The Regressor of Mount Hua-Chapter 324. The Enemy of the Murim (2)

There was no aura from an ascendent technique rising; he wasn't using any technique. It was just a swing of his leg.

And yet, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't block it.

He had to register the movement with his eyes, send the signal to his brain, then react—but he froze midway.

Defensive qi barrier!

He tried to block with his sword, but it was too late. So instead, he gave up on evasion and drew from his ocean-like qi reserves to create a defensive qi barrier.

As he held his breath and braced for impact, Zhou Xuchuan witnessed an overwhelming sight.

This is...!

ROAR!

This wasn't martial arts.

This was some kind of disaster.

It was like a wave, or a landslide. The majesty of nature that no human power could do anything about crashed down on Zhou Xuchuan's body and soul.

"Ugh!"

BANG!

It was a direct hit. His transparent barrier was cleanly ignored.

The aftershocks of the impact became waves that surged through his body. Everything inside his head—his mind, his brain, down to his core—shook violently, and for a moment, his vision flipped upside down.

When he came to, the first thing he realized was that he was flying backward, away from Jing Bai, crashing toward the ground at terrifying speed.

Boom, boom, boom, BOOM!

Again, a loud noise erupted, and a cloud of sand billowed. The densely packed trees were either snapped in half or completely uprooted, leaving the surroundings in a mess. It truly was a landslide.

Anyone who saw this scene would have been speechless at the display of power that surpassed human limits.

Flap, flap!

A flock of birds from the nearby mountains—though not even that close—suddenly took flight, startled by the chaos.

The sight of the sky turning black was striking. However, now wasn't the time to watch it leisurely.

Hiss.

The mountain path was a mess like an overgrown field of weeds, and at the end of it, the sandy fog cleared and Zhou Xuchuan walked out.

"Ptooey!"

Zhou Xuchuan spat out blood mixed with saliva and checked over his body. His side was throbbing, so he pressed against it—only for sharp pain to shoot through him.

It seemed several of his ribs were broken.

The defensive qi barrier did nothing.

And it hadn't been erected out of any ordinary qi, but formless qi.

He hadn't been too slow. He had definitely unleashed it before Jing Bai's attack had landed. The problem was that he couldn't block the attack in the first place. No, more accurately, it had been 'ignored.'

He had experienced something similar before.

"Manifestation of One's Path?"

The Heavenly Demon's Materialization of One's Path was the power of crushing. It crushed indiscriminately, and even invisible bursts of force and attacks were no exception.

"Yes," Jing Bai answered kindly, responding to Zhou Xuchuan's unintentional question.

"Do you know the saying, 'Ten Thousand Streams Converge Into One Ocean,' that all flows ultimately lead to a single whole?"

Jing Bai approached with leisurely steps, as though simply taking a walk.

"In the same manner, even though different martial arts may be from different paths, they're still ultimately a method of training one's body and mind, and are based on movements such as contacting, avoiding, and blocking. Once you understand that principle, you don't really need to worry about things like techniques, let alone ascendent techniques, from the very beginning."

Ah!

It was only now that Zhou Xuchuan understood Jing Bai's initial stance.

He hadn't been using the Boundless Righteous Tranquility Fist or a trick. It had just been the basic stance of martial arts.

If he's not bound by form, has he reached the realm of the Sword Heart, or is it the Fist Heart?

Whether it was the Sword Heart or the Fist Heart, the Heart Stage of Martial Arts, the Martial Heart, was a legendary state where one could unfold their martial arts as their heart desired.

Ignoring the rules and implementing one's mental image was only a part of it, as the concept of martial arts itself became meaningless.

No, it's different.

Zhou Xuchuan immediately shook his head.

"Someone who values ​​form more than anything else can't achieve such a state."

"What a sharp observation."

Jing Bai was a person who valued ​​righteousness more than anyone else.

If he hadn't been obsessed with form, he wouldn't have become who he was now.

"It's the opposite."

Zhou Xuchuan could roughly guess his secret.

"Purity untainted by personal desires or wrong thoughts, and morally perfected righteousness."

The ultimate Righteous Path.

"Ideal."

It wasn't that Jing Bai was an idealist, it went further than that. The martial artist Juvenile Fist Emperor and the human being Jing Bai themselves were tied together into the concept of 'Ideal.'

As expected, his appearance was tied to it, and wasn't the typical Youth Restoration.

It was the side effect that had emerged from the mental embodiment of the ideal.

Zhou Xuchuan was astonished when he realized the Juvenile Fist Emperor's mental image.

