Chapter 423. Number One Under Heaven.
Facing the Cult Leader evenly in a contest of palm force, I gradually began to feel better. From the moment I resolved to burn away every last bit of the Heavenly Jade, I had been able to endure.
The relief that I would not die so easily.
The satisfaction of standing toe-to-toe against the Cult Leader.
The one-on-one fight I had wanted.
Regardless of the outcome, everything was to my liking.
I did not know what the Cult Leader felt.
But I had been waiting for this kind of fight all along.
How fair a life-and-death duel was this?
At some point, even as I melted and burned the Heavenly Jade while maintaining the Violet Haze Divine Art, the world, which had been dyed entirely purple, was slowly regaining its original color.
If that was its normal color, then it meant my gaze was normal as well.
The world restored to its true colors was far more pleasing to look at than one drenched entirely in blood-red.
How beautiful was this?
Now the Cult Leader’s face was clearer, too, and easier to see.
This man also had eyes, a nose, and a mouth, and his ears were rather large as well. If he faced the sunlight directly, he too would be dazzled, and if he ate food, he would be able to tell what tasted good from what did not.
This man was human too.
Only, he possessed a mental world far higher than ordinary people. If there was a realm of being an “adult,” this man had reached its very end. A man who trusted no one, leaned on no one, and had discarded every trivial hope concerning humanity.
To become more adult than others was such a parched thing.
This fight was a confrontation between a man who had become an adult beyond the bounds of ordinary adulthood, and a waiter who had never wanted to become an adult in the first place.
It seemed the Cult Leader could not easily understand my condition either.
“……Your internal energy.”
“Go on.”
“Why is it growing deeper?”
“So there was something you were curious about too, Cult Leader.”
The Cult Leader let out a sigh and nodded. I sighed as well. Since he was a man of exceptionally keen perception, he seemed unable to understand the state of my body. This is what happens when a person is too smart.
I treated the Cult Leader just like anyone else.
“You may be curious, but I can’t tell you that.”
This time, the Cult Leader laughed as if he were a person with emotions. He seemed both hollowed out and amused by my answer.
Even though he had failed to overwhelm me with internal energy, the Cult Leader’s presence remained peerless.
I could glimpse a confidence in him that he could finish me off one way or another.
Even while we were facing each other, I continued to burn and melt the Heavenly Jade, absorbing it into my dantian. In other words, even during this idle chatter, I was growing stronger and stronger.
What did that mean?
It meant that, from the very beginning, the more I flapped my mouth, the stronger I kept becoming. Most experts are silent, solemn, and taciturn, but I am different. Now even my martial arts and my mouth had become one.
Body-Jade Union (身玉合一), the Heavenly Jade and my body had become one.
Martial-Tongue Oneness (武舌一體), my martial arts and even my tongue had achieved harmony.
A man who grew stronger merely by exhaling while burning the Heavenly Jade—that was me.
The Cult Leader said,
“I think I understand why the Sword Demon spent time with you.”
“What was the reason? I’m curious too.”
“For the most part, there is no time to be bored.”
“I see.”
It seemed I was not the only man who grew stronger while talking. The Cult Leader’s robes began to flutter, and then his atmosphere changed abruptly, as though he were unleashing the Violet Haze Divine Art.
“Huh?”
I could not tell exactly what state he was in, but……
It was not difficult to infer that he was using a secret martial art learned only by Cult Leaders.
Since he was the Cult Leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult, should I consider that the Heavenly Demon Divine Art (天魔神功)?
When I finally held out to the end in our contest of palm force while maintaining the Violet Haze Divine Art, the Cult Leader exploded his palm force and pushed me back.
We faced each other for a moment with some distance between us, and I asked,
“Heavenly Demon Divine Art?”
Currents of energy were coiling around the Cult Leader’s entire body, but because they had become rising streaks of light, his figure was not easy to see. He looked like a person trapped inside a translucent blade.
“Have you ever shown that martial art to the Three Calamities?”
“No.”
He was a frightening man even when standing still, but the sight of him trapped within that translucent current was truly bizarre.
The instant I saw the Cult Leader’s state, I finished preparing to flee.
What fool would face a Cult Leader like that?
The moment I saw the Cult Leader move, I unleashed the Dark Fragrance Steps.
Now I understood why the Cult Leader had requested a life-and-death duel. The instant he unleashed the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, he looked like a person whose realm of reason had been erased. To put it crudely, his eyes had rolled back.
I raced fiercely around the perimeter of the basin. I was running away, but because I still had the will to fight, I had no choice but to circle the basin. In truth, it was not exactly a full circuit.
Because I kept running while changing directions this way and that.
Even while chasing me, the Cult Leader extended his hand and unleashed rays of light……
Each time, without slowing my running speed, I spun through the air. I twisted as I spun, shot forward as I spun, sometimes dodged up into the air, then used palm force to twist my body again.
This was probably the right thing to do.
I ran away with an utterly serious mindset.
Because it did not look like he was using the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, but the Demon God Art (魔神功).
The reason I shamelessly chose to flee was that the Cult Leader’s reason had snapped. In other words, I assumed he was in an insane state like when I first used the Violet Haze Divine Art. That meant there was a high chance I would die if I were caught.
I was mad, but the Cult Leader was mad too.
He chased me at such tremendous speed that I almost wanted to entrust him with the position of the next Swift Hall Master.
I used every evasive maneuver I knew while running.
Something grazed the top of my head.
A clump of hair was sliced away and scattered through the air.
When I dodged by twisting my body, a streak of light flying toward me pierced through the hem of my clothes as well. Since I intended to counterattack once the Cult Leader’s reason returned, I stubbornly ran and dodged. In any case, there was no one watching, so there was no reason to be embarrassed.
Neither Cheonak nor Senior Divine Beggar.
Neither would have been able to last long against the Cult Leader who had become a Demon God (魔神).
I understood why the Cult Leader had become such a monster.
When facing powerful enemies from the start, he must have reversed the situation while maintaining that state.
There is nothing I do not understand. He was a man who would have beaten me half to death first, then either tormented me, conciliated me, or tried to use me as his hands and feet.
I caught a glimpse of the Cult Leader’s state, and strangely, his hair, originally pitch-black, looked ashen.
I could not know why.
Was he aging while chasing me because I was too fast?
In any case, I intended to run for seven days and nights until the Cult Leader returned to being human.
A deadly earnest contest between one who sought to kill and one who sought to flee. There are times when running alone can make your mind reel, and I was beginning to feel that way. Just when I thought I had evaded roughly forty of the Cult Leader’s attacks……
A thunderous roar rang out.
Was he preparing Demonic Path Heaven-Reversal while in the state of a Demon God?
By the time I stopped and looked, the black-red sphere was already complete. The moment the Cult Leader saw me, he soared dizzyingly into the air. He must be planning to drop Demonic Path Heaven-Reversal, strike away the force of the explosion, and then distance himself from the ground.
If this succeeded, I would be the only one erased.
The moment I decided that vanishing together with the Cult Leader was better than dying alone, I wrapped Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven around both hands.
Pajijijijijijik!
How high had he risen? When the Cult Leader’s body looked as small as a dot, I sent Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven upward toward the falling Demonic Path Heaven-Reversal.
In the worst-case scenario, I had never intended to die alone in the first place.
Would all of Mount Hua be blown away?
Humans struggle to survive until the very last moment. As soon as I sent Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven upward, I scraped up every last bit of my power from the bottom and prepared Violet Haze Half-Mirror.
Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven and Demonic Path Heaven-Reversal.
I intended to offset the impact of the two forces with Violet Haze Half-Mirror. In any case, once the aftermath of the explosion came rushing in, I would fall within a range that no movement art could escape, so this was the right judgment.
As I prepared Violet Haze Half-Mirror, I kept my eyes fixed on the sky.
The fiercely rotating pattern of taiji collided in the air with the black-red sphere……
For a brief moment, nothing happened.
It looked as though two soft, yielding balls were trying to merge. Was there such a thing as the sound of space being torn apart? In that instant, as soon as the two forces exploded from the collision, streaks of light shot out, making it look as if the sky I had been watching was splitting to the left and right.
“……!”
The streak of light stretching to the right receded so far that its end could not be seen.
The streak of light stretching to the left touched one of Mount Hua’s high peaks and pierced straight through it.
I drew my right hand over my head like a brush and unfolded Violet Haze Half-Mirror. At the same time, I turned over the palm of my left hand to cover my face and prepared Snow-Robed Solitary Poison. If I couldn’t endure it, I would die; if I could, I would come back to my senses.
When I unfolded Violet Haze Half-Mirror and Snow-Robed Solitary Poison at the same time.
My reason was severed as well.
...Looking back, everything is only an instant.
...As soon as I regained my reason, I escaped from Snow-Robed Solitary Poison with the Violet Haze Divine Art, then opened my eyes.
Was I dead?
Was I still alive?
Everything around me was in utter ruin. Only after looking around for a long while did I realize that the floor of the basin where I had fought the Cult Leader had frozen over in patches.
Where was the Cult Leader?
I waited for him while sitting cross-legged. His position would not be bad either. If he had unleashed his ultimate technique while maintaining his body-protecting art, I expected he would have been flung away by the explosion and then come here again.
Suddenly, I felt something flowing down my body, and when I reached out, blood was running from both my ears.
Was it the aftermath of Snow-Robed Solitary Poison?
I couldn’t have lost my hearing, could I?
When I listened carefully, I heard birds chirping from a very distant place.
I heard the flutter of robes and fixed my gaze on the sky.
Standing perfectly upright, the Cult Leader was quite literally descending.
‘This man really is incredible, isn’t he?’
But the Cult Leader was not the only incredible one. I was still burning the Heavenly Jade as I prepared for the next fight. The strategies I had for dealing with the Cult Leader had now dwindled from ten thousand to three or four. I was somewhat anxious, but I assumed the Cult Leader must certainly have taken damage as well.
The Cult Leader descended in an extremely composed posture, and as soon as both his feet touched the ground, he sat cross-legged like me.
I greeted the Cult Leader who had returned from hell.
“Cult Leader, good to see you.”
The Cult Leader smiled faintly and opened his mouth.
“Sect Master.”
“What is it?”
“How much strength do you have left?”
“Roughly enough to fight for seven days and nights, plus another half day or so.”
“You joke even in this situation?”
I nodded.
“Cult Leader, I have one request.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Let me hear one of your jokes too, Cult Leader.”
The Cult Leader lowered his gaze for a moment and pondered, then raised his head and looked at me.
“Judging by my remaining strength, I have about seven days and nights left.”
In all my life, I had never heard such an unfunny joke. But I could not ignore a man telling his first joke as though he were some neighborhood older brother.
“So in any case, it means I’m ahead by about half a day?”
The Cult Leader nodded.
“If you have strength left, come here.”
The Cult Leader seemed to doubt my condition, but my internal energy was still deepening. As soon as I stood up, two streams of blood poured from my nose, but I wiped them roughly with my hand and walked over to him.
The Cult Leader looked up at me and said.
“……Strike the crown of my head. Do not forget that this is a duel to the death.”
I slowly examined the Cult Leader’s condition.
There was blood around his mouth, sleeves, and neck. Had he been unable to withstand the aftermath of Sun-Moon Radiant Heaven and Demonic Path Heaven-Reversal? Or was he enduring the backlash of the demonic art that had made him move like a Demon God? He was not a talkative man, so I could not know the exact reason.
I raised my right hand to split the Cult Leader’s skull, then stopped and sat down facing him.
“Mm.”
Somehow, if I killed this man here.
It seemed likely that one of the Cult Leader’s eldest, second, or third sons would advance on Ilyang County. The three of them lacked the Cult Leader’s insight.
This is why whether to kill or spare is always the problem.
The Cult Leader asked me.
“What are you doing? You seem to have plenty of strength left.”
“You have strength left too, Cult Leader. Cult Leader, if I kill you here, one day Yoran will probably ask me why I killed you. Nine out of ten people of the martial world will say I did well to kill you, but I would be hard-pressed to answer Yoran’s question. No matter what I say, Yoran will not understand.”
“Why is that?”
“Why, you ask…… Because you saved Yoran. The strongest man under heaven told my disciple she would become the greatest in the next era. To her young heart, it must have been something to be proud of, and also a comfort.”
I met the Cult Leader’s eyes for a long time, then asked.
“Cult Leader, are you ready to retire?”
In the span of an instant that felt as long as eternity, the Cult Leader’s hair faded once more from ash-gray.
Now it would not be an exaggeration to call it white hair drained of ink.
Even in the midst of that, it seemed he had been maintaining the Demon God Body (魔神體).
In other words, if I had struck the crown of his head with a palm strike, the Cult Leader would have counterattacked.
Because I did not attack, I neutralized the Cult Leader’s final move.
It was not particularly surprising.
Because I was not someone who would have been caught by that counterattack anyway.
It hadn’t felt as though we had fought for long at all, yet before I knew it, the sun was setting. The sky looked as if a violet twilight would soon begin, and yet……
To my eyes, everything around me was a murky yellow.
“Cult Leader, how do my eyes look?”
The Cult Leader answered.
“Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze. Sect Leader, you are now the greatest under heaven.”
I nodded, then replied.
“Let’s keep it a secret that I’m the greatest under heaven.”
“Is that not something everyone desires?”
“As if it’s anything so remarkable. You held the place of greatest under heaven for far longer, Cult Leader, and yet you never made any particular show of it. Looking back, it is no more than an instant, and the same goes for me. To whom would I boast of a strength that lasts only for a time?”
With his eyes closed, the Cult Leader murmured my words back.
“To whom would one boast of a strength that lasts only for a time?”
The Cult Leader smiled faintly with his eyes still shut. It was a strange expression that seemed relieved and bitter at once, and his breathing had grown extremely faint.
I looked at the Cult Leader and said,
“Cult Leader, I’ll be in trouble if you die here. I’ll bring Moyong Baek.”
“…….”
Only then did I realize that the reason the Cult Leader’s hair color changed so drastically was because of his demonic arts. In exchange for rapid attainment, the side effects inflicted on the body were also severe.
I said to the Cult Leader,
“Cult Leader, let’s descend the mountain together. Don’t die as you please. If you leave like that, I’ll have no choice but to wage all-out war against the Cult. Even if I don’t want to. Now that I think about it, the Grand Dukes will probably rebel against Eldest Brother.”
The Cult Leader answered.
“Is that so?”
“Wouldn’t they? What’s more, if Eldest Brother himself refuses, the Cult will immediately be swept into a succession struggle. And someone will stop at nothing.”
Only then did the Cult Leader open his eyes.
“Are you saying the things I went through will be repeated?”
“Most likely.”
The Cult Leader nodded.
“Very well. I will circulate my qi and regulate my breathing, so stand guard.”
“Let’s do that.”
I got up, sat down a little distance away, then rested my chin on my hand as I watched the Cult Leader circulate his qi and regulate his breathing.
I had barely managed to stop the Cult Leader, who had tried to take his own life the moment he realized he had lost. The Cult Leader possessed a coldness that made no exception even for his own life when it came to the words he had spoken.
As I watched the Cult Leader circulate his qi and regulate his breathing, I burned the Heavenly Jade to the very end. The Violet Haze Divine Art was still being maintained.
In other words, I too was circulating my qi and regulating my breathing with my eyes wide open.
I could not know exactly what the Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze the Cult Leader had spoken of were, but……
I knew that I had entered the realm of the Golden Turtle.
As more time passed, the gap between me and the Cult Leader would only grow wider. Now that I thought about it, I should have slapped the Cult Leader across the cheek, but I had forgotten.
‘Ah, that’s a bit of a shame.’
Regardless of what was a shame……
The Samjae were now masters of the previous generation.
The greatest under heaven of the present age—that is me.