Chapter 111: Too Late for Regret (3)

He was like a single white crane, elegant and pure.

They said that when martial arts were first created in ancient times, men had modeled them after the forms of beasts.

Whether that story was true or not, what they were seeing now was enough to make them believe it.

Zhuge Cheokwol and Zhuge Sakhyeon stared blankly up at Grand Master Jeonggang’s movements.

The tips of his feet pressed softly against empty air as he descended slowly, lightly as a feather.

And when he finally reached the ground, not even the sound of a footstep followed.

“So... you wished to see me?”

Grand Master Jeonggang turned sharp eyes on the two young masters of the Zhuge Household.

Zhuge Cheokwol cupped his fist in salute and spoke.

“...The Dark Emperor has appeared at the Zhuge Household. Young Hero Cheon Soyak is in danger.”

“I think I have a rough idea of what happened.”

If Zhuge Won knew, how could Grand Master Jeonggang—who had spent even longer in the jianghu—not know?

He had even faced the Dark Emperor more times than Zhuge Won had.

Naturally, he also knew the identities of the Kill Veil’s upper ranks.

An old master was a living witness to the history of the Central Plains.

Grand Master Jeonggang grasped the Dark Emperor’s purpose and intentions in an instant.

If he gathered what he had heard from Eunsong and Zhuge Yeon, the conclusion was simple enough.

Even the true identity of the Night-Heaven Hall Lord, and his connection to the Dark Emperor.

“I’ll go ahead first, so you young fellows may follow at your leisure. And you there, gatekeeper?”

“Y-yes, sir!”

“Tell the Sect Leader that this senior brother of his still hasn’t grown up and will be leaving Mount Hua for a little while.”

“U-understood...?”

With those words, Grand Master Jeonggang’s figure blurred.

They blinked, wondering if their eyes had deceived them, and by then he was already gone.

His lightness art had reached such a level that it left behind an afterimage.

“A shift of form...”

Zhuge Cheokwol slowly shook his head.

But Zhuge Sakhyeon, rather than simply marveling at it...

Was already building a stratagem in his mind.

“...Brother. Does this not strike you as strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“He is an assassin, isn’t he? Byeoksagok, the man known to be his disciple, merely died after failing an assassination. For him to start a campaign of revenge and speak of debts and grudges over that? That is very unlike the mindset of the assassins I know.”

Hearing that, Zhuge Cheokwol quietly began turning it over in his mind.

He too had rarely met assassins in person.

And even among those rare encounters, speaking with one was rarer still.

He simply beat them to death without further questions.

But his younger brother was a strategist.

Unlike him, Sakhyeon had never faced an assassin either...

Yet a strategist’s task was to ask those who had, gather the information they knew, and infer the truth from it.

In matters like that, his younger brother was three or four moves ahead of him.

“Then why would he decide to strike someone being protected inside the Zhuge Household, where formations and mechanisms fill every corner?”

“My guess is... he has some other objective, something extremely important... Ah!”

“Have you realized something?”

“Did you read the report from the Shandong Ak Family?”

The Zhuge Household had built financial dealings of enormous scale with the Beggar Union.

To feed the finest strategists the finest information and thereby see the future of the age ahead of time.

That was the survival strategy—and expansion strategy—the Zhuge Household had always pursued.

Because of that, everything that had happened at the Shandong Ak Family had flowed into the Zhuge Household as well.

And naturally, among those reports were the matters of the Sura Unit and the Sword Ghost.

“Don’t tell me.”

“It’s the heart of the Heavenly Killing Star—the Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture.”

Zhuge Sakhyeon stated it with certainty.

The Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture.

When it came to that alone, the Zhuge Household could probably claim to understand it better than anyone in the world besides the Demonic Cult itself.

A secret art that, once certain conditions were met, shattered the wall before you and pushed you into the next stage.

Did that not resemble one of the Zhuge Household’s own martial arts?

The Heaven-Revering Gate-Opening Art.

The secret technique passed down only to the Family Head, the art that raised one into the Transformation Realm.

A higher heart method that shattered the wall of Transcendent Apex once the proper conditions were fulfilled...

The Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture and the Heaven-Revering Gate-Opening Art came from the same root.

The only difference was that one was a secret rite, while the other was a heart method.

And because it was, quite literally, a secret rite that required material ingredients...

The Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture demanded a horrific price.

The heart of a child afflicted with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, or a child born with the Heavenly Killing Star.

But the Heaven-Revering Gate-Opening Art was a heart method.

And not just any heart method, but a higher one that could only be learned after mastering all the prior methods, with only a slim chance of success.

That was why it required no special material offerings.

Only a human being’s suffering and trials, and powerful fortune.

“I know it has resurfaced in the world again... but is the Dark Emperor not already in the Transformation Realm?”

“A man already in the Transformation Realm could not perform it and advance into the Mysterious Realm... but can we really say for certain it would have no effect at all?”

*****

The middle stage of the Transformation Realm.

He was likely one of the strongest martial artists in all the jianghu.

No one knew how a mere assassin had risen to such a realm.

