Red Dragon Gang (2)
Over the past few days, Cheonhwa had been receiving reports of Yongwang’s movements through the Hao Gate.
They were intelligence Yongwang himself had volunteered to send—and at the same time, a silent declaration.
Watch carefully what I intend to do from this moment on.
No direct battles. Only short, relentless pursuit actions, one after another.
Yongwang had said it himself: he lacked the forces to properly subjugate the traitors.
That only meant he lacked the manpower for open combat. It did not mean he lacked crews to sail ships.
So he had brought several vessels and used them to threaten the Red Dragon Gang.
With Yongwang himself on the field, the enemy panicked and did nothing but run.
After that it had been one continuous campaign of harassment. Day and night, without rest, the pursuit never let up—so the enemy could never form a second thought. In the end they chose flight, as expected.
And the escape routes had already been blocked in anticipation.
The result left them with nowhere to turn. Mental and material attrition piled up without end. With supplies running dry, a water bandit had only one option left.
Plunder the nearby villages.
Even that had fallen inside Yongwang’s calculations. Three days before the raids began, he had informed the Hao Gate of the exact villages the Red Dragon Gang would target—evacuate the common folk before they suffered. And if you truly want to eradicate the Red Dragon Gang, he had added, wait for them in those empty villages.
And everything unfolded exactly as Yongwang had said.
The Red Dragon Gang had danced in the palm of Yongwang’s hand like the Monkey King in the Buddha’s grasp. So thoroughly that Cheonhwa had even seriously considered Yeobhwa’s earlier suggestion that the whole thing was a setup.
But the actual state of the Red Dragon Gang when they finally met was nothing like men prepared for a trap. Dark circles under their eyes, exhaustion carved into every face—the clear marks of being hounded day and night.
“…That coward Yongwang. Did he make an alliance with the Zhongnan Sect?”
“…….”
The Red Dragon Gang Leader asked, his body trembling with rage.
Cheonhwa kept his expression hard and gave no answer. The man’s words had struck him with genuine shock.
Yongwang… a coward?
He tried to connect the Yongwang he had met with that word. The sly, evasive man who had proposed cooperation simply would not line up with “coward.” His mind spun in confusion.
Was it merely a pejorative because the man was good at running? Or did it mean Yongwang’s nature itself was cowardly? The first he could understand; the second he found hard to believe.
Or is this just a ploy to throw us into disarray?
That felt more convincing.
When Cheonhwa maintained his silence, the Red Dragon Gang Leader let out a hollow laugh.
“Fine. Whether he cooperated or simply used you doesn’t matter. You clearly have no intention of letting us go.”
The Red Dragon Gang Leader began to raise his aura. He had abandoned flight and chosen to fight.
Cheonhwa watched the man radiating thick, ominous demonic energy and spoke to his sect brothers.
“I’ll take the Red Dragon Gang Leader. The rest of them are yours.”
He adjusted his grip on Okgyeong and examined the opponent with the Six Harmony Sensory Path.
The structure of his body is unusual. He’s clearly trained in outer martial arts.
Almost every demonic art he had faced until now had been based on internal methods. Who would have expected a demonic art rooted in outer techniques as well? He could not yet know what ability it contained, but that was no reason to hesitate.
Cheonhwa poured internal energy into Okgyeong. Jade-colored sword body filled solid with threads of qi. The four-colored energies became a pure-white blade of will.
Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Twenty-Fifth Form—All Under Heaven, Hundred Days.
The technique of Intent Qi Manifestation now flowed more naturally than ever before.
Even facing the sword qi, the Red Dragon Gang Leader showed no fear. Sword qi was the very symbol of the gulf between a Peak Expert and a first-class martial artist. That meant the man must possess some means of answering it.
Blade-and-Sword Impervious alone won’t be enough to stop this.
When outer arts reached a certain height they granted Blade-and-Sword Impervious—making ordinary wounds almost impossible. Yet even that had never stopped Intent Qi Manifestation. To fully block it required at least the higher realm of Vajra Indestructible Body.
