A Little Too Healthy, That’s All (2)
Kwaaaaang!
A deafening roar split the air, and one bandit was sent flying, blood spraying from his body.
“Aaaahhh!”
Thud.
His miserable, flailing arc ended in a crash to the ground, and everyone simply stared, too stunned to speak.
What the hell is going on?
It looks like they’re getting beaten one-sidedly.
No, but does that even make sense?
The residents of Changsha could only doubt their own eyes.
The bandits had attacked. The Mount Hua disciples had stepped in to stop them.
Up to that point, there was nothing to think about. It was a clean, simple fact.
But the problem was what came after.
“...It looks like they’re driving cattle or something.”
“That side looks more like cattle to me.”
“More like mad cattle.”
“...”
Mount Hua were Daoist disciples, weren’t they? When people like that fought bandits, ordinary onlookers expected a certain kind of scene.
What unfolded instead was a chaotic brawl that looked like turf warfare between lowlife thugs.
And the biggest problem of all was that the ones controlling that kind of black-market melee and driving their opponents back without mercy were none other than the Daoist disciples of Mount Hua.
“No... that’s...”
It was a scene so absurd that even the word unbelievable felt inadequate.
“Didn’t they just say those were the Dae-byeol Bandits? As in the same Dae-byeol Bandits from Mount Dae-byeol? The vicious bandit stronghold even the orthodox sects hesitate to set foot in...?”
“S-seems like it.”
“...Then why are they getting crushed like that?”
No one could answer that question.
Of course, they had not exactly expected Mount Hua to fail. The sect was famous now; they had assumed it would handle the bandits somehow.
But “handle” did not usually mean beating them down so one-sidedly that it looked almost cruel, did it?
“So Mount Hua was this strong?”
“Hah... I knew fame wasn’t built out of thin air, but...”
They could only stand there in dazed confusion.
Those who knew little of the jianghu were shocked by the scene before them, while those who thought they knew better were even more shocked.
Mount Hua might have been making a name for itself, but that only meant its reputation had risen compared to before. No one seriously compared Mount Hua to the Nine Sects and One Gang, or to the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu, the factions that truly dominated the martial world.
And yet Mount Hua’s disciples were now overwhelmingly pressuring the bandits of the Seventy-Two Strongholds of the Green Forest.
So it was only natural that they were astonished.
Kwaaaaang!
At that moment, another thunderous explosion rang out, and another bandit dropped heavily to the ground.
Seeing the body twitching in convulsions and blood trickling from his head, the onlookers reflexively turned away.
Come on, feeling sorry for a bandit is just wrong.
But honestly, that side looks more like the bandits here.
“Uhh...”
Then someone cautiously opened their mouth, trying to explain this ridiculous scene.
“Maybe they’re not that impressive after all?”
“I told you, I heard them say Dae-byeol Bandits.”
“How can you trust what bandits say? And Dae-byeol Bandit Band might not be as big a deal as we think...”
Right then, it happened.
KWAAAAAAAANG!
With a massive boom that sounded like lightning striking the earth, a blue blade aura shot into the sky.
Crack! Slash!
When the flying blade light slammed into a hall, the structure split wide open as though it had been cleaved by a giant axe.
“...”
At the sight of a single strike nearly splitting a huge building in two, everyone fell silent. How could a human body made of flesh and bone possibly withstand such incredible force...?
“Wow, that guy’s got some serious strength.”
...He could.
He could, apparently.
In front of Dong Ung, who had just sent out that fierce blade aura, Jo Gul casually spun his sword around.
Even after seeing that terrifying strike with his own eyes, there wasn’t a shred of tension on his face. At this point, maybe that was just his nature.
Either way, the one thing that was certain was that his utterly relaxed expression was rubbing Dong Ung the wrong way.
“You little shaved-nose bastard...!”
“Whoa.”
Jo Gul’s eyes widened at the snarled curse.
“Bandits really are something else. I’ve heard ‘brat’ and ‘punk’ plenty of times, but this is the first time anyone’s openly called me a shaved nose as an insult.”
He grinned, clearly amused.
Dong Ung’s face flushed deep red at that calm reaction.
“I’ll rip your mouth off!”
Dong Ung roared and charged, blade aura pouring out of him in a stream at least a meter long.
The blue energy plunged down as if it would split Jo Gul’s body in two, but Jo Gul didn’t retreat. Instead, he rushed forward and thrust his sword out.
Fwoosh!
His blade, turned to a streak of light, shot straight for Dong Ung’s throat. Realizing his own neck would be pierced before he could even cut this brat down, Dong Ung panicked and twisted his dao sideways.
But before his weapon could properly deflect it, Jo Gul’s sword withdrew even faster. Then it surged in from another angle, aiming for Dong Ung again.
Fwoosh!
Dong Ung’s cheek split wide open, blood spraying out.
W-What is this...?
He didn’t even have time to finish the thought.
Fwoosh! Fwoosh!
In an instant, dozens of sword shadows targeted his whole body. The sword of this young little Daoist was faster than anything he had ever seen.
“Hraaaah!”
That alone would have made him difficult enough to deal with, but then the brat actually sprang into the air and started raining sword energy down from above his head.
As petal-like sword force cascaded chaotically through the air, Dong Ung screamed in confusion.
“Aaagh! You monkey bastard!”
“...Accurate assessment.”
“Agreed.”
“Why didn’t I think of that until now?”
Meanwhile, Baek Cheon and the others were sinking into self-reproach.
The fact that the first person to come up with an expression they had never managed to find after years of knowing Jo Gul had been some random bystander today only proved how little attention they had been paying to him.
“Still, maybe that’s because he wasn’t like this before?”
“That does make sense.”
“Definitely. He got worse after meeting Chung Myung.”
As if they had rehearsed it, everyone clicked their tongues and watched Jo Gul press the attack.
Indeed...
Baek Cheon’s expression darkened slightly.
When it came to sheer sharpness of swordsmanship, there was no one in Mount Hua who could match Jo Gul. That was not something you learned through training alone. It required innate talent, a true instinct for the sword.
“Heaven really is unkind. Why give that bastard...”
“No, no. Isn’t this heaven showing mercy? If he couldn’t even use a sword, he’d really be useless.”
“Who? Chung Myung?”
“Ah... well, yes, him too.”
Yoon Jong smiled bitterly as he watched Jo Gul’s razor-edged sword strikes and Dong Ung scrambling to block them.
Strange.
Even from the way he wielded his dao, it was easy to see. Dong Ung’s skill wasn’t that far behind the hall leaders of the Maninbang they had fought in the past.
Back then, Jo Gul and Yoon Jong had needed to work together just to barely contend with someone at hall-leader level. But now Jo Gul alone was overwhelming Dong Ung.
It wasn’t merely because he had seized the upper hand. Objectively speaking, Jo Gul’s level was clearly above Dong Ung’s.
He needed real battle experience...
At last, he felt as though he truly understood what Chung Myung had meant.
It was true that Jo Gul’s internal energy had been fundamentally transformed through additional doses of Jaso-dan and Liquid Sky Essence, but that wasn’t the only reason his sword now dominated Dong Ung’s dao.
It was the precision and audacity. And above all, the calm with which he read his opponent completely.
That wasn’t something training alone could create.
The countless fierce battles he had endured in the North Sea, the experience of fighting with his life on the line—those had honed Jo Gul’s sword into something impossibly sharp.
“Hahahah! You’re slow as hell!”
...Wow.
His personality sure got sharper too.
He’s going to cut somebody, Jo Gul.
Jo Gul pressed harder, pushing Dong Ung back with even greater momentum.
Across the giant bandit leader’s body, red wounds began to multiply one after another.
“Y-You bastard!”
Dong Ung gritted his teeth, his face flushed with anger, but there was nothing he could actually do.
This sword wasn’t merely fast. The power behind it made even Dong Ung flinch, and its precision was enough to make him shake his head in disbelief.
If it had just been brute force, he might have been willing to risk giving up a shoulder or two to land a killing blow in return. But in front of this sword’s strength, he couldn’t even bring himself to take that gamble.
The boy still had downy softness on his face, just a little brat with baby fat not yet gone, and yet his sword felt like that of some seasoned master who had spent a lifetime on the battlefield.
J-Just once!
He only needed one chance.
If he could get even a single opening, he could rely on his monstrous strength and internal energy to crush this boy.
But.
Dong Ung wasn’t given even that single chance.
Shrrrrring.
A sound like long chains rubbing together rang out. Then, before him, exquisitely beautiful plum blossom petals began to scatter through the air.
Dong Ung’s eyes widened until they nearly split.
What kind of sword technique was this?
The unreal sight, one he had never seen even once, left him dazed. Even knowing that battle was raging around him, he couldn’t help but be spellbound.
He didn’t know.
He didn’t know that the moment his eyes were stolen by that beauty, the outcome had already been decided.
Fwoosh!
From within the shimmering shower of petals, a blue sword blade revealed itself. Like a viper hiding in the grass before suddenly lunging at its prey.
Thunk.
“Hk...”
Dong Ung’s gaze dropped to the right side of his chest.
More precisely, to the white blade that had cleanly pierced through it.
The chill radiating from the sword began to spread through his entire body.
“Hah!”
Snapping back to his senses, Dong Ung staggered backward in a frenzy.
Spurt!
As the sword was yanked free, bright red blood gushed from the wound. Clutching at the injury to stem the bleeding, Dong Ung stared across at Jo Gul in disbelief.
“Pathetic.”
Jo Gul flicked the blood off the tip of his sword and walked toward Dong Ung.
“Compared to the bastards from the Demonic Sect, this doesn’t even count as a fight.”
Even after that humiliating remark, Dong Ung couldn’t bring himself to resist. At this point, all he had left was the last shred of his pride.
The difference in skill was obvious. If he couldn’t handle this boy while uninjured, there was no way he could do it now, with a wounded body.
Still, he couldn’t exactly show weakness to some brat who wasn’t even half his age, could he?
“You bastard... Do you even know who I am...”
It was a desperate line, squeezed out from the last of his pride, but the reaction he got was terribly indifferent.
“Hey, old man.”
Jo Gul’s mouth curled upward.
“I’ve been through too much to be scared by something like that.”
He kicked off the ground and flew at Dong Ung.
Shaaaaak!
His sword, faster than the eye could follow, created dozens of afterimages in the air as it came crashing down on Dong Ung.
Slash! Slash! Slash!
Shoulder. Waist. Abdomen. Thigh.
It cut through Dong Ung’s body like a streak of light.
“Kuhhh...”
A breathless groan leaked from Dong Ung’s mouth. He tried to turn and look at the Jo Gul who had already passed him by.
But.
Thud.
Before his head could even finish turning, his body collapsed.
“...”
The sight of Dong Ung, utterly unconscious, was burned into the eyes of the bandits still struggling to continue the fight.
Swish.
Sheathing his sword and sliding it back into place, Jo Gul glanced at Dong Ung.
“If you’re so wronged, then maybe you should go visit the North Sea yourself.”
If Dong Ung had heard that, he would have coughed up blood.