Chapter 114: Too Late for Regret (6)

KABOOOM—!

A massive explosion.

Then a shudder.

The entire cave trembled as air itself quaked under the collision of their vast internal energies.

A clash of fully formed Sword Force.

The whole closed-door training cave shook, unable to bear the impact of those two enormous powers crashing into each other.

Fortunately, this place was one of the core sites of the Zhuge Household’s formation arts.

Naturally, its physical foundation and construction were as solid as anything could be.

It would not collapse.

But it would probably be warped badly.

The Zhuge Household might have to excavate a new closed-door training cave after this.

But that mattered less than what would happen if Cheon Soyak lost to the Dark Emperor here.

The Dark Emperor was a cruel, vicious man.

There was little chance he would leave alive anyone lying here unconscious.

More than anything, these were people who knew his face and his voice.

The Dark Emperor almost never let such people live.

There were a few who knew what he looked and sounded like...

But those were not people he had spared. They were people he had failed to kill.

If that happened, then here, in this place, the Zhuge Household’s Family Head, a Wudang elder, and Mount Hua’s young disciple would all be murdered.

If the Family Head died without any succession in place, the Zhuge Household would stagger.

If an elder died suddenly, the Wudang Sect would erupt in fury.

And if Soyak died...

The Reverse Heaven Society would lose its sword.

The sword aimed at the Sword Sovereign.

"You foolish girl!"

The Dark Emperor roared.

His voice, packed with internal energy, crashed through the cave like thunder.

But it did not work on Soyak now.

Without flinching in the slightest, Soyak gripped Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge in both hands and swung.

KAAAAANG—!!!

Soyak’s brilliant white Sword Force slammed head-on into the Dark Emperor’s blue Sword Force.

The radiance was so intense it passed beyond what the eyes could take in, until it looked as though two pillars of pure white light were colliding.

It was an unreal sight. Almost superreal.

"You used Innate True Qi? Then all I have to do is endure, and I win!"

"At the very least, you—"

The Heaven Yin Blood-Siphon Scripture had a condition.

At the very least, the owner of the heart had to be alive when it was removed.

In other words, the body had to retain at least a minimum of internal energy.

But what if she died from exhausting Innate True Qi, or lost her internal energy entirely?

No matter that Cheon Soyak was the Heavenly Killing Star. At that point, her heart would be useless.

"—won’t be able to advance beyond your current realm. That is enough for me."

Soyak answered coldly and brought her sword down again.

She was no longer the Cheon Soyak who could only be overpowered.

This was a frontal clash, and at the same realm, an assassin could never defeat a swordsman head-on.

RATATATATAT—!

Again and again, Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge shot toward the Dark Emperor’s vital points.

The Dark Emperor had all he could do just to fend it off.

And while he blocked, shock tore through him.

She’s erasing my internal energy?!

The heart method he cultivated was the Kill Veil’s Trackless Dark Heart Art.

A heart method that took as its symbol a darkness so vast it had neither path nor limit.

Boundless darkness itself.

But Soyak’s Harmonization Scripture symbolized the end.

And because it was the very end of the natural order itself, more exalted than any heart method that existed in this world...

With its unfathomable potency, it held advantage over every martial art that pursued the endless.

Internal energy was something filtered and accumulated through one’s heart method.

Which meant the very nature of the Dark Emperor’s internal energy stood in perfect opposition to Soyak’s.

"Y-you girl! What... what did Mount Hua do to you?!"

"Mount Hua has not taught me very much."

"Nonsense!"

The same went for her sword art.

It was clearly a Mount Hua martial art.

And yet the Dark Emperor had lived his entire life without ever seeing a martial art like that.

Each time the tip of her blade flashed and brilliant light carved its arc, dark crimson plum blossoms bloomed one after another.

They marked every direction, whirled through the air, circled along the sword’s edge.

Yes, those plum blossoms belonged to Mount Hua.

But that sword path...

"I have never seen such a martial art in Mount Hua!"

"Yes. I know."

Soyak remained silent and steady.

Her small, delicate hands spread wide over the hilt.

Then she struck again.

KAAANG—!

Sword Force of endless brilliance wrapped around the black blade glowing with five-colored light.

With every collision, the Dark Emperor realized that chunks of his internal energy were being shaved away.

At first, it had been manageable.

Not now.

He had already fought Cheongpyeong and Zhuge Won, and he had spent attention on Jang Yul as well.

And that battle had lasted a long time.

The drain on my internal energy...!

No matter how powerful his fully completed Sword Force was,

he had already defeated two Transformation Realm masters who could wield Force.

There was no way his internal energy remained as full as it had in the beginning.

And now it was being depleted even faster than before.

He had no idea what trick that girl had used.

He had no idea what monstrous martial art Mount Hua had created.

But at this rate, he was in danger.

Then again, the same was true for Cheon Soyak.

Right now, she was literally drawing out and spending her Innate True Qi.

How long could she endure?

An hour? Fifteen minutes?

The vitality and power flooding every vessel and meridian in her body had been bought with her lifespan and her martial future.

The life of a martial artist.

Beyond that, even her true life as a human being could be pushed to the brink.

But if she was going to die anyway—

if she had to die here at the Dark Emperor’s hands—

then she would kill him first and, at the very least, clear away one obstacle from the great cause.

Soyak met the Dark Emperor’s rushing sword head-on.

Until now, she had deflected and redirected every strike.

But not this time.

"You thought you could block it?!"

The cave ceiling was high.

High enough that the Dark Emperor’s upward slash sent Soyak flying into the air.

But Soyak had aimed for exactly that.

Falling Plum Elegy, First Form.

A Fallen Blossom’s Fleeting Glory.

The flash of a blossom in the instant it falls.

Was this what the flower garden of the hell ruled by King Yama looked like?

For an instant, the Dark Emperor realized the entire ground had filled with black-and-crimson plum blossoms.

And every one of those black plum blossoms...

was gathering at the tip of Soyak’s sword, all of them aimed at him.

"You think you can win?!"

Soyak did not even answer.

She simply gripped the sword trembling with immeasurable internal energy in both hands

and drew the sword path her body remembered, unfolding the form.

KWAAAAAAANG—!!

A vast roar shook the cave.

Soyak rose high, then dropped, her hair and sleeves whipping in the air.

Her sword tip collided with the Dark Emperor’s short sword, and the internal energies both of them had built up crashed together in a colossal backlash.

CRAAACK!

Cracks began spreading through the cave wall.

But both of them knew it at once.

This exchange would be the final one.

The Dark Emperor began pouring in every last scrap of internal energy he had.

Soyak did the same.

The black qilin raced through all her vessels and meridians, pouring strength into her fragile body alongside Innate True Qi.

An exhilaration so fierce it felt as if every hair on her body should stand on end.

As if she were savoring some moment of utter rapture...

Soyak saw her sword cleave straight through the Dark Emperor’s short sword, its light already guttering out.

*****

Eunsong saw salvation approaching from the distance.

Someone flying toward them at terrifying speed.

White martial robes, white hair, and a long white beard streaming down.

It was Jeonggang, the Mount Hua Sword Emperor.

Below the One Sovereign stood the Three Emperors.

Below the Three Emperors, the Seven Lords.

Of course, that was without counting the countless eccentrics and reclusive masters scattered through the world like grains of sand...

But even so, Jeonggang was unquestionably an absolute master who ranked among the top five of the righteous factions.

And yet even he could not turn back time or tear a hole through space.

Tap.

Jeonggang’s foot touched down on Zhuge Household ground.

Eunsong and Zhuge Yeon looked at him with anxious eyes.

"Where?"

Jeonggang asked nothing else.

The most important thing was to pull Soyak out of the Dark Emperor’s hands.

Everything else could wait until after that.

Zhuge Yeon immediately pointed toward the enormous cave across from them.

Toward the cave sealed by a massive slab of heavy black rock.

Jeonggang drew his sword and strode past them.

"Stand back."

At once, the ultimate art of the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword unfolded from his fingertips.

Mount Hua’s ancient secret art burst forth through the hands of an aged absolute master.

Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword, Ultimate Art.

Plum Fragrance Without Measure.

The fragrance of blooming plum blossoms cannot be measured.

A strike permitted only to one in the Transformation Realm.

Only to one who had mastered Sword Force.

At the sweep of his blade, countless deep-red plum blossoms bloomed.

Then they whirled and spun like a storm along the line of his pointed sword...

and shot straight at the huge black rock in a howling vortex.

"T-that won’t break through so eas—?"

Zhuge Yeon started to stop him, but she was the one left stunned.

That black rock had been used as the entrance to the closed-door training cave precisely because none of the Zhuge Household’s masters had ever been able to break through it.

And yet that same rock was being ground away and shattered helplessly beneath the red plum-blossom vortex.

And from the cave that opened beyond it...

the thick stench of blood began to pour out.