Myst, Might, Mayhem - Chapter 408

Chapter 408 – Heavenly Demon (5)

The Profound Realm, which can be called the supreme state.

It means that one’s enlightenment about martial arts has reached the heavens (profound).

Countless martial artists who hone their skills strive their entire lives to reach harmony beyond the wall and touch the heavens.

However, only a very few reach that harmony, and even fewer reach the higher realm of touching the heavens.

The reality was that many couldn’t surpass the stages of first-rate, peak, and transcendent even if they devoted their whole lives, but among these numerous martial artists, there were undoubtedly born geniuses.

Bi Jung-seon, the current Heaven and Earth Society Leader, was one such genius.

He walked a smooth path with his innate martial talent from a young age and reached the Transformation Realm without ever hitting a wall of enlightenment.

[……Indeed. So that’s how it is.]

This was his father’s reaction to his talent.

His father, who had never shown proper interest in his mother or himself to the point of seeming heartless, changed from the moment he crossed the wall.

He even personally guided his martial arts training to help him become stronger.

At first, Bi Jung-seon was skeptical of his father’s interest, which only appeared when he was twenty-nine.

However, as his father’s attention and care continued, he didn’t dislike it and became even more devoted to martial arts. After great effort, he reached the Profound Realm, called the supreme state.

[Ha…… Hahaha! Hahahahahaha!]

On the day he reached the Profound Realm, he was overjoyed.

Although his path upward had been smooth until then, reaching the Profound Realm was different.

He too had hit a wall and stagnated for a long time.

But after overcoming that hardship and gaining enlightenment, breaking through the wall to reach a state that only three in the current martial arts world had achieved, it was natural that he couldn’t contain his joy.

[Father! Father!]

Bi Jung-seon thought his father would be greatly pleased when he learned of this.

He rushed to tell his father with excited expectations, but,

-Flinch!

Bi Jung-seon discovered a new face he had never seen on his father before.

[Indeed…… Indeed, that’s how it is.]

His father’s eyes and face as he answered as if pleased were not of pride towards his son.

It was closer to the look of a predator or plunderer eyeing their prey.

Yes, it was greed.

Reading this incomprehensible, alien emotion from his father, contrary to what he had expected, he became trapped in an even longer stagnation than before from that day on.

***

After the day of the great calamity, the martial arts world entered a long period of stagnation.

Although many martial arts texts and records from the old martial arts era were lost, the few remaining ancient books revealed that there existed an even higher realm beyond the Profound Realm which is also called the supreme state.

That was the Life and Death Realm.

[The extreme realm that can be achieved if one can transcend their will at the boundary between life and death.]

Three ethereal swords made of utterly transparent energy forming around Mok Gyeong-un.

They were undoubtedly Invisible Swords.

The plaza below stirred greatly as some recognized this.

“This can’t be……”

“Invisible Swords?”

Invisible Swords.

A technique only possible for those who have reached the extreme of swordsmanship, requiring not just an understanding of swords but also enlightenment about energy beyond the Profound Realm.

Which means,

“L-Life and Death Realm!”

Those who knew of the existence of the Life and Death Realm couldn’t hide their shock.

There was no doubt.

The three Invisible Swords that Mok Gyeong-un was now displaying showed that he had reached the Life and Death Realm.

-Clench!

Young Master Na Yul-ryang’s fist tightened at the sounds of exclamation and shock from around.

‘Mok Gyeong-un…… You……”

His mind wasn’t closed, so he acknowledged that the other had become stronger than him.

However, within that acknowledgment, he had thought it was only possible because Mok Gyeong-un had gone outside the Heaven and Earth Society and encountered various opportunities.

That’s why he thought Mok Gyeong-un had reached the Profound Realm before him.

But now, to hear that he had surpassed the Profound Realm and reached the legendary Life and Death Realm that even his master, the current Society Leader, hadn’t reached, he was so angry he felt sick.

‘……Were you playing with me?’

From the beginning, he had reached a realm where he could kill him in an instant.

Yet he didn’t, and he didn’t reveal this.

Just from that, Na Yul-ryang could understand.

That he no longer existed in that guy’s eyes.

‘You, to me! Keuuuu.’

It’s frustrating.

This is the first time in his life he’s felt this frustrated.

He thought he finally had a worthy rival, but that was just his own delusion.

‘Young Master……’

Mo Yak’s heart ached seeing him like this.

Seeing her lord Na Yul-ryang, who had never lost confidence for a moment and was so arrogant, feeling jealous and suffering because of someone like this, her heart hurt.

Why did such a monster appear before Young Master Na Yul-ryang, who was called a genius that might appear once in hundreds of years?

Mo Yak looked up at Mok Gyeong-un floating in the air above the plaza.

-Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un moved.

The moment he extended his sword forward,

-Swish!

One of the three Invisible Swords beside him rushed towards the Society Leader.

Its speed was so fast that its form disappeared as it moved, making it difficult to see with the naked eye.

However, to the Society Leader facing him,

‘It’s coming.’

He could clearly see the Invisible Sword aiming to pierce his chest in one go.

As the Society Leader extended his sword, four of the twelve Sword Riding Energies spread like wings around him overlapped like a shield, and,

-Chaaaaaang!

Blocked the incoming Invisible Sword.

-Paaang!

However, even though he blocked the Invisible Sword by crossing four Sword Riding Energies, its power was so strong that the Society Leader’s body was pushed back.

‘To this extent.’

