Absolute Regression

Chapter 514: We Are the Demon Supreme, So Who Would We Ask for Help

“Shut up!”

Gyo Cheon’s shout echoed thunderously.

Chwaaaah.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s robes flapped violently. It was a voice unlike before. The master’s reprimand, infused with internal energy, crashed down on Blood Heaven Blade Demon like a sudden gust of wind.

Had he not drawn upon his energy and braced himself, he would have been flung backward and slammed to the ground in an unsightly fashion.

That single shout revealed just how immense the internal energy hidden within the master’s aged body truly was.

A strong wind passed.

One might have been overwhelmed by such a display of power, but instead, this time, Blood Heaven Blade Demon shouted back.

“You shut up, Master!”

Gyo Cheon’s eyes widened. It was because Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had always treated his master with utmost respect, had shouted at him.

Now, it was Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s voice that thundered through the hall.

“What kind of revenge is this! You annihilate entire families unrelated to us, stir up wars with deceit, use poison… and this is all your grand revenge after all those years?”

Kwaajik.

The other side of the chair’s armrest shattered. When he’d crushed it earlier, it had crumbled like sand, but this time, fragments scattered. He was so furious he didn’t even realize he had broken it.

Yet Blood Heaven Blade Demon continued to raise his voice.

“You should’ve come back in style. If you weren’t ready, you shouldn’t have come back at all!”

After that outburst, he added one final line in a low and sorrowful tone.

“…That way, I would’ve gladly died for you.”

The gazes of Blood Heaven Blade Demon and Gyo Cheon tangled in midair.

Was it because of the sorrow and grief in the eyes staring back at him?

Gyo Cheon had believed even his disciple’s apology was feigned and theatrical, but in this moment, he didn’t think that way.

‘He came to find me fully prepared to die?’

But even that genuine realization couldn’t breach the wall he had built around himself. After briefly staring at his disciple, Gyo Cheon spoke to the two elderly men. ⱤÅŊŏ฿Ę𝘚

“Kill him. Kill him cruelly and miserably!”

A relieved smile formed on Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s lips.

Yes, no matter what was said between master and disciple, the outcome of today’s meeting had already been decided.

The only question was who would die.

In a way, he was thankful that things had come to this. Now, he could fight without any lingering regrets.

“I shall obey your command, Master.”

The one who responded loudly was Blood Heaven Blade Demon. It was a kind of mockery—a joke implying the order to kill had been given to him.

In contrast, the two old men showed no change in expression. That was probably how their master had raised them—to be devoid of emotion, existing only for this moment.

And those two were likely not the only ones in the master’s service. No one knew what might emerge from the pouch of decades-old grudges he carried with him today.

Uuuuuung!

The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber, infused with internal energy, let out a great cry. It wasn’t a cry of fear. It was a sound filled with trust—an expression of loyalty from a cherished weapon that had sensed its master’s resolve.

‘That’s right, I’m counting on you! Heaven-Extinguisher!’

The elder in red robes advanced from the right, and the elder in blue robes moved in from the left.

All three had achieved the pinnacle of the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form.

At this level, the outcome would be decided in an instant. Moreover, they knew each other’s martial arts all too well.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon imagined how the master must have trained them.

He must have trained them harshly—for this very moment. Not with any other martial art, but specifically with the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form, to kill him in the most miserable way possible.

‘I’ll reclaim the martial art I passed onto you, using that very same art’—undoubtedly, that was the intent.

‘If that’s the case…’

The one to move first was Blood Heaven Blade Demon.

The moment he kicked off the ground, he was already swinging his saber before the elder in red robes.

Swaeaeaeaeek!

The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber, massive as it was, sliced through the air at an unbelievable speed.

His opponent did not dodge, instead raising his own saber to block.

Just before the sabers collided, Blood Heaven Blade Demon twisted his blade. The altered angle caused a burst of sparks as it slid along the elder’s saber.

Huwaaaaang!

The saber, having calculated even the opponent’s reaction, grazed the old man’s face.

The elder was inwardly stunned.

It was an unexpected variation. He hadn’t anticipated a life-threatening variation to be used in the very first exchange, and nearly lost his face to it.

This was a surprise strike by Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had used the common assumption that masters of the saber would typically test each other’s strength with the first move—an assumption he flipped on its head.

And with that momentum, Blood Heaven Blade Demon pressed forward relentlessly.

Though his opponent’s skills weren’t weak enough to be thrown into disarray just from nearly being struck in the first move, he had clearly lost the initiative.

Tung! Tudung! Tungtungtungtung!

Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s attacks became faster and more savage. The clash of sabers deepened in resonance with each exchange.

The elder in blue robes could not intervene.

Perhaps it was best likened to a wagon that had already set off.

The fight had already begun—one that could no longer be interrupted. The two were locked in such close and intense combat that unleashing the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form would drag the red-robed elder into the blast of energy as well.

