. What I need to be wary of right now is.’
Sewoon realized that the core of their forces lay in the twelve unidentified beings charging straight at him.
Twisting their entire bodies as they rushed forward in grotesque forms—human, yet not human—they resembled the Prayer Demon’s jiangshi at a glance.
‘But they only look similar. They’re different from jiangshi.’
Unlike jiangshi, demonic power was rampaging throughout their entire bodies.
At that moment, information from before his regression surfaced in Sewoon’s mind.
‘Spell entities……!’
They were the crystallization of the Heaven-Piercing Sect’s sorcery that An Cheongmyeong had failed to complete before disappearing.
‘All I know is that they tried to forcibly implant a great demonic creature brought in from the Eastern Sea into a human body.’
That said, the information on spell entities was not detailed.
Before his regression, research on spell entities had never reached the Blood Cult.
Just as now, An Cheongmyeong outwardly appeared to cooperate with the Blood Cult, but secretly sought to amass power and betray them. Having sensed his true intentions, the Blood Demon did not leave him alone.
Not only An Cheongmyeong, but everything belonging to the Heaven-Piercing Sect had been reduced to ashes.
Kwadudud!
Kwagaga!
In an instant, a massive roar exploded across the field.
Each time the spell entities moved, the ground caved in and the earth’s axis trembled.
Their immense strength—each emitting the demonic power of different great demons—was not something to be taken lightly.
Each spell entity appeared to possess at least the martial might of the ultimate limit of the Transformation Realm.
‘If I were in my usual condition, fifteen, twenty, even thirty wouldn’t matter. But the problem is that I have to fight that bastard at the same time.’
The bastard Sewoon referred to was, of course, the Poison Demon.
Throughout their battle, the gap between the Poison Demon and himself had been a mere half-step.
That half-step advantage he had held could be narrowly covered by the spell entities and the Ghostfire Unit’s forces.
‘First, I retreat. And if a pursuit begins, I lure them into a narrow canyon and pick them off one by one…….’
There truly was not much time left.
It was the moment to make a choice.
Crunch.
At that moment, the sound of someone grinding their teeth echoed out.
‘Huh??’
At that instant, the situation began to flow in a completely unexpected direction.
‘……Why is that bastard?’
Along with Sewoon’s doubt—
“……If we had crossed blows just a bit longer, I could have reached the ultimate state.”
Whoosh!
Suddenly, the Poison Demon Yelü Sheng, who had been fighting Sewoon, turned his back.
“You damn bastards!!”
“How dare you interfere with me!”
Pababat!
At the same time, Yelü Sheng flew toward the spell entities with the momentum to tear them apart.
Astonishingly, there was only one reason.
‘I was in the midst of a life-and-death spar with my disciple, on the verge of a moment of great enlightenment!!’
They had interrupted his moment of awakening.
“I’ll kill you all!!”
Ssshaaaak!!
Kwagagaga!
As Yelü Sheng swung both hands, madness filled his eyes.
The Poison Demon Yelü Sheng at this moment could not be stopped by the Blood Demon, the Blood Cult, or the Heaven-Piercing Sect—by anyone.
‘N-no? What’s wrong with that guy?’
‘Wasn’t the Poison Demon on our side??’
As Baek Choryang and the Ghostfire Unit members stood dumbfounded—
Sewoon, unable to understand the situation himself, blinked his eyes in the same way.
But that was only for a moment.
‘If this is how it goes…….’
In that fleeting instant, Sewoon deliberated.
As mentioned earlier, having openly turned his back, Yelü Sheng’s weakness was completely exposed.
Should he strike the bastard’s heart right now with the Heavenly Net?
The odds were fifty-fifty. Even this could have been part of the bastard’s scheme.
‘But if he really is wiping out the enemy’s full strength with his own hands—.’
At that moment, a strange light rose in Sewoon’s eyes.
At last, he decided.
If it erased even the slightest possibility of his own defeat, was there any reason to refuse it?
‘For now, I’ll help his slaughter! And when everything is over, I’ll target him again!’
Pabat!
He had never imagined a day like this would come.
But Sewoon was charging straight ahead to aid the Poison Demon.