No matter how well trained a hunting dog was, it couldn’t take down a predator on its own.
There was no getting around the difference between what they had been born to be.
But Jamukha was different. Born a predator, he had become a hunting dog to achieve his own ends.
He was a trained beast, with both the strength to face any enemy and the loyalty of a hunting dog.
That was why, the moment he heard his master call, he could spring into action without a second’s hesitation.
“Jamukha!”
The signal he’d been waiting for had barely sounded when Jamukha swung his curved blade with all his might.
BOOM!
Two waves of Force collided in midair.
The dark green Force of his blade, made darker and larger by the effects of the Temporary Strength Pill, pushed back the blue-white flames, if only for a moment. Just then, Jamukha’s foot shot forward like an arrow.
Whoosh.
His figure blurred.
Using Shifting Form and Position in that fleeting instant, Jamukha became a streak of wind and crossed more than ten jang1.
He raced toward the Fire King—a predator more ferocious and powerful than any quarry he’d ever faced.
One strike. One strike is all it takes.
There was near-certainty in Jamukha’s movements, and it was no baseless boast.
For more than fifty years, he had pursued speed above all else, honing his martial arts to counter the Hebei Peng Family’s overbearing style.
Jamukha had no doubt that even Jin Taekyung, called the Divine Dragon, had his limits. He couldn’t make up for all those years of difference.
And besides…
With this power, I can do anything.
Everything had changed. Like a caterpillar shedding a layer and being born anew, he saw the whole world afresh.
His feet, skimming over the ground, and the beloved weapon gripped in both hands felt lighter than ever.
The Temporary Strength Pill had drawn his power beyond its limits. Even now, that power seethed ceaselessly deep within him.
His sixth sense, awakened beyond the five, let him easily evade even the streak of flame bearing down on him from behind.
Shweeeee!
Jamukha picked up speed and turned his head. A spearhead that had left Jin Taekyung’s hand tore through the air, grazed the back of his neck, and buried itself in the cliff face.
KABOOM!
Sharp fragments of rock flew in every direction. Jamukha leaped over the rising cloud of dust and raced on, his figure seeming to erase the wind.
I’ll bring him down. No matter what.
Jamukha’s resolve wasn’t a hunting dog’s loyalty to its master.
No—he couldn’t have called it loyalty from the start.
It hadn’t come from his heart. The other man’s strength and his own ambitions had simply come together to force him into submission.
But that was enough.
Even if his loyalty was feigned, the North Heaven Demon Lord had promised him a sure reward. Dark Heaven had enough power to make him king of the steppe and ruler of the north.
And now, Jamukha’s mighty downward slash was bringing him one step closer to that grand ambition.
Shwack.
In the slowed world, Jeok Cheongang still had his back to him, seemingly unable to react at all. He remained locked in combat with the North Heaven Demon Lord, his back utterly exposed.
Dark green Force, arriving before its own sound, filled Jamukha’s eyes.
It’s over.
Jamukha was certain.
No one could dodge this strike.
Even if his opponent was the giant known as the Fire King, Jeok Cheongang, the outcome would be the same: death.
But it took only an instant for that certainty, which had risen like an exclamation point, to turn into a question mark.
Fwoosh.
A terrible heat suddenly washed over him from behind.
At the same time, someone’s fingertips flashed out and touched Jamukha’s long hair, braided into a queue in the custom of the steppe.
No—by the time he felt them touch it, his head was already being wrenched backward.
Grab.
A hand seized his hair with brutal force. His upper body bent back, and his curved blade wavered off course.
Through the sudden pain and shock, Jamukha understood why Jeok Cheongang hadn’t even turned his head in the face of such danger.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t react.
There was no doubt about it.
Jeok Cheongang had known from the beginning.
No—he had trusted him.
His one and only Disciple.
His Disciple’s might, something no number of years could measure.
Whoosh!
The dark green Force skimmed past Jeok Cheongang’s head by a hair and slashed through empty air.
As Jamukha clenched his teeth against the pain and frustration, a quiet voice reached his ear.
“Nice braid.”
“……!”
“Looks easy to rip right off.”
Krrk, krrrunch!
The world before Jamukha’s eyes turned white.
The pain of having his hair and scalp torn off together drew a silent scream from him. He spun around and swung his curved blade.
Whoooosh!
The dark green Force hadn’t died out despite his terrible pain. If anything, it surged more fiercely, tearing through space.
A blade technique perfected over more than half a century in pursuit of ultimate speed.
But Jamukha had no idea.
More precisely, he could never have imagined it.
The strength and speed with which he had subdued the vast steppe in a flash fell short of the enlightenment and rewards Jin Taekyung had gained over the past two years, crossing the line between life and death again and again.
Poom!
Flame Divine Palm.
The tremendous blaze swept in, burning even the air. Jamukha’s upper body lurched. Unimaginable heat burned through the acupoints all over his body and ravaged them.
Ah.
As his vision faded, Jamukha swallowed the blood surging up from deep in his dantian.
But even after taking that horrifically powerful strike, he could still feel a spark of hope that hadn’t gone out.
The Temporary Strength Pill.
A source of power that kept welling up.
The vitality holding his body together when it should have crumpled long ago.
Not yet. Not yet…!
Jamukha gritted his teeth.
With all his might, he tightened his grip on the hilt as it began to slip from his hand and drove the blade down toward Jin Taekyung’s chest.
Ka-drrk, crack!
Two opposing sounds mingled in midair.
And then—
“Ah, that hurts like hell.”
Jin Taekyung was drenched in dark red blood and groaning in pain. Staring at him, Jamukha forced out a question.
“How…?”
His voice broke apart like stepping-stones in a stream.
He couldn’t understand it.
Setting everything else aside, he genuinely wanted to know.
How had Jin Taekyung blocked that strike?
What kind of sorcery had made red-tinged armor appear over the bare skin showing through his tattered clothes just moments ago?
“This… cough, this doesn’t make—”
Krrrunch.
His voice scattered in a silent scream.
Twisting the five fingers he had driven into Jamukha’s flank like a hook, Jin Taekyung answered with a tired look.
“Why couldn’t we just make this easy? Why’d you have to keep hanging on? I was saving this for later.”
What did he mean?
How was any of this possible?
His questions unanswered, Jamukha tightened his grip as if in a daze.
He had forgotten that the Force once surging like waves had died away, and that his once razor-sharp blade had gone dull.
Scrape. Clang.
The curved blade never pierced Fire Dragon Armor. As if clinging to its owner’s regret, it scraped across the armor’s surface before slipping from his hand.
Poom.
With another burst of heat from Flame Divine Palm, Jamukha heard an explosion deep inside his body.
“Guh—!”
His vision dimmed. His ears went muffled.
Everything felt strange, as if it belonged to someone else.
Distant, as though he were watching from hundreds of ri2 away.
The heat of the blood spilling from his lips. The shout that could only have come from the North Heaven Demon Lord.
And yet one thing remained vivid.
The blows that kept pounding and breaking his body.
Poom. Poom. Pooom.
Jamukha staggered. Even as that terrifying force battered him, he couldn’t take a single step back.
Through pain so intense it felt as if his soul were burning white, the five fingers buried in his flank held him fast like a hook.
One punch, one palm strike—each carrying terrifying power—filled his vision, raining down in a blue-white torrent.
Until everything the Temporary Strength Pill had given him was spent.
Until that vast sea of power, which had seemed as though it would spring forth forever, ran dry.
And at some point, Jamukha realized he could no longer feel pain.
Thud.
Like a leaf falling at the end of autumn, Jamukha crumpled.
His eyes moved weakly upward. Reflected in them were the endless dark night sky and Jin Taekyung, standing tall as a giant.
You… You’re…
What are you?
Before he could finish the thought, Jamukha’s world tilted.
Thud.
Heat rose in a wavering haze. Jin Taekyung looked down at the king of the steppe, blackened and lifeless, then let out the breath he had been holding.
Hoo.
A quiet breath.
But despite unleashing strike after strike infused with tremendous internal energy, his lips, white a moment ago, were flushing red.
As if time were running backward.
As if everything spent and worn away were returning to its original state.
Ding. Ding. Ding.
System
You have defeated Lv. 173 Jamukha!
You have gained a tremendous amount of EXP!
You have gained a tremendous amount of Fame!
Your Fame makes the Great Steppe tremble!
.
.
.
Clear chimes rang in only one person’s ears as translucent letters filled the air.
At the end of them were the words he’d been waiting for so long.
System
Level Up!
“Now I’m finally feeling alive.”
Feeling that stroke of luck arrive just when he needed it, Jin Taekyung shivered.
Then he smiled past the shoulder of Jeok Cheongang, who stood firm as Mount Taishan, at the North Heaven Demon Lord staring back with wide eyes.
“There were two of you. Now you’re alone.”
Crack.
The North Heaven Demon Lord clenched his teeth hard enough to break them and drove Jeok Cheongang back with all his might.
Krrrunch! Bang!
Their tremendous clash flung them in opposite directions.
Rather than absorb the shock wave, the North Heaven Demon Lord used it to speed his retreat. Jeok Cheongang saw through his intent at once and shouted.
“You—!”
But the North Heaven Demon Lord didn’t stop.
He cut through the wind and seemed to erase the space around him as he shot toward the narrow gorge’s exit.
Shweeeee! Boom!
A casually thrown punch shattered the massive rocks filling the gorge. The North Heaven Demon Lord thrust his spear toward the people of Shanxi, still unable to advance past the obstacles blocking their way and the force of the collisions.
Rrrrrum.
Space warped. At its center, the spearhead gave off a blindingly ominous flash.
But that strike, carrying an unprecedented force, never swept across the people of Shanxi.
Shwack!
A gigantic arrow of light tore through the air and plunged toward the North Heaven Demon Lord.
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