Chapter 101: A Talent Ascended From the Ground
"A spar?"
The next day, Oh Kang-Woo was given an unexpected offer when he arrived at the training room with Kim Si-Hun.
Kang-Woo looked at Tian Wuchen, surprised.
"Why so out of the blue?"
"I wanted to see for myself how you can be so confident in front of me," Wuchen said with shining eyes.
Kang-Woo stroked his chin.
'It's a good opportunity.'
He had been wanting to test the power of his demonic crystal. If his opponent was the Sword Emperor, he would be able to test it without restraint. Even leaving that aside, he still wanted to see how powerful a World Ranker was.
"Oh, Father. Don't be so childish. What if Kang-Woo gets hurt while sparring with the Sword Emperor?" Tian Suyan asked with a worried expression.
Kang-Woo turned to her.
"Please forget what my father just said. I don't want you to get hurt in a pointless spar," Suyan said while carefully touching his arms.
"…"
Kang-Woo kept his mouth closed; then he smirked and said, "I don't like it."
"Pardon?"
"Your trivial acting. I don't like it."
"What do you…"
On the surface, it looked as if she were trying to stop them from fighting, but her real intentions were clear.
' "What if Kang-Woo gets hurt…" "A pointless spar…" '
They were clearly phrases to hurt a man's pride.
'How cute.'
She knew she was an attractive woman, and she was using it as a weapon to get what she wanted.
He had no complaints about someone knowing, understanding, and using their strengths. However, he found her somewhat clumsy and inexperienced behavior rather 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 is also bad. If you want to do it properly, you should've mentioned it like a throwaway line before Tian Wuchen offered to spar with me."
"F-Fufu. What an interesting interpretation."
"Points deducted for that as well. If you want to appear relaxed, practice not becoming flustered first."
"…"
Suyan remained silent.
Kang-Woo kept talking.
"And finally, the acting was unnecessary. I wasn't planning on refusing anyway."
Kang-Woo drew out energy from the demonic crystal. A powerful force emitted from him.
Suyan bit her lips.
Seeing her frustration was quite cute.
"Hahahahahaha!" Wuchen laughed out loud while holding his stomach and tearing up. "It's my first time seeing someone get Suyan this good."
"B-Be quiet, Father!" Suyan shouted while blushing.
Wuchen couldn't stop laughing for a while.
"That aside… how unexpected. I thought you would refuse."
"I have no reason to."
"Hahaha! I hope that mindset of yours doesn't change after our spar."
Wuchen raised one hand.
At that moment, a sword that was on one side of the training room flew toward him. It had been a long time since his heart had beaten so fast. The last time was when he faced Grace McCubbin during the World Ranker evaluation.
'I pray that he isn't all talk.'
He thought the disappointment would be bigger if the sparring match ended too quickly. Wuchen was hoping for Kang-Woo to be someone strong enough to let him have some fun.
"Then let's begin."
Wuchen drew out the Qi from within him.
"I'll be rooting for you, hyung-nim!" Si-Hun shouted.
The Sword Emperor, who would be teaching him martial arts, and Kang-Woo, whom he had pledged his loyalty to…
He thought for a bit about who to root for, but as expected, he wished for Kang-Woo to win.
'I'm sure it'll be difficult, though…'
Kang-Woo's opponent was the Sword Emperor.
Si-Hun knew Kang-Woo was strong, but he didn't think Kang-Woo could win against the Sword Emperor, one of the stronger World Rankers.
"That's disappointing. You won't root for me?" Wuchen asked.
"U-Uhmm…"
"Hahaha! It's okay. I don't know what happened between you two, but having a bond thicker than blood is something to celebrate. I will also give it my all," Wuchen said in a relaxed manner.
He didn't think he was going to lose in the first place. He had become far too strong to experience defeat.
'Alright, then.'
He drew out his Qi and looked at Kang-Woo after enhancing his eyesight. Although Kang-Woo wasn't a martial artist, Wuchen could sense a strong energy within Kang-Woo's dantian.
'No wonder he's so confident.'
It was a highly concentrated energy. It felt different from Qi, but it felt powerful nonetheless.
'Hm?'
.
At that moment, he sensed something strange.
Wuchen looked a little higher, at Kang-Woo's heart.
'Huh…?'
It was dark. He couldn't see anything. He enhanced his eyesight even more with Qi, but he still couldn't see anything.
'What is that?'
He had a bad feeling about it.
Wuchen felt a chill. Something was definitely wrong. It was an abyss, and he could not fathom its depth and width.
'A sea…'
It was like looking at the sea; the abyss was so massive that one couldn't even begin to calculate its size.
"Huh?"
The energy disappeared.
Wuchen focused his attention on Kang-Woo's heart again, but the colossal energy he'd just felt wasn't there anymore. All he could see was the energy spreading throughout Kang-Woo from the dantian.
'Was I seeing things?'
It seemed he'd become too excited at the thought of fighting after quite some time. Wuchen shook his head to get a hold of himself.
'There is no way one man could hold that much energy.'
He had most likely seen wrong. No other reason could explain it.
"… Can I start?" Kang-Woo asked.
"Oh, my apologies. My eyes haven't been as good as they used to be due to my age."
