Chapter 274: Meteor Generation (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 274: Meteor Generation (3)
Silence fell over the area.
The once-rowdy street was now so quiet that only the sound of people breathing could be heard.
How had it come to this?
When the Sword Dragon and the Sleeping Dragon had suddenly appeared, an unexpected fight had broken out. Since Henan was home to both the Murim Alliance and Shaolin, the locals were accustomed to martial arts, and they watched the clash with great interest.
The spectacle drew even more attention because the two combatants were confirmed to be the future representatives of their respective clans, the Wudang Sect and Mount Hua. They were considered the finest of the Meteor Generation.
Furthermore, with the Lord of the Namgung Clan having vacated his position and title, these two were the foremost contenders for the future title of Sword King.
Young masters showing off their strength was always welcome entertainment.
However…
“…Ah… ahh…”
“What just happened…?”
What transpired next was enough to make everyone fall silent.
“The Sword Dragon and the Sleeping Dragon… fainted?”
Both men, who had been perfectly fine moments ago, had lost consciousness and collapsed.
The problem was…
“What just happened?”
Most people didn’t understand how it had occurred. The Sword Dragon and the Sleeping Dragon had seemed to pause for a moment, as if preparing a technique, but then a sudden gust of wind had stormed through the street, sending the two tumbling to the ground, unconscious.
The crowd was dumbfounded. But seeing the young man standing between the two fallen martial artists, they could infer that he was responsible.
“Is that… even possible?”
“Is that young man also a martial artist…?”
“I’ve never seen him before.”
No one even knew who he was. His fierce eyes, youthful face, and deeply furrowed brow made him seem unapproachable.
As everyone watched in shock…
“Ah!”
Someone in the crowd exclaimed loudly.
“That face…! I think I’ve seen it somewhere before.”
It was a face hard to forget—intimidating and difficult to look at for long. Especially when one considered the young man’s debut in the Central Plains.
“The True Dragon! That young man is the True Dragon!”
“True Dragon? You mean that True Dragon…!?”
He was the last martial artist to join the ranks of the Six Dragons and Three Phoenixes, the one who had overpowered both the Lightning Dragon and the Meteor Sword in the Dragons and Phoenixes Tournament.
It was the True Dragon himself, Gu Yangcheon.
The problem, however…
“E-Even if he is the True Dragon…”
“That had to be a fluke, right?”
Even granting that the True Dragon was a genius and a rising star of the Meteor Generation, people wondered if he could really have defeated the Sword Dragon and the Sleeping Dragon—both renowned geniuses of the Central Plains—so effortlessly.
Because of that doubt, many found it hard to believe what they had just witnessed with their own eyes.
Meanwhile, Muyeon and Gu Jeolyub, watching from a distance…
“I wonder what made him think that was a good idea.”
“…He’s caused trouble again. Jeez, it seems the Young Master acts without thinking, too.” Gu Jeolyub was the one who had warned him to think before acting, yet here he was, rushing into a situation without a second thought.
Even as he thought this, Gu Jeolyub was genuinely shocked.
Because the Young Master had overpowered the famous Sword Dragon and Sleeping Dragon in an instant.
I barely saw it.
He could only just follow Gu Yangcheon’s movements, and that was only because of his extensive experience being beaten up by him. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been able to track the action at all.
Just how powerful is he?
Gu Jeolyub had never seen Gu Yangcheon fight seriously, so he had no true grasp of his strength or level.
All he knew was that Gu Yangcheon was a martial artist who had clearly broken through the wall of the Peak Realm, as he was stronger than Muyeon. To reach the Peak Realm at his age—how was such a thing possible?
“…Seriously, if he didn’t have the talent to back up his nasty personality, he would’ve already been dea—”
-You piece of— I’ll see you later.
“…”
Gu Jeolyub frowned upon hearing the telepathic message.
That damned Young Master had sharp ears, too.
“Hmm…”
I’m fucked… I need to get out of here.
And Gu Jeolyub wasn’t the only one in shock.
The person most shocked wasn’t among the spectating crowd, nor was it Gu Jeolyub. It was Woo Eehyuk, a disciple of the Wudang Sect, who was attending to the Sleeping Dragon.
“Uh… uhh?”
Seeing Woo Hyuk fall unconscious to the ground, Woo Eehyuk could only utter a dumbfounded sound.
