The Thunder Dragon Eccentric Hero
The initiation ritual in Luoyang was, true to its name, strictly based on fair and honorable one-on-one duels. Though a crowd had swarmed in, there was no need to fight them all. A group assault under the pretense of an initiation? Oh, how lamentable. The sacred laws of the martial world had truly fallen to the ground! After such a sigh, the Murim Alliance warriors who would judge the offenders were as common as weeds in Luoyang. They had risen from their dantian with a powerful, resonant shout.
While Cheok Mu-hong and Geumsin were engaged in their duel, the warriors who had rushed forward claiming they would administer the initiation began fiercely competing among themselves for the remaining spots in line.
“This is Luoyang. The City of Martial Fragrance. We can’t just let some unknown drifters run wild here.”
“Even among rogues, there are rules. Anyone who looks down on their seniors… we have to teach them a lesson.”
“Exactly! So only step forward if you’re confident you can win!”
The sharp words came from a female rogue who had shouted in irritation. Though it was a frustrated outburst, every person gathered there agreed with her completely. If she had used a transmission technique it might have been different, but since she lacked the skill to send one to multiple people at once, their entire discussion was overheard without missing a single word.
They thought they had been careful, even using minor tricks like ventriloquism, but that was simply underestimating Namgung Woo’s abilities.
‘I knew from the moment they started talking about the younger generation, but they’re even more careless than I thought.’
If this was the average level in Luoyang, a place even called the City of Martial Fragrance, it was somewhat disappointing. Younger generation? Not everyone who surpassed the Peak Realm in their twenties was considered part of the same younger generation. Those who had surpassed even the Peak Realm before reaching twenty were no longer part of the younger generation—they were recognized as supreme experts of the martial world. If even Transcendent Realm experts were treated that way, then for Namgung Woo, who had reached an unparalleled realm, the title of “younger generation expert” was not an honor but an insult.
Knowing the ecology of the martial world better than anyone, Paeng Ha-ryeong showed stronger determination than anyone as she asked Namgung Woo a favor.
“Gaga, please let me go next.”
Originally, she had wanted to go from the very beginning. But before she could even speak, Namgung Woo had already sent out Geumsin, so she had missed her chance. People were watching. Once Namgung Woo had given an order, she couldn’t very well ask him to reverse it and send her instead. Still, Paeng Ha-ryeong had no intention of missing the second opportunity.
“Alright. I’ll leave the second match to you, Ha-ryeong.”
“Yes! Trust me!”
Namgung Woo thought that Paeng Ha-ryeong wasn’t just cute—she also had a rather cunning side. The fact that she hadn’t used a transmission technique was probably a sly scheme to make sure he would send her out.
“Next is Dohui, then.”
“I know a bit about the Paeng Family’s Blade Princess. We fought together during last year’s closed-door training. She was at the early stage of the Peak Realm back then. She must have grown through the Dream of the Cloudy Sea, but even so, she’d probably only be at the middle stage.”
“It would be a mistake to think of her as an ordinary younger generation expert. She experienced nearly a month of war. Consider her to have abundant real combat experience.”
“Don’t worry. I already know that.”
In that manner, they put together their own list of matchups. Who would face Paeng Ha-ryeong, who would face the Yang brothers, who would face Myo-rin. Their judgments, made as if playing a game of baduk or janggi, were utterly shattered.
“No way! At that age, how can his internal energy be…!”
The man who had confidently stepped forward claiming he could defeat Paeng Ha-ryeong turned pale at the qi threads she unleashed and immediately admitted defeat.
“Kuk… the difference in swordsmanship…”
The opponent who faced Yang Jeong possessed superior internal energy cultivation, yet he fell to the counterattack of the Thirteen Thunder Swords and dropped his blade.
“Ah! This duel is so damn dirty!”
Yang Kvae’s opponent charged in from the very start, but he couldn’t even show his true ability against Yang Kvae’s insane aggression that refused to yield the initiative.
“Sorcery! It’s sorcery!”
Myo-rin’s opponent, apparently unfamiliar with spellcasting, was helplessly defeated by her techniques and could only repeatedly shout that it was sorcery.
Five duels. Every single victory went to the Changcheon Squad. Not one loss.
The original justification for Luoyang’s initiation ritual—‘You may have lived thinking highly of yourselves in your little backwater, but the City of Martial Fragrance is on a different level. I will teach you the reality that the world is wide and you are nothing but a frog in a well’—had become completely meaningless.
With that, the confidence of those who had boldly gathered began to crumble. Geumsin, who stood at the threshold of the Transcendent Realm, Paeng Ha-ryeong who closely followed him, and Myo-rin who wielded both spells and martial arts could perhaps be excused. Geumsin had even shown a close, back-and-forth battle with Cheok Mu-hong worthy of an initiation ritual. That much was acceptable. Paeng Ha-ryeong and Myo-rin could somehow be rationalized as well. One could insist that Paeng Ha-ryeong hadn’t fought properly out of fear of the Hebei Paeng Family’s name (ignoring the fact that she had clearly announced at the start that she was Paeng Ha-ryeong of the Changcheon Squad, not the Hebei Paeng Family), and Myo-rin’s victory could be dismissed as a cowardly win through sorcery.
