Chapter 379

Chapter 379: Chapter 379 – So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?

Chapter 379

Chapter Title: Heavenly Blood Jiangshi (1)

Witnessing that incredible and terrifying display, everyone present on the battlefield felt a profound dread, as if their spirits had partially departed. This terror stemmed from the fact that an elite warrior, who had successfully resisted the supernatural pressure of the Reverse Heaven Blood Dream Formation to attain the Absolute Realm, had been slain instantly without the slightest opportunity to defend himself.

Right at that moment.

“You repulsive creature~!!!”

Blazing with fury over the pointless demise of his martial brother, Yang Muja lost his composure and sprinted toward the jiangshi, lashing out with his blade. True to his reputation as a member of the Twelve Heavenly Lords, Yang Muja’s weapon discharged a concentrated, blazing solar energy transformed into a piercing blade aura.

An immense crash echoed.

However, the moment his strike met the right arm of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, which swept outward as though dismissing an insignificant insect, he was forcefully thrown backward through the air. Yang Muja managed to reorient his physical form while airborne, executing a controlled landing after traversing roughly a zhang, yet a crimson droplet was already seeping from the edge of his lips.

“How dare you!!”

Yang Muja’s vision blurred with pure rage as he attempted to launch another assault against the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, but the undead entity had already diverted its focus away from him.

A sudden gleam.

Executing another movement at blinding velocity, the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi shattered the upper torso of the final elite warrior belonging to the Martial Alliance. Almost instantly, the creature shifted its position utilizing a technique reminiscent of the Phantom Shift Technique, searching for its next casualty.

Out of everyone present, the subsequent victim selected by the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi happened to be Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a. Recognizing the danger a fraction of a second too late, she desperately summoned whatever residual internal force remained within her center of energy to parry the oncoming strike from the creature.

Yet, before her arm could fully elevate, the closed hand of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi was already hurtling directly toward her chest.

‘Is this the pathetic end of my existence…?’

Hovering between survival and demise, the passage of time appeared to decelerate like a brief shadow play, rendering the impending doom incredibly vivid. She understood through sheer intuition that regardless of her reactions, the creature’s strike would tear through her chest long before her own hand could intercept it.

At that exact microsecond, a figure breached the stagnated flow of time and materialized right beside her.

A sharp metallic screech resounded, and the fist of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi intended for her chest was deflected, merely scraping past her flank.

“Get back!”

Immediately following the clash, a recognizable voice struck her ears. It belonged to Il-mok. Il-mok had just managed to match the rapid velocity of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, swinging his frost-laden Ascending Heaven Sword to force the oncoming fist away from its trajectory.

Releasing herself from the perception of slowed time, Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a rapidly stepped away from the danger zone. She wished to assist her martial brother, yet the clash occurring directly before her eyes was far beyond her current capacity to participate. After quickly creating distance utilizing her lightness skill, she called out her gratitude to Il-mok.

“My thanks, brother. Cough…”

But the words had barely escaped her mouth before a spray of crimson burst violently from her throat. Despite only being grazed by the attack, she had sustained profound internal trauma.

Meanwhile, Il-mok, who now found himself confronting the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi entirely unprotected in order to protect Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, emitted a thunderous, desperate cry. It functioned as an urgent plea for assistance from his allies. Engaging this monster single-handedly meant he could not endure for long—perishing at any given second was a highly probable outcome.

“You insolent, wretched jiangshi!”

Just then, Yang Muja, his wrath over his companion’s passing still unextinguished, closed the distance to the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi and unleashed another blade strike.

“This is bad.”

“We must reinforce him immediately!”

Reacting a moment late, the Tai Chi Sword Sage and Leg King likewise surged forward, projecting themselves toward the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi. The remaining elite warriors in the vicinity of Il-mok also attempted to enter the combat.

“Cough…”

Regrettably, their assistance proved largely ineffective. Much like Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a, these fighters collapsed from internal trauma after receiving nothing more than glancing blows. This was evident when a Shaolin monk attempted to intervene while Il-mok, Yang Muja, Leg King, and Tai Chi Sword Sage briefly managed to restrict the movements of the creature’s limbs.

A heavy thud resounded.

“Amitabha… Cough.”

The monk impacted the spine of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi with a powerful palm strike, but the kinetic feedback caused the attacker himself to suffer severe internal disruption, forcing him to spit crimson fluid.

Il-mok could easily comprehend the underlying cause.

