Woo-wooong—
At the very top of the battlefield where countless divine spirits wage an all-out war.
There, a pair of gigantic Mountain Divine Spirits are in a brief lull.
Between the two divine spirits, a small, manifested Heavenly Domain exists, and inside that Heavenly Domain, the wills of the two divinities are felt.
And at a certain moment,
Kuuuuuuu!
The massive bodies of the two Mountain Divine Spirits that have fallen in a lull begin to move.
It begins with the fist of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Pakwakwang!
The fist of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, imbued with dark-red light, lands a direct hit on the faceless, hazy pale head of the Sword Mountain Devil Lord.
Then, the Sword Mountain Devil Lord likewise swings a colorless, faint sword made with a golden hilt, aiming for the shoulder of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Tiiing—
Kwajjijijik!
With a clear sword cry, from the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's shoulder blade down to the groin is torn away as-is.
The blade is exceedingly sharp, but because the target is the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, it only tears away rather than cuts.
And using that as the starting point, the two Mountain Divine Spirits start trading blows again.
Offense and defense go back and forth.
The Sword Mountain Devil Lord grips the sword and unleashes several thrusts.
Thrusts that transcend spacetime tear off the light of radiance overlaid upon the world, and shoot forth, overlapping within the same time point from the future to past.
The Great Mountain Supreme Deity's fist likewise takes all those thrusts with their bare body, and their whole body formed of dark-red light heats up even more, glowing a fierce red.
In an instant, the fist they throw starts pushing back the surrounding phenomena.
Rules are pushed back.
The world is pushed back.
Chaos is pushed back.
They pack all of it into a single strike and rend it apart.
Within the barrage of those countless wild strikes, the mere aftershock lacerates and rips apart the entire body of the Silver Nameless Heavenly King Oh Hyun-seok, who was aiming for yet another strike, and flings him away.
By the vibrations alone when they collide, the Radiance Seven Immortals and the Ender's party, who are fighting an all-out battle, enter a brief lull and look their way.
Not only the Ender's party, but the Radiance Seven Immortals as well, know that if they bring down their current opponents, they must join either the Sword Mountain Devil Lord or the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and kill the other.
However, in that brief moment, all of them can only think of one thing.
Even if they wedge themselves in among those wild strikes, no matter whose side they take, would it not be a dog's death?
Anyone who sees that terrifying exchange, where with every clash a Heavenly Domain is born and destroyed in each other's hands, can only have such a thought.
And, fascinated by the splendor of such exchanges, everyone except the Underworld fails to notice something.
Within the Heavenly Domains that are born and annihilated with each and every strike in the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and the Sword Mountain Devil Lord's exchange, a flash of radiance glitters.
"Is the best you came up with merely dragging my main consciousness down with you to mortality?"
Gwak Am snorts.
Then right away, he stretches his hand into the void and clenches his grip.
At that moment,
Pakwagwang!
Heaven and Earth hum, and outside the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity smashes my main body.
"Not even close. In the end, it is impossible to sever the link between my main consciousness and my main body. Even if my consciousness is jammed in here, I only have to remotely control my main body...!"
Kwrurururu!
From all over Gwak Am's body, an overbearing might that seems about to crush the entire Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain pours out.
And in that fleeting instant.
I stomp my foot as-is.
My new form, kicking off the nebula, shoots out and slams straight into Gwak Am's chest.
The sword will in my hand pierces straight through his chest, flinging the bastard all the way back to where the blue giant star is and slamming him into the star's surface.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, the Thirty-Fourth Move.
Kunlun!
Hit by the strongest thrust, he coughs up blood in a gush, and for a moment the link of his consciousness wavers.
I seize that gap and move my main body to tear off the bastard's main body's shoulder blade.
"Try controlling it well."
Recalling one of my masters as I fell down to mortality, I look at Gwak Am, in whom a gap forms in controlling his main body.
"A master of mine is the Mad Lord."
I may not like it, but my puppetry originates from the Mad Lord.
"A main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity that moves only by remote control, I can beat it as much as I like!"
"You do have many masters, you loose bastard. I have only one master...! If it is that one, it is enough!"
Kwaaaaaang!
With Gwak Am's shout, his kick pushes my chest away.
And main body to main body.
Consciousness body to consciousness body, a great battle begins.
"Guaaaaaaa!!!"
"Guaaaaaaa!!!"
Gwak Am and I charge at each other and compete in strength.
Grabbing each other's hands, in the very middle of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, we roar like beasts.
In a contest of strength, his victory is only natural.
Uduk, ududududuk...!
My hand starts to crumple, and once he seizes the upper hand, Gwak Am starts absorbing the surrounding stars and nebulae as if to crush me outright.
[Hear me, stars of the nations. By the command of the Mountain Divine Spirit, attend to me.]
That single utterance is the end.
All the star veins and starlight of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain start pouring into Gwak Am.
His divine might overwhelms me and starts directly crushing my whole body.
Tut tuk, tuk!
I sheathe the Impermanence Sword over my leg and kick at Gwak Am's leg that is standing on the nebula, severing the spiritual vein within his body.
His leg, whose spiritual vein is suddenly severed, wobbles, and using that break in balance I grab Gwak Am's body and flip him over.
Tududukk!
Right after, I tear off the arm caught by Gwak Am and regenerate it, and activate the power of the Impermanence Sword.
Impermanence Sword.
Authority.
White Orchid!
Chuhwaaaaak!
Upon Gwak Am's body, which is drawing in the power of all the star veins, the power of blessing overlays, and I drive the surging blessing into an explosive rush.
