Chapter 221: Guangdong Jin Manor-3
Chapter 221: Guangdong Jin Manor-3
The first person to leap toward the enemies was Jin Gong-mu, the head of the Jin Family Estate.
Jin Gong-mu, who charged at the enemies with the momentum of a wild bull, leaped high into the sky before reaching the warriors of the White Shark Sect, then plummeted down and brought his iron staff crashing down with terrifying force.
Mad Demon Eighteen Staff, twelfth form.
Yakma River Ambush.
Bwaaaaaang! Kwaaaaaang!
A tremendous explosion erupted.
The moment the iron staff struck the ground, the earth rose up and spread outward like a fan-shaped tsunami.
Then, the bodies of seven White Shark Sect warriors swept up in the earthen tsunami were torn apart on the spot.
"Kuaaaak!"
"Keuaaaaak!"
It was the moment the White Shark Sect's vanguard was annihilated in an instant.
Jin Gong-mu did not stop there.
He launched his body, which had been crouched low to the ground from executing the Yakma River Ambush, upward as if springing, and spun around.
Then, following his rotating body, the iron staff that had been driven into the ground was swung horizontally, scattering stone dust everywhere.
The force was so powerful that the iron staff seemed to bend like a bamboo pole for an instant.
Bwaaaaaang!
"!"
"Heo-eok!"
"Keuk!"
The iron staff was aimed at the three White Shark Sect warriors rushing forward directly behind their slaughtered comrades.
With their faces pale, they hurriedly raised their dao, attempting to block the iron staff.
But it was utterly futile.
Chacha-chang!
The immense martial power of the iron staff shattered the White Shark Sect warriors' dao into pieces like glass.
And just like those shattered into pieces, the warriors holding them met the same fate.
Ppagagak!
"Keueo-eok!"
"Keuaaaak!"
"Kkiaaak!"
It wasn't even a pushback—the sheer force of power shattered the dao on the spot, and when it struck the warriors' bodies, the bodies of the three who were struck folded at angles that rendered movement impossible.
The internal organs gushing from their mouths and the eyeballs protruding outward vividly told the tale of the tremendous shock they had received.
"Th-that's impossible!"
"Heo-eok!"
At that gruesome sight, the warriors of the White Shark Sect, who had been charging with high morale, had no choice but to falter with horrified faces.
The martial prowess of a single man had crushed the momentum of the entire White Shark Sect.
The Mad Demon Staff, Jin Gong-mu, was demonstrating precisely why he was called the Mad Demon Staff.
He was literally rampaging like a mad horse, utterly crushing the martial artists of the White Shark Sect.
His properly enraged momentum was enough to be believed as that of a transcendent peak master.
Furthermore, Jin Gong-mu was not the only one at the Jin Family Estate.
While Jin Gong-mu was completely destroying the White Shark Sect's vanguard, the masters of the Jin Family Estate following behind him slammed into the White Shark Sect warriors.
"Daring to challenge the Jin Family Estate!"
"We'll grind you to powder!"
"Haaaaap!"
Puhwaak!
"Kuaaaak!"
"Euaaaak!"
They were the Jin Family Seven Experts, the elders of the Jin Family Estate. They too were peak-level masters who had mastered the Old Tiger Thirty-Six Staff, the secret technique of the Jin Family Estate.
All of them were seven masters who had surpassed seventy years of internal energy, and before their swinging iron staves, the White Shark Sect's forces could do nothing but fall like autumn leaves in the wind.
It did not take long for the White Shark Sect martial artists, who had seized the initial momentum, to fall into complete disarray.
If things continued for about another half shichen, it looked as though they would be utterly annihilated without much difficulty.
"Heu-heum."
The Blood Sea Demon Blade, Yun Sak, wore a fishy grin as he looked down upon that spectacle from atop his ship.
Even though his subordinates were being slaughtered, a faint smile even hovered at the corners of his lips.
To the eyes of his close aides, it was an exceedingly amused expression.
Unable to watch any longer, one of his close aides could not hold back and cautiously opened his mouth.
