The Result of the Duel
Tah!
The moment I lightly kicked off the ground and rushed toward her, the woman—her brow still furrowed—swiftly thrust the flag in her hand toward me.
She had already violated the terms of the duel, so by all rights she had lost. And yet it seemed she had no intention of simply taking the beating and ending things there.
Flap-flap-flap! Fwap-fwap-fwap!
The black cloth hanging from the flagpole she had thrust out whipped and spun with a noisy flutter, and along with its motion, a mass of green spiritual energy shot out in a whirling spiral.
And I answered without delay.
“With the five leaves of plum blossom, I stir the qi of the five directions!”
It was the ninth form of the 18-Form Plum Blossom Sword Art, a technique that unleashed sword energy in the five directions, and I used it to stand against the green mass of spiritual power.
But the clash between this art of immortals and martial skill produced an unexpected result.
Crash! Craaack!
Even as the brilliant sword energy I had unleashed to block the green mass was still struggling against the spiritual power, the wind born of that spiritual force hurled my body backward all the same.
Bang!!
I was slammed straight into the warehouse, and a haze of pale dust billowed up around me. If I had been the one to seize her moment of carelessness and win our wager, then she was showing me, in this way, that she was by no means someone to be trifled with.
And perhaps she was still not satisfied, because the instant I pushed myself upright, her flag artifact was swung again with great force, spewing another massive clump of green spiritual energy.
The attack carried such tremendous force that it seemed it would sever my body cleanly in half, and as it came crashing down, crushing the sword energy I had left lingering until then, I was finally forced to abandon the 18-Form Plum Blossom Sword Art and draw upon the Splitting Wild Sword of the martial alliance leader instead.
“Third Form of the Splitting Wild Sword! Burning Wilds! Add flame to sword aura, and let it burn and purify the world!”
Just as the martial formula’s metaphor of “adding flame to sword aura” suggested, searing sword qi burst from my blade and met the giant mass of green spiritual energy head-on.
Kiigigigigik!
My attack, which did not shatter even after colliding with such overwhelming spiritual force, was formidable enough—but the wind created by the other side’s spiritual strike was just as fierce.
Crunch! Crrrunch!!
In the end, the raging wind drove my body back so hard that I was forced to smash through the warehouse door that had been at my back.
But the true power of the form called Burning Wilds lay in its persistence. Clenching my jaw, I poured even more inner energy into it, and before long the crimson sword qi, blazing like a firestorm, swelled in size and began to tear apart the giant clump of spiritual energy the woman had created.
The trouble was that my advantage did not last long. The warehouse door bracing my back was finally shattered to pieces.
Crack!
My body, having burst through the wooden door as though it were paper, flew into the warehouse and only came to a stop after slamming into the largest wooden pillar inside.
The target I had wanted was now in front of me at just the right moment. Her immortal art, aided by the artifact, was stronger than I had expected, but for now, it was still the result I had been aiming for.
And so, unwilling to be driven back any further, I began flicking my sword with dazzling speed, sending out a spray of tiny shards of sword energy.
Swish! Swish-swish-swish!
When they collided with her black flag, which whipped about violently, the fragments of sword qi vanished helplessly, like snowflakes touched by a red-hot iron plate.
But this attack had only just begun. The instant the hand-seal I was using to create those shards of sword energy stopped, a blazing fire pellet shot forth.
It was an attack that used martial skill and immortal art at the same time, a combination that had already shown its worth before.
Two fire pellets were formed and sent toward her, which was good enough as far as it went, but astonishingly, the moment they collided with her flag artifact, both pellets gave off tiny popping explosions and vanished without a trace.
At that moment, she spoke.
“Is that all you have to show me? Then I suppose it is time we brought this to an end.”
Of course, I had no intention of ending things simply because I had been driven back. So I poured every ounce of inner energy I had gathered until then into my sword and answered.
“It’s not over yet!”
“Seventh Form of the Splitting Wild Sword! Annihilating Wilds! Raise the sword and annihilate all things. The land of chaos shall meet a new order.”
BOOOOM!!
Breaking through the countless fragments scattering through the air, the mass of sword qi I had created hurtled toward her with the heavy weight of sword aura itself. If I had made more active use of the demonic arts I knew, I could have put her in even greater trouble.
But in a public duel like this, I could not reveal the full extent of my true strength. It was enough, for now, simply to show that I possessed a blow this heavy.
Whoooosh—
For a fleeting moment, watching my final strike tear through the green spiritual energy the flag artifact spewed forth, I even felt a trace of relief. Then, all of a sudden, her flag artifact began spinning once more.
And astonishingly, it formed a tornado wrapped in green spiritual energy. A mere human had created a natural disaster with such monstrous force.
As I was reminded once again of the power cultivators held, I steadied my resolve—only to see the dense mass of sword qi I had sent out, like a fish swimming upstream, begin to scatter the moment it entered the tornado.
I understood then why San Mountain Jin Myeong had said he was not truly a proper Foundation Establishment cultivator. The power of a real Foundation Establishment cultivator was terrifying.
Whooooosh—
The green tornado, having dispersed my mass of sword qi, finally surged into the warehouse, which was now half-collapsed.
Tah!
Whirr!
My body, after lightly kicking off the ground, swung around the sturdy wooden pillar that had once been my intended target and came to rest behind it.
Not satisfied with that alone, I immediately drove my sword into the ground.
Here it comes!
Crunch! Craaack!!
The wooden warehouse, its entrance already destroyed, was torn apart as a whole, and splinters and fragments flew through the air. It felt almost as though I were facing a real tornado head-on.
