There's No Choice But to Believe It (2)
It was a truly dazzling sight.
Fragments of black and red energy burst outward like fireworks, and it was as if a colossal black-and-crimson flower were blooming in midair. The spectacle was so splendid it bordered on the majestic.
But it was also terribly dangerous.
“D-dodge it!”
“Aaaaaaah!”
The exploding force swept across Maehwado at terrifying speed as it scattered in every direction. Blades of qi, each shard as sharp as a treasured sword, rained down like a storm.
The water bandits were pierced without the slightest chance to resist.
For men of no great individual skill, there was nowhere to evade the energy pouring down from above.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“My arm! My aaaaaaaarm!”
Water bandits whose bodies had been riddled through collapsed in all directions, screaming miserably.
But on the Mount Hua side, the situation was entirely different.
“Protect Namgung!”
“Yes, sir!”
The moment Hyun Jong’s command rang out, the Mount Hua swordsmen shot into the air and deflected the blades of qi hurtling toward them. The plum blossoms they drew forth in the process dyed one side of the island red.
“Mm!”
Dang Gun-ak also sent out throwing knives to knock aside the blades of qi. Then he looked quietly at the Mount Hua swordsmen who had stepped in front of them to shield them.
The Tang Family was as lopsided as its nature suggested. They were unsurpassed in attacking the enemy, but because their specialty was the use of short concealed weapons—so short that calling them “short weapons” almost felt like a joke—they were terribly vulnerable in defense.
And Mount Hua already knew that, protecting not only Namgung but even the Tang Family as well.
It was a strange feeling.
Who would have thought that the same sect from years ago would one day stand there guarding them?
Dang Gun-ak’s gaze passed over the Mount Hua swordsmen and climbed beyond them—to the two figures locked in combat amid the exploding qi.
The sword and the dao collided with force, clashing savagely. He could see it clearly.
Kaaang!
Every time they met and sprang apart, a deafening roar rang in his ears. And the moment they separated, they slammed into each other again with renewed violence.
Kagagagagak!
The sword and dao trembled as they strained to shove each other away, then suddenly sprang apart with explosive force.
“Taaaaap!”
The Black Dragon King’s curved dao cleaved through the air. The dark, ink-like blade qi he unleashed shot straight toward Cheong Myeong.
An entirely honest strike, with not a trace of feint or trickery. But because of that, it was faster—and all the more destructive.
Flap, flap, flap!
Cheong Myeong’s sword tip began to tremble madly. Plum blossoms burst forth without end, pushing the dark blade qi sliding off to the side.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
The blade qi slammed into the ground and sent sand geysering into the air. Anyone who later saw the deep scar left behind on the earth would never have believed it had been made by a dao.
“Kh!”
Yet there was no sign of triumph on the Black Dragon King’s face, despite the unbelievable mark he had carved into the ground.
“Woooooaaaar!”
He let out one earth-shaking lion’s roar after another and swung his dao. More than ten strands of blade qi flew toward Cheong Myeong as though to bury him alive.
Each and every one of them carried enough power to shatter a large bandit ship, but the Black Dragon King hurled them out as casually as breathing.
He truly was worthy of being the leader of the vast Jiangbei Water Bandits, a man who had risen to command a giant sect solely through his own martial force. His prowess was astonishing.
Like ink bleeding across a painting where one end had been dipped into black dye, the blade qi spread clearly toward Cheong Myeong.
Fwoosh!
But even after seeing that terrifying sight, Cheong Myeong did not retreat—instead, he sprang straight toward the incoming blades of qi.
Just as the dark qi was about to swallow him, Cheong Myeong, rushing forward, vanished from that spot as though he had been snuffed out.
No, he had not vanished at all.
He had lowered his body as far as it would go and slipped beneath the blade qi. Planting his sword into the ground to spring himself forward at the same time, he kicked off and shot low across the earth at twice his previous speed.
Whoosh!
