Chapter 84. The Entire World is My Home (5)
The remaining ninety-six warriors in white quickly circled around and surrounded Ma-Ra, who landed on the ground splattered with hot blood.
“Kill her!”
The moment the leader of the warriors in white gave the order, Ma-Ra’s entire body turned black and somehow melted into her own shadow, which then merged with the shadows of the warriors.
“It’s an assassination art! Be careful! Raise your senses to the maximum!”
However, despite their leader’s warning, flowers of blood were already blooming everywhere.
Following Ma-Ra, Dae-Woong also unleashed the Thirty-Six Iron Shattering Fists as he ran toward Do Mu-Sang and Do-Gun.
Woo-Moon was shocked as he saw the movement technique his father used.
‘What is that? It’s not grandfather’s... I haven’t seen that before! How could my father know such an incredible technique?’
For now, however, he had to shelve these questions. There were more important things to do.
Dae-Woong punched Do Mu-Sang three times, his power just as destructive as his incredible stature suggested.
“You’re like a stupid wild boar!”
Hye-Ryeong’s husband, Do Mu-Sang, was a member of the Cyclic Spear Gate, a sect that passed down their teachings to only one person. He thrust his spear forward and rotated it at a high speed, creating a vortex in the air.
Bang!
Dae-Woong’s fist and Do Mu-Sang’s vortex spear collided.
“Ugh!”
Do Mu-Sang was unable to handle Dae-Woong’s fist force and was forced to take a step back.
‘H-how could I be pushed back by this bastard!’
Mu-Sang didn’t know what to make of this situation, and it hurt his pride. Dae-Woong was a country bumpkin in every way! To think that a true-blue martial artist like him would be pushed back by a bastard who was a countryside inn owner until not too long ago!
Meanwhile, Do-Gun came forward to help his father, switching his sword to his left and focusing his qi to stop the bleeding from the wound on his shoulder.
“Father, I’m here!"
A two-versus-one thus started.
Woo-Moon caught a glimpse of his father and Ma-Ra’s fights before flicking his sword with a finger. He felt his sword resonate as it cried out, thirsty for blood, and he turned his gaze toward Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong.
Hye-Ryeong had realized by this point that things had gone so far because she had been drugged by the incense that Mu Heon had given her. However, that didn’t matter anymore.
She just wanted to kill that bitch Jin-Jin and her son. That bitch had made her miserable ever since she was a child and had caused her to be consumed by the flames of her horrifying jealousy. Killing these two worms was the only thing left in her mind.
“You and your mother, too! I’m so sick of the both of you!”
Hye-Ryeong coated her sword in sword aura and ran forward with a cry of rage.
Woosh!
As she circulated all of the qi in her body, a tremendous energy storm swept everything around her. Her display of power fully confirmed her status as the current strongest member of the Baek Family—an expert who had reached the pinnacle of the Transcendent Class.
Ju-Ryeong felt the same way as her older sister.
“I’ll kill you!”
While inferior to Hye-Ryeong, Ju-Ryeong was also an expert, a beginner Transcendent. She coated her sword with a purple sword aura identical to her older sister’s, although somewhat weaker.
“AGH!!!!!”
The two powerful people who had controlled the Baek Family for years simultaneously rushed Woo-Moon, displaying all of their mastery over their movement techniques.
CLANG!
An unbelievable roar rang out as swords collided.
A golden sword as brilliant as the light of the sun and two purple swords glowing with eerie yet beautiful light pushed against one another.
As she clashed with Woo-Moon using the ultimate stance of the Iron Blood Merciless Sword, Hye-Ryeong recalled her first meeting with Jin-Jin.
Jin-Jin had been as pretty as a doll and had a bright smile on her face as she was introduced to the family by the Palm Martial Emperor Baek Sang-Woon—a man Hye-Ryeong had admired and respected more than her own father!
Sang-Woon had always looked for Hye-Ryeong and her sister every time he stopped by the family estate. However, from the moment Jin-Jin appeared, she was the only object of his love.
“AAAGH!!!”
Hye-Ryeong could see the face of her most hated enemy, that bitch Jin-Jin, in Woo-Moon’s face. She imbued her sword with all of the rage in her bones as she continued to reminisce about the past.
