Revenge (4)
Before launching the ambush, Cheonhwa joined another unit ahead of the raid on the supply convoy. There he came face-to-face with the familiar figure Jang Sam had mentioned.
"It's been a while, Daoist Cheonhwa. Have you been well in the meantime?"
The Taoist offered a gentle smile as he greeted him. He was Hyeonmyeong, the Plum Blossom Sword Master who had fought alongside Cheonhwa to subjugate the spirit beast polluted by demonic qi—the Fire Beast.
Hyeonmyeong looked him over and continued with a touch of relief in his expression.
"Fortunately, it seems the injuries from that time have fully healed."
"Yes. Thanks to your concern."
Cheonhwa already knew Hyeonmyeong's skill from their shared mission; the man would surely play a decisive role in this raid on the supply unit as well.
While they exchanged polite words, another familiar face entered Cheonhwa's field of vision—Cheong-ha. The usual lively energy was nowhere to be seen; he stood quietly in place, casting furtive glances at Hyeonmyeong as if gauging the man's mood.
"I should be going. We will meet again during the operation."
"Yes. It was good to see you after so long, Daoist Hyeonmyeong."
After parting from Hyeonmyeong, Cheonhwa approached Cheong-ha and asked,
"You're unusually quiet today. Something wrong?"
"Well, Senior Uncle Hyeonmyeong is here, so…"
Cheong-ha spoke carefully, still stealing looks toward Hyeonmyeong. The unfamiliar reaction made Cheonhwa tilt his head.
"Did you do something to offend Daoist Hyeonmyeong?"
"Offend or not—Senior Uncle Hyeonmyeong was one of the instructors who taught the third-generation disciples. Among the instructors he was especially strict. Just thinking back to those days makes my body shiver."
Cheong-ha shuddered at the memory. Cheonhwa, on the other hand, blinked in disbelief that Hyeonmyeong could be called strict. The man he remembered always carried a soft demeanor and spoke with unfailing courtesy.
"Daoist Hyeonmyeong is that severe?"
"That's what I'm saying. It's strange. Senior Uncle Hyeonmyeong observes the courtesies, but he's usually the cold type. How on earth did you win him over enough for him to keep that gentle attitude?"
Cheonhwa simply shrugged. Hyeonmyeong's manner had been mild from the start. Perhaps the favorable first impression from everything Cheong-ha had told him, plus the fact that Cheonhwa had saved his life from the Fire Beast's final explosion, had been the main reasons.
"The last time I saw you was against the Anti-Dragon King Faction. You've grown even more since then."
Cheong-ha studied Cheonhwa's qi and spoke. The energy now carried a smoother quality than before. Growth in the Blue Heaven Qi Art, combined with training in Flowing Sword, had clearly given him the ability to sense and control the flow of force. Progress was unmistakable.
Of course, Cheonhwa was not the only one who had advanced.
"You're the same. Looking at you, it seems you've reached the very edge of First-class."
"Ohhh, you can tell."
Cheong-ha grinned with open delight. Reaching the upper limit of First-class before even finishing one's twentieth year was something possible only with natural genius—unless one had obtained a fortuitous encounter like Cheonhwa.
Come to think of it, people around me are reaching the edge of First-class one after another.
Innate talent played a part, but the experiences of the past several months had been even more decisive: the southern Shaanxi clean-up, the clash with the Anti-Dragon King Faction, and the subjugation of the spirit beast tainted by demonic qi. The young shoots who survived those fierce battles had poured every effort into growing strong enough to face the threats still to come. The solid foundation they had steadily built now met effort and experience and exploded into rapid growth.
From now on we'll face the wall of Peak Expert and go through the process of breaking past it.
A wall was simply another name for a limit. And no environment tested a person's limits more severely than war. Anyone who survived here would carry experience that would greatly help them surpass that wall.
"The operation will start soon, so let's get ready."
"Yeah. See you later."
Cheonhwa parted from Cheong-ha and returned to the place where his sect brothers were waiting. Their staging ground was a stretch of the mountain path the supply unit had to take—well-concealed, yet unavoidable for anyone heading toward Botap.
Of course the enemy knew this as well and would be prepared for an ambush. Even so, no location better suited the operation.
The party held their breath and waited for the supply unit to appear. Before long a long train of carts came winding along the mountain road. Immediately after, a transmission arrived from the Hao Clan scouts who had gone ahead as outriders.
—Faces confirmed. They are definitely experts of the Paegeommun.
Once confirmation was complete, there was no further need to remain hidden and watch. Disciples of the Zhongnan Sect and Huashan Sect unfolded their lightness skills and charged the supply unit as one. Naturally the Paegeommun martial artists already on guard sensed the attack and shouted.
"Ambush!"
Cheonhwa combined Wind-Cloud Divine Steps with Cloud-Gathering Free Roaming to close the distance at high speed. At his side Hyeonmyeong deployed Dark Fragrance Floating and kept pace. Their targets were the three Peak Experts guarding the supply unit.
Found him.
Through the Six Harmony Sensory Path, Cheonhwa located the man at once. According to the description he had received beforehand, that figure had to be the Paegeommun Peak Expert known as the Vicious Killing Sword.
"Fortune in battle, Daoist Cheonhwa."
Hyeonmyeong, having also found his own opponent, left those words and peeled away. As the gap closed, the Vicious Killing Sword spotted Cheonhwa and turned toward him. He rapidly took in Cheonhwa's appearance, then broke into a savage grin.
"White robe embroidered with cloud patterns, jade-colored wooden sword. So you're the Zhongnan Mad Sword who killed the Rakshasa Sword!"
"…?"
The unfamiliar epithet made Cheonhwa frown without thinking.
Mad Sword? Could it be because of what the Rakshasa Sword said at the end?
