Sword God Reborn

Chapter 264 : Stop bothering the kids

Cheon Mubaeck was quite flustered.

If Zhuge Seol-ah or Neung-heo had been around, their eyes would have surely widened.

Because a crack had appeared in Cheon Mubaeck's always unshakable face.

"Gun Cheon-ak is dead?"

"Isn't he a Heavenly Demon who had already met his end twenty years ago? I also heard it from the Blood Buddha."

Gun Cheon-ak.

The previous Heavenly Demon, and at that time, the only rival of the Azure Sky Sword God.

The greatest villain of all time who had stained the Righteous-Demonic War with blood.

The Kunlun Sect, which had been miserably killed at his hands, had been burned down, and all its lineage had been cut off.

Shaolin had also sealed its gates, and Wudang had also collapsed.

He was a formidable figure.

Considering his age, he would be close to ninety by now, so unless he had defied heaven, his natural lifespan would have run out.

Cheon Mubaeck had judged that Gun Cheon-ak was still alive, given that the demonic path forces were gathering in the Blood Demon Valley and even in the foreign lands.

'Because without him, the Demonic Cult could not have risen again.'

It was a rational judgment, and a natural conclusion.

It was a demonic path that had been miserably trampled by the Azure Sky Sword God.

It had become shabby, small, and broken.

But in just 40 years, that demonic path had become a greater danger and had faced the martial world.

It had not just been struggling, but had returned stronger.

'It has become more vicious than the demonic path of the past, hasn't it?'

At the very least, that was what Cheon Mubaeck had felt while facing the Blood Demon Valley.

Without Gun Cheon-ak, without him who was no different from a symbol, the reconstruction of the demonic path could not have been achieved.

He had died twenty years ago?

It meant that the current Heavenly Demon was not Gun Cheon-ak.

'If it were Gun Cheon-ak, he was a guy who had reached a terrible desire. In my entire life, no, in all my past lives, the only guy who could be called an incarnation of desire was him.'

Even the great old masters who were evaluated to have achieved the Dao in their lifetime could not readily accept their natural lifespan.

The desire to live longer was a dream that all powerful people and those with power dreamed of, as history proved.

Cheon Mubaeck had seen it clearly while living through history.

They reject the heavenly mandate and dream of defying heaven.

They reject the providence of the great nature by extending their lives with the internal energy and enlightenment they have accumulated throughout their lives.

'There are plenty of such guys in Kunlun.'

The old monsters of the previous and the generation before that, who had defied heaven and were forcibly extending their lives.

They were called one of the Five Disasters of the Central Plains, the old monsters of Kunlun.

There were not just one or two of these heaven-defiers who were living in hiding in the great and majestic Kunlun Mountains.

It was said that when they revealed themselves, a disaster would befall the Central Plains.

Thus, more people than one would think dreamed of and practiced defying heaven. Even the high monks who thought they would not, and the Taoists with deep Taoist power.

But Gun Cheon-ak had not defied heaven and had readily accepted the heavenly mandate?

A thunderbolt struck Cheon Mubaeck's mind for a moment. Cheon Mubaeck's pure white hand cut through the space.

The King of Assassins flinched and reflexively tried to dodge, but he could not escape.

"Who killed Gun Cheon-ak?"

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes, which were gripping the King of Assassins' neck, spewed a blue light.

Whether it was because he was suffocating, or perhaps because he was consumed by Cheon Mubaeck's presence.

The King of Assassins' face turned pale.

"Who killed him?"

"Th-that would be the current Heavenly Demon..."

For the King of Assassins, it was a frustrating story. Because it was natural in the logic of the demonic path that the person who had killed the previous Heavenly Demon would eventually be appointed as the new Heavenly Demon.

But that natural thing was quite serious to Cheon Mubaeck.

'The guy who killed Gun Cheon-ak is the current Heavenly Demon?'

Cheon Mubaeck's head was spinning fiercely.

Considering the 40-year gap, there was only one person who came to mind.

'The Blood Buddha!'

40 years ago, a new master who Cheon Mubaeck had thought might become the number one in the demonic path in the future.

Since he was a guy with that much potential, he would be the leader of the Blood Demon Valley now.

But the King of Assassins had said that the Blood Buddha could be killed. He had spoken as if he were a different person from the previous Heavenly Demon.

"It's unpleasant. Very unpleasant."

He was sincere.

Cheon Mubaeck felt an unpleasantness creeping up from deep within.

Until now, all the plans and movements had been made in Cheon Mubaeck's mind.

The existence of the Blood Demon Valley itself had not deviated much from Cheon Mubaeck's expectations.

