Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 903

‘Hmm?’

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes narrowed, his gaze intensifying.

Bang! Bang! Boom!

The successive bursts of energy blurred his vision and rattled his senses. He wasn’t hit directly, but if he didn’t retreat, his internal energy would be thrown into chaos.

With practiced calm, Yeon Ho-Jeong executed the Dragon Form Seven Step, retreating swiftly while preparing the Blazing Dragon Strike once more. His eyes locked onto Blood Ascendant’s.

Sizzle!

Reddish smoke curled from Blood Ascendant’s eyes.

Something was clearly amiss. The problem was that Blood Ascendant’s energy had become even more malevolent than before.

Yeon Ho-Jeong studied Blood Ascendant for a heartbeat, then unleashed the Blazing Dragon Strike with a powerful swing.

Clang!

The merciless strike obliterated everything in its path. Before the shockwave could fully expand, the sweeping slash collided with Blood Ascendant’s Hundred and Eight Red Rosary Beads and dissipated.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

Blood Ascendant was forced back again.

His face was ashen, and his breathing came in ragged gasps.

Yeon Ho-Jeong didn’t pause. No questions, just a swift, decisive battle. Regardless of his opponent’s condition, he possessed the martial prowess and unwavering confidence to crush all opposition.

Whoosh!

In just three steps, Yeon Ho-Jeong found the perfect opening and unleashed the Blazing Dragon Strike from Blood Ascendant’s flank.

Clang!

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes flashed.

It wasn’t the Gale Nine Dragon Kill, but it was undeniably a strike imbued with lethal intent.

Yet, Blood Ascendant remained unscathed. More accurately, he had absorbed the impact, but not from the Blazing Dragon Strike itself.

The Hundred and Eight Red Rosary Beads were divine artifacts, and they didn’t shatter under the force and edge of the Blazing Dragon Strike. Instead, they used the elasticity of the string to absorb and deflect the impact. The subtle martial principle was so fluid that even Yeon Ho-Jeong was impressed.

In essence, he was being harmed not by Yeon Ho-Jeong’s attacks, but by something within himself.

‘An opportunity.’

Bang! Bang!

For the first time in a long while, he moved with the speed of the Blood Wing Sky Dance, positioning himself behind Blood Ascendant.

Thud!

He planted his feet firmly and unleashed the Golden Dragon Crushing Fist.

Whoosh!

The heavy, rotating fist slammed into Blood Ascendant’s body.

It was then.

Crack! Sizzle!

A burst of chilling lightning energy erupted from Blood Ascendant’s back.

‘……?!’

A strange light flickered in Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes.

Sizzle!

Faint smoke rose from various parts of Blood Ascendant’s body.

Zzzzz. Zzzzz.

Blue lightning coursed through Blood Ascendant’s body, causing a discharge phenomenon.

Surprise flickered across Yeon Ho-Jeong’s face.

Thump!

With a powerful rebound, Yeon Ho-Jeong retreated five yards.

It was an astonishing display of power. He hadn’t anticipated that someone so ravaged by poison and internal injuries could still possess such strength.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

Yeon Ho-Jeong, who was about to charge in, halted his advance.

Zzzzzzzzz!

The discharge phenomenon from Blood Ascendant’s body intensified, growing larger and more potent. It wasn’t just the range that was expanding; the lightning energy itself was becoming stronger.

It was far beyond the lightning that Moyong Gun could generate. Yeon Ho-Jeong mused that even after reaching the Supreme State, it would take Moyong Gun a considerable time to unleash such lightning.

‘Cough!’

Even the formidable Yeon Ho-Jeong couldn’t easily approach such raw power.

However, Blood Ascendant’s complexion worsened with each passing moment. His face was pale, almost blue, and the blue lightning arcing across his skin shifted dozens of times in an instant, tormenting him.

Sizzle!

Black poison seeped from Blood Ascendant’s body.

‘Detoxification.’

The poison of the Ten Direction Wall was being neutralized in an instant.

He hadn’t taken an antidote, nor had he expelled the poison with divine skill.

It was pure lightning energy. Lightning with a concentration akin to natural lightning was completely incinerating the poison.

‘He can’t be okay.’

The runaway lightning energy was clearly taking a toll.

Yeon Ho-Jeong, wondering why this had suddenly occurred, turned his gaze to the shattered vajra [a ritual object symbolizing a thunderbolt].

The vajra, now reduced to dust, was slowly crumbling on the ground.

Yeon Ho-Jeong realized what was happening. He understood not through his knowledge of Buddhism, but by observing the flow of power.

