Monopolizing Fortunes (105)
Monopolizing Fortunes (105)
Do Tong-dal's group was close enough to reach out and touch him, but Wang Du-sik paid the distance no mind.
Won Dae-yeon looked at Wang Du-sik with pity.
"You could've just taken a few hits and been done with it. Tsk, tsk, tsk...."
Namgung Seol-rin's voice followed the tongue-clicking.
"Looks like he's about to find out what it's like to be beaten like a dog on the hottest day of summer."
Won Dae-yeon chimed in as well.
"Since ancient times, you don't touch a man's wife's hair or a tiger's nose hairs."
"What nonsense are you all spouting?"
When everyone's eyes turned to Do Tong-dal, Wang Du-sik looked at him too. Do Tong-dal raised his upper body. Then he slowly stood up.
"This hurts worse than getting hit by a Southern Barbarians giant ape."
"Huh? You're alive?"
"I've gotten a taste of your fists. Now let's see how good your endurance is."
As Do Tong-dal approached, Won Dae-yeon backed away and pulled Hwangmi Dal with him.
"Coordinator Do looks angry, so let's get out of the way."
"If I get cursed at by a man with his eyes rolled back, I'm the only one who loses."
Hwangmi Dal also readily gave them space.
"As for me, I'd rather hit him two or three times than send him off with one! Bwahahaha!"
Wang Du-sik kicked off the ground and swung his fist at the flying Do Tong-dal. It was fast. He had clearly trained in martial arts. But it wasn't fast enough to hit Do Tong-dal. That first hit had been purely due to surprise.
Spinning sideways in midair to let the punch slip past, Do Tong-dal's instep struck Wang Du-sik's face.
Just before the hit, Do Tong-dal thought, 'He isn't going to die in one blow, is he?' But the sensation against his instep told him it had been a needless worry.
Bam!
The impact was thunderous. It felt like striking a boulder. Wang Du-sik, hit by Do Tong-dal, staggered three steps sideways before righting his stance.
Even a first-rate master of the martial world would have been at least gravely injured by that single strike.
Crack!
As Wang Du-sik rolled his neck from side to side, the sound of bones shifting could be heard.
"You're pretty good at this."
Bae Dol-seok's claim that he was like an indestructible vajra body was no empty talk after all.
"You've got a satisfying feel to hit, too."
"That much won't even come close!"
Wang Du-sik charged again. His speed was far greater than the first two times. Do Tong-dal ducked to avoid the attack, then slipped into Wang Du-sik's guard.
He struck the thigh with his knee, then kicked the shin again. Wang Du-sik, his face twisting, burst out with a shout of "You little rat!" and tried to grab Do Tong-dal, but he had already circled behind him.
Do Tong-dal kicked his side, then struck Wang Du-sik's stomach and chest in succession as he turned. Do Tong-dal's Heavenly Shadow Flash Kick pounded Wang Du-sik's entire body without pause.
'Is that spot hard too?'
He couldn't contain his curiosity. So he kicked him in the groin.
"Gah! You son of a bitch! No matter how dirty a thug you are, this is too much!"
Even after a fairly strong impact, Wang Du-sik did not fall.
"Impressive. Even that spot is hard."
"Keep hitting me with those weak little blows all you want! See if I go down! If I land just one hit, you're finished!"
But that one hit never landed. No matter how fast Wang Du-sik attacked, Do Tong-dal slipped through his fingers like water and could not be hit.
Meanwhile, the damage to Wang Du-sik steadily accumulated. He had called them soft blows, but they were anything but.
The pain that reached his bones was a shock unlike anything he had felt before. This was absolutely not the martial arts of some thug.
Wang Du-sik's movements gradually slowed, and his breathing grew ragged. If his clothes were stripped off, he would surely be covered in bruises as if doused in blue dye.
"Huff, huff! Running away... you're a rat through and through, you fucking bastard."
"Your nose is bleeding, so doesn't that mean you lost?"
At Do Tong-dal's words, Wang Du-sik wiped under his nose with the back of his hand. The sight of his own blood, vivid and clear, was unfamiliar.
It was the first blood he had seen in five years.
"You're dead! You little shit!"
But Wang Du-sik did not have the skill to kill Do Tong-dal. After swinging his limbs at empty air a few times and taking a dozen more hits, one knee finally touched the ground.
