Chapter 255

Baek Li-jung’s expression remained unchanged upon seeing Gu Ryun.

“Who are you?”

Gu Ryun was not disturbed.

“Ah, just an axe and blade wielder who rolled around battlefields.”

Baek Li-jung spoke as if coaxing a child.

“If you came out of the military camp, you should retire and live quietly as a hermit. What is there to gain by lurking around the martial world? Get lost.”

“I can’t do that.”

Gu Ryun smiled broadly.

“If you have the skill, why don’t you try to retire me here?”

At that moment, Baek Li-jung’s body became blurred. Leaving a hazy afterimage, he crossed over ten zhang and appeared before Gu Ryun.

“Ugh!”

A scream rang out from the path Baek Li-jung had taken. An Evil Sect member was collapsing while vomiting blood. The large saber the Evil Sect member had been holding was now somehow in Baek Li-jung’s hand.

Gu Ryun squinted his eyes. Baek Li-jung’s lightness technique was beyond imagination.

Baek Li-jung, standing before Gu Ryun, raised the large saber. Looking down at the short Gu Ryun with expressionless eyes, his appearance was intimidating beyond measure.

“Do you know how to use a blade?”

Gu Ryun hastily raised his shield to block in front.

CRASH!

Lightning had struck.

* * *

Venerable Woo-am sat in lotus position with his eyes closed in front of a small hermitage.

From the energy felt inside, the time for Dan Ryeong-gyeong to emerge was imminent. However, if he remained here, Baek Li-jung would come all the way here.

This was an extremely important time for Dan Ryeong-gyeong. She wasn’t simply overcoming poisoning, but adapting anew to her body changed by the severed arm.

That’s why it had taken longer than expected.

‘I’ll have to leave without seeing her to the end. If I’m alive, we’ll meet someday.’

Venerable Woo-am quietly stood up without making a sound.

‘Since your people are shedding blood to protect you, I too should lend a hand.’

Venerable Woo-am looked at the hermitage where energy was boiling and sent his regards in his heart before leaving.

Where he headed was the opposite direction from the hermitage where Dan Ryeong-gyeong was, toward Elder Sky Peak, the highest peak of Qingcheng Mountain.

* * *

Baek Li-jung’s large saber grazed past the shield and embedded in the ground.

Gu Ryun had used the mystery of deflection to deflect the large saber.

Gu Ryun smiled with satisfaction. His shield technique was the strongest. Though Indestructible Heavenly Sword was a renowned master, even he couldn’t surpass his shield technique!

“Even Thunder Brand Sword couldn’t pierce my shield. How would you be any different! Hahaha!”

At that moment, Baek Li-jung’s gaze changed slightly.

“Thunder Brand Sword, you say?”

Baek Li-jung’s lips curled up, beginning to bare his teeth.

“To compare me with such an insignificant fellow…”

Baek Li-jung picked up the large saber again and struck down.

THUD!

Baek Li-jung’s large saber was caught by the shield’s subtle movement and embedded in the ground again. In the meantime, Gu Ryun drew his blade and stabbed at Baek Li-jung. However, Baek Li-jung’s speed in striking down again was faster.

“Ugh!”

Gu Ryun had to raise his shield again.

CRASH!

The large saber scraped past the shield more forcefully than before. Holding the shield with one hand and enduring, his forearm rang out. This meant Baek Li-jung had struck with more force.

But even after striking with such force and missing, his posture should have wavered, yet the moment the large saber seemed embedded in the ground, looking at Baek Li-jung, he had already pulled out the blade and was holding it up high.

Therefore, Gu Ryun couldn’t find any opening to counterattack.

THUD! CRASH!

The pressure became stronger. Gu Ryun had to somehow make Baek Li-jung reveal an opening to counterattack.

However, since Baek Li-jung kept simply striking from top to bottom without other techniques, it was difficult to use other moves.

