Chapter 102

So this is what it means to be a brat.
Krrrrrr.
A venomous growl escaped from the corners of his mouth. I couldn’t help but curse the creature inwardly as it opened its gaping maw, which wouldn’t be strange if it were to greedily chew me up and swallow me in one bite.
Kwaang!
The earth-shaking gills of the creature sliced through my body in one swift motion. In a split-second, the pit caved in, showing me that I could disappear without a trace if I messed up.
I couldn’t even estimate its size, though it seemed to be several ships long. I couldn’t help but click my tongue at the sight of the creature I’d only heard about in legends.
Holy shit.
Kaang!
I put down my broken sword and tried to slash at the creature’s scales with the tip of the blade I’d gotten from the Kunlun School, but it didn’t work.
Even then.
Kagagagagagang!
I’m beginning to wonder if this is the time to use the word “ugly”, but even dozens of sword winds didn’t work. How could I not make a single strike?
But regardless of my frustration, the creature was attacking me again. It was no mistake that its scales were transparent, their color shimmering and mysterious like obsidian, and that the horns on its forehead seemed harder than its molars and two-pronged beard.
His eyes glowed with a gleam as if he had been waiting here for a thousand years to become a dragon.
“I told you this would be your last time before you ascend.”
The crackling blood glow of the dragon in front of me froze my heart, as if I were facing a white light.
If it weren’t for the teachings of the previous Adeptus.
Quadruple quadruple quadruple!
I would have been torn to pieces by the sheer force of his rush.
And I was bouncing three or four steps in the air.
At the same time, the tip of my sword began to emit auspicious energy.
* * *
The Yunlong Great Eight Formation.
The Taihe Dao Dragon Sword Method.
The Great Eight Steps of the Cloud Dragon, an arcane ritual of Kunlun that allowed him to take eight steps in the air, like a dragon walking in the clouds.
His sword, which could slay and cut down dragons, was all he had.
And yet.
“You mean you’ll pass them on to me.”
The secrets of a family and a sect were treasures and symbols of significance, and it made no sense to pass them on unless one was of the same sect or family.
“Who can say what I am to say, since I am a long-lived man.”
They try to convince me with such absurdities. Ki-sung-ja, like Kwang-seung, was a crazy malko master. He said they were playing with each other.
They looked at each other, chuckled, and then turned to face Jingalzhuhu, who shook his head.
“I’m not like that.”
Standing next to him, Jegaljuhu shook his head with a smile of disbelief.
Then he said.
“But that doesn’t mean I don’t agree to teach you.”
When Heavenly Qi Jiajue spoke up, I shook my head in disbelief.
“You must be practicing the martial arts that are deeply ingrained in the Southern Palace.”
I replied to Zhuge Linghu’s words.
“That’s right.”
“But does it truly contain only the principles of the Southern Palace?”
I couldn’t answer that question as straightforwardly as I had just now.
“Not the masters, not the masters, and not you. Beside you is Fang Family’s Sojourner, and that man who looks like a killer.”
Jingalzhuhu spread his fingers and drew a circle.
“The way they draw these circles is the same, but the thoughts they contain are different, just as the sword is all about slashing and wielding, but the vessel it holds is different.”
It was hard. I wonder what it means.
“Was it difficult.”
“…… teach me.”
“So you’re saying that all martial arts have the same source. How we interpret it, how we receive it, how we evaluate it is different, but it all starts the same. Perhaps the end is not so different.”
Each and every word of Wu Nanshi Zhen Zhu Hu’s words shattered my layers of prejudice. The idea that all martial arts come from the same source resonated deeply.
“So even if they tell you their own festivals, you can’t just copy them. The energy in your body will operate in a different way, and you’ll have different ideas about how to receive it.”
It dawned on me.
“You mean that I must decipher the mystery and its meaning on my own terms.”
“Excellent.”
Zegalzuhu smiled with satisfaction.
Afterward, he familiarized himself with the mystery and meaning of the extreme Taihe Dragon Sword Technique that Qi Sheng had unfolded, and unleashed it.
“……Tianfeng.”
Isn’t this the same Heavenly Wind I’ve never been able to reach? The path of the Southern Palace, the path of the Heavenly Wind, which I had thought I would never have a connection to, and the path of the Heavenly Wind, which seemed the most distant of the six, became clear to me as I mastered the Taihe Dragon Sword Technique.
“It’s good to know that my deficiencies are being filled.”
I jumped for joy, but as if that weren’t enough, Qi Shengjia went on to demonstrate a divine technique before my eyes. It was the first time I’d ever seen a jingxin technique.
“Kunlun, at the end of it is the Yunlong Great Eight-Fingered Technique.”
“Even more than the Taihe Dragon Sword Technique?”
“That’s right.”
Letting out a light breath, Qi Shengjia fluttered his robe sleeves and jumped up high. His steps were as light as those of a master who had just finished drinking, and his elasticity was indescribably feathery.
