The Counterattack Begins
"Who goes there!"
Every head snapped upward toward the mountainside.
A colossal white banner unfurled against the sky, the two characters for Cheonun blazoned across it in enormous script.
Han Un gripped the flagpole high overhead, pouring every ounce of his strength into making that banner snap and roar in the wind. He threw back his head and laughed, then bellowed toward the heavens with everything he had.
"Yeop Pung! Are you still standing there in a daze? Get up! Get up and smash that Sa Cheonseong to pieces!"
Elder Han!
Yeop Pung froze where he stood. He immediately sent a telepathic demand to Heukgu, demanding an explanation.
Heukgu's only reply came in a trembling voice.
"Master, th-they won't leave.... There's nothing I can do!"
They won't leave...?
Yeop Pung rose slowly to his feet. His eyes were bloodshot, but a smile touched the corner of his mouth.
Wang Maeng stood tall at Han Un's side. He cupped both hands into a megaphone and roared until his throat threatened to split.
"Yeop Pung! You've got this! Take him down! Kill that bastard!"
"Come on!"
"Come on, come on! Yeop Pung!"
Mo Soo-mi shouted. Yo Yeong-chun shouted. Even Baek Reung, who had once trailed after Beom Undae, shouted. The entire Cheonun 1st Unit roared as one. Disciples who had never so much as spoken to Yeop Pung roared with them.
They numbered fewer than two hundred. But the fighting spirit burning in their chests tore a cry from their throats that split the sky and shook the earth. All of Mount Tianyun trembled. Heaven and earth themselves seemed to stir in answer.
"Those bastards — how did they escape? Seize them at once!"
Naeng Chu surged up from his seat in a fury.
Han Buri, standing beside him, merely smiled and held him back.
"Commander Naeng, compose yourself. They are nothing but a pack of traitors. I shall deal with them personally. Yi Hwawu — go forth and arrest Han Un and his rabble."
"Yes."
Yi Hwawu, who had been standing in silence nearby, gave a single nod and immediately led the Cheonun elders toward the mountainside.
Down on the arena, Sa Cheonseong's mocking laugh rang out once more.
"Hahaha, Yeop Pung, is this all you've got? Your friends are a bunch of idiots. They risked their lives to escape — they should've stayed hidden. Instead they come all the way here to throw themselves on the pyre. Fine. After I kill you, I'll send them to the underworld one by one. Wouldn't want you getting lonely. Hahaha..."
A savage gust of wind slammed into Sa Cheonseong's mouth and shut it.
Yeop Pung was on his feet. His face was as cold as a peak buried in millennial snow. His chest, by contrast, was a volcano seething with rage.
One by one, golden stars kindled in the air around him. In a heartbeat they multiplied into a dazzling sea of starlight.
Golden starlight — not the pale blue of ordinary practitioners — bloomed around Yeop Pung in a radiant sea of stars.
This... a golden Star Spirit Body Art?
Every master of Cheonun Sect stared in astonishment. Star Spirit Body Art had always manifested as a faint pale blue. The phenomenon Yeop Pung was displaying now was something none of them had ever even heard of.
Yeop Pung's lips moved. A single cold sentence left them.
The next instant, Yeop Pung was gone. Golden starlight flooded the sky, and behind Sa Cheonseong, a killing intent so dense it seemed to have weight erupted into the air.
Yeop Pung's counterattack had begun. The rage and fighting spirit that had been boiling inside him had reached their absolute peak.
So many martial brothers and sisters were risking their lives to cheer him on. What was left to hesitate over? He had to fight. He had to kill Sa Cheonseong.
Kill. Kill. Kill him!
The earth-shaking sword art became a meteor screaming at the speed of light, driving toward a vital point on Sa Cheonseong's back — blindingly fast, utterly merciless.
Sa Cheonseong only laughed. He matched Yeop Pung's speed with ease, sweeping his spear around to catch the blade dead-on.
"Hahaha, Yeop Pung, is this your skill? It's nothing special.... What?"
The words died in his throat. He screamed.
His Blood Phoenix spear had never touched Yeop Pung's sword at all. It had merely slashed through an afterimage.
Impossible!
