Chapter 58. The Cold Glint of a Well-Polished Sword (5)
Even martial artists were among the fleeing residents, looking even more frightened than the ordinary civilians.
“I-it’s the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor!”
“We have to run away!”
The enemy of the murim, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor.
He was a hardened killer who had single-handedly exterminated the Blood Cult and killed countless members of the murim and civilians alike simply because he was bothered by their existence or desired their blood.
It would have been stranger for these people not to feel any fear if he had really appeared.
People passed Woo-Moon without even looking at him, but he skillfully moved through the crowd like a carp swimming against a river current, without bumping into anyone.
“Hey, young man! Where are you going? You have to run away quickly!”
“You can’t go that way! Please flee, oppa!”
A middle-aged man and his daughter, whom he held in his arms, seemed to be the only ones who felt any concern for Woo-Moon.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. So, hurry and get somewhere safe. I can’t guarantee what will happen next.”
Only then did the middle-aged man see the sword hanging at Woo-Moon’s waist.
“Be careful!”
Although he now knew that Woo-Moon was a martial artist, the middle-aged man was still concerned. Nevertheless, he heeded Woo-Moon’s words and quickly ran away.
“Huh? That oppa needs to flee, too! Run away, oppa! There’s a devil over there!”
Although he had met the child for the first time, he felt that her heart was really beautiful.
“I’m fine, so you don’t have to worry. Thank you.”
After smiling at the girl, who continued to look back at him, Woo-Moon walked toward the Xiaoyao Ford with a steely gaze in his eyes.
As he stepped forward, he could feel tremendous pressure. There was a sticky feeling in the air, filling everything around him and making it impossible for him to breathe. His chest felt tight. No matter how deeply he tried to take a breath, the cool air wouldn’t enter his lungs.
Still, Woo-Moon continued forward while consciously chanting the Forbidden Divine Art. As a refreshing feeling cascaded down his body, his body felt much lighter than before.
The Xiaoyao Ford, usually crowded with people, was now deserted, as if everyone had evaporated into thin air. Moreover, that wasn’t the only thing that felt strange. There was a bloody fog all around him, covering the entirety of the Xiaoyao Ford and giving off an aura of death and insanity.
He didn’t need to go searching for the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor. All he had to do was head for where the blood was the thickest, taking one step after another toward the epicenter of the bloody smell that assailed his nose.
Shing!
Woo-Moon drew his sword in advance.
Considering his opponent was an Absolute Master like the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor, he knew he might not get a chance to draw his sword.
‘I guess he came here because he couldn’t forget the grudge he felt that day.’
Woo-Moon was referring to when he had first unleashed the Northern Blizzard and cut open the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor’s cheek.
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor, Seop Un-Ha, was an Absolute Master with the pride to match his strength. Moreover, considering he was known as the Absolute Evil, it was clear that he was not one to forget grudges.
‘However, I am Song Woo-Moon. I will never die. I will never lose! Is being an Absolute Master everything? No, I will definitely win!!’
His grip tightened on the hilt of his sword.
After walking for a while, he saw Seop Un-Ha sitting in a small pavilion, leaning on the railing.
Just like back then, it was impossible to tell if he was a woman or a man. His shoulders were narrow, and his limbs were long and thin. What skin was exposed was whiter than snow, his eyelashes were long, and his lips red like cinnabar.
It was a look so beautiful that it was almost eerie.
If the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was a woman, he could have been called an unparalleled beauty that could lift and ruin a nation with naught but a single smile.
On the left side of the canal, a blood-red sphere floated in the air, with about twenty men floating within, seemingly screaming in fear and pain. However, not a single sound escaped from within it.
“Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane .”
Woo-Moon remembered something that he had heard from his grandfather before. Among all of the techniques of the cursed Merciless Blood Devil Art that Seop Un-Ha could use, that was the most vicious.
Seop Un-Ha, who was in his early sixties but looked about twenty on the outside, opened his lips with a hint of seductive beauty.
