Ivan’s iron fist that struck my face hurt trendously.
Should I say it literally snapped awake?
Since awakening my qi during Golden Week, I swear this was the first ti I’d felt such intense pain.
Cough!
When my body, flung like a bullet, slamd into the cage’s bars, black blood rose from my throat.
Thankfully, my teeth seed fine, but the taste of blood filled my mouth.
“So, what are you going to do now, Kim Yu-seong?”
Wooooah!
With the cheers of the crowd behind him, Ivan said that as he slowly approached.
His steps oozed the confidence of a powerful man.
Ivan had taken quite a few hits from , so he wasn’t unscathed, but it was obvious that I appeared to be in far worse condition.
Huff. Huff. Huff. Huff.
I repeated quick, short breaths to hold onto my rapidly draining yang qi, a side effect of the Ghost Pill, as I grabbed the cage and stood up.
I wasn’t sure if I was concussed from the hit to my jaw, but my vision was spinning.
I forced strength into my trembling legs and barely managed to stand, but honestly, I felt like I could collapse at any mont.
Apparently, I wasn’t the only one thinking this, as Ivan, standing in front of , smirked and spoke.
“What’s wrong? You seem to be staggering.”
Instead of replying to him, I checked the remaining yang qi in my body.
‘About one-fifth of my usual qi left.’
Honestly, even that was a blessing.
Normally, I would have been in a state of exhaustion as soon as the drug’s effects wore off.
‘With my current condition, I probably won’t last even a minute.’
The next attack was likely to be the last.
‘If I had known, I would’ve taken the Ghost Pill a bit later.’
Regret ca too late. It wasn’t like I could rewind ti and undo my past decisions.
Resigned, I let the tension leave my body.
Seeing like that, Ivan spoke.
“Kim Yu-seong, you are the best opponent I’ve encountered in recent tis. If I hadn’t t you, I would’ve remained mired in boredom until I found traces of Fuma Kotaro. But thanks to you, I’ve grown stronger once more. So take it as an honor, the fact that you’ve beco nourishnt for Ivan Romanov.”
If this were a shonen manga, Ivan, like a typical final boss, sure had a lot to say.
If I were to ask, “Who’s asking?” I could kill the heated atmosphere in the club in an instant, but I chose to stay quiet, reading the room.
I didn’t want to provoke him and get hit by an even stronger finishing move.
But despite my hopes, Ivan stretched both hands forward.
“Out of respect for you, I’ll finish you off with the strongest martial art I know.”
‘Дракон императора.’
The Emperor’s Dragon.
The last of the five animals symbolizing the king.
It was Ivan’s hidden trump card, sothing he had never shown before.
Seeing the lightning qi gather in his hands, I realized this wasn’t ordinary, and quickly began gathering my remaining qi.
‘If you don’t want to die, move!’
Just monts ago, my yang qi was like smoldering ashes, but now, faced with death, it suddenly began moving briskly.
Even I found it surprising.
Perhaps the side effects of the Ghost Pill, which had drained my strength, had ironically beco a blessing in disguise.
As I squeezed out the remaining qi within my body, Ivan seed to have finished preparing, pulling his hands—filled with imnse lightning qi—toward his waist.
‘Damn!’
I recognized that move.
No, rather, it would be stranger if I didn’t know it.
It was one of those staple techniques that always showed up in fighting gas.
Qi blasts, Hadouken, or zap blasts.
They were called sothing like that.
I never thought I’d see that move in real life.
Even the audience surrounding the battle cage, sensing the overwhelming power in Ivan’s hands, had fallen silent in fear.
Then Ivan looked at and spoke.
“It’s over, boy.”
The enormous amount of lightning qi, resembling a dragon’s breath, gathered in his hands and finally turned into a projectile, flew towards .
My vision was filled with blinding light.
As I imagined the trendous pain about to hit and closed my eyes…
A sudden flash of inspiration struck in my mind.
There’s a saying that when a person is about to die, they experience a life review like a running lantern.
I never thought I’d be the one to experience it, but standing before Ivan’s overwhelming attack, even I couldn’t help but feel the threat to my life.
That was why I instinctively closed my eyes.
As a result, I finally realized what Fuma Kotaro had emphasized so much—the domain of the windless.
‘It’s silent all around .’
Except for the wind circulating within , the silence around was deafening.
The wind itself blocked out sound.
That was why if any foreign object entered the windless domain, it could be detected instantly.
It was like a drop of water falling onto a still surface.
‘Empty your mind.’
Fuma Kotaro’s advice suddenly ca to mind.
And only now, in this mont, did I truly understand its aning.
Hayate’s ultimate technique.
“Nagi.”
KABOOM!
At the mont Ivan’s qi blast hit Kim Yu-seong directly, Fuma Yukika, who had been watching everything from the VIP room, shot up from her seat.
“Kim Yu-seong!”
“Calm down, Senior.”