‘What an abominable abomination.’

The overwhelming vitality circulating within the form of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi was saturated with an unholy, malicious intent. The vital fluid extracted from thousands of combatants to forge this Heavenly Blood Jiangshi was thoroughly permeated with murderous desires, fury, bitter sorrow, and dark hexes. Any individual subjected to the aura of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, which compressed all of those historical grudges, would either perish instantly or endure devastating internal corruption unless they possessed the specific capacity to withstand concentrated malice.

Awakening to this grim reality, Il-mok shouted a stern warning.

“Anyone who hasn’t attained the Human Sea Realm, retreat immediately!!”

He could easily foresee them breaking down from the energetic recoil just as the Shaolin monk had done upon delivering a blow. Hearing this directive, Jin Ha-yeon and Goo Yang-mun, who had just escorted Hyeok-ryeon Seon-a to a secure position and were preparing to re-enter the fray, paused in their tracks.

In the interim, a sinister chant echoed from the area where the ritualists of the Blood Cult had congregated.

“Earth Spirit, Lower Spirit, Open Eight Blood Spirits, Come Forth.”

Since there was no longer a requirement to sustain the Reverse Heaven Blood Dream Formation, the ritualists of the Blood Cult redirected their efforts toward casting various incantations, generating an ominous vapor around their positions.

However, Il-mok perceived this development as an advantageous turning point.

“Leader Jin! Rally the others and wipe out those ritualists!”

He calculated that directing the warriors who were ineffective against the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi to assault the spellcasters would neutralize that threat.

An explosion boomed.

“Urk…”

Naturally, even as he bellowed the command, he was forced to endure a perilous moment by blocking a direct fist strike from the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi.

“You brainless unholy freak, how dare you avert your gaze!”

Yang Muja shouted at the creature while executing a sweeping strike with his blade, which was wrapped in intense solar energy, targeting the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi. Yet, completely disregarding the incoming blade, the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi lunged forward with its fist, aiming to execute the unbalanced Il-mok.

“Haat!!”

Intervening to protect him, the Tai Chi Sword Sage and Leg King converged from the left and right flanks, deploying the Tai Chi Sword Art and the Anti-Dragon Eighteen Palms to intercept the incoming fist.

A massive detonation occurred.

“Infinite Blessings…”

“That creature is an absolute abomination through and through.”

The Tai Chi Sword Sage and Leg King, who had barely managed to halt the progress of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi’s fist, twisted their features in discomfort and muttered under their breath. Their distress was not merely a consequence of the physical impact behind the strike. Even after absorbing Yang Muja’s blade strike with its bare flesh without attempting to guard, the outer skin of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi remained completely unblemished. Furthermore, a corrupting current began migrating up the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword of the Tai Chi Sword Sage and through the bare hands of the Leg King from the point of impact.

Fortunately, both individuals were highly accomplished combatants possessing vast reserves of internal energy, allowing them to purge the unholy current without excessive strain.

“You repulsive demonic entity. Return to the grave.”

At that precise moment, the Fist King and Blaze Venerable, who had concealed their approach, entered the engagement simultaneously, driving their hands toward the flanks of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi.

Another boom resounded, but the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi exhibited no visible distress from the coordinated strikes of the two high masters either.

“Raaargh!!!”

As the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi let out a malevolent bellow, a devastating shockwave of energy radiated outward violently, mimicking a predatory roar. The elite masters who were actively trading blows with it, their weapons and hands locked in conflict, were compelled to give ground by a couple of paces.

Il-mok, who had conditioned his psyche and aligned his vital force to withstand malice, resisted the disruptive shockwave and launched another offensive, swinging his Ascending Heaven Sword.

A thunderous impact occurred as Il-mok’s Ascending Heaven Sword collided with the fist of the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, while Yang Muja, Tai Chi Sword Sage, Leg King, Blaze Venerable, and Fist King formed a tight circle and pressed their assault from every angle.

While they remained locked in combat with the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi, a cacophony of battle cries, detonations, and agonized screams began erupting from the opposite sector of the battlefield as well. Led by Jin Ha-yeon and Goo Yang-mun, the combatants who could not participate in the struggle against the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi executed a charge toward the ritualists of the Blood Cult.

“Accelerate the Ceremony, Spirits!”

