Chapter 60: Chapter 60
Gyeon Woo-young put strong force into his buckling knees to hold out and glared at Jang Geon.
“What… sorcery is this again…?”
“Have you ever heard the roar of a tiger?”
“Wh-what?”
There was such a story. That within the roar of a tiger lay extremely low vibrations imperceptible to human ears, and anyone who heard those vibrations would experience unknown fear, fatigue, and helplessness. Jang Geon had reproduced those vibrations by vibrating his blade, and by stamping a powerful foot-stomp midway, he delivered a shock to his opponent’s qi and blood, which were already shaken by the sound and vibration.
As if playing a prank, Jang Geon casually traced lines in empty air with the blade in his hand. Simultaneously, Gyeon Woo-young felt the tinnitus in his ears intensify as dizziness washed over him. Gritting his teeth, he raised the internal energy of his entire body.
“Grrr… You bastard…! Using such petty tricks…!”
Whether he had raised his internal force recklessly without considering the consequences, faint heat shimmers even rose over his body. With a flush red face, he roared—“Keu-heong!”—and leaped forward to pounce.
The sword he struck down collided with Jang Geon’s blade.
A brief spark flew as a strange humming sound—weeeing—echoed from Jang Geon’s blade. Although Gyeon Woo-young felt his head buzz slightly from it, he felt it manageable once he shouted and raised his internal energy. Thus he swung his sword, yelling once more.
Right then, Jang Geon stamped his foot down—thud.
“Ugh…!”
At that single step, Gyeon Woo-young felt the qi and blood of his entire body shake as strength drained from his legs. However, unable to simply fall to his knees, he quickly raised his internal energy again and charged at Jang Geon.
“You villain—!”
In his movements now, nothing resembling proper form could be seen. With a face contorted like a fiend, he stomped the floor with loud thuds and swung his sword haphazardly. Still, because the internal energy contained in every single action was monstrous, the top of the pavilion that was not even fully built was turning into a ruin.
Slicing through wooden pillars, breaking walls, and scattering stacked materials recklessly, Gyeon Woo-young pursued Jang Geon. However, Jang Geon parried and evaded all those attacks, allowing no effective hits.
And once again, he stamped his foot down—thud.
“You…! You bastard…!”
Staggering at that single step while moving like a beast, Gyeon Woo-young stomped the floor—boom!—just as Jang Geon did, and straightened his body. Bloodshot eyes with burst blood vessels and bloody streams trickling from his ears made him look even more ferocious.
“Kaaaaah—!”
Gyeon Woo-young bounded up into the air, gripped his sword with both hands, and struck down like a hammer. Exhaling a breath, Jang Geon raised his blade, intending to deflect it. However, far too much internal force was loaded into Gyeon Woo-young’s sword.
Edge met edge, emitting a thunderous roar that made one doubt whether it was truly metal clashing against metal. Simultaneously, a tremendous load was applied beneath Jang Geon’s feet, and the floor of the pavilion top, already weakened by the havoc wrought by the two, could endure no longer and collapsed downward.
Even while falling as the floor collapsed, Jang Geon and Gyeon Woo-young swung their weapons targeting each other’s lives. In that brief moment falling from a height of ten feet, the blades of the two martial artists clashed three times. Afterward, Jang Geon landed soundlessly on the floor in a stable stance, while Gyeon Woo-young stomped both feet onto the floor with a thudding sound. The moment he landed like that, he tried to charge at Jang Geon.
But right then, Jang Geon stamped his foot down again.
Gyeon Woo-young felt his head buzz briefly as if struck by something. As steps were taken, it was growing stronger and stronger. The strange thing was that the foot-stomp stamping the floor produced a quieter sound than the previous step.
“Y-you bastard…! Jang Geon… I will kill you…! Not only you… but your brother, your sister-in-law! All of your family too—!”
Unable to gather his senses since the blade vibrated, Gyeon Woo-young simply shouted out of pure rage and charged at Jang Geon. Blood vessels had burst not only in his ears but also in both eyes, streaming tears of blood down his face. Even so, the ensuing attacks had become far too monotonous, allowing Jang Geon to lightly deflect them while even opening his mouth.
“You really are a hopeless fellow. Even if you beat me here, would you have the time for that? The Dark Dragon Corps has already confirmed your corruption.”
“Corruption, corruption! I merely wished to maintain my dignity!”
He shouted bellowing as he swung his sword. Unable to control his internal force, a fierce blue energy dripped continuously from his sword.
“I am a commandant of the Imperial Army! A senior commandant granted the title of Fierce Tiger by none other than His Imperial Majesty! Why must someone like me come to a desolate land filled with nothing but sand and dust to rot away! What is so important about this land!”
