Chapter 311 : Shall We Test Our Luck

Cheon Bi-yeon’s eyes filled with disbelief.

To her, the passage of time itself was pride. There had always been beings stronger than her, but none who had lived longer.

Overwhelming inner power built upon countless years, meticulous control polished over ages.

In simple combat, perhaps not, but when it came to manipulating qi to accomplish something, she had always prided herself on being the greatest under heaven.

That pride was cracking apart.

Because of a mere young man who could not possibly have lived even thirty years.

And that man was also a user of Noble Enchantress’s martial arts—the woman she hated and envied most.

“I wouldn’t even dare imitate Master Noble Enchantress’s techniques, but yours are visible to the eye.”

Cheon Bi-yeon felt something snap inside her head.

Jin Seong-un’s casual remark was no different from denying the thousands of years she had lived.

Swaaaaaaak-!

The brilliant violet Fox Moon Qi she released filled the cave even more densely.

The energy was so concentrated that it obscured vision as though poison mist had been scattered through the cavern.

“Then try copying this as well.”

Cheon Bi-yeon suddenly launched herself forward.

Her speed was astonishing, yet not a single gust of wind scattered. Just as she had confidence in controlling inner power, she also possessed absolute confidence in her movement arts.

Cheon Bi-yeon’s palm stretched toward Jin Seong-un.

Deliberately refusing to evade, Jin Seong-un extended his own hand and pressed his palm against hers.

Tang-!

Their palms collided head-on, and a crisp sound echoed through the cave.

Cheon Bi-yeon’s Fox Moon Qi flowed through their connected palms and entered Jin Seong-un’s body.

Though it was an alien energy, it moved with unnervingly natural ease, rushing through his meridians as comfortably as though they were its own home.

In an instant, the Fox Moon Qi wrapped around his dantian and major organs.

‘Hm.’

Jin Seong-un inwardly admired it.

Against ordinary masters, such a method would have left no room for response.

But Jin Seong-un was different.

After all, he was the disciple of Noble Enchantress, acknowledged even by the Martial Gods as the greatest master of inner arts throughout all ages.

The Fox Moon Qi soon began hardening rigidly.

It was clearly intended to explode in a single instant and rupture his dantian and internal organs entirely.

Jin Seong-un responded with Women’s Moon Qi.

The principle resembled the Original True Face Art. The difference was that instead of using it on another person, he used it upon himself.

Women’s Moon Qi completely filled every meridian throughout his body.

Originally, it had been a martial art that transformed into innate qi to stimulate acupoints, but Jin Seong-un dissolved it into the form of Fox Moon Qi instead of innate qi.

At that moment, the Fox Moon Qi lost control and began moving together with his own energy.

Kung-!

Jin Seong-un stomped heavily upon the ground.

Instantly, the Fox Moon Qi Cheon Bi-yeon had sent dispersed beneath his feet.

Cheon Bi-yeon’s eyes widened.

She could not understand how he had done it.

The enlightenment Noble Enchantress had reached in her later years was so profound that even Cheon Bi-yeon could not comprehend it.

“H-how… how did you do that?”

Cheon Bi-yeon asked Jin Seong-un.

She had not truly expected an answer.

Yet Jin Seong-un calmly replied.

“I learned it from Master Noble Enchantress.”

“…….”

Cheon Bi-yeon’s eyes trembled even more violently.

Jin Seong-un wanted to make her understand.

That she could not even reach Noble Enchantress’s toes.

The moment Cheon Bi-yeon tried to withdraw, Jin Seong-un instead grabbed her wrist tightly.

Their palms remained firmly pressed together.

Jin Seong-un poured Women’s Moon Qi into her body.

Like a spiderweb, her sprawling meridian network was thoroughly filled by Women’s Moon Qi.

It was perfectly identical to the method she had demonstrated earlier.

Jjeoeoeoeong-!

The difference was that she had no way to respond.

Along with the explosion erupting inside her body, Cheon Bi-yeon was blasted away.

She regained balance in midair and landed, but blood streamed from the corner of her mouth.

Looking at Cheon Bi-yeon glaring at him as though she wished to kill him, Jin Seong-un felt genuine admiration.

She still wasn’t dead?

Not only her entire meridian system but even her dantian should have been shredded apart, yet all she did was cough up some blood.

She truly looked like a monster.

Cheon Bi-yeon breathed faintly.

The dense Fox Moon Qi filling the cave flowed in and out through her mouth and nose.

“So you recover through that energy?”

It resembled Women’s Moon Qi.

Women’s Moon Qi also healed damaged meridians and injuries regardless of the owner’s will.

When Jin Seong-un suddenly moved toward her, she retreated backward while wildly scattering enhanced qi into the air.

Kwaaarrrrreung-!

The cave shook violently as though it would collapse at any moment.

Jin Seong-un briefly looked up at the ceiling before halting his steps.

No matter how strong he was, there was no surviving if an entire mountain buried him.

“Are you trying to die together?”

“Only you will die.”

Cheon Bi-yeon let out a thin smile.

Jin Seong-un sighed quietly.

More than anything, escaping this cave came first.

