Chapter 121

In the time it took for Leonard to blink, Pablo’s attack came flying toward him with a flash of destructive light.

Even Russell’s and Gordon’s faces grew stony as they watched the fight, but they couldn’t interfere. Not even a Class 7 or 8 Archmage could safely take the attack without time to prepare.

He’s in danger!

Russell thought.

The boy was going to die.

No matter how many times he did the calculations, the results didn’t change. He didn’t know exactly what Pablo had up his sleeve, but his power obviously exceeded the Transcendence Tier. If the four leaders of Aquamarine’s prime came back to life, it was hard to say whether they would win against him.

If Leonard dies here, Aquamarine will no longer be in immediate danger of a war with Moby Dick... but that boy is at the heart of the team, so that essentially means that their future is no longer bright.

Pablo probably wasn’t thinking that far, but this fight would determine the fate of Aquamarine.

The Chief Elder grimaced and shut his eyes. He didn’t want to see Leonard’s corpse, which was probably barely recognizable. Nor did he want to see the despair on Frances’s face or the smugness on Pablo’s.

“...Hm?”

But no screams or shouts ever came. When Russell opened his eyes again, he looked around, bewildered.

“What... happened?” he asked.

“Ha! What do you think? Did you have your eyes closed?” Gordon, who had been standing next to him the whole time, laughed at him. “Truly, what an unfathomable young man. I cannot believe he negated Pablo’s entire attack with just one sword!”

“What?!” Russell finally caught up. His eyes widened as he looked at Leonard, but alas, he had missed it.

It was as if Pablo’s attack had never occurred. Leonard stood on the other side of his opponent with one sword left. The rest had crumbled into dust.

The aftermath displayed that a young boy—not even past the External Force Tier yet—had cut through an attack that should have been strong enough to take down a fortress.

“No—no, it can’t be! This is impossible!” It wasn’t clear what exactly Pablo saw in Leonard’s sword, but he took a step back, unable to hide the shock on his face. He couldn’t help it. “Are you trying to break into the Transcendence Tier

while

fighting me?!”

The Transcendence Tier. The stage in which one began to shed the inherent limits of a mortal being.

Leonard had passed the stage of harmonizing the body and spirit while facing Pablo’s powerful attack, and began the process of fully achieving unity. He started overflowing with a light that looked almost auspicious.

There was no grand transformation as there was with Metamorphosis. All of the eight extraordinary meridians were already open, and his body, as strong as steel, couldn’t become any stronger.

There was only one thing left for him to do.

One Origin Five Elements Sword Art

Now, he had the power to rip through the fabric of the world as he wished, a special ability afforded only to martial artists who could freely separate their physical and spiritual selves.

He could now use true mental martial arts.

* * *

———Boom!

Leonard couldn’t see the attack until it hit him in the shoulder. It sent his right arm flying and spraying blood.

He still hadn’t figured out Heaven’s Annihilation, and he’d already died fifteen times.

If he lost four more times, his body would be taken by the heart devil, but there was a sense of bittersweetness between the two of them.

“You little...”

“Now I have three tries left. Wait, was it four?” Leonard said, looking down at the sword he was holding in his left hand. The blade had broken from the middle, so only half remained.

The sword wasn’t completely destroyed even after getting hit by Heaven’s Annihilation, and the boy had also been successful in preventing a blow to the head.

I’m finally starting to understand.

His eyes sparkled when he figured out the irrational mechanics of Heaven’s Annihilation.

Out of the 84,000 different types of martial arts, they all had a fundamental essence regardless of how powerful they were. The Three Aspects Sword Art was based on the philosophy of unity between heaven, man, and earth, and the Imperial Sword Style had a foundation of total domination.

Similarly, Heavenly Demon’s signature technique, Asura’s Royal Dance, had its own unique foundation.

In ancient myth, it is said that Vritrasuraclashed with Indra, the king of the gods. Since Indra is also the god of the sky, the annihilation of “heaven” should refer to him.

In that case, one should look toward Indra, the target of the attack.

Indra is one of the most powerful gods along with Brahma, who is said to be the greatest dharmapala in the Eight Legions. He is so magnificent that he is called the ruler of the heavens. He also wields thunder and lightning, which symbolize the majesty of the skies, with ease, so he’s also the god of thunder.

He had two famous weapons that represented him: Indra’s Net, which embodied causality, and the vajra thunderbolt.

