Book 9: Chapter 16: Gehenna

As thick clouds gathered in the night sky and poured down rain, the only light on the earth was the occasional bolt of lightning.

The moon had long hidden itself like that, and the sun did not even think of showing its face yet.

The stars, with their feeble light, dared not find a place to stand.

The heavens and the earth are not benevolent.

The universe is neither righteous nor merciful.

Just as a woman who was called the manifestation of the Medicine Buddha, the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, had said it was humans who could save humans.

Likewise, just as her only son had said it was also humans who could punish humans.

Thus, a being acting on behalf of heaven stood tall here.

He saved those whom heaven had mindlessly discarded, and punished the sinners whom heaven also ignored.

Under the dark night sky, he truly deserved the name of the Dark Venerable.

* * *

As their hands collided, the falling rain scattered all at once in the shockwave.

'What the, crazy…!'

The Hall Leader of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall, who was in charge of the right wing of the temporary execution squad of the Third Young Master's camp, gnashed his teeth.

The hand holding his sword trembled.

Merely a single clash.

From that single exchange of strikes, it felt like his arm bone had cracked.

A monster.

An evil practitioner.

An anomaly.

A chaotic force.

A mountain demon.

Numerous words to describe the cursed existence in front of him flashed through his mind.

But there was no word that fit perfectly enough to make him think, 'This is it.'

Even so, he did not want to respectfully call that monster a Venerable like the others did.

'Exchanging the next strike like this will be an absolute defeat…!'

Intuiting his defeat, he shouted to his subordinates.

"Everyone, attack!"

The warriors who had surrounded the area and formed a dense wall of swords thrust their swords simultaneously.

"Unite!"

Just like their resounding shout, their swords stretched out simultaneously as if the sword formation were a single living creature, enclosing all directions. "……?!"

However, no one's sword reached the opponent, only scraping the empty air.

Standing leisurely at the top of the shape that occupied all of the front, back, left, right, above, and below, as if building a tower with swords the Dark Venerable sneered.

"Can you be called the warriors of the Sword Family that rules this Luoyang with only this much?"

The answer came from behind him.

"Shut up!"

And his sword, aiming at the Dark Venerable's back, was faster than the voice of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall's Hall Leader.

His true body ultimate technique.

Single Decisive Slash.

A moment ago it was the single sword technique he had reflexively unleashed to cut the Dark Venerable who had occupied his rear.

The technique that had cut through the rain all at once just by being reflexively unleashed was now unleashed with his whole body and soul. "……!"

The Hall Leader of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall was not a fool who shouted before launching a surprise attack.

His shout of "Shut up!" burst out like a battle cry only after the sword had already shot forward.

But why how could the opponent dodge that strike of all his soul so easily, as if he had eyes on the back of his head?

Two streaks of ghost fire that met his gaze distorted their shape as if mocking his sword.

"Did you sell the name of the Sword Family with only this much?"

Even as he mocked him while meeting the gaze of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall's Hall Leader the warriors' sword formation moved incessantly, thrusting their swords repeatedly to trap him.

"Laughable, truly laughable."

Like a salmon swimming up a torrent the Dark Venerable's body only stayed at the absolute peak of the mountain made of swords.

His toes, stepping gracefully on the tips of the swords as if performing a dance, were as light as if stepping on flower petals.

"Shut up! Shut your mouth, you monster!"

The Hall Leader's body soared upward once again.

He had leapt by stepping on the shoulders of the warriors waiting outside the sword formation for a wave attack through successive deployments.

His true body ultimate technique.

Steel Lotus and Iron Barrier.

If it did not work with one sword, then with two.

If it did not work with two swords, he just had to attack with ten, or a hundred swords.

The rapid, illusory swords decorated the air dizzyingly like scattering cherry blossom petals.

Each and every strike of the sword hit the raindrops falling in the air, shattering them to pieces.

"Aaaaah—!"

A shout burst out of the Hall Leader's mouth without his knowledge.

Faster.

Even faster!

His sword, filled with internal energy beyond its limits, shrieked and turned white-hot, leaving hundreds of afterimages.

