After Ten Millennia in Hell

Chapter 381 - Monster of the Demonic Sea (3)

There was no way that he would be able to shake off all the blood that he had been drenched with. The Constellation of Fear reached out to Tai Wuji as his purple eyes shone.

“Why are you making such a fuss?” Tai Wuji frowned as if he could not understand.

It was just some blood; it was nothing for a god to make such a commotion over. However, it did not take long for his question to be answered.

Wriggle, wriggle!

The black blood that the Constellation of Fear was drenched with shook and squirmed like a living organism. And then, countless mouths appeared from it.

“What the...”

They resembled shark teeth. The mouths had no lips, and within the wide mouths were sharp teeth tightly spaced together. Rather than a mouth, it was more apt to describe it as opening the zipper of a bag and seeing countless fangs inside. They did not have tongues nor uvulas, just mouths that existed to eat the prey and teeth to tear the prey apart. The countless mouths that appeared from the squirming black blood began to devour the Constellation of Fear.

[Gyeeeeeeeeehh!! Kyeghh! Eeeeeekk!]

The screams were truly unsightly for a god to make. The Constellation of Fear collapsed on the ground while writhing, crying and despairing. He stretched out his arm, begging to be saved, to get out of the clutches of this monster. His fingers were trembling desperately.

Crunch!

However, even those shaking fingers were eaten up by the mouths of the monster that had swarmed him like an army of ants.

“Kyaaah! Wh-What the hell is that?” Proserpine, who had arrived after Tai Wuji, shouted in shock after hearing the Constellation of Fear’s screams. She asked while stuttering, “I-Is that the monster Lucifer talked about?”

Tai Wuji did not answer. His eyes subtly shook as he stared at the monster that was eating the Constellation of Fear. Despite having barely any emotions remaining, not even he was able to stay emotionless after seeing what was happening before him. He had never imagined there to be a being that was able to eat a god.

“Fuuu.”

Tai Wuji took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes and concentrated. He had no idea what that monster was, but there was only one thing he needed to do.

‘I can’t let any more Constellations die.’

He could not have cared less about the Constellation of Agony because he had been so incompetent, but that was not the case for the Constellation of Fear. Although his plan this time had failed, he was usually very capable.

Whoooom.

Tai Wuji drew out Qi from his dantian. However, his dantian was different from those of other martial artists. He had managed to surpass the Profound Realm and reached the Transcendent Realm, practically turning his entire meridian network into a dantian.

The blue light enveloping Tai Wuji’s sword grew brighter. Darkness mixed with the blue light, enveloping the sword in dark blue flames.

“Flash,” Tai Wuji chanted as he swung the sword.

Fwoosh—!

The mouths that were eating the Constellation of Fear were set ablaze by the dark blue flames. The thousands of black mouths wriggled as they were burned by the flames, and fell away from the Constellation of Fear.

[Hurgh, urgh.]

The Constellation of Fear, having become like a tattered rag, twisted and turned. His translucent body had become even more faint, and even his purple eyes, which were the only vivid part of his body, were also fading.

[A-Arghh.]

The Constellation of Fear fainted before he could even utter a word.

Seeing that, Proserpine frowned. “Is this thing still alive?”

Although it was ambiguous to call a god made up of countless vengeful spirits alive, Tai Wuji nodded. In terms of whether his Deific Essence was still intact or not, he was alive.

“What the hell is that?” Proserpine asked while narrowing her two eyes.

Although she usually possessed eight eyes, she was transformed into an elf at the moment for a certain reason. Her dreamlike blue-violet braided hair made her look beautiful beyond belief.

“I don’t know.” Tai Wuji shook his head.

It was a monster that devoured gods in the literal sense. Despite having existed since the era of myths, he had never heard of such a being.

It was only natural. Power had its own unique properties and characteristics, and that was especially true for Deific Essence. Devouring unique powers and mixing them with one’s own was like, by human standards, being transfused blood of a different type. No, that was not descriptive enough; it was like being transfused oil instead of blood.

