Chapter 353

Chapter 353: Preparation (3)

He toyed with that ridiculous notion for a brief second before letting out a dry snicker and smoothing his features back into a calm expression.

“This particular area feels a bit too restricted for an actual clash. Shall we relocate to a better spot?”

This was a rare opportunity to trade blows with one of the celebrated Twelve Heavenly Pillars of the Central Plains, so Il-mok saw no point in declining the offer. Especially when considering that the man could potentially become an adversary in the future.

“Hahahaha! You possess more courage than your appearance suggests!”

Hwangbo Ak flung his head back and roared with laughter in a manner that vividly reminded Il-mok of Dokgo Pae.

Il-mok guided Hwangbo Ak away from the clearing, and the rest of the gathering moved along with them. His personal maids traveled alongside the daughters and the martial artists of the Hwangbo Family, though the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal and Un-baek of Wudang also unexpectedly chose to follow.

Il-mok escorted the entire group to the outer regions of Lanzhou, knowing that engaging in a duel against a titan like Hwangbo Ak anywhere near the Maitreya Luminous Cult’s scripture hall would result in absolute devastation.

They traveled at a moderate tempo by utilizing their lightness skill arts and reached a sloping hillside before much time had passed.

“Disperse.”

The moment Il-mok uttered the command, the remaining observers intelligently retreated, creating a massive ring around the chosen battleground with Il-mok and Hwangbo Ak positioned at the center.

Hwangbo Ak displayed a smirk that practically radiated an intense craving for combat. “I originally intended to be courteous and grant you the opening move, but it appears such gestures are unneeded.”

“You praise me too highly.”

“In that case, here I come!”

Before the syllables could fully leave his lips, Hwangbo Ak closed the distance in a flash with a rapid burst of movement arts and lunged straight forward.

‘Well, at least he possesses the manners to speak before letting his fists do the talking. That renders him far more civil than those brute-headed fools within the Dokgo Family.’

Shaking off those random musings, Il-mok drew the Ascension Sword and instantly lunged toward Hwangbo Ak.

Hwangbo Ak attempted to casually evade the initial thrust with a basic pivot, but the Ascension Sword suddenly shifted direction like a twisting serpent in mid-air.

Left with no alternative, he struck straight forward.

BOOM!

The Sword Force of the Ascension Sword clashed violently with the Force Qi concentrated around Hwangbo Ak’s fist, and the sheer force sent a ripple of shockwaves tearing outward.

Il-mok utilized the backward momentum to pull his weapon back and concurrently fired off a long-range assault.

A ferocious smirk spread across Hwangbo Ak’s face as he stared down a blinding wall of afterimages. It was evident that Il-mok’s approach was designed to completely halt his fierce advances, relying solely on brief, lightning-fast thrusts.

Hwangbo Ak countered by either slipping past the unrelenting storm with minimal adjustments or batting away the blows he could not dodge using his fists shrouded in Force Qi over and over until…

“Hmph!”

Snorting loudly like an enraged bull, Hwangbo Ak took a massive stride backward and bellowed at the absolute peak of his lungs, “HAH!”

A deep crimson Qi erupted from his frame and enveloped him like a protective second skin.

It was the celebrated Force Qi Armor.

With a complete shroud of Force Qi now protecting every inch of his body, Hwangbo Ak sprinted toward Il-mok once more with frenzied eyes; in response, Il-mok launched the exact same rapid succession of thrusts.

BOOM!

The Sword Force coating the Ascension Sword slammed violently against Hwangbo Ak’s Force Qi Armor and exploded upon contact, yet Hwangbo Ak disregarded it entirely and pressed forward like a madman, casting aside any hint of defense.

He closed the distance in a heartbeat and threw a punch directly at Il-mok’s face, but Il-mok merely drifted backward.

When Hwangbo Ak followed up with a secondary strike, Il-mok had already pulled the Ascension Sword back and parried the blow while applying the fundamental rule of redirection.

And just like that, their pursuit commenced.

Hwangbo Ak pressed on without mercy, unleashing punch after punch with both hands and occasionally slipping in an unexpected low kick to sweep Il-mok’s feet. But Il-mok continuously relied on his lightness skill to sustain the gap, using the Ascension Sword to either intercept or deflect whatever arrived in his path whenever circumstances turned dangerous.

For more than ten minutes, they maintained this grueling, back-and-forth skirmish.

Having familiarized himself with Il-mok’s pacing by that point, Hwangbo Ak watched for the exact instant Il-mok attempted to deflect one of his strikes with the Ascension Sword, then uncurled his fingers and lunged to seize the blade directly using a grappling maneuver.

