Chapter 30: Covenant of Cao Mo (2)
-Second Move-
Chui gripped the staff firmly.
The enemy before his eyes was a mighty wall against which minor tricks like hammers, awls, or caltrops would not work.
Only by concentrating all his strength onto the staff alone would he be able to pierce through.
*Ssssss…*
Chui pulled up the power of the spear ghost.
Chui had crossed the threshold of the tenth level of Bowed Pavilion and entered the first level of Towering Vessel, enabling him to mobilize even deeper internal energy.
“……!”
Detecting the internal energy Chui was pulling up, Namgung Cheon’s eyes widened.
*Boom!*
Chui’s staff shot out like a harpoon.
Several layers of holes were pierced in the atmosphere.
A massive amount of dust rose up around, uprooting and blowing away all the grass and shrubs.
Facing Chui’s attack before his eyes, Namgung Cheon sighed.
“If I had known such a thing would fly in, I should not have conceded. Or at least I should have used my sword…”
Before his soliloquy could even finish, Chui’s staff drove into Namgung Cheon’s body.
Just before the dark trajectory lodged into his abdomen, Namgung Cheon’s eyes glowed blue.
*Spin- Whoosh!*
Namgung Cheon rotated his body like a spinning top and twisted his arms as much as possible, making the staff graze past his body.
At the same time, he countered Chui’s staff with Grappling Hand Techniques in which the subtle principle of Grafting Twigs onto Plum Trees was reflected.
*Hiss- Shhhhhh!*
Smoke arose from Namgung Cheon’s grasp.
At the same time, the sleeves of his long robe rolled into the staff, making a noisy friction sound.
…*Riiip!*
Along with the sound of the robe tearing, the staff’s trajectory was twisted.
*Bang!*
Chui’s staff cut through the air and soared up into the empty sky.
Whether it was just his imagination, the clouds in the sky were split wide open to the left and right.
“……”
Chui withdrew the staff without any harvest.
From Namgung Cheon’s palm, steam like boiling water was rising, but not a single drop of blood was visible.
*Whoosh!*
The heat generated by the friction of iron and flesh was burning Namgung Cheon’s robe hem and sleeves blazingly.
*Puff-*
Namgung Cheon blew his breath to extinguish the flames caught on his sleeves.
It was a fire that rose much higher than a person’s height, but it disappeared with a single deep breath of the old man, leaving only thick smoke.
“Now three moves remain.”
There was still leisure in Namgung Cheon’s voice.
Chui also gripped his staff anew with a calm expression.
The third move was being loaded.
…*Crack!*
Chui twisted the muscles of his entire body to the limit and untwisted them all at once, concentrating that strength at the tip of the staff.
The energy of the spear ghost rising from the root of the staff extended out bright red.
Like a monster’s eyeball, it was condensed at the tip of the staff, dripping tears of blood.
Chui swung the staff once over his head to draw a semicircle.
And the moment the half-moon, starting from one vertex, ended at the other vertex, the blood-colored arc drawn in the air transformed into a straight line facing the front.
*Boom!*
The ground Chui stepped on with his weight hollowed out, and countless cracks appeared.
“Tsk!”
This time, Namgung Cheon also frowned and clicked his tongue.
Because Chui’s momentum had become a level fiercer and more foreign than before.
If previously it was like a harpoon thrown by a fisherman on a whaling ship toward a whale, now it was like a battering ram running at full speed colliding against a castle gate.
*Whooooosh!*
Black and red swirled, and the dark red mixed trajectory headed toward the very center of Namgung Cheon’s torso.
-Third Move-
Namgung Cheon closed his mouth tightly and raised his wrist.
“……”
Soon, the tip of Chui’s staff and Namgung Cheon’s wrist met at one spot.
*Clang!*
Although metal and human bone met, it made the sound of weapons colliding.
Chui almost lost his grip on the staff.
*Zzzzzzzing…*
A terrifying recoil transmitted along the staff.
It felt as if he had struck a mountain made of iron.
