Chapter 542

The sword caught the light.

The Iron Mountain Sect moved first.

With a roar, dozens of men charged from the front at once. Spears and swords mingled together as they surged forward like a wave.

Ju Soa burst to the side.

She drove into the flank of the wave.

She did not meet it head-on. She found the point where its flow would break and entered there.

The sword momentum of the Heavenly Flower Myriad Light Sword Art unfolded.

Graceful as scattering flower petals, yet everything it touched fell.

When the first man went down, the second blocked the man behind him.

When the second fell, the third hesitated.

And the instant hesitation appeared, Ju Soa’s sword pierced through it.

She moved quickly.

Never stopping.

She did not fight by planting herself in one place.

She flowed.

She wove through the mass of men.

The energy of the Heavenly Yang Boundless Art blended with the fluid grace of the Heavenly Flower Myriad Light Sword Art, and light shone from her sword.

Soft.

Straight.

Unhwi walked into the opposite side.

Walked.

He did not run.

He simply walked.

Martial artists rushed at him along the path of those steps.

The first leapt forward with his sword raised.

Unhwi caught the sword guard in his palm.

Twisted.

The blade bent the other way and stabbed into the flank of another martial artist beside him.

Unhwi was already standing before the next man.

He did not draw the True Flame Heavenly Spirit Sword.

Not yet.

He handled them barehanded.

Boundless Energy spread across his palms.

He redirected what tried to block him, then sent that redirected force elsewhere.

The smallest movement produced the greatest result.

Because it was bothersome.

Of course, there were hundreds of them.

The waves did not stop.

When one group fell, another came.

From behind.

From the sides.

From above.

Some even leapt down from the rooftops.

Spearmen thrust at him simultaneously from every direction.

Whether they were assassins bought with money or men raised by Bu Guishan himself—

Unhwi did not know the details.

Nor did he care.

Swordsmen filled the gaps between them.

Boundless Energy flowed from Unhwi’s body.

Wide.

It sensed everything around him.

He struck aside a spear coming from behind with the back of his hand.

Let a sword coming from the side slide past his shoulder.

Caught the ankle of a martial artist dropping from above and slammed him into the ground.

Every movement flowed naturally into the next.

Without interruption.

Block.

Redirect.

Strike.

And walk through the opening.

But as time passed, things began to change.

There were too many.

Hundreds continued to pour forward without stopping.

The Iron Mountain Sect was throwing its entire fighting force at them.

One man fell.

Two came.

Two fell.

Four came.

Even for a martial artist of the Boundless Manifestation Realm, handling numbers like these was an entirely different matter.

It was not a question of realm.

It was a question of physical expenditure.

Bu Guishan himself was an expert of the Boundless Manifestation Realm.

That was why he understood it better than anyone.

Bu Guishan intended to kill Unhwi.

Then first, he had to wear him down as much as possible.

He had heard far too many rumors about Unhwi.

When Unhwi expended strength.

When he drew heavily upon his energy.

Tiny differences like those would accumulate.

And once enough of them accumulated, they could change the outcome.

Bu Guishan watched from a distance.

Unhwi’s movements were almost impossible to track.

......Impressive.

The admiration was genuine.

But more importantly, Unhwi’s energy was being depleted exactly as planned.

Bu Guishan had already summoned everyone he could draw in from the surrounding region.

The Iron Mountain Sect’s own forces.

And wandering martial artists hired with money.

Among them were even some of the famed wandering fighters associated with the Wind and Cloud Alliance.

More than a hundred martial artists had reached the Four Realms of Heaven and Earth.

Another four hundred had reached the Four Realms of Qi Refinement.

He knew perfectly well that every one of them might die.

He had paid enough for their lives.

There was no reason to pity them.

The moment he heard that the Azure Dragon Sect had fallen, he had circulated the declaration and lured Unhwi here.

Yet Unhwi looked less exhausted than expected.

Tsk.

He clicked his tongue lightly.

It did not matter.

Whatever happened, Bu Guishan intended to achieve his goal here today.

How much time had passed?

Bodies lay everywhere across the Iron Mountain Sect’s courtyard.

On Ju Soa’s side.

On Unhwi’s side.

More were still alive than dead, but many could no longer stand.

Ju Soa came to Unhwi’s side while catching her breath.

Her hair was disheveled.

Her clothes had been cut in several places.

Blood ran from her shoulder.

“There are too many. Way too many.”

Ju Soa spoke between breaths.

“Is it difficult?”

“It hurts too.”

Unhwi gave a faint laugh.

“Then you must still be fine.”

Ju Soa laughed as well.

“What about you, my lord?”

Unhwi did not bother answering.

His breathing was deep, and his clothes were not even disordered.

From the outside, he looked perfectly fine.

Unhwi was also looking at Bu Guishan.

He understood the man’s intention clearly.

He had conserved as much energy as possible.

And this was enough.

There was no reason to drag things out any longer.

Approximately two hundred and fifty martial artists remained.

They charged all at once.

Ju Soa was about to rush forward again when Unhwi raised a hand and stopped her.

“......Yes?”

Unhwi did not answer with words.

He drew up his Boundless Energy.

Radiance gathered around his head.

His eyes flashed.

Heavenly Snow Force.

Crack-crack-crack—!!

It happened in an instant.

Everything froze.

The air froze.

Even the energy drifting through the atmosphere froze.

It was as though the dead of winter had descended all at once.

Bu Guishan, who had been watching, flinched.

Because the phenomenon was impossible.

Because he had never imagined he would witness it with his own eyes.

Even Ju Soa beside Unhwi was shocked.

Her eyes widened.

Her mouth fell open.

Then the cold struck her, and she shut it again.

She drew up her energy to endure the chill.

Swallowed hard.

