Chapter 307

Chapter 307
## Chapter 307. The Rising Star of the Black Path, the Black Flame Dragon (5)

—

Demonic Art.

In the common tongue, this term denotes the esoteric martial styles utilized by disciples of the Demonic Cult.

Nevertheless, the Martial Alliance interprets the boundaries of Demonic Arts with a far more extensive lens.

Any manifestation of strength that warps the natural order and strays from absolute truth.

Any power that defies fundamental cosmic regulations and operates far beyond ordinary understanding is systematically relegated to the domain of Demonic Arts.

This policy originated from the “Classification of the Righteous Path,” a decree enacted concurrently with the founding of the Martial Alliance half a millennium ago.

Throughout these past five centuries, the Martial Alliance preserved the tranquility of the Jianghu by thoroughly eradicating any combat systems that transgressed the standards set by the “Classification of the Righteous Path.”

Consequently, in contemporary times, exceptionally few individuals possessed knowledge regarding the varieties or distinct traits of Demonic Arts, and not a single soul present associated Demonic Arts with the harrowing transformation of Deung-go-hyeon.

“H-Hall Master! Are you unharmed?”

Though they felt a sense of relief that he had cleaved through the ranks of the Dog-a-mun with a single sweeping blow, the remaining practitioners of the Jeon-deung-mun stood completely bewildered by the reality that he had simultaneously slaughtered their own fellow disciple who had merely stepped in to obstruct his path.

They tentatively called out to Deung-go-hyeon, but he paid them absolutely no heed and charged directly toward the remaining Dog-a-mun swordsmen.

Slaaaaaash!

It is a basic instinct to hoist one’s blade and retaliate when confronted by a foe wielding a lethal weapon.

However, the utter futility of their frantic defensive maneuvers was terrifying enough to shatter their rational minds.

Slaaaaaash!

“Aaargh!”

Yet another combatant, a disciple of the Dog-a-mun trying to parry the oncoming saber, found his throat severed alongside his shattered weapon, spraying a massive geyser of crimson that caused a small stream of fresh blood to snake across the courtyard of the Dog-a-mun.

The Dog-a-mun martial artists fell back in a continuous retreat.

Meanwhile, the terrifying prowess of Deung-go-hyeon, who pursued them relentlessly to decapitate and mangle their bodies, made him resemble a solitary fiend rather than a mortal swordsman.

“H-Hall Master…… I implore you to halt this slaughter.”

A disciple who could no longer endure the gruesome spectacle attempted to reason with Deung-go-hyeon, but Deung-go-hyeon did not acknowledge his existence whatsoever.

Moments later, three desperate Jeon-deung-mun disciples finally lunged forward from his rear in a coordinated effort to restrain him.

Flash.

Deung-go-hyeon turned his utterly ink-black eyes toward his junior sect brothers and coldly unleashed his blade without a shred of human emotion.

“Keok!”

“Aaargh!”

One man was instantly decapitated, while the remaining two had their limbs severed cleanly away.

Witnessing this rapid succession of horrific acts unfold right before their eyes, the members of both the Dog-a-mun and the Jeon-deung-mun lost all capacity for rational thought.

“Wh-what sort of unholy insanity is this!”

“H-he is slaughtering his own kin……!”

“R-run for your lives!”

Deung-go-hyeon, who had struck absolute terror into the hearts of these hardened Black Path scoundrels—men who typically feared nothing under the sun—moistened his blood-soaked lips with his tongue and bellowed.

“The Jeon-deung-mun shall endure for eternity!!!”

With wide, unblinking pupils, Deung-go-hyeon once more launched himself violently toward the Venomous Fang Sword.

Grit.

The Venomous Fang Sword, grinding his teeth so fiercely they threatened to shatter, prepared to confront the assault with every ounce of his remaining strength.

“Do you honestly believe I will turn tail and flee!”

Snap!

However, the very instant the Venomous Fang Sword’s weapon—thickly coated in sword energy—was cleanly severed, his eyes stretched as wide in sheer horror as those of Deung-go-hyeon.

Thud—

I swiftly delivered a powerful kick to send him flying out of harm’s way.

“Wh-what, keok……!!”

