Chapter 295: The Transcendent One
Read more at Nineheavens.org
Chapter 295 – The Transcendent One Long Sword Soul
A sword shadow flowing as if naturally seeping.
The path of the sword targeted Danmok Cheon’s left ribs.
PAT.
Danmok Cheon’s hand moved reflexively.
The great sword defended against the sword tip by a hair’s breadth.
JJEOJEONG!
Along with the metallic sound.
The direction of Danmok Cheon’s movement, which had been retreating backward, was bent sideways.
It was because of the heavy sword force loaded into the sword technique.
Naturally.
He couldn’t help but be swept along.
Since he had hastily assumed a defensive stance, the concentration of true energy in the blade was weak.
He lacked the leisure to meet it head-on with a large amount of energy.
On the other hand, what was loaded into Cheol Ryu-heun’s blade work was again extreme-level energy.
It was like a spring that ceaselessly gushed forth.
He was drawing up maximum internal power without rest.
Danmok Cheon momentarily thought.
That he was a madman.
Before he knew it, the second strike flew in.
Cheol Ryu-heun was closing the gap like a beam of light and thrusting out the Gan jiang Sword.
So fast that it seemed to split even an instant of time.
SSWESSEUNG!
A supple curve that didn’t match the sharp piercing sound.
A winding river came crashing in, transformed into a blade.
No, should he call it a bird freely roaming above the clouds?
Fast but soft, light but fierce.
It was truly outstanding skill.
It was the ideal sword path that any martial world swordsman would naturally dream of.
But Danmok Cheon, staggering as if bounced hard sideways, actually had no leisure to feel such things.
He was merely desperate to block the point the Gan jiang Sword was targeting.
JJEOJEONG!
The metallic sound rang again.
The gap between the first and second sounds was truly the span of an eye blink.
Moreover, the energy was the same.
Extreme level.
PAHAAAK-
This time, the direction of movement bounced the opposite way.
Because the bent path of the sword struck the right side.
Rapidly bending left and then bending right again – the sight was precarious.
Amid that, Danmok Cheon desperately released maximum supreme internal power.
The meridians and blood flow throughout his body shook.
Burning pain instantly spread through his body.
Excessive operation of true energy.
That brought on a series of pains.
Even his finger joints gripping the sword were tingling.
It was energy circulation imitating Cheol Ryu-heun.
In truth, it was an unavoidable choice for Danmok Cheon.
Because otherwise, it seemed difficult to respond properly.
In the meantime, a third strike of extreme-level energy targeted Danmok Cheon’s chest.
JJEOJEOEJEONG- KKWAUUUNG!
Simultaneously with the heavy sound, Danmok Cheon was pushed backward.
‘Keuk!’
It was ferocious sword force.
In truth, just blocking like this was fortunate.
Although it was a desperate moment, he had released a full eighty percent or more of his energy through excessive true energy operation.
So he had narrowly blocked it.
Being pushed backward was an unavoidable part.
In the process, he realized.
That what Cheol Ryu-heun had deployed now was the Great Emperor Three Sword Forms move.
The Great Emperor Three Sword Forms he had executed earlier had a concise essence.
It was a move of conciseness that minimized sword variations while maximizing the wondrous function of consecutive sword strikes.
Simply explained, it was a sword form serving as the vanguard that cut off the opponent’s flow.
The first form of Great Emperor Three Sword Forms was a kind of archery.
Its wondrous function was to shoot out and either pierce or collide.
It clashed with force.
Then the second form immediately came like a cavalry charge unit.
That disrupted the balance of true energy injected into the opponent’s sword.
The third form that immediately rushed was nothing less than artillery fire.
Destroying the disrupted true energy itself.
That is, the Great Emperor Three Sword Forms move was close to the fundamental wondrous function of the sword path.
Though of course its essence was of a different tier than other martial arts.
The Great Emperor Three Sword Forms was the opposite.
Those three moves focused on the variations of swordsmanship.
It was technique rather than method.
However, it wasn’t confusing to the point of being noticeable.
A minute degree of variation.
Except for the winding movement, it could be seen as simple blade work.
But that was only in the eyes of lower-class people who focused on outward form.
Such types were naturally struck down without knowing a thing.
Merely thinking that they lost because their martial level was weak.
On the contrary, for high-level masters, the variations of the Great Emperor Three Sword Forms felt cunning and abstruse.
Predicting the target point the sword was aiming for was tricky.
The more one knew, the more difficult it approached…
Amid that, the large amount of energy being maintained constantly was the biggest headache.
Cheol Ryu-heun was displaying extreme-level energy with every move.
