Chapter 263

Baek Li-gwon immediately raised his internal energy.

“You’ve become much stronger than before.”

Jin Ja-gang silently looked at Baek Li-gwon. In the past, there were times when Baek Li-gwon truly felt like a wall to him.

But not now.

He might be somewhat inferior in swordsmanship or depth of internal energy. However, Jin Ja-gang could feel that he was far ahead in the destructive power of internal energy.

Baek Li-gwon knew this too.

Baek Li-gwon removed his upper garment without taking his eyes off Jin Ja-gang.

His chest was covered with tremendous scars made by blades. His entire chest looked as if it had been butchered. These were actions he had committed in grief after losing Zhuge Yon.

Baek Li-gwon tightly bound his ribs and chest with his upper garment to prevent his broken ribs from moving.

“Ridiculous.”

This was Baek Li-gwon’s words. Jin Ja-gang also tore off his tattered sleeves and asked.

“What is?”

“You said you didn’t kill Yon Mae. But in the end, aren’t you with the Tang family bloodline who killed Yon Mae?”

Jin Ja-gang agreed.

“That’s right. I’ll acknowledge that there’s room for misunderstanding depending on how you look at it. But does that change anything?”

“No. So the word ‘misunderstanding’ doesn’t fit.”

Baek Li-gwon drew his sword.

“You harmed Yon Mae, so I will take revenge for Yon Mae.”

However, Baek Li-gwon didn’t stop there and added one more thing.

“You couldn’t resolve your sect’s injustice because of my foster father. So blame me in his place. That would be fair, wouldn’t it?”

Jin Ja-gang stared directly at Baek Li-gwon.

Baek Li-gwon remained silent for a moment before speaking.

“I’m not a fool. I know all the work my foster father has done, what he’s hidden from me, and what he will do in the future. About Yon Mae’s death too, perhaps…”

Baek Li-gwon didn’t say more and closed his mouth.

Jin Ja-gang looked at Baek Li-gwon for a while before shaking his head slightly.

“No. I won’t accept that.”

Jin Ja-gang once again took in a breath of energy and began raising his internal energy.

“I’ll only respond to revenge for Miss Zhuge. There’s no reason to collect Indestructible Heavenly Sword’s debt from someone else.”

Baek Li-gwon discarded his scabbard and gripped his sword with both hands, aiming at Jin Ja-gang.

“Then you’ll never get a chance to collect the debt from my foster father for the rest of your life.”

Baek Li-gwon leaned his body backward then immediately shot forward.

The lightness technique of Bow God Bullet Shadow at maximum speed.

Just when it seemed he had kicked off, Baek Li-gwon was already in front of Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang lowered his stance to respond.

Baek Li-gwon stepped forward with his left foot.

BANG!

With the power of True Horn added, Baek Li-gwon stopped mid-charge. Using his left foot as an axis, he rotated his body and turned at a right angle. He quickly moved to Jin Ja-gang’s side, extended his right foot backward to take stance, and simultaneously raised his sword from bottom to top.

From the beginning, he deployed Heavenly Blade Divine Sword to its maximum and staked everything on victory.

Jin Ja-gang felt as if Baek Li-gwon had vanished like a light going out while charging. Then vicious killing intent shot from right beside him. When Jin Ja-gang half-turned his body, Baek Li-gwon was already emitting a semicircular sword energy.

Jin Ja-gang used the dike in his right sole’s Gushing Spring point to maximum effect, adding acceleration as he twisted his body.

SLASH!

A wall of sword energy formed right in front of Jin Ja-gang’s nose. It seemed like a brilliant, transparent wall was blocking him. The spaces beyond the wall appeared distorted in monochrome.

Everything from the ground to the trees in the side forest was severed at once.

Baek Li-gwon poured the force from charging with Bow God Bullet Shadow once more into Heavenly Blade Divine Sword. Baek Li-gwon’s sword split space once again. Jin Ja-gang leaned his waist backward as much as possible to avoid Baek Li-gwon’s sword energy.

WHOOOM!

The space between heaven and earth was severed horizontally.

CRACK.

Trees several zhang behind were sharply split.

Yang Jeon, watching this, shouted in regret.

“Brother Baek Li! You put in too much force!”

But Baek Li-gwon couldn’t have been unaware of this. He had clearly watched the fight with Yang Jeon. Jin Ja-gang had received and deflected the force contained in Yang Jeon’s spear.

This was very similar to Heavenly Blade Divine Sword techniques.

Heavenly Blade Divine Sword’s Energy Will Absorption Power.

Therefore, he had to put at least this much force into his sword to avoid being defeated by Jin Ja-gang’s techniques.

Baek Li-gwon struck down from top to bottom. When Jin Ja-gang avoided by rotating his body, he planted his sword in the ground, did a handstand to lift his body, then fell forward while striking Jin Ja-gang’s shoulder with his heel.

Jin Ja-gang barely avoided Baek Li-gwon’s heel.

CRASH!

The ground’s soil shattered and scattered in all directions. Baek Li-gwon turned his body while repeatedly kicking at Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang deflected Baek Li-gwon’s feet with his palms and forearms. As soon as Baek Li-gwon landed, he immediately drew his sword and slashed horizontally. He was attacking without rest to give Jin Ja-gang almost no chance to counterattack.

Jin Ja-gang leaped upward to avoid Baek Li-gwon’s horizontal slash while scattering poison needles.

“As expected!”

At that moment, Baek Li-gwon’s eyes flashed.

Baek Li-gwon knew Jin Ja-gang’s fighting style. Jin Ja-gang would occasionally accept damage to himself while inflicting greater damage on his opponent, turning defense into offense.

“I knew you’d counterattack about now!”

Baek Li-gwon didn’t avoid the poison needles and continued turning his body while raising his foot to kick Jin Ja-gang upward. He deliberately didn’t avoid the poison needles.

Jin Ja-gang gave up on hitting with the poison needles and struck Baek Li-gwon’s foot with his elbow, using the rebound to leap backward in mid-air.

Baek Li-gwon also leaped and scattered sword energy three times in mid-air.

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!

Along with streaks of light, three sword marks appeared on Jin Ja-gang’s body. Jin Ja-gang rotated his body diagonally several times in mid-air before falling to the ground.

Baek Li-gwon slashed his sword while jumping down. Jin Ja-gang fell to the ground and rolled sideways, then suddenly kicked the ground and rolled in the opposite direction to avoid Baek Li-gwon’s sword. He kicked Baek Li-gwon’s leg and hooked behind his knee. Baek Li-gwon staggered but maintained his balance standing on one leg.

White Crane Spreads Wings!

Standing on one leg, he stabbed his sword downward. Jin Ja-gang, who was almost lying on the ground, spun like a top to avoid the sword. Simultaneously, he extended his left hand to hook the sword guard with his fingers and pull.

The speed of stabbing downward was added, so the sword was deeply embedded in the ground. Baek Li-gwon’s body, which hadn’t released the handle, was pulled along. Jin Ja-gang grabbed Baek Li-gwon’s neck with his right hand while raising his knee.

Baek Li-gwon tried to resist but couldn’t due to the pain from his broken ribs. However, he turned his head to avoid being hit in the temple.

THUD!

Baek Li-gwon, whose forehead was strongly crushed against the knee, staggered backward. Even in the midst of this, he was pulling out and gripping his sword.

Baek Li-gwon grimaced heavily. He had felt it when they collided earlier, but directly engaging showed it was beyond his expectations. Previously, Jin Ja-gang had barely managed to avoid his attacks, but now they were almost equal.

While Baek Li-gwon hesitated, Jin Ja-gang sprang up with his waist strength and pursued Baek Li-gwon.

Baek Li-gwon took a breath, planted his sword in the ground, and knelt. Then he extended both hands forward.

Thunder Splitting Song Palm!

At close range. Though Jin Ja-gang’s movements had become incomparably faster than before by building four dikes in his body and activating massive internal energy, since he had just sprung up, there was absolutely no way to avoid it.

“Die!”

Baek Li-gwon gritted his teeth and raised Heavenly Blade Divine Sword to its maximum, pouring out internal energy. Because he intended to finish Jin Ja-gang in one blow, he used all his strength without thinking about what came after.

RUMBLE!

His body vibrated with thunder sounds. His palms’ centers turned red and heated up. Then Jin Ja-gang struck Baek Li-gwon’s palms with his own palms. For Jin Ja-gang, this was the only option.

However, Baek Li-gwon thought it was over.

Thunder Splitting Song Palm was the Baek Li family’s ultimate technique.

