The Blue Line That Erases Death

A storm was raging inside Ouyang Qiangang's body.

From the heart of the chaos, he clung desperately to the last thread of his consciousness, driving the *Transcendent Formless Divine Art* to its absolute limit as he dragged the two rampaging deaths—each trying to devour the other—into the great furnace of his true qi.

'If you have time to talk... then hurry up and finish it, Akasha.'

Akasha forged the absorbed death-spirit demonic qi into a single colossal spear of energy, then hurled it with everything she had at the frozen ice wall of the fifth great acupoint that was strangling his meridians.

There would be no second attempt. The Death Spirit Demon Lord would never grant him that kind of time.

BOOM— CRACK— RUMBLE—!

Thunderous detonations erupted within Ouyang Qiangang's body. The tightly sealed fifth great acupoint shattered to pieces, and pure Supreme Yin qi burst forth like a tidal wave.

But that tide was purified in an instant along with the demonic qi, transformed into a vast surge of life energy and absorbed into his true qi.

In that moment, Ouyang Qiangang felt something he had never experienced since learning the Transcendent Formless Divine Art: for the very first time, the momentum of his Pure Yang true qi overpowered that of his Pure Yin.

It had been a long, long internal war. This was the moment the tide finally turned.

The Supreme Yin qi remaining in the four great acupoints of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians recoiled deep into his meridians like a routed army.

An incomparable fullness wrapped around his entire body. Like the floodgates of a great dam opening onto a parched riverbed, clear, explosive true qi surged from his dantian, churning through every meridian in his body.

All of this happened in the mere blink of an eye between the moment he was struck by the Blood River Palm of Ten Thousand Death Spirits and rolled across the ground, and the moment he rose back to his feet.

Lightning-like divine light flashed in Ouyang Qiangang's eyes. He could feel it through every fiber of his being—both the quality and quantity of his internal power had ascended to an entirely new level.

The trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth had stopped at some point, and a clear, healthy flush now glowed in his once-pale cheeks.

Ouyang Qiangang rose and locked eyes with the Death Spirit Demon Lord as it came charging at him.

Sparks seemed to fly where their gazes met in midair. The demon lord's blood-red pupils quivered as if an earthquake had struck, and he felt a chill crawling up his spine.

The young whelp before him was unmistakably the same, yet something within him had changed. Where before he had been like a blazing flame, now he was a pitch-black abyss itself—devouring everything and utterly silent.

A creeping wrongness settled over the demon lord, as though an entirely different being had taken possession of the whelp's body in the space of a single breath. The pressure radiating from Ouyang Qiangang existed on a completely different dimensional plane than before.

'I must be imagining things. No matter what kind of genius that brat is, there's no way he broke through the wall in an instant!'

The Death Spirit Demon Lord tried to cast off the thought, but his instincts were screaming. As if to bury that unease, he roared and unleashed the first of the three ultimate cuts of the latter half of the Blood River Palm of Ten Thousand Death Spirits—Spirit-Severing Net of Destruction.

It was a secret art he had been hoarding until now, one no living soul had ever witnessed.

SHWAAAAAAAA—!

Dark crimson gang qi spread into a colossal net, descending as if to tear the very fabric of space and time to shreds.

Ouyang Qiangang answered without a moment's hesitation, kicking off the ground and soaring upward.

"Gale Flash Thunder Palm!"

Azure lightning exploded from his fingertips, transforming into tens of thousands of dazzling flashes as it drove head-on into the dark crimson net.

KWAAAAAAAANG—!

The instant the two techniques collided head-on, a thunderclap erupted as if the underground cavern itself were collapsing.

Ouyang Qiangang was pushed back a single jang, while the Death Spirit Demon Lord, his advance cut off, came to a dead stop.

Unbelievable shock filled the demon lord's eyes. The whelp who had been vomiting blood at the mere brush of his palm-force moments ago had just met his ultimate technique head-on. He'd been shoved back one jang, but there wasn't the slightest sign of injury—not even minor internal damage.

'Impossible...'

A horrifying killing intent rose in his eyes.

'And he's barely past his coming-of-age. If he's like this now, then in a few years... I must kill him here, today. If I let this one live, he'll be the greatest obstacle to the great work of our cult—and then some.'

The Death Spirit Demon Lord unleashed the second cut, Spirit-Burning Thunderflare, laden with terrible killing intent, and Ouyang Qiangang threw himself forward without hesitation, launching the Explosive Thunderflame King Palm.

KWAAAAAANG!

A monstrous detonation tore through the cavern. The underground chamber shook as if it would collapse, stone fragments rained from the ceiling like hail, and the corpses and skeletons piled within a dozen jang crumbled into dust and scattered on the wind.

Ouyang Qiangang retreated five ja; the Death Spirit Demon Lord floated half a ja into the air. The ash-gray skull turned bone-white.

'What in the world is this creature...? He grows stronger the longer we fight?'

