novelraw Chapter 40 : Chapter 40
Chapter 40 : Chapter 40
Chapter 40 - Legacy of the Heavenly Demon (6)
“Move.”
Yeon Seung-il walked out among the combat squad members who were hesitating against the Demonic Cultists’ fierce defense.
‘We cannot drag this out any longer. We have to go support Elder Tak as soon as possible.’
They clearly said a guy called the Illusion Demon and several combat squads were coming to this region for support.
Even if Tak Mu-bin could hold off the Illusion Demon for a while, as time passed, the casualties of other combat squad members would increase.
‘So I will clean up this place. The rest…….’
Turning his head, Yeon Seung-il looked at Jaun for a moment.
‘The youngest will manage somehow.’
Yeon Seung-il had witnessed Jaun’s spirit from afar just a moment ago.
It was a decision he could make because he had clearly watched Jaun slaughtering the Demonic Cultists with movements that were not lacking compared to his own—no, rather, much more practical.
When Yeon Seung-il walked out alone, the Demonic Cultists raised their swords with nervous expressions.
“I am from the South Sea Sword Sect , the last survivor of Hainan. Yeon Seung-il.”
Stopping his steps, Yeon Seung-il raised his sword upward.
Then, from Yeon Seung-il’s mouth, biting his lip tight, a voice full of sorrow flowed out.
“Even if I become a cursed water ghost with the price of your blood.”
A massive energy began to form on Yeon Seung-il’s sword.
It was an energy containing cold and fierce anger.
“Even if not even a soul remains in this world.”
The sword, gathered with massive energy, trembled in Yeon Seung-il’s hand.
“I will condemn your evil deeds here.”
Around the body of Yeon Seung-il, who raised his sword, a huge wave of Qi arose.
“Let’s die together. Right here.”
Yeon Seung-il slashed his sword straight down.
[Wall Breaking Severing Slash ]
The wave of Qi that started from Yeon Seung-il’s sword instantly formed a massive surge.
The energy Yeon Seung-il drew out with all his might encroached on all directions, then soon became a rough wave and surged into the sword formation unfolded by the Demonic Cultists.
As the massive energy like a tsunami rushed in, the faces of the Demonic Cultists turned pale.
“B-Block it!”
“No…….”
— Kwa-a-a-ang!
“Aaaack!”
Like an angry wave that instantly turns even a sturdy cliff into dust, the energy Yeon Seung-il shot out ruthlessly swept away the Demonic Cultists’ sword formation in an instant.
And Yeon Seung-il, who had poured out his energy to the limit and turned pale, slumped down on the spot.
“Let’s go!”
Sword Phoenix and Blade Dragon rushed in, brushing past Yeon Seung-il who had slumped down. It was because they couldn’t give time for the sword formation, once collapsed, to re-establish itself.
Following behind Sword Phoenix and Blade Dragon, who were roughly digging in among the Demonic Cultists, the combat squad members charged while shouting.
“Unlike a Squad Leader. Why do you use your energy so inefficiently!”
Baek-myo, arriving late, checked Yeon Seung-il’s condition and shouted.
At Baek-myo’s rebuke, Yeon Seung-il smiled with a pale face.
“There wasn’t time, was there?”
“This isn’t the end! Elder Tak Mu-bin discovered the Illusion Demon’s support unit. All combat squads went to support there. We have to go quickly too.”
Baek-myo, panting, helped Yeon Seung-il up by his shoulder.
“There are three Squad Leader-level figures, and even the Illusion Demon is there. If things go wrong, everyone in the Murim Alliance will die!”
“……Let’s go.”
Yeon Seung-il, who raised his body with Baek-myo’s help, looked at Jaun for a moment and then shouted to the back.
“From now on, everyone move at full speed! Those lacking stamina, fall back to recover and join later! Sword Phoenix, Blade Dragon. Take care of your squad members and follow. Those who can join immediately, follow us!”
Yeon Seung-il took a pill out of his bosom and put it in his mouth.
“Damn it. This is expensive…….”
“What use is it if everyone dies! Let’s go quickly.”
Baek-myo slapped Yeon Seung-il’s back and took the lead.
Jaun, Hyeon-dam, and Yeon Seung-il ran closely behind her.
***
The group, having run with all their might to where the Murim Alliance’s main unit was, stopped in their tracks.
Corpses torn to shreds were scattered everywhere.
The clothes of the bodies, whose forms were unrecognizable, were clearly those of the Murim Alliance.
“This is…….”
Hyeon-dam couldn’t close his mouth and looked around.
“Right side. It’s the right direction.”
At Jaun’s words, the group turned their heads.
Pools of blood in the gouged earth continued in dots toward the right.
“You guys follow after recovering your stamina.”
