Chapter 503

Ma Seungnyeol’s eyes searched for Unhwi but could not find him.

Left.

By the time he felt the wind, it was already too late.

Slash—

Ma Seungnyeol’s spear split in two.

Then Unhwi’s sword cut across Ma Seungnyeol’s abdomen.

Deeply.

Slice.

“Ghk......!”

Ma Seungnyeol dropped his spear. He clutched his stomach. Blood flowed between his fingers. His knees buckled.

He could not respond.

A sword that cut through space itself.

He could neither follow it with his eyes nor sense it.

Then Noh Gyeongseok charged, swinging both blades.

The two blades flew at Unhwi from either side.

Unhwi raised his sword.

Clack. Clack.

He blocked twice.

Both times, Noh Gyeongseok was driven back.

Three steps.

Even as he was forced backward, he did not release his blades.

He charged again.

Unhwi swept his sword.

Once.

Both of Noh Gyeongseok’s blades were knocked away at the same time.

Both of them.

Fear appeared on Noh Gyeongseok’s face as he stood empty-handed.

Unhwi’s sword pierced his chest.

Precisely.

The heart.

Noh Gyeongseok’s eyes went still.

Unhwi pulled out his sword.

Noh Gyeongseok collapsed.

He turned.

Ma Seungnyeol lay facedown on the ground, clutching his stomach. He was still alive. Crawling toward his broken spear.

Unhwi approached.

He stopped in front of Ma Seungnyeol.

Ma Seungnyeol raised his head.

He looked up at Unhwi.

Unhwi’s sword descended.

The end.

Ma Seungnyeol’s head fell to the ground.

Unhwi turned.

The three Heaven-Human realm warriors who had been kneeling were staring at him.

Their eyes were filled with terror.

Unhwi stood before them.

“......Spare—spare us.......”

One of them spoke, but Unhwi swung his sword exactly three times.

Swiftly.

Soundlessly.

Slash, slash, slash.

Blood flowed from all three throats.

They collapsed together.

The courtyard fell silent.

Unhwi looked around.

Twenty corpses.

He did not hurry.

He severed their heads one by one.

Twenty heads.

He displayed them in a line along the wooden barricade before the outpost.

He cut apart the shaft of Ma Seungnyeol’s spear and used the pieces as stakes. The handles of Noh Gyeongseok’s paired blades as well. The other broken weapons too.

Twenty stakes.

Twenty heads atop them.

One after another.

He placed the final one.

Ma Seungnyeol’s.

The sun was setting.

The red glow of dusk illuminated the twenty heads above the barricade.

Unhwi took one step back.

He looked at them.

Twenty heads bathed in the setting sun.

Unhwi entered one of the buildings.

He searched for paper and ink.

They were there.

He sat at a table.

He picked up a brush.

He wrote a brief message.

—This is only the beginning.

He carried the paper outside.

He fixed it to the stake at the center of the barricade.

The wind blew.

The paper fluttered.

Unhwi turned away.

He walked off.

He did not look back.

***

Spirit Heaven Mountain.

It was night.

The moon hung high in the sky.

Torches could be seen through the forest on the western slope of Spirit Heaven Mountain. The lights of an outpost. It was slightly larger than the one at Long Forest Mountain. Four buildings. A wooden barricade. Two guard posts.

Unhwi did not stop in the forest to look down at it.

There was no need.

He simply walked downhill.

He released his ice energy.

He did not conceal it.

The closer he came to the outpost, the lower the temperature fell. Frost formed on the blades of grass. Tree branches froze. The forest gradually turned white. A mountain in midsummer was becoming winter.

The guards reacted.

“Who goes there!”

A man holding a torch shouted, but Unhwi did not answer.

He continued walking in silence.

“Stop! Access to this place is restric—”

The man’s voice cut off.

Because Unhwi’s figure had entered the torchlight.

A young face.

Ash-gray hair.

A black robe.

A single sword at his waist.

The man’s expression stiffened.

Ash-gray hair.

That information had been circulated within the Heaven-Law Platform.