"Er, Sect Leader. If this continues, our subordinates will..."
It was then.
Without a word, Yun Sak leaped lightly from the ship.
Shyuuk!
The Blood Sea Demon Blade, Yun Sak, one of the Three Demons of the Southern Sea—he had finally begun to move.
Yun Sak stepped lightly twice upon the undulating waves, then flew straight toward those who were massacring the White Shark Sect martial artists.
It was where Cho Chaeon and Son Andang, two members of the Jin Family Seven Experts, were located.
"Die!"
Ppagak!
"Get lost!"
Peoseok!
"Kuaaak!"
"Kkeaaek!"
The two of them ranked second and third in martial prowess among the Jin Family Seven Experts, both masters who had surpassed eighty years of internal energy.
Therefore, even while slaughtering enemies, they did not neglect to stay vigilant of their surroundings.
Into their field of vision came the figure of Yun Sak flying directly toward them.
Cho Chaeon shouted at once.
"Brother Son! An enemy! He seems to be a master!"
"Hmph! No matter how great a master, to launch himself into the air while fighting enemies is foolish!"
Cho Chaeon and Son Andang simultaneously thrust their iron staves toward Yun Sak, who was descending upon them from midair.
"Go!"
"Haaaaap!"
Chyuhaak!
Their iron staves shot toward Yun Sak with the force of a cannonball being fired.
As long as the opponent could not fly through the sky, he would not be able to evade their staves, and since the length of the iron staves was greater than the Japanese sword hanging at his waist, it was a situation where they unconditionally held the advantage.
It was then.
Wearing a fishy grin, Yun Sak's hand suddenly grasped the hilt of the Japanese sword at his waist.
And in that instant, a line of light was drawn across the world.
Shaaaaak!
It was a line that felt as though the world itself had been bisected horizontally and shifted slightly out of alignment.
A line that felt as though Seonwoo Jin's Opening Heaven had been drawn horizontally.
Then, the upper and lower halves of those caught on that line became misaligned.
Cho Chaeon and Son Andang, who had been thrusting their iron staves, were of course included, as well as the White Shark Sect warriors who had been fighting them.
The bodies of Cho Chaeon and Son Andang, who had been launching themselves forward, naturally split into two pieces in midair.
Blood sprayed from their severed cross-sections.
Puhwaak!
"?!"
"Keueo-eok!"
They could see their own bodies being split apart with their own eyes.
The moment their breath ceased came right after—they died with expressions of sheer horror on their faces.
The White Shark Sect martial artists who had their feet planted on the ground were a beat slower.
They stared blankly as Cho Chaeon and Son Andang's bodies were split apart, only to belatedly discover that red lines were being drawn across their own bodies as well.
And as blood fountained from those lines, they screamed and died.
Puhwaaak!
"Keuaaaak!"
"S-Sect Leader...?!"
"Why even us...!"
Jin Gong-mu, head of the Jin Family Estate, and the other five members of the Jin Family Seven Experts all witnessed that scene as well.
It was a tremendous slash.
They realized at once.
That the opponent had shown a 'drawing slash' in a single instant, something from a realm utterly beyond their reach...
In particular, Jin Gong-mu, the head of the Jin Family, could not help but be horrified.
Because the drawing slash just demonstrated—how lofty a realm it belonged to—was something he, who had wandered for a long time blocked by the wall of the transcendent peak, could feel most keenly.
"Th-that's impossible..."
That was undoubtedly the transcendent peak he had been pursuing, or some realm beyond even that.
Then, the Blood Sea Demon Blade, Yun Sak, who had frozen all the peak-level masters with just a single drawing slash, now gazed at Jin Gong-mu with a fishy grin.
It was a moment that made clear precisely who his target was.
Pabak!
With his gaze fixed upon Jin Gong-mu, he began to rush forward.
In that instant, Jin Gong-mu came to feel the heart of a mouse before a snake.
His body had frozen solid under the overwhelming aura of a supreme master focused directly on him.