If one were not a warrior of Danmok Cheon’s level, one would have already suffered fatal penetrating wounds and died.
In an instant.
KWAKWAK- TEOTEONG!
Danmok Cheon thrust both feet down hard and fixed them to the ground.
From that heavy impact, the ground cracked.
JJEOK- JJEOJOK-!
Danmok Cheon, having clenched his molars tightly, fiercely rotated his dantian and drew up power.
‘This fellow!’
The fighting spirit of a former-era martial world warrior.
Flames dwelling in his eyes blazed fiercely.
He wanted to show that he wouldn’t be easily overcome.
Kicking off the ground, he advanced forward like the wind.
Distance being compressed at rapid speed.
Not just his right hand but his left hand as well gripped the sword hilt.
It was two-handed sword path.
He intended to seize superiority in the match with tremendous Collapsing Sword combining the power of both hands.
The solemn energy loaded on the blade – the sword energy of extreme-level energy – fiercely shook the entire space.
It was truly ten-thousand-catty force.
As if the receiving side would be crushed flat in an instant.
But Cheol Ryu-heun didn’t evade.
He kicked off the ground.
PAK!
Rather, he leaped into the fearsome pressure of the Collapsing Sword.
And.
KWAK!
He gripped the Gan jiang Sword’s hilt with both hands.
He intended to face it head-on with the same maximum muscle strength and extreme-level energy.
The great sword striking down, the Gan jiang Sword surging up.
KKAAAAAAAANG- KKWAREUREUNG!
When the two’s sword techniques collided.
KKAKANG- KKAGAGANG-!
Two metallic sounds that followed struck his eardrums hard.
It was the Great Emperor Three Sword Forms deployed in succession.
Danmok Cheon’s extreme-level energy was neutralized with the first round.
Amid that, Cheol Ryu-heun’s second and third strikes rushed in.
With the same extreme-level energy.
Internal power operation that destroyed and ignored common martial sense.
In truth, Danmok Cheon had been prepared for that.
Therefore, the instant his extreme-level energy was neutralized, he forcibly operated true energy and poured it into the great sword.
Intending to withstand the coming second and third strikes.
However, there were limits.
It was difficult.
To display extreme-level energy as rapidly as Cheol Ryu-heun.
For the second strike, eighty to ninety percent energy, for the third strike, seventy to eighty percent energy was all he could manage.
Both arms swayed backward.
He was pushed.
Soundly.
Moreover, the forced true energy operation had shaken his meridians and blood flow, causing pain.
He was astonished again.
-I’m quite curious whose body will reach its limit first.
The words he himself had uttered earlier were shameful now.
That fellow’s internal power operation and energy mobilization had no limits.
It was truly freely unobstructed supreme sword force.
An existence that loftily transcended the principles of all creation.
As he had said, he possessed unprecedented talent and flesh.
Completely ignoring the time and laws of power release, and even forbidding imitation of his operation essence…
Cheol Ryu-heun’s following sword strikes didn’t permit even half a breath’s leisure.
The blade again transformed into a river and flew winding in.
It was free.
Water became wind, and wind again became a bird.
It was blade movement as if roaming above clouds.
Fast but soft, light but fierce.
Thus the Great Emperor Three Sword Forms consecutively attacked Danmok Cheon’s upper, middle, and lower zones.
JJEONG- KKWANG, JJEOJEONG- KWAKKWANG, JJEONG- KKWANG-!
He barely managed to block.
But.
“Keok!”
It was a meaningless defense.
Danmok Cheon, having coughed blood from internal injury, retreated a full three zhang distance.
No.
It was closer to being bounced out hard, pushed by a boulder striking his torso.
Because of extreme-level energy repeated three times in a row.
‘Quickly, the power…!’
For Danmok Cheon, it was a small opportunity.
This slight gap.
He intended to draw in natural energy while retreating backward.
CHWAHAAT-
He who finally stopped by scraping the ground with both feet.
His body that had achieved the Nature Assimilation Realm absorbed natural energy.
At that moment.
SHYUSHYUSHYUSHYUSHYU-
The sword of Cheol Ryu-heun, who had closed in ahead, created a complex trajectory while spreading afterimages.
The blade appeared to be dozens, hundreds.
It was surprising.
Sword shadows arranged and overlapping following the rapid course of the move.
They weren’t just rapid afterimages.
They were illusory energy of deception resembling vivid sword energy.
Each and every one.
What Cheol Ryu-heun was deploying was none other than Upper Emperor Three Swords.
Danmok Cheon, having instinctively sensed a life-threatening crisis, executed a sword move releasing extreme-level energy he had barely gathered.
If he waited, he might die.
The best option was to go forward himself and clash.
Thus the newly created ultimate move, his heart’s effort – City-Crashing Sword – was shot forward.
HUUUUUUUUUUNG-!
The pressure of the great sword shooting straight out as if to erase Upper Emperor Three Swords in one blow.
Against the Collapsing Sword technique heading toward the central extreme point, Upper Emperor Three Swords rotated like a giant umbrella.
CHWACHWACHWACHWACHWAT- KKUKKUKKUKKUKKUNG!
The first form that had fiercely collided rang out a roar and.
PIPIPIPIPIPIT- PEOPEOPEOPEOPEOPENG!
The instantaneous second form expanded as if exploding fiercely.
Illusory energies confusing the vision while rushing countless toward Danmok Cheon’s front.
The power of the third form hidden within followed quickly.
CHYUCHYUCHYUCHYUCHYUT- KWAKWAKWAKWAKKWANG!
The energy of illusions was instantly converted to real sword energy.
Danmok Cheon, wrapped in haze, moaned while being bounced backward into the air.
“Keo…”
Fresh blood scattering long into the void.
His internal injury had worsened.
The entirety of his Eight Extraordinary Meridians and Twelve Standard Meridians was shaken.
Was that all?
He had also suffered several wounds.
There were more than five large and small holes in his body.
KKWANG- KKWADEUDEU…!
Danmok Cheon’s body collided with a boulder far to the rear.
TEOLSSEOK.
A body fallen face-down on the ground.
Danmok Cheon’s dark brown pupils created transparent ripples.
‘Cheol Ryu-heun… was he at this level?’
Until now, he had competed with countless warriors.
But an existence like Cheol Ryu-heun was the first.
Setting aside the strength of martial prowess, that internal power operation method was incomprehensible.
He didn’t know.
How that fellow’s body was made…
“You don’t have gu poison?”
At Cheol Ryu-heun’s indifferent question, Danmok Cheon laughed coldly.
“Keut… what do you take this body for… to use such a thing…”
“Then die now.”
The moment Cheol Ryu-heun was about to launch his body.
PAPAT-!
Some figure rapidly charged in from the side.
A long saber thrusting out in coordination with movement.
SHYUKAAAK!
It was a sharp saber technique targeting Cheol Ryu-heun’s left side.
Moreover, it was energy presumed to be equal to Danmok Cheon’s.
KAKAKAKAKANG- PEOPEOPEOPEOPEOPENG!
A series of metallic sounds and piercing sounds occurred immediately after.
PEOLLEOKPEOLLEOK, PEOLLEOKPEOLLEOK-
From nearby space, about twenty caped figures rushed in.
They were personnel of Middle General tier belonging to Eastern Heaven Division.
In the meantime, the figure from before had hit and withdrew.
As the caped figures spread an encirclement and rushed in, Cheol Ryu-heun’s hands moved swiftly.
The essences of the three types of forms – Upper Emperor Three Swords, Great Emperor Three Sword Forms, Great Emperor Three Sword Forms – a total of Nine Swords, united and transformed into the supreme sword path.
It was Celestial Emperor Sword Path, the peerless sword learning that was Sword Emperor Buk Ga-shin’s essence.
The sword roamed through space while releasing extreme-level energy.
KKWAUUUUUUNG, KKWAUUUUNG- HWASUREUREUREUK, HWASUREUREUREUK!
Along with the clamorous explosions, green flames shot up.
In that gap, the figure who had ambushed Cheol Ryu-heun with the long saber swiftly raised up Danmok Cheon from the ground.
He was a man with a fifty-ish appearance.
“Can you move?”
“KKEUK… the external wounds aren’t as bad as… the internal injury. Let’s escape quickly.”
“Let’s do that. I’ll send a separate signal to that side.”
The middle-aged saber wielder who had nodded immediately supported Danmok Cheon and deployed swift lightness arts before disappearing.
Amid that, the Celestial Emperor Sword Path that Cheol Ryu-heun had executed swept away even the storm of green flames.
SHYUSHYUSHYU… SHYUSHYUSHYUSHYU…
Dark smoke and debris scattered in all directions.
SEUK.
Cheol Ryu-heun, having brushed back his hair, looked at one spot.
“Running away is top-notch.”
Having muttered that in an apathetic voice, he didn’t hesitate any longer and kicked off the ground.
KKWANG!
The time had come to clean up the rest.
Thus the direction he moved was where Heavenly Demon’s secret location was.