doitstory Chapter 280 : Manifestation of the Inner Demon (2)
Chapter 280 : Manifestation of the Inner Demon (2)
Chapter 280: Manifestation of the Inner Demon (2)
Half a One Time-Period later.
Deep into the night, a cold wind blew.
Namgung Baek was still standing alone, guarding the tightly sealed entrance of the Secret Cave.
‘Should I go back now…….’
There was no time left. He had to make a decision.
He could not keep waiting forever for an answer that never came.
Just as he was about to turn his steps away at last—
Step.
Stepstep.
Heavy footsteps were heard from behind him.
He turned his head.
“Young Clan Head.”
“Huu… you are still waiting here?”
“Uncles…….”
What came into his sight were four people: the Captain of Baek Doryeon’s Thunder Sword Unit and senior officials of the Namgung Clan.
Deep exhaustion and profound despair were cast across their faces as well.
“You should give up now and return. If even you are absent, Captain, the battlefield will truly become unbearable.”
Thunder Sword Unit Captain Namgung Geon spoke cautiously to Namgung Baek.
Soon, the officials’ gazes settled on the massive stone gate of the Secret Cave.
“The Alliance Leader never intended to come out in the first place. He must have been frightened during the battle in Shaanxi and broken his sword.”
“Hah… this is really too much, no matter how you look at it.”
“That’s enough, now.”
“Enough of what?! How could something like this hellish situation be happening, and he chooses to live alone in a place like that?!”
“I said enough!!”
“…….”
The officials cursed Namgung Myeong, a father, in front of his own son.
Yet Namgung Baek could not say a single word.
There was nothing he could do.
How frustrated must they be as well.
At this very moment, countless blood relatives were dying on the battlefield at the hands of the Blood Cult’s Demonic Practitioners.
“Please return with us. You must not waste any more time here.”
“Come with us.”
They had not come for Namgung Myeong.
They had only come to take away Namgung Baek, who had been waiting endlessly.
“I understand. Then for now—”
Just as Namgung Baek was about to speak.
Kwaaaaarrrr!
Kwagagaga!
“!!”
“……!!”
Suddenly, from within the Secret Cave, a massive vibration erupted, accompanied by a destructive aura.
For a moment, it felt as if an earthquake had struck, but the overwhelming energy surging out like a tidal wave made it clear that this was something else.
There was only one possible reason for such a phenomenon.
Namgung Myeong had reached the new realm he had been waiting for.
“Ooh! Could it be that the Alliance Leader!”
“Did he even surpass the Wall of the Manifestation Realm?!”
“This is impossible…!!”
Unlike the way they had cursed him just moments ago, the officials’ attitudes completely reversed.
They cheered in voices filled with joy.
Hope once again lit up in their eyes.
If he had reached the legendary Life and Death Realm, the entire tide of the war could be overturned.
But unlike them—
‘……Something is wrong.’
Only Namgung Baek sensed something ominous within the aura and cautiously raised his own energy.
Thump! Thud!
His heart pounded uneasily.
Kurrururur!
With a thunderous roar, the stone gate of the Secret Cave opened.
And Namgung Myeong slowly walked out.
“……!!”
“!!”
Everyone was shocked.
Before them stood Namgung Myeong, his hair completely white, his cheeks deeply sunken, and the flesh of his entire body shriveled like a mummy.
On top of that, his hair was so disheveled that his eyes could barely be seen.
Rather than the Clan Head of the Great Namgung Clan, he looked like a pitiful, aged wanderer.
After hesitating and exchanging glances, one of the subordinates spoke up.
“Alliance Leader! You have gained great enlightenment! Congratulations, truly!!”
“We believed in you, Alliance Leader!!”
“As expected, you are ama—!?”
Slash!
At that moment, a sharp cutting sound rang out.
Thud.
The head of one official, who had been finishing his words, rolled across the ground.
“Uaaaaaah!!”
“W-What?!”
“Everyone, take up battle formations!!”
Namgung Baek shouted as he moved to shield the uncles behind him.
‘This is dangerous! That is not Father……!!’
He knew it instantly.
What he saw before his eyes was no longer his father, nor the Clan Head of the Namgung Clan.
“K, kehaha… kuhahahahaha!!”
The dignity of the former head of Baek Doryeon was nowhere to be found. In Namgung Myeong’s eyes, there was nothing but horrific Frenzied Madness and killing intent.
‘How could this……!’
Waves of anguish and sorrow crashed through Namgung Baek’s chest.
Seeing the severed head of a subordinate killed by his own father, he could only fall into despair.
Sssshaaa!
Kwagagaga!
Like raging waves rising over the sea, an immense Demonic Qi spread out and devoured the surroundings.
From Namgung Myeong’s body overflowed not pure energy, but destructive Demonic Qi.
“Ah… so this is true ‘power’.”
With eyes dyed blood-red, Namgung Myeong spoke.
Having fallen to his Inner Demon and become a Demonic Practitioner completely, he now revealed killing intent toward his own child and subordinates.
* * *
“Please, come to your senses, Father!!”
Namgung Baek screamed until his throat nearly tore as he swung his sword.
Within his blade were despair and profound sorrow toward his father.
Alongside his uncles, he continued to fight Namgung Myeong fiercely.
But calling it a fight was far too generous—it was nothing short of cruelty.
There was no exchange of blows between equals; with every strike of Namgung Myeong’s sword, only their injuries continued to worsen.
Having abandoned his human body and become a Demonic Practitioner, Namgung Myeong was now an entirely different being.
His sword no longer carried the dignity of an imperial sword form.
Only madness-driven sword strikes meant solely for slaughter unfolded.
Screeeech!
Shraaaak!
Namgung Myeong swung his sword toward his own subordinates.
“Ghk!”
“Kuhk!”
