Chapter 1: Prologue

The land was devastated by a great clash of powers. And the Hell-Blood Demon, who drove the Murim World to devastation, had fallen into a gruesome state.

Plop!

Beside him, a man faltered and knelt on the ruined land, a black dagger known as the Darkraven Sword deeply embedded in his heart. Dazed, he stared at the weapon embedded in him.

Before he knew it, he had been surrounded and was staring at seven shadows. Until just a moment ago, they were colleagues who fought together to topple the Heavenly Demon, but they now encircled him with hostility. The Darkraven Sword’s owner and Sichuan Tang Family patriarch, Tang Cheon-Oh, was among them.

Even in the murim world, where all kinds of martial arts and sorceries existed, the Sichuan Tang Family was unrivaled when it came to poison and hidden weapons. And the one that stood out the most among them was Tang Cheon-Oh—the man right before his eyes.

If it wasn’t for Tang Cheong-Oh, they wouldn’t have managed to stab the man’s heart no matter how defenseless he was. The Darkraven Sword contained the deadly poisonous aura of the Sky-Shattering Poison. Regarded as the divine treasure of the Sichuan Tang Family, there was nothing in the world that could cure it—not even the man.

However, even though the man couldn’t eradicate the poison from his body, he could temporarily prevent its spread. Suppressing the Darkraven Sword’s Sky-Shattering Poison, he asked those who surrounded him, “Why?”

“You are too powerful. We, the Seven Great Families, refuse to have anyone reigning above us. That’s why today will be your last,” Tang Cheon-Oh cruelly answered.

“We’ve fought together, yet you’re going to betray me just because of that?” The man was at a loss for words.

Namgung Byeok, the patriarch of the Great Namgung Family, commonly referred to as the Divine Sword Family, responded, “It may only be a trivial matter to you, but to us, this holds the same importance as taking down the Hell-Blood Demon.”

“Fools. I never had any interest in dominating murim in the first place.”

“That may be the case for you, but the world doesn’t work the same. With you alive, the countless martial artists that look up to you would gather under you, threatening the Seven Great Families’ position.”

“You’re all putting up a great excuse for something that hasn’t even happened. That doesn’t matter anymore, though. What matters is that the lot of you betrayed me, and you will all have to pay for that from this moment forth.”

The man rose to his feet.

Crackle-!

A massive aura rose through his entire body, and waves of energy broke out in all directions.

“Unbelievable.” Tang Cheon-Oh stared dumbfoundedly at the man. He wouldn’t have been able to do that if he was the one poisoned by the Sky-Shattering Poison.

“Why are you so surprised? You should’ve expected this much if you were determined to take my life.” He said. His eyes then shone golden, and intense thunder waves surged from throughout his body.

“Be careful!” Namgung Byeok warned everyone as countless blade-shaped lightning bolts burst forth from the man and flew toward the seven figures surrounding him. This was the strongest trump card the man had used to defeat the Hell-Blood Demon a while ago.

The seven masters rushed to defend themselves.

Kabooom!

The lightning bolts collided with the shield that the seven masters had invoked, causing the eruption of an earth-shattering blast.

The countless lightning bolts then surged back and forth, striking the seven masters’ defenses repeatedly. Unable to withstand the onslaught, the seven masters’ shields began to crack.

At this rate, the man’s technique would eventually penetrate through their defenses and hack their bodies into pieces. However, the lightning bolts, which were surging like the rising tide, disappeared at the last moment.

Thud.

The man had fallen to his knees and was grabbing his chest, his expression filled with excruciating pain.

To carry out the final attack, the man had exhausted all the internal energy that was blocking the Sky-Shattering Poison in his heart, allowing it to spread from his blood vessels to his whole body.

“Ughh, this life is ruined too,” muttering a mysterious remark, the man closed his eyes.