When he had listened to the Leader of the Mount Hua Sect speak about Nomon and his disciple, Yu Gang had thought:

So that was why Nomon had never put sorcery on him, why in the end he had never killed him.

He was projecting his former disciple’s image onto him.

Because he was a disciple, he had not been able to kill him.

‘If that had been the reason, then maybe it wouldn’t have felt this filthy.’

He had worried that if he ever met Nomon again, he might end up pitying him. That worry now felt laughable.

“No, this is better, actually.”

It had weighed on him that he would have to bare his edge against someone he had once called Master.

But this meant he did not have to carry any such guilt.

“If you never thought of me as a disciple, then I’m the same.”

Yu Gang’s gaze, fixed on the incoming Force Aura, filled once more with hardened resolve.

Sunlight-type energy, as if blazing, whirled around Yu Gang’s saber. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

TAK-!

Yu Gang sprang up with a short, sharp step.

Leaping up into the air, he twisted his body sideways and unfolded his saber art.

Ouyang Do’s exclusive saber art.

Ouyang Do Art — Man-Yang Heavens-and-Earth (First Formula).

WHOOOOO- KRAAAAA-!!

The energy coiling around his saber grew steadily fiercer, and as Yu Gang spun in midair, it began to trace out a long path of saber-qi.

Yu Gang’s saber-qi began to coil around Nomon’s crashing energy.

It looked like a dragon of sunlight coiling around and encircling the dark-red Force Aura.

KRAAAAAA-BOOM-!

The two energies tangled together, raising a violent gale.

Yu Gang’s energy clung to Nomon’s qi and barely managed to sap some of its strength, but it was still nowhere near enough to block Nomon’s power.

TAK- KWAANG-!

The Force Aura Nomon had sent left a deep furrow where Yu Gang had been standing.

“Your footwork is still quick, at least.”

WHOOSH- FWOOO-

“!”

The instant Yu Gang’s feet touched the ground, two more Force Auras came flying toward him.

CLANG- CLAAAANG-!

Yu Gang hastily swung his saber, just managing to twist aside the paths of the two Force Auras.

However—

FWOOO-!

Nomon did not wait for Yu Gang to regain his stance.

Another Force Aura came surging in right in front of Yu Gang’s eyes, just after he had knocked the last ones aside.

“!”

He could not dodge it.

The moment that thought flashed through his mind—

KAGAGAK...!

The saber he had reflexively brought up crashed head-on into the blade-qi Nomon had sent.

A vein bulged for an instant on Yu Gang’s forehead.

But—

WHOOSH-

For Yu Gang, whose best option had always been to divert the path or reduce the power of Nomon’s attacks, there was no way he could withstand a frontal strike from Nomon.

KRAAAAA-BOOM-!!

Unable to endure Nomon’s energy, Yu Gang’s body was blown away and slammed into the rock wall beside the entrance of the cave.

The impact was so great that cracks ran through the wall, and the stone around him shattered and collapsed.

For an instant, the mountain itself rang, and birds resting on rocks all over the mountainside flapped up into the air with a RUSTLE-RUSTLE.

“Khuk-!”

Blood welled up and spurted from Yu Gang’s lips.

His body lost strength and slid down.

THUD-

The bout ended before they had even traded three full exchanges.

Such was the difference in level.

Nomon looked down, indifferent, at him as he sat slumped amid the broken debris.

Yu Gang did not so much as twitch.

Nomon had just given him a brief glance and started toward the cave when—

KWA-AK-!

“....”

Nomon looked down at the palm-sized throwing knife that had stuck into the ground at his feet.

The sunlight-type energy coiled around the throwing knife slowly, softly dispersed.

Nomon turned back toward Yu Gang.

At some point, Yu Gang had used his saber as a prop to haul his blood-covered body back to his feet.

“It would have been better for you not to get up.”

“I... told you... didn’t I.... You’re not... getting past... me... before I die....”

Yu Gang raised his saber again.

Energy like a flame quietly rose around his saber.

One of his eyes was wounded and could not even open properly, but the gaze glaring at Nomon with the eye that remained was still quite fierce.

Within his clear pupil, sunlight seemed to burn and flicker.

“You really think you can face me with that body? You couldn’t even last three exchanges when you were in one piece.”

“Don’t give up. The spirit ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ of Mount Hua only blooms brighter the more desperate it is.”

Nomon’s brow twitched for an instant.

“Do not retreat. Swing that strength even one time more. If you get used to giving up because you think you cannot, then you will do the same at the truly crucial moment.”

“...”

“That’s what you told me.”

When he had tried to throw his sword away because it was too hard, Nomon had made him look all around the training hall filled with his seniors and juniors as he spoke those words.

If you run away, the ones who will pay the price will not be you, but your seniors and juniors.

If you collapse here, your body might have it easier, but you will never know whose neck the strike you failed to swing even once might end up aimed at.

“Since that day, I’ve never once run away with an enemy in front of me.”

Even if it was just a light sparring bout, even if his legs trembled with fear, he had not easily retreated until he fell.

Until the very, very end, he wrung out every last bit of strength to swing his sword, and only when he truly could not swing it anymore did he come down from the platform.

“If I retreat here, my master will be in danger.”

So how could he possibly step back so easily?

“For someone who isn’t even your master, you sure follow his words well.”

“You might not be my master now, but back then, you were the only one who said the right things to me.”

The person who had taught manners to a boy who didn’t even know what respectful language was, who had taught him martial arts, who had taught him how to live among people.

He might have decided not to think of him as his master anymore, but he could not deny that the one who had made Yu Gang who he was now was Nomon.

“...Fool.”

Nomon looked at his own figure reflected beyond the flames burning in Yu Gang’s eyes.

He looked into those clear eyes that were fixed solely on him.

Nomon remembered eyes like that.

The eyes of a child that had been as clear as a water-bloom.

‘Master. I want to become Mount Hua’s pride, like you. I’ll get strong, really strong, and I’ll build this Mount Hua into a sect that no other sect would dare to look down on.’

‘All my seniors and juniors are strong, so I’m sure our generation will make it that way.’

Eyes that had reflected the other so transparently had lost their light far too quickly and gone out.

Nomon could not forget that day when he had faced his disciple’s corpse, tossed carelessly among the bushes.

His disciple’s gaze had lost its light, and those eyes that had once looked at him no longer held anything at all.

‘It seems she tried to run away alone and ran into the Black-Boat Lord. They say she was tortured to reveal who was backing her, but in the end she never spoke Mount Hua’s name.’

He had heard the story of his disciple, revealed through the confessions of the captured Black-Path men.

They had said that up to the very moment of her death, she had never revealed who was backing her, nor where her comrades were.

Even as she died in agony because of the jealous prank of her seniors and juniors, that child had tried to protect her seniors and juniors, and her incompetent master.

Mount Hua had betrayed such a child far too easily.

‘Has that not been the secular household supporting Mount Hua since long ago? The internal circumstances of the main sect are this complicated, so understand. Instead, we will see to it that those children can never set foot in Mount Hua again.’

They had said there were “circumstances.”

That even if they called themselves a sect that followed the Way, they could not live wholly cut off from the world.

They had said the reason the Mount Hua of today could exist owed much to those people’s help.

They had said the dead child could be sent on, and the ones left behind still had to live.

From that day on, Mount Hua had become unbearably repulsive to Nomon.

Only his disciple’s traces were gone; aside from that, Mount Hua was no different from any other day, sharing swords, laughing and joking and training together. He could no longer face that sight with a smile.

Just seeing the robes of Mount Hua made him recall his disciple’s eyes, which had lost their light and gone out, and bile surged up.

KWAANG-!

“You know nothing.”

The sword Nomon swung roughly slammed down into the ground around Yu Gang.

“Ghk....”

Yu Gang could not even withstand the shock of that and staggered, but he straightened his body again at once and raised his saber toward Nomon.

“What chivalry is, what is the right thing, what you should believe in, what you should follow...!”

BANG- KWAANG-!

Nomon’s sword grew increasingly violent.

The ground around them wavered under the shockwaves, but Yu Gang desperately endured and held his stance.

Nomon’s sword began to pour down toward Yu Gang.

CLANG- BANG-! KAKAK- KWAANG!

“The so-called spirit of Mount Hua that you remember is all meaningless!”

Even as Yu Gang was driven back a step at a time, he received Nomon’s sword.

KAGAGANG-! KAKANG! CLANG!

It was like having boulders rain down on him.

Each and every strike was crushing and painful.

But Yu Gang did not fall.

He did not give up.

“It’s nothing but a game of sages stuffed full of hypocrisy!”

Nomon’s sword was a scream, a cry of resentment.

“What would some brat like you, who used to wander the streets, know of anything! What would you know of anything at all!”

KAANG- KAK- KAGANG!

It was the eruption of the guilt of a master who had failed to protect his disciple’s honor in the end.

“Do you understand!!”

KAANG-!

THUD-

At last, Yu Gang could not withstand the pressure hammering down on him and dropped to his knees.

From his mouth burst ragged breaths on the verge of breaking.

HAAH- HAAH-

SLICK-

Nomon’s blade hovered over the nape of Yu Gang’s neck.

As he looked down at Yu Gang, rough breaths leaked from his own lips as well.

Not because it was physically hard, but because breaths of surging rage were tearing out of him.

“You... know nothing.”