The plan itself had succeeded—while the Murim Alliance Leader and the Lord of the Black Alliance held onto a portion of the Heavenly Demon's power, and the Sword King held the Heavenly Demon's gaze from the front, I—the only one capable of piercing through the Heavenly Demon's Protective Qi—would strike with all my strength.
Indeed, for the first time, the Heavenly Demon moved his physical body rather than his Qi, and at the same time, the true form of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art, which had until now stood still and merely attempted to cross the line I had drawn with the Heavenly Demon's Dominating Step, also moved.
With the heart as my sword and my will as the guide, there were no restrictions on the blade I wielded.
Even if I closed the distance, and no matter how thick the Qi that stood between us, if it was something that could be cut, it would eventually be cut.
In fact, I had managed to penetrate a little over half of the massive Qi fist.
But.
Heavenly Demon Breaking the Heavens
The moment that single word of Intent resounded, every plan I had prepared for this moment, every optimistic prediction that had been quietly rising, all of it turned to nothing.
The demon's fist, half severed—no, his entire arm swelled up enormously, creating a turbulent maelstrom of complex energy.
The disciple of the Blood Flame Fist Demon, who had used the Blood Explosion Art I'd seen before, had created a violent and dizzying flow of Demonic Qi through repeated rampages—but this was far more intense, filling the surroundings completely.
Full power was, literally, full power. There was no retrieving the sword I had swung.
The moment I opened my eyes wide at the chill running down my spine.
The vision stained black, the world covered in Demonic Qi, began to erupt in explosions both great and small.
A silent rupture came surging in.
The sword that had been swinging tried to cut down the approaching death, and it did cut, but the gap was instantly filled by another explosion of Demonic Qi.
In the end, it was a moment of watching the chain of Demonic Qi explosions approach right before my eyes, having resigned myself to death.
"You there!"
A thunderclap buried in the sound of the explosion. And Seomun Hwa-rin's voice, clear even through the roar.
Her small hand grabbed the back of my neck and quickly pulled me away.
Of course, this alone couldn't evade the Heavenly Demon's strike. The Thunder Step was specialized for sudden acceleration, so it could only buy a brief distance—eventually, we'd be caught. But.
"—————!"
Seol Ri-hyang's song rang out from behind me. Following it, a chill so intense that even a body that had achieved the state of imperviousness to cold flinched swept through like a storm, clashing with the Demonic Qi.
Kka-gagak!
A deafening roar rang out right in front of me. The evidence of massive amounts of Aura grinding against each other and shattering repeatedly snapped me back to my senses.
"I'm going to lose my mind."
Pouring out my internal energy and Intent at full power, I barely managed to steady my drained body and put some distance between us.
Only then could I take in the full picture.
Even at this very moment, the Demonic Qi kept exploding and destroying itself, expanding its Power and range—while a wave of cold held it back through sheer volume of pure internal energy.
Faced with a scene that looked like the world had split into black and white, even I couldn't help but be stunned.
"What the hell is this…"
"Enough, just move for now! If we stay here, Hyang-i won't be able to go all out."
"…You're right."
I quickly moved toward the source of the cold—behind Seol Ri-hyang—where others had already arrived.
The Murim Alliance Leader stared at his broken staff with a bewildered look, while the Lord of the Black Alliance clutched his limp arm.
And Namgung Dowi, who had barely stemmed the bleeding with Acupoint Sealing.
All of them were in less-than-optimal condition, yet their minds were not on their own bodies.
Seol Ri-hyang's cold had grown harsher as I pulled away from the clash, but even so, it was being pushed back little by little.
At this rate, her energy might be swallowed by the Demonic Qi—the thought made me grip my sword again, ready for whatever came next.
Fortunately, the Demonic Qi that had seemed as if it would burst forth endlessly subsided before long, and Seol Ri-hyang also withdrew her internal energy while gasping for breath.
She had somehow managed to endure. But the expression on Seol Ri-hyang's face, who had accomplished this absurd feat, was dark.
