Seo-jun described his Ideal World as an entire world of its own.
A world was the harmony of all its elements.
The sky, the earth, the clouds, the lightning, the rain, the ocean, the rivers...
Each had its own name when viewed separately, but together, they formed a complete world.
Thus, Ideal World required harmony to function.
One element could create a massive change, but if it disrupted the balance, then it was no longer a world—it was destruction.
For example, the sun could fall and engulf everything in flames.
But the world itself should not become the sun.
This was the fundamental nature of Ideal World.
This was why Seo-jun found localized deployment fascinating.
Rather than using his entire domain, he could extract a single element from it and manifest it separately as its own space.
Within that limited area, that one element alone would dictate the world’s laws.
A prime example of this was Eight Cold Hells—a fragment of his Ideal World’s frozen tundra extracted and materialized.
If he only wanted to fully utilize Icy White Divine Art, then it was far better to deploy Eight Cold Hells rather than Ideal World.
Simply put, it was stronger that way.
So then, what if he extracted multiple elements from his inner world, but instead of deploying them as individual domains, he engraved them into a formation and activated them simultaneously?
***
BOOOOOOM──────!!
A massive explosion erupted.
Thousands of Primal Sun-Moon Blasts detonated at once—distorting, shattering, and tearing apart the space itself.
Having precisely calculated his defenses to ensure he remained untouched, Seo-jun leisurely stood up.
Whoosh—!
With a simple wave of his hand, a powerful gust swept away the dust cloud.
Baek Yoon’s hideout had been located midway up the mountain.
The explosion had been powerful enough to obliterate multiple mountains with ease.
So what remained of the mountain after the blast?
Obvious.
At the spot where the mountain once stood, only a single towering rock pillar remained, its height roughly equal to what had been the midsection of the mountain.
Seo-jun stood atop that precarious pillar, scanning the wreckage below.
"Still alive?"
The answer came not in words, but in steel.
Swiish—!
Space itself was sliced apart.
Seo-jun swiftly stepped back, and the sword strike tore through the rock pillar beneath his feet.
CRACK—!
The already unstable pillar split down the middle.
The massive slab of stone collapsed under its own weight, shattering into countless fragments as it crashed to the earth.
KRRRRRSHHH──────!!
Seo-jun hovered in the air, looking down at Sword Maniac.
"Huh. You’re completely fine?"
["You...!"]
Sword Maniac’s eyes burned fiercely.
["You’re absolutely sure you have the Hwangun Divine Sword!?"]
Aside from a few minor wounds, Sword Maniac was completely unscathed.
More importantly, he didn’t even care about those injuries.
["If you don’t have it, I’ll rip your head off!"]
"And if I do?"
["Then I’ll let you live."]
"Oh yeah?"
Seo-jun grinned.
With a flick of his hand, he activated the formations embedded into the space itself.
RUMMMMMMBLE—!
In the mountain’s absence, one hundred and eight colossal ice pillars erupted into the sky.
Using those as anchor points, multiple formations simultaneously unfolded—
Frozen Celestial Trap Formation
One Hundred and Eight Arhats Formation
...and several entirely new formations Seo-jun had recently devised.
["Ugh...!"]
A crushing weight, hallucinatory distortions, bone-chilling cold, internal energy suppression—
Every possible hindrance descended upon Sword Maniac.
At the same time, formations utilizing Northern Myung Divine Art and Emperor’s Sword Forms began draining his qi and pressuring his mind.
Sword Maniac’s expression hardened.
["What the hell... is this?"]
Without a word, Seo-jun deactivated his Reverse Flow Technique.
Baek Yoon’s form dissolved, and his true self emerged.
Heavenly Lord, Lee Seo-jun, gazed at Sword Maniac with cold eyes.
["I’m here to take revenge."]
Sword Maniac’s eyes widened.
["You...! You’re not Baek Yoon!"]
