Chapter 216

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]

Chapter 216: Interference (3)

Kwon Hanul didn’t hold any fond memories of the man named Kwon Chan-seong.

From his very debut, Chan-seong had constantly interfered with him—and at one point, Hanul had nearly lost his life at Chan-seong’s hands.

Eventually, Hanul had been the one to put an end to him. Since then, Chan-seong hadn’t crossed his mind again.

And yet, here he was, standing before him once more.

“...How did you recover your mind?”

Back when he had been kidnapped by Catalina Blaga, Chan-seong had plotted not to save Hanul, but to kill him.

Hanul had overpowered him and destroyed his mind—shattering it so thoroughly that he would be forced to live the rest of his life as a hollow shell, suffering endlessly.

“There shouldn’t have been any way to repair that broken mind.”

He had done it using the power of the True Black Dragon Bloodline.

It had been dismantled so completely that no elixir or artifact could ever restore it.

Which is why it made no sense that Kwon Chan-seong now stood before him, completely lucid.

“You’re right. I was turned into an idiot by your hands. If it weren’t for Aeon, I would’ve stayed like that forever.”

“Aeon…?”

Chan-seong held up his grotesquely mutated arm.

“You see this? This is what Aeon did to me. I heard they called it an experiment to enhance Black Dragon Bloodline.”

His mouth twisted into a grimace.

“Treating a living person like a test subject… Looking back, those bastards were monstrous. But for me, it turned out to be a blessing. As the experiments continued, the power of the Black Dragon Bloodline within me grew stronger, and thanks to that, my body and mind were restored.”

“...You let Aeon turn you into a lab rat?”

Hanul had seen it through the Vessel. He knew better than anyone how horrifying Aeon’s experiments were.

“I’m not completely whole. I’ve only recently regained fragments of my memories.”

Suddenly, a murderous glint flickered through Chan-seong’s reptilian pupils. He glared and shouted, “Yeah—recent memories! Memories of that day when you destroyed me! They won’t stop playing in my head! Over and over—they torture me!”

As his fury exploded, so did a wave of powerful mana.

“It’s your fault! If it weren’t for you, Father would still trust me! I wouldn’t have lived as a drooling fool! I wouldn’t have turned into this monster!”

Hanul wasn’t focused on the mana—but on the energy within Chan-seong.

It wasn’t that of a pureblood. It had diverged slightly.

“...You’ve stepped into the realm of the True Blood.”

Technically speaking, Chan-seong had the Black Dragon Bloodline in its pure form.

But now, it had edged closer to the True Blood.

Hanul didn’t know what methods Aeon had used—but the experimental result was undeniably real.

“You have no idea how happy I am right now! I finally get to end this grudge!”

Chan-seong charged at him—but Hanul asked, calmly, “What happened to Kwon Jiseok?”

At those words, Chan-seong froze.

“Kwon Jiseok? Who’s that?”

“So much for ‘recovered.’ You're still out of your mind.”

“Don’t you dare insult me!”

“I’m talking about your younger brother.”

Chan-seong’s face went blank for a moment. Then he let out a small sigh.

“Ah, right. That one. Father brought him in, said he was my brother.”

“And what happened to him?”

“He’s dead.”

Chan-seong answered without hesitation.

“Aeon said they were running low on test subjects, so Father brought him in. I don’t know what happened after that. I just heard later that he died.”

The shock was so immense, even a scoff wouldn’t come.

Hanul had already known Kwon Hyuk wasn’t human in spirit—but he never imagined he’d sacrifice not one, but two of his own sons.

And the way Chan-seong spoke of it—completely unfazed—was nauseating in itself.

“That all the questions you’ve got?”

“Yeah. You can come at me now.”

Hanul casually beckoned him with a flick of his finger.

“Come on. I’ll even let you make the first move.”

“...You arrogant bastard. You dare look down on me?”

“Isn’t it you who’s underestimating me?”

Hanul looked bored as he spoke.

“You lost to me before your mind was destroyed. Do you really think it’ll be any different now?”

“That wasn’t your strength! You had Catalina Blaga and that elixir helping you!”

“Making excuses for your loss? I’m starting to doubt you’re really the ‘great’ Kwon Chan-seong.”

Grinding his teeth, Chan-seong extended his mutated arm.

“You’ll regret those words.”

Black flames wrapped around his monstrous limb. The Dragon Combat Aura sharpened into clawed blades at his fingertips.