Then.
“……!”
He stepped out of thin air.
“Don’t look at the trees, look at the forest. I’m guessing that all you have to fight with is your sword.”
“……Yes.”
Kyokushinjutsu, which refers to the whole movement, refers to body movements.
Among them, Bojutsu could be a deliberate approach to an opponent or a focus on reading and evading an opponent’s attacks.
“Are the muscles used in Bo and Shin different?”
They weren’t. I shook my head.
“Then is it different to make the body fly?”
Not really, either, since the more the body flies, the better it is to evade an opponent’s movements.
“Then why make a distinction.”
This was new. He took a few steps in the air, then leaped, landing behind me in an instant, and then dropped away from me as if folding space. It never fails to reach where it wants to reach at the same time.
That was the mysterious power of the Unyielding Eight Eyes.
“You can’t advance without breaking your limits. The Southern Palace’s sword is indeed excellent, but it cannot be advanced to the exclusion of all other mysteries and reason.”
The Thousand Households.
The highest expression of the Southern Palace’s divine law. Named for the fact that a thousand miles of road can be traversed like the front yard of a house, it must have been a fitting name for a divine law.
Infinite steps.
You can attack and dodge as you wish, with endless strides, so it’s hard to imagine a more efficient technique.
However, I had a different take on these two divine laws. What if I could play with a thousand li paths as if they were my own backyard, and contain my opponent within them with the mysteries of the Infinite Bo.
That led me directly to a realization.
The so-called.
The Heavenly Wind Divine Method.
A new story unfolded as the mysteries of the unrelated Heavenly Wind were added to my steps.
* * *
As I began to unleash the Heavenly Wind Divine Technique, I stared at the Kyou Dragon, the Muklin Blood Net, and began to dodge its movements.
I dodged every blow it threw at me with its gaping jaws, and I could read the momentum of its tail as it stretched out in a dizzying flurry.
At the same time, I raised the tip of my sword.
Kagagagagagagak!
He dodged the tail’s momentum with the Heavenly Wind Divine Technique and looked at the creature’s crown.
The most prominent of the creature’s less visible features was its horns, and even as I gazed at them vaguely, I realized that they were there.
Crrrrrrr!
I barely managed to keep the tip of my sword upright and deflected it at an angle.
I’m not going down this easy.
I could sense an ethereal aura behind him, none other than the Three King Spirits.
Seeing it, I straightened my will. I raised the tip of my sword once more.
The flesh of its tail flew at me, stronger than the black beast’s grasp. I dodged with the Heavenly Wind Divine Technique and spun in midair.
The creature’s movements were worthy of the word spirit. The hairs on my body stood on end at the sight of its gills and eyes staring down at me from below.
It had been waiting for the right moment. To tie me down so I couldn’t get away.
For my time in the air to be over, with my mouth open.
Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh!
I gritted my teeth as soon as I saw the gaping, abysmal maw.
* * *
“Even so, his scales are said to be as strong and thick as iron, which means that he can repel even the strongest of blows.”
I remembered my conversation with the Adeptus just a few days ago.
“You’re not confident, you’re intimidated by a mere mortal who can’t speak, even though he’s a spirit.”
“That’s not what he said,” I said, and was about to add my own words, when I realized he hadn’t finished.
“He did not become a dragon. He wanted to be an auspicious dragon, but he was too greedy. That’s why he guards the Three Kingdoms and waits for the Taoists to come. The auspicious power of the Taoists will soon be turned into Tao power, and he preys on it to fulfill what he cannot.”
My jaw dropped at the unfamiliarity of the words.
“Taihe Dragon, ironically, the sword that slays the dragon in the sky has become the secret season of Kunlun.”
“……I don’t know.”
“He and we are one and the same.”
“Is such an existence acceptable to me?”
“Of course.”
The Old One smirked.
“Where there is an end, there is a beginning.”
I didn’t understand all of it, but I had learned the mechanics of the Taihe Dragon. Kunlun’s will was transferred to me, and I was able to channel its energy into my sword.
And it was.
“Power is not to be used so casually. The power you unleash may intimidate your opponent, but it won’t kill him with a single blow. The opponent’s tension will be just as high.”
Paradoxically, I could recall a story that Huang Boqiong of the Netherworld had told me.
The Taihe Dao Dragon’s True Killing Will, each and every one of which is a one-hit kill, made me realize how I had to extend my sword to pierce the scales of a spirit that didn’t even hold a sword.
* * *
Kagagagagagagang!
I drove the tip of my sword into it. With the will to kill.
It was a technique from the Taihe Dragon Sword Technique.
It was the Thunder Emperor Divine Sword that matched the energy of the Taihe Dragon.
My Thunder King Divine Sword, which was like a deadly sword technique, unfolded strike after strike, piercing through its scales.
Keeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Its screams pierced through the caverns above. I began to burst with thunderbolts.