CLS-Chapter 659

Chapter 659:

The Bishop’s power was beyond imagination.

‘To this extent?’

Dang Cheon-gun gasped for breath as he gripped his dagger.

Bishop.

Even within the Demon Cult, it was a term used for high-ranking demons who were acknowledged for their strength and held positions where they could command other demons.

While it might have different meanings for those who took on the form of a religion, for Dang Cheon-gun, a Central Plains man, this alone was sufficient.

In the Central Plains, the word Bishop meant only one thing.

Strength.

During the past war with the Demon Cult, how many had lost their lives to the Bishops?

They existed even then.

Masters who dominated the world.

Now, the White Sword Castle Lord, the Heavenly Flow Sword, and the Three Great Swordsmen are considered the supreme masters of the world, but back then, they were still considered lacking in experience to discuss being the best in the world.

But those who represented that era all lost their lives fighting the war against the Demon Cult.

At the hands of those very Bishops.

‘I wasn’t underestimating them, was I?’

The Shadow King Dang Cheon-gun was not arrogant.

Even if he were arrogant, that arrogance was not based on groundless confidence. It was confidence built through thorough calculation and evaluation.

The Bishops of the past were one level above the martial artists of the Central Plains. He acknowledged this.

But twenty whole years had passed.

Twenty years was time enough for mountains and rivers to change twice. During that time, the Central Plains had made bone-cutting efforts. They had surpassed the strong ones of the past and created strength beyond what the old Central Plains possessed.

So this time, he thought they would finally be able to show those damned Demon Cult bastards their place.

But Dang Cheon-gun had to acknowledge that he had overlooked one thing.

It wasn’t only they who had surpassed the past through bone-cutting training. The Demon Cult too had been steadily preparing for this war.

“Shadow King Dang Cheon-gun.”

Fist Demon spoke with a smirk.

“The Central Plains certainly has generous aspects. To grant the title of King to a martial artist who’s only at your level. In the Demon Cult, one wouldn’t even dare dream of such a thing.”

“Ptui!”

Dang Cheon-gun spat out the blood he had been holding in his mouth.

“Filthy Demon Cult bastards could never be qualified to call themselves King.”

“That spirit alone makes the title of King not regrettable. But spirit without accompanying skill is nothing more than bluster.”

Grrrrr.

Fist Demon’s fists began to turn pitch black.

‘Damn it.’

Dang Cheon-gun gritted his teeth.

The compatibility wasn’t good.

Based on the nickname Fist Demon, that massive physique, and the rumors he’d heard about him, Fist Demon was a master of Dominating Fist who had abandoned speed in exchange for excessive destructive power.

And such slow opponents with strong destructive power were exactly the prey that the Shadow King loved most. Normally, one would keep an appropriate distance and toy with them using hidden weapons and poison until they flailed about and died.

But with this bastard alone, that compatibility didn’t work at all.

“Chaaaaat!”

Hidden weapons explosively shot out from Dang Cheon-gun’s sleeves.

Feather-light ox-hair needles and sharp flying needles, daggers with poison gleaming sinisterly, and even Dang family projectiles!

The hidden weapons he was proud of throughout the world fell toward Fist Demon.

Hundreds and thousands of hidden weapons fluttered like flower petals dancing in the wind. Pink and green poisons mixed with the hidden weapons, creating a perfect encirclement that no one could escape from.

“Ten Thousand Heavenly Flower Rain?”

Flower rain fell from the entire sky.

But each petal making up that flower rain contained extreme poison that could instantly melt a human with just a graze. Even being hit by a single feather-like ox-hair needle would make poisoning unavoidable.

With that slow Fist Demon’s movement technique, he would never be able to escape.

However…

“Heup-cha.”

Fist Demon slightly pulled back his fist and then pushed it up toward the sky.

Paaaaaaaang!

With an ear-splitting sound of tearing air, a tremendous whirlwind of energy shot up into the sky. Like a dragon ascending to heaven.

Whiiiiiiing!

The dragon fist wind created by Fist Demon sucked in the Shadow King’s hidden weapons. The fluttering petals were incredibly strong against humans, but utterly powerless before a gale.

Thunk, thunk, thud-thud.

The hidden weapons that had been sucked up by the dragon fist wind poured down like rain on one side of the ground.

Fist Demon shrugged his shoulders.

Although he had blown away the hidden weapons with his fist wind, he couldn’t push away all the hidden weapons, as small thin needles were embedded here and there on his body.

“Stinging.”

Creak.

When Fist Demon tensed his body, the embedded thin needles bounced out of his body. The areas where the needles had been embedded turned green, then returned to their original color in the blink of an eye.

“Ten Thousand Heavenly Flower Rain… It’s a good technique. But ultimately, no matter what martial art it is, what matters is how deep one’s cultivation is. Your Ten Thousand Heavenly Flower Rain is just a trick without power behind it.”

“…”

The Shadow King lowered his hands with a dejected expression.

The martial arts of the Dang family were about killing with one strike.

If they couldn’t take the opponent’s life with a single hit, they would instead fall victim themselves. Due to the nature of the Dang family using hidden weapons and poison, they couldn’t exert stopping power, and their defense was extremely vulnerable. This was an inherent weakness of the Dang family’s martial arts.

Kill or be killed.

This characteristic, combined with the feature of using poison, made the Dang family an object of terror.

But this killing with one strike didn’t work on Fist Demon. Most hidden weapons couldn’t overcome his strength, and even when they barely managed to pierce his defense, the poison didn’t take effect.

‘Even the Seven Treasure Soul-Chasing Thread and Soul-Stealing Blade don’t work?’

He couldn’t understand how such a thing was possible.

