Chapter 37: First Mission (6)
Chapter 37: First Mission (6)
Yang Jeok-yo ground his teeth.
It was frustrating enough that his scheme had gone awry, but the caliber of the Black Path experts gathered here was unsettling.
The Master of the Assassination Pavilion alone was a Super Peak master, but with the addition of the Ghost Snake of the Fifteen Lords and Wiji Cheon-yeong, the Hao Clan Leader, the pressure was immense.
Zhuge Yun’s situation was even more dire.
Wiji Cheon-yeong’s presence meant she had seen through his entire plot. It was a clear declaration that, unlike her usual self, she intended to intervene directly this time.
Schemes and stratagems are like digging two graves; the moment they fail and are dragged into the light of day, they become a noose around the strategist's neck.
This was especially true here, as the Shanxi Beggars' Sect and the Jinju Eon Family were involved, the Murong Family had been antagonized, and the wrath of the Hebei Peng Family had to be endured.
If a scheme of this magnitude collapsed, his future was over.
Even if he managed to leave this place alive, he would not be able to withstand the censure of the Beggars' Sect and the Jinju Eon Family. The resources he had expended to draw them in were astronomical.
Gwak Jin, the Sect Leader of the Beggars' Sect and the Beggar Immortal Chwiun-jang.
Eon Do-cheon, the Family Head of the Jinju Eon Family, the Fist King of the Heavenly Roar Fist.
This had escalated into a major incident involving two of the four Great Orthodox Masters among the Fifteen Lords.
If the Hao Clan Leader of the Five Tyrants and the Peng Family Head of the Three Venerables were added to the mix, this could easily spiral into a small-scale Righteous-Demonic War.
He would become the strategist who spearheaded such a massive event only to fail.
The only gain for the Orthodox Martial Alliance would be the elimination of a single, small-scale Black Path sect in a minor county.
Zhuge Yun looked at Peng Hyeon-hwi with anxious eyes.
If only I could kill that brat... could I at least save some face?
"Hao Clan Leader."
Yang Jeok-yo stepped forward, gripping his spear. Though he spoke of a Life-and-Death Duel, his eyes did not rest on Peng Hyeon-hwi. He didn't even register the young man, who was at best at the tail end of the Second-Rate realm, barely knocking on the door of the First-Rate.
"Speak."
"You said this boy would become your new disciple. Do you intend to interfere in this Life-and-Death Duel or seek revenge for the outcome?"
"Your worries are excessive. I will not bring shame upon my own face."
"Then your new disciple shall become a lonely ghost this day."
"If you can do it, then by all means, try."
Yang Jeok-yo’s face flushed crimson at her nonchalant tone. He could not bear the insult. Only then did he turn his gaze to Peng Hyeon-hwi, raising the tip of his spear.
"Young warrior of the Peng Family. Speak your last words."
Only a tiny fraction of geniuses ever break through to that realm.
The absolute pinnacle of what the human body can achieve. This is what is known as the Peak Realm.
It is a stage where the heart is formed into a single Dantian, and the internal energy accumulated thus far is circulated through the heartbeat.
—Vrrrroooom!!
From that point on, the 'Sword Qi' that symbolizes the First-Rate realm undergoes a transformation. It becomes Astral Energy.
Named after the stars that signify destruction, it is a comet descended to earth.
—KABOOM!!
Unless one is in the same Astral Energy Realm, it cannot be parried. It cannot even be opposed. The dazzling shroud of Astral Energy is, in itself, a force that destroys everything it touches as it charges forward.
Therefore, he did not parry it.
I have to see it.
He reviewed what he had learned. The martial arts accumulated in his body.
The essence of the Mountain Lord’s Step is to move forward. To dodge what can be dodged, to deflect what can be deflected, and even if everything must be given up, to take just one more step forward.
He put it into practice.
—Step.
The spearhead shot toward his head.
He snapped his head back, narrowly avoiding it. A few strands of hair at his temples disintegrated, and even though the spear hadn't touched him, the shockwave grazed his cheek, drawing blood.
Spear techniques converge into a point.
Unlike all other weapons, the ultimate mastery of the spear lies in single-point penetration. To burrow in as a single point means its trajectory is nearly impossible for the eye to track.
Even more so if the spearhead is imbued with Astral Energy.
Thus, it could not be parried. He pulled back his left hand, which wore the gauntlet, and swung his blade.
—Crackle!
The Thunderbolt Blade barely maintained its balance. Instead of deflecting the Astral Energy spearhead head-on, he delicately adjusted, sliding the flat of his blade against the side of the spear.
