Chapter 08

He was known as the Black Claw Mad Dog. The black skull tattoos that covered his shirtless torso were a declaration of his identity as the Black Bone Sect’s most infamous fixer. He was a different breed from the common thugs of the Unorthodox Path,³ who preened after killing a few government soldiers or run-of-the-mill swordsmen. His specialty, his life’s work, was hunting other martial artists who stood in the Black Bone Sect’s way. He was a natural-born battle-maniac, one who made his living through life-and-death duels.

The thing he cherished most in the world was his beloved weapon, the Black Claw. Forged from an alloy mixed with incredibly dense black iron, his claw had shattered the weapons of countless enemies, and he had no doubt it would continue to do so.

And now, he was watching that black iron alloy claw shatter into a thousand pieces.

“Huh…?”

All his experience, all the razor-sharp instincts he had honed through a lifetime of kill-or-be-killed battles, meant nothing.

The hand that had pulverized his weapon continued its trajectory, smashing through his ribs, tearing his heart from its moorings, and severing his spine before bursting out through his back.

It had all happened in a single exchange.

The man they called the Mantis Ghost Demon was sliced into three pieces in mid-air before he could even swing his chain-sickle.

The one known as Iron Pillar, after taking the first blow, simply melted away, his body dissolved by a horrific Demonic Qi.

The master of the Dark Cloud Art; the one they called Dual Flood Dragon Hands, who was said to wield his twin swords as if they were living things; the assassin known as One Kill, One Question. All of them, famous names in the Luoyang underworld, were torn apart in the air, turning into a fine red mist without having landed a single blow.

It was not a battle. It was a one-sided slaughter.

“This is… insane…?!”

Tiger Hunter, Gang Ja-mu, was the first to grasp the situation. The moment he saw the vanguard who had scaled the tower being torn to shreds, he turned. Unleashing his renowned lightness skill, he scrambled back down the tower’s outer wall. His almost cowardly-quick grasp of a losing fight and his superb escape skills were the two things that had kept him alive this long.

This time, however, he had chosen the wrong opponent.

He was disintegrated in mid-air before he even knew what had hit him. His blood and flesh rained down upon the men climbing up behind him, and they, in turn, suffered the same fate. One after another, the men scaling the tower’s outer wall died, their bodies tumbling from the heights like discarded dolls.

Wherever the figure wreathed in black Demonic Qi passed, blood-flowers bloomed in the air, their stench thick and coppery. The sight was like that of a great black serpent slithering its way down the tower.

“You idiots! Don’t climb the tower!”

Seeing their comrades so utterly annihilated, the attackers on the ground finally realized the foolishness of engaging their enemy on such treacherous terrain.

“Surround him! Form a wide perimeter!”

Though nearly a fifth of their forces had been slaughtered in an instant, they did not give up. No matter how monstrous their opponent appeared, even a master who had crossed the wall had a finite amount of internal energy.

“Stall for time! Just buy time, no matter what!”

“Don’t try to meet him head-on! Use your footwork! Support from the flanks!”

They were certain that if he continued to burn through his reserves so recklessly at the start of the battle, an opportunity would eventually present itself. And so, the true masters, those who had reached the wall or could sense its presence, hung back, waiting for that moment.

Their thoughts were one. If we can just drain his internal energy…!

***

The beautiful young girl who had fought alongside Gyu had received first aid from a Crescent Moon Pavilion agent and was now watching from a nearby rooftop. She could not miss the Venerable One of Dark Heavens’s battle.

“Wow. That’s just… impossible.” Her small mouth hung open in awe.

Initially, she had agreed with the attackers’ strategy. The most logical approach against a master was a war of attrition, designed to exhaust their internal energy. But the Venerable One of Dark Heavens seemed to be mocking that very logic, tearing through the battlefield with the same explosive speed and power he had shown at the beginning. It was as if his reserves were infinite.

“Incredible…” She clasped her hands together, a thrill of pure, terrifying reverence running through her.

“You’re insane…” the large, bear-like man, now almost completely wrapped in bandages, muttered as he shook his head.

The young girl puffed out her cheeks at his comment. “What’s insane about it?”

The man shivered, the palpable killing intent reaching him even from this distance. “…I always knew you were a little messed up in the head, but you think that is cool? I just don’t get it.”

As he spoke, the Venerable One of Dark Heavens twisted the head clean off an Unorthodox Path martial artist. The man had struggled, but the white hands that had erupted from the ground held him fast. As two other masters tried to attack the Venerable One of Dark Heavens from behind, he vanished, leaving behind a headless corpse. He reappeared behind them, his hands flashed, and the two men were split in half at the waist, their blood and entrails spraying across the ground.

