Paaaaah!
The sword energy that scattered into hundreds of points of light in all directions was unmistakably the aura of the Heaven-Axe Sword.
‘Since its nature didn’t change, it wasn’t Breaking Nature after all.’
Baek Incheong’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the Demon Emperor.
‘Indeed. If he had unfolded the Limitless Power on just that one move, he wouldn’t be the Demon Emperor.’
“Your martial arts are impressive.”
Even though the might of the Heaven-Axe Sword had been rendered ineffective, Baek Incheong instead let out a hearty exclamation of admiration.
For someone like the Demon Emperor to react immediately to this kind of attack…
It proved that his injuries were far deeper than expected.
He could no longer manifest that transcendent, formless power and was forced to continue the fight relying only on materialized, tangible techniques.
‘He’s holding back the Limitless Power. He can probably unfold it only once.’
This was the conclusion Baek Incheong had reached after ceaselessly observing him and running tens of thousands of calculations.
And just as Baek Incheong had predicted, after blocking merely a single move, the momentum radiating from the Demon Emperor’s body had noticeably diminished.
“Try receiving another one.”
Swallowing a triumphant smile, Baek Incheong instantly closed the distance.
Immediately, hundreds of sword energies soared skyward from the Azure Sky Fan Sword, then coalesced into a spiraling gale that enveloped the Demon Emperor’s body.
It was the power of the Wind-Cloud Sword, one of the ancient treasured swords attached to the Azure Sky Fan Sword.
Kwaaaaa!
The Demon Emperor’s robes fluttered violently as if they would tear apart, trapped inside the raging whirlwind.
This murderous wind possessed not only enough force to rip a physical body to shreds, but also the terrifying ability to instantly disperse the inner energy contained within an opponent’s body.
Purrrr.
Suddenly, something mysterious happened.
As if he had become as light as a feather, the Demon Emperor’s body drifted and swayed gently along with the direction of the whirlwind. The sharp sword energy of the Wind-Cloud Sword began passing straight through his body without resistance.
‘He’s using the principles of martial arts to alter its nature.’
Baek Incheong’s eyes flashed.
The Demon Emperor had employed a principle similar to the Shifting Heaven’s Force, softening the fierce, cutting attribute of the Wind-Cloud Sword’s whirlwind so that it passed harmlessly through him.
‘But his expression remains completely relaxed.’
Paaat!
As if he had been waiting for exactly this moment, Baek Incheong closed the distance again and unleashed another barrage of sword techniques.
The Demon Emperor had suffered grave injuries so he could not properly manifest that fearsome Limitless Power.
Seizing this opportunity, Baek Incheong intended to use materialized martial techniques to sever his head in one decisive strike.
Shwaaaaek!
The Azure Sky Fan Sword spun at high speed and descended toward the crown of the Demon Emperor’s head like a rolling wheel.
Unable to directly neutralize such an attack in his injured state, the Demon Emperor shifted his body to the side.
‘I can win.’
A joyous smile spread across Baek Incheong’s face.
No matter how injured he was, for the Demon Emperor, the terror of the world, to be forced to dodge an attack by moving his body?
If he could maintain this advantage… then he, Baek Incheong, could bring down the great demon whom no one in the world could defeat.
“Haaap!”
With a shout, Baek Incheong alternated between the powers of the Heaven-Axe Sword, Wind-Cloud Sword, Heavenly Fortune Sword, and Heavenly Flower Sword—four treasured swords in total—pressing the Demon Emperor relentlessly.
This tactic was immensely powerful but consumed an extreme amount of inner energy and stamina. Therefore, he could not afford to drag the fight out for long.
Kwaaa! Paaa!
Baek Incheong swung with all his might, as if intending to tear the Demon Emperor’s body apart.
Faced with the relentless, suffocating barrage that left no room to breathe, even the Demon Emperor finally seemed to lose his footing, and took a single step back.
Psssh!
At that moment, an unexpected attack erupted.
From the Azure Sky Fan Sword that had been slicing through the air, countless points of light transformed into a cloud-like current and poured down upon the Demon Emperor’s body.
It was the ultimate technique of the Azure Sky Fan Sword he prided himself on: Cloud Beyond the Azure Sky.
Just as the phrase meant “beyond the dark clouds lies a clear, blue heaven,” within the countless illusory shadows, razor-sharp killing points pierced toward the Demon Emperor’s vital acupoints.
‘Block it quickly.’
Baek Incheong wore a triumphant smile.
This terrifying sword form was, in truth, an illusion technique.
