Chapter v12c4

“Die!”

A fierce roar accompanied by a surge of scorching heat!

Fwoosh!

A wave of intense heat washed over Yong Cheon Myeong’s face as he diligently cut down the charging vipers. Yeomdo was on the other side, engrossed in the task of turning snakes into a collective barbecue, swinging Hong Yeom recklessly. With each swing of his powerful hand, a wave of saber energy, like a wave of fire, surged and swept the surroundings. It felt like anything caught in that heat would be reduced to black ashes.

“By the way…”

“What?”

Binggeom, who had been silently watching Yeomdo’s barbecue skills, replied nonchalantly.

“Where’s your master?”

Yeomdo asked while cremating dozens of snakes. Binggeom frowned slightly and said,

“There’s a problem with your wording!”

“What is it?”

“It sounds like he’s only ‘my’ master and not ‘your’ master!”

Yeomdo’s cheek, along with his thick red beard, twitched at Binggeom’s seemingly displeased retort. He was getting annoyed.

“Don’t be so nitpicky, junior! It’s not a good habit! Especially towards your ‘seniors’!”

Yeomdo emphasized the word “junior” pointedly. This time, Binggeom’s blue-white eyebrows twitched. An icy, frigid gaze pierced Yeomdo.

“He’s probably somewhere, carefree as always. Wouldn’t you know better, having served him as a ‘disciple’ for ‘much’ ‘longer’ than me?”

Binggeom retorted in a chilling voice, radiating coldness. Fierce sparks flew between the two. Now, Bi Ryu-yeon’s whereabouts didn’t matter to them anymore. It was no longer on their minds.

Bi Ryu-yeon, unlike what his older disciples thought, wasn’t just playing around. He was quite busy compared to usual. For one, he had to deal with a man who seemed determined to tear him apart, charging at him relentlessly.

“Die!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Thick, black iron chains whipped through the air, cutting through the wind fiercely. Xue Suo, the leader of the 10th squad of the Twelve Blood Demon Squad, swung two iron chains in succession with a crazed intensity, his eyes bloodshot. However, Bi Ryu-yeon, like a mirage made of formless mist, wouldn’t allow even a graze.

Never before had his trained martial arts, which allowed him to control eight iron chains simultaneously, felt so powerless. The more his chains missed, the more fear settled in his heart like sediment. His teeth clenched, his thighs trembled. But there was nowhere left to retreat.

‘I must block him!’

If he let this guy go, the entire Iron Chain Soul Sealing Formation could be at risk of collapse. He steeled his resolve, raising his killing intent to its peak, and lifted the thick, sturdy black iron chains that seemed impossible to break with any sharpness. As befitting his title of Xue Suo (Blood Chain), his weapon was also a black, ink-colored iron chain.

The collapse of the formation, that much he had to prevent at all costs.

“Hah!”

As he roared in anger, swinging both arms like windmills, two iron chains flew towards Bi Ryu-yeon, writhing like enraged dragons. It was the Angry Dragon Pulverization, a secret technique of his unique martial art, the Blood Calamity Chain Technique.

The black iron chains, rushing towards Bi Ryu-yeon with a fierce whooshing sound, seemed ready to turn him into a bloody mess. However, as Bi Ryu-yeon’s body shifted slightly, the two Angry Dragons only tore through his afterimage.

“Gasp!”

Xue Suo’s eyes widened.

‘W-Where is he? Where?’

Bi Ryu-yeon was floating in the air. In his hand, he held a flying wheel, which he had snatched at some point unnoticed. Unlike the black wheel, its white teeth gleamed sharply in the sunlight.

Wham!

Bi Ryu-yeon’s right foot kicked the flying wheel mercilessly in mid-air.

Whizz!

The flying wheel, propelled with a force incomparable to a shot arrow, tore through the air with terrifying speed.

Thud!

An iron chain, stained red with blood, fell to the ground.

Whoosh!

Twelve rings of light shot out from Bi Ryu-yeon’s body with a fearsome momentum. He had thrown them using a combination of the Flying Ring technique and the secret skills of the Flying Thunder Saber. Their effect and power were tremendous. Even if Jin Jo-un, the master of the Iron Bullet Ring, were to come back to life and throw them, it would be difficult to achieve such power.

They moved nimbly and swiftly like agile snakes with their own intelligence. Along the trajectory of the flashing lights that tore through the thicket, screams followed endlessly, accompanied by red blood.

This strike marked the beginning of the collapse of the Twelve Blood Demon Squad’s ambush.

**Na Yerin in Peril!**

“H-How can this be!”

Mo Sa-ryeong couldn’t believe his wide, blue eyes.

He was past the age of needing reading glasses, but thanks to his accumulated internal energy, his vision had been fine. But what was that down there?

As his gaze turned downwards, a small, circular clearing came into view. Perhaps about half a zhang in radius? The problem was that his beloved snakes wouldn’t dare approach the circle.

And in the center of it stood a woman of unparalleled beauty, someone who seemed out of this world.

‘Could it be that these snakes are judging by appearances?’

Given her beauty, it was a possibility he couldn’t rule out.

