The sinister qi Baek Jagang released seized control of the space.
The ultimate sinister qi.
The moment that qi was felt, every body grew stifled, as though trapped inside a narrow box; gooseflesh rose all over, and a chill set in. The surface grew cold, slowing movement, yet the heart burned hot.
Fear and pressure, rage and hatred—all negative desires began to run rampant.
It was a situation in which one should have been crushed by that energy alone, but Hwa Mugi drew in a deep breath and savored it.
“This is the first time I’ve felt such powerful sinister qi.”
Ju Gasin, who dwelled within his body, had never once revealed an energy like this. Hwa Mugi put it this way.
“The man inside me is far too insidious, you see.”
Baek Jagang recalled the Ju Gasin with whom he had spoken earlier. That insidious man had tried to save him. Thinking that he would be listening, Baek Jagang said to Hwa Mugi,
“Still, thank you for making the offer.”
It was a sudden remark, but everyone could guess what it meant. It was a continuation of the sound-transmission conversation from before. It must have been spoken to the leader of the Evil Dao Alliance from three hundred years ago.
The Fist Demon silently looked at Baek Jagang standing beside him.
He found it unexpected that Baek Jagang had stepped forward like this.
Since Jin Paecheon had fought alone, he had expected Baek Jagang to fight alone as well.
The Martial Alliance Leader fought alone, so how could I, the leader of the Evil Dao Alliance, join forces against him?
He had naturally expected Baek Jagang to act that way, but Baek Jagang chose practicality over face. And that was not all.
The Fist Demon read this resolve in Baek Jagang’s eyes.
Let the two of us end this fight!
In that instant, the Fist Demon clenched his fist tightly. It was exactly what he had hoped for. If this dangerous fight did not pass on to the Cult Leader, there was nothing more he could ask.
The Fist Demon began releasing his demonic qi in earnest. His demonic qi, too, was different from usual.
It was not demonic qi that spread and erupted outward. It was demonic qi like Mount Tai pressing down. Something vast and unbreakable began to crush Hwa Mugi.
Baek Jagang’s sinister qi and the Fist Demon’s demonic qi.
The two energies pressed down on Hwa Mugi at the same time.
It was an overwhelmingly powerful aura, enough to make even standing difficult, but Hwa Mugi was perfectly fine.
“These energies are not unfamiliar to me.”
Then, as if he intended to become a hero capturing true villains, Hwa Mugi said,
“Yes, you two are villains worth trying to catch!”
Hwa Mugi’s gaze turned to the Fist Demon.
“I wanted to fight you more than anyone else.”
Hwa Mugi slid his black sword back into its scabbard.
“With these fists.”
Hwa Mugi clenched both fists as if to show the Fist Demon. There could be no stronger provocation. He was proposing a fistfight with the Fist Demon, here and now.
“What do you say? Fight me with fist arts—”
Before Hwa Mugi could even finish speaking, Baek Jagang’s form cut through the air.
Shiiiiik!
Baek Jagang’s sword rushed in an instant, flying toward Hwa Mugi’s chest.
It was an unexpected attack. Who could have imagined Baek Jagang would charge in like this while Hwa Mugi was suggesting a fistfight with the Fist Demon?
Shiiii!
Baek Jagang’s sword grazed past Hwa Mugi’s body. When Hwa Mugi twisted aside and avoided the blade, the sword that had flown in changed its angle.
Kagak!
Baek Jagang’s sword again grazed past his face.
It was not an attack that could be avoided normally, so Hwa Mugi evaded it using Ju Gasin’s Gwangse Cheonwang Step, which he had displayed earlier.
As if he would not permit Hwa Mugi to draw his sword again, Baek Jagang continued attacking without pause.
Baek Jagang’s attacks were different again from Jin Paecheon’s or the Sword King’s.
Baek Jagang did not aim only for vital points.
After striking upward toward Hwa Mugi’s jaw, he drew his sword diagonally. This time he aimed for the shoulder, and next for the thigh.
An arm was fine. The waist was fine too. Anywhere he could cut his opponent was good enough. That made him even more threatening.
