Baek Seojin looked stunned.
“Y-you’re saying... all the movement you showed me just now, d-don’t tell me you did it without inner qi?”
“Yes.”
“N-no way! You dodged every one of my attacks without inner qi, and threw a punch so fast I didn’t even notice it? A-and now you expect me to believe that?”
“It’s true.”
“That’s a lie!”
“Check for yourself.”
“What?”
“Put your hand on my dantian and check.”
“You crazy bastard...”
To casually offer up his dantian like that.
Even while staring at me in shock, his gaze kept drifting toward my dantian.
Was it real?
Did I really not have one?
He wanted to check.
It was a devilishly tempting dantian.
In the end, unable to resist, Baek Seojin reached out and placed his hand on it.
“Huh?”
It was real.
I had no dantian.
“Wh... what is this...”
He was in shock.
A man with no inner qi had dodged his Clear-Bright Sword Path and even counterattacked?
More than that, what astonished him even more was that my hand was perfectly fine.
If you touched sword aura with a hand that had no inner qi, it was only normal for that hand to be blown apart.
But it was fine.
“Is your hand all right?”
“What about my hand?”
“You touched sword aura a moment ago.”
“Come on. It’s fine.”
“Could I check for a moment?”
“Sure.”
Baek Seojin slowly examined the hand I held out.
It really was perfectly fine.
Had he been mistaken?
No.
Not only sword aura, he had clearly seen me bat away a sword wrapped in sword qi with that very hand.
A real monster.
At this point, he became curious about what I really was.
“Quit fooling around and fight me properly.”
“You still haven’t given up?”
“If you show me your real strength, I’ll stop.”
“I guess there’s no helping it. Get ready.”
“I’m ready.”
“Then here I come.”
“Come!”
RIIIP—
THUD—
A single punch from me flew in so fast that Baek Seojin lost consciousness on the spot.
“Ah! Right! I still need to get paid...”
I’d forgotten.
Baek Seojin opened his eyes.
He stared blankly for a moment, then—
JOLT—
He sprang up from where he was lying.
Then he turned his head, and I was there.
“So it wasn’t a dream after all?”
“You’re awake.”
“This is... my room.”
Baek Seojin looked at me.
“What happened?”
“You got knocked out in one punch.”
“Mm...”
He thought he vaguely remembered seeing a fist flying at him.
After that, his memory cut off, so what I said must have been true.
Strong.
Far too strong.
Wasn’t it practically cheating for someone with no inner qi to be that strong?
It was enough to make all the effort he had put into becoming stronger until now feel absurdly hollow.
“Do you want to test more?”
“No, that’s enough. What meaning would there be in continuing?”
“Then settle the payment now. I need to go see my other customers.”
“Other customers?”
“Yes. I need to sell weapons to the other Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle too.”
“Huh?”
He was dumbfounded.
“You approached me on purpose?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“Hah...”
He was annoyed, but he couldn’t say much.
I was stronger than him.
Then a good idea came to him.
I can’t be the only one who gets dragged into this.
Baek Seojin said to me,
“Go to the Blade Martial Pavilion Master next. That bastard shatters blades every other week, so if you make him one that absolutely won’t break, he’ll pay whatever you ask.”
That was something I already knew, and I had prepared for it too.
Still, approaching him out of nowhere could take time, but with a letter of introduction, I could shorten that time.
Baek Seojin quickly wrote a letter and handed it to me.
“Just give it to him.”
“Thank you.”
“Go sell it well.”
“Yes!”
Watching me leave with a bright smile, Baek Seojin rose from his seat as well.
“I should probably go see the Lord. If a monster like that is wandering around Heavenly Martial Castle, he ought to know.”
The master of the Blade Martial Pavilion and one of the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle, Hong Blade Star, Noh Cheongang, was reading the letter I had brought.
He was a tall, broad-spirited man in red martial robes.
After reading the letter all the way through, he said,
“Follow me.”
He abruptly led me outside and took me somewhere familiar.
It was the pavilion master’s training ground.
Why here?
Just as I was wondering that, Noh Cheongang grinned and said,
“Well now. How long has it been since someone showed up to challenge me...? It’s been so long my memory’s gone hazy.”
Huh?
What was he talking about?
Challenge?
“How shall I do this? Shall I face you with a weapon? Or barehanded?”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s written right here in this letter. Says you’ve been going around challenging the Eight Stars of Heavenly Martial Castle. And the fact that it even says I should be careful because you’re fairly strong must mean you’ve got some skill.”
I should’ve been suspicious when he smiled that slyly while writing the letter of introduction.
“Use a weapon.”
“What? Kuhahaha!”
RUMBLE—
At Noh Cheongang’s laughter, the entire training ground trembled.
“Well, if Baek Seojin recommended you, there must be a reason. Fine. I’ll face you personally with my own weapon.”
“Will you face me with this?”
I tapped the box I had brought, and Noh Cheongang tilted his head.
“What’s that?”
“What else? A fine blade.”
“A blade? I don’t use anything unless it’s made in Heavenly Forge. Those are the only blades that can withstand my strength, more or less.”
“Why didn’t you ask Master Smith Cheon to make you one?”
“After I shattered the blade that old man made for me before, I felt too bad to ask again.”
Noh Cheongang used a tyrannical blade art founded on immensely powerful yang qi.
His signature ultimate technique, Fiery Blade Flash, was unleashed with such blistering yang qi that the blade itself turned red-hot.
Metal weakened when heated, and if he then unleashed a tyrannical martial art under those conditions, how could any weapon endure it?
If even a blade forged by Master Smith Cheon shattered, that said it all.
Noh Cheongang showed interest in the blade I had brought.
“Who made that blade?”
“I did.”
“What?”
“It’s a blade I made. Try using it. It’s good.”
Noh Cheongang looked at me with a dumbfounded expression.
“I thought there was something strange about you from the moment you challenged me... Looks like you’re not in your right mind.”
“Will you try it and judge for yourself?”
“Fine. If you’re that confident, I’ll judge it myself.”
Noh Cheongang stretched out his hand and drew the box beside me toward himself with Void-Grasp.
CRACK—
He shattered the box on the spot and pulled out one of the blades inside.
“Hoh...”
Admiration escaped Noh Cheongang’s mouth at once.
He stared at the red blade body, as though fascinated by a symbol that matched him perfectly.
“It’s the Flamefire Blade.”
“The Flamefire Blade... That name suits it perfectly. In all my life, this is the first time I’ve seen a red blade body. Just how did you do this?”
“The reason the blade body is red is because I made it from an alloy of Star-Flame Gold and Dragon-Heart Iron.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Would it help if I said the properties of those two metals let them absorb and store yang qi?”
Noh Cheongang understood immediately.
This was the blade best suited to his martial arts.
He instantly poured his qi into the blade.
HUMMMMM—
The blade resonated and began radiating scorching heat.
“Hoh. Astonishing.”
Noh Cheongang kept marveling.
What was truly astonishing was that although this was his first time using it, it already felt as comfortable as if he had wielded it for years.
“Is this a gift for me?”
“No. I came to sell it.”
“What?”
“If you’re satisfied, would you like to buy it?”
“How much?”
“Five hundred gold taels.”
“Fine! I’ll buy it right now.”
“Thank you.”
There was no way he could choose not to buy it.
Even if it cost a thousand gold taels, he would still have to buy it.
He thought it was an appropriate price.
If I had asked for less, he would have gotten angry instead.
He would have thought I was someone who didn’t even understand the value of this blade.
Just like that, I had already earned one thousand gold taels from two weapons.
If I sold weapons like this across the whole martial world, how much money would I make?
It looked like I wouldn’t have to worry about money anymore.
Noh Cheongang kept stroking the blade body, then said to me,
“Now then, shall we begin?”
“I just told you. I came here to sell a blade.”
“I know.”
“Then what exactly are we beginning?”
“Didn’t you say it yourself earlier? You asked me to face you with this.”
“I only said that to show you the item.”
“No matter. You still asked me to face you. So I will.”
As I let out a sigh, Noh Cheongang said,
“The letter says you fight barehanded. Do you need a weapon, perhaps?”
“No. I don’t need one.”
“Then shall we begin?”
“I guess there’s no helping it. If it’s a customer’s request.”
“You sound awfully confident. Seems you really do have some skill.”
“More than some.”
“Heh heh. I’ll confirm that myself. Come. I’ll give you three moves.”
“Come on. That wouldn’t be any fun. Since you’re the customer, I’ll let you have the first move.”
“What? Hah hah hah. You insolent brat. Fine. Let’s see whether you’ve really got the skill to be this arrogant. Take your stance.”
“Sure.”
When I took my stance, Noh Cheongang’s expression twisted.
“Three Calamities Fist?”
“You know it?”
“Are you mocking me?”
“I’m not. This is my martial art.”
“Then it really seems your intention is to insult me.”
“I told you it isn’t.”
FWOOOOSH—
As though he truly had gotten angry, the Flamefire Blade began to blaze.
“Even now, take a proper stance.”
“This is frustrating. I’m telling you, this is my martial art. Why do you keep refusing to believe it? Have you spent your whole life getting fooled?”
“So you intend to insult me to the end. In the martial world, insulting your opponent means you’re prepared to die. Even so, I won’t kill you, brat. I’ll simply teach you properly how frightening the world can be.”
“Why don’t we fight first, and then decide?”
“Fine! I’ll show you.”
When Noh Cheongang swung his blade, an enormous dragon of fire roared and soared into the sky.
FWOOOOSH—
The instant blazing heat filled Noh Cheongang’s training ground—
the dragon of fire lunged at me.
“If you don’t want to die, dodge.”
But I didn’t dodge. I still held the stance of the Three Calamities Fist.
“You stubborn fool!”
Just as Noh Cheongang tried to withdraw the attack—
CRACK—
The floor beneath my feet split apart, and my fist shot out.
“Heavenly Plain Shatter.”
The moment my fist drove forward, the air burst with an explosive roar, and the head of the dragon of fire blew apart and was blasted away.
At that sight, Noh Cheongang’s expression hardened.
“Y-you’re serious?”
He couldn’t believe it.
I had blown away his Fire Dragon Ascends to Heaven with the Three Calamities Fist.
“Well? The Three Calamities Fist is pretty useful, isn’t it?”
“W-what part of that was the Three Calamities Fist!”
“It was the Three Calamities Fist. The move I just used was Heavenly Plain Shatter.”
It wasn’t even a move.
I had simply thrown a punch.
And yet the power behind it was anything but simple.
Was that letter actually telling the truth?
He remembered the line in Baek Seojin’s letter saying I was fairly strong and that he should be careful.
Now he wanted to make sure.
“It seems I underestimated you. I apologize.”
“No, there’s no need to apologize.”
“As an apology, I’ll face you seriously from now on.”
Noh Cheongang took a proper stance.
At that, I said with a smile,
“Doesn’t look like you plan to hold back at all.”
“I’ve just seen the little trick you pulled.”
“Let it slide as a bit of charm.”
“It was far too intense to let slide as charm. Come. Let’s match ourselves properly.”
“I guess there’s no helping it.”
“Let’s see how long you can keep blocking! Hahaha!”

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