Chapter 199 ·Main Headquarters

Main Headquarters

The roles had reversed.

Previously, within the formation the bastard had constructed, the surrounding air would move solely for his safety.

That was the method by which he manifested those impossible, bizarre movements.

But now, it was different.

This place was entirely Jeong-un's domain.

Especially since all sides were tightly sealed, with even the ceiling covered in collapsed debris of the imperial palace.

In this completely enclosed space, he had established a domain of his own.

"......"

The bastard was looking at Jeong-un with a rather dumbfounded gaze.

Understandably so—what was unfolding before his eyes was not something so easily accepted.

It wasn't simply a matter of releasing ki waves to dominate the surroundings.

Jeong-un resonated the cultivated power within his body with the natural energy outside, weaving an even more perfect domain.

At this point, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he had reached the peak of internal power circulation.

Even the Demonic Cult Leader, who had reigned as a peerless expert for so long, could not have witnessed such a scene before.

Meanwhile, Jeong-un, too, gazed calmly at the bastard.

'Let's admit it.'

He had encountered the bastard several times and survived, but, undeniably, this man was like a transcendent being of this land.

If he had ever truly wanted Jeong-un dead, Jeong-un would not be standing here now.

What chain of causality had intertwined to bring him here—Jeong-un could not know.

From meeting him for the first time at the Divine Physician's tomb, to now facing him as an equal... it was a strangely fateful connection, the workings of which tied them so tightly together.

But he decided not to ponder it too deeply.

For now, only the thought of cutting down the adversary before him filled his mind.

'I can do it.'

True ki surged through all the veins in his body, so intense it felt as if it would explode.

From the top of his head to the soles of his feet, the massive surge of energy threatened to overflow.

Simultaneously, he knew senses as transcendent as these would not last.

He was pushing the circulation of his cultivated power to the limit.

He didn't know how long he could maintain this state.

Before long, his strength would start to wane, and if that happened, rather than cutting down the bastard, he might truly become fodder for the formation.

It didn't matter.

Even if they continued this exchange endlessly, his chances of victory wouldn't improve.

More importantly, a quick, decisive battle was his specialty.

'Killing him will resolve everything.'

In the end, every concern led to a single conclusion.

Their bitter, fateful rivalry, and even this great war of dark and light—all of it would be decided by the bastard's death.

Ssshhk.

As one foot lifted from the ground—

Paaa—!

Jeong-un's body's form shot forward at tremendous speed.

It was as if the space had shrunk, the distance vanishing in an instant.

At the same time, the trajectory drawn in a long, horizontal arc shot for the bastard's neck.

Ka-ga-gang!

The bastard, with picture-perfect speed, raised his right hand to block the sword strike.

In that instant, a powerful shockwave rippled the air around them.

The collision of the sword strike and the enhanced energy of the fist-and-palm arts sent shards of golden bursting energy swirling through the air like robe hems.

But it wasn't over.

In that moment, the true ki within Jeong-un resonated with the surrounding air, dense as mist.

Saaaa.

Centered on the two, a whirlwind of ki waves began to rise, almost like a dragon ascending.

If anyone else were to see, the scene was so unreal, so awe-inspiring, they would lose themselves in it.

The fragments of bursting energy from the sword strike mixed with the vortex of ki waves, achieving a truly overwhelming harmony.

Crrrack—

The swirling fragments of bursting energy grazed the Demonic Cult Leader's body-protecting enhanced ki.

Shreds of cultivated power simply brushed by, almost lightly fluttering away.

Yet each fragment seemed to carry tremendous weight, fissuring the previously unbreakable barrier of the Demonic Cult Leader.

Within the maelstrom, the bastard suddenly shouted.

"You are such a waste!"

An extraordinary amount of cultivated power was embedded in his voice.

Even as the explosion of bursting energy threatened to tear apart one's hearing, his voice alone cut through, ringing with clarity.

