The Four Divine Beasts Sword
“Hold on a little longer. I'll take care of them all.”
“Understood!”
As the Blood Red Squad surged forward, Ryeong sprang into motion. Her primary objective was Mu Uiseong; once she eliminated their master of the Transcendent Realm, the remaining rabble would be nothing to worry about.
Yet Mu Uiseong was operating on the very same logic. Flanked by four of his apex peak-realm experts, five blades converged upon Ryeong simultaneously, both sides recognizing that eliminating the opposing Transcendent Master was their absolute highest priority.
“You four, form the Blood Quad Formation!”
“Yes, Captain!”
“Formations won't save you!”
Wuuung.
Gripping the Red Cloud Divine Sword, Ryeong wove between the four converging squad members like a phantom. An opening had presented itself before their battle array could even take shape—a golden opportunity to cut one down preemptively.
Mu Uiseong was not about to let that happen. The instant Ryeong's blade reached for the warrior's throat, he closed the distance like an apparition, parrying the Red Cloud Divine Sword away with a ringing clash.
For a fleeting fraction of an instant, their eyes locked. Before even a tenth of a second could expire—
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Two lethal blades struck toward each other's vitals in a flurry of vicious thrusts. A clash stripped of pretense, waged purely to kill. Naturally, the upper hand belonged to Ryeong, whose instincts were honed through endless real-world slaughter.
“Kh!”
“Talking big was easy enough, but is this all you've got?”
“Don't flatter yourself!”
With a sweeping swing, Ryeong knocked Mu Uiseong backward. Overpowered in their contest of internal qi, he was hurled helplessly into the air. And in that airborne interval, the four squad members completed their Blood Quad Formation and pounced. Their synchronized momentum surged with a ferocity that even an ordinary Transcendent Master would struggle to withstand alone.
At least, under normal circumstances.
Drawing a deep breath, Ryeong attuned herself to the internal energy radiating from the Red Cloud Divine Sword. She was glad Jinyeong had briefed her on its peculiar traits; with an inexhaustible stream of qi at her disposal, now was the perfect moment to put the relic to the test.
“Haaah!”
KABOOM!
Spinning the sword into a reverse grip, Ryeong drove it violently into the earth. Instantly, an immense bulwark of compressed soil erupted upward, grinding the formation's momentum to a dead halt.
During the year-long sect closure, Ryeong had worked two to three times harder than anyone else. She had mastered the Flowing Cloud Sword Art and the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, drilled Jinyeong in the deadly arts of assassination, and spent endless hours pioneering a martial path entirely her own. A new discipline tailored not to the Heaven-Killing Art of her lower dantian, but to the pure Celestial Immortal Divine Art residing in her middle dantian. An art named after the four sacred beasts guarding the cardinal directions of the Central Plains:
The Four Divine Beasts Sword.
The technique she had just unleashed was the Black Tortoise Tyrant Sword, modeled after the indomitable divine beast of the north. Though this was its maiden run in actual combat, the grueling hours she had poured into refining it paid off with startling power, arresting the charge of the Blood Quad Formation in a single strike. Nor was that the end of it.
“Hup!”
First Stance: Water Turtle Northern Wall
By drawing upon the concentrated essence of water to hoist the bedrock aloft, the stance created an impenetrable vanguard. With the enemy assault checked, Ryeong's eyes flashed a vibrant vermilion. If the Black Tortoise Tyrant Sword was the pinnacle of absolute defense, its polar opposite—the aggressive art inspired by the guardian beast of the south—was the Vermilion Bird Killing Sword.
Yet the Four Divine Beasts Sword was still in its infancy; shifting instantaneously between diametrically opposed concepts proved difficult. The transition demanded time, and just as the Water Turtle Northern Wall shattered, Mu Uiseong burst through from Ryeong's blind spot.
“It's over!”
Skreeeech!
Mu Uiseong lunged for her back, closing the distance a heartbeat faster. But with a piercing cry that echoed through the air, Ryeong vaulted skyward. Before anyone could process what was happening, wings woven of radiant crimson flame had unfurled from her shoulder blades—a majestic manifestation of condensed internal qi mimicking incandescent fire.
So this is the Fire Wings.
Fire Wings: a consummate technique born from fusing the fiery element with the Celestial Immortal Divine Art, granting its practitioner mobility rivaling Void Flight.
Mu Uiseong stared in sheer disbelief. Mortals were never meant to conquer the skies. Arts like Void Flight and Void Treading Steps existed, yes, but those were merely methods of suspending the body through qi propulsion. To his eyes, however, the fiery wings Ryeong had manifested were fundamentally different.
She understands the mechanics of flight and replicated them. The medium is qi, but the principle behind her suspension in midair is genuine flight!
True to his thoughts, the wings of flame beat steadily against the air. She was not merely floating; she was flying. An utterly inconceivable sight that defied human reason.
As the Blood Red Squad stood frozen, eyes wide in stupor, an unforeseen variable struck.
Thwack!
“Gah!”
“What?! You sneaky little rat—!”
The heart of one warrior maintaining the Blood Quad Formation was abruptly pierced from behind. It was Gu Ryang, who had been lying low like a ghost. Before taking to the air with Fire Wings, Ryeong had transmitted an order: if he wanted to live, he had to take down one of them. Gu Ryang had seized the moment while their attention was fixed on Ryeong and delivered a lethal blow.
