Chapter v12c5

“Weather’s awfully fickle today, isn’t it?”

Hiss, hiss, hiss! Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

First, a downpour of arrows, followed by a hailstorm of vipers! To top it off, it was the perfect opportunity to experience the true meaning of “mountains upon mountains” of trouble. This kind of damned situation, worthy of cursing, was one he wouldn’t encounter twice in his life.

“This will never end at this rate!”

Cheong Heun shouted as he swung his sword fiercely. Although no snake or arrow had touched him yet, they couldn’t keep defending passively forever. It was almost certain that they would be the first to run out of energy.

The viper attacks continued relentlessly. Cheong Heun suddenly turned to look at Mo Yong Hwi, who was now beside him, swinging his sword with ferocity. They were standing very close to each other.

Their eyes met simultaneously.

Mo Yong Hwi nodded. Cheong Heun nodded in return. Was it telepathy? It was a moment when their thoughts aligned perfectly.

Three Emotions Taiji Sword Wisdom Secret Technique

From Primordial Unity, Ten Thousand Transformations Arise

Cheong Heun leaped into the air, swinging three swords that shone in blue, red, and yellow. The three-colored energies swirled above his head, forming a tri-colored Taiji sphere.

Silver River Creation Sword Ultimate Secret Technique

Galaxy Annihilation

Supporting him, Mo Yong Hwi charged upwards, his entire body enveloped in a dazzling silver sword energy, shining like the North Star at the center of the night sky. The silver sword pierced the center of the Taiji sphere created by Cheong Heun.

It was the moment when two peerless martial arts merged into one.

Boom! Crash!

A storm of meteors, filling the heavens and earth, erupted from the Taiji. Thousands of meteors pierced through everything in all directions. The meteor shower that spread across the sky tore apart the sky that had been polluted by vipers and arrows.

The sky, once again dyed red by the twilight, revealed itself through the torn space. Even the fiercest vipers and fastest arrows were nothing more than neatly sliced pieces before their combined sword energy.

The technique that they had been forced to master during their training at Mount Wudang by a certain someone was making its grand debut to the world.

“Excellent! That’s what Cheonmu Academy disciples are made of!”

Yeomdo shouted triumphantly.

“Everyone, chop them up mercilessly! Tonight’s dinner is snake skewers, snake skewers! Khahahaha!”

Crimson flames once again erupted from Yeomdo’s saber, sweeping the surroundings. Snakes caught in his Sword Flame Energy were instantly turned into skewers, littering the ground.

Not to be outdone, Binggeom swung his sword, and the snakes caught in the Sword Cold Energy emanating from Binglu (Ice Tears) were frozen solid, their green scales covered in white frost, preserving their freshness. It was a technique that would have been highly coveted by the Beggars’ Sect.

“T-These bastards… My precious babies…”

Mo Sa-ryeong’s tender (?) heart ached as he watched his beloved snakes, which he had painstakingly raised and bred, being slaughtered by the hands of vicious villains. It felt as if his own children were being murdered.

Moreover, Yeomdo’s taunts, “Where’s the Flying Snake Demon Soldier? Come out and play with me!”, continued relentlessly. Killing intent filled Mo Sa-ryeong’s sinister snake-like eyes. He decided to use any means necessary to avenge his babies and vent his anger.

“I had hoped I wouldn’t have to use these!”

He took out his Ten Thousand Snake Blood Staff. The Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes nested inside his staff, feeding and living there. They were mythical creatures he had raised for a hundred years. Many had underestimated this Ten Thousand Snake Blood Staff, mistaking it for an ordinary staff, only to suffer the consequences.

The Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes were a pair, male and female. The male had blue scales, and the female had red scales, both with small horns. That’s why they were called the Blue-Red Twin Horned Snakes.

These snakes were over thirty times faster, more agile, and more cunning than any other viper he had trained. Moreover, they possessed venom over fifty times stronger than that of ordinary vipers.

