Chapter 88

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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“That guy…”

Fighting spirit could be felt beneath Senior Brother Myeong-hun’s low voice.

Senior Brother Myeong-hun was one who did not easily back down no matter who he met.

Even if it were a powerhouse above a Vajra Bloodline Daywalker, that was no exception.

However, the enemy was not just the Young Spirit Slayer.

The forest where the Young Spirit Slayer had walked out from was full of killing intent.

“It has been a long time since we saw each other, but there are obstacles.”

Along with the Young Spirit Slayer’s low words, hidden weapons flew toward Senior Brother Myeong-hun.

At the appearance of the assassins who could not even hide their killing intent, I was about to immediately deploy my sword that I had been tending. However.

Jjeong-!

A straight sword drawn without ceremony blocked the path leading to my senior brother.

Despite the sword force trained by cutting the Vajra Bloodline blood ghouls, a large chip was taken out of the sword edge, and.

I redirected the recoil traveling up my wrist down to my heels along my latissimus dorsi and gluteus muscles.

Hwoong!`

A semi-circular dirt wind rose on the mountain path, and the recoil was dissipated.

“Good.”

The smile beneath the bamboo hat deepened.

At the same time, the lower face, looking like a beggar who had starved for three days placed before a feast of delicacies, came into my eyes.

A massive force was felt on the clashing sword blades.

Chwaak!

My feet scraped the dirt floor as I was pushed back.

It was not that I was pushed back in strength.

I was pushed back in the operation of internal energy under my feet.

I dispersed my nerves that had been concentrated only on the sword qi.

‘I must increase the coefficient of friction.’

I spread internal energy widely to the tips of my toes, the Yedui acupoint and the Dadun acupoint. Beneath that, I formed the sharp force contained in the internal energy while practicing the sword qi like needles. As if my proficiency in utilizing internal energy had also risen as much as the tip of my sword had become sharp, after last night’s nightmare, the internal energy moved as intended.

Hwook!

As my retreating figure ground to a halt, the impact was transmitted to my arms and waist.

Dividing along the grains from the biceps brachii to the brachioradialis, the true qi of the Primal Chaos Tai Chi Art rose like a flood.

Chiring!

I pushed away the Young Spirit Slayer’s sword blade and thrusted my sword straight.

At the same time, I gathered internal energy and true qi on the sword blade to forge the sharp force to the extreme.

As the sword qi trained by cutting the bodies of the blood ghouls over and over shed the friction of the air and gained speed.

The stance of the Immortal Pointing the Way, containing the formula of rapid speed, aimed at the Heaven’s Projection acupoint below his Adam’s apple.

Jjiik! Jjiik!

Instead of the Heaven’s Projection acupoint, the opponent’s shoulder fabric was slit, and at the same time, a red blood line was carved on my shoulder.

It was because the guy dropped his shoulder to escape the tip of the sword.

This was the same for me as well.

We had the same thought like twins.

However, in the next moment, our thoughts diverged.

‘He retreats.’

The illusion at the moment of predicting the Young Spirit Slayer’s appearance took a step back.

Although the time difference between precognition and execution was only a split second, in the world of masters, that split second was large enough to divide life and death.

I stepped forward.

The moment I read the opponent’s movement, my body reacted.

It was a movement to not give him the distance to utilize sword strikes.

Therefore, for me as well, there was no distance to strike the opponent with the sword.

That was why.

‘I transition.’

I immediately redirected the internal energy operated in the form of the Four Symbols Flowing Sword and gathered true qi in my palm center. There was insufficient time to utilize the Wind and Thunder Palm. It was a martial art that could exert the most effective force with the least amount of internal energy.

‘Cotton Palm.’

The internal heavy strikes method that had broken the protective qi of the senior brothers of the Wudang Sect’s Giant Gate Unit was deployed once again in real combat.

The upper dantian burning.

Above the slowed space-time.

The Young Spirit Slayer’s knee tore apart the grid of space and pushed away my elbow.

Following the knee technique of massive force that seemed like it would crush my elbow, the palm method routine was twisted. At the same time, a shockwave of force rose from the Yongquan acupoint beneath the Young Spirit Slayer’s stepping foot.

‘He is trying to widen the distance.’

It was to utilize the sword.

My body moved before my thoughts.

I stretched my latissimus dorsi and crossed both feet to spin my body.

Using the massive force of the knee technique in reverse, I also widened the distance from the Young Spirit Slayer.

Sak-!

In the midst of spinning once and retreating, some hair was cut off by the tip of the Young Spirit Slayer’s sword.

The sword wind brushed over my face thrown backward.

If I had stayed still, my face would have been split in half.

However, it was not a situation to feel relieved.

A sensation as if the world had stopped for a moment wrapped around my entire body, and a trajectory pointing from the tip of the Young Spirit Slayer’s sword to me was drawn.

‘It returns.’

Immediately after the premonition.

In an instant, the flow of time ran normally again, and.

The internal energy that had been flowing like a spring along the heel, the Taixi acupoint and the Dazhong acupoint, stopped as if blocked by a dam on the Shuiquan acupoint, and.

