Yoe Choin, in Moen Kang Yo's body, stood still atop the newly reinforced gate wall. His glowing blue eyes scanned the coordinates of the 50 Mount Hua Sect warriors now trapped inside Zone A.
"Defense SOP active,"
Choin hissed.
"Load analysis initiated."
The Mount Hua disciples, accustomed to moving as lightly as falling flower petals, were instantly disoriented. Their finely tuned breathing technique was disrupted by the sonic resonance of the underground bells.
"Elder! This ground... The Qi in our feet refuses to stabilize!"
shouted Song Jin, trying to stab his thin sword into the ground to maintain his balance.
Elder Han-Seung snorted angrily. He leaped high into the air, his golden plum blossom robes fluttering. As a Mastery (Architect) stage practitioner, he was able to manipulate the air around him with dense Qi energy.
"A cheap trick!"
roared Han-Seung.
"You're just using old machines to scare us! Students! Use the 'Petal Drift' technique! Don't touch the ground for more than a millisecond!"
Hearing the command, the fifty white-clad warriors surged forward. They resembled a beautiful yet deadly storm of plum blossom petals, aiming for the necks of the Evernight disciples manning the barricade.
"Jin-Pyo! Target enters the 'Shock Load' area!"
Choin commanded, his voice echoing from the tower.
Jin-Pyo, the "Model Coolie," stepped forward to the front lines. He wore tens of kilograms of Black Iron plate armor previously thought impossible to use in combat. Behind him, seven members of the Demolition Unit formed a turtle formation, wielding massive steel shields.
KLANG! KLANG! KLANG!
Mount Hua's thin swords slammed into the Demolition Unit's armor and shields. Normally, Mount Hua's speed would easily find gaps in the armor. However, thanks to Choin's "Foreman's Eye," every joint of the Demolition Unit's armor had been reinforced with special bolts and the load distribution was seamless.
"Successful force distribution,"
Choin muttered.
"Now, give them the demolition bill."
"DESTROY!" Jin-Pyo roared.
The Demolition Unit didn't swing their swords elegantly. They used the Heavenly Demonic Heavy Sword technique, Technique 1: Earth-Splitting Demon Strike.
BRAAAKKKKK!
Five Mount Hua disciples were thrown back with shattered collarbones. For them, fighting the Demolition Unit wasn't like fighting a warrior, but like trying to deflect a block of high-strength concrete falling from a hundred stories high.
Seeing his forces begin to crumble due to Evernight's "management efficiency," Elder Han-Seung couldn't take it anymore. He dashed past the front ranks, his sword emitting a piercing pink light.
"Moen Kang Yo! Face me if you have a life to spare!"
Han-Seung shouted, unleashing the 'Grand Plum Blossom Explosion' technique.
Choin leaped down from the ten-meter-high wall. He landed with a tiny tremor a testament to his mastery of gravitational distribution within his Internal Finishing Stage 3 body.
"Foreman... let me destroy his old face!"
the voice of the real Moen Kang Yo growled internally, igniting a thick black mist around their bodies.
"Curb your ego, Boss. This opponent has a higher Qi density than us. He's an 'Architect' level,"
Choin mentally retorted.
"We won't win by pure strength. We'll win by sabotaging his movement structure."
Han-Seung attacked with 100 thrusts per second. To the naked eye, the attacks were invisible. However, in Choin's eyes, wielding the Blueprint, each thrust had a clear path of force.
"Attack vector: One o'clock... three o'clock... downward lateral... 15-degree angle,"
Choin whispered.
Choin didn't draw his sword from its sheath. He simply used the Black Iron Heavy Sword's incredibly heavy scabbard to block each thrust with minimal movement.
"Why don't you draw your sword, Demon?!"
Han-Seung shouted, his face starting to sweat as each time his sword struck Choin's scabbard, he felt a recoil that disrupted the meridian flow in his hand.
"Because you don't deserve my 'New Material,'"
Choin replied coldly.
"Han-Seung, you waste too much Qi on appearances. Look at your feet... every time you attack, your footing shifts two inches forward. In construction, that's called 'Differential Settlement' uneven foundation settlement. And soon, your building will tilt completely."
Amidst this tactically slow battle, Gwi-Hyuk moved like a ghost among the fifty Mount Hua disciples, breaking every sword that tried to approach Choin. Baek-Un, from atop the wall, continued to issue instructions with signal flags, luring the remaining Mount Hua troops toward Zone C, which had been rigged with hydraulic traps.
"Miss Shiri... look at that,"
Wei whispered from afar in the forest, watching the battle.
Namgung Shiri clutched her chest, her eyes unable to tear away from Moen Kang Yo, who appeared so calm amidst the storm of attacks from the Mastery-level Elders.
"He doesn't fight like a wild demon,"
Shiri muttered softly.
"He fights as if he's a landowner chasing away pests that are disturbing his foundation. The integrity of his soul... truly frightening."
Han-Seung realized that he was running out of time. He concentrated all his Qi into the tip of his sword, creating a dazzling, gigantic plum blossom aura.
"DESTROY WITH THE RUINS OF YOUR CULT!"
Han-Seung charged in an absolute vertical attack. Choin narrowed his eyes, his right hand finally grasping the hilt of his black sword.
"Demon Boss... now!"
A blast of pitch-black energy containing the logic of a foreman and the bloodlust of a demon fused together, ready to meet the brunt of the Mount Hua Sect's greatest shockwave.