At the sight of Yeon Cheon Baek, Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang felt oddly ashamed.
Because they had been, for a moment, satisfied with their current realm.
Yet someone on a plane utterly beyond theirs was not neglecting training.
And they understood.
Just how strong Yeon Woo Jin was.
They were still stupefied by how he had faced Yeon Cheon Baek—whom they could not have matched even if they threw in everything—without turning a hair.
Then Yeon Woo Jin’s voice reached them.
“You saw it, right?”
Both men flinched.
“Y-yes! We... we saw.”
“Then come.”
“...What?”
“Come at me. With the resolve to kill.”
“H-how could we...”
The urge to charge in did not arise.
Yeon Woo Jin sighed.
“Then I’ll come to you.”
“Huh?”
No sooner had he spoken than he closed in with crushing weight, and the two of them recoiled in panic.
“W-wait just a—”
“We—we aren’t ready—”
They tried, belatedly, to stop him.
Too late.
Crack—
They failed to dodge and took the first strike head-on.
Their breath seized; it felt as if the struck spot had been erased from their bodies.
“Kh—!”
Thud-thud-thud—
Experts at the Seventh Star of the Manifestation Realm went flying from a single blow.
“Ghh!”
Groaning with pain, both men snatched looks at the places they’d been hit.
Thankfully, nothing had been torn off or blown away.
But that strike told them one thing for certain.
Yeon Woo Jin truly was attacking with the intent to kill.
Terror.
They saw him settle his stance again.
Murderous will boiled off his body.
A prickling ran through their skin as the dread of death surged.
Now they had to move to live.
The will to survive sparked—and their bodies moved on their own.
To answer Yeon Woo Jin’s charge, the two whipped themselves sideways and, without thinking, unleashed the techniques each of them trusted most.
Thud-thud—
Both their arts landed on Yeon Woo Jin.
“Oh no—!”
They froze for a heartbeat.
The thought of living had made them attack with full force without even realizing it.
This was bad.
It was a grave miscalculation.
Of course, it was foolish.
Yeon Woo Jin didn’t bear so much as a scratch.
Not even a speck of dust marred his clothes.
He looked as if he had just put them on.
Having taken their attacks, Yeon Woo Jin grinned.
“Good. That was a fine strike. Keep that momentum. Now that you’ve seen how, I’ll give you a moment to collect yourselves. When time’s up, I’ll come in earnest.”
Eon Ho Baek quickly raised a hand.
“W-what if we get hurt?”
“He’s right. We don’t want to die. Your martial skill is far beyond ours. We’re not in a realm that can face you.”
Yeon Woo Jin smiled.
“I’ll attack with killing intent, but I won’t kill you. And if you’re injured, I’ll treat you.”
“...What?”
“I may not look it, but I’m a rather capable physician.”
Even for a capable physician, saving someone on death’s door is no easy thing.
Even with treatment, how could it be quick?
It would take time.
The two grew frustrated.
Seeing that, Yeon Woo Jin said,
“Sometimes, without asking right or wrong, a single experience is worth a hundred explanations. All right—coming now.”
Murderous will began to ripple from his body again.
The two alliance leaders met each other’s eyes and nodded.
“Die once, die twice—what’s the difference. Let’s do it.”
“I’m glad fate tied me to you, Alliance Leader Eon. In the next life, let’s be born brothers.”
“Don’t say that. If we walk out alive, we’ll swear brotherhood here and now.”
“Hahaha! I like that. Good! Let’s see if we can walk out alive.”
Faces set, they fixed their gaze on Yeon Woo Jin and drew up their energy.
Watching, Yeon Woo Jin curled one corner of his mouth and lunged.
****
“Ugh!”
“Ghh!”
Groans filled the room.
The two alliance leaders lay there, racked with pain.
Then, at the same instant, both men’s eyes snapped open.
Spring—
“Ghh!”
The moment they tried to rise, pain wrung another groan from them.
“Where...”
They stood and looked around.
Inside a tent.
They exchanged bewildered looks.
“We definitely died.”
“Not dead—dying.”
“Even the greatest immortal could not have saved us from a wound like that... and yet—look. We’re fine.”
“I am as well...”
“Was it a dream?”
“Both of us, the same dream, at the same time? Does that make sense? Call it a shared illusion and I might believe it.”
“Illusion? Then you’re saying Yeon used illusion arts (幻術) on us?”
“Isn’t that the most convincing answer? We lived it. We were dying.”
“The pain was far too vivid for an illusion.”
“Whatever it was, it was a first—for me. Squeezing out the last dregs of true qi to fight.”
“Same for me.”
They looked at each other.
“Do you remember? We said—if we made it out alive, we’d swear brotherhood.”
At Eon Ho Baek’s words, Su Cheon Kang nodded.
“I remember. I meant it.”
“Then let’s swear it.”
“Now?”
Eon Ho Baek nodded, solemn.
Su Cheon Kang grinned.
“You’re my elder. I’ll address you as my elder brother from now on.”
“And I’ll call you my younger brother.”
“Yes, Brother.”
“Wait a moment. If we’re swearing by Heaven, we should at least set out a bowl of water.”
“Understood. I’ll prepare it.”
“No need. Since I’m up, I’ll fetch it. You set the altar.”
“Understood.”
A short while later.
Eon Ho Baek returned with clear water in a bowl.
They set it on the simple altar, then knelt before it.
And they swore brotherhood beneath Heaven.
“Young Brother Su, look after this worthless Elder Brother Eon.”
“Brother, those are my words. Please guide your lacking younger brother well.”
“Hahaha! A pity we can’t share a drink on a day like this.”
“When we get out, your younger brother will host a grand feast.”
“Nonsense. That’s for the elder brother to pay.”
“What does it matter who pays? What matters is that we’ve become brothers.”
“True enough. Let’s muster our strength and get out of here alive.”
“Yes, Brother!”
Men who by all rights could never have become sworn brothers found their wills aligned in extremity—and became brothers.
****
The next day.
Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang watched with eyes wide open.
Watching for Yeon Woo Jin to use illusion.
No matter how they looked, it didn’t seem like he was casting one.
Strange.
It had to be illusion to make sense.
Then it happened.
While Eon Ho Baek’s attention flickered, Yeon Woo Jin’s strike took his hand.
“Ghh!”
A mistake.
To let his focus slip in a fight where life was on the line.
He wasn’t fit to call himself a martial artist.
“Brother!”
“Brother! Get a hold of yourself! I’m fine!”
“Brother! Look out!”
Su Cheon Kang dove in and shoved Eon Ho Baek away.
A line of light ripped past and sheared Su Cheon Kang’s leg.
“Ghh!”
“Young Brother!”
Eon Ho Baek shouted at Yeon Woo Jin, face blazing with anger.
“What is the meaning of this! Why go this far!”
Yeon Woo Jin approached at an easy pace, calm as ever.
“How can you let your eyes wander in a life-and-death moment? I told you plainly—I would attack regardless of life or death.”
“You mean to kill us?”
“No. I mean to make you strong.”
“This is making us strong? Now neither of us can properly use martial arts.”
Yeon Woo Jin stooped, unruffled, picked up Eon Ho Baek’s severed hand, and came forward.
“Says who? Who says you can’t use martial arts properly?”
Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang felt it.
That Yeon Woo Jin had no human emotion.
To hold a severed hand so matter-of-factly and speak like that—
Then he reached his other hand toward the cut wrist. White light welled from his palm.
At the same time, foreign matter clinging to the stump floated free.
He looked at the cleanly bared surface, smiled in satisfaction, and said,
“Hold out your arm.”
What now?
He sounded as if he meant to—reattach it.
“Hurry.”
What was this?
Even so, before he knew it, Eon Ho Baek held out his severed arm.
Yeon Woo Jin set the hand to the cut.
Was he toying with them?
The instant that thought formed—
Radiance flared from the severed place, and pain ebbed away.
An impossible sight unfolded before their eyes.
The cut edges slowly knit together—and then, as if nothing had happened, the arm was whole.
They were still staring, dazed, when—
“Try moving it.”
“...What?”
“It’s done. Move it.”
“Y-yes.”
Bewildered, Eon Ho Baek flexed his arm this way and that.
“Huh?”
It worked.
He could feel every sensation down to his fingertips.
Seeing that, Yeon Woo Jin smiled.
“Good join.”
Then he picked up the severed leg and went to Su Cheon Kang.
And reattached it in the same way.
Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang rubbed their eyes, again and again.
They pinched themselves hard to see if it was a dream.
It hurt.
Not a dream. Not an illusion.
They stared at Yeon Woo Jin as if beholding a god.
Clap, clap—
“All right, treatment’s done. Shall we begin again?”
“...Begin what?”
“What do you think? The life-and-death match.”
Ah.
It didn’t end just because they were injured.
More than that—how could he say such a thing with such a bright smile?
They rose slowly, mingled awe and resentment in their eyes as they looked at Yeon Woo Jin.
****
Nearly two months had passed since they entered the Time-Space Division Formation.
In that time, Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang had changed greatly.
Unlike before, they looked like men of the wilds.
Fierceness seethed on their faces, and their bodies had changed as well.
They ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) looked as if their muscles might burst through their skin at any moment.
Most of all, their way of deploying martial arts had changed.
Before, they thought—and then unfolded their forms. Now, their bodies moved on their own, executing the right art for the right moment.
Their realms had risen further; the two now stood at the Ninth Star of the Manifestation Realm.
With a small insight more, they were poised to reach the Tenth Star.
As far as they knew, the Tenth Star of the Manifestation Realm did not exist in the Central Plains.
Which meant the two of them were now the strongest beings in the Central Plains.
So what.
It meant nothing.
Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang cut sleep to hone their arts, driven by a single fixation—to land one clean hit on Yeon Woo Jin—and they even trained joint attacks.
Thanks to that, they moved as if they were one.
It still wasn’t enough; they shored up each other’s arts, merged their energies, and even devised a separate joint-attack art.
It was useless.
Nothing they did could touch Yeon Woo Jin.
At first, they had seen hope.
Because Yeon Woo Jin had seemed to struggle.
That was it.
For the first time, he showed signs of fatigue.
Just a little more and they could finally land one—
So they thought.
And then—
“Ah. With only three gates open, it’s getting hard.”
What was that supposed to mean?
As it turned out, he had been sealing his own strength.
With a martial art they had never even heard of—the Transcendence Gate.
When they heard that he had personally devised the art to seal his own power, they were beyond words.
At his age, he had already ascended to the rank of a great master who creates arts.
In any case, when he opened three gates of the Transcendence Gate, his energy changed.
“Insane”—the word sprang out by itself.
This was too much.
Too unfair.
How could a godlike existence walk the human world?
With three gates open, Yeon Woo Jin simply flew.
Exhausted from attacking and attacking, Eon Ho Baek and Su Cheon Kang asked,
“How many gates does that Transcendence Gate even have?”
“Nine.”
From that moment on—
They gave up on the thought of landing a single clean hit on Yeon Woo Jin.