“Ugh—.”

Pain rolled over him. His whole body felt as if it were freezing.

If this keeps up… I’ll really die!

Yeomubaek drew his last resort.

He took another talisman from his robe. This one was red; it hummed with an aura resembling blood-energy.

Explosion-Qi Talisman.

It was a forbidden talisman that temporarily doubled all one’s capabilities. The price: after use one could not perform sorceries for a month.

But there was no choice now.

He put the talisman in his mouth.

In an instant, a crimson aura burst from Yeomubaek’s body.

Kuuuuung.

His speed of drawing heaven-and-earth qi doubled. His wounds began to close rapidly.

Yeomubaek shouted.

“Five-Element Grand Cycle!”

He brought his hands together.

The energies of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, and Earth converged at once. Five colors began to whirl in his palms.

Gold, green, blue, red, yellow.

The five lights tangled and mingled and swelled.

The light grew enormous — already the size of a human head and still expanding.

Tremendous qi condensed. Nearby stones lifted. The ground split.

Unhwi watched the scene.

Five-Element Grand Cycle.

Familiar.

As with all techniques, nothing in this world was perfect.

This one too had weaknesses. Two, in fact.

First, the five energies must be perfectly balanced. If even one is off, it runs amok.

Second was a flaw inherent to the Grand Cycle itself.

Raising five attributes at once [N O V E L I G H T] and then executing the work of matching their balance necessarily created a gap.

No matter how great a martial man, five attributes are not the same as one — some suit him, some do not.

Balancing them? Not easy.

They knew this, and apprenticing in Heavenly Gate Method trained one thoroughly for it, yet the flaw never fully vanished.

Yes.

A fleeting gap that appears during the process of balancing the attributes.

If one could seize that moment, the instant the technique was initiated could be used to overturn the outcome.

Like now.

Unhwi dropped the Trueflame Heavenly-Spirit Sword to the side and reached out at once.

He raised his already-extreme illusory qi and converted it into ice-snow qi. All of his qi concentrated into his palms.

Ice-Snow Twelve Palms — Extreme Form, Thawing-Snow Palm.

A soft palm-pressure flowed from his hands. Like spring-snow melting, it carried warm, gentle power.

The moment the Thawing-Snow Palm touched the Five-Element Grand Cycle, Yeomubaek was greatly startled.

“…What?!”

The water-energy began to be sucked away.

The Thawing-Snow Palm was a palm-technique that absorbed an opponent’s qi, whether internal skill or heaven-and-earth qi.

And the Five-Element Grand Cycle required perfect balance among the five energies.

If even one went missing—

“Ah… no! No!”

Yeomubaek screamed.

With the water energy exhausted, the balance of the remaining four collapsed. Metal and Fire collided. Wood and Earth tangled.

The five elements began to run riot.

“Stop!!”

Yeomubaek fought desperately to seize the qi, but it was already too late.

Kraaaaaang!

An explosion occurred.

But it was not aimed at Unhwi — it detonated within Yeomubaek himself.

The five energies burst independently. Metal qi sliced his arm. Fire qi burned his chest. Wood qi wrapped his legs. Water qi froze his interior. Earth qi crushed his whole body.

“Arghhhh!”

Yeomubaek’s scream pierced the sky.

When the smoke cleared, he was kneeling — his body a wreck. His left arm was gone. A black char remained on his chest. His leg was twisted like a root.

“H… haa…”

He panted; blood still flowed from his mouth.

Unhwi stepped forward slowly.

“The Heavenly Gate’s sorceries are powerful,” he said.

The sword-point rested on Yeomubaek.

“But relying on internal qi is a double-edged sword.”

“W-wait… please…”

Yeomubaek raised a trembling hand.

“Spare me… I am one of the Ten Pillars of Heavenly Gate… if you kill me, Heavenly Gate will not stand idle—”

“And?” Unhwi’s gaze was cold.

“I told you not to enter. I warned you. I even offered payment.”

Unhwi raised the sword high.

“You entered anyway.”

“I was wrong… really… please…”

“It’s too late.”

Unhwi swung the sword.

Shreek—!

It sliced Yeomubaek’s abdomen cleanly — horizontally.

Yeomubaek’s body folded in two.

Fear swallowed his mind. Even a martial man at Heaven-Human Unity was not invincible.

It was certain. Death.

“No… please…”

Even Yeomubaek’s desperate plea did not stop Unhwi.

He lifted the sword again.

And drove it down vertically.

Shreek—!

The head was split precisely in half, from brow to chin in a straight line.

