"Sparring?"
The next day…
KangWoo heard something unexpected when he accompanied Kim ShiHoon.
KangWoo looked at Cheon MooJin, surprised.
"Why so suddenly?"
"I wanted to check out the source of your confidence myself," Cheon MooJin said with shining eyes.
KangWoo stroked his chin.
'It's a good opportunity.'
He wanted to test the strength of the demonic energy stone anyway.
If the opponent was the Sword King, he would be able to test it fully.
Even leaving that aside, he wanted to see how powerful a world ranker was.
"Oh, father. What are you saying? What if Mr. KangWoo gets hurt while sparring with the Sword King?" Cheon SooYeon asked with a worried expression.
KangWoo's face turned to her.
"Please forget what father has just said. I don't want you to get hurt while sparring," Cheon SooYeon said while carefully touching his arms.
"…"
KangWoo kept his mouth closed; then he smirked.
"I don't like it."
"What?"
"Acting. I don't like it."
"What does…"
On the surface, it looked as if she were trying to stop them from fighting…
But her real intentions were clear.
'What if you get hurt…'
'While sparing…'
Those were words said to touch a man’s pride.
'She's cute.'
She knew she was an attractive woman and was willing to use it as a weapon.
He had no complaints about someone knowing, understanding, and using their strength.
However, he found the fresh and somewhat clumsy behavior cute.
"You got some points deducted for being too explicit. You have to hide your intentions a little bit more."
"…"
"The timing in which you appeared was also bad. If you wanted to do it properly, you should've said it before Cheon MooJin offered to spar with me."
"Fu, fufu. You're saying funny things."
"You also got a few points deducted from that. If you want to appear relaxed, at least practice on how to not get flustered.”
"…"
Cheon SooYeon remained silent.
KangWoo kept talking.
"And finally, you didn't need to act. I wasn't planning to refuse it anyway."
KangWoo pulled the energy from inside the demonic energy stone.
Strong energy came out of him.
Cheon SooYeon bit her lips.
Seeing her getting angry was quite cute.
"Hahahaha!"
Cheon MooJin laughed out loud. He laughed while holding his stomach. He even cried a bit with laughter.
"It's my first time seeing someone get to SooYeon in such a way."
"F-father, please be quiet!" Cheon SooYeon shouted while blushing.
Cheon MooJin couldn't stop laughing for a while.
"Leaving that aside… I thought you were going to refuse."
"I don't have a reason to do that."
"Hahaha! I hope you keep thinking that after the sparring session."
Cheon MooJin raised one hand.
At that moment, a sword that was on one side of the sparring room flew toward him.
It had been a long time since his heart had beat so fast.
It was the first time since he was tested to become a world ranker and fought against Grace McCarbin.
'I hope he isn't all talk.'
He thought the disappointment would be bigger if the sparring match ended too quickly.
Cheon MooJin was hoping for KangWoo to be someone strong enough to let him have some fun.
"Then let's begin."
Cheon MooJin surged the Ki within his body.
"Hyeongnim, I'll be rooting for you!" Kim ShiHoon shouted.
The Sword King, who was going to teach him martial arts, and his hyeong, whom he'd sworn loyalty to.
He thought for a little while, but as expected, he wished for KangWoo to win.
'Although it’s probably going to be hard…'
The opponent was the Sword King.
He knew KangWoo was strong, but he didn't think he could win against the Sword King, someone who was one of the strongest world rankers.
"This is sad. Aren't you going to root for me?"
"Th-that…"
"Hahaha! It's okay. I don't know what happened, but having a non-blood-related brother with whom you have a deep relationship is nice. Don't worry about it," Cheon MooJin said in a relaxed manner.
He didn't think he was going to lose in the first place. He had reached too high of a point to be defeated easily.
'Okay then.'
He surged his Ki and looked at KangWoo after strengthening his eyesight.
Although he said he wasn't a martial artist, he could sense strong energy coming from him.
'No wonder he's confident.'
It was highly concentrated energy.
It felt different from Qi, but it was definitely strong energy.
'Huh?'
At that moment, he sensed something foreign.
Cheon MooJin looked up.
It was at KangWoo's heart.
'Huh…?'
It was dark. He couldn't see anything. He put a bit more Qi on his eyes, but he still couldn't see anything.
'What's this?'
He had a bad sensation.
He felt chills.
It was as if something had gone wrong.
There was an abyss so deep that its end couldn't be seen, and he also wasn't sure how big it was.
'A sea…'
It was like looking at the sea.
Something big that couldn't be calculated was there.
"Huh?"
The energy disappeared.
Cheon MooJin focused his attention on KangWoo’s heart again.
But the huge energy he'd just felt wasn't there anymore. He just saw the energy concentrated in the Dantian spreading through KangWoo’s body.
'Was I confused?'
It seemed like he’d become too excited at the thought of fighting after quite some time.
Cheon MooJin shook his head.
'How could a person have such a huge energy within him?'
He'd clearly seen it wrong. If not, it just didn't make sense.
