So? Did Someone Force You to Become the Heavenly Demon?

A lone young man had come to raid the enemy command post by himself.

Il-mok leveled the Ascension Sword at the Western Military Commander.

"Are you the Commander of Western Military?"

Only when Il-mok's voice broke the suffocating silence did the elite officers finally snap out of their daze and scramble to draw their weapons. 

The Commander raised a hand to hold them back and answered.

"I am."

"One last question before we get to it. Is there any chance you'd still consider joining hands with us to take down the Supreme Eunuch?"

The offer tasted sweeter than the Commander wanted to admit.

But the old general shut the idea down without a second thought.

"How could a general sworn to defend the Empire's borders ever ally with foreign invaders?"

"Two hundred years ago, our people belonged to the Central Plains just as much as you do."

"Hah! You have the nerve to say that after dragging those northern nomadic tribes into our lands? And as a general of the Empire, I have no intention of allying with rebels. More than anything else, you don't plan to stop at just cutting down Supreme Eunuch, do you?"

He was saying there was no way he could side with them, not when they had their sights set on the Emperor himself.

"A useless emperor is no different from a disaster for the people. Did you become a general to protect those people, or simply to protect the Emperor and his bloodline?"

"It is only with the existence of the Imperial Family and the Emperor that these vast Central Plains can remain stable. If there is no definitive ruler, the era of the Warring States will unfold once more, plunging countless citizens into absolute destitution."

The Commander had barely finished his answer when Il-mok clicked his tongue.

"Tch."

The sound of Il-mok's tongue was a kind of signal flare. It was the signal declaring that the final negotiation had ended in failure.

"Kill him!!"

On command, the elite officers guarding the Commander swarmed Il-mok from all sides. 

Il-mok watched two sabers and a spear come flying at him from the front and both flanks with a bored look on his face.

He weaved through the attacks with such flawless grace that it looked like a rehearsed stage dance.

He slipped past the two incoming sabers, letting the sharp steels graze past him.

Thud.

By the time the motion was done, the Ascension Sword was buried in the heart of the officer who had lunged at him from the front with a spear.

But right after casually executing a hardened elite officer like he was nothing, Il-mok let out an annoyed sigh and massaged his temples.

—Hahaha! Yes, kill them all! Slaughter every last one!

—Damn right! We have no need of these wretched men! Kill them all!

Thanks to the fact that he had dived straight back into a warzone without taking a single second to meditate and regulate his Qi after detonating the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm, the side effects in his head were throwing a riot. 

And out of all the voices, the one having the time of its life was the ego of the Raging Demon Sword Art.

—More!

—Butcher more of them!

—Drink them dry, as much as you want!!

It was getting worked up because the Ascension Sword was currently drinking the fresh Blood Qi straight from the impaled officer's heart.

‘A few more battles like this and the Yang Qi will build up fast enough.’

As if it had read his thoughts, the ego of the Raging Demon Sword Art burst out laughing.

—Kuhahaha! Now that is excellent news!

Il-mok greeted the idiotic outburst with nothing but quiet contempt.

He had no intention of getting swallowed up by that thing, no matter how far his cultivation advanced.

And beyond that, ‘I don't have time to spoon-feed you right now.’

He had zero desire to do something as insane as absorbing Blood Qi using the volatile Raging Demon Sword Art's core formula in the middle of a battlefield.

Instead, the second the blade drank the blood qi, Il-mok instantly burned it as fuel to forge outward Sword Force or Force Qi Armor. 

Just like right now.

Slash!

After absorbing a surge of Blood Qi, he channeled the fresh energy to form the Force Qi Armor.

Without missing a beat, he sliced straight through the heavy saber of a second officer charging him from behind and cleaving the man in half in the same swing.

Ignoring the babbling of the side effects, Il-mok kept moving his feet while his sword cut the enemies.

Luckily, all his recent grinding to master the World-Destroying Primordial Jade Palm had paid off, and his internal injuries actually weren't bad enough to slow him down.

Because of that, the maddening egos in his mind were still at a volume he could easily tune out. Or maybe they were just being quiet because he was busy butchering everyone in sight, giving the maniacs exactly what they wanted.

Slash.

