SYM 55

What outrageous nonsense is this?

Unable to suppress his humiliation, the Demonic spirit’s eyebrows twitched.

“I treated you well because you’re young, and now you don’t know your place. You may have achieved remarkable things for your age, but you seem to have forgotten that there’s always someone above you. These Undead here are specially made by this old one. No matter how confident you are in your Martial Arts, you can’t possibly withstand all of them.”

As the Demonic spirit said, the Undead that had appeared now seemed much stronger than the ones seen down the mountain, likely formidable experts in their past lives.

“This formation technique absorbs the vitality of the living and transfers it to the dead. As time passes, you will tire, and my Undead will grow stronger.”

“Is that so?”

With those words, Ha Yeo-un coated his sword with Sword energy. The bluish Sword energy wrapped around the blade, gradually intensifying in color.

Seeing this, the Demonic spirit’s face stiffened for a moment.

“That’s, could it be…! Sword aura!”

At the Demonic spirit’s words, even the Blood Demon and Madam Hwang widened their eyes. They thought that an outstanding junior could use Sword energy, but they never imagined he could use Sword aura.

Sword energy and Sword aura were worlds apart. Sword energy could still be wielded by a skilled junior, but Sword aura was something one could only expect from the leader of a sect.

It was unbelievable that such a young man possessed the strength of a sect leader.

Ha Yeo-un didn’t even seem strained after using Sword aura.

“This is absurd…!”

The Blood Demon couldn’t finish his sentence.

The Sword aura carried on Ha Yeo-un’s sword flew towards the Undead surrounding him. In an instant, two Undead were cut in half.

“W-What is this…! You bastard…!”

The Demonic spirit gritted his teeth and began to shake the bell on his wrist.

For the first time, the sneer disappeared from Ha Yeo-un’s face. Eun-hyeon’s body, which had been still until now, began to tremble again.

“Go!”

Ha Yeo-un shouted, pouring Inner energy into his voice. A powerful shockwave spread out from Ha Yeo-un. In that brief moment, he erected a Qi barrier around Eun-hyeon to protect him from the impact, while sweeping the shockwave outwards.

Those with weak Inner energy screamed and collapsed from Ha Yeo-un’s Lion’s roar, one of whom was Madam Hwang. Her guard quickly erected a Qi barrier, but it was too late; blood was already flowing from her ears.

“A monster… Just how profound is his Inner energy….”

The Blood Demon took a step back without realizing it.

He couldn’t admit it, but he was terrified of Ha Yeo-un.

He glanced at the Demonic spirit. The Demonic spirit was also frozen stiff. Cautiously, the Blood Demon sent a Telepathic Transmission to the Demonic spirit.

[Demonic spirit. What are you planning to do?]

[That one, we can’t let him live. If we leave him be, he will become a major obstacle to our sect. No matter what, we must eliminate him here today. I’ll try to lower his guard and then we’ll attack together, so watch for an opportunity to join in.]

The Blood Demon’s face hardened at the Demonic spirit’s words.

He didn’t think he could win even if he gave it his all. He had a feeling that something was wrong.

The Demonic spirit had actually planned to secretly poison Ha Yeo-un while pretending to let him out of the formation.

Creating Undead from Martial Arts practitioners’ corpses required a complex process, and the less damaged the body, the better it was at replicating the Martial Arts of their past life. For that reason, the Demonic spirit often poisoned Martial Arts practitioners and turned them into Undead.

But he couldn’t afford to be so careless with a warrior who could freely use Sword aura.

“I can’t understand it at all. Why do you want Eun-hyeon? Eun-hyeon may be in the position of Eldest Young Master, but he’s not a very influential figure in the clan anyway. If the goal is to take control of the Namgung Clan, it would be more logical to target Namgung Eun-gwang. But why are you targeting Eun-hyeon and refusing to give up? Is there some hidden secret?”

Ha Yeo-un muttered to himself, but the Demonic spirit’s face grew increasingly stiff as he heard it.

“This is my last offer. If you fight me here, I will detonate every single one of these Undead you’re so proud of. But if you make Namgung Eun-gwang and Madam Hwang into Undead instead of Eun-hyeon, I’ll pretend I didn’t see anything. How about it?”

At those words, the Blood Demon glanced towards Madam Hwang without realizing it. Madam Hwang, who had met his gaze, stood up, her face red with anger.