Small shards grazed me as they passed, leaving fine trails of blood across my body one after another, but I focused only on avoiding the larger debris.
If I tried to evade every last tiny piece, I truly might be blown away.
Swish! Swish!
As drops of blood scattered into the air, I finally caught sight of my opponent—she was clearly completely off guard now.
With the faintest smile on her lips, as though she were already certain of victory, she was walking slowly toward me to confirm it with her own eyes.
But unlike what she believed, this fight was not over until I said it was over.
The moment the tornado that had swallowed me began to weaken, my body shot forward like a bowstring pulled taut. It was a technique that used the recoil of the sword, which had bent backward like a bow thanks to the tornado she had created. The movement art that let me dart forward was only an added bonus.
Startled by this sudden charge, she moved to swing the flag artifact in frantic haste.
Truthfully, with only half a measure of inner energy available to me, it was an attack packed with power far beyond what I should have dared to face.
Even though my upper dantian had been activated, it still took a little time to refill the hollowed-out dantian, and that was the reason for this opening.
But I did not care.
After all, the soft overcame the hard!
Rather than meeting the flag artifact she thrust out directly with my sword, I slipped past her attack and brought my forearm against her exposed arm.
As expected, the protective barrier wrapping the bodies of Foundation Establishment cultivators seemed only to block attacks that truly threatened them, for this slight collision of bodies caused no issue at all.
But the result of that gentle motion was anything but weak. Using my forearm, I redirected the force still driving her arm forward, and with the rebound, I spun my body a full circle.
That alone let me take her rear so easily.
An elbow strike, driven by the recoil of the turn—once. Then I seized her startled shoulder and drove in a knee—once. And as her body twisted around, I struck once more with my foot.
Crack! Thud! Thwack!
It was less a proper boxing technique with set forms than a street brawl, but with it I succeeded in landing solid blows.
Yet even after being caught off guard by my attack, she merely wore a stunned expression and did not so much as let out a groan. It had carried inner energy, too, but even so, I had not managed to inflict any great damage.
Still, the muddy footprint I had left on her clothes alone was enough to make everyone watching our duel draw in their breath.
And so, smiling at her, with her face rigid and frozen, I spoke.
“I learned a fine lesson, Martial Aunt. At this point, I think it’s safe to say the time we’ll be spending together is ten days, wouldn’t you agree?”
At that, the face that had been as stiff as a wooden mask twisted, and with a heavy thud, one of the warehouse’s timber pillars gave way at last, falling to the ground.
It felt as though the pride she had maintained so haughtily until now had collapsed with it. At the same time, the small cut on the side of her head where my elbow had struck showed a faint glimmer of blood…
There had been no clear winner in the duel of skill, but in our wager, my victory was complete.
“I’ll come to the Shadow Talisman Department again tomorrow at noon.”
As always, she was only saying what she herself wanted to say.
But I was satisfied simply to see her stiffened face.
So when I gave a small nod with a crooked smile, she suddenly stopped in the middle of taking a step.
“If you intend to hunt a fire-attributed great beast in Peach Blossom Grotto, you’d best prepare yourself well.”
It was different from before, when she had not even told me what we were supposed to do and had simply tried to drag me along by force.
At the very least, she seemed to consider me more than a somewhat useful tool now.
So I, too, offered a somewhat more agreeable reply.
“I will.”
In any case, thanks to her, I now had a way to obtain a 100-year-old guimu wood pillar, so giving her that much response was not difficult. And since this had been a proper duel, she would surely settle any issue related to this ruined warehouse with the sect contribution points she possessed.
But there was one thing I had failed to consider.
“Senior Brother Neung! Just what kind of art did he use just now? It looked like some special immortal technique or artifact, didn’t it?”
“It really was impressive. To think he could do that much against a Martial Aunt at the Foundation Establishment stage. But isn’t it embarrassing to beg for instruction like that? Asking for guidance from Senior Brother Neung, who entered the sect so much later than you…”
“If he’ll only teach me a technique that can stand up to a Foundation Establishment cultivator, I’d do it without hesitation.”
“You’re the one making our Shadow Talisman Department cultivators look bad, you know that?”
In truth, the reaction of the Shadow Talisman Department senior brothers, who kept trading words among themselves while watching me like this, was not unexpected. I had assumed something like this would happen the moment they began trailing along as spectators.
But their chatter showed no sign of stopping. The very fact that I, only at the early Qi Refining stage, had managed to put on a decent showing against a Foundation Establishment cultivator seemed to excite them tremendously.
The problem was that I still had unfinished business here. More than anything else, I absolutely had to secure that 100-year-old guimu wood pillar.
So I tried imitating the way my second brother usually spoke.
“Martial Aunt Zheng was simply gracious enough to accommodate me. Didn’t you all see how my decisive fire pellet art vanished without a trace?”
Thankfully, my answer—carefully delivered in my second brother’s manner of speech—worked fairly well on them.
“Well, at the end, Martial Aunt Zheng was on her way over to make sure it was all over anyway.”
“Even if Martial Aunt Zheng let her guard down, the fact remains that you wounded a Foundation Establishment cultivator. That is no small feat. It would take dozens of Qi Refining cultivators like us just to barely hold off one Foundation Establishment cultivator.”
“I agree. Senior Brother Neung will become a remarkable cultivator someday. Though before that, he’ll have to return alive from Peach Blossom Grotto first. A great beast, you say! If I had to face something that terrifying, I’d run away from the sect this very minute. Life is the most important thing, no matter what, isn’t it?”
Peach Blossom Grotto. A great beast.
Were those things really so dangerous?