Rebirth of the Thunder God

"Wait. Where are you going?"

Namgung Hui scanned the people blocking his path.

They were all dressed in dark red clothes, and on each of their chests was embroidered the character 'Hui' (Alliance).

In other words, they were all affiliated with the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance.

Unlike the Black Sword Gang he had faced before, they seemed to be directly under the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance.

Namgung Hui glanced at the five men and spoke.

"Why should I tell you that?"

"Well, look at this? Are you being so arrogant because you don't know who we are? Or perhaps you can't read? Then I'll have to kindly inform you. We are the Pursuit and Kill Squad, directly under the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance. We are looking for someone, so cooperate when we ask nicely."

"Oh my! I didn't recognize a noble person."

"As expected, our..."

"Did you think I would say that?"

"!?"

As Namgung Hui suddenly changed his attitude, the members of the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance's Pursuit and Kill Squad showed a bewildered expression.

For a young-looking young master to use such words in front of the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance's Pursuit and Kill Squad.

The Heretic Practitioners' Alliance was a place where even the seasoned masters of the martial world would yield.

And if it was the notoriously infamous Pursuit and Kill Squad, it was only natural to bow down.

But Namgung Hui was provoking them instead.

"Are you some kind of lacking young hero? They say a puppy doesn't know how to fear a tiger, and it seems they were talking about you. Haha! It's been a long time since I've heard such a provocation. Even the Four Divine Squads of the Martial Alliance yield to us."

"No way. The White Tiger Squad or the Azure Dragon Squad would be more than enough to deal with you, wouldn't they?"

"Judging by your way of speaking, you must be a righteous hero of the orthodox faction. Then let's see you stop us with that so-called righteous heart of yours. Hey guys. Go with plan B!"

"Yes!!"

As the order was given, the four members of the Pursuit and Kill Squad immediately scattered.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad leader who had given the order threw a hidden weapon from the front and threw himself at Namgung Hui.

And the remaining members immediately attacked Namgung Hui from the left, right, and rear.

It was a breath that fell like a knife, not something done once or twice.

-Swish! Swoosh!

Different weapons flew from Namgung Hui's blind spots.

The hidden weapon thrown at first seemed to be just to draw Namgung Hui's attention.

-Bang!

When it reached Namgung Hui's vicinity, it raised a thick black fog.

'A smoke bomb.'

Unlike the martial artists of the orthodox faction, the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance did not distinguish between means and methods.

They thought nothing of using such cheap tricks as smoke bombs.

On the contrary, they would think it foolish to be caught by such a worthless trick.

Namgung Hui immediately shot up into the air.

Unfolding the Wind God Step, he escaped the black fog in an instant.

Then, as if waiting for it, a tightly woven net flew from above his head.

-Swish!

It seemed Namgung Hui's body would soon be devoured by the pouring net.

Since he was floating in the air, there seemed to be no space to escape. At that moment.

-Swish!

Namgung Hui's body bent in mid-air and dodged the net.

His appearance was like watching the Kunlun Sect's Cloud Dragon Eight Forms.

'As expected, if I entrust my body to the wind, this is also possible.'

The technique Namgung Hui had unfolded was one of the important secrets of the Wind God Step, and its name was Wind Harmony.

It originated from the meaning of the body becoming wind.

As soon as Namgung Hui escaped the net, he immediately threw a Thunder Burst Palm at the black smoke.

-Rumble! Boom!

A scream followed the explosion.

"Gak!"

"Ugh!"

As the black fog was completely blown away by the Thunder Burst Palm, the appearance of the Pursuit and Kill Squad was revealed.

As befitting the infamous Pursuit and Kill Squad, they had deflected the Thunder Burst Palm from the front instead of taking it head-on.

Still, their limbs were not intact, and their combat power was somewhat reduced.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad did not just take it lying down.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad leader threw a series of daggers, and this time too, when they reached Namgung Hui's vicinity, they made a popping sound and released a pungent smell.

But unlike before, it didn't seem to be a smoke bomb.

Then what was the identity of this smell?

-Sizzle!

Seeing it burn and disappear in an instant in the Purple Thunder Ki, it seemed to be a poison.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad leader's expression had not changed even when his subordinates were hit.

But as Namgung Hui stood there unharmed, he showed a slightly bewildered expression.

"Don't tell me you have a top-grade poison-resisting pearl? How is the Soul-Chasing Poison not working?"