Unable to withstand the power amplified by blessings, Gwak Am's upper body directly bursts apart.
But instantly regenerating within the shock of his upper body exploding, Gwam Am extends his hand toward me.
"Hear me, stars of the nations."
Kugugugu!
All sorts of stars are summoned around us.
A neutron star spinning with mad speed appears behind me, to the point it seizes me with attraction force as if to tear me apart.
"In the name of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, I declare."
In that instant when I am caught by the neutron star.
Gwak Am carries on his decree.
Oooooooo—
The stars answer.
"I shall drive nails into a fourth of the night sky."
Wooo-woooong!
In Gwak Am's left hand, the dark-red light of Annihilation Advancement Wu becomes a spear that he holds.
In Gwak Am's right hand, the dark-red light of Annihilation Advancement Wu congeals and emits an ominous vibration like an evil spirit.
"In that nailing, the stars shall collapse, and a tidal wave shall rise to the heavens."
Impermanence Sword.
Authority.
"The fool shall have his chest caved in, and his mountain shall be broken in the same quarter."
Hwoong!
Gwak Am throws the spear of Annihilation Advancement Mu toward the sky of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain.
Yin Soul Flower (陰魂花)!
Immediately after, his fist sends a fist strike toward that spear as if hammering a nail.
Jjeojeojeojeojeong!!
"He shall dare not oppose the true Owner of the Mountain!"
The sky of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain collapses.
Countless stars and star veins collapse, and a quarter of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain is swept clean away.
A corner of the Heavenly Domain blows open, and all the stars and attraction forces of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain begin to be sucked toward the ruptured part.
And, at the cost of one quarter of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, the curse Gwak Am laid upon me through Impermanence Sword slams down on me, and a hole pierces my chest open.
With that, I of course realize that a quarter of my Entering Nirvana stage cultivation has evaporated.
Worse, along the hole in my chest, my cultivation is being lost in real time.
"You want to move the battlefield, is it?"
I quickly clamp down on my entire body's spiritual veins to stop the loss of realm, drive out the curse of the Impermanence Sword, and grip my sword.
Kiiiiing—
Leaving the collapsing Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain behind, I charge straight at Gwak Am.
Gwak Am wildly grabs and throws the debris of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain toward me, but I let them flow past very softly as I take a step forward.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Fourth Move.
Flowing Ridge!
A thrust like the winding ridgeline of a mountain reaches Gwak Am's neck again in an instant.
Kicking off space, I press the very tip of Gwak Am's neck with the sword tip and shoot toward the far-off land I see in the distance.
We fall like meteors onto a stretch of land.
A Sword Mountain Hell, where countless swords of glass stick up in jagged spikes!
That place is where my main body is in the midst of battle with the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
Jjeoooooong!
My main body extends a single sword imbued with cosmic authority.
The main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity extends a single palm imbued with the authority of Annihilation Advancement Mu and flicks the sword away.
Between those shockwaves, yet another Heavenly Domain is born.
And Gwak Am, whose neck is briefly pressed by my sword tip while falling, lets out a lion's roar.
"Do not be mistaken."
Jjjeong!
At his lion's roar, the spiritual veins throughout my body rip apart, and I am flung straight off the forearm of my main body.
Tuwung!
Gwak Am's mortal body stomps off my forearm and shoots toward at me.
I try to evade, but with the Impermanence Sword and Retribution Enforcement wrapped over his whole body, dodging is impossible.
Tukwaaang!!
He thrusts his shoulder and body slams me, hurling my body into the newly formed Heavenly Domain far away.
That Heavenly Domain, born from the collision of the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and my main body.
The dimensional veil of that Heavenly Domain directly pierces open and easily accepts us.
'This place...'
I realize the newly created Heavenly Domain is familiar.
Amazingly, the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain collapsed by Gwak Am's hand.
Yet the new Heavenly Domain is likewise identical to the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain.
'Did Kang Min-hee's Fallen Flower fix all the Heavenly Domains born and annihilated during our battle into the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain...!'
But without a moment to grasp the situation, Gwak Am, who pushed me into the new Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, moves his giant frame, spins once, and drives his elbow down onto my face.
Kwachangchang!
I bounce off to the red giant star behind my back, and even after I smash apart the red giant star, I keep shooting forward.
"Even if I fall into a mortal body."
Impermanence Sword.
Heavenly Shatter!
The starlight of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain seems to settle into Gwak Am's arm.
Corpse Mountain Blood Sea (屍山血海)
Authority.
Reprimand (喝).
The dark-red blood robe covering Gwak Am's body, sprouting with painful faces, vomits glaring red light and defiles the starlight the Impermanence Sword gathers.
"The enlightenment of a transcendent alone remains unchanged!!"
Heaven and Earth rumble.
A trajectory of dark-red light smashes spacetime, chases me down, and directly strikes my abdomen.
My whole body literally folds in half, undergoing the experience of my own lips pressing my thighs, and as I get hit by Gwak Am's single punch, I once more pierce through countless stars as I fly and spit blood.
"Immortal Cultivation is repentant enlightenment..."
Gwak Am starts chanting the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.
I also spread both hands and begin to recite the same mantra.
"Immortal Cultivation is repentant enlightenment..."
Wo-woooong!
The attraction force of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain reaches its peak.
Normally, mere bugs at the Entering Nirvana stage reciting a single mantra would not affect the universe, but when two Mountain Divine Spirits—whose are only Entering Nirvana in weight class, yet each possesses Governing Immortal level enlightenment and understanding of the mantra—recite the mantra, the situation changes.