“Rrraaagh!”

With a beastly roar, Chan-seong lunged forward—covering dozens of meters in a single leap and crashing down toward Hanul.

Five claws slashed through the air, leaving long trails of power.

The moment they reached Hanul, the ground crumbled beneath the force, and clouds of dust exploded outward.

“Kuhahahah! Kahahaha!”

The dust obscured everything. All that could be seen were flashes of Chan-seong’s claw attacks slicing through the haze.

“I’ve waited so long for this day! To rip you apart with my own hands!”

Suddenly—his maniacal laughter stopped.

The Dragon Combat Aura flickers vanished.

Both the Dark Shade and Black Mark troops stared, confused.

Then the dust began to clear—and the two figures slowly emerged.

“Huff… Huff… Huff…”

Chan-seong was panting heavily. His eyes, still locked on Hanul, trembled with disbelief.

Hanul, on the other hand, looked exactly as he had before. Not even a wrinkle in his clothes.

He hadn’t even broken a sweat.

“...Why…” Chan-seong muttered, as if the sight made no sense. “Why are you completely unharmed?!”

Just now, Chan-seong had launched an unrelenting, lightning-fast barrage of attacks.

Not one person from either troop had been able to track how many strikes he had thrown.

And yet Hanul had not taken a single scratch. Not even a torn sleeve.

“You’re mad at me for your own shortcomings?” Hanul replied flatly. “What? Want me to give you another free shot?”

That single remark tore into Chan-seong’s pride. His eyes rolled back with rage.

“Screw you!”

At that moment, Hanul moved.

He raised his leg and landed successive kicks—knee, abdomen, chin.

The movements looked light, but the pain they delivered shattered Chan-seong’s bones.

“Guh! Grrgh!”

Unable to endure the pain, Chan-seong staggered backward. Hanul spoke, “If you don’t want a free shot, I guess I’ll stop offering.”

He pulled a pair of gloves from his coat and slipped them on.

Chan-seong’s eyes widened the moment he saw them. Hanul grinned.

“You recognize them, don’t you? Of course you do. These are something special.”

Just as Master Park Tae-sik had taken pride in making them, Hanul was equally fond of the gloves.

“I’ve been waiting for a chance to try them out.”

Mana flowed into the knuckle gloves, and a dark Dragon Aura surged around them.

“I’ll give you just one punch. If you block it, I’ll let you go without a word.”

Hanul raised his stance. Chan-seong’s face froze.

He bit his lip in humiliation—hard enough to draw blood.

“Fine. I’ll shred that smug face right here.”

A tremendous wave of mana erupted from Chan-seong’s body. Impressive—but Hanul saw through it.

Chan-seong was scraping together every ounce of mana he had left.

His mutated arm gathered the Dragon Combat Aura, forming an even larger arm.

Black Dragon Twelve Ascendant Techniques – Advanced Form

Aura Slash Style – Dragon Severing White Blood

As the enormous arm came crashing down, the aura turned into a blade—rending sky and earth alike.

At the same moment, Hanul gathered strength in his forearm.

Though they were far apart, distance didn’t matter.

“Hup.”

With a short breath, he thrust out his fist.

The Dragon Aura infused in the knuckles shot out.

Black Dragon Ascension Art – Advanced Form

Annihilation Strike Style – Spinning Gale of Yirim

A spiral-shaped aura tore through everything.

The technique Chan-seong had conjured was shredded apart—and he, at its core, was swallowed up completely.

When it all ended—there was nothing left on the ground.

* * *

The first to react to Kwon Chan-seong’s death was Kwon Mun-ju, the vice-captain of the Black Mark Unit.

That one blow Kwon Hanul had just unleashed had snapped her back to reality.

Even if not just Mun-ju but the entire Black Mark Unit charged at him, they couldn’t stop Hanul. Forget stopping him—surviving the encounter wouldn’t be possible.

Which is why Mun-ju made a swift decision.

“...What are you all standing around for?! Seize the Dark Shade Unit!”

She had resolved to take the Dark Shade Unit hostage.

The Black MArk soldiers obeyed instantly. They moved behind the three members of the Dark Shade Unit and aimed their weapons at their throats.

“Don’t move if you value your subordinates’ lives.”

When Hanul showed no sign of moving, Mun-ju let out a breath of relief.

