Kwak Yeon instinctively drew the Blue-Steel Sword and blocked the killing intent.
—Kwaaang!
A thunderous crash erupted in the dense darkness, along with a flash of sparks.
Ghhk!
A shock that rattled every major point in Kwak Yeon’s body struck him.
Since his sword qi had condensed into sword aura, this was the first time he had been so completely overpowered in a single clash.
In that instant of flashing light, Kwak Yeon saw the person who had attacked him.
Martial Alliance Leader Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak!
The Martial Supreme Venerable’s figure immediately vanished as if sinking into the black darkness, but it was certainly him.
Since the killing intent had appeared without any sign, not even a presence, Kwak had naturally expected it to be the Martial Supreme Venerable.
Why?
This was absolutely not to measure his martial realm. That attack had carried clear, vivid killing intent.
Had he reacted even a little slower, his severed head would have been rolling across the floor.
There was no such thing as using an attack that even someone at the upper extreme of the Flower Realm could barely block just to gauge his martial level.
Kwak Yeon had no time to dwell on his question.
—Shuaang!
Another killing intent was already rushing right up to his nose.
This killing intent, too, appeared abruptly in empty air. And the moment it appeared, it took on substance and tore through the air.
Kwak Yeon pulled his body back and hastily unfolded Falling Star Myriad Transformations.
—Jjeojeojeojeong!
A sharp roar like iron plates being ripped apart continued along with a flash of light.
Kwak Yeon saw the Martial Supreme Venerable’s killing intent pierce through Falling Star Myriad Transformations.
—Chwarak!
The killing intent had pierced through Falling Star Myriad Transformations, an ancient defensive sword form performed with the full power of a master at the upper extreme of the Flower Realm, and cut away a huge chunk of his front hem.
Because Kwak Yeon had acknowledged that he was at a disadvantage, he had stepped back even while unfolding the defensive sword form.
If he had trusted Falling Star Myriad Transformations and held his ground, his chest would have been split open.
A chill ran down Kwak Yeon’s spine.
The Martial Supreme Venerable was truly trying to kill him.
The fact that the iron door had been shut and barred, and the fact that there was not the slightest hesitation in the attacks, had to be because of that.
Kwak Yeon wanted to shout and ask why he was trying to kill him.
But he still did not have time to leisurely open his mouth.
—Shwaaaek!
Killing intent stabbed in, aiming for his heart.
It had appeared far too close, leaving no proper way to defend.
There was not even the minimum space needed to block with the Blue-Steel Sword, so Kwak Yeon threw himself backward.
—Kuuung!
His back slammed hard into something, and then he heard the ringing of iron.
The iron door!
Only then did Kwak Yeon realize that the barred iron door was blocking him from behind.
Huuup!
Kwak Yeon twisted his body at the same time as he swung the Blue-Steel Sword with a desperate effort.
—Jjeong!
The Seongra Heaven Sword Wall he had forced out was, as expected, erased powerlessly, and the killing intent stabbed in mercilessly.
—Paaat!
His chest was cut, and fresh blood sprayed. Thanks to twisting his body, he avoided a fatal wound by a hair’s breadth.
—Kwaaaang!
The iron door screamed as if it were breaking.
Without even the presence of mind to feel the pain of his cut chest, Kwak Yeon rolled across the floor.
—Kwaang!
—Kwaang!
—Kwaang!
Flashes and thunderous crashes burst one after another wherever Kwak Yeon had rolled past.
Every time light flashed, Kwak Yeon saw Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak’s figure.
But each location was different.
The Martial Supreme Venerable was launching successive attacks as if they were one continuous sword form, yet his figure appeared in completely different places.
The Martial Supreme Venerable was using a lightness art on a wholly different level from the White-Haired Demon Queen’s Moon-Shadow Divine Step.
No, it could not be called a lightness art.
A lightness art left signs of movement.
The Martial Supreme Venerable vanished as if going out, then appeared like a ghost in another place where, by any measure of time, he could not possibly have been.
It was as if he were announcing the fact that: You can never escape me.
—Kwaang!
His clothing tore, and the Martial Supreme Venerable’s killing intent bloomed in a flash so close that his skin stung.
Kwak Yeon intuited that he would ultimately fail to avoid this chain of killing intent and die.