That shouldn’t have been possible…
It was unthinkable that his senior brother could be knocked out and collapse like that… The clan elders might have defeated him before, but he always put up a decent fight, never being easily overwhelmed.
The Sleeping Dragon, Woo Hyuk, was lazy and sleepy like a sloth, but he possessed more than enough talent to get away with it.
“Wha… huh…?”
Woo Eehyuk wondered if he was hallucinating. Because if not, what he was seeing made no sense whatsoever.
Then…
“Why are you just staring? Aren’t you going to take him away?”
A voice came from the young man who wore an expression even more annoyed than his senior brother’s.
Gu Yangcheon grabbed Woo Hyuk by the scruff of his neck and tossed him toward Woo Eehyuk.
“Agh!”
He threw him as if he were a light object. Woo Eehyuk screamed as he barely managed to catch Woo Hyuk.
Then, Gu Yangcheon spat on the ground.
“They knew the risks, and yet they sparred with so many people around. How absurd.”
Sigh.
The sight of him sighing was oddly infuriating.
“They should’ve kept it to a light exchange at most…”
Tsk.
The True Dragon clicked his tongue and held back further comment.
Who could have imagined these idiots were crazy enough to unleash their qi in a street brawl? If no one had stopped them, this place might have been turned into a wasteland.
These dumbasses.
Both were competitive, fighting as if their very honor was on the line. Neither would have backed down, even if it meant mutual destruction.
Gu Yangcheon looked elsewhere with a resentful gaze.
“At least do your job properly.”
Woo Eehyuk looked in the same direction, wondering who he was whispering to, but there was no one there.
“What are you spacing out for? Hurry up and take him away.”
“Ah…”
“What about this fucker? Why is no one coming for him?”
The man Gu Yangcheon was lightly tapping with the tip of his foot was the rising star of Mount Hua, the Sword Dragon, Yung Pung. But to Gu Yangcheon, he was just extra baggage. It had been a while since they’d last met, so he’d been happy to see him, but this whole fiasco had dampened his enthusiasm.
The Sleeping Dragon had someone to collect him, but for some reason, no one from Mount Hua was stepping forward.
What should I do? I can’t just leave him here and…
As Gu Yangcheon was thinking, a sudden idea struck him.
Couldn’t he just leave him there? Who would dare lay a hand on a martial artist from Mount Hua?
A moment later, Gu Yangcheon nodded and decided to do just that.
“Alright, I’ll just leave him here and head back to my…”
“I will take care of this child, so please do not worry.”
Just as Gu Yangcheon was about to abandon Yung Pung—knocked out by a single blow—a soft voice from behind made him stop.
A light, floral scent, much richer than the plum blossom fragrance emanating from Yung Pung, tickled his nose.
“It’s been a while.”
Gu Yangcheon was somewhat flustered upon seeing the woman who spoke with a smile.
“…Why are you here?”
It didn’t make sense for her to be here now. She should have been spending her time with her student up on that mountain.
The woman replied to Gu Yangcheon, her smile unwavering.
“There is something I need to take care of here.”
Her smile was accompanied by a sweet floral scent that made the men watching her falter.
Dressed in the same attire as Yung Pung, with a plum blossom embroidered on the chest, stood the most beloved female master of the Orthodox Sect, the Plum Blossom Sword Saint, Soi.
In a building nestled at the summit of Henan’s mountains.
Rustle.
Inside a small room where sunlight and the winter breeze could enter, an old man sat beside a cup of tea that had not yet cooled, writing a letter with his brush.
A blue armband with the white character for ‘Head’ hung from his shoulder.
Moving the brush slowly, the old man addressed the man standing before him.
“I heard that the Dragons had a spar in the middle of the street.”
The old man’s pupils were white, like clouds, his gaze heavy yet filled with a clear Taoist aura.
The man gulped nervously.
“…That is correct.”
“What was the reason?”
“…It is said the Sword Dragon initiated the confrontation with the Sleeping Dragon.”
“The Sword Dragon, huh…”
The Head of the Kunlun Sect, the Qinghai Sword, tilted his head in thought.
“I could have sworn he did not have a violent disposition.”
He was the greatest prodigy of Mount Hua, one of the few things the Celestial Plum Blossom Sword Saint used to boast about. The Qinghai Sword had met him before, and the youth he remembered was not the type to attack someone out of sheer anger.