At that moment, his sword moved several times faster than before. If only for a split second, even Jang Geon missed that movement. Immediately after, blood spurted from Jang Geon’s left shoulder.
“Dark Dragon Corps? They are nothing more than a gathering of thugs and scoundrels holding an edict that is beyond old—worn-out—as their shield! Insects who sucked up so much capital over a hundred years yet failed to even pinpoint the location of the Demonic Palace!”
Slicing Jang Geon’s shoulder, his sword accelerated once more. This time, Jang Geon raised his blade to block, but failed to block it completely, sustaining a wound to his flank.
“I shall leave this land and return to the Central Plains! If I must offer a thousand gold taels for that, I will do so! And if I must kill the merchants of this New Continent for that thousand gold taels, I will gladly do so as much as it takes!”
Shouting thus, Gyeon Woo-young swung his fast sword once more. The blade flashed a white ray of light, aiming for Jang Geon’s neck.
Right then, Jang Geon’s blade and hand momentarily vanished. Moving faster than the eye could follow, the blades collided with a sharp clanging sound—jjang!—and Gyeon Woo-young’s sword was repelled back significantly. Simultaneously, a long horizontal wound opened across his chest, spurting blood. Parrying the sword and counterattacking like that, Jang Geon whipped his body around and kicked Gyeon Woo-young’s body away. Gyeon Woo-young couldn’t even utter a single groan as he was pushed straight back.
Straightening up afterward, Jang Geon spoke.
“Kidnapping a child and severing her finger to threaten her father was simply for the sake of returning to the Central Plains. You’re not just a hopeless fellow, you’re a splendid son of a bitch.”
Bleeding profusely from his chest, Gyeon Woo-young heard those words and tried to rush over howling as if he had become a real beast. Right then, Jang Geon stepped one foot forward. Compared to his previous foot-stomps, a light vibration sounded with a very soft thump.
“Keu-ack…!”
However, to Gyeon Woo-young, it was the strongest shock among all foot-stomps so far. In an instant, his vision blurred while tinnitus echoed as though his skull would explode, and his internal energy, having lost control, raged wildly, tearing through his qi and blood. Muscles across his entire body shuddered, unable to exert force. Yet even in a situation where he felt as if his soul were leaving his body, Gyeon Woo-young held his sword tightly and tried to control his internal energy.
Jang Geon hung his blade low in his right hand, facing him in a natural posture stepped one pace forward. Although his hair was messy and blood flowed from his shoulder and flank, it was a world of difference from Gyeon Woo-young, who was hideously contorted while bleeding profusely from every orifice of his face. Gyeon Woo-young seemed even angrier at that, gritting his teeth as he glared at Jang Geon.
Facing him with such a calm demeanor, Jang Geon slowly took one step forward. Unlike the foot-stomps that echoed with grand vibrations and sounds until now, that step produced no sound whatsoever.
Yet the moment that foot stepped onto the floor, Gyeon Woo-young felt a massive vibration reverberating through his whole body, his vision turning stark white and all senses being crushed. He tried to rouse his internal energy somehow and brace his legs, but feeling as though he were crushed by tens of thousands of catties of iron, he ultimately sank to his knees with a thud.
“…”
Yet when he lost the will to fight and fell to his knees like that, his lost five senses slowly returned and his pain subsided. Bewildered, Gyeon Woo-young looked up at Jang Geon with his restored vision while remaining on his knees.
At that moment, moonlight seeped down through the collapsed ceiling of the pavilion. As if cloudy mist had cleared, the moonlight pouring down on Jang Geon was exceptionally bright. And staring up at Jang Geon standing tall under the moonlight and looking down at him, Gyeon Woo-young recalled a certain person.
An existence he had faced only with his limbs and head pressed flat against the floor—when he joined the Imperial Army, when he became a commandant, and when he received the title of Fierce Tiger. The great ruler who looked down upon them from the highest throne when Gyeon Woo-young stole a glance up from among numerous comrades prostrating beside him. The master of the loyalty he held in his heart.
From the man he looked up at after boundless confusion and pain, Gyeon Woo-young saw the image of the Emperor.
“…Who are you?”
“Jang Geon.”
He wanted to say that he wasn’t asking for a name he already knew, but since he didn’t know what answer he wanted to hear either, Gyeon Woo-young let out a hollow laugh and bowed his head deeply. He, a senior commandant of the Imperial Army, had been defeated by a martial artist of the New Continent wilderness. There was nothing more to say.
Sensing that he had completely lost the will to fight, Jang Geon also flicked his blade clean with a swoosh and sheathed it. Rather than severing his neck to kill him right now, he had to find Manager Ju’s daughter first.
Right then, a loud clatter echoed, and a section of the pavilion floor burst open as someone poked her head up. Poking her head through and surveying the surroundings, she spotted Jang Geon and Gyeon Woo-young kneeling before him.
