Chapter 51: Chapter 51
Jang I-seo, disguised as the assassin, pulled down his mask. Then gripped his jaw and peeled away the facial skin.
“Skin disguise?”
Sa Do-cheol stared blankly at the shocking sight. A face so perfectly ordinary that a passing glance would forget it instantly. Only then did he meet him. The Seventh Young Master’s adjutant Jang I-seo, the very man he’d wanted to face.
“This makes no sense. You went to all this trouble just to meet me alone? Why? Why?”
He was genuinely curious. What scheme lay behind this. But Jang I-seo’s intent was simpler than anything.
“Why? Didn’t you hear from the Hall Master?”
“Hall Master?”
“Guardian Dragon Hall Master. I distinctly asked him to pass the message. That I’d be collecting your apology.”
“Hah.”
He remembered. Such a communiqué had indeed arrived. He’d torn it up immediately, absurd as it was.
“Jang I-seo. Do you realize? You have far too many reasons to die.”
“No. But you only have one. Apologize. That’s all you need to do. Then you don’t die. Alright, I’ll count to ten.”
Sa Do-cheol’s twisted lips dropped. His eyes held nothing but killing intent.
“Are you confident?”
“No.”
Sa Do-cheol frowned, questioning with his eyes. No? Then what? What possessed him to appear alone so fearlessly? Jang I-seo answered with a refreshing smile.
“Not confident. Certain.”
FWIP! That very instant, Sa Do-cheol’s form vanished and appeared before Jang I-seo in a single breath. Tremendous speed. And immediately, his fist, loaded with steel rings, launched.
Jang I-seo crossed his arms and blocked.
THUD!
Two furrows carved into the ground. CRACK! Only after smashing through a tree did his body stop.
He’d merely blocked, yet both arms surged with pain as if shattered. Jang I-seo marveled.
‘He wasn’t even trying, and it’s this strong. Pure power alone rivals the Guardian Dragon Hall Master.’
He meant it. If the internal energy in his body had still been the old turbid mishmash, his bones might have been pulverized.
“Impressive.”
Sa Do-cheol was equally startled. He hadn’t expected the man to block his five-tenths strike barehanded.
“So you’re no ordinary Seventh Grade Ghost after all.”
“Not quite.”
“Not quite?”
“I’m Third Grade now.”
Jang I-seo smirked. Sa Do-cheol let out a hollow laugh of disbelief. Then spoke with an even colder expression.
“First, I’ll break that mouth.”
VWOOM!
Explosive energy gathered in Sa Do-cheol’s body. With a sonic boom, he shot forward like a streak of light. Movement on a different dimension from before. Not five tenths, but seven. Power enough to pulverize boulders. A cocky adjutant like this was nothing.
“Die.”
FWISH!
Sa Do-cheol’s fist descended like a death sentence, already point-blank.
But,
‘Laughing?’
Even in that moment, Jang I-seo kept his head lowered, lips curving upward. And spoke.
“Done counting. Ten.”
BZZZT! At that very instant, black lightning qi erupted from Jang I-seo’s body.
『Thunder Circulation Method』
KWAANG!
Thunder roared through the forest.
*
Sa Do-cheol and Sa Ho-jeong.
The Sa brothers, born in Don-u Village, had been extraordinary since childhood.
Even as infants, they possessed grip strength rivaling grown men. Their eyes were fierce as beasts. Superior bone structure and an innate killing instinct, divorced from any morality.
That was the Sa brothers.
They first killed at early summer, a neighbor’s child their age. The reason: the child hadn’t shared a pastry.
Their parents, gentler by nature, turned themselves in to the Guardian Dragon Hall. That day, the brothers were thrown into Duora Prison, called the living hell on earth.
Sa Do-cheol was nine. Sa Ho-jeong was seven.
Duora Prison, where even demonic warlords struggled to survive, became the turning point of their lives.
They caught the eye of the previous generation’s great warlord, the Thousand-Evil Asura, who sought heirs.
Ten years later.
When they emerged from Duora Prison, no one could stop the Sa brothers.
The devastating martial arts learned from Thousand-Evil Asura. The cruel techniques learned from Duora Prison’s inmates. Natures born steeped in evil.
Starting with the parents who’d imprisoned them, the brothers’ sins and reputation accumulated over twenty years.
So he was confident. A mere adjutant from a Seventh Grade Ghost background would grovel and beg.
But.
But why…
“Gah!”
Thud. Sa Do-cheol’s massive legs buckled against the filthy dirt. His eyes still held bewildered disbelief. Blood dripped from his nose.
What had happened.
Black lightning flashed. When he came to, he was kneeling among shattered trees, bleeding.
His body felt as heavy as a stone pile battered beneath a waterfall. Chills crawled along his spine.
Why? Why on earth?
Footstep, footstep. Just then, footsteps reached him. Only then did Sa Do-cheol face the reality he’d desperately denied. The reason for all this was the man approaching him now.
A grotesque darkness of lightning qi, mismatched against that utterly ordinary face.
Seventh Young Master’s Adjutant Jang I-seo.
“Did you truly think you could beat me? Is that why you called me out?”
There had to be another motive. But apparently not.
At Sa Do-cheol’s question, Jang I-seo answered low, his eyes utterly devoid of emotion.
“Capturing you was the plan. But luring you here was for a different reason.”
“What do you mean?”
“The Seventh Young Master defeating Sa Do-cheol would be premature.”
“Then…”
“That’s right. You’re going to disappear. Cornered, you vanished without a trace. Like smoke. In reality, you die here today. But officially.”
