This was the final battle of the Demon Realm.

The moment where three masters of the Divine Sword Corps had to risk their lives.

Facing three of the Six Star Lords, along with the North King Noban and the Law King—ancient monsters radiating godlike might.

With such combatants gathered, even a transcendent martial artist of tyrannical style like Ma Yeon-jeok could not bring this fight to a swift end.

A short duel was impossible.

There wasn't a single one among them who did not carry a deep-rooted cause. Their lives were entangled with such gravity that a prolonged battle, with days and nights turning over, was only natural to expect.

Like when Jeong Yeon-shin, once lost to inner demons, had exchanged strikes with the Head Master of Wudang’s Jade Veil for several days.

And yet.

The half-destroyed palace was momentarily still.

Heavenly Radiant Armor.

A shield granted by the god of battle to this land.

Even the supreme-grade inner force barrier had been snatched away by Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand.

Even the Northern Primordial Wild Essence—the unique protective energy technique of the God of War—might no longer be a guarantee of absolute defense.

“......”

That’s why the immense shock gripped the hall. Amid the North Kings, whose very intent manifests as pressure, a disturbance so vast it could be felt through the skin had begun to swell.

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin met the gaze of the Law King below him.

A martial monk draped in solemn orange robes flowing down to his feet. Unlike the many elite warriors of the Yozoku, he was among the few in this battlefield shorter in stature than the Divine Sword Corps masters.

The moment the Heavenly Radiant Armor was stripped, he had taken a half-step back.

Now he was already standing straight, posture erect. As expected of a supreme master. Yet even so, his colorless eyes trembled, filling with emotion.

It was deep shock.

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke slowly to the Law King.

“This is only my view, but Ultimate Martial Way, ultimately, depends on how you interpret it.”

“......”

“Someone’s life may be confined to a single martial technique, while another master’s life may be composed of countless experiences and even more techniques. But neither path of Ultimate Martial Way is ever to be dismissed. Each is noble and elevated. Therefore...”

He continued with quiet resolve.

“If it’s a method that encapsulates the mysteries of such martial arts, perhaps it can withstand even the Ultimate Martial Way of those as dignified as you.”

At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin clenched the light swirling in his palm.

“Like this.”

TU-QUANG!

A suppressed explosion.

Fragments of the Heavenly Radiant Armor—loosened after losing its master—fell atop Jeong Yeon-shin’s worn leather shoes.

At the same moment, the ripple spread throughout the palace. A short but monstrous quake. The gray dust on the floor surged up like smoke.

And as the blue Tai Chi symbol carved into the back of Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand slowly faded—

The Law King opened his mouth.

“...What just occurred must be examined by the Enlightened One. With this hand, I unraveled the life of a bold merchant, and you are a brigand from the South. A Ultimate Martial Way born of a pitiful monk has been replaced with the essence of an emperor.”

He caught his breath with a mix of inner force and clumsy speech. In that fleeting moment, a translucent pulse began to form around his body—it was the Heavenly Radiant Armor again.

Devious.

During that time, Jeong Yeon-shin silently rotated the radiant wheel within his heart.

His opponent was a supreme old monk with unfathomable inner strength.

If the palm force of Ultimate Martial Way had not fully discharged before being broken, then if the Law King fought with the resolve to die, he might unleash the Eradication of Resentment and Extinguishing Light Technique once more.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought to himself:

There’s no such thing as a harmless Ultimate Martial Way.

That’s why he needed a proper follow-up attack.

Even if the Heavenly Radiant Armor was reforming, he needed a decisive killing move.

In that case...

What if he used his footwork—the fastest under heaven?

As Jeong Yeon-shin raised one leg, a surge of overwhelming propulsion burst from the Yongcheon Acupoint on the sole of his foot, shattering the ground with a slam.

His toe arced upward, as if distorting time and space, and struck toward the Law King’s abdomen.

ZZZZZZZEONG!

The shockwave that followed his movement swept away the rising stone dust like a storm.

By then, Jeong Yeon-shin’s bare foot had already collided with a hand.

Due to the transcendent friction, sparks flew like lightning—but the shadow-cloaked palm didn’t budge. The surrounding air rippled violently like crashing waves.

[That is spatial distortion.]

It was Namje, who had timely switched places with the Law King. He had returned to his position.

When the formation covering the Demon Realm's capital came under the control of the First of the North, this is what happened. Jeong Yeon-shin’s opponent wasn’t a man—it was an entire nation. And Namje, like the martial emperor of Gunreung, manipulated space at will.

In the end, what Jeong Yeon-shin had to overcome was the emperor’s domain. He would have to surpass even the epithet Northern Emperor today.

