Wudang Sacred Scriptures-Chapter 173
“To the right!”
Kwak Yeon slashed through the air once again in a lateral arc.
—KWA-RUNG!
After two clashes, the blade energy of the Cheonggang Sword had diminished by nearly half.
“Now behind me!”
He spun his body using Heaven-Earth Eight Desolate Steps and thrust the Cheonggang Sword toward a single point in the air.
—KAAANG!
Once again, a white flash exploded without fail, briefly lighting the gloom before vanishing. And again, the blade energy of the Cheonggang Sword was further reduced.
The White-Haired Demon Queen was like a ghost, appearing from every direction unpredictably—and with unbelievable speed.
Yet Kwak Yeon was not anxious.
Through several successive clashes, he had realized that the White-Haired Demon Queen’s Hand-Force was noticeably weakening.
“She has to divide her energy to maintain her ascension movement technique—it’s a losing game for her.”
Kwak Yeon came to understand that in martial arts, as in warfare, offense was far more difficult than defense.
There was another reason he had grown more confident.
In using his External Spirit Boundary repeatedly to locate her concealed presence, he had naturally spread it out much wider.
Thanks to that, the once-limited directional scope and short range of the boundary had drastically expanded.
Where before he could only sense her within one jang, now he could detect her presence within nearly two.
Which meant he now had ample leeway to intercept her stealth attacks.
“Defense is no longer an issue.”
—KWAANG!
As he watched the sword-silks from Danmok Seong’s blade spark with blue light, Kwak Yeon felt certain that time was now on their side.
—KWA-RRRUNG!
Thanks to Danmok Seong blocking the fourth and fifth attacks in a row, Kwak Yeon found a brief moment of respite. He boosted his internal energy and restored the blade-energy of the Cheonggang Sword.
Hummmm!
Kwak Yeon anticipated that the White-Haired Demon Queen would soon cease using Moon-Shadow Divine Steps and reveal herself.
“No matter how profound her internal energy, there has to be a limit.”
He stole a sidelong glance at the shrine atop the hill, its silhouette faint beneath the moonlight.
“It’s about time we brought this to an end.”
The problem was—his ankle remained tightly seized by something ghost-like.
Swsssk...
The ghost grasping his ankle began to show itself.
Just as Kwak Yeon had expected, the White-Haired Demon Queen could not persist with the Moon-Shadow Divine Steps indefinitely, not with its massive drain on internal energy.
As she revealed herself beneath the moonlight, she could not help but appear disconcerted.
“Even with Moon-Shadow Divine Steps, I couldn’t subdue him?”
Danmok Seong’s persistent interference may have contributed, but her first few strikes had been focused solely on the cave-dwelling Daoist. She had no excuse.
She had to accept that her assessment of the cave-dwelling Daoist as a mere beginner of the Flame Realm had been mistaken.
It was evident now that he had surpassed a stage, given how he employed the External Spirit Boundary.
When she first saw him in Deokseong, he had clearly been only at the entry to the Flame Realm.
“Could it be? Did he advance a stage in just a few days?”
The White-Haired Demon Queen could not believe it.
Ascending a stage within the Flame Realm was two to three times more difficult than entering it from the peak of the previous realm.
“Even I, trained in the sect’s secret inner art, required twenty years of intense cultivation to pass a single stage.”
Her eyes turned cold as the realization settled.
“I thought he was a brittle clay vessel to be discarded—but he turned out to be an iron pillar.”
And gazing at someone else’s iron pillar was never a pleasant thing.
Especially not when it was the very person obstructing her from exacting vengeance for a hundred years of resentment.
“So you would force me to use the Annihilation Palm?”
She gazed at Kwak Yeon, speaking silently within.
“You brought this upon yourself. Blame no one else.”
Her once-white hands began to appear translucent.
Kwak Yeon felt the surrounding air suddenly turn cold—and the meridians within his blood vessels blazed white-hot all at once.
WIIIIIIING!
“That’s a reaction from the Honwonmusang Technique!”
It was the first time the technique had ever responded to an opponent’s energy flow—and to do so this violently, like a seizure.
“Is this demonic energy?”
He quickly dismissed the thought.
The sacred Honwonmusang Technique would never resonate with some depraved magong.
“Then why...?”
He couldn’t pursue the question.
For in midair, the White-Haired Demon Queen’s form had grown hazy, and a pair of transparent jade-like hands floated into view.
At that moment, Danmok Seong’s heavy voice reached him as internal sound transmission.
—“Daoist Kwak, no matter what happens, stay exactly where you are. I’ll explain later.”
The situation was too urgent for Kwak Yeon to ask questions. He simply took it as a warning to stay alert.
And in any case, he had planned to stay on defense.
“This is the critical moment. If I get through this, her momentum will break—and then we flee.”
Kwak Yeon had never intended to settle this with the White-Haired Demon Queen. He bore no personal grudge against her.
—SHUUUUUNG!
As the pair of jade hands descended through the air, Kwak Yeon raised his Cheonggang Sword to meet them.
—SHUAAT!
“Lady Hong! You are far too severe with a junior!”
—KWAANG!
Danmok Seong appeared in front of Kwak Yeon, intercepting both jade hands.
“I act of my own will! Who are you to interfere?”
With a roar, the White-Haired Demon Queen vaulted over Danmok Seong, striking toward Kwak Yeon’s head with her jade hands.
