"M-Moon Master!"
"How could you say such a thing?!"
Had this been an unscripted outburst, unagreed upon beforehand?
The instant the Moon Master's cold derision struck, the Sixth Elder and Eighth Elder on either side of Yul Hwi erupted into a frenzy simultaneously, practically leaping out of their skin.
"Moon Master."
In stark contrast, the Fourth Elder maintained a remarkably composed demeanor, and from this, Yul Hwi was able to discern whose letter had prompted the Moon Master's current behavior.
'What is she trying to do at this point?'
Surely she did not intend to saddle him with some middling high master as his teacher?
He had made it explicitly clear that he had not the slightest intention of staying at the Sun and Moon Gate unless he could become the Moon Master's disciple.
Unsettled by the ominous premise that flashed through his mind, Yul Hwi inwardly shook his head and dismissed it at once.
'No, that's not it. Even if they tried to pin me down by force, the Fourth Elder knows full well I'm not the kind of person who'd take that lying down.'
Unless the Moon Master or two or three elder-level figures committed to shadowing his every move around the clock—
They could not possibly be unaware that constraining his movements was impossible from the outset.
It was precisely out of concern that they might harbor such futile delusions that he had subtly revealed his skill during the sparring sessions on the way here.
If so, the attitude the Moon Master was displaying now should reasonably be interpreted as purely her own independent, spontaneous action.
"Ha, ha ha."
Having finished organizing his thoughts in the span of a heartbeat,
Yul Hwi forcibly pushed blood flow up into his face, adopting a somewhat agitated tone as he retorted sharply, as if protesting.
"'How audacious,' you say. It seems I've come to a place I should not have."
"Hw-Hwi-ah!"
"No! The Moon Master did not mean it that way...!"
"All of you, be still! The Moon Master is speaking, is she not?"
"F-Fourth Elder!"
"What has gotten into you all of a sudden-?!"
Just moments ago at the gate, they had reached a consensus through unspoken glances!
Faced with the Fourth Elder's sudden and drastic shift—throwing a wrench into things with perfect composure—the other two elders floundered in dismay, their distress plain to see.
Her unyielding expression seemed to declare that whatever they had agreed upon among themselves carried no weight before the Moon Master's decision.
'Fourth Elder. So you insist on playing it this way.'
And upon confirming this change of heart—if it could even be called that—Yul Hwi resolved to escalate his defiance even further in the face of a situation he was already in too deep to withdraw from.
'The Moon Vein can't let me go. Unless the Moon Master is a complete fool, there's absolutely no chance of that.'
It was not merely because of his unwavering confidence in the staggering talent his new body possessed.
It was the heavy losses these people had been forced to endure in order to obtain this body with its Nine Yin Severed Meridians.
The tower of blood debts forged with the Jinju Eon Family, Songshan Shaolin Temple, and Mount Hua—and the present reality where those debts could no longer be undone.
He simply knew all too well that the only way to recoup every last one of those losses was through his admission alone.
"I had, in fact, already vaguely considered that things might come to this. No matter what assurances the elders give, the final decision rests with someone else entirely."
"Oh, oh dear...!"
"I never said I would not accept you as a disciple of this vein."
Cutting off the Eighth Elder, whose face had gone ashen as she let out a wail, the Moon Master murmured in a deeply sunken voice.
"You must become a disciple of this vein."
"I regret to say, but if I cannot become the Moon Master's disciple, then the Sun and Moon Gate is nothing more to me than an irreconcilable mortal enemy who annihilated my family."
"Th-that...!"
"Hwi-ah!"
"Enough, both of you! Come here this instant!"
As the situation careened inexorably toward ruin, the two elders blanched and balked, only for the Fourth Elder to seize them from behind and forcibly drag them away.
Even before this absurd spectacle, the Moon Master's cold sneer did not waver in the slightest.
"Tsk tsk! This is precisely why I call it audacious. This gate has solemn rules, and among them are those from which no one—not even I myself—is exempt."
"Am I to understand, then, that the esteemed elders here gave their word carelessly, without even properly considering such trivial matters?"
"......How dare a whelp like you utter such insolence about the elders of this vein?"
FLASH!
When a gleam of light flickered in the Moon Master's obsidian eyes, the atmosphere surrounding her was instantly and utterly transformed.
Her face, which had merely appeared cold, had shifted into something from which a lethal strike could be unleashed at any moment.
If there was any mercy to be found, it was that she did not actually project her aura to apply pressure.
Had the situation deteriorated that far, he truly would have had to turn tail and flee without a backward glance.
But the fact that she exercised such restraint despite his rather provocative barbs told him—
'As I thought. She has some other ulterior motive.'
And on top of that, she likely also intended to forcibly temper the unruly disposition he had been flaunting with his arrogant behavior.
A clue that emerged at just the right moment lent further weight to this speculation.
"A solemn rule of the Sun and Moon Gate from which even the esteemed Moon Master herself is not exempt."
'I think I know what it is.'
"Given the current circumstances, if the rule you're referring to in your reluctance to accept me as a disciple is the one requiring mastery of the foundational arts to break through the wall of the pinnacle before receiving instruction in elemental martial arts—is that what you mean?"
Having finally grasped why the Moon Master was picking this senseless quarrel, Yul Hwi ventured his guess aloud.
Though in truth, the Moon Master, whose fair brows had crumpled into a sharp frown, was focused on an entirely different part of his words.
"......I never expressed any reluctance."
"However, I have already reached the pinnacle through my own power, and moreover, I was born with the Nine Yin Severed Meridians. Would it not be unreasonable to apply such a rule to me as-is?"
"I said I never expressed any reluctance."
