Chapter 66
Chapter 66
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: Settling the Cave
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Seop Dae-gang slowly turned around.
Blood dripped from the tip of his sword, hanging limply downward. It was clearly the blood that had stained it when he slashed Snow Mountain Old Man's chest earlier.
He approached Heuk Do-san first.
"You idiot! If you're going to negotiate, do it right. That mad old coot is using you to kill us all. Once he recovers from his injuries, he'll come after you next, mark my words!"
"You were all going to die by my hand after I retrieved the manual anyway. The order just changed a bit. And I'll handle my own life."
"What about Mo Yong-ak and Hong Gong-tak? One's your fiancée, and the other's sworn lifelong loyalty to you as their lord. Are you going to kill them too just to get your hands on some demonic arts?"
"It's not just any demonic arts. It's Heavenly."
"And if you don't get the manual?"
"Then the old man dies by my hand."
"You fool. Look at him now. He's so old he could drop dead any second, and you think he's afraid of death?"
"Does he have any reason not to hand over the manual? Or do you think you're the only one qualified to learn the Hundred Thousand Great Heaven Palm?"
"I'm telling you not to trust everything that mad old man says!"
"You talk too much."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than Seop Dae-gang swung his sword. Heuk Do-san, who had anticipated the attack, urgently shoved Bing-seol aside and rolled to the side.
Thud!
The sword plunged into the ground, sending sand exploding outward like a burst. In that moment, Heuk Do-san rolled several zhang using the Naryeotagon technique, then shot up like lightning.
Iron staffs were already gripped in both hands—he had snatched them up while rolling on the ground. Flames blazed fiercely in his eyes.
Bing-seol was startled.
'His whole body should feel like it's being crushed right now... how?'
Seop Dae-gang said,
"You think you can handle me in that state?"
"I've got enough left in me to take you down."
Bang!
Heuk Do-san shot forward. His movement was like a gale wind.
Seop Dae-gang swung his sword with full force as well.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
Five exchanges, fast and furious.
Heuk Do-san hammered at Seop Dae-gang's vital points with strokes that were gale-fast and beast-cruel.
Seop Dae-gang countered with swift, powerful techniques of his own. The air in the stone chamber churned from the wind pressure of sword and staffs clashing. The flame in the lamp flickered as if about to go out.
Unlike Heuk Do-san's merciless barrage, Seop Dae-gang was swept by bewilderment. Each clash with the enemy's staffs sent a bolt of lightning surging through his wrist.
The timing was exquisitely perfect.
It was no hidden energy the foe was sending. At the moment of clash, it was purely his own internal energy rebounding back at him.
'What the...!'
Casting aside any underestimation, Seop Dae-gang unleashed the killing techniques of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship one after another. The air tore with sharp cracks as sword winds raged.
But for some reason, before the storm of twin iron staffs, the killing blows of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship failed to unleash their full power.
Strokes aimed at vitals were repeatedly blocked, and feints meant to disrupt were pierced by the dense staff barrier.
It wasn't just because the enemy's techniques were so chaotic and unpredictable. Each resounding clash of sword and staff made his own rebounding energy hinder his swift chaining of moves.
He had fought countless experts before, but this was a first. It felt like he was fighting his own internal energy.
'I can't unleash a proper attack!'
Surely, those iron staffs the enemy wielded held some special property. He had thought they were mere bamboo-like rods, but apparently not.
In the end, Seop Dae-gang retreated several steps. His initial onslaught was gone; now he was merely scrambling to defend.
Meanwhile, Heuk Do-san couldn't hide his puzzlement.
He knew Seop Dae-gang's condition wasn't normal after taking Snow Mountain Old Man's palm strike. Of course, he himself was fighting through pain with desperate resolve, but he hadn't expected the man to fall back so feebly.
At that moment, Snow Mountain Old Man shouted.
"Conserve your internal energy and use external power!"
Seop Dae-gang was going mad.
He was an internal expert who had cultivated his inner power.
Plum Blossom Swordsmanship only revealed its true might when internal energy was infused into the strokes against an enemy. And now, to withhold internal energy and rely on external power?
Meanwhile, Heuk Do-san was dumbfounded.
Snow Mountain Old Man seemed to have given advice to the beleaguered Seop Dae-gang, but it only favored him.
Pure muscular force infused with instantaneous Explosive Strength—that was his specialty, wasn't it?
'What the hell is going on?'
He didn't know how the situation was unfolding, but Seop Dae-gang seemed to accept Snow Mountain Old Man's advice.
"Die!"
He suddenly changed his sword path and swung like a gale. The heavy strokes became incomparably light and swift. He intended to win with technique alone, without internal energy.
The strokes of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship were indeed exquisite; Heuk Do-san felt his vision swimming. He swung his staffs wildly, but they glanced off at angles or struck empty air.
In the blink of an eye, sword strokes pierced his guard, slicing his clothes with shredding sounds. It was as if a wheel armed with multiple blades was spinning ferociously toward him.
'Damn!'
Unable to withstand the momentum, Heuk Do-san retreated a full five steps. Glancing down amid the chaos, his chest was tattered. He had narrowly avoided flesh wounds, but it had been close to turning him into rags.
'As expected of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship!'
The problem was Seop Dae-gang's assault wasn't over. Seizing the advantage, he pressed with even more explosive attacks.
Sword strokes he had never seen before unfolded before his eyes. Block one, and it vanished; thrust, and it appeared sliding along his staff. The sword gleams bursting point by point resembled petals scattering in the wind.
