Chapter 143: Demon Cult Infiltration
“Are you okay?”
“Yes, for now.”
Gwan Jung-yeon had blocked two consecutive attacks.
Considering the black qi that was of a different quality than those he had fought before, he could have suffered a great disaster.
However, Gwan Jung-yeon’s condition looked better than expected.
“Though my swords are not okay.”
The swords he held in both hands were nowhere to be seen.
Looking to see where they were, they were lying on the ground over there.
It seemed he had thrown them away immediately after blocking the attack.
If it was to avoid the black qi seeping into his hands through the swords, it was an excellent improvisation.
I suddenly remembered when I fought Gwan Jung-yeon before.
I was greatly taken aback by how he broke his own sword and launched the fragments to attack.
After that, I was scolded severely by the masters during training.
“You break a lot of swords.”
“Even so, I get cursed at quite a bit by the supply unit.”
Chuckling, Gwan Jung-yeon reached toward his lower back and drew a short sword about two spans long.
‘Tch! It will be difficult.’
Although he avoided the seeping of the black qi by throwing away his swords, the aftermath of blocking the attack did not seem entirely absent.
As proof of that, Gwan Jung-yeon’s hand holding the drawn sword was shaking faintly.
Gwan Jung-yeon would be of no help in facing that man.
‘If so…’
“I’ll open the way.”
“…May I leave it to you?”
Sensing the same thought, Gwan Jung-yeon accepted it readily and grinned.
Although it was a rational decision, accepting it so readily was not easy either.
I must say he has a lot of nerve.
“Do your job.”
Although he would be of no help in facing the expert before our eyes, there would be no problem in capturing the man called Gyeong Sang-eon.
“Do you think I’ll let you?”
Having heard our conversation, the expert of black qi moved to aim for Gwan Jung-yeon.
“If you look away, you’ll be in trouble.”
However, having prepared, I also responded quickly.
Aiming for the opponent’s side which was greatly exposed as he targeted Gwan Jung-yeon, I displayed the Wudang Cotton Palm.
A single strike that would turn the inside of his body into mush in an instant reached the opponent.
Bang!
With a sound like a leather pouch filled with water bursting, the eyes of the enemy who drew back distorted.
“Ugh!! Wudang Cotton Palm? The Wudang Sect?!”
“Think whatever you like!”
It was a strike displayed by containing divine power, yet he blocked it.
Until now, no one had blocked this, but this expert before my eyes was definitely different.
‘If there is a gap in power, it can be blocked like this.’
The Wudang Cotton Palm is an internal palm technique that shakes and tears the inside.
To put it another way, if the opponent holds a firm energy and the inside cannot be shaken, the effect is not great.
In short, against an opponent with strong internal energy, the power of internal palm techniques is greatly halved.
“Hmph! Do you think such a clumsy internal palm technique will work on me!”
Still, it wasn’t entirely without effect.
The expert of black qi, who could not disregard me as I struck from the side, quickly displayed a stance.
The opponent’s palm technique, which drew a smooth line, clashed with my palm technique displaying the Wudang Cotton Palm.
Creak!
The moment the stances clashed, a sound like a discord that hurt the ears brushed past my eardrums.
“It looks grand at a glance, but in the end, internal palm techniques are also a branch of force. Then the way to respond is also simple. You just have to create the same frequency and clash to offset it. If you merely scatter the peculiar flow that shakes the inside, it cannot exert its power!”
Although internal palm techniques that kill the opponent merely by touching them are certainly powerful martial arts, that did not mean there was no way to respond.
As if showing that textbook example, the expert of black qi offset the Wudang Cotton Palm I displayed.
‘So it doesn’t work…’
However, the martial art Master Zhang Sanfeng passed down to me was originally not the Wudang Cotton Palm.
Flawless Heavenly Net.
It was certainly a martial art that started from the Wudang Cotton Palm, but its operation was above it.
The peculiar flow of displaying the Spirit-Descending Hand aggressively read the opponent.
“You bastard!”
What I grasped at that moment.
While clashing hands with me, another force was being prepared.
Grasping that direction, I dug in.
Boom!
If the clash between internal palm techniques created a discord, this was filled with physical destructive power to the point of distorting the air.
A martial art that struck across empty space from a distance, the Air-Striking Palm.
Striking the Cow Beyond the Mountain.
A peak martial art that shared the same context as the sublime technique of striking a mountain to kill a cow beyond it!
If I hadn’t noticed and responded, it would have crushed the back of Gwan Jung-yeon’s head as he ran far away in an instant.
‘I can’t let my guard down.’
While clashing with me as if he had given up on Gwan Jung-yeon, he aimed for a gap with the Air-Striking Palm.
Gwan Jung-yeon also felt the chill for an instant, as he glanced back while moving away.
“I will not forget your sacrifice, young hero!”
“Don’t speak as if I’m dying!”
Look at this damn man.
My first impression of him was like a lighthearted human butcher, but the more I saw him, the more he felt like Baek Mu-ho.
‘If Baek Mu-ho grew up to be a slightly twisted adult, would he have that kind of personality?’
Perhaps because of that, my unconsciously taking on the hardest parts while matching paces with him was also due to such a reason.
Putting that aside.
“Why don’t you try more?”
Gwan Jung-yeon was sufficiently far away.
It meant that for this man to aim for Gwan Jung-yeon, he had to make a great overexertion.
For example, showing his back to me.
To me, who was dominating the surrounding space while displaying the Flawless Heavenly Net, it was no different from asking to be devoured.
However, I too had a problem.
‘It’s more burden than I thought…’
From the moment I displayed the Flawless Heavenly Net, it felt as if my entire body had entered a state of extreme tension.