Of course, martial artists had resistance to poison. Even poison that would melt an ordinary person into a handful of bloody water the moment they were poisoned could be expelled immediately by supreme masters who could freely manipulate their energy as soon as the poison entered their bodies.

But the poison Dang Cheon-gun had just used was extreme poison that would give even masters who had reached the pinnacle level trouble. To be poisoned by such extreme poison and yet detoxify it so easily.

“Compared to that old man Poison Demon’s poison, your poison is about as much as dirt on one’s body.”

Grind.

Dang Cheon-gun ground his teeth.

“Are you mocking the Dang family’s poison?”

“Stupid words.”

“…What?”

“All martial arts change depending on who uses them. Poison would be the same. Even insignificant poison, when used by one who has mastered poison, can be more frightening than extreme poison used by a beginner.”

“…”

“From the moment you thought that poison is the same poison and produces the same effects no matter who uses it, you were already wrong. That’s why you became the Shadow King, not the Poison King.”

Dang Cheon-gun closed his mouth.

It wasn’t wrong.

That demon head understood poison better than he did, the head of the Dang family.

“I wasn’t disparaging the Dang family. There’s no need to disparage any martial art. Even a branch broken off from the roadside becomes more terrifying than any killing weapon when it falls into a master’s hands, and even the world’s divine sword becomes more useless than a wooden stick when it falls into an inferior person’s hands. What I disparaged wasn’t the Dang family, but you, Dang Cheon-gun.”

Dang Cheon-gun’s face contorted.

What situation could be more shameful than receiving a lecture on martial arts from a Bishop of the Demon Cult?

“The Central Plains has actually regressed. What a pity.”

“You talk well.”

“Yes. I said I liked that spirit.”

Fist Demon clenched his fist and slowly walked toward Dang Cheon-gun.

“I’ll prove it with your death—that the Central Plains can no longer be a match for the Cult.”

Dang Cheon-gun gritted his teeth and gripped his flying needle.

Dozens, hundreds of afterimages filled the world.

“What sorcery is this!”

Tiger Protector Sa-tae shouted loudly.

This was impossible.

No matter how fast a person was, they couldn’t move at this speed.

This was an illusion.

Definitely an illusion.

But knowing it was an illusion didn’t change the situation.

With Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s eyesight, she couldn’t distinguish which among those many phantom demon afterimages was real and which was fake.

If one cannot distinguish between real and fake, then fake becomes real and real becomes fake.

“Gar!“

Tiger Protector Sa-tae thrust her dragon-head staff straight forward.

The surging true power gathered into the dragon-head staff and began to scatter golden radiance into the world.

Buddha Light Universal Illumination.

The light of Buddha that repels all sorcery and darkness illuminated the phantom demon’s afterimages. The afterimages that filled the sky began to crumble before the majesty of the Buddha light.

“Death methods ultimately cannot overcome righteous methods. No matter what petty tricks you bastards pull, you cannot go against Buddha’s will.”

“Tsk tsk tsk.”

Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s body froze in place.

The sound of tongue-clicking came from behind her.

“What a ridiculous thing. Wasn’t Buddhism originally spread from Tibet, which you so despise? You who regard Potala Palace as foreigners and look down on them, yet so revere the Buddhist teachings spread by those very foreigners.”

“This…!”

Tiger Protector Sa-tae swung her dragon-head staff. But by the time her dragon-head staff struck, the phantom demon’s figure had already disappeared from that spot.

“One who doesn’t even know what she follows preaching to others… The Central Plains was always such a place from the beginning.”

She couldn’t even tell where the voice was coming from.

The voice echoing from all directions with the Six Harmony Transmission technique aroused the emotion of fear even in Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s now-dried heart.

“Shut up!”

“Tsk tsk, you’ve lived your years in vain.”

Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s face turned red.

For her, who had devoted her entire life to Buddhism, nothing existed as humiliating as being mocked by a spawn of the Demon Cult.

“How dare you!”

Power entered her hands gripping the dragon-head staff.

Tremendous internal energy surged up, and her long white hair shot up toward the sky.

“I won’t let you get away with this!”

“Getting excited.”

The phantom demon’s figure appeared like a phantom one jang in front of her.

“If someone who didn’t know saw this, they’d think you were the demon head. Though that concept of demon head is also something you people created arbitrarily.”

“This bastaaaaaard!”

Terrible force swirled around Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s dragon-head staff. Just looking at that internal energy alone would make the Fist King horrified. Even if you searched the entire world, you wouldn’t find anyone with greater internal energy than her.

Shwaaaaack!

With a tremendous sound of tearing air, her dragon-head staff struck down at the phantom demon.

Kwaaaaaaaang!

The ground burst open and a tremendous explosion echoed. Dirt and gravel bounced in all directions as if shot out.

Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s eyes widened through the thick dust.

“Tsk tsk.”

A quiet tongue-clicking sound was heard.

But Tiger Protector Sa-tae couldn’t hear that sound.

Slowly lowering her head, she saw in her eyes a blood-red hand that had pierced through her abdomen.

“…Kkeuk.”

“A Buddhist disciple who abandoned her Buddha-heart has nothing to complain about. Since paradise is out of the question, enjoy the view of hell.”

Blood like a waterfall flowed from Tiger Protector Sa-tae’s mouth. After opening and closing her mouth several times, she finally couldn’t say anything and dropped her head.

Thud.

Looking at Tiger Protector Sa-tae who had collapsed on the ground, Phantom Demon brushed off his hands. Blood dripped to the ground in drops.

“Kill them all. That person is coming.”

“By your command!”

The demons rushed in with terrifying momentum following Phantom Demon’s order.

“If this is all there is, it’s disappointing…”

Phantom Demon stuck out his tongue and licked his lips.

He wasn’t satisfied yet. More blood, more lives were needed.

With a bizarre smile, Phantom Demon slowly began to move.