Chapter 266 : Just Two Steps

The fight between the masters of sound art was quieter than expected.

The sharp sound of blades clashing on the battlefield, the ragged groans and screams of the dying martial artists.

In the midst of the rough noise that could not be defined as music, Churyeonghoe and Oh Yoran stared at each other fiercely.

The one who started the song first was Churyeonghoe.

Diriring— Diring—!

A cool melody flowed from between Churyeonghoe’s long fingers, which were freely playing on the seven strings.

A cold and indifferent melody that made the listener get goosebumps and their hair stand on end.

This soon became a blade and came at Oh Yoran.

‘The advantageous side is me.’

Churyeonghoe smiled slyly.

The reason she had been carrying the heavy seven-stringed zither was because the seven-stringed zither, which was made of seven strings, was the instrument that could create the most diverse melodies among the existing instruments.

Being able to produce various sounds meant that she could play more diverse songs.

“Hmm.”

Oh Yoran savored the sound of Churyeonghoe’s music that was seeping into her ears.

“It’s so cold it’s chilling.”

It was as if a late snowstorm was blowing, and her two cheeks were cold and her whole body was trembling.

Moreover, the sound waves continuously tried to pierce Oh Yoran’s protective qi with a drill-like momentum.

“So this is the sound you have.”

Oh Yoran brought the daegeum to her lower lip.

The music of the Heavenly Sound White Flower began to cover the battlefield.

Woooong—!

‘My qi…!’

Churyeonghoe was greatly flustered.

Her qi wave, which had been dominating the surrounding area and pressing Oh Yoran, began to be pushed back in an instant.

In the end, sound art is a type of wave.

Although it was not visible, the wave carrying the sound was spreading in all directions, and her sound wave, which contained her qi, was being pushed back by Oh Yoran’s sound wave.

“Keuk!”

The fingertips of Churyeonghoe, which were moving as if they were dancing on the seven strings, trembled finely.

‘This is!’

Her body did not move, as if she had been poisoned by a paralyzing poison.

Her stiffened fingers did not move as she willed.

Churyeonghoe was greatly flustered by Oh Yoran’s music, which was warm but had an indescribable pressure, that was heard in her ears.

‘Why!?’

Oh Yoran’s daegeum produced more diverse sounds than her own, which had a seven-stringed zither, and the density of the qi contained in it was on a different level.

“It’s impossible.”

Churyeonghoe, who could not accept the fact that she was being pushed back by Oh Yoran, bit her lower lip strongly.

Blood flowed from her burst lip, and a sharp pain was felt, but thanks to that, her stiffened body regained a little freedom.

“Hoo-wook!!”

Churyeonghoe did not miss the momentary opportunity and moved her two hands even faster.

Her ten fingers moved freely and flexibly as if they had their own will, plucking, pressing, and shaking the strings.

Tales of the White Serpent Demons.

The story of the death sung by a hundred corpses.

Although it resembled a funeral song, her song, which was full of evil qi and hatred, spread throughout the area and began to swallow the surroundings.

The martial artists who heard Churyeonghoe’s Tales of the White Serpent Demons covered their ears as if they were seeing a hallucination or ran away, leaving even the weapons they were holding, with terrified faces.

Among them, there were also those who could not overcome their fear and stabbed themselves with their swords, self-harming.

This did not distinguish between friend and foe.

Without distinguishing between black and white, the majority of the martial artists who heard Churyeonghoe’s song were affected.

“How dare you!”

Oh Yoran, who was watching this, was greatly enraged.

Oh Yoran put more qi into her music and began to drive out Churyeonghoe’s qi, which had dominated the area.

And Churyeonghoe watched this with interest.

“It’s fun.”

Churyeonghoe put more strength into the fingertips that were plucking the strings.

A sound wave with a blade-like momentum attacked Oh Yoran.

Seogeok—!

The sound wave of Churyeonghoe, which had been blocked by the protective qi until now, finally reached Oh Yoran’s body.

A red-stained wound was revealed between the cut clothes, and blood seeped out.

“So you are also of the righteous path.”

