novelraw Chapter 250 : A Person’s Heart Does Not Die (1)
Chapter 250 : A Person’s Heart Does Not Die (1)
Chapter 250: A Person’s Heart Does Not Die (1)
‘W-why is the Sword Emperor here?!’
Bewilderment surfaced on Jin Yeonghwa’s face.
His heart pounded violently, as if it had been struck by lightning.
The plan had been perfect.
They had lured the main forces of the Wudang Sect down the mountain and were razing the main stronghold during the lapse in defenses.
However, a single existence that overturned every calculation descended before their eyes.
The elite warriors of the Demonic Alliance, including the Extreme Ghost Unit Leader, Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer, also froze in unison, unable to hide their shock.
Step. Step.
Yoo Jinhak walked down slowly without uttering a single word.
Clad in a simple white martial robe, his appearance was utterly ordinary, yet the aura pouring out from him seemed to shake the entirety of Mount Wudang and press down on all existence.
Yoo Jinhak cast his gaze toward the uninvited intruders who had violated the Wudang Sect’s grounds.
Then, a low yet calm voice flowed out.
“Evil bandits, reveal your identities. Lay down your swords and surrender at once. Otherwise, you will pay the price.”
Kuuuung!
A single sentence from Yoo Jinhak, imbued with formidable qi, shook the entire space.
He had spoken only one line, yet the whole battlefield trembled violently, as if struck by a massive earthquake.
At that moment, as confusion seized everyone in the Demonic Alliance camp—
Jin Yeonghwa’s eyes alone flashed sharply.
‘Our identities haven’t been exposed yet. If that’s the case…!’
Jin Yeonghwa rapidly assessed the situation.
Long black robes, black bamboo hats, and masks concealed their identities thoroughly.
As long as who they were remained hidden, this situation could be exploited anew.
‘The Extreme Ghost Unit Leader, Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer, is a seasoned Manifestation Realm expert. Even if the opponent is a Sword Emperor at his peak, he can buy some time.’
And if they waited just a little longer, the forces sent to disrupt the Wudang Sect would all return. If those troops were used as shields…
‘Even if the worst happens, I alone can escape perfectly using a top-tier sorcery tool.’
Jin Yeonghwa coldly calculated the cards in his hand.
At a glance, their numbers far exceeded the enemy’s.
Moreover, for the success of this mission, numerous artifacts supplied by Namgung Myeong’s White Path Union were at their disposal.
Among them, the most effective were, without question, the Thunderclap Bombs.
Not those of the annihilated Lee Trading Company, but forbidden artifacts of terrifying power that Namgung Myeong—who had ties to the imperial court—had secretly diverted.
On top of that, before defecting from the Murim Alliance, Namgung Myeong had already stolen and provided various sorcery tools and treasure weapons.
‘Even if we withdraw, if we can inflict heavy damage on the Murim Alliance Leader and the Wudang Sect before leaving…!’
Madness gleamed in Jin Yeonghwa’s eyes.
If that happened, the reorganization of power within the current martial world would move in an entirely new direction.
Although the Sword Emperor’s unexpected appearance had disrupted the plan, this crisis itself could be turned into an opportunity.
[Alliance Master, please issue your command…!]
At that moment, the urgent telepathic transmission of the Extreme Ghost Unit Leader was heard.
Under the Sword Emperor’s pressure, there was no more time to hesitate.
Jin Yeonghwa made his final decision.
[Extreme Ghost Unit Leader.]
[Yes, Alliance Master.]
[I will use the final measure.]
[…!!]
The eyes of Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer widened in shock.
The final measure meant launching an all-out offensive using every forbidden sorcery tool and method—including the Thunderclap Bombs, taboo artifacts of the martial world.
—At the departure ceremony, a single cup of wine handed to the subordinates had been laced with Exploding Ghost Blood.
The words Jin Yeonghwa had secretly spoken only to him before departure resurfaced in Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer’s mind.
—W-what?! Exploding Ghost Blood is…!
His reaction was only natural.
Exploding Ghost Blood was a top-grade forbidden artifact of the martial world, created from the blood of Taowu, a monster counted among the Four Calamities, infused with countless horrific curses.
