Failed Possession Chapter-42

## Ch-42

 

**Thud.**

The sudden sound rang out.

Blood Fiend Ghost, who had been about to pounce on the staggering Elena, flinched and stepped back.

Haryeong—who had barely managed to block his path in time—also widened her eyes.

Yuri was walking toward them.

They had clearly told him to run.

Haryeong and Elena had staked their lives.
They couldn’t turn their backs and flee, so they chose to fight head-on and kill Blood Fiend Ghost.

Blood Fiend Ghost had staked his life too.
He intended to kill everyone here, no matter what.
If he failed, Heavenly Thunder would hunt him down anyway—so survival without slaughter meant death regardless.

But Yuri didn’t need to stake his life.

His life was too light, too insignificant to stand here.

A Tier 2 martial artist could do nothing in this battle.
Before that crimson aura and palm strikes, he wouldn’t even serve as a meat shield.

That was why they told him to run.

He complained often, but he wasn’t stupid enough to mistake jokes for seriousness.

Right now, no joke would work.

And yet—

Something absurd, like a bad joke, was happening.

Yuri.

That man wasn’t running.

He was striding toward them.

If that were all—

Then they could simply think he was being foolishly emotional, throwing away his life meaninglessly.
Maybe he’d decided he couldn’t abandon them.
He was emotional enough that such a choice wasn’t impossible to understand.

If that were all.

‘That is…’

The crimson qi wrapping Yuri’s body.

It looked like blazing flames.

Haryeong, a martial artist, immediately knew what it was.

A Tier 3 martial artist can emit internal energy outside the dantian.

From that point, swordsmen manifest sword qi, others spear qi or blade qi.

But martial artists use no weapons.

Their weapon is their own body.

Thus, Tier 3 martial artists reach a unique state.

**Qi Flame.**

Only by emitting qi across their entire body does their flesh become equivalent to steel weapons.

‘He’s… Tier 2… right?’

To reach Tier 3, one must cultivate both internal and external arts evenly.

Emitting qi drains internal energy rapidly.

By Haryeong’s judgment, Yuri’s internal reserves were still insufficient.

Even after consuming the Azure Heaven Pill, he hadn’t funneled all its effects into the dantian.

And the Pure and True Heart Method wasn’t specialized for rapid accumulation.

So for him to emit qi flame—

It defied her common sense.

…Common sense?

No. That was wrong.

It was perfectly explainable.

If she simply stopped assuming Yuri was ordinary.

If she stopped ignoring what anyone in this world should naturally suspect.

Without realizing it, Haryeong glanced at Elena.

Elena’s face, covered in dirt and smeared with blood, had gone pale.

Her wide blue eyes were filled with shock and fear.

Was that fear because she might die?

Or—

“Huuh…?”

Blood Fiend Ghost let out a startled sound.

He tilted his head, staring at Yuri’s red qi flame.

“Has old age clouded even my eyes? Curious. You weren’t someone worth my attention…”

He had watched them since yesterday.

The guide he crushed was barely Tier 3.

The guard seemed Tier 4 at best.

The mage was clearly Tier 4.

He’d been impressed the guard was secretly Tier 5, but that wasn’t shocking.

Hiding strength was common wisdom.

But Yuri being Tier 3—

That shocked him.

He had seen Yuri fight orcs and lizardmen yesterday.

Impressive for Tier 2—but still bound by limits.

Unable to emit qi, finishing enemies with a dagger.

This wasn’t hiding strength.

It was outright deception.

“I don’t understand why you pretended to be Tier 2.”

Blood Fiend Ghost grinned.

Still, nothing changed.

A Tier 5 assassin and Tier 4 mage couldn’t defeat him.

He was a veteran martial artist of decades.

Once one of the Seven Evils.

Even weakened—

Killing them wasn’t impossible.

Even adding one Tier 3 martial artist changed nothing.

“You should’ve used that hidden strength to run. You might’ve escaped me.”

Yuri said nothing.

In his mind, the mantra of the **Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique** echoed endlessly.

The internal energy in his dantian wasn’t just “burning” anymore—

It had truly become flame.

If he fought like this—

What excuse could he give later?

Could he even give one?

He didn’t think about it.

Excuses. Regret. All erased.

He had always prioritized hiding being a possessor.

If that mattered most—

He should’ve run.

But he didn’t want to run.

Didn’t want regret.

So he stepped forward.

‘That’s enough.’

**Bang!**

His foot crushed the ground.