“How frightening. I suppose I should run.”

Having said that, Jin Seong-un unleashed palm force straight ahead, then turned and began fleeing.

The cave’s entrance was endlessly far away.

Since not even a single speck of light could be seen, the entrance appeared blocked.

Relying only on his senses, he ran in the direction where air was flowing.

Cheon Bi-yeon pursued from behind.

Perhaps because her inner power was overflowing, her speed was absurd, like an arrow released from a bow.

At this rate, she would catch him soon.

Thus, Jin Seong-un melted his body into the cave’s darkness.

Shadowless Stealth.

A technique Divine Thief Without Shadows had created merely to surprise Chae Ok-hyeon.

Cheon Bi-yeon abruptly stopped and turned her head around.

The bastard was definitely somewhere inside this cave, yet she could neither see nor sense him.

Cheon Bi-yeon’s senses sharpened to the extreme.

The quiet sound of spring water flowing in the distance.

The sound of a faint breeze brushing past stone pillars.

The heartbeats of bats holding their breath as they watched her carefully.

And within this cave filled entirely with Fox Moon Qi, there was one single empty space that felt foreign.

Swaeaek-!

Cheon Bi-yeon thrust her hand toward that space.

Four sharp streams of enhanced qi surged forward violently and shattered the area apart.

At the same time, through the thin silk fabric, she felt someone place a palm upon her back.

Technique of Exchanging Two Forms.

Jin Seong-un had completely deceived Cheon Bi-yeon’s senses and unleashed the Original True Face Art.

It was originally a healing technique, but Jin Seong-un had repeatedly confirmed that Women’s Moon Qi and Fox Moon Qi possessed extreme compatibility.

Women’s Moon Qi attempted to simultaneously interfere with all the meridians throughout Cheon Bi-yeon’s body.

At the same moment, Cheon Bi-yeon destroyed her own meridians herself.

The Women’s Moon Qi lost its destination and scattered in all directions.

“Oh.”

Jin Seong-un quietly admired it.

“So that method exists too.”

At that sight, intense displeasure surfaced in Cheon Bi-yeon’s expression.

Every time she displayed something, that lunatic’s eyes lit up as he tried to make it his own.

A violet light flickered briefly within Cheon Bi-yeon’s eyes.

It had already been confirmed that Soul-Ensnaring Arts did not work on the Heavenly Martial Star or the Heaven-Slaying Star.

Therefore, she merely intended to use the principle behind Soul-Ensnaring Arts to strike acupoints without touching them directly.

Not suppressive acupoint strikes, but destructive ones meant to rob him of his eyesight completely.

For an instant, Jin Seong-un felt his vision blur white.

Thus, Jin Seong-un also destroyed his own meridians.

The Fox Moon Qi lost its destination and dispersed.

Since Women’s Moon Qi would naturally heal his damaged meridians, it was a response only he could attempt.

It was perfectly identical to the method she had used earlier to neutralize the Original True Face Art.

“Kgh!”

Urgency and fury colored Cheon Bi-yeon’s face.

In contrast, Jin Seong-un felt exhilaration.

He could see through the opponent’s methods, and he possessed the talent to make them his own.

This battle was a continuous chain of enlightenment.

Sword Immortal had once told him that he still had not reached the Huajing Realm because he lacked enlightenment.

If this battle continued longer, perhaps he could draw even closer to a new realm.

The fight continued in the same fashion afterward.

Whenever Cheon Bi-yeon attempted something, Jin Seong-un accepted and absorbed it.

At times, even Cheon Bi-yeon felt threatened by the counterattacks he unleashed.

‘Noble Enchantress isn’t the problem.’

Cheon Bi-yeon soon reached that conclusion.

This monster was worse than Noble Enchantress herself.

The years she had painstakingly accumulated one by one were being surpassed every single moment by the monster before her eyes.

She realized it would be difficult to kill Jin Seong-un with her own power alone.

Thus, she suddenly exploded with energy and poured out her full strength.

Massive Fox Moon Qi containing thousands of years surged toward Jin Seong-un.

Jin Seong-un responded casually with the same method.

Women’s Moon Qi and Fox Moon Qi collided and canceled one another out.

The difference was that the fundamental amount of inner power the two possessed differed vastly.

Jin Seong-un felt his inner power gradually running dry.

The Women’s Moon Heart Method steadily accumulated inner power even while sleeping, even during battle.

Yet this entire space was filled with the foreign energy called Fox Moon Qi, drastically reducing the efficiency of his cultivation method.

The amount he accumulated was small, while the amount he released was immense.

It truly felt like endlessly pouring water into a bottomless jar.

Cheon Bi-yeon noticed that Jin Seong-un’s inner power had been severely depleted exactly as she intended.

Leisure returned to her expression.

“Is it over now?”

Smiling brightly, Cheon Bi-yeon abruptly unleashed palm force toward the cave ceiling.

Kwaareureung-!

The cave shook violently as though it would collapse.

She grinned wickedly at Jin Seong-un.

“You look pitiful. If you get buried beneath the mountain in that condition, you’ll die helplessly. Had you cooperated with me from the start, wouldn’t this have benefited us both?”

