Chapter 233. Within Ten Paces, You’ll Find A Fragrant Flower (4)
“Keke. You should have attacked me directly if you saw an opening when I looked away instead of just yelling at me.”
The Martial Heaven Emperor naturally noticed Woo-Moon’s intent to keep the princess and the Saber Emperor alive, and he launched a series of attacks.
Hundreds of bolts of Transcendent Finger Aura!
However, not a single one of them reached the ground because of Lightflash, which busily took care of them all.
“Martial Heaven Emperor, your opponent is me. Don’t do such lowly things.”
As he said that, Woo-Moon felt puzzled. He could sense that the Martial Heaven Emperor, who had difficulty expressing emotions of any kind, actually seemed to harbor a hint of bloodlust and hatred toward Princess Mok Yong.
“Kekeke. Lowly, you say? But isn’t that my specialty? I was the one who captured your family and used them as hostages to lure you in, and I was the one who cut off your father’s ear while he couldn’t resist.”
The anger that Woo-Moon had briefly forgotten as he faced an increasingly urgent situation and obtained enlightenment surged up again.
“You...!”
Woo-Moon tightened his grip on Inkblade.
From the tip of his sword, fierce, uncontrollable, infinite attacks spread out, explosively sweeping across the Martial Heaven Emperor’s entire body.
Before he knew it, dark clouds had gathered, casting a dark shadow over the landscape, and as lightning and rain struck the Martial Heaven Emperor directly, Raging Wind arose.
“Ahaha, how impressive! You really are amazing!”
The Martial Heaven Emperor laughed out loud, as if he was really fond of being hit by Woo-Moon’s Raging Storm. Just like that, his delicate body seemed to sink downward and get shredded by Woo-Moon’s attacks.
Shing!
Then, a burst of dazzling light so intense that it made even Woo-Moon grimace filled the air.
“Light Explosion!”
Light spread in all directions from the Martial Heaven Emperor. The light extinguished Raging Storm’s energy and advanced rapidly.
However, it wasn’t long before Raging Storm showed off its power again.
Light Explosion and Raging Storm struck each other, in a perfect deadlock. Neither could move forward or push the other away, and they eventually vanished at the same time.
“This time...!”
A fierce, desolate, and bleak wind rose. It was a wind sharper and keener than any sword.
Accompanying the wind were countless snowflakes, all containing extreme yin qi.
“Light Surface.”
The light spread out widely in a fan shape, almost like a thin sheet of cloth. However, Northern Blizzard wasn’t just a sharp and cold sword attack. The moment it collided with the aura of the light, the aura of Northern Blizzard flew across the sheet of light in an amazingly smooth movement the likes of which Woo-Moon had never displayed before, flying toward the Martial Heaven Emperor.
“Ho ho!”
After letting out an exclamation of appreciation, the Martial Heaven Emperor took on a serious expression for a moment before unleashing his first technique once again.
“Light Surface.”
Once again, it was Light Surface.
‘What is he planning?’
Once more, Northern Blizzard slid along Light Surface. However, the moment it reached the center, Martial Heaven Emperor clenched his open hand into a fist, and Light Surface covered Northern Blizzard like a blanket.
BOOM!
An explosive sound rang out as both Northern Blizzard and Light Surface disappeared. At the same time, the first Light Surface the Martial Heaven Emperor had shot out earlier approached Woo-Moon. However, it was in turn blocked by the Impenetrable Iron Wall that Woo-Moon had unfolded just in time.
At that moment, the Martial Heaven Emperor stretched out his hand toward the pillar that Dae-Woong was tied to.
Crack!
Unlike earlier, when he had nonchalantly flicked his hand at Princess Mok Yong, his attack was incredibly fast. Moreover, Woo-Moon was surprised by the Martial Heaven Emperor’s sudden change of direction, so he could not get there in time to block
The middle part of the pillar that Dae-Woong was tied to was shaved down from the Martial Heaven Emperor’s attack.
Because the pillar was so tall, it was greatly affected by the wind, and the middle of the pillar, which had become weak, shook dangerously, as if it was about to break at any moment.
“You bastard!”
The Martial Heaven Emperor laughed as he watched Woo-Moonburning with even greater anger than before.
“Just a little more, Song Woo-Moon. The pillar will break soon, and your father will fall to the ground. Considering your father has only just reached the Transcendent Stage, if he falls to the ground with his qi restricted like this, it might be a little difficult for him to survive.”
