Chapter 276
Seon Woo Baek steadied his breath.
Then he moved in fast toward Wi Cheol Ho.
Fwash—
It was the Flowing-Grace Divine Steps of the Heaven-Shaking Supreme Primordial Fist.
In a blink, Seon Woo Baek slipped right up to Wi Cheol Ho and dumped the qi he’d gathered into both palms.
“Heaven-Shaking Twin Tigers Palm!”
Crack—
No time to dodge?
Wi Cheol Ho took Seon Woo Baek’s strike full-on.
Spectators decided he simply wasn’t able to put out his real strength this time.
But that wasn’t it.
He bled off all the force?
His opponent had let the power of Heaven-Shaking Twin Tigers Palm wash past, minimizing the shock.
At the same time, as Seon Woo Baek pressed into his arms’ reach, Wi Cheol Ho began to counter.
Give up flesh to take bone?
Thinking on it, the reason he’d acted weak until now was probably exactly this:
let overconfident foes crash in and land one, then hammer them in the instant they relaxed.
Seon Woo Baek slipped past the counter and slammed a shot into the ribs.
“Heaven-Shaking Tiger Prime Palm!”
Crack—
It landed clean again, but with the power all shunted away, the damage was shallow.
“Whoa! Shincheon Manor’s pressing like a storm!”
“He’s eaten two clean hits already. This is gonna end in a whimper!”
“Right—he looks fine on the outside, but inside won’t be.”
“Call it—Shincheon Manor wins.”
Was he too keyed in?
Snatches of the stands’ chatter reached him.
Seon Woo Baek smirked inwardly.
People who don’t know—don’t know anything.
In that brief moment of drifting thought—
Whoom—
“—!”
Feeling a chilling surge, he yanked himself back—Wi Cheol Ho’s fist whipped past his nose.
Kra-boom—!
It piledrive’d straight into the floor.
Crack—
The bluestone—supposedly tough as iron—split open.
That was how much power sat in that fist.
Whistle— barely kept my head.
It looked like a simple, form-less punch, but it wasn’t.
Each of those was a killing strike.
Thunk-thunk—
Wi Cheol Ho wrenched his fist out of the floor and stared at Seon Woo Baek with an affectless face.
A straight-up, by-the-book fight wouldn’t be easy.
What do you need then?
A change-up.
You have to hit at a timing the opponent won’t expect.
“Like a little rat.”
“Huh?”
So he could talk?
He hadn’t spoken a word till now—Seon Woo Baek had thought he couldn’t.
“So you can talk.”
“You... I don’t like you.”
“Why? Planning to kill me?”
“Yeah. I’m going to kill you.”
A chill.
That wasn’t a joke.
The killing intent wavering off Wi Cheol Ho’s body said he meant it.
Whoom—
A powerful aura poured off him.
For the first time in this tournament, Wi Cheol Ho showed his true face.
—Not yet. Hold back!
He ignored a teammate’s voice whispering in his ear and slowly loosened his body.
“We’ll start with you.”
Start what?
Fwash—
“—!”
At a speed wholly unlike before, he closed the gap and launched a brutal barrage at Seon Woo Baek.
The old Seon Woo Baek would’ve frozen in a sudden turn like this and lost.
Not now.
Time with Yeon Woo Jin had given him experience beyond imagining.
Compared to that, Wi Cheol Ho’s rush was nothing.
Papapapat—
Their exchanges kicked back up.
Seon Woo Baek parried a fist flying for his face and slipped inside.
“Supreme Primordial Heaven-Breaking Art!”
Thump—
It connected clean again—but barely did damage.
As expected.
In truth, Supreme Primordial Heaven-Breaking Art was bait.
The real strike was the one right behind it.
“Heaven-Filling Supreme Primordial Wave!”
Crack—
“Kh—!”
This time he felt it bite deep.
Wi Cheol Ho’s body bent like a bow and lifted off the ground.
As he hung there, Seon Woo Baek chained the next form.
“Supreme Primordial Ascending Kick!”
Thud-thud-thud—!
Every strike landed on the airborne Wi Cheol Ho.
