From whom would we seek help?
"Silence!"
Gyo Cheon's shout echoed resoundingly.
Swoosh.
The hem of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's robes fluttered wildly.
It was a different voice from before.
His Master's roar, filled with inner energy, struck the Blood Heaven Blade Demon like a sudden gale.
If he hadn't gathered his inner energy to resist, he would have been sent flying and crashed unsightly.
This shout alone revealed just how profound an inner energy was hidden within his Master's aged body.
A fierce wind passed.
He could have been intimidated by such powerful inner energy, but instead, this time, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon roared back.
"You be silent, Master!"
Gyo Cheon's eyes widened.
Until now, he had always treated his Master with the utmost respect.
Now, it was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon whose voice thundered through the hall.
"Why is your revenge like this! Annihilating those who have no connection, trying to start wars through instigation, using poison... after all these years, is this all your revenge amounts to?"
Crack.
The other armrest of the chair shattered.
When he had broken it before, it turned to dust like sand, but this time, pieces scattered to the floor.
He was so enraged he didn't even realize he had broken it.
But the Blood Heaven Blade Demon continued to raise his voice.
"You should have returned in glory. If you weren't ready, you shouldn't have returned at all!"
After letting out his tirade, he added one last thing.
In a low, regretful tone.
"Only then could I have willingly died for you, couldn't I?"
The gazes of the Blood Heaven Blade Demon and Gyo Cheon locked in mid-air.
Was it because of the grief and sorrow in the eyes looking at him?
Gyo Cheon had thought his disciple's apology was a pretense, an act, but in this moment, that thought did not cross his mind.
'He came to find me, prepared to die?'
But that thought, born from sincerity, could not overcome the rigid wall around his heart.
After looking at his disciple for a moment, Gyo Cheon spoke to the two old men.
"Kill him. Kill him wretchedly and miserably!"
A smile of relief appeared on the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's lips.
Yes, no matter what words were exchanged, the conclusion to his meeting with his Master today was already set.
The only difference was who would die.
In a way, he was grateful it had come to this.
He could now fight without any lingering regrets.
"I will obey your command, Master."
The one who answered loudly was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
It was a kind of jest, a mockery, as if he himself had received the order to kill.
In contrast, the two old men's expressions did not change.
His Master must have raised them this way.
Without any emotion, solely for this moment.
And his Master's subordinates were surely not limited to just these two.
No one knew what would emerge from his Master's decades-old bag of grudges today.
Vroooom!
The Heaven-Slaying Blade, infused with inner energy, let out a great cry.
It was not a cry of fear.
It was a cry full of trust from a beloved weapon that felt its master's resolve.
'Yes, I'm counting on you, Heaven-Slayer.'
The red-robed elder approached from the right, and the blue-robed elder from the left.
All three had achieved Great Mastery in the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
At this level, the match would be decided in an instant.
Besides, they knew each other's martial arts all too well.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon imagined how his Master must have trained them.
He would have trained them harshly.
For this very moment.
To kill him miserably not with any other martial art, but with the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
'I will take back the martial art I taught you with that very same art.' That must have been his intention.
'In that case?'
The first to move was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
The moment he kicked off the ground, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was already swinging his blade in front of the red-robed elder.
Shwaaaaa!
The Heaven-Slaying Blade flew forward with a speed that defied its size.
His opponent did not dodge either, swinging his own great blade to block.
Just before the blades clashed, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon twisted his blade.
The angled blade created sparks as it slid along his opponent's blade.
Hwoooosh!
Having calculated even his opponent's reaction, the Heaven-Slaying Blade grazed the old man's face.
The old man was greatly startled inwardly.
It was an unexpected variation.
He hadn't expected him to unleash a life-threatening variation on the very first move; his face had nearly been taken off.
It was a surprise attack by the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, who had turned the common knowledge—that the first move of blade masters is often a clash of strength to test each other—against him.
And the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not lose this momentum, continuing to press his attack.
He was not so unskilled as to be flustered by a near-miss on the first move, but the old man had clearly lost the initiative.
Clang! Clang! Clang clang clang clang!
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's attacks grew faster and fiercer.
The clang of blade against blade grew deeper as the exchange continued.
The blue-robed elder could not intervene to help.
Should it be compared to a carriage that had already departed?
They had already begun a fight that could not be interrupted.
The two were fighting fiercely at close quarters; if he unleashed the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form, the red-robed elder would also be swept up in the force.
Nor could he jump in and fight alongside him.
Their exchange was too intense, and it wasn't a fight of swords, but of great blades.
There was no room for another great blade to join.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was fighting with fundamentals.
