Chapter 304

Unhwi did not take his eyes off So Yeongjin as he spoke, voice steady.

"Han Murin, Wei Tianhu."

"Yes."

"Kill Jang Jinok and all under her."

He stepped forward and finished:

"So Yeongjin is mine."

"“By your command—!”"

So Yeongjin’s brow knotted hard.

"Arrogant little—!"

He stamped off the ground and slashed.

Unhwi slashed as well.

BOOOOM—!

***

The instant the two blades met, a blue flash and a silver bolt split the air together.

From So Yeongjin’s sword burst a cold sword-qi that scattered like frost-flowers and fell over Unhwi.

It was one of the Ihwa Sword Heaven Sect’s secret extremes: Cold-Flower Sword-Qi.

But the current flowing from Unhwi’s blade was different.

Void-Manifest Qi.

The primal force at the root of all energies began to show its face.

So Yeongjin’s sword-qi flew for Unhwi—yet the moment it touched the Void-Manifest Qi, it lost strength and fell apart,

as if its very basis had been denied.

"W-what... what is that!"

So Yeongjin, aghast, slashed again; the result was the same.

CRAAASH—!

Every attack was nullified before it could even reach Unhwi.

Unhwi raised his blade.

The first move.

One of the sword arts recorded in the Ten-Thousand-Snows General Record:

Phantom Image Cuts the Moon.

Unhwi’s sword traced a track like cleaving the moon and thrust for So Yeongjin.

Carried by the Void-Manifest Qi, that blade showed as seven in So Yeongjin’s eyes.

"...Cheap trick...!"

He swept his sword.

KRAK-KRAK-KRAK—!

All seven blade-paths detonated in midair.

And through the gaps, a single ray lanced in.

He threw his sword up in a hurry to parry, but the light only grazed his blade and touched his shoulder.

SHRRRK—!

A deep groove opened in his left shoulder.

So Yeongjin winced, brows knotted tight, and sprang back to check the wound— a cut deep to the scapula.

"...That’s not Heaven-Earth Apex qi."

He looked again at Unhwi.

The qi streaming from Unhwi’s whole body was strange—belonging to no known realm.

Was that why he could create a realm called the Triple Profound Realm?

"You are certainly better than Jang Icheong."

"What?"

"If it were Jang Icheong, that last stroke would have taken the arm clean off."

"You dare stand before me and think of the likes of Jang Icheong?"

"Your reading of forms is the same. To my eye, at least."

"You would match wits with me in forms?"

"I already was."

Three forms.

He meant to end it within them.

Unhwi lifted his sword again, so composed it rankled.

An overwhelming genius?

That stature at that age?

Unacceptable. It was too unfair.

Fwoooosh—

From So Yeongjin’s sword, countless petals blossomed.

Flower-Soul, No Mercy.

They swept outward like a volcanic plume, seizing the field, and every time they touched earth, a queer sound rang.

They were not mere petals, but the shaping of a razor-edged qi.

He would not have unfolded it for nothing.

So Yeongjin slashed; tens, then hundreds of petals shot as one toward Unhwi.

Even so, Unhwi’s eyes stayed fixed on So Yeongjin.

Within his head—Taoist arts, Buddhist arts,

and their inner workings—

everything rose and knitted as one.

What best fit this moment... what not only broke So Yeongjin’s swordsmanship but struck back as well—

Unhwi’s eyes flashed; the Void-Manifest Qi deepened.

The second move.

Heaven-Defying Vast Sword

Form Two — Break the Path.

The instant the petal-sword-qi reached him, their vectors turned—rushing back toward So Yeongjin.

"—Hup!"

He twisted in haste and caught his own barrage on his blade— but there were simply too many.

He stamped, body sliding aside. The petals chased again— but his eyes were elsewhere.

This was the kind of instant Unhwi would aim for.

And of course— Unhwi appeared right before him.

So Yeongjin had read it this far; what followed, he had not.

The Heavenshaking Spiritblade was a long longsword; in this pocket it should have been bound to a limited track.

Among those, the best track—

So Yeongjin swung to cut it off, but—

KLANG—!

A thunderclap— and Unhwi’s blade flew from his hands, whirling away to bury in a tree. So Yeongjin jolted in shock.

That was no block of an attack.

He had simply batted the sword away.

And there was no strength in that sword.

As if he had let it go on purpose.

Lightning struck his mind.

A decoy, a trap.

What followed was pure reflex.

He cycled all his qi inward to buffer the shock; then he brought his left arm across to shield his heart and stamped to open distance— but

it wasn’t enough.

Through the hail of icy shards, Unhwi’s cold eyes flared.

The third move.

Immortal Adamantine Palm.

Unhwi’s open palm struck So Yeongjin square in the solar plexus.

THMP.

The sound was small—

BOOOOM—!!!

—but the spray of blood bursting to all sides and So Yeongjin’s body flung far were a sight to behold.

BOOM— BOOOM—!

