Chapter 81: Wrath (2)
“What the…….”
“These bastards……”
Even though he should have concealed his presence, his killing intent burst forth. Anyone who saw this scene would have reacted the same.
Not a single beastkin was unharmed.
One had dozens of metal tubes densely embedded in their body.
Another was hanging from chains descending from the ceiling, with all four limbs severed. One beastkin was beheaded and displayed upside down, while the one beside him had his chest ripped open with a long cord connected to the heart.
Strangely enough, they were all still ‘alive’.
Even those with severed limbs, exposed hearts, or missing heads—every single one of them was alive.
All were being drained of blood while still conscious. The blood drawn from the beastkin was being collected into a massive tank at one side of the room.
“What is this?”
“Who the hell are you?!”
“A beastkin escaped! Alert the others!”
Only then did the people realize that the 수왕문 (Suwang Sect) had entered, and they shouted in panic.
“These lunatics must have a death wish…… Jang Woo-hyun?”
Furious, Maeng Ye-ju exuded the energy and killing intent she had been concealing and started to step forward, calling out to Jang Woo-hyun who was walking ahead.
But Jang Woo-hyun did not respond. He continued moving. Unlike the others, he did not outwardly show his fury, but everyone knew—it was the calm before the explosion.
In the completely changed atmosphere, no one dared to stop Jang Woo-hyun. Not even Maeng Ye-ju, who led them, or the usually wild and rampaging Kang Yong.
Step.
Jang Woo-hyun raised his hand.
The Dragon King’s Scales (용왕린) was drawn out on its own.
Saaak—
The separated blades spread in all directions, moving as if they were alive.
Their targets were everyone except the beastkin. The hundreds of blades shot through the air at high speed, slicing through the enemies who fell without even managing a proper scream.
Jang Woo-hyun walked forward slowly, ignoring the bodies falling in pieces. Since entering this place, his eyes had been fixed on one spot.
A bed-like platform in the inner area.
On it lay a small beastkin, face down, with a dozen metal tubes embedded in their back.
It was a child Jang Woo-hyun knew.
A raccoon beastkin he had first seen when he woke up in the Central Heavens Martial Realm.
He had saved the child’s village back then, but in the end, the child had been captured and brought here by Twin-Winged Lotus.
Jang Woo-hyun slowly approached and stood before the child.
Though unconscious, the child was crying and muttering softly. Having transcended human limits, Jang Woo-hyun’s hearing was beyond ordinary bounds, and he could hear the child’s faint voice.
“Immortal…… help me……”
“It hurts…… so much……”
“Immortal…… please save me……”
“I miss my mom……”
“Immortal…… Immortal……”
The child was calling out to the person who had once helped them by chance.
Something inside Jang Woo-hyun snapped at the sound of that unconscious, faint voice.
He turned his head slightly and reached out with his hand, pulling something invisible.
Crack!
“Urgh!”
A man who had been hiding in invisibility a short distance away was dragged out and thrown down at Jang Woo-hyun’s feet.
A cold gaze was fixed on him. No words were shouted. No questions were asked.
Instead of rage, the answer came in the form of hundreds of blade scales of the Dragon King’s Scales hovering around the man.
“Suwang Sect, is it? I don’t know how you got here, but it’s already too late. I’ve already notified the Telepathy Division of an intru—guh!”
Four blade scales pierced into the man’s shoulders and thighs. As Jang Woo-hyun exerted his will, the blade scales of the Dragon King’s Scales moved from within the man’s flesh.
“Gaaaaah!”
The man screamed uncontrollably as the blades burrowed and writhed inside his body.
“Aaarrrgghhh!”
In unbearable agony, the man cried and rolled on the floor. His face, drenched in spit, snot, and tears, made Jang Woo-hyun halt the blades.
After a short time, the wounded flesh squirmed and began to heal. As the wounds closed, Jang Woo-hyun moved the blade scales again.
“Uwaaahhh!”
Driven insane by the internal blades, the man howled. When he tried to raise his arm to strike, another blade scale moved, restraining his limbs and entering his mouth to silence him.