K-boom!

The Venomous Fang Sword soared through the air, completely shattering the primary structural pillar of the courtyard pavilion upon impact.

“I merely preserved your life just now.”

“……D-damn it all…….”

The Venomous Fang Sword spat out his appreciation in the form of a crude oath, behaving exactly as one would expect from a rogue of the Black Path.

Leaving him where he crashed, I focused my undivided attention on scrutinizing Deung-go-hyeon.

His visage burned with a feverish crimson hue, and thick plumes of pale vapor escaped his mouth with every breath he drew.

Up to this point, such reactions were standard indications of someone suffering the volatile side effects of the Blood Bursting Pill, but everything else about his current state diverged entirely from the norm.

His pupils were completely devoured by a deep obsidian blackness, leaving no trace of white visible.

A bizarre, unnatural force emanated from him, capable of slicing right through condensed sword energy despite clearly lacking the refinement of true sword force (Geom-gang).

Furthermore, even as he continuously unleashed violent torrents of energy waves, his reserves showed no signs of depletion, mimicking the boundless nature of innate true qi (Seon-cheon-jin-gi).

It was as though he was tapping into a reservoir of power originating from some incomprehensible realm.

And beyond all else.

From the sickening, prickling malice that aggressively agitated the skin to the dense, suffocating demonic qi (Ma-gi) that caused one’s vision to blur just by gazing at it.

I demanded answers from Deung-go-hyeon.

“You…… Did you cultivate a Demonic Art?”

Upon hearing my voice, Deung-go-hyeon’s focus shifted away from the fallen Venomous Fang Sword and locked entirely onto me.

“You…… you…… what manner of meddler are you?”

“I asked a simple question: did you master a Demonic Art?”

“Do you intend to stand in the way of the Jeon-deung-mun!”

Deung-go-hyeon, frothing at the mouth like a rabid beast, bellowed with a voice like crashing thunder.

“I shall slaughter you! I will tear apart anyone who dares obstruct the Jeon-deung-mun!”

Rational conversation was entirely impossible with him.

Focusing my resolve, I began to circulate the profound principles of the Tae-eul True Scripture.

My internal reserves surged aggressively through my pathways and flooded into my deepest meridians, compounding my physical power.

Executing the fluid movements of the Tae-eul Eighty Thousand Godly Steps, I left behind two shifting afterimages and materialized directly behind Deung-go-hyeon.

“Hey, I am over here.”

The moment the brute spun around in utter shock, I drove a devastating kick into his skull, projecting his body thirty feet through the air.

Crash-boom.

Deung-go-hyeon slammed violently into a massive wooden column—a pillar so thick it would require two grown men to link hands around it—pulverizing the timber completely.

Thud, thud-thud.

Astonishingly, the brute bounced right back to his feet immediately, as though the crushing impact had caused him no real physical harm.

The only noticeable alteration from before was his demeanor.

“Kill…… destroy…….”

He bared his teeth and snarled like a mindless creature that had completely surrendered its sanity.

Roar!

Unleashing a guttural howl akin to a wild predator, the beast propelled himself off the earth and shot toward me with the velocity of a discharged arrow.

Slash— slash— slash—

I evaded the brute’s weapon, which cleaved through the air in mere fractions of a second, escaping death by the narrowest of margins.

Even so, the stray air currents from his blade inevitably snipped at my loose hair and sliced the edges of my attire.

This happened to be a costly set of robes that So-so had personally purchased for me.

You miserable piece of trash.

“Snap out of it, you mindless fool!”

I pulled back my fist and delivered a shattering blow directly into his lower jaw.

His frame hovered and drifted backward through the air for roughly twenty feet, his head lurching back violently as if his neck spine had snapped, yet he instantly performed a fluid aerial inversion to re-establish his footing.

Tack.

As soon as Deung-go-hyeon touched the ground, he projectively vomited a massive pool of dark blood, and subsequently discarded the very saber he ought to have treasured as an extension of his own flesh, dropping to all fours to scan his surroundings wildly.

“Grrr.”

Snarl-gnashing his teeth like a rabid hound, Deung-go-hyeon abruptly altered his trajectory and sprinted straight toward the panicked disciples of the Dog-a-mun.