The entire Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain resonates.
"Like tiny grains of salt gathering to form the sea."
"Like tiny grains of salt gathering to form the sea."
"Build mountains through repentant enlightenment."
"Build mountains through repentant..."
The attraction force amplifies to its peak, and the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain, which has been gradually expanding, begins to contract.
"Each to one another holding hands.
"With everyone at the sea, drink salt."
"Each to one another holding hands.
"With everyone at the sea, drink salt."
As the universe contracts, the world gradually becomes hot.
Heaven and Earth begin to fill with light and heat.
"And with the wind, soar."
"And with the wind, soar."
I recall the moment I realized this maxim of the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.
That was exactly when the Wuji Religious Order was massacred by Gwak Am.
Gwak Am also seems to know it as in his eyes lies an intent as if to say, 'Bow down in prostration'.
As if someone like me does not even deserve to recite the mantra.
We begin to recite the mantra aloud, but our mantra, resonating with the entire universe, gradually takes on spirituality and becomes mental speech.
Thanks to that, even as the universe is perishing, we can still hear each other's voices distinctly.
[For that is how one reaches the peak of the mountain.]
[Like combining all intents turns them colorless.]
Gwak Am chants the orthodox Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra, and I chant my Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra that I partially altered, and as our mantras diverge, we begin to recite slightly different maxims.
However, even as we do so, the feeling of the universe being sucked into our hands does not diminish at all.
The resonant phenomenon of our mantras ringing together does not end either.
[Like combining all intents turns them colorless.]
[Embrace all connections and become impermanence.]
Kiiiiiing!
The Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain perishes, by no more than two whose weight class is only Entering Nirvana stage.
Jjeojeojeojeojeok!
The Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain that contract splits cleanly into two, and are sucked into my and Gwak Am's hands and contract to a single point.
[Embrace all connections and become impermanence.]
[For that is how one reaches the stars.]
The Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain held in my hand becomes a star.
The Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain held in Gwak Am's hand becomes a vortex of impermanence.
Kururururu!
Through that vortex, Gwak Am draws a golden spiraling dragon and coils it around his right arm.
I bring my sword down on the star in my hand and directly shatter it.
The starlight made by compressing half of the universe scatters at a single sword strike and becomes a pale mist.
Kururung!
Gwak Am spreads five fingers.
Seeing that, I recall a claw method.
And the next moment,
Gwak Am's bizarre claw method, wreathed with the golden spiraling dragon, shoots at me with its maw opened.
Kwarurung!
To me who reached the Ultimate of Martial Arts, many openings are visible, but the power contained within is at a level I cannot take lightly.
An overwhelming tyrannical force that does not even allow the thought of piercing into the grain of power!
At his single strike that contains power that cannot even be offset by a matching thrust, I can only endure.
The golden trajectory envelops me as is.
In the golden storm, I take all the storm's power with my body and, with breathing, I let those spiritual energies flow into my spirit veins and compress them.
'Return it!'
But I realize where this golden dragon has led me and flinch in surprise.
'This place is...'
Just as I rammed Gwak Am onto the arm of my main body,
Gwak Am's strike drove me straight down onto the shoulder of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body.
Kugugugung!
Instead of sending the power of the golden claw infused into my sword through Echoing Valley back at Gwak Am, I must use it on the corpses of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea that sweep over me.
Shukwaang!
The golden sword energy slices clean through the peaks of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
[Guaaaaaaa!]
Yet I frown as I block the massive body of Gwak Am that plunges down at me in the fleeting gap.
'If even a single drop, a single fragment of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body touches Gwak Am, Great Mountain Pressing Down will be immediately nullified.'
Huuup—
I steady my breath.
Before Gwak Am returns his consciousness to his main body.
I, with all focus, stomp my foot.
Kwaaang!
Impermanence Sword.
Mysterious Bizarre.
A new circuit, the combination of the Impermanence Sword's circuit and the Imperial Throne Circuit I received from Bong Myeong, spreads out from my foot.
The circuits erode a part of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea in an instant.
The greatest ability of this circuit that began from the Mad Lord is erosion.
The pale white mist I created by shattering the star I compressed from the Heavenly Domain is absorbed by the eroding circuit.
"What are you doing?"
Gwak Am's consciousness body recontacts with the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, but the portion of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea that absorbed the mist does not take back Gwak Am's main consciousness.
I do not bother to answer and calmly take a sword stance.
Kugwagwang!
After my main body blocks the attack of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, it takes a sword stance together with me.
My main body's sword resounds.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Qi Mountain Heart Heaven.
My main body's sword seems to become gigantic, and the area of the Impermanence Sword widens.
At the same time, my main body's energy begins to blaze like an active volcano.
Qi touches the mountain, the heart touches the heavens.
Huuu—
Exhaling Heaven and Earth spiritual energy with a slight breath, I swing my sword at Gwak Am in the exact same posture as my main body.
Qi Mountain Heart Heaven is like the move of Dragon Vein, a method of swinging after making the sword a bit stronger.
But when training the basics of Qi Mountain Heart Heaven, it says to grip the sword with 'both hands' and strike down, in accordance with its essence.
Because the act of striking down with both hands is the easiest movement to make all essence, qi, and spirit explode at once.
The essence, qi, and spirit of my main body and my own essence, qi, and spirit unite and explode in an instant.
The Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body and Gwak Am's consciousness body both have their left shoulders shaved away at the same time.
Gwak Am's gaze twitches.
That is not the end.
