Chapter 84: The Completion of Revenge (2)
Clang!
Slice-
“Keuk…”
“Next.”
When one thought of a wanderer, one usually imagined roughness, but Lee Chun-baek’s sword was not like that.
“Haa-ap!
Clang!
Slice-
“Keo-heok.”
“Next.”
Chwipung-gae took in the sight of the wanderer Lee Chun-baek's swordsmanship, which was as neat and proper as the etiquette of a prestigious clan.
‘A fine martial artist.’
Such a thought naturally ca to mind.
Slice-
“…”
“Next.”
In the short ti he was lost in thought, Lee Chun-baek’s sword sent another head of a Crimson Fang Goru Clan warrior to the ground.
The opponent, unaware that his head had been separated from his torso, died with an expression full of ferocity.
It was a clean swordplay, completely devoid of superfluous movents, to the point that the deceased didn't even realize his own head had been severed.
Chwipung-gae, with his broad knowledge, knew.
This ant that Lee Chun-baek’s martial art had reached a certain realm, and that it was a supre killing art, well-equipped for practical combat.
Furthermore, with a sharp aura lingering in Lee Chun-baek’s sword path, he also knew that he had reached the Way, which the Taoists of the Nine Sects often spoke of.
Lee Chun-baek’s neat swordsmanship perfectly contained both the Way and Killing, which naturally made him think that he was indeed a successor of a Mysterious Sect.
But it was not a situation where he could just stand by and watch.
“Die, you beggar bastard!”
“Halt!”
Thwack-
“Keuk!”
In response to the surprise attack, the Jade-Shattering Divine Palm that Chwipung-gae fired crushed the chest of the Crimson Fang Goru Clan warrior.
As if a broken bone had pierced his lung, the fallen Demonic Cult practitioner wheezed a few tis before entering eternal rest.
‘It’s rough.’
Chwipung-gae had lived his life rarely thinking that his martial arts were lacking, but seeing Lee Chun-baek’s sword made him reflect on whether he had been neglecting his martial arts all this ti.
He wanted to bla it on his mind being agitated from facing his enemy, but he himself knew that wasn't the only problem.
There was only a swordsman who, despite just entering the State of Harmony, had fiercely refined himself, and a beggar who, despite having entered the State of Harmony long ago, was growing rusty.
Cha-cha-cha-chang!
The warriors of the Crimson Fang Goru Clan drew their various weapons and surrounded Chwipung-gae.
Though he had already taken the lives of a few, there were still many enemies.
It was because all the enemies, seemingly unconcerned about their leader, had flocked to Lee Chun-baek and Chwipung-gae.
“We should do this together.”
Saying so, Lee Chun-baek leaped towards Chwipung-gae.
He then pressed his back against Chwipung-gae’s.
Chwipung-gae understood his intention.
“Entrust each other with our backs?”
“That would be best.”
He knew that entrusting one's blind spot to another was the essence of a joint attack, but it was not an easy thing to do. It was because it had to be based on complete trust.
‘Hmm.’
However, the wanderer Lee Chun-baek showed no hesitation.
A wanderer who readily entrusted his back to soone was truly a strange sight.
As far as Chwipung-gae knew, wanderers were usually beings who were born alone and died alone.
“Let’s do that.”
What did it matter?
Was Chwipung-gae not a mber of the Beggar’s Gang who lived with righteousness and chivalry in his heart?
It was the duty of an elder of the Beggar’s Gang to respond to the young master who trusted him.
“Be careful.”
“You too, be careful.”
Slice-
Crunch-!
After exchanging such pleasantries, the two ignored their rears and began to kill the enemies in front of them.
It went without saying, but the joint attack of two State of Harmony masters who completely trusted each other was powerful.
It was because by eliminating the ntal effort they would have put into their blind spots, all their attacks were imbued with their full power.
If one recalled that Lee Chun-baek and Dancheon Myeong, who were rely at the Transcendent Peak, had annihilated a dium-sized sect called Heuksu Mun with a joint attack, it was only natural to assu that the joint attack of Lee Chun-baek and Chwipung-gae, who had reached the State of Harmony, possessed even greater power.
Therefore.
Slice-
“Geuk.”
Crack-!
“Keok!”
Though they were elites, the warriors of the Crimson Fang Goru Clan could not withstand the joint attack of Lee Chun-baek and Chwipung-gae.
As if they had been brainwashed, the warriors of the Crimson Fang Goru Clan charged like moths to a fla, so the conclusion was reached in an instant.
