Chapter 68: The Sight of the Heaven-Slaying Star
The red flag in the hand of the adjudicator of the Dragon-Phoenix Tournant sliced through the air and fluttered vigorously.
It was the signal announcing the start of the duel.
As the two martial artists closed the distance between them, the spectator stands began to stir.
"Diamond Fist! Hyesung!"
"Have faith in Shaolin Temple!"
People clenched their fists. Shouts and cheers, heated with excitent, poured onto the stage.
Even amid the commotion, a sharp voice from a woman pierced my ears.
"Boss! Boooooooss!"
It seed Ilhong was cheering for
at the top of his lungs.
That sight made
feel proud and fond, and before I realized it, the corners of my mouth twitched. But the next thing he said made that smile quietly fade.
"I bet my entire fortune on you, Boss! So you must! Absolutely! Win this matchhh!"
Ilhong had beco a complete gambler.
He knew my martial skills best, hidden behind my epithet, and probably got blinded by the absurdly high odds.
"Good grief. No wonder they say it's terrifying when a thief learns late."
I shook my head and aid the tip of my staff at the bald-headed martial artist from Shaolin Temple.
In response, the monk bowed with joined palms.
"Namu Amita Bul. I look forward to a splendid duel."
Thirsting for real combat. As if it wasn’t already difficult enough to raise my fighting spirit, my opponent turned out to be a monk who pursued the path of Buddhism.
This wasn't going to be anything close to a real fight. I let out a sigh.
"That staff you carry has a peculiar appearance. May I ask its na?"
It looked ordinary on the outside, but it seed he had recognized the true value of this weapon, which was anything but.
To say it was the Dog-Beating Staff would be to publicly declare myself as the successor of the Beggars’ Union, so I had co up with a temporary na.
"It’s called the Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff."
"…A peculiar na, indeed."
I thought it sounded cool, but people kept calling it odd and bizarre.
These Central Plains folk really had no sense of romance.
"I am the Shaolin monk Hyesung of the Diamond Fist. Might you be the sa Dan Mujin of the Seven Fate, Three Chivalry who captured the Blood-Sucking Fiend?"
From what I saw during the preliminaries, most people skipped formalities and jumped right into fighting. But this monk kept flapping his mouth before we even started.
"I am. Why do you ask?"
"It’s nothing serious, only that he was a villain I was also pursuing."
"Ahh."
That guy had brought great harm not only to martial artists but also to ordinary civilians, so it was no surprise that a monk from Shaolin would have been after him.
"He used evil arts and had peak-level martial prowess. I struggled to subdue him. How did you bring him down?"
"Like any good guys would—we ganged up on him, the three of us."
"…"
Evil arts or whatever, no one could withstand superior numbers.
It’s not like people had eyes on the back of their heads, after all. It was simply the most efficient thod to take down an expert.
"Isn’t that a bit cowardly? Teaming up three-on-one against a peak martial artist?"
"Not particularly? Why should I fight fair against soone who slaughtered powerless civilians?"
"Huh."
And I ant that sincerely.
Having faced so many wicked bastards while working as a troubleshooter, I’d developed sothing of an iron rule.
"…Did he say anything before he died? Anything strange?"
"Yeah, well. He babbled sothing about Blood Arts and a Great Cause, or whatever."
It sounded like sothing only a final boss would say, so it stuck with .
That bizarre blood art, spraying blood like an inkbrush, was strange, and the guy didn’t feel like your typical demonic practitioner.
"And did you inform anyone about it?"
"Yeah, I reported it right away to the Demon-Slaying Unit when I handed over the corpse."
But they seed pretty indifferent. The receptionist probably had no clue what I was talking about.
As for , I didn’t care as long as I got paid.
"…Is that so?"
But as soon as I said that, the monk’s expression turned cold.
He began to envelop his hands with a murky white energy.
"You’re quite the loose-lipped one, aren’t you?"
He slowly lifted his bowed head as he spoke.