Jumping in together wasn’t an option either. The exchange between the two was too fierce, and it wasn’t a sword fight—it was a duel of sabers. There was no room for a third saber to wedge in.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon was engaging in a fundamental contest.

His opponent had likely devoted decades solely to perfecting the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form. Naturally, they would expect him to respond in kind.

Without a doubt, their fundamentals were at a disadvantage compared to the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form.

As expected, it was Blood Heaven Blade Demon who was leading the fight.

His improvement wasn’t solely due to training. There was something even more important.

His life had changed.

When life changes, martial arts change as well. This great principle of martial mastery had taken hold.

Gyo Cheon, watching the two fight, darkened his gaze.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon was fighting better than he had anticipated.

The moment he sensed that Blood Heaven Blade Demon had become stronger than he himself had been during his time as the Demon Supreme, jealousy and fury surged.

At that moment, something Blood Heaven Blade Demon had once said resurfaced in his mind.

― Your head must be filled with fog, Master.

Was this why only instinct burst forth? To hate, to envy, to rage.

Yet he couldn’t rationalize this sudden thought wisely. He couldn’t climb over the towering wall he had built over all those years by himself. If he could have, he would never have heard such words in the first place.

In the end, his jealousy turned into another form of blame.

‘Cunning bastard!’

Among the many things Blood Heaven Blade Demon had said to him earlier, some had stuck deep in his chest.

Especially the remark that it wasn’t Geom Woojin who was cunning, but rather that he had seen through the master’s own cunning—that remained like sediment in his heart. That must have been it.

‘This cunning bastard! When he’s the more cunning one!’

He hurled the word “cunning” at him in his mind again and again. To him, Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s clever fighting was nothing more than craftiness.

The red-robed elder, who had been overwhelmed, leapt upward and unleashed a technique from the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form—the Extinguishing Blade Strike, the fastest of the techniques to deploy.

But that very moment was what Blood Heaven Blade Demon had been waiting for.

That fleeting opening when a large technique is executed, the brief instant when internal energy is forcibly driven forward.

Swaeaeaeaeeng!

Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s saber surged like lightning, aiming to split the red-robed elder in two—right at that instant!

Shaaaaaaang!

A gust of wind with a peculiar sound surged in. Just from the sound, he could tell—it was dangerous.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon twisted his body and raised the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber to block the incoming strike.

Kwaaaang!

As the force slammed in, Blood Heaven Blade Demon was pushed back along the floor, saber held like a shield.

The force was overwhelming. Had his internal energy been even slightly lacking, his wrist would have snapped under the pressure.

The one who had sent out the palm strike to save the red-robed elder was Gyo Cheon.

“Is this what you’re going to do now?”

At Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s words, Gyo Cheon laughed pleasantly.

“Why don’t you stop playing cunning tricks!”

He had, in the end, thrown the word “cunning” right back at his disciple.

Their exchange couldn’t continue.

The red-robed elder, having regained his composure thanks to Gyo Cheon’s interference, immediately unleashed the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form.

Swaeaeaeaeaeak!

Ordinarily, he should have regrouped and launched a coordinated attack, but he was too humiliated by the fact that his life had just been saved by Gyo Cheon.

Blade-shaped energy blasts surged toward Blood Heaven Blade Demon in a fierce whirlwind.

It was an unavoidable attack. If it could be easily evaded, it wouldn’t bear the name Fourth Form of the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form: Extinguishing Blade Bloodstorm.

The way to counter Extinguishing Blade Bloodstorm—was with another Extinguishing Blade Bloodstorm.

From the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber, a saber aura erupted, spinning violently as it shot forward. Within both Extinguishing Blade Bloodstorms, countless tiny blade-shaped blasts swirled inside the whirlwind.

The two bloodstorms collided.

With an ear-splitting roar, the energy blasts clashed and canceled each other out—and in that very moment—

Puuuuk.

The sound of flesh being torn brought a heavy silence.

The red-robed elder looked down at his chest in disbelief. Like a bird slipping through a net, the energy blast had flown in and pierced him cleanly, as if it were a lie.

The martial techniques had clashed with nearly equal force, but one thing was different.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s Extinguishing Blade Bloodstorm had more blade fragments. His recent advancement in martial arts had deepened his mastery of the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form.

“…It can increase even more?”

Blood Heaven Blade Demon answered him.

“Would a senior disciple’s technique be the same as that of his juniors?”

The red-robed elder asked with dimming eyes.

“Then why didn’t you use it from the start?”

Blood Heaven Blade Demon slowly turned his head toward his master.

“I was saving it for you.”

Gyo Cheon’s cheek twitched again.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon now understood that his growth hadn’t been limited to martial arts. Even in how he handled his master, he realized he had learned much from Geom Mugeuk. After all, he was now doing to his master what had once been done to him.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon now charged toward the elder in blue robes.

And again, he didn’t use the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form.

Watching this, Gyo Cheon’s anger intensified.

Hadn’t he just said it himself? That he refrained from using it because he was saving it for Gyo Cheon? And yet, even now, he wasn’t using it.

