By my estimate, if I moved with my junior disciples, the most we could handle without killing Zhongnan disciples or causing a commotion was up to second-generation disciples.

That was why I had hoped we would not run into anyone first-generation or above.

'What the fuck, is this for real?'

... Hall Leader-class, of all things.

The heavy swords of the two middle-aged men pointed unwaveringly toward us.

"Come out."

They were merely pointing their swords, yet I felt a stifling pressure, as though I had run into a solid wall.

"Do you intend to come out only after these people die?"

It was obvious who he was talking to even without hearing him say it.

In the end, Geumpyo, Eunho, and Saryeon, who had been waiting toward the rear of the cave, slowly walked forward.

"You seem far too young to throw your lives away in a place like this."

Could he roughly judge their ages from their height and movements despite the masks?

There was experience in the way he read people.

He sighed as if he truly found it regrettable!

Then he looked between me and my junior disciples and said,

"If that man threatened you and dragged you here, say so now."

The middle-aged man's finger pointed at me.

"..."

"..."

Then my junior disciples' gazes also turned to me.

"Do not worry. I am a man of Zhongnan. I will not lose to some old monster."

I understood what kind of dogshit misunderstanding he had made.

No matter how good my body was, calling a young man barely past twenty an old monster was going too far.

Eunho flinched for a moment, but seeing that my junior disciples did not lower their swords, the middle-aged man shook his head.

"So you are all accomplices after all?"

"Those children could not have entered without knowing Zhongnan was here."

"Then this is laughable. They entered despite knowing Zhongnan was present?"

The middle-aged man, who had somehow worn a pitying expression, suddenly curled his face into a sneer.

"I did not think we would see blood in this matter."

"Cheonji. Be careful. That move just now was no ordinary thing."

"You should worry about yourself, Hall Leader."

The moment I heard the name Cheonji, I could not help but frown hard.

'Of all people to run into...'

Among Zhongnan's people at present, the only one using the name Cheonji was Gun Cheonji, the man who would one day be called Zhongnan's Flying Tiger.

I even wondered if he might have been the unknown expert who had been chasing us.

But.

-Eldest Senior Brother.

There was no time to lose focus.

Whether the tiger's den we had happened to enter belonged to cubs or full-grown tigers, we would be bitten all the same if we lost our wits.

-You take the middle-aged man on the right.

The order was simple.

I would take Gun Cheonji, and my junior disciples would take the other one.

And until I got there, my junior disciples had to hold out completely.

The problem was how quickly I could subdue Gun Cheonji.

SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!

I used Taiyi Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, evaded the middle-aged man charging at me, and rushed at Gun Cheonji.

CLANG!

When we exchanged our first sword strike, a smile appeared on Gun Cheonji's face.

"Ho... Old sir, are you my opponent?"

His sword occupied the four directions and blocked the Black Dragon Sword.

It was simple and clear, and precisely because of that, there were no openings.

But more than anything.

"Who are you calling old sir?!"

Since my regression, I had never once forgotten that I had aged, but being treated like an old man in this young body still felt unfair!

As I shot forward like a flash of lightning,

"Hm?!"

Gun Cheonji's eyes went wide as he blocked the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique.

He looked even more surprised than when he had blocked my ambush just now.

What was he so surpri...

"Y-You're younger than me?"

Damn it.

Seeing him genuinely shocked only made me angrier.

If that had been a tactic to rile up his opponent, it would have been so effective I could not help but admire it.

CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG!

In any case, while he was shaken, I tried stabbing at his vital acupoints, but Gun Cheonji blocked every strike of the Black Dragon Sword with nimble movements.

Gun Cheonji looked once at his own sword, then stared at me with a gaze still full of disbelief.

"How old are you?"

Did he really think an opponent wearing a mask and black martial robes would readily reveal something like that?

Instead of answering, I gathered Sword Qi into the Black Dragon Sword and shot it out.

WHIZZ!

The sharply fired Sword Qi flew in, aiming for Gun Cheonji's neck, heart, and Dantian, and Gun Cheonji, who had been staring blankly, swung his sword while advancing instead of retreating.

BOOM! BOOM BOOM!

As a swordsman, one would ordinarily divert most Sword Qi, but Gun Cheonji fired new Sword Qi at the Sword Qi I had shot out and dissolved it.

He did not block and disperse the impact, but used external force to dissolve external force.

It was a glimpse of how high his martial principles had already reached.

'Is he a full-grown tiger?'

If he was Zhongnan's Flying Tiger of the special operations unit, he was one of the opponents even demonic practitioners were rather reluctant to face.

While we were getting stabbed at the front, the special operations unit's work ambushing the Demonic Cult from the rear was effective enough to more than make up for our losses.

