The Spear King, Kang Seok, had said to treat it as a game, but there were no signs of playfulness apparent in his spirit.
The only thing that indicated that it might be a joke was his facial expression. However, every other actions besides that, meant otherwise.
Like an angry bull pointing its horns at its target, Kang Seok brought out his second spear and held the two in each hand, and a white energy emerged from their tips and flowed like a river.
Lee Sungmin immediately moved, rotating his left foot backwards and bringing his spear down in a diagonal movement to stop the energy that shot towards him.
It was to prevent the movement of the Spear King while blocking and slicing through his attack.
Wha-ding!
The first thing that Lee Sungmin’s spear came into contact and collided with was the spear held in Kang Seok’s left hand.
Lee Sungmin gritted his teeth, feeling both of his feet being pushed back while clashing with the spear.
The power of the spear held in only one hand from Kang Seok was not insufficient when in comparison to Lee Sungmin wielding the spear in both of his hands.
“Hahaha!”
With a cheerful laugh, Kang Seok extended the hand holding the other spear.
The spear in Kang Seok’s right hand extended towards Lee Sungmin’s heart. Lee Sungmin rotated the spear counterclockwise in an arc of while twisting his waist for extra momentum to counter it.
Bang!
Lee Sungmin, who rotated with the spear, churned his internal energy to match the force strained onto his body from blocking the two spears that struck at him, and moved into position to unfold his spear techniques.
Kang Seok stepped back and withdrew himself to avoid Lee Sungmin’s spear. In most circumstances, he would use two smaller spears separately, in comparison to Lee Sungmin’s sole spear.
However, watching Lee Sungmin’s spear thrust forwards, he brought his two spears together suddenly.
Click!
Along with the sound of something interlocking, the two smaller spears connected to form a bigger and single spear.
Kang Seok moved his feet to the side and rotated the spear to block Lee Sungmin’s spear. Once he quickly blocked Lee Sungmin’s spear, he hit the ground and bounced himself up into the air.
Before he fell to the ground, Kang Seok swallowed his breath back in. Lee Sungmin saw Kang Seok start to coalesce his internal energy, as Kang Seok’s spear started to shine and hundreds of stars started to form in the air. Spear King Martial Arts : Stars of Destruction ( 恆星毀滅)
The stars formed with Kang Seok’s internal energy started to explode one by one and fall towards the earth like a meteor shower aimed at Lee Sungmin.
It was as Kang Seok had said earlier.
His spear was nothing like An Zun’s hidden weapons. Kang Seok’s spearmanship was faster, stronger, and contained a higher level of technique.
Lee Sungmin dragged his feet behind him to spread his distance, rousing his internal energy to start materializing on his spear in a bright red and gold color.
Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, Fifth Move : Void Rendering (空道) Crazy Heavenly Demon’s Blood Rings Martial Arts : Blood Gale Nova ( 血風新星)
Quaqua, quaqua wha!
The spear techniques from Lee Sungmin and Kang Seok collided in the air. They had no time to gather their breaths, as the tension was extreme from the fierce collision,
First, it was Kang Seok who recollected himself and made his next move.
He pulled his spear back with both feet as he landed, and started to compress his pure white internal energy.
The spear in Kang Seok’s hands started to gather huge amounts of internal energy that started to compress itself fiercely.
Only one stab was all that occurred.
But the force in that single stab was replicating the same amount of force as the meteor shower just earlier.
Lee Sungmin prepared himself as he wound back his own spear, combining both the Dark Storm Martial Arts and Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques’ First move. Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, First move : Nine Dragon Spirits ( 九龍 ) The spear from Lee Sungmin started to shake, and a black dragon made of internal energy and lightning shot forward at Kang Seok with a fierce roar.
Whoosh!
Once again, the collision of the two techniques offset each other, and the ground shook as everything in the surroundings was swept away. Noticing this, Kang Seok immediately followed up by raising his spear and seemingly cleaving open air.
Whoosh!
However, the ground then split apart as his spear finished its movement and made a beeline towards Lee Sungmin.
‘You’re doing great, little ghost.’
Lee Sungmin disappeared within the space and reappeared behind Kang Seok through the Lightning Gale of the Dark Storm Arts.
