Chapter 154: Chapter 154
Yongren County, a village situated on the border of Sichuan and Yunnan.
If this place, the final frontline of Yunnan, was breached by external enemies, the Central Plains heartland would be handed over in an instant.
For that reason, the Martial Alliance paid special attention to the frontline of Yongren County. They deployed multiple squad-leader-level figures and drafted many martial artists from nearby sects.
Decisively, the Mount Emei Sect, a member of the Nine Great Sects and One Clan, stepped forward. Because they were based in Mount Emei of Sichuan, they were also in a situation where they would suffer the first damage if Yongren County was breached.
“That wench! Kill that wench!”
“Don’t kill her, bring her before me. It has been a long time since I held a woman’s hand, so I miss it.”
Crude words erupted everywhere. The dark-skinned martial artists of the Southern Barbarians hurled raw, vulgar curses at the Buddhist nuns of the Mount Emei Sect.
Being this intensely enraged meant that things were not going as they desired.
Though the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace had pushed all the way to this Yongren in a single breath, starting from Xishuangbanna at the southernmost tip of Yunnan through Ailao Mountain and Kunming. They had not been able to break the spirit and demon-subduing resolve of the Mount Emei warrior nuns.
“Disciples, do not let your minds waver at their provocation tactics, and respond calmly. If you bark back when a dog barks, you are no human.”
At the center stood the Sect Leader, Abbess Jin-wol.
It was the Mount Emei Sect, rare among Buddhist sects in using swords.
Every time her sword cleaved through empty air, martial artists of the Southern Barbarians fell bleeding.
In the martial world, there had long been a common perception that a woman’s sword was softer and more graceful than a man’s. However, in the contemporary era, few people uttered such words.
Only two people.
Because Abbess Jin-wol of the Mount Emei Sect and the Sword Maiden of the Namgung Clan had shattered such prejudices.
“As long as I stand firm here, the beasts of the south shall never step upon the soil of Sichuan!”
Having cut down yet another martial artist, Abbess Jin-wol unleashed a Lion’s Roar. The magnificent internal power unique to Buddhist martial arts spread widely to every corner of the battlefield.
The martial artists of the Southern Barbarians shuddered once. She was a woman on a different level from the Central Plains martial artists they had faced thus far.
Wearing monastic robes, Abbess Jin-wol swung her sword with one hand while relentlessly erupting palm force with the other.
Even so, her breathing and pupils showed not the slightest tremor, so even the Southern Barbarian martial artists, who claimed to be men among men, subtly avoided her and only picked fights with others.
It was at that moment.
Abbess Jin-wol, who had been pouring out palm force forward, came to an abrupt halt.
The martial artists of the Southern Barbarians feared her quite a bit, but in truth, she had been conserving fifty percent of her internal power the entire time.
A middle-aged man standing a short distance away, looking aloofly upon the Southern Barbarian martial artists fighting. It was because he kept bothering her mind.
‘Is he finally stepping forward?’
Though she hoped he would not, he was ultimately moving his steps toward the battlefield. A colossal physique and bursting muscles, along with eyes and an aura resembling a ferocious beast.
It gave the illusion that a sturdy black panther was sauntering toward this place.
“Are you the master of these beasts?”
Abbess Jin-wol deliberately used harsh words.
Even so, the middle-aged man merely responded without agitation.
“Indeed so. I am precisely the king of these ferocious beasts.”
Abbess Jin-wol secretly sighed inwardly.
Her ominous hunch was correct. That man was none other than Cheon Yong, Palace Lord of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace. Jin-wol herself could not match the Palace Lord who was known as an expert of the Realm Beyond the Heavens.
“Are you the Sect Leader of Mount Emei? You are beautiful as I heard. You have a softness that is hard to see among the women of the Southern Barbarians.”
For the leader of a faction to hear, it was truly insulting words. Even so, Abbess Jin-wol, whose cultivation was high, did not waver in the slightest. Having told her disciples not to be agitated, how could she waver herself?
Merely looking at the Palace Lord with calm eyes, she thought.
‘A faction that loses its leader is bound to lose its resolve.’
She could not gain the upper hand against the Palace Lord. Because Abbess Jin-wol had not yet looked upon the realm called Beyond the Heavens.
However, if she used truly a single opportunity, could she not aim for mutual destruction?
If she succeeded, the beasts of the south having lost their chieftain would lose their way and return to their homeland.
Abbess Jin-wol adjusted her grip on her sword.
Even having resolved upon mutual destruction, not the slightest sign showed upon her face. A martial artist who accepted death with a calm heart even before death was precisely the leader of Mount Emei.
– Disciples, listen.
Abbess Jin-wol transmitted her voice to the disciples of Mount Emei.