Churyeonghoe found Oh Yoran’s situation funny.

To not take care of her own body to save others in front of an opponent, she couldn’t understand it, but she didn’t even think of understanding it.

It was just important that now was the chance.

Churyeonghoe’s hands became even busier.

Deureureureureung—!!

As the sharp sound waves continued to aim for her, Oh Yoran focused her mind and blew her breath into the daegeum.

Oh Yoran’s sound wave became a single wall and blocked the sound waves that Churyeonghoe was sending.

But in that brief gap, Churyeonghoe plucked the strings even more fiercely.

“Kyaaak!”

“Keolleok—! Keolleok!”

While Oh Yoran had stopped for a moment, Churyeonghoe’s death song once again plunged the martial artists into chaos and fear.

“Hahahaha! Go ahead and try. Weigh which is more important, your body or their lives!”

A sense of ecstasy was revealed on Churyeonghoe’s face.

‘You will never be able to abandon them.’

Churyeonghoe’s ten fingers simultaneously grabbed the seven strings.

In the meantime, Oh Yoran was soothing the martial artists who had lost their minds to Churyeonghoe’s death song with her own performance.

“This is why the ones in white clothes are no good.”

Churyeonghoe’s ten fingers simultaneously plucked the strings.

Tan-eum-gong.

Although it was one of the most basic attacks that could be done with sound art, the Tan-eum-gong performed by the masters of sound art was powerful enough to make a hole in a rock.

“Die!!”

Oh Yoran faced the ten deaths that were approaching her.

Oh Yoran, who was watching the ten sound bullets that seemed impossible to avoid or block, firmly closed her lips.

Soon, a smile spread on her firmly closed lips.

“You and I.”

A song flowed from Oh Yoran’s daegeum.

The name of the song she had chosen was Flowers Bloom in Full Spring.

It was a song that did not suit the battlefield.

Oh Yoran’s music, which sang of the warmth and abundance of spring, came as a warm comfort to the martial artists who were tired from the war.

“What are you doing?”

Churyeonghoe did not understand Oh Yoran’s choice of song.

To choose a song that would be heard at a harvest festival praying for a good year.

“Have you finally gone senile…”

Churyeonghoe’s face hardened.

Soon, blood burst from her mouth.

“Keolleok! Keolleok! Kkeueueuk! Kkeuheuk…!”

Blood continued to leak from between her tightly clenched lips.

Even if she tried to play the seven-stringed zither by force, she couldn’t even move her hands properly.

‘When… did this happen to me…’

Churyeonghoe belatedly realized that she had suffered an internal injury.

Because of her twisted qi and blood, she could not control her internal energy as she willed, and with her stiffened hands, she could no longer even play the seven-stringed zither.

Churyeonghoe barely raised her head, bleeding from her eyes, nose, and ears.

Where she was looking, Oh Yoran was standing like a painting of a divine immortal.

“Why…”

“You only played for your own pleasure, enjoyment, and slaughter, didn’t you? That’s why you can’t surpass me.”

“…”

Only then did Churyeonghoe realize.

That the seven-stringed zither and the daegeum were not important.

What was truly important was the limit of the sound that the performer could produce.

‘To think that she had planted a blade… in a song as warm as a spring flower.’

There was a hidden belly sword in the melody of Flowers Bloom in Full Spring that Oh Yoran had played.

Churyeonghoe had not realized this.

Because she had not completely understood Oh Yoran’s music.

“Sh…it…”

Churyeonghoe finally vomited blood on the seven-stringed zither and lowered her head.

“Hoo.”

Blood dripped from between the lips of Oh Yoran, who had finished her fight with a master of the same sound art.

“Was I too foolish?”

Oh Yoran caressed her abdomen with her fingertips.

Warm and wet blood was felt.

One of the ten sound bullets that Churyeonghoe had sent just before had pierced her abdomen.

Hwicheong—!

Oh Yoran, who was staggering, bit her lip and endured.

“Not yet… not yet…”

***

‘He’s a master.’

The title of the number one master of the heretic path was not an empty name.

