Chapter 410: Chapter 410
It had been only one shi, but after finishing the Qi Circulation, my body’s condition was completely transformed. The wounds that hadn’t stopped bleeding had recovered considerably, and my depleted inner arts had been replenished to some degree.
“Young Master Jin, what exactly are you? This kind of recovery in a human…… I have never seen it before.”
It was a bit unsettling that Dam Ak had watched the recovery process in real time from right beside me. I shrugged nonchalantly.
“This is what happens when you train in martial arts.”
Dam Ak’s furrowed brow showed no sign of smoothing out, but for a layman in martial arts, there was no better answer than that.
“I too have reviewed countless martial arts manuals as the Black Thought Alliance’s strategist. But among the arts that cultivate the body, a recovery ability like Young Master Jin’s…… I have never encountered.”
“Well, that’s because you’re the leader of the Black Path murim, Strategist Dam. You’ve only seen Black Path martial arts. Traditional Orthodox Path martial arts are like this.”
“……”
Hey, I said that’s how it is—what are you going to do about it? For all anyone knew, the Nine Sects and One Gang and Five Great Clans’ martial arts were known to the entire world, but the inner workings and effects were understood only by insiders.
While we talked, I could feel the hyenas starting to gather again. They really never quit.
As I made to stand, Dam Ak shot up and positioned himself behind my back. I stared at him in bewilderment.
“What are you doing?”
“Getting on your back.”
“Ha, am I some horse for riding? You said we don’t need to rush!”
“Ah…… it’s hard to walk.”
“……?”
Huh. This man. Had he been getting carried all this time simply because he didn’t feel like walking?
While I stood there dumbfounded at his pouting, lip-protruding face, a welcome sound reached my ears.
SCREEE—
The cry of a Messenger Hawk sent by the Hao Gate. I quickly produced the Black Token, and the Iron Hawk that had been diving vertically spread its wings before my eyes and alighted lightly on my shoulder. I stroked its head, then checked the message attached to its ankle.
“……Hehehe.”
The moment I read the news, I couldn’t suppress a triumphant grin.
“What does it say to make you smile like that?”
What does it say?
“Heh heh……”
“……Young Master Jin, why are you laughing like a villain? That’s unsettling. Hm?”
A villain? The true villain of the current murim calling me a villain—that’s rich.
Anyway, it was good news. News that could wipe away all the accumulated fury in one shot.
***
“They say they’ll come to Eunhyeon to meet us.”
While heading for Anhui, Dam Ak also received a carrier pigeon letter. The forces that had been standing by in Anhui were sending word they’d come out to Eunhyeon to meet them.
Dam Ak suggested waiting where they were, but I insisted on moving. Sure, it was tactically sounder to keep moving, but more importantly……
“It’s hard to walk……”
I didn’t want to be this man’s caretaker anymore. I was sick of playing bodyguard and sedan chair!
“Over there!”
“Seize them!”
Just as I was about to hoist Dam Ak onto my back, twenty warriors who were clearly acting on the Righteous Path Association’s orders blocked our path. Judging by the insignia on their uniforms, they appeared to belong to the Cheongjin Sect. I couldn’t help but tilt my head.
‘But the Cheongjin Sect isn’t even a Wudang lay sect.’
Founded by a former member of the White Sword Gang—a Wudang lay-affiliated martial sect—the Cheongjin Sect was technically a lay affiliate of a lay affiliate. In terms of both strength and history, it was barely a step above the Taeul Sect in the previous life.
“Halt!”
They told me to halt, so I halted for now. Surely they didn’t think they could actually threaten me and that’s why they were blocking the way?
When I stopped obediently, their blades swung toward Dam Ak.
“Hand over that man if you want to live.”
“Resist and you won’t be forgiven.”
Did these people not know about the Taeul Sect, one of the One Hundred Eight Peaks? Or had they not heard my name?
“……”
I stood before them without even drawing my sword.
“Do you know who I am?”
“Black Flame Dragon Jin So-un.”
