When the Heavenly Demon clashed with Heuk-am with his full strength.
When Zhang Sanfeng was still by Yi-gang’s side.
Yi-gang raised his sword once more and said.
-I’ll join as well.
It was not an empty show of bravado.
Yi-gang was sensing danger with the skin of his whole body.
Heuk-am ahead of him was clearly more dangerous than any enemy Yi-gang had ever met.
-I can cut him.
But Yi-gang didn’t think he would be unable to harm Heuk-am at all.
He had gained something as well.
Even if he emit lightning with a supreme ultimate technique, Heuk-am didn’t seem like he would budge, but Yi-gang felt he could cut that solid body.
Like how Yi-gang had cut the Great Sage Equal to Heaven’s body.
Like how he had damaged a divine body with an ordinary sword strike without even wrapping it in sword aura.
That was a new power Yi-gang had gained.
Gained, perhaps. It was a possibility he had discovered within himself.
It was clearly not a supreme ultimate technique. Even Yi-gang himself did not know the secret of that sword strike.
-Save it.
But just as Zhang Sanfeng said.
Yi-gang also knew he could not use that kind of sword strike many times.
Instead of asking Yi-gang to join, Zhang Sanfeng said something else.
-If an opening appears, go around him and break through.
This time again, the duty imposed on Yi-gang was like that.
While the others buy time, go further.
Because in the end, the one who has to go to the very end is Yi-gang.
Yi-gang knew it rationally as well, but this time he truly wanted to protest.
-This time…
But he was not given the chance.
Amazingly, the Heavenly Demon was pushed back by Heuk-am, and Zhang Sanfeng joined without delay.
Yi-gang had no choice but to look at Zhang Sanfeng’s back.
If the Heavenly Demon and Heuk-am’s martial arts walked the path of tyranny, Zhang Sanfeng’s was of a different track.
The extreme gentle art that could embrace anything and also let it flow past.
Zhang Sanfeng indeed succeeded in letting Heuk-am’s Black Cloud Great Heaven Palm flow off.
Its force was reduced and struck the ceiling.
Of course, even with reduced force, the ceiling cracked and rocks fell.
Rocks big enough to smash skulls rained down.
To a master past a certain level, such an extreme environment became something to use instead.
Zhang Sanfeng leapt into the air and swept both arms.
Each time his soft sleeve brushed a rock, it moved as if alive.
Toward Heuk-am.
Kwakwa-kwakwa-kwaang!
The rocks pounded Heuk-am’s entire body.
The force was so strong the rocks shattered on impact.
Even so, it seemed there was no damage to Heuk-am’s body.
He didn’t get pushed back, and stood straight.
He didn’t even blink before the scattering rock fragments.
A large rock fragment briefly covered Heuk-am’s view.
When it passed, what appeared right before him was the Heavenly Demon’s face.
A smile twisted with killing intent and fighting spirit.
The Heavenly Demon uppercut Heuk-am’s jaw with his fist.
It was not a simple punch.
The Heavenly Demon had realized as well that ordinary physical force could not damage Heuk-am’s body.
So he used a martial art he rarely used.
There is a saying, ‘Hitting a cow across the mountain.’
It means striking through a mountain to hit the cow beyond it.
A hidden force strong enough to crush anything inside tried to pulverize Heuk-am’s torso.
But the result was not that.
Heuk-am’s pupils trembled for a moment, but that was all.
Heuk-am opened his mouth at a speed the eye couldn’t follow and bit the Heavenly Demon’s arm.
Crunch!
It sounded like bamboo splitting.
Even his jaw strength seemed beyond human, and the Heavenly Demon’s forearm was torn off.
Pshuuu-
A fountain of blood sprayed from the forearm torn away in the shape of teeth marks.
With an injury like that, using his right arm would now be impossible.
The Heavenly Demon calmly looked down at his blood-soaked arm as if it were someone else’s.
Then he burst into laughter.
“You monster!”
The Heavenly Demon did something monstrous as well.
He swung that dangling arm and struck Heuk-am’s face.
It was an attitude that did not care for his own body.
For the first time, Heuk-am’s head was shoved back.
There was an impact.
Yet even then, Heuk-am’s arms moved, trying to snatch the Heavenly Demon’s body.
