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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Chaos
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Namgung-Woo’s consciousness had entered a higher-dimensional realm.
The realm of ascension that top experts reached.
Detached from the flow of the main world, he cast off even the constraints of time in his own sub-dimension.
His brain, focused to the extreme, plotted the path onto the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s approaching hand.
The eyes and brain were connected organs.
Ever-Clear Vision transcended the limits of sight and had become consciousness itself.
He had already swung his sword to block the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s strike.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand would reach him faster than he could retract his sword.
The moment the calculation was made, Namgung-Woo twisted his body.
The movements of the Heavenly Wind Divine Movement now unfolded reflexively.
Kwwaaaaaa-!
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand, condensed with hand Qi, crushed the empty air, missing Namgung-Woo’s neck by mere inches.
But that wasn’t all he had to dodge.
The moment Namgung-Woo twisted his body with the Heavenly Wind Divine Movement, the Five Yin Demonic Emperor changed the direction of his True Qi, generating a massive shockwave from his entire upper arm.
It was a tornado of True Qi.
The vortex, originating from the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s arm as its axis, became a dragon’s claw, tearing through Namgung-Woo’s Heavenly Steel Protective Qi and carving a wound on his cheek.
A sharp pain shot up from his cheek to his brain.
Namgung-Woo’s brow furrowed involuntarily.
He was used to most pain by now.
But the agony from this wound, despite having experienced it before, was something he couldn’t adapt to.
Namgung-Woo knew the reason.
‘The internal energy of the Defiant Blight Art.’
Did it affect the pain receptors?
Or did it cause damage to the nervous system, like phantom pain?
Wounds inflicted by the internal energy of the Defiant Blight Art were accompanied by intense pain, even without special force projection like penetrating energy.
It was a grotesque pain, as if his flesh were melting and burning simultaneously.
Pain shatters a person’s consciousness.
It steals concentration and crushes confidence.
Even a trivial minor wound, if caused by the Defiant Blight Art, was never light from that point on.
However, even pain could not paralyze the mind of a human who had entered the realm of ascension.
Namgung-Woo consciously excluded the extreme pain rising from the wound left by the Defiant Blight Art.
The Ethereal Void Divine Art.
An ascendant secret art that fills by emptying.
The Ethereal Void Divine Qi, moving according to its teachings, emptied the pain and cooled his thoughts.
Even if one of Namgung-Woo’s limbs were torn off, the brain in his upper dantian, governed by the Ethereal Void Divine Art, would feel no pain.
Kung-!
Following the Infinite Steps’ ground-stomp was the Sky Vault Infinite Sword.
Starting from the first technique, Flowing Heaven Unending, he unleashed five techniques in a single breath.
Thud! Thumpthumpthump!
Ordinary humans don’t choose the mad act of abandoning their weapons to fight bare-handed.
If someone fought bare-handed, it meant they were either a madman or possessed something that far surpassed the advantage of a weapon.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor was clearly the latter.
His protective Sword Qi was ridiculously sturdy.
But even it couldn’t possibly withstand five fierce strikes of Sword Qi.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor allowed attacks only up to the third technique.
The remaining two techniques collided with the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand, condensed with hand Qi, creating a massive gale.
Myriad Phenomena Corrupting Hand.
It was a martial art that defied the perception that focusing on power would inevitably weaken other aspects.
It displayed extreme change simultaneously with outstanding power.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand images remained like afterimages, showing the path of how he was blocking Namgung-Woo’s sword.
It was an extreme exchange where even the timing to breathe was unpredictable.
Several techniques were exchanged in the span of a single exhale.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand shadows covered the Sky Vault Infinite Sword, which was said to have transcended the limits of sword paths following the endless sky.
Fwoom! KoooOOOM—! Ching!
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hands changed form freely.
Palm techniques, fist techniques, knife-hands, spear-hands.
All possible hand formations were contained within the single martial art of Myriad Phenomena Corrupting Hand.
Shiiiit! Sweeeaeaek!
His arms, sometimes wielded like whips, produced the sound of tearing air, like the arrows shot by Gui Gung-yeop.
