Dark Light Cleaving Heaven
Dokgo Jin’s eyes glinted with sudden recognition.
‘Paeng Jin-ak?’
Come to think of it, he recalled hearing rumors of a saber master from the Hebei Paeng Clan who had shaken the realm decades ago. His name had indeed been Paeng Jin-ak.
The Battle Blade, Paeng Jin-ak.
‘Rumor had it that he stormed out of the clan over his collateral branch status, only to vanish without a trace shortly after.’
At the time, he had been hailed as a rare talent destined to stand among the realm's apex masters, drawing immense attention across the land. When he abruptly disappeared, the entire martial world had been left bewildered.
‘To think the Battle Blade was here in the Northern Heaven Alliance all along.’
Dokgo Jin narrowed his eyes.
‘Now that I recall, an unconfirmed rumor once circulated through the underworld—that a monstrous battle demon wielding a horse-chopping saber dwelled within the Northern Heaven Alliance.’
It had been dismissed as mere hearsay, but seeing the man before him now, that rumor undoubtedly pointed to Paeng Jin-ak.
Paeng Jin-ak studied Dokgo Jin in silence for a long moment, then gave a slow, approving nod.
“Impressive. Just from your stance alone, I can tell you’re no ordinary talent.”
“……”
“It is hard to fathom what realm of mastery you’ve reached. You must have breezed through the first two gates without breaking a sweat.”
“What is the trial of the third gate?” Dokgo Jin asked, feigning ignorance despite already having a keen idea.
“Simple enough. As you’ve likely guessed, you must spar with me.” Paeng Jin-ak reached into his lapel and withdrew a slender stick of incense. “Hold out until this incense burns down to ash, and you pass. Simple, isn't it?”
“And what if I defeat you before it burns out?”
At Dokgo Jin’s provocative inquiry, Paeng Jin-ak’s eyes widened in brief surprise before he threw his head back in a thunderous belly laugh. “Hahaha! Why, of course that counts as passing too! Naturally!”
Yet behind the laughter, a chilling glint flickered across the old master's gaze.
“Do bear in mind, however... this old man knows no mercy once his hands are in motion.”
It was a thinly veiled threat, but Dokgo Jin did not bat an eye.
“Let us begin.”
“……Very well.”
Paeng Jin-ak tossed the incense stick casually toward the floor.
Thunk.
To one’s astonishment, the fragile stick pierced the solid stone floor like an iron nail, standing perfectly erect. An instant later, its tip flared crimson, embers smoldering into thin tendrils of smoke.
It appeared effortless, yet it was a masterstroke demonstrating the astonishing precision and razor-sharp density of Paeng Jin-ak’s internal energy.
A faint smile tugged at the old man's lips as he crooked a finger.
“I shall yield the first move. Come at me.”
“I will not decline.”
Boom!
With an explosive sonic crack, Dokgo Jin surged forward. Knowing full well that Paeng Jin-ak was an extraordinary master, he unleashed the Ink Flame Qi of the Nine Nether Dark Sky Scripture from the very outset.
Sssshhhk!
Shrouded in dense black energy, Dokgo Jin’s fist plunged straight for Paeng Jin-ak’s chest.
Yet Paeng Jin-ak completely ignored the incoming strike and drove his own fist straight forward in retaliation.
Rumble!
“……!”
The old man's blow was monstrously heavy yet blindingly fast. If both continued unabated, they would trade undefended blows at the exact same instant.
However, such an exchange heavily disadvantaged Dokgo Jin. Paeng Jin-ak’s fist was infused with internal energy cultivated over decades; clashing flesh against flesh to the bitter end would inflict severe internal trauma on Dokgo Jin.
‘Tsk.’
Dokgo Jin had only committed a moderate portion of his energy for an opening probe, and Paeng Jin-ak had ruthlessly seized upon that exact vulnerability. Forced to abandon his attack, Dokgo Jin pulled his fist back and twisted his torso to evade. Yet the moment he did, Paeng Jin-ak also withdrew his forward fist, simultaneously snapping his opposite fist outward.
Dokgo Jin’s expression hardened.
‘This was his true aim from the start!’
Wuuuung!
The air groaned as a terrifying, earth-shattering force surged from the old man's secondary strike.
‘……A cunning veteran.’
Dokgo Jin conceded that he had been outmaneuvered. Paeng Jin-ak had feigned a suicidal mutual strike when yielding the opening move, but that had merely been a feint to mask this devastating follow-up.
‘Still, I will not yield so easily.’
It was a heavy fist devoid of flamboyant flourish—one that crushed down purely on the immense density of accumulated internal power. Rather than evading, Dokgo Jin opened his palm and met the strike head-on.
BOOM!
The stone chamber shook violently as the shockwave whipped Dokgo Jin’s robes into a frenzy. His brow twitched slightly.
‘Heavy.’
It was not mere muscular brute force. Infused with decades of profound cultivation, the blow fell with the crushing weight of a thousand-pound sledgehammer. Yet Dokgo Jin did not give up a single inch of ground. The abyssal power of the Nine Nether Dark Sky Scripture pooled within his dantian was far too vast to be repelled by this alone.
