novelraw Chapter 253 : Another World (2)
Chapter 253 : Another World (2)
Chapter 253: Another World (2)
Jang Woo-hyun could not accurately determine the strength of the two men and women with unusual appearances, but from the attack earlier he was able to roughly estimate it.
‘The end of the Absolute Realm. At best, they’ve just stepped into Transcendence.’
If this were not the current situation, they would have been enemies whose heads he could sever in an instant.
Step.
Jang Woo-hyun raised both swords and took a step forward.
The two who had been cackling moments ago suddenly stopped talking and lowered their stances as the atmosphere abruptly changed.
Jang Woo-hyun was smiling with a completely different look in his eyes.
It was not a smile he forced to pretend composure.
From the opponent’s perspective, rather than thinking he was a lunatic laughing in a disadvantageous situation, they felt he was dangerous.
Step, step.
After walking slowly for a moment, Jang Woo-hyun suddenly kicked off the ground.
Normally his body would have responded naturally with just a thought and moved forward.
But now things were different.
His energy kept breaking apart, and he could not properly use his footwork.
Even in that situation, Jang Woo-hyun did not stop.
‘If once isn’t enough, then do it again.’
If one step could not carry him forward, he kicked the ground twice.
If twice was not enough, then three times. Four times.
Flailing in the air and staggering like a drunken man, Jang Woo-hyun somehow closed the distance and swung his sword.
Clang!
“You were acting all imposing, but you’re pathetic!”
The claws that he normally would have severed instantly blocked Jang Woo-hyun’s sword.
He had already expected it.
Jang Woo-hyun spun his body and followed with the next attack.
It did not matter if his Internal Energy broke apart.
If it broke, then it broke. If it was blocked, then it was blocked—he continued attacking.
If the right side was blocked, he used the left hand.
If the left hand was blocked, he used footwork.
If he could not even use footwork properly, then he simply moved his body however he could.
Strange movements.
It did not look like martial arts.
Nor did it look like someone fighting.
“No-form technique?”
Watching from behind, Seo Ryeom murmured quietly before shaking his head.
No-form technique. No rhythm.
It could not be described with those words.
What could one even call that?
‘Just… bizarre movements?’
It was a complete mess.
But with those bizarre movements, the staggering Jang Woo-hyun soon began overwhelming the woman with the long claws.
The Black Wilds Sword thrust forward, suddenly changed direction and dug inward, then immediately the Dragon King’s Scale swung right in front of her.
The opponent could not grasp the pattern at all and failed to react properly.
Jang Woo-hyun’s movements were not flashy.
They were not impressive.
Nor did they look powerful.
It looked like a drunken man.
Or a child imitating martial arts.
But at the end of those bizarre movements, his attacks always targeted the opponent.
Because the movements were completely unpredictable, the disheveled woman could not adapt to Jang Woo-hyun’s attacks.
If a little more time had passed, Jang Woo-hyun’s sword would have cut off all of her elongated claws and targeted her neck.
However, he did not have only one enemy.
The fat man who had been waiting for an opening moved.
He caught Jang Woo-hyun from behind and swung a solid fist.
Jang Woo-hyun quickly turned his body and overlapped his two swords.
BOOM!
With an explosive sound, he was pushed backward.
Another attack followed immediately.
The mouth on the fat man’s abdomen opened wide, and thick liquid poured out from within.
A large quantity of green liquid gushed out.
In an instant it swelled like a river and surged toward Jang Woo-hyun.
He swung his sword to split the green river and detonated it using Internal Energy.
Even as he blocked as much as possible, he could not help but continue being pushed backward.
Only after being pushed back for quite a while was Jang Woo-hyun finally able to stop.
Sssss—
The green liquid was not ordinary.
It melted the ground.
In moments the surrounding area turned into a swamp of dull green light.
Across from him, the two men and women looked at him with wary eyes.
Jang Woo-hyun focused his mind again and raised his sword.
‘Still lacking a little?’
If he fought them one by one, he felt he could win easily.
The problem was that there were two enemies.
They would not attack one by one in order.
With slight regret, Jang Woo-hyun glanced toward Seo Ryeom behind him.
Although Seo Ryeom held weapons in both hands and his tail, he was barely enduring.
As a Beastkin, he was suffering even more in this place than Jang Woo-hyun.
‘Senior Seo can’t fight.’
No matter how difficult it was, he had to manage somehow on his own.
Blergh!
At the sound of something being vomited, Jang Woo-hyun stopped thinking.
The fat man opened the mouth on his abdomen wide and began spewing green lumps from it.
The lumps looked like mud.
They fell with a splat, then wriggled on the ground and gradually formed shapes.
Soon ten humans made of mud stood in front of the fat man.
“Go!”
At his command, the mud humans rushed toward Jang Woo-hyun.
Despite their appearance, their speed was quite fast.
