Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 1200

The Muddy Fight (10)

Yayul Daeguk and the spirit demon priests, who had descended south at a terrifying speed, entered Hubei in an instant.

Of course, they couldn’t pass through Henan. That was where the Murim Alliance [Martial Arts Alliance] and Shaolin Temple were located, the place with the highest density of Murim [Martial World] intelligence. No matter how carefully they moved south, they were bound to be discovered.

Having skirted around Shaanxi, they stopped in front of a massive mountain.

‘Unpleasant.’

Yayul Daeguk’s face was deeply furrowed.

He seemed even more disgusted than the spirit demon priests. It was because of the extraordinary spiritual energy flowing from this mountain.

Wudang Mountain.

Even without the Seonhae Peak, the spiritual energy left behind by the Taoist masters of Wudang as they surveyed the mountain range, combined with the mountain’s own energy, had greatly enhanced the spiritual energy of Wudang Mountain, which was already renowned as a famous Taoist mountain.

For him, who had cultivated ultimate martial arts by obtaining evil essence using the demonic energy of the polluted Yeong-eum Mountain, Wudang Mountain was a place that, by its very existence, could shake his composure.

However, for someone who had crossed the wall and entered the realm of extreme evil, this spiritual energy, while unpleasant, did not affect his martial arts or temperament.

‘We can’t search this entire place.’

Yayul Daeguk took out a small bead from his pocket.

‘It can’t be helped.’

It was the Red Egg, a secret treasure that tracked the blood demon energy of the Blood Demon Great Master.

It was a legendary bead that even the Blood Cult at its peak had only managed to create five of, and whose existence had become unclear, now appearing before Wudang Mountain, transcending time and space.

‘If the Red Egg moves, the Wudang Sect will also move. If those damned Taoists read the demonic energy and come looking, a great battle will break out. You must risk your lives to stop them.’

‘We will keep that in mind.’

‘By the way, where is Ho Yeon-hap now?’

‘He went to the base to receive information. He will be here soon.’

‘Hmm.’

Yayul Daeguk felt impatient, but he calmed his mind with deep breaths. The thought that he wouldn’t have been impatient over such a thing normally made him resent the spiritual energy of Wudang Mountain even more.

How much time had passed?

Ho Yeon-hap, who had rushed over, knelt before Yayul Daeguk.

‘Master.’

‘Is there any new information?’

‘There was a great battle in Sichuan. A unit presumed to be the Blood Emperor Corps reached a place called Ak Mountain in Sichuan Province and was annihilated.’

‘Annihilated? The Blood Emperor Corps?!’

‘And…’

Ho Yeon-hap’s face showed anxiety.

‘A monster with red hair, emitting tremendous demonic energy, has left Sichuan Province and is moving east. This information just came in, so if that person is a master who has reached the extreme, they might have already entered Hubei by now.’

Yayul Daeguk’s eyes wavered.

He didn’t know who the red-haired monster was. But if a being emitting tremendous demonic energy was moving east, he couldn’t help but consider the possibility.

‘I will activate the Red Egg! Everyone, prepare for battle!’

* * *

Yeon Ho-Jeong, who had moved the Four Kings Unit a hundred yards away, quietly watched the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation [Soul-Sealing Formation].

Whoosh!

Now, there were less than a hundred demons left.

Watching them, Yeon Ho-Jeong unexpectedly felt a sense of pity.

‘The way people live is different.’

Perhaps those demons hadn’t been able to choose their own lives. Maybe they had been captured from a very young age and became children of the cult, living such lives due to brainwashing that bordered on fanaticism.

The lives of those who had burned their lives with such fervent fanaticism were ending in this way.

Of course, Yeon Ho-Jeong only felt pity; he didn’t sympathize with them. For them, such actions might have been happiness itself. If he felt pity and sadness for every single person, he wouldn’t be able to live his own life properly.

Furthermore, from their perspective, the people of the Central Plains Murim might be much more pitiful. No, they would be. Because they had lived in such an environment their whole lives.

In the end, they were beings who could never understand each other. Even though it was regrettable, that was why he didn’t stop their seemingly meaningless deaths.

Even if he didn’t feel that way, they were the enemy.

If one of them survived and killed an innocent civilian, Yeon Ho-Jeong would regret it for the rest of his life. In that case, such a fate of self-destruction wasn’t bad from his perspective.

‘It’s better this way.’

Yeon Ho-Jeong closed his eyes.

‘Because it means there are fewer enemies to fight.’

A bitter reality, but he had to be cold-hearted now.

‘In the end, the only way to resolve all this conflict is to cut off the head.’

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes, which had opened again, did not waver.

Woo-woo-woong!

The trembling of the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation became incomparably stronger than before.

Even a supreme master would only feel a sense of unease; they wouldn’t know what was happening right now.

But Yeon Ho-Jeong knew. His extremely developed upper dantian [energy center] and the divine eye of the newly born Yellow Dragon Divine King Art allowed him to see through the basic principles and current state of the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation.

‘It’s disappearing.’

A death formation that grows by absorbing the energy of those trapped inside.

If the parasite dies, the formation also collapses. It was an amazing technique, so much so that one might wonder if even a martial god could survive once trapped.

However.

If it was an evil god or a demon god, not a martial god, they could break through that formation.

By offering terrifying sacrifices.

‘So, it ends up like this.’

The Blood Emperor Corps was not a guard unit.

They were raised as prey. For the life of the Blood Demon Lord, and no one else.

Half of them were sacrifices to summon the former leaders of the cult, who were the real guards, and the other half were sacrifices to burn the life of the Blood Demon Lord.

When suffering extreme injuries or damage close to death, the Blood Demon Lord used the demons of the Blood Emperor Corps like medicine or elixirs to prolong his life. Perhaps that method was the closest to immortality.

