Chapter 530

Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy was being reborn as an entirely different kind of energy through Gun Mugeol’s Northern Abyss Divine Art.

Transparent energy extended from Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void.

Kang Cheonwoo narrowed his eyes.

“You’re changing my energy before using it.”

“I am merely returning what I borrowed.”

Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void moved.

Fast.

The slender sword, carrying transparent energy, surged toward Kang Cheonwoo. It was not alone. Six Yang Palms of Heavenly Mountain. Six streams of energy shot out at once. But this time, they were not palm force. They were Reversion-transformed energy. Because they had been converted from Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy, his body failed to react instinctively.

Because it was his own energy.

Because it had been transformed from his own energy, his body’s defensive instinct responded a beat too late.

He cut down three streams.

Dodged two.

One struck Kang Cheonwoo’s left shoulder.

“Ghk.......”

Kang Cheonwoo swallowed a cry. Blood burst from his left shoulder. The wound was not deep, but the energy had penetrated. Energy transformed from his own thunder energy burrowed into the inside of his shoulder.

It was difficult to force out.

Because it was his own energy.

Even when he tried to drive it out with thunder energy, the two energies shared the same root, so instead of colliding, they merged.

“Not bad.”

“I will take that as praise.”

Gun Mugeol moved again.

Free Roaming Step. He scattered like mist and appeared to Kang Cheonwoo’s right. Clear Void thrust forward.

Kang Cheonwoo blocked with Thunder Emperor.

Clang—!!

With an explosive report, sparks scattered. An explosion erupted where thunder energy and Reversion-transformed energy collided.

Both men were forced back at the same time.

Kang Cheonwoo, three steps.

Gun Mugeol, four.

Gun Mugeol had been pushed farther.

In pure strength, Kang Cheonwoo was superior.

But in technique, Gun Mugeol was superior.

Strength and technique were colliding.

They closed again.

Kang Cheonwoo’s Thunder Emperor came crashing down. Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void rose to meet it. Sword struck sword.

Once. Twice. Three times. Four. Five.

Continuously, without pause. Sparks, lightning, and energy tangled together as they devastated the rear garden. Buildings collapsed. Walls shattered. Roofs flew away. Trees burned. Even beneath the pouring rain, flames caught. The heat of the thunder energy surpassed the rainwater.

Ten exchanges.

Twenty.

Thirty.

The two men traded swords in the rain.

Blood began to mix with it.

Kang Cheonwoo’s left shoulder. Right thigh. Left ribs.

Gun Mugeol’s right forearm. Beneath his left collarbone. Forehead.

Both were accumulating wounds.

But neither stopped.

Man against man.

Mixed Origin Sovereign against Mixed Origin Sovereign.

After forty exchanges.

Kang Cheonwoo’s breathing began to grow rough.

The backlash from Thunder Heaven Transforms the Ultimate was gradually rising. Transforming the body into lightning was an extreme technique even at the Mixed Origin Sovereign Realm, and its price was the rapid consumption of internal power. Using it only once had drained thirty percent of his internal power.

Gun Mugeol was different.

The Northern Abyss Divine Art was a martial art of circulation rather than consumption. Because it absorbed an opponent’s energy, transformed it, and used it, its expenditure was small. The longer the fight continued, the more disadvantageous it became for Kang Cheonwoo.

Kang Cheonwoo knew.

He had known from the beginning.

A prolonged battle was unfavorable.

That was why he had used Thunder Heaven Transforms the Ultimate first. He had intended to end it with the first Thunder Heaven Transforms the Ultimate, but Gun Mugeol had escaped with Free Roaming Step.

There would be no second.

He did not have enough internal power.

Blood ran from Kang Cheonwoo’s mouth.

The wound on his left ribs was deepening. Gun Mugeol’s Reversion-transformed energy was spreading inside the wound. The energy he could not force out was eroding his organs.

Gun Mugeol saw it as well.

Kang Cheonwoo’s condition was worsening.

But he did not let his guard down.

A cornered beast was the most dangerous. And this was no beast.

This was the Sichuan Overlord.

Kang Cheonwoo raised Thunder Emperor.

Standing in the rain.

Bleeding.

He smiled.

“Gun Mugeol.”

“.......”

“I have one confession to make.”

“A confession? That is rather sudden.”

“Feels like I won’t get another chance.”

Kang Cheonwoo looked down at Thunder Emperor.

Blood stained its deep blue-black blade. He could not tell whether it was his blood or Gun Mugeol’s.

Both were mixed together.

