Luban had earned the position of Deputy Branch Leader of Mortu Nocturn solely through his own skills.
Naturally, he was at the Peak Level.
And now, without any hesitation, he was even freely using the secret arts of the Nameless Blood Cult.
Although he couldn’t use their ultimate technique, the Blood Forbidden Formation, the Nameless Blood Cult possessed many other astonishing spells that allowed one to unleash power beyond their actual level.
It wasn’t for nothing that the Nameless Blood Cult had nearly defeated the entire continent.
“Die!”
A blade-like claw technique scraped across the entire room.
Lee Tae-sung countered head-on with the Flame Tide Wave Sword, blocking them.
But with each exchange, he was pushed back.
Empowered by the secret arts, his opponent was clearly at the late Peak Realm, almost like a Peak Absolute Master.
“Kugh…”
His heart skipped a beat as a strike grazed past his ear.
Severed strands of hair scattered through the air.
‘Is he really not going to help me?’
Lee Tae-sung glanced toward Samuel and Gederic.
The two were still leisurely watching the battle, making no move at all.
The problem was that this couldn’t continue.
Luban’s strength had advanced slightly from mid-Peak to late-Peak, and on top of that, he had temporarily boosted himself with the Nameless Blood Cult’s secret arts.
Even for Lee Tae-sung, the odds of losing were high.
Just then, Samuel gestured with his hand.
For a moment, Lee Tae-sung’s eyes lit up, thinking he might step in…
“Do you have the leisure to look elsewhere? No matter how skilled you are, you need to focus. Otherwise, you could get seriously hurt.”
“No…! If that’s the case, please help me!”
“It seems you can handle it on your own?”
swish!
Lee Tae-sung tried to argue further, but Luban’s attack came flying at him, so he shut his mouth.
There was no time for idle conversation.
Luban was also giving his all, determined to quickly dispose of Lee Tae-sung and escape this place.
In the end, Lee Tae-sung brought out the Black Lotus Divine Skill.
whoosh!
A black lotus bloomed behind his head, and the flames dancing at his fingertips turned black.
In that state, he thrust out the Heavenly Net Flame Hand.
No longer dodging, his palm technique, wrapped in pitch-black flames, clashed with Luban’s claw technique.
BOOM!
With that single collision, Luban was pushed back several steps, utterly astonished.
‘W-What kind of power is this?’
Moments ago, his fingers had nearly broken.
Come to think of it, Lee Tae-sung had already achieved merit during the Branch War by taking down multiple Peak Masters from the Nameless Blood Cult.
When he’d heard that, he’d thought it was possible only because of cheap backstabbing, but now it seemed Lee Tae-sung had been hiding such a powerful blow.
CRASH!
WHAM!
“Guuh…”
The more Luban tried to counter the Black Lotus Divine Skill, the more his face twisted.
What kind of flame was this? He couldn’t shake it off; instead, it burrowed into his own energy.
‘Flames that burn mana… What the hell is this…!’
An old legend suddenly came to mind.
A story about the monster that destroyed the Nameless Blood Cult spreading flames that burned everything in the world.
…No way.
It was too absurd to think it was related to the Flame Emperor.
There were countless people in the world who used flames; there was no way it was that.
Besides, he’d never heard that the Flame Emperor wielded black flames.
Moreover, there was another reason Luban could focus all his attention on Lee Tae-sung.
“That’s quite impressive. Hard to believe it’s only mid-Peak level.”
“I think it would be quite troublesome to deal with that myself.”
“Doesn’t the Branch Manager have a hidden trick as well?”
“Heh heh. Indeed I do.”
Samuel and Gederic.
The two were even resting their chins on their hands, watching the battle.
A complete contrast to the desperate Luban and Lee Tae-sung.
“But his technique in utilizing it is a bit lacking. Try to think of blending the flames with the sword a bit more. There’s too much wasted energy.”
Samuel even offered advice.
For Luban, it was maddening, but what was even more ridiculous was that Lee Tae-sung accepted the advice and was growing in real time.
ding!
[Flame Tide Wave Sword proficiency increases.]
[Flame Tide Wave Sword skill level has increased.]
[Flame Tide Wave Sword (Lv.7) -> Flame Tide Wave Sword (Lv.8)]
Even a few words of advice from a Transcendent Expert were enough to grant immense enlightenment.
Especially since Lee Tae-sung had recently fought six Peak Masters simultaneously; combined with Samuel’s advice, the skill level actually rose.
whoosh!
The powerful flames struck more sharply into openings.
Luban gradually found his hands tied.
“Yes. That’s how you do it. Feel the flow of the sword and advance. There’s no need to force against it.”
“Shut up!”
Unable to take it anymore, Luban shouted at Samuel, but the momentum had already shifted.
slash!
Lee Tae-sung’s sword cut across Luban’s abdomen, and black flames seeped into the wound.
Luban tried to send mana to the wound to block it, but the flames greedily devoured the mana as they burrowed in.
“G-Guhhh…”
Luban let out a pained groan and curled up.
Around that time, Lee Tae-sung stopped the Black Lotus Divine Skill.
He hadn’t fully recovered from the last war, and using it again caused madness to surge into his head.
‘I need to find a way to fix this too.’
Increasing the proficiency of the Black Lotus Divine Skill might help, but he had a feeling it wasn’t a fundamental solution.
He would have to ask the Flame Emperor Master for a solution when he met him.
“Haah… haah…”
About then, Luban managed to extinguish the flames of the Black Lotus Divine Skill and stand up again.
