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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 106
Chapter Title: Chapter 106
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A dampness spread across her back. The scent of blood rapidly permeated the air. A warm, sticky sensation.
Seolhwa looked down at her hands.
What had once been so familiar, now strangely alien, stained her hands.
It was death.
From Yugang, the smell of death emanated.
"..."
Her heart began to pound.
Her mind grew hazy, and a buzzing sound echoed in her ears.
Seolhwa's fingertips trembled.
Despite having witnessed countless deaths, a profound sensation she had never felt before seized her.
His ragged breathing felt more menacing than any other sound.
"How is it? Do you feel like you're about to die? It's so dark, I can't see a thing..."
Seolhwa raised her gaze to Hwangryongdaeju. A crimson aura flickered in her eyes.
"Woah... You look quite scary when you stare like that, don't you?"
"Why did you do it...?"
"Hmm..."
Hwangryongdaeju casually flicked the blood from his sword as if it were nothing.
"I hadn't originally intended to step in. But seeing such idiotic things happening right before my eyes was frustrating. All this chaos because you couldn't even catch one brat."
"..."
'Hwangryongdaeju Namgung Horak.'
Seolhwa knew only one thing about Namgung Horak.
'Yeon Soran's lover, and Namgung Soryong's biological father.'
A parasitic entity within the Namgung, who sought to devour the clan by using Yeon Soran and Soryong.
That was the Hwangryongdaeju Seolhwa knew.
In her previous life, she only remembered them escaping beforehand, even before the Hyeolgyo's rebellion erupted.
'...I see.'
Now she understood.
Why they had been able to flee even before the Hyeolgyo's rebellion began.
"Haa..."
A chilling breath escaped Seolhwa's lips as she belatedly realized the truth.
This was clearly her own mistake. A fatal error born of the complacency that she could deal with it anytime.
Leaving them be, hoping Cheonghae would handle it personally, had backfired.
'A mistake... must be rectified.'
*Shing—*
Seolhwa carefully laid Yugang down and picked up the fallen sword.
The sword, much too large for her frame, was something she had brought from Surochae just in case.
"Run."
A low voice directed towards the children hidden behind the bushes.
Hwarin and Soyak, who had been holding their breath in the bushes, flinched, causing the foliage to rustle.
"Run as far as you can. Don't look back, don't stop. Go as far as you possibly can."
Soon, the sound of the two children scrambling away could be heard.
Hwangryongdaeju whistled, watching the direction the children ran.
"Well, well... You're more thoughtful than I've heard, Soruju. Are you worried I might kill those children?"
The children's presence gradually faded until even their footsteps were inaudible.
"How far can kids walk anyway..."
*Tsk.*
"No."
"?"
"I was worried I might kill *you*."
"...Pardon?"
At that moment, Hwangryongdaeju suddenly felt as if his surroundings were being dyed black.
As if an even deeper darkness had descended upon the already dark forest.
"What is this..."
A chilling sensation, accompanied by goosebumps, spread across his body. His grip on his sword instinctively tightened.
Hwangryongdaeju watched the darkness approach him step by step.
The only place not consumed by the darkness was behind her, where Yugang lay.
'...Is it possible to wield killing intent in such a way...?'
Never before had he felt such suffocatingly dense killing intent, nor witnessed an entire area being dominated by it.
It was as if...
'A dominator.'
Wasn't it like a dominator?
*Whoosh—*
A sharp energy moved within the darkness.
*Clang—!*
"Ugh!"
Hwangryongdaeju parried the sword instinctively. As he blocked, he instantly channeled his internal energy.
The suffocating sensation from the killing intent seemed to ease slightly. But the moment of respite was brief.
*Swish— Swish— Swish!*
*Clang! Clang! Clack...!*
Sharp energy assailed him without pause.
'Why is this brat's sword so...!'
So heavy?!
And not just heavy. It was fast and sharp.
Each strike carried killing intent, as if it would sever his windpipe in an instant if he showed any opening.
*Splat—*
"Argh!"
Hwangryongdaeju ultimately failed to block all of Seolhwa's attacks and took a hit to his left shoulder.
He hurriedly stumbled back a few steps and checked his throbbing shoulder.
Blood flowed from a gash about a finger-joint deep.
"Not yet."
*Grrr.*
Hwangryongdaeju gritted his teeth, glaring at the child approaching him.
'Hadn't he just reached the Jeoljeong realm?'
He had clearly heard that she had abandoned her vital energy and was rebuilding her internal cultivation.
Why was he, a master of the Jeoljeong realm, being pushed back?!
'Damn it.'
Hwangryongdaeju regulated his breathing and quickly pulled something from his pocket before Seolhwa could get closer.
It was a pill the size of a thumbnail.
Seeing the pill, Seolhwa abruptly halted her steps.
"You saw my martial prowess clearly during the Cheonmuje. Do you think I would come empty-handed?"
Hwangryongdaeju grinned, popping the pill into his mouth. For a moment, a crunching sound, like bones being chewed, could be heard.
"Ugh... Arghhh!!"