At the subdued voice different from usual, the Buddhist nuns of Mount Emei guessed what their grand master was about to say. Their hearts churned and tears seemed ready to pour out, but they held them back. Because young though they were, they were also monastics of Mount Emei.
– If I slay the Palace Lord, disciples, retreat immediately along with the Alliance members. There is no need to look back. If you steadily advance while looking toward only one place just as you have lived your entire lives, light will eventually be waiting for you disciples.
This was a final testament guiding the disciples in how to live from now on, not merely for this battle.
She felt sorry to the Alliance Leader and the Chief Strategist. Everyone from Mount Emei should have defied death and killed even one more of them. But to Jin-wol, her disciples were far more precious.
“Palace Lord, how about settling this battle through a duel between you and me?”
Beast Palace Lord Cheon Yong showed a thick smile. More than anyone, he was a man who kept the word “manliness” on his lips. Whether he was truly manly was unknown, but in any case, that was what he pursued.
In his feeling, this situation right now was quite a manly situation. There was not the slightest possibility of him losing. Defeating the leader of Mount Emei, a member of the Nine Great Sects and One Clan, before everyone’s eyes and advancing into the Central Plains. How glorious was this?
“Very well. Beasts of the Southern Barbarians, do not interfere in the fight between me and that woman. If there is an unmanly bastard who dares disobey my command, I will rip off his lower groin alive and kill him.”
Saying so, Cheon Yong took one step, two steps toward Abbess Jin-wol. Each time he took a step, the momentum rising like a haze above his shoulders grew increasingly larger.
The hand of Abbess Jin-wol gripping the sword trembled minutely. It was her first time facing an expert of the Realm Beyond the Heavens head-on like this. It was an overbearing and dangerous energy beyond what she had imagined.
‘Amitabha…’
Chanting a Buddhist prayer, Abbess Jin-wol aimed her sword with a solemn heart. The Beast Palace Lord also clutched his fists, which were vividly wrapped in fist astral qi.
Soon, the two charged toward each other.
The distance that was rather far closed in an instant.
Sword and fist met in the middle, detonating an energy wave.
Regrettably, what was swallowed by the energy wave was Abbess Jin-wol’s sword. The sword blade began shattering into pieces from the tip. Soon, the sword she held disappeared entirely, leaving only the hilt behind.
Even after evaporating the long blade whole, the Beast Palace Lord’s punch still retained its momentum. Carrying ominous energy, his fist headed toward Abbess Jin-wol’s face.
Abbess Jin-wol did not dodge. It was a situation where any human would feel primal fear, but her mental cultivation had long surpassed the realm of ordinary mortals. Something like death could not frighten her.
Perhaps because she faced death, she felt as if the world had slowed down. Calmly gazing at the fist, she raised her toes and kicked upward. Instead of raising body-protecting astral qi to protect her face, she concentrated every ounce of energy into the tip of her foot. Starting with the symbol of manliness he loved so much, she intended to bisect him straight up to the crown of his head.
Even if she failed to kill him, he would not be able to utter the word manliness for the rest of his life. Abbess Jin-wol thought so. Soon, as the Beast Palace Lord’s massive fist reached right before her eyes, the world turned pitch-dark. The fist was so large that it completely obstructed her field of view.
Her toe imbued with astral qi kicked upward into the Beast Palace Lord. From that unpleasant sensation, she felt certain that the attack had landed properly.
However, the strange thing was.
The Palace Lord’s fist did not reach her face.
Soon, the slowed world returned to its original speed.
“Aaaaaaaargh!!”
The Beast Palace Lord let out a bizarre scream. Struck with astral qi in a place that could never be hardened no matter how much one trained, it was only natural.
His fist had failed to reach Abbess Jin-wol. Though smaller than the Palace Lord’s hand, a hand that looked far firmer was blocking between the two before anyone noticed.
“Hidden Dragon Squad Leader?”
Abbess Jin-wol looked at Cheon Woo-jin with astonished eyes. It could not have been long since reports of the Southern Barbarians’ raid were delivered to the Alliance, so how.
“I apologize. Had I not interfered, you would have slain the Palace Lord. I made a mistake.”
Cheon Woo-jin bowed his head to apologize to Abbess Jin-wol.
Abbess Jin-wol put on a bewildered look. The attack had landed accurately. However, contrary to her original prediction, her internal power fell short, and because the Palace Lord’s body was much tougher, she had merely failed to kill him.
Rather, she was in a state of having owed her life to Cheon Woo-jin…
Soon, Abbess Jin-wol realized the situation.
‘…Did he show consideration for me?’
There were countless disciples of Mount Emei here.
