Our Kids Are a Little Rough Around the Edges (4)
Their feet no longer touched the ground. Both men were falling at a terrifying speed.
But neither of them gave a damn.
Whoooosh!
Chung Myung’s sword split into dozens of blades. Sword shadows thick with killing intent shot toward Jang Ilso all at once.
“Ha!”
In that instant, a mocking bark escaped Jang Ilso, and monstrous internal power gathered in his right hand.
Slash!
He swung once, and the hand that tore through the air shredded the incoming sword shadows in a single motion. Then, in the same breath, he surged straight toward Chung Myung.
There was no retreat.
This was no solid ground beneath their feet. However extraordinary a warrior might be, while falling through open air there were limits to one’s freedom of movement.
Even Chung Myung’s audacity, and the precise footwork that made all that audacity possible, would lose some of its edge here.
And yet there was not the slightest hesitation in Chung Myung’s eyes.
He thrust his sword toward the palm force that came for his throat as if it meant to sever his breath at any second.
Crack!
The blade drove into the force with a sound like metal being pierced. But that alone could never fully block such a wide-ranging attack.
Then, in that very moment—
Vrrr!
Chung Myung’s sword began to tremble violently, starting from the hilt. The small vibrations grew and grew until the entire blade was shaking left and right.
Flash!
The sword, whipped in one swift motion, pried apart Jang Ilso’s force and finally tore it to pieces.
Jang Ilso’s eyes flew wide.
This was a technique even he had never once seen in his life. To pierce through palm force, shake it apart, and ultimately fling it away—was that even possible in reality?
But there was no time to be surprised.
Even now, the tip of Chung Myung’s sword was tracing tiny plum blossoms. As if time itself had been sped up, those dazzling blooms burst into life and rushed straight for Jang Ilso’s face.
Small, delicate flowers.
But inside them lay lethal intent. Jang Ilso did not dare underestimate them and swept out a hand to block the blossoms.
Crack!
His hand seized the flowers and crushed them to pulp. Before that overwhelming violence, flowers were pitifully fragile, nothing more than insignificant things.
But then Jang Ilso saw three more blossoms flying toward him.
One was fast and sharp, another soft and flowing, and the last carried brute, ferocious force.
Three flowers that were the same, and yet not the same at all.
“Cheap tricks!”
Again Jang Ilso swept his hand, and all three blossoms were shredded at once. The blue blaze of his inner qi ground the flowers to ash, burning them away with a flash of pale fire.
But that still wasn’t the end of it.
What Jang Ilso saw next was twelve blossoms flying at him.
And behind them, more flowers bloomed again, and again, and again.
Dozens became hundreds. Then, at last, thousands.
In the air of this desolate ravine, where not a blade of grass could be found, sword qi like red plum blossoms burst into full bloom.
Maehwageomgyeol.Maehwalanjugu.
The plum blossoms Chung Myung had created spread chaotically across the world.
“Tch!”
Even Jang Ilso could not help but let out a strained sound before this horrifying sword art. All he could see was plum blossoms—nothing else.
Baring his teeth, murderous light pouring from both eyes, Jang Ilso clenched both fists. Black lightning immediately burst forth from his knuckles in roaring streams.
An endless chain of fists that could not even be clearly seen.
Hundreds, thousands of blows painted the sky in black lightning.
Shura Killing Fist.Black Thunder Tribulation Heaven.
“Haaah!”
“Aaaah!”
The distance between them was only five feet.
Close enough to reach with a thrust of the sword. Close enough to smash apart with a fist.
Across that tiny space, a cloud of flowers and a stormcloud of black thunder collided head-on in the sky.
BOOOOOOM!
Even those desperately climbing the cliff froze with hands and feet in place, mouths hanging open.
Even those below who were shooting arrows in vain now that they could no longer reach, even the Mount Hua and Maninbang disciples who were viciously shoving one another aside.
Even the sect leaders who were risking everything in their own clashes had their eyes stolen by the sight.
What in the world is that…?
Namgung Hwang’s eyes trembled violently.
