Suddenly, a Big Shot Shows Up? (4)
Chung Myung and Tang Gun-ak stood facing each other at a distance.
Everyone watching them swallowed hard.
Those who were rooting for Chung Myung were, of course, too tense to know what to do with themselves.
"Sasuk...."
Yoon Jong asked in a trembling voice.
"Lord of the Tang Family is probably insanely strong, right?"
"...Yeah, probably."
"How strong do you think he is?"
Baek Cheon found himself furrowing his brows slightly.
How strong?
That was a difficult question.
"I don't know about the whole world, but in Sichuan he'd at least be in the top three."
"...That strong?"
Yoon Jong's face went a little pale.
Top three?
Sichuan was a huge place! And on top of that, Sichuan also housed the renowned orthodox sects Mount Emei and Qingcheng. And yet he was saying Tang Gun-ak ranked in the top three?
"Can Chung Myung take on someone like that?"
"...."
Baek Cheon shut his mouth tightly.
Truthfully, the only answer he could give was, I don't know.
When measuring relative strength, you needed a standard, a yardstick. To judge Yoon Jong's strength, for instance, he would first have to establish the gap between himself and Yoon Jong.
Through comparing Yoon Jong to himself, he could gauge Yoon Jong's strength, and from there estimate the strength of those on a similar level.
But Tang Gun-ak?
He's just impossibly far away.
With Baek Cheon's limited yardstick, there was no way to measure that towering strength. All he could conclude was that Tang Gun-ak was stronger than could be measured.
That was how strong Tang Gun-ak was.
So strong it gave him chills.
But isn't Chung Myung the same?
Chung Myung, too, could not be measured by Baek Cheon's standard. What could anyone predict when two people whose strength could not be grasped went at each other?
Only this much.
"Saying he can win is ridiculous."
"As expected...."
"But if you're talking about lasting ten breaths, that's a different story."
"...."
Baek Cheon spoke with certainty.
"A normal younger disciple wouldn't last even one breath against the Lord of the Tang Family, much less ten. But Chung Myung isn't a normal younger disciple, is he?"
Baek Cheon's eyes fixed on Chung Myung's back.
Did he tell us not to blink and watch closely?
Baek Cheon knew this much.
If Chung Myung had wanted to, he could have avoided a spar with Tang Gun-ak however he pleased. Proving strength didn't have to mean a direct match.
But Chung Myung had gone so far as to provoke Tang Gun-ak and create this situation himself.
And then told them to watch.
Why?
That bastard....
Baek Cheon grit his teeth.
What Mount Hua lacked most.
One was inner power.
And the other?
It was obvious.
An absolute master.
It didn't mean Mount Hua had no one strong enough to bolster its force. It meant there was no one whose height they could look up to and use as a guiding peak.
Of course, there was Un Geom and Hyun Sang, but they could not show the disciples what a true absolute master was. There was no way to make them understand just how strong someone who had stepped beyond the human realm and into the Supreme Realm truly was.
So Mount Hua's disciples could only guess. They could not see it with their own eyes or feel it in their bones, so they had only ever groped after that strength in the dark, making it their goal from imagination alone.
And now, at last, an absolute master who overlooked all under heaven stood before them.
Baek Cheon bit down on his lip.
Fine. I'll miss not even one thing.
No matter how accurately one guessed, it was still worlds apart from seeing it with one's own eyes.
Merely by watching this match, Baek Cheon—and Mount Hua's disciples—would be able to rise a little higher.
With that conviction in his heart, Baek Cheon clenched his fist tight.
Tang Gun-ak looked at Chung Myung standing before him and slightly furrowed his brow.
I don't know.
Most people, when faced like this, would reveal some measure of their level. One could usually tell whether they were weaker or stronger than oneself.
But Chung Myung, standing before him now, was ambiguity itself.
He seemed empty, yet at the same time deep enough to pull one in. He looked like a thoughtless wild brat, and yet sometimes an old, seasoned craftiness surfaced that even made Tang Gun-ak startle.