Each time his blade moved, martial artists of the Murim Alliance spat blood and let out agonized groans.
The Thunder Sword Unit Captain and the three Namgung Clan officials had been trusted confidants who had stood by Namgung Myeong for many long years.
Yet Namgung Myeong paid no heed to any of that and cut them down mercilessly.
“Alliance Leader! Please, come to your senses!”
“Where would I find any senses worth coming back to?”
The Thunder Sword Unit Captain cried out in despair, but Namgung Myeong only sneered.
Puhk!
His sword pierced straight through the captain’s shoulder.
Slash—crrk!
“Kuaaaagh!!”
He pulled the sword back out and severed both legs as well.
The Thunder Sword Unit Captain collapsed, writhing in agony.
“Kuhahahaha!”
Crunch!
Namgung Myeong stepped down and crushed the captain’s head beneath his foot.
At the horrific sight, everyone’s eyes trembled as if an earthquake had struck.
Namgung Myeong, who had crossed the wall of the Life and Death Realm, could have killed without pain—but instead, he butchered them cruelly, purely for pleasure.
Puhk!
His sword then flew toward another official’s heart, and the man died without even letting out a scream.
Though the man was already a corpse, Namgung Myeong continued swinging his blade furiously.
The official’s body was shredded to pieces, like chunks of meat struck by a butcher’s knife.
“U… uaaah…!”
“Where do you think you’re going!”
The last remaining official screamed and fled.
Namgung Myeong curled his lips into a chilling smile, as though savoring the man’s terror.
Pa-at!
He stomped the ground and charged forward.
In an instant, he closed the distance and snapped the man’s neck.
In the end, all subordinates except Namgung Baek met a miserable death at Namgung Myeong’s hands.
“Ahh, this is it! This is true martial might!! My lord!!”
Namgung Myeong laughed like a madman.
Praising the Blood Demon, he scattered his aura once more.
Now, only Namgung Baek remained.
Countless corpses already lay strewn around him.
“A… ah…”
Namgung Baek looked at the four uncles collapsed at his feet and let a single stream of hot tears fall.
Kneeling on one knee, he lowered his head, overwhelmed by grief and self-reproach for being too weak to protect them.
‘Uncles…!’
His throat tightened.
Those who lay brutally slain before him were blood relatives of the Namgung Clan he had known since childhood.
Yet now they lay on the ground as cold corpses.
Their eyes were filled with shock—and resentment toward the master who had betrayed them.
They were never meant to meet death like this.
Hot tears flowed endlessly from Namgung Baek’s eyes.
“My son.”
At that moment, Namgung Myeong slowly approached, coaxing Namgung Baek.
“Walk the demonic path with me. If you follow the path the Blood Demon treads, eternal life and infinite treasures shall follow. All things in this world can be placed beneath our feet.”
Namgung Baek did not respond even once to Namgung Myeong’s temptation and silently stood up.
Hot tears were still flowing from his eyes.
But those tears were not proof of weakness.
They were the final tears of a son sending off a father stained in blood.
Fwoooosh!
Flare!
A blue radiance began to blaze from his entire body.
It was the manifested aura of the Namgung Clan, and the embodiment of his unyielding will.
—Take this with you.
In that instant, Sewoon’s figure surfaced in his mind.
The 모습 of Sewoon, who had trusted him and given him hope.
If not for him, Namgung Baek would have already fallen into despair and abandoned everything.
‘Chairman. I will go on ahead, but please, achieve what you seek!’
Recalling Sewoon’s teachings and faith, Namgung Baek drew up his resolve once more.
“My father is dead. In the name of Namgung, I will annihilate the Demonic Practitioner before me.”
He vowed to resist to the death.
“Kekeke, foolish brat.”
Even upon seeing his son like this, Namgung Myeong did not come to his senses in the slightest.
Rather, he mocked his son’s unshakable resolve.
In his eyes, there was no longer any love or affection for his child.
Only killing intent and Frenzied Madness burned fiercely.
“You reject the true demonic path and choose to die as ugly as these insects?”
Namgung Myeong tightened his grip on his sword.
Kwagagaga!
Demonic Qi burst forth from his blade, warping the surrounding air.
He no longer saw Namgung Baek as his son, but merely as an obstacle blocking his path.
“Kuhahahaha! Become an offering to that great being!”
Laughing madly, he charged toward Namgung Baek.
Namgung Myeong’s sword was no longer that of a human.
Having stepped into the threshold of the Life and Death Realm, his sword strike carried overwhelming power that threatened to destroy everything.
The Demonic Qi pouring from the blade twisted space itself, and vicious Evil Qi surged like a storm.
‘Cut him down.’
Namgung Baek drew forth all his strength.
Fear no longer existed in his eyes.
Only sorrow—and the grim resolve of a son determined to send his father off—remained.
Namgung Baek’s sword, carrying everything he had, collided violently with Namgung Myeong’s blade.
Kwaaang!
With a tremendous roar, the two swords clashed.
But that was as far as it went.
Namgung Baek struggled desperately to block the overwhelming strike, but it was not enough.
Crack—crrrk!
Kwaaang!
His sword screamed and shattered into pieces in his hands.
He was left completely defenseless.
Fate seemed sealed.
Shraaaak!
Just as Namgung Myeong’s sword was about to sever Namgung Baek’s neck—
—Amitabha.
With a single Buddhist invocation, a figure appeared and blocked Namgung Myeong’s path.
“You are…!”
“Benefactor Namgung, that is enough.”
Namgung Myeong frowned deeply.
Reflected in his eyes was—
The Abbot of the Shaolin Temple, one of the two pillars of the White Path Union, known as the Heavenly Fist Tathagata.
“Further evil deeds will not be permitted here.”
It was Great Master Gakgong.