The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 307

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Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 307: The Black Flame Dragon, Sacred One of the Dark Path (5)

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Demonic martial arts.

The term commonly refers to martial arts practiced by members of the Demonic Cult.

The Martial Alliance, however, defines demonic martial arts far more broadly.

Power that twists the natural order and strays from the truth.

Any power that defies the laws of the world and goes beyond common sense falls under the category of demonic martial arts.

This stemmed from the righteous path classification established when the Martial Alliance was founded five hundred years ago.

For the past five centuries, the Martial Alliance had eradicated every martial art that fell outside this righteous path classification, preserving peace in the martial world.

As a result, few people in this era knew the types or characteristics of demonic martial arts, and no one who saw Deung Gohyeon would have thought of them.

“Hall Master! A-are you all right?”

The Jeondeung Sect disciples were stunned.

They had been glad when Deung Gohyeon cut down a Venom Fang Sect disciple in one stroke, but he had also cut down the Jeondeung Sect disciple who stood in his way.

They cautiously called to Deung Gohyeon, but he did not even acknowledge them and charged straight at the Venom Fang Sect disciples.

Slash!

It was only natural to meet someone holding a weapon with a weapon of one’s own.

But seeing their desperate defenses prove useless was enough to paralyze them with terror.

Slash!

“Guhk!”

Another Venom Fang Sect disciple, sword raised in defense, had their neck severed along with the blade. Blood gushed from the wound.

Before long, little streams of blood began flowing across the Venom Fang Sect’s courtyard.

The Venom Fang Sect disciples kept retreating.

Each time they did, Deung Gohyeon pursued them, severing necks and tearing bodies apart. He no longer looked like a martial artist, but a vicious ghost.

“H-Hall Master... I-I think that’s enough.”

A disciple who could no longer stand watching tried to speak to Deung Gohyeon, but he paid no attention.

Then three Jeondeung Sect disciples rushed at him from behind to restrain him.

Flash.

Deung Gohyeon looked at his junior disciples with black eyes and swung his saber without emotion.

“Guhk!”

“Argh!”

One was beheaded, while the other two lost arms and legs.

Neither the Venom Fang Sect nor the Jeondeung Sect disciples could process the series of events unfolding before them.

“W-what the hell is this?!”

“H-he attacked his own side...!”

“R-run!”

Deung Gohyeon had terrified even the Black Path martial artists, who feared nothing. He licked the blood splattered across his lips and shouted.

“Th-the Jeondeung Sect is eternal!!!”

With his eyes bulging, Deung Gohyeon charged at the Venom Fang Sword again.

Crunch.

The Venom Fang Sword ground his teeth hard enough to break as he prepared to meet him with everything he had.

“You think I’ll run?!”

Clang!

Yet the Venom Fang Sword’s weapon, imbued with sword qi, was cut apart.

The moment his eyes widened like Deung Gohyeon’s...

Thud!

I quickly kicked him away.

“W-what, guh...!!”

Crash!

The Venom Fang Sword flew away, snapping a hall pillar.

“I just saved your life.”

“...F-fuck...”

True to someone from the Black Path, the Venom Fang Sword expressed his gratitude with a curse.

Leaving him behind, I studied Deung Gohyeon closely.

His face was flushed red, and white vapor poured from his mouth every time he exhaled.

Those were the typical symptoms of taking a Bloodburst Pellet, but something was different after that.

Eyes like black obsidian, with no whites left at all.

A bizarre energy that cut through sword qi despite not being sword force.

And though he endlessly released waves of qi, he did not appear to be consuming innate true qi.

It was as if he were drawing qi from somewhere beyond our understanding.

Most of all...

There was the unpleasant killing intent that prickled against my skin, along with demonic qi so dense that merely looking at it made my eyes ache.

I asked Deung Gohyeon, “You... have you learned demonic martial arts?”

At my question, Deung Gohyeon’s gaze followed the Venom Fang Sword before turning to me.

“You... you... what are you? Are you an obstacle?”

“I asked if you learned demonic martial arts.”

“You intend to interfere with the Jeondeung Sect?!”

Deung Gohyeon drooled like a beast as he bellowed.

“I’ll kill you! Anyone who interferes with the Jeondeung Sect will die!”

There was no reasoning with him.

I focused my intent and raised the Taeul True Scripture.

Internal energy flowed through my main meridians and spread into my lesser meridians, filling them with power.

Using the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, I left behind two afterimages and moved behind Deung Gohyeon.

“Hey, I’m over here.”

