Chapter 105

For a moment, his mind went blank.

The opponent’s lion’s roar had momentarily shaken Pyo Wol’s brain. It felt as if his head had been put inside a giant bronze bell and struck with all might.

It seemed as if the Crimson Light in Pyo Wol’s eyes was fading. But the Crimson Light soon flared back to life, several times more intense.

The Thunderbolt Soul Severing Mind Method had prevented his consciousness from being blown away.

Killing intent flickered in Pyo Wol’s eyes.

He didn’t know the opponent’s identity or face.

None of that mattered.

What truly mattered was that he had inflicted harm upon him.

Pat!

Pyo Wol’s figure vanished.

The place where he reappeared was right in front of his opponent.

He had moved using Black Lightning.

Kiiiiing!

A ringing sound echoed in his head.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when he accelerated his thoughts to Heart Speed.

It was as if the flow of the world had slowed down.

Within it, only Pyo Wol was moving quickly.

He attacked, analyzed, and dissected the opponent simultaneously.

It was a mad act that an ordinary Martial Artist would not even dare to attempt. But Pyo Wol’s body, trained beyond human limits, was making the impossible possible.

The opponent’s face magnified.

Mid-forties, a sturdy build, a pure white robe, a longsword two feet and three inches in length at his waist, his fingers long and delicate.

His steps were light, and his gaze was as piercing as a tiger’s.

A series of pieces of information was transmitted into Pyo Wol’s mind like a flash of lightning.

But such outward appearances were not important to Pyo Wol at all.

The opponent was a strong one.

The first supreme expert Pyo Wol had faced since he came out into the world.

If he couldn’t kill, he would be killed.

Shwaaak!

The Soul Restraining Thread shot out from Pyo Wol’s hand.

It was the Soul Restraining Thread, which had never once betrayed his expectations until now.

Paang!

But this time, it thoroughly betrayed his expectations.

The air in front of the man exploded, and the Soul Restraining Thread scattered in vain.

“What a strange fellow.”

He raised his hand and formed a sword seal.

In that instant, Pyo Wol felt the air of the area change.

Chwahahak!

The air swirling around the area transformed into what seemed like hundreds, thousands of blades, attacking Pyo Wol.

It was as if a millstone, studded with thousands of blades facing inward, was grinding with Pyo Wol caught in between.

Grgrgrng!

A scene unfolded that was like the end of the world.

It was a scene he had never even imagined.

It was closer to the work of a god than the realm of Martial Arts.

At least, that was how Pyo Wol felt.

But Pyo Wol did not despair.

Even in situations more desperate than this, Pyo Wol had tenaciously survived.

The experience of having survived by scraping off and eating moss, by tearing apart and eating live snakes, made Pyo Wol move even in the midst of despair.

Pyo Wol’s appearance was just like that of a starving Hungry Ghost.

His clothes were torn to shreds by the blade-like wind, his flesh was split, and blood splattered, but he did not stop advancing.

At the sight of such a Pyo Wol, the opponent could not hide his admiration.

“Hah! You can withstand that?”

What he had unleashed was a Special Technique called Wind Wave Sword, which contained his life’s enlightenment.

The blades of wind raging toward Pyo Wol were, in fact, the crystallization of the Qi he had emitted.

It was a supreme Special Technique that could not be performed unless supported by a vast, near-infinite Internal Energy.

After he had perfected the Wind Wave Sword, no opponent had dared to last ten seconds, yet Pyo Wol had already endured for several tens of seconds.

No, he wasn’t just enduring; he was actually counterattacking.

At first, he had been busy just dodging, but from a certain point, he had switched to a sharp offensive.

‘Did he analyze the method to break it and find a path to life in that short moment?’

It was clearly not a normal Martial Arts.

His knowledge of the Jianghu was extremely vast.

He knew most of the Martial Arts that had appeared in the Jianghu in the last hundred years. But none of the Martial Arts he knew resembled the one Pyo Wol was using.

That was how original and alien Pyo Wol’s Martial Arts was.

The way he suddenly appeared, piercing through the darkness, was like seeing the Immovable Body Technique of Buddhism.

Peoong!

A part of the Wind Wave Sword shattered from the punch Pyo Wol threw. A sinister Qi burrowed through the gap.

Like a small snake digging into a tiny hole, the sinister Qi that had wormed its way through the Wind Wave Sword aimed for his life.

It was a Strange Art he had never heard of or seen in his life.

If he hadn’t met Pyo Wol in person, he would never have even imagined that such a Martial Arts existed.

Shhit! Ssshiit!

An eerie sound of something tearing through the air continuously echoed from Pyo Wol’s body.

It was the sound of the Soul Restraining Thread clashing with the Wind Wave Sword.

In that moment, he felt his entire body tingle.

As if struck by lightning, a current of electricity stimulated his nerves.

‘What the?’

He glared at Pyo Wol with wide eyes.

