Zhengxie Sect - 3
The Emei masters and Crimson Sunset Sword Hwa Yeong bin advanced slowly in their curved line toward Sa Won-yang.
As his faint smile disappeared, Sa Won-yang conjured spheres of blazing energy in his hands and fired them like lightning.
Shoo-whaak!
"Watch out!"
"It's the energy spheres!"
They still carried terrifying speed and power.
But this time, they didn't reap the same effect.
Those who remained were all seasoned masters with over seventy years of cultivation, and they had been braced for it, tense and ready.
They twisted away, narrowly dodging the projectiles.
Seeing his strikes slice only through empty air, Sa Won-yang's face grew utterly expressionless.
Lady Gyeol-han sneered and shouted:
"Demon! Seems you've run out of tricks. You're finished!"
Her cry gave the Emei disciples a flicker of hope. For a moment, victory seemed within reach.
But not for Hwa Yeong bin.
He swallowed tensely.
He had heard well what it meant when the Smiling Demon Lord's grin vanished.
Expressionless, Sa Won-yang spoke slowly:
"Filthy worms… I meant to end this easily, yet you've chosen to annoy me. Especially you… you will not die easily."
Then he stepped forward.
"Here he comes!" Hwa Yeong bin cried.
At once, Sa Won-yang's figure blurred, shooting toward the Emei formation at unbelievable speed.
Hwaak!
But the survivors were not helpless.
Those in his path fell back defensively, while on either side, Lady Gyeol-han and Hwa Yeong bin closed in with ferocious strikes.
Her Peerless Sword Art that seemed to tear through space, and his Crimson Sunset Sword that painted the air in a blood-red glow—both were threatening indeed.
It looked as though Sa Won-yang were about to be surrounded.
He only snorted.
"Hmph."
Spinning like a top, he whipped his clawed hands outward.
Viiing!
Tududung!
The claw-formed energy ripped outward, batting aside both their sword strikes.
Then he surged forward again.
Puhhaak!
"Arghhh!"
"Master!"
The Emei disciples directly in front of him were torn apart in seconds.
And he did not stop there.
Even after they were dead, he laughed madly, shredding their bodies into pieces.
"Kuhahahaha!"
Shaaak! Shaaak! Puhhwaak!
Blood and flesh sprayed in all directions.
"Ugh!"
"Th-that monster…!"
Horrified, the survivors huddled together, too shaken to even strike back, forced only to watch.
Sa Won-yang, drenched in gore, lifted his head and grinned again.
"So… do you still think I'm finished?"
Neither Hwa Yeong bin nor the Emei disciples could reply.
The sheer dominance crushed all hope.
***
Inside the main hall, Seonu Jin and Bi Sa-yeong scoured the building at full speed.
There were guards, yes—but only weaklings, easily dispatched.
The problem was, they still couldn't find the kidnapped women.
They had swept from the first floor up through the fourth, but to no avail.
Seonu cursed:
"Damn it, I was sure they'd be underground, but there's no entrance to a basement!"
Maybe he had been wrong.
Time was bleeding away, and every moment risked disaster for Hwa Yeong bin.
And if the man died, it would all be because of Seonu's miscalculation.
His chest tightened with anxiety.
Finally, he muttered:
"We'll have to fall back. Join up with Master Hwa and run—"
But Bi Sa-yeong grabbed his shoulder firmly.
"Calm yourself, Jin. I don't believe you were wrong. This has to be the place."
Her certainty warmed him for a moment.
Still, he sighed.
Her trust was precious, but it seemed to him he had, in fact, erred.
He forced a bitter smile and shook his head.
"Thank you… but this time, no. There's no basement here."
She glanced around.
"Maybe there is, just hidden. What if there's a secret passage?"
"…A secret passage?"
"Yes. One only Sa Won-yang himself would know."
At her words, new possibilities lit up in Seonu's mind.
'Only he would know? That makes sense. The main hall couldn't be off-limits to everyone else. If the basement really exists, they wouldn't have put the entrance on the first floor where non-Cultists could stumble on it.'
Images of the building he had memorized earlier flashed vividly through his mind—his prodigious memory at work.
'If anywhere, it would be near his chambers.'
Floor by floor—fourth, third, second, first—he reconstructed the entire interior in three-dimensional clarity.
In less than three breaths, he saw it.
He turned sharply.
"Come with me!"
Bi Sa-yeong grinned and followed.
"You found it. I knew it!"
Seonu led her to a massive square column at the center of the building.
He rapped it with his knuckles.
"This pillar is right next to Sa Won-yang's quarters on the fourth floor. And listen—"
Tok, tok, tok!
A smile spread across his face.
"Hollow."
He slashed with his sword, carving four lines across the pillar.
The square section fell away, revealing a dark passage.
A ladder descended into the depths.
"We found it!"
***
Back outside, the battle with Sa Won-yang was going disastrously.
Only four remained alive.
Two had died just minutes ago, and then two more fell soon after.
Now Sa Won-yang tossed the head of his latest victim into the air, catching it again as he chuckled.
"Only four of you left. Such a pity this delightful game must end. Still—"
He clenched the head until it burst.
Puhsuk!
Brains and blood splattered everywhere. His ghastly grin was that of a demon risen from hell.
Two of the surviving Emei disciples trembled visibly.
Lady Gyeol-han fared little better—her sword hand quivered, her eyes shook. The will to fight was gone.
Hwa Yeong bin glanced at them, recalling Seonu's words:
'When defeat becomes certain, you must escape.'
Perhaps this was that time.
The logic was clear.
Lady Gyeol-han was a cancer to Emei—her death would benefit the sect.
The others were merely her followers.
There was no shame in abandoning them.
But Hwa Yeong bin only smiled bitterly.
'I can't.'
Not because of them.
But because of himself.
For over ten years, he had not truly lived.
Since losing half his soul—the woman he loved—he had existed only as a husk.
His one reason left was vengeance.
To face the Blood Cult's demons who had killed her.
To flee from that now?
To cower in fear of death?
That was something Hwa Yeong bin could never do.
To fight the Blood Cult was the last act left to give meaning to his broken life.
And if he could not even do that, then why go on breathing at all?
Nor was he afraid of death.
For over ten years, he had not felt truly alive—why should he now fear dying?
Hwa Yeong bin raised his sword once more, his battle spirit surging.
His eyes burned red with the resolve of one who had already chosen death.
Today, I will die here. And then… I will go to her!
Just as his fighting will blazed, something wholly unexpected happened.
"Eiiit!"
Pahpahk!
Lady Gyeol-han suddenly leapt backward, fleeing.
The Emei disciples gasped in shock.
"Grandmaster?!"
"Elder Sister?!"
They could hardly believe their eyes.
Their sect leader was abandoning them—flying into the dark night to escape.
Even Hwa Yeong bin, whose heart had been steeled for death, was stunned into blank disbelief.
But one man had expected this all along:
The Smiling Demon Lord, Sa Won-yang.
He burst into roaring laughter.
"Kuahahahahaha! Just as I foresaw!"
Lady Gyeol-han could think of nothing else.
Sa Won-yang's horrific power had shattered her will—she could endure no more.
Even if returning meant imprisonment in Emei's dungeon, it didn't matter.
She simply could not die here.
This felt like her final chance to flee.
The weak Emei disciples would perish for certain, but that foolish Hwa Yeong bin would buy her at least a little time.
Her heart pounded as she pushed her lightness skill to its limit, exhilarated by the distance growing between her and that monster.
The realization that she alone would survive made her laugh aloud.
"Uhehehehehe!"
Then—
A shiver crawled down her spine. She glanced back.
A blazing sphere of energy streaked toward her, crackling with deadly light.
"!"
Startled, she flipped in midair, narrowly dodging it.
Whoosh!
She saw the sphere pass just beneath her, and relief returned to her face.
I dodged it! Now I'll—
Boom!
The energy sphere exploded.
"Kyahhh!"
The blast caught her full on, sending her tumbling helplessly.
Her vision went white, her ears rang with a piercing whine.
When she regained awareness, she was rolling across the ground, dazed.
Her cultivation—near the peak of ninety years—kept her from fainting outright, but her body would not obey her.
She forced herself to think of escape.
I must… I must run!
