Chapter 422. Bald Lee Jaha.
When I opened my eyes, the Cult Leader was before me.
Who wouldn’t be startled?
It was so absurd that it took me a moment to regain my sense of reality. The Cult Leader opened his eyes as well and stared blankly at me.
Left alone like this, I too had plenty to say, but I did not voice it. The Cult Leader had endured much until now. In respect for that, I maintained my silence as well and took in the shape of the basin.
Could the reason he had asked for my last words be that the Cult Leader had not fought properly until now?
Most likely.
In truth, to face the Cult Leader, I had no choice but to use the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven at a specific moment. I also ruled out One Kill, since holding a sword seemed likely to put me a beat too late.
But looking at this man’s expression, I wondered if I would truly have time to create the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven.
Still, I had roughly gauged the circumference of the basin with my eyes.
I met the Cult Leader’s gaze once more, and we stood at the same time. The Cult Leader stood there motionless, not even telling me to come at him.
Did he perhaps possess a counterattack technique like mine?
Roughly seven thousand three hundred strategies flashed through my mind.
I could not attack rashly, and if I wagged my tongue frivolously, the Cult Leader seemed likely to attack, so I had no choice but to breathe.
Why did my ear have to itch at a moment like this? Since we were in the midst of a standoff, I had no choice but to pick my ear.
After flicking away the earwax on my finger and fixing my gaze on the Cult Leader, only then did the look in his eyes change. It seemed as though his gaze alone could make most men fall to their knees, but not me.
Looking at the sun rising over the mountain ridge, I said,
“The sun is already up. Did we circulate our energy for an entire day? Or has my energy circulation grown shorter? In hindsight, everything is but an instant.”
At that moment, I saw the Cult Leader’s hand rushing toward my face and met it with the Five Elements Palm (五行掌).
The cracking sound was like a massive boulder splitting apart.
I must have been trapped at once in a realm of silence, for I flew backward without hearing a single sound. After being pushed back through the air for quite some time, I made my body heavy and dropped to the ground before I could collide with the wall of the basin.
“……”
Even after touching the ground, I retreated another three or four steps before looking at the Cult Leader.
‘Is this his full strength?’
Because of the distance between us, the Cult Leader now looked like a tiny human figure.
But whenever I thought of the power contained in that palm force, his presence swelled again, as if I were seeing an illusion.
Wondering whether my right arm was intact, I swung it in a wide circle, only to feel a crunching sensation in my shoulder. At that instant, my blocked ear suddenly cleared, and the assorted sounds produced by the volcano rushed in all at once.
Among those assorted sounds, the commander was the wind.
I could see where the wind was blowing from, and even in which direction the hem of the Cult Leader’s robe fluttered. Was it because my senses had sharpened? Even elements that would not help in the fight instantly entered my mind and joined the strategy meeting. Thanks to that, my seven thousand three hundred strategies were swelling into ten thousand.
Why did I have so many useless plans?
In any case, I had countered with the Five Elements Palm, and it was still like this?
Would the Cult Leader accept a surrender……?
Judging by his expression, surrender did not seem likely to work, so I simply faced him. Thinking positively, it meant my mind-reading was still sharp.
‘Surrender is out the window.’
The Cult Leader, being a dignified man, held the center of the basin and waited for me. As the undignified one, I had no choice but to close the distance.
‘……If I so much as slap him once, I’ll definitely die, won’t I?’
Everyone has a plausible plan, but this looked impossible. Why did I keep falling into useless worries even in a life-or-death crisis?
At a certain distance, I launched myself with the Dark Fragrance Steps, rose into the air, and thrust out my right palm.
This time as well, it would be Five Elements (五行) against Five Elements (五行).
The instant I saw the Cult Leader’s twin palms midway, I thrust out my left palm too.
KWAaaaaaaaaang!
Both my hands collided with the Cult Leader’s, but the pain concentrated in the back of my head, my eardrums, and my shoulder blades. This time, because I had been in the air, my body flipped backward in a somersault and was flung away, spinning. When I landed, both feet touched down first, and I planted one hand on the ground as well.
Had there ever been such a perfect landing in the jianghu?
Absurdly enough, because this time I had attacked with the Five Elements Palm at full power, I checked the Cult Leader’s condition.
“……”
It had no effect at all.
It was the same Five Elements palm force, so why did it not work?
The Cult Leader still held his ground. Since he showed no intention of moving, it seemed like a situation where I could prepare the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven right here. No matter how outstanding the Cult Leader was, this was not a distance he could cover before a single breath ended.
But I had a faintly chilling feeling.
‘Does he know the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven?’
I narrowed my brow and read the Cult Leader’s expression.
I had a premonition that while I prepared the Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven, he would draw his sword like Eldest Brother and pour out sword energy.
‘Then I must endure it.’
When I felt that strange ill omen, the Cult Leader condensed a crimson energy in his right hand.
“Huh?”
Five-colored light gathered in the Cult Leader’s left hand, and then the two energies devoured each other. Before I could even steel myself, I confirmed the existence of a dark-red sphere of qi created by the Cult Leader.
What on earth should I call that?
A Demonic Path-style Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven?
If I were to name it, it would be Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance (魔道逆天). The moment I saw the optical illusion of the surrounding space being sucked into the sphere……
I burst toward the Cult Leader as if exploding.
With one step (一步), I closed half the distance.
After leaping again, when I unleashed the Dark Fragrance Steps with the sensation that my entire body was exploding, the Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance was before my eyes. Since I could not know what sort of technique the Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance was, I charged in as though to counter it, then abruptly shot up into the air.
Even deception had to be done with my life on the line.
The Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance stretched out beneath me like a river of death.
While suspended in the air, I poured the twin palms of the Moon Shadow Heartless Art toward the Cult Leader’s eyes. Before the cold energy could even reach him, the Cult Leader retreated far back like a ghost, and the explosion and aftershock of the Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance striking the basin surged against my back like a wave.
I prepared my left palm for the Cult Leader’s counterattack, and with my right hand, I used the Great Hand Seal to block the ensuing wind driven in by the aftermath of the Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance.
I was not someone who would be shaken by mere aftermath.
Because the Cult Leader had engaged in this life-or-death duel in a rather static manner……
I stole a glance at the point in the basin where the Demonic Path Heaven-Defiance had landed. A round space had formed, as if a lump of the moon had erased the terrain.
‘How absurd.’
Since he possessed a technique like this, it was no wonder he had not fought properly in the martial contest at Maehwa Manor.
This time, I held the center of the basin, so the Cult Leader slowly approached me.
He looked like the god of death paying a visit.
He was an expert I could not possibly oppose merely by drawing up my internal energy in an ordinary physical state.
If I excessively forced my power and raised my level……
I would have to taste the feeling of my lifespan being shaved away.
Since it was better than being beaten to death, I waited for the cult leader with my entire body awakened. There are times when one deliberately pours energy out from every part of the body as if making it erupt; that is what is known as a qi wave. When one’s internal energy is profound, it becomes strong enough to repel hidden weapons flying in from all directions at once.
I deliberately maintained that qi wave.
To be honest, this time I had wanted to clash with the cult leader at close range, but……
The approaching cult leader linked his movement into drawing his sword and charged in.
‘Where did I put Ilsal again?’
I blocked the Heavenly Demon Sword surging toward my chest with the Mokga Dagger.
Sparks burst from the clashing blades.
Because my dagger was short, I was busier than the cult leader. I watched to the very end as I knocked his attacks aside, but every time the sword tip changed as if bewitching a man, a chill ran through me. With no other choice, I mixed in footwork to prepare for those transformations. I avoided the swift and ominous shifts of his sword with footwork, and only struck aside the attacks that followed clear trajectories with my dagger.
Even defending kept me busy.
When on earth would the Violet Haze Divine Art appear?
It would probably activate right before I died. I could forcibly draw out the power of the Heavenly Prison and use it, but that felt like the final card I ought to play when overturning the match, so for now I merely dealt with him while having raised my level. I felt every hair on my body stand on end from the qi wave.
The cult leader’s swordsmanship was unexpectedly similar in atmosphere to Eldest Brother’s.
‘Why does it feel so familiar?’
Had Eldest Brother and the cult leader once learned under the same master?
