Chapter – 64
Evolution, avoiding the heat, soared and landed in the wilderness beyond the lake.
His eyes turned to the figure before him.
“······.”
Half of the clothing had crumbled to ashes.
His protective Qi had been pierced by the heat.
The lake before him boiled, stripped of its frozen white layer.
Along the edges, rocks discolored and exposed.
“…….”
A fire capable of boiling a frozen lake in an instant.
The jade-green tint of the flames.
There was only one martial art in the world that could leave such traces.
‘Heavenly Demon Supreme Yang Divine Art (Tian Mo Ji Yang Shen Gong)…’
On the exquisitely remaining ice disk stood a lone new form.
Through the thick steam, a familiar face emerged.
“Yu.”
He had deliberately timed his arrival to coincide with the finals of the Huanglin Association.
The distance from Shaanxi to this capital city was more than two days even by his own speed.
With the child’s skill in Linggong, such a distance was impossible.
Had he really left early, abandoning the finals?
If so, why hadn’t he stayed with the other Three Exalted from the start?
Yet now that he was right in front of him, it no longer mattered.
Behind him stood the child, with Zhang Baidong present.
“Normally, I’d simply withdraw.”
Three of the Exalted were near death.
The fogged Evolution appeared behind Kang Yu.
“But today, the opportunity is too great.”
“!”
A lightning-fast palm struck the back of Kang Yu’s neck.
His body bent into a “匸” shape.
“Ugh!”
After knocking the child unconscious, he could deal with the remaining Exalted.
“Resting···.”
Following the disrupted momentum, a handstand-foot aimed at Evolution’s chin.
“!”
Kang Yu’s instep brushed under Evolution’s jaw by a hair.
Regaining his stance, Kang Yu rubbed his head furiously.
“Ouch! That hurts!”
Evolution’s eyes widened at the strike.
“How···.”
He looked at his hand.
At that force, the neck could have easily been broken in the past.
Who is your master?
It had only been three months since he met Kang Yu at the Nangong Sect.
At that time, he would have certainly lost consciousness from the previous strike.
Had he really grown so much in just three months?
How unfortunate. If not today, this child could have dominated the world.
He had anticipated it would take ten years for the child to become the greatest in the world.
No, at this growth rate, five years—maybe even half of that.
He had grown exactly as Zhang Baidong had witnessed.
From the moment he first took steps, it had been a series of unbelievable moments.
Evolution gripped his sword.
Too much had been disrupted because of the child.
He could not allow the grand plan to fail any longer.
Yet the child had someone behind him.
‘Zhang Baidong···.’
Still, nothing was more important than the grand plan.
Evolution’s hand reached for Kang Yu.
Clack.
Evolution appeared beside the frozen Kang Yu.
“Sit still and rest···.”
The sharp aura could be felt on his shoulder.
“!”
Tat-tat-tung—
A sword strike, shaped like a halo of the sun, descended on Evolution.
He again countered the new form and blocked thousands of strands of Afterlife Thread.
“Cough!”
Having expended all his internal energy, Wei Yan dropped to his knees.
He coughed up a mouthful of blood.
“Why, why did you come···.”
Kang Yu hadn’t wanted him to come.
Although a talent unrivaled in all history, the flower had not yet bloomed.
One villain had already defeated five Exalted.
Talent alone could not withstand such an opponent.
At this rate, the only hope of the martial world would be crushed.
“You lifted me up, didn’t you?”
“What?”
Kang Yu smiled at Wei Yan.
“Moonfang.”
“······.”
Even as his internal energy surged, Wei Yan let out a shallow breath.
He swallowed the rising blood.
“This is no time for jokes···.”
“I know. But just fighting wouldn’t have been enough.”
Kang Yu drew back his sword.
His gaze was sharper than ever before.
“I have to earn my pay. Five liang per month isn’t nothing.”
Just five liang.
Wei Yan had just been about to tell him to run, but Kang Yu’s temperament shifted.
Even someone at the peak like Wei Yan had never felt the sense of energy now emanating from him.
Kang Yu opened his mouth.
“I wish old Beggar Grandpa could have seen this.”
Are you really staking it on that thing you half-learned?
It will work.
What exactly is it? Whose study in Zhang Baidong are you thinking of?
I didn’t learn it from anyone. I thought of it myself.
The name he had been considering was the strongest he knew.
“Heaven-Earth Tiger.”
The falling snow reversed its course.
Focus, focus!
It had been a mysterious experience.
Place the crates beneath the platform inside that circle, and the test is done. Begin.
The day he had taken the contest of moving heavy crates at Anhui’s Daliang School.
Hmph!
Changing his mindset made the tiny wooden box feel as heavy as Mount Tai.
Outside, calm. Inside, strong motion. Outwardly, strong yet soft and flexible. Balanced, without leaning to one side—only then is the subtle principle of all things, the stillness-in-motion, achieved.
I’m dying here! Can’t you just stop talking?
He had drawn hints from Grandfather Fang’s words, but the results were certainly different from what the old man intended.
Thoughts becoming reality.
Something no one in the village had ever seen or heard of.
Kang Yu pondered.
Right after hearing Ye Dongwan’s words.
You want an honest answer, right?
Yes.
You’re strong. Stronger than your benefactor.
A secret move was needed.
To save him from the villain and someone beyond him, he had to be strong.
Grandpa Evolution.
He knew his victory at the Nangong Sect had been luck.
A definite countermeasure was needed.
And from that moment, Kang Yu began to delve deep.
