When Lee Sungmin saw Tang Ah-Hui get up and approach her window, Lee Sungmin was hiding in the darkness of another connected room nearby.
While continuing to watch Tang Ah-Hui’s actions and observing her quietly, he immediately moved as soon as he saw her leave her room after approaching the window.
He jumped out of the room and house, as he shot forwards at An Zun and Tang Ah-Hui who were standing by the tree.
‘An Zun.’
Upon confirmation that it was indeed An Zun, Lee Sungmin sped up his movements and immediately created a slipstream through the space as he kicked the ground with purple and black lightning covering his feet with the Dark Storm Arts.
An Zun’s eyebrows wriggled when he sensed the vicious and ominous energy rushing towards him. It’s not that An Zun was unable to detect Lee Sungmin once he started moving, but Lee Sungmin was too quick for him to react.
The worst part about all this, was that An Zun immediately recognized the technique Lee Sungmin was using and started to have a cold sweat trickle down the back on his neck.
He knew what that technique was. It was the technique that Sima Ryunju used. He knew that he had no chance of escaping as long as Lee Sungmin was able to use that technique properly.
“Hup-!”
The face of An Zun distorted. He immediately swung his robe sleeves and shot a dagger at a purple current of electricity that was approaching him at a rapid pace.
An Zun’s hidden weapons were no longer even remotely a threat to Lee Sungmin.
Fababak!
Lee Sungmin swung his spear half a turn and stopped the flying dagger.
He quickly stepped through the slipstream of space once more as he quickly narrowed the distance to An Zun.
An Zun was flustered by Lee Sungmin, who suddenly approached him once more, but he waved his hands in front of his granddaughter, Tang Ah-Hui, in order to protect her. Dozens of thin steel wires as thin as hair were fired out from his sleeves.
In the past, Lee Sungmin couldn’t keep track of his movements, and it was impossible for him back then, to stop An Zun’s momentum. Right now, it seemed to be like An Zun was in Lee Sungmin’s position this time.
Lee Sungmin’s spear, made from Dragon Bones, was wrapped in Lee Sungmin’s purple internal energy and swung down on the steel wires. The steel wires that initially could hold back even some of the strongest Transcendent martial artists head-on attacks was cut like paper.
An Zun was surprised by Lee Sungmin’s skills, but he swung his hands one after another. Each time he swung his hand, various hidden weapons flew out.
‘Who is this man?’
An Zun could not identify Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin was wearing clothes that were completely different from the last time they fought; on top of wearing a skin mask.
In addition, Lee Sungmin’s once unstable borrowed yokai power was now stabilized completely and in harmony with his vast and deep internal energy reserves.
‘This is……’
But An Zun was starting to realize his identity. The person attacking him happened to use a spear. Not only that, but that explosive power that erupted with every swing from his fluid techniques. There was only one person that it could possibly be.
An Zun’s facial expression slowly started to stiffen up as he realized who it was. There was no way he could not know.
It was 100 years ago when An Zun had faced a person that used the same technique as Lee Sungmin. Lee Sungmin’s master, Sima Ryunju, and humiliatingly defeated An Zun, and played with him as if he were a rag doll.
Although it was clear this was not Sima Ryunju, that monster-like strength was not far apart from Sima Ryunju’s. The speed, the unpredictability, and the explosive power behind each blow were the strongest points of the Dark Storm Arts.
That day, An Zun had tried his best to forget about, but there was no way he wouldn’t know what the Dark Storm Arts were.
“No way…… the martial arts of the Demonic Emperor?”
Anxiety sprang up in An Zun’s heart as he watched the current of electricity flow around Lee Sungmin’s body. To the best of An Zun’s knowledge, there were only two people in the world who used such a technique.
Sima Ryunju, the Demonic Emperor, and his successor, the Ghost Spear.
“……you are… the Ghost Spear?”
“Yes.”
Lee Sungmin nodded at An Zun’s murmur. He didn’t even need to take off his skin mask for An Zun to recognize who he was.
Lee Sungmin would not give An Zun any more time though. He only had a certain window of opportunity before things got hectic, so he wanted to speed things up and kill An Zun before then.
Tang Ah-Hui, who was behind An Zun’s back, was frightened by Lee Sungmin’s sudden appearance and attack on her grandfather.
She was not a fool either, so she discovered the identity of Lee Sungmin rather quickly due to the purple and black current of electricity flowing around his body.
“It’s him!”
Tang Ah-Hui shouted.
“Grandfather! Please subdue him for me! That’s my request!”
She didn’t know why Lee Sungmin had shown up so suddenly and had even attacked her grandfather on the spot, but it was a rather favorable situation at this point.
She was already starting to gloat about capturing Lee Sungmin, since there was no way in her eyes that her grandfather would lose to someone like Lee Sungmin.
An Zun’s facial expression was not good. He was already understanding how this situation had come to fruition.
