Swish.
Wiping the blood droplets from the corner of his mouth, the Fist Man could not hide his shocked expression.
To pack such thick inner force into a seemingly casual punch?
“Hahaha.”
But soon he nodded as though he had realized something.
“So you were hiding your strength. Last time you fought this Lord while sealing away your true martial arts?”
As if to prove his words, black waves of true qi soared from Bu Eunseol’s body all the way to the edge of the sky.
He had raised the Wishful True Binding to its maximum.
“Very well. Show me what you can really-”
His words were once again cut short.
Bu Eunseol had already formed a massive blade dozens of zhang tall and brought it crashing down toward the Fist Man’s head.
Boom.
With one hand, the Fist Man blocked the enormous blade of true qi that Bu Eunseol had created yet the power contained within was so immense that his legs sank a full zhang deep into the ground.
“You… what is your relationship with Majeon?”
The Fist Man instantly recognized that what Bu Eunseol had unleashed was the martial art from Majeon’s Emotion-Severing Secret.
“Could you be his disciple?”
“How long are you going to keep chattering?” Bu Eunseol said coldly. “Did you not hear? One of us has to die before either of us leaves this place.”
“You truly believe you can defeat this Lord?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
A contemptuous light rose in Bu Eunseol’s blazing red eyes.
“So the so-called Human Heavens have always calculated their abacus beads before fighting?”
“Hehehehehe.”
The Fist Man could feel it.
That madness was genuine.
This lunatic had no intention of calculating any chance of victory.
He simply intended to clash with every ounce of power he possessed.
“Hahahahaha!”
The Fist Man burst into wild laughter.
“I cannot even remember the last time I received such a challenge!”
The leaders of the Human Heavens had long since reached a level comparable to the Limitless Realm and held no interest in the martial arts of ordinary martial artists.
Yet this green young man was staking a life-and-death duel against him?
“There is meaning in returning to the martial world after all.”
The Fist Man raised his thumb.
“Such spirit! I like it very much!”
Grinning broadly, he nodded.
“Truly, one must live long to see such things!”
Swish!
The Fist Man casually unleashed a single punch.
Suddenly the sky darkened.
When Bu Eunseol looked up, a pitch-black power that seemed to fill the entire world was pouring down like rain.
“Do try to entertain this Lord to the very end!”
Kwaaaaang!
A dazzling burst of light exploded as hundreds of sword qi rained down upon Bu Eunseol’s head.
Flash!
Drawing the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, Bu Eunseol began madly slashing away at the pouring power using the principle of Half Above, Half Below and the mystery of Infinite Reversal Power.
Clang!
Clang clang clang!
When mountain-crushing power collided with sword qi, a metallic screech that seemed to tear eardrums rang out in every direction.
But the difference in strength soon became clear.
The Fist Man’s fist art had reached the realm of perfect mastery while ten strands of Bu Eunseol’s sword qi had to cling together just to extinguish a single stream of power.
Swish!
Shwaaaaak!
Bu Eunseol spun the Silent Tiger Soul Sword at high speed once more, then unleashed an explosive burst of light.
As the power continued to rain down endlessly, he unfolded the variant of the Heon Won Bright Sword—the Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal, a single move that poured out hundreds of sword techniques.
Bang bang bang!
The Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal was originally designed to overwhelm a single opponent by flooding them with countless sword qi, sealing off escape routes—its drawback being somewhat reduced power.
Yet against the Fist Man’s indiscriminate rain of power, it proved an exceptionally effective defensive sword art.
“Hmm.”
Watching Bu Eunseol’s explosive sword technique, the Fist Man raised the corner of his mouth.
“So it is Cheol Muhon’s Heon Won Bright Sword.”
The former Martial Alliance Leader Cheol Muhon had taken the Heon Won Bright Sword passed down through generations of the Martial Alliance and made it his own unique sword art, spreading its fame throughout the martial world.
In that instant, a chill ran down Bu Eunseol’s spine.
‘He fought even the former Alliance Leader?’
From the Fist Man’s tone, it sounded as though he had battled the former leader in his prime.
That would mean the Fist Man was at least well over a hundred years old.
If this was the level of the Human Heavens, just how powerful were the Four Divine Heavens and the Three Attendants?
And the Baekri Clan—the great family said to have protected the world from the True Demon and his kin—just how tremendous was their power?
Bang bang bang!
Even in that moment, sword qi and power continued to clash endlessly.
As Bu Eunseol kept blocking the power with the Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal, the Fist Man wore an intrigued expression.
