With That Level of Skill? (2)
Dang Jan’s face darkened with murderous intent.
‘What the hell did this bastard just say?’
Inspection?
Who was inspecting whom?
A Mount Hua disciple, inspecting him, a member of the Dang Family?
Crack.
Dang Jan clenched his fist. Before he could even speak, the brothers standing to his left and right spoke first.
"Big brother. It looks like those bastards have lost their damn minds."
"We tried to be as courteous as possible since we don’t have much business with Mount Hua, but if they’re the ones picking a fight first, that’s a different matter, isn’t it?"
His brothers wore faces twisted with anger as well.
Come to think of it, it was only natural. When had they ever been treated like this?
‘Did those Mount Hua idiots all lose their minds at once or something?’
He could understand that drunkard over there. As a sect grew larger, there were bound to be one or two lunatics in the mix. Even the Dang Family had its share of complete ruffians you’d never let out in public.
But if Righteous Sword of Mount Hua Baek Cheon was joining in to provoke them too, then this was another matter entirely.
It was no different from saying Mount Hua looked down on the Dang Family completely.
Grrrind.
Grinding his teeth, Dang Jan stared at Baek Cheon with eyes that looked ready to tear him apart on the spot.
"Will you be able to take responsibility for those words?"
"I’ve lived my life taking responsibility for everything I’ve said. There’s no reason this time should be any different."
Baek Cheon answered with easy composure.
Hearing that, Dang Jan actually felt some of his anger cool. So they said when fury reached its peak, a person became calm instead. It seemed to be true.
"Mount Hua must be a remarkable sect. To block the path of the Dang Family just to protect a single disciple. You’re saying you can truly bear the consequences of this, then?"
Baek Cheon let out a small snort.
"The Dang Family may not be like that, but Mount Hua doesn’t calculate whether it’s worth protecting a disciple of the sect. There are things that must come first. What is there to hesitate over?"
"…"
"It’s unlikely, but even if Mount Hua were wiped out over this, not a single disciple of Mount Hua would blame me. That’s Mount Hua."
It was a deeply moving statement.
At least, it would have been—if the disciples’ reactions hadn’t been so completely different.
"What the hell is he talking about?"
"We’d totally hold it against him."
"He’s going way too far on his own."
Baek Cheon, his face slightly flushed, shut his mouth tightly.
Those damn junior disciples—why couldn’t they keep their mouths shut when it mattered?
Still, no matter what the Mount Hua disciples thought, Dang Jan had no need to consider it. What mattered was how to punish the man who had dared to look down on the Dang Family.
"Righteous Sword of Mount Hua…. The young hero of Mount Hua who brought down the Sword Dragon of Wudang."
Depending on who was doing the judging, some even placed Righteous Sword of Mount Hua above Mount Hua Divine Dragon.
Unlike the Mount Hua Divine Dragon, whose achievements were so outrageous and absurd that people couldn’t help but suspect exaggeration, Baek Cheon’s deeds had unmistakable substance.
Above all, wasn’t the fact that he had defeated the Sword Dragon—one of the famed Five Dragons—an accomplishment more than enough to justify placing him among their ranks?
"You’ll do fine as an opponent."
Dang Jan stepped forward.
"I am Dang Jan of the Sichuan Dang Family. My hand knows no mercy, so be careful."
"Baek Cheon of Mount Hua. Don’t worry. My sword is merciful."
"This bastard…"
Just as Dang Jan was about to thrust his hand into his sleeve—
Chung Myung’s flushed face popped out from behind Baek Cheon’s back.
"Hey, why is Sasuk fighting?"
"Huh?"
Baek Cheon, who had been halfway into his stance for a duel, turned around.
"…What?"
Has that bastard finally gone insane?
Turning one’s back on an opponent standing right in front of them was absolutely unthinkable. But then again, for someone who claimed to walk the righteous path, deliberately targeting the back of a turned opponent was also something they should never do.
Thanks to that, Dang Jan could only stand there with his eyes wide, watching Baek Cheon’s ridiculous performance.
"You keep stepping in from the start, but this is Jo Gul Sajaeng’s matter, isn’t it?"
"…You want to send Jo Gul out there?"
"I get that you’ve got a thing for that sort of glory, Sasuk, but this is enough. Now it’s Jo Gul Sajaeng’s turn to shine. It’s been a while since he saw his parents, too."
Baek Cheon’s eyes twitched.