Ju Baek and Yi Changsu.

The two, a fist artist and a swordsman, had never practiced together, yet they performed an amazing joint attack against Kang Cheon.

Without their movements overlapping, a punch and a slash flew in one after another.

Kang Cheon had to fly his flying swords and step on his footwork against the two.

“Hoo—!”

As soon as he barely avoided the punch, he held his flying sword in a reverse grip and defended his right neck.

Kaang—!!

As befitting a master of the fast sword, Yi Changsu’s blade came, tearing through the air.

In a situation where a single moment of carelessness would lead to death, a smile had at some point appeared on Kang Cheon’s lips.

“Hehehe… hahaha!!”

A bloody battle where blood and flesh splattered.

Even the fear of death felt at every moment.

Kang Cheon felt like he was flying with joy at a fight that was like a fight after a long time.

“Come on!”

Kang Cheon, who was holding a flying sword, stepped forward with his right foot and at the same time flew the flying sword with a powerful force.

Ju Baek, who had witnessed this from the front, crossed his two hands and defended.

Beonjjeok—! Kwang—!!

At the same time as Ju Baek’s figure was sent flying, Yi Changsu’s fast sword simultaneously cut Kang Cheon’s thigh, waist, and shoulder.

What was seen was one slash, but in reality, three slashes had simultaneously cut Kang Cheon.

“Heup!”

Kang Cheon twisted his whole body and defended the unavoidable slash with his flying sword.

But Yi Changsu’s fast sword could not be blocked with a hastily taken defensive posture.

Blood splattered from the wound cut by the blade.

A sharp pain was felt.

“It’s fast. As fast as the fast sword of Jongnam.”

Kang Cheon was purely impressed and reached out to Yi Changsu, who had come into his bosom.

“Then try to avoid this too.”

The expression of Yi Changsu, who was about to thrust his sword, changed abruptly.

‘Above!’

Yi Changsu swung his sword not at the front but above his head, and the sword curtain created by dozens of slashes blocked the flying swords that were falling like thunderbolts from the sky.

Kwagagagang—!!

While the four flying swords were pressing down on Yi Changsu, one unseen flying sword approached Yi Changsu’s neck.

“Tsk!”

The hidden flying sword pierced Yi Changsu’s neck.

At the same time, Ju Baek, who had come running in a single breath, threw a right fist with concentrated qi at Kang Cheon.

“Haaaap!”

A powerful fist qi came out from Ju Baek’s right fist, which he had thrown with a spirited shout.

Kang Cheon, who had already consumed a lot of internal energy, unfolded the Cheonryubo and crossed his two hands. At that, the flying swords that had been scattered on the floor instantly gathered and blocked the fist qi.

Kwa-aaang—!!

With the explosion of qi, the flying swords were sent flying in all directions, and Kang Cheon was also pushed back, letting out a ragged breath.

“Heok… heok…”

A situation where his internal energy had rapidly decreased due to the sword control technique.

“Did you protect your neck by giving up your left arm?”

Yi Changsu, who he had thought had his neck pierced, tore his clothes and stopped the bleeding from his cut-off left arm.

“Are you okay?”

At Ju Baek’s question, Yi Changsu said.

“I can hold a sword.”

“Then that’s enough.”

“The Ten Flying Blood Ghost’s breath is rough. His back is bent, and his fingertips are trembling finely. There is not much left now.”

“I know too.”

Ju Baek and Yi Changsu, who had realized that Kang Cheon’s strength was almost gone, raised their momentum even more.

“I’m lonely, so lonely.”

Kang Cheon muttered this and straightened his body.

Namgung Muhyeok was busy fighting Masok and had no time, and the other two martial artists of the Peng family seemed to be busy fighting the rushing heretic martial artists.

Kang Cheon, who had come to face the two demon fiends alone, held two flying swords in both hands, let out a ragged breath, and looked back.

Three open gates.

When he turned his head forward again, he saw the fourth gate.

“It’s just two steps.”

Kang Cheon smiled as he faced the two evils that were approaching him.

“Come on.”

(End of Chapter)