Sima Ryunju’s words were directly antagonizing Musin.
Musin was well aware of just how powerful his rival was.
He didn’t want to admit it, and he knew just how arrogant Sima Ryunju was.
Musin glared at Sima Ryunju and roused his internal energy.
The internal circuitry that Musin used, was no longer like most. It was fully integrated into all fibers in his body and his dantian was like an extension of his body.
Brrrrrrrrr.
Blue light scattered out from everywhere and coalesced around Musin violently.
“I can’t force you to do anything……?”
“Would you like to try?”
Sima Ryunju asked in a mocking tone of voice.
There was no need for Musin to even answer.
Whoo!
The foot of Musin hit the ground. The movement of his moving body increased steadily. Dozens of afterimages were created whenever he moved.
Everything started to blue as the space around Sima Ryunju and Musin started to shift.
Musin’s body, which had multiplied into different copies of itself, put pressure on Sima Ryunju by performing hundreds of different martial arts with the different copies of his body.
It was several coordinated attacks that came face to face with Sima Ryunju.
The outrageous speed of the attacks was something incomprehensible to any human who would be able to witness such a feat.
Whoo!
Lightning burst out in the middle of the snow field.
Geniella, who was watching the spectacle unfold in front of her from afar with Juwon, was genuinely impressed.
Juwon, standing by Geniella’s side, had his breath slightly accelerate from excitement as he clenched his fists tightly.
Both of the two Black Stars of Predators had the same thought.Was it really two human beings that were fighting right now, in front of them?
Juwon managed to suppress his fighting spirit that was raging, deep in his heart.
If only Geniella weren’t around. If Geniella hadn’t told him never to get involved, he would have definitely joined in and enjoyed the mayhem in fighting against monsters that were humans.
“No.”
Geniella whispered. She had seen when and whom Sima Ryunju would fight here. And here…. Was where Sima Ryunju would die. That was the future that Geniella saw.
But how was he going to die?Geniella had seen Sima Ryunju coughing up blood in her vision. But…… Geniella’s eyes narrowed.
It wasn’t enough, it was definitely enough. The power of Musin was nothing to scoff at… but there was no way it could kill Sima Ryunju. Rather, at this rate, Musin would surely be killed by Sima Ryunju.
Sima Ryunju and Musin were definitely the two strongest human beings she had ever seen, and were surely at the absolute height that humans could possibly ever achieve. But…. Sima Ryunju was undoubtedly a little bit more powerful than Musin and that small gap was becoming more and more apparent.
It was as Geniella thought.
Pababababababak!
The several hundreds of different martial art techniques were smashed apart by the singular high-speed attack from Sima Ryunju’s bolt of lightning.
The doppelgangers that were made up of internal energy were not able to keep up with the onslaught of lightning that poured out from Sima Ryunju’s body.
The face of Musin, who stumbled back, distorted. Of course this is not all that he had to offer and so he moved once more.
Cuo!
Musin’s body started to swell up and become larger and larger as his internal energy started to build up inside of his body. His body grew till it became a towering figure that anybody could see if they were watching the battle in the snowy plain.
“Humph!”
The field that stretched out while swallowing its breath turned into a giant figure.
Whoo!
Under the power that caused the entire ground to sink, Sima Ryunju’s body started to levitate.
His body turned incorporeal and into a ray of black lightning. The lightning that was Sima Ryunju’s body, expanded and shot out in several directions.
Demonic Emperor’s Dark Storm Arts : Thousand Thunder (千雷)
Thousands of lightning bolts crackled around Sima Ryunju and splashed against the snow.
Whoo!
The world suddenly turned white as a black streak of lightning ran through the sky.
The single streak split into two, then four then tens and hundreds of lines. Eventually into thousands as the white sky turned pitch black.
In the middle of the dark sky, Sima Ryunju giggled. If the essence of Musins’ martial arts was illusions, he, Sima Ryunju, was pure speed.
The unimaginable speed penetrated the flaws of Musin’s illusions and obliterated it into oblivion. The strikes started to count up one by one as they hit against Musin’s body that was coated in a layer of internal energy as a barrier. As the lightning bolts started to rain down heavier and heavier, the layer of internal energy was shattered and Musin was pushed back violently.
