BANG!
The sky and earth were covered with an odd light as Musin roared.
Even though it was not directed at him, Lee Sungmin felt a certain death if he was the target. Musin’s bloodlust was too fearsome for humans to withstand.
He stepped back in surprise.
Whoo!
The sound of an explosion roared out as it destroyed the space. There was no sort of collision between Sima Ryunju or Musin, but the pressure itself started to destroy the space around them and cause cracks in it, looking like broken glass.
The earthen rock cracked and bits of debris lifted up into the air as gravity fluctuated. The pressure destroyed the debris into pure grains of sand and the violent winds whipped around causing a sandstorm.
In the middle of it stood Sima Ryunju. With black lightning wrapping around his body, he looked like the true definition of a Heavenly Demon, despite not being named as one, and not a human being.
Lee Sungmin’s eyes darted around but he could not find Musin anywhere.
Sima Ryunju was able to see the movement of the Martial God, Musin. No, it would be more accurate to say he felt it. Musin was running through the fragments of the shattered space.
Fragments of the smashed space, unrecognizable to any human whatsoever, were his stepping stones of his movements.
It was nigh-impossible to track the movements of Musin as he moved through shattered space.
An Zun’s movement techniques that were incredibly difficult to track, were actually sourced from Musin. Musin was the Martial God for a reason.
Sima Ryunju’s presence started to expand ferociously.
At that moment, Musin jumped again.
The flood of power that contained the power to collapse even the mightiest of mountains in a single strike, gathered into a single point.
The hand of Musin, who was carrying this immense power, was released. The wide sleeves fluttered loudly in the fierce winds. The hand that carried this immense power, shot out violently but flexibly like a whip.
Whoo!
Power spread all over the place in a frightening manner.
Neither of them was being pushed out. There was a blue light surrounding the shoulders of Musin.
Poof poof!
The burst of power hit Sima Ryunju in full weight.
Sima Ryunju raised his left hand. Black lightning swirled around it violently and tore up the space even further like it was paper.
The lightning around Sima Ryunju’s arm burst out while the image of his hand blurred like a mirage. The blue ball of light from Musin’s hand and the black lightning collided.
A few seconds of discussion was like a greeting to an acquaintance he met for the first time in hundreds of years. If only this alone could determine each other’s level and know who has the upper hand, each of them would have been disappointed.
But neither of them were disappointed because they both were satisfied that they were able to clash once more in a bimu.(T/N : Shoutout to TridentFrost for helping me get more info on the term as it is rather historical but it is essentially a duel in KR murim novels.)
The essence of the Dark Storm Arts filled Sima Ryunju’s body as he smiled brilliantly and power radiated from every pore of his body.
The image of Sima Ryunju disappeared.
Sima Ryunju became the very concept of fast. If Musin stepped on a fragment of space and ran, Sima Ryunju ran right up behind him and destroyed the space in less than a fraction of a second.
Even though the distance between them had narrowed in an instant, Musin was not flustered. He truly intended to kill Sima Ryunju here.
If Sima Ryunju would not help Musin in his way of pursuing the stoppage of the End, he was nothing more than a hindrance. Musin’s power started to surge violently as he clashed with Sima Ryunju.
“Hoho.”
Sima Ryunju uttered a short laugh.
Brrrrrrr!
When he clenched his fist, his internal circuitry whirred. When he raised his fist, internal energy exploded forth in a flash.
When he shot his fist, everything in front of it was crushed without exception. The black lightning from his first ravaged the earth in front of him and carved a deep ravine in the snowy plains.
The energy that was flowing from Musin had lost its form from the flurry of lightning that destroyed the earth. Seeing this, Musin’s eyebrows wrinkled. He stepped back without losing his composure and prepared his next move.
The battle between the two seemed to unfold in less than a hundredth of a second. It was impossible for anybody else to possibly even spectate.
It was as if the flow of time could not keep up with them.
In both the hands of Musin, a blue and bright source of energy started to shine as he raised them up in front of him and the gravity started to fluctuate greatly.
The moment he put both of his hands down….
BOOOM!
The whole earth sank and everything that lay above the surface was pressed into the ground forcibly.
The new form of Sima Ryunju did not falter however. He had already been free of the constraints of space when he shattered the holes in space that Musin was using to travel with.
The Dark Storm Arts was something that allowed those who mastered it, to be faster than anything they set their minds to if their will was firm.
