Chapter 177: Seolyoung, Checks

The Elder Demon Lord wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve and spoke.

“I haven’t seen anyone this strong except for the Cult Leader.”

He was certain the Great Demon who had long been his rival wasn’t stronger than Lee Jaseung.

More than anything, Lee Jaseung’s terrifying killing intent made even the Vice Leader of the Demonic Cult shrink back. It felt unbelievable that such murderous pressure could come from a human body.

Even so, the Elder Demon Lord wasn’t afraid. His face flushed with excitement. Some in Jianghu felt ecstasy when they met a strong opponent. He was one of them.

“Now then, I’ll show you everything I’ve got.”

He drew up even his true, refined essence from deep within.

His Demonic Qi grew denser, turned tangible, and flared around him like fire.

Blood-red Demonic Qi and cold blue killing intent mixed together.

The two forces weren’t naturally opposed. Blended, they forged a new aura that seized the battlefield.

Flowers withered. Insects flipped over and died.

Amid that heavy breath of death, the two men plunged into combat.

Empowered by the full rise of his true essence, the Elder Demon Lord became even stronger.

They traded attacks at a blistering speed. It was too fast for ordinary masters to follow, and even peak experts would struggle to see clearly.

Yet every swift exchange carried the ultimate principles of martial arts. If someone could slow this duel and display it, every fighter in the Murim Alliance and the Black Way and the Demonic Cult would use it as a textbook for real combat.

No mistake could be allowed now.

Lee Jaseung used both Asura and Dream Phantom.

Ordinary daggers would have been sheared apart by the Elder Demon Lord’s claws, but these two were different.

Clang clang clang clang clang clang!

Claws met dagger and sparks flew, shrieking like metal.

Lee Jaseung slipped past and parried the Elder Demon Lord’s terrible assaults with precision.

Crack.

A heartbeat of carelessness sent the Elder Demon Lord’s jaw snapping sideways.

Slash. Slash. Slash!

He raked the air with both hands in a frenzy, beating back the follow-up strikes.

His expression darkened.

He could feel himself being pushed back.

The techniques Lee Jaseung unleashed were truly difficult to counter.

‘Just where did this martial art even come from?’

He couldn’t get a proper read on it. It wasn’t demonic. It wasn’t unorthodox either. It felt closer to orthodox martial arts, yet he had never heard of anything like it.

‘Northern Sea Demon Emperor Fist doesn’t work?’

It was almost impossible to accept.

Worse, considering the inner Qi Lee Jaseung had already spent, this should not have been happening.

He remembered what Mountain and Cheon Myeongin had claimed. Unless the Cult Leader acted personally, the man could not be killed.

‘So that wasn’t an empty boast.’

Thud!

Struck squarely in the chest again, the Elder Demon Lord staggered back. The blow landed clean, and the shock was severe. Lee Jaseung rushed in without missing the opening.

He slipped an arm between the shoulders to throw the Elder Demon Lord and smash him down. It was a finishing move that would shatter bone if it caught.

But the Elder Demon Lord wasn’t like other masters.

Whirl.

Their bodies twisted around each other several times.

By the time the motion ended, he had slipped free of Lee Jaseung’s grip.

Thump. Crack. Thud!

He could not, however, avoid the fists that followed.

The Elder Demon Lord reeled backward.

His eyes stretched long and sharp.

He detonated the Demonic Qi that remained and amplified his strength even further. When the duel began, he had never imagined he would say such words.

“You bastard! Let’s die together!”

Boom! Crash! Boom!

Their fists smashed together again and again in midair. Shockwaves howled and the ground underfoot shattered.

Swoosh!

Powerful Qi swelled in his two fists. Right as he was about to thrust with force that could topple a mountain,

Thunk!

Asura buried itself in his chest.

There had been the briefest gap in the instant he gathered Powerful Qi, and Lee Jaseung did not miss it.

This was the perfect lesson on how dangerous it was to use a big move in a duel between true masters.

Whump!

Even after being pierced, the gathered Powerful Qi still exploded outward as it was meant to.

Lee Jaseung dropped his body and let the burst pass over him.

Thunk! Thunk!