"Are you really a human?"

"Everyone asked me that."

The Juvenile Fist Emperor was crazy.

He was more purely crazy than anyone else.

'You imbued the absurdity of your ideal into your Manifestation of One's Path?'

From the way he looked, it was obvious Jing Bai had clung to the Righteous Path since childhood.

It was the kind of hope—a dream—that any child might have at least once.

But was there anyone who could carry the dream of world peace into old age?

If such a person truly existed, they'd be either a god... or a madman.

Embodying the concept of the ideal into an image meant that Jing Bai had been clinging to his ideals from his childhood to his old age.

The Juvenile Fist Emperor, Jing Bai, was crazy. He had to be a madman.

Can such a person really exist?

Even though Zhou Xuchuan had seen it with his own eyes and understood it... he still couldn't believe it.

It was enough to make him shiver.

"Then, I'll be coming again.

This time, Jing Bai didn't attack immediately after speaking. Instead, he slowly raised one hand above his head and clenched his fist.

Ssss.

"This..."

The mountain was moving.

Part of the mountain, the great nature, swayed at the will of man.

"The qi of the atmosphere...!"

Qi existed in all things. It was carried not only by living things but also by the rocks scattered on the roadside.

Whether material or immaterial, everything that made up the world had qi, and that existence was commonly called the qi of the great nature.

Martial artists inhaled the qi found in great nature—even from the atmosphere itself—through a special breathing method and stored it in the dantian.

However, the amount they could accumulate was only a fraction of a fraction of the whole, and even that didn't happen instantly.

If one could control the qi of the great nature at will with will alone, then they wouldn't be a human, but a being no different from a god.

However...

This is an absurd Path!

Zhou Xuchuan's hair stood on end. His skin prickled.

A part of the mountain, no, of the great nature, began to gather.

Thousands of qi flows circulated and changed direction.

Mother Nature was moved by a human. The endless qi swirled and concentrated on Jing Bai's right fist.

Jing Bai's Path was ideal and pure. It was the most righteous power that could only exist in theory.

Having broken free from the turbid martial arts created by humans, he no longer needed cultivated qi.

Instead of circulating it through his body and meridians, he was using the pure energy of the great nature as it was.

Although he couldn't achieve omnipotence—he was still human—he could access the unending qi and power of the great nature.

That was why the blow Zhou Xuchuan had just received had felt like a landslide.

"Sword God."

The Juvenile Fist Emperor looked at the Sword God with pure eyes.

"Surrender."

"..."

Zhou Xuchuan gulped nervously.

If I get hit by that, I won't be able to survive.

Even if he were to use his Path, Regression, there wouldn't be enough of him left to collect.

If his heart or his head were to disappear without a trace, there was nothing he could do.

Giving up was the wise choice.

No.

However, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't back down here.

"I'll be making my move, too."

Zhou Xuchuan gripped his sword tightly and his eyes lit up.

His slightly trembling body stopped. He wasn't frozen with fear, nor had he been forcibly overpowered. He had overcome the pressure with his strong will.

"How admirable. However, it's reckless to..."

Just as Jing Bai furrowed his brows to speak, Zhou Xuchuan kicked off the ground and blasted forward.

"RAH!!!"

His figure blurred and then reappeared. It was like a meteor, tracing a straight line through space.

Don't be afraid!

The Dark Heavens Association Lord appeared behind Jing Bai.

Only once had he seen the Dark Heavens Association Lord.

Only once had Zhou Xuchuan ever felt fear.

If I get scared here, I won't even be able to stand in front of the Association Lord!

Countless people had fallen into despair in the face of absolute power.

If the heroes of yesterday had fallen, then the heroes of tomorrow would be next.

Zhou Xuchuan couldn't let that dark age return.

The word 'massacre' weighed heavily on him, making him sink. Compared to that, the punches that contained the energy of the great nature were nothing.

Move!

Time crawled, as if it had stopped altogether. The scenes before his eyes flashed past, changed, then vanished.

He had to erase the sensation of the pebbles sticking to the soles of his feet.

Erase the pressure of the wind striking his cheek.

Faster!

As he exerted his strength, his abdominal muscles tensed. From the lower abdomen below his navel, a near-infinite power exploded like a volcano.

Stronger!

Violet Haze True Qi started from his dantian and circled his entire body. He didn't know how many times it circulated, but he could definitely feel the sensation.

Use everything I have!

Righteous Faction martial artists were honest.

The Seven Empyrean Overlords didn't act using cowardly means.

However, Zhou Xuchuan had broken that stereotype.[1]

That way, his opponents might become flustered, drop their guard, or get angry when their idea of the proper way was distorted.

He had tarnished his own image as a Righteous faction martial artist, all to agitate his opponent's nerves and create an opening.

Violet Haze Sword Sutra!

This wasn't the teachings of his master, the man he revered as the heavens.

This wasn't the teachings of the sect he was so proud of.

It was the method not of a Righteous Faction martial artist—but of the Phantoms of the Valley of Phantoms.

Divert their gazes. Deceive them.

Provoke the enemy, disturb their mind, weaken their focus.

Fifth Form!

Fighting with pure strength alone was a thing of the past. If he had clung to such ideals, he would've died long ago. He didn't care what means he had to use to win.

"GRAH!"

Just before Zhou Xuchuan could reach him, Jing Bai shouted.

He didn't just shout—he also threw a punch.

It was a simple straight punch without any sort of technique, but it was as if it could destroy a mountain.[2]

boom.[3]

The explosive sound rang out, then fell into eerie silence.

It hadn't vanished—only gone beyond the range of human hearing, before collapsing back in and becoming a storm.

The shockwave from the fist tore through the atmosphere and swept away the snow that had covered the world in white.

The very heavens and the earth collapsed.

The ground touching the soles of their feet turned upside down. The rocks below them shattered into small pieces and scattered like dust.

A tree that had lived for hundreds of years bent like taffy, then snapped, splintered, and scattered.

Even the air itself trembled.

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And...

"AGHHHHHHH!!!!"

Zhou Xuchuan's shout echoed, mixed with Jing Bai's roar.

UGH!

It hurt.

His skin peeled and regenerated.

His 206 bones broke and reknit themselves, over and over again.

As expected!

Jing Bai, who had accepted the duel, could never bring himself to use a killing technique.

He couldn't allow himself to half-cripple the person who was to continue his will and eradicate the hypocrisy and corruption of the Martial Alliance.

So instead, he tried to overwhelm Zhou Xuchuan, to force him into surrender.

But he failed.

Which meant that, from his current position, he still couldn't go all out.

Infinity!

Zhou Xuchuan aimed for that point and charged straight at him.

Enclosed!

He suppressed the blood rushing up his throat and swallowed it down, even as his internal organs burst.

In!

He concentrated his strength, qi, and perception on the sword in his hand.

The!

On a snowy day, a plum blossom bloomed in the freezing cold.

Six!

The fist force collided with him head on.

Directions![4]

The unprecedented power that contained that overwhelming fist force gradually diminished with each touch of the six-petaled plum blossom.

When half of the six petals were torn away, Zhou Xuchuan almost lost consciousness. However, he somehow held on using his Materialization of One's Path, Regression.

His body's time rewound, and he recovered in a single breath. Unfortunately, he was still trapped in the storm, and his wounds returned.

Even so, he accepted the pain as the price to pay and kept moving. With steady steps, he gripped his sword tightly and extended his arm.

Three petals were reduced to two.

His biceps, brachialis, and triceps contracted and relaxed repeatedly until they too gave way, tearing apart.

Even the heat that had surged within him, spilling out in the form of screams, vanished under the crushing pressure.

Two petals were reduced to one.

His bloodshot eyes burst, and tears streamed down. Broken bones splintered and pierced through his flesh.

Zhou Xuchuan's heart throbbed as if it were being crushed. Breathing became difficult. His spine twisted and straightened on its own.

"...!"

Jing Bai couldn't help but panic and took the first step back.

Zhou Xuchuan wasn't one to miss that moment.

His body ached, his vision blurred, but it didn't matter.

He poured his remaining strength into the sword in his right hand, raised his left, and grabbed his wrist to steady the strike.

As the final petal vanished, the sword shot forward—A single, clean line carved through the air.

"Do you have a death wish?!" Jing Bai shouted urgently.

"What is so important that..."

"If I was someone who would have bent in order to save my own life!"

Zhou Xuchuan answered Jing Bai's question.

"Then I wouldn't have gone out into the gangho in the first place!"

Boom!

1. Because that's a good stereotype to break. ☜

2. Keeping up with the metaphors and connected lines, the word for straight punch can also be translated as righteous punch. ☜

3. This is meant to be lowercase. ☜

4. 무궁육허, or literally, The Inexhaustible Infinite bound by Heaven, Earth, and the four cardinal directions (To not have an end in the six voids). While this was supposed to be a Two line paragraph, I had to finagle and move around the sentences to fit the english translation. ☜