Chapter 237 - Opening the Eyes

KRAAAANG!

The Radiant Demon Squad’s breakthrough swept across the flank. Every other sound vanished beneath the explosive roar of their waves of force.

It was as though a mass of light had become an artillery shell and exploded. The assembled martial forces of the evil and unorthodox paths were torn to shreds.

Utterly crushed. The sounds of flesh tearing and bones shattering began ringing out everywhere. The area caught in the attack was enormous.

“Aaargh!”

“Hagh!”

Their charge itself was a forceful stomp. The figures swinging their arms were only dimly visible, for shimmering bursts of light erupted whenever they collided with the unorthodox fighters’ bizarre assortment of weapons.

So too were their flashing eyes amid the shattered blades. The sight inspired nothing but chills.

The Radiant Demon Squad had appeared at nearly full strength.

Three white robes and twenty-five blue-robed experts.

BOOM! THWAAACK!

Flesh and blood burst forth with horrifying sounds. The unorthodox fighters’ ranks crumbled in moments. Attacks unleashed through the Radiant Genius Formula were not confined to any one means.

Punches and sword strikes sent out identical waves of force. The air was swept aside with a roar, bowing even the brush in every direction. Weapons and corpses flew and fell strewn across the ground.

RRRUMBLE!

The gorge shook. Unceasing tremors spread in all directions—the aftermath of their charging stomps.

After piercing straight through the ranks, they immediately turned and descended on the enemy once more. The entire sequence flowed gracefully.

Legs wreathed in light struck the earth according to the principles of the Evading Swift Step. Dust scattered through the white radiance of their waves of force.

The current of brilliance became a veritable tidal wave.

It swept away the fleeing men first.

The twenty-eight charged individually, yet as one mass. They put their full weight behind successive blows, and no one could halt a single step.

Movements flickering among the streams of light traced scattered paths.

Waves of force exploded without fail at the points where swords, fists, and palms struck, driving fragments of their opponents’ weapons into their chests.

Here, they could well be called invincible.

Their opponents were not elites of the Nine Sects and Eight Families or the Thirteen skies. Divine techniques linked to the radiant demon arts or the Lightning Genius martial lineage were more than enough to slaughter them. A single charge came close to wiping them out.

Great Moon Gorge became a vision of hell in an instant. Pandemonium reigned.

“Are they divine generals from heaven...?”

“What... what is that...?”

“How can such people exist!”

Those watching the plain from the sheer gorge stared wide-eyed. Some stood with their mouths hanging open.

Their reactions came long after the radiant swords had manifested. It could hardly have been otherwise.

Nothing about the scene felt real, from the first whistling arrow to the charge of light.

Most of Xi’an’s people had come expecting to watch a public execution. What they saw exceeded anything they had imagined. The shock was terrifying.

“Spare me... gakh!”

“Aaaaaaargh!”

Screams poured from the mouths of the formerly complacent unorthodox warriors. Not one could properly counter a blow of the Radiant Genius Formula. This was the difference between a great faction and a mid-ranking sect.

The gulf was immense. Her jet-black braid flying, Shin Sobin smashed a Remnant-Revering Earth Sect warrior’s ribs with her fist. It was a powerful, sharply checked blow.

BOOM!

“Were you happy because you thought you’d win?”

She spoke with hearty abandon even as she killed. Her disposition befitted a rising talent from one of the fortress’s distinguished families.

She had already been skilled in the radiant demon arts and the Infinite Blossom Fist Strike. That meant her martial arts were linked in multiple layers.

Her attainment in the Radiant Genius Formula was incomparable to that of ordinary seniors. As a white robe, she had benefited enormously.

She had no trouble taking one side of the wing-shaped charge.

Even a white robe possessed that much prowess. The blue-robed experts ran rampant. They faced multiple opponents at once, stringing brutal single blows into successive attacks.

One sword strike severed three heads, while fists and palms pulverized weapons and flesh alike.

It was indeed an execution. Only the executioners had changed. The unorthodox warriors were the ones being put to death.

At the very front edge of those ranks, the heads of Xi’an’s seven factions stood motionless. Though they were their side’s strongest fighters, they could not go to protect their underlings.

Their faces grave, none spoke.

They dared not enter the battlefield. They did not even look back.

All seven stood as though frozen, weapons gripped in their hands, only the hems of their exquisite silk garments fluttering.

The man before them was the Desolate Fortress’s captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

“...”

Baek Muryang, who had spoken of strength in numbers, was speechless.