"Geez, listen to that tone. Just call it civic responsibility."
Sothing’s off about this bastard.
Given my line of work, I was good at sensing shady vibes—and this one was screaming shady.
"And I, this humble monk, absolutely detest loose-lipped people. Enough to kill them."
So I imdiately activated my Heaven-Slaying Eye. My head throbbed, but the Heaven-Slaying Star’s unique vision revealed the truth of human nature.
"…You sure you’re a monk?"
And then I saw it clearly with my own eyes. Though the bald-headed monk before
smiled outwardly, his heart raged with murderous intent.
"Of course. I am the Shaolin monk known as Hyesung."
Moreover, judging by the imnse amount of Killing Karma accumulated through his life, it looked like he’d lived a rather violent past.
The stench was so foul it practically numbed my nose.
And most damningly, this monk Hyesung, who introduced himself as a Diamond Fist practitioner, was now forming Enhanced Qi with both hands.
According to what Ilhong had told , his level was supposed to be just First Rate.
"And yet… against you today, I shall beco a Killing Monk."
His lips twisted into a cruel smile. There was no way this was ant to be a friendly duel.
He clenched his fists, packed with Fist Qi, and imdiately launched a lethal technique—sothing utterly unbecoming of a monk.
"Dieeee—!"
The martial masters of the Murim often reached the pinnacle of manipulating qi through years of training.
Such individuals could wield their internal energy externally at will. When channeled into a sword, it beca Sword Qi that could slice iron like tofu.
Used for defense, it beca Enhanced Qi; when infused into the fists, it turned into Fist Qi capable of shattering rocks and smashing steel shields.
Crack!
So it wasn’t out of the ordinary that the tip of the Dog-Beating Staff, after blocking the Fist Qi of a peak-level martial artist, burst like shattered glass.
Until now, no bladed weapon had been able to slice through it—but there was no stopping an opponent who wielded qi as a weapon.
"Huff, huff."
Blood trickled down my forehead. A scratch from the splintered wood shards.
"My Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff’s already half destroyed."
Poor, poor Dog-Beating Staff ant only for backup.
I had even carved the words Hell-Piercing Demon-Slaying Staff into it with a dagger, but now the “Hell-Piercing” part had flown off, leaving just “Demon-Slaying Staff.”
"Shit, my Demon-Slaying Staff!"
Grinning wickedly, Hyesung once again leapt forward and unleashed another Fist Technique.
Red arcs slashed endlessly before my eyes. Each and every one of them a lethal strike ant to kill .
"Huh-up!"
I dodged every attack by a hair’s breadth. I didn’t even hesitate to roll across the ground or twist my body in every possible way.
Each ti, the clueless spectators burst into laughter—“Wahaha!”—but I didn’t have the strength to respond.
As I read the trajectories of the killing intent and evaded in a way unbefitting of my level, the monk Hyesung stomped the ground in frustration.
“You damn rat…! Are you just going to keep dodging?! Stand and fight!”
Even if he told
to stand and fight...
Martial arts were originally ant to exchange the first technique, and if that didn’t work, move on to the next. But how could I when the mont I got hit, both my weapon and body would explode?
“Peak realm, my ass!”
And seriously, what was this bastard’s problem with ?
Was it because I stole his achievent? Or maybe that demonic practitioner turned out to be his long-lost blood relative?
“Guh!”
Then, in the mont my head went hazy, a lightning sword-like kick technique struck
in the side.
A blow that sent my mind reeling the instant it landed. I had focused entirely on his hands, and failed to notice the swift, sword-like strike coming from below.
“I’ll finish you!”
Then ca a palm technique that pounded into my abdon like a final blow.
The imnse shock penetrated my entire body, rolling
across the end of the duel stage as I vomited blood.
The mont I was struck twice by a violent energy strong enough to shatter boulders...
“Hah, finally dead…”
“Ugh, shit.”
So this was what it ant to hover between life and death.
