Possessing Nothing

Amzone looked down on the powers of monsters and non-humans. There were some who had mastered the ominous powers. But those who use evil powers and those who were truly evil were fundamentally different. Those old monsters who call themselves ‘Predator’ had been long time enemies of his organization, Beyond the Heavens, and Amzone had killed far too many monsters and practitioners of non-human powers to recognize them.

“I thought it was impossible. But, really can’t believe you’re going to rely on the powers of the devil!” (T/N: Byuk Won-Pae was the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s name prior to meeting Lee Sungmin, and it is coming out. Hence why he got the name Crazy in his title as a heavenly demon. )

Amzone had burst into a roar from irritation at the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s choice. From Byuk Won-Pae’s perspective however, Amzone’s voice seemed distant. It was the first time since meeting Lee Sungmin in Travia that the Crazy Heavenly Demon was able to move his body and weight this freely. Even so, it felt different from that time in a much more ominous sense.

The power of the yokai made him lose reason. The madness that came after months of avoiding the power made him a violent beast. The aura of the yokai enveloped his fists as he lunged at Amzone. In response, Amzone shook his sleeves containing his hidden weapons without hesitation. Pavababak! The wide sleeves fluttered and dozens of blades flew at the crazed and demonic Crazy Heavenly Demon.

However, the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s self-defense aura had become incomparably stronger than before. And within it was Heoju, the source of the yokai powers and strengthening the source of energy in his dantian. Thanks to this, the blade’s trajectories were more deeply affected by its strength than they usually were.

Gwa-a-ang!

The sharp blades collided with Lee Sungmin’s chestplate and bounced off roughly. Though the yokai’s spirits had eased a little on Lee Sungmin’s mentality through the collision, he started a vicious blitz again.

“Hey!”

Amzone knew what the demonic power was like. It was the reaction of the devoured human souls that drew forth the power of the yokai.

A sharp knife shot up from Amzone’s right hand. He narrowed the distance from the vicious Lee Sungmin by utilizing the ghostly steps of the Bodhisattva footwork technique. The knife Amzone threw this time was much stronger, penetrating through the sinister aura of the yokai and piercing the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s torso, spurting blood.

Even in this situation, he was faithful to his words that he would not kill either of them. Thanks to that, the wound caused by Amzone was shallow. The tottering and crazed Crazy Heavenly Demon bounced back and opened his arms wide to try and catch Amzone by surprise. Amzone moved his upper body with his eyes unfazed.

Pavabak!

The long stretch of blades and needles from Amzone’s fingertips knocked against the Crazy Heavenly Demon’s sinister aura. It was too fast to the naked eye, trying to follow the speed of these two might give one a severe headache.

Crrrr!

But it didn’t prove effective at all. Byuk Won-Pae’s body didn’t even stop because the powers of the yokai were regenerating the wounds at a visible pace. Amzone was a little embarrassed by the ineffectiveness of his attacks. But that also proved that the Crazy Heavenly Demon wasn’t immortal.

Amzone clasped his hands together with a clap. There was an intangible energy formulating between his hands, and Amzone redirected all the energy towards the Crazy Heavenly Demon.

Whoo-oong!

The Crazy Heavenly Demon’s body swelled up and he was thrown back with the air waves pulsating at the point of attack. Then, Amzone swung his hand at the airborne Crazy Heavenly Demon. Rings flew out from Amzone’s sleeves and each separated their trajectories to restrain Crazy Heavenly Demon’s limbs.

Behind Amzone, Lee Sungmin stepped out.

His heart was beating frantically, pumping his blood at an accelerated rate. The vomiting feeling he had felt inside his body from accepting the powers had degenerated into a disgusting sensation. Amzone turned around and looked at Lee Sungmin. In Lee Sungmin’s gaze, he saw that the Crazy Heavenly Demon was in a hurry to tear off the restraints, and then at Wijihoyeon that Rubia was caring.

Wijihoyeon had yet to wake up. There was a fight going on around, but she was deep in her slumber. After checking Wijihoyeon’s breathing that was seemingly in a steady rhythm, Lee Sungmin faced Amzone with a serious expression.

