“Uncle. Have you stopped the bleeding properly?”

Not Captain. For the first time, Jung Yeonshin had called Ma Jin his uncle. Behind him, Ma Jin’s eyes widened.

He had long known his nephew’s gifts, but he had never imagined seeing him like this so soon. Even after ranging across the martial world as captain of the Radiant Demon Squad, he had never conceived of such a thing.

“Your arm, I mean.”

Jung Yeonshin added the words without loosening his hold on his formidable enemy’s hand—the Pure Demon Alliance’s Pure Demon Divine Hand. Even face-to-face with a supreme master, he was worrying about his maternal uncle behind him.

Ma Jin’s lips trembled slightly. Emotion swelled like clouds within him.

His nephew’s achievement, revealed before his eyes. The moving realization that their relationship as uncle and nephew had finally taken a step forward. His subordinates who had died all around him.

Everything tugged at the heart of the Radiant Demon Squad’s strongest master.

“... How did you come here?”

That was all he could say. As an uncle who had wronged his nephew, he wanted to reach out to him. Yet intention and words were different things. A warrior by nature, he could not bring himself to speak affectionately. In that fleeting instant, Ma Jin reproached himself.

Jung Yeonshin’s voice rang out calmly.

“I assembled a combat unit. I’m its temporary captain. You sound well enough, so please take command for a moment.”

He spoke like any other nephew, saying more than he usually did.

The implications were immense. He had told a black-ranked master to stand aside. Those were not words someone of middling prowess could utter. It was as though he spoke clad in an invisible jet-black robe.

‘How in the world...?’

Even knowing Jung Yeonshin’s gifts, Ma Jin was astonished. Anyone would have found it hard to believe. Did the boy, despite possessing a martial talent unmatched through the ages, live each year as though it were ten?

He could not even tell whether what he felt was pride or shock.

But he could delay no longer. Ma Jin turned.

“May fortune favor you in battle.”

The Radiant Demon Squad captain entrusted the battlefield’s strongest opponent entirely to him. As he finished speaking, he used his lightness skill to withdraw. Every step gouged deeply into the ground.

Despite the disruption the loss of his arm must have caused his meridian network, his presence still surpassed that of a blue robe.

All that time, the Pure Demon Divine Hand had remained still. The unprecedented power of the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art was unfamiliar to him.

No, it was more than unfamiliar. Overwhelmed was the right word.

“...”

The moment he recognized that truth, Ha Yulgeuk, the Pure Demon Divine Hand, was struck speechless.

His target, the Radiant Demon Squad captain, was retreating, yet he dared not give chase. The unmoving hand gripping his knife hand was only part of it. The sight beyond the boy’s shoulder held his gaze.

Through the thinning dust, he could see Dokgo Gwang’s corpse, reduced to its lower half. The trouser hems of his dark-blue battle robes fluttered forlornly, with two equally stunned-looking young Desolate Fortress masters standing to either side.

‘He killed him in just two exchanges? That isn’t the issue.’

The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s gaze grew grave. Battles between masters took as many shapes as there were martial arts. From contests settled in a single exchange to duels lasting seven days and nights, they were varied indeed.

There were too many variables: terrain, weather, compatibility between arts, physical condition, the combinations of forms used that day. Even between equally matched masters, a fight could unfold in hundreds or thousands of ways.

‘This brat... is beyond measure. His instincts are incredible.’

His supreme master’s energy detection had told him so. That sequence of forms had been calculated to the last detail. Those two exchanges by the Desolate Fortress boy were precisely that. His final palm technique had possessed unheard-of power, but the strike had just as many flaws.

Any supreme master of a great sect could have recognized them. That made it all the more astonishing.

‘That fist and palm art is unquestionably a divine technique. But its strengths and weaknesses are clear.’

That was why the boy had entered the fray with his palm form already prepared, executing an extraordinary combination. The result was Dokgo Gwang’s death. The Ten Perfections Sect’s greatsword had been broken. Compared with the boy’s preparations, the price was far too great.

It would shake the vast martial world of Sichuan.

