Chapter 348

The difference between Realm of Transformation and Entrance to Demon.

It’s much easier and faster to perfectly master an already completed martial art according to its originator’s intentions than to create a new interpretation of it.

However, because Entrance to Demon is easier than Realm of Transformation, there’s a downside of being controlled by martial arts.

If the problem is the chaos caused by being controlled by martial arts, one might argue that one could just enter Entrance to Demon with the pure Divine Skills of Dao.

But martial arts is essentially the art of murder. It’s designed to kill others better, easier, and more effectively.

Thus, when martial arts control a person, whether it’s wicked Demonic Arts or the most supreme Divine Skills, they ultimately become trapped by the original purpose of martial arts: killing itself.

Therefore, the martial artist of Entrance to Demon is called a Demon.

And here lies a Demon on the verge of death.

After coughing up a bowl of blood, he regains some clarity.

Wang Cheol-gun now understands the state of his body.

Poison, it’s poison.

Since poison has already spread through all his organs, he doesn’t need to split himself open to know that he’s in a state of black decay.

When did he get poisoned?

Ah, that dagger.

Coating a dagger with poison is the most basic tactic of a Sapa warrior and a common sense move.

“Cough! How could I fall for such a simple trick? I’ve completely lost my touch. Well, if I’ve lost my touch, then I’m doomed.”

Qing quietly looks at Wang Cheol-gun. It seems he’s mumbling something.

Qing isn’t doing much better herself.

First, she needs to see something.

The once blazing gaze of the bandit chief no longer burns; there’s no longer a source of light that spread like a cross.

Only some pale outline huddled on the ground in the dark night?

And it doesn’t help that the sounds are muddled. Constantly enveloped in a feeling of being submerged in water, the faint shrill sound of a flute keeps piercing the silence.

But if she stands still and concentrates, it’s not entirely inaudible.

“Let me ask you this. What has Green Forest done to you to make you so hateful?”

“Not much!? They didn’t do anything particularly bad!?”

Qing’s voice booms.

Wang Cheol-gun’s expression contorts.

“Wait, you’re deaf? Hah, come to think of it, your eyes are all glazed over. So you had a blind and deaf man brought to this state? Hahaha, gulp, cough, cough, cough.”

Wang Cheol-gun bursts out laughing, only to splatter blood everywhere. It’s not laughing with joy but laughing out of a twisted fate.

“No, I’m not deaf! My hearing is just fine! My eyes are fine too.”

With glazed eyes and uncontrolled volume, saying that amounts to admitting that he can neither see nor hear.

Wang Cheol-gun picks up a stone from the ground and, with great effort, throws it toward the far left.

Clatter, the sound of the stone dropping.

Qing jumps in surprise, quickly drawing her sword to aim at the air.

“Okay, I believe you. You seem to see and hear just fine.”

“I don’t know what kind of trick you’re pulling, but it doesn’t work on me.”

“Okay. It really doesn’t, huh.”

Wang Cheol-gun unknowingly speaks with sarcasm, while Qing simply remains on high alert.

Regardless, Wang Cheol-gun decides to satiate his curiosity about the life he is soon to leave.

“You’re treating me like this even though you have no resentment? Then my son was brutally murdered by you? You even invaded a village that doesn’t do banditry.”

“Who invaded? I was riding in a carriage, and when I got down, that’s where I found myself. And when some guy I didn’t even know told me to strip and spread my legs, was I just supposed to let it go? Of course, I had to cut him up.”

“That’s my child. The son of the Great Chief of Green Forest. Weren’t you afraid of future repercussions?”

“That’s the problem, see? Isn’t it obvious that a worthless guy who only relies on his father ends up dead? If you’re someone who lives by the sword in the Martial World, you should’ve known better than to trust your father.”

Normally, he would have exploded in anger.

However, faced with death and with his limbs feeling as heavy as lead, he had to muster all his strength just to throw a single stone.

Powerless, all he could do was let out hollow laughter.

“So, it should end with just one son, right? Was it really necessary to act so cruelly as to invade my base and kill even my children?”