I can’t die without even knowing the reason.
He wanted to at least know why he had to die, but the Martial Supreme Venerable kept pressing him without giving him the slightest opening.
Anger surged up along with resentment.
Why was this world so desperate to devour him?
He had merely done his best at the tasks given to him.
As his anger surged, the dark energies accumulated in his meridian points stirred all at once and rose up, as if they had been waiting.
Uuuung!
Killing intent soared.
The killing intent drew the inner-sphere true qi up from his dantian, and the black energies in his meridian points explosively amplified that inner-sphere true qi.
—Shuaang! Kwaang!
At the instant the Martial Supreme Venerable’s killing intent scraped past his back, Kwak Yeon raised himself with Swallow-Turning Body lightness art and slashed with the Blue-Steel Sword.
Falling Star Rushing Thunder!
Dry lightning shot from the tip of the Blue-Steel Sword and split the darkness.
Flash!
The dry lightning failed to strike anything directly and vanished in an instant.
But he could see Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak standing about five zhang away. That figure, too, was soon covered by the curtain of darkness.
Even though his painstaking counterattack, Falling Star Sword Art’s fifth sword form, Falling Star Rushing Thunder, into which he had poured immense inner power and true qi in a single burst, had gone to waste, Kwak Yeon did not feel the least bit disappointed.
After all, it had made the Martial Supreme Venerable’s attack stop.
He would not be driven one-sidedly into a dog’s death.
Now it meant nothing to Kwak Yeon that Cheol Gun-ak was an Entrance-to-Divinity Realm master, or that he was the Martial Alliance Leader.
He was merely an opponent who had to be killed.
Killing light flashed in Kwak Yeon’s eyes as he aimed the Blue-Steel Sword into the darkness.
Just because he had been seized by killing intent did not mean Kwak Yeon’s reason had become muddled.
No, because he had come to focus only on the act of killing, it had grown even sharper.
Kwak Yeon calmly waited for the Martial Supreme Venerable to attack from within the darkness.
He was inside a pitch-black room where he could see nothing, and he could not find the Martial Supreme Venerable’s presence even through his outer-body qi field.
And yet the Martial Supreme Venerable was attacking him with precision, as if watching him with both eyes.
Kwak Yeon knew that was a difference in realm.
The Martial Supreme Venerable, being in the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm, might have mastered Heavenly Ear and be listening to the sound of his heart.
At that, anger began boiling again.
A person of higher realm held an overwhelming advantage in an unfavorable environment like this, whether through the body’s senses, the outer-body qi field, or some other ability entirely.
How could someone in the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm, someone who was even the Martial Alliance Leader, use such a dirty method?
Kwak Yeon knew the answer to that question, and so his killing intent surged even higher.
It meant he intended to kill Kwak Yeon for certain inside this dark room.
“Then I cannot obediently die for you. I will be sure to take at least one of your arms with me to the underworld, Alliance Leader.”
As Kwak Yeon made that vow toward the darkness, killing intent filled him to the crown of his head through sheer rage.
At that moment, black energies began swelling thickly from the meridian points throughout his entire body.
“......?”
Kwak Yeon realized that the existing black energies had not grown larger. Instead, black energies rising from within his meridian points had joined them.
They were old black energies, energies he did not know when they had seeped inside him.
Over many long years, black energy had accumulated layer upon layer inside his meridian points, and now, at this opportunity, it was revealing itself.
Uuuung!
The more the black energy in his meridian points grew, the more vigorous his inner power and true qi became. To Kwak Yeon, steeped in killing intent, this seemed fortunate.
Yes. Come out, all of you.
Kwak Yeon recalled his past self, the self that had been persecuted without end.
Today, I’ll release that grudge of yours.
When his entire network of major points became more filled with inner power and true qi than ever before, Kwak Yeon opened his mouth toward the darkness.
“Alliance Leader, I do not know what reason you may have, but as a junior of shallow learning, I feel that doing this in a dark room like this is unfair.”
At that instant, there came a metallic click, and the sound of something sliding rang out from all sides.
—Deureuk!
—Deureureuk!
—Deureureuk!
—Deureureuk!
And the dark room suddenly brightened.
Four night pearls appeared in the walls on all sides, illuminating the dark room.