"Isn't the poison a defective product? I don't have any poison-resisting pearls. If you have anything else prepared, bring it out. You don't? Then this time, it's my turn."

Namgung Hui drew the Thunder God Sword.

He poured a huge amount of Thunder Ki into the Thunder God Sword and swung it.

With a strong sound of cutting through the air, beautiful petals scattered.

-Swish!

The sword ki drew a graceful curve and spread in various directions.

As if each petal had a will of its own, it accurately headed for the members of the Pursuit and Kill Squad.

Namgung Hui focused his mind to the extreme and controlled the petals.

-Zing zing zing!

His head throbbed from his overheated brain.

It was the result of using the function of the upper dantian to the extreme.

But Namgung Hui did not stop.

As if it were still bearable, he sent the petals through the enemies.

-Slice! Splat!

Some raised their swords to block the petals, but the members whose arms had been blown off by the Thunder Burst Palm could not.

Half of the four subordinates died on the spot.

Namgung Hui was not very satisfied with the result, as three, including the leader, still remained, but he was not discouraged.

'Still, the theory of the Heavenly Thunder Flower Rain was not wrong. This is something I can supplement later. I just need to reduce the consumption of internal energy and improve the connection with the upper dantian.'

Namgung Hui had improved the Heavenly Thunder Sword Art based on the incantations of the Plum Blossom Sword Art and the Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers.

The Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers was also a martial art that used the function of the upper dantian to the extreme to cover various directions.

It boasted a fatal effect, but the preparation process was too long.

Above all, it required a minimum of three sixty-year cycles of internal energy.

After one use, his internal energy would be depleted.

And on the battlefield, it would be difficult to handle the aftermath.

But Namgung Hui had no intention of shooting numerous hidden weapons into the sky like the Rain of Ten Thousand Flowers.

He reduced it to a bundle of sword ki and scattered it.

Each sword ki rushed at the enemy under Namgung Hui's control.

And in the end, the control was successful.

However, the power was not as satisfactory as he had thought, so the enemies had the capacity to block it.

"This sword art is not the Plum Blossom Sword Art. It's a sword art I've never seen before. Where on earth is your sect?"

The leader shook his tingling wrist and stared at Namgung Hui.

At first, he had looked down on him because he looked young, but every time he saw the martial arts Namgung Hui used, he couldn't help but be amazed.

Especially from the mysterious and beautiful sword art he had seen from the movement technique of twisting his body in mid-air, he had no choice but to acknowledge it, even though he was an enemy.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you my sect. Since it's a place that calls itself a mysterious sect."

"A mysterious sect? Could you be a successor of the Thunder Sect? It seems so. Since we were blocking the path to the Thunder Sect. You must be that Namgung Hui. Your effeminate appearance is also a perfect match."

"Who looks effeminate? What about you, who looks like a ruffian?"

"I once lived like a ruffian, so that's not entirely wrong. Then."

The leader, having realized Namgung Hui's identity, immediately turned his body and began to flee.

As soon as the leader fled, his subordinates immediately blocked Namgung Hui's path.

They unfolded forms that disregarded defense, as if their lives were not important.

'That man. He's going to call his comrades.'

It seemed there were comrades on other paths as well.

The injured members of the Pursuit and Kill Squad were no longer a match for Namgung Hui.

-Slice! Splat!

He slaughtered the members of the Pursuit and Kill Squad in just two forms and chased after the leader.

-Swish! Swish!

As he unfolded the Wind God Step, the leader's shadow soon came into view.

As soon as he felt Namgung Hui's presence, he blew the whistle hanging around his neck with all his might.

-Peeeeee!

A sharp and piercing sound spread through the mountain path.

Startled birds flew up with a flutter.

A moment later, the bushes shook, and the figure of a person was revealed.

His build was small, and he was wearing a mask, so it was difficult to guess his age and gender.

"Third Squad Leader! Did you find the enemy?"

"Yes. This man seems to be the successor of the Thunder Sect we are looking for."

"Good. It was worth guarding this place for a fortnight. I'll take care of the rest. You go and report to the Alliance."

"Yes! Squad Leader."

A Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader would be one of the few key positions in the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance.

He looked a few levels higher than the elder of the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance he had faced before.

The fact that the temple between his eyebrows, visible through the mask, was becoming smooth again told him that it had been a long time since he had reached the peak.

In other words, he was heading towards the state of returning to the origin.

'For a martial artist of the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance, his ki is pure. This is unexpected.'

