A violet aura shimmered around the Drunken Demon’s body.
He was truly drunk.
One would think his drunken state would be the perfect opportunity to strike.
But no one dared to charge at him as he swayed with his eyes half-closed.
Yes, it was because he was the Drunken Demon.
How could anyone dare to attack when the Drunken Demon was genuinely drunk and stumbling?
Moreover, the languid gaze beneath his half-closed eyelids felt more terrifying than one filled with killing intent.
When the wine bottle in the Drunken Demon’s hand was empty, he picked up another from the floor.
He drank again.
He drank so much that it made one wonder if it was even possible to consume that much.
“Ah, I’m getting drunk.”
The Drunken Demon staggered forward and looked at the Northern Blood Sect Master and the Blood King.
“Come on down. It hurts my neck to look up.”
The Blood King then sat down.
He settled into a comfortable position, as if he intended to enjoy the fight from his seat.
This was a form of pressure on the Northern Blood Sect Master.
An unspoken demand: I’ll watch from here, so you go and die.
‘Damn it.’
The Northern Blood Sect Master simply couldn't figure out this Blood King.
With Elder Seo of the Ice Palace dead, he thought the Northern Blood Sect was surely needed to rule the Northern Sea.
Yet this man was trying to use him as a disposable pawn.
He seemed incredibly emotional, yet he didn't even blink at the Drunken Demon's earlier provocation.
The Northern Blood Sect Master saw smoke rising in the far distance behind him.
‘He even summoned his own subordinates.’
What on earth was his plan? If he escalated things like this, he wouldn't be able to handle the aftermath.
In any case, now was the time to fight.
Provoking the capricious Blood King was more fearsome than fighting the Drunken Demon, and if he joined hands with the Blood King and won, he could fulfill his long-held dream of becoming the most powerful force in the Northern Sea.
“Kill him!”
At the Northern Blood Sect Master’s command, seven martial artists leaped down from the wall at once.
How could they not be afraid when their opponent was the Drunken Demon? Still, they placed their hope in the fact that there were seven of them.
Ssssh.
The wine spirit that instantly rose up shrouded that hope.
The Drunken Demon's voice came from within the mist.
“When the mist rises, run to the west. Then you can live.”
But no one fled toward the path of escape the Drunken Demon had opened.
They were no ordinary warriors of the Northern Blood Sect.
They were the Northern Blood Sect Master’s limbs, who had committed all sorts of evil deeds following his orders their entire lives.
They were one body, in death as in life.
The wine spirit that rose this time was stronger than before.
Just a momentary exposure to the mist was enough to make them start feeling drunk.
Trying to emit their own energy from within the wine spirit was a futile attempt.
If it had been poison, they could have taken an antidote.
The most terrifying thing was that it wasn't poison, so there was no way to block it.
Whoosh!
One of the martial artists waved his hand, scattering the wine spirit.
The mist around his body briefly vanished, then reappeared.
The moment the martial artist waved his hand again, the Drunken Demon was standing there, where the wine spirit had cleared.
Startled, the martial artist hurriedly thrust his sword, but it was too late.
The Drunken Demon’s palm lightly struck the martial artist’s forehead first.
With a thud, the martial artist collapsed.
By the time he fell, the Drunken Demon had already vanished from that spot.
“I said run to the west if you want to live!”
But instead of running that way, they sent Sword Qi flying toward where the voice had come from.
Swish! Shhhhk! Swish!
Sword Qi rained down, but the Drunken Demon’s scream was not heard.
“West is that way. No, is it this way?”
The Drunken Demon’s drunken voice was heard again.
This time, one martial artist threw himself in the opposite direction of the voice and swung his sword.
‘It must be a trick to lure us in!’
It was a choice made with some thought, but it couldn't keep up with a drunken mind.
His sword cut through empty air, and at the same time, as if waiting, someone’s arm wrapped around his neck from behind.
‘How did he read my thoughts?’
Crack.
With that final thought, the martial artist’s neck broke, and he collapsed.
“Ah, I’m getting drunk.”
Swish! Swish!
Two swords flew toward that spot from different directions, but the Drunken Demon was already gone.
He was clearly drunk, but his movements were faster than anyone’s.
This was his world, a place where not even the Blood King dared to tread carelessly.
“Your men are all going to die. Are you still not going to step in?”
The Drunken Demon’s voice came from within the mist.
But the Northern Blood Sect Master remained on the wall, unmoving.
