Chapter 53
Chapter 53
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 53
Chapter Title: Ferocious Beasts 2
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Iron Blood Gang Leader Gwan Min-gang.
The man who stood at the pinnacle of the Iron Blood Gang with a single great axe said to stir up a bloody wind.
He had recognized Baek Moo-jin.
It was inevitable. He had received reports that Baek Moo-jin had killed Mak So-gwang and Ban Go-yeong, and was even involved in the death of his deputy leader, Yoo Ja-eon.
In short, Baek Moo-jin was the man at the top of the Iron Blood Gang's hit list. But because the reports indicated his skills were far from ordinary, Gwan Min-gang intended to kill him personally. With the deputy leader Yoo Ja-eon dead, sending someone else would be laughable. In any case, Gwan Min-gang acknowledged Baek Moo-jin as a powerhouse worthy of facing him one-on-one.
Without a moment's hesitation, Baek Moo-jin leaped from the ramparts.
He traced a meteor-like arc through the sky, and upon landing, he deliberately unleashed a burst of pure white chill in all directions.
Tssseueueueu...
As the eerie sound accompanied the spreading chill, Baek Moo-jin's presence swelled to rival that of the Iron Blood Gang Leader himself.
This was both a warning not to interfere and a show of force declaring that even charging in would be futile.
The Iron Blood Gang Leader's personal guards stood motionless even as the North Heaven Alliance forces retreated, intent on protecting their leader. But the moment Baek Moo-jin arrived, a chill ran through their entire bodies. As Baek Moo-jin approached the lined-up guards with a tense expression, an order came from behind.
"Clear a path."
Only then did the guards split to either side, opening a way for Baek Moo-jin.
Both the Iron Blood Gang Leader who had summoned him here and Baek Moo-jin who had come alone at the call seemed anything but normal.
And so, for a moment, Baek Moo-jin and Gwan Min-gang faced each other with the guards lined up on either side. Gwan Min-gang rolled his shoulder—the one gripping the great axe—with a series of cracks.
Though a fair distance separated them, the Iron Blood Gang Leader suddenly shot into the air without a word.
Leaping over the guards between them in a single bound, he swung the raised great axe down toward Baek Moo-jin's head.
Baek Moo-jin drew his White Mist Sword with a sharp whistle and raised it in a simple stance to block the falling axe.
Kaaang!
The piercing metallic clang made the guards on either side grimace. At the same time, Baek Moo-jin's feet sank deep into the ground. But soon, with a cracking sound, the very earth beneath him froze solid.
Yet from the Iron Blood Gang Leader's axe came a chilling scrape of metal on metal. The sword Baek Moo-jin held was slicing into the axe's blade itself. Only then did the Iron Blood Gang Leader realize that the deceptively ordinary white sword was a rare divine weapon among famed blades.
Baek Moo-jin spoke with a still-calm expression.
"Quite the flashy greeting."
In response, the Iron Blood Gang Leader—his face as rigid as Baek Moo-jin's—replied,
"Just happy to meet you."
Then the two pushed their weapons away simultaneously with a surge of power.
Kaang!
But Baek Moo-jin remained standing tall, while the Iron Blood Gang Leader was pushed back, his feet sliding over the rising chill on the ground.
Gwan Min-gang shook out his great axe downward to regain his balance, stopping with a sharp click.
'I can see how Yoo Ja-eon got done in.'
True to their warrior spirits, the two exchanged greetings before, as if by agreement, putting some distance between them and circling like beasts sizing each other up.
After taking a few deliberate steps side to side, the Iron Blood Gang Leader raised his axe and called to his guard captain.
"You lot, fall back to the battlefield. Stick around nearby, and you'll end up dying pointless deaths."
At that, the guard captain glared at Baek Moo-jin for a moment before replying reluctantly to his leader.
"Understood."
The guard captain flicked his robe and started walking, then ordered his men.
"As the Leader commands—to the battlefield."
As the guards passed, they shot Baek Moo-jin brief glares but had no choice except to follow their captain in retreat.
"Such a nuisance."
The Iron Blood Gang Leader prowled like a black tiger, then grew annoyed with his flowing robes, tore open the front around his chest, and tossed them aside. This revealed an upper body as ferocious as the axe he wielded, its muscles bulging menacingly. He was a man who cared nothing for a leader's dignity or decorum.
But stripping like that only made him look even more like a black tiger in Baek Moo-jin's eyes.
Anyone lacking decent skill and courage would find the sight utterly intimidating. Yet in this moment, Baek Moo-jin felt like a hunter facing his prey.
And so, beast met hunter.
Locked in a predator-prey dynamic, the two stared at each other, their moods lifting by the second.
Baek Moo-jin spread both arms wide, as if to say it was time to begin.
His sword pointed right, left palm toward the sky—an unusual stance.
Seeing it, the Iron Blood Gang Leader slung his axe over his shoulder.
This time, Baek Moo-jin planned to strike first. Mimicking Gwan Min-gang's earlier movement, he charged. Closing the gap with a light leap, he brought down his raised White Mist Sword toward the Iron Blood Gang Leader's head.
Kaang!
Now the Iron Blood Gang Leader's feet sank into the earth as if about to be buried. In that instant, he struck the axe's handle with his left palm in a bizarre motion, then shot backward like a ghost.
Baek Moo-jin unleashed White Flower Palm toward the Iron Blood Gang Leader's lower body in midair. A swirling mass of pale chill hurtled forth.
Shwaaaa!
Baek Moo-jin wanted to gauge his opponent's responses. As the Iron Blood Gang Leader retreated, he slashed his axe in an X through the air, scattering the incoming chill in four directions.
Baek Moo-jin nodded and leaped up.
'Worthy of the Iron Blood's leader.'
2.
Landing on the ground, the two clashed sparks flying until Baek Moo-jin channeled chill around his left palm with Cold Moon Finger Technique and flicked it off with thumb and index finger. The motion was so swift it seemed like drawing his sword and hurling a hidden weapon at once.
Kaang! Having deflected Baek Moo-jin's sword, the Iron Blood Gang Leader spun the handle and used the broad blade to bat away the flung chill.
Even as chill met axe blade, a resounding thong! echoed loudly.
Then the Iron Blood Gang Leader let out a shout, switched the axe from right to left hand, spun his body, and aimed for Baek Moo-jin's neck.
Chae... chaeng!
Baek Moo-jin blocked the spinning axe and flicked it away once more, as if severing a thread.
This time, the Iron Blood Gang Leader unleashed palm force straight at Baek Moo-jin's face—like returning the very attack Baek Moo-jin had used.
The Iron Blood Gang Leader's palm strike was no trifle.
Baek Moo-jin hastily dodged with a tilt of his head. The force shot past him into the ground, kicking up dust with a heavy thud.
At the same instant, both charged.
A perilous moment unfolded.
The charging Iron Blood Gang Leader dropped low, sweeping his left leg like a broom across the ground to attack Baek Moo-jin's lower body.
Baek Moo-jin leaped high to evade, and as if waiting, the Iron Blood Gang Leader gripped the axe two-handed, adding the leg sweep's spin to swing upward with intent to cleave him in half.
Startled, Baek Moo-jin thrust his White Mist Sword down to pin it.
Kaaaang!
The ferocious clang rang out as Baek Moo-jin's body soared into the sky.
His raw power clearly outmatched Baek Moo-jin's, but in that split-second clash, the Iron Blood Gang Leader's infused energy gave him a momentary edge.
Yet even airborne, Baek Moo-jin remained composed.
'Feels like I've learned a move.'
But the Iron Blood Gang Leader's assault wasn't over.
In a way, he had planned his prior attacks for this very moment.
Letting his axe arm drop to the ground in a grotesque stance, he prepared the Heaven-Breaking Axe stance.
This was a highly unique attack—the signature technique that earned Iron Blood Gang Leader Gwan Min-gang his Blood Wind Great Axe moniker. Ordinary swordsmen or axemen rarely made throwing their weapon a ultimate technique. But Gwan Min-gang had turned hurling and retrieving his axe into his killing move.
Gwan Min-gang first infused his internal energy into the axe, then swelled his right arm's muscles grotesquely with his brutally trained external arts before hurling it skyward.
Panggrrr...
The axe spun toward Baek Moo-jin in the air, brimming with power, speed, trajectory, and precision. Its spin made deflection difficult, and even if countered, the Iron Blood Gang Leader held the initiative for follow-ups.
But in that moment, Baek Moo-jin's response was extraordinary.
A pure white frost coiled around his extended left hand.
But it differed from usual.
Baek Moo-jin's once-snowy hand was turning transparent like crystal ice.
In other words, he had frozen his own hand solid.
Then, with bold resolve, Baek Moo-jin seized the flying axe's handle. At that instant, paaaak! The frost around his hand shattered.
With a thud, Baek Moo-jin landed, gripping the axe in his left and sword in his right.
Not a scratch on him, yet the Iron Blood Gang Leader stared blankly for a moment.
Even he was at a loss for words.
Considering his subordinates, he should order a retreat now. He had confirmed the gap between them. As the Iron Blood Gang Leader hesitated, something astonishing happened.
Baek Moo-jin tossed the axe in his left hand back to him. The Iron Blood Gang Leader caught his incoming weapon, his face even more shocked than before.
How could he back down now?
Baek Moo-jin offered the Iron Blood Gang Leader a silent smile.
A smile conveying, 'This is what we live for, isn't it?'
Understanding with his heart, the Iron Blood Gang Leader gripped his returned axe. For the first time, a bright smile cracked his rigid face.
Even death by that sword held no regrets now. With that thought, Gwan Min-gang charged at Baek Moo-jin once more.
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