Chapter 438: Sanfeng Jin-in, Heaven-Slaying Star (2)

“You’re really endlessly persistent!”

“Shut up, Horse-headed Taoist!”

Ha-jun’s hair stood on end in all directions.

The Heavenly Demon was lavishly using the demonic energy of his demonic qi arts.

His eyes darkened black, and black veins stood out as well.

The speed of the Sword-Riding Flight Technique was brutal.

Although the Impenetrable Net had been set up in the opposite direction, it was astonishing that the Heavenly Demon had caught up.

“A seal? You’re trying to seal it!”

The Heavenly Demon seemed to have immediately sensed what Zhang Sanfeng was plotting.

“Foolishness! A humiliating, shabby act even a beaten dog wouldn’t do!”

“What do you know to say that!”

“Zhang Junbao-!”

When the Heavenly Demon shouted, the whole cave thundered.

“Do you think I don’t see your plan to cowardly hide that Yi-gang fellow away out of fear!”

“Indeed! If left like this, the heavenly spirits who support the old lords of the Evil Cult will seize him and kill him! Burning his very soul!”

“You fool, that Yi-gang fellow is hundreds of times better than you! A coward like you cannot catch and break him!”

The two freely vented their rage at each other.

Zhang Sanfeng also growled, and the Heavenly Demon looked as if he might breathe fire from his mouth.

“Give me Baek Yi-gang!”

“No!”

“Fine, then I’ll kill you!”

When the Heavenly Demon said that, black demonic energy began to swirl around his whole body.

“Long ago I swore and vowed: I will kill you and transcend.”

Yi-gang, who had been listening, flinched in surprise.

「Vow…?」

It was a concept he had heard before.

Yi-gang had heard that word when he was in Potala Palace.

It is to swear something with one’s own mouth.

By fulfilling that oath, the speaker gains karmic power.

Karma is the accumulation of causality.

To exert transcendental power, causality is inevitably needed, and it is substituted by karma obtained through a vow.

The harder a vow is to fulfill, the stronger its price.

Yet, to think the word ‘vow’ would come from the mouth of a demon like the Heavenly Demon.

If he vowed to kill Zhang Sanfeng, he must see it through.

If one makes a vow and fails to accomplish it, that becomes a limit.

Only then did Yi-gang feel all the pieces fall into place.

The bitter, deadly grudge between the Heavenly Demon and Zhang Sanfeng.

Even though they were already dead, they still burned with hostility because they had sworn such a thing.

Two humans who rose to be the best under heaven and competed across ages.

Those two, having reached the pinnacle of humanity, vowed to bring each other down.

“If I annihilate you, it will mean the fulfillment of my vow.”

The Heavenly Demon’s voice, rather, became calm.

Yi-gang instinctively sensed it.

That it was the calm before a battle began.

Zhang Sanfeng became calm as well.

“At last, the moment to settle this for real has come.”

Yi-gang quickly said to Zhang Sanfeng.

「Jin-in, the body inhabited by the Heavenly Demon is my younger brother. Please be moderate.」

‘Ah! I, I see! Understood.’

Zhang Sanfeng seemed to have forgotten even that for a moment.

Fortunately, he promised to restrain himself in his hands.

Whether that would be possible against the Heavenly Demon was uncertain.

And in fact, a similar exchange was taking place on the other side.

Ha-jun, who had retreated to the back of consciousness, shouted at the Heavenly Demon.

「If you kill my brother, I won’t let you get away with it!」

His spirit was such that he would not be pushed aside by the Heavenly Demon.

The Heavenly Demon was not someone who would be pushed by Ha-jun, but his body flinched.

Like Zhang Sanfeng, he too seemed to momentarily forget Yi-gang’s safety.

‘…What a presumptuous brat.’

Whether he truly intended to place restraint for Yi-gang’s sake, the Heavenly Demon nodded very slightly.

Then the Heavenly Demon struck the ground first.

The power of demonic skill varies wildly depending on how saturated the demonic energy is.

The demonic energy the Heavenly Demon was exhaling now filled the cave.

The punch the Heavenly Demon threw could easily destroy a mountain.