Another swing and another officer's head rolling from his shoulders. And right after that, a great saber coated in Force Qi came sweeping at Il-mok's side.

BANG!!!

He flared up his own Force Qi Armor just in time to catch the blow and clicked his tongue.

‘It seems it's going to be a bit noisier in my head for a while.’             

It was pretty obvious that until he put down the Commander swinging this massive saber, he wasn't going to be able to farm any more kills.

The sheer kinetic force traveling down the Ascension Sword from the clash was actually enough to make his wrist throb. And that says plenty about the Western Military Commander’s skills.

"Hrrgh!!"

As the Commander exhaled sharply and swung his great saber with full force once again, Il-mok utilized his lightness skill to dodge the second strike by a hair's breadth.

He knocked away the Commander's third attack, and a thought settled in his mind.

‘I guess he didn't become one of the Empire's Five Great Generals for nothing.’

Just as he had vaguely suspected during their brief conversation, the Western Military Commander was also an absolute master who had stepped into the Realm of Truth.

Clang!

In the span of a heartbeat, they had already exchanged more than ten blows, and Il-mok calmly analyzed his opponent.

‘Because it's a military saber art, the saber forms are incredibly concise. But there's a different quality to it compared to the Alliance Leader's style. If I had to pick, it actually feels a lot like Dokgo's Nine Swords.’

Instead of feeling like a martial art meant for flashy one-on-one duels, the Commander's style completely reeked of brutal battlefield tactics.

But while Il-mok was busy analyzing his opponent's moveset, his eyebrow suddenly twitched in annoyance.

—That old man ignored your offer! Put him down right now!

— We have no use for an old man!! Kill him already!!

— Why are you even hesitating against someone weaker than you?!

Maybe it was because the Commander had pumped the brakes on the bloodbath, but the side effects were throwing an even bigger temper tantrum than before.

That aside, the Raging Demon Sword Art was right about one thing.

After trading a few hits, it was obvious that while the Commander’s saber was powerful, he definitely wasn't on Il-mok's level.

If he had to compare, it was about on par with Alliance Leader Cheok Pae-myeong, maybe a notch below.

It was definitely a little ironic that a corrupt eunuch's lapdog was actually a better fighter than one of the Empire's Great Generals, but at the end of the day, that was just the difference between a dedicated martial artist and a man whose real job was leading armies.

For a martial artist, simply possessing profound martial arts might be enough, but for a military general, martial prowess was merely one of many necessary tools. There was no shortage of things a general had to manage.

Either way, there were a few reasons Il-mok was having a harder time than he should have, despite being one or two steps above the Commander.

If there had been a massive power gap, things would be easier. But if the gap is only about one or two steps, they were bound to trade dozens of blows before a winner emerged.

—Coward! Let your rage take over! That's how you stop being afraid!

The side effects screaming in his head weren't helping.

And then there was the bigger problem.

‘They're just waiting for their moment.’

Since the fight with the Western Military Commander had begun, the surrounding enemy soldiers had quietly formed an encirclement.

The exchanges between Il-mok and the Commander were moving too fast for them to break in, but the second Il-mok made a big motion or paused even for a moment, they'd be all over him.

Trying to fend off the pack of wolves circling him outside while simultaneously fighting the demons inside his own head was enough to give anyone a massive migraine.

‘Well, everything's gone completely to shit now.’

He let out a deeply annoyed sigh, and his entire aura changed.

SWISH!

Done measuring his opponent out, Il-mok suddenly surged forward in a direct drive at the Commander.

When the Commander swung his heavy saber to intercept the rush, Il-mok met the strike head-on with the Ascension Sword.

Clang!

The instant blade met blade, Il-mok's sword vibrated and then slithered up along the length of the great saber like a snake diving straight for the fingers gripping the hilt.

The Commander yanked the saber back and threw himself backward just in time to keep his hand.

SWISH!

Il-mok chased after him immediately with a burst of lightness skill, and he put all of his efforts into offense from that moment on.

He needed to finish the Western Military Commander as fast as possible. That was the only way this damned war would end.

A long time ago, Il-mok had made a promise to himself.

In a world as lawless and rotten as this one, he would gladly bathe his hands in blood to see his goals realized.