"Are you alright?"
"…I'm fine, Cheon Hwi. But I won't be able to block this a second time."
Saying this, Seol Ri-hyang showed the Millennium Ice Crystal she held in one hand.
The Millennium Ice Crystal, which had clearly been slightly larger than a fist, had already shrunk to the size of a fingernail.
The inner core of a divine beast, capable of making the surrounding environment resemble the North Sea, had been nearly exhausted just to block a single punch.
As Seol Ri-hyang said, blocking it a second time in the current situation would be difficult. But.
"Still, it's fine. Judging by the look of things, the Heavenly Demon can't just spam attacks like that one."
The auras of the Heavenly Demon and Seol Ri-hyang had long since vanished, but their aftermath remained, leaving the view shrouded in dust.
Yet, looking up, one could see the form of the demonic fiend, having lost one arm, among the rubble of the shattered Heavenly Demon Hall.
Heavenly Demon Splits the Heavens. As the name suggested, its power was utterly devastating, but it was not without a price.
It was an Aura of a massive demonic fiend's form, created through the Heavenly Demon Divine Art. A power that could only be unleashed by tearing off one of its arms.
Even as a one-armed man, the fiend stared at this side with a fierce gaze. I swung my sword toward the Heavenly Demon below it.
It wasn't a strike with enough force to cut through the Heavenly Demon's Protective Qi. But it was more than enough power to settle the dust cloud obscuring the space between us.
Whoosh!
Beyond the scattering dust, the Heavenly Demon appeared unharmed.
His expression remained calm, as if he were evaluating this side. Yet unlike his indifferent gaze, his voice carried a hint of admiration.
—Impressive. To think you could block this lord's technique. I knew you possessed the Pure Yin Constitution, but only now do I realize it holds such potential.
"Hmph. I only blocked an incomplete technique."
Seol Ri-hyang hid her exhaustion and let out a snort.
Indeed. The Heavenly Demon's strike from moments ago—the Heavenly Demon Heaven-Crushing Wave—was an attack whose sheer destructive power defied imagination… but it was an incomplete martial art with clear limitations.
Originally, the Demonic Qi should have exploded upon explosion, growing fiercer and swelling in size.
But at some point, the Heavenly Demon's energy began to destroy itself, and thanks to that, Seol Ri-hyang was able to endure until the very end.
"Even so, I say it was admirable. This is a technique I created to one day face the heavens—to deal with those who live above, beyond the reach of mortals."
"…Who knows. Seeing that it was stopped at my level, even if you somehow managed to ascend to the heavens, I suspect you would have lost in the end."
Seol Ri-hyang's expression momentarily hardened, but she forced a calm facade and bluffed.
Of course, this wasn't an attempt to intimidate the Heavenly Demon with false bravado. It was merely a way to soothe herself.
The Heavenly Demon likely knew this well, but instead of responding to her clumsy bluff and provocation, he gave a small nod.
"Perhaps so. My best efforts, my years and toil, everything I am—perhaps it is all insignificant when viewed from up there in the heavens."
Even as he spoke, the demonic figure rising above the Heavenly Demon began to distort.
It was like a well-crafted clay sculpture being crushed and mashed underfoot.
But the demonic figure that had been crushed like that soon regained its lost arm, its size now noticeably smaller than before.
Where one would have had to crane one's neck to take in its full form, now a slight upward glance sufficed.
It had maintained its original shape, but had shrunk by the amount of the one arm consumed by the Heavenly Demon's Heaven-Splitting technique.
If only it had stopped there.
As the Heavenly Demon slowly settled into a stance, the demonic figure forged by the Heavenly Demon Divine Art followed suit, mirroring the same posture.
A basic fist stance—feet spread shoulder-width apart, both fists resting at the waist.
But I already knew. When Intent reaches its peak, form matters little.
A lightly swung sword can be as heavy as one pleases, and it is Intent that bends even the swiftest, straightest thrust.