With the formation broken and their murderous gazes turning toward Gu Ryang—
Whoosh!
Ryeong dove from above, blasting Gu Ryang out of harm's way with a sweep of palm force. Mu Uiseong's rage reached a boiling point.
“You bastard... I'll tear you apart!”
“Stay back and lay low. We'll talk later,” Ryeong told Gu Ryang.
“Y-Yes!”
Having sent Gu Ryang scurrying, Ryeong parried Mu Uiseong's incoming blade. Goaded by fury, his sword slashed with manic speed.
“Dieee!”
Clang-clang-clang!
Abandoning all caution, Mu Uiseong unleashed a relentless barrage of sword qi. The sheer onslaught was so violent that even the apex peak experts of the Blood Red Squad dared not step in. He closed the distance frantically, raining down blow after blow.
Such was the hallmark of demonic arts: power fueled by raw emotion. Yet that came at a dire cost. The deeper one fell into wrath, the more composure slipped away—and when composure crumbled, fatal openings were born.
“Just like this.”
“...?!”
Thk-thk-thk-thk!
“Guh-hurk!”
“Captain!”
Four flying daggers concealed in Ryeong's sleeve buried themselves cleanly into Mu Uiseong's left collarbone. It was the fatal consequence of mistaking her for a pure swordsman. At her core, Ryeong was an assassin. She had put on a dazzling display of swordplay simply to bait him into closing the distance.
The daggers struck his vital meridians with pinpoint accuracy. Even for a martial artist of Mu Uiseong's caliber, such disrupted qi flow threatened instant internal qi deviation. The remaining experts rushed forward in panic to shield their captain, but Ryeong was already several steps ahead.
BOOOM!
Harnessing the explosive thrust of her Vermilion Bird qi, she bypassed them in a crimson flash.
Slash!
Mu Uiseong's head flew cleanly into the air.
“Phew!”
“Y-You dare...!”
“The bastard must be exhausted! Kill him now!!”
Veins bulged across the surviving experts' bloodshot eyes. Channeling every scrap of qi left in their dantians, they resolved to avenge their fallen captain.
As they claimed, Ryeong was indeed feeling strained.
Something's off.
The culprit was the Four Divine Beasts Sword. While undeniably devastating, it did not feel entirely harmonious with the Celestial Immortal Divine Art. Its internal qi consumption was excessive; unless she resolved that inefficiency, the style would prove impractical for extended combat.
Still, that was a problem to analyze after the dust settled. The three charging experts had pushed themselves to the limit, even burning through their innate true qi.
If it doesn't fit the situation, there's no reason to force it.
Mu Uiseong, the only real threat, was dead. And having already revealed her daggers, there was no need to keep up appearances.
Swish.
“Wh-What?”
“Where did he go?!”
The experts, charging with murder in their eyes, stumbled to a halt as Ryeong vanished from sight. They whipped their heads around in a frantic search. Could an assassin's stealth truly reach such perfection? Before the thought could finish, she reappeared on their right flank.
Fwip!
Closing in at blistering speed, Ryeong severed the arm of one apex peak expert. As a geyser of blood erupted and drew the panicked gaze of the other two, she dissolved back into the shadows behind the spray of crimson. The maimed warrior frantically jabbed at his pressure points to stem the bleeding.
Except—
“What the...? Gah!”
A slender throwing dagger was already embedded deep within the exposed flesh of his stump—a concealed weapon coated with the Tang Clan's lethal poisons. Struck directly through severed tissue rather than unbroken skin, the poison coursed through his system instantaneously, dropping him dead on the spot.
Now reduced to two, the surviving warriors pressed their backs together, scanning every direction with bated breath. Then, a chilling voice transmission vibrated through the surrounding air.
The two swallowed hard. Delivered through voice transmission amid the dense brush, pinpointing her location was an exercise in futility. At that moment, Ryeong was circulating only the Heaven-Killing Art. Layered over the Ghost Soul Steps, tracing her presence was an impossibility.
Which meant—
“You're already dead.”
“...?!”
“You bitch!”
Ryeong materialized directly before their faces. Though both raised their blades on pure instinct, her daggers had already ripped across their throats.
Ryeong wiped the blood from her cheek with the back of her hand. That accounted for all the apex experts, but...
“If you're done over there, hurry up and lend a hand! I'm going to die here!”
“All right, I'm coming.”
The remaining Blood Red Squad members had Jinyeong cornered. To his credit, he had held out alone against more than ten opponents, several peak-tier experts included. However, with Mu Uiseong and the squad's elites wiped out, the fighters besieging Jinyeong instantly scattered in different directions.
“Oh? You think you can run from me?”
Shwaaa!
Taking in their movements in an instant, Ryeong flicked her wrists. Daggers whistled through the air, piercing the skulls of five fleeing peak experts from behind. Simultaneously, with a flick of sword telekinesis, two blades shot out to impale the temples of two distant stragglers.
Only about seven fighters below the peak tier remained.
“You take two. I'll clean up the other five.”
“Leave it to me!”
What had begun as a sudden ambush was about to end in total, crushing victory.