Then, the two members of the Jin Family Seven Experts who were closest to him, Gwa Judong and Jo Mok, frantically launched themselves toward Yun Sak.
It was to prevent Yun Sak from approaching Jin Gong-mu.
"Stop!"
"You bastard!"
Bwaaaaang!
The iron staves of the two men were swung at Yun Sak with a powerful momentum that seemed as though they could crush even boulders.
But Yun Sak's eyes still did not look at them.
Ting!
Without even glancing, Yun Sak's swung blade lightly deflected the iron staff swung by Gwa Judong, then carved right through his body.
Shaaaak!
Gwa Judong's chest split apart a beat later with a rip, gushing blood.
Puhwaak!
Jo Mok's iron staff, flying in from behind, met the same fate.
Ting! Shyiik!
Puhwaak!
It was overwhelmingly transcendent martial prowess.
To kill two members of the Jin Family Seven Experts, the greatest masters of the Jin Family Estate, it had required only four strokes of the sword.
A light of despair rose in Jin Gong-mu's eyes as he watched.
A master he could never possibly defeat, a god of death, was approaching him.
But he did not crumble as he was.
Jin Gong-mu was the man who held the position of estate head even within the Jin Family Estate, which was famous for its venomous tenacity.
He could never just wait for death in a daze.
Eudeuk!
Jin Gong-mu clenched his teeth.
Even if he had to die, he intended to struggle desperately.
"Euaaaaaap!"
With a desperate martial shout, he roused his frozen body, concentrated his entire spirit, and unleashed the mightest technique he could unfold.
Mad Demon Eighteen Staff, eighteenth form.
Mad Demon Shaking the World.
It was the ultimate technique of the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff, named for a mad horse shaking the world.
"Uaaaaaaap!"
Jin Gong-mu lightly gripped the middle-upper section of the staff with his left hand and swung and thrust his right hand about like a madman.
Then, from his left hand which had become the axis of a lever, the staff began to burst forth as if in a wild dance.
Puhwaaaaak!
It was as though the iron staff had multiplied and expanded into the shape of a cone, bearing down upon Yun Sak.
It was a technique that made the Yun Sak directly facing it see an illusion as though a fierce gale and a downpour were rushing in all at once.
At this, Yun Sak's grin deepened.
"Good."
At the same time, his Japanese sword also split into dozens.
Shwi-shwi-shwi-shwi-shwishik!
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
Yun Sak lightly swung his blade, individually batting away the pouring rain and the raging gale.
And he began to advance, step by step.
As if a salmon swimming upstream against a rapid current, he was evading Jin Gong-mu's fierce assault little by little.
Ting-ting-ting-ting-ting!
And finally, when Jin Gong-mu's body entered within the reach of the blade, Yun Sak gave Jin Gong-mu a pale, white smile.
It was a smile that seemed to say it had been quite amusing.
At the same time, his Japanese sword slashed out.
Shaaaaak!
Watching the blade slashing toward him, Jin Gong-mu realized that there was now nothing he could do.
For, with the ultimate technique into which he had poured all his strength completely broken through, he had neither the means nor the strength left to block it.
Suddenly, the face of his father, Jin Sa-mong, floated into his mind.
And the words he had not been able to say to him...
'That I actually missed him... I should have said it...'
And he squeezed his eyes shut.
'Father.'
It was then.
As he closed his eyes, sensing his final moment, a strange sound reached his ears.
Teo-eong!
And someone right beside him shouted.
"You stupid fool! Can't you pull yourself together?!"
Was it an auditory hallucination?
Jin Gong-mu was so bewildered that his eyes flew open.
In this situation, his father's voice—the fact that he had heard his father's scolding voice right until the moment he thought was his last—was an absurdity he could not possibly believe.
"Father?"
But upon opening his eyes, Jin Gong-mu could realize that the voice he had heard was no hallucination.
Somehow, unlike before, his father—with a face flushed with a red hue—was fantastically batting away the Japanese sword of the bastard he had thought he could never possibly stop.