Sa Cheonseong felt the blood in his entire body run ice-cold.
Starlight flared beside him, and Yeop Pung reappeared.
Falling Star Sword — again!
How is he that fast!
Sa Cheonseong's feet tangled. He threw himself aside — and found three Yeop Pungs standing in front of him, every one of them holding a sword.
What—?
The entire arena went still with shock.
Atop the Gyeongcheon Sword, Yeop Pung had conjured a cluster of starlight illusions in a single breath. Each phantom launched a killing stroke of sword qi. Extreme speed. Invincible momentum. This was the supreme lethal secret of Cheonun Sword Dao — the killing art whose legendary fame had thundered down through the ages.
A storm of starry afterimages, each one a fatal piercing strike — the supreme killing art of Cheonun Sword Dao.
"Die!"
Yeop Pung's roar carried every drop of the fighting spirit boiling in his chest. In the same instant, his sword drove deep into Sa Cheonseong's body.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The only sound anyone could hear was flesh tearing. Sa Cheonseong went rigid, as if he had been flash-frozen. Every twitch carved another hideous sword-wound across his body. Blood geysered upward in terrible volumes, staining the air red.
He'd landed it. Sa Cheonseong had been hit.
A single exchange, and Yeop Pung had reversed the entire tide of battle. Had they seen that earth-shaking swordsmanship? Had they seen it?
This was the thousand-year heritage of Cheonun Sect. This was their genius — a prodigy the likes of which appeared once in an era.
"Yes!"
On the mountainside, Han Un's group erupted in cheers, utterly indifferent to Yi Hwawu's approaching party. They watched Yeop Pung drive his sword into Sa Cheonseong and shouted until their voices broke.
"Yes! That's it! Yeop Pung!"
In the spectator stands, Ha Chung forgot his own station entirely. He smashed the table in front of him, scrambled up onto a chair, and roared.
Yeom Jin-ri and Gu Jeoryang gazed at Yeop Pung with shining eyes, as if they could not quite believe that someone so young could execute Star Cloud Eight Desolations with such perfection.
Among the crowd, the conservative Cheonun disciples who had kept their silence until now shut their mouths.
The radical disciples, who had not dared raise their voices, clenched their fists and called out in low, fierce tones.
"Come on, Yeop Pung! Come on!"
The shadow of defeat that had hung over all of Mount Tianyun was burned away by a single stroke of Yeop Pung's sword. The mountain caught fire again.
"GRAAAAH!"
Atop the arena, Sa Cheonseong unleashed a howl like a wounded beast. He tore himself free of Yeop Pung's blade by brute force, raked his fingers through his hair, and staggered backward.
"Impossible! Yeop Pung! You dare wound me! I'll kill you — I will kill you!"
Sa Cheonseong went berserk. He had not been in his right mind since that animal brawl with Noe Bun. Yeop Pung's strike shattered whatever reason he had left, and he became a beast consumed by rage. Terrifying waves of Profound Qi swallowed the entire Gyeongcheon Sword.
The whirling wind snapped Yeop Pung's robes, but he stood as unmoved as a pine in a storm. His sword qi shone with the brilliance of a rainbow.
And he smiled. It was a smile of utter, fearless confidence — a smile that even carried a hint of mockery.
"Sa Cheonseong. Your turn. Where should I stab next? The heart? The lungs? Or should I make you like Deung Chung — so you'll never hold a weapon properly again?"
"Die! Yeop Pung, die!"
Madness blazing in his eyes, Sa Cheonseong charged. The Blood Phoenix spear in his hands raised a tidal wave of blood.
To Yeop Pung, the attack was painfully slow. Star Cloud Eight Desolations. Star Spirit Body Art. The two arts linked in perfect combination and detonated once more.
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Atop the Gyeongcheon Sword, nothing could be seen but Yeop Pung's dazzling golden starlight, flashing without end. Every time he appeared, a rain of blood poured from the sky.
"Your shoulder!"
Thud.
Sa Cheonseong screamed like a madman and reeled back.
"Yes!"
From the mountainside, Han Un and Wang Maeng's thunderous cheers exploded across the air.
"Your waist!"
Thud.