From Vritrasura’s point of view, he had to find a way to render both of them useless in order to defeat Indra.

Indra’s net. The vajra thunderbolt.

Just as Leonard’s thoughts turned to those two, the heart devil, growing frantic, used Heaven’s Annihilation again. The Asura statue, which was over a hundred feet tall, swept its six arms in an elegant motion, making the air ripple like a mirage.

“Oh.”

It was at that moment that the realization hit Leonard like a thunderbolt, and his head was crushed.

“Damn it all.” Though the heart devil had killed him once again, it wasn’t happy. In fact, it felt how close Leonard’s sharp sword was to reaching it.

After all, with their shared consciousness, it also knew what Leonard had realized. Heaven’s Annihilation was no longer a mystery to him.

“...Ha, hahaha! Ahahahaha!” Sure enough, as Leonard reappeared where his corpse had fallen, he let out a rare fit of delighted laughter. He couldn’t help but laugh from the joy of such a major breakthrough.

Heaven’s Annihilation was based on the supremely arrogant principle of declaring that one would kill Indra.

“A fire that burns each thread of causality! Ha, what a seriously ridiculous technique. It’s completely different from other martial arts.”

The dissonance he felt when he faced Heaven’s Annihilation for the first time was his main clue.

It was too fast. Faster than

lightning.

But there was a very simple explanation for it.

“A power that removes the space between cause and effect. So

that’s

the essence of Heaven’s Annihilation,” Leonard mused.

“You’re right,” the heart devil spat. “You thought that the statue was both slow and fast. Both are true. Even if it’s sluggish, if it gets rid of the space between the time it first moves and the time it hits the target, it will be fast. It’s not like it accelerates tremendously.”

“Are you giving up?” Leonard taunted the heart devil with the very line it had used on him.

“Of course not! You only have three chances left. Even if you understand the principles behind Heaven’s Annihilation, overpowering it is another story entirely. If you fall before you can break through it, it’ll be my victory!”

“You sure don’t know when to give up. As expected of a heart devil born out of myself. Don’t you know that I won’t even

need

all three?” Leonard grinned at its determination as he formed his sword.

Now he had one, not five. In order to apply what he’d just learned, he had to pour all his power into one blade. Just as he leveled it perfectly in front of him, he saw it coming.

Oh.

The heart devil was standing before him, taking the form of Dan Mok-Jin. The Asura statue attacked. Leonard had nothing but the single sword in his hand to face them. He felt as if he were back in the final moments of his past life.

His life as Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk.

He thought he’d completely severed himself from his previous self, but a wall he didn’t even know existed shattered as the past and present merged together.

He’d achieved full unity.

Heaven’s Annihilation uses fire, and the Heavenly Demon Cult used to be a branch of Zoroastrianism that worshiped fire. The one who inherited the holy fire would be chosen as their high priest.

The “holy fire” was a secret cultivation method: the Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method. It could only be used by the incumbent Heavenly Demon.

In other words, Dan Mok-Jin’s martial arts had its roots in fire qi. So, Leonard had to concentrate his energy into water qi when facing his ultimate attack, Heaven’s Annihilation. The harmonization of the Five Elements was no doubt an impressive achievement, but if they had the same level of skill, it would be more advantageous to focus his power into one type.

As he watched Heaven’s Annihilation come down upon him for the seventeenth time. A technique he hadn’t ever used or even thought of occurred to him.

He used a visualization technique that was based on the Black Tortoise Form.

One Origin Five Elements Sword Art

The True Martial Emperor

Mighty God Statue Manifestation

Augmented energy shot out of Leonard’s sword and formed a statue of a giant over a hundred feet tall. Strangely, one leg was a snake and the other was a turtle. The statue gripped a sword with its strong hands, and seven stars twinkled on the blade.

The heart devil was shocked, recognizing it. “That’s the Seven Star Sword, which represents the Black Tortoise, so that must be... Xuanwu[1]!”

He was one of the greatest gods in Daoism, an incarnation of Yuanshi Tianzun, and famous for having slayed the Demon King.

He was a god on a similar level to Indra and Vritrasura.

The image of Xuanwu faced the six-armed Asura with its Seven Star Sword raised. At that moment, the opening display of Heaven’s Annihilation was complete, burning causality into ashes. It was a fatal attack that would instantly kill its target as soon as it was cast.

Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method

Asura’s Royal Dance

Final Finishing Death Strike

Heaven’s Annihilation

The space between cause and effect collapsed, and Leonard’s death flew toward him.

