The strike missed again, but shards of ice crystallized in midair.
Through them, Unhwi caught a glimpse of the glint in the phantom remnant’s eyes.
He imdiately spun and lashed out with a kick.
Thud—!
It connected, but barely. That was fine. He kept the phantom remnant in sight, predicting every motion and every move yet to co.
The phantom remnant’s sword crashed down like lightning.
He twisted to the side. Not fast enough. He channeled qi and stomped the ground.
Slash—!
A deep cut tore across his thigh. It was fine.
Violet internal energy surged—plum blossoms extended outward.
In his mind, Unhwi analyzed Cheongmun’s every movent.
When he swings, the shoulder pulls back.
When he thrusts, the shoulder leans forward.
When stepping, the angle of the pivoting ankle always reveals the direction of movent.
When evading, the rear foot pulls away—and the gaze dips downward.
Now.
The phantom remnant’s shoulder tilted forward.
That sword would be a thrust—and the direction was... straight ahead.
Unhwi extended his left hand.
Kaarrrrrrk—!
It was blocked by the Bul Su Injang—no wound—but a sickening sound followed as his body slid backward from the impact.
To reach the Heaven-Man Realm ant transcending human limits.
Blocking it at all was already fortunate—but in that mont, the phantom remnant’s ankle subtly twisted to the right. A step technique.
Unhwi forced strength into his left hand to halt the movent.
The phantom remnant’s body froze in place.
A brief flicker—his shoulder twitched. The hand without a sword.
In a situation like this, it could an only one thing.
He’d drawn another weapon.
BOOM—!!
A knife-hand strike aid at Unhwi’s neck was blocked by his blade.
He was shoved backward, but the phantom remnant also lost grip of his sword.
A gap opened between them.
With a mont before the phantom remnant moved again, martial techniques flashed through Unhwi’s mind.
Which was suitable?
Which was ideal?
Blood Demon Clotting thod, Primordial Void Blood Heart Scripture, Ten Thousand Snow Manual, Taiji Fist, Blood Spirit Step, Thousand Hands Divine Art... and the Yijinjing.
His eyes glead.
He had received five martial arts along with the Yijinjing from Bodhidharma.
Immortal Vajra Palm, Tathagata Palmwind, Ti-Space Fist, Arhat Eighteen Hands, and Shadowless Step.
All top-tier Musin-level techniques—burdenso even with Huhyeonjigi and nearly impossible with a re Five Qi Origin body.
But thanks to the Bul Su Injang bound to his left hand, there were two he could use.
He thought no further.
The mont he made his decision, a fierce current erupted in his left palm.
Just like Bodhidharma in the past, a mundane hand transford into a vessel that held the entire world.
“Tathagata Palmwind.”
Just a whisper—so quiet it barely existed. Yet it shook heaven and earth.
His palm pushed forward. On the surface, it looked like an ordinary palm strike—but within it, the laws of the universe condensed.
Qi surged outward as if detonating from a single point.
KWAHHHHH—!!
A wind invisible to the eye roared toward the phantom remnant.
It wasn’t re wind. However faint, it was the truth of the Buddha, unleashed from the Tathagata’s palm that held three thousand great worlds.
The phantom remnant’s eyes widened.
BOOM—!!
The palmstrike slamd into his chest. He skidded backward as a deep crater ford in his chest.
He imdiately raised his head. His eyes burned with killing intent—enough to make them weapons in their own right.
But Unhwi didn’t flinch.
The phantom remnant’s body twisted midair as he caught his balance.
If a Heaven-Man expert could be defeated so easily, they weren’t worthy of the title.
Violet qi erupted from his body. Nature resonated in response. The entire chamber shook violently.
Just as he prepared to charge—
The Bul Su Injang on Unhwi’s left hand ignited in golden light.
Now.
The mont where the insights of his past life and the genius of Bodhidharma, whom he had never even seen, converged into one.