However, that did not mean he felt nothing while thousands and tens of thousands of innocent people

But just because he was willing to kill didn't mean he was okay with watching tens of thousands of innocent people get slaughtered for no reason.

That was exactly why Il-mok had gone out of his way to offer the Commander one last chance at diplomacy.

If the Commander had just agreed to join forces, they could have stopped this pointless bloodshed immediately.

‘The longer I drag this out, the more people die.’

As Il-mok finally unleashed his full offensive in earnest, the Commander's movements started showing cracks.

Subtle feints to confuse the eyes, false openings that pulled the attention, and a quick sword cutting through the gaps the moment they appeared. The second Il-mok swung his sword again, the Commander could now only grit his teeth and weather the offensive.

With resolve in his heart, he chose to aim his saber at Il-mok’s throat in exchange for letting his chance to escape into the smoke.

It was a naked exchange of mutual destruction, betting on the raw power of his military saber art. He was willing to bet his life as long as his opponent lost the same.

And it worked exactly as he intended.

Il-mok's sword shifted course away from the Commander's vitals and moved to intercept the great saber instead.

BANG!!

The moment the two weapons locked together in a contest of raw strength—

"Now!!"

The officers who had been nervously watching their commander getting pushed back lunged at Il-mok at once.

Their weapons were just a hair's breadth from his body when —

SWISH!

Il-mok abruptly applied the principle of softness to redirect the great saber off to the side and then used the rebound force to throw himself into a roll across the ground.

The Lazy Donkey Roll was an incredibly undignified move for a master of his level to use, but the Commander didn't have the luxury to laugh at Il-mok’s face as his own face contorted in horror the moment he realized what was going on.

Because Il-mok had waited until the last possible second to deflect it, the Commander's great saber was now angled straight toward the ribs of an officer charging in from behind Il-mok.

"Damn it!!"

The Commander desperately tried to pull his swing, but his face was already crumpling.

Slash.

In that split second, his powerful saber had already cut halfway through his own officer's side.

The Western Military Commander's expression twisted with fury as he turned his gaze away from what he had just done to his own man.

‘That bastard won't survive this either!’

There had been more than a couple of weapons flying at Il-mok all at once and it was impossible for him to deflect or dodge all of that attack with just a clumsy roll in the dirt. 

With him rolling across the dirt like that, deflecting or dodging every single one of them would have been impossible.

And just as the Commander predicted, Il-mok didn't manage to dodge a single weapon directed at him.

The problem was—

‘Force Qi Armor?!’

It was infinitely more accurate to say that Il-mok didn't need to dodge. 

Every single weapon aimed at Il-mok had been stopped cold by a translucent gray barrier that wrapped around him.

And—

Slick.

Before the Commander could even process what was happening, the Ascension Sword shot up from the ground and buried itself deep into his ribs. 

He had waited for the moment the Commander flinched from striking his own man and driven through that gap.

"Tch."

Even though the gamble had paid off exactly as planned, Il-mok still scowled.

‘That drained a huge chunk of my internal energy.’

He had practiced Force Qi Armor a handful of times after watching Hwangbo Ak use it, but he had rarely ever deployed it in an actual fight. The internal energy expenditure was simply too steep.

"You... bastard!!"

Whether it was the pain of the wound in his side or the shock of having cut down his own officer with his own hands, the Western Military Commander screamed and swung his great saber again even with a sword buried in his flank.

Unlike anything his other officers had thrown at Il-mok, the Commander's great saber carried enough raw power to shatter Force Qi Armor.

But even the most powerful blow in the world is useless if it doesn't land.

Il-mok released his grip on the Ascension Sword without hesitation and rolled aside again, barely clearing the attack.

"Cough..."

The price of forcing that wild swing was immediate.

His intestines tearing apart, the Commander violently hacked up blood and collapsed onto one knee. 

But the most eerie thing about the sight was that even as the wound split wider and the flesh inside was laid bare, not a single drop of blood fell to the ground.

The Ascension Sword was currently drinking every last drop of his blood with a ravenous hunger

Il-mok quickly rose to his feet and reached out a hand.

With a command, the Ascension Sword pulled itself free from the Commander's side and flew back to him.

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