novel N.M - Chapter 366
Chapter 366: Be the Flame, Hu Bong (3)
‘Im-Impossible!’
She went pale as she realized that the regeneration process she’d just gone through had been useless .
‘Ch-Chun…Chun Yeowun! Shit!’
During the first battle, Blood Master hadn’t been able to escape the attacks of six Force Qi Air Swords attacking her simultaneously. She’d struggled until her last breath, but had easily gotten her arms torn off.
And now, in such a defenceless state, she had to face twelve of those overpowered weapons, not to mention that she was missing one arm.
Puhk! Puhk! Puhk!
“Ughhhhhh!”
Her entire body was slashed and stabbed in the most merciless way possible.
Her injuries should be fatal as the number of swords had doubled.
However, she frowned.
‘Why doesn’t it hurt?’
She was sure that her entire body had been stabbed by Air Swords, but strangely enough, she didn’t feel any kind of pain.
However, because of the attacks, her flesh had been mutilated and her body had been paralyzed.
‘I, I need to re-enter the pond!’
Her instincts told her that heading back into the pond was the only way to survive.
She struggled to move her numb legs, but in vain.
“Didn’t you hear me? I said I’ll make sure you die!”
Chun Yeowun extended his left hand and moved his hands as if pulling on something.
Her body that had been pierced by multiple Air Swords, got pulled away from the pond’s outskirts.
‘Wh-what the…..?’
She tried her best to resist, but it was a futile effort.
Although her internal energy had risen thanks to the Qilin’s Blood, Yeowun, who had reached the Perfect Supreme Master level, was vastly stronger of her.
Puhk!
She got pulled forward and was made to forcibly kneel in front of Chun Yeowun.
The expression of Blood Master, one of the Blade supreme-ruler Six Martial clan leaders, was one of pure despair.
Her eyes had fallen to the ground.
‘What is this ugly energy?’
Even before she had fallen into the pond, she had felt that energy, but she hadn’t considered seriously.
However, now that she was so close to Chun Yeowun, the energy she felt made her feel like she was walking down the path of death.
The energy seemed like a black haze.
Both Blood Master’s instincts and the Qilin’s Blood had been warning her intensely.
[We can’t deal with this. This is a superior predator. Run away!]
‘Fuck! I, a leader of the clan, knows that pretty well.’
Even if she wanted to run away, she wouldn’t be able to move with all the swords piercing her body.
Blood Master had thought that she had become invincible after consuming the Qilin’s Blood.
How would she react if she knew what she’d consumed was actually the diluted Qilin’s Blood?
“Ch-Chun… Yeo… wun!!!”
She couldn’t do anything but stare at him. His indifferent gaze told her that she was nothing more than an ant in his eyes, causing her to feel even more irritated.
Seeing her enraged glare, Chun Yeowun spoke in a calm and sarcastic voice.
“Let us behead you.”
Hearing his words, her eyes went wide.
“You, you bastar…”
Slash!
Something sharp made contact with her neck before she could even swear at Chun Yeowun.
A sword made of black qi had slashed through her neck cutting her down.
A red line had slowly appeared on her neck and her eyes remained wide open, before long, her head had fallen to the ground and rolled like a ball.
“Huh!”
When Chun Yeowun waved his left hand, the twelve Sword qi Air Swords immediately and mercilessly slashed her body into tiny bits.
The swords didn’t stop until her entire body had turned into nothing but minced meat.
Since she’d been beheaded, it was practically impossible for her to survive, but Chun Yeowun could still sense some energy coming from her, to be precise, from her head. Her head was still alive!
“What the?”
Crack!
He stepped on her head and completely crushed her skull, finishing her for good.
All her plans to seize the treasure of the Imperial Palace and to frame the Demonic Cult for it had failed miserably…
At the same time, somewhere else.
An enormous Yaksha statue had been built in Huangshan City, within Hangzhou, in the Zhejiang province.
A man who was giving off an unusually eerie energy stood in front of the Yaksha statue, before turning around, and sitting.
Behind him, an unidentified man, with a face covered in bandages, was holding a red box with its lid open.
Keek! keek!
Inside the box, there was a fist sized red worm making bizarre sounds.
The man in bandages seemed uneasy about holding the box.
Crack!
After a long period of crying and trembling, the worm exploded.
The man closed the lid of the wooden red box that held the remains of the dead worm. After carefully thinking, he opened his mouth.
“… we failed.”
On the lid of the red wooden box, the word ‘Blood’ was written.
This worm in the box had been connected to the worm that had been implanted into Blood Master’s body. She was one of the six main seats and had been given the mission of entering the Imperial Palace.
The man in bandages looked at the man in the shadows who was sitting cross-legged in front of the Yaksha statue.
The tremendous and intimidating energy the seated man was emitting was the reason behind the other man’s nervousness.
After a long period of silence, the man sitting in front of the Yaksha statue, silently touched the floor with his hand.
Phut!
“Kuak!”
The man who was holding the red box, had been flung backwards like a sack of rice.
After retreating ten steps, he began vomiting mouthfuls of blood as if he’d been injured.
Thud!
The man in the bandages had continued vomiting blood, before dropping to his knees and then smacking his head into the ground
He’d done so because he knew well that ‘that person’ hated hearing excuses.
The man in front of the Yaksha statue, finally opened his mouth.
“Do Yeom, Do Kwang, Do Munju, call all three of them here.”
It was a low, but terrifying voice.
The man in bandages’ eyes widened at his words.
Those three were the Martial Masters of the clan.
“Huh? Are you talking about ‘that’ Do Munju?”
