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Chapter 50

Leonard opened his eyes to the world his mind constructed.

“Have you lost your mind?” demanded the strongest under the heavens, Heavenly Demon Dan Mok-Jin.

A heavy sense of déjà vu overcame Leonard. He couldn’t help it. He remembered everything from Heavenly Demon’s jet-black robes rippling in the wind to the blood-red flower hovering above him. This was what the Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk had seen near the end of his life, right before his final battle began.

Dan Mok-Jin continued to speak, naturally oblivious to Leonard’s sentimentality.

“It wasn’t enough for you to come knocking at my door all alone; now you dare challenge me to a battle to the death? I didn’t think you were so dull as to miscalculate others’ strength.”

As qi raged around Heavenly Demon, the blood-red flower bloomed in full, sending elegant waves to create a Domain spanning over three hundred meters.

In an instant, heaven and earth melted into each other like a sunset.

That wasn’t even the full extent of his power. Leonard knew this, and cold sweat began to trickle down his skin, as he was caught in the Domain.

“This is a great reenactment. I didn’t know my Visualization skills could materialize memories to this extent.” Leonard saw right through what was happening and grinned happily.

Heavenly Demon tilted his head. The Sword Emperor had broken into the Heavenly Demon Cult and even challenged him to a life-or-death battle. He didn’t think Yeon Mu-Hyuk was completely sane.

“Have you really lost your mind? Visualization? Do you truly believe that this is a figment of your imagination?” He pointed with a single finger, and that was all it took for augmented qi to shoot out in a beam and pierce through one of Leonard’s shoulders.

Even though Heavenly Demon created a hole the size of a coin, Leonard ignored the pain and nodded.

“Of course, you idiot. What about me seems like Yeon Mu-Hyuk to you? I’m Leonard.”

A person didn’t even need to watch his swordplay to recognize the difference between them. From his limb lengths, body proportions, and height to the Five Elements True Dragon Ring twisting within him, he was completely different from the Sword Emperor he had once been.

Heavenly Demon’s face became expressionless for a moment. Then, he finally burst into laughter, his eyes and lips stretching.

“Pfft. Ha. Ahahahaha!”

Though he was merely an illusion fabricated by Leonard’s mind, the power he wielded was just as great as what the Sword Emperor had experienced. The laughter of someone at the peak of the Profound Realm shook the heavens and the earth. Weaker martial artists would be wiped out in a moment by this earthquake.

Despite the hole in his shoulder, the martial arts skills Leonard had had when he was the Sword Emperor had returned to him. Since they were trapped in a dimension of his own making, his mastery of martial arts was as complete as it had ever been.

“Hahaha... No, you’re not Yeon Mu-Hyuk.” Heavenly Demon’s laughter ceased, and he looked him straight in the eye. “And I am not Dan Mok-Jin either. You can think of me as a heart devil created from the day of your defeat.

“...”

“The stronger Heavenly Demon is in your memory, the stronger I become. And the more you lose confidence in your martial arts abilities, the weaker you become. It doesn’t matter if you try to ignore me either. The more you try to confront me consciously, the harder it will be for you to reach the Transcendence Tier.”

Leonard listened with an impassive expression. And then, he created five swords from the empty space. If he had the martial arts abilities of someone in the Creation Realm, he could also use the Five Swords Art.

Dan Mok-Jin gave a devious smile as he watched him. “You’re really going to try and defeat me? Seriously? No matter how many swords you use, you will never defeat me in your current state.”

“For someone wearing Heavenly Demon’s appearance, you sure are talkative.”

Holding a sword with two hands, Leonard performed an opening display and used Weapon Manipulation to spread the remaining four swords behind him like petals. He assumed the Five Divine Transformations Stance, something that he could only imagine doing in the real world.

White. Black. Red. Blue. Yellow.

The five-colored sword aura bloomed and shattered Dan Mok-Jin’s Sword Domain. The Sword Emperor Yeon Mu-Hyuk of the past would not have been able to do this, but the Leonard of the present could.

He turned to his opponent with the same unreadable face he always had. “The path of a martial artist dictates that actions always speak louder than words. Witness my power.”

“Hahahaha! Yes, let us dance!” The heart devil grinned.

Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method

Asura’s Royal Dance

Great Murti Summoning

A statue of Asura appeared, standing over a hundred feet tall. It appeared out of nowhere like a mirage in a desert but gave off a very real, immense pressure that would force all beings to their knees. It would’ve forced Leonard to his knees if it weren’t for his Five Divine Transformations Stance. But the augmented sword energy, working as one, created a barrier that resisted the statue, unwavering.

One Origin Five Elements Sutra Sword

Five Divine Transformations Art

Four Divine Beasts Summoning

The swords behind Leonard each took the shape of one of the Four Divine Beasts. Though they weren’t as well-defined as Heavenly Demon’s Asura statue, they each took on a new form and flew into the air.

The Asura statue attacked with its six fists.

Heavenly Demon Cultivation Method

Asura’s Royal Dance

Six-Direction Total Rampage

With every hit, a mountain fell and a river flooded. When Yeon Mu-Hyuk had faced him in the past, this attack had caused his insides to turn. Despite his five-colored augmented qi, he’d been forced to continuously circulate the energy inside him to survive.

But it’ll be different this time!

With Leonard’s resolve, the four flying sword auras glowed with their own color, and each met one of the Asura’s fists. He had to handle the remaining two fists with only one sword.

The yellow sword aura took the form of an enormous dragon as it clashed with Asura’s two fists. Yellow Dragon Form, the final form of the Five Elements Style. Though incomplete, it manifested itself as a Visualization.

“I see now why you were so confident,” the heart devil praised in a low voice, having witnessed Leonard’s power. In his memory, Yeon Mu-Hyuk had been struggling to survive, but now he could face Dan Mok-Jin head-on. “You still have a long way to go, though.”

The Asura statue immediately took the next form. It had absorbed a great amount of power while clashing with the Four Divine Beasts, and the apparition grew a little fainter. But it still charged in, unfaltering.

The duel between the heart devil in the shape of Heavenly Demon Dan-Mok Jin and the Sword Emperor Leonard continued.

The world-shattering battle in his mind ended in 184 seconds, and the victor was decided.

***

Leonard’s eyes suddenly flashed open.

I lost.

Even though it was an obvious outcome, it still left a bitter taste in his mouth. And though the heart devil had merely borrowed the appearance and abilities of Dan Mok-Jin, it had perfectly replicated Leonard’s memories.

He’d experienced the flow and the forms once before, but the difference in skill was too big, so he still couldn’t handle them.

However, he wasn’t too discouraged.

The first battle lasted for 127 exchanges, but this time, it lasted for 184. Moreover, I wasn’t just barely holding on—I traded proper blows. There was a clear improvement.

That alone was proof that he was on the right path and doing well, so he couldn’t help but feel content. If Leonard reached the Transcendence Tier in his current state, he would become at least three times more skilled than Yeon Mu-Hyuk had been. He was happier about his martial arts achievements than the fact that he was still alive.

Leonard looked around and took in his surroundings.

“Where am I?”

He felt so comfortable that it felt wrong. When he looked down, he found a very luxurious bed. The basic cots at the training facility couldn’t even begin to compare. On top of that, the artificial aroma filling the room definitely came from expensive perfume. There wasn’t a single piece of furniture or decoration that looked cheap.

Weird. I smell fish and saltwater. Am I near the ocean?

He found that the smell of seawater was coming from the open window. It resembled the scent of murim’s South Sea more than the North Sea, and it was too potent for them to be near the shore.

Along with ocean water, he could smell wet lumber. And though it was very slight, he felt his body rocking. That could only mean one thing.

I’m in the hull of a ship. This boat must be enormous.

Just as he was trying to figure out how he’d ended up on a ship, he briefly recalled what had happened before he ended up here.

The Fifth Shadow activating the Mass Teleport magic scroll, Fabian beheading him, and the shadow knight’s determination to trigger it anyway. Leonard also recalled the explosion of spatial magic caused by the two Mass Teleports activating in succession.

As the memories came rushing back, several questions immediately popped into his head.

Was I teleported somewhere far away from the Galapagos Island? There aren’t supposed to be any boats circling the region, so in the worst-case scenario, I could be outside the Arcadian Empire.

With that final thought, Leonard looked down and began to inspect himself thoroughly.

All my external injuries have healed, but I think I still have internal injuries. Getting caught up in spatial magic probably didn’t do me any favors.

The flow of his qi was unstable in multiple areas. He wouldn’t be able to use the Three Swords Art or sword aura, but he should still be able to use the Two Swords Art and sword qi. As long as someone in the Transcendence Tier didn’t appear, no one would be able to suppress him with physical force.

It bothered him that his sword and subspace pouch had disappeared, but someone had splinted his arms and legs and even treated his broken nose, so they were likely not malicious.

When he ripped off the rods and bandages from his nose, a glob of blood fell out. Potions made bones heal improperly, so it was necessary to add manual splints like this.

Leonard grabbed the towel next to the bed and blew his nose, forcing out the blood and scabs.

“Phew. That feels much better.”

He heard a pair—no, two pairs of footsteps approaching the room. The leader’s presence and the way they shifted their weight marked them as a normal person, but the one following them had a presence that told him they were clearly well-trained. It wasn’t just that they were skilled in martial arts; he also had the feeling that whoever it was had a substantial amount of experience working as a bodyguard.

Creak.

It didn’t take long for the door to open, but the two people who walked in looked nothing like Leonard expected.

“Oh! You! You’re awake!” the girl cried. She had long, ebony-black hair and was around Leonard’s age, perhaps a little older but no older than twenty. He could tell this from her mannerisms, of course, but the glint in her crystal-blue eyes also told him that she was young.

“Where are you from? Why were you floating in the middle of the ocean? Hm? I’m the reason you’re alive, so please answer all my questions!” the young girl exclaimed triumphantly. She approached Leonard without a hint of fear, hands on her hips.

Then, the woman following behind her raised her voice. “My lady! You cannot hastily approach a stranger like that! How many times must I tell you?!”

Leonard found himself agreeing. “You’re right.”

“... That was not directed at you.”

“I know.”

“Hmph!” She had nothing to say and shot him a disapproving look. She then took a step back as a bodyguard should.

Their exchange made the girl laugh cheerfully.

“Ahahaha! You really are an entertaining person. I would’ve been disappointed if all you had were your looks. But I like you even more now!”

The girl took a confident step forward and held out her hand.

“My name is Frances, and I am the commander of the highly acclaimed expedition team Aquamarine from the Atlantis Maritime Alliance. And you are?”

Her bright eyes looked straight at him, unwavering. They were young and naive and innocent. It was a look that Leonard had forgotten a very long time ago after wearing himself down with nonstop fighting.

He took her hand and introduced himself. “I am Leonard. Leonard of the Arcadian Empire.”