Chapter 38. The Last Lesson
Cho Ryu Hyang dreamed. In the dream, he had become a small butterfly.
‘What’s this?’
It was a strange dream. He remembered becoming unconscious after touching the purple orb, but to think that it would make him have such a strange dream…… While Cho Ryu Hyang was complaining quietly in his mind, what he was seeing in front of him changed drastically.
He was a small butterfly with white wings. Cho Ryu Hyang flapped his wings, and looked around. This was a place filled with a lot of people. And he could see some familiar faces in their midst.
‘Teacher!’
Gongson Chun Gi. The Pope of the Heavenly Demon Church came in his sight first. Even in a crowd of people like this, it was impossible to hide the man’s presence.
Cho Ryu Hyang. He flapped his white wings in joy and tried to approach his teacher, then stopped midway.
‘Teacher…….’
His teacher was furious.
‘Hey……. old man.’
Gongson Chun Gi slowly turned his head, and looked at Baek Mu Ryang.
“Was this what you really wanted?”
One clash. Just one clash between the two sides already caused tens of people to die. The blood of the young martial artists ran down the battlefield.
The whole place was filled with the sounds of their screams and ceaseless fighting. They were in a situation that Gongson Chun Gi desperately wanted to avoid.
surawang_38
“Answer me!”
Baek Mu Ryang’s serious face didn’t change one bit. He prepared himself for the final attack, and opened his mouth.
“Sacrifice is inevitable in order to get rid of evil. And the people here were already prepared to die from the start.”
“What? Evil?”
“The Heavenly Demon Church is like a poisonous snake. We are prepared to sacrifice anything in order to get rid of you people from the world.”
Gongson Chun Gi smiled. The two sides of his lips twisted upwards to form a smile. But his eyes were not smiling at all.
“Did you just call us a poisonous snake?”
“Yes. The Heavenly Demon Church is something that must be erased for the good of the world. Don’t you know that?”
Gongson Chun Gi smiled. That guy truly believed that the church was something evil. It was nonsensical. That man’s logic made no sense at all, which made this all too funny.
“Ku, kuku, kuhahaha!”
Gongson Chun Gi laughed. He looked up towards the sky, and laughed. After a while, he abruptly stopped laughing, and opened his mouth.
“To think that there was a person as stubborn as my teacher. It’s funny.”
Gongson Chun Gi’s body began to release a completely different aura than before. It was a blood-red aura, a very dense and violent one, at that.
“I don’t have time, so I’ll show you my real power. You should be honored to see this.”
Gongson Chun Gi fondled his black bracelet on his right arm as he spoke. He slowly took off the bracelet, and talked.
“I wouldn’t have time to restrain myself after this……. So if I were you, I’d run right now.”
“That’s quite insulting.”
“It’s an advice, you idiot.”
Psha–
Baek Mu Ryang jumped backwards, as he got assaulted by his enemy’s violent aura. He gripped his swords tightly, and looked forward. What he saw, surprised him greatly.
‘T, this…….’
It made Baek Mu Ryang feel unnerved. Gongson Chun Gi’s gray hairs slowly began to turn black again. That wasn’t all. Gongson Son Chun Gi’s body, which was full of wrinkles, began to expand, making him look young and powerful again.
Crack, snap–
The muscles rapidly reconstructed itself. Bones were being put in place again. Gongson Chun Gi was changing at a frightening pace.
‘This isn’t possible!’
Wasn’t this the legendary Rejuvenation effect (返老還童)?
“Hehe…….”
Gongson Chun Gi, ignoring his opponent right beside him, exhaled, then grinned.
“This doesn’t feel so bad.”
He hadn’t felt this way in a long time. Just how much did he suffer from suppressing his power in all the time? When he let his power out like this, it felt heavenly. Within moments, his body was bursting with immeasurable power.
“You said we were evil, right? Fine. I’ll show you what a real demon is like.”
“……..”
Baek Mu Ryang grit his teeth. Come to think of it, he heard of something a long time ago. The reason why the Heavenly Demon Church did not fall, even with everyone on the continent persecuting them. A power unrelated to neither religion nor devotion. The power that stood above everything else.
‘Shura Environment!’
It was a martial art that only the Pope could learn. Everything happening to the Pope right now had to do with that.
“First, a single blow.”
Gongson Chun Gi grinned. He then made a relaxed fist with his hand, and lightly punched towards Baek Mu Ryang. A very relaxed movement. The end result, however, wasn’t light at all.
Bang–!
A highly pressurized blast of air came at Baek Mu Ryang.
‘Shit!’
Baek Mu Ryang swung his sword towards the blast coming towards him. A white cloud of energy came from the sword, and formed a wall in front of Baek Mu Ryang. It was the strongest technique of the Alliance, the Absolute Dao Sword Technique. He used that. The blast and the white sword energy met each other head-on.
Kukukuakuang–!
There was a blast! An explosion as the earth torn apart. Something that flew away like a rag doll. Surprisingly, the one that was blasted away was Baek Mu Ryang.
“……..He’s unlucky.”
Gongson Chun Gi glanced at Baek Mu Ryang, who had thrown up blood and fainted, then looked back at the battlefield. Everyone was still fighting.
“Damn it.”
Seeing blood made his body go crazy. An immense, uncontrollable power. It was currently making his whole body crave blood. It felt like he was about to go crazy.
