Chapter 335 : Dawn (4)
Chapter 335: Dawn (4)
The arrogant thought that had flashed through his mind made Il-mok shake his head and refocus on the sparring match.
Even now, the Yang Qi that poured off Wi Jin-hak's greatsword was spreading through the training ground like it wanted to burn the whole place to ash.
‘He's definitely not the same as before.’
It wasn't just the sheer volume of Yang Qi that Wi Jin-hak was pumping out that made him think that. What truly impressed him was the precision with which Wi Jin-hak wielded it.
Even as his Qi flooded the arena, the spectators watching from the sides didn't feel so much as a hint of heat from it. Not a single spark of embers reached them.
Considering the man had been stuck running the Grand Teacher's duties for the past few years with almost no time for proper training, that was one hell of an achievement.
'Ah, so that's why he always looked like a walking corpse... he was literally balancing a full-time government job while training like a madman.'
Being able to reduce the state of his body that had undergone an Overhaul Body Transformation to that extent is an insane feat in itself.
Just how hard had this man been pushing himself?
'Yeah, no. I could never live like that. Not in a million years.'
Even after all his years of being reborn as Il-mok, the most important thing to him was still a healthy work-life balance.
Il-mok was busy being impressed by Wi Jin-hak's dedication, but the man actually trading blows with him had a rather different take on the situation.
‘...I think I'd forgotten it, thanks to the Eighth Young Master's reputation. But the Eldest Young Master's talent isn’t something I could underestimate.’
Before the Heavenly Demon took Il-mok in as his youngest disciple, the one who had been called the greatest prodigy of the Demonic Way within the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was none other than Wi Jin-hak.
Even after he hit an age where it was slightly embarrassing to still be called a young prodigy, no one had managed to take that title from him.
Not until Il-mok joined.
That was just how overwhelmingly talented Wi Jin-hak was in martial arts.
His gift for martial arts was so extraordinary that he lived with the stigma of being an idiot because the amount of intelligence in his brain and the talent in his fists didn’t match in caliber.
To be fair, Wi Jin-hak's infamous reputation as a meathead was largely the fault of his Raging Demon Sword Art. More often than not, he'd let rage consume him and charge in headfirst without thinking.
But that was years ago.
Thanks to Il-mok's advice, it had already been several years since Wi Jin-hak successfully achieved Transcendence with his Demonic Art.
Finally free from the heavy shackles of his chronic anger management issues, the overwhelming potential of the former 'Greatest Genius' had fully bloomed.
Boom!!!
Every time Wi Jin-hak's greatsword swept through the air, the countless sparks born along its edge flooded Ouyang Pae's field of vision.
***
How long had Wi Jin-hak and Ouyang Pae been going at it in the arena?
The already scarred arena from the previous match was now completely devastated.
Thud.
Finally, Wi Jin-hak’s greatsword came to a stop right in front of the kneeling Ouyang Pae’s throat.
Wi Jin-hak had won, but he wasn't in great shape either.
Ouyang Pae had broken through the tide of Yang Qi more than once to get at him, leaving a mess of wounds across Wi Jin-hak's body. He'd just failed to land anything fatal.
With the second life-or-death match decided, the Left and Right Guardians stepped forward.
"Both the Eldest Young Master and the Head of the Ouyang family are to return to the medical quarters and rest."
"The life-or-death match between the Eldest Young Master and the Head of the Dokgo Family will be held three days from now."
A bare-minimum grace period was granted so the finalists could heal the grievous injuries they suffered today.
After both matches were over, talk of the duels spread to every corner of the main headquarters.
"No matter how I look at it, I think the Head of the Dokgo Family is going to win."
"Tch. You've got no eye for this. You watched the Eldest Young Master's Demonic Arts and you still think that?"
Who would be chosen as the next Cult Leader was the biggest thing on everyone's mind, and it wasn't going to stay a conversation for long before things escalated.
"Hmph. Family Head Dokgo's technical mastery of the sword was far more impressive than just recklessly wasting Qi by blasting it in every direction."
"Sounds like you need a new pair of eyes. I'll gouge it for you right now."
Arguments turned physical, which was honestly pretty on-brand for the cult.
Even Il-mok's personal maids were incredibly curious about how the succession war would end, prompting Hyeokryeon Seon-ah to gently slide a question his way.
"Young Master, who do you think will win?"
Maybe she was just looking for something to talk to him about and grabbed the hot topic.
Either way, all the other maids immediately turned their expectant gazes toward Il-mok, clearly just as eager to hear his answer.
"Hmm. Judging purely by what they showed today, I'd say their martial realms are essentially neck and neck. However, the real deciding factor is going to be their internal energy."
