Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1832

“Shield!”

As the sword flashed, dozens of transparent barriers materialized in front of Wiggins.

Kiiiiiiing!

The moment the sword energy collided with the barriers, they warped and twisted.

‘A defense that can even block artillery fire…’

Even with dozens of layers, Baek Yeon-hong’s sword pierced through his defenses with ease.

Swish!

The sword grazed his shoulder.

Swish!

His side was torn open.

While Wiggins tried to exploit openings Baek Yeon-hong couldn’t anticipate, Baek Yeon-hong’s martial prowess consistently surpassed Wiggins’ calculations.

‘Damn it!’

Was his calculation wrong?

How much higher could he possibly rate his opponent?

The mental shock from his opponent’s attacks was more debilitating than the pain from his wounds. The sword, which had flowed smoothly like water, was now assaulting him with the ferocity of a raging storm.

Kiiiiing! Kaang!

The shields weren’t just warping; they were being torn apart.

‘Blink!’

Wiggins’ body vanished from the spot with a *thud*, reappearing about ten meters away. But what he saw wasn’t Baek Yeon-hong tearing through the remaining shields in the distance; it was Baek Yeon-hong’s sword flying directly towards his face.

Wiggins recoiled in horror, tilting his head to the side.

Fwaaaaat!

The sharp sword tore off a piece of his ear.

Before he could even register the throbbing pain, Wiggins used Blink repeatedly to escape Baek Yeon-hong’s range.

“Hoo! Hoo!”

He gasped for breath.

His heart was pounding as if it would leap out of his chest. Using Blink repeatedly had drained all the mana from his body.

The mental shock twisted his body.

His sweat-soaked body felt as heavy as a wet rag.

“Tricks like that…”

Baek Yeon-hong lowered his sword and slowly walked towards him.

“Are called tricks because once you figure them out, you can deal with them. Repeating a trick that won’t work twice doesn’t make you stronger.”

“…Thanks for the advice.”

It was hopeless.

Despite using every trick he had, he couldn’t overcome the level Baek Yeon-hong had reached. If he weren’t his enemy, he might have admired and respected him.

But unfortunately, Baek Yeon-hong was his enemy, an opponent he had to fight to the death.

“Hoo.”

Wiggins’ face, now completely devoid of composure, infused his sword with mana.

‘How much mana is left?’

About half.

He had thought he had more than enough mana to face one person, but after using mana-intensive magic repeatedly, his mana had been depleted in an instant.

‘Can I do it with the remaining mana?’

Wiggins bit his lip.

‘Another bad habit.’

He calculated and calculated again.

As Baek Yeon-hong said, he calculated too quickly and thought too much. Before a battle, that was Wiggins’ strength, but once the battle began, it became a weakness that held him back.

He had no intention of abandoning his path. But if he didn’t learn from his opponent, he would always remain in the same place.

‘Clear your head.’

And entrust himself to his body and senses.

“Here! Try taking this!”

Wiggins kicked off the ground and leaped into the air.

Baek Yeon-hong frowned at the sight.

According to common martial arts knowledge, leaping into the air like that when the opponent’s stance wasn’t broken was practically suicide. Even if those who had reached a certain level could control their bodies in the air, they couldn’t be as free as when their feet were on the ground.

But this man couldn’t be judged by the common sense of martial arts.

Underestimating an opponent was different from being certain of the gap between them.

His sword slowly aimed at the center.

The middle stance.

The starting point of all swordsmanship, the most basic stance.

It was a stance that anyone who practiced swordsmanship would see thousands of times, but Baek Yeon-hong’s middle stance was different from any he had seen before.

He had simply spread his legs slightly and aimed his sword at the center, but that one stance alone felt as heavy as a mountain.

“Uoooo!”

A huge roar erupted from Wiggins’ mouth.

A different kind of heat emanated from him.

Woo-woo-woo-woong!

His sword trembled wildly, resonating with Wiggins’ mana.

At the same time, a white, smoke-like energy, different from the light that had been emitted until now, began to spread out from his sword in all directions.

It was a sight that looked as if the sky was cracking.

And then….

Chaaaaaaeeng!

With a deafening roar like a giant pane of glass shattering, a massive blizzard poured down from the torn sky, and ice spears that looked incredibly sharp rained down on Baek Yeon-hong like a storm.

The sight of dark clouds forming under a clear sky, and ice spears pouring down from them, created an indescribable sense of incongruity for those who watched.

But no matter what they felt, none of them would be as bewildered as Baek Yeon-hong, who had to face those ice spears.

The eyes of Baek Yeon-hong, who had been maintaining a perfect middle stance, wavered for a moment.

“This…”

But that was only for a moment.

Baek Yeon-hong’s sword soon regained its composure and drew a smooth circle in the air.

Round and round.

His sword drew circles as if stirring a giant cauldron called the sky.

The gray, murky energy that had been gathered together at first split into black and white as the circles continued, creating a large yin-yang symbol [a symbol representing balance and harmony in Taoist philosophy].

Kwaaaaaaaa!

The pouring ice spears collided with the yin-yang shield.

Kaka-ga-gang!

The shattered ice fragments, not losing their momentum, fell again.