Snap!
While the Martial Heaven Emperor was speaking, the thinned part of the pillar couldn’t withstand the strong winds and indeed broke.
The sight of his father falling to the ground seemed to grow larger and larger before Woo-Moon’s eyes, and it was as if time slowed down.
‘If I try to save my father right now, the bastard will take advantage of that gap. I have to kill him first!’
Woo-Moon made up his mind.
He couldn’t think of a way to kill the Martial Heaven Emperor. But he believed in himself, and he believed in the Gentle Celestial Sword.
He would surely come up with a solution!
‘Let’s go. For now, let’s go!’
Woo-Moon flew quickly through the air toward the Martial Heaven Emperor. Without knowing what kind of technique he was performing, he simply raised his sword.
‘I know now, I know. I have a sword technique—I have a sword that contains the entire world!’
All the Myriad Things in the World!
This was the final technique of the Gentle Celestial Sword.
It wasn’t an impressive display of strength like Raging Storm, Northern Blizzard, or Impenetrable Iron Wall. On the contrary, it was pretty much an untrained villager’s sword swing; any martial artist worth their salt would’ve just shrugged and yawned seeing it.
It wasn’t flashy like other aura techniques. That was natural, since it didn’t even contain any aura in the first place.
The strike was just plain in every aspect of the word.
It didn’t overpower the opponent with a powerful display of aura, nor did it evoke a sense of dread with its sharp qi and bloodlust.
It was just a casual swing, so casual that it was enough to make one doubt their eyes. Was it really a swing meant to kill an opponent, or was it just done for the sake of swinging a sword?
Yet in that swing, the Martial Heaven Emperor saw despair.
A wall of despair so thick and high that it couldn’t be jumped over or broken through.
“All the... Myriad Things... in the World... Ha, ahahaha, ahahahaha!”
At this very moment, the final form of the Gentle Celestial Sword was revealed to the world for the first time.
No one had told the Martial Heaven Emperor the technique’s name. Obviously, Woo-Moon hadn’t yelled the name out loud. Yet somehow, the Martial Heaven Emperor had just said the name of the technique.
With his eyes wide open, the Martial Heaven Emperor poured everything he had into his Transcendent Finger Aura.
And Woo-Moon severed it.
Everything the Martial Heaven Emperor had learned and created over the years; everything he did, and everything he was. Woo-Moon severed it all.
His casual strike cut through the Martial Heaven Emperor’s Transcendent Finger Aura as if cutting through a radish. In the end, it cut all the way to the Martial Heaven Emperor’s chest.
And when the sword fell, Woo-Moon had already passed him by.
“You’re dead.”
Hearing that, the Martial Heaven Emperor snickered, but did not move to stop him.
Woo-Moon quickly flew over and caught Dae-Woong. He smiled all the way up to his eyes, still feeling the warmth of his father’s love, feeling that it was more than he deserved.
“Father. I’m sorry; this useless son of yours was so late.”
Dae-Woong’s massive hands, which had cooked for his wife and two sons for half his life and took on all kinds of work at the inn for their sake, gently wiped away his son’s tears.
“No, my son. Thank you for saving this useless father of yours.”
Words of gratitude from his father.
For some reason, Woo-Moon suddenly burst into tears.
“What do you mean, thank you? I’m the one who should be thankful. Thank you for surviving. Thank you for giving me a chance to see my father again.”
The round tears eventually landed on the ground. At the same time, the Martial Heaven Emperor—who had been staying still in the air, as if frozen—also dropped to the ground with blood spurting from his chest like a fountain.
Seeing that the winner had been determined, the onlookers cheered.
“Hurray!”
“The Undefeatable Sword Hero, no, the Undefeatable Sword Immortal has won!”
Everyone shed tears of joy and chanted Woo-Moon’s name, realizing that they were finally safe.
Formless Flying Sword, who had only just arrived, also breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing that Woo-Moon had resolved everything.
She had gone to Woo-Moon’s wedding alone as the imperial palace’s representative. There, she had learned that the imperial palace was in danger and had set out immediately after Woo-Moon. However, she hadn’t been able to keep up with Woo-Moon’s movement technique and had only just arrived.
The surviving soldiers, citizens, and various officials who had been holding their breath and waiting for their deaths due to the Martial Heaven Emperor’s terrifying and overwhelming force and cruelty forgot about their identities and embraced each other.
