Novel Martial Artist Lee Gwak - chapter 447
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Episode 447
The Blade of Sura Aims for the Heavens (3)
The first to move was Ja Hong-cheon.
Swoosh!
Even before his body reached Lee Gwak, a terrifying gust of wind pressure arrived first.
In that instant, Lee Gwak saw an illusion—as if the entire world was filled with sword shadows. It felt as if the air around him had split into countless blades, all aimed at him.
Heaven-Annihilating Calamity.
It was the very first form of the Heaven-Annihilating Sword.
Though it was the initial form, its power was equal to that of any other technique.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The swords surrounding Lee Gwak rained down like a storm.
Before the sword rain could touch him, Lee Gwak kicked off the ground and thrust his blade forward.
Sssst!
In an instant, the storm of swords split in half and vanished, as if it had all been a lie.
The Heaven-Killing Blade had no fixed forms or techniques.
It was a blade art guided only by Lee Gwak’s sharpened senses and instincts, and responded purely to his killing intent.
When his first strike failed, Ja Hong-cheon immediately unleashed his next form. Soul-Annihilating Light.
Boom Boom Boom!
An overwhelming force erupted from his sword.
The ground exploded, and trees burst into flames.
It was as though the heavens and earth were collapsing before Lee Gwak’s eyes.
“Good heavens…!”
Nam Woo-gyeong’s eyes widened at the overwhelming sight.
It looked like Lee Gwak was about to be completely engulfed by the explosion. But the next moment, an unbelievable scene unfolded.
Shhh! Shiiit!
Lee Gwak drew his blade twice in rapid succession.
The explosion split into a cross and vanished.
“Insane!”
“How is that possible?”
Even the Heavenly Martial Squad ’s members were stunned.
At that moment, Lee Gwak shot through the dissipating explosion and straight toward Ja Hong-cheon.
“Impressive!”
Ja Hong-cheon’s eyes gleamed coldly.
His sword technique had been effortlessly dismantled.
Lee Gwak’s blade had perfectly severed the flow of his sword qi, preventing it from reaching full power.
Ja Hong-cheon immediately followed with the third and fourth techniques of the Heaven-Annhilating Sword Art.
Kwa-ru-ru-ru!
Thunder rumbled across the sky, and a condensed rain of sword qi poured down toward Lee Gwak.
Each strand of sword qi was as fine as a needle, yet its power was several times greater than ordinary sword qi.
Dozens of them targeted Lee Gwak at once.
Ja Hong-cheon had calculated every possible angle of evasion, and there was no escape.
Lee Gwak’s gaze deepened
He, too, recognized the power of Ja Hong-cheon’s techniques. But he neither dodged nor retreated.
Pat!
He activated Revolving Steps and charged forward, his figure resembling that of a swallow as he stooped low to the ground.
Screeeech!
Revolving Steps merged with the Heaven-Killing Blade.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa!
The sword qi collided with Lee Gwak’s blade, exploding one after the other.
Each impact made Lee Gwak’s body jerk, but it wasn’t enough to stop him.
Sssst!
Lee Gwak’s blade shattered the last of the sword qi and shot toward Ja Hong-cheon’s throat.
His blade shattered the final sword qi and shot toward Ja Hong-cheon’s throat.[a]
Lee Gwak had closed the distance in a flash. Ja Hong-cheon furrowed his brow and swung his sword.
Jjeo-eong!
With a deafening clash, Ja Hong-cheon was pushed back three jang.
A look of humiliation crossed Ja Hong-cheon’s face.
It had been 20 years since he had ever been pushed back in a fight.
That unfamiliar experience stoked his fury.
“You bastard!”
He roared and unleashed the fifth form of the Heaven-Annihilating Sword.
Suddenly, the entire world was swallowed by darkness.
It felt like night had fallen.
A tangible darkness enveloped Lee Gwak’s surroundings, an illusion conjured by a single sword.
Lee Gwak felt an immense pressure crushing his entire body.
