Chapter 63: The Great Battle of Moon and Blood Bamboo (3)

‘Perhaps I’ll have to die here.’

As Pang Giyok prepared for death, the face of a certain woman surfaced in his mind.

‘Damn it, if I could just see Jaegal Yohye’s face once, I’d be fine with dying right now…’

Zhao Qiansheng found himself growing irritated as he dealt with the elite warriors of the Pang Clan, who charged at him with death in mind.

They were not easy opponents by any means.

On top of that, their disregard for their own lives made it difficult to fend them off. As a result, he’d already sustained a couple of blade wounds.

“I’ll kill every last one of you!”

Just as he let out another furious roar and prepared to attack again, he sensed a chilling sword aura coming from behind.

It felt distinctly different from the dull and heavy energy of sabers.

‘This bastard!’

Zhao Qiansheng instantly recognized the owner of the sword aura.

‘The one who killed Guardian Meng!’

Both of Zhao Qiansheng’s palms spun in a rotation as he turned to strike back at Yong Hwarin, who was attacking from behind. But Yong Hwarin leaped upward with Waterfall-Reversing Dragon and launched an assault.

As Zhao Qiansheng blocked the strike with both palms, his face twisted involuntarily.

‘Not bad! A sword aura sharp enough to sting my hands. Hahaha, no wonder Guardian Meng was defeated.’

Guardian Meng must have let his guard down because the boy was young, and the boy had taken full advantage of that.

Yong Hwarin passed over Zhao Qiansheng and landed near Pang Giyok.

“Brother Yong! You need to rest!”

Despite his pale complexion, Pang Giyok still voiced his concern, which Yong Hwarin found admirable.

“The two of us can take him down.”

“The two of us? How?”

Even the bold Pang Giyok had been overwhelmed by the martial prowess of Guardian Zhao Qiansheng. That was why Yong Hwarin’s claim that the two of them could kill him left him baffled.

“You showed me the Five Tiger Saber Technique before, didn’t you?”

“Yes.”

“I think I’ve figured out the problem.”

“Are you serious?”

Zhao Qiansheng grew infuriated as they suddenly stopped fighting and began discussing martial concepts. He prepared to kill them on the spot. How dare they do something else right in front of him?

It was unforgivable.

But the elite warriors of the Pang Clan desperately blocked him when they noticed the two discussing martial insight.

With that brief reprieve, Yong Hwarin spoke again.

“It seems the key lies in Oil and Water Uniting at Speed.”

“Oil and Water Uniting at Speed…”

“The Tyrannical Power Saber Style emphasizes weight and dominance. That’s why its movements are slow and heavy. But when fused with the Five Tiger Saber Technique, it becomes light, intricate, and full of variation—almost like a sword technique. Watching your Five Tiger Saber Style, I felt like it was oil and water—they just don’t mix. But there’s one way to make them merge. If you stir or shake oil and water rapidly, they momentarily fuse together.”

“Ah! So you’re saying that if I execute it faster than I do now, I can bring out the true power of the Five Tiger Saber Technique?”

“That’s what it seems like to me.”

Meanwhile, the Pang Clan’s elite warriors were still desperately holding back Zhao Qiansheng. But how long they could last was uncertain.

“Hold him off! Don’t let him reach the young master or Lord Yong!”

Ten of Pang Clan’s elites charged without regard for their lives, and Zhao Qiansheng was once again stalled.

“You damn rat bastards!”

Zhao Qiansheng swung his palms wildly in a rage.

Even then, Pang Giyok asked Yong Hwarin a question.

“If you had a chance to gain martial insight right now, what would you do?”

“I’d enter meditation immediately! Because I trust you.”

“Then I’ll enter meditation too, because I trust you.”

With that, he plopped down on the spot and began meditating.

Yong Hwarin was taken aback. He never expected Pang Giyok to enter a state of enlightenment right here, in the middle of battle. He had never seen or heard of such a thing.

