The rear garden of Army-Breaking Pavilion—and the open ground before its entrance—was wide enough to be used as a training ground or a dueling arena.

But Yeon Wi dragged Yeon Hojeong toward the inner-fortress plaza.

When Yeon Hojeong asked why, Yeon Wi answered like this.

“I want to see everything you have.”

With that one line, Yeon Hojeong understood what his father was thinking.

Not just his father—if even he himself went all-out right now, the backlash could get ugly. If something went wrong, it could even damage the quarters.

He had never shown the very bottom of himself in a match with his father.

Strangely, it thrilled him.

“This should be fine.”

Yeon Hojeong looked around.

It was an outdoor training ground reserved for the Alliance of the Martial World, a fair distance from where he had sparred with Mo Yonggun.

Naturally, plenty of people passed by. If the clash got too intense, a crowd would gather.

“Why? Are you embarrassed?”

At Yeon Wi’s teasing provocation, Yeon Hojeong answered with a smile.

“How could I be?”

“Alright, then. Shall we begin?”

“Gladly.”

KUNG!

At the heavy stomp, people’s gazes turned toward the training ground.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed.

“I’ll go at you like it’s real.”

“No need to say that. Come.”

The words carried boundless confidence. His realm had risen, and with it came an ease unlike before.

WOOOOOOONG.

Blue-green qi laid a stable foundation for Yeon Hojeong to wield his martial arts without wavering.

It was Jade Wave True Qi—guiding everything calmly: body, inner-energy circulation, focus. The Jade Wave True Qi Yeon Hojeong had cultivated had been forged by his own relentless method, hardening his center like iron.

Yeon Wi’s eyes glittered.

As expected.

The Jade Wave True Formula had surpassed ninefold completion and was poised on the verge of the tenth.

Astonishingly, his son had developed the Jade Wave True Formula using it as nothing but a pure base. He wasn’t using it to manifest techniques—he was focusing solely on stabilizing his entire body, minimizing the burden his martial arts placed on him.

So that was your choice.

It was breathtaking creativity. The very idea of laying a peerless divine art like the Jade Wave True Formula beneath everything as a foundation was shocking. And he had made it real—so of course he was different.

FWOOM.

Yeon Hojeong lifted Mad Dragon (Axe) to the middle guard, and his gaze changed.

He’s coming.

KWAANG!

The first strike was, as expected, a charging blow driven by an explosive stomp. Yeon Hojeong closed the distance in an instant and brought Mad Dragon (Axe) down.

It was a simple attack—One Slash, Two Halves—but the speed and power were impossible to ignore. The ferocity wasn’t something you would expect from a spar between father and son.

Then Yeon Wi’s right hand brushed his belt and rose.

CLAAANG!

Yeon Hojeong’s body was knocked cleanly back.

A Mad Dragon (Axe) that weighed more than eighty geun—one move of the White Tiger Canon, powered by the Jade Wave True Formula—collapsed into nothing.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes sank deeper.

Strong.

The hand gripping Mad Dragon (Axe)’s haft trembled faintly. It felt like the shock of the sword’s impact ran through his hand and flowed into his entire body.

The rebound isn’t the same as before.

So this was his father’s grown martial arts.

Yeon Hojeong, newly awed, stepped [N O V E L I G H T] forward again.

PAPAPAPAK!

It was light.

Even as he stepped with power—White Tiger Lording Step—there was a lightness he hadn’t had before. And yet the force he drew up from the earth didn’t diminish at all.

He bound together two principles that should never have fit: heaviness and lightness.

Mad Dragon (Axe) moved like a storm.

CLCLCLCLANG!

An incredible defense.

Yeon Hojeong swung the axe with terrifying speed, both hands on the haft—yet Yeon Wi was batting aside every single attack with nothing but an ordinary longsword in his right hand.

It was defense that had reached the utmost height. An invincible guard without a finger’s width of opening.

In that instant, Yeon Hojeong’s eyes lit.

RUMBLE.

It felt as if storm clouds were rolling in from the northern sky.

In a blink, aggressive white qi became heavy, solid black qi.

Yeon Wi’s eyes sharpened.

Heavy?

