WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Order
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◈ The Heaven-Slaying Sword ◈
Chapter 80: Chapter Nine - Mission, Espionage (11)
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The pain of his arm splitting vertically in two.
It crept over Oh Gang-ak with excruciating slowness.
But he had no time to care about the pain.
His thoughts expanded without end, painting a scene before his eyes.
The moment he realized he had regressed, what flashed through his mind was his life until then.
* * *
Six Demonic Gates.
It referred to the six sects holding the greatest power in the Hundred Thousand Great Mountains beyond Xinjiang, and Oh Gang-ak had been born the young sect leader of one of them, the Sword Flame Gate.
But he could not simply be called the young sect leader of one of the Six Gates.
The founder of the Sword Flame Gate was a figure of great importance even in the history of the Demonic Cult.
Demon Sword Oh Chun.
Would that explain the sect's stature? Its first sect leader had been Demon Sword Oh Chun, the third Heavenly Slaughter Star to appear in the Martial World, an eccentric man born into a prestigious family among the Orthodox Sects who had ended his life as a Demonic practitioner.
That was why the Sword Flame Gate was powerful.
And Oh Gang-ak, its young sect leader of this generation, was strong.
The Crimson Flame Demonic Arts, created through the Heavenly Slaughter Star's insight, were powerful enough to be called a divine art even among demonic arts.
It was only natural that the Heavenly Demon had chosen him as Young Cult Leader at the age of ten.
As a child, Oh Gang-ak had thought the world belonged to him.
Everything he saw seemed to lie beneath his feet.
It was not entirely wrong.
If not for one person, his delusion would have become reality.
At eighteen, the day before he was to inherit the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, that man appeared.
This was how Oh Gang-ak remembered that day.
Some beggar trash had come to meet the Heavenly Demon alone.
Afterward, he fought that beggar trash for the position of Young Cult Leader.
During that match, the skin of his face had been torn away with a sickening crack.
"I'll spare your life. That's the greatest mercy I can offer."
He had suffered such humiliation.
What came after was horrifying even to recall.
Everything he had thought was his slipped through his fingers and vanished.
The position above ten thousand others was no longer his.
No, worse than that was the way those who had always bowed their heads before him now looked at him with mocking eyes.
How had some beggar trash surpassed him?
He learned the answer after enduring about a year of that misery.
"A Heavenly Slaughter Star?"
"...Yes. They say he is the Heavenly Slaughter Star of this generation."
"Hah..."
What a twisted joke.
That was the only thought Oh Gang-ak had at that moment.
Was it not true?
Looking back, was his fate not being tossed about by that single star called the Heavenly Slaughter Star?
He had been born as a descendant of the Heavenly Slaughter Star and enjoyed its fruits, only to fall with the arrival of another Heavenly Slaughter Star. His life felt as though it had been nothing more than a shadow meant to make that star shine brighter.
From that day onward, the desire in his heart began sinking into a stagnant swamp.
His anger could not be soothed by anything, and he began devouring everything in sight.
Every day was hell.
The world had turned colorless, and nothing had any taste, no matter what he ate.
There was only one pleasant thing in those days: Dan Cheon-hwa's betrayal.
Was he called the Blood Demon in the Central Plains?
Through the schemes of that traitor who had betrayed the cult, that beggar trash lost the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
It had been idiotic, but even more idiotic was that bastard's response.
"...He says he will reclaim his star."
How was he going to reattach something that had fallen away?
Did he even know how?
Dan Cheon-hwa, the only priest who knew the method, was dead. How did he intend to find it now?
Oh Gang-ak remembered laughing for a long time.
He also remembered devouring an entire woman that day in his delight.
The star had disappeared.
Then surely, the position of Young Cult Leader would belong to the truly capable.
With that thought, he had challenged that bastard as soon as he heard the news.
Nothing changed.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, worm."
That bastard was still the Young Cult Leader. Even after losing his star, Oh Gang-ak could not reclaim what he had lost.
Why?
Why?
The question never left him.
And...
'...That was when I began to regress.'
Drip, drip.
Oh Gang-ak's sense of time sped up.
