Chapter 89 : Inadequacy (3)
Chapter 89: Shortcomings (3)
“Not enough?”
Veins bulged across Sword Neighing Demon's forehead as he barely maintained his stance by pouring strength into his lower body.
He did not know exactly what Namgung Jun meant by "not enough."
But he knew one thing for certain.
Those were not words that should come from someone weaker.
“Don't get carried away!”
Clang!
With an enraged roar, Sword Neighing Demon tried to force himself upright, but he could not budge.
He attempted to twist his ankle and rise, but Namgung Jun subtly changed the direction of his sword and suppressed him once more.
The greatly amplified sword force ruthlessly crushed Sword Neighing Demon's entire body.
Boom!
Instead, Sword Neighing Demon suffered the humiliation of having one knee slammed into the ground.
The impact was strong enough to numb it.
Yet Sword Neighing Demon could barely feel the pain.
‘How?’
He could not accept the situation before him.
No.
His mind and body understood it perfectly.
Namgung Jun had read his center of gravity and bodily movement, struck first, and forced him back down.
But his heart simply refused to believe it.
How could Namgung Jun, someone weaker than himself, accurately read both his movements and intentions?
“Namgung Jun!”
With a furious shout, Sword Neighing Demon explosively unleashed the demonic energy throughout his entire body.
The aura emitted by a supreme expert at the realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Summit was, by itself, an attack.
As Sword Neighing Demon resisted with overwhelming power, Namgung Jun was ultimately forced to retreat.
Even so, nothing truly changed.
Namgung Jun calmly readjusted his sword without the slightest wavering.
Sword Neighing Demon, on the other hand, looked utterly disheveled.
At a glance, the contrast between the two swordsmen was unmistakable.
Sword Neighing Demon was clearly at a disadvantage.
Not only Sword Neighing Demon, but even the Demonic Cult members fighting Lee Se-ha had never expected such a situation.
By now, Sword Neighing Demon should have subdued Namgung Jun.
Instead of overpowering him, however, he had been driven back, throwing their entire plan into disarray.
“The battle's turning strangely!”
“Sword Neighing Demon?”
Several Demonic Cult members who had been holding back Lee Se-ha stared at Namgung Jun and Sword Neighing Demon in astonishment.
A few who reacted quickly quietly withdrew.
At the same time, they focused all of their senses on Namgung Jun.
They intended to ambush him from behind and assist Sword Neighing Demon.
‘At this rate, the battle will be reversed.’
They were only barely restraining Black Cloud Wandering Beauty through their numerical superiority and sword formation.
If Sword Neighing Demon were to fall here, the remaining Demonic Cult members would be no different from dead men.
Just as one Demonic Cult member looked toward Namgung Jun—
Lightning pierced the back of his neck.
Splurt!
“Where do you think you're going?”
The Demonic Cult member who had momentarily turned his attention away found a hole punched cleanly through his neck.
Even while dealing with the sword formation, Lee Se-ha had noticed immediately and struck without hesitation.
“Stop her!”
“Focus on the Heavenly Sword Hall Master in front of you!”
“You fools!”
The Bright Mirror Guards, who formed the core of the rotating sword formation around Lee Se-ha, shouted angrily.
Was this truly the strength of Black Cloud Wandering Beauty, a supreme expert?
Though they had deployed a sword formation to pressure her, merely enduring her attacks was already their limit.
Black Cloud Wandering Beauty's martial prowess was far greater than expected.
Only then did the Demonic Cult members recall her age.
She was still young enough to be considered part of the younger generation of the Gangho.
An age where one's strength could grow dramatically from one day to the next.
For a moment, the title of Black Cloud Wandering Beauty and the position of Heavenly Sword Hall Master had caused them to forget how young Lee Se-ha truly was.
Rustle!
Steel nets that had originally been prepared for Namgung Jun descended one after another.
Forged from steel mixed with special materials, these custom-made nets were difficult to cut even with sword aura.
They had been designed so weaker martial artists could more easily deal with stronger opponents.
Yet before Lee Se-ha's fierce sword strikes, they proved utterly useless.
The Demonic Cult members watched as the nets were effortlessly shredded before they could even fully envelop her.
Their expressions gradually darkened.
The nets had originally been meant to restrict movement.
Against Lee Se-ha, however, they could barely steal a single moment of her breathing.
Crackle!
Wrapped in violently surging lightning energy, Lee Se-ha's sword showed no sign of stopping.