'How?! How?!'

Although his breath was running out and he was even mobilizing his true qi, the source of life that monster called the Dark Venerable was climbing the mountain of the sword formation, deflecting all of his swords.

As if playing a game flicking his sharp claws, every single one of them.

The hundreds of afterimages that decorated the air were all blocked by the Dark Venerable.

The white-shining afterimages shattered, mixing with the heavy rain and scattering in the harsh wind.

"Kuhak?!"

In the end, the Hall Leader was struck in the chest by a single palm thrust forward by the Dark Venerable with futile ease, and was blown out of the sword formation.

"…You, you bastard!"

Thanks to the warriors catching him, he avoided the unsightly sight of rolling on the ground and shouted.

"You know the martial arts of our hall!"

At first, he thought that the monster called the Dark Venerable was simply responding with overwhelming physical abilities that far exceeded humans.

Next, he thought that someone who had reached the peak of martial arts was playing with him.

However even more fundamentally than that, the opponent's movements clearly knew and saw through all of his martial arts.

"How?! How do you…?!"

To fill the vacancy of the Hall Leader, the Dark Venerable deflected the swords of the squad leaders who had leaped into the air all at once.

"…Kugh?!"

"…Heup!"

Although these warriors were currently grouped together as one execution squad originally, their specific affiliations were all different.

Therefore, the martial arts they used had no choice but to be different as well.

However, the Dark Venerable's claws dug accurately into their wrists at the very point where their swords began.

As if as if he knew all of their martial arts from beginning to end.

"Is the martial arts of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall the only thing I know?"

The Dark Venerable's laughter echoed ominously.

That laughter, which seemed to shake their very souls, was heard exceptionally clearly amidst the heavy rain and shouts.

The Hall Leader of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall screamed like a shriek.

"Just what on earth is your identity?!"

* * *

The Luoyang Sword Family.

An old man was making his way through the rain.

Strangely, his steps seemed to tread on the flowing rain, and his stride seemed to pass through the harsh raindrops.

A leisurely gait like an immortal.

That movement technique, which seemed to harmonize with nature, allowed one to guess his realm, which had crossed the wall long ago.

The old man finally arrived at his destination.

It was a pavilion so massive that it exceptionally overwhelmed its surroundings. "……"

After entering the entrance of the pavilion and taking off his raincoat, the old man's hidden face was revealed under the light of the oil lamp.

He was none other than the Chairman of the Supreme Executive Council.

"Oh, you have arrived!"

Helping him take off his raincoat was a duty page who had been dozing off at the entrance.

"It is fine. I will take care of my own business, so you go rest."

"How could I dare do that!"

At the old man's gentle words as usual, the page hurriedly shook his head and insisted on taking his raincoat.

"While you were away, Director, several inquiries have come in."

"They must have been inquiries about the improvement of martial arts anyway, right?"

"Yes. That is correct. So as usual, I told them that the Director was away on a business trip and not present, so they should leave it to other martial scholars."

For some reason the page called the Chairman the Director.

That was because there was no way he could know the true identity of the Chairman of the Supreme Executive Council.

And it was because the Chairman's public identity was the Director of the Martial Arts Academy, which stored, transmitted, researched, and improved all the martial arts of the Luoyang Sword Family.

"…Why is that piled up like that again?"

The Chairman of the Supreme Executive Council and Director of the Martial Arts Academy pointed to a pile of martial arts books stacked on one side of the elegant desk.

"Oh! Those are the books returned from 'Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment' the day before yesterday. Since reclassifying them takes quite a bit of time, the work of the martial scholars has not finished yet."

At those words, the old man recalled the face of Yeon So-hyeon, whom he had met as the Dark Venerable, and smiled bitterly.

"…I see."

It seemed that Yeon So-hyeon had borrowed a massive amount of secret manuals 'again' and returned them in a massive amount again.

It was the moment when the source of all kinds of rare secret manuals rolling around in Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, Yeon So-hyeon's quarters, was revealed.

"The staff are properly following the regulations regarding Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, right?"

