Wudang Sacred Scriptures

Chapter 215

Kwak Yeon focused Body-Guarding Gang-qi on his flank and, as if throwing himself, drove his body straight into the Black-Yin Demon God’s Ink-Slaughter Palm.

To not evade an attack that spewed out Ink-Slaughter gang-qi, but instead offer his body up to it.

To the people in the dining hall, it must have looked as though he were trying to commit suicide, but Kwak Yeon had something in mind.

Just as he himself was having trouble because of how close they were, Kwak Yeon had realized there was also a point of disadvantage for the Black-Yin Demon God.

Namely, to press in until their bodies were virtually glued together.

No matter how much a fist-and-palm art that excelled at close quarters, it still needed a certain amount of distance.

Kwak Yeon had decided to pay back the Black-Yin Demon God in kind, who had rendered his sword method useless by closing in.

In extreme close combat, there was no one more confident than Kwak Yeon.

At the training hall he had trained body arts until he dropped, and had even spent every day brawling with his fellow classmates.

“The body arts you learn in this training hall are raw, unvarnished techniques of real fighting. They will become the foundation of the martial arts you learn from here on, and someday they’ll save your lives as well.”

Kwak Yeon had experienced in his duel with the Sangwan Clan Master that Chief Instructor Kang Ik-yu’s thunderous words had not been wrong.

Now, once again, he intended to use body arts to reverse a crisis.

— CRAAANG!

— SHRAAAAK!

Along with the fierce impact driven into his flank, Kwak Yeon felt a pain like his flesh was being torn apart.

ZIIIIING!

A massive wave of shock swept through his whole body, but the gang-qi of the Ink-Slaughter Palm did not bore its way into his acupoints.

It was thanks in part to having focused his Body-Guarding Gang-qi on the struck area, but above all, the shortened distance had greatly blunted the Ink-Slaughter Palm’s power.

Kwak Yeon felt the Black-Yin Demon God flinch for an instant.

He caught on to my intent.

As the great demon head of Ghost Night Castle, the man had plenty of real-battle experience; it would have been strange if he did not catch on.

— SWISH!

— SWISH!

With a slight delay between them, the Black-Yin Demon God scattered his twin palms in succession.

Sensing that not much force was loaded into those twin palms, Kwak Yeon knew the man was trying to pull his body back.

Kwak Yeon was not about to let him go so meekly.

— THUD! THUD!

He loaded Body-Guarding Gang-qi into both his elbows and blocked the Black-Yin Demon God’s twin palms, which had come in so close they were almost pressed to his body. At the same time, he twisted his right shoulder and slammed it toward the man’s jaw.

— WHISH!

Naturally, Kwak Yeon had also drawn Body-Guarding Gang-qi up into his shoulder.

— FWASH!

By barely the difference of a single strand of hair, the Black-Yin Demon God slipped past Kwak Yeon’s shoulder.

Even from a mere graze, his jaw went numb.

Urgh!

The Black-Yin Demon God, Kang Su, felt a chill run down his spine.

If he hadn’t instinctively twisted his waist back the moment he saw the glint in the man’s eyes, his jawbone would have been shattered to pieces.

What kind of bastard is this?

Because the fellow was a greenhorn lacking in worldly experience, Kang Su had been sure he could topple him at once if he could only close the distance.

Yet this Dark Cavern Taoist had blocked his Ink-Slaughter Palm over and over with truly wondrous martial arts.

Moreover, the way he had evaded Kang Su’s sure-kill Five-Blossom Exploding Sever—unleashed right in front of the man’s nose, no less—was strange enough to call bizarre.

At that time, when Kang Su had felt his Ink-Slaughter gang-qi slip into the man’s acupoints without the slightest resistance, he had thought it was over.

He had been sure the man’s meridians would collapse, his great acupoints be shattered, and that he would die on the spot.

Yet despite being invaded by Ink-Slaughter gang-qi, the fellow was fine. He had even gone so far as to pull the Ink-Slaughter gang-qi lodged in Kang Su’s palm-center toward himself.

Kang Su, the Black-Yin Demon God, had been utterly shocked, thinking this Dark Cavern Taoist must be unfolding some Borrow-and-Fill Qi absorption art.

At the same time, though, he had also thought it a chance. For when one accepts another’s inner power with Borrow-and-Fill Qi, aftereffects are bound to arise immediately.

That was why he had followed up with continuous attacks—only for the man to counterattack in perfect health.

Which, in turn, proved it wasn’t Borrow-and-Fill Qi.

From the Black-Yin Demon God’s perspective, he simply could not fathom what method the fellow had used.

Still, he believed he held the advantage in close combat, and that it was only a matter of time before victory would be his.

At least, up until the moment the man whirled the Cheonggang Sword around and cut at him with a grafting-and-transplanted technique, as if applying one thing to another, to bring the sword into close range.

He had barely managed to dodge the Cheonggang Sword by relying on Leap-Together-of-Linking-Waists footwork, and as he stabbed the man’s flank with his Ink-Slaughter Palm, the fellow had not only failed to evade but had actually thrust his body into it.

There had been no reason to refuse, so he had struck straight through—and yet his own black-slaying gang-qi had scattered, leaving his palm-center throbbing.

In that instant, the Black-Yin Demon God had been forced to admit that the Dark Cavern Taoist’s Body-Guarding Gang-qi was superior to his own.

Along with that, he also had to recognize that this Dark Cavern Taoist was not at the threshold of the Fire Realm, but had reached the realm of Mid-Subjugation.

Now he understood why the Alliance of the Demonic Path had put up a public contract of a million gold taels on the man.

Thinking it a damnedly unlucky day, the Black-Yin Demon God had thrown out a flurry of twin palms and tried to pull his body back.

But the Dark Cavern Taoist was a hardcase who closed the distance while taking the Ink-Slaughter gang-qi with his whole body.

Only one method remained to the Black-Yin Demon God now.

The All-Soul Grand Vitality-Extinguishing Art.

It was a demonic art used at the final moment to drag one’s opponent down into mutual destruction.

When he unfolded the All-Soul Grand Vitality-Extinguishing Art, he could draw up all of his inner true qi in one go. In that process, an amplifying effect occurred that greatly increased his inner true qi.

Of course, in exchange, if he failed to kill his opponent with that single blow, his inner true qi would be drained to the bottom and he would be left only to die.

WOOOOOM!

A black aura shimmered over the Black-Yin Demon God’s entire body like heat haze.

Kwak Yeon sensed the Black-Yin Demon God’s momentum suddenly change after evading his Shoulder-Body Technique attack.

Then he saw the black aura erupting from the man’s body like an explosion and sweeping in to engulf him.

ZZZZR-R-RIP!

The external true energy in all the acupoints throughout Kwak Yeon’s body began to boil over in spasms.

It’s the resonance effect of the Honwonmusang Technique.

Doubt rose in Kwak Yeon’s mind.

That the Honwonmusang Technique would resonate with a demonic art unfolded by the great demon head of Ghost Night Castle.

Could it be that this demon’s demonic art has the same working principle as Heart-Cleansing Accumulation Art (washing the heart to accumulate power)?

Unlike orthodox heart methods of the righteous path, which emphasized harmony and balance of mind and body, demonic arts were solely focused on the achievement of the art.

Therefore demonic arts naturally advanced quickly, but because they did not govern the heart-demon the way orthodox arts did, their demonic nature only grew stronger.

That was the reason the more one practiced demonic arts, the more one became ensnared by demonic nature and turned increasingly vicious.

Kwak Yeon felt doubt toward the Black-Yin Demon God’s momentum, which was different from the demonic arts he knew.

Just as the Honwonmusang Technique uses True-Origin true qi as its furnace, is this Black-Yin Demon God using his demonic nature as the furnace to produce inner true qi?

No other answer came to mind.

Maybe so... Demonic nature is also one part of human nature, after all.

When he lectured on the Heart-Cleansing Classic, Hyeonhae Taoist had warned them not to deny the demonic nature within their own hearts.

“To grow strong for the sake of survival is the property of the ten thousand forms of life under heaven. So it is only natural that demonic nature exists in every person’s heart.”

One way or another, it was clear this Black-Yin Demon God’s momentum was not one of detonating Latent Force like the madmen at Huayang Temple.

Judging by the fact that the erupting killing intent no longer swelled, it seemed to be a demonic art of ascent.

They said that when one went beyond the extreme-demonic realm and on into the realm of casting off demon, one arrived at a single thing.

Within the great framework of All-Returns-to-the-Same, Kwak Yeon realized that demonic arts, too, were one branch of the martial path.

Though there were many thoughts in his heart, the time that passed was but an instant.

The Ink-Slaughter gang-qi had gathered into a mass, and the Black-Yin Demon God’s Ink-Slaughter Palm, grown as huge as Mount Tai, was crashing down.

GOOOOO!

The sound of the surroundings, and even the very objects within them, were erased, leaving only an enormous, pitch-black palm visible to the eye.

