Fwoooom— Kwoooooong...!

With a light swing of the sword, an entire mountain peak was cleaved cleanly away, as if it were a block of tofu.

Guyangdo gripped his trembling right hand and stared at the collapsing mountain.

Where the man’s sword had passed, the rock was melting away into a scorched, pitch-black ruin.

Poison?

No.

This was nothing but a qi steeped in killing intent—

The death-tinged aura of one who had claimed hundreds, thousands... no, tens of thousands of lives, draining the vitality from all living things it touched.

“Gwangcheon. Did you feel it too?”

Gwangcheon turned to look at Guyangdo.

“He’s absorbing our qi.”

That unpleasant sensation they had felt in the very first exchange was now undeniable.

With every clash, the man was siphoning away their inner force.

“The Great Absorption Technique.”

Keeping his guard high, Gwangcheon continued,

“I’ve heard tell of a supreme technique that lets one absorb an opponent’s qi and make it one’s own.”

“An absurd martial art.”

“However, it isn’t something one can just absorb indiscriminately. Perhaps it can only be done mid-battle....”

They hadn’t known.

To absorb inner force just by making contact?

What kind of impossible martial art was that supposed to be?

If that were the case, the more they fought, the stronger he would become and the weaker they would grow. It was a fight they could never win.

Kwooooooo—

In Gwangcheon’s eyes, a dark, blood-red qi flickered.

The power the man wielded wasn’t ordinary inner force.

His qi was like—

“Energy of Blood....”

Gwangcheon glanced back at Guyangdo.

“Have you ever seen anything like it? Even the Demonic Factions can’t change the very source of their qi.”

Guyangdo’s lips curved into a thin, bitter smile.

Gwangcheon knew that smile meant nothing like amusement.

“I suppose we shouldn’t drag this battle out.”

Fwooo—

Solar-bright qi roared around Guyangdo’s body.

“Let’s finish him before he can turn our qi into his own.”

No matter how strong a master might be, there was a delay before absorbed qi truly became one’s own.

If their opponent grew stronger the longer they fought, then the answer was simple—finish the fight before that happened.

Hwooook—

Guyangdo lunged at the man.

Vwooom— Vwoom—

Blade gales, each one three times larger than his massive saber, surged toward the man without pause.

Whssh— Clang! Kwoooom!

The man swung his sword, wrapped in sword-qi, to shatter Guyangdo’s strikes.

At that instant—

Ssshhk!

Golden qi shot in toward his flank.

“....”

The man furrowed his brow, swatting aside Gwangcheon’s fist with the hand not holding his sword.

But he couldn’t block every one of Gwangcheon’s unrelenting fists and palms.

Boom! Boom-boom-boom! Kwooom!

When the golden qi clashed with the blood-red qi, the collision exploded, flooding the surroundings with blinding light.

Gwangcheon’s fists and the man’s sword met dozens of times in the blink of an eye.

Guyangdo followed up immediately.

Booom—! Kwooom! Kwang-kang-kang!

Guyangdo’s sun-bright qi poured in from a different angle than Gwangcheon’s assault.

Their attacks harried the man without giving him the slightest opening.

Gwangcheon’s fists tore his clothes, Guyangdo’s saber drew blood.

The tide of battle had already shifted.

Guyangdo thought this fight wouldn’t last much longer.

****

Kwooooom—!

A massive explosion of qi shook the heavens and raised a howling storm.

The impact sent both Guyangdo and Gwangcheon skidding back from the man.

Cough—!

Dark, blood-red liquid dribbled from Guyangdo’s mouth.

He spat the blood pooling in his mouth and looked at Gwangcheon.

Gwangcheon too was gasping for breath.

Three days.

It had already been three days since their battle with the man began.

The fight they had thought would end quickly had dragged on without conclusion.

Why?

Why couldn’t they finish it?

At first, the advantage had clearly been theirs.

The problem was—

‘He’s avoiding every fatal blow.’

Each time they thought they had him, he slipped away.

And not just barely—always half a beat early.

It was natural to grow accustomed to an opponent’s attacks during prolonged combat, but the man’s reactions were as if he already knew every habit, every form, every strike of theirs.

The longer it went on, the more impatient they became.

And now, despite his battered body, the man’s aura was even stronger than when they’d started.

He had turned the qi he’d stolen from them into his own. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

‘A monster...’

How could such a man exist?

For someone like him, whose skill was among the top three under heaven, to be unable to even approach his level—

How could they ever defeat him?

Guyangdo replayed the last three days of battle over and over in his mind.

There had been moments when he’d been sure of victory.

Should they have pressed harder then?

“...Gwangcheon.”

