I Agree With That. (5)
Fwoooosh!
Yeop Pyeong’s saber tore through the air.
The sheer force packed into it was enough to make a spectator’s muscles tighten just from looking. And it wasn’t some ordinary saber technique, either.
The blade, wrapped in a red aura, became ferocity itself as it swung again and again. It looked like a storm infused with a scarlet gale was sweeping through the battlefield.
Clang! Clang!
Craaang!
Every time Baek Cheon blocked a strike, his Plum Blossom Sword bent as though it would snap.
The raw power behind each blow seemed ready to crush not only the sword, but the wrist holding it as well.
“Hng!”
A groan escaped Baek Cheon before he could swallow it back down.
Yeop Pyeong, the Red Snake Blade, was unlike any enemy he had faced before.
Strong?
Of course he was strong.
At this rate, even Jin Geum-ryong might not be able to beat him.
But what was provoking Baek Cheon right now wasn’t the man’s strength.
It was the savage killing intent that came with every single swing of the saber—an ironclad determination to kill his opponent no matter what.
Every strike was aimed squarely at a vital point.
A string of attacks that could inflict a lethal wound even if they only grazed him was an experience Baek Cheon had never had to endure before.
He bit down hard on his lip.
It felt as though his mental strength was being shaved away in an instant. He had barely even moved properly, and already cold sweat soaked his back, while the hand gripping his sword trembled faintly.
This is real combat!
Fighting someone with unmistakable murderous intent was completely different from a spar. Merely facing such an opponent drained him, and attacks that would normally not have seemed especially dangerous now made his heart drop to the floor.
Clang!
Baek Cheon’s Plum Blossom Sword bent again, violently.
Keeeeeek!
The sword twisted to its limit and screamed in protest. If it hadn’t been specially made by the Tang Clan for Mount Hua, it would have snapped already.
“Where’d all that confidence go, you brat? You were acting like you could pierce the heavens a moment ago!”
Baek Cheon’s teeth ground together so hard they seemed about to break.
He was already fighting for his life just to keep blocking the incoming saber, yet his opponent still had the leisure to talk while hurling those absurd strikes one after another.
Bang!
A deafening boom burst from the sword that had blocked the saber.
At the same time, Baek Cheon’s body was shoved back in a long skid.
Unable to withstand the force packed into the saber, blood spilled from the corner of his mouth.
If this had been a mere spar, his opponent might have eased up after seeing his condition.
But Yeop Pyeong only swung harder the moment he showed weakness.
Dammit!
With his teeth clenched tight, Baek Cheon swung his sword back at him, meeting force with force.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every collision between sword and saber sent explosive waves rippling outward. And as the clash continued, the edge of the Plum Blossom Sword began to show dents, one after another.
This was not like the saber of the Peng Clan, which pressed an opponent down with sheer weight.
Yeop Pyeong’s saber seemed intent on blasting Baek Cheon apart and killing him with speed and domination alone.
“Run your damn mouth!”
Crash!
“Anyone can talk big!”
Crash!
“But—”
Craaash!
Baek Cheon’s body was flung back like an arrow loosed from a bow. Tumbled several paces before crashing to the ground, he lifted his head in a flustered, miserable daze.
“Ghk!”
What he saw was Yeop Pyeong leaping into the air, saber raised high for a downward slash.
Baek Cheon didn’t even have time to suppress his groan before he rolled across the ground.
BOOOOOOM!
The saber crashed down where he had been standing and literally pulverized the earth.
With a single strike, it carved out a crater large enough to fit several people.
Yeop Pyeong clicked his tongue as though dissatisfied and looked down at Baek Cheon.
“My, my. For such a noble Taoist to be rolling around on the ground like that, I’m sure the whole world will have a good laugh.”
“……”
Rather than answering, Baek Cheon sprang up and reset his stance.
That was close.
If he had been even a heartbeat slower to raise his head and read his opponent, he would have been split in two and gone to meet the King of Hell by now.
Dust clinging to his face mixed with sweat and dripped down his chin.
“Tch.”
Yeop Pyeong spat on the ground and rolled his neck from side to side.
“The jianghu is a place where you prove yourself with skill. Not some playground for loudmouth brats like you to flap their gums.”
His tone hadn’t changed much.
And neither had his posture.
But now his words carried several times the weight they had before, stabbing into Baek Cheon’s ears like needles.
“You got a little too famous among the younger generation and started thinking you were something special. It’s an older man’s job to let the air out of a brat like you. Be careful. I’ll punch a hole in that arrogant chest of yours and let it all out. Heh heh.”
Cheap.
But could it really be called mere cheapness?
Lightness without skill was just vulgarity. Lightness backed by skill became ease.
Ease?
Baek Cheon gritted his teeth.
He was standing right in front of him, and the bastard still had the luxury to act carefree?
It felt as if he had swallowed a lump of red-hot charcoal; his stomach burned like fire.
Seeing the offended glint blaze in Baek Cheon’s eyes, Yeop Pyeong grinned as though he found it amusing and slashed the air once with his saber.
Then, without the slightest pause, he closed the distance again and tried to split Baek Cheon’s skull open.