Hwiik.
In the end, Hwa Mugi employed the Gwangse Cheonwang Step and leaped backward. It was the first time he had retreated since the fight began.
“This is you disregarding the Fist Demon—”
Once again, Hwa Mugi could not finish speaking. This time, a fist wind released from the Fist Demon’s fist came flying in.
Huwaaaaaang!
While Hwa Mugi and Baek Jagang fought, the Fist Demon had drawn his internal energy into his fist to the limit.
Thus, it was no ordinary fist wind. It was a fist wind carrying enough power to turn boulders into powder.
Kwaaaaaang!
Swept up in the fist wind, Hwa Mugi smashed through the tavern wall and flew backward. He tried to withstand it with his protective astral qi, but from behind the fist wind, Baek Jagang and the Fist Demon flew in at the same time.
Hwa Mugi was forced outside Pungryu Tavern, and Baek Jagang and the Fist Demon also rushed after him. The two pressed him without giving him even a chance to catch his breath.
Sword qi and fist wind flew toward him at once.
Hwa Mugi shot upward into the air.
Kwaaaaaang!
The building across from Pungryu Tavern was swept up by the sword qi and fist wind and blown away in its entirety.
Now the stage of the fight was no longer Pungryu Tavern, but Maga Village.
Hwa Mugi landed on the roof of the neighboring building.
“Fist Demon, I wanted to have a splendid fight with you. Are you going to behave so disgracefully like that Evil Dao bastard?”
It seemed Hwa Mugi wanted to fight the Fist Demon no matter what.
“Why? Not confident?”
His provocation appeared to go beyond confidence and reach the height of arrogance.
But to Baek Jagang, it looked different.
—He is trying to avoid being attacked together.
If the Fist Demon engaged Hwa Mugi in close combat with fist arts, the two of them would become entangled in the fight. In the end, it would become difficult for Baek Jagang to join in against Hwa Mugi.
The Fist Demon immediately grasped what Baek Jagang meant.
—Let us not fight according to his wishes.
Jin Paecheon, who had been watching, also read Hwa Mugi’s intent. He interpreted the reason Hwa Mugi was avoiding a joint attack like this.
—It seems he has begun regulating his internal energy.
At Jin Paecheon’s sound transmission, Geom Ujin nodded in agreement.
The Heavenly Killing Star had displayed his strength by enduring attacks with protective astral qi, but now he had begun avoiding them.
Yes. No matter how much of a Heavenly Killing Star he was, as long as he was human, there was no way he possessed infinite internal energy.
Nor did he possess enough power to crush them all at once.
He had inflicted external injuries on Jin Paecheon and internal injuries on the Sword King. Jin Paecheon had the Gentleman’s Sword, and the Sword King had the Pungcheon Cult Leader.
The power Hwa Mugi had shown so far was only a little stronger than when two people joined forces against him. That meant that if a joint attack was properly executed, an even fight was possible.
On the other hand, the fight had become far more dangerous.
Because once he no longer had leisure with his internal energy, the Heavenly Killing Star might use a one-strike sure-kill technique.
As in the fights before, the situation could end before anyone could intervene to help.
In the end, Baek Jagang and the Fist Demon had to help each other.
Just how far would they go to help one another?
Because he could not know that, Geom Ujin was paying even closer attention to this fight than to any of the earlier ones.
The Fist Demon looked up at Hwa Mugi standing on the roof and said,
“You want to fight me with fist arts?”
The Fist Demon gestured for him to come down.
“Come down. A fistfight is fought with one’s feet planted on the ground.”
It was the very moment Hwa Mugi leaped down from the roof in front of the Fist Demon.
Baek Jagang’s sword, which had been waiting for that instant, cut through the air.
Hegemon’s Heaven-Shaking Sword Art.
First Form, White Heaven Form.
Pure white astral qi surged toward Hwa Mugi.
But as if he had already been waiting, Hwa Mugi’s black sword cut through the air.
Gwangmyeong Muyang Sword Art.
Second Form, Great Yang Gives Birth to Being.
Kwaaaaaang!
When two supreme martial arts that could not be judged superior or inferior collided, the surroundings shook with an explosion as though an earthquake had struck. Hwa Mugi had already anticipated the surprise attack.
Shiiiiik!
Hwa Mugi charged through the rising dust.
Kaaang! Kang! Kaaang!
The moment sword met sword, Baek Jagang felt the same impression as those who had fought before him.
‘He’s strong.’
Hwa Mugi’s black sword truly carried internal energy so powerful it felt as if it would sever his wrist.
‘It should be about time for his power to decrease.’
Yet Hwa Mugi was still powerful.
After they exchanged more than a dozen moves in an instant, Hwa Mugi’s final strike was properly imbued with internal energy.
He tried to break Baek Jagang’s sword with that single move, but the sword did not break.
Kwaaaang!
Baek Jagang slid backward. The attack had been too powerful, so he retreated to disperse and scatter his opponent’s force.
‘Yes, keep using your internal energy like that!’
In the meantime, Hwa Mugi stabbed toward the Fist Demon’s vital points and launched an attack.
Shik, shik, shik, shik!
Because the Fist Demon was so large, avoiding those attacks did not seem easy.
But astonishingly, the Fist Demon’s huge body avoided every attack that flew at him in succession. His footwork was dazzling.
In fist arts, what is more important than the fist is the step.
That was what the Fist Demon always emphasized to his subordinates.
In other words, avoiding was more important than striking.
Because bare hands had to face weapons, footwork and bodily techniques for evading and deflecting the opponent’s attacks were the most important.
How does he dodge like that with such a huge body?
The Fist Demon showed everyone the answer through his actions.
On top of that, Hwa Mugi could not attack only the Fist Demon. Before he knew it, Baek Jagang was attacking from his left.
Hwa Mugi avoided Baek Jagang’s sword and thrust out his own.
Shiiiik!
Dodging the incoming sword, Hwa Mugi thrust his blade. In an instant, the two crossing swords were aiming for each other’s hearts.
At the very moment the two blades missed.
Teong!
The Fist Demon’s fist slammed into his side.
The instant his fist struck directly, the Fist Demon could feel it.
It was protective astral qi unlike anything he had ever felt in his life.
It felt different from when he had first hit Hwa Mugi’s face. Back then, there had been a proper sensation of impact, but now it was different.
The sound was loud, but the moment his fist touched the body, it felt as if he were striking water. And he felt the internal force contained in his fist scatter into that water.
‘So this is the kind of protective astral qi that allowed him to block everything!’
Hwa Mugi thrust his sword toward the Fist Demon.
Shiiiik.
Chaeeng.
Baek Jagang intercepted and blocked the attack flying toward the Fist Demon.
At that very moment, the Fist Demon launched an attack no one had expected. An attack no one thought he would unleash from such close range.
The Fist Demon’s unique martial art, Thunderbolt Asura Fist.
First Fist, Black Cloud Asura.
Kwaaaang!
With an explosion, Hwa Mugi slid backward. Even after taking the Thunderbolt Asura Fist head-on, he did not collapse.
The two did not miss this chance.
This time, Baek Jagang’s unique martial art flew in again.
Hegemon’s Heaven-Shaking Sword Art, Fifth Form, Annihilating Illusion Form.
Sword qi split apart in every direction with Hwa Mugi at the center. There was nowhere to dodge.
Shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk, shuk!
The sword qi that flew in from all sides struck Hwa Mugi’s body directly.
The earth shook, and an explosion erupted.
Amid the rising cloud of dirt, Hwa Mugi still did not fall and stood in place.
Swaaaaaek!
The Fist Demon’s fist flew in again.
Puuuuk!
For the first time, Hwa Mugi was sent flying backward and rolled across the ground.
The Fist Demon’s heaviest fist, the Third Fist, Heavenly Thunder Asura, had struck him precisely.
Kwa-rururung!
The sound of thunder that shook heaven and earth followed.
As Hwa Mugi sprang to his feet, the astral qi released from Baek Jagang’s sword struck him in succession.
Kwaaaang! Kwaang! Kwang!
The Fist Demon was the same. Thinking that they could not miss this opportunity, he poured out fist astral force.
Hwa Mugi could not avoid those attacks and was taking them all.
It was a chance to kill him.
The Fist Demon was about to unleash the final move he possessed.
The final Sixth Fist, Flame Thunder Asura.
It was the last technique he could use only once, because it poured all the internal energy in his body into a single strike.
Baek Jagang was the same. With the resolve to cut him down this time without fail, he was drawing up his internal energy to unleash the most powerful move of the Hegemon’s Heaven-Shaking Sword Art.
Just then, someone stopped the two of them.
“Wait!”
It was someone no one had expected. It was Geom Ujin, who had been silently watching the fight until now.
When the attack stopped at his restraint, the dirt cloud settled, revealing Hwa Mugi’s figure.
He was still standing without having fallen.
A fierce killing intent poured from Hwa Mugi’s body. If the killing intent until now had been one that gradually heightened as it was released, the killing intent now had torn its way out of him.
An uncontrollable, ungovernable killing intent.
At last, the Heavenly Killing Star had begun to crumble.
The Fist Demon could not understand.
‘It was the perfect chance. Why did the Cult Leader stop us?’
Geom Ujin’s gaze turned toward Hwa Mugi.
A crimson glow flowed from Hwa Mugi’s eyes. It was the first time he had seen killing intent tinged with such red energy.
Looking at him, Geom Ujin calmly said,
“Enough acting.”
At the word “acting,” not only the Fist Demon and Baek Jagang, but everyone else as well looked back and forth between Geom Ujin and Hwa Mugi in astonishment.
Geom Ujin said to Baek Jagang,
“It seems that man’s protective astral qi is no ordinary thing.”
Geom Ujin had been watching Hwa Mugi fight all this time.
Even in the earlier fights against others, he had blocked attacks he could have avoided with his protective astral qi. At first, Geom Ujin had thought that was to show off his own power.
But when he saw Hwa Mugi accept the terrifying attacks of the Fist Demon and Baek Jagang just now without resistance, Geom Ujin felt an inexplicable sense of wrongness.
Hwa Mugi could clearly have avoided them. The attacks that flew in were truly powerful, but considering the footwork he had shown earlier, there was no way he would allow attacks to land on him in succession like this.
Moreover, had he not been the one trying to fight the Fist Demon with fist arts in order to manage his internal energy?
Then why was he taking attacks like this now? The consumption of internal energy should have been extreme.
If he was deliberately inviting disadvantage, then?
An astonishing statement flowed from Geom Ujin’s mouth.
“It seems that man’s protective astral qi absorbs external attacks as internal energy.”
“!”
Because it was a shocking statement, everyone stared at Hwa Mugi with widened eyes.
Geom Ujin asked Hwa Mugi,
“Is that not so?”
Sssssss.
Then the killing intent that had been rising madly began to subside.
It had seemed like an uncontrollable killing intent, yet it sank in an instant. Astonishingly, he had been able to control it.
At the same time, ease appeared on Hwa Mugi’s rage-filled face.
“As expected! You noticed.”
Hwa Mugi had allowed the attacks not merely to flaunt his protective astral qi.
“Heaven-Defying Demon-Absorbing Art. It is a martial art I created.”
More precisely, it was a martial art he had created with the help of the souls inside his body.
“You all thought you were exhausting my internal energy until now, but I was exhausting yours.”
“!”
Two on their side had been injured, and everyone had depleted a great deal of internal energy.
“My internal energy has been fully replenished.”
If Geom Ujin had not noticed, Baek Jagang and the Fist Demon would also have had their internal energy completely drained.
He had let himself be hit from the very beginning in order to make everyone believe that he blindly trusted his protective astral qi. Only then would they not suspect anything even if he was struck like this.
Hwa Mugi was by no means an arrogant man. He had been pretending to be arrogant while conducting a sure and perfect fight.
The moment Hwa Mugi was truly arrogant was right now.
“The only one who can kill me is myself.”