He thought about it when awake and dreamed about it.
He needed a way to pour everything he had learned from the villagers at once.
Eye-avoidance steps.
Barley grains.
Mouse-fire play.
And everything else—could it all be used together somehow?
He thought and tried endlessly, but success seemed impossible.
He vomited, nosebleeds were frequent.
The highest wall he had ever faced in his life.
Each time, he recalled the wooden boxes from the contest.
When he imagined it, it became real.
Believing alone wasn’t enough.
The box became Mount Tai.
The box became Mount Tai.
Mount Tai, because it was Mount Tai.
Finally, the day before the finals of the branch association.
“Wow···.”
Kang Yu finally achieved the unification of everything.
The answer was not addition, but exclusion.
Not adding, but subtracting—the enlightenment came from removing.
Eye-avoidance steps.
Barley grains.
Mouse-fire play.
And everything else—the core underlying it.
The power to manipulate that core.
As he had told Yongso Baek, there was only a minor problem.
Are you really staking it on that thing you half-learned?
The Heaven-Earth Tiger did not have a high success rate.
It will work.
But Kang Yu did not doubt.
He had experienced it himself—if you believe, it becomes real.
And now.
“···!”
That unshakable belief erupted like lightning in Je-Ae.
Evolution’s pupils widened as he saw thousands of bolts approaching.
‘This is···!’
A raw, unrefined force.
It was the same category of study as his own art, which used primordial external force.
Evolution was genuinely astonished.
“So powerful···!”
At barely twenty years of age.
Even Evolution had only recently begun mastering primordial force.
With help, even then.
And at Zhang Baidong, no one had yet used primordial power.
The child had achieved it alone.
A truly unbelievable moment.
“Five years.”
He had estimated it would take five years for the child to rival the world’s greatest.
No—the current growth rate meant one year, maybe even now.
For the first time, he realized the child might be more dangerous than Zhang Baidong.
He must die.
Resolute, Evolution reached for the lightning.
Using primordial force, both were equal in type.
But because of the nature of the technique, he had first strike advantage.
Sure enough, lightning began to bend oddly around Evolution’s hand.
Immediately after, Kang Yu’s new form pressed down, scattering lightning across the ground.
Clack.
“!”
From the blurred void of Evolution, strong energy surged.
“Blame me.”
Evolution’s sword aimed at Kang Yu’s frozen form—but suddenly, tiny bolts enveloped the child.
Formed into spheres.
Where they touched, something strange occurred.
A sword beyond will.
Evolution hastily retracted his sword.
“Dou Zhuan Xing Yi?”
Shocked, Evolution grabbed the swirling void.
Then again, he cast the new form five units away.
Kang Yu muttered to himself.
“Ah. Failed.”
Evolution frowned deeply.
“Could it be you met Mou Yonghui?”
Catching his breath with a regretful look, Kang Yu met Evolution’s gaze.
“Yes. I met him.”
“······.”
Impossible.
Even with his own Linggong, the distance from Shaanxi to the capital took two days.
The Huanglin Association finals were only a few hours away.
If he had met Mou Yonghui, he could not possibly be here.
Yet the technique he had just used was clearly Mou Yonghui’s.
And only Mou Yonghui had perfected Dou Zhuan Xing Yi.
“Impossible. If you met him, how···.”
“I don’t know. I just thought I had to get here fast, and I just did.”
A statement with no real explanation.
Still, Evolution’s expression changed completely.
A shiver ran down his spine.
Something was rising there—he must wield it.
It was certain.
More dangerous than Zhang Baidong.
Whatever he had to do, he must kill him here.
Fountaining rainbow energy surged in Evolution’s void.
His sword pressed relentlessly on Kang Yu.
“Ugh!”
Judging from the previous attack, the child’s technique resembled Huang Bo-Song’s Imperial King Art.
As long as he did not give him time to finish, he could respond.
“Ughhh!”
Facing such an attack, Kang Yu was truly suffering.
Even Beggar Grandpa, Quarrelsome Grandpa, and Traitor Grandpa combined could not compare to how overwhelmingly strong Evolution was.
Blood streamed as Kang Yu’s clothing tore from the strikes.
“Ughhh.”
Luckily, Evolution did not suddenly use a strange force that froze the body.
Evolution had his strategy, of course.
The child could mimic forms at first sight, then mimic intent, and by the third time, understand the essence of the martial art.
Although using primordial force was different, simply observing and replicating techniques was already breaking common sense.
No room for error.
As Kang Yu’s clothes tore red from the sword strikes…
“Right? Grandpa Evolution.”
Covered in blood, Kang Yu spoke.
Evolution’s sword faltered.
“The villagers are doing well.”
Kang Yu’s trembling voice continued.
“What exactly are you trying to do outside the village?”
Evolution was not deceived.
“You’ve become cunning.”
He had tried to buy time to use the lightning technique.
Indeed, a fist struck his chest in that brief pause.
But unlike before, the lightning that had covered the entire lake was gone.
No defensive force.
Just bare fists.
Evolution was caught off-guard, as the poorly delivered punch was read.
He moved to strike Kang Yu down.
Ah. Failed.
For some reason, that phrase crossed his mind.
Just after the child had tried to add lightning to Dou Zhuan Xing Yi and failed.
Bare fists.
A shiver ran down Evolution’s spine.
A lifetime of instincts as the world’s strongest warned him.
He twisted his body hastily.
Kang Yu’s voice struck his ears like thunder.
“Enough.”
“···!”
The child’s small fist grazed Evolution’s body.
