23
Chapter 23: Tang O
"What?"
Though it was an extremely brief word, everyone present except Dong Bong-su was overwhelmed by that single phrase. Dong Bong-su felt a momentary thrill in his heart at the middle-aged man in brown's cold words, but he wasn't intimidated. He simply realized for the first time what it felt like when internal energy was infused into a voice.
He didn't feel fear toward anyone or shrink back to begin with. He only pretended to do so.
The middle-aged man in brown turned his head and looked around at the people. Dong Bong-su hid his eyes behind Yeoro. It was an instinctive movement. He was still an immature predator in this world. There was absolutely nothing good about catching the eye of another predator with superior strength. Especially at times like now when he needed to probe the opponent.
The middle-aged man in brown merely glanced at Yeoro for a moment, then looked back at Gi Dae-hyo as if uninterested.
Dong Bong-su also focused his gaze on Gi Dae-hyo again. Gi Dae-hyo was the hands, feet, and also eyes of the Danri Family. He hoped he would explain about the man in brown. But as if he too didn't know the identity of the man in brown, he swallowed his saliva and stated his official position and name.
"I am Gi Dae-hyo, Group Leader of the Danri Family's Black Five Group. And the person you are currently oppressing is the Young Master of the Danri Family. If you don't remove your foot immediately, I will not stand idly by."
Though Gi Dae-hyo was threatening, his voice was definitely not confident. It was because he was already overwhelmed in momentum.
Dong Bong-su realized that Gi Dae-hyo knew absolutely nothing about the man in brown. From that, he could infer various things. The Black Five Group Leader had met someone he didn't know in Bongyang.
In other words, that person wasn't a Bongyang martial artist. No, beyond that, he probably wasn't a martial artist active in Anhui Province. Gi Dae-hyo and the Black Five Group had such excellent intelligence that they knew every corner of the Anhui Martial World. If he didn't know, it was clear the person wasn't from here.
'An outsider. And an immeasurable master at that.'
Dong Bong-su had to make a decision. A master with a level difference of 10 or more was showing hostility toward this side. Though he couldn't know precisely, in his judgment the man in brown was a greater master than even Danri Cheon-u. The personnel here could never handle that person.
'Flee? Or watch the situation further?'
His deliberation wasn't very long.
Though Dong Bong-su didn't naturally possess something like killing intent, he had an excellent talent for reading it. The intensity of killing intent was very useful in determining a predator's rank.
Those like himself without killing intent were the highest rank.
However, once killing intent was detected, one could measure the degree of savagery and predatory nature according to its intensity.
For now, that person wasn't emitting killing intent. He wasn't originally someone without killing intent, he just had the feeling of a lion looking at insects. It was certain he had no intention of eliminating Dong Bong-su and the Black Five Group.
Dong Bong-su chose the latter.
When his eyes gleamed sharply, the man in brown looked at Gi Dae-hyo and quietly opened his mouth.
"Danri Family? What's that? Is it something to eat?"
To Gi Dae-hyo it was an extremely contemptuous remark, but to Dong Bong-su it was a clue about that person's strength. Dong Bong-su discovered that the man in brown was someone who didn't even consider something like the Danri Family worth his attention.
However, he still remained standing in that spot. Because there was still no killing intent felt from the opponent.
Instead, Gi Dae-hyo's face was turning red and blue.
It must be hard to endure. After all, they were a Family with quite a name in Anhui Province, yet received such treatment. However, Gi Dae-hyo was indeed a composed person. Or perhaps he had completely lost the initiative to the middle-aged man in brown's momentum.
Gi Dae-hyo bit down hard and spoke to the man in brown.
"Those words just now insult the Danri Family. May I take them as such?"
For Gi Dae-hyo, it was the best response he could manage. Though he would have liked to immediately swing his sword and attack, he instinctively knew well that he must not do so. So those few words he just said were the best countermeasure he could take.
Regardless, the man in brown responded with an even colder expression than before to Gi Dae-hyo's words.
"Who knows? I don't know whether the Danri Family is something to eat, something to shit, or something to step on."
"Kuk……."
The middle-aged man in brown put strength into his foot while saying those last words, 'something to step on.' Danri Jiang-hae's face instantly turned pale and his pupils began rolling back. His airway was properly blocked. If he applied just a bit more strength in that state, he would die right then.
Accordingly, Gi Dae-hyo's face also turned deathly pale. If Danri Jiang-hae died, he too was a dead man. Now he had no other choice. He immediately raised his hand, pointed at the middle-aged man in brown, and shouted loudly.
"All Black Five Group members, attack that person and save the Young Master!"
On the other hand, Dong Bong-su was still only watching the middle-aged man in brown. Even now, no killing intent whatsoever was felt from the man in brown. Gi Dae-hyo simply couldn't feel what Dong Bong-su felt.
Dong Bong-su leisurely watched the confrontation between the man in brown and the Black Five Group. Now that safety was certain, he just needed to observe the man in brown's advanced martial arts.
To the man in brown, the Black Five Group was merely a plaything. No one kills their playthings. Though they might break them by accident.
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh-!
The entire Black Five Group, including Gi Dae-hyo and Gi Man-ji, rushed toward the middle-aged man in brown.
