Chapter 113: Jaseung, Annihilates

Around the man in black robes, ten figures appeared. It was as if shadows were rising from the earth itself.

A dark aura shimmered around their bodies like a heat haze. They were not jiangshi or some other creatures. They were clearly living men.

Holding Baek Seolyoung in his arms, Lee Jaseung spoke.

“The path you’ll have to walk with me will always be like this.”

Baek Seolyoung gave a faint smile after hearing him.

“It seems that way indeed. Every time the two of us try to do something together, something always shows up.”

“Aren’t you afraid?”

“How could I not be? Black aura is seeping out of their human bodies as we speak.”

Yet despite her words, she slipped free from his arms.

“Even so, I have to endure it. I cannot rely on you for everything. I keep telling myself that. I am also a person from Jianghu.”

She drew her sword. A clean draw, filled with sharp intent.

“As long as a martial artist has a sword in hand, no matter the foe, fear is not an option, right?”

Lee Jaseung almost reached out to pat her head after seeing that. Of course, he restrained himself. No matter how cute and admirable she seemed saying such things, she was, undeniably, his wife.

She glanced between her blade and the men arrayed before them, then asked,

“Orthodox and UnOrthodox… how far apart do you think they actually are?”

Lee Jaseung replied.

“For some, it is like a small stream they can cross with a single leap. For others, it is the distance between two cliffs.”

“I hope it is only a stream.”

“I won’t mind even if it’s like a chasm.”

“Seriously?”

“I’ll make sure to help you cross it no matter what.”

At that moment, Baek Seolyoung saw her reflection in the blade, smiling, looking happier than ever.

Her gaze turned back to the black-robed man.

He had been listening to their exchange with an air of leisure. He was confident of victory.

“I have given you enough time for farewells. The rest you can finish in the afterlife.”

One of the men stepped forward, his body rippling with black aura.

“I will try to take this one.”

Summoning her courage, Baek Seolyoung stepped forward.

Lee Jaseung did not stop her. Protecting her by shielding her from every fight was not truly protecting her.

What she needed was experience, battles to temper her skill, so that she could face and overcome any enemy. That was what it meant to truly protect her.

As the man approached, she felt it. The killing intent within the black aura shrouding him. Her body trembled on its own.

He lashed at her with crooked fingers like claws. She evaded and thrust her sword.

Swish, swish!

Her swordsmanship, enhanced by her inner Qi, was far from ordinary.

But his aura was too dense. The suffocating force of it pressed her inner Qi down so that it would not circulate properly. She had never experienced this before, and so she wasn’t able to respond effectively.

In less than ten moves, the man’s palm strike smashed into her shoulder.

Smack!

Baek Seolyoung staggered back. Fortunately she had twisted at the last moment to deflect the blow, avoiding a mortal wound.

She looked toward Lee Jaseung. He still had not moved, only watching her fight, and the men behind her.

“How do you fight men like that?”

Lee Jaseung stepped forward.

“I will show you.”

The man who had fought her now strode toward Lee Jaseung confidently, his aura more vicious than before.

Lee Jaseung did not evade it. Instead, he inhaled deeply then exhaled long, as if savoring the familiar scent of home.

The black-robed man’s eyes flickered at the sight. The aura his men gave off was no ordinary energy. To Orthodox martial artists, it was a truly corrupt energy that would twist their meridians.

The man lunged, both palms striking in succession.

Swishhhhhh!

In the instant his attack missed, Lee Jaseung lightly seized both his wrists.

Crackle, hiss.

Black energy surged around his own wrists, but Lee Jaseung was unmoved.

Instead, the man whose wrists were held could not move at all. Ordinarily he should have kicked or twisted free, yet he stood helpless, with arms locked.

Crack. Snap!

Both of his arms shattered as Lee Jaseung mercilessly twisted them.

Thud!

Lee Jaseung’s fist slammed into his face. The man flew back, twitched a few times, then lay still. The black aura around him dissipated into the wind.