‘You think I’d lose?’
Pshh–
The bloody aura around Gongson Chun Gi began to get lighter. He was desperately keeping his power at bay. Otherwise, if he lost control here, things would get extremely bad.
‘I am Gongson Chun Gi.’
Gongson Chun Gi spoke his name in his mind, tightly formed a fist in his hand, and walked forward. One step at a time. He began to walk upwards in midair.
“E, Empty Steps (虛空踏步)!”
Some of the martial artists down below shouted in surprise. Gongson Chun Gi walked over the countless martial artists using this technique, and arrived at the middle of the battlefield, in the sky. When he looked down, he was able to see numerous corpses.
Dokun–
Gongson Chun Gi grit his teeth and smiled. He could smell the fragrant blood from everywhere. When he felt that he was slowly being driven insane from this, he hurried himself.
“Baek Mu Ryang lost. He’s over there, laying on the ground like a corpse. If you don’t want to die, leave.”
He wanted to end this quietly, and peacefully, while he was still sane. But it seemed things just don’t go the way you want it to sometimes.
“Why should we listen to a demon like you?!”
“Yeah!”
Some idiots of the Alliance began to speak up. They weren’t backing down, even when afraid.
‘Idiots……’
When Gongson Chun Gi frowned, he could hear someone whispering something from afar.
“Isn’t the Moon Edge Blade Technique over there? That must be why these people from the Demon Church are trying so hard to not let us pass.”
That was the final blow. After all, even mentioning “Moon Edge Blade Technique” held significant power. Everyone who were afraid of the Pope’s aura became active again.
“They really are idiots.”
He couldn’t do anything anymore. He had to use the most effective method, now. Fear. Gongson Chun Gi was about to plant the fear of the church into the hearts of the people here.
“I warned you, you dumbasses.”
He calmed his breath. He was really about to lose it because of all the blood. No, he was about to feel really good because of all the blood.
‘Damn it! I have to do this as fast as possible.’
There was no time. Gongson Chun Gi stopped breathing, and lifted his right hand up into the sky. Then, a round sphere was formed above the hand.
A sphere that resembled a drop of blood. While the martial artists down below were growing cautious, Gongson Chun Gi put down his hand. When he did so, a rain of blood began to fall to the ground.
‘Shura Environment, the third chapter.’
The Demon Blood Rain (瀑魔血雨). A red rain of destruction began to rain down to the ground. That was the last thing Cho Ryu Hyang saw.
Paa–!
“Eh…….?”
“Are you awake?”
“…….Yes.”
“That’s good. You didn’t wake up too late.”
What was that supposed to mean? Cho Ryu Hyang blinked a few times, and made a confused expression. Then, he began to feel a little hazy.
Come to think of it, his body was really hot right now. Cho Ryu Hyang breathed rapidly with a red face.
‘But what was that thing from before?’
What was it? A simple dream? But didn’t that just now seem too realistic to be false?
‘I’ll have to ask teacher Gongson Chun Gi later.’
Cho Ryu Hyang thought this, even when his brain was getting a little hazy from all the heat.
“Can you stand?”
“Yes.”
“Then I’m sorry to say this, but can you stand right now? I have something to show you.”
Cho Ryu Hyang thought that it was strange that he was hearing teacher’s voice from somewhere afar. When he managed to stand up, his body stiffened on the spot.
“T, teacher. This…….”
Jo Gi Chun. He was currently wrapped up in silver vines, and was hanging in midair with only his face exposed.
“What…….”
What happened? Why was teacher exhibiting a phenomenon that only happened to formations?
“We are inside a formation I made.”
Jo Gi Chun paused a bit, and spoke with his calm voice again.
“And I became the formation’s nucleus.”
The nucleus? Cho Ryu Hyang could understand everything then. At the same time, he became enraged.
“Why…….why did you do this?”
Normally, a formation’s nucleus was something that had an immense amount of power condensed inside, so it was the most sensitive, and the most dangerous part of the whole formation. That’s why most formations experts used a gem that could take in a lot of energy, and control the whole formation using it.
But how about using a human to replace the role of the gem? That was a dangerous concept to behold. Even a slight miscalculation would lead to the body exploding from all the energy.
Something that must never be tried, even with multiple lives. Even if the person survived, there would be a big problem. The human body wouldn’t be able to contain the power of the formation for long.
“It was inevitable.”
There was no time to make a formation using a gem. The situation was dire. Jo Gi Chun looked at his angry disciple with calmness, and opened his mouth.
“There’s not much time left. This place is no longer safe.”
Cho Ryu Hyang could feel his head rapidly cool when he heard his teacher’s words. Come to think of it, his teacher was someone that knew even more about formations than he.
But that teacher made a formation like this, even while knowing the consequences? Surely there must’ve been a reason for this. He shouldn’t get angered like this just like that.
“What do you mean?”
“The enemies are coming. I’m not confident that I can resist.”
Cho Ryu Hyang turned pale. Enemies? Resisting? What was that all about?
“They are almost here.”
Krrrr–
The earth began to shift. At the same time, Jo Gi Chun’s face twisted from pain.
“Watch. This is the last thing I will teach you.”
Kraaam–!
With a giant explosion, the wall fell. And the people of the Alliance, each of them with demonic faces, attacked.