The Strong Survive (3)
Yeop Seong’s eyes gleamed with interest.
“You really are running wild… From what I’ve gathered, you do become more extreme than anyone else when you decide something is necessary.”
“Wrong.”
Woooong.
A faint crimson glow rose in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes.
“Even when it’s not necessary, if I get pissed off, I stop thinking and start wrecking everything in sight. That’s me.”
“No, that’s not it. You may threaten others that way, but the version of you I investigated is an utterly meticulous and calculating bastard.”
“Interpret me however you like. What matters is that I’m starting to get seriously annoyed right now.”
Yeop Seong tilted his head.
“So what are you going to do about it? Just as I can’t subdue you, you absolutely cannot attack me either, can you?”
“Why do you think that?”
“Didn’t you say it yourself? You are the representative dispatched by the Martial Alliance. For someone like that to attack one of the Black Dragon Department’s successor candidates? Do you not understand how serious a political matter that would be?”
“You should realize that this habit of thinking only in the most convenient way for yourself is exactly what’s tightening the noose around your neck.”
“What?”
Crack.
Yeon Hojeong twisted his wrist. A faint heat rose from his tightly clenched fist.
“Listen, you idiot. There is no such thing as ‘absolute’ in politics.”
“……”
“Politics is the art of smoothing over even the most serious incidents. And every form of politics is fundamentally rooted in self-interest.”
Yeon Hojeong extended his index finger and pointed at Yeop Seong.
“Between you and me, who do you think they would value more?”
“What a pathetic word game. This isn’t a question of who they cherish more.”
“You saw it correctly. It’s not about who they cherish more. It’s about who they need more.”
Yeon Hojeong smiled as if the situation amused him and cocked his head to the side.
“You just said it yourself, didn’t you? That I’m a meticulous bastard. That’s right. I may not plan every single move the way you think I do, but if necessary, I can use my head quite well.”
“What exactly are you trying to say?”
“Do you know why I obediently accepted your invitation to drink when we have no real connection?”
“……?”
“Did you seriously think it was only natural? That no one could refuse a request from the great disciple of the King of Combat Yang Cheon? Have you really been living with such childish thoughts?”
Yeop Seong’s expression hardened.
As he listened to Yeon Hojeong, he realized something was going terribly wrong.
“What the hell did you do?”
“I haven’t done anything yet. I’m about to.”
“What?”
“I didn’t want to resort to something this childish, but I’ve decided to relay every word you spat out today to the Vice-Leader.”
“……?!”
“Vice-Leader Yang has no time to waste on successor squabbles. He is a man who must make every preparation for the war against the Three Sects. And the person currently devising plans alongside him is me. Neither the Vice-Leader nor I are the kind of people who belong in the political games of brats like you.”
“You…!”
“You bet your life on a request? Then you should have prepared for the possibility that the other party might refuse it. Yet all you could think to do was harass my people? Are you really Yang Cheon’s disciple?”
Yeon Hojeong turned his body.
“If you truly wanted real power, you should have gone ahead and crushed the other successor candidates first. If you had, then just as you said, the Vice-Leader might have found you admirable.”
“……!!”
“As I said earlier, you live your life seeing only what’s convenient for you. That woman called Bu Seon seems ten times better than you.”
At that moment, killing intent erupted from Yeop Seong’s eyes.
Hoooooooong.
The surging killing intent caused the air to scatter and gather again in chaotic bursts.
It was truly tremendous killing intent. In terms of density alone, it was hardly different from Yeon Hojeong’s.
Yet Yeon Hojeong showed no reaction. He simply moved to open the door of the inn and leave.
Yeop Seong spoke.
“If you open that door, you die.”
His voice was terrifying.
Mixed with thick killing intent, it sounded like a massive beast growling.
Grabbing the door handle, Yeon Hojeong replied.
“If you make any stupid moves, you die too.”
Click.
The door opened.
Yeop Seong’s fist lashed out like lightning.
Boooom!
With a deafening explosion, Yeop Seong’s body staggered like a tree branch caught in the wind and was driven all the way to the far wall of the inn.
His face was still twisted with murderous rage, but his eyes were stained with shock.
“Not bad.”
Yeon Hojeong had only half-turned, one hand extended.
White smoke rose from his large palm. It was the Yeon family’s supreme technique, Reverse Dragon Palm, which had deflected Yeop Seong’s fist wind.
“You certainly have talent. If you had poured that talent purely into the martial path, you might have been able to have a good match with me by now.”
“……!”
“You are strong. But that’s all.”
Yeon Hojeong slowly closed his fist.
Crack.
Even though he clenched it slowly, the sound was brutal.
A sound that would have once made Yeop Seong snort in contempt now sounded terrifyingly ominous.
“Well then.”
Ssssh.
Yeon Hojeong took one step forward.
In that instant, not only Yeop Seong but also the expert pretending to be the waiter and the two experts hiding in the kitchen all flinched.
He hadn’t even stomped hard. He had simply taken one smooth step, yet the very air had changed.
“Time to give you a light whipping.”
Yeop Seong shouted.
“Attack…!”
Kwaaaang!
Before he could even finish speaking, the head of the expert acting as the waiter exploded.
That wasn’t all. The palm force of the Tiger King Nine Thunder Palm surged forward like a tidal wave and completely devastated the kitchen beyond.
Rumble.
One side of the inn collapsed. Three first-class experts had died in the blink of an eye.
It was a merciless slaughter. Since they had intended to kill him anyway, he had struck first.
Cruel and heartless. But this was the way of the dark path.
If there was even the slightest mistake, you buried not only your opponent but every last one of their forces in the ground.
Solving every problem with the weight of blood. That was the way of the dark path.
Baaaang!
Yeon Hojeong’s approach speed was terrifying.
In his entire life, Yeop Seong had never seen anyone move this fast except for Yang Cheon.
Kwaaaaaang!
With another explosion, an entire section of the inn’s wall was blown away.
The palm force that had destroyed the wall without losing momentum continued onward, pulverizing a massive tree far in the distance before finally dissipating.
‘……!!’
Yeop Seong, who had instinctively dodged, felt goosebumps rise at the sight created by Yeon Hojeong’s attack.
He could produce similar results himself. The problem was speed, range, and the precise control of inner energy.
‘How is this even…?!’
If he used inner energy equivalent to one full day of cultivation, he too could create such destruction.
But Yeon Hojeong had unleashed an attack that was faster, stronger, and covered a wider range using almost no inner energy at all.
In a single exchange, Yeop Seong realized the truth. Yeon Hojeong had reached a realm of absolute power that he could not even hope to challenge.
‘Insane!’
It was a situation he had never even imagined. He had known Yeon Hojeong was strong, but he had thought at best they were roughly equal.
And that had been a perfectly reasonable assumption. At least for Yeop Seong.
But he had overlooked one thing.
The very fact that Yeon Hojeong had reached such a realm at his age was already irrational, and that meant there was more than enough possibility that he stood above Yeop Seong himself.
Yeon Hojeong’s attacks continued.
Booooong! Boom!
In the blink of an eye he closed the distance and unleashed sharp, spear-like kicks.
Yeop Seong crossed both arms to block, but the moment of impact produced an explosion. The blocked area felt like another vital point, sending waves of terrible pain and shock through him.
‘Like a cannonball.’
It had been nothing more than a single kick. Yet the power behind that one kick reminded him of a cannonball fired from a cannon.
Papapapak!
Yeop Seong immediately adjusted his stance to prepare for the next strike.
But…
‘……?!’
Yeon Hojeong had vanished from sight.
He had disappeared from view again in that instant. The speed was simply unimaginable.
Suddenly, he felt a stinging sensation on the crown of his head.
There was no time to think. Using footwork or movement techniques would be too slow.
Yeop Seong instinctively rolled across the ground.
And his judgment was correct.
Kwaang!
A single downward punch from above tore apart the inn’s remaining skeleton like a typhoon ripping through everything.
“Ugh!”
A groan finally escaped Yeop Seong’s lips.
Even though he had evaded in such a humiliating way, the massively amplified shockwave had shaken his internals.
It was shocking.
He hadn’t taken a direct hit, nor even an indirect one, yet he had still suffered internal injuries from the shockwave alone.
Just how terrifying was this martial art? It was a realm that the current Yeop Seong could not even dream of reaching.
The same Transcendent realm?
This was only the same in name. The level and depth were completely different. They were looking at entirely different worlds.
“Unbelievable.”
Whoosh!
Despite unleashing such a wide-ranging strike, Yeon Hojeong had already arrived right in front of him again.
It was as if he didn’t even need to breathe. His inner energy circulation was faster than lightning.
“You’re not going to tuck your tail between your legs like a pathetic mutt here, are you?”
“You son of a bitch!”
Booooong!
Yeop Seong’s hand moved like lightning. It was the Lion’s Iron Claw technique, where his fingers curled like a lion’s paw and struck down.
Booom!
Yeop Seong’s eyes shook violently.
His hand, which should have torn into Yeon Hojeong’s abdominal muscles, had been caught in Yeon Hojeong’s grip.
And not just caught—interlocked finger by finger.
Yeon Hojeong smiled coldly.
“You trained hard, but the results are completely worthless.”
“……!”
“With this level of grip strength, could you even receive a single strike from your master?”
White Tiger qi swirled within Yeon Hojeong’s hand.
His fingers crushed Yeop Seong’s fingers and the back of his hand.
Craaaaack!
“Aaaargh!”
A scream burst from Yeop Seong’s mouth.
It was a scream so loud that even he was startled by it. He had never screamed in any situation before.
But he couldn’t help it. The pain of all five fingers and the bones in the back of his hand being crushed was too much to endure with a clear mind.
Yeon Hojeong’s foot moved like lightning.
Babababababak!
This time he couldn’t even scream. Twelve consecutive kicks, fired like cannonballs at extreme close range, hammered into his abdomen and ribs.
“Cough!”
Yeop Seong collapsed on the spot. He didn’t fall completely, but he was forced to his knees. Not only had he suffered horrific internal injuries, but five of his ribs had been broken.
Yeon Hojeong shook out his hand.
“I’ll let you off with this much. No matter what, I can’t kill you.”
“Cough! Uuuurgh!”
“Now go home, little boy.”
Yeop Seong looked up at Yeon Hojeong with trembling eyes.
In that moment, he instinctively closed his eyes. The look in Yeon Hojeong’s eyes as he stared down at him was simply too terrifying.
It was killing intent.
Not the crude, thick killing intent that Yeop Seong himself possessed, but a refined, extremely concentrated killing intent that could destroy a person’s mind.
“Not going? Do you want to die here right now?”
“Damn it!”
Yeop Seong staggered to his feet and headed toward the Black Dragon Department. His steps were hurried, as if he were fleeing as fast as he could.
Ssssh.
Yeon Hojeong suppressed his aura.
“Damn bastard. At least his patience is decent. He talked way too much for no reason. I had to yap so much just to make him strike first.”
If the guy had been an ordinary dark path practitioner, there would have been no need to talk this long. He would have drawn his blade before half the conversation was over.
In that sense, the bastard did have some merits of his own.
“Feel what it’s like to live as a hunter and then become the prey. Savor it thoroughly.”
With a meaningful smile, Yeon Hojeong followed after Yeop Seong.
Since the tiger had returned half-dead, the leopard and the wolves lying in wait would bare their fangs.