There was a reason they’d sent the soldiers out, and a reason the plaza in front of the main gate was this wide.
It had been built so they could deploy the formation called the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation perfectly.
They knew full well that any arrogant martial artist would proudly come walking through the front gate.
If I really had been a martial artist, I’d have been caught helplessly.
But I wasn’t.
I just watched how the formation was laid out, then started walking again.
“W-what the hell? H-how? H-he shouldn’t be able to move!”
CRACK- CRACK-.
Every time I took a step, the ground cracked and sank.
Anyone could tell how much pressure was supposed to be crushing me.
And yet I started walking as if nothing were wrong.
In the general’s eyes, my body didn’t look like I was putting in any strength at all.
“W-what is that? H-how can he be that calm?”
Had the formation gone wrong somehow?
It was their first time using it in real combat.
Maybe they’d mis-deployed something?
He checked it again.
And again, and again—there was nothing to criticize. It was perfect.
Then why—
“Why is he completely fine?”
While the general flailed in confusion, I threw out my fist.
WHOOOOSH—.
The wind of my punch brushed past the general’s face.
KWA-KWA-KWAAA—.
“Uwaaaah!”
“Ghk!”
“Gahh!”
All I did was throw a punch, and one side of the formation just blew open.
The Iron-Blood Ghost Formation shattered in a single strike.
The most shocking part was that there hadn’t been a trace of inner power in that punch.
Which meant one thing.
I’d produced that level of force without using inner power at all.
“I told you to go call your Family Head.”
The general snapped back to himself and shouted,
“W-what are you all doing! Snap out of it and re-form the formation!”
“I’m telling you, it’s pointless. Looks like words aren’t going to work.”
I looked over the soldiers.
They hadn’t committed any crime.
They’d just done as they were told.
The ones who were guilty were the Gu Yang Family.
I turned my eyes to the Gu Yang estate’s buildings.
“If he won’t come out, I’ll just have to make him.”
The formation was reestablished, but it was nowhere near enough to stop me.
The general tried anything he could to halt my steps, but I raised my fist again.
Where should I hit this time?
WHOOOOSH—.
The wind blew again.
KWA-KWAAANG—
RUMBLE-RUMBLERRR—.
With a thunderous crash, the pavilion behind the general collapsed.
Looking at the people, I raised my voice.
“If you don’t want to get hurt, you’d better get far away. From now on, until the Family Head of the Gu Yang Family shows up, I’m going to smash this estate’s buildings.”
What an absurd threat.
He was going to destroy every building belonging to the family?
It didn’t sound remotely possible—except they’d just seen it with their own eyes.
A pavilion reduced to rubble in a single blow.
Having witnessed that scene, the soldiers lost their will to fight and just stood there in a daze.
While they fumbled, having no idea how to respond—
CRACK—
RUMBLE-RUMBLERRR—.
Another pavilion went down.
“Uwaaah!”
People who had come running out at the noise took one look at me smashing a pavilion in a single strike and screamed, scattering in terror.
The fate of any pavilion once everyone had fled it was the same.
CRACK—
RUMBLE-RUMBLERRR—.
It sagged and caved in completely amid a thick cloud of dust.
They needed to stop me.
How?
No matter how they thought about it, there was no way to stop a man who might as well have been a natural disaster.
“General! What do we do?”
At his subordinate’s shout, the general finally came back to his senses.
“G-go! Hurry and inform the Family Head of what’s happening and ask him to send the family’s guardians for support! Now!”
“Yes, sir!”
*****
The Family Head of the Gu Yang Family, Gu Yanghyeon, also heard the uproar outside.
Just as he was about to send someone to check, an armored soldier requested an audience in a flustered voice.
“I pay my respects to the Family Head!”
“Fine. What’s going on outside?”
“An unknown individual is destroying all the buildings of the estate.”
What the hell was this now?
Gu Yanghyeon turned to the chief steward at his side with an incredulous look.
“What is he babbling about? Did we hire a demolition crew?”