“Wherever I go, there are always people who are full of greed and make me angry.”
At first, Seop Un-Ha had been sitting there looking at the waves of the Yangtze River while waiting for Woo-Moon to arrive. However, the men in the sphere had shattered the idyllic peace that he was enjoying for the first time in a very long time. Mistaking him for a woman, a wealthy young master of Hefei Castle had surrounded him with his guards. Thus, they all faced hell after nagging him as if he were some ordinary, powerless maiden.
Woo-Moon could see a man in his late twenties wearing a luxurious-looking robe open his mouth from within the sphere. He could read the man’s lips.
‘I’m sorry. Please forgive me!’
“Have you ever committed murder?” a voice said, sharp like that of a woman but heavy like that of a man. It was Seup Un-Ha’s voice, a voice that could only be described as eerie.
Squelch!
At the same time, the people floating in the air were split in half like turtle shells and blood spurted out.
“AGH!!!!”
Only Seop Un-Ha could hear any sound from within the Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane. However, considering even Woo-Moon could now clearly hear the sound of the men’s flesh being torn apart and blood splashing everywhere, he knew that Seop Un-Ha had done it on purpose.
Woo-Moon didn’t answer; he was just trying to find the moment to break through the Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane and attack his enemy.
However, no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn’t find an opening.
Seop Un-Ha seemed both completely defenseless and completely unassailable at the same time.
“How boring. To think you wouldn’t say anything.”
As soon as he finished speaking, twenty flowers seemed to bloom within the Blood Cloud Vampiric Membrane.
Flowers made of blood!
Squelch!
For the crime of bothering Seop Un-Ha, twenty men had just been turned into handfuls of blood and absorbed into his body, with not even a single strand of hair left behind.
“Hohoho! Ohhhh...”
It was the ultimate pleasure that could only be achieved by those who increased their cultivation by absorbing blood with the power of the Merciless Blood Devil Art!
He looked at Woo-Moon, feeling a thirst that always seemed to coat his throat at the end of this tantalizing pleasure. Then, he seductively licked his lips with his tongue.
Thud! Thud! Clatter!
Clothes and swords that had lost their owners clattered as they fell to the ground.
From within Woo-Moon, the Forbidden Divine Art, which was enraged after seeing Seop Un-Ha, began to circulate within his entire body much more vigorously than usual.
“How old are you again?” the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor asked.
However, Woo-Moon couldn’t answer. He felt like he couldn’t take even a single breath. It was like he couldn’t withstand the demonic qi surrounding him and would either collapse or go into qi deviation from being unable to resist the pressure of the Forbidden Divine Art.
All he could do was stare fiercely at the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor with his steely gaze glinting.
“I mean, you’re pretty impressive. You’re at most twenty, but you already have unwavering willpower and sincere courage if you’re able to stand before me.”
After saying so, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor was momentarily lost in thought.
His expression changed from second to second, from a slight smile to one filled with rage, and the unmatched Demonic Qi that he was giving off was also constantly changing. He seemed to be reminiscing about something.
“When I was your age... What was I doing again? Ah, that’s right. Yes, I killed the Cult Leader.”
The Blood Cult.
Although it wasn’t comparable to the Heavenly Demon Cult, it was still one of the most famous cults of the Demonic Path that boasted a long history and terrifying power. The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor had been a disciple of the Blood Cult and had committed the heinous act of killing his own Cult Leader.
It was a famous story within the gangho.
Meanwhile, amidst this terrifying pressure, the aura of the Forbidden Divine Art was gradually changing. The longer he was under pressure from the Merciless Blood Devil Art, the more he could adapt to it and eventually develop a resistance that would allow him to fight back.
The martial arts that his master had created through relentless effort over hundreds of years were the Celestial Sect’s Forbidden Divine Art and the Gentle Celestial Sword. Moreover, he had the Solar Physique, a punishment from the heavens that could never be cured with human might alone!
There was no way that his Solar Physique combined with the two incredible arts couldn’t overcome the Merciless Blood Devil Art.
In this way, Woo-Moon was gradually breaking away from the pressure of the Absolute Qi of the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor. The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor Seop Un-Ha raised his head and looked up at the sky without even noticing it.
“Do you know what the nine familial extermination means?”
He seemed to want to talk to Woo-Moon.
Although he didn’t understand why the man wanted to do that, Woo-Moon was keenly feeling that the situation wasn’t favorable, so he didn’t try to provoke him.
‘Still. He’s such a fucking bastard. It makes sense he doesn’t have anyone around him. He could just be feeling talkative because he has no one to talk to.
Whether Woo-Moon wanted it or not, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor continued to speak.
“Keke... I am the son of the leader of a small village. And one day, government soldiers suddenly attacked that village. They said some name of someone whose face we didn’t even know and captured our entire family. All of the men were killed, the women were taken as imperial courtesans, and the children, including me, were forced to become imperial slaves and were sold off.”
Why on earth was the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor telling him the story of his past? Woo-Moon couldn't understand it at all.
“The man who bought me at that time was the leader of the Blood Cult at the time, the Nineteenth Blood Devil.”
Seop Un-Ha’s long eyelashes shook.
“He was someone who preferred young boys. He didn’t tell people about it, but the truth is that before any woman, he was just a cripple who couldn’t even get an erection, keke. From that point on, until I turned twenty, I lived as his plaything. Although it was so disgusting and vile, although I reached the point where I wanted to commit suicide many times, I acted as if I was going to give him my heart and soul.”
Woo-Moon wondered if it was because he reminded the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor of the past. The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor’s aura temporarily went berserk and pressured him immensely, making him unconsciously clutch his chest and grimace in pain.
He was lucky that the Forbidden Divine Art was in the process of adapting to the Merciless Blood Devil Art; if he had to undergo that pressure before it had adapted, he most likely would have suffered internal injuries and vomited blood. That was just how big of a gap there was between the cultivations of Woo-Moon and the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor.
The Blood Cloud Devil Emperor's furious voice continued.
“To that ugly, filthy bastard! I even told him I love him countless times! How do you think it felt? How do you think I felt when I had to say those words to that bastard who played with my body and violated me?! Hohoho, maybe that was why he trusted me and even taught me the Merciless Blood Devil Art. And then, I... I somehow was able to hide my cultivation and secretly raise my strength, and in the end... I stuck a dagger into that bastard’s throat when I caught him off guard in his bed! And by drinking his blood, I absorbed his Merciless Blood Devil Art cultivation!”
Woo-Moon got goosebumps.
Although it had already been over forty years, Seop Un-Ha still showed extreme hatred and anger. This was the secret story of the birth of the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor that no one in the gangho was privy to.
Still, even though he heard his story, Woo-Moon didn’t feel any sympathy for Seop Un-Ha. Yes, in a way, it was understandable that he would have killed the Cult Leader and become the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor after hundreds of debasements.
‘But what about the countless souls you killed? Many of them were innocent! Didn’t you also kill countless people who were in the same situation as you and also harmed by the Cult Leader?’
Even as Woo-Moon was thinking to himself, the Blood Cloud Devil Emperor continued to speak.
“Those who have mastered the Merciless Blood Devil Art can steal all of their opponent's qi by absorbing their blood. If you absorb the blood of those who cultivated using other qi cultivation methods, it only serves to replenish your qi. However, if you absorb the blood of someone who has cultivated the same art, it can also increase your cultivation as well. After killing that bastard and reaching the Absolute Master level, I immediately killed everyone in the Blood Cult. Every single being, whether they knew martial arts or not. Women, children, and even babies.”
His voice was rife with endless hatred. However, somehow, it was also as sweet as the voice of a maiden confessing her love.
It was strange.
Woo-Moon felt that the monster in front of him was even more ugly and disgusting.
“Do you think that story makes you look less like a monster? You killed countless people, not just people from the Blood Cult but also a lot of ordinary people.”