Twang!
The start of the battle is signaled by Yu Hwa's zither.
As her zither plays, crimson rivers overflow in all directions.
The sunset envelops the surroundings, summoning demonic mists.
I dodge the hues of her sunset, careful not to touch it, as I search for an opening in Jang Ik's defense.
'There's no opening.'
He truly does not allow even a single gap.
'If I go in now, I'll be beheaded.'
My intuition warns me of this.
Swoosh!Yu Hwa's music sweeps over Jang Ik, who leaps into the air to avoid it and reaches for the four podaos.
The next moment.
Bo-oong!
Suddenly, one of the podaos in his grasp flies towards me.
Whizz!
The podao whirls through the air, aiming straight for my neck. I barely manage to dodge it by kicking off the ground.
'Sword control?'
Jang Ik's podao pursues me freely through the air. After deflecting his podao with my Formless Sword, I observe it.
'No, it's not that.'
It isn't sword control. Jang Ik and his podao's handle are connected by thin strands of Qi, and he is manipulating the podao in the air by moving the connected Qi.
It's a completely different method from sword control, where one detaches their consciousness to imbue a weapon with action.
Bo-oong, woong, woong, woong!
As I observe Jang Ik's podao,
Jang Ik rotates the two podaos in his hands and the two connected by Qi strands around him, maintaining his position.
'He's preparing some technique.'
Then, it will be wise to see what technique unfolds.
As I brace for his move.
Wo-woong―
The air seems to be sucked in.
Around Jang Ik, not just the surrounding air but also the spiritual energy itself is slowly being absorbed.
Zap, zap...
I feel a tingling sensation throughout my body.
Simultaneously, a chill runs down my spine.
'No, I thought wrong.'
If that technique is completed, Yu Hwa and I will die.
Yu Hwa, sensing the impending danger, begins to play her zither even faster.
I swiftly circle around Jang Ik, looking for an opening.
At one moment, I find what looks like a gap in Jang Ik's posture.
Zap, zap...
My intuition warns me.
That gap is definitely a trap.
Entering that trap will surely lead to disaster.
However, I clench my teeth and dive into the trap like an arrow.
'I may face disaster, but without doing this, there's no chance at all.'
Jang Ik is a giant cliff.
Not just a high cliff, but one with a waterfall crashing down, making it impossible to climb.
To overcome this cliff, even if it is a trap, I have to boldly enter!
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, Transcending Peaks!
Flash!
Entering the gap shown by Jang Ik, I grip my Formless Sword and execute a horizontal slash towards the gap.
But in an instant, Jang Ik maneuvers his small frame into the air, evading my Formless Sword, and plunges the two rotating podaos towards me.
I hurriedly try to dodge backward, but I feel something catch me from behind.
These are, Qi strands!?'
The Qi strands that Jang Ik has been using to rotate the podaos are preventing me from moving back.
'He wasn't just rotating the podaos!'
Through the podaos, he scattered his Qi strands all around.
Soon, the area is densely covered with Qi strands, making them hard to detect.
[Got you.]
Jang Ik smirks and throws the podao in his hand.
I transform my Formless Sword, cutting through the Qi strands and retreating backward.
The podao barely grazes the tip of my nose as it passes by, but I manage to dodge it just in time.
However, the next instant.
Bo-oong!!
Following the Qi strands spread around, the podao rotates in the air and shoots back towards me.
The Qi strands I had cut somehow reconnected.
'At this rate, it's impossible to even get close to Jang Ik.'
It might seem like just four podaos rotating around him, but those four podaos are constantly scattering Qi strands. Jang Ik is controlling these Qi strands to manipulate the four podaos like puppets.
These Qi strands can either obstruct the opponent's movement by applying physical force or enclose and slice the opponent by applying sharp energy.
'This requires an insanely precise level of control...'
Jang Ik is pushing me back, freely manipulating these precise Qi strands.
'First, I need to deflect or dodge the incoming podaos and then charge at Jang Ik.'
The scattered Qi strands are annoying, but if I cut them at the plane level using the abilities of Treading Heavens, I should be able to sever them.
Then, the right approach would be to block or deflect the podaos once and then look for an opportunity to attack Jang Ik.
Just as I organize my thoughts and extend my Formless Sword towards Jang Ik's podao.
"...!"
Boom!
A tremendous explosion rings out, and I spit out blood.
Gush!
The shock makes me feel as if my insides are about to burst and clenching my teeth to stop myself from spitting out blood is the best I can do.
'In an instant, the power scattered in the Qi strands concentrated to a single point!'
At any time, the dispersed power can be concentrated back to a single point to strike the opponent.
What a terrifying skill.
As I am regaining my composure from the shock, the area around Jang Ik and me is filled with Yu Hwa's sunset-hued river.
She engulfs even me in her attempt to lay Jang Ik to rest, attacking us from all directions with her river.
But the next moment.
Whiz, whiz, whiz, whiz!
The scattered Qi strands begin to shine.
Along with it, Jang Ik's podaos crazily rotate around following the trajectories of the Qi strands.
Whizzing!
It's akin to a storm.
The greenish podaos are creating a violent storm.
"Cough...!"
In the instant Jang Ik creates the storm for 'defense,' I put all my strength to escape his Qi strand's domain. Soon after, the greenish storm sweeps away the crimson river.
[Try a bit harder. The energy contained in this avatar isn't even at the Qi Refining stage. Even with that, I'm conserving energy, yet you can't even attack me properly?]
Shh...
After Jang Ik's storm passes, I watch the path cleared by his podaos and laugh bitterly.
"This is crazy..."
A diameter of 30 zhang (100 metres) is completely swept away.
Of course, a Qi Building cultivator can sweep that much just by indiscriminately casting spells.
But my astonishment is for a different reason.
'The amount of energy used in Jang Ik's Qi strands, and the energy infused into the podaos, was clearly just enough to maintain Sword Energy for about an hour.'
That is, the total amount of power Jang Ik used was less than a single swing of Sword Gang.
Swinging Sword Gang can cut through a rock, yet such a wide range of destruction is impossible.
'How did he do it?'
Yu Hwa also seems to realize this, her expression darkening.
'Yu Hwa's music, in terms of total energy, is comparable to a full-force strike from a Nascent Soul stage cultivator.'
Yet Jang Ik repelled a strike from a Nascent Soul cultivator with merely the power weaker than a martial artist's Sword Gang.
Truly a feat of "using four taels to lift a thousand catties"!
'Even for a Star Shattering stage being, does this make sense?'
It couldn't have been just the power of Sword Gang that repelled a strike at the Nascent Soul level.
There had to be something more.
Exchanging glances with Yu Hwa, I charge at Jang Ik with all my might.
Her Illusory Play Under the Rosy Afterglow supports me from behind as we both attack Jang Ik together.
But the next moment.
Bo-oong!
Jang Ik again scatters Qi strands and hurls his podaos through them at us. I dodge on the spot, attacking Jang Ik alongside the river created by Illusory Play Under the Rosy Afterglow
The next instant.
Zzzeng!
The podao I dodge causes an even more enormous explosion than the previous storm, tearing through the nearby ground.
'What in the world...!'
It doesn't make sense!
Even if all the dispersed Qi Strands were combined together, the power contained in the podao just now was weaker than Sword Energy!
But how did such destructive power emerge?
'It's not just a simple case of using four taels to lift a thousand catties.'
There is something. Something Jang Ik is hiding from us.
I heighten my senses and observe his Qi strands while rotating around Jang Ik.
Suddenly, I notice something familiar about his Qi strands.
'That's...'
Somehow, it reminds me of the moment when Kim Young-hoon used his external Inner Core to grasp the clues of Treading Heavens Beyond the Path.
Kim Young-hoon connected meridians and blood vessels externally, creating an external Inner Core to amplify the attack's power.
"...! That's not just Qi strands."
I ask Jang Ik with a trembling voice.
[Oh, you've noticed already? How did you know?]
"...I've seen something similar before."
[Something similar? Oh....]
"This entire area is essentially 'you'."
That is it.
The Qi strands created by Jang Ik swinging his podao are not just simple Qi strands.
They were meridians and blood vessels made of energy, spiritual veins.
While Kim Young-hoon aimed to enhance his power by connecting external spiritual veins with internal life force, Jang Ik is different.
He breathes life into the external meridians, sucking in the heaven and earth spiritual energy from the outside, drawing in more energy into those Qi strands than his body can absorb.
'I thought it was being sucked in by the rotation, but it wasn't.'
With the rotation, the Qi strands Jang Ik laid down became spiritual veins, breathing and inhaling the surrounding spiritual energy.
I am astounded not just by Jang Ik's technique but by its control.
'To suck in external spiritual energy to strengthen one's attack?'
If it were that easy, everyone would fight that way. Who would bother learning conventional martial arts?
It requires control akin to one's own body.
If the control isn't on par with one's own body, the spiritual energy Jang Ik sucked in from the outside would just scatter again, becoming useless.
Swoosh, swoosh....
While Jang Ik seems to praise me for catching on quickly, he continues to rotate his podaos, expanding the domain of his Qi strands.
Simultaneously, I realize the malevolence emanating from the podaos is intensifying.
'The wider the domain of Qi strands, the stronger Jang Ik's attacks become with infinite potential.'
In a way, it resonates with my Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains.