The Blood Heaven Arbiter, Seol Unhwi.

A warrior at Unity of Heaven and Man with ash-gray hair that turned white when he raised his energy.

And among young-looking masters who wielded ice energy, a master above masters.

The man’s lips trembled.

“......Blood Heaven Arbiter......?”

Unhwi did not stop.

He passed the guard post as naturally as if it were not there.

The instant the man tried to say something else—

Unhwi’s eyes turned white, and his ash-gray hair became pure white. Even light spilled from it.

With a crackling sound, the warrior in the guard post froze solid.

The other man with him backed away and shouted,

“Enemy attack!! The Blood Heaven Arbiter is here!!”

His voice rang across the outpost, and Unhwi’s eyes shifted toward him.

The moment the man flinched, he froze with a sharp crackle.

Having frozen both warriors to death, Unhwi resumed walking.

People poured out of the buildings.

Fifteen gathered in the courtyard in an instant.

Then two men walked out of one of the buildings.

One was tall and broad-shouldered. He wore a longsword like Unhwi’s at his waist, and his energy was heavy.

His realm was Unity of Heaven and Man.

The other was of average build. Paired blades. Wide eyes.

He was also at Unity of Heaven and Man.

Pung Jaeun and Gwak Sehyun.

Twentieth Seat and Twenty-Second Seat.

Pung Jaeun stood in the courtyard and watched Unhwi.

Unhwi was entering through the wooden barricade.

Ice energy flowed from him.

The ground froze wherever his feet touched.

The dirt of the courtyard gradually turned white.

Pung Jaeun narrowed his eyes.

“Blood Heaven Arbiter.......”

His voice was low.

“What business does the Blood Heaven Sect’s Blood Heaven Arbiter have at an outpost of the Heaven-Law Platform?”

Unhwi did not stop.

He entered the courtyard.

The fifteen warriors tried to surround him.

But they could not.

They could not approach.

The cold radiating from Unhwi formed a wall.

An invisible wall.

Step within thirty feet, and their joints stiffened.

Step within twenty, and breathing became difficult.

The fifteen warriors stopped outside the thirty-foot boundary.

Weapons raised.

Yet unable to rush him.

They could only remain on guard.

Standing at the center of the courtyard, Unhwi looked at Pung Jaeun.

“I have already destroyed Gwak Hyeongjin’s outpost.”

Pung Jaeun’s expression changed.

Gwak Hyeongjin was the name of the Heaven-Law Platform’s Twenty-Third Seat.

Gwak Sehyun stepped forward.

“You destroyed Gwak Hyeongjin’s outpost?”

“Twelve men, including Gwak Hyeongjin. All dead.”

Gwak Sehyun’s face twisted.

“What are you......?”

“I also destroyed the outpost at Long Forest Mountain.”

A stir passed through the courtyard.

Long Forest Mountain.

Ma Seungnyeol and Noh Gyeongseok’s outpost.

“Twenty men. All dead. Ma Seungnyeol as well. Noh Gyeongseok too.”

Pung Jaeun’s eyes widened.

Gwak Sehyun’s mouth fell open.

Murmurs spread among the fifteen warriors.

“That is a lie!”

One of the fifteen shouted.

A young man. His voice was trembling.

“You destroyed two outposts in a single day? At least say something that makes sense—”

Unhwi looked at him.

The man fell silent.

Because he had seen Unhwi’s eyes.

They were not the eyes of a liar.

Pung Jaeun took one step forward.

“Blood Heaven Arbiter.”

He was forcing out each word.

“Have you gone mad?”

“.......”

“You destroy the Heaven-Law Platform’s outposts? Kill its warriors?”

Pung Jaeun’s voice rose.

“Do you even understand what you are doing!”

Unhwi answered evenly.

“I do.”

“Do you know what the Heaven-Law Platform is? We are the ones who enforce the laws of Heaven Beyond Heaven! We have done so for centuries!”

“Centuries.”

Unhwi repeated the word.

“An impressive length of time.”

