Anti-Dragon King Faction (8)

Cheong-ha found the scene before him almost unbearably frustrating.

A clash between two Peak Experts—Cheonhwa and Yeo Yongmyeong.

In the thick of it, he poured everything he had into clouding Yeo Yongmyeong's vision with the forms of the Myriad Flower Sword, drawing on the principles of illusion-sword and scattering-sword from the Flower Foundation Sword Formula. To be more precise, that was the only way he could help Cheonhwa at all.

The problem is that I can't break through the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor.

Against an ordinary protective qi barrier, he would simply have used scattering-sword to grind the wall of inner energy down, then exploited the gaps with a swift blade. But the barrier of the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor was so dense that Cheong-ha's resonant force could not even scratch it.

At my current level, I can't pierce that thing.

Cheong-ha had learned superior martial arts, but to wield them properly he needed to reach the Peak realm and project sword qi. Intent Qi Manifestation would have let him shave away that unyielding wall. At the very least, he wished the Huashan Sect possessed some technique specialized for dismantling protective qi—but arts of that kind were almost always bound to principles that prized raw power and weight, and Huashan never cultivated them deeply.

Chasing after what I don't have will only leave me empty. For now, I'll do what I can.

Cheong-ha shook off the helplessness rising inside him and once more cast a storm of sword-shadows over Yeo Yongmyeong. The shadows blooming from his blade-tip swallowed and reflected light, painting the air in dazzling colors.

Yeo Yongmyeong, looking thoroughly annoyed, simply released a wave of resonant force—and the sword-shadows were brushed aside as helplessly as flower petals drifting on a river, swept away by the wind off the water.

The same exchange had repeated countless times already. Yet the instant that single, unnecessary motion opened a crack, Cheonhwa was already lunging in.

He nullified the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor with the Wind-Flow Cloud Mountain form, whose spiraling resonant force shaved the protective barrier down; he absorbed the enormous Jin Release packed into his opponent's punches with Under-Heaven Rain Dam; and the impact he stored that way he detonated with Under-Heaven Gathering Rain, using it to shore up his own insufficient sword force. At times Yeo Yongmyeong abandoned the armor altogether and attacked or defended with Intent Qi Manifestation forged from demonic qi—and Cheonhwa answered by raising sword qi through Under-Heaven White Sun, never forgetting to chip away at the fist-qi with Under-Heaven Sunrise. When he pressed the offense himself, he accelerated with Under-Heaven Wind Fury, detonating sword-wind to drive his blade faster, and wove in the Under-Heaven Moon Shadow form—drawing on remote object control—to swell his sword force still further.

Form after form flowed together with such elegance that the exchange held at a deadlock, and Cheong-ha could not help but marvel at the sight.

The most astonishing part is that he's doing all of it with a single sword art.

The Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven—the Zhongnan Sect's foundational sword art, thirty-six forms in all. Each form was simple on its own, yet Cheonhwa braided several together into applications that produced wildly varied results. Of those, the form that caught Cheong-ha's eye most sharply was Clear Wind Rain Sleeve.

A sword form that wraps sword-wind around the blade itself and forges it into a cutting edge of pure force.

An application Cheonhwa had created by combining qi-driven sword enhancement with Jin Release waves—a simple idea, and devastatingly effective. It was something Cheong-ha could try with Huashan's own sword arts, which made heavy use of resonant force to begin with.

If I use that form, I might be able to craft a new technique that can break the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor.

The reason Cheong-ha could not pierce the armor was simply that his single-strike power fell short. The strongest form he could currently unleash was the Flower-Opening Sword of the Flower Foundation Sword Formula—a secret form that fused the principles of swift-sword, scattering-sword, and illusion-sword into one, the very essence of Huashan swordsmanship. But because it swept a vast area with countless shards of resonant force, the power of each individual cut was not particularly great.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

But what if, like Clear Wind Rain Sleeve, I wound the Flower-Opening Sword's resonant force around the blade itself and concentrated its power to the limit?

The form's range would shrink dramatically—but the missing force would be more than made up for. The idea ran against the direction of Six Harmonies that Huashan pursued, and aligned far more closely with the Six Harmonies of Zhongnan. That was only natural, given that it had grown from a form belonging to Cheonhwa, a Zhongnan disciple. Still, both paths were Six Harmonies all the same.

Above all, I can't keep leaving everything on Cheonhwa's shoulders.

Supporting Cheonhwa from behind with the Myriad Flower Sword, Cheong-ha quietly began to prepare a dagger meant for Yeo Yongmyeong's heart.

A heavy boom rolled out as sword and fist collided. The sound was far too deep and dense for a mere clash of blade and knuckle—proof of how extraordinary the Jin Release packed into both strikes truly was.

I'm reaching my limit.

Cheonhwa felt Okgyeong tremble faintly in his grip—the proof that relentless overuse had finally brought him to the edge. Through the Layer Upon Layer formula of the Heavenly Dipper Sword Secret he had bound many sword principles into one; through the Vast Boundless Sea formula he had woven the mid-stage forms of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven into a single overwhelming secret strike; and the shortfall in sword force he had filled with the late-stage forms, using Intent Qi Manifestation and remote object control. It was no exaggeration to say he had spent nearly every resource he possessed.

His opponent, by contrast, only grew stronger through the power of demonic arts. An unknown demonic art made his Jin Release fiercer the longer the exchange went on, and on top of that he used the rebound of the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor to nearly double the force of every punch—a rising spiral born of two demonic arts complementing each other perfectly.

If it were only raw power, I could divert it with the Neutralizing Jin of a soft sword. The problem is that it isn't only power.

Yeo Yongmyeong had perfect command over the force he had swollen so high, and he folded it cleanly into his fist forms. As the power of each form climbed, they grew harder and harder to answer. It was a living demonstration of how dangerous a demonic art became when its user mastered it instead of being mastered by it.

