The form of the demonic dragon, once enveloped in light, had now completely revealed its true substance.
Sizzle.
Sparks flew from the Silent Tiger Soul Sword that blocked the claws in the woman in white's place, and the sound of twisting bones echoed from Bu Eunseol's body.
It was a power that would have been overwhelming to withstand even in perfect condition.
Much less in a child's body, relying on the faintly remaining Profound Divine Technique Qi, there was no possible way for him to achieve a complete victory.
"It was like this anyway."
At that moment, the woman in white wore an expression as if she had realized something.
"It will be over if I die."
Only emptiness filled her low murmuring voice.
"Even if I had known this in advance... it wouldn't have mattered."
As if her soul had vanished, the focus had disappeared from her eyes.
She looked as though she had been deeply betrayed by someone.
'Something has gone wrong within the Baekri Family.'
The ritual of the Baekri Family, held once every sixty-year cycle, could not possibly proceed in such a manner.
Moreover, for a demonic dragon created from Soul Demon Dharma Energy to appear in the sacred Ten Thousand Dragons Cave?
'It's the doing of an insider within the Baekri Family.'
Unless the True Demon Palace had taken over the Baekri Family.
Ultimately, this entire situation was an elaborate trap set up by someone belonging to the Baekri Family.
'I have no intention of sitting still and dying.'
Although he was not in a normal state, it didn't matter. The martial arts he had built up through life-or-death struggles all this time wouldn't just disappear.
Swish.
In a single breath, he used the mystery of Grafting Flowers onto Jade to slide the demonic dragon's claws away.
"Hap!"
Letting out a fierce shout, he charged at the demonic dragon without hesitation.
Boooom!
As the demonic dragon opened its mouth, a shockwave that seemed to collapse the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave spread out.
Ssssh.
At the same time, the energy of the Soul Demon Dharma Energy spread, revealing bizarre illusions, while its massive claws sliced the ground like tofu.
Using his small frame, Bu Eunseol narrowly dodged the attacks and launched counterattacks with the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, but sword arts alone could not inflict any fatal damage.
Clang!
Every time the Silent Tiger Soul Sword clashed with the scales, sparks flew up along with flashes of light.
But it could not leave a single scratch, only bouncing off endlessly.
The more he fought, the more his small body was knocked back and sent rolling across the ground, his wounds increasing.
"Hap!"
But Bu Eunseol paid it no mind, letting out fierce shouts as he relentlessly pressed on with his sword arts.
The woman in white, who had worn a despairing expression as if she had resigned herself to everything, blinked as she watched him struggle.
She had given up on everything and was ready to accept death.
Yet that small child was refusing to accept fate, exuding an intense fighting spirit and a will to live to carve out his own destiny.
'Just who is that child...'
Moreover, what that boy was using was not the martial arts of the Baekri Family.
Was it not the practical sword art of the martial world, so perilous that one had to treat one's own life like a blade of grass to use it?
'He's not a person of our family.'
The woman in white could feel it.
That child had survived the martial world for decades, like a seasoned veteran.
That he had lived through countless battles fought on the boundary between life and death.
That he could absolutely not be of the Baekri Family's bloodline.
"Ptoo."
At that moment, Bu Eunseol spat out the blood filling his mouth and stood up again.
"It's not over yet."
As if the form of the demonic dragon had grown tired of his persistent resistance,
―'Kurrrrung!'
With a massive roar incomparable to before, it soared as if reaching the ceiling of the cave.
It began to gather black waves beneath its jaw.
Whoooo.
In an instant, the surrounding air froze, and a destructive force that seemed to suck in the energy of all living things began to whirl.
'This is...'
Bu Eunseol could intuitively feel it.
That attack was at a level that could never be blocked with a child's body.
But there was no giving up.
Whish, whish.
Like a madman, Bu Eunseol began to draw large circles in the air with the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
At that moment, the demonic dragon opened its massive mouth and poured out an immense shockwave.
Paaaat!
At the same time, Bu Eunseol stopped swinging and held the Silent Tiger Soul Sword horizontally.
Then, the ground beneath his feet began to crack like a spiderweb.
The Myriad Phenomena Sword Style.
It was the secret sword art of the Sword Venerable, the great grandmaster who encompassed all sword arts under heaven.