Jin Seong-un did not bother replying.

It was better to use that time to focus on the Women’s Moon Heart Method and replenish his inner power.

Naturally, Cheon Bi-yeon understood exactly what he was thinking.

She knew the Women’s Moon Heart Method extremely well.

She hated Noble Enchantress more than anyone else in the world. Which also meant she paid the most attention to her.

Moreover, she herself had spent countless years attempting to create the Women’s Moon Heart Method.

“It’s useless. Do you know why I created this cave?”

“…….”

“For this.”

Cheon Bi-yeon casually waved her hand, and the Fox Moon Qi filling the cave hardened like stone.

The energy seized even the air itself.

Because of that, Jin Seong-un found not only cultivation impossible, but even breathing difficult.

Had his inner power been full, brute force could have solved it, but now even that was impossible.

With a smile on her lips, Cheon Bi-yeon teased him.

“You seem regretful. If only you had been a little more experienced, you could have taken all my martial arts and even my body. Isn’t that right?”

That was simply how she thought.

The victor took everything from the loser.

Once again, it became clear—she truly was a Nine-Tails Fox.

Jin Seong-un briefly fell into thought.

The Women’s Moon Heart Method offered little hope.

But he still possessed Blood Demon Qi.

He was not confident that the Blood-Demon Art alone could kill her. Thus, he had deliberately kept silent while waiting for the optimal opportunity and method.

‘Twice will be difficult.’

He intended to kill her in a single move.

As Cheon Bi-yeon’s smile deepened, and Jin Seong-un secretly condensed Blood Demon Qi behind his back—

Suddenly, the ears of both individuals, whose senses had sharpened to extremes, caught the voice of a strangely cheerful man.

“Hm, it should definitely be around here somewhere.”

It was not a child’s voice, yet somehow it carried innocent liveliness.

Jin Seong-un recognized the owner immediately.

‘Hao Sect Leader?’

Then rough middle-aged voices followed.

* Guest Dragon, where are you? If you want to live, start talking. Though honestly, dying wouldn’t be too bad either.

* Move aside. We’ll know once I blow everything up.

Jin Seong-un recognized those voices as well.

Saber King and the Master of the Thunderclap Sect.

What kind of combination is this?

For a moment, that thought crossed his mind.

At the same time, Saber King casually saying it wouldn’t matter if Guest Dragon died felt rather irritating.

Kwaaaaaaaaaang-!

An enormous explosion erupted.

Jin Seong-un realized that the Master of the Thunderclap Sect had truly begun blowing things apart everywhere.

The explosions continued endlessly.

It genuinely sounded as though he intended to collapse an entire mountain.

“Y-you lunatics!”

Cheon Bi-yeon panicked greatly.

Apparently, she too would die if buried beneath a mountain.

Trying to kill Jin Seong-un quickly and escape, she reached toward him.

At the same moment, Jin Seong-un grabbed her wrist with the hand condensed with Blood Demon Qi.

“T-this… what is this…!”

“Shall we test our luck?”

If luck favored them, the Master of the Thunderclap Sect and Saber King would break only the entrance and enter precisely.

If luck failed them, the mountain would collapse and both of them would die.

Jin Seong-un tilted his head slightly.

“Ah, no matter which outcome occurs, it’s bad luck for you, isn’t it?”

Saber King was an unlikeable man, but there was no denying he had reached the Huajing Realm.

And Cheon Bi-yeon had been continuously fighting since the Moon Command Sect. Her body and mind were undoubtedly exhausted.

If experts including Saber King appeared in such a state, there was no way she could survive.

“L-let go of me!”

Cheon Bi-yeon desperately unleashed palm force at Jin Seong-un with her free hand.

Yet the dark crimson energy layered around Jin Seong-un’s skin returned all her attacks to nothingness.

Bang! Bang!

Kwaaaaaaaaang!

Explosions erupted one after another.

Even Jin Seong-un had to admit the Master of the Thunderclap Sect was definitely insane.

* Excellent! Excellent!

* Move aside. I’ll join in as well.

The Hao Sect Leader cheered excitedly, while even Saber King seemed fired up and began moving.

* Y-you bastards! Are you planning to collapse the entire mountain?! If Guest Dragon is inside the cave, he’ll be gravely injured!

It was Abbess Jeonghye’s voice.

Then the Hao Sect Leader responded.

* Didn’t you say that seductive demoness was overwhelmingly strong? If this continues, Seong-un dies anyway. If you hated this idea so much, the old hag should’ve won from the start.

The Hao Sect Leader casually hurled insults at Abbess Jeonghye.

Meanwhile, the chain of explosions drew steadily closer to the cave.

Cheon Bi-yeon struggled frantically to free her hand.

Kkwadeudeuk.

Jin Seong-un twisted and gripped her wrist even harder.

Kwaaaaaaaang-!

At last, the final explosion erupted.

A beam of light poured in behind Jin Seong-un.

Swaeaek-!

At the same time, a gigantic figure flew in at terrifying speed and rose above Jin Seong-un’s head.

A massive saber, as large as the torso of a grown man, descended toward Cheon Bi-yeon’s crown.