I Don’t Know Anything About Lineups! (2)
“That damn bastard...!”
At last, the Wudang disciples, who had been holding back their outrage with everything they had, let filthy curses spill from their mouths. Unlike Mount Hua, they had always strictly observed the severe laws of the Daoist order, so this was far from ordinary for them.
Still, anyone who had watched what was happening could hardly blame them.
Who was Mu Jin?
He was one of the Wudang Three Swords, a man virtually guaranteed to inherit the position of Wudang’s greatest sword in the future.
“Jo Gul?”
The name was at least familiar.
One of the Mount Hua Five Swords, whose reputation had been rising ever since the martial arts tournament.
But however similar the titles Wudang Three Swords and Mount Hua Five Swords might sound, the weight behind them was worlds apart.
And yet here was Jo Gul, barely a third-generation disciple, daring to spew such nonsense at Mu Jin—a first-generation disciple, and not just any first-generation disciple, but one of the very best among them?
All the Wudang disciples were seething, unable to hide their fury. And the one whose face had hardened the most was none other than Jin Hyeon.
“Did you say Jo Gul?”
“Hm?”
“We’ve met before.”
There was a cold wind in Jin Hyeon’s eyes as he glared at Jo Gul.
He definitely recognized that face from the battle at Hwayeong Gate. It was true that Jo Gul had put up a decent showing there against a Wudang second-generation disciple, but he was still not of a caliber to stand against Jin Hyeon.
At least, that was Jin Hyeon’s opinion.
Yet that very same Jo Gul was now completely ignoring him. No matter how much Jo Gul’s fame had risen since then, beyond anything it had once been, Jin Hyeon could not possibly accept this.
“Bored, was it...? Of course, I’m no great man, but I don’t think I’m someone you can dismiss that easily.”
At Jin Hyeon’s words, Jo Gul curled the corner of his mouth into a grin.
“I wasn’t exactly trying to insult you, but I am one of the people they call the Mount Hua Five Swords, so the fact that I’m... uh... um...”
Halfway through his bright, confident speech, Jo Gul tilted his head.
“Sorry, but what was your title again? I know I heard it, but it’s a little fuzzy.”
Baek Cheon, watching the whole scene from behind, shut his eyes tightly. Beside him, Yoon Jong nodded over and over as if to say, That’s Jo Gul for you.
“I told him to taunt him, and he smashed the guy’s head in with a wooden sword.”
Dang Soso shook her head as well, looking utterly defeated.
“As someone from Sichuan, I’m embarrassed.”
“...Let’s watch a little longer first.”
At Baek Cheon’s grave voice, everyone’s gaze turned back to the dueling platform.
“Bujeolgeom.”
“Ah, right. Bujeolgeom. And they called you Geomryong too.”
As Jo Gul muttered the words, he let out a sly grin.
The Geomryong of old had once been a title so lofty that Jo Gul had not even dared look up at it.
But now... it meant nothing.
The titles that had once symbolized the younger generation of the jianghu had all been dulled by the names Chung Myung and Hye Yeon.
“If this had been the old days, I’d at least have had a bit of a shoulder to stand on after taking down Geomryong, but these days I’m kind of a big deal too.”
At the sight of Jo Gul shrugging so shamelessly, Jin Hyeon ground his teeth.
“May I be the one to break that arrogance of yours?”
“...No, seriously, that’d be a problem, so why do you keep saying stuff like that? If this were a tournament, I could beat you and then take on someone more famous, but this time I only get one shot, don’t I?”
“...!”
Jin Hyeon’s hand tightened around the sword at his waist before he knew it.
It was true he had once been defeated by a Mount Hua disciple, but he was still one of Wudang’s most promising younger talents. He was not someone who should be treated like this by a third-generation disciple of Mount Hua.
“Just how far do you intend to take this...?”
“Oh, I’ve got it!”
Then Jo Gul clapped his hands and his eyes lit up.
“This is actually simple if your elder lets us do it, so let’s do this instead. I’ll fight you. In exchange—”
“In exchange?”
Jin Hyeon asked cautiously, and Jo Gul grinned.
“If I win, let me fight one more person. You can even decide that our match doesn’t count as a real win.”
“Wh—!”
“That bastard dares—!”