The problem was how different Gun Cheonji's current skill was from the Gun Cheonji I had known in my previous life.

If his ability had already reached the level of Gun Cheonji, Zhongnan's Flying Tiger, there would be no way to subdue him in time.

I could only hope that the man called Hall Leader had climbed to that post through cronyism and politics instead of skill.

I created thirty phantom swords, then hid eight real swords among them and thrust in.

"Phantom swords?!"

Gun Cheonji furrowed his brow for a moment, then gripped his sword with both hands and took a middle guard.

The heavy and massive swordsmanship unfolding from his hands was Zhongnan's most famous martial art, the World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques.

It was also the swordsmanship they used most often when facing Mount Hua, the masters of variation and illusion.

CLANG-CLANG! CLANG-CLANG! CLANG-CLANG!

As if a gigantic shield had blocked the way, Gun Cheonji stopped every phantom sword and real sword, and only his breathing was slightly disturbed.

'As expected, is he used to phantom swords because of Mount Hua?'

Zhongnan and Mount Hua, both rooted in Shaanxi, were old acquaintances as well as rivals.

It was not a deliberately formed structure, but because each sect grew its power while being conscious of the other, even their martial arts had developed in a way that seized upon each other's weaknesses.

If Mount Hua's swordsmanship was exquisitely subtle and almost bewitchingly aggressive, Zhongnan's, by contrast, was firm, heavy, and defensive.

In particular, the World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques was the swordsmanship that displayed Zhongnan's character most clearly among Zhongnan's countless martial arts.

For those who used variation and illusion like the Taiyi Sect, it was an opponent they did not want to meet.

"Your sword is quite heavy. Those who use variation and illusion tend to swing more lightly. Are you putting too much strength into it?"

He had the leisure to analyze martial arts in a crisis like this?

Well, so did I.

Even so, it was incredibly unpleasant.

"Try analyzing this too!"

While firing the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique with the Black Dragon Sword, I extended my left hand and unleashed the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist.

WHOOOSH!

Perhaps intending to dissolve the Sword Qi flying in as if to tear the air apart first, Gun Cheonji clashed with the first burst of Sword Qi.

At that moment.

BOOM BOOM BOOM!

Gun Cheonji's face twisted.

"What in the...!"

A look of distress appeared on his face.

Of course it did.

How much internal energy did he think I had poured into that Sword Qi?

CLAAANG! CLAAANG!

Gun Cheonji's hands, which had tried to dissolve the Sword Qi as before, flew backward as if knocked away.

And through that gap, the fist qi of my fist shot in like an arrow.

THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD! THUD-THUD-THUD-THUD!

He thrust out the Blue Cloud Heavenly Dipper Hand like mad, trying to dissolve the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist, but in the end he failed to avoid several of them and took real hits.

"Krgh..."

I drove the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique once more into Gun Cheonji, who had retreated two steps.

WHOOOSH!

The Black Dragon Sword shot out like lightning and coiled around Gun Cheonji's sword like a snake, diverting its force.

The moment I was about to pierce through his World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques and drive in another effective blow,

RIIIP!

"...!"

As he crouched to the extreme, the martial robe behind his back tore and my blade slid past.

It was definitely a movement I knew.

A maneuver where, while crouched, one extended a leg backward to attack an opponent from their blind spot.

'Spinning Kick!'

It was undoubtedly the Spinning Kick, one of Gun Cheonji's specialties.

Sure enough, as soon as I raised my head, the sole of his foot was already an inch from my face.

I hurriedly raised my left hand and blocked it.

THUD!

Even though I dispersed the impact with the part wrapped in the Flying Dragon Claw, my arm hurt as if it might break.

If it had struck my head as intended, I would definitely have had trouble staying conscious.

Using the rebound from kicking away my hand, he righted himself, and surprise colored his face.

"Ha! The Spinning Kick? Just who in the world are you?"

As he stood, his torn martial robe fluttered, and his gaze was filled with complicated emotions.

"Judging by your voice, you do not even seem to be thirty yet... What sect raised you?"

Should I at least be grateful that the Taiyi Sect was a small-fry sect?

Even trying to spin it positively, I did not feel particularly pleased.

My grip tightened on my sword of its own accord.

"Do you not understand why I am wearing a mask?!"

WHOOOSH!

I unleashed the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique before I knew it, but perhaps he had already grown used to it, because Gun Cheonji easily blocked the Black Dragon Sword without any large movements.

Then his dumbfounded voice reached me.

"Do you still think you can break through us?"

I did not answer.

Because it was all too obvious that I would break through Gun Cheonji, and through Zhongnan.

Instead, I scattered the Great Heaven Sword Technique and drove in the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique at the same time.

However, there was still no sign of breaking through.

"... You really do seem to think you can break through."

Coldness seeped into Gun Cheonji's voice.

It carried a weight quite different from anything he had said until now.

"Does Zhongnan look so laughable to you?"

He looked like a tiger that had allowed a small rabbit to scratch it.

It was the typical anger of those with privilege, more enraged by their wounded pride than by the pain of injury.

"So laughable that children like you can trespass as you please?"

Who knows.

I did not know either.

Though I had regressed and gained a higher position and stronger martial power than in my previous life, the walls of the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Five Great Noble Clans still looked high.

It was just that I no longer cared, probably because I had learned that those high walls would not protect me.

The present me was no longer a rabbit trembling before a tiger like in my previous life.

When I still kept my mouth shut, the corner of his mouth twisted.

"Then I shall have to teach you properly."

A tremendous energy gathered on his sword.

An energy larger and stronger than Sword Qi enveloped the blade.

"Just how great and fearsome Zhongnan is."

The man who had spoken until now like a village elder coaxing an ignorant child suddenly spat the words in a tone dripping with coldness.

Good grief, all that pointless gravitas.

"And that people like you do not even have the right to challenge Zhongnan."

His killing intent filled the small cave.

Meanwhile.

"Krgh!"

A scream also came from my junior disciples' side.

I turned my head and saw.

"Huff...!"

"Hah, hah."

Eunho had collapsed on the ground with a wound near his shoulder, and the other junior disciples were fighting while protecting him.

Damn it.

Wasn't Zhongnan supposed to be a sect that picked its Hall Leaders through cronyism and politics?

Why the hell did they have to be so needlessly fair?

"... Now is hardly the time for you to worry about others."

As if displeased that I had looked away for a moment, Gun Cheonji was grinding his teeth hard.

His sword was filled with an immense force that seemed ready to burst at any moment.

'Great Heavenly Force Sword.'

This had seriously gone to shit.

The Great Heavenly Force Sword, called the heaviest of heavy swords, was so unbearably heavy that it even bore the nickname Heavenly Weight Sword.

It was the worst kind of heavy sword, one that shattered ordinary people's bodies just by receiving it, and even if they diverted it, they could not completely disperse the impact.

And he was using that inside this narrow cave?

As if he knew my goal was to subdue him, he began to act boldly.

I focused my mind and steadied my breathing.

'I will subdue him in one stroke!'

If my intention had been discovered, I had to move even faster.

I prepared the Destruction Form I had been saving until now.

Against someone like Gun Cheonji, who had vast experience in Jianghu and outstanding personal ability, using the Destruction Form itself could create another danger.

Who would want to leave alive someone who knew the weakness of their own sect's core martial art?

That was why I had never taught Zhuge's Three Forms to my junior disciples, and why I myself did not use them unless the situation was serious.

This was something that required truly delicate psychological finesse.

Gun Cheonji rushed at me with a ferocious force.

"Take this as well!"

Looking at the heavy sword descending in a blue trajectory, I raised the Void Destruction Fist.

Along with the momentary sensation of my Dantian emptying, the space to Gun Cheonji's left began to distort.

"Hah!"

Startled by the presence of the Void Destruction Fist that had appeared without warning while he was swinging his sword, Gun Cheonji barely withdrew the Great Heavenly Force Sword.

And after withdrawing the Void Destruction Fist I had been extending, I immediately scattered the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique wildly toward Gun Cheonji.

WHOOOSH!

A dozen or so bursts of Sword Qi flew in, aiming for his vital acupoints.

"What petty trickery!"

Though Gun Cheonji was bewildered by the Void Destruction Fist, he instinctively defended himself with the World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques.

And I.

I unleashed the Destruction Form of the World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques, which I had waited so long for.

The World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques completed an absolute defense by occupying the thirty-six directions beneath heaven.

I broke through the twenty-seventh direction of the Three Forms, the sole weakness of that absolute defense, and thrust in the Lesser Heaven Sword Technique.

It was not the sharpest, nor was it the fastest, but simply extending the sword accurately was enough.

Sometimes, the proper amount of force was also the most precise force.

SHUNK!

The sensation of my sword piercing flesh traveled to my fingertips.

Gun Cheonji, whose World's Thirty-Six Sword Techniques had been shattered without warning, wore an expression of utter disbelief.

"Guh! ... How?"

Even after seeing the Black Dragon Sword thrust deep into his shoulder, he looked back and forth between me and the sword with eyes that could not understand.

What was there to be surprised about?

SCHLICK!

I pulled out the embedded Black Dragon Sword and grinned widely.

"Because I have the right to challenge you."