Monochrome Sovereign [EN]: Chapter 606

‘That’s the place.’

Where Tang Hyeong was looking, a dark blackness was swirling.

It wasn’t a darkness visible to the naked eye. Unless one was a master like Tang Hyeong, or had reached a level where they could visualize the atmosphere of qi [life force energy], they would only feel unease.

Kieeeeeeek!

It sounded like a scream.

The darkness writhed erratically, forming the shape of a ghost. The ghost was screaming wildly, trying to turn this great family into ruins.

Tang Hyeong’s eyes flashed.

Whoosh!

Just by flashing his eyes, the spreading energy faltered.

Despite the distance, his will alone suppressed the unnatural release of true energy. There were many words for presence and qi waves, but Tang Hyeong had reached a supreme level where he could suppress even the invisible energy of others with his will alone.

“The air is heavy. Since when has the air in the main family been so stifling?”

His words, spoken as if sighing, contained an undisguised self-reproach.

Tang Hyeong walked silently. And behind him, the elite Black Wind and Green Robe troops of the Tang family followed respectfully.

How long had he walked?

‘I can feel it.’

The poison art, which had been sealed, became more active over time, restoring his senses to their original state.

His senses were even more acute than when he had left his residence.

Tang Hyeong could clearly see what was happening within the Tang family. Beyond just reading the atmosphere and making predictions, he could see where people were and in what condition.

‘It’s been a while.’

It was as if he could grasp everything in the world.

It had been a long time since he had felt such a sensation. By releasing the inner energy he had suppressed for nearly twenty years and pushing it to the ends of his limbs, his muscles became more elastic and his five senses and sixth sense became more acute with every step.

That was why Tang Hyeong knew.

The massive dark cloud approaching him was now very close.

‘As expected.’

He had considered ignoring it. But if he didn’t stop them here, more family members would be harmed.

Tang Hyeong looked towards the family head’s residence.

Krrrrumble.

The earth vibrated, and the air repeatedly compressed and expanded.

‘Gwan, is it?’

An immense power and an unknown, strange true energy were colliding.

A wistful look appeared in Tang Hyeong’s eyes.

‘How long has it been since he mastered it, and he’s already at that level.’

The Monarch’s Poison Scripture.

He had passed this scripture on to his son, but after their relationship had soured, he had never fully taught it to him.

Yet, his son had somehow mastered this extreme martial art to its limits.

He was impressed. He knew how difficult and demanding this martial art was, which made him even more impressed.

And he was grateful.

His son was the type to not even glance at the greatest martial art if he didn’t like it. He was that proud and had a clear sense of his own will.

For such a person to have mastered the Monarch’s Poison Scripture to this extent meant that, at the very least, his anger towards him wasn’t enough to sever their ties.

Tang Hyeong, who had been looking at the family head’s residence with wistful eyes, became cold again.

“Come out.”

Swoosh.

Without a sound, without a trace.

A single old man appeared ten yards in front of Tang Hyeong.

Tang Hyeong was over seventy years old, but the old man looked much older. He appeared to be at least over ninety. His back was bent, and pus was oozing from his eyes.

However, beneath the pus-filled eyelids, the glint in his eyes was as intense as the sun and more eerie than a ghost.

“Heh heh, it’s been a while.”

Tang Hyeong said in a calm voice.

“Are you still not dead?”

“A person must constantly study, even in old age. Stimulation is needed. That’s how you don’t get old.”

It wasn’t something an old man should say, but considering the studies and techniques he had created, it wasn’t something to be easily dismissed.

Tang Hyeong shook his head.

“It would have been better if you had died there.”

“I thought so too. But what do you know? Just when I was thinking about the end of my life, another opportunity came along.”

“…”

“Indeed, one must live long to see things. Don’t you think?”

The former family head and the strongest master in the martial world, Tang Hyeong, was being spoken to as if he were a subordinate.

The Green Robe Captain shouted angrily.

“How dare you! Do you know who this person is!”

The old man chuckled and said.

“Of course, I know. He’s my impudent nephew who relied on his talent, isn’t he?”

“W-what did you say?!”

Nephew? What was he talking about?

Tang Hyeong raised his hand.

“Black Wind and Green Robe, retreat twenty yards.”

Swoosh.

The two units did not express their confusion. They simply moved as ordered.

“Indeed.”

The old man’s fingers, gripping his cane, twitched.

His fingernails, caked with grime, were long and thick like the claws of a beast.

“I expected you to be stronger, but you’ve exceeded my expectations.”

The twisted smile disappeared from the old man’s face.

His face was now filled with caution.

“Just the unmanageable energy is enough to make my bones ache. I knew you had talent, but I didn’t know you would grow this much.”

No energy was emanating from Tang Hyeong’s body. At least, that’s what a master would feel.

But the real ones saw Tang Hyeong differently.

A massive power that was impossible to even guess at was swirling around his entire body. The fragments of that power were hard to feel even with qi sense.

The old man probed that power, and that alone made him tense.

Tang Hyeong said.

“Tang Chungho.”

The old man, Tang Chungho’s face contorted.

“You impudent brat! Just because you’re old, do you dare call your uncle by his name!”

“As of today, the organization called the Dark Ghost Sect no longer exists in the Tang family.”

Tang Hyeong nodded.

“Quietly end your life here. That would be better for you.”

“This crazy bastard! Just because you’ve gotten a little older, you think you’re invincible!”

Tang Chungho shouted in a tearing voice.

“Do you know why I came here?! It’s to destroy you! If you hadn’t come out of the confinement, it might have been different, but since you crawled out on your own, I will tear you into a thousand pieces!”

The decades of resentment were deeply embedded in his resounding voice.

“And that’s not all! I will kill you and your children too! I will slaughter every single one of your bloodline and cleanse the main family! I will erase all the achievements and glorious reputation you have built!”

“…”

“I would gladly die just for that! If I can destroy you at the cost of this old life, I would die a hundred times, a thousand times!”

It was a chilling rage. The concentration of accumulated resentment was so dense that it was impossible to estimate.

Tang Hyeong said.

“Did Hoa tell you to do this?”

“Shut up! Do you think I’m in a position to take orders from your brat?!”

“It sounded like you wouldn’t have destroyed me if I hadn’t come out of the confinement. To be swayed by the words of a grandson, whether it’s a contract or an order, your end is truly pathetic.”

“Shut up!”

Tang Chungho slammed his cane hard on the ground.

Kugugugugung!!

In an instant, the sky darkened, and the earth turned red.

Just by striking the ground, a formation was activated. It was a realm impossible even with divine-level formations or mechanical arts. It was likely that he had prepared in advance to activate the Ghost Sect’s formation throughout the entire area.

Of course, it was Tang Ho, not Tang Chungho, who had done this.

‘He must have been trying to stop me.’

For the second son, who was trying to overturn the family, the biggest obstacle would be himself.

He had been confident that he wouldn’t come out, but he had made these preparations just in case. In that aspect, he was a thorough person.

‘So, I’m now in a trap set by my uncle and son.’

Tang Hyeong smiled.

In his bitter smile, tears of blood flowed.

Thud! Thud!

Hundreds of hands emerged from beneath the red earth.

They were different from the hands of the corpses Tang Gwan had seen. They were somehow larger and much more vivid. There were no grotesque appearances like torn flesh or twisted joints.

Whoosh!

The massive mountain visible far to the right was burning entirely, and in the stream to the left, chopped-up corpses were floating, stained with blood.

Numerous buildings had become ruins, and the giant trees that had stood rooted in the same spot for hundreds of years had withered pitifully.

It was as if hell had descended upon the world. It was a world that seemed to have realized the image of hell that people imagined.

Tang Chungho shouted.

“This is the resentment of the Ghost Sect! Fight the ghosts of hell until your strength wanes and you die!”

It was then.

Tang Hyeong’s lightly lifted foot forcefully stomped on the ground.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwang!!

In an instant, the red earth began to be devastated with a massive explosion.

Kieeeeeeek!

The ghosts that were rising from the ground screamed and collapsed back into the earth.

The skeletal ruins crumbled on the spot, and the flames on the mountain far away subsided as if it were raining.

“…?!”

Surprise appeared on Tang Chungho’s face.

“Once isn’t enough? Not bad. You’ve made quite a decent thing.”

Tang Hyeong raised his foot again.

And he forcefully slammed it down on the ground.

Kwarururung! Puuuuuuung!

Golden pillars of fire shot up from the shattered and broken earth.

They weren’t actual pillars of fire. Tang Hyeong’s will was turning imagination into reality, destroying this formation from its roots.

“You can withstand two? Not bad at all. I wonder how long you can last.”

Kwakwang! Kwaang!

After three steps, four more steps followed.

Kwakwang! Kwarururung! Puuuuuuung!

“Y-you bastard!!”

Tang Chungho staggered backward.

Even he, the master of the formation, couldn’t come to his senses in the face of this rapid and explosive dismantling. He was screaming and ordering the formation to change, but the voices of the pillars hiding and operating the formation were gradually fading.

They were dying. The ghosts of the Ghost Sect.

In the face of Tang Hyeong’s indiscriminate barrage of explosive strikes, the formation that had boasted it could not be destroyed even by dozens of cannons was being shattered miserably.

And finally.

Kwaaaaaaang!

With the sound of a bomb exploding, the world changed.

Hwaaaaaaaak!

The dark sky cleared, and the red earth returned to its original color.

The world had returned to normal. Tang Hyeong was still standing firmly in the same spot, glaring at Tang Chungho.

“Don’t you have anything more interesting?”

Tang Chungho trembled involuntarily.

He had created a hellish formation and brought it into reality, but even that didn’t work against Tang Hyeong. No matter how great the technique or power was, it was ultimately a system based on the Tang family’s studies.

If one had mastered even a part of the Tang family’s studies, they could dismantle any martial art or formation.

Some said that Tang Gwan was the embodiment of the Tang family’s martial arts.

Then what about Tang Hyeong?

Tang Hyeong was the omnipotent master of the Tang family’s studies. Whether it was martial arts, formations, or techniques, there was no one more superior than Tang Hyeong in any field.

In the past, and in the present, there was no one like Tang Hyeong.

A monster who had mastered everything in the hundreds of years of history as the master of the Sichuan Tang family, the Tang clan.

Here was a sorrowful absolute being who longed for another omnipotent being to appear in the future, but realized that it was impossible.

“You’re hiding like rats, but it seems like all the old geezers of the Ghost Sect have gathered.”

“…?!”

“If you have nothing more to show, ascend from here.”

Tang Hyeong waved his hand.

In an instant, the world darkened.

Not an artificial darkness created by the Soul-Summoning Formation, but a cloud of poison that actually covered the surroundings, swallowing Tang Chungho and the land behind him whole.

Psssssssss.