“Wooo!”
“This one’s in the bag!”
“Did you see that? He chained into a different art from the same posture!”
With the roar of the crowd, Wi Cheol Ho hit the floor and rolled.
Flump—
The referee sprinted to him as he lay there.
Just as the ref reached to check him—
Wi Cheol Ho sprang to his feet.
A line of bright blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
“Are you all right?”
“Move.”
“What?”
“I said move.”
“You brat—right now—”
Leaving the flustered referee behind, Wi Cheol Ho charged Seon Woo Baek.
“You little bastard! I’ll kill you!”
For the first time, emotions bled through his voice.
Vmmm—
Red astral qi gathered over his fists.
“Die!”
Bwooong—
A spear of force shot straight from his fist toward Seon Woo Baek.
Using Flowing-Grace Divine Steps, Seon Woo Baek slipped through the lines and closed.
“Rat bastard!”
All worked up, Wi Cheol Ho.
Which made him easier for Seon Woo Baek to handle.
Since closing on the rampaging man wasn’t easy, Seon Woo Baek chose ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) to strike from range too.
“Supreme Primordial Meteor Fist.”
Tu-tu-tu-tut—
Fist-qi burst out and streaked for Wi Cheol Ho.
He batted the incoming blasts aside and came barreling in.
Just as Seon Woo Baek wanted.
As he drew close, Seon Woo Baek flickered in with Flowing-Grace Divine Steps—
and fired a palm-force at once.
Chung—
“Huh?”
Wi Cheol Ho blocked the palm-force with astral qi and instantly countered!
Seon Woo Baek twisted aside, slipped the punch, clipped the low line to break balance, then fired Supreme Primordial Ascending Kick again.
Thud-thud—
As the third strike was about to land—
Snap—
Wi Cheol Ho clamped onto Seon Woo Baek’s leg.
A razor-edge instant.
Seon Woo Baek planted a palm on the ground and spun his body.
Whirr—
Snap—
Riiiip—
At the same time, the fabric at his trapped calf tore free and his leg slipped out.
Riding the spin, Seon Woo Baek struck Wi Cheol Ho and shoved him back.
Thud-thud—
It was rushed, so the power wasn’t great.
He attacked, then flipped away to open distance.
His seized calf throbbed.
A glance down—skin had been torn away, blood running.
Not only the fabric but the flesh itself had ripped.
Wi Cheol Ho lifted the strip of Seon Woo Baek’s flesh left in his hand to his mouth and chewed.
“Now the match result doesn’t matter. I’ll eat you.”
Then he pulled something from his robe and dumped it into his mouth.
The referee jumped in to stop him.
“Stop! Ingesting anything during a match is forbidden!”
“Shut up.”
“By a referee’s authority, Wi Cheol Ho is disqualified for a rules violation—”
“Bullshit. Move.”
Crack—
“Guhk!”
Wi Cheol Ho blasted the referee away with a savage strike and lunged straight for Seon Woo Baek.
Sensing something ominous in the aura pouring off him, Seon Woo Baek set his stance, his face hard.
His opponent had lost his reason.
Whatever he’d swallowed, it had to be a pill that spiked qi for an instant.
People would be coming to seize Wi Cheol Ho for breaking the rules and attacking the referee.
Before that, he had to deal with the man charging to kill him.
The momentum was monstrous—but he wasn’t afraid.
Calmly, watching Wi Cheol Ho rush in, he drew up his inner power.
“Die!”
Whoom—
Boom-boom-BOOM—!
A devastating blow crashed where Seon Woo Baek had been and detonated.
But he was already gone.
He’d driven forward through the attack.
In a flash, inside—Seon Woo Baek’s palm touched Wi Cheol Ho’s abdomen.
“Supreme Primordial Qi-Release Art.”
Hwaaak—
A blinding light flared from Seon Woo Baek’s hand—an overwhelming surge blasted out.
Chung—
Centered on the touch, flesh rippled outward like waves—
and light erupted from Wi Cheol Ho’s seven apertures.
The glow vanished. A breath of silence fell.