The unique habits engraved when one first learns swordsmanship are not easily shaken off, and those subtle points resembled Eldest Brother’s atmosphere.
On the other hand, it was similar to the Blood Night Palace Lord’s swordsmanship as well.
Now that I thought about it, the cult leader was the Blood Night Palace Lord’s senior martial brother. The Blood Night Palace Lord had once briefly shown me his swordsmanship, and astonishingly enough, that was now extending my life.
Because I, too, had accepted the swordsmanship the Blood Night Palace Lord displayed in its entirety and created the Meteor Sword.
Perhaps because of that, the cult leader’s swordsmanship was connected little by little to Elder Heo’s martial arts, the Blood Night Palace Lord’s swordsmanship, Eldest Brother’s swordsmanship, and the Meteor Sword I had created.
After all, the Blood Night Palace Lord had guided me at least a little……
In terms of seniority, the cult leader was my master’s senior martial brother, or someone on the level of a grandmaster.
In any case, because both of our sword arts were within a similar domain, his could not stray endlessly beyond my thinking, and the Heavenly Demon Sword was ultimately blocked by the Mokga Dagger.
The Mokga Dagger was short, but it was not cut in two by the Heavenly Demon Sword.
The cult leader’s swordsmanship was extraordinarily excellent, but it was not to the point of overwhelming the sum total of all the miscellaneous sword arts I had learned.
Had miscellany always been this great?
Just as I was thinking that our swordsmanship was evenly matched……
Palm force came surging in.
It was palm force that made my heart drop. The instant I countered with my left palm, I kept my eyes wide open and checked the cult leader’s movements.
As soon as the cult leader knocked me back with palm force, he drew the Heavenly Demon Sword through the air.
In preparation for the sword aura that had presumably sent the White-Clad Scholar flying, I wrapped Violet Haze qi around the Mokga Dagger and cut through empty air.
It was an almost instinctive response.
Unfavorably, the streaks of light collided in midair not very far from my body.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
In the aftermath, I was flung out of the basin. With a crack, I broke a thick tree branch with my back, then placed my palm against a large tree that appeared next and bore the weight bearing down on my body. I kicked off the tree with my rear foot and entered the basin again.
The cult leader was the first person to properly block my Violet Haze Sword Qi.
But though I felt a bit sorry saying this to the Three Talents, if my internal energy had been on par with theirs from the start, I felt that I would have been the greatest under heaven.
Because in every situation where a fight broke out, no one had ever deceived me. This was a kind of comprehension in a field slightly different from level. Heaven had taken from me the skill to cook well, and in exchange given me a rotten personality and insight that let me fight well anywhere.
As I prowled about like a tiger that had appeared in the neighborhood, the cult leader said,
“Sect Master.”
“Speak.”
“You were born with it.”
“I know.”
Only then did the cult leader smile faintly and sheathe his sword.
Looks like you’re enjoying yourself?
I also put the dagger into my robe. Facing an opponent this strong, scenes from the past flashed through my mind like a revolving lantern.
The sight of the neighborhood older boy telling me to follow him into the alley when I was young, and the sight of the cult leader telling me to follow him to Mount Hua, were not all that different.
The cult leader stretched his left hand into the air and expelled palm force upward, then strangely dropped it to the ground. It was palm force impossible to avoid. It was like a house that had been blown away by a typhoon suddenly falling down.
While I smashed apart the falling house from above with the Great Hand Seal, I came face-to-face with the cult leader right before my nose.
As his palm suddenly multiplied into six or seven and palm force poured out, I drew out an Ice Screen with my left hand.
When the enormous Ice Screen scattered in shattered fragments, the cult leader appeared above my line of sight and poured palm force toward my face. I froze the shattered cold energy once more, then added direction and intensity with the palm wind of my left palm and sent it flying.
The cult leader swept away all my attacks with his left palm, then thrust his right palm straight out. The moment all these attacks and responses took place in a single breath, I also extended my right hand and blocked the cult leader’s palm.
Thud!
My right hand felt as if it would burst, so I first froze my own hand with the Moon Shadow Merciless Art, then without judging anything at all, fired the Middle-Finger Flick Art of my left hand toward the cult leader’s face.
The second breath.
The cult leader dodged with a tilt of his head and expelled a tremendous palm force with his left hand.
Kwaaaaaaaaaang!
The moment I countered with the Five Elements Palm of my left hand, I flailed my feet while suspended in the air, then landed.
Now that I looked……
It seemed the cult leader was fighting one-on-one in order to torment me. When one foot touched the ground, I once again honestly met the cult leader palm to palm.
Crack!
At some point, even my left palm had stuck to the cult leader’s hand.
‘Did he get me?’
It seemed the cult leader considered crushing me with internal energy to be the surest attack. Since swordsmanship had not worked, was he thinking of suppressing me with force? The moment I felt the satisfaction that my swordsmanship was equal to the cult leader’s, this time I competed with him in internal energy.
There had surely never been a waiter like this in the world.
A waiter continuing a contest of both palms with the cult leader of the Demon Cult.
We poured out qi waves at the same time and raised our power.
Since it was a basin, the terrain was already low, but the moment our qi waves collided, we sank even lower. A strange pressure transmitted to my knees. It was as if the cult leader wanted to make me kneel and then lecture me.
I hated the thought of listening to nagging, so I forcibly endured.
Then the aura and internal energy erupting from the cult leader’s entire body grew even fiercer, and a pressure like I was about to be swallowed by a wave crushed my whole body. I felt as if I would die before counting to three, so final card or whatever be damned, I roused the Violet Haze Divine Art.
The cult leader’s complexion was dyed purple in an instant. Perhaps he had confirmed the light in my eyes, because the space between the cult leader’s brows also narrowed.
“……!”
To be honest, in this situation, I had absolutely no intention of using the Lazy Donkey Roll or listening to a lecture.
Because I, too, had strong pride.
Rather than perform a Lazy Donkey Roll while on my knees, I thought it would be better to stand against the cult leader and burst to death.
In the past, I think I had cultivated the Violet Mist Divine Art to about the first stage, but now such distinctions were meaningless.
Because I had unleashed the Violet Mist Divine Art, I could endure as if it were only natural.
At first, only the Cult Leader’s complexion had appeared purple, but now every direction was drenched in a deep blood-red hue.
Had all the blood vessels in my eyes burst as well?
Pain surged in, as if countless threads were being driven into eyes that had never even been injured.
I could feel the Cult Leader’s eyes taking in the violet waves drifting around me.
The Violet Mist Divine Art must seem wondrous even to the Cult Leader, huh?
Perhaps because so many things had ruptured, tears flowed against my will.
These were probably tears of blood.
Since I felt no sorrow, they were also heartless tears of blood.
But the heartless tears of blood that touched my face soon burned as if evaporating under the energy of the Violet Mist Divine Art, scattering as pale violet smoke.
The Violet Mist Divine Art was burning everything.
It burned my dantian, burned the sweat and tears I shed, and grew hotter and hotter, as if it would burn my eyesight, my eardrums, my tongue, and even every hair on my body.
I am that hot of a man.
While I was enduring so well, why did my heart suddenly sink?
If it burned everything, did that mean I would go bald because of the Violet Mist Divine Art?
‘No.’
With no sign of the final enlightenment I had hoped for, madness swept over me.
Defeat the Cult Leader, then live the rest of my life bald.
Lose to the Cult Leader, then die with a full head of hair.
To live or to die.
That is always the question.
Why is my life so arduous? Before my hair was completely burned away by the Violet Mist Divine Art, I burned the Heavenly Jade first with the Violet Mist Divine Art.
Since this was the decisive battle, there was absolutely no reason to keep the Heavenly Jade separated from my dantian. Taking this chance, I melted it all down and used it to oppose the Cult Leader.
In truth, the Heavenly Jade was nothing.
Burning true qi shortens one’s lifespan, but the Heavenly Jade had never been mine to begin with, so I could burn it like true qi as much as I pleased. The Heavenly Jade was something the Cult Leader had made, and if I used that Heavenly Jade to face the Cult Leader……
This, too, was karma ordained by heaven.
I returned the Heavenly Jade to the Cult Leader in my own way.
The Violet Mist Divine Art, the will of the sky that was especially clear today, the Heavenly Jade, Lee Zaha……
Fusion (合體).