The blade qi sliced through the air just above Cheong Myeong’s head. The ends of his cut hair scattered everywhere. Had he been off by even a hair’s breadth, his head would have been severed clean off—but the Cheong Myeong charging forward showed not the slightest hesitation.
Like a swallow skimming over water, he flew onward, and murderous intent poured from his eyes.
The Black Dragon King seized the opening at once and lunged forward in a single breath. At the same time, he lowered his dao and brought it smashing down on Cheong Myeong.
The terrifying energy wrapped around that strike looked as though it could grind anything standing in its way to dust.
But at that instant, Cheong Myeong’s eyes flashed a vivid blue.
Faaaat!
He kicked off the ground and instead surged toward the dao coming down at him. Then he placed one hand against the blade and raised both arms, taking a stance to block the descending strike with the flat of his sword.
At the sight of that, vicious energy exploded in the Black Dragon King’s eyes.
You damn bastard!
He squeezed out every ounce of inner force and poured it into the dao. He shoved downward with all his strength, prepared to split Cheong Myeong in two along with the sword that had blocked him.
Kwaaaaaaaang!
To the Black Dragon King, the scene was crystal clear: the sword blocking his dao bending violently, as though it would snap at any moment. Blood spurted from Cheong Myeong’s palm pressed against the blade, and the wrist gripping the sword twisted at an ugly angle.
His back arched so far it looked as though it might break, and blood burst from his trembling mouth, scattering through the air.
It all happened in the blink of an eye.
But the force in the dao had still not been exhausted. If he kept pressing like this, he could split the bastard clean down the middle!
Die!
The Black Dragon King was just about to drive his inner force even further and punish Cheong Myeong’s recklessness when—
Kwadududududuk!
Using all the elasticity stored in his arched body, Cheong Myeong turned the recoil into offense and drove his knee savagely into the Black Dragon King’s wrist—the very hand that was gripping the shaft of the curved blade.
“Ghk…”
For the first time, a suppressed groan squeezed through the Black Dragon King’s lips.
He had been pouring all the inner force he’d gathered into the dao, and at that exact moment Cheong Myeong jabbed his knee into the wrist, sealing off the path for that force to flow through.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Knees kept smashing down without pause onto the wrist that had already split halfway open, exposing bone.
“Khah!”
In the end, the Black Dragon King let out a single scream and hurled himself backward.
But the one he faced was a demon who had never learned how to let prey escape.
Crack!
Cheong Myeong’s sword spun around and hooked the retreating Black Dragon King’s dao, dragging it off line. Using that recoil, Cheong Myeong rushed in, baring teeth wet with blood as his body whirled.
Faaaaat!
At point-blank range, the blade qi he unleashed split the Black Dragon King’s instep open to the bone. Before the pain from that wound could even reach his throat, another sword stroke shot up from beneath his armpit and lunged toward his face.
Shhk!
Like peeling the skin from a piece of fruit with a sharp knife, the sword slashed long from the Black Dragon King’s jaw all the way up to his eye.
One side of his vision instantly flooded red.
“Hraaaaaaagh!”
The Black Dragon King shouted something that was neither battle cry nor scream and brought his dao crashing down with horrifying force.
In that instant, five plum blossoms bloomed right before the curved blade.
Kwadududuk!
The wildly swung dao crushed those insignificant flowers without mercy, but the split-second opening created in the process gave Cheong Myeong just enough room to slip past.
Slash!
The sensation of his knee being cut sent a chill racing through him.
The Black Dragon King staggered, but somehow managed to regain his balance and spin his body around. At the same time, he swung the dao with all his might toward Cheong Myeong’s retreating back.
“You damn basaaaaaard!”
Kwaaaaaaaang!
Explosive blade qi poured toward Cheong Myeong’s back like a tidal wave. It was a tremendous momentum that would have made any martial artist gasp in awe. Yet in that very moment, Cheong Myeong turned and raised his sword high.
“Taaaaaaaaap!”
A powerful downward strike following the upper stance.
The moment a vivid red line was drawn through empty air, the torrent of blade qi split left and right as if it had struck a thousand-year tree standing alone on the shore.