Kwak Yeon knew that the Black-Yin Demon God intended to settle the match with this one all-or-nothing move.

With his competitive spirit surging, he spread his left hand and extended it gently forward.

Taiji Cotton Palm.

Cotton Palm was the crystallization of Wudang’s “softness can subdue hardness,” the principle that softness overcomes strength.

The source of all those Cotton Palm arts was Taiji Cotton Palm, and Kwak Yeon had more unspent resentment attached to it than anyone.

He had vowed that if he ever stood before a great wall again, he would smash it apart with Taiji Cotton Palm and vent that pent-up regret; that was why he unfolded it now without the slightest hesitation.

Kwak Yeon’s fully spread hand touched the wall of the Black-Yin Demon God’s massive Ink-Slaughter Palm.

There was no sound at all.

Ink-Slaughter gang-qi bored through the center of Kwak Yeon’s palm and surged in.

Honwonmusang qi gently wrapped itself around the Ink-Slaughter gang-qi.

If Ink-Slaughter gang-qi was like an awl, then the Honwonmusang qi that rose in accordance with the inner formula of Taiji Cotton Palm was like a soft cotton cloth.

As the cotton cloth thickened, the awl lost its sharpness.

As that surging Ink-Slaughter gang-qi poured in, Kwak Yeon continuously scattered it apart with Taiji Cotton Palm, and the black aura shrouding the two of them gradually thinned away.

It’s finally over.

Seeing the forms of Kwak Yeon and the Black-Yin Demon God grow clear again as they stood with palms pressed together, Chwi Dugae let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

Chwi Dugae had known, of course, that Kwak Yeon would win, yet he had not been able to help feeling his heart clench from moment to moment.

In particular, when the Black-Yin Demon God had used a seasoned maneuver to close in on Kwak Yeon and nullify his sword method, Chwi Dugae had gone so far as to pick up his Tagu Staff.

After that as well, there had been several hair-raising moments of crisis, but in the end, Kwak Yeon had subdued the great demon head of Ghost Night Castle.

Ha, what is this that my heart’s pounding this much over it. Damn it.

The thing Chwi Dugae enjoyed most in all the world was watching fights.

He liked it so much, in fact, that he had once just stood by and watched as his master fought a demon head, earning himself the curse of “bastard son” from his master.

Yet today, even knowing what realm Kwak Yeon stood in, his heart had pounded like that; it was something he simply could not understand.

In any case, thinking that this real battle had allowed Kwak Yeon to accumulate yet another layer of experience, Chwi Dugae picked up his wine bottle.

With the black aura completely gone, the Black-Yin Demon God, Kang Su, stood there like a man who had lost his soul.

Chwi Dugae could tell the man had exhausted all of his inner true qi and could no longer move a finger.

He believed that Kwak Yeon would soon sever the great demon head’s neck with the Cheonggang Sword.

The man had not only tried to kill Kwak Yeon; it was all but certain he was connected as well to the death of Sage Taoist, as a great demon head of the Demonic Eight Divisions.

What mercy would be shown to such a man?

SHING!

It was just as Kwak Yeon brought the Cheonggang Sword’s point up to the Black-Yin Demon God’s left chest.

Huh?

A group of people entered the dining hall. All of them wore black martial attire, and the figure in the center was especially distinctive.

That person wore a wide-brimmed black hat pulled low, and from beneath it hung a black face veil that completely concealed the face.

From the moment the black-clad warriors stepped into the dining hall, Chwi Dugae could see that they maintained a fixed distance from the man in the black hat, taking up positions on all sides.

Moreover, every one of the black-clad warriors had piercing eyes, and their aura was as fiercely sharp as frost.

From this, Chwi Dugae could tell the man in the black hat was no ordinary figure.

At such a exquisitely timed moment, with people possessing such an unusual air appearing, Chwi Dugae set down his wine bottle and grabbed his Tagu Staff.

Just then, the person wearing the black hat and veiling their face in black cloth gave Kwak Yeon a respectful clasped-fist salute and spoke.

“Great Hero, I ask that you show mercy and spare only the Chief Protector’s life.”

The voice was peculiar, like the buzzing of a swarm of bees.

Chwi Dugae realized the person was speaking with an altered voice.

What story lies behind you, that you hide your face and even change your voice?

What was more, the man in the black hat even knew that the Black-Yin Demon God of Ghost Night Castle was the Chief Protector.

Those who come do not come with good intent.

Chwi Dugae rose up from his chair, ready to leap in at any moment.