The Society Leader inwardly stuck out his tongue.

He had expected it to have power surpassing sword energy since it was a Invisible Sword called the extreme of swordsmanship, but it was beyond that.

And,

-Woong!

‘Side!’

As he stretched his hand to the Society Leader’s right side, four Sword Riding Energies unfolded sword techniques as if four masters were launching a joint attack, creating dozens of sharp trajectories.

-Pa chi chi chik!

Blue sparks flew like lightning between those trajectories as one Invisible Sword was forcefully breaking through.

‘If there’s no gap, you’ll create one by force?’

-Flinch!

The Society Leader’s eyes, which had been sticking out his tongue, turned somewhere.

-Swish!

The Society Leader hurriedly moved his left hand holding the sword.

Then two of the remaining Sword Riding Energies guarding his side flew in the direction where the Society Leader extended his sword.

-Shu suk!

There was no one there, but,

-Chang!

Someone appeared in the middle of the Sword Riding Energies’ trajectory and struck them down.

It was Mok Gyeong-un.

Mok Gyeong-un, who had reached a realm where he could handle Invisible Swords, had already reached a level where he could traverse space with super-high-speed movement regardless of ground or air, and if one were to be careless even for a moment here, they would lose track of his whereabouts.

However, befitting his title as one of the Six Heavens and a great master who had reached the extreme of the Profound Realm, the Society Leader exerted superhuman concentration.

-Chang!

Not only did he block the Invisible Sword that Mok Gyeong-un had swung directly after suddenly penetrating right in front of him with his treasured sword Predestination, but he also sent two Sword Riding Energies rushing towards Mok Gyeong-un’s back and left ribs.

Of course,

-Pa cha cha chang!

Mok Gyeong-un easily deflected the two Sword Riding Energies just by tracing a full moon-shaped trajectory with his Invisible Sword.

And not stopping there,

-Pat!

In an instant, he struck the Society Leader’s right shoulder with his left hand holding the sword, and,

-Puk!

“Kuk.”

-Clang!

Made him drop his treasured sword Predestination from his hand.

With his right arm temporarily numbed by the sword energy penetrating his shoulder, the Society Leader had no choice but to create distance.

“Ha!”

The Society Leader swung his sword towards Mok Gyeong-un with a shout.

Then the twelve Sword Riding Energies around him all flew in at once, forming a formation to target Mok Gyeong-un’s major vital points.

‘Twelve Sword Heaven Formation 3rd Form: Infinite and Endless!’

The power of this combined sword formation created by the Sword Riding Energies surpasses normal techniques.

This won’t be enough to defeat Mok Gyeong-un.

However, it should at least buy time to create distance from him.

But,

-Cha cha cha cha cha chang!

The twenty-four forms of the 1st technique of the Demonic Sword Technique that Mok Gyeong-un unleashed with his Invisible Sword created exquisite sword trajectories, blocking the formation of the twelve Sword Riding Energies.

Not stopping there, as the 2nd technique followed, emitting sword energy, the Sword Riding Energies couldn’t escape from the interlocking trajectories and eventually lost their power and were deflected.

-Pa cha cha cha cha chang!

As a result, nearly half of the sword hilts were even destroyed.

‘This……”

As blue energy and sword fragments scattered in all directions like oxidizing, Mok Gyeong-un’s Invisible Sword penetrated through, and,

-Chwak!

“Kkeup!”

Cut off the right arm of the Society Leader who was trying to create distance somehow, like lightning.

Only when the Society Leader’s arm was cut off did the two figures become visible to the naked eye, causing exclamations and sighs to cross below the plaza.

‘H-He did it!’

‘To cut off the Society Leader’s arm!’

Those who exclaimed were the supporting forces who had decided to follow Mok Gyeong-un.

They had been unable to contain their tension as it was a battle with the Society Leader, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society and its strongest master, but the moment they saw the Society Leader’s arm being cut off, they couldn’t help but burst into cheers.

“Waaaaaah!”

On the other hand,

‘Aah……”

The side filled with sighs was in a completely opposite mood.

It was a battle between the peaks of the martial arts world who had received the old and new titles of Heaven, a life-and-death competition between absolute beings who had reached the highest realms of the extreme of the Profound Realm and the Life and Death Realm.

Although Mok Gyeong-un, the new Heaven called the Heavenly Demon, had reached the Life and Death Realm, the Society Leader had been at the peak of the martial arts world for a long time, and his vast experience couldn’t be ignored, so those watching couldn’t help but hold a glimmer of hope.

However,

‘This can’t be……”

‘As expected.’

The gap coming from their realms.

It was something that even the Society Leader, called the current peak of the martial arts world, couldn’t overcome.

In the end, can’t he surpass the wall of the Invisible Sword, the extreme of swordsmanship?

-Swish!

Mok Gyeong-un aimed his Invisible Sword at the Society Leader’s neck, as if to finish the match.

Then the Society Leader, pressing an acupuncture point to stop the bleeding on his cut arm with somewhat rough breathing, shook his head and opened his mouth with difficulty.

“Grudges are truly frightening.”

“……”

“Did the anger towards that person make even a mere ghost-possessed body reach such a realm? Spirit, no, Ryu So-wol, the originator of the Moon Vein.”

‘!?’

At these words, Mok Gyeong-un’s eyes sharpened.

He had thought that the Society Leader, being from the Heaven Vein clan, might know something, but he didn’t expect Cheong-ryeong’s real name to be mentioned from his mouth.