Chapter 74: Chapter 74

Jojo, excited after a long time, puffed out rough breath, as if his vigor hadn’t settled down yet, and attached himself beside Jang Geon. To Jang Geon, it looked like a gesture saying he would fight together.

“Step back, Jojo. You’re exhausted.”

Jang Geon gently pushed away Jojo who approached close, but as if asking what nonsense he was talking about while sweat dripped heavily from his entire body, the guy growled as if he were still hungry for blood. Looking only at what he did, he was no different from a wild beast, not a horse. Seeing that appearance, Jang Geon gave a chuckle.

“Rest while you can rest now. Don’t whine later saying it’s tough while running again.”

At those words, Jojo snapped to his senses and looked toward Yang Goeng and the Great Peace Band who were already far away. The wilderness stretching out straight without large curves caught his eyes. Combined with the sun that began beaming down intensely, it was hard to find another environment so hostile to marching.

Strength completely drained from his muscles that had been squirming across his body. His eyeballs, which had been glistening with killing intent, immediately rolled around seeking if there was any way to play a trick.

Jang Geon shook his head while watching him. And Baek Sa-gyeong, who had been watching that scene expressionlessly, spoke abruptly.

“He’s a smart horse.”

“Yeah. He’s a guy slyer than most people.”

Baek Sa-gyeong slowly took a posture and continued speaking.

“Slyer than a person? Still, a mere beast cannot be smarter than a human. Beings lacking reason cannot understand the flow and intent of the Five Elements, which means that man is the only being capable of achieving the Dao. Heaven, the Five Elements, their mutual generation and overcoming can only be understood by humans.”

Jang Geon, who had been holding his sword lowered, tilted his head slightly. Because something was strange. He could overlook the extreme posture of clutching the sword handle, crouching toward his own body, with only the sword tip accurately targeting Jang Geon. Rather, he even felt a bit of excitement at the thought that he could experience the true Sun-Shooting Sword Art, and that he could encounter traces of those he commonly knew as the Nine Sects, excluding Shaolin.

However, apart from that posture, the atmosphere felt from Baek Sa-gyeong was somehow different.

He was a tall man with a good physique, yet gave the impression of being agile. Seeing him yesterday in Sinsacheon throwing spears and threatening to set fire, Jang Geon had felt a spirit of martial rivalry. Because his outward posture and body allowed him to guess his martial prowess to some extent. Though impossible to know before directly exchanging blades, at least it was certain he was not an unskilled person like other street thugs.

However, Jang Geon’s expression slowly stiffened. Something was strange.

“You…”

Just then, Baek Sa-gyeong moved preemptively. As if a huge invisible bow floated in the air, and with his sword hooked on that bowstring, he pulled back grandly with both hands, he flew as if the force of that bowstring finally threw his entire body forward.

He hid his body behind the sword extending straight forward, becoming a single arrow. It was a strike linear, yet simultaneously faster than a real arrow.

A clanging sound echoed once, and Baek Sa-gyeong’s body passed Jang Geon and came to a stop. However, because the force loaded into his entire body was so strong, even after stopping, he slid straight forward. Thus the two stood back-to-back.

Jang Geon held his blade with both hands lowered downward. The hem of his clothes near his left shoulder smoothly split. His face remained stiffened in expression as before. Seeing that only the hem of his clothes split, Baek Sa-gyeong’s strike had been blocked.

Having held his sword vibrating with a hum for a moment, Baek Sa-gyeong immediately turned his body and attacked Jang Geon. His posture of continuing the offensive right away without flustering even when his strike was blocked seemed to prove that he was not a ragtag who learned martial arts clumsily.

Baek Sa-gyeong’s straight, long sword flashed with a light beam, targeting Jang Geon. Jang Geon also quickly turned his body and blocked his attack.

Baek Sa-gyeong mainly executed thrusting attacks. Executing thrusts holding a sword with one hand puts strain on the wrist and arm due to having to bear the weight of that sword fully. Perhaps to bear that, his right forearm seemed about half a size thicker than average people.

However, he didn’t only execute thrusts. His long sword flexibly moved with thrusting as its main pillar, slashing, striking, and sliding past clashing blades to penetrate deeply into Jang Geon. Baek Sa-gyeong surpassed being simply fast like common martial artists of the New Continent, loaded force into the sword tip, and was surprisingly flamboyant.