‘That vajra wasn’t just a simple dharma tool [a ritual implement]. It was a sealing tool that contained the power of Sakra [a deity associated with thunder and lightning].’

The vajra itself was a tool of sorcery modeled after Sakra’s lightning.

But for most monks, it was just a simple dharma tool, a tool for practice.

However, for the Small Thunder Sound Temple, which sought power, the vajra was a dharma tool that sealed Sakra’s power, actual lightning energy.

And Blood Ascendant’s body, which had become one with that dharma tool, was now bearing the brunt of the runaway lightning as the vajra broke.

Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!

‘Kaaaaaah!’

A terrible scream tore from Blood Ascendant’s throat. Even without Yeon Ho-Jeong’s intervention, he was suffering immense damage.

A somewhat anticlimactic fight, but Yeon Ho-Jeong didn’t lower his guard.

‘It can’t end like this.’

He had aimed for an opening and shattered the vajra with an extreme slash, but no matter how alien the martial arts of the outer world were, he wouldn’t have entrusted his life to a mere foreign object.

‘It’s not just a simple runaway.’

It was then.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

While focused on the fight with Blood Ascendant, Yeon Ho-Jeong heard a tremendous explosion in the distance. The fight was accompanied by such powerful shockwaves that they were more than fifty yards away from the Ten Direction Wall.

‘Fire bombs?!’

Yeon Ho-Jeong turned around.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

Was he too engrossed in the battle?

This sound, this vibration that shook the earth.

And even this very welcome momentum.

A smile spread across Yeon Ho-Jeong’s face.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The cavalry’s momentum was building.

A large unit had arrived, leading heavenly horses that surpassed the movement techniques of even the most skilled martial arts masters.

They wore light armor that didn’t hinder their movements. Most of them carried spears, but they had swords at their waists, and flexible bows were slung on the sides of their horses.

There were three hundred of them. Originally, the unit comprised a thousand soldiers, but due to the long journey, it was deemed better to have a smaller number to minimize supply issues.

Instead, it seemed that only the elite were selected, as the surging military spirit was terrifying.

‘I expected it, but I didn’t think they’d catch up this quickly.’

Neither Gong Gong nor Jeagal Mun-Ho had assigned a separate unit to the group.

It wasn’t that they weren’t concerned about the group. It was because a unit had already departed to join the group and wreak havoc in the enemy camp.

The leader of the three hundred cavalry, Hwang Seok-Tae, pointed his Crimson Dragon Spear at Daegeumbul and the Rakshasa.

‘Kill them!’

Whizz! Whizz! Whizz! Whizz! Whizz!

The number of arrows flying through the air was a staggering two hundred.

Arrows imbued with powerful internal energy. Although they couldn’t compare to Muk Bi’s archery, the arrows shot by two hundred archery masters were terrifying in their own right.

Moreover, the pressure from the fire bombs that had exploded in the air had significantly disrupted the ranks of Hong Na-Han and the Rakshasa army.

Daegeumbul moved.

Thud!

With a powerful step, he swung his staff, and a semi-transparent energy barrier formed, covering a wide area.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

As expected, the power of a Supreme State master was extraordinary. The energy barrier, reinforced with powerful internal energy, deflected over a hundred arrows.

However, he couldn’t deflect all the remaining arrows.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Ting! Ting!

‘Kaaah!’

With gruesome screams, about a dozen Rakshasa fell.

Many others deflected the arrows by swinging their weapons. The Rakshasa who had died were those in the front who had been caught in the pressure of the explosion.

Fire ignited in Daegeumbul’s eyes.

‘Who are you people!’

Daegeumbul, who was about to rush towards the Yongah Iron Cavalry, suddenly stopped moving.

Sizzle!

Tang Gwan, who had retracted the tentacles of the Melting Poison that had stretched forward, had already spread poison in the direction Daegeumbul was advancing.

Daegeumbul felt the heat rising to his head.

That terrifying cloud of poison was so potent that even he, who had reached the Blood Buddha Scripture, felt a sense of crisis. There were those who handled poison in the Western Regions, but he had never encountered anyone who could wield a poison technique comparable to this.

Daegeumbul’s body rotated.

Whoosh! Boom!

It was an immense power. The hemispherical cloud of poison from the Ten Direction Wall was pushed away entirely and then returned to its original position.

It was a determined strike, the Great Thunder Forbidden Thousand Palms. One of the best martial arts of the Great Thunder Sound Temple, its power was comparable to the Great Strength Vajra Palm of the Shaolin Temple.