[Keep in mind, there’s no guarantee that you can beat him by using brute force.]

Heoju warned, but Lee Sungmin already knew that. By using the power, he gained a violent and enhanced physical strength along with a resilience that surpassed human beings. Even so, Amzone was in the realm of transcendence as well as being part of an organization known for their strength. All this power Lee Sungmin gained as of now, only evened out the playing field.

“The power of the yokai destroys human beings.”, Amzone spat out in disgust while staring at Lee Sungmin. “There is no power in this world that can be gained conveniently. Power must be accompanied by cost and responsibility. You should already know that!”

Lee Sungmin knew, as he had seen those who had fallen down low after touching the power of non-humans. He just didn’t want to argue about morals and reasoning with Amzone, especially in the present situation.

Gwa-ang!

The strengthened Lee Sungmin stepped forward and instantly narrowed the distance between himself and Amzone. He swung the spear at the best distance for him before completely closing the distance between them.

The synergy between his own internal energy and the powers borrowed from the yokai, was incredibly fierce. Lee Sungmin blocked Amzone’s movement by covering all the openings he previously had given Amzone from his movements. Amzone didn’t avoid the aura-clad spear in front of him.

 Kagagagagak! 

The blade of the sword that Amzone pulled from his sleeve clashed with the spear. Lee Sungmin gripped with his left hand holding the spear, tightly and added on a bloody haze to the spear’s already vicious aura.

Blood River Predation  (혈류추살)

It was a technique that was focused on rupturing the opponents flow of energy using the blood of the user. Amzone stretched out his opposite hand with his eyes widening in surprise.

Qua-a-a-ang!

The auras of the scarlet tinted spear and flying daggers were clashing and exploding everywhere. Amzone was surprised by a sudden albeit slight throbbing of his left wrist.

‘This… it’s not possible… no matter how much you’ve practiced this it’s not….’

Looking at the raw power that Lee Sungmin was exuding, it was indeed in the realm of transcendence. But, that didn’t mean Amzone would lose ground even with Lee Sungmin’s power boost. Amzone twirled his opposite hand that was free from Lee Sungmin’s spear, reaching for Lee Sungmin’s arm.

As he climbed up Lee Sungmin’s wrist like a snake, he raised his fingertips and tapped his forearm. What Amzone did by doing this, was a form of offensive acupuncture of sorts. He tapped and destroyed the inner circuits of Lee Sungmin’s energy flow and destroyed the veins connecting the blood vessels. At that moment, Lee Sungmin’s left arm was drained of strength, and Lee Sungmin pushed Amzone off his body by twisting the spear at his body.

Thump! Thump!

The blood vessels and circuits of energy flow in the damaged forearm were forcibly reconnected by the yokai’s regenerative power. The internal wounds regenerated in a flash.

“You’re not human!”, Amzone roared.

A black river of energy gushed from under Amzone’s feet. He then spread his feet wide, and struck the ground.

Bumph da bumph!

The ground had been cracked apart by the force and it’s altitude lowered. When Lee Sungmin’s body tilted, Amzone stretched out his foot towards the air in a confusing manner to anybody who might have been spectating.

But what followed was nothing short of amazing. Nothing was in the air, but Amzone seemingly started to run in mid-air! After running freely in the air, he swung his feet toward Lee Sungmin’s head with a high kick.

Fwoosh! 

Lee Sungmin stayed composed and tilted his back, moving his upper body to dodge the kick with ease. Amzone’s foot seemingly extended and brushed the tip of Lee Sungmin’s nose. Lee Sungmin remembered the teachings from long ago, practicing the basics of the spear and rotated the blunt end of the spear towards himself and struck out with a fierce gush of energy back at Amzone’s exposed backside from the kick.

Amzone’s image disappeared in smoke. It was the ghostly stealth technique at work again. Kicking up the air with his feet, Lee Sungmin put his feet on the ground and flung himself with the spear. He started to unfold the highest technique he could use of the Nine Heavenly Spears Techniques, Void Rendering.

When Amzone came down to the ground, he clicked his tongue at the sight of the speartip trying to penetrate his body. Amzone pulled out the whip he had wrapped around his left arm.

Caaaang! 

There was an unthinkable sound of a flexible whip and a spear struck together. Lee Sungmin lowered the spear that was lifted up. The Void Rendering technique was lacking in power.

Crushing sounds and blood flew from the area along with scattered spearheads and countless hidden weapons met to create hundreds of attacks. Amzone’s eyes were cold and enraged. He was feeling a bit pressured seeing that this would no longer be an easy fight and moved his hands slowly.

Hundreds of afterimages of hands appeared and attacked the countless afterimages of the spear. Techniques clashed and banged out with a loud noise throughout the forest. Amzone twirled a sharp-edged ring on the index finger of both of his hands resulting in two rings twisting around his wrist and flying up into the air.

The two flying rings spun and sounded out in an ominous manner. It wasn’t just any weird sound produced from the attacks, it was a sound attack itself. Different sounds mingled and resonated in a piercing tone in an attempt to shake up Lee Sungmin’s mind. However, Lee Sungmin’s mind was not shaken. He busily moved his eyes to confirm the position of the flying rings, and fired the spear precisely at the moving objects.

Amzone put his hand in his sleeves. His left hand, which had been hidden by the sleeve, came back out with a black glove. Thin strands of silver threads seemingly invisible protruded from the tips of his five fingers. As Amzone swung the hand moving the threads, Heoju roared.

[Block it!]

Even before Heoju shouted, Lee Sungmin was preparing to defend himself. He murmured the auxiliary spell ‘strength’ to add on to the defense aura of the armor where Heoju resided. He then further added to it by bringing the spear closer to his chest to block the incoming attack.

Kagagagak!

The ground around the two had been cut apart like tofu from the sharp threads. The spear which was constructed by Selgerus with a coating of Orchicalcum had been shredded and blemishes could be seen along the shaft of the spear.

‘I didn’t lose my reason. In fact I’m surprisingly rational right now. I can’t believe it. It’s completely unbelievable. How does one normally use the power of the yokai if they want to stay rational?’

Lee Sungmin’s head spun, realizing he had subconsciously utilized the power of Heoju while maintaining his reasoning. The more he divided his attention between offense and defense, the more Lee Sungmin realized how phenomenal the curse master, Qian Zun and his friend, Wijihoyeon were. So far, Lee Sungmin hadn’t inflicted any serious damage to Amzone. Amzone had plenty of composure, and he didn’t use any unnecessary movements while dealing with Lee Sungmin.

‘I’m too fucking weak.’

It had been a long time since Lee Sungmin felt futile at his own weaknesses. He was even using the power of Heoju and still felt this way. The black heart kept beating. Lee Sungmin had seen something stronger. He used to be stronger.

In a distorted spacetime within his subconscious, he was chasing the horizon. The horizon and absolute pinnacle of martial arts. He recalled Wijihoyeon. He didn’t want to be weak when he was with her. Moreover, he didn’t want to see her weakened like this either. Lee Sungmin unfolded technique after technique with the spear, but it was torn apart by the grace of Amzone.

Everything he tried even after obtaining this fake power that wasn’t even his, was nothing in front of this man.

‘This is going nowhere. I used to have stronger martial arts in that time spent in Denir’s trial. Wait… why am I even hesitating? My mind, heart and body have been straightened out. Not only that, but my body has become incomparably stronger. What was I even doing? It’s time.’

Lee Sungmin clenched his teeth and poured his inner strength out from his dantian into his hands holding the spear.

The tremendous amount of internal energy Lee Sungmin was pouring into the spear started to resonate with the Orchicalcum. Suddenly, the aura from the spear and his internal energy started to reverberate throughout the surroundings in a violent, yet synergistic manner. Then he stepped forward with his hair fluttering and the purple, yellow and scarlet energy swarming around his body. He moved the spear into stance and struck forward with a boom from his steps.

‘Yeah, it’s about fucking time’

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