His teeth clenched as he growled—
["Then what about the Hwangun Divine Sword!? Was that a lie too!?"]
His voice was frantic, almost desperate.
The countless formations surrounding him, the Primal Sun-Moon Blasts he had just barely endured—
None of it mattered to him.
Only one thing did.
What could drive a man to such blind obsession?
Seo-jun wasn’t interested in the answer.
Instead, he decided to give him hope.
["The Hwangun Divine Sword?"]
Schiiiing—!
The Demonic Sword was unsheathed for the first time in a while, shuddering in ecstasy.
It rose on its own, spinning through the air as it traced luminous arcs of qi.
And then—
A golden dragon materialized in the void, its roar shaking the heavens.
───────────!!
Sword Maniac’s eyes went wide with awe.
His desperation vanished, replaced by pure elation.
["It’s real...! IT’S REALLY REAL!"]
Like a child overwhelmed with joy, he trembled in ecstasy.
The sword path he had seen through the communication crystal—and the one before his eyes now—
He branded them into his very soul.
["Hand it over! It’s mine!"]
SCHIIIIING──────!!
Sword Maniac swung his sword in a massive horizontal slash.
A crescent of pure destruction tore through space, aiming directly for the formation’s ice pillars.
Seo-jun snapped his fingers.
Sky Piercing Strike, Primal Sun-Moon Blast, Reverse Sun-Moon Blast.
───────────!!!
Hundreds of Primal Sun-Moon Blasts detonated simultaneously, stretching space itself.
Tendrils of Reverse Sun-Moon Blast intercepted Sword Maniac’s attack—dispersing it instantly.
And then—Sky Piercing Strike.
Dozens of sword strikes, each carrying the weight of the falling sun, rained down upon Sword Maniac’s body.
["The Four Direction Sword Technique?"]
Sword Maniac’s eyes gleamed.
A wide grin spread across his face.
["Ahh...!"]
His sword moved again—
This time, his sword path was strange—
A series of chaotic, twisting, and erratic slashes—
SCHIIIIING──────!!
The sword paths twisted and intertwined, their chaotic trajectories forming a pattern—one that, under the principles of Supreme Formless Sword (Taeul Muhyeonggeom / 太乙無形劍), gained true meaning.
The complex network of slashes tore apart most of Seo-jun’s Sky Piercing Strikes (Gwancheon / 貫天).
Puh-uck—!
But not all of them.
Two remaining sword arcs struck true—one piercing Sword Maniac’s side, the other driving straight through his thigh.
Dragged downward by the force of Sky Piercing Strike, his body slammed into the earth below.
"Hah!"
Even as he crashed, Sword Maniac grinned fiercely.
He dug both feet into the ground—
BOOM—!
—absorbing the impact, then channeled that force into his arms, eyes gleaming as he scanned the surrounding space.
Sword Maniac.
A madman obsessed with swords.
Yet despite his name, he was not truly insane.
To wield the sword properly, clarity of mind ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) was essential.
His razor-sharp intuition pierced through Seo-jun’s techniques, while his madman’s logic, unshackled by conventional wisdom, led him straight to the answer.
["You hid the formations within space itself!"]
Even his heightened senses had failed to detect them.
To find the concealed qi Seo-jun had deliberately hidden would be impossible, even for Namgung Jincheon himself.
Sword Maniac didn’t know that, of course.
But he didn’t need to.
He simply acted on instinct.
"Tch...!"
With a sharp exhale, he swung his sword.
ZHHHRRRRRRRRIP──────!!!
A storm of unpredictable slashes ripped through space itself.
Hidden formations were exposed, severed, shattered.
Seo-jun immediately readjusted the positioning of the remaining formations, but nearly half had already been dispersed into empty air.
And then—
From within the fractured space, a small sphere tumbled forth.
Sword Maniac didn’t hesitate.
He slashed.
Schlkk—!
The sphere split cleanly in two.
Yet the concept contained within it did not break.