“Aaargh!”

The moment a Dog-a-mun swordsman had his throat brutally ripped out by a bare hand and collapsed dead on the spot, Deung-go-hyeon immediately abandoned the corpse and dashed toward his next target.

“T-this is madness! What is happening!”

“R-run!”

Observing this horrific progression of events, I found it impossible to drop my guarded expression.

Undeniably, the spiritual frequency he radiated belonged strictly to a Demonic Art, yet his erratic conduct differed significantly from that of an actual demon practitioner.

While demonic martial artists are indeed psychotic killers, they rarely discard their intellect so unceremoniously to become feral beasts.

Quite the contrary; because they generally maintain a demeanor colder than frost, they orchestrate murder with an unsettling, fluid ease.

Evaluating the situation from that standpoint.

‘Something is entirely wrong.’

His current state—behaving as though his mind had been wiped of all identity, living only to slaughter blindly—felt extraordinarily contrived.

Furthermore, it defied basic logic that a warrior who took pride in serving an organization that was effectively a low-tier subordinate branch of the prestigious Cheong-seong Sect would have ever cultivated a forbidden Demonic Art.

‘In what world would a practitioner of the White Path openly exhibit a forbidden Demonic Art they secretly acquired so recklessly?’

I myself command a highly unusual power derived from the mystical object known as the Blue Dragon Ring, yet I cannot brandish it without extreme caution.

Should I expose that secret power, I would instantly be branded an existential threat by the collective Murim and hunted down until I drew my final breath.

Therefore, whether he desired it or not, the present circumstance where the brute laid bare his Demonic Art had to be viewed as a phenomenon occurring entirely against his active willpower.

‘What could it be…… what critical detail am I overlooking?’

As I immersed myself in deep deduction, the Venomous Fang Sword pulled himself up and drove his blade directly toward Deung-go-hyeon.

“Miserable Deung-go-hyeon! What in god’s name has possessed you!”

“Aaargh!”

Deung-go-hyeon advanced to clamp his jaws onto the Venomous Fang Sword’s throat, completely indifferent to the blade carving deep gashes into his hands.

Thick, throbbing veins began to bulge across the Venomous Fang Sword’s flushed, red face.

This physical reaction signaled that the internal strain of the Blood Bursting Pill was reaching its critical breaking point…….

‘Ah!’

A sudden realization struck me: every single combatant belonging to the Dog-a-mun and the Jeon-deung-mun, starting directly with the Venomous Fang Sword, had consumed those identical Blood Bursting Pills.

‘Could it be that the Blood Bursting Pill acted as a catalyst to ignite this state?’

I immediately channeled the immense energy of the Jade Clear Heavenly Superior Power and unleashed the Flying Dragon Claw.

“S-someone save me!!!”

Mere milliseconds before Deung-go-hyeon could sink his teeth into the Venomous Fang Sword’s throat, the ethereal grip of the Flying Dragon Claw locked around Deung-go-hyeon’s neck and yanked his entire mass backward.

Be that as it may,

Screech!

Even while being forcibly dragged through the air, Deung-go-hyeon unnaturally corrected his posture mid-flight and surged forward once more.

I unsheathed the Red Light Sword, focusing the potent energy of the Jade Clear Heavenly Superior Power to manifest a brilliant sword force.

Slash—

The Red Light Sword generated an intense burst of illumination and traced a lethal arc, yet the creature contorted his skeletal frame in a physically impossible manner, managing to slip right past the blade’s energy.

‘He actually evaded that?’

The moment I brought my weapon back and initiated the fluid patterns of the Small Heaven Sword Technique once more.

Crack, crack-crack.

Simultaneous with the horrific sound of fracturing bones echoing from his lower limbs, the brute launched himself forward like a high-velocity projectile.

“Insanity!”

Bang!

Deung-go-hyeon threw his entire weight forward, utterly abandoning any pretense of refined martial arts or form.

I threw up the Gluttony Gauntlet to block the incoming impact, but the sheer kinetic force reverberated through every inch of my body, bypassed only by the reinforced gauntlet itself.

My feet left the ground from the substantial concussive force, sending me hurtling backward through the air.