And Zhang Sanfeng swung his sword at the Heavenly Demon’s fist without hesitation.

「Damn it!」

With Yi-gang’s irritation, a collision occurred.

Fortunately, Ha-jun’s fist did not get cleaved in half.

Rather, the Heavenly Demon’s black iron fist pushed the meteorite sword aside.

If Shooting Star Fang had not been a meteorite sword, it would have snapped long ago.

The sword and fist tangled, emitting a world-shattering shockwave.

The shockwave carried a powerful wind.

The Heavenly Demon threw a punch and Zhang Sanfeng blocked it right before his face.

The gale from the blow struck Zhang Sanfeng’s face.

His hair whipped backward, and the cave’s internal air surged like madness.

“You…”

Deep wrinkles formed between the Heavenly Demon’s brows.

The snarling teeth were pointed like those of a beast.

“I’ll… kill you!”

He shouted it as if making a pledge.

Rage and murderous intent surged.

The Asura Sky-Breaking Dance unfurled fiercely.

His arms seemed to multiply to six.

Six fists rushed toward the vital points all over Zhang Sanfeng’s body.

A single sword could not possibly block them.

Zhang Sanfeng let go of his sword.

It looked like he was giving up the fight, but that was not the case.

The sword moved as if it were alive.

Zhang Sanfeng’s most famous technique, Qi-Sword Control.

His Qi-Sword Control was different from Yi-gang’s.

He used only a single blade, but the power of that one sword surpassed Yi-gang’s.

It was as precise as if Zhang Sanfeng himself had gripped and swung it.

It was enough to take on three of the Heavenly Demon’s fists.

Kwakagak!

The remaining three flew respectively toward Zhang Sanfeng’s temple, solar plexus, and side.

Zhang Sanfeng responded with his free hands.

He sharpened his right hand to deflect the fist aimed at his face, and with his left hand gently pressed down the punch aiming for his solar plexus.

Using that rebound he sprang up and avoided the punch that would have burst his side.

It was a perfect evasion, but the Heavenly Demon did not stop there.

Swoosh.

Another arm appeared.

Yes, it was as if an arm suddenly sprouted from his chest.

The Heavenly Demon’s skill had indeed advanced beyond what Zhang Sanfeng remembered.

“I said I’d kill you!”

That fist struck Zhang Sanfeng’s face as he hung in midair.

Zhang Sanfeng struck the cave wall at high speed as if fired like a shell.

Zhang Sanfeng’s fallen right cheek had turned crimson.

“Phut!”

Zhang Sanfeng spat blood.

The Heavenly Demon frowned instead of rushing in immediately.

The condition of the right hand that had struck Zhang Sanfeng’s face was not normal.

All five fingers had been broken off. In the moment of impact, Zhang Sanfeng had defended against it.

The Heavenly Demon hadn’t seen how it happened either.

“So you had a concealed move after all.”

“Did you think only you had one?”

But a body consumed by demonic energy possessed regeneration far beyond that of humans.

With cracking sounds, the fingers returned to their original form.

“…You monstrous thing.”

This time Zhang Sanfeng charged first.

To be precise, the sword flew first.

Shooting Star Fang sliced through the air with a sound like wind, diving like a hawk.

The Heavenly Demon met the sword, which was too fast for the eye to follow, with his bare-hands.

Sparks flashed simultaneously in all directions.

And with a decisive step, his body shot forward.

Shooting Star Fang pierced only the Heavenly Demon’s afterimage in vain.

A perfect blink shift movement.

For a moment, it seemed the Heavenly Demon had pierced Zhang Sanfeng’s flank.

But in reality, that was not the case.

Zhang Sanfeng wore an expression as if he had known the Heavenly Demon would come.

Then he took a step.

“Watching your Heavenly Demon’s Reigning Step taught me something as well.”

Thud-

He only placed his foot on the ground, yet it sounded as if a droplet had fallen.

The Heavenly Demon felt it instinctively.

That this was the Supreme Ultimate Technique Zhang Sanfeng had never revealed even once.

He didn’t know what would happen, but the result would hardly be pleasant for the Heavenly Demon.

But the Heavenly Demon smiled stark white.

Was Zhang Sanfeng the only one to hide a razor-sharp blade in his bosom?

The Heavenly Demon too had prepared a Supreme Ultimate Technique capable of killing Zhang Sanfeng.

In those old days, at the Heaven-Slaying Demon Valley.

Following Zhang Sanfeng’s guidance into it, the Northern Dipper Lord awaited.

Burning with the hatred gained from escaping a cruel trap….

In life, the Heavenly Demon was still bound by human constraints.

In the Heaven-Slaying Demon Valley he had clearly heard it.

「Come in, Zhao Guang」

Zhang Sanfeng’s voice inviting him inside.

Had the ascended Zhang Sanfeng truly descended to the mortal realm?

What emotions did the Heavenly Demon, who had vowed to kill Zhang Sanfeng, feel at that moment?

Burning anger, or hatred?

The Heavenly Demon felt gladness.

For a long time, there had been no one in this world to stand shoulder to shoulder with him.

Into such a world, Zhang Sanfeng, his equal, had returned.

However, what waited inside the Heaven-Slaying Demon Valley was not Zhang Sanfeng.

It was a giant with slate-blue skin.

Only the whites of its eyes were visible, and the armor it wore glittered like starlight.

“So you’re Heaven-Slaying Star.”

He was the Lord of the Northern Dipper.

A heavenly spirit governing the dead, a celestial deity of the heavenly palace.

He had brought his subordinates, the Seven Star Immortals.

Each of the seven immortals was an extraordinary being.

They seemed much stronger than even the strongest of the Demon Cult.

The Heavenly Demon instinctively felt a rising fighting spirit.

“Do you know how much causality was consumed to descend and eliminate you?”

Annoyance appeared on the Northern Dipper Lord’s face.

That Northern Dipper Lord possessed a stature far beyond even the Seven Star Immortals.

The Heavenly Demon snorted despite the pressure he felt.

“Where is Zhang Junbao?”

“Do you mean the Sanfeng Jin-in? How rude to speak that way to an immortal.”

The Northern Dipper Lord frowned.

“I was the one who made him step aside.”

“…He dug a trap and slipped away?”

“Your words are rude to the end.”

The Northern Dipper Lord raised his long crescent blade.

It was a dark crescent blade as if forged from star-iron.

“Today I will reap your soul and annihilate it.”

And then the battle began.

At that time the Heavenly Demon had already reached the verge of the Unrestrained Demon realm and sought beyond.

Still, the fight was grueling and dangerous.

In truth, the victory was miraculous.

The Heavenly Demon survived only because the Northern Dipper Lord had let his guard down.

Having descended with orders merely to slay a single human, he had limits to how much causality he could expend.

The Heavenly Demon held out against the Seven Star Immortals and the Northern Dipper Lord for a considerable time.

Still unable to kill the Heavenly Demon, the Northern Dipper Lord clicked his tongue and returned to the Heavenly Realm.

The Heavenly Demon’s condition was no different from a rag.

His left leg had been severed, and his right leg’s knee was bent the wrong way.

He wiped his eyes with his right arm whose wrist had been cut off.

Whether his eyeballs had burst, pink fluid streamed down.

Without his demonic qi arts and the Sky Shattering Divine Art, his body’s regeneration would have been impossible.

The Heavenly Demon restored his body from that battered state.

Even then, Zhang Sanfeng did not appear.

He was a coward.

He was also a traitor.

At that time the Heavenly Demon once again made a vow.

“…I will surely kill you.”

That oath was something that could not be left unkept.

A vow made by one who seeks to transcend humanity carries that much weight.

Hundreds of years passed thereafter.

The Heavenly Demon who had torn souls asunder had been reborn as a single soul fragment.

Even while living together with his old nemesis Zhang Sanfeng, the light of his vow had not faded.

“Die! Zhang Junbao!”

A transparent barrier rose right before Zhang Sanfeng’s face.

Whoosh!

The Heavenly Demon’s hand pierced through it and aimed for Zhang Sanfeng’s throat.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep