Chapter 153: The End of Childhood (12)

Soyak was not afraid of killing.

But the Young Cult Leader was not entirely wrong.

Myeongjeok was a senior fellow disciple of Soyak’s great grandmaster.

To cut down one of Mount Hua’s own.

And Myeongjeok’s self might still be alive.

Eunbyeok had become nothing more than a corpse puppet...

But Myeongjeok had not been beheaded and fitted with the Young Cult Leader’s head.

Could some fragment of Myeongjeok’s self and mind still remain somewhere within that body?

It was not a thought she could dismiss entirely.

Yet the fact that Eun Jeong and Soyak had come here together...

Meant that Myeonggon, the person most directly connected to Myeongjeok, had already given his permission.

Please. End it for him.

Both Eun Jeong and Soyak remembered Myeonggon’s words.

Brilliant light streamed from their blades.

Sword Qi blazed.

“This may prove troublesome.”

The Young Cult Leader smiled slyly and drew his sword.

It was not entirely false.

The body of Myeongjeok, which he controlled, had not yet reached the Transformation Realm.

If it clashed with two masters standing at the brink of Transcendent Apex, it would inevitably lose.

But the real problem was the Young Cult Leader’s flesh grafted onto that body.

And the immense, unfathomable Demonic Energy flowing from it.

“Then try taking this.”

Black Demonic Energy surged toward the Plum Blossom Sword in the Young Cult Leader’s grip.

It whipped into a violent maelstrom, forming a vast storm of energy...

Then he swept it sideways.

The howling wind came like the claws of demonic beasts striking in dozens, hundreds, thousands of overlapping layers.

Eun Jeong and Soyak unleashed the same move at once.

The fifth form of the Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword—the move that swept aside every incoming attack.

Ninefold Heaven Plum Sword, Fifth Form.

Woven Branches, Flower Wall.

Branches weave together and form a wall.

Their Sword Qi-laden tips carved chaotic paths through the air.

Like flowering branches tangled together as they grew, they raised a wall in the empty space...

And blocked every Demonic Energy sword strike rushing toward them.

Still, Soyak and Eun Jeong could not help drawing in sharp breaths.

Everywhere except where they stood, and the space directly behind them...

Had been crushed as though the ground itself had been plowed apart.

...Had we failed to block that in time.

Their bodies would have been shredded.

She could understand why so many people had been drawn into the Demonic Cult like moths to a flame.

That had been no more than a casual swing of the sword.

And he had not even wielded his original body, or his original strength.

Yet it had still carried this much force.

Were all those who drew upon the Malevolent God’s power through the Heavenly Demon’s flesh and used heaven-overturning sorcery like this?

Then again, without power like this...

Even the enormous Hundred Thousand Great Mountains could never have held its own against the Five Great Households and the Nine Great Sects.

“Do not be afraid, disciple-niece.”

Eun Jeong soothed the pale-faced Soyak.

Then he swung his sword and assumed his opening stance again.

“That man’s body is still incomplete. With only his left arm and left leg, he cannot be using even thirty percent of his full strength.”

Most people were right-handed.

And that man held his sword in his right hand as well.

His own right arm and right leg were gone, as were his torso and head.

By all rights, he could not even be wielding a third of his full strength.

“I cannot deny it.”

“We will carve you apart again and seal you here, Young Cult Leader.”

“Carve me apart? Is that something a Daoist ought to say?”

The Young Cult Leader snickered as he pointed it out, but Eun Jeong merely kept his brow furrowed.

Soyak was no different.

Regardless, the Young Cult Leader once more poured Demonic Energy into his blade.

This time, it did not take the form of a storm.

“...Sword Qi.”

Eun Jeong narrowed his eyes.

That black glow...

It looked as though it might devour every last trace of light in the world.

Nothing but pitch black.

It was as though the space itself had been hollowed out, leaving behind only a blade of utter darkness.

But what was truly terrifying was not the sheer amount of Demonic Energy gathered on that blade.

It was the fact that no Demonic Energy could be felt anywhere else.

Which meant he had drawn back even the Demonic Energy he had released in that earlier swing and bound it to the blade with exacting precision. 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

To display that degree of control with less than thirty percent of his full power...

If we do not stop him now, he will become a disaster we cannot contain.