I only barely managed to gasp for air after what felt like several dozen seconds.
“Damn… that hurts, you bastard.”
I shook my head hard and pulled myself back up at the edge of the duel platform.
That self-proclaid Killing Monk and the crowd, who had assud it was over, gaped at
with their mouths hanging open.
“What… How are you standing? That was a Penetrating Energy that could kill a bear in one strike.”
My internal organs should have been crushed beyond repair, and yet here I was alive—it made no sense.
But I’d suffered sothing similar before and survived a fall from a cliff afterward.
Of course, I had no intention of honestly telling him that.
“Hey, did your Buddha teach you to beat soone to death on a duel platform?”
At my provocation, the Killing Monk's bald head turned crimson with bulging veins.
To be fair, that strike had really felt like I'd dipped my foot into the afterlife for a mont.
Another two or three hits like that, and even I wouldn’t be able to get back up.
Perhaps that sense of crisis was what awakened the dormant nature of the Heaven-Slaying Star.
Alongside the surging energy of the Starfall Heart Cultivation thod, the energy of the Heaven-Slaying Star began to rise.
It wasn’t just red arcs anymore—my entire vision felt as if it had been dyed with red paint.
“What… is this?”
What was qi in this world?
The origin of life and the dium through which all things in the universe connected.
Yet it could not be seen with the eyes, touched with the hands, or heard with the ears, which is why people longed for it and spent their lives trying to understand it.
But today, with death right before my eyes and my sight overlapped with that of the Heaven-Slaying Star…
I began to faintly see the presence and flow of qi that should never have been visible.
The small thread of realization I had gained while helping Jo Harang awaken into the peak realm had now co right before .
One thing was certain—I was fated to grow stronger only through deadly combat.
“Hey, do that thing again. That penetrating sothing-or-other—hit
with it once more.”
At my taunt, his face contorted with rage.
He glared at
with eyes gleaming with malicious light.
“I was going to pass it off as a training accident during a spar… but I see now. I shall open a slaughter tonight.”
The sudden switch to using “????” was telling. As I’d learned with the Soul-Stealing Demon Lord, no one who used that phrase was ever sane.
“I’ll kill you!”
He coated his fists in a blood-colored qi and charged at .
And then, I saw it clearly—the movent of qi.
I saw it all with my eyes: the flow of qi from his dantian, up his arms, and into his fists.
I used to wonder how I instinctively learned martial arts just from getting beaten up by Hwang Geolgae so often.
Perhaps this was the kind of vision the Heaven-Slaying Star had always shown .
‘He’s different from .’
The peak martial artist revealed the bare movent of his qi.
I observed that movent, reflected on it, and then reversed it into my own body.
And the result—
Whack—!
My half-broken Dog-Beating Staff completely blocked his terrifying Fist Qi head-on.
“What the…?!”
“Oh, that’s the one I saw under the moonlight.”
A move that gently flowed like water yet halted a tyrannical attack in its tracks.
Jo Harang gasped softly, realizing it was the technique she had seen beneath the starlight.
And Dan Mujin, who had been on the defensive, now seed to have realized sothing and began pressing the peak martial artist.
The crowd exploded with excitent at the sudden reversal and counterattack.
“That’s it, Boss! I knew you had it in you! I’m rich nowww!”
Just monts ago he had been biting his nails with anxiety, but now Ilhong cheered as if he had believed in
all along.
“Haha! Young brother Ilhong was right! That’s so fine talent!”
Beside him, Jang Jangju and his companions, who had placed their bets with soone they knew, shouted with joy at their windfall.
And there was one more, who hadn’t placed a single coin yet was cheering louder than anyone else.
“Sniff! I knew it… The Dragon Head Sect Leader never abandoned our Beggars’ Union. To think he’d discover and send us such a priceless talent!”
The man who had been acting suspiciously while tailing Dan Mujin throughout the escort trip—
Now shedding tears of joy, Jo Harang flinched at the sight.
“Who is that guy…”
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