Who Is the Mount Hua Bastard? (4)
704. Who Is the Mount Hua Bastard? (4)
“Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!”
Jin Yang-geon was running for all he was worth, as if his legs might give out beneath him at any second.
Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!
How had things gone so horribly wrong?
It had been almost done. Really, almost done. All he’d needed to do was calmly pocket the money and slip away at the first opening.
And then those bizarre bastards had suddenly barged in and thrown everything into chaos.
Damn it! Who the hell are those guys?
Were they really Mount Hua disciples?
Maybe they were.
From the way they looked, they didn’t seem like it at all, but unless they were disciples of the Nine Great Sects’ caliber, there was no way a handful of men like that could have beaten the Geum-geom-bu so completely in a single charge.
How the hell did they find out so fast...?
They had only just begun the operation, yet somehow, from all the way out in distant Shaanxi, Mount Hua had learned about it and sent disciples here.
No, honestly, how they found out wasn’t even the important part. By his calculations, Mount Hua shouldn’t have reached Nam-chang until he had finished everything and left at his leisure.
So what the hell had happened for Mount Hua’s disciples to suddenly appear here?
Jin Yang-geon shot a terrified glance back over his shoulder.
They’re not there, right?
Please. Please, just buy me a little more time...!
“You bastard, get back hereeeeee!”
Jin Yang-geon jerked his head around. Far in the distance, he could make out a figure, no larger than a dot, and his face went pale with shock.
F-fuck! Those useless Geum-geom-bu bastards!
They’d acted so damn smug, and now they couldn’t even slow the guy down by a single step!
“If I catch you, you’re dead! Stop! You hear me? Stop!”
Who the hell would stop after hearing that, you lunatic!
Even though the distance between them was so great the figure was almost invisible, the voice somehow came through loud and clear. Knowing that only those with exceptionally pure and powerful inner energy could produce a voice like that, Jin Yang-geon squeezed out every last shred of his remaining force and shoved it into his legs.
“Huff! Huff!”
“What, you wanna die? Quit wasting energy in your legs! Hey, you there!”
Racing with all his might, Jin Yang-geon couldn’t help but feel a rising sense of disbelief. How could someone run that fast and still talk?
“Go on! Run harder! You’d better keep running! I have no idea what I’ll do if you get caught, so don’t you dare get caught, got it? Don’t!”
A chill ran down his spine.
There was no way, and yet he could almost hear the grinding of teeth right by his ear. On reflex, he looked back—and the figure that had been little more than a dot moments ago had already closed in to where its shape could nearly be made out.
Hiiiiiiiiiik!
He nearly stumbled over his own feet in terror, but somehow managed to catch himself.
What the hell is this speed?
To the naked eye he’d only seemed a little larger, but the gap had clearly been cut nearly in half. At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before he ended up in the hands of that hopeless bastard.
“Hurry up and run faster, you idiot! Unless you wanna get your skull cracked!”
“Hiiik!”
Pale as a corpse, Jin Yang-geon ran even harder.
If he got caught, he was dead.
That much was certain. The madness and killing intent in that monster’s voice were unmistakable. It was painfully clear what would happen if he was caught.
Hadn’t he just seen that brutish bastard beating a man half to death with his bare fists a moment ago?
Unless the sword hanging from his waist was nothing but decoration, he had to be a swordsman—and yet here he was, pummeling Geum-geom-bu masters with his bare hands. If he could escape from a man like that with only a few broken bones, he’d count himself lucky.
The only good thing was that as long as he could get away, everything would still work out. He’d already secured the transfer papers. If he could just slip out of that bastard’s grasp, he could disappear somewhere no one would ever find him, change his identity, and live like a king.
“What the hell are you useless bastards doing!”
Swearing under his breath, Jin Yang-geon fixed bloodshot eyes on the road ahead.
He was supposed to meet up with the Taehaeng Three Swords here, but those worthless idiots were nowhere to be seen.
Those useless morons...
“You’ve arrived!”
Yes!
At the voice, Jin Yang-geon let out a cry of relief. The Taehaeng Three Swords, who had been lying in wait, emerged from behind a tree. He shouted at them in a rush.
“Big Brother! Big Brother! We’ve got a tail!”
“What?”
Gwa Hyeok-so, the eldest of the Taehaeng Three Swords, twisted his face and glared at Jin Yang-geon as he ran toward them.
“You fool!”
“N-no, that’s not it! It’s not the Geum-geom-bu! There’s only one tail!”
“One?”
“There, behind...!”
Jin Yang-geon skidded to a stop right in front of the Taehaeng Three Swords and pointed behind him.