And beyond their bisected bodies, the Venerable One of Dark Heavens was seen biting the head he had just torn off. The thing’s ‘maw’ opened to an unnatural width and crushed the skull in a single, sickening crunch. It then let out a peal of mad laughter, a sound so terrifying it stunned the other attackers. The contents of the shattered head dripped from its mouth.

It was a scene of unparalleled grotesquery.

The bandaged man felt a wave of revulsion and fear wash over him. “…That… is not human.”

The Venerable One of Dark Heavens. When he had first heard the rumors, he had scoffed. A being who delivered divine punishment in place of the heavens? It was childish nonsense. He had assumed some eccentric, justice-fueled vigilante had appeared. A part of him had even admired it. To neutralize the powerful Black Bone Sect in just two days was a feat he could only dream of.

But the reality of the Venerable One of Dark Heavens was nothing like his vague imaginings. The thing before him only resembled a human in shape. The unnerving, unknowable energy that enveloped it, the bizarre sounds that drove men to their deaths, the white hands that rose from the ground to swallow the corpses, and now, the sight of it devouring a man alive with a maw full of razor-sharp teeth… It was a scene ripped from the very worst of nightmares.

He knew, with absolute certainty, that the only reasons he was still sane were that he was watching from a great distance, and that he was not its target.

“A demon…”

What other word was there to describe it?

***

“Stay away! Stay away from me!”

He had waited until the very end. He had prayed for the monster’s strength to wane. But it had been a fatal miscalculation. He was a man who stood at the very precipice of the wall, and now he had no choice. He unleashed every secret technique he knew, a desperate, all-out barrage.

“Uwaaaaaaaah!”

He paid no mind to the distribution of his internal energy, no thought for what would come after. He poured out every last drop of his being. The secret arts that had felled countless martial artists annihilated the area in front of him, the force so great that several unstable buildings nearby simply collapsed. He had never unleashed his power so completely, and for a fleeting moment, he felt he had glimpsed a realm beyond his own limits.

“Heok, heok.”

He stood leaning on his longsword, the world spinning around him as his energy reserves bottomed out. It felt as if his meridians would burst.

“Blegh!”

He vomited a mouthful of dark, clotted blood. It was a reckless use of his power that he would never have normally attempted, and he knew his danjeon had suffered an irreversible injury.

And yet, he could still feel it. Through the thick cloud of dust, he could feel the monster’s gaze fixed upon him. The soul-freezing killing intent had not weakened in the slightest.

“Fu…ck…!”

In the final moment, his vision was filled with a gaping maw, packed with rows upon rows of sharp teeth.

***

Impossible…

Geum-ju could not believe it. None of this made any sense. The monster’s terrifying presence was only growing stronger. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur, so acrid it felt like it was rotting her nose.

This is impossible…

The last of her masters, the ones she had been saving for the final push, were all dead, and they had accomplished nothing.

How can this be…?

She had believed that no matter how strong he was, she could win. She had used the secret art her monstrous master had taught her. And so she had hidden herself, waiting. She had waited and waited. And now, she was all that was left, facing a being that was far more powerful than when the battle had begun.

No, no…

She tried to banish the thought that kept creeping into her mind, a thought that terrified her more than anything else. The power this thing displayed… it reminded her of him. It was just like her master. Their appearances, their auras, were completely different, but there was one, crucial similarity.

Common sense did not apply to them. From beginning to end, nothing about them made any sense. And their depths were something she could never hope to fathom.

No, no, no! I’ve crossed the wall! I’m a master now!

Even if only temporarily, she was in the realm of a master. The state that all martial artists dreamed of from the moment they first gathered Qi. A privileged realm permitted only to a select few, the point where a human sheds the limits of their species and is reborn as a true superhuman.

I am strong now, I am strong…!

She had sacrificed decades of her own lifespan for this art. She could not, would not, accept this fate.

I’ll kill him! I’ll kill him, and then I’ll tear those bitches to shreds! I will kill every last person who ever laughed at me!

In her terror, she was completely unaware of her own pathetic state. She, a true master, was hiding in a ruined building, screaming threats only in the confines of her own mind, unable to even muster her internal energy or project her killing intent.

And so, she did not acknowledge the whistling sound that had been growing closer and closer, a melody so mournful it was heartbreaking. She did not acknowledge that it was now coming from right behind her. She ignored the temperature dropping around her, the smell of sulfur growing ever stronger.

But when she finally felt its icy breath on the back of her neck, she could no longer deny it.

“There you are, Geum-ju.”

The voice corrected itself.

“Or should I call you… Se Yu-hwa?”