I Haven't Even Started Yet
—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!!
A force arrow came roaring toward me, shattering heaven and earth as it came.
It was a force arrow the Eight Demon Dragons’ Thunder Emperor had loosed with everything he had.
Could I stop that?
Even standing before a colossal waterfall would have felt less crushing than this.
—Crack.
Fractures spidered across my vision like porcelain splitting before my eyes.
I poured out every scrap of internal force I possessed.
Taking a single step felt as if my whole body were coming apart.
I drove my inner power up until my dantian felt ready to burst.
My pulse hammered as if my meridians would rupture.
My heart pounded so hard it seemed ready to leap out of my mouth.
I swept both hands behind me.
I seized the two Chammajeong.
—Clench!
—Wuuuung!!
As if sensing their master’s crisis, the divine artifacts howled like mad things.
I felt them devour every last shred of pure qi left in me.
Eun Seollyeong had said these Chammajeong were divine weapons with a will of their own.
Alive as any living thing, they sensed the Thunder Emperor’s demonic qi bearing down and resonated in extreme revulsion.
For now, they still answered my pure qi and settled obediently into my grip.
But once I did what I was about to do—how they would react, I had no way of knowing.
The chill of the blades bit into my palms.
A flicker of hesitation.
A flicker of doubt.
“….”
Then I looked into Eun Seollyeong’s eyes.
I saw the red blood running from the corner of her mouth.
I made my choice.
—Kiiing!
The light in my eyes shifted into black thunderbolts with white cores.
The dantian was shoved aside as the Heavenly Demon Jade deep within me took its place beneath my navel.
—Thoom!
Every meridian in my body inverted; where pure qi had flowed, a turbid flood of demonic qi began to pour.
Bloodshot eyes blazing, I took the first step of every stage.
When the Great Way falls, righteousness and chivalry arise.
No…?! This energy…!
The Thunder Emperor reeled in shock.
Demonic qi?! Why is the very power that once guided me here—!
—Wuuuung!!
The Chammajeong sensed the demonic qi surging through my body.
They went berserk.
They thrashed and twisted, desperate to tear free of my grip.
—Puhk!
Blood burst from both palms.
The Chammajeong, which had sat in my hands like dull blades without the slightest resistance, suddenly cut into my flesh and raised their killing edge.
“Ghk—aaah!”
Even so, I did not stop.
I went further—I forced demonic qi into the Chammajeong themselves.
And I hurled my body straight into the oncoming force arrow.
—Wuuung!
As if rejecting my hands, the Chammajeong shuddered so hard they seemed about to shatter, resonating violently.
Cold qi sank into my arms as if it meant to sever them clean off.
Every scrap of that pain was the pain of a brain being ground to pulp.
I clenched my teeth and endured it all.
“Damn it—shut up!”
—Wuuung!
Blood spraying, I roared at the Chammajeong.
“Kill me if you want! Chop my hands off if you want! But—but!!!”
I crushed the thrashing blades down into my blood-slicked grip.
I lowered both swords.
I spread my stance wide.
I faced the Thunder Emperor’s storm head-on.
“If you’re true divine weapons…!”
—Wuuuung!
“If you really have a will of your own!!”
—Wuuuung!!
I clenched the Chammajeong until my hands felt ready to burst and shouted,
“Then at least have the sense to know what it takes to save your precious master—and what a true demon looks like when it’s standing right in front of you!! Stop being so damn stubborn!!”
—…!
The Chammajeong’s desperate howling, which had been resisting my demonic qi, faltered for an instant.
I shouted,
“Mumyeong—open every last channel of demonic qi!”
Every meridian linked to the Heavenly Demon Jade tore open.
—KWA-DOOM!
—KWA-DU-DU-DU!
When wisdom appears, great falsehood arises.
When the six kin fall into discord, filial piety and compassion are spoken of.
With the force arrow already at my face, I loosed black thunderbolts with white cores and threw up the strongest defense I could muster.