The faces of the people were also familiar faces. Even if he didn't know, he had found out and prepared in advance with the information power of the Hanamun and the Beggars' Sect.

But not this time.

As an existence that was not in his own expectations had emerged, Cheon Mubaeck felt a very terrible unpleasantness.

There was only one answer to get rid of the unpleasantness.

'I have to meet him in person and kill him.'

On the one hand, he even felt a slight excitement.

The reason Cheon Mubaeck was chasing the demonic path in this life was, of course, because of past grudges and to protect the fence of his current life, but there was another reason.

'A rival...'

A rival that was rare in all of Cheon Mubaeck's lives.

The only people who came to mind right now were Yeo Dong-bin and Gun Cheon-ak.

Of course, even Gun Cheon-ak had fought Cheon Mubaeck a few times and had eventually fled.

But the fact that he had fought the Azure Sky Sword God several times and had escaped with his body intact was enough to recognize him as a rival.

Cheon Mubaeck was a martial artist.

He was a soul as a martial artist, engraved not on his bones, but on his spirit, through repeated reincarnations of tens, hundreds of times.

A rival who could make him reflect on his own skills.

Just as it is the person watching, not the person playing, who is good at giving advice in Go or Janggi.

There were things that could be seen from the outside.

Usually, Cheon Mubaeck overcame that by observing himself, but there were still things he didn't know.

Sometimes, such elements were discovered during a fierce fight with a rival, and this was enlightenment.

He was a guy who had eliminated the great Gun Cheon-ak.

20 years ago, Gun Cheon-ak would not have been that old.

Rather, it would have been a long time since he had recovered from the injuries he had sustained from the Azure Sky Sword God.

In a word, he was a guy stronger than Gun Cheon-ak.

So the rest of the demonic path forces had gathered around him and had achieved reconstruction, and in just 40 years, they were once again aiming for the martial world.

His skill was not ordinary.

The skill in the demonic path was extremely simple. Stratagem? A battle of wits? All of that was unnecessary.

'A thorough meritocracy!'

A world of the strong preying on the weak, in the truest sense!

Cheon Mubaeck's fighting spirit soared at the thought of meeting the new Heavenly Demon.

But apart from that, Cheon Mubaeck regained his composure.

A cold gaze fell on the King of Assassins.

He was a King of Assassins who had been caught in Cheon Mubaeck's grasp without even realizing it.

Although it was a very sudden movement, the King of Assassins had felt it with just one move.

A head-on confrontation was out of the question, and he was an opponent that he could not guarantee he could face even if he looked for an opportunity his whole life.

'Perhaps even more than the Blood Buddha, that great person...'

If his neck had not been caught in his grasp, he could have looked for a chance to escape by struggling while exchanging swords.

But now, there was no answer.

It was all up to Cheon Mubaeck's hands.

Cheon Mubaeck asked.

"You heard it from the Blood Buddha?"

"That's right. I can't kill Gun Cheon-ak, but I can kill the Blood Buddha. Because I can get close to him."

"You seem to know the Blood Buddha well. Besides the fact that he is the number one in the Blood Demon Valley."

"..."

The King of Assassins' head was spinning fiercely as he felt Cheon Mubaeck's tone change strangely.

The tone of his voice, his expression, his gaze.

In all of that, the sensitive qi sense of an assassin shone.

"I will tell you. Everything."

He saw a way to live.

At that moment, a faint smile appeared on Cheon Mubaeck's lips, but his eyes were not smiling.

'If the Blood Buddha would tell him the internal affairs of the Demonic Cult, it means they didn't just carry out a simple request, but were already in a close relationship. In fact, it means they are no different from a force of the demonic path.'

The Wolya Faction was the sword of the demonic path. It was a fact that had become more certain than ever.

Cheon Mubaeck's gaze turned cold.

'This is also just a struggle to survive for now. He's already a demonic path guy.'

The things he was saying about the Blood Buddha now could not all be true.

Cheon Mubaeck picked out the useful information among them and made a decision.

"Now, it's time to return to a handful of dust."

"Wh-what!"

At the moment the King of Assassins was about to shout in bewilderment.

Cheon Mubaeck's sword cut off the King of Assassins' head faster than a flash of lightning.

Although he had once reigned as the absolute ruler of the Wolya Faction, in the final moment when he could not utilize his strengths as an assassin, it was a life that could not help but meet a ridiculously futile death.

At the moment Cheon Mubaeck calmly burned off the blood on his sword with his internal energy and sheathed it.

Hwiiiiiik- Peong!

