Chapter 95: Chapter 95

“Keuheok… You bastard… How…”

Fallen backward, Namgung Yeo-jun vomited blood profusely and barely raised his upper body. He blinked his eyes, recalling whether he had misjudged the distance between Jang Geon’s hand and himself. However, Jang Geon’s hand was clearly too far to reach his body. Though that distance was not several zhang, it was also a distance that should never have been reachable at the same time.

However, looking down while trembling, his chest retained blackened, burnt collar edges and a distinct palm print stamped beneath them. Pain as if his airway and lungs were burning with every breath overwhelmed him.

With his palm still extended forward, Jang Geon slowly straightened his stance and lightly dusted his left hand. He then sheathed his broken sword into his scabbard and approached the fallen Namgung Yeo-jun. Instinctively trying to get away from Jang Geon, Namgung Yeo-jun wriggled backward with a pained expression.

However, even so, he could hardly be faster than Jang Geon striding forward.

“Th-This is… martial arts of the Imperial Army…”

Namgung Yeo-jun spoke as he looked up at the approaching Jang Geon. But Jang Geon chuckled softly and shook his head.

“This isn’t Imperial Army martial arts. Subduing the Dragon Eighteen… No, since I don’t have the other forms yet, it’s just Subduing Dragon Palm.”

“…What?”

Namgung Yeo-jun wore a dumbfounded expression at that answer, but Jang Geon took his eyes off him and inspected his own right shoulder. The wound torn open by Wang I’s blade moments ago was throbbing painfully. Moving his shoulder roughly, it was not a severe injury. However, it was also a wound that could have taken off his neck had he misstepped.

Adjusting his torn collar to cover the wound, Namgung Yeo-jun, who was staring at him vacantly, coughed and spoke.

“What do you mean by that? You bastard… you aren’t Imperial Army? Th-Then are you Martial Alliance?”

“This is something I say often, but are there no masters in this wide world outside of those places? Broaden your vision a bit. It’s been over a hundred years since the world expanded across the ocean, so why are you so narrow-minded?”

Pleased that the application of Samadhi True Fire succeeded properly, Jang Geon offered a light, trivial scolding. Hearing those words, Namgung Yeo-jun wore a blank expression again, then soon asked.

“Neither Imperial Army nor Martial Alliance…? Then?”

“What do you mean then. Did you think nothing would happen after killing dozens of innocent people over a single spiritual elixir?”

“…Are you saying you are moving for the revenge of those red monkeys? A master like you?”

“The world’s affairs are truly unpredictable. Isn’t that so?”

Saying so, Jang Geon approached Namgung Yeo-jun to deliver the finish. In his right hand, the black spearhead was held at some point. Just then, Jang Geon’s eyes caught the stone coffin beside Namgung Yeo-jun.

It was the stone coffin that Namgung Yeo-jun and the Wang brothers had been surrounding before Jang Geon broke the door and entered moments ago. Jang Geon, who had no great interest in what they were planning in this Gamsan City, had not bothered to ask what it was. However, seeing that stone coffin right before his eyes and the man lying inside, Jang Geon naturally had to pause.

The man lying in the stone coffin had a fairly handsome face and was missing his left hand. And one toe on each foot was missing as well. Jang Geon knew one person missing such body parts. It was the son for whom the Gamsan Branch Head was piteously searching.

Stopping his steps, Jang Geon turned his head toward Namgung Yeo-jun and asked.

“…Is this fellow the Branch Head’s son here?”

“Keuk, why ask me that? Do you think I will speak submissively?”

Namgung Yeo-jun bled profusely from the corner of his mouth and shivered violently, yet tried hard to act relaxed. But Jang Geon did not bother dealing with him. He simply turned his body and approached the stone coffin.

Inside the stone coffin, besides the man presumed to be the Branch Head’s son lying naked, a clear liquid was shallowly spread. Jang Geon placed his hand on the man’s neck. He intended to confirm whether he was alive first.

Just then, as if sensing that touch, the man’s eyes snapped open. Opening his eyes wide without any warning like that, Jang Geon was also slightly startled and paused. The man in the stone coffin and Jang Geon looked at each other for a moment.

“Attack! Attack him!”