When the jianghu falls into chaos, heroes are born!
Ryu Form: Thousand-Hand Guanyin
Twin blades of sword force howled, carving the oncoming brilliance to shreds.
—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!
The two blades of sword force whirled like mad things, shearing the flash apart.
“Ghk—aaah!”
I spat black blood.
Blood sprayed from the fists clenched around the Chammajeong.
Behind me, Eun Seollyeong—collapsed on the ground—cried out,
“Moyong Bi!”
“What the hell are you hesitating for?!”
Eun Seollyeong flinched.
“…What?”
—Crack.
Even in that instant, through the Chammajeong, the memories of their true master—Eun Seollyeong—came flooding across.
The more the blades carved into my flesh and thrashed, the more every scrap of her memory poured into me, just as when I had once copied her martial arts and glimpsed her past.
“It wasn’t your fault!”
“Just now… what did you say.”
Eun Seollyeong’s pupils trembled.
I poured everything I had into the shout.
“It wasn’t your fault, you stubbornly stupid woman!”
At the end of an endless road she had fallen dozens of times.
And still she had risen.
It had been a kind of penance.
And people had taken her goodwill for granted and used her.
Even so, she had risen.
But no one remained in this world who knew with what heart she had first set out on that path—no one who even cared to know.
And so she had become a living dead woman.
“You gave everything you had and kept going! Even when everyone laughed, even when everyone forgot!”
On the verge of collapse, battered into a ruin, she had still walked on.
“Someone like me could never even pretend to do what you did! You’re allowed to stand tall! You—you!”
I spat blood and roared,
“At the very least, you never just sat down—you tried to take even a single step forward in every moment!! Their deaths cannot be your chains!”
Eun Seollyeong seemed to grasp what I was saying.
“…! H-how do you….”
Even if no one acknowledged it, she had walked that road.
Other people would never understand.
But I, at least, knew what that heart felt like.
Back in Yuk-bi-dong, when I had smashed my head against the dark and trained alone, there had been no one to talk to—so I had once broken down and poured everything out to Mumyeong through tears.
That even if I died training like this, no one would ever know.
That people wouldn’t care in the slightest if someone like me thrashed and died here—they would simply live today the way they had lived yesterday.
That in the end I would rot away forgotten, and that painfully obvious truth had felt so lonely I had wept in misery.
She had walked that same road alone.
Even when cold sweat dragged her upright in the night, when morning came Eun Seollyeong would compose herself as if nothing had happened and stand before me, perfectly composed.
She wore the loftiest, coldest face of anyone I knew.
But beyond it stood a woman worn thin—standing as precariously as a rag doll, just like me.
—Wuuung….
The Chammajeong’s wild resonance cut off all at once.
—KWA-UUUNG!
As if they finally understood my will, they began to drink in my demonic qi.
A black storm and a silver storm whipped through every direction together.
Eun Seollyeong’s breath caught.
“Heavens—the Chammajeong are willingly taking in demonic qi…?!”
Mumyeong shouted.
[Host! The Chammajeong have begun accepting their master’s energy! Drive it home!]
“Haaaaah!!”
—KWA-DU-DU-DU!!
Black thunderbolts and the Thousand-Hand Guanyin crashed down like a cloudburst.
The force arrow was shredded in every direction and scattered without mercy.
Impossible.
The Thunder Emperor cried out.
Even if I didn’t put full power into it at point-blank range—my force arrow…!
Beyond that tide of demonic qi, a voice thick with the Thunder Emperor’s thunderous rage rolled through the sky.
A worm of a martial artist dares to stop the force arrow of I, the Thunder Emperor!!
Hellish demonic qi erupted from the Thunder Emperor’s body.
This insult—I will kill every last one of you!! The pact with Gang Chisang be damned—I no longer care!
What the Thunder Emperor pulled from his robes was a red jewel.
“That is—!”
This ends now…!
With everything he had, the Thunder Emperor hurled the red jewel behind him.
