Chapter 596: Now, Death is the Spectator, and It is 'Terrifying'

TL: FoodieMonster007

The man wrapped in red bandages was Jin Dan, a disciple of the Fist King Jang Hu. Since he began learning the fist arts from his master, this was the first time he had ever felt fear simply by looking at someone.

Part of it was the man's terrifying appearance, which seemed to have come straight from hell. Another reason was his unstoppable momentum as he strode forward, undeterred by the ominous energy flowing from their fists.

However, the thing he found most terrifying was his master's reaction.

In the fifteen years Jin Dan had learned the fist arts from Jang Hu, he had never witnessed anyone speak to his master with such contempt. Nor had he ever seen his master endure it as he was now.

The Demon Supreme is the Demon Supreme, after all.

The skill the Flower Sword Supreme displayed earlier had also been truly incredible. He did not even need to look that far back. That young woman had cut down all his subordinates by herself. Though there were only three, the pressure he felt was like facing thousands.

However, the outcome of this fight is already decided.

The idea that his master could lose to someone was unimaginable. He believed in his master.

How I fight is what's important.

He thought that if the fight became a spirit possession match with the Fist Demon, victory or defeat would hinge on how he fought.

This thought, however, was a great delusion on his part. There was no room for his will or judgment to intervene in this battle.

The Fist Demon, who had been striding forward, suddenly launched himself through the air.

Jang Hu did not evade. Instead, he threw a punch.

It was the first punch, signaling the start of the fight.

KWAANG.

An explosive sound erupted when their fists, both imbued with inner arts, collided. The Fist Demon took a step back, an involuntary frown on his face.

The frown was because of the foul energy spreading from Jang Hu's fist. This bizarre and murky energy, a mix of malicious and demonic auras, was potent enough to make anyone with a weak mind or insufficient inner arts lose consciousness.

This energy floated around them like an aura of death, consuming the battlefield and pressing down on everything.

Jang Hu smiled coldly, his posture relaxed.

"It's because I've yet to meet an opponent who makes these fists need a weapon."

This was a retort to the Fist Demon's earlier mockery. This time, the Fist Demon answered not with words, but with his fists.

He answered with a powerful fist.

RUMBLE! KRAKOW!

A sound like thunder accompanied a fist of immense power as it flew toward Jang Hu's face.

KWAAAAANG!

The two men's fists collided once more.

It was a clash of fist against fist, yet it produced a more powerful aftermath than any clash of weapons could.

WHOOOOSH.

The shockwave from the impact spread out in all directions, and a fierce wind began to rage.

A shockwave like this from a simple clash of fists? It was truly unbelievable power.

Lee Ahn covered her eyes with her hand to shield them from the gust of wind. Her inner arts were depleted, so just as her father had protected her in the previous fight, the Flower Sword Supreme now protected her. She would have been swept away by the gust if not for the Flower Sword Supreme.

In fact, Principal Yeom Baekyin of the Yellow Dragon Academy, who had been standing nearby, was sent tumbling far across the ground.

PAAAAK.

The trees planted near the distant wall bent deeply, their leaves scattering into the air.

SWOOOOOSH.

The Fist Demon and the Fist King stood facing each other there, where leaves now fluttered like falling snow.

That punch just now was no ordinary punch.

It was the third of the six fists from the Fist Demon's unique martial art, the Thunder Arhat Fist.

The Third Fist, the Heavenly Lightning Asura.

That heavy fist had flown true and struck its mark.

Lee Ahn sensed a change in her father's martial arts.

Father's thunder sound has gotten quieter.

It was the same sound of thunder she had heard many times during his midnight training sessions. But now, it had become far too quiet.

Could there be something wrong with his body?

She did not yet know the truth. She was unaware that when this sound of thunder diminished until it disappeared completely, it would be the moment he was ready to shatter a cliff. The Fist Demon's martial arts were endlessly advancing toward that very moment.

Jang Hu looked down at his own fist. An even stronger malicious and demonic energy flowed from the trembling hand. His fist was reacting on its own to their last exchange.

"Getting right to it, are we?"

To Jang Hu's question, the Fist Demon replied quietly.

"The stench from your fist is too foul."