It was as though he were testing just how long Bu Eunseol could endure the indiscriminate deluge of power.
Chiiik! Kwarrrrr!
Gradually, Bu Eunseol’s sword qi began to be pushed back by the Fist Man’s power.
The Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal scattered countless sword qi across a wide area before concentrating them—when spread so broadly, its power dispersed greatly.
‘Fine.’
As the Fist Man seemed intent on crushing him by pouring out power without cease, Bu Eunseol’s fighting spirit only rose in response.
‘I’ll take this chance to practice the Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal myself.’
Chiiik, shwaaaaak!
The Silent Tiger Soul Sword began slicing through the air at ultra-high speed.
When it came to developing martial arts in actual combat and comprehending their mysteries, Bu Eunseol had reached the absolute pinnacle of the martial world.
Though it was only half a technique, the greatest strength of the Heon Won Bright Sword lay in its capacity for infinite variation.
‘That old man isn’t stronger than me because of higher inner force—he simply doesn’t waste even a drop when unleashing power.’
The Fist Man was truly the grand master of fist arts; even when releasing hundreds of streams of power, he distributed his true qi perfectly in every move without wasting a single droplet.
‘Perfect distribution.’
Having grasped the subtlety of the Fist Man’s fist art, Bu Eunseol immediately applied it to the Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal, operating his true qi distribution with even greater precision.
As a result, the sword qi that had been steadily losing ground began to block the Fist Man’s power bit by bit.
Boom.
Suddenly the Fist Man ceased pouring out power indiscriminately.
He had realized Bu Eunseol was imitating the mystery of his martial art.
“Nangyang Pavilion.”
the Fist Man nodded as though finally understanding.
“So it really was you. Hehehe.”
Bursting into loud laughter, he pointed at Bu Eunseol’s face.
“The successor of Majeon was playing the role of a spy within the Martial Alliance.”
Whether the Fist Man had figured out his identity or not, Bu Eunseol unfolded another sword technique.
“Haaap!”
A battle cry he had never uttered before burst forth.
Lately, under the identity of Seon Woojin, he had clashed repeatedly with supreme experts but had never fully revealed his true strength.
Today was different.
Facing a titan who had fought the supreme experts of the previous generation, with no regard for consequences, he was prepared for a fight to the death.
He could never forgive someone who threatened his subordinates’ lives to coerce him.
If left unchecked, this man could threaten his subordinates’ lives again at any time.
After today, the martial world would lose either the young grand master of the demonic path, the Martial Soul Command Lord, or one of the True Demon’s kin.
‘Whether he dies or I die, this ends here.’
As Bu Eunseol unleashed his full strength against the supreme expert the Fist Man, he felt as though the stagnant realm of his martial arts was once again bursting open.
Slaaash! Flash!
The Supreme Heavenly Flow unfolded, followed immediately by the Heaven Beyond Flying Immortal.
From his left hand poured the Seven Fist Demon Forms accompanied by extreme yin and extreme yang energy, while across his entire body the Wishful True Binding and the Thirteen Guiding Energies alternated in rapid succession.
“You bastard.”
The Fist Man, blocking every single attack, was practically losing his mind.
He prided himself on having reached the pinnacle of fist arts and possessed encyclopedic knowledge of countless martial techniques scattered across the martial world. Yet never—not even as a joke—had he heard of someone so young using such a wide variety of martial arts.
Moreover, Bu Eunseol was simultaneously wielding orthodox and demonic ultimate profound arts that should never harmonize, along with both extreme yin and extreme yang energies.
“Just what did Nangyang Pavilion teach you?”
By the logic of martial arts, harboring mutually opposing forces within the body should result in crippling injury or complete destruction.
Yet the longer the fight went on, the more vigorous this young man became.
‘What is this now?’
Furthermore, the longer their clashes continued and the more their massive inner forces collided, the more his insides churned.
‘This brat has mastered some bizarre poison art.’
He could not even remember when he had achieved the body immune to ten thousand poisons, yet a strange poison kept seeping into his skin and gnawing at his inner force.
‘Why isn’t he using the poison art?’
Occasionally a terrifying poison qi rose that even he could not ignore.
If Bu Eunseol used the poison qi, he could turn the fight in his favor.
Yet the young man seemed to have no intention of doing so—only when unleashing intense inner force did a faint trace of poison qi spread.
‘He obtained a great opportunity but still cannot control it.’
Instantly grasping Bu Eunseol’s condition, the Fist Man gave a faint smile.
This young man had not been bluffing…
He truly possessed the skill to fight him on equal terms.