Wrapped in crimson qi flame, Yuri launched forward.

He didn’t look at Elena or Haryeong.

Didn’t speak.

There would be time for that later.

Not now.

“Brat!”

Blood Fiend Ghost bared yellow teeth.

Foolish youth, fearless from ignorance.

At the same time, he felt how long time had passed.

Ten years ago, they wouldn’t even dare meet his eyes.

At his prime, one swing would’ve killed them all.

If ten years hadn’t passed.

If he hadn’t lost.

If he hadn’t suffered deviation!

“RAAAAH!”

Rage burst out.

Scarlet aura gathered in both palms.

**Blood Sea Crimson Wave Palm.**

The technique that once raised him to Tier 7.

If it struck head-on, death.

Yuri had watched Haryeong fight and judged.

aura could only be met with aura.

Without aura—

You couldn’t even touch it.

Qi flame would shatter instantly.

Then his body would be crushed.

‘Can I deflect it…?’

The essence of **Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist**—
Speed. Flow. Change.

His hands moved.

Crimson qi flame surged like clouds.

Boom—!

Palm force collided with red cloud.

The cloud shattered instantly.

But—

For the briefest moment—

The palm’s advance slowed.

He couldn’t endure it.

Couldn’t fully redirect it.

But he could **disrupt** it.

That was enough.

“Haryeong!”

Yuri roared.

Haryeong immediately moved.

No questions. No voice transmission.

She had seen it with her own eyes.

She knew what to do.

[Miss. Get a grip.]

She transmitted to Elena.

[H-Haryeong… what… what is this? Yuri is—]

[That doesn’t matter now. If we don’t kill Blood Fiend Ghost, we die. Dead people can’t talk.]

Elena bit her lip.

She knew.

But her mind wouldn’t calm.

A horrifying suspicion.

Almost certainty.

‘Yuri… you…’

She bit until blood flowed.

Forced herself awake.

Lightning crackled.

Tier 4 magic couldn’t break his aura.

But—

Her unfinished personal spell.

The Heinderga formula.

Orca once said—

*If completed, Tier 6 at least… perhaps even Tier 7.*

Then now—

Her thoughts exploded open.

Countless spells flooded her mind.

Dercia formulas.

Lightning arts.

Fragments of Divine Thunder.

Lightning God Manifestation—

She couldn’t replicate it fully.

But she could borrow the **feeling**.

If scattered lightning was weak—

Forge it into a single blade.

Her soul resonated violently with the surrounding mana.

Countless formulas merged into her unfinished spell.

“Bastard…!”

Blood Fiend Ghost’s face twisted.

If he landed a hit, they would die.

Yet he simply couldn’t touch him.

It was unbelievable.

The one who had suddenly barged in—his movements were anything but ordinary.

Fluid footwork and the motion of both arms fused perfectly together.
His attacks flowed without pause—fast, supple, endlessly changing.

Clouds seemed to churn before his eyes, spreading into mist, dancing with the wind—then trying to swallow him instead.

None of it could destroy Blood Fiend Ghost’s aura.

It was merely irritating.

But that **irritation** had gone too far.

Like a mosquito whining at his ear, disrupting his focus and forcing him to swing blindly.

Yet every swing missed.

Whenever it seemed like he’d catch him, the brat slipped away.

He couldn’t even commit fully to pursuit—
because the moment an opening appeared, hidden weapons came flying.

Block the hidden weapons—

A dagger wrapped in aura stabbed in deep.

Drive that away—

The brat slipped back in.

Ridiculous.

All that changed was a mere Tier 3 martial artist joining, yet the fight had become troublesome.

Irritation boiled up.

His martial arts were strange.

The fist techniques and footwork were strange—but what truly bothered him was how absurdly **well** the brat understood and executed them.

But the truly strange part—

Was the cultivation method producing that qi flame.

Tier 3 internal energy shouldn’t even qualify as “irritating” to him.

Sword qi or qi flame should vanish the instant they approached aura.

Yet the brat’s qi flame didn’t disappear.

It actually **snagged** his aura for an instant.

‘Is he really… Tier 3?’

The thought even crossed his mind.

Maybe he himself had grown too old.

Or maybe that brat had learned some special martial art.

‘This martial art… something’s off…’

Even with deviation lowering his tier, his mastery of martial arts remained.

A Tier 3 qi flame restraining aura?

‘Did he learn some kind of demon-breaking art?’

Just like magic has elemental counters, martial arts did too.

