Chapter 529

The two men stood facing each other.

The rear garden beneath the pouring rain.

The pond had already burst apart. The collision of the first exchange had scattered its water in every direction, leaving only a massive crater where the pond had once been. The pavilion lay scattered in ruins. Several trees had been torn out by the roots and toppled.

The first exchange.

A single exchange had done this.

That was what happened when a Mixed Origin Sovereign collided with another Mixed Origin Sovereign.

Kang Cheonwoo stood holding his sword.

Thunder Emperor.

One of the Ten Great Swords Under Heaven.

Its blade carried a deep blue-black sheen. The color of a sword holding lightning within it.

Tiny currents of electricity ran along the blade.

Crackle. Crackle.

Every time rain touched the sword, small sparks burst out.

Kang Cheonwoo had always shared a deep connection with lightning.

The sword he had given Unhwi was the True Flame Heavenly Spirit Sword.

That sword had been forged within lightning.

Its history was ancient as well.

At least several centuries.

No one knew exactly when it had been forged. There were even claims that it dated back to the Thousand-Year Chaos.

Kang Cheonwoo had handed that sword to Unhwi. Partly because he thought so highly of him, but also because he already had a sword of his own.

Thunder Emperor.

This was the sword that had marked the beginning of Kang Cheonwoo.

It had not originally been counted among the Ten Great Swords Under Heaven, but Kang Cheonwoo had always used it, and it had demonstrated durability and capabilities comparable to the other great swords. Because of that, it eventually came to be included among them.

And bringing it here today was Kang Cheonwoo’s declaration of intent.

Today, he was wagering everything.

Moreover, the true essence of the Thunderous Heavenly Heart Art lay in its swordsmanship.

Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art.

The sword art Kang Cheonwoo had completed when he reached the Boundless Manifestation Realm in the past.

He had used this sword and this sword art when he unified Sichuan.

And today, he was facing the world itself.

Gun Mugeol stood opposite him.

His slender sword flashed beneath the rain.

Clear Void.

Another of the Ten Great Swords Under Heaven.

Its blade was narrow.

Half the thickness of an ordinary sword.

Thin, yet unbreakable.

The internal power of the Northern Abyss Divine Art enveloped the blade, granting it both flexibility and toughness at once.

It was not the sword Gun Mugeol normally used.

He had brought it specifically in preparation for his battle against Kang Cheonwoo.

Gun Mugeol, too, had known this battle would come.

The two men faced each other.

In the middle of a rain-soaked night.

Standing amid the ruined rear garden.

Two Mixed Origin Sovereigns wielding two of the Ten Great Swords Under Heaven.

Kang Cheonwoo spoke.

“So that is Clear Void. This is the first time I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”

“I prepared it for this battle.”

“For me?”

“Indeed.”

Gun Mugeol raised Clear Void.

The long, slender blade split the falling rain.

“It would be discourteous to face a man like Kang Cheonwoo with the sword I normally use.”

Kang Cheonwoo grinned.

“A scheming bastard knows courtesy?”

“Even a scheming bastard is sincere before the sword.”

The power of both men rose.

At the same time.

Kang Cheonwoo moved first.

One step.

That single step split the earth.

He had stamped down with the full power of a Mixed Origin Sovereign.

Cracks spread outward in every direction from beneath his foot. Dirt and stone burst upward.

Kang Cheonwoo’s body surged toward Gun Mugeol.

Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art.

Lightning erupted from Thunder Emperor’s blade.

Real lightning.

Not lightning from the heavens, but lightning created by Kang Cheonwoo’s internal power.

Deep blue-black radiance wrapped around the sword, then stretched outward, vaporizing the rain.

Wherever Kang Cheonwoo passed, the rain disappeared.

It transformed into steam and billowed upward.

Gun Mugeol stood still.

He did not move.

Not until Kang Cheonwoo approached.

Fifty feet.

Thirty.

Ten.

Kang Cheonwoo’s sword crashed downward.

From above to below.

From heaven to earth.

The sword of the Overlord.

KRAAANG—!!

Amid the deafening impact, Gun Mugeol’s body vanished.

Free Roaming Step.

His body seemed to scatter like mist before gathering again thirty feet away.

It had not actually dispersed.

It merely appeared that way.

Free Roaming Step was a footwork art that moved the body like mist.

The instant an opponent’s attack reached him, his body vanished and appeared elsewhere.

Kang Cheonwoo’s sword split the empty ground.

BOOOOM—!!

The earth was torn open for a hundred feet.

Lightning erupted from where Kang Cheonwoo’s sword struck and spread in every direction.

That was the nature of the Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art.

When the sword struck something, thunder energy radiated outward from the point of impact.

The thunder energy spread through the rainwater.