The Death Spirit Demon Lord rose slowly into the air. Defying gravity, suspended in midair, he looked like the god of death itself descending upon the world.

From his skeletal frame, a thick aura of death deep enough to swallow the entire underground cavern began to swirl like a black typhoon.

"Grrrrrrr..."

An inhuman moan leaked from his lips. Drawing up the very last drop of his true qi, he unleashed the final cut of the Blood River Palm of Ten Thousand Death Spirits—Spirit-Annihilating Heaven Destroyer.

SHWAAAAAAAA—!

A bone-chilling aura of death blanketed the underground cavern, and palm-force laden with gang qi came swirling down on Ouyang Qiangang like a typhoon.

Ouyang Qiangang's eyes turned terrifyingly sharp.

'My power has improved, but I still can't kill him with palm-force alone. In that case...'

His hand closed around the hilt of the Divine Venerable Sword at his waist. And time itself stopped.

In the instant the dark crimson tide of death hung frozen in the air, every color drained from the world, and a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠single blue line was drawn.

Could that even be called a sword strike? Ouyang Qiangang's single stroke ignored cause and effect—it was a 'phenomenon' that severed space and time themselves.

The frozen time began to flow once more. And along the trajectory where the blue line had been drawn, the dark crimson tide, the space behind it, and even the thunderous roar that had filled the underground cavern were all cleanly bisected.

It was not two great forces colliding. It was one absolute force simply erasing the other.

As those who could not comprehend what had just happened stared blankly at the center of the collision—

KWAAAAAANG—

—the delayed roar finally erupted, and Ouyang Qiangang was flung back one jang while the Death Spirit Demon Lord was driven back five.

"Kgh!"

"Kck!"

Suppressed groans escaped both their lips at the same moment.

The red will-o'-the-wisp smoldering in the demon lord's empty eye sockets flickered as though about to gutter out. He stared, half-dazed, at the arm whose forearm had been severed clean away.

His Death Spirit Skeleton Gang Qi was a protective art rivaling the Diamond Indestructible Body—and it had been destroyed. Worse still, so fast had Ouyang Qiangang's technique been that he hadn't even glimpsed the sword's trajectory.

What Ouyang Qiangang had unleashed was the first cut of the Absolute Three Swords—One Flash Severing Heaven.

Had he attained complete mastery of the sword art, the Death Spirit Demon Lord would have lost not merely an arm, but been cleaved in two.

A roar brimming with madness burst from the demon lord's mouth.

"I'll kill you, you wretched brat!"

And then it came.

Woooooong—

A majestic sound of a flying sword echoed from far away. The sheer internal power carried within it made even the Death Spirit Demon Lord and Ouyang Qiangang falter simultaneously. Within that sword-song lay the pure, serene energy of the Tao—one that seemed to wash away every worldly burden.

The faces of Hwangbo Pung and the others, who had annihilated the black-robed fiends and been watching the duel between Ouyang Qiangang and the demon lord, brightened.

Zhuge ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Hui called out in a voice tinged with excitement.

"He has come!"

Conflict flickered in the Death Spirit Demon Lord's eyes as he sensed the arrival of an overwhelming new foe.

'The energy in that sword-song... one of the Wudang Taoist masters, most likely. This whelp alone is more than I can handle—if that one joins in as well...'

Woooooong—

The first sound had come from over three hundred jang away; the second from barely two hundred. To cross a hundred jang in the space of a single breath meant the wielder possessed lightness skill beyond imagination.

Woooooong—

The third sword-song rang out from a mere hundred-odd jang away.

The demon lord's gaze turned sinister. He wanted to kill Ouyang Qiangang here and now, but if the newcomer proved to be a righteous sect master, his own life would be in jeopardy. And Ouyang Qiangang himself was a peerless expert who would not die easily.

His mind made up, the demon lord snatched up his severed arm bone and withdrew at terrifying speed, vanishing into the darkness—fleeing through a hidden passage that only he knew.

At the same moment, a single figure silently appeared within the cavern.

He was a Taoist in his fifties, clad in grey robes, with a refined and serene bearing. His gaze was like a clear lake whose depths could not be fathomed, and the ancient pine-patterned sword in his hand carried the weight of decades.

Hwangbo Pung, Paeng Man-gyeong, and Zhuge Hui bowed at the waist, faces full of reverence, offering a cupped-fist salute.

"Your juniors greet the Sword Absolute, Hwayang Jin'in."

Surprise dawned in Ouyang Qiangang's eyes.

'The Sword Absolute, Hwayang Jin'in... a name from the Records of the Murim's Strange Heroes that I read in the Imperial Treasury. The absolute sovereigns who rule the current murim—Four Kings, Five Fiends, Six Machines, Seven Absolutes. Among them, one of the Seven Absolutes and a supreme elder of the Wudang Sect... why would someone of that caliber be in a place like this?'