Now that she thought about it, she had felt a great sense of entitlement. That was why she had become even more jealous and envious when Jin-Jin started to show her talent, and why she had deliberately bullied the girl herself and made the others ostracize her as well. She was the reason Jin-Jin was always picked on.
The bright and lovely Jin-Jin, who had lived a solitary life, had been ecstatic to join a family where she thought she would always have someone to talk to. But Hye-Ryeong made it her mission to force her into an even greater loneliness than when she had lived alone with a silver tiger on a faraway cliff.
Every time she saw Woo-Moon not being pushed back and even retaliating with composure as she and her sister attacked him together, it reminded her of the Jin-Jin from childhood.
‘Yes. That bitch Jin-Jin was as much of a martial genius as you are right now! No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn’t keep up!’
It just made her hate Jin-Jin even more.
Jin-Jin was the daughter of the Palm Martial Emperor, inheriting his talent. She was born with a pure cultivation physique and a bright mind. Moreover, she was so beautiful that Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong had been relegated to fireflies in front of a full moon.
If not for Jin-Jin, Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong would have been beautiful enough to have been considered the most beautiful women in gangho at the time!
Thus, in their desire to get rid of Jin-Jin, they tried to force her into an arranged marriage with the third son of the Namgoong Family Patriarch, who was rumored to be a playboy and a pervert. However, Jin-Jin had run away, saying that she could not possibly accept an arranged marriage, let alone to a partner like that.
Afraid that Jin-Jin would be able to flee and get her happily ever after, Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong forced their subordinates to cross the line and push her to the limit, ultimately causing her death...or so they thought.
At that time, Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong didn’t have the resolve to kill Jin-Jin with their own hands. After all, they were still relatives, were they not? They were actually shocked and horrified when Jin-Jin fell off the cliff at the end of her struggle.
Still, what did it all matter now? Right now, Hye-Ryeong knew what she had to do.
“I’m going to kill all of you dirty bastards!”
She had descended so far into madness that she was just swinging her sword chaotically, with no particular technique.
Bang!
“Even that bastard Palm Martial Emperor!”
‘You dare to block my sword, you piece of shit?! Die!’
“That damned uncultured bitch Jin-Jin, too!”
Woo-Moon blocked her again.
BANG!
“And you, you bastard! You’re not only that uncultured bitch’s son, but you even have a stronger cultivation than my son!” Hye-Ryeong shouted as she exerted all of the strength she could muster. She unleashed Iron Sword Splitting Mountains, the most powerful of the augmented qi forms of the Iron Blood Merciless Sword.
Accordingly, Ju-Ryeong used Iron Spirit Piercing Heaven, the technique most compatible with Iron Sword Splitting Mountains. Iron Sword Splitting Mountains was the most formidable cut, while Iron Spirit Piercing Heaven was the strongest thrust of the family’s sword art
As the two attacks neared Woo-Moon, he knew that this would be their final clash.
A golden glow burst from his body. As his sword flickered, a golden sword curtain formed in front of Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong’s attacks.
BOOOOOM!!!!
A massive tremor shook the entire estate as if an earthquake had started. Everyone else stopped their fighting and turned to see the clash between the three.
Woo-Moon only used the Golden Fortress Iron Wall to block the initial blow, then grit his teeth and unleashed one technique after another.
The moment his sword rose toward the sky, a rain of swords torrented down, falling faster and more irregularly than anything Hye-Ryeong and Ju-Ryeong could have imagined. The momentum of their combined attack had been reduced by more than half against the Impenetrable Golden Wall, and the remaining power was completely dissipated by the barrage of Heavy Rain like a lump of salt beneath a tropical storm.
“Agh!!!”
Ju-Ryeong screamed, while Hye-Ryeong’s eyes widened in shock.
“MOTHER!!!” screamed Do-Gun. He was now too injured to move, so he could do nothing but watch the battle from afar.
Woo-Moon’s sword fell mercilessly toward the two sisters.
Thwack! Thwack!
However, rather than the sound of a sword rending flesh, what the viewers heard was the sound of a slap.
Woo-Moon had twisted his sword at the last moment and had now started hitting them with the flat of the blade.
The two sisters were ultimately defeated. And in the midst of Woo-Moon’s relentless beating, Hye-Ryeong closed her eyes.
She hadn’t been able to defeat Sang-Woon or Jin-Jin, and as if that wasn’t enough, she had now even been defeated by Jin-Jin’s son.