Namje opened his mouth. Absorbing all of Jeong Yeon-shin’s attack through his personal Heavenly Radiant Armor—Delusion Veil.

[You’ve become too dangerous.]

A voice rumbling with the might of the Six Harmonies.

It felt as though the sound alone would crush the listener’s body. Perhaps it was because the martial energy of the formation spread across the capital had been focused entirely onto Namje himself.

Yet Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice was just as clear.

“My turn.”

He slowly lowered his leg.

Tuk.

The palace floor, already cracked like a spider’s web, held his step for a moment before collapsing like mud, sinking another layer below.

Even nature itself couldn’t withstand the force of the Three Radiance Wheel.

Namje gazed at it silently, then suddenly vanished—and reappeared striking downward with a hand blade from Jeong Yeon-shin’s flank. A ghostlike, fluid movement.

At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin thrust his left leg vertically—intercepting Namje’s strike. The rising shockwave from the foot and the force-wrapped hand collided like lightning and exploded.

KWAHHHHHHNG!

Every wall in the palace burst apart. Even the Heavenly Radiant Armor of the First of the North couldn’t absorb all of the shockwave.

Hidden chambers of the palace were revealed on all sides, and in the emperor’s private wardrobe, golden dragon robes were torn and flung skyward.

At the same time—

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight

Jeong Yeon-shin saw the scene not directly, but over Yeom Jeong’s shoulder.

Once again, Namje’s technique. The two Star Lords had swapped places like a lie—before Jeong Yeon-shin even finished lowering his leg.

[This is the emperor’s domain.]

Was he preparing another Ultimate Martial Way?

Just as he appeared, Yeom Jeong’s will swept horizontally with a crimson spear shaft. For Jeong Yeon-shin, this was a breathless battle.

Within the snare of frozen time where fluttering golden dragon robes appeared still, only the warriors inside seemed to circle each other in motion.

BOOM!

A thunderous sound burst briefly from Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand as he swung his arm to the side. In an instant, his palm had gathered dark blue flames, and Yeom Jeong’s strike carried overwhelming precision and weight.

The sensation of facing a grand general of the military lasted only a moment—Jeong Yeon-shin was flung back immediately.

Fwoooosh!

In a flash, a violent wind pressure struck his side, pressing down like an iron wall. It felt as though he would be blasted all the way out of the palace.

An expected outcome.

He had received a finishing strike from the Liu Yuan Star Lord while in an unstable posture and with the worst possible breathing.

Yet Yeom Jeong, who leapt after him in a single bound, looked visibly surprised. It must have been in reaction to his technique of spatial displacement, a secret divine skill.

[Has he achieved a natural state?]

“No need?”

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered midair in reply.

It had been a long time since he accelerated his entire body's reaction speed to its extreme through Hwangang—Terminal Thunder. Back when he once traded sword energy beneath the night sky, even his Sensory Path had absorbed that state.

Even Heukhwan’s Sensory Path was laughable now.

Flick!

It was easy to drive the formless sword Starry Night into the ground to slow his fall.

When he spread the blade of sword energy wide, deep grooves were gouged with a crashing sound. At that exact moment, Yeom Jeong charged overhead as Jeong Yeon-shin grounded himself. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

She had raised a crimson spear high, and then suddenly shifted into the form of the Dharma King.

Craaaash!

From the upper seat where the stone throne stood, an explosive pressure like converging typhoons erupted. As if in a dream, Yeom Jeong had changed positions and unleashed a finishing blow toward Yong Hui-myeong.

Nearby, Namje floated forward with both feet off the ground, also approaching Yong Hui-myeong.

—Not easy. The deeper it goes, the worse it gets. I nearly lost my arm just now to that pitch-black two-legged emperor. He manipulates space exactly how he pleases. These bastards are rotating like carriage wheels, trapping us in a wheel war.

Through the shattered sword’s message, it flooded Jeong Yeon-shin’s ear like the gliding body of a light-born dragon. It was fast enough to remind him of Abbot Beomha’s Radiant Mind-Seed Transmission from Shaolin.

—Seomye, do you know the most important thing in this battle? It's that not a single wound must be inflicted on my body. Not just because your direct senior is precious. The blood I shed is extremely mystical—if it spills onto this kind of formation, who knows what could happen.

Finally, Yong Hui-myeong asked,

—Is there nothing large enough to shift the tide of battle at once? If I release my Ultimate Martial Way now, it’ll be the same as laying out our hand first.

At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was staring straight into the Dharma King’s shaken eyes. He had just lowered the blade of dark blue Starry Night at a slanted angle.