Teok.

My retreating figure stopped.

At that moment, the flowing tip of the Young Spirit Slayer’s sword suddenly changed.

The sword blade that ignored the law of inertia changed its direction in an instant and charged toward my throat.

A feeling as if the sharp force of the assassin’s sword was piercing my skin like thousands of needles.

It exactly matched the premonition.

Following the Great Emptiness Form of Tai Chi Chuan, the center of gravity settled below stably caught my body.

I slightly tilted my upper body.

Shifting the center of gravity that had been loaded on my heels to the tips of my toes, I thrust out the sword blade dyed in dark blue light.

Jjeong-!

Along with a thunderous roar, the collision of the true qi force wave pushed away the surrounding air layer and created a wild wind.

Puhwahak!

The deflection using the gravitational field of the Four Symbols Flowing Sword did not work. I received the colliding sword force directly with my shoulder.

Thump.

A handful of pure internal energy released from the middle dantian firmly held my Shoulder Well acupoint, and.

Woong!

Uniting with the internal energy that had headed to my lower body, it surged back into the sword blade. I improvised and utilized the formula of overlapping true qi from the Four Symbols Wind and Thunder Palm.

Jiiiiiing-!

The internal energy overlapped with the muscular strength of the upper arm resonated with the sword blade, and.

Chwaaak.

The Young Spirit Slayer’s body was pushed back.

For the first time since he appeared.

I seized the upper hand.

“Just now, that was…”

The smile on the guy’s face disappeared for a moment, then became even deeper than before.

“Interesting. Interesting.”

With those words, the guy’s sword moved again.

**

The Young Spirit Slayer advanced forward, tearing through the constraint of slowed time within the supreme realm.

‘He read my movement.’

At first, I thought it was a coincidence once, but it was not.

As if he already knew the subsequent sword strikes, he blocked them and even launched a counterattack.

It was something I had only experienced in clashing swords with my ‘master’ until now.

However, the opponent was a child.

Because he was not at the same level as my ‘master’, I thought differently.

The most rational method.

‘He predicted it by collecting information on the legs, arms, and gaze.’

The Young Spirit Slayer’s martial art was an extremely rapid killing technique.

It was not a martial art with diverse variations.

It was a sword strike that staked everything solely on speed and sword force.

‘If so.’

I will change the battle method.

‘Maintain the speed but add variation stances.’

It was a talent to predict the opponent’s martial art just by hearing people’s stories.

Since adding variations to the unique martial art I created myself in an instant was nothing.

While raising internal energy to the peak, I created variation stances with my feet and shoulders.

The sword strikes that followed.

The Eight Dismantlings and Nine Annihilations created to defeat the secret techniques of the prestigious righteous sects was deployed in a form different from before.

The movements were slightly larger, but speed was added.

I did not care even if my muscles and veins were twisted and my true qi boiled.

‘I will kill him.’

I had to solve the difficult problem.

I wanted to take the neck of this junior from a righteous sect who was chasing after my own skills at a terrifying speed.

Through a perfect defeat.

And just like that thought.

Jjeojeojeong! Chwajak!

The quiet assassin’s sword, which had had no true qi force wave making a racket around it until now, suddenly changed and added power.

At the blocking of the routines through the force wave, Yeon Baek-jung’s sword stances began to twist.

The sword stances that deviated from the prediction split and split the Four Symbols Flowing Sword stances into split-second gaps, digging into the openings.

“Keup.”

Sword wounds were carved on Yeon Baek-jung’s left forearm and right thigh.

‘If I push further, I can kill him.’

At that moment, from afar, a surging presence was felt heading this way.

A clear spirit.

They were the warriors of the Murim Alliance.

‘That won’t do.’

It was a prey I had to keep to myself.

Interrupters were rejected.

Therefore.

‘I will separate him.’

I raised all the internal energy in my entire body and deployed sword strikes.

Jjeojeojeong! Kagak!

Even if he blocks, he is pushed back.

Like that, a distance was widened between Yeon Baek-jung and the Young Spirit Slayer in an instant.

The Young Spirit Slayer turned the tip of his sword toward his left heel below his waist and erupted a true qi force wave from his Yongquan acupoint.

Following the extremely rapid advance, the sword drew a semicircle and rose, so.

Jjeong-!

With a thunderous roar, Yeon Baek-jung’s body was bounced backward.

**

I caught the balance of my body in midair and read the air flow.

‘A strong wind blows to the northeast.’

Although it was the opposite direction from where Senior Brother Myeong-hun was.

It could not be helped.

I spread my sleeves to increase air resistance and glided.

Just like when I pursued the Green Forest bandits in Zhushan before.

‘Slow down.’

My insides were shaken for a moment by the sword strike just now.

Sword wounds were carved on my arm and leg.

Although they were not deep, they would cause strain on the movement of the muscles.

I needed a moment to catch my breath.

I raised the angle of attack to increase resistance.

My body, which had slowed down and risen more than ten zhang, gradually headed toward the ground, and.

“Hap!”