The Wudang disciples surged, looking as though they might rush Jo Gul at any moment. But there was no way they could push past Heo Sanja standing before them and storm the platform.
Crack.
Jin Hyeon’s lips, clenched so tightly they had split, bled in a thin line. His fists had gone white from the loss of blood.
Seeing him tremble so pitifully while struggling to hold back his rage, Baek Cheon covered his face with both hands.
“Who... who the hell said to send that bastard out first?”
“It wasn’t me.”
“Neither was I.”
“...”
Chung Myung, who had been the one to insist on letting him go, scratched his cheek awkwardly and raised a hand.
“...Looks like he’s doing pretty well, doesn’t he?”
“Doing well?”
“Well... anyway, the goal’s been achieved, hasn’t it? The provocation seems to be working.”
Baek Cheon jerked his face up out of his hands and glared.
“I told you to pour cold water on him, and you dumped boiling water straight onto his face. And you call that ‘working’?”
“...Well, I mean...”
Even as Chung Myung hemmed and hawed, a bead of sweat rolled down his forehead.
No, seriously—who could have guessed he’d go that far?
They said a pupil surpassed the master, but even Chung Myung no longer had the confidence that he himself could have gone up there and twisted someone’s nerves that hard.
Yoon Jong, his voice tinged with a faint anxiety, asked, “Sasuk. Sh-should we pull him down now?”
“...Does that even make sense?”
“Of course it would still be embarrassing, but better than leaving that idiot up there...”
There was some sense to Yoon Jong’s words. But this was a duel with Wudang. They couldn’t drag someone back once they’d already been sent out to fight.
Fortunately, before their worries could deepen any further, Wudang responded first.
“Hahaha.”
Heo Sanja burst into a great laugh.
“Seeing the spirit of a young swordsman is always a welcome thing.”
Heo Sanja’s gaze fixed squarely on Jo Gul. Unlike his mild words, there was nothing friendly in his eyes.
“But, young Taoist, courage can become recklessness if it is excessive, and too much confidence invites disaster. Can you bear the consequences of your own words? You may end up bringing great shame upon your sect.”
At the threat-laced warning, Jo Gul tapped the sword still resting in its scabbard against his own neck and said, “A Mount Hua disciple doesn’t speak carelessly, Elder.”
“Hm.”
Heo Sanja stared at him for a long moment, then nodded.
“Very well. So be it.”
“Oh?”
“However, just as you said, whether you win or lose, this match will not count toward the result of the duel. Instead, the one who wins will face the next man to determine the outcome.”
Jo Gul grinned and gave a martial salute.
“A wise decision.”
But Heo Sanja didn’t even spare a glance for Jo Gul, who was still holding the salute. Instead, he turned his eyes to Jin Hyeon.
“Jin Hyeon.”
“Yes, Elder.”
“You know what you must do.”
“Of course.”
“Go.”
“Yes!”
With a face cold as winter frost, Jin Hyeon stepped forward.
The Geomryong ascended the dueling platform at an unhurried pace, looking around slowly as he did. Then the spectators who had been waiting to see the match erupted into cheers.
“It’s Geomryong!”
“The genius among Wudang’s second-generation disciples, Geomryong!”
Since Wuhan was practically Wudang’s front yard, many of the onlookers recognized Jin Hyeon at a glance. The cheers that had initially been aimed toward Mount Hua shifted sharply toward Wudang with his appearance.
Basking in that roar, Jin Hyeon spoke calmly.
“I traveled this far because there was someone I sought to avenge, and yet I did not expect to be treated with such disregard.”
“Avenge? Ah, you mean Sasuk?”
Jo Gul snorted.
Back when Wudang and Mount Hua clashed because of the dispute over the Jondogwan and Hwayeong Gate, Jin Hyeon had once been defeated by Baek Cheon.
“Avenge, huh... That’s the kind of thing only someone who’s used that time well can say.”
“Are you saying I wasted that time?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say wasted exactly, but...”
Jo Gul let the sentence hang meaningfully, then smiled crookedly.
“Words don’t mean much. Come on. I’ll show you with my sword.”
As though he had said enough, Jo Gul slowly drew his blade.
“From a mere apprentice, you really don’t suit—”
Jin Hyeon was about to continue, but then he abruptly shut his mouth.
What is this?
It was different.
