◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 456: The Seed of Evil (4)
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Combat is a battle of moves.
Among back-alley thugs, the strongest and the winner might be the one with the most guts and the foulest mouth.
But combat in the martial world, especially between people who have reached similar levels of attainment, is determined by their moves.
That is one reason renowned sects develop other martial arts despite each possessing ultimate techniques that represent their sect.
They need countless weapons to counter different moves as the situation demands.
In that sense, knowing an opponent’s moves beforehand and possessing countless martial arts to counter them is no different from reviewing a battle that has already been won.
That was why Yong Soa had always been able to win.
Still, a question remained.
Was his ability absolute?
If it were, I should have died by his hand already.
My attacks should not have so much as cut the hem of his robes.
Then…
If his ability was not absolute, then there was a way to deal with him.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
As the Whirlwind Sword Art was blocked again and again, Yong Soa frowned.
Swish-
Using the Ladder-to-the-Clouds movement art, Yong Soa retreated before swinging the Whirlwind Sword Art once more.
Slash-
My sleeve was cut away by his opening move.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
Yet every attack that followed came to nothing.
“How did you do that?”
So Yong Soa made that expression when he was surprised.
Emotional gaps created openings.
The instant I had anticipated arrived, and I thrust the Ascending Heaven Dagger in without hesitation.
Slash-
The short blade, only half a saber’s length, was good for surprise attacks but could not inflict a fatal wound.
Still.
Drip. Drip.
For the first time, I made Yong Soa bleed.
“…How did you do that?”
He glanced at his martial robes, now turning red, then asked again.
“Hm? Ah.”
I answered him kindly.
“I can see the future too.”
“…”
Yong Soa’s face twisted as though a crack had formed across a smooth surface.
How strange.
That unpleasant face of his was still unpleasant when twisted.
“…This is no time for jokes.”
“Was there ever a time for that between us?”
I sharply closed in with the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
After three changes, I abruptly changed direction and stabbed at his thigh.
As the Whirlwind Sword Art obstructed my sword path as though it had been waiting for me, the Ascending Heaven Dagger swung again and barely passed beneath his chin.
Slash-
Part of his long hair scattered to the ground.
“…”
His eyes shook violently, as though he could not understand the situation at all.
“What in the world…”
“Why?”
Of course, it was a lie.
If I could see the future, I would not have suffered through this miserable ordeal.
I would not have had to race through this life like a madman, chased by memories of my past life.
“You thought you were the only one who could see the future?”
Either way, the only way to change the future was to fight. And I had to win.
The only way for someone like me to deal with him was through memory.
I dredged up every memory I had of him from my past life.
How he constructed his forms.
Which martial arts he linked together to overwhelm his opponents.
If his foresight was absolute, it would all be pointless. But if it was not, then as long as he was a human with red blood in his veins, he was bound to have habits and tendencies.
There was always one foot that moved first when someone took a step.
Would martial arts practiced tens of thousands of times be any different?
I pulled out every memory connected to Yong Soa from the fragments of my past life and broke them into smaller pieces.
After examining each piece closely and putting them back together, I analyzed every aspect of how he fought.
Just as a battle of moves in Go had game records, I created a complete record of every combat pattern of his that I knew.
The flow of martial arts did not allow one to calmly stop and think like a game of Go. In the end, I expected him to use his martial arts out of habit.
And then…
Drip. Drip.
That prediction was proven by his blood.
“…!”
I was seeing Yong Soa flustered, something I had never once witnessed in my past life.
Had there ever been a moment when I was happier to have regressed?
“I suppose there was no future like this one?”
He used the Zaoyang Sword Art to block the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Clang!
At the same time, the Scarlet Radiance Sword unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
The Twin Heavens Sword Art descended over his head.
According to my prediction, his next response would be the Nine Palaces Divine Movement Sword.
Hummm-
The air trembled violently as energy spread in all directions.
‘Just as I thought!’
Just as in my past life, he used a technique that diverted powerful attacks with the least possible effort.
I withdrew my strength and scattered the Twin Heavens Sword Art loosely.
Despite their immense size, the sword qi descending upon him shattered like a fine drizzle.
The moment he tried to unleash the Thirteen Divine Gate Sword Art after the Nine Palaces Divine Movement Sword, I poured internal energy back into the fading Twin Heavens Sword Art and brought it down upon his Thirteen Divine Gate Sword Art.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Explosions rang out one after another, forcing him back.
Pushed back by the force, Yong Soa redirected the path of the Thirteen Divine Gate Sword Art and immediately unleashed the Five Elements Sword to defend himself.