I meant to find the weakness in his demonic arts before it came to this, but he never showed a single one to the end.

As expected of a Peak Expert, the paths of his forms held no gaps. What looked like simple trajectories he covered with the raw power of heavy fists and the pressure of linked successive forms, so that simply keeping pace and clinging on was already more than Cheonhwa could manage. He had considered forcing a decisive ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠gamble more than once, but every time, his survival instinct had screamed a warning: the moment he threw an unpolished finishing blow, it would be his own neck that flew. So he had held on, waiting for an opening—never expecting that his own reserves would run dry first.

While Cheonhwa fretted over how to face a Yeo Yongmyeong who only kept growing stronger, Yeo Yongmyeong himself stared at the young Taoist who refused to fall away and found the whole thing absurd.

Keeping up with the power Tyrant Strength Divine Art keeps feeding me… with orthodox martial arts? What the hell is this bastard?

Tyrant Strength Divine Art—an outer art that hardened the body's power the longer a fight dragged on. By burning demonic qi it could temporarily swell physical strength ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠without end; given enough time and inner energy, even a child could overpower a Peak Expert by pure force.

And this one matched it with nothing but the skill he already had.

Unifying the energies of four separate inner-energy methods into a single current was headache enough—yet he was actually linking sword forms to amplify his sword force, like some impossible circus act. If Yeo Yongmyeong had not been watching it with his own eyes, he would never have believed it. If building sword force were that easy, what was the point of learning demonic arts at all?

I never expected it to turn into this kind of drawn-out fight. This was not in the plan.

Tyrant Strength Divine Art's overwhelming power made a long battle look advantageous—but the reality was the opposite. The greater the power, the more vicious the backlash. The enhanced strength vanished the moment the art stopped, so it had to be maintained for the entire fight. The stronger ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the force became, the more demonic qi it consumed; once that consumption outstripped what the body could bear, it began to burn the true origin qi itself. A single hitch in the flow of demonic qi, and the body would tear itself apart.

Yeo Yongmyeong had been papering over those flaws by holding the demonic art in complete control.

I slowed the circulation to cut the drain—but even that is reaching its limit now.

The demonic qi he was spending was on the verge of exceeding what he still held, and even controlling the swollen strength was beginning to strain him—despite the fact that he was governing both art and body with absolute precision through his spiritual consciousness. Right now Yeo Yongmyeong was a bowl filled to the brim with water, and the demonic art kept dripping one more drop after another into it. Each drop sent ripples across the surface, yet the water still, just barely, did not spill. Soon, though, it would overflow.

If that happens, the demonic art will destroy me itself.

Before it came to that, he had to finish the young Taoist in front of him by any means necessary. Yeo Yongmyeong raised his intent and prepared a secret form; sensing something ominous, Cheonhwa likewise reinforced his intent and readied his own finishing strike.

Yeo Yongmyeong struck first.

Intent Qi Manifestation of pure demonic qi sheathed both arms. Fists drove out in linked succession according to the chain of forms, and fist-wind poured after them. The waves of fist-wind stacked in midair into a colossal tidal surge—as if a dragon's ascent had overturned the river itself, and an endlessly blue, boundless wall of water came crashing in.

A vast tidal wave of resonant force swallowed the space as it bore down. Against it, Cheonhwa unleashed the strongest form he could still call upon.

The mental images of lightning, thunder, and the thunderbolt fused into one and settled into the jade wooden sword. Lightning crackled without pause; a deep rumble rolled out. It was the judgment of heaven flashing within a bank of storm clouds.

Along the arc of the swing, a blaze of light broke free from the jade wooden sword. The radiance blooming from the tip painted the air, then crashed into the oncoming tidal wave of resonant force. With a rolling boom that shook the space itself, the flash and the tidal wave locked in a contest of pure strength.

Every nerve Cheonhwa and Yeo Yongmyeong possessed was fixed on their own secret forms—and so, for a single brief instant, both of them forgot that someone else was there.

That single instant became the deciding blow.

Cheong-ha had already closed to Yeo Yongmyeong's side and swept the Jade Plum Sword in a horizontal arc. A beat late, Yeo Yongmyeong registered his presence and his eyes flew wide.

This damned nuisance, all the way to the end—!

A First-class martial artist who had harassed him again and again with illusion-sword shadows—nothing more than an irritating gnat capable only of distraction. Yeo Yongmyeong had never imagined the man would drive a blade into a gap like this.

But at his level, he cannot break the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor.

Yeo Yongmyeong hauled up demonic qi and wrapped his entire body in the rebound barrier. The secret form had left him short of demonic qi, so he had to draw on his true origin qi—but a shortened lifespan was still better than dying to a First-class fighter.

Cheong-ha did not stop. He drove the Jade Plum Sword through its full cut. A storm of flower petals was whirling along the blade. They caught the light and glittered in every color, dazzling beyond measure—and the instant those petals touched the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor—

KRRAA-KRRAA-KRRAAK!

An ugly sound tore free, and the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor began to shudder. The petal storm was the Flower-Opening Sword compressed into a single point—a miniature typhoon, no less. That typhoon drove successive shocks into the barrier faster and harder than the rebound art could throw them back, and the Heaven-Overturning Qi Armor, pushed past the limit of what it could absorb, shattered into pieces.

What in the—?!

Shock twisted Yeo Yongmyeong's face—and then shock twisted further into agony. The Jade Plum Sword, having torn through the inner-energy barrier, had carved a deep gash into his side. That single wound was more than enough to disrupt the circulation of a man mid-secret form.

The flash of light cut through the faltering tidal wave, drove onward, and swallowed Yeo Yongmyeong whole.