Chapter 214

Chapter 214

Namgung Family. Sword King’s quarters.

“Th-this finishes all the treatment…….”

“Father. Are you alright?”

“Mm.”

Looking at the Divine Physician gathering up sorcery artifacts and medical tools with desperate eyes, Namgung Hyeok, who had been lying down, rose at Namgung Yeoncheon’s question and slowly moved his body. A body moving quite smoothly, though there’s a stiff feeling.

“My head is clear.”

“I seem to have completely recovered from the deviation. I feel like I could take up my sword and go out right now.”

“Really!”

“R-really my ass…… Y-you idiot!”

Puk!

“Keuuk.”

The Divine Physician, who stabbed a needle deep into his upper arm to paralyze Namgung Hyeok, glared with furious eyes and laid Namgung Hyeok back down.

“D-don’t even think about using martial arts for a while. Just because I’ve calmed down the deviation doesn’t mean your broken body has returned…… Until your body’s condition returns, refrain from using martial arts. Got it?”

“I feel fine, so what’s the fuss? Physicians make such a fuss.”

“Y-you want to die?”

“I understand. I understand. Goodness, how strict. If I convalesce for about, about a month, that should be enough.”

“M-more than that.”

“Tsk tsk. Alright. Alright. I’ll rest quietly for three months. Is that good enough?”

At the Divine Physician’s unyielding attitude, Namgung Hyeok clicked his tongue and waved his hand, then took a deep breath and relaxed all his muscles. Soon, Namgung Hyeok speaking.

“Did that brat leave?”

“By brat you mean…….”

“Uicheonmun Master. The brat who received my sword.”

“Ah. He departed.”

“I see.”

Deeply sunken in the bed, Namgung Hyeok looked up at the sky and raised his hand to stretch it out. The Sword Sovereign’s sword energy freezing his fingertips, and the lightning wall’s sword energy crossing before his eyes.

“Yeoncheon.”

“Yes. Father.”

“Build a friendship with that brat.”

“May I ask the reason?”

“That brat is material to become the Number One Under Heaven.”

“……To that degree?”

“That’s right.”

Namgung Hyeok, who paused for a moment, moved his fingers as if gripping a sword.

“Do you understand that his achievements at that age are at an impossible level?”

“Well, of course…… Yes.”

“That’s not talent.”

“Yes? If not talent, then what…….”

“Enlightenment, talent—such things can’t explain his martial attainment. Crossing swords with me at barely over twenty years of age? It’s absurd.”

Even the Sado Alliance Leader, evaluated as a talent appearing once in a thousand years, didn’t show such achievement at that age. If he had talent where he could see through all of martial learning just by observation—literally inhuman talent—it would be possible, but Baek Riyun’s talent hasn’t reached such a realm, has it?

“But isn’t he strong?”

“That’s right. Though it’s nonsensical, that brat is strong enough to cross swords with me at that age. Do you know why?”

“Because he’s a madman.”

“A madman…… you say?”

“That’s right. You can tell by looking at the martial arts he uses. That’s not ordinary lightning energy.”

While martial arts using lightning energy haven’t appeared often in martial history, that doesn’t mean the sample size is small either.

Right in the Namgung Family, several martial arts using lightning energy exist, and if you go to Tibet, there are also the Great Thunder Sound Temple and Small Thunder Sound Temple, representative of thunder arts.

Lightning energy is the most destructive energy in the world. Energy powerful enough to incinerate a person just by touching the body.

That’s why martial artists who harbor and use it in their bodies inevitably go through a purification process. Otherwise, the body can’t endure.

But Baek Riyun is different.

“There’s no lightning energy in his body.”

“……Yes?”

“He doesn’t harbor lightning energy.”

When Baek Riyun raised the Heavenly Thunder Body and clashed swords, Namgung Hyeok could tell.

That primordial lightning energy is absolutely not the kind that can be harbored in the body. No matter what constitution, if a human with a physical body harbors that lightning energy, all blood vessels throughout the body would burst and die.

Yet Baek Riyun is clearly taming that lightning energy. The primordial lightning energy that hasn’t gone through purification. How is that possible?

“Lightning energy occurs from the repulsion of yin and yang.”

“……That means.”

“He generates and uses lightning energy each time. Like using his own body as explosives to create power.”

A realm of tightrope walking with one’s life, where if things go even slightly wrong, the entire body would instantly burst and die.

“The future of such people divides into only two paths. Either they burst and die unable to handle their own power, or…….”

They become someone no one can approach.

“Ordinary madmen destroy their surroundings, but proper madmen change the world.”

“Watch. And lend a hand.”

So you can stand beside him when he changes the world.

“Heroes arise in chaotic times.”

If a hero appeared though it’s not even chaotic times, that must mean chaotic times are coming.

Looking at the dark clouds casting shadows over the northeastern sky, Namgung Hyeok quietly closed his eyes.

A chilling sensation was brushing the nape of his neck, as if something was about to happen.

“How violent.”

The severed head speaks.

Black Night’s face floating up turned around in the air once, then was caught in her own hand and returned to its original place. The head reattaching as if nothing had happened.

“I said I merely came to spectate, yet you’re trying to drink punishment wine?”

“There’s nothing more foolish than believing a yokai’s words.”

As if shaking off blood on a sword, Daesageom swung his sword once forcefully and turned toward me, raising sword energy. And the words that followed.