With just a single drop, it turned a human body into a self-destructing doll rivaling a Thunderclap Bomb. The most terrifying part was that the one who consumed it felt no bodily abnormality whatsoever.
Until the very moment of death, they would be sacrificed without even knowing what was happening to them—a truly horrifying sorcery tool.
—When the final plan is activated, consider even the deployed subordinates as sacrifices.
—…B-but!
—Subordinates are expendable anyway. All that matters is that you survive and return alive. Do you understand?
In other words, Jin Yeonghwa had declared that he would obtain what he wanted even at the cost of sacrificing all his troops.
To him, soldiers were nothing more than numbers. Their lives were merely tools for his ambition.
But—
‘…Yes. It can’t be helped.’
Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer had already resolved to follow his will and stood here now.
He had no choice but to obey the Alliance Master’s command. His own fate was also in Jin Yeonghwa’s hands.
At that moment, having steeled his resolve, Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer raised his voice solemnly—
Loud enough for the Sword Emperor to hear clearly.
“It was you who saved Tang Sewoon, who by the decrees of Heaven should have already died! I shall make you pay for the sins of the vengeful souls who perished in the Ruins of the Heaven-Piercing Gang!!”
He spat out words fabricated by force—false lines crafted to make it seem as though they were remnants of the Heaven-Piercing Gang.
A faint trace of puzzlement crossed Yoo Jinhak’s face.
“Hm, the Heaven-Piercing Gang, you say.”
At the moment his head tilted ever so slightly—
“The target has appeared!! Kill him!!”
Pabat!
Taat!
At Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer’s shout, every Demonic Alliance warrior on the battlefield switched targets to Yoo Jinhak and charged.
Like a massive tidal wave, warriors wielding all manner of weapons surged toward him.
Yet Yoo Jinhak’s expression held not the slightest hint of fear.
No—fear could not arise in the first place.
“Evil bandits courting death. I wished to avoid bloodshed.”
A lion does not fear ants.
Suaaah!
From his sword flowed not strength, but softness and harmony, as if piercing through the essence of all existence.
“Just as the Immortal Master met Pure Yang Master and attained enlightenment.”
The Sword Emperor, Yoo Jinhak, began to reveal in full the martial might of one who had surpassed the peak of the Manifestation Realm and stepped into the threshold of the Life and Death Realm.
“So too did I attain enlightenment upon meeting the Tang Clan’s child.”
In Yoo Jinhak’s mind flashed the image of Sewoon, writhing in pain.
And at that very moment, like a strand of sword dance, the perfected Taiji Wisdom Sword began to manifest its will.
“Die!!”
“I’ll slit your throat!!”
The warriors of the Demonic Alliance used sorcery tools, swung cursed swords, and scattered all kinds of unorthodox arts and martial techniques.
Amid the merciless onslaught that poured down on him like a torrential rain—
‘Hardness cannot overcome softness.’
Yoo Jinhak’s first sword strike unfolded.
On the surface, it looked like nothing more than a light, horizontal slash.
Suaaah!
Yet Yoo Jinhak’s sword was not a mere act of cutting.
Softness, standing above all hardness, could control the direction of every force.
“?!”
“Ghk!!”
The enemies’ attacks were fierce and violent, yet before Yoo Jinhak’s sword, they all became meaningless.
With a single strand of the Sword Emperor’s sword strike—like a willow branch swaying in the wind—everything vanished into nothingness.
At the instant the attacks reached him, their power was sucked away as if absorbed.
Flowing Reversal.
No attack could reach him.
And no attack he extended could fail to reach its target.
In a single exchange, the overwhelming difference in strength collapsed into emptiness.
Slash!
Clatter—!
Countless weapons aimed at Yoo Jinhak were severed into dozens of pieces and rained down onto the ground.
In the moment when everyone stood dumbfounded—
Step.
‘W-what?!’
With just one step, Yoo Jinhak was already standing before Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer.
Unable to perceive even the slightest movement, Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer tried in horror to draw his twin swords—
“Truly regrettable.”
Slash!
With those words from Yoo Jinhak, Twin-Sword Ghost Slayer’s body was cleanly split in half.
His body collapsed limply onto the ground, his life already extinguished.
‘This can’t go on…!’
Faced with a horrific scene utterly unlike his expectations, Jin Yeonghwa clenched his teeth.
