Chapter 74: An Intended Encounter
The gaze of the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor, who had been staying at the Tang Clan, sank coldly.
It was because the presence of the Living Jiangshi, to which he had been spiritually connected, had vanished.
‘Ha. They neutralized five hundred Living Jiangshi?’
According to the records, the Living Jiangshi that had invaded Tibet had numbered only eight hundred.
With a force that did not even reach a thousand, the Tibetan martial world had been driven to the brink of extinction.
It might have been fewer than that number, but it was still a full five hundred. It was not a number that anyone could deal with easily.
And yet those Living Jiangshi had collapsed.
“Was it that bastard after all.”
Muttering words no one could decipher, the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor brushed himself off and stood up.
He judged that the remaining five hundred Living Jiangshi alone were insufficient to bring his plan to success.
Therefore……
A short while later, murderous aura began to billow thickly from the depths of the Tang Clan.
It was the sa ominous and wicked killing intent that had risen from the Foshan Fist Sect not long ago.
Yul Han, the Ghost Demon, and even the Cult Leader and Monk Eightfold Confusion.
What Yul Han’s group saw upon arriving at the Tang Clan, joined by such giants of the age, was a horrific scene of slaughter.
A desperate battle was unfolding between those who had turned into Living Jiangshi and those trying to protect themselves from them.
What was even more horrifying was the identity of the opponents they were fighting at the cost of their lives. Everyone locked in deadly combat within the grounds was a mber of the Tang Clan.
Leaving the hesitating Cult Leader and Monk Eightfold Confusion behind, Yul Han shot forward. After a brief hesitation, the Ghost Demon followed him into the battlefield.
What followed was the sa kind of fight that had taken place at the Gold River.
The Ghost Demon’s black clouds froze the Living Jiangshi, and Yul Han’s crescent blade shattered them to pieces. Having already coordinated once before, the joint assault of Yul Han and the Ghost Demon shed flawlessly.
The Cult Leader and Monk Eightfold Confusion, watching from the side, could not stop their exclamations of admiration.
When it ca to the Living Jiangshi, it almost seed better for the two of them to simply let Yul Han and the Ghost Demon fly freely rather than trying to lend a hand themselves.
For that reason, while the Cult Leader and Monk Eightfold Confusion observed, the number of Living Jiangshi within the Tang Clan rapidly dwindled.
Once their numbers had been reduced to about half of what they were at the start, a bit of breathing room finally erged for the Tang Clan mbers.
At that point, several Tang Clan martial artists stepped forward to help Yul Han, but the Ghost Demon shouted and forced them back.
They would not be able to withstand the cold he was wielding.
It might have looked as if Yul Han was simply darting freely through the black clouds, but that was not the case. It was only possible because he was circulating extre-yang internal energy at full force, heating his entire body like a blazing furnace.
After Yul Han and the Ghost Demon rampaged through the Tang Clan for so ti, the number of Living Jiangshi dropped to an extre low and was finally eradicated completely.
Morning sunlight began to shine upon the Tang Clan, plastered with corpses and slowly lting chunks of flesh.
Confronted with the horrific scene laid bare beneath the radiant sunlight, the Tang Clan mbers stood dumbfounded.
Those who, just before darkness had fallen the previous night, had been their parents, their children, and their spouses—having been forced to kill them with their own hands—the Tang Clan mbers could do nothing but wear blank, devastated expressions.
It was the Ghost Demon who, after asking around, learned that the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor had been staying at the Tang Clan and returned to Yul Han and the Cult Leader.
“Just as you said, Cult Leader. It was the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor.”
At the Ghost Demon’s words, the Cult Leader asked,
“And the bastard?”
“He was certainly at the Tang Clan before this chaos broke out, but……”
Before the Ghost Demon could finish, the Cult Leader shook his head.
“He’s gone. If he were still within the Tang Clan, there’s no way I wouldn’t sense him.”
At the Cult Leader’s words, not only Monk Eightfold Confusion but even Yul Han nodded.
No matter how much he concealed his presence, there was no way he could deceive the senses of all three of them.
Seeing their reaction, the Ghost Demon spoke again.
“It seems he fled. Ah! And the Living Jiangshi he brought with him are nowhere to be seen either.”
“Didn’t we finish them off at the Gold River?” Yul Han asked.
The Ghost Demon shook his head.
“Half of them were led away by the Tang Clan Head, and half remained here.”
“Then that ans the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor left the Tang Clan with that remaining half.”
The Cult Leader, scanning the surroundings with sharp eyes, shook his head.
“I can’t find him by presence alone.”
Monk Eightfold Confusion, who had likewise spread his senses to probe the area, also shook his head.
“He’s gone far.”
At Monk Eightfold Confusion’s words, Yul Han pondered briefly, then approached an elderly man who had been organizing the Tang Clan.
“I wish to et the one responsible for the Tang Clan.”
“Among the living, I hold the highest position, so I suppose that responsibility falls to . I am the elder known as Nine-Ring Blade, Dangho.”
“I am Yul Han of the Bright Cult.”
Elder Nine-Ring Blade Dangho nodded silently, his face clearly showing his discomfort.
It was because he had received help from the Bright Cult, whom they had defined as enemies and with whom they had killed each other countless tis.
To him, Yul Han continued,
“Will you help ?”
“With what……?”
“It seems the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor fled before this catastrophe began. I wish to find him.”
At Yul Han’s words, Elder Nine-Ring Blade Dangho’s eyes began to burn fiercely.
He would not have gone alone, and he would have taken as many as five hundred Living Jiangshi with him. For the Tang Clan martial artists, who knew Sichuan like the back of their hands, finding him would not be difficult.
Nodding forcefully, Nine-Ring Blade Dangho prodded and gathered the stunned martial artists, declaring that they would pursue the Man-Sa Calamity Emperor.
The faces of the Tang Clan martial artists, who had briefly brightened at the thought of revenge, quickly darkened.
Their own strength was insufficient to exact that revenge. They had just engraved the terror of the Living Jiangshi into their bones.
To them, Nine-Ring Blade Dangho pointed toward Yul Han standing so distance away.
“The Vice Cult Leader of the Demonic Cult will go with us.”
To the Tang Clan martial artists, whose emotions churned with confusion, hope, and turmoil, Nine-Ring Blade Dangho shouted,
“Honor? Justification? My son, who beca a Living Jiangshi, died by my own hand, and my wife was torn into pieces. If I can capture the one who did this and cut him into ten thousand pieces, I would not only join hands with the Bright Cult—I would sell my soul to the devil itself.”
At Nine-Ring Blade Dangho’s desperate cry, shouts of “That’s right!” erupted from all around, and soon every Tang Clan martial artist present stepped forward.
All the signal flares stored by the Tang Clan were brought out and distributed to the martial artists.
Thus, with a signal flare in each hand, the Tang Clan martial artists scattered at once. No one moved in pairs or trios.
Hundreds of Tang Clan martial artists dispersed in all directions to check as wide an area as possible.
Left behind in the Tang Clan, now emptied of its people, were only Yul Han, the Ghost Demon, the Cult Leader, and Monk Eightfold Confusion.
Aside from the martial artists who had just scattered, no one else had survived in the Tang Clan.
Those with weaker internal energy had been the first to turn into Living Jiangshi.
Won who had not learned martial arts, children, and the elderly had been the most vulnerable.
Because of that, among the Tang Clan mbers who died early on, there were even those who had died in tears, clutching their own children who bared their teeth and lunged at them.
Amid the Tang Clan still haunted by those brutal mories, Yul Han waited for the signal flares to rise, his expression sinking deeply.
When the morning sunlight turned into the scorching heat of noon, and then the sun began to tilt toward the horizon.
Boom.
Finally, a signal flare exploded.
Toward the faintly rising signal flare in the distance, Yul Han’s movent shot forward. The Cult Leader, Monk Eightfold Confusion, and the Ghost Demon followed behind at terrifying speed.
The surrounding Tang Clan martial artists had also seen the signal flare.
They knew they could not exert much strength themselves, but with the murderer so close at hand, they could not simply remain still.
Grinding their teeth and steeling themselves for death, the Tang Clan martial artists also launched their movent techniques toward where the signal flare had risen.
What Yul Han saw upon arriving was a corner strewn with the corpse of a Tang Clan martial artist torn apart like a rag, and six Living Jiangshi that appeared to have caused that carnage.
Without even waiting for the Ghost Demon to arrive, Yul Han charged straight in, his Crescent Blade slicing through the air.
If once was not enough, then twice. If twice was not enough, then three tis—four tis—and if even that was not enough, then dozens of tis.
The six Living Jiangshi, battered into such a mangled state that they could no longer stand, moved with arms separate from legs.
Even the eyes and mouths atop severed necks twitched incessantly, creating a grotesque sight.
Yul Han attempted to ignite Samadhi Ignition to burn them away, but the Living Jiangshi did not burn in those flas, which were produced through internal energy.
A mont later, the Cult Leader, Monk Eightfold Confusion, and the Ghost Demon arrived.
Finding it absurd to try freezing the finely chopped Living Jiangshi fragnts again, the Ghost Demon began gathering wood.
The Tang Clan martial artists who arrived shortly afterward realized what this ant and also gathered wood from the surroundings.
Soon, they set the wood alight and threw the fragnts of the Living Jiangshi into the fire, finally erasing them.
“They’re disgustingly tenacious,” the Ghost Demon muttered.
At those words, the Tang Clan martial artists nodded.
“The fact that there were only six ans that elsewhere as well—”
Before Yul Han could finish, signal flares shot up competitively from all directions.
Exchanging glances, Yul Han, the Cult Leader, and Monk Eightfold Confusion split up.
Each took responsibility for the areas where the signal flares had risen.
After hesitating briefly, the Ghost Demon ran in the direction Yul Han had gone. Perhaps taking him as a guide, the gathered Tang Clan martial artists also unfolded their lightness skills and followed in that direction.
The place the Cult Leader arrived at was sheer pandemonium.
An entire village had been turned into a sea of blood by the Living Jiangshi. Amid the chaos, a single Tang Clan martial artist was running frantically about, evacuating the villagers.
Since they could not fight the Living Jiangshi head-on, he had focused on getting the villagers out.
The problem lay in the movents of the Living Jiangshi that had overrun the village.
Those who had not learned martial arts beca faster and charged without fear; if one kept that in mind, martial artists who had tempered their skills could manage to hold them back.
However, in the case of those who had already tempered martial arts and then beco Living Jiangshi, there was essentially no option other than to flee.
Worse still, even that escape was difficult when facing Living Jiangshi that could use lightness skills.
Like the village youth whose leg had just been grabbed.
As a Living Jiangshi tried to tear apart the village youth it had seized, a line was drawn straight across its brow.
And then—
Slaaash.
The Living Jiangshi, split vertically, parted to either side.
Even after spilling its brain matter and internal organs along with black blood, the Living Jiangshi sprang back up.
The sight of the Living Jiangshi rising with a body split in half was even more horrifying than when it had been whole.
“Kraaaagh!”
The Cult Leader severed the neck of the charging Living Jiangshi as it scread from its halved mouth, but he failed to stop its movent.
Because the headless half-body continued charging straight at him.
Only after kicking it away did the Cult Leader manage to stop its rush, his eyes narrowing.
“What do you take for?!”
Clenching his teeth, demonic energy poured from the Cult Leader’s entire body like a waterfall. Then, the form of a demon manifested.
Behind the Cult Leader’s figure, the demonic apparition revealed itself with striking clarity.
The Heaven-and-Earth Great Shift Divine Art.
The strongest divine art of the Bright Cult, said to be passed down only to the Cult Leader, had manifested.
As the headless half-body of the Living Jiangshi sprang up again, the Cult Leader grabbed it with both hands and tore it apart.
It was torn apart in the most literal sense.
The terrifying brute strength unleashed from arms wrapped in force energy shredded the Living Jiangshi’s corpse in its entirety.
‘Freeze them and shatter them, or tear them apart.’
With pitch-black demonic energy spread like wings, the Cult Leader’s figure moved in all directions.
Each ti, Living Jiangshi scread as they were torn apart—again and again.
“I’ll tear every last one of you to pieces!”
The Cult Leader’s ferocious roar exploded, riding on black demonic energy to shake the entire village.
Where Yul Han arrived, the battle between the Tang Clan martial artists and the Living Jiangshi was in full swing.
Tang Clan martial artists who had rushed over after seeing the signal flare had discovered the Living Jiangshi and begun responding in groups.
The place where they encountered them was none other than one of the Tang Clan’s branch strongholds.
Even knowing they could not stop them, they had no choice but to step forward.
At the very least, there were still living Tang Clan family mbers staying at that branch.
It was a desperate battle.
Even as they died while swinging their blades, knowing they could not kill their enemies, the hatred-filled eyes of the Tang Clan martial artists did not close.
As if they intended to see the Living Jiangshi destroyed, even in death.
Perhaps their resentnt reached the heavens.
Yul Han burst onto the scene.
More than ten Living Jiangshi were sent flying far away by the long sweep of his Crescent Blade.
Only then did Yul Han force the Tang Clan martial artists, gasping for breath, to fall back and began driving the Living Jiangshi away.
The Ghost Demon arrived imdiately after, summoning black clouds and draping the Living Jiangshi in chilling cold.
Within that, Yul Han’s Crescent Blade flew.
Monk Eightfold Confusion, who had been running at terrifying speed, ca to a halt.
The Tang Clan martial artist who had presumably fired the signal flare was hanging from a pole, his abdon split open.
Stepping onto ground soaked with the blood and organs of the Tang Clan martial artist who had completed his mission without regard for death, Monk Eightfold Confusion watched soone slowly rise, his gaze sinking deeply.
“You—!”
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