There was a seventy percent chance that the sword art following the Five Elements Sword would be the Nine Palaces Chain Sword.
It was the linked technique most compatible with the Five Elements Sword.
The fact that he could perform such chain attacks at all proved his absurd comprehension, but now it was acting as poison against him instead.
‘Jackpot!’
Just as I expected, he sent out the Nine Palaces Chain Sword, and I disrupted its sword path in advance with the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
Clang!
As the Nine Palaces Chain Sword came to nothing, his face stiffened.
His expression was still blank, but I could tell.
He could not hide his panic.
“Why can’t you answer? Was there a future like this?”
“…”
I began to unleash the Greater Heaven Sword Art again.
For the first time, hesitation appeared in his Whirlwind Sword Art.
#
The Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation could not hold back the Black Officers’ overwhelming numbers.
From the start, the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation was a maze formation that confused the senses and misled its opponents.
The Mount Mao Sect members could freely move in and out of the maze by following predetermined footprints, but that could not bridge the overwhelming difference in martial strength.
“Do not go out.”
“But…”
Inside the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation, Ok Hwajeong watched the Black Officers pass before her with a worried expression.
“If you go out now, you will only die for nothing.”
“But the children…”
“Trust in the Mount Mao Sect’s strength.”
“…”
“And the Taeul Sect is here as well.”
Ok Hwajeong recalled Geumpyo, who had stood before her with his shield.
He might not have been the strongest under heaven, but his solid back remained clear in her mind.
“…Yes.”
After seeing several Black Officers die while attempting to enter the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation, the Black Officers began moving in tight groups.
The formation itself did not directly harm them. They only needed to kill the Mount Mao Sect members who emerged from within the maze.
“Move while watching every direction.”
Once they realized they could stop Mount Mao Sect ambushes with minimal vigilance, they pressed straight toward Geoncheong Hall, where the Mount Mao Sect members had gathered.
“Those cowards will not show themselves.”
“Hm?”
Then three people stepped in front of them and blocked the way.
“The Taeul Sect…?”
“Yes. The Taeul Sect.”
They had young faces filled with both innocence and resolve. Children… no, martial artists.
The Black Officers stared at the three of them.
“…Do you know this is an act of treason against the Martial Alliance?”
“Our eldest senior brother didn’t say that.”
“Once this is over, the next spark will rise from the Taeul Sect.”
“…Is that what you think?”
Killing intent filled Geumpyo’s eyes.
The three charged at the Black Officers at once.
“Kill them!”
The Black Officers surged forward as well, releasing killing intent so they would not be overwhelmed by their momentum.
Boom!
A tremendous shockwave burst from Geumpyo’s shield, violently shaking the Black Officers.
The moment they steadied themselves and swung their swords again, Geumpyo shook the entire group with his shield once more.
Boom!
The impact was so powerful that long trails marked the ground where the Black Officers had been pushed back.
Whoosh-
Eunho leaped over them and boldly brought down his sword, sending a storm of sword shadows that threw the Black Officers’ vision into confusion.
At that moment.
Slash-
Saryeon, who had hidden inside a wall, suddenly sprang out and cut through the Black Officers’ hands and swords with nimble movements.
“Ghk!”
“Hup!”
Some were wounded, while others were rendered unable to fight.
Yet the three showed no sign of stopping as they relentlessly drove the Black Officers back with bold movements.
Five of them being taken down in an instant was not what frightened them. What terrified them was that the Taeul Sect members could move freely through the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation like Mount Mao Sect members.
It felt as though they were fighting ghosts.
“R-retreat!”
“Move!”
The Black Officers of all people began shoving one another aside as they fled.
The three did not pursue them.
Signals continued to come from the roof of Geoncheong Hall, and since they knew the inside of the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation like the back of their hands, they could stop the Black Officers anyway.
“Wow… This mystic formation is incredible.”
Geumpyo marveled at the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation, which had helped them overwhelm the Black Officers. Eunho nodded.
“I heard it only works because the Black Officers’ attainments aren’t that high. Peak Realm martial artists can make their way through it with instinct or martial strength alone.”
“Is that why they don’t use it often?”
“More because it isn’t efficient, I suppose.”
Then Dongryong, who had been separated from them, returned.
For some reason, Dongryong looked dejected.
“Hm? What about the Black Officer commander?”
Dongryong shook his head at Geumpyo’s question.
“He didn’t come.”
“What?”
“The path on my side was blocked.”
The Taeul Sect disciples were the final line of defense in the Eight Directions Stone Heaven Golden Lock Formation.
In other words, the Black Officers had to pass through them to get through the formation.
Yet they had not come.
“…Did they retreat?”
As they considered how to respond to the unexpected situation,
Boom!
A huge explosion rang out.
All four looked at one another.
“Could it be?!”
“When did they…?!”
The explosion had clearly come from Geoncheong Hall.
#
Yong Soa looked down at his martial robes.
It was the first time he had seen his robes dyed red since awakening the Dragon Eye.
No, even before awakening it, he had never shed this much blood.
‘What in the world…’
The sight of his white robes stained red bothered him.
Yet something bothered him even more.
“You are wrong.”
The man before him called himself a member of the White Path while radiating enough killing intent to make Yong Soa’s skin tingle.
“The future you see is not absolute.”
Had he realized it?
“More than that, you only see what you want to see.”
What Yong Soa saw, and how far he could see.
“…Is that what you think?”
No one had ever realized this much.
Yet Jin Sowoon, as always, had found his way into the cracks.
Perhaps he was an even more dangerous existence.
More dangerous than those who blindly pursued power and profit.
No one had ever driven Yong Soa this far in his life.
‘Perhaps… even more than the Demonic Cult.’
If this man had grasped even the deeper parts of his ability, his danger would rise exponentially.
“Do you truly think so?”
That was why Yong Soa could not tolerate Jin Sowoon.
“Did leaving such wounds on me give you that certainty?”
Then.
“…”
Yong Soa saw it.
Jin Sowoon’s eyes, growing distant as though they were gazing somewhere far away.
His gaze did not seem fixed solely on Yong Soa before him.
It was the look of someone stubbornly weighing and calculating everything he knew.
“So that is it…”
He had finished figuring it out.
It had taken time, and he had sustained more wounds because of it.
Still, he had figured out how Jin Sowoon had broken through his Dragon Eye.
Fortunately, Jin Sowoon had not properly realized the nature of his ability.
“Then you are wrong.”
He had no choice but to acknowledge that Jin Sowoon was exceptional.
He knew Jin Sowoon possessed an excellent memory, but to use that memory in this way…
Yong Soa had never even properly shown his martial arts, yet Jin Sowoon had created such a countermeasure from those fragments alone.
It was almost enough to make Yong Soa regret not recruiting Jin Sowoon into the Great Undertaking.
“…”
Yong Soa was inwardly surprised.
It was the first time he realized that he possessed the emotion called regret.
‘But… that changes nothing.’
The future he was creating could not be broken.
Among hundreds, thousands of futures filled with despair, the future he was creating was the only alternative that could prevent the end of the martial world.
Even if a Great Luo Immortal stood in his way, he would have to cut them down.
Clang!
Jin Sowoon’s sword was blocked.
Screech!
Jin Sowoon followed with Extreme Swiftness of the Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms, but it did not leave even the smallest scratch on Yong Soa.
Slash-
Slash-
Slash-
Wounds appeared across Jin Sowoon’s body.
Jin Sowoon frowned.
Yong Soa’s voice, still devoid of emotion, fell over him.
“Why am I not moving as you predicted?”
“…!”
At Yong Soa’s words, Jin Sowoon barely stopped himself from crying out.
‘Damn it, he figured it out already?’
He could not accept that the countermeasure he had prepared by wringing his overheated mind dry had been destroyed in an instant.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
But as the illusion swords and sword qi that had spread like a fan to pressure Yong Soa shattered to pieces, he had no choice but to believe it.
‘Fuck. Was his ability absolute?’
To Jin Sowoon, Yong Soa looked like a giant growing larger as he pierced through clouds hanging over Mount Tai.
‘Was this how Sun Wukong felt?’
It felt as if he had become the stone monkey who could never escape the Buddha’s palm, no matter how fast he flew.
‘So what?!’
Yong Soa was not the Buddha, and Jin Sowoon was not a monkey.
If Jin Sowoon’s prepared countermeasure had been broken, he only had to use the next one.
The final countermeasure he had prepared for the worst-case scenario.
‘I was going to save this no matter what.’
Jin Sowoon drew up all the internal energy accumulated in his dantian.
At the same time, he poured the Sunfire Monkey’s energy into the Scarlet Radiance Sword.
Fwoosh.
The Scarlet Radiance Sword gave off blazing red sword qi as if it were on fire and shot toward Yong Soa.
Boom!
Searing heat engulfed Yong Soa. Jin Sowoon’s strike forced him back two steps.
Yong Soa took another two steps back to dispel the heat engulfing him, but Jin Sowoon did not continue his attack.
“…”
No, Jin Sowoon could not continue attacking.
Just then, an ominous energy erupted from Geoncheong Hall.
“Demonic qi…?”
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