Chapter 27
Chapter 27
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 27
Chapter Title: A Hundred-Second Challenge
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Now even old men were getting obsessed with me.
Swish—
The masked man awkwardly assumed a fist-clasping salute.
Watching him, a sneer crossed the lips of Pungjeong Nokwon.
"What a ridiculous fool."
Fist-clasping salute.
It was the martial artists' gesture of courtesy, signifying they would not harm the other.
But the man before him was wrapping his fist with his left hand instead of his right.
A guy who didn't even know that basic rule.
"How did you even build up that much internal energy...?"
Pungjeong Nokwon's eyes flickered.
The energy emanating from the man's dantian was far from ordinary.
It wasn't mere qi—it was something closer to natural worldly energy.
Even more astonishing was its purity, untouched by any tint or hue.
He hadn't learned any heart technique yet.
"...How could someone like you exist in this world?"
Pungjeong Nokwon frowned at the bizarre imbalance.
"So, what do you want? Why is a guy like you blocking my path?"
As he finished speaking, he unleashed his killing intent.
In terms of internal energy alone, the man was somewhere between third-rate and second-rate.
This level of killing intent should make him collapse to his knees.
But his expectations were completely off the mark.
Tremble—
The man was clearly shaking, but his mind remained sharp.
"Whoa... I thought a dinosaur was standing in front of me."
Pungjeong Nokwon narrowed his eyes at the man cracking jokes even as his teeth chattered.
Only then did he sense it.
Something like a sprout growing atop the man's dantian.
It felt like a vast natural force protecting the man.
"Heh heh... The more I look, the weirder you get. What is that monster-like thing you're growing in your dantian?"
A bitter laugh leaked out clearly even from behind the mask.
"I'm not growing it... It's parasitizing me on its own. Parasite—cough!"
Shihanbu suddenly clutched his lower abdomen mid-sentence.
Pungjeong Nokwon was startled.
He had witnessed the dantian sprout striking Shihanbu's dantian.
"It has a will of its own... Hah. Truly. There's never been anyone as bizarre as you in martial history."
He shook his head slowly.
"So I'll ask again. Why are you blocking my way?"
"Do you really have to take her life?"
"Her life. Her life. Hahaha!"
Pungjeong Nokwon burst into mad laughter at those words.
His laugh carried a deep hatred unbecoming of a righteous faction elder.
"You ignorant mutt, barking away without knowing anything!"
He shouted in fury.
"That woman didn't just kill my disciple!"
The Heavenly Demon of the era, Cheon A-ryeong.
What she destroyed was a single-lineage martial art with five hundred years of tradition.
It was the ultimate technique known as Shattering Heaven Fist.
A unique transmission art that only those with a special constitution could learn.
She had eradicated that very lineage.
"If I could... I'd kill that bitch and trample everything she ever loved!"
But he had lived his entire life as a giant of the righteous factions.
He couldn't be swayed by personal desires.
"That's why I planned to settle it one life for one life."
Saying that, Pungjeong Nokwon stared straight at Shihanbu.
"Even now, do you still call it 'taking her life'?"
Facing that hatred, Shihanbu scratched the back of his head and replied.
"If she deserved to die, she would have killed you."
He recalled a conversation he'd had with the Heavenly Demon in the past.
[Vice Cult Leader. Do you know why the Heavenly Demon claims to be the sole demon of heaven?]
To that question, he'd answered based on knowledge from modern novels.
"Because the strong want to wield their power however they please?"
And that day,
he got cussed out for the first time by the furious Heavenly Demon.
[Listen well! The Heavenly Demon claims the title of sole demon to protect the powerless!]
The founding Heavenly Demon.
He was born to a farmer father.
As such, he understood the plight of the weak better than anyone,
and sought to punish evildoers to create space for the weak to breathe.
But that still amounted to murder.
Because of it, he was called the demonic god of the six realms,
and even branded as one who served Mara, the demon obstructing Buddha's enlightenment.
Yet the founding Heavenly Demon didn't try to change that perception.
He embraced it instead.
He even named himself Heavenly Demon, drawing from Mara.
He chose to become the world's demon to suppress greater evils.
[This is the origin of our Divine Cult. As Vice Cult Leader, engrave it in your heart and live accordingly.]
Recalling that day, Shihanbu looked at the fainted A-ryeong.
His eyes were filled with trust.
"I don't believe she committed meaningless murder. He must have deserved death."
Pungjeong Nokwon fell silent at Shihanbu's words.
He knew it too.
His disciple wasn't the type to form attachments easily.
"That changes nothing. I'll resolve this grudge in the way of the martial world. So step aside."
Pungjeong Nokwon refused to yield.
Shihanbu was the same.