‘Is this the martial arts of Sima Ryunju?’
Kang Seok briefly pondered as he moved his body without hesitation. Lee Sungmin, who had escaped from Kang Seok’s attack and was behind him, started to wind back his spear next to his waist without bothering to let Kang Seok initiate the next attack.
Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques Eighth move : Slaughter Spear (虐殺捕食)
The moment Lee Sungmin thrust forward with his spear, unfolding the eighth move in the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques, which covered his spear in an odd and eerie black light, Kang Seok sensed danger for the first time in the duel.
Kang Seok leaned his whole upper body backwards, bouncing back in haste.
Shwick!
The chest area of Kang Seok’s clothing and bits of his armor were ripped right off from the movement of the eighth move. Kang Seok frowned as he knew through Lee Sungmin’s movements that his arm had bent in an unnatural angle and should now be impossible to use for the rest of the fight.
The thought of Lee Sungmin being a desperate fool angered Kang Seok until he saw what happened next.
Lee Sungmin’s arm bent itself back into shape, and the torn muscle joints and tendons re-healed themselves back to normal.
Lee Sungmin’s body was not normal at all. He could use techniques that were non-human and in the realm of greater beings, by shredding and regenerating his body.
This was because Lee Sungmin had the body of a mutated human and monster.
Kang Seok frowned as Lee Sungmin started to move his arm normally once more, as if nothing were wrong with it.
‘I can’t believe it. It’s… too strange.’
Did that mean Lee Sungmin had a body that was not entirely human? The thought made Kang Seok grow wary, but also made him smile.
All it meant was that Lee Sungmin wouldn’t die easily, and that he was indeed an accomplished spearmaster.
Kang Seok grinned, as his canines were revealed, and laughed.
Click!
Once again, the spear from Kang Seok split in two as he dashed forwards at Lee Sungmin.
Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques Sixth move : Undying Spear (劍仙)
A bright red light spliced through the air and shot at Kang Seok.
Kang Seok did not avoid it, but rather faced the move head-on. Taking his two small spears in his hands, Kang Seok brushed them to the side in a sidewards motion.
Lee Sungmin grabbed the spear tightly and stepped forward.
It became dangerous at that moment.
The two spears split through space with spatial essence.
The two spears swept through the ground, sky and space itself.
Kang Seok burst into laughter as he swung his spears.
“You’re not the only capable Spearmaster HAHAHA!”
Kang Seok did not back down from the challenge. Lee Sungmin had shown two incredible spear techniques just now, so how could he not respond in full?
Kang Seok started to swing the spears in both hands in circles by twirling them faster and faster, as if he had two cyclones in his hands as he brought them up and clashed once more against the shaft of Lee Sungmin’s incredible spear.
Bang!
Lee Sungmin did not stand still during the clash and started to pump more and more internal energy from his dantian into his spear.
Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques Third move : Lightning Strike ( 분뢰추살 )
Lee Sungmin’s internal energy, which he was continuously pumping out to his limits within his spear, swelled up as a golden light started to blind the both of them, and a huge lightning bolt shot from Lee Sungmin’s spear as if to burn the entire world along with it. However, Lee Sungmin also added spatial essence into this attack, which turned it something closer to a natural disaster.
The clash between the attacks shook the space around them. The ground started to shake violently and cracked apart as it seemed like gravity had stopped functioning, and pebbles and rocks started to float around them from the ground, getting pushed deeper into the earth.
‘I’m running out of energy.’
Lee Sungmin felt it clearly. Behind his strike was the wall of endless internal energy that was known as the Spear King, who had sustained no injuries this entire time and was laughing even as the fierce clash destroyed the nature around them.
Suddenly between the bright light from Lee Sungmin’s attack, as it seemed to divide for a brief moment.
Woooooh!
The spear from Kang Seok had become one again and shot straight through at the speed of light, aimed directly for Lee Sungmin’s chest.
It was too late to escape with haste, even with his lightning gale from the Dark Storm Arts. He had not mastered the lightning gale movement to be able to pull it off so hastily in such a situation.
So…he had no choice but to try and stop it. Lee Sungmin raised his spear and brought out his internal energy around him to its limits as it started to glow in a myriad of violet, gold and red.