Raising the mysteries of Half Above, Half Below and Shifting Heaven's Force to their utmost peak, he gave form to the massive wave the demonic dragon poured out and directed it into the ground.
Trickle.
Blood flowed from the corners of Bu Eunseol's mouth.
The wave of force pouring down from above his head was intense enough to topple even Mount Tai.
Although he was channeling that force into the ground through the mystery of the Myriad Phenomena Sword Style,
the one changing its direction was ultimately Bu Eunseol's physical body, made of flesh and blood.
Completely offsetting that massive power was impossible.
Whooosh.
At that moment, a pure white flash of light began to spread from Bu Eunseol's body.
The faint Profound Divine Technique Qi in his body had activated to protect him.
Crack, crack, crack.
But the ground kept splitting, and his skin, too, was gradually tearing.
"Keugh."
Eventually, right as his skin was about to be completely stripped from his body,
Ziiiing.
A pure white film of astral energy unfolded before Bu Eunseol's eyes.
The woman in white had deployed her Profound Divine Technique Qi to shield him.
"Run away."
The woman in white shouted.
"Quickly!"
Even though she was merely blocking the pouring energy, thick fresh blood flowed from the corners of her mouth.
The form of the demonic dragon that had sprung from the Origin Dragon Pond.
To Bu Eunseol, it unleashed attacks as if an actual dragon had appeared.
But to her, a bloodline of the Baekri Family, it was exerting a power akin to injecting a deadly poison.
"You can't win no matter what you do. So..."
"It has no true substance."
"What did you say?"
"When attacking me, who has almost no Profound Divine Technique Qi, it fights by swinging claws and tail as if it were a dragon of real substance."
Lowering his posture, Bu Eunseol spoke rapidly.
"But the moment you deployed your Profound Divine Technique Qi, it suddenly inflicted internal injuries without even lifting a finger, as if releasing poison. This means it is reacting according to a person's energy."
Paat!
And with all his might, he threw himself forward.
Unleashing the Power of the Wild, he leaped into the air in a single breath.
"Haaap!"
Leaping all the way above the demonic dragon's head, Bu Eunseol poured every trace of the Profound Divine Technique Qi flowing within his body into the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Ziiiing.
Then, a mysterious pattern spread across the blade of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, and it took on a bizarre brilliance.
Crack!
And as Bu Eunseol drove the sword into the demonic dragon's brow with all his strength,
Claaang!
With a low reverberation, the form of the demonic dragon instantly scattered into black points of light.
Just as he had said, the demonic dragon was not a being of substance, but a phantom created from that dharma energy.
Tap.
Landing on the ground, Bu Eunseol gasped for breath, the Silent Tiger Soul Sword planted in the floor.
"Huu, huu."
His body, now a child's, was barely wrapped in nothing more than the Profound Divine Technique Qi.
Yet with his bare body, he had shattered an art that even the Baekri bloodline struggled against.
"How could this be."
The focus had vanished from the woman in white's eyes as she gazed at the pond.
"The Origin Dragon Pond is..."
As the demonic dragon vanished, the true nature of the golden pond was revealed.
The Origin Dragon Pond, said to hold the source of the Profound Divine Technique Qi, had already dried up, and its bottom took the shape of a blackened demon-god idol.
"The sacred pond passed down since the progenitor of our family..."
Stagger.
Muttering in a low voice, she swayed and collapsed to the ground.
"Are you alright."
As Bu Eunseol rushed over and supported her,
"You."
She looked straight at him and spoke.
"You are not a person of our family."
"That is correct."
Bu Eunseol admitted readily.
Setting aside the fact that he had used the practical sword art of the Nangyang Pavilion.
Perhaps because he had exhausted all the Profound Divine Technique Qi flowing in his body to deal with the demonic dragon, his hair, which had been dyed as white as snowflakes, had turned somewhat black again.
"But I can't say that I am completely unrelated."
"What do you mean."
"I have also inherited the blood of the Baekri Family."
Rumble, rumble.
At that moment, the massive interior of the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave shook, and from the distant passageway, black shadows were approaching.
They were the masked men belonging to the Sacred Domain who had brought the woman in white here.
"This..."
Seeing that the Origin Dragon Pond had evaporated and vanished, their eyes flashed.
"I had a feeling."
The one who appeared to be the leader among the masked men looked at the bloodied Bu Eunseol and let out a resentful cry.
