Chapter 84: Lightning Half-Moon
“Why—why! Founder’s face is…….”
Unable to grasp the reason at all, Profound Demon’s eyes widened as if they might tear.
That was because the Vice Cult Leader’s eyes, which had suddenly snapped open, were dyed the exact sa blood-red color as those of the Blood Shadow Demon Venerable Ancestor.
No, it was not simply because they were red that he was shocked. The Blood Shadow Demon Venerable’s eyes had been red because they were Ghost Eyes.
Eyes that saw ghosts, and eyes that could control ghosts.
He was astonished that those Ghost Eyes had appeared in the Vice Cult Leader’s eyes.
Sure enough, the vengeful spirits that had been clinging to the Vice Cult Leader’s body and raging as they tried to tear apart his soul scread and fled in haste.
To ghosts, Ghost Eyes were a presence more terrifying than anything else.
As the ghosts scattered, Yul Han’s eyes fixed directly on the Profound Demon.
‘My blood kin. Do not touch this child. This is both a warning and a plea. Do not spill blood again.’
At the voice that reverberated through his head, the Profound Demon’s vision blurred.
Space-Ti Transmission.
A technique unique to the Blood Cult, in which words engraved into the soul were delivered across ti and space.
Those words ant…….
“Why is the Founding Ancestor’s soul inside the Vice Cult Leader……?”
The Profound Demon could not comprehend the situation unfolding before his eyes.
While he remained frozen in confusion, the Vice Cult Leader’s eyes closed again.
And then—
Unlike before, he began to breathe.
It seed that the soul art of Night Soul Ghost Slaughter that he had cast had sohow acted as a stimulus. In the end, he had only done the Vice Cult Leader a favor.
Yet he could not attempt anything further.
After all, it was no one else but the very Founding Ancestor who had established the Blood Cult, whose soul was accompanying him.
Thus, the Profound Demon could do nothing but sit there with a vacant, stunned expression.
Iron Demon returned in exactly three days. Simply because Poison Demon’s lightness skill was inferior to his own, he had carried him on his back while running.
He had pushed himself so hard that even a master at the Transformation Realm, whose Manifestation Realm lay just ahead, was left panting.
The mont Poison Demon dismounted from Iron Demon’s back, he rushed into the room and examined Yul Han.
After scrutinizing him for a long while, Poison Demon turned to look at Iron Demon, whose face was filled with anxious concern.
“You said he was in danger?”
“He was. He wasn’t even breathing…….”
“He’s breathing just fine?”
“Huh? He’s breathing?”
Pushing past the Profound Demon who stood at the doorway, Iron Demon entered and looked down at Yul Han, who was indeed breathing softly and evenly.
“Th-that’s true.”
“What is this!”
Poison Demon snapped irritably, and Iron Demon spoke up.
“But still, he couldn’t even regain consciousness…….”
“Ugh. Why is it so noisy……? Hm? Fifth Elder, what brings you here?”
At Yul Han’s question as he rose groggily, Poison Demon found himself unable to answer.
Yul Han felt light, as though he had simply woken from sleep, and he nodded as he listened to Iron Demon excitedly recount everything, saliva flying as he spoke.
“So that’s what happened.”
“Yes. When we found you collapsed inside White Cloud Pavilion, we were terrified.”
Seeing Iron Demon’s expression, which looked horrified even in retrospect, Yul Han gave a small smile.
“Thank you.”
“Pardon?”
“You must have resented , yet you still took such care of .”
“I don’t resent you, Vice Cult Leader. I do think you go a bit too far sotis, but—ahahahaha. Well, that’s training, after all.”
Iron Demon laughed awkwardly, then added those extra words while gauging his reaction. Yul Han looked at him with gentle eyes.
“Oh! Your gaze…… Was it always tinged with red?”
“Mine?”
“Yes. Just a little—oh! Now it’s fine again…… Ah! It’s red again. Oh! It disappeared. How are you doing that?”
Thinking Yul Han was deliberately coloring his gaze, Iron Demon asked about the thod, but Yul Han shook his head.
“I’m not doing it on purpose. This is the first I’ve heard of it myself.”
“Really?”
Intrigued, Iron Demon even brought a bronze mirror and held it close to Yul Han’s face.
