Chapter 243: Divine Might (1)
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Looking at Cheong-ui, I saw that he had his eyes closed. It seemed the Sect Leader was also turning a blind eye to my acting on my own to some extent.
Even if it wasn’t the Sect Leader, all Wudang disciples would feel the same way after watching their senior and nephew being devastated.
“Your spirit is fine, but I do not recall seeing you in Wudang before.”
Su Je-heon examined me thoroughly.
Usually, peak masters have excellent memories. He believed that there was no way he wouldn’t remember such a sinister, assassin-like face.
However, Cheong-ui spoke confidently.
“On the honor of Wudang and our founder, Immortal Sanfeng, that child is strictly a disciple of the Wudang Sect.”
“If the Sect Leader goes so far as to say that, I have nothing more to say.”
At Cheong-ui’s confirmation, Su Je-heon raised his hands and stepped back.
“A young brat acting like a newborn tiger.”
Meanwhile, Baek Sang-cheon glared at me, not forgetting the insult he had received.
“If you claimed to be the youngest disciple of the Heaven’s Will Gate, you should bear that much. Did you think you could keep your face after performing such a shameful act?”
I shot back. Baek Sang-cheon clenched his fists, trembling.
No matter how sinister my disguise was, I looked to be a man in his late twenties at most. To Baek Sang-cheon, who looked to be around fifty, there could be no greater insult.
“You must be wagging your tongue because you know you are not my opponent in this match. Wudang’s ox-noses have become quite petty.”
Baek Sang-cheon forced his lips to twist. It seemed he intended to frame me as a coward using goading tactics since I wouldn’t be fighting him.
“It seems you are misunderstanding something.”
I glared at Baek Sang-cheon.
“If it weren’t for the format of this match, you would have already been torn in half and died. Be grateful that we are an orthodox sect that respects the match.”
“……Ha.”
Baek Sang-cheon, who had been about to turn and walk away, stopped in his tracks.
That statement was something even Baek Sang-cheon could not tolerate.
“Your arrogance has reached the heavens. I can ignore this match and kill you right here.”
“You had better kill me well. Otherwise, you will be the one dying.”
Baek Sang-cheon turned his head and looked at the Martial Alliance Leader.
“Alliance Leader. Is it possible to change the format of this match?”
“Format?”
“To a winner-stays-on match.”
A winner-stays-on match, where the victor continues to fight. Since Baek Sang-cheon had won the previous bout, he meant to continue fighting.
“I do not mind, but I believe we must have the Wudang Sect’s consent.”
The decision fell to Cheong-ui. Cheong-ui cast a worried glance at me.
It seemed even Cheong-ui did not believe I could defeat Baek Sang-cheon. I made eye contact with him.
By now, I was at a level where I could exchange thoughts with Wudang’s members through a single glance. Just as I read the worry in Cheong-ui’s eyes, he would have read the resolve in mine.
“Very well.”
Cheong-ui nodded.
Although Cheong-ui was a Daoist, he was still human. How could he quietly let back the one who had pushed a Wudang disciple to the brink of death?
“Good.”
Baek Sang-cheon said, drawing his sword.
“There is nothing more to say. Let’s begin immediately.”
Baek Sang-cheon said. I also distanced myself. As Baek Sang-cheon said, any further conversation was meaningless.
“Begin.”
Since it was a life-and-death match anyway, there was no referee to stop it midway. Cheong-ui, who was overseeing the match, simply spoke.
*Bang!*
Before Cheong-ui’s words even fully registered, the sound of a heavy shock step and a powerful gust of wind pushed against my skin.
“Die, you wild horse!”
His sword contained a twisting wave of energy so intense that it warped the surrounding air. I immediately sidestepped and circled behind him.
“Where do you think you’re going?!”
The sword that had been charging in a straight line twisted at a bizarre angle and lunged toward me. I understood why they called him Furious Waves. A wave-like energy, like plowed fields, surged toward me with furious force. Sensing that I couldn’t get behind him, I leaped upward.