This was not a sight meant for the mortal world.
Where in the world could anyone see thunder and flowers colliding like that?
“...Mount Hua Divine Dragon?”
A groan escaped Namgung Hwang’s parted lips.
Jang Ilso’s martial prowess was astounding, but that was hardly surprising. By the very nature of the demonic path, the weak could not survive.
If Maninbang, and Jang Ilso with it, had been even a little weaker, another unorthodox faction—whether Black Ghost Sect or Hao Clan or anyone else—would have devoured them long ago.
It was Jang Ilso who had built Maninbang from the rotten teeth of that pack of wolves and raised it into one of the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu.
That was why he was called the Tyrant Lord.
If Maninbang’s power had been even slightly greater than it was now, perhaps no one could have denied the fact that Jang Ilso was the strongest of the unorthodox path.
But Mount Hua Divine Dragon was different.
How can that child be on equal footing with the Tyrant Lord?
Equality was nonsense.
And yet he could not deny what his eyes showed him. Chung Myung was clearly exchanging blows with Jang Ilso on equal ground.
Those countless blossoms seemed to suck Namgung Hwang’s soul right out of him.
That sword is…
How could he have known?
How could he have known that this sword was the Plum Blossom Sword Art of Mount Hua, reborn in the martial world after a hundred years?
BOOOOOOOM!
Thunder and flowers intertwined, and a vast explosion rang out. Shredded lightning and crushed blossoms scattered in every direction, sending both Chung Myung and Jang Ilso flying backward at the same time.
“D-dodge!”
“It’s dangerous!”
The disciples screamed as fragments of terrifying energy crashed down on them.
But even in the chaos, some who could not tear their eyes away from the battle saw it clearly.
Chung Myung and Jang Ilso. The two who had been blasted backward both kicked off the air as if it were solid ground, charging at each other even faster than the speed at which they had been flung apart.
Chung Myung’s descending sword and the backhand strike Jang Ilso swung upward collided in midair.
BOOM!
Ka-gak! Ka-ga-ga-ga-gak! Ka-gak!
Sword and hand shoved against each other.
A trembling hand, and a sword that squealed as if it might snap at any moment.
Across that searing collision, Jang Ilso and Chung Myung’s eyes smashed against each other even more violently than their weapons.
Ecstasy and disgust. Instinct and reason.
That boiling gaze, impossible to define by any single word, lashed at the other with outright aggression.
The two bodies spun around each other in brutal contact as they plunged downward.
“You bastard…”
Jang Ilso growled under his breath. His pale face was twisted out of shape.
He got stronger?
So what he had shown atop the cliff wasn’t everything?
Ka-ga-ga-ga-gak!
Chung Myung’s sword drove hard against Jang Ilso’s hand.
Chung Myung’s internal force, pushed to the extreme through Jaha Divine Art, was raging through his body in violent torrents. It was a sensation he had not felt once since being reborn into this body.
Grit.
Chung Myung clenched his teeth hard. Blood surged backward in his veins, and every muscle in his body screamed in protest.
“Heh. Heh-heh.”
Seeing that expression on Chung Myung’s face, Jang Ilso let out a muffled laugh.
“You look like you’re enjoying yourself!”
BOOOOM!
Jang Ilso knocked Chung Myung away in one move.
“Haaah!”
Then he kicked off the void and shot in faster than Chung Myung, who had been driven back, closing the distance in an instant.
Tap!
At that moment, Chung Myung planted his foot against the cliff and used Maehwa Step to widen the gap, dodging Jang Ilso’s charge.
BOOOOOOM!
Jang Ilso’s fist slammed into the exact spot Chung Myung had just vacated, punching a hollow crater into the cliff face.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The cliff that had taken Jang Ilso’s blow shook as though struck by an earthquake. Broken stones rattled free and plunged downward.
But before that rock could even hit the ground, Chung Myung and Jang Ilso were racing along the cliff face, hurling fists and sword strikes at each other.
Dozens of sword shadows fell like rain, and hundreds of fist shadows bloomed like clouds. Everywhere the two passed, great scars were carved into the cliff like it had been raked apart by giant claws.