Asura and Dream Phantom struck again in quick succession and sank into the Elder Demon Lord’s chest.

Swoosh! Boom!

Even then he kept blasting out Powerful Qi, but the attacks had already become reckless swings from a man who had suffered mortal wounds.

He roared, spewing Demonic Qi like an explosion.

“Graaah! I am the Vice Leader of the Demonic Cult!”

His eyes burned red. He meant to blow himself up and die together with Lee Jaseung.

Fwish.

A single thread of wind sliced the air.

A thin blood line formed on his neck. It deepened swiftly, and then blood erupted as his head fell to the ground.

He had fought without holding back, yet his wide eyes held only disbelief at his defeat.

The death of the Elder Demon Lord, Vice Leader of the Asura Demon Sect.

It was the spark of an upheaval in Jianghu whose outcome no one could predict.

Even after he killed him, Lee Jaseung’s killing intent did not fade. It surged thicker, like a flood bursting through a dam.

He had lost his reason completely.

If light and shadow lived within a human being, right now Lee Jaseung was a shadow itself. Only the desire to kill someone else ruled him.

“Aghhhhhhhh!”

He screamed. A colossal wave of killing intent poured outward.

Boom.

He launched into the air where he stood.

He twisted once in midair to fix his direction, then shot away in an instant.

* * *

Baek Seolyoung woke from sleep.

She didn’t know why she had woken. Tightness pressed on her chest.

As if drawn by a spell, she stepped outside.

Someone stood in the darkness of the courtyard before her quarters.

The instant she saw the black silhouette, she knew. It was Lee Jaseung.

The stench of blood stabbed her nose.

She realized he was hurt. Chest and shoulder and waist and legs… his whole body was a map of wounds. It was a wonder he could stand.

Yet she couldn’t run to him.

Killing intent.

It was so thick she could barely breathe.

Worse, that killing intent was aimed straight at her.

Slide.

Someone moved quietly to block her path.

It was Mook Young.

— Run Away.

At his transmitted whisper, she understood how grave this was.

Guard Hall warriors stood all around the courtyard. Every one of them watched Lee Jaseung with taut nerves.

He stepped forward and his face came into view, drenched in blood. From his eyes flowed killing intent more frightening than the blood.

Baek Seolyoung was so scared she almost screamed out loud.

The dagger in Lee Jaseung’s hand was trembling.. She knew it then. He wanted to kill her. He wasn’t himself. She saw at once that something had seized him.

I must run!

Even without Mook Young’s warning, her instincts screamed.

She truly wanted to run.

But another instinct shouted back.

She can’t afford to run away right now. He needs her help.

— Captain Mook, let me handle this.

— I cannot let you.

— This is an order. Do not step forward.  

— My lady.

Mook Young looked back at her.

Her expression was firmer than he had ever seen.

He hesitated. His duty was to protect her.

Yet he could not protect her by striking down Lee Jaseung. The truth was he could not even if he wished. If Lee Jaseung used a killing move, Mook Young and every Guard Hall warrior would die.

— He came for me.

Mook Young also believed that the only reason a maddened Lee Jaseung wasn’t already rampaging was Baek Seolyoung.

He accepted that only she could resolve this and stepped aside.

— Please be careful.

He meant it for both of them.

She nodded and walked forward.

She had no time to wonder if this was wise. She followed her instinct.

He looked as if he might rush in and cut her throat at any moment. She was afraid. Her legs trembled and she wanted to collapse, yet she mustered her courage and walked toward him.

Yes, if it’s to him, then she’ll even accept death.

That was all the courage she had.

At last she stood before him.

Asura slowly drifted toward her neck.

Mook Young and the watching guards all tightened in fear.

‘Please, my Lord!’

Then, Baek Seolyoung spoke.

“Thank you.”

At that moment, his hand flinched.

She spoke again, calm and steady.

“Even in this state… thank you for coming to me.”

She meant it. If this was the end, she would spend her last breath on truth.

“I know. You want to escape this situation. That’s why you came to me.”

His killing intent was so dense that pain racked her body and she could not draw a full breath.

Even so, she endured the pain, stepped in, and clasped him tight.

“Because you trust me.”

