Lee Seong-jun's chest throbbed with violent energy, his danjeon overflowing with internal force.
BOOM! BOOM!
The Blood Spirit Sura Art surged to its limits, igniting his body in crimson heat. He stretched out both hands, seizing the blood energy drifting in the air.
'Blood Flowers Open the Sky.'
Blood lit up the heavens, scattering like petals across the battlefield. A red glow painted the skies, a vision as beautiful as it was deadly.
The petals descended.
HWA-AAAAK!
The monsters shrieked, powerless to resist. Though vast in number, they were weak—mere B-rank or lower. Against the falling crimson wall, they could do nothing.
KWAKWAKWANG—!
The ground erupted. The field burned red. Thousands of beasts were torn apart, bodies exploding into gore and ash.
When the dust cleared, Seong-jun's sight sharpened.
'There.'
A kilometer ahead, he spotted it—the source of the wave. A red crack pulsing with sinister energy, surrounded by chanting sorcerers. Monsters poured endlessly from that wound in space.
Seong-jun exhaled slowly. The wide-area technique had drained him dry. His danjeon was nearly empty. But his eyes burned with certainty.
'Then I'll fill it again.'
Blood seeped from the corpses littering the plain, twisting into crimson streams. The aura surged into his body, restoring his energy.
'Soul-Blood Vessel Technique…'
It was a forbidden art of the Blood Demon Sect, stealing the life and essence of the dead. Dangerous if used carelessly—yet in a battlefield piled with corpses, it was the most efficient technique of all.
His power returned in a rush.
The sorcerers, realizing the danger, howled incantations and stabbed their arms with daggers.
KWAJIK—!
Dark sigils blazed across the ground. Seong-jun's right arm blackened, flesh rotting away.
'A curse.'
Once, this would have been troublesome. Now? It was nothing.
'Purification of the Stars.'
Golden light wrapped his body, erasing the curse in an instant. His arm healed as though it had never been touched.
The sorcerers froze, eyes wide. In panic, they carved frantically at the ground, trying to weave a new spell.
Seong-jun's body blurred. Wind wrapped around his legs.
FWOOOSH—!
In a heartbeat, he appeared before them. His fingers snapped.
'Heavenly Blood Swamp—Crimson Bullets.'
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Red spheres burst forth, each one detonating a skull. The sorcerers dropped like puppets with their strings cut, lifeless.
The crimson rift flickered… then vanished. The flow of monsters ceased.
Seong-jun stood alone amidst silence and ruin. Victory had turned. What remained was no longer a battle—only a massacre.
Elsewhere—
At the top floor of Nuri Guild headquarters, Guildmaster Yoon Min-soo sat before a TV, watching the broadcast of Seong-jun's conquest. His brows furrowed.
"…More than I expected."
An hour had passed since Seong-jun entered the Treasure Gate. Ordinary hunters lasted no more than thirty minutes before dying. Yet Seong-jun endured, standing against the wave.
Min-soo remembered his disciple Song Seung-jun's words from days ago—the awe, the reverence when speaking of Lee Seong-jun. Words he had only ever used once before… for Min-soo himself.
'So… his talent is at least my equal. Perhaps even greater.'
Yet Min-soo's thoughts darkened.
'But the wave is only the beginning. The real trial is the boss.'
He recalled the data Nuri Guild had gathered:
Giant-class bosses, towering a hundred meters, their steps alone crushing armies.
Spirit-type bosses, intangible, only vulnerable to specific attributes, their strength equal to S-rank monsters.
And worst of all, the Doppelganger-type bosses—three clones, each with the exact abilities of the challenger.
'If a doppelganger appears… Lee Seong-jun has no chance. Alone, he cannot defeat three of himself.'
Despite his words of regret, Min-soo's eyes gleamed with ambition.
'If he fails, Nuri Guild will be next in line. With the directors under my thumb, no one will oppose us. This will be our chance to dominate the world stage.'
As the news camera showed Seong-jun's crimson figure standing amidst a sea of corpses, Yoon Min-soo leaned forward, hunger burning in his gaze.
'Die, Lee Seong-jun. Only then will Nuri ascend.'
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