Guanyin Manor – 2
We were rushing toward Guanyin Manor when we came upon a battle right at its front gates—Emei disciples locked in combat with Blood Cultists.
Among them, a young woman facing off against what looked to be the cult leader made Lady Jeong-an cry out in shock:
"Senior Sister Jeong-hye?!"
So this was the same "Senior Sister" Jeong-an had boasted about during the journey—the one who shared her master, the one she had praised endlessly for her wisdom.
At the same time, Red-Robed Sword Hero Hwa Yeong-bin, seeing a middle-aged woman struggling desperately against three peak-level experts, spoke urgently:
"That must be Elder Gyeoljin. We must hurry!"
Even as he increased his pace, Bi Sa-yeong, who had glanced at Jeong-an, suddenly burst forth with explosive speed.
Bang!
His figure shot forward like an arrow, propelled by the Stormstep.
Though Stormstep was not a Blood Cult technique, it was a secret art learned from the Giant Demon Horse manual—a marvel so extraordinary it made one question how he had obtained it.
It only gave a brief burst of acceleration, but that single effect was overwhelming.
In that instant, Bi Sa-yeong's speed became like a raging tempest.
Beside me, Jeong-an gasped with innocent admiration:
"Waaah! As expected!"
But when I saw the direction of Bi Sa-yeong's explosive acceleration, I couldn't help but smirk. He had gone straight toward Jeong-hye, Jeong-an's Senior Sister.
I had long suspected it, but now it was clear—he was truly sincere.
Grinning, I thought:
A friend's battle cannot be ignored!
And so, I too launched Stormstep.
Paaang!
The world blurred past in a dizzying rush. The heightened speed thrilled me with its raw exhilaration.
My target was the man facing Jeong-hye.
It was obvious he was the Blood Cult leader.
His cultivation felt around eighty years deep.
At that moment, Bi Sa-yeong successfully whisked Jeong-hye away and shouted:
"I leave the rest to you!"
Charging at the cult leader, I bellowed back:
"Of course!"
I could have approached silently for a surprise strike, but I chose not to.
This was the opponent I wanted—the chance to test myself.
There were still many enemies, but with Red-Robed Sword Hero Hwa Yeong-bin covering from behind and Elder Gyeoljin still standing, they could handle the rest.
This was the perfect moment for me to fight as I pleased, with nothing else to hold me back.
What a glorious moment.
I couldn't help but smile.
The cult leader, sensing danger, retreated and shifted into a defensive stance.
So my speed had unsettled him.
Hmm… if that's the case…
Normally, against an opponent two realms above, I should circle him with illusions and evasive footwork, dragging out time.
But—
That's not what I want right now!
I charged straight in and unleashed my sword arts.
Thirteen Swords of Seonu – First Move.
Divine Eagle Spreads Its Wings.
My sword-light unfolded like brilliant wings of radiance.
Shuaaah!
The cult leader sneered, swinging his saber.
"Cheap tricks!"
Seeing through the illusion, he tried to crush it with brute force.
But at that moment, my smile widened.
How long I had waited for this chance!
Buaaaang!
His saber cleaved with crushing force—but my sword-wings curved gracefully, deflecting his strike just as Mukrang had once shown me.
Like the flapping of a true bird's wings, the illusion bent and slipped past.
The thrill of naturally reproducing a technique I had only practiced in my mind sent shivers down my spine.
His eyes widened in shock.
"?!"
The radiant wings that had evaded his strike now spread wide, enveloping him.
From the first move, Divine Eagle Spreads Its Wings, I flowed seamlessly into the eleventh move—
Great Roc Soars Ten Thousand Li.
"Wha—!"
Panic flashed in his eyes as he grit his teeth and hacked wildly.
"Uhaaaap!"
Puhwaaaak!
A surge of saber-force burst outward, tearing apart the encroaching wings.
A fierce, flawless counter befitting one with eighty years of cultivation.
But it was exactly what I had expected.
My eyes gleamed.
This was the chance.
"Haaap!"
Four-Seasons Sword – Third Move.
Three Birds in Flight.
Shifting instantly to his flank, I unleashed three streaks of light, fast as simultaneous strikes of lightning.
Shiiiik!
"Ghhk!"
Slash!
Blood spurted from his left shoulder and chest.
He hadn't been able to avoid them all.
I clicked my tongue.
"Tch."
I had hoped to end it there, but he wasn't going down so easily.
Snarling, he staggered back, then launched a desperate counterattack.
