"What a confident brat."
"What a confident brat."
Heibai Shagui looked down at Tianhui.
Ever since they set foot in the murim, no one had ever openly declared they would kill them.
Who were they?
Though they were now called Heibai Shagui, they were once the Yinyang Shuangmo who had dominated the murim.
Yet a mere youth barely twenty years old was declaring he would kill them; from their standpoint, they couldn't even muster a laugh.
Grip!
The two simultaneously tightened their grips and pulled the sword and saber planted into the ground.
Shattered stone fragments scattered as the massive sword and saber were once again held in their hands.
The exact same posture as when they were first seen.
However, the atmosphere had changed.
Sharp, heavy, and ferocious.
Feeling the slowly pressing pressure of the two, a gleam of interest appeared in Tianhui's eyes.
‘Not bad.’
The internal energy radiating from the two old men was profound and heavy, ranking among the top of anyone he had encountered so far.
‘On par with the Elders, or perhaps even superior?’
Gauging their martial prowess which exceeded his expectations, Tianhui drew his sword.
The moment the Bailian Sword revealed itself—
Whoooosh—
Heibai Shagui targeted both of Tianhui's flanks.
The crudely swung sword and saber generated a fierce wind pressure, targeting Tianhui who stood holding his sword defenselessly.
“Impatient, aren't we.”
Tianhui's eyes flashed as he whispered.
Clang!
‘What kind of sword—!’
‘What in the—!’
Heibai Shagui was startled.
The martial arts the two unleashed were the Baiyin Guidao and the Heiyang Shajian.
Though they hadn't given it their all, these were a heavy saber and heavy sword capable of taking the life of an ordinary master in a single exchange.
Yet upon colliding with the sword Tianhui swung, their sword and saber were sent bouncing backward.
Heibai Shagui quickly recovered their sword and saber, but as their hands gripping the weapons still trembled from the shock, their pupils hardened.
It was an overwhelming Fantan Gangqi.
But even more surprising was that he had deployed the Fantan Gangqi in such a brief instant.
Of course, they too could display Fantan Gangqi, but they couldn't guarantee they could unleash it in a split second like that.
‘A master.’
‘A master...!’
Feeling a sense of alarm, the two instinctively drew upon their neigong.
Immediately, black and white sword qi and saber qi gathered upon their respective weapons.
‘Yin and Yang?’
Interest sparked in Tianhui's eyes.
Unlike their identical appearances, the neijia qigong they cultivated was the exact opposite.
Black and White, Yin and Yang.
The moment he saw the contrasting energies contained within their sword and saber—
Whoooosh—
A black and white wind swirled around the sword and saber.
It was a strike like a bolt of lightning.
It was at a speed incomparable to the two attacks they had unleashed just moments ago.
The blade of the saber and the blade of the sword reached point-blank range, piercing toward his vital points.
Sreaaak!
Yet Tianhui remained composed.
He merely swung his sword toward the sword and saber approaching to kill him.
Boom!
The air exploded.
The sword and saber were blocked by Tianhui's sword and bounced back once more. However, this time, it didn't end there.
Following the bouncing weapons, Heibai Shagui spun around in a full rotation.
Swirl—
Augmented by internal energy, physical strength, and rotational force, the sword and saber were swung at a speed difficult to track with the eyes, creating sweeping slashes.
Six slashes tore through the air like beastly claws.
Crack-crack-crack!
Tianhui quietly observed the six slashes that completely eliminated any space to escape.
At a glance, he appeared frozen by the slashes, but Tianhui sensed a discrepancy in the sword and saber techniques the two were wielding.
‘A sword and a saber, with contrasting Yin and Yang energies, yet they are this similar?’
As he briefly analyzed the martial arts before him, Tianhui realized why the two were so identical and let out a smirk.
‘I thought it was something impressive.’
Raising his sword, he blocked their slashes.
Cla-clang!
Fast and heavy.
But that was all.
Crash!
Tianhui infused even more potent internal energy than theirs and shattered the slashes in a single strike.
Force against force, tyranny against tyranny.
That was the way he had always done things.
A tremendous shockwave spread throughout the pavilion, shaking it as if an earthquake had struck.
“Ugh!”
“Gasp!”
Heibai Shagui staggered from the impact.
Tianhui stared at the two as they clutched their chests, suppressing their internal injuries, and muttered.
“Disappointing. I observed you thinking you had something extraordinary up your sleeves, but it was merely a single martial art split in two.”
Heibai Shagui's eyes widened.
The fact that the neijia qigong they cultivated was originally a single art was known only to themselves and their master.
Yet he figured it out after just a few exchanges? It was absurd.
Just as they thought it was a fluke or a mere bluff, Tianhui's mouth moved again.
“Since it's Yin and Yang, it seems it was originally a martial art embodying the profound principles of Taiji.”
At Tianhui's final confirming words, Heibai Shagui's mouths clamped shut.
He was seeing through everything.
The martial art they were originally supposed to cultivate was a peerless mental cultivation method and neijia qigong called Hunyuan Taiji Gong.
However, their talent had fallen short of mastering the Hunyuan Taiji Gong, leading their master to divide it into two neijia qigong arts.
Baiyin Zhigong of Yin energy.
Heiyang Zhigong of Yang energy.
But with their master dead, the only ones who knew of this were themselves.
Seeing their reaction—glaring silently with their mouths shut without a reply—Tianhui knew his guess was spot on.
“If this is all there is, there's no need to figure out the original martial art. I'll just end this now.”
As Tianhui spoke with a chilling tone, overwhelming hegemonic aura flowed from his entire body, binding them.
Instantly, the two faltered and stepped back.
Such intense hegemonic aura was a first for them.
An overwhelming aura they had never felt even from their master or Baishashen...
Thud—
“……!”
“……!”
Heibai Shagui snapped back to their senses upon feeling the wall against their backs and looked at each other.
Neither of them uttered a word, but they knew exactly what the other was feeling.
An emotion they had tried so desperately to forget.
The sense of defeat.
As the gruesome memories of their defeat at the hands of Baishashen resurfaced, their faces contorted into vicious, malevolent scowls.
They were enraged to the extreme.
Not at Tianhui standing before them, but at themselves for once again cowering in fear before an opponent.
Rumble—
Surrendering their bodies to rage, the internal energy of the two erupted. It was so intense that the pavilion shook, and dust fell from the roof.
As Tianhui casually raised his sword—
Boom!
Heibai Shagui stomped their feet.
Leaving deep footprints on the floor, the two fiercely cleaved through the air like arrows.
It was a soft and agile movement, contrasting with their massive frames.
Boasting outstanding speed and flexibility, it was the footwork called Hunyuan Fei, which had greatly contributed to their infamous reign of terror.
Swish—
Executing the Hunyuan Fei, the two closed the distance with Tianhui and simultaneously swung their weapons.
Whoooosh!
Sparks erupted from the sword, and chilling frost began to form on the saber.
Yang energy and Yin energy drawn to their absolute limits.
Heibai Shagui's combined attack radiated a fierce and heavy energy, as if capable of instantly felling any enemy.
The swift footwork and the heavy sword and saber techniques were swung as if to split the Baigui Cheng, colliding with Tianhui's sword.
Crash!
Baigui Cheng shook violently.
“Urk!”
“Ugh!”
Heibai Shagui vomited blood and retreated.
‘W-was that Yujianshu just now?!’
‘That's impossible! Unleashing Yujianshu at his age is inconceivable!’
As the two clutched their bellies suffering from internal injuries, grinding their teeth while sharing the exact same thought—
Swoooosh—
A shadow fell over their lowered gaze staring at the floor.
Hurriedly raising their heads while hunched over, they locked eyes with Tianhui standing before them.
The eyes looking down at them were utterly indifferent.
As they stared into those bottomless, abyss-like eyes, Tianhui's body suddenly tilted.
Flinch—
‘An attack?!’
‘We have to block...!’
Regaining their senses, the two tried to move their hands to block Tianhui's attack.
But something was wrong.
They tried to put strength into their hands, but instead, all strength drained from their entire bodies. No, their senses were fading away entirely.
As if sinking into an eternal slumber.
Along with that, the two gradually realized.
It was not Tianhui's body that was tilting, but their very line of sight.
Slick—
The heads of Heibai Shagui, eyes wide open, thudded to the floor, and fountains of blood sprayed in all directions from their severed necks.
A spectacle of blood fountains shooting up to the roof.
Though having lost their heads, the corpses stood there vacantly, unable to even fall, as if lamenting something deeply tragic.
Tianhui walked past them.
Despite the commotion that had just occurred, the door remained firmly shut.
Placing his hand on the door, he pushed.
Creak—
As light spilled out through the opening crack of the door, revealing the interior—
“So, Heibai Shagui has been dealt with.”
A voice echoed from within the crack of the door.
It was an exceedingly low and chilling voice.
Raising his head, he looked forward.
Beneath the luminous pearl, a man clad entirely in white from head to toe was looking down from a lavish throne, sitting with a slouched posture.
“Impressive. In this Castle, only this Seat could have blocked their combined attack.”
Approaching him slowly, he asked.
“Baishashen?”
As he walked and spoke, he found himself standing before the stairs.
“...Younger than I expected.”
The man slouched on the throne slowly cast his eyes downward.
His two pupils, moving with the cunning of a snake eyeing its prey, were fixed on Tianhui standing at the stairs.
“A Taoist of the Huashan Sect, were you?”
Baishashen scrutinized Tianhui up and down with a suspicious expression for a moment, then furrowed one brow and parted his crimson lips.
“So it was the Huashan Sect's doing that my subordinates' communications were severed.”
“At least you have some wit about you.”
At Tianhui's response, Baishashen's eyes, which had held an expression of sudden realization, began to turn pure white.
“I acknowledge that you possess remarkable skill. But you are still young. You must know who this Seat is, yet you dare to come here alone. Do you not value your li—”
As his whispering pupils deepened—
“Why so much talk?”
Tianhui, who had remained silent while listening to Baishashen, cut him off.
It wasn't even worth listening to, and that wasn't the reason he had come all this way.
“Did you think I came all this way just to chat with you?”
Finishing his words, Tianhui drew his sword.
“Enough talking. Come at me.”