Jang Hu's expression hardened once more. The Fist Demon was thoroughly mocking him. If it were some ignorant fool, he would simply make him pay the price, but his opponent was someone who had earned the right to do so.

Jang Hu struggled to suppress his surging killing intent, even though that very killing intent was his greatest strength.

Not yet.

Jang Hu rubbed his arm as he walked forward.

"That punch hurt more than I expected."

At that calm reaction, the Fist Demon gave a single nod. It was not a nod acknowledging his opponent.

Why would he acknowledge an opponent he had to kill?

This was a signal to himself. It was a nod telling himself not to become complacent, because his opponent was worthy of acknowledgment. After all, the man had survived the Heavenly Lightning Asura and was walking out perfectly fine.

"I'm just as impatient as you are."

This time, Jang Hu surged forward and threw a punch.

Even though it was only fists colliding, it sounded like lumps of iron crashing into each other.

Jin Dan took a step back to watch the two fight. To his surprise, he could see openings.

There! Now!

Why wasn't his master counterattacking at that moment? He saw an opening where he would have launched an attack, but his master did not move.

The reverse was also true.

That's dangerous, Master!

It was an opening in his master's form that he had never seen before.

However, the Fist Demon did not aim for that opening to attack.

Only then did Jin Dan understand.

Ah, it's not an opening.

That opening was not a weakness but a trap. It was a death trap where the moment you threw a punch, you would be counterattacked. The highest level of techniques, unrecognizable even to someone on his level, were being exchanged in an instant.

It looked like a brutish fight at a glance, but their battle was by no means so simple.

Pugilists are warriors who must face armed opponents with their bare hands.

Therefore, these pugilists who exchanged punches so crudely had to be smarter. How else could they defeat those who wielded sharp weapons? This was a fight between two men who had come closest to the pinnacle of the fist arts.

That was why it was a fight Jin Dan could not interfere in. The battle continued, with no way to know what scheme a move held, or what the next move would be. His job was to not miss the moment his master called for him.

In the midst of their offense and defense, while looking for an opportunity, Jang Hu unleashed a hidden card.

Jang Hu's unique martial art was the Phantom Killing Fist.

The move he had just unleashed was the Second Fist, the Soul Cleaving Strike.

SHWAAAAAAK.

The small enhanced qi that flew from his fist suddenly grew as large as a giant dao the moment it reached his opponent. It was a massive enhanced qi that was impossible to dodge by jumping away.

SHWAAAAAAK.

The Fist Demon's fist struck the incoming Soul Cleaving Strike. He threw his punch toward the massive enhanced qi without retreating a single step.

The First Fist, the Black Cloud Asura.

It was the first of the six techniques, but that did not mean its power was the weakest. The Black Cloud Asura was a technique whose power you only understood after being hit by it. It became enhanced qi and tore through the air.

The two enhanced qi collided.

WHOOOOOOOOSH!

With a tremendous explosion, the surroundings were swept away.

CRACK! RUMBLE!

The trees that had only shed their leaves before were now uprooted entirely. The surrounding walls collapsed from the impact. The building that the Flower Sword Supreme had only half-demolished was now completely destroyed.

The person swept up in this impact, who tumbled even farther across the ground than before, was the head of the Yellow Dragon Academy, Yeom Baekyin. He got back up, clutching his chest from the internal injuries he had sustained, and lamented inwardly.

My martial arts academy, my martial arts academy is all collapsing.

Of course, a martial arts academy could be rebuilt. But after the main building collapsed from a single strike by the Flower Sword Supreme, all of this felt like his destiny.

I have to run now if I want to live.

This was the cry of his instincts.

This isn't a fight I should get involved in.

He had an ominous premonition that whoever won would not show him any favor.

However, what if the person in the basement emerged with the peerless secret manual and he was not there? What if that person was looking for him? He had waited all this time. What if he was not here at the very last moment?

That regret, terrifying just to imagine, held Yeom Baekyin's ankles. Sometimes, lingering attachment and regret can be more frightening than greed.

There was another reason he was running toward the cliff even while seeing the precipice.

I even killed my own brother!

That fact made it impossible for him to turn back.

And so, only after standing on the edge of the cliff did he desperately feel that in life, one should never cross a bridge of no return.

