The Greatest Genius in the World
The sense of deprivation was not felt by Mu-jin alone.
“Who’s that guy?”
“A really unlucky guy just showed up.”
Some of the bandits frowned when they recognized Ou-yang Pae’s face.
Especially the bald ones reacted particularly violently.
Well, with more than twenty bandits, it was natural that some showed normal reactions.
“Hehe, his face is quite handsome. If we sell him in the slave market, we could make quite a bit of money.”
This was a typical reaction by bandit standards.
However, regardless of what the bandits were saying, Ou-yang Pae merely scanned the area with an emotionless face.
Ou-yang Pae quickly assessed the number of enemies, the state of the battlefield, and potential trap locations, and then he moved.
“Hehe, before we sell him in the slave market, maybe once...”
Swish!
It started with the bandit who was about to say something filthy near Ou-yang Pae.
Before he could finish his sentence, the bandit’s head was separated from his neck.
Swish!
Swish!
“Argh!”
A bloodbath began in the bandit’s lair.
Watching from behind, Mu-gyeong asked Mu-jin.
“Are you not going to move?”
“I should.”
Mu-jin replied to Mu-gyeong and headed not towards Ou-yang Pae, who was massacring the bandits.
“Help us, leader!”
“Who’s your leader?”
Crack!
Mu-jin instantly crushed the head of a bandit who had been with them for the past few days.
Mu-jin had already heard all about the heinous crimes these bandits had committed in Linzhi.
He didn’t think that just a few days of suffering could pay for their sins, nor did he believe that they would turn over a new leaf.
Thanks to Mu-jin and his party joining the fray, it took less than one Daegyeong for the twenty or so bandits to be wiped out.
After shaking the blood off his sword, Ou-yang Pae looked at Mu-jin’s group.
‘Whatever he does, he looks like the protagonist of a movie.’
It was a common action performed by other swordsmen, but when he did it, it looked like a scene from a martial arts movie.
As Mu-jin entertained these random thoughts, Ou-yang Pae spoke.
“Who are you?”
It was natural to assume they were with the bandits, given they were together.
But they suddenly started attacking the bandits the moment he appeared.
‘If they had been captives, they wouldn’t have been captured by these low-level bandits in the first place.’
It was a suspicious situation in many ways.
However, in response to Ou-yang Pae’s question, the man in the center cleaned his ear with a casual demeanor and spoke.
“Phew. It’s polite to introduce yourself first when asking someone else’s identity, isn’t it?”
“That’s true. I am Ou-yang Pae. Now, who are you?”
Mu-jin, now certain of his identity after hearing his name, nodded.
He was confident enough about the circumstances, but hearing the name removed any doubt.
“We are from Shaolin.”
“...Are you really from the righteous faction?”
Ou-yang Pae’s aura became noticeably more hostile.
“Ow-ki!”
As Ling-ling cried out in surprise at the threatening atmosphere, Mu-yul patted Ling-ling’s head.
“Don’t worry. We have no hobby of ganging up on one person.”
Mu-jin, who had spoken to Ou-yang Pae, looked at Mu-gyeong.
“Me?”
When Mu-gyeong pointed to himself, Mu-jin nodded and sent him a message through telepathy.
– That’s the guy. The successor of the Heavenly Demon I told you about.
Mu-gyeong’s expression changed upon hearing Mu-jin’s telepathy.
No matter what anyone said, he was a disciple of the Anti-Demon Monk Hye-gwan and had pledged to kill demons, not ordinary people.
If the opponent was a lackey of the Demonic Cult, there was no reason to hold back.
“As expected of dogs of the righteous faction, you are extremely arrogant.”
“Ow-ki?”
Next to him, Mu-yul, who didn’t understand their conversation at all, simply smiled brightly.
Meanwhile, the two continued their life-and-death battle.
No, it seemed less like a life-and-death struggle and more like a sparring session to elevate each other’s level.
At some point, Ou-yang Pae began stealing Mu-gyeong’s martial arts and performing Shaolin’s techniques with demonic energy.