It was an acrobatic feat performed in a situation where a single misstep would shatter his blade and end his life.
His eyes became bloodshot, and his head burned hot. This was because he was facing a barrage of attacks where a single mistake meant certain death.
—Clang! Clang-clang-clang!!
If one tries to track the strike converging into a point with their eyes, they will surely miss it.
Therefore, the path to survival does not lie there.
One must look at the body, not the spearhead.
The stance holding the spear, the sway of the shoulders, the twist of the waist, the direction of the force as the thigh muscles move—
He took it all in, everything visible beneath the billowing long robes.
His eyes throbbed as if they were on fire, but he ignored it. Aching eyes were better than being dead.
—Clang!!
This was the result.
The Thunderbolt Blade slid along the side of the spearhead, continuing its movement by smoothly pushing the shaft, which was not enveloped in Astral Energy.
Unceasing and continuous. Putting full power into every swing, yet possessing the delicacy to merely push the spearhead aside rather than trying to strike it down.
This was the subtle mystery of the Continuous Blade.
It had taken him three years to master this. Even though it had taken only a year to reach great completion in the Hunyuan Art.
—BOOM!!
The shockwave from the spearhead churned his insides, and the strength in his legs began to fail. The mere aftereffects of the Astral Energy were enough to easily break this fragile human body.
Yet, he still held his balance. No, he refused to lose it.
This was the subtle mystery of the Iron Body Art.
It was a movement technique that assisted him in maintaining balance no matter what posture he took or how he exerted his strength.
It had taken three years to master this as well.
He had completed all of this by the age of thirteen.
The moment he completed it, he realized. He knew that the Hunyuan Art and the Continuous Blade were merely introductory martial arts. He realized there was a deeper martial path, a true intent hidden within those arts.
He had envisioned that name himself and received recognition for it.
"You little rat!!! Using such pathetic tricks!!"
And now, I am seventeen.
I have firmly reached a single branch of the Ancestor's martial arts.
It took four years to get here.
Yang Jeok-yo’s face turned beet red. This insignificant brat, who would surely explode and die if hit just once, was swaying and flickering like a fly, yet stubbornly dodging and drawing closer.
Second-Rate. The power contained in that body was merely Second-Rate.
A realm where Sword Qi cannot yet harm a person. A realm where one cannot even properly imbue their trained weapon with energy.
It was the same even now.
All he was doing was constantly pushing aside the countless spearheads being fired at him, barely holding on as he delved into a single path of survival.
What meaning was there in taking one more step?
The Astral Energy flowing through the body of a Peak Master forms a natural protection. That is what Protection Aura is.
Even if a First-Rate warrior achieved the level of 'Sword Qi Hurting Humans,' they could not harm the body of a prepared Peak Master with mere Sword Qi.
What meaning was there in the boy's approach? None.
It was the act of a moth flying into a flame to be incinerated for no reason.
And yet, he was being insulted like this for something so meaningless. To suffer such a disastrous humiliation while so many righteous heroes of the Orthodox Faction were watching.
"I will never... never let you die easily...!!"
Yang Jeok-yo’s eyes glowed red.
His rage, carried by his True Qi, violently shook his sleeves. The spearhead split into dozens of paths and surged forward.
With every strike, blood erupted from Peng Hyeon-hwi’s body. Even if he dodged and deflected, his body was crumbling from the shockwaves alone.
Such is the difference between a fly and a human. Such was the difference between the Second-Rate and the Peak Realm.
If only it were ten years—no, five years earlier, I wouldn't be suffering this insult...!
He was a warrior who had once stepped into the Super Peak Realm. But he had failed to awaken his Upper Dantian, suffering a backlash, and his realm had dropped due to the frailty of old age.
It was purely due to age. It was because he had failed to achieve Rejuvenation.
Because of that, the power in his hands was unsatisfying. The martial arts he saw with his own eyes felt sluggish. The rage of an old warrior who knew his prime all too well was palpable.
He should have been able to swat such a fly in a single blow.
A Peak Master’s sense of time is different from that of commoners. They lived in a time where intense internal energy, like a heartbeat, guided their nerves. But even the senses that were once sharp enough to see the shape of falling raindrops had dulled with time.
The same went for the sensation of catching an enemy's blade with bare hands.
Because of that, he had avoided duels. The weight of his position as the Head of the Divine Spear Yang Family was too heavy to let it be known that his skills had declined. Even when teaching his disciples, he did not pick up a weapon.