“……Jin So-un of the Taeul Sect.”
I corrected the misinformation, but they didn’t seem inclined to listen.
“Jin So-un…… we are well aware of your infamy. Cease your espionage and surrender to the Orthodox Path in repent——”
“PFHAHA!”
Dam Ak burst out laughing in the middle of the tense atmosphere. When sharp gazes swiveled toward him, he waved his hands dismissively.
“Ah, apologies. I should have held it in, but…… PFAHAHA!”
The serious mood shattered in an instant. There was no point trying to salvage the atmosphere now. I let out a sigh and glared at them. They’d been getting on my nerves for a while now.
“Jin So-un of the Taeul Sect…… is firmly Orthodox Path! You bastards!”
RUMBLE—
The Radiant Heaven Divine Palm energy gathered in my hand shuddered violently, speaking my heart.
“Whether it’s knowing your place or getting the facts straight, pick at least one and do it right!”
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH—!
“GYAAAARGH!”
“AAAAUGH!”
“KRAAAAAGH!”
The storm of Radiant Heaven Divine Palm swept the area, and the Cheongjin Sect disciples were scattered in every direction with broken arms and blood pouring from their mouths.
“……Young Master Jin, launching such a flashy attack basically announces our location, doesn’t it?”
“If the Black Thought Alliance’s people arrive first, I can’t get my revenge. Better to hurry them along.”
“Revenge? What are you suddenly talking about?”
Dam Ak pressed the question, but there was no time to answer. The riffraff had come charging at the sight of the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm.
“Why do you keep ignoring my questions?”
Dam Ak’s sulky voice came from behind my back. Did this man not realize he was in a life-threatening situation right now?
“With Young Master Jin this relaxed, why would I need to be tense?”
Fuck, that startled me. Was he a mind-reader or something?
No time to dwell on it—I focused on what lay ahead.
TA-TA-TA-TA-TA-TAK!
I used Lotus to funnel the incoming blades together into a clump, then pulled them straight in.
“Whoa?!”
“My sword!”
And the weapons, now bunched together and tracing arcs through the air, were promptly returned to their owners.
THUNK! THUNK! THUNK!
“GYAAAGH!”
“GUHK!”
I wasn’t sure each weapon found its rightful owner, but at least I’d handed them back fairly—one apiece.
“Ugghh……”
Oh, the one with a spear in his thigh might feel a bit cheated.
Then I kicked off the ground and methodically snapped their legs and arms one by one. Maybe it was because my strength was up. They cracked apart like fishbones—nice and clean.
“HURGH…… AAARGH!”
“W-Wait, w-wait!”
“WHOA!”
The men who’d been staring at me in disbelief watched their comrades’ limbs snap one by one in sequence and were beside themselves with horror. Of course, the ones who tried to run were reeled in with the Flying Dragon Claw and had their bones broken too.
“S-Surren——”
“There’s no surrender here!”
“KRAAARGH!”
Arms and legs cracked like cornstalks, and those who couldn’t bear the pain foamed at the mouth and passed out one after another.
“Isn’t this excessively cruel? They’re already incapacitated.”
Dam Ak, who had been hiding snugly behind my back, let out a sigh as he watched the gruesome spectacle. What was this man saying—seriously, was he really Black Path? I savored the sensation of bones cracking in my grip and replied.
“They were trying to kill us, weren’t th—…… why are this one’s bones so damn tough?! Hrrgh.”
“……”
“They lost their bones instead of their lives. At this rate, they should bow in our direction every morning for the next three years.”
“……Now you’re answering my questions.”
Oops, I’m busy—gotta go.
While I was dealing with the riffraff, the real beggars from Mount Jukho arrived too. Their level was similar to the other riffraff, so I snapped their arms and legs one by one as well.
“KRAAAGH!”
I gently tapped the screaming one’s head with my foot.
“Hey, start every morning bowing in my direction.”
“……Crazy bastard! What kind of bullsh——it!”
I delivered my heartfelt message along with a cheerful smile to the beggar clutching his broken arm and screaming in fury.