“Bow!”

As he extended his hand, a Blood Demon Squad member quickly presented him with a bow respectfully.

“Arrow!”

A blood-red arrow appeared in his right hand. He drew the string of the black bow and nocked the blood-red arrow. Two red ropes and a blue rope coiled around his arm, passing through the arrow shaft like vines, and finally settled at the tip of the arrowhead.

They had horns on their foreheads, as if they were dragons themselves. The tip of the fully drawn arrow pointed towards Na Yerin, who was standing in the center of the clearing.

Bi Ryu-yeon saw it. Ordinary people wouldn’t be able to see it, but Bi Ryu-yeon’s eyes, which were no longer ordinary, could clearly see through the wall of mist.

As the rain of arrows subsided, perhaps due to the thinning cloud layer, he saw a strange, writhing arrow on the bowstring held by an old, snake-like bastard, aimed at the battlefield below!

He could immediately tell that the tip of this ominous, writhing arrow was targeting a small, circular clearing at the bottom of the gorge, which looked like the entrance to hell. For some reason, the snakes couldn’t approach that clearing.

Bi Ryu-yeon didn’t know why it enraged the old snake so much. No, he wasn’t in a position to know the old man’s anger, identity, or anything else.

All Bi Ryu-yeon knew was that he was an exceptionally skilled master, incomparable to the others he had seen, and that the terrifying killing intent he exuded was directed at the center of the clearing below, where Na Yerin stood.

The moment he confirmed this, Bi Ryu-yeon’s eyes widened. He glared at Mo Sa-ryeong once more with wide eyes. However, he still lacked the ability to kill someone with just his gaze.

“Stop!”

A thunderous roar erupted, like the bellow of a thunder god. A massive wave of will crashed down on Mo Sa-ryeong’s entire body like a tsunami. The wave of will turned into countless blades, piercing his body. But Mo Sa-ryeong was also a seasoned master, a hundred-year-old serpent who had survived the Heavenly Tribulation.

His movements faltered for a moment in surprise, but he didn’t stop. He drew upon the dark, desiring will from within his heart and once again drew the bowstring, aiming the bow. There was a slight delay, but nothing had changed. An ordinary person would have collapsed, dropping the bow and clutching their legs at Bi Ryu-yeon’s roar, but the old monster was indeed cunning and tenacious.

Bi Ryu-yeon’s heart raced as he looked at the taut bowstring. He moved swiftly. But then something strange happened, something he couldn’t comprehend. Time around him seemed to slow down. Every movement felt heavy and cumbersome, as if he were walking through the immense pressure of the deep sea.

He could see clearly, as if within reach, what the old snake across the gorge was trying to do.

The withered hand, pulled back, was reaching its peak. His arm stopped drawing the bowstring. Then, very slowly, his right index and thumb released the string. The arrow left the bow.

At that moment, Bi Ryu-yeon was standing on an iron chain embedded in the ground below. Na Yerin seemed to be still busy deflecting the arrows flying towards her. It seemed the talisman could ward off vipers but not a rain of arrows.

Bi Ryu-yeon knew, with a bone-chilling certainty, that this red arrow was no ordinary arrow (though he didn’t know its history or hidden story, he could sense its power).

It was a dangerous object. Bi Ryu-yeon dashed downwards with all his might. The wind stopped, and time itself began to slow down.

Mo Sa-ryeong’s snake-like eyes, having released the arrow, were filled with glee, desire, and cruelty. He clearly had absolute confidence in his strike. The red arrow, having left the bowstring, tore through the air, getting closer and closer to Na Yerin. It was a fleeting moment, but to Bi Ryu-yeon, it seemed to be frozen in time, clearly visible. However, just as their movements seemed to be frozen in slow motion, his own movements felt frustratingly slow, as if his heart would burst with impatience.