Eun Seollyeong shouted,
“That’s spatial transfer…!”
—Wuuung!
The Thunder Emperor’s form blurred.
Far away, where the red jewel had fallen, his body solidified once more.
Mumyeong screamed.
[No—he opened the distance! At least one horse-field! Host!]
“Kh…!”
The Thunder Emperor reset his grip on the iron bow.
Give me only distance, and the strongest in this jianghu is I—the Thunder Emperor…!
—Wung, wung, wuuuung!!
Around the Thunder Emperor, a colossal protective force wall rose like a fortress.
It was thick enough that no sword force could so much as scratch it.
The Thunder Emperor raised the iron bow.
—KWAANG!
He drove it into the ground like a stake.
—Krrrk, krrrrrk!
As if space itself were twisting, every scrap of energy in the area began to whirl into the Thunder Emperor’s iron bow.
Can your kind stop this one too…?! This is the full-force strike of the Thunder Emperor—Fourth Head of the Eight Demon Dragons!
—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA!!!!
Lightning erupted from the Thunder Emperor’s feet.
The earth melted.
Stones began to rise into the air.
Staring at that vast concentration of power, Eun Seollyeong spoke in a dazed voice.
“So it’s over, then.”
—Clank.
I threw one of the two Chammajeong aside.
I gripped the last one like a short spear.
“The past is only fertilizer for a better present—not a chain to hold the present down.”
The distance: one horse-field.
“Eun Seollyeong. Believe in yourself.”
I stepped forward as I spoke.
“Believe in yourself. And if you still can’t—then at least look at the back of the man who believes in you enough to stand in front of you, and believe in that. I’ll show you.”
I drew a deep breath.
“I’m not like the weaklings you’ve watched until now. I won’t just run my mouth.”
Every death rising before my eyes brushed the tip of my tongue.
“One horse-field. I’ll open the path somehow.”
Eun Seollyeong went pale with shock.
“…What?!”
“What comes after that, Eun Seollyeong—I’m leaving to you.”
I focused everything into my feet.
In eyes already flooded with crimson light, black thunderbolts with white cores began to surge upward.
—PA-JI-JI-JIK!!!
Demonic qi poured from my body at full power.
Eun Seollyeong cried out in raw desperation.
“Moyong Bi—don’t you understand yet?! What it means that he opened the distance?! It’s over now! All of it was for nothing! I tried to protect people too—but in the end I couldn’t!!”
“No.”
The night was ending.
The long night was ending.
“No.”
Among the fallen martial artists of the Jegal Clan, the survivors were watching this final clash.
“It’s not over yet.”
Far away, I could see the lights of Shaanxi.
Beneath those lights of Shaanxi, everyone would be watching.
Clutching their children,
gripping their parents’ hands,
every person in Shaanxi would be staring at the sky with anxious eyes.
“I still…!”
My master, Gang Ilbi, would be standing firm on a wind-scoured hill, watching as well.
“I haven’t even started yet!”
I kicked off the ground and ran.
Ryu Form: Hyeol-yeong-mu-hwan-sin-sul ⚔
Leaving the blood-red afterimages unique to the Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art, my body shot forward at full power.
I began closing the distance of one horse-field.
The Thunder Emperor laughed.
Kwahaha! A frontal charge? Truly, of every martial artist I have ever seen in this jianghu, you are the most insane! Fine—this is amusing!!
The tip of the Thunder Emperor’s bow locked onto me.
That fighting spirit of yours—I will play along as well!!!
—Flash.
A force arrow fired.
—KIIYAAAAAA!!!
Along the straight path of that brilliance, the entire earth was plowed up by the aftershock and shoved forward like a tidal wave.
“Kh—!”
I wrenched my body sideways with everything I had.
It wasn’t enough.
I could not escape the trailing edge of that colossal tidal wave of light.
Mumyeong shouted.
[Host! Danger!]
I screamed with raw desperation.
“Polar Night!!”
