Even though the Charred Dragon Unit kept changing paths, their pursuers were still right on their heels. This meant that the pursuers were likely following some sort of odor, which you would be unable to wash off. 

Woon-seong sighed to himself. In the end, conflict cannot be avoided.

The youth gripped the spear in his hand as he stood in the clearing with Gwan Tae-ryang. The pursuers seemed to be getting closer. There was an expression of impatience colored by tension on his face, muscles tensing in anticipation. 

Woon-seong was ready to fight. 

The first thing that he did was to take off the iron rings on his arms. Heavy iron rings fell to the floor with a ‘thud’. Along with a sense of liberation, his power dramatically increased. 

The pursuers were even closer now, visible a few meters from the entrance of the clearing.

Woon-seong had a wide smile on his face as he welcomed them, revealing his fangs to the fullest. His eyes, staring at the enemy, burned with hatred and fighting spirit. 

Woon-seong mentally patted himself on the back. It was a good thing you decided to deal with them here.

The pursuers had been right behind them.

Fighting them off while protecting General Manager Un-Un would have resulted in significant casualties for the Charred Dragon Unit. 

The First Apprentice stops here.

As soon as Woon-seong brandished his spear, the First Apprentice and the Sword of Heaven stepped out into the clearing. 

“Branch Manager Tang, you’ll continue to pursue the rest of the dogs,” the First Apprentice ordered. 

“I understand.” 

The First Apprentice flicked his hand and the group began to move, now led by Branch Manager Tang. 

Gwan Tae-ryang tried to stop them from leaving. 

“Enough.” 

Woon-seong stopped this movement though. 

That was only a group of six average warriors and one little branch manager. 

Even considering Un-Un’s condition, Baek Woon-ji and the rest of the squad could take care of them without a problem. 

But not these two.

“The First Apprentice and the Sword of Heaven must stop here.”

Gwan Tae-ryang nodded in understanding. 

Meanwhile, several warriors, including the branch manager, passed by the two. Soon, the only ones left in the clearing were the First Apprentice, the Sword of Heaven, Woon-seong, and Gwan Tae-ryang. 

The First Apprentice glanced at the remaining two and opened his mouth with a sneer. “Hmmm. You have some sharp fangs for a dog of the Cult.”

At that, Woon-seong reached out with his spear, wearing a shit-eating grin. 

“A dog of the Cult? If so, I feel bad that you’re going to have ‘bitten by a dog’ written as your cause of death. Also, I see you have terrible insight to call a tiger a dog. I’m surprised they gave you such a high position, old fart.”

The eyes of the First Apprentice trembled. He couldn’t help the anger that rose from the blatant provocation. “How dare you say that, you little demonic brat.” He barely managed to suppress his anger and swung his sword, causing energy to arc towards Woon-seong. 

Well, it has been ten years, Woon-seong sighed to himself. At least he learned not to fall for such provocation. I remember him as an idiot being fooled every time I provoked him… 

But you have no idea. At this point, it’s not you who is suppressing the most anger. It’s me. 

Woon-seong’s anger made him cold. He kept talking to the First Apprentice, “But what on earth were you doing in Xinjiang?”

Energy from Woon-seong hit the sword of the First Apprentice, smacking it off course. 

Looking to the side, the clash between the Lieutenant and the Sword of Heaven had already begun. According to Woon-seong’s calculations, Gwan Tae-ryang and the Sword of Heaven were evenly matched in both strength and skill. It was obvious that it would not be an easy fight. 

He might not win, but at least that will keep them busy.

In the meantime, the First Apprentice was deeply shaken by Woon-seong’s question. Speaking of Xinjiang, the only thing that came to his mind was the Sandstorm of Death and the Sword of Men. But how did the Demonic Cult know of this?

“What…?” 

That question was soon resolved by the next words of the youth. 

“The Sandstorm of Death. You sent your apprentice to raise them.”

“Did you meet our youngest?”

Woon-seong nodded noncommittally. “I asked a question first. What were you trying to do with them?”