‘So you really intend to kill me yourself?’

It was precisely this rage that had made Gyo Cheon interfere in the fight. And it was exactly what Blood Heaven Blade Demon had hoped for.

Whenever the blue-robed elder was in danger, Gyo Cheon sent blasts of ground energy to help him.

In the chaotic melee, such support would have been difficult, but Gyo Cheon’s attacks were both sharp and precise.

Piiit! Piit!

The blasts skimmed past arms and legs, while in front, a master who had reached the pinnacle of the Heaven-Extinguishing Demonic Saber Form was trying to kill him.

Ordinarily, one might have gotten flustered and rushed to kill the opponent as quickly as possible, but Blood Heaven Blade Demon did no such thing. He even managed his internal energy as he fought.

A single handful of energy, a single drop of blood—they were worth preserving. He intended to survive to the end and face his master himself.

This calculated and meticulous battle orchestrated by Blood Heaven Blade Demon had finally come to an end.

Puuuuk!

The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber pierced through the heart of the elder in blue robes.

But the old man’s resentful gaze did not fall upon Blood Heaven Blade Demon—it turned toward Gyo Cheon.

The help Gyo Cheon had offered during the battle had ultimately done more harm than good. If he was going to help, he should have committed fully. But he hadn’t.

Instead, he had disrupted the elder’s focus, and in the end, the old man had been unable to display his full strength. A helping hand tainted with emotion had offered him no real assistance.

Gyo Cheon stared at Blood Heaven Blade Demon, whose body was soaked in blood. There was not a single word of mourning for his dead disciple, not a trace of regret for their deaths.

“Not bad,” Gyo Cheon said coldly.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon wiped the blood from his face and replied,

“Among all the Demon Supremes, why do you think I was the only one whose title had ‘blood’ in it?”

His eyes glinted with terrifying intensity.

Meeting that gaze, Gyo Cheon responded icily,

“No one will come to help you. Your arrogance will be the end of you—you’ll die here, alone.”

Blood Heaven Blade Demon gave a desolate smile, as if he accepted it all, and asked in return,

“We are Demon Supremes. Who would we ever expect help from?”

Those words once again struck Gyo Cheon’s heart like a barb. If his disciple was a Demon Supreme, then he himself had once borne that title too.

A Demon Supreme lived by pride. In battle, they bowed to no one, sought aid from no one, and stood alone—that was what defined them.

“I know you’ve prepared more. So, who’s next?”

At Blood Heaven Blade Demon’s proud stance, Gyo Cheon exploded in rage. He had thought him just a bratty disciple, but now, every word the man spoke pierced straight into his heart.

“You bastard, to the very end!”

Unable to restrain himself, Gyo Cheon unleashed a palm force.

Saaaaaaaang!

A fearsome blast of palm force surged forth. With no room to evade, Blood Heaven Blade Demon hid behind the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber, pouring his internal energy into it to the extreme.

Kwaaaang!

The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber trembled violently from the impact. His wrist nearly snapped, and he was close to suffering internal injuries.

Saaaaaaaang!

KWAANG!

The second blast of palm force followed immediately, and then came the third.

Bang! Kwaaang!

The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber trembled as if it might snap at any moment. With each incoming impact, the blade tilted further and further.

From beyond the saber came the voice of his master.

“I’ll break that arrogant saber of yours!”

Swaaaaaaaaah!

The sound was different from before. A blast of palm force, immense and saturated with overwhelming internal energy, was hurtling toward him.

‘The saber might break.’

But that was something he could not allow. The Heaven-Extinguishing Saber was his symbol—his very being.

Instead of channeling energy to bolster his body with Protective Energy, Blood Heaven Blade Demon poured every last bit of his internal energy into the saber. Even if he suffered internal injury, he would protect his blade.

Kwaaaaang!

A thunderous roar erupted.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon was still standing in place. He hadn’t suffered internal injury, nor had he been hurled backward.

And the Heaven-Extinguishing Saber stood tall—unbroken.

Blood Heaven Blade Demon saw it.

A hand pressed against the saber from behind.

Startled, Blood Heaven Blade Demon turned around.

And the moment he saw who stood behind him, his face flooded with emotion as he called out,

“Cult Leader!”

Standing behind him was Geom Woojin.

Perhaps, somewhere deep inside, he had hoped the Cult Leader would come. Maybe he had believed he would show up all along.

But just as much as he had wished for his arrival, a part of him had not wanted him to come.

Because on the day he killed his master, the Cult Leader had killed his own brother. None of them had wanted things to turn out that way—but they had.

He could only guess what kind of pain the Cult Leader had carried all this time. Since that day, not once had they spoken of it. Neither of them had ever asked.

He had taken this on alone because he didn’t want to make the Cult Leader relive that past.

But now, the Cult Leader had come.

And today, the look in his eyes resembled the young eyes that had once looked at him on that day long ago.

“We faced that day together, so we’ll face this one together too.”