“…Y-You shameless bastard! How much money have I given you until now, and now you’re shamelessly trying to betray me? Don’t even listen to such words! Seize that man and kill him at once!”

Ha Yeo-un grinned as he looked at Madam Hwang, who was trembling.

“What touching friendship.”

“…Hmph. The Blood Demon’s formation technique doesn’t seem to mean much to you. I can tell that you still have extra energy to fight and that you’re hiding something. But I can’t accept that offer.”

Ha Yeo-un gave a bitter smile at those words.

“I had a hunch, but you bastards, there was a separate reason why you were after Eun-hyeon.”

“…Yes. The Namgung Eldest Young Master was born with a special constitution.”

“Demonic spirit!”

The Blood Demon shouted with a pale face, but the Demonic spirit gestured for him to be quiet.

“The Eldest Young Master’s constitution has a special meaning for us. I’m sorry, but we can’t replace him with the likes of Madam Hwang and Namgung Eun-gwang.”

Ha Yeo-un had examined Namgung Eun-hyeon’s pulse several times. He wasn’t a doctor, but Ha Yeo-un had knowledge of the human body that was no less than a doctor’s. However, he hadn’t discovered any particular constitution other than the fact that Eun-hyeon was very weak.

Judging from the Demonic spirit’s attitude, it didn’t seem to be a lie, which meant that Eun-hyeon’s constitution was related to Undead Manipulation.

“I’ve examined the Namgung Eldest Young Master’s pulse before, but I didn’t find any peculiarities other than that he was weak. So what kind of constitution was he born with?”

“It’s not something engraved on the body, so you wouldn’t have found it. Unless you’re a sorcerer like me, you can’t find out by simply examining the flesh.”

Having said this much, the Demonic spirit paused.

The Demonic spirit had gouged out his own eyes and implanted new ones in order to learn a deeper level of sorcery. Thanks to that, he could see what others could not.

In the Demonic spirit’s eyes, he could see a blazing fire where Ha Yeo-un was standing. He had never seen such an intense fire before. There was no way that someone with such an intense fire was just a mere junior.

That man wasn’t simply hiding his skills.

The reason he had left him alone, even though he knew that he was no match for the Blood Shadow Sword, was because he wanted to see the man’s true face. He couldn’t believe that there was something even hotter hidden within that hot fire.

The Demonic spirit chuckled without realizing it. They were closer to the Shaolin Temple than that man was to being a righteous Martial Arts practitioner.

That was a hot snake, a lying dragon.

“White-Robed Divine Dragon. Tell me what you want. I like young and capable friends like you. Someone like you is an asset that our sect would be willing to covet. If you want the Demonic Art that the Blood Shadow Sword mastered, I can give it to you too. Our sect has a considerable number of Demonic Arts without owners. If you master a Demonic Art that suits you with your skills, you’ll be able to improve your realm.”

When Ha Yeo-un didn’t say anything, the Demonic spirit opened his mouth again.

“We are people of the Hongbaek Sect. We never forget our enemies or our benefactors. Seeing you today, it suits your temperament much better to be with us than with the righteous Martial Arts world.”

“Stop talking nonsense. Just tell me why you need the Eldest Young Master.”

“If you know the reason, will you hand over the Eldest Young Master to us?”

Ha Yeo-un hesitated for a moment, then nodded at those words.

“Tell me the reason first.”

“The Eldest Young Master was born with a special constitution that allows him to control Undead.”

“…What?”

“This isn’t necessarily a bad thing for the Eldest Young Master either. Rather than living each day in pain with such a weak body, it would be much better to become a Semi-Reanimated Corpse. How about it, are you willing to hand him over now?”

“What are you talking about?”

Ha Yeo-un’s energy flared menacingly. The Demonic spirit was startled and took a step back.

“Semi-Reanimated Corpse? You’re going to turn the Eldest Young Master into a Semi-Reanimated Corpse?”

“T-To control the Undead more precisely, there must be a Semi-Reanimated Corpse, a being between a human and an Undead. But the Eldest Young Master has a constitution that makes it easy for him to become a Semi-Reanimated Corpse… W-Well, wouldn’t it be better to be a Semi-Reanimated Corpse than to live with such a body?”

Ha Yeo-un looked at the Demonic spirit and raised the corner of his lips. His expression was so ferocious that the Demonic spirit swallowed hard, terrified without realizing it.