As if to turn anything below into dust, as if to freeze anything with the cold that was being emitted.

The pouring cold pierced through the yin-yang shield and poured down on Baek Yeon-hong. The tip of his sword froze white, and white frost began to form on Baek Yeon-hong’s hand holding the sword.

But Baek Yeon-hong’s eyes remained unchanged, just as they had been at the beginning.

‘The real attack isn’t the ice, but this cold.’

A cold that seemed to tear flesh and freeze bones poured down.

But Baek Yeon-hong didn’t lose his stance and continued to draw circles.

A circle was the origin.

Everything in the world originated from the yin-yang.

The steadily drawn circle slowly began to push the pouring ice spears to the left and right.

The storm of ice that had been shattering against the shield slowly twisted and bent, and soon fell to the ground without touching the shield.

But even after seeing that, Wiggins squeezed out all the remaining mana and poured out even more ice.

At first glance, it seemed reckless.

It seemed like a meaningless struggle. But the result was clearly different from what it seemed.

Wheeeeeeeeng!

The ice spears that had crashed into the ground shattered and swept around. The ice fragments became a blizzard, covering Baek Yeon-hong’s body.

Crack, crack, crack!

Baek Yeon-hong’s legs began to freeze.

The hem of his pants was instantly covered in frost, then shattered like glass and fell to the ground.

“Ugh…”

Baek Yeon-hong let out a small groan.

‘This guy?’

His sword was blocking the pouring ice spears. It wasn’t easy to let go of it.

Which meant….

‘He planned this from the beginning?’

In the middle of the battle?

It hadn’t been long since he had appeared here. But in that short time, he had watched the battle, calculated all the characteristics of his martial arts and his tendencies, and immediately found the most systematic attack method.

‘He’s like a demon.’

Those who confronted him with power could be crushed with power.

But dealing with someone who constantly targeted his weaknesses made even him groan.

“Too bad.”

Woo-woong.

Internal energy began to swirl within his body.

A clear and magnificent energy swirled throughout his body, pushing back the cold that was penetrating him.

“If the power had been a little stronger, I might have been in trouble.”

His Supreme Purity Divine Art [a powerful martial art technique] was a divine skill that the Taoist sect of Wudang boasted about.

It wasn’t so weak that it couldn’t withstand this level of cold.

It was inevitable that his body would stiffen and his movements would become unnatural, but he wouldn’t suffer any internal injuries.

And at that moment.

“Hwaaaaaaaap!”

A huge roar, unlike any he had made before, erupted from Wiggins’ mouth. At the same time, an enormous light burst from the sword in his right hand.

Wiggins’ eyes, having poured all his remaining mana into the sword, emitted a dazzling light.

“Dieeeeeee!”

Wiggins twisted his waist as if it would break, and using the recoil of his body, threw his sword.

Kwaaaaaaaa!

The sword, loaded with all the remaining mana, flew towards Baek Yeon-hong at a terrifying speed. The surrounding air was torn apart by its momentum, and the energies that filled the world were crushed and screamed.

‘Foolish!’

Baek Yeon-hong frowned.

That strike was certainly incredibly powerful. But he couldn’t be dealt with using such a linear attack. Didn’t he know that the stronger the opponent’s power, the more energy he could use?

‘I’ll bounce it back and kill you!’

Baek Yeon-hong’s sword, which had been drawing circles, sped up a little more.

Baek Yeon-hong, having pushed all the internal energy that had surged from his dantian [an energy center in the body] to the tip of his sword, lowered his stance to deflect the incoming sword.

‘No!’

Baek Yeon-hong bit his lip.

That couldn’t be. There was no way that the man who had been slowly pushing him this far would suddenly lose his mind and make such an obvious attack.

There was definitely something more….

Kwaaaaaaaa!

Then, the incoming sword suddenly increased its speed explosively and plunged towards the yin-yang shield.

At that sudden change, Baek Yeon-hong unconsciously poured internal energy into the shield.

And at that very moment!

Baek Yeon-hong saw it.

The shield he had created.

The invincible shield that could not be pierced by anything and could deflect anything, right in front of it, a black circular object was forming.

The incoming sword didn’t go into the shield, but into the black object that had formed in front of the shield. The moment he guessed what it was, the same black circle appeared right in front of his heart.

From within the black circle, the tip of the sword that had been sucked in from the front emerged like a phantom.

‘What?’

Wiggins’ sword, having teleported through space and bypassed the shield, pierced through Baek Yeon-hong’s body with its terrifying momentum.

Kwaaaaaaaa!

The sword created a storm, engulfing Baek Yeon-hong’s body.

A huge vortex that had formed horizontally wrapped around, tore apart, and charged like an angry dragon through the fragile human body.

The roar buried even screams, exclamations, and cries of joy.

Kuuuuuung!

The wildly raging vortex destroyed all the large walls surrounding the training grounds of the General Assembly and crashed into the mountainside.

Thud!

Wiggins, who had fallen to the ground like a kite, as if he didn’t have the strength to even move a finger, gathered his remaining strength and clenched his fist.

Finally, his sword had pierced Baek Yeon-hong.