novelraw Chapter 204 : On Top of What Had Collapsed
Chapter 204 : On Top of What Had Collapsed
Chapter 204: On Top of What Had Collapsed
Ssshh.
Only a chilling silence lingered over the surroundings.
A thick stench of blood rode the wind and seeped into the nose.
‘What in the world is this…….’
The main base of the Tongcheonbang, where not a single building remained intact.
At the very center of that horrific ruin, Tang Sewoon stood.
The poisonous insects sent out by Yelü Sheng had guided him to a secluded cave.
And inside it, two people had been collapsed.
Do Yecheon and Namgung Baek.
Both of them had been unconscious, their entire bodies drenched in blood, but fortunately, their pulses had been clear.
Sewoon had immediately drawn out the poisonous qi embedded in their bodies and treated them until they were whole.
After confirming that they had recovered enough to regain consciousness, he had come straight here.
“…….”
As Sewoon surveyed the surroundings, no words came to him.
Grotesque traces of sorcery that had lost their master floated in the air.
Spilled blood soaked the ground like a lake.
Melted arms, bodies torn apart, internal organs that looked as though they had liquefied.
Among the countless corpses scattered everywhere, there was not a single one with an intact form.
Crunch.
Each time he took a step, the sound of flesh being crushed echoed beneath his feet.
Yet the perpetrator who had caused this entire bloodbath was nowhere to be seen.
“Yelü Sheng…….”
Sewoon’s voice flowed out low.
His lips were tightly closed, but his inner thoughts were swirling violently.
The moment he saw the scene, Sewoon had realized who the culprit behind this tragedy was.
The Poison Demon.
After parting ways with him, instead of returning to the Blood Cult, the man had abruptly headed for the Tongcheonbang.
However, despite thinking it over until now, there was one question that simply would not be resolved.
‘……Why, exactly?’
Sewoon could not understand it at all.
Why that madman-like Poison Demon would wage war against the Tongcheonbang and help him.
There had been absolutely no reason for him to do such a thing.
Wasn’t the attack by the Spell Entity also because Yelü Sheng had struck first?
Even if he truly had disliked their interference in the battle between the two of them.
This kind of massacre had crossed the line by far.
‘……He was even hiding his strength.’
Sewoon swept his gaze around.
Traces of a fierce battle between two beings possessing martial might worthy of being called absolute powers of the jianghu were clearly visible everywhere.
Sewoon slowly closed his eyes.
Then, as if time were rewinding, the surrounding scenery began to be redrawn.
The fierce battle between Yelü Sheng and An Cheongmyeong started to reconstruct itself like afterimages.
A razor-thin fight, where each sought only to kill the other, continued.
And then.
‘……!’
The image of Yelü Sheng drawing out his final, hidden power came to mind.
A Form-Shaped Qi so complete it was almost mesmerizing.
Yelü Sheng, just like himself, had crossed a wall.
‘Yes, the wall called the peak of the Manifestation Realm.’
In the end, Yelü Sheng had also broken through.
However, Sewoon could easily tell that Yelü Sheng’s realm had not been achieved through insights or enlightenment gained from his battle with An Cheongmyeong.
Now that he himself had reached the same peak of the Manifestation Realm, there were traces he could see.
Without a doubt, while fighting him, the man had clearly achieved an increase in realm—but had been concealing it.
Swish.
When Sewoon opened his eyes again after reaching that conclusion, his vision was filled with nothing but blood and chunks of flesh.
His pupils were brimming with confusion.
‘This is an act of rebellion against the Blood Cult. There’s no way the Blood Cult will leave the Poison Demon alone.’
What every member of the Blood Cult regarded like an unbreakable law was the solemn command of the Blood Demon.
Yet Yelü Sheng had acted entirely on his own and created this atrocity.
If Yelü Sheng had truly raised a hand against the Blood Demon, what followed would never be simple.
It would not matter in the least that the Blood Cult’s overall power had increased greatly due to his reaching the peak of the Manifestation Realm.
This act of betrayal would be judged harshly.
Yes—by Yelü Sheng’s life.
‘He’s a madman, but he’s not a fool. Why would he do something like this?’
Pshh.
The remaining embers burning amid the debris quietly died out.
A wisp of smoke drifted through the air and vanished.
For a long while, Sewoon kept his mouth shut, lowering only his gaze.
Yelü Sheng.
Even when he dug through all the memories from before his regression, the man had always acted unpredictably, repeating behaviors bordering on madness.
Yet the Yelü Sheng he had met again after the regression was the same—and yet, subtly different.
‘……Does he really think of me as his disciple?’
Before the regression, he had been obsessed with thoroughly breaking and destroying him as a descendant of the Tang Clan.
After the regression, he had been genuinely earnest in trying to give him insights and realizations like a true master, fostering his growth.
Sewoon stared into the air.
A sky heavy with dark clouds came into view.
It looked as though an even greater darkness was approaching.
With a stiff, hardened expression, Sewoon muttered to himself.
“……Yelü Sheng. What exactly do you want from me?”
The question scattered like smoke.
It had been a question that could never receive an answer in the first place.
Yet Sewoon naturally came to realize one fact.
That the Yelü Sheng who had vanished would, before long, surely come looking for him once again.
Kraaaack……!
As the remains of a collapsed roof crumbled down, cracks spread across the ground.
Pushing his way through the gaps between layers of piled debris, Sewoon continued to move forward.
He set aside thoughts of the Poison Demon for now.
‘It’s better to take care of what I need to do first.’
He had been searching for the things he had intended to acquire once he seized control of the Tongcheonbang.
Although everything seemed to have been shattered and destroyed, Sewoon knew.
That within these ruins, countless hidden treasures lay buried—treasures that would become his strength.