“You really met the youngest!” It was as if the First Apprentice had been hit by a bolt of lightning as his mind suddenly jolted. He remembered that news from the Sword of Men had been cut off recently! 

The strength flowing through the First Apprentice’s body increased, his aura growing sharper than the sword in his hand. 

Heavenly Sword Unification! So he wasn’t wasting all those years, Woon-seong mused.

With the appearance of high-level sword comprehension, Woon-seong worried that one more iron ring had to be taken off, but soon shook his head. Just as his enemy had grown, so had he. 

The First Apprentice charged with all the momentum of a raging bull. “What did you do with the youngest?”

In response, the youth bolted forward like lightning and swung his spear. “It seems you don’t intend to talk. Since that’s not the only thing I’m going to ask you, I’ll start by cutting all your limbs off. ”

Boom!

The spear and sword clashed and fierce waves of energy swept the area. 

It was good that Woon-seong had chosen a clearing, otherwise they might have leveled half the forest!

‘High qi’ was a symbol of reaching the level of Transcendence, but how many martial artists in the world could actually use high qi? There were less than fifty in the Cult of the Heavenly Demon, so there should be less than fifty in the Martial Society. 

What about the First Apprentice?

The First Apprentice is Transcendence-level, but cannot fully use high qi, Woon-seong concluded after a few exchanges.

The First Apprentice had more inner qi within his dantian than Woon-seong did. Being a man from Qingcheng, the quality of the qi was also naturally very pure. 

Luckily, in his past life, Woon-seong had also reached Transcendence-level. Therefore his insight into this realm was no less than that of the First Apprentice. Actually, it was probably more mature! 

Still… 

It’s definitely strong.

The Sword of the Blue Clouds and Red Sunset. 

Named after the sights seen on Mount Qingcheng, it was the unique ‘Sword of the Blue Clouds and Sunset’ that allowed the Qingcheng Sect to stand at the top of Murim. 

The skills of someone who had practiced this powerful sword art for decades could not be underestimated. 

The sword of the First Apprentice moved quickly, flashing towards Woon-seong’s neck. A blue cloud rose in its wake, forming clumps of qi that battered the youth from all sides. 

Fluffy clouds on a beautiful spring day? More like roof tiles flung off during a windstorm!

Woon-seong hastily retreated, stretching his spear out to scatter the clouds. 

Without giving the youth any time to rest, the First Apprentice’s sword zipped back around, executing the next sword movement, sword aura now emanating a red glow. 

As the sun fell and the sunset spread across the skies, the sword seemed to embody suppression by the Heavens and fell down heavily, causing waves of qi burst forth everywhere. 

Kua-kua-kua-kau!

The clearing was turned upside down as the soil, sand, and tree roots were flung into the air. 

Woon-seong nimbly avoided the attack. 

He may have insufficient strength, but he had already experienced this sword style before!

Let’s think about it a little bit more.

Woon-seong swung his spear, judging the situation even more seriously. 

Should he use the ‘Divine Spear of the Ending Night’ or the ‘Art of Six Seals and Destruction’? 

The former was more suitable for fighting against the sword arts of Qingcheng. But the situation was not truly advantageous for the First Apprentice yet. Given the rough stalemate, Woon-seong was not willing to risk an identity leak. 

I’ve experienced the Sword of the Blue Clouds and Red Sunset before, but it’s the other way around for him. Also, I have more than one weapon.

At the same time, the eyes of the youth were stained with gold, as a muddy energy spread out through his body. Woon-seong was unleashing his ‘intimidation qi’!

Hiss—

The First Apprentice recoiled as the silent energy surrounded him. What the hell is this? The moment he touched the energy, just for a brief moment, his heart had fluttered with fear. Goosebumps rose on his skin. 

Looking at this, Woon-seong grumbled in frustration. It’s still not good enough.

The mind breaking capabilities of the ‘intimidation qi’ was still not as effective as he thought they would be against Orthodox martial artists. Currently, it was barely able to make them flinch. In order to deal with his enemies, there would be many things he needed to fix. 

