The Sword Demon (剑鬼)
The monk's eyes were wide with disbelief as he stared at the half-severed halves of his own body. He still couldn't grasp what had happened. Yet a single second later.
“Kwaaaaaah!”
He seized the halves of his shattered torso and let out a scream that echoed through the valley.
Kukugugugu!
When a cultivator reached the Sachuk realm, his vitality was so vast that even a shattered golden core could be knit back together.
There was only one way to truly wound a Sachuk monk.
The one thing hidden deep within his golden core—the original soul.
And inside that soul, the Heavenly Round and the Earthly Square.
“You… you bastard!”
The seven Sachuk monks who had felt my strength was no ordinary thing linked their palms and lunged at me in a fierce assault.
But I smiled faintly and raised the colorless glass sword once more.
“Until now, I had to hide the fact that I was a shaman.”
In the Gwanghan Realm, shamans were forbidden.
But right now…
“Now that I’ve thought about it, do I still need to hide it from the likes of you?”
Kwaakgwaakgwaakgwaang!
I brought the sword down in a single strike.
A streak of colorless heavenly tribulation erupted in every direction.
The earth itself split in half.
A valley five thousand li long had been born, its walls dripping with scarlet lava.
The Sachuk monks who had taken that blow were sliced clean in two.
“Insane! It’s a shaman!”
“A shaman of the fourth stage of foundation establishment!”
“Everyone, attack together!!!”
But I watched them charge with wide eyes and let out a cold laugh.
“Wrong.”
Kugugugugugu!
Pure vital energy surged wildly through my entire body.
Demonic energy swirled and poured strength into every limb.
I began to dance.
“If you were going to attack in unison from the beginning, you should have done it before any of you fell into judgment.”
Kwaang, kwaakgwaakgwaakgwaang!
The first twelve seconds of the Danak Sword Art exploded outward.
Those twelve seconds were the basics of swordsmanship.
From the thirteenth to the twenty-fourth second, techniques involving sword qi, intent, and the control of force.
And from the twenty-fifth to the thirty-sixth second, the forms I had begun to forge.
I had yet to set clear standards for them.
But against these Sachuk monks, I had finally grasped the rhythm of the latter half of the Danak Sword Art.
‘The integrated form that harmonizes Heaven, Earth, and Mind.’
That would become the true definition of the Danak Sword Art’s latter half.
Thirteen Sachuk monks charged at me, each unleashing their own secret arts.
But they were slow.
Booong, boong, boong, boongboongboongboong!
I danced while maintaining the Triple Taiji and met them head-on.
The pagoda law shield descended from the sky.
The sword pagoda law shield pressed down from both sides.
The ring-shaped law shield expanded massively and tightened around me.
One monk holding a mirror-shaped law shield turned it toward himself.
At that moment, an identical doppelganger burst out of the mirror and attacked with the same secret art.
When another monk shook his dew-drop-shaped law shield, an enormous heat flame erupted from the droplets and engulfed the surroundings.
The monk beside him offered a fan, and a whirlwind howled from all directions, combining with the flame to create a fiery vortex that swallowed me whole.
Kwaakgwaakgwaakgwaang!
* * *
Around Seo Eun-hyun and the Sachuk monks, a three-thousand-li radius was instantly swallowed by shockwaves and turned into an earthquake.
The cultivators who had come to capture him were the pursuit monks who handled the eccentric ones from Geongon City.
They also pursued unusual talents who ascended from the mortal realm or escaped monsters from the Void Space that had entered Gwanghan Realm and fled the city.
But they had never faced a monster that even fifteen pursuit monks could not defeat.
Kwaang, kwaaang!
The law shields were shattered.
The rare materials poured out turned the shields into paper scraps.
“Kwaaaaaak!”
One after another, the thousands-of-years-old Sachuk monks were sliced in half by a single sword.
“Block!!!”
“Hold him off for even a second!!!”
But it was impossible.
No matter what defensive law or shield was used.
Everything that tried to “block” was passed through like a ghost and cut down.
There was no escape.
Just when they thought they had dodged the sword, something colorless, traceless, and formless changed shape without a sound and chased and sliced them apart.
“W-we can’t block it!”
“Kwaaaaaah!”
By now the fifteen pursuit monks had dwindled to nine.
“Everyone, unfold the Three Rings! Reorganize the formation!”
Kwaduk, kwaduk, kwaduk!
The nine pursuit monks severed their fingers at the same time.
From the severed fingers, their essence blood sprayed and gathered into chains in the air.
“Bind!”
The leader of the pursuit monks and a Sachuk Integration monk, Hanjo, shouted while leading the remaining eight.
“Unfold the Binding Soul Chain Formation!”
Churruruk!
The essence blood connected to the life force of the Sachuk monks formed chains in the air.
Tick, tick, tick!
At the same time, nine chains pierced space and slammed into Seo Eun-hyun’s entire body.
Kwadududuk!
Hanjo wiped cold sweat from his brow and shouted.
“I’ve got him for now! Attack all at once!!!”
At the same time, the pursuit monks re-linked their palms and unleashed their original secret arts in unison.
The air roared as light scattered in every direction.
Where they had launched their attacks, a massive spatial crack had already formed.
Kugugugugu—
After the relentless bombardment, a brief lull came.
Hanjo swallowed hard.