She struggled to her feet—
—and froze at the sight of Sa Won-yang smiling down at her.
She screamed in terror.
"Ahhhh!"
Puhwaak!
Her scream blended with another—the cry of agony as Sa Won-yang ripped both her shoulders off.
"Gyaaaahhh!"
Her shriek of fear became a shriek of pain. In the next instant, he tore away her legs as well.
Jwaaaak!
"Ahhh! Aaaahh! Aaaaaaahhh!"
Lady Gyeol-han's eyes rolled back, her voice rising in endless screams.
Sa Won-yang watched, enraptured.
"Delightful. Truly delightful. Nothing thrills me like the wails of a hypocrite orthodox bitch stripped to her core. Be grateful—I'll not kill you yet, just to hear more of that sound."
A mutilated woman shrieking in madness, and before her a gore-drenched old man grinning with joy—
It was a vision from hell.
Two surviving Emei disciples, trembling uncontrollably, broke into a desperate run.
"Ahhh!"
"Save us!"
But if even Lady Gyeol-han, at the edge of Transcendence, had failed to escape, how could they?
Sa Won-yang clicked his tongue, casually loosing more spheres of energy.
"Tch. And where do you think you're going?"
Shoo-whaak!
The projectiles streaked like lightning.
The fleeing women never even saw them coming.
Sa Won-yang had no doubt they would strike true—
—but between them, a figure appeared.
"Haaap!"
Hwa Yeong bin soared into the air, his blade cutting across both spheres.
Crimson sword-light split the night, spreading like a sunset across the sky.
Pupung!
"Khhhk!"
He was hurled backward, spinning through the air. Only after several rotations did he manage to land.
The rebound force was monstrous.
But when he lifted his head, he grinned savagely—Sa Won-yang's smile had dimmed.
He had deflected the spheres.
The two Emei disciples had already fled far into the distance.
Hwa Yeong bin's eyes blazed.
"I will not let anything… go your way."
Sa Won-yang's expression stilled, then curved once more into a bright grin.
"You've been wearing such dull looks until now. Perhaps making you scream like her will be my true entertainment."
He flicked a finger, sealing Lady Gyeol-han's meridians with a burst of internal energy.
He meant it when he said he'd keep her alive.
Then he hurled himself at Hwa Yeong bin, shouting:
"Let's see how long you last!"
His small frame shot forward like a venomous lynx, speed terrifying.
Teeth clenched, Hwa Yeong bin raised his blade.
He unfurled Crimson Sunset Sword's defensive form: Veil of Red Clouds.
A curtain of crimson sword-light spread before him like a twilight haze.
Sa Won-yang only laughed.
"A sword barrier! Better than that Emei wench, at least! Kyahahaha!"
His palm, swollen red with condensed energy like a giant's hand, smashed down.
Puhhh-uhhng!
"Khhhk!"
Hwa Yeong bin was flung backward violently.
Sa Won-yang did not relent.
"Kuahahahaha!"
He pursued, claws lashing in a storm.
Pupupupung!
"Khhhk!"
The blows rained like a hurricane.
Hwa Yeong bin staggered, barely able to parry, his sword trembling as if alive, straining to fly from his grip.
Then—he saw Sa Won-yang draw back his arm, condensed energy swelling his hand into a colossal red claw.
Eyes widening, he braced—
Sa Won-yang swung.
"Wuahahahaha!"
Puhhh-uhhng! Crack!
"Gyaaaahhh!"
His sword shattered, shards flying. The impact sent him cannoning away like a broken doll.
Only his weapon had saved his body from being torn apart.
He crashed to the ground, rolling across the dirt.
Sa Won-yang threw back his head in wild laughter.
"Kuahahahahaha! Say it again, like before! Kuahahahaha!"
But staggering to his feet, Hwa Yeong bin smiled faintly and rasped:
"I will not… let anything go your way."
His sword destroyed, his body trembling from the crushing force—yet his eyes still blazed as fiercely as ever.
Sa Won-yang's grin slowly faded.
"I wonder… if you'll keep that look once I rip off your limbs and cut out your tongue."
He crouched, about to spring again—
When suddenly, a voice rang out.
"My lord Demon General! Urgent news!"
A man flew in, landing beside them.
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