Chapter 156

Namgung Baek responded to Dokgo Pil’s mockery with a cool affirmation.

“That’s right. You’re correct.”

Namgung Baek was someone who had missed his time to die. Yet, even if others sacrificed their lives for the family, Namgung Baek couldn’t do the same.

It wasn’t a desire to live longer with a loved one like Namgung Si-hee, nor was it fear of a meaningless death that no one would acknowledge, like Namgung Ju.

Namgung Baek had been given an order.

“You must survive.”

“Never let yourself be captured by the Dokgo Family and lose your life.”

“No matter how humiliating or miserable your remaining life may be, endure it to the end.”

Thus, he had received this command from the last head of the Namgung Family.

He had to watch as the family failed to rise and completely fell into ruin.

It was the order of the family head, and it was his duty within the family.

*Clang!*

There was no time to reminisce. To break free from Dokgo Pil’s pressure, Namgung Baek utilized the subtlety of his sword technique and forcefully pushed his sword forward.

Dokgo Pil, using the Above and Below Poison Step, deflected the impact. His footwork was unparalleled in handling such force.

However, what Namgung Baek had wanted from the start wasn’t to disrupt Dokgo Pil’s balance but to use the recoil to pull himself back.

Using the resulting shockwave, Namgung Baek’s body, holding Namgung Sol, swiftly retreated.

“Are you okay?”

“Ah, yes… yes!”

Namgung Sol answered in a flustered manner. Her mind was in turmoil. She didn’t know the name Namgung Baek that Dokgo Pil had called out, but given his age, it was obvious that he held a high position within the Namgung Family.

Unlike Namgung Ju, who was practically unaware of the Namgung Family’s downfall due to being too young, he must have had some understanding of the family’s tragic end.

Like a thief with a guilty conscience, Namgung Sol, who had inherited her mother’s original sin, nervously watched Namgung Baek’s expression. Then, when she saw Namgung Woo, blood dripping from his nose and mouth, staggering in the distance, a much greater emotional turmoil arose in her heart.

“O-oppa!”

The term she rarely used, still unfamiliar on her tongue, came out immediately this time.

At Namgung Sol’s horrified scream, others also turned to check Namgung Woo’s condition. Paeng Ha-ryeong, Jegal Seon-a, the Yang Brothers, and Song Chaeji all tried to reach Namgung Woo, but the enemies persistently followed, keeping them tied down.

In the midst of no one being able to help, anxiety and shock spread rapidly.

Namgung Woo, who had single-handedly faced the Black Ghost Gate’s Ghost Gate Master and even defeated an unknown transcendent master suspected to be behind it, had been imprinted in their minds as invincible.

The warriors who followed him willingly joined the Changcheon Pavilion because they believed that with Namgung Woo, there was nothing to fear.

Yet, Namgung Woo was faltering.

The cracks in his fortress, revealed through continuous fierce battles. The tide of the battle was turning in favor of the Dokgo Family.

However, contrary to their worries, Namgung Woo’s physical condition wasn’t that severe.

In fact, what was sustaining his life was the Heavenly Boundary Power remaining in his body. Its regenerative ability was at a level that even magic couldn’t easily comprehend. Rather, Namgung Woo’s physical condition was improving as time passed.

The problem was his mental strength.

Only a third of his energy remained, and while his spirit was recovering, it wasn’t complete.

If energy, spirit, and mind were one, the burden of sustaining his existence alone was no small matter.

Amidst this, Namgung Woo had created a new martial art, Infinite Knot, against Dokgo Pil, and even attempted to execute the Emperor’s Sword Form with only a third of his Spiritual Energy of the Void.

If Namgung Woo’s energy, spirit, and mind had all been complete, he might have truly stepped into the realm of Six Breaths Return to Origin through the enlightenment he had just experienced.

But the moment of enlightenment is brief. The scattered enlightenment left only the seed of Infinite Knot within Namgung Woo before departing.

‘This is enough.’

He learns from failure.

He realized that without Heavenly Thunder Divine Energy and Changgung Divine Energy, he couldn’t execute the Emperor’s Sword Form in the traditional way.

Having identified the problem, it was time to find a solution.

And Namgung Woo found the answer in his memories.

‘Like Pung Hyeon did.’

If energy is lacking, borrow it from the outside.

The absence of the two energies prevented Namgung Woo from dominating the space with his presence, but conversely, if only that absence could be filled, the Emperor’s Sword Form would once again shake the world.

‘Think. Imagine external energy flowing through me.’

We are the result of what we think.

The mind is everything; we become what we think.

The teachings of Buddha pierced through Namgung Woo’s heart.

As seen through Azure Tranquility Eyes, he imagined the harmonious flow of external energy as Pung Hyeon had done.

*Whoosh!*

The wind rose. It swirled towards Namgung Woo, gathering like a whirlwind.

Dokgo Pil’s attention shifted to the obvious anomaly.

He recognized Namgung Woo, not Namgung Baek, as the most immediate threat.

‘As expected, he is the most threatening.’

Prepared to sacrifice an arm or a leg, Dokgo Pil readied his next move against Namgung Woo.

For the past 20 years, he had hidden his presence. It seemed he had reached the Transcendent Peak, but even so, Namgung Baek was no match for him. Just a few exchanges had left Namgung Baek breathless.