“......!”

Had the movement not been coordinated?

Now, the absolute monk from the Western Region surged toward his face. It was as though he was recalling Namje’s parents. The divine force within his upper dantian seemed to be soaring once more to the extreme.

[Secret Mudra of Esoteric Sect! Five Thunder God Palm...!]

“.......”

As time thickened like a bog, Jeong Yeon-shin silently observed the scene for a brief moment. Then he spun around once, holding a flame shaped like a black azure sword.

Wooooong—

Starry Night let out a cry.

***

Over two hundred martial artists were dashing along the mountain ridge. On the slope facing the distant plains, a vast blackened metropolis came into view.

This was no road for ordinary travelers.

Yet the rugged path had formed because the one-armed blind swordsman and the Northern Emperor had swept through it earlier.

At the head of the group, two men spoke.

“What’s with the sudden rush? You were being dragged along before.”

A handsome man with dazzling white hair fluttering behind him.

“The smell of Whirling Wind Hollow bastards. Wasn’t it always sickening how they pretended to be noble while looking down on us? Now that we’ve arrived at the capital, my hands are itching.”

A swordsman in a fur hat atop a massive battle horse.

They were the Blood King and the Lord of the Violent Wind Division.

Whether the armored boy at the rear of the group watched them or not, the two dashed forward without pause, only stopping near the top of a steep incline.

Thud!

The collective wind pressure of their body-lightening technique swept out in all directions.

It was an ideal vantage point. From there, they could overlook the absurdly vast metropolis through the rising dust.

The Blood King slowly opened his mouth.

“...To think I’d live to see the day. Stepping into that demon’s den willingly...”

His red eyes turned toward the city. A land that weighed down the soul just by looking at it.

Roofs of darkened palace halls rose sharply like sword points. The capital city of Heukdo sprawled out beneath the slope.

A great city shaped by the God of War and the Liu Yuan Star Lords.

Though enemies might have breached the great walls below, no power had ever been granted passage into this cradle of martial power.

And now, from the northern border of the Demon Realm, the Blood King’s Clan and the Violent Wind Division had arrived—driven by choice and by fate, by destined ties and ancient grudges.

It was a scene that proved the world was in motion.

Wooooong!

Suddenly, a layered sound of gales roared like dozens of overlapping northern winds. Subtle starlight began to gather at the sword of the Violent Wind Lord, now clutched at the hilt. It was sword force.

The Lord of the Violent Wind Division spoke again.

“Too many flies.”

The battle unfolding below far surpassed the level of mere martial duels.

A conflict that would shape the great power structure of the world. Naturally, there were countless eyes watching.

Especially since rumors had spread that Namje had laid a battle formation mimicking the God of War’s descent. All kinds of factions had swarmed to the scene.

Other ruling powers of the Demon Realm, °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° spy networks under Dongchang of the Ming, southern noble families and famous sects, Russian war clans disguised as merchant groups, scholarly wanderers from the East with ocher-colored horn bows on their backs...

Each group dotted the ridges like blooming flowers. The gazes falling upon the Blood King’s Clan and the Violent Wind Division came from these very onlookers.

Most were native martial artists who had long wandered the Demon Realm, and the Violent Wind Lord scowled openly under their stares.

Then it happened.

“Hm?”

It was the Blood King, eyes shifting toward the city gate.

“Something’s grating on my eyes.”

Just as the Violent Wind Lord extended his sword force like the whip of a god and scorched a radius of ten jang in a single slash—

What the Blood King’s crimson pupils saw:

A blood ghost with pure white hair sliced off the side of “Giant Mun Gok’s” head in one sweep, only to be seized by a massive hand.

Inside the city gate, Great King Vajra, wreathed in streaks of blue lightning, clashed with three black-robed figures yet still managed to turn his back on Heukdo.

Elsewhere, even among top warlords, the martial force clashed against the Ipwang Fortress Divine Sword Corps across the barren courtyard of Heukdo Imperial Palace.

From that palace with its open roof—where monstrous humanoids were clearly visible—

Fwoosh!

A black-blue light spun horizontally. Like a dream. It swept across the entirety of Heukdo.

From the densely packed palace halls to the endlessly stretching walls on either side, it looked as though a horizon line had been drawn through the city.

“.......”

For a moment, all noise in the wilderness was swallowed by that trajectory. It was as if a dark blue night had flickered across the entire city.

Beside the Blood King, the humming sword force dissipated.

“A formless... sword?”

The Lord of the Violent Wind Division stood frozen, expression blank.

The entire city exploded with a sound beyond description and split into upper and lower halves.