Gwangcheon looked at him, face dark.

“You should go.”

At last, the words Guyangdo had expected slipped from his lips.

“I’m the one who brought you into this. I’ll take responsibility. I’ll buy time, so you—”

“Don’t say that. How could I leave you here alone?”

“...Don’t be stubborn. We can’t both die here like dogs. Shaolin still needs you.”

“If you put it that way, then your half-grown disciple would look for you first. So if anyone’s leaving, it’s you. I’ll buy the time.”

Whoosh—

“!”

Before Gwangcheon could stop him, Guyangdo charged at the man.

“Gwangcheon!!”

Instinctively, Gwangcheon swung his saber-qi toward the man, chasing after Guyangdo.

The lull in the fight was shattered.

Boom—! Kwooom! Kwagang!

“So it comes to this. All is meaningless in the end!”

The man laughed wildly, meeting their combined attacks head-on.

Blood-red qi swirled in a frenzy, as if it had been waiting to run rampant.

He was enjoying himself now.

Kwak-kwak-kwak!

Lightning split a clear sky.

The heavens trembled, the earth crumbled, and every living thing around them withered and died.

In the midst of it, the man roared,

“Why do you fight /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ with such desperate fervor? Why such unending misery? For what do you throw your fists, and for whom do you swing your blades?”

“Are you trying to lecture us now?!”

Thoom—! Kwoooong—!

Letting Guyangdo’s saber glance off his sword’s flat, the man spread his left hand to catch Gwangcheon’s fist.

He was reading and responding to every attack, from every direction.

Guyangdo thrust his saber toward the man’s centerline.

The man shoved Gwangcheon’s fist away, twisting his body with that force to slip past the thrust with ease.

“When your fists and blades have lost their purpose, how can it not be lamentable?”

As Gwangcheon’s elbow came crashing up toward his jaw, the man’s body vanished.

“Let me share something amusing.”

A chilling voice grazed the back of Gwangcheon’s neck.

His feet tapped the air in rapid footwork, pivoting his bent elbow backward and striking with his left fist.

In his gaze, the man was smirking—and behind him, Guyangdo’s saber was sweeping down.

“Even when the same situation repeats, the choices aren’t always the same.”

This is it.

This time, Gwangcheon was sure their attack would land.

“Sometimes you’ve continued to fight together, sometimes one of you has fled.”

No matter how great his martial skill, this time he couldn’t possibly dodge—

“But one thing that never changes...”

Gwangcheon’s strike targeted his chest and left flank; Guyangdo’s targeted his back and right shoulder.

An assault from all directions—inescapable.

“...is your death.”

Shhhhk—

“!”

Gwangcheon saw his own arm spinning away into the air.

Pffft—!

Blood fountained, hot and wet against his face.

“Gwangcheon!!!”

In that split-second, Guyangdo stabbed his saber into the air, using the force to twist his body and send a palm strike past the man’s side.

Bwooom—

Gwangcheon’s body was hurled away by Guyangdo’s palm force.

Kwooom—!

He crashed into a rocky mountain peak.

“Cough—”

Dark blood sprayed from his mouth.

A tremor shook the ground, and the mountain, already cracked, began to collapse.

Through the falling debris, Guyangdo confirmed Gwangcheon was still alive.

One arm gone, grievously wounded—but alive for now.

“Ah, that too is one of the things that never changes.”

Shhhhk—

The man’s sword slashed Guyangdo’s back.

He’d shown his back while knocking Gwangcheon away.

“Kh...!”

Kukooong—!

The mountain before him split in two, centered on Guyangdo.

He’d reinforced his back with dense defensive qi, expecting such an attack, but it couldn’t fully block the strike.

Red soaked rapidly through his clothes.

“Still unable to discard that petty sense of chivalry...”

Vwooom—

Guyangdo turned and swung his saber.

But—

Thmp.

The man’s hand closed over Guyangdo’s face.

“...that suicidal urge to throw your life away.”

“...!”

Guyangdo froze in place, unable to move a finger.

His eyes trembled faintly between the man’s fingers.

Instinct screamed—

If he so much as twitched, his head would be crushed in an instant.

“Truthfully, I’d been thinking of letting you two live this time. I’m starting to grow bored.”

Guyangdo didn’t understand his words.

But he knew one thing.

This man must not be allowed to live.

He would be a calamity to the martial world.

If he and Gwangcheon died here, only one person in all the martial world could stand against him.

And even that man could not prevail alone.

If so—

If so—

The world will surely fall.

Therefore, this man must not be allowed to live.

Here and now—without fail—

Guyangdo gathered every last shred of his qi.

There was only one option left.