"...?"

Cheon Mubae-ck's gaze snapped back at the signal flare that had risen in the sky.

It was none other than Zhuge Seol-ah's signal flare.

A signal to be sent if a critical situation arose while moving separately during a mission.

Cheon Mubaeck's brow narrowed, as he had not expected the signal flare to go off here.

'Is there someone of that caliber among the remaining remnants of the North Sword Society?'

If it were just Zhuge Seol-ah, it would be a different story. But now there were also two of the three idiots, Hwangbo Sung and Tang Su-gun, whose skills Cheon Mubaeck had come to acknowledge.

Not only that. There was also Gok Ji-heum. At the very least, from the presences Cheon Mubaeck had felt before chasing the King of Assassins, there were only the minions of the Wolya Faction.

It was more than enough to deal with them.

And yet, the fact that the signal flare had gone off...

'An external threat.'

At this moment, where would there be a side to rescue the Wolya Faction?

The answer came after thinking for just a moment. The King of Assassins, whose unexpectedly close relationship with the Blood Buddha had been revealed.

If so...

Cheon Mubaeck's cold gaze fell on the cold corpse.

"It must have been a scheme to buy time while fleeing."

The demonic path.

And if the Blood Buddha was among them.

Cheon Mubaeck's eyes turned cold. His figure shot up into the sky in an instant.

* * *

"We have to hold on!"

Zhuge Seol-ah shouted as if she were crying out.

Hold on.

The words were easy. It was also a hopeful statement. The goal was not to win, but to hold on, which meant that someone would come to rescue them.

But that was not easy either.

Zhuge Seol-ah looked around with a hardened face.

Hwangbo Sung, Tang Su-gun, and So-hang were bleeding and half-neutralized.

Only Gok Ji-heum was standing with his sword.

'It's not the Wolya Faction. It's the Blood Demon Valley!'

Zhuge Seol-ah trembled as she looked at the old man, who was full of an annoyed look, opposite Gok Ji-heum.

He was not an assassin. He had fought head-on, and Tang Su-gun, Hwangbo Sung, and So-hang had been knocked out. If Zhuge Seol-ah had not cleverly set up a simple formation with the surrounding stones and branches from time to time, Gok Ji-heum would have been defeated long ago.

"The Heavenly Dragon Sword Hero is not here. Instead, the Zhuge family, the Tang family, the Hwangbo family, and the Hanamun's leader. It would be a pretty good trophy."

The old man muttered so.

Gok Ji-heum gritted his teeth.

"A paltry demonic path guy is so full of himself!"

"A paltry Hanamun street rat has learned a pretty decent sword technique and still has some spirit left."

As the old man sneered so, Gok Ji-heum's expression hardened.

He had only been able to endure this much because it was the Dark True Wisdom Sword, which he had learned about seventy percent of from Cheon Mubaeck.

But this was the limit.

The opponent had also felt that limit.

The old man swung his saber like a thunderbolt.

Jjeo-eo-eok!

An immense saber qi tore through the atmosphere and struck Gok Ji-heum.

But at that moment, the space strangely contorted.

Gok Ji-heum's figure blurred, and the saber qi flew off and struck an innocent pavilion.

The old man's face contorted.

"This annoying wench...!"

It was a very simple formation. Although it was simple to make the space contort with just a single stone and a single branch, it was used erratically at important moments and had helped Gok Ji-heum quite a bit.

However, it was just a trick. But it was annoying all the same. The old man left Gok Ji-heum alone and immediately flew his body. A saber qi aimed at Zhuge Seol-ah was emitted.

"......!"

It was so fast that Zhuge Seol-ah had no time to use any tricks.

The saber qi exploded.

Kwaaang!

It was then. The saber qi was neutralized in the air and scattered.

The old man's eyebrow twitched.

'He distorted the flow of external qi and deflected the saber qi?'

The old man recognized the technique at once.

It was truly an advanced study.

'Gok Ji-heum? Zhuge Seol-ah? No, it's not something that can be done with the skills of just two people.'

At that moment, the old man, who had felt a great presence, turned his neck as if it would break.

"......!"

The words "unhindered bright light" suddenly came to the old man's mind.

Like the light that rises at dawn and drives away all darkness, the old man's face contorted violently at the pure white light that consumed the darkness.

A terribly unpleasant, suffocating energy.

An immense presence of demon subduing.

The corner of the old man's eye trembled.

"Stop bothering the kids, and let's settle this between the adults, shall we?"

In the pure white, Cheon Mubaeck smiled brightly.

(End of Chapter)