‘That’s the Pang Clan for you.’

Shaking his head, Yong Hwarin couldn’t help but feel Pang Giyok was even more reckless than he was. To suddenly enter enlightenment while fighting for his life was nothing short of madness.

“Urgh!”

Two more of the Pang Clan’s elite warriors were crushed—one’s head, the other’s chest—and died rolling across the ground.

Yong Hwarin looked up at the sky.

There was a reason he’d given Pang Giyok the opportunity to attain enlightenment in the Five Tiger Saber Technique now.

It was to prepare for the possibility that Jaegal Yohye might fail to read the situation and not send reinforcements.

If Pang Giyok could awaken to the essence of the Five Tiger Saber Technique, the tide of battle could shift dramatically.

Among the Pang Clan’s warriors, Pang Giyok likely had the highest internal energy. If he could fully unleash the Five Tiger Saber Style, the two of them could very well hold back that monster.

Yong Hwarin was doing everything he possibly could.

As he advanced toward Zhao Qiansheng, his knees buckled slightly, and he stumbled.

In that moment, the pain he’d been suppressing tore through his body.

It was the price of forcibly using more than one full cycle and a half’s worth of internal energy.

But he couldn’t collapse now.

Right then and there, Yong Hwarin poured half a cycle’s worth of energy into his sword and executed Heavenly Thunder Ascending Dragon.

He merged with the divine sword and shot toward Zhao Qiansheng like lightning.

Shhhhhk!

He struck just as Zhao Qiansheng was about to sever the life of another elite warrior.

As soon as he saw Yong Hwarin closing in, Zhao Qiansheng flung the warrior aside and raised both palms to deflect Yong Hwarin’s sword.

Boom!

Yong Hwarin staggered as he landed, and Zhao Qiansheng took two steps back.

Zhao Qiansheng’s palms tingled with pain. For them to sting like this meant the sword strike contained over a full cycle’s worth of internal energy.

But it wasn’t the energy that surprised him this time.

Glaring at Yong Hwarin for a moment, Zhao Qiansheng spoke.

“What’s your connection to the Heavenly Central Sect?”

It was strange for a master of the Blood Demon Castle to recognize someone from the Heavenly Central Sect.

“I am Yong Hwarin, the Young Master of the Heavenly Central Sect!”

As Yong Hwarin answered without an ounce of fear, Zhao Qiansheng nodded.

“So that’s how you knew Waterfall-Reversing Dragon and Heavenly Thunder Ascending Dragon.”

Yong Hwarin realized he had to silence Zhao Qiansheng no matter what.

There could only be one reason Zhao Qiansheng recognized his martial arts.

It was that he knew the techniques of the Heavenly Central Sect originated from the Hidden Saint Cult.

That knowledge hadn’t yet spread throughout the martial world. If word got out, it would be disastrous.

Yong Hwarin stepped forward with Sword Overwhelming the Sea and launched another attack on Zhao Qiansheng.

At that moment, the Pang Clan’s elite warriors responded from both sides and joined forces in a coordinated attack.

Yong Hwarin, rushing to silence Zhao Qiansheng, got too close in the process.

Zhao Qiansheng, who used both palm strikes and grappling techniques, was far more effective in close combat.

Whoosh!

Suddenly, Zhao Qiansheng’s left hand vanished from sight and came down from above. It was a life-or-death moment.

That was when a sword suddenly shot out and sliced off Zhao Qiansheng’s wrist.

At just the right moment, Jong Seok had come to assist.

Zhao Qiansheng scowled and was forced to withdraw his hand and retreat.

When Yong Hwarin turned around, he saw the Two Wook Sword Demons and Mo Biyoung looking at him with faces on the verge of death. Beside them, Jong Munhye was tending to their injuries.

Zhao Qiansheng, having completely run out of patience, unleashed all his internal energy and began attacking Jong Seok and Yong Hwarin with full force.

“I’ll beat all of you to death!”

