Lee Sungmin knew he should not treat Wijihoyeon any less dangerous for taking the cape of the Black Dragon off her back. For Wijihoyeon, the cape of the Black Dragon was both a weapon used for offensive maneuvers, but also a flawless defense.
However, the best weapon for Wijihoyeon was none other than her own body.
The spear shot out silently with a thrust. Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, 3rd move : Lightning Strike (분뢰추살)
The Third move in the Nine Heavenly Spear techniques : Lightning Strike, was the fastest move that shot forth in a steady line with a compression and rebound of Lee Sungmin’s internal energy. After he fired it he was worried if he should be using such a move against Wijihoyeon.
However, Wijihoyeon knew everything there was to the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques and the specific details of all 9 moves.
Knowing all the moves and techniques of the opponent was incredibly advantageous for one in a fight against a master.
Lee Sungmin knew it would not be enough so he decided to mix in another technique with the ragingly fast thrust of the spear. Blood Rings Martial Arts, 6th move : Blood River Predation (혈류추살)
Mixing into the air and forming shooting out several beams of blood, the spear covered in a golden layer in Lee Sungmin’s internal energy shot forth with the Blood Ring Martial Arts of the Crazy Heavenly Demon.
Seeing this, Wijihoyeon’s eyes started to shake
It was neither the one thunder movement technique nor was it a simple move from the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques. Lee Sungmin had mastered more than 2 or 3 martial arts it seemed to her.
‘Yes, those two martial arts can’t be everything for him to reach where he’s currently at.’
The movement technique that she had only seen two steps of, had completely dispersed her Great Heavenly Demon Martial Arts, and his Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques was mixed with something similar to her own Heavenly Demon martial arts, but was oddly different at the same time.
The Amethyst Cloud Technique, One Thunder Technique and Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques could never be the only things Lee Sungmin would wish to learn. She realized she could not treat him lightly with this.
Wijihoyeon’s hand moved.
Brrrrring!
She lowered her posture and opened her palms at the incoming bloody beams of energy and coalesced her internal energy around her, dispersing the attacks.
Whoo!
Wijihoyeon’s body then suddenly accelerated. She came close to Lee Sungmin and kicked off the ground. Wijihoyeon, who had charged in low, twisted her body into the air and swung her legs.
Instead of swinging the spear, Lee Seongmin stepped on the ground and unveiled the 3rd move of the Shadowless movement techniques. Shadowless movement technique, 3rd move : Two-step Calamitous End (灾害)
Lee Sungmin’s body which Wijihoyeon then kicked towards, turned into an afterimage. However, more and more blurry images of Lee Sungmin flew around the space, until all of them disappeared and he reappeared behind her back.
It was an excellent technique. However, it was not an interdimensional space movement like blink just because of the origin of the power being internal qi and not mana.
It was just a quick movement, distorting the image to create an afterimage, and moving behind the opponent’s back through the surroundings to avoid being seen.
Wijihoyeon was not fooled as long as she knew where he was. She turned her hips and thrust her leg back behind her over the spear of Lee Sungmin which was also shooting towards her.
Wijihoyeon’s wide open palms unveiled yet another technique front the Great Heavenly Demon martial arts. Great Heavenly Demon’s martial arts : Heavenly Destruction ( 天災)
Although it was a series of small beams of energy, they were compressed into a ball within her palm and were destructive enough to kill someone on the spot when compressed like so.
Lee Sungmin and Wijihoyeon. They were making dangerous attacks over and over again. However, there was no hesitation in these fierce attacks.
They were trusting each other. It was a level of trust where each believed in the level of achievement reached by each other.
Lee Sungmin only grabbed the spear with his left hand. The spear had already shot out, and was slow to retrieve. Lee Sungmin’s right hand was winding back with the power of the Blood Ring Martial Arts techniques.
Blood Ring Martial Art techniques, 4th move : Blood Mist Explosion (血霧)
The strong force fired head-on and collided with Wijihoyeon’s Heavenly Destruction.(T/N : and rasengan!… I know I just had to.)
Sparks and bright colors from the collision, flew out everywhere. Lee Sungmin, who fell to the ground, rolled and then ran forward without hesitation.