‘If the orthodox side has the Shrine Maiden Sect, then the unorthodox side has the Tongcheonbang. A place like one of the two great pillars of the sorcery world—there’s no way it wouldn’t hold rare treasures of the jianghu.’
Ting!
“……!”
At that moment, a cold and solid sensation was felt in Sewoon’s hand as he dug through the ruins.
Certain that this was the place he had been looking for, Sewoon swung his fist without hesitation.
Kwa-ruuur!!
“Found it.”
Behind the wall that had collapsed in a single blow, an old safe that had been half-buried revealed itself.
It was the Tongcheonbang’s secret vault, preserved while maintaining its barrier even atop land saturated with poisonous qi.
Sewoon immediately entered and examined the interior.
“……!!”
At the astonishing sight unfolding before his eyes, Sewoon was momentarily left speechless.
Perhaps due to a space-expansion sorcery being in effect, the interior spread out far wider than it appeared from outside.
A vast space comparable to the Murim Alliance’s Martial Arts Repository was filled with countless rare items.
Sorcery manuals overflowing with ominous qi, talismans firmly sealed.
All kinds of materials taken from the bodies of high-ranking yokai, and various sorcery tools.
‘That is……!!’
However, what Sewoon’s hand moved toward first was not any of those.
At the center of the treasure vault lay a single secret manual, tightly sealed.
[Comprehensive Overview of Techniques]
Sewoon immediately checked the contents of the manual and instantly realized it was the item he had been searching for.
‘A secret manual that contains all information related to Spell Entities.’
It contained every theory and piece of knowledge regarding the forbidden sorcery that implanted the souls of yokai into human bodies—the very sorcery he had faced firsthand.
That said, he had no intention of creating horrific experimental subjects out of people like An Cheongmyeong had.
‘The principle itself is useful and powerful. If the design is used in the exact opposite way, it can definitely become a new source of strength.’
Was it because he had worked together with the Nine Heavens Immortal Maiden so many times?
Or was it because he was viewing it through the eyes of one who had reached the peak of the Manifestation Realm?
Sewoon was firmly convinced that he could create a Spell Entity in an entirely new direction.
Just as Sewoon tucked the Spell Entity Compendium into his robes without hesitation—
Wuuung!
“……!”
Suddenly, a resonance of tremendous power was detected by his senses.
A strange light surfaced in Sewoon’s eyes.
‘……Why is there yokai qi?’
It was because the yokai qi he felt was incomparably stronger than that of any Spell Entity he had encountered before.
Without hesitation, Sewoon headed toward the source from which the wave of energy was emanating.
There, he found a single enormous claw, reminiscent of a hook, left behind.
Anyone else would have likely dismissed it as merely a special sorcery material.
‘There’s something inside.’
To Sewoon’s eyes, it felt as though some unknown entity was trapped inside the claw like a prison cell, screaming madly.
Ordinarily, touching such an object carelessly would lead to a horrific end.
‘Alright, let’s see what’s whining so much.’
Sewoon grabbed the claw with his hand.
Kraack!
And crushed it to pieces.
As the claw shattered, an utterly sinister aura burst forth from within.
Kurrurur!
Like a prisoner freed from a dungeon and regaining liberty, the unknown energy instantly scattered its power throughout the entire space.
Only then did Sewoon realize what kind of being Tongcheonbang’s leader, An Cheongmyeong, had summoned into his body.
‘One of the Four Fiends worshipped as gods by the yokai. A remnant will of Gungi, at that.’
A remnant will could be described simply as something akin to an avatar, rather than the true body of a great yokai.
However, the yokai qi of a remnant will that had been imprisoned for countless years and had its malice amplified did not fall short even when compared to that of a true body.
Paaaat!
At that moment, as if pleased by the turn of events, Gungi’s ungrateful energy surged forward, attempting to seize Sewoon’s body.
Wuuung!!
If struck directly, even a Manifestation Realm martial artist would have their mind completely destroyed by the yokai god’s qi.
But…….
Sewoon merely let out a scoffing laugh.
‘Whether you’re a yokai king or a god. To me, you’re nothing more than a stray yokai.’
Kwa-rurur!
Kwagagak!
This time, it was destructive energy that erupted from Sewoon’s entire body.
A power that dominated all phenomena and abnormalities.
Before the Reverse Heaven Qi that had evolved beyond its limits, no inhuman power could dare to display its true might.
-Guheek!
A grotesque scream seemed to echo in Sewoon’s ears.
Naturally, it was the wail of Gungi’s remnant will.
Fear, terror, and shock were palpable within that voice.
Chwaaah!
The energy that had tried to burrow into his body was instead trapped within a prison far stronger than the claw that had sealed it before.
This was Sewoon’s own body—a nine-layered prison from which escape was absolutely impossible.
Gungi was forcibly confined within Sewoon’s Middle Dantian.
It panicked and struggled desperately to escape, but each time it did, the Reverse Heaven Qi and the Divine Poison Qi began their proper “education.”
The two energies, like wardens of hell, suppressed any abnormal movement from Gungi with overwhelming violence.
Faced with an overwhelming gap in power it had never experienced before, Gungi could only shrink back in terror.
And so, Sewoon’s interior finally returned to peace.
‘With this, I can take it out anytime and use it as material for a sorcery tool. Hmm, if not…….’
Just as a smile bloomed on Sewoon’s face at his second gain—
-Sewoon!
-Clan Head!
From far away, familiar voices could be heard calling out.
He gently spread his senses wide.
Moomyeong, Tang Serin, Do Hayoung, and others.
The qi of many people could be felt.
Those who had been sent to other areas had all arrived as well.
‘Alright, then. Let’s head up for now.’
Having obtained everything there was to gain, Sewoon launched his body upward.