‘There’s no way it could survive.’

Tai Wuji stared in conflict at the monster being burned by the dark blue flames. The monster made of black mucus was flinching as it melted, and seeped into the ground.

“Is it dead?” Proserpine asked while narrowing her eyes.

Tai Wuji could no longer see the black mucus monster that had taken his attack head on.

He clenched his sword in silence, and then answered, “No, not yet.”

Squelch.

They heard something sloshing as if confirming Tai Wuji’s answer. They turned toward the source of the sound.

“Wow.” Kang-Woo’s head, which had been cut off by Tai Wuji, was looking up at them while smiling.

The blood from the severed head connected with that of his body. The headless body slowly stood up and leisurely walked toward the head. It picked up the head and connected it to the neck stump, and then the slash wound disappeared as if two bodies of water combined into one.

“Two more, huh?” Kang-Woo snickered in irresistible joy as he smiled extremely wide.

“An Undead?” Proserpine stared at Kang-Woo dumbfoundedly. There was nothing but an Undead that would be fine even after being beheaded. “No, that doesn’t seem right.”

She shook her head in confusion. She could not feel an ounce of deathly energy from Kang-Woo for him to be an Undead. Forget deathly energy; she could only feel desire so hot that she felt like she was being burned just looking at him.

“It doesn’t seem like we have the leeway to figure out what he is,” Tai Wuji stated calmly as he lowered his stance.

His eyes were no longer dyed with disturbance from when he first saw Kang-Woo.

Kang-Woo nodded and replied, “Exactly. We don’t need to waste any more page space saying shit like ‘Wh-Who the hell are you?’, right?”

‘I’d bet we’d get up to about ten chapters if we collected every single moment like that thus far.’

“Let’s just enjoy the moment,” Kang-Woo remarked.

Kang-Woo stared at Tai Wuji while breathing heatedly. He had realized it as soon as he laid eyes on him.

‘It’s him.’

The culprit who had destroyed the space under Sant’Angelo that was being protected with colossal amounts of sacred power and stole the Demon God’s legacy. Kang-Woo did not have proof, but he was sure, because...

‘I don’t know.’

The power of the man in front of him could not be fathomed even after Kang-Woo had opened a Door.

“Yeah, this is more like it.”

Kang-Woo’s heart was beating so hard that it could burst. He had eaten one of the Constellations to the point that the Constellation was in tatters, but Kang-Woo’s hunger had not been sated yet. He wanted a stronger and more delectable prey. His sense of reason was being eaten away by his blazing desire, but he did not care; he decided not to deny them, at least for this moment.

Boom!

He aggressively stomped on the ground and charged at Tai Wuji while turning the Key of the Demonic Sea into a sword. He did not imbue any Authorities into it since he knew that none of the Authorities he possessed would even leave a scratch on the god before him.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Tai Wuji calmly blocked Kang-Woo’s attacks with his sword.

“Mm.” His eyebrows curved after exchanging a few blows. He tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand something, but only for a moment. He returned to his expressionless self and swung his sword while saying in monotone, “Trivial.”

In the eyes of Tai Wuji, a god who had risen to the highest realm of martial arts, Kang-Woo’s swordsmanship was beyond poor, and simply rubbish. Kang-Woo swung his sword horizontally, which Tai Wuji easily blocked by grabbing Kang-Woo’s wrist and twisting it, disarming Kang-Woo. Tai Wuji pointed his sword at Kang-Woo.

“I know.” Kang-Woo cackled and threw himself at Tai Wuji’s sword.

He had never intended to fight with swordsmanship from the beginning. He grabbed Tai Wuji’s blade and cut his hand with it, spewing black blood from his palm.

“Kuh.” Tai Wuji quickly jumped back.

He had seen what would happen if one made contact with that blood.