Thud!

The exact instant I attempted to swiftly pivot back to my feet after impacting the structural column of the pavilion, the brute had already closed the distance, looming directly over me.

“Kill! Slaughter! I shall exterminate every foe of the Jeon-deung-mun!”

I rapidly deployed the intricate strikes of the Myriad Flowers Invincible Fist to drive the beast away, but as though his nerve endings had ceased to function, the creature pressed his assault relentlessly despite his lower jaw being shattered to splinters and his nose being completely flattened.

‘This utterly wretched bastard!’

This terrifying visage—not a calculated use of a Demonic Art, but an unyielding, parasitic tenacity identical to a true ancient demon.

It was the precise, horrifying sight I had encountered all too often during my previous life, an image permanently etched as pure trauma into the consciousness of countless warriors.

Grit.

Shattered remnants of old memories flooded my mind, causing me to violently grind my teeth together.

“Hey.”

“Grrr! Kill! Destroy!”

“You picked the absolute worst opponent to use this on. I happen to be an individual who physically revulsion at the mere existence of demons.”

If this bastard intends to completely ignore physical agony, then I simply have to operate under the exact same premise.

I rammed my fist straight into the creature’s gaping maw just as he lunged to sink his teeth into my neck.

Crunch.

An intense, biting pain shot down the length of my hand where his teeth clamped deep into my flesh, but I unhesitatingly shoved my fist even deeper down his throat.

“Choke on this!”

The moment I ignited the searing energy of the Holy Fire Demon-Slaying Hand, the feral beast, whose pain receptors had supposedly been entirely deadened, stretched his eyes wide in sudden shock.

Screeeeech!

Whether his jaw joint was violently dislocated or his remaining teeth were pulverized to dust, Deung-go-hyeon thrashed around single-mindedly, desperate only to extract my hand from his throat.

I kicked the writhing wretch away from me, scanned the immediate ground, and retrieved a heavy stone before closing the distance again.

The creature, looking as though his cognitive faculties had been thoroughly incinerated by the residual flames of the Holy Fire Demon-Slaying Hand cooking his insides, was desperately trying to quell the internal heat by scooping up and swallowing mouthfuls of dirt.

Without a shred of hesitation, I brought the heavy stone crashing down onto the skull of the hacking wretch who had barely managed to stifle the fire in his throat.

Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!

The frantic struggles of the beast who had been fighting back so violently began to lose their vigor, steadily slowing down.

Right at the threshold where his vital spark was about to fade entirely.

“Your death will not be that simple.”

I pressed my palm firmly against his Baek-hoe point at the crown of his skull and flooded his body with the pure energy of the Jade Clear Heavenly Superior Power.

His fading physical form, which seemed entirely on the verge of expiration, convulsed violently once more.

A few moments later, Deung-go-hyeon, behaving as though his rational mind and physical senses had suddenly been forcibly restored, let out an agonizing shriek of pure torment.

“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! P-please, show mercy……”

Because his respiratory tract had been severely scorched by the devastating heat of the Holy Fire Demon-Slaying Hand, the man was currently incapable of drawing a proper breath.

I seized him firmly by the hair, tilting his head up to confront him.

“From what source did you acquire that Demonic Art?”

“……M-mercy……”

I delivered a sharp backhand across his cheek and demanded once more.

“The Demonic Art! From whom did you obtain that forbidden technique!”

“D-Demonic Art……?”

“Precisely, that perverted, heaven-defying (yeok-cheon) style you just unleashed. Where under heaven did you find it!”

“N-no. I…… I cultivated a sacred Divine Art (Sin-gong)……”

Deung-go-hyeon’s baseline martial competence was first-class at the absolute highest estimation.

To offer an objective assessment, his prowess hovered roughly around the capabilities of a minor Sub-Hall Master within the Martial Alliance.

Could an art mastered by an individual of that mediocre standing truly be classified as a genuine Divine Art?

“Who was it……. Who provided you with the secrets of that martial art?”

“…….”

The cognitive light within Deung-go-hyeon’s eyes began to flicker and rapidly recede.

I immediately pumped a greater volume of the Jade Clear Heavenly Superior Power into his system.