They couldn’t fully overturn tiers—but still…

The brat’s understanding was deep.

He set the thought aside for later.

Old martial artists of the Demonic Cult were cunning.

If you weren’t strong, you died young.

Those who grew old learned how to kill as a basic instinct.

Sacrificing flesh to break bone was common.

But Blood Fiend Ghost didn’t even intend to sacrifice flesh.

Instead—

The instant the dagger stabbed in at close range—

He **withdrew** his aura.

Haryeong had been trying to drag the fight into a long battle.

The current balance was fragile, liable to collapse at any moment.

Watching Yuri barely hold it together on a razor’s edge was nerve-wracking.

When her poisoned dagger pierced deep—

She stepped closer.

Even a scratch would poison him.

Then—

‘A mistake.’

**BOOM!**

A palm strike drilled into her side, shattering her protective qi and shaking her organs.

She didn’t groan—

But blood sprayed from her mouth.

Yuri blocked the path toward her.

Grinding his teeth, he unleashed **Rantian Flowing Cloud Fist**.

But alone, he couldn’t hold Blood Fiend Ghost.

“?!”

Blood Fiend Ghost’s hair stood on end.

A massive concentration of mana.

Unlike martial artists using internal energy, mages used the world’s mana.

All the mana in the region was gathering in one place.

He couldn’t see the mage.

Only a storm of crackling lightning.

But inside it—

A killing gaze locked onto him.

The sixth sense was especially sensitive to killing intent.

The trigger pulled.

A single thread of light shot out.

It couldn’t be dodged.

It didn’t rampage outward.

It simply arrived—

Already touching his aura.

“RAAAAH!”

He leapt back instantly, trying to reduce its force.

Meaningless.

The lightning storm followed the thread.

**KWAJIJIJIK—!**

Lightning swallowed him whole.

“Haa… hhk…!”

Elena collapsed.

She had poured out everything.

Regardless of the result, she couldn’t move anymore.

“AAAAAA!”

Blood Fiend Ghost screamed inside the storm.

“How dare— how dare!”

It was magic beyond her tier.

But it couldn’t kill him.

The lightning dissipated.

He stood there—

Spitting blood.

That was all.

Pointing at Elena, he growled:

“You… wench… I won’t just eat you. I’ll eat you slowly… very slowly… carefully… so you don’t die too soon…!”

Haryeong tried to stand.

Blood spilled from her mouth.

She looked at Yuri.

“Even now… take Miss Elena and retreat—”

“I won’t let you!”

Blood Fiend Ghost lunged.

“Damn old man.”

Haryeong passed Yuri.

They had to repeat the pattern.

Yuri slows him.

Haryeong pierces in.

But her body wouldn’t cooperate.

Her ribs screamed.

Breathing tasted like blood.

“You.”

She couldn’t fight like before.

Blood Fiend Ghost whispered:

“I’ll cut off your arms and legs and eat them before your eyes.”

A horrible death.

Should she just kill herself now?

She couldn’t even guarantee that.

**THUD!**

Yuri staggered.

The fragile balance had collapsed.

Elena couldn’t cast.

Haryeong could barely stand.

Yuri alone couldn’t hold him.

His fists still couldn’t kill Blood Fiend Ghost.

They’d all die.

‘I’m too weak.’

He hadn’t neglected training.

But it wasn’t enough.

He thought of the **Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique**.

Of Tier 4 he hadn’t reached.

Of the wall he couldn’t cross.

Would Tier 4 solve this?

Didn’t matter.

Right now he was too weak.

Break the wall—become stronger.

**CRACK!**

A blow he failed to deflect made him reel.

Blood rose in his throat.

Death approached.

He lunged straight in.

His punch landed clean—

Pointless.

Blood Fiend Ghost was fine.

Haryeong crashed aside.

“Bug.”

The stench hit him.

The palm came toward his face.

Everything slowed.

In the slowed world—

Yuri saw the **Evil-Quelling Heavenly Principle Technique**.

Like before, it appeared as a massive flame.

He understood what it needed to burn.

Not simply wanting to live.

Not simply fearing death.

But—

The will to **kill the enemy without fail.**

Killing intent.

The flame devoured that intent—

And roared.

It swelled.

Burned the invisible ceiling.

Reduced the unseen wall to ash.

The wall of Tier 4—

Gone.

**BOOM!**

Yuri’s fist met Blood Fiend Ghost’s palm.

Only aura can collide with aura.

Now—

Yuri’s fist was wrapped in **aura**.