It raced across the water covering the ground like an electrical current.

The thunder energy reached Gun Mugeol’s feet.

Crackle.

Gun Mugeol frowned and unleashed Free Roaming Step again.

He scattered like mist and reformed in midair.

He had risen into the air to avoid the thunder energy racing through the water on the ground.

From the air, Gun Mugeol moved Clear Void.

Six Yang Palms of Heavenly Mountain.

A palm art executed with a sword.

It appeared contradictory.

It was not.

The slender sword was an extension of his fingers, and in Gun Mugeol’s hand, Clear Void moved like a sixth finger.

Palm force shot from its tip.

Six streams of force poured toward Kang Cheonwoo.

Kang Cheonwoo raised his sword.

He swept Thunder Emperor sideways.

Lightning drew a semicircle.

BOOM—!! BOOM—!! BOOM—!!

Three of the six streams of palm force struck the lightning and exploded.

The remaining three flew toward Kang Cheonwoo.

He rotated his sword.

Twisting his body, he cut one apart, took another on his shoulder, and the last grazed his left forearm.

His clothes split.

Blood welled from his flesh.

Kang Cheonwoo did not even blink.

“Is that all you’ve got?!”

Kang Cheonwoo shouted with a laugh.

Still laughing, he raised his sword.

Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art.

Third Form.

Threefold Thunder Slash.

The sword descended three times.

Along the same trajectory.

At the same spot.

Yet the three strikes fell as one.

Three sword strikes merged into a single bolt of lightning.

Three layers of thunder energy overlapped, becoming one colossal thunderbolt.

KRAAAAAANG—!!

Lightning fierce enough to make the heavens jealous crashed toward Gun Mugeol.

Gun Mugeol’s eyes narrowed.

He did not evade with Free Roaming Step.

This time, Clear Void rose.

The long, slender sword thrust upward toward the lightning.

Northern Abyss Divine Art.

The instant Clear Void’s tip touched the lightning, the lightning was sucked inward.

Into the sword.

Along the blade.

Into Gun Mugeol’s arm.

His shoulder.

His energy center.

Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy was absorbed into Gun Mugeol’s body.

Kang Cheonwoo’s eyes widened.

“You absorbed it?”

“The Northern Abyss Divine Art.”

Gun Mugeol answered calmly.

“The essence of the Northern Abyss Divine Art is to absorb an opponent’s energy and make it one’s own. No matter how powerful thunder energy may be, as long as it is energy, it can be absorbed.”

Gun Mugeol glanced toward Unhwi.

“I advanced it another step through an insight I gained from someone.”

Thunder energy flowed from Gun Mugeol’s body.

Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy.

Deep blue-black light flashed across Gun Mugeol’s body after he absorbed it.

Lightning erupted from Clear Void.

Kang Cheonwoo’s lightning.

Toward Kang Cheonwoo himself.

Kang Cheonwoo shouted with a laugh.

“Ha! You scheming bastard. Of course you’d use a martial art just like yourself.”

Sending a man’s own thunder energy back at him.

Kang Cheonwoo raised Thunder Emperor.

He split the returning thunder energy apart with his sword.

It was his own energy.

Cutting it apart was easy.

BOOM—!

The thunder energy split left and right and struck the rear garden wall.

The wall collapsed in two places at once.

Gun Mugeol did not miss the opening.

Free Roaming Step.

He scattered like mist and appeared beside Kang Cheonwoo.

Left.

Kang Cheonwoo’s blind spot.

Clear Void thrust forward.

Toward Kang Cheonwoo’s flank.

Kang Cheonwoo twisted his body.

Instinctively.

But Gun Mugeol emerged from Free Roaming Step too quickly.

The tip of Clear Void grazed Kang Cheonwoo’s side.

A thin, sharp wound appeared.

Shallow.

But blood flowed.

And there was something else within the wound.

Cold.

The chill of the Northern Abyss Divine Art was infiltrating through the injury.

Kang Cheonwoo clenched his teeth and raised his thunder energy.

He concentrated it around the wound.

The heat of the thunder energy drove away the cold.

Steam rose from the wound.

The chill evaporated as though it were rainwater.

But in that brief instant, Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void had already moved three more times.

Six Yang Palms of Heavenly Mountain.

Thrust.

Thrust.

Thrust.

Three thrusts simultaneously targeted Kang Cheonwoo’s chest, throat, and forehead.

Kang Cheonwoo swung Thunder Emperor.

Wide.

Broad.

Horizontal.

Thunder energy spread outward in a semicircle.

The three thrusts struck the wall of thunder energy.

Crackle.

Palm force and thunder energy collided, showering sparks.

Gun Mugeol retreated.

Three steps.

Kang Cheonwoo also stepped back once.

