Chapter 1839 – 1839. Ascension To The Light
The Flower Flame Blade was cracked. It had been cracked from the beginning, but I had vaguely thought it would be okay. Well, it had been fine until now. No matter how many people I sliced, the Flower Flame Blade hadn’t shown any signs of breaking.
‘But now the cracked part has gotten bigger!’
Before, you had to look closely to notice the crack. But now, even at a glance, you could tell that the blade was cracked.
‘I was too complacent.’
The Flower Flame Blade boasted excellent durability even with the crack, so I had been swinging it around without a second thought. And this was the result.
With trembling hands, I swung the Flower Flame Blade in the air. Thankfully, it didn’t break and was still intact. Why did it crack earlier?
‘The first time it cracked was when I was fighting a dragon in the Baekhwan World. That dragon’s scales were ridiculously tough. Maybe it’s because the Flower Flame Blade is made from dragon scales.’
In other words, the sword strike I just made was more powerful than when I fought a dragon.
‘Did I use the power of the Jiam Star too recklessly?’
Anyway, I shouldn’t use the Demonic Calamity for a while.
-What are you doing, standing there blankly?!
Mireyeong’s voice snapped me out of it. I had forgotten, because of the crack in the Flower Flame Blade, that I was in the middle of a battle. The reason I wasn’t feeling any sense of crisis was because my opponents were such pushovers.
I looked ahead. Ordinary people were advancing towards me, stepping on the blood and gore-soaked ground.
‘Seeing 5,000 people die at once, shouldn’t they realize they’re screwed?’
If they were in their right minds, they wouldn’t have come to fight me. These guys were being controlled by sorcery.
‘Even though I killed the sorcerer, the sorcery continues. Annoying.’
I had underestimated the hundreds of thousands of people. Seeing the massive number of humans pushing forward, it looked like a kind of tsunami.
“Mireyeong. Can’t you do anything about the sorcery on those guys?”
-There are too many of them, so it’s difficult. In the first place, dispelling sorcery is harder than using it. Even if I tried, I could only undo the sorcery on about 300 people in 5 minutes. It’s faster and more efficient to just kill them. The problem is, there are so many of them that we’ll get exhausted before we kill them all.
I didn’t realize that a number in the hundreds of thousands could be this overwhelming.
-The most effective thing to do is to run away. We have space-shifting scrolls, even if we don’t have teleportation magic.
“Even if we run, I have to kill that family head bastard.”
The problem was that the Dong family head had disappeared. He had hidden himself among the ordinary people. I had the Heavenly Eye, but I didn’t have time to look at every single grain of sand.
His intention was obvious. He wanted me and Mireyeong to get exhausted fighting the ordinary people. He would appear to deliver the final blow when we were completely worn out.
‘Let’s see if that goes according to your plan.’
I gripped the hilt of the Flower Flame Blade. The blade was cracked, but considering the Flower Flame Blade’s durability, it would hold up unless it was hit with an exceptionally powerful attack.
‘The Flower Flame Blade has been with me all this time and has risen to the rank of a cursed blade.’
Too many people had died by the Flower Flame Blade. Too many to count. Probably, no matter what artisan came, it would be impossible to remove the cursed energy from the Flower Flame Blade. If that was the case, then I should make the Flower Flame Blade the best cursed blade.
‘The hundreds of thousands of people in front of me. It’s a waste to just leave them. Since it’s come to this, become sacrifices for the Flower Flame Blade.’
I was about to draw on the Heavenly Demon Energy when I suddenly felt an overwhelming fatigue wash over my body.
‘The price for using the light of the Cheongang Star.’
The light of the Cheongang Star wasn’t a power that was easy to use. Once you used it, you were hit with fatigue, and you had to know the power of another star to use it. The only other star power I knew right now was the Jiam Star. I could only use the power of the Jiam Star.
‘I know the names of the Jami Star and the Cheonsal Star, but I can’t use them because I don’t know exactly what abilities they have.’
Then, wasn’t the light of the Cheongang Star just a pretty-looking dud? But there was a way.
『You can randomly learn the power of a star by using 100 Heavenly Jade.』
A gacha that used a whopping 100 Heavenly Jade. 100 Heavenly Jade wasn’t just some random dog’s name, so I couldn’t help but hesitate.
-Husband!
Dozens of arrows flew towards me.
Archers were mixed in among the ordinary people. I swung the Flower Flame Blade in a large circle, deflecting the incoming arrows.
‘…My hand is tingling.’
The power behind the arrows was stronger than I thought. This was definitely not the power that an ordinary human could produce. But it wasn’t so powerful that I had to sharpen my senses and be on guard.
‘Ronin. They hired ronin and mixed them in with the people.’
Ronin who wandered the Jianghu were everywhere. It was only natural to hire ronin who would do anything for money.
-Get away!
What?
The answer to that question was the scene unfolding before my eyes.
Rain of fire fell from the sky. Fist-sized balls of fire fell on the crowd. The fire instantly clung to people’s bodies and began to burn fiercely.
“Kuaaaah!”
“It’s hot!!”
“Kill him! We have to kill him!!”
Tens of thousands of people were burning. Their appearance was reminiscent of sinners burning in hell.
Their expressions were a mix of pain and madness. Most of those screaming in pain were the ronin. Unlike the ordinary people, their minds were not controlled by sorcery. The ordinary people only expressed anger even as their bodies burned. They were not in their right minds, so they didn’t feel pain or fear.
I took a step towards them.
Heavenly Demon Divine Art (天魔神功) Heavenly Demon Lord’s Step (天魔君臨步) Wave Form (波形).
An intangible wave of energy spread in all directions, putting pressure on the enemies. The ordinary people couldn’t withstand the energy wave and collapsed. As the front fell, the back also collapsed like dominoes. They were crushed by the collapsing crowd, and their bodies and the city were burned by the fire falling from the sky. Even so, their anger did not subside.
“Kill him!!”
“Kill him!!”
“Don’t interfere! We have to kill him!”
They crawled towards me, flailing their limbs, trying to kill me. Of course, almost all of them died from being burned before they could reach me.
Suddenly, it started to rain. I looked at the sky. There were no dark clouds. The rain, which had started slowly, began to pour down. The rain of fire falling from the sky disappeared before it could even touch the ground, and the flames on the ground, which had been burning humans like firewood, quickly subsided.
-It’s magic. About 30 sorcerers are making it rain.
“I can feel them. They’re in the back, so it’s hard to get close right now.”
Even though it was a border region at the edge of the continent, it was still a city with a population of 2 million. It would have been strange if there were no sorcerers.
‘Still, there are few sorcerers because it’s a border region.’
A man with half his body burned charged at me, screaming. He was holding a Chinese broadsword. I swung the Flower Flame Blade and easily killed him.
Bang! Kwaaaang! Bang!
Lightning struck the enemies. Mireyeong was using magic to drop lightning bolts. The targets of the lightning were the sorcerers.
-I’m killing the annoying ones… but I used too much energy to make it rain fire earlier. Originally, large-scale magic like that should be used after thorough preparation… haa.
“What? Are you already at your limit?”
-It’s not my limit. It’s just a little difficult. Husband, there are at least 300,000 people left. They’re running at us like madmen. What are you going to do?
“Kill them all.”
-Yes, yes. I knew you’d say that. Haa. If we had prepared a little more thoroughly, we could have won easily. We played around too much.
The crowd began to surge again. They were reorganizing quite quickly. Someone among the enemies must be managing the crowd properly.
I swung my sword forward.
Heavenly Demon Sword Technique (天魔神劍) Asura’s Dance of Chaos (修羅亂舞).
A single massive sword energy flew towards the enemies. The sword energy then split into dozens of strands. Small, sharp sword energies swept through the area, cutting down everything. The dance of the sword energies soon disappeared, and the area was filled with chopped-up corpses.
Thud!
Ordinary people, wielding pathetic weapons, stepped through the blood and filled the space.
“Dieeeeee!”
I lightly swung my sword. Instead of sword energy, I sent out a sword wind. Compared to sword energy, its power was naturally weaker, but in the current situation, it was more efficient.
Swish!
Six heads floated into the air. I swung my sword several times. I killed the enemies again and again. But the number of enemies didn’t decrease.
Bang!
An explosion occurred on the right, and a wall collapsed. Thousands of ordinary people rushed to the right.
Bang! Kwaaang! Bang!
Explosions occurred everywhere. Buildings and walls collapsed, and people filled the space. I was surrounded. I felt like I was in the eye of a storm.
‘The difference from a storm is that the wind is coming in instead of going out.’
I gripped the hilt of the Flower Flame Blade tightly with both hands. Since it was like a typhoon, I had a good idea.
I laid the blade horizontally and rotated my body.
“Heavenly Demon Whirlwind!!!”
I spun around, cutting down all the guys around me. It was simple, but quite effective. Until the corpses exploded.
Bang!
I lost my balance for a moment and staggered from the explosion.
‘Is it a thunderclap bomb!’
I gritted my teeth and used the Heavenly Demon Whirlwind again. But this time, an explosion occurred again. Not just once. Explosions occurred in a chain reaction.
Bang! Kwaang! Bang bang bang!
They weren’t throwing thunderclap bombs, so I couldn’t avoid them. These guys didn’t care if they died or if the people next to them died. It was a suicide attack.
Taking advantage of my loss of balance, an assassin wearing a mask aimed for my neck. A blade flashed from the assassin’s sleeve. This was dangerous. The timing was perfect. If this went on, I would be hit.
[Using Flash (刹那). Remaining stacks: 11]
If I didn’t have Flash.
I barely dodged the dagger and punched the assassin in the head. The assassin’s head exploded.
“Die!”
I heard a voice from behind. I reflexively turned around, and an assassin flew towards me.
‘Did the assassin shout?’
It was a feint. It was too late when I realized. I felt the presence of someone approaching quickly from a blind spot. There were more than one or two presences.
[Using Flash (刹那). Remaining stacks: 10]
[Using Flash (刹那). Remaining stacks: 9]
[Using Flash (刹那). Remaining stacks: 8]
I used Flash in quick succession to avoid the danger.
‘This isn’t good. There are more and more things I have to pay attention to, and my body is getting more and more tired.’
I had to turn the situation around.
Heavenly Demon Divine Art (天魔神功) Mahoraga (摩睺羅).
I spread a semi-transparent barrier around me. The ordinary people were blocked by the barrier and fell, and the assassins hidden in the crowd waited for the next opportunity.
‘To break through this situation…’
