Black and White Martial Emperor

Yeon Hojeong’s momentum was overwhelming.

Zeeeeng! Ziiiiing!

White Tiger Qi, heated to its limit, gathered thick along the axe edge. White radiance overlaid the native color of steel — it looked truly like a divine weapon wielded by a general of heaven.

Kwaaang!

Ming Cheon realized the battle was turning strange.

‘Impossible.’

The trace of Yeon Hojeong’s energy clinging to the greatsword’s blade was infiltrating the sword-qi itself, weakening the sword-force at its root.

Ming Cheon shouted,

“You wretch! What devil art is that?!”

“Devil art?”

Yeon Hojeong snorted.

“If anything’s devil art, it’s what you trained!”

Kwakwa-kwang!

He burst forward again. The White Tiger Lord’s Step — the gale of the linked forward advance — multiplied the axe’s heft severalfold.

Kwahng!

Ming Cheon’s thighs bulged.

This blow truly weighed tons. As if crushed beneath Mount Tai, every muscle in his body felt ready to tear.

A ruddy murderous glow climbed the corners of Ming Cheon’s eyes.

Boooom!

Yeon Hojeong’s body checked. He had taken a palm-force from Ming Cheon.

A kill-with-one-strike assault unraveled and flowed like a chained barrage. So strong was his momentum that once it hit a snag, the entire qi-wave seemed to shudder.

Thud!

Ming Cheon stamped the earth.

“Cal... ly.”

The broken, spaced-out syllables burned with a baleful mania.

“A low-born brat dares— to me!”

The storming attacks had given him no room to breathe. Worse, the opponent’s genuine qi carried a bizarre function that kept dispersing his internal energy.

So he had not opened it. The power newly gained.

But no longer. Ming Cheon finally bought the time to open the Phoenix Divine Art to its fullest.

Kwahng!

A wildfire surge rose to devour Yeon Hojeong whole.

Fwoooosh!

A truly immense force. Consumed by surging rage, he vented every shred of strength he possessed.

A terrifying fiery qi spread in all directions. So fierce was the pressure that the surviving Death Swords fell back more than ten zhang.

Brrrr—!

A sweat-blood horse nearby, legs broken and twitching, lolled its tongue and died. The fiery qi and killing aura exploding right before it shattered its spirit.

“Yes. That’s it.”

Looking down at the dead horse, Ming Cheon bit into a mad smile.

“I can cut your head off anytime. I won’t cool off until I watch you writhe like a worm with your limbs lopped off.”

With the Phoenix Divine Art released, even the murderous aura and madness he carried overflowed all bounds.

Ming Cheon’s face, dripping a hideous killing intent, was worthy of being called a demon. Even the fire-qi he exhaled was dank and dark.

Internal force rises and forms by intent. That his fiery qi felt so gloomy meant his mind was that far decayed.

Yeon Hojeong raised Black Tortoise Qi.

Chiiii—!

Heat-haze rippled up from empty air.

‘As expected, he’s strong.’

Drawing up Black Tortoise Qi, he naturally raised the Northern Heaven Twelve Walls. Yet even without being struck, the surface of the internal shield churned. So vicious was the fiery qi emanating from Ming Cheon.

‘But...’

Viiiin—!

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes pierced into Ming Cheon’s interior.

‘At that level...’

A red energy rising from the lower dantian boiled like magma at the heart.

A force beyond the proper path. That much qi heaped on the heart without balancing it with other forces — it would certainly self-destruct.

Moreover, a red filament ran across the throat and philtrum to the center of the brow. Vermilion Bird Qi had invaded the upper field.

It was dire. But he would not die immediately.

That gladdened Yeon Hojeong. He did not want Ming Cheon to perish by a fake Vermilion Bird Art’s self-destruction.

Whooom.

Yeon Hojeong took a soft yet heavy single step.

Though he trod the earth, it made no sound. Quiet and gentle as water soaking in.

It was Unmoving Pillar — the absolute-defense footwork.

“What are you waiting for? Don’t waste my time.”

Yeon Hojeong crooked a finger.

“Come.”

Kwaaang!

The hand and arm that had twitched snapped backward.

Yeon Hojeong’s eyes flashed. Ming Cheon had already arrived nose-to-nose.

‘Fast!’

A staggering speed. For an instant he lost him completely from view.

Ming Cheon swung the greatsword.

Zzhshh—! Chiiii!

Indeed, Black Tortoise Qi was formidable.

Somehow it blocked the rapier-quick sword invisible to the eye. And water overcomes fire — meeting the fiery qi, the Black Tortoise attribute extended with frightening vigor.

Whoom! Koom!

A giant’s blow. The axe split Ming Cheon in half.

‘Gone?!’

But it was only an afterimage. The axe cleaved empty air.

Then ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) where—

Booom!

Yeon Hojeong coughed blood in a rush.

His entire back burned like fire. A palm-force of terrifying might — Phoenix Flame Hand.

It was a different order than the Phoenix Palm that the Death Swords used. So strong that even Black Tortoise Qi could not fully suppress the fiery qi invading through it.

Yeon Hojeong set his feet again in Unmoving Pillar.

Whoooooom—!

A hexagonal carapace pattern rose sharply around his body.

At the same time, Ming Cheon’s full assault began.

Kwakwakwa-kwang! Boooom!

Fast.

Fast and powerful. He loaded the speed-born force straight onto the sword-tip; the weight of it was tremendous.

Urk—

Yeon Hojeong spat blood again.

Even between overcoming and being overcome there are degrees. Vermilion Bird Qi of this magnitude could not be bound by Black Tortoise alone. All he could do was meet the downpour with the Northern Heaven Twelve Walls — there was nothing else to be done.

Bang! Rumble—! Boom!

The assault did not stop.

As if granted endless stamina, his attacks only grew fiercer over time.

That was thanks to Vermilion Bird Qi. White Tiger Qi maximizes lung function to grow stamina and flesh; Vermilion Bird Qi lodges in the heart and boosts life force itself.

So this attack was possible — swinging a blade that crammed even one’s very life onto the edge, a charge with no way back.

Kwakwa-kwang!

Blood up, blood again.

The accumulating internal injuries dragged Yeon Hojeong toward death’s mire in an instant.

He held up the Northern Heaven Twelve Walls, but could not tell which forms he used or how; he was manifesting the Four Spirit, purely on instinct. To live.

‘No. That’s not it.’

Block to live?

No. He was not that kind of man. The Dark Emperor — first in demonic history to be titled Grandmaster of the Demonic Way — was never such a person.

Kwahng!

Black Tortoise Qi shook to its core. Yeon Hojeong’s body shook with it.

But his eyes did not waver.

Whoooooom.

For the first time.

For the first time he could see Ming Cheon’s attack. Even so, he doubted he could dodge — but the fact that he could see it at all was heartening.

Fwoooosh!

Another sword-wound carved his chest.

Deep again. A stroke that nearly split to the bone. Seared by the flaming qi, there was no blood, but the pain bit deeper.

That pain snapped his mind into focus.

‘I saw it. I saw it.’

Flaaare!

The left palm — the hand without a sword — smashed in. A strike like a tongue of fire.

Kwahng!

Yeon Hojeong coughed blood once more.

At this rate he would truly die. Take one more such strike and it would be the Yellow Springs.

Huff!

Yeon Hojeong’s gaze flamed.

The body that had been in his sight vanished. A lightning body-method. He could not track where it went.

‘...?!’

Then a stream of flame lanced his mind.

‘Body-method?’

No.

In the Four Spirit Arts there is no body-method. There are only enemy-facing techniques and steps.

Yes — there is no body-method.

Then what was the body-method Ming Cheon was using now?

‘Blood Wing Sweeps the Heavens!!’

Flash!

The Vermilion Bird’s wingbeat — the movement of a Vermilion Bird flying the firmament at will — Yeon Hojeong’s realization took shape.

Ming Cheon barked a wild laugh.

“Fall!”

Kwaaang!

With an explosion the ground split.

Ming Cheon was about to laugh louder when, all at once, he felt something strange.

‘...Huh?’

The left palm that thrust Phoenix Flame Hand —

That palm had met a hand slick with blood.

Fwoosh!

Red energy flared.

It was not Ming Cheon’s Phoenix qi. Smaller, but far brighter and purer — a true flame, flame as flame, finally blossomed from Yeon Hojeong’s hand.

Fwaaa—

Bent at the waist, Yeon Hojeong slowly lifted his head.

In that instant Ming Cheon felt an unnameable chill.

His opponent — the Yeon clan’s eldest — those eyes.

In those eyes burned a pure fire he had never seen anywhere.

“...Found it.”

His heart burned hot.

In the rift between life and death, even Vermilion Bird Qi had revived.

****

“Shouldn’t we enter now?”

“......”

“Rear Beggar?”

A fierce blast rolled over them then.

Kwahng!

Even at this distance it threatened to split their eardrums. In the very heart of the battle, they would have had to pour all their internal force into guarding their ears.

Ga Deoksang’s gaze deepened.

‘Young Lord Yeon.’

He recalled his conversation with Yeon Hojeong.

‘What did you say?!’

‘......’

‘You madman—what do you take Ming Cheon for? He’s the head of the greatest clan under heaven! At minimum he’s on par with your father!’

‘I know.’

‘Doesn’t sound like you do! If you’re going to go crazy, do it prettily — how can you even think of fighting Ming Cheon! You think because you wiped out a few Ming warriors he’ll be easy?!’

‘Of course not.’

‘Then why! Even you can’t beat Ming Cheon!’

‘I can.’

‘......!!’

‘Masters below Ming Cheon are rough going for me. But Ming Cheon I can beat.’

‘What kind of nonsense...’

‘Besides, this is the last chance.’

‘Last?’

‘The chance to take the head of the butcher leading the killers coming for my family.’

‘......’

‘You asked me to trust you? I trust you. So you trust me.’

‘...Damn it.’

‘I will not lose.’

On Yeon Hojeong’s face Ga Deoksang had seen a hatred beyond words and a fury impossible to measure.

Feelings piled and piled that would neither melt nor crack — the only way to dissolve them was to bring down the enemy he desired.

‘Damn it, even so...’

Bitter as it was, in practical terms the Yeon clan had suffered nothing concrete so far. Not the sort of burden of hate and rage that should build to this.

But Ga Deoksang could not stop Yeon Hojeong.

He had seen the urgency and expectant hunger writhing around that gloomy, fire-like emotion. As if waiting his whole life, his eyes were painted in complicated light.

“Rear Beggar.”

“If we enter now...”

Ga Deoksang licked his dry lips.

“If we enter now, it turns into a general melee. Better to wait till it ends and ring what’s left in a noose.”

“But if it keeps on like that, Young Lord Yeon will be in danger!”

“He said he can win.”

“W-what?”

“Let’s believe him. I didn’t call this Sect Master and two secular branches of Shaolin to fight them. I called them to make sure those people can’t move an inch.”

“That’s true, but...”

“Enough blood has been spilled. Let’s not make useless sacrifices.”

Then—

Brrrr—.

High in the sky a black bird plunged at frightening speed.

Ga Deoksang’s eyes lit.

He rose and thrust out a hand.

Whirr!

With a handsome flutter of wings, the bird alighted on Ga Deoksang’s wrist — a crow, astonishingly.

Ga Deoksang hurriedly unrolled the message tied to the crow’s leg.

Lee Cheolgyung cocked his head.

“From whom?”

“...It’s done.”

“Mm?”

Ga Deoksang clenched a fist and grinned.

Weariness and relief lay over his face.

“Proclamation: Enemy of the Martial World.”