Kwaaaaa───────!!
A golden dragon, its body wrapped in the blazing red sky, plummeted down.
[Ohhh...!]
A gleam of ecstasy flickered across Sword Maniac’s face. At the same time, his shoulders trembled. Following that movement, his arm, elongated like a whip, traced a complex trajectory.
Crack, crack, crack────────!!
The space fractured like cracked glass. Sword Maniac briefly glanced at his own body, which was bubbling and evaporating into vapor, and then burst into joyous laughter.
[Good...!]
A powerful sword technique, a formidable strike. It seemed as though sheer force had been recklessly poured into it, and yet, it achieved perfect harmony.
That sight—where three martial arts merged into one—was truly breathtaking.
At last, he was certain. If he could obtain those arts, he could take one step further. To the exalted divine throne—and ultimately beyond it.
[Hahahaha...!!]
With a final swing, Sword Maniac’s blade severed the golden dragon’s head. Countless slashes followed, carving the dragon’s massive body into pieces.
As if in exchange, the blood coating Sword Maniac’s body boiled violently and evaporated.
The shattered remains of the dragon scattered throughout the domain.
Thud—!
Seo-jun launched his body through the fragments.
[Hmph...!]
Sword Maniac smirked. Did this fool think to challenge him with a sword?
Whooosh—! His body of blood surged upward, rushing straight toward Seo-jun.
Seo-jun spread his hands wide. Heavenly Annihilation in one hand, Infernal Flame Arrival in the other. The power of both domains condensed into each of his palms.
Swirling masses of red and blue energy converged. Seo-jun recalled the Blood Ice Jade that Baek Yoon had once wielded.
A singular point. Two orbs rotating around that center.
The essence of the Supreme Sword Form and the Celestial Dual Yang Extreme Flame Art interwoven as one. Seo-jun hurled the condensed force forward.
Fwip—!
The projectile, launched at extreme speed, hurtled straight toward Sword Maniac’s chest.
But Sword Maniac only smiled. A body composed of blood was not bound by form.
Squelch— With a sickening sound, a hole opened up in his own chest. The energy sphere passed harmlessly through the empty space, instead obliterating the ground behind him.
KWA-AAAAAH────────!!
A terrifying shockwave erupted from behind. But now, it was his turn.
Ssshhhkk—!
Sword Maniac’s elongated right arm traced a dizzying arc.
Seo-jun did not directly counter.
Hum— The demonic sword floating in the air moved of its own accord, intercepting Sword Maniac’s blade through the subtlety of Controlling the Blade with the Mind.
Clang—!
Sparks flew, and the demonic sword was knocked into the air.
Seo-jun’s eyebrow twitched.
‘As expected, a sword won’t work...’
Sword Maniac’s blade broke through the defense of his technique, now rushing toward him.
Swish—!
The blade grazed the side of his head. Strands of severed hair scattered in the air.
Seo-jun reacted immediately.
He reached out—his fingers closing around the extended tendril of blood.
Squelch—!
He gripped the blood-forged arm tightly.
[You’re caught!]
Blades of blood erupted from the tendril.
But Seo-jun wasn’t surprised. Instead, he unleashed his own specialty.
Bam—!
The portion of Sword Maniac’s arm held in Seo-jun’s grasp detonated, evaporating entirely.
"So it’s just qi manipulation."
With his arm severed at the midpoint, the sword Sword Maniac had been wielding now slashed through empty air.
Without hesitation, Seo-jun reached into the rift in space and pulled out an orb.
Crack—!
The sphere shattered, spilling radiant moonlight into the surroundings.
Localized Deployment—Lunar Spear.
"Radiant Shadow."
As the third domain unfolded, blood gushed from Seo-jun’s seven apertures. His head pounded—this was his limit.
A divine being staggered under the immense burden. To sustain himself, he circulated his qi, bridging Essence, Spirit, and Mind.
BOOOOM────────!!
The instant he stepped into an unknown realm, a colossal pressure compressed the very space around him.
Seo-jun, feeling his body stabilize, grinned and unified his three domains.
The Sun and the Moon, and the Sky itself.
As day and night intertwined and reversed, the sky embraced them with benevolence.
Inverse Sun-Moon Art.
Seo-jun instinctively knew.
This was different from before.