Lee Sungmin unfolded the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques in earnest a fierce scarlet and purple aura wrapped around his spear. Lee Sungmin shot forward the spear so fast that all that could be seen with this move was just a red line in space. Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, 7th move : Fate Severing(武神)
Wijihoyeon did not panic at the monstrous strength behind this move. She stretched her hand forwards and focused her internal energy at the center of her palm.
Pababak!
The hand and the spear collided fiercely. Wijihoyeon kicked the ground fiercely at the intense pressure that felt like multiple spear thrusts in one as Lee Sungmin continued to walk forward.
A large portion of the blood mist that had dispersed immersed itself around Lee Sungmin’s spear and ignited with the yokai powers within himself.
A large purple and red flame surged forwards and hit Wijihoyeon. Wijihoyeon stepped back and brought her hands together.
A black sphere was created between the two palms facing each other. The slow and yet compressed dark ball within her hands met with the bloody flame.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Yet another bright and flashy explosion surged forth as the winds blew fiercely within the mental world.
Lee Sungmin stretched out his spear as he watched the strong storm of blood and flame collide against Wijihoyeon’s technique.
The space around the spear started to flutter. The Undying Spear, yet another one of the strongest techniques that were nigh impossible to gather the required strength to pull off, was unfolded from the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques. Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, 6th move : Undying Spear(劍仙)
The Undying Spear. The Sixth moved in the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, gathered an immense pressure around Lee Sungmin’s spear forming a vortex. The transcendent spatial essence cracked and distorted around his speartip. Bang.
A huge hole was made in the storm of blood and flames that Wijihoyeon was entrapped within.
Lee Sungmin ran the course relentlessly.
Wijihoyeon raised her hands while looking at Lee Sungmin coming through the hole with a frightening force surrounding itself around his spear.
A bright red and black aura of internal energy swirled around Wijihoyeon.
She was shocked since the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques were her own martial arts mixed with the spear. She was not confident of even trying to replicate Lee Sungmin’s mastery over the art along with combining the other martial arts he had mastered in synchronization.
‘You.’
Pababak!
Wijihoyeon’s red and black internal energy that was swirling around her shot out all of the strands and tendrils making up the technique into a single point in order to counteract the incoming spear from Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin did not fall behind in his speed with the spear, and continued to pierce through the colorfully mixed internal energies that threatened instability around the two of them.
‘You’ve become stronger.’
Wijiyeon walked forward without backing away.
She was smiling. She knew that Lee Sungmin had set her as his target. She had made sure of the fact that he would not waste his second life rotting away.
That day in Genavis when she utterly crushed him in less than 20 seconds. Could she even compare that sort of thing to what was going on now? She was currently at the same level of Lee Sungmin…
No, maybe he was a little ahead of her.
‘I don’t feel good.’
But it was fun. The fact that she was fighting with Lee Sungmin, her first and only friend in her entire life, he was standing exchanging moves with her with a smile etched across his face though he probably didn’t even realize it. But she had that same silly smile as well.
Whoo-
The strong energy that had been protecting and surrounding Wijihoyeon started to subside and started to leave her defenses to pour all of her power out.
Wijihoyeon’s eyes flashed and shone brightly with determination.
She didn’t want to lose.
She felt that even though it was fun, she truly did not want to lose. Her pride would not allow it.
She wanted to win. She had to win. That way, she could continue to be in Lee Sungmin’s eyes. She wanted to still be having him look at her with his eyes set on her and on nobody else.
She wanted to keep walking in front and look back to Lee Sungmin who would follow behind her.
She didn’t want to fall behind.
Wijihoyeon’s offensive had then changed.
It was similar to the previous attack where she had compressed her internal energy into a ball to block the spear, yet different.
The first thing that Lee Sungmin noticed was her speed increasing.
Her speed started to accelerate faster and faster, to the point where even his intuitive sixth sense could not keep up with her movements.
Lee Sungmin forcibly twisted and twirled the spear around him in a circle to protect himself.
Bang!
A heavy blow shook the spear violently. His arms holding the spear were pushed back and trembled slightly.
