Seomun Hwa-rin saw it.
A pillar of white lightning stretching from the ground toward the heavens, a column that joined earth and sky.
It was a fair distance away, but the strike had been so intense that even from there, it was impossible to miss.
Not only Seomun Hwa-rin, but even the White Peak Mountain King, who had been locked in a life-and-death duel with her, flinched for a moment and turned to look.
Everyone present knew the truth. That wasn't real lightning—merely the afterimage of pure Aura.
But the imagery contained within it, that fierce Intent, made them perceive a simple afterimage as lightning.
Fast and powerful.
It is not the Principle of Strength of the Flow that I speak of. To express this, a slightly different name would be needed.
Yes. If forced to define it—defeat.
A sword swung with everything one has staked upon it; if it is blocked, then no matter what one does, one cannot win against that opponent, so it is a sword that gives no thought to what comes after.
In a way, it is an Intent that leans toward the Unorthodox Sects, but since one willingly stakes oneself on a single sword, in essence it can be said to belong to the Orthodox Sects.
Such an extreme and pure Intent shares the same grain as that wielded by the overlords of regions where Orthodox and Unorthodox Sects are mixed together.
For example, the Sa-il Sword Technique of the Diancang Sect.
…Or the Heavenly Thunder Divine Art of the Seomun Clan.
"Ah."
What escaped Seomun Hwa-rin's lips was a single sigh, but countless words rose and vanished in her mind.
'He truly… truly managed to do it.'
'Even if it wasn't a restoration but his own way of filling in the gaps, that alone was beyond my reach.'
'I had hoped for this ever since he displayed the Heavenly Thunder Divine Art, but this is too fast—far too fast.'
'Wait. Has he already defeated the Slaughter King?'
'Then…'
There was so much she wanted to say to Cheon Hwi, so much she wanted to ask, and she wanted to shower him with praise for a job well done.
But wasn't there something that needed to take priority over all that?
The other side had fallen silent, as if no more battle would come. The white heavenly thunder that Cheon Hwi had summoned was no longer visible, but that sight remained etched in her eyes.
Seomun Hwa-rin had spent a long time studying the Seomun Clan's secret arts, striving to reproduce them and fuse them into her own martial art.
And now, suddenly, the answer key had been thrust before her.
It did not take long for her, who had wandered for so long, to find her own answer.
"Damn it. Nothing ever goes my way!"
Having grasped the situation, the White Peak Mountain King turned and fled without a moment's hesitation.
The Slaughter King was dead, Seomun Hwa-rin seemed to have gained some enlightenment, and Cheon Hwi was about to join the fray.
That he had no chance of victory had already been proven in their last fight, so there was no reason to hesitate and no leisure to try anything else.
A swift and sound judgment.
Even as a Harmony Realm martial artist, he thoroughly observed the principle of yielding to the strong and preying on the weak—a bearing befitting his position as the Green Forest's chief innkeeper.
But that alone was not enough.
Seomun Hwa-rin, as if possessed by something, settled into a stance. Unlike usual, she put her strength not into her fists but into her legs.
Her foot swept the ground in a semicircle once. And then.
Thunk.
One foot sank into the earth up to the ankle. To firmly brace against something.
In the blink of an eye, Seomun Hwa-rin's body began to move as she fixed her gaze on the White Peak Mountain King, who had already put considerable distance between them.
KRA-BOOM!
A sound familiar to her, yet more thunderous than ever before, and Seomun Hwa-rin's figure vanished.
"What the—!"
Seomun Hwa-rin closed the distance she had just created. The White Peak Mountain King's mouth fell open at the sight, as if the intervening steps had simply been skipped.
The last image etched into his trembling, fear-ridden pupils was—
A crimson bolt of lightning descending upon the crown of his head.
***
A single stream of blood flowed from his severed neck. The moment the spilled blood soaked his collar, the Slaughter King's body, split clean in two, tumbled across the ground.
"Huk!"
His breath came in belatedly. The blood he had spilled was barely a few drops, yet all his strength drained from him as if every drop in his body had been poured out.
The concentration and Intent he had drawn upon too heavily. Movements that strained even his sturdy body, tempered through Bone-Exchange Rebirth. The chilling realization that if he had been even a moment slower, his neck would have been severed.
And the realization that, having overcome all of this, he had actually brought down the Slaughter King.
"So it works…"
He had known it would. And he had known that, if he executed it properly, he could win.
But now that he had actually done it, why did he feel so strangely hollow?
Surely it was because he had experienced too much in too short a time, leaving him momentarily dazed.
However, this was not yet the time to rest easy. This matter had been settled one way or another, but Seomun Hwa-rin was likely still in the thick of her own fight.
He shook his head violently to clear his mind, then tightened his grip, which had unconsciously gone slack.
Grrk.
Clutching his sword tightly, he headed toward where Seomun Hwa-rin was.
…And then he saw it.
Seomun Hwa-rin, darting out like a bolt of red lightning, bringing down a leg raised high.
THWACK!
The fleeing White Peak Mountain King's head was smashed to pieces, and his masterless body collapsed limply to the ground.
"Huuuh…"
The White Peak Mountain King was especially sturdy even among Harmony Realm martial artists. True to his Green Forest origins, he had cultivated his External Arts to the extreme, and the more recklessly he fought, the thicker his Protective Qi became.
But his opponent was bad, and the situation was bad.
The Leg Technique Seomun Hwa-rin had just displayed. Surprisingly, it was something from my memories.
Before the regression. In other words, from my perspective it was the past, but from Seomun Hwa-rin's standpoint, it was a Technique she wouldn't master until roughly seven or eight years later.
It came with a huge opening, but the Power of a single strike was second to none.
Probably stronger than the blow I had used to bring down the Slaughter King.
Blocking it was meaningless. Having taken that Leg Technique head-on—one that could only be dodged—it was hardly strange that the White Peak Mountain King's crown had caved in and then vanished entirely.
After all, he had mastered a martial art that only grew stronger the longer he fought, yet here he was, stopping the battle and fleeing.
Having struggled all the way here only to find the situation already resolved, I felt a hint of emptiness.
"By the way, has she already grasped the feel of it?"
The strike that brought down the White Peak Mountain King was a Technique that Seomun Hwa-rin, far more seasoned and skilled before the regression, had casually called her own secret art.
I hadn't witnessed it many times, but I remembered that every time she unleashed it, even Martial Artists at the same Harmony Realm would flinch and retreat.
Thanks to that, aside from the Lord of the Black Alliance, no other Harmony Realm Martial Artist of the Black Alliance had shown any interest in the Iron Blood Faction.
And yet, to think she'd mastered such a Technique this quickly.
I was naturally gifted in this area and had a reference answer to consult, but Seomun Hwa-rin had no such advantage.
…Or not? Maybe she'd gotten a clue from the sword I'd just displayed?
Even after mulling it over, no clear answer came to mind.
If I didn't know, I could just ask, couldn't I?
Normally, prying into someone's martial art and Enlightenment like this would be quite rude, but we were people who had already succeeded in restoring the Heavenly Thunder Divine Art together and unfolding its Mystery in our own ways.
A question like this should be within bounds.
I nodded and sheathed my sword, meeting the eyes of Seomun Hwa-rin, who was staring down at the White Peak Mountain King's corpse with a dazed expression.
Hmm. I knew that feeling well. I'd been feeling it just moments ago, so how could I not understand?
I curled the corners of my mouth into a grin and waved my hand toward Seomun Hwa-rin.
"I was faster, Senior Seomun Hwa-rin."
"You!"
As if my gesture had snapped her out of it, Seomun Hwa-rin came running toward me, calling my name.
No, wait. What had clearly started as a brisk jog had somehow turned into a full-on sprint. Far from slowing down, she was now running at nearly full speed.
"Hey, hey, calm down, Senior Seomun Hwa-rin. I understand you're happy, but…"
"You!"
Far from slowing down, Seomun Hwa-rin was now even using her internal energy to close the distance. She reached me before I could even finish my sentence, then leaped into the air.
A ridiculous pose, limbs spread wide in midair. It was the very image of a flying squirrel, and I couldn't help but admire it for a moment.
Thud!
With a rather violent impact, Seomun Hwa-rin came down from the air and wrapped her entire body around my face.
Her arms squeezed so tightly I could barely breathe. Her legs coiled around my torso like a snake eyeing its prey, and her soft cheeks pressed against my head again and again.
Anyone looking at her would think she was completely unable to contain her emotions.
Having Seomun Hwa-rin show this much affection was both grateful and heartwarming—clearly a good thing, no matter how I looked at it.
Tang So-wol, who doted on Seomun Hwa-rin like a little sister despite her being more than twice her age, would have been a little envious.
However, there was one critical problem here.
Unlike Tang So-wol, Seomun Hwa-rin's chest… how should I put it… was a bit lacking in shock-absorption capability.
To put it more plainly, it wasn't very soft.
In other words.
Colliding at this speed hurt. A lot.
"You there! Did you see that?! Thanks to you, the Cheonroe Divine Art! The Seomun Clan's secret art will see the light of day again before long!"
"Ugh…"
"We're still far from fully restoring the Cheonroe Divine Art, but thanks to you, I was able to grasp the core principle behind it, so it's only a matter of time!"
"I'm grateful for your assessment, but…"
"Ahh! I never imagined a day like this would come! I… I was certain I would have to struggle alone for at least another ten years before I could lay the foundation to rebuild the Seomun Clan!"
"Would you mind stepping back for a moment?"
"It would be no exaggeration to say that thanks to you, my life has changed… Hm? Step back? Don't say such disheartening things all of a sudden. Won't you rejoice with me a little longer? Isn't this an achievement we accomplished together?"
"That is true, but…"
A hint of embarrassment. And mindful of Seomun Hwa-rin, who would be even more embarrassed than I was, I continued in as calm a tone as I could manage.
"I'm getting a nosebleed from overexerting myself. I'm worried I might dirty Seomun Hwa-rin's clothes."
"…Ah."
Despite my roundabout phrasing, Seomun Hwa-rin understood perfectly—as she always did at times like this.
She released my head, which she had been holding, with a voice full of gloom.
"I'm sorry… Let's stop the bleeding first…"
"Yes…"
The joy, pride, and gratitude that had been overflowing just moments ago vanished somewhere, leaving only Seomun Hwa-rin staring down at her chest with a gloomy expression.
And yet, she had just defeated the Green Forest's Chief Commander and the Slaughter King—opponents one could hardly even meet, let alone bring down. Was this really the mood for it?
So, to lighten the atmosphere, I patted Seomun Hwa-rin's shoulder with the brightest tone I could manage.
"Your ribs are quite sturdy."
"Shut up."
I got scolded.
Why…
***
Although Seomun Hwa-rin's mood had sunk slightly over a trivial reason, if I'd won the fight, there was something I ought to do afterward.
Namely, searching the corpses.
…If they were the White Peak Mountain King and the Slaughter King, they might have some important information on them. It was a bit undignified, but it was necessary.
That was how I found the Heavenly Demon's letter in the Slaughter King's bosom.