“Change in plans. Send them to Tongho to support the others.”
The man bandages’ was again shocked.
There had never been more than two top ranking members of the same family in the Blade supreme-ruler Six Martial clan.
However, in this case, half of the Martial Masters were from the same family.
‘Whew… Tongho will be drenched in blood.’
The seated man had shown his willingness to achieve the great world he wanted to create.
“The Lord’s command shall be obeyed!”
The underground hall, the last floor.
Hu Bong’s wounds had completely healed, and his life, which had been on the verge of fading away, had been saved.
His face, which had grown pale, had regained its previous ruddy complexion.
Someone had placed their hand on his back, providing him with support. Ran-yeong.
‘Uhm’
The expression on her face, as she closed her eyes, was odd.
Those who normally took in the Qilin’s Blood were likely to have strong flame qi run rampant in their bodies.
Even women with strong yin energy, would end up losing their sense of pain as a side effect of the flame, and in some cases, the host would even die.
If that was the case for women, then a man who was filled with yang energy shouldn’t be able to handle it.
For nearly two hundred years, numerous men from the imperial palace had drunk the blood. The result had been nothing but death for them.
‘Is it because cold qi was mixed in with blood?’
Fortunately, the Qilin’s blood, whose flame had been neutralized by the cold energy, hadn’t caused any problems.
Maybe that was why the flame qi in Hu Bong’s body hadn’t gone berserk.
That was her guess.
‘Ah… this is weird. Why is it like this?’
No matter how well the Qilin’s Blood had been neutralized, there had to be certain changes.
Nobody could hold onto their human form after drinking it.
The proof was the red scales that were present on her body.
‘The body creates the scales to generate the flames, so why hasn’t his body undergone any changes?’
It was definitely odd. She checked his pressure points in hopes of finding an answer and finally subduing her curiosity.
She wanted to make sure that the flame qi had been absorbed by Hu Bong’s body.
However,
‘Ha? This is….?’
She found a foreign energy inside his core.
It wasn’t the normal internal energy, but a very violent energy that resembled Chun Yeowun’s.
‘What is this black energy? Ah!’
It was an energy outside her field of understanding.
The energy wasn’t that strong or overpowered, but shockingly, it had totally absorbed the flame qi of the Qilin’s Blood.
The black energy seemed to have suppressed the flame qi which came from the diluted Qilin’s Blood, like a hungry and superior predator.
‘Have they consumed the blood of another Spirit Beast?’
As she’d guessed, Hu Bong had once drunk a black liquid.
That black liquid had existed since the founding of the Demonic Cult.
It was the blood of the black Imoogi (Korean dragon).
The Blood of a Spirit Beast, a dragon, had been consumed in a small amount, and its energy had been silently sleeping inside Hu Bong.
‘I guess nothing can be done. I need to let it go.’
She’d thought that she would need to help him, by absorbing some of the Flame qi, but it seemed there was no need.
There was another energy present in Hu Bong’s body preventing the invasion of anything else…
However, something unexpected happened.
‘I, I can’t take my hands off!’
She had connected her Flame qi to Hu Bong’s internal energy core.
However, she was now unable to break the connection.
“Eiik!”
Ran-yeong, who began feeling nervous, raised her energy and tried to cut off the connection.
However, as she tried to do that, the ugly energy resting in Hu Bong’s core began absorbing it as if it had been starving for a long time.
‘This! My flame qi is running out!’
Ran-yeong couldn’t hide her embarrassment.
At first, she’d noticed her energy being absorbed, she’d then tried to release even more energy in order to stop the connection, and now her flame qi was running out.
This was something she had never experienced. In her attempt to solve the problem, she had eventually begun to emit flames from all over her body.
Wheeng!
She wanted Hu Bong’s core to feel overwhelmed by her energy.
But instead of feeling threatened or overwhelmed, something absurd happened.
“Fl-flames!’
Wheeng!
The flames had started to move from her body towards Hu Bong, and slowly covered his body.
Flustered, she decided to resort to a rough method.
“Ehhhh!”
Puhk!
Ran-yeong placed her legs on Hu Bong;s back, and pushed him with all her might to free her hands from his back.
The two hands which had been attached to Hu bong’s back became unstuck.
However, Hu Bong had already absorbed half of her Flame qi.
Wheeeng!
“Wh-what am I supposed to do?”
She removed her hands before her flames spread all over his body, but by the time she pushed him away, he was already wrapped in flames.
Despite the absence of red scales on his body, Hu Bong’s body shockingly didn’t burn, rather, it resonated with the flames.
The flames had begun to burn away the clothes that Hu Bong was wearing.
‘What on earth is this?’
She was slowly beginning to grow afraid as unexpected situations kept on unfolding
It looked like she would have to ask Chun Yeowun for help to make sure that the Flame qi spreading throughout Hu Bong didn’t go berserk.
She didn’t know if Hu Bong would be able to handle such strong energy.
Ran-yeong turned her head and tried to call for Chun Yeowun.
“Ugh! Lord!”
She couldn’t find him in front of the pond.
Her eyes shook as she looked around only to realize that Chun Yeowun had disappeared.
‘!?’
She saw a huge black energy resonating from the middle of the pond where the huge flames were supposed to be burning.
“Lo-Lord!!!”
Instinctively, she had realized that it was none other than Chun Yeowun.
‘How!’
The Qilin’s core had been placed in the middle of the pond, where huge flames kept on burning, and hadn’t been extinguished for nearly two hundred years.
And now everything seemed to have suddenly disappeared.
“No way!”
In astonishment, she ran towards the middle of the pond where the flames had now ceased to exist.