Chapter 215: Cheon Yura, Jin Yeomyung (4)
Their reappearance did not look good.
The Sword King’s clothes were tattered, stained with blood, and the Saber King, who had taken off his upper garment, was covered in deep bruises all over his body.
Venerable Buddha asked them.
“You were granted mercy once already. Do you truly hold no value for your lives?”
The Sword King chuckled roughly.
“If we were so attached to our lives, how could we be leaders?”
The Saber King supported the Sword King’s words.
“It’s a bit shameless to say this after having fled once, but this time will be different.”
“I see…”
In an instant, the confrontation turned into four against one.
But from what I could tell, the Sword King and Saber King wouldn't be able to hold out for long.
‘They must have forced themselves out here after sensing our clash.’
To them, this was a gamble.
Though their physical conditions were clearly far from ideal, in the current situation, their presence was as good as an army of thousands.
“Very well. I shall gladly endure this trial. Come at me.”
Venerable Buddha, still full of strength, radiated blazing Buddhist aura.
Just as the tension of battle reached its peak—
Saber King called out to me.
“Hey, young brother.”
“Yes, Elder Saber King.”
“To be honest, judging by our current state, even four against one isn’t enough to handle Elder Venerable Buddha. Is there some kind of plan?”
At the Saber King’s candid confession, I gave a bitter smile and nodded.
“There is.”
“There is?”
“Just half a breath. Please hold him off for just half a breath, no matter what.”
“Hmm, half a breath…”
The Sword King, standing beside him, stroked his white beard and thought deeply.
“If it’s just half a breath, it might be possible if we squeeze out everything we have.”
Saber King agreed as well.
“We’ve already pushed Elder Venerable Buddha this far, someone we couldn’t handle before. I’ll place my trust in you all.”
“Thank you.”
Even as I bowed my head, I felt a fresh sense of shock.
The Sword King and Saber King—venerable elders who stood at the peak of Murim and were known as two of the Five Kings of the Central Plains.
Their pride would surely be beyond imagination.
And yet, they listened to the words of a mere junior like me and followed them seriously.
“Hahaha! Let’s go at it again, brother!”
With that, the two charged at Venerable Buddha.
Amidst the fierce clash of three ultimate masters—
“You have a plan or… huh?”
She still wasn’t used to speaking casually, yet she asked me.
I nodded and replied.
“I’ll use the united technique we used to defeat the Murder Demon.”
“Combined Qi technique, huh? That’s a good choi—ce.”
Her awkward speech made me grimace.
“…The situation’s urgent. Just speak as you normally do.”
“Got it.”
Perhaps because she found it so hard to adapt, Cheon Yura immediately dropped the polite tone.
As her expression relaxed, I felt a little wistful as I continued.
“The usual united technique won’t work. We’ll need a force far stronger than the resonance energy we used back then to pierce through Venerable Buddha’s defense and deal a fatal blow.”
“How? Do you have a method?”
“Not by combining qi—let’s combine martial techniques.”
Cheon Yura tilted her head.
“Combine techniques?”
“Remember? Back in the Hidden Trace Manor when we fought Jeokun.”
She nodded.
“Of course. That was the first time we performed a united technique, wasn’t it?”
“Exactly. Something worth remembering—we combined our techniques before we merged our qi.”
“Mmm!”
Recalling the memory, Cheon Yura made a convinced expression.
Many who knew of the Heavenly Green Sword said the same thing.
That the Heavenly Green Sword was a blade meant to kill the Heavenly Demon.
But having deeply mastered this sword, I came to a different conclusion.
“I’m sure of it. The Heavenly Green Sword and the Heavenly Slaughter Demonic Sword—are not opposing forces, but mutually supportive swords.”
Otherwise, there was no way our combination would fit together this perfectly.
The Sword King and Saber King swung their blades madly, truly as if they were insane, to endure the promised half-breath.
Their internal injuries were already severe, but if they managed to survive this battle, they would both need at least several years of recovery.
“Sword King’s blade is still as sharp as ever.”
“You block it just fine, and yet you complain so much, senior.”
A blade of will condensed along the Sword King’s sword.
If the twin sword technique of the Southern Heaven Clan—Heavenly Wolf Dual Sword Formation—was their pride,
Then the true essence of Southern Heaven swordsmanship was the very technique he now unleashed—Ilseong Sword Formation (One Star Sword Slash).