‘If I go into that mist without a plan, I’ll die.’
Even from this distance, the smell alone was enough to make one drunk.
His subordinates inside that mist must be truly drunk.
Their bodies and judgment would be slowed.
When they needed to be faster than ever.
Truly, an opponent one should never fight if not for the Blood King.
He had to find a weakness somehow before all his men were dead.
A scream came from within the mist.
This time too, it was the scream of a subordinate.
One of the martial artists, unable to bear the fear, leaped into the air above the mist.
It was a choice to escape the wine spirit first.
Swaaaaaaa!
Something shot out of the mist like a flash and shattered his jaw.
The dead subordinate didn't know what had hit him, but the Northern Blood Sect Master saw it clearly.
It was a stone that had been lying on the ground.
For the Drunken Demon, anything he could grab became a weapon.
The sound of a blow erupted from within the mist again.
Thwack!
A martial artist shot out of the mist and slammed into the wall where the Blood King and the Northern Blood Sect Master stood.
He had already died the moment a fist hit his abdomen.
This time, a martial artist burst out of the western mist.
He was really trying to flee to the west.
Shhhheek!
Pooow!
A streak of force flew out and shattered him.
The one who killed him with a single palm strike was the Northern Blood Sect Master.
He couldn't let the world know about this fight.
And he couldn't allow someone to disobey his order and flee.
The mist parted to the left and right, and from its center, the Drunken Demon appeared.
The mist receded only from the area around where he stood.
The Drunken Demon looked at the Northern Blood Sect Master with his drunken eyes.
The emotions in that languid gaze were contempt and ridicule.
The Northern Blood Sect Master’s eyes hardened as he shouted.
“He died because of you!”
Just then, the seventh martial artist, as if giving up, hung his head low and walked toward the Drunken Demon.
“West is not this way.”
The very moment the martial artist raised his head!
The Drunken Demon urgently raised his protective energy, crossing his arms to block his face.
The man had already activated his Self-Destruction Art, his face and body glowing crimson.
Booooom!
The Blood Qi that erupted from his chest engulfed the Drunken Demon.
The impact sent him flying backward.
The Drunken Demon tumbled across the ground and collapsed.
Then, the dense wine spirit in the surroundings vanished.
“We’ve finished the Drunken Demon!”
The Northern Blood Sect Master shouted with joy.
The Blood King hadn't just blindly sent them to their deaths.
“So this was what my lord had planned!”
Although he was annoyed that he hadn't been told beforehand, the fact that he didn't have to fight the Drunken Demon was enough for him to bear it.
“Let us go before the Young Cult Master returns.”
But the Blood King remained seated, staring at the fallen Drunken Demon on the ground.
When the Northern Blood Sect Master's gaze naturally turned that way.
“Ugh, that hurts.”
Amazingly, the Drunken Demon was slowly getting to his feet.
The Drunken Demon clutched his chest and started drinking again.
The attack had come unexpectedly, and he should have been seriously injured.
However, the Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread wrapped around his body had prevented the Blood Qi from piercing him, allowing him to avoid a major injury.
‘Little brother, you saved my life.’
Geom Mugeuk had saved his life.
He had been so insistent about making him wear the Supreme Heavenly Silkworm Thread.
A strange light flickered in the Blood King's eyes as he watched the Drunken Demon.
It was unbelievable that he was this unharmed after being hit at that range.
“He’s wearing protective armor.”
The Blood King said to the Northern Blood Sect Master, as if certain.
As the gaze that had been fixed on the Drunken Demon turned to him, the Northern Blood Sect Master knew.
‘He wants me to go fight too?’
In the end, it meant he wanted him to go and die as well.
The Blood King’s eyes said, ‘Will you die here, or die fighting?’
There are moments in life when you suddenly wake from a dream.
Huh? Was this it? Huh? Was this the kind of person he was? Huh? This is what he thought of me?
In that heart-stopping, skin-crawling moment.
The moment you can't control your expression, you start to stutter, and your face flushes with shame.
That was the Northern Blood Sect Master in this moment.
He had thought that, at the very least, he wasn't such an insignificant being to him.
But he could see that the Blood King regarded him the same as the subordinates who had died before.
“Give me a drink too.”
The Northern Blood Sect Master leaped down.
The Blood King was still scarier than the Drunken Demon.
No matter what, he couldn't die on top of this wall.
The Northern Blood Sect Master slowly walked toward the Drunken Demon.