By matching the opponent’s defensive movements, he could read their opening and sever their throat in an instant.
The third form of the Heavenly Severing Sword Three Styles—Absolute Stillness and Extremity.
This was a secret art Baek Incheong had mastered through grueling training while dreaming of becoming the next Alliance Leader—a transcendent technique that unleashed two razor-sharp killing forms in a single motion.
Thud.
Suddenly, the Demon Emperor stopped moving entirely.
It seemed he had seen through the fact that the sword forms Baek Incheong unleashed were designed to expose openings precisely when the opponent reacted.
‘Even if you see through the feint, it doesn’t matter.’
Baek Incheong’s lips curled upward.
If the Demon Emperor chose not to move, that was fine too.
The Cloud Beyond the Azure Sky technique he had unfolded as a feint still carried enough destructive power to crush even a mountain in one blow.
It would be more than enough to rip apart the now ordinary, mortal body of the Demon Emperor.
Hwaaaaak!
In an instant, the sword energy of Cloud Beyond the Azure Sky enveloped the Demon Emperor’s body.
Watching this, Baek Incheong suddenly felt something strange.
No matter how powerful one’s protective qi might be, no one could withstand bare-handed the concentrated four-hundred-year inner energy of a divine sword like the Azure Sky Fan Sword.
In a life-or-death situation, anyone would at least struggle, flail, or try something, anything.
Yet the Demon Emperor simply stood there, calmly watching the technique descend upon him?
‘There’s something.’
Baek Incheong was also a master who had awakened the Limitless Realm’s beginning step. Sensing the anomaly, he secretly activated the profound art he had been cultivating.
A mysterious Daoist secret technique that allowed him to perceive time several times slower than an ordinary martial artist.
He unfolded the Heavenly Inquiry Enlightenment.
Whoooosh.
As soon as Heavenly Inquiry Enlightenment activated, his mental processing accelerated dramatically, and time began to flow almost infinitely slowly.
In that half-frozen moment, his mind was filled with confusion while still pouring out the technique.
Should he continue with the killing form? Or should he switch techniques and quickly protect himself?
—The Demon Emperor is not the kind of person to gamble with his life.
No matter how injured he might be, he was still the Demon Emperor.
Before such a great demon who could see through every human scheme and calculation, even the slightest mistake was unforgivable.
Kwaaaa!
Baek Incheong instantly withdrew the sword technique he had been unleashing and focused on protecting his own body.
Chachachachak.
Hundreds of sword energies transformed into wing-like layers and wrapped tightly around him.
But that was a grave mistake.
Siiik.
The Demon Emperor wore a faint smile.
Victory, defeat. Life and death.
None of those things held any meaning to him.
Because he was a great demon who treated not only the lives of others, but even his own life, as nothing more than a game.
‘Oh no.’
Baek Incheong inwardly let out a cry of alarm.
In the end, he could not shake off the doubt in his heart and switched from attack to defense.
The doubt and fear that had arisen in his mind created a massive obstruction and with it, a critical flaw appeared in his martial arts.
Pat.
The Demon Emperor flicked a finger wind.
That sharp finger wind slipped through the gaps in Baek Incheong’s layered sword energy and lightly touched his chest.
Puk.
It was merely a shallow cut that tore the fabric of his clothing yet Baek Incheong felt as if his heart had been pierced.
He had merely harbored a single moment of doubt.
He had merely been struck by a single finger wind.
Yet all of his absolute confidence vanished in an instant.
Suddenly, it felt as though every single one of his movements was being manipulated within the Demon Emperor’s grasp.
If things continued like this, no martial art he used would matter.
In the worst case, the crack in his spirit would even cause his inner energy to decline.
‘I absolutely cannot lose.’
Baek Incheong was not just any martial artist—he was the Divine Might Corps Commander of the Martial Alliance and a leading candidate for the next Alliance Leader.
If he challenged an injured Demon Emperor and was then effortlessly repelled and forced to retreat?
It would crush not only the morale of the Martial Alliance but of the entire Righteous Faction.
‘No choice.’
Baek Incheong bit his lip until it bled.
Any commander leading thousands of troops always prepared for the absolute worst.
The reason he had sealed off the pass before challenging the Demon Emperor was to set a trap that would ensure mutual destruction no matter what happened.
“Haaap.”
Suddenly, Baek Incheong thrust the Azure Sky Fan Sword deep into the ground.
Uuuung.
A tremor that shook heaven and earth began, and the surrounding scenery started to distort.
At the same time, faint hazy currents flowed in from somewhere and were absorbed into his body.