Teo-teo-teo-teong! Teo-teong! Teong!
"...Father?"
Jin Gong-mu called out to his father again with a blank face.
He could not possibly believe the situation unfolding before his very eyes.
The rod that his father, Jin Sa-mong, was holding was not even an iron staff but a wooden rod that looked flimsy.
The wooden staff looked as if it had been cut from some random flagpole.
But that wooden staff was flowing as softly as water, yet striking as sharply as a raging gale, accurately deflecting the sides of the curved blades that came slashing in like beams of light.
Tututututung!
"Ho-oh?"
When the old man wielding the wooden staff blocked all of his fierce attacks, Yun Sak wore an expression that seemed to say "impressive" and first leapt backward to retreat.
The old man Jin Sa-mong, who until just moments ago had been unable to even rise from his sickbed due to illness, had in an instant forced back Yun Sak the Blood Sea Demon Blade—the one who had killed four of the Jin Family Seven Experts and had nearly killed the family head Jin Gong-mu with a single move.
Jin Gong-mu stared at his father with his mouth agape in utter shock.
At that moment, something suddenly surfaced in his mind.
It was the nickname of his ancestor, one he had only ever heard about in stories as having fought just like his father had moments ago.
"...Natural Staff?"
At that, Jin Sa-mong, still not taking his eyes off Yun Sak, answered with a snort.
"Hmph! As if something like this could possibly be the Natural Staff. It is merely a crude imitation!"
"B-but Father! That staff technique just now...!"
Whether the opponent used sword qi or blade energy, instead of clashing head-on, the method of severing the flow and neutralizing it was unmistakably the Natural Staff that had only been recounted in stories.
But thinking that, it was also strange.
Because for his father Jin Sa-mong to use the Natural Staff was an impossibility.
The Natural Staff, which could only be mastered by training in the Eight Direction Staff Technique for a lifetime—how could his father Jin Sa-mong, who had already mastered the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff and the Old Tiger Thirty-Six Staff, have learned it?
Jin Gong-mu could not continue speaking from sheer confusion.
At that, Jin Sa-mong spoke rapidly.
"Did I not say I saw the possibility?! What was important was not the Eight Direction Staff Technique."
"Pardon?"
"What was important was tranquility of mind! The tranquil mind to return to nature! The tranquil mind to become one with the staff! The Mad Demon Staff and Old Tiger Staff that amplify rage were the problem! The transcendent peak as well, that was...!"
It was when Jin Sa-mong had spoken up to that point.
At that instant, Yun Sak, who had retreated backward, came charging in again.
Chararararak!
Yun Sak's blade, swung once more, had become even faster than before.
It was as if shattered sunlight had fragmented into clusters of light flying at them.
Jin Sa-mong gritted his teeth and swung the wooden staff.
Tututututung!
Jin Sa-mong began desperately striking away Yun Sak's katana.
Seen from the side, it was a spectacle as though a whirlwind wrapped around Jin Sa-mong's body was ricocheting away the scattered clusters of light.
It was a sight similar to before; the only difference was that Jin Sa-mong's expression appeared far more strained than before.
But Jin Gong-mu did not notice his father's expression.
Because he had been too greatly shocked by what his father had just said.
'It wasn't the Eight Direction Staff that was important, but a tranquil mind? Rage was the problem?'
That was a fact he had never even considered.
The Jin Family Estate had been able to make its name resound throughout the martial world using the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff and the Old Tiger Thirty-Six Staff, which amplified power through rage.
Thus, the warriors of Jin Family Estate never once retreated when enraged, and their venomous energy, not shying away even from mutual destruction, was also the pride of the estate.
Yet rage itself had been the problem.
Moreover, Jin Gong-mu somehow felt he could infer the part Jin Sa-mong had not finished saying.
The transcendent peak. Had he not been about to say that what was blocking that realm was also rage?
Such shocking words.
But at the same time, they were words that brought a refreshing clarity, as if he had finally found the answer.
Jin Gong-mu's mind spun rapidly.