Seeing Chung Myung charging toward them like a rabid bull foaming at the mouth, Gwa Hyeok-so frowned.
“What, some beggar?”
Since there was only one person in sight, Gwa Hyeok-so snorted.
“I’d prefer it if there were none at all, but if it’s only one, nothing changes. Kill him and shut him up!”
“Yes, sir!”
At his command, the two younger brothers of the Taehaeng Three Swords drew their swords.
Taking the chance, Jin Yang-geon quietly backed away, left the Taehaeng Three Swords behind, and took off running again at full speed.
“T-that bastard?”
“Big Brother! That bastard’s running!”
Gwa Hyeok-so smiled faintly.
“Let him go. We can deal with him after we finish this one. He probably thinks he can slip out of our hands like a fool.”
His gaze shifted to Chung Myung, who had already closed in to right in front of them. Gwa Hyeok-so stepped forward a few paces in front of his brothers and said,
“You seem young, so if you die, don’t blame us—”
Crackkkk.
“...”
Jong Yo’s mouth slowly fell open.
Huh?
For an instant, he couldn’t process the scene in front of him and simply froze.
What is this?
So... Big Brother. Um... that... yes. Big Brother!
Something had slammed into Gwa Hyeok-so’s face. Long and, well...
Foot?
Only then did Jong Yo understand what had happened, and his body gave a violent shudder.
Chung Myung, running in a straight line, had suddenly accelerated even more and planted his foot directly on Gwa Hyeok-so’s face in midair. Whether that counted as stepping on him or kicking him was impossible to tell.
In any case, all Jong Yo could do was stare blankly at Gwa Hyeok-so, who was slowly toppling backward with a massive footprint stamped into his face.
Thump!
Chung Myung, having lightly stepped on that face, bounced his body up into the air and surged forward again.
“What the hell are these useless punks! Get out of my way, you bastards!”
Uh... isn’t that the sort of thing people say before stepping on someone?
Not after?
The one who dragged Jong Yo’s dazed mind back to reality was his second brother’s scream.
“Big brooooother!”
Ma Wi-ryang let out a piercing wail and rushed toward Gwa Hyeok-so.
“You, you damn bastard!”
Then, with bloodshot eyes, he tried to chase after Chung Myung.
“Aaaah!”
Right then, another group of beggars appeared.
It was the Five Swords led by Baek Cheon. Baek Cheon took in the situation at a glance and shouted,
“Jo Gul! Yoon Jong!”
“Yes, Sasuk!”
“Take them down! The rest of you, keep chasing with me!”
“Yes!”
Jo Gul and Yoon Jong shot forward without hesitation and leveled their swords at the two men.
Ma Wi-ryang screamed with a face like a demon’s.
“You little punks, do you even know who we are? You think the Taehaeng Three Swords are easy pickings!”
“Taehaeng Three Swords?”
Baek Cheon’s expression hardened coldly.
“Are you talking about those Taehaeng Three Swords who are secular disciples of the Southern Edge Sect?”
Ma Wi-ryang flinched.
He’d spoken in anger, but it was only now dawning on him that he shouldn’t have revealed their identity.
But the water was already spilled. If they killed these people here, the secret wouldn’t get out.
“That’s right! We are the Taehaeng Three Swords of the Southern Edge—”
“What the, shit?”
A voice suddenly came from behind him, and Ma Wi-ryang jumped in shock. But there was no time to even turn around.
Smack!
“Ghk...!”
The crushing pain that slammed into the back of his head made his eyes roll back, and he pitched forward.
“Southern Edge? What? Southern Edge?”
Chung Myung, who had returned even faster than he had run away, sprang onto Ma Wi-ryang’s back and began hammering his skull with his fists.
“Yeah! Ah, shit! Something did seem off! You bastards are from the Southern Edge? Right, only those Southern Edge bastards could screw us this badly! Die! Die, you bastard! Die!”
Pow! Pow! Pow! Pow!
Ma Wi-ryang’s face sank deeper and deeper into the ground. At that pitiful(?) sight, Baek Cheon muttered to himself without thinking,
“What the hell did that bastard do to the Southern Edge Sect?”
He was starting to get seriously curious about the source of that grudge.
“Chung Myung! We’ll lose him at this rate!”
“Damn it!”
Chung Myung sprang back to his feet. Then he whipped around and kicked Jong Yo squarely in the back of the head, who was still completely dazed.
Crack!
Thud.
After sending Jong Yo collapsing rather gently, Chung Myung shot off again.
“Catch him! If we lose that bastard, we’re going hungry for a month!”
“Can you say something that makes sense for once?! Soso! Tie these guys up!”
“Yes!”
