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Humans bleed when they are injured.
However, when demons are wounded, black smoke comes out from the loss of their demonic energy. Black smoke was quickly coming out from Marquis Irene’s left eye.
“Ahh…”
The reason why her eye suddenly burst was quite simple: because she was using her left eye to analyze others’ power levels, it must have been overloaded.
‘N-No way!’
The pain was only for a brief moment, but she felt lost when Chun Yeowun swung his sword.
In that brief moment, the number her eye displayed had risen extraordinarily, and it was impossible to even see where the number ended.
‘Is this the potential of humans?’
The demons knew that some humans were strong.
However, a human this strong completely surpassed their beliefs.
‘This one is a monster.’
She recognized that they had touched something they shouldn’t have, and the other demons realized this as well.
Even if they didn’t have Irene’s ability, they could tell that Chun Yeowun was a monster.
‘Our strongest demon was defeated in just one slash?’
‘What had just happened?’
For the demons, Awakening, or Advanced Awakening, was like an unreachable dream.
It was a symbol of power that only the strong ones had the privilege of undergoing, and it was seen as a broken power.
The demons’ gazes didn’t move from Duke Ludwig.
“Ack!”
He was still holding his neck with both hands.
For a high-ranking demon, especially one at his level, if the core wasn’t damaged, there was a good chance that stabilizing the neck would help enable and boost recovery.
But,
‘I-I can’t regenerate.’
Duke Ludwig wasn’t recovering. Not only did a sharp sensation pass through him, but a ferocious energy also seemed to interfere with his natural regeneration process.
This energy was none other than the Sky Demon Energy.
Duke Ludwig, gripped by his fear of death, shouted,
“Kuak…you…what the hell did you do?”
Chun Yeowun responded with a smile,
“Don’t act stupid. You’re already dead.”
‘!?’
Chung Yeowun seemed to know that Duke Ludwig’s body was failing to regenerate and approached the flustered demon.
“Ah! I almost forgot.”
“What?”
Puak!
“Kuak!”
Chun Yeowun stuck his sword right through the center of Duke Ludwig’s chest. A blue light shone from the Sky Demon Sword as an eerily gloomy energy was released.
“Y-You?”
Duke Ludwig’s eyes widened.
As one of the four close aides of the Demon King, he was well aware of the abilities of Arisha’s sword.
Why was Arisha’s sword known as the best?
Simply because of its ability to absorb the enemy’s abilities without a cost.
‘My strength? My—’
“Thank you. I almost missed the chance to take it, but this was only possible because you endured for so long.”
“You bastard!”
Duke Ludwig was furious at Chun Yeowun, but his anger didn’t last for much longer.
“Ackkk!”
His body scattered like ashes in the wind as he could not help but feel hopeless about his impending doom.
Shhh!
Then, Chung Yoewun’s eyes trembled from the process of transforming information from the demon’s core into his mind.
Each time he did this, he always faced a familiar dizziness.
‘What impossible strength.’
Shakena couldn’t take her eyes off Chun Yeowun. She knew that he was strong, but this was beyond her imagination.
She never thought that one of the Demon King’s four close aides would lose their life from a single slash.
Gulp!
She gulped in fear. Once again, she realized that she had made the right choice.
At that moment, Hu Bong yelled at the demons,
“Hey, what are you going to do? All your leaders are done for, are you going to sit there looking dazed? Surrender now!”
The energy forcing them to kneel dissipated, but the demons were too stunned by what they had just witnessed to move.
Whisper.
They all looked at each other when a demon suddenly shouted,
“A-according to the laws of my clan, Count Norin will admit defeat now! Everything will be for the winner. Either take my life or turn me into a slave, anything as you will!”
It was the first declaration of defeat.
Norin, a Count class who had lost his will to fight, surrendered. He confirmed Chun Yeowun’s overwhelming power right in front of his eyes. As Hu Bong said, if their leaders couldn’t do anything, what could they do?
Shikaran, another Count class demon, was dumbfounded by Count Norin’s surrender.
“What are you spewing—”
“According to the laws of my clan, Count Olga will admit defeat now! Everything will be for the winner. Either take my life or turn me into a slave, anything as you will!”
Even before Count Shikaran could finish his rebuke, another Count level demon surrendered.
“Y-You guys…”
When two of his fellow demons surrendered, he was perplexed. They had gotten up and formally declared their surrender without any care.
“What are you all doing? How can he the—”
“Then do you plan to just die here? How do you plan on taking down a monster that defeated our Duke level leaders?”
“Th-that…”
He couldn’t think of anything to refute the statement.
Duke Bevman had lost his fighting spirit and had no chance of winning. All the demons had already bowed their heads and declared surrender, except for three.
Shhh!
Marquis Irene’s eye was slowly recovering while Duke Bevman was looking at Chun Yeowun with a puzzled face.
Lastly, Marquis Cawl, Duke Ludwig’s faithful servant, was still in shock.
Unlike the other demons, these three were bound by blood or had been loyal for a long time and thus weren't in a situation to surrender just because the opponent was strong.
Crack!
‘This…this human!’
Marquis Cawl, who had lost his master, grunted in anger.
