Chapter 80: Chapter 80
“How on earth am I supposed to look at that fellow Cheol Ji-ak’s face again! Kill me instead!”
The White Dragon Squad Leader shouted so.
However, Cheon Woo-jin’s expression was merely calm.
“Does it look like I am asking you a favor?”
“…”
The gazes of the White Dragon Squad Leader and Cheon Woo-jin tangled in the air.
Meeting that dry gaze, the White Dragon Squad Leader realized.
Just as that fellow said, he was not asking him a favor. This was no different from an order.
He couldn’t even refuse. He was a fellow who had revived him even when he tried to commit suicide by chewing on a poison pill.
That fellow would use any means necessary to keep him alive and place him before Cheol Ji-ak.
‘Damn it all…’
The White Dragon Squad Leader was simply terrified because he could not even imagine what kind of expression Cheol Ji-ak would make.
Withdrawing his gaze from the White Dragon Squad Leader, Cheon Woo-jin spoke to Jin Un and Song Yi-yeon.
“It is all over.”
All that remained was to return.
Nodding his head, Song Yi-yeon fired a signal flare retrieved from his robes into the sky. The red firework flew while tracing a long tail, radiating bright light despite the broad daylight.
From what he heard, it was said to be a signal flare personally crafted by the Thunderbolt Gate.
Seeing this, the Martial Alliance branch would soon dispatch reinforcements. They merely had to leave the aftermath of the unorthodox martial artists and the orchard to them.
“Where was the nearest branch again?”
“The Xi’an Branch. This place, Heyang, is also not a small city, so there should be a post station of the Martial Alliance. If they immediately request reinforcements to Xi’an from there…”
Gauging the time for a moment, Jin Un nodded his head.
“At most, it will arrive in half a shichen.”
Shaanxi was the front yard of the Mount Hua Sect. Furthermore, in the Xi’an Branch, martial artists of the Mount Hua Sect and Zhongnan Sect were countless.
Recalling the geography and calculating the time taking their martial prowess into account was no trouble at all.
Admiring that adept demeanor, Song Yi-yeon spoke.
“Oh, do you have any interest in doing escort agency work? It is a useful talent.”
“…Why would I do something like escort work?”
“My, are you looking down on escort work right now? It is our family business.”
“N-No! It’s not that…!”
Uncharacteristically flustered, Jin Un hurriedly waved his hands. His fingers were so fast they were invisible, making his urgency felt naturally.
At that sight, Song Yi-yeon burst into hearty laughter.
“It was a joke, a joke. In any case, Daoist Jin Un seems to be quite fun to tease. Are all Daoists originally like this?”
“I doubt that.”
Cheon Woo-jin answered in his stead.
Long ago, when he lived in the mountains attending his two masters, Daoists also visited from time to time. Surprisingly, they were guests of Black Elder, not White Elder.
“Brother! Brotheeer!”
Cutting through the conversation of the three men, a shrill voice erupted. Jang Seo-woon was desperately calling his older brother, yet did not move from his spot out of fear of the three men.
At that sight, the White Dragon Squad Leader’s eyes narrowed. It was obvious without looking that that bastard had made a slip of the tongue. The unorthodox scoundrels were already glaring at his younger brother as if looking at a mortal enemy.
Covering one ear, Song Yi-yeon spoke.
“I want to wait quietly; can’t we just seal his acupoints?”
Song Yi-yeon’s question was directed at Cheon Woo-jin.
However, the answer came from a different direction.
“Do you think that will do?”
Simultaneously, Song Yi-yeon ducked his waist low.
A massive fist abruptly lunged into the space where his upper body had just been.
At the same time, Cheon Woo-jin’s Crescent Moon Staff blocked that fist.
Dong!
Even though iron staff and fist had clashed, the heavy sound of striking a great bell resonated deep and low.
“Oho, you dodged this? That fellow even blocked it?”
Dense wrinkles and a gigantic frame unfitting for them. His voice shook the air, and his fists were as large as pot lids.
Pupils carrying bright blue lightning gazed at Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon as if finding them intriguing.
The moment the unorthodox martial artists saw him, they bowed their heads to avoid meeting his eyes, and even the loudly shouting Jang Seo-woon held his breath.
Amidst that silence, the White Dragon Squad Leader shouted in utter shock.
“V-Venerable Byeok-san!”
Venerable Byeok-san. An old eccentric ranked seventeenth in martial strength and an executive of the Black Overlord Castle, the foremost in the present Unorthodox Path.
Commonly, the scale of the Black Overlord Castle was said to equal two of the Nine Sects and three of the Five Great Clans, five factions in total.
Being the seventeenth strongest in such an organization meant that there were not many under heaven who could face him.
“Indeed. White Dragon Squad Leader, why does your appearance look like that?”
“…”
The White Dragon Squad Leader could not say anything. The shame of having colluded with a giant of the Unorthodox Path before the rising stars of the Martial Alliance, mixed with the dread toward Venerable Byeok-san, gagged his mouth.
When the White Dragon Squad Leader kept his mouth tightly shut, Venerable Byeok-san, watching him with flashing eyes, spoke in a voice resembling thunder.
“Would it not be bad if an affair mediated under my name became this tumultuous? Squad Leader, did you stab me in the back because you pretend to be an Alliance member?”
“N-No! How could I!”
“Indeed.”
Venerable Byeok-san nodded his head. Unless a hole had been punched in the White Dragon Squad Leader’s head, there was no way that was true.
Then, Venerable Byeok-san’s gaze turned toward the unorthodox martial artists kowtowing on the ground. They were petty unorthodox factions who smuggled salt and gunpowder like petty thieves.
“Then did you worm-like bastards ruin the job?”
“W-We only suffered a one-sided beating.”
“Oho.”
Venerable Byeok-san’s thick lips curled upward. It was truly an amused expression.
“Then only three people remain.”
Venerable Byeok-san looked at Cheon Woo-jin, Song Yi-yeon, and Jin Un.
Song Yi-yeon and Jin Un stepped back involuntarily.
True to his moniker of Venerable Byeok-san, he was a pugilist who wielded blue lightning qi. Lightning swirled around his two colossal fists.
“I simply have to kill the three and silence them. It is fortunate that the matter has become simple.”
The White Dragon Squad Leader was horrified inside. He had never imagined Venerable Byeok-san would say he would kill Alliance members right before his eyes.
No matter if Venerable Byeok-san was an executive of the Black Overlord Castle, if this fact leaked to the outside, it would inevitably lead to political issues between the Martial Alliance and the Black Overlord Castle.
Unfortunately, however, Venerable Byeok-san was a reckless old man who paid no heed to such things whatsoever. For that reason, even within the Black Overlord Castle, they referred to him as a troublemaker.
“…Excuse me, Venerable Byeok-san.”
“Hm?”
“Could I perhaps wrap this up properly?”
The White Dragon Squad Leader asked cautiously with bowed head.
However, no answer came in return.
When it remained quiet for a long while, the bewildered White Dragon Squad Leader raised his head, only to almost wet himself.
It was because Venerable Byeok-san was staring at him with a deadpan expression, all traces of laughter completely erased from his face.
“Squad Leader, do you think our affairs are child’s play? I received money from you, and agreed to wrap up the matter neatly. If you tell me to get lost now, must I step back?”
“I-It isn’t that…”
The White Dragon Squad Leader’s words could not continue.
It was because a fist carrying blue lightning qi was plummeting toward his head.
He clearly had both eyes wide open.
Yet the moment he perceived the fist, it had already drawn right before his nose.
It was truly a rapid fist unfitting for his gigantic frame.
‘I’m dead…!’
Though it was a life he had tried to take through suicide, he had not the slightest desire to die by the hands of an unorthodox old eccentric. He had to hastily pull his steps back. Yet, crushed by overwhelming energy, he did not budge in the slightest.
Like that, just as the shadow of death was about to strike right before him.
Clang!
The White Dragon Squad Leader was almost deafened for an instant. A sharp metallic shriek exploded right before his nose. In that brief instant, it was difficult to even open his eyes due to the tremendous wind pressure.
Soon, an unrealistic spectacle unfolded before his cautiously opened eyes.
Venerable Byeok-san’s colossal fist was blocked by a dark iron staff. Tracing along that iron staff with his gaze, Cheon Woo-jin was there.
‘W-What.’
He knew that fellow was strong.
Yet was he at a level to block the fist of Venerable Byeok-san, an executive of the Black Overlord Castle, that easily?
Simultaneously, a very primal question entered the White Dragon Squad Leader’s mind.
‘Why is such a martial artist in the Martial Alliance…’
And as a low-ranking member at that.
Before the White Dragon Squad Leader’s question could continue, Venerable Byeok-san’s furious roar erupted like thunder.
“Silence! How dares a wet-behind-the-ears brat obstruct the execution of my affairs!”
It was tingling, as if lightning were held within his voice.
It was to the extent that the White Dragon Squad Leader, Song Yi-yeon, and Jin Un covered their ears.
However, Cheon Woo-jin, still extending his staff and looking at Venerable Byeok-san with his characteristically dry face, smirked.
“He played an interesting trick.”
Cheon Woo-jin recalled Ha In-seong, the Young Castle Lord of the Black Overlord Castle.
How could a guy like Byeok-san or whatever know that an incident would take place here and arrive right on time?
The only ones who knew that in advance were Ha In-seong and the Courier Hall Master. It wasn’t as if the Courier Hall Master would collude with an executive of the Black Overlord Castle…
Most likely, Ha In-seong had sent him.
Venerable Byeok-san’s personality was brash enough to grasp in a brief instant. Enough to cause frequent troubles if kept as a subordinate.
Even right now, it was like that.