Leaving Dang Soso behind, the Five Swords surged forward again at full speed.
“I can’t see him! Which way did he go?”
“I think he went that way!”
“Stop talking and keep up!”
Chung Myung had already surged far ahead. With every step, he covered more than ten jang, his speed was absurd.
Was he a horse in his last life?
The Five Swords cursed inwardly too and chased after him with everything they had.
Before long, Jin Yang-geon came into view again.
“There he is!”
“What the hell, how is that bastard this fast too?”
The moment Jo Gul muttered in complaint, Chung Myung, who was in the lead, flashed a savage grin.
Whoosh!
Then he shot forward at a speed that made everything until now look sluggish by comparison.
Even Baek Cheon, of all people, flinched in surprise at that speed.
“Raaaaaaah!”
Jin Yang-geon, seeing Chung Myung closing in directly behind him, screamed and drew his sword.
“Oh? The bastard’s drawing a sword? If you swing that thing—”
Wooooooom!
Jin Yang-geon’s sword seemed to tremble, then burst forth with red and white sword qi.
Yoon Jong and Jo Gul’s eyes widened slightly.
What the hell?
They’d assumed he was nothing more than a swindler, but his sword qi was stronger than expected.
The red and white light fluttering wildly through the air looked almost like a crude mix of the Snow-Shadow Twelve Forms and the Plum Blossom Sword Art that Southern Edge had once shown.
Still, it was nothing more than a shoddy imitation that failed to capture the strengths of either style. At that level, it wouldn’t stop Chung Myung, much less leave even a scratch on him.
Baek Cheon already pictured what Chung Myung would do next. As always, he’d plunge straight into the sword qi, break through it, and go for the opponent’s jaw to finish him in an instant.
But then...!
In that moment, an incomprehensible sight unfolded before Baek Cheon’s eyes.
Chung Myung, who had been charging in like a demon from hell, suddenly stopped dead in place the instant Jin Yang-geon’s sword qi erupted.
What is he trying to do?
He was a little surprised, of course, but even then Baek Cheon didn’t doubt him. This was Chung Myung they were talking about.
But what happened next made Baek Cheon’s eyes go wide with disbelief.
Flash!
The crude sword qi Jin Yang-geon had unleashed sliced into Chung Myung’s shoulder.
“What?”
“Ch-Chung Myung!”
The skin split open in a long line, and blood sprayed into the air.
Baek Cheon’s pupils shook violently.
There was no way Chung Myung could be wounded by such a clumsy sword technique. And yet the impossible had just happened before his eyes.
The Five Swords who had been chasing after Chung Myung all screamed and poured power into their legs.
The blood that had shot into the air pattered down like rain. Baek Cheon, who reached him first, seized Chung Myung’s still-dazed shoulder.
Pressing down hard with his hand to stop the blood gushing from the wound, Baek Cheon shouted with a face twisted in horror.
“Hey, you bastard! What the hell are you—”
But the shout died in his throat the instant he faced Chung Myung.
“...Chung Myung?”
Frozen in place, Chung Myung looked like a statue.
Baek Cheon had seen countless expressions on Chung Myung’s face over the years.
He had seen him howl in fury. He had seen him laugh without a care in the world, bright and unrestrained.
But this... this expression was so strange that the emotion behind it couldn’t be read at all. Even Baek Cheon, who probably knew Chung Myung better than most, couldn’t make sense of it.
He looked dazed. Sad, maybe. And then...
At last, Chung Myung’s frozen lips parted slowly. A voice like a groan slipped out.
“Jaha...?”
“...What?”
His voice was so faint that the others couldn’t hear it properly. No—honestly, even if he’d said it louder, they might not have understood it. The Five Swords around them were all focused on the shoulder where Chung Myung’s skin had split and blood was pouring out.
“Sasuk.”
“Yeah, you crazy bastard! Why the hell are you getting hit by some blind idiot’s sword like that, you dumbass?”
“Let’s go.”
“Wait! At least let me stop the bleeding first—”
“Sasuk.”
“...?”
“Let’s go.”
Chung Myung’s eyes swayed, dark and sunken, yet filled with a terrifying seriousness. Feeling that weight, Baek Cheon shut his mouth.
What the hell is going on?
Sensing that things were unfolding very differently from what he’d expected, he turned his head to look in the direction Jin Yang-geon had disappeared.
Chung Myung moved forward as if possessed.
“I need to check it.”
As he headed toward where Jin Yang-geon had vanished, Chung Myung stared into the distance as though chasing something else entirely.
The sword qi had been crude beyond belief, but to his eyes, it was unmistakable.
An awkward but familiar shape, carrying a faint purple radiance.