If he got caught, it was over.
The Heavenly Demon didn’t pull back, and instead Zhang Sanfeng responded.
Zhang Sanfeng tapped Heuk-am’s arms several times.
Tuduk, tuk!
They called it using softness to control hardness.
Instead of grabbing the Heavenly Demon, Heuk-am’s two arms twisted together in midair.
His own view would have been blocked by his arms.
Zhang Sanfeng, a master of Qi-Sword Control, seized that moment.
A sword flew in like a ray of light and aimed for Heuk-am’s temple.
A brilliant sword aura was even infused into it.
The moment that powerful sword was about to pierce Heuk-am’s vital point, something incomprehensible happened again.
Heuk-am’s head movement was as if it skipped time.
With a crunch, he bit Zhang Sanfeng’s sword in his mouth.
And the sword wrapped in sword aura was, unbelievably, shattered by the force of the bite.
Kwachang!
Shards of the blade, packed with Aura Qi, flew in all directions.
They were practically bombs.
At the flying shards, Zhang Sanfeng frantically swept both arms.
Only after using Non-Act Daydream did the shards finally patter to the floor.
“Absurd…”
They had known from the start the opponent was a monster, but it had gone beyond measure.
They looked sickened.
It was the same for Yi-gang, who had been watching them from behind.
While the Heavenly Demon and Zhang Sanfeng fought Heuk-am, every muscle in Yi-gang’s body was taut with tension.
He wanted to jump in again and again, but he held back.
Because Heuk-am’s attention would also turn toward Yi-gang.
If that happened, breaking through by going around him would become even harder.
Even though it was a two-on-one fight, the Heavenly Demon and Zhang Sanfeng couldn’t easily seize the advantage.
That only gave more justification for Yi-gang to leave them and push in.
‘The Four Perils…?’
After learning that Mang-hon and Gwi-ryeong’s true identities were actually the Four Perils.
Mang-hon was Docheol, and Gwi-ryeong was Qiongqi.
They were all names of monsters from ancient legends.
It was not unreasonable to guess Heuk-am’s identity might also be one of the Four Perils.
‘Was it Taowu, and Hundun…’
Yi-gang recalled the lore about the Four Perils.
Taowu is a monster with a tiger-like body, a human face, and boar tusks.
Hundun is like a gigantic wolf, a monster that swallows anything in one gulp and has strong greed.
‘No. Meaningless lore.’
In Mang-hon’s case, he didn’t match the lore about the Four Perils at all.
According to the lore, Docheol should resemble a sheep, but he didn’t resemble it even a hair.
There was no point in referencing the lore.
‘Then the Evil Cult Leader too.’
The most hidden one was the Evil Cult Leader. Yi-gang had never seen him even once, and had never met anyone who claimed to have seen him.
Including the Cardinals, that made four, so on the surface the numbers seemed to fit.
Either way, knowing that now didn’t seem to help the situation.
Then Heuk-am roared.
“U-a-a-a-a!”
Yi-gang almost got pushed back.
Inside the sealed chamber, Heuk-am’s roar ricocheted at the speed of sound.
His ears rang, and his sense of balance swayed.
But Yi-gang forced himself to hold onto his mind.
Zhang Sanfeng and the Heavenly Demon held on as well.
Heuk-am’s entire body was wrapped in dark Black Cloud Aura Qi.
He was clearly about to throw out a move.
Then they had to brace as well.
“Zhao Guang.”
Though they were such bitter enemies, their coordination was good.
The Heavenly Demon extended his ruined right hand forward, and Zhang Sanfeng took position behind him.
Heuk-am silently spread both arms.
And clapped his hands as if pressing palms together.
Paaang-!
When those two hands met, light clearly flashed.
A storm of qi swallowed Zhang Sanfeng and the Heavenly Demon.
Dust shot up, and a gale raged.
That was when Yi-gang moved as well.
No matter how wide the chamber was, it had walls and a ceiling.
The collision of immense power created enough chaos for Yi-gang to break through.
Yi-gang broke through a gale strong enough that it was hard to keep one’s body steady.
The Heavenly Thunder Command gave Yi-gang enough acceleration.