Tang Gwan coughed up blood.

This energy was too fierce. The poison cloud almost dissipated in an instant. Even though he had reduced the impact with the Melting Poison, it was strong enough to cause deep internal injuries.

This was the true power of a Supreme State master. Although he hadn’t reached the Saintly Heaven, the density of the true energy he possessed was different.

‘Oh, no.’

The Ten Direction Wall shook, and black smoke rose from various places. The Melting Three Lives Technique was on the verge of collapse.

It was a technique that wouldn’t have lasted long in the first place if it hadn’t been for Tang Gwan’s absolute internal energy. Just maintaining this vast cloud of poison until now was worthy of being called the pinnacle of internal energy.

Daegeumbul’s eyes flashed.

‘So, that was the limit.’

The anger towards the one who created the poison cloud was much greater than the anger towards the mysterious unit that had suddenly appeared.

Swish!

A powerful arrow that pierced through the Ten Direction Wall aimed for Daegeumbul’s chest.

Thwack!

Daegeumbul, who had knocked away the arrow by hitting the shaft, gathered a massive energy in both hands.

As things stood, there was no point in commanding Hong Na-Han and the Rakshasa army. If he crushed the poison cloud with overwhelming power, everything else would be a piece of cake.

Just as Daegeumbul was about to swing the twin palms of the Great Thunder Forbidden Thousand Palms.

‘……!’

His eyes wavered.

In a fleeting moment, he felt a force like a gust of wind that had been shot from over fifty yards away.

If he ignored it and unleashed his energy, he could blow away the poison cloud, but his own life would also be forfeit.

‘Damn it!’

He retracted the power of the Great Thunder Forbidden Thousand Palms and leaped backward.

Whoosh!

The Gale Slash of the White Dragon Blade, which had grazed the ground and curved, was aimed at Daegeumbul with a razor-sharp edge.

Daegeumbul was terrified.

‘No way!’

He couldn’t have imagined that a flying sword with such immense power could move so freely.

‘How can a human have such power……!’

Daegeumbul unleashed the Great Thunder Forbidden Thousand Palms again.

Clang!

Blood gushed from Daegeumbul’s mouth.

In the process of retracting the energy he was about to unleash and then unleashing it again, the true energy that protected his insides had already been greatly shaken. In that situation, he had taken a direct hit, so the damage was greater than the previous impact of the Gale Slash.

Crack!

Daegeumbul, who had retreated another ten yards, gritted his teeth.

‘This……!’

It was then.

Sizzle!

Only then did Daegeumbul feel the unusual flow of lightning energy.

Daegeumbul’s eyes widened.

‘What is that?!’

Could it be that the vajra had broken?!’

‘……!!’

He couldn’t believe it. Blood Ascendant’s vajra was a divine object that couldn’t be scratched even by the Great Thunder Forbidden Thousand Palms that he had used with all his might. Not to mention, if Blood Ascendant’s internal energy was imbued in it.

‘How!’

The man with the axe had already retreated far away and was about to swing his black axe again.

Flash!

Daegeumbul didn’t care about the front or the back.

‘Hong Na-Han and the Rakshasa army, retreat! We’ll aim for the next opportunity!’

With a desperate cry, Daegeumbul rushed out and charged at Yeon Ho-Jeong.

‘You! Fight me!’

Yeon Ho-Jeong, as if annoyed, swung the Blazing Dragon Strike from below upwards.

It was the second form of the Gale Nine Dragon Kill, the Ascending Sky Stance, which he had created by taking the Ascending Sky Strike of Doje Jongli Baek to heart and adapting it to himself.

Clang!!

The power of the three slashes, which wrapped around the earth’s energy and ascended to the sky.

It was as if a golden dragon was rising into the sky, swinging its claws. It couldn’t be blocked or parried.

Daegeumbul retreated to the left with all his might.

Crack! Crack! Crack!

The overflowing shockwave shattered the earth and blew off Daegeumbul’s right arm.

The flying right arm turned into blood and then evaporated. It was an absurdly powerful force.

Daegeumbul, whose face was distorted by the stinging pain accompanied by extreme emptiness, immediately flew towards Blood Ascendant.

‘Blood Ascendant! Get a hold of yourself! Retreat……!’

Boom!

The lightning energy exploded, and Daegeumbul was blown away again. Black burns were left all over Daegeumbul’s body. He wasn’t dead, but the explosive power was enough to make him lose consciousness.

Today, Daegeumbul was suffering the most humiliation he had ever experienced since he had learned martial arts.