Pyo Wol seemed to be in a state of self-annihilation.

His mind was solely focused on breaking the blades of wind.

It was the Soul Restraining Thread that had taken the lives of countless people until now. But the Soul Restraining Thread and the Wind Wave Sword he was unleashing were polar opposites.

The Soul Restraining Thread, made of Qi, was in the form of a thread. It was a structure that was bound to be greatly affected by the wind.

Because of that, the Soul Restraining Thread was pushed by the wind and kept flying to the wrong places.

Pyo Wol desperately thought about how he could control the Soul Restraining Thread. He thought, and thought again, trying to recall what he could do.

It was possible because he had entered the world of Heart Speed.

His thoughts, several times, tens of times faster than others, analyzed the current situation and came up with a solution on how to supplement the Soul Restraining Thread.

‘Infuse Lightning power into the Soul Restraining Thread.’

The Thunderclap Mind Method, the original form of the Thunderbolt Soul Severing Mind Method, had the effect of stimulating the nerves with Lightning power to make one react several times faster.

Although much of its original form had disappeared when it was reborn as the Thunderbolt Soul Severing Mind Method after he fell into the snake pit, the core of using Lightning power was still intact.

Pyo Wol reinforced the Soul Restraining Thread by injecting Lightning power.

Then, even in the ferociously blowing wind, the Soul Restraining Thread did not waver and shot out straight.

And a phenomenon that Pyo Wol had not anticipated occurred.

Bzzzt!

The Lightning power began to be discharged externally along the Soul Restraining Thread.

As the Lightning power came into contact with the air, it created lightning flashes.

At the sight of this phenomenon he had never seen before, he narrowed his eyes.

‘This is getting better and better.’

The problem was that the Lightning power discharged outside the Soul Restraining Thread was gathering the lightning Qi in the air and growing even stronger.

Bzzzt! Bzzzt!

The flickering lightning flashes felt threatening.

‘Hah! So in the end, I’m the one who brought out his potential?’

The man clicked his tongue as if he found it absurd.

This was the first time in his life he had experienced something like this.

He had met countless Martial Artists in his life, and among them were owners of world-shaking Martial Arts and talents that could look down upon All Under Heaven. But none of them had blossomed their talent at such a terrifying speed as the man before him.

‘At this rate, I’ll be the one who gets devoured.’

If he had his way, he wanted to drag it out a little longer and watch Pyo Wol, but if he did, he felt like he would lose everything he had.

“Chaaat!”

With a great shout, his sword seal drew lines vertically and horizontally in the air.

With a bizarre sound, the wind of the area gathered and formed the shape of a giant sword.

It was a Wind Sword made of wind.

Kwaaaa!

The Wind Sword struck down on Pyo Wol.

‘Is it over?’

He narrowed his eyes and looked at where Pyo Wol had been.

The aftermath of the Wind Sword’s deployment raised a thick cloud of dust, obscuring his vision.

It was then.

He suddenly felt a tingling sensation in his ankle.

In that instant, a strange light flickered in his eyes.

He had seen the formless thread wrapped around his ankle.

It was the Soul Restraining Thread.

Amazingly, Pyo Wol was alive. The Soul Restraining Thread wrapped around his ankle was the proof.

Bzzzt!

Lightning power flowed into his body through the Soul Restraining Thread.

He unleashed the Wind Wave Sword to sever the Soul Restraining Thread and hastily retreated.

The Lightning power had almost momentarily paralyzed his nerves.

“Hah! What an astonishing fellow.”

He made a dumbfounded expression.

As the dust settled, Pyo Wol was revealed.

Pyo Wol had become something like a Blood Human. He had taken a huge blow from the immense power of the Wind Sword.

This was the first time he had received such a blow since he had re-emerged in the Jianghu. But the light in Pyo Wol’s eyes was by no means dead.

At the sight of such a Pyo Wol, he let out a sigh.

“To think a fellow like you has been let out into the world. What on earth is the will of heaven? This old man is just confused.”

It was an attack filled with Killing Intent.

He had unleashed a Technique Form to kill. And yet, he survived.

He didn’t just survive; he even developed and counterattacked.

This was the first time he had faced such an opponent.

At least, at Pyo Wol’s age, there had never been an opponent who had shown such a response.

‘If I want to kill him, now is the perfect opportunity.’

It was Pyo Wol who had absorbed his strengths and developed even while fighting him.

He couldn’t even fathom how terrifyingly he would have changed after this moment passed.

Even knowing that fact, he couldn’t move rashly.

‘I can kill him. But I won’t be unscathed either.’

He could tell just by looking at the man’s eyes.

In those emotionless eyes, there was no fear or terror to be seen.

He felt a Killing Intent that said he would make the opponent pay a corresponding price, no matter what price he had to pay himself.

He had roamed the Jianghu for decades, but it had been a truly long time since he had met an opponent with such eyes.