His opponent must have spent those long years honing only the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
They would have naturally expected him to face them with the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
A fight of fundamentals should have been disadvantageous compared to using the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
Yet, it was the Blood Heaven Blade Demon who was leading the fight.
His skills hadn't improved solely due to training.
There was something more important.
His life had changed.
Only when one's life changes can one's martial arts change.
This great principle of martial studies had been applied.
As Gyo Cheon watched the two fight, his gaze darkened.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was fighting better than he had expected.
The moment he felt that he was even stronger than when he himself had been a Demon Sovereign, jealousy and anger surged within him.
Then, the words the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had spoken suddenly came to mind.
-'Master's mind must be filled with fog.'
Was that why only these instincts emerged? Hate, jealousy, and anger.
But he could not wisely resolve this thought that had momentarily surfaced.
He could not overcome the great wall he had built over those long years by himself.
If he could have, he would never have heard such words in the first place.
In the end, that jealousy led to another accusation.
'Cunning bastard!'
Of the many things the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had said to him earlier, several had stuck in his heart.
Among them, the words that it wasn't Geom Woojin who was cunning, but that his Master's cunning had been exposed by Geom Woojin, had left a deep resentment.
That must have been why.
"This cunning bastard! When he's the more cunning one!"
He continued to hurl the word 'cunning' in his mind.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's wise fighting style had become cunningness in his eyes.
The red-robed elder, being pushed back by the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, leaped into the air and unleashed the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
It was the Annihilation Blade Strike, the fastest form to execute.
But that was the very moment the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had been waiting for.
The momentary opening when executing a major form, that brief instant when inner energy is forcibly circulated.
Shwaaaaaa!
Just as the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's great blade, which had rushed in like lightning as if it had been waiting, was about to cut the red-robed old man in two!
Shyaaaaaaa!
A force flew in with a unique whistling sound.
He could tell just by the sound.
It was dangerous.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon twisted his body, raising the Heaven-Slaying Blade to block the incoming attack.
Kwaaaang!
As the force struck, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon was pushed back along with the great blade he had used as a shield.
It was an immense power.
An attack that would have broken his wrist if his inner energy had been even slightly lacking.
The one who had saved the red-robed elder with a palm strike was Gyo Cheon.
"Will you act like this?"
Gyo Cheon laughed pleasantly at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's words.
"You stop your cunning tricks!"
He had finally thrown the word 'cunning' back at his disciple.
The conversation between the two could not continue.
The red-robed old man, having found an opening due to Gyo Cheon's intervention, immediately unleashed the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
Shwaaaaaaa!
Normally, he would have regrouped and launched a joint attack, but his pride was wounded by the fact that Gyo Cheon's help had saved his life.
Blade-shaped force swirled and flew towards the Blood Heaven Blade Demon.
It was an unavoidable attack.
If it could be easily dodged, this martial art would not have been named the Fourth Form—Annihilation Blade Blood Wind of the Heaven-Slaying Demon Blade technique.
The solution to the Annihilation Blade Blood Wind was the Annihilation Blade Blood Wind.
The Blade Energy extending from the Heaven-Slaying Blade flew out, swirling.
In both Annihilation Blade Blood Winds, small, blade-shaped forces were rotating within the whirlwind.
The two blood winds collided.
In that moment, with a deafening explosion, as the forces neutralized each other.
Puuuk.
A silence fell at the sound of flesh being torn.
The red-robed old man looked down at his own chest in disbelief.
A force that had flown like a bird escaping a net and pierced him as if it were a lie.
The same martial art had certainly clashed with similar power, but one thing was different.
The number of blades in the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's Annihilation Blade Blood Wind was greater.
As his martial arts mastery had recently risen, his understanding of the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form had deepened.
"Can they increase even more?"
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon answered him.
"How could this Senior Brother's be the same as his Junior Brothers'?"
The red-robed old man asked with fading eyes.
"But why didn't you use it from the beginning?"
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon slowly turned his head to look at his Master.
"I was planning to use it on my Master."
Gyo Cheon's cheek twitched again.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon could see that it wasn't just his martial arts that had grown.
He realized he had learned much from Geom Mugeuk about how to handle his Master.
He was using on his Master the very same tactics that had been used on him by Geom Mugeuk.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon now rushed towards the blue-robed elder.
This time, too, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not use the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form.
Watching this, Gyo Cheon grew even more furious.
Hadn't he just said it? That he was saving the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form to use on him? Yet he still wasn't using it now.
'You're determined to kill me yourself?'
His intervention in their fight was ultimately due to this anger, which was also what the Blood Heaven Blade Demon had wanted.
