One-Strike Duel
“The match will be decided in a single strike. The basic rule is that we clash fists.”
In the vacant lot behind the tavern, I faced off against Paeng Mugang.
The night was deep, the surroundings quiet, and aside from Cheong-ae, no one watched us.
Paeng Mugang turned to me with an easygoing air and spoke.
“Still, this duel seems unfair to you, Miss Song. A duel ought to be fair and square. Why don’t we make this one a contest of internal energy?”
He didn’t seem to mean it as an insult.
On the outside, I was obviously a girl who hadn’t even reached the age of maturity yet.
And according to Cheong-ae, she couldn’t sense even the faintest trace of the inner energy that martial artists carried, so it was clear he was trying to accommodate me.
There was no reason to refuse.
“How insolent—!”
Cheong-ae bristled at his words, but after glancing at me, she clamped her mouth shut.
I smiled softly at her and accepted his proposal.
“Thank you for your consideration.”
“Think nothing of it. Tell me when you’re ready.”
With those words, I closed my eyes and began to focus.
This was a perfect opportunity.
In a situation where I had no idea what kind of enemy I might face in the future, I needed to properly test the performance of this body.
“Huu.”
Breathing out slowly, I recalled the method of circulating internal energy that I’d heard from Cheong-ae during our travels.
I hadn’t been able to listen too carefully, because the way she looked at me made it seem as though she was thinking, How can you not know this?
Still, the method itself wasn’t all that different from how I’d worked with energy while doing calisthenics back in my old world.
I inhaled.
I focused on the warm current gathering at my dantian.
Remembering that familiar sensation of it rising along my spine, I spread the energy evenly throughout my body.
I exhaled.
Before I knew it, my body had grown warm, wrapped in a faint aura.
It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it was enough.
I opened my eyes slowly.
A cool night breeze blew past, gently stirring my hair and the hems of my clothes.
Paeng Mugang had already planted his lower body firmly and raised both arms into a stance.
He’s serious about this.
That was very much in keeping with a man of the Paeng Clan.
For them, a duel really was something like this.
There was a mountain-like firmness to his presence.
I spread my legs awkwardly and took my own stance.
The energy circulating through my body had already begun to gather in my fist.
What was it again? Like streams of water converging into a single river… something like that?
The incantation written in Wolhameiingyeong came back to me.
Back when I was reading it in earnest, I hadn’t understood a single word of it.
But now that I was in the middle of it, there couldn’t have been a more fitting metaphor.
As expected, people really did need to read books.
Once I had fully focused, I felt a pleasant sensation, as if the air around me were gently embracing me.
But I didn’t have time to savor that pleasant feeling.
My entire mind was fixed solely on the opponent before me.
For some reason, I found that more enjoyable than expected.
This was a martial duel.
Paeng Mugang’s thoughts no longer mattered.
Neither did Cheong-ae’s gaze from behind me.
Only my fist remained.
That was everything.
“I’m ready.”
“Then let’s begin.”
The moment the words left his mouth, his body kicked off the ground and flew at me.
It was a speed impossible to follow with the eyes.
In an instant, he closed the distance, and his fist came straight for my nose.
Instinctively, I thrust out my own fist.
Just before our knuckles collided, as always, everything around us came to a stop.
Honestly, this is the most fascinating part of all.
I’d been saved by this phenomenon more times than I could count, so I was grateful for it, but at the same time it was also the least wuxia-like miracle imaginable.
What on earth was it?
Some side effect of Wolhameiingyeong?
An automatic time-stop ability that activated in moments of danger?
A cheat like this wasn’t exactly common.
Still, I shouldn’t get complacent.
I still hadn’t met any true masters of the Peak realm.
There was no telling whether this ability would work on them.
In the jianghu, carelessness was death.
The fist I had thrown out didn’t touch the frozen fist of Paeng Mugang.
That was partly because he had stopped in midair, and partly because my arm was shorter than I’d expected.
After letting the tension leave me for a moment, I lightly bumped my fist against his motionless one.
But time still didn’t move.
Why?
Was simply making contact not enough?
