A heavy silence spread out from the center, where Jeong Yeon-shin had been pierced by the sword of the Lord of Ipwang Fortress. Yet the only person who reacted, even slightly, to the scene was So Cheonmujuk.

“......”

The mountainside had become round and flat, as if nature itself had sculpted a massive circular martial arena. Of course, it was the aftermath of intense combat.

The nine martial experts at the center showed no movement. They merely stood in a distorted circle, like a fig left to rot in a season of gluttonous insects.

It was the sword pressure laid down with a single strike by the Lord of Ipwang Fortress. A domain that suppressed even transcendent movement. It was like a hazy glass dome had been cast over nature’s martial arena.

It resonated with the concept of spell martial arts.

It meant her martial skill had surpassed a certain threshold. The boundary between martial technique and spellcraft had clearly begun to dissolve.

That alone explained why the circular battlefield filled with top-level masters had frozen. After all, none of them had any profound personal attachment to Jeong Yeon-shin.

[Midday Lightning.]

Suddenly, the space beside Jeong Yeon-shin lit up.

So Cheonmujuk had snapped her fingers. From her pale, slender fingertips, dozens of streaks of lightning exploded outward.

Zzzeeeeehhh—!

The bolts shattered the semi-transparent space around her as if breaking a mirror.

Amid the sound of dozens of iron plates being torn apart, she moved alone. Bright Phoenix Divine Form. She elegantly pulled Jeong Yeon-shin toward her and instantly retreated thirty steps.

The blade of Oblivion’s End was so sharp that even when it slid out of Jeong Yeon-shin’s abdomen like a sheathless draw, it made no sound.

Then, So Cheonmujuk whispered into his ear.

“You took that? Are you out of your damn mind?”

“You and I seem to synchronize well in joint attacks. Maybe even better than with the God of War.”

Jeong Yeon-shin responded casually, spouting nonsense as he stared intently at the Lord of Ipwang Fortress, who had frozen mid-strike.

“Obviously...”

Something muttered behind his back, presumably from So Cheonmujuk, but Jeong Yeon-shin only had eyes for his master.

He superimposed the face of the fifteen-year-old girl who had once chosen him as her companion.

They say sword children, or geomdong, who lost their parents young and wandered the martial world, were always starved for affection. Even the Sword Saint Hyeon So-baek, who revered the Spring Swordmaster, was no different.

What, then, did the mysterious Lord of Ipwang Fortress—who had become a War God on the battlefield of Dosan’s Forest of Swords—feel in that torrential downpour of memories?

Hundreds of regressions, the deep affection with which she taught the sword, the long hair, the three hundred years that had passed—fifteen-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin.

‘...Even if I hadn’t lived twenty full years.’

In just a fleeting memory, a person would grind techniques into their bones while lying in bed.

“Maybe just a little.”

Young Jeong Yeon-shin muttered to himself.

“You were surprised.”

It came with profound relief.

Extending his qi sense as far as Ten Li One Kill, he barely sensed that nothing chaotic was occurring within the Shaolin grounds. The sacred formation of the 108 Arhats was still supplying spiritual energy.

“......”

Jeong Yeon-shin met the eyes of the Lord of Ipwang Fortress.

She stared back, emotionless, flawless. Not a single gap in her guard.

Her eye technique—unique to Morning Sun Eternal Halt—gave off a calm green glow, like dawn.

Even so, the two of them were master and disciple. Great Master Wonjeok had fully awakened and was in motion.

‘Where are you going... ah.’

She was heading toward the Daesun Jeongmaeng side, where Liu Yuan Star General Mugok and others were. A few top Divine Sword Corps members were barely holding them off. In fact, their survival alone was already remarkable.

At that moment, the Lord of Ipwang Fortress moved her lips.

“Many of your attacks are lethal to me. I acknowledge you.”

“...So my master’s consciousness hasn’t completely vanished, has it.”

“That statement makes no sense. Do not speak of this body as though it belongs to you.”

“It doesn’t belong to you either.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke quietly, like one of the Seventh Apostates arguing with his master in the past.

But the Lord of Ipwang Fortress merely smiled enigmatically. The same pale lips he had seen at the heart of Cheonhamok.

An emotionless temperament, eerie and seemingly flawless.

‘The sword pressure is just the beginning.’

The oppressive force currently filling the arena was merely her initiation ritual. The wind pressure that accompanied her natural sword—a sign that the world’s strongest was beginning to go all-out.

