Chapter 027. Half-Demon (3)
“Pardon? Are you talking about spear throwing?”
Black Panther Spear tilted his head and asked back.
“Yes.”
“Of course, I am quite skilled at it.”
He tapped the spare spear carried on his back and said.
Black Panther Spear was also a man who had rolled in the borderlands adjacent to the Demonic Realm in his youth.
An extreme environment where if things went wrong while fighting, he had to throw whatever he had, be it a spear or a sword. At that time, spear throwing was a survival skill for Black Panther Spear.
Now that he has become a peak master, the power he possesses itself is different, so he was confident he could throw much more precisely and farther than back then.
“Then can you throw the spear wrapped in a heterogeneous genuine qi?”
“By heterogeneous genuine qi, you mean……?”
“I'm asking if you can throw a spear containing my qi.”
Dam Jeok-san raised his internal energy even before hearing Black Panther Spear's answer.
The moment the raised internal energy settles in his pupils, the Predator's Eye, that very eye of predation, begins to open.
Although he could vaguely feel the war situation through his senses, he needed to check it a little more closely.
VROOOM!
A dark indigo aura settles in Dam Jeok-san's eyes. And what was reflected through the gap of that aura was the figure of a Half-Demon holding a straight saber far away.
‘As expected, it's very bad.’
Considering the Namgung Clan's reputation as the Number One Sword Family under Heaven, they are being pushed back to an absurd extent.
‘……That is the limit secular martial arts have in the current Murim.’
Martial artists exposed to demonic energy cannot exert their true power. He doesn't know the exact details, but that Half-Demon seems to possess an ability specifically specialized in such things. On the other hand, the Daoist and Buddhist martial arts that make up the Nine Sects and One Gang basically contain the function of expelling demons and destroying evil, so they can resist such abilities.
To even mimic something similar with secular martial arts, one must at least reach the peak realm.
‘However, the martial arts of the Main Castle have as strong a function to resist demonic energy as those of the Nine Sects and One Gang.’
This is because the Martial Sovereign Castle was established from its roots to fight against monsters.
Especially, the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique does not lag behind in the function of monster extermination even when compared to any martial art under the heavens. Because it was the First Lord of the Martial Sovereign Castle who created the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique and saved the land of the Central Plains from monsters.
“Spear throwing, I can do it.”
Black Panther Spear looked at Dam Jeok-san and said.
Clearly, a different kind of genuine qi would clash and cause severe recoil, but it is a manageable kind of danger.
Even though he betrayed once, Dam Jeok-san willingly gave him a chance again. Now is the time to prove his utility.
Black Panther Spear extended a long spear toward Dam Jeok-san.
“Please load your genuine qi.”
“Good.”
Dam Jeok-san gripped the long spear tightly and began to infuse the genuine qi of the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique. Although the amount of genuine qi was not large, its density was negligibly high. The spear shaft trembled and vibrated, and a deep, dark blue shockwave like the night sky settled on the spear blade.
A color distinctly different from the qi Dam Jeok-san emitted before.
It is evidence that his Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique is gradually changing to fit his own color.
‘Haha……. I boasted confidently, but the Young Master's genuine qi is stronger than I thought.’
It won't be easy.
Seeing Dam Jeok-san infusing qi into the spear, Black Panther Spear clicked his tongue.
But what can he do?
If he said he would do it, he must do it.
He cannot be an unworthy subordinate who complains that the skill of the lord he serves is too good.
“Done, I entrust it to you.”
Dam Jeok-san handed the spear, undulating with deep blue shockwaves, back to him.
Black Panther Spear clenched his molars and gripped that spear.
Dam Jeok-san's genuine qi runs wild roughly as if rebelling.
“Gasp……!”
Beyond simply stinging his hand due to a repulsive force greater than expected, it felt like his insides were being shaken.
However, Black Panther Spear did not mind at all and took the starting stance for throwing the spear. The genuine qi of the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique, which had been sharply raising its momentum, also began to calm down slowly. Because Dam Jeok-san's will remained within the genuine qi, urging it to harmonize with Black Panther Spear's energy.
Although the internal energy he possesses is insufficient, his experience far surpasses Black Panther Spear. He no longer had the energy to express admiration.
The spear throw began.
The start was running.
Black Panther Spear's feet stamped the ground vigorously, and his figure became a streak of light and began to sprint.
Then he bends his arm back as far as he can.
Without stopping his run, Black Panther Spear put all his momentum and weight into it and swung the bent arm forward again.
As he released the spear toward the empty air, the long spear shot out with formidable momentum.
SWOOOOSH!!
The spear, flying with a fierce piercing sound, moved away from sight in an instant, and eventually became small like a dot.