“Good. That’s a smart boy. Just stay still like that. If you so much as twitch a finger, your men will—”

At her threat, Hanul clicked his tongue in disgust.

“The great Hyukcheon’s troops, resorting to taking hostages. If the world finds out, you won’t just be ridiculed—your entire clan’s name will be trampled into the dirt.”

“Say whatever you want. This is how we do things in the Black Mark Unit.”

At her signal, two soldiers approached Hanul with weapons drawn.

“Sever the tendons in his shoulders.”

They raised their blades. But then Hanul spoke.

“Go ahead. Try me.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere froze over. Mun-ju frowned.

“...What did you just say?”

“I said go ahead—kill me if you can.”

“You think we can’t?”

“Then do it.”

Mun-ju hesitated. She couldn’t tell whether it was bluff, or something else entirely.

“...Looks like you still don’t understand the situation. I’ll help you snap out of it.”

She turned to the soldier holding a Dark Shade operative hostage.

“Kill one of them. Right now!”

But something was wrong. Even after hearing the order, the soldier didn’t move.

He just stood there, staring blankly at Kwon Hanul.

“What are you doing?! I said kill him!”

Still no reaction.

Mun-ju turned to command another soldier—but in that instant, it hit her.

Every Black Mark Unit member was staring blankly at Hanul. Their expressions were empty.

“What’s wrong with all of you?! Snap out of it!”

“It’s no use. This kind of authority isn’t something the likes of you can resist.”

Hanul raised his hand—and every Black Flame soldier dropped their weapons. The Dark Shade Unit was freed.

“This way.”

The three Dark Shade members ran to Hanul’s side.

Then, Hanul turned to Mun-ju and spoke.

“On the way here, I gave a lot of thought to how I should handle your squad. But judging by your actions… it looks like I didn’t need to think that hard.”

His eyes locked onto Mun-ju—and she was hit with a wave of overwhelming vertigo.

She tried to resist. But in the end, her mind gave out.

Like the others, Mun-ju’s face went blank.

“The Black Mark Unit will restrain themselves and head to the holding cells. I’ll decide your punishment later.”

Each soldier opened a subspace portal and pulled out binding restraints.

They cuffed themselves and made their way toward the Hyukcheon family’s prison compound.

“Not you.”

Hanul grabbed Mun-ju.

“You’re going to take me to Kwon Hyuk. Right now.”

* * *

Mun-ju led Hanul to the chairman’s office—what was left of it.

The room had been half-destroyed. The whole building looked too damaged to ever be usable again.

“...That item... over there...”

Mun-ju pointed to a small vault lying amidst the rubble.

The moment he saw it, Hanul recognized what it was.

He didn’t even need to ask.

It was The Sand Prison Vault—a containment artifact once used on him by the Mei family’s famed “Greatest Sword of the Central Plains.”

“So the chairman and Kwon Hyuk are inside that thing?”

“...The Witch of Hyukcheon... is in there too...”

Hanul ground his teeth. No wonder he couldn’t sense any of their mana. He hadn’t expected them to use the Sand Prison Vault.

Once activated, that artifact could never be opened from the outside.

Which meant... he'd have to wait until whatever was happening inside was over.

“Damn it.”

“Such a foul mouth.”

A gravelly voice rang out from somewhere nearby.

From inside one of the still-intact sections of the building...

A small, elderly man emerged.

“This is our first time meeting face-to-face, isn’t it? I am—”

“Azethh Hermes.”

Hanul cut him off.

He’d never seen the man in person, but he couldn’t possibly not know him.

This was the man he had seen over and over in the Vessel’s visions.

“Leader of Aeon. Azeth Hermes.”

“...You know more than I expected.”

Azeth looked momentarily startled, but recovered quickly.

“I wonder why you’ve come before me. Are you so eager to rush to the afterlife?”

Hanul was already in a foul mood. And now, standing before him, was the man who had wronged his mother.

His disgust surged into raw magical power.

Hanul’s aura swept violently across the space—so intense that Azeth Hermes’s face turned pale from the pressure.

“...Impressive. As expected. But don’t think I came before you without a plan.”

Azeth suddenly smiled.

“I’ve come to take back what your mother stole from me.”

He opened a subspace portal, reached inside, and pulled something out.

A radiant light flooded the space.

The moment that light touched Hanul, a message appeared:

<‘???’ detects traces of Half-Saint Bloodline.>

[Translator - Helga ]

[Proofreader - Starfall ]