The Iron Calamity Mob (2)

Jeong Cheol, leader of the Iron Calamity Mob.

The man, born with the aptitude of a Thunder Spirit Body, swept his gaze across the battlefield.

"So it's Na Chwi-ryang."

At that very moment, Na Chwi-ryang was tearing one of the Iron Calamity Mob's Foundation Establishment warriors cleanly in half. Jeong Cheol frowned at the sight, then turned his eyes toward Cheon Woo-jin.

"And who might you be."

"……"

When Cheon Woo-jin offered no reply, a man with a wolf-like face spoke up to Jeong Cheol.

"Boss, that one is Cheon Woo-jin."

"What? Is that the truth?"

"The clothes he's wearing, too — black with red shot through it. It matches the information we acquired."

The wolf demon looked Cheon Woo-jin up and down as he spoke, taking in the dark-red robe draped over him. He was a demon warrior who did not belong to the Yin Scale Spirit Needle Sect.

Late Core Formation — the same as Jeong Cheol. And yet the fact that he addressed the man as "Boss" and fawned on him as the leader made it clear that Jeong Cheol was the stronger of the two.

"So that's the Cheon Woo-jin who made such a stir in the battle over the Ghost Spirit Demon Banner……"

At Dokgo Hwan's words, something shifted in Jeong Cheol's eyes. He fixed Cheon Woo-jin with a combative stare.

"What business do you have here!"

Dokgo Hwan raised his voice in his leader's stead.

"You barge in uninvited and slaughter our brothers — what grudge could you possibly hold against us!"

"A grudge?"

Na Chwi-ryang snorted.

"Do you lot only ever rob people who hold grudges against you? Of all the ones you've ambushed in the middle layers of Ghost Head City, I'd wager you could count the cases with any actual grievance on one hand."

"Wha—……"

"Just tell yourselves it's payback for everything you've done, khehehe."

It wasn't about grudges. They had attacked simply because they wanted to strip them of everything they had. Dokgo Hwan's face twisted at the naked honesty of the answer.

"Dokgo Hwan. No need to waste breath bickering."

"Boss……!"

"They've most likely set their eyes on the loot we acquired recently."

With those words, Jeong Cheol curled one corner of his mouth upward.

"The Heavenly Silkworm Shadow Concealment Robe…… They must have caught wind that it's in our hands now, and come for it."

"Sharp senses, Jeong Cheol."

Na Chwi-ryang laughed, his shoulders bobbing.

"That's a treasure far too good for the likes of you. I'll see it disposed of in worthier hands, so hand it over."

"We'll decline. We had every intention of selling that thing ourselves and lining our pockets."

An artifact imbued with a special power like the Heavenly Silkworm Shadow Concealment Robe named its own price. It did not discriminate between users the way dharma treasures did, and there were any number of people who would covet it. Handled well, it could fetch a truly staggering sum. For the Iron Calamity Mob — drifters without a proper sect or foundation to their name — it was a prize they absolutely had to hold on to.

"Talking it out won't settle this, then."

Na Chwi-ryang snorted and took a step forward. Dokgo Hwan looked to Jeong Cheol and spoke.

"Boss, let me take Na Chwi-ryang. That bastard has been an eyesore of mine for ages."

"Hm. Now that you mention it, you did have history with the Yin Scale Spirit Needle Sect. Suit yourself."

Jeong Cheol nodded.

"Then I'll take Cheon Woo-jin."

"Sounds good to me."

With the matchups decided, Jeong Cheol walked toward Cheon Woo-jin. The truth was, he had shown far more interest in Cheon Woo-jin than in Na Chwi-ryang from the very start.

"I hear you brought down Baek Shin-yeong of the Ten Thousand Nights Ice Palace."

Jeong Cheol asked, looking Cheon Woo-jin dead in the eye.

"Impressive, if it's true. To pull off a feat like that with a Foundation Establishment body. I'm curious what manner of trick you used."

"Is that curiosity the reason you chose me over Na Chwi-ryang?"

"It is."

Jeong Cheol nodded at Cheon Woo-jin's question.

"It's only my instinct, but you struck me as the more dangerous of the two."

"Na Chwi-ryang's pride would be wounded if he heard that."