—KWA-REUNG!!
My body tore through space and shifted twenty paces to the side.
What?!
The Thunder Emperor reeled.
I clenched the Chammajeong in both hands.
I gripped it like a javelin and sprinted with everything I had.
Mumyeong barked urgently.
[To punch through that protective force wall you need more acceleration! At this speed, even throwing the Chammajeong with the power of Ryu won’t pierce that thickness!]
Pathetic! Using some Blood Sect parlor trick of a technique here!!!
The Thunder Emperor raised a hand into the empty air.
He spread all five fingers wide.
—TZEONG!
The force arrow that had already passed split into five strands and twisted its course.
Five force-arrow filaments came howling after me like a storm.
[Host—they’re catching up!]
“Kh—!”
I poured everything into the Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art.
“Faster… faster!!”
—Wuuung, wuuuung!!
With the stench of burning flesh, the meridians throughout my body began to tear.
The demonic qi in my entire body boiled over.
[Even a Demon Escape body is already at its limit! Your muscles are tearing!]
Blood began to flow from all seven orifices.
“KRAAAAAH!”
Above the red afterimages of the Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art, a black shadow began to seep in.
I had practiced countless times on the way here.
Truth is, this footwork is also my own imitation of a certain technique from the White Lotus Demon Sect. That’s why it’s incomplete.
When he had first taught me Polar Night, Muyeong-sintu had said that.
At first I had not been certain.
But the master of footwork and lightness arts, Muyeong-sintu, had said I could do it.
He had said I must.
In a way, before you even learned Polar Night, you had already mastered other footwork techniques rooted in the same origin this art branched from… You might discover something even I don’t know.
And perhaps, even then, Muyeong-sintu had already seen further than I had imagined.
—Zzzt.
Behind me, the force arrows seared the trailing edges of my martial robes as they closed the gap, inch by inch.
A little faster…!
—Crack.
Black thunderbolts boiled in both feet.
Above them, shadow seeped in.
Above them, space-rending lightning seeped in.
Just a little more!
—KWA-REUNG!
Polar Night began to fuse into the Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art.
Polar Night erupted in continuous bursts.
On top of the speed of tearing through space with the Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art, I began leaping through space itself.
Just a little more!!!
—Whoosh… whooosh!!
Above that Polar Night, the curve of intent from the Baekryeon-pal-ya-jong—the art that crossed the limits of space—began to layer itself on.
Wait.
The Thunder Emperor’s voice turned uneasy.
…His speed is increasing?
—Wuuung, wuuung, wuuuuung!!!
The Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art howled as if it were alive.
The red afterimages were swallowed by lightning and mixed with shadow.
“Just a little more!!!”
The form that had been applied in straight lines began to take on curves—and to leap through space.
It transformed.
—Wuuuung!!
The red afterimages of my Blood Shadow Phantom Body Art, together with the brilliantly shining black thunderbolts, shifted into white afterimages.
What. Wait… this footwork is familiar. I’ve seen it. I know I’ve seen it!
The Thunder Emperor went rigid with shock.
This is… this is clearly our Mother’s—Hers!!!
—KWAANG!!
Inside my head, something like a dam bursting rang out.
It felt as if something blocked had been punched through.
A thunderous sound rolled through my mind.
— Possession Experience: Synchronized
— Reconstructing the forms of three damaged martial arts by Cheonma Dae-seogo standard
— Full martial art re-rubbing: Complete
— Absorption reprocessing: Complete
— Target martial art name: Reclassified
Across my entire body, afterimages of mixed white and black dyed the world like thick ink.
—KWAANG!!
The earth beneath my feet shattered to pieces.
With every step I took, I advanced by smashing heaven and earth apart.
Like a candle flame, my body became an arrow of light and shot forward.
Behind me, all of heaven and earth turned over.
The waveforms of the air twisted and warped.
—KWA-KWA-KWA!!
Everything was crushed. Everything was broken.
The Heavenly Demon copies martial arts.