Chapter 349: Chapter 349
In my previous life, the image of Je Geum-hak that had lived in my mind was that of a quintessential mastermind.
A figure with half his face draped in shadow, the other half veiled behind a fan, wearing a cryptic smile while hatching every manner of sinister scheme.
When I met the real Je Geum-hak in this life—a man with a face so polished he could have stepped out of a painting of a beauty—an uncontrollable fury had surged inside me.
He was the man who had accelerated the Murim Alliance’s downfall by successfully assassinating Jegal So-myeong, the Alliance’s brain.
There was no reason I shouldn’t have been furious.
Moreover, that particular brand of smooth, leisurely composure of his had only stoked my rage further.
The effortless ease of a man born with everything was more than enough to rub someone born with nothing but the sack between his legs the wrong way.
That was how it had been.
And yet.
“Jin— So-un—”
Watching those mismatched eyeballs, barely wedged into their sockets, roll grotesquely as they glared at me—
“Hmm……”
The fury didn’t rise quite as fiercely as it had the first time.
‘Probably because I’m stronger now than I was then.’
Yes, that had to be it.
His face was so hideous that merely looking at it made one recoil, yet somehow, compared to the immaculate appearance of before, the sight was far more comfort—able on the eyes.
Probably because his face now matched the ugliness of his schemes.
The left arm that moved awkwardly, the one eyeball that twitched independently of his will—they could have been frightening.
But his exterior no longer stirred my emotions.
If anything, this was bett—
“Ahem……!”
I’d known we’d meet again when we parted ways.
But I hadn’t expected us to reunite at a time like this, looking like that.
I regarded him with a warm gaze and asked.
“Did you enjoy the gift I sent last time?”
Je Geum-hak’s mismatched eyes trembled so violently they looked ready to flip backward.
“Oh— I enjoyed— it plenty— you’d be— shocked if you— knew what I— did— for you—”
His hand swept toward the Life-or-Death Unit.
Ha, did this bastard take me for a scarecrow?
SHRIEK—
Sword Force rippled from the tip of the Red Radiance Sword, and a single flash of light lanced toward Je Geum-hak’s throat.
He must have been caught completely off guard—he didn’t even manage to turn his head.
I drove the sword with everything I had, aiming to slit his throat before he could pull any tricks.
CRASH—!
His trademark [Ice Barrier] materialized around him.
He’d always been careless, then and now.
And my inner arts had grown exponentially since the Black Thought Alliance.
I was about to smash through the ice and cleave his throat in a single stroke when—
CLACK.
The Red Radiance Sword, which had been punching through the [Ice Barrier], halted one inch from Je Geum-hak’s neck.
“What—”
“Fool—!”
Je Geum-hak bared a twisted grin and flicked his fingers.
In that instant.
“Get down!!!”
BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
A tremendous explosion erupted as pillars of fire shot up from inside the Life-or-Death Unit’s ranks.
“GAAAARGH!”
“GHRKK!”
“AAAAGH!”
Agonized screams poured from those already struggling to move due to their injuries.
CREAK—
I tried to pull the sword free, but it was lodged fast, as though embedded in solid rock.
“Did you— think I’d— fall for the— same trick— twice?!!”
A grating, metal-scraping voice erupted, and blood streamed from the eyes glaring at me.
I channeled Internal Qi into the Red Radiance Sword.
A hairline gap appeared between the blade and the ice it was trapped in.
The instant the sword loosened, I tore it free with all my strength and converted the momentum into a spinning slash aimed at Je Geum-hak’s skull.
SHRIEK—
But—
CLACK.
Another [Ice Barrier] sprang up and blocked the blade.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
No—it didn’t just block.
WHOOOOSH.
It expanded its freezing cold, trying to swallow the Red Radiance Sword whole.
‘The cold has gotten stronger?’
The [Ice Barrier] I’d seen at the Black Thought Alliance had been nothing more than a defensive tool.
What had been expendable material now radiated far more intense cold, freezing everything it touched.