Wondering, I reset my stance.
This time, I drew up the power within me again and, with everything I had, drove my fist forward.
-1 HP
With a thunderous crash, time began moving again.
Paeng Mugang was flying through the air.
“Huh?”
**
Paeng Mugang watched Song Hyeon close her eyes and begin her breathing with interest.
Contrary to her fragile appearance, there was a firm, unshakable core to her bearing.
Perhaps I needn’t have tried to be considerate.
She was a mysterious girl in more ways than one.
The escort warrior, Cheong-ae, who accompanied her, possessed internal energy comparable to Paeng Mugang’s own.
By contrast, Song Hyeon’s energy was utterly negligible.
She couldn’t possibly have failed to notice the difference.
And yet Cheong-ae had made no move to stop her mistress from accepting the duel.
So she must have something to rely on.
Paeng Mugang glanced toward Cheong-ae, but she was looking only at her mistress.
Her attitude made it seem as though she didn’t care who the opponent was.
In that case, I should live up to those expectations.
Watching Song Hyeon open her eyes, Paeng Mugang finally took his stance.
Growing up, he had repeated this “one-strike contest of strength” countless times.
His win rate was ninety percent.
Excluding his older brother, the only person he acknowledged, he had never once lost.
If it was a single blow to decide the match, he had no fear of losing to any of the younger generation around his own age.
As he raised his energy and settled into his stance, Song Hyeon followed him awkwardly.
An awkward, adorable little posture.
Paeng Mugang nearly laughed out loud.
But the next instant, he felt with perfect certainty that his assumption had been wrong.
The wind was stirring.
The calm air began to circle around them.
Dry leaves scattered across the tavern yard all rose at once, dancing as they gathered at her feet.
The relaxation vanished from Paeng Mugang’s face.
How?
He doubted his own eyes.
The energy she was emitting was unquestionably faint.
If he hadn’t been facing her directly, he would have dismissed it all as coincidence.
A bead of cold sweat trickled down his spine.
I nearly let my guard down.
The jianghu was vast.
What he knew was not all there was.
Paeng Mugang immediately steadied his heart and reevaluated the woman before him.
While Paeng Mugang was overwhelmed by shock and tension, Cheong-ae watched the entire process in silence.
In her eyes there was awe and certainty, very different from the confusion that gripped Paeng Mugang.
As expected, Lady is… different.
The amount of internal energy Song Hyeon moved was laughably small.
But that feeble energy was the key that moved nature itself.
Cheong-ae had observed Song Hyeon from the closest possible distance over the past few days, and though she only barely understood the mystery, she had some sense of its significance.
Even if she’s only handling the power of a secret manual...
Cheong-ae herself was someone who handled power unlike that of ordinary martial artists through a secret manual as well.
And yet the phenomenon Song Hyeon displayed far exceeded all of her common sense.
She’s becoming more and more… unknowable.
At first, Cheong-ae had been drawn only to her beautiful appearance.
Then, as someone who also wielded the power of a secret manual, she had felt a sense of kinship.
But now, beyond all of that, only a kind of reverence remained, as though she were facing the source of an incomprehensible power.
She thought it might not be right for her to remain by her side.
Before long, both of them had finished preparing.
After a few brief words, Paeng Mugang sprang forward first.
He advanced toward Song Hyeon like water flowing downhill, using Hunyuan Step, the old footwork of the Hebei Paeng Clan.
Normally, the Paeng Clan’s duels were supposed to proceed fairly and squarely, fists meeting in direct clash, but the tense Paeng Mugang had no spare thought for such customs.
He had only one thought: overwhelm his opponent.
Even just before his fist reached her nose, Song Hyeon did not move a muscle.
Paeng Mugang, already wondering at it and certain of victory, felt an odd sense of wrongness seize him the very next moment.
There was a boom.
And in that instant, Paeng Mugang was staring up at the stars in the night sky.
What in the—!
Even Cheong-ae, who had watched everything from beginning to end, couldn’t quite make sense of what had happened.
Song Hyeon had shown a similar sight before.
But that time, at least, there had been some small movement.