Yeon Hojeong covered his upper body with Mad Dragon (Axe) and plunged straight in.

BANG!

Yeon Wi’s body jolted.

It wasn’t something you could “block” with a sword. It wasn’t a matter of power—it was a matter of distance.

A body check?

And it didn’t end with one.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

The training ground’s floor cracked open under Yeon Hojeong’s brutal stomps.

He crashed in three times in a row, driving Yeon Wi back. Even Yeon Wi couldn’t hide his surprise at this.

That’s clearly a defensive move. But he’s using it as offense.

It was martial arts that leapt beyond the common sense of attack and defense. The counterforce was so violent it lowered his stance by itself.

Admiring his son’s sharp improvisation, Yeon Wi swung his left hand—the one not holding the sword.

PUPUPUNG!

Hrk!

Under that grand, overwhelming force, Yeon Hojeong was shoved, sliding all the way to the edge of the training ground.

It wasn’t a strike meant to damage—it was a blow meant to push. There was no lingering shock in his body, but thanks to it, Yeon Wi regained freedom.

Reverse Dragon Palm!

It was the “Push” formula of Reverse Dragon Palm. Yeon Hojeong had used that same attack on the man called Pyeongsan—brought by the lord of Gloom-Death Hall.

It’s completely different.

The power and depth were on another level entirely.

This wasn’t a difference of realm—it was a difference in the martial learning behind it. Reverse Dragon Palm meshed best with Sword Ultimate Essence or Dragon Flies Instant Step among the Yeon Clan’s Five Great Divine Arts.

FLASH!

Yeon Wi charged.

For a moment he looked as if he were simply running with his waist held straight—then he was already in Yeon Hojeong’s face. A speed the naked eye struggled to follow: true Heaven-Gifted Flight.

He’s coming!

Yeon Wi’s sword moved like a beam of light.

CLCLCLCLCLANG!

A murderous storm of sword strikes came down like a net.

Heaven Net—a net cast from the sky. The harmony of an ultra-fast Fast Sword and a sticky, flowing Phantom Sword wrapped around Yeon Hojeong like an inescapable prison.

Damn it—!

He flicked the central attacks aside with the axe-head of Mad Dragon (Axe), then scattered the remaining strikes with the palm-form of Northern Heaven Twelve Walls.

CHIRIRIRING!

Thread-thin sword qi shattered, scattered, and vanished. He was somehow holding off the Heaven Net Sword Form.

A small smile touched Yeon Wi’s face.

Impressive.

A brilliant response. The moment a rough, chilling attack came in, his body reacted on its own.

It had been like that before, but after smashing dark-path sects, his senses seemed even sharper. Unless you were a hardened veteran of a hundred battles, it was hard to respond this quickly.

But—.

Yeon Wi’s gaze ignited.

What will you do now?

SKRK!

Blood burst from Yeon Hojeong’s body.

It got even faster.

CLCLCLANG! SKRK! FWOOSH!

The sword-net cut across his shoulder, his collarbone, his thigh.

It was too fast to block. The cuts weren’t deep, but they drew plenty of blood—he had never even imagined his father could wield such a rough, viciously fast sword technique.

As expected.

He was incredible.

A master of Hundred Swords, Ten Thousand Arts—and yet not biased to one side. A fully blossomed Middle Way of martial arts, free to wield any method at will, radiating the majesty of the Heaven Sword.

Truly—a living incarnation of the sword.

Fast Sword, Strong Sword, Soft Sword, Heavy Sword, Light Sword, Phantom Sword, Still Sword—along with Living Sword and even Dead Sword, all of it made real.

A swordsman of Gangdong worthy of the love of every sword under heaven—the true martial arts of Yeon Wi, the Judge’s Sword, were here.

PAPAPAPAK!

The blood spraying into the air steadily increased.

He controlled his qi to stanch the bleeding the instant he was cut, but if this continued, he would collapse from blood loss.

He needed it. A breakthrough.

In a situation where evasion was impossible—where even counterattacking couldn’t be done—he needed a single move that could flip the momentum.

FLASH!

Yeon Hojeong’s pupils spat red flame.

BANG!

Yeon Wi flinched.

His foot—?

