Chapter 265: What Am I? (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 265: What Am I? (2)
“Urk…!”
The heat from the grip was immense. Gu Yangcheon’s flaming hand didn’t just feel like it was setting Namgung Cheonjun’s neck on fire; it felt impossibly heavy.
Physically, Namgung Cheonjun held the advantage. He wasn't drastically taller than before, but he still stood a head above Gu Yangcheon. Yet, despite this…
“Ugh…”
With his neck in that vice-like grip, Namgung Cheonjun found himself completely immobilized. He couldn’t move a muscle, as if the very air around him had solidified to hold him in place.
What… is this…?
He soon realized the overwhelming pressure crushing him was Gu Yangcheon’s killing intent, and he screamed inwardly. How could a martial artist not even twenty years old possess such a dense, palpable aura of death?
Gu Yangcheon’s eyes, glowing ominously from the shadows, fixed on him. Why had this bastard chosen to ambush him now?
“How dare a beast like you glare at me while grinding its teeth,” Gu Yangcheon said, his words cryptic to Namgung Cheonjun.
“You’re just waiting for the perfect moment, with those hungry, fiery eyes, to devour me.”
A smile crept onto Gu Yangcheon’s face as he spoke. But it was a twisted, evil expression, far too malevolent to be called a mere smile. It suited him perfectly, sending a fresh wave of fear through Namgung Cheonjun.
“You’re just a brat who doesn’t know his place.”
“Ghk!”
The grip tightened. Namgung Cheonjun tried to summon his Qi, but it lay frozen within him, paralyzed by fear.
…H…How…?
How was this happening? He had been chosen by the great one!
“Kgh…”
After receiving that power, he had broken through his limits and reached the Peak Realm in mere months. His father had praised him; his great-grandfather had written a letter commending his hard work. That same great-grandfather, who had always looked at him with disappointment, had finally given him recognition.
This power was real. Namgung Cheonjun was certain it could grant him everything he desired.
However…
Why am I still…! Why can’t I even break free from this bastard’s grasp?!
“Look at your eyes. You’d better look away.”
“…!”
Namgung Cheonjun’s vision suddenly twisted. Gu Yangcheon had thrown him to the ground. He tumbled helplessly across the floor, unable to land properly, and groaned as he tried to push himself up. But Gu Yangcheon was already standing over him.
Thwack!
“Ugh!”
His chin jerked up, his head snapping back. The blow landed without giving him a chance to block or even gather his inner Qi.
Namgung Cheonjun began to feel the same damned emotions from the Dragons and Phoenixes Tournament when he had faced Gu Yangcheon: utter powerlessness and despair. Coughing up blood, he thought,
I… I’m not someone who should be defeated by a bastard like him.
He was the future Young Lord of the Namgung Clan, one of the Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes, destined to lead his clan one day. He couldn’t afford to fall behind an insect like this, not in talent nor in skill. Why…?
“Think about it a hundred times over.”
Namgung Cheonjun heard the voice. Blood from his nose blocked his airway, making it hard to lift his head.
“What reasons would I have to kill you?”
“…Ugh.”
Unlike the initially rhythmic tone, Gu Yangcheon’s voice had deepened, saturated with an overwhelming killing intent. It was just like before—that day when Gu Yangcheon had pinned him down and unleashed his flames.
How could he possess such dense killing intent? Had he killed before? Namgung Cheonjun had also bloodied his hands, both directly and indirectly, yet he had never encountered an aura like this. This level of killing intent could only come from having ended countless lives. How was that possible for someone under twenty? Namgung Cheonjun had researched him thoroughly; Gu Yangcheon had never been in a situation where he’d need to kill so many.
“After thinking it over,”
Crunch.
Gu Yangcheon’s foot came down on Namgung Cheonjun’s ankle.
“…Arghh!”
“I found hundreds of reasons. Reasons to kill you.”
Then, Namgung Cheonjun felt a slight opening. The pressure lessened, and the killing intent receded slightly. His Qi began to flow normally again. He didn’t hesitate.
Crackle.
He channeled his Qi throughout his body, concentrating Lightning Qi into his hand. Without a sword, his Sword Resonance skill allowed him to use his hand as a blade, albeit weaker. As he swung his arm to strike,
“Look at this. Another reason added to the list.”
Namgung Cheonjun’s vision spun once more with the sound of that voice.
Crack-
The sound of his Qi barrier shattering. The barrier he had erected, though not at full strength, shouldn't have broken so easily. It didn't just break; it was torn apart.
Gu Yangcheon ripped through the Qi barrier with his bare hand, then kicked Namgung Cheonjun in the stomach, disrupting his Qi flow.
“Cough!”
Namgung Cheonjun couldn’t even scream properly from the pain in his Dantian. It wasn’t broken, but the Qi he had gathered scattered instantly. The Lightning Qi he had concentrated vanished like mist under Gu Yangcheon’s casual gesture.
This was despair. A deeper despair than he had ever known. The power granted by the great one, the strength he had gained after overcoming his limits—was it all child’s play to this bastard?
His gaze, which had been fixed midair, suddenly shot downward. He hadn’t even realized he was in the air. From being lifted to rolling on the ground, he hadn’t seen the attack coming.
Thud!
Namgung Cheonjun’s heavy body hit the ground. He couldn’t get up this time. Gu Yangcheon’s foot was already on his chest, pressing down as if to crush his bones.
“Aghhh…!”
From the beginning, Namgung Cheonjun had done nothing but scream.
“I felt this way since we first met. You were a weak brat, yet you bared your fangs at me. It was annoying.”
Those red eyes looked down on him, just like during the tournament. For a time afterward, those eyes had haunted Namgung Cheonjun’s dreams.
“Do you know why I let you live, despite having hundreds of reasons to kill you?”
What was the reason? There were many, surely. He was from the Namgung Clan. Gu Yangcheon wouldn’t dare kill a future Young Lord; the aftermath would be impossible to clean up. Even secretly eliminating a noble clan’s blood relative would be difficult. Wasn’t that reason enough? He was from the great Namgung…
“Be thankful to your sister.”
“…What…?”
“If not for her, I would’ve ripped you apart and burned you alive.”
Namgung Cheonjun couldn’t understand. Sister? His sister? Ignoring the pain, he forced out the words.
“What… do you mean?”
“I have hundreds of reasons to kill you, but I chose to let you live only because of your sister.”
Gu Yangcheon stared directly into his eyes. He was sparing him solely because he was Namgung Bi-ah’s little brother. That was the only reason. Despite the young beast grinding its teeth, despite the hostile, murderous gaze, Gu Yangcheon was letting him live for that simple fact.
Blood trickling from his mouth, Namgung Cheonjun asked again.
“…What are you saying right now?”
“I’m telling you that I went out of my way to be kind, you fucker.”
Crack.
“Aghhh…!”
Namgung Cheonjun felt a rib break. Then, Gu Yangcheon’s killing intent surged through his body. This was dangerous. He was serious now.
“What… What are you trying to do…!”
“What, now you’re scared?”
“I am a blood relative of the great Namgung Clan! This is Namgung land! If you dare—”
“You know what? If I burn your bones away, not even a trace will be left behind.”
He spoke calmly, as if stating a simple fact, his tone suggesting he’d done this many times before.
“…Why?”
Namgung Cheonjun asked. “Why are you suddenly trying to kill me?” The ambush was too sudden, too unexpected.
Hearing this, Gu Yangcheon smiled. “Why, you ask? You tried to kill me, yet I can’t do the same? What funny logic.”
“…Do you have any proof that I tried to ki— …Aghhh…!”
Namgung Cheonjun screamed as Gu Yangcheon suddenly twisted his arm at an unnatural angle. The strong body of a Peak Realm martial artist snapped like a dry branch.
“Ha…! Ha…!”
He wanted to resist. He wanted to channel his Lightning Qi and strike Gu Yangcheon down, but he couldn’t.
“Look, even now your eyes are filled with the desire to kill me. Do I really need proof?”
“Bastard… How did you even find this place…?”
Gu Yangcheon grabbed his neck again, uninterested in the answer. “Are you curious? Why I’m doing this to you right now?”
“Urgh…”
“You.”
Namgung Cheonjun felt his neck might break. He could tell Gu Yangcheon was exerting just enough pressure to stop short of snapping it—an unbelievably precise control.
“What did you try to do to your sister earlier?”
“…!”
Namgung Cheonjun gasped, his expression that of a man whose secret had been exposed. To be precise, he hadn’t done anything. He had only considered the idea. He’d rather keep his beautiful sister for himself than let a bastard like Gu Yangcheon have her. Only he was suited for her.
Did this bastard read my thoughts?
“I know the emotion of greed very well.”
As Gu Yangcheon spoke, one of Namgung Cheonjun’s fingers twisted unnaturally.
“That’s why I know exactly what a bastard like you is thinking.”
“Ughhh…!”
“I’m pretty good at inflicting pain, but I didn’t want to have to do it again. Why do you keep trying to get on my nerves? It’s really annoying, you know.”
With those words, Gu Yangcheon ripped out one of Namgung Cheonjun’s fingernails. His method was brutally heartless—a torture of sheer strength, unconcerned with the victim’s suffering. Or was it even torture? Gu Yangcheon had no intention of hearing a confession; he was merely delivering punishment.
After pulling the nail, Gu Yangcheon burned the exposed fingertip with a flicker of flame.
“Aghhh!”
“I said it earlier. I have many reasons to kill you. Yet I let you live for one reason.”
If not for Namgung Bi-ah, Namgung Cheonjun would have been reduced to ashes instantly. The Namgung name might have given Gu Yangcheon a moment’s pause, but it was a noble clan rotting from within. That name was barely a deterrent.
“How am I supposed to react when you try to harm me every time?”
“You… bastard…”
“The flame in your eyes is still alive, even when mine had died long ago. You should be begging for your life, drooling on yourself by now.”
Gu Yangcheon chuckled, seeming to enjoy the situation. He lifted his hand from the burnt fingertip and summoned a larger flame. It shone brilliantly in the night, but Namgung Cheonjun was overwhelmed by the sheer killing intent stored within it.
“I thought about it for some time. I thought I did a fairly good job teaching you a lesson, but your damned pride still hasn’t died.”
Gu Yangcheon reflected. He had broken the young master’s arm the first time, and made him wet himself the second. He had shattered his pride and self-esteem, ensuring he should never dare stand up to him again. Gu Yangcheon was an expert in such matters; he was sure he hadn’t made a mistake.
Yet, the bastard remained the same. He’d developed feelings for his own sister and even contemplated acting on them.
This bastard dared to covet the second moon that rose for me. He tried to cross my final line. My respect for him ends here.
“So I thought about it.”
Press.
“…!”
Namgung Cheonjun’s eyes widened in horror.
“I think it’s because of this annoying power that keeps making you bark.”
“Wha… What…?”
He panicked. Of course he did. The power he had received from the great one, which had only just begun to integrate with his body, was being forcibly sucked out.
“What in the…! Why is this…!”
Then, Namgung Cheonjun realized something. After his previous fight with Gu Yangcheon, when his Divine Qi had vanished from his Dantian, he had assumed it was because he had used it before he was ready.
“No way… So it was also you back then…!”
“I may not be picky about side dishes, but I am picky about the type of Qi. I guess I’ll eat this, even though it’s not tasty.”
“L-Let me go! Do you know what kind of power this is for a bastard like you to…!”
“What ‘kind of power,’ you fucker? It’s just a piece of a corpse that died centuries ago.”
“H-How can you absorb someone else’s Qi…!”
He struggled, but his body froze like stone as his power was drained away. Even his burnt, trembling fingers became rigid.
“Please… Please, this is my everything.”
Namgung Cheonjun threw away his pride and begged, but it was useless. Every last bit of the Divine Qi in his body was absorbed. Even the slightest trace of Qi in his Dantian flowed out into Gu Yangcheon’s hand.
“N…No.”
Namgung Cheonjun felt true despair. The power that was supposed to lift him higher than the heavens had vanished in an instant. And it had been taken by the person he despised most. He had lost his honor, his beloved sister, and now his last hope—the bestowed power.
“Ah… Ahhh…”
He looked up at the night sky with a hopeless expression. The night was dark, and the usual bright moon offered him no light.
Watching him, Gu Yangcheon spoke. “What a funny guy. You lose all hope just because I took this power?”
Namgung Cheonjun heard a smirk. It came from Gu Yangcheon, who still held him captive.
I only took the Blood Demon’s Qi he absorbed; I left his own Qi intact. Yet he acts like he’s lost the world. Pathetic.
Then, Namgung Cheonjun whispered, “Kill… me.”
“What?”
“I’m asking you… to kill me now.”
Hah.
Hearing the completely broken plea, Gu Yangcheon smiled. After all that effort grinding his teeth, he gives up this easily? Pathetic to the end.
“Brother-in-law, I don’t kill people that easily.”
“…If you’re going to toy with me until the end, then I’ll just kill myself by biting my tong…!”
Grab.
Gu Yangcheon blocked Namgung Cheonjun’s mouth with his hand, preventing him from closing it. It would be problematic if he actually bit his tongue off.
“Mmph…!”
“Why seek a cool death after living such a disgusting life? If you choose this path, you should continue living nastily.”
A shadow fell over Gu Yangcheon’s face in the dark, but his red eyes still shone radiantly. His expression was blank, yet his mouth curved into a smile.
Namgung Cheonjun realized something was wrong with the way Gu Yangcheon was looking at him now.
“You said it yourself. This land belongs to the Namgung Clan.”
“Mmph…”
“Even if I’m angry, it’s hard for me to kill someone here.”
Namgung Cheonjun felt a chill of horror as Gu Yangcheon’s smile widened. Something was different. This wasn’t the same as the torture from before. He didn’t know what had changed, but he felt it keenly.
“You seem to know something, so I thought about torturing you, but there’s no need now.”
Fwoosh.
“I wanted to test something anyway. This is a nice opportunity. Since you said you’ll die, I’ll use it right here. That’s fine, right?”
The flames in Gu Yangcheon’s hand grew larger, then began to change color.
“Ug…ghhhh!”
“You’re okay with it? I knew you’d say that.”
Namgung Cheonjun saw that the eyes looking down at him had changed color as well. If he wasn’t mistaken, they had turned a deep, ominous violet.