CLANG! CLANG! CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG!
Its hardness had skyrocketed as well.
Not quite impervious to Sword Force, but the layered sheets of ice boasted defenses that would put black iron to shame.
Its speed of appearance and disappearance was so fast that no matter how much I shattered, my blade never reached his body.
“How is this—”
The [Ice Barrier] had transcended a mere defensive measure and become a means of counterattack.
What on earth had happened to him in the time we’d been apart?
Meanwhile, Je Geum-hak flicked his fingers and attacked the academy students.
Five small flames extended from his hand, dropped into the Life-or-Death Unit’s ranks, and immediately ignited the air, blazing upward.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
Pillars of fire surged once more.
Shit, that bastard……!
As if deliberately goading me, he refused to spare me even a glance, continuing to rain attacks on the students.
Several students charged forward to engage him, but the flames from his other hand were too threatening for anyone to close the distance.
I immediately drew upon the Solar Monkey’s qi.
The fire qi I poured into the Red Radiance Sword began to heat the blade.
A crimson glow ignited at the center of the blade and spread until the entire sword was stained an angry red, as though freshly pulled from a forge.
The surrounding temperature had plummeted sharply from Je Geum-hak’s ice arts, and the air around the scorching blade vaporized rapidly, venting white smoke.
The instant the Red Radiance Sword—trailing a white arc—clashed against the [Ice Barrier]:
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK——
Fissures spiderwebbed across the thick ice wall, and it began to split apart.
‘I can break it……!’
I struck again.
CRASH!
RUMBLE.
“How— dare— you—!”
The [Ice Barrier] shattered into fragments that scattered across the ground.
Je Geum-hak’s brow furrowed. The black, leather-like stitching creased, and blood seeped through the gaps.
“You’ve— learned— the Yang-Style— Qi Arts—?!”
“Ah yes, last time you looked like you’d started ‘learning’ but never ‘finished.’ So I ‘studied up’ to give you a proper roasting next time we met.”
“I’ll— kill— KILL— you—!!!”
An enraged Je Geum-hak turned both hands on me.
Ice spears shot from one hand; fireballs rained from the other.
I withdrew the Solar Qi and unleashed the Twin Heaven Sword Formula, firing Sword Qi in response.
Three different energies collided and intertwined, spawning a storm of clashing qi. In that same instant, I executed the Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps and seized his flank.
“Funny thing is, last time worked so well that—”
The moment I grabbed the nape of his neck and was about to activate the Azure Dragon Bracelet—
‘Hm?’
His form vanished without a trace.
In that instant.
“Jin—So-un—”
The voice came from roughly three jang to the right.
“Did you— think I learned— nothing— from our— last fight—?”
A massive fireball formed above his head and was hurled straight at me.
I moved to dodge on reflex, then realized academy students stood directly behind me.
‘Damn it.’
RUMBLE……
I fired the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm to intercept, but in that moment—
“Eldest Senior Brother!!!”
Geum-pyo’s voice rang out loud and clear.
“Leave the rear to us!”
There was Geum-pyo, charging forward with the Diamond Shield, flanked by my squad.
When had they grown this much?
This time, I could trust them with my back.
I used the Taeul Eighty-Thousand Divine Steps to reposition on Je Geum-hak’s left.
The instant he hurled the fireball, I simultaneously poured out the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
Twin shockwaves slammed in from both sides—standing upright was nearly impossible.
I whipped my head toward Geum-pyo. Fortunately, the fireball’s damage seemed to have been neutralized.
I moved immediately. Against an opponent like this, there was no luxury of waiting for the dust to settle.
I deployed the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula and drove the Twin Heaven Sword Formula into every point where my senses detected a presence.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
The impact registered clearly in my hands.
CRASH! BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
Just then, a tremendous explosion roared from the Ice Flower Master’s direction.
Where Cheol Sun-jik and others were battling the grotesque woman, Thunderbolt Bomb-like detonations echoed ceaselessly, and the number of fallen bodies steadily grew.