"Yes, of course!"

His page nodded heavily as he answered.

"Any book can be taken from Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment, and no one should mention it!"

The old man stroked the page's head and asked.

"What about the other regulation?"

The page replied with a smile, as if happy with the old man's touch.

"All additional documents coming in from Pavilion of Perfect Enlightenment are to be kept in the Director's study so that no one can see their contents!"

The page added.

"Hehe. I personally brought the documents that came in this time to the study and secured them tightly."

"You did well."

Those documents were the research results regarding the martial arts that Yeon So-hyeon had been improving as a hobby from time to time since he was in confinement.

And that was the reason why the old man knew that the creator of 'Flash of Shadow and Instant,' whose creator no one knew, was Yeon So-hyeon.

"You just have to keep doing that in the future."

"Yes! Just leave it to me!"

* * *

"Kill him! We must kill that monster, that martial arts thief, right here!"

The warriors rushed in, and rushed in again.

To kill the monster called the Dark Venerable they rushed in endlessly.

However, as time passed, the resounding laughter of the Dark Venerable shook the surroundings even louder.

"Hahahahaha—."

Their swords only cut through the air and rain in a more futile manner.

It was to the point of being laughable to see dozens of warriors floundering in the rain.

The martial arts of the Sword Family that Yeon So-hyeon did not know could be counted on one hand.

It was no exaggeration to say that there was no martial art of the Sword Family that had not passed through Yeon So-hyeon's hands and eyes.

Although the swords of the Sword Family were counted among the best in the entire state of Zhongyuan rather, in front of Yeon So-hyeon, it was the most shabby and powerless sword.

"Kuhuk—!"

Their physical strength and internal energy were hitting rock bottom, and their rough breaths, which they could not even control, flowed out of the warriors' mouths as white steam.

"Is this all of you?"

The eyes of a warrior, who was trying to quietly slip away from the joint attack of the sword formation that was only spinning in vain without knowing the bottom, met the ghost fire of the Dark Venerable. "……!"

Looking into that gaze, the Dark Venerable's mouth twisted.

These people lacked pride.

They lacked the will to overcome fear and they were just those who were full of greed to cut off the heads of the poor to achieve merit.

They were different from the warriors planted by the Second Young Master whom he had to kill at the entrance of the Sword Family Bank.

"If this much is the end…"

A black claw lightly touched the neck of the warrior who was trying to flee backward.

It looked as if it only lightly touched but his neck was separated from his body, and blood surged violently.

"Now, all of you, die."

With every claw of the Dark Venerable, a head flew upward.

There was no mercy in his hands.

The headless bodies began to spill blood and litter the ground.

"Pests eating away at the Sword Family."

As the Dark Venerable began to use lethal methods, the battle situation changed rapidly.

At that sight, the warriors used the most outstanding martial arts they knew with all their might, but those broken swords their swords that had rushed forward without recognizing the true master of the Sword Family, regardless of whose they were, fell from their hands and rolled on the ground along with the corpses.

"Kuaaaah—!"

Another death cry was drowned out by the sound of thunder.

However, there were more who could not even leave a death cry.

"Those who possess power always slip away easily."

The Dark Venerable's killing intent was like a demon, and the appearance of him displaying his martial prowess was like a divine general.

"Only those who became their running dogs are abandoned so easily like this."

The sword formation had been dismantled long ago.

The corpses of the dying warriors began to pile up.

"But do not feel wronged. It is only a difference in timing…"

Far away in his field of vision, he saw the person in charge of the right wing, the Hall Leader of the White-Slaying Martial Hall Martial Hall, fleeing down the street.

"Those who eat away at the Sword Family will, sooner or later," having even discarded his sword and fleeing with movement techniques, he jumped up on the spot.

Because the cold breath of the Dark Venerable touched his neck.

"all" rushing like a beast and biting his head, the Dark Venerable shook his neck and spun his body once in the air.

The head and torso were separated just like that.

Spitting out the head, the Dark Venerable spoke as if declaring, his ghost fire trailing behind.

"follow in your footsteps."