“......What...... is this?”

Every martial artist who had been charging them froze where they stood.

The result was unmistakable.

Not one survived.

More than two hundred and fifty men had been killed by a single move.

“Ju Soa.”

Frosted breath flowed from Unhwi’s lips.

“......Yes.”

“Stay back.”

Ju Soa nodded and retreated.

Unhwi slowly walked forward.

Bu Guishan, having recovered from his shock, also stepped forward.

With each step, Bu Guishan regained his composure.

His pace became unhurried again.

The walk of a man who believed everything was still unfolding according to calculation.

The two men faced each other amid the frozen corpses.

“......You truly are a monster.”

“Is that how I look?”

“......I knew all those hundreds of martial artists would die. And I knew you would have to draw heavily upon your energy to kill them. But I did not expect you to bring out that.”

“.......”

“Heavenly Snow Force. I had only heard rumors of it. It is truly an honor to see it for myself.”

Unhwi gave a faint laugh.

This man had introduced himself as a merchant.

He was still the same now.

He was calculating like a merchant.

“Your thoughts must be rather complicated right now, so I will make things easier for you.”

“......Hm?”

“A merchant uses the surest method. Yes, I just used a fairly large-scale move. The energy it consumed could be called little or much depending on how one looks at it, but to be precise, if my full strength is ten parts, I used only about half of one part.”

“.......”

“Now show me the final move you prepared.”

Bu Guishan’s gaze sank.

Slowly, he drew his sword.

It was thick.

Broad-bladed.

Heavy.

Energy flowed from it.

Boundless Manifestation Realm.

The same realm.

Yet Bu Guishan’s energy was different.

It was the energy of a man who had remained in this realm for a long time.

Familiar.

Refined.

Without the slightest waste.

Handling the spiritual energy of heaven and earth came to him as naturally as breathing.

Unhwi drew the True Flame Heavenly Spirit Sword.

Bu Guishan looked at the weapon.

It was unmistakably a famous sword.

But—

“That is not the Thunder Emperor.”

It was not.

Unhwi had chosen not to use the Thunder Emperor.

He had judged that drawing Kang Cheonwoo’s sword here would not be appropriate.

“Leader.”

“......Speak.”

“I do not know what Gun Mugeol promised you, but—”

Bu Guishan stepped forward.

“It was not a promise. It was a calculation.”

Bu Guishan’s eyes flashed.

His shoulder shifted.

His sword swept toward Unhwi.

Unhwi stepped backward.

The blade sliced through empty air before him.

Bu Guishan continued.

“I merely read the board.”

“Then you read it wrong.”

Bu Guishan snorted.

The power of the Boundless Manifestation Realm erupted from him.

It was different from before.

Before, he had restrained it.

While sending hundreds of men ahead of him, he had conserved his own energy.

He had expended nothing.

If anything, his strength had only gathered while he waited behind them.

Now it was all released at once.

Bu Guishan’s signature martial art—

Iron Mountain Divine Art.

Its energy pressed down upon the atmosphere.

Heavy.

Like the weight of an entire mountain descending.

The air throughout the Iron Mountain Sect courtyard changed.

The energy of the Iron Mountain Divine Art ran along the blade.

Bu Guishan spoke quietly.

“First Formation.”

The first of the Eight Iron Mountain Formations that had made Bu Guishan what he was opened.

Bu Guishan did not charge.

He remained standing.

Yet the energy came.

He had not moved his sword, but force rolled forward like a wave.

This was the method of the Iron Mountain Divine Art.

First, it crushed the surroundings with energy and seized control of the space.

Before the opponent could even move, the space already belonged to him.

Unhwi felt it.

The ground beneath his feet became heavy.

To move even one step, he would have to overcome that weight.

The energy of the Iron Mountain Divine Art dominated the entire courtyard.

Unhwi’s energy collided with it.

Boundless Energy flowed outward.

Opposed it.

The space divided between two forces.

Then Bu Guishan moved.

The sword came.

From above to below.

It was not a chopping strike.

It pushed.

A sword strike carrying the Iron Mountain Divine Art’s force, driving the very space before it backward.

A sword that would carry away anything that tried to block it.

Unhwi slipped aside.

The sword passed.

Sword wind struck his clothes.

Bu Guishan did not stop.

“Second Formation.”

He did not reverse direction.

He simply continued the sword’s path and pulled it horizontally.

The pushing force became a pulling force.

A sword formation that swept across the entire space.

Unhwi swung the True Flame Heavenly Spirit Sword.

CLANG—!!

He blocked it.

But something was strange.

The swords had met, yet the force did not disappear.

Even through the clash of steel, Bu Guishan’s energy tried to force its way through the blade and into Unhwi’s body.

That was the method of the Iron Mountain Divine Art.

Even when blocked, it penetrated.

Unhwi redirected it with Boundless Energy.

He did not receive the invading force directly.

He guided it aside.

Like water flowing around a stone.

Bu Guishan’s energy slid past Unhwi’s body and crashed into the ground.

The courtyard floor split apart.

Bu Guishan narrowed his eyes.

He redirected it.

He had not blocked it.

He had redirected it.

As though he had fought this kind of method many times before.

Bu Guishan shook his head.

“Third Formation.”

He lowered his sword.

Then struck upward from below.

The energy of the Iron Mountain Divine Art traveled through the ground and gathered into the blade.

It even drew up the force of the earth beneath him.

The weight was different.

The density was different despite both of them wielding the power of the Boundless Manifestation Realm.

Because the energy drawn from the earth had been added to it.

Unhwi jumped.

Upward.

The sword passed beneath his feet.

From the air, Unhwi brought down the True Flame Heavenly Spirit Sword.

Straight toward Bu Guishan’s shoulder.