Woon-seong smiled bitterly. He had thought he was very strong, but it was now apparent that he still had a long way to go. 

“You damn demonic brat! How dare you use some vile spell!” 

The First Apprentice pushed through the barrier of spear aura and ‘intimidation qi’, striking at the youth’s shoulder.

The strike did not completely land, but Woon-seong’s shoulder began to bleed. The cheap, borrowed pauldrons could not stand the blow and became shredded scraps of metal. 

However, Woon-seong did not moan once. Instead, he just clicked his tongue. 

Tsk. I knew they would be worse than ones made from black iron, but they’re shit. Fucking useless. 

Woon-seong’s eyes deepened. He remembered what the First Apprentice had just called him and spoke with a chilling voice, “I’m no brat. I’m a Great Demon. I’m a demonic practitioner who is one of the few who has achieved the rank of a Great Demon.”

“Don’t spew bullshit! I don’t care what rank you are! Nothing changes the fact that you’re a vile demonic practitioner!”

A violent offensive came over. 

Woon-seong defended himself under this pressure, avoiding the wisps of sword aura sharply piercing towards his body. There were no fatal wounds, but small scrapes appeared here and there. 

“Khh!”

Woon-seong dodged to the side, but the First Apprentice was one step faster. 

“Hmph.”

As soon as Woon-seong side-stepped, the First Apprentice was already waiting for him. Sword already outstretched, the First Apprentice easily delivered a strong strike straight to the chest. 

Puchi—

Woon-seong spat out a mouthful of blood on the spot. 

“Hurgh.”

He staggered back, barely escaping the offensive, but was inevitably injured. Woon-seong raised his hand and wiped the blood from his mouth, glaring at the other. 

Meanwhile, the First Apprentice slowly approached the youth. 

With a graceful movement, a few throwing knives and some needles were thrown towards the First Apprentice. 

Woon-seong’s lightning stitching throwing knives! 

But it was no use. 

Ding, ding, ding—

The First Apprentice smacked them right back towards Woon-seong and sarcastically complimented, “Oh, you’re so skillful!”

This is definitely hard.

Should he take off another bracer? Or even two? Temptation rose in Woon-seong’s heart, but he shook his head. He had suffered a lot of injuries, but not yet. He wouldn’t die yet, so he could still win. Overcoming this battle meant he would be one step further. 

For his revenge!

The youth raised his energy. With conviction, his strength flowed out to his limbs. Although his spear trembled as if it recognized and welcomed the energy, Woon-seong did not notice at all. 

“Die!”

The sword of the First Apprentice ripped through the place where Woon-seong had stood a moment ago. 

Kuah!

The sword carved deep furrows into the ground, one after another, as it chased after the youth. 

Woon-seong avoided them all, but suffered several injuries. The most serious was one on his thigh. 

This is not good, Woon-seong thought as he quickly staunched the deep gash.

As if the First Apprentice knew Woon-seong was in pain, he shouted excitedly, “Let’s see how far you can escape, you rat!”

At that point, Woon-seong breathed out a deep breath, as if he had finally made up his mind about something. 

After hearing those words, Woon-seong suddenly realized he’d made a mistake. 

Storm-like strikes once again engulfed his body. 

But this time, Woon-seong reacted differently. 

He did not back down. 

He really had been scurrying around like a rat. 

I can’t get revenge by running away.

The path towards the summit required a different mindset. 

He needed to take a risk to achieve his goal. The First Apprentice could hurt him, scathe his flesh. But in exchange, the man would die today!

Woon-seong’s energy increased once more, spurred by his determination. It flowed into the spear as he prepared for a big move. At that moment, the Dragon Fang Spear of the White Night glowed with a bright light. Hundreds of letters flowed into his mind, but didn’t form coherent sentences.

Then someone’s voice soaked into Woon-seong’s ears. 

‘That’s not how you do that.’

Spear in his hands, that shining light transformed into a dragon.