Natural Enemy (5)
“Oh no! Alliance Leader! Hurry and save the young master…!”
“Wait.”
“Yes?!”
“Wait.”
“B-but, Alliance Leader! The young master is in danger!”
“Where do you see that?”
The Chaeng-eungdae members hidden in the forest could watch the entire battle unfolding before them.
Sin Mo’s eyes gleamed.
“The young master can more than handle them.”
“H-he’s that strong?”
“He is strong. But it’s a little different from that.”
Sin Mo wasn’t entirely sure himself.
How exactly Yeon Hojeong was handling the enemies.
The distance was too great, and there were simply too many foes.
But one thing was certain.
‘He knows their weaknesses.’
It wasn’t just a superficial knowledge.
This was nearly a complete dismantling of their techniques.
Every step, every gesture shattered their martial arts like dry twigs.
When they lunged to grab him, he’d slip out of striking range and slam into another foe. To an outsider, it might look like they’d rehearsed it beforehand.
Sin Mo was baffled.
‘He’s peering right into the depths of their martial arts. How is that even possible?’
Could it be that the young master had mastered every manual of the Myeong family’s arts?
How?
It was then.
Chirp! Chirp!
A bird call echoed faintly from beyond the bushes.
It carried the slightest trace of inner energy.
The Chaeng-eungdae members’ eyes sharpened.
“Get ready.”
Woooong.
The power of the Dragon Embrace Divine Art began to stir within Sin Mo’s body.
“When the signal comes, we push them right out.”
* * *
Splat!
Flesh and blood exploded outward.
‘I see it.’
Crack! Slash!
One swing of the axe cleaved through a horse’s head and the rider’s torso, sending them flying.
‘I see it all.’
White Tiger Qi surged wildly as Black Tortoise Qi spread out vast and unyielding.
The Four Gods Martial Arts grew fiercer with every passing moment.
Yet it wasn’t mere brute savagery.
It was ferocious and wild, but also delicate and fluid.
Where the Spirit Ghost True Energy and Qilin True Energy rampaged, Yeon Hojeong’s martial arts blossomed more brilliantly than ever.
Splat! Splat!
Divine axe work, touched by the gods.
Spear arts, blade arts, staff arts, and chaotic strikes fused into one, reborn as a deadly axe technique unleashing fatal power.
He swung and parried.
Shattered and demolished.
A martial art that maximized the devastating might of the massive axe.
And that was just the beginning.
Ziiiiiing!
White Tiger Qi and Black Tortoise Qi rose freely against the whirlwind of swords and the spreading fist-palm force, diminishing their power.
No, it wasn’t mere reduction—it was absorption.
The axe and fist dismantled the explosive projections of energy, and the scattered qi clung to the White Tiger and Black Tortoise Qi, dissolving before being devoured whole.
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes darkened with intensity.
‘Got it!’
He felt no fatigue.
The enemies’ qi, their explosive strikes, their shockwaves—they only fanned his own true energy into greater strength.
The axe, infused with that amplified power, became an invincible divine weapon that severed necks and pulverized torsos.
Pa-ba-ba-bak!
Yeon Hojeong’s movements visibly accelerated.
The axe’s power exploded outward.
The Yeon Family Thirteen Fists and Chain Flying Swallow Palm projections morphed into iron hammers, claiming the lives of the mounted swordsmen one by one.
Myeong Jeokryang, captain of the fifty mounted swordsmen, stared in horror.
“T-that monster!”
Yeon Hojeong swept through them, radiating terrifying killing intent.
He was a storm incarnate.
Where the Western Great Emperor White Tiger’s arts passed, blood sprayed like mist; where the Northern Great Emperor Black Tortoise’s arts rose, bones shattered with resounding cracks.
Invincible.
To the Myeong family warriors who had mastered the Four Commanders Divine Arts, Yeon Hojeong was nothing short of a calamity.
Splaaaat!
With a gruesome sound, the heads of two blood horses soared into the sky.
At the same instant, three mounted swordsmen’s torsos were torn apart and scattered.
Flash!
For a split second, Myeong Jeokryang felt a chill.
The enemy wielding a man-sized great axe had locked onto him.
The black-and-white divine light in his eyes seemed ready to bore straight through his skull.
Booom!
The premonition struck true.
