Crushing the Azure Heaven Sword Formation
The blazing flames warped the very air.
Superheated currents collided with cold drafts, twisting the landscape into something unrecognizable. Through that shimmering haze, a group of players pressed forward, sweat pouring down their faces.
“The flames aren’t that strong,” one of them called out.
“Tighten the noose slowly! Choke him!”
They advanced step by step across the sand, boots crushing the flickering fire.
That flame seems rather insufficient, Geudae.
“It’s a test,” I answered. “Just a test.”
Step. Step.
Every time the sword wielders moved, the flames blanketing the sand died away. The formation’s qi pulsed with each footfall. I calmly read the waves of energy pouring from their coordinated stance.
The best way to measure the Azure Heaven Sword Formation’s mastery was to force them to act.
“Somewhere between two-star and three-star.”
A novice’s level, then.
“Sword formations aren’t as simple as people think,” I replied. “Even if they learn the same martial arts and breathing methods, syncing their internal energy waves is incredibly difficult. Everyone’s limb habits and breathing rhythms are slightly different.”
That was exactly why formations—especially sword formations built around martial artists as the core—were so hard to master.
“Look at them. They’re even struggling to take proper steps.” I pointed.
You speak so lightly of it.
But I knew better. My experience before the regression let me see every gap in the Azure Heaven Sword Formation. It wasn’t nearly as easy as it sounded. Even without direct clashes, the intangible waves of qi flowing through the formation kept threatening me.
Clang!
If I hadn’t covered my entire body in the Metal Reflection Gauntlets, I would already be drenched in blood.
I released Blaze, kept sprinting at full speed, and manifested the power of Polar Night. Dark blades splintered outward, slicing into the formation from multiple angles. The formation’s surging qi crushed them instantly.
Tsk. To erase the desired darkness so easily…
“That’s on me for being inadequate.”
This monarch does not rebuke you. It is merely strange that the techniques of mere mortals—where the weak pool their strength to oppress the strong—could achieve such a feat.
The moment the dark blades vanished, the sword wielders swung their blades downward in perfect unison.
Azure Heaven
“Urk!”
Formless pressure slammed into my entire body. Even at twenty meters from the formation’s axis, the impact was crushing. Had I taken it head-on, I would have lost an arm. The piled sand exploded outward with a deafening boom.
It seems you require this monarch’s assistance.
“Not yet.” I shook my head. A thin line of blood trickled from the corner of my mouth. I spat it out and kept moving. “He’s not free inside the formation either. Keep pressing!”
The sword wielders’ voices surged with confidence. Thirty against one and they still had the nerve to get cocky. Perfect. That meant I had gathered every piece of information I needed.
“I understand your level perfectly now.” I raised my thumb, then slowly turned it downward. “It’s so pathetic it makes me want to die.”
I pulled Ars Goetia from the Pocket of Desire and opened the page recording Barbatos’s iron mace incantation. The formation’s movement speed was barely faster than a normal person walking. When I restrained them with Polar Night, they even resorted to sword strikes that required charging time.
In other words, I had more than enough time to finish this spell.
All user stats converted into magic power.
Primitive Species — Tyrannosaurus essence manifested.
A strange wave of exhaustion washed over my body, yet my mind had never been clearer.
“Goddess.”
You truly are a reckless man.
Nyx, now manifested in her homunculus body, spread the power of Polar Night wide. The constant collisions between Polar Night and the formation’s qi raged through the air. Since every last stat had been converted into magic power, even the smallest shock was dangerous.
“Kyaaaaao!”
Lexy bared her fangs and fought against the pressure. She had already endured one major strike, which bought us time until the next one.
I poured dark mana into the grimoire. A pitch-black iron mace materialized in the air—the spell that borrowed the power of the seventy-two demons. With a flick of my wrist, it plummeted from the sky.
“Block it!”
“Defensive formation!”
Barbatos’s iron mace collided head-on with the blue energy wave. The impact was so massive the entire formation shuddered.
“Haaaaaaaap!”
Blue veins bulged on the sword wielders’ foreheads. Their amplified qi began tearing the iron mace apart. Even a demon’s power capable of crushing a mountain peak like tofu couldn’t break the formation.
“This kind of sorcery cannot destroy our sword formation!”
“Do not underestimate the power of our united strength!”
Yeah. I never underestimated it. That’s exactly why I prepared a second spell.
Solar Explosion
The sphere completed with a deliberate time delay. Since Barbatos’s iron mace only required dark mana to activate, I had secretly rearranged my magic power in the meantime.
“Let’s see if you can handle this one too.”
The sphere floating above the sword wielders’ heads detonated.
* * *
The Lord of the Blood-Red Sky rebukes you.
The Lord of the Blood-Red Sky laments that he chose the wrong contractor.
The voice drove straight into Zhang Wufei’s mind. He swallowed his rage as he listened to the lamentations of his sponsor, the Lord of the Blood-Red Sky.