With a shout, I applied the true qi operation of the Flowing Cloud Movement Skill and filled beneath my feet.

Tadadadak!

I slowed down the rising speed with a running start and landed on the ground.

The deep forest.

Even the presence of the River of Three Crossings assassins was not felt.

However, I could know immediately.

‘He is coming.’

The figure of the Young Spirit Slayer breaking through in a straight line between the tree shadows was drawn, and.

“Hoo.”

While picking my breath to settle my shaken insides, I struck the acupoints on my arm and leg. The blood stopped flowing from the sword wounds.

At times like this, it was a relief.

The body of natural divine strength stitched together the torn fine meridians with amazing recovery power.

One breath.

The moment I managed the injuries, the guy appeared again.

“Let us continue.”

Anew, Taoist Priest Su-gyo of Qingyun Chixia came to mind.

He had said that the Young Spirit Slayer talks a lot, and it seemed to be true.

Even while flowing a stream of blood from the corner of his mouth, the guy did not stop speaking.

It was a strain for the Young Spirit Slayer as well.

However, the opponent did not seem to have any intention of dragging it out long.

‘It is dizzying.’

After numerous trajectories overlapping and showing on the guy’s body for an instant.

Pat!

A chilly sensation passed around my shoulder.

It was one of the dozens of trajectories.

Since there could exist no sword stance to block them all.

Seugak!

The sword passed over my left elbow again.

Blood flowed anew.

Fortunately, the sword force infused in the sword blade had weakened.

It must be because of the internal injuries the guy suffered.

Although it was a relief, it was flustering.

‘I am pushed back in both speed and sword stances.’

It was because it was the first time I was pushed back in the compatibility of the martial arts themselves.

The sword strikes squeezing and coming between the sword studies of my sect were like a martial art placed at the exact opposite pole of the Four Symbols Flowing Sword.

“Is that all!”

The talkative Young Spirit Slayer did not rest his mouth even while bleeding.

Like that, the sword strikes brushed the body five more times.

Unless I became a Vajra Bloodline blood ghoul, I was likely to die soon.

During that, I mobilized all my senses to read and predict the opponent’s sword path, but.

‘It cannot be read.’

The movements that seemed to be thrust out randomly without any fixed rules were a difficult problem.

‘There is neither form nor stance.’

In a way, it was a sword path that the Tai Chi Sword Manual should emulate, but.

That too would be something to try after surviving from the Young Spirit Slayer.

‘Without a clear form of sword stances, without front or back, solely with the purpose of killing a person.’

That was the entirety of the information I had read while dealing with the Young Spirit Slayer’s sword so far.

Therefore, the trajectory of the sword was not even calculated.

More precisely, before I could even finish the calculation, the sword strike slashed my body.

A situation close to the limit.

Some change was needed.

With my scattering concentration, the haze-like energy on the dark-blue shining sword blade was dispersing.

“Is that the end! Merely that!”

Jjeojeong!

A large chip is taken out of the sword edge.

Even so, I did not stop thinking.

‘No front or back. Solely the purpose of killing a person. A sword aiming at the center line of the body. Wait. No front or back? Just moving the sword to kill a person?’

Even while the Supreme White Mystic Light of the Four Symbols Flowing Sword was being defeated, I did not let go of the thread of my thinking as I deflected the sword strikes with the Three-Section Brocade body-protecting qi and the footwork force of the Slender Willow Flutter.

‘It is not causalism. It is teleology.’

Until now, predicting the sword path through the calculation process of the upper dantian was basically a calculation by the mechanical system established by Newton (Leaking sheath words).

Force exists, and due to that force, velocity and collision are created.

It was causalism.

Because there was force, there was a result.

However, in the methods of reading the world, there was not only causalism.

‘Teleology.’

The method of looking only at the results of the beginning and the end and re-establishing the middle process.

On one look, it was strange, but.

Those who had studied physics would be able to know.

Excluding the variables of three-dimensional space, the situation is organized again with only the initial value and the resulting value.

Capturing only one moment in the middle instead of predicting the detailed sword strikes.

‘Hamiltonian!’

Inside my head.

The system of thinking of the upper dantian began to change rapidly.

In an instant, the diverse trajectories that had been making my eyes dizzy were organized, and.

Only a single trajectory remained.

The optimal trajectory for murdering a person.

The trajectory faithful solely to the purpose was still fast, but.

‘Now, it is read.’

As the true qi force wave emitted from the tip of the sword, which had dulled due to the Young Spirit Slayer’s accumulated internal injuries, helped the evasive maneuver of the Actionless Walk of the Slender Willow Flutter, the guy’s sword blade passed by, brushing my flank.

At the same time.

Along with the concentration that had risen anew, the dispersing internal energy gathered to the sword blade.

The true qi that was scattering like blue haze was sharply forged over the sword blade, and.

Within the slowed space-time.

Following the flow of true qi, the sword accelerated.

Among the sword stances of the Four Symbols Flowing Sword, the most upright stance.

The first stance.

The blue sword blade following the sword path of the Immortal Pointing the Way pierced the Young Spirit Slayer’s shoulder.