Chapter 179: Chapter 179
Caught in the middle, Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong froze up and glanced back and forth at Jang Geon and the Grand Academician.
Ever since Jang Geon addressed the Grand Academician as ‘old man’, the two of them had merely been looking at each other without saying a word. Circumstantially, it seemed clear that Jang Geon had noticed the Grand Academician’s trick. The problem was how that had been possible.
Even Imperial Army double tone transmission was a technique not easily found in the world, but the double tone transmission the Grand Academician had used when revealing his identity and giving orders to them didn’t even produce an outward false sound. That was also one of the reasons why the two hadn’t dared to doubt the old man’s identity.
“Step back.”
At that moment, the Grand Academician spoke. Tensely looking back and forth between Jang Geon and him, Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong let out a sigh of relief internally and quickly retreated into the alleyway behind the Grand Academician. Thanks to that, Jang Geon, standing in the middle of the path with his sword planted, and the Grand Academician, standing leisurely with his hands behind his back, were left alone facing each other.
The Grand Academician spoke again first.
“I am Sunwoo Hyeon. In the Central Plains, I hold an insignificant official post.”
“Jang Geon.”
At Jang Geon’s concise reply, Sunwoo Hyeon tilted his head slightly.
“Is that all? As far as I know, there are several names used to refer to you. Such as Azure Dragon Blade or Dragon Resisting Je Clan.”
“My name is Jang Geon.”
At Jang Geon’s following response, Sunwoo Hyeon chuckled heartily.
“…False fame is merely false fame. For a young friend to be indifferent to renown is quite to my liking. Still, isn’t something like Azure Dragon Blade stylish? Azure Dragon Blade Jang Geon. A perfect sobriquet to introduce oneself.”
This time, there was no reply from Jang Geon. Placing the planted sword in front of him, he stood motionlessly looking at Sunwoo Hyeon. Viewed favorably, he was standing proudly; viewed unfavorably, it seemed as if he were picking a fight to brawl right then with his entire body.
Looking at him, a faint smile hung at the corners of Sunwoo Hyeon’s lips.
“Right, how did you hear the double tone transmission? Furthermore, it wasn’t just ordinary double tone transmission, but a technique worthy of being called a secret transmission.”
Jang Geon did not answer this time either. Only then did Sunwoo Hyeon’s face slowly settle down as well.
“…Is it that offensive to you that I used Captain Wi to observe your martial prowess?”
“What are you going to do after seeing my martial prowess?”
“What else. Merely wanting to experience the martial arts of the most rising young master in the New Continent right now. Who knows? If I observe your martial arts, return to the Central Plains, and speak well to His Majesty the Emperor, His Majesty might bestow a sword and status upon you, just like the current Murim Alliance Leader?”
A sword and status bestowed by the Emperor. Considering the solid stature of the thousand-year Empire, it would be a tremendous honor. If his clan in the Central Plains found out, they might hold a banquet in joy, and it would naturally be of great benefit to the Jang Family Merchant Guild on the New Continent as well.
However, looking at Sunwoo Hyeon with indifferent eyes, Jang Geon slowly shook his head.
“Unneeded.”
Sunwoo Hyeon’s expression now changed not into mere interest, but into a ‘look at this fellow?’ manner.
“Unneeded… As a martial artist who cultivates martial arts, and as a subject of the Empire, how can you say such a thing? Even Helian Wi-jin received His Majesty’s gift to become the current Murim Alliance Leader. Do you not know what it means for His Majesty to acknowledge you?”
The eyes of the old man saying so were shining strangely. However, Jang Geon remained calm as ever. No, it seemed more correct to say he was tranquil.
His hand moved slowly to touch the handle of the sword planted in front of him. His gaze, which had been looking at Sunwoo Hyeon, also directed toward those fingertips.
With a face lost in thought like that, he spoke.
“…The people I wish to be acknowledged by are not the Emperor.”
Not only Sunwoo Hyeon, but Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong, who had retreated to the back, also twitched. Jang Geon’s brief reply showed no respect or courtesy toward the Emperor. However, possessed of long experience, Sunwoo Hyeon quietly listened to those words for now, and since the eldest had stepped up without saying anything, Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong kept their mouths tightly shut.
Erasing the smile at the corners of his mouth, Sunwoo Hyeon asked.
“Then by whom do you wish to be acknowledged? The Murim Alliance Leader? Ah, since you said ‘people’, it could be the Murim Alliance. Or the martial artists of the New Continent? Perhaps looking broader, the martial artists of the Central Plains across the sea?”