Jeong Yeon-shin paid it no mind and opened his mouth.

“No matter how much your body grew to become hers, my master could not have perished in vain. I knew that if I felled the great tree—you—she would return. That’s enough.”

Though his words scattered without a fitting response, none of the nine masters thought them meaningless.

“Before I taste your blade again... let me catch my breath.”

A blind man in a bamboo hat spoke, tapping his knee as he sat atop a low boulder.

“It benefits everyone to steady their breathing. After all, only madmen who believe their own final technique to be the best under heaven are left here.”

Dry silence spread over the circular clearing, backed by a pale gray mountainside like a folding screen.

The breath of each martial artist began to rise white into the air.

Each one regulated their internal energy to ensure they could definitely kill their marked opponent.

All were survivors of exceptional resilience.

Tap. Crackle—

Embers smoldering underground occasionally burst through dirt piles. The remaining waves of energy from peerless lunatics had nested in the earth like kindling.

Oddly enough, no one disagreed.

They were all truly thinking the same as the Lord of Cheongeuk Sect had said. That their own perfected final move was the greatest in the world.

“That part, at least, is true.”

The Azure Water True Person nodded solemnly from afar, while the Lord of Cheongeuk acted as if he hadn’t heard and asked Jeong Yeon-shin,

“So, you’ll cut down Cheonhamok and return the world to fertile ground? You really think that’s possible?”

Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly. He was staring at his master, who had her eyes closed and was focused solely [N O V E L I G H T] on her breath.

“Is there a problem...?”

That question was a declaration.

Jeong Yeon-shin meant: why ask about something already decided?

Like the First Heavenly Demon flirting with plum blossoms at Mount Hua.

The blind man laughed.

“No ruler or martial artist in history has ever attempted it. It’s a treacherous road. A very long path to cross. I say this because I’ve recently faced every storm in Jianghu, including you.”

“Is there a problem?”

“They say extremes always meet. If you truly intend to carry out such a radical righteous act... I’m willing to lend a blade. I owe you anyway.”

“That would help a lot.”

Peerless martial artists were those who sensed their opponent’s intentions and avoided illusions.

At that moment, the Lord of Cheongeuk’s face twitched strangely. A reaction mixed with disbelief and ancient memory, his lips wriggling like worms.

He spun his Child’s Dream sword in a flashy motion.

“...My wife and I haven’t tasted shiny grains of rice in ages. That includes kings and nobles too. That fellow Lee Teum-je, the one in charge of Nakseong, once allowed corrupt royals to be turned into meat stew. The commoners loved it. Why do you think that was?

Now it’s trending even in Ming. Eating human flesh like the Yozoku do.”

The blind man under the bamboo hat spoke with calm indifference, as if it were someone else’s problem.

As always, when he spoke, all tension dissolved.

This was surely the pinnacle battlefield under Heaven, yet for a moment, everything felt meaningless.

“Trending? That’s excessive.”

Mun Gok frowned.

“Let go of your bias against the unorthodox. Many of the Northern Kings fought to stop such despicable customs.”

“Regrettably, I have a condition that prevents me from conversing with Northern Kings. When people start saying Liu Yuan Star Generals and such, I break out in hives.”

The blind man lowered his hat to his chin and lay back, using his arm as a pillow. Naturally, the iron sword Child’s Dream was still in his grip.

Meanwhile, a middle-aged swordsman of Ming blood near Mun Gok, the Dragonwill Blade Lord, slowly swayed his orange robe and said,

“There’s a way to reclaim your former Lord of the Divine Sword Corps. Your master.”

“Speak.”

“Come to the Root. You’re someone who can achieve unity. In the vast space of the Tree, you could share eternity with your master.”

A cryptic statement.

He spoke as though someone not of Ming blood could achieve unity with the Tree, and that some hidden space existed within Cheonhamok.

A place counted among the greatest mysteries of the martial world. Who could know what lurked inside?

Jeong Yeon-shin answered with a calm expression.

“If you hand over that sword, I’ll consider it.”

“Are you a thief?”

The Dragonwill Blade Lord’s sword began to blur, as if swept by a translucent leaf. A sign of his natural sword.

Next to him, Bukmyeong Gwonhu’s long arm curved like a whip. The way she cracked the air and built up explosive force was uncanny—Ming martial arts were nothing but strange.

