The world seemed to stop. My heartbeat thundered like lightning, and even individual specks of flying dirt were crystal clear.
And…
Whoosh.
There was a flash. The light emitted by Sword Force was both beautiful and precise. I felt destructive power that could slice not just my spear tip but my entire body in half.
It’s over.
I gave it my all. It’d be a lie to say I had no regrets, but the outcome won’t change.
Just clash with all my might until the end.
Swoosh!
My spear tip split the wind, and the Sword Force erased the wind. In that moment when death approached—
Shriek! Thud!
The Grand Elder’s eyes bulged. A mysterious figure had stabbed a dagger into his danjeon at lightning speed.
“You…”
“Should’ve sealed the acupoints.”
An ambush no one expected.
Until just now, he’d been just one of the countless corpses lying around. But no.
The mysterious figure had simply waited with extreme patience. For the moment to avenge his son.
The Grand Elder cried out like a scream:
“Lee Cheon-baek!”
“Kahaha!”
The moment Lee Cheon-baek burst into wild laughter, my spear tip burrowed into his back. It extended relentlessly, cutting through flesh and bone.
Ding.
- -You have slain [Lv.75 Lee Cheon-baek]!
- -Level up!
- -Level up!
- -Level up!
-All status effects are removed due to stacked level up effects!
Change occurred. My aching muscles, heavy feet, empty danjeon—all swelled with new power.
Simultaneously, I realized what I had to do.
One Flash.
Once more. A white vortex burst forth.
Crack!
A hair’s breadth from death.
Never before had those four characters resonated so deeply in my heart.
Really came back from death’s door. Had visions of getting processed at hell’s immigration and taking commemorative photos with a tight hug from the King of Hell.
If not for Lee Cheon-baek, that vision would’ve become reality.
Good thing I saved him.
I wanted to close Lee Cheon-baek’s eyes so he could rest in peace, but there was still work to do.
“That’s why you should live right, you know.”
The Grand Elder smiled wryly at my words.
His state was miserable.
One Flash not only devoured his remaining arm but also punched a fist-sized hole in his chest.
“What a nasty personality. Don’t you have any manners toward a dying old man?”
“The old folks I know live for watching their grandkids’ antics. Not like you, an old fart rampaging to kill his grandkids.”
“You brat! Act like a grandchild first before saying such things!”
His hearty laughter seemed both dejected and relieved, as if he’d shed everything.
“Tae-kyung is a good child. If the Grand Elder had opened his heart first, you could have been good grandfather and grandson.”
The Grand Elder turned his head. Jin Wi-gyeong stood there holding his sword.
“Planning to stab me with that sword?”
“I’m considering it.”
“Better end that consideration quickly.
Not much time left.”
His words were true. Blood poured like a waterfall from his severed arm stumps and lower abdomen even now as we spoke normally.
Add to that drawing out primordial qi and then the storm. It felt miraculous that he was still alive.
“You look in pain.”
“No, I’m becoming comfortable.”
A firm answer.
“When the Orthodox-Demonic Great War broke out, I was barely thirty. Since then, I haven’t had a single moment of peace. No…” The Grand Elder continued in a strained voice.
“Perhaps I’d been tired for a long time.”
I muttered in disbelief.
“After doing everything you wanted, now you say what.”
“Tae-kyung!”
Though Jin Wi-gyeong shot me a gently reproaching look, the Grand Elder didn’t seem to mind as a deflating laugh escaped his closed lips.
“Puhehe. Right, you’re right. Think of it as a senile old man’s madness.”
“Really must be time to die.”
“Oh ho! This kid!”
“What? Not like I said anything wrong.”
The Grand Elder watched me and Jin Wi-gyeong bickering with hazy eyes.
“We too had times like you. Yes, we certainly did.”
But the Grand Elder didn’t have time left even to trace memories.
“Kuhk, kuheek!”
The Grand Elder staggered after vomiting what must have been a bowl of blood. He was facing death. All his blood vessels had burst, and the blood flowing from his body had long since formed a pool. Even at a glance, it was clear there was no hope.
He’s really dying? The Grand Elder?
Everyone dies. On this battlefield alone, hundreds, perhaps over a thousand lives may have vanished.