All the cultivator could do was sob and scream in torment.
After his body healed twice more and Jang Woo-hyun was about to move the blades again, Maeng Ye-ju approached and grabbed his shoulder.
“Stop.”
Jang Woo-hyun turned to her. At the sight of his cold eyes, Maeng Ye-ju nearly stepped back.
“Stop. We need to find out why this is happening.”
At her explanation, Jang Woo-hyun stepped back a few paces. While he had been torturing the man, the Suwang Sect disciples moved around to rescue whoever they could and sent off those they were too late to save.
A weasel beastkin approached, carrying the small raccoon beastkin.
“It’s dangerous, but the child is still alive.”
Jang Woo-hyun reached out and took the child’s small hand. He was about to infuse internal energy but stopped. He was not a beastkin, and never having done such a thing before, it could end up harming the child.
“How are the others?”
“Most... were just barely being kept alive... not many can be saved.”
“Aaaahhh!”
Hearing a scream, Jang Woo-hyun gently patted the child’s head and turned his body.
“Now, I’m going to ask questions. You’d better answer sincerely.”
Though Maeng Ye-ju had stopped Jang Woo-hyun earlier, she now ripped off the man’s right arm.
“What is this you’re doing?”
“Ughhhh... urghhh...”
“Sounds like you don’t take me seriously. Okay, now it’s the left.”
“Suwang! Divine Suwang! That wolf!”
As Maeng Ye-ju grabbed the left arm, the man screamed in desperation.
“Divine Suwang? Wolf? Are you talking about the Heavenly Wolf Flame Emperor I know?”
The name the man had just mentioned referred to a supreme being in the Upper Realm.
Even speaking the name without permission could invoke invisible forces to tear out one’s throat, so the man didn’t dare say “Heavenly Wolf Flame Emperor” directly.
“Yes, I mean the one who ascended to the Upper Realm!”
“Why are you bringing him up now?”
“He disappeared from the Upper Realm.”
“What?”
Maeng Ye-ju was rendered speechless by the unbelievable news.
Heavenly Wolf Flame Emperor.
In the Central Heavens Martial Realm, such a being was known more commonly by the title of Martial God.
A Martial God of the Upper Realm.
Those who reached the pinnacle of martial arts and became gods.
The Heavenly Wolf Flame Emperor was one of those Martial Gods, and also a being worshipped by many beastkin.
Maeng Ye-ju couldn’t believe someone godlike could disappear.
“What nonsense…”
Deeming it nonsense, Maeng Ye-ju tried to crush the left arm again, but the man hurriedly spoke.
“It’s true! I don’t know the reason, but the Divine Suwang disappeared from the Upper Realm!”
“And you expect me to believe that? How would someone like you know what happens up there?”
“What we’re doing here is to find his blood!”
“...Keep talking.”
Maeng Ye-ju narrowed her eyes and questioned him.
“By chance, we learned that the Divine Suwang had vanished. Then we discovered a way to find his power in the blood of beastkin. Perhaps, as he disappeared, fragments of his power were passed to the beastkin. He definitely has the ability to do that. Maybe he didn’t perish. But even if he didn’t, he must have suffered grave wounds and gone into hiding. His traces are nowhere to be found in the Upper Realm. Wait, wait! It’s true! I don’t know how they found out! Those above probably know the full story, but I only know this much!”
“Those above? Where exactly is ‘above’? Are you from the Ascension Cult?”
“Eeeeek!”
When Jang Woo-hyun approached and asked, the man tried to crawl backward despite his arm being restrained.
“You’re with the Ascension Cult, aren’t you? What are you people?”
“W-we are the Ascension Cult... we-we serve the Great One... serve the Great One of the Ascension Cult.”
“The Great One?”
“The True Immortal of the Upper Realm watches over us!”
Though restrained, the man continued scrambling with his feet. To him, Jang Woo-hyun was far more terrifying than Maeng Ye-ju, who had ripped off his arm.
“The True Immortal? So your cult serves a being from above, and upon learning something happened to the Divine Suwang, you kidnapped beastkin with Twin-Winged Lotus to harness the remnants of his power?”