It was Sasha, sitting beside her, who stopped Yukika from running out of the VIP room.
“But Kim Yu-seong!”
“My father isn’t an idiot. He must have considered the situation. No matter what, he wouldn’t go so far as to kill soone in an event match.”
“But wouldn’t a blow like that be fatal?”
At that mont, Li i Ling, who had been silently listening, spoke up.
“Don’t overreact. Kim Yu-seong hasn’t lost yet.”
“…What?”
Just as Yukika was about to ask what she ant, soone suddenly erged from the cloud of black smoke.
“What the—?!”
It was Kim Yu-seong.
She thought he had been hit directly by Ivan’s qi blast, but he hadn’t fallen.
The confusion wasn’t just felt by Yukika but by everyone else watching the match as well.
“How on earth?!”
The ‘Champion’ Lucio sprang up from his seat.
“Hoho… he’s indeed an impressive young man.”
Li Senshen, the ‘Invincible East,’ who had realized too late why his disciple had bet on him.
“This too must be the grace of God.”
Even the ‘Immortal’ William, while making the sign of the cross, coolly assessed the situation.
In this chaotic situation, the only one maintaining his composure was ‘Black Yaksha’ Fuma Kotaro.
“That guy… did he master Nagi in this situation?”
“Nagi?”
It was Sasha who first showed curiosity at his words.
“What do you an by that?”
“I an it literally. In that life-or-death mont, Kim Yu-seong mastered Hayate’s ultimate technique, Nagi, which he hadn’t learned until now. Thanks to that, he was able to take a direct hit from that attack and still stand.”
“Stop talking like only you understand and explain it so others can get it too.”
As his daughter, Fuma Yukika, glared at him, Fuma Kotaro scratched his head and explained.
“Simply put, Nagi is a technique to ‘find a way out.’”
“A technique to find a way out?”
“It’s a technique that, based on extre composure, allows you to find a way to win, no matter how disadvantageous the situation is. It puts a lot of strain on the brain, so it can’t be used for long, but when used at the right ti, you could face not just Ivan, but even his grandfather, and still not lose.”
“Sounds like so kind of superpower from a shonen manga.”
“To soone who doesn’t know, it might seem that way. But Nagi is a legitimate technique, though not everyone can master it.”
Fuma Kotaro folded his arms as he watched the still ongoing fight between Kim Yu-seong and Ivan and continued speaking.
“But in his current state, it’s still hopeless. He’s missing the last piece of the puzzle.”
Upon hearing that, Li i Ling shrugged her shoulders and replied.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“What?”
“Kim Yu-seong already has the last piece of the puzzle.”
She rembered.
The movent Kim Yu-seong had shown earlier.
‘As expected, he hasn’t been neglecting his training.’
In that case, all the pieces of the puzzle were already in place.
All that was left was to await the triumphant victory with joy.
“You’re speaking in riddles, young lady.”
As Fuma Kotaro, who didn’t understand, said that, Li i Ling gave a soft smile and responded.
“I have my own connection to Kim Yu-seong.”
“!!”
“!!”
Yukika and Sasha tensed up at the sudden appearance of a new rival.
Nagi was definitely a broken technique.
After nearly a week, I now understood why Fuma Kotaro had been so obsessed with mastering Nagi.
‘It feels like a third eye has opened in my head.’
Even now, the ‘wind’ within my opponent’s body that had entered my domain was teaching countless pieces of information.
Ivan’s habits, his dominant hand, his next move, how to counter his techniques, and more.
It was like fighting an enemy with a strategy guide laid out in front of .
No exaggeration; it was almost like seeing the future.
In the mont when I was about to be hit directly by Ivan’s qi blast, I managed to master Nagi and pulled back from the brink of death.
“You fool! You broke through my qi blast in an instant!”
Ivan, unable to find words, was the sa. With veins popping on his forehead, he was fighting wildly.
It was almost like a tantrum, but the effect was imdiate.
I fiercely pressed Ivan, who was caught off guard by the unexpected situation.
Although not as strong as when I had taken the Ghost Pill, I compensated for the lack of power with speed.
Looking closely, I was now in a state where I had unified two martial arts styles—Hayate and Swift Wind—into one.
“Tch! Your attacks sting, but it’s too late for a counterattack to matter!”
Indeed, Ivan was right.
In this kind of situation, no matter how well I fought, it was bound to turn into a war of attrition.
And if the fight played out that way, I had a 99% chance of losing.
So…
‘I’ll put everything into this one shot.’
I decided to deliver my true final blow.
Thud!
I stomped the ground hard with my left foot, aiming at the startled Ivan, and at the sa ti, my right foot and fist shot forward.
My twisted waist and fully extended arm beca like a spear, and there was no shield in the world that could block it.
“Fierce Tiger Piercing Spear.”
The next mont, my fist pierced through Ivan’s body.
Reviews
All reviews (0)