—Heart Sword: Single Star Slash
Baek Dogyung, known as the Sword King of Southern Heaven, unleashed an all-out strike containing his everything at Venerable Buddha.
In perfect timing, Saber King Heon Yanghu launched his own best move.
—Heart Saber: Northern Sky Thunder Flash
Heart Sword and Heart Saber.
A combined attack from two supreme masters, powerful enough to obliterate even a peak-level expert in a single strike.
However—
“As expected, its power is not what it once was.”
Even as the massive wave of sword energy tore through the air,
Venerable Buddha’s gaze remained unimpressed.
“Amitabha.”
Venerable Buddha lightly chanted the Buddha’s name and thrust out his fist.
—Arhat Divine Fist.
The Nirvanic Flame unleashed by Venerable Buddha was not like the Baekbo Divine Fist—it was a full manifestation of one of Shaolin’s seventy-two supreme techniques, soaring straight into the wave of sword energy.
When that colossal intent clashed, it produced a unique ripple that ordinary people couldn’t even perceive.
“Urgh!”
“Keugh!”
The ultimate killing techniques hurled by the Sword King and Saber King were completely neutralized by Venerable Buddha’s single strike.
From the rebound of the clash, the two began bleeding heavily from their qi channels, and Venerable Buddha spoke as he looked at them.
“This is nothing but futile resistance. If you insist on continuing… I will have no choice but to take your lives.”
The two shouted back in defiance.
“Better to die than to watch the Central Plains burn in your hands!”
“As Lords of Murim, we cannot overlook your collapse, Senior!”
“…Foolish men.”
Venerable Buddha clicked his tongue.
“I know full well you’re only buying time….”
He didn’t put his palms together this time—instead, he formed a single hand seal.
“Then allow me to ease your passage with my full power.”
“…!!”
Fwoooosh!
In an instant, golden feathers—or rather, something resembling flames—began swirling around Venerable Buddha.
No, they weren’t feathers. They were some sort of fire, stylized and radiant!
The moment I saw it, I knew.
The Sword King and Saber King instinctively sensed death looming over them.
‘Flame of Buddhist Radiance? Nirvanic Might? No—it’s similar, but different!’
‘This is on a whole different level than anything we’ve seen before!’
While the two men froze, stunned by the realization of what kind of energy they were facing, Venerable Buddha calmly explained.
“Once you set foot into the latter half of the Manifestation Realm, you move beyond simply shaping intent—you begin to reach into the laws of the world. At that point, you can manifest your own life and ideals into reality, albeit crudely.”
—Karmic Flame of Nirvana
This wasn’t just fire.
It was something transcendent, imbued with the life of the man named Master Myeongjeong—Venerable Buddha.
At that moment, the Sword King and Saber King realized they were powerless. Nothing they had could counter this.
Their arms dropped in surrender.
Heart Sword and Heart Saber—none of it mattered anymore.
Venerable Buddha, wearing a sorrowful expression, declared:
“This turn of events is truly regrettable.”
And so—
Just as Venerable Buddha was about to bestow the Karmic Flame of Nirvana upon the two men—
Boom!
From a great distance away, a dark, ominous flame erupted into the sky.
“…!!”
In stark contrast to the golden flame Venerable Buddha had summoned, this was a demonic flame that looked as though it had risen straight from the depths of hell.
More than anything, the moment that flame was recognized, the fragment of the Heavenly Demon’s Will embedded in Venerable Buddha’s heart began to resonate wildly.
“Guhhh!”
“…?!”
Clutching his chest in pain, Venerable Buddha shouted in disbelief.
“Amitabha! What in the world is that?!”
Not since the era of the Demonic Lord had Venerable Buddha experienced such a feeling of imminent doom.
—Heaven-Sundering Annihilation
—Sword of Clear Extinction
Venerable Buddha’s gaze turned toward the source.
There stood Cheon Yura and Jin Yeomyung, preparing the strongest martial techniques they could possibly muster at this moment.
But the problem wasn’t simply the preparation of high-level techniques.
Their energies were resonating with one another—creating a monstrous amplification beyond what should have been possible under natural laws!
“Petty tricks!”