Jang Woo-hyun crouched before the man, meeting his gaze.
The man trembled and quickly nodded under the icy stare.
“Was Twin-Winged Lotus’s Transcendence created by extracting Divine Suwang’s power from the blood of beastkin?”
Beastkin abductions, Ascension Cult cultivators, and a half-baked Transcendence that could not manifest true power.
Jang Woo-hyun didn’t know much about the existence known as Divine Suwang, but he pieced together the fragments he had and reached a conclusion.
“…Yes, we’ve found a new method to create experts. A new order is about to descend upon the Martial World. The names of the Ten Sects and Three Clans will remain as nothing more than past glory.”
From the man’s answer, Jang Woo-hyun realized his conjecture had been correct.
Power gained through harming the lives of others.
It was something Jang Woo-hyun could neither understand nor empathize with.
‘Is this what cultivators think?’
Beyond empathy or understanding, it was downright repulsive.
“Why force them to stay alive? Isn’t the blood enough?”
“Doing that… increases the chance of finding Divine Suwang’s power…”
As Jang Woo-hyun’s expression hardened, the man quickly continued, trying to explain himself.
“W-what’s wrong with that?! You people also exploit others and wield power for your own gain! We’re the same! This is just nature’s law! Like herbivores becoming food for carnivores!”
The typical logic of the strong. A way of thinking and acting befitting a cultivator.
Jang Woo-hyun stood up.
Perhaps some time had passed—he sensed someone running down the stairs. As the man had mentioned earlier, Twin-Winged Lotus’s warriors who had received word via the Telepathy Division were now approaching.
Jang Woo-hyun walked toward the iron gate. As he extended his hand, the countless blades suspended in the air flew to him and reassembled into the shape of a sword.
“Fine. If that’s what you believe.”
Then he would respond accordingly.
He had no intention of arguing, no interest in a conversation.
He had power—and he felt no aversion to wielding it.
Jang Woo-hyun was no apostle of justice, nor did he know much about righteousness.
But even so, there were lines that shouldn’t be crossed, boundaries that must be protected.
These lunatics clearly didn’t know those lines. Then he would deal with them in the only way they understood.
“What are you going to do?” Maeng Ye-ju asked.
Jang Woo-hyun turned to her.
“This place seems to be where some major ritual is being performed. There must be another prison. If anyone’s still locked up, help them.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going to raise hell.”
That was the only way to clear this suffocating rage.
‘When did I ever move so cautiously anyway?’
He had once faced the Demon Cult Leader and the cult’s elite alone, even confronted one of the Ten Demonic Paths. That was how he had lived—yet since arriving in the Central Heavens, he had been holding himself back too much.
Jang Woo-hyun infused power into the Dragon King’s Scales and stepped forward.
As he crossed the iron gate, he saw dozens of enemies rushing at him with a roar.
Looking at them, Jang Woo-hyun unleashed the power stored in the Dragon King’s Scales.
Kwaaaang!
A flash burst forth, shattering everything in sight.
Those charging at him didn’t even have time to scream before they were annihilated, and the Destructive Slash that pierced through them shattered the building’s wall.
A breeze blew in through the hole in the wall.
Jang Woo-hyun walked toward it. With each step, he drew upon the power he had kept hidden.
For the first time since arriving in the Central Heavens Martial Realm, he revealed his full strength.
Crack! Crackle!
Even just walking left deep footprints in the corridor and cracks along the wall. Dust and stone fragments rained down from the ceiling, unable to withstand Jang Woo-hyun’s power.
Standing before the broken wall, he gathered the released energy and donned the Sacred River Flowing Armor.
Upon stepping outside, he saw buildings spread out below.
Hundreds were gathered in a massive training ground, and in the sky, Twin-Winged Lotus’s ships floated.
The Dragon King’s Scales had already transformed into hundreds of hidden weapons.
At Jang Woo-hyun’s gesture, the hundreds of blades moved downward once more.
To those below, it seemed as if a rain of death was pouring from the heavens.