Until the calluses that had been deeply etched into his hands began to fade.
This was the result. Even at the level of a Peak Master, the consequence of not clashing blades with others for a very long time was being proven like this.
It was beyond shameful. His diminished skills were being revealed in broad daylight, piece by piece.
He could hear the sound of his dreams collapsing. The future where he would command the Shanxi Murim with the Divine Spear Yang Family at the center was crumbling.
Even if he won this duel, the Shanxi Orthodox sects would no longer revere him. Him, who had once reigned as the overlord of the Shanxi Murim...
The eyes of the old warrior... met the eyes of the young warrior.
Now, Peng Hyeon-hwi realized that he was breathing on the same timeline, the same line of death, and the same line of sight.
—Crackle...!!
Thunder settled upon the blade.
He had heard that upon reaching the Second-Rate realm, Sword Qi dwells in the weapon, and upon reaching the First-Rate, Sword Qi alone can harm flesh.
He had never understood what that meant. Even by 21st-century standards, it sounded like something out of a fantasy novel. I mean, he understood imbuing a blade with energy, but harming someone's flesh with just energy without being cut by the blade?
The explanation that "it just works when you do it" was so absurd.
So, he had once swung his blade repeatedly, thinking, Fine, let's just do it until it works.
But even then, he hadn't realized it, not even when he first entered the path of the Thunderbolt Blade.
He was truly a peerless blockhead.
When it came to books, he could memorize a passage just by looking at it once, and if he read it twice, he knew exactly which page and which line it was on. It wasn't like that before he fell into the Murim, but from the moment he entered this body, it became naturally possible.
It was likely a talent inherent to this body, Peng Hyeon-hwi.
He had once beaten the ground in regret upon realizing this. With a mind like this, if he had been born into an ordinary noble family, he could have become the Prime Minister.
That was why he never let go of Confucianism. It was what he was best at.
From that perspective, it followed. He had no trouble understanding martial arts, secret manuals, the flow of meridians and internal energy, and the forms and stances just by seeing and hearing them.
But taking a step beyond that was incredibly difficult. It felt as if his instincts were rejecting what it actually meant. It was a sensation of denial from the depths of his 21st-century consciousness, insisting that such things couldn't be real.
Because of that, there were limits to his execution of the Thunderbolt Blade. Because the idea of imbuing a blade with lightning was too strange. And because it was a high-level martial art that could not be contained by an internal energy flow that hadn't yet achieved 'Sword Qi Hurting Humans.'
If he executed it briefly in a single stance or breath, it would quickly flicker out. That was his limit.
But it seemed that wasn't Peng Hyeon-hwi's limit.
—CLAAAAANG!!!
His head burned incredibly hot. It felt as if his eyes were being scorched.
But this monster-like body of the Hebei Peng Family would never collapse. Because there was no problem with taking one step at a time.
—Screeeech!!
The Thunderbolt Blade continued. It no longer flickered out; it was being maintained for longer and longer periods.
Just by seeing the slight shift in Yang Jeok-yo’s body and shoulder line, the next move was naturally 'read.'
—Clang!!
He could feel where, how, and what kind of attack was coming.
As the information accumulated and grew denser, he could now see the lines of the techniques.
A glowing blue thread entered his vision like a hallucination. Crack—a sensation as if something in his mind had broken open.
With it came a surge of omnipotence. Following that sensation that he could achieve anything, he swung his arm, and crackle—the energy surrounding the blade was imbued with thunder.
Finally, he felt a certainty that he could harm a person with just the energy contained in the blade.
So this is how it's done.
And, so this is how fun it is.
A Life-and-Death Duel is like a gamble where both sides stack their lives as stakes. It's not about taking the opponent's life, but the sensation of becoming addicted to the process of throwing all your chips in at once.
His heart pounded wildly, and his eyes moved on their own, seeing hallucinations.
It felt like it would work if he moved like this. And when he did, it actually happened.
—Slide.
The blade thinly sliced the shaft of Yang Jeok-yo’s spear, and thin wood shavings flew as if pushed by sandpaper. He had succeeded in carving it with energy alone, not the edge.
"He has reached the First-Rate realm."
From afar, he heard the laughter of the Hao Clan Leader.
I see. If this is the realm of Sword Qi Hurting Humans...
Then.
—Hwi, if you were raised as a warrior of the Peng Family, do you remember the saying that the person themselves is strong?
—If you are born of the Peng bloodline, you can overwhelm a Second-Rate warrior even at a Third-Rate level.
