Chapter 150: Seok Myeong’s Martial Arts Overwhelming the Rising Stars (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 150: Seok Myeong’s Martial Arts Overwhelming the Rising Stars (2)
Gurgle, gurgle. Crack!
It was a sight beyond imagination.
The monster Seok Myeong had been facing began to undergo a grotesque transformation after literally absorbing two of its kin. Its frame expanded further, and the veins bulging across its face looked as if they were about to burst.
The first to react was the one remaining Giant Demon.
“Kaaaaakh!”
The creature fled as if consumed by terror, but it was snatched up in an instant by the colossal beast that had already devoured the others.
Squelch!
Sharp claws pierced through the chest of its own kind.
Slurp—!
In the next moment, a terrifying surge of energy erupted from the body of the creature that had now consumed three of its brethren.
Sssst!
Part of that energy rippled outward. Accompanied by a blinding light, the corpses of the three monsters dissolved as if they had been doused in Bone Melting Powder.
“This… this doesn’t look ordinary,” Yu Hwa said, her eyes signaling the others to be on high alert.
It was difficult to fathom, but only one conclusion could be drawn from the scene: the power of four had been condensed into one.
“It’s clearly up to something… Everyone, be careful,” Jin-cheon agreed.
Crack! Snap!
Having feasted on its kin, the sole remaining Giant Demon now looked like a monster in the truest sense of the word. It stood a staggering nine feet tall. Its body was a mass of exploding muscle, with forearms as thick as sturdy logs. A faint, dark haze of Black Ink Energy shimmered around it like a heat mirage.
Yu Yeok-gil spoke, his voice trembling with unease. “I heard the Martial Alliance had a hundred of these things locked up. You don’t think this one ate them all, do you?”
“Mmm.”
The others groaned, nodding instinctively. A Giant Demon that was the condensation of a hundred others—it was an absurdity. It was an entity that could only be described as a true monster.
“Do not worry. This monk can handle it.”
Beopgye, with his dependable features, took a step forward. He was a Shaolin monk, a man armed with the pure internal energy of Demon-Subduing Evil-Repelling.
“If Beopgye is stepping up… I suppose there’s nothing left for me to do.”
Jin-cheon watched with his arms crossed, adopting a relaxed posture. No matter how hideous the Giant Demon was, as long as its nature was demonic, Shaolin’s Beopgye would never lose.
‘That man…’
Yu Yeok-gil instinctively turned his gaze toward Seok Myeong. Seok Myeong, however, could not take his eyes off the monster.
‘It’s strong. Incomparably stronger than anyone I’ve fought so far.’
It had grown taller, and its skeletal structure had thickened. At a glance, it looked like an external master who had mastered the Iron Cloth. However, an intuitive warning was blaring in Seok Myeong’s mind.
‘That Shaolin monk isn’t enough.’
Seok Myeong thought this while observing Beopgye’s martial prowess. The monk was certainly strong. The coordination between his hands and feet felt incredibly natural; he had clearly surpassed a high level and was peering into the ultimate realm.
But he was still insufficient to face that monster.
And that intuition proved to be exactly right.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Boom!
The two collided with a thunderous roar.
“Gah!”
Surprisingly, the one sent flying was Beopgye. It was a thrust almost too fast for the eye to follow. He had unleashed a perfectly clean straight punch, yet he was the one who had been struck down.
“Cough! Hack!”
Beopgye collapsed from that single blow. He tried to stand again, but his legs gave out. His will was there, but the focus in his eyes had already vanished. All from a single clash.
‘It was the difference in internal strength!’
In terms of movement alone, the Giant Demon was clumsily inferior. It had no proper logic or forms. But its internal strength was monstrous. That raw power had instantly shattered a wall of technique that must have taken decades to build. It was hard to believe, even after seeing it with his own eyes.
“The world-renowned Hundred Step Divine Fist was…?”
Jin-cheon rushed forward, his expression hardening. Beopgye, who possessed the pinnacle of demon-slaying internal energy, had fallen. To protect him, Jin-cheon performed three mid-air somersaults in front of the beast and swung his sword in a fierce surprise attack.
“It’s Wudang’s Cloud-Stepping!”
Flutter!
His robes snapped loudly, and as expected, his sword accurately pierced the monster’s chest. Perhaps sensing success, a faint smile touched Jin-cheon’s lips.
Rip.
But that smile vanished along with the sound of tearing flesh. The monster had caught the blade with its bare hand as if it were nothing.
“Ah!”
Thud, thud, thud!
The creature began pummeling Jin-cheon with incredible speed. Even in the midst of the assault, Jin-cheon clung desperately to his sword. The more he resisted, the more his face was torn and bloodied.
“Die!”