It destroyed houses and turned rocks to powder. If hands were brought against it, the opponent’s hands would surely shatter.

BOOM!

An explosion occurred, then as their palms met and pressed together, the sound instantly disappeared.

Baek Li-gwon felt a stinging shock in his palms. Jin Ja-gang seemed to have poison needles between his fingers. However, Baek Li-gwon instead spread his fingers to interlock with Jin Ja-gang’s hands. He applied more force to hold them firmly.

“You can’t escape!”

When Baek Li-gwon added more internal energy and pushed, Jin Ja-gang’s face also turned red. Jin Ja-gang was also gritting his teeth and emitting maximum internal energy.

But… Baek Li-gwon felt something was strange.

At first he was pushing internal energy into Jin Ja-gang’s palms, but at some point it stopped. No, rather it felt like he was being pushed inward.

Thunder Splitting Song Palm was being pushed back?

“Ugh!”

Baek Li-gwon raised Heavenly Blade Divine Sword once more. With the contest at a critical moment, his concentration became extremely heightened. He could raise even more internal energy than usual.

From the beginning to the middle of Seven Stars.

He could feel the power dwelling in his own body.

However, the situation wouldn’t change. He was still being pushed back.

To be precise, his right hand touching Jin Ja-gang’s left hand was being pushed back, and his left hand grasping Jin Ja-gang’s right hand felt like internal energy was being sucked in rather than expelled.

The flow of internal energy was strange. Like standing on a swaying ship’s deck, his internal energy was shaking and becoming increasingly difficult to control.

CRACK.

Jin Ja-gang’s internal energy pushed in and fractured the bone in his right palm. His fingers began to twist. He had been the one to interlock fingers with Jin Ja-gang, but now his own fingers were being bent instead.

Baek Li-gwon’s spine went cold.

CRACK CRACK! CRACK! CRUNCH!

“Kugh!”

His right hand’s bones dislocated and broke, and his shoulder was pulled out. His left hand also couldn’t withstand Jin Ja-gang’s internal energy and exploded with broken bones.

BOOM!

Baek Li-gwon was flung away with both arms in tatters, spurting blood.

He lost? Him?

To a worthless fellow who wasn’t even a match until last year?

To Yon Mae’s enemy!

He couldn’t accept the fact that he had lost, but what made Baek Li-gwon despair even more was the fact that he couldn’t take revenge for Zhuge Yon.

“This doesn’t end here!”

Baek Li-gwon kicked the sword embedded in the ground to lift it up while letting his broken arms hang.

However, Baek Li-gwon couldn’t do anything with the lifted sword. He had no choice but to let the lifted sword fall back down.

CLANG.

The sword fell to the ground.

Baek Li-gwon saw a thread extending long from his neck. A thin thread barely visible was wrapped around his neck and connected to Jin Ja-gang’s hand.

Soul Seizing Thread.

“…”

It seemed to have been wrapped when he pulled his neck to strike earlier.

Baek Li-gwon quietly looked at Jin Ja-gang. Jin Ja-gang caught his breath while gripping the Soul Seizing Thread’s ring.

“Why did you wrap the Soul Seizing Thread but not use it immediately?”

“I had something to confirm.”

“You seem to have felt something strange too.”

“That’s right.”

Baek Li-gwon asked.

“Then that earlier thing was the Jade Void Nine Lights Five Thunder Demon Subduing Art?”

“That’s right.”

“It’s similar. Very similar.”

To Heavenly Blade Divine Sword.

Baek Li-gwon recalled what his foster father Baek Li-jung had said.

“How much have you achieved with the Heavenly Blade Divine Sword?”

“I’ve entered the beginning of Seven Stars.”

Then Baek Li-jung had told Baek Li-gwon to return to the main house as if there was no need to think further.

The reason was being revealed now.

When the source of internal energy mental methods was the same but the opponent’s achievement was superior, how could he win in an internal energy battle? Baek Li-jung had already anticipated the current situation.

Baek Li-gwon smiled bitterly.

“I’ll be able to go meet Yon Mae soon.”

Jin Ja-gang asked once more.

“Do you have more to say?”

Baek Li-gwon didn’t answer. Instead, he looked up at the sky and muttered as if sighing.

“Ah, Father. What on earth have you done?”

Jin Ja-gang pulled the Soul Seizing Thread’s ring.

Baek Li-gwon’s head fell.