Chapter 188: My goodness. The sea, the sea! (14)

Choi Han had an aura like this now too.

This was different from his sword aura, mana, or internal ki.

The Blood Demon felt this stronger than anybody else.

"How is it, no, how did you-?!"

She had sneered while looking at the black yong and Choi Han jump into the vast blue aura.

She thought that this black yong, which resembled the white yong that had been gobbled up earlier, would suffer the same fate in this blue aura.

'This aura is created from the life force of hundreds of thousands of people.'

The pure lives that had died such wrongful deaths turned this like a swamp.

It sucked up anything that jumped into it, giving anything and everything the same suffering they had gone through.

This was because all of the lives within it felt wronged and cheated with their deaths.

'A human cannot escape once they are within this aura.'

One person could not defeat hundreds of thousands of people.

That was simple logic.

"Why-"

How was it that such logic was being crushed in front of her very eyes?

The Blood Demon could not believe what she was seeing.

The images of what was going on that happened in an instant in other people's point of views were moving in slow motion for her.

Baaaaaang-

Charging forward with the black yong, Choi Han looked like a tiny dot in front of this large tsunami-like blue aura.

However, that black dot managed to cross through the tsunami.

It traveled slowly at first but eventually sped up.

"How is this-"

The Blood Demon could see it.

Pure life force. Pure life force was the reason that those existences that suffered through such wrongful deaths raged and sucked in other lives in this swamp-like aura.

At first, those existences had attacked Choi Han.

Now, they were withdrawing.

No, they were running away.

This aura looked large but it was made up of countless small life forces.

They were unable to defeat Choi Han.

"How is that possible...?!"

The Blood Demon was basically screeching. Her eyes were full of rage.

This small black dot…

To be more specific, the black aura surrounding the black yong and Choi Han…

She was certain that this was created by Choi Han.

However, the aura flowing out of him made her think of something.

Dragon.

This was extremely unsightly and minuscule compared to a Dragon's aura, but… There were definitely some similarities.

They were both auras that released their presence.

"Unbelievable!"

Her relaxed face scowled to make her look like a devil.

She extended her hand toward Choi Han who had crossed the tsunami and was quickly approaching her.

Blue blood was still dripping down her arm.

The Blood Demon had been burdened with the grudges and karma of tens of thousands of people as she took their life forces into her body.

Her blood had turned from red to blue.

It resembled the tears of hundreds of thousands of souls.

Chhhhhhhhhhhh-

Choi Han cut through the tsunami and appeared.

He then approached the Blood Demon.

Chilling blue aura fluctuated on her arms. They then took the form of a sword.

The Blood Demon was crying blue tears but she didn't care.

Boom. Boom.

Her heart, her whole body felt as if it was thumping wildly.

Hundreds of thousands of life forces.

It was not easy to carry all of that inside a single person's body.

However, it was something she needed to do.

It was the only way for her to defeat a Dragon.

She looked at Choi Han and shouted.

"How is it that you are able to imitate that of a Dragon?!"

The first time she went to Aipotu and lowered her head in front of a Dragon…

The Blood Demon had to kneel despite being a fellow leader of a Hunter household.

It was not out of her own will.

Dragon Fear.

She could not defeat the aura that Aipotu's Dragon Lord was releasing, forcing her to face such indignity as she bowed her head.

The Blood Demon had contemplated for a very long time as to how she could overcome that humiliation.

She had trained and trained some more.

She continued to persevere with the hope that getting stronger would allow her to overcome a Dragon's aura.

However, she had to face the humiliation of bowing her head to the Dragon Lord multiple times after that.

That was when the Blood Demon realized it.

"Ah, humans can never defeat Dragons.'

Unfortunately, she was human.

In that case, what could she do?

She saw the jiangshis being created and figured it out.

If one person was not enough, couldn't she defeat a Dragon with hundreds of people?

That thought led her to absorb the life forces of all those people.

Piling on the purest of auras would one day put her on a similar level as a Dragon.

Wouldn't that naturally allow her to release an aura like that of a Dragon?

That decision had been correct.

After she had absorbed the life forces of ten thousand people…

She started releasing this blue aura.

After absorbing tens of thousands, her hair turned white and she started hearing the screams of the people who had been wronged, but…

Her aura became even stronger.

After absorbing hundreds of thousands of people, her blood turned blue, but…

She thought that it was enough.

This is enough to be at the same level as a Dragon Lord. That was what she had thought.

'So why-'

Just why-

"Why did you come to possess such a power?"

The black yong approaching her… The man behind that black yong…

He managed to create something that she never gained despite training her martial arts over and over… Something that took her the grudges of countless lives in her body to earn.

He created it right here.

Rage and resentment filled her mind.

"Why do you possess something that belongs to a Dragon?!"

