Chapter 323

It all happened in an instant.

The qi permeating the air surged, and the sword propped against the table flew into one man’s waiting hand.

And then…

Shuaaaak!

A dazzling streak of light filled my vision. The strike was impossibly fast and precise.

The blue qi crystallized around the blade and scattered a brilliant radiance. I already knew another name for that light.

Sword Force.

A power granted only to those who had stepped into the Supreme Peak realm. Stronger than anything else in the world, it was falling straight toward the crown of my head.

At this rate, I’ll die. No question about it.

But…

This isn’t nearly enough.

In a world slowed to a crawl, I moved—and the Sword Force split the air.

Shlick! Kraaash!

Everything was cleaved apart. The table, the chairs, even the floor of the teahouse that must have stood there for countless years.

The gale unleashed by the Sword Force swept through the room. Screams and thunderous crashes swallowed everything. Beyond them, I saw the old man’s eyes stretched wide.

“H-how did you…”

I gently pushed Ju Hwaran, whom I had pulled into my arms, to the side and answered.

“How did I dodge it? I saw it coming, so I dodged.”

“……”

“People say the Supreme Peak realm—and Sword Force—belong to a realm beyond humanity.”

Unconcealed shock spread across Hwangbo Eom’s wrinkled face.

“Th-then could it be that you…!”

“Who knows?”

I answered with a faint smile. By now, thunder must have been crashing through Hwangbo Eom’s head.

Of course, I had not gained the enlightenment required to reach the Supreme Peak realm.

To be precise, it wasn’t my martial arts but my physical abilities themselves that had reached a realm beyond humanity.

What should I even call this?

A Supreme Peak master—physically?

There was no doubt that I was a new kind of Supreme Peak master, one without precedent in the history of the Murim.

I shrugged.

“It’s nothing special. I tried it, and it worked.”

Hwangbo Eom shouted, his eyes bloodshot.

“I refuse to believe this! How can a brat like you have reached such a realm?”

“I find it hard to believe, too. Who swings a sword in a place like this? Are you out of your mind?”

“That…”

Hwangbo Eom’s eyes stiffened as they swept across the room.

Fortunately, his strike had been aimed precisely at me, so no one else had been injured. Even so, every face around us showed shock and fury.

“You went on about the orthodox faction and the Great Zhongnan Sect, but the second you lost your temper, you became no better than a fiend. Why not rename yourselves the Zhong-Bastard Sect while you’re at it?”

“You—!”

Hwangbo Eom’s hand trembled around the sword hilt. His conflicted gaze swept over the room before turning cold.

“Disciples of the Zhongnan Sect, heed my command.”

“Y-yes, Martial Uncle!”

The thirty members of the Taeeul Sword Unit, frozen like statues by the sudden turn of events, jolted back to their senses.

They hurriedly cupped their hands¹, and Hwangbo Eom’s command fell over their heads.

“Seal the entrances immediately. No one is to leave this place.”

“S-Senior Martial Uncle!”

“B-but…”

“What are you waiting for? Do you intend to disobey this old man’s command?”

As Hwangbo Eom’s roar left the Taeeul Sword Unit hesitating, a quiet voice pierced everyone’s ears.

“Yes. I do.”

Hwangbo Eom’s face filled with fury when he recognized the speaker.

“Hyuk Sopyung. How dare you…”

I knew the young man. Hyuk Sopyung, the Zhongnan One Dragon.

He stared at Hwangbo Eom with an indescribably complicated look in his eyes.

“Please stop. This is the first and last time I will beg you.”

“What did you say?”

“The way you’re acting right now, Senior Martial Uncle… Isn’t this beneath a disciple of the Great Zhongnan Sect?”

“Shut your mouth!”

Kraaash!

Another gale swept through the room, and Hyuk Sopyung’s body slid backward.

But his gaze did not waver.

Hwangbo Eom looked back and forth between Hyuk Sopyung and the thirty hesitant members of the Taeeul Sword Unit, then bit down hard on his lip.

