Chapter 357: A True Genius (2)

In addition to splitting his head and heart, he had even popped his dantian, yet he returned to normal in an instant.

‘I roughly know what kind of trick he used, but…’

Identifying the problem and solving it were different matters.

Just as he narrowed his eyes and pondered.

“Tsk.”

Was it because he was displeased that his vital points had been pierced in succession?

Yu Cheon, who swept up his messy, falling hair, waved his hand roughly.

Fwoosh!

He deflected with his sword thousands of flames pouring down like buckshot.

Clang-clang-clang-clang!

Just as he was bouncing off all the flames that possessed a weight rivaling Mount Tai.

“Impressive. Try withstanding this as well.”

Yu Cheon, who spread his hands to the left and right, drew a Taiji.

Rumble…!

The entire ground shook. The worldly Qi surged, and the earth split into thousands of pieces.

‘An opportunity.’

In addition to the Lightning Escape Art, he even drew up the power of the Golden Body Dharma Image.

Boom!

The moment he kicked off the ground.

The blade, enveloped in black lightning, drew a single line.

Crunch!

The moment the tip of the sword that traversed the void pierced the solar plexus.

Yu Cheon, ignoring even being stabbed by the sword, put his palms together and was enveloped in a brilliant flash.

……………!

He reflexively released his dharma power to block the front, but it was not enough.

Following the shock that made his mind go faint,

he felt his entire body float up, and then he was bounced off like a cannonball.

Beeeeep………!

Amidst the tinnitus shaking his head, he examined his surroundings and could not help but be surprised.

Although it had been a cave under the sea just moments ago, the sky was visible before he knew it.

Due to the immense dharma power that Yu Cheon exploded, the lava sea outside the cave disappeared without a trace.

‘Amazing…’

It was an absurd amount of dharma power, to the point that it was hard to believe they were both in the same Unity stage.

Just as he was inwardly admiring.

From somewhere, the sound of vomiting blood was heard, and the old men who had been watching from a distance were being blown away by the explosion.

Just like his current state.

As he was blown away like a kite with its string cut,

‘Heh.’

he barely held back the urge to curl up the corners of his lips.

He did not go against the flow; rather, he accelerated even more.

Since things went exactly as he had aimed for in the first place, there was no reason to resist.

While being blown away at a tremendous speed swept up in the shockwave, he twisted his shoulders and turned his upper body backward while simultaneously swinging his sword.

Swiiiish!

He thrust the sword, which carried the speed in its entirety, toward another Yu Cheon hidden in the void.

“···!”

Right before his neck was sliced, Yu Cheon, whose eyes widened, retreated as if bouncing away.

He kicked off the void to pursue, but an ice wall that appeared out of nowhere blocked his path.

Clang!

The moment the horizontally swung blade was blocked by the ice wall.

Crackle!

The lightning wrapped around the blade scattered in all directions.

As the lightning released from control ran wild, the atmospheric temperature soared, and he performed the Lightning Escape Art riding that heat.

Flash!

At the same time as he leaped over the thick ice wall, he spun his entire body like a top,

and aimed for the crown of the head with his left hand, which contained the Chaos Sky Shattering Annihilation Palm.

Crash!

However, unfortunately, it was blocked by the pure white ice condensed in the void.

From the moment he was blown away in the explosion to the present, it was a battle that unfolded without even the time to deploy the Annihilation Slash.

A single clash ended, but there was no time to catch one’s breath.

Whoosh!

He brought his elbow down to block the palm flying toward his heart,

and was pushed back along with a roar like an exploding bomb.

Another Yu Cheon, who likewise widened the distance using the repulsive force, spoke as if genuinely surprised.

“You even discovered the Yin Soul? Ho, it seems I underestimated you.”

The Yu Cheon whose entire body was covered in flames, and the Yu Cheon who manipulated cold Qi,

he narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two identical-looking figures.

‘It doesn’t seem like a simple clone. A Yin Soul… Then is the other one a Yang Soul?’

They seemed to specialize in manipulating cold Qi and fire Qi, respectively, and he vaguely sensed it.

The reason Yu Cheon, who was clad in flames, was fine despite having his vital points slashed several times was that the Yin Soul remained.

‘Is the one manipulating ice the main body?’

Because the energy carried by the two was almost identical, it was not easily discerned.

After pondering for a moment, he made a decision.

‘I will know if I slice them.’

Just as he gripped the sword hilt and was about to kick off the ground.

The Yu Cheon clad in flames, the Yang Soul, formed a hand seal.

Dharma power powerful enough to push back the lava sea gathered in the sky.

Creak, creaaak!

Due to the exponentially soaring atmospheric pressure, an ominous sound echoed from the joints of his entire body.

Once the dharma power exceeded a certain level, it became a disaster just by existing.

‘Ugh.’

The pressure weighing down on his mind and body grew by the second.

Under the pressure that soared without knowing any limits, it felt as if his joints would be shattered, beyond his knees simply buckling.

After roughly enduring the endlessly strengthening pressure, he changed his method.

Rather than blindly resisting, he absorbed the surrounding energy and guided it to the Chaos Origin Wheel.

‘Phew.’

As expected, this method was effective.

The pressure decreased significantly, and his creaking joints regained their ease.

Just as he was recovering his collapsed balance.

The intuition amplified by the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye warned him.

He saw a future where his right hand holding the sword was sliced off, and without even thinking, he twisted his upper body.

Slash!

He saw a pure white line passing narrowly by his chest.

The pure white line, which seemed to be forged from moonlight, carried a goosebump-inducing sharpness.

Swoosh…!

The line he barely avoided split the earth, but there was almost no noise.

It felt like an extremely sharp blade slicing through tofu.

Looking at the scene of a huge canyon being carved, he realized what had happened.

While he was resisting the dharma power emitted by the Yang Soul, the Yin Soul had deployed a dharma spell.

“You avoided that?”

Yu Cheon, who murmured as if unable to believe it, frowned.

Clang!

When he deflected an invisible awl flying from behind without even looking, Yu Cheon burst into a hollow laugh.

“I intended to cut off at least one of your arms… I do not understand. Did you learn a divine ability of the insight type?”

“You said that if one enters the Heavenly Law Palace, one can learn all kinds of divine arts and peerless skills, but is there no such divine ability?”

“Of course there is. But for a rogue cultivator, you have learned all sorts of divine abilities.”

The moment Yu Cheon, who was stroking his chin, flicked his finger.

Clang!

He struck the sword upward diagonally. Deflecting the invisible awl flying toward his brow, he kicked off the ground.

Boom!

As he clashed with the Yang Soul that blocked the front as if it had been waiting,

he did not take his eyes off the Yin Soul either.

“Fine. I shall see how far you can respond.”

The Yin Soul, curling up the corners of its lips, pointed its finger.

Thud!

His left collarbone was shattered by an ice awl that flew like a bullet.

Because it was an attack that flew in the moment the Yang Soul’s fist was aiming for his face, it was absolutely impossible to avoid.

Thanks to the dharma robe made of black clouds, his flesh was not pierced, but his bone broke from the immense force contained in the awl.

Crack-crack-crack…

Because the cold Qi that permeated his mind and body tried to freeze his meridians, he aroused lightning Qi to burn it away.

While he was responding to the cold Qi.

Whoosh!

The edge of a hand that had approached right before his nose before he knew it tried to pierce his face.

Slash!

At the same time as he turned his head aside, his cheek was torn, and blood poured down.

As two people attacked simultaneously, even a blow that could be lightly brushed aside turned fatal.

Yet, why was that?

Even in a situation where his head could be blown off if he made the slightest mistake, the corners of his lips rose on their own.

“Haha. This is fun.”

“…You laugh?”

Was it annoying that he was laughing despite being unilaterally attacked?

A chilly voice was heard,

and he saw a future where his heart was pierced by a ray of flash.

Flash!

He deployed the Lightning Escape Art obtained by absorbing the True Dragon’s inner core.

He moved riding the heat originating from the lightning. The moment he stepped exactly one step aside.

……………!

A pure white beam of light emitted from Yu Cheon’s fingertips pierced the void.

“…”

Did he not expect him to avoid even this? The corners of Yu Cheon’s lips sank all the way down.

And,

Whoosh!

the edge of a hand flying from behind aimed for his spine, but he responded without even looking.

At the same time as he bent his upper body to avoid it,

Thwack!

he delivered a spinning kick to the solar plexus.

Although it was a simple kick, he poured in all his strength. Under the single blow that carried the power of the Golden Body Dharma Image in its entirety, the upper body was blown away as a whole.

Fwoosh!

Flames erupted from the Yang Soul, which had only its lower body below the waist remaining.

Looking at the shattered upper body being filled with flames,

he deployed the Annihilation Slash.

‘As expected…’

Even though he had not done anything yet, the pressure weighing down on his mind and body was considerable.

Intuitive that he could not move much, he kicked off the ground.