Yeon Seung-il, instructing the combat squad members who chased after them through clenched teeth, turned his head.
“Sword Phoenix. Blade Dragon. You guys come with us from now on. It’s a situation where we need even one more person’s strength.”
“Yes.”
Blade Dragon and Sword Phoenix, whose whole bodies were soaked in sweat, nodded.
“Aaaack!”
A scream was heard from not far away.
The group, having run with their remaining strength and arrived at the battlefield, examined the surroundings.
The number of masters on the Murim Alliance side was clearly insufficient.
The number of Murim Alliance members being swept away by the offensive of the demon practitioners wearing black clothes was visibly decreasing.
“We join immediately. From now on, you have to protect your own body.”
Yeon Seung-il patted the shoulders of his squad members and Sword Phoenix and Blade Dragon once each.
“Let’s meet alive.”
At that moment when Yeon Seung-il and the group were about to throw themselves toward the battlefield,
— Kwa-a-a-a-ang!
A massive energy flown from somewhere created a huge explosion in front of the group.
“Keu-heuk!”
Blade Dragon, who took the energy from the closest distance, fell forward onto his knees.
“Oho. Were there still some Murim Alliance trash left?”
The air shimmered, and a small young man with white powder on his face revealed himself.
“……Illusion Demon .”
It was exactly the appearance I heard from my father.
Jaun bit his lip tight.
“Kiki. It is amusing. With what thought do they walk into their grave on their own feet?”
The Illusion Demon, tilting his head this way and that, raised his hand to the side with an indifferent expression.
— Kka-a-a-ang!
Tak Mu-bin’s sword, revealing itself from the empty air, was blocked by the Illusion Demon’s hand.
Tak Mu-bin, who turned his body in the air and landed in front of the group, looked back.
“Is everyone safe?”
“Elder Tak!”
Tak Mu-bin’s body was full of small wounds here and there.
“That guy is…… not an easy opponent. Everyone stay tense and be prepared.”
At Tak Mu-bin’s words, the group simultaneously drew their weapons with hardened expressions.
“Tsk tsk. Old man. You shouldn’t be here, should you? Your kids over there are all dying.”
At the Illusion Demon’s words, Tak Mu-bin glared at him with a face full of anger.
“You bastard. Until when do you intend to just keep running away?”
“So impatient. After I wipe out the small fry of the Murim Alliance first. I’ll deal with you after that, so don’t fret too much.”
Covering his mouth with his hand and bursting into sinister laughter, the Illusion Demon raised both hands high.
“Then. Let’s play with the newly arrived children too.”
In an instant, the dark energy emitted from the Illusion Demon covered the group completely.
‘……Father?’
In front of Jaun’s eyes, the image of his father collapsing with a sword stuck in him was seen.
“Jaun-a. Hurry and run away…….”
The collapsed father’s neck wriggled on the ground, twisted bizarrely.
The corpse of his father, which had been wriggling on the ground for quite a while, crawled toward him, twisting its body at a rapid speed.
From the corpse that narrowed the distance in an instant, a sharp sword aimed at Jaun.
— Kka-ang!
Jaun, who parried his father’s sword, frowned.
‘Illusion art. It’s an illusion art.’
The energy felt from the sword was Sword Phoenix’s.
It seemed to be a situation where the group, fallen into the illusion art, were attacking each other.
Closing his eyes and concentrating his mind, Jaun carefully examined the surrounding energy once again.
‘Clearly, all of this is an illusion.’
Despite knowing it was an illusion, Jaun couldn’t find any sense of incongruity in the scene visible before his eyes right now.
‘An illusion art that reached the peak.’
The Illusion Demon’s illusion art was no different from reality.
A throbbing pain rushed into Jaun’s head as he tried to concentrate his energy and examine the surroundings.
‘I have to find a gap. Only then can I escape this place.’
Toward Jaun’s side, who was closing his eyes and sensing the surrounding energy in detail, a sharp sword energy flew once again.
— Chae-aeng!
Jaun, having deflected the sword energy, looked around this way and that.
‘This place is my past memory. If I look closely, there must be something strange.’
Right in front of him.
The figure of his father, wriggling while collapsed on the floor, thrust the sword toward Jaun again.
— Kka-ang!
Parrying that sword, Jaun started running forward.
This place was Mount Daeheuk.
It was the place where he faced his father’s end.
‘It is the point in time before Father passed away.’
Suppressing the longing rising in his chest, Jaun scanned the surroundings quickly.
Jaun’s gaze, which had been circling the surroundings for a long time, stopped at one place.
‘A burnt thatched cottage?’
Burning the thatched cottage was something he did after his father died.
Therefore, his father and the burnt thatched cottage couldn’t exist simultaneously.
[No matter how excellent the illusion art is, it cannot be perfect. Since it involves manipulating someone else’s five senses, flaws are bound to exist, and that very flaw is the key to escaping that illusion art.
If you are caught in an illusion art, you must immediately find the contradictory point.]
Recalling his father’s words and examining the thatched cottage, an unusually clean pillar entered Jaun’s eyes.
‘That’s the place.’
Although the thatched cottage was burning, strangely, the flames were not touching the area around that pillar.
Just as Jaun, having gained certainty, was about to run there, this time the figure of Moyong Eun-wol appeared before his eyes.
“Un-a. Don’t go.”
Eun-wol, who grabbed Jaun’s arm and hesitated with a flushed face, reached one hand toward her shoulder.
“If you want, here, you and I…….”
The clothes slipped down from Eun-wol’s shoulder.
Jaun, turning his gaze away from Eun-wol who was undoing her remaining clothes, reached out, pressed Eun-wol’s nape firmly, and sighed.
‘Tsk. He said if caught in an illusion art, scenes remaining deep in the unconscious appear. You mean I was thinking things like this?’
Flustered, Jaun shook his head and tried to pass by Eun-wol.
However, Eun-wol, who should have collapsed since he pressed her acupoint, grabbed Jaun’s wrist tightly.
“Is it really…… okay to just pass by?”
All of Eun-wol’s remaining clothes fell down.
Immediately after, Eun-wol pulled Jaun into her embrace while holding his arm tightly.
Jaun, who had turned his head to the opposite side in embarrassment, applied strength to his hand to push Eun-wol away.
At that moment when Eun-wol was pushed back, a chilling energy rose from below.
— Pa-ak
A sword protruding from under Jaun’s feet grazed his leg by a hair’s breadth.
‘I almost got hit. I have to snap out of it.’
Regaining his senses again and stopping the bleeding from the wound, Jaun launched his body into the air and shot toward the thatched cottage.
— Kwa-a-ang!
As Jaun’s sword struck the pillar of the hut, the surrounding scenery shook blurrily as if it lost focus for a moment.
‘Here it is.’
Jaun’s sword, raising his energy greatly once again, slashed through the pillar.
Simultaneously with the pillar being cut in half, the group wandering around this way and that began to appear in Jaun’s eyes.
“Aack!”
At that moment, Baek-myo staggered and clutched her waist.
Blood spurted from between Baek-myo’s hands.
She was hit by the sword energy of the Illusion Demon who was standing to one side aiming for gaps in the group.
Tak Mu-bin, maintaining his sanity, remained alone blocking the Illusion Demon, but he couldn’t properly display his skills because he was busy intercepting the Illusion Demon’s attacks spraying sword energy toward the group in between.
Jaun hurriedly approached Hyeon-dam, who was throwing a fist toward Yeon Seung-il, and struck his stomach hard.
“Keu-heuk!”
“Senior! Snap out of it and use the Lion’s Roar!”
Jaun shouted while blowing his energy fully into Hyeon-dam’s shaking body.
For a very brief moment, the eyes of Hyeon-dam, who received Jaun’s energy, returned to normal. And Hyeon-dam, looking at Jaun’s face, nodded.
— Eo-heo-heo-eo-eong!
The Buddhist clear energy spreading from Hyeon-dam’s body filled all directions.
The Illusion Demon, hearing Hyeon-dam’s Lion’s Roar, frowned and looked at Hyeon-dam.
“……Shaolin?”
The Buddhist energy containing the power to crush evil and manifest righteousness was the antithesis of the Illusion Demon’s illusion art.
“W-What is this…….”
“Where is this?”
The group, escaping from the illusion due to Hyeon-dam’s Lion’s Roar, looked around.
Certainly, the illusion art of the Illusion Demon, who received the name Demon had reached a high realm.
Although it was a short time, the group, who had even forgotten the time and place they were in, looked around with confused eyes.
“Wake up! Everyone was caught in the Illusion Demon’s illusion art!”
At Jaun’s shout, Yeon Seung-il was the first to kick the ground and stand up.
“Everyone line up behind me! Illusion arts are activated when in the caster’s field of view. Everyone bow your heads behind my back! Hyeon-dam, stick behind me and if I show strange behavior, unleash the Lion’s Roar immediately.”
At Yeon Seung-il’s words, the group hurriedly gathered behind Yeon Seung-il’s body.
“Kkul-kkul. Good response. A gem shines even in mud. Protect the children for just two breaths.”
Tak Mu-bin, watching Yeon Seung-il’s response, nodded as if satisfied and raised his energy.
Then, turning his head, Tak Mu-bin aimed his sword toward the Illusion Demon.
“Be prepared, you bastard! Now you will have to take my sword solely.”
Because of the massive energy Tak Mu-bin raised, the surrounding objects began to shimmer.