BOOM!
Blood surged up into Baek Cheon’s mouth.
The internal force packed into the strike shook his insides to their core. His knees wobbled, and every bone in his body seemed to cry out.
If this went on, it felt like his whole body would shatter and die before he even had to endure another direct hit.
He’s strong.
Stronger than he had imagined.
Yeop Pyeong.
He had heard that name many times, but he had assumed the difference between him and Jin Geum-ryong wouldn’t be all that great. Jin Geum-ryong was, after all, one of the most famous younger masters in the world.
But this was different.
Only now did Baek Cheon truly understand the gulf between people who earned their fame through sheer strength and the so-called younger generation.
There was no mistake in the claim that the younger generation was only judged by its potential.
“Where did all that bravado go!”
Crash!
Another saber strike came down with overwhelming force.
Clack-clack-clack!
The Plum Blossom Sword bent halfway, warped so badly it looked as if it would snap at any moment. A flicker of despair rose in Baek Cheon’s eyes.
Chu… Ch...
He reflexively turned his head, trying to look back over his shoulder, and his whole body jolted with a spasm.
And then, in that very instant—
Fwoooosh!
A fast sword strike of a speed utterly unlike anything so far streaked toward Yeop Pyeong’s face as he brought his saber down.
“Hng!”
Startled, Yeop Pyeong jerked his head back.
But the change had come so suddenly that a red line still bloomed across his cheek.
He jumped back two or three steps at once, putting distance between them, then rubbed at the wound on his face with a twisted expression.
“You little—”
Rage churned in his eyes as he glared at Baek Cheon.
Hm?
But the moment Baek Cheon’s slightly bowed head lifted again, Yeop Pyeong’s face stiffened almost imperceptibly.
Baek Cheon’s eyes had sunk low, carrying a weight different from before. From his mouth, dark red blood dripped steadily.
“Huh?”
It wasn’t blood vomited from his stomach. Yeop Pyeong realized at once that it was blood from biting his tongue.
In the instant of crisis, Baek Cheon had bitten down on his own tongue to steady himself and land a clean counterattack.
Well, look at that?
Now Baek Cheon’s face looked every bit like a swordsman’s. The sight of him staring ahead with eyes utterly unmoved made him seem even more like a true blade user.
Something had changed.
But Yeop Pyeong had no way of knowing where that change had come from.
Thinking this might get a little more interesting, he tightened his grip on the saber and stamped his foot down.
I’m an idiot.
Meanwhile, Baek Cheon stared at Yeop Pyeong with lowered eyes.
Why did I look back?
Because his fellow disciples were behind him?
Because he was afraid?
No.
Because Chung Myung was behind him.
Idiot.
He had stepped forward so confidently. He had ignored every attempt to stop him and forced swagger onto his shoulders.
And yet, deep inside, he must have been holding onto the lazy thought that if things ever went bad, Chung Myung would somehow step in and handle it.
Yeop Pyeong hadn’t been wrong about a single thing. Baek Cheon was nothing more than a brat with no real skill who had been showing off because he had backing—whether that backing was Mount Hua or Chung Myung.
So when he sensed danger, had he not unconsciously tried to look for Chung Myung?
That realization filled Baek Cheon with burning fury.
And this is supposed to be the Great Senior Brother of Mount Hua?
And he had been spouting off all that nonsense?
Don’t get tense. Return to the basics. Lower your stance.
What a load of crap.
He had said all that as if he himself could uphold any of it.
He couldn’t even bear to lift his face from the shame.
But—
Not yet.
Baek Cheon’s eyes sank even deeper.
That bastard Chung Myung had said it before. Everyone made mistakes. Trying not to make mistakes was important, but what mattered even more was how you made up for them.
The opponent was strong. Unbearably strong, wielding a saber of utterly savage domination.
So what could he possibly hope to achieve by meeting that with raw force?
The sword of Mount Hua he had learned was not something so crude.
Use the toes.
His big toe pressed firmly into the ground.
Lower the foundation. Keep the lower body rooted, but maintain tension so you can react at any time.
His legs, slightly spread, sank a little lower.
Keep the waist straight.
The strength in the hand gripping the sword loosened, becoming supple.
“A sword—”
His concentration rose so sharply that the thought slipped out through his mouth before he realized it.
“A sword is endlessly free.”
Swish.
Without consciously deciding to do so, his sword took the opening stance of the Yukhap Sword and settled into a middle guard.
“You bastard!”
Sensing the change, Yeop Pyeong gave no chance for Baek Cheon to fully settle into his stance and charged again with wild fury.
His face was twisted like some demonic beast, his entire body exuding pressure, and even the red aura spilling from his saber seemed to writhe and snake through the air. It looked as if a hellish asura itself were charging forward, screaming obscenities.
Yet Baek Cheon did not waver in the slightest.
Whoosh!
The saber slashed for his waist, and Baek Cheon’s Plum Blossom Sword clung gently to it. Without resisting the opponent’s force, he added his own and guided the blade lightly upward.
The redirected saber passed so close to Baek Cheon’s head that it clipped away his hero’s ribbon.