Pyo Wol’s gaze made him recall a very old memory. And it made him think that he had grown old.

When he was young, he had not feared any wound, but his old body, which had compromised with time, was reluctant to get hurt.

Above all, he felt that meeting a being like Pyo Wol in a place like this was not a coincidence.

“Tsk! They say the will of heaven is too deep for a human’s small mind to fathom… I truly don’t know if I will come to regret today’s decision, or if it will be the opposite.”

Clicking his tongue, he stretched out his hand. Then, the body of Nam Shin-woo, which Pyo Wol had set down on one side, floated up and was pulled toward him.

It was the Special Technique of Psychokinesis.

“Stop!”

Pyo Wol rushed in to try and snatch Nam Shin-woo away. But he deployed a wind wall to block Pyo Wol’s approach.

Kwakwakwa!

A typhoon raged between him and Pyo Wol.

Knowing that if he got swept up in it, he would be finely dismantled like well-minced meat, Pyo Wol stopped.

In the meantime, he opened his mouth.

“What is your name?”

“…”

“Are you a coward who doesn’t even have the courage to reveal his own name?”

“Isn’t it proper for you to reveal your own name first?”

“Hahaha! That’s true too. I am called Wind Venerable.”

“Wind Venerable?”

“It seems you’ve never heard of it. Ask someone who knows the Jianghu well later. They will tell you all about me.”

“Not interested. More importantly, why are you trying to take that child?”

“To protect him.”

“Protect? From what?”

“I’m sorry. I cannot tell you that.”

“Then you can’t take him.”

“This is not a matter for which I need your permission, young man!”

Wind Venerable snorted with an expression of disbelief.

Pyo Wol was the first person to react this way even after he had stated his Alias.

If someone who knew the Jianghu well had heard the Alias Wind Venerable, they would have immediately prostrated themselves.

Wind Venerable was the most mysterious Martial Artist in the current Jianghu.

He was classified as one of the Three Venerables, along with the Martial Venerable Yeom Bul-eui and the Sword Venerable Han Yu-cheon. While the backgrounds of the other two were known, at least roughly, nothing was known about him.

Not only his Sect of origin, but there was not a single person who even knew his name.

He possessed martial power so great that he was given the Alias Wind Venerable, but because his allegiance to the orthodox and unorthodox was unclear and his personality was also eccentric, he was treated as an oddball.

People called him Wind Venerable for his unpredictable behavior and his wandering through All Under Heaven like a water weed, and placed him at the very top of the Jianghu alongside the Martial Venerable Yeom Bul-eui and the Sword Venerable Han Yu-cheon.

He was a powerhouse who stood shoulder to shoulder with the masters of the Two Powerhouses, the Three Clans, the Three Hegemons, and the Three Manors, the strongest sects in the current Jianghu.

Wind Venerable slung Nam Shin-woo over his shoulder and said,

“I don’t know how this child drifted here, but this child should not be here. If this child continues to stay here, the land of Sichuan will be engulfed in disaster. Your Martial Arts are decent enough, so you might be able to save your own life, but such luck will not befall others. Therefore, I will protect this child.”

“How can I believe that?”

“Hmph! It doesn’t matter whether you believe me or not. Do you think I’m backing down because I’m afraid of you? Your martial talent is extraordinary, and your Martial Arts are bizarre, but it won’t work on everyone.”

Wind Venerable snorted.

An overwhelming pressure that one would not dare to approach was radiating from his entire body.

None of the Martial Artists Pyo Wol had seen so far could compare to Wind Venerable’s presence. Even Daoist Master Goyeop, said to be the number one Expert of the Qingcheng Sect, seemed to fall short compared to Wind Venerable.

Pyo Wol realized that there was a sky above the sky.

He felt ashamed of himself for being so arrogant, thinking he had no rival in Sichuan Province. But he did not despair.

He had confirmed the gap between Wind Venerable and himself, but he had also confirmed firsthand that the gap was not so large that it could never be closed.

On the contrary, he had gained a clue to a new enlightenment.

That alone was as good as a profitable business for Pyo Wol.

Hwiruru!

The wind blew and wrapped around Wind Venerable and Nam Shin-woo.

Wind Venerable became one with the wind and moved away in an instant.

“The blade of the Heavenly Killer has set with the evening sun, so a blood-red sky shall open. Oh, All Under Heaven! Be wary of the poison in the heart of the other side.”

With those words of unknown meaning, Wind Venerable completely disappeared.

Pyo Wol frowned and looked in the direction where Wind Venerable had vanished.

“I was thoroughly played.”

He had snatched Nam Shin-woo from the Seven Stars Hall, but Nam Shin-woo had been stolen from him again by Wind Venerable.

All that remained were the wounds inflicted by Wind Venerable.

Still, Pyo Wol did not despair or become frustrated.

Now that he knew his shortcomings, he just had to make up for them.

Wind Venerable would come to regret not killing him.