Jong Seok and Yong Hwarin barely managed to dodge his attacks.

Fortunately, the elite warriors of the Pang Clan were striking from behind, giving them just enough space to evade. If not for that, both would’ve been crushed by Zhao Qiansheng’s powerful palm force already.

Zhao Qiansheng furiously drove his assault, aiming to smash Yong Hwarin and Jong Seok to death.

Boom-boom-boom-boom!

As he spun with a bizarre stance, the Pang Clan’s warriors who had been attacking together coughed up blood and were thrown back.

“Die!”

Zhao Qiansheng blamed Yong Hwarin for all the chaos in this situation and attacked him like he’d encountered a mortal enemy.

Jong Seok responded with exceptional swordsmanship, aiming to break through Zhao Qiansheng’s guard, but his overwhelming palm strikes blocked her every move, forcing her to retreat.

Yong Hwarin was suddenly frozen in place, unable to dodge Zhao Qiansheng’s attack as the Demonic Master’s energy tore through his body with unbearable pain.

“Ghhhhh…!”

A groan escaped his lips.

For a moment, he even thought that dying would be better than enduring this agony.

And then—

A white tiger lunged at Zhao Qiansheng.

Bang!

Zhao Qiansheng struck with his saber energy to deflect it and stepped back.

Pang Giyok landed next to Yong Hwarin. Gritting his teeth against the pain, he spoke.

“It worked.”

Pang Giyok nodded, his face slightly flushed.

It was frustrating.

If only he’d had more time, he could’ve drifted deeper into meditation, and perhaps he would’ve fully comprehended the Five Tiger Saber Technique.

But as Yong Hwarin was pushed into greater danger with every moment, Pang Giyok had no choice but to awaken from his meditative state.

Because he hadn’t completely shut off his senses to maintain awareness of the battlefield, he lost the chance to delve even deeper into his insight.

Still, gaining this much enlightenment in the midst of a battle was a great success.

“Khah!”

Pang Giyok swung his saber.

As he did, strands of qi began to form around the blade, taking on a distinct shape. It looked as though a white tiger was leaping to rip out a throat.

Watching this, the Pang Clan’s elite warriors and Pang Cheollyeon shuddered.

Pang Giyok had finally completed the long-cherished Five Tiger Saber Technique of the Pang Clan.

Though the tiger was still made of qi due to the technique’s low current level of mastery, once it surpassed the Qi Net stage and reached the Qi Compression stage, the Pang Clan would undoubtedly rise to dominate the martial world.

“Ah! At last…”

Overcome with emotion, Pang Cheollyeon began to weep.

Even Zhao Qiansheng, encountering this technique for the first time, was surprised by Pang Giyok’s display and shifted to a defensive posture.

“Khah!”

Pang Giyok’s roar was like that of a real tiger.

‘So the day will come when a supreme expert, later called Tiger King Blade among the Seven Kings of the Martial World, will rise.’

Though Pang Giyok’s title was currently the Wall Gate Blade, in the future, he would be known as Tiger King Blade and ascend to the ranks of the Martial Seven Kings.

Now, with two white tigers flying forth, Yong Hwarin pushed his trembling, pain-wracked body and approached Pang Giyok.

“This time, we have to end it. If you keep using the Five Tiger Saber Technique, your energy will soon be depleted. How many more white tigers can you summon?”

“You even know that?”

Of course he did.

As the name suggested, the Five Tiger Saber Technique reached completion only when five saber-shaped tigers of energy were formed.

“If I use up all my energy… maybe three in total?”

“Good. Unleash them all. I’ll land the final blow. I can’t hold out any longer either. But if we kill that monster, we have a chance at victory.”

Pang Giyok realized—so this was why Yong Hwarin had said the two of them could kill him.

Pang Giyok was impressed that Yong Hwarin had not only correctly assessed his abilities, but was also acting accordingly.

The two of them charged at Zhao Qiansheng together.

“Uwaaaaaah!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep