Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Black Cloud versus Thunder Spear
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Ho-ryang was surprised by Pa-sun’s strength, which was greater than he expected, but as someone who had trained in martial arts since childhood, he knew what to do. When skills were evenly matched, victory lay in using the optimal strategy.
Watching their duel, Mu-heun thought to himself.
‘He’s deliberately maintaining a relaxed expression, deflecting the destructive spear strikes and creating openings with feints to make his opponent impatient.’
Because of this, Pa-sun felt pressured, believing that if he didn't keep attacking, he would open himself up to a counterattack and ultimately lose.
Pa-sun began to break out in a cold sweat, his breathing growing ragged. Seeing this, Ho-ryang smiled leisurely.
‘Good. If it continues like this, victory is mine.’
Just then.
Mu-heun sent a telepathic message to Pa-sun.
‘Pa-sun!’
‘My lord?’
‘Do not be hasty. Did you not say you would shatter the natural order?’
‘…!’
Hearing Mu-heun’s message, Pa-sun felt as if he had been struck on the head.
Pa-sun.
To shatter the natural order.
In other words, it meant not living as life flowed, but forging his own path.
But what was he doing now? In his haste, he was being led by Ho-ryang, exhausting all his stamina and inner energy.
*Right, I need to be calm. This way, I can’t even win a fight I should win. What I lack most right now is experience. My opponent is overwhelmingly more experienced than I am.*
But so what? Does that mean I will continue to lose to those with similar skill just because I lack experience?
No, it doesn’t.
In a real battle, the opponent won't go easy on you just because you lack experience.
Pa-sun had to think of a way.
Meager experience.
But his experience, though less, was more intense than his opponent's.
There was something he could use.
It was the image of his lord in real combat, which he had witnessed on the way to and within the Blade Leaf Valley.
No matter how well-trained one was, it could never compare to actual combat. Witnessing such a large-scale battle even once was immensely helpful.
Pa-sun had already seen it.
He saw Mu-heun fight the group of ruffians after sending him away.
He saw Mu-heun fight Gu Cheong in the Blade Leaf Valley.
He saw him fight the Golden Fang Poison Claw, a master of the transcendent level, alongside the Blade Leaf Demon, who couldn't use his full strength due to internal injuries.
And he saw him win.
In all those situations, Mu-heun hadn't always been in an advantageous position. No, he had seized victory from adverse conditions.
Pa-sun decided to imitate that style of fighting.
Watching Pa-sun compose himself, Mu-heun also thought.
‘That’s right, enlightenment isn’t something so grand. It’s simply thinking about things you hadn’t considered before and broadening your perspective. That is enlightenment, and that is the path to becoming stronger.’
Pa-sun gripped the bottom of the spear with his left hand and the top with his right. Then, he circulated his inner energy differently in each hand.
The application of the pressure points Mu-heun had opened for him.
He gathered inner energy at the tip of the spear while simultaneously collecting it in both hands. With his right hand, he made the energy rotate.
‘The surrounding terrain, the opponent’s words and expression. And his characteristics. I’ll use everything.’
Ho-ryang noticed the change in Pa-sun’s demeanor. Feeling a sense of unease as he watched Pa-sun regain his composure, Ho-ryang began to provoke him to shake his newfound calm.
“Are you done with your flimsy spear thrusts? I wanted to see your skill since you learned martial arts, but it seems you still have a long way to go!”
“…”
“What are you doing? Have you lost your nerve? But that won’t do, you cur. Once a duel has begun, you must charge until you give up. That is, if you are a man.”
“You…! Who are you to speak of being a man! Stop dodging and face me head-on!”
“If you’re not scared, then come!”
“With pleasure!”
*Fwoosh!*
“Pa-sun thrust his spear, its tip condensing with energy.”
Ho-ryang immediately identified the weak point in the energy of Pa-sun's thrust. It was slightly behind the spearhead.
‘All I need to do is parry it with my sword. How simple.’
The moment the Flowing Water Sword moved to intercept the incoming spear.
*Whoosh!*
Pa-sun rotated the inner energy in his right hand, changing the spear's direction and driving the strike toward the ground.
*CRASH!*
The spear slammed into the floor of the training ground. The condensed energy exploded, sending shattered fragments of the floor flying forward. Ho-ryang spun his sword, deflecting the incoming debris.
At that moment, Pa-sun used the inner energy gathered in his left hand to change the spear’s direction again. The spear, embedded in the ground, bent and then sprang up, spinning towards Ho-ryang.
But Ho-ryang was not one to be trifled with. While deflecting the fragments, he simultaneously parried the flying spear.
However, as if he had anticipated even this, Pa-sun kicked the broken debris from the floor, scattering it as he regained his grip on the spear.
The debris kicked up by Pa-sun obscured Ho-ryang’s vision. Ho-ryang executed the eighth form of the Flowing Water Sword, the Three Blades of the Flying Stream.
The sword, like flowing water, split into three streams, flying swiftly to cut through the debris and elegantly flowing to defend against any follow-up attack.
However, Ho-ryang.
He should have dodged instead of defending.
In that opening, Pa-sun drew upon all the inner energy he could muster and thrust his spear. It was a thunderous strike, born from a powerful rotation.
The rotation of energy, starting from his grounded foot, traveled up his calf, thigh, hip, waist, and shoulder, concentrating in his right arm. The energy concentrated in his right arm then shot toward the spearhead.
A sharp storm raged against the three flowing streams of water.
*Swoosh!*
*Clang-clang-clang!*
Ho-ryang hastily switched from defense to deflection, but with his current skill, it was impossible to divert the spear that Pa-sun had spun to its absolute limit.
*KABOOM!!*
A massive explosion of air erupted.
Dust filled the air.
But none of that mattered.
Everyone watching the duel stood with their mouths agape in shock.
The one lying collapsed on the training ground was Ho-ryang.
In front of the fallen Ho-ryang stood Pa-sun, utterly exhausted, using his spear to support himself.
The first duel,
was Pa-sun’s victory.
The moment Pa-sun won.
The whispers about him, the suspicious gazes directed at him, and the label of the name Jang Bong—all of it vanished cleanly.
And a new rumor began to circulate.
“Jang Bong… no, Pa-sun has changed since he went to the Blade Leaf Valley with the Fourth Young Master.”
“Right, right. Something must have happened in the Blade Leaf Valley.”
“Then, does that mean the Fourth Young Master is really a hidden master we don’t know about?”
“It’s possible! How else can you explain what just happened?”
“You’re right. I heard the one who fell was a promising Unit Commander from the Azure Dragon Unit. It makes no sense for Pa-sun to beat someone like that.”
Rumors spread, suggesting he had found a great fortune in the Blade Leaf Valley, or that the Heavenly Dance Family’s Fourth Young Master, Baek Mu-heun, was actually a hidden master.
Countless rumors were born and faded away, but one fact remained unchanged.
Pa-sun had defeated the Azure Dragon Unit Commander, the Flowing Water Sword, Ho-ryang.
“The w-winner is Pa-sun, Pa-sun.”
The Deputy Commander of the Azure Dragon Unit, Cheon Gi-seom, also stammered in shock as he declared the outcome of the duel.
At that, a roar erupted from the guest seats where the Heavenly Dance Family’s retainers were seated.
*WOAAAAAAAAAH!*
“That was… incredible!”
“Amazing! Pa-sun won!”
Mu-heun watched Pa-sun’s victory with a sense of pride, while the Heavenly Dance Family Head, Baek Gun-hak, looked at both Mu-heun and Pa-sun with a pleased expression.
‘He has truly become a leader now.’
The First to Third Young Masters were also astonished.
‘Is that the same servant who used to follow the fourth one around?’
He was clearly the scrawny servant who used to stick by the fourth brother’s side, crouching next to him, but now he had changed so much he was unrecognizable.
“A-astonishing.”
“I-indeed, brother.”
The Family Head scolded the First to Third Young Masters.
“What are you so surprised about! From today on, none of you shall be lax in your martial training! To survive in the Cult, you must be proficient in both literary and martial arts. Do you understand!”
“Ah… yes!”
The three young masters were bewildered by the sudden reprimand.
And they weren't the only ones who were bewildered. The Azure Dragon Unit Leader, Cheon Ga-rak, who had been watching the duel beside the Family Head, also found the scene hard to believe.
He could accept the Fourth Young Master Baek Mu-heun’s martial prowess, having seen it the day before; after all, the world sometimes produced geniuses who defied common sense.
But the subordinate he had taken in was also strong? A former servant, no less? Someone who hadn't even been practicing martial arts from the start?
To defeat Ho-ryang, a promising young Unit Commander who had been training since childhood, just like that?
‘Impossible.’
But the event had just unfolded right before his eyes.
‘I have no choice but to acknowledge it, Fourth Young Master. You are not only proficient in both literary and martial arts, but you also seem to have been born with an eye for people and the qualities of a leader who can nurture them.’
The Azure Dragon Unit Leader had now acknowledged Baek Mu-heun in his heart.
Meanwhile, Mu-heun paid no mind to such things.