Jang Woo-hyun tightened his legs to confront the approaching enemies.
Just as he was about to leap forward—
Fwoooosh!
A massive wall of fire suddenly rose from one side and swallowed the mud humans.
Then someone landed in front of Jang Woo-hyun.
A martial artist carrying something large on his back and holding a sword larger than an ordinary blade.
When he grabbed the sword with both hands—
Click!
The sword split into two.
One sword contained fire energy.
The other emitted cold energy.
The sword known as Twin Wings of Blue and Red separated into Hongyeomin and Cheonglingin.
When the fire sword Hongyeomin moved, the wall of flames burned even higher.
The mud humans inside continued moving without slowing even as their bodies burned.
They eventually broke through the wall of fire.
The cold-emitting sword Cheonglingin targeted them.
Sword strikes spread like a net, freezing the mud humans and splitting them into dozens of fragments.
In a short time, all the mud humans that carried considerable power were destroyed.
With the wall of fire behind him, the man holding two swords met Jang Woo-hyun’s gaze.
“Brother!”
A martial artist who wielded two swords.
The Blue-Red Sword Ghost, Jin Ha-un.
He had come to find Jang Woo-hyun, completely unharmed.
---
“Ha-un…”
“Brother! I’ve been looking for you for a while. Were you fighting again here?”
Jin Ha-un had wandered around after falling into this unknown place.
When he heard the sound of fighting, he rushed toward it as quickly as possible.
Sure enough, when he arrived, he found Jang Woo-hyun.
“You’re… completely fine?”
Jang Woo-hyun asked because Jin Ha-un looked far better than Seo Ryeom or himself.
“Me? What do you mean?”
“Are you not feeling pain or unable to use Internal Energy properly?”
“Ah, breathing is a little problematic, and it’s strange that there’s no energy around, but I can still use Internal Energy just fine. I’m okay. Cho-su, on the other hand, ended up like this.”
Jin Ha-un turned and showed what he was carrying on his back.
It was a cocoon made of metal.
“As soon as we arrived here he was in tremendous pain and turned into this. He said it’s a Dharma Treasure meant to protect his body.”
Fortunately, Jin Ha-un and Cho-su had arrived in the same place.
That allowed them to move together.
“So something about this place is wrong, right?”
“Yeah. I can’t properly use martial arts. Actually, it’s hard just existing here.”
“I figured.”
Jin Ha-un carried the cocoon over to Seo Ryeom.
“Then Senior Seo and Brother should rest. I’m the most fine right now, so I’ll fight.”
As Jin Ha-un swung his sword, the wall of fire vanished like a lie.
Across from them stood the two enemies, frowning as they assessed the situation.
“We just have to deal with them, right?”
As Jin Ha-un stepped forward, Jang Woo-hyun stood beside him.
“Are you alright?”
“It’s a little difficult, but not so bad that I can’t fight.”
Jin Ha-un smiled at that response.
He knew Jang Woo-hyun better than anyone.
The two enemies had been tense ever since Jin Ha-un appeared.
Unlike Jang Woo-hyun, he was in perfect condition.
His strength far surpassed theirs.
The two exchanged glances and nodded.
Immediately, the fat man looked toward the sky and opened his mouth wide.
Pop!
Something white shot out of his mouth and split into three pieces as it flew away.
It appeared to be a signal to someone.
“They’ve made a move. Let’s finish them as quickly as possible.”
“Yes.”
Jang Woo-hyun kicked off the ground and headed toward the fat man.
Jin Ha-un naturally approached the disheveled woman.
For some reason, Jin Ha-un was currently the strongest among them, as he could use almost all of his power.
Back when he was in the Blue Star Sect, he had been called a genius.
Even after ascending to the Central Heavens Realm, his talent and skill had been recognized.
Jang Woo-hyun was so extraordinary that he overshadowed him.
But Jin Ha-un was also a martial artist who shone like a star.
Naturally, he possessed the strength worthy of that.
Closing the distance instantly, Jin Ha-un wielded two swords and executed martial arts with both hands.
Blue Cloud Crimson River Sword.
Fast yet slow.
Strong yet soft.
The sword art of the Blue Star Sect.
When they first met, Jang Woo-hyun had asked if the Blue Star Sect’s sword pursued perfection.
Jin Ha-un had answered that it did not pursue perfection, but rather the fundamentals.
Because the Blue Cloud Crimson River Sword contained all fundamentals, it could extend in any direction.
When he used the Swift Sword Style with Hongyeomin, the sharp claws were cut off.
He smoothly redirected the attack and thrust Cheonglingin forward, causing space itself to burst.
BOOOOM!
Next came the Illusion Sword of Hongyeomin.
It wrapped around the shattered space, and dozens of sword qi surrounded the area.
Hundreds of sword qi shredded the disheveled woman’s body.