Stepping into the domain of Qi strands to counter it means facing Jang Ik's freely moving podaos and being constantly harassed by the Qi strands.
'...I'll decide it in one go.'
If we keep dragging on, Jang Ik will become infinitely stronger.
Of course, since Jang Ik is in his avatar form, his body might fail to withstand and explode. However winning that way would be meaningless.
I exchange heart language with Yu Hwa.
We synchronize our intentions, position ourselves on both sides of Jang Ik, and unleash the greatest attacks we can muster.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, ultimate technique, Severing Mountain.
Illusory Player Under the Rosy Afterglow's ultimate technique, Illusory Heaven.
Kugugugu!
Twenty-one techniques unfold at once, striking at the widest gap among Jang Ik's Qi strands. Eight streams of crimson river converge into one, rushing in like a torrent through Jang Ik's Qi strands.
The next moment, Jang Ik smiles and lifts the podaos in his hands.
[Impressive. Should I exert a bit of effort too?]
The name of his profound technique resonates in the world of intent.
Fighting Spirit, First Step.
I can feel it.
The strike Jang Ik is about to use corresponds to the enlightenment of Beyond the Path to Heavens.
In other words, Jang Ik had been fighting us with pure techniques that didn't even reach Beyond the Path to Heavens up to now.
Jang Ik dances on the spot with his rotating podaos, scattering attacks in all directions.
Four Treasures Annihilating Heavens Blade (四寶滅天刀).
Executing Immortals Annihilating Heavens (誅仙滅天).
Slaughtering Immortals Annihilating Heavens (戮仙滅天).
"Ah..."
Beautiful.
In my previous life.
The strike that split the Mad Lord's Wonderfully Mysterious Fortress in half.
Now, even closer, Jang Ik is unfolding in detail as if to show and teach me, making its beauty even more palpable.
'Intent is...'
Essentially Qi.
Just as Jang Ik's Qi strands concentrate to show tremendous power, Jang Ik's intent concentrates, descending to the plane of Qi.
His consciousness, having descended to the plane of Qi, becomes one with countless Qi strands, manipulating the energy drawn from the surroundings.
The energy of the podaos, honed to such extreme sharpness, fly towards Yu Hwa and me who are each unfolding our ultimate techniques.
Wizzz!
It's clean.
That is the end.
The ultimate technique of my Severing Mountain Swordsmanship is directly cut through by Jang Ik's Executing Immortals Annihilating Heavens.
Zing!
The ultimate technique unleashed by Yu Hwa is torn to shreds by Jang Ik's Slaughtering Immortals Annihilating Heavens, scattering it apart.
The technique of sheer violent destruction disperses her ultimate technique.
Fwsh!
Before I know it, I realize my body has been cleanly split in half vertically.
'...Tremendous.'
Thanks to Jang Ik's consideration, my Golden Core is not split, allowing me to survive.
However, I feel chills all over my body realizing that in a real battle, not just my Golden Core but even my Nascent Soul would have been split in one strike if I faced Jang Ik's technique.
Kwoooong!
Yu Hwa, having been hit by Jang Ik's technique, is bruised all over and sent flying far away.
I let out a hollow laugh.
It's a perfect defeat.
Jang Ik disperses the energy condensed podaos and crosses his arms.
[So, did you all understand what I'm trying to say?]
"...Yes. It was a valuable lesson."
Only after sparring with Jang Ik do I understand what he is trying to convey.
I also roughly understand why he asked such questions before the spar.
[The method of the Heart Tribe, the Fighting Spirit, is about standing against the strong from the position of the weak!]
Exactly.
From the perspective of the strong, they wouldn't need to bother with such complex manipulations such as the impossible precision and control demonstrated by Jang Ik. A simple punch would suffice.
However, Jang Ik displayed attacks of power several times greater than a Nascent Soul stage with just the energy equivalent of a single Sword Gang.
It's not just about using four taels to lift a thousand catties but using that power to multiply strength, subduing the opponent with lesser force.
Jang Ik, himself, is not strong.
Because he was born into a weaker race, he had to amplify the power of his techniques by complexly manipulating energy to face terrifying races like dragons, humans, and giants.
The supreme technique he created to face those formidable races!
That is precisely his Fighting Spirit.
[As the weak, as slaves, as insignificant beings! To resist against the strong, the masters, the rulers. The intent of striving to prevent the unjust oppression of the weak is precisely my Fighting Spirit!]
Jang Ik's statement that 'everyone has the potential for Manifestation' meant that all beings living in this world could someday find themselves in the position of the weak.
Thus, he wants to teach the weak.
[I'll ask you again.]
I deeply contemplate Jang Ik's question.
[To you, what is Martial Arts?]
***
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