Whenever the blue-robed elder was in danger, Gyo Cheon would fire blasts from his fingers to help him.
It couldn't have been easy to help in a tangled fight between two people, but Gyo Cheon's attacks were sharp and precise.
Peet! Pit!
The blasts from his Master's fingers grazed his arms and legs, while in front of him, a master who had achieved Great Mastery in the Heaven‑Slaying Demon Blade Form was trying to kill him.
Normally, he would have become agitated and tried to kill his opponent as quickly as possible, but the Blood Heaven Blade Demon did not.
He even fought while managing his inner energy.
A handful of inner energy was worth exchanging for a drop of blood.
He intended to survive until the end and fight his Master.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's planned and thorough fight finally came to an end.
Puuuk!
The Heaven-Slaying Blade pierced the heart of the blue-robed man.
The old man's resentful gaze was not directed at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, but at Gyo Cheon.
Gyo Cheon's help in this fight had actually been a detriment to him.
If he was going to help, he should have done so properly.
But he hadn't.
Instead, it had disrupted his concentration, and in the end, he could not display his full skill.
Help that was tainted with emotion had been of no help to him at all.
Gyo Cheon looked at the Blood Heaven Blade Demon, whose body was drenched in blood.
There was not a single word of mourning for his dead disciples, nor did he lament their deaths.
"Not bad."
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon wiped the blood from his face and said.
"Among all the titles of the Demon Sovereigns, why do you think only mine contains the word 'blood'?"
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon's eyes were shining frighteningly.
Gyo Cheon met his gaze and said coldly, "No one will come to help you. You will die a lonely death here because of your arrogance."
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon, as if accepting it all, smiled bleakly and asked in return, "We are Demon Sovereigns. From whom would we seek help?"
Those words became thorns again, piercing Gyo Cheon's heart.
If his disciple was a Demon Sovereign, then he, too, had once been a Demon Sovereign.
Demon Sovereigns were beings who lived by their pride.
In a fight, they were beings who stood tall alone, never losing to anyone, and never seeking help from anyone.
"I know you have prepared more. Now, who is next?"
At the Blood Heaven Blade Demon's confident appearance, Gyo Cheon roared.
He had considered him a greenhorn disciple, but now, every single word he spoke pierced his heart.
"This bastard, to the very end!"
Gyo Cheon could not hold back and unleashed a palm strike.
Shyaaaaaaa!
A terrifying palm strike flew towards him.
Unable to dodge, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon hid his body behind the Heaven-Slaying Blade, using it as a shield, and infused it with his inner energy to the limit.
Kwaaaang!
The Heaven-Slaying Blade shook violently from the impact.
He had almost broken his wrist and suffered an internal wound.
Shyaaaaaaa!
Kwang!
A second palm strike flew in succession, and then a third.
Kwang! Kwaang!
The Heaven-Slaying Blade trembled as if it would break at any moment.
Under the force of the impacts, the blade began to tilt.
From beyond the Heaven-Slaying Blade, his Master's voice could be heard.
"I'll break that arrogant blade of yours!"
Shwaaaaaaaa!
The sound was different from before.
A palm strike filled with an immense amount of inner energy was flying towards him.
'The blade might break.'
But that was impossible.
The Heaven-Slaying Blade was his symbol.
Instead of raising his protective energy to its limit, the Blood Heaven Blade Demon infused his inner energy into the Heaven-Slaying Blade to its limit.
Even if he suffered an internal wound, he intended to protect his blade.
Kwaaaaang!
A tremendous explosion erupted.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon was still in the same spot.
He hadn't suffered an internal wound, nor had he been thrown back.
And the Heaven-Slaying Blade stood tall, unbroken.
The Blood Heaven Blade Demon saw it.
A hand coming from behind him, its palm pressed against the Heaven-Slaying Blade.
The startled Blood Heaven Blade Demon turned around.
The moment he confirmed who was standing behind him, he called out his name with a face full of emotion.
"Cult Master!"
Geom Woojin was standing behind him.
Perhaps he had hoped the Cult Master would come.
He might have even believed deep down that he would.
But just as much as he wished for him to come, there was also a part of him that wished he wouldn't.
On the day he killed his Master, he had killed his brother.
They had all desperately wished it wouldn't turn out that way, but it had.
He could only guess what kind of wounds the Cult Master lived with.
Since that day, he had never once asked about it.
They never asked each other.
He had resolved to handle this matter alone, wanting to prevent the Cult Master from revisiting that past.
Yet, the Cult Master had come.
And today, the Cult Master's gaze resembled the young gaze that had looked at him on that day, long ago.
"We were together on that day, so we must be together today as well."