The Heavenly Thunder True Yang Sword Art fully embodied the overwhelming might unique to lightning energy.
The five Bright Mirror Guards confronting it, along with the twenty-five Demonic Cult members maintaining the sword formation, gradually became intimidated.
Ordinarily, this force would have been more than enough to threaten a supreme expert.
While it might not have been sufficient to kill one, restraining and exhausting them would have been entirely possible.
Yet once they actually confronted Black Cloud Wandering Beauty, everything had changed.
Her strength far exceeded the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult's assessment.
Crackle!
Brilliant lightning energy wrapped around Lee Se-ha like a magnificent silk robe.
“Why do you all keep looking elsewhere? None of you are getting to my disciple.”
As though she had been holding back until now, the moment part of their strength attempted to shift toward Sword Neighing Demon, she unleashed even faster sword strikes.
Her thrusts, already unimaginably swift, became even sharper as they pierced through the outer edge of the sword formation.
“Urgh!”
One Bright Mirror Guard, unable to react in time, had a hole punched cleanly through his abdomen.
As Black Cloud Wandering Beauty's martial prowess continued growing fiercer with every passing moment, the Bright Mirror Guards became increasingly shaken.
‘Was Black Cloud Wandering Beauty always this strong?’
‘She's the youngest Hall Master, but to think her martial arts have reached this level.’
‘Our calculations were completely wrong.’
Boom!
The ground beneath the Demonic Cult members trembled violently beneath Lee Se-ha's stomp.
Her entire body, cloaked in raging lightning energy, surged with terrifying force.
“Don't even think about interfering with my disciple.”
As Lee Se-ha held the Demonic Cult members back even more fiercely—
Sword Neighing Demon and Namgung Jun resumed their clash.
But unlike before, Sword Neighing Demon no longer held the advantage.
“Urgh.”
A faint groan escaped Sword Neighing Demon as he blocked Namgung Jun's Heavy Sword.
Although he had broken free of Namgung Jun's pressure through his overwhelming internal energy, he had paid a definite price.
His right shoulder now sagged slightly.
It was the result of being struck directly by the Heavenly Thunder Palm Art from Namgung Jun's left hand.
Boom!
Of course, he wielded his sword with his right hand, so it was not an overwhelmingly serious injury.
The real problem was that Namgung Jun relentlessly targeted his weakened left side.
Ordinarily, even if someone developed a weakness, attacks aimed so obviously by a weaker opponent would rarely pose much threat.
But Namgung Jun was different.
Not only did he alternate among five different sword arts, every strike contained countless layers of psychological warfare.
It was a level of combat impossible to attribute to someone who had not even reached twenty years of age.
It felt as though he were being steadily pressured by a seasoned veteran.
‘This brat... he's becoming more experienced with every exchange.’
Having completely lost control of the battle's flow, Sword Neighing Demon was steadily driven backward.
Even the martial arts he had cultivated all his life in order to attain the position of Bright Mirror Master failed to display their full power.
Namgung Jun gracefully neutralized every assault.
Nor was that all.
Namgung Jun continued refining the forms and techniques of the many sword arts he had mastered, as though testing each one in turn.
To be treated like this by someone supposedly beneath him during a life-and-death battle—
For Sword Neighing Demon, it was utter humiliation.
Yet he could not even complain.
If he let his guard down for an instant, he would lose his life to those razor-sharp sword strikes.
“Haa!”
Sword Neighing Demon hurriedly retreated to avoid a horizontal slash.
Yet the Eternal Tranquility Sword seemed to lengthen as it relentlessly pursued him.
It was truly marvelous swordsmanship.
Sword Neighing Demon retreated again, only to feel as though his own body had become sluggish.
Slash!
A sword strike flashed through the briefest opening.
Namgung Jun's blade tore through Sword Neighing Demon's flank, biting even deeper.
Even his Protective Aura had been completely severed.
The Heavy Sword of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art possessed more than enough power to break through Protective Aura.
‘It's different from back then.’
When he had fought the Cult Leader of the Karma Exchange Cult, he had been unable to generate enough force to shatter Protective Aura, forcing him to rely on technique.
Now, Protective Aura was merely an annoyance.
He possessed more than enough power to break through it directly.
“Cough! How could you cut through my Protective Aura?!”
“Protective Aura was never invincible.”
After enduring more than ten consecutive sword strikes, Sword Neighing Demon's insides churned violently as he staggered backward.
“The Nine Yin Severed Meridians... truly a talent beyond all common sense.”
“You should have come sooner.”
