Chapter 128
Chapter 128. Fame (1)
The final day of the preliminaries.
Five days and nights had passed since the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament brilliantly opened its curtain. Though it was only four days, many young masters had poured forth.
In fact, people hadn't placed such great expectations on the preliminaries. With the Rising Stars of the major sects including Three Stars, Five Phoenixes, and Nine Dragons automatically exempted, what could they have greatly expected?
But what do you know?
The worry was merely unfounded.
Who was it that said? If something bursts forth when you're not expecting it, that joy is doubled.
Right now was exactly like that.
Young masters who were completely unexpected suddenly popped out one after another, heating up the tournament like an active volcano.
Newcomers, nameless ones.
Young men who had been hiding who knows where were distinguishing themselves and turning the tournament's direction into complete uncertainty.
Ranking, naming, and thereby creating heroes.
It's what talkative busybodies love to do.
The newly risen Rising Stars were given the strange epithet 'Young Ones on the Tiles.' The reason they came to be called this was because the finalists, without exception, watched the tournament from atop the tiled roofs of the buildings lined up on both sides of Central Great Road.
At first, watching from atop the roofs was simply regarded as curious. Then, after the specific name 'Young Ones on the Tiles' was attached, ascending to the roofs to watch the tournament itself became a privilege exclusive to finalists. As the victors of the matches ascended to the roofs one by one, the next victors naturally followed suit.
Now, who had started it first was no longer particularly important. It had simply become an unwritten custom that those who passed the preliminaries and rose to the finals would naturally ascend to the roofs.
The Martial World Protection Corps also initially paid attention to them, but now actually regarded it as natural. Because those on the roofs were highly visible, they were actually much easier to manage.
Unit members occasionally asked each other jokingly who first started ascending to the roofs, but now that had become unimportant and they couldn't even remember.
Simply.
The fact that the Young Ones on the Tiles were finalists who had passed the preliminaries became all that mattered.
***
Dong Bong-soo was standing atop Jibin Pavilion's roof early again today. Though he had confirmed his advancement to the finals first on the very first day of the preliminaries, he had watched almost every match held here since then. It was because he thought that in some ways, watching was far more important than fighting directly.
Whenever anyone used a form, there was a corresponding flow of True Energy that followed. Dong Bong-soo always carefully observed and felt this. Moreover, he strived to read all the minute muscle movements that accompanied it.
The eyes are faster than the hands. However, the brain is faster than the eyes. Nevertheless, instinct is far faster than the brain.
If one observes and becomes familiar enough that instinct manifests reflexively, the body will naturally react to anyone's attack, no matter what kind.
Thud! Thud!
Below on Central Great Road, repairs to the central arena he had destroyed were being carried out since early morning. For the remaining three days excluding the first day, the tournament was held on a temporary wooden arena installed beside the central arena. Today would probably be the same.
The central arena being repaired was being laid with blue stone for the floor as before, but over it, lumps of iron several times blacker than ordinary iron were being coated over it. At a glance, its strength appeared far superior to other iron.
'Is that Cold Iron?'
The leadership of the Murim Alliance must have judged that blue stone would be difficult to withstand a proper finals.
Listening to the clanging sounds, Dong Bong-soo was interpreting, analyzing, editing, and recombining all the martial arts he had seen during the preliminaries in his head.
Meanwhile, time flowed and the sun gradually rose higher. Naturally, the start time for the final day's preliminaries drew closer and closer.
Muhwa Gate opened again, and as had been the case, spectators flooded into Central Great Road.
Along with them, Young Ones on the Tiles other than Dong Bong-soo also took their positions on the roofs one by one. Not only on Jibin Pavilion's roof where he was, but finalists also ascended one after another onto the tiled roofs of Demon Subduing Hall, Evil Conquering Hall, Manmu Hall, and other buildings surrounding the central arena and temporary arena.
"Wow-! There's already a huge crowd gathered?"
"Haha. That's right."
However, not everyone who came up to the roofs were Young Ones on the Tiles.
Hwa Seon-hyang and Paeng Ho-ryu, who were just now coming to stand on either side of Dong Bong-soo, came up to the roof every day even though they weren't Young Ones on the Tiles. Paeng Ho-ryu wasn't even a finalist.
After losing to Dong Bong-soo, Paeng Ho-ryu had wrapped a single bandage around his shoulder and continued annoyingly sticking to him. Because of this, though not many days had passed, Hwa Seon-hyang and Paeng Ho-ryu had become quite close. Amusingly enough, it had to be said that the medium called Dong Bong-soo had made the two that way. Should it be said they became close because the two of them chattered all day long in place of the silent Dong Bong-soo? It was an unintended meeting and friendship that had formed, as 'unintentional' as Paeng Ho-ryu's claimed 'inevitable' preliminary elimination.
Dong Bong-soo merely looked down at Central Great Road with his arms crossed, not giving them a single glance.
Hwa Seon-hyang and Paeng Ho-ryu also now had enough experience with such a Dong Bong-soo that they didn't particularly care. The occasional terse remark thrown out while they were just talking amongst themselves was all Dong Bong-soo said. However, because it was always extremely to the point, they always anticipated and looked forward to that single remark.
In fact, there had never been a single time when Dong Bong-soo failed to predict the victor in the preliminary matches held here on Central Great Road. Because of this, Paeng Ho-ryu had joked about whether he should stake the Paeng Family's entire fortune on the match prediction gambling secretly taking place in the marketplace.
This time too, he asked Dong Bong-soo a question with such expectations.
"Brother Dong, do you happen to know what the Murim Alliance's greatest topic of conversation is right now?"
This time too, Dong Bong-soo silently looked down at Central Great Road. It was because he knew well that Paeng Ho-ryu hadn't asked the question expecting him to immediately ask back anyway.
At this, Paeng Ho-ryu chuckled once and immediately continued speaking.
"Heavenly Youth Young Ones on the Tiles."
The world is young, but those on the tiles are also young. A literal translation would mean something like this, but with Young Ones on the Tiles included, it clearly wasn't that meaning but a newly coined term.
"Ah! I think I know that one. It's the term people attached to those who aren't from major sects who appeared at the Heavenly Youth Martial Arts Tournament, right? They also just shortened it to Young Ones on the Tiles."
At Hwa Seon-hyang's words, Paeng Ho-ryu shook his head and said,
"No. This is precisely a term that separates Heavenly Youth and Young Ones on the Tiles. Here, Heavenly Youth refers to the Rising Stars of major sects including Three Stars, Five Phoenixes, and Nine Dragons, that is, the automatic advancers, and Young Ones on the Tiles refers to the young ones on the tiles, meaning finalists who underwent the preliminaries."
"Ah, I see. But why is that the greatest topic of conversation in the Murim Alliance right now?"
"That's-."
Paeng Ho-ryu paused for a moment. Then he soon shook his head and laughed.
"Well, I don't really know either. Haha. I just said that because people talk about it a lot. Isn't that what makes it the greatest topic?"
"Aw, what's that? How boring."
That was when it happened. A toneless voice cut off the two's pleasant conversation.
"Reversal."
"......?"
Both Hwa Seon-hyang and Paeng Ho-ryu stopped talking and looked at Dong Bong-soo. Like a conditioned reflex now, expectation filled both their eyes.
Dong Bong-soo indifferently continued speaking.
"People are hoping someone will shatter the current Martial World structure."
"Huh? What does that have to do with Heavenly Youth and Young Ones on the Tiles?"
Hwa Seon-hyang pouted her lips as if she didn't understand what he meant.
"......"
The masses are always the weak. They always aspire upward. But reality always presses them down to remain below.
Therefore, even if it's not themselves personally, when a commoner hero appears in the world, they naturally empathize with them emotionally and pray for their success.
Heavenly Youth is an already existing heaven. It can't be easily overturned just because one doesn't like it. However, the people with potential on the tiles, closer to heaven, though they themselves cannot reach it, might be different.
The masses now gathered at the Murim Alliance are hoping the Young Ones on the Tiles will overturn the Nine Sects and One Society and Five Great Families that have been maintained for so long they're now steeped in authoritarianism.
Can the Young Ones on the Tiles defeat Heavenly Youth? If they could—.
'They're thinking they wish it would happen.'
That's why it becomes the greatest topic of conversation.
Dong Bong-soo looked down at the people swarming on Central Great Road and said,
"People are hoping the roof will pierce the heavens right now. Though they don't say it directly, everyone wishes for it, which is why they're enthusiastic about the Young Ones on the Tiles. That's why it becomes the greatest topic."
"......!"
Only then did Paeng Ho-ryu and Hwa Seon-hyang seem to understand what Dong Bong-soo meant. In fact, it was a considerably dangerous statement. Overturning the existing system? It wasn't something to say at the Murim Alliance, which was like the head of that existing system. Moreover, Paeng Ho-ryu was the Family Head of the Paeng Family, one of the Four Great Families among them, yet Dong Bong-soo was speaking such words without reservation.
However, the two felt it was fine. Because the person who said such words was that person. Because it was Dong Bong-soo, anything seemed possible.
'Just where on earth did such a person come from?'
Paeng Ho-ryu looked at Dong Bong-soo for a moment, then said,
"By the way, I've been curious since I first saw you, Brother Dong, but who exactly is your master?"
He swallowed the unspoken words: just what kind of person is he to have raised a monster like you?
Dong Bong-soo didn't answer. Instead, Hwa Seon-hyang beside him spoke what she thought was the answer.
"Ah, Brother Paeng, you still didn't know? Young Master Dong...... Elder Brother's master is Bukgung Gi—."
"Who's 'brother' and who's 'elder brother'?"
"Elder Brother…!"
Hwa Seon-hyang let out a shrill cry, and the rest of her words scattered on the wind.
Aaaaahhh-!
At that moment, with the crowd's cheers, the preliminary matches of the fifth day, the final day, began, and the story about Bukgung Gi and Soldier Eccentric was postponed to another time.