Hwayang Jin'in was famous enough that even Ouyang Qiangang, who took little interest in the murim, could not fail to know him. The current murim boasted supreme masters known as the One Venerable, Two Sages, Three Immortals, Four Kings, Five Fiends, Six Machines, and Seven Absolutes. The One Venerable and Two Sages, Three Immortals were absolute masters of the previous generation who had withdrawn from the world after the Great Righteous-Demonic War, while the Four Kings, Five Fiends, Six Machines, Seven Absolutes were active ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in the murim today.

Hwayang Jin'in was one of the Seven Absolutes, a master of the Wudang Sect. Though he appeared to be in his forties, his true age was said to be past seventy—internal power that had reached the Transformation Realm kept him looking decades younger.

Hwayang Jin'in surveyed his surroundings with a grave expression, then let out a low sigh as he took in the altar and incense burners, the corpses of the black-robed fiends, and the mountain of thousands upon thousands of human remains.

"Mmm..."

His expression hardening, he turned to Hwangbo Pung.

"It has been a while, Hwangbo Sakjil. And it appears a Death Spirit Blood Rite was underway here. Am I correct?"

"That is so, Reverend Sir," Hwangbo Pung answered respectfully.

"What happened here?"

Hwangbo Pung glanced sidelong at Zhuge Hui—his exposition was a hundred times better than his own—and Zhuge Hui stepped forward, giving a detailed account of everything from their discovery of the cavern entrance to the battle with the Death Spirit Demon Lord.

When the tale was done, astonishment spread across Hwayang Jin'in's face. His gaze turned to Ouyang Qiangang.

"Boundless Life, Boundless Buddha. This humble Taoist is Hwayang of Wudang. The name Life-and-Death Divine Doctor is one I have long heard with admiration. It is a pleasure to meet you."

His manner and speech were markedly more courteous than they had been with Hwangbo Pung and the others. Ouyang Qiangang returned the salute with one of his own.

"The honor is mine, to meet a Taoist of such renowned standing."

"Compared to the Divine Doctor who saved countless souls suffering from the plague, this humble Taoist's reputation is an empty name and nothing more."

Ouyang Qiangang was quietly astonished at how sincerely the words were spoken. He knew all too well how difficult it was for a supreme master who had earned such renown to lower himself so.

'So he's no ordinary Taoist with nothing but high martial skill. Wudang, is it... I'd love to visit and see what kind of sect could raise a man like this, whenever I find the time.'

Hwayang Jin'in asked,

"Repelling the Death Spirit Demon Lord is something even this humble Taoist could not have done with ease. Might you tell me who your master or school is?"

"I have no school worth naming. Through various connections, I simply learned a few martial arts along the way."

Since it was far from uncommon for a martial artist to withhold the name of his school, Hwayang Jin'in asked nothing more and changed the subject.

"Might you tell me how the Divine Doctor came to be in this place?"

"I was investigating the strange deaths in Guigok Village when I learned that an unusual death qi was flowing into this area. I followed it here."

"Hmm..."

Hwayang Jin'in nodded and continued.

"I had no idea remnants of the Death Spirit Blood Cult were lurking here."

"Neither did I."

"This humble Taoist was investigating the mysterious disappearances of villagers in the surrounding area at the request of His Excellency the Chancellor of the Changcheon Murim Alliance, together with Hwangbo Sakjil and his companions."

Ouyang Qiangang's eyes gleamed.

'So Hwayang Jin'in belongs to that alliance as well...'

Hwayang Jin'in went on.

"With the traces of the Death Spirit Blood Cult uncovered, our efforts can hardly be called fruitless. I would like to know—would you be willing to continue the pursuit alongside us?"

Ouyang Qiangang answered at once, as though the matter required no thought at all.

"I'm grateful for the offer, but I'm afraid I must decline. I'm no murim wanderer, and I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠have no intention of entangling myself too deeply in this affair."

Blank disbelief spread across the faces of Hwayang Jin'in and Hwangbo Pung's group.

Hwayang Jin'in smiled wryly.

"I can hardly fault the Divine Doctor for feeling so, though I suspect the murim will not be so willing to let him go. Boundless Life, Boundless Buddha..."

Ouyang Qiangang broke in with a light smile.

"Now that I've confirmed this is an affair under the Changcheon Murim Alliance's direction, this unworthy one will take his leave. Ah—there is one thing. I'd like to take the bone fragments that were used in the ritual, if I may. For research purposes."

It was a request from the man who had repelled the Death Spirit Demon Lord and saved the lives of Hwangbo Pung and the others. Hwayang Jin'in nodded without hesitation.

"By all means. Should your research bear fruit, I would be grateful if you would stop by the main alliance to share it, at any time."

"I shall do so."

Ouyang Qiangang offered a parting salute and left the underground cavern together with Han Jo and Pung So-cheong.

Watching his retreating back, Hwayang Jin'in murmured softly to himself.

"A hidden dragon of the mortal world... I wonder whether he can truly remain free of the murim's tangled fates. Boundless Life, Boundless Buddha."