But the Grand Elder’s death was something that couldn’t even be imagined.
His martial might had been that overwhelming. Which made his current state seem all the more tragic. That’s why I grew curious.
“Why hold on so desperately?”
The Grand Elder answered.
“To tell those who went ahead… that I did my best.”
“Any regrets?”
“None.”
He smiled broadly and thrust out his chest.
“End it. With your own hands.”
I raised my spear. Though Jin Wi-gyeong’s face was complex, he didn’t stop me.
Swoosh!
A gust of wind blew, and the Grand Elder’s knees, which seemed unbreakable, touched the ground. A peaceful smile rose on his wrinkled face.
In his final moment, his lips moved, but no sound escaped.
That was all.
Ding.
- -You have slain [Lv.95 Jin Baekyang]!
- -Quest [Traitor] completed!
- -Level greatly increased!
- -Fame greatly increased!
For a very brief moment, silence flowed.
Then an enormous cheer unlike any heard before erupted.
“Hidden Dragon of Shanxi Jin Tae-kyung has slain Fire Demon Sword Jin Baekyang!”
-Title [Hidden Dragon of Shanxi] acquired!
Dozens, perhaps hundreds.
All the survivors were shouting my name.
Hidden Dragon of Shanxi, huh.
A new name that suited me quite well.
-Third Young Master Jin Tae-kyung of the Taiyuan Jin Family has slain the Grand Elder!
-Hidden Dragon has broken the Fire Demon Sword!
“Hidden Dragon of Shanxi.”
Wi-peng smirked. The rogue Third Young Master who hadn’t even been called an Earth Dragon. But now he couldn’t help but acknowledge.
He was a hidden dragon. One who could soar through the heavens once he obtained the divine pearl.
“What do you think?”
First Elder answered.
“You believe those words?”
“Everyone’s shouting about the Grand Elder’s death.”
“That’s because the Lord wished it.
The Third Young Master doing that to him? Ridiculous.”
“You can see that from here? Good eyes.”
“Getting distracted like that is how I ended up like this. Hahaha.”
He was leaning askew against a pile of corpses. Blood poured from the diagonal sword wound running from his shoulder to waist.
“Surrender. You can still live if treated now.”
“No. This old one’s end was decided long ago. A very painful death.”
Wi-peng shook his head.
“I won’t allow it.”
“My death needs no permission.
Neither you nor even I can do anything about it.”
“What do you…”
Just as Wi-peng furrowed his brows, not understanding First Elder’s words—
“Beware of the Dark Heavens[1]… Kruk.”
It happened in an instant. Blood gushed from First Elder’s throat. His eyes rolled back and his whole body convulsed.
“First Elder!”
When Wi-peng rushed over in panic, First Elder’s breath had already ceased. As he’d said, his face was twisted in agony from his painful death.
This is.
Poison? Or a forbidden technique?
There was no way to know now. Wi-peng deeply engraved the single word that became his dying message.
Dark Heavens. He definitely said Dark Heavens.
The only clue First Elder left. Wi-peng stared at the dead man’s face with complex emotions before turning away.
“I, Wi-peng, have slain First Elder!”
Despair settled on the black-clad men’s faces. Death or surrender. Of those two paths, they chose the latter.
Clang. Thud thud.
Weapons falling powerlessly.
The war’s final note.
Where there are dead, there are also survivors.
Jin Chung, master of the Palace Ghost Sect who’d climbed the cliffs before battle, was such a case.
“How futile.”
A grand plan he’d devoted half his life to. But the result was tragic.
The Grand Elder they’d served as lord, the elders and Shanxi Five Sect masters they’d called brothers—all dead. Even the struggling of the survivors had ended, leaving only himself.
So it ends like this.
Jin Chung turned. Fifty Palace Ghost Sect warriors waited for his orders.
“Leave.”
Invisible wavering spread. One warrior closest to him carefully spoke.
“Master, what do you mean?”
“The fight is already over. I won’t force sacrifice upon you. Leave now. If you scatter and escape Shanxi, you might save your lives.”
The warrior nodded resolutely.
“I’ll follow you until death.”