He shook off the pressure by amplifying his energy with the Simplified Moon-Deducing Dao Scripture, and thrust his sword toward the Yin Soul standing stiffly.

Stab!

The blade that traversed the void pierced the forehead.

He stabbed the brow, the vital point where the divine soul resided, but he did not let his guard down.

The Rank 7 dharma weapon, the Twilight Ultimate Polar Sword.

Adding the sword obtained from the Sacred Scale Alliance, the sword that collapsed the boundary between life and death, he clove the soul.

Thwack!

Just as the completely shattered head scattered in all directions.

Crack!

the scattering flesh turned into ice and grabbed the sword.

‘Was this not the main body either? Or from the beginning, both of them…’

In an instant, numerous hypotheses flashed through his mind.

Around the time he vaguely grasped the secret Yu Cheon possessed.

Sshhh…

The cold Qi that penetrated through the blade spread to his entire body in an instant, freezing his dharma power as well as his meridians.

He became unable to twitch even a single finger.

Cold Qi of this level could be shaken off in a really brief moment, but that slight amount of time was the problem.

In that fleeting moment of pushing out the cold Qi that had permeated his mind and body.

He felt a hot heat from behind his back.

Stab!

By the time he perceived it, it was already too late; the fire spear that dug into the back of his neck was right before touching his spine.

In the world flowing sluggishly as his concentration reached its peak,

‘Did he recover already?’

He realized that the Yang Soul, which had its upper body blown away, had thrown a fire spear.

How should he deal with the spear that had already dug into his body…?

Numerous methods came to mind, but most had a slim chance of success.

Ah.

As concentration that felt like his nerves were burning continued, at some point, he fell into a state of selflessness.

Right before his spine was pierced.

He regarded the physical body composed of blood and flesh as a single space.

Even a space as small as a speck of dust becomes infinite if it is split and split again.

The spear blade that dug into his skin did not stop for a single moment, yet the distance from him did not close even a little.

Clearly perceiving the spear trapped in infinity,

he deployed the Yin-Yang Reversal.

He twisted the trajectory of the spear flying like a beam of light little by little.

It passed through his right shoulder, forearm, and wrist, and exploded through the sword.

Boom!

As bright red flames erupted along the blade, the ice that was grabbing the sword melted away in an instant.

While resolving the cold Qi of the Yin Soul by utilizing the fire spear thrown by the Yang Soul,

he deployed the Lightning Insight Spell-Breaking Eye to the extreme.

He closely examined the Yin Soul, whose head was entirely gone.

Crack-crack-crack…

He saw the process of the ice growing from the neck turning into a head,

and realized that both the Yin Soul and the Yang Soul were the main body.

Because both were equivalent to a sort of root, even if only one of the two remained, the other could recover.

If so, a question could not help but arise.

If the Yin Soul and the Yang Soul were both the main body, how did he recover from the fatal wounds where his vital points were pierced in succession?

Everything was bound to have a price.

To recover from such wounds, he truly had to consume a vast amount of energy. Had not even his soul been split?

Yet, Yu Cheon was fine despite being stabbed in his vital points in succession.

Having revived his shattered soul several times, he did not look exhausted in the slightest.

No matter how one looked at it, it was not a normal situation.

Then, where on earth was Yu Cheon drawing such vast energy from?

As the direction of his thoughts became clear, the answer of where to focus emerged.

He focused all his divine sense and senses to grasp the flow of energy.

‘Found it.’

Was it thanks to his senses that had been sharply honed as the battle continued?

Only now was it properly visible.

‘That bead was the weakness.’

A golden bead was hidden near the dantian of the Yang Soul that had thrown the fire spear.

Vast energy was being emitted from the bead, which was smaller than a fingernail, and that energy was being transmitted to the Yin Soul whose head was blown away.

‘It doesn’t seem like an ordinary item… Could it be a treasure bestowed by a Great Ascension stage cultivator?’

In any case, he just had to break that bead.

He realized clearly what he had to do to kill Yu Cheon.

“You…”

Yu Cheon, who had recovered to normal before he knew it, tightly clenched his jaw, but annoyance and anger were harbored within his seemingly calm eyes.

Was his pride hurt?

Indeed, it was understandable since his vital points had already been pierced several times.

Meeting that sunken gaze, he chuckled.

“As expected of the Heavenly Law Palace, you have a reason to boast. I am impressed that you restored a completely shattered head. It is truly a great divine art.”

Clap, clap, clap. As he clapped, a grinding sound was heard.

It was because Yu Cheon had put so much force into his jaw that his teeth crumbled.