‘Had it been a proper one-on-one duel... No.’

A pointless thought. Where did such things exist in Murim?

Unless it was a friendly spar, battles in the martial world never took place with everyone in perfect condition. The survivor was the master.

What mattered was something else.

The boy holding his hand in check stood at a level where his martial arts could be discussed among supreme masters. His prowess was astonishingly high—almost on par with Ha Yulgeuk’s own. It was difficult to believe. Surely he had not undergone Rejuvenation.

This was a very serious problem.

“Dharma power?”

The Pure Demon Divine Hand asked with his hand still locked against Jung Yeonshin’s. The boy spoke calmly.

“How light.”

It was a taunt directed at the force of his attack. The boy refused to give the answer he wanted, yet even that seemed natural.

His bearing and presence attested to his stature. He carried himself like a master of supreme attainment. There was nothing awkward about his addressing an eminent supreme master with the same condescension he received.

‘Martial arts that reach across all under heaven.’

The thought came unbidden to the Pure Demon Divine Hand. At the same time, he spoke.

“It is Dharma power. Truly unbelievable. Are you of Shaolin’s Green Jade direct lineage?”

A strange gleam flashed through the blue eyes of the supreme master of the evil and unorthodox paths. He was discerning the martial arts of his natural enemy.

Green Jade referred to the Shaolin abbot’s Green Jade Buddhist Staff. He was asking whether the boy was the sect leader’s direct disciple.

The Pure Demon Divine Hand did not wait for an answer. He muttered to himself.

“No. The lineage of Dharma-powered martial arts died out. How could this...?”

“You spoke of killing me, yet you waste so much breath.”

Jung Yeonshin tightened his grip. His right hand still held the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s knife hand.

The power of Bodhidharma remaining after the creation of his divine technique was briefly amplifying the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art. This was not power he should have been able to wield immediately after creating an art.

It was like the boy’s own lifespan. It had a time limit.

He exhaled slowly.

A faint haze of pure white light flowed with Jung Yeonshin’s breath, blossoming auspiciously and scattering again and again. To others, it was a truly mystical sight. But the boy knew what it meant.

His art was incomplete.

‘The radiant wheel is a newborn organ. A heart of internal energy, only just born.’

Bodhidharma’s remaining spiritual nature was keeping it stable. That would not last. He needed to settle it through regulated breathing and circulation.

‘The manifestation body’s effects will soon disperse.’

During their brief standoff, Jung Yeonshin had examined his own body from within.

The strength bestowed by Bodhidharma’s manifestation body would not last long. He had been told that an artisan had refined a fragment of core energy from a master who should long since have returned to heaven.

That was fine. He had already formed the radiant wheel. He was past the stage of worrying about qi accumulation. He could train after escaping the City of Master Artisans.

For now, killing the enemy supreme masters would suffice—with the spiritual nature burning like the flame of a wick.

“Child, what did you say?”

The Pure Demon Divine Hand asked. This was the man who had proclaimed his own accomplishment as he sliced off Ma Jin’s left arm.

Whether at an advantage or a disadvantage, he never hesitated to use his tongue. Now he was at a disadvantage. Faced with the birth of an unforeseen supreme master, he seemed to be talking to buy time to prepare his defenses.

“I said you’re a talkative corpse.”

The boy’s reply was brief. Those were his last words.

A breeze brushed the two masters’ cheeks. It came rolling down ceaselessly from the lofty cavern ceiling.

The sharp wind swept over everything on the battlefield and lifted their hems. It felt dry.

WHUMP!

Without warning, the Pure Demon Divine Hand thrust his knee forward. It was a lightning-fast kick technique. Despite the suddenness of the attack, the wave of force gathered in his knee was immense, as though prepared in advance.

The instant his foot left the ground, a powerful circular pulse erupted.

Jung Yeonshin did not dodge. He reacted before the qi wave could spread. The radiant wheel’s core energy filling his body was finally keeping pace with his innate senses.

Still gripping the man’s hand, he raised his foot. Then he stamped down—all in a fleeting instant.

THUD!