Simultaneously, the tips of his feet lightly and rapidly stepped on the ground like a hawk stepping on the ground for an instant to snatch prey, driving Jang Geon back. Though its form wasn’t distinct, in Jang Geon’s eyes, it was clearly a type of footwork.

He wasn’t fast like Commandant Fierce Tiger, nor was he strong like demonic practitioners who awakened demonic arts. However, rather than displaying unhumanlike movements through monstrous internal energy and evil demonic qi like them, he was showcasing martial arts that surpassed limits by adding a handful of internal energy force to the ultimate utilization of the physical body, though not fully established. In Jang Geon’s eyes, it was true martial arts.

However, none of Baek Sa-gyeong’s attacks ever landed an effective hit.

Thrusts penetrating with a flash were lightly parried and pushed away by Jang Geon’s blade. When Baek Sa-gyeong stepped with that footwork-like walk to target Jang Geon’s gaps and blind spots, Jang Geon erased the blind spots with steps far more mysterious than his, rather preempting position to press the space.

When Baek Sa-gyeong attacked with the sword in his right hand while simultaneously drawing close and attempting a grab with his left hand, Jang Geon, who also deflected the blade with a flash, raised his foot to push back his approach.

Baek Sa-gyeong’s attacks, spatial preemption through footwork, feints, and further, all movements could not leave even a hair of a wound on Jang Geon. At this rate, it was to the extent that one wondered if even splitting the collar at first had been allowed on purpose. What was more surprising was that Jang Geon wasn’t making a proper counterattack, let alone an attack, in the midst of that.

Just then, Jang Geon’s blade, having parried Baek Sa-gyeong’s thrust once more, flashed a white ray differently from before. Judging that it was unfit to block it, Baek Sa-gyeong leaped back grandly. Leaping back like that, he simultaneously raised his sword again to take an attacking stance.

However, Jang Geon flicked his blade and opened his mouth.

“What kind of guy are you?”

Baek Sa-gyeong’s body froze rigidly. Jang Geon’s face, suddenly opening his mouth, was cold. Strangely, rather than a face tense simply due to a fight of life and death, it was an expression as if slightly annoyed by something.

Unconsciously, Baek Sa-gyeong answered again what the opponent already knew.

“I am Baek Sa-gyeong. Commander of the Great Peace Band, and of the dead Gal Woong—”

Thud—a heavy sound echoed beneath Jang Geon’s foot. What made one doubt two eyes was that there was no single motion of raising his foot high or stomping hard. Yet the sound echoed and Jang Geon’s right foot had slightly dug into the dry ground.

Cutting off Baek Sa-gyeong’s words by shaking the ground with precise force control, Jang Geon knitted his brows slightly and said.

“Looking at the level of your sword technique and movements, it seems the Martial Alliance Leader taught you well, but…”

Baek Sa-gyeong wasn’t flustered. From the moment he confirmed Gal Woong was captured and tortured, he guessed that the background of the Great Peace Band would be exposed. It didn’t matter much anyway. Even if someone used Gal Woong alive as a witness thinking to attack the Martial Alliance Leader politically, the Alliance Leader would have lightly denied the charge, and that alone would have been sufficient.

Currently, the Alliance Leader’s position in the Martial Alliance is firm. It was not a platform that would be shaken no matter how much an idler known to drink in a corner of Sinsacheon like Gal Woong testified. To begin with, that was the reason the personnel of the Great Peace Band were composed of losers of Sinsacheon, and the real hands of the Alliance Leader were only Baek Sa-gyeong and Ju Seon. If they handled this matter well this time, Gal Woong could have become one of those hands as well.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My master is an immortal who realized the Dao at Mount Tai in the Central Plains. He does not involve himself in worldly affairs like the Martial Alliance. The Great Peace Band learned martial arts from me again, and there are only teachings there to care for the common people of this land and lead them to follow the will of heaven as is proper.”

Jang Geon gave a dry laugh as if it were absurd.

“You’re quite good at lying. But why did your martial arts stop halfway?”

“…What?”

Baek Sa-gyeong was momentarily at a loss for words at a topic completely different from his expectation that he would denounce his excuse. Martial arts stopped halfway?