‘I knew it was good armor and a spear. Let’s see just how hard it is!’
It was as if Kang Seok’s eyes were speaking to Lee Sungmin like so. The spear shot out and collided with Lee Sungmin’s firm and sturdy dragon bone spear.
BANG!
The spear of Kang Seok was covered in a strong internal energy force and contained the very essence of Transcendence that allowed one to control the space around them.
Did Kang Seok intend to end it with this blow? Lee Sungmin grated his teeth and brought up his own remnants of internal energy and spatial essence.
The spear of Kang Seok that was aimed at Lee Sungmin’s chest suddenly curved in space around Lee Sungmin’s own spear he was trying to use to block.
It would not have happened if the level of Kang Seok was weaker than Lee Sungmin, as Lee Sungmin would have not allowed the space to distort the trajectory of Kang Seok’s spear
The space was torn apart, and the spear tip penetrated right through Lee Sungmin’s coating of internal energy around his armor like paper.
Whoosh!
Kang Seok’s spear was levels above An Zun’s hidden weapons. An Zun’s hidden weapons simply bounced right off of Lee Sungmin’s armor in the past like rubber, but the spear from Kang Seok shook the armor as Lee Sungmin was flung backwards.
His gut was burning from the inside as if a fireball had blown up his intestines. Lee Sungmn swallowed down the fishy taste of blood that came up his throat.
‘I’m not in the position to worry about conserving my strength……!’
Lee Sungmin realized he was in no position to hold back against Kang Seok. He had been pacing himself up until now, and had almost expended all of his internal energy that he had allowed himself to use, but realized if he didn’t take this seriously, he would die a premature death right here.
Lee Sungmin resolved himself as he stood up. He would no longer hold back anything. Even the spear techniques he had yet to try, he had to use right now. Everything was going to come out here and now. Lee Sungmin’s eyes, which were dim and black ever since stabilizing his humanity, started to glow a bright gold.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump!
Lee Sungmin started to feel his Black Heart that had transformed into something closer to a Dragon’s Heart, palpitate and expand.
It had been a long time since Lee Sungmin had felt this feeling from the Black Heart. His last time that he had experienced this surge of violent and rampant energy within his body was in the Forest of the Fairies.
He had not used this force since it was incredibly dangerous and hard to control. If he did not balance it out, he could easily lose his humanity in one fell swoop, like the time in the City of Endless Night.
The power was an identity that he did not know of. All sorts of powers or energies that he had encountered up until now did not quite match this odd energy.
Suddenly, Lee Sungmin felt odd as if he were looking at himself from third person. His muscles felt intuitively different, it was as if there were no bones or blood vessels in his body.
Lee Sungmin was not the only one who noticed the sudden, yet ominous change. Kang Seok immediately backed off with his eyes narrowed.
He stared at Lee Sungmin as if trying to understand what had just happened.
“….Huuu….. hahhhhh…”
Lee Sungmin immediately started to circulate his breathing technique. This energy was something that would mess up his entire balance if he did not try to control himself here. His entire body started to emit a villainous and dreary energy that seemed to scream ‘murder!’.
However, merely because Lee Sungmin knew this power was terrifying in terms of presence, it did not justify Kang Seok’s actions whatsoever.
Kang Seok felt something closer to watching himself die thousands of times over in that single moment.
It was only a brief second, but Kang Seok had witnessed himself brutally killed in thousands of different ways and swallowed his breath from the sudden vision of incalculable death.
Kang Seok was an unusual character though. He immediately started to reveal his canines in a toothy grin and laughed. He didn’t know what Lee Sungmin had done just now, but it wasn’t as if this was a great chance to see just what else this man, known as the Ghost Spear, had.
Kang Seok laughed out loud as he prepared his stance for Lee Sungmin’s advance.
[Keep a firm grip on your mind.]
Heoju warned Lee Sungmin at that moment. It had been a power that was not controllable for a long period of time. It had unconsciously come out, as Lee Sungmin had once mistaken it for a different energy when he sealed his internal circuits while practicing with the masks in the Forest of Fairies.
Originally Lee Sungmin only had one foreign power in his body, which was the power borrowed from Heoju’s soul.