The ground shook. The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s rising knee stopped.

Jung Yeonshin’s sole rested against his ankle. He had pressed down and stopped the kick itself.

In this contest of masters, it was a complete counter.

The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s eyes flew wide, fully revealing the blue irises characteristic of a man from the Western Regions.

“Hmm.”

A deep grunt escaped him. Even when he summoned his power, his leg would not rise, as though it had frozen solid.

It was the Dharma power he had identified as a problem from the outset. A perfect counter to his own art. In that instant, Jung Yeonshin’s power was overwhelming.

The boy thought he would have the upper hand even without Great Master Bodhidharma’s spiritual nature. The Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art was the reason.

The quality of his internal power had changed. He no longer lost in a contest of strength. And since his enemy had cultivated the internal energy of the evil and unorthodox paths, even their arts’ compatibility favored him.

In that case...

There was no point in probing any further. Without realizing it, he had faced his opponent with the attitude of the weaker fighter, with a blue robe’s mindset. He had tried to examine the qi waves and find weaknesses in the forms.

It was meaningless.

HUM!

A pulse of internal power stirred: the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art. He drew on its full strength, and the response was immediate.

It began beneath his foot. The foot suppressing the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s knee strike dropped sharply, dragging the man’s leg down and stamping on the top of his foot.

CRUNCH!

A horrifying sound rang out. He vividly felt the ankle bone shatter beneath his pressure.

Abyssal demonic core energy surged up through the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s foot, only to crumble. It was like watching the night air shatter into pieces.

This was not even a counter. He pulverized the demonic core energy as Bone-Dissolving Powder melted bone.

“...!”

The enemy who had taken his uncle’s arm widened his eyes until they seemed about to split. Yet he did not scream. As expected of a supreme master counted among the main strengths of a great sect of demonic practitioners.

Unconcerned, Jung Yeonshin tightened his grip.

After the foot came the hand. The knife hand that had severed Ma Jin’s arm crumpled, bones and all.

His internal power exceeded imagination. Jung Yeonshin himself was startled by his strength. It was as though his core energy had shed its shell and undergone a transformation.

“Haaa!”

At last, he witnessed a supreme master of the black-ranked realm unleash a battle cry. Right before his eyes.

The Pure Demon Divine Hand thrust out his other hand. This time it was a straight punch. The energy surrounding it warped the air.

He seemed intent on blasting Jung Yeonshin’s head off. The wave of force in the punch was truly monstrous.

In that fleeting instant, Jung Yeonshin’s gaze settled. He had anticipated this response.

Unable to execute a forceful stamping step and deprived of one hand, the man’s next move was plain to see. There was no need to counter it.

It was time to unleash his own martial arts in full.

WHOOSH!

They were within close-range punching distance. He released the Desolate Sword.

The formula of the Infinite Blossom Hand was already guiding the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art within him. With Formidable Wall, he struck the side of the man’s fist.

THUD!

The blow landed squarely. A straight wave of force pierced through the man’s fist and shot onward.

His own hand slammed into his jaw. Through the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s fist, Jung Yeonshin felt bone break.

His strike did not stop. As he forced the man’s face back, he thrust out his other hand.

Pulses of power from the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art blossomed in profusion. Martial force bloomed like clusters of flowers opening together.

Force struck force, producing another Burst Discharge.

‘Third Form, Fist Blossoms.’

He drove a mass of blows up into the man’s upper body. It was the fist form he had created as a white robe after seeing Mount Hua’s Falling Blossoms Palm Strike.

Now it was shattering the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s core-energy shield and battering his internal organs. The Dharma power within it unraveled the man’s core energy. The punches drove deep into his bones.

CRACK-CRACK-CRACK! SPURT!

Eighteen blows landed in a single move. Colorless petals seemed to blossom from the man’s upper body.

They broke through his internal energy, battered his skin, and smashed his ribs to fragments. Jung Yeonshin distinctly felt the changing sensations of each impact. He truly felt how far his martial prowess had risen.

‘Ugh.’