Only Paeng Mugang, who had been focused to the extreme, could tell what had happened in that split second.
The fists had met.
Twice in that brief instant, in fact.
Even as his body plummeted toward the ground, Paeng Mugang replayed the scene in his head and looked toward Song Hyeon.
Watching her slowly draw back the fist she had thrown with such an awkward posture, one thought rose in his mind.
It’s her.
Thud.
The dry earth welcomed him.
As he lay sprawled on the ground, trying to gather himself against the dull ache in his body, Song Hyeon walked up to him with light, delicate steps.
A bright, satisfied smile bloomed across her face.
“Are you all right?”
With that worried voice, she held out a small hand.
Paeng Mugang tried to move his arm to take it, but a stabbing pain shot through him, and the limb refused to obey.
The impact of their fists colliding may have broken the bone, or at the very least cracked it.
And yet, he was gripped by an emotion even stronger than the pain.
She truly is the one.
Even while he used his uninjured arm to push himself up from the ground, stumbling on unsteady feet, he couldn’t shake the thought that dominated his mind.
As a foolish young man, he had once sworn that if he ever married, it would be to a strong woman who could surpass him.
The strange and powerful woman before him matched his long-held ideal perfectly.
“Then I suppose the match is decided.”
Still smiling brightly, Song Hyeon held out her hand once more.
That pure expression, filled only with joy at having won, shook Paeng Mugang’s heart all over again.
A woman who possessed such terrifying power and yet retained such innocence.
No matter where he looked in the jianghu, he would never meet another like her.
Paeng Mugang took her offered hand.
“Miss Song.”
“Yes? Surely you’re not going to contest the result, are you?”
“Please marry me.”
“Huh?”
Song Hyeon’s face twisted into the most bizarre expression I had ever seen.
Watching all of it from beside us, Cheong-ae suddenly remembered a scene from the past.
That’s the same expression she had when she found the centipede skewers in Yanghwajin’s market district.
Paeng Mugang’s sincere devotion looked as though it was about to walk a very long and very difficult road.
**
My match with Paeng Mugang ended in my victory.
Since accepting the result was part of the rules, Paeng Mugang promised without complaint that if he found the secret manual, he would yield ownership to me.
“Then I’ll contact you as soon as I have the information.”
“All right. I’ll see you then.”
After exchanging brief farewells, we left the tavern where Paeng Mugang was staying.
With one sleeve torn to shreds, he kept smiling and waving until the very end.
Somehow, he looked a little pitiful.
“Will that man’s arm be all right?”
Rarely, Cheong-ae voiced concern for him as we walked.
Until now she hadn’t even spared him a glance.
No matter how much annoyance she showed, it seemed her kind heart couldn’t really be helped.
“He’ll be fine. He says he’s fine, so what more can I do?”
“...Men really do tend to put on a front when they stand before the woman they fancy.”
“You say that one more time and I’ll kill you.”
My threat seemed funny to Cheong-ae, because her shoulders shook and she let out a snicker.
Ha. I had expected my beauty to set the jianghu ablaze, but hearing a man’s heartfelt confession in my face was disgusting beyond words.
This was absolutely not okay.
Paeng Mugang ought to be grateful I didn’t throw up on the spot.
“It can’t be helped. As you always say, Lady, you are beautiful.”
“A sinner, I am.”
I shrugged.
Still, since my beauty had been officially recognized once again, I couldn’t say I was entirely displeased.
But if I kept growing more and more famous like this, wouldn’t I end up with more and more troublesome people clinging to me?
A cold, creeping unease washed over me.
I hurried back toward our lodging.
**
Two days later, after receiving word from Paeng Mugang, we headed once more to the tavern where he was staying.
“Ah, you’ve come at just the right time.”
He spotted us from far off and waved cheerfully.
But...
“What happened to you?”
“Hm. It seems I wasn’t actually all right after all. A man does sometimes like to put on a front. Hahaha!”
With splints on his arms and legs, Paeng Mugang laughed heartily even as he swayed like a defeated soldier returning from battle.
...He’s completely out of commission.
Did I hit him too hard?