Baek Woo Jin observed the approaching figure of the fake Tang Yeon Shin with calm, composed eyes.
Among all the opponents he had faced so far, this one was undoubtedly the fastest.
To him, the man was as good as a caught fish. It seemed that the fake Tang Yeon Shin was relying on Jin Mi Yeon and the Shadow clan members to buy time so they could help him escape from this place, but that had been something impossible from the moment Baek Woo Jin arrived here and Ten Shadows turned her back on the demonic cult.
In other words, there was no need to fight to resolve the situation. Even so, Baek Woo Jin had chosen to engage the man for two reasons.
The first was that he had been lacking suitable sparring partners lately.
In the blink of an eye, the fake Tang Yeon Shin closed the distance between them and swung his leg in a whip-like motion aimed at Baek Woo Jin’s chest.
Baek Woo Jin raised his sword in front of his chest to block the attack and stepped back a couple of paces to absorb the shock.
“Ah, this is it.”
With a satisfied expression, Baek Woo Jin nodded his head. He was relishing the tingling sensation that traveled through his fingertips.
He needed a decent opponent, someone who could help him reclaim the instincts he had long lost.
I’ve grown much weaker than I expected.
It was always easier to lose than to gain.
Through years of peace, Baek Woo Jin had become dulled. The relentless, blood-soaked battles that had once been his daily reality felt like a distant memory, so much so that even sleeping peacefully had become second nature.
The best way to regain his lost instincts was through real combat. Ideally, against an opponent of similar strength or someone slightly above his level.
But sparring alone was not enough. The inherent restrictions of holding back in such matches left his mind too relaxed.
But staking my life on a fight isn’t exactly ideal either.
He wasn’t about to gamble his life on a single match. Perhaps in the days when he had nothing, it might have been a different story, but now, he had Tang Seon Yeong and Jegal Yeon Ji. He had those two beautiful women in his life.
Dying before even having sex?
The thought alone was horrifying.
That’s why he had set up this situation.
This was the moment where he could refine his sense of crisis, where he could subtly place restrictions on a master of the highest caliber and use his skills to his heart’s content.
“I’ll make you regret stepping forward so recklessly.”
The fake Tang Yeon Shin snarled as his robes fluttered in the air.
He charged again and unleashed one of the most famous techniques of the Tang Clan’s unarmed martial arts, Flowing River’s Tenfold Kicks.
The whip-like kicks arced fluidly. They split into dozens of trajectories and pressed relentlessly against Baek Woo Jin from all directions.
Puh-uhng! Puh-uhng!
The deafening sound of air splitting rang out repeatedly.
Although the kicks seemed to be split into dozens of strikes, they all came from a single leg, forming a chain of consecutive attacks. Even though they appeared to come at the same time, there were always slight variations in timing.
Baek Woo Jin didn’t miss those fleeting inconsistencies.
Like a paper doll fluttering in the wind, he evaded the barrage of attacks effortlessly. At the same time, his sword targeted the fake Tang Yeon Shin’s heart.
“Hmpgh!”
The fake Tang Yeon Shin let out a brief grunt and stepped back while striking the flat of Baek Woo Jin’s sword with his palm to redirect its trajectory.
Baek Woo Jin’s blade sliced through empty air before returning to its ready position. On the sword’s surface, a small thumb-sized mark formed atop the energy enveloping it.
What the hell is that?
He sharpened his vision, but he could discern little. All he could gather was that the mark was a manifestation of energy condensed along the blade.
Another one of his tricks, no doubt.
Not that it mattered. He was sure that as long as he didn’t let his guard down, the guy’s attack wouldn’t reach his body.
Hands and feet filled the air with dizzying motion. The fake Tang Yeon Shin unleashed an elaborate combination of fist strikes, palm strikes, claw techniques, movement techniques, and kicks, all weaving through unpredictable trajectories as they targeted Baek Woo Jin’s vital points.
“You slippery bastard!”
The one to first vent his frustration was the fake Tang Yeon Shin, who had been pressing the attack.
Baek Woo Jin evaded every blow by the narrowest of margins. His movements were minimal, leaving no openings, and at times, the sharp counterattacks he launched nearly turned the tide against his opponent.
But there was something else adding to the fake Tang Yeon Shin’s frustration.
What the hell are those round things?!
Every time their exchange of attacks continued, more round dots appeared on the energy enveloping Baek Woo Jin’s sword. One or two at first, but now, they had multiplied enough to cover half the blade.
It was clear that whatever those marks were, they had some use, but when and how Baek Woo Jin intended to employ them was a complete mystery, leaving the fake Tang Yeon Shin on edge.
“Disappointing.”
The fake Tang Yeon Shin, who was attacking relentlessly, saw the expression on Baek Woo Jin’s face. He looked really disappointed.
“Your techniques are sloppy, laughably so.”
The Tang Clan techniques which looked impressive only on the surface had sapped Baek Woo Jin’s interest. They were so poorly executed that, despite their speed, he could easily predict where each strike would land. Dodging them wasn’t particularly difficult.
How long will it take for these dulled senses of mine to recover at this rate?
He let out a sigh.
“This, this bastard…”
At that moment, the last thread of rationality in the fake Tang Yeon Shin’s mind snapped.
Though he was currently being used for an undercover mission, his true nature was that of a martial artist. And yet, his opponent was dodging his attacks effortlessly, showing a disappointed expression, and even letting out a sigh.