“Who is that wretched thing?”

“……You cut without knowing?”

“I don’t know. I can tell it’s a strong yokai though.”

No matter how much Daesageom is someone who relatively recently entered the Ten Heavens, could he not know about the master of the Great Yokai Realm, Immortal Valley?

Thinking for a moment, I nodded. Daesageom probably knows about the master of Immortal Valley. However, it seems he doesn’t know that the master of Immortal Valley is the yokai before his eyes.

“It’s Black Night.”

“Black Night… A familiar name. The Immortal Valley Master?”

“Yes. Let me tell you in advance, she’s quite strong.”

“How strong?”

“Even in an injured state, at minimum Ten Heavens level. I don’t know how much she’s recovered from her injuries, but if she’s fully recovered, even with both of us joining forces, it’ll be difficult.”

“That much?”

“Yes.”

Black Night is an existence revered and worshipped as the master even in Immortal Valley, crawling with Great Yokai. Should I say she’s an existence of different caliber?

From what I know, she suffered great injuries in battle with the old Ten Heavens, but if she’s fully recovered from those injuries, and if what’s here is her true body rather than a fragment.

With Daesageom and me together, it would be inadequate. 

“Humans are tiring because they’re needlessly suspicious. I clearly proclaimed I have no intention of harming you.”

“Not only do I not believe that, even if I believed it, that wouldn’t be a reason to let you go. Yokai.”

“You’ll capture me in a restricted state?”

“If alone, I’d remain in a restricted state. But there are two of us. Think there’s no means to unseal it?”

Kurureureureuk!

At Daesageom raising internal energy simultaneously with his words, I too stamped my foot while conscious of the internal energy stuck in a corner of my dantian, restricted. Then the formation trying to distort with a roar.

“Huhu. Is it alright to ruin the stage your master prepared?”

“You seem to be mistaken about something. The Alliance Leader is not my master. No one can be my master.”

“You would think so. Child reeking of blood.”

“I’m past the age to be called a child.”

“Very well. Since I don’t want this rare outing to be broken like this either. Then let’s do this.”

“I will not antagonize you until this event ends. This is a vow made on the honor of me, one seat of the Three Great Yokai, the master of Immortal Valley, ‘Lightless Night.'”

“Believe a yokai’s vow?”

“I don’t lie when staking my honor. But if even that’s not enough, how about this?”

“What?”

“I will permit you children three questions.”

Three questions.

“Three times. Whatever question you ask me, I will answer that question without falsehood. Isn’t this a decent trade?”

“Foolish words. When we can’t trust you, could we trust the questions?”

“You don’t understand. Child. There are times in the world when even untrustworthy answers help just by hearing them.”

What will you do? Will you try to cut me down?

Looking at Black Night asking that, I quietly exhaled watching Daesageom raise his sword. Thoughts rapidly turning.

‘What should I do?’

The Water Dragon rampages far away.

The Water Dragon that climbed onto land isn’t as strong as in the sea. But the Waterway Strongholds are even more so, aren’t they?

‘If the Waterway Strongholds are annihilated and the Water Dragon’s gaze turns this way.’

Then there’s no answer. If we fight with the Water Dragon in front and Black Night behind, far from winning, even surviving would be difficult.

Of course, if we tear the bracelets, we could somehow survive. But then we can’t enter the formation again.

If that happens and Black Night wanders inside the formation massacring helpless people?

‘There’s no method.’

There’s only one answer.

“I’ll accept it.”

“……You’re saying you’ll trust a yokai?”

“Don’t you know what will happen if we let Black Night loose like this?”

From Black Night, I don’t see hostile energy warning of danger.

Even so, I can’t let my guard down. I’m a sect master, and there are many things I must protect. Even if Black Night doesn’t cause harm to me or my surroundings, that doesn’t mean it’s completely safe.

And Daesageom would be the same.

“Quick on the uptake, which is nice.”

“I’ll ask one thing first. Black Night.”

“What is it?”

“Earlier you said the Demonic Heaven will open. What does that mean?”

“Hmm, you say strange things. The Demonic Heaven is literally the Demonic Heaven. The sky of demons.”

Black Night, who tilted her head as if not understanding my words, smiled bewitchingly. The question that followed.

“I don’t think you humans fully inherited the two-thousand-year pact, but even so, don’t you know? How you livestock can stay at the same height of vision as existences like me?”

The reason we can stay at the same height of vision.

“I don’t know your circumstances. I don’t know in detail what’s happening here. But I, who can cover heaven and earth with yokai power and crush all equilibrium, can tell.”

Black Night, who spread her arms wide, smiled faintly.

“The many Great Yokai call him with shock and rage, calling him a traitor. The one who shakes off deep night and summons the crimson dawn. However.”

“You livestock, you humans, couldn’t carelessly speak his name and called him this.”

The one who bore all demons. The one who fell by himself. The demon who devours yokai.

“Heavenly Demon.”

“I read the heavenly signs. Today, at this time, at this place, the Demonic Heaven opens. And you will face him.”

The pitiful pact member who couldn’t participate in the pact.

The only Demonic Cult member not bound.

Black Night, who muttered quietly, brushed her silk. 

“So this is merely preparation for that.”

The next moment, at Black Night’s gesture, the Water Dragon was cut in half.

And the sky opened.