CHAPTER 74: CHAPTER 74- A MAN WHO KILLS WITH COMPOSURE

If this person’s words were right, Sol was extremely stupid to have believed Ha-Eun’s words.

What was worse, for slip second when Ha-Eun had the knife in his chest and was crying, Sol had actually thought about letting himself be killed, or more specifically, fake his death by secretly using his Innate Dharma. Which in itself was risky.

It was only for a split second, but Sol was disappointed in himself because of that.

He was willing to die without getting revenge?

Without making the Church pay for what they did?

His conviction had waivered then and there... but it won’t happen again.

"Huh? You can afford to be distracted at a time like this?!"

Jung-Sook roared and slashed out at Sol; wanting to kill him while he was distracted.

However...

DANG!

Sol suddenly raised his hand and caught his saber.

Jung-Sook was taken aback by this, but he immediately recovered and went to retrieve his saber from Sol’s hand. However, it didn’t even budge.

Jung-Sook gave Sol a death glare.

"You-"

Just as he was about to say yell, Jung-Sook suddenly heard something cracking. Looking down at his saber, he saw that fissures had formed on it.

"W-What?"

Bang!

His saber suddenly burst into metal fragments and scattered everywhere.

Jung-Sook looked at Sol in shock.

That wasn’t ordinary steel, but a weapon created to battle Mortal Realm cultivators. Even Jung-Sook himself couldn’t shatter his weapon like that if he tried.

Suddenly Sol’s figure began to blur in his vision.

Without knowing it, Sol had appeared next to him.

Jung-Sook immediately felt his scalp tingle and a sense of danger well up in his heart, but before he could react, Sol’s leg lashed out like a steel whip.

BANG!

Jung-Sook’s body visibly bent around Sol’s leg before he was sent flying over the heads of the disciples like a meteor.

Another loud noise occurred as Jung-Sook’s body slammed against the wall several hundred meters away.

The crowd instinctively glanced at Jung-Sook’s... corpse? -- and sucked in a cold breath of air.

He was completely deformed. The kind of physical strength one would need to do that was simply insane.

There was one thing that separated Sol from every single disciple in the Martial Alliance Academy at the moment.

It wasn’t life and death experiences and the willingness to kill.

It wasn’t overwhelming talent either, there were plenty of talented disciples here.

No, what separated them, and Sol was that he was not normal.

He was strange.

During the first stages of cultivation, one has to open their acupoints, widened their meridians, and then through their meridians, guide Aether Energy through their bodies to open their acupoints and unlock their Mortal Palaces.

The higher the number of acupoints opened, the more Aether Energy they could steer through their bodies to easily open one’s Mortal Palace.

This was called the Mortal Realm; a stage where one focuses on strengthening their Fleshly Bodies to its limit. One practice that was common in this realm besides opening one’s acupoints, was refining one’s body and eliminating any impurities.

Along the way, someone realized that if Aether is used to refine the bones, then one’s physical strength would increase. But take it a step further and people began refining not just their bones, but also their skin, flesh, muscles, tendons, and even their internal organs.

So, it became common practice for those who can afford it to refine their bodies while opening their acupoints.

However, for Sol, he didn’t need to refine his body.

The entire reason why the old man wanted Sol to become his disciple so badly back then was because he realized that Sol was born with a purely refined physique. Even his internal organs were already refined.

This was why his physical strength was so abnormal even at a young age; he was abnormal.

Sol wasn’t merely a few times stronger than these disciples who hadn’t refined their bodies while opening their acupoints. His physical strength was monstrous when compared to theirs.

Sol knew this, and that was why he made sure to hold back when fighting.

The bracelets were sealing his bloodline power, but he was further limiting his strength as well.

But now? Now he released the self-limiters he placed on himself.

Suddenly, everyone felt a terrifying sensation wash over them. Immediately, a cold chill worm its way down their spines, and all the hairs on their bodies stood on end.

All the disciples turned away from the mutilated body of Jung-Sook to look at the source of this horrifying aura.

It was coming from Sol who had his head down looking at something.

His demeanor had completely shifted, so much so that he seemed like a completely different person.

The disciples all felt like they were staring at a wild beast in human form.

Mar-Dule, who was in the crowd, was staring at Sol with a solemn expression.

He was completely wrong.

He thought that he had a seventy percent chance of killing Sol before he took off one of those bracelets. However, right now, Mar-Dule realized Sol had always been holding himself back.

His estimation of seventy percent should be changed.

No, maybe the entire scenario should be changed to what his survival chances were if Sol wanted to kill him. He estimated that to be around twenty to thirty percent.

Mar-Dule took a deep breath.

What he was seeing now was Sol’s true self, and it seemed like it was something he didn’t easily show.

’Someone went ahead a poked a sleeping tiger.’

Mar-Dule thought this saying was too fitting to describe the current situation.

While everyone remained dead silent, Sol looked at his palm to see it was wounded from Jung-Sook’s saber strike. However, after a green glow appeared around it, it slowly began to heal.

Afterward, Sol looked up and glanced around the silent crowd.

"I request a battle against anyone in the Earth Arena. If you were paid to kill me then I’ll accept your challenge as well. But don’t think you’ll be walking off this stage the same way you came on."

As soon as Sol’s words landed, the disciples felt another chill down their spines.

Those words weren’t unsettling because Sol was releasing some heaven-shaking killing intent, or any world-ending murderous aura. It was unsettling because he was way too calm.

A madman who kills in a violent rage is scary, but a man who kills with composure was utterly terrifying.

However, despite the intimidating aura Sol was releasing, a young girl suddenly snorted and leaped onto the stage.

She wore red robes that flowed like a river; they complimented her beauty and gave her an elegant appearance.

With a flip of her palm, a long sword with a white glistening glow appeared in her jade-like hand. She gripped the handle of the long sword with her slender fingers before pointing the tip of it toward Sol’s chest.

"What’s so great about you climbing the Heavenly Staircase? For stealing our Wudang Sect’s techniques you should be executed!"

A clamor of noise echoed amongst the crowd when they heard this.

They now realized that despite being from different Pavilions, everyone who challenged Sol had something in common. They were from the Wudang Sect!

Sol glanced at this girl.

"Why bother making excuses? Just say you were paid by Geon-Soo to kill me."

The crowd went into a louder uproar after Sol revealed this fact.

Just what was going on? The crowd of disciples in the Martial Hall Pagoda were all wracking their brains to understand the situation.

But one thing that could be clear was that someone named Geon-Soo wanted Sol dead.

The girl on the stage frowned at Sol’s words, but she did not deny it. She instead wordlessly charged towards him to end his life.

It didn’t take long for the news of what was happening in the Martial Hall Pagoda to spread throughout most of the academy, and that was despite it spanning several mountains peaks. News like this was simply always a hot topic for disciples to discuss. Especially when it involved one of the Six Holy Sects, the Wudang Sect.

A result of the news spreading like a wildfire in the academy, the Teleportation Hall on the Central Mountain had disciples piling out and rushing towards the Martial Hall Pagoda. They wanted to witness this drama unfold live!