“Jang Geon!”
She was Jeok-sein. Jang Geon wore a puzzled expression watching her push herself up from the floor.
“How did you find your way here?”
“After escorting the two Dark Dragon Corps agents to the Martial Alliance, I was heading toward the pier as well. But hearing shouts and crashing sounds around here, people were buzzing. I knew it must be you, Jang Geon.”
Jang Geon smirked. It was because beads of sweat were formed on Jeok-sein’s face as she climbed up. It seemed she had run around as frantically as he had.
“My, you’ve completely wrecked the upper level of the pavilion. The merchant association will have a thing or two to say… Is this fellow a Dark Dragon Corps agent?”
Looking around at the collapsed ceiling and construction materials strewn messily in all directions, she looked at the kneeling Gyeon Woo-young and asked.
“He is Imperial Army Commandant and Merchant Association Guild Leader Gyeon Woo-young.”
“…Who?”
Jeok-sein widened her eyes roundly, looking back and forth between Jang Geon and Gyeon Woo-young. And only then could she spot the wounds on Jang Geon’s body. She had thought he simply cluttered the area to subdue a Dark Dragon Corps agent, but looking at it now, it seemed the two had engaged in a life-or-death battle.
Leaving the bewildered Jeok-sein, Jang Geon approached in front of Gyeon Woo-young and squatted down.
“Hey. Where is Manager Ju’s daughter?”
“…In the basement of Warehouse No. 13 by the pier.”
Gyeon Woo-young answered keeping his head bowed low. Realizing he had raised havoc in the wrong place while having the child right under his nose, Jang Geon let out a hollow laugh. The reason the Dark Dragon Corps agent disguised as an old man had fled so urgently was also to conceal the hostage’s location.
Jang Geon turned to Jeok-sein and spoke.
“There’s one more guy who lost his senses on the upper floor. Please take care of him as well.”
And without waiting for her answer, he bounded up and ran outside the pavilion.
“Wait! Jang Geon! Are you dumping this on me again!”
By the time the startled Jeok-sein tried to catch him, he was already running atop the opposite roof. Staring blankly at his receding back, Jeok-sein let out a deep sigh. Then she approached the floor hatch she had opened to climb up, looked down, and shouted.
“Hurry up and climb up! What are you doing being so slow!”
“W-we’re coming, Senior! Coming!”
“We’re coming up!”
There, the patrol officers whom Jeok-sein had gone to the Martial Alliance to bring along were climbing up. Urging them on, Jeok-sein turned her gaze back to Gyeon Woo-young, who remained kneeling without any movement. His eyes were open and he was breathing, but he didn’t twitch a muscle, looking as though his soul had departed.
Jeok-sein found it hard to imagine what kind of method Jang Geon had used to shatter the will to fight of someone who was a true Imperial Army commandant. And her head began to throb at the complex political battle between the Martial Alliance and the Imperial Army that would erupt once that man was escorted to headquarters.
The Martial Alliance Leader, wielding the Righteous Dragon Sword, would try to suppress the martial activities of the Imperial Army and Dark Dragon Corps using him as leverage, while the Imperial Army side would use any tactic—whether concessions or threats—to hide their embarrassment as much as possible.
Jeok-sein only hoped that no innocent people would be hurt in that process.
* * *
Ju San-yeong was squirming on the floor of the dim basement. It was an effort to somehow undo her two hands tied behind her back. However, the thick rope allowed not a millimeter of slack, and her skin, chafed by exerting strength continuously since last night, was raw, red, and smarted, bleeding profusely.
Yet Ju San-yeong could not stop. Because if she didn’t do even that, the guard warriors who died protecting her, her father who tried to stop her, and her severed left ring finger tangled up inside her mind. The tears that had stopped last night trickled down once more before she knew it.
Right then, a rattling noise sounded from the tightly shut iron door atop the stairs. Hearing that sound, Ju San-yeong could not help but shudder. The last time that iron door opened and someone descended, he severed her finger.
However, the iron door only rattled without opening. Then, at a certain moment, even that rattling sound stopped. Because of that, just as Ju San-yeong looked up at the door with bewildered eyes, a random clanging noise—chaang—echoed. After that, the door opened.
Ju San-yeong closed her eyes and turned her body away from the bluish dawn light streaming in through the creaking open iron door. She trembled in fear that he might be trying to sever another finger.
The person who opened the door descended the stairs step by step and approached her. And kneeling beside her, he grasped the bound rope. That touch was so gentle that Ju San-yeong opened her eyes without realizing it and turned to look at him.
Even while fatigued from a life-and-death struggle through the night, Jang Geon gave a light smile to the girl whose eyes were brimming with tears.
“Let’s go home now.”