At that moment, Namgung Yeo-jun shouted at the top of his lungs as if spitting blood. Simultaneously, the man’s right hand flashed upward, targeting Jang Geon’s chest.

Reflexively, Jang Geon tried to sever that hand with the spear blade in his right hand, but paused, thinking that the man would have no hands left. Instead, he quickly tried to grab that lunging hand with his left hand.

“…What the hell is going on?”

Jang Geon’s left hand was extremely fast, but the man’s fingers, stiffened like awls, managed to penetrate Jang Geon’s chest. Of course, being caught halfway, they could not penetrate deeply, but it was a wound sufficient for skin to tear and blood to drip.

Laughing as if it were ridiculous, Jang Geon applied force and pushed the man’s hand away. The man’s arm trembled as he tried to shake off Jang Geon’s hand, but the difference in strength was too vast. The man’s hand had to be pushed away as if caught in iron pincers.

Looking at the man’s expressionless face, Jang Geon spoke.

“Hey, what was it. Gal Un-myeong? Gal Won-myeong? At any rate, get a grip. Your father has gotten into quite a fix because of you.”

However, even upon hearing those words, the man showed no change in expression. On the contrary, while still grabbed, he jumped up violently and delivered a kick. Jang Geon had to let go of the hand he was holding and raise his arm to block it. Because that kick contained internal energy capable of crushing a human head at least.

Kicking off the stone coffin to rise, the man continuously attacked Jang Geon. Unable to properly control the internal energy in his body, the stone coffin he rose from shattered.

With movements full of force, the man kicked, pushed, struck, and tried to grab Jang Geon. It was a decent fist technique. Though not subtle, it was movement faithful to fundamentals, and combined with overflowing force, it became an attack that could not be ignored.

Of course, keeping the right hand holding the spear blade half-sealed, Jang Geon easily blocked all those attacks using only his left hand. What bothered him was not the man’s overflowing force, but his dangling private part before his eyes.

“What is it? Aren’t you Young Master Gal? Get a grip, will you?”

Jang Geon lightly pushed him away and spoke again, but the man continued attacking to kill him without any response. Watching him, Namgung Yeo-jun chuckled and spoke.

“It’s useless. That fellow, Gal Won-myeong, is now merely our faithful servant. Though it was an incomplete grand ritual, there is no way to stop him short of killing him. Did you say you came for the revenge of the natives who died in the plains? Chivalry to come all the way here for such savages is grand, but can you harm an uninvolved person for their sake?”

Blocking the man’s fist, Jang Geon frowned at Namgung Yeo-jun’s words. It seemed the kidnapping of the Gamsan Branch Head’s son had not been merely to control him. Right now, the sight of him jumping around while thoroughly naked was hardly the movement of someone who had been kidnapped and suffered for weeks.

Just then, the man’s downward strike grazed Jang Geon and drove into the floor. The neatly shaped flagstone of the floor shattered in a single blow from that downward strike.

Seeing that, Jang Geon’s eyes twitched again. The man’s force was growing increasingly stronger.

“…In this world, there are occasionally people born with certain talents. Most of them die without ever knowing their talent. Unless there is a special method, in most cases it goes unutilized and fades away. However, with our divine technique, or with the grand ritual, it is different. Their talent can blossom…”

Rising his body and leaning his back against the stone coffin, Namgung Yeo-jun continued muttering.

“…The Nine Yin Evil Blood you interfered with was one such talent, and Gal Won-myeong right in front of you is also one of those talents. A man born with three major acupoints larger than others, and possessing far stronger Yang qi. The right candidate for our divine technique. If you do not deal with him quickly, his force will only keep growing larger. How long do you think you can handle him half-heartedly like that? Don’t your arms hurt already?”

Handling Gal Won-myeong while listening to all that muttering, Jang Geon organized his thoughts with frowning brows intact. It seemed these fellows had no intention of unifying Gamsan’s back alleys with the Returning Dragon Gang to begin with.

Their true primary target was likely Gal Won-myeong, who was currently raging naked in front of him, and seeing how he obeyed Namgung Yeo-jun’s orders right away, his mind seemed suppressed by some grand ritual or whatever. Gamsan City thrown into chaos by the underworld’s rampage, the Martial Alliance Gamsan Branch Head who failed to properly control them—he would rejoice that the son he thought dead was alive, but that son had already become a minion of the Demonic Palace. The Demonic Palace would come to possess a bomb that could be exploded at any time.

Even if he could not know all of their exact plans, it was clear they wanted Gamsan City to turn into a mess. Were they trying to paralyze the cities of the New Continent before fighting the Imperial Army in earnest? And was Gamsan City the beginning?

Rolling his mind, Jang Geon soon let out a short breath with a puff and concluded his thoughts. Regardless, both the Martial Alliance and the Imperial Army had now come to know of the Demonic Palace’s tricks, so without Jang Geon needing to step up, those who wished to preserve their own order would fight back and forth with the Demonic Palace on their own.

Wrapping up his thoughts to that point, Jang Geon looked at Gal Won-myeong, who began leaking dark demonic qi. No reason could be found in his two cloudy gray eyes. Was the man named Gal Won-myeong alive inside there? As a novice to this kind of brainwashing or sorcery, Jang Geon could not be certain.

Hoping this was the right choice, Jang Geon shed his defensive posture so far and charged at the man. Closing the distance in a single step, he dropped down toward the charging man and swept his lower legs with a kick.

Caught at the legs, the man spun half a circle and floated into the air, and Jang Geon immediately raised his body and extended his fist. A fist driven down like lightning struck the man’s face.

The man hit the floor back-of-the-head first. He struck so hard that the floor flagstone cracked. Along with it, tumbling to the floor, the man ceased moving.

“…So easily?”

Watching, Namgung Yeo-jun muttered in absurdity as the demonic practitioner he had painstakingly prepared collapsed so easily. Demonic practitioner aside, Jang Geon’s ruthless hand in handling him in an instant was also ridiculous. Even though he was a hostage, he had dealt with him far too simply.

Regardless of his fluster, Jang Geon quickly extended his hand to the man to check his head and pulse. Aside from the force that cracked the flagstone, there was not a single torn wound on his head. That was because what broke the flagstone was Jang Geon’s internal energy that had swept past the inside of his head.

“Mmm.”

Confirming that his exterior was intact and his pulse was beating faintly, Jang Geon rose. Though he had lost consciousness, what would become of him was not yet known. But that would now be handled by Branch Head Gal Woo-seon of Gamsan. Jang Geon considered he had fulfilled his own sense of morality by not killing him.

Afterward, Jang Geon smoothly turned his body to look at Namgung Yeo-jun sitting with his back against the stone coffin. He stared at Jang Geon with absurd eyes, then his expression hardened upon seeing the black spearhead in his right hand.

“…An item harboring a grudge. Did you obtain it from those ashes by any chance?”

“No. Someone riding a black horse delivered it to me.”

Jang Geon walked slowly toward Namgung Yeo-jun and squatted in front of him. With his beard and hair in disarray, Namgung Yeo-jun glared at Jang Geon while trembling all over. With his right hand, he clutched his chest.

“Keuk… Neither Imperial Army nor Martial Alliance, yet the Palace’s event was ruined by an entirely unrelated grudge.”

“You should have lived virtuously.”

“Virtuously? Do you think we could live like that? Do you say that knowing a thousand years of oppression and tyranny?”

Jang Geon scratched his chin with his left hand. He felt it made no sense for fellows who suffered like that to torment other weak people, but he didn’t want to bother saying that to persuade this fellow. So he simply raised the spearhead, drove it into his chest, and stood up.

“Kkeo-eok!”

The spearhead driven into Namgung Yeo-jun’s chest squirmed inward as if alive, even though Jang Geon let go of his hand. And until his movement ceased, until it completely ended without a single squirm, it ruined his inside.

Looking down at his death, Jang Geon lightly wiped his nose, pulled out tobacco from his robes, and rolled it. Around the time he lit it, the entrance he had smashed grew noisy, and Martial Alliance warriors including Branch Head Gal poured in.

Inhaling a puff of tobacco smoke, Jang Geon gestured with his chin toward where the man lay collapsed to Branch Head Gal, who was staring vacantly at him. Only then discovering his son, he let out a shout.

“Won-myeong!”

Smoking his tobacco, Jang Geon quietly watched him examine his son and cause a commotion with the warriors. The wounds on his shoulder and chest throbbed painfully.