Chapter 176: Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor (8)
The space froze.
It felt like that.
A feeling as if everything had stopped.
The Demon King of Death.
The Necromancer King.
The one with such names calmly watched forward.
Everything had changed.
The glowing blue eyes remained the same, but the shape of the face…
And the aura, too.
"…Can you change it at will?"
"I'm specialized in that sort of thing."
To Cheon Murin's words, Han Seojin slightly smiled and said,
"Then perhaps…."
"It's like summoning the peak of the past."
"Maybe later at night…"
"…I can only use it once."
"Is that so…"
Cheon Murin seemed disappointed.
An inexplicable chill ran through.
-Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor.
Cheon Murin frowned.
Because her conversation with Han Seojin was interrupted.
-I've heard of it.
The Necromancer King showed no reaction and turned his gaze to the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor.
This was the most dangerous being present.
His name was well-known, even infamous.
-He's quite famous, even at the borders of this realm. Others say you delayed the martial world's golden age.
"The golden age of the martial world?"
-Yes.
Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor.
Three orthodox martial artists and countless sword squads beneath them.
It was known that he died to them.
If not for them, it was believed someone on par with the Heavenly Demon or the Duke of Extermination might have emerged.
But.
'This is beyond that…'
It was not just on par.
It felt like a power that could only be considered beyond that.
Even so, it wasn't enough to destroy him completely.
'Even so…'
This being was undoubtedly dangerous.
The Necromancer King made his move. If this threat was to be eliminated, it had to happen now.
Sensing something amiss, the being in Veda and the Divine King began to move.
Creeping.
The aura of death spread in all directions. A shattered boundary. The aura of death encroaching upon it.
Han Seojin reached out his hand when he saw it.
And.
Clench.
He clenched his fist. Then everything around him stopped.
-Hmm?
"Didn't someone already warn you about this?"
The Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor did not move.
Keeping his fist clenched, he turned his arm.
Then.
Crunch.
Before anyone realized it, he had seized the Necromancer King by the collar.
-What is this?
"Great Shift of Heaven and Earth."
When he came to his senses.
There was no other way to describe it. As soon as the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor muttered something, his collar was caught.
The Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor clenched his other hand.
The sheer force radiating from him was overwhelming, a raw vitality that could not be ignored.
'As expected.'
This version of himself was his absolute peak.
Unless it was Han Seojin, who had fully ascended to the transcendent level.
In this realm, oneself was the peak state one could manifest.
Han Seojin laughed as he…
BOOM!!
…embedded his fist into the skull of the Necromancer King.
CRACK!!
Everything around them distorted. A force unbelievable for just a punch, a power that twisted everything around it.
-…!!!
The Necromancer King let out a silent scream. A mere punch. The punch wasn't just powerful; it was soul-shattering, reaching even his very essence.
'This is… too dangerous.'
Part of the skull shattered. This much was no issue.
The issue was that his soul was struck.
The Demon King's authority, immortality.
It meant he attacked beyond that.
"I had quite some expectations…"
The Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor looked at the Necromancer King with a hint of disappointment.
The Demon Kings he had seen so far.
Insect Dragon King, Mighty King, Black Flame King, Sword King, Necromancer King.
He had seen five Demon Kings.
But this one…
'This one is weaker.'
The weakest was the Black Flame Demon King. And above that was the Sword Demon King.
And the being in front of him was stronger than the Sword Demon King.
'He's just mediocre.'
The Insect Dragon King and the Mighty King felt different.
The Mighty King had been meticulous, pushing the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor to the brink of death in this very state.
What about the Insect Dragon King?
He made a pact with a being beyond the Demon God and made it his power.
Without the God of Magic, Han Seojin, he wouldn't have been able to kill him.
A mere star.
He couldn't kill him with just that realization.
He came as if he were quite strong.
"You're far less impressive than I expected."
-What did you just say?
The Necromancer King was a transcendent. A demon king. A being that grew by feeding on the negative emotions of humans.
A King.
That's why he could tell. The guy in front of him, called the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor, genuinely believed that.
He considered him.
Weak.
"You seem stronger than the rest of them, but…"
Above Han Seojin's fist.
Whoosh! An ashen flame began to ignite.
Heaven-Surrendering Godly Technique.