—A Second-Rate warrior can defeat a First-Rate.
—And a warrior who has reached the First-Rate realm will not be pushed back even when exchanging blows with a Peak Master.
—CLAAAAANG!!
It wasn't a victory. The Peak and the First-Rate are separated by a massive wall that cannot be crossed by bloodline alone. Standing here, he understood. That was a limit he couldn't be sure of surpassing even if he challenged it his entire life.
But he could exchange blows. He could stand on the same level of sight.
The physical coordination, the elasticity of the muscles and veins, the eye techniques that are inevitably strengthened when practicing the Hunyuan Art and the Continuous Blade. All these martial arts were closer to being designed for facing an enemy stronger than oneself.
And that is the totality of martial arts.
The human body is weak. Nails, teeth, bones—none are a match for those of a wild beast. At the dawn of civilization, humans had to face and defeat the wild with their fragile bodies.
Martial arts developed in that process. Just as fire chases away the darkness, the first martial arts were born to face things born stronger than oneself with a single weapon.
A warrior of the Hebei Peng Family, if they inherited the Peng bloodline, grows up assuming the totality of martial arts from the moment they are born. By naturally melting the means to face a stronger enemy into the process of introductory arts—
"You, what on earth are you doing right now—?!"
He walked. Even when twisted and swung at, he did not fall. He walked the Mountain Lord’s Step.
He swung. Even against a fierce onslaught that would break him if he parried and tear him if he blocked, he moved without fear.
He watched. The first thing one masters when learning martial arts to deflect blades is eye techniques. He utilized them to the fullest and watched.
Not the opponent's blade, but the opponent's body. The movement of the muscles. The flow of the stances. He saw and read the air.
And.
He gathered a single bolt of lightning that connects heaven and earth into both hands.
—Crackle!!
The thunder that connects the gap of the Hunyuan symbolizes the cycle of life and death. Hunyuan Thunderbolt Blade.
The thunder dwelling on the blade disintegrated as it struck the Astral Energy. The overwhelming difference in internal energy and realm finally broke the blade.
Snap! With a short sound, the pitch-black Peng blade was shattered into pieces.
He didn't look at that sight. He only looked at Yang Jeok-yo’s body.
He 'saw' the joy rising to Yang Jeok-yo’s lips as his technique landed.
And his left hand.
He clenched the left hand he had kept back until now.
Because he couldn't deflect the Astral Energy-covered spearhead, he had sealed his Heart-Protecting Fist and used only the Continuous Blade for defense.
True Qi gathered in the fist held beneath the gauntlet.
A single thread of True Qi left behind by the Hao Clan Leader was used to glimpse a realm he could not yet possess. Through countless hardships, he drew out a realm he would reach in the distant future.
He had already learned the guidance of True Qi when he learned the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art. All that was lacking were enlightenment and internal energy.
Enlightenment was provided by his current sense of omnipotence, and internal energy was paid for by the Elder's True Qi.
—Crackle, crackle...!!
Lightning flowed from the fist held beneath the gauntlet.
He gripped it, pulled it back.
Forming a bow with his body and stamping his feet firmly on the ground—a Jin-gak. From the twisted Thrusting Vessel, flowing along the meridians: Gwanwon, Gihae, Eumgyo, Jungbu, Hyeopbaek, Cheoktaek, Gokji. The acupoints where True Qi crossed shone like stars—
When the cluster of stars formed a constellation, its trace became the name of the martial art.
"Thunderbolt City-Destroying Cannon."
—BOOOOOM!!
His fist struck the ribs of the jubilant Yang Jeok-yo.
The origin of the Iron-Shattering Hammer. A secret technique of the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Art. A fragment of a supreme technique not yet permitted to him exploded from his fist.
Thunderbolt City-Destroying Cannon.
A single strike (砲) of lightning (霹靂) that brings down (破) city walls (城).
In the now-silent arena.
"Cough...!!"
the old man's knees buckled and hit the ground.
One side of his body was missing, as if it had been violently torn away—a critical wound that even a Great Luo Golden Immortal could not save him from.
Before him, a hand gripping a gauntlet approached.
It grabbed the fallen old man by the hair and lifted him up.
A young man, soaked in his own blood and suffering from wounds no less severe, was looking straight down into the old man's face.
"I have collected the blood debt."
Shing. Along with the sound of a half-broken blade cutting through the air.
Thud. The body of the warrior who had once commanded the Shanxi Murim hit the ground and collapsed.