Chapter 109: Too Late for Regret (1)

Soyak yanked Zhuge Yeon back behind her and stepped in front of her.

Several more throwing knives came flying in.

Without sound.

Without presence.

CLANG, CLINK, SCHING—!

Soyak knocked every last one aside with the smallest possible movements.

The throwing knives caught on the long, slender blade of Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge and drove into the floor, the wall, and the ceiling.

“Oh? You shouldn’t have been able to see them. Sharp instincts.”

He was right.

He was the Dark Emperor of the Kill Veil.

Those throwing knives just now had been cast with the heart-method of the Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword worked into them.

A strike with no sound, no trace.

It was the very martial art once used by Byeoksagok, the Night-Heaven Hall Lord, the One Sword of Extreme Night.

But it was useless against Soyak.

She could see the red blood lines.

Beyond killing intent, she saw murderous will itself.

There was no action without intent, and so Soyak could read the path of every throwing knife.

“You there, Zhuge girl.”

“...Are you speaking to me?”

“Who else? I’m done with you now, aren’t I? I’ll let you go, so run along. Heh-heh...”

Zhuge Yeon’s pupils shook.

Soyak glanced at her, then gave a small nod.

Go. Now.

“B-but...”

“Miss Yeon has things she needs to do. Isn’t that right?”

“...Right.”

Drawing a sword was the work of a martial artist.

Crafting schemes and laying stratagems was the work of a strategist.

And Zhuge Yeon was a strategist.

She kicked off the ground with all her strength and dashed out of the closed-door training site.

The Dark Emperor simply watched her go with a smile.

Soyak narrowed her eyes and asked,

“...You’re letting her go more easily than I expected.”

“Because aside from taking revenge on the one who killed my disciple, there is very little I care about.”

“Your disciple... that assassin?”

From the darkness, only his white teeth showed, twisted in a grin.

But the next instant, even those bared teeth melted fully into the surrounding shadows.

The throwing knives he had cast had shattered several of the luminous pearls nearby.

“...Hng.”

Now she had no choice but to rely solely on her senses.

A vivid red blood line slashed past her cheek.

Soyak hurriedly took a step back, and as if by magic, a blade sliced through the spot where she had just been.

“Sharp little brat. Then again, that’s how you killed him, isn’t it?”

A voice from the darkness.

Laughter echoing from the cave walls.

The powerful murderous will appeared before her as thin red lines...

But that alone was not enough for her to strike back.

SKRRAANG—!

The sound of blade crashing against blade.

Soyak furrowed her brow and desperately searched for a way through.

At a moment like this, she hated the fact that her body was so small and light.

It was fine for evading and redirecting.

But it was hopelessly lacking when it came to standing her ground.

Even if she poured internal energy into both legs and stamped down on the floor, she had no way to withstand the Dark Emperor’s attacks once he had already built speed and was cutting past her.

...If I block him head-on, I’ll be thrown away.

This was a narrow cave.

Being shoved backward was still manageable.

But if she was sent flying outright...

She would crash into the wall.

And that would be dangerous.

Losing her breath was not the only problem.

Her stance would break, and her vision would blur for an instant.

Against an opponent in the Transformation Realm, that would be fatal.

“...I don’t know what trick you’re using, but it seems you really can see it all. Heh-heh-heh.”

The Dark Emperor stepped out of the darkness.

The sword in his hand was not especially long.

A short sword—longer than a dagger, shorter than a longsword.

And yet to Cheon Soyak, it looked longer and larger than any blade in the world.

“In that case, I have no choice. I’ll have to fight in a field I’m not as confident in.”

A fierce current of power immediately began flowing from the short sword.

The power took shape and became Sword Qi.

Then the Sword Qi twisted together and braided itself into Sword Force.

A tangible radiance of internal energy bright enough to outshine the luminous pearls and flood the chamber with light.

Soyak bit down on her lip before it.

“...I won’t go down easily.”

“Yes! That’s how it should be! You’re the enemy who killed someone dear to me!”

Even as he spoke of avenging his disciple...

He looked delighted.

As though the restraints on slaughter had finally been lifted after a long time.

“I hear you’ve reached Transcendent Apex, have you? Come then, entertain me a little. Even if every expert in this place charged me at once, none of them could defeat me, so I have no reason to hurry!”

Arrogant.

But true.

He was cunning, and he was powerful.

He had seen through the Zhuge Household’s plan to hide Soyak here.

He had even slipped in without disturbing the formations of this place.

But Soyak still had one move left.

Elder Jeonggang.

All she had to do was hold out until Elder Jeonggang arrived.

Somehow.

The small hand gripping Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge tightened.

Internal energy flowed along her slender wrist and into the sword.

The gold-inlaid constellations of the Three Origins Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions engraved into the pitch-black blade shone once more.

“...Haa.”

A long, deep exhalation.