After a moment’s reflection, the Qinghai Sword nodded.
“Yes… young fellows should play with one another. However…”
The main subject of interest was not the Sword Dragon or the Sleeping Dragon.
“Someone other than those two emerged victorious?”
“Yes.”
The victory should, by all rights, have gone to one of the two combatants. The Qinghai Sword had believed the Sleeping Dragon would win, but surprisingly, a different martial artist had stopped them both.
“The True Dragon, you said?”
“Yes. He is the son of the Tiger Warrior, from the Gu Clan of Shanxi.”
“Hmm…”
The Tiger Warrior, Gu Cheolun, and the True Dragon.
“Yes, I have heard of him.”
A youth who had overpowered everyone at the Dragons and Phoenixes Tournament and emerged victorious. On top of that, he’d heard the boy shared blood ties with the Sword Phoenix. Thinking about how that outcome had frustrated the Alliance Leader and the Heavenly Eye brought the old man a sense of refreshment.
Even so, he overpowered the Sleeping Dragon.
It wasn’t just that he had stopped the fight by intervening; reports said he had overpowered both simultaneously and rendered them unconscious. It was rather shocking to hear that a Young Prodigy had accomplished such a feat.
The Qinghai Sword then fixed the man with a firm gaze.
“Are there no lies in your words?”
“…Yes, I saw it clearly with my own eyes.”
The man gulped nervously as he spoke. He was addressing the Lord of his clan, the current Head of the Heavenly Dragon Academy, the Qinghai Sword himself, and yet he had mixed falsehoods into his report.
He claimed to have seen it clearly. But even as a well-trained Peak Realm martial artist, he had missed the True Dragon’s movements.
“Wiseok.”
“Yes, my Lo—… No, Head.”
“Do you believe you would be capable of such a thing?”
Hearing the Head’s question, Jo Wiseok clenched his fist behind his back, out of sight.
“…I am not sure.”
That, too, was a lie. He knew he was not capable. He was certain of it.
The level of the Sleeping Dragon and the Sword Dragon was far higher than anticipated. They were on a completely different level to be considered mere Young Prodigies. It might have been more accurate to consider himself beneath them.
Then, what about that kid?
The True Dragon, who had instantly overpowered both. Furthermore, Jo Wiseok recalled one more thing that made him bite his lip.
When Jo Wiseok had been observing from a rooftop using a Stealth Technique, the True Dragon had detected him without any difficulty, looked straight into his eyes, and spoken.
-At least do your job properly.
A mere Young Prodigy had seen through his Stealth Technique. No—the True Dragon could no longer be considered a mere Young Prodigy.
The man thought to himself: If the True Dragon were to enter the Heavenly Dragon Academy, it would be like releasing a giant dragon into a pond full of mountain snakes and serpents.
“I had heard the Tiger Warrior’s son was lacking, but that does not seem to be the case.”
That was the rumor in the past. What could have happened to him to change so drastically?
The Qinghai Sword pondered Jo Wiseok’s words and let out a light breath.
“Anyway, I am excited to see his face, now that he is supposedly that strong.”
If Jo Wiseok was correct, it meant the True Dragon was a monster who would devour the current generation.
The Qinghai Sword took a sip of his tea with a bright smile.
“Wiseok.”
“Yes, Head.”
“Set this matter aside for now and search for something else.”
“What should I search for…?”
When Jo Wiseok asked with a curious expression, the Qinghai Sword responded in a quiet whisper.
“I have heard that a descendant of the Sword Emperor is seeking the Heavenly Dragon Academy.”
“…!”
“I heard they are around the age of a Young Prodigy. Go and find out what kind of child they are. I believe they will arrive within a few days.”
“…Understood.”
Compared to the Sword Dragon, the Sleeping Dragon, or even the True Dragon, this news was shocking enough to blow them all from his mind.
His face slightly paler than before, Jo Wiseok left the room. Left alone, the Qinghai Sword gazed out the window and closed his eyes.
The entrance test for the Heavenly Dragon Academy would begin in five days.
The geniuses of this generation shone brighter than ever. And with all of them gathering in one place, it felt as if a great storm was approaching.
“I am excited.”
What would happen?
The Qinghai Sword smiled with uncontainable anticipation.