“You little…”

The next moment, he pulled a small copper tablet from inside his robes and threw it at Hyuk Sopyung’s feet.

“This is our sect’s Sect Leader’s Command Token, entrusted to this old man by your Master. Do you still intend to refuse?”

“……!”

The Sect Leader’s Command Token was a powerful symbol of the authority held by the leader of a sect.

Hyuk Sopyung’s eyelids trembled when he recognized his Master’s copper tablet.

“Senior Martial Uncle, you truly haven’t changed.”

“Choose. Expulsion or obedience.”

“Expulsion…”

Hyuk Sopyung’s regretful gaze settled on Ju Hwaran and me.

Then he gave a bitter smile, prostrated himself before the copper tablet, and slammed his forehead against the floor.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

“Disciple Hyuk Sopyung obeys the Sect Leader’s Command Token!”

His cry sounded as if he were vomiting blood. Blood streamed down his split forehead.

Hyuk Sopyung rose with a blank expression, as if he felt no pain at all, and blocked the entrance to the teahouse. The thirty members of the Taeeul Sword Unit followed suit.

I clicked my tongue as I watched it all unfold.

“At this point, you haven’t just crossed the line—you erased it altogether. Are you sure you can deal with the consequences?”

Major figures from Huashan, the Beggars’ Sect, and the Lower District Sect were all gathered here. No matter how powerful the Zhongnan Sect was, the fallout from today would be fierce.

But Hwangbo Eom had already lost his mind. His eyes held nothing but rage.

“They will come to no harm. All except you.”

“Ah. So you’ll deal with me first and clean up afterward?”

“Yes. At last, I can tear that mouth of yours apart.”

“Why are you so desperate to tear it apart, old man? The Jin Family of Taiyuan and the Fire Gate Clan aren’t exactly a pair of pushover nobodies.”

“The Fire Gate Clan?”

A sneer formed at the corner of Hwangbo Eom’s mouth.

The next moment, a line of Sound Transmission pierced my ear.

—The young tiger is in danger, yet the great tiger shows no sign of waking.

“……!”

—Did you think this old man wouldn’t know, you foolish child? I already knew the Fire King’s illness was grave.

A secret known to only a handful of people had leaked out.

My face stiffened before I could stop it. Hwangbo Eom’s smile deepened when he saw my reaction.

—The Fire King Jeok Cheongang, and you. I have had more than enough of you both. This might be a good opportunity to settle my bad blood with the Fire Gate Clan once and for all.

Settle his bad blood?

Hwangbo Eom’s words left me momentarily dazed.

Does he mean what I think he means?

My tangled thoughts vanished in an instant. Only one remained.

“Sorry, but can I ask everyone for one favor?”

I could feel their gazes even without looking.

Baek Museong and Cheongpung. Gung Gibang and Heukgeol Beggar. Wolhwa and Hyuk Mujin. And finally, Ju Hwaran.

Everyone in the room was looking at me.

Then a voice so dry that I could hardly believe it belonged to me slipped between my lips.

“Block the entrance. Don’t let anyone get out.”

Hwangbo Eom had been the first to block the door, but I would be the one to decide when it opened and closed.

“Taeeul Merciless Sword Hwangbo Eom.”

I let out a quiet sigh. Extreme Yang qi boiled up from my dantian and flowed from me as white steam.

“You… said something you never should have.”

He should never have brought up Jeok Cheongang over something as trivial as this.

He truly shouldn’t have.

Starting now, he would pay the price for saying what should never have been said.

“Come at me, you fucking old bastard.”

In time split into smaller and smaller instants, Hwangbo Eom and I rushed toward each other.

Kraaaaaash!

Heavenly River Thirty-Six Swords.

A dense and powerful net of Sword Energy covered heaven and earth in every direction.

The sword forms came without pause, on a completely different level from those of the Roaring Fury Swordsman I had faced a year ago or Hyuk Sopyung the day before.

Shishishishishik!

They were blindingly fast and destructive. Even a glancing blow would split flesh and bone and bring death.

I can’t dodge this. There’s no way.

At least, it would have been true if I were the me from a year ago.

The saying wipe your eyes and look again came to mind—a phrase for progress so astonishing that you had to rub your eyes and take another look.

Even that fell short of describing me.

Through endless days of brutal training, I had grown stronger. No, it would not be wrong to call it evolution.

Heaven is truly heartless. How can someone like you even exist?

Jeok Cheongang’s face, filled with helpless disbelief, appeared over the net of Sword Energy.

I laughed quietly and swept my spear, White Flame, upward.

Shraaaak!

The Extreme Yang qi coating White Flame’s spearhead tore through the net.

A fish would have fled through the gap in the torn net, but I was no fish.

I was a shark.

The fisherman who had cast the net had clearly overlooked that fact.

The old fisherman’s wrinkled face filled with shock.

“You—!”

I did not answer.

I bent my knees and lowered my waist. The spear in my hand curved smoothly like a dragon’s tail.

Fire Dragon’s Single Tail.

Fwoooosh! Boom!

The blue-burning spear and sword collided. A deafening crash rang out as an immense shock wave erupted.

Had Hwangbo Eom been trying to conserve his strength?

If so, he had made a terrible mistake. No matter how severely it drained his internal energy, he should have used Sword Force.

“Hup!”

His eyes opened wide.

The old man staggered before my strength, which had entered the realm beyond humanity, and the innate ferocity of my martial art.

“Wh-what kind of martial art is this…?”

The founder of the Fire Gate Clan had been called the greatest martial artist under heaven in his era.

He created the Fire Gate Divine Technique and made it the root of the clan. The sixteen Sect Leaders who followed became different branches growing from that same root.

The Fire Dragon Divine Spear was no different.

Created by the fifth Sect Leader, the spear art was supremely destructive and fierce. Its movements truly resembled those of a fire dragon.

And…

This is only the beginning.

Whoooosh!

I held nothing back.

I thrust, slashed, swept, and struck.

Whenever the blue flames ran wild, thunderous crashes like the sky splitting apart shook heaven and earth.

After the tail come the claws.

No one under heaven had ever seen a dragon fight.

But while learning the Fire Dragon Divine Spear, I had found myself wondering.

If a fire dragon really swung its claws, wouldn’t it look exactly like this?

Gooooong.

Extreme Yang qi coiled around the tip of my spear.

The tea spilled across the floor during Hwangbo Eom’s earlier rampage had long since evaporated. The jade-colored tea set glowed red-hot, as if it were back inside the kiln where it had been fired.

Sensing that something was wrong, Hwangbo Eom shouted like a thunderbolt.

“You bastard!”

He was already nearing eighty.

But to someone who had entered the Supreme Peak realm, age was nothing more than a number.

His formidable internal energy and the Zhongnan Sect’s ultimate techniques, honed for more than a jiazi², poured down like beams of light.

Swoooosh!

If the Heavenly River Thirty-Six Swords were a net, this was a harpoon meant to finish its prey.

As his sword slashed toward my chest at incredible speed, scattering dozens of afterimages, one martial art flashed through my mind.

Taeeul Light-Dividing Sword.

One of the Zhongnan Sect’s most celebrated ultimate sword techniques.

Jeok Cheongang had described the Taeeul Light-Dividing Sword as a sword art of extreme speed.

Then he had added one more thing.

Maybe this old man is going senile. Why do I get the feeling you’ll be faster than the sword?

If Jeok Cheongang woke up, I wanted to tell him he had been right.

And that the Fire Gate Clan’s martial arts had shattered the Taeeul Light-Dividing Sword.

Heavenly Strike.

The fire dragon swung its claws.

The strike descended from the sky, erasing the afterimages created by the Taeeul Light-Dividing Sword as it fell like a bolt of lightning.

Kraaaaaash!

A pillar of hellfire erupted.