Ankang
The manor of the Land Sword Gate stood in stark contrast to the scenery of Yingshan County.
Sprawling grounds, a grand main hall visible even from afar, stone walls, and a massive gate—it was the sort of estate a local magnate with vast holdings might own, or a distinguished gentleman who had retired from life in Beijing.
In truth, the manor had once belonged to a local powerholder of Yingshan County. Its original owner was no longer among the living, thanks to the Land Sword Gate’s atrocities.
A splendid plaque hung above the gate, proudly bearing the name Land Sword Gate. There was not the faintest trace of shame for having stolen another man’s home.
“I’ll handle the greetings,” Yeobhwa said, stepping forward.
As he approached the gate, fist-wind gathered around his clenched hands. In moments the wind hardened into a membrane as dense as a water-jar—Clear Wind Soft Hand, perfected for a fist artist after long consultation with Cheonhwa.
Thoom!
He drove forward with a great stride, stamping the Vajra Step. A heavy tremor rolled outward. What followed was the weighty Force Emission of Heaven-and-Earth Mountain-Water.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash the firmly shut gate burst apart, opening the way. At the enormous noise, every martial artist inside the manor reacted at once.
“What was that?!”
“The gate’s been smashed!”
“We’re under attack!”
The Land Sword Gate’s fighters scrambled out in a panic. In that same instant three figures shot through the ruined gateway—Yeonhwa, Jeokhwa, and Myeonghwa—and fell upon the unorthodox rabble.
Cold qi rose in pale vapor. Heat shimmered and danced. Wind billowed like a curtain. With every multicolored trail, men spat blood and crumpled to the ground.
“Stop them!”
“There’s only five of them! Surround them and crush them!”
Even as their comrades dropped, the rest showed no sign of retreat. On the contrary, they looked almost feverishly eager for the fight. The reason became clear soon enough.
The vitality and true qi of the newly dead are being sucked away.
The Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art. Every single member of the Land Sword Gate appeared to have mastered that vile demonic art that fed on the energy of the slain.
“My internal energy’s rising!”
“This surging power—I can’t hold it back!”
“Looks like those ones have been cultivating for a while. They’ll taste better than the last sect we wiped out.”
Rather than rage at their comrades’ deaths, they rejoiced at the swelling demonic qi. At the same time they licked their lips while eyeing the attackers—gazes that saw living people as nothing more than walking elixirs.
These bastards have abandoned humanity completely.
Had immersion in the demonic art filled their marrow with demonic qi? They had cast aside being human and degenerated into beasts that preyed on men. One more reason they could not be left alive.
Hummm!
As if answering Cheonhwa’s boiling emotions, Okgyeong trembled faintly in his hand. Naturally a wave of qi coiled around it, forging a keen edge of Force. Fluid sequences of Heavenly Elegant Style poured out sword-winds in succession.
The moment the storm of blade-winds was about to sweep the Land Sword Gate fighters, a black wind slipped between them and canceled the Force waves. Every eye turned toward the source of that black gale.
A middle-aged man in luxurious silk robes stood wrapped in black wind from head to toe, glaring at the group.
“You dare assault the Land Sword Gate without a shred of fear and run wild? You must be dying to die.”
The middle-aged martial artist radiated qi waves heavy with rage. The sheer volume of his stored energy was far beyond anything a mere First-class fighter should possess. Nine times out of ten, this was the master of the Land Sword Gate.
“I’ll take him,” Cheonhwa said.
Leaving the rest of the enemies to his sect siblings, he advanced on the Land Sword Gate Master. The dense demonic qi he felt surpassed even that of the Yihwa Gate Master who had operated in Baoji. How many lives had the man destroyed to accumulate such internal energy? Cheonhwa could not even begin to guess.
A martial artist’s life may stand on the edge of a blade, but this crosses every line.
Internal energy was, in essence, a martial artist’s entire life. To go beyond killing and seize even a man’s vitality and internal energy was no different from stealing his whole existence as a martial artist.
And that black wind… it looks familiar.
It was clearly the same as—or very close to—the demonic art once used by Ga Wol-ak’s followers.
A contest of Force waves won’t win this.
Cheonhwa could layer four kinds of energy, yet the gap in total internal energy was so vast that the opponent still outstripped him. The black wind that had just erased Heavenly Elegant Style proved it.
But that doesn’t mean there’s no way.
Hummm!
The jade-colored wooden sword in his hand quivered, then began to shed a brilliant light—the twenty-fifth form of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven: Heavenly White Sun. It was Intent Qi Manifestation densely compressed by applying the principles of the heavy sword.
Seeing it, the Land Sword Gate Master stared at Cheonhwa in surprise.
“Sword qi? A Peak Expert at that age… Don’t tell me you’re the Flash Sword Dragon of the Zhongnan Sect?”
He recognized Cheonhwa at once, yet showed no fear. What filled his eyes was hatred and envy—the dark emotions a man feels toward a rising talent who has reached a higher realm at a far younger age.
“If you think being able to use sword qi means you can win, you’re badly mistaken.”
Growling, the Land Sword Gate Master raised a sword-wind. The Force waves wrapping his body were sucked into his blade, condensing into a small storm of vast demonic qi.
Cheonhwa’s eyes narrowed.
He’s compressed a massive sword-wind to imitate Intent Qi Manifestation?
It was an outrageously inefficient act. Even a glance showed it demanded enormous internal energy, and the willpower required to maintain that state was another problem.
Except in a few special cases, the amount of will one can handle without a Spiritual Nature is limited.
Moving vast internal energy required a matching measure of will. Even Cheonhwa, before becoming a Peak Expert, had never been able to control more than three kinds of energy at once. No matter how ocean-like one’s internal energy, using it was an entirely different matter. The amount of water one could draw depended on the means of drawing it.
