CHAPTER 527: EPILOGUE EARTH DEMON (24)

The moment Il-su raised his hand, a faint tremor began at his fingertips.

At first, it looked like a simple muscle twitch, but the tremor gradually spread outward.

Dust on the ground quivered irregularly, and fallen leaves shook precariously.

‘What on earth kind of realm is that…?’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord’s face went pale. It was a phenomenon beyond the scope of martial arts he knew.

Of course, even Extreme Ma grandmasters could emit their inner qi outward to form fierce energy.

But they could not dominate the space itself the way Il-su was displaying.

It was as if the space itself were under his command.

“Pathetic bastard!”

Ma-gon scoffed.

His eyes were full of contempt.

“You toy with currents? You think you can oppose me with that meager trick?”

When he unleashed the inner power of his whole body, an overwhelming demonic energy surged like a tidal wave.

Boom!

Il-su was pushed back three steps.

Even though a thread of red blood seeped from between his lips, he did not retreat.

“Oh ho, you’re holding on. I’ll give you praise.”

Clack! Tap-tap! Clack-clack-clack!

Ma-gon leisurely traced a complex set of hand seals in the air.

With each finger motion, black demonic energy condensed and began to take shape.

It formed a grotesque shape, neither clearly snake nor dragon.

“I didn’t actually need to use techniques like this…but you lot are so pitiful I thought I’d show you.”

Gurgle-gurgle-gurgle—

The black demonic energy writhed like a giant serpent and lunged toward Il-su.

A burning stench spread through the air, and the ground touched by the energy turned pitch-black.

Il-su’s face twisted.

He could read the currents. He could see escape routes.

‘I can avoid it. But…’

Just dodging wouldn’t win.

His inner power was steadily depleting; sooner or later he’d tire, and then there would be only death.

A decision was needed.

“Haap!”

Il-su snapped his eyes open.

His previously vacant white gaze suddenly flushed with red.

Capillaries burst and the area around his eyes darkened red.

‘Insane… is he burning his own meridians?’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord was aghast.

What Il-su chose was a gamble bordering on self-destruction.

Once a meridian is burned, it doesn’t return. Even if he survived, he could be crippled for life.

Crack—!

A sound like something breaking came from Il-su’s body.

One meridian had overloaded and ruptured. His right shoulder sagged unnaturally.

But in exchange—

Kwaaaang!

Everything around reacted explosively. Trees were uprooted and rocks shattered into pieces.

But their trajectories toward Ma-gon were unstable.

Some missed, others fell mid-flight.

It was an uncontrollable rampage.

“You mad bastard!”

Ma-gon sensed danger too.

Il-su was attempting an attack akin to self-detonation.

If allowed to continue, the surrounding area could be razed.

Spurt—

A green curtain rose from Ma-gon’s center.

He had deployed his ultimate defense technique, the Genius Body-Protection Technique.

Kuwaaaang!

A collision occurred. The blast razed a radius of several dozen chang.

Trees turned to ash, and the ground was deeply gouged.

“Guh…”

When the dust settled, Il-su was revealed kneeling on one knee.

Blood streamed from his mouth, his right arm hung limp. He barely held his broken sword with his left hand, which shook.

“Is he dead?”

The Supreme Pavilion Lord approached cautiously.

Il-su coughed up blood and shook his head.

“Not yet.”

“What?”

“That bastard… he hasn’t a single wound.”

The Supreme Pavilion Lord’s complexion went deathly pale.

From the dust, Ma-gon walked out slowly.

His clothes were a mess, but there were no severe injuries visible.

He returned a composed smile.

“That was quite entertaining. Not bad for a blind idiot.”

Then he smiled coldly.

Dark red blood trickled down between his brows.

It seemed he hadn’t avoided the impact entirely.

“I’ll give you enough time. Do what you will— the outcome is already decided anyway.”

Green blade qi bloomed again from his sword.

This time it was denser and sharper than before.

His anger too was on a different plane.

Thud.