“Who invaded? I was just passing by, and I heard that Zhangjiajie was so nice that I thought, what was it? If you don’t experience Zhangjiajie in your lifetime, you can’t say you’ve lived a hundred years? It was all this fuss over it, so I just came to see for myself. I mean, sure, your pride might be lovely, but how was I supposed to know where the Green Forest’s base is? I’ve never heard of it.”

This time, Wang Cheol-gun finds it hard to ignore. His blood pressure skyrockets, and blood rushes to his mouth, flowing out with chunks of his innards.

“So you’re saying it wasn’t an invasion, just a casual pass by? Then why did my son… why!?”

“Seriously, what kind of education did you give your kid? Did you teach him to strip and shove when he sees a pretty girl?”

“Hmph. A man should act accordingly.”

“Your son is messed up because of your failure as a father. But that kid was really just fleeing by himself and tripped up. I didn’t touch a hair on him.”

“But you burned my second child alive.”

“Huh? That was me?”

Qing asks, puzzled. When did I do that?

“Didn’t you set fire to the main building? Well, it’s better to die at the hands of an enemy than to live like that. Yeah, they both deserved to die. But what about my daughter?”

“I heard she eats people alive. How long did you think she was going to live? No, if you’re her father, then you should’ve broken her legs to stop such disgraceful behavior. Were you just going to stand by while your child acted like a monster?”

“Weren’t they all just ingredients entering into the pot anyway? So really, what’s the difference between killing to eat them or eating them alive?”

“Wow. Your way of thinking is fundamentally different, huh? Then I guess I don’t have to answer the next question. Why did you fight Green Forest? Is turning a blind eye to the wickedness of the world what makes one a righteous warrior?”

“Yeah. A bandit does what a bandit does.”

This was merely a tired old tale from the author’s desk. A hero slays the villains and saves the people.

It’s the characteristic of a young, naive righteous warrior who knows nothing about the world and wants to leap into the fire with nothing but their overflowing fervor.

“Alright. Go ahead and kill me. If you’re going to do it, please make it quick.”

Wang Cheol-gun says this while bowing his head low.

But Wang Cheol-gun is a thief to the core. Despite his seemingly submissive posture, his hand tightly grips Noble Heavy Staff.

It’s a preparation for one last move.

Since he was going to die anyway, the moment Qing comes closer to deliver the finishing blow, that would be his final moment too.

In his last moments, was he thinking about pouring out all his lingering regrets and letting loose his tongue? If he pretended to accept death, the young girl would drop her guard and come closer.

Qing feels exhausted.

If she had it her way, she’d love to skin him alive, but her body is already battered, her eyes and ears injured, her pelvis and sides screaming in agony.

She feels as if she had rolled on the ground dozens, if not a hundred times, and there’s not a single part of her body that doesn’t hurt.

So what can she do now?

And thus, Qing takes one step. Then another.

Wang Cheol-gun lowers his head, hiding a murderous smile.

Whether his current vision could discern anything with his head down or not, he savors the thrill of having a dagger hidden in his heart, waiting as she approaches, closer, closer…

Suddenly, a tiny shout interrupts the tension—

“Yap.”

What?

Startled, Wang Cheol-gun raises his head.

He sees Qing pointing a finger at him with a frown.

And that finger stained dark as if dipped in ink.

A streak of darkness, blacker than midnight, cuts through the dark night!

Wang Cheol-gun twists his body.

But the fearsome force pushing on his shoulder sends him flying a half-length away, crashing to the ground.

His already poisoned insides begin to twist and turn as he vomits out blood mixed with dark chunks of his innards.

“Dirty, vile girl! Come closer! Come closer and cut my neck! You disgusting whore! You filthy dog, you bitch! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you dead!”

Qing clicks her tongue.

“Wow. Look at that. You’re still using your Qi defense. I knew you would. So, are you planning on smashing your head if I get too close? Trying to take us both down?”

His finger flicks like the hand of the Heavenly Demon, long gone from use but also too efficient to be wasted.

Because it’s not worth using for anything else.

Just one blast of the death ray from Heavenly Demon could easily dispatch at least forty of those lazy techniques.

In short, it’s a case of one move from him equals forty from her.

As the death ray penetrates, it might explode and cause fatal injuries, but if it doesn’t, it’s just a hard slap.