The sword planted upside down. Gazing at that sword, numerous words brushed past Jang Geon’s mind in an instant. As the old man said, being acknowledged by the martial artists of this world would also be good. The Murim Alliance and the martial artists of the New Continent, ancient noble families of the Central Plains, the Imperial Army, and going further, even the strongest Emperor under heaven.
The land he stepped on and lived in now was this world, and therefore, if many people of that world acknowledged and praised Jang Geon’s martial arts, it would be pleasant in its own way.
To those who called him Great Hero or whatever sobriquet every time, he acted transcendentally telling them to just call him by his name, but being human, he did not dislike such fame. Even though he had not lived seeking such things, it was so.
However, the acknowledgment he truly wished to receive was not theirs. That was something impossible to achieve in his current life, yet from another perspective, something that could be achieved so easily.
The people he truly wished to be acknowledged by were the masters of the martial arts he had reproduced, or more precisely, everyone who dreamt of Martial World. That referred to both those who expressed that imagination through lines of text and those who simply fell into daydreams sitting at a desk on some day. Jang Geon occasionally imagined himself standing before those people. He dreamt of the Tai Chi Chuan and Imperial Sword Form he unfolded before them.
Amidst those people, his previous life, young Jang Geon, and the current Jang Geon were all together. They were the martial artists living and breathing inside Jang Geon, and at the same time, Jang Geon himself.
Acknowledging oneself was a difficult task taking a lifetime for some, yet a matter that could happen unexpectedly while greeting the bright morning sunlight for others.
His hand slowly gripped the sword.
“…To see the martial arts of a mere vagabond, you have come quite far.”
Sunwoo Hyeon blinked both eyes upon hearing Jang Geon’s words. It was because he considered it not an answer to the question he asked a moment ago. Believing Jang Geon was diverting the subject, he laughed boisterously and opened his mouth.
“Heo-heo. Isn’t it because your fame has spread so widely that it reached even Chang’an? These days in Chang’an, the unique martial arts ecosystem of the New Continent is a topic of conversation. The sight of life colliding with life in a fleeting moment is like a spark, or like flowers blooming and falling briefly on a spring day. And among them, since the most famous martial artist recently is you, as a martial scholar of the Imperial Palace, how could I not possess curiosity?”
Jang Geon’s gaze looking down at the sword slowly rose to meet Sunwoo Hyeon again. And seeing those eyes, Sunwoo Hyeon felt tension instantly grip his entire body. Jang Geon’s eyes were like a lake so deep that even midday sunlight could not project to its bottom.
“Do you wish to see my martial arts? Then watch closely.”
At that moment, Jang Geon’s hand drew the sword planted upside down. Simultaneously, Sunwoo Hyeon felt as if he were being sucked into Jang Geon’s eyes facing him.
And the entire world lost its color.
The alleyway, which reflected color faintly under the bright moon and twinkling starlight, turned like a drawing divided solely into black and white. At least, so Sunwoo Hyeon felt. Moving inside it were only Jang Geon, who had drawn his sword, and Sunwoo Hyeon. Not to mention Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong behind them, even the wind in the alleyway stopped without moving.
Sunwoo Hyeon realized that this was a manifestation of Jang Geon’s mental realm colliding with his own mental realm. Master meeting master, foreseeing countless moves of each other without drawing a single blade. Finding the single martial sequence in which one would win.
Recalling the cause of this phenomenon and Jang Geon’s age, Sunwoo Hyeon could not help but be astonished. Even the current Emperor had failed to achieve such an attainment at that age. Furthermore, he could not continue that astonishment for long. Jang Geon took a step forward.
At that moment, within the world divided into vivid black and white, countless shadows emerged. All those shadows were every possible variation of martial arts Jang Geon could unfold at that moment, and Sunwoo Hyeon also instinctively drew every possible variation he could unfold into the black-and-white world.
The essence of Imperial Army martial arts unfolded.
The countless martial arts he had learned, created, and woven during his decades of Imperial Palace life. Numerous martial arts divided into Jia-rank or Yi-rank according to difficulty of learning and power, murder techniques refined over a thousand years to be faster and stronger.
Clearly, Sunwoo Hyeon’s stooped, small body expanded several times at that moment, attempting to sweep away all of Jang Geon’s approaching shadows.
As Jang Geon’s first move met Sunwoo Hyeon’s first move like that, the two shadows simultaneously struck each other’s openings and scattered. It was a move of mutual destruction.
Sunwoo Hyeon’s fist unfolded the Jia-rank martial art, Explosive Fist. Facing it, Jang Geon’s sword drew lightning. The lightning severing heaven and earth and the fist shattering everything collided. The fist split apart. However, the lightning also lost its force.
