A warlike tension coiled over the friendly match grounds.

The Green Forest War King knew the Sado Union Lord, but he did not know Namgoong Seolhwa.

The only order he had received from the Union Lord was “provoke the Martial Alliance.”

And the order he had just received was “spar with Namgoong Seolhwa.”

Only—

[Voice transmission] Hao Sect Lord. Is it truly the Union Lord’s will that I fight this child?

[Voice transmission] Yes. With your full strength.

The Green Forest War King let out a low groan.

He knit his brow and looked at the woman standing opposite him.

No—woman was not what his eyes saw. She was just a young girl.

Only—

I cannot gauge this child’s realm.

By what method is she hiding her qi?

What trick could deceive the senses of a master at the Flowering Realm like him?

She steps out this boldly, so she must have something to rely on...

But the recklessness of youth can threaten one’s life.

Even if this was the Union Lord’s command, his pride would not allow him to simply rush in.

“You. Do you know who I am?”

Clenching his fists together, the Green Forest War King cracked his knuckles and asked.

It was a menacing sight, yet Seolhwa did not shrink a fraction.

“Aren’t you the Green Forest War King?”

“And you still mean to fight me? I am one the world calls one of the Ten Great Experts.”

“That title the people bestowed—‘Ten Great Experts’—was already fifteen years ago.”

They say even rivers and mountains change in ten years.

Yet the list of the Ten Great Experts had not changed for a full fifteen.

That meant it was that hard to climb to the Flowering Realm—but people knew the truth.

New masters were beginning to appear who surpassed the Ten.

“I’ve heard your Union Lord, whom you serve, holds strength comparable to the Ten Great Experts as well.”

Murmurs swelled through the grounds.

Drawn by rumor, the friendly match grounds were packed tight.

The Alliance leaders and fighters, and even the Patrol Unit Lords including Seop Mugwang.

Among them was Yu Gang.

...Seolhwa...!

Yu Gang’s eyes trembled finely as he stared at Seolhwa standing on the platform.

Facing the towering Green Forest War King, she was, to any eye, far slighter in frame—yet unbowed.

More than that, the slight tilt of her lips held even a trace of leisure.

Even before the Green Forest War King’s rough pressure—said to overwhelm even masters at the Flowering Realm—Seolhwa’s momentum rose without wilting.

“Don’t you think the world has already begun to turn, for you to lean on that fame?”

The Green Forest War King’s eyes flew wide.

Then he burst out laughing. Ha-ha-ha!

It was a rolling laughter that rang the grounds.

“Even if the world turns—do you think that makes it yours!”

To the eye, she looked at most twenty.

Her boldness had now passed impudence and become bewildering.

He was curious what she could possibly be trusting to speak so daringly.

In this moment, his experience of having reached the Flowering Realm became a poison.

Knowing how difficult that achievement was, how long it took, he could not believe that a girl whose realm he could not sense stood as a master like him.

“Good. Today I’ll make you realize just how vast and wide the world is.”

The Green Forest War King took his guard.

If she was going to die out on the rivers and lakes, it might not be bad to show her reality here and now.

Meanwhile, more people poured in.

“Isn’t that the Namgoong young lady? She’s going to cross hands with the Green Forest War King?”

“Right? The size difference alone is too much—can she last even one exchange?”

“Chief Stockade Lord! Show them how it’s done!”

At some point, all the Sado Union fighters and leaders had crowded in to watch.

“Come first.”

Guard up, the Green Forest War King beckoned her on.

Seolhwa smiled and set her hand on her sword’s grip.

“Namgoong young lady, you can do it!”

“Waaaa! Win!!”

As the two took their guards, the grounds filled with even greater cheers and shouts.

Ssssss...

A red qi rose around Seolhwa like heat-haze.

The Green Forest War King knit his brow.

So she was hiding her qi after all?

He had briefly wondered, since he could not read her realm, whether she had not trained inner power; that notion looked foolish now—her qi flowed out, refined and clean.

Hm.

Sssss—

From the War King’s body, a golden cultivation rose.

Exactly on par with Seolhwa’s emanation.

He intended to take a few exchanges lightly and try to see how she hid her qi—when—

Whoosh—

“!”

In the blink when he batted his eyes, her figure vanished from before him.

At the same time—

“Hup!”

PAAANG—!

Twisting left, the Green Forest War King thrust out a palm.

As befit one called a Ten Great Expert, he instinctively struck away Seolhwa’s sword scything in from his left.

BOOM—! KR-BOOM! KWAANG!

Tat— tatatat!

Backing, he received and deflected Seolhwa’s blade.

Each time palm and sword collided, the entire grounds trembled.

Even at a fair distance, some clapped hands over their ears at the thunder of it.

KWA-BOOM! KWAANG!

The force of their swords and bodies had already become a shroud of Force Aura.

The Green Forest War King truly admired it.

“You’re quite something!”

Force Aura at this age!

To have reached near-Transcendent heights so young was astonishing.

There was reason for her confidence.

Whoosh— shwik—!

Seolhwa, who had been moving her blade short and fast, swept a great cut at the War King’s feet.

In that instant, he stamped off with both feet and sprang up.

Spectators thought that when he came down again, Namgoong Seolhwa’s sword would seek him once more.

Since a falling body could not avoid a blade, he would be hard-pressed, they thought—

BRRRA-AT-AT-AT—!

“!”

“Gasp!”

His legs, still in midair, were unfolding footwork.

It was Void Step, the air-stepping said to be used by those who had reached the Flowering Realm.

They had heard of it, but few had seen it; mouths fell open in awe.

He truly runs the void!

That such a realm exists in reality...!

Even the Martial Alliance fighters, enemies or no, could not help but marvel at the War King’s skill.

But what followed astonished them more.

“Hup!”

With palm technique, the War King shoved—not Seolhwa—but his own body down to the ground.

The instant he landed, he stamped a ground-shocking punch at Seolhwa’s feet.

Though it was “just” a punch—THOOM—! the impact rattled the grounds.

Watching him repay in kind, many felt certain Seolhwa would lose.

But all such guesses missed.

Tak—!

Just like the War King, Seolhwa stamped the ground and sprang into the air.

He didn’t miss the opening and poured fist-strikes up at her.

The Green Forest War King’s proprietary fist canon—

Full-Arms Fist.

BRRRRAT—!

In an instant, hundreds of fist-strikes swarmed at her suspended in midair.

Leaping into air with nowhere to step, imitating the War King—there was nowhere to dodge.

No; that was what everyone thought.

But—

BRRRA-AT-AT—! Shwik— shh-shh-shh-shwik—! Shwik—!

Amazingly, Seolhwa, too, unfolded Void Step in the air, slipping the flurry as ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) she swung her blade.

Some of the strikes she cut and canceled; others she skimmed past with footwork light as breath.

She, too, had taken the void as her stepping ground.

“!!”

“Th—that’s impossible...!”

Unlike the earlier awe at the War King, now the grounds held only the sounds of their battle and a slicing hush.

Those who watched, having seen it all, could only stare—speechless—at Seolhwa dancing through the air.

Each time her blue long coat streamed and her graceful blade-line split the sky, throats clicked dryly.

“!”

It wasn’t only the onlookers who were shocked.

She’s unfolding Void Step?

The Green Forest War King, who had foreseen an easy victory, felt a chill creep up the back of his neck.

At the same time—

Tack—!

Stamping off, he surged up after her.

He had to confirm whether she truly trod the void.

PAPAPANG—! KAGAGAK—! KWAANG! PANG!

From there began a friendly match near to sorcery.

Their platform was no longer just the well-made stage of earth below.

KRA-KRA-BOOM—! BOOM!

As they had traded on the platform, so too they traded in the void.

No one on the grounds could even think to close their mouths now as they watched.

The tier is different.

All who watched thought the same.

The War King was tremendous—but beyond that...

How did Namgoong Seolhwa reach that realm?

Genius. No, a monster.

This is impossible.

The Alliance leaders stared up, dazed, at someone far younger than themselves who had reached Heaven’s heights.

In their eyes, along with shock, an envy they could not hide flickered.

If there were a God of War in the world—wouldn’t it look like that?

If not the incarnation of a War God, how could this be done.

Tsssss—

A white qi rippled around Namgoong Seolhwa.

As the two briefly parted—

high above, Namgoong Seolhwa took her guard.

He who holds Heaven’s will—there is nothing he cannot sever.

Namgoong Clan’s secret sword, among the three prelude forms of the Grand Derivation Sword Canon—

Grand Derivation First Cut.

But she did not stop there.

Tsssss—

A sword art that bears the destructive force of thunder falling from the heavens—

the Heavenly Thunder Divine Sword’s First Form, Heaven Falls, Heaven Descends—its subtlety nested within the Grand Derivation Sword.

And then—

Vwoooom—!

Namgoong Seolhwa swung.

Her blade cleaved the sky.