'Indeed, that could be the case. Usually, the method of enhancing martial prowess by amplifying emotions is primarily something demonic arts use.'
In that regard, there had occasionally been those who criticized the Jin Family Estate's martial arts.
The criticism was that amplifying rage to display combat power beyond one's actual skill was no different from demonic arts.
But the warriors of the Jin Family Estate had remained confident and unshaken.
Although the Jin Family Estate's martial arts amplified rage like demonic arts to heighten martial prowess, they did not cause one to lose reason like demonic beings, nor were they vulnerable to qi deviation.
Unlike other demonic arts, the feature of the Jin Family Estate's martial arts was that it maintained enough self-restraint not to cross that line.
'But put another way, that statement ultimately means the Jin Family Estate's martial arts prevent emotions from reaching the extreme. Considering that usually those who learn demonic arts reach the extremes of emotion, overcome it to reach the transcendent peak, and if they fail to overcome it, fall into qi deviation...'
Duung!
Suddenly, he felt as if he heard a bell ringing inside his head.
It was a clear, refreshing chime that seemed to shatter the stone wall that had been clogging his mind in an instant, freeing his thoughts.
Jin Gong-mu found himself murmuring aloud without realizing it.
"So that's how it was. That was it. The rage that strengthened us at lower realms was the very thing tripping us up at the higher realms. So...!"
Having realized the cause, Jin Gong-mu immediately thought of the solution.
'If rage is the problem...'
He didn't necessarily have to learn the Eight Direction Staff Technique.
Rather, it seemed he would have to discard the Mad Demon Eighteen Staff and the Old Tiger Thirty-Six Staff.
No, he didn't even need to discard all of it.
If only he could modify the mental cultivation portion that amplified rage, that would suffice.
Of course, there might also be a method of removing the restraints on rage, going all the way to the extreme, and challenging the transcendent peak.
But that was not possible.
Because if he did that, it would truly become no different from demonic arts.
'In the end, it means there is only one path for me to reach the transcendent peak.'
He had to abandon rage.
The very rage that had been the most excellent weapon for the warriors of the Jin Family Estate all this time.
That would, of course, not be an easy task.
In fact, it might even bring about the weakening of the entire Jin Family Estate's combat strength in the short term.
But on the face of Jin Gong-mu, who had conceived that thought, a bright smile was spreading.
'Perhaps... perhaps I, too...'
His heart fluttered.
Perhaps he could challenge it again.
The dream of the Natural Staff that he had been forced to abandon in childhood when he had no choice but to learn the Mad Demon Staff under his father's coercion...
That single fact alone was enough to make Jin Gong-mu's heart pound as if it would burst for the first time in a long while.
But as he was having such thoughts, the situation of his father Jin Sa-mong, who was fighting the Blood Sea Demon Blade Yun Sak, was steadily worsening.
Swiririririk!
Tititititing!
The situation itself—where Jin Sa-mong was fantastically deflecting Yun Sak's blade that danced wildly like shattering sunlight by swinging his wooden staff—had not changed.
But as he blocked it, Jin Sa-mong was gradually being pushed backward.
"Keuk!"
Jin Sa-mong could not be sure.
How much longer he could keep blocking the opponent's assault.
Perhaps he might collapse any moment now.
Eudeuk!
Jin Sa-mong ground his teeth.
He was already a body resigned to death; even if he died here, he would have no regrets.
But he had to save Jin Gong-mu—his son and the current head of the Jin Family Estate—at all costs.
Swiririririk!
Tititititing!
It was then.
Yun Sak's assault, which had seemed it would never end, momentarily hesitated and faltered.
At that moment, Jin Sa-mong's eyes flashed and he shouted at his son Jin Gong-mu.
He did not know for what reason Yun Sak had withdrawn his blade, but he could not miss this opportunity.
"Gong-mu! Retreat at once!"
"Y-yes?!"
At his father's shout, Jin Gong-mu finally snapped back to his senses with a start.
And at that moment, he could see it.
The atmosphere of Yun Sak, who while fighting his father had suddenly sheathed his blade into its scabbard, had abruptly shifted.
