Chapter 170
Chapter 170
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 170
Chapter Title: Fist Demon and Sword King Clash (2)
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There were countless lightness skills in the world.
Grass Flying, which allowed one to run across grass blades; Water Surface Flying, which let one tread upon water; and Stepping on Snow Without Trace, which left no footprints even on deep, piled snow.
These were lightness skills that seemed impossible but existed in reality. Indeed, there were martial artists in the current martial world who had mastered such techniques.
However, there were also lightness skills that belonged to the realm of legends, passed down only through oral traditions.
Void Step, which allowed one to walk through the air as if it were flat ground, and Crossing the River on a Reed, which enabled traversing a flowing river on a single reed leaf—these were examples.
These were legendary lightness skills transmitted through people's mouths, with no one known to have actually mastered them.
Sword Riding Flight Technique was likewise a fragment of legend.
The realm of flying atop a sword.
It was an inscrutable domain that seemed possible only for immortals.
Though it was said such a realm existed, Nangong Cheon was the first in decades to display the Sword Riding Flight Technique.
"H-How?"
Jong Ri-yeon's face drained of color.
The distance Nangong Cheon could fly with Sword Riding Flight Technique was actually only about five hundredzhang. Of course, even that was astonishing enough.
Thud!
The sword that had flown through space in an instant embedded itself right before Damho.
Nangong Cheon then lightly descended onto it.
The thin blade bent slightly for a moment before returning to its original form.
Standing atop the sword, Nangong Cheon looked down at Damho.
Nangong Cheon stood tall on the sword, while Damho looked up at him. Jong Ri-yeon watched the scene with a pallid face. Silence descended around them.
Nangong Cheon crossed his arms as he gazed at Damho. An overwhelming aura unique to an absolute being erupted explosively from his entire body.
A faint anger flickered in Nangong Cheon's eyes.
"Fist Demon, are you?"
His presence swelled like a snowball, pressing down on the surroundings.
Nangong Cheon's rage burned fiercely and hot like an active volcano. It was directed at Damho and Jong Ri-yeon.
Damho's eyelids trembled.
His entire body's muscles tensed like a drawn bowstring. His body sensed and reacted to the opponent's terror before his mind could.
His hairs stood on end, and chills raced up his spine. This was the first time he had felt such tension since entering the martial world.
Nangong Cheon's gaze was as sharp as a finely honed famed sword, and the aura emanating from his body was as murderous as facing thousands of swords.
"Why no answer? I asked if you're the Fist Demon."
"Yes!"
"So we finally meet, you thunderbolt bastard. How dare you inflict such damage on my family."
Killing intent oozed from Nangong Cheon's voice.
Damho silently stared at Nangong Cheon.
The muscles hidden beneath his clothes writhed. Sensing the opponent's strength, his body instinctively adjusted to the optimal state to counter it.
Nangong Cheon's gaze shifted to Jong Ri-yeon.
"And you—know that you won't leave this place alive. Because you didn't come, Mujin missed the right time to treat his qi deviation. That sin can't be atoned for with your life alone. To refuse treating the family heir over one mere village girl."
"Huh!"
Instead of answering, Jong Ri-yeon trembled with her face ashen white. Nangong Cheon's killing intent was that formidable.
He was called the Sword King. Among those who wielded swords, he was at the pinnacle, if not beyond. No mere physician could withstand his killing intent.
With Nangong Mujin fallen to qi deviation, the Nangong family's succession had plunged into chaotic uncertainty.
If even Nangong Su had survived, sorting the succession might have been easier, but he too had died by Damho's hand.
In every way, Damho had dealt the Nangong family its worst blow. Because of this, the centuries-old Nangong family had sunk into the mud.
It was as if decades had regressed due to a single man.
Nangong Cheon's fury pierced the heavens. His rage took tangible form, pressing down on Damho and Jong Ri-yeon.
Thump! Thump!
Damho's heart pounded fiercely. It beat so violently it seemed it might leap from his chest.
Damho instinctively knew he had encountered his strongest foe since entering the martial world.
The chills still hadn't faded from his body. Nangong Cheon's presence was that overwhelming.
Even if Damho were in perfect condition, this opponent would be tough—let alone now, with his internal injuries from the battle against the Sword King Squad not fully healed.
But Damho did not despair.
Though he had acted boldly and without restraint so far, he had always thought a moment like this might come someday. The moment an insurmountable wall blocked his path.
'If I win, I'll surpass it. Even if I'm blocked and fall, it doesn't matter.'
With his revenge complete, he had no lingering attachments to the world. The only regret was not having seen his master's face yet.
Crack!
As Damho clenched his fist, the sound of bones grinding echoed. That sound provoked Nangong Cheon.
"Insolent!"
He disliked the defiant glare in Damho's eyes.
The eyes that should have been filled with despair and defeat instead burned with audacity and challenge, grating on his nerves.
"I'll gouge out those eyes."
Nangong Cheon lightly floated into the air and kicked the hilt of the sword he had been standing on.
It seemed like a light kick, yet the sword flew toward Damho at terrifying speed.
In that instant, Damho unleashed a strike forward.
It was Breaking Star Fist.
Clang!
Fist met sword, producing a metallic ring.
Slide!
Damho's body was pushed back. A deep furrow formed where his feet had dug in.
A line of blood trickled from Damho's mouth. Just one exchange, and immense shock had coursed through his body.
Whirl!
The repelled sword returned to Nangong Cheon's hand like a living creature. As he gripped it, his demeanor changed.
"I'll give you six attempts."
Sword thrust forward, he flew toward Damho.
A sharp aura surged like a tidal wave.
Damho ground his teeth. Never since learning martial arts had he felt so intimidated by an opponent. It only fueled his anger more.
Boom!
He kicked off the ground.
His body shot out like lightning. Charging Step had been unleashed.
Breaking Star Fist followed.
Boom!
Another explosion resounded.
Against an ordinary foe, they would have staggered or taken heavy damage by now. But Nangong Cheon was different.
Swoosh!
His body rotated fluidly, deflecting Damho's power as he advanced.
Slash!
Damho's side split open, exposing bone. Blood gushed out, and his eyelids quivered.
It was a strike that maximized the sword's subtleties, without using sword qi or sword gang.
Nangong Cheon swung his sword wide to shake off the blood.
"You call yourself Fist Demon, yet you're shaking like this? I thought you were the strongest in the martial world. Don't make me laugh. Even excluding the Four Guardians, there are over a dozen martial artists in the current world who could kill you easily. You're nothing."
The term Four Guardians came up again. But Damho paid it no mind—or rather, he had no leeway to.
Even then, Nangong Cheon continued speaking.
"A worthless piece of trash who luckily gained power and rampages without fearing heaven."
Nangong Cheon raised his sword again, aiming at Damho.
Dazzling sunlight fractured on the blade, scattering painfully into Damho's eyes.
In that moment, Nangong Cheon moved once more.
Scree!
The sword cleaved the air sharply.
Nangong Cheon's sword targeted Damho's throat acupoint. A hit meant instant death.
Clang!
Damho deflected the sword with a strike from Single Sun Strike.
Though he struck the blade with his hand, a wound opened, and blood flowed.
Nangong Cheon smiled as he unleashed another sword assault on Damho.
Thrusting, slashing, sweeping—plain sword forms followed in succession. They seemed ordinary at a glance, but in Nangong Cheon's hands, they surpassed any absolute art in power.
Splatter!
Sharp cuts multiplied across Damho's body. Each time, blood sprayed, and excruciating pain shot up his spine.
Lone Traveler Style fundamentally moved in straight lines.
Due to his limp, he couldn't learn flashy footwork, so he had chosen Charging Step.
Charging Step held power enough to shatter city gates but lacked variation, making it monotonous.
Since Lone Traveler Style was based on Charging Step, it inevitably had few changes. In compensation, its destructive power per strike was unmatched by other arts.
Nangong Cheon had grasped the strengths and weaknesses of Charging Step and Lone Traveler Style with a single glance.
'Dodge the first strike, and his art is worthless. To think he roamed the martial world with such a technique.'
Nangong Cheon sneered.
Having perfected the Emperor Sword Form, his realm was that of a grandmaster.
Sword qi, sword gang?
It wasn't that he couldn't use them.
He simply had no need to.
He could kill enemies without such things.
'You must die feeling the utmost pain. That's the punishment for defying the Nangong family.'
Swoosh!
His sword danced intricately through the air.
Damho's form was relentlessly pushed back. Never since entering the martial world had he been so helplessly repelled.
Nangong Cheon's sword was that fearsome. The moment a gap appeared, it struck like a viper, leaving wounds. Thus, Damho's body was drenched in blood.
"N-No!"
Jong Ri-yeon, watching, turned ghastly pale.
Damho's wounds from the Sword King Squad battle weren't fully healed. Fighting Nangong Cheon, the Sword King, in that state was tantamount to suicide.
Nangong Cheon's form split into two, then three.
It was a phenomenon from the Nangong family's secret footwork, Infinite Divine Step.
He moved so fast that afterimages lingered.
Swoosh!
Nangong Cheon's sword repeatedly sliced the air.
Ordinary forms coalesced into a storm. The storm battered Damho as if to devour him at any moment.
Using Infinite Divine Step, he preempted Damho's movements and struck countless times.
All Damho could do was curl up and deploy his shield. Super Resonance protected him somewhat from Nangong Cheon's sharp attacks.
"Tch! No fun."
Blocked by the shield with no gains, Nangong Cheon clicked his tongue.
He realized plain sword forms couldn't inflict more damage on Damho.
Nangong Cheon infused internal energy into his sword-gripping hand.
Hum!
The sword suddenly let out a cry.
With the sword's hum, flames erupted along the blade.
Like an exploding volcano, the intense, scorching blaze soon formed the shape of a sword.
Sword gang.
The realm where nothing could not be cut or shattered had appeared.
"Hand over your neck, Fist Demon."
Swoosh!
Nangong Cheon's sword, tracing a large circle, descended toward Damho's throat.
"Danger!"
Unable to watch, Jong Ri-yeon cried out loudly.
It was then.
Scree!
Damho's crouched body sprang open like a coiled spring. His right leg flew in a bizarre arc.
Boom!
Damho's heel smashed into Nangong Cheon's left shoulder. Nangong Cheon took a heavy blow and staggered back.
It was Blood Heaven Kick, the unique art of Iron Blood Overlord Demon Wu Kyung-bae, who had roamed the martial world alone with leg techniques 130 years ago.
Damho rolled his shoulders.
It wasn't over yet.
'Treat my life not like some cheap trinket in your pocket.'
Grind!
Damho ground his teeth.