The black-robed man’s eyes went wide.

Such a thing was impossible. The aura his men exuded was no ordinary energy. It was the Dark Qi, a supreme Unorthodox Qi that also served as body protection.

And when a lunar eclipse occurred, that Dark Qi became True Dark Qi, the most powerful form of all.

Because of that, such arms being broken so easily was unthinkable.

“What trick did you use?”

Lee Jaseung did not answer. He only walked forward slowly. From the beginning, no such tricks could ever bind him.

“All of you, attack together.”

The remaining nine advanced at once. The aura they gave off filled the air with crushing force.

Lee Jaseung steadied his breathing. The five hundred forty years worth of inner Qi roiled within him.

All nine men struck at once.

Crack!

The skull of the first to rush in shattered instantly. Lee Jaseung had darted forward and smashed his forehead with an elbow strike.

Spinning with that momentum, he kicked the chest of another. The man’s aura dispersed uselessly as his ribs broke.

Crack!

Lee Jaseung’s figure vanished again.

With the movement technique born of five hundred forty years worth of inner Qi, his body seemed ghostlike that was impossible to follow.

Thud, thud, thud!

His fists pounded into another man’s chest. The figure collapsed. Using his shoulder as a step, Lee Jaseung sprang upward.

Blades of powerful Qi waves flew at him. He twisted midair. The blasts brushed past, missing by a hair.

It was a breathtaking movement.

But this was no time to be awed. The enemy would not hold back because of admiration.

With each motion, Lee Jaseung sent another man crashing to the ground. His movements were like art, a painting.

Swish!

Asura cleaved the air.

Lee Jaseung shot in the opposite direction, slipped under a strike, and hooked an arm beneath a man’s armpit.

Whirl.

The man spun through the air and slammed to the ground.

On the other side, another clutched the hilt of Asura embedded in his neck, already dead.

“Disarm him!”

As another man tried to wrench the weapon free, another dagger, the Dream Phantom flew.

Swoosh!

It pierced straight through his aura and into his chest. He fell at once.

With body techniques combined with the Yama's Dagger Art, Lee Jaseung unleashed overwhelming might. All ten men lay fallen, yet his five hundred forty years worth of inner Qi still surged violently within him.

Only the black-robed man remained now, and his gaze was trembling with disbelief.

“W-What are you?”

He did not ever think that ten men, wielding True Dark Qi could be felled so easily. He had never imagined such a thing possible.

Lee Jaseung said nothing. He instead pulled the Asura and Dream Phantom Dagger free from the corpses.

Splatter.

Blood flung to the floor.

With a blade in each hand, an overwhelming aura surged from Lee Jaseung.

The black-robed man trembled.

‘Unorthodox Qi! He too is from the Unorthodox Faction.’

Though his martial arts were of body technique, Lee Jaseung carried the Unorthodox Qi from head to toe. He could have hidden it, reshaped it. But he didn’t.

From start to finish, he would not deny his nature as one of the Unorthodox Faction.

The Dark One’s gaze lifted to the sky. The lunar eclipse was ending.

‘This man cannot be beaten so simply.’

He resolved to use his final technique. He had never unleashed it before.

For if he did, he too would perish. It was a technique of mutual destruction.

“Hehehehe. Then we shall finish our duel in the underworld.”

The Dark One’s eyes slid to Baek Seolyoung this time.

“You will not be spared either.”

Ssshhhhh!

A torrent of black aura erupted from him, far beyond what his men had shown.

It burst forth like a fountain, instantly filling the surroundings with darkness.

Where it touched, life perished. Flowers and trees withered, and insects dropped dead. It was the very aura of death.

And under the eclipse, its already strong power swelled to terrifying extremes.

It spread so fast and so wide, so there was no escaping it.

Whoooosh!

The torrent of dark energy rushed straight for Baek Seolyoung.

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