My main body and I take our sword stances again.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
[Nine Mountains Eight Seas!]
My main body spins on the spot and, transferring the force of the rotation to the sword tip, unleashes wild bombardments across all of Heaven and Earth.
While shouting the move of Nine Mountains Eight Seas with my main body, I unfold a sword technique entirely different from my main body's.
Mountain and Valley Transformation!
Sword energy digs into the underside of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea we stand upon and stirs it up.
Gwak Am momentarily loses his balance, and I rush at such a Gwak Am and raise my sword to cut.
At the instant the move of Ascending Vein is about to be unleashed at Gwak Am, he targets my sword with that characteristic claw technique of his.
But in that instant, I simply let go of the Impermanence Sword for a moment, assume a completely different martial technique, clench both fists, and thrust my fists toward Gwak Am's side torso.
Fighting Monster Traceless Fist!
My original martial art that I once taught Oh Hyun-seok smashes Gwak Am's flank and blows him away, separating him once more from his main body.
Kugugugugu!
In the distance, transparent slashes blanket every direction due to the wild strikes my main body unleashed with the move of Nine Mountains Eight Seas.
Dodging all my main body's slashes, I fly toward Gwak Am.
As my concentration reaches its peak, when I finally draw near Gwak Am.
I can finally see his gaze.
The hatred in those eyes, within the pure clash of Martial Arts and Combat, for a brief moment, has withdrawn into its shadow.
"Huha..."
Here and now, there is neither hatred nor killing intent nor resentment.
Only collision exists.
I, through a hand blade, cut Gwak Am with the move of Cliff Edge, and Gwak Am's fist strikes my face.
My face directly caves in, my eyeballs pop out and drift through the space of chaos, and Gwak Am's head splits in half as his brain matter spill out.
At the single strike we launched with our arms crossed in a cross shape, we, who both lost our heads, begin to wildly exchange strikes like mad with only our consciousness bodies.
That peculiar claw technique Gwak Am uses hacks toward me, and my Severing Mountain Swordsmanship grinds his entire body.
Main body and main body wage battle, creating Heavenly Domains at the Plane of True Immortality,
And our consciousness bodies, carrying each one's main consciousness in the domain of mortality, within the Heavenly Domains each other creates, and upon each other's main bodies, or crossing the internal worlds of the main bodies, continue the struggle of madness.
That sight looks as if, between the Great Mountain Supreme Deity and the Sword Mountain Devil Lord who wage a fierce battle, lines of dark-red light and white light streak past wildly.
At the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra of Gwak Am at the Entering Nirvana level, dozens of Heavenly Domains collapse in an instant, and the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra that first split a Heavenly Domain into two and let me take half the ownership, gradually and more often becomes something he fully takes ownership of.
In any case, in the proficiency of the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra itself, it is difficult to match Gwak Am, who shares cultivation with the countless peoples of the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
'It does not matter.'
In the distance, I see Gwak Am, who wraps an arm with a Heavenly Domain compressed by the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra, using that claw method.
That bizarre technique is for facing beasts rather than humans.
Especially, it seems like a technique created to face tigers.
The claw technique of Tiger-Fighting (鬪虎), created to fight tigers, shoots toward me.
A gigantic dragon-shaped energy wave presses down at me, and only after it collapses one Heavenly Domain behind me does it scatter.
Gwak Am, who is only at the Entering Nirvana level but destroys a single Heavenly Domain without the power of Origin Essence or the four great dimensions, truly looks like a monster appearing in myths.
Kwagwagwang!
The main body unfolds Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, One Annihilation to the Near Shore.
The Impermanence Sword explodes, and the sword strike that holds my very soul bores a hole in the stomach of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body.
From the aftermath of that clash, several Heavenly Domains come into being around us.
I quickly take shelter in one of the Heavenly Domains.
'Can I do it?'
Seeing Gwak Am's monstrous strength and the way he operates that power, I feel my fighting will waver for a very brief moment.
But I cannot give up.
'No, I will do it.'
I must.
What hangs on my shoulders...
It is not simply the grudges of one or two people.
'Go!'
Tukwang!
Gwak Am chases into the Heavenly Domain I entered, and my eyes meet his.
[Immortal Cultivation is... : :
Gwak Am, whose consciousness body was just barely, barely dropped into the domain of mortality but has begun to regain the rank of True Immortality after devouring countless Heavenly Domains, starts to recite the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra once more.
However, I begin to recite the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra with my mouth.
Huuuu...
Exhaling spiritual energy, I raise my sword.
'Contain everything into my sword.'
Attraction force amplifies to its peak.
The universe contracts and begins once again to fill with light and heat.
Into Gwak Am's two hands, the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain start to flow in yet again.
But in an instant, I feel Gwak Am glare at me with eyes wide open.
My slowly descending sword move.
For, inside that move, the power of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain caused by the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra once again begins to be torn and to flow in.
No, the move this time even more strongly claims ownership of the Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain than Gwak Am's.
Great Mountain Pressing Down.
The final profundity of the Severing Mountain Swordsmanship that knocked Gwak Am down to a consciousness body now transforms into a form for physical destruction.
All the power of attraction force and light and heat, solely into my sword will.
Kugugugugu!
The entire Sun and Moon Heavenly Domain condenses into my sword.
At that moment, tension enters Gwak Am's eyes for the first time.
He knows it instinctively.
He would feel that this sword strike holds a power on a different level from his own claw technique, which roughly stuffs the power of a Heavenly Domain compressed by the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra.