“Time to stop playing!”
Boom.
With a thunderous shout, the Fist Man thrust out both hands.
Boom.
With a sound as though the entire world were sinking, Bu Eunseol was hurled dozens of zhang away.
He had finally unleashed the Infinite Reversal Power.
Hssss.
White smoke rose from Bu Eunseol’s body where it had crashed into the rock.
“I call it the Light Binding.”
A thread-thin smile appeared on the Fist Man’s lips.
“Once it attaches, you can never shake it off.”
The Fist Man’s Infinite Reversal Power—the Light Binding—was completely shattering Bu Eunseol’s body.
“No matter what martial art you have learned, it makes no difference.”
The Fist Man gazed at his own fist, which burned with radiant light.
“Once exposed to the Light Binding, your body will inevitably break apart.”
Then the Fist Man turned around.
Since Bu Eunseol had stopped breathing, the formation would naturally collapse.
But something was strange.
Even after a long while, the formation surrounding them did not disappear.
“Did you think there was no one in the world who could match you?”
Bu Eunseol, collapsed with his head bowed, murmured lowly.
“Did you believe yourself invincible, with no equal in the martial world?”
The Fist Man, who had turned, widened his eyes in shock.
Bu Eunseol was rising to his feet completely unharmed.
“Your body didn’t shatter?”
Once exposed to the Light Binding, no matter how high one’s inner force or what defensive art one used, it was meaningless.
The body would instantly break apart and die.
Yet the white smoke that had risen from Bu Eunseol’s body was slowly dissipating, replaced by a radiant five-colored aura.
“What did you do?”
“It is called Harmony.”
Bu Eunseol said calmly.
“The name of the secret art that aligns all forces perfectly.”
The moment the Fist Man unleashed the Light Binding, Bu Eunseol had instantly wrapped his entire body in Harmony.
“You blocked the Infinite Reversal Power without having reached the Limitless Realm?”
The Fist Man stared in disbelief.
In the current martial world, martial arts had stages.
Martial artists climbed those stages step by step to reach their desired realms.
Yet the young man before him was ignoring every stage and climbing however he pleased.
At first the Fist Man had thought the prolonged time meant he had reached the Supreme Heavenly Realm, but now he was unfolding a bizarre martial art capable of standing against the transcendent destructive power of the Infinite Reversal Power.
Just what should such ability and realm be called?
“There is no such thing as a realm.”
Click.
Suddenly Bu Eunseol sheathed the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
“While you lot reached the Limitless Realm and strutted about, martial artists never rested a single day in honing their arts…”
Whoooosh.
At the same time, both of his fists began to emit light as brilliant as the sun.
“The martial arts of the world have continued to develop brilliantly without end.”
Ptoo.
Spitting out the blood clot in his mouth, Bu Eunseol assumed a fist stance.
“Now let us fight purely with fist arts, hot and fierce.”
Because the Prajna Great Power had fused with him, Bu Eunseol could now unleash Harmony quickly and sustain it wrapped around his body for a much longer duration.
‘One incense stick.’
Within one incense stick of time, with Harmony wrapped around his body, he intended to bring down the fearsome the Fist Man with his fists.
‘To others it may be a short time, but to me it is a full incense stick.’
Until now, Bu Eunseol had only been able to unleash Harmony for extremely brief moments.
Even when wrapping it around himself, the duration had been minuscule.
But now he could sustain Harmony for a full incense stick.
From his perspective, that was more than enough time to settle the duel with the Fist Man.
“You really talk too much!”
Kwaaang!
The Fist Man unleashed the Light Binding in rapid succession.
It was an absolute power that could neither be seen nor blocked.
Sizzle.
Yet every time that power touched Bu Eunseol’s body, it vanished in an instant.
Harmony.
The term originally referred to the principle of martial arts that perfectly aligned even countless opposing techniques.
But for Bu Eunseol, it had become a single martial technique capable of opposing the Infinite Reversal Power.
He had not reached the Limitless Realm, yet he ultimately had to face a Limitless Realm master.
Kwaaang! Kwaaang!
Bu Eunseol’s Harmony possessed a mysterious power.
Though it was a martial principle and technique, it stood completely unyielding against the Infinite Reversal Power, which transcended even the logic of martial arts.
This was possible because of the mysterious principle of Harmony combined with the unification of all the mixed powers within his body.
Kwarrrrr.
The Fist Man poured out the Light Binding, cleanly destroying everything around them.
Yet not even a single hair on Bu Eunseol—wrapped in Harmony—could be touched.