But Black Panther Spear, who threw the spear, could intuitively know.
The fact that his spear throw was flying more accurately than ever.
However, a slight doubt remained on Black Panther Spear's face. No matter if the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique possesses the most outstanding monster extermination function under the heavens, can just a single spear containing genuine qi change the war situation? Such a question.
Even though he read that question, Dam Jeok-san did not bother to add an explanation.
What he hopes for is not a grandiose reversal.
They just need to hold on. Until he arrives.
If the opponent is an existence possessing the power of a monster, he was confident he could tear it apart even by exerting power beyond what he possessed.
An impulse, whether appetite or a sense of duty, squirmed in his chest. Dam Jeok-san decided not to distinguish between the two right now. Since the result would be the same anyway.
* * *
“Haa, haa…….”
Namgung Yeon gasped for shallow and rough breaths as if she would collapse at any moment.
She no longer had the leisure to breathe deeply.
Because every time she inhaled, demonic energy filled her lungs.
An extreme environment where she cannot even breathe freely.
Her breath was blocked as if she had come to the Demonic Realm she had only heard of.
‘……Strange.’
The Half-Demon in front of her eyes, the Butcher, is clearly an existence that has entered the ranks of the strong.
But is he at a level to wield authority as if the Demonic Realm has manifested?
She can assert that he is not.
There is a high probability that some force is behind the bastard. What came to Namgung Yeon's mind were cult groups that turn their backs on heavenly principles and humanity to worship monsters.
Thinking up to there, Namgung Yeon shook her head lightly.
What importance does a mastermind hold? All she has to do now is squeeze out her last remaining strength and cut down the bastard.
However, the situation is not good.
The clothes wrapping Namgung Yeon's body were half-tattered, and the wounds revealed beneath them were rotting and festering.
There are no fatal wounds, but moving is burdensome. Every time she raised her internal energy, the demonic energy that dug into her body like a wedge tormented her.
The real problem was separate.
Namely, the middle-aged swordsman, Namgung Mu-ryong, standing while leaning on his sword like a cane with one arm lost. His condition was much more critical than Namgung Yeon's. If immediate measures are not taken, it is at a level where it wouldn't be strange if he died soon or became contaminated by demonic energy.
“……My Lady, please flee even now.”
Namgung Mu-ryong said to Namgung Yeon in an earnest tone. It was almost ten years since the title 'My Lady' instead of 'Young Family Head' came out of his mouth.
Namgung Yeon also could not easily ignore the plea of the old swordsman who had guarded her side since childhood.
However, can she survive if she runs away? She was quite skeptical.
Let's assume Namgung Yeon somehow goes down the mountain and escapes to a nearby village. Even so, that damn Half-Demon will cut down Namgung Mu-ryong and the Azure Palace Sword Squad members and follow her before long.
As a result, only innocent victims will increase. It was far from the result Namgung Yeon wanted.
It is better to be prepared for mutual destruction and cut off that damn Half-Demon's head. It was a practical judgment, not due to her belief as a swordsman.
Namgung Yeon continued speaking calmly containing that intention, and eventually, Namgung Mu-ryong bowed his head deeply and followed her will.
As the swordsmen of Namgung squeezed out their last remaining combat power and charged―
“……Per, sistent.”
Human language flowed from the Butcher's mouth for the first time.
The bastard's condition was not perfectly fine either. No, rather, it would be correct to say it was wretched.
There were large holes in his abdomen and shoulder blade, and the horn on his forehead was half-broken, losing its ominousness.
Injuries that would not be strange if a human had died long ago. However, the Butcher, completely corrupted into a monster, was holding his saber steadfastly while shedding a grim laugh. However, it was also true that the demonic energy the bastard emitted was much weaker than before. It was the result Namgung Yeon achieved by fighting over the corpses of the Azure Palace Sword Squad members.
However, the price the Namgung Clan paid for that result was too horrific.
Eighty percent of the Azure Palace Sword Squad members died, and Namgung Mu-ryong and Namgung Yeon also suffered major injuries.
Namgung Yeon also knew. The fact that the probability of her surviving is extremely slim unless a miracle happens.
But what can she do? If this is the fate of a swordsman living in the ruthless Murim, she must accept it.
‘Did you also feel like this…… when your dantian was shattered, so when you lost everything?’
Perhaps because he was the man who gave her the most painful defeat in her life, Dam Jeok-san's face suddenly came to mind.
If he, who inherited the Martial Sovereign's direct lineage, had been here, she would not have struggled as much as Namgung Yeon.
It felt bitter, as if the vainly fallen name of Namgung had driven the family members to death.
But what meaning is there in prolonged regret? Nothing changes by recalling the face of a man she will never see again.
She simply raised her sword.
CLANG!!