‘This time I’ll deflect it more to the side!’

Gu Ryun used deflection as carefully as possible to adjust Baek Li-jung’s large saber to miss much more to the side. The moment Baek Li-jung’s large saber caught on the shield, he added his own force to push it sideways. No, he tried to.

However, the moment the saber blade touched and caught on the shield, Gu Ryun realized he couldn’t do so.

‘If I move more, my arm will break!’

The force Baek Li-jung had put into the large saber was too enormous.

If you try to forcibly change a huge water flow, the terrain collapses. You can slightly twist the water flow to avoid a direct hit, but you can’t artificially change it completely.

THUD! THUD!

Baek Li-jung continued swinging the large saber. He had already swung it dozens of times but wasn’t tired or slowing down. From beginning to now, he kept striking the same trajectory at the same speed with the same force.

Gu Ryun had no choice but to keep blocking.

Baek Li-jung sneered with his eyes full of mockery.

“You don’t know how to use a blade at all?”

“Damn it!”

Gu Ryun ground his teeth while gripping the shield firmly with both hands. Now it was do or die.

Baek Li-jung swung the large saber the same way.

Gu Ryun exerted all his strength to raise deflection to its peak.

Surprisingly, this time Gu Ryun didn’t deflect Baek Li-jung’s large saber to the side but received it completely.

Crack crack crack.

All his joints shook and his bones trembled as if they would shatter. Due to the pressure of internal energy Baek Li-jung had put into the large saber, his internal organs shifted toward his back and his spine bent as if it would dislocate.

Gu Ryun’s body was instantly soaked with sweat.

However, Gu Ryun cheered.

It had worked perfectly.

Right now Baek Li-jung must have felt the unpleasant sensation of cutting tough pork fat with a dull blade.

Ultimate deflection, Perfect Return!

Perfect Return came from the story of a person named Lin Xiangru of Zhao who went to the King of Qin and returned safely without having his precious jade stolen.

Like returning a borrowed item intact, he returned the force Baek Li-jung had poured out back to Baek Li-jung!

Gu Ryun sent the load his entire body had received to his legs and stamped the ground with his right foot. He brought his crouched body forward and pushed with his shoulder supporting the shield.

“I am the Eight Flying Demon Hero! Remember my name clearly!”

If Baek Li-jung didn’t let go of the large saber, the saber would break and injure Baek Li-jung, and if he let go of the saber, he would push with the shield to crush Baek Li-jung’s entire body.

However.

Through the gap in the shield, Gu Ryun saw Baek Li-jung raising the large saber to the sky again.

‘Wh-when?’

Cold sweat ran down his spine.

Baek Li-jung neither let go of the large saber nor stepped back. He swung the large saber exactly the same as before. Since Gu Ryun was pushing the shield with all his might, he couldn’t properly deploy deflection.

CRACK!

Baek Li-jung’s large saber embedded directly into the shield. The force contained in the saber and the force of Gu Ryun’s extending shield collided. The two forces didn’t cancel out but confronted each other within Gu Ryun’s body.

However, the force Baek Li-jung had struck down with this time was stronger. Not by much. He had just added one more measure of force. But because of that one measure, the force contained in the saber completely suppressed the force that had been bursting out from within Gu Ryun’s body and entered.

Since Gu Ryun had been sending all the load to his right leg, both forces concentrated on his right leg alone.

BURST!

Gu Ryun’s right shin and ankle exploded completely. Tendons and blood vessels burst, exposing bone, and the bone also couldn’t withstand the force and broke.

Gu Ryun fell to his knees. However, he gritted his teeth and didn’t scream.

Gu Ryun looked up at Baek Li-jung with horrified eyes.

‘What a monster!’

Only then did Baek Li-jung ask back.

“Who did you say you were?”

Gu Ryun’s face was drenched with sweat.

Baek Li-jung raised the large saber and asked again.

“Who did you say you were?”