But the Vicious Killing Sword moved faster than thought could settle.
"Show me the sword skill that killed the Rakshasa Sword!"
A bizarre qi unique to demonic arts erupted as a ferocious barrage poured down—the Paegeommun's exclusive art, the Defeating the Righteous Sword Style.
Cheonhwa swiftly combined Flowing Sword and Blunt Sword to parry the assault. With every blocked strike he felt the sword force riding the blade climb higher.
This is Tyrant Strength Divine Art?
The demonic art once used by Yeo Yongmyeong, who had led the Anti-Dragon King Faction. Cheonhwa had already suspected it from the demonic qi, but the Vicious Killing Sword was indeed a swordsman who cultivated demonic arts.
So he means to shore up the weakness of the Overbearing Sword—its inability to fight a prolonged battle—with demonic arts.
The Overbearing Sword was originally a technique of extreme expenditure. Yet when paired with the Essence-Stealing Qi Absorption Art, which granted vast internal energy through absorption, and the Tyrant Strength Divine Art, whose physical power only increased the longer a bout continued, the result was the opposite: a sword art whose force grew stronger the longer the fight dragged on.
The Vicious Killing Sword had always been renowned for formidable sword force. At the same time he preferred to drive straight forward without subtlety. Unlike the Rakshasa Sword, who freely controlled measure and favored evasion, this man would simply push in from the front.
That's where my chance of victory lies.
Unlike the duel with the Rakshasa Sword, this was closer to a chaotic free-for-all. Unleashing a form with no retreat such as Heaven-Sundering Moon would be far too dangerous.
If he keeps growing stronger and pressing me, I'll simply answer in kind.
Compressed sword qi bloomed into a pure white blaze like the midday sun. That flame shaved away the sword qi formed of the Vicious Killing Sword's demonic energy, then wound the stripped qi around Cheonhwa's blade. The absorbed energy swelled with every collision until at last a roaring vortex spun about the sword, crackling with the sound of leaping lightning.
Perhaps sensing danger from the steadily accumulating power, the Vicious Killing Sword drew his demonic qi to its peak and redoubled the assault. Yet Cheonhwa was not driven back; he matched the Vicious Killing Sword evenly, absorbing the shocks poured against him and feeding them straight into Jin Release so that the balance of force never broke. Any shortfall in sword speed he solved by detonating sword wind to accelerate the blade itself.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every crossing of blades sent a thunderous report rolling outward. Shockwaves burst free and dust rose in perfect concentric rings. The mountain path beneath their feet, unable to endure the impacts, sank into a crater, yet Cheonhwa and the Vicious Killing Sword ignored it and held their ground, exchanging forms without retreat.
As time passed the Vicious Killing Sword's force grew more tyrannical. Cheonhwa absorbed that strengthened force, added it to his own, and returned it. They canceled each other again and again, locked in a taut, unyielding exchange—until the Vicious Killing Sword suddenly felt a strange dissonance.
What is this? My body is growing heavier and heavier.
It was as if an invisible hand were slowly pressing him down. The sensation grew clearer the longer the bout continued. Then where was this pressure coming from?
Before long the Vicious Killing Sword understood its source.
Zhongnan Mad Sword—this is your doing!
He glared at the young Taoist before him.
Every time we collide, you're gradually driving the residual force of Jin Release toward me?
It was spatial pressure employing the principle of Striking the Mountain to Hit the Ox—the Thirty-First Form of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven: Heavenly Star Array. Like starlight that quietly fills the sky once the sun has set and night arrives, the subtle pressure blanketing the space had already reached the point of slowing the Vicious Killing Sword's movements.
The moment that warped flow was seized, a flash of sword light blazed from Cheonhwa's Okgyeong.
KRA-KOOM!
Twenty-Fourth Form — Heavenly Thunder
A sword form carrying the image of a thunderbolt severed both the stance and the flow of the Defeating the Righteous Sword Style the Vicious Killing Sword had been unfolding. The forced destruction of his form sent his internal energy into reverse; his face turned ashen and a thin line of blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
Yet his eyes still refused to die.
"Uwooooooh!"
A battle cry erupted. Demonic qi exploded outward and wrapped his entire body; the Vicious Killing Sword's halted frame began to move once more. Using intent and internal energy he forcibly drove his physical body, and through that he unleashed the ultimate form of the Defeating the Righteous Sword Style.
Three Breaking Swords — Breaking Buddha
All the demonic qi he had stored erupted at once, raising a tidal wave of sword qi.
This is no ordinary sword qi…!
An ultimate form that layered the principles of Intent Qi Manifestation with the subtle art of Internal Gravity Technique. A single touch would inflict deep internal injury beyond doubt.
Yet instead of dodging, Cheonhwa met the onrushing wave of qi head-on.
Twenty-First Form — Heavenly Cloud Peak
Kuuung!
The cascading wave of sword qi heaved with a heavy sound. The next instant, as though a bowstring drawn to its absolute limit had been released, the qi reversed and surged back toward its original master, the Vicious Killing Sword.
Having wrung out the last of his strength, the Vicious Killing Sword had no remaining power to evade the returning wave.
Shwaaaa!
He was engulfed by his own ultimate form. The protective qi that had been his final bastion shattered into fragments beneath the tide of sword qi; even the clothes he wore were shredded to rags.
"Khuhk!"
A great volume of blood poured from the Vicious Killing Sword's mouth. The Internal Gravity Technique Cheonhwa had returned turned the man's insides into a churning mess; the internal injuries he already carried worsened until at last he collapsed where he stood.
With the last of his strength the Vicious Killing Sword lifted his head. The final sight that filled his eyes was Cheonhwa, swinging a pure white blaze of light straight toward him.