The Blood Demon stepped forward.

As the sword with the black yong and the sword made of blue aura were about to clash…

The Blood Demon dripping blue tears made eye contact with Choi Han.

Through the black aura, the Blood Demon was reflected in Choi Han's calm and still black eyes.

The Blood Demon saw the scowl on her face that made her look like a devil. She heard Choi Han's voice.

"This does not belong to a Dragon."

The Blood Demon saw Choi Han's face.

It was relaxed.

He looked as if there were no thoughts on his mind that he might lose.

He spoke calmly as if he was saying something that followed the logic of the world.

"This is the life I have walked, it is a reflection of myself."

This answer contained only certainty about himself without comparing him to anything or anyone.

Choi Han did not have any reason to imitate a Dragon or to create an aura that resembled someone else's.

He had simply accepted the life he had created and made up his mind to do so from here on as well.

Choi Han extended his sword.

There were no reasons to make a complicated sword art or make large movements.

The blue sword that the Blood Demon was extending…

That sword had countless lives within it but that blade was unable to stop Choi Han.

The Forest of Darkness.

The numerous enemies he had faced in the past…

Same as how none of them managed to destroy Choi Han…

These little lives…

These pitiful and unfortunate little lives could not stop Choi Han.

He moved his sword the same way he had moved it to pass through the tsunami, that thick swamp.

The blue auras that existed as individual pieces slowly created gaps.

The Blood Demon thought that they were running away, but that was not it.

This aura held the heart of someone who found them to be pitiful and unfortunate.

Choi Han's emotions were carried by his aura.

This was because his aura was a reflection of himself. An extension of himself would naturally hold his emotions.

The blue auras reacted after sensing the emotions within the black aura.

Although the movements were subtle, they were using the strength of their hearts to create an extremely small hole.

It was as if they were creating faint gaps in these intertwined and tangled chains.

Choi Han pushed his sword into that gap.

He used it to open the gap some more.

Crack.

Something broke.

Choi Han thought that it was a chain.

That chain breaking made the blue auras a little more free to create a path for Choi Han.

It was similar to how following hope in the darkness would create a path.

Choi Han followed the path created by the blue aura, and…

Craaaaaaack.

A crack appeared on the blue sword.

"!"

The devilish Blood Demon's face became shocked.

It was to be expected.

Choi Han's black aura was extremely useless compared to her power.

Nonetheless, the black aura left its traces on the blue sword.

A gap had appeared.

Ooooooooong-

The black yong opened its mouth through the gap.

This violent but more detailed than before yong started moving.

Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang—

There was a louder explosion than ever before.

They heard a faint noise through the explosion.

Craaaack-

They were cracks.

Choi Han could see numerous cracks instantly appear in the blue aura.

It was as if the chains binding them down until now had disappeared.

Crack!

Finally, the aura was freed.

Hundreds of thousands of life forces split off into many directions.

A portion went up to the sky, another portion to the area around them, and as for another portion-

They charged toward the chains that had been binding them down until now.

The blue auras gathered around the black yong.

Finally, the black yong ripped the enemy apart.

"Cough."

Choi Han's sword had pierced through the Blood Demon's stomach.

"Ha, haha-"

The Blood Demon lowered her head. She saw the sword stabbed into her stomach as well as the blue blood dripping down from the injury.

However, the thing that she saw first were the blue auras leaving her.

Craaaaaaack-

This extremely small black aura breaking the chains made these life forces of the souls that had been wronged immediately escape the prison keeping them here.

Craaaaaaack-

The Blood Demon's skin started to crack.

Her whole body started cracking like the ground during a drought.

"Haaaaa."

She sighed feeling futile.

That was the only way to explain it.

"…Why-"

Why had it ended up like this?

She heard a calm yet cold voice at that moment.

"I'm sure that the chains binding down each and every one of those lives could not be defeated by life forces weaker than them. That is how you put chains on each and every one of them to gather hundreds of thousands of lives into one. That combined power naturally had to be strong."

It was Choi Han.

He did not attack the Blood Demon anymore.

"However, that combined power is not yours. What belongs to you is only the chains. However, those chains were not that strong against me."

Craaaaaaack-

Now that the life forces that the Blood Demon had tied down tightly were starting to escape, it could not be helped.

The Blood Demon's body was crumbling.

"Cough."

The Blood Demon coughed up blue blood.

Her whole body was roaring.

The hundreds of thousands of life forces embedded in her blood and body were running wild to escape her, as if they finally had the chance to do so.

She had not noticed it while taking away one life at a time and absorbing them, but it was difficult for the Blood Demon to win now that hundreds of thousands of them were charging at once. No, it was impossible for her to win.

Plop.

The Blood Demon knelt down on one knee.

Choi Han pulled his sword out. More blood poured out of her body. He looked at her with a calm gaze.