The instant he turned around in alarm, I kicked him in the head and sent him flying thirty feet away.

Crash!

Deung Gohyeon smashed through a tree trunk so thick that even two adults could not fully encircle it.

Crack. Crack.

Yet he sprang back to his feet as though he had suffered no real damage.

The only difference from before was...

“Kill... kill...”

He snarled through his teeth like a beast that had lost all reason.

Roar!

With a bestial roar, he kicked off the ground and shot toward me like an arrow.

Slash! Slash! Slash!

His saber flashed at me in the blink of an eye, and I evaded each strike by a hair’s breadth.

My flying hair and the hem of my clothes, however, could not avoid his saber and were cut apart.

Soso bought me these expensive clothes.

Damn bastard.

“Get a hold of yourself, you bastard!”

I clenched my fist and struck his jaw hard enough to shatter it.

His body lifted nearly twenty feet into the air. His head snapped back as though his neck had broken, then he flipped backward once in midair and regained his balance.

Tap.

As soon as Deung Gohyeon landed, he vomited a bowlful of blood. Then he threw away even the saber that should have been an extension of his own body, crawled on all fours, and looked around.

“Grrr.”

Growling like an enraged dog, Deung Gohyeon suddenly changed direction and lunged at the Venom Fang Sect disciples.

“Argh!”

A Venom Fang Sect disciple died in a single blow after Deung Gohyeon tore a fistful of flesh from the disciple’s nape.

Deung Gohyeon immediately abandoned the corpse and rushed toward his next target.

“C-crazy bastard! What is that?!”

“R-run!”

I could not ease my frown as I watched.

The energy he gave off was undoubtedly from demonic martial arts, but his behavior was completely unlike that of demonic beings.

Demonic beings might be crazed for murder, but they did not lose their reason so easily.

No, they were colder and more calculating than anyone, which was why they regarded killing so lightly.

From that perspective...

‘Something’s wrong.’

The sight of him consumed only by murder, as if he had forgotten his purpose entirely, was too unnatural.

And it was hard to accept that someone who prided himself on belonging to a lay sect affiliated through another lay sect with the Qingcheng Sect had learned demonic martial arts.

‘Would someone from the White Path really reveal demonic martial arts they had secretly learned this easily?’

I possessed strange abilities because of the Azure Dragon Bangle too, but I could not reveal them carelessly.

If I did, the entire martial world would brand me a public enemy, and I would not escape death.

That meant that whether he intended it or not, this situation, where he had revealed demonic martial arts, could not have been his choice.

‘What is it...? What did I miss?’

While I was lost in thought, the Venom Fang Sword got to his feet and thrust his sword at Deung Gohyeon.

“Damn it, Deung Gohyeon! What the hell are you doing?!”

“Argh!”

Even with a blade sunk into his hand, Deung Gohyeon rushed forward to bite the Venom Fang Sword’s neck.

Blue veins began to show on the Venom Fang Sword’s flushed face.

That was proof that the Bloodburst Pellet was beginning to overload...

‘Ah!’

I suddenly remembered that everyone in both the Venom Fang Sect and Jeondeung Sect, starting with the Venom Fang Sword, had taken Bloodburst Pellets.

‘Did the Bloodburst Pellet trigger something?’

I raised the Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force and fired the Flying Dragon Claw.

“S-save me!!!”

Just before Deung Gohyeon bit into the Venom Fang Sword’s neck, the Flying Dragon Claw wrapped around his throat and yanked him away bodily.

But then...

Kyaaah!

Even while being dragged away, Deung Gohyeon forced himself upright and charged at me.

I drew the Scarlet Radiance Sword, raised the Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force, and formed sword force.

Slash!

The Scarlet Radiance Sword drew an arc of light, but he twisted his body at an impossible angle and avoided the sword force.

‘He dodged that?’

The moment I drew back my sword and unleashed the Lesser Heaven Sword Art again...

Crack. Crack.

Bones ground in his feet, and Deung Gohyeon shot forward like a cannonball.

“Crazy bastard!”

Boom!

Deung Gohyeon charged in with his entire body, without even using a form.

I raised the Devouring Gauntlet to block him, but the impact spread through every part of my body except the gauntlet.

The blow was powerful enough to lift me off the ground and send me flying backward.

Thud!

The moment I struck a hall pillar and tried to get up, he was already right in front of me.

“Kill! Kill! I’ll kill every enemy of the Jeondeung Sect!”

I quickly unleashed the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist to push him away, but perhaps he no longer felt pain. Even with his jaw broken and nose crushed, he kept attacking.