However, he soon opened his mouth again.

“…You are a person of narrow sight. Saying my martial arts stopped halfway just because it differs from the mainstream…”

“You don’t know the intent embedded in the movements you are performing right now, do you?”

Baek Sa-gyeong closed his mouth. His face was expressionless, but Jang Geon felt that he was slightly flustered.

The reason Jang Geon’s mood was unpleasant wasn’t much. It was because even though they were facing each other with blades pointed at each other, he couldn’t feel proper emotion from Baek Sa-gyeong’s sword. Baek Sa-gyeong certainly jabbered before starting the fight that he would take revenge for his subordinate and offer Jang Geon’s head to his master.

However, what Jang Geon felt while directly facing and fighting him was different from his words. Baek Sa-gyeong had no true vengeful heart to avenge his subordinate. And compared to the current era and the situation of the New Continent, even while practicing surprising martial arts, no true intent was contained in his sword tip. Such a person was not much different from a living piece of wood.

“What a strange guy. While other subordinates are half out of their minds for the great cause of the New Continent, their commander guy is inwardly exploiting them without much emotion.”

Now a bitter smile similar to something appeared on Jang Geon’s face. If it was like this, rather than Sun-Shooting Sword Art or whatever, he would have gained more by finding a demonic practitioner somewhere to fight. Baek Sa-gyeong certainly showed movements worthy of being called martial arts among the Martial World people he had met so far, but at the same time, his spirit was an incomplete guy.

In elements constituting martial arts, movements and internal energy were important, but the intent contained within was also necessary. Pursuing only internal energy makes one a demonic practitioner, and pursuing only movements makes one a scarecrow right here. However, demonic practitioners or other martial artists of the New Continent had a clear purpose and killing intent to kill the opponent as fast as possible.

“…What nonsense is that? That I don’t know the intent embedded in the movements?”

Jang Geon could guess the reason that guy was doing this here despite learning martial arts from the Martial Alliance Leader. To the Alliance Leader, it seemed Gal Woong or Baek Sa-gyeong weren’t much different.

Jang Geon held the sword he had lowered with both hands and spoke.

“I dragged on too long at the words Sun-Shooting Sword Art. Let’s end this.”

Baek Sa-gyeong wanted to hear Jang Geon’s answer. If he heard that answer, it seemed he could understand why he hadn’t trained more like other senior and junior martial brothers, but had come outside the Martial Alliance to become the commander of a strange secret society. Then it seemed he wouldn’t need to lead substandard idlers while spouting nonsense about Yellow Heaven or whatever, nor would he need to act out a cool-headed yet passionate figure to raise their morale.

However, Baek Sa-gyeong felt he wouldn’t be able to hear that answer looking at the gaze of Jang Geon looking at him. He took his initial stance once more. Slowly his entire body was hooked onto an invisible bowstring.

Jang Geon, facing him, held his blade with both hands, yet remained in the posture of hanging it down loosely as before.

Sun-Shooting Sword Art. That familiar name and the form of shooting one’s entire body as if to pierce the sun as that name implied. Honestly, Jang Geon had quite high expectations upon hearing the name of that sword art from Gal Woong. An explosive strike pouring all of oneself into a single thrusting movement appeared similar to other martial arts of the New Continent, but Jang Geon expected a sword art containing intense will shot toward the sun like its name.

A sword art that pierces the sun in that sky with a single sword—that was ultimately one form of martial arts Jang Geon dreamed of. Martial arts that could leave a mark on this world itself through a human’s will alone. Wanting to see even a trace of that attempt from Baek Sa-gyeong, Jang Geon felt a small disappointment. Would it have been different if it were the Martial Alliance Leader?

However, soon he received a feeling as if his vision became vivid for some reason.

Three zhang ahead, the sight of Baek Sa-gyeong leaning his body back as much as possible while almost embracing his sword was visible. His dust-covered clothes, his face frozen expressionless, his posture, his muscles gathering power crouched tightly.

The vivid vision wasn’t focused only on Baek Sa-gyeong. Jang Geon felt that his vision was reading this entire surroundings beyond the angle seen by two eyes.

The dry, crumbling red soil ground and small rock pieces tumbling mixed there, yellow grass that stubbornly extended stems and leaves in this land where it was hard to find a sip of water, they rustled and shook off light dust in the faint wind.

He could also feel the Je Clan warriors and the Black Market swarm fighting to the death far off. Those who shot arrows were now fighting the Je Clan holding long sabers, whips, or spears. People died in heaps as if a war had broken out.

Going slightly above that terrible battlefield, moisture couldn’t be found anywhere, so the dry air held the heat of the sunshine and sweltered. That heat rose to the sky holding even that lacking moisture, clumping into faint steam clouds. However, that didn’t become heavy enough to fall as rain.

Having raised his head to look at the sky before anyone knew it, Jang Geon slowly lowered his eyes to look at Baek Sa-gyeong.

The moment he met those eyes, Baek Sa-gyeong exploded the power he had been gathering crouched in an unknown sense of crisis. First, internal energy sprinted through blood points across his entire body, bestowing mysterious great force between muscles. The muscles that had been tightly drawn together exploded that internal energy force as they stretched his body straight.

Baek Sa-gyeong became an arrow once more and shot toward Jang Geon. After the initial leap, his feet didn’t even touch the ground. Hiding his body behind the sword extended straight forward, he fixed the sword tip solely toward Jang Geon’s heart. His entire body was hidden in sword light, appearing as a single sword.

In that world of a fraction of a second, Jang Geon moved a step late.

He had no grandiose preparation posture like Baek Sa-gyeong, nor an explosive charge. He merely raised the blade held in both hands smoothly above his head and stepped forward with his left foot. And he naturally made a diagonal slash descending from left to right.

Baek Sa-gyeong was certain of his victory. Jang Geon was too late. Rather than his diagonal slash, his own sword piercing through his heart and immediately defending would be faster. He thought so while watching Jang Geon’s stepping foot and blade. At that moment, Jang Geon disappeared.

And the next moment, only a single blade drawing a diagonal line was visible in front of Baek Sa-gyeong.

“…”

There was no sound of blades clashing.

Though there was a battlefield shouting and screaming while fighting far off, the place where the two stood was quiet. Neither the heat surging to the sky, nor the acrid dust rising, nor the dry grass swaying in the wind moved. Though for an instant, the sound and movement of that area vanished.

Baek Sa-gyeong passed Jang Geon with the momentum of his body’s leap, sliding forward slightly while leaving a thin furrow. He froze with his sword extended straight forward. Conversely, the wind that regained time in the meantime fluttered the hem of his clothes.

Baek Sa-gyeong spoke.

“…What is held in my hand and I are not different, so if I wish to become a sword, I shall become a sword… Ridiculous. To learn this from someone else even after learning martial arts that throws one’s entire body like a sword. It’s understandable that Master would cast me out… What do you call that…?”

“Unity of Sword and Body.”

“…Unity… of… Sword… and Body…”

Muttering so, Baek Sa-gyeong tumbled forward. Listening to the sound of him falling, Jang Geon flicked his blade. Sheathing that blade into his scabbard, he walked straight toward Jojo.

Mounting the horse while lightly stroking the guy letting out light snorts, only then did Jang Geon look at the corpse fallen forward. In him, there were no new traces or attempts Jang Geon had wanted. However, in truth, plenty of materials were already piled up inside Jang Geon. All Jang Geon needed was to pull them out, refine them well, and sublimate them into his own. There was no need to feel regret.

One must digest well what is already harbored.

“I was being greedy.”

Muttering shortly, Jang Geon turned his head to look at the Je Clan and Black Market swarm still fighting in full swing. If he intervened to take a side for either party, that side’s win rate would jump way up. Because Jang Geon had Jojo, superior to any horse over there.

However, Jang Geon soon turned Jojo’s head in the direction Yang Goeng had fled.

There was no reason for him to intervene in that fight. It seemed there was a plot exceeding a simple Treasure Map pursuit, but Jang Geon had no reason to care what became of the Je Clan or the Black Market. Of course, if those two targeted Jang Geon, he would teach them that it was a mistake. However, right now they were busy fighting among themselves, and Yang Goeng was growing distant, so Jang Geon had to pursue him.

Jang Geon departed to the east where Yang Goeng, the remaining Great Peace Band, and Li Yeon who bypassed earlier would have run first. Now it was time for Yang Goeng to pay the price.