It was the pride of the Divine Might Corps, the Combined Power Formation, a formation already believed to have been lost to the martial world.
What Baek Incheong had prepared as his trump card was the Concentrated Power Divine Might Formation—a formation that gathered every ounce of power, including inner energy, from multiple people into a single individual to unleash a devastating attack.
Kukukukuku.
Baek Incheong’s body gradually swelled into the form of a giant, rising toward the heavens.
The eight thousand martial artists he had brought to activate the Concentrated Power Divine Might Formation… he intended to concentrate the full power of every member of the Divine Might Corps to strike the Demon Emperor.
“If you can block this, then victory is yours.”
In the gigantic Baek Incheong’s Azure Sky Fan Sword, countless points of light continued to gather endlessly.
It was the concentrated power of eight thousand martial artists.
Even the Demon Emperor would not be able to withstand such an attack unscathed.
“Farewell!”
Flash!
At last, a force that split heaven and earth descended from the sky.
Only then did the Demon Emperor seem ready to unleash his Limitless Power. Radiant light bloomed from his body as he swept both hands forward.
But the Azure Sky Fan Sword carrying the combined might of eight thousand people struck faster.
Kurrrrrr.
In the place where the Demon Emperor had stood, a massive crater dozens of meters wide appeared.
The surrounding air evaporated completely.
“Huff… huff…”
Breathing heavily, Baek Incheong’s heart pounded as if it would burst.
He could no longer sense any life response from the Demon Emperor inside that pitch-black crater.
‘Done!’
That meant this single strike had erased the Demon Emperor so completely that not even proof of his existence remained in the world.
“Corps Commander!”
At that moment, the subordinates who had been lying in wait with the pass sealed rushed out in a flood.
“We did it!”
They too sensed victory and ran toward Baek Incheong, cheering wildly.
Even though he had been injured, to annihilate the Heaven of the Demonic Path in a single stroke…
Now, the path to becoming the Martial Alliance Leader by unanimous consent lay wide open.
‘Once I completely master the secret arts of the previous Alliance Leaders, I will surpass even the Heavenly Emperor… Then only the throne of the world’s number one will remain.’
“Uhahahaha!”
Unable to contain his joy, Baek Incheong burst into laughter.
There could be nothing better in this world.
Having enjoyed every glory a martial artist could hope for, he felt there was nothing left to regret.
“Truly, no regrets…”
As he continued speaking, Baek Incheong’s expression turned strange.
The faces of the subordinates who had been cheering for him had frozen stiff.
It was as if time had stopped.
The skin of the running subordinates gradually turned the ashen gray of corpses.
“Why are your faces…”
The moment Baek Incheong turned around—
Kung. Kung.
Suddenly, his subordinates collapsed to the ground like felled logs, becoming cold corpses.
Drip, drip, drip.
The fallen warriors had their hearts ripped out.
Around them, bodily fluids and crimson remnants were scattered everywhere.
Thump, thump, thump.
The sight of hearts still beating on the ground, abandoned by their owners… was pure hell.
“How…?”
“No regrets, was it?”
At that moment, a voice rang in his head.
When Baek Incheong turned his head, the Demon Emperor stood there calmly, gazing at him.
In both hands he held hearts still pulsing and spurting bright red blood.
“A martial artist should never rely solely on meticulous plans. No one can predict everything that might happen in the midst of battle.”
“Impossible.”
Hearing the Demon Emperor’s words, Baek Incheong finally realized something bizarre.
—This humble leader…
—I accept.
He had never said the words “I challenge you.”
Even the words he had intended to say back then were not “I challenge you,” but merely an excuse to justify the challenge.
Yet the Demon Emperor had spoken as if he had been waiting… as if accepting the challenge. And after that, everything that followed unfolded exactly as he had planned and predicted.
Struggling against the Azure Sky Fan Sword techniques instead of dying easily.
Being driven into a corner, then annihilating the concentrated power of eight thousand warriors.
Every single part of the plan matched what he had foreseen without the slightest deviation.
“So you already used the Limitless Power back then.”
Only now did Baek Incheong understand.
From the very beginning, the Demon Emperor had used the Limitless Power just once.
Through the mind-world, he had trapped Baek Incheong inside an illusion and while doing so, he had ripped out the hearts of all eight thousand members of the Divine Might Corps.
“This isn’t Breaking Nature…”
“Someone once said that to me.”
The Demon Emperor murmured lowly, recalling the blue-robed old man who had visited him not long ago.
“How much longer do you think that antiquated Breaking Nature will work?”
“Heh heh heh… Hahahaha!”