In her mire of despair and defeat, strangely enough, the pain of Woo-Moon's beating felt refreshing. She had long since forgotten this feeling—as if all her worries were washed away by the rain.
Ju-Ryeong fainted first, while Hye-Ryeong barely managed to stay conscious until Woo-Moon’s Raging Storm ended.
“Why didn’t you kill us?” she muttered.
Even Woo-Moon wondered why he hadn’t, as he had clearly intended to kill them at first.
“I guess we’re still family? The look in your eyes when you were attacking and screaming at me was similar to the look in my mother’s eyes when she felt heartbroken. Also... I think that deep in their hearts, my mother and grandfather wouldn’t want me to kill you, either.”
As he spoke, Woo-Moon realized it himself, too. He had meant it sincerely.
‘Your gaze looked a little like my mother’s.’
Hye-Ryeong felt her mind going blank as she heard his reasoning.
“You dog... bastards. You really want to make me into a fucking bitch, even till the very end...” she said with a strange expression that wasn’t really a smile or a frown.
As she uttered those last words, Hye-Ryeong recalled the words she had childishly continued to think to herself when she was younger.
—Why... why couldn’t I have been born as Grand Uncle Sang-Woon’s daughter, too...
As he saw Woo-Moon spare his mother, Do-Gun remembered that Woo-Moon had saved his life as well.
Thud.
Before he knew it, the strength in his arms had given out, and the Emotionless Iron Sword in his hand had fallen to the ground.
Clatter!
“Now, how about you cut it off, you little shit!” Dae-Woong cried as he punched Do Mu-Sang.
Struck in the chest, Do Mu-Sang flew backward and lost consciousness just like his wife.
Ju-Ryeong’s husband had also joined the battle against Dae-Woong. He now also lay unconscious after being punched in the face and losing more than ten of his teeth.
It hadn’t been that long since he had sparred against Dae-Woong, but in that short time, Dae-Woong’s strength had vastly surpassed his.
Woo-Moon walked over and picked up the Emotionless Iron Sword that had fallen on the ground as Do-Gun stared with a blank expression.
He raised the sword high into the sky and let out a shout, using all of his remaining qi.
“Halt! It’s over! Everyone, drop your weapons and surrender!”
His voice, backed by his pure qi and his sincere intentions, resonated throughout the Baek Estate and spread out, traveling far into the distance. Indeed, this was the Azure Dragon’s Cry of legends.
Mu Heon, who no longer had any reason to stay, tried to take advantage of the chaos to escape.
‘To think I’d fail in the end, I’ve really lost all face. Song Woo-Moon, the grandson of the Palm Martial Emperor, right? Well, leap around as much as you can now. Later, you’ll be kneeling in front of me and—’
Mu Heon had been fleeing as fast as he could. However, as he tried to escape, he saw a person waiting right in his path, forcing him to quickly change direction and find another route. However, his opponent’s movement technique was far superior to his own.
“You really look down on me, don’t you?” Woo-Moon said, suddenly standing right in front of Mu Heon.
A strange, wry smile spread across Mu Heon’s face. “Let me tell you this, nothing good will come out of standing in my way.”
Woo-Moon grinned in response and kicked at a pebble in the ground.
Clang, clang.
Woo-Moon kicked the pebble in the air and started to slowly bounce it with his sword.
“Who are you again? I saw Hye-Ryeong glaring at you earlier, so I kept an eye on you, too. But you always stood a step away from the action and you tried to get away immediately after Hye-Ryeong lost. What’s your game?”
Woo-Moon struck the stone with the flat of his blade and shot it at Mu Heon, forcing the man to draw the leaf fan at his waist and block.
Clang!
With a screeching sound, all of the braided leaves on the leaf fan tore off and fluttered in the air, revealing cold, steel blades.
“How mannerless. To think you would attack without saying anything.”
As Mu Heon spoke, still smiling, Woo-Moon kicked another rock and hurled it at the man’s face.
“What sort of courtesy am I supposed to show for some bastard who snuck into someone else’s home like some rat and plotted against us?”
“Your attacks are useless.”
The moment Mu Heon leisurely struck the rock aside, Woo-Moon’s figure blurred.
Thud, thud, thud!
Woo-Moon narrowed the distance between them using the Divine Phantasm Step, then unleashed Raging Storm.