However, instead of sending this sword strike at Gwak Am, I scatter it as is, turn it into a hazy mist, and as I had done before, send that power to the Great Mountain Supreme Deity main body's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea and have it be absorbed.
[...I do not know what kind of foolish act that is.]
Even as he says that, perhaps knowing well that I would not do such a thing for no reason, Gwak Am does not immediately launch an attack and begins to draw up his energy.
Kuuuuuuu—
His blood robe, embroidered all over with the faces of living beings screaming, flutters like mad.
A vibration like a swarm of bees buzzing transcends space-time and reaches me.
Cheok—
Gwak Am takes his stance.
The golden spiraling dragon is dyed dark red.
The technique created solely to capture a tiger.
It seems to be a supreme fighting technique Gwak Am learned in his mortal days.
I unfold Mountain Lord Transcending Peaks Flight, and with the move of Mount Tiger, I concentrate dozens of sword strikes toward Gwak Am.
The words of Kim Young-hoon, who passed down the Severing Mountain Swordsmanship, come to mind.
—Severing Mountain Swordsmanship imitates the movements of a fierce tiger. You are like a volcano holding fire. Your growth is slow because it has not yet erupted, but the moment the foundation you refined touches its boundary, you will become a volcano that erupts more ferociously than anyone.
I kick off the space with tiger-like momentum and rush at Gwak Am.
—So, Eun-hyun-ah. Until then, become a Mountain Lord. Until what you have accumulated bursts forth...become the owner of the mountain who guards the mountain that is you.
A dark-red dragon and the white mountain lord collide and entangle with the momentum of a dragon and tiger contention (龍虎相搏).
Thus, Gwak Am and I, though it is only for a fleeting instant, unlike how we have fought until now, stop in one spot and pour attacks toward each other.
And I seize that instant and shout.
"Now, Oh Hye-seo!!"
At the same time, Oh Hye-seo, who has been hiding all this time in my shadow, rides Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens and appears, strongly connecting her mind with mine.
Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens.
Linked Technique.
Severing Mountain Swordsmanship.
Twenty-Seventh Move.
Guiding to the Summit.
The Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens of Oh Hye-seo, who has secretly placed it upon Gwak Am's Corpse Mountain Blood Sea until now.
The move of Guiding to the Summit, that burrows into the opponent's body and induces, at least in part, their actions.
When Oh Hye-seo's Tainted Soul Filling the Heavens combines with my two acts of pouring the mist made by splitting Heavenly Domains into the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, the power I have been waiting for begins to appear.
Hwoong!
Splitting Emperor Splitting Heaven.
Annihilation Advancement Wu!
The Annihilation Advancement Wu of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body imbues in his fist and, piercing all space-time, starts to come crashing toward us by itself.
Pakwagwaaaaaaang!!!
Gwak Am, entangled with me, tries to evade, but I switch my grip on the Impermanence Sword hooked on his arm to a reverse grip and block his escape.
Shielding Oh Hye-seo with Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens, I take that Annihilation Advancement Wu head-on together with Gwak Am.
Kwadudududuk!
The Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, eroded by Guiding to the Summit, does not allow Gwak Am to return to his main body through it, and he can only, together with me, get struck by his own fist.
On the fist of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity that contains the power of Annihilation Advancement Wu.
With the move of Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains, I shove all that power and its recoil into my sword, while Gwak Am, taking his own fist entirely with his bare body, vomits blood from all over his body.
The power of Annihilation Advancement Mu transcends spacetime.
In an instant, we again arrive, with a weight class at the Entering Nirvana stage, at the outskirts of the Akashic Records.
We fight near the head of [baby], and I see the blood vessels of other timelines that compose the [baby]'s body.
Seeming to notice my intention, Gwak Am, while spewing blood, begins to come toward me even as his weight class at the Entering Nirvana stage drops to the Sacred Vessel stage, and then to the Star Shattering stage.
"Do you...think...I will...allow...it...!?"
"If...you...don't...what will you do...!?"
On the fist of Annihilation Advancement Mu, we feel a massive pressure and gaze at each other.
And in an instant,
With all my strength I shove Oh Hye-seo, whom I protect with Gracious Soul Filling the Heavens, toward another timeline.
Gwak Am charges at me like mad and throws a straight punch.
Kaaang!
Even though I block with the Impermanence Sword, my arm begins to twist bit by bit and my body gets pushed back.
Even if his realm dropped and he took impact due to his own Annihilation Advancement Mu, in the end Annihilation Advancement Mu is Gwak Am's power.
Gwak Am divine descents a portion of the power of Annihilation Advancement Wu overflowing in his main body into his consciousness body and hurls it at me.
'What kind of Star Shattering stage is this...?'
Even though it is clear that, after being hit by his own Annihilation Advancement Mu, his realm fell all the way to the Star Shattering stage, I can only be overwhelmed as I watch Gwak Am exude unmistakable might at the Vestige Liberation Immortal level.
"I am an innate demi-god."
Kugugugugugu!
The bloody gleam dwelling in Gwak Am's eyes explodes, and the attraction force of the Phenomena Extinguishing Mantra stretches out toward Oh Hye-seo, whom I push away.
"Even against a similar innate demi-god, the Obsidian Devil Heavenly King, I did not lose at arm-wrestling when in the same realm!!!"
Kwadudududuk!
At this rate, he is going to blow apart the Impermanence Sword and the me beyond it, and then retrieve Oh Hye-seo, whom I barely sent beyond the timeline.
'Please, please...'
I grip the golden handle formed from Gwak Am's mask and hold out against him with all my strength.