Paeng Jin-ak was inwardly shaken.
‘He withstood that without giving an inch?’
He realized Dokgo Jin’s internal foundation was far more terrifying than he had anticipated.
‘Exceeding my expectations!’
Grinning with rising excitement, Paeng Jin-ak closed the distance, his hands blurring into a storm of strikes. Dokgo Jin met him without backing down. In an instant, their limbs intertwined at blinding speed.
Thud-thud-thud-thud! Bang! Crash!
The entire subterranean chamber trembled under the sheer fallout of their collision.
‘My hands are throbbing.’
After trading several blows, Dokgo Jin realized that taking Paeng Jin-ak’s crushing offensive head-on was an exercise in folly.
‘In that case...’
Dokgo Jin altered his martial rhythm, shifting from direct clashes to fluid deflection. Paeng Jin-ak’s fist techniques were as savage as an unchained beast, while Dokgo Jin’s counters became as slippery and elusive as a phantom. When Paeng Jin-ak barged in with his shoulder to shatter his posture, Dokgo Jin guided the momentum away and sank a knife-hand directly toward the elder’s flank.
Thud!
Inevitably, the strike was halted by the thick layer of protective astral qi enveloping Paeng Jin-ak’s body.
Kaboom!
After exchanging more than a dozen blistering exchanges, both men sprang back simultaneously.
“Haha.” Pure exhilaration radiated across Paeng Jin-ak’s weathered face. “Magnificent. It’s been ages since anyone traded blows with my fists and walked away with their bones intact.”
“For a man of your advanced years, Pavilion Master, your joints remain remarkably sturdy.”
“Is that right?” Paeng Jin-ak glanced sideways at the burning incense stick before giving a toothy grin. “Then that’s enough of the warm-up.”
Paeng Jin-ak reached his right hand toward the side. In response, the colossal Horse-Chopping Saber resting atop the wooden bench flew across the void, snapping firmly into his palm.
Thwack!
Telekinesis through pure internal energy. Considering the tremendous weight of the massive saber, the sheer control required for such a feat was awe-inspiring.
“Now, let us dance in earnest.”
Vrrr!
As he hoisted the Horse-Chopping Saber aloft, the air within the stone chamber sank into suffocating gravity. An ominous, blood-drenched aura—wholly distinct from their barehanded clash—flooded the enclosed hall.
“If you wish to match my blade, young man, you’d best draw the sword on your back.”
Dokgo Jin narrowed his eyes.
‘……So he noticed after all.’
Crack!
Paeng Jin-ak launched himself forward, bringing the Horse-Chopping Saber down in an earth-splitting vertical cleave.
SKREEE!
It was a terrifying blow that created the dreadful illusion of heaven and earth being severed in two.
“……!”
For the first time since emerging from the Death Forest, Dokgo Jin felt a piercing surge of mortal peril. Relying purely on honed instinct, he executed the footwork of the Nine Nether Trackless.
By a hair’s breadth, the colossal blade buried itself deep into the stone floor.
BOOM!
‘That was close—’
Rrrrip.
“……!”
A fraction of a second later, Dokgo Jin realized the front of his robe had been sliced clean open. Had he been a hair slower, his chest would have been cleaved in two.
‘What monstrous blade momentum!’
Yet Paeng Jin-ak gave him no quarter. The saber, sunken halfway into the bedrock, tore free effortlessly, unleashing a relentless barrage of follow-up attacks.
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sheeek!
Like a ferocious tiger tearing through its prey, the saber carved through the empty air, the deafening sonic booms rupturing eardrums with every arc. Dokgo Jin retreated rapidly across the room using the Nine Nether Trackless, but under the blinding storm of blade light, his maneuvering room shrank by the second.
The corners of Paeng Jin-ak’s mouth curled upward.
‘You can dodge no longer.’
A vibrant, cerulean saber astral energy erupted along the edge of the Horse-Chopping Saber.
Third Stance: Mountain-Shattering Mad Wave
A colossal tidal wave of saber astral energy surged forth, swallowing the narrow stone chamber and descending upon Dokgo Jin’s head like an apocalyptic deluge.
RUMBLE-CRASH!
“…….”
At that desperate crossroads of life and death, Dokgo Jin ceased his retreat. He planted his back foot firmly into the shattered stone floor, his gaze chilling into an unyielding frost.
‘If I do not meet this with everything I have, I will fall.’
Holding back his full power here was no longer prudence—it was suicidal hubris.
Ssssshhhk!
With an eerie hiss, the pitch-black Ink Flame Qi of the Nine Nether Dark Sky Scripture cascaded down his arm like an unchained torrent. His blackened, flame-draped hand reached behind his shoulder, closing over the hilt of the sword slung across his back.
Rip-crack!
Unable to withstand the surging density of Ink Flame Qi, the black cloth wrapping the blade detonated into countless tatters, fluttering into the air like a flock of dark butterflies. Through the swirling veil of torn fabric—
Kreeee-ing!