The Eternal Tranquility Sword surged upward with an incomparably sharp aura.
Sword Neighing Demon attempted to respond.
But he was already too late.
Namgung Jun's sword had perfectly pierced the breathing rhythm of a supreme expert, leaving no possibility of escape.
“You!”
Watching Namgung Jun's increasingly refined swordsmanship, Sword Neighing Demon finally made his decision.
If things continued like this, he would die alone in vain.
Accepting that fact, Sword Neighing Demon charged forward with the resolve to perish together.
Gathering every ounce of strength he possessed, he swung his sword.
The blade first extended downward, splitting open the earth, before suddenly soaring upward toward Namgung Jun's chin.
Even in that instant of rising from low to high, the sword tip transformed endlessly, writhing like dozens of serpents.
It was as though the very essence of the Illusory Sword he had cultivated throughout his life had been condensed into a single strike.
“Jun!”
From afar, while dismantling the sword formation, Lee Se-ha cried out in alarm as she witnessed Namgung Jun.
The moment she saw Sword Neighing Demon's strike, she understood instantly.
It was a suicidal finishing move that abandoned all concern for survival.
Even if she herself had stood before it, she could not confidently say she would block it unharmed.
Perhaps Namgung Jun had anticipated even that.
His rear heel gently slid backward.
Naturally widening the distance by three steps, he twisted the Eternal Tranquility Sword.
Following the twist of his wrist, the blade carved a tiny circle.
In that fleeting instant, it displayed seventeen separate twists, completely suppressing the endlessly changing sword tip of Sword Neighing Demon.
Boom!
The sword strike not only dispersed the dozens of streams of aura released by those transformations—
It cleanly severed Sword Neighing Demon's sword in half.
“Your final strike wasn't bad. It was a respectable sword.”
At the same moment, the Eternal Tranquility Sword, which had pointed toward the earth, soared upward once more and magnificently pierced through Sword Neighing Demon's neck.
Splurt!
As Sword Neighing Demon's severed head shot high into the air, spraying blood—
Lee Se-ha's eyes sparkled.
“My disciple... you've done it.”
Sword Neighing Demon's aura vanished in an instant.
Because it had dominated the entire battlefield, the emptiness left behind felt all the greater.
The Demonic Cult members who had been suppressing Lee Se-ha through their sword formation stared blankly between Sword Neighing Demon's corpse and Namgung Jun.
They had firmly believed Sword Neighing Demon would become the Fourteenth Bright Mirror Master.
His death alone was already a tremendous shock.
The fact that he had been killed not by Lee Se-ha, but by Namgung Jun—
That was even more unbelievable.
A young swordsman who had crossed the gap between realms to slay someone stronger than himself.
The Demonic Cult members could only stare blankly at Namgung Jun.
“Good heavens.”
“Did Sword Neighing Demon truly...?”
“To fall to such a young boy...”
The faces of the Demonic Cult members holding Lee Se-ha became grim.
Soon afterward, however, they filled with vicious resolve.
“Since Sword Neighing Demon has returned to the Bright World, nothing else matters.”
“We all die here.”
“If we can at least take one of their arms with us, we'll have earned the right to enter the Bright World.”
Wooooong!
The aura of the remaining cultists changed dramatically.
The eyes of the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult members glowed crimson or azure, while the Bright Mirror Guards emitted ominous dark-blue light from their eyes.
At the same time, their demonic energy swelled with frightening intensity.
Namgung Jun immediately assessed their transformed auras before moving to stand beside Lee Se-ha.
“Master.”
“This just became troublesome. Though that's fairly common when dealing with the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult.”
The Bright Crocodile Demonic Art of the Sun and Moon Demonic Cult.
A secret art that devoured one's lifespan in real time in exchange for multiplying one's martial prowess severalfold.
The Demonic Cult members intended to perish together with their enemies.
Since they were doomed to die anyway, they clearly intended to inflict as much damage upon master and disciple as possible.
“You can still swing your sword, can't you?”
“Of course.”
“Even so, I'll take the lead. Support me.”
Just as master and disciple prepared to step forward without the slightest intention of retreating—
Whoooooosh!
Dozens of sharp whistles suddenly rang out from high in the sky.
Following those sounds came countless streams of aura that rippled through the air.
“Master!”
The instant Namgung Jun hurriedly stepped in front of Lee Se-ha—
A rain of arrows poured down from the heavens.
Craaash!
Like a torrential downpour, the volley of arrows swept across the entire area in an instant.