***

As Unhwi panted, Chief Seong approached and asked, “…I will find a carriage. Shall we move to the lower village?”

“Do you look tired?” Unhwi asked.

“You look like someone on the verge of death, sir,” Chief Seong replied.

He could not deny it.

That Unhwi had been able to kill Yeomubaek without drawing on the Blood-Demon Ancestral Resolve was due to the nature of the sorcery.

And another reason that could not be denied: the memories of his past life were too vivid — that clarity had allowed him to win.

If Yeomubaek had been a Ten Pillars seat-level figure, the fight might have been harder.

He might have lost an arm, but it had not happened, which was fortunate.

“Chief Seong, one favor?”

“Name it.”

“I want all the bodies burned.”

Chief Seong nodded and began to gather the corpses into a pyre with a concentrated-fire technique.

Flames consumed the chamber.

Afterward, Unhwi produced the Tao-Beginning Innate Heart Method secret manual from his robe.

He looked at Chief Seong, who stared blankly, and asked, “Do you want to learn it?”

Chief Seong hesitated, then slowly shook his head.

Too much is excess. He was already overwhelmed organizing what he was learning and what remained in his head. To take on a conspicuously extraordinary art? No.

Unhwi lightly tossed the manual toward the flames.

With a crackle the book caught fire.

Chief Seong watched the sequence in a daze.

What is this?

“…What did you do?”

“I burned it.”

“…Why?”

Unhwi snorted a little.

“It’s in my head.”

“…Ah…”

“If you truly want to learn, say so anytime. I’ll adapt it to fit you.”

Chief Seong’s questions did not vanish. Knowing Unhwi’s nature, burning a manual was strange.

If he could give it to someone, he would; if not, he would store it in the dusk pouch. To suddenly burn it? It could be seen as keeping it secret, but Unhwi doing such a thing was odd.

And the question was soon answered — or rather deepened.

When the manual was reduced to embers.

Crackle—!

The flames rippled oddly.

White smoke rose, and it began to form characters in the air.

Chief Seong took a step back, astonished.

“…What is that?”

It was a bizarre phenomenon.

As if an invisible hand were writing in the void.

Chief Seong stared, but Unhwi was indifferent.

He had seen this in his past life.

In that life he had ‘accidentally’ burned a manual. He had not been at this level then, nor had his qi circulation been remarkable. The chamber’s temperature had not been high.

Cold had come over him then, and he had lit a fire. He did not let go of the manual and continued reading. When it warmed, drowsiness came and he accidentally burned the edge of the book.

White smoke had wafted out and he had felt that something was there.

The younger Unhwi, puzzled, threw the book into the flames as a kind of decision, but being too naive, he could not understand the characters’ meaning.

Now it was different.

The characters made of smoke completed themselves.

THE HEAVENLY-MACHINERY HAS TWISTED; THE PATH IS ALREADY CUT.

TO UNRAVEL THIS BINDING, THREE QUESTIONS MUST BE MADE CLEAR.

Chief Seong’s eyes grew serious; Unhwi’s did likewise.

More characters appeared below.

FIRST QUESTION:

WHAT HAS CLOSED THE HEAVENS? WHAT HAS SEALED THE EARTH?

SECOND QUESTION:

WHERE DOES THE WAY RESIDE? WHERE DOES THE ROAD LEAD?

THIRD QUESTION:

WHO AM I? WHO ARE YOU?

The characters slowly scattered.

One final sentence appeared.

IF THE THREE QUESTIONS ARE CLARIFIED, THE GATE WILL OPEN OF ITS OWN accord.

THE ANSWER IS NOT IN THE MOUTH BUT IN THE HEART.

The smoke vanished completely.

The chamber was quiet again.

“…What does it mean?” Chief Seong asked, bewildered.

Unhwi did not answer.

He traced the memory of his past life.

He had seen this riddle before but could not grasp it then.

Back then his martial skill was shallow and his understanding of the world lacking.

But now was different.

Two lives.

He had felt much in the first life and learned more in the second. He could not claim to know the world better than anyone, but he had a firm conviction about his own path.

He thought quietly.

Heaven closed by what, earth sealed by what…

The phrasing confused him, so he decided to interpret it as written.

If the heavens were closed, by what would they be closed? If the earth were sealed, by what would it be sealed?

If it referred not to what had happened but what would happen, Unhwi had his own answer.

He spoke slowly.

“The heavens are closed by attachment.”

He paused.

“The earth is sealed by greed.”

At that instant.

Wuuuu—!

The chamber trembled faintly.

Chief Seong looked around in alarm, but Unhwi did not pay it any heed.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep