novelraw Chapter 203 : Severe Punishment (3)
Chapter 203 : Severe Punishment (3)
Chapter 203: Severe Punishment (3)
An Cheongmyeong forcibly swallowed the groan that surged up to his throat.
Chiiiiik!
Even at that moment, smoke was rising from his shoulder as if fire had caught on bare flesh.
Countless blisters were boiling over on one of his arms, where Yelü Seung’s poison qi was spreading.
‘Damn it! I have already stacked several layers of detoxification spells and regeneration spells……!’
But it was utterly useless.
At some point, one shoulder had completely melted away, and the flesh on his upper arm had necrotized to the point where not even bone could be seen.
In the end, there was only one choice An Cheongmyeong could make.
Slash!
“Keugh!”
With a chilling cutting sound, his arm was sharply severed from the shoulder and fell to the ground.
After concluding that recovery was impossible, he had cut it off with a wind blade to prevent further damage.
Chiiik!
The severed arm transformed into a handful of bloody liquid on the floor.
Leaving that horrific sight behind, An Cheongmyeong glared with eyes wide open at the man who had subjected him to such humiliation.
“Kekek!”
“That expression is truly delightful. It is perfect as a drinking snack after a fight.”
Mocking An Cheongmyeong, Yelü Seung was laughing madly as he always did.
At that sight, An Cheongmyeong ground his teeth without realizing it.
All this time, he had faced countless martial artists who looked down on him as nothing more than a mere sorcerer.
And every one of those who had scorned him had been buried in the ground as white bones.
‘At the very least, a mature master of the Manifestation Realm—.’
The depth of power possessed by the opponent before his eyes was not something that could be ignored.
At that moment, the debris of the collapsed buildings began to writhe.
“Ke, keuheuh.”
“Bo, Boss. Pl, please save us…….”
The surviving members of the Heaven-Piercing Sect, trapped beneath the rubble, desperately reached out to their master for help.
However, what reached their ears was the voice of the culprit who had created all of this carnage—something they never wished to hear.
“Hm? So the bugs were still wriggling.”
“Disappear.”
Wiiing!
As Yelü Seung’s empty sleeve fluttered, a dim shadow of poisonous insects writhed within it.
“G, guheuh!”
“Kyaaak!”
Pupeong!
Chiiik!
Horrific groans and screams erupted from all directions, and the Heaven-Piercing Sect’s forces quite literally began to explode and melt away.
A dreadful stench of blood and poison completely filled the surroundings.
Yet Yelü Seung did not stop there.
Kwaaak!
Condensing the Spirit-Medium Qi Thread at his fingertips, Yelü Seung scattered it across the ground as if sweeping it aside.
A vortex composed of extreme poison brushed past An Cheongmyeong’s side, beginning to melt away even the remnants of the pavilions behind him without exception.
“Kekek, how is it? The sight of everything you built collapsing like a sandcastle?”
“As everything returns to nothingness, it truly is a beautiful painting.”
“……!!”
Though Yelü Seung’s mockery continued, An Cheongmyeong offered no reply and focused solely on defending his own body.
It appeared as if he was concentrating only on preventing harm to himself, disregarding both his subordinates and the buildings entirely.
He looked like someone utterly terrified of Yelü Seung.
As he watched that state, the smile gradually vanished from Yelü Seung’s face.
A man desperately struggling for survival held no interest for him—but a dog bastard with its tail tucked between its legs stirred none at all.
“Tsk.”
“So that was all you amounted to.”
Clicking his tongue, Yelü Seung, with a coldly sunken expression, prepared to decorate his enemy’s final moments.
Kwarreureu!
When he spread one hand, layers of poison qi pressed against the space itself.
A wave of poison qi formed from the Spirit-Medium Qi Thread crashed down upon An Cheongmyeong like a tidal wave.
Just when it seemed as though everything was about to end—
Kwaaaaaaaa!!
Suddenly, a blood-red aura began to erupt from behind An Cheongmyeong’s back.
It was not the sorcery power he had used until moments ago.
It was something far darker and more alien.
It was the demonic power inherent to monsters—the original power used by Spell Entities.
“……!”
Yelü Seung’s eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
It was a flow threatening enough that even he sensed danger on an instinctual level.
“Yelü Seung.”
Along with a dreadful voice that sounded anything but human.
When An Cheongmyeong raised his head, vertical pupils like those of a serpent were clearly etched into his eyes.
Paaak!
At that moment, the wave of Form-Shaped Qi unleashed by Yelü Seung poured down upon An Cheongmyeong.
“Disperse.”
Chwaaaa!
With An Cheongmyeong’s single word that followed, the energy vanished without leaving a trace.
A single incantation infused with demonic power had manifested an effect more powerful than any spell or curse An Cheongmyeong had used thus far.
There was only one reason An Cheongmyeong had remained silent until now.
It was not because he had succumbed to fear or terror.
“Yes, if the chance granted to me by the gods ends here.”
“Then I will drag you down to hell with me.”
With the resolve to throw away his life, he had been drawing out the final power meant solely to kill Yelü Seung.
Kwarreureureu!!
In an instant, his demonic power—resembling droplets of blood—bloomed in the void.
Countless blood droplets connected like a spider’s web, sketching the form of an inhuman existence whose identity could not be discerned.
Even as the Heaven-Piercing Sect’s main base collapsed and his subordinates met miserable deaths, there was only one grand spell he had been secretly activating.
“Kekek, offering up one’s own flesh to become a Spell Entity.”
It was a grand spell in which he offered his body to a grotesque being and became a Spell Entity himself.
Kwaddeuk!
Kwadduk!
Along with the horrifying sound of bones and flesh twisting throughout his entire body, blood vessels bulged across An Cheongmyeong’s skin.
Kwarreureu!
At the same time, a tremendous demonic aura burst forth from An Cheongmyeong’s entire body.
The demon beast he had succeeded in harboring within himself was an existence that could not even be compared to the demon beasts previously contained by the spell entities.
One that surpassed even the great demon beasts that had resided within spell entities.
One of the four rulers who governed all demon beasts.
“Saheung, Qiongqi.”
A strange light had once again surfaced in the eyes of Yelü Sheng as he watched that transformation.
Zzzrrr!
Kwaaaang!
From An Cheongmyeong’s fingertips, blood and lightning twisted together and shot forth.
Yelü Sheng bent his waist and evaded.
“……!”
No—he thought he had evaded.
The Blood Thunder had already torn through space and arrived at the spot where his foot had landed.
Pajijeuk!
At the same time electricity scattered, Yelü Sheng’s shoulder was ripped apart.
Blood sprayed everywhere, and Yelü Sheng’s martial uniform was dyed red with blood.
Watching that sight, An Cheongmyeong burst into mad laughter, opposite of before.
“Kuahaha! Why aren’t you laughing now? Has it stopped being fun!”
At An Cheongmyeong’s taunt, the Poison Demon remained silent.
Seeing that, An Cheongmyeong felt utterly refreshed.
‘Once Qiongqi’s blood seeps into the enemy’s body, it torments them until death! He must be so overwhelmed by the pain he can’t even think of speaking!’
Qiongqi, called one of the Four Ferocious Beasts, was an evil god that reigned over demon beasts.
Just as the name “god” implied, its demonic power far exceeded imagination.
If the demonic power An Cheongmyeong wielded by invoking Qiongqi within his body were converted into the realm of martial artists—
It could be said to surpass matured Manifestation Realm and be infinitely close to the extreme.
Fwish!
At that moment, Yelü Sheng rotated his body to evade yet another Blood Thunder that flew in like an arrow.
“Where do you think you’re going!!”
Without missing a beat, An Cheongmyeong clenched one hand.
Kwarur!
This time, an invisible tremendous force stretched toward the Poison Demon.
A formless ghostly hand burst forth from midair and aimed for Yelü Sheng’s heart.
It was a Blood Net Hand crafted from blood and soul.
Pajijijik!
Kwarurur!!
With the second collision, space was torn apart once again.
Yelü Sheng tried to block it with a single strike wrapped in Spirit-Medium Qi Thread, but—
Kwagagagagang!!!
With a thunderous roar, even the ground beneath his feet twisted, and he was shoved far backward.