It looked as though some immense earth dragon were crawling along the wall.
Scrape!
Then Chung Myung’s sword cut a wound into Jang Ilso’s shoulder.
Crack!
At the same time, Jang Ilso’s fist slammed into Chung Myung’s side.
Both sword and fist grew even fiercer.
Before long, Chung Myung’s entire face was soaked in blood, yet he smiled and bared his teeth, red with it. There was no trace of a Daoist left in that face that spat killing intent from both eyes.
Jang Ilso was no different.
The corners of his mouth had risen as well. His ghostly face was a grotesque mess of excitement and manic delight.
BOOM!
Chung Myung was struck head-on by Jang Ilso’s fist and driven clean through the cliff, embedded deep inside it.
“Chung Myung-aaaaaaaah!”
Baek Cheon let out a shriek so torn with anguish it sounded as though it would split him in half. But before his cry could even finish, Chung Myung burst back out through the cliff as if blowing it apart, and with a sword stroke that carried the force of cutting one thing clean in two, he brought the blade down on Jang Ilso.
BOOOOM!
Jang Ilso crossed both arms to block the strike, but in that instant Chung Myung’s foot shot out like a flash of light and smashed square into his jaw.
Pow!
Jang Ilso’s body flew back like a cannonball. After slamming into the cliff and springing back into the air, the blazing sun high above was reflected plainly in his eyes.
“Ha... hah!”
How long had it been?
How long since someone else’s strength had hurled his body back and made him look up at the sun like this?
Jang Ilso twisted his body and kicked off the air. No, he tried to. But Chung Myung came in twice as fast as he had expected and slammed into him before he could complete the motion.
With one impact that sent him flying toward the center of the ravine and robbed him of any footing, Chung Myung roared at the top of his lungs.
“Hyeoooooon!”
As if waiting for that cry, golden fist power surged up from below.
Chung Myung crouched and stepped on the rising force as he launched himself toward Jang Ilso. The tip of Dark Fragrance Plum Blossom Sword soared upward as if it meant to pierce the heavens.
The sword tip trembled faintly, drawing countless plum blossoms in its wake. The blossoms Chung Myung created burst open, then scattered into thousands of petals that spiraled through the sky.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
All those petals poured down at Jang Ilso at once.
Maehwageomgyeol.Maehwahapokwoo.
A rain of flowers fell from the sky. It was a downpour that swept everything away and cleansed the world.
Seeing the storm of blossoms bearing down on him, madness surged in Jang Ilso’s eyes. For the first time, all leisure vanished from his face completely.
“You insolent bastard!”
His outer robe swelled as if about to burst, and blue light shot from both eyes like lightning. At the same time, blue flames erupted all over his body.
Azure Flame Combat Kill.Severed-Soul Flame Steel.
The blue flames, flicking out like a snake’s tongue, wrapped around Jang Ilso’s entire body and blocked the incoming Plum Blossom Sword Qi.
The Plum Blossom Sword Qi struck the blue qi Jang Ilso had formed over and over again.
If ten blows weren’t enough, then a hundred.
If a hundred weren’t enough, then a thousand.
If even a thousand were insufficient, then ten thousand blows would smash it apart.
Every river begins with a single drop. Droplets gathered together become streams, streams become rivers, and in the end, they become the sea.
The pouring rain turned into rivers, then waterfalls, and crushed down upon Jang Ilso.
HUMMMMM!
Pushed back by the Plum Blossom Sword Qi, Jang Ilso’s body was driven once more into the cliff, drilling deeper and deeper into the rock.
“Kh... khhh!”
Bloodshot veins bulged in Jang Ilso’s eyes, and the whites of his eyes turned red.
“You... you little brat...”
“Jang Ilsooooooo!”
Chung Myung, having fed in every last shred of internal force he had left, shot toward Jang Ilso like a streak of meteoric light.
“Diiiieeeeee!”
BOOOOOOOOOOM!
Chung Myung and Jang Ilso bored through the cliff, deeper and deeper into its heart.