Number One In Sichuan (1)

As fifty demons took to the sky, Jin-hyeon crossed the distance as if folding the earth itself, and before anyone realized it, he was right in front of Ha Baek-cheon.

Ha Baek-cheon’s eyes flashed.

Buoong!

The movement of the greatsword slashing diagonally upward from below.

It was so fast and free that one could hardly believe it was the movement of a heavy sword. Just from that one move, Ha Baek-cheon could tell that his opponent’s martial realm was greater than it appeared.

Ha Baek-cheon could not help admiring him inwardly. The man appeared to be the leader of the bastards who had killed his children, but the exquisiteness contained in that single slash could truly be called art.

Ha Baek-cheon’s right hand lightly struck the air.

It clearly looked slow, yet the formless palm force was already entering inside the Indestructible Sword’s striking range.

Jin-hyeon’s gaze changed abruptly.

Swish! Peoeong!

The blue stone floor broke in a line, raising a thick cloud of dust.

Jin-hyeon evaded Ha Baek-cheon’s palm force with an elastic movement, lowered his stance, and spun.

To spin meant showing his back to his opponent. And yet there was no opening at all. His long leg, drawing a low semicircle, was wrapped in a fierce wind of force, and the face of the Indestructible Sword, moved by exquisite handwork, protected his back.

Ha Baek-cheon’s leg moved like lightning.

Kwang!

Leg technique against leg technique.

Amazingly, Jin-hyeon, who had attacked first, was sent flying back. The force was so strong that even Jin-hyeon almost lost his stance.

Jin-hyeon, who had been about to immediately use War-Sword Three Arts, Tenfold Prison Wall in preparation for a follow-up strike, paused.

Tuk, tuk.

Ha Baek-cheon, dusting off the hem of his trousers with his hand, was ease itself.

“After training in the Body-Unbinding Immortal-Donning Art, I have never met a proper opponent.”

The Body-Unbinding Immortal-Donning Art.

It was the Yan Clan’s greatest secret technique and the strongest divine art of the Jinzhou Yan Clan, one that only the Patriarch and his successor had trained in through the generations.

Ha Baek-cheon, who had been dusting off his clothes, raised his head and glared at Jin-hyeon.

“Can you become an opponent worthy of my martial art?”

“He didn’t say it, but your younger brother had a similar look.”

Jin-hyeon also lightly dusted off around his shin.

“You learned a good martial art properly and came crawling out of your hole, so how easy must the world look to you? I understand your arrogance.”

Ha Baek-cheon’s eyes deepened.

His opponent’s tone was far too insolent to simply let pass.

But he was going to kill him anyway. Whatever he babbled, once Ha Baek-cheon knocked him down and tore off his limbs one by one, he would no longer be able to act so arrogant.

Jin-hyeon tilted the Indestructible Sword.

“I will split that arrogance cleanly in two.”

“That mouth of yours is first-rate.”

The corners of Ha Baek-cheon’s mouth rose.

In that smile filled with killing intent were the grief of losing his successor, his fighting spirit toward his opponent, and his rage toward the world.

“Then let us begin.”

The energy of the Body-Unbinding Immortal-Donning Art began to pour out in earnest.

Rumble.

Thunder rumbled from every direction.

Jin-hyeon’s jaw pushed forward slightly.

‘Strong.’

There was no point thinking of the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader’s era. That was then, and this was now.

And right now, Jin-hyeon was facing the strongest enemy he had encountered since he began training in martial arts.

A master among masters, one against whom no variable seemed likely to work. The aura pouring from him was tremendous, but beyond that, Jin-hyeon could see the eyes of the ‘real ones,’ those who never let their guard down.

The one fortunate thing was that his opponent had not crossed the wall long ago.

It was what Murim called the threshold of the transcendent level. That alone allowed one to wield martial arts capable of shaking heaven and earth, but martial arts that could not fully control their own power were bound to reveal openings.

And that applied to Jin-hyeon himself as well.

‘I trust my body and my realization.’

At that moment, Ha Baek-cheon finished all his preparations.

“Try receiving this.”

His right foot moved slightly forward.

‘!!’

Before he realized it, Ha Baek-cheon had entered within three meters of Jin-hyeon.

It was not a distance one could cross with a light step. A supremely advanced footwork that could not be understood through movement alone, it was the Yan Clan’s Divine Ghost Step brought to its peak.

Jin-hyeon instinctively raised the face of the Indestructible Sword.