Wi Jin-hak and Dokgo Ryong had at least twenty years between them in terms of how long each had been training, so the gap in accumulated internal energy was unavoidable.
"If there's such a massive age difference, wouldn't Family Head Dokgo also have a severe advantage in actual combat experience?"
Hyeokryeon Seon-ah followed up, but Il-mok shook his head.
"I'm not dismissing his experience, but if we're just talking about combat experience, my Eldest Brother is no slouch either. Not when you think about what they used to call him in his younger days."
"Ah..."
Only then did the women nod their heads with expressions of understanding.
Wi Jin-hak's old nickname had been the Mad Demon.
And it wasn't a nickname the cult had given him; it was one the Central Plains had come up with themselves from the result of him going out there and raising absolute hell every time the rage built up enough that he thought he might go berserk.
He'd done that dozens of times and come back alive every single time.
The combat experience from those incidents alone was beyond measure.
"So are you saying you'd favor Family Head Dokgo?"
"...Based on what the match showed, yes."
Jin Hayeon's question made Il-mok hesitate for just a moment before he answered.
Because there was one thing nagging at him.
And it wasn't just the headache-inducing fact that he and Baek Un-hak would have to personally intervene to stop Dokgo Ryong if that crazy old man actually became the Cult Leader.
'I can't put my finger on it, but it really didn't feel like Eldest Brother went all out. Did he purposely hide his true strength just to save it for the final match?'
***
Maybe it was the anticipation of the coming duel, but those three days dragged by at a snail-like pace.
But time is fair to everyone; eventually, the morning of the final match arrived.
"Hahahaha. So it's come to this, Eldest Young Master."
"Hahaha. Please go easy on me, Head of the Dokgo Family."
The old man and the middle-aged swordsman looked at each other and laughed with warm and broad smiles.
"The match between the Eldest Young Master and the Head of the Dokgo Family begins!!"
The Left Guardian's voice rang out across the grounds and—
Boom!!!
The two men's swords crashed together at the center of the arena with neither one waiting for the other.
The flame-wreathed greatsword of Wi Jin-hak and the greatsword of Dokgo Ryong collided again and again with thunderous noise.
Boom!!!
Dokgo Ryong swung his sword and drove Wi Jin-hak back, then suddenly roared at him with fury on his face.
"Is the title of Cult Leader that trivial to you?!"
The respectful address he'd shown the Eldest Young Master was gone.
In just a few exchanges, he'd arrived at more or less the same conclusion as Il-mok had.
Except that since they were actually trading swords, his read had a slightly different edge to it.
"Or are you telling me you're confident you can subdue me without killing me?!"
Il-mok heard Dokgo Ryong's shouts and finally understood what his Eldest Brother had been going for.
‘He was planning to subdue him alive from the very start.’
It was an incredibly common saying in the martial world, but capturing or subduing a master alive was exponentially more difficult than simply killing them.
And the grand tournament to select the leader of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult was literally a lawless death match.
Trying to peacefully subdue an opponent who was actively rushing at you with pure murderous intent was a suicidal handicap.
"Fine! If the Nine Swords of Dokgo is so trivial to you, then let's see if you can subdue me!!"
Deeply insulted that Wi Jin-hak was openly looking down on him, Dokgo Ryong's eyes completely rolled back in rage as he unleashed an all-out offensive.
He'd already looked like a madman before, but now he was on another level entirely. He completely abandoned all defense, openly exposing his vital organs to the blade as he relentlessly poured out lethal attacks like a literal madman.
Watching Wi Jin-hak get pushed onto the back foot almost immediately, Il-mok quietly swallowed a sigh.
‘...Eldest Brother. The matchup is terrible for you.’
The Nine Swords of Dokgo was purely an offensive Demonic Art through and through.
Against a style like that, saying you intend to subdue him is essentially giving Dokgo Ryong free rein to unleash it without any real threat to hold him back.
Whether or not Wi Jin-hak knew what was going through Il-mok's head, he managed to block and dodge the unrelenting Dokgo Nine Swords as he turned the Heavenly Demon's parting words over in his mind.
‘Jin-hak, you are my eldest and the one this old man trusts most.’
It wasn't a lie.
The trust the Heavenly Demon placed in Il-mok was ultimately born of recognizing his competence.
But as one person to another, as master and disciple, the one he trusted most was Wi Jin-hak, the one who had been with him longest.
‘Embrace everyone within the Divine Cult. If it is you, I know you will be able to do it.’
In truth, the old man might have just been subtly warning him to accept Il-mok, the monstrous junior who would inevitably surpass him in the future, without any jealousy.