*Boom!*
Looking down from the air, I saw a massive crater gouged into the ground where I had just been standing. Could such a mark truly be made by a single swing of a sword? The claim that he was of Wudang’s elder generation rank was indeed no lie.
I managed to stabilize my posture only after spinning twice in the air. Meanwhile, Baek Sang-cheon was already spinning his body and leaping toward where I was falling.
He spun so powerfully that a mini-vortex of dust formed around him even before he reached me.
It was a clash where I was spinning vertically and he was spinning horizontally.
The moment our swords clashed, a ring of destructive energy rippled outward from us. I used the recoil to leap backward and land, while Baek Sang-cheon also fell back and landed on the ground.
“You’re not all talk,”
Baek Sang-cheon said, flicking his sword. I also nodded.
“You’re strong for the youngest disciple. If you were truly the youngest, the Heaven’s Will Gate would be the greatest sect under heaven.”
Baek Sang-cheon scowled at my words. But this was my own way of complimenting him. Baek Sang-cheon was indeed a strong master.
That was why his actions were all the more contemptible. To possess such martial prowess and yet shamelessly claim to be the youngest disciple to fight our junior…
“Still speaking nonsense…”
“I let you take the first move because you are my senior.”
“What?”
“If I didn’t even let you take the first move after teasing you for being the youngest, it would reflect poorly on Wudang’s face, wouldn’t it?”
I quietly sheathed my sword back into its scabbard. I lowered my upper body and bent my knees. My hand tightly gripped the hilt. It was a classic quick-draw stance.
The distance between Baek Sang-cheon and me was about a hundred paces. I could do it. Although I had never tried it, I knew I could succeed.
The murmurs from the surroundings gradually faded. My vision quickly narrowed down to only the path of the sword and my opponent.
“……!”
Baek Sang-cheon shrank back into a defensive posture. As a master, he had intuitively sensed that something was amiss.
“……You, what kind of fellow are you?”
“What do you mean?”
“That is not Wudang’s sword. Are you truly a disciple of Wudang in the first place?”
Baek Sang-cheon shouted. With those words, I knew the outcome of this match.
“If only you could see the Wudang within me.”
My sword flashed. A crescent-like wave of energy, resembling the new moon, shot forward.
The energy cleanly sliced through the centerline of the braced Baek Sang-cheon.
“What is this…”
Baek Sang-cheon didn’t even realize what had happened to his body.
The lips that were speaking split to the left and right, cutting off his words mid-sentence. The two halves of his body fell apart, collapsing to the ground.
“You have lost.”
It was a form containing the dominance of the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword and the softness of the Flowing Cloud Sword Art.
The New Moon had claimed its first victim.
“……!”
Only after Baek Sang-cheon’s body split apart did Su Je-heon and the members of the Heaven’s Will Gate, who were watching from behind, display absolute horror.
“I told you. You would be torn in half.”
I glanced at Su Je-heon and the Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate and sheathed my sword.
The surroundings were dead silent. Everyone seemed to have lost their words at the sight I had created.
“What on earth just happened…”
Thus, the dazed murmur of one of the Heaven’s Will Gate disciples sounded incredibly loud. That single comment likely represented the thoughts of everyone from the Heaven’s Will Gate.
I turned my head slightly to look at Wudang’s side.
The expressions of the senior brothers and Martial Uncles were not much different from those of the Heaven’s Will Gate.
“Who is next?”
I said. Fortunately, because Baek Sang-cheon had changed the format to a winner-stays-on match, I was the one to continue.
The members of the Heaven’s Will Gate looked warily at their Sect Leader. The Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate was also trembling, his fists clenched tightly.
He seemed completely flustered that Furious Waves Sword Baek Sang-cheon, the card he had trusted so deeply, had been so utterly destroyed.
“Sect Leader, does Wudang possess such a sword art?”
Whether he was trying to buy time for the Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate or was truly curious, Su Je-heon asked.
“You must be quite flustered. You surely know that asking directly about another sect’s martial arts is highly disrespectful.”
Cheong-ui spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice. Having witnessed my overwhelming victory, the Sect Leader had regained his composure.