But once again, Danmok Seong’s blade appeared and deflected them.
—KAAANG!
“Lady Hong, I beg of you—let him go with a different kind of lesson.”
His sincere tone only provoked a furious shout in reply.
“Hmph! You of the Danmok Clan persist in thwarting my every move! Then I’ll change plans—your death comes first!”
With that declaration, the White-Haired Demon Queen launched an all-out assault on Danmok Seong.
—KANG KANG KANG KAAANG!
Kwak Yeon could not understand why Danmok Seong had told him not to move, only to fight so desperately in front of him.
“Are those translucent jade hands truly so terrifying?”
Judging from how Danmok Seong blocked them using Seongra True Qi, it did not seem so.
Nor did the jade hands appear to contain any hidden trick.
But one thing was clear—the White-Haired Demon Queen had changed her mind.
“She’s resolved to kill Elder Danmok.”
Seeing the elder’s swordplay begin to slow, Kwak Yeon could no longer remain still.
—SHWAAK!
The White-Haired Demon Queen pressed down on Danmok Seong’s sword with one jade hand, while the other struck toward his Celestial Ridge.
Kwak Yeon urgently pushed Danmok Seong aside and thrust out with his Cheonggang Sword.
“Elder Danmok, I’ll take this one!”
“Fool! Get back at once!”
Danmok Seong shouted, but Kwak Yeon ignored him.
His sword-energy was lashing out toward her solar plexus—surely she would retreat.
He intended to use that moment to drag Danmok Seong away. If necessary, he would even paralyze his pressure points to do it.
But—
—SHUUUUT!
Even as his sword-energy reached her chest, the White-Haired Demon Queen did not move.
FLASH!
Her form shattered like glass.
“An illusion?”
In that moment, Kwak Yeon sensed a surge of energy bearing down on his back.
—SHUUUUNG!
“You brat! Blame yourself for meddling in others’ affairs!”
Though he didn’t turn around, he could see the jade hand closing in on his back.
His External Spirit Boundary was vividly showing him the situation.
And his Insight told him: he had walked right into her trap.
“She was reading me the whole time while attacking Elder Danmok. She knew I would focus solely on his danger and let my guard drop.”
He had underestimated the White-Haired Demon Queen—a seasoned veteran with more experience in the martial world than any.
He could also feel that the jade hand behind him did not radiate Hand-Force.
Kwak Yeon suddenly recalled Wudang’s Cotton Palm.
“No glow from the hand—this must be a remote palm strike, like Wudang’s Cotton Palm!”
A killing palm technique that bypassed the opponent’s protective Qi to pour internal energy directly into the body.
Only then did Kwak Yeon understand why Danmok Seong had so earnestly begged her to show mercy.
And why the elder had thrown himself so desperately in front of him.
“Daoist Kwak—no matter what happens, hold your ground.”
Danmok Seong had known she was about to unleash a terrifying killing palm.
Perhaps it was because of the mortal danger.
But in that single instant, Kwak Yeon saw it all—saw the jade hand about to strike his back.
One moment of negligence, and everything would fall apart.
—THUD!
Something slammed into his side, and the moon above reeled wildly.
—PAAANG!
With a deafening crack, Danmok Seong’s body flew like a puppet whose strings had been severed.
“Keurgh!”
The blood he spewed painted the white moon red.
“Elder Danmok!”
Kwak Yeon hurled himself forward with all his might.
He caught Danmok Seong just as he was about to crash to the earth like a falling star.
“Elder Danmok?”
With a face pale as paper, the elder said,
“Didn’t I tell you—to hold your position?”
“...Forgive me. Let me stabilize you first.”
Seeing Danmok Seong tremble, Kwak Yeon quickly struck a pressure point for emergency treatment—to minimize the outflow of Qi.
Then he turned to face the White-Haired Demon Queen.
She stood frozen, jade hand extended.
Perhaps even she had not expected Danmok Seong to throw his body into the blow.
Kwak Yeon spoke with reverence.
“Elder, allow me to tend to him. I shall return.”
The White-Haired Demon Queen gave a silent nod.
“Thank you. I will return shortly—and repay this grace.”
Leaving behind a promise heavy with meaning, Kwak Yeon vanished into the darkness, carrying Danmok Seong.
Some time after his silhouette disappeared, the White-Haired Demon Queen’s form wavered briefly.
Not only because she had expended all her internal energy releasing the Annihilation Palm—Hanbaek Soul-Scattering Palm.
“......”
With a desolate expression, she looked up at the moon.
Then, with heavy steps, she ascended the hill.
—CREEEAK.
As she opened the doors to Honggajimyo, the shrine of the Hong Family, her form froze.
The Danmok Clan’s Young Lord was nowhere to be found.
“...!”
Only then did she understand why the cave-dwelling Daoist had proposed shifting their battle to the open field.
“I cannot withdraw yet. The timing is not right.”
Those words, and his occasional glances toward the shrine during the fight—all explained the current result.
“He planned this from the beginning. The cave-dwelling Daoist involved himself deliberately.”
She had been utterly deceived by a Dark Crossing of the Wei River—a classic stratagem of feigned retreat—right before her eyes.
But one question remained unanswered.
The cave-dwelling Daoist had no accomplice.
“He has always fought alone. The only one with him now is...”
THUD.
A sinking sensation bloomed in her chest.
“Don’t tell me—that child—”