‘Indeed, it’s a beauty that could captivate not just humans but all living creatures… Sigh, if only I were fifty years younger…’

For a moment, the Flying Snake Demon Lord forgot his age and let his mind wander in an inappropriate direction. But it was something he couldn’t comprehend with his common sense. It was the first time he had seen such a thing in his over hundred years of life.

‘What’s going on?’

While everyone else was busy fending off the greedy, hungry vipers rushing towards them, Na Yerin couldn’t believe how leisurely she was. It was baffling. Even now, the area within a half-zhang radius around her was completely empty, as if surrounded by an invisible wall. Even these vipers, thoroughly trained to bring death and fear, hesitated to approach her. Screams from the viper attacks were echoing everywhere, but not once had they bared their fangs at Na Yerin. Instead, they seemed to be trying to avoid her.

‘They’re afraid!’

The vipers were definitely afraid of her.

‘Why?’

Suddenly, a memory flashed through her mind like lightning.

‘Here you go!’

Na Yerin’s gaze turned to her waist.

‘It’s a talisman!’

In her memory, Bi Ryu-yeon smiled innocently and extended his hand. In it, he held a strange ornament shaped like a black crescent moon. It also resembled a small buffalo horn, with delicate silverwork at the tip and glossy black silk threads and silver threads hanging from it.

‘This makes a pair with the one I have. It will protect you someday!’

He smiled, pointing to the identical ornament hanging from his waist.

‘… I see!’

The gift Bi Ryu-yeon had given her, calling it a talisman. It was made from one of the two fangs of the Ink Scale Blood Python, crafted with silver. At the time, she had no particular reason to refuse, so she had accepted it. And since then, it had always been hanging from Na Yerin’s slender waist.

After capturing the Ink Scale Blood Python, Bi Ryu-yeon had kept it in a secret location, and after everything was over, he had completely dismantled it and sold its parts for a high price.

When a rumor, secretly spread by someone, that the Ink Scale Blood Python’s flesh was effective in increasing internal energy circulated within the academy, the Cheonmu Academy disciples, whose desire to become stronger was more intense than anyone else’s, especially those with deep pockets, became his eager customers.

The Ink Scale Skin, the python’s hide, which couldn’t be scratched even by ordinary swords, was also sold at a high price. It was light, strong, and durable, making it an almost unrivaled material for crafting armor. The Ink Scale Blood Python’s hide was worth a fortune. He had to seek out the Thousand Hand Craftsman, the most skilled artisan in the Cheonmu Academy, to find someone who could process the Ink Scale Skin. No one else could handle this material, which was tougher and more durable than steel. After some kind of deal, the craftsman readily agreed to process a large quantity of Ink Scale Skin. It was said that after that, the Thousand Hand Craftsman spent several days and nights holed up in his workshop, engrossed in researching and processing the rare materials that had come his way, forgetting even to eat or sleep.

‘It must be!’

The scent emanating from this black fang (though undetectable by human olfaction) was definitely instilling fear in the vipers.

‘Ryu-yeon…’

His always smiling face, unafraid of anything, appeared before her eyes. A faint smile formed on her lips without her realizing it. Fear and tension had vanished like dust.

However, Na Yerin was still unaware of the growing significance he held in her heart.

“I keep burning them, but there’s no end! Does that old monster have a magic pouch that produces snakes endlessly?”

Yeomdo grumbled as he diligently cremated snakes after the sizzling barbecue feast.

“That’s impossible, isn’t it? Stop with the nonsense at a time like this! There’s still plenty of danger left. According to rumors, the Flying Snake Formation is far more terrifying than this!”

“Tsk, you’re worse than a nagging mother-in-law!”

Snap!

Veins bulged on Binggeom’s forehead. However, he desperately controlled his temper and managed to speak. He wanted to smack Yeomdo on the back of his head, but as the more mature one, he decided to endure.

“… If the one controlling this formation is truly the Flying Snake Demon Lord Mo Sa-ryeong, we need to be especially careful of his Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes!”

“Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes? Tsk, just some snakes…”

Binggeom roared at Yeomdo’s indifferent reaction, as if he found it trivial.

“Don’t underestimate them just because they’re snakes! They’re no longer mere snakes. Of course, it wouldn’t matter to me if you carelessly died, though.”

This man never listened to advice. Moreover, his reckless and bullheaded spirit was unmatched. It was truly infuriating.

Snap!

This time, veins bulged on Yeomdo’s copper-colored forehead.

“They’re already mythical creatures, incomparable to these ordinary venomous snakes. One of them is worth tens of thousands of these vipers. Moreover, although it’s not confirmed, they’re said to have some kind of special ability. There’s an old record that says, ‘Do not meet the gaze of the Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes. Disaster will follow upon meeting their eyes.’ Underestimating them will send you straight to the underworld. Of course, I’ll emphasize once again that I wouldn’t care at all!”

Although every word he said was unpleasant, Yeomdo was startled by the tension he felt in Binggeom’s gaze. It was the look he had when facing a formidable enemy. There weren’t many opponents who could make that annoying ice block so tense.

Caution began to rise in his heart as well.