[This is going beyond the level of a spar.]
There was a murmur from Heoju.He was only fighting against Wijihoyeon earlier with his pure martial art techniques and internal energy.
But this was becoming too much.‘Haste. Strengthen.’Lee Sungmin’s lips fluttered lightly as his body became lighter and sturdier threefold.
Lee Sungmin had long benefitted from these basic and simple auxiliary spells from Scarlett at his time on the Mountain of Mush.
Although the rate of his internal energy being circulated did not increase, these basic spells had boosted him significantly to a higher level against equal opponents.
Wijihoyeon was surprised when she saw that Lee Sungmin’s movement, which could not previously keep up with her speed, changed drastically.
This was because she didn’t think he would be hiding this much power.
Yes, it was supposed to just be a spar. But neither of them were backing down since neither of them actually wanted to lose. They were both teetering at the same level of martial arts and internal energy until Wijihoyeon increased the stakes.
‘But at this rate…no’
Wijihoyeon was shocked. Lee Sungmin’s power did not stop at just the addition of the strengthening and haste spells.
Lee Sungmin boosted his momentum. He started to circulate his breathing through the suppression technique he learned from the village in the south. A deep and monstrous force started to emerge from Lee Sungmin that was characteristically different from any of the previous battles he had faced prior.
Ba-dump… Ba-dump A heartbeat that was palpitating with a shallow rhythm, started to beat fiercely within Lee Sungmin’s body and the Black Heart started to churn and accelerate it’s pulse to keep up with Lee Sungmin’s body which started to transform.
A cracking noise and snaps from within Lee Sungmin’s body could be heard. His muscles started to become larger and then compressed downwards increasing his strength severalfold.But then it emerged. His hair started to emit a red tinted hue from his hair and nails.
A bloody crimson light started to shine from both of Lee Sungmin’s gold-colored eyes. The power of Dragon Fear that had once pressed down on Guan Zun in the beginning of their fight had emerged several times stronger than before and emitted a shocking aura amidst the entire space in the mental world.
‘Ah.’
From Lee Sungmin, Wijihoyeon felt something completely change within him. It wasn’t Lee Sungmin, but it also wasn’t not him. It was… something entirely different.
Wijihoyeon felt her skin crawl as goosebumps tickled her neck. It seemed as if a vicious monster was standing in front of her with it’s jaws wide open ready to feast.
“Hoho!”
It wasn’t just Wijihoyeon who reacted. Sima Ryunju, who was watching the fight from afar, had his eyes sparkle with wonder.
Oslo, which was floating near Sima Ryunju, also had her eyes widen in shock and wonder.
“Is he a dragon and not a human being?””
asked Oslo. At the words, Sima Ryunju shook his head with a smile. Oslo could have easily misunderstood the situation like that.
“Or is he a crossbreed of a dragon and human?”
“I don’t think so.”
“That man. He used buff magic too.”
“It’s not hard to learn basic buffing spells like that. Auxiliary skills are easy to learn as long as they are passed down and taught by a somewhat skilled Wizard.”
“Huh…… but I still don’t understand. How can a human being use Dragon Fear?”
The skill known as Dragon Fear was the substance of the arrogance and power belonging to the race of Dragons.
Dragons, which were known as the once-apex of all species, could exert an intense pressure on all beings below themselves in the ecosystem.
Although it was not something complete and more instinctual than anything, Lee Sungmin was now pouring out the full power of Dragon Fear, unrestrained, in the entire mental world. The fact that Lee Sungmin who held on to his humanity dearly, while also having the innate power of a dragon, magic, martial arts, and even transcended human limits as well as the body of a mutated monster, was ironic.
“Dragon Fear, a mutated body, magic and even his transcendental martial arts.”
Sima Ryunju laughed in vain.
“It’s amazing that his body hasn’t already collapsed from such a mess of things mixed together.”
“That’s why I asked you. Are you sure he’s a human?”
“He is a human.”
“Hm….”
Oslo’s eyes narrowed with suspicion. Sima Ryunju glanced at Oslo whose eyes were focusing on Lee Sungmin in earnest.