“Is that all the Infinite Reversal Power amounts to?”
Wrapped in Harmony, Bu Eunseol charged toward the Fist Man.
Wuuung.
Hundreds of fist shadows spread around his charging body.
After his first clash with the Fist Man, he had unfolded the Infinite Shadowless Form—a fist technique that wrapped fist shadows around the body and poured infinite power onto the enemy.
“You bastard!”
As though his pride had been wounded, the Fist Man countered with the exact same technique.
“Let’s see how long you can last!”
The Fist Man’s fist shadows far outnumbered Bu Eunseol’s, and their power was greater.
Yet somehow the number of fist shadows pouring from both sides gradually equalized.
In the midst of battle, Bu Eunseol had comprehended the mystery of the Infinite Shadowless Form—the principle of Dripless Perfection and Economical Exhaustion, wasting not even a drop of inner force—and had begun embodying the exact same martial logic as the Fist Man’s Infinite Shadowless Form.
Kwaaang!
Paaang!
When two absolute masters clashed head-on, the sky lost its light and the earth crumbled.
Fist arts were not merely a method of attacking with the fist.
They were a technique that used the most delicate and powerful part of the human body to express the highest realm martial arts could attain.
By imitating the Fist Man’s fist art, Bu Eunseol was expressing a boundless, cosmic force that flowed endlessly and naturally like water—powerful yet gentle.
“You instantly imitate the mystery of this Lord’s fist art?”
The Fist Man wore an incredulous expression.
The fist art of the Fist Man consisted of seven forms.
To unseal the restriction, he had deliberately left the first four forms in the martial world.
He had assumed Bu Eunseol had learned those four forms.
But the fist art he himself was using now was on a completely different level—techniques at the absolute pinnacle of fist arts that could never be replicated even if one mastered the first four forms to perfection.
So how was this demonic bastard instantly imitating their mystery?
“Fine. I will show you there is a heaven above heaven!”
Bang! Bang!
In that instant, countless overlapping martial principles converged into fists that continuously drove toward Bu Eunseol’s face.
But he did not evade—he countered with the Seven Fist Demon Forms.
No—he had already forgotten even the Seven Fist Demon Forms.
What Bu Eunseol was now unleashing was a desperate struggle born from all the martial mysteries he had comprehended so far, a frantic effort to stand against the distant, unreachable level of the Fist Man’s fist art.
Kwaaang!
Pwoooong!
Bu Eunseol’s body was hurled away countless times and blood burst from his mouth again and again. Yet even as he was beaten to a pulp, even as he suffered internal injuries so severe he should no longer be able to stand, Bu Eunseol’s chest burned—not with pain, but with exhilaration.
‘Is this what true combat feels like?’
What was the point of trading inhuman strength capable of crushing mountains and reversing rivers?
True combat was this: blood flowing, flesh tearing, the enemy’s breath brushing against one’s skin at such close range, staking life itself in a collision of vital forces.
Bang bang bang!
With ear-splitting explosions, the fists of the two masters collided repeatedly.
In the span of a single breath, they exchanged over a hundred moves of offense and defense.
The Fist Man unleashed his fist art with full power and Bu Eunseol defended with every ounce of his being.
Though Bu Eunseol was the one taking the hits, it was the Fist Man’s expression that twisted more severely.
He could feel Bu Eunseol continuously imitating the mystery of his fist art.
“You bastard!”
With a roar, the Fist Man unleashed a fist art that Bu Eunseol could not block—
Bang!
With an explosive sound, Bu Eunseol was knocked down once more.
“Ptoo.”
Yet as though he had never fallen, he spat out a clot of blood and charged again.
In that instant, the Fist Man’s expression contorted.
Since reaching the Limitless Realm, when had he last fought such a chaotic battle?
The moment he mastered the Light Binding, he had become like a god of destruction capable of breaking anything. Yet now he could not bring down this brat, and he was moving his body frantically until his mouth tasted like iron.
“Hahaha!”
The Fist Man burst into laughter.
He could not endure this situation without laughing out loud.
“Exhilarating! Truly exhilarating! How long has it been since I fought like this?”
Though he laughed heartily and feigned composure, his eyes held no relaxation.
He—who had fought the supreme experts of the world and always matched them blow for blow—was now sweating profusely against a mere young man?
He could not bear this humiliation.
“Got time to flap your lips?”
Kwarrrr!
Papapapak.
Regardless of whether the Fist Man spoke or not, Bu Eunseol unleashed another forty-odd fists.