Ever since he gained the ability to use Thunder Lord’s Descent, he had become even more familiar with using thunder energy.
Blue sparks flew from his whole body.
It felt as if time had accelerated.
Yi-gang ran with all his strength.
Even compared to the Heavenly Demon or Zhang Sanfeng’s speed, he wasn’t slow.
It even looked easy to skirt the clash, pass Heuk-am, and go beyond the corridor.
He took one step.
Then another.
Heuk-am’s clap raised a storm of Aura Qi.
Yi-gang desperately wanted to see how Zhang Sanfeng and the Heavenly Demon were responding while swallowed by it, but he forced himself to be patient.
He doesn’t turn his head.
He doesn’t even spare a glance.
If he decided to step over others’ sacrifices and move forward, it was only right not to look away from the goal.
Yi-gang meant to keep going without looking back.
But then it reached his ears.
A helpless scream.
That voice, sounding like a death rattle, was clearly the Heavenly Demon’s.
It was a sound the Heavenly Demon didn’t seem like he would make even at the moment of death.
Turning his head slightly to look back was almost unavoidable.
Yi-gang’s pupils dilated wide.
Zhang Sanfeng’s body was floating up and being flung backward.
He looked fine instead. The problem was the Heavenly Demon, who was holding his place.
There was a hole drilled straight through the center of the Heavenly Demon’s chest.
It was large enough that he could see through to the other side.
The place where the Demonic Qi Hole should’ve been.
What sprayed from that hole was not demonic qi, but only blood.
Heuk-am had knocked Zhang Sanfeng away and inflicted a fatal wound on the Heavenly Demon.
Overwhelming martial force.
But Heuk-am was not savoring the joy of victory.
‘He vanished!’
Yi-gang’s eyes searched, finding nothing.
Heuk-am, who had been right in front of the Heavenly Demon a moment ago, was gone.
The time it took Yi-gang to register the Heavenly Demon’s injury was truly a split second.
Not even enough time to blink. A person cannot go anywhere in that time.
Yet Yi-gang instinctively knew where Heuk-am was.
Yi-gang turned his head forward again and looked straight ahead.
He was there.
Heuk-am was blocking the corridor as if he had been there from the start.
His palm seemed to swell massively.
To avoid the approaching death, Yi-gang swung his sword.
That sword strike that had worked on the Great Sage Equal to Heaven worked on Heuk-am as well.
Yi-gang cut off Heuk-am’s index and middle fingers from the second joint, but he couldn’t deflect all of the Aura Qi.
Yi-gang was flung back like a stone shot from a catapult.
Only after colliding with the ground about twice did he regain balance, and even then he was dragged along, leaving a long mark on the floor.
As Yi-gang tried to rise, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
It was a single clash, yet he suffered internal injuries.
When he lifted his head, Heuk-am was standing perfectly fine.
So what if two fingers had been cut off.
Yi-gang couldn’t use ‘that sword strike’ again, and the combined attack of the Heavenly Demon and Zhang Sanfeng could no longer happen.
“Remarkable.”
Heuk-am said that.
“Your martial force has surpassed countless kings.”
It was praise in Heuk-am’s own way.
He sighed as if truly regretful.
“In my era, if you had been born as a proper human, not with such a miserable body. You could have stood shoulder to shoulder with me and contended for supremacy.”
He approached slowly.
“If not for me, that sword might have even reached the Yellow Emperor.”
Was it pity? No. His tone sounded genuinely regretful.
That made Yi-gang burn inside.
“Before executing you, I should show proper courtesy. My name is…”
Yi-gang remembered that they still had not heard Heuk-am’s true identity.
Heuk-am opened his mouth.
“My name is Chiyou. Here, I will take your lives.”
A name of a god of a higher order, incomparable to the Four Perils, came out.
Chiyou was an ancient Son of Heaven.
He spoke human words with a beast’s body, with a head of bronze and a forehead of iron.
All the lords came and submitted to Chiyou, and he was the most savage, with no one able to defeat him.
The Classic of Mountains and Seas says that the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan ordered the Yinglong to kill Chiyou.
On the plains of Zhuolu, the Yellow Emperor engaged Chiyou three times, and in the end captured and killed him.