He planned to launch a surprise attack when he accepted the drink.
‘There is only one chance.’
If he fought within the wine spirit, he would surely lose.
The Drunken Demon welcomed him with arms wide open.
“I’ve finally got a drinking buddy. Is it so hard to share a drink together?”
The Northern Blood Sect Master approached the Drunken Demon, step by step.
He tried to calm his pounding heart, waiting for that single moment.
The two were now close enough to touch if they reached out.
“There are no cups, so let's just drink from the bottle.”
The Drunken Demon was about to offer the bottle when a thought seemed to strike him.
“But Sect Master, are you that afraid of him?”
It was an unexpected question.
“I respect my lord.”
“What’s so respectable about a man who pushes his subordinates into a deadly situation because he’s afraid of his opponent?”
The Northern Blood Sect Master felt a bitter taste.
He was the subordinate being pushed.
He had believed he didn't deserve such treatment.
“Does that man over there have something on you?”
The Northern Blood Sect Master didn't answer.
Something on him? He was held by two things.
The Blood Arts that could make his meridians swell and kill him, and his own desire to bring down the Northern Sea Ice Palace and take its place.
Which weakness had brought him this far?
“How about you join hands with me and fight that bastard instead? Wouldn't you die without regrets then?”
The moment he said that, a cold sneer formed on the lips of the Blood King, who was sitting on the wall.
“Take a look at how that man over there is smiling.”
Just how was he smiling?
The very moment the Northern Blood Sect Master casually turned to look back.
Shhhk! Thunk!
The sound of flesh tearing was heard.
When the Northern Blood Sect Master turned back to the Drunken Demon with a shocked expression, he saw a blood-stained dagger in the other hand, not the one holding the wine bottle.
‘What?’
The next moment.
Fwoooosh.
Blood spurted from the Northern Blood Sect Master's neck.
The moment he turned to look at the Blood King, the Drunken Demon had struck like lightning, stabbing him in the neck.
The Northern Blood Sect Master had only thought of launching a surprise attack himself; he never imagined the Drunken Demon would ambush and kill him.
Especially since the Drunken Demon had shown such superior skill and fought with such ease before.
“My apologies. A drunkard’s fight is always a dirty business.”
The Drunken Demon’s words made him want to say something, but the wound in his neck was too deep.
He clutched his neck, but he couldn't stop the flowing blood.
The Northern Blood Sect Master collapsed as if crumbling.
He died with his eyes wide open, as if to protest his empty death.
The Drunken Demon crouched down and closed his eyes for him.
He was a man who had to be killed anyway.
He knew everything the man had done in the process of searching for the Extreme Cold Body in the Northern Blood Sect.
It was only a matter of when.
He had sensed that the Northern Blood Sect Master would not betray the Blood King in this fight.
He also felt that the reason he had asked for a drink was for a surprise attack.
“Standing next to a guy like that never ends well.”
The Drunken Demon drank, using the thick scent of blood from the Northern Blood Sect Master as a side dish.
Of course, even while drinking, he never took his eyes off the Blood King for a single moment.
Coldness and heat, heat and coldness, intertwined in the air.
The Blood King spoke to the Drunken Demon for the first time.
“But you don't even have anyone watching over you, do you?”
The mockery directed at Geom Mugeuk had no effect on the Drunken Demon.
“He shouldn't come to a dirty and dangerous place like this.”
The Drunken Demon even took it a step further.
“I’m truly grateful to you for that. For keeping the Young Cult Master from coming here, I mean. He is not someone who belongs in a place like this, reeking of alcohol and blood. It should be men like you and me who grab each other by the collar and roll around in the dirt.”
The Blood King looked down at the Drunken Demon with a peculiar gaze.
“You are a strange one.”
“It’s because I’m drunk. No, it’s because you’re not.”
Rambling, the Drunken Demon drank again.
He drank what seemed like an excessive amount.
But the Blood King saw.
The more he drank, the more the Drunken Demon’s eyelids drooped, but his eyes shone ever clearer.
The Drunken Demon beckoned to the Blood King to come down.
Then, the Blood King finally rose from his seat and leaped down.
The Blood King had finally made his move.
The Blood King's Blood Qi began to fill the space that had been saturated with intoxication.
“Blood is thicker than wine.”
Blood Qi and wine spirit did not yield an inch to each other.
“How can you compare worthless blood to wine?”
The primitive and violent smells of wine and blood mixed as the two energies began to push against each other intensely.