Yeon Hojeong shoved the mounted swordsmen aside with raw power, kicked off a blood horse’s back, and leaped straight at Myeong Jeokryang.
‘Damn it!’
Myeong Jeokryang’s hand flew to the longsword strapped to his back.
Phoenix True Energy blazed like fire.
That was when it happened.
Kwaaang!
A massive shockwave erupted, hurling Yeon Hojeong’s body backward.
Kwa-dud-dud!
He landed and steadied himself, but the force’s aftershock was overwhelming.
Yeon Hojeong’s feet carved a long furrow in the earth.
Whoosh!
Suddenly, a swordsman wreathed in the flames of the Fire God stood before Myeong Jeokryang.
“Insolent whelp!”
Ku-gu-guung!
The ground around Myeong Cheon’s feet cracked like a spiderweb.
Roooar!
Blazing flames swept the surroundings.
‘Impossible!’
Myeong Jeokryang reeled in shock.
‘The Phoenix Divine Art to that degree already…!’
It was overwhelming.
He himself had trained the Phoenix Divine Art day and night without respite, yet the gap was vast.
Myeong Cheon, patriarch of the Nine Provinces Myeong family, the Thunderfire Divine Sword.
The transcendent master whose lightning-swift, flame-fierce swordsmanship had shaken the four seas at last entered the fray.
As Myeong Cheon surveyed the surroundings, killing intent surged in his eyes.
In that brief clash, more than half the mounted swordsmen lay dead.
“You utterly incompetent fools! I can’t stand by and watch any longer!”
Astonishingly, his rage turned not on Yeon Hojeong, but on the mounted swordsmen.
“How poorly have you trained your divine arts to fall to some green boy?!”
It was an absurd grievance.
Myeong Cheon couldn’t have failed to see what was plain even to Myeong Jeokryang’s eyes.
Yeon Hojeong’s martial arts were powerful in their own right, but more than that, they perfectly dismantled theirs.
In other words, he was exploiting the Four Commanders Divine Arts’ weaknesses with ruthless precision.
Yet to call their training sloppy?
“You vermin! To think I trusted scum like you to conquer the world—my folly!”
Of course, Myeong Cheon knew there was nothing wrong with the mounted swordsmen’s arts.
He knew Yeon Hojeong’s martial prowess defied imagination, that the boy had thoroughly grasped the Four Commanders Divine Arts’ flaws.
But he couldn’t admit it.
The Myeong family had been founded by ancestors who, alongside the world’s mightiest—the Four Directions Martial Emperors—had driven out the Blood Sect.
And the arts they now wielded were those that had carved a legend amid the murim’s darkest chaos and greatest golden age.
Myeong Cheon refused to accept that such arts could be dismantled by some upstart youth.
Kwa-dud.
Yeon Hojeong stamped down the displaced earth and rose, grinning at Myeong Cheon.
“Finally decided to show up?”
Myeong Cheon’s eyes flashed.
It had been a solid strike with considerable power.
Even a mounted swordsman master would have suffered internal injuries—yet he seemed unfazed.
A heavy voice rumbled from Myeong Cheon’s mouth.
“Fine. You’ve got some skill, I’ll grant you that.”
Creeeeeng!
A resonant sword cry rang from the blade in Myeong Cheon’s grip, brimming with elasticity.
It wasn’t some common longsword from the Central Plains.
A greatsword a full chi longer than average, twice as broad, closer in form to a military greatsword than a typical murim blade.
The hilt extended over a chi as well—a true two-handed sword.
Madness flickered beyond mere killing intent on Myeong Cheon’s face.
“I’ll sever your head and hurl it into Yeon Wi’s cursed face. I wonder if that bastard can keep his composure when he sees his son’s pickled head.”
A grave provocation.
For Yeon Hojeong, burdened with crushing guilt toward his flesh and blood, nothing could cut deeper.
‘…….’
Yet why?
His heart remained strangely calm.
Even facing the true architect of his family’s near-destruction, his eyes were clear.
Whoooong.
A white wind gathered around the slowly moving axe blade.
Yeon Hojeong looked to the sky and closed his eyes.
‘Finally, here.’
He had left the family and entered Henan.
Since then, battle after battle had shaken the Myeong family to its core.
In truth, it hadn’t been long.