“It is not that. It is just that he does not seem to belong to the Wudang Sect, yet you brought him here.”
“Did I not already tell you? On my everything, that child is strictly a disciple of Wudang.”
Cheong-ui furrowed his brows.
“And if you are going to raise such a question, shouldn’t you first ask the Heaven’s Will Gate, who put forward Furious Waves Sword as their youngest disciple? It seems the Martial Alliance Leader is not very impartial.”
Su Je-heon was left speechless.
Indeed, even if I weren’t actually Wudang’s disciple, the Heaven’s Will Gate was the one who had violated martial ethics first. Not only had they hired a master with money, but they had also given him the rank of the youngest disciple to mock the match.
“……I shall watch closely. If any major foul is detected, I shall declare a default loss.”
“A truly pathetic sight.”
Cheong-ui sneered. The sound of Su Je-heon grinding his teeth could be heard even from where I stood, hundreds of paces away.
“Send the next one.”
Su Je-heon pressured the Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate. In any case, the match had to continue.
The Heaven’s Will Gate would have already decided who would come out.
The figure who hesitantly stepped forward was also a middle-aged man of a similar age to Furious Waves Sword.
Judging by the murmurs from behind, he seemed to be a master of a similar level.
“I forfeit.”
The master spoke as soon as he stepped out. The Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate glared at him.
“What kind of nonsense is that?!”
“Anyone can see that I would die. Are you telling me to walk into my own grave?”
The Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate flinched. The aura released by the master had overwhelmed him.
Unlike us, they were in a contract bound by money. Naturally, they had no loyalty to walk into their deaths together.
“I shall return the money.”
With those words, the master headed down Wudang Mountain.
For me, it was a beneficial turn of events. Frankly speaking, the difference in martial prowess between Baek Sang-cheon and me was not that great.
I had realized during our brief exchange that our strength and speed were of similar levels. Our raw combat power was virtually neck-and-neck.
The difference between Furious Waves Sword and me lay in the quality of our martial arts. Baek Sang-cheon’s sword art could not compare to the Hunyuan Wuhui Sword, which was built around the Heavenly Demon Divine Sword. That was all.
If Baek Sang-cheon had known that in advance, the fight would have dragged on. Since the master who just left had witnessed my martial arts, he would have played defensively, which would have surely made things troublesome for me. It was great for me that he got scared and ran away.
“Hmph, that fellow seems to have no pride.”
Someone from the Heaven’s Will Gate stepped out, rolling his shoulders.
He was an old man, older than Furious Waves Sword.
“……Seven Poisons Yama.”
The Martial Uncles murmured from behind. Seven Poisons Yama. He was also a master whose name I had heard before.
Come to think of it, they said there were two disciple-level and three elder-level combatants.
Since they had placed such strong masters even in the disciple bouts, they would surely put out even stronger masters for the elder bouts without any hesitation. He was bound to be stronger than Furious Waves Sword.
“Although the boy is strong, there was no need to run away like that.”
Seven Poisons Yama seemed confident in himself. The Sect Leader of the Heaven’s Will Gate, finding reassurance in him, shouted.
“Consecrated Elder! If you take down that fellow, I shall pay you double what we originally agreed upon!”
“Hehe. Good. That’s more like it.”
By now, they weren’t even hiding the fact that they had bought them off. I hadn’t expected anything from the Heaven’s Will Gate anyway, so it wasn’t particularly surprising.
“You must have found some decent fortune somewhere, but my poison is not something an amateur like you can withstand. I have even melted down several experts of the Sichuan Tang Clan who trained with all kinds of poisons.”
Tension gripped the training field once again. He certainly did not look like someone who would be easily defeated like Baek Sang-cheon. I had never faced a martial artist who specialized in poison, so I felt on guard.
However, I could not back down here. Right now, I stood here representing the Wudang Sect.
“Wait.”
Just before the match began, Seven Poisons Yama stared at me intently and said.
“You, you are wearing a disguise.”
It was the moment my disguise art was seen through.