In the distance, Mount Hua’s Plum-Blossom Swords were racing in to subdue him.
Wi Cheol Ho stood there staring blankly into space.
Then—
Hrk—
He spat black blood—and collapsed.
Thud—
The Plum-Blossom Swords ringed his fallen body and leveled their blades.
The referee sprinted back and checked him.
Fulfilling his duty, he stood and declared:
“Shincheon Manor’s Seon Woo Baek — win!”
At his cry, thunderous cheers detonated across the arena that had fallen silent.
“Wooooaaah!”
“That match was insane!”
“A real life-and-death duel, huh?”
“When that maniac flooded the place with killing intent, I was sweating bullets.”
“He downed some strange pill, didn’t he? What was that?”
“Something that spikes qi for a moment, surely.”
“More than that—he was this strong and pretended to be weak till now?”
“We all got completely played.”
“And Seon Woo Baek—damn. He beat a guy who even took a pill.”
This win sent Seon Woo Baek’s name soaring.
The referee glanced at Seon Woo Baek’s leg.
“Get that treated. Now.”
“Understood.”
He cupped his fist and turned to go—
“Graaah!”
A beastly bellow tore the air behind him.
KRASH— BOOM—!
“Kh!”
“Guhk!”
He whirled back—Wi Cheol Ho, eyes gone red, was rampaging through the Plum-Blossom Swords.
“Subdue him!”
To subdue him, they rushed in—and Wi Cheol Ho hurled savage strikes without rhyme or reason.
His reason was already gone.
Even when the Plum-Blossom Swords cut him, he didn’t care—he raged on.
Thunk—
A blade sank into him, and with the sword still in his body, he blew a Plum-Blossom Sword’s face apart.
Thud—
“Guhk!”
The death of a Plum-Blossom Sword.
That was the start.
A wounded beast against Mount Hua’s ready blades—
“Sever his limbs!”
At the order, their faces hardened.
As they closed to hack off his arms and legs—
Kra-boom—
Boom— BOOM—!
Explosions and screams ripped out from the waiting area where the next Divine Dragon competitors stood by.
“Gyaaah!”
“Guhk!”
Seo Bukpae, a late-generation of the Scholarly Corps, and Cheon Baek Gang, a late-generation of the Zhongnan Sect, were down and bleeding.
Their attackers were the very men set to face them in the Round of Sixteen—Golden Flower Gate’s Shin Ho Won and Dao Immortal Gate’s Gwa Tae Sang.
With the ambush, the two never even mounted a response.
And the remaining people in the waiting room—they started hacking at them indiscriminately.
Boom— boom—
Kra-krash—
Blast after blast shook the waiting room—pandemonium.
The crowd’s heads snapped that way in unison—and they saw a slaughter.
“Wh-what the hell!”
“Are they insane?”
“Why are they doing that all of a sudden?”
In the sudden uproar, the Plum-Blossom Swords’ attention swung that way too.
It shouldn’t have.
“GRAAA—!”
Because right here stood the rampaging Wi Cheol Ho.
“Damn—!”
That instant of inattention—
was a matter of life and death.
By the time they snapped back to him, it was too late.
A Plum-Blossom Sword stood at the brink of death under Wi Cheol Ho’s sudden lunge—
Then—
Chjang—
Someone flashed in and saved the man in peril.
Seon Woo Baek.
“Are you all right?”
The rescued Plum-Blossom Sword nodded gratefully.
“Th-thank you!”
“I’ll help as well.”
With that, Seon Woo Baek charged Wi Cheol Ho.
The Plum-Blossom Swords rushed with him.
Seon Woo Baek slipped past Wi Cheol Ho’s blows and pressed in.
Crack—
A single palm smashed into the ribs.
Wi Cheol Ho’s figure wavered.
Crack—
Another palm drove into the gut.
“Kieek!”
Wi Cheol Ho staggered.
Shra-shra-shrak—
As he reeled—
the Plum-Blossom Swords’ blades skimmed across his body.
Fwash—
Blood geysered from his arms and legs.
Wi Cheol Ho’s severed limbs toppled to the floor with him.