Namgung Hui could not continue such an impression.

Because the man called the leader was about to flee.

To let a man who roughly knew the location of the Thunder Sect go like this?

No matter how mysterious the formation of the Thunder Sect was, it was unknown when it would be broken.

There was no law saying that the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance did not have a master of formations.

Or they could mobilize a huge amount of Thunder Burst Bombs and destroy the sect.

That was why Namgung Hui immediately gathered his internal energy and threw a Thunder Dragon Palm.

Now that he had reached the 9th star of the Purple Thunder Divine Art, a single dragon dyed in purple flew swiftly like a shot arrow.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader, as if he had expected this, blocked the Thunder Dragon, but the Thunder Dragon, like an eel, dodged the Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader's sword strike and pierced the leader's back.

-Crack!

"Gurgle...!"

Since his heart was pierced, he could not live.

Since he had been hit by the destructive Thunder Ki, not some other ki, his heart would have been crushed and lost its function.

A pungent and fishy smell of blood soaked the mountain path.

As the Pursuit and Kill Squad leader fell helplessly, the Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader who was watching clicked his tongue and said.

"Well, well. He was a competent subordinate, but I've lost him in vain. What was that technique just now? How can it change its path at will? It shouldn't be possible to manipulate objects from a distance."

Manipulating objects from a distance was a technique possible only after reaching the state of transcendence, beyond the super-peak.

That was why it was not strange for the Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader to completely rule out that possibility.

However, since Namgung Hui had more than reached the state of transcendence in his past life, it was not impossible to reproduce it, although it was somewhat difficult.

Moreover, if he used the magnetic property of the Purple Thunder Ki, he could more than make up for the lack of subtlety.

The result was the appearance of the Pursuit and Kill Squad leader lying there now, so there was no room to doubt its effectiveness.

"Just think of it as me having learned a demonic art."

"Demonic art? The Thunder Sect, although a mysterious sect, is far from demonic arts. On the contrary, it would be a martial art more mysterious and pure than that of an ordinary sect."

"You know a lot about the Thunder Sect. Where did you hear that..."

Namgung Hui stopped talking and immediately swung the Thunder God Sword.

Since he had used many martial arts that consumed a lot of internal energy, such as the Thunder Burst Palm, it was not good to drag out the time.

As his cultivation improved, the power of his forms increased, and the consumption of internal energy for each technique also increased.

'I'll have to get an elixir to increase my internal energy soon.'

Currently, Namgung Hui had a little over two sixty-year cycles of internal energy.

Considering that he was only in his early twenties, it was by no means a small amount.

And wasn't it the Thunder Ki, famous for being pure enough for even his enemies to acknowledge?

But since he was always fighting multiple enemies alone, even this felt insufficient.

The Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader, facing Namgung Hui's fierce sword momentum, also swung his sword.

A fierce and fast sword art unfolded from his hand.

Namgung Hui tilted his head at the familiar sword art, but since the situation was not favorable, he put aside his appreciation.

-Kang! Kang! Kang!

Sword lights rained down, and the aftereffects of the sword ki bounced off into the bushes.

Rocks were shattered, and trees were broken, and the mountain was gradually turning into ruins.

Namgung Hui, not wanting the appearance of Mount Huang, which he had grown fond of, to change like this, decided to settle the score at once.

'This time, I'll discard the experimental forms and go for a sure thing.'

Namgung Hui circulated the Purple Thunder Ki throughout his body.

It was called Electrode Opening.

-Ziiing!

His whole body was overloaded, and his skin began to tremble.

His extremely heightened nerves led Namgung Hui to another world.

Time flowed slowly.

As if trapped in an eternity, he felt everything in detail, from the natural scenery to the enemy's breath.

Namgung Hui was a being who moved freely alone in that eternity.

He deflected the Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader's fast sword in an instant and stabbed his sword into his lungs.

-Stab!

It was a successful hit.

His whole body was burning hot from the Thunder Ki and the overload, but this much was bearable.

No, he had to endure it.

If he couldn't handle a mere squad leader of the Heretic Practitioners' Alliance, it would be difficult to survive in the future.

"Cough! What in the world is this? How did you... my Four Suns Sword Art..."

"Wait? Four Suns Sword Art? What do you mean? As far as I know, the Diancang Sect... Don't tell me!"

It seemed the Pursuit and Kill Squad Leader was the last descendant of the Diancang Sect.

(End of Chapter)