Swordless Demonic Path

Chapter 91 : Eating the Darkness (3)

Jo Han-yu's hand, which was holding Jin Sa-wol's face, turned into a withered branch in the blink of an eye.

His face, which had been taut for his age, also withered, and he was looking at Jin Sa-wol with only his eyes wide open.

His whole body had become stiff like a dry piece of wood, and it was not even easy to move.

He couldn't even move his fingers.

Jo Han-yu could not understand the current situation at all.

It wasn't just that his body wouldn't move. Everything about him had disappeared.

Everything he had achieved through decades of hard work.

"Ah... Aah..."

Although he wanted to say something, his voice would not come out.

It was then.

Jin Sa-wol's body, which was engulfed in something like a grayish-white mist, wriggled.

Crack!

His joints were dislocated, and his teeth all fell out and grew back.

His long black hair fell out, and his head, which had become thin like a skeleton, filled out with flesh again.

His shiny black hair also grew back.

All of that happened in the short time of a few breaths.

Then, at some point, the mist that was surrounding and swirling around Jin Sa-wol seeped into his nose and mouth.

Instead, a dark demonic energy surrounded and swirled around his entire body. It was as if dozens of black snakes were wrapped around Jin Sa-wol.

That appearance made him look as if he were not a human, but another being.

Rustle.

Jin Sa-wol, who had opened his eyes, stared at Jo Han-yu, who was standing with his hand extended towards him.

Although there was no wind, his long black hair fluttered. A black energy undulated on his shoulders.

"Hmph!"

A smile sat on Jin Sa-wol's lips.

"De... De... Demon..."

Jo Han-yu muttered blankly at Jin Sa-wol's thick demonic energy, which seemed to melt his bones.

Jin Sa-wol lightly moved his right hand.

Thwack!

Jo Han-yu's head fell from his neck and rolled on the floor.

Even at the moment of his death, Jo Han-yu did not understand the situation he was in, with his eyes wide open.

Drip-drip-drip.

Jin Sa-wol, who was looking at Jo Han-yu's head rolling on the ground for a moment, stepped on that head as if it were nothing.

Thwack!

Jo Han-yu's head shattered like an empty shell.

Jin Sa-wol did not even look at Jo Han-yu's shattered head, but approached the collapsed Jo Geom-ok.

Although she was conscious, she could not move properly because a lot of her internal energy had disappeared.

As Jin Sa-wol approached, Jo Geom-ok trembled all over and crawled on the ground. It looked like a struggle to escape.

Thump! Thump!

Jin Sa-wol walked slowly in front of Jo Geom-ok, grabbed the back of her neck, and stood her up.

"Keok! Cough! Ugh!"

As her neck was momentarily choked, Jo Geom-ok couldn't breathe and coughed.

"It was you."

At Jin Sa-wol's words, Jo Geom-ok's eyes widened.

Jin Sa-wol put Jo Geom-ok down. Jo Geom-ok trembled all over and then collapsed.

"Did... you remember?"

When Jo Geom-ok asked, Jin Sa-wol silently placed his hand on her head. And he changed the explosive burst of the Blood Demonic Divine Art to the absorption burst and operated it.

A little while ago, as Jo Han-yu had pulled out all the Soul-Stealing Needles in his head, everything came back to him clearly. And he realized that he was dying.

What came to mind then was the method of operating the explosive burst in reverse.

If he could accumulate internal energy at a fast speed, he could also release internal energy at a fast speed.

Of course, it was not a normal method.

A move against the heavens!

If it went wrong, he himself might die.

But it was the same whether he died this way or that way.

He had no choice.

Without hesitation, he unfolded the explosive burst, no, the absorption burst.

Immediately after all the remaining internal energy in his dantian had escaped through Jo Han-yu's hand, a huge amount of internal energy was sucked in like a lie.

Papapat!

With the sound of wind, the Soul-Stealing Needle came out of Jo Geom-ok's head. It was what Jo Han-yu had put in a little while ago, and it could be pulled out more easily than he thought.

"Keuk!"

Jo Geom-ok, who let out a groan, flew back to get as far away from Jin Sa-wol as possible as her head cleared.

Whoosh!

But it was useless. Jin Sa-wol had followed her like a shadow and appeared right in front of her nose.

At most, half a zhang. A distance that could be reached in one step.

The moment she saw Jin Sa-wol, who had appeared at a close distance, Jo Geom-ok felt as if her whole body were paralyzed, pressed by a strong prayer.

Jin Sa-wol said with a cold expression.

"Don't move without my permission. I'll kill you."

Jo Geom-ok instinctively nodded.

Suddenly, she remembered being subdued like this when she was young. Jo Geom-ok was afraid of Jin Sa-wol.

Jin Sa-wol asked.

"Why did you try to kill me?"

"Because, that way we could live. At that time, we had to."

Jo Geom-ok recalled the past.

At that time, she was only eight years old. To go to the Martial Alliance, she had no choice but to subdue Jin Sa-wol.

Jo Geom-ok shouted with a face full of anger.

"You tried to kill us first! You bad bastard!"

As Jo Geom-ok shouted, Jin Sa-wol looked at the empty air without saying anything.

He recalled the day the esoteric sect was exterminated.

'That's right.'

As she had said, when the martial artists of various sects, including the Martial Alliance and the Demonic Cult, had attacked the esoteric sect, Jin Sa-wol had tried to kill all his siblings.

It was to prevent the secret of the esoteric sect from getting out.

Of course, after killing everyone, he had planned to kill himself at the end. Jo Geom-ok knew that and had stopped him.

The person who had hit the young Jin Sa-wol on the back of the head with a stone that day was Jo Geom-ok.

"That's right."

Jin Sa-wol muttered and looked at the dead Hyung Soo-pung and Cha-yong.

Tears flowed from his eyes without him realizing it.

As the Soul-Stealing Needle came out, his emotions awoke from a deep sleep. Seeing his siblings, with whom he had been together when he was young, dead, a sad emotion welled up.

He thought that such an emotion had disappeared forever...

He even thought it was strange.

It seemed he needed time to sort out his complicated memories and emotions.

Jo Geom-ok's eyes, which were looking at such a Jin Sa-wol, shook violently.

'How can a person change like that?'

Since she had experienced something she could not believe even after seeing it with her own eyes, Jo Geom-ok thought for a moment that it might be a dream.

His body had changed, and his face had also become much cleaner than before.

Although he was originally handsome and had nothing to groom, now he was engulfed in a black energy, to the point of looking mysterious.

But Jo Geom-ok was not in a state to be admiring.

Her heart trembled at Jin Sa-wol's strange and eerie prayer, and she felt as if she would be eaten by his gaze, where good and evil coexisted.

Jo Geom-ok swallowed her dry saliva and asked.

"Do you remember your name too?"

"I know. But I like Jin Sa-wol. Call me Jin Sa-wol."

"I will."

"When did you know about me?"

"From the first time I saw you in Nanchang... I knew by feeling. It was a little while ago that I became certain."

Hearing Jo Geom-ok's answer, Jin Sa-wol had an expression that said he had known it would be so. But there was no reason to be angry.

Jin Sa-wol took out a small jade box from his sleeve and held it out.

"It's a demonic essence pill. Eat it. You'll be able to recover your lost internal energy. And..."

"Speak."

"It's a secret that I killed Jo Han-yu. Pretend you don't know. If you reveal it..."

Seeing Jin Sa-wol's face turning cold, Jo Geom-ok quickly nodded.

"Alright. I'll keep my mouth shut until I die. I was unconscious, so I didn't see anything."

"Jo Han-yu fell into a state of qi deviation while operating the Absorption Demonic Art and died on his own."

"Yes. That's right."

Jo Geom-ok answered and then quickly ate the demonic essence pill and practiced her breathing.

She felt that if she didn't do as she was told, she might die.

As Jo Geom-ok practiced her breathing, Jin Sa-wol approached Woo Jeong-bong.

Woo Jeong-bong, whose internal energy had been drained by Jo Han-yu, should have been on the verge of death.

"Snore! Pooh! Ugh... Not there, there. Yes, there... Hehehe."

Woo Jeong-bong was muttering as if he were having a strange dream and was laughing.

Although it was normal for him to look like he was about to die, for some reason, Woo Jeong-bong was sleeping in this situation.

Pfft!