"Your talent is unmatched across the ages. I shall give you one final chance—accept my proposal. You could be my successor. In your generation, you may truly become a great sky of the demon!"

Crrrack—

Even then, sharp shards of cultivated power scraped ceaselessly across his entire body.

Blood began to stream even from his smooth face.

Yet, the clear expression in the Demonic Cult Leader's eyes was terrifyingly vivid.

His body suffered, yet he showed no pain.

Both eyes were entirely mad—the eyes of one who has dedicated his life to a goal beyond ordinary imagination.

A man whose face gave no thought to anything but his own objective.

Saaaa!

Jeong-un's next strike began to move.

The surroundings were already completely tinged in gold, and an even denser golden energy shimmered from Jeong-un's body.

He had pushed the cultivated power of his entire body to the utmost.

At last, he murmured quietly, almost to himself,

"There is no next for you."

As his words finished—

The pitch-black sword began to absorb all his true ki, filling its blade.

In an instant, the blade's enhanced energy erupted as a vivid flare.

His right hand, gripping the sword, moved to draw a wide, horizontal trajectory.

The completed sword strike shot for the bastard's neck like a bolt of lightning.

Saaaa—!

The instant Jeong-un's sword reached the bastard's throat—

Srrrk.

The bastard's form seemed to teleport, leaving behind only an afterimage as he moved backward.

He could no longer use those bizarre movements, and yet he did so.

This domain belonged entirely to Jeong-un—it shouldn't have been possible to hide his actions.

Saaaa!

In the end, the bastard managed to dodge the trajectory of the sword strike.

At that moment, the surging internal power within the bastard's body vividly reached Jeong-un's mind.

His own senses, having been heightened to the limit by channeling his entire cultivated power, grasped it.

'This is...'

Just as Jeong-un was pushing his internal power to the brink, the bastard was also recklessly unleashing a torrent of true ki.

Even his dantian and meridians seemed tightly constricted. It was an extreme overexertion.

Lifesaving Absolute Move.

A martial artist, it was said, would always keep a single, ultimate move to save their life.

This must be the bastard's secret technique for survival.

Once again, he failed to strike down the bastard. Yet, conversely, it was proof that he had truly driven him to the edge.

'I must finish this.'

The bastard's body was already a wreck.

Even as he forced himself free, he suffered repeated lacerations from the swirling fragments of bursting energy.

After widening the distance, the bastard started to move his hand, seemingly preparing something.

Ta-ak.

At the same time, Jeong-un thrust his foot forward without delay. He refused to give the bastard even the slightest opening.

Powerful energy surged through his body via the central channel, propelling him forward explosively.

At that moment, Moonlight Swift Steps finally reached their zenith—the rushing movement instantly slashed away the distance at breathtaking speed.

Once again, at point-blank range, Jeong-un poured massive cultivated power into his black sword.

Saaaa!

Another tremendous sword strike charged at the bastard.

'......?'

In that instant, Jeong-un heard the balance of his domain being broken.

It was not just a sound. The mist of ki waves that had filled this space was now dissipating.

It was because the walls on all sides had collapsed.

And beyond that debris, several shadowy figures could be seen.

Just moments earlier, not a trace of their presence had been felt beyond the walls.

The moment Jeong-un saw them, he realized.

This underground cave was not limited to what was visible to the eye.

There was another space beyond the walls.

Moreover, the formation installed here was not the only grand technique the bastard had spoken of.

Beyond the walls of this cave, additional formations existed in yet another space, stacked one atop another to deceive Jeong-un's senses.

It was all an elaborate trick, making Jeong-un believe this was the entirety of the underground cave.

The Demonic Cult Leader looked at Jeong-un and spoke.

"You once spoke to me of arrogance."

"You..."

"I return those words to you as they are. Your overconfidence has led to your defeat."

Sssshhhk—!

Suddenly, countless streams of bursting energy shot unimpeded toward Jeong-un from all directions—twisting in like snakes, their number overwhelming.

Pabababat!

Jeong-un hurriedly fell back, swinging his sword to parry them.