For those with weak internal energy, such pressure would have crushed them instantly, leaving no trace behind.
This was Heaven-Crushing Gravity, a force so immense it could suppress even the heavens.
Thump! Thump!
Veins bulged on Lee Gwak’s forehead.
The pressure was suffocating, pressing down on him relentlessly.
But the technique wasn’t just about external force. Ja Hong-cheon’s qi infiltrated Lee Gwak’s body through his pores, transforming into tiny daggers that attacked his meridians from within.
A dual assault—external and internal. That was the true terror of Heaven-Annihilating Pressure.
It was the culmination of Jahongcheon’s martial enlightenment.
The latter half of the Heaven-Annihilating Sword art branched out from this very technique.
Lee Gwak’s face turned pale.
Even he couldn’t withstand such a simultaneous internal and external assault.
Then, something stirred inside his body.
Kuuu!
A giant serpent uncoiled within him.
In an instant, it slithered through his body, devouring and dispersing the foreign qi.
Lee Gwak recovered in the blink of an eye.
Ja Hong-cheon was momentarily stunned.
In that split second, Lee Gwak closed the distance.
Sssst!
He executed the seventh technique of the Eight Sects Sword Art—HEight Gateways of Destruction—infused with the essence of the Heaven-Killing Blade.
“Bastard!”
Ja Hong-cheon roared and countered with the sixth technique of the Heaven-Annhilating Sword Art.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-BOOM!
The collision of their techniques shook the heavens and earth.
The ground trembled, and shockwaves burst outward in all directions. Sharp winds scorched the battlefield.
“Ugh!”
“Damn it! Fall back!”
Even the Heavenly Martial Squad martial artists retreated in fear.
Their faces and arms were covered with light wounds.
Despite being elite masters, even they couldn’t emerge unscathed from the sheer force of the two martial artists’ clash.
They squinted through the dust, trying to see what was happening.
But the thick cloud of debris made it impossible to see.
Ka-ga-ga-gang!
Still, the relentless sounds of battle told them the fight raged on.
Their expressions were a mix of disbelief and shock.
No one had expected Lee Gwak to match Ja Hong-cheon this closely.
He had faltered at moments, but Lee Gwak continually broke through and counterattacked.
It was a fierce back-and-forth battle.
“Wait!”
One Heavenly Martial Squad martial artist suddenly sensed something off and looked around.
Nam Woo-gyeong was gone.
While they had been fixated on the duel, Nam Woo-gyeong had vanished without a trace.
“Damn it!”
“We need to find him—”
Just as they realized their mistake—
Sssiiiiiiit!
A chilling sound tore through the air, like the screech of a crow of death.
They instinctively ducked and looked back at the battlefield.
A powerful gust blew away the dust, revealing a shocking sight.
“Khrrrk!”
Ja Hong-cheon’s beard trembled.
He stared in disbelief at the blade that had pierced through his shoulder.
It was Lee Gwak’s blade, Star Soul.
Lee Gwak also bore a deep wound in his side.
His muscles were torn and his internal organs were exposed. A little deeper and he would have been dead.
Lee Gwak had been wounded first—and severely so.
A normal man wouldn’t have survived, let alone moved.
So Ja Hong-cheon had let his guard down for just a moment.
That’s when Lee Gwak struck back.
He sacrificed flesh to break bone.
Lee Gwak’s wound was deep, but Ja Hong-cheon’s was deeper.
Disbelief flashed across Ja Hong-cheon’s face.
It had been decades since he had suffered such a severe injury.
In contrast, Lee Gwak had endured wounds like this countless times over the past decade.
Getting hurt, breaking, recovering, and challenging again—it was his daily life.
Ja Hong-cheon, in his old age, treasured his body.
Lee Gwak, in his youth, embraced wounds and kept fighting.
That was the fundamental difference between them.
Sssst!
Lee Gwak’s blade aimed for Ja Hong-cheon once more.
For the first time, panic flickered in the old swordsman’s eyes.
In pure skill, he had no reason to lose.
But youth and mentality set them apart.
Lee Gwak advanced, no matter how wounded.
Ja Hong-cheon hesitated, fearing for his body.
That difference turned the tide.
Claaaaang!
With a metallic sound, Ja Hong-cheon was forced back again.
Lee Gwak charged to finish it.
Blood poured from his side like a waterfall, but he didn’t care.
Ja Hong-cheon, however, stiffened from the pain in his shoulder.
His eyes widened as Lee Gwak’s blade neared his throat.
For the first time in decades, death was before him.
‘Am I… going to die?’
Then—
Clang!
An external force deflected Lee Gwak’s blade.
The Heavenly Martial Squad had intervened.
The two remaining members attacked Lee Gwak while the third helped Ja Hong-cheon retreat.
“Bastard!”
“Fall back!”
Under their combined assault, Lee Gwak was forced to retreat.
Even he couldn’t easily fight two Heavenly Martial Squad masters while heavily injured.
Then—
“There they are!”
“It’s them!”
From a nearby alley, Hao Clan members swarmed in.
They were low-ranking members—numerous but weak in martial prowess. Under normal circumstances, the Heavenly Martial Squad would have scoffed at them.
But with Ja Hong-cheon severely wounded and Nam Woo-gyeong having slipped away, they had no room for complacency.
Moreover, despite his injuries, Lee Gwak was still holding his ground. They might have finished him off given enough time, but doing so quickly was impossible.
The longer this dragged on, the worse it was for them.
The Heavenly Martial Squad members exchanged glances.
‘We should retreat.’
‘Now is the time to withdraw.’
Once in agreement, they didn’t hesitate.
“Lee Gwak!”
Ja Hong-cheon, carried on the back of a Heavenly Martial Squad member, roared in fury.
He was ashamed of the moment his resolve had wavered.
His hatred for Lee Gwak, who had humiliated him like this, exploded.
“I swear, I will never forgive you!”
His furious cry echoed across the waters of Lake Taeho.
Even the heavens shuddered. The Hao Clan disciples, who had just arrived, flinched at the tremor in his voice.
But Lee Gwak simply stared in silence at the retreating Ja Hong-cheon and the Heavenly Martial Squad.
He knew this was the perfect chance to eliminate Ja Hong-cheon. However, pursuing him while injured would be like carrying firewood into an inferno.
“Huu…”
Lee Gwak let out a deep sigh.
And then his body swayed.
At that moment, someone caught him.
“Brother?”
It was Nam Woo-gyeong.
He had appeared silently and was now supporting Lee Gwak’s faltering body.
Nam Woo-gyeong was also a wreck, but he was in far better shape than Lee Gwak.
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Gwak gave a weak nod.
Nam Woo-gyeong had taken advantage of the slack in the Heavenly Martial Squad’s watch and escaped. Then he quickly gathered nearby Hao Clan disciples to sow confusion among the enemy.
“Whew…”
Now that the crisis had passed, Nam Woo-gyeong finally let out the breath he had been holding back.
The Hao Clan had been utterly devastated.
The Clan Leader, Shim Wol, was dead. Twenty elite members of the Death Reaper Squad had perished. Countless other disciples had also lost their lives.
Never in the history of the Hao Clan had they been so thoroughly trampled.
The damage was so catastrophic that it was hard to know where to even begin rebuilding.
And yet, Nam Woo-gyeong hadn’t lost hope.
Because Lee Gwak was still standing beside him.
‘To force a mutual defeat against the legendary Ja Hong-cheon… This man truly is the last hope of the Jianghu.’
[a]Duplicate with above?
Azazar
Wasn’t it supposed to be Gwak victory if not intervention of the Heavenly Martial Squad? Based on the text Ja Hong-cheon was supposed to die if not them
But yes, typical Gwak – to break the stalemate he always ready to sacrifice few to gain a lot. And these are usually the most terrifying opponents, because you predict your opponents’ movements based on the fact that they are not idiots and want to survive and not get injured…