His master, his lord, had died right before his eyes, and he couldn’t even do anything. He glared at Chun Yeowun as if he wanted him dead.
Chun Yeowun shook his head.
‘Now is my chance!’
He thought that this would be the only chance he would get to kill the man, and he considered the opportunity even more.
‘He is absorbing the power from the core.’
Even Marquis Irene saw this as her last chance. The gap between them and Chun Yeowun would send them straight to hell. Other than now, they would never even get close to Chun Yeowun.
Phat!
It was a very clever thought. The two Marquis with the same intention moved simultaneously.
Phat! Crack!
Both of them awakened at the same time as they leapt towards Chun Yeowun.
‘I need to kill him!’
‘I need you dead!’
But,
Wheik!
“Euk!”
“Ack!”
Their bodies were stopped in mid-air by a golden tail that curled around their bodies.
‘This is?’
The Golden Gumiho had stopped them. The two Marquis' who didn’t think about the other monster were too hasty and ended up getting caught.
“What are you doing? You guys must really have a death wish.”
A weird killing intent emanated from the golden Gumiho.
“Damn it!”
“Pa…papa.”
The two demons seemed desperate to avoid such futile deaths, as they would die without having accomplished much. Then, Chun Yeowun spoke.
“Interesting.”
“Chun Ma?”
The golden Gumiho, who was about to crush them with her tail, turned to Chun Yeowun.
He smiled with a strange expression, which the Gumiho didn’t understand.
As she wondered what he was up to, Chun Yeowun opened his mouth.
“So, you received this from the Demon King?”
Chun Yeowun raised his hand towards his face, and as he covered his face with his palm, something amazing happened.
Guguguuuuu!
The room began to shudder. The same phenomenon that happened when Duke Ludwig was transforming occurred.
However, it seemed like with each second, the force shaking the room became stronger.
Crack!
To the extent where their surrounding space was distorted.
Kwaang!
The building couldn’t withstand the shaking and seemed as if it would collapse at any moment.
Swoosh!
The tails of the Golden Gumiho expanded in an instant to support the building, which was on the verge of collapsing. If she had been a second later, the floors would have collapsed.
“Chun Ma!”
She shouted at Chun Yeowun, who was unable to control his new power.
However, the distorted space soon turned normal and the tremendous energy that had threatened everyone moments earlier began to subside.
To be precise, it was coalescing at one point.
“W-what is that? Chun Ma?”
“Lord!”
The Golden Gumiho and the other subordinates under Chun Yeowun couldn’t hide their shock. Chun Yeowun’s entire body seemed to be enveloped in raging flame.
Those flames around his body were flames of pitch black darkness. Seeing this dark form of fire felt strange to everyone.
Shh!
Chun Yeowun lowered his hand, revealing his face, but Chun Yeowun’s face was also black.
The energy around him didn’t feel like his usual energy; it felt much darker. If they hadn’t known that it was Chun Yeowun, they would have thought that they were face-to-face with the Demon God, a divine being spoken in myths and legends.
‘T-true Awakening?’
Marquis Irene, who was caught by golden Gumiho’s tail, was sure that Chun Yeowun was going through a true Awakening.
“How…how is this…”
Even Marquis Cawl couldn’t help but be shocked. He always accompanied Dule Ludwig and was able to closely observe the transformation progress. There was no doubt that this was a True Awakening.
At that moment, Chun Yeowun’s face of darkness, which shone like a flame, shook.
-I’ve learned something great…
Crackle!
“Euk!”
“T-the wind?!”
The moment the sound came, a huge gust of wind seemed to enter the room. Thanks to that, the demons who were bowing and even subordinates of Chun Yeowun were puzzled back.
‘This…’
Even Chun Yeowun was shocked. Just talking seemed to cause his power to explode, so he hurriedly raised his hand up to cover his face.
Reducing the effects of the Awakening, Chun Yeowun was able to return everything back to normal.
Pssss!
The darkness that wrapped around his entire body disappeared as it dispersed into the air.
And the energy disappeared, Chun Yeowun’s hand trembled and he looked at it.
‘The moment I used True Awakening, the Sky Demon Energy exploded.’
It wasn’t that the other energies increased, but rather that the Sky Demon Energy was pushed down and had exploded.
As a result, Chun Yeowun turned into an entity of darkness and chaos, creating a strange form.
‘I can’t seem to use it for very long.’
He only used it for a while but an unknown fatigue rushed over his body.
It was like he had exhausted his entire body.
“Chun Ma, it seemed like you were completely gone.”
The Golden Gumiho said in shock.
He realized that it was just as she said. When he was Awakened, he wasn’t there mentally.
For Murim warriors, that meant that they had reached new heights. In an instant, Chun Yeowun no longer seemed human.
“Well, that could be it.”
Chun Yeowun didn’t deny it.
He, too, thought that the weird senses he felt before returning to his human form were odd.
At that moment, someone walked in front of Chun Yeowun. In shock, Marquis Irene yelled at the person,
“Papa!”
Walking in front of Chun Yeowun was Duke Bevman, and as he looked at Chun Yeowun with trembling eyes, he asked,
“You, who are you? Are you Arisha’s reincarnation?”