CLAAANG! CLAAANG! CLAAANG!
And it wasn’t only there.
Led by Il-gak and Nam Hwa-seong, the group fighting the beast was also suffering a mounting stream of casualties.
My body flinched toward them, but I couldn’t move.
A palpably hostile killing intent still seeped from within the thick dust ahead of me.
SHRIEK—
A figure burst through the haze.
One hand blazing red, the other frozen blue—Je Geum-hak charged in.
CLANG!
CRASH!
I raised the Red Radiance Sword to block, but the explosion’s shockwave drove me backward.
Where the blue hand struck, sensation vanished as though frostbitten.
Worst of all was his sheer, overwhelming power.
‘What kind of strength is this……!’
Somehow, every punch and kick he threw felt as if they’d been transmuted to stone.
Each blow that landed sent a shuddering impact through my body.
CRASH! CRASH!
This was a man who’d once been a desk-bound schemer—a fighter whose approach had always centered on tormenting opponents with yin-yang qi.
And now, suddenly, he’d become something possessed of monstrous physical force.
Shit, don’t tell me……
“Hey, have you been doing push-ups or something?”
“You— don’t— know! What I— sacrificed—.”
I immediately began funneling all defensive effort into my right forearm.
THWACK! THWACK! THWACK!
After blocking three strikes that way, he seemed to notice something was off—his brow furrowed.
“You— you—”
“Oh! You recognized it?”
I casually pushed back my sleeve and curled the corner of my mouth.
“Newly fitted equipment. Nothing beats it for defense.”
The Devouring Gauntlet—taken from him during our last encounter.
“Thanks, by the way. Getting a lot of use out of it.”
“……!”
Je Geum-hak’s mismatched eyes bulged.
“I’ll— tear— you— apart— limb— from—!”
The space around Je Geum-hak began to warp as a colossal tremor radiated outward.
And I sheathed my sword faster than I ever had.
“I’ll— kill— you—!!! I’ll— KILL—”
Ice boulders and fireballs rose into the air around him.
He made a fearsome display, as though poised to detonate everything at once.
But paradoxically, I sensed something curious about the sight.
‘He’s weaker.’
He had undeniably gained power far beyond what he’d possessed the last time we met.
But he had also abandoned every genuine strength he’d originally had in his greed for a different kind of power, and the result was a diminished whole.
The old approach—laying traps with Mystic Gate Formations, engineering situations where victory was inevitable—had been twice as difficult to face.
I’d thought he might have learned something from last time.
But true to form as an elite of a lunatic collective, he’d chosen to pursue revenge through brute force.
Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.
First Form.
Extreme Swiftness.
To give me this much time, knowing I had this technique in my arsenal.
His raw power might well be greater than before.
But.
“Idiot.”
He had become demonstrably stupider.
SHRIEEEEK—
The sword swept through, and the trailing sonic boom shattered the air.
SHHHHHHK.
And last of all came the sound of severing, as a crimson line bloomed across Je Geum-hak’s chest.
CRACK, CRACK.
The [Ice Barrier] and fireballs he’d conjured lost cohesion and tumbled to the ground, detonating on impact.
“GRKK— GRRK— after— everything— because— of you—”
Even now, with blood streaming from both eyes, Je Geum-hak refused to take his gaze off me.
“The Divine— Cult’s— great— work— so close— to fruition—”
The dazed look on his face hardened as he gritted his teeth with what seemed like a final resolve.
“The Heavenly— Demon— undefeated— ten thousand— demons— submit.”
CRACK.
Something shattered inside his mouth.
And from his body, a titanic storm of qi erupted.
The [Ice Barrier] and fireballs transformed into streams of wind—one red, one blue—and began coiling around him.
Crimson smoke poured from every orifice—mouth, ears, all five openings—and his eyes turned pitch-black, all trace of reason erased.
Then.
“Grrrrrrr.”
Growling like a beast, he extended a hand.
The red and blue winds swirling around him shot straight at me.