‘You fucking bastard!’

It was not true demonic martial arts, but he was as tenacious and relentless as a real demonic being.

It was that very sight, one I had grown sick of seeing in my previous life, that would inevitably carve fear into countless people.

Crunch.

Memories of the past surfaced, and I ground my teeth.

“Hey.”

“Grrr! Kill! Kill!”

“You picked the wrong person. I detest demonic beings so much my teeth grind.”

If he did not care about pain, then neither would I.

I shoved my fist straight into his open mouth as he tried to bite my neck.

Crunch!

Terrible pain surged through the back of my hand where his teeth had sunk in, but I drove my fist even deeper into his mouth.

“Try swallowing this too!”

At the same time, I unleashed the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand.

Even Deung Gohyeon, who seemed numb to pain, widened his eyes.

Kyaaah!

It did not matter if his jaw dislocated or his teeth broke.

Deung Gohyeon only struggled desperately to pull my hand out.

I kicked him away, picked up a stone nearby, and approached him.

The flames of the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand that had spread inside his mouth seemed to have burned his brain. He swallowed sand in an attempt to put them out.

After barely extinguishing the flames in his mouth, he began choking.

I smashed the stone into his head.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

His frantic resistance gradually weakened.

Just before his last breath escaped...

“You can’t die yet.”

I placed a hand on his Baihui acupoint and poured in Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.

His body, which had seemed on the verge of death, began convulsing again.

A moment later, perhaps his reason and senses had returned. Deung Gohyeon screamed in pain.

“Guhk! Guhk! Guhk! S-save me, save me...”

His airway had already been burned by the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand, leaving him unable to breathe properly.

Grabbing him by the hair, I asked, “Where did you get those demonic martial arts?”

“...S-save me...”

I slapped him and asked again.

“Demonic martial arts! Where did you get them?!”

“D-demonic martial arts...?”

“Yes, the martial art you learned that defies the heavens. Where did you get it?!”

“N-no. I, I learned a divine art...”

Even at his best, Deung Gohyeon was only a first-rate martial artist.

If I had to evaluate him by Martial Alliance standards, he was at most Deputy Hall Master-level.

And someone like him had learned a divine art?

“Who was it...? Who taught you martial arts?”

“...”

The light was slowly fading from Deung Gohyeon’s eyes.

I poured in more Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.

But...

“Th-the Jeondeung Sect... eternal...”

With those final words, the light in Deung Gohyeon’s eyes went out completely.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The Venom Fang Sword’s heart would not stop pounding.

The Blood-Quelling Pellet had already suppressed the Bloodburst Pellet’s effects.

Even so, his heart would not stop racing because he had truly faced death.

‘W-what the hell was that...?’

He had survived for decades in the Black Path martial world, where every kind of monster could be found, but this was the first time he had felt real terror.

‘I was definitely... dead.’

Especially when Deung Gohyeon had tried to tear into his neck with blood-soaked teeth.

Even thinking of that moment again made all the strength drain from his body.

The Venom Fang Sword turned to look at Deung Gohyeon.

The Black Flame Dragon was gripping Deung Gohyeon by the collar and asking him something.

The man he had thought was nothing more than a crazed lunatic had saved his life.

And against a horrifying creature he would not have seen even in a nightmare.

If the Black Flame Dragon had not come to the Venom Fang Sect, everyone there, including himself, would have been buried in that place.

‘C-could it be...?’

A thought suddenly came to him.

What if the Black Flame Dragon had come for the safety of the Black Path factions?

Since he belonged to the White Path, he could not visit as a gesture of friendship. Perhaps he had used the Black Path-like excuse of extorting money to scout things out for them.

Otherwise, why would he risk himself for the Venom Fang Sect, a faction with which he had no prior connection?

There had been a rumor that legendary Black Path masters had painstakingly raised a Joint Successor in preparation for the day Yong Soa, the White Path’s rising divine prodigy, would take control of the martial world.

At last, every piece of that rumor seemed to fall into place.

‘Ah...!’

At that point, the Black Flame Dragon’s use of the word “friend” began to feel more meaningful.

He had been quietly telling him something.

That he was one of the Black Path.

‘As expected... the Black Path martial world’s divine prodigy.’

As the Venom Fang Sword looked at him with admiration, the Black Flame Dragon rose to his feet.

Shaking the blood from his hand, he called out.

“Venom Fang Sword.”

“Y-yes!”

Now that he understood the Black Flame Dragon was the Black Path’s Joint Successor, respect came naturally.

“Do you know where the Jeondeung Sect is?”