Greyish-black True Qi rose like mist, as if intending to obstruct his Ever-Clear Vision.
However, the flow was with Namgung-Woo.
Whenever the Sky Vault Infinite Sword technique unfolded as he took an Infinite Step, the dense mist of True Qi was swept away at once.
And when the Five Yin Demonic Emperor tried to grab his sword again, Namgung-Woo twisted his sword as if anticipating it, shattering the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s protective Sword Qi.
Approaching death.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor superimposed an old illusion onto Namgung-Woo’s figure, who didn’t hesitate to approach with a ground-stomp, even though he himself was more advantageous in close-quarters combat.
‘Sword Emperor…!’
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s pupils dilated.
Fate in human form was finally approaching to announce his end.
“Don’t… be ridiculous!!”
The Sword Emperor Namgung Jin was dead.
The one before him now was just a callow brat, perhaps half of Namgung Jin’s age.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor would not die at the hands of such a young whelp.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s third martial art, following the Defiant Blight Art and the Myriad Phenomena Corrupting Hand.
The upper dantian martial art, Six Bodies Receiving Affliction Transmission, was unleashed to the point of making the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s brain throb.
The fear the Five Yin Demonic Emperor felt, the pain of the Defiant Blight Art trying to gnaw at Namgung-Woo’s brain, and the killing intent to surely kill Namgung-Woo – all mixed together to become a single blade to carve out Namgung-Woo’s spirit.
A heretical mind-sword, achieved by unhesitatingly employing wicked means.
Just once would be enough.
If he could pierce Namgung-Woo’s mental barrier just once, then Namgung-Woo too would crumble, unable to withstand the extreme agony planted by the Defiant Blight Art.
However, the Five Yin Demonic Emperor did not yet know.
The existence of the Ethereal Void Divine Art that Namgung-Woo possessed, something the Namgung Jin he knew did not have.
In a place already empty, what could be cut by swinging a sword?
Ethereal Void Divine Art.
Its profound teachings were a power that protected its owner from all sorts of upper dantian abilities.
The moment his trump card strike returned in vain, the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s balance wavered.
A blue thunderbolt, extending from the heavens, struck down upon the Five Yin Demonic Emperor.
Was this judgment? Was this the end?
KRA-KOOM—!
“Huh?”
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor saw the blade break and fly off into the air.
It was a sword that had been cracked since the first exchange.
And even then, it had been thoroughly abused in the exchange between Namgung-Woo and the Five Yin Demonic Emperor, two peerless experts.
Perhaps, if it had been Guo Duan or Peng Hou-shang instead of the Five Yin Demonic Emperor, this wouldn’t have happened.
Their martial arts were powerful, but the functions they embodied were different from the special destructive power of the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s Myriad Phenomena Corrupting Hand.
Wasn’t this also fate?
Ironically, despite being one of the founders of the Banun Clan, established to defy fate, the Five Yin Demonic Emperor exulted in fate at that moment.
“This is fate…!”
Namgung-Woo’s body was open.
His two arms raised.
If he just reached out, it felt like he could surely seize that heart and crush it.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s arm moved.
It was slow.
At least, that’s how it seemed to Namgung-Woo.
With fingertips sharpened, it was closing the distance to pierce his own heart.
However, fate had not yet declared the end.
Spat-
In a world where even the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s all-out strike had slowed, that woman appeared in an instant.
Folding the distance between two places, she had leaped through space in a moment.
Her entrance was surprising, but it couldn’t be called a good judgment.
Unless one was at least Supreme Peak Realm expert, entering this place, solidified with force, one’s body wouldn’t be able to withstand it.
To Namgung-Woo, that woman had not reached that realm.
Indeed, the woman’s body began to burst slightly from the shockwaves, blooming red flowers here and there.
However, the woman paid no heed, threw something she held in her hand upwards, and then leaped through space and disappeared, just as she had appeared.
What the woman left behind was a single sword.
Instinctively, Namgung-Woo’s hand moved.
Puuuk-
An eerie sound of flesh being pierced.
Amidst the sensation of flesh tearing, Namgung-Woo felt the touch of a new sword hilt in his hand.
