The Man Who Broke the World
Jin Myeong appeared with a sly smile, looking for all the world as though something pleased him immensely.
The moment he drew near, a foul stench rolled off him in a sudden wave.
As I had suspected, the closer he came, the stronger the Soul-binding Art became.
But I had not spent this whole time doing nothing but training in martial arts.
I knew all too well that if I could not stop that demonic art, then no matter how high my cultivation rose, I would still end up being toyed with by him.
And right now was the very moment.
It was time to use the move I had prepared all this time.
Thud.
With a rupture audible only to me, qi raced through my body according to the mysteries of the Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic. The violent flow of inner energy deliberately damaged my meridians, just as I intended. The stench that had made even breathing difficult slowly thinned, until it was no more than a rank, rotten smell.
At once, I began circulating my qi to tend the injured meridians, and the odor that had faded to something like decay began, once again, to grow foul. As I healed the damaged meridians, the circulation also blocked the Soul-binding Art of my opponent.
This was the method I had prepared to resist Jin Myeong’s Soul-binding Art.
It was the very same method by which I had first broken free of his spell.
Through repeated attempts, I had discovered that when I entered circulation to heal internal wounds, the qi not only mended the injuries within my body but also cleansed the inside of my flesh, naturally repelling external forces such as the Soul-binding Art.
“From the look on your face, as though you’re not all that happy to see me, I take it your cultivation has failed after all?”
In truth, I was so focused on controlling the effect of my healing circulation that I could not give him a proper response. But he still seemed to place absolute faith in his own Soul-binding Art.
“I trust you haven’t disobeyed me and taken to laziness, disciple.”
If I failed to answer him again this time, he would surely begin to suspect that something was amiss.
So I forced myself to remain calm and spoke.
“I haven’t reached Qi Refining, First Star yet, but I have made some small gains in martial arts.”
“Tsk. Since you’ve made no progress in cultivating your method, you’ve been wasting your time on nonsense. No matter how much better you become at the petty tricks learned by commoners, it changes nothing. Compared to cultivating an orthodox method, it is utterly worthless.”
“Even so, I’m quite different from before. Might I ask you to teach me a move?”
He was a cultivator who had surpassed Qi Refining, which had fourteen stages in all, and stood at Foundation Establishment.
Facing someone surrounded at all times by a protective barrier like Protective Body qi, my realm was hopelessly lacking; I had not even broken through the peak wall yet.
And yet I trusted myself.
“On my way here, I punished an insolent Qi Refining cultivator and gained many valuable things, so I was in an excellent mood—but you’ve managed to sour it completely, disciple. Very well. If you’re so eager to show off that pitiful skill, then go on. Let me see it.”
He was telling me to come at him, yet there was no tension in his body at all. He was still certain that my attack would never pierce the protective barrier surrounding him.
So I began to move my sword at once.
First Form of the Oblique Death Blood Sword! Crimson Blood! Blood is the sword’s first step. Fresh blood opens the path and carries killing intent!
A rapid thrust that bore down on the enemy with the killing intent gathered at the tip of the blade.
Normally, it was a superb technique that took advantage of the moment when an opponent, crushed beneath killing intent, would have their movements slowed, allowing for a follow-up strike.
But my opponent merely watched with a bored expression instead of one of oppression.
Clang!
Unfortunately, his protective barrier seemed able to block even killing intent, that intangible force.
But I paid it no mind and continued with my next attack.
Second Form! Flying Blood! The sword scatters flying blood, and the enemy loses the path!
My sword, which had been rebounded without breaking through his barrier, now followed the flow of the form and began unleashing a chained assault.
Clang-clang-clang!
A barrage that scattered red sword energy like blood droplets flung into the air.
And yet the opponent’s protective barrier did not move an inch.
“If that is all you can manage, then for neglecting your cultivation you will spend three days without sleep.”
Even as he spoke down at me with an expression of utter contempt, I steadily continued into the next form.
Eighth Form! Blood Moon! Beneath the red moon, all things come under the sword’s dominion!
