A Life-or-Death Reckoning
Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo charged at the same time toward the superb Peak expert, the Mad Horse Elder, Ma Gwan-pil.
Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique
As Shin Dan-woo had requested, and in accordance with their plan, Seok Geum-ryong first put distance between himself and the enemy before hurling his golden needles with everything he had.
Fwap, fwap-fwap-fwap!
By now, his mastery of the Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique had grown so refined, so complete, that even Yeo Gwang-rae, the Golden Needle Venerable himself, would have been startled by the skill on display.
Moreover, each and every needle carried Seok Geum-ryong’s own dense, profound internal energy, making it a strike that could truly be called a single needle for certain death.
“Hmph. I thought it was something impressive, but was that all you had?”
It would have been natural for anyone to be rattled by that unexpected barrage of golden needles, but Ma Gwan-pil was a genuine Peak expert.
More than that, he was a weathered old master who had seen every kind of bloodshed, from battlefield warfare to naval combat and even aerial clashes.
Ordinary rabble would have been hard-pressed to cope with such unfamiliar hidden-weapon arts, but Ma Gwan-pil was no ordinary man.
Horseback Step.
As befitted his outstanding lightness skill, Ma Gwan-pil also possessed superb footwork.
At a glance, his body looked pitifully small and his waist so bent that he seemed sluggish and slow, but nothing could have been further from the truth.
Swoosh.
He darted sideways with the speed of a mounted rider, evading Seok Geum-ryong’s golden needles in a display that was not merely impressive but first-rate.
Damn it!
When his decisive needle technique went wide, Seok Geum-ryong felt a sharp pang of disappointment, but this was no lone attack. It was a coordinated assault.
And the purpose of a coordinated assault was exactly what the words implied: to attack together.
Seok Geum-ryong’s Heaven-Returning Golden Needle Technique had never been the true strike; it was only a feint, a trick to draw Ma Gwan-pil in and blind his eyes.
The real attack was the superior form of Shin Dan-woo’s Wind-Breaking Sword Technique, hidden behind Seok Geum-ryong’s golden needles: the Strike the Wind, Split the Sun Sword.
Whoosh!
The sword form spun fiercely toward Ma Gwan-pil, carving a violent arc through the air.
The force carried in that sword aura was so tremendous that Shin Dan-woo’s blade, driven by all the painstaking effort he had poured into the form, would not have paled before a Peak expert’s own strike.
In truth, Shin Dan-woo, the Shadowless One, had already accumulated enough internal energy to step into the Peak realm; he lacked only one thing.
Enlightenment.
More precisely, he lacked only that one sudden flash of awakening.
Thus, in terms of physical power alone, he was no different from a Peak expert.
These filthy bastards...
To evade the piercing needles, Ma Gwan-pil had leapt diagonally upward and to the left. In midair, even the most accomplished lightness-skills master was subject to some restriction of movement.
Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo had struck exactly at that opening.
And so, as Ma Gwan-pil felt the force and pressure of an attack more violent than he had expected, he was inwardly surprised.
To be honest, both Shin Dan-woo, who did not look especially formidable, and Seok Geum-ryong, whom he still considered a mere child with a runny nose, had combined far beyond what he had anticipated.
“Still too early!”
Just as Shin Dan-woo’s sword aura was about to land, Ma Gwan-pil cried out and twisted his body in a violent rotation.
Whirrrrr!
Like a horse kicked in the rear by a stinging bee, he spun his body with wild, maniacal force and barely managed to evade Shin Dan-woo’s sword.
Drip.
But he was not completely unharmed.
He had avoided the blade itself, yet the dense sword aura buried deep within it still sliced into his skin and left a wound.
“Y-you little wretches, you truly...”
Ma Gwan-pil had been treated cruelly since childhood because of his ugly appearance, and as a result he had grown into a twisted eccentric.
For that reason, he cherished his own body to a horrifying degree, and the sight of blood made his heart burn as fury surged through him.
“Die! Die!”
With his eyes completely turned over, Ma Gwan-pil drew out his specialty, a singular weapon of his own.
It was a long, thick, reddish-brown whip called the Scorpion Venom Whip.
From the outside, it looked like a wrist guard, wrapped around the shabby, insignificant hand of Ma Gwan-pil, which made the whip all the more bizarre.
Crack!
In the blink of an eye, Ma Gwan-pil released the whip coiled around his hand and lashed down savagely toward the ground.
The Mad Horse Elder was a master of whip arts, and in his youth, when he had lived as a nomad's stable boy, he had learned to handle horses with a whip, displaying a natural talent for it.
But that was not all.
“Be careful, Young Master. The Scorpion Venom Whip carries... exactly what it sounds like: a scorpion’s poison!”
With his opening strike having missed, Shin Dan-woo could not help but turn pale as he relayed the warning.
Just as he said, the name of the weapon meant a whip steeped in scorpion venom, and even a grazing touch could inflict a fatal wound along with poisoning.
“So, you’re the fifth son of Seokga Manor.”
Unfortunately, the direction of Ma Gwan-pil’s vile whip was not Shin Dan-woo, but Seok Geum-ryong.
Devious Fang Whip.
At last, Ma Gwan-pil fully displayed his true ability, unleashing one of the signature forms of his very own Scorpion-Venom Fang Whip Technique, along with the skill that had made his name in lightness arts.
Fwaaah!
The Scorpion Venom Whip in Ma Gwan-pil’s hand was truly terrifying.
Its supple motion, slithering forward like a giant python stalking its prey, was almost revolting to behold.
First I’ll capture that brat from Seokga, then I’ll kill the bodyguard!
The reason Ma Gwan-pil deliberately targeted Seok Geum-ryong first was that, at least in name, Geum-ryong belonged to Jeokma-dang, and the one Jeokma-dang’s master, Gui Jong-ak, had desperately been trying to seize was none other than Seok Geum-ryong.
Of course, Ma Gwan-pil did not consider himself a subordinate of Gui Jong-ak, but as long as he was being furnished with massive sums of gold and excellent warhorses, he at least had to pretend to work.
“Young Master!”
As that wicked, serpent-like whip swept past him and headed for Seok Geum-ryong, Shin Dan-woo shouted in alarm.
Of course, Seok Geum-ryong was not the sort to be cowed by an attack of that magnitude.
I may have died once, but I was a superior expert to Ma Gwan-pil.
Holding that pride in his heart, Seok Geum-ryong swung his Silver-Auditory Sword with all the force he could muster.
In that brief instant, he first circulated the Northern Dipper Cultivation Technique, then drew upon the violently surging internal energy within him to unleash the second form of the Heaven-Shattering Seven Stars Sword Technique: Great Gate.
Fwaaaaaaah!
To protect his life, Seok Geum-ryong pushed himself to the limit, and as a result, the sword aura of Great Gate came pouring down in torrents.
The difference in power between him and his opponent was immense, but fortunately, Ma Gwan-pil had dismissed Seok Geum-ryong as nothing more than an irritating youngster, a nose-dripping brat.
Crash!
The two forms collided and unleashed an enormous explosion.
If Ma Gwan-pil had been an ordinary Super First-class master or even a Peak expert, Seok Geum-ryong might have escaped unscathed.
Drip, drip.
But the Mad Horse Elder, Ma Gwan-pil, was notorious even among Peak experts, so even though he had been careless, that attack was by no means weak.
“Gah!”
Seok Geum-ryong reeled backward madly, struck by a shock that felt as though his entire body were collapsing.
“Young Master!”
Seeing this, the Shadowless One, Shin Dan-woo, sprang forward and shielded Seok Geum-ryong’s back as he was driven away.
Thankfully, he did not suffer a fatal injury, nor was he poisoned by the Scorpion Venom Whip.
“Cough!”
But the gap between their realms was immense, and the force born of that difference was difficult to endure, so blood kept spilling from Seok Geum-ryong’s nose and mouth.
“I-I’m... f-fine.”