Lee Jaseung’s hand holding the Asura shook. Though killing intent had seized him completely, he held on.

Watching with his heart in his throat, Mook Young understood.

Even stripped of reason, Lee Jaseung could resist slaughter for one reason.

The killing intent was his as well.

Even killing intent carried the imprint of nature. His true nature did not want her dead. That feeling lived in his mind and in his body and in his Qi.

She hugged him tighter.

“Overcome it.”

Cold blue light surged from his eyes. The sight was way too fearsome and grotesque.

Veins swelled as if they would burst. He ground his teeth.

“Urrrgh.”

A cry of pain slipped from his mouth.

The veins looked ready to pop.

His killing aura thickened, and her suffering grew as well.

But she endured. Compared to his agony, this was nothing.

Tears ran from her eyes. It wasn’t because she was feeling pain. It was the sorrow of seeing his.

Asura touched her neck. It looked ready to slice her at once.

Then it happened.

Lee Jaseung bit into his own forearm.

It was the will to drop the dagger, the last instinct that said he would not kill her. Blood slid from his wrist.

She wept harder at his instinct to spare her even if he had to maim himself.

“Stop, don’t do that! Please!”

I’m not that great of a person for you to go that far. Stop. Please stop.

He kept tearing at his arm while a cold blue aura poured off him.

She could no longer bear to watch his torment. It looked like his blood vessels would burst and he would die at this rate.

She would rather…

She shoved him away as he bit his arm.

In the next instant.

Swish—

Asura grazed her neck.

Blood flowed from her white throat.

Even so, Baek Seolyoung smiled, bright and wide.

“It’s fine. I’m okay.”

When he would come to his senses later, she didn’t want him to suffer over killing her.

So she smiled on purpose. She wanted his last memory of her to be something other than a face frozen in terror. She wanted him to remember a bright smile.

“Don’t suffer over this.”

And please, let it end with her sacrifice alone.

To Lee Jaseung, the world was nothing but red, and monsters and beasts thronged around him.

The monster before him was trying to kill him. He had tried to cut off its head first, but an unseen force kept stopping him.

I could easily kill a monster like this.

But it was at that moment.

Plip.

A drop of water struck his forearm.

Where did that water come from?

He saw it then. The monster was crying. The tear slid down the dagger and dropped onto his arm again.

Why?

As doubt stirred, a bright point appeared.

Zing.

A hairline crack spread outward from the point.

Clink.

Something broke with the sound of a bronze mirror shattering, and a hole opened where the point had been. It looked like a stone had struck a mirror.

The world inside the hole wasn’t red.

Through the gap he saw white skin. It stood in stark contrast to the creature’s hideous hide.

A single line of tears flowed across it.

Zing.

Cracks ran again and the red world began to fall apart.

The hole widened and another feature appeared.

He saw red lips this time.

They were saying this.

‘Fulfill your dream.’

Ziiiiiing.

Clang.

The red world shattered again and the hole grew wider.

The monster’s face broke away, and at last he could see her. Beyond the blood-red world, her face appeared.

Tears fell from her clear eyes. She was weeping hard, yet she smiled. Even as she was dying, she thought only of Lee Jaseung.

The instant he saw her,

Claaang!

The red world before his eyes crumbled completely.

Thud,

Asura fell to the ground.

Lee Jaseung understood what had happened. His true nature, which had resisted to the last, had remembered everything.

Drip.

Tears streamed from his eyes. The killing intent that had ruled him vanished like a lie.

He understood what she had tried to sacrifice.

He wanted to speak, yet no words came.

He lifted a hand and wiped away the tear on her cheek.

‘Thank you.’

Soon after, darkness fell across his sight.

He collapsed into Baek Seolyoung’s arms and lost consciousness.

Her hands shook as she held him. Blood ran from her neck, and blood ran from his arm.

She couldn’t stop crying as she embraced him. Only now did she fully understand how much she loved him.

The words he had tried to say came from her mouth.

“……Thank you.”

Mook Young and the Guard Hall warriors, who had hesitated many times on whether to rush in, stood in a solemn ring around them.

The stars above their heads sparkled more brightly than usual tonight.

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