“Hmm, so we just have to be careful of that blood, right?” Proserpine remarked.

She joined the battle, firing magic spells at Kang-Woo from a distance. Thousands of arrows made of black demonic energy poured down at Kang-Woo, which pierced all over his body like a hedgehog’s quills.

“Yeah, that’s all you need to be careful of. Easy, right?” Kang-Woo replied.

He turned into black mucus. The arrows piercing him all fell to the ground, and Kang-Woo turned back to his original form.

“What the...” Proserpine stared at Kang-Woo incomprehensibly.

He was an immortal monster.

“I see.” Tai Wuji nodded as if he understood. He had figured out a way to face the monster that Lucifer had warned him about. “Proserpine, buy me some time.”

“Okay.”

Proserpine would have normally warned him not to order her around, but she knew that this was not the time. She used all the spells in her arsenal to limit Kang-Woo’s movements.

“If you’re an immortal monster...” Tai Wuji gripped his sword with both hands and declared expressionlessly, “I just have to annihilate you without a trace.”

Fwoosh—!!!

Scorching dark blue flames set Tai Wuji’s sword ablaze.

“Heavenly Dragon...”

He raised his arms up over his head. The dark blue flames pouring out from the sword grew larger at an incredible pace. Condensed sword energy several kilometers tall was formed.

“... Flash.”

The condensed sword energy several kilometers tall condensed into a single point in an instant. Tai Wuji swung down the sword.

━━━━━━!

It did not even make a sound. The gruesome destruction continued without end. If it had not been for the black barrier around them, the entirety of Arnan would have been blown away— no, it would have split the entire continent of Aernor in half. The dark blue flames raged as if it would swallow up the entire world whole.

“Crazy son of a bitch! Were you trying to kill me too?!” Proserpine yelled.

She had been partially caught in the dark blue flames, her beautifully braided hair now a complete mess.

“I had it under control,” Tai Wuji answered as he turned around.

There was not even a trace of the monster that Lucifer had referred to in the area where everything had been obliterated.

“He’s surely dead now, right?” Proserpine asked while looking around.

Tai Wuji nodded. He had annihilated the monster without leaving a single drop of blood. Even if the opponent was an immortal monster, they would not be able to survive this explosion.

“Let’s go back.”

Tai Wuji turned around and grabbed the ragged Constellation of Fear. Although Kim Si-Hun, the main culprit who had ruined their plan, was still alive, he had a feeling that they should fall back for today.

“Haaa, my hair’s a mess,” Proserpine grumbled as she tidied her disheveled hair.

Tai Wuji swung his sword in the air.

Crack.

Space itself was split, forming a black Rift. The two of them slowly walked in, and the black Rift slowly closed like an elevator door.

Krrrrk!!

Just then, two hands formed in the air and forcibly stopped the Rift from fully closing.

“What...?”

“Wh-What the hell is it now?!”

Tai Wuji’s eyes widened, and Proserpine yelled in shock.

“Where... are you... going?” A stammering voice sounded out.

Black smoke gathered around the two hands in the air. The smoke turned into small drops of blood, which then gathered into black mucus. A head, legs, and torso appeared in mismatched form as if a child had played around with play-doh.

Squelch, squelch.

The mismatched body slowly returned to its normal form, along with the sloppy sounds of mucus. The head that had been attached to the thigh slowly slid up. The eyes, nose and mouth were still not in their right places.

“What the...” Tai Wuji muttered as he unconsciously stepped back.

The thing forcibly keeping the closing Rift open was, without a doubt, the monster that he had just annihilated.

“That doesn’t mean anything to that monster!! Just shut up and run! Run as far away as possible before that monster devours you all and becomes stronger!!!”

Lucifer’s screams popped into Tai Wuji’s mind.

“We’re... not... done yet.”

A horrifying monster that looked as if it had been born from the Demonic Sea itself was smiling at him.

“Let’s... play for... a little... longer.”