He should have died without even being able to see the attack coming.

Northern God Style

Instance Opening Counter Technique

Deep Frost Shroud

Xuanwu’s sword blocked Heaven’s Annihilation.

It should not have been possible.

Eyes widening, even Leonard couldn’t believe he’d succeeded in reaching such a deep understanding.

There was no leeway in Heaven’s Annihilation, and it simultaneously killed its target at the very moment the opening display was completed. In order for a person to successfully shield against the attack, a sense of foresight that allowed them to perfectly predict and prepare for the outcome was required.

No, blocking it is impossible even if you predict the attack. Getting rid of causality means that any shield that squeezes in will simply be removed again.

That was why Heaven’s Annihilation had pierced through Black Tortoise’s Wall and the augmented energy shield without any resistance. It eliminated the space between cause and effect, so shields, which were created in that space, were useless.

However, that wasn’t the case with Xuanwu’s sword.

“What?! What did you just do?!”

“I can’t tell you. I’m not quite sure either.”

He hadn’t yet sorted out the enlightenment he had gained, but either way, the sword strike just now had essentially broken into the next level.

He’d just experienced something similar to an epiphany often discussed in Buddhism.

And he’d achieved perfect unity.

His self in the Mindscape and his self in the physical world became one.

“Urk...!”

Some of the wounds he sustained from Pablo were also transferred to his inner self, but they immediately healed from the vigor of breaking his limits, which also made him stronger.

Since his body didn’t need to undergo Metamorphosis, the leftover energy pooled inside his heart and eyes, bestowing him with the two mystical traits of dragons whose blood was passed down through the Cardenas family line.

Leonard’s pupils narrowed like a snake’s, granting him vision that allowed him to see the very ebb and flow of the world. The average living being would be struck with fear if they dared to meet his gaze.

They were dragon eyes.

Thump.

But the biggest transformation was in his heart. The marble-shaped muscle, which he had come to call the Five Elements True Dragon Ring, swelled to the size of a fist. It was more like a core than an organ, and its capacity for and control over energy skyrocketed. Leonard already had an unmatched amount of internal energy, but it nearly doubled.

It was a dragon heart.

No, the increase in energy is only a side effect,

he thought as he contemplated his inner systems. His lower, middle, and upper dantian broke the barriers between them and united into one.

His entire body became an energy center.

The amount and quality of the energy flowing through all his blood vessels peaked and became augmented, basically creating an augmented energy shield

inside

him. He became even tougher than steel.

The heart devil screamed as it watched Leonard reach the Transcendence Tier in a matter of seconds. “No! It’s not over yet! I—I only need to kill you three more times!”

Jet-black flames blazed up from the Asura statue’s arms.

This was the fire that burned causality.

The heart devil hadn’t used them just in case it gave Leonard a hint about the technique, but it revealed the flames, no longer having any reason to hide them.

The attack that had killed Leonard sixteen times was coming again.

He stood resolutely before it and raised his sword over his head, pointing to the heavens.

“Didn’t you realize during our exchange just now? I don’t know about the real Heavenly Demon, but your form of Heaven’s Annihilation is imperfect.”

“Sileeeence!”

“The Northern God Style and Xuanwu’s sword are conceptual martial arts that specialize in defense and counterattacks, just like the Black Tortoise Form. The Deep Frost Shroud’s true form is a manifestation of the saying ‘the one who moves last holds control first.’”

The heart devil in Dan Mok-Jin’s body became one with the statue and used its deadly attack, not even hearing its opponent.

Leonard hadn’t realized before he reached the Transcendence Tier, but the Asura’s Royal Dance used by the heart devil only

looked

impressive, and its Visualization and application of martial principles was so subpar that it was hard to believe that it was in the Profound Realm.

That was how Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk had perceived Dan Mok-Jin’s skill in his past life.

Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method

Asura’s Royal Dance

Final Finishing Death Strike

Heaven’s Annihilation

As the flames licked at the threads of causality, Leonard followed them to their destination.

That should be the heart.

He thrust his sword, aiming for the middle of the chest.

One Origin Five Elements Style

Northern God Style

Instance Opening Counter Technique

Deep Frost Shroud

1. Also known as Xuandi (玄帝), Zhenwu (真武), or Zhenwudadi (真武大帝, literal translation: True Martial Great Emperor) He’s a revered deity in Chinese religion and a high-ranking deity in Taoism. ☜