“Look.”
It was true.
Just as Iron Demon said, a faint red light flickered in his gaze.
For so reason, a strange face briefly overlapped in his mind with the man he had seen in White Cloud Pavilion—no, the Cult Leader’s face.
Those eyes, red like blood.
As that mory surfaced, he also rembered that the Cult Leader was the murderer who had killed his master, his senior brothers—and even himself.
No matter how much it had not been what the man intended, and how much they themselves had clung to him, it could not be a pleasant feeling.
“Haa…….”
Poison Demon seed to misinterpret the sigh Yul Han let out from that awkward emotion.
“You must be tired. Please rest. I’ll take care of this scatterbrained fellow.”
At Poison Demon’s words as he dragged Iron Demon out, Yul Han smiled bitterly.
Leaving him behind, the three—including Poison Demon—exited the room. As they left, Yul Han quietly watched the Profound Demon among them.
It was because of the Profound Demon’s figure that had appeared in several scenes he had glimpsed like a dream just before waking.
Whether it was reality or re illusion, the man had tried to harm him.
Perhaps because of that, the Profound Demon’s expression and gaze as he left the room at Poison Demon’s urging felt different from before.
‘What is real?’
Yul Han’s thoughts grew tangled.
The mories that surfaced in fragnts were too disjointed. Not a single one ford a complete story that flowed from start to finish.
In such circumstances, he could not draw any conclusions.
As Yul Han shook his head to dispel the complicated thoughts, his gaze fell upon a single blade lying alone on the floor.
“Lightning Cloud Blade!”
It was an unremarkable blade, neither emitting lightning nor radiating overwhelming energy, just like when he had seen it in White Cloud Pavilion.
Aside from being about twice as wide as a typical saber, there was nothing special about it…….
At that mont, as if trying to prove it was not ordinary, a red light shimred along the blade’s body.
Just like the light in Yul Han’s eyes reflected in the bronze mirror.
After a brief hesitation, Yul Han grasped the blade hilt.
Fwoong!
It felt as though he truly heard such a sound by his ear—though it existed only in his mind.
And riding the tail end of that sound, the world began to look different.
The world, tinted slightly red as if blood vessels had burst in his eyes, revealed things Yul Han had never seen before.
In the shadowed corners of the room, between the folds of bedding, in the gaps between furniture, in every place where darkness had settled, clinging there in pitch-black masses were…….
“Ghosts!”
I could instantly tell that they were ghosts, and that those ghosts bore deep grudges against .
Why, or how, that was possible—I could not explain it. I simply knew the mont I saw them.
The ghosts glared as if they might pounce at any mont, yet whenever their gazes t mine, they flinched in fear and hurriedly averted their eyes.
And so, the number of ghosts boiling and swarming inside the room……
“Good heavens. Had I really killed this many!”
A lant slipped from my lips.
That was because thousands of vengeful spirits were clinging densely throughout the room.
“There’s one there, and one here…….”
As I unconsciously lifted the Lightning Cloud Blade and pointed toward where the ghosts were, my eyes widened.
Pajijijik.
Despite rely pointing at the ghosts, Lightning Energy naturally gathered around the Lightning Cloud Blade.
I had not deliberately circulated my internal energy, nor had I even ford an intention to do anything.
And yet, the blade drew upon my internal energy on its own and generated Lightning Energy.
Was it because it was Lightning Energy created from my own internal energy? Unlike the Lightning Energy of the Lightning Cloud Blade I had seen earlier in White Cloud Pavilion, there was no discomfort at all.
It felt as though it adhered snugly to my body……
“Oh!”
My eyes widened.
With just a light touch of my hand, the Lightning Energy transferred over. As if it had hopped over from the Lightning Cloud Blade, the Lightning Energy crackled and danced along my hand.
But it lasted only a mont. Like lightning after completing a discharge, it scattered and vanished.
I tried several more tis, but it was the sa. It transferred smoothly, yet could not remain for long.
“What a sha. If I could have loaded it into the Asura Sword Form or the Half-Moon Asura Slash, the gains would have been substantial…….”
I stopped mid-sentence and sprang to my feet.
Because a thought had struck .
Was there really a need to wield sword techniques strictly with a sword?
The sa applied to the Half-Moon Asura Slash. Originally, it was a martial art executed with a long-handled Crescent Blade, yet hadn’t I once executed it using a sword?
I imdiately opened the door and went outside.
When I, who had said I was tired and would rest, suddenly kicked the door open and rushed out, all eyes turned toward at once.
Since the collapse of the Bright Cult’s Vice Cult Leader was a serious matter, the Qingcheng Sect had been keeping watch as well, and countless Qingcheng Daoists focused their gazes on .
Despite all those stares, I moved without the slightest concern.
The Lightning Cloud Blade was in my hand.
Jjajajajak!
The instant I pushed my internal energy in and pointed the blade toward the ghosts, an intense Lightning Energy—qualitatively different from the naturally rising Lightning Energy from before—engulfed the entire blade in an instant.
In that state, my figure moved with dazzling speed.
In the blink of an eye, three breaths, sixteen forms—forty-eight slashes—embroidered the empty air. Along the trajectories of those slashes, Lightning Energy discharged in midair, so beautiful it resembled exploding fireworks.
Having confird that the Asura Sword Form could be executed without issue even with the Lightning Cloud Blade, my hand moved once more.
From the Lightning Cloud Blade that scraped upward as if sweeping the ground, a half-moon shape wrapped in Lightning Energy burst forth.
Kwaaang!
The Lightning Half-Moon shattered the wall of the pavilion where I stood, and not stopping there, cleanly sliced through the pavilion beyond it as well. Only after carving a deep wound into the mountainside where the Qingcheng Sect stood did it finally dissipate.
I could not hide the shock in my eyes at what I had done.
I had acted in the heat of the mont, failing to consider the consequences. By the ti I realized my mistake, the Lightning Half-Moon had already been unleashed.
Judging by the internal energy I had poured into the Lightning Cloud Blade, I had thought it would rely knock down a single wall. Knowing it was a mistake, I waited anyway.
But—
The result that erged far exceeded my expectations.
From the gap where the pavilion had been cleanly severed, Qingcheng Daoists peeked out with startled expressions.
If there had been people there!
Startled, I rushed over to check, but fortunately no one had lost their life.
Even so, there was no way the Qingcheng Daoists’ gazes could be favorable. A perfectly intact pavilion had been split cleanly in half.
If most of the Qingcheng Daoists had already recovered their internal energy, they might have protested, but they could not even do that.
At present, if the Bright Cult’s martial artists so much as made up their minds, Qingcheng could be swept away entirely.
Perhaps because I had caused such an incident, I shut myself back inside my room.
It was then that the Qingcheng Sect Master ca to see .
“I apologize.”
I offered an apology the mont we t, and the Qingcheng Sect Master looked at steadily.
“You are very different from the rumors.”
“You an ?”
“Words are aningless. Before the blade of Emperor Salyejin, conversation serves no purpose. That is what is commonly said of the Vice Cult Leader among the Hundred Paths.”
In other words, that I was soone whose fists spoke before words.
At that rebuke, I smiled bitterly. The Qingcheng Sect Master watched quietly for a mont, then spoke again.
“It seems the talk of you being overflowing with Killing Intent, arrogant and disdainful of others, was all just idle rumor. I never knew the Vice Cult Leader to be soone who smiles so easily.”
“Ah! I’ve been hearing that quite often lately. Of course, there are still many who say it’s frightening just to look at .”
At my reply, the Qingcheng Sect Master smiled faintly.
“That is because they only look at the mouth. Look into the eyes, and you can tell—from what thoughts that person’s present smile is born.”
“They say my eyes are filled with Killing Intent.”
“The influence of martial arts, no doubt. Rough arts, heavy with Killing Intent, inevitably affect the gaze. And yet, what I see is not the outward gaze, but the emotions beyond it.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Those emotions beyond…… are regret, and bewildernt.”
He had pinpointed my current state of mind exactly, so I could not call it false. As I let out another small, wry smile, the Qingcheng Sect Master asked,
“You do not seem to have co seeking bloodshed. Then for what reason did you co to Qingcheng?”
At the direct question posed by the Qingcheng Sect Master, I replied.
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