“Are you interested in him?”
“I’ve never seen such a…being before. And besides everything you mentioned… there feels like there’s something… more. Something hidden deep inside of him.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?”
“There’s something in him.. It’s hard to describe.. But…. it’s very, very ominous. That’s all I can say about it really.”
Oslo murmured. Even as the Queen of Fairies, she couldn’t figure out what this odd and disturbing feeling she felt from Lee Sungmin was, so she had to resort to using vague terms.
It was only for a moment.
Wijihoyeon, whose body tensed up from the Dragon Fear, shook it off by taking a deep breath.
Immediately, she jumped at Lee Sungmin once again. Lee Sungmin’s golden irises moved, tracking her movements.
Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
When Lee Sungmin swung the spear, the air tore apart and made a loud noise. Wijihoyeon who was moving around him at high speed looking for an opening, widened her eyes in surprise.
BOOM!
Wijihoyeon’s body flew backwards.
She looked surprised at the power that was displayed by Lee Sungmin just now. It was far beyond her imagination.
However, she balanced her flying body and turned around in the air. She balanced herself using the Heavenly Demon’s movement techniques, mid-air.
‘His power has changed… What the hell happened?’
She was suspicious. There was no way he had really been hiding this much power, had he? It must have been something odd.
Goooooo-
Wijihoyeon let her internal energy re-materialize around her into a black and murky fog. She looked at Lee Sungmin with serious eyes.
If she faced him with a clumsy attitude after raising the stakes like she just did, she won’t be able to fight back and take the loss.
She hated this feeling—She didn’t want to be defeated. Wijihoyeon, who was floating in the air with her movement technique, dispersed it and landed softly on the ground.
It was the first time she had seen such a frightening side to Lee Sungmin. But her instincts warned her. Lee Sungmin fired a spear wrapped in his energy and monstrous strength at Wijihoyeon.
The huge force hit Wijihoyeon head on. Wijihoyeon, wrapped in the black mist of her energy, faced the brunt of the force with her left hand reaching out.
The fog that was winding around her body turned into a flower. Small clots of the energy clumped together and intertwined into buds, and then went into full bloom. The petals of the mysteriously black flower, fluttered.
The attack launched by Lee Sungmin only crushed a few flowers created by Wijhoyeon’s gesture, but failed to advance further.
“For a year.”
Wijihoyeon opened her mouth.
“I was cursed and couldn’t move my body, but I didn’t just play around. I meditated, and I thought. ‘How can I become stronger?’”
This martial art she was using right now was incomplete.
“You’re the first one to see this technique.”
Wijihoyeon smiled.
“You’ll be my first time again.”
The black flowers bloomed and danced lightly in the violent surroundings.
Wijihoyeon, in the midst of the lightly fluttering black petals with her hair swaying lightly, was more beautiful in that moment, than anybody Lee Sungmin had ever laid his eyes on.
Her physical beauty was not everything that made the picture though for him. The flowers. The flowers were indeed painting such a picture in more ways than one, they were the symbol of her resolve, her decisions, and her faith.
Lee Sungmin had encountered numerous martial art techniques until now, but he had never seen such a well-coordinated and beautiful technique.
The space was starting to shake. The flowers of the dark flower created by Wijihoyeon were gradually expanding their scope.
When she fought with Sima Ryunju, Wijihoyeon did not use this technique.
Maybe she didn’t have time to use it, Sima Ryunju thought. No, it must have been incomplete. She must have not been able to use it.
‘Well a genius, is indeed a genius.’
Sima Ryunju smirked. Did the defeat at that time give her inspiration?
‘That’s why I hate geniuses.’
It wasn’t fun for him to raise such people and watch them grow without much deliberation.
Sima Ryunju revised his assessment of Wijihoyeon. She would last a little longer than 10 seconds with that martial art. It looked like a strong craft, but it also contained the essence of enlightenment that had reached the Realm of Transcendence.
It interferes with space and planted buds that would bloom into flowers distorting all attacks from the several points of spatial essence.
[It’s an interesting trick.]
Heoju laughed his head off.
Wijihoyeon was approaching them.