If interference and manipulating space was the basis to Transcendence, then the proficiency one had with manipulating it determined the level of the Transcendent Realm Martial Artist.
Musin and Sima Ryunju were long past being judged by such simplistic tools of measurement
Krrrruuuuuuuuung!
The space around Musin was fluctuating greatly. Sima Ryunju, who grabbed the back of Musin’s clothes with his hands, flung back Musin with great strength.
In the splashing of thick blood and fragments of organs, Sima Ryunju immediately knew this was all a lie.
“Do you still enjoy cheating others like a rat?”
Sima Ryunju spoke with a smile. It was the art of illusionist martial arts, in which Musin enjoyed using most.
The most difficult thing that most people would never be able to understand, was that Musin’s control over space and illusions made reality itself an illusion. If Musin truly died in one moment, he could rewrite the entire exchange as a faulty one beforehand with his illusion martial arts. That was what it meant to be called the Martial God of Eria.
The body of the fallen body disappeared. Sima Ryunju raised his arms. A little and faint black light wrapped around his palm.
He measured the distance between Lee Sungmin and the carriage. He was coordinating the space properly so that there was no scattered power he had missed, and that his student would not die blindly from an unforeseen attack.
The light on Sima Ryunju’s palm gradually swelled. Lee Sungmin felt what was going to happen and hurriedly grabbed the carriage.
He grabbed the wagon with both hands and leapt to widen his distance from Sima Ryunju. Sima Ryunju simply smirked at his disciple’s behavior.
“At least you’re tactful.”
Sima Ryunju muttered as he looked at his disciple and wrapped his hand around the light.
Kureung…… Kureung!
The swollen light left the hands of Sima Ryunju. The space jolted and the body of Musin popped out. He tried to block the sphere of light by opening his palm up and rousing his own internal energy with an irritated look.
But Musin was too late. The sphere of light went off. The sphere exploded and a vortex of space cracked open and sucked in everything around it before exploding once more in thousands of tendrils of lightning.
The myriad of lightning struck again in the direction of a single point. The only goal the lightning was aiming for was Musin.
Musin gritted his teeth and reached out his hands to grab the space. The spaces crumpled like a sheet in front of him as he grabbed it like a barrier of protection.
Musin was not foolish enough to think he could completely block the strike head on. It was to try and redirect them.
Whoo!
The sheet of space struck the ground. The lightning ran its course into the ground and shattered the earthen plates as it started to rise back up with a mind of its own.
Musin quickly raised his hands and roused his internal energy at the remaining lightning that started to chase after him once again.
BANG!
The body of Musin flew backwards as the lightning struck Musin before he could properly counteract it.
A black streak etched across the sky and ground. Sima Ryunju glanced at the unrealistic phenomenon he had created and saw the figure of Musin approaching.
Both of the shaking hands from Musin that were fatigued from trying to deflect the strike were illusions. Immediately as soon as Sima Ryunju saw him, Musin’s arms moved in a blur and started to divide into the images of several arms.
Originally, it was a technique he was using to create a void in space by moving his arms in a circular motion to imitate the buddha’s one hundred palm strikes.
But not to Musin. The thousands of hands that shot forth were something that was both an illusion and not, as the thousands of palms surged at Sima Ryunju.
There was no need to go after Sima Ryunju’s disciple first, Musin thought
The overwhelming offensive was enough to pressure Sima Ryunju to take Musin seriously. But in retrospect, Musin could not afford to divert his attention from his attacks on Lee Sungmin at all. If he did, Sima Ryunju would undoubtedly take that opportunity.
The sounds of their moves could not keep up with the speed of their bodies.
However fast they both were moving, Sima Ryunju’s martial arts compared to the thousand palm strikes, was much simpler.
It was simple. He roused the Dark Storm Arts around his body and let the nature of lightning roam free as the tendrils of lightning burst from his body, aiming at the thousands of palms that were approaching him, like they were lightning rods.
How would anybody be able to properly deal with such a fearsome attack?
Either attack late and meet them head-on…
Or attack preemptively.
Reaching out before the collision could take place, the very essence of lightning started to surround itself around Sima Ryunju.
Moving his left foot behind him and twisting his waist slowly, Sima Ryunju’s internal energy started to coalesce into his fists.
The lightning around him started to crackle violently as space started to crack apart behind him.
The moment Sima Ryunju brought his first forwards, Musin and everybody else watching the fight were amazed.
By this singular and simple motion, Sima Ryunju had destroyed the thousands of palms that had been heading towards him.
