Into the Creations 1815

Chapter 1815 – 1815. The Ascent Of Gwangmyeong

-We have to kill Sabok.

Baekran sent a telepathic message, her voice more serious than ever.

Sabok. That thing is a manifestation of a being from the underworld in Hweju’s body. It’s emitting the energy of the underworld that we encountered in the Manmu Tower.

-How? It’s clearly not an ordinary foe. Can we handle it ourselves?

-It’s still possible. It hasn’t fully manifested yet. It’s not moving, is it? It’s gathering its strength. If it fully manifests… it’ll be able to act for a month.

-It’ll return after a month?

-The heavens haven’t opened… it can’t stay in this world for long.

-Then there’s no need to fight it now, is there?

-We don’t know what it’ll do in this world during that month. It’ll probably devour all the humans around here. And it’ll get stronger and stronger… In the worst case, the Demonic Cult might disappear.

-The Demonic Cult disappear? Is that even possible?

-I told you, it’s the worst-case scenario. It’ll devour humans, or rather, their souls, to regain its original power. If it devours more souls, it’ll become even stronger. So, we have to kill it here.

-How are we going to kill it? You saw that our qi doesn’t work on it.

-Its weakness is the snake wriggling wildly on its back. If we kill all those snakes, we can kill Sabok. This is both a crisis and an opportunity. An opportunity to kill it when it’s much weaker than it was in the underworld!

Baekran’s eyes shone with a murderous intent. She had no intention of missing this chance to kill those snake bastards.

-What are you going to do?

-Create an opening. I’ll kill it.

-Alright.

I answered briefly and ran towards Sabok. We’d already given it enough time. Giving it more time was not a good idea.

‘The snakes on its back are its weakness.’

[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 4]

I pretended to charge straight ahead, then used Flash to drastically change direction. My target was Sabok’s back. Sabok, who had been standing leisurely, quickly turned to follow me.

‘It’s reacting overly sensitively, so Baekran is right, the snakes on its back are its weakness.’

Sabok reached out a hand. His fingernails turned black and became sharp like blades.

I inhaled deeply and focused my concentration. Time seemed to stretch out momentarily. It wasn’t comparable to when I used Flash, but time had definitely slowed down.

Thunder Sky Style, Mind Sword.

In the slowed time, only the sword I wielded moved quickly. The sword narrowly missed Sabok’s outstretched hand, sliced his shoulder, and cut one of the five snakes on his back.

*Swish.*

The severed snake fell to the ground.

“Kuaaaaaaaak!”

It wasn’t just Sabok who screamed. The other four snakes also opened their mouths wide and screamed. A hazy purple mist rose from the snakes’ fangs.

‘Poison smoke.’

It was obvious. I retreated.

Tsk.

I clicked my tongue briefly. My retreat was slow compared to my attack.

‘The weakness of the Thunder Sky Style is its footwork. There’s no useful footwork.’

The Thunder Sky Style had two footwork techniques: Deceptive Step and Thunder Sound Step. Thunder Sound Step was a charge focused solely on speed, and Deceptive Step was for stealth. Neither was useful in a battle like this.

“You managed to cut off one of Sabok’s snakes! Amazing!”

Baekran looked at me, impressed.

“I created an opening, why didn’t you attack?”

“There was no room to intervene. You did it all. Look at him. He’s furious now. Even I would have trouble charging in there.”

“…If he’s spewing out poison smoke like that, we can’t even get close.”

“Even for him, his power isn’t infinite. If we wait, the poison smoke will lessen. Can you use that attack from earlier again? That attack was so fast I could barely see it.”

“It’s hard to use it consecutively.”

“I see.”

While we were talking, a gust of poison smoke flew towards us. I flinched. I almost dodged instinctively, but Baekran moved first. She lowered the tip of her sword slightly and swung it horizontally. A wind arose. The wind became a barrier, blocking the poison smoke.

Baekran’s response didn’t end there. She pulled her sword back and lowered her stance slightly. Black energy bloomed like a flower at the tip of her sword, aimed at the poison smoke.

‘That’s… demonic energy.’

It wasn’t ordinary demonic energy. Something else was mixed in. Was it a characteristic of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art that Baekran, the Regressor Heavenly Demon, possessed?

‘It could be. And the thing mixed in is….’

It somehow resembled the energy of the underworld.

Baekran thrust her sword.

*Ping!*

The demonic energy shot from the tip of her sword pierced through the poison smoke and struck Sabok’s chest.

“This power…! You damned bitch! Who gave you this power?!”

Sabok shouted. The four snakes wriggling on his back opened their mouths and spat out venom. Baekran and I dodged before the venom could reach us.

“Uwaaaaaak!”

“Dodge! Focus on dodging!”

Hong Je-yu and Hong Gang-hu had already retreated far back. It was clear they were looking for a chance to escape. As expected, these bastards couldn’t be trusted either.

“Hong Gang-hu.”

Baekran called out to Hong Gang-hu. Hong Gang-hu, who was preparing to flee, paused.

“…Why did you call me?”

“You should help us too.”

“My internal injuries are not minor. If I step in, I’ll only be a hindrance to you.”

“Sabok is furious. He’s never been good at controlling his anger. If this continues, the ground will be poisoned, and the air will be contaminated. More importantly, don’t forget that Sabok saw your faces. Do you think that persistent bastard will leave you alone if you escape?”

“…Damn it.”

Hong Gang-hu cursed under his breath and grabbed his sword, raising his fighting spirit.

“Protect your whole body with a protective qi. With a protective qi, you’ll be able to withstand the poison smoke.”

“…As I said before, I’m injured. I can’t hold out for long.”

“That’s why we have to finish this quickly.”

I answered Hong Gang-hu’s words. Hong Gang-hu sighed softly and wrapped his body in protective qi. I also raised my qi and covered my whole body.

“I’ll stand in front.”

Baekran stood in front of us as if it was natural. Her dignified presence made me certain once again. She was indeed the Regressor Heavenly Demon.

*Thump.*

Baekran stepped forward.

The poison smoke that had been spreading in all directions was instantly suppressed and subdued. I swallowed quietly. This feeling, it was familiar.

‘Heavenly Demon’s Descent Step.’

Sabok, flustered by the suppression of the poison smoke, flailed his arms. As if that was a signal, Baekran ran towards him.

Hong Gang-hu and I followed behind her. Hong Gang-hu and I naturally aimed for Sabok’s left and right sides. I took the right, Hong Gang-hu the left. The front was naturally Baekran.

“You dare…!”

Sabok swung his four snakes and arms. He wasn’t just swinging them. There was martial principle in his movements.

‘Is he using the snakes to perform a fist technique?’

It was absurd. But it was also incredibly threatening.

‘Come to think of it, there’s a snake fist technique that imitates the movements of snakes.’

Sabok was no different from having six fists.

I swung my sword. The snake heads skillfully avoided my sword and lunged in. When I tried to retreat and counterattack, the snake opened its mouth and spat out venom. I trusted my protective qi and counterattacked. Unfortunately, my sword only grazed the snake’s head.

*Tssshhhhh!*

The venom pierced through my protective qi and burned my clothes. Startled, I hurriedly shook off my clothes and slammed the venom onto the ground.

The snake head that had been aiming for my neck paused.

‘Did Baekran do something? Whatever it is, it’s an opening. I can’t miss it.’

[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 3]

The blade moved to cut off the snake’s head. Another snake intervened and bit down on the Fire Lotus Flying Blade.

‘In this case, lightning.’

Before I could generate lightning, the blade was spat out. Three snake heads opened their mouths simultaneously and spat venom at me.

[Using Flash. Remaining stacks: 2]

‘Shit. Three of them?!’

What was Hong Gang-hu doing?

I used Flash to hurriedly evade the venom and looked at Hong Gang-hu. Hong Gang-hu had retreated and was kneeling on one knee. His left shoulder was melting. It seemed he had been hit by the venom.

‘This bastard….’

A curse welled up inside me. Hong Gang-hu was even less helpful than I had expected. With one of the three in that state, the other two had to suffer.

I glanced at Baekran. The demonic energy I had seen earlier was slowly leaking from her body. She wasn’t hiding it. She had decided to end this.

Baekran pulled out the hairpin that had been holding her white hair in place. Demonic energy gathered on the hairpin, and its shape changed. It became the shape of a heart. The heart was throbbing. A terrible demonic energy was felt. She threw the black heart towards Sabok’s back. The black heart turned into a pitch-black human form.

I had seen it before. The thing that had fought me last time. Baekran was indeed the Regressor Heavenly Demon.

‘Maybe the reason she contacted me was….’

I shook off the distracting thoughts. Baekran’s clones multiplied, and our side gained the upper hand. However, we couldn’t quite seize victory. It was because of Sabok’s poison.

“You will all melt away in the poison!”

“Bullshit.”

Baekran’s words from earlier came to mind.

‘Create an opening? I can do that.’

*Pajijijijik!*

Thunder Sky Style, Evil Thunder.

A dark blue lightning gathered in my left hand. It was lightning, but it was heavy. It wasn’t as fast as other lightning. But it was more powerful and vicious.

“Saaaaaaaeek!”

Two snake heads bled and became wary of me. I grinned and threw the Evil Thunder at Sabok’s feet. The dark blue lightning suppressed the venom and poison smoke and tried to erode Sabok’s body.

“Do you think I’ll be defeated by something like this?”

The four snakes opened their mouths simultaneously and spewed poison smoke at the Evil Thunder. The dark blue lightning that had been burning like a bonfire gradually weakened.

It didn’t matter. My goal had been achieved.

Baekran’s clone exploded. Pitch-black demonic energy covered the surroundings. It was as if night had fallen. There was something shining white within this darkness. It was Baekran. Or rather, her sword was shining white.

‘…White demonic energy? It’s demonic energy, but… I don’t know exactly what it is. What is that?’

Sabok’s face was visible. The confidence he had earlier was gone, replaced by a look of fear. It was quite a sight.

“N-no…!”

The terrified man’s knees buckled. It looked like he was about to kneel and beg for his life. But before his knees could touch the ground, the white sword delivered its judgment.

A single slash became ten slashes, slicing Sabok to pieces.