BOOM!

Sword Force collided with the Force Qi Armor with another deafening explosion, and just as Hwangbo Ak’s fingers were about to grip the flat surface of the blade—

Tap!

Il-mok propelled himself upward with a sudden burst of lightness skill, and the Ascension Sword narrowly slipped away from Hwangbo Ak’s fingers.

Hwangbo Ak instantly launched a barrage of double-fisted strikes upward at the airborne Il-mok, the Force Qi erupting from his palms ripping through the atmosphere and racing toward him. Yet Il-mok casually stepped through the open air as though it were solid earth, twisting his frame to glide through the lethal storm without a single scratch.

Swosh!

A curved wave of Sword Force materialized along the path of the Ascension Sword and fired straight down at Hwangbo Ak.

BOOM!

Hwangbo Ak intercepted the arc of Sword Force, and when the dust settled, Il-mok was already back on the earth, sliding the Ascension Sword back into its sheath.

“I believe that stands as a reasonable exchange.”

The duel had persisted well beyond a quarter of an hour. Hwangbo Ak went rigid for a moment. He let out a prolonged, heavy breath through his nostrils to calm his temper before finally offering a response. “It feels as though you were keeping a few tricks up your sleeve, but I suppose that is fair enough. I cannot deny being slightly let down.”

“Could I not make the exact same observation regarding you? This was merely a amicable bout, not a clash to the death, so it could not be helped.”

Even as he voiced the words, Il-mok was already breaking down the engagement within his mind.

‘Force Qi Armor, I see.’

He had already devised a method to shatter it.

If he desired to conclude matters swiftly, he could capitalize on an opening when the opponent’s posture overextended and smash the Force Qi Armor entirely with a concentrated strike. And because Force Qi Armor depleted internal reserves at a staggering speed, lengthening the engagement would prove just as effective.

Then again, the elderly master certainly possessed a few hidden trump cards as well, so there was no certainty as to how an actual life-or-death duel would unfold.

‘Even so, he feels a degree or two below the Alliance Leader.’

Had it been a genuine battle to the death, Il-mok calculated he would have emerged victorious eight or nine times out of ten.

It had been a training match against an opponent a tier below himself, but the entire exercise had not been devoid of worth.

‘I ought to begin developing the Force Qi Armor for myself.’

In a critical scenario, it could be the singular element that preserved his life, and beyond that, it seemed as though it would complement the Ascension Sword nicely. The Force Qi Armor consumed internal power, and the Ascension Sword could harvest internal power through bloodshed.

‘It would be pointless against a titan capable of tearing through it effortlessly, but against a multitude of lesser adversaries, it would render one virtually untouchable.’

While Il-mok silently turned over those reflections, Hwangbo Ak’s combat adrenaline receded enough for him to unleash a thunderous laugh.

“We did not witness the conclusion, but that is more than satisfactory for me! Perfectly suitable for a son-in-law of the Hwangbo Family.”

Il-mok paused at that final remark.

“Did you mean to say ‘alliance’?”

“Hahahaha! Is that not essentially the same thing? What superior alliance exists than that of a father-in-law and a son-in-law?”

As absurd as Hwangbo Ak’s claim was, Il-mok’s immediate reaction was to look sideways at Hyeokryeon Seon-ah to observe her mood. After what had transpired previously, he was uncertain if she was on the verge of losing control again.

To his amazement, rather than radiating murderous intent, she was merely offering a soft smile, as if silently communicating for him not to fret.

‘So she truly has liberated herself from Extremity.’

Observing that with quiet reassurance, Il-mok turned his attention back to Hwangbo Ak.

“You would truly be comfortable sending a daughter you prize so immensely to a man you scarcely know?”

“Hahahaha. I have already gathered plenty of reports concerning you. You are a mere thirty-nine years of age, you have established an empire like this in just a handful of years, and to top it off, you are nearly my equal in combat. Who would object to gaining a son-in-law of that caliber?”

Behind them, Hyeokryeon Seon-ah maintained her smile perfectly in place while scoffing inwardly. ‘You ignorant Orthodox sanctimonious fool. I would delight in seeing the expression on your face if you discovered my beloved brother is actually merely twenty-three.’

Entirely unaware of Il-mok’s true age, Hwangbo Ak simply pressed on.

“Furthermore, our Se-hui has long since passed the age of maturity. I have been reflecting recently that it is my own absurdly high benchmarks that have hindered us from securing her a partner all this time.”