“Kyaaah!”
She screamed and struggled wildly.
But she could not block the sword qi attacking from all directions nor the swordsmanship unfolding from Jin Ha-un’s hands.
Jin Ha-un’s swordsmanship constantly changed.
Illusion Sword, Soft Sword, Swift Sword, Heavy Sword, Strong Sword, and Piercing Sword.
Unable to keep up with the endlessly changing attacks, the opponent soon collapsed and her body was torn apart by Jin Ha-un’s swords.
“You bastard! I will have revenge! I will chew every bone in your body!”
Only the woman’s head remained as she spat curses and insults.
Without hesitation, Jin Ha-un smashed the head.
After eliminating the enemy, he turned his head.
The battle between Jang Woo-hyun and the fat man was evenly matched.
With bizarre movements never seen before, Jang Woo-hyun continued attacking.
Each time he did, the fat man spat something out from the mouth in his abdomen and resisted fiercely.
Watching the fight, Jin Ha-un wondered whether he should intervene.
While approaching them without making a decision—
He suddenly turned his head after sensing something.
‘Three.’
Three people were approaching from three directions centered on this location.
All three possessed considerable strength.
Soon after, the first one arrived, leaping down from a flying apparatus.
As a large man wielding an axe approached, Jin Ha-un combined his two swords into one and confronted him.
BOOM!
When the two clashed, the ground sank deeply and shockwaves exploded in all directions.
The surrounding earth overturned like waves of soil.
Even though he deflected the blow, Jin Ha-un’s expression hardened at the impact.
The axe-wielding giant was extremely powerful.
Sensing the other approaching energies, Jin Ha-un pushed the giant back and leaped away.
At the same time, two more figures landed.
One was a middle-aged man with a neat appearance.
The other was a man with hair and beard so thick that his face could not be seen.
“….”
Their arrival halted Jang Woo-hyun’s fight.
Jin Ha-un cautiously retreated toward Jang Woo-hyun and Seo Ryeom.
Looking at the newly appeared enemies, Jin Ha-un let out a low groan.
None of them were easy opponents.
Especially the bearded man whose face could not be seen.
Even Jin Ha-un could not guarantee victory against him.
“That’s one of the ones who fell through the crack. Hm? But what is this one? He’s neither from here nor from there.”
The middle-aged man pointed at Jin Ha-un.
The fat man walked over and stood beside him.
“I don’t know either. It seems he practices some unusual technique. But our sister was defeated by him.”
“Our third was defeated? Then he must be quite skilled. I warned you not to act recklessly because you’re still lacking. And yet trouble still happened.”
“I apologize.”
“It’s fine. We can simply revive her.”
“That guy.”
The bearded man who had silently watched Jin Ha-un beside the middle-aged man slowly spoke.
“He is neither dead nor alive. There is a hole in his chest. That’s why he can use his power here.”
“Ah, so he’s half dead.”
The middle-aged man immediately understood.
“Don’t resist and just die. You have no hope here.”
He raised his hand, and dull black energy gathered above it.
“Do you know where this place is?”
Seeing the expressions of Jang Woo-hyun’s group, the middle-aged man realized they knew nothing.
“To die without even knowing where you are dying. How tragic. As my final mercy, I’ll tell you where you are.”
The middle-aged man grinned and continued kindly.
“This place is called the Corpse-Blood Realm. It is not the world you came from. Welcome to the Corpse-Blood Realm, living ones.”
What Hyeonwol created was a passage leading to the Corpse-Blood Realm.
It was a kind of dimensional gate.
Through it, Jang Woo-hyun’s group had suddenly fallen into the Corpse-Blood Realm.
“Ah.”
“….”
Upon realizing where they had arrived, Jin Ha-un and Seo Ryeom let out quiet groans.
Now they understood why they could not properly use their strength.
The world of the Corpse-Blood Realm itself rejected the living.
That was why they could not exert their power.
“….”
The realization shocked the two of them.
They had suddenly fallen into a world that rejected them while powerful enemies surrounded them.
But—
‘This place…’
While Jin Ha-un and Seo Ryeom were still stunned, Jang Woo-hyun alone was thinking something completely different.
‘…The Corpse-Blood Realm?’
Another Middle Realm formed from blood and corpses.
A completely different world from the Central Heavens Realm where he had been active.
It was not the first time he had heard of it.
He even knew someone here.
“I am the Archmage who ascended to the Corpse-Blood Realm from the Lower Realm.”
“You should not come to the Corpse-Blood Realm… but somehow, I feel like you will.”
“Just take it in case. That way you can repay the favor later.”
They had called for reinforcements.
If this really was the Corpse-Blood Realm, then Jang Woo-hyun also had someone he could call.
Jang Woo-hyun took out the necklace with the cross he had previously received as a gift from his Inner Robe.
Crack!
Then he immediately crushed the cross.