Had she been hit by that punch, it was an undeniable fact that she would have died. Yet the Beast Palace Lord was alive and well, merely writhing in pain. Resolving upon mutual destruction yet failing to kill the opponent was certainly a blow to pride as the Sect Leader of Mount Emei.
While she harbored such thoughts, Cheon Woo-jin merely looked at the Beast Palace Lord rolling on the ground far away with an impassive face and added.
“Ah, did you deliberately inflict pain worse than death? Mount Emei is truly terrifying.”
“…Thank you.”
Cheon Woo-jin simply shrugged his shoulders.
As a result, Abbess Jin-wol preserved her pride before her disciples, and the Beast Palace Lord had failed to land a single hit and merely taken the full brunt of Abbess Jin-wol’s strike that was resolved upon mutual destruction.
‘Had it been Young Hero Song, he would have spoken like this. Since he is a young hero who empathizes with anyone.’
It was consideration unimaginable for the Cheon Woo-jin of the past.
In fact, Abbess Jin-wol was also in a state of shock at actions so different from the rumored Hidden Dragon Squad Leader.
“Sect Leader. If it is all right, I shall handle the rest. I have something to test personally.”
Cheon Woo-jin spoke while looking at the Beast Palace Lord.
Thanks to protecting his lower parts with body-protecting astral qi at the final moment, the bastard had been able to save his life. Even so, it must have brought immense pain, yet he was already brushing himself off and trying to get up.
Just as he had heard from his masters, the martial artists of the Southern Barbarians seemed truly sturdy.
“Please pull everyone back a little. They might get caught up in it.”
“Understood.”
Abbess Jin-wol obediently nodded her head. In truth, she thought this too was Cheon Woo-jin’s consideration. Because she had loaded all her internal power into the final strike, merely standing was difficult right now.
Cheon Woo-jin strode toward the Beast Palace Lord. Abbess Jin-wol had the Mount Emei disciples ensure that no other Southern Barbarian martial artists could approach Cheon Woo-jin.
Soon, the Beast Palace Lord rose to his feet.
By his standards, Cheon Woo-jin was infinitely small and young, but knowing that he had blocked his punch nonchalantly, he did not slacken his guard in the slightest.
“What kind of bastard are you again?”
“Hearing from afar, it seemed you liked fighting manfully.”
“…”
“Ah, are you no longer a man now?”
Cheon Woo-jin contemplated seriously.
Where does human sexual identity come from?
Hmm, can one be called not a man simply because one’s lower parts were damaged? If so, is the Eastern Depot Director actually not a man either? These are truly difficult and profound questions.
The sight of him contemplating seriously right before him enraged the Beast Palace Lord even further. Simultaneously, snickers burst out among the Mount Emei nuns, and the tension was fading.
Of course, this too was intentional on Cheon Woo-jin’s part.
While he rarely fathomed another’s emotions in everyday life, Cheon Woo-jin was someone who became more shrewd and clever than anyone at least when it came to a fight.
“Yes, truly manfully, let us clash until one of us drops dead.”
The Beast Palace Lord, whose eyes were half turned white with rage, growled like a ferocious beast. His yearning to rip off Cheon Woo-jin’s head alive even if risking his life was felt abundantly.
Soon, the Beast Palace Lord pounced toward Cheon Woo-jin.
Cheon Woo-jin merely stood still and stared at him.
Having already experienced the Beast Palace Lord’s power firsthand, Abbess Jin-wol looked at Cheon Woo-jin’s back with a somewhat anxious heart.
Of course, Cheon Woo-jin’s expression was still impassive. Before anyone noticed, the Crescent Moon Staff was held in his hand. Just as the White Night Craftsman said, he intended to try communing with the Crescent Moon Staff.
It was a wide plain, and there were only enemies in all directions.
Conditions as perfect as this were rare to find.
Dark Heavens Qi surged beyond fifty percent in an instant, reaching eighty percent, then ninety percent.
Rrrruuuuumble!
Crash!
Truly ominous and hazardous lightning energy sparked in all directions. As if a volcano crouching for thousands of years had erupted, the vast heavens and earth trembled wildly.
An awe-inspiring and solemn energy, to the point where it was impossible to believe a single human had conjured it, was seizing and shaking the entire world.
The martial artists of Mount Emei and the Martial Alliance instinctively retreated as far as they could. The Southern Barbarian martial artists also curled their tails like terrified puppies and prostrated flat on the ground.
Only one person.
Only the Beast Palace Lord, who had emphasized manliness, merely wore an ambiguous expression, unable to stop or advance his steps.
Leaping into such an unrealistic sight isn’t manliness, it’s being a complete idiot.
Around the time the Beast Palace Lord was having such thoughts.
Tired of waiting for the Palace Lord, the Crescent Moon Staff surged forward, letting out a colossal cry like the roar of a descending black dragon.