His lips had gone dry beneath his snowy beard. The mouth that had lectured Jung Yeonshin on the ways of the martial world was stiff and unmoving.

Earlier, he had mentioned the Desolate Fortress’s Black rank.

It had been purely a joke. Even knowing it was possible, he had never taken it seriously. The world was too vast.

Hail falling in Henan did not make a man in Shaanxi prepare his rain hat.

Even knowing that weather treated the whole world alike made no difference. Such was human nature.

He had considered that the man might be a supreme master affiliated with a sect rather than a wandering warrior, but there had been no other course available anyway.

They had nowhere to retreat. Fighting to the death was not the exclusive province of the righteous orthodox factions. If anything, it was a more desperately needed virtue on the evil and unorthodox paths.

Their power and prestige were what kept their bowls full even through a poor harvest.

Those things took precedence over their lives. They could not be seen to bend. Such was the unorthodox martial world.

“They’re... the Radiant Demon Squad...? But they’re using martial arts I’ve never seen or heard of...”

The leader of the Sword Demon Sect muttered after briefly glancing back.

He was a sharp-eyed man in a long yellow robe. Sweat beaded on his narrow chin.

Yet he seemed to have the nerve befitting an unorthodox sect leader. He began speaking as though addressing Jung Yeonshin, an extraordinary white treasured sword held in one hand.

“Plenty of sects would like to pin a false charge on the Desolate Fortress. That is why your identity does not matter.”

“... There were rumors that the new captain of the Radiant Demon Squad was exceedingly young,” Baek Muryang murmured.

Their subordinates and disciples were dying around them.

The sect leaders prioritized their own survival.

An unforeseen danger stood before them. They deliberately spoke, drawing on their years of experience to regain some composure.

When facing a supreme master, nothing mattered more than a mind as clear and still as a polished mirror or undisturbed water.

They had to hone their minds like swords. Remaining in a panic would only earn them pointless deaths.

The old man who had ruled a distinguished Shaanxi house for decades spoke again.

“Haven’t you simply netted us all and served us up, Sect Leader Wi?”

“...”

Demon-Scattering Sword Wi Ilhwa did not answer. She merely bit her lower lip.

“So we both have forces behind us.”

Jung Yeonshin spoke quietly.

His words recalled what Baek Muryang, the head of Radiant Moon House, had said.

[“Look over here. Fighting without forces of your own... is a complicated affair, with a great deal to worry about. It is nothing like a duel. There is no romance of the martial world here. No one will fault you for withdrawing now.”]

He had thrown the unorthodox master’s own words back at him.

Baek Muryang’s white eyebrows twitched.

“You insolent...”

“Now it’s simple. Stop talking and come at me.”

The captain of the Radiant Demon Squad assumed the opening stance of his fist and palm arts.

With a smooth motion, he curled his right hand into a fist beside his waist.

His left foot stepped forward, scraping through stones and dirt. The moment he lowered his left fist diagonally before his thigh, the surrounding brush shook.

WHOOOSH!

He had reached a realm where even the slightest motion became Burst Discharge. The fine meridians running through the tiny muscles throughout his body filled with martial power.

Formless waves of qi spilled from his entire body. A haze of dust was pushed outward in every direction.

A Black of the Desolate Fortress.

A master of the martial arts stood before Xi’an’s rulers.

“Mm.”

“That bastard really is...”

Low murmurs escaped the faction heads.

Some people could choke the breath from you simply by assuming an opening stance. The captain of the Radiant Demon Squad before them was one such man.

Now it was clear why they had prolonged the standoff while their subordinates and disciples died. A master’s attack was extraordinarily dangerous.

Life and death changed places in an instant. Unless they fully understood the supreme master before them, they would suffer fatal wounds before even exchanging two moves.

“Sect Leader Wi, have you seen enough?”

Baek Muryang asked without looking away from his opponent.

Wi Ilhwa, leader of the Remnant-Revering Earth Sect, had learned the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art of the Lingering Spirits, one of the Thirteen skies. It was said to be an eye technique for the ages.

Master it properly, and one could trade blows on equal terms even with a superior opponent.

“... It’s difficult, but I’m watching.”

Wi Ilhwa answered quietly, quelling the blazing rage within her. The power she had built over long years was being destroyed by men who might or might not belong to the Desolate Fortress’s seventeen squads.

Only the viciousness peculiar to the evil and unorthodox paths remained. No matter how she tore apart the bastard before her, her rage would not subside. At their first meeting, he had become an irreconcilable enemy.

Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art.

A divine technique of the highest order. A Lord of Yeoryeong from the distant past had created it, and generations had refined the secret technique ever since.

HUMMM.

Hazy images formed in Wi Ilhwa’s vision. Centered on the enemy before her, every path he might take appeared like an illusion.

Afterimages of the so-called captain of the Radiant Demon Squad surrounded his body in overlapping layers.

The phantoms made short movements this way and that. She could anticipate his combat paths before he even attacked.

It constantly perceived the changes produced by breathing, waves of qi, and muscles. Such was the power of this peerless eye technique.

It saw through the movements that would follow before they happened. Even now, she could read the villain’s attacks in advance.

She spoke without thinking.

“There are many combat paths. Too many... more than I’ve ever seen.”

At first, she saw six overlapping images.

That alone was suffocating.

The Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art was no ordinary eye technique. Its very formula filtered out unnecessary possibilities, which was what made it a supreme art.

That was how its intent and arrangement of core energy worked. The number of afterimages appearing in her vision adjusted to the opponent’s martial qi waves.

In other words, it reduced them to a manageable number. It was a peerless secret technique that offered immense benefits to its practitioner and their disciples.

Until now, Wi Ilhwa had never seen anyone in Xi’an’s Murim with five or more afterimages. Even Baek Muryang, head of Radiant Moon House, had only four overlapping phantoms.

That was because the Radiant Moon Overlord Art yielded exceptionally rapid progress even among evil arts—enough to give him an old man’s appearance at forty. It was only natural.

Having even three possible choices for an optimal strike in a given instant was enough to qualify someone to lead a mid-ranking sect.

In martial attainment alone, Baek Muryang was the strongest among Xi’an’s seven great unorthodox factions.

And yet.

‘Fifteen, twenty... thirty-two, no, several times twice that...?’

The power of the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art burned around her eyes. Even the Zanzhu points between her brows seemed to glow white-hot.

The more she overheated her Tongziliao points with internal energy, the more afterimages of her enemy appeared. She began to doubt the eye technique’s arrangement of core energy. In moments, the images swelled into the hundreds.

How was he using his body?

At this point, predicting his attacks was meaningless. His very existence countered the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art.

Was he performing Burst Discharge with his entire body? If so, even calling him a prodigy would not suffice.

He was different even from the Lord of Yeoryeong, who had produced no afterimages at all.

She had never seen anything like this. Was it real?

‘This is insane...!’

As Wi Ilhwa floundered in panic, the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad furrowed his brow, still holding his opening stance.

“I was showing you mercy on your way out.”

At first, it sounded unrelated to anything. To the unorthodox faction heads, however, its meaning was immediately clear.

He had meant to preserve their dignity. If they attacked first, they could at least put on a respectable display.

Before being defeated and killed without resistance.

“You bastard!”

The Sword Demon Sect leader roared, his voice seething with anger.

He began striding forward alone, radiating a tremendous presence.

He had reached the limit of his patience. The man who had summoned that band of radiant swords was truly vicious. A few brief words had delivered a dreadful provocation. He was no less malicious than most followers of the evil and unorthodox paths.

At this point, a clear and still mind was the last thing that mattered. This was no time to weigh differences in martial skill.

A forceful stomp came first. The Sword Demon Sect leader drove his foot down.

THUD!

The power beneath his foot was tremendous. Thick dust rose through the brush.

He drew his sword immediately afterward. It unfurled in a long streak of white. The afternoon sunlight gathered in coils along the blade extending straight above his grip.

He had already swung it outward from his waist. The sword’s trajectory blurred as it advanced at a truly terrifying speed.

HOOOO...

The long exhalation accompanying his strike was heavy, proof of the depth of his internal-energy breathing.

He deserved to be called a ruler of Xi’an.

Shaanxi’s Sword Demon Sect was renowned for its Lone Radiance Surpassing the Sunset Sword Forms. It was said to be killing swordsmanship taken to the extreme, distinct even from an assassin’s secret techniques.

It added vicious variations to the Swift Sword Formula. Its sword forms dazzled the eyes with supremely accomplished rapid attacks and hacked the body apart.

Behind him, Wi Ilhwa adjusted her grip on her sword, watching the attacks of the two men about to clash.

She also checked the waves of qi spreading beneath the other faction heads’ feet. Their Mobility Arts were primed to launch them like artillery shells.

‘I’ll get a good look at you.’

