Chapter 144: Countermeasure
[I understand. Since there are too many martial arts and energies contained within you, if you leave them alone and they clash, it will cause problems. Kaka! When operating energy, you had to obsessively calculate the movement of force to utilize it. Kakakaka!]
After mocking me as a coward, he now coaxes me gently.
He pushes and pulls, shaking me.
[Swing it as you please! Kaka!]
Then, he suddenly pushes my back.
“Isn’t that a crazy thing to say?”
I know my own body.
I can easily predict what result that nonsense will create.
The powers that I had delicately classified through the Three Talents Unified Qi Art will clash.
Even if I operate power instinctively, since the foundation is prepared, they won’t clash blindly, but a portion of the overflowing power will inevitably collide.
[Zhang Sanfeng laid the foundation, Bodhidharma tempered it, and Heavenly Demon refined this body. Kaka! Your frame is not that fragile! Kakakaka!]
[Do not calculate one by one! Do not try to obtain without loss! Kaka! Do not fear getting hurt! Just throw it! Kakakaka!]
However, at the words of this good-for-nothing Buddha who kept throwing stones, a corner of my common sense felt as if it were collapsing.
[There are areas that cannot be crossed with reason alone, brat. Kakakaka!]
[Even before I met you, I heard a bit of talk about you. Kaka! You absorb heavenly martial arts like dry cotton?]
[Focus on my words. Then you’ll be able to get a taste of it. Kaka!]
The instigation continued endlessly.
Strangely, I felt a thirst.
As if when the masters passed down martial arts, an unknown trance seeped through my head.
[Feel the power beyond the boundary. Kakakaka!]
[Let go of your sanity a bit. Ka!]
[Think of it as walking a tightrope. Kaka! You are riding the line precariously.]
[Give refinement to the dogs! Kakakakaka!]
Instigations that did not sound like martial art secrets flooded my head.
Every time a word, a single word reached my head, my heart throbbed.
Every time a letter touched, my blood boiled.
“Whew…”
Breathing is the beginning of martial arts.
Every time the pouring instigations reached me, my breathing faltered.
My breathing, which vibrated wildly and explosively, also cast its influence on my body.
“…What is it?”
The expert of black qi, who accepted that change no less sensitively than I did, knitted his brows.
‘I want to crush him.’
I want to destroy that face.
Tap!
The moment I thought so, my body leaped forward.
Normally, I would have thought of the Ultimate Extreme Strike.
My head would have moved and my body would have followed.
Now, that relationship was reversed.
My body moves before my head.
The moment I leaped forward, propelled by my explosively changed breathing, my body performed the action, omitting the stage of thinking and preparing.
Crash!
“Ugh?!”
At the attack that crashed in head-on aggressively, the opponent’s pupils dilated.
“You!”
The dismay visible in his face as he was pushed back was clear.
Because until just a moment ago, my martial arts held Wudang’s unique smooth and refined appearance.
Now it was different.
Crack!
A strange sound came from my arm as I prepared the Ultimate Extreme Strike once more.
If my head had been working properly, I wouldn’t have made this sequence of steps at all.
I would have displayed another move to buy time for the heat accumulated in my arm from the Ultimate Extreme Strike to dissipate.
An activity that could be committed because I did not think!
As I refused common sense, the body’s instinct ran wild!
Naturally, my frame revolted greatly.
An unreasonable operation.
Powers clashing in the gaps where the flow of force was disrupted.
Boom!
“Had you turned mad?!”
However,
Even so,
My body moves!
‘This works?’
Clashing head-on once more, I pushed the expert of black qi.
[Kill! Kill him! Kakakakaka!]
Vibrating and running wild.
Something that could not be called a martial art.
Merely the running instinct itself.
[Kaka! Kakakaka!]
[Kaaaaaa!]
The monkey with fiery eyes and golden pupils, whom I had never seen before, was drawn clearly in my head.
That monkey laughed and screamed, running mad.
Before he was called the Victorious Fighting Buddha.
The Handsome Monkey King of old, who was said to have turned heaven upside down.
The existence who was once called the Demon King.
The bloodlust of the days when he ran wild solely on instinct, without fear and with grand pride.
The bloodlust composed of instinct mixed my inner elements blindly.
And the thing that came out!
Boom!
“This…”
The sound made by the clash of palm techniques changed.
It was heavy, but not stiff.
There was softness within hardness.
It was not a clean block that fit perfectly, but a complex flow of force that clung stickily.
Sensing the unusual momentum, the opponent moved his hands fiercely.
He responded with his elbows and knees.
Even when he extended his hands, he did not just extend them, but his fingers were set sharp, ready to tear me apart at any time.
He moved viciously as if he wouldn’t lose in terms of activity.
He contained strong astral qi in each of those movements.
Force that would dissect an ordinary warrior in an instant surged.
However.
Thud! Thud!
I struck before he could fully extend his force.
The beginning was clashing head-on.
The next was deflecting and flowing it away.
Digging into the chest through the opened gap.
Thud!
“Cough! Pfft!”
Spitting a fountain of blood as he was pushed back, dismay, anger, and confusion were visible in the opponent’s eyes.
“What is this! This hodgepodge!”
Although it was a brief clash, the opponent also recognized it.
My movement was not ordinary.
While clashing heavily like Shaolin Fist, there was the softness of Wudang Fist that flowed the force away the moment of collision.
It was a product that was difficult to imagine mixing, even if they could exist in the same place like water and oil.
It was a matter of course, but an exit from common sense carried a corresponding price.
Like an object that experienced a recoil during a sharp turn.
Although it was not revealed externally, the sounds of rupture, ‘crack!’, echoing from inside my body were heard continuously in my head.
Divine power ran wild, and energies clashed.
A complex crowd tangled, yet each raised its voice.
Nevertheless, even while enduring all that recoil, my body stood firm!
‘The masters’ teachings were this great.’
I understood why that good-for-nothing Buddha called me a coward.
To think I couldn’t properly utilize this kind of body.
And one more thing.
‘I understand why Master Zhang Sanfeng is staying quiet too.’
There were words the masters emphasized while I practiced martial arts.
Obey, Break, Transcend.
First preserve, break to go forward, and thus create anew.
Now is the time to break.
To break the limit I set, to break the common sense I made, and to go forward.
‘Therefore.’
Tear the enemy!
Smash and crush him!
Make him a sacrifice to bless my renewed body!
Had there been a time when I was this excited since learning martial arts?
As such a thought brushed past my head, my body went forward once more.
‘Now I see.’
What kind of martial art the Ultimate Extreme Strike is.
The scenery visible from the place where I broke the wall and went forward is deeper and wider.
The clumsiness of the martial arts I thought I had displayed properly until now is visible.
‘If I continue to grow in the future, the time will come when this realm I feel now will also look clumsy.’
However, for now, this is my limit.
The best Ultimate Extreme Strike I can display.
Instead of simply compressing force, I add activity in between.
A living, breathing martial art where blood flows and breath is gasped.
Crack!
The single strike of destruction that moved a step forward pierced the arm of the opponent who solidified his defense!
“…”
When a person is truly in pain, even a scream does not come out.
Without being able to let out a single scream, the expert of black qi looked down at his vanished arm with eyes of pain and dismay.
He witnessed in real-time the sight of each strand of muscle torn like straw and bone turning to powder and vanishing.
The Ultimate Extreme Strike, which had not resolved all its force even after crushing the arm that blocked, reached the face that could not accept reality.
Crack!
The head was crushed, scattering fragments.
Only after seeing the muddy residue scatter and the headless body fall with a heavy sound did I confirm that this fight was finished.
[Kakakakakakakakakaka!]
Leaving behind the laughter of the good-for-nothing Buddha who was dying of joy, I gathered my breath to endure the boiling energy.
“Ugh…”
The recoil I did not feel while moving actively hit my body belatedly.
“The price… I should call it.”
Every action has its corresponding price.
If it was the price of knowing that my limit was greater than expected, I would have to endure it.
“I wonder what happened to Gwan-hyeong’s side.”
After calming my breathing to some extent, I gained the leisure to look around.
‘If there is even one more expert of the level I just killed…’
Suppressing the desire to sit on the ground and rest until Gwan Jung-yeon returned, I dragged my creaking body.
***
A person is lying down.
Even at a glance, that person who looked to have stopped breathing would be the target, Gyeong Sang-eon.
Around the face of the fallen Gyeong Sang-eon, white stuff that looked like it would be mushy was overflowing.
Unless he died while eating soft tofu as a late-night snack, the identity of that white stuff was probably what I thought it was.
“You’re alive?”
“I don’t think it’s time to make a strange joke.”
Although it felt like the weight was more on the serious side than a joke, perhaps because I was tired, I didn’t feel like nitpicking over details.
Rather than that, the purpose of coming here is the priority.
“How did it happen?”
“It wasn’t my fault, okay? I merely performed acupoint pressing so he couldn’t do anything foolish the moment I saw him…”
“And he suddenly died while pouring out his brain matter.”
“You know it well. As if you saw it yourself.”
“I’ve seen something similar.”
I had experienced it personally in the Mount Hua Sect.
Anyway.
“Did you get what you wanted?”
“I found what looks like a ledger, but the contents of the ledger have many metaphorical expressions, so it seems translation is needed.”
“If that man had been alive, it would have been easy to find out. It’s a pity.”
“Indeed.”
Gwan Jung-yeon smacked his lips, feeling regret.
“Let’s get out first.”
If it was a matter that required translation, it was not something to resolve here.
At my proposal suggesting we withdraw first, Gwan Jung-yeon nodded, wrapped what looked like the ledger well in oil paper, and put it in his chest pocket.
As we left the place and room was made, the events that just happened and my past experience began to combine in my head.
‘Gu parasite.’
If specific conditions are met, the gu parasite planted in the head kills the host.
The way Gyeong Sang-eon died was too similar to the case of Sang Woo-kyung, the Mount Hua disciple and spy of the Demonic Cult.
‘The Demonic Cult…’
The Demonic Cult is behind the Crane?
It was a possibility to think about, but for that, the state of the Demonic Cult was too messy.
The power of those the Dragon Scale Squad called ‘Crane’ for convenience was enough for even the Emperor to fear.
No matter how they were the strongest as a single force in the martial world, it was difficult to conclude that the Demonic Cult, which was scattered due to internal strife, was exercising that much power and influence.
Rather, it was right to see that there were those in the Demonic Cult who had connections with the Crane.
‘Does Yi Hwa know?’
That this method is the same as the method of the gu parasite utilized in the Demonic Cult.
To check, I glanced at Yi Hwa’s face, but no change in expression was visible.
‘Master Heavenly Demon, who is frying Demonic Cultists in hell, would know… I wonder if he purposely didn’t talk about it, or if he doesn’t know.’
This part seemed to be something to confirm later.
Most of all.
‘I hope I don’t have to go to the Demonic Cult myself.’
I pushed this thought that arose unconsciously to the other side of my head.