"How about surrendering about now?"
"Fuck off!"
Do Tong-dal slowly approached Wang Du-sik as he forced himself back up.
"Then think it over again after you wake up."
Crash!
Wang Du-sik's head snapped around from Do Tong-dal's kick, and he spun twice before slamming into the ground. And he did not get back up.
Bae Dol-seok, who had watched the entire fight, could not believe it. Wang Du-sik, defeated! Something he had believed could never happen in his lifetime had occurred.
The rumors about Do Tong-dal had not been exaggerated—they had been understated. They said he was at the level of a first-rate martial-arts master, but he wasn't merely first-rate; he was top-tier.
'It wouldn't be a bad thing to put myself under someone like that.'
Just as Bae Dol-seok was thinking that, Hwangmi Dal's tongue-clicking could be heard.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... catching a single punk like that, and you're beating him like a dog on the hottest day of summer. With such weak kicking arts, well...."
"I was going easy on him because I was afraid he'd die!"
"From what I saw, you seemed to be putting in your full strength. Your feet hurt, don't they?"
Do Tong-dal flinched.
'That old man's sharp, I swear.'
Hwangmi Dal shook his head and spoke.
"Su-ran said your martial arts were strong, so I had slight expectations, but honestly...."
"I'm telling you, I was going easy because I was afraid he'd die! Hey! You!"
The thug in his early twenties who had been singled out was startled.
"M-me?"
"Go bring a bucket of water!"
The thug dashed into the pleasure house and returned with a large bucket of water.
"Wake that bastard up."
Wang Du-sik only came to his senses after being doused with water three times. As Wang Du-sik bolted upright, Do Tong-dal asked him.
"Are you going to come under me or not?"
"Don't talk shit!"
Do Tong-dal's instep slammed into the cheek of Wang Du-sik as he stood up shouting. This time, he lost consciousness from a single blow.
"See?"
"Showing off because you knocked out a guy who was already in tatters."
"Ugh... I shouldn't talk to that old man."
Wang Du-sik was doused with water again and came to. This time, he had become docile.
It was because, after losing consciousness twice, he had acknowledged that Do Tong-dal was a superior martial artist.
"Boss!"
Once he acknowledged it, the title "boss" came out naturally. Cleanly accepting defeat was an essential virtue for an Underworld thug.
Watching Wang Du-sik kneel, Do Tong-dal let out a sigh of relief inwardly. If he had hit that guy much more, his own feet wouldn't have survived.
"So now you're willing to come under me?"
"If there's an Underworld thug stronger than me, then of course I should go under him!"
"He's got a fiery personality. I like it."
Namgung Seol-rin spoke.
"Still, he probably needs to fix that temper of his."
Wang Du-sik snapped at Namgung Seol-rin.
"Men are talking here—what's a girl butting in for!"
None of Do Tong-dal's group stopped Namgung Seol-rin. Better for Wang Du-sik to get hit and go up in flames than for the sparks to land on themselves.
"You son of a bitch!"
Thwack!
Namgung Seol-rin's kick to Wang Du-sik's jaw was by no means weaker than Do Tong-dal's strike.
Only after having five buckets of water dumped on him did Wang Du-sik come to his senses, and he immediately threw himself flat on the ground.
"Sis, I'm sorry."
"I've never taken an old-looking punk like you as a little brother! And I don't want to!"
"I may look a bit weathered, but I'm not that old. Heh-heh!"
"How old are you?"
"Eighteen."
Everyone present wore stunned expressions. Thick eyebrows, and fine wrinkles visible around his large eyes.
A man with that stiff beard covering the area around his mouth was eighteen?
"Th-that's a joke, right?"
"It's true. Here's my identity tag."
Namgung Seol-rin checked the identity tag, but she still couldn't believe it.
"How do you live to end up with that face at eighteen?"
"Heh-heh! I've lived a bit rough."
Namgung Seol-rin was feeling pity when Do Tong-dal suddenly smacked the back of Wang Du-sik's head.
"You little shit! An eighteen-year-old kid living in a pleasure house!"
"Ow! Ouch! You're allowed to go to a pleasure house at eighteen!"
"Is going occasionally the same as living there! That's why your bones aged and your face ended up like that!"