“Heh.”
This man was truly insane. A madman who’d lost his mind from too much imagination.
But one thing he had to acknowledge.
“You’re stronger than expected. Considerably. I’ll give you that.”
VWOOM!
Power surged into Sa Do-cheol’s massive legs. His body rose slowly. Simultaneously, an even greater aura erupted.
The Asura Annihilation Art, learned from Thousand-Evil Asura. Eight tenths.
“What I want from you isn’t acknowledgment. It’s an apology. Is that so hard?”
“Puffed up over edging ahead with a cheap trick.”
“You think so? I’m holding back quite a bit right now.”
Jang I-seo shook his head as if disappointed by the lack of appreciation. Then slowly raised his gaze.
FWOOSH!
An overwhelming killing intent shot toward Sa Do-cheol. The sensation of being stabbed all over with daggers.
“You…”
Sa Do-cheol had been surprised many times today. The adjutant’s unexpected strength. And now, this dense killing intent from such an unremarkable face.
Even beasts recognized their own kind. At this level, it was safe to call him a kindred killing spirit.
“Kgh… heh heh. You were wearing a mask.”
“Let’s be precise. Not a mask. I’m being consumed by demonic aura. Because unlike you, I’m not evil.”
Jang I-seo shrugged playfully. Sa Do-cheol’s expression turned glacial.
“How entertaining.”
“Then keep being entertained.”
BZZZT! Black lightning qi erupted from Jang I-seo once more, and his form vanished.
The Thunder Circulation Method was a demonic art of unparalleled rarity, converting even the Heavenly Demon’s demonic aura into lightning qi.
Combined with the body tempered by the predecessor’s spirit herb, the Thunder Lord Ginseng, Jang I-seo was now lightning itself.
Sa Do-cheol threw a full-power punch at empty air. BZZZT! With a faint crackle, Jang I-seo’s form materialized beneath the fist, barely deflecting it.
“Sharp instincts too.”
Then, with a taunt, Jang I-seo drove an upward palm strike toward Sa Do-cheol’s jaw. Curled fingertips like a tiger’s claw, ready to tear anything apart.
But the opponent was the Slaughterer, Sa Do-cheol.
No matter how fast, forewarned meant forearmed. SLASH! Sa Do-cheol’s head snapped back. His chin split shallowly, spraying blood.
And in that same instant, Sa Do-cheol grinned like a demon, glared downward, and snatched Jang I-seo’s wrist with his left hand.
“Oh?”
Twisting his body, he slammed Jang I-seo into the ground. THUD!
“Gah!”
Jang I-seo screamed. Sa Do-cheol flipped and drove him into the opposite side of the ground again.
FWISH!
But Jang I-seo wasn’t just taking it this time. He knew that if he went down again, he’d have no way to block the follow-up.
SH-SH-SH-SHWK!
Seven blood lines materialized on Sa Do-cheol’s left wrist in an instant. WHIP! He released Jang I-seo before slamming him down.
“…A dagger?”
Sa Do-cheol looked down at his shredded wrist, face contorting. Meanwhile, Jang I-seo, thrown toward a distant tree rather than the ground, spun through the air, kicked off the trunk, and BZZZT! Vanished again.
“Annoying.”
VWOOM!
An even more overwhelming aura settled into Sa Do-cheol’s body. So intense that the very air around him seemed to warp and crush.
The Asura Annihilation Art. Nine tenths.
Even he could no longer gauge where his own power ended.
Bloodshot crimson threads bulged in his pupils, darting rapidly. And then, he could sense it. The afterimages that had been invisible, scattering in all directions. Still no solid form. Literally black lightning. That was how fast.
BOOM! Sa Do-cheol stomped his right foot hard into the ground.
FW-FW-FW-FWISH! Hundreds of rocks and dirt clods shot upward.
“Keep running, then!”
Thousands of stones suspended in the air like qi blades. Sa Do-cheol’s fists blurred into countless afterimages, firing in all directions.
TH-TH-TH-TH-TH-THUD!
Steel rings and stones collided in rapid succession. Like Thunderquake Mines detonating, dirt and gravel sprayed outward as concealed weapons.
He’d punched while regulating his qi to shatter and scatter the stones rather than pulverize them.
A realm of skill beyond belief.
It was as if a veteran master of the Sichuan Tang family had unleashed Heaven-Raining Flowers.
And facing this, Jang I-seo felt genuine dread.
‘Not just powerful. Precise. Delicate.’
He’d assumed there was nothing but brute force behind that appearance. To control qi this exquisitely. Filling the very space with projectiles to pin down his movement. He hadn’t anticipated that.
Clk. As a result, Jang I-seo was forced to stop moving and deflect.
SH-SH-SH-SH-SHWK!
Sharp cutting sounds rang out. One, two, three… forty-seven. And the moment he bisected the final grain of sand flying at his eyes.
FWISH!
Sa Do-cheol’s fist materialized from nowhere and drove into Jang I-seo’s abdomen.
THUD!
“Ghk!”
WHIRL, clk! Jang I-seo’s body spun sideways dozens of times before landing on the ground.
He’d barely deflected the fist in that split second, but his clothes tore and a swirling crater mark was gouged into his abdomen.
Internal injury was inevitable. The pain was beyond words.
“…”
Naturally, Sa Do-cheol wasn’t unscathed either. Looking down, he found a dagger buried deep in his ribs, his clothes soaked crimson with blood.
A clash without a single inch yielded!