As though the probing exchanges were over, Cheong Un roused his spiritual energy. Pure energy flowed from his body with a low hum. Then, in a flash of light, he charged at an even greater speed.

Yise immediately raised an earthen wall to block his path, but Cheong Un's sword sliced through it like tofu. In an instant, the sword tip was bearing down on him at close range. Yise hastily twisted aside and drew on his internal reserves. The tip missed his flank by a mere inch.

That was not the end of it. Spiritual energy shot from the sword tip, taking shape as one sword move after another. These were not mere cuts, slashes, and swings, but trajectories flowing toward a specific purpose.

'I have the advantage in speed.'

Even against a sword Cultivator who had devoted everything to body refinement, Yise had the edge in movement techniques. He kept pulling away, and Cheong Un kept pursuing. A chilling sharpness sliced into his spiritual-energy-clad skin. Cheong Un pressed him calmly, as though slicing flesh from a slaughtered demonic beast.

A sword move shot straight toward him, then split into seven streaks. All but one had to be feints, but Yise could not tell which was real.

Using the Weapon Enlargement Art, he enlarged his hand axe in place of a shield, completely obscuring Cheong Un's vision. The black iron blade grew massive, blocking the sword's path.

CLANG! CRUNCH!

Ominous metallic sounds rang out in succession. Cracks spread across the black iron. At last, unable to withstand the blows, the hand axe shattered.

As the axe broke apart like glass, several sword streaks slipped past its defense and into his body. All seven trajectories were real attacks. It was a feat that would leave even a Dokkaebi dumbfounded. Cuts opened across his shoulder, flank, and thigh, sending blood spurting.

They failed to cut through his bones, however. He might not have been a pure body-refinement practitioner, but his body, too, had been reconstructed through Replacing Bones, Spirit Forging and Shedding the Mortal Frame, Remaking the Body.

'It's hard to get the upper hand.'

The problem was that he was still being pushed back.

'There's no way to break through head-on.'

Despite the stinging wounds, Yise's mind settled into calm. He focused solely on how to bring down the opponent before him.

'I'll go for the sword.'

How would a sword Cultivator fight once his sword was taken away?

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art.

Four-Direction Strike.

Yise's spell flew straight at Cheong Un's head. At the same time, he threw a punch. Cheong Un raised his spiritual-energy-wreathed sword overhead to block the shadows, catching Yise's fist with his other palm.

Dokkaebi Shadow-Gathering Demonic Art.

Shadow-Net Formation.

This time, a net of shadows descended upon Cheong Un. He released Yise's hand and stepped back. Seizing that opening, Yise used the Telekinesis Art to send a broken piece of his axe blade toward Cheong Un's flank.

THWACK!

With a crisp impact, the sharp black iron fragment bit into Cheong Un's skin. But it sank barely an inch, scarcely more than a scratch. Even without spiritual energy raised in defense, his skin was hard as stone.

Cheong Un pulled out the embedded fragment with one hand. A single trickle of blood ran down his flank; that was the extent of the damage. Then he charged at Yise again, sword in hand.

As Cheong Un's sword tip swept through an arc, sword light bloomed along its path, layer upon layer like flower petals. Each petal shot toward Yise from a different direction.

Yise hastily raised an earthen wall, hurled a Firebolt, and tore a talisman to summon thorns, but the petals slipped between every defense as if mocking them. At last, the sword tip pierced his abdomen.

Just as Cheong Un was about to draw the blade diagonally to finish him in one stroke, the Needle-Firing Armor shone, piercing Cheong Un all over. Nor did it stop there. Flames from Yise's Flame Release poured from his hand and engulfed Cheong Un. As the fire broke through his spiritual energy and melted his skin, Cheong Un pulled his sword free and retreated.

Ground-Shadow Snare seized that moment to catch his ankle. A shadow rose beneath Cheong Un and snatched his left ankle, briefly halting his retreat.

Both of Yise's hands reached for the storage pouch on his back. Inside was the black porous rock that had not suffered so much as a scratch from his axe. He pulled it out and immediately hurled it at Cheong Un with the Telekinesis Art.

He felt a great surge of spiritual power drain from his body. Sending the rock flying consumed an amount of power every bit as formidable as its weight.

A shadow wrapped around his ankle, and an unknown rock hurtling toward him. Which would Cheong Un deal with first? He chose the latter.

At that same instant, however, the barrier from the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard Yise had drawn engulfed the area, stopping the flow of spiritual energy. Cheong Un's sword, stripped of spiritual energy, collided hard with the unknown rock.

CRACK!

With a clear ring, his sword broke. The blade snapped in two at its midpoint, sending metal fragments flying in every direction.

The sword's resistance only nudged the rock slightly off course. It slammed into Cheong Un's shoulder and continued past him. He staggered back a step, bewilderment appearing on his face for the first time. He seemed unable to understand why his spiritual energy had stopped or why his sword had broken.

Yise did not let the opening pass. In that space where spiritual energy had been stilled, he drew up Demonic Energy and formed an Earthen Spear large enough to pierce even a Thunder Boar's torso. The enormous spear forged from Demonic Energy plunged down at Cheong Un from the air.

The pillar of earth filled Cheong Un's vision. It struck him squarely in the chest, shattering his ribs all at once. His body lifted into the air before being flung backward.

Yise hid the Twin-Banner Spirit-Domain Sealing Standard back in his storage pouch and drew the Meridian-Cutting Blade. Its special effect did not work on Cultivators, but it would be better than fighting bare-handed.

Just as Yise prepared his next move, Cheong Un spat out a mouthful of blood and slowly rose from the ground. His breath came in ragged gasps, as though a broken rib had grazed a lung, but he finally stood on his own two feet. Then he raised both hands.

"I lose. I can't see any way to beat you. My master's words were right—the world truly is vast."

It was an unequivocal admission of defeat. When Yise hesitated, Cheong Un shook his tangled hair.

"I've never had such a brutal fight. You just keep pulling out one thing after another. There's a limit, you know."

Yise slowly steadied his breathing. Blood seeped from the holes puncturing his body. Cheong Un had holes all over him and broken ribs, but Yise's own injuries made it difficult even to stand properly.

Had the battle continued, there was no telling who would have won. Even so, Cheong Un had readily admitted defeat.

Cheong Un took the black Demon core from inside his robes again and tossed it to Yise.

"Take it."

Yise caught the core, then put a Healing Pill in his mouth. As one, the two sank to the ground and began circulating their energy.

"Which continent are you from?"

"The Eastern Continent."

"I'm from the Northern Continent. I'll remember that."

The Tyrant Sword Sect of the Northern Continent. Yise committed the name to memory as well. After a short bout of energy circulation to stabilize his body, he slowly approached the stone building and looked back at Cheong Un.

Cheong Un showed no intention of heading back. He stood where he was with his arms folded, watching in a leisurely manner. At Yise's gaze, he elaborated as if to prevent a misunderstanding.

"I'm only going to watch. Don't worry, go on in."

"You're not just scared to go back?"

"You're a sharp one."

His ready admission made Yise burst out laughing. Then Yise made a joke.

"I ought to empty your storage pouch, but I'll let you off."

"Hahaha! Much appreciated."

Yise waved at the heartily laughing man and fitted the two inner cores into the holes. This time, the entire door flooded with brilliant blue light. A strand each of silver and black joined and circled across its surface, while the inscription carved in the center blazed with light.

CLATTER.

First, a stone wall descended from the ceiling, closing the outer entrance. A short while later, the inner stone doors slowly opened.

The building's interior was a surprisingly small circular stone chamber. At its center stood a stele tall enough to almost touch the ceiling. Lines of densely carved writing covered its upper portion, while at its base a ledge projected about a foot forward like an altar. A single transparent sphere rested quietly on it, its interior plainly visible.

Yise approached cautiously and looked down at the sphere.

'Is it safe to touch?'

This was no ordinary object to be handled carelessly. Recalling Irang's advice, he shifted his gaze to the stele.

'This is...'

The dense writing covering the stele was none other than a cultivation method. And it was an advanced method of a kind Yise had never seen before, one that would not even yield readily to interpretation.

Every line of its formula held its own meaning, but at his current realm, he could scarcely guess how those meanings fit together. The method's name was carved in bold letters at the top of the stele.

'Soul-Returning Body-Entering Art.'

Returning the soul and bringing it into the body. That was the name of the cultivation method.

'Is this a demonic art?'

Judging by the name alone, it was suspicious in the extreme. He had heard that some demonic arts involved body usurpation—stealing another person's body. Yet the sphere beside it held such auspicious energy that this did not seem to be a demonic art.

'I'll write it down first.'

His memory was not bad, but memorizing a formula he could not understand would be risky. Even a single wrong character could cause trouble.

With nothing else suitable to write on, Yise took out all his blank bamboo slips, drew blood from a fingertip, and began copying it character by character. Even those were not enough, so he wrote portions of the formula on rocks as well.

The instant he finished copying the entire formula, the writing on the stele began to fade, and the sphere that had been resting so quietly forced its way into Yise's body of its own accord.

'...?'

Then it vanished without a trace.

No energy spread through his body, nor did anything change. Yet one fact was firmly imprinted in his mind: to learn the Soul-Returning Body-Entering Art, one had to absorb this sphere.

It was not a realization Yise had reached himself. The thought had simply surfaced the moment the sphere entered him, as though someone had arranged it. It seemed to declare that only the rightful recipient of this fortuitous encounter was qualified to learn the method.

It had been one utterly incomprehensible event after another.

RUMBLE!

The ground shook beneath his feet. Wondering whether some mechanism had activated, he looked toward the exit, but it did not open.

After a while, the shaking stopped. Yise realized he was trapped inside. No matter how hard he strained, the closed stone doors would not budge.

'It'll still let me out when the secret realm closes... right?'

Yise stood blankly in bewilderment for a while, then sat down cross-legged.

The spiritual energy of heaven and earth was denser in this chamber than anywhere else in the inner depths. Now that he could no longer access that veritable treasure house, he intended to at least spend a good long time cultivating before he left.

'My spiritual herbs...'

Of course, thinking of the countless spiritual materials left in the inner depths still made his heart ache. There was no helping that.