"We should have killed that suspicious bastard right away!"
"Just to kill one like me..."
The woman in white spoke with a devastated expression.
"You stained the sacred ground passed down for generations with evil and even destroyed the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave?"
"It couldn't be helped."
The masked man snorted.
"Only here can we kill you openly..."
And he looked at her with an exceedingly bloodthirsty gaze.
"Because that person will not fall under suspicion."
The woman in white slowly closed her eyes.
In truth, she had already guessed everything.
Why the ritual of the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave was needed even though a full sixty-year cycle had not passed,
and why she had suddenly been designated as the sacrifice.
That this was all an elaborate scheme to quietly eliminate her without any loose ends.
That all of this... was the doing of her fiance.
"And you are not the Law Lords and Law Envoys of the Holy Constellation Immortal Family, but his subordinates."
The masked man snorted and said.
"So you knew everything?"
"I simply accepted it, thinking it was fate."
The woman in white straightened her body and spoke boldly.
"But not anymore."
Upon seeing Bu Eunseol fight the form of the demonic dragon with a single sword, she had felt something profound.
She had long overcome the fear of death, back when she was first chosen as the sacrifice of the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave.
Nor was she trying to thrash about now, at the very end, to cling to life.
―'If something is wrong, one must not submit to it, even if it is fate.'
Through Bu Eunseol, she had realized a single truth.
―'One must strike against it with everything one has, and change it.'
Through that small boy, she had realized one truth.
"Well, being swallowed by the Origin Dragon Pond would have been the ideal outcome."
The masked man shrugged his shoulders.
"But just entering the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave can be considered half a success. Once inside this place, everything can be covered up."
Crackle, crackle.
A faint brilliance flowed from the skin of the three masked men.
Their eyes burned with a golden hue, and a sacred energy rose from their entire bodies.
As the woman in white had said, they were not people of the Sacred Domain, but people of the Baekri Family.
Crackle.
Before long, their human forms vanished without a trace.
Three dragons appeared, soaring as if to pierce the ceiling of the cave.
However, every one of them had the form of a hornless dragon.
Staring at the woman with ferocious eyes, the three hornless dragons opened their massive maws to devour her in a single bite.
Paaat!
At that moment, along with a clear sound of tearing air!
A radiant white light, brilliant enough to blind the eyes, exploded from the woman in white's body.
The white robes enveloping her turned into tens of thousands of shining scales, and her slender body transformed into a white dragon drawing elegant curves.
Though her body was not even half the size of the hornless dragons, her majesty did not fall behind in the slightest.
The white dragon darted between the three hornless dragons like a streak of lightning.
As her sharp claws raked the steel-like scales of the hornless dragons, sparks flew and the shriek of metal rang out.
Before the hornless dragons could even swing their tails, she kicked off the empty air, soared up, and tore at their napes.
Endlessly breathing out pure white breath, she neutralized the attacks of the lunging hornless dragons.
Though far smaller than they were, she was overwhelming the three hornless dragons with swift agility and razor claws.
'So this is what it was.'
Watching the fight, Bu Eunseol opened his eyes wide in astonishment.
He had seen figures of the Baekri Family fight in dragon form many times.
And he had thought that they truly became dragons and wielded such authority.
But now that, like the Baekri bloodline, his body held nothing but the Profound Divine Technique Qi, he could finally see the truth of it in full.
'It was never a battle of dragons.'
The dragons appeared to breathe out their breath and fight with claws and tails.
In reality, they were wielding the Profound Divine Technique Qi, endlessly unfolding mysterious powers while wrapped in splendid light.
When a hornless dragon roared and opened its massive mouth, a brilliance like scorching flame poured forth.
But that was hundreds of spears of light, wrought of the Profound Divine Technique Qi, bursting out like a waterfall.
When they swung their forepaws, sharp claws seemed to slice through the air.
In reality, five streams of technique qi became keen blades and shot out like bolts of lightning.
And when the hornless dragons swung their tails, a chaos of hundreds of phantoms unfolded, illusion and reality intermingling.
Each time, the woman in white loosed a single streak of light.
That light erased the masked men's attacks and phantoms one by one, like a brush rewriting the laws of the world.
'But that time, they wielded power exactly like real dragons.'