With trembling hands, Il-su grabbed the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s arm.

His fingers looked as heavy as a thousand catties.

“What is the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s strongest martial art?”

“Is that important right now?”

“Tell me!”

Desperation laced Il-su’s voice.

The Supreme Pavilion Lord hesitated, then answered the desperation frankly.

“Hellish Annihilation Arts. It burns everything within a confined area. However…”

“It can’t kill with a wide-area attack. Can it be focused? Into a single point?”

“Theoretically possible…but never tried. It requires time. Meanwhile I could be left defenseless.”

“I’ll buy the time.”

Il-su staggered to his feet.

His legs trembled, but he braced on the broken sword and barely kept his balance.

“Are you mad? In that condition? You can’t even use one arm!”

The Supreme Pavilion Lord’s voice trembled, mingled with fear and disbelief.

“Aren’t you excited?”

“What?”

“A Supreme Demon Warrior. A chance to take down one who’s reached mastery… isn’t it a shame to walk away now?”

Il-su let out a short laugh at the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s bewildered expression.

Even though he couldn’t see, he felt as if someone was watching him.

‘Pride. The kind every warrior carries…’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord saw that in him.

Something he’d long ago forgotten.

Thud.

Il-su lifted the broken sword again.

His hands shook violently, but a strange madness lingered in his eyes.

“Once you start… do not stop. Even if you pierce through me, hit Ma-gon.”

The Supreme Pavilion Lord hesitated for a moment.

Instinct to flee mixed with the temptation to fell a Supreme Demon Warrior.

But seeing the madness in Il-su’s eyes, he found himself nodding without realizing it.

“…Very well.”

It was at that moment.

Ssshhh—

Ma-gon drew his sword again.

This time it wasn’t a joke; real killing intent exploded.

The surrounding air seemed to freeze, and birds shrieked as they flew up.

That was when it happened.

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‘So that’s it.’

Watching from afar, I roughly grasped the situation.

‘He can read movements, predict them, and corner an opponent, but lacks the power to deliver a finishing blow.’

To kill a Supreme Demon warrior, especially one who’d reached mastery, simple psychokinesis wasn’t enough.

You’d need to pierce his body with condensed qi or detonate it at point-blank range.

Il-su did not possess that decisive strike.

‘Huh? He’s not normal either?’

Looking closely, Ma-gon’s movements were slightly sluggish.

There was a slight imbalance in his steps, and his left shoulder hung unnaturally.

The sweat running from his brow had a reddish tint, not ordinary sweat.

“He took internal injuries. He’s putting on a show, but my eyes aren’t fooled.”

Apparently the explosion caused by Il-su burning his meridians wasn’t completely nullified.

‘If the Hellish Annihilation Arts hit properly…’

I watched quietly and calculated.

Il-su’s idea to condense the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s area attack into a single point was astonishing.

Someone trained in orthodox arts had found a more creative application than me who had system assistance.

‘They’ve started.’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord and Il-su met eyes. When Ma-gon moved, they began to move as well.

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Whoosh!

When Ma-gon vanished with a secret technique, the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s eyes flashed.

‘I lost sight!’

Ma-gon disappeared from his sight in an instant.

By the time he re-acquired him, it was already too late.

Ma-gon’s sword was already slicing toward his neck from the side.

‘Damn….’

Boom!

At that moment, a stone pillar shot up from below, naturally pushing Ma-gon aside.

Il-su had used natural qi to power a psychokinetic thrust.

“Haap!”

But Ma-gon twisted in midair and charged again.

And this time his target was not the Supreme Pavilion Lord, but Il-su.

Screeech!

Swords clashed.

Ma-gon fought with one hand while Il-su held on with a broken blade; the overwhelming power difference pushed Il-su back.

Clang.

In the end, he dropped his sword.

“Now die!”

Ma-gon unleashed a powerful qi attack.

But it failed again.

Il-su spread both hands and used the flow of that force against it to slip aside.

It was the ‘Reverse’ technique of the top-class Soma Art, similar to the ‘Heaven-Earth Reversal.’