The middle-aged man in brown was relaxed even while watching this sight. Still not removing the foot placed on Danri Jiang-hae's neck, he raised just one hand to shoulder height.
Dong Bong-su's sharp eyes saw hundreds of thin needles held between his fingers.
'Hidden weapon technique?'
The moment he thought that, the middle-aged man in brown's hand lightly flicked toward Gi Dae-hyo and the Black Five Group members.
Fyu-fyu-fyu-fyut-.
It wasn't fast. The needles that left the man in brown's hand simply clustered into butterfly shapes and flew toward the Black Five Group elites, drawing strange arcs like bees moving in zigzags. However, none of the Black Five Group could avoid those not-fast needles. No, they couldn't avoid them.
To Dong Bong-su's perception, they looked like guided missiles that could only be seen on modern Earth.
"Kuk!"
"Urk!"
"Erk!"
With various kinds of short screams, Gi Dae-hyo and all the Black Five Group members simultaneously collapsed to the ground. It was just one move. In one move, the Black Five Group, the pride of the Danri Family, was subdued.
"Th-this is! Soul Chasing Butterfly!? Th-then you are!"
With his body paralyzed, Gi Dae-hyo only raised his head to look at the man in brown with a shocked expression. Though he was seeing this technique for the first time, it was a hidden weapon technique too well known in the Martial World.
A martial art named because it moved like a butterfly chasing souls.
Soul Chasing Butterfly was precisely a secret technique of the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains. And in the Tang Family, there was one master known to have reached the divine realm with this martial art.
Gi Dae-hyo looked at the man in brown's face once more.
Ah, why did he only recognize him now? The appearance and attire of that Tang Family's greatest master that Gi Dae-hyo remembered and this middle-aged man in brown's appearance and attire were perfectly identical.
Hearing Gi Dae-hyo's startled cry, the middle-aged man in brown sneered. Then he looked down at Gi Dae-hyo and let out a cold voice.
"For a country bumpkin, your eyes aren't completely rotten. This old man is Tang O."
Tang O.
One of the twenty strongest in the Martial World, a master belonging to the Ten Greats among the Two Divinities, Three Eccentrics, Five Supremes, and Ten Greats. The greatest master of the Sichuan Tang Family, one of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains. An absolute master whose match was difficult to find in Sichuan Province.
Though there were various words to describe him, in the end nothing represented him as well as his epithet.
Soul Chasing Poison Hand.
[Those who go against Tang O's mood cannot escape his poison hand even if they die and become ghosts!]
Originally, the Tang Family was a Family famous for hidden weapon techniques and poison arts, a sect between righteousness and evil. However, when the Murim Alliance was first formed, they established themselves as one axis of the Murim Alliance from that time through the persuasion of Great Master Hye-in, who was the abbot of Shaolin Temple. Though there were several ups and downs afterward, they were a powerful force that had never once fallen from the position of the Five Great Families of the Central Plains.
The Sichuan Tang Family produced many masters famous for their vicious hearts as much as the origin of their martial arts, but even among them, Tang O was an unrivaled existence. Soul Chasing Butterfly was the most difficult hidden weapon technique to learn and difficult to build up mastery in, except for Sky Full of Flowers and Rain which was now almost lost. Having learned it to nearly the ultimate level, Tang O was undoubtedly a master who left a mark in Tang Family history.
In fact, he modified several weak points of the existing Soul Chasing Butterfly to develop it into the current Soul Chasing Butterfly, and with it defeated countless Evil Sect masters.
Moreover, Tang O had a natural talent for poison arts as well, developing countless unnamed poisons. Even just a moment ago, if he had a poisonous mind, he would have deployed Nameless Poison along with the Soul Chasing Butterfly technique. If he had, it was obvious that Gi Dae-hyo wouldn't even be making that shocked expression now.
Tang O's fame was so renowned that even Dong Bong-su had heard his name once or twice.
'One of the Martial World's Twenty Great Masters.'
Dong Bong-su looked at Gi Dae-hyo, who sat paralyzed with only his head held upright. He was looking at Tang O, but his face had already turned pale as if his spirit had left his body. Though his mouth was moving as if he had something he wanted to say, his spirit had fled so much from the shock that where would he have the mind to speak?
Apologize? He didn't seem to have the mental strength to do such a thing.
Just looking at Gi Dae-hyo's reaction, one could understand the weight of the names Sichuan Tang Family and Twenty Great Masters. As heavy as that weight, today's incident caused by Danri Jiang-hae had to be considered bigger than all the incidents he had caused throughout his life combined.
Though he didn't know what the mistake was, if he had gone against the mood of someone like Tang O, depending on the content, even the Danri Family could easily be sealed……
……but Dong Bong-su still had composure.
Though Tang O was still standing majestically while glaring with cold eyes, he hadn't killed anyone yet. And if he had intended to kill, they would have all died from the Soul Chasing Butterfly just now.
He was merely recalling the technique of Soul Chasing Butterfly that Tang O had just demonstrated and only watching how this situation would flow.
Then.
"Grandfather."
One slender woman with her face covered by a brown veil walked out of Haengho Inn.