The white dragons he had clashed with before had used the real force of claw and tail; that had been no conjured technique.
"As expected of his bloodline, her potential is incredible."
At that moment, the hornless dragons floating in the air muttered in low voices.
"However..."
Crrrack.
Suddenly, the hornless dragons merged into one, becoming a giant dragon vast enough to fill the cavern.
Blue scales like dried scabs of blood; a neck that writhed hideously, as if several heads had been forcibly fused into one; six eyes spewing burning hatred.
It had the shape of a giant dragon, but it was chaos and malice itself.
Kwaang!
The giant dragon's massive claws sliced through the air.
It was not a simple physical attack.
It was a strike containing a destructive art that seemed to tear even space apart, along with eleven mysterious powers.
The moment the white dragon was grazed by that power, she plummeted to the ground like a leaf in the autumn wind, without even a chance to scream.
Tremble, tremble.
The white dragon that had been smashed down was slowly returning to the form of a fragile woman.
Of course, all of this was an illusion.
In reality, the masked men had used a bizarre combined attack, and the woman in white had failed to block it.
"Haa, haa."
She gasped for breath.
From the moment she had opened the gates of the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave, her power had already been nearly depleted.
And after this unbroken battle, she no longer had even the strength left to raise her body.
Craaack.
The giant dragon opened its enormous maw, and,
Vwooong.
Black energy began to swirl beneath its jaw.
Sucking in every trace of light around it, a blue sphere formed, one that froze the soul by its mere existence.
It was an attack completely identical to the one the form of the demonic dragon had unleashed only moments ago.
Kwaaaaah!
At that, the stones on the ground dozens of jang away turned to dust and began to scatter on the wind.
It was truly a destructive force capable of annihilating the entire world.
But the drained woman in white could not lift a finger.
She could only give up on everything and wait for the approaching end.
Paaaaat!
Just as the pitch-black sphere, radiating a black whirlwind, was about to pour down upon her,
Clang!
With a sharp rupture that tore at the eardrums, the massive sphere that had seemed capable of obliterating everything unbelievably veered aside and smashed into the cave wall.
Kaboom!
With a tremendous explosion, the cave wall crumbled.
At the center of it all, a boy stood precariously.
It was Bu Eunseol, gasping for breath while holding the ink-black Silent Tiger Soul Sword at a slant.
'No.'
The woman in white desperately tried to shout.
'Run away. You cannot block them with your power.'
But her wounds were too grave; only a faint, breathy rasp leaked out, and her voice would not come.
Rumble, rumble.
The giant dragon grew even more enraged at the fact that its attack had been blocked.
Its six eyes turned on Bu Eunseol as one, and a darkness far vaster and denser than before began to seethe in its maw.
And at that moment.
Kwaaaaaang!
With a roar that seemed to dye the world in darkness, a sphere vast enough to swallow the entire cave poured down.
Kwaaaaah!
Bu Eunseol's small body was swept away by that black torrent without a single chance to resist.
His body vanished as if melting into the darkness, and soon an explosion beyond imagination shook the entire cave.
"..."
The woman in white stared blankly at the blood, the dust, and the remnants of darkness.
'No...'
The small child who had willingly thrown his body into harm's way to save her.
Their brief time together flashed before her eyes.
Emptiness and guilt froze her heart.
"No―――!"
The moment her choked voice finally burst out and the woman in white screamed,
Twinkle.
At the center of the darkness that had swallowed everything, a single, very small point of light began to blink.
At first, she thought it was just an afterglow.
But that light did not fade; rather, it began to burn ever more intensely and blindingly.
The sacred and pure light pushed back the violent energy of darkness and spread in all directions.
'This is?'
That mysterious energy.
It was the treasure of the world known as the pre-taking of causality, the one she had handed to the boy so that he could open the Ten Thousand Dragons Cave.
Was this not the wave of the Genesis Sun and Moon?
Kwaaaaah!
From within the pillar of light that drove back the darkness, a new form finally began to reveal itself.
Rumble.
What rose from the shattered fragments of rock was neither a white dragon, a hornless dragon, nor a black dragon.
The scales covering his body wove together five colors: the red of sunset, the blue of the deep sea, brilliant gold, deep green, and the pure white of snow, radiating a mysterious rainbow light.
It was the birth of a Five-Colored Dragon, one that had never before existed in the world.
Comments