As the spellcasters finalized their incantations, a multitude of hexes manifested across the environment. Dark lightning discharged from the heavens toward activated parchments, and spectral appendages resembling those of underworld guardians erupted from the dirt to seize the lower limbs of the combatants, seeking to drag them into the abyss.

Sprinting at the vanguard of the assault, Jin Ha-yeon intercepted the dark lightning cascading toward her position by utilizing the Bare Hand Demon Art, then activated her movement techniques once more to close the distance to the nearest ritualist, projecting her hands forward.

In response, a group of adjacent ritualists rapidly muttered incantations and extended metallic plates radiating a dark red glow.

“Heaven-Earth Six Harmonies: Metal Wood Water Fire Earth Blood, Recognize Six Harmonies, Rainbow Earth Prison Form, Hasten the Rites, Spirits!”

As their voices joined in harmony, a viscous barrier of energy saturated with a crimson vapor coalesced in front of the ritualists.

A loud impact followed.

Jin Ha-yeon, finding her advance halted by the barrier, compressed her elegant features in frustration. As she concentrated her inner force once more to strike the barrier, Namgung Jin materialized from behind her position. He had chosen to target the spellcasters instead of engaging the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi. He concluded that since six high-level combatants were already occupied with the monster, throwing himself into that fray would merely disrupt their internal synchronization.

“Clear the path!”

With a resounding bellow, Namgung Jin elevated his blade and brought it down with tremendous downward momentum. The dense barrier of energy, upon making contact with the weapon infused with the profound concept of the Imperial Sword Form, splintered into pieces instantly.

The moment Namgung Jin shattered the protective wall, Jin Ha-yeon exploited the opening and lunged directly at the Blood Cult ritualist.

A dull impact echoed.

Her left palm strike delivered straight to the chest of the foremost spellcaster instantly snuffed out his life force, freezing him where he stood.

A sharp tearing sound followed.

Immediately afterward, a cold cutting noise vibrated from the side. While Namgung Jin was breaching the defensive barrier, Elder Cheong-mok had rapidly integrated himself into the assault and cleaved through another Blood Cult ritualist.

However, just as Jin Ha-yeon and Elder Cheong-mok successfully eliminated a target each, fresh hexes erupted from every sector once more. The Blood Cult had committed their entire repository of resources to this endeavor, deploying every single ritual implement they had clandestinely assembled over multiple decades through the systematic elimination of countless innocent lives. Consequently, the ritualists of the Blood Cult were manifesting sorcery that far exceeded the natural boundaries of their individual capabilities.

“Very well. Let us discover how long you insects can sustain these repulsive machinations.”

Namgung Jin pressed forward, operating his blade without pause as though he were merely clearing away insignificant pests, systematically cleaving through the hexes deployed by the obstructing Blood Cult ritualists.

During this advance, a loud voice reached him from the rear.

“Sword Sovereign!! Focus on that target over there!!”

The directive originated from Jegal Mun. He too had unsheathed his weapon and was currently engaging the spellcasters by employing the distinct Great Heavenly Star Sword Art of the Jegal lineage.

Namgung Jin shifted his gaze, fixed a dark stare upon Jegal Mun for possessing the audacity to issue commands to him. Then, as if expecting that reaction, Jegal Mun utilized the Heavenly Mechanism Phantom Steps to bypass a hex deployed by a Blood Cult ritualist and gestured with his weapon toward a specific spot.

“That individual is the leader of the Blood Cult! We must disrupt him to sever his command over the jiangshi!!”

In that designated area, an elderly figure was perpetually reciting incantations, manipulating the ritual object held within his grasp in various directions.

‘If this persists any longer, the outcome will be catastrophic.’

Jegal Mun, whose analytical mind was accustomed to dispassionately calculating the trajectory of an engagement, recognized that their current predicament was highly unfavorable. Even though six top-tier masters were fully committed to restraining that terrifying jiangshi controlled by the old man, they were not actually defeating the creature—they were barely managed to impede its path.

Namgung Jin, turning his focus toward the destination indicated by Jegal Mun’s weapon, recalled how he had previously charged at the Heavenly Blood Jiangshi in response to that individual’s prior shout, and gave a firm nod.

“The account for assuming you have the authority to direct my actions shall be settled at a later time.”

Naturally, even in the midst of a critical crisis, his core personality remained unaltered. Delivering that haughty warning to Jegal Mun, Namgung Jin activated the Imperial Sword Form, carving a path of destruction straight toward the commander of the Blood Cult.