Accompanied by an uncanny, high-pitched resonance, a blade radiating blinding brilliance revealed itself to the world.
It was the signature weapon of the Dark Emperor Cheonamje—Extinction. The legendary sword was stepping back onto the stage of the mortal realm through Dokgo Jin’s hands.
‘It has been quite some time, Extinction.’
Extinction possessed a frigid, silver-white blade that looked as though it had been forged from the molten heart of ten-thousand-year glacial ice. Measuring roughly four feet in length, it was noticeably longer and heavier than ordinary swords, exuding an aura of suffocating menace by its sheer presence alone.
Strangely, it lacked a guard entirely. From the pommel to the razor-sharp tip, it stretched in an uninterrupted, seamless straight single-edged line. Its material was stranger still; crafted from what seemed to be hyper-refined white iron, its surface was as smooth as polished glass, casting a cold, frostbitten silver luster into the surrounding darkness.
The hilt bore no ornate filigree. It was bound only by coarse black leather cord, wrapped crudely yet securely to prevent any slippage.
It possessed not a shred of regard for beauty. It was an instrument born purely of slaughter—crafted solely to cleave, pierce, and reap life.
Yet the moment Dokgo Jin channeled his Ink Flame Qi into the blade, the pristine white radiance warped.
Tsssss!
Like thick calligraphy ink spilled over immaculate white silk, an abyssal darkness instantly swallowed the silver-white blade. In the span of a single breath, the sword that had scattered radiant light transformed into an absolute void that swallowed illumination whole.
Extinction no longer appeared as a forged weapon. It resembled a pitch-black tear ripped into the fabric of space itself. The surrounding torchlight did not reflect off its edge; it vanished into it without a trace. Drenched in Ink Flame Qi, Extinction exhaled a hazy, dark-blue frost, plummeting the stone chamber’s temperature into freezing misery.
Watching the roaring wave of saber astral energy crash down, Dokgo Jin shifted his grip in a fluid motion, then drew the blade upward in a single, ascending slash.
There was no flamboyant choreography. There was only ultra-compressed darkness fired as a singular thread of light.
First Stance: Dark Light Cleaving Heaven
KREEE-SHING!
With an ear-splitting shriek, a pitch-black flash vaulted skyward from the tip of Dokgo Jin’s blade. It was a razor-thin line of darkness that appeared to sever the very boundary between light and shadow.
Yet the moment that single thread of black light collided with Paeng Jin-ak’s colossal mountain of astral energy, the impossible unfolded.
SKRRR-RIIIP!
Like a raging waterfall splitting cleanly against an immovable monolith, the massive saber wave—said to crumble mountains—was bifurcated right down the center along the seam of that black ray.
‘What?!’
Paeng Jin-ak’s eyes widened to their limits.
The cleaved saber wave surged past either side of Dokgo Jin, slamming violently into the reinforced stone wall behind him.
KABOOM! CRUMBLE!
The solid stone wall collapsed into rubble, billowing choking clouds of powdered rock into the air. This had not been the crude trade of raw force against force practiced by inferior brawlers. It was a sublime, terrifying art—cleaving an overwhelming tide of light with the sharpest edge of absolute darkness.
‘What under the heavens was that……?!’
Through the swirling haze of pulverized stone, Dokgo Jin stood unmoved, leveling the smoking, haze-wreathed demonic sword directly ahead.
“……”
Paeng Jin-ak glanced sideways at the shattered remnants of his severed saber wave.
“Magnificent.” He lowered the Horse-Chopping Saber with deliberate slowness. “To cleave through my finest strike so cleanly... neither that blade nor that swordsmanship belongs to any common lineage.”
Even as he praised him, the old man ransacked his memory.
‘That was certainly no Dark Soul Style. It was a supreme art so chillingly abyssal and terrifying it made my hair stand on end. I feel as though I’ve heard rumors of such a martial art long ago……’
Dokgo Jin held the point of Extinction leveled squarely between Paeng Jin-ak’s eyebrows, his voice quiet and level.
“From here on, I shall face you in earnest.”
Wuuung!
Extinction vibrated violently, its metallic cry thirsting for slaughter.
“……”
Paeng Jin-ak swallowed dryly in spite of himself.
‘Haha... Am I genuinely feeling nervous? It has been decades since an opponent made my blood run cold like this.’
Then, without warning, he plunged the tip of the Horse-Chopping Saber straight into the stone floor.
Thunk!
“This old man would dearly love to continue, but…… regrettably, your time is up.”
“……!”
Dokgo Jin’s gaze instinctively darted to the spot where the incense had been planted. Just as Paeng Jin-ak said, the stick had burned down entirely, leaving behind nothing but a heap of gray ash.
“Congratulations, Dokgo Jin.” Paeng Jin-ak broke into a broad, satisfied smile. “You have passed the third gate with flying colors.”
At long last, Dokgo Jin had conquered every trial of the Dragon Tiger Pavilion.
Dark Sky Martial Emperor
Author: Jeongcheon
Publisher: Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.
Managing Editor: Editorial Department
Published by: Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dreambooks
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