“The truth is, I like fists more than swords.”

“......I know.”

“You do?”

“There is no way I would not know of the ‘Thunder Fist’ who once dominated Sichuan.”

Kang Cheonwoo laughed heartily.

Then the laughter vanished.

Kang Cheonwoo raised Thunder Emperor.

High.

Toward the sky.

“An Overlord can lose.”

“.......”

“But an Overlord who does not give his all is no Overlord.”

Kang Cheonwoo’s power surged upward.

He concentrated every last trace of his remaining internal power into Thunder Emperor.

The blade shone.

Not deep blue-black.

White.

The absolute extreme of thunder energy.

When lightning is compressed to its limit, its light becomes white.

White lightning wrapped around Thunder Emperor.

Kang Cheonwoo’s eyes shone.

Gun Mugeol’s expression hardened.

This is the last one.

He could tell.

This would be the final strike.

A blow into which Kang Cheonwoo would pour every last shred of his remaining internal power.

If it hit, Gun Mugeol would die.

If he dodged, Kang Cheonwoo would die.

The final exchange.

A single clash would decide the victor.

Gun Mugeol raised Clear Void.

He would not evade.

He could have.

With Free Roaming Step.

He could avoid Kang Cheonwoo’s last attack, then finish Kang Cheonwoo once his internal power was exhausted.

But.

This was man against man.

And this was a duel to the death.

The winner takes everything.

The loser loses everything.

The corner of Gun Mugeol’s mouth rose.

He was certainly a cunning man.

A tiger wearing a fox’s mask.

But he was still a tiger.

Before the sword, he was sincere.

That was not false.

He was a man who had run all this way to realize an ambition ordinary men could not even dare dream of.

He had described himself as a son of the people, not the son of a martial artist.

At the moment everything would be decided.

At the very last moment.

He had no intention of wearing a mask.

This was will.

The will of a man determined to realize his dream by any means necessary.

The full power of the Northern Abyss Divine Art gathered in Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void.

Every trace of energy he had absorbed until now.

The energy transformed from Kang Cheonwoo’s thunder energy through Reversion.

Gun Mugeol’s own internal power.

Everything.

The long, slender blade shone with transparent light.

The two men stared at one another.

Rain poured down.

Lightning flashed.

The sky split open.

Before the lightning.

The two men moved first.

At the same time.

Kang Cheonwoo charged.

Gun Mugeol charged.

White lightning collided with transparent light.

KRAAAAAAAAAAASH—!!!!

The world turned white.

Sound vanished.

The sound of rain.

The sound of thunder.

Every sound.

White silence covered the world.

Then sound returned.

Slowly.

The rain returned first.

The rear garden was gone.

A crater lay where it had been.

An enormous crater.

A radius of twenty zhang.

Everything within it was gone.

Buildings.

Trees.

The pond.

Stone.

Earth.

Everything.

Rainwater flowed down into the crater.

At its center stood two men.

Close.

Barely an inch apart.

Kang Cheonwoo’s Thunder Emperor was buried deep in Gun Mugeol’s left shoulder.

Gun Mugeol’s Clear Void was embedded in Kang Cheonwoo’s chest.

Deeper.

It had unmistakably pierced his heart.

Rain ran down both men’s faces.

Kang Cheonwoo’s eyes were fixed on Gun Mugeol.

Gun Mugeol’s eyes were fixed on Kang Cheonwoo.

Kang Cheonwoo’s mouth moved.

Blood flowed.

From the corner of his lips.

“......I aimed for the shoulder.”

His voice was cracked.

“......Half an inch deeper.”

“It would have been my heart.”

Even as Gun Mugeol answered, a considerable amount of blood was pouring from his shoulder. Thunder Emperor had clearly split the shoulder bone and descended beneath it.

But it had not reached the heart.

Half an inch.

Only half an inch.

That was the difference between life and death.

“......Half an inch.”

Kang Cheonwoo laughed.

A laugh mixed with blood.

“What a waste.”

“A waste indeed.”

Gun Mugeol meant it.

“Truly a waste.”

It could have been called the difference in weapons.

Gun Mugeol’s slender sword was faster than Kang Cheonwoo’s.

They were both unquestionably supreme masters of the Mixed Origin Sovereign Realm, but a difference in weapons could not be ignored.

Even the slightest difference in speed existed.

And that minuscule difference decided victory and defeat.

That was all.

The light in Kang Cheonwoo’s eyes slowly began to fade.

His heart had been pierced.

Even a Mixed Origin Sovereign died when his heart was pierced.

No matter how high one’s realm, the heart was still the heart.

Kang Cheonwoo’s knees began to buckle.

They did not.

He endured.

On both feet.

Standing.

“Gun Mugeol.”

“......Speak.”

“Do you think your ambition will be realized?”

Gun Mugeol’s gaze shifted to Unhwi.

Then he whispered quietly.

“If not for that bastard, it would.”

Kang Cheonwoo laughed.

Booming.

He laughed even as blood burst from his mouth.

Because he agreed.

When the laughter stopped, Kang Cheonwoo spoke briefly.

“Pull out the sword.”

Gun Mugeol paused for a moment.

Calculated in his head.

Then slowly pulled out Clear Void.

Blood sprayed as Kang Cheonwoo staggered.

A hollow laugh escaped him.

“......Thorough bastard.......”

It was understandable for even Kang Cheonwoo to say such a thing.

As Gun Mugeol pulled the sword free, he gave it a slight sideways draw so that recovery would be absolutely impossible.

The heart split.

Tore apart.

“I merely wished to be certain.”

Kang Cheonwoo did not fall.

He pulled Thunder Emperor from Gun Mugeol’s shoulder and planted it into the ground.

Gun Mugeol did not even scream.

He had taken the life of the Sichuan Overlord.

The wound in his shoulder?

It would require more than a month to recover.

But that was fine.

A wound like this was a mark of honor.

Kang Cheonwoo raised his head.

Bloodshot eyes.

A smiling face.

Standing in the rain, he spoke.

“An Overlord dies standing.”

“Dies standing.......”

Gun Mugeol murmured softly.

“Good words.”

Kang Cheonwoo looked at Gun Mugeol.

Good words?

He gave a faint snort of laughter.

Then said briefly,

“It was a good fight.”

Gun Mugeol stared at Kang Cheonwoo while clutching his bleeding shoulder.

One could call it fate.

Or ill-fated ties.

At the very least, they had been born in the same era and divided the martial world between them.

Whatever they thought of each other, there was no doubt that both had carved their names into the history of the martial world.

Nor had the paths they walked been meaningless.

Kang Cheonwoo had lived as a martial artist to the very end.

And died as one.

Gun Mugeol’s expression grew solemn.

He stepped back once and gave a formal clasped-hands salute.

“It was an honor, Sichuan Overlord.”

Kang Cheonwoo did not answer.

He only smiled.

Gun Mugeol spoke.

“......Farewell.”

With those words, Gun Mugeol lowered his clasped hands and looked at Unhwi one final time.

Their eyes met in the air.

There was no emotion in Unhwi’s eyes.

There was no emotion in Gun Mugeol’s either.

Each concealed what lay within.

Gun Mugeol was the first to look away.

He turned.

There were many watching.

Today.

The Sichuan Overlord died.

***

Death was certain.

But he was not dead yet.

As Gun Mugeol disappeared from the Sichuan Overlord’s sight, a familiar man entered it.

Unhwi.

Kang Cheonwoo spoke to him.

“......Did you see?”

“Yes. I saw everything.”

“How was it?”

Unhwi did not think even for a moment.

There was no hesitation.

“You were every bit the Sichuan Overlord.”

“Heh...... You bastard, don’t you have anything else to say to me?”

Kang Cheonwoo did not have much time left.

Unhwi knew what Gun Mugeol had done with his sword at the end.

Because Gun Mugeol was more than capable of doing exactly that.

Unhwi spoke.

“You overturned the board.”

“Heh.”

“But you were far too reckless.”

“It was worth trying.”

“I will not deny that. But did you not say you would respect the picture I was drawing?”

“What would you have done if you were me?”

“.......”

“You did not buy the title Sichuan Overlord with money. If you found yourself at the center of something like this, what would you do?”

Unhwi closed his eyes.

He swallowed a sigh inwardly.

Because the answer had already been decided.

“......I would have done the same.”

“Of course you would. But tell me this. Do you think that bastard Gun Mugeol understood what I was thinking?”

Unhwi glanced behind him.

Gun Mugeol was no longer visible.

Unhwi knew him well.

He could say it with certainty.

“Not right now.”

“Mm.”

“But before today is over, probably before even half an hour passes, he will realize it.”

“......What a shame. Such a shame.”

Kang Cheonwoo’s voice was growing weaker and weaker.

His heart had been split apart.

Gun Mugeol’s final move had ensured that.

There was very little time left.

But his eyes were still alive.

Bloodshot eyes.

The flame burning within them had not yet gone out.