Only then did he look at his arm.
Split precisely down the middle and dangling loosely, it no longer looked like something that could be called an arm.
'Is this how it ends?'
This time, too, it was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
Again, it was the Heavenly Slaughter Star.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star had raised him high, cast him into the abyss, and now sought to take his life.
In the end, he had failed to resist.
He had only ever been swept along by that star.
Oh Gang-ak stared blankly ahead.
The Heavenly Slaughter Star had moved away, and beside him stood the Imperial Ruler Star.
'Just a star...'
Was it not simply one of his inborn gifts?
Why did that thing get to define him?
Oh Gang-ak hated it.
He resented that single star for sweeping his life away.
"Just... just a star..."
Thud!
Oh Gang-ak raised the arm with its ruined shoulder joint and reached toward the arm that had just been split apart.
He grabbed the shoulder above it and tightened his grip.
Crack.
His shoulder compressed.
Crunch!
Flesh and muscle were crushed to pulp.
"Aaargh!!!"
Rip!
His shoulder came free.
Oh Gang-ak threw the useless arm to the ground.
Then he pressed his palm to the bleeding shoulder and released demonic qi.
Sizzle!
The smell of burning meat began to spread.
He was cauterizing the severed wound to stop the bleeding.
Oh Gang-ak stared at Mok Ri-won and Namgung Jin-cheon with bloodshot eyes.
"What do a couple of brats know, acting so high and mighty?"
One of his arms was gone now.
Even the shoulder joint of his remaining arm had been completely ruined.
But it was fine.
"I'll kill you. Both of you, and that star I want to rip to pieces."
His heart was still beating.
And he still had demonic qi.
Oh Gang-ak raised his hand and curled it into a claw.
Then he drove it deep into the left side of his chest.
He pierced his heart and shattered the life within it.
Kiiiiing!
A grand technique that burned innate true qi and converted life itself into demonic qi.
A grand technique born from the resolve to throw away one's life to kill an enemy.
It was the final technique of the Crimson Flame Demonic Arts, Fierce Fiendish Slaughter.
* * *
Namgung Jin-cheon sensed that something was wrong from the moment Oh Gang-ak tore off his own arm.
"Ink Dragon!"
An indescribably ominous foreboding gripped him as he shouted.
With his sword already drawn, he stamped down to rush forward.
He had to kill him now.
That judgment was wrong.
"Stop!"
Mok Ri-won grabbed Namgung Jin-cheon by the nape and yanked him back.
Boom!
A blast of flames erupted from Oh Gang-ak, passing directly before Namgung Jin-cheon's nose.
A chill ran down Namgung Jin-cheon's spine.
'If I had gone...'
He would have died.
He glanced at Mok Ri-won, but Mok Ri-won's gaze was fixed on the flames.
Namgung Jin-cheon followed his gaze.
When the flames subsided, he drew in a sharp breath at what they revealed.
'His body...'
Oh Gang-ak's body was burning.
He was not simply wreathed in flames. His skin was cooking all over.
A new arm made of fire had replaced the one he had torn off.
"D...ie..."
Oh Gang-ak took a step forward.
"Sword Dragon! We have to fight!"
Namgung Jin-cheon bit down on his lip.
Blue Qi Waves hissed out, filling the space around Namgung Jin-cheon and his sword.
There was not a moment's hesitation.
Namgung Jin-cheon swung his sword, firing out Qi Waves. Oh Gang-ak took them head-on.
Sizzle!
There was only that sound.
Not even the slightest wound appeared on Oh Gang-ak's body.
'What...?!'
Panic rose in him, but there was no time to hesitate.
Mok Ri-won shot forward.
Namgung Jin-cheon suppressed his shock and stamped down.
Once again, he took the opening stance of the Imperial Sword Form.
This time, Namgung Jin-cheon moved his sword as though he meant to split Oh Gang-ak's body in two.
At the same time, Mok Ri-won began squeezing out every last bit of his inner energy.
Ink-black and blue.
Two Qi Waves charged at Oh Gang-ak from different directions.
Oh Gang-ak spread both arms and blocked them with his hands.
Boom!