Namgung Seol-rin spoke.
"You went to pleasure houses at eighteen too."
"I just went occasionally...."
"Didn't you seduce the pleasure house owner and practically live there?"
Wang Du-sik stared at Do Tong-dal with envious eyes.
"Ooh! As expected of you, boss—you're extraordinary in every way."
"Don't look at me like that!"
Won Dae-yeon asked Wang Du-sik.
"That martial art you've trained in—is it the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art?"
"Hey, old-timer. What's it to you if you know that?"
Crash!
Half a ke later, Wang Du-sik, drenched in water, knelt before Won Dae-yeon.
"Yes, that's right. But how did you know?"
"It didn't seem like an external art like Iron Shirt, and as far as I know there are three martial arts that strengthen the body with Internal Energy—it looked like the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art."
According to Wang Du-sik, when he was six years old, a master he met had practically dragged him off by force and made him learn the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art.
"He said my frame and bones were perfectly suited for learning the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art."
He trained in the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art for ten years like that, and then his master up and died. A sixteen-year-old boy who had done nothing but train in martial arts to the death since age six was thrown into the world alone.
"I thought about becoming a martial artist, but from what I could see, it seemed like nothing but hardship."
"You became a thug because you didn't want to suffer?"
"If you're strong enough, you can eat and drink every day and live comfortably. Heh-heh!"
Do Tong-dal patted the head of the grinning Wang Du-sik.
"Smart kid."
Hwangmi Dal spoke.
"He's an idiot. If he refined the Vajra Body-Acquisition Art to the twelfth level and learned a decent fist art, he could easily make his name resound across the world."
Wang Du-sik's eyebrows shot up.
"What's the old man to call me an idiot?"
"Why, you little—!"
Smack—!
It was only a slap to the cheek. But Wang Du-sik went flying far away, smashed through the pleasure house wall, and tumbled inside.
Do Tong-dal shouted.
"Why are you beating up an innocent kid?"
"He's got no manners! No manners!"
"He's a thug acting like a thug!"
"That's the problem! The Vajra Body-Acquisition Art is a peerless martial art, one of the top three internal methods for strengthening the body, and he learned that and is just a thug!"
"He got beaten by a thug like me, so it can't be that great a martial art!"
"That's because he hasn't properly refined it!"
"Even if he properly refined it, it probably still wouldn't work."
"What do you mean it wouldn't work! If he trains properly under me for just six months, a punk like you would be one-punch material!"
"Six months?"
"Yes! Six months!"
"Fine! If you take that guy with you and make him stronger than me within six months, I'll wipe out the interest on the money I lent you, and even the principal!"
"Deal! Absolutely no take-backs!"
"Breaking promises is your specialty, old man!"
"I didn't break any promise!"
"Anyway, if you break your promise this time, I'll spread the word all over the martial world! I'm close with the Hao Sect!"
"Get ready to have your nose flattened in six months!"
While Wang Du-sik was unconscious, the two of them decided his fate as they pleased.
"Huh? I... I'm going with the old man...."
"Why, you little...."
"Ah, no, I'm sorry!"
Wang Du-sik had no choice but to flatten himself on the ground. In his entire life, he had never been hit that painfully. If a slap to the ear was that bad, a punch would have killed him for sure.
"You've heard of the Northern Unorthodox Alliance, right?"
At Do Tong-dal's question, Wang Du-sik nodded.
"Yes. You'd have to be an idiot not to know it."
"That old man is its leader."
"What? Hic!"
Do Tong-dal patted Wang Du-sik's head.
"Go, learn well for six months, and come back."
Hwangmi Dal spoke as if growling.
"If you don't become stronger than that punk within six months, you die by my hand."
"Hic!"
Nothing but hiccups came out. He just wanted to keep being a thug here, but judging by Hwangmi Dal's mood, if he said that, a fist would come flying instead of a slap.
The subjugation(?) of Yuhang ended like that. Hwangmi Dal, leaving with Wang Du-sik in tow, felt vaguely uneasy.
'Somehow I feel like that guy tricked me.'
As words were exchanged, he had abruptly promised to make Wang Du-sik stronger than Do Tong-dal within six months. Somehow, it had ended up being decided that way.
* * *