As she gathered her mind into a single point, a pale white gleam rose in her black eyes.

And from the black blade, bright and brilliant Sword Qi spread outward.

At the same time, she felt the immense murderous will of the Dark Emperor.

“That’s it. Yes. Exactly!”

BOOM!

It was nothing more than the sound of a foot striking the ground.

And yet the cave shook as though it might collapse.

Keeping her body light, Soyak barely managed to redirect the Dark Emperor’s rushing blade.

“...Hng.”

SKRRAAANG—!

A deafening metallic shriek no one would ever have mistaken for the mere scraping of one sword against another.

They had clashed only once, but Soyak’s arm was already trembling faintly.

Even though she had redirected the blow, her body was violently flung toward the wall.

Fortunately, it had not been a direct collision, so she still had time to respond.

Soyak steadied her breathing.

If she focused with everything she had for a single instant, the world seemed to slow.

Even a single breath of her own felt endlessly long in that moment.

She twisted in midair, planted both feet against the wall, and hurled herself straight back toward the Dark Emperor.

If she did nothing but block and deflect, she would not last.

She needed offense.

“A Heavenly Killing Star, is it? You’re an absolute marvel!”

The Dark Emperor shouted as he leveled his sword at the arrowing Soyak.

Soyak did not answer.

Instead, while still flying through the air, she unfolded a form of the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword.

Her opponent was the Dark Emperor.

A former assassin of the Kill Veil, and a master of deception through the sword.

An absolute expert who had entered the Transformation Realm through the Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword.

Feints and trickery would never work against him.

In that case, there was only one form worth choosing.

The Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword, Second Form.

Plum Branch Unbowed by Snow.

A plum branch that not even a snowstorm could break.

A direct clash was the only answer.

Internal energy gathered at the tip of her blade and was honed into a single, razor-sharp thrust.

But the Dark Emperor’s martial art was profound.

The Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword, Seventh Form.

Night Ghost Whips Its Tongue.

Like a night ghost lashing out with its three-inch tongue—

The short sword in the Dark Emperor’s hand sliced soundlessly through the air.

Soyak felt as though it had bent like a flexible sword.

A form loosed at a moment so subtle and so exquisite that it bordered on the uncanny.

SHRRRRK—.

Soyak’s Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge—her Plum Branch Unbowed by Snow—was caught fast by the Dark Emperor’s short sword.

As though it had been wrapped in a ghost’s tongue and held helplessly in place.

Swept aside in midair and stopped cold.

“Dangerous...”

“Dangerous, yes indeed!”

And at that same moment, the Dark Emperor’s kick struck Soyak square in the upper body.

The breath caught in her throat.

His heel drove straight into her solar plexus, and the world flashed white before her eyes.

“Hk—!”

Her slight body hit the ground and rolled over several times.

Soyak somehow managed not to lose her grip on the sword...

But her whole body throbbed.

“Ah... hhk... haa...”

She lay sprawled on the ground, barely dragging in breath.

It was so hard and so painful to breathe that she had to clutch at her chest as if tearing it apart.

Maybe two of her ribs had cracked, because every time her narrow ribcage rose, the pain made her struggle.

“Is that the end?”

A fierce killing intent stabbed into her whole body.

The bright red blood lines were clearly aiming all at once for her arms, legs, head, chest, and stomach.

Soyak forced herself upright and swung her sword, but...

Too late.

CLANG-CLANG—THUNK.

She knocked aside two or three of the throwing knives...

But not all of them.

One drove deep into her left thigh, and a dizzying pain tore down her spine.

“Ugh...”

It burned.

The feeling in her leg was fading as though it had been cut off entirely.

The knife had been poisoned.

Not long after, her left leg stopped obeying her altogether.

No matter how hard she tried to force strength into it, it was the same.

“You will not be moving. Every martial art begins with the step.”

That was true.

If you could not take even a single step forward, what use was any martial art you had learned?

There were rare arts that could be used without moving at all...

But those were not what Soyak had learned.

“And yet I wonder. With your level of skill, I cannot imagine how you killed Byeoksagok... Was the Little Divine Monk Gong-eop’s internal energy truly that deep?”

Soyak pressed her lips shut.

He was trying to pry information out of her.

She was not stupid enough to speak obediently.

“Well, it doesn’t matter if you keep your mouth closed. I can capture that Little Divine Monk and twist him until he talks. More importantly, you are useful to me for something else.”

The Sword Force wound around his blade compressed even further, growing sharper.

It gathered into the sword as though condensed into Sword Light itself...

And there it gleamed coldly, carrying a terrible razor edge.

“Your heart is meant to be a sacrifice for the Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture, isn’t it?”

“Y-you... I thought you meant to avenge your disciple...”

“Heh. If an assassin fails in an assassination, then dying is only natural, isn’t it? Something that trivial matters far less to me than this—what would happen if a master in the Transformation Realm were to perform the Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture?”