Whoom.
The red sword energy gathered on my blade formed a round, blood-colored moon in the blink of an eye. As befit a form meant not for precision strikes but for laying waste to everything around it, the ripples of that crimson moon once again filled his field of vision.
This was precisely why I had begun with the Sacred Cult’s Oblique Death Blood Sword, rather than the most powerful martial art I could use at the moment—because I wanted something flashy enough to steal his attention.
My aim was to make him careless while completely obscuring his vision.
Seventh Form of the Break-Wilderness Sword! Destroying Wasteland! Raise the sword and annihilate all things. The land of chaos shall receive a new order.
The Break-Wilderness Sword had been created to kill me, the leader of the Sacred Cult.
Unlike the righteous sects’ techniques, it was closer in form to a Sacred Cult martial art.
I had long believed that this technique would be enough to shatter my opponent’s protective barrier for good.
So I poured all the inner energy in my body into the blade, thrust it toward him, and then detonated the power sealed within it in a single instant.
At last, the blood and flesh I had been waiting for splashed into the air.
Crash!
Even after one arm was gone in an instant, Jin Myeong only blinked at me blankly, as though he could not possibly understand what was happening.
And just as I was about to press the attack again while he still seemed not to grasp the situation, a brilliant light suddenly burst from his chest.
Then that light swallowed my vision in an instant.
But even though I could no longer see, my movements did not stop. For a master of my level, striking an enemy with my eyes closed was not such a difficult matter.
Sching!
I cut through it!
The sensation of slicing through hard bone and soft flesh was unmistakably different. From all my experience, this had absolutely been a cut through bone.
My sight was still obscured by the light, but I had succeeded in landing another fatal blow on him.
And then I heard words I had never imagined hearing.
“The arm you went to such lengths to create has vanished again.”
As soon as I pierced through the fading light and looked at him, I saw that the arm my attack had clearly blown apart up to the shoulder was, somehow, cut off again at the forearm.
As though, just as he said, the arm had truly regrown only to be severed once more……
Of course, I knew Jin Myeong could heal injured flesh with talismans.
But to think he could regenerate even a missing arm had gone far beyond anything I had expected. No demonic art I knew could restore a lost body part.
Still, even as I faced Jin Myeong’s shocking form, I did not lose heart. If he could regrow a severed arm, so what? He would never be able to grow a new body from a cut neck.
Third Form of the Oblique Death Blood Sword! Flowing Blood! The blood that flows never stops, and neither does the sword’s current!
In the original meaning of the Oblique Death in the Oblique Death Blood Sword, the term referred to a “slant that leads to death.” Built upon the basic diagonal slash, it was a bizarre and refined sword art designed to confuse the enemy with odd trajectories and amplify killing intent in order to inflict devastating damage.
That was why the path of my sword was anything but ordinary.
Swish! Swish-swish!
The blade’s trajectory ran wild, as though it were tearing the air apart.
Yet every one of those seemingly chaotic paths still ended at his neck. Unfortunately, because I had already poured so much power into the Break-Wilderness Sword, almost no inner energy remained within the form.
Perhaps because I had cut off his arm twice already, this time he finally began to answer my attacks.
“Disciple! It seems I have not properly taught you the etiquette owed to a master!”
Along with that cry, tinged with faint anger, he casually struck the pouch at his waist.
From it flew a steel needle, which soared into the sky and blocked the path of my sword.
And then, in the blink of an eye, the needle that had been no larger than a finger had grown into the size of a sword.
By what I had learned from him, this was the Flying Sword—a magical tool commonly used by cultivators.
Clang-clang-clang!
Just as his protective barrier had done when I struck it before, his Flying Sword stood firm and blocked my attack. The sword itself did not carry any profound mystery, but it was using its characteristic speed and heavy force to absorb my assault.
Of course, I had a way to turn the situation around again.
The problem was that I had deliberately injured myself to block his Soul-binding Art, and now those internal wounds were interfering with the flow of true qi. Because of that, gathering inner energy again was taking much longer than expected.