This is the only way to defeat Gwak Am.
'Please... O Gods of Heaven and Earth...'
I pray.
It is an intense prayer that I have never once done until now.
'Just once...only once...!'
Hoping for even a scrap of fortune thrown by the heavens, not something I accumulated myself, I begin to squeeze out all my strength.
All the power I accumulated with Foolish Old Man Moves Mountains.
Even if it means dropping my weight class down to the Star Shattering stage, I shatter my realm and true origin at the Entering Nirvana weight class!
The true origin of my consciousness body burns, and my realm falls.
Star Shattering, Integration, Earth Axis.
But Gwak Am still maintains his realm at the Star Shattering stage and begins to pull Oh Hye-seo, who is beyond me, with attraction force.
"Give up. Everything you hope for, everything you dream of, is nothing but utterly vain!!"
"..."
Give up.
The moment I hear those words, it feels as if all strength leaves my whole body.
Everything is hazy.
My senses go numb, and it feels as if all light disappears.
However, it is only a temporary feeling.
"I will not...give up...!"
Immortal Beast True Blood erupts madly from the spirit veins of my whole body.
I begin to squeeze my body.
I draw up all the strength I can draw up.
Until there isn't any more strength to draw.
'Then, here is my limit.'
Reaching my limit means I can now surpass it!!
"Even if I die here...I absolutely will not give up!!"
I pour all my obsession and yearning into this sword.
Why do you not give up?
Though we cannot trade words in this urgent moment, Gwak Am's pupils are asking so.
Why can I not give up?
The reason is simple.
If I can achieve the Dao in the morning, then I am content to die in the evening.
"Because...morning has not yet even come!"
I am a fool.
Therefore, I know that though I think I realized it, I have realized nothing.
Yes, I still have not realized the Dao.
Since I did not realize the Dao...morning also has not come.
How can one who has not realised the Dao die before morning even arrives!?
"If this body cannot achieve transcendence in this life..."
Kwarururururung!!
Behind me, someone with red hair appears.
Tsuaaaaat!
The black-blue shadow that melted into the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea sends their will here even while fused into the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity.
A silver, presence-less Heavenly King appears behind me and sends a fist wind toward Oh Hye-seo, who goes far ahead.
Someone warm in light pink, though their main body cannot come, pushes me with a strand of warm will.
And Oh Hye-seo, who goes to that faraway timeline through Gracious Soul Filling the Heaven to finally link future and past, looks back at me.
I look at the sky.
All the Immortal Bodies of the Radiance Seven Immortals are shattered and are being devoured by the Origin Essence of Radiance, and they only look toward this place with eyes full of resentment.
The moment I realize this.
I realize that my sword begins to be dyed gold.
On the golden handle, which has no edge, a blade of gold begins to form.
—When swinging the sword, align it with the midline of the arm.
The teacher who first taught me proper ascending martial arts.
[TL/N: Ascending martial arts (상승무공) are basically martial arts where if you learn them, you can rise to a higher realm. Basically, good martial arts.]
There, in the distance, in front of the door of the Audience Chamber that Gwak Am began to open with Penglai Island as the key.
I see the light beyond that Audience Chamber and feel a golden wind starting to blow.
The golden will faintly overlaid on the Interdimensional Void becomes a wind and begins to push my back.
The golden martial arts system that has been stopped until now circulates and dwells in my body.
I do not shed tears.
'...Because I believe.'
No, perhaps they are flowing, but are evaporating in the fierce battle.
Either way, it does not matter.
With all my strength, as I swing the golden sword that finally gained an edge, I set upright the will of gold.
"When shall I wait again to transcend this existence!!??"
Countless years.
My friend and first teacher, who leapt over all that time and reached the future, shouts brightly.
As if though he has just arrived and presumably knows nothing of the situation, it does not matter.
As if seeing only with the gaze of a martial artist.
"Swing!"
My sword, shining completely in gold, scatters brilliant rays of creation that announces the morning.
Through that single sword strike, my sword attack that has been continually pushed back by Gwak Am directly splits Gwak Am's fist and shoots toward him.
Golden Speed Heavenly King Kim Young-hoon.
Red Pearl Cycling Heavenly King Jeon Myeong-hoon.
Lapis Lazuli Flower Heavenly King Kang Min-hee.
Silver Nameless Heavenly King Oh Hyun-seok.
Tridacna Vast Cold Heavenly King Kim Yeon.
Oh Hye-seo joins them all and pushes my back.
I, embracing everyone's strength in my body, shoot it straight, and through the Severing Mountain Swordsmanship's Accumulating Dust Forms a Mountain, I begin to tear Gwak Am's body to shreds.
The sword of my main body, which faces the main body of the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, also becomes dyed gold and slices his main body into pieces.
Gwak Am's gaze, twisted like an evil spirit, glares at me, and cracks begin to spread across the golden mask covering his face.
"You..."
His eyes become bloodshot.
"You!!!"
And finally, he begins to 'consume' the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea.
"This is not power meant to be used on the likes of you!!"
My main body's sword, shining in gold, and the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, who begins to consume the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, collide, each side's strength perfectly matching the other's.
Jjeoooooong!
And the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, who has until now continually met my sword strikes from a position higher than me, for the first time burrows into my arms and enters a space even narrower than sword distance.
Jjeooooooong!
The Great Mountain Supreme Deity's main body's grasp stretches toward me, and I envelop my whole body in the golden blade and clasp his hand.
The contest of strength begins.