Seok Geum-ryong said he was fine, even though he looked anything but.
If he had truly been an ordinary teenage boy, he would have fainted twelve times over.
It was remarkable that he could still keep his wits about him.
...
Watching him, Shin Dan-woo hesitated for a moment.
There were two choices.
Should he launch another joint attack, or should he stake his own life here and at least save Seok Geum-ryong?
The choice was not difficult.
Clench.
Shin Dan-woo tightened his grip on his sword and resolved to face death willingly.
How strange. To think I’d offer my life for a boy I’ve only just met.
Shin Dan-woo found his own behavior difficult to understand, and that made it feel all the more strange, all the more interesting.
Smirk.
So he smiled willingly.
No! Anything but that!
When Seok Geum-ryong saw Shin Dan-woo’s smile, he immediately understood that the man had already made up his mind to die.
It was the same expression the servant Deung Chon and the Scholar in Blue, Gong Sang-pil, had worn when they died in his place.
How much effort had Seok Geum-ryong poured into preventing the sacrifices and deaths of those two men?
He had barely opened the door to a new and better future; he could not face a new despair now.
And so, Seok Geum-ryong persuaded Shin Dan-woo, who was preparing to die together with him, and at last made his decision.
He would strike at the weakness of Ma Gwan-pil, the weakness he knew from his past life.
I know his weakness.
Seok Geum-ryong recalled the memories of his former life once again.
When he had been Woo Do-min, the Gold-Selling Swordsman, there had been a time when the Mad Horse Elder Ma Gwan-pil, already notorious in that life as well and then serving as chief steward of Jeokma-dang, had been defeated by a subordinate, a trio of low-ranking thugs, and sent shockwaves through all of the Hebei martial world.
Even in this desperate situation, with severe internal injuries and wounds, Seok Geum-ryong continued to persuade Shin Dan-woo through telepathic transmission.
Shin Dan-woo was sincerely torn between belief and disbelief, wavering over whether he should trust it or abandon the plan and evacuate Seok Geum-ryong immediately.
It was that final transmission that completely convinced Shin Dan-woo.
Shin Dan-woo released the Seok Geum-ryong he had been supporting, then stepped forward with a solemn expression.
“You damned hunchbacked old man!”
Just as he had promised Seok Geum-ryong, Shin Dan-woo tried a provocation entirely unlike his nature in order to draw Ma Gwan-pil’s attention and make him careless.
Shin Dan-woo was ordinarily so decent and gentlemanly that even when fighting ruffians he rarely spoke ill of anyone.
But now things were different.
Seok Geum-ryong’s life was on the line.
“Your mouth’s filthy for a man who’s about to die!”
As expected, Ma Gwan-pil was driven completely out of his wits by Shin Dan-woo’s provocation, which mocked his deformity.
Crack!
Proof of that was how he withdrew the Scorpion Venom Whip that had been aimed at Seok Geum-ryong and instead lashed it down powerfully toward Shin Dan-woo.
Unwilling to be outdone, Shin Dan-woo met him head-on, putting on as much force as he could and continuing to draw Ma Gwan-pil’s attention.
At last, Ma Gwan-pil’s body moved past Seok Geum-ryong and turned fully toward Shin Dan-woo, all of his concentration narrowed there.
As a result, the bent back that had not been visible from the front was exposed from the side.
Ma Gwan-pil had always kept his crooked back carefully hidden. Others assumed he did so because he was ashamed of the deformity, but that was not the real reason.
He had suffered badly from rickets since childhood, and even after becoming a Peak expert, the condition of his back could not be protected by external cultivation or body-protecting qi.
In other words, it was a fatal flaw, a weakness, and he had concealed it with meticulous care all his life.
Now!
The moment that bent back was exposed, even if only from the side, Seok Geum-ryong tightened his grip on the Silver-Auditory Sword once more.
Ma Gwan-pil’s weakness is that crooked back.
Then he gathered every last shred of strength and, even as blood spilled from his nose and mouth, unleashed the technique with ferocious force.
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