As he unleashed the punches of his form, he swallowed a groan between his teeth. It was the internal injury Dokgo Gwang had inflicted earlier. The pain reverberating through his abdomen was severe.

The Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel had no regenerative function. That was something he could use only when draining essence through the Blood Art.

Jung Yeonshin’s internal organs were still damaged. The pain echoing through his belly steadily intensified. One martial art could not contain everything.

But he paid it no mind.

The ring of his divine technique radiated light. The spinning radiant wheel circulated core energy throughout his body.

The power of the Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art was truly immense. His strength kept swelling.

‘I’ll end this.’

That was the boy’s thought. Formidable Wall, once again. He drove a final punch into the solar plexus of the man whose eyes had rolled back.

The already broken ribs touched his knuckles. He thought he had only brushed against them.

He was wrong.

BOOOOM!

A monstrous shock wave erupted. The blow shattered every trace of recoil from the demonic core energy.

The Pure Demon Divine Hand collapsed where he stood. He was a wretched sight.

“Hhhh...”

It sounded like air leaking from his lungs. Ha Yulgeuk, the Pure Demon Divine Hand, wheezed as he lay sprawled at Jung Yeonshin’s feet.

A deathly silence settled over the City of Master Artisans. The mighty master who had commanded the vast martial world from the roads of Shu to Sichuan had been utterly defeated.

“...”

The fighting on the battlefield had already stopped. It had ended almost simultaneously.

That was because the Tang clan head and Ma Jin had not been occupied with supreme masters. The Sword Scorpion Demon Dokgo Gwang was dead, and the Pure Demon Divine Hand Ha Yulgeuk had been tied down by Lightning Genius.

They had also had the Wing-Returning Unit’s support.

With the leaderless warriors of the Thirteen skies lying fallen, the masters scattered around the battlefield stared at Lightning Genius and the Pure Demon Divine Hand.

They took in the full, unbelievable outcome of the battle.

Ha Yulgeuk’s lips trembled. It seemed to be his final rally before death.

“Your martial arts... what... is their foundation...?”

Those were the words he spoke as he lay dying. The Pure Demon Alliance was said to have originated from the Demonic Cult founded in Xinjiang.

They did not follow the laws of the Central Plains. That meant they worshiped strength without scruple as to the means of obtaining it.

Jung Yeonshin suddenly remembered the Blue Qilin. He had met his end not as a young clan head, but as a martial artist.

Ha Yulgeuk was the same. Was the bearing a person revealed before death their true essence?

At this moment alone, he did not look like a demonic practitioner.

The boy looked down at the Pure Demon Alliance warrior.

“The Dharma-Surpassing Radiant Wheel Art.”

It was a brief answer. It seemed to suffice.

“Dharma-Surpassing... How arrogant.”

The corners of Ha Yulgeuk’s mouth rose faintly.

“Yet you are worthy of saying it. Boy. Had you grown up among us, you might have... rebuilt the Cult...”

His breathing stopped before he could finish.

Jung Yeonshin watched silently, then closed his eyes. He had already taken stock of the battlefield. Now that the fighting was settled, he needed to fully stabilize his newborn radiant wheel.

At the same time—

WHOOSH!

The Wing-Returning Unit and the Radiant Demon Squad moved. Desolate Fortress masters leaped toward him from every direction.

When they stopped some distance away, the backdraft of their lightness skills swept through the surroundings. In an instant, they formed a large circle with the boy at its center.

In the middle of the battlefield, Jung Yeonshin began settling his divine technique, working to anchor the radiant wheel he had created that day firmly within his body.

HUMMM!

The blue robes of the boy standing with his eyes closed fluttered gently.

Light from his new mental cultivation method seeped from his entire body. It was as though a faint Milky Way flowed over him.

It was a mystical sight.

The Desolate Fortress masters encircled the boy with their backs to him. Their formation protected Lightning Genius’s newfound enlightenment. There was no gap through which anyone else could join them as a Dharma protector.

“...”

The warriors outside stared blankly. A multitude of emotions showed on the faces of the Tang Clan and Beggars’ Sect masters.