Fortunately, Yu Yeok-gil quickly moved to save Jin-cheon. Proving his status as one of the Five Dragons, he pushed the monster back with surgical precision, even while Jin-cheon was entangled with it.
“Kaaaaakh!”
In that interval, Jin-cheon recovered his sword, and Yu Yeok-gil continued to charge at the beast.
“Hah!”
Zzzzzzt—!
A continuous discharge of sword qi erupted. It was a desperate attack, with Yu Yeok-gil pouring every ounce of his internal strength into it.
However.
“Kwoooooh!”
Clang!
With a monstrous roar, the energies annihilated each other.
‘How…?’
Yu Yeok-gil stood dazed, the scene too shocking to process.
“Get out of the way!”
“Senior Brother!”
Even as Beopgye and Yu Hwa shouted, he remained frozen. When his soul-stirring strike came to naught, he was paralyzed by a sense of futility and overwhelming terror.
“Kuaaaaakh!”
The monster lunged toward him. At that moment, a wind blew from behind Yu Yeok-gil.
Swoosh!
‘…Seok Myeong?’
Whish! Thud! Slash! Stab!
Seok Myeong moved with dazzling speed, evading the monster’s attacks while carving into it. Thrusting while dodging. Slashing again, then thrusting once more. Moving left and right to bait the opponent’s attack, then thrusting again.
Slash! Stab! Rip!
It was brilliant. Not only was the swordsmanship magnificent, but the distribution of power between the thrusts and slashes was incredibly precise. Above all—
‘He isn’t being pushed back.’
Whoosh! Swish! Shhh!
Despite the enemy’s onslaught, Seok Myeong did not retreat. Instead, it was the enemy who let out monstrous shrieks as it was pushed back by dozens of strikes.
‘A Taoist of Qingcheng…’
The path Yu Yeok-gil had always looked toward was occupied by Shaolin and Wudang. Qingcheng was never there. While the sect was famous for its swordsmanship, the Qingcheng arts he had seen previously were crude and simplistic.
But the Qingcheng sword he was seeing now was different. It was fluid and fast. Beyond just utilizing the opponent’s strength, it possessed the cleverness to occasionally suppress strength with even greater strength. The swordsmanship Seok Myeong was displaying was on an entirely different level from any he had known.
Boom!
‘An opening!’
Seok Myeong gathered his internal strength as the creature lunged at him doggedly. He intended to use the dark energy—the Black Ink Energy.
“Hah!”
With a shout, the Black Ink Energy surged forward. The moment that energy touched the creature’s body, a massive explosion occurred.
Crrr-ack!
As if caught in a desert sandstorm, shattered fragments of stone soared high into the air and scattered in all directions. As Seok Myeong’s martial prowess had grown, the power of the Black Ink Energy had become unimaginably strong.
‘Wha—what!’
“Khhhhh…”
Seok Myeong couldn’t believe his eyes. As the dust slowly cleared, the scene that revealed itself was completely outside his expectations. The creature was still standing, looking down at him with an arrogant posture. It was as if it were mocking him.
* * *
“It dodged it.”
Beopgye spoke to the confused Seok Myeong. His nose and mouth were smeared with blood, likely from internal injuries. Nevertheless, the Shaolin monk glared at the enemy without a hint of fear or hesitation.
“It dodged?”
When Seok Myeong looked at him, the monk continued. “Indeed. Among Shaolin’s basic training, there is the Hand-Eye-Body-Footwork Coordination. It means that once you reach a certain level, your hands, eyes, body, and steps move as one. That monster is in such a state.”
“But it has no reason…”
“Internal strength that has reached the pinnacle accelerates all physical reactions and movements. Even this monk’s eyes could not follow its final movement.”
Seok Myeong nodded in agreement. He, too, had failed to see the final movement. To be precise, he had let his guard down, thinking it was over the moment the Black Ink Energy made contact.
Beopgye spoke again. “Even so, it is truly remarkable. With such a Righteous Heart in your energy, I believe you are more than capable of defeating it, Taoist Seok Myeong.”
“Did you just say ‘Righteous Heart’?” Seok Myeong asked reflexively.
Little Divine Monk Beopgye was a Shaolin monk who possessed internal energy more righteous and pure than any other sect.
“I did. Is something wrong?” Beopgye gave him a puzzled look. Just as he noticed a strangely moved expression on Seok Myeong’s face…
“Get back!”
At Jin-cheon’s urgent cry, the fallen monster began to charge at an incredible speed.
Rumble!
It was like a juggernaut crushing a mantis. Seok Myeong and Beopgye split to the left and right, evading the charge.
Ssssh!
The charging monster veered to the right. Perhaps deciding that Seok Myeong was too difficult to handle, it swung its claws toward the Shaolin monk, Beopgye.