‘What the hell does this kid think the Dang Family is?’
The Dang Family. The Sichuan Dang Family.
A prestigious family in Sichuan, famous for poison and hidden weapons.
Even veteran martial artists would find their lives hanging by a thread at the slightest mistake when facing a master of the Sichuan Dang Family. And he wanted Jo Gul—who had hardly any real combat experience—to go up against them?
"Isn’t that too dangerous?"
"It’s fine, it’s fine. Tigers throw their cubs off cliffs, remember?"
"Then they die, you idiot!"
Chung Myung was casually saying things that would make an actual tiger scream in shock.
At Baek Cheon’s panicked response, Chung Myung clicked his tongue.
"Tsk. This is why people in higher positions are such a pain in the ass."
Chung Myung understood perfectly well what Baek Cheon was worried about. But protecting and sheltering someone was not always helpful. To cherish the next generation was, in a way, to steal their experience away.
That was also the one thing Chung Myung was most wary of.
If he handled everything himself, his successors would lose the chance to grow properly.
He had to let them gain as much as they could from him, while minimizing whatever they lost because of him.
"Do you really think Jo Gul Sajaeng is that weak?"
"…"
Chung Myung smiled faintly as he spoke.
"He won’t lose to people like that."
Baek Cheon’s expression hardened slightly. There was undeniable trust in the way he spoke of Jo Gul. Indeed…
"I’m the one who trained him!"
"…"
If he hadn’t added that last part, it might have been a little touching.
Whether he knew Baek Cheon’s feelings or not, Chung Myung snapped his head around to look at Jo Gul.
"Right, Sajaeng?"
Jo Gul gave a heavy nod.
He wouldn’t lose. This wasn’t a matter of winning or not winning.
This was a matter between Jo Gul and the Sichuan Dang Family. So Jo Gul had to be the one to settle it.
He looked Chung Myung straight in the eye.
‘This bastard, seriously.’
If Chung Myung stepped in, this might end easily. That bastard was the kind of monster who somehow solved whatever problem was thrown at him.
But Jo Gul knew something else.
‘I can’t hide behind Chung Myung’s back forever.’
He had no intention of becoming a burden to Chung Myung. If that had been his plan, he never would have come all the way to Yunnan in the first place.
He knew he couldn’t stand as an equal. But at the very least, he wanted to be useful. That, Jo Gul believed, was the minimum requirement for standing alongside Chung Myung.
What kind of damn help was he if he couldn’t even handle one thing like this on his own?
"Sasuk."
Baek Cheon met Jo Gul’s gaze.
"I understand what Sasuk means. But this is something I need to resolve myself."
Baek Cheon’s eyes grew heavy.
"Can you do it?"
Jo Gul grinned.
"I’m a disciple of Mount Hua, too."
At this moment, there was no more reassuring answer in the world.
Baek Cheon returned Jo Gul’s grin with a smile of his own.
"Go."
"Yes, sir!"
Leaving Baek Cheon and Chung Myung behind, Jo Gul walked forward, and Dang Jan’s brows furrowed.
"You?"
"Wasn’t I the one you wanted from the beginning?"
Jo Gul tapped the sword hanging at his waist.
"Then it’s only right that I be the one to deal with you, no?"
Dang Jan’s face twisted sharply.
‘The insolence.’
He could understand Baek Cheon and Chung Myung acting arrogant. It wasn’t unusual for some puppy to bark without knowing how terrifying a tiger was.
But Jo Gul was different.
He was from Chengdu; there was no way he didn’t know how frightening the Sichuan Dang Family was. And yet he was standing there so boldly, claiming he’d face him himself.
Dang Jan decided any further conversation was unnecessary.
There was no need for courtesy anymore. Just as he had intended when he first came here, he would crush Jo Gul without mercy and warn everyone what it meant to defy the Dang Family in Chengdu.
One thing had changed, though.
‘It would be wise not to expect to leave here in one piece.’
Dang Jan pulled on his green-skin gloves, determined to take out every humiliation he had suffered here on Jo Gul.
The green-skin gloves carried by the Dang Family’s martial artists were made from deer hide specially treated with medicine to keep poison from seeping through.
Wearing green-skin gloves could mean one was about to use poison, but it also meant one would show no mercy in a duel.
Jo Gul watched him with lowered eyes.
The confrontation between the two began.
Everyone watching kept their composure in their own way. But there was one person who simply could not remain calm.
Jo Pyeong.
From the moment his son stepped forward, Jo Pyeong had nearly lost all reason.
Good heavens!
Jo Gul was stepping up against Dang Jan of the Sichuan Dang Family.
Who was Dang Jan?
He was one of the Dang Family’s younger generation, one whose talent had already been acknowledged as outstanding. Seeing his own son step up to face such a person was enough to drive him mad.
‘I have to stop him!’
Nothing else was visible to Jo Pyeong now. Even the fact that if he rushed in to protect Jo Gul, the Dang Family’s wrath might fall on the Sahaesanghoe—none of that entered his head.
"D-Dang Sogong! This matter—"
All he could think was that he had to somehow defuse this situation.
But at that moment—
"Father!"
"…Gul-ah?"
Jo Gul looked at Jo Pyeong with a firm, unwavering gaze.
"This is the matter of the Sahae Alliance, but it is also Mount Hua’s matter. Please trust me and wait."
"Do you even know what you’re saying right now?"
Shiiing.
Jo Gul’s answer came not in words, but in his hand.
Drawing his sword, Jo Gul stared quietly at Dang Jan.
‘The Sichuan Dang Family.’
Once, the name of the Dang Family had been a symbol of fear and terror to him, an unscalable wall. From the moment he had been born into a Chengdu merchant family, the Sichuan Dang Family had been like a heavenly punishment hanging above his head at all times.
But now?
‘It’d be funnier to be scared.’
Compared to the bastard over there gulping down liquor, Dang Jan was practically a good child. How could Jo Gul lose to someone like him after fighting monsters like Chung Myung?
What had he brought back from Mount Hua?
‘Too much to even explain.’
So he would have to show it with this sword.
As Jo Gul’s eyes settled into icy calm, Dang Jan was just about to make his move when—
"Big brother."
Dang Jan turned his head.
"Do we really need to use a butcher’s cleaver to kill a chicken? I’ll go."
His younger brother, Dang Ho, stepped forward with a mocking grin.
"I was the one who—"
"If Righteous Sword of Mount Hua isn’t stepping in, then it’ll look bad if you do."
Dang Jan gave a slight nod.
He wasn’t wrong. A person also had to act in a way appropriate to their rank. Dang Jan murmured lowly and stepped back.
"Don’t show him the slightest mercy."
"Of course."
Dang Ho stood before Jo Gul and shoved his hand into his sleeve.
It was the signature stance of the Sichuan Dang Family, something even those who had never seen one of their martial artists in person had likely heard of. Hidden inside that sleeve were the Dang Family’s countless concealed weapons.
"Dang Ho of the Sichuan Dang Family."
"Jo Gul of Mount Hua."
A cold killing intent bloomed in Dang Ho’s eyes.
Jo Gul’s face was familiar to him. There was no way he wouldn’t recognize a member of the Sahaesanghoe. From childhood, they were taught to burn into memory the faces of those they would one day rule over.
The Jo Gul who had once not even been able to meet his eyes was now daring to draw a sword at him.
‘Arrogant bastard.’
It felt like cutting off at least one of his arms would be enough to calm his anger.
Dang Ho lightly brushed the cow-hair needles hidden in his sleeve, then scattered them like streaks of light.
Dozens of hair-thin needles, nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, shot toward Jo Gul at terrifying speed.
‘What? That’s all?’
Seeing Jo Gul fail to react at all, Dang Ho inwardly cheered.
First, he’d land the cow-hair needles. Once Jo Gul was unable to move properly, then he would—
"Huh?"
And then it happened.
Faaaat!
Jo Gul’s sword, which had seemed unable to react at all, suddenly swept out at astonishing speed.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
His sword deflected the dozens of needles one by one.
Dang Ho’s eyes went wide at the unbelievable sight.
And then he realized something else.
It was still too early to be surprised.
Tap!
Jo Gul kicked off the ground. His body shot toward Dang Ho like a bolt of lightning.
"Wha—?"
Faaang!
Those who lost their composure could never win.
Feeling the flat of Jo Gul’s sword sweeping toward his throat, Dang Ho crumpled to the ground.
‘Th-this can’t be…’
Thud.
Jo Gul silently looked down at the fallen Dang Ho, then twitched the corner of his mouth.
And lifting his head to look at Dang Jan, he shouted with heavy conviction, "Next!"
I’ve always wanted to do that at least once!
Krrrgh!