“......Are you mocking me!”

Unhwi shook his head.

“I am sincere.”

“.......”

“I do not know what laws they were, but you have enforced them for centuries. That is impressive.”

Unhwi’s voice did not change.

It remained calm.

“But.”

Unhwi took one step closer.

The ice energy thickened.

The frost across the courtyard grew heavier.

The fifteen warriors retreated one step.

“The men who have enforced those laws for centuries.”

Unhwi spoke.

“Is what they do placing a finger against the throat of a woman at the Entry-to-Divinity realm?”

The courtyard fell silent.

“Is it seizing the wrist of a Heaven-Human realm warrior and forcing her to her knees?”

“.......”

“Is it toying with a child who has reached the incomplete Three Profound Realms?”

Unhwi’s eyes turned cold.

“They were not facing warriors of equal standing. They were vastly stronger—men who could be called seniors of the martial world—yet they behaved like common thugs. Is that the law of the Heaven-Law Platform?”

Pung Jaeun closed his mouth, but Gwak Sehyun shouted from beside him,

“That was a warning! Your arbitrary actions were harming the great cause, so the commander personally ordered us to warn you!”

Unhwi laughed.

A cold laugh.

“If you strike a child and call it a warning, does that make it one?”

“.......”

“It does not.”

Unhwi spoke.

“That is called cowardice.”

Gwak Sehyun’s face reddened.

“Cowardice!? How dare you speak of the Heaven-Law Platform—”

“That is why I came.”

Unhwi cut him off.

“To return the same.”

“......The same? You insane bastard.”

There was no possibility that they did not know the Heaven-Law Platform had touched the Blood Heaven Arbiter’s people.

They belonged to the same Heaven-Law Platform, and their circle was narrow.

Whether through rumor or intelligence, news spread among them in an instant.

They all knew why the Blood Heaven Arbiter had come here.

Why he had destroyed the outposts.

They knew.

But they believed this was excessive.

The Heaven-Law Platform had only issued a warning, while this man was now going around killing every last one of them.

And he called that the same?

“Blood Heaven Arbiter, what you are doing is madness. Had you answered with a similar warning, this might still have been resolved. But this means one side must be completely destroyed!”

“Does that seem strange?”

“......What?”

“You have been removed from the martial world for far too long.”

“.......”

“This is the nature of the martial world. Those who do something deserving death should die. I have never once allowed those who harmed my people to walk away.”

“......Madman.......”

“Had you investigated me, you could not have failed to learn that. Did you truly believe you would be the exception?”

“.......”

“If you felt so wronged, you should have killed them instead.”

Everyone’s eyes widened at Unhwi’s words.

“They are my people. Martial artists who do not fear something as trivial as death. You received the reports, so you should know. Even with a difference in realm as vast as heaven and earth, my people still drew their swords.”

“.......”

“When you begin something.”

Unhwi continued.

“You must begin prepared to see it through to the end.”

“Are you saying...... we......?”

“Yes. You lacked that resolve. You did what common thugs do because you no longer understand the nature of the martial world. I understand.”

Unhwi’s grip tightened around his sword.

“And because I understand, you will now face the end I intend to see.”

It was clear.

This man had not come to talk.

He had not come to persuade them.

He had not come to warn them.

He had come to kill.

Every last one of them.

“Everyone, form the forma—”

Pung Jaeun shouted, but it was too late.

Before he could finish, Unhwi’s eyes turned white.

Heavenly Snow Force.

Crack-crack-crackle——

The horrifying sound filled the courtyard.

The fifteen men stood thirty feet from Unhwi.

That distance meant nothing.

The range of Heavenly Snow Force was not thirty feet.

It was more than twice that.

The first man froze.

Sword still raised.

Then two.

Three.

They froze one after another without even managing to scream.

They froze the moment they tried to open their mouths. Their screams froze inside their throats.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Exactly as they stood. Exactly as they held their weapons. One with a foot still raised as he tried to flee.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

The courtyard became an exhibition of ice statues.

Ten.

Eleven.

Twelve.