It wasn't a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood, but the enemies' blood gathered in low places, creating a red stream.
“…It’s over.”
“You’ve worked hard.”
Chwipung-gae’s gaze, after muttering so, naturally shifted.
He was tracking the whereabouts of the Yin Blood Divine Demon, who could be called his sworn enemy.
“Hmm.”
Chwipung-gae's gaze could not contain the Yin Blood Divine Demon.
It was because the place was filled with a bloody mist.
From a common-sense point of view, it was definitely not a naturally occurring event, so it must be a phenonon created by martial arts.
Chwipung-gae, who could see fragnts of Will since he had entered the State of Harmony, felt that the energy was filled with evil. This strange phenonon was surely the Yin Blood Divine Demon's trick.
“This is not good.”
To influence the surrounding environnt with martial arts—it was a strange event that even Chwipung-gae, who was always abreast of information, had never encountered.
However…
“No, is it alright?”
He soon corrected his thoughts.
It was because he had confird a massive presence that drew Chwipung-gae’s attention, far more overwhelming than the ominous bloody mist.
Chwipung-gae’s gaze took in the sight of Dancheon Myeong through the bloody mist.
Looking at his dignified figure, he felt a sense of déjà vu.
It was a gallant figure that Chwipung-gae had once seen from a distance.
“Co at .”
Dancheon Myeong stood resolutely with a bearing reminiscent of the most powerful martial artist Chwipung-gae had ever witnessed, the Emperor Breaker, Yeom Gi-ha.
It was the aura of an absolute master who possessed the dignified air of a Grandmaster.
“Hmm.”
Lee Chun-baek, who had been about to hurry over, also stopped in his tracks.
***
Will.
It was a concept and a power whose fragnts could only be grasped after awakening the Spirit and entering the State of Harmony.
This was also a supre power that only those who were known as the Ten Great Masters of the World, who had made their existence known throughout the Central Plains, could use.
Of course, it wasn't a power that only about ten people in the entire Central Plains could use.
It was because the Ten Great Masters of the World referred to 'the ten strongest among the martial artists of the Central Plains who have made their nas, existences, and skills known'.
There were many from mysterious sects, eccentric individuals, and reclusive masters who had not made their existences known.
In particular, since the martial arts of the Nine Sects also served as arts of nourishing life, it would be difficult to even estimate the number of martial artists among the previous generation's masters, who had withdrawn from the front lines and were secluded to strive for ascension, that could use Will.
There were also masters who could handle Will in the place called the Outer Regions.
It was said that truly powerful individuals were born in harsh lands, so no one in the Jianghu could ignore the potential of the Outer Regions.
Hearing that the Outer Regions combined were larger than the Central Plains, it would be right to assu that there were nurous masters.
And in the Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang, there were also masters who could handle Will.
The Heavenly Demon and the Five Great Divine Demons were such individuals.
Of course, they were not the only ones.
Wasn't the Iron Mountain Demon Lord, who held a rank below the Divine Demons, also a master who had set foot on the boundary of the State of Harmony?
In any case…
If one were to look, there would be many who had realized and could handle the power called Will.
However, this fact could not be a basis for denying that the power of Will was great.
It was just that Will was not a power that could be easily obtained, and that there had simply been many great humans in the history of Murim.
Although it was conveniently called 'Will', this power was, in fact, sothing that could not be specifically defined.
It ant that no matter how much you explained the concept of Will to soone who hadn't awakened their Spirit, they wouldn't understand.
It wasn't at the level of not being able to explain one's own enlightennt with words, but rather that those who hadn't awakened their Spirit couldn't understand the concept or its reality.
In any case, to explain it in my own way, Will was the power most often used to employ formless techniques.
For example, the formless sword was exactly that.
If the proof of the State of Harmony was Sword Flux, then the proof of the State of Harmony was the formless sword.
Will could be seen as being close to the materialization of the mind's image.
The formless sword was the materialization of the Will of the sword.
The Void-Stepping Gait was the materialization of the Will of a foothold to take a step.
The protective flux was the materialization of the Will of a barrier.
This explanation would also find it difficult to fully capture the reality of Will, but in any case, Will was that kind of power.
It was a power that could cause heaven-and-earth-shaking events, and that granted the qualification to be called an army of one.
“Kilkil. Do you think you can block it?”
In that sense, the bloody mist that the Yin Blood Divine Demon had just unfurled could also be seen as Will.
It was the materialization of sothing, whether it was killing intent, resentful spirits, or the essence and blood of others, mixed with his own Will.
I could tell without experiencing it myself.
That thing was powerful and deadly.
It would probably exert a force like a force field, so it might be more correct to describe it as an evil art rather than a martial art.
Since he had taken over the area itself, it would have a significant influence on the battles of supre masters.
However…
“Is that all?”
I couldn't help but assess it this way.
“Kilkil. You still haven’t given up your bluff?”
“Does it look like a bluff to you?”
“So you’re a brat who hasn’t even properly awakened his Will yet.”
No.
The Yin Blood Divine Demon’s words were wrong.
It wasn't that I hadn't awakened my Will, but that I had a deeper understanding of Will than the Yin Blood Divine Demon.
Since my ti in the State of Harmony, I had directly witnessed and experienced the Wills of masters who had reached the Transcendent Peak, so there was no way I wouldn't know.
I recalled Wiji Han, the Sect Leader of the Evil Faction.
His Will resembled a weapon, specifically a sword.
Contrary to the world's prejudice against the Evil Faction, his Will was upright and firm.
The way he took all the sins upon himself, even while slightly abandoning his own beliefs for his son, was also like that.
Looking back, his Will could be said to be like that of a hegemon, the father of all things.
Emperor Breaker, Yeom Gi-ha.
I recalled the Murim Alliance Leader who was spoken of as the strongest under the heavens.
His Will resembled a conflagration.
It was so in that it devoured everything to increase its own size, and also in that it burned itself to reach the extre.
If I had to describe it, the Emperor Breaker's Will was the unquenchable hellfire—the Karmic Fire.
His Will, which used the world as fuel and itself as fuel, would never die out.
Perhaps his achievent of aiming for the strongest under the heavens of his ti was due to having such a Will.
And finally.
The irresistible death I had faced, the Heavenly Demon Seol Cheon-sang, ca to mind.
I had thought his Will resembled death.
But I was thinking of correcting that slightly.
His Will resembled a god more than death.
I did not know god, but upon encountering the Heavenly Demon's Will, I could tell that it was god.
Just as the many Grandmasters had built a history of a hymn to humanity, and just as the Healing Sage had tried to walk the path of ascension by resembling nature, the Heavenly Demon must have sought to beco a god.
Heavenly Demon Seol Cheon-sang.
He was the end of all things, and the beginning of all things.
Furthermore, his Will was the void. He was the end and beginning of all things, but at the sa ti, his Will was empty.
That chilling fact told that the current could never surpass the Heavenly Demon.
Death, god, and the void.
They were similar in that they were incomprehensible things that humans had not directly faced, so perhaps all of them were the Will of the Heavenly Demon Seol Cheon-sang.
And…
Shaaaaa-
I observed the Will of the Yin Blood Divine Demon spread out before .
Even if I tried not to compare, I couldn't help but do so naturally.
The Yin Blood Divine Demon’s Will was crude.
It wasn't just in comparison to the great ones who would be called absolute masters.
The Yin Blood Divine Demon’s Will was a patchwork of others' grudges, fears, and lifeblood, stitched together.
There was nothing of his own that was complete.
In fact, his Will was so polluted that I couldn't understand how he had even reached the Transcendent Demonic Realm and manifested his Will.
“Beco my strength.”
Kwa-gwa-gwak-
A sentence was passed with the Yin Blood Divine Demon’s murky voice, and the bloody mist rushed towards .
It was certainly a threatening scene.
diocre State of Harmony masters might be swallowed up without being able to put up much of a fight.
But I could not be like that.
It was because I was the successor of the Healing Sage, the descendant of the Emperor Breaker, and one who was aiming for the future strongest under the heavens.
I would be so because I was the sword that would stand against the Heavenly Demon.
Gooooo-
I manifested my Will and imbued it into the Dancheon Sword.
In truth, although I had interpreted the Wills of the Grandmasters and disparaged the Will of the Yin Blood Divine Demon, I still didn't know exactly what my Will was.
But what was certain was…
Pa-cha-cha-chang-!
That my Will now was more than enough to shatter the crude Will of the Yin Blood Divine Demon.
“…!”
Through the futilely shattering bloody mist, I saw the face of the Yin Blood Divine Demon, distorted with shock.
“Is that the end?”
Like the exorcism rituals of street thugs, our Wills were decided in a single blow.
“You still don't know what Will is.”
I returned his words with a sneer.
“Are you ready to die?”
I would grow stronger by stepping over the Yin Blood Divine Demon.
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