The distance opened between them again.

Fifty feet.

Rain poured between them.

Their breathing was rough.

Both of them.

Blood flowed from Kang Cheonwoo’s side.

Gun Mugeol’s robe was scorched in several places.

Marks where thunder energy had grazed him.

It had not reached his flesh, but his robe had burned.

Kang Cheonwoo gave a faint laugh.

“The Northern Abyss Divine Art. Impressive.”

“The Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art is equally impressive.”

Gun Mugeol answered.

“Absorbing thunder energy is not easy. Unlike ordinary energy, thunder energy is explosive.”

“And yet you absorbed it.”

“I forced it.”

Gun Mugeol’s hand was trembling slightly.

The backlash from absorbing Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy remained.

There might be no visible wound on the outside.

But the inside was another matter.

Gun Mugeol had suffered internal injuries no less serious than Kang Cheonwoo’s wound.

Kang Cheonwoo raised Thunder Emperor.

“I wasn’t planning to show this.”

Kang Cheonwoo’s power changed.

It became different.

Until now, his thunder energy had come from his sword.

His internal power had been transformed into thunder energy through the blade.

Now it was different.

Thunder energy was emerging from Kang Cheonwoo’s body itself.

From his skin.

His hair.

His eyes.

Kang Cheonwoo’s eyes glowed deep blue-black.

His pupils themselves had taken on the color of lightning.

Electrical light flowed across his entire body.

Rain evaporated before it could touch him.

Every drop within thirty feet evaporated.

Steam wrapped around Kang Cheonwoo.

The ultimate essence of the Thunderous Heavenly Heart Art.

To turn the body itself into lightning.

Descent of the Thunder God.

For the first time, Gun Mugeol’s expression stiffened.

“...This is...”

“I completed it when I reached the Mixed Origin Sovereign Realm.”

Electricity threaded through Kang Cheonwoo’s voice.

Every time he spoke, a crackling sound accompanied the words.

“I’ve never shown it before. There was no one worth using it against.”

Kang Cheonwoo raised Thunder Emperor.

“You’re the first.”

Perhaps the last as well.

He swallowed the rest of the words.

Silently, he raised his sword.

Thunder Heaven Ultimate Sword Art.

Ultimate Essence.

Thunder Heaven Transforms the Ultimate.

The mnemonic verse flowed from Kang Cheonwoo’s lips.

“Thunder pierces heaven and earth; the body becomes the ultimate of ten thousand lightning bolts.”

Kang Cheonwoo’s body disappeared.

He became lightning.

It was not a metaphor.

Kang Cheonwoo’s physical body had transformed into lightning.

Deep blue-black light exploded from where he had been standing and hurtled toward Gun Mugeol.

The speed of light.

The speed of lightning.

Gun Mugeol’s eyes tried to follow it.

They could not.

It was fast enough to shock even him.

Gun Mugeol’s instincts reacted.

Free Roaming Step.

His body scattered like mist.

KRAAAAAAAAAAANG—!!!

Lightning struck where Gun Mugeol had stood.

No.

Kang Cheonwoo had struck.

In the form of lightning.

The ground exploded.

A circular crater appeared.

Fifty feet across.

Ten feet deep.

A place where everything had been vaporized.

Gun Mugeol reformed beyond the crater.

As though mist had gathered into the shape of a man.

His breathing was rough.

Sweat ran down his back.

Not rain.

Cold sweat.

Dangerous.

Truly dangerous.

Without Free Roaming Step, he would have died just now.

Kang Cheonwoo rose from within the crater.

He had returned from the form of lightning to human form.

Electrical light still flowed across his body.

The remnants of Thunder Heaven Transforms the Ultimate.

Steam wrapped around him.

“You dodged.”

Kang Cheonwoo said.

He was not surprised.

It was only natural that one Mixed Origin Sovereign would not fall so easily to another.

“If not for that footwork art, you would have died.”

“I admit it.”

Gun Mugeol answered.

For the first time, without pretense.

“That truly frightened me.”

“Thanks.”

Kang Cheonwoo grinned.

Gun Mugeol raised Clear Void.

When one receives something, one ought to return something.

“Then it is time I showed you mine.”

Gun Mugeol’s power changed.

Northern Abyss Divine Art.

Until now, the Northern Abyss Divine Art had focused on absorption.

Drawing in an opponent’s energy and making it his own.

But absorption was not the true essence of the Northern Abyss Divine Art.

Reversion.

Not returning absorbed energy to its original form.

Transforming it into a completely different form and releasing it.

The thunder energy Gun Mugeol had absorbed began to change inside him.

Deep blue-black electrical light revolved within his energy center.

It revolved.

And changed.

Its color changed.

Deep blue-black became silver.

Silver became transparent light.