"Can I start…?"
"Oh, I'm sorry. My eyes weren’t working properly due to my old age."
Cheon MooJin pulled out the practice sword.
It wasn't the time to be distracted by illusions.
Stomp-!
KangWoo and Cheon MooJin's sparring began.
The one who attacked first was KangWoo.
Leviathan…
He fused the Authority of Iron and the Authority of Ice.
An axe with cold energy surrounding it was created.
He grabbed the axe handle, and the energy that came out from the demonic energy stone formed the blade.
'Good.'
* * *
Using the demonic energy from the demonic energy stone to create a weapon using an Authority was much more effective than just using demonic energy.
But there was another great effect that the demonic energy stone had…
KangWoo focused the energy coming from the demonic energy stone on his feet. Although he hadn't used the Authority of Speed, he had become much faster.
'Adaptability.'
The first good point of the demonic energy stone was that he could replace the body-fortifying Authorities.
Of course, its effect was lower compared to using a real Authority.
But the important thing at the moment was that he could somewhat replace the effect of an Authority.
Boom-!
"Ugh!"
The axe and the blade clashed against each other.
Cheon MooJin's eyes widened.
The hand wielding his sword trembled. The practice sword couldn't resist the impact and was destroyed.
"Hup!"
The Sword King quickly extended his hand.
Another practice sword flew toward him, and he grabbed the sword and used the first form of the Blue Dragon Sword Style.
He swung his sword from the floor while targeting KangWoo’s neck. It was as if a dragon had soared from the ground to fly.
KangWoo leaned back and dodged the attack.
The tip of the sword changed direction and hit the Leviathan Axe KangWoo was holding in his hand.
The axe bounced away.
But before the axe fell to the ground, another weapon appeared in KangWoo's hands.
That time, it was a spear.
Bident…
It was a weapon created using the Authority of Dark Spear and the Authority of Hellfire.
Fwoosh-!
"Huff!"
After seeing the spear that had suddenly been created, Cheon MooJin backed off.
KangWoo grabbed his bident even tighter, and his eyes shone.
'Speed.'
The second advantage of the demonic energy stone was the speed at which he could use Authorities.
The speed at which he could create Bident had increased by quite a lot.
Stomp-!
He stepped forward and leaned his body back and then pushed it forward as if bouncing.
KangWoo threw the spear.
"Blue Dragon First Form!"
Shine-!
Light came out.
It was the light that had cut the three giant ogres.
Bident was destroyed by the lights.
The energy that was inside it became Hellfire and exploded, and Cheon MooJin's body was pushed back.
'Destructive power.'
The third good point was the destructive power. A highly concentrated demonic energy was a lethal weapon on its own.
"Good."
KangWoo laughed.
The power of the demonic energy stone was higher than expected.
It wasn't as profound and deep as the Ten Thousand Demon Core, but it had many good points.
Because he couldn't fully use the Ten Thousand Demon Core yet…
It was good enough to replace it a bit.
He extended his right hand and combined the Authority of the Blade and the Authority of Explosions. He felt that it still lacked a little bit.
'The Authority of Slaughter.'
He combined three Authorities into one.
A giant sword that was almost two meters long was created. He grabbed the sword handle.
"Gram."
He spoke the name of the sword.
It was the name of a sword that appeared in legends.
KangWoo stomped the ground and swung the great sword.
Cheon MooJin dropped his sword and put his hand on his waist, and the belt on his waist became a blade.
Powerful energy could be felt from the sharp blade.
Tangible Qi formed around the blade.
A strong energy poured out from the sword.
The two swords clashed.
Boom-!!
The sparring room that was created to resist aggressive training shook.
The floor cracked, and the walls burst.
KangWoo widened the distance. His hands were trembling.
'As expected from a world ranker.'
Cheon MooJin using all his power was really strong.
He would've lost if he didn't have the demonic energy stone.
KangWoo looked around.
'If we keep fighting, the building will crumble.'
He'd tested the power of the demonic energy stone enough.
He was satisfied with the result. He wanted to see how strong Cheon MooJin really was, but more than what they had already done would be greed.
For the moment, he was satisfied knowing he could fight one-on-one with a world ranker.
"Let's stop here."
KangWoo gave up.
There was a short silence. Kim ShiHoon and Cheon SooYeon's mouths were wide open.
But it wasn't just the two of them whose mouths were stuck open in surprise.
"Who… are you?"
Cheon MooJin glared while grabbing his trembling hands.
"Please, stop asking me that. I'm getting tired of it. If I say that I'm really a person who awakened three months ago just like you've investigated, would you believe me?"
"There's no way that's true. How could someone in just three months…"
"See? If you aren't going to believe me, why do you keep asking me this?" KangWoo answered tiredly.
"I'm really the person you've investigated. I'm tired of explaining. Oh yeah, it's similar to the Sacrum or whatever. You said that the Sacrum is a talent given by the skies, right?"
KangWoo pointed to the ground.
"Let's just say I'm a talent born from the ground."