That was why immortality was a demonic path. Life and death were one; a creature born and raised in this world could not choose only one of life or death.

It was the truth and principle of nature. Rejecting this and insisting on one path was going against the heavens. It was natural that the pinnacle of the demonic path was immortality.

‘However.’

Yeon Ho-Jeong’s eyes flashed.

Only the last ten remained.

‘You will have to come back to this world, not for immortality, but for death.’

Shouting ‘Blood God Descends, One Heart Divine,’ five more jumped into the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation.

That was when it happened.

Thud!

Unlike the demons who had turned to dust earlier, the bodies of the five who had just jumped in were shattered into pieces and scattered in all directions.

Screech!

At the same time, thick poison gas was emitted from the formation. The surface, which had been undulating black in a semi-circular shape, began to change shape, swaying back and forth.

‘Finally.’

The fact that it was changing shape and emitting poison gas meant that the internal poison gas of the Ten Thousand Ten Direction Wall, the foundation of the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation, was leaking out.

In other words, it could also be seen as the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation collapsing.

‘It’s collapsing after swallowing nearly five hundred lives?’

He could once again see how vicious the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation was. Even though the difference in the density of true energy was extreme, it was only after absorbing the demonic energy and life force of five hundred demons who could be considered masters that it was satisfied and tried to collapse? Moreover, before that, it had been absorbing the inner energy of the Blood Demon Lord.

‘There’s a limit.’

At the same time, it was proven that the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation was not perfect.

No one trapped inside could survive, but if inner energy of the same kind was poured in from the outside, the self-sustaining formation would be satisfied and collapse on its own.

In other words, the combined energy of five hundred demons was similar to the power of the Blood Demon Lord. Even considering the density calculation, there would be no one else in the mortal world with such an amount of inner energy.

‘As expected of the Blood God’s direct descendant. His inner energy is beyond imagination.’

The Blood Demon Lord must have realized the characteristics of this formation as soon as he was trapped inside.

That was why he had called the Blood Emperor Corps, and in the end, he had broken through it.

Screeeeech!

It wasn’t the sound of breaking, but the sound of tearing.

Soon, two unusually white hands pierced through the formation. As they slowly spread their hands left and right as if pulling back a curtain, the writhing Pungdo Bak-hon Formation screamed and emitted poison gas.

Swish!

The ground melted and even part of the Great Buddha Pavilion was eroded by the poison gas of the Ten Thousand Ten Direction Wall, which spread in all directions.

The faces of the remaining five demons were filled with ecstasy.

‘Blood God Descends!’

‘One Heart Divine!’

A heavy voice flowed out from within the torn formation.

‘Come.’

The five demons stood in front of the formation in an instant.

And.

Screeeeech!

With a white puff of smoke, the bodies of the five demons instantly shriveled.

They hadn’t been absorbed by the Pungdo Bak-hon Formation. They had been devoured by the Blood Demon Lord who had torn through the formation.

‘…Not enough.’

A voice that seemed to express regret. Yet, it was filled with great dignity.

‘I’m not full, but this much will be enough.’

He felt no guilt even after absorbing the life force of humans.

It was just a natural thing for him. And the demons who had been eaten by him had also offered themselves wholeheartedly.

‘Truly a vicious formation. Is this what the Hell Formation of the lost Blood Cult’s secret arts was like? They say they are the best in Sichuan, and they truly are amazing.’

It was a voice filled with admiration. Even though he had been trapped inside the formation for a long time, he didn’t seem to have suffered any mental shock, and his mind didn’t seem to have been disturbed at all.

‘Gyu-hong is dead. Well, it wouldn’t have been easy to withstand that old man’s martial arts.’

Finally.

Whoosh!

The god of blood, who had completely destroyed the formation, tilted his head back with his eyes closed.

Crack!

A chilling sound came from his slowly turning neck.

‘How many days have passed? It seems like at least a year, but the flow of time in the outside world must be different. I hope it’s not too late.’

Crack! Crack!

He mumbled, loosening his body here and there.

‘The scent of the wind isn’t much different. It’s been about ten days at most.’

The hair that had been pitch black before being trapped was now as red as blood.

It wasn’t just his hair. His skin, which had turned white, and his slightly thinner but larger frame made it difficult to recognize him from before.

He was getting closer and closer to his true form. The more he used his power, the more his original body, which had minimized the waste of power through reverse aging, was revealing its true form.

‘By the way.’

Flash!

Cheon Wi-ryong, who had been keeping his eyes closed, opened them and looked at Yeon Ho-Jeong.

‘An amazing master. Much stronger than that old man.’

‘…’

‘But for some reason… I smell an unpleasant yet familiar scent from you.’

Cheon Wi-ryong’s demonic eyes turned red.

‘Who are you?’

‘Blood Demon Lord.’

‘Who are you to possess the power of the five colors? Who are you to have such a different energy despite having the same origin as me?’

Yeon Ho-Jeong smiled faintly.

For a moment, Cheon Wi-ryong flinched without realizing it. The smile of his opponent had sent a chill down his spine.

‘So, you are the Blood Demon Lord.’

‘…’

‘I don’t know whether to say it’s an honor to see your esteemed self like this.’

It was an unusual voice. It was filled with all sorts of emotions: anger, sadness, regret, madness.

Cheon Wi-ryong’s face, which had been full of composure, gradually hardened.

‘I’ll ask again. What is your identity?’

‘I am the eldest son of the Yeon family, the lord of the Black Emperor Castle, and…’

The Gwangryong Sword cried out sadly.

‘I am Yeon Ho-Jeong, the current Four Divine Generals.’