Chapter 29
Chapter 29
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 29
Chapter Title: Playing with the Demonic Sword Union Lord (2)
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Pan Ha-rin shot to her feet and shouted.
“You insolent bastard! Do you have a death wish? Do you really think someone like you could even be a match for my master?”
“Both of you, come at me.”
I spoke as if I hadn't understood Pan Ha-rin.
This was my own way of speaking, something I'd been having fun trying out lately.
A method of ignoring what the other person said, as if I hadn't heard them, and only saying what I wanted. I mainly used it when there was no need to listen to the other person.
As the atmosphere grew tense, the courtesans and maids on the pleasure boat rose with anxious faces, nervously watching the situation.
I pointed to the small boat moored next to the pleasure boat.
“Everyone, get on that boat.”
Without even looking, I sent a telepathic message to Dam Geum-hu, who was standing steadfastly beside me.
[Geum-hu, you go too.]
Knowing he would be of no help, Dam Geum-hu boarded the boat without a word.
Nu Jin-sang, still seated, spoke calmly.
“Are you suggesting we fight here?”
“Anywhere is fine.”
I spoke informally without hesitation. Using honorifics with an enemy, a demonic path nobody at that, had been irritating.
“Isn't it a bit cramped here?”
“Then let's go somewhere more spacious.”
I leaned my upper body slightly to the side as if I were about to fall, then leaped from the pleasure boat and soared out over the river.
*Swoosh!*
‘I’m flying!’
One aspect of my recently forming personality was to just give things a try. When I did, my martial arts would manifest about seventy or eighty percent of the time.
The movement technique worked. Given the situation, my body had begun to react.
But the real problem started now. I was about to land on the river's surface. If I failed and fell into the water, it would be the ultimate embarrassment.
That was the potential downside of my 'act first, think later' approach.
I could only hope such a disaster wouldn't happen.
‘It will work!’
In that instant, my mind brightened like a ray of sunshine, and the mnemonic for the fourth stance of Floating Light, Divine Shadow—Treading on the Void over a Calm Sea—flashed into my thoughts.
In the brief moment between floating in the air and descending to the water's surface, I subtly channeled energy to the soles of my feet.
*Sssss!*
Sixty percent of my internal energy was activated. This meant that floating on water was possible with sixty percent of my power.
Before the soles of my feet touched the surface, they performed the steps of Treading on the Void over a Calm Sea, nimbly and so fast they were invisible to the naked eye.
I could see Nu Jin-sang and Pan Ha-rin flinch in surprise, their eyes fixed on me.
They had instinctively realized what I was trying to do and were shocked. I wondered what expressions they would make if I actually managed to float on the water.
In the martial world, those who could float on water were called supreme masters.
This was the dividing line between being a supreme master and not.
*Swoosh!*
My feet came to a stop above the water's surface. I wasn't standing on the water, but floating about a hand's breadth above it.
‘Success!’
I bit my tongue and fought the urge to look down at my feet. Looking down in a situation like this would seem amateurish.
In any case, I had succeeded. A sense of pride swelled in my chest.
As I stood there, looking at them, I saw that neither Nu Jin-sang nor Pan Ha-rin could hide their astonishment.
Pan Ha-rin's shock was more overt than Nu Jin-sang's; her eyes were wide and her mouth was agape. Why did she look so cute in this situation?
‘Hahaha! How about that? Surprised?’
Suppressing a burst of laughter made my throat tickle.
A quick glance showed Dam Geum-hu grinning widely, giving me two thumbs up.
I lifted my chin and looked arrogantly at Nu Jin-sang.
“It's spacious out here, a perfect place to fight. Come on out!”
I was taunting him, confident he couldn't stand on water like me. It was a way to seize the initiative.
“Hmph!”
“Master! What are you doing?”
Pan Ha-rin urged him on, assuming that of course her master could stand on water just as I had.
Seeing the twitch in Nu Jin-sang's cheek, it was clear he couldn't do it.