*Craaaack! Pop-pop-pop!*
Due to the recoil of the internal energy clash, the skin of his palms tore completely, and furthermore, even the muscles of his wrists and forearms exploded.
Chui’s two arms became stained with bright red blood all the way to both shoulders.
Meanwhile, Namgung Cheon was still calm.
“It is sore. It will be hard on rainy days in the future.”
He spoke, massaging with his left hand the right wrist that had blocked Chui’s staff.
“It seems you were once in the military?”
A past history asked nonchalantly.
However, his guess was terrifyingly sharp.
“Did you learn the staff, or rather the spear, on the battlefield against the barbarians? The Poisonous Dragon Exits the Cave stance just now seems to have been modified a lot from the basics. It is a shape that has refined exactly the bare basics of spear art to the limit. It is completely of a practical combat type. But this is a realm impossible for your age…”
Chui did not answer Namgung Cheon’s question.
Namgung Cheon had also merely spoken to himself, and did not particularly expect Chui’s answer.
Namgung Cheon read Chui’s posture with his eyes and continued speaking.
“Since earlier you have only used the six techniques of seal, close, grasp, seize, upper block, and lower block. Strange. Although it is military spear art, it is not an officer’s but that of a low-ranking soldier. Meaning you do not seem to be the child of a general’s family. Or, are you still hiding your strength? Hmm?”
Namgung Cheon was continuously observing Chui.
Without taking his eyes off even once, from the moment Chui fought Namgung Paeng-saeng until now.
‘What a sticky old man.’
Chui once again ignored Namgung Cheon’s gaze, which was sparkling with curiosity and wonder.
“Now two moves remain indeed. Ah, shall I take back the very first move? Since I fouled.”
“……No need.”
Soon, Chui made his fourth move.
*Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-whoosh…*
As he spun the staff, a black whirlwind surged.
*Ruuuuumble…*
The violent wind carved the ground and wrapped its debris around the whirlwind.
Soon, Chui swung the staff horizontally while gripping it tightly.
A shape just like thrusting a bat to hit an incoming ball.
*Whooooosh!*
With immense wind pressure arising, the tip of the staff, carrying the whirlwind’s centrifugal force as it was, flew toward Namgung Cheon’s waist.
It was the very move to which both Cao Yangzi and Namgung Paeng-saeng had lost their lives.
“……!”
Namgung Cheon raised both arms to cover his face and torso.
-Fourth Move-
Soon, Chui’s staff struck over Namgung Cheon’s two forearms.
*Crack!*
A sound as if lightning split a giant jujube tree erupted.
Frowning, Namgung Cheon was pushed back half a step.
On the other hand, Chui retreated five steps.
*Rip! Splat! Drip-drip-drip…*
The muscles of his arms holding the staff were now torn and burst, close to rags.
Namgung Cheon spoke, gently stroking both forearms.
“What a good Sweeping Away a Thousand Armies. My bones are tingling.”
Chui nodded to return the courtesy for the praise.
Meanwhile.
“……”
“……”
“……”
The audience watching the clash between the two was losing their minds, not even knowing that dust was entering their wide-open mouths.
Who was Namgung Cheon?
He was the Sword King.
He was one of the supreme sovereigns of the Fifteen Pillars of the Orthodox Path, known to be closest to the number one under heaven.
To think that a young man existed who could push him, who was still reigning as the pinnacle of the previous generation and the symbol of old martial arts, back by half a step.
This was a situation that did not conform to the world’s common sense at all.
…However, the two protagonists who were actually creating this situation were extremely calm.
“Ohohoho—now one move remains.”
“……”
Chui held the staff.
The fifth move. This is the last.
*Ssssss…*
Around that very time, as Chui had expected, a change occurred inside his dantian.
‘It has finally been subjugated.’
The spear ghost of Namgung Paeng-saeng, whom he killed a moment ago, had finally completely submitted to Chui’s command.
*Ruuuuumble…*
The spear ghost of Namgung Paeng-saeng, whose head’s blood was not even dry yet, climbed up the handle of the black staff.
Entangling with Cao Yangzi’s spear ghost, it transformed into a terrifying shape and was letting out a horrible death throe.
Namgung Paeng-saeng, who ended up participating in hard labor while shedding hot tears of blood.
His resentment entirely became Chui’s internal energy and burned blazingly at the tip of the staff.
The first level of Towering Vessel.
Chui, who leaped over that in an instant, was currently stepping onto the second level of Towering Vessel.
A bright red energy was gushing out wildly from his entire body.
Chui possessed a form just like a blood ghost that had just crawled out of a pool of blood.
However, since this was a martial art that had not yet been revealed to the world, there was no one who thought of it as a demonic art.
“……W-What on earth is that martial art?”
“I have never seen it or heard of it.”
“It is truly terrifying. It is the first time in my life seeing such a ferocious martial art.”
“I have never heard of such a martial art existing across the Orthodox, Heterodox, and Demonic factions.”
They merely retreated hesitantly out of instinctive wariness at the overwhelming foreignness and smell of blood Chui was emitting.
Soon.
*Boom!*
Chui leaped.
The black staff, which had drawn in even Namgung Paeng-saeng’s spear ghost, shot toward Namgung Cheon with speed and power incomparable to anything until now.
“……! ……! ……”
Namgung Cheon’s expression changed rapidly.
The staff carved in a hexagon, and its blunt tip for some reason appeared as a terrifyingly sharp spear point.
A terrifying spear blade that, once pierced, could never be escaped from again.
Its tip was rushing toward this side redly, roughly, and violently.
-Fifth Move-
In a split second, Namgung Cheon made a judgment.
It was not by reason, but by his instinct as a warrior.
While trying to block the incoming staff with his palm.
*Draw-*
He hastily withdrew both hands and straight away drew the sword at his waist.
*Clang!*
The internal energy gushing from Chui’s staff and the internal energy scattered from Namgung Cheon’s sword clashed together.
*Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!*
Along with a tremendous explosion, fragments of shredded internal energy splattered around.
The ground split, holes were pierced in the rocks, and trees burned down.
Right at the moment when all the spectators lay face down while covering their heads with both hands.
…*Thud!*
Chui pulled his body back.
The moment the final blow was blocked by Namgung Cheon’s sword, utilizing the recoil force of the internal energys clashing and pushing each other, he began to run like the wind.
“Huh!?”
Several of the Namgung Clan warriors tried to block him, but they could not even brush past the edge of Chui’s shadow.
*Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh!*
Chui vanished from the scene in the blink of an eye of the crowd.
Leaving behind only the red wind and the heavy stench of blood.
* * *
After the opponent left, only Namgung Cheon and the crowd were left at the duel location.
“……Dear me.”
Namgung Cheon looked down at his sword with a despondent expression.
The sword that collided with the staff was snapped in half.
The cut surface was melting stickily, as if it had been dipped in a furnace and taken out.
Namgung Pa hastily ran over to Namgung Cheon’s side.
“Father, shall we capture him!?”
“Leave him be.”
Namgung Cheon threw away the sword and shook his head.
“That fellow. He had no intention of fighting from the start. He calculated to escape with the last move.”
“If we pursue right now, we can catch him.”
“And if we catch him?”
“Pardon?”
“What do you plan to do after catching him?”
“Well…”
When Namgung Pa hemmed and hawed, Namgung Cheon clicked his tongue.
He was staring blankly down at his sword.
“Even if we bring him captured, I have no face to see that fellow. Even if we count the first time as a mistake, the last time was not a mistake.”
Namgung Cheon had said he would concede five moves without drawing his sword.
However, he unconsciously used his sword in the first move, and consciously used his sword in the last move.
He had broken the promise twice.
Namgung Pa asked.
“No, Father. Then why did you use the sword at the last? Although you seemed to draw it truly unconsciously the first time… at the last…?”
Then Namgung Cheon smacked his lips and answered.
“Because I thought I might die.”
“……!”
It was a single remark that shocked the audience, who were, knowingly or unknowingly, pricking their ears, as if they would faint.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost