Chapter 539

Who was Unhwi?

Was he not a monster?

Lu Han swallowed.

Instinct told him what he had to do.

Back down.

“......There seems to have been a slight misunderstanding.”

“There hasn’t.”

“No. Hear me out.”

Unhwi gave a faint scoff.

“I’ve heard everything I need to hear.”

Unhwi smiled gently.

“Do you know something?”

“......What?”

“When an organization begins to shake, do you know one of the most effective ways to bind those inside it tightly together?”

“......What is it?”

“An example.”

Lu Han flinched.

“If you make certain to kill someone who dares overstep his place and crawl upward, everyone inside closes ranks.”

“......That......”

“Of course, there are side effects. In the end, you’re suppressing them through fear and force.”

“......”

“But no one else crawls upward in the same way afterward. No. They disappear completely.”

“......”

“I’m asking politely. Would you mind becoming that example?”

“......What...... What are you saying......?”

Quick to understand, Ju Soa came to stand beside Unhwi.

“How about it? I take the four?”

Unhwi nodded.

“Kill them all.”

A smile bloomed at the corner of Ju Soa’s mouth.

There was no need for an answer like “As you command” or even “Yes.”

Her actions answered for her.

The instant Ju Soa kicked off the ground, all four Elders drew their weapons.

Every one of them was somewhere between the Entering Divinity Realm and the Mythic Transformation Realm.

But Lu Han had reached Unity of Heaven and Man.

And more than that.

He was an expert standing just before the Boundless Manifestation Realm.

He drew the sword at his waist.

He intended to knock aside the charging Ju Soa.

But when the blade had come exactly halfway out—

It slid back into the scabbard.

Unhwi.

Unhwi had pushed the sword back in with his hand.

“At least I’ll send you off without pain.”

All color drained from Lu Han’s face.

Unhwi’s palm shot forward like lightning.

Lu Han hurriedly raised his arm to block.

BOOOOM—!!

A tremendous crash erupted as Lu Han slid backward.

He stared at Unhwi in shock.

Unhwi was silently shaking out his hand.

Fucking monster.

Lu Han gritted his teeth.

Kicked off the ground.

Not backward.

Forward.

The internal power of Unity of Heaven and Man erupted.

The floor of the main hall shook.

He drew his sword.

This time before Unhwi could stop him.

Twisting the sword point with his wrist, he thrust.

Fast.

Sharp.

Bang.

At the sound of air splitting, Unhwi turned his upper body slightly aside.

The sword passed his flank.

It did not touch him.

He had not avoided it with less than an inch to spare.

There had been two inches.

Perhaps more than three.

Unhwi’s body was simply somewhere Lu Han’s sword could not reach.

It was a movement that made it seem as though he had been standing there from the beginning rather than having dodged at all.

Lu Han swung his sword continuously.

Across.

Vertical.

High and low.

A sword formation meant to seal off every space.

He drove forward with internal power behind it.

Sword wind churned through the main hall.

Unhwi retreated.

One step.

Two.

Lu Han followed.

He began to think he could drive him back.

His sword grew faster.

Then Unhwi stopped.

The foot that had been retreating gripped the ground.

Lu Han’s sword came in.

A straight thrust aimed at the chest.

A distance from which there was no room to evade.

Unhwi caught the blade.

With his bare hand.

The sharpened blade.

Right in his palm.

Boundless Energy spread across his hand.

The edge could not bite into his flesh.

It simply stopped.

As though caught inside a block of iron.

Lu Han’s eyes widened.

He pulled the sword.

It did not come free.

He poured internal power into it and forced it with strength.

Still, it would not move.

Unhwi’s hand did not budge.

“What kind of insane......”

Growing desperate, Lu Han aimed his left hand at Unhwi’s jaw.

It was not a fist.

It was a palm strike.

Compressed palm force burst outward.

Boom.

Unhwi’s head tilted slightly to the side.

That was all.

Unhwi looked at Lu Han.

His eyes had not changed.

He had taken the palm force, yet his eyes had not changed.

Lu Han had not even noticed that, in that instant, Unhwi had diverted the palm force aside.

An overwhelming wall.

They were clearly within the same realm.

So what was this difference?

This makes no sense.

No. This is impossible.

Sweat ran down Lu Han’s back.

Still holding the sword, Unhwi pushed.

The sword twisted inside Lu Han’s grip.

In the direction that would wrench his wrist.

He could not hold on.

If he refused to release it, his wrist would break.

If he released it, he would lose his weapon.

Lu Han let go.

Unhwi received the sword.

Lightly.

In one hand.

Then casually tossed it aside.

Into a corner of the main hall.

Lu Han was left empty-handed.

Still, he did not stop.

No weapon?

Then bare hands.

Palm arts burst out one after another.

Left hand.

Right hand.

Alternating.

Driving forward.

Attacks carrying his determination not to retreat.

Unhwi received them.

One he diverted with his palm.

One he struck aside with his forearm.

One he simply took against his chest.

The blows pushed him backward.

A light entered Lu Han’s eyes.

It works.

The instant that thought arose—

Unhwi’s retreating foot stopped.

He felt the palm force he had received flowing through his body.

He diverted all of it away.

Boundless Energy surged.

Gathered into his right hand.

Then he thrust it forward.

A palm.

It touched Lu Han’s chest.

BOOM.

It was not an explosive sound.

It was a heavy impact.

Low.

Weighty.

And Lu Han’s body flew away.

Backward.

Fast.

His back slammed into a pillar.

CRACK.

The pillar split.

Lu Han remained standing with his back against it.

He did not fall.

He endured.

But blood ran from his mouth.

Internal injuries.

Unhwi walked toward him.

His steps were unhurried.

Because he knew Lu Han would not run.

Because he knew this was not a man who would run.

Lu Han braced himself against the pillar and stood upright.

His legs trembled.

Still, he stood.

Unhwi stopped.

Three steps separated them.

Lu Han looked at Unhwi.

Blood flowed.

His breathing was ragged.

His hands trembled.

But his eyes had not broken.

Unhwi looked into those eyes.

“You were prepared for the consequences.”

He spoke quietly.

Lu Han said nothing.

“I’ll acknowledge that much.”

“......”

“But you took far too long a road to reach them.”

“That......”

“As things in this world often go, countless things refuse to unfold as we wish. You should have hidden your desires beneath the surface and learned to read the current. You did read the current, Sect Leader.”

“But you read it wrong.”

He slowly stepped forward.

“You should have buried that resolve inside your chest. The moment you let it show on the surface, this is what happens.”

Unhwi stood before Lu Han.

His words drove deep into Lu Han’s chest.

He could not move.

Then his eyes took in the carnage unfolding beyond Unhwi.

***

The four Elders were startled.

But they had to respond.

All four kicked off the ground toward the charging Ju Soa.

A coordinated attack.

Two from the front.

Two from the sides.

A formation that sealed off space.

Their breathing matched.

The movements of people who had trained together.

But Ju Soa did not retreat.

From the moment she had entered this main hall—

No.

From the moment they had arrived at the entrance of the Azure Dragon Sect—

Ju Soa had expected things to turn out this way.

There was only one sure way to stabilize the Sichuan Alliance.

Just as Unhwi had said.

An example.

First, they had to crush resistance with force.

That was the surest way.

Her leg drove against the ground.

Her body flowed to the right.

Slip.

The sword coming from the front left cut through empty air.

Ju Soa was already outside its path.

The Elder on the right changed direction at once.

A sword strike aimed at her flank.

Heavenly Flower Myriad Light.

Her sword rose like a flower petal.

CLANG—!

Blocked.

Driven back.

There was a difference in strength.

Ju Soa kicked off the ground.

She used the force pushing her backward and turned with it.

Half a rotation.

As she spun, she thrust her sword.

It grazed the wrist of the Elder coming from behind.

Shallow.

But strength left the hand holding his sword.

“Urgh.”

The third Elder chopped downward from above.

Ju Soa lowered herself.

Almost flat against the floor.

The sword passed over her head.

From that same posture, she drove forward.

Straight into the Elder’s reach.

Too close for him to use his sword.

Her elbow struck his solar plexus.

“Ghk!”

The Elder folded at the waist.

The fourth thrust from the side.

Ju Soa twisted her waist.

The sword point brushed her clothes.

Almost touching.

At that instant, she caught the Elder’s sword hand with her left hand.

Caught it.

Pulled.

The Elder’s body pitched forward.

Her knee drove into his ribs.

A dull crack.

She felt ribs give way.

The Elder swallowed a groan.

Ju Soa immediately reversed her grip on the sword.

And drove it down.

SHNK—!

Straight into the heart.

She pulled it free.

Shoved him aside.

Turned.

Three remained spread around her.

One clutched his wrist.

One could not straighten his back.

One lay dead.

Only the last was still unharmed.

Ju Soa’s gaze moved to the martial artist who could not straighten himself.

Then she threw the sword in her hand.

The Elder finally managed to straighten.

His eyes widened.

That was as far as he got.

SHNK—!

It pierced directly through the center of his forehead.

Ju Soa immediately kicked up a sword lying on the floor.

It flew into the air.

She caught it at once.

Settled into stance.

The unharmed Elder was charging her.

“You bitch—!!”

His sword pierced through the air.

A rapid chain of strikes.

Three.

Four.

Attacks driving through the space before him.

Ju Soa diverted the first.

Blocked the second.

At the third, she retreated half a step.

Then kicked forward.

Heavenly Yang Boundless.

Her sword thrust straight ahead.

As though piercing the sky.

Light gathered into a single point.

Not flower petals scattering.

Light converging as one.

The energy of Heavenly Flower Myriad Light blended into it.

The soft wrapped around the straight.

The Elder tried to block it with his sword.

CLAAANG—!!

Blocked.

No.

It had not been blocked.

The instant the swords collided, Ju Soa’s blade flowed.

It rode along the force of the block and slid across it.

Followed the Elder’s sword inward.

The sword point buried itself in his shoulder.

SHNK—!

Deep.

“Aaagh—!”

The Elder dropped his sword.

What Ju Soa did next was only natural.

She pulled her sword free from his shoulder.

And swung.

Slice—!

His head soared into the air.

She threw the sword in her hand at the last man.

It buried itself in the heart of the Elder who had been retreating.

SHNK—!

Then came the thud of his body hitting the floor.

With that sound, none of the four Elders remained moving.

Ju Soa silently walked among the corpses.

Pulled out her own sword.

Then turned her head.

Lu Han and Unhwi were staring at one another.

From close range.

Lu Han asked,

“......Do you truly intend to annihilate the Azure Dragon Sect?”

Even his manner of speaking had changed.

It made little difference.

Unhwi answered.

“Yes.”

An exceedingly short answer.

But it contained much.

Fire ignited in Lu Han’s eyes.