Sparks fly as the Butcher's straight saber and Namgung Yeon's sword collide. In that gap, Namgung Mu-ryong's sword strike thrusts in unexpectedly.
But the Butcher wasn't just taking it. Demonic energy swells intensely for an instant from the bastard's tattered body.
As Namgung Yeon and Namgung Mu-ryong try to retreat,
BOOOM!!
The demonic energy wrapped around the bastard's body exploded like a thunderbolt.
The earth shakes as if an earthquake occurred, and a chain of shockwaves covers all the swordsmen of the Namgung Clan.
Not missing that moment, the Butcher cut through the air with his straight saber.
Flames of pitch-black demonic energy spreading in all directions with a crackling sound.
One of the Azure Palace Sword Squad members grazed by that flame collapses with a death throe.
Furthermore, the wickedness contained in the spreading flames of demonic energy broke the swordsmen's morale once again.
“……Damn it!”
Rough curses naturally burst out of Namgung Yeon's mouth.
To think he still has the strength to use such a technique after being driven so hard. A human who gained the power of a monster was closer to a monster rather than the same species.
If it weren't for the unprecedented power coming from that wicked energy, she would have chopped his limbs into pieces long ago.
While she was thinking so―
SWOOOOSH――!!
Suddenly, a single long spear flew cutting through the air from the distant sky.
“……?”
Doubts arose not only in the eyes of the Namgung Clan swordsmen but also in the Butcher's eyes.
To throw a spear at that speed, one must be at least a master who has reached the mature peak realm.
However, a peak spearman is not that common.
‘It can’t be that the Divine Spear Sect is in Shanxi, and it wouldn't be the Imperial Palace, so is it the Martial Sovereign Castle?’
Namgung Yeon tilted her head and looked at the approaching long spear.
At the moment the long spear wrapped in blue light containing the night sky was reflected in her pupils.
“No way!”
An astonished cry flowed out.
She could instinctively notice what kind of energy that spear was wrapped in.
‘Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique……!’
A peerless supreme art discussed as the best of all time in terms of power. It was also the martial art cultivated by Dam Jeok-san, who had ruthlessly defeated her.
The long spear lodged itself in the middle of the battlefield where the Butcher and the Namgung Clan swordsmen were engaging.
Simultaneously, shockwaves containing the night sky spread out drawing concentric circles.
The demonic energy that was encroaching on the surroundings like dark storm clouds is burned away by the genuine qi originating from the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique.
It is not driving away demonic energy with profoundness like Daoism or Buddhism.
It is just the burning human passion incinerating the demonic energy that denies itself. Not caring even if that passion burns oneself.
As the blue flame swept past, the atmosphere of the battlefield changed in an instant.
“Why are you, no, how……?”
But on Namgung Yeon's face, doubt rather than joy appeared.
She, who had crossed swords with Dam Jeok-san, realized instinctively.
That the owner of the genuine qi spreading right now is Dam Jeok-san. Color, temperament, density. Everything changed, but she was not confused. There is no clear evidence. But she had peeked at his origin while crossing swords with Dam Jeok-san.
The essence to constantly move forward, the indomitable attitude that neither bends nor breaks.
Dam Jeok-san whom Namgung Yeon felt was like that, and that temperament was blatantly revealed in that genuine qi right now.
Thus, she could not understand even more.
Even if this place is quite far from the Martial Sovereign Castle, it is Shanxi Province.
The presence of the Martial Sovereign's disciple itself is not strange.
But Dam Jeok-san lost his dantian.
Cases of one who lost their dantian regaining their power are not entirely absent if one searches through the long history of Murim.
But that is not something achieved overnight.
It is something that might or might not be possible even after grinding in tremendous spiritual elixirs and time reaching at least decades.
However, Namgung Yeon decided to trust her intuition rather than the world's conventional wisdom.
That is definitely the Extreme Heaven Strange Sovereign Technique, and the owner of the genuine qi is Dam Jeok-san.
“Just a little, hold on just a little longer!”
Having hardened her resolve, she raised her sword and said.
At Namgung Yeon's voice, light returned, albeit faintly, to the eyes of the Namgung Clan swordsmen.
But that was not enough.
Namgung Yeon consumed too much of her desperation and dignity in this battle.
She needed something that could give a slightly deeper resonance.
She spoke of another, slightly more certain hope.
Lunatics who look down on not only the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Families but even the Imperial Family,
Nevertheless, those who stand at the center of protecting the Central Plains and exterminating monsters,
Rulers and Saviors.
“The Martial Sovereign Castle is coming.”
And the Sword Dragon is coming.
She only swallowed the last sentence inwardly.
Not long after that, a figure wrapped in dark indigo shockwaves crossed the world at a speed like lightning.