In the end, Jin Myeong’s assault against me continued.
“Open those eyes wide and behold the greatness of your master!”
When had he pulled that out? Before I knew it, he was holding a golden seal and shouting as he took a posture that looked like he was stamping it into the sky.
And to my astonishment, I began to feel a tremendous force bearing down on my body, even though it had not touched me at all.
“Khh!”
Suppressing a groan, I was slowly forced lower by that pressure, my stance sinking bit by bit. And that was not the end of his attack. The Flying Sword that had been blocking my own strike now rushed toward me, seizing the opening as my posture collapsed.
For anything else, perhaps not—but there was no way I would lose to swordsmanship.
Even if my stance was being crushed by overwhelming pressure and my body had become difficult to move.
Thunk!
Using the recoil from twisting my waist, I lashed out with my sword and knocked aside the heavy strike aimed at my head. Then, taking advantage of the rebound created by the enemy’s Flying Sword, I slid smoothly across the dirt and managed to change my position.
But even after I shifted where I stood, the pressure bearing down on me still did not vanish. And as if he had been waiting for just that, his mocking voice followed.
“Disciple, no matter how hard you struggle, you cannot endure the imprint of the magical treasure Immortal Wheel Heavenly Bow Seal. The longer you cling on, the worse your suffering will become. That is enough. Kneel now and receive my instruction.”
He still seemed to think the Soul-binding Art he had cast on me had not yet been broken.
The trouble was that this did not exactly put me in a favorable position either.
He still did not seem to be fighting at full strength, and yet even that alone was enough to drive me onto the defensive.
It was a moment that reminded me just how terrifying the power of cultivators truly was, and how unbelievable the instruments they used could be.
Still, I had not given up.
“Not yet! Not yet!”
Grinding my teeth so hard they nearly shattered, I forced myself to endure the pressure and barely righted my collapsing stance. Then, as he drew out another yellow talisman, he shook his head and went on.
“You should have devoted yourself to cultivating your method rather than wasting that stubbornness on martial arts! Tsk tsk.”
He clicked his tongue and threw the talisman into the air. This time it fluttered briefly like a butterfly, danced through the sky, and then burst apart with a pop. At the same time, the severed arm that had only moments ago been dripping blood was already whole again.
Am I truly unable to inflict even the slightest harm on him?
At first, I had thought he was simply flustered and could not feel the pain.
But his expression had remained serene from the beginning until now. Even after his arm had been cut off twice.
Because of that, a deep sense of emptiness had begun to settle in me. If the righteous warriors who died crying out for the glory of the Martial Alliance could see me now, they would be overjoyed. The man they had despised so bitterly looked utterly helpless.
In the end, a laugh escaped my mouth at this absurd reality.
“Khhahahah! What is strong will eventually be broken by something stronger!”
Jin Myeong immediately sneered in reply.
“Yes. My immortal techniques are stronger than your martial arts, so it is you who will break in the end.”
Was everything I had built by staking all my life on martial skill and willpower truly going to break here?
Refusing to accept the situation, I roared in defiance.
“Then it means what broke was the weaker thing!”
As he frowned, unable to grasp the meaning of my shout, the flow of my upper dantian—slowly filling the empty core within me—suddenly began to rage.
My body, already wounded and damaged meridians from internal injury, could not properly withstand it.
Thump. Thump-thump.
Veins bulged as though they were about to tear through my skin, signaling the abnormal change taking place inside me, but my actions remained unhesitating.
The Heaven-Defying Lust Madness Classic I was using began to surge through my body like a gale, answering the pressure pinning me down from head to toe.
Drip.
As twin streams of blood began to spill from my nose more violently, I finally managed to straighten my posture.
At that instant, I kicked off the ground without hesitation.
Among the countless strong opponents I had met until now, there had certainly been many who were stronger than I was.
Yet it was always they who broke, never me.
So now it was time for me to show it once again.
How I had defeated those stronger than myself.
I was Ak Bi.
The man who had forced the world to its knees.
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