He will come out. I just have to survive until then.

He was teetering between life and death all by himself, but no one paid him any mind.

The Flower Sword Supreme, who was protecting Lee Ahn while watching the fight, sensed that the Fist Demon, like herself, was no longer at his previous level of skill. He too had grown stronger since his fateful encounter with Geom Mugeuk.

Watching Jang Hu wage such a battle against that Fist Demon reminded her of just how powerful the masterminds behind this were. This was not an organization that had been prepared for only a year or two.

Just when was this organization created?

Her gaze turned to Jang Hu. His expression had grown serious.

After he blocked the Soul Cleaving Strike without moving from his spot, Jang Hu's momentum changed. He, who had always exuded an aura of death toward his opponents, now felt that this aura could be directed at himself.

SHWAAAAAAK!

Now, feeling that Death itself was the spectator, the speed of the two men began to increase more and more.

Their forms vanished before one's eyes and then reappeared. It was not easy for the onlookers to even follow their movements.

Who says big guys are slow?

The Fist Demon shattered that preconception. He was fast. The muscles of his large body seemed to exist not for strength, but for speed.

At the end of that festival of speed.

WHIP!

A sound of wind, different from before, was created by a different attempt.

The sound of the wind was light, but the sound of the strike was heavy.

THWACK!

Jang Hu's head was thrown back. He looked as if he were gazing up at the sky. Before the chin of the man staring at the sky with a vacant gaze, the Fist Demon's fist was thrust out.

"……"

Jang Hu spewed blood while looking at the sky. The blood, which gushed like a fountain, rained down in all directions.

The Second Fist, the Thunder Asura, had struck him in the face.

The Thunder Asura was a technique that threw a punch so fast it was invisible. In terms of the Soaring Sky Sword Art, it was a technique akin to the fast sword style of the Blue Sky Strike, and it had smashed into his face.

It was powerful enough that if he had not thrown his head back at the last second, his entire face would have been blown off.

Just then, Jang Hu suddenly spewed curses.

"Fist Demon, you son of a bitch! I'm going to chew you up and kill you! I'll completely smash that filthy mug of yours."

Curses completely unbefitting of his skill level burst out. He was now revealing another self, no, his true self.

His killing intent was not an elegant one. It was the violent and base killing intent from the very bottom of human nature. He was a man who utilized such a primal killing intent, and he was drawing out every last bit of it he possessed.

"I'll beat you until your whole body turns to dust. I won't leave a single bone in your body. I'll chew you up and swallow you whole."

The endless killing intent flowed from the body of a man who had never once in his life liked anyone. These were curses and killing intent born from true hatred.

The Fist Demon did not take that killing intent lightly. He could not be fooled by its baseness. The moment he thought, 'This bastard is showing his true, pathetic self,' he would be killed by his opponent.

Jang Hu's killing intent was exactly that kind of killing intent.

If his opponent were some scoundrel, it would be one thing. But for a man of his skill, this was a killing intent that screamed while looking up at the sky from beside the fires of hell. It was the true, primal killing intent of a human, hidden beneath a veneer of vulgarity.

Indeed, as Jang Hu wiped the blood from his face, he gave a cold smile. His eyes seemed to flash white with a powerful killing intent he had never experienced before.

SSSSSS.

The characters engraved on both his hands began to glow blue like ghost fire. That light, too, was a light not of this world.

The Fist Demon sensed that his opponent was about to use his final move. He had a premonition that this would not be an easy fight.

Yes, this was a fight where they had to go to the very bottom and roll in the dirt. It was a fight to see who would open the gates of hell and walk out.

Just as Jang Hu had said, it had been a long time since he'd had to unravel his bandages.

The Fist Demon ripped off his shirt. He revealed a truly perfect, muscular upper body.

He often took his shirt off during training, but it had been a very long time since he had met an opponent in a real battle who made him do so.

The Fist Demon clenched his fists tightly. The muscles in his arms were taut, as if they would burst, and his veins stood out as clearly as mighty rivers. The inner qi flowing through those blood vessels was as hot as lava.

Of course, the Fist Demon did not lose his composure.

It was a fight in front of his daughter, after all.

"If you can't take the beating anymore, just say the word. I'll face you with my sword then."