“I… will remain here.”
“What?”
After brief shock, the warrior’s voice trembled with emotion.
“Is it because of us?”
“Not at all.”
Jin Chung answered firmly, but his true thoughts differed.
If I go with them, the Taiyuan Jin Family will pursue relentlessly.
The Shanxi Five Sects were many while one, one while many.
Though created for the same purpose, each raised warriors differently.
Jin Chung… didn’t raise them as weapons. He took them as disciples.
“Master!”
“Please lead us!”
They were all orphans with nowhere to go.
He’d fed them, housed them, and taught martial arts for at least ten years, some over twenty.
Had the grand plan succeeded, they would have become pillars of Shanxi’s martial world, but now in failure they were mere traitors.
“Don’t you understand the current situation?”
“Even if we die, we’ll die with Master.”
“You fool!”
“Please allow it.”
The warrior who’d spoken first knocked his forehead on the stone ground. As his disciples began kneeling one by one, Jin Chung lamented to the sky.
“If the plan hadn’t been delayed. If they had acted!”
Talk of ‘them’ was a secret known only to the eight leaders.
Speaking of it meant Jin Chung had decided to share his final moments with his disciples.
This too must be heaven’s will.
Turning his gaze from the dark night sky, Jin Chung raised the prostrated warrior. He felt endless apology and gratitude for the loyalty they’d shown.
“Enough. Rise now.”
The warrior raised his head at the warm voice. Licking a trickle of blood from his forehead, he grinned.
“Yes.”
Thud!
Jin Chung stared at the warrior with a dumbfounded face. The shock was so great he couldn’t even feel pain.
What is this.
Swoosh!
The warrior pulled his hand from Jin Chung’s chest. His hand was coated in light brighter than moonlight. Blood-colored force qi that emanated ominousness just from looking at it.
“You…”
“Why ask when you know? Ah, and about what you just said. I’ll answer simply.”
The warrior’s smile deepened.
“Why would we act? Your role only went this far.”
Jin Chung’s eyes bulged. They.
The unknown beings who never showed themselves until the very end. Dark Heavens!
“You bastards!”
“Now now, don’t make that ‘I was used’ face. Have you forgotten who saved you from that hell?”
Jin Chung recalled that nightmare from forty years ago. Allied corpses everywhere and the endless advancing demonic army.
United under the Grand Elder, they’d resolved to die. Until Dark Heavens appeared.
“We saved your life and gave you a chance for revenge. What more did you want?”
His words were right. Dark Heavens, who’d annihilated the demonic army, proposed a deal and they accepted. Though they had to plant poison in their minds, they would do anything for revenge.
But…
“Wasn’t your true intention to use us to control Shanxi?”
“Well, maybe at first.”
“Then what the hell was it for?”
Snicker.
“A bigger picture.”
With his answer, the blood-stained hand pressed against Jin Chung’s chest.
Bang.
A small explosion occurred inside Jin Chung’s body. The force that burst his eardrums and snapped his blood vessels one by one reached his heart.
Just like this… The thought didn’t continue. Jin Chung’s lifeless body flew like a bird and fell off the cliff.
Swoosh, thud!
The warrior who glanced down wrinkled his nose.
“Ouch, that must hurt.”
What awaited him as he turned were screams and blood. Ten black-clad men who’d appeared from nowhere were massacring the Palace Ghost Sect disciples.
“Let’s finish quickly and go.”
“At your command.”
Shriek! Thud!
The warrior turned his gaze to the cliff bottom. Though screams erupted around him, cheers and shouts filled the area below.
-Hidden Dragon of Shanxi!
-Jin Tae-kyung! Jin Tae-kyung!
“Hidden Dragon of Shanxi.”
The plan succeeded. But Jin Tae-kyung’s appearance was a variable even he hadn’t predicted. That fact displeased him.
Should I eliminate him?
If he wanted, he could uproot him completely. His deepened eyes turned toward Jin Tae-kyung surrounded by cheers.
-Our youngest! My brother!
-Let go! Let go, you bastard!
Snicker. A laugh escaped.
I’ll spare you. Today.
The warrior turned away. With each step, about fifty corpses lay like a carpet.