The son who had been blocking the Heaven Net Sword Form aimed at Yeon Wi’s instep and fired a stamping stomp.

If he hadn’t instinctively pulled his foot back, the bone would have broken. Then one leg would have been sealed—and his sword power would have plummeted.

Unusual.

It was an attack that burdened both body and mind. Not a righteous-style technique, but a practical method of real combat. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

BANG! BANG!

He kept aiming for the instep while still holding off the Heaven Net Sword Form to the very end.

In that posture—inside that defense—how he was drawing out stomps with that kind of power was beyond understanding. His flexibility was absurd.

And it didn’t end there.

FWOOM—!

Within the dense sword patterns, red fire surged and rolled.

CLCLCLCLCLANG! SKRK!

This time, the one cut wasn’t Yeon Hojeong.

My sleeve...?

Mad Dragon (Axe)’s chilling blade split Yeon Wi’s sleeve cleanly in half.

If he hadn’t protected his forearm with Sword Ultimate Essence, the muscle would have been torn—an outrageously lethal cleaving strike.

A strike overflowing with killing intent. Is this, too, the Four Spirit Arts?

That was when—

KWA-AAANG!

Yeon Wi’s eyes widened.

Hk—!

The Sword-Qi Net of the Heaven Net Sword Form scattered at a frightening speed.

There was only one reason. A single stomp from Yeon Hojeong had disrupted Yeon Wi’s stance.

This is—?!

Yeon Wi retrieved the Heaven Net sword at once and retreated three steps, then clicked his tongue as he looked at where he’d been standing.

“Don’t tell me you weren’t aiming for my instep—you were trying to break the training ground’s base?”

FLASH!

Yeon Hojeong closed in with Blood Wing Sweeps the Heavens—the fastest footwork of the Four Spirit Arts—and swung Mad Dragon (Axe) up.

“Both.”

KWA-RRUNG!

A killing-intent cleave that pierced through the steel-sword screen slammed a violent impact into Yeon Wi’s upper body.

Killing Art.

It was the absolute killing art of the Vermilion Bird Canon—Crimson Flame Six Slaughters Art.

His stance was disrupted, so the power didn’t come out properly. Even so, Yeon Wi’s sleeve was shredded into dozens of pieces, scattering away.

Yeon Wi looked at Yeon Hojeong.

“Hoo.”

FWOOM—!

Yeon Hojeong, kneeling on one knee with Mad Dragon (Axe) set across it, panted for breath.

A crimson aura burned off his body like flame. Unlike before—when he had wielded things in stable harmony with the Jade Wave True Formula, White Tiger Qi, Black Tortoise Qi, and more—he had spread only Vermilion Bird Qi through his entire body.

KUGUGUGUNG!

Under the terrifying pressure, the training ground’s floor split again.

The sovereign of the southern heavens—the descent of the Sun God. Yeon Hojeong’s body, blazing with dreadful killing intent and explosive battle-lust, looked like gunpowder on the brink of detonation.

It was his son’s declaration: he was going in with the intent to kill. The very quality of the pressure pouring out of him was different.

Good.

A magnificent smile settled on Yeon Wi’s face as he looked at his son.

So you finally acknowledge your father.

“Like it’s real,” he’d said.

But for all that talk, his son had never once poured out “real” killing moves on him. Afraid his father might be hurt, he had always held back a sliver of mercy.

Not anymore.

Yeon Hojeong was certain that Yeon Wi’s martial arts could truly receive everything he had. To not throw his whole self into it now would be no different from insulting his father.

That certainty—those eyes, that battle-lust—was the highest praise Yeon Wi could receive.

Don’t worry. Come.

He still didn’t yield to the young.

The son who had grown so large beyond his father’s hands had returned—and acknowledged his father’s strength.

A crossing of trust.

As martial artists, as people of the rivers and lakes, only in this moment was their relationship completed. Among those who live with martial arts in their hearts, there would be no other father and son who showed this kind of trust.

Yeon Hojeong spoke with red eyes—and a face full of steady, solid smiles.

“I’m really coming.”

Yeon Wi spoke with green eyes—and a face full of generous, unhurried smiles.

“I waited twenty years for this.”

KWAANG!

Their weapons crashed, flipping up the training ground’s floor.