A martial art was complete.
Immortal Vajra Palm.
His entire left arm glowed with golden light—dense and solid like a diamond. It was no longer a hand, but a vajra—the immortal implent of the Buddha.
It cleaved through the air toward the phantom remnant.
KUUUUUUUNG—!
The air vibrated and tore.
The mont the phantom remnant’s sword t Unhwi’s left palm—
BOOM—!!
A deafening roar erupted. The phantom remnant’s sword rebounded skyward. A crackle followed—bones shattered in his arm with audible snaps.
Unhwi’s own arm went numb.
Tch.
He’d aid to destroy the phantom remnant’s entire arm—but hadn’t quite succeeded.
The phantom remnant’s eyes sharpened. He moved again.
His shoulder pulled back. A swing.
Unhwi twisted his head and pushed his Huhyeonjigi to the absolute limit.
His pupils turned white, and the world before him beca an icy expanse.
Heavenly Snow Surge.
The surrounding air plumted in temperature. The phantom remnant’s blade, and even his own body, began to freeze over.
But—
CRACK!
With a shattering sound like glass, all the ice exploded. Plum blossoms scattered once more.
It was fine.
You couldn’t bind a Heaven-Man master so easily.
This mont—this fleeting mont—was what mattered.
In that split second, the phantom remnant’s blade split into seven, like an illusion.
It attacked like the seven petals of a plum blossom.
Even with Unhwi’s limited understanding, he recognized it clearly:
The final form of the Thirty-Six Plum Blossom Sword Forms—Plum Blossom Seven Spirits.
His eyes flashed.
The Primordial Qi that connects Heaven and Earth;
Across the eternal void, I walk alone.
Reverse-Heaven Azure Blade.
Reverse-Heaven Wavebreaker.
Slow, yet swift.
Unhwi swung the Heavenshaking Spiritblade.
Huhyeonjigi surged from it, extending to all surrounding energy in perfect, natural flow.
KRRRRRRRANG—!!
The explosion tore apart the phantom remnant’s Plum Blossom Seven Spirits technique.
All martial arts and techniques, his or the enemy’s, were fundantally made of qi.
The key to Reverse-Heaven Wavebreaker, the second form of the Reverse-Heaven Azure Blade, was to reduce all enemy techniques to nothing.
And the phantom remnant—driven by killing intent alone—was utterly shaken by this incomprehensible mont.
This was a martial art that should not—could not—be wielded at the Five Qi Origin stage.
Yet it was.
Unhwi’s body creaked with protest.
Muscles scread.
His dantian thrashed, begging him to stop.
Even the regenerative Huhyeonjigi had slowed.
His vision bled red.
His body responded like a broken machine.
But he could not let this mont pass.
"The reverse blade shatters the firmant—
All laws can be destroyed.
One strike pierces all ages—
Even gods and demons vanish."
Both hands gripped the Heavenshaking Spiritblade, and he swung with all his might.
Reverse-Heaven Azure Blade.
The Sole Azure Blade.
A single flash reflected in the phantom remnant’s eyes.
SHHK—!
He stared blankly at his own right arm, launched into the sky.
Even for a phantom remnant, this mont defied understanding.
Who could’ve imagined it?
That a martial artist of the Five Qi Origin could stand against a Heaven-Man Realm being?
But if soone who once nearly touched the heavens fell and beca a child overnight—what then?
If he then rose again to the Five Qi Origin stage—
He could sever the arm of a Heaven-Man master.
Like this.
At this mont, the phantom remnant’s every sense locked onto Unhwi.
That was intentional.
Which is why he didn’t understand—
Why Unhwi, at full strength, suddenly retreated.
Now was the ti to press forward.
Not fall back—but attack.
The phantom remnant’s gaze shifted—
To the man who’d been left alone.
Sim Munryong swung his sword.
SHHK—!
The air split.
And the phantom remnant’s head soared skyward.
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