Where had it all gone wrong?
The first clash?
Yu Jinho’s combat style was versatile. From another perspective, it lacked decisive finishing power. That had been the Nine Dragons Syndicate’s analysis. So Zhang Wufei had unleashed his Gang Qi both to provoke the man and to shatter his momentum.
The power he had drawn beyond its limits using the Blood Heaven Asura Art was a weapon that had served him well even against otherworldly races beyond the sixty-first floor.
Yet Jinho had cut his Gang Qi apart.
The instant the Dark Shadow Soul-Chasing Sword met his fist, Zhang Wufei realized the sword energy was anything but ordinary. It was Gang Qi raised through a heretical shortcut—just like his own. A power that had stepped onto the path of the unorthodox, beyond the realm of the righteous way.
Had Zhang Wufei attained true enlightenment like Shin Junseok before deploying his Gang Qi, it would not have been severed so easily. The difference a true ‘realm’ made in martial arts was that vast.
The moment two shortcuts collided, the crimson Gang Qi was sliced clean through. Droplets of blood painted the air. Blood fountained from the wound like a geyser.
Even through the agony, Zhang Wufei prepared a counter. He burned most of his internal energy and blood flow to unleash a forbidden technique—Blood God and Blood Explosion. The plan was to escape the crisis and land a devastating blow on Jinho in one move.
Or it should have been.
The Blood Explosion carried an ability that interfered with spatial movement… so why?!
Jinho had casually stepped out of the explosion’s range with a spatial leap. Then, instead of retreating, he used the Blood God technique to appear in the very center of the Nine Dragons Syndicate formation, aiming straight for Zhang Wufei.
No… this is actually better.
The Azure Heaven Sword Formation was a manual he had obtained while clearing the sixtieth-floor range. Zhang Wufei had selected thirty elite Platinum-rank martial artists and taught them the formation. Its true worth shone when facing the strong.
He had originally prepared it for Ellen Taylor or rankers like Shin Junseok and Hong Yunsu. But Jinho’s strength far exceeded expectations, and the man had willingly closed the distance himself. All the conditions were met.
Zhang Wufei had been certain of victory. Even he could only last a minute inside the Azure Heaven Sword Formation.
So why did that sneering bastard’s face keep flickering before his eyes? Why were more than half of his proud sword formation users already collapsed on the ground?
Zhang Wufei couldn’t process the sudden reversal.
“Fuck.”
A curse slipped from the lips of the man who was always coldly cynical. Barbatos’s iron mace followed by Solar Explosion—two wide-area spells in succession had crushed the Azure Heaven Sword Formation through sheer overwhelming force.
The absurd stats gained through his unique ability, Devour. After concentrating stats that could overwhelm even a Diamond-rank ranker using Demonic Power and then bombarding them with high-tier attack magic, not even thirty people combining their strength could endure.
“Ugh…”
“Formation! Reform the formation!”
“My—my arm is melting!”
Seven men had been vaporized by the Solar Explosion. Another nine were incapacitated by the aftershock. Over half the formation’s members had fallen to just two spells.
The blue energy wave that had blanketed the area vanished.
The Azure Heaven Sword Formation has been broken.
Zhang Wufei bit his lip until it bled. The formation required at least fifteen people. With more than half already taken out, reestablishing it was impossible.
“You monster!”
One sword wielder charged with gritted teeth, only to be subdued by a single wave of Nyx’s hand.
Such crude movements. To abandon everything in fear… how pathetic.
“Wow, looks like our boss needs a blood transfusion,” I said with a lazy smirk.
The Lord of the Blood-Red Sky is furious with you.
The Lord of the Blood-Red Sky…
Zhang Wufei severed the connection with his sponsor. Disappointment or rage, none of it mattered if he died here. The sword users had already lost their will to fight; they were swinging their blades wildly just to fend off fear. The guild members outside were too far away to help.
There was no time to be picky about methods if he wanted to survive.
Zhang Wufei quickly organized his thoughts and spoke.
“…Yu Jinho.”
“Your voice is a little quiet for the great guild master of the Nine Dragons Syndicate.” I cupped both hands behind my right ear in an exaggerated gesture.
Anger flared in Zhang Wufei’s eyes, but he kept it locked behind his teeth.
“Let us make a deal.”
“A deal?”
“Even if you kill me, not all of your guild members will leave this place alive.”
The Nine Dragons Syndicate had brought a hundred people. Half were focused on me, the other half attacking the Yeokcheon guild members.
“If you want your people to survive—”
“Oh, if you’re talking about that side, we’re already winning.”
I casually pointed behind him. Zhang Wufei’s eyes trembled as he followed the direction of my finger.
“You…!”
What he saw were the miserable figures of his Nine Dragons Syndicate guild members being utterly overwhelmed and knocked to the ground.