Instead, it spread, drenching the world in its presence.
Localized Deployment—Emperor’s Sword Forms.
"Sky is emptied, the earth is beneath contempt."
WHOOOOOOOSH──────!!
The world turned blue.
All of creation was flattened, ground into dust beneath the Emperor’s gaze.
Under the rule of an emperor, all were equal—for all were forced to kneel before him.
But Sword Maniac did not.
He spread his stance, straightened his back, and bared his teeth in defiance.
["You even have Emperor’s Sword Forms...!"]
Szzzt—!
His wounds—those in his side and thigh—closed instantly.
He had never cared much for blood arts, but an indestructible body was useful for wielding a sword.
Humans were born in blood.
Of all martial arts, Blood Arts were the easiest to cultivate, for they suited the human body best.
Though Zhongyuan’s Murim deemed Blood Arts heretical, the truth was different—
Blood Arts were the most natural martial art for mankind.
Sword Maniac had mastered Blood Transformation long ago.
KRRRRRSHHH──────!!
His body collapsed into liquid, dissolving into a mass of blood.
A head, two arms, two legs—the basic form of a human remained, but his shifting, fluid form could hardly be called human anymore.
["The Hwangun Divine Sword, the Four Direction Sword Technique, and now Emperor’s Sword Forms...!]
"You’re a goddamn treasure trove of Zhongyuan’s martial arts!"
"Come on, show me more! Show me everything you’ve got!"]
Seo-jun obliged.
Schlkk—!
A new sphere emerged from the cracks in space—and shattered.
FWOOSH──────!!
Localized Deployment—Celestial Dual Sun Extreme Flame Divine Art.
"Tribulation Flames Descend."
At the epicenter of the broken sphere, crimson fire erupted.
The world turned red, burning with the pulse of calamity.
The Tribulation Flames condensed—
Thump.
—and then swelled explosively, shoving aside the sky itself.
The Imperial Sun, embodiment of all-consuming flames, painted the world in its image.
VWOOOOOM—!
At the intersection of two domains—
Two separate manifestations of one person’s power—
And under the enlightenment of Namgung’s True Sword Doctrine, the two merged into one.
The sky did not reject the sun.
The sun did not incinerate the sky.
Seo-jun, seated at the heart of the domain, activated the remaining dozens of formations.
WHOOOSH—!
Dozens of formations, each shaped after the human meridian system, ignited like scarlet trails of light, weaving into the burning atmosphere.
["Ooooh...!"]
Sword Maniac quivered in euphoria, his blood-form body rippling in waves.
Celestial Dual Sun Extreme Flame Divine Art.
A martial art of the Imperial Family.
Or perhaps not even a sword technique—yet even this, too, held the profound mysteries of the sword.
["You don’t even use sword techniques as sword techniques...!"]
Rather than wielding the Hwangun Divine Sword, Seo-jun engraved its principles into qi, turning it into a martial art of pure power.
["Truly, these techniques suit me far better than they suit you!"]
Sword Maniac glared up at Seo-jun, who stood above him in the sky.
His right arm extended, the limb stretching unnaturally, his bloody flesh shifting like a whip.
["So hurry up and hand them over!"]
SWOOOOOOSH──────!!
The incoming sword strike was even more erratic than before, its trajectory completely unreadable.
Seo-jun felt the intricate web of blood-soaked formations, the flames surging within his domain, the Tribulation Flames he had ignited himself.
FWOOSH—!
Fire engulfed his entire body.
He gripped the burning heavens as if wielding a blade—
And then, just as he had once learned from his younger sister Hui,
He brought down his sword.
Hwangun Divine Sword.
A sword technique tempered in solitude, now infused with the power of Emperor’s Sword Forms and Celestial Dual Sun Extreme Flame Divine Art.
KRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOM──────!!
A golden dragon, wreathed in scorching crimson fire, descended from the heavens—
Its claws aimed directly at Sword Maniac.