He was simply watching Pa-sun's duel and jotting something down, or checking if anyone watching the duel was leaving, and if so, where they were going.
“One, two, three, four… sigh, there are so many of them.”
Mu-heun used the Thousand-Mile Fragrance tracking technique to follow the deserters with his eyes.
Just as the training ground was being cleared, Deputy Commander Cheon Gi-seom shouted.
“Alright then, next up is the duel between Un-pyo, who followed the Fourth Young Master from the Blade Leaf Valley, and Jin-guk of the Azure Dragon Unit, the Thunderstorm Spear. The two of you, please come up.”
The moniker Thunderstorm Spear came from Jin-guk’s spearmanship, which produced a sound like thunder when he thrust, and his spear strikes were as fast as rain falling from the sky or a bolt of lightning.
Un-pyo and Jin-guk faced each other on the training ground. Jin-guk’s expression hardened as he looked at Un-pyo and spoke.
“Un-pyo from the Blade Leaf Valley… Why did you come back here? After causing trouble in the Azure Dragon Unit because you couldn't control your temper and were almost kicked out, wouldn't it have been better to just stay there where the Blade Leaf Demon took you in?”
Jin-guk brought up Un-pyo’s past, what could be considered a shameful memory.
However, Un-pyo replied with a relaxed expression.
“Was it a problem that I taught a lesson to those punks who were acting tough to establish a hierarchy? Ah, perhaps you were one of those I beat up back then? Hah, if so, my apologies. I don’t remember every single insignificant person, so please understand.”
“What did you say…?”
The situation had been reversed. Jin-guk had tried to provoke Un-pyo, but he ended up being provoked instead.
“If you do well today, I might just remember you, so do your best. Though, looking at you, that seems unlikely.”
“Hahahahahaha! It seems you don’t even remember being beaten by me. Shouldn’t your name be Cloud Head instead of Cloud Leopard?”
“What?”
“Fine. I’ll give you a new one! Not Un-pyo (Cloud Leopard), but Un-du (Cloud Head), how about it? It suits a blockhead like you perfectly!”
“You must be dying to die, aren't you?”
“Try me, Un-du. Not that you can do much with nothing in that head of yours…”
The two engaged in a war of nerves even before the duel began.
Cheon Gi-seom, looking forward to their duel, announced.
“Then, let the duel begin.”
*BOOM!*
With the sound of a large drum, the duel between Un-pyo and Jin-guk began.
Un-pyo lifted his massive greatsword. He swung it from behind his left side, tracing a semi-circle and unleashing a powerful strike that reached behind his right.
‘Falling Maple Leaf.’
*SWOOOSH!*
Un-pyo launched the blade energy of Falling Maple Leaf with the intent to split Jin-guk in half horizontally. But Jin-guk, as if he had expected it, leaped into the air.
“I knew you’d launch your blade energy right from the start!”
Having leaped into the air, Jin-guk prepared his specialty, the Thunderstorm Spear.
The swiftly thrusting spearhead would surely overwhelm Un-pyo, who had just swung his greatsword.
However, a second Falling Maple Leaf immediately flew towards Jin-guk in mid-air.
“Huh?”
Un-pyo’s greatsword, which had started from the left, did not stop after drawing a semi-circle to the right. It continued for a full rotation, adding to its momentum, and launched a second blade wind at the airborne Jin-guk.
‘Falling Maple Leaf, Twin Slash!’
*SWOOOSH!*
“No…!”
Jin-guk couldn't help but be flustered. A threatening blade energy was flying at him before he could even unleash his rapid spear thrusts. Moreover, being airborne, his movements were restricted, making it difficult to dodge.
In the end, Jin-guk switched from a swift spear to a heavy one.
“Falling Lightning Spear!”
Instead of a rapid spear, he focused his power on a single point. A single-point thrust, sounding like a clap of thunder, pierced the center of the incoming Falling Maple Leaf.
*CLANG-GANG-GANG!*
Their attacks canceled each other out in mid-air. But unlike Jin-guk, who had just exchanged blows, Un-pyo had already finished preparing his next technique.
“Severing Blade Wind. Flying Leaf Blades!”
A blade wind was unleashed as he swung the greatsword engraved with a leaf. And mixed within it, wind daggers were shot out like secretly thrown hidden weapons.
*SWISSSSH!*
The powerful blade wind and the Flying Leaf Blades rushed towards Jin-guk.
“Th-Thunderstorm Spear!”
*Gah!*
Jin-guk hastily unleashed a barrage of his specialty, the rain-like spear strikes, but the hastily executed technique was not enough to block the powerful blade wind and the Flying Leaf Blades.
“T-to think he was this strong…”