Musin couldn’t stop it. He didn’t even notice or feel when Sima Ryunju had penetrated his layer of internal energy that acted as his last defense. Power? Illusion? None of it was necessary in front of true speed.
There was no need for flashy blows of a combination of all Sima Ryunju’s power into a single point this time. All he needed was to whittle the numbers of the doppelgangers down and then wedge his way into pointing out the flaws.
If Musin’s internal energy was like a mountain, it was safe to say that Sima Ryunju’s attack was like hitting the nail on the head with a hammer.
Even the layers of internal energy around Musin’s body that were filled with the reserves of the one known as the Martial God, was whittled away by the thousands of lightning bolts that relentlessly attacked at the gaps between his defenses without rest.
The sky in the northern plains just slightly south of Travia were always stuck in the snowy and endless snowstorm of the North. Simply put, it was never clear and was always cloudy and murky. Not today though. These two humans that could change the very nature around them, and were like walking natural disasters, had cleared the snow around them that seemed to have always been endless, and even cleared the cloudy sky that was normally endlessly pouring out snow in the form of a blizzard.
The normally white plains full of blankets of snow and murky clouds that matched this pitch-white scenery had disappeared. It was replaced with scorched and blackened plates of cracked earth along with a dark and endless black sky that rained down with an odd and eerie black lightning.
The thousand bolts of lightning struck down from the sky like an endless foreboding coming of a rapture.(T/N : Rapture is an event in catholic and biblical references of when basically all non believers stay on earth while all the believers ascend to heaven. Normally placed in a negative connotation.)
Today would surely not be the day he died, Sima Ryunju thought.
Lee Sungmin blankly saw the black earth and sky created by his master, Sima Ryunju. Straight lines and curves that were unpredictable in nature. It was impossible to predict the trajectory of such dark and black lightning bolts. It was impossible to even see the beginning of the lines. If it was him, Lee Sungmin was sure that by the time he had even come to his senses he would have already been dead or near death had he been the one facing him.
[Clearly your master was right. It won’t be today.]
In a tone of voice that was full of admiration, Heoju, who was watching Sima Ryunju press Musin deeper into a corner, had spoken up.
[I admit that your master, who is somehow not a true transcendent yet, is strong. Your teacher is stronger than the man known as the Martial God. From this old man’s perspective, it is definitely not enough for that man to lose.]
Lee Sungmin nodded his head in a trance. The present version of his master was exhibiting the true power and essence of what it meant to use the Dark Storm Arts. Such pure speed and technique was not even shown in such an overwhelming manner when facing Jehu in the Murim Alliance.
Even though Lee Sungmin would never be able to use the truest Dark Storm Arts since he was a spearmaster and the techniques were different, he was sure even if he wasn’t, he couldn’t replicate his master’s movements.
‘How much longer do I have to swing my spear and how long do I have to spend mastering my martial arts to get closer to that?’
‘As it is…’
Musin clenched his teeth. It’s a fact he didn’t want to admit, but now he had no choice but to admit it. He was not Sima Ryunju’s match.
How long would he have to endure this endless attack? Just because he chose this forceful way of acting and arrogance, didn’t mean he would be able to hold out forever.
‘Me…. lose to him?”
Blood started to seep from Musin’s forehead into his eyes. He knew he couldn’t think like so, but the thought couldn’t help but pop up in his mind.
Zeeeeeewtttt.
The sudden and odd sound brought Sima Ryunju to an immediate halt.
It was sudden and completely unexpected. Sima Ryunju immediately retreated a step back and halted his offensive.
It wasn’t just Sima Ryunju who was surprised by the sudden appearance. Musin and Lee Sunbgmin both looked up at the sky with incredulous eyes.
As he descended, the person looked more like a pristine and holy existence and not a human being. The man, who came down from the sky with a chilly and silver aura around him, had clear, silver hair and completely indifferent eyes.
Sima Ryunju’s eyes widened as he recognized the woman.
“….Wolhu.”
“Why are you here.…?”
Musin asked in a dumbfounded expression. Wolhu never came out from the top of Mt. Yuzkia, where the ‘palace’ was, and where Qian Zun had sent his daughter.
Wolhu was more mysterious than any other in Beyond the Heavens, even though she belonged to Six Divinities, she was not someone that Musin ever dared to order around.
Why was Wolhu, the protector of Mount Yuzkhia, here?
“My sister asked me to.”
Wolhu opened his mouth.
His sister. Musin’s shoulders flinched at the words. All Musin was good for, was enforcing the Divine Maiden’s will since he was confident in his martial arts, but what he knew about Wolhu was limited. In fact, the only thing he knew was that Wolhu was the brother of the Divine Maiden.
The Divine Maiden had first introduced herself after approaching Musin to create the organization known as Beyond the Heavens. When Musin was first introduced to the Divine Maiden, Wolhu was there with his sister and simply has said he was the older brother of the Divine Maiden.
He was known as one of the Six Divinities and the First Divinity to be named to the position. However, unlike the others, Wolhu was only a Divinity in name, and did not ever take orders from anybody.
It was completely unexpected and shocking to Musin that such a mysterious individual who never left the ‘palace’, would suddenly arrive. Looking at both Musin and Sima Ryunju, Wolhu opened his mouth slowly.
“We need to kill Sima Ryunju here today.”
The face of Musin trembled at Wolhu’s composed choice of words. Just because he was the Martial God of Beyond the Heavens, did not mean he was a true God or even close to one.
Not only that, but the moment he had decided to attack Sima Ryunju, Musin had decided that he would fight with the intention of killing this man once and for all.
It was a simple conclusion because Sima Ryunju was a man with such a presence that could overthrow anything in this world if he chose to put his mind to it. But just because Musin was one of the most powerful people in all of Eria, did not mean he could just kill Sima Ryunju because he wished to.
“We’ll do it together.”
Wolhu spoke the words as if he were stating a fact and with complete monotone.
The statement however, was something that made Musin’s eyes widen further.
“HA-HA-HA”
Before Musin could say anything, Sima Ryunju laughed out loud with a cynical cackle.
After laughing for a bit, he shook his head and continued to giggle childishly as if he couldn’t believe the silliness of the situation in front of him.
“Will there be two of you now?”
‘No… even with her… will it be possible?’
Musin still felt doubtful. Pride…… even if Wolhu was not prideful and speaking with utmost precaution and seriousness, Sima Ryunju was clearly a step above Musin and was a monster beyond any possible human standard right now.
Even if Wolhu joined forces with Musin, Musin did not think they could kill Sima Ryunju.
Musin was well aware of his own skills and Wolhu’s. In the past, Wolhu once sparred with the Spear King, Kang Seok, thanks to Kang Seok’s incessant nagging and begging for a fight.
Wolhu was one of the strongest Transcendents in Eria, but Wolhu’s strength was not much different from the Spear King’s. Would Musin really be able to kill Sima Ryunju even if he had Wolhu’s help?
“It will work.”
Wolhu replied as if he had completely read the mind of Musin. As he said these words, an ominous current of wind started to blow as he slowly moved his hand.
Kerunggg.
Sima Ryunju’s eyebrows twitched at the power contained in Wolhu’s hand. At that moment, Lee Sungmin was already sprinting at his fastest speed towards Sima Ryunju.Lee Sungmin did not dare hesitate because he knew that Wollhu’s sudden involvement would never work in favor of Sima Ryunju. He had never seen Wolhu and only heard to never confront them or The Spear King and to run away immediately when he first started training. But now, he had the power to do something instead of being helpless.
At Wolhu’s movements, the light on his hand grew bigger. Sima Ryunju was instinctively aware of what was about to happen.
In a short moment.
Sima Ryunju’s mind quickly raced as he ran over his first two options he had been considering up until Wolhu’s sudden hand movement. He had the options of either attacking Wolhu with the intention of stopping this fight and getting out of here, or killing off Musin at the cost of his own. However, he smirked and chose neither. He knew what was about to happen was not something he could control at this point.
Thwung!
Sima Ryunju’s hand swung in a direction that was neither towards Musin nor Wolhu. It was directed at Lee Sungmin who was sprinting towards him frantically. Lee Sungmin was suddenly forcibly pushed.
He never imagined his master, Sima Ryunju would attack him and push him back to refuse his help. No…. even if Lee Sungmin did know, he would have never been able to respond. This was the most powerful man in all of Eria.
Sima Ryunju’s internal energy wrapped around Lee Sungmin softly like a blanket and pushed him back forcibly, yet gently.Something about the whole interaction felt wrong to Lee Sungmin.
