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chapter 28
The Demonic Art is Revealed
Thousand-Mile Pursuit Technique (千里追從術)!
As its name suggests, it is an art that allows one to pursue a person within a thousand miles.
Sword Spirit was currently using this very technique to pursue Gon Honggi, who had killed the courtesan by draining her vital essence.
“If I hadn’t gone to the Zhugang Water Bandits’ lair, that young lady might still be alive.”
He wasn’t blaming himself because of her death, but rather regretting his own rash decision.
The bandits of Zhugang could have been dealt with a day later—or even when he was ready to leave the Zhugang River.
The people who had already suffered at their hands would not have had their lives drastically worsened by enduring a few more days of misery.
“My thinking was too shallow.”
Having lived his life confined on the island, Sword Spirit had grown used to acting the moment he thought. Now, he was trying to change that.
“That young lady’s vital essence was forcibly taken. Which means the culprit must have mastered the Demonic Art of Absorbing Essence.”
Sword Spirit moved through the air as if he were the wind itself.
He was using Ghost Floating Cloud Movement (幽靈浮雲運行功)—a lightness skill passed down by the Ghost Demon Lord, Gu Yeongcheol, which allowed one to traverse a thousand miles with just a handful of inner energy.
Despite his incredible speed, Sword Spirit missed nothing in the passing scenery.
“The fiend is chasing someone else.”
He could sense that the place he was heading toward still held traces of two different energies lingering before vanishing.
At that moment, Sword Spirit understood why the demonic cultivator had left behind such traces.
He had once heard from Jeok Hwamyeong that those who practiced demonic arts did everything to erase any sign of themselves. This was because once discovered, not only they but even their families would be branded enemies of the martial world.
There was no way they would simply leave behind the courtesan they had drained and disappear.
“Someone must have witnessed the essence-draining and chased after the fiend to kill him. They saw the act, but they don’t know who the demonic cultivator really is—only that one exists.”
Sword Spirit abruptly veered to the left.
“The fugitive ran toward the main avenue to avoid pursuit.”
Normally, a fugitive would choose secluded paths or familiar terrain. But this one was deliberately escaping through crowded streets.
“He must have judged that his skills alone weren’t enough to shake off the pursuer. With so many witnesses around, he thought the demonic cultivator would hesitate to chase too openly.”
Fwoooosh!
Sword Spirit’s speed suddenly increased.
“But his opponent is a practitioner of the Demonic Arts.”
Depending on how far one delved into demonic cultivation, one’s very nature would change. But a true fiend would not fear the judgment of a few bystanders.
“Aaaaargh!”
At the faint sound of a scream in the distance, Sword Spirit’s speed surged until he was nearly invisible.
Objects blurred past as he closed in on the site where Gon Honggi was slaughtering people.
He had used Shrinking the Earth (縮地)—a movement technique said to fold space itself, reserved for immortals.
“Kehehehe!”
Drunk on blood, Gon Honggi seemed unaware of what he was doing. He trembled with ecstasy as he drained the vital essence of victims, laughing in a grotesque voice.
Around him lay over a dozen corpses, their essence sucked dry, reduced to lifeless husks.
“So it was you.”
When Sword Spirit spoke, Gon Honggi turned, then smirked faintly. The brat he had been searching for had come walking right into his hands.
“Kehahaha! I was looking for you anyway.”
“Why did you kill that young lady?”
He wasn’t asking why he killed, but why her specifically.
“Kehaha! Because I wanted to taste her flesh. Pretty face, pure body—despite being a courtesan, she hadn’t been with a man before. Fresh and delicious.”
He licked his lips as he spoke, making Sword Spirit frown deeply.
“Just for that reason?”
“Of course not. I never forgive those who ignore me. She refused my generosity, just like you did.”
Listening to him, Sword Spirit realized her death was ultimately tied back to him.
“People are strange. They don’t consider others, only themselves. If something doesn’t suit them, they insult it, reject it, and hate it. But every person has their own nature.”
“Kehaha! Not that it matters to me. I’ve always lived however I wanted. And I’ll keep living that way.”
Gon Honggi stepped toward him. His pace quickened until he suddenly lunged with an outstretched hand.
Sword Spirit shifted slightly, dodging.
Thud!
He hooked Gon Honggi’s foot, sending him flying into the air before slamming into the ground.
The impact shook the earth, yet Gon Honggi showed little pain.
Sword Spirit immediately stomped on his leg.
Crack!
The sound of bones shattering rang out. Yet Gon Honggi, seemingly numb to pain, clawed upward at Sword Spirit’s foot.
Smack!
Again, Sword Spirit evaded and stomped on his other leg.
Crunch!
Both legs were crushed, bones shattered to powder.
“Kehahaha!”
Laughing like a man high on drugs, Gon Honggi tried attacking again, but Sword Spirit broke both arms as well, rendering them useless.
Thap-thap-thap!
After swiftly sealing several of his acupoints, Sword Spirit stood before him.
“Kehaha! I’ll kill you!”
Helpless and immobile, Gon Honggi could only roar threats. Sword Spirit quietly replied:
“You’ve drained so much blood. There must be plenty inside you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m going to draw some of it out.”
At this, Gon Honggi burst into laughter.
“Wahaha! So you, too, have practiced demonic arts! If you kill me, you’ll be hunted as well. We could’ve hidden away, cultivated together, and—”
“Idiot.”
He misunderstood.
“Guaaah!”
Suddenly Gon Honggi shrieked.
Though he had felt no pain from broken bones, now his eyes bulged in agony.
“What… what is this?”
He could feel his blood pooling in one place instead of circulating. The pain was indescribable.
“You should feel it too.”
His face contorted as he realized his opponent was not using demonic arts.
“You bastard!”
He shouted, but Sword Spirit ignored him.
“Now you’ll know how unbearable it is when blood drains from your body.”
The human body has two major circulatory pathways: veins and arteries. Veins return blood to the heart, while arteries carry it out.
Sword Spirit had sealed Gon Honggi’s arterial flow. Blood could only return to the heart through veins, piling up without circulation.
Clutching his chest in agony, Gon Honggi glared hatefully as his body turned red, then purple-blue. Without blood reaching his brain, his body was shutting down.
“Grrrk!”
Foam frothed at his lips, eyes rolling back.
Even a demonic cultivator could not survive when blood ceased to nourish the brain.
His chest swelled as if about to burst—then:
Boom!
With a sound like air exploding, blood erupted from his chest in a crimson fountain.
“Aaagh!”
For a moment, relief washed over him as the pressure subsided. He glared at Sword Spirit with pure hatred, but that was all he could do. His face, once purple, now turned deathly pale as his life drained away.
“And this still isn’t the end.”
Sword Spirit raised his sword toward Gon Honggi’s dantian.
“Guaaah!”
This time, his scream was even more piercing. His dantian shattered, and all the inner energy he had stolen dissipated instantly.
“You—argh!”
With his cultivation gone, he could no longer numb the pain. The agony of blood loss consumed him completely.
“You inflicted this same torment on countless people. Now you feel it yourself. In the next life, don’t be reborn human. Become an ox or a horse, serve others, and repay your sins.”
Sword Spirit met his eyes as Gon Honggi writhed in pain.
In the end, he bled out entirely, dying in a manner perfectly suited to his crimes.
Sword Spirit searched his corpse.
“As expected, you carried it.”
He pulled out a book.
“…Hmm.”
It was neat, as though freshly copied. Which meant this Absorbing Essence Manual wasn’t the only one.
“Old Ghost once said conspiracies always lurk behind things like this…”
The Ghost Demon Lord, who loved schemes, had taught him much in that regard. Unease pricked at him.
“If those who suffered thirty years ago were behind this, they must already be moving within the Central Plains.”
Sword Spirit skimmed the manual and nodded.
“This, too, is incomplete—just like Surapok Cheongong. But if demons perfected these techniques…”
Demonic arts were originally incomplete. If perfected, they would transform from demonic techniques into divine ones.
“Worth studying.”
He glanced through it once more, then summoned the Three Prized Flames (三梅珍火) and burned it.
After just a few glances, he had memorized all of its core secrets.
Surveying the bloody scene, he decided against cleaning up. Better that others see and recognize the return of demonic arts, so they would prepare themselves. With that, he turned back toward Hyanghak Pavilion.
Meanwhile…
“Brother! The Demonic Art has appeared—Absorbing Essence!”
This news rushed into the halls of the Shin clan early that morning.
Yi Jewoong, younger brother of Yi Jemin, the clan head and First Elder, hurried to his residence, shouting urgently outside.
Clatter…
At the words “Demonic Art,” Yi Jemin stumbled out of his room, pale with shock, not even properly dressed.
He was one of the few who remembered the blood calamity thirty years ago.
“Is that true?”
The mere fact that the long-vanished demonic arts had resurfaced was enough to unsettle one of the top hundred masters of the martial world.
“Yes. Seven victims have already been drained by the Absorbing Essence Art near the Zhugang area.”
“Dispatch the Hyeonryong Corps immediately. Preserve the scene exactly as it is.”
“Yes. And the government troops—?”
“Tell them this is a matter of the martial world. Request their cooperation, and promise ours in return. I’ll head there myself shortly.”
“Yes, Clan Leader!”
Once Yi Jewoong departed, Yi Jemin’s wife, Byeok Hyein, spoke.
“The Demonic Art…?”
“It seems unrest has truly come to the martial world. No doubt this ties to Hyeon Jinmyeong of Cheonmyeong Manor as well. I must go.”
He hurriedly dressed as she helped him.
“Must you go personally?”
“This isn’t just any technique—it’s the Demonic Art. The very art cultivated by the demons who caused the blood massacre thirty years ago.”
Though she hadn’t lived through it herself, she had heard the stories.
“And it happened not elsewhere, but in Zhugang. Moreover, Hyeon Jinmyeong of Cheonmyeong Manor was killed under our roof. For those watching us, it will seem only right that I investigate this myself.”
“…Very well. But be careful.”
“Do not worry. Things will be different from thirty years ago.”
Fully dressed, Yi Jemin left his chambers as the Hyeonryong Corps rushed out of Shin clan territory.