But that… is clearly an operation of internal energy that defies this principle.
Wielded so recklessly, true qi ought to leak away in streams. Yet there was not the slightest sign of it. The special properties of the demonic art must have been forcing the impossible into reality. And of course, turning the impossible into the possible would carry side effects.
Whether the Land Sword Gate Master knew this or not, he swung the sword wrapped in black wind.
Kuuung!
A heavy boom rolled out as a black line was drawn along the blade’s path. The black wind advanced, devouring space. Against it Cheonhwa swung a pure white blaze of light. White and black collided in midair.
The reason the Land Sword Gate Master had turned to demonic arts was exceedingly simple.
He wanted to become stronger.
It was the wish of every unorthodox martial artist, and he had lived his entire life according to that wish. When he swiftly reached the First-class realm, he believed he could still break through the wall. Yet no matter how much time passed, he could not cross it. By the age of forty—past the age of no doubt—he became certain he would never become a true master.
I strove to grow stronger, only to learn it was all meaningless thrashing.
While he languished in that despair, word reached him: there existed a demonic art that could raise even a First-class martial artist to the level of a Peak Expert, an art that could absorb another’s energy.
Severe side effects? Orthodox and unorthodox arts were not so different in that regard.
Abandoning humanity? For the unorthodox, staining one’s blade with blood was daily life.
There’s no reason not to learn it!
Having reached that conclusion, the Land Sword Gate Master searched high and low for the demonic arts. In the end he obtained two: the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art and the Black Wind Divine Art. Both contained powers that the orthodox path rightly regarded as dangerous.
Just by killing people and seizing their essence, one can grow stronger!
The effect was greater when drawn from a martial artist, yet it could also be used on ordinary people who had never learned martial arts.
Wait—must I be the only one who learns this?
There the Land Sword Gate Master had a flash of inspiration. Why not teach the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art to every member of the Land Sword Gate?
There’s a limit to how much internal energy I can gather alone. But if many of us gather it…?
The fighters under him were nothing more than chaff he had collected for use as troops. If he refined that chaff into proper grain with the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art and then harvested it himself?
I can sit back and gather internal energy at my leisure. And if I keep the Black Wind Divine Art for myself alone, none of those dogs will ever surpass me.
Thus the Land Sword Gate Master led his subordinates all over Shaanxi, stockpiling internal energy. He settled in Yingshan County and waited only for the right moment to dispose of them.
And today, unexpected outsiders had appeared and were wiping out his disciples in the blink of an eye.
For the Land Sword Gate Master it was a perfect chance to absorb his subordinates’ internal energy—until the moment he learned who the attackers were. Every such calculation fled his mind.
The Flash Sword Dragon… is it truly that loathsome brat?
The greatest rising talent of the orthodox path, said to have become a Peak Expert before even coming of age. He himself had struggled as a First-class fighter past the age of forty and finally turned to demonic arts—yet a boy who had not lived half as long had already reached the Peak?
It had to be orthodox nonsense. It had to be. The mere existence of such talent twisted his five viscera and six bowels with envy.
But the Cheonhwa he now faced was a Peak Expert with not a single exaggeration.
He’s truly a Peak Expert? How can such talent exist in this world?
Hatred and jealousy boiled hotter than when he had merely heard the rumors.
I’ll cut his throat myself and show the world how worthless talent really is!
Murderous intent surged—he would kill the boy here no matter what. In answer to that violent emotion, vast demonic qi began to move.
Wind-Walk Annihilation!
A blade of pure hatred, condensed from black wind to its absolute limit, was swung. The ultimate technique of the Black Wind Divine Art tore apart everything in its path. The Force wave that advanced while devouring space carried enough colossal power to pulverize anything that stood against it.
Against it Cheonhwa merely swung the Intent Qi Manifestation wrapped around a wooden sword.
“You think that firefly’s light of sword qi can stop this?!”
The Land Sword Gate Master lifted the corner of his mouth, certain of victory. The next instant the smile froze solid.
The sword qi Cheonhwa swung left a pure-white afterimage along its path—and finally cut the black wind apart.
The Land Sword Gate Master’s eyes flew wide in shock, then his face twisted savagely.
“I refuse to accept it! A brat like you, with that pitiful talent, trying to deny my entire life!”
He poured out his fury in successive blasts of sword-wind, yet the result never changed. The sword-light Cheonhwa wielded severed the flow of black wind and shone with ever-clearer presence—like the sun driving back the darkness of night with the coming of dawn, growing steadily brighter.
Cutting through the sword-winds, Cheonhwa advanced without pause until he stood right in front of the Land Sword Gate Master. The man wrapped his entire body in black wind as a protective barrier.
Whiiing!
A curtain of wind thicker than any he had launched before enfolded him.
“Talent? You’re saying I have talent?”
Standing before the Land Sword Gate Master, Cheonhwa frowned. All his life he had been told he lacked talent; hearing the opposite was a first.
“Is this what talent looks like to you?”
“Don’t spout nonsense! If that isn’t talent, then what is it?!”
To that bitter cry Cheonhwa answered with action. The pure-white radiance of his sword qi burned through the black wind and pressed forward, finally stripping away the curtain of wind. Like judgment falling upon a sinner, pure-white sword-light flickered and filled the Land Sword Gate Master’s vision.
He could not tear his eyes from Cheonhwa’s movements. The blade of will that swung was brutally crude—and it revealed something the Land Sword Gate Master knew all too well.
This is… basic technique?
The sword of an ordinary man, polished through endless practice. That was the last sight the Land Sword Gate Master’s consciousness registered before it cut off.