“I spared your life and broke your arm—won’t that make begging easier?”
“……Crazy bastard! We don’t beg! You crazy bastard!!!”
While I was dealing with the beggars, the ones I’d been waiting for finally appeared.
“There you are.”
I chopped the flailing beggar in the nape to knock him out and rose to my feet.
The middle-aged man at the head of the column quirked his eyebrow.
“You were waiting for us here?”
“I can’t stand letting things slide.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
The Fierce Tiger Unit and Captain Myeong-jin. Thankfully, that lunatic Hyeon-yeong hadn’t come. I looked at them and let a mocking smirk slip.
“Did you think I ran because I was scared of the weakest unit in the White Cloud Unit—the Fierce Tiger Unit?”
“What?”
Those who ascended to absolute heights on their own, no matter how exceptional, could not easily contend with a massive sect. The accumulated strength of a sect that had upheld tradition for centuries was the murim itself.
That was right. The fundamental reason that the unjust structures of the Righteous Path Association, the Orthodox Path Association, and the Twelve Peak Citadels had suppressed individuals for centuries without ever changing. The reason I’d deliberately avoided a head-on collision.
“Justification. Because I had no justification.”
Even with justification, a human could not fight a mountain and the sea. Unless another mountain stood at your back, that is.
“Are you saying you wouldn’t have run if you’d had justification?”
Myeong-jin growled.
“Then what do you think is the reason I’m standing here waiting?”
Excessive force leading to a major incident would eventually give them a pretext—however flimsy—to pressure and crush the Taeul Sect.
“Ha! You’ve gone mad from running with a Black Path man.”
I produced the carrier pigeon letter I’d received that morning.
“I learned something very interesting this morning.”
“……”
“As of the midnight before last, an order was issued to restrain all unauthorized use of force in the Hubei and Anhui regions.”
“How did you—”
Myeong-jin’s and the Fierce Tiger Unit’s faces turned ashen. So they’d already known about this.
“Including a rider authorizing summary judgment for anyone who doesn’t comply.”
The reason I’d been waiting in Eunhyeon with Anhui Province right in front of me. Opportunities like this—where I had justification and a mountain (the Murim Alliance) at my back—were rare. This was the beauty of the political arena.
“You think that order gives you power? Ha!”
A thick sneer lingered on Myeong-jin’s lips.
“Has a little fame gone to your head and made you think the world is yours?”
The world is mine?
“I want to ask you the opposite. Do you think this world belongs to Wudang?”
I drew the Red Radiance Sword. As though voicing my heart, the blade glowed crimson and an unidentifiable scream echoed forth.
GROOOOOAN.
“Enough that you think you can ignore the orders of the Murim Alliance you claim to hold so dear?”
“When an organization stagnates, it inevitably rots. Excising that rot is also our duty.”
“I see. Now I understand.”
“So you too——”
“I understand perfectly well why Wudang—with a history even longer than the Murim Alliance—has come to this sorry state.”
“Shut your mouth!”
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG—!
The Fierce Tiger Unit members drew their swords in unison. Further talk was pointless.
Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.
First Form—Extreme Swiftness.
Unlike at Heavenly Bridge, I could now pour out my full strength without reservation.
SHRIIIIEK—
Accompanied by the belated sound of air splitting, four Fierce Tiger Unit members failed to dodge and earned long sword wounds across their chests.
Three Forms of the White Moon Governing Heaven.
Second Form—Extreme Might.
The First Form, where even Sword Qi had not coalesced—versus Extreme Might, which generated a form as vivid as reality itself.
I poured in more inner arts than I normally would. Because right now, I couldn’t contain the fire burning inside my chest.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH!!!
In the storm of Sword Force crashing like waves, four more Fierce Tiger Unit members’ swords shattered and they coughed blood from internal injuries. Myeong-jin, alarmed at the sudden calamity, barked orders in desperation.
“Deploy the sword formation!”