His face twisted as he roared:
"Diiie! Mad Dragon Shatters Heaven!"
Kwoooaaaah!
A violent crimson saber-force erupted like a crazed dragon, thrashing unpredictably as it rushed me.
The Mad Dragon Saber Art—one of the Blood Cult's famed ultimate techniques.
My heart pounded.
Could I do it?
Of all the techniques Mukrang had shown me, aside from the one I still could not use—Emptiness is Form—this was the one I most wanted to attempt.
The single stroke that had severed the overwhelming force of the Giant Demon Horse's final attack, breaking it at its root.
Like stopping a charging cart with a single pine needle.
It demanded insight high above the opponent's level, and the precision to strike at the exact vein of the attack.
I had always wondered… could I really do it?
Perhaps harder than Emptiness itself.
But thought was brief.
As the crimson dragon barreled down on me, I steadied myself.
Calm.
I exhaled and quieted my mind.
Insight.
With every sense, I tried to perceive the entire, rampaging force.
Then I thrust out my arm, my sword as one with me.
Four-Seasons Sword – First Move.
One Ray of Light.
Shiiiik!
A blade of light shot toward the dragon's tail.
Swiish!
But it only grazed the saber-force, slicing deep yet not severing.
A failure.
Damn it!
The dragon's gaping maw loomed before me.
And then—impact.
Kwoooooom!
The earth was torn apart as if by a dragon's rampage, leaving a scar across the ground.
The cult leader stood amid the devastation, clutching his wrist, blood pouring from where my strike had partially cut it. His eyes burned with fury as he glared at me.
A mere three paces away, I clutched my thundering chest and muttered:
"Haah… damn, I almost died."
At the last instant, I had barely dodged aside.
Without Stormstep—and without my strike diverting his saber-force ever so slightly—I truly would have perished.
My mouth felt bitter.
So this level is still beyond me, after all?
The brush with death cooled my head, regret crashing down.
Reckless confidence… risking my life like a fool. Seonu Jin, you're insane.
And yet…
The truth was, for a moment, I had believed I could do it.
In fact, I had almost succeeded.
Then suddenly, his head began to burn hot once more.
Maybe… if I try just one more time?
The regret he'd felt a moment ago was already gone, replaced by a rising spirit of challenge.
Like a hunting lynx eyeing its prey, he licked his lips while fixing his gaze on his foe.
Red-Robed Sword Hero Hwa Yeong-bin watched the two Dragon Unit warriors shoot forward at speeds even he could not follow.
Both were remarkable, but especially that Bi Sa-yeong—his footwork was simply astonishing.
Even Hwa Yeong-bin, who was now standing on the threshold of the Transcendent Realm, could not keep up. To see such movement from a first-class warrior was almost laughable.
Even as I watch, I can hardly believe it's possible. For lightness skill alone, he deserves to be called a once-in-a-thousand-years genius.
And then there was the other one—Seonu Jin.
His internal energy seemed no more than seventy years refined, yet he was overwhelming a Blood Cult master who had clearly surpassed the eighty-year wall.
So he's a genius as well… though of a different kind than my disciple.
When his master, Master Cheong Gwang-jinin, had first taken in his disciple I-geon, Hwa Yeong-bin hadn't even felt jealousy.
The talent was simply too overwhelming for envy to take root.
It had made his own pride in his abilities feel pitifully small.
And in a way, he had been grateful.
His life's purpose had become vengeance against the Blood Cult. He could never fulfill his master's dream of attaining the Divine Realm.
But his disciple, I-geon—he believed—would surely accomplish it.
The first to claim the title of "God" in a hundred years.
Compared to that, Seonu Jin was strange.
I don't sense the same overwhelming talent as in my disciple… but still…
What he showed on the battlefield far exceeded what Hwa Yeong-bin's judgment of his ability suggested. And the feats he had already accomplished were nothing short of astonishing.
Hwa Yeong-bin himself had once served in the Dragon Unit.
After the Blood-Burning War, when Blood Cult demons had robbed him of his beloved, he had vowed never to forgive them.
From then on, his only purpose in life was to annihilate the Blood Cult.
But… the Dragon Unit was never meant for that.
It had taken him little time to realize that the Dragon Unit wasn't created to destroy the Blood Cult, but merely to act as border guards.
So he had stayed only the five years of his required service, then left without regret.
And yet…
Meeting his juniors from the Dragon Unit had rekindled something in him. Along the way, he'd spoken much with them—and been deeply shaken.