“Cough, cough.”

“Old man, always using your tricks.”

Qing throws another reckless punch.

The sudden sound of a gong reverberates in the dark of night.

Bang! Bang! The chaos unravels as Wang Cheol-gun’s legs bounce up and down from the relentless blows he takes.

With her blurry vision, she takes a wild guess that the blobby thing above is his head and the long thing below are his legs.

Qing manages to turn Wang Cheol-gun’s two legs into rags and then slyly asks,

“Hey, mister? Are you dead? If you’re not dead, answer me.”

Wang Cheol-gun pretends to be dead.

All he has left is the twisted intention of dragging that girl down with him into the afterlife.

“Did I kill him? Did I kill him? Did I kill him?”

As Qing mutters incantations for revival like a madwoman, Wang Cheol-gun gets goosebumps, scared out of his mind.

She keeps rapidly repeating “Did I kill him?” in three syllables, her volume rising uncontrollably as if she’s turned mad, and he wonders if she’s possessed.

“Being a master, if I don’t confirm his death, he might come back for revenge later. But it also feels like he’s pretending to be dead to pull a trick on me.”

Wang Cheol-gun has no idea that while he’s pretending, Qing is actually laughing under her breath, just audible enough for him to hear.

Then she throws a torch, and with a dramatic arc, it lands on Wang Cheol-gun’s belly.

No matter how deep his evil intentions run, one cannot ignore the agony of flesh being burned.

This is the sad limit of humanity.

“Aaargh! Cough, cough! Aaaah! Seomun Qing! I’ll kill you! You filthy girl! I’ll kill you! I’ll… cough… you… kill…!”

“Wow, such tenacity.”

Qing clicks her tongue, still tossing the torches that she finds on the ground.

The pitch-black fire that puffs and spreads through the smoke illuminates her surroundings. She throws a dozen or so torches, and soon, the flames catch on her clothes, turning her into a human torch. Wow! I know this one!

I’m becoming kindling!

Qing is ecstatic as she throws more torches.

Even the pain of burning alive cannot change the Realm of Transformation.

Especially when her legs are crushed, and her insides are rotting.

Thus, her screams became increasingly primal; devoid of curses, only pure pain, too agonizing to do anything but cry out in anguish.

In the end, the midnight chaos and pyrotechnics ended with Wang Cheol-gun unable to resist the flames consuming his body.

And in the aftermath, all Qing has left is a beaten body and agony, with her clothes soaked and chilled by the night air, feeling like… ugh, cold…

Qing surveyed her surroundings.

Her body is in shambles; she needs a safe place to catch her breath, but the nearby terrain is swarming with fleeing bandits.

She needs to stop the internal injuries before she can manage to find safety.

Then something pale catches her eye on the ground.

Ah, they say the darkest place is right under the lamp.

She wriggles and crawls beneath the collapsed temporary tent.

—-

There’s a buzzing noise as some presence draws closer.

Just as she tries to lift her body, a pained gasp escapes her lips.

A thousand needles seem to pierce her side, sending waves of pain coursing through her.

The phrase “the world fades to white” describes the experience accurately, as all her vision is obscured by agony.

Once she regains her senses, she struggles to catch her breath, choked by the pressure of pain all over her body.

Finally, as the throbbing subsides, she feels a heavy oppression settle all over her.

Only then does Qing manage to come to her senses.

Ah, after taking that Great Elixir and channeling, perhaps she was too exhausted and fell asleep midway.

In the thick darkness under the temporary tent, she’s not sure if her eyesight has returned, but at least it seems her hearing is intact after a night’s rest.

Outside, she could hear bustling movements.

– Where’s the Great Chief’s temporary tent?

– Isn’t it back there? But what if it’s not there either?

– Then it’s gone, obviously? If both the main building and the tent burned down, then it must have vanished in the flames.

Hmm. As expected, they really act like bandits, huh.

Looks like there are some who’ve returned to see if there’s something left after the chaos.

Hiding beneath the temporary tent seems to have been a wise choice; if she just lay on the ground or entered a still intact tent, she would’ve been discovered long ago.

But now, let’s see. What should she do now?

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