It did not stop all of the momentum behind Musin’s attack however, as the internal energy behind the thousands of palms was still present and started to barrage Sima Ryunju relentlessly.
“It’s more fun than the hundred-man formation.”
Sima Ryunju smiled as he assessed the level of the technique.
But to Musin, this was nothing short of an insult to be compared to such weak martial artists.
“……whoooo.”
Musin gathered his breath collectively as he brought his fists closer to his body after finishing the technique.
Cuo, cuo, cuo!
The enormous internal energy beneath Musin’s feet, engulfed his entire body.
Shooshoot.
Once again, the figure of Musin suddenly disappeared.
Sima Ryunju twisted his upper body in a glimmer of anticipation.
Whoo!
An invisible force was deflected away from Sima Ryunju’s body.
Whoo!
The force brushed past him and split into pieces. At first glance, Musin could be seen twisting his waist and swinging his right hand.
Argh!
The world split in two with an eerie sound. Sima Ryunju glanced at the catastrophic wreckage that had just passed by his body and scorched the earth.
“Come to think of it.”
Sima Ryunju opened his mouth.
“I couldn’t get the chance to ask you about what happened in the Hugal Mountains.”
Musin didn’t bother to give an answer. The strength that was swallowing and engulfing his body continued to grow even bigger.
Huuuuupong.
The internal energy around Musin started to morph as copies of his own body made up of his blue internal energy started to separate from his body and multiply.
One became two, and two became four. Numerous doppelgangers of Musin started to surround the white and snowy plains in numbers uncountable from first glance.
It became an uncountable army as the doppelgangers followed right behind the main body of Musin.
“Aren’t you going to let me know?”Sima Ryunju chuckled as he asked Musin.
“Can you afford to ask questions when you’re in a situation like this?”
Musin looked at the image of Sima Ryunju laughing at him and grated his teeth as he spoke, revealing the whites of his canines.
“Don’t think it will be so easy.”
Spitting out the words, Musin flicked his index finger forward on all of the doppelgangers.
Spapapapapapa!
Thousands of spheres were shot at Sima Ryunju from the countless doppelgangers. Sima Ryunju muttered to himself, shaking his head from side to side.
“It’s not something I need to worry about.”
Sima Ryunju did not worry despite the immense firepower he was facing head-on.
Toeok.
Sima Ryunju lifted up his ankles slightly and kicked the ground with a light step. He didn’t shy away from the challenge and ran forward.
BANG!
When a black current of electricity wound itself around Sima Ryunju’s body, he became a ray of lightning that spelled utter death and destruction. It deflected all of the spheres that were aimed at him at odd angles as his body was the very existence of lightning.
The spheres started to slow down and exploded before coming upon impact.
Once one explosion started, the debris would engulf the sphere next to it, exploding it in a chain of reactionary explosions.
Musin controlled every single sphere of internal energy. It was a ridiculous feat that he could split up his consciousness and use such mast reserves of internal energy on command and explode these spheres wherever he directed them towards.
Fzzzzt !
A burst of lightning covered the surrounding area. The spheres of internal energy from Musin, were caught up in the bright light and became dim.
“On second thought, it’s completely as I expected. It’s not today.”
“What do you mean by…”
It was before Musin could even ask what Sima Ryunju was talking about. He suddenly raised his arms up in a hurry.
Sima Ryunju had pushed the body of Musin backwards. It wasn;t enough to kill him by any means, but the speed was more than enough to frighten Musin.
“You’re not worthy of telling me what I can and cannot do.”
Sima Ryunju murmured.
Interfering with space was something that was possible with magic or deep control of internal energy for martial artists. But the moment one could completely manipulate space with their mind alone, was when a human stopped being… a human.
That was why the Realm of Transcendence was called the Realm of Transcendence.
However, what separated the true martial masters from the rest, was their mastery over manipulating such space.
Therefore, to be called the Martial God or the Demonic Emperor, one had to be at the absolute pinnacle of the field.
Despite Musin being able to manipul;atre space freely and without constraint, so could Sima Ryunju. But the biggest difference between them…. Was their martial arts. Sima Ryunju could use the space just as Musin used it. But…. Musin could not replicate Sima Ryunju’s speed.The Dark Storm Arts truly had no rival.
“You can’t go after me.”
Sima Ryunju smiled as he spoke towards Musin.
There was not an ounce of false bravado within his statement.