Thus, there was only one variable.

‘Namgung Woo. Only him.’

Killing him would secure victory.

He had momentarily misjudged Namgung Baek as a variable, but now he corrected that.

However, Namgung Baek’s resolve was a step ahead of Dokgo Pil’s.

An arm or a leg?

That wasn’t enough.

Namgung Baek was betting his life.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

With a shout, Namgung Baek charged in.

In terms of speed alone, it was the Swift Wind Step, said to be the best footwork in the Namgung Family.

Like the name suggests, walking while embracing the swiftly blowing wind, Namgung Baek ran like a gust, disrupting the force field created by Dokgo Pil’s Above and Below Poison Step. It was a step that showed the Namgung Family had also been learning about the Dokgo Family while trying to annihilate them.

“Such a petty interference…!”

Dokgo Pil’s brow furrowed.

Why was he so impatient?

The situation was clearly in favor of the Dokgo Family.

The ratio of bodies falling to the ground was almost equal. If things continued like this, the Dokgo Family’s numerical superiority would inevitably lead to victory.

Yet, Dokgo Pil felt an instinctive sense of crisis that something was going wrong.

*Swoosh!*

A sound like an arrow being shot followed Namgung Baek’s sword. The Heavenly Wind Sword Technique, following the Swift Wind Step. Namgung Woo also knew of it but had never used it as it didn’t suit him. Now, it was revealed to the world in the hands of its rightful wielder.

The sword technique of the Namgung Family, based on rhythm. Among them, the Heavenly Wind Sword Technique, which pursued speed alongside the Soul-Severing Sword, posed a threatening move even to Dokgo Pil.

Dokgo Pil’s Slash for the Heavens Sword Technique revealed its fangs. A sharp killing intent rushed towards Namgung Baek.

‘I’ll cut and go.’

Taking a life in a short time was difficult even for Dokgo Pil without risk.

So here, he would quickly cut off an arm to create an opening and escape.

Dokgo Pil’s calculation ended in an instant. Was it beyond Namgung Baek’s calculation that Dokgo Pil would counterattack so quickly?

As their moves tangled, Dokgo Pil’s sword pierced Namgung Baek’s blind spot.

Beyond mere levels of skill, there was a clear gap in experience between the two.

In the chaos of real combat, a straightforward sword technique couldn’t fully exert its power.

Not just an arm, but even his life was at risk as Dokgo Pil’s sword aimed for a vital point.

The world seemed to stop.

“This… is…”

Namgung Baek focused more on the phenomenon he was experiencing than on Dokgo Pil’s sword, now inches away.

Without a doubt.

The sword technique that made the world his own, placing all life and death on its blade—the Heaven-Shocking, Ghost-Weeping Sword Art.

“How… was it not lost…?”

Even Namgung Baek, who had all the Namgung Family’s martial arts in his mind, didn’t know a single word of this technique.

Before the family head.

The Emperor’s Sword Form.

The Namgung Family’s last secret, which even Namgung Hyu, the last family head, couldn’t pass on, was miraculously reenacted before Namgung Baek’s eyes.

Even though the wind had stopped, Namgung Baek could see it.

The convection created by the energies of heaven and earth gathering around Namgung Woo.

Dokgo Pil forced his stiff body to move. The way he controlled his body while enduring the full force of a Peerless Master’s attack was another level of skill, but this time, the situation was too dire.

Abandoning Namgung Baek, who had been granted life by the Emperor’s Sword Form’s judgment, Dokgo Pil turned to look at the executioner who had sentenced him to death.

“Unfair.”

When he first saw him, he was just a critically ill patient who could barely stand.

Disappointed in himself, he found it laughable that his opponent had far exceeded his expectations.

“He’s already stepped up another level.”

But he wouldn’t give up.

For a member of the Dokgo Family, giving up was a right only granted when their breath stopped forever.

‘I’ll cut to my heart’s content.’

Even the invisible judgment of the heavens, I will cut it down.

Transcending even the tangled realms, Dokgo Pil surpassed his limits in this moment.

The final move of the Slash for the Heavens Sword Technique. Sever.

A martial art created to cut. Its extreme, even if it were the world itself, would cut it down.

Towards the Formless Sword of the Emperor’s Sword Form, Dokgo Pil swung his final sword strike.

The battle stopped.

Those suppressed by the authority of the Emperor’s Sword Form barely managed to exhale.

“Could it be…?”

No one knew who spoke, but the word encapsulated all the questions in the room.

Which side had been cut?

The result was visible to the eye.

A broken sword.

Dokgo Pil quietly looked at his own sword, now in two pieces.

“An inch… short…”

It wasn’t Dokgo Pil who was bleeding, but Namgung Woo.

Over the armor woven by the Shadow Spider’s threads, blood flowed from Namgung Woo’s cut neck. The sword’s path had only grazed his skin.

Namgung Woo didn’t respond to Dokgo Pil’s muttering. In the silence he allowed, Dokgo Pil spoke.

“Elder Dokgo Pil of the Dokgo Family commands. All retreat.”

With those words, Dokgo Pil’s form collapsed.

Another bond was severed here.

His name was Dokgo Pil.

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