The four night pearls gave off a faint light, but because the room had been so utterly dark, it was dazzling, as if he had looked straight at the sun.
Mm......!
As Kwak Yeon furrowed his brow, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak’s voice resounded through the sealed room.
“Child! You dare say you’ll take one of my arms to the underworld as an offering? Then come and take it.”
Astonishingly, Martial Alliance Leader Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak was seated before one wall of the sealed room, showing Kwak Yeon his back.
“......?”
As Kwak Yeon looked doubtful, unable to understand the Martial Supreme Venerable’s intention, Cheol Gun-ak’s voice again rang through the sealed room.
“Decide within half a quarter-hour. After that, you won’t have another chance.”
At the Martial Supreme Venerable’s declaration that he would give him no chance and would certainly kill him, killing light erupted from Kwak Yeon’s eyes.
The Martial Supreme Venerable was seated with his back turned, only three zhang away.
No matter how much he was in the Entrance-to-Divinity Realm, he could not dodge Kwak Yeon’s sword.
Because Kwak Yeon had an extreme-speed sword that could pierce even the sun in the sky.
Falling Star Pierces the Sun!
It was a lightning-fast extreme-speed sword that could not even be attempted with three cycles of inner power.
But at present, his inner power and true qi had swelled severalfold through the black energy, so it was not impossible.
Led by the reason of his killing intent, Kwak Yeon launched himself forward.
Once he entrusted his entire mind to killing intent alone, everything from the sword form to the circulation of inner power flowed as smoothly as water.
The black energies that had emerged from his meridian points were spreading throughout all the major points of his body, but if anything, Kwak Yeon felt refreshed.
It felt as though the fetters that had bound him were disappearing, leaving him endlessly free.
More than anyone, you have the right.
The black energies whispered without end.
As his anger and resentment were washed away, it felt as if his heart was becoming clean.
Now no one can ever humiliate you again.
Kwak Yeon was right before the back of the person who was giving him his final humiliation.
The Blue-Steel Sword, wrapped in snow-white sword aura, had already pierced through the Martial Supreme Venerable’s golden robe and passed through his torso.
Falling Star Pierces the Sun!
It was said to shoot through the sun, and indeed, the sword form had ended the moment it began.
—Paang!
The air-tearing noise followed late, so lightning-fast had the strike been.
You’re free now!
At that instant, cheers and praises poured from the black energies.
“With killing intent of this degree, it seems you are ready now.”
Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak’s voice suddenly came from behind him.
Then what did I pierce......?
—Neopul!
The golden robe fluttered powerlessly.
Anger surged through Kwak Yeon when he realized he had been wholly deceived by the Golden Cicada Sheds Its Shell lightness art.
Moreover, the Martial Supreme Venerable’s tone, as if he had provoked him while anticipating precisely this result, made him even more furious.
—Eudeudeuk!
When Kwak Yeon turned around with killing light filling his eyes, Martial Supreme Venerable Cheol Gun-ak made a downward-cutting gesture toward him.
“All life beholds its end; only those who strive ahead may gain what remains.”
A vivid blue sword-shape appeared in the air and struck down at Kwak Yeon.
Kwak Yeon knew that this sword-shape was the true identity of the killing intent in the darkness. And he also instantly knew that it shared the same vein as the Formless Sword toward which the Wisdom Sword of Taiji aspired.
Kwak Yeon lifted the Blue-Steel Sword and blocked the Martial Supreme Venerable’s sword-shape.
—Kwareung!
Kwak Yeon received a shock that made the inner power and true qi throughout all his major points surge.
Ugh!
The shocks from the earlier clashes had merely rung through his major points, but the shock from this clash reached his inner power and true qi directly.
Why didn’t he use this kind of power from the beginning?
That was not his only question. The martial art the Martial Supreme Venerable had just performed was a fearsome internal-striking method; it would be more than enough to damage the heart or other organs.
And one more thing: why was he reciting an abrupt eight-character phrase while performing a martial art?
Kwak Yeon no longer had time to think through the questions that had arisen one after another.
“Thought is born from the soul’s envy; it then hastens toward the realm of desire.”
Because the Martial Supreme Venerable had taken a step closer and was sweeping his hand horizontally.
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