The rattled Myeong-jin hurriedly collected himself, and a constricting pressure instantly formed around me. But a Seven Stars Sword Formation executed by fewer than ten people—using the Seven Stars Sword technique—was, to someone who knew the Shattering Form, no different from taking a test with the answer sheet in hand.
I defended with the Minor Heaven Sword Art, then drove into the gaps with the Great Heaven Sword Art. Perhaps thanks to the Qi Circulation, my body’s responsiveness was even sharper than usual, allowing me to push the speed higher still.
CLANG-CLANG-CLANG-CLANG—!
I narrowly dodged two simultaneous thrusts and shattered the Seven Stars Sword of both members.
CLANG—! CLANG—!
“HURK!”
“How is this——!”
The two who were dumbfounded at suddenly losing their swords couldn’t recover before I drove a powerful kick into both of them.
THWACK! CRASH!
They slammed into a tree and collapsed unconscious on the spot. With those two gone, the already incomplete formation shuddered even more violently. And a formation at this level……
“Can be smashed by brute force alone.”
Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula—Ten Thousand Swords.
Six blades of Ten Thousand Swords materialized, and simultaneously the Twin Heaven Sword Formula unfolded. The sphere-shaped storm of blade edges smashed directly into the Seven Stars Sword Formation. The weighty storm hammered the formation; the massive vibrations that shook the air caused the bodies of those maintaining the formation to sway.
No matter how much Wudang’s Core Principle was said to be Taiji, if one could not lay oneself down like water, then before overwhelming destructive force, it was meaningless. The concave air current buckled and shattered with an explosive roar.
THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-THWACK-BOOM!
Those who had been barely holding the formation together staggered backward, unable to absorb the impact. A Seven Stars Sword Formation with an opening was no longer a Seven Stars Sword Formation at all. They could neither salvage the formation’s effectiveness nor adequately respond as individuals.
And the result was——
“With this, how are you going to make a living swinging swords? Wudang might as well take up begging!!!”
Nothing but the wretched future a Wudang disciple had never once imagined.
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-CRASH—!
“GYAAAAARGH!”
“GRHHHK!”
“M-MY ARM!!!”
After one detonation of Sword Force and Sword Qi passed through, all that remained were Fierce Tiger Unit members with severed arms and legs.
Foaming blood as they convulsed on the ground—a sight unimaginable from the people who had just been executing a Seven Stars Sword Formation moments ago.
“H-How is this……”
Fierce Tiger Unit Captain Myeong-jin trembled from head to toe, as if unable to believe even the scene before his eyes.
Even now, I wanted nothing more than to cut every last throat, but I couldn’t. Up to this point, it could be called “judgment.” Beyond this, it would become “slaughter.” I didn’t bother reining in the killing intent overflowing from my body and turned my gaze.
“You’re the only one left.”
Then I took a step toward Myeong-jin. But look at this bastard.
“Urgh…… urgh……”
He was backing away.
“W-Witchcraft! It’s witchcraft!”
The man deployed the Orthodox Path’s ultimate finishing technique—”That bastard’s using witchcraft!”—and bolted. The reckless expenditure of inner arts was pulling my qi center apart, but I couldn’t stop.
“Get back here!”
I immediately drew upon the Holy Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand and unleashed the Void-Annihilation Fist to obliterate his qi center.
“GYAAAAAAARGH!”
The man who had been desperately trying to evade my hand clutched his lower abdomen, which had turned pitch-black in an instant, and rolled across the ground. At that moment, the thunder of hooves shook the earth. A dust cloud parted as a force of nearly two hundred came tearing toward us at breakneck speed.
“Th-The Black Thought Alliance!”
“Run!”
Bystanders who had been watching from a distance fled in a panic. And when the Black Thought Alliance’s forces encircled me and Dam Ak with swords drawn—
Dam Ak, as though he understood my condition, placed his hand on my heaving shoulder.
“Young Master Jin, you may rest now.”
I could no longer maintain the tension and collapsed to the ground as if fainting.
I just wanted to put down the bodyguard act and the sedan chair act and get some sleep.