I dodged by a hair, and in the spot where I’d stood, ice crystallized with a CRACK.
CRASH!
The red wind struck the ground an instant later, erupting in an explosion.
“Young Master Jin……!!!”
Namgung Seon-hwa and my squad tried to join the fray. I thrust out my hand to stop them.
“Stay back!”
Energy poured from his body in an endless torrent.
This wasn’t merely releasing qi.
It overflowed as though a massive dam had burst.
And the intent behind it grew clearer by the second.
The fact that he had abandoned his own life and chosen Mutual Destruction.
Alarm bells clanged inside my skull.
***
She had never thought wind could have color.
No text, no tale she’d ever encountered had described the color of wind.
The first colored winds she ever saw were breathtakingly beautiful.
The red and the blue carried a strange, alluring beauty.
True to their nature as wind, they were free, light, and swift.
But.
Where that wind touched was anything but beautiful.
BOOM-CRASH!
A thunderous explosion, and flames roared to life.
CRACK-CRACK-CRACK.
The temperature plummeted, and wherever the blue wind landed, solid ice formed.
‘Dangerous……’
Namgung Seon-hwa, who had never been taught about nor imagined such things, felt a spine-chilling terror at this unknown beauty.
HUMMM.
She fired a palm art brimming with storm-like power, trying to strike down the wind.
CRASH.
But the free-spirited wind slipped naturally past the palm force and kept hurtling forward.
Having glided over the palm force, the red wind dropped into the center of the Life-or-Death Unit and detonated once more.
BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
Unable to watch any longer, Namgung Seon-hwa drew up the Emperor Divine Art and slammed it down upon the blue wind.
BOOM.
Nowhere near her grandfather’s level, but a sufficient bolt of thunder crackled and crashed into the wind.
FLASH.
The wind, which had been trying to slip away like water, was pulverized on the spot.
CLAAANG—
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Namgung Seon-hwa’s body went rigid as freezing cold surged up through her palm.
It didn’t merely stiffen her limbs.
The cold invaded her qi meridians, damming the flow of Internal Qi like water turned to ice.
“GHRK……”
Her movement halted, and as Internal Qi threatened to reverse, agony engulfed her body.
But then came the red wind, closing in.
Namgung Seon-hwa squeezed her eyes shut without meaning to.
BOOM-CRASH.
In that instant, a massive explosion—and Geum-pyo’s back appeared before her.
“Are you all right?!”
Having absorbed the blast with the shield he carried everywhere like an extension of himself, Geum-pyo had been pushed back slightly but was otherwise unharmed.
“Y-yes. I’m fine.”
“Even so…… that’s an insane amount of power.”
Namgung Seon-hwa nodded at Geum-pyo’s words.
That a single human could wield two distinct energies this pronounced was hard enough to believe—and each one was devastatingly powerful.
Moreover, the way the winds moved when striking at people carried the subtlety of a martial art in itself.
Against attacks like these, she wondered whether sheer numbers even mattered.
Just then.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!
A staggering chain of explosions rang out.
She turned toward the sound, and one figure came into view.
“……!”
Jin So-un, tearing through the wind and charging at the assailant.
Namgung Seon-hwa cried out in alarm.
“Young Master Jin……!!!”
“Please pull everyone back!”
Was he seriously planning to go in there?!
Centered on the assailant, red and blue winds raged like a hurricane.
If that storm spread outward, the casualties would be beyond imagining.
And yet there was no conceivable way to counter it.
These were martial arts she’d never seen.
Forces of nature she’d never witnessed.
And throwing oneself into that maelstrom meant consequences no one could predict.
“Y-Young Master J—”
But Jin So-un’s speed didn’t slow.
He ran faster than he ever had.
From his left hand, a golden whip lashed out, swatting aside the attacking winds and carving a path.
And then, Jin So-un—
SHRIEEEEK—
became a single arrow, piercing through the storm like a bolt of lightning.
“……!”
At that harrowing sight, all the color drained from Namgung Seon-hwa’s face.