He had never felt that the Inverse Sun-Moon Art was lacking, but what he had just unleashed—it was on an entirely different level.
Sssshhhhh────────!!
A massive column of energy, capable of returning all things to nothingness, shot toward Sword Maniac.
At this moment, there was no sword in Sword Maniac’s hand.
For someone of his caliber, the presence or absence of a sword wouldn’t typically matter much.
But a small difference could mean everything in battle.
[Hah...!]
Sword Maniac sensed it too.
As he was now, he could not block this attack.
But if he was not as he was now, then he could.
Thump—
Time stopped.
Every movement within the space ceased.
Sword Maniac’s eyes gleamed ominously.
In them, he saw the infinite form of countless swords—formless, limitless.
Absolute Formless Sword.
This technique did not merely seek formless swords—but formless combat itself.
But Sword Maniac thought—was there truly a need to distinguish between form and style?
And thus, upon stepping into the Hwagyeong Realm, he abandoned domains in favor of a single, unparalleled ability.
[Formless Sword.]
Sssshhhkkkkkkk─────────!!
It happened all at once.
The space itself was etched with countless lines.
In an instant, the Inverse Sun-Moon Art, the three domains, and even the one hundred and eight ice pillars that had been subtly obstructing Sword Maniac were sliced apart.
A chill ran down Seo-jun’s spine as he instinctively dodged.
He looked down at his left leg.
Sssss—
He had been just a fraction too slow.
His leg had been sliced tens of thousands—no, hundreds of thousands of times, reduced to mere dust.
"I see...."
So experience wasn’t just for show.
The bastard had been in the Hwagyeong Realm for at least six hundred years.
Time itself could become a formidable weapon.
Compared to someone like Baek Yoon, a fledgling Hwagyeong, the gap was immeasurable.
Squelch—
Seo-jun regenerated his leg, looking down at Sword Maniac from afar.
That bastard was grinning.
As if he had already obtained all of Seo-jun’s sword arts.
It was ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) absolutely disgusting.
Seo-jun didn’t care about anything else.
Justice, morality, good and evil—it didn’t matter.
He simply wanted to rip this bastard’s head off.
Seo-jun’s eyes burned red.
He could see it.
The formless entity writhing around Sword Maniac.
A domain, yet not a domain.
It existed everywhere around him—but nowhere at all.
The true Formless Sword.
"Just an insect...."
Seo-jun took in the fragmented sky, the sun, and the moon.
He gathered them in his hands.
After all, image was the essence of the mind.
And where there was a body and a mind, could one not create life?
Sssshhhhh—
Qi coalesced into form within the void.
A faceless, colorless puppet.
Unnecessary details had no place in combat.
Fwoooosh—!
Seo-jun shoved the essence of the sky, the sun, and the moon into its chest.
"Ah...!"
The puppet opened its eyes.
Colorless at first, it was now imbued with hues. A once-featureless face now bore distinct features.
A puppet that carried the heart of a human had shaped itself into a being of its own.
Born from the Demon Lord of Ten Thousand Calamities, it naturally awakened to the path of demons.
It gazed at the Sky, the Sun, and the Moon embedded within itself.
Talent was something innate—an intrinsic part of Lee Seo-jun’s very existence.
Thus, a puppet that inherited his talent naturally created a martial art from its own realization.
Sun-Moon Demonic Art (Ilwol Magong).
The original art that had existed before did not matter to the puppet. Whatever it had once been, this was now superior.
[Huh...?]
Sword Maniac witnessed the absurdity with his own eyes.
He saw a mere human creating another human.
He saw a puppet, formed from qi, awaken to life.
[What kind of nonsense is this...?]
No matter how much of a madman he was, witnessing something like this would shake anyone’s sanity.
His eyes wavered at the incomprehensible sight.
And in that brief moment of hesitation, the puppet sprang forward, kicking off into the air.
Kwaaang—!
Its entire form was now murky and tainted. Sun-Moon Demonic Qi.
In essence, it was no different from the Inverse Sun-Moon Art.
Thus, shrouded in Inverse Sun-Moon Energy, the puppet charged straight at Sword Maniac.
Sssshhhkkk─────────!!
Sword Maniac reacted instantly—his Formless Sword sliced the puppet countless times.
A technique that transcends mere sword forms.