Venerable Buddha redirected the Karmic Flame of Nirvana. What was meant for the Sword King and Saber King was now aimed at Cheon Yura and Jin Yeomyung.
Just before the golden fire could engulf them—
—Heavenly Demon Resonance: Great Final Cataclysm
The resonance technique the two of them unleashed detonated in full, crashing head-on into Venerable Buddha’s divine might.
Jin Ryeong, one of the Three Supremes of the Central Plains, known as Dao Zun, walked with absolute freedom.
Ever since being expelled from the Wudang Sect, she wandered the world, living a life truer to a drifter than anyone else.
Neither the seas of Hainan, nor the deserts of the Western Regions, nor the Eastern lands of the Wae Kingdom could escape her gaze.
Naturally, even the Heavenly Demon Cult in Gansu, within the borders of the Central Plains, was no exception.
“So I come back after all this time and the house is in total chaos?”
Dao Zun appeared with her signature long-stemmed pipe, her expression contorting as she took in the devastation around her.
“Ah, you’re here.”
“Don’t just say that so casually—what the hell happened here?”
“Exactly what you see.”
The Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Cult—Cheon Taejong—one of the Three Supremes and better known as the Heavenly Demon himself, welcomed Dao Zun.
“A lot of blood has been spilled.”
A mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
That phrase matched the reality here to perfection.
Dao Zun growled, her face twisted in disgust.
“I’d say at least a few thousand are dead. Have you completely lost your mind?”
At her blunt words, the Guardians nearby released a murderous aura.
“Dao Zun, even for you, such disrespect—”
Just as the Left Guardian, Bloodless Thousand Slaughter Mujung, was about to speak up—
“Enough.”
The Cult Leader stopped him.
“I’ve always been perfectly sane. Once the leader commits treason, there’s no reason to spare the underlings.”
“What a joke. You went and turned the Six Great Demonic Clans into the Five, and now you talk like nothing happened?!”
Dao Zun’s words were not to be taken lightly.
The Heavenly Demon Cult, with its thousand-year history, had stood on six pillars.
And if what she said was true, then one of those six had fallen.
“They’ve not been annihilated… yet. I haven’t taken the head of the Illusion Demon. And hundreds still escaped the Ten Thousand Mountain. This is… a critical failure on my part.”
The place where they were currently standing was none other than the main estate of the Illusion Clan—one of the Six Great Demonic Clans, specifically the main household of Gyeongcheon Illusion Clan.
The Cult Leader regretted having underestimated the Illusion Clan’s mystical arts.
After obtaining decisive evidence that the Gyeongcheon Illusion Clan was a direct subordinate of the Heaven-Defying Society, the Cult Leader led an assault on their main estate with only the forces of the Guardian Court, the Sword Demon, and the Saber Demon at his side.
However—
Somehow, their information had been leaked, and the enemy was thoroughly prepared.
While the Cult Leader and the Guardian Court were trapped inside the Illusion Clan’s illusion formation at the main estate, the clan leader Hwan Pyung gathered the clan’s core power and escaped the Cult Leader’s grasp.
The Cult Leader eventually shattered the entire illusion formation, but by then, it was too late to pursue them.
Even the chase was thwarted by the Illusion Clan’s members, who, with their minds turned into puppets, threw their lives away to block the Cult Leader’s path.
“Where did they run off to?”
“They say they fled toward Mongolia. It’s become a real headache.”
“Damn it!”
Dao Zun clicked her tongue.
How could they possibly search that vast Mongolian territory?
And that might not even be the end of it.
If they fled further north from there, finding them would be virtually impossible.
Then—
Dao Zun noticed something deeply serious on the Cult Leader’s face.
“Your face doesn’t look good. There’s more, isn’t there?”
“……”
The Cult Leader’s expression darkened slightly.
“Hwan Pyung had spies planted in other clans. Some people were abducted by those agents. He had embedded them thoroughly.”
It wasn’t unusual for one Demonic Clan to plant spies in another.
But to have infiltrated the very leadership of those clans—that was something even the Cult Leader hadn’t anticipated.
“Who was taken?”
The Cult Leader let out a sigh and listed the names of those abducted.
“…!”
Dao Zun was appalled by what she heard.
“Sa Biyeon of the Black Gold Sa Clan… and Cheon Yujeong of the Cheon Clan?!”