But losing to the Yang twins left absolutely no room for excuses. They let their guard down? Their opponents fought dirty? After gathering under the pretense of upholding the rogue’s code to administer the initiation, who would they be shaming by now calling the opponents un-rogue-like?
‘They’re the real deal… these guys are the real thing…’
‘So the rumors weren’t empty after all…’
If even the members of the Changcheon Squad were this strong, then their leader Namgung Woo—the protagonist of those absurd rumors they had dismissed as nonsense—must be…
As their thoughts reached that point, a belated fear began to rise. Those who had gathered to steal fame from the Changcheon Squad and Namgung Woo through this initiation ritual started quietly glancing around and slowly retreating. It was embarrassing, but pulling back was better than forcing themselves to stay. If they stepped up to give Namgung Woo his initiation and couldn’t even endure a single move, there would be no greater humiliation. Running away now would mean enduring mockery and contempt for a while. But if they stepped forward and ended up looking like they couldn’t handle even one move, they would no longer be able to show their faces in Luoyang.
“Ahem, our side has already gone once. It would be proper etiquette to yield our turn.”
“Our leader Cheok already went out, so why are you sending our side again?”
The sight of them pushing the role of Namgung Woo’s opponent onto each other with various excuses quickly cooled the heated atmosphere. They had charged in so arrogantly only to tuck their tails between their legs. Even the common folk who had been betting on the matches began booing loudly.
It was then.
Pushing through the gathered crowd, a man stepped onto the training ground.
“How about you and I have a match, Changcheon Squad Leader?”
A long robe worn over blue martial attire. On the fluttering robe, beside the character for “Alliance,” the characters for were embroidered on his chest. It was the uniform and embroidery that identified him as a member of the Jinroe Squad, one of the direct combat units under the Murim Alliance—the Eight Position Groups.
Since the Murim Alliance distinguished affiliation by the color of clothing, there was no need to write the unit name. The fact that he had still embroidered the name on his clothes meant that this man was the representative of that unit.
In other words—
“The Jinroe Squad Leader?”
“The Thunder Dragon Eccentric Hero, Deung Jong-yu…!”
“A unit leader from the Murim Alliance has stepped forward… this won’t end easily. Everyone, step back!”
The eight unit leaders who symbolized the Murim Alliance’s military power. Though the Alliance Leader and the Council of Elders stood above them, they were the final bastions protecting the Murim Alliance. And while the Alliance Leader was one thing, the elders of the Council were not all that different from the unit leaders in strength. In terms of pure martial prowess alone, there were actually more people who placed the unit leaders higher.
Namgung Woo did not avoid Deung Jong-yu’s gaze as the man stared directly at him from atop the training ground. The moment Namgung Woo also stepped onto the training ground, the spectators let out exclamations and the previously chilled atmosphere fiercely reignited.
“I’ve been wanting to meet you once.”
Namgung Woo immediately understood the meaning behind Deung Jong-yu’s words.
“Because there are few warriors who have mastered the Thunder Arts, is that it?”
“As expected. You understand. I’ve heard that the refined sword techniques used to defeat the Five Yin Demon Emperor are different from thunder qi, but it is still well known that you train in supreme thunder qi martial arts. Those brothers must have learned from you as well.”
There were many martial arts that attempted to handle thunder qi by envisioning lightning. However, thunder qi was an extremely difficult power to control. More than seventy percent were failures that couldn’t even produce proper thunder qi, another twenty percent were half-baked techniques that could only clumsily manipulate thunder qi without displaying true power, and only about ten percent could be called martial arts that properly handled thunder qi.
And even learning such arts came with problems—thunder qi was a power that could easily leave one crippled if mishandled. There were rare cases of people overcoming physical disabilities through thunder qi arts, but they were only tiny exceptions.
For these reasons, those who had reached the level of masters through thunder qi martial arts were extremely rare. So rare that until now, Deung Jong-yu had never seen anyone with superior thunder qi arts than himself.
“I would like to receive your guidance.”
“I will gladly accept.”
Treating a unit leader of the Murim Alliance—a universally acknowledged supreme expert—as a clear inferior. Namgung Woo’s demeanor was gradually beginning to resemble that of an unparalleled master.
Crack!
A flash of light burst forth. From which side? It had been too fast for most to see, but the few who had witnessed it thought the same thing. It was simultaneous. However, those with even sharper eye techniques would add another testimony—that Namgung Woo had been faster.
Right after the first flash.
BOOM!
With a powerful stomp that shattered the training ground floor, both figures vanished. Blue lightning and platinum lightning flickered across the training ground.