Now that they had been liberated from the dread known as the Martial Heaven Emperor, a terror that transcended humanity, nothing else mattered.
The Saber Emperor came forward and climbed up the pillar where the emperor was hanging to save him. Formless Flying Sword went to rescue Jin Yo, whose identity was unknown to everyone except for Woo-Moon and the court ladies.
“Kyaaaa!” Formless Flying Sword screamed and threw Jin Yo to the ground.
Her face was red, and she looked down at Jin Yo with eyes full of bloodlust.
While Jin Yo’s cultivation was still restricted, he could still move his limbs. He was curious about the Formless Flying Sword, a woman he had never seen before, and he unconsciously moved his hands out of sheer habit. How could Formless Flying Sword, who was not only unmarried but a virgin in every respect, not be surprised?
Woo-Moon hurriedly sent a voice transmission, worried that Yoon Ha-Rin might actually kill him.
—Please don’t attack him. He’s a bit of a pervert, but he’s by no means an evil person. He’ll be of great help in the future battle against Martial Heaven.
Due to Woo-Moon’s voice transmission. Yoon Ha-Rin tried her best to suppress her bloodlust. Obviously, that did nothing to dispel her anger, so she harrumphed in irritation and moved away from Jin Yo.
‘I’ll kill you someday.’
While Princess Mok Yong was busy moving around to treat her father, Woo-Moon stood up after treating Dae-Woong.
“Son, where are you going?”
“Give me a moment.”
Woo-Moon was headed to where countless soldiers were glaring at the Martial Heaven Emperor with eyes full of resentment. Fortunately, the soldiers were still afraid of the Martial Heaven Emperor and wouldn’t actually move to kill him.
That was fortunate for Woo-Moon.
“Step back. I have something to say to him.”
As Woo-Moon walked forward, the soldiers bowed and stepped aside to make way for him.
The Martial Heaven Emperor’s very spirit was growing dim. Not even a Zenith Master could survive in this state.
He began to speak slowly.
“At some point, Martial Heaven lost its direction. Its goal was to gather together to see the ultimate end of martial arts. And yet that martial will changed, turning into stubbornness and self-righteousness; they started to believe that Martial Heaven was the only keeper of true martiality. They despised all martial artists who weren’t a part of Martial Heaven and deemed them heretics that had to be eliminated. They even went so far as to come up with a plan to wipe out the entire murim and leave only Martial Heaven behind. They put this plan into action immediately. Well, that was a long time ago.”
“So why hasn’t it succeeded by now? With the power of Martial Heaven, that plan should have been accomplished, as you said, a long time ago.”
The Martial Heaven Emperor laughed. Every time he did, blood and pieces of shattered organs came out of his mouth.
“It was accomplished. With the power of our countless experts, we subdued the murim, wiped out countless schools, and absorbed all of their martial arts. While we within Martial Heaven also suffered a lot of damage in the process, we didn’t really care. Even with that damage, we were still able to wipe out all of the murim.”
Woo-Moon could only imagine how many people must have shed tears from their reign of terror and how much blood must have been shed in the process. He felt his hatred for Martial Heaven, the Martial Heaven Emperor, and the Martial Heaven God boil over once again.
“Since you’re telling me this, I suppose there’s a ‘but’ somewhere in your story, huh?”
The Martial Heaven Emperor, who could sense Woo-Moon’s tumultuous emotions, let out another hearty laugh.
“But... we didn’t know... that there was a reclusive master... a real monster. Haha, can you imagine? People call us monsters... but we ended up meeting someone we called a monster!”
The Martial Heaven Emperor’s words absolutely shocked Woo-Moon. To think there was someone who deserved being called a monster by the entire Martial Heaven...
“Who was it?”
“Your master.”
Woo-Moon’s eyes widened at those words. Then, he understood.
The old Daoist.
Every now and then, as his cultivation progressed, he recalled his master’s feats and wondered whether he could replicate them. And every time, the answer was the same. Even now that he was a Zenith Master and had defeated the Martial Heaven Emperor, he still didn’t feel any closer to that goal.
“Woo Bok-Hee. That bastard stopped us. I, the Martial Heaven God... and the others rushed at him, wondering... what kind of crazy old bastard would block our path. But... none of us were able to touch even a single strand of Woo Bok-Hee’s clothes.”