The light was slowly disappearing from the Blood Demon's gaze.

Her face was already full of cracks and blue aura was leaking out of those cracks as well.

"In the end-"

She started speaking.

"Are you saying that my foundation was not that strong?"

"Yeah. No matter how much you borrow from others, it is still you at the center."

Choi Han could feel the auras in the Blood Demon's body going berserk.

The Blood Demon would be finished soon.

There would be a large explosion at that time.

These cracks were too narrow for the imprisoned auras.

Choi Han took a step back.

"Haaaaaaaaa. Haaaa."

Blue aura flowed out every time the Blood Demon took a breath.

The aura was bursting out of the cracks on her skin as well.

Her whole body was moving up and down.

"Ke, kekeke!"

Suddenly, the Blood Demon started laughing.

She raised her head.

Her eyes were empty.

However, Choi Han did not feel any pity. Regardless of her reason, the power she possessed was created by ruthlessly stealing from hundreds of thousands of lives. All of this was the result of her actions.

"You."

Light unexpectedly returned to the Blood Demon's eyes.

Choi Han clenched the grip on his sword.

However…

Plop.

Her left arm cracked until it fell off her body.

Even more blue aura burst out of her.

The Blood Demon could not avoid her death.

As Choi Han recognized this fact, the Blood Demon looked at Choi Han and asked.

"Is it Aipotu after us?"

She was asking if after the Black Bloods and Blue Bloods, it was the Purple Bloods turn.

"...."

Choi Han did not respond.

He had nothing to say to his enemy.

"Kekeke."

The Blood Demon's right arm also fell off.

She saw this and laughed before looking at Choi Han.

"Even those motherfucking Dragons will suffer when they run into you and that guy who seems to be your liege. Haha-"

She was weakly laughing before her voice strengthened once more.

"Let me tell you something very beneficial."

Her whole body was crumbling.

However, Choi Han could not look away from her firm gaze. It seemed as if she was about to leave her last words.

The Blood Demon was feeling wronged and empty as she spoke with anger toward the fact that she was disappearing like this.

"Dragons-"

The moment that Choi Han's eyebrows slightly moved up…

"Dragons cannot become gods."

Dragons could become gods.

There was a blue explosion after that comment.

Baaaaaaaaaang—–

The Blood Demon's body was swept up in that explosion.

She did not stop talking even as she disappeared.

Choi Han flinched as he watched.

Being the closest to her, he was the only one who heard this.

"Dragons are the most insignificant creatures."

'What?'

There was nobody to answer Choi Han's question.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-

The blue aura shot up toward the sky.

It actually looked beautiful.

However, underneath it…

Nothing remained where the blue aura had been shooting up.

All they could see were the two arms that had caused the injuries on her own body so that she would bleed.

This was the end for the Blood Demon.

Choi Han stared for a bit before his eyes opened wide.

"!"

He urgently turned around.

Ruuuumble—-

He heard a noise in the distance.

No, it was not that far.

It was quite close.

The sky was roaring.

Shaaaaaaaaaaa-

The wind was getting rougher.

The sky above the sea was now completely dark.

It felt as if the darkness was pushing this way as if it was water.

"What is this-"

Choi Han subconsciously turned his head.

His eyes were looking for Cale.

"Fuck!"

Cale was swearing as he quickly headed toward the destroyed Stairway to Heaven.

His gaze was focused on an empty spot in the air above the destroyed Stairway to Heaven.

The tenth floor of Stairway to Heaven…

The ten-sided formations on the ceiling and ground of the floor…

That thing was releasing purple light in the air and disappearing.

Cale couldn't help but swear while looking at that formation.

"Raon, flight magic!"

His body floated up.

The formation that had different designs on the ground and ceiling…

The top and bottom had switched.

Cale had accurately recorded the eccentric design of the formation.

They had been symbolic, but he had been able to tell, to a degree, what they were representing.

The formation on the ground showed the ground, mountains, and the sea.

The formation on the ceiling showed sky, rain, and clouds.

Now, the top and bottom have been switched.

Basically, the sky and the ground had been flipped.

Ruuuumble-

Cale got more cold sweats on his back as the rumbling in the sky got louder.

Something big was about to happen.

He needed to stop it no matter what it took.

He heard an awkward voice at that moment.

– Mm. Cale, it looks like we will need to calm the sea?

It was the voice of the Sky Eating Water.

However, for some odd reason, her voice was awkward but excited.

"Fuck!"

Cale couldn't help but swear after hearing that.

—

Translator's Comments

Ah shiiiiiiit.

***

If you find any errors or have suggestions, please feel free to provide feedback.

Thank you for reading!

[Author – Yu Ryeo Han]

[Translator – Anowa]

[Proofreader – Rai_Mayank]