Yelü Sheng’s martial uniform was completely torn to shreds, reduced to rags.
Through the gaps of the shredded uniform, chunks of flesh had been torn away, leaving bone clearly exposed.
A horrifying wound had been carved into him.
Poison Demon Yelü Sheng’s realm was matured Manifestation Realm.
The difference in power he felt was clearly being overwhelmed by Qiongqi’s demonic power.
Even at this very moment, Qiongqi’s demonic power was devouring his own vitality, yet An Cheongmyeong instead felt ecstasy.
It was power he had drawn forth prepared to die anyway.
As long as he could kill Yelü Sheng, nothing else mattered.
Just when it seemed that victory had completely tipped in An Cheongmyeong’s favor—
“So that power was what you prepared to capture the Blood Demon?”
Yelü Sheng posed the question to An Cheongmyeong.
Thinking that the man must want to leave some last words, An Cheongmyeong twisted the corner of his mouth.
“That’s right. It’s not perfect yet, though. If you hadn’t interfered, that Blood Demon bastard would’ve died by my hand as well.”
“Kheh, kuhahaha!”
“!!”
Suddenly, Yelü Sheng burst into laughter.
Clear mockery and contempt were embedded within it.
“Heh, to think you claim this is enough to even touch the Blood Demon’s power.”
“You really are an utterly laughable fool.”
“……You keep up such pointless bluster to the very end. Worry instead about your own fate—about to meet a miserable death at my hands.”
“Die?”
“Me, by the likes of you?”
The instant Yelü Sheng finished speaking—
Fwoosh!
Kwagagaga!
“……!!”
Suddenly, from behind Yelü Sheng, an unknown and utterly different aura from before condensed and bloomed as if exploding.
Upon sensing that aura, An Cheongmyeong could not hide his bewilderment.
…Impossible?
Because the opponent’s energy—whom he thought he had measured down to the very bottom—began to grow stronger without end.
Looking at him, Yelü Sheng spoke with disdain.
“Heh, you say you’d oppose the Blood Demon, yet all you could come up with was struggling to become a mere imitation of him.”
“Seems even fighting my disciple would’ve been of no help to you at all.”
“……!”
The moment he heard those words, An Cheongmyeong lost all reason.
The aura emanating from his opponent was trying to surpass his own limits.
Sensing danger instinctively, he drew up every last bit of his demonic power.
“Die!!”
Sswaeaeak!
Paaaatt!!
With a shockwave sound as the air was torn apart, dozens of Blood Net Hands appeared, leaving countless wounds across Yelü Sheng’s body.
They were like the grasping hands of specters dragging one into hell.
If even a single touch had seized him, his body would have been shredded so completely that not a scrap of flesh would remain.
Yet Yelü Sheng neither attempted to evade nor move—he simply stood still and slowly extended one hand forward.
“Poison-Rending Gate Opening.”
It seemed as though he had deployed Spirit-Medium Qi Thread.
But astonishingly, not a single sound of poisonous insects’ wings could be heard.
Chijijijik!
Peopeopeong!
‘What?!’
Yet the formless power that clearly existed was destroying every Blood Net Hand.
Pajijeuzeu!
The Qiongqi dwelling within An Cheongmyeong’s body began to writhe in agony.
He did not know when he had been poisoned, but Yelü Sheng’s new poison qi had already taken hold of An Cheongmyeong.
There was only one possible explanation that could create such a situation.
‘D-don’t tell me… h-he reached the extreme of the Manifestation Realm?’
Just like Sewoon, the fully completed Form-Shaped Qi Spirit-Medium Qi Thread had annihilated all the Blood Net Hands.
As stated before, An Cheongmyeong’s power was only ‘infinitely’ close to the extreme of the Manifestation Realm.
He had never truly reached it.
But the Poison Demon before his eyes had clearly arrived at that very end.
“Heh, hiding my strength in front of my disciple wasn’t easy, you know.”
“Now then, I’ve seen enough of your pathetic tricks.”
Step.
Yelü Sheng, who had reached the extreme of the Manifestation Realm, crossed the distance in a single step and arrived before the stunned An Cheongmyeong.
“Now die.”
In that instant, a tidal wave of poison qi swallowed him whole.