Sa Cheonseong howled, wretched as a beaten dog.
"Yes!"
Now the spectators began to take up the cry, echoing Han Un and Wang Maeng.
"Everywhere!"
"AAAAARGH!"
Sa Cheonseong screamed again.
"Yes!"
The cheers seemed to pierce the heavens themselves. Cheonun Sect was boiling over.
Yeop Pung swung his sword as if possessed, as if this were the greatest pleasure he had ever known.
The last strike. I'll finish you with this.
The world seemed to freeze. Heaven and earth went still. In that silence, a meteor of death danced through the air.
Yeop Pung's blade slipped through the Blood Phoenix spear's defense as if it were mist and plunged into Sa Cheonseong's chest. The sword drove straight through his heart.
"Yes!"
From every direction — from the sky, from the earth, from every peak of Cheonun Sect — a roar of triumph erupted.
The Cheonbong Army stood stunned. Not one of them had dreamed the battle would turn this way.
Yeop Pung, you dare commit murder!
Naeng Chu's face went black with rage. But he knew this fight was not over.
The Cheonbong Army will not lose. Sa Cheonseong still has a last trump card.
Even if it kills him — he will tear Yeop Pung to shreds first.
Sa Cheonseong stood atop the Gyeongcheon Sword with a blade through his heart.
"Ghk...."
A terrible groan tore out of him, followed by a mouthful of blood. His eyes bulged like a dying frog's, but he refused to accept his own death. Even as he spat blood, he turned a ghastly smile on Yeop Pung.
"Heh heh... Yeop Pung.... I'll kill you. I will kill you."
Madness had already claimed him. He paid no mind to the fatal wounds covering his body. He plunged a hand into his pocket, pulled something out, and tossed it into his mouth.
BOOM.
A cataclysm of Profound Qi exploded from the dying Sa Cheonseong's body and blasted Yeop Pung away.
The Black Frost Sword remained buried in his chest — and then the impossible began.
A wicked black energy flooded Sa Cheonseong's body. He swelled. Pitch-black sinews bulged across the surface of his muscles. His height nearly doubled. He became a monster sheathed entirely in raw muscle — and the wounds that had been pouring blood began to close at a speed visible to the naked eye.
He even reached up, tore the Black Frost Sword from his own chest, and flung it to the ground. A metallic clang rang out across the arena.
This is impossible. Is he immortal?
Everyone stared, stunned.
What did he just swallow? He clearly lost! Isn't this cheating?
"Heh heh heh."
Sa Cheonseong no longer seemed capable of speech. Whatever reason remained in him could only twist his face into that ghastly smile.
He walked slowly toward Yeop Pung. The power rolling off him felt as if it had shattered the limits of the Profound Realm. A single casual punch looked as though it could blow everything apart.
Yeop Pung's brow furrowed as he watched Sa Cheonseong gather his strength in the distance. The next attack would clearly exceed anything he could withstand.
"Is this... really allowed?"
He turned his gaze on Naeng Chu.
"Taking medicine in the middle of a duel — isn't that against the rules?"
"Hmph!"
Naeng Chu was already furious past the point of reason. He wanted only one thing: to watch Yeop Pung die.
"What rules are there in a fight to the death? Each man fights with whatever he has!"
GRAAAAH!
Before the words had even left Naeng Chu's mouth, Sa Cheonseong roared and hurled himself at Yeop Pung with a force that looked ready to tear him apart alive.
"Watch out!"
Screams erupted from every direction.
Yeop Pung merely flicked a contemptuous glance at Naeng Chu, then turned to face Sa Cheonseong. A devil's smile curved his lips.
"Fine. If you say it isn't cheating, then I'm grateful. No need to hold back. Heukgu — you're up."
Squeeeak!
A bone-chilling beast-cry split the air.
As if a prisoner who had waited an eternity in the dark had finally been set free, a streak of black light shot forth. Like the outstretched hand of the god of death, it flew at the rampaging Sa Cheonseong with a force that seemed ready to annihilate all things.
BANG.
The impact was catastrophic.
Sa Cheonseong's spine bent like a drawn bow. He vomited blood and went flying high into the sky.