“Hah!”
Beopgye immediately raised both hands in an ‘eight’ (八) shape to take a defensive stance. However, the monster recklessly grabbed both his hands and lunged with a punch.
“Flow!”
Seeing the fist coming at him with massive energy, Beopgye let out a great shout. He caught the monster’s fist with both hands and twisted his body, pushing the creature away while stepping outside its reach.
Spin! Tah! Thump!
As a powerful surge of true qi slammed into its abdomen, the monster’s expression contorted.
“Kiaaaa!”
“Hah!”
Beopgye’s second attack followed immediately, targeting the legs. The moment the monster threw a punch, Beopgye ducked and slammed his heel into the creature’s extended foot. Capturing that split second when the monster’s fist wavered, Beopgye’s movements changed again.
Whoosh!
He burrowed into the creature’s chest to land a punch, struck its shoulder, slammed his elbow into its jaw, hit its thigh, and then aimed for the abdomen, injecting his true qi.
The Striking Method.
Known as the hitting technique pursued by Shaolin Boxing, it appeared simple at a glance but was a sophisticated and versatile method of attack. It was the reason Shaolin was known for the greatest fist arts in the Jianghu.
Thud—!
As he sent the monster flying with his profound attacks, the expressions of the onlookers brightened. But the joy was short-lived. As Beopgye watched the creature fly back, his expression suddenly twisted as he noticed something.
Boing!
The moment the monster’s body hit the ground, it bounced back and charged toward him again. Despite being hit with attacks fully loaded with internal energy, it seemed to have taken no damage at all.
“Hup!”
Anticipating the monster’s movement, Seok Myeong lunged forward a step ahead. But there were others moving even faster than him: Jin-cheon and Yu Yeok-gil.
“Buy me some time with the Plum Blossom Sword Technique!”
“Understood!”
Jin-cheon, who had created space as soon as he moved, shouted to Yu Yeok-gil. Yu Yeok-gil immediately generated sword qi and shouted at the flying monster.
“I’ll show you the true terror of the Lone Nine Swords!”
The Lone Nine Swords consisted of only three initial forms. While it might seem simple, a single form contained the essence of three hundred and sixty variations. Within the forms of the Lone Nine Swords were the wind and thunder, the mountains and forests, and the streams and ponds. It was a technique created by encompassing the movements of nature.
The moment he clashed with the monster, Yu Yeok-gil rotated the tip of his sword to draw a large circle. When the creature entered his striking range, he reversed the direction of the rotation and moved his body in the opposite direction. He was countering by going against the opponent’s force.
Whirr—!
With the sound of air tearing, Yu Yeok-gil narrowly evaded the attack. While the monster was overwhelming in speed and destructive power, it was helpless before Yu Yeok-gil’s brilliant swordsmanship.
Boom!
The second attack was the same. Though he appeared to be overwhelmed by the monster’s strikes coming from the front and sides, he was suddenly the one pressing the opponent.
Clang!
When the monster tried to discharge qi from both hands, Yu Yeok-gil circled around it, staying out of its line of sight.
“Kakh!”
Frustrated by the continuous blocking of its attacks, the monster charged again. Its reaction speed and movement were superior, but Yu Yeok-gil evaded the enemy’s attack once more by a hair’s breadth. It was thanks to his ability to predict the monster’s movements two or three steps ahead through the mysteries of his sword technique.
Or so he thought.
“Fall back!”
Suddenly, Jin-cheon shouted in a strained voice. He was struggling to hold his sword, breaking out in a cold sweat, likely due to the blue energy leaking from the tip of his blade.
“Great Purity Wind and Thunder Sword!”
Flash!
Narrowly missing Yu Yeok-gil as he evaded the monster’s attack, a deep blue energy—dense enough to dye the surroundings—poured toward the creature.
“Kakh!”
If it had hit, it surely would have cut through. But the monster’s reflexes were indeed incredible, far beyond what the eye could follow.
Whish!
As if mocking the incoming sword qi, it leaped into the air from its spot and evaded the strike.
“This… how…”
“Hah!”
In the eyes of the pale-faced Jin-cheon, Seok Myeong could be seen rushing in like a bolt of lightning.
Boom! Bang! Clang!
Dozens of exchanges—parrying and thrusting. Unlike the others who had to team up in twos or threes, he was the only one fighting the monster on equal terms alone.
“Try it again!”
“Huh…?”
“That sword from before! Do it again!”
He even went as far as to encourage the others who had lost their fighting spirit. Watching his back, Jin-cheon, who had been discouraged, took a deep breath.
“Fine! Let’s keep trying until it works!”
Vrrrrm!
A powerful current began to erupt from the ground where the energy had exploded. And that energy soared toward the heavens.