Softly, the ribbon split in two and drifted down, while his hair scattered all around him. Beneath that wild tangle of hair, his lowered eyes shone coldly.
Fwoooosh!
His sword, having slipped past the saber, cleaved through the air like a shaft of light.
As more than a dozen thrusts flashed out in an instant, Yeop Pyeong’s face hardened at once.
“You—!”
BOOOOOM!
The saber he swung in agitation boomed even though it had not struck anything directly.
Baek Cheon’s sword images were smashed to pieces in an instant under that blow.
But Baek Cheon had already opened the distance between them.
Thrust.
Fwoooosh!
Again.
Fwoooosh!
“Ghk!”
Throat, dantian, and groin.
Baek Cheon’s short, probing thrusts targeted the places most awkward to defend, and Yeop Pyeong’s face gradually twisted.
Before he realized it, he had taken a single step back, and only then did he look at Baek Cheon with eyes full of alarm.
For a saber user fighting a swordsman, giving ground was the one thing he should never do.
And then—
Swish-shhh.
The tip of Baek Cheon’s sword, not missing the chance, began painting a vivid plum blossom in the air.
Yeop Pyeong roared and rushed forward.
He had never personally faced Mount Hua’s swordsmanship before, but wasn’t it common knowledge to everyone who knew Mount Hua that a swordsman of that sect must never be allowed to draw a plum blossom?
It had been a given a hundred years ago.
But the long passage of time had made even a saber master like Yeop Pyeong commit a mistake.
In an instant, the world before him was covered in red plum blossoms.
For sword qi to leave afterimages that painted flowers was, even for a veteran like Yeop Pyeong, an astonishing sight.
But there was no time to be captivated by it now.
“Chaaaaah!”
Yeop Pyeong’s saber exploded with blood-colored saber qi.
He poured everything he had into it, intending to smash the incomplete plum blossoms apart with sheer power before they could fully bloom. Then he unleashed the strongest technique at his disposal.
“Diiiiieeee!”
BOOOOOOOM!
The blood-red saber qi Yeop Pyeong had created slammed into the blossoming plum flowers.
The half-open blossoms collided with the saber qi and unleashed an explosion so loud it seemed as though the eardrums might burst.
“Dodge!”
“Dammit!”
Fragments of saber qi and sword qi scattered in all directions. The disciples of the Red Snake Unit and Mount Hua all scrambled away in panic.
But even then, Yeop Pyeong kept tracking only Baek Cheon’s movements with the eyes of a beast hunting prey.
Where are you?
As the forest of plum blossoms was ripped apart, he stared with stubborn intensity toward the place Baek Cheon should have been.
And then—
Fwoooosh!
From within the plum blossoms, just before they were completely shattered, a hideously sharp burst of sword qi flew straight for Yeop Pyeong’s throat.
“I predicted that, you brat!”
Yeop Pyeong swatted away the incoming sword qi and hurled saber qi back along the same line.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
“Saasssssuuuuuuk!”
Yeop Pyeong’s saber qi ripped the plum blossoms to pieces and kept hammering down into the earth as though it would crush everything in the world. The ground caved in here and there, sending savage waves of qi flying outward.
He’s dead.
Yeop Pyeong’s lips curled faintly.
If he had swung his sword from there, there was no way he could evade that saber qi. Whether he blocked it or not, the result would be the same. There was no way a brat like that could endure force of this magnitude.
That was the very instant Yeop Pyeong became certain of his victory.
What…?
His eyes flew open so wide they seemed ready to split.
At last, when the saber qi dispersed, only a single sword lay on the ground.
The Plum Blossom Sword Baek Cheon had been wielding.
But the body that should have been dead, still gripping that sword, was nowhere to be seen.
W-Where?
Then—
Thud.
Behind Yeop Pyeong’s back, a fierce stamping sound rang out.
He jerked his head around so violently it nearly broke his neck, then stared with eyes wide open and mouth agape.
Baek Cheon was right in front of him, blood spilling from his mouth, and his fist was buried deep in Yeop Pyeong’s waist.
BOOOOOM!
A sound like something bursting open and the crack of bones shattering rang out at the same time. Yeop Pyeong was blasted away without even managing a scream, spraying blood like a fountain.
Thud! Thump! Thud!
Bouncing off the ground several times like a flat stone tossed onto water, Yeop Pyeong stared at Baek Cheon with trembling eyes.
“Kh, cough!”
He opened his mouth, but what came out before words was a clot of blood like congealed liver.
Vomiting blood, he finally managed to force out a voice.
“A, a swordsman… using the sword…”
At that, Baek Cheon—still working to steady his ragged breathing—gave a low laugh and sneered.
“So what? In a real fight, you do whatever it takes to win.”
“……”
Yeop Pyeong’s face turned crimson as he opened and closed his mouth several times. Then his eyes rolled up, and he collapsed.
Thunk.
The moment his head struck the ground, Baek Cheon spat out the blood pooled in his mouth and said,
“In real combat, if you let your guard down, you die. Keep that in mind, brat.”
Watching the whole thing from beginning to end, Chung Myung smiled with satisfaction.
He’s really annoying.
That too was a kind of disease.