Some were heavy, some light; some changed endlessly, some moved with lively precision.
“Hmph.”
The Fist Man unfolded his fist art once more.
The exchange continued without end, and Bu Eunseol kept getting hit—yet rose again like an indomitable puppet.
The Light Binding could destroy anything. Yet it could not destroy Bu Eunseol’s body, which possessed ten jia of inner force and was wrapped in the bizarre power of Harmony.
“Ughhhh.”
As time passed, the Fist Man could no longer endure.
“Fine! I will crush you completely with the fist art you love so much!”
The Fist Man’s body instantly swelled to nearly twice its size, veins bulging across his entire form.
To engage in pure physical combat, for the first time since returning to the martial world, he drew out the maximum power within his body.
Paaang!
The Fist Man’s two fists began spinning fiercely.
At the same time, a fist art so profound that "Mysterious” was inadequate poured toward Bu Eunseol’s body.
It was none other than the original source of the Seven Fist Demon Forms—the fist art of the Heavenly Fist Man.
‘So this is the fist learning of the Heavenly Fist Man.’
Bu Eunseol stared blankly at the explosively erupting fist art of the Fist Man, then—
Wuuung.
He instantly created hundreds of fist shadows across his entire body.
He had immediately imitated the Fist Man’s fist art.
Kwarrrr!
With a thunderous roar, all the fist shadows Bu Eunseol created vanished.
The fist art now pouring forth contained the variations of every fist style in the world, yet its purpose was not merely to defeat the enemy.
It focused on intercepting and nullifying the opponent’s attacks and martial principles midway.
‘What a unique fist art.’
As he watched the pouring fist art, joy rose on Bu Eunseol’s face.
All martial arts in the world were created to defeat enemies, thus they consisted of fast, efficient movements.
But the fist learning the Fist Man now unleashed frustrated the opponent’s attacks, intercepting them and their underlying principles midway, using the rebound to strike not only the enemy’s body but even their mind.
It contained a completely new martial logic never before seen in the martial world.
‘Are not the hands the most delicate weapons in the world?’
There was one reason fist arts could be far more profound than other martial arts: because they used the human hand—the most delicate instrument in existence.
That the Fist Man could adapt his fist art to Bu Eunseol’s movements, instantly producing any martial variation, moving faster and more precisely than any weapon, was because he wielded two hands.
‘Subtle and profound.’
Meanwhile, Bu Eunseol began imitating the Fist Man’s fist art once more.
Yet unlike before, he could not easily follow it.
Even what little he managed was blocked midway, causing him deep internal injury.
An ordinary martial artist would have felt despair here.
But Bu Eunseol was different.
‘The principle of the world is that when something ends, it begins anew.’
The principle of Nangyang Pavilion martial arts—acquiring the enemy’s martial art in the heat of fierce combat—began anew the moment it ended, founded on the mystery of nature’s perpetuity and circulation: ‘always existing, never exhausted.’
Thus, when the Fist Man repeatedly severed his techniques midway, Bu Eunseol instead gained great enlightenment and began fusing the martial mysteries of Nangyang Pavilion with those of the Fist Man.
‘Rather than injuring the enemy by cutting off their flow, would it not be more perfect to continue a linked attack through that very interruption?’
In an instant Bu Eunseol comprehended the principle of a fist technique that intercepted the enemy’s art midway and launched a counterattack.
‘Eternal Cycle.’
He named that fist technique Eternal Cycle.
“Urk.”
But in the meantime, with all his attacks blocked by the Fist Man, Bu Eunseol suffered another deep internal injury from the rebound and spat out a clot of blood.
The Fist Man did not miss the opening—he crossed both hands.
“Now die!”
With an earth-shaking roar, a pure white comet streaked across the universe and poured toward Bu Eunseol’s face.
It was a new fist art that surpassed every fist learning in existence.
‘Eliminate the old… and unfold the new.’
The Fist Man’s ultimate, heartfelt supreme art.
The fist technique he now unleashed… showed Bu Eunseol a complete and utterly new world he had never imagined possible.
Obsessions, ignorance, desires accumulated in the mind.
Fixed notions inherited from generations of martial secret arts.
‘To empty and sever all of that… in the end, one must discard the old and unfold the new.’
Bu Eunseol named the enlightenment he gained from the Fist Man’s supreme fist art ‘Remove the Old, Establish the New’.
Seven Fist Demon Forms.
At last, Bu Eunseol had fully obtained the latter three forms of what could be called the supreme fist art of the martial world—the Seven Fist Demon Forms.
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