But the number of attacking energy streams from every direction was simply too great.

The number he deflected with his sword couldn't keep up.

Fwaaah!

Soon, they wove into a spider web around Jeong-un, blocking sight so utterly that nothing could be seen in front of him.

'Damn.'

Soon, streaks of true ki, like white rays of light, covered all sides in layers, forming a complete veil.

Swinging his sword was no longer of any use.

Once his vision had turned completely white—

Paradoxically, silence fell.

* * *

The Ming Cult Leader, Lee Shin, gazed at the scene before him.

"......"

A pure-white veil of true ki had formed a giant sphere.

The bastard was inside.

Around the perimeter, twenty cultists sat cross-legged. It was a formation to both seal the bastard inside and absorb his internal power.

It was called the Heaven's Web, annihilating Ki Formation.

It was another secret formation passed down within the Ming Cult.

Originally, it was meant to kill an opponent that was otherwise impossible to defeat, but Lee Shin had further modified it—for this foe alone.

'At last...'

He had finally captured him.

From the beginning, Lee Shin's intentions were clear.

He fought the bastard, pushed him to exhaustion, and led him to the precise moment when his guard would be lowered most—the decisive instant.

'I almost died.'

But the final moment was truly perilous. He had nearly lost his head.

There is a masterful movement technique and martial art passed down through generations of Ming Cult Leaders.

Among them was a divine skill that could only be used once in a lifetime—one to be used when the Cult Leader was in dire danger, warping space to evade an enemy's attack.

And today, Lee Shin had used that once-in-a-lifetime art. The danger was such that there was no other choice.

Hesitating even a moment longer, he would have been decapitated by that sword strike.

But that risk was a price worth paying.

The bastard was both daring and extremely cautious. Without such an ingenious trap, he would never have been caught.

"Well, at least I've caught you now."

Beneath his feet, the Grand Formation Where All Laws Return to Emptiness began to shine faintly.

The internal power absorbed from the bastard was slowly flowing into the formation.

As the formation grew stronger, it would start to draw internal power from those in the surrounding mountains as well.

There was a reason Lee Shin constructed such a formation to imprison him rather than killing him outright.

Humans are able to lock true ki within their dantian solely by force of will.

Naturally, at the moment of death, that will disappears from the mind—and so does the true ki, which is usually scattered in an instant.

Of course, there are methods to capture some of that dissipating ki as a sacrifice for the formation.

But that was not the ideal world Lee Shin envisioned.

He wanted the bastard's true ki to be absorbed entirely as a sacrifice for the grand technique—not a whit wasted.

The more thoroughly this was done, the more powerful its effects would become.

"At last, I have achieved it."

The Grand Formation Where All Laws Return to Emptiness was a formation ultimately aimed at the entire Central Plains.

First these mountains, then the entire land the orthodox considered the jianghu—these would eventually all be subsumed under its domain.

He had even orchestrated a war, luring the orthodox faction here to Mount Tian, for a similar purpose—so he could capture the bastard, activate the formation, and immediately reduce the numbers of the orthodox.

'Like wild dogs.'

They swarmed, just as he expected.

Normally hiding in their dens as if dead, but the moment something to feast on appeared, none could resist pouncing.

They even mistook the power of their gathered numbers for their own. Revolting mongrels.

Lee Shin spoke slowly.

"Not a single mote of internal power must escape. Draw out every last trace. With your hands, you will shape the coming of a new world. There must not be the slightest carelessness."

His voice rang over the heads of the cultists seated cross-legged, holding up the great white sphere of true ki.

Understandably, no answer returned.

They had no time to reply. Right now, they had to devote their entire being to sustaining the veil.

There was no time to even open their mouths.

Still, they must surely have heard every word spoken by their Cult Leader.

And the moment they made the slightest error, their heads would surely burst.

Step, step.

At last, Lee Shin stepped beyond the collapsed wall.

It was time to rid himself of these insect-like opponents.