He spoke of it lightly as a jest, and then appended with a piercing gleam in his stare. “But above all, why would I ever forge a pact with someone I would not trust with my own flesh and blood? That is simply utter nonsense.”

It was at that moment Il-mok grasped the true nature of the man before him.

Despite every outward trait the warrior displayed, Hwangbo Ak genuinely evaluated his choices.

‘To think I grouped this man into the same class as those fanatics from the Dokgo Family. I nearly committed a massive injustice against him.’

While Il-mok was internally offering an apology to Hwangbo Ak, the man proceeded to say something startling once more. “That was the reasoning behind my offer, but if you already harbor another maiden in your heart, then there is nothing to be done.”

As he spoke, Hwangbo Ak’s vision shifted toward Hyeokryeon Seon-ah.

He had not failed to notice the way Il-mok had glanced at her the very moment the marriage offer left his mouth.

Hyeokryeon Seon-ah met Hwangbo Ak’s gaze and offered a silent smile beneath her face covering.

‘Not terrible. For an Orthodox Faction’s hypocrite, he actually possesses an understanding of human nature.’

Il-mok picked up on the error as well, but elected neither to validate nor dismiss it. Entering a marriage with an Orthodox Faction household presented its own set of complications, and flatly declining the man’s offer to his face ran the risk of fracturing whatever alliance they were attempting to construct.

If anything, it appeared to be a convenient pivot, and Il-mok was preparing to guide the dialogue elsewhere when the quiet Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal took a step forward.

“Incarnation of Maitreya, there is a matter I wish to inquire about.”

“???”

Il-mok shifted toward him with a bewildered expression, and the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal extended a finger and gestured toward Il-mok’s waist. More accurately, at the Ascension Sword.

“I observed it while analyzing your bout just now, and I detected something disturbing emanating from that blade of yours. An aura that felt remarkably similar to the malice those Blood Cult dogs utilized.”

The Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal’s weighty words instantly blanketed the area in thick tension.

The Ascension Sword had been brought under a reasonable level of management after Il-mok had pacified the malice of the spirits trapped within it, but the spectral aura had not vanished entirely. And a practitioner of the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal’s caliber was far more than sharp enough to notice it.

The motivation behind the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal bothering to accompany Un-baek all the way out here to Lanzhou was the pledge Un-baek had previously sworn.

Back during the slaughter at Sichuan’s hidden cavern, Un-baek had been rescued by the Maitreya Luminous Cult, and he had vowed to grant the Cult whatever request it demanded of him in exchange.

The youthful and naive Un-baek had likely blurted it out without pondering the weight of it, but the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal understood precisely how hazardous a vow that was for a Wudang disciple to offer.

If the Maitreya Luminous Cult proved to be something malevolent, they might demand something truly horrific.

Consequently, he had traveled to assess the Cult firsthand.

‘A blade subtly emitting spectral malice.’

As he observed the training bout between Hwangbo Ak and the concealed warrior, skepticism toward the Maitreya Luminous Cult had begun to settle in the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal’s thoughts.

The energy surrounding him altered to imply he might unsheath his own weapon at any moment depending on what reply he obtained, so Il-mok looked into his eyes and spoke.

“This weapon originally belonged to the Blood Cult.”

Precisely around the hour Hwangbo Ak and the Supreme Ultimate Sword Immortal had reached Lanzhou, a missive arrived at the primary headquarters of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

The messenger who had delivered it sprinted directly for the Lesser Sun Palace, and the Hidden Guard Pavilion Lord collected the scroll from him before transferring it to Wi Jin-hak.

“You are dismissed.”

After sending the messenger away, Wi Jin-hak inspected the exterior of the scroll and muttered, “A missive from the Central Plains. If it is designated as a critical matter, it is likely from the youngest.”

“That is accurate.”

Recognizing that his always-reliable youngest brother had dispatched something designated as highly confidential, Wi Jin-hak experienced a blend of apprehension and inquisitiveness in his chest. He unfurled it without hesitation and scanned through the contents rapidly.

“Miserable Orthodox Faction simpletons. I cannot credit that they allowed themselves to be deceived by the Blood Cult’s ploys in such a manner.”

He offered a mocking snort at the unforeseen intelligence, but his expression altered entirely when he arrived at the conclusion of the scroll.

Right at the absolute finish of the letter was the suspected title of the organization that had engineered the Guizhou Province slaughter and pinned the blame on the Blood Cult.

“So, it was the handiwork of the Imperial Family…”

The very second his vision settled upon that title, torrents of murderous intent erupted within Wi Jin-hak’s eyes.