Eun Jeong and Soyak came to the same conclusion and raised their swords again.

But the Young Cult Leader had no intention of fighting with everything he had.

What mattered to him was the revival of the Demonic Cult.

And the return of the Heavenly Demon.

For that to happen, the most important thing was...

For the Little Heavenly Demon himself to faithfully serve as its center.

He knew the Heavenly Demon had not died.

It was... a kind of instinct.

The Young Cult Leader drove his sword into the ground.

Then he began forcing an enormous amount of Demonic Energy into the Plum Blossom Sword.

“What are you doing...!”

Eun Jeong tried to stop him, but it was useless.

The Young Cult Leader had already abandoned any attempt at controlling the Demonic Energy. He was focused solely on forcing more and more of it into the sword.

The density of Demonic Energy around him grew so overwhelming that no one could even approach.

“At this level, even the elders’ council will feel it.”

Soyak narrowed her eyes and muttered.

He had abandoned control of the Demonic Energy. The entire Mount Hua Sect would likely sense this chilling, horrifying presence.

Most of the third-generation disciples would probably freeze in place, unable to move.

The second- and first-generation disciples would come running soon enough.

But they could not simply stand back and watch.

What the Young Cult Leader intended to do was painfully obvious.

If someone poured too much internal energy into a sword forged from cheap scrap iron, the sword would explode and shatter into pieces.

And judging by the enormous volume of Demonic Energy being forced into it now...

Even the Plum Blossom Sword that Myeongjeok had treasured so dearly was no better than a sword made of cheap scrap iron.

In fact, because it was a good sword, it would hold even more Demonic Energy...

Endure an even greater burden.

And explode with even greater force.

If that happened, everyone who gathered here without understanding what was going on would suffer serious injuries.

The Young Cult Leader was cunning.

He had found a single move that would gather Mount Hua’s experts, grievously wound those who came, and let him slip away amid the chaos.

But they could not leave him alone.

Soyak awakened the black qilin curled up within her dantian.

The energy of the Harmonization Scripture wrapped around her entire body once more, and Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge shone brighter than before.

When she swung it once, the Demonic Energy touched by its Sword Qi crumbled away and vanished.

Of course, the space was immediately filled again by freshly surging Demonic Energy.

But the Young Cult Leader and Eun Jeong...

Were both masters far too accomplished to miss that phenomenon.

Both of them saw it clearly.

“How...?”

“What did you do?”

Soyak answered neither of them.

She merely took a deep breath and poured still more internal energy into her sword.

And the Young Cult Leader’s Demonic Energy could not even encroach upon the glow of Sword Qi surrounding Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge. It vanished instead.

It was only a small portion of the whole.

And it was immediately replaced.

But so long as the Young Cult Leader’s Demonic Energy could not affect Soyak, she could keep moving forward.

“Can you fight us with only one hand?”

One hand had to keep pouring Demonic Energy into the sword.

And if he was handling internal energy so vast that it had become uncontrollable, he could not perform intricate techniques with that hand.

In the end, the Young Cult Leader would have to fight them using only his left hand.

“Do not try to measure me by your pitiful common sense.”

But the Young Cult Leader was a man who stood outside such ordinary rules.

The Malevolent God’s power had pushed him beyond the laws of humanity.

He gripped the Plum Blossom Sword in both hands and swung the cracked weapon—already on the verge of bursting—straight at Soyak.

Soyak extended Falling Blossom Tranquil Edge in a thrust.

If it struck that weakened Plum Blossom Sword, fractured and leaking Demonic Energy...

It would explode at once.

And the vast Demonic Energy and shattered fragments of steel would tear through both of them, ripping their bodies apart.

The Young Cult Leader knew that when he swung.

Even if his entire body was shredded by metal fragments, it meant nothing to someone who had already achieved deathlessness.

His body would regenerate at once, and his wounds would close.

But the girl now pointing her sword at him?

She wore no armor capable of stopping the flying fragments.

Nor was she a swordswoman skilled enough to knock aside every one of them.

Was she sacrificing herself to reduce the damage somehow?

Yet...

Something about that thought unsettled him.

Then Soyak’s technique shone.

Falling Plum Elegy, First Form.

A Fallen Blossom’s Fleeting Glory.

A falling blossom—the flash of glory in a single instant.