Gu Ryun ground his molars to pieces.

The fierce blade energy surrounding the large saber glinted in the sunlight.

Just when he thought he would die.

Suddenly a clear voice was heard. No, it didn’t just sound but echoed throughout all of Qingcheng Mountain.

Blessed one, jeweled lord!

Sitting in the Jade Clear Heaven

On the Seven Treasure Platform with countless celestial immortals gathered

The ultimate way of the Jade Emperor

And the profound and deep way was carefully examined and spoken…

Someone was reciting Taoist scriptures.

The clear voice peacefully calmed the hearts of listeners.

Except for one person.

Baek Li-jung’s eyes narrowed as if they would tear and his pupils turned toward Qingcheng Mountain’s peak. Every hair on his body stood on end.

Baek Li-jung slowly walked up the stairs.

Gu Ryun couldn’t miss that opening.

CLICK!

Blades sprang out from Gu Ryun’s shield. Gu Ryun struck Baek Li-jung’s calf with the blade as he passed by.

STAB!

The blade embedded in Baek Li-jung’s calf and came out. Blood spurted.

However, Baek Li-jung didn’t even look at Gu Ryun. He just continued climbing the stairs. Even though blood marks remained with every step on the stairs.

Gu Ryun struck the shield with his fist.

“Damn it!”

He realized why Baek Li-jung hadn’t even considered him.

Evil Sect members tried to block Baek Li-jung’s path, but Gu Ryun shouted to stop them. Baek Li-jung’s target wasn’t Dan Ryeong-gyeong but Venerable Woo-am.

While the Evil Sect members hesitated, Baek Li-jung was already past the Qingcheng sect’s Taoist temples heading further up.

However, there was an even bigger problem.

Thunder Brand Sword from the Martial Alliance, who had once withdrawn, had returned to the lower mountain gate.

Gu Ryun sealed his acupoint and tied it with string, then stood up supporting himself on his shield.

Then he shouted with a blood-mixed voice.

“Fairy Maiden! When exactly are you coming out! Do you plan to let us all die here?”

* * *

Baek Li-jung continued climbing the mountain path.

Walking, yet running.

But his speed was never slow. Rather, it was much faster than ordinary martial artists’ running speed.

Every time he exerted force, blood drops burst from his injured ankle, but Baek Li-jung wasn’t even aware of it.

His thoughts were full of the opponent he was about to meet.

It wasn’t fear or terror about the fight. If it were, he would have raised his body condition to its peak and faced him with a perfect body.

Confronting the past.

Meeting him meant having to face again the past he had deliberately postponed and turned away from.

Not his body but his heart was painful and agonizing. Baek Li-jung was doing his best to control his mind so as not to fall into qi deviation from being unable to overcome his emotions.

Finally, Baek Li-jung arrived at the summit of Elder Sky Peak.

There was a clearing large enough for about twenty people to stand comfortably and a small pavilion was built.

And in that pavilion, Venerable Woo-am sat with his eyes covered by red cloth, waiting for Baek Li-jung.

Baek Li-jung didn’t approach close to the pavilion but stopped about ten steps away.

HISS!

A long sword mark was drawn on the ground in front of his toes. If he had taken one more step, his foot would have been severed.

Venerable Woo-am had somehow extended his arm long to the side. Transparent vapor rose from the tips of his index and middle fingers.

Baek Li-jung, looking down at his feet, asked slowly in a sunken voice.

“You seem… to fear me?”

Venerable Woo-am shrugged his shoulders.

“Well. I remember beating you up but not being beaten. Didn’t you lie unable to get up for months, defecating blood?”

Baek Li-jung raised his palm. At that moment, the pillars of the pavilion where Venerable Woo-am was exploded and the pavilion collapsed completely.

CRASH!

Baek Li-jung clenched his bloodshot palm and smiled with killing intent.

“So you should be afraid. Now I’ve come to erase that memory.”