Ch.48Chapter 48 – Life and Death Duel (3)

Kim Hyul’s first sensation was one of floating.

With dizziness came the feeling of rising upward, and as the sky began to turn red, he couldn’t maintain his balance.

The vibrations created by accumulated impacts were twisting Kim Hyul’s internal organs.

“What have you done… to my body…”

Despite the pain washing over him like waves, Kim Hyul tried to correct his posture. No matter how he thought about it, there shouldn’t have been any possibility of penetrating his Diamond Invincibility.

The Six Harmonies Fist’s four directions and heaven-earth principles were properly maintained. His internal organs should have been protected by deflecting or blocking attacks.

Why had it been penetrated?

“Your problem was that you trusted your Diamond Invincibility too much.”

Bi-wol smiled gently at Kim Hyul’s puzzled expression as she provided the answer. If he had been more skeptical about his external martial arts, he would have fought more cautiously.

If Bing-yeon had been Kim Hyul’s master, he would have taught him different martial arts, just as he had taught Bi-wol arts beyond the Heavenly Demon Divine Art.

The essence of Six Harmonies Fist is the unity of heaven-earth and the four directions. If the ground cracks and the soles of the feet don’t fully contact the earth, one fails to properly channel force.

“There’s nothing in this world that’s truly impenetrable like diamond.”

Bi-wol had realized this point before Kim Hyul and made the first move. According to the original story, she should have used the Heavenly Demon Divine Art to break through his Diamond Invincibility, but…

“…I understand now. You continuously vibrated my body to transfer the impact internally?”

“That’s right. Master once told me that even great iron can be twisted by the vibrations of a small breeze.”

It was something Bing-yeon had once told Bi-wol, and because of it, everything had changed.

Now she trusted his words so completely that she would believe even rumors if they came from him.

“You really follow your master’s words well. You’re certainly… different from what I’ve heard about you.”

Steadying his staggering body, Kim Hyul smiled wryly at his opponent. He’d heard she would become the leader of the Demon Sect who would bathe the world in blood in the future.

But the girl before him now seemed merely an enthusiastic disciple who tried too hard to follow her master’s teachings.

Kim Hyul didn’t believe in Bing-seol-hwa’s fancy talk about the future. He had a conviction to believe only what he had seen and heard firsthand.

“If it weren’t for Master, I might have truly become a villain.”

Bi-wol vaguely sensed what he meant. The days when she had been captured and experimented on by the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect.

“The place I used to live was like hell.”

She had cursed the heavens that had abandoned her. In that insane place where children who thought they were friends had to kill each other, she had wanted to die as quickly as possible.

“My idea of hell is a world where children must pick up swords to kill others. Was that what your place was like?”

Kim Hyul grimaced and clenched his fist.

He remembered when his village was attacked by bandits in his childhood, the sound of children crying while holding their dead parents.

A hell of swords and blood—Kim Hyul had raised his fists because he never wanted to see such madness again.

“…Yes.”

“That’s terrible.”

Kim Hyul gave a sad look to Bi-wol, who was slowly nodding. She was indeed quite different from what he had heard from Bing-seol-hwa.

‘This young lady before me was born with the energy of the Star of Heavenly Murder and will bathe the world in blood? What nonsense.’

Kim Hyul let out a hollow laugh. If he had blindly believed Bing-seol-hwa’s words like Kang Si-woo, it would have been disastrous.

He couldn’t sense any energy of the Star of Heavenly Murder, the heavenly karma of slaughter. She wasn’t showing any signs of going berserk or losing her mind even at the sight of her own blood.

“If we had met elsewhere, perhaps we could have been friends sharing stories.”

He instinctively knew they had similar pasts.

The sorrow of what they had lost, the will to protect what they cherished, and the reason they had to achieve victory at all costs.

Without many words, martial artists could understand what was conveyed just by exchanging fists and swords.

“Why don’t you join our master’s side?”

“…Me?”

And Bi-wol was receiving the same impression.

She judged that he wasn’t a bad person, seeing how he warned her about Bing-seol-hwa and secretly revealed her intentions.

She realized he must have some circumstances that made him oppose her and follow Bing-seol-hwa.

Normally in the martial world, a master was like heaven, and there was even a saying about “deceiving the master and destroying the ancestors,” considering betrayal of one’s master a great sin.

“Yes, with someone who’s mastered Diamond Invincibility, we might stand a chance even against someone who can see the future.”

“……”

Kim Hyul fell silent at the unexpected proposal. This was the opposite of the original story “Diamond Fist King,” where they tried to kill each other.

– You were born to kill a girl named Bi-wol.

Kim Hyul recalled what Bing-seol-hwa had said to persuade him. Even for someone who claimed to see the future, it was difficult to accept such a statement at once.

– The bandits who attacked you, the culprits who killed your close friends—they’re all karmic consequences of someone trying to defy the Star of Heavenly Murder.

Kim Hyul believed that people forged their own destinies. Rather than blaming others for the misfortunes that befell him and his family, he thought they were trampled by the strong because they were weak.

Above all, the bandit attack that day seemed orchestrated, happening at dawn when everyone was asleep.

“If you defeat me, I’ll consider it.”

Kim Hyul said as he thrust his fist at Bi-wol again. There was nothing he could do by siding with someone who couldn’t even defeat him.

He hated the idea of serving Bing-seol-hwa as his master more than death, and he had a mission to rescue his family who were already being held captive after his failed persuasion.

“I’ll win quickly.”

“I look forward to it.”

Clang! Kim Hyul blocked Bi-wol’s incoming blade with his arm. Unlike before, he was now careful to place his feet away from the sword marks she had drawn on the ground.

‘So it’s impossible to deliver shock in the same way as before.’

Now Kim Hyul was using the Chicken Leg stance based on flexibility, mimicking a chicken’s walk.

Then,

He threw a punch upward from below, mimicking a dragon’s ascending waist. A fast and powerful fist that grazed Bi-wol’s chin.

If she had taken that hit directly, she would have been knocked out immediately. Her internal organs would have been damaged to the point where she couldn’t even stand properly. Where did such resilience come from?

‘Unquenchable fighting spirit… just like our master.’

Bi-wol thought his eyes resembled those of Bing-yeon when he erased the Heavenly Demon Divine Sect from this world. There was no way they could be blood-related.

“You have good instincts.”

“……”

His words and the techniques he used were similar to Bing-yeon’s. Would this be how a younger version of him would have felt?

With the sensation of watching a father and son, Bi-wol found herself imagining what a child between her and Bing-yeon might be like.

‘Perhaps something like that.’

In a way, Kim Hyul was like a son created by the original author, and Bi-wol had grasped this fact with her uncannily sharp feminine intuition.

To realize such a future, she had to defeat the opponent before her. If she could treat her master’s Severed Nine Yin and defeat his enemies, no one would be able to stop her.

Her fellow disciple Azazel, who also claimed to see the future, had hinted that if she continued like this, the day she could kidnap her master might not be far off.

– The essence of the Three Talents Swordsmanship is heaven, earth, and human. The feeling of heaven, earth, and humanity becoming one is important.

Bi-wol closed her eyes briefly while indulging in these happy thoughts, recalling the warm yet calm voice of her master Bing-yeon.

Using resonance to accumulate shock was only a temporary measure. To penetrate Kim Hyul’s Diamond Invincibility, she needed a new realization.

With a loud thud, Bi-wol stomped the ground forcefully.

– A person is like a small universe. To unite with the foundation of heaven and earth, you need to block other senses and focus solely on the sword.

Heaven is above one’s head.

Earth is the ground beneath one’s feet.

Then, what exactly does the human represent in heaven-earth-human?

‘The answer is for heaven, earth, and myself to become one.’

First, she closed her eyes to block her vision.

Second, she calmed her mind to create a state where she couldn’t hear the cheers of the crowd.

She gradually dulled her sense of taste and smell, focusing all her nerves only on the fingers holding the sword.

To the point where she felt as if nothing existed here except herself and the sword.

– Bi-wol, you can become someone greater than you think.

The state of unity between object and self.

For Bi-wol now, Kim Hyul’s approaching distance or the techniques he used didn’t matter. All she needed to cut was the conventional wisdom of the world that stood in the way of her and her master.

In that moment, Bi-wol felt as if the sword’s handle had become attached to her fingers.

Slash!

With a crisp sound of something being cut, a small trickle of blood flowed from Kim Hyul’s chest. The instantaneous breaking of Diamond Invincibility.

“H-how…?!”

Bi-wol didn’t miss this opening and struck Kim Hyul’s neck with her scabbard, then lifted her foot from the ground and drove it into his chest.

Crash!

Kim Hyul momentarily lost his Diamond Invincibility and exposed his vital points, falling backward and sprawling on the tournament ground.

“What’s happening! The seemingly invincible martial artist Kim Hyul has fallen!”

Cheon Cheon-mu, who had been commentating on the match, shouted at the incredible sight. The legendary external martial art known as Diamond Invincibility had been penetrated by a mere girl.

Kim Hyul couldn’t get up for a while, and as he struggled to regain his balance, Bi-wol stepped on him.

“The winner is… Bi-wol of the Ice Dragon Fate Sect…!”

With that, Cheon Cheon-mu announced to the world the winner of the first match in the finals of the Dragon and Phoenix Tournament.

* * *

“The second match will be between the swordsman from the West who is said to be able to use all things as swords, Sieg-hardt…!”

“…and Verdandi, who also came from the West!”

The first match ended with Bi-wol’s victory, and immediately after, Verdandi and Sieg-hardt stepped onto the arena.

“I hope we have a good match.”

“I will defeat you and earn praise from my master!”

Verdandi remained tense as she watched Sieg-hardt, who was tapping his cane on the ground as if he were blind.