Should I call him bizarre?
How could a single person give off so many different impressions?
This wasn't martial eagerness. It was closer to curiosity.
Tang Gun-ak was at the point where he couldn't stand not knowing what was inside this boy.
It was like when he had been very young, and his father had come home with a carefully wrapped present. He'd felt as though he wouldn't be able to sleep until he opened it and found out what was inside.
Hm?
Only now did Tang Gun-ak realize the state he'd fallen into, and a strange expression crossed his face.
When was the last time I was this excited?
How odd.
This was truly odd.
Tang Gun-ak took a slow breath and stared straight at the source of that excitement.
"Ten breaths."
He wasn't saying this for Chung Myung's sake. It was closer to Tang Gun-ak setting the purpose of this contest clearly for himself. Otherwise, he felt as though he might drown in the thrill of it.
"If you endure ten breaths, then I... no, the Tang Family will acknowledge you."
"Why make such a fuss?"
Chung Myung held out a hand and crooked his fingers.
"Let's begin. I'll let you strike first."
A smile formed at the corner of Tang Gun-ak's mouth.
"Bold."
If anyone else had acted this way in front of him, Tang Gun-ak would never have forgiven them. But strangely enough, he didn't find Chung Myung all that offensive.
Is it not arrogance, but confidence?
If so, there was no reason to dislike it. Confidence came from skill, and skill came from effort.
It was only natural for a martial artist who had worked tirelessly to improve himself to possess confidence.
Wasn't Chung Myung a hundred times better than his own sons, who were always crushed by his aura and couldn't even meet his eyes properly?
"I heard you broke my son's hidden dagger technique."
"That was Senior Brother Jo Gul."
"...Same thing, I suppose."
"Huh? That's completely different."
"...Not all that different."
Chung Myung looked at Tang Gun-ak with strange eyes.
So blood really does tell.
The Tang Family brat he knew had also acted incredibly solemn on the surface, only to turn out to be a complete airhead once you got to know him. Maybe Tang Gun-ak was similar.
"And so, I will face you with that same hidden dagger technique."
"Oh? The one you showed us just now?"
"You think it is the same hidden dagger?"
Chung Myung grinned.
"Of course not."
"Good. You understand."
Even if it was the same hidden dagger technique, it could never truly be the same technique.
Just as the sword displayed by Jo Gul, Baek Cheon, and Chung Myung would all be different even if it was all called swordsmanship.
In the same way, Tang Gun-ak's hidden dagger technique could never be compared to Tang Jan's.
That was skill.
Tang Gun-ak slipped a hand into his sleeve. When it emerged again, it held a somewhat worn hidden dagger.
"...."
Chung Myung stared hard at the dagger in Tang Gun-ak's hand.
Then, his face stiffened slightly before he closed and reopened his eyes.
It's been a while since I've seen that.
That willow-leaf dagger.
"Consider it an honor that I am facing you with this dagger. It is the beloved weapon of the man who wielded the most perfect hidden dagger technique in the long history of the Tang Family."
Chung Myung gave a light laugh.
Well. When it came to that dagger, I probably know more about it than you do.
There was no way he could not know.
That worn, well-used dagger. That was Tang Bo's beloved weapon.
Chasing Soul Dagger.
So it made its way back to the Tang Family.
Seeing Tang Bo's beloved weapon in Tang Gun-ak's hand made him feel a little strange.
Chung Myung let out a low breath and steadied himself once more.
"I'm honored."
"Honored?"
Fwoooooosh!
At that instant, with a fearsome slicing sound, the Chasing Soul Dagger shot from Tang Gun-ak's hand like a beam of light and brushed past Chung Myung's face.
Drip, drip, drip.
It had only brushed him, yet his cheek split open in a long line, and red blood began to flow.
Seeing that, Tang Gun-ak smiled coldly.
"'Honored' isn't the right word. This won't be an honorable death."
At Tang Gun-ak's words, Chung Myung quietly raised a hand and casually wiped the blood from his cheek. Then he licked the blood on his fingertips with his tongue.
"Agh."
Then he grimaced and flicked his hand away.
"Tch, yuck. You've ruined my appetite."
He really never did get used to the taste of blood.
Chung Myung roughly rubbed the blood left on his fingers against his clothes, wiping it away, then smirked as he looked at Tang Gun-ak.
"That was one breath."
"...What?"
"You made one attack. Nine left."
"Hah?"
Tang Gun-ak stared at him, dumbfounded.
The hidden dagger he had launched had passed right by Chung Myung's face. He had surely seen its speed and power with his own eyes; it would not have been strange for him to curse and run away right this instant, shouting that he was done and would quit the spar.
And yet he said there were nine breaths left?
I really can't make sense of this boy.
Crack.
The two Chasing Soul Daggers in Tang Gun-ak's hands rubbed against each other, making a grating sound.
"Nine breaths, huh."
Tang Gun-ak's cold eyes fixed on Chung Myung.
"Seems like too little time to take your life."
"No. You'll regret it. You'll say you wasted one shot badly."
"You...."
"I'll show you."
Sreeeek.
Chung Myung drew his sword.
"Why that was a mistake. Right now, with this sword."
At the same time, the playfulness vanished from Chung Myung's face.
The sword slowly rising in his hand pointed at Tang Gun-ak.
The moment the tip of Chung Myung's sword aimed at him, Tang Gun-ak unconsciously tightened his grip on the daggers.
An unfamiliar sensation swelled in his chest, and his expression hardened.
What do I call this feeling?
...Yes.
It was dread.
Tang Gun-ak bit down lightly on his lip.
To feel dread from the sword of a child younger than his own sons.
Impossible.
Emotion left Tang Gun-ak's face.
I am Tang Gun-ak, the Poison King.
His pride, just slightly wrinkled, began to sharpen into real killing intent.
He had never planned to hold back from the start.
If Chung Myung died without being able to stop his daggers, then that was all he amounted to. What would change if one such man died?
But if Chung Myung blocked every one of his daggers?
The Tang Family would finally receive a true guest for the first time in decades.
A guest they would have to acknowledge and treat properly.
However....
Krkkrkkrk!
Tang Gun-ak's eyes spat out terrifying light.
That will not happen!
At the same time, another dagger filled with his inner power shot forth.
This time, it was no mere warning.
The Chasing Soul Dagger launched from Tang Gun-ak's fingertips flew toward Chung Myung at a speed so terrifying it couldn't even be tracked with the eye.
Claaaaang!
At that very moment, Chung Myung smoothly swept his sword and knocked the incoming dagger away.
The twisted dagger shot past Chung Myung and punched through the pillar of a hall behind him.
At the same time, Tang Gun-ak's eyes widened as though they might split.
He deflected it?
My Chasing Soul Dagger?
How?
The dagger he'd launched wasn't merely fast. It also carried an absurd amount of inner power compressed within it.
If someone had carelessly tried to parry or block it, the sword would have broken and the dagger would have burrowed straight into their throat.
But Chung Myung, without any noticeable exertion, had simply swept it aside and changed its course.
Was there anyone here who could even begin to understand how difficult that was?
"Looks like...."
A cruel smile crept across Tang Gun-ak's mouth.
"I may have underestimated you."
"Didn't I say you'd regret it?"
"Indeed. So then...."
In that instant, Tang Gun-ak's sleeves swelled as though they might burst. Simultaneously, a vortex began to rise around his body. The surging true energy was whipping even the surrounding qi into a frenzy.
Mount Hua's disciples who stood behind them unconsciously staggered back.
Even Chung Myung flinched and took a step backward.
Spreading both arms wide, Tang Gun-ak shouted,
"From this point on...."
The Poison King's rage crashed down over Chung Myung without mercy.
"I will face you with everything I have!"
"...That's a bit much, isn't it?!"
He doesn't understand jokes at all, does he? That old man?
The old Tang Family wasn't like this!