I realized that watching someone who had been so arrogant fail at something I could do made me feel incredibly superior.
Nu Jin-sang clasped his hands behind his back and spoke politely.
“Is there really a need for us to fight?”
The despicable bastard. He was using honorifics again. Now that he couldn't float on water, suddenly there was no need to fight. He was all talk and no substance, just a pathetic man with a flashy exterior.
The classic example of someone who is weak to the strong and strong to the weak.
In that case, I needed to be even more forceful with someone like him.
I was starting to get bored. My goal wasn't conversation, but a thrilling brawl.
I decided it was time to change things up. I had to create a situation where he had no choice but to fight.
I sent a telepathic message to Dam Geum-hu.
[Geum-hu, move away from the pleasure boat.]
*Creek! Creeak!*
Dam Geum-hu began to row, and the small boat slowly pulled away from the pleasure boat.
Nu Jin-sang glanced at the small boat, his expression changing slightly. He must have sensed what was about to happen.
No more preamble.
“I'm attacking. Get ready.”
At least I warned him.
“Here I come!”
“Wait!”
Nu Jin-sang shouted urgently. He was showing weakness.
I kicked off the water's surface, shot toward Nu Jin-sang, and drew the Fire Dragon Sword.
*Shwaaak!*
As I flew forward like a beam of light, I realized this movement technique was Shaolin's Heavenly Ladder of the Void Traversal.
The time it took to cross the thirty feet to Nu Jin-sang was but the blink of an eye, yet several thoughts flashed through my mind in that instant.
The Heavenly Ladder of the Void Traversal, a technique that only Shaolin elders and above could learn, was, as its name suggested, a movement art for leaping from the ground to the sky.
But I suddenly recalled modifying and improving upon it while training on Mount Gwalchang.
I had adapted it to shoot forward at the same speed not just from the ground to the sky, but toward any target.
Ground to sky was the basic form; I had changed it to allow movement from sky to ground, sky to sky, and ground to ground—anywhere I wanted.
There was no way Nu Jin-sang, steeped as he was in the demonic path, would recognize Shaolin's ultimate technique, the Heavenly Ladder of the Void Traversal.
Seeing Nu Jin-sang flinch in surprise and hastily draw his sword, I sensed victory.
“Master!”
Pan Ha-rin's sharp cry rang out, sensing something ominous.
My first attack was the fourth stance of the Soul-Severing Star Sword, the Four-Sided Annihilation. I planned to punish the demonic path with a demonic sword art.
*Swoooosh!*
As I swung the Fire Dragon Sword, infused with sixty percent of my internal energy, a total of forty-eight star swords manifested. They fanned out, transforming into blades of light that shot forward.
‘It can’t be!’
Nu Jin-sang's jaw dropped in shock. He knew that within the Demonic Emperor's Grand Union, only four people could execute the Soul-Severing Star Sword to this degree.
Even when he had heard it from Pan Ha-rin, he had been skeptical, but it was true.
*KRRRAAANG!*
But as the forty-eight widely spread blades of light flew forward, they converged into four thick streams.
The reason I narrowed the forty-eight blades of light was to avoid destroying the pleasure boat as much as possible.
Nu Jin-sang didn't even consider counterattacking; he was desperately wondering if he could even block it.
Tense, Nu Jin-sang summoned all his internal energy, channeled it into his sword, and swung fiercely to defend.
*CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!*
“Ugh!”
Nu Jin-sang barely managed to block the four converged streams of light, stumbling back two steps. The deflected blades of light shattered, raining down on Pan Ha-rin and the pleasure boat like a shower.
*SHRRRRRED!*
“Aah!”
Pan Ha-rin barely managed to duck and frantically dodge, but a dozen small blades of light tore her skin and clothes to shreds.
The pleasure boat was also riddled with holes.
After the first attack, I retreated into the air behind me, frowning at the sight.
I was in a bind; if I destroyed the pleasure boat, I'd probably have to pay for it.
In that moment, I made a decision.
‘Azure-White Light!’
The Azure-White Light was the purified essence of extreme yin energy, aged and layered over tens of thousands of years.
If I kept using the Fire Dragon Sword, the boat would be destroyed. To avoid the headache of compensation and other troubles later, I would aim the Azure-White Light precisely at Nu Jin-sang.
A Grand Branch Master's salary was meager. Where would I get the money to pay for a pleasure boat?
At that moment, I naturally recalled a technique—no, a divine art—that could unleash the Azure-White Light.
‘The Five Elements Divine Art!’
Last time, when Pan Ha-rin had suddenly punched me in the chest, my body had automatically activated the Five Elements Divine Art to create a protective aura.
This time, it wasn't my body reacting on its own; I intended to consciously use the Five Elements Divine Art.
When I destroyed the rocks on the bank of the Qiantang River on the full moon, I had simply released the Azure-White Light. Now, I would channel it through the Five Elements Divine Art.
*FWOOSH!*
‘Seventy percent of my internal energy!’
The very same Azure-White Light that had shattered dozens of rocks on the riverbank shot out at the speed of light.
*VREEEEM!*
The sight of the faint, azure-white beam shooting out in a straight line was truly beautiful.
It was so fast that even I could barely see it.
The maximum internal energy one could use was one hundred percent, and unleashing the Azure-White Light with the Five Elements Divine Art required at least fifty percent.
When Nu Jin-sang saw something flash and shoot toward him as a faint blur, he didn't dare to counterattack and hastily tried to leap away.
But no matter how fast he was, he couldn't dodge the Azure-White Light.
*CRACK!*
“Huuak!”
The moment the Azure-White Light struck Nu Jin-sang's chest, the same sound it had made when hitting the rocks erupted.
And yet, Nu Jin-sang wasn't pushed back. He remained standing there, motionless.
I had learned when I destroyed the rocks that the Azure-White Light wasn't a shockwave; it permeated the body.
He must have instantly frozen solid and died on the spot.
Floating on the water's surface, about fifteen feet from the pleasure boat, I was a little surprised.
‘He couldn't dodge it?’
I had thought he wouldn't be able to dodge it, and he really couldn't.
To be defeated by a single stance of the Five Elements Divine Art's Azure-White Light... I had overestimated Nu Jin-sang. Or perhaps the Five Elements Divine Art and the Azure-White Light were just too powerful.
At that moment, Nu Jin-sang's body began to glow faintly with azure-white light, and thousands of tiny, fingernail-sized azure-white flowers bloomed, enveloping his body like a mist.
*Fwooom!*
No, they were ice flowers, so they should be called azure-white ice blossoms.
Nu Jin-sang was frozen in a posture with his right hand holding his sword aloft, his eyes wide open. No matter how you looked at it, he was already dead.
“Ah...”
Pan Ha-rin shivered uncontrollably, feeling an immense chill as she stared at Nu Jin-sang.
She was standing four paces away from the frozen Nu Jin-sang, yet the cold seeped into her very bones.
It was due to the aftershock that had spread when the Azure-White Light hit him.
*Ssssss!*
Then, the azure-white ice blossoms that had covered Nu Jin-sang faded away like mist.
Yet Nu Jin-sang remained standing, frozen in the same posture. Strangely, his body shimmered, glowing with a bluish light under the moon.
Just then, I felt a sudden coldness around my ankles.
I had been so focused on Nu Jin-sang that my Floating Light, Divine Shadow's Treading on the Void over a Calm Sea had faltered slightly, causing my ankles to sink into the water.
I quickly ran across the water's surface and landed on the pleasure boat.
*Splash! Splash! Thud!*
The impact caused the pleasure boat to rock violently, and something horrifying happened.
*CRUMBLE! CRACKLE!*
The impact caused Nu Jin-sang's frozen body to shatter into hundreds of pieces, which came cascading down. Seeing this, Pan Ha-rin let out a piercing scream.
“Kyaaah!”