His fiercely coiled figure looked exactly like a tiger flattened low against the ground.
A tiger that had lowered its body to pounce on its prey.
At that atmosphere like the calm before a storm, Jin Gong-mu urgently cried out.
"Father! Dodge...!"
At that instant, Yun Sak drew his blade.
Shaaak!
Jin Gong-mu could see it.
A shining line that divided the world into above and below, into two.
The sight where the world above and below that line seemed eerily misaligned.
That tremendous slash that had earlier bisected two of the Jin Family Seven Experts at once was unfolding once again.
Jin Gong-mu, his face utterly devastated, murmured the next words.
"...Dodge it..."
Suddenly, the sight from earlier—where Cho Chaeon and Son Andang had been split in two by that bastard's slash—flickered before his eyes like a vision.
He absolutely could not believe that his father might end up the same way.
But regardless of his heart, in the next instant, without fail, blood burst forth from Jin Sa-mong's body.
Puhahak!
"Kreuuugh!"
"Father!"
Jin Gong-mu called out to his father desperately and ran toward him.
At that, Yun Sak let out a small exclamation of admiration.
"Ho-oh!"
Jin Gong-mu hurriedly rushed to Jin Sa-mong and supported him.
"Father!"
Fortunately, Jin Sa-mong was not killed instantly by that wondrous blade strike.
Perhaps because he had endured using his staff technique reminiscent of the Natural Staff, although his chest was split open, the wound was shallow.
But he had only endured a single strike.
A third of his wooden staff had been shorn off, and the wound on his chest did not look anywhere near shallow enough to allow him to continue fighting.
Jin Sa-mong pressed his acupoints to stop the bleeding and desperately shouted at his son.
"You idiot! Did I not tell you to retreat?!"
But Jin Gong-mu, whose fiery temperament was in no way inferior to his father's, also shouted back in a burst of anger.
"Why do you keep telling me to retreat?! Are you telling me to abandon you and leave, just as you did, Father?!"
"Why, you...!"
It was then.
Wearing a ghastly smile, Yun Sak charged at them once more.
"Together."
The words he murmured quietly seemed to mean he would send them off together.
With a pale, stricken face, Jin Sa-mong lifted the staff that was nearly halved.
Jin Gong-mu also gritted his teeth and thrust his iron staff forward.
Chararararang!
Yun Sak's blade once again became fragments of shattering sunlight. They were light and fast blade strikes, like scattering clusters of light.
Titing! Shaak!
It only took precisely four strokes of his blade to knock away Jin Gong-mu's iron staff and split Jin Sa-mong's wooden staff in two again.
The expressions of the father and son turned utterly devastated.
Yun Sak now swung his blade toward them—no longer able to block his attacks—and murmured quietly.
"End."
He meant that this was the end.
But it was then.
Just as Yun Sak was about to cleave them in half, something absolutely impossible to ignore came flying at him.
Piiiiiiik!
It was a giant phoenix glowing with a soft violet light.
The phoenix, emitting a subtle radiance, had flapped its wings and charged toward him at tremendous speed.
"!"
Startled by the sudden attack of the phoenix, Yun Sak had no choice but to retrieve his blade and strike down at the phoenix, unable to finish off the Jin father and son completely.
Shaaaak!
Paseuseuseuk!
The phoenix, split by his blade, dispersed and vanished into energy.
But faced with a bizarre situation he had never before experienced in his life, Yun Sak stared blankly at the energy scattering like mist.
Because of that.
He was forced to lose track, just for a very brief moment, of the presence charging at him from behind the phoenix.
Swiiiiik!
"!"
By the time Yun Sak noticed the presence of the opponent, he had already closed in right upon him.
Before Yun Sak's eyes came the sight of a handsome man with a face that still looked to be in his early twenties, grinning widely.
In the next instant, a giant cross was carved before Yun Sak's eyes.
Chwaaaak!
The Southern Cross Sword of the Hainan In Clan.
Seonwoo Jin had arrived.