The Blood Demon's enmity with Mount Emei… the Shadow Unit… the Blood Cult's hidden bases in the martial world…
These were truths they claimed to have uncovered.
And each one was something he had never even glimpsed in all his five years of service.
It made him question what he had been doing with his life.
And all of it seemed to center around Seonu Jin.
A truly astonishing and admirable junior.
And that sword…
His eyes lingered on Seonu Jin's weapon, Muk-rang.
It looked strikingly similar to a sword he had seen only once before—wielded by him.
Could it be…?
The thought struck him just as he dove into the melee himself.
"Haaaap!"
Shuaaaak!
"Gyaaagh?!"
"Urrgh!"
His sword carved arcs across the battlefield, painting everything in a savage crimson sunset reeking of blood.
The Blood Cultists screamed in terror:
"It's the Red-Robed Sword Hero!"
"How is he here?!"
As one standing at the threshold of Transcendence, Hwa Yeong-bin easily slew the three peak-level cultists who had been pressing Elder Gyeoljin, and then cut down the lesser fiends as well.
Yet even as he butchered them, his eyes stayed fixed on Seonu Jin's fight.
Despite facing a stronger foe, Seonu Jin had never once yielded the initiative.
From start to finish, he kept pressing forward.
The Blood Cult master, wounded in his right wrist, was forced to wield his saber with his left hand—far less skillfully. At this rate, Seonu Jin might actually defeat someone two levels above him.
"Haaap!"
Seonu Jin's illusory blades spread like radiant wings as they swept down.
The cult master snarled, swinging in frustration.
"That trick again?!"
This time his saber-force lashed out with grim precision, determined not to miss.
But before his attack could land, the luminous wings shattered midair like shards of broken glass.
Paaak!
"?!"
From within the scattering lights, Seonu Jin's sword thrust with lethal speed.
Startled, the cult master barely managed to leap back.
Shiiik!
The blade's tip missed his chest by a hair, slicing only his robe.
Sensing an opening, he snarled and unleashed another furious strike.
"You brat!"
His saber surged forward like a frenzied dragon, its path wild and unpredictable.
Kwaaaaa!
It seemed to strike true—Seonu Jin was engulfed.
But instead of being cut down, his form fragmented into drifting petals.
An afterimage? At that range?
Even Hwa Yeong-bin gasped in admiration.
Like flower petals scattering in the wind, Seonu Jin's body split into countless illusions. And from behind the cult master, his true form struck, unleashing a storm of phantom blades.
"Not so easy!"
The cultist roared, hacking desperately to sweep them away.
But one of the phantoms suddenly accelerated, its light becoming a true blade that slashed across his thigh.
Shiiik!
"Ghhhk!"
Blood sprayed as he staggered.
Hwa Yeong-bin's eyes widened once more.
The combination of illusion and reality, executed with such brilliance, left even a superior master floundering.
But then Seonu Jin made his first mistake.
As the cultist faltered, Seonu Jin lunged straight in for a decisive thrust.
To Hwa Yeong-bin's eye, it was too rash.
He shouted in alarm:
"Too soon!"
Sure enough, the cult master's eyes blazed as he countered with the very same technique he had used earlier—Mad Dragon Shatters Heaven.
"Uhaaaap!"
Kwaaaa-kwaaaaa!
The crimson dragon of saber-force surged forth again, directly colliding with Seonu Jin's sword.
In a head-on clash, the superior cultivation of the cult master gave him every advantage.
He laughed madly.
"Wahahaha! Die!"
His raging dragon swept over Seonu Jin's slender streak of sword-light, grinding it to dust.
But then—
"?!"
He realized too late.
Even that had been an illusion.
From the shadows of the fading light, Seonu Jin's real sword pierced forward with speed unmatched—Four-Seasons Sword: One Ray of Light.
Puk!
"Ghhhk?!"
The blade stabbed straight through his wrist.
The raging crimson dragon collapsed into nothingness.
And with a slight twist of his hand, Seonu Jin severed the wrist clean off.
Puhwaak!
"Uwaaaaaaagh!"
As blood spurted from the stump and the cult master howled, Seonu Jin grinned and muttered:
"See? Trying again worked."
Then his sword flashed once more, slicing open both of the man's shoulders.
Helpless and broken, the cult master could no longer resist.
He had been brought down—by someone beneath his realm.
Watching this, Hwa Yeong-bin let out a disbelieving laugh.
It seemed his disciple I-geon had gained quite the formidable rival.