He clutched his heart in agony, trembling, and then a dark crimson aura exploded from his body.
Seolhwa frowned, watching him roar with overflowing power.
'Pokhyeolhwan (Exploding Blood Pill).'
It was a pill created by the Hyeolgyo, designed to instantly boost one's vital energy and unleash explosive power.
Upon consuming Pokhyeolhwan, the heart pounded rapidly, blood vessels dilated, and blood circulated quickly throughout the body.
The amplified vital energy lasted for at least a quarter of an hour, and up to half an hour.
"Kukukuku..."
Hwangryongdaeju's power instantly rose from the Jeoljeong to the Transcendent Jeoljeong realm.
Seolhwa questioned him as he reveled in the explosive, almost liberating, power.
"Are you aware of Pokhyeolhwan's side effects?"
Consuming Pokhyeolhwan granted momentary power, but because the energy was forcibly drawn out, once the effect wore off, the overloaded body would immediately collapse.
One would be unable to do anything for at least half an hour to an hour, and in unlucky cases, or if consumed in large quantities, it could even lead to cardiac arrest.
'It was a pill whose side effects were so severe that even within the Hyeolgyo, its use had been restricted in her previous life.'
To use it so recklessly.
"Kukuku, of course I know. I plan to finish this before the side effects kick in. So, let's see you take this sword..."
*Whoosh—*
"Receive it!"
Cheonpunggeombeop, Second Form: Four Raging Dragons!
Hwangryongdaeju, true to his identity as a Namgung warrior, attacked using a Namgung sword art.
However, the energy flowing from his sword was not azure.
Only the form was there; his sword lacked the essence of the heavens.
The moment Hwangryongdaeju's sword surged towards Seolhwa, she twisted her body, deflecting his attack.
*Clang— Clang—*
'If I try to block it head-on, I'll be pushed back.'
If she directly confronted the intensified energy from the Pokhyeolhwan, her sword and body wouldn't endure.
Seolhwa gritted her teeth, narrowly deflecting the sword strikes.
Though his internal energy was at the Transcendent Jeoljeong, Hwangryongdaeju's sword wielded only false sword energy that had not reached that realm.
In contrast, though Seolhwa's internal energy was at Jeoljeong, her sword had already touched the Hwagyeong realm.
The two clashing swords met dozens of times in the blink of an eye.
However, no matter how much she excelled in experience, it was not easy to withstand the Transcendent Jeoljeong level of internal energy.
Seolhwa was being pushed back, step by step.
'If I can just hold out until the Pokhyeolhwan's momentum fades...'
"Jeokgwaesu told me! If I bring you, he'll kill Namgung's First Young Master!"
*Thump.*
*Clang—!*
The power in Seolhwa's sword wavered for a fleeting moment.
Hwangryongdaeju's lips curved into a smirk, seizing that instant.
'This is it!'
He swung his sword even more fiercely and rapidly, pressuring Seolhwa.
"Are you aware that the First Young Master's aura hasn't been felt since that explosion earlier?"
His ploy to shake Seolhwa's composure was sharp.
*Clack, Clack!*
Seolhwa's sword, blocking the attacks, began to tremble slightly.
'That's right! No matter what, she's still just a brat! If I push her harder like this...!'
"That damned brat also seems to have luckily avoided a vital point, but he'll die soon, won't he?"
Hwangryongdaeju let out a sneering laugh. The increasingly dense killing intent no longer frightened him.
"The First Young Master and that fellow. Do you know who's to blame for them dying in such a remote place?"
*Clack, Clang...!*
"It's because of you...!"
*Clang—!* With a resounding clash, Seolhwa's sword flew from her grasp.
The sword spun through the air before embedding itself in the ground three steps away.
"..."
Seolhwa clutched her trembling right wrist.
Her blood-red eyes glared fiercely at Hwangryongdaeju.
Swallowing nervously at her chilling gaze, Hwangryongdaeju opened his mouth.
"You should never have returned to Namgung. If you hadn't, the First Young Master wouldn't have returned, and my plans wouldn't have been obstructed."
If the Second Young Master was made the next clan head, then naturally his sons, Soryong and Ung, would become candidates for the next-generation clan head.
However, Namgung Ung wasn't the type to covet the clan head's position over his brother, so Soryong would undoubtedly become the clan head after the next one. If that happened...
'Namgung would fall into my hands...!'
"Someone who lived by staining their hands with dirty blood, why did they have to come back..."
"Is that what you say to a kid who risked her life to come back?!"
With a dull *thump*, Hwangryongdaeju vanished from sight.
Seolhwa stared blankly at the sturdy feet that had taken his place, then looked up at their owner.
"Have you ever seen a man with such a filthy mouth?! Do you think you can just spew whatever nonsense because your mouth is open?"
Huffing and puffing, the one who stepped forward to shield Seolhwa was Bipungdaeju, Seop Mugwang.
"Tch! You rotten, good-for-nothing wretch, you're not even worth the effort!"
As always, a certain relaxed aura surrounded Seop Mugwang, but now, a fierce energy, unlike anything seen before, swirled around him.