The sword strikes were stopped amid an explosion.
But the two men did not stop.
Namgung Jin-cheon felt an ominous foreboding.
Mok Ri-won felt the Killing Intent.
They understood at once that this was power born from burning his own life, and that if they tried to flee, that power would turn on others.
"Sword Dragon!"
"I know!"
For a brief instant, Mok Ri-won and Namgung Jin-cheon's eyes met.
No more words were needed.
They would stop him here.
But they could not simply block the power of a transcendent peak martial artist pouring out all his innate true qi.
There was only one way: a combined attack.
Hummm!
The swords rang.
Standing before and behind Oh Gang-ak, the two men rushed him at the same time.
As if they had rehearsed it, they thrust their swords at precisely the same moment.
Mok Ri-won's sword went for Oh Gang-ak's shoulder, while Namgung Jin-cheon's slashed at his neck.
When Oh Gang-ak reached out to block Namgung Jin-cheon's sword first, Mok Ri-won twisted his sword's path, deflected Namgung Jin-cheon's blade, then used the recoil to slash Oh Gang-ak's back.
Sizzle!
But it was not a fatal wound.
The flames burning Oh Gang-ak's body immediately cauterized the bleeding wound.
Oh Gang-ak spun and aimed a back kick at Mok Ri-won's solar plexus.
Namgung Jin-cheon cut the knee of Oh Gang-ak's supporting leg, throwing off his balance.
Tap!
The two men retreated from Oh Gang-ak at the same time.
Then they charged him again from different directions.
Once more, their moves unfolded at exactly the same moment.
They began driving Oh Gang-ak back without giving him a moment to breathe.
Boom!
Their assault grew fiercer with each explosive crash.
Incredibly, the tide of battle was gradually turning in Mok Ri-won and Namgung Jin-cheon's favor.
The reason was that the two men had accomplished something they should not have been able to do.
They had successfully executed a combined attack technique in a real battle without ever practicing it even once.
How was such a thing possible?
The answer was surprisingly simple.
They knew each other's swords far too well.
Mok Ri-won was the first person Namgung Jin-cheon had ever faced while putting everything he had on the line.
Namgung Jin-cheon was the only opponent Mok Ri-won had struggled to defeat by using his true nature.
They knew each other's swords that well.
They knew exactly how the other's sword would move. That was why Namgung Jin-cheon could think to twist his own sword's path through Mok Ri-won's variations.
Mok Ri-won could use Namgung Jin-cheon's strength to twist his sword's path even more violently.
Boom!
Explosions rang out despite their swords cutting through human flesh.
The flames bursting out made their skin burn.
Yet danger was not what the two men thought of in that moment.
'A path...'
They could see it.
New sword paths appeared where they had not yet extended their blades.
New sword strikes that neither could achieve alone began opening up without end.
It was an experience neither had ever known.
The other's moves, and the further moves entwined with them, became a single form and ceaselessly wove together new martial principles. It was a strangely wondrous feeling.
The flames touched their skin, but it was their minds that grew hot.
Dozens of possibilities appeared and vanished in each instant. Where should they extend their swords next so the other's blade would follow and cut down their enemy? How should they draw back their swords to cover each other's openings?
The State of Selflessness.
Lost within it, they observed new possibilities for what their swords could become.
Clang!
Their swords struck each other and pushed them apart.
The recoil carried them away from Oh Gang-ak's explosion.
Then they both realized it at once.
For a brief moment after causing an explosion from his body, Oh Gang-ak's body stopped moving.
Their gazes turned toward each other.
With a look, they confirmed that the other had noticed it too.
They coated their bodies in Qi Waves.
The instant the explosion died down, they threw themselves into the flames.
Two swords thrust in from opposite sides.
Between them stood the Demonic practitioner, his body twitching.
After that scene flashed before them, the chilling sound of swords piercing flesh rang out.
Shunk!
Two swords pierced Oh Gang-ak at exactly the same moment.
One through his solar plexus, the other through his dantian.
Ssssss-.
The flames on Oh Gang-ak's body faded.
"Cough!"
He vomited blood and collapsed.
Footnotes:
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