“MASTER…!”
Lee Sungmin hurriedly shouted towards Sima Ryunju with all his might, but his master, Sima Ryunju, did not answer. Nevertheless, Lee Sungmin could not continue his shouts because he saw Sima Ryunju look back at him with that ever lasting cocky-looking smirk of his.
Pang .
The light surrounding the internal energy that coated Wolhu’s hands, exploded.
brrrrrrrrrrrng.
The space began to vibrate. The space felt incredibly… odd. A white thin sheet seemed to encapsulate the three individuals within it as it created a web-like crack.
Lee Sungmin quickly recovered and sprinted with all his might. He couldn’t even bring his thoughts to words. His emotions felt that there was something intuitively wrong. An ominous and disgusting foreboding feeling that was as if the future that he was so desperately trying to avoid now, was showing just how difficult it would be for him to change.
Lee Sungmin’s body, which was running on full power, hit something. There was nothing, but Lee Sungmin’s body definitely hit something and stopped him like a transparent and invisible wall appeared out of nowhere.
“What the hell is this……?! ARGH”
Lee Sungmin shouted and swung his spear. The spear that was wielded with all his might did not penetrate the ominous walls of space that were created blocking him out.
Sima Ryunju looked around slowly. The landscape hadn’t changed much, but now the snowy field they were in was the snow field but it wasn’t at the same time.
“This is…”
Nothing much had changed. However, the expression of Musin stiffened by the new strange atmosphere of the entire space.
He was well aware of this kind of spatial barrier. Just a few months ago, he was stuck in this damn type of barrier and suffered immensely because of it.
Yes, the Devil he had met at the Mareyong Pavilion in the Hugal Mountain Range. That same spatial barrier of a true Transcendental being was present. The level was entirely different.
“How come……How do you have this power?”
“This is not my power.”
Wolhu shook his head when asked by Musin.
“The death of Sima Ryunju must be confirmed here today. Therefore, the Heavenly Spirit has lent me a special strength to complete our task here.”
Musin’s eyes widened at Wolhu’s answer. He didn’t think that the Heavenly Spirit could interfere in the Mortal Realm with its powers other than the prophecies it gave the Divine Maiden.
It was utterly impossible for the Heavenly Spirit to interfere with the End like this. True Transcendental beings like the Heavenly Spirit, Devils, and Gods were not allowed to exercise their true powers in the Mortal Realm without huge cost.
This time, however, the Heavenly Spirit themself, gave Wolhu the powers necessary to kill Sima Ryunju. It was the first time in hundreds of years that such a thing had happened.
Sima Ryunju was slowly looking around. Wolhu turned her head towards him.
“You can never escape from here. No one can intervene in this space. This space is a boundary created by the power of the Heavenly Spirit, themself.”
“It looks like it is as you say.”
Sima Ryunju nodded slowly. He rather liked the fact that it was impossible to intervene from the outside.
“Is this what you’ve been ordered to do?”
Musin reluctantly asked in doubt.
“Yes.”
Wolhu nodded his head without hesitation. Musin clenched his fist tightly. There was nothing he could do but to join forces with Wolhu against Sima Ryunju, and was a major blow to his pride. Wolhu whispered when he noticed Musin’s expression. He and the others in Beyond the Heavens knew just how much Musin had trained and for how long he had prepared for his revenge match against his rival, Sima Ryunju.
“Don’t be ashamed of this please, Musin.”
When Musin remained silent, Wolhu sighed and then spoke a bit louder with a sense of complete and utter faith.
“Sima Ryunju, The Demonic Emperor, is the man who will be the advent of the end .”
“……what?”
“The Heavenly Spirit said that killing the Demonic Emperor is not the Apostle of the End himself, but the pillar that supports the Apostle and must be killed since he will inevitably be the man to bring the Apostle closer to the end of this world which we cannot have happen.”
“Hahaha!”
Sima Ryunju, who was listening to Wolhu, couldn’t hold back and burst into laughter.
“This old man is the one to bring forward the end of this world?”
Sima Ryunju, who had completely forgotten his dignity and giggled.
“That’s a hell of a load of bullshit you’re saying right now.”Sima Ryunju’s eyes gleamed with a murderous intent.