"I heard you repelled Na Chwi-ryang several times in your past battles. I don't imagine my instinct was wrong."

"Your information is inaccurate. I have never once repelled him on my own."

"Regardless — facing you first simply promises to be more entertaining than facing Na Chwi-ryang."

Crackle. Crackle.

Blue thunder qi sparked and burst from Jeong Cheol's body.

He was a man born with the Thunder Spirit Body. As the name suggested, the Thunder Spirit Body was an aptitude for lightning-attribute arts, and in the vast majority of cases it came paired with a Wood Spiritual Root. That was why such people showed a peculiar talent for channeling wood-attributed qi into sheer, linear force.

"Well — even if my hunch is wrong and you turn out to be nothing special, it's no matter. In that case…… I'll simply ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠kill you on the spot and go deal with Na Chwi-ryang."

Crackle!

Before the words had even finished leaving his mouth, Jeong Cheol moved. Cloaked in blue thunder qi, he charged at Cheon Woo-jin along the shortest possible line, and thrust out the blue thunder-sword he had conjured in his right hand.

Shweeeaaak!

A supersonic strike that split the very air as it bored in. And yet the attack was stopped dead — halted by the barrier born of the Thunder Wheel Barrier, the irregular-grade artifact crafted by Master Thunder Spirit's own hands.

"Wha—……!"

Jeong Cheol let out a short gasp of astonishment as the wall of thunder qi barred his path. Cheon Woo-jin answered him by hurling the sphere of thunder qi he had been clutching in his right hand straight at that face.

Crackle!

The instant Cheon Woo-jin retreated a single step using his thunder qi, the thunder energy erupting from the sphere engulfed Jeong Cheol's face. Cheon Woo-jin had been inside the blast radius as well, but thanks to the Thunder Wheel Barrier's shield he took no damage whatsoever.

"Not bad at all……!"

But Jeong Cheol was no pushover either. Just as Cheon Woo-jin had, he had used a thunder-qi movement art to slip away to the safest distance he could manage.

"That shield of yours — what in the world is it? It takes my attack head-on without so much as a tremor."

"……"

"There was even considerable rebound force behind it. Careless, and I'd have been knocked flat on my back."

Wariness crept into Jeong Cheol's eyes.

"A special defensive artifact, is it?"

"……"

Cheon Woo-jin did not answer. He had no leisure for it — he was still busy dissecting the technique Jeong Cheol had just unleashed.

'Had it not been for the Thunder Wheel Barrier, that blow might have crippled me.'

Wood-attributed power had an inherent tendency to extend in a perfectly straight line. The Azure Thunder that Cheon Woo-jin wielded — one of the Five Thunder Arts — likewise drew on that wood-attributed force.

Jeong Cheol, a Thunder Spirit Body with a Wood Spiritual Root, had used his wood-attributed qi to remake himself into a single living bolt of lightning. An ultra-high-speed charge along the shortest line, crowned by a thunder-sword with monstrous penetrating power to skewer his opponent.

Struck by an attack backed by a Core Formation warrior's spirit power, a Foundation Establishment body would have found it nearly impossible to endure. A water barrier from the Water Heaven Formation Art would have been punched straight through, and even the Silver Bell Strongguard Shield would have struggled to stop it completely.

The only reason Cheon Woo-jin had withstood it at all was, in practical terms, the Thunder Wheel Barrier.

'The Thunder Wheel Barrier doesn't just excel at pure defense — it absorbs shock as well. It took that terrifying charge without being pushed back even a hair.'

It seemed the artifact was channeling the impact of the blow away elsewhere through its thunder qi, but the precise principle still eluded him. Such was the Thunder Wheel Barrier — an artifact forged upon theory of the highest order.

"Hm…… Good."

Watching Cheon Woo-jin's silence, Jeong Cheol nodded.

"First, then — I'll break through that shield of yours."

Crackle!

The ground where Jeong Cheol had been standing gouged itself deep. With the snow piled on the ground whirling up like a blizzard, Jeong Cheol — transformed into blue lightning — came surging at Cheon Woo-jin once more.

Shweeeaaak!

This time he bored in at a lower angle. Was his target the lower body? It didn't matter. The barrier woven from the Thunder Wheel Barrier guarded his entire front.

Kuooong!

Once again the thunder-qi shield turned him aside. But in the very next instant, Jeong Cheol vanished from before Cheon Woo-jin's eyes.

Where had he gone? Cheon Woo-jin already knew. He had confirmed it through the female warrior who had guarded the entrance of Wolhongnu, as well.

When one accelerated using thunder qi, the qi leaned first in the direction one intended to move. Just before Jeong Cheol had vanished, Cheon Woo-jin had clearly caught sight of his blue thunder qi tilting toward one side.

'Left.'

Kuooong!

Jeong Cheol's thunder-sword, boring in from the left, was blocked. Cheon Woo-jin had shifted the thunder-qi shield to the left.

He had not tracked Jeong Cheol's movement with his eyes. He had simply read the lean of the thunder qi, predicted the trajectory, and adjusted only the point where the Thunder Wheel Barrier's shield took form.

"You little……!"

How on earth had he blocked that? Jeong Cheol glared at Cheon Woo-jin as though demanding the answer. But it lasted only a heartbeat. Jeong Cheol once more melted from sight before his opponent's eyes.

Papapapat!

Erratic, ultra-high-speed movement — up, down, left, right, without pattern. Against this, even Cheon Woo-jin would struggle to predict where the next lunge would come from.

Tracking the tangled motion left him dizzy, and he screwed his eyes tightly shut. At the sight, Jeong Cheol smirked.

But Cheon Woo-jin had already spread his spiderweb of spirit qi in every direction.

'Where Jeong Cheol is right now doesn't matter. All that matters is when, and from which direction, he comes at me.'

He had already turned aside Jeong Cheol's attacks twice. That much was more than enough information to work with.

Papat, papapat!

Jeong Cheol's presence, scattering drunkenly in all directions, played havoc with Cheon Woo-jin's senses. It felt as though the man might lunge at any instant and skewer him through the heart.

But here, a hasty reaction would be fatal. In pure reaction speed, Jeong Cheol — a Core Formation Thunder Spirit Body — held the advantage. If Cheon Woo-jin misread the moment here, there would be no recovering; Jeong Cheol would plunge into the opening and inflict a grievous wound.

'Not yet.'

Papat, papapat, papat!

Using the spiderweb of spirit qi spread across the ground as his sensory organs, he traced the pattern of Jeong Cheol's movements and predicted the next strike.

And at last, the moment came.

'Left rear…… no — left rear, low!'

Like a venomous serpent gliding across the surface of the snow, Jeong Cheol — his body pressed as low to the ground as it would go — dove in from behind, aiming for Cheon Woo-jin's left flank.

But Cheon Woo-jin did not so much as glance back. All he had to do was set the direction of the formation he had prepared for precisely this moment.

Puk!

The shadow-blade that erupted from the ground beneath him skewered Jeong Cheol's right foot.

Had this been the Black Shadow Extreme in its ordinary form — a purely physical attack — it could never have stopped Jeong Cheol. But what Cheon Woo-jin had just deployed was the Black Shadow Death Curse, a technique that borrowed the principles of curse arts with Jongri Un's Ghost Soul Banner as its reference.

The power of the curse bored into Jeong Cheol's body and threw his spirit-qi circulation into disarray. As a result, the blue thunder qi that had been underpinning his ultra-high-speed movement scattered into chaos.

"Ah……"

The blue thunder-sword pierced empty air. And for an instant, Jeong Cheol's limbs seized rigid.

Cheon Woo-jin did not let that instant slip away.

Cheon Woo-jin could never outrun Jeong Cheol in a contest of speed. Using the same thunder qi, a Core Formation cultivator was bound to be faster. Which left him two ways to respond: predict the man's movements and lay traps in advance — or briefly halt them altogether and drive home a single fatal blow.

Until now, it had been the former.

From this moment, it would be the latter.

KWA-JIJIJIK!

The black thunder qi, amplified through the Thunder Wheel Barrier and compressed to its very limit, was hurled forth. A mass of annihilating thunder qi that even a Core Formation warrior could not resist engulfed Jeong Cheol — ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and over the white snow, scattering black ash like funeral dust, it ground his right half to miserable ruin.