A martial art born from his will to destroy anything that blocked his path.
Boom!
A heavy step. A different, ultra-fast speed.
In an instant, he was right in front of him.
The ashen flame obeyed his will, and his fist swung forward with devastating precision.
Ashen flame, Heaven-Surrendering Godly Technique.
It followed the user's will.
A point.
The ashen point slammed into the Demon King's head with a bang!
'This is…'
His mind blurred from the impact, and instinctively, he slammed his staff into the ground.
Thud!
Then, the will of death responded to it.
The power of death took the form of a dragon, just like that.
"Is that all?"
-Not at all!
Death answered his will.
Creeeak.
The sound of something opening.
A subspace began to open there.
Hundreds of thousands, no, an even more distant number.
Skeletons numbering in the tens of millions began to fill the boundary.
At the very front of them.
Dragons and knights clad in death, and mages appeared.
-This is my army! Death Knights and Death Dragons…
Even before his answer was finished.
Boom!
A gray point struck down the death dragon.
The dragon's body shattered completely.
There was a knight.
Boom!
The knight didn't even leave a trace.
There was a knight order.
Thousands of Dullahans and Death Knights fell in one blow.
Thousands of liches and banshees.
Boom!
They too were blown away.
"Pathetic."
The Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor murmured and assumed a stance.
"About ten million, roughly."
He spread his hands, then made a motion as if flipping the air.
And then.
"Great Shift of Heaven and Earth."
Then the sky and earth reversed.
Tens of millions of skeletons.
They all fell from hundreds of meters above the sky.
In mere seconds, the entire army was annihilated.
A rain of skeletons fell, and his army couldn't withstand it for even five seconds before vanishing.
-…
"Is there more?"
-Not yet, not yet…
There's still plenty.
His army was meant to buy time.
It could hold out against transcendents for hours.
And in the meantime, he completed his magic.
However.
'This is pointless… nothing will work against him.'
That was the embodiment of violence. Nothing worked against it.
The magic he possessed, and the power of death. Aging.
The attack had already begun long ago. The aura of death clung to his body.
The power to accelerate time clung to him.
He should have died a long time ago. Yet, it wasn't causing any harm.
-How… how can it resist death and time?
"Ah, was it death and time that clung to me earlier?"
Han Seojin chuckled softly.
"That's supposed to be time and death…?"
A mocking attitude. Han Seojin took a step forward.
One step.
With that, he reached the front of the Demon King of Death.
"To call that death and time is too crude. It's more accurate to call it trash."
And then.
He smashed the Demon King of Death's skull once more.
Boom!!
In its fading consciousness, the Demon King thought.
Simple.
Ignorant.
The fighting method of that bastard called the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor was endlessly monotonous.
Yet it was so efficient.
Destroy everything of the opponent, and then strike them dead as they were.
Such a simple and ignorant method.
The Demon King didn't know, but with this alone, he piled up countless corpses in the martial world.
The martial clans that perished by his hands exceeded triple digits, and to catch just one, they deployed ten thousand martial artists.
Too tyrannical.
Because he was so strong.
Because of just one Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor, a wind blew in the martial world.
Tyranny.
Those who pursued all sorts of things began to be buried in tyranny one by one.
"Pretty solid. For someone so weak."
A trivial murmur. But even in those words, the Demon King felt fear.
'Did just three Transcendents defeat such a being…?'
He was not someone insignificant.
The three Transcendents must be as mature as the Heavenly Demon or the Duke of Extermination.
"Is it because he's weak that he's so resilient?"
As if genuinely curious, the Heaven-Surrendering Martial Emperor looked down at himself.
A truly humiliating sight. Yet his power did not affect him.
Authority, death, and decay.
None of it worked. Magic didn't work either.
Even his army was meaningless against the one standing before him.
'I can't win this…'
All the remaining Demon Kings.
If he brought them here, there might be a chance.
Or if it were the Insect Dragon King or the Mighty King who had stored power for thousands or tens of thousands of years, they might kill this being.
But did that even matter?
Destroying the body, shattering one's soul, and even harming immortality, that existence could be defeated.
"It's over."
The man spoke as if pronouncing a sentence.
The ash-colored flame he raised intensified.
And then.
Just like that.
Boom!!
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