'Sword Flowers!'
The mysterious blossoms said to form at the sword tip when Plum Blossom Swordsmanship reached a certain realm.
He had to admit it: even without internal energy, Plum Blossom Swordsmanship was plenty threatening.
But that was as far as it went.
Heuk Do-san knew exactly how to handle this kind of fight: turn the opponent's strength and speed against them. The only issue was staking his life on it.
"Seop Dae-gang, let's end this!"
Heuk Do-san stepped forward boldly, thrusting his left staff deep into the whirlwind of Seop Dae-gang's sword zone.
The heavy iron staff entangled in the swirling blade, producing a deafening roar that tore at the eardrums.
Ding-ding-ding-dang!
Strokes without internal energy were light. In contrast, Heuk Do-san's iron staffs were solid metal—heavy as could be.
The clash of light sword and heavy staffs.
The result was the staffs' victory. Seop Dae-gang's sword, swung with full power, couldn't resist and shook wildly.
Then, Heuk Do-san smashed his right staff ferociously against the sword blade.
Clang!
Amid fierce sparks, Seop Dae-gang's sword flew outward. In that instant, his chest lay wide open. Heuk Do-san didn't miss it, slamming his shoulder into the man's chest.
Thud!
Unable to withstand the heavy impact, Seop Dae-gang unwittingly staggered back. Heuk Do-san gave him no chance to recover his blade, sticking like glue.
At the same time, he unleashed a barrage of twin staffs.
Thwack! Thwack-thwack! Thwack-thwack-thwack!
Left staff crushed the right shoulder, right staff struck the left flank. Left to the right flank, right to the left temple. Left hammered the right thigh, right snapped the left ribs.
All of it unfolded as if in a single motion.
"St-stop!"
Seop Dae-gang flailed his arms and retreated.
Before the downpour of iron clubs, even the Volcanic Sect's prodigy, heir to Plum Blossom Swordsmanship, was merely human.
But Heuk Do-san pursued relentlessly, battering away.
Thwack! Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Even in his panic, Seop Dae-gang tried to shield his head with both hands. It was the instinctive reaction not of a warrior, but of an ordinary man.
Yet Heuk Do-san permitted even that no mercy.
"You're not worth the beating!"
A heavy rebound jolted through the iron staff as it smashed Seop Dae-gang's arms and wrists. As an expert, Heuk Do-san knew it was the echo of fractures.
The clubs kept falling even on the broken wrists, then pounded the skull.
Thud-thud! Clang-clang!
After the clamor rang out for a while, Heuk Do-san abruptly switched, smashing the left shin.
Crack!
With a crisp snap, Seop Dae-gang's shin broke clean off. Jagged bone pierced flesh, blood spraying everywhere. His sturdy body toppled like rotten timber.
Thud!
Seop Dae-gang sprawled in a pitiful mess. His head bled profusely from who knew how many blows, both arms twisted like snapped chopsticks.
Flanks and thighs likely bore fractures too, though not immediately visible.
In a word, only his limbs still attached him to life like a corpse. Even then, his labored breathing showed a tenaciously tough thread of fate.
Seop Dae-gang wasn't the only wretched sight.
Clang. Clang.
"Ow, I'm dying."
Heuk Do-san tossed the iron staffs aside and flopped onto the sand in a spread-eagle. Before the aftershocks of Snow Mountain Old Man's palm fully faded, he had overexerted himself, and now indescribable agony crashed in.
Every vein felt burst, every muscle torn—no spot unscathed.
"Heuk Young Master!"
Bing-seol rushed over, calling urgently. Heuk Do-san waved her off with one hand.
"Urk!"
A gush of blood spewed from his mouth—not ordinary vomit, but spraying in all directions.
Something clogged inside had burst all at once, a dire mishap. Still, vomiting blood brought some relief to his gut. Instead, Bing-seol was drenched head to toe unwittingly.
But she ignored it, kneeling beside him, rolling her eyes back to check his pulse and fussing about.
Snow Mountain Old Man glared wide-eyed.
He didn't know who True Yang Daoist was.
But as Volcanic Sect Leader, he was surely a master of profound attainment. Moreover, the sword techniques that Seop Dae-gang fellow had just used were unmistakably Plum Blossom Swordsmanship.
For True Yang Daoist's disciple—no, an inheritor of Plum Blossom Swordsmanship—to fall so pathetically?
'No, more than that—a mere mercenary grizzled from battlefields beats a Volcanic sword expert like a stray dog?'
True, the staffs he wielded hid some ability unknown to the martial world. But to wield it properly required unique internal energy circulation.
Yet the man had pulled it off.
'Where did this monster come from?'
"Young Master Heuk has internal injuries."
Bing-seol said.
"I know."
"This time it's serious."
"Feels like my guts are snapping already."
"This isn't the time for jokes."
"You think I'm joking right now?"
Bing-seol's face fell grim. After a pause, she said,
"I know this isn't the moment, but I have to say it now. I meant to earlier but couldn't bring myself to."
"What is it? Stop dragging it out."
"Today, Young Master Heuk stands at a fateful crossroads. Your choice will decide your remaining destiny. I don't know about the other path, but one led to darkness."
"Darkness?"
"In my prophetic dreams, darkness means death."
"You... saw my death?"
"Yes."
"......!"
Heuk Do-san was dealt no small shock. So that's why she held back. If she decided not to speak, she should have kept silent to the end—why drop this terrifying bombshell now?