Hope had entered his grasp.
Peok!
The slowed world accelerated once more.
For the first time since the battle began, Namgung-Woo took a step back.
He was alive. His heart was intact.
No matter how rushed the Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s hand technique was, it couldn’t pierce through Namgung-Woo’s fully exerted Heavenly Steel Protective Qi and crush his middle dantian.
Namgung-Woo, in a natural stance, recognized the sword in his hand.
Even without turning his eyes, his magnified Ever-Clear Vision and consciousness encompassed the sword.
‘The Sky-Gazing Howler’s horn…’
Instead of its original greyish-blue color, it was tinged with bluish-white, but the power contained within remained unchanged.
Though covered in ominous demonic Qi, the purification of pure power, accumulated over long eons, was hidden within it.
“That sword… what is it?”
It was a divine weapon.
A demonic sword, rarely seen in the human realm—one that hadn’t surfaced even during the Blood Cult Calamity, when strange and incomprehensible weapons ran rampant.
“I learned something good.”
“What?”
“Thanks to you, I feel like I’ve definitely got a grasp on it.”
He felt a belief that he could do it now.
Namgung-Woo raised the sword.
Middle Guard Stance.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor’s body was caught on the tip of the sword, extended straight towards the front.
And along the sword hilt Namgung-Woo gripped, the Three Dantian Three Heavenly Divine Qi surged up the blade.
The translucent, milky-white Ethereal Void Divine Qi.
The clear, azure Sky Vault Divine Qi.
The brilliant, platinum-colored Heavenly Thunder Divine Qi.
The three divine Qis rose as individual Sword Qis, then intermingled to form Sword Qi.
The people Namgung-Woo had faced until now, the pasts Namgung-Woo had walked – all were contained in this single sword strike.
The demonic domain shown by the black Ghost Gate in the Beijing Uprising.
From that, Namgung-Woo learned how to make an entire area his own domain.
The Five Tigers Breaking Gates Saber shown by Peng Hou-shang.
From that, Namgung-Woo learned how to imbue martial arts with the power of the upper dantian.
The Six Bodies Receiving Affliction Transmission shown by the Five Yin Demonic Emperor.
From that, Namgung-Woo finally learned how to give form to the power of the upper dantian.
And the people who had trusted and followed Namgung-Woo.
From them, Namgung-Woo learned the responsibilities and karma he had to bear.
One by one.
One by one.
He would unleash them here.
Wuuuuung~
Namgung-Woo’s Qi, already spread in the surroundings, resonated, creating a hum.
The sound announcing the moment that might become the final chapter of this battle, perhaps even this war.
However, the Five Yin Demonic Emperor felt it not with his hearing, but with his Qi sense.
This space was transforming into a domain solely for one person.
It was an earth-shattering event.
A mere human was privatizing the world as if it were his own.
This alone made the martial artists gathered at Xia Honghu turn pale with astonishment and forget to wield their weapons.
But did they know?
That even this was merely a prelude.
Namgung-Woo’s arm lifted.
From the Middle Guard Stance, it rose to the Upper Guard Stance.
Sky Vault Great Evolution Divine Art.
Heavenly Thunder Emperor Divine Art.
Ethereal Void Divine Art.
The three divine arts became one.
The Sky Vault Divine Qi established the framework, and the Heavenly Thunder Divine Qi covering it sharpened the edge.
And then, the Ethereal Void of the Ethereal Void Divine Qi was overlaid.
He pressed down on the place he had made his domain with an immense presence.
That presence spread throughout the entire space, acting as a reality.
While no one else could move, only Namgung-Woo was free.
Having filled, it was time to empty.
The sword descended.
It was the judgment delivered by the Heavenly Emperor looking down upon the earth from the heavens.
It was the execution carried out by the Emperor who represented heaven on earth.
The Five Yin Demonic Emperor, Aban, remembered.
The single sword strike shown by that man who had blocked him that day.
“Emperor’s Sword …”
The sword strike that hadn’t reached him that day, passing through the hands of a new person, severed Aban’s fate.
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