Chapter 123
Mad Face let out a hollow laugh, as if dumbfounded, while looking at the boy before her.
However, regaining her composure, Mad Face began to release a thick killing intent she had not shown when the Common People were present.
Even as the sticky killing intent seed to lick across his entire body, Youngho stared at Mad Face with an expressionless face.
For so reason, Mad Face felt a chill run down her spine as she looked at Youngho, who showed not the slightest agitation.
‘Yes… just like that person…….’
“No!”
Suddenly, Mad Face violently scratched her own face with her fingernails and glared at Youngho as if she would kill him.
The flesh on her cheek tore away, and dark-red droplets of blood dripped down.
“How dare you…!”
“What exactly did I do? Well, it doesn’t matter. After all, this is a place your tricks can’t reach.”
Mad Face’s eyes widened to the point they could widen no further.
Disbelief, anxiety, tension, and even… delight?
Youngho felt puzzled at the emotion of delight he read on Mad Face’s face.
Before he could ask the reason, Mad Face burst into mad laughter like a lunatic.
“Ha, hahahaha! The Heavenly Demon is helping !”
“Don’t people usually say the heavens are helping them?”
“Silence. He is the heavens.”
Mad Face glared at Youngho with a stiff expression, then soon ford a relaxed smile.
“Brat, what a pity. This place is one I put considerable effort into preparing.”
“Bullshit.”
“You don’t believe ? But it’s the truth. I invested quite a bit of effort into Anhui.”
“If you were , would you believe that in all this vast Anhui, the place we happened to land was coincidentally your nest?”
Mad Face grinned and ford hand seals.
The mont her hands fluttered about—
Youngho felt a slight sealing of his Internal Energy.
Precisely three-tenths of his power beca unusable.
The instant he sensed sothing was amiss, Youngho imdiately opened the Fla Venerable Opens the Gate.
Shiver—!
As Youngho’s senses reached a superhuman realm, he began to perceive many things he had never felt before.
At the sa ti, his instinct rang alarm bells, urging him to move at once.
Following that instinct, Youngho instantly leapt away. Behind him, needle-shaped hidden weapons sliced through the air.
It was a situation so dangerous that every hair on his body stood on end.
For a brief mont, he saw that the needles were coated in a blue, extre poison.
‘If that had struck as well, things would have beco considerably dangerous.’
Ordinarily, once caught in Mad Face’s Heretical Arts, the best course would be to wait for another opportunity.
Regardless of Martial Might, Mad Face’s Heretical Arts truly lived up to their na in their sinister and uncanny nature.
Mad Face clicked her tongue, displeased that he had not been poisoned.
“Tch, if only you had been poisoned, it would have been much easier…….”
Youngho spoke to Mad Face, who was smiling at him with a sinister grin.
“So, are you not going to fight?”
“If you know , you should understand just how dangerous this situation is. Yet you don’t run… do you perhaps know about my Heretical Arts?”
“I do. Especially this one. If you make physical contact with soone who has a Lightning Bomb implanted in their body, you can control them at will for about half a quarter-hour.”
“That’s right! And then I place them wherever I wish and detonate them!”
Mad Face’s childish cackling could have provoked disgust, yet Youngho rely kept a faint smile at the corner of his lips.
“Then hurry up and attack.”
“Why? I can simply run away. Later, I’ll have countless chances to co into contact with the children.”
Youngho let out a chilling laugh.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know that you can only seal your opponent’s Internal Energy within a specific space?”
“…….”
“And if I hadn’t resisted, you nearly would have sealed half of my Internal Energy. Do you really think such Heretical Arts co without side effects?”
Seeing Mad Face’s grotesquely twisted expression, Youngho grinned, revealing his white teeth.
“Since neither you nor I can run away…….”
Wooooong—!
As the sword received Youngho’s Internal Energy, it let out a ringing cry.
“Let’s try killing each other.”
Even as he spoke calmly, a cold smile still lingered at the corner of Youngho’s lips.
He began walking toward Mad Face step by step. In response, Mad Face also walked toward him.
When roughly twenty paces remained between them, both of their figures vanished.
Clang—!
As Youngho’s Sword Force collided with Mad Face’s Fist Strike, a fierce wind pressure exploded between them.
KWAaaaAANG—!
Along with a powerful shockwave of Qi, the houses near them began to be blown away one after another.
As the violent shockwave erupted between them, Mad Face’s hand split open.
Rip.
Though it had not been completely severed, the cut was deep enough to expose her stark-white bone.
Seeing the dark-red blood gushing from the wound, Youngho’s face revealed a chilling killing intent.
He had to admit, at least, the prowess of Mad Face’s Heretical Arts. If those Heretical Arts had not been applied to him, it would not have been rely her hand—her entire arm would have split apart.
Realizing that she could not gain the upper hand in a head-on confrontation, Mad Face imdiately widened the distance and prepared to form hand seals.
However, Youngho was not so accommodating as to give his opponent ti for tricks.
In an instant, he appeared before Mad Face and swung his sword.
The blade that slashed diagonally was exceedingly threatening, yet strangely, Mad Face avoided Youngho’s strike.
Youngho looked at her with an intrigued expression.
Just now, Mad Face had not dodged the sword. It was simply that Youngho’s blade had cut through empty air.
It was as though an irresistible force of attraction had pulled his sword away.
Youngho admired how easily Mad Face’s Heretical Arts had altered the path of his blade.
“You use quite an interesting Heretical Art.”
“You cunning brat!”
Though her words were harsh, Mad Face could not conceal her fear. Setting aside his formidable Martial Might at an age that did not suit it, what in the world was this thod of fighting?
She had never seen or heard of such combat. Youngho was cunning.
He was deliberately waiting for her to form hand seals.
‘Does he know about my Heretical Arts?!’
Each of Mad Face’s Heretical Arts was certainly threatening and chaotic. But did such techniques truly co without a price?
There was a price. It was simply negligible compared to the effect of the arts themselves.
The mont Mad Face ford hand seals to unleash her Heretical Arts, there was an ever-so-slight opening.
Still, until now, she had always been able to form hand seals without issue.
The reason was simple. That mont which could be called an opening was far too brief.
Even among masters of the Transformation Realm, not to ntion those at the level of an Absolute Being—even Cheonung, hailed as the strongest among them, would find it difficult to seize that threadlike instant.
Thus, although Mad Face might choose to flee, she had never once believed she would face the threat of death.
However, the existence before her was different. Even though she had reduced his power by three-tenths, Youngho’s body was still incredibly fast.
Fast enough to exploit that fleeting opening.
Mad Face unconsciously bit her lip. It was the first ti. The fear she felt now was entirely different from when she had toyed with and humiliated her opponents.
For the first ti in a long while, Mad Face thought that she might die.
And because Youngho could predict exactly what she was thinking, he lifted one corner of his mouth and spoke.
“Did you know, granny?”
“…….”
“An opening isn’t just sothing that appears. It’s sothing you can create.”
For an instant, fear seized Mad Face, and she wrapped her fist in Hardened Force and swung it straight ahead.
By then, the Sword Qi Youngho had fired was already right before her nose.
Clang—!
Barely blocking the Sword Qi, Mad Face imdiately ford hand seals.
At the sa ti, Youngho, who had taken her rear, swung his sword.
Crash—!
With the sound of shattering glass, the shield Mad Face had hastily manifested through her Heretical Arts was destroyed by Youngho’s blade.
Slash!
Though she urgently kicked off the ground to retreat, Youngho’s sword cut across her abdon.
Ssssss—!
A burning sound and sll rose from the wound. Mad Face glanced at it.
‘It can’t regenerate?’
That was the only conclusion. The regeneration unique to Demonic Arts was raging to heal the injury, yet the portion cut by Youngho’s blade refused to recover.
If there was any consolation, it was that the burning sealed the wound on its own.
Just in case, she struck several acupoints to stanch the bleeding, then glared at Youngho as if she would kill him.
Youngho was overwhelming her. She could not escape. Yet killing him was an even slimr possibility.
There was no choice.
Mad Face took a deep breath and spoke.
“How about a negotiation?”
“A negotiation?”
Fortunately, Youngho seed interested.
“Even if you kill , the Heretical Arts within the children’s bodies will not disappear.”
“So?”
“What do you an, so? Do you not wish to save the children?”
“You’re more foolish than I thought…….”
For a mont, resentnt surged from the depths of her heart, but suppressing her fury with superhuman patience, Mad Face spoke in a heavy voice.
“I am asking whether persuading would not be better than killing .”
“Oh, that does sound plausible. But we can kill you and remove the remaining Heretical Arts from the children’s bodies ourselves, can’t we?”
Mad Face grinned as if she had been waiting for that.
“Yes. As you say. But there are countless people in Anhui. Do you truly think you can treat them all? Even if you could, a year would pass in the blink of an eye.”
“I’m not the one who’d be doing it anyway.”
“What?”
“I told you. With five Absolute-Level Masters, a complete cure is possible. We can just leave it to the Orthodox Sect. Why would I go out of my way to help the Common People?”
“…….”
It was a reasonable argunt. Youngho was rely helping—at Han Yonghu’s earnest request.
If the Orthodox Sect were to ask him to handle the treatnt as well, they would be committing sothing worse than what even the most infamous Great Demonic Head would do.
“And even if persuasion worked, would you be willing to side with us?”
“O-of course.”
She clung to that threadlike hope only for a mont before Youngho’s next words left her speechless.
“Say, ‘That Heavenly Demon bastard.’ It’s hardly even much of an insult, but if you’re going to join us, you should be able to manage that.”
“…….”
“Go on. Say it.”
Youngho’s beaming smile was loathso. To call a god a bastard?
Veins began to bulge on Mad Face’s forehead.
Soon, Youngho could no longer suppress his laughter. The way she looked at him as if he were despicable, the killing intent she released—it was all too amusing.
And that made him angrier still. The fact that so many had died for nothing more than such blind faith disgusted him.
He hated the cultists who believed in the Heavenly Demon. He loathed the cultists who recited the doctrines of the Demonic Cult, preaching devotion to the Heavenly Demon.
His expression turned cold. With a twisted face, Youngho spoke to Mad Face.
“Mad Face, did you know?”
“…….”
Though she did not answer, he continued.
“When I release my Qi, my martial arts burn like flas. And when I compress it, as you see, it forms this pitch-black Hardened Force. It feels more refined due to the compression, but in practice, it seems less versatile than Sword Qi.”
“…What are you trying to say?”
“Before I died, I thought about it. About a way to broaden the utility of my Hardened Force and make it even stronger.”
Mad Face shuddered at the madness flickering in his eyes.
“Wouldn’t it work if I released Hardened Force the sa way I fire Sword Qi?”
“What?”
If Hardened Force were released, it would simply beco a mass of Qi—what was called Sword Qi.
Before Mad Face could even frown in confusion, black flas suddenly ignited along Youngho’s blade.
A searing heat that seed capable of lting flesh reached her even from here.
“So I thought. What if I first released Qi in all directions, maintained that state, and then compressed it?”
Impossible. Compression ant gathering it into one place. Yet to maintain its dispersed state while compressing it?
She could not even imagine the level of mastery over Internal Energy required.
It was a realm she could never have dread of.
Her entire body trembled in terror.
Mad Face saw it clearly. Those blazing black flas were not re Qi—they were Hardened Force.
Youngho slowly stepped until he stood directly before her. She could not move at all.
No matter how she turned her thoughts, she could see no way to survive.
At last, Mad Face let out a hollow laugh.
She thought: this man was strong. His sword was sharper than anything else.
Youngho raised his sword behind his head as if drawing a bowstring, then brought it down.
Gazing at the enchanting black flas, Mad Face murmured in a sigh.
“Heavenly Demon…….”
Perhaps, perhaps this man’s sword could even—
KWAaaaAANG—!
Youngho’s blade cleaved through Mad Face, destroying even the house behind her.
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