But the Dark Emperor was a living martial artist of the Transformation Realm, and among those, an absolute master with scarcely any equals besides the Sword Sovereign.

“...This is getting impossible.”

Cheongpyeong grumbled as he clenched his fist once more.

Behind him, Zhuge Won had already collapsed.

And now Jang Yul stood at Cheongpyeong’s side in his place.

Of course, his condition was horrific.

His upper garment was long gone, and blood streamed from flesh slashed countless times.

It was closer to the truth to say he had barely managed to stay alive only because of Soyak’s shouted warnings, telling him in advance where the red blood lines aiming for his life would fall, and because of Cheongpyeong’s constant support.

“The same goes for me, Elder.”

“Hah. And after all that, I still put on airs in front of you.”

Jang Yul had stepped in at the worst possible moment.

At the very instant Zhuge Won was struck down by the Dark Emperor.

Fortunately, beneath his clothes he had been wearing several layers of cloth woven from celestial silkworm silk, stiffened with glue into a breastplate.

Because of that, he had escaped having his chest pierced clean through and dying on the spot...

But he had not escaped being smashed into the wall and knocked senseless.

Even so, he too was at his limit now.

After colliding with Sword Force again and again, his sword of Hundred-Fold Refined Steel had been battered to ruin.

One more clash and it would snap outright.

“You’ve held out quite a while.”

The Dark Emperor muttered under his breath.

He was in a thoroughly wounded mood.

After all, he was still an absolute master walking the middle stage of the Transformation Realm.

And yet so much time had passed, and he still had not managed to kill all of them.

Of course, he knew why.

He was, in the end, an assassin.

And the Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword was also a martial art made for assassins.

Yet despite that, he was fighting openly in a direct engagement—and against multiple opponents at once.

For an assassin, it was the one thing that should never be done.

Naturally, the matchup was unfavorable for him.

More than anything, the martial art of Cheongpyeong, the Empty-Fist Elder, was Taiji Fist.

And not merely that, but the towering art also known as Taiji Divine Fist, his greatest and deadliest technique.

With the killing forms of the Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword, which were wholly devoted to slaughter, it was difficult to break through the subtle balance of Taiji that Wudang upheld.

“But that ends now.”

The Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword was less destructive than the Soul-Slaying Sword.

Because it devoted most of its internal energy to the function of erasing the very sound made by the sword as it was swung.

But the Soul-Slaying Sword did not.

It was not a supreme art, true.

But when a master in the middle stage of the Transformation Realm used it with full comprehension and insight—

what else could it be but a supreme art?

In the short sword held in the Dark Emperor’s hand, the opening stance of the Soul-Slaying Sword unfolded.

Then murderous will and Sword Force streamed from it in branching waves.

Even Cheongpyeong took two steps back as the murderous will filling the space grew dizzyingly thick.

But that was the mistake.

“Then die already.”

The words came in a dry, vicious voice, and the Dark Emperor’s body flew through the air in an instant.

This was no longer the silent, ghostly form he had used while wielding the Myriad Ghost Heavenfall Sword, so quiet it left not even a sound behind.

This time, it was the exact opposite.

Dizzying murderous will seized the entire space.

And a thunderous roar tore through the air.

An attack fierce and straightforward, nothing like an assassin’s sword.

It was the result of a killing form made solely to kill, blended with the violent destructive force of Sword Force.

“Fall back!”

Cheongpyeong stepped forward, drawing Taiji with both hands.

Jang Yul retreated behind him, gripping his sword in both hands.

It was not an attack he could do anything about.

If he met it head-on, then this time his blade would certainly shatter.

And if fortune turned rotten, the broken pieces might end up buried in someone’s body.

But even the form of Taiji Divine Fist that Cheongpyeong unleashed was not something they could rely on without fear.

It was certainly a formidable martial art, and he had poured forth an absolute defensive measure...

But the murderous will radiating from the incoming blade was simply too intense, sharp enough to feel almost unclean.

“...The center.”

At that moment, Soyak’s voice sounded softly.

Cheongpyeong understood what she meant, and read everything left unsaid.

Because until just moments ago, that tiny child—collapsed on the ground, unable to use one leg—had given advice that had played no small role in keeping Jang Yul alive.

“The center, is it...”

Indeed, the Dark Emperor’s sword was aimed at the exact middle of the Taiji Cheongpyeong had drawn.

Cheongpyeong’s Taiji Divine Fist was not yet complete.

The Dark Emperor must have seen that it was the weakness.

Cheongpyeong hurriedly shifted forms.

He abandoned defense.

Once he knew clearly the exact point the strike was aiming for, there was no meaning in using a technique meant to defend a wide area all at once.

The internal energy that had been swirling in the shape of Taiji gathered intact into Cheongpyeong’s right fist.

He stamped the ground with a fierce step.

His foot sank into the earth, and the impact burst out in a deafening roar.

Taiji Divine Fist, First Form.

Heaven-Crossing Dragon-Head Strike.

A strike like the head of a dragon cutting across the sky.

The Kill Veil’s killing sword and the Wudang Sect’s supreme fist art collided head-on.