Unlike the Namgung Clan, which pursued the very principle of the sword itself, I stood firm on my own will alone.
The Heavenly Demon, too, to express his will to the world—no, to have his will shatter the world—must have needed to return to the basics.
A sense of kinship with the Heavenly Demon. And a sense of crisis that surpassed it. I raised my sword as well.
My left foot stepped half a pace forward, my right foot turned outward to plant firmly on the ground, and the hand gripping the sword stretched far back.
A posture like drawing a bowstring, or the moment before hurling a spear.
Knowing that a slash could no longer block the Heavenly Demon's fist, I chose the thrust.
Before the Demonic Qi could chain-explode and tear the world apart, I would pierce through it and quell it.
Intent and internal energy, focused solely on that purpose, began to refine at the tip of my sword.
Woong—
A strike meant to pierce, not to draw a line.
Those who caught my intent took their places beside me one by one, each unleashing their own martial art.
The Murim Alliance Leader extended his aura along the broken staff, restoring it to its full length.
The Lord of the Black Alliance abandoned his twin spears and gripped a single long spear in his one remaining good arm.
Namgung Dowi, coughing blood, still deftly assumed a thrusting stance similar to mine.
Seomun Hwa-rin let her body go limp—but that was preparation to unfold the principle of the Thunder Blade through her fists.
Just as Seol Ri-hyang had stood guard before us, this time I stood guard before her.
Though none of us were in peak condition, the Heavenly Demon also seemed heavily drained, so I judged we could withstand at least one exchange.
Each of our Intents and energies surged, our senses sharpening to the extreme.
Unlike the suddenness of before, this time I pushed my Heaven-Piercing Eye to its limit to properly observe the Heavenly Demon's martial art.
The Heavenly Demon's fist began to move once more.
…And then I saw it. The demonic avatar of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art tearing away half of its own body.
And within that Demonic Qi, I sensed two distinct energies.
"Ah."
A raging torrent that even the Heaven-Piercing Eye could not read—not even the Flow, let alone its nature. Utterly simple, yet absolute chaos.
But it wasn't my eyes that warned me—it was instinct. The experience honed by walking the line between life and death as a martial artist, and the memories of the Heavenly Demon I had glimpsed, whispered to me.
That this was not a flow of mere chaos like the Blood Explosion Art or a Qi Deviation.
The Heavenly Demon, through endless regressions, had mastered every martial art there was to learn.
Not only the martial arts of the Daoist and Buddhist schools, but even those of the various clans and renowned wandering swordsmen.
All to compensate for his lacking talent, and thus to bring down the Divine Beast.
But in the end, the Heavenly Demon's inner landscape twisted, and whatever martial art he learned turned into Demonic Qi.
If the Heavenly Demon had shown the Sword King the mysteries of every martial art he had ever mastered—
Then this was surely the nature of all his internal energy, crushed and fused into a single mass.
The Taiji of Wudang, the Full Bloom of Huashan, the Thunderclap of the Paeng Clan, the Vast Sky of Namgung, the Extreme Poison of the Tang Clan, the Compassion of Shaolin, the Righteousness of the Beggars' Sect, the Demon-Subduing of Kunlun, the Drifting Clouds of Zhongnan, the Four Absolutes of Jeomchang, and so on.
The true essence contained within each martial art. The fundamental nature that naturally resides within one's internal energy becomes bound by the intense gravitational pull of Demonic Qi, fusing everything into a single mass.
Things that should never mix become mixed, returning to the state that existed before they were divided.
From Nine Palaces to Eight Trigrams, from Eight Trigrams to Seven Stars, from Seven Stars to Six Harmonies, from Six Harmonies to Five Elements, from Five Elements to Four Symbols, from Four Symbols to Three Powers, from Three Powers to Yin and Yang.
And the divided Yin and Yang return to a single, unified Origin.
Primordial Chaos.
The ideal that the Heavenly Demon Divine Art strives toward is the world before the world—the state that existed before all things were divided.
This was a single strike that would open a new heaven and earth.