Mixing them with the demonic techniques he originally used.
Mu-gyeong did the same.
He stole Ou-yang Pae’s demonic techniques and the martial arts he had learned in actual combat over the past two years and performed them with Buddhist power.
It was a spectacle of madness by madmen.
Although it was an absurd sight, Mu-jin’s face was filled with a mix of anticipation.
‘This part is just like the novel.’
In the novel, the blood successor used Buddhist martial arts with Blood Demon Qi.
Ou-yang Pae had also succeeded in stealing the Buddhist martial arts used by the blood successor after gaining an epiphany from that.
However, Ou-yang Pae’s enlightenment did not end there.
In reality, their fight had only just become even. Ou-yang Pae was not yet overwhelmingly dominant.
While Mu-jin was lost in such thoughts,
As he exchanged complex hand movements with Mu-gyeong, a thread of realization was waving in the back of Ou-yang Pae’s mind.
His talent, bestowed by the heavens, seemed to be telling him that this was not the end.
‘I can now perform righteous faction martial arts with demonic energy. So, what is still missing?’
As he questioned himself as if solving a riddle, exchanging moves with Mu-gyeong several times,
“Hah!”
“Hup!”
A powerful explosion occurred again as golden energy mixed with Buddhist power and black sword energy made from demonic power clashed.
Simultaneously, a flash of enlightenment exploded in Ou-yang Pae’s mind.
‘When opposing energies collide, they cause an extraordinary explosion. Can’t I artificially make these two energies collide?’
Ou-yang Pae, blessed with talent from the heavens, began to search for the answer to his question.
A portion of the immense demonic energy coiled in his dantian started to reverse its original flow.
As if following the pure flow of a righteous faction’s internal energy technique.
Meanwhile, the remaining part continued to operate according to its original demonic flow.
As the purified energy and the demonic energy began to mix through Ou-yang Pae’s palm,
Crackle.
Gray lightning began to surge through Ou-yang Pae’s sword.
Mu-jin’s eyes widened as if struck by lightning upon witnessing the scene.
‘The Primordial Chaos Divine Art!’
He was witnessing the beginning of the invincible divine art that would later lead Ou-yang Pae to the position of Heavenly Demon.
The divine art involved operating two opposing internal energies and making them collide at precisely the necessary point to create an explosive force.
Naturally, handling two opposing energies simultaneously was theoretically possible but practically unfeasible.
Furthermore, it wasn’t just storing demonic and Buddhist energy separately in the body, but also reversing demonic energy to create Buddhist energy on the spot.
This was a true divine art that only the world’s greatest genius, Ou-yang Pae, could comprehend and perform.
And Ou-yang Pae realized the beginning of the Primordial Chaos Divine Art during his life-and-death struggle with the blood successor.
The emergence of that gray lightning indicated that he had indeed gained the same enlightenment as in the novel.
“Phew.”
But now was not the time to simply be pleased. No matter how skilled Mu-gyeong was, he couldn’t block that attack.
Moreover, letting Mu-gyeong die like in the novel was not an option.
At the moment when Ou-yang Pae swung the gray lightning, combining demonic and Buddhist energy, towards Mu-gyeong,
Bam!
Golden energy burst forth from Mu-jin’s right fist, which had already assumed the stance for a direct punch.
Mu-jin, using all his internal energy, launched the Invincible Divine Fist to save Mu-gyeong, and it collided with Ou-yang Pae’s gray lightning.
Crackle!
The gray lightning, which would later become the beginning of the Primordial Chaos Divine Art, crumbled with a thunderous sound as if screaming.
Boom.
Even after destroying the gray lightning, the energy of the Invincible Divine Fist continued towards Ou-yang Pae.
In that moment, Ou-yang Pae hurriedly raised his sword to block the golden energy.
Bang!!!
When the dust settled after a massive explosion,
“...This is bad.”
Ou-yang Pae was seen lying on the ground, coughing up blood.