From the tip of Cheong Myeong’s sword dragged downward, plum blossoms bloomed one after another. They swirled around the dark Amhyang Maehwageom in red before surging upward.
Then the Black Dragon King saw it.
A river of plum blossoms, swelling like a wave atop the blade qi, crashing down on him like a waterfall.
Plum Blossom Sword Art.Plum Blossoms Flow Like a River!
Kwaaaaaaaang!
The overflowing river swallowed his blade qi, shoved it aside, and kept flowing and flowing.
A river made of red petals surged toward the Black Dragon King like floodwater bursting from a rain-swollen valley.
“Youuuuu bastard!”
The Black Dragon King bit down hard on his lip. A grinding sound rang in his ears, and blood splattered from the split flesh of his mouth, but he didn’t feel pain anymore.
His eyes bloodshot, he dragged out every shred of remaining inner force.
Bang!
Stamping down hard, he advanced like a storm while swinging his dao. The river of plum blossoms pouring in struck his blade qi and shattered, crumbled, and bounced away.
“Woooooooaaaar!”
Bang!
The Black Dragon King stepped forward again.
The whirling black storm smashed through the red river and pressed onward toward Cheong Myeong.
“Hraaaaaaaaaagh!”
He squeezed out every last bit of strength he had.
Having lived his entire life in the world of duels, the Black Dragon King knew it instinctively in this moment: the one who gave way here would die. Strength against strength, inner force against inner force. This was a contest he could not allow himself to lose.
His vision had been blocked for some time already.
This river of petals, and the storm of blade qi he himself had created, had stolen sight from him completely. Worse still, with one eye slashed and only half his vision remaining, there was no way he could see beyond this collision of energies.
But he did not need to see. His enemy would be at the end of this river of petals! The instant he took one final step and cut that throat, victory would be his!
Whoosh!
Blood burst from the Black Dragon King’s mouth and nose. The inner force he had gathered and dragged up with all his strength surged explosively through his body and settled at the tip of his dao.
“Iyaaaaaaaap!”
The Black Dragon King’s dao accelerated. Faster, harder! His blade became a storm set to devour everything, battering the incoming plum blossom qi apart as though it were nothing.
More!
Just a little more!
His mind was gradually turning blank. Even as the pain of his dantian being shredded by sharp knives raked through him, the Black Dragon King steadfastly set one foot after another and moved forward.
And then, for a moment, the surge of plum blossom qi suddenly slackened.
Now!
The Black Dragon King wrung out every ounce of strength left in him and charged forward. No—he tried to charge.
Faaaat!
At that moment, Cheong Myeong burst up from within the river of plum blossoms.
For the usual Black Dragon King, it would have been an ambush he would never have missed. But this was the first time he had ever had to fight with one eye instead of two, and he recognized Cheong Myeong’s presence just a fraction too late.
Useless!
The Black Dragon King swung his dao with all the strength he’d put into it.
A little late didn’t matter! The moment that bastard drove his sword into his body, his own dao would split the bastard’s waist in half…
But then.
Faaaat!
Every muscle on his instep was severed.
The instep Cheong Myeong had cut a moment ago could not withstand the Black Dragon King’s overwhelming force any longer.
The body that had been swinging the dao so violently staggered for a split second.
And then!
Kaaaaaaang!
Cheong Myeong’s sword, swung with everything he had, slammed into the Black Dragon King’s shaft. And in that instant, the Black Dragon King heard it clearly: the horrifying sound of the wrist that had been holding on and holding on finally breaking.
You?
One eye slashed.
One foot cut away.
The wrist relentlessly targeted.
Cheong Myeong charging forward instead by using the impact of the clash with the dao itself.
The moment their eyes met—Cheong Myeong’s icy, pitiless gaze—the Black Dragon King realized it.
From the very beginning… you were aiming for this?
Faaaat!
A sunset-hued rainbow that seemed intent on cutting the world in two poured toward the Black Dragon King’s neck.
Slash!