Myst, Might, Mayhem - Chapter 416
Chapter 416 – Battle of Numbers (4)
Three-Eyes was not an immortal being, but had achieved longevity by moving through numerous bodies.
This being, known to be different from other Imaemangnyang and considered extremely ominous, was not inherently strong from the beginning.
At the moment of its birth, it was infinitely weak.
However, by moving through numerous bodies and absorbing the power, memories, and experiences of its hosts, it grew stronger day by day at a rapid pace.
After a long time passed this way, Three Eyes became comparable to demonic beasts, which could be considered quite high-ranking among the Imaemangnyang, and began to take pride in its own power.
Three Eyes had strong desires because it had absorbed human memories and emotions.
Therefore, it wanted everything and desired to rule.
But no matter how strong it became, it couldn’t do everything alone.
What caught Three Eyes’s eye were humans, who had been serving as hosts.
Humans were beings that could accept all energies in the myriad things of the universe and had the most outstanding potential talents, but their short lifespan made their limitations clear.
Despite having intelligence and dignity, there were no beings as easy to rule as them.
If it could use these short-lived beings, it thought it could rule the world as it wished.
However, Three Eyes’s grand ambition had to be put aside for a long time due to one shock.
-How could this be…
Even though it had developed ambition, Three Eyes knew there was a line it should never cross.
That line was the Six Demons, infinitely close to divine beasts and called the six kings of the Imaemangnyang.
They were literally transcendent beings, so Three Eyes thought it was an unreachable realm no matter how many beings’ powers it absorbed.
But it saw it.
It saw a human fighting bare-handed against one of the Six Demons, considered the strongest in power among those in the absolutely unreachable realm.
Their fight was enough to shatter mountains, flood rivers, and change the terrain.
It was truly a battle of gods.
-!!!!!
The sight was utterly terrifying.
It was the first time in its life it had seen such a strong human, a monster beyond imagination.
After seeing this, Three Eyes lost its will to fight, or rather its ambition, for the first time in its life.
How much time had passed?
Three Eyes later learned.
That terrifying and even frightening monstrous human was a being born from the gathering of heaven and earth’s energy and by chance.
Such a being that deviated from the natural order could not stay in the world for long.
As Three Eyes had predicted, that monstrous human soon disappeared, and Three Eyes reawakened its suppressed ambition.
More time passed, and Three Eyes grew even stronger. As planned, it drew many humans under its wing and made them worship it.
At this rate, it seemed it could achieve its ambition soon.
However, before long, it encountered another new wall.
It wasn’t human.
It was the Six Demons.
Most of the Six Demons were so strong that they had no interest in humans, but among these Six Demons, a being particularly emotional about humans appeared.
It was originally not a Imaemangnyang being, but a being born from the gathering of five nature spirits called the Five Spirits.
However, one of those Five Spirits, which had become a dragon, failed to achieve the enlightenment and fell into corruption.
Thus, that being took one of the Six Demons’ positions, and the Imaemangnyang called this corrupted dragon, the Jiao-Dragon Demon King[1].
The Jiao-Dragon Demon King, who had been sealed by a sage for a long time, tried to destroy the world by moving numerous Imaemangnyang once released from its seal.
It seemed the world would end at the hands of the Jiao-Dragon Demon King, as the sages who could have stopped such a being had left the human world.
But it was incredibly coincidental.
What stood against this Jiao-Dragon Demon King was none other than a human.
It wasn’t a being born from the gathering of heaven and earth’s energy and by chance, but one who had grown strong by drawing out potential through numerous hardships.
-Kuaaaaah!
Watching the Jiao-Dragon Demon King being annihilated by a human, Three Eyes fell into deep contemplation.
Although they were extremely rare, humans’ potential was truly limitless.
Seeing monsters born among beings who couldn’t even live long, at a level that deviated from the natural order, its thoughts changed somewhat.
‘Rule?’
The very possibility of humans felt dangerous.
Could it smoothly rule over them?
Wouldn’t it be better to exclude humans?
But if a being that could become its nemesis appeared during the process of exclusion, it would follow the same path as the two demons.
So Three Eyes decided to watch humans more while building its power.
As it watched, Three Eyes realized one thing.
‘I see.’
Those two beings who had faced the Six Demons were truly special cases that didn’t arise easily.
Such humans are not born easily.
Therefore, Three Eyes thought that if it excluded only those beings who might develop even a little potential, it could sufficiently rule over humans and, if necessary, easily destroy them.
The humans with noticeable potential to develop were primarily those who inherited the blood of those beings.
***
Mok Gyeong-un’s figure split into three with a wind-like movement.
The moment Three-Eyes saw this, it could instinctively realize.
That was undoubtedly the secret technique of the Peerless Fortress[2].
‘How did he…?’
The Peerless Fortress had disappeared on the day of the great calamity.
It thought it had dried up all the seeds related to it, so how did he learn that technique?
But this wasn’t the end.
-Wu-deuk! Wu-deuk!
As the three split Mok Gyeong-uns regulated their breathing, the surrounding energy gathered and circulated, then their muscles swelled up more firmly, their bodies turned red, and steam flowed out.
-Shu-u-u-u-u!
Seeing this, Three Eyes was reminded of that monstrous clan guarding the Tang family and the Forbidden Land.
[I am Yoo Mu-jeok. As you can see, I eat and sleep here, guarding this place. But you… You’re not human, are you? How did you get in here?]
Although it thought the descendants would have weakened even if they inherited that being’s blood, they were still a clan with monstrous power.
Even though it wasn’t at full strength, it had made Three Eyes retreat.
But what was important now wasn’t the past.
How was he mastering the secret techniques of the few beings that had checked Three Eyes over its long years?
-Eu-deuk!
This guy was truly irritating.
But getting excited here would ruin everything.
If it could take over his body, it would be able to use the connection with Ryu So-wol, and naturally learn how he had mastered their techniques.
-Seuk!
As Three Eyes threw its body backward and stretched out its right hand, one of the swords it had dropped floated up and was sucked into its hand.
In that state, as Three Eyes made a gesture of swinging its sword finger upward,
-Pa-reu-reu-reu-reu!
The weapons of the casualties on the square’s floor, such as swords and sabers, began to tremble and float upward.
The swords that had risen this way shot up all at once as if they were arrows.
Although they weren’t imbued with strong energy, they were filled with power from demonic energy, making their momentum tremendous.
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pak!
The soaring swords rushed all at once towards Mok Gyeong-un, whose figure had split into three.
Numerous swords flew like waves, and as one of Mok Gyeong-un’s split bodies waved its sword finger,
-Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pang!
The swords stopped midway as if they had hit something.
Then the swords began to fall to the ground as they were.
Seeing this, Three Eyes clicked its tongue.
‘To cut off the control of the swords I was handling with demonic energy in a flash-like manner. This guy’s application skills are not ordinary.’
But it thought he would easily block this anyway.
It was just to create some distance for a moment.
To use this technique, it needed some distance, so it just needed to keep him in that spot.
-Seuk!
-Chak! Chak!
With that level of spell technique skill, one wouldn’t need hand seals or would only need simplified ones, but for this technique alone, it had no choice but to form proper hand seals.
The moment it formed the hand seals,
-Flinch!
Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes sharpened.
This was because Three Eyes’s demonic energy had risen incomparably higher than before.
It felt like it was drawing out all its demonic energy without thinking about the consequences.
Was it trying to settle things?
-Pa-reu-reu-reu!
Meanwhile, Three Eyes’s arms, forming the hand seals, shook violently and its blood vessels bulged out.
This was because, as Mok Gyeong-un had expected, Three Eyes was drawing out all its demonic energy, ignoring the body’s overload.
For a fleeting moment, a voice echoed in Three Eyes’s mind.
-Will you discard it?
-Didn’t you agree?
-What a waste. It’s hard to find a body of this caliber.
-It’s not as good as that one.
-True. Accommodating your stubbornness is coming to an end. Once you get what you want, you’ll need to focus on the grand plan.
-I’ll keep my promise.
-Good.
The original goal was Young Master Na Yul-ryang’s body.
Although he didn’t inherit the blood of the Heaven Vein, his talent could be said to be even greater than the current Society Leader of this generation.
If it could take over his body, it could not only carry out the grand plan but also reconnect with her.
Because they would be sword siblings rather than rivals, they could become even closer.
That’s why it wanted this body, but not anymore.
‘This is even better.’
Although it didn’t know how they had formed a spirit servant connection, those two had formed an alliance for revenge and must have overcome hardships together for this purpose.
There was no need to build an alliance by taking over Na Yul-ryang’s body.
With that body alone, it could naturally win So-wol’s heart even without tampering with the memories.
The corners of Three Eyes’s mouth stretched to its ears in an eerie smile, showing madness.
That concerned look of hers, recovering depleted spirit power below the square, would now be directed towards itself.
The role of this body was set.
It just needed to show wretchedness to make him stand out more.
-Pu-seuk! Pu-seuk!
As it drew out all the demonic energy in its body, Na Yul-ryang’s body, unable to withstand it, had its energy channels bursting and breaking in various places.
However, Three Eyes didn’t care about this.
Although it was a shame, it had no attachment to a body it would use once and discard anyway.
-Pa-ang!
At that moment, Mok Gyeong-un’s three split figures simultaneously tried to fly towards it.
Then Three Eyes opened its palms and clapped.
-Jjak!
At that instant, all the demonic energy that had spread around gathered at once and began to press on the space around Mok Gyeong-un.
-Go-o-o-o-o-o-o!
‘This is?’
The demonic energy pressing on the entire space was so strong that Mok Gyeong-un’s movements slowed down significantly, as if he had fallen into water.
It even gave the feeling that time was slowing down.
‘Great Void Sealing Technique!’
This technique is an ancient forbidden technique that a practitioner who has reached a certain high level uses by staking their life.
Because its conditions are so demanding and it requires staking one’s life, it’s practically a technique that even the most outstanding diviners can’t use, but not for Three Eyes.
It could just change to a new body if the dead one was discarded.
‘Even the arrogant Assassin King of the Sea fell to this technique. Although it’s only a half-complete technique, you, a human, can absolutely not escape it.’
If one more condition is added here, the technique would be complete.
However, its purpose was not to really trap Mok Gyeong-un.
It was to buy time to move to his body.
-Pat!
As Three Eyes waved its hand, a hazy mist arose around, obscuring the view in all directions.
As the view suddenly became obscured, Cheong-ryeong, who had been focusing on their battle while recovering spirit power, rose from her seat in surprise.
-Mortal!
Thus, in the obscured mist,
Three Eyes leisurely entered this space and flew towards Mok Gyeong-un.
Whether he split his form into three or used whatever technique, as long as it had deployed the Great Void Sealing Technique by staking the practitioner’s life, he couldn’t easily escape this space.
By now, two of Mok Gyeong-un’s forms had disappeared, and only one body remained.
Three Eyes approached Mok Gyeong-un like this.
Since he couldn’t move, trapped by the technique, it could just change bodies right away.
-Ssi-i-i-ik!
Three Eyes smiled eerily and said.
“I’ll take that body.”
As it brought its left hand to Mok Gyeong-un’s head and its right hand to the eyeball embedded in its forehead,
-Seuk!
It was the moment its left hand touched Mok Gyeong-un’s head.
That’s when it happened.
-Kwak!
“Kek!”
Mok Gyeong-un’s hand, which Three Eyes thought absolutely couldn’t move as desired due to the technique, grabbed Three Eyes’s neck like lightning.
Three Eyes hastily tried to break free.
But no matter how much it tried to remove Mok Gyeong-un’s hand gripping its neck, it was immovable.
How could he move while the technique was being deployed?
It was at this moment of puzzlement.
“You lowly creature, still coveting what belongs to others.”
‘!?’
The moment it heard the voice, the eyeball on Three Eyes’s forehead began to tremble madly.