Formless Sword was not simply about lacking forms—it was the principle that every sword strike would naturally embody the most optimal technique in any given moment.
Every single one of the hundreds of thousands of slashes carried a different, yet perfect, principle.
However, Inverse Sun-Moon Energy was a technique of equal magnitude.
The puppet’s red eyes gleamed—it dodged, blocked, and at times, took the attacks head-on as it closed the distance toward Sword Maniac.
Kwagagagak—!
Fragments of qi scattered around the puppet.
Any parts of its body that were sliced away were instantly replaced by qi from the surroundings.
And before anyone knew it, the puppet had already breached Sword Maniac’s defenses.
Sword Maniac suppressed his shock, sharpening the edges of his blood-forged arms.
His hands were now swords.
Slash—!
He cut down the puppet’s outstretched hand and curled his body inward to counterattack.
But the puppet regenerated its hand with qi and unleashed a shockwave.
KWA-AAAAANG────────!!
The puppet’s energy surge—imbued with the Sun-Moon Demonic Art—was essentially the Inverse Sun-Moon Art itself.
Sword Maniac sliced apart the energy surge with the swords that had replaced his hands, then aimed straight for the puppet’s throat.
The two figures exchanged blows, cutting away at each other’s bodies.
And Seo-jun watched it all.
Holding the image of the Golden Dragon within his heart, he rapidly adapted to the new realm he had stepped into.
At the same time, he chanted the core principle of the Golden Fortune Divine Art (Hwangun Shingong).
"Limitless leads to the Supreme Ultimate (Wu Ji Er Tai Ji).
The Limitless itself is the Supreme Ultimate."
The very foundation of the Golden Fortune Divine Sword (Hwangun Shingeom).
Right now, Seo-jun could achieve Tai Ji (Supreme Ultimate).
He wasn’t sure if he had truly grasped the concept of Limitless (Wu Ji) correctly, but he did not believe it to be vastly different from Primordial Chaos (Hun Yuan).
Tai Ji and Primordial Chaos.
Inspired by this sudden realization, he activated Controlling the Blade with the Mind.
Hum—!
The Demonic Sword trembled, resonating, then soared onto Seo-jun’s shoulder.
Seo-jun’s eyes dimmed—his entire body shimmered with Primordial Chaos Energy.
Something whispered within him.
"Embrace all things."
...
Seo-jun still could not fully comprehend the principle that the Golden Fortune Divine Sword sought to convey.
Even Namgung Jincheon had never completely mastered more than two of its techniques.
Thus, Seo-jun did not cling to the sword itself.
A sword was merely a tool.
Qi was like ink, and a sword was only the brush that painted upon the world.
And so he painted.
He drew the image of the Golden Dragon upon his sword, filling its insides with Primordial Chaos.
The energy of all existence—Primordial Chaos Energy—began to slowly rotate within the Golden Dragon’s body.
It was Yin and Yang, yet not Yin nor Yang.
It was both, and at the same time, it was neither.
A pure, undivided Primordial Chaos traced the Supreme Ultimate.
A Tai Ji without clear divisions, swirling endlessly, expanding into a universe of its own.
Primordial Chaos Sun-Moon Art (Hun Yuan Ilwol Gong).
The Golden Dragon, infused with the essence of primordial chaos, roared—its dark light gleaming ominously.
At that moment, Seo-jun understood.
Limitless (Wu Ji) and Primordial Chaos (Hun Yuan) were not the same.
Limitless was the void before the beginning—
A blank canvas of infinite possibilities.
Primordial Chaos was the original form of all things—
The state before creation, where everything was fused as one.
Thus, he arbitrarily rewrote the Golden Fortune Divine Art and Golden Fortune Divine Sword.
"Primordial Chaos leads to the Supreme Ultimate (Hun Yuan Er Tai Ji)."
"Primordial Chaos itself is the Supreme Ultimate."
At the same time, the Golden Fortune Divine Art’s principles unraveled, merging into Primordial Chaos Divine Art.
A mere mortal human had reinterpreted and reshaped a divine martial art.
But Seo-jun felt nothing special.
It was only natural.
With calm, ink-dark eyes, he raised his hand.
──────────────
A Black Dragon (Muk Ryong), drawn from his will, etched a long stroke from the heavens to the earth.