Regrettably.

“The J-Jeon-deung-mun…… shall reign forever……”

With those final, breathless words, the remaining spark of vitality vanished from Deung-go-hyeon’s eyes entirely.

Thump, thump, thump, thump, thump.

The violent pounding within the Venomous Fang Sword’s chest refused to subside.

The volatile internal turbulence triggered by the Blood Bursting Pill had already been successfully contained by consuming a Blood-Calming Pill.

Despite that, the primary reason his pulse continued to race so erratically was the profound, existential terror he had encountered when facing absolute annihilation.

‘What in the world was that monstrosity……?’

He had managed to survive for several decades amidst the treacherous underworld of the Black Path Murim, an environment teeming with every imaginable breed of criminal, yet never before had he tasted a brand of pure dread quite like this.

‘Without question…… that was the face of death.’

Particularly that horrific instant when Deung-go-hyeon attempted to tear out his throat with a mouth dripping with fresh gore.

Revisiting that moment in his thoughts caused the strength to completely drain from his limbs all over again.

The Venomous Fang Sword shifted his gaze slightly to observe Deung-go-hyeon’s body.

The Black Flame Dragon was currently gripping the dead man’s collar, intensely interrogating the corpse.

The very warrior he had initially dismissed as merely a unhinged youth radiating a chaotic, erratic presence had just actively preserved his life.

And he had done so against a horrific entity that surpassed the bounds of his worst nightmares.

Had the Black Flame Dragon not materialized within the grounds of the Dog-a-mun today, every single disciple present, including himself, would have met their demise and left their bones to rot in this courtyard.

‘Could it actually be…….’

Suddenly, an unexpected hypothesis took root in his mind.

Was it possible that the Black Flame Dragon had intentionally journeyed here specifically to ensure the survival of the Black Path factions?

A faint, tentative hope began to swell within his chest.

Given the circumstances, since the youth held a public profile deeply intertwined with the rival White Path, he obviously could not conduct an overt, amicable visit; thus, he likely staged this aggressive extortion routine under a classic Black Path pretext to mask his true scouting intentions.

If that were not the case, what logical explanation existed for him to place himself in such immense peril for the sake of the Dog-a-mun, an organization with which he possessed zero historical ties?

The legendary whispers floating through the underworld claimed that ancient, retired masters of the Black Path had spent years secretly nurturing an ultimate successor to serve as a counterweight for the dark days ahead—specifically for when Yong-so-a, the unparalleled prodigy of the White Path Murim, would inevitably rise to dominate the entire martial world.

At long last, the scattered pieces of that grand rumor appeared to align seamlessly.

‘Ah……!’

By this juncture, the specific term “friend” that the Black Flame Dragon had tossed around earlier began to carry a far deeper, more deliberate meaning.

He had been signaling his true allegiance all along through subtle nuance.

Communicating that he, in truth, belonged fundamentally to the underworld.

‘Just as the rumors foretold…… the true rising star of the Black Path Murim.’

Right at that moment when the older martial artist was gazing upward with eyes brimming with profound reverence.

The Black Flame Dragon pushed himself up from the corpse.

He called out across the yard while casually flicking the residual bloodstains off his knuckles.

“Venomous Fang Sword.”

“Y-yes, sire!”

Now that his mind had fully accepted the youth as the unified champion of the underworld, respectful honorifics slipped from his tongue without a second thought.

“Are you aware of the geographical location of the Jeon-deung-mun headquarters?”

“For what…… For what purpose do you seek it?”

The Black Flame Dragon ground his teeth with a raw intensity that suggested he was preparing to clash with a mortal foe.

“Lead the way. I have urgent matters to settle there.”

“…….”

That boundless, pure malice directed toward the righteous factions.

That was an intrinsic, visceral fury that could only be manifested by someone who carried the absolute core essence of the Black Path within their soul.

He truly was their savior…….

“Why are you lingering? Get moving and guide me.”

“Y-yes! Immediately. It shall be my honor to escort you!”

At this stage, the Venomous Fang Sword no longer entertained even a shred of suspicion regarding the identity of the Black Flame Dragon as the ultimate rising star of the Black Path.