Chapter – 18……
The black-clad masked men stepped into the Namgung clan’s secret vault, Big Storage (Bigo).
For a storage room, the scale was enormous.
In a space roughly three hundred pyeong wide, tall wooden shelves stood at even intervals, each stacked with martial manuals, tonics, elixirs, and weapons.
Any martial artist would have their eyes spin at such treasures, yet the masked intruders didn’t spare them even a glance.
“Find it.”
At the black-clad leader’s command, the masked men scattered.
They pulled out every manual, overturned every display.
Half a shichen passed.
“It’s not here.”
Only then did the black-clad man step away from the entrance.
He walked slowly through the now-ruined vault—
and halted, stepping half a pace back.
He tapped a certain section of the wall.
Thump—
Unlike the rest, the sound held the feel of an empty space behind it.
He ripped the wall down with his bare hand.
Behind it appeared a black iron door, separated by a handspan of distance from the outer wall.
Judging from its color and texture, it was made from Yunnan Blacksteel, nearly equal to refined Black Iron.
The thickness was clearly over five feet.
A single door worth enough to buy ten large manor houses in the city.
A masked man hurriedly inspected it.
But there was no keyhole.
That meant the mechanism to open it was located somewhere inside the vault itself.
He bowed.
“We will search for the trigger mechanism.”
The black-clad man raised his hand.
“No need.”
A pale white aura wrapped around his hand.
The masked man flinched back.
“G-Gangqi…?”
The black-clad man struck the door.
Boom—
The massive steel dented inward.
Once. Twice. Thrice. Four times—
Krrrkkkk—
The Yunnan Blacksteel groaned as it caved in, revealing the inside.
With even stronger aura, the man tore the door apart completely, creating an opening large enough for a person to pass.
The masked men swallowed hard.
A terrifying display of power, no matter how many times they witnessed it.
Leaving them behind, the black-clad leader stepped inside.
There, hidden behind the secret door, lay the absolute core of the Namgung clan—
Great Sky Derivation Art,
Sky-Reaching Sword Technique,
the clan head’s personal arts: Imperial Sword Forms and Heaven-Thunder Imperial Divine Art.
The very essence of the Namgung clan.
He didn’t look at any of it.
His gaze was fixed on a single spot.
At the center of the inner vault, barely a pyeong wide—
A snow-white sword that shone faintly in the darkness.
“I… I found it.”
The leader did not reply.
Jeae (際涯).
Namgung’s greatest treasure.
One of the Seven Great Divine Treasures of the martial world.
He gently opened the case and lifted the sword.
Even holding it sent murderous intent tingling up the arm—a true peerless blade.
With this, he now possessed both an “extreme-realm human pillar” and one of the Seven Great Treasures.
Everything was going according to plan.
He swung Jeae lightly through the air, then commanded:
“Take only the elixirs. Burn the rest.”
“By your command.”
The masked men set fire throughout the vault.
Thick smoke filled the room.
All the Namgung clan’s legacy of five hundred years burned away.
Without a backward glance, the black-clad man sheathed Jeae and left.
Outside, entire buildings were collapsing in explosive roars.
Only blackened rubble and flames remained.
The masked men took in the tragic scene.
Then—
The black-clad leader suddenly turned his head, looking beyond the flames.
“Once you rest, we’ll finish up here and then head to the Five-Elements Hall…”
“Wait.”
“…!”
The masked men felt it too—
a presence beyond the flames.
A group of men descended on the opposite side.
Light blue robes.
Namgung clan warriors.
Had reinforcements arrived so quickly?
No—their clothes were in tatters.
The masked men realized something and froze.
“W-What… you—”
These were the warriors they had already killed.
Some were ones they distinctly remembered cutting down themselves.
Their robes were shredded, yes—
But their bodies were unscathed.
And their qi… far stronger than before.
As if they had broken through death’s door and returned enlightened.
Impossible.
But even so—
their strength had only risen to meet the masked men’s level.
All except the man standing at the very front.
A masked subordinate spoke up:
“My lord, I will finish things here and then join you at the Five-Elements Hall. Please go ahead and rest.”
The leader did not reply.
His eyes were fixed on a single figure.
A face pale and smooth.
Slender arms and legs.
He looked more like some brothel attendant than a martial artist.
But the black-clad man could not be deceived.
A supreme master who had reached beyond transcendent—
touching the realm of extreme.
At that age?
Impossible.
He asked abruptly:
“Who is your master?”
The boy looked around, then pointed to himself.
“Me?”
“Yes, you.”
“And who are you guys?”
“We are vengeance.”
“Vengeance?”
No further explanation came.
“What did the Namgung clan even do wrong?”
“We answered. Now you answer. Who is your master?”
“An old man… with the surname Bi and the character Gwang.”
“Bi… Gwang? Bigwang?”
“Yes.”
“Surely you don’t mean Shadowless Divine Thief?”
“I think something like that was attached to his name?”
The black-clad man stared at the boy.
Barely twenty at most.
Yet already in a realm most genius disciples of great sects never touched.
“…So he was better at raising disciples than stealing things.”
“Huh?”
A masked man stepped in.
“My lord, I will handle this one and—”
“Silence. You cannot withstand even a single move from him.”
“…Excuse me?”
But before he could protest further—
The black-clad leader shot toward the boy.
“!”
Startled, the boy barely blocked—
and was sent flying five zhang before he stopped, a collapsing wooden structure crashing behind him.
His back burned.
“Hey! What the heck, old man?!”
The fight erupted instantly.
Thunderous impacts shook the air.
Winds howled.
The flames flickered wildly.
After only a handful of exchanges—
“U-Uh—Ugh—”
The boy’s limbs tangled.
Too fast.
Too precise.
And unbelievably painful.
More painful than being punched by his clan-head grandpa—
even worse than being hit by the drunken old beggar.
Another supreme master.
Why were there so many supreme masters in this world?
Everywhere he went—supreme masters.
Here, there, everywhere—
all supreme masters.
“Ow! Ow!!”
Screaming, the boy flung a punch with everything he had.
But the leader neutralized it with a flick of his wrist.
Even so, his wrist throbbed.
‘Did the thief feed him every elixir he ever stole…?’
A rare amusement—
but ultimately a threat to the grand design.
At this rate, in twenty years—
No, even ten—
no one could fathom how far the boy would go.
He must be eliminated.
The leader unsheathed Jeae.
White aura gathered along the blade.
At the same moment, the boy—still sliding back from the earlier attack—unleashed a formless wave of energy.
Pure, refined, powerful.
A technique the leader recognized.
“Hundred-Step Divine Fist?”
His figure blurred.
The shockwave hit a leaning building, shattering it completely.
Debris and sparks showered.
Amid the storm, the leader shouted:
“Did that thief steal the Shaolin manuals for you too?!”
His form split into three afterimages.
“!”
He seized the boy from behind.
Jeae’s glow deepened.
“A pity. Had it not been today, you would have ruled the world.”
He thrust at the boy’s heart.
The boy turned too late, raising both tiny hands.
“Fool! You cannot block—”
“Sa-al!”
At that moment—
Wooooom—
The shining aura around Jeae was sucked into the boy’s hands.
The very air stilled.
Everything nearby was dragged toward him.
The leader’s eyes widened in horror.
“T-That’s… Transferring Flower Catching Jade (Ihwa-Jeokok Divine Art)!?”
Panicked, he desperately withdrew his qi and twisted his body.
But before he could regain his footing—
A blast of light erupted from the boy’s hands.
“!!”
Swept up in the world-reversing force, the leader was hurled through the burning halls.
Flames leapt skyward.
Buildings collapsed in a row.
“Gah—!”
Blood on his lips, the leader staggered out of the inferno.
Shaolin’s Hundred-Step Divine Fist,
and the lost Transferring Flower Catching Jade Art.
The first could be overlooked,
but the second—
a lost art, found only in one hidden place in the world.
He said nothing.
The boy burst from the flames again, and the leader retreated far back.
He sent a sound transmission to his subordinates:
『Retreat.』
Only the masked men heard it.
A supreme-level transmission art—
mixed of Six-Harmony Transmission and Forbidden-Ear Transmission.
“R-Retreat?”
Unable to reply via transmission at this distance, a masked man answered aloud.
The leader’s voice rang again:
『All units—retreat.』
Unexpected, but the command of the Church’s bishop was absolute.
Without protest, they withdrew and flew away.
The Namgung warriors tried to pursue—
Boom—!!
A massive pillar of earth exploded before their feet.
The leader’s voice pierced everyone’s ears:
『I spare you, not because you can survive.
If anyone pursues—
I will kill them.』
The masked men disappeared into the distance.
The leader remained suspended in the air.
Amid the flames, the boy’s eyes gleamed.
The moonlight shone down—
And the leader vanished from the boy’s sight.