“She’s the successor of the Yong family. What use is persuasion?”

Just then, it was as if a sword had been planted in their hearts.

The Lord of Ipwang Fortress’s exhale visibly thinned.

BOOM—!

The pressure shattered like glass beneath each master’s technique.

Mun Gok moved first.

“Pardon me, Divine Sword, but... that one must be killed while there’s still a chance.”

THUD—

Nine Sulfurous Demon Steps.

The North’s most powerful advancing technique was unleashed.

His massive body warped like a crimson fireball.

In an instant, his rocky fist slammed toward the Lord of Ipwang Fortress from the side.

Her semi-transparent protective qi shattered in one blow.

HWAHHHHH!

Mun Gok’s left hand traced a short arc down toward the crown of the Lord of Ipwang Fortress’s head.

Wuuuung!

Just as he was about to grab her skull and tear it upward, a faint halo of light bloomed from his lower body up to his abdomen, branded like a fire seal.

It was the force of repeated upward strikes—Bo Weol Heaven Style—unleashed with only the movement of her arm. From every impact point her pale hand struck, muscle fibers, pressure points, and meridians were all cleanly severed. So much so that pale light formed even behind Mun Gok’s back.

It didn’t land! This is the pinnacle of the Overweighting Method...!

A torrent of blood gushed from the giant’s mouth and immediately turned into a feral roar that echoed through the space.

“......!”

Mun Gok’s legs shifted into a faint knee-slicing kick and struck the Lord of Ipwang Fortress like a cannonball.

KWAHAAAAAAAAANG!

A long trench etched itself into the earth as she flew from the shockwave. A limping figure staggered behind her at the same moment.

“This is the end of the line.”

Still airborne, he slammed his hand into the bare ground and pulled out an axe made purely of compacted earth. A divine method shaping raw earth qi into a solid axe, like an intangible sword.

The Lord of Ipwang Fortress murmured,

“You command the King of Earth.”

The God of War, with brutish force, swung the great axe overhead and embedded it like thunder into her spine.

KWANG! KZZZZZEEECK—!

The space around the point of impact cracked like a spiderweb into translucent shards. Even pure axe technique alone caused a ripple similar to an interdimensional void.

It wouldn’t be strange if this moment were read as a sentence delivered to the world’s top master.

“Just die already.”

A warrior holding a weapon is always absolute. Yet the one he was slamming with the axe—she, too, was a God of War. The axe blade pushed itself away from her back all on its own.

Thus, the God of War slammed into the earth, while she soared into the sky.

SAAAAAAH—

A faint, hazy qi, like a ring around a clouded moon, fluttered from her garments. Her protective qi recovered in a single breath from her skin. The God of War’s axe struck harmlessly into the dirt with a mighty crash.

Within the light dust, he bared his teeth.

“I see now—there’s no winning a long fight. Since there are ten of us, let’s end this in ten exchanges.”

His words rang through the natural arena, backed by the rugged mountain landscape.

And then, suddenly, a massive greatsword shot down from the far sky with such force it seemed to pierce even the God of War’s voice, striking directly at the Lord of Ipwang Fortress.

The Tyrant Hero Dan Seong-eum held the hilt level.

FWOOOOOSH! KWAAAAANG—!

A pale shockwave rippled out in dozens of concentric circles, then froze just before dispersing—like fog suspended in stillness.

The Lord of Ipwang Fortress spun, her sleeves fluttering like the Wind God’s steps, and slammed down at the center of the greatsword.

From it, threads of transparent force sprayed outward like silk, wrapping around the Tyrant Hero like defensive qi.

This was the world of ascended masters.

They shattered moments into countless fragments with full-body qi sense. Within this diced space-time, they danced like lightning—truly the apex of all under Heaven.

From the Azure Water True Person’s sword, clouds billowed upward. Sword energy radiating both blue and crimson surged, engulfing the arena in an instant.

The surroundings darkened with thick clouds, and even vision-enhancing techniques couldn’t pierce through. From every figure burst violent embers—

KZZZZZEEECK!

Countless blades seemed to ceaselessly slice at protective qi. For those of the Unity Bloodline, who possessed regenerative ability, this was all calculated.

Jeong Yeon-shin slung the one-legged blind man over his left shoulder like a pack. He deflected the flow of sword energy like leaves on a stream. His target: the Lord of Ipwang Fortress.