He clenched his fists into a ready stance.
Seeing that, Pungjeong Nokwon was taken aback.
What the man was doing was no different from an ant blocking a dinosaur.
"Why go this far?"
"I owe her quite a few lives."
The Heavenly Demon.
Without her, he'd have died hundreds of times over.
"A man can't just stand there without raising a fist in front of someone like that. I haven't even used it once yet—that'd be too unfair."
Pungjeong Nokwon shut his mouth at those words.
For someone in peril,
for conviction,
for righteousness, raising a fist even against a mighty foe.
"...A true hero."
While everyone else just paid lip service, this young man embodied it with his actions.
Facing that brilliance, Pungjeong Nokwon raised his own fist.
"Fine. One hundred seconds."
"Pardon?"
"Land an effective hit on me within a hundred seconds. If you do, I'll forget my grudge against the Heavenly Demon that very day."
Shihanbu's eyes widened at those words.
He said,
"Could you make it two hundred seconds?"
"No."
With that firm refusal, Pungjeong Nokwon beckoned with his hand.
Seeing it, Shihanbu took a deep breath and charged.
Watching the rush, Pungjeong Nokwon clicked his tongue.
"Truly an unpredictable madman."
With that much internal energy built up, yet no basic footwork—just a wild charge.
But his clenched fist and stance brimmed with skill.
"If a guy like that piles up what's missing..."
Could the world even stop him?
That question arose just then.
Whoosh—
Shihanbu swung his fist.
Pungjeong Nokwon swung his in response.
But no internal energy rode his punch.
He didn't want to kill this likable young man before him.
It was merely a fist to break his will.
But Pungjeong Nokwon was certain.
The moment their fists collided, Shihanbu would fly back.
He himself possessed the perfect musculature of the Heavenly Strong Body.
"Sleep for a bit."
The moment their fists met as he said that.
Crack—
A gale whipped up, shrouding the area in sand and dust.
Within that dust, Pungjeong Nokwon's pupils shook violently.
Shihanbu.
He stood firm without budging an inch.
"Y-You... Heavenly Strong Body?"
Shihanbu's eyes widened at those words.
"How did you know?"
Pungjeong Nokwon lowered his fist at the reply.
Shattering Heaven Fist, an art only the Heavenly Strong Body could learn.
The successor he was certain he couldn't find in his remaining lifespan.
Was standing right before him.
"I'll take you as my disciple."
The moment those words rang out,
the spectators who had been watching erupted in cheers.
"Pungjeong Nokwon! The righteous giant is taking that man as his disciple?"
"He earned recognition with just one punch?!"
"Incredible! A true genius has appeared!"
For him to accept a disciple held immense significance.
And amid those praises, Shihanbu scratched the back of his head and said,
"Uh... No thanks."
In that instant, the air around them turned ice-cold.
***
Sitting beside the Heavenly Demon, I let out a long, deep sigh.
The reason was all too simple.
"Wh-Why refuse?! Others beg and plead for such a fateful encounter, but it's denied!"
It was because of the old man right next to me, loudly advertising it as a fateful opportunity.
Pungjeong Nokwon was whining like a child.
I sighed once more as I looked at him.
"...Now even old men are getting obsessed, on top of elves."
The thought that it was truly creepy was fleeting.
I examined his body closely.
Specifically, his crushed left arm and left leg.
I could tell at a glance.
That body crumbling from the inside.
It was the rupture signal of the Heavenly Strong Body.
...And my future as well.
And when I fought the Heavenly Demon, I'd heard it.
The sound of his bones shattering from within every time he unleashed his arts.
Shattering Heaven Fist.
It was an external art that pushed the Heavenly Strong Body to its extremes, hastening destruction.
"Heh heh. You've figured it out, huh? Yes, exactly."
I grimaced at Pungjeong Nokwon readily admitting it.
"And you want me to learn something like that?"
He chuckled and shook his head at my words.
"You know one but not two."
"What?"
"If it carries that much risk, surely there's a way to handle it, right? Didn't that occur to you?"
There was a treatment for the Heavenly Strong Body.
My eyes widened as I stared at him.
But I soon sighed.
If there was a treatment, his body wouldn't be in that state.
"You're bluffing... Huh?"
Mid-sentence, I widened my eyes in shock.
Empty air.
Suddenly, a woman appeared there.
"Heok! Heok heok!"
A white-haired woman appeared, gasping for breath.
She glanced around wildly, then
"Th-There he is!"
shouted and charged toward me.
As I sensed something ominous in her eyes and tried to back away,
Pinch—
a cold sensation touched my cheek.
In the blink of an eye, she'd closed the distance and was touching my cheek.
"R-Real... I can touch it... touch it."