It was a sensation that if this flow was broken, I would let go of everything.
‘I must find a way for this too. I should discuss it with Master Zhang Sanfeng later.’
In any case, that was for later.
Right now, I had to concentrate on the strong enemy before my eyes while maintaining this sensation.
“You dare block me?”
The look in the opponent’s eyes changed.
With the peculiar gaze of a beast whose pride had been greatly wounded, a sound of grinding teeth leaked from his mouth.
“Give up the thought of dying easily!”
The opponent did not look away anymore.
Black energy extended in lines from the opponent’s body.
The black qi that had raged wildly made its lines straight like a refined sword in an instant.
Beyond the realm of sword qi, the energy that had reached the realm of sword gang felt like that.
Astral Qi!
The crystal of energy that became complete as one was painted on the opponent’s body.
‘Avoid the front!’
However, the Flawless Heavenly Net read all of that.
Whoosh!
Digging inside while avoiding by a paper’s margin.
It felt as if my hair caught in the wind pressure was burning.
It might actually be burning.
Digging inside after sacrificing a portion of my hair.
‘Ultimate Extreme Strike!’
The strike I threw aimed at the opponent’s shoulder.
Perhaps judging it was too late to avoid, he tried to block by catching my fist, but!
Crack!
The sound of muscle and bone crying echoed from the palm of the opponent who received the Ultimate Extreme Strike.
Although he caught it, he could not handle the pushing force and it reached his shoulder.
Boom!
The opponent’s body sloshed and shook greatly.
However, the result went beyond my expectations.
‘He handles the Ultimate Extreme Strike?’
Not to mention the hand that received the Ultimate Extreme Strike, even his shoulder was not crushed.
Although a part of his upper garment was torn because he could not handle the aftermath, the muscles and bones visible inside were intact.
“Hah!”
The opponent, who had taken a hit, inhaled deeply with a distorted face.
The moment I felt the energy condensing enormously, he threw his body explosively and rushed at me.
Crash!
His heavy frame rushed like a beast and struck me with his body!
“…Ugh!!”
He was aggressive.
To think he would clash with his body in an unprepared state!
While being pushed back greatly, I could see the enemy’s hand shaking.
‘Dark Soul Three Hands?’
The trajectory of the stance displayed by the expert of black qi was a stance I knew.
However, to display that stance even though he was not at a distance where his line could reach meant?
‘…The Air-Striking Palm?!’
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The air began to burst in the gap between me and the opponent.
‘With the Taiji Line… precisely!’
I read it, but there was no time to avoid.
Although I managed to resolve the grand destructive power somehow by displaying palm techniques consecutively, my body crouched to take that shock.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
In the meantime, the expert of black qi who closed the distance kicked me as if to split my side.
Although I managed to block it somehow, the shock was considerable.
Only after rolling on the ground several times like a ball was I able to gather my body.
“Pui.”
It felt as if a ball of fire had entered my stomach.
I felt something surging up through my throat.
I felt a desire to plant my head on the ground immediately and vomit everything inside.
My stomach, which was writhing as it pleased, was screaming.
While suppressing such a desire.
“You play cute tricks.”
A cold voice reached my ears.
Considering the opponent’s aggressive nature, he should be pursuing me tenaciously and launching follow-up strikes right now, but the opponent’s attack did not continue.
“Thanks to that, I couldn’t cut off your breath.”
“Hmph!”
The moment the expert of black qi kicked my side as if to tear my body in two, I struck the opponent’s leg joint with my elbow and knee in a pincer.
Defense and attack.
Considering the force contained within, the opponent’s knee should have been crushed, but reality was not so easy.
I merely had to be satisfied with avoiding a mortal wound.
‘Sensing it as we clash…’
This man is firm. He is strong and firm to the point where no gap is visible inside and out.
With the characteristic of the black qi added to this, even an ordinary expert would not be able to find his footing and would be crushed.
“Whew…”
‘Should I throw the Ultimate Extreme Strike a few more times?’
Although the move of a lifetime did not work, seeing that his offensive stopped due to the attack on his knee, this man was not invincible either.
If I accumulated the shocks, the moment of breaking would come.
‘The problem is… if I fight like this now, it seems I will break first…’
Even so, the black qi that seeped to my bones every time we clashed was quietly accumulating.
Although it was true that I held a strong resistance to that black qi unlike others, that did not mean I was entirely unaffected.
‘What should I do…’
How could I break that strong and firm man?
‘Ultimate Extreme Strike? Ultimate Extreme Thunder? Or with a single strike that gathers everything into one qi through the Three Talents Unified Qi Art?’
Various cases rose in my head.
Combinations of power that were as difficult to use as they were strong rose and vanished.
‘If I dawdle around trying to utilize such power clumsily, my head will be crushed.’
The opponent is fast. He was as fast as Gwan Jung-yeon.
While having the characteristic of the black qi, he was strong enough to use astral qi, firm enough to receive the Ultimate Extreme Strike, and fast as Gwan Jung-yeon.
He was bothersome.
It was then.
[Kaka! It is something I felt from before.]
With his peculiar breathing sound that was unpleasant to hear, the good-for-nothing Buddha spoke to me in my head.
[You are too stiff. Kakakaka!]
Listening to what he was trying to say, a strange advice followed.
‘Stiff?’
Since it was advice if it was advice, I concentrated to listen, but the words that followed were full of edge.
[Kakakaka! Do you calculate each breath when you breathe too?]
“…”
[Why don’t you stop acting like a coward? Kakakaka!]
‘Who are you calling a coward!’
Coward.
Words a man could not ignore pierced my head.
Suddenly, my head burned.