She would dissect every combat path and then hack his body apart.

The venom of Wi Ilhwa, one of Xi’an’s three greatest masters, rose above the hundreds of phantoms her enemy possessed.

There was a way to face him. The instant he committed to even the slightest attack, the number of afterimages would surely plummet.

A hand delivering a palm technique could not draw a sword. There lay their chance of victory.

Six other masters of her caliber were present. She would strike at an opening as the afterimages dwindled.

She would not simply stand helpless and suffer. She need only operate the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art over a still shorter interval.

This was a combined assault by seven unorthodox faction heads. Seizing the right instant would be enough.

‘I’ll tear you to pieces...!’

She pushed her eye technique to its utmost limits and fixed her gaze on her enemy.

His movement was strange. He was bringing one hand toward the Sword Demon Sect leader’s horizontally slashing blade. His response was not particularly fast.

On the contrary, it was bizarrely slow. Someone with qi waves like his should have been capable of striking like a beam of light, even without training in swift swordsmanship.

At the same time, an afterimage rose from his body—an image formed in the vision of the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art.

The phantom pressed one hand down on the flat of the sword, imprinting itself on her mind according to the eye technique’s formula.

Almost simultaneously, his actual movement overlapped the afterimage. With supreme confidence, he pressed the sword down. It was identical. This was the power of a peerless eye technique.

‘I can see it!’

In that fleeting instant, the corners of Wi Ilhwa’s mouth began to rise.

She calculated his next movement in advance. A chance of victory had appeared.

So long as she was not facing him alone, so long as six other masters of her caliber were present, she could lead these unorthodox founding masters as the leader of the Remnant-Revering Earth Sect and reasonably hope to win.

‘His next form...’

Waves of qi spread from his hand. He seemed intent on pushing the Sword Demon Sect leader’s blade down completely.

Then he would draw his sword. That was also what the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art conveyed. It told her that was his only option from there.

‘His balance will weaken briefly. We must attack his lower body then. If I unleash all my martial power in a single blow, I might slit his throat more easily than expected.’

She activated the Lip Art to relay her thoughts immediately.

She had already filled the fine meridians running from her tongue to her throat with martial power. It was a method of firing off words in rapid succession within the time frame of a master.

It happened then.

Suddenly, her enemy’s hair rippled out, its black sheen strangely beautiful.

He had lowered his stance as though preparing a powerful punch. His right foot, left foot, and the Sword Demon Sect leader’s position formed a straight line in his horse stance.

He turned only his head to look straight ahead. He seemed to be staring into the Sword Demon Sect leader’s eyes.

Her enemy had already raised his left hand to press down on the flat of the sword. Spreading his right hand wide, he thrust it forward.

In that instant, both his hands split into segments within Wi Ilhwa’s vision. They resembled a moth’s wings scattering lamplight. The afterimages multiplied in an instant and swayed this way and that.

Had the Dark Movement, Time-Transcending Sight Art malfunctioned? Such a sight should only have appeared when he held a natural stance just before attacking. It signified entirely new possibilities.

There was no other explanation.

His opening stance held little significance. Every posture was the same as a natural stance to him.

The instant waves of qi spread from his left hand, which pressed down on the sword’s flat—

KRAAANG!

The Sword Demon Sect leader’s blade shattered.

As the brilliant sunlight gathered upon it broke apart, her enemy was pushing his right hand toward that very spot. Tremendous expulsive force whirled at the center of his palm.

WHAM!

The sound was brief and intense. The broken sword fragments were driven along with his palm, straight toward the Sword Demon Sect leader’s abdomen.

It was as though his palm technique commanded each individual mote of sunlight. The sight was chilling.

Her enemy’s eyes flashed as he extended his hand. The instant Wi Ilhwa’s concentration broke from sheer shock—

THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!

Every sword fragment buried itself in him. The Sword Demon Sect leader’s upper body jerked violently, convulsing with tremendous force.

Then he collapsed with a single groan.

“Ghurgh...”

A dull impact rang out.

It sounded peculiarly clear despite the screams and crashing waves of force rising from the rear ranks. Belatedly stirred dust enveloped the Sword Demon Sect leader’s body.

The sight brought silence.

Jung Yeonshin glanced at Wi Ilhwa. His gaze swept precisely over the pressure points of her face. Blue lightning flickered through his sharply defined black-and-white eyes. It was a portent of something to come.

“You didn’t see that one, did you?”

The captain of the Radiant Demon Squad asked quietly.