‘Everyone’s law power has a limit to continuous bombardment. Even a normal Sachuk monk wouldn’t leave any scraps.’
He scanned the dark smoke rising from within with a hopeful expression.
“H-has he been cut?”
And from within the smoke, a snow-white arm suddenly burst forth.
[Wrong.]
Goosebumps crawled up my spine.
“Insane! Full-scale bombardment!”
And a faint sense of foreboding crossed Hanjo’s mind.
‘He survived that? Even a peer Sachuk monk would struggle. Among Sachuk Integration monks, unless it’s a special one… But what is this calm voice!’
Even a Sachuk Integration monk who took such heavy bombardment and survived… What did it mean?
It was simple.
The monster over there was probably at the level of a Tai Xiu giant.
[I didn’t capture me…]
Tick, tick, tick!
Seo Eun-hyun, bound in the Binding Soul Chain Formation, revealed his teeth from within the smoke.
[You were the ones who were captured.]
And his arm sliced through the smoke as he swung his sword.
“Dodge!!!!”
Hanjo’s urgent voice spread through the air.
Kwaaaaang!
The bodies of the Sachuk monks split apart with dull cracks.
“Hwaaaah!”
Four pillars rose around Hanjo as a qi shield unfolded.
But the shield was torn apart far too easily.
Hanjo looked at Seo Eun-hyun, who was swinging a colorless sword from within the dark smoke, and muttered a single word.
“Sword… Ghost…”
And that word spread instantly from mouth to mouth among the pursuit monks.
“T-the Sword Demon!”
“Sword Demon! It’s the Sword Demon!”
Kwaaaaang!
Finally, the commander of the pursuit monks, Hanjo, was sliced in half by the merciless sword of the Sword Demon.
The remaining pursuit monks completely lost their fighting spirit.
“R-run!”
“Monster!”
“Hwaaaah!”
“S-Senior! Please save me!”
The four surviving pursuit monks fled in different directions, and only then did Seo Eun-hyun’s sword stop its merciless dance.
* * *
Chiiii—
I let out a faint smile while cooling the steam rising from my entire body.
“Huu…”
It had been a fierce battle fought while chasing Heon-won and exhausting my qi.
Thanks to that, I had been forced to use the self-annihilation technique just to face them.
“Hmm… Good.”
Now my physical immortality was stronger than the destructive power of the self-annihilation technique.
A short burst of it wouldn’t kill me.
Of course, the theory of the self-annihilation technique was infinite, so prolonged use would indeed be fatal.
But unlike the must-be-annihilated technique of the past, this one was usable in short bursts.
‘A bit dangerous.’
Because I had used the self-annihilation technique after draining all my strength from Heon-won, a long fight might have been risky.
If all of them had attacked me with everything they had from the beginning, I would have lost and started the nineteenth cycle.
‘But they all held back with their lives.’
Even though they could revive after death, they held back.
No, perhaps they had reached the Sachuk realm—where they would die fighting—because they had preserved their lives so much.
The attachment to life of even Sachuk monks was beyond imagination.
Thanks to that, I could pick them off one by one with precise cuts.
They thought I was attacking in unison, but in truth, almost none of them had fought properly except for one or two.
That was why I had won.
But still…
“…Fifteen Sachuk monks…”
I laughed coldly.
“I won…”
Those who had hesitated to stake their lives because their attachment to it was beyond imagination were still fifteen Sachuk monks.
Among them was even a Sachuk Integration monk.
I had only defeated him after draining my qi while fleeing from Heon-won.
If they had fought me with full power from the start without holding back, those bastards couldn’t have beaten me even if they had staked their lives.
Considering that Heon-won had learned the Heavenly Earth Double Water Law and was a Tai Xiu giant…
Kududuk—
I finally felt the power of the Triple Taiji gather in my fists.
“Tai Xiu…”
I had reached the realm where I could challenge the Integration realm.
‘Of course, the fleeing Sachuk monks and the remaining Sachuk monks who would resurrect would each inform the heavenly clan of my existence.’
I estimated that even Tai Xiu giants would suffer similarly heavy damage from the Heavenly Tribulation’s punishment.
They too had taken enormous damage, and perhaps that was why they had been hiding in the shadows until now, close to total extinction, to recover.
If they heard that a new Generation of Integration giants had been born among us, it wouldn’t matter what Heon-won thought of me anymore.
Because I would be protected by precious strength from the heavenly clan.
“Now then, come out.”
I brushed off my hands and unfolded the Dao Origin Door.
Inside it, Jeon Myeong-hoon and Hong Beom emerged.
Jeon Myeong-hoon whistled and smiled.
“I caught a glimpse inside the Dao Origin Door. Insane. Then now…”
“Come out.”
At my words, Jeon Myeong-hoon furrowed his brow.
“We all came out…”
I ignored Jeon Myeong-hoon and looked at the owner of the unpleasant, sticky intention that had been watching us the whole time with a cold, sharp gaze.
“This is your last warning. If you don’t come out, I’ll kill you.”
And as if space was bending, the small realm created by the qi shield revealed its form.
Rather than a realm, it was more like a pocket dimension, floating like a water droplet above space.
And as the qi shield of the water-drop shape was withdrawn, an unpleasant face appeared.
“Haha, it’s been a while, Seo Dou.”
It was Seo Hyoel.