Every birthday, he would come and give presents to Tang Ah-Hui, his granddaughter. The only people who knew of this arrangement were the two mentioned.
Nobody, even those within Beyond the Heavens, knew about An Zun’s little outing he would take once a year.
‘You told him……!’
There was no way this was some coincidence. Lee Sungmin had to have been waiting for him beforehand!
An Zun bit his lower lip to suppress the surging anger that was sprouting up within himself that was directed at his idiotic granddaughter, who seemed to believe that An Zun could possibly deal with this man in front of them.
He hadn’t been a part of the Tang Family for a long time. If it weren’t for his direct descendants that were still alive, Tang Mugi, or An Zun, would have cut all ties with them.
Currrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
The violet internal energy surrounding Lee Sungmin’s body started to swell. The purple energy started to swirl around him violently and black lightning was crackling within it. It was as if Lee Sungmin were a walking natural disaster at that point.
An Zun clenched his teeth. He knew that Lee Sungmin had killed Guan Zun.
If you fought head-on with Lee Sungmin, he would never win. That young man, he had once toyed with a few years back, was now a beast that could tear him apart at any time.
‘I have to run away… No, what about that kid? What should I do?’
An Zun hated the Tang Family, but he could not easily let go of his attachments to his direct descendants like his granddaughter. It hurt, but he wanted to let her have a chance to live.
“Run away!”
An Zun roared at Tang Ah-hui. He decided that he cared too much for his granddaughter and thought of what he could do in this situation right now to escape or fight back.
“Wake up the whole family right this instant! You need to get out of here right now!”
“G-Grandfather?”
“GO!”
An Zun roused his internal energy to its limits as he shouted, showing Tang Ah-Hui exactly how serious he was being right now.
Cooooooo!
The black internal energy of An Zun, started to emanate from his body in a gaseous form, enabling him to start moving around. He knew his daggers would have no effect on Lee Sungmin whatsoever.
‘If that’s the case..’
An Zun ran his fingers across his belt. Running his fingertips on the weapons on it, he finally stopped when he found a sword.
Hidden weapons were not only about throwing poisoned daggers and darts.
An Zun mastered all kinds of weapons that could help him improve his stealthy martial art techniques.
Fababak!
An Zun quickly drew the sword out from his belt and thrust it forward. The sword twisted mid-air and bent like a snake towards Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin dug his foot into the ground and read the movements of the sword, as he approached An Zun without hesitation.
BOOM!
Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques 5th move : Void Rendering (空道) Lee Sungmin’s spear rotated sharply and clashed with the sword head-on. With an explosive sound of Lee Sungmin’s spear, An Zun’s sword shattered on impact. An Zun’s eyes widened, and he shouted once more at Tang Ah-Hui.
“Run away!”
Tang Ah-Hui was still hesitating on what to do.
An Zun’s hair started to extend suddenly down to his feet as his internal energy raised itself to its maximum capacity.
Lee Sungmin was sure…. An Zun was about to display the power he had not used against him in Rubes.
The hideous appearance of An Zun and the violent energy surround him scared Tang Ah-Hui.
“Don’t make me kill you!”
“AHHHHH!”
Tang Ah-Hui screamed at An Zun’s shout that woke her up immediately from her delusions. She peed right there, on the spot.
Tang Ah-Hui covered her wet crotch with her hands and hit the ground to run away.
An Zun saw Tang Ah-Hui finally retreating without hesitation.
An Zun told her to grab the whole family and run away right now. However, he was praying that she didn’t misinterpret it to go and bring them here to their deaths.
After confirming that Tang Ah-Hui had left, An Zun jumped at Lee Sungmin.
An Zun was not the most diligent person when it came to using poison on his weapons. However, that did not mean he was not proficient in dealing with it. He merely did not like having to use poison often, which felt like a dirty thing to use in duels.
However, this was no duel. This was life or death for him right now, and he needed to pull out all the tricks he had.
A small bead rolled down An Zun’s right sleeve. It was a hidden weapon he had made that, when thrown, released poisons that had been stored inside of it, through the holes on the bead.
An Zun had already mastered a poison body, so there was no need to hesitate in using his poisons now.
Poochuck!
The black bead shot out from his hands and flew at Lee Sungmin.
But An Zun, unfortunately, had made a grave mistake without even knowing it.
Lee Sungmin’s movements did not slow down at all, even though the poison had started to spread everywhere.
Transcendent warriors typically had resistance to some poisons, but the poisons An Zun had worked with, were poisons that could kill other Transcendent martial artists.
Nevertheless, he was deeply flustered when he saw Lee Sungmin continue to charge at him with no changes to his movements or facial expression whatsoever.
[He doesn’t seem to know you have a poison body.]
Heoju chuckled and laughed . An Zun took his hands and raised them up to his mouth. As if he were blowing a balloon, An Zun blew out darts and a large cloud of poison.
Lee Sungmin, who had completed a poison body thanks to Heoju’s ridiculous elixirs and ginsengs, did not feel anything when coming into contact with An Zun’s poison.