But he was drenched in sweat, and his arms were trembling—he was in no state to fight further.
On the other hand, Lee Tae-sung had grown even stronger thanks to the change in his swordsmanship he’d just felt.
While Luban’s eyes flickered with various thoughts, Samuel moved.
thump!
“Well done. You captured him alive instead of killing him.”
Appearing behind Luban like a ghost, he pressed a pressure point and subdued him.
Even considering that Luban was focused on Lee Tae-sung, it was an incredibly fast movement.
“Bringing him in like this means we’ll have plenty to ask. Well done.”
Samuel smiled faintly, then suddenly looked at Lee Tae-sung as if remembering something.
“Oh, and since you caught a spy from the Nameless Blood Cult, I’ll make sure to credit you properly. It should be quite substantial.”
“…Yes. Thank you.”
At that, Lee Tae-sung abandoned the thought of asking why they had just watched and only stepped in at the end.
He would keep his complaints to himself.
Luban was successfully captured.
From now on, he would be thoroughly interrogated by the alliance’s technical experts.
After the victory, the Branch had been continuing its investigations, so comparing information obtained from Luban might yield decent results.
Who knows?
Maybe they would discover the still-mysterious headquarters of the Nameless Blood Cult.
From here on, there wasn’t much for Lee Tae-sung to do.
hiss
“Phew!”
Lee Tae-sung got out of the capsule.
He checked his phone and saw messages.
[The Megafactory construction is complete. Please let me know your available schedule, Guild Leader. We’ll hold the completion ceremony and begin full-scale factory operation.]
‘Finally…!’
He clenched his fist at the text from Manager Song Sang-yeop.
Considering the construction period, it hadn’t taken that long, but so many incidents had occurred in between that it felt much later.
‘Still, it’s finished at just the right timing.’
As its name suggested, the Megafactory could produce an enormous quantity of items.
Since the original goal was to smoothly supply elixirs worldwide before the advance party could cause trouble, although it was a bit late, it seemed possible to do so before major damage occurred.
Besides, Master Hakseon had casually mentioned he would take a look at the factory last time.
—You’re building a factory that produces elixirs? Then I think I can help out a bit.
Although Abeson’s help had adapted elixir production to the modern factory system, if Hakseon reviewed it, they might be able to take another leap forward.
‘Come to think of it, I wonder what happened with that nuclear strike last time.’
Master Hakseon had used the stele obtained from the Black Mist to open a small hole and throw a nuclear bomb into it.
After that, the hole closed immediately, so he had no idea what happened in outer space.
Still, it was a nuclear explosion, so he could only guess that it must have caused some damage.
Lee Tae-sung sat leisurely on the sofa for the first time in a while and turned on the TV.
A rare moment of relaxation.
He surfed channels to see if there was anything interesting lately.
At that moment, a breaking news ticker appeared at the bottom of the screen.
[An unknown black mist has occurred in the Shanghai area, China. The embassy is currently identifying Korean nationals residing or visiting the area and advising them to return home.]
‘Black mist? Damn. It’s the same as what happened in Shibuya.’
Lee Tae-sung clicked his tongue in sympathy.
That region was going to be in chaos too.
Without Lee Tae-sung, it was extremely difficult to eliminate the Black Mist.
Inside it, Hunters couldn’t exert their power unless they had consumed elixirs to increase their mana or had enough pure skill to break through a certain threshold.
China was one of the countries that had exported elixirs because Lee Tae-sung was friendly with their high-ranking officials.
But since they prioritized domestic supply, the quantity was extremely small; likely very few Hunters in China had benefited.
So it was expected to cause massive damage…
“……”
Suddenly, something occurred to him, and he jumped up from his seat.
His mouth dropped open in shock.
“Shanghai?”
Wasn’t the location of the Taesung Guild’s just-completed factory in Shanghai?
They had deliberately built it there because it boasted immense logistics efficiency as the world’s largest container port.
Lee Tae-sung urgently called Manager Song Sang-yeop.
—ring
He picked up before the signal had even rung once.
“……”
Just hearing that much, Lee Tae-sung shut his eyes tight.
‘Damn it.’
Lee Tae-sung immediately flew to Shanghai on his private jet.
He had been pleased with the factory because it was built with Japan’s free investment, but if he wasn’t careful, he could lose the factory before even holding the completion ceremony.
Frankly, the National Hunter Association had hoped Lee Tae-sung wouldn’t go.
Black mists were already appearing in multiple countries like Japan and China.
With the security crisis heightened by the Multiple Gate Incident and the Black Mists, they were reluctant to let a top-tier combat asset like Lee Tae-sung go abroad.
—Will you take responsibility if my factory disappears?
But at Lee Tae-sung’s words, they had no choice but to allow him to go to China.
However, they repeatedly begged him.
—Please resolve it quickly and come back. Understood?
The Hunter Association’s simulations indicated that top-rankers who had consumed elixirs could clear the Black Mist, but there was always a chance of something unexpected.
As the main figure who resolved Japan’s Black Mist, Lee Tae-sung was absolutely necessary.
Thus, he arrived at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport.
It wasn’t far from Incheon, so he spent the flight training his mana; time passed quickly.
As he got off the plane and moved toward the limousine vehicle, someone was waiting to greet him.
“Brother! You came immediately when your fraternal nation faced a crisis!”
“O…”
Jang Xuan had come all the way to the tarmac, looking at Lee Tae-sung with deeply moved eyes.
Lee Tae-sung quickly thought on his feet and smiled brightly.
“Of course, Brother! Absolutely!”