“No, sir. Why would we demolish perfectly sound buildings?”
“Then?”
“Someone who appears to be a martial artist suddenly forced his way in and demanded to see you, Family Head. The soldiers are doing everything they can to stop him, but they can’t.”
“If it’s a martial artist, then the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation should handle it.”
“The Iron-Blood Ghost Formation doesn’t work on him.”
“What?”
“He broke the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation with a single strike! He’s still destroying the estate’s buildings even now. They earnestly request that you send the family’s guardians at once!”
None of it made any sense.
He could follow it up to the part where someone who looked like a martial artist was here looking for him, and they’d deployed the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation to stop him and failed.
But he was destroying the buildings?
Why?
Whatever the reason, the situation was clearly serious.
“Fine. Chief Steward. Notify the Heaven-Authority Five Guards immediately. Tell them to erase whatever is threatening the family.”
“Yes, sir!”
The Heaven-Authority Five Guards were the five martial men who protected the Gu Yang Family.
They existed precisely for days like today, when an opponent appeared that the regular forces couldn’t handle.
Five figures whose pasts could not be traced.
Gu Yanghyeon didn’t care what their pasts were.
As long as they could eliminate threats to the Gu Yang Family, he didn’t care if they were devils.
*****
The chief steward went to deliver the Family Head’s command to the Heaven-Authority Five Guards, only to find that they were already outside.
“I bring the Family Head’s order!”
“He wants us to get rid of that, right?”
“Y-yes, that’s correct.”
“He’s not an easy one.”
“I don’t feel any inner power, but he’s strong as hell.”
“Must’ve been born with some kind of heaven-sent strength.”
“With a body that sturdy, he’ll be fun to play with.”
“Judging by the mess, the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation didn’t work at all.”
“If it had, I wouldn’t have had to sprint over here like this.”
“If he were a martial artist, he would’ve gotten caught in the Iron-Blood Ghost Formation.”
“Even for us, getting stuck in that formation is a pain in the ass. If he didn’t get trapped in it, that means he’s moving purely on raw strength.”
“Hey, what are you doing? It’s an order from the Family Head. Stop drinking and get up.”
“Damn it. There’s still a lot left.”
“Drink it when we get back. Or take it with you.”
“Fine, fine. Let’s hurry up. At this rate there won’t be any pavilions left standing.”
“Man. That bastard could make a killing as a demolition contractor. Wasting all that talent in the wrong place.”
“Then you catch him and make him do it.”
“Not the worst idea I’ve heard.”
Four of them loosened their bodies, then shot off toward the source of the commotion.
And quietly following behind them, liquor bottle in hand, was the Black-Wind Guard.
*****
Once they got close, the situation looked even more ridiculous.
Soldiers were strewn all over the place, their groans making it clear how desperately they’d tried to stop that man.
“Whew! Looks like he’s already smashed a tenth of the estate.”
“He’s been picking out the expensive pavilions on purpose. Let’s catch him before the Family Head clutches his chest and keels over.”
“All together?”
“I’m going first!”
The man whose muscles looked on the verge of bursting hurled himself at me.
“He’s all excited because he finally met someone built like him.”
“His body’s insanely tough, right? There’s a reason they call him Diamond Shackle.”
“Honestly, that guy probably is the most natural match for this one.”
“So does that mean he gets to hog all the pay?”
“What are you talking about? We agreed to always split it. That’s why we’re letting him go first.”
“Right?”
Relieved, the Heaven-Authority Five Guards settled in to watch Diamond Shackle fight me.
The show didn’t last long.
CRUUUNCH—.
Charging in full of bravado, Diamond Shackle got driven straight into the ground by a single punch.
At first, they laughed.
“Pffhaha! He let his guard down!”
“Knew it the moment he went charging in like a bull.”
“What are you doing? Get up already!”
“Leave him. Must be embarrassed.”
They fully expected him to jump back up, snorting like usual.
He didn’t. He just stayed down.
