The Demonic Cult had splintered into pieces a very long ti ago, and the current Blood Cult had been founded by absorbing those surviving factions.
Still, even as remnants, a considerable number of the Demonic Cult’s martial arts and sinister relics far surpassed those of the Blood Cult, so their lineage had not been easily severed and had continued to be passed down.
Ghost Demon’s martial arts and the soul-summoning bell were among them. Any Demonic Cult expert would have no choice but to react to that distinctive bell tone and co looking.
If only to confirm whether it truly was the soul-summoning bell.
White Serpent had once been an elder too, so naturally the sa applied to him.
Also known as: summoning a snake with a jingle bell.
At last, Jingle-White-Serpent tore his gaze away from the soul-summoning bell and stared at .
Then he abruptly asked this:
“What beca of that man in the end?”
He ant the previous owner of the soul-summoning bell.
From White Serpent’s perspective, another elder. From mine, Ghost Demon.
Either way, the answer was probably about the sa.
I replied in an even tone.
“He went out the way a demonic martial artist should—fighting to the very end, and leaving this behind.”
“I see. Then the soul-summoning bell has found an even more rightful owner.”
White Serpent slowly nodded.
But despite his words, the killing intent he gave off was gradually growing stronger.
Well, of course it was. If he killed , then that would make him the “even more rightful owner.”
Not only that, we were intruders who also knew secrets of the Demonic Cult.
Letting us walk °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° out alive made no sense.
Of course, the odds of personally ending up fighting White Serpent were not very high.
As if sensing that the ti had co, Go Hyeonwoo stepped forward and cupped his fist politely.
“It has been a long ti.”
White Serpent studied Go Hyeonwoo’s face for quite a while before speaking.
“...I do not rember you. If I had t soone like you, I would not have forgotten. And yet your face is strangely familiar.”
“I once survived by your rcy.”
“My rcy? I do not recall that either.”
“It was only a brief eting. I received no more than three forms of instruction.”
At those words, White Serpent seed to realize sothing, and a strange light rose in his eyes, which showed only white.
“Whether I rember or not is unimportant. What truly matters is that, even after being shown rcy, you have returned.”
“Yes. I intend to finish the duel we left unfinished.”
“Excellent spirit. That is how a martial artist ought to be.”
White Serpent looked deeply pleased.
Then he gave an order to the black-clothed n who were still arriving one after another even now.
“You will not interfere. This is a grudge between and that one.”
“Yes, sir.”
When he finally looked over at us, I gave my word in return that we would not interfere either.
Soon the two stood facing each other.
Gradually, they raised their inner energy and drew their respective swords at the sa ti.
In Go Hyeonwoo’s hand was the longsword he had bought with Han Somi at the auction house last year.
It looked like he intended to try with his own skill alone at first.
Partly to confirm how much he had grown in the anti, and how far that growth would carry him.
And in White Serpent’s hand was a sword as white as his clothes.
If there was one particularly unusual feature, it was that the blade split into two, like a snake’s tongue.
It was White Serpent’s cherished weapon and signature armant: the Snake Tongue Sword.
“......”
“......”
The two stared at each other in silence, swords hanging low.
Then, without a word of warning, the battle began.
WHOOO—
As Go Hyeonwoo slowly traced his sword as though painting with a brush, a similarly gentle wind drifted toward his opponent.
[Clear Current]
“......!”
White Serpent seed to realize it the instant he faced it.
That the gentle wind was laced with countless strands of sword energy.
Even so, he advanced straight ahead and swung the Snake Tongue Sword.
SWISH—!
The pure-white blade split through the soft wind and sword energy as it pressed forward.
Then, the mont Go Hyeonwoo ca within range, it split in two like a serpent’s tongue and struck for his upper body and lower body at the sa ti.
SWISH—!
Go Hyeonwoo wrapped his longsword in a gentle wind and deflected one tongue of the serpent away, then used his footwork to evade the other.
And then ca a gale driving in from the front.
WHOOO—!
As if he had climbed onto that wind itself, Go Hyeonwoo shot forward at terrifying speed and thrust with his blade likewise wrapped in wind.
[Rapid Current]
White Serpent responded exactly as he had the first ti.
Using footwork, he twisted in like a snake—winding, but fast—as he lunged straight at his opponent.
POP!
In the next instant, the two had exchanged places.
A corner of White Serpent’s robe had been slightly sliced away, while two wounds had opened on Go Hyeonwoo’s body.
“......”
Setting aside the fact that the opponent’s blade effectively counted as two, one thing was certain:
he had co out behind in the exchange.
Yet as though he had expected that result, he resud the fight without the slightest fuss.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
While the two swordsn continuously exchanged forms without pause,
Han Somi watched the battle with sweaty palms.
I stuck my fist-microphone toward her.
“A word, please. How does it look to you?”
“He has to win!”
“Obviously he has to win. I’m asking how you see the flow of the fight.”
“He absolutely has to win!”
Apparently, my words were not registering in her ears at all.
I gave up on the interview and compared the two fighters’ strength myself.
Go Hyeonwoo has a slight edge in inner energy.
White Serpent was a B-rank hidden boss, and if you gave his Core a rank, it would be B .
Go Hyeonwoo, anwhile, had managed to cross into A-rank, even if only barely.
Not that the difference was especially large.
But in almost every other area, he’s at a disadvantage.
The most obvious example was the sword.
White Serpent had wielded the Snake Tongue Sword for an extrely long ti, so he had to be very close to unity with it.
Go Hyeonwoo, on the other hand, was holding a longsword that was nothing more than a temporary stopgap.
He was nowhere near unity with it.
Even if both of them swung a sword, there was no way the power behind those blows would be the sa.
And the depth of his martial art is greater on that side too.
Just like with the sword, White Serpent had surely refined it for decades upon decades.
If anything, the real miracle was that Go Hyeonwoo had closed the gap this much in barely over a year.
But the world of victory and defeat is rciless.
Once the battle had begun, excuses like there being a gap in equipnt or not having enough ti ant absolutely nothing.
Only the result existed.
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH!
By then, large and small wounds had spread all over Go Hyeonwoo’s body.
He had co out worse in most of the exchanges.
Even so, he did not lose his fighting spirit and unfolded his next form.
WHOOOO—
A faint breeze began to circulate through the battlefield once more.
It did not seem like he intended to cast [Clear Current] again.
The flow of the wind was far too intricately tangled for that.
“......”
White Serpent also appeared to sense that sothing was off, and he raised his montum while preparing a countering form.
Soon, Go Hyeonwoo drew his longsword across.
[Turbid Current]
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH—!
The previously irregular breeze transford all at once into sword energy and ca crashing in from every direction.
At that, White Serpent let out a low murmur of admiration.
“To think you could wield illusionary swordsmanship to this extent.”
But unlike his words, his face showed no real sense of danger.
aning he was confident he could break through it.
A mont later, White Serpent flicked the Snake Tongue Sword downward as if shaking it off.
The blade split into two while filled with trendous power, then began stretching out as though a white serpent had uncoiled its tail.
It stretched so far that it filled the entire battlefield, and even then its end was nowhere in sight.
[White Serpent Without asure]
SWISH-SWISH-SWISH-SWISH—!
Blades of wind rained down wildly, but the white serpent’s tail blocked everything like an iron wall.
Then the thing that had been stretched out suddenly snapped forward and crashed down, generating an overwhelming shockwave.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK—!
Go Hyeonwoo barely managed to raise his sword and block, but a line of blood was already running from the corner of his mouth.
It was the first internal injury he had suffered since the battle began.
“...So this is as far as I can go.”
Only then did he seem willing to admit it.
That with his own strength alone, it was not enough.
He let out a regretful breath, but he did not cling stubbornly to it.
If his condition worsened any further here, he would lose every remaining chance.
Go Hyeonwoo promptly withdrew the sword he had been using until now and put it away in his inventory outright.
At that, White Serpent lowered the Snake Tongue Sword and watched him.
“You do not an to give up here. Have you prepared sothing else?”
“I have.”
And naturally, what appeared with that answer was the sacred relic of his sect.
Go Hyeonwoo looked down at it for a mont, then slowly placed a hand on the hilt and murmured as though to himself.
“I am sorry, Master. This unworthy disciple is about to interpret the rules of the sect as he pleases and make this decision for himself. If you would punish for it, I will accept it gladly.”
Then, as if hardening his resolve, he tightened his grip.
Little by little, the sacred relic began sliding out of the sheath.
KIIIIIIIING—!
A sharp sword-hum rang through the entire battlefield.
The power contained in that sound alone was so extraordinary that even the black-clothed n staggered involuntarily, and even White Serpent slightly furrowed his brow.
WHOOOO—
Next ca a savage wind, raging like a typhoon.
It whipped and spiraled wildly, concentrating toward Go Hyeonwoo. Judging by how strained he already looked, he seed to be under no small amount of pressure.
Even so, he kept pulling on the hilt, and at last the sacred relic revealed itself completely.
When he had challenged it the first ti, it had only started to co out before stopping, so it had been hard to tell.
But the blade of the sacred relic looked as though it had been cut off abruptly halfway through.
Its total length was almost closer to a dagger.
Instead, the rest of the blade was ford by wind that had been compressed to an extre and made tangible.
WHOOOO—
At last, the sacred relic began punishing its unqualified owner.
The violent wind tore at Go Hyeonwoo over and over.
And the internal injuries from the pressure seed severe as well. Blood stread freely from his nose and mouth.
Han Somi apparently could not bear to watch anymore and covered her eyes with both hands.
I tossed in a comnt anyway.
“You still have to watch.”
“I know, but still!”
Han Somi parted her fingers just a little and peeked at Go Hyeonwoo through the gap.
But the mont she saw him looking almost like a blood-soaked maniac, she covered her eyes again.
“I can’t watch! ...But I have to watch! I can’t watch! ...But I have to watch!”
While Han Somi wavered back and forth like that,
White Serpent stared at the sacred relic and let out a breath of admiration.
“A remarkable divine sword. Even I felt a flash of greed for it.”
“......”
No answer ca from Go Hyeonwoo.
It seed all of his focus was consud with controlling the sacred relic.
He almost looked as though he had entered a trance.
Even so, White Serpent continued speaking.
“But it is reckless and foolish. You dared lay hands on sothing you cannot control.”
In truth, he had no further reason to keep fighting.
If he simply left Go Hyeonwoo alone, he would self-destruct on his own.
And rather quickly, at that.
But White Serpent was a martial artist to the bone.
He drew up his inner energy once more and said,
“In that case, it is only right to finish this before it is too late. Prepare yourself.”
Perhaps he heard those words, because Go Hyeonwoo reacted for the first ti since drawing the sacred relic.
Very slowly, he raised his sword to the middle guard.
At that movent, the spiraling wind began blowing toward White Serpent.
WHOOOO—
Though it had beco much rougher, that was still [Clear Current].
It seed the battle was resuming in the sa structure as before.
White Serpent also appeared ready to respond in the sa way as before.
SWISH—!
He advanced straight ahead together with the Snake Tongue Sword.
The pure-white blade sliced through the wind and sword energy as it pressed forward.
But in the next instant—
PIT! PIT! PIT!
Countless strands of sword energy slashed across White Serpent.
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