“Concentrate on the internal qi! I’ll give the signal!”

At that moment, Il-su shouted to the Supreme Pavilion Lord.

Bang!

But before the shout even finished, Il-su’s body was swept far backward.

Ma-gon was already bringing his sword down from above.

‘Such monstrous speed…’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord was stunned, but quickly recovered.

He had to prepare while Il-su bought time.

Zzzeeeng! Zzzzeeeng!

Il-su barely parried the blade, but was gradually being overwhelmed.

With the qi of his upper dantian, it was hard to withstand direct collisions.

“Guh!”

Eventually, Il-su spat blood and collapsed to his knees.

He had finally grown weary.

His opponent deployed Body Protection Arts surpassing indestructibility, and his attacks were so strong that every sword swing raised a storm.

“You hold on impressively! But for how long?”

Ma-gon taunted him, but his breathing was getting rough as well.

Unconsciously he pressed his flank with his left arm.

‘That bastard, he’s definitely wounded internally.’

Il-su wiped his blood and thought.

Ma-gon fighting with one hand wasn’t just arrogance; it seemed his left arm couldn’t muster strength.

Ssshh—

Ma-gon’s great sword instantaneously transformed into a thin blade.

It was a divine weapon, a Ruyi Divine Weapon that could change form at will.

“The joke’s over now.”

Ma-gon said this, but the sweat on his brow increased.

Fatigue from internal injuries and continuous fighting was piling up.

His senses guarding the surroundings had fallen to about half their usual level.

‘Just a bit more…’

Il-su gritted his teeth.

The Supreme Pavilion Lord needed a little more time to finish preparations. They had to wait for Ma-gon’s internal injury to worsen.

Swish-snap.

Ma-gon’s long sword flashed like lightning, instantly extending like a spear and lunging at Il-su.

But the one surprised wasn’t Il-su—it was Ma-gon.

“What the—?”

It was a simple probing attack, yet Il-su did not dodge.

No, he actually threw his body forward and let the blade pierce his palm and shoulder.

Ma-gon’s movement froze for a moment.

“What else? He’s going to hell.”

Il-su laughed through his blood.

Only then did Ma-gon realize: this madman had intentionally taken the blade to pin his motion.

A murderous intent coming from behind.

“This…!”

“Haaaaap!”

A concentrated flame burst from the Supreme Pavilion Lord’s hand—a strike that condensed the Hellish Annihilation Arts into a single point.

Heat pierced through Ma-gon’s back and surged upward.

‘That had a satisfying taste!’

The Supreme Pavilion Lord was certain. He had surely struck—his best martial art laid bare.

“I’ve finished him—!”

Gasp.

But suddenly his joy stopped.

His throat was seized. Even as his body burned, Ma-gon reached back and grabbed his neck.

“You think I’d die to something like this?”

Whoosh—

Ma-gon’s body burned, his skin charred black.

Yet he acted as if it meant nothing.

It was the moment the terror of his Body Protection Arts was revealed.

“Guh…”

The Supreme Pavilion Lord, strangled, groaned.

He tried to unleash more flame, but after one release his inner power was already exhausted.

Zzzeeeng!

Il-su put all his strength into a final palm strike, but it was useless.

That attack too could not pierce Ma-gon’s Body Protection Arts.

“Fools, the joke’s over. Kill them completely—”

Thud.

Ma-gon’s words cut off.

His eyes widened. He slowly lowered his gaze.

“…?”

To everyone’s surprise, a sword was lodged, piercing his chest.

The iron-clad wall of demonic qi around his body had been broken.

“Why would you—”

Ma-gon’s face stiffened.

He already knew who it was the moment the person approached.

The vice leader of the Seventh Hall. Of course, he thought they’d come to assist him.

He never imagined their sword would be driven into him.

“Because I received an order.”

Seventh Hall’s vice leader Jeong-yeon.

He had come here—for whatever reason—and appeared by plunging his sword into him.