But Wi Jin-hak had taken it a different way.
'I refuse to destroy the foundation that Master spent his entire life building with my own hands.'
The Divine Cult had already lost three supreme masters to execution because of their foolish plot against Il-mok.
He couldn't stand by and let more of the people who would carry the Divine Cult's future die, just because they were trying to choose a new Cult Leader.
If he wanted to be a man who could truly embrace everyone in the cult, he had to be capable of this much.
That was the unwavering resolve that Wi Jin-hak had reached.
Even now, as he was being battered by Dokgo Ryong's brutal offensive and pushed to the brink of death, that noble resolve never wavered.
"Kahaha! Just how long are you going to cower and block!"
The moment Dokgo Ryong's great sword came flying in again —
"HRAAAAH!!"
Wi Jin-hak let out a ferocious roar and swung to meet it head-on.
BOOM!!!
The instant their blades crashed together, Wi Jin-hak pulled every last scrap of Qi from his dantian in one surge.
The Yang Qi that had been dwelling in his dantian erupted outward like a volcano and tore through every meridian in his body.
Under that violent torrent, his meridians screamed as though they were melting under lava.
It was the first time he'd felt pain like this since reaching Transcendence and gaining full control over the Raging Demon Sword Art.
But Wi Jin-hak didn't let that kind of pain rattle him.
Instead, he started forcing the Qi rushing into his sword to compress.
Vrooom!
Wi Jin-hak's greatsword let out a high-pitched whine as it pressed against Dokgo Ryong's blade, and the Yang Qi gathered at its edge condensed into a blazing light.
Not wanting to be outdone in a contest of raw force, Dokgo Ryong snarled and began pouring in everything he had in return. Before long, a flame-shaped Sword Force had formed at Dokgo Ryong's blade.
The flames at the edge of each man's sword clashed against each other, desperately trying to burn and devour the other.
And then the size of the flame at Wi Jin-hak's greatsword began to slowly shrink, but Dokgo Ryong's sword flare wasn't consuming it.
‘Condense and compress.’
It was the process of pulling back the energy that had spread outward and compressing it further and further to focus it into a single point.
When that compression reached its limit —
Shhk!
With a sharp sound, Dokgo Ryong's greatsword was cut clean through and the flame that had been riding its edge severed along with it.
"!!!"
Dokgo Ryong's eyes went wide at the completely unexpected turn of events.
Thud.
Wi Jin-hak's greatsword shot forward in an instant and stopped right at his throat.
Wi Jin-hak had clearly gained the upper hand over Dokgo Ryong, but blood was already dripping from all seven of his orifices, and his body was shaking violently like it might burst at any moment.
It was an inevitable consequence.
He had forcefully canceled the technique and swallowed all that energy back into his dantian the very second he sliced through Dokgo's sword just so he wouldn't accidentally kill the man.
Now, that massive explosive heat he had forcefully swallowed back down was violently rampaging through his internal organs, tearing his body apart from the inside out.
Enduring the agonizing pain of his body literally feeling like it was about to explode, Wi Jin-hak forced his mouth open to speak.
"I apologise, Head of the Dokgo Family. I didn't try to peacefully subdue you because I looked down on your strength."
With every word he said, blood ran from his lips.
But Wi Jin-hak paid it no mind.
"I simply believed the Divine Cult needed you to stay alive for its future."
Dokgo Ryong looked at him with a complicated expression and asked, "And what's the point of that if you die doing it?"
He wasn't just talking about the dangerous handicap Wi had taken during the fight. He was talking about right now.
Yes, he had a sword at his throat, but Wi Jin-hak was already at his limit.
That was the price of betting everything on that gamble.
If Dokgo Ryong refused to accept defeat and swung his sword right now, Wi Jin-hak would die without being able to do a thing about it.
Wi Jin-hak knew that, and yet...
"Then it simply proves my caliber as a leader was only ever meant to reach this far."
He flashed a genuine smile that had no business being on a face in that condition.
"If I am too weak to embrace and protect everyone within the Divine Cult, then what right do I have to sit on the Cult Leader's throne?"
The instant Dokgo Ryong was met with that smile, he understood it instinctively.
‘...This man is in a different league from a brute like me.’
Dokgo Ryong paused for a moment, then drove what remained of his severed greatsword into the ground.
He lowered himself onto one knee and paid his respects to Wi Jin-hak.
"I swear upon the life and upon the sacred name of the Great Dokgo Family, I hereby swear my eternal, unwavering loyalty to Cult Leader Wi Jin-hak!"
It was the moment a new sun rose over the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.