Until now, Heoju’s power had been the only power he had to make sure he kept in check. But now, even Heoju knew that this power was not from his soul, but from a foreign entity of sorts.
The total amount of power borrowed was even greater than Heoju’s borrowed power.
Heoju clicked his tongue as he felt this overwhelming power surround Lee Sungmin and draw upon his own energy.
Heoju knew the rough identity of this power. It was something that had caused him, the Great Yokai, to know fear for the first time. He would never forget what he saw inside Lee Sungmin’s mental world that day in the City of Endless Night. Heoju expected the mysterious being to show up inside Lee Sungmin’s consciousness right now, and was waiting for it, but it was nowhere to be seen.
‘Who the hell is he?’
Although Heoju had traveled with Lee Sungmin for quite some time now and had even become rather fond of him, he still did not know the true identity of Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin’s eyes flashed a bright gold as he started to wind back his spear, circulating the violent internal energy into his spear and compressing his muscles that were closer to a monster’s.
He swung the spear diagonally.When Lee Sungmin had swung the spear, the space shook and the ground tore up. The very space itself reverberated and hit Kang Seok.
Kang Seok did not avoid the blow and swung his own spear that was coated in large amounts of spatial essence.
Drawing upon this foreign power did not make Lee Sungmin weaker or stronger than Kang Seok at that moment.
Although the gap between the two was filled, the power Lee Sungmin was borrowing had its own limitations. Plus, Kang Seok had fought many other Transcendents up until now and did not falter despite the unusual and unidentified power from Lee Sungmin.
Kang Seok jumped up into the sky and brought his spear down in a cleaving motion at Lee Sungmin.
Lee Sungmin followed the movement of the spear with his eyes and brought his spear up to knock away the blow.
Ka-Boom!
Kang Seok fell back to the ground when Lee Sungmin blocked the blow, and disconnected his spear in two once more, and made a cross-like motion with them, firing them at Lee Sungmin.Lee Sungmin stayed calm and rotated his feet and waist in synchronization slowly. His spear started to bring up a strong current of electricity and wind behind it and met Kang Seok’s strike head-on.
With a dull sound, the spear of Kang Seok was pushed back.
Kang Seok immediately reconnected the two once more, and brought his spear towards Lee Sungmin in a snake like motion, relentlessly keeping up an offensive,
Bam!
The two spears collided once more, and the ground shook. This time, Lee Sungmin’s muscles were growing stronger by the second, and actually became the one to push Kang Seok back this time.
Kang Seok quickly admitted that he was losing in a contest of strength and internal energy as time was progressing. He separated his spear in two again, and Lee Sungmin did not hesitate to fire his spear in that gap of a moment.
Quaqua, quaqua wha!
In an instant, the Blood Ring Techniques surrounded Lee Sungmin’s spear as the bloody energy shot forth and hit the Spear King head-on.
The space between the two was filled with dozens of bloody circles of internal energy that flew at Kang Seok.
But Kang Seok didn’t feel a bit afraid. Rather, he enjoyed the constant threat of attacks that could threaten his life. He felt as if all his blood cells and nerves were stimulated, and could feel every inch of his body fighting with his spear, befitting his name as the Spear King.
Kang Seok started to swirl his spear like a baton and created a whirlwind to face the onslaught of bloody rings attacking him. None of the rings were able to penetrate through Kang Seok’s defense.
The power Kang Seok had access to right now was less than that of Lee Sungmin. But both of them knew, the sole difference that could decide this fight was based on spearmanship alone.
After the series of blood rings that struck Kang Seok’s spear, Lee Sungmin jumped back.
The spear in his hand started to spin.
The power of Heoju’s soul, the Draconic Energy, and his own internal energy from his dantian started to coalesce into Lee Sungmin’s spear.
He started to unfold all the techniques he knew, into one strike. The power of the Nine Heavenly Spear Techniques was the framework, and the Dark Storm Arts, as well as the Blood Rings Martial Arts, were the fuel.
“Hahaha!”
Kang Seok laughed out loud and spread his arms wide as if he were enjoying every moment of it. The bright green and golden energy of Lee Sungmin shone as if to cover the entire world, and Kang Seok but smiled and raised his spear.
Head on.Kang Seok was not going to avoid it. He was going to just face it as it was, like always.