Despair—and madness—rose together on his face.
Rip!
Jin Yeonghwa pulled a talisman from his sleeve and tore it apart.
It was the final trigger to activate Exploding Ghost Blood.
Uuung!
Amid a deafening resonance like the wailing of ghosts—
“G-aaaagh!”
“W-what is this?!”
Suddenly, the Demonic Alliance warriors began to scream in agony.
Inside their bodies, blood seemed to surge backward, their flesh shifting from red to a ghastly violet hue.
Their bodies swelled grotesquely, on the verge of exploding.
Once they detonated, the Explosive Wall Bombs planted throughout Mount Wudang would also erupt in succession.
“Hahaha! As of today, the name of Wudang will be erased from the world!”
Only then did Jin Yeonghwa burst into derisive laughter from the depths of hell.
Then, intending to escape himself, he activated his escape route.
Fwoosh!
The instant another talisman burned away in his hand,
A vivid light wrapped around him, and Jin Yeonghwa’s body began to dissipate like mist in the blink of an eye.
‘Yoo Jinhak wouldn’t sacrifice the Wudang Sect just to catch me…!’
At the very moment he thought he had escaped perfectly—
Flash!
‘Huh?’
Suddenly, a dazzling radiance poured into his eyes.
Slash!
The spatial separation he was moving through was completely severed.
Startled by a phenomenon he had never witnessed before, Jin Yeonghwa slowly opened his eyes again.
“?!”
Standing before him was Yoo Jinhak, who had cut space itself.
His expression was utterly calm, as if he had been there from the very beginning.
Crunch!
Yoo Jinhak’s hand pierced through space and seized Jin Yeonghwa by the throat.
“Ghk!”
“Where do you think you’re going.”
The light emitted from Yoo Jinhak’s sword had sliced apart space itself.
N-no!
Jin Yeonghwa struggled desperately.
All around them, subordinates consumed by Exploding Ghost Blood were on the verge of detonating.
Yoo Jinhak looked down at Jin Yeonghwa writhing in his grasp.
In his eyes, there was neither pity nor anger—only transcendent insight.
“To use the lives of others so frivolously. You shall not escape divine punishment, Wolya.”
“……!”
Yoo Jinhak had already seen through Jin Yeonghwa’s true identity.
Rumble—!
A situation on the brink of a colossal explosion.
Shing!
Holding his opponent completely restrained with one hand, Yoo Jinhak raised the sword in his other and swung it toward the empty air.
“If there were no boundary of demons, by what measure would one know the attainment of the Dao? Just as life requires hardship—crossing rivers and climbing mountains—so too does the cultivation of the Dao follow the same principle.”
Images of Sewoon’s path flashed through Yoo Jinhak’s mind.
The enlightenment he had gained through that child.
Not the pursuit of mere strength, but the protection of the human heart.
The truth that true Dao was realized through hardship.
—Yes. Only the human heart does not die.
With a faint smile utterly out of place in the situation, Yoo Jinhak brought his sword down.
His sword did not draw a blade’s edge, but a trajectory of light that spread long across the void.
Screee!
Shraaaa!
With a thunderous tearing of the air, a long horizon was carved across the sky.
And that horizon—
Suaaah!
Slash—!
Pierced through every Demonic Alliance warrior who had been on the verge of exploding from Exploding Ghost Blood.
Thud.
Thump.
All those consumed by Exploding Ghost Blood lay down upon the ground, having found rest instead of pain.
Even serene smiles appeared on the faces that had moments before been gripped by the terror of death.
Seeing that sight, Jin Yeonghwa froze, his face drained of all color.
‘H-how?! How did Exploding Ghost Blood…?!’
Astonishingly, all of them were alive, still breathing.
Yoo Jinhak’s sword was a Living Sword.
He had cut, yet he had not cut.
With a single sword infused with will, Yoo Jinhak had performed a miracle—erasing only the energy of Exploding Ghost Blood contained within their bodies.
‘T-this… how is this even possible?!’
Confronted with the impossible, Jin Yeonghwa stood dumbstruck.
At the moment when all his common sense and the principles of martial arts were overturned—
“Now you will vomit out everything you know.”
At the same time, Yoo Jinhak’s voice—cold beyond measure—resounded toward him.