But to Yeon Hojeong, it felt like an eternity.
‘Father. I plan to erase one ancient grudge you know nothing of, right here. You may not know, but I’ll still have my revenge.’
Thinking of his father naturally brought Yeon Jipyeong to mind.
The sight of his brother’s pale hand offering a rice ball with that bright smile nearly blinded him.
‘Jipyeong.’
His grip tightened on the axe haft.
‘From now on, I’ll drink every tear you shed.’
The father of the past, the father of the present.
The brother of the past, the brother of the present.
Pasts scarred by deep grudges merged with futures leaping boldly forward, forging Yeon Hojeong’s present at last.
Yeon Hojeong’s eyes snapped open.
Kwaaaang!
A mighty foot stomp unleashed a qi wave that shook heaven and earth.
Yeon Hojeong roared.
His voice rang proud and true, infused with a warrior’s unyielding spirit.
“Come at me, Myeong Cheon.”
A majestic aura no one had ever seen from him before.
Myeong Cheon’s face twisted savagely.
“……You brat!”
Paaak!
Myeong Cheon charged.
It had begun.
The duel, the bloodbath, the rivers of blood the murim demanded—now it claimed their lives in this instant.
Yeon Hojeong’s axe and Myeong Cheon’s greatsword clashed head-on.
Kwaaaang!
A monstrous roar shook the earth.
Great weapon against great weapon.
Raw power against raw power.
Thud!
Yeon Hojeong’s body flew backward.
An inevitable disadvantage in brute strength.
Myeong Cheon was a transcendent master, a peerless swordsman on par with Yeon Wi.
A head-on clash with him was madness for the current Yeon Hojeong.
Bam!
Kwaang!
But Yeon Hojeong didn’t stop.
He righted his flying body in an instant and advanced with the second step of White Tiger Overlord.
‘What?!’
He’d thought one strike would end it, but no.
The instant he was repelled, he came storming back with double the ferocity.
Myeong Cheon swung his sword.
Yeon Hojeong unleashed a ferocious blow.
Creee-jjeo-jeong!
Their weapons collided repeatedly, sparking brilliant flames.
No one could count the exchanges in that fleeting moment.
Even peak masters’ eyes struggled to follow the speed.
Yet both wielded heavy weapons as if they were swift swords.
Realization dawned in Myeong Cheon’s eyes.
“Insolent fool!”
Slash!
Blood sprayed from Yeon Hojeong’s chest.
A deep diagonal cut from left collarbone to right abdomen.
As Myeong Cheon smirked viciously—
Kwaang!
“Kuh!”
Myeong Cheon’s body slid backward.
He’d taken an unblockable sword strike yet countered instantly with his axe.
Any lapse in guard would have split him in two.
“You mad bastard!”
Bam!
Bam!
White Tiger Overlord Steps unfolded.
A footwork that summoned ever-greater power over time.
Even the world-shaking Myeong Cheon faltered before the Tiger King’s momentum.
Clang!
Cree-jjeong!
The axe, ignited by that momentum, grew fiercer by the moment.
Bam!
Bam!
Forward again.
Attacking again.
Creee-jjeo-jeong!
Cree-jeong!
Its speed matched its power.
The savage force of Tiger King Nine Thunder Strikes crashed down like lightning.
Whoosh!
In an instant, Yeon Hojeong’s movements reached an uncanny velocity.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwaang!
Under the onslaught, Myeong Cheon’s body reeled back wildly.
The White Tiger Overlord’s Linked Advance Steps.
Ultimate fighting spirit drove the foe back, drawing out the White Tiger Qi’s secret technique in the Overlord Steps.
Kwaang!
Myeong Cheon’s body creaked.
Blood dripped from his sword-gripping hands.
Yeon Hojeong’s face twisted.
The enemy’s blood stirred his feral instincts.
“Myeong Cheon…!”
Flash!
Kwaang!
He blocked the downward axe chop, but his feet sank ankle-deep into the ground.
Splat!
An astonishing sight.
Yeon Hojeong’s fist finally smashed into Myeong Cheon’s shoulder.
The staggering Myeong Cheon.
A savage beast’s visage flickered over Yeon Hojeong’s face.
“Don’t back off now! Fight properly, or I’ll rip you apart!”