However, even the Great Mountain Supreme Deity, who is consuming the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea, cannot overpower me in force, who is perfectly divine descending the Marital Arts of the Golden Speed Heavenly King.
And, toward somewhere between our main bodies that are waging chaotic battle, the consciousness bodies of me and the Great Mountain Supreme Deity start to be sucked in.
The place Gwak Am first bore a hole that still remains a hole.
That place is...
The Head Realm.
Kwaaaaaaang!
We enter inside the Head Realm through the hole pierced into it.
The moment I think I see a familiar capital city in the distance.
Gwak Am pries me off him with a kick.
Tukwagwang!
I take his kick and bounce away for an instant, but I correct my posture again in the void and chase after Gwak Am once more.
Kwagwagwang!
Gwak Am and I drop to about the same place.
Ururururuung!
By the shockwave from our descent, the ground we step on collapses and we fall down into the underground.
The place we fall to is beneath Seogyeong City of Yanguo.
It is where the main house of the Makli Clan stands.
"Uh, uhhhhh..."
The Makli Hwang-cheon of the Makli Clan in the Head Realm stares at us, dumbfounded.
"Get aw—!!"
Before I even have time to shout, Makli Hwang-cheon is sucked straight into Gwak Am's hand.
And starting with Makli Hwang-cheon, an immense attraction force arises upon Gwak Am's hand.
That attraction force starts to reach the entire Head Realm, and not only the Makli Clan but all of Seogyeong City.
All of Yanguo.
Shengzi, Byeokra, the sea, the great grasslands, the Heaven-Treading Desert, Ascension Path, even to the nations of the East, it stretches forth.
Kwadudududuk!!
There is not even a moment to block it.
In the blink of an eye, innumerable residents of the Head Realm become a handful of blood and are sucked into Gwak Am's grasp.
At Gwak Am's act of devouring all life in the Head Realm except plants the moment he arrives, I do not even have time to feel rage.
Kwagwagwagwang!
Gwak Am rushes me with a kick, and I succeed in severing his ankle in an instant, but in exchange, I fly all the way to the eastern edge of the Head Realm and crash into the World Shield Force at the eastern edge, coughing blood.
Chwaaaaaa!
By the aftershock of my flight alone, the sea at the eastern end of the Head Realm is engulfed in heat and evaporates away.
Kung, kung, kung!
And into the center of that evaporated eastern sea of the Head Realm appears a hulking figure clad in a blood robe.
Jjeok, jjeojeojeojeok...
It is Gwak Am, whose golden mask has shattered and whose bare face is gradually being revealed.
"So damn persistent."
For some reason, Gwak Am does not immediately unleash an attack and speaks.
"I did not feel much potential at the Entering Nirvana stage, but is this the power of your comrades?"
"..."
I look around me.
'This is...'
That's right.
The Heaven and Earth spiritual energy of the Head Realm is gradually drying up.
As if...
The very mystic power itself, including Qi, is disappearing.
The laws of the world are changing.
The rules are rewritten, and a bridle is placed upon a world where Qi flows fine.
Kang Min-hee's mantra, Falling Flower, is continuously following us and changing the surrounding environment in my favor.
A world with no energy.
Until now, before we came under the influence of this rule, we went around constantly popping Heavenly Domains, so we did not feel the difference, but now that both our realms have lowered, the sensation is clear.
Gwak Am's realm, under my sword strike in which I divine descent Kim Young-hoon's power, fell from the Star Shattering stage to the Heavenly Being stage, and mine also dropped to the Earth Axis stage due to pushing Gwak Am all the way into the Head Realm.
Thanks to that, Kang Min-hee's law that constricts us gradually grew stronger, and now we must recognize that, except for the energy within our own bodies, the Heaven and Earth spiritual energy is exhausted.
The characteristic of the Heavenly Being stage and above is that with Celestial Energy Guidance and attraction force, one can draw in the surrounding Heaven and Earth spiritual energy, making the spiritual power one can wield in a prolonged battle theoretically infinite, but due to the bridle Kang Min-hee placed upon us, we are forced into a war of attrition.
Perhaps Gwak Am also felt that fact, which is why the moment he came to the Head Realm he devoured all the living beings to replenish his energy.
"Such a useless act. At this rate, all of our energy will be completely consumed and it will become a barehanded fight... When I, a demi-god by birth, and you, who have nothing but the body of a mere mortal, fight, is it not obvious you will lose?"
"...Who knows."
I raise the golden sword as I look at Gwak Am.
"When I, who reached the Ultimate of Martial Arts, fight you, who is at best only an innate Star Shattering stage...there is absolutely no way I think I will lose."
"Heh...whether it is Martial Pinnacle or whatever, if this drags on, do you think you can win?"
"You can't drag this on."
Chwaaaaaa—
The sea water that has evaporated seems to bead in the sky again, then begins to pour down as rain.
Gradually the sea fills again.
I look at Gwak Am in the rain and speak.
"...Your claw technique is excellent. But for you, who honed a claw technique to that degree, to still not have become a Heart Tribe...it must be a problem of your heart, not your skill."
"..."
"My comrade will revive your Heart Demon that you captured, killed, and absorbed into the Corpse Mountain Blood Sea."
When I first took Gwak Am's Annihilation Advancement Mu and, transcending time and space, reached the boundary of the Akashic Records and reached the place where the [baby] is visible...
Only then could I know the cause and effect of everything.
I understood who took Azure Tiger Saint.
"Before Oh Hye-seo brings Azure Tiger Saint and makes contact with the Heart Demon of Mountain-Destroying Demon Ape. Before then is the only time you can beat me."