Jin Sa-wol, without realizing it, laughed lightly and then withdrew his demonic energy.

Whoosh!

As the black smoke seeped into Jin Sa-wol's nose and mouth like a lie and disappeared, the wind that was swirling around him also disappeared.

Jin Sa-wol tied his hair with a string and then woke Woo Jeong-bong.

Thump! Thump!

As he kicked his shoulder a few times with his foot, Woo Jeong-bong seemed to have come to his senses, frowned, and opened his eyes.

"Ugh... Ugh! Aaaah!"

Thump!

He, who had raised his upper body, looked at his own body with wide eyes.

"How... Hmph!"

He was very flustered, as if he had recalled the memory of a little while ago.

It was a huge shock that Jo Han-yu had learned a demonic art, and that he had tried to kill him.

Even thinking about it again, it was an unbelievable event.

"How could my senior uncle... Ugh!"

As he felt a throbbing pain in his dantian, he lowered his head.

"Sit up straight."

At the voice he heard from the side, Woo Jeong-bong turned his head, and only then did he discover Jin Sa-wol and opened his eyes wide again.

"What happened? What about Jo Sa-suk-nim?"

Although Woo Jeong-bong asked, Jin Sa-wol silently placed both his hands on his two shoulder Jianjing acupoints.

"What are you trying to do?"

"First, circulate your energy. You have to protect your dantian."

The moment Jin Sa-wol finished speaking, he put his own internal energy into the Jianjing acupoints. Woo Jeong-bong urgently closed his eyes and practiced his breathing.

The act of transferring one's own internal energy to an opponent through the transfer great law could only be performed by super-masters with high internal energy.

It was a great law of the upper class that only a few could do even in Wudang. So Woo Jeong-bong could not help but be greatly surprised.

Jin Sa-wol, who had injected internal energy into Woo Jeong-bong's body for about a moment, stood up from his seat, caught his breath, and headed for the Thousand Gold Treasury.

He took out the square golden ruler and the hexagonal silver ruler from the tiger statue that could open the entrance to the Thousand Gold Treasury and held them in his hand.

Rumble! Thump!

As the key was pulled out, the tiger cleared the rubble of the building and blocked the entrance.

To open this place, two keys were needed, and the two keys were now in Jin Sa-wol's hand.

Thump-thump!

A large number of ordinary-looking people showed themselves from the west forest with Bi-sun.

"Who are they?"

"They're people who were captured on the island. They say they just work until they die on the island. They're island slaves."

Bi-sun answered and then headed for the pier with the people. Jin Sa-wol also moved together.

Bi-sun quickly put the people on the boat. Some of them rowed, and the boat headed for the land. The island slaves wanted to leave this place even for a moment.

Bi-sun, who was watching the departing boat, turned his head, looked at Jin Sa-wol's face, and asked.

"Your atmosphere seems to have changed a bit. What happened? What about Jo Han-yu?"

"He's dead."

"You?"

Jin Sa-wol answered without a word and nodded. Bi-sun's eyes widened in an instant.

"How?"

"Didn't you see?"

"I was saving people, so I didn't see you fight."

"No wonder you didn't come to save me when I was on the verge of death."

"It's fine since you're alive."

Bi-sun smiled and then spoke again.

"If you killed Jo Han-yu, you've now become an enemy of the Wudang Sect."

"If we just keep our mouths shut, no one will know. Jo Han-yu fell into a state of qi deviation while operating a demonic art and died on his own. That's my claim."

Bi-sun stroked his chin at those words and smiled.

A demonic art gives great power, but on the contrary, it always makes the body tired. And it was a common occurrence to fall into a state of qi deviation while learning a demonic art.

"A lot of people have died."

Bi-sun muttered, looking at the corpses scattered around the pier.

No one had won in this fight.

"And this."

Bi-sun took out a fox mask from his bosom and handed it to Jin Sa-wol. Jin Sa-wol nodded and took the fox mask.

Jin Sa-wol, who had put on the mask that the innkeeper had used, took out the silver ruler of Jo Han-yu and the golden ruler of the innkeeper from his sleeve and looked at them.

A smile appeared on Jin Sa-wol's face.

"Let's eat the inn."

(End of Chapter)