Chapter 132
Chapter 132. Fame (5)
It was a simple action. Yet that one simple motion and the unpleasant sound of a chair scraping instantly brought the flow of the hall, which had been severed, to Dong Bong-soo.
As he stood up, he deliberately pressed down on Paeng Ho-ryu's shoulder.
"Guh."
Paeng Ho-ryu had no choice but to lower his half-raised rear back down to his seat due to the severe pain spreading through his shoulder. The wound on his right shoulder, which had been seriously injured in the confrontation with Dong Bong-soo, hadn't healed at all yet.
"I'll take that duel in his place."
A voice neither low nor high, perfectly even, instantly changed the parties of the duel.
"......Brother Dong? Urk."
Dong Bong-soo tapped Paeng Ho-ryu's shoulder once more as he tried to say something, then walked toward U Sim-gi. His appearance was so utterly ordinary that no one could sense he was a master.
Perhaps that made him seem easy to handle.
U Sim-gi curled up one corner of his lips and spoke.
"Fine. It's natural for the injured to step aside...... I've been curious about the skill level of the Young Ones on the Tiles that people have been talking about lately, so let's see—"
"Will you do this alone? Or all of you together?"
Dong Bong-soo cut off U Sim-gi's words in one stroke. It was so rude that it seemed even more like a provocation. No, it was definitely a provocation. Not one-on-one, but he would face all of them alone?
That properly fanned the flames of U Sim-gi's anger.
"Ha—. You call that words? To handle all of us alone—"
Thwip.
This time, instead of words, Dong Bong-soo's fist cut off U Sim-gi's speech. His fist stopped a few inches in front of U Sim-gi's nose.
Among those present, few had properly seen how his fist had extended. They only thought his arm had wavered for a moment when his fist was already stopped right in front of U Sim-gi's nose.
'What? I couldn't see it......'
The fact that he had completely failed to see his opponent's attack made U Sim-gi's hair stand on end. To block, strike, and exchange offense and defense, at minimum one had to be able to see. If fighting someone and unable to see the opponent's movements.......
One shouldn't fight. Because they would be no match at all from the start.
Just then, Dong Bong-soo withdrew his extended fist and spoke indifferently.
"If I couldn't handle all of you, I wouldn't have asked in the first place."
"......!"
Was it due to the wind pressure from the fist that had just been swung? Murky blood flowed from U Sim-gi's nose.
Drip, drip.
The nosebleed ran down along his lips. The corner of U Sim-gi's lip that had been curled up also slid back down following the blood.
"Blood!? Th-this—!"
Realizing blood was flowing from his nose, U Sim-gi unleashed palm techniques toward Dong Bong-soo like a thunderbolt. It was the Jade Dragon Palm that Kunlun prided itself on.
Whoosh—!
An elegant yet swift, yet fast palm flew toward Dong Bong-soo's face.
At that moment, U Sim-gi's mind, extremely excited at seeing blood, contained only the thought that he must smash Dong Bong-soo's insolent mouth. And no matter how strong the opponent, they were the many. What's more, there were as many as three of the Nine Dragons!
However, Dong Bong-soo's mind was different.
It was rational and logical. As always.
If it was a fight he would lose, he wouldn't have started it at all.
Flash.
Dong Bong-soo's eyes shone and the surrounding scenery seemed to stop for an instant as it was drawn in. Simultaneously, his brain activity explosively increased. His instinct began sensing the strength, speed, trajectory, and such of U Sim-gi's palm movement, and data about various palm techniques he had seen over the past few years rapidly searched through his mind.
Soon, as he extracted the most similar data, his instinct issued commands to his body. Strictly speaking, it was already reacting.
Because that's what instinct is.
Swish-swish—
Dong Bong-soo's body twisted slightly, just ever so slightly to the side.
A sheet of paper? A single leaf? Perhaps not even that much—U Sim-gi's palm force passed so closely by his body. From the outside it looked like he had barely avoided the attack, but in reality he had dodged it very precisely and easily. Because it was the result of reacting exactly as his instinct calculated.
Thanks to avoiding the attack with minimal movement, U Sim-gi's upper left torso opened directly before Dong Bong-soo's eyes. Naturally, Dong Bong-soo's withdrawn fist embarked on another journey. Of course, this single punch was also a collection of data accumulated through seeing and feeling over the past few years.
The destination was precisely U Sim-gi's face.
Crack—!
A loud striking sound rang out as U Sim-gi's jaw turned.
Thud.
Then he sat down just like that and fainted. Nine Dragon U Sim-gi had been defeated in just one move.
People still didn't precisely understand what had just happened and how. But they could clearly see at least that Dong Bong-soo had done something and U Sim-gi had fallen.
In the meantime, Dong Bong-soo looked at Murong Byeong, who was standing right behind U Sim-gi.
"......Huh!?"
Thwack—!
Thud.
In the time it took to say 'huh,' Murong Byeong also took Dong Bong-soo's fist and fainted just like that. Following the preliminaries, he had once again become Dong Bong-soo's prey without any real effect. But he should consider that fortunate. Because he had become the only person to survive after losing to Dong Bong-soo twice.
"Th-this! Everyone attack! Strike that bastard!"
A handsome man wearing a navy martial robe with yellow embroidery reading Dian Cang on his left chest shouted. He was Jeon Pung-gae, another one of the Nine Dragons known as Dragon Who Shoots the Sun's Two Principles. Since the opponent had clearly begun attacking with intent, they couldn't just stand still.
The fight had already started and the process had already become unimportant. Two of the Nine Dragons were already incapable of combat. What's more, against just one opponent.
If they lost here.......
'The prestige of the Nine Dragons will fall into the abyss!'
Even as Jeon Pung-gae was thinking such thoughts, Dong Bong-soo was moving like the wind. Movement Techniques he had seen and felt over the past few days. More precisely, 'movements.'
Previously he had used a new martial art that appropriately mixed various Movement Techniques or Footwork he had known before with the passive skill [Lightness Arts], but now a certain 'movement' clearly distinguished from even that was naturally unfolding from his body.
As if entrusting his body to energy, wind, and air, he was riding the flow. Dong Bong-soo moved like flowing water as he faced U Sim-gi's group of Nine Dragons.
Thwack, thwack, thwack, thwack......
One movement, one punch.
And one person falling.
Before long, everyone except Jeon Pung-gae and Hwa Ye-ji had all fallen.
Hwa Ye-ji's face was bleached white with shock, and Jeon Pung-gae was bleeding from his nose just like U Sim-gi had earlier. Because Dong Bong-soo's fist had at some point stopped a few inches in front of his nose.
Nevertheless, Jeon Pung-gae couldn't launch a reflexive counterattack like U Sim-gi had earlier. It was a learning effect. He knew well that if he counterattacked, he would end up like U Sim-gi lying over there foaming at the mouth.
Dong Bong-soo withdrew his extended fist and spoke.
"Will you continue?"
Jeon Pung-gae shook his head left and right with difficulty. There was no need to ask Hwa Ye-ji separately since she had no will to fight anyway.
Having confirmed victory, Dong Bong-soo looked around his surroundings in a sweeping glance.
Surprise and shock intersected throughout the hall. The figures from the Nine Sects and Four Great Families had only heard about it through stories—people who had directly witnessed the actual match between him and Paeng Ho-ryu in the preliminaries were extremely rare. But now that they had directly seen the skill of this 'fellow' called Dong Guang-chuan who had only been circulating as a rumor, they couldn't close their mouths.
To easily defeat several of the Nine Dragons alone.
It was hard to believe, but,
'They can't help but believe it.'
Hearing a hundred times about how so-and-so defeated the Three Stars or Nine Dragons or shattered the Blue Stone Arena to pieces couldn't compare to once overwhelmingly crushing them right before one's eyes like this. The saying 'seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times' is eternally unchanging.
This fight wasn't the match that had been expected at all. It was a match that had erupted from an unexpected collision between the Nine Dragons and Paeng Ho-ryu. But Dong Bong-soo had shamelessly stuck one foot into the match that had already erupted. And he had shattered the match to a level others couldn't anticipate.
Because of that, these three characters of his name would remain in their minds for a while. Without the derogatory term 'fellow.'
Dong Guang-chuan.
Would he be considered a Young One on the Tiles who defeated both the Three Stars and Nine Dragons?
Dong Bong-soo wasn't accustomed to stepping forward and showing off his skill. But also, it wasn't uncomfortable.
If necessary.
He had to do it.
When the masses want it, meeting their expectations is what makes a 'hero.' Especially if one is fake, one must do so all the more. Like how a rose made of wax or a plastic peach must look more real than an actual flower or fruit.
Though there were almost no people here enthusiastic about the Young Ones on the Tiles, rumors tend to spread more exaggeratedly to people who haven't seen. Like how a painter who hasn't seen a dragon draws it more magnificently than the tiger right in front of them.
Especially since most of the people gathered here were extremely negative about the Young Ones on the Tiles. But from today, that gaze would change starkly.
The prestige of the Nine Dragons would now entirely become his.
Though he couldn't know what would happen tomorrow, this would certainly become an important bridgehead for later.
As the duel seemed to have ended, Dong Bong-soo turned his body toward the entrance. He judged that rather than nutrient intake, time was needed to make the newly created rumor among the people gathered here even more exaggerated.
However, far away by the entrance stood Eul Ji-tae, who must have arrived at some point, and beside him an elderly monk he was seeing for the first time was looking at him with a meaningful smile.
Just then.
"Brother—! Be careful!"
Hwa Seon-hyang shouted.
And.
The elderly monk's smile disappeared.......