In this ascending domain, three shadows chased each other, wielding weapons, and the concentrated force in the center was immense.

That’ll blast through the ridge.

Even without sight, he could feel it. Her natural sword, the God of War’s axe, and the Tyrant Hero’s Pa-hwang Three Forms.

With no time to channel recoil, each strike would rip across ridges indiscriminately, killing all—whether civilians were there or not.

A horrific scene flashed through his mind. They would all die. That was his upper dantian’s foresight.

Ten Li of Radiant Depth.

CRACK.

His body became a streak of light, dashing through still time like a stroke on a painting. Faster than anyone else present.

Suddenly, before him appeared two figures—their wills like mirages blocking his path.

[Why did you treat the Yong family’s Divine Sword that way?]

Bukmyeong Gwonhu surged toward him like a ghost. She had been the only one capable of holding her own against Mun Gok.

Jeong Yeon-shin spun half a turn around her, simply passing by. His speed surpassed wind itself—only the ripple of space brushed past his ear. The echo rang hollow.

Her unconscious mind echoed again.

[Ignore it. It’s just a thought. I’m not speaking to you.]

In that instant, her curved arms seized the edge of his right sleeve. A divine-level grappling technique.

At the same time, Dragonwill Blade Lord appeared at point-blank range and severed Jeong Yeon-shin’s right arm clean off.

KZZZEEEENG!

It came not with sound, but with vibration. A blade strike nearing Ultimate Martial Way. It cleaved through his shoulder guard and protective qi.

Strong.

That was all.

He didn’t look back.

Even before his arm hit the ground, Jeongga’s internal energy stirred. The severed pressure points, meridians, and muscle strands rejoined instantly, like mechanical gearwork.

His innate heavenly qi surged violently in response.

All of it happened as fast as his light-foot technique. Possessed. Uncatchable.

[......!]

For the first time, shock crossed Dragonwill Blade Lord and Bukmyeong Gwonhu’s faces as they fell ten steps behind.

Jeong Yeon-shin used the force of their attacks as propulsion for a single sword strike.

His formless sword, Starry Night, began tracing a massive arc like a flash.

First, I need to stop those three from colliding. The rest can wait.

Leaping high, one of the twilight lights merged with Starry Night.

Silent Starblade Yang

Chapter of the High Sword

Following the silent edge, a bluish Taiji symbol gently spread across the sky.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s will rippled outward.

[Get ready.]

He felt the blind man on his back drawing a sword.

He intended to merge the thousand formless blades of Sky-Filled Sword Sea into the Taiji, enough to scatter three ultimate masters.

[Stop.]

[You bastard sword...!]

Only then did the upper dantians of the two Guardians emit overwhelming presence behind him.

But even before that, a dominating will reverberated forward at impossible speed.

The blind man on Jeong Yeon-shin’s shoulder stepped forward. His one-legged air-walk was unforgettable.

To Jeong Yeon-shin’s knowledge, no one besides the Outsider’s Supreme Blade had such quick activation of Ultimate Martial Way.

One Sword to Cross the Sea.

The blind man swung his blade.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s Starry Night carried that faint sword energy forward.

Even its movement and precision relied on Jeong Yeon-shin’s cut.

Meanwhile, the clash of the three ultimate beings exploded, unleashing pressure like a natural disaster.

What?

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin questioned the unexpected will—

The gentle sword wind of those two reached the trio.

Whether from the Taiji's harmony or from the aftershock, it spread backward, engulfing Dragonwill Blade Lord and Bukmyeong Gwonhu too.

And then—

.........

Then, no one remained.

The Azure Crimson Sword Qi that had filled the space like clouds began to scatter.

The Lord of Ipwang Fortress, the God of War, the Tyrant Hero—had vanished without a trace.

Even the calamity-level pressure had dispersed.

All that remained on the earth was Jeong Yeon-shin’s vow—to seek out and confront each one, no matter how powerful.

“You must’ve felt it too, but wasn’t that battlefield just now rather... messy?

We are people of the martial world. There’s no romance in chaos.”

“...Your Ultimate Martial Way changed. Well hidden.”

The skies cleared as if none of it had happened.

Two figures standing in the air—one with two feet, the other one-legged.

Starry Night dissolved in Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand.

At the same time, the blind man’s blade shimmered like sunlight on a swing.

“I told you.”

Cheonreung Guest Manhwi smiled faintly.

“We each believe ourselves to be the best under Heaven.”