But the Red Dragon Gang Leader’s level was not even Peak Expert; he stood only at the very end of first-class. Vajra Indestructible Body was far beyond him.
So Cheonhwa considered another possibility.
Could it be Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor?
A defensive demonic art that drew upon true origin energy to produce absurd rebounding force.
If it’s truly Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor, it might even stop sword qi.
To prepare, Cheonhwa wrapped additional qi threads around Okgyeong’s blade. Multiple strands of energy spiraled tightly.
An applied form of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven—Wind-Flow Cloud Mountain. A breaking technique of internal-external methods that shattered defenses one after another.
Whoosh!
Using Wind-Cloud Divine Art and Axis-Cloud Free Roaming together, he shot forward as if flying. The full speed of his charge poured straight into the sword strike, amplifying its power into a blow that could crush ordinary defenses.
Yet the Red Dragon Gang Leader did not use Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor—nor even a common protective energy barrier. He simply blocked the attack with his bare body.
Even for Blade-and-Sword Impervious, it was an insanely reckless act. What followed, however, was something Cheonhwa had never anticipated.
The instant Wind-Flow Cloud Mountain touched the man’s flesh, the qi threads vanished with a soft huff.
The blade formed of Intent Qi Manifestation disappeared, and the sword strike was stopped by the Red Dragon Gang Leader’s arm.
What… is this?!
Shock hit him, but there was no time to dwell on it. Survival instinct rang alarm bells through his mind. The Six Harmony Sensory Path told him the cause at once.
Having blocked with one arm, the Red Dragon Gang Leader was already swinging a fist with the other. The jin force loaded into that fist was crushing the space around it.
He hasn’t even properly released the jin yet—just the premonition creates this much pressure?
A method similar to Stored Jin, yet different. Taking that blow head-on would leave nothing of his bones.
Too close to fully evade.
Cheonhwa stepped back with Nine Palaces Footwork while moving Okgyeong. Like a bird alighting on a branch, the jade wooden sword touched the man’s wrist and gently synchronized with the motion, twisting the attack’s direction.
The principle of Soft Sword—yielding and redirecting.
Boom!
The glancing fist strike smashed empty air. The sound of air exploding outward was followed by a crushing fist pressure that blanketed the surroundings. Even Cheonhwa, who had barely deflected the blow, could not escape its range. The residual force alone cracked the four-layered internal-energy barrier of his Long Heaven Single Armor.
Instead of stubbornly enduring the pressure, Cheonhwa rode it and leapt clear, opening distance.
What was that just now?
For a mere strong fist, the power had far exceeded anything a first-class martial artist should possess. It was not a realm reachable by outer training or abundant internal energy alone.
Even after absorbing the shock with All Under Heaven Rain Cloud, his palm still ached. Cheonhwa reset his grip on Okgyeong and glared at the Red Dragon Gang Leader.
The man smiled with satisfaction.
“Even a Peak Expert’s eyes go wide before this body’s Heaven-Shattering Divine Power!”
Heaven-Shattering Divine Power—an outer art named for the bizarre physical strength that could topple the heavens. That, it seemed, was the true nature of the Red Dragon Gang Leader’s demonic art.
Its power is certainly dangerous enough that even a Peak Expert would be at risk if he took it head-on.
But pure outer arts alone could never produce that kind of strength.
The moment my body contacted his, both sword wind and sword qi vanished like a snuffed candle.
More precisely, he had felt the true energy forming his technique get sucked into the man’s body. Similar to the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art, yet different in flavor.
I need confirmation.
Cheonhwa sent successive waves of sword wind as if probing. Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Seventeenth Form—All Under Heaven Wind Flow. A rain of blade-winds riding the current poured toward the Red Dragon Gang Leader.
Once again the man made no attempt to dodge; he simply took the sword wind on his bare body.
“Hahahaha! You think a little breeze like that will work?!”
The Red Dragon Gang Leader’s muscles rippled. They tensed as taut as a drawn bowstring. He stamped the ground with a heavy foot, leaving afterimages as his figure closed the distance in an instant. A wild fist packed with giant-like strength came crashing down.
Cheonhwa blocked the assault again while carefully watching the changes in his opponent.
No doubt. The qi threads have diminished compared to before. He’s clearly consuming internal energy.
After that, Cheonhwa tested every technique he possessed. Continuous Stored Jin using All Under Heaven Rain Cloud and All Under Heaven Drunken Rain. Internal-external methods including All Under Heaven Flowing Cloud. Even composite forms like All Under Heaven Thunderclap that fused multiple principles into one.
The Red Dragon Gang Leader took every single one of them bare-bodied.
“Hahaha! Is that all you’ve got?!”
Laughing, he unleashed more powerful fist-jin releases. At a glance he looked invincible, yet Cheonhwa calmly studied every motion.
Only techniques that use internal energy—jin-release waves, internal-external methods, Intent Qi Manifestation—are being absorbed.
In other words, the true ability of Heaven-Shattering Divine Power was the absorption of true energy, converting the stolen internal power into pure physical force.
There was a limit to how much energy he could absorb, however. And when absorbing Intent Qi Manifestation, he actually seemed to consume his own internal energy instead.
The only thing that landed a clean hit was Stored Jin. So there are two ways to crack Heaven-Shattering Divine Power.
One was to force internal-energy expenditure through sword qi. The other was simply to crush him with pure sword force. The former was impractical because the opponent’s total internal energy was greater. In truth, only the latter remained.
Cheonhwa withdrew Intent Qi Manifestation. In its place he fused several forms that could amplify pure sword power into one.
All Under Heaven Rain Cloud, which absorbed impact. All Under Heaven Drunken Rain, which detonated the absorbed shock. All Under Heaven Wind Demon, which used sword wind to raise sword speed.
Heavenly Dipper Sword Formula — Boundless Ocean
Wind-Grind Rain-Wash
Sword wind elevated the speed of the strike. Detonated impact reinforced the Stored Jin.
When the Red Dragon Gang Leader blocked that assault with his bare body, his brow furrowed in pain. Unlike before, there was almost no energy left for him to absorb.
Seeing the reaction, Cheonhwa narrowed his eyes.
So Heaven-Shattering Divine Power can only absorb energy that has already been released.
Aside from the residual traces of sword wind used for acceleration, there was no true energy for the man to take. This strike had been nothing more than a setup for the next. He absorbed the rebound created by generating such powerful sword force and prepared the following blow.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Sword strikes and fist strikes collided, producing explosive reports. An exchange without a single step of retreat. A pure contest of jin-release power seemed locked in equilibrium—until a new weight tipped the scales.
Qi threads began to coil around the blade of the wooden sword Cheonhwa swung, and an invisible force layered itself upon the strikes.
Watching from point-blank range, the Red Dragon Gang Leader realized what wonder was occurring.
Void Object Manipulation? He’s using Void Object Manipulation to amplify his sword force?
Void Object Manipulation was the art of projecting true energy to move distant objects—the foundation of the exalted Sword Control Art that allowed a swordsman to wield a blade without ever touching it.
But the form Cheonhwa employed was far removed from such lofty technique. He simply exploited the ability to move matter with true energy in order to make his sword power even more overwhelming.
Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Twenty-Eighth Form—All Under Heaven Moon Shadow.
Every time wooden sword and fist crossed, blood sprayed. The Red Dragon Gang Leader’s Blade-and-Sword Impervious had been shattered by the crushing sword force.
“Khuh?!”
Both hands ruined, the Red Dragon Gang Leader staggered. Cheonhwa did not miss the opening.
A jade-colored trajectory plummeted like a thunderbolt toward the Red Dragon Gang Leader’s head.