Ha Baek-cheon’s fist thrust out lightly.

Kwaang!

In that instant, Jin-hyeon felt his vision grow distant.

‘Tremendous!’

The mighty fist power passed through the sword face and shook his entire body.

It was truly tremendous destructive force. If he had not instinctively raised the greatsword to block it, even his body, tempered by the Body-Refining Art, would have had its sternum crushed.

“Not bad.”

Ha Baek-cheon’s voice was still relaxed.

And he was skilled enough to act that relaxed. Jin-hyeon had been pushed back five steps, yet Ha Baek-cheon appeared at his side without anyone seeing when he moved, and even the hem of his clothes barely stirred.

Ha Baek-cheon’s right fist swung again.

No matter how one looked at it, it was a slow fist, yet it reached right before Jin-hyeon’s nose in an instant. The formless wind of force swirling from the fist lowered the opponent’s perception with its brutal pressure.

Jin-hyeon twisted his upper body and raised the Indestructible Sword.

Jjeooooong!

It felt as if his entire upper body would be bent backward.

Even the word brutal could not describe it. From the motion of extending the fist to the internal energy control that brought out its power, it was a straight punch close to perfection.

The fact that he could not block that simple straight punch meant the profundity of the martial art was extreme. It was a superior fist art worthy of its tremendous internal force.

A hint of surprise appeared on Ha Baek-cheon’s face.

“You really are quite something.”

The gap in skill was clear. It was not some vague difference of half a move or one move. In power, speed, and internal energy, Ha Baek-cheon was one stage above him in every respect.

That stage was what mattered. Talk of one move or two moves was, when one looked closely, nothing but wordplay. It was a gap that could be narrowed any number of ways depending on technique or variables.

But a stage was different. It meant a wall, and depending on whether one had crossed it or not, the gap between masters became the difference between heaven and earth.

Ha Baek-cheon had clearly crossed the wall. And Jin-hyeon had not.

Unless Ha Baek-cheon were badly injured or his martial execution was flawed due to mental shock, this match was absolutely in his favor.

Hwaaaak!

Ha Baek-cheon thrust both palms forward.

The moment blue lightning flickered in both his hands.

Kwaaaang!

With a tremendous explosion, Jin-hyeon was sent flying back nearly ten meters.

The sound and shockwave were so great that even the Ghost Gate masters surrounding Han Cheol-sang and Do Il-gang turned back in surprise.

Drip.

Blood flowed from Jin-hyeon’s mouth after he was driven back.

Ha Baek-cheon’s eyes deepened.

‘Strange.’

He had put quite a bit of strength into that strike. Even if it did not kill him, normally, Jin-hyeon should have been unable to stand properly or half out of his mind.

But the eyes of that white-haired young man, who raised his head and glared at him, were still perfectly alive.

No, rather, he was emitting even stronger killing intent. If not for the true qi of the Body-Unbinding Immortal-Donning Art, even Ha Baek-cheon would have found it burdensome to face.

‘Interesting.’

Whatever the case, it meant he possessed durability beyond his skill level. He was indeed skilled enough to launch a surprise attack on the Cheongyang Association, number one in Sichuan.

‘But no further.’

He had intended to smash him within three exchanges. But how many moves had already passed?

Ha Baek-cheon’s mouth closed stubbornly.

Huk.

He approached with Divine Ghost Step and unleashed a stomp right before Jin-hyeon.

Kwaang!

The fist strike thrust out together with the stomp looked as if it would sweep Jin-hyeon’s body away in one blow.

Jjeooooong!

Jin-hyeon offset the fist power with an attack from the Cross Soul-Slash he had prepared in advance, but even then, he had to retreat nearly ten meters again.

Ha Baek-cheon’s face twisted.

“You bastard!”

Thunder roared from his fist.

Rumble!

The fist force he released across a distance of ten meters. With a thunderous sound, a blue flash surged and flew forward.

This was the Yan Clan’s secret technique, Thunder Immortal Thunderbolt Fist. In the past, before the Yan Clan’s pugilists fled to Sichuan, it was said that the number of masters killed by the last Patriarch’s Thunderbolt Fist alone reached a full two hundred.

A martial art known as legend in Jinzhou, Hebei, had crossed time and space to reveal itself here and now.

Jin-hyeon drew Heavenly Wolf True Qi to its limit and unleashed Ten Steps, Certain Death.

Chiriring! Kwakwakwang!

The flash split left and right, grinding apart the ground on both sides of Jin-hyeon.

It was destructive power. Even though he had pierced the single point at the very center and split the fist force, his body swayed violently.

Ha Baek-cheon’s feet seemed to breathe fire.

Paaaak!

He approached at tremendous speed and swung both fists wildly. It was Thunder Immortal Thunderbolt Fist’s Thunder Dragon Twin Pearls.

Kwakwakwaang!

Jin-hyeon’s body jolted like mad.

He evaded at decisive moments with Heavenly Evasion Half-Step and blocked with an extreme quick-sword technique that applied Ten Steps, Certain Death, but the burden on his body grew exponentially.

‘What tremendous power!’

It was a chained fist technique beyond imagination. The power of each and every strike rivaled Cross Soul-Slash unleashed with all his strength.

It was a martial art of a different level. Jin-hyeon disrupted its power by attacking back with ultra-hard Heavenly Wolf True Qi, but even that was not enough. If he had not completed his body with the Body-Refining Art, several bones would have been crushed by now.

But the one truly shocked was Ha Baek-cheon.

‘What kind of bastard is this?!’

Thunder Immortal Thunderbolt Fist, unleashed in earnest, was filled with power that could destroy any object in the world.

Even if he had preserved speed and reduced power as a chained fist technique, with this much of a gap in skill, blocking it should have been impossible.

In truth, Jin-hyeon was not blocking all of the chained fist strikes. At the decisive moment, he moved one step and evaded the follow-up strike that came pressing in, and the mysterious subtlety of that footwork was no less than that of the Divine Ghost Step.

‘Just what is this bastard…?’

Ha Baek-cheon’s fist changed movements in an instant.

Shiiik! Peoeong!

Blood burst from Jin-hyeon’s mouth.

He shifted from the consecutive fist strikes that beat down mercilessly to a soft fist that slipped through the gap between sword and arm to strike. Its power was lower, but it was an attack that could reliably land a blow on the opponent.

‘Damn it.’

For a moment, his chest tightened and his breathing stopped.

Flash!

Even so, the way he dropped his stance on a diagonal and evaded the follow-up strike could only be described as a beastly instinct. He had drawn heavily on the experience of the Eight Wastes Alliance Leader and internalized it, but the Body-Refining Art and Heavenly Wolf True Qi themselves were also pushing Jin-hyeon’s reflexes to a terrifying degree.

Ha Baek-cheon’s knee rose.

Bang!

Jin-hyeon raised the sword face and blocked it, but the impact struck his body in full.

The blood that suddenly poured out was dark. It meant his internal injuries were growing worse.

‘It is fine.’

Jin-hyeon glared at Ha Baek-cheon.

As if abandoning all doubt to focus solely on the onslaught, Ha Baek-cheon swung both arms with a grim expression, looking like a death god.

Peopeopeopeong! Jjeoeong!

Between the pouring Thunderbolt Fist strikes, swift Jade Immortal Seals flew in as well.

He even unleashed a palm technique of a different nature without disrupting the form of the Thunderbolt Fist. Even at his age, his martial adaptability was exceptional.

‘It is fine.’

As he swung the Indestructible Sword like mad, Jin-hyeon thought.

‘I expected this much.’

More precisely, it had to be at least this much.

Woooooooong!!

The madly burning Heavenly Wolf True Qi screamed on its own. Sensing danger, the true qi was releasing an urgent cry.

‘It is fine.’

Jjeojeojeojeojeojeong!!

Ha Baek-cheon’s eyes narrowed slightly.

Even as his speed rose by a tiny degree, his opponent was somehow defending. No, his defensive ability was gradually increasing.

It was an unbelievable sight, a response ability beyond imagination. His face was pale and his eyes were slowly losing focus, yet Ha Baek-cheon could not understand how he was blocking the Thunderbolt Fist better and better.

“You bastard!”

Teooooong!

Ha Baek-cheon pushed Jin-hyeon away with the palm force of Jade Immortal Seal, then poured out the fist power of Thunder Immortal Thunderbolt Fist, Swift Wind, One Thunderclap.

He intended to end it completely with this one strike. The power of the fist wind pouring out in a vortex was on a completely different level from before.

Right then.

Huk!

Jin-hyeon’s body, which had vanished into the sky, appeared above Ha Baek-cheon’s head.

Emitting a blue radiance, the Indestructible Sword came crashing down with enough force to cleave him in two.

Rumble!