He bounced from the cratered ground, smashed through three, four trees, and stabbed his right hand into the earth to arrest his skid.

His body stopped dead.

Kuh-lurk.

He vomited a great mass of blood, then raised his head.

Surprise flickered across Unhwi’s face.

"More tenacious... than I expected."

Veins roped on So Yeongjin’s brow as he wiped blood from his lips.

"...Tenacious? Kuh-lurk... you little..."

He launched himself at once.

"Dog-filth maggot!"

An enormous surge of nature-qi burst from So Yeongjin’s flesh.

It spread in all directions, then—within a radius of ten jang—everything turned to petals. Trees, stone, even the air. And every petal at once became a blade, surging in upon Unhwi.

Severed Flowers, Ten Thousand Li.

Unhwi chose not to meet it head-on.

He stamped toward where the Heavenshaking Spiritblade had flown. So Yeongjin’s technique tore through empty air—

KRA-THOOOM—!!

—and obliterated the ground where Unhwi had been.

He whipped his head aside.

There—Unhwi wrenched the buried Spiritblade free from the tree.

What followed from So Yeongjin was enough to surprise even Unhwi.

He stabbed his own flank, drew out a small bead,

and held it up.

Unhwi’s brows drew tight the instant he saw it.

"...A Fire-Spirit Pearl?"

"Broad learning, brat."

Kuh-lurk.

After coughing blood once more, So Yeongjin popped the bead into his mouth and swallowed.

What was the Fire-Spirit Pearl?

In Cheonrim’s black market, the best seller was the Bloodburst Pill—

a pellet that explosively cycles all internal energies, a throw-away drug given to those to be spent.

Usually, using it once meant death; the Fire-Spirit Pearl vastly suppressed those side effects and forcibly drew up innate primal qi into the cycle.

Few could craft it, and making it was arduous.

One bead cost a thousand gold taels.

So Yeongjin’s confidence had not been empty.

To his eye, Unhwi could face at most masters of the Celestial Being Stage; with a Fire-Spirit Pearl down, So Yeongjin would wield power to threaten even a master at Unity of Heaven and Man.

In this instant, he was victory incarnate.

A colossal power erupted from his flesh like detonation.

The earth rumbled; the qi that had diffused outward seated itself in his body.

Cords stood up all over his frame.

"End me in three moves? Three have already passed. Fine— today, you die."

"I agree."

"What?"

"Three won’t do. I’ll finish it in four."

The hand holding his sword trembled.

That arrogant whelp’s mouth—

He wanted to tear it off right now.

No.

He would tear it off now.

So Yeongjin stamped.

The ground caved; shock-bangs cracked in all directions.

Sword-One.

Past becoming one with the sword—he became one with light.

His body pierced the void; space warped.

Flower-Emperor Over the World.

From So Yeongjin’s sword and body, a vast flower bloomed.

No— not a flower. A world.

Each petal a blade; blades beyond number forming a cosmos.

Unhwi reversed his grip on the sword.

One move would end it.

There was no reason to drag it out.

Swallowing a Fire-Spirit Pearl spoke for So Yeongjin’s will.

Light washed his eyes.

One blended breath ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) pervades Heaven and Earth;

Across the ageless void I walk alone.

Heaven-Defying Vast Sword

Form Three — Mixed-Origin Through-Heaven.

The world stopped.

No— it looked stopped.

Through that stillness, he did not take his eyes off a single ray reaching out.

Unhwi’s shoulder moved.

The Heavenshaking Spiritblade moved.

Everything was like a law:

Prepare.

Swing.

Arrive.

SHRRRK—!

In the space of a single shearing sound,

everything broke.

KRA-THOOOOM—!

***

So Yeongjin spat blood.

He saw sky.

Below his waist—no sensation.

He did not understand this situation.

Why he was looking at the sky; why his body would not twitch; the sword in his hand—

and where in the world the energies that should be held within had gone.

He could not feel the natural flow he always felt.

It was as if he had fallen alone out of the world.

"What did you see?"

The voice raised gooseflesh.

Seol Unhwi.

The genius among geniuses shaking the martial world.

Founder of the Triple Profound Realm.

And he had gone all-out to kill him, yet here he lay...

"...You... you cur...!"

"All wrath. I asked what you saw."

"I saw no—..."

He could not finish.

His head could not recall it, yet his flesh remembered— and a crushing terror surged.

What

had he seen?

"Count it an honor."

"...What...?"

"If possible, I had thought to unfold it in the royal capital of Un’guk— but this wasn’t that."

"Y-you...!"

"Your flicker of clarity is about done. Let’s end it here."

Unhwi lifted his sword. And So Yeongjin’s eyes climbed the tip to the hand on the hilt.

A laugh escaped him.

He could see it shaking.

"A heavy wound... it’s a heavy wound. However high you strut, the one who will be here next will take your head in the blink of an eye— and kill all those who can be called your men as well."