A monstrous tempest poured forth from Sunwoo Hyeon’s palm. It attempted to strike across space and tear Jang Geon to shreds. At that moment, a blazing fire dragon surged forth from Jang Geon’s hand. The tempest could not withstand the heat of the fire dragon and scattered away.
Sunwoo Hyeon extended his tightly clenched fist. It appeared to be a simple straight punch, but within it was contained a gigantic force that would shake the heavens. It was the Quaking Sky Palm.
Facing it, Jang Geon softly unfolded his palm. That palm slid smoothly inside Sunwoo Hyeon’s fist and inner arm, scattering the gigantic force of Quaking Sky and touching his chest. That movement was light as a feather. However, within it was contained a power to collapse a great mountain. The shadow scattered.
Sunwoo Hyeon’s attacks had no duplicate. Every single shadow drew a different martial art. Before long, the shadows began to pour out martial arts unfolded with weapons not currently in hand, such as swords, sabers, spears, whips, or axes. From some point, bizarre martial arts that could in no way be considered Imperial Army martial arts pursuing only faster and stronger force poured out from him as well.
However, in the end, Jang Geon’s and Sunwoo Hyeon’s shadows formed equal numbers, were pushed back, or won.
Passing a certain moment, the movements of the shadows began to merge together. Countless variations and possibilities were converging into a single trajectory.
Sunwoo Hyeon poured out every martial art he had learned all his life. Now in his mind, there was no thought of evaluating or experiencing Jang Geon’s martial arts. Only the mind wishing to win in this moment remained. In the end, a single trajectory remained, the fastest and strongest he could unfold. It seemed impossible to be faster or stronger than this.
During that time, Jang Geon appeared to gradually shake. Unlike Sunwoo Hyeon, who reached the pinnacle of speed and strength, Jang Geon needlessly slowed down suddenly, drew bizarre trajectories, or created shadows that did nothing.
As if struggling to find some breakthrough against Sunwoo Hyeon’s endlessly pouring offense, he eventually gave up. Before Sunwoo Hyeon, where only the essence of Imperial Army martial arts remained, Jang Geon was like a piece of paper fluttering in the wind.
Won. Sunwoo Hyeon thought so. Though feeling flustered at Jang Geon’s surprising attainment unbefitting his age, in the end he had won. So Sunwoo Hyeon pondered how to handle this surprising young master now.
Because it was a supreme attainment, thinking of the future, killing him now was correct. If not killed now, there was no telling what achievement this terrifying talent would reach in the future.
However, for that very reason, if he could recruit him into the Imperial Army, a clue could be obtained for the Imperial Palace’s martial arts to advance to a new stage. Since Princess Yu Seol held great affection for him, and hearing that Jang Geon did not seem to dislike her either, there was also a way to connect the two. Then Jang Geon’s martial arts would naturally become the possession of the Imperial Army.
Personally, he also had a heart that didn’t want to kill a young man with such a promising future. Showing an impassive appearance despite his great fame subtly appealed to his liking as well. Furthermore, Sunwoo Hyeon knew that the protagonist of the novel The Nameless Hero was Jang Geon. Though old, he was also a martial artist, and seeing Jang Geon performing chivalry with martial arts, his heart pounded instinctively. If possible, he wanted to spare him.
Separate from such deliberation, his final trajectory now directed toward Jang Geon. The single blow, the fastest and strongest he could deliver. Facing it, Jang Geon merely seemed to stand still.
And at that moment, within the mental realm that had been only white and black, a single streak of starlight flashed.
“Ah?”
The next moment, Sunwoo Hyeon snapped back to his senses. He blinked his eyes with a dazed expression, then soon realized he was kneeling on his knees. Watching from behind, Wi Sang and Im Sa-yeong were astonished at the sight of Sunwoo Hyeon suddenly flopping onto his knees. To the two who could not peek into the mental world, it appeared as though Sunwoo Hyeon had abruptly knelt the moment Jang Geon drew his sword.
Afterwards, Sunwoo Hyeon slowly raised his head and looked at Jang Geon. And he recalled the flash, that beam of light he had seen at the last moment. It was an entry of distant light, as if viewing stars in the night sky. However, that distance was simultaneously catastrophic. Despite being inside a mental realm rather than reality, it was a starlight that seemed to collapse everything in heaven and earth.
In a very old ancient document written even before an Empire was founded, there were words expressing such starlight. A realm that Sunwoo Hyeon as well as the martial scholars of the Imperial Palace had concluded to be mere exaggeration by ancient people. Forming stars with a sword.
“…Sword Qi Condensing into Astral Force.”