"Hm. Then how about this? Since it is quite likely the Sun Vein will raise objections about fairness down the line, perhaps I could take the same examination the ordinary martial artists of the Sun and Moon Gate undergo—without using my Extreme Yin Qi—"
"You rotten little—! Did I not just say! I never expressed any reluctance—!"
WHOOOOSH!
HWIIIIIIIII!
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
"?!"
'This is the Moon Master's cold qi!'
His deliberate tactic of ignoring his counterpart and prattling on had paid off.
Thanks to it, he could now catch a glimpse—however partial—of the Moon Master's strength, which he had only vaguely estimated before.
The problem was—
"It seems words alone will not suffice for this one!"
"Moon Master!"
"Please calm yourself!"
"Oh, oh no! Hwi-ah! Dodge, quickly!"
—that he had to somehow endure that enormous ice spike, which froze the surrounding air in an instant and expanded at a terrifying rate, all by himself.
"All elders, stand back!"
"?!"
"Urgh!"
"...!"
Even the nearby elders were rendered unable to block the ice spike—no, that pointed ice pillar—as it hurtled down at a vicious diagonal angle.
The Moon Master had deliberately constricted their movements, locking them in place so they could not so much as twitch.
As a result—
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
'I don't think I've received this rough a greeting even at the Demon's Gate.'
The ice spike, which had swelled to a full width of one jang and an astonishing length of three jang, was now entirely Yul Hwi's burden to bear alone.
'If this, too, is a test, then so be it.'
But he felt no particular worry.
Unlike with the elders, the Moon Master's aura did not shackle his feet, nor did it impose the slightest restriction on him unleashing his full power on the spot.
So if he deemed himself outmatched, he could simply dodge.
Of course—
'As if I'd do that.'
Having already concluded this was part of a test, he naturally harbored not the faintest intention of doing so.
If he was to break free from the narrow confines imposed by the Phantom Slaughter Demonic Art and its killing arts, he had to make the Moon Master's supreme techniques his own no matter the cost.
And to do that—
'I have no choice but to weather it with my body.'
The ice spike, now bearing down with ominous force from a mere half-jang away.
Facing that terrible thing, every conceivable method of dealing with it through the Phantom Slaughter Demonic Art cascaded through his mind—
'That won't do.'
Yul Hwi purged every last one of them from his thoughts and poured all his effort into a single task: channeling his Extreme Yin Qi through the palm centers of both hands.
And then—
"Haaaaaaht!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
From his palm centers, thrust straight forward at eye level, an endless torrent of merciless cold qi erupted—a force that seemed poised to freeze everything in the world.
It was the very first all-out battle of this life, mobilizing every last drop of Extreme Yin Qi dormant within his body.
And from his lips—employing a method that was utterly unfamiliar to him, profoundly inefficient, and brutishly crude, the very style he had despised all his life—
"Krahhhhhht!"
A desperate battle cry, born not of intent but of pure instinct, thundered forth.
"G-good heavens?!"
"My word! They said he had torn down four walls of ice, turning the Nine Yin Severed Meridians into Five Yin Severed Meridians...!"
"You mean to say he accumulated that much Extreme Yin Qi truly on his own, without anyone's guidance?!"
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The ice spike locked in a fierce contest of strength against the savage cold of the Nine Yin Severed Meridians, separated from Yul Hwi's palm centers by less than half a jang.
Witnessing that spine-tingling spectacle firsthand, the three elders could not help but gasp in shock, each in her own way.
"Hm. So you did have a card up your sleeve after all, is that it?"
Only the Moon Master, still maintaining her indolent posture with legs crossed and chin propped on one hand, gazed down with inscrutable eyes.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
CRACK CRACK CRACK!
"Gh, ghhhhk!"
'She's not adding any more cold qi, so how...!'
In stark contrast, Yul Hwi—doggedly pouring more force into his palm centers, grinding the ice spike away from the front inch by inch—was staggered beyond belief by the Moon Master's prowess, which exceeded anything he had imagined.
Unlike Yul Hwi, who was locked in this desperate struggle, the Moon Master had merely flicked her hand and sent this monstrous thing hurtling down with casual ease.
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
"Krrgh!"
'Damn! Should I have just dodged?!'
The moment his concentration slipped even slightly, this insane mass of ice would crush him flat!
The gap was that enormous.
Enough to utterly shatter the pride he had harbored in overcoming the Nine Yin Severed Meridians through his own power and bending it to his will.
On the other hand, he also felt a faint twinge of regret for having been too complacent.
When all was said and done, in terms of martial arts, the Phantom Slaughter Demonic Art was the only thing he possessed, yet here he was, locked in a head-on clash of Yin-Cold Qi Arts with the Moon Master.
But what could he do about it now?
There was nothing for it but to wring out every last ounce of strength he had left, with the resolve that it was either death or unconsciousness.
"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH! KRAAAAAAAAHHHH!"
A manifestation of his unyielding will—to endure this grueling trial no matter what.
That will at last stirred a small vortex of change within Yul Hwi's body, which had recently reached a plateau.
BOOM CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH CRASH!
CRACK! CRACK CRACK CRACK!
CRACK CRACK CRACK CRACK!
Immediately after, the Extreme Yin Qi that had begun surging at a terrifying speed ground away more than half the Moon Master's ice spike in a single burst.
"Oh?"
In that moment, even the Moon Master herself rounded her eyes in astonishment.
And before that small gasp had fully dissipated into the frigid air—
Hissssss.
"Hah! Haahh! Haaahh......!"
Above the head of Yul Hwi, so drained that sweat had soaked through to the tips of his hair, the ice spike that had menaced him so savagely disintegrated into a haze of white powder and scattered like frost.