That crushed his pride beyond measure.
“Kuhaha! So, you’re bored, are you?”
His eyes turned blood-red. He had activated a forbidden technique, stirring the demonic energy dormant within his body.
“Fine. I’ll make you my companion on the road to hell.”
The demonic energy which had lain dormant for ten years stretched awake with a chaotic roar. Red energy began surging and writhing around the fake Tang Yeon Shin’s body.
“What… what is that?!”
“Demonic energy… it’s demonic energy!”
“Then he really is a fake!”
He had abandoned all hope of survival. Rather than clinging to life in disgrace while casting away even his pride as a martial artist, he resolved to take Baek Woo Jin with him and pave the way for his cult’s brighter future with his own hands.
Boom!
With a speed never seen before, he lunged forward and swung his hand sharply. As Baek Woo Jin hastily ducked his head, a sharp cut appeared on the pillar behind him, which collapsed in a cloud of debris.
“Heh, you managed to dodge that, did you?”
The onlookers who had been observing their duel seemed ready to intervene. He couldn’t afford to fight them all. He needed to finish Baek Woo Jin as quickly as possible.
He channeled the raging demonic energy into his hand, and a sharp, blood-red blade energy erupted from his palm.
He launched himself off the ground.
The force of his leap shattered and cratered the floor beneath him.
Such was the nature of most martial arts from the demonic cult. Only a rare few could control the volatile demonic energy with precision. For that reason, their techniques were designed to maximize destruction with direct and devastating attacks.
The linear attack that fully used demonic energy’s explosive nature was nearly impossible to avoid even when anticipated. Blocking it guaranteed significant damage, leaving the opponent trapped in a perilous dilemma.
“Die, you bastard!”
With a scream like the wail of a demon, the blood-red blade energy came crashing down toward Baek Woo Jin’s crown.
There’s no way to dodge this.
The technique used the wild, explosive nature of demonic energy to accelerate its movements. In many ways, it was nearly identical to the lightning attacks Baek Woo Jin used.
He gripped the sword with both hands and raised it high above his head. At the same time, the sword energy collided with the blade just in front of the crown of his head.
Boom!
The shockwave created by the overwhelming surge of energy halted the advancing martial artists in their tracks. A few, whose levels were lower, couldn’t withstand it and were sent sprawling.
“Urgh!”
Baek Woo Jin, who had barely managed to block the trajectory of the sword energy, coughed up blood.
“Hehehe, go on, say it again. Is this still disappointing?”
The fake Tang Yeon Shin who was grinning mockingly like Baek Woo Jin had done earlier pressed harder on the blade that had stopped his strike. The sword, which had only just managed to hold its ground, began to tremble violently and edge downward.
As the blood-red energy inched ever closer to the crown of his head, Baek Woo Jin lifted his gaze.
“When you look at the stars, what do you think of?”
And then he posed an inexplicable question.
“Crazy bastard, spouting nonsense because you know you’re about to die?”
As soon as he said that and began to press down even harder to crush him, something touched his opposite arm, and a sharp gash appeared.
“Gah… Wh-What the hell?”
Having been so entirely focused on Baek Woo Jin, he only now noticed it.
Tiny fragments of energy surrounded him. They were emitting a faint light and they felt oddly familiar.
“This, this is…?”
They were undoubtedly the remnants of energy that had clung to Baek Woo Jin’s sword just moments earlier. Yet somehow, they had surrounded him without him even noticing.
“My master once said that looking at the stars reminded him of this.”
If countless enemies surrounded you like the stars in the night sky, how would you fight them?
His master, the Sword Demon, had pondered this as he gazed at the beautiful stars in the night sky. In fact, he had thought about it while sitting with his lover.
When he had voiced that thought aloud, his lover had responded with a smile. She asked,
“Why not think of those countless stars not as enemies, but as allies?”
That single comment had given birth to this technique.
Starlight.
“Well, if I were to explain it in terms you’d understand…”
The fragments of energy tightly surrounding the area began to close in steadily.
Caught off guard, the fake Tang Yeon Shin swung his blood-red sword energy and tried to destroy them all, but he was a step too late.
By the time he realized, Baek Woo Jin had already set his sword aside and firmly gripped the fake Tang Yeon Shin’s energy-infused arms with both of his own.
At that moment, Baek Woo Jin who had just thought of an excellent name for this technique smiled brightly and spoke.
“Yes, that’ll do nicely.”
Meteor Shower Across the Heavens.
The tragic sword technique that had driven away the woman who could no longer bear to stay with the man obsessed with the blade.
The shimmering fragments of energy, as if mirroring the brilliance of starlight, rushed toward the fake Tang Yeon Shin.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
“Arghhh!”
Each fragment was not simply a bundle of energy. It was a tightly compressed bundle of sword energy, each formed from a single sharpened line.
Blood poured from his body as if he had been torn apart by countless blades, and it flowed down the stairs like a crimson river.
In a state too grotesque to look at directly, the fake Tang Yeon Shin collapsed to the ground.
“You… will surely… die…”
The demonic cult would never let someone who had ruined their grand plans live, after all.
Baek Woo Jin waved with a cheerful smile.
“Everyone dies when their time comes. Go ahead and save me a spot!”
“Guh…!”
Even in his final moments, as Baek Woo Jin’s words sent his blood pressure skyrocketing, the fake Tang Yeon Shin died without being able to even close his eyes.
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