Before he drew his sword, Jo Gul had seemed like an empty shell with a mouth too big for his body—nothing but cheap talk, utterly devoid of seriousness.
But the Jo Gul now holding a sword exuded a terrifying sharpness. Startled by that aura, Jin Hyeon nearly staggered backward without meaning to, but he forced himself to steady.
Thoughts flashed through his mind and vanished.
Perhaps this wasn’t arrogance at all, but confidence grounded in something real...
Nonsense!
How much time had even passed since then?
Even if the man was a genius of the highest order, there was no way that little time would have been enough to surpass him.
“Huff.”
With a short exhale, Jin Hyeon slowly drew his sword. As the Songmun ancient sword of Wudang emerged in his hand, the turbulence in his heart seemed to cool and settle.
Don’t waver.
Fighting an opponent you had never properly faced before on such a public stage was pressure enough for anyone. In a situation like this, you could not afford to let your eyes or your heart be stolen by the other man’s words and gestures.
What he had to trust was himself, and only his sword.
Jin Hyeon’s qi sank heavily into place.
Unlike Mount Hua’s freedom, it was a weighty, solemn energy. It flowed without obstruction, strong and unbroken in its abundance, fitting the word “majestic” better than any other.
I have worked.
To avenge that humiliating defeat. To overcome the disgrace that never left his chest.
Hwajeonggeom. And the Mount Hua Divine Dragon!
Among those before him, only those two were beyond his reach. If he could not defeat some nobody like this, then how could he call himself Geomryong, or claim to be Wudang’s greatest genius?
The moment his resolve fully crystallized, his sword moved.
“Taah!”
Blue sword energy burst forth like flowing water.
Wudang’s signature continuous and unending sword qi. Jin Hyeon had shown it before. But if the sword qi of his past had been a stream, then the qi he unleashed now was more like a great river.
Heavy and majestic, it rolled forward with immense force.
It was enough to make anyone realize just how brutally he had trained. Wudang’s sword grew stronger with time to begin with, but even accounting for that, this was still astonishing growth.
When did that child...?
Watching from below, Heo Sanja clenched his fist before he knew it.
Because Jin Hyeon always seemed to train in silence without a word of complaint, he had never fully grasped the depth of his growth—but when had he become this strong?
Mu Jin was not the only one who had been strengthened by defeat. Jin Hyeon, too, had used that crushing loss as fertilizer and endured bone-scraping training.
This is enough!
There was no need to worry about victory or defeat anymore.
That stable, weighty qi was not inferior to even a first-generation disciple’s. It was not a sword a mere third-generation disciple of Mount Hua could possibly block.
Heo Sanja was convinced of this—right up until the very moment it happened.
“Ha!”
Seeing the riverlike sword qi rushing toward him, Jo Gul let out a short exclamation and darted forward like a swallow.
Forward?
Not back. Not sideways. Forward.
It looked as reckless as throwing himself into a flood swollen by torrential rain.
“That idiot—”
Heo Sanja flinched, terrified that the match might begin with a spray of blood. But then an unbelievable sight began to unfold.
Swish!
Charging straight in and slashing sharply with a single, concise stroke, Jo Gul’s sword met the waterlike qi head-on. And then Jin Hyeon’s surging sword energy, which had been pressing in with such momentum, split left and right and began to slide past Jo Gul’s side.
The spectators’ eyes widened as far as they possibly could.
“H-he split it?”
That?
“N-no, wait! It’s just starting!”
Wudang’s sword was continuous and unending.
It should seem as though it could be cut, yet never truly be cut. One could split sword qi once. One could even knock it aside twice. But it was impossible to fully stop a sword like a river, endlessly surging forward.
Jin Hyeon knew this as well, so he did not panic. Calmly, silently, he swung his sword.
The qi that had been split apart and then reunited surged toward Jo Gul again, now denser and even more imposing than before.
“Hmm.”
At that moment, a faint smile touched Jo Gul’s lips.
Of course that man’s sword was strong. And heavy.
But...
I’ve seen this exact kind of thing a hundred times over!
Experience was different. The hardships one had weathered were different. A delicate flower raised tenderly indoors could struggle all it wanted and still never escape the room.
For Jo Gul, who had survived the knife wind of the North Sea and the biting winds of Yunnan, this sword qi posed no threat at all.
Flash!
Jo Gul slammed a foot into the ground with all his strength.
“That—!”
“That, you crazy—!”
Then, stepping lightly onto the incoming sword qi, he vaulted himself upward.
It was an absurd gamble—one wrong angle and his ankle would have been sliced clean off.
But his featherlight body and almost supernatural sense of balance were more than enough to use the incoming blade aura as a foothold.
Flash! Flash!
Jo Gul kept stepping on the sword qi and driving forward. He looked like a salmon swimming upstream against a waterfall.
Jin Hyeon’s eyes widened in shock as he watched Jo Gul leap over his sword qi.
What?
He was so stunned he could not even think properly.
But he was still a Wudang disciple who had endured hard training. Before his brain could fully catch up, his body moved first, swinging his sword at the airborne Jo Gul.
Claaang!
But before that sword could fully extend, Jo Gul’s plum blossom sword had already occupied the exact spot he was aiming for.
“Too slow.”
“...”
While blade met blade and scraped against each other, Jo Gul’s eyes collided with Jin Hyeon’s across the empty air.
“Watch closely, young master.”
Flash!
Jo Gul’s sword suddenly withdrew. Then, in the same instant, it shot toward Jin Hyeon’s throat like a streak of light.
A terrifyingly fast strike.
Something flashed, and the blade was already almost touching his neck. Jin Hyeon jerked his head aside in alarm.
Shhk.
His skin split slightly, and a sharp burn flared. But this was no time to worry about that.
Flash! Flash! Flash!
Fast enough to be horrifying, a series of thrusts came flying in one after another. The blade, thrust out in an instant, carved wounds across Jin Hyeon’s body and dyed his robes red.
T-this...
He immediately staggered backward in panic.
He could not see the sword.
This was no longer a matter of comparing martial superiority. With his eyesight, it was impossible to track the technique of a sword moving at that absurd speed.
How was he supposed to deal with this?
And the moment he understood that, one thought flashed through Jin Hyeon’s mind.
Am I losing?
Impossible.
He had trained without rest. He had vowed that one day he would crush that Hwajeonggeom and the Mount Hua Divine Dragon beneath his feet and restore the honor of himself and his sect. It had been years of training so focused on that goal that he had even forgotten to eat and sleep properly.
And yet...
How could he lose to some nobody like this, someone who wasn’t even Baek Cheon or Chung Myung?
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
In a burst of desperation, Jin Hyeon no longer avoided the incoming blade and thrust his Songmun ancient sword straight ahead to meet it head-on.
“That—!”
“Jin Hyeon!”
It was mutual destruction—if he could not win, then he would at least drag the other down and die together with him. That was a move that had no place in a duel.
“Dieeeeee!”
Seeing the Songmun ancient sword thrust directly toward his solar plexus, Jo Gul’s lips twisted oddly.
Flash!
The sword Jo Gul had extended forward suddenly snapped back at even greater speed, striking the side of the incoming Songmun ancient sword with brutal force.
Claaang!
Jin Hyeon had poured all his strength into the thrust, but he could not respond to the impact from the side. The sword that was the life of every swordsman tore free from his grip and flew away.
The Songmun ancient sword spun and shot skyward, rotating wildly in the air.
The ending was now so obvious it barely needed to be watched.
“Ugh...!”
For a moment, focus vanished from Jin Hyeon’s eyes.
BOOM!
And in that instant, Jo Gul’s foot slammed hard into his chest. Jin Hyeon’s body, deprived of his sword, was hurled clean off the dueling platform.
“Jin Hyeon!”
“Sajil!”
His martial brothers rushed forward and caught him just as he flew out like a snapped kite string.
“Are you all right?”
“...”
Jin Hyeon stared in disbelief first at his empty hand, then at the footprint stamped clearly into his chest.
Had the other man wanted to, it would not have been difficult to break his ribs and cave his chest in—but his body was otherwise perfectly intact.
That made it an even more complete defeat.
He could not deny it.
With great effort, he lifted his head and looked up, only to see Jo Gul standing atop the platform with a shamelessly playful smile.
“See? Fighting you really is boring.”
Having finished what he came to do, Jo Gul cleanly turned his gaze away from Jin Hyeon. Then he pointed the tip of his sword at Mu Jin.
“Come on up. Let’s have a go.”
The faces of the Wudang disciples twisted into something hideous and pitiful.