Blood tears streamed from Baek Incheong’s eyes.
He had been a fool.
Analyzing and exploiting an enemy’s weakness was not inherently wrong for a martial artist.
But if one intended to face the supreme master of the Demonic Path… one should not have rushed in merely because of rumors of injury.
One should have spent a long time analyzing him and preparing thoroughly.
Instead, he trusted the power of the Azure Sky Fan Sword and the Concentrated Power Divine Might Formation, and hastily led the warriors of the Divine Might Corps.
He couldn’t miss this golden opportunity.
He had to deal with the injured Demon Emperor before anyone else could.
In the end, that impatience, that ambition caused him to commit the absurd mistake of losing an entire corps of the Martial Alliance.
“You are a demon.”
Muttering lowly, Baek Incheong raised the Azure Sky Fan Sword.
Then, in a low voice, he said, “You too will surely receive your retribution one day.”
Puk.
And immediately he drove the Azure Sky Fan Sword into his own heart.
Thud.
Baek Incheong, who had long shaken the Martial Alliance as the Divine Might Corps Commander, ultimately ended his life by suicide.
“Hmph.”
The Demon Emperor looked down at Baek Incheong’s corpse with an expression of lost interest.
“Retribution, is it?”
Gazing at the distant sky, the Demon Emperor spoke coldly.
“This seat shall break free from the chains of Heavenly Principle and begin the transcendence beyond.”
Kroooom.
Shwaaaaa.
Suddenly the sky darkened and torrential rain began to pour.
The blood from the corpses scattered everywhere mixed together, forming rivers of red.
Flash!
As if the world were rushing toward its end, thunder and lightning struck again and again.
“This seat shall become the will of heaven and the law of the strong!”
The Demon Emperor’s shout turned into thunder born of terror, echoing across the entire world.
***
An unbelievable rumor spread through the martial world.
—The Demon Emperor single-handedly attacked the Divine Might Corps.
After his duel with the Sword Venerable, gravely wounded, he had been wandering the martial world alone yet suddenly, all by himself, he annihilated the entire force of eight thousand Divine Might Corps warriors.
But that rumor was soon corrected.
—The Demon Emperor did not attack the Divine Might Corps. Rather, Divine Might Corps Commander Baek Incheong ambushed the Demon Emperor and was instead annihilated along with his men.
When the truth came to light, the martial world was shocked… and the Martial Alliance suffered utter humiliation.
The position of one of the Seven Great Commanders of the Martial Alliance was not merely a commander. Each one was a pillar of the Martial Alliance and a candidate for the next Alliance Leader.
Yet one of them had ambushed the Demon Emperor while he was injured and as a result, an entire corps had been wiped out?
—Then the injury was false, and he deliberately lured the attack?
The martial artists were filled with doubt.
If the Demon Emperor had simply wiped out the Divine Might Corps Commander and his corps without reason, it would have been a grave matter that could ignite an immediate righteous-demonic war. But since the Divine Might Corps Commander had unilaterally led his corps to ambush the Demon Emperor… no responsibility could be placed on him, and instead, the Martial Alliance was left with an indelible disgrace.
—He definitely faked being injured.
The Martial Alliance gnashed their teeth.
They believed the Demon Emperor had deliberately spread rumors of injury to provoke them, then used a calculated scheme to deplete the Martial Alliance’s forces.
But soon, the Martial Alliance realized they had forgotten one crucial fact.
The Demon Emperor’s injury had been acknowledged by the Buddha Venerable himself.
A man who had never spoken falsely in his life, a pillar of the righteous path—there was no reason for him to deliberately spread such a rumor.
In other words, the Demon Emperor had been injured, yet he single-handedly annihilated Divine Might Corps Commander Baek Incheong and eight thousand troops in an instant.
—The Demon Emperor… is he now walking the path to become the supreme under heaven?
The Demon Emperor, Sado Muryeong.
Since emerging into the martial world, he had reigned undefeated.
The only one with whom he had never settled the score was the one called the Heavenly Emperor.
But as time passed, the paths of these two grand masters diverged dramatically.
The Demon Emperor had raised an excellent successor, and the Martial Soul Command Lord displayed invincible might every time he appeared in the martial world.
In contrast, the Heavenly Emperor had shown little activity and had yet to select the next Alliance Leader.
Ultimately, with this incident, the Demon Emperor once again shook the martial world with his existence as the sky of the Demonic Path and proved his power once more.
Unless the Heavenly Emperor stepped forward, there was no one left who could break the Demon Emperor’s momentum.