I force an extreme short battle upon Gwak Am and raise my sword at him.
I provoke him so that he rages and runs amok so that I can seize an opening to drive in a single strike.
"You can never beat me. While you accumulated a mountain of vain and worthless corpses...I rose this far together with my friends."
"...Heh heh...you even make the taunt of 'you have no friends' sound refined."
But Gwak Am, unexpectedly, shows little emotion.
The sea gradually fills, and we look at each other underwater.
Tuk, tuduk...tudududuk...
The golden mask that adorns him begins to be stripped away, swept off by the current.
The mask, which is already in pieces by me from the start, scatters into fragments, and at the same time Gwak Am's face beyond the mask is revealed.
And the expression behind the mask is, unexpectedly, calm.
He calmly looks up at the sky once.
Chiiiii...
Even the Heavenly Punishment Supreme Deity feared to open their eyes in the Head Realm, yet he calmly looks at the sky, shedding bloody tears from his eyes as he sees something.
[...Master...are you watching?]
At those words, I realize that the remains of the Salt Sea Supreme Deity's true body are left in the Head Realm.
[I...]
Gwak Am seems to move his lips as if to say something to the Salt Sea Supreme Deity, but then he closes his mouth.
Perhaps because we are underwater, between the strands of his hair that spread in all directions, I can see strange scars.
There are a total of 17 scars.
And the moment I see the scars, Gwak Am turns his gaze back to me and opens his mouth.
[...In my mortal days, I was a mixed-blood child of a commoner Fighting Ghost Race father with one horn and a Human Race mother. Well, strictly speaking, my Fighting Ghost Race father violated my courtesan mother near a temple, and I was born.]
[...?]
Suddenly, seeing Gwak Am reveal his background, I raise my guard even higher.
Having seen only on an explosive side of Gwak Am, seeing his calm appearance makes him seen even more dangerous.
[However...despite being a human mixed-blood, I was a mutant born with as many as seventeen horns of the Fighting Ghost Race.]
[...!]
I am stunned at those words.
In the Fighting Ghost Race, status is determined by horns.
1–2 horns are Fighting Ghost Race commoners.
3–6 are Fighting Ghost Race nobles.
Seven horns are called royalty, and that is the limit of how many horns the Fighting Ghost Race as a species can have.
After I became a True Immortal, I also examined the genetic information of the Fighting Ghost Race, and what I confirmed then was also that seven is the limit.
However...
'Seventeen horns...?'
I intuitively realize that the legend of the 'Noble Blood True Sea Radiance Body' passed down among the Fighting Ghost Race is not merely a divine power called 'Noble Blood True Sea Radiance,' but to some extent points to Gwak Am himself.
[My mother said a child like me was hideous and always hated me. Well, when I was born, my horns tore through my mother's privates and her lower body became crippled, so that is understandable. My mother always felt disgust and fear toward me, so at one time, to receive my mother's love, I pulled out all my horns with my own hands.]
[...!]
[But...without knowing that with each horn that disappears, my potential as one of the Fighting Ghost Race decreases, yet my pure body strength increases severalfold, I tried to hug my mother and ended up bursting her apart and killing her.]
Hwoong—
Gwak Am swings his arm.
An overwhelming shockwave erupts, and again the seawater surrounding us is pushed away by that blast.
In that single swing, no Qi is used. It is simply the innate body power Gwak Am was born with.
Gwak Am calmly reveals his past.
"As my mother died like that, she gently called my name. There were only two times when my mother called me gently. When I tore her privates as I was born and first received the name 'गाॐ'. And the time she called my name when she was dying. Afterward, I met Master when I was in confusion, and Master taught me many things and raised me as the next Field Garden Heavenly Lord."
Gwak Am, who continues his story calmly, looks full of openings, but I cannot charge at him.
For it is too clear to my foresight, which has reached the ultimate of Martial Arts, that the current Gwak Am who is not explosive is, in fact, the most dangerous.
"I ask you this. If you answer this question, I will acknowledge you to some extent with seriousness. Answer. Why did my mother name me that?"
I can immediately tell the meaning of Gwak Am's name.
It is because I obtained the Pangu True Blood of the Naming Supreme Deity Hyeon Rang.
And I can also tell why Gwak Am received such a name.
Not because of some transcendent foresight, but simply because among Supreme Deities, it is considered common knowledge.
गा is an ancient word meaning to sing.
ॐ is truth. Or...an ancient word meaning Heaven (天國).
The name Gwak Am (गाॐ), from the very beginning, possessed the requirements to become a Supreme Deity
Yes.
Even though Gwak Am shed off the Immortal Title of Ra Cheon...
He [absolutely] could not escape fate.
The true intent of Gwak Am's question is this.
Not why his mother bestowed such a name.
But why he still has not renamed himself from Gwak Am.
He is asking me about himself.
After letting out a silent sigh for a while, I lift the sword blazing with golden light and speak.
"...I will tell you. Senior Brother."
"Who is your Senior Brother...?"
Gwak Am's eyes flash with a bloody gleam.
"Well, fine. You are probably saying you will answer with the blade. Then come on...answer diligently."
And so,
I, left only with a weight class reaching the Earth Axis stage, and Gwak Am, who is innately at the Star Shattering stage, once again charge at each other in the Head Realm.
Gwak Am's head, whose golden mask is shattered, and my golden sword finally completed through the power of Kim Young-hoon, at the eastern end of the Head Realm.
From the place where the morning sun rises, collide.
Morning of the Head Realm.
We face each other in that dawn light and clash.