His eyes blazed with a bright golden light, like the sun. It was a race against time between the arrow and the human. But this race was won by the red Blood Demon Arrow, which had a head start. When the Blood Demon Arrow reached Na Yerin’s immediate vicinity, Bi Ryu-yeon was still over ten zhang away. It was impossible to reach her in time. It was also unreasonable to expect her to notice and react.

‘Noooo!’

Bi Ryu-yeon’s mind let out a silent scream. He didn’t give up until the very end.

Just as the Blood Demon Arrow was about to pierce Na Yerin’s body, Bi Ryu-yeon extended his right hand with all his might, as if drawing out a thread of his soul.

Snap!

Suddenly, an arrow shot up into the air. A transparent silver thread, hanging from it like a long tail, glittered like jewel dust in the sunlight.

This is what had happened:

At the moment when a Blood Demon Arrow, shot by a senseless and reckless outlaw who must have wasted his years, was about to mercilessly destroy and defile the most beautiful embodiment of beauty in this world, a silver flash, like starlight, shot out from Bi Ryu-yeon’s right sleeve with a speed that resembled lightning. Even in this place where time flowed slowly, it was fast enough to defy the barriers of time.

The silver flash reached the Blood Demon Arrow in an instant, as if transcending time and space, and before even a blink of an eye could be registered, it wrapped around the tail feathers of that ill-intentioned violence and flung it into the air. An arrow that had lost its direction was no longer useful for killing.

However, something unexpected happened, something Bi Ryu-yeon hadn’t anticipated. Although the arrow with its evil purpose had lost its power, the two hideous creatures attached to its end hadn’t lost their strength or target. They were loyal servants, filled with the will to faithfully carry out their master’s desires.

From the sky where the arrow had soared, two streaks of blue and red light fell like shot arrows. Deadly white fangs, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper, gleamed from the gaping mouths of these sinister creatures, each carrying the venom of a thousand ordinary vipers.

Boom! Crash!

At that moment, a deafening roar tore through the air, and a cloud of dust rose around Na Yerin. The atmosphere seemed to swirl around her. The violently swirling dust momentarily obscured her vision. As she briefly closed and opened her eyes, she saw a reliable and sturdy back blocking her view. And in his hands, a blue and a red horned snake were each struggling to escape.

Only then did she realize that Bi Ryu-yeon had once again saved her life. She knew all too well how dangerous and terrifying these two snakes were.

“Ryu-yeon…”

Na Yerin called his name softly. Her voice, calling his name, wasn’t cold like winter, but gentle like spring. However, she was at a loss for words. She couldn’t easily find the words to follow.

“Are you alright?”

Bi Ryu-yeon turned around, smiled faintly, and asked. Na Yerin nodded slightly, smiling back. She felt a surge of trust towards him.

“I’m always being saved by you. I never thought I was weak enough to need someone’s help so often… You always appear and lend a helping hand when I’m in danger or distress.”

How many times had he saved her now? He always appeared without fail when she was in crisis. And he was always by her side. She thought, perhaps she could trust him with her life.

Bi Ryu-yeon smiled back at her, but not cheerfully enough to laugh.

‘… Did I push myself too hard?’

Bi Ryu-yeon could feel his muscles tingling and screaming like electric eels. His whole body was numb. He had definitely overexerted himself. His body had been pushed beyond its limits at some point.

‘What was that just now?’

Bi Ryu-yeon carefully recalled the events he had just experienced. It was a world that couldn’t be defined with words.

‘Did I break through another wall?’

A past memory surfaced vividly in his mind.

‘This world is made up of three dimensions: point, line, and plane. But if you add time to it, it becomes a four-dimensional world. The human body cannot escape three dimensions, but the human mind can break through that boundary and reach the four-dimensional world. Then the human mind can transcend time. Before that, if you catch up with time, everything around you will move slowly, and even you will move slowly. And the air will feel hot due to friction.’

‘Is this what Master was talking about?’

The heat still lingered on his face. However, he still couldn’t easily define what kind of world he had seen.