The Martial Alliance and the Black Overlord Castle were strictly hostile relations. Even so, as an executive of the Black Overlord Castle, Venerable Byeok-san had moved after taking money from a Martial Alliance squad leader. Moreover, he acted without a shred of shame.
He was a man with light buttocks unfitting for his massive build. If such a person sat in an executive seat, the prestige of the Black Overlord Castle fell.
Cheon Woo-jin understood the workings of the Unorthodox Path better than anyone.
‘If Master Black Elder were this fellow’s leader, what would he have done?’
There was no need to even ponder it.
Instant execution.
Master Black Elder had said that the most important things to the Unorthodox Path were face and prestige. There was no way he would leave someone like Venerable Byeok-san, who chipped away at it, alive.
In Cheon Woo-jin’s eyes, Ha In-seong was also one of the true unorthodox martial artists just like Master Black Elder.
However, because killing Venerable Byeok-san, a veteran expert of the Black Overlord Castle, with his own hands was tricky in many ways, he had used a scheme.
Just as Cheon Woo-jin was thinking so.
Perhaps feeling insulted, Venerable Byeok-san, his face flushed with fury, flared his internal energy.
Bright blue lightning burst from his entire body.
“What a taciturn brat. I am truly curious what kind of begging will emerge from that mouth!”
Venerable Byeok-san thrust his fist.
Stepping back one by one, Cheon Woo-jin swung his Crescent Moon Staff calmly.
Venerable Byeok-san’s fist was blocked without fail. However, Cheon Woo-jin merely continued to retreat backward.
The White Dragon Squad Leader and Song Yi-yeon were simultaneously astonished.
The White Dragon Squad Leader was astonished that Cheon Woo-jin repeatedly blocked Venerable Byeok-san’s attacks.
Song Yi-yeon was astonished that Venerable Byeok-san was continuously pushing Cheon Woo-jin’s steps back.
Bang! Bang! Boom!
Venerable Byeok-san’s fists struck the Crescent Moon Staff dozens of times.
By that point, even Venerable Byeok-san, who lost his discernment when angry, realized that something was strange.
‘Setting aside the fact that that slender iron staff doesn’t break…’
Just how was he blocking?
Venerable Byeok-san was an experienced old eccentric. Could it be that there had truly been no one who blocked his fists until now?
However, when he punched while imbuing his innate physical strength with lightning qi, the opponent’s flaws were bound to show little by little.
‘I can’t see it. Not at all.’
Just how was he blocking it?
Was that fellow exhausted, or did he have plenty of leeway?
Was I winning, or was I losing?
How would this battle end…
A battle where nothing was visible like this was a first even for Venerable Byeok-san.
“You bastard!”
Venerable Byeok-san flared even more fierce lightning qi along with a roar.
Certainly, lightning qi was a difficult martial art to face. Even if blocked, it penetrated into the flesh to cause issues, and dodging was not easy due to its wide range.
Of course, that was a story when one’s realm was high or at least somewhat comparable.
Cheon Woo-jin did not bother resisting the internal energy flowing into his body through the Crescent Moon Staff. The energy of the Dark Heavens within his body simply tore the lightning qi to shreds.
Having pondered while receiving the attacks for a short while, Cheon Woo-jin soon nodded his head. Somehow, doing as Ha In-seong intended did not sit well with him.
However, he had received goodwill first. Ha In-seong had provided the intelligence Cheon Woo-jin needed, and in return was asking him to clean up the troublemaker of the Black Overlord Castle.
‘It is an offer I cannot refuse.’
Thinking so, Cheon Woo-jin slightly lowered his Crescent Moon Staff.
At that, a smile lingered on Venerable Byeok-san’s face for the first time.
‘I finally see it!’
Even if the opponent was a brat strong as a monster, in the end, a novice was merely a novice.
Having endured attacks of this magnitude until now, his internal energy must be worn down and showing the bottom.
Fitting for an old eccentric, even though he thought he had seized victory, Venerable Byeok-san did not move rashly. He intended to smash that head properly after throwing three or four more probing strikes.
The moment he thrust his fist with that intention.
‘What?’
Venerable Byeok-san’s eyebrows twitched. Unlike how he had parried fists with the side of the staff until now, he widened the distance and raised it upright head-on.
Soon, the tip of that staff and Venerable Byeok-san’s fist clashed head-on.
It did not matter. Venerable Byeok-san drew up all his remaining internal force. It was enough to smash that iron staff whole and shatter that fellow’s shoulder as well.
He had clearly thought so.
Crack! Cr-cr-crack!
Just as black haze seemed to swirl around the Crescent Moon Staff, it pierced through Venerable Byeok-san’s fist. It pushed straight through as it was. His wrist, forearm, elbow, and all the way to his shoulder.
Dark Tail Single Flash. Concentrating internal power into a single point, it pierced even Mount Tai. Carrying the energy of the Dark Heavens, the Crescent Moon Staff traced a pitch-black tail and tore the blue lightning apart like a tidal wave.