The Heaven-Authority Five Guards started to feel that something was off.
“What the hell? Why isn’t he getting up?”
“Is that... foam?”
Bubbles were foaming at the corners of Diamond Shackle’s mouth.
“D-did he pass out?”
“No way. You’re telling me he dropped a guy with near Diamond-Body Invulnerability-level toughness in one hit?”
“Are we sure he really doesn’t have inner power?”
“He’s no joke. What do we do?”
“Gang up on him?”
“You go ahead and lay down a spell. Throw him off.”
The Black-Wind Guard raised the bottle and chugged, then pulled a yellow slip of paper from his robe.
The paper was a talisman, covered with warped red characters scrawled across it.
“I’ll confuse him with the Demon-Soul Dream-Formation Talisman. When I do, take him down in one go.”
With that, he sprinted forward and flicked the talisman toward me.
PAPAPAK—.
The talisman stuck all over my body.
The Black-Wind Guard extended his index and middle fingers and started muttering something.
“Three souls and seven spirits, burn into dream-flame, twist form into chaos, let demonic energy gnaw the heart.”
Red energy began to surge from the talisman and soon wrapped around me completely.
I looked around, curious, like I was watching something interesting.
The one who’d thrown the talisman shouted,
“Now! Attack!”
At his command, the three who’d been joking around and moving recklessly moments before drew their energy together, focusing it into a single point, and drove it straight down toward my head.
THUDD-THUUUM—!
CLAAANG—!
Their strikes landed cleanly, a powerful shockwave rippling out in all directions.
The problem was—
“W-what the hell!”
“Why is he fine?”
“Bullshit, that was Azure Dragon Flash-Shadow Spear at full power!”
Confirming that their attacks hadn’t worked at all, the three hurriedly widened the distance between us.
That was when the sorcerer’s shout rang out.
“Attack again! He thinks our attacks are illusions right now!”
“You lunatic! Didn’t you see that? A full-power attack didn’t do a damn thing!”
“He has to have a weak point somewhere! Hit every vital you can think of!”
“Son of a bitch! What the hell is going on?”
“Are we sure we’re not the ones caught in his illusion?”
“Just attack again! I’ll go for his eyes!”
“Then I’ll hit his dantian!”
“I’ll go for his heart.”
WHOOOOM—.
The three of them poured powerful energy into their weapons again.
“Do us all a favor and just die already!”
Each of them unleashed a full-power strike toward their chosen vital.
CLAAANG—
KWOOSH—.
With the impact, a fierce gust exploded outward in every direction.
And the result?
“T-that’s impossible... You can’t train your eyes!”
The spear tip had struck my pupil dead-on and still couldn’t pierce it.
The other two had the same result.
That was when I reached up and grabbed the spear.
“Huh?”
SMACK—.
He got yanked in, took a slap to the face, and was driven headfirst into the ground.
TREMBLE-TREMBLE—.
As their bodies twitched on the ground, I calmly peeled the talismans off my body.
“Damn. These things don’t come off easy.”
Grumbling, I pulled off the last of the talismans, then rolled them between my fingers, compressing them into as tight a ball as possible, and flicked it with a finger toward the Black-Wind Guard who’d thrown them.
TING—
FWIIP—
THUD—!
He didn’t have time to dodge. The talisman ball nailed him and sent him flying, and he crashed to the ground.
The talisman ball, compressed to the absolute limit, was rock-hard, and a fist-sized lump swelled up on the sorcerer’s forehead.
In an instant, two of them had been taken out, leaving just two more.
While they were still reeling, a voice came from behind them.
“The Family Head I told you to bring out still isn’t showing up....”
“Ghk! H-how long have you been—?”
Startled, the two looked back to the spot where I’d been standing a moment before.
“Huh?”
The figure in front of them blurred and vanished like an afterimage.
“Clone technique?”
No.
I was just moving so fast that the afterimage lingered.
“Where’s the Family Head?”
The two glanced # Nоvеlight # at each other.
“You don’t know?”