Wuchen raised the practice sword. It wasn't the time to be distracted by illusions.
Stomp!
As Kang-Woo and Wuchen both stomped the floor, their spar began.
The one who attacked first was Kang-Woo.
'Leviathan.'
He merged the Authority of Iron Axes and the Authority of Freezing.
An axe surrounded with cold energy was created. He grabbed the axe's handle, and the energy from his demonic crystal enveloped the axe.
'Very nice.'
Infusing the highly concentrated demonic energy from the demonic crystal into a weapon made with an Authority instead of infusing regular demonic energy made the weapon far more destructive.
However, the true advantages of the demonic crystal lay elsewhere.
Kang-Woo focused the demonic energy from the demonic crystal on his legs. Although he hadn't used the Authority of Haste, he had become much faster.
'Adaptability.'
The first advantage of the demonic crystal was that it could substitute body-fortification Authorities. Of course, its effect was lower compared to a real Authority's, but the important point was that it could substitute an Authority to a certain extent.
Boom!
"Kurgh!"
The axe and the sword clashed against each other.
Wuchen's eyes widened.
His hand wielding the sword trembled. The practice sword couldn't handle the impact and was destroyed.
"Hup!"
Wuchen quickly extended his hand.
Another practice sword flew toward him, and he grabbed the sword and used the Azure Dragon Sword Technique. He swung his sword up from the ground as if a dragon was soaring up into the sky. He aimed for Kang-Woo's neck.
Kang-Woo leaned back to dodge the attack.
The tip of the sword changed direction and struck the edge of Leviathan in Kang-Woo's hand.
The axe flew away, but a spear had appeared in Kang-Woo's hand before the axe had even landed on the ground. It was Bident, the two-pronged spear created by merging the Authority of Dark Spears and the Authority of Hellfire.
Whoosh!
"Whoa!"
Wuchen retreated after seeing the spear that had formed in a flash in Kang-Woo's hand.
Kang-Woo grabbed Bident even tighter, his eyes shining.
'Speed.'
The second advantage of the demonic crystal was the speed at which he could manifest Authorities. The speed at which he created Bident had become incomparably faster than before.
Stomp!
He stepped forward, leaned back, and then pushed forward as if rebounding.
Kang-Woo threw the spear in his right hand.
"Azure Dragon Flash!"
A blinding light shone. It was the same light that had slashed the three Giant Ogres simultaneously.
Bident was shattered by the light.
The energy of the demonic crystal infused in the spear turned into hellfire and exploded, and Wuchen was pushed back.
'Destructive power.'
The third and biggest advantage of the demonic crystal was its destructive power. A highly concentrated demonic energy was a lethal weapon on its own.
"Very nice."
Kang-Woo smiled.
The power of the demonic crystal was greater than he had expected. The demonic crystal wasn't as boundless as the Ten Thousand Demon Core, but its ability to compress demonic energy was highly advantageous. Because he couldn't fully use the Ten Thousand Demon Core yet, it was an adequate substitute.
He extended his right hand and merged the Authority of Blades and the Authority of Explosion. He felt that something was lacking.
'Authority of Slashing.'
He merged three Authorities into one, creating a two-meter-long greatsword. He clenched the sword handle.
"Gram."
He spoke the name of the sword. It was the name of a sword in myths.
Kang-Woo stomped the ground and swung Gram, emitting razor-sharp energy horizontally.
"Haap!" Wuchen exclaimed. He dropped the practice sword and put his hand on his waist. His belt became a sword.
Powerful and razor-sharp energy could be felt from the sword, and a materialized form of Qi enveloped its blade. The materialized energy was condensed Qi, which could be considered the essence of a martial artist.
The two swords clashed.
Rumble!!
The training room that was created to resist aggressive training shook.
The floor cracked, and the walls burst.
Kang-Woo widened the distance. His hands were numb.
'I'd expect nothing less from a World Ranker.'
Wuchen, who had unleashed his full power, was strong.
Kang-Woo would've lost if he didn't have the demonic crystal.
Kang-Woo looked around.
'If we keep fighting, the building will crumble.'
He'd tested the power of the demonic crystal enough.
He was satisfied with the result. He wanted to see what more Wuchen had, but going any further would be excessively greedy. For the moment, he was satisfied knowing he could fight one-on-one with a World Ranker.
"I think that's enough."
Kang-Woo gave up.
There was a short silence. Si-Hun's and Suyan's mouths were wide open as the two stared at Kang-Woo. However, it wasn't just the two of them whose mouths were stuck open in surprise.
"What… are you?"
Wuchen glared while grabbing his trembling hand.
"For God's sake, stop asking me that. I'm getting sick of it. Are you going to believe me if I say that I really am a Player who awakened three months ago, as you've already investigated?"
"There's no way that's true. How could someone in just three months—"
"See? Why do you keep asking me if you won't even believe me?" Kang-Woo answered tiredly. "I really am the person you've investigated. Sigh, I'm too tired to even explain at this point. Yeah, I have something similar to that Heavenly whatsit thing. You said that it's a talent descended from the heavens, right?"
Kang-Woo pointed to the ground.
"Then I guess I'm a talent that ascended from the ground."
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