Thanks to the Dragon materials that were used when forging his new armor and spear, they would not possibly melt due to the acidic poisons within the cloud.
When Lee Sungmin rushed right through the poison cloud unaffected, An Zun’s eyes shook. In many ways, Lee Sungmin was a terrible matchup for An Zun.
His hidden weapons and poisons were quick and stealthy but lacked decisive power, whereas Lee Sungmin’s vast reserves of internal energy and new armor rendered his hidden weapons practically useless.
Not only that, but swift and neat movements were absolutely necessary when dealing with hidden weapons in order to always keep the element of surprise. However, Lee Sungmin completely outsped An Zun in every movement due to the Dark Storm Arts.
And there was no need to even speak about how the poison didn’t even affect Lee Sungmin. He was the worst possible matchup An Zun had ever faced.
None of the other 6 Divinities would be able to overwhelm An Zun in all categories like Lee Sungmin was doing right now.
That didn’t mean An Zun was a straightforward opponent though. Gritting his teeth, An Zun moved.
An Zun started to unfold a footwork technique, as he completely disappeared, completely erasing all traces of him and left an afterimage.
Lee Sungmin noticed this and smirked. If An Zun had confidence in his footwork techniques, then so did Lee Sungmin.
Shadowless Footwork Techniques 1st move : Spirit-stealing steps (偷灵)
Crrrrrrrrrckle~
Purple lightning started to erupt around Lee Sungmin as the ground started to tremor as his internal energy created a vortex that spread wide and attacked all the afterimages left behind by An Zun.
The Shadowless footwork techniques, which had been improved by Sima Ryunju by implementing parts of the Dark Storm Arts, could create a natural disaster simply by walking.
“…uck!”
An Zun immediately coughed up blood as he collided head on with the storm of internal energy and lightning produced by Lee Sungmin.
Even though An Zun was wearing very impressive armor and had extremely deep internal energy reserves to produce a strong barrier, he was hit square in the chest by the surge of purple energy and felt like his intestines were burning.
An Zun’s face contorted, and he moved his hands quickly.
A small awl the size of his palm slid down his sleeve.
Whoosh-
The awl shot out from An Zun’s fingertips and was coated with layers of poison on its blade. An Zun knew that poison in the atmosphere would not directly affect Lee Sungmin at this point, but by cutting bare skin with it, it would surely start to leave a mark. Not only that, but he was going to use the powers of a Transcendent which could manipulate spatial essence.
An Zun’s eyes fiercely glared at Lee Sungmin as the awl’s movements suddenly vanished into space.
Shuwak!
The space in which the awl was last seen was ripped apart and the awl traveled through it. In another location, the awl shot out from the space in an unpredictable movement.
This was truly a hidden attack. Lee Sungmin had no choice but to be surprised and caught off guard at that moment.
He quickly twisted his body, trying to avoid the awl that had flown right behind his back.
‘I’m late.’
Lee Sungmin knew it instinctively. He could not avoid this one. It would not be a fatal wound, but it would still hit him.
Even with a poison body, if he got cut by the awl, he would surely get afflicted deeply with the poison on the awl’s blade.
Clang.
“……what?”
There was a strange sound that rang out that both An Zun and Lee Sungmin, did not expect to be heard.
Lee Sungmin was confused and hardened his expression as he looked at where the awl had collided on his body.
It was supposed to hit his left shoulder… but it didn’t.
As soon as the awl hit Lee Sungmin’s shoulder, the awl blade had been crushed and turned blunt. Lee Sungmin and An Zun fell speechless and did not move a muscle as they stared at each other with confused expressions.
[Your armor is very firm Hahaha!]
Heoju chuckled in a jovial voice, as even he did not expect this to happen.
The fatal hidden weapon that had been coated in both poison and spatial essence had flown out and made direct contact with Lee Sungmin’s armor.
Lee Sungmin was unable to avoid it, but it seemed there was no need to.
Although his layer of internal energy around his body had just slightly weakened the impact, it still should have been a fatal wound.
Yet, the smelted armor, made from scales and bones of a Dragon corpse, were forged by two Master Blacksmiths and had created an armor that went above and beyond the durability of even a regular Dragon’s bones thanks to the crafting.
“What kind of armor….”
An Zun was speechless and shocked, seeing that his weapon, which had been coated with spatial essence and was thrown with the strength of a Transcendent martial artist, was blocked with mere armor.
It hadn’t even left a scratch. Surely there should have been at least a dent if it was high quality armor, but not even a scratch